54 years after Sputnik, the UK is getting into the “tiny orbiting satellite” game. At 10x10x10cm, the “FUNCube” will launch later this year. There’s a product being developed in concert with the satellite, the FUNCube Dongle, which is a USB device designed to listen to and broadcast through FUNCube’s transceiver. It’s aimed at schools and…
Month: January 2011
Interviews 50 Cents
Alex Chadwick was laid off from NPR two years ago in the midst of a budget shortfall bloodbath that left more than 60 talented long-time employees in its wake. In the meantime he’s been setting up card tables in public places and paying passers-by 50 cents to sit down for quick interviews. Some are quirky,…
Crop those PDFs
In the world of eBook file formats, you’ve basically got epub, mobi, lit, and fb2. There are many others, but those seem to be the most widely distributed. If you’re not buying books from a store tied to your device (Amazon for the Kindle, for example) you generally need to use a third-party tool like…
Paranoid at Target
The orchestra hits turn this video into something very special.
The Carnegie Hero Fund
The Carnegie Hero Fund was established in 1904 “to recognize persons who perform acts of heroism in civilian life in the United States and Canada, and to provide financial assistance for those disabled and the dependents of those killed helping others.” Firefighters/police/soliders are in the business of saving lives and hence are not eligible. Awardees…
The Homeless Man with the Golden Voice
Ted Williams was a homeless man living in Columbus, Ohio. Hearing his voice is like having melted butter dripped into your ears. He was discovered by a passer-by who tipped off The Columbus Dispatch. They then did a quick interview with him and threw it up on YouTube. 5 million views later and Ted now…
Southern California HDTV changes for 2011
If you haven’t yet hooked an antenna up to your HDTV you’re missing out on the purest uncompressed signal that broadcast ATSC has to offer. And of course, it’s all free, recordable, fast-forwardable, DRM-free (for now) content. Some changes happened after New Year’s in the Southern California market that may not interest you…but they interest…