Author: coutinho

By Becky Stern, MAKE – December 13, 2010 at 02:00PM

Zach Lieberman writes:

The EyeWriter is a low-cost eye-tracking apparatus + custom software that allows graffiti writers and artists with paralysis resulting from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis to draw using only their eyes.

The original design featured a pair of glasses as the basis for the eyewriter design.

Since that first video, we’ve been hacking on and developing the project, and we have a new design, which we’ve called “eyewriter 2.0” which improves the accuracy of the device, and allow for people who’s heads are moving slightly to also use an eye tracker. The original eyewriter, designed for a paralyzed Graffiti artist TEMPT1, is designed to be worn on a completely motionless head. The 2.0 design, which uses a camera and LED system mounted away from the head, can be used by people whose heads are moving slightly, such as MS patients, and people who wear glasses, etc.

This eyewriter system is cheap, and completely open source. At the moment, it costs about 200$ in parts. Traditional commercial eye trackers costs between $9000-$20,000, so this is a magnitude of order cheaper, and is designed to help anyone who wants or needs an eyetracker.

This fall, we’ve been showing off and demoing the 2.0 device — check out the eyewriter 2.0 in action — we even hooked it up to a robotic arm, to draw the artwork people make with their eyes.

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By Kevin Purdy, Lifehacker – December 13, 2010 at 01:30PM

If you get frustrated explaining computer basics, but also cringe at the thought of family members paying for rip-off “PC Optimization,” just let Google do it. Or, more accurately, tell Google which really helpful tech support videos to send to your family.

We all get frustrated, believe me—even if you mean well, and the questions are straight-ahead, the disconnect between what you know, and how your intended recipient needs to hear it, is often substantial. Google’s Teach Parents Tech webapp asks you to pick a few videos from a really good collection explaining the basics. Changing desktop backgrounds, upgrading browsers, canceling newsletter subscriptions, and some good photo editing and attachment basics that will, in turn, make your own inbox a nicer place to live. When you’ve got your picks, Google sends along an email with links and thumbnails:

And here’s an example video, explaining how to create a strong password (seemed apropos today, no?):

It’s a free service to use, and perfectly timed to get some basic tech out of the way so your holidays aren’t laced with angry-worded exhortations of “Right-click! No, on the icon! Choose Properties! No, don’t right-click Properties!”

By Brian Barrett, Gizmodo – December 13, 2010 at 01:00PM

What were the ten most-watched YouTube videos of 2010? If I had my way it would just be the Bed Intruder song on repeat. But! Here’s how it actually played out. More »

By Alexia Tsotsis, TechCrunch – December 13, 2010 at 12:00PM

You remember Facebook Disconnect, the browser extension that allowed you to remove Facebook Connect functionality from websites? After 50K active users in two weeks and hitting the top 10 Google Chrome extensions, creator Brian Kennish has left his job at Google to focus on building Disconnect, a browser extension for Chrome and Rockmelt that disables multiple third party data tracking while browsing. In the same vein as Facebook Disconnect, Disconnect prevents major third parties like Digg, Facebook, Google, Twitter and Yahoo from gathering information (cookies) about the pages you go to and the searches you do.

Says Kennish:

“I called it quits at Google three weeks ago so I could help web users better understand the data they’re unintentionally sharing and develop tools that make it simple for them to control this data (I’ve been referring to this effort as Web 2.1, a privacy patch for the web).”

As people get more and more paranoid about the usage of their search and browsing data, we will begin to see more and more “Web 2.1″ offerings like Disconnect. Disconnect is easier to use than conventional ad blockers and does not impair web functionality, i.e. you can still access services like Gmail while your searches remain anonymous. Disconnect also conveniently allows you to see blocked requests as well easily unblock services from your browser toolbar.

Kennish has a Disconnect for Firefox and Safari in the works. In the meantime you can take the Chrome and Rockmelt versions for a spin here.

By Thomas Ricker, Engadget RSS Feed – December 13, 2010 at 01:44AM

It happens every December. You head home for the holidays only to be accosted by parents who need help fixing their computers. This year, it looks like Google will be lending a hand with its unannounced Teach Parents Tech series of public service videos. The Google-registered website teachparentstech.org still shows a “coming soon…” graphic and the videos remain unlisted on YouTube, but that shouldn’t stop you from sending the source link below to your parents right now. At the moment, we’re counting 54 cross-platform how-to videos hosted by real live Google employees. The videos are brief (less than a minute) covering topics as simple as “how to copy and paste” and “how to attach a file to an email” to more advanced sessions covering “how to setup an email autoresponder” and even “how to find cheap flights.” Unfortunately, even Google can’t explain to parents how to create a FAT32 hard drive partition. See what we mean after the break.

Update: And it’s live. Might as well get in the gift-giving spirit, eh?

[Thanks, Nathan G.]

Continue reading Google’s Teach Parents Tech site to help mom and dad find the ‘any’ key this Christmas

Google’s Teach Parents Tech site to help mom and dad find the ‘any’ key this Christmas originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Dec 2010 02:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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By Jason Fitzpatrick, Lifehacker – December 12, 2010 at 11:00AM

If you were impressed with the five minute bread recipe and want to take your bread making skills to the next level, this DIY sourdough starter will help you bake bread with an awesome local flavor.

Food-centric blog Serious Eats shares a great and detailed tutorial for creating your own sourdough starter. You’ll need a minimal number of things like flour, water, a jar to put them in, and some other very basic kitchen supplies. The benefits of creating your own sourdough starter are numerous, including introducing truly local flavor into your breads and pizza crust:

But now that every grocery store stocks dry yeast, why bother with sourdough? The simple answer is flavor. You’ll never get the same results from dry yeast that you will from sourdough. Another reason is uniqueness. Sourdoughs cultivated in different areas will result in different breads. Not only will the flavor be different, but the crust, crumb, and rise will be different. It’s as far as you can get from the concept of nationwide mass-produced industrial bread.

Whenever you create a sourdough starter the yeast that cultivates it is natural yeast from your locale—this is why San Fransisco sourdough bread tastes uniquely, well, San Franciscan. Check out the full guide at the link below to see how you can whip up your own starter today.

By Vlad Savov, Engadget RSS Feed – December 12, 2010 at 06:31AM

Did you know that it takes nearly seven and a half million pounds of thrust to get a Space Shuttle off the ground and into the final frontier? NASA opts to generate that power by burning through 1,000 gallons of liquid propellants and 20,000 pounds of solid fuel every second, which as you might surmise, makes for some arresting visuals. Thankfully, there are plenty of practical reasons why NASA would want to film its launches (in slow motion!), and today we get to witness some of that awe-inspiring footage, replete with a silky voiceover explaining the focal lengths of cameras used and other photographic minutiae. It’s the definition of an epic video, clocking in at over 45 minutes, but if you haven’t got all that time, just do it like us and skip around — your brain will be splattered on the wall behind you either way.

Continue reading NASA’s Space Shuttle launch videos are spectacularly incredible, incredibly spectacular

NASA’s Space Shuttle launch videos are spectacularly incredible, incredibly spectacular originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 12 Dec 2010 07:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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By Darice de Cuba, ForeverGeek – December 10, 2010 at 03:39PM

Living in an apartment and with a baby boy on the way, Brandon and Emma Peat had to get creative with decorating the baby room. Painting the walls is not allowed so they were left with few options, posters and prints. Luckily for them they are both artists, so they decided to create their own illustrations.

They created the Star Wars alphabet, an illustration for each letter representing a character from Star Wars. Only characters from the original trilogy were considered. I’m not a Star Wars expert but apparently the true fans do not like the prequels that much.

Besides the ‘no characters from the prequels’ they had one more requirement, that the illustrations would be kid friendly.

We also tried to keep the illustrations as non-violent as possible (in the words of Wuher, “No blasters!”) for maximum kid-friendliness.

The Luke and Leia illustration is too funny, not to mention Vader’s illustration.

If it wasn’t for copyright restrictions, Brandon and Emma would be very successful at selling the illustrations. I bet these illustration will be hanging for years to come in their kids room.

See the whole Star Wars Alphabet.

By Jesus Diaz, Gizmodo – December 10, 2010 at 01:59PM

In the near future, US Navy ships won’t use explosive cannons. They will destroy targets 100 miles away with the monster 33-megajoules railgun shown in this video. In the words of Rear Admiral Nevin P. Carr: This “really changes several games.” More »

By Adam Dachis, Lifehacker – December 10, 2010 at 01:30PM

We loved the Wunderlist desktop app for Mac and Windows and the iPhone app makes a perfect companion. With the same simple features, attractive interface, and syncing support, you can now easily manage your Wunderlist from your pocket.