NEW YORK (Reuters) – Actor Brad Pitt was honored on Thursday for his humanitarian work in helping rebuild hurricane-ravaged New Orleans at former U.S. President Bill Clinton’s philanthropic summit, the Clinton Global Initiative.Pitt was presented with a plaque from the U.S. Green Building Council which said the actor and his foundation “Make It Right” had created the “largest and greenest single-family community in the world.”"‘Make It Right’ has exceeded my expectations,” said Pitt who set up the foundation in 2007.”Our criteria from the beginning were at odds, to say the least. We demanded that these homes be sustainable, that they…
Business
Brad Pitt honored for humanitarian work in New Orleans
Hack
Google to Trolls: please flame EVERY web site
Google has unveiled their latest web app. It’s called Google Sidewiki and makes it easy to “Contribute helpful information to any webpage”. We’re not quite so sure. If you have the Google Toolbar installed on your browser, Sidewiki allows you to open a side-panel, add your comments about the page, and read the comments of others.
In a Utopian Internet (Utopernet?) the world’s most predominant experts on all subjects would be browsing websites dropping off clairvoyant nuggets of wisdom like Greek oracles. In reality, letting anyone add to any web page does not equate to instant insight. We’re all…
Tech Support
Armored Camera is Tough Enough For The Job
If you have put a lot of effort into your business, the last thing that you want is to see your hard earned assets stolen by a criminal. Business owners tend to choose surveillance systems to help them.
If you are thinking about installing surveillance cameras, the law generally dictates that you have to inform people that they are being watched in this way and therefore cannot have the element of surprise by hiding cameras from the view of criminals. However, to make sure that they cannot damage them easily and disarm them, armored cameras are now becoming very useful.…
Hack
Are you human? Then type out this book
Google has acquired reCAPTCHA and plans to use the system for digitizing books. Wait… what? CAPTCHA is the method of requiring a user to type in a visually obscured word to prove they are human. How can this digitize books? The answer is a bit obscure and takes some time to discover, but you’ll have fun along the way.
The Google blog links to a Google TechTalk video on Human Computation as an example of how they plan to use their new acquisition. It’s embedded below but at 51 minutes we figure most won’t watch it all so we…
Business
Google Plans New Mirror For Cheaper Solar Power
Google Inc is disappointed with the lack of breakthrough investment ideas in the green technology sector but the company is working to develop its own new mirror technology that could reduce the cost of building solar thermal plants by a quarter or more.”We’ve been looking at very unusual materials for the mirrors both for the reflective surface as well as the substrate that the mirror is mounted on,” the company’s green energy czar Bill Weihl told Reuters GlobalClimate and Alternative Energy Summit in San Francisco on Wednesday.Google, known for its Internet search engine, in late 2007 said it would invest…
Business
Auto makers drive to rural India
With a population of more than 750 million and a vehicle density of 2.3%, the Indian rural market is suddenly the cynosure of all eyes. It is the global economic meltdown that is forcing auto companies to take a real hard look at this market. Overall, the rural market contributes less than 10% to the total sales of the industry currently. It is expected to see double digit growth this year, higher than overall category growth. “The future is in the rural market. It has great potential for perennial favourites including small cars and two-wheelers; even C segment cars are…
Business
Max New York Life Insurance ties up with LifeCell International
Max New York Life Insurance Co. Ltd, one of India’s leading insurance companies today announced a strategic tie up with LifeCell International (“LifeCell”) India’s first and the largest stem cell banking service provider, and a pioneer in stem cell research and technology. As LifeCell ensures biological insurance for children by banking their umbilical cord blood stem cells for future therapeutic use, MNYL will offer life insurance options to LifeCell customers helping them meet the future financial needs of their children. Commenting on the tie-up, Mr. V. Vishwanand, Director and Head – Banca and DST, Max New York Life Insurance Company,…
Hack
Dot matrix clock on the way
[Kevin] sent in his almost finished open source dot matrix clock. Sporting a hefty 40 x 16 display powered by a PIC 18F he has complete pixel by pixel control of the graphics. Combined with with a triple buffer he is at least able to output 15fps, with planned 30fps. While this has great potential for a clock, what about going further? Twitter updates, chat messages, weather updates, the current airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow; it will be tough to beat the competition without some more features. Either way, its an awesome project and we can’t wait to…
Facebook
iTunes Has New Facebook Feature But Is Apple Preparing To Take On Facebook Credits?
iTunes may have just taken a massive blow at iLike today with the launch of a “share on Facebook” feature which will enable users to post iTunes songs to their profile. While there are few details about the new feature, there is the potential that actual song samples will eventually be posted to your Facebook feed. Such a move would be a direct attack on iLike who began offering a similar service since Facebook first opened up the stream. While the new “Share on Facebook” feature is extremely valuable, of more interest was a statement by Apple about the number…
Hack
Toyaanisqatsi: time lapse control using LEGO parts
A simple panning motion can add impact to the already-dramatic effect of time lapse photography. To accomplish this, frugal cinematographers sometimes build [Rube Goldberg] contraptions from clock motors, VCR parts or telescope tracking mounts. Hack a Day reader [Stephan Martin] has assembled a clever bargain-basement system using an Arduino-driven stepper motor and a reduction gear system built up from LEGO Technic parts, along with some Processing code on a host PC to direct the show.
While the photography is a bit crude (using just a webcam), [Stephan’s] underlying motion control setup might interest budding filmmakers with [Ron Fricke] aspirations but Top Ramen budgets. What’s more, unlike…
Hack
Harry Potter Marauders map realized
After reading about cheap wireless for microcontrollers, [Leigh] left a comment about his Marauders map. Much like the Harry Potter version, whoever holds the ‘map’ is able to see the location of the ‘marauders’ within certain bounds. Unlike the magical version however, each person being tracked needs to hold a PICAXE 08M, GPS, and 433.92MHz transmitter: while the map needs a computer running his Python script and a receiver of the same frequency. It has the potential for locating people, but we feel it might be better off in a swarm robotics setup.
Hack
Build an analog TV station
With the transition to digital TV, the FCC has abandoned the old analog format. Luckily, you can take advantage of this and set up your own analog TV station. The FCC has a tool on their site to see what channels are open in your area to broadcast in. To broadcast, you need a TV transmitter, but cheap short-range models can be found on eBay or made at home [pdf]. Once you have a transmitter, you can pump in a video source, either your own content or videos from youtube. One group, OMGimontv is showcasing popular youtube clips on…
