[MAKE Magazine - daily] - MAKE

MAKE In This Issue... MAKE at DEFCON, Day Three MAKE Asks: Collaborations Lego Wheelchair Announcing the Project Remake Contest Winner! Using a Teensy to Read a ROM Recumbent iPad Stand More Recent Articles MAKE at DEFCON, Day Three DEFCON is not just about using technology to create or solve problems. Legal, social, and cultural factors come into play as well. While “Social Engineering” plays a part in con life, with talks, competitions, and gaining entry to parties, other people and organizations at the conference are keen to change behavior at levels from international to local by less nefarious means. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has a major presence at DEFCON with a stall in the vendor area (this year, right next to the government folks), a fundraiser party event, and multiple smaller fundraising activities. I asked Mitch from the EFF to explain how the work of the EFF helps makers: Red Card, Yellow Card DEFCON has had a reputation for being an event where there have been instances of unwanted attention or harassment toward some attendees. In an attempt to help reduce these occurrences KC made some yellow and red warning cards to hand out when undesired behavior occurs. She took the time to talk to me about the project: Editor’s Note: The t-word for breasts is used in this clip. Badge Modification Each category of DEFCON attendee (humans, goons, vendors, press and artists) has a different style of badge. I took some time to make my press badge a little more unique—just in case you were concerned I wasn’t doing any making while at DEFCON: Be sure to catch my next post where we take a look at some of the cool surplus electronics that were available in the DEFCON vendor area and talk with one of the mysterious Ninjas behind the private cellphone network running at DEFCON. Filed under: Events • Email to a friend • View comments • Track comments • MAKE Asks: Collaborations Make: Asks is a weekly column where we ask you, our readers, for responses to maker-related questions. We hope the column sparks interesting conversation and is a way for us to get to know more about each other. This week’s question: Have you ever worked with another person (or people) on a project that couldn’t have been realized had you tried it on your own? In my first year of grad school I made a dance pad game with two other students. I had strong fabrication and electronics skills, but if it weren’t for the Processing chops of one student and the project management talents of another, the project wouldn’t have come to fruition. Post your responses in the comments section. Filed under: MAKE Asks • Email to a friend • View comments • Track comments • Lego Wheelchair Lego builder Simon “Burf” Burfield built the world’s first Lego wheelchair: Currently still a prototype, the LEGO Wheelchair can move a 90kg person. It uses 6 NXT’s to drive 12 NXT motors (2 per NXT for maximum power output) which are connected to 12 Rotacaster multi-directional wheels. Using these wheels will later allow for side to side movement(strafing). There is a master NXT which controls the 6 NXT via turning on/off touch sensors. The joystick is connected to 4 touch sensors to determine direction (forward, backwards, turn left, turn right). The master NXT then turns 2 motors (left / right side) different directions which turn on / off 12 touch sensors (2 per NXT for backwards / forwards). Special thanks to LEGO and Rotacaster.com.au for supporting this project. Man, he uses a ton of 64178s and 64179s! See the Flickr set for more goodness. [via The NXT Step] Filed under: LEGO, Robotics, Transportation • Email to a friend • View comments • Track comments • Announcing the Project Remake Contest Winner! Congratulations to Lynne P., winner of the Project Remake contest! Presented by Schick, makers were asked to submit projects that created fascinating remade wonders from everyday objects and components. After a couple rounds of voting, Lynne eventually won the most number of votes from the public for her diesel engine converted to run off waste vegetable oil. For her combination of readymade materials and homemade energy, Lynne wins a MakerBot Replicator and an expenses-paid trip to exhibit her project at the 3rd annual World Maker Faire in NYC this September! Powered by one of the more popular alterna-fuels, Lynne writes about her project, It turns a regular diesel car into a waste vegetable oil burning vehicle. My husband and I take the oil after being used at local restaurants and burn it in our vehicles. This not only saves the oil from being trucked off Cape Cod (where we live) but it helps us and some local friends lessen our dependence on foreign oil. Lynne’s vehicle will join a bevy of other Maker Faire projects whose focus is sustainability and alternative energy. So get your early bird tickets now, and see you there. Next up: powering a MakerBot Replicator with energy generated by waste veggie oil to print parts needed to make engine conversion kits. Ahhh now that’s meta! Filed under: Contest, Remake • Email to a friend • View comments • Track comments • Using a Teensy to Read a ROM Trammell Hudson and phooky of NYC Resistor have been exploring read-only (e.g., non-volatile) memory chips in a series of fascinating posts on the hackerspace’s blog. phooky wrote The Joy of Dumping, which explains why you’d want to check out the ancient data moldering on decades-old chips: Which brings up the question of why you'd even want to bother to begin with. This is the firmware for an obsolete solvent control system running on a Motorolla 68000 microprocessor, obscurity on obscurity on obscurity. Who's ever going to need it anyway? Why save the bits? For the same reasons we record any history: because someday it may prove to be useful, and because someday it may prove to be beautiful. And even if it's neither, at least it's fun to poke around. Just pulling the strings out of the binaries yields odd puzzles. In Stick a Straw in Its Brain and Suck: How to Read a ROM, phooky shows how to dump a ROM. Trammell Hudson followed up last Sunday with a post showing how to snag a ROM’s data using a Teensy development board. Cool stuff! Filed under: Electronics • Email to a friend • View comments • Track comments • Recumbent iPad Stand If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to lay on your back and operate an iPad without the hassle of actually having to hold it while in a supine position, then you’ll find this recumbent iPad stand by maker David Gardner an indispensable addition to your somnolent activities. [via Etsy] Filed under: Gadgets, iPhone, Technology • Email to a friend • View comments • Track comments • More Recent Articles Arduino-Controlled Plotter Prototype MedHack – Hackers Take on Medicine – August 10th & 11th in Palo Alto NEWS FROM THE FUTURE – 3D-Printed Guns

---

Click here to safely unsubscribe from "MAKE." Click here to view mailing archives, here to change your preferences, or here to subscribe • Privacy

---

---

Your requested content delivery powered by FeedBlitz, LLC, 9 Thoreau Way, Sudbury, MA 01776, USA. +1.978.776.9498

 

Tigers undermined

Hi Indiana,

Act now to protect the forests

I’ve got to tell you this. Our tigers are not safe. The coal scam ^[1] cost us Rs 10.67 lakh crores (212 billion US dollars) and now the government’s coal mining plan is going to cost us tigers too.^[2]

You should ask the Prime Minister to stop all new coal block allocations and forest clearances until the coal scam has been investigated and there is a clear demarcation of areas that shouldn’t be mined.

http://www.junglistan.org/act

I mean, really, what’s the point of spending crores on tiger conservation when you are going to cut down the forests to get all that coal? 35% of the 1700 Indian tigers left in the wild are in the forests of Central India, ^[3] there are leopards and elephants too. Then there are communities of indigenous people who depend on these forests for their livelihood.

Now, forests in Mahan in Madhya Pradesh have received provisional clearance for coal mining from the government.^[4] This is definitely not good news for the rest of the forests in Central India. If the government decides to throw them open for coal mining, then livelihoods of people and the lives of the tigers and other wildlife will face a serious threat.

We have only till October to collect 100,000 signatures to convince our PM to save the forests. Here’s why:

• The PM is hosting an international Convention on Bio-diversity(CBD) in October.
• We’ll give him the petition at this conference, with signatures from 100,000 people, asking him to save the forests.
• The demands of 100,000 people from and the presence of an international audience will help put pressure on him to make a commitment to protect our forests.
• Protecting forests will no longer be a fight between ministries. It will be a commitment made to the world, and not fulfilling it will hurt the reputation of the PM and our country.

You should ask the Prime Minister to stop all new coal block allocations and forest clearances until the coal scam has been investigated and there is a clear demarcation of areas that shouldn’t be mined.

http://www.junglistan.org/act

What’s sad is that we don’t even need all this coal to get our electricity. Remote villages in Bihar get electricity from solar and rice-husk powered systems. ^[5] If big factories and companies restrict the amount to energy they use to run big machines, then we won’t have to demolish more forests and hurt the tigers.

Let’s get together and save the forests, the tigers and the homes and livelihoods of those who depend on the forests.

http://www.junglistan.org/act

Thanks!

Brikesh Singh
Greenpeace India

Click here for Hindi (हिन्दी) Version

P.S. Want to support our campaigns? We don't take money from any corporation, government or political party! We never have, and we never will. Do help Greenpeace remain fiercely and proudly independent. We will send you Greenpeace India t-shirt as a thank you for your contribution. Click here to chip in.

Sources:

1. CAG coal mine report: Govt lost Rs 10.67 lakh cr by giving 'undue benefits' to firms, Business Standard, March 22, 2012.
   http://businesstoday.intoday.in/story/cag-coal-scam-report-upa-government/1/23419.html
2. How coal mining is trashing tigerland, Greenpeace report, August 1, 2012
   http://www.greenpeace.org/india/Global/india/report/How-Coal-mining-is-Trashing-Tigerland.pdf
3. Status of tigers and co-predators in India, 2010
   http://www.projecttiger.nic.in/whtsnew/Tiger_Status_oct_2010.pdf
4. Essar Energy gets clearance for Mahan coal block in Madhya Pradesh, The Economic Times, June 25, 2012.
   http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-06-25/news/32409214_1_chief-executive-naresh-nayyar-essar-energy-plc-vadinar
5. Govt. to promote eco-friendly energy in Bihar, Times of India, July 10, 2012,
   http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-07-10/patna/32617042_1_solar-power-solar-plants-power-plants

Photo Credit: Sudhir Shivaram/Greenpeace India

Greenpeace on the web:

We're also on Facebook, Twitter and Youtube - join our friends list.

Why have I received this mail?
Either because you signed up as a Greenpeace India cyber-activist or a friend forwarded this mail to you.

How do I subscribe?
To receive regular updates from Greenpeace India, sign up here.

How do I unsubscribe?
To stop receiving messages on how you can help the planet click here.

How can I help more?
You can help by forwarding this message to everyone on your email list. You can also donate to keep us going strong!

Where do I send feedback?
Please send all feedback to ocampaig@greenpeace.org Greenpeace India, #60 Wellington Street, Richmond Town, Bangalore 560025