For everything from family to computers…
The standing desk revolution has been rapidly spreading over the past few years, and it’s no surprise why. Switching to a standing desk can improve circulation, alleviate back pain, reduce stress, and strengthen muscles. But the switch can be expensive. Thankfully, the folks at Priceonomics braved the IKEA crowds to create a guide of the store’s most affordable workstations. More »
from Lifehacker
This is the perfect intersection of two of my interests, photography and embedded Linux: Limerick, Ireland-based photographer David Hunt recently posted progress photos of his Raspberry Pi-enhanced DSLR battery grip, which he made for his Canon 5D Mark II. The hacked-together DSLR accessory attaches to the bottom of his camera and will eventually let him shoot and transmit photos over WiFi, remote control the camera via tablet or phone, and shoot in a custom time lapse mode. David says he still needs to sort out the power supply, but he’s confident that he’ll be able to figure it out. [via DIYPhotography Flickr Pool]
from MAKE
YouTube is sure filled with a lot of crap these days, so it’s pretty awesome to see a great series here and there.
Fistful of Rupees is a really inventive mash up of The Legend of Zelda in Western style. The three part series was created by The Game Station and I must express my thanks for quite an entertaining half hour of my life.
Part 1 “The Wisdomâ€:
Part 2 “The Powerâ€:
Part 3 “The Courageâ€:
[Via Geek.com]
Korean researchers say they’ve found a way to produce an alternative to QR codes that takes up less space, carries far more data, yet costs very little.
The solution involves a rectenna, which takes its name from ‘rectifying antenna’ rather than rectangular. It’s effectively a tiny AC/DC converter that works with microwave energy.
The idea is to harness the energy from a smartphone’s radio waves, convert it to a DC current, and use that to power the data transmission from a chip that can be put onto posters or other displays. It’s a similar concept to Near Field Communications, used in several smartphone “swipe to pay†or “tap to pay†tools, but would allow two-way communication.
The development from Sunchon National University and the Paru Printed Electronics Research Institute is to produce the rectenna using electronic inks. That greatly reduces costs as the rectennas (or rectennae) can simply be printed in rolls rather than produced in a more complicated fashion. The researchers believe each rectenna produced this way could cost as little as 1.5 cents.
Another benefit is that it’s possible to print an extra layer on top the rectenna that contains visual information for the user. This means there’s no need to either print a separate explanation of what the visible chip is for, or to take up space with a QR “barcode†and either explain it or hope people know what it is.
In 2011, roughly one-third of the new generating capacity installed within the US was in the form of wind turbines, according to a new report prepared by the Department of Energy. That represents nearly seven Gigawatts of new wind installations. Although that leaves the nation a distant second to China (which installed a hefty 17.6GW), it’s about double the capacity installed in the next closest country (India) and leaves the US firmly in second place in total wind capacity, with 47GW.
It’s important to note that this capacity doesn’t reflect the typical output of these wind farms, since the wind doesn’t always actually blow. Nevertheless, the steady growth of wind capacity has now pushed the amount that is actually generated by wind to over three percent of the annual national consumption of electricity. The top four countries in this regard—Denmark, Portugal, Spain, and Ireland—all produce over 18 percent of their needs through wind. The US ranks thirteenth.
That said, several states within the US would be competitive with the international results. Wind accounts for over 22 percent of the electricity generated in South Dakota, and just under 19 percent of electricity generated in Iowa (four other states are also above 10 percent). These are important figures, because the US grid isn’t especially well structured to handle over 20 percent of its power coming from intermittent sources like wind. The experience gained by the nations and states could prove invaluable as wind power continues to grow.
from Ars Technica
Some of the most exciting medical research these days involves light. Light therapy for cancer, in which a tumor-seeking dye becomes toxic as soon as a light is switched on, manages to avoid slaughtering nearby healthy cells. Optogenetics—using light to turn on or off the expression of neurons—has advanced researchers’ understanding of neurological diseases.
Now, a recent paper is a reminder that light might someday be used for exquisitely tailored drug delivery: in this paper, tiny packages bearing all the molecular machinery to build a protein are idle when injected into mice, but spring into action when exposed to UV light.
The nanoparticles, which you can see a schematic of above, are little envelopes of cellular membrane, wrapped around a basic set of protein-building machinery and the gene for whatever you’d like manufactured—the researchers used a glowing fluorescent protein for their test. The gene can’t be accessed by the machinery because it is sealed into a loop by a piece of molecular adhesive, but shine a UV light on it, and the adhesive unsticks. Then the machinery transcribes the gene, and the protein is expressed. The researchers found that when they injected the particles into mice and …
from Discover Magazine
