Watching the World with an LA100 Drone
I used to really dig the DJI Phantom quadcopter, but not any more. Now I’ve got my eye set on Lehmann Aviation’s LA100 drone! It’s a completely automated, GoPro toting airplane you can program with a Windows phone or tablet!
The LA100 is designed to operate in diverse climates from -13 °F to 140 °F, and in humid or dry air plus winds up to about 20 mph. It can also go up to 50 MPH! So it’ll fly circles around a DJI copter.
And, I mean, you literally just select a route and toss it in the air! Then sit back and grab a beer as it carts around either forward facing, or downward facing GoPros. Or both at the same time! Now that’s something I’d like to see!
A Truly Terrifying Robot
On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, here is something I never want to see again… in my life! Of course, it’s a robot! So the next time Cali starts telling you about her precious little robots, I want you to just imagine this creepy serial killer hunting you down in a dark alley!
http://youtu.be/3ivaQf1jns0?t=1m59s
The robot, by artist Jordan Wolfson is currently being exhibited at David Zwirner Gallery in New York. It incorporates facial recognition, allowing “her” to focus on, and unnervingly follow, visitors at the exhibition.
Microsoft Releases Source Code for MS-DOS and Original Word
On an AWESOME note, yesterday Microsoft announced that they are open sourcing the original MS-DOS code, along with the original Word document processing code. Roy Levin announced that Microsoft was working with the Computer History Museum to release the code, and he had this to say:
“As part of this ongoing project, the museum will make available two of the most widely used software programs of the 1980’s, MS DOS 1.1 and 2.0 and Microsoft Word for Windows 1.1a, to help future generations of technologists better understand the roots of personal computing.”
Seriously classy move, and I applaud Microsoft wholeheartedly for sharing the code with the world!
Beer Worthy of a Klingon
For you beer drinking Trekkies, the long wait to get your hands on Klingon Warnog is over! Federation of Beer, the same folks who brought you the runaway smash hit Vulcan Ale, have just announced they’re brewing up some real beer with an attitude called Klingon Warnog, the first US targeted Star Trek brew. You know, because us Americans are a bunch of animals… like Klingons.
3D-Printed Kayak Hits the Waves
Here’s something you don’t see every day… Jim Smith of Grass Roots Engineering designed and built his own 28 section kayak! It looks like a giant floating bag of skittle, and it was bolted together to create a 16.7 ft-long boat.
The boat weighs about 65 pounds, which means Jim won’t be winning any races with it. But he spent over 1,000 hours printing it, so with that kind of patience I don’t think he’s exactly Ricky Bobby.
Still, the kayak floats, which is awesome, and it makes you wonder how long it will be before someone’s got a printer big enough to do this whole thing in one pass with an even lighter and stronger material. 3D printing is getting very interesting, folks…
Sponsored by QNAP
We’ve started a whole series of QNAP tutorials on everything the QNAP HS-210 can do. You aren’t going to believe everything you can accomplish with this little device! The setup process is amazingly simple. You can share files, or use it for Windows or Apple Time Machine backups. Serve your media collection, use it as a video surveillance station, set up a private cloud, and much… much more! Head over to QNAP.com, click on Features – and prepare to have your mind blown!
Started using Linux “Slackware” during the reign of MS-Dos2 while others at the university were using MS-Doz. The strange thing is that the program has the same importance now as it was then to Linux users. After I finish looking at Charles Babbit Difference engine code, I’m going to checkout the window code.