Grow, preserve, & share abundance (links for 2010-02-04)
Friday, February 5th, 2010-
Dig for victory - faced with a collapsing economy & ecology, what better response than growing, preserving and sharing abundance?
Archive for the ‘Links & Misc’ Category
Cool Arduino Projects
Monday, February 1st, 2010Last week, I found myself writing (to a very tight deadline) an article on the Arduino board - and how it has led to a new sort of participation in Open Source, bringing more people from a range of backgrounds to playful & creative fun with technology.
The article will appear next month in Linux User magazine #84 [to be published 18 Feb 2010]. In the meanwhile here are links to some of the really cool projects that I found in the course of knocking out the article.
Where to buy one
http://www.earthshinedesign.co.uk/
http://www.tinker.it/en/Projects/TinkerKit
robot kits that were integrated with arduinos at Howduino:
http://kre8.com/
Or make Your own
http://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/Hardware
http://arduinofun.com/files/byoa.pdf
http://www.ladyada.net/make/boarduino/
Basic info
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arduino [a technical article]
Of course, you can Google for Arduino, Freeduino, Howduino, & Hackspaces. :-)
Learning
HOWDUINO: http://www.howduino.com/
http://web.media.mit.edu/~leah/LilyPad/
The complete beginner’s guide to the Arduino
Projects
A. Wearable
LilyPad - Arduino in wearable form
The LilyPad: http://web.media.mit.edu/~leah/LilyPad/
Leah’s Lilypad Lecture: http://www.smm.org/ltc/node/175
The bike vest: http://www.mykle.com/msl/?p=10 & http://speedvest.com/
B. Music
Cake Orchestra & mark II & see the video
Theremin as a Capacitive Sensing Device
Theremin controlling xylophone - AKA ThereXylomin
C. Power Monitoring
D. Around the home
The amazing Weasley Clock
Arduino, Stepper Motors, Weasley magic
James Devine’s Arduino Laser Projector
E. Practical
Camera remote:
http://www.fizzpop.org.uk/blog/nikon-dslr-ir-remote-project/
http://benosteen.tumblr.com/post/253208029/ir-control-for-a-nikon-d60-updated
http://www.bigmike.it/ircontrol/index.html
Vivarium temperature monitor
F. Fun
The Flock Clock & others….
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/arduino/
http://www.instructables.com/id/Flock-Clock/
hallowe’en is a popular excuse for Arduino family projects in the USA.
But here, and for Ben Tappin, it was an 80s party
http://www.thingiverse.com/oomlout
Misc
All sorts of links:
http://howduino.pbworks.com/PossibleProjects3
http://howduino.pbworks.com/Project-DisplaySharing
http://www.instructables.com/tag/?q=arduino
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=DIYbio
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=growduino
And big thanks to
Asa Calow, Cyberspice, James Devine, Hwa Young Jung, Lady Ada, John McKerrell, Nick O’Leary, Pindec, Ben Tappin, Aisha Yusuf, everyone on the various UK hackspace mailing lists who helped, & special thanks to Adrian McEwen.
EDIT - CopyLeft Hardware
Some great links from Wolfgang to CopyLeft hardware appeared in response on the LU&D site’s article. See also http://www.goodgnus.org/2010/04/open-hardware-copyleft/
Drupal in the Voluntary Sector (links for 2010-01-13)
Thursday, January 14th, 2010-
I’m developing a few sites in Drupal myself, and it’s good to see that I’m not alone in this :-)
Links for 2009-11-25
Thursday, November 26th, 2009-
“Government Digital Inclusion Champion Martha Lane Fox was the Big Thinker at COI last week. She announced the launch of her campaign to Race Online for 2012, which aims to get more people online particularly from socially excluded groups.”
-
“Grain edit is focused on classic design work from the 1950s-1970s and contemporary designers that draw inspiration from that time period.
“Site content includes interviews, articles, designers’ libraries as well as examples of rare design annuals, type specimens, Ephemera, posters and vintage kids books from our bookshelves.” -
“For every SoyPrint toner used, you save 2-3 litres of petroleum, and you keep 6 pounds of heavy plastic and a pound of metal out of landfills. This environmentally friendly SoyPrint black laser toner cartridge replaces HP item number 92274A and is compatible with HP 4L, 4P, and 4MP machines.”
-
“A suite of reports on Green Infrastructure looking at a number of issues; Green Infrastructure development based on the need expressed within the Region, the opportunities for GI to deliver sub-regional economic plans, an assessment of the CITYgreen computer model for estimating economic benefit, an outline strategy for linking green and grey infrastructure, and a collection of pioneering work on the economic benefits of Green Infrastructure”
-
“Harsh Reality #2: You’ve got to give (some of) your best stuff away”
-
“Throw out your business plan.” Like it :-)
-
“…the potential for danger in the ice field of libel law is terrifying”
-
The Hub for UK Tech Events & Groups
Born from ‘Wheres The Geek’, we decided on a brand change partly because we’ve shifted focus a little and partly because people kept moaning about the grammar! -
“THE Bespoke project is an innovative collaboration between a number of different academic and commercial bodies around the UK, including the universities of Central Lancashire, Surrey, Newcastle, Falmouth and Dundee, the Lancashire Evening Post and Nokia Research.
“Highly skilled Bespoke project members work across a number of different disciplines, and include anthropologists, product designers, engineers and mobile applications developers – as well as experienced multi-media journalists.“We are currently arranging a series of digital storytelling workshops with members, users and clients of groups and organisations as diverse as the Ablaze Youth Group, Callon Kids Community Club, Contour Housing, Fishwick Rangers Youth Development Scheme, Preston FM and Preston College’s Elev8 initiative, as well as individual members of the public”
-
“demonstrate that virtual collaboration can drive social innovation, adapting our collaboration process for improved results as experience is gained”
-
“Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.” “The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” “I never worry about action, but only about inaction”
-
lowercase “g”
-
“In a purpose built facility Recycling Lives provides a multi-agency approach to addressing the causes of worklessness and homelessness through the provision of employment opportunities and skills-training, opportunities for new business incubation, and a strategy for reducing landfill waste”
-
There is some hope, but not much. The depressing reality of “An economy predicated on constant growth cannot be the engine of a change that urgently demands less of it”
-
Population Control / Reduction = “Way too many of you, just enough of me”. The world can support a huge population, just not on a European/US consumption pattern
Links for 2009-10-09
Saturday, October 10th, 2009-
Org Mode - Organize Your Life In Plain Text!
-
Mark Shuttleworth interview
-
More great Drupal resource links
-
The most comprehensive review of modules to build social networking into Drupal websites.
-
It’s not pretty, but it is essential
Hyperlocal blogs - links for 2009-10-04
Monday, October 5th, 2009-
Another of the remarkable hyperlocal blogs at #TAL09 - wish I had time to bookmark them all!
-
Great event yesterday, will blog tomorrow :)
-
“For the news that matters in Stoke-on-Trent”
-
“Pesky People is also going to be a campaigning website being developed to highlight how to complain about terrible access to websites. It will inform people of their rights, giving creative means to complain. It will cause trouble, it will change habits, it will empower. It will be fun. It’s totally run by Deaf and Disabled people.”
It was my pleasure to meet PP’s Alison Smith at #TAL09 -
Blog Local aims to lift the lid on your local community. Our sites act as a hub of local information, views, events, reviews and loads of other good stuff that comes bubbling up from under the surface. We open up local information and put it in your hands. To see an example of what we do, check out http://www.blogpreston.co.uk/
-
Democracy Club is a new, independent network of volunteers who want to help internet-savvy transparency groups like mySociety and The Straight Choice to hold election candidates and representatives to account. Constituency volunteers wanted!
links for 2009-09-02
Thursday, September 3rd, 2009Edible Landscaping
Saturday, August 22nd, 2009Wonderful to be spending a bit more time at horticulture and permaculture again - both with looking at the IT systems for Gaia University and, more practically, getting back into a bit of Edible Landscaping work. Yesterday I gave a talk on Edible Landscaping at Soutport Flower Show. It’s adapted from the 3 hour Edible Landscaping course I ran at HDRA in the mid-90s, and as I feel much useful content is omitted to makethe talk, I’m putting links to useful sites and books below (and in the comments) over the next few days.
The talk will also run today at 2.30pm (come along at 1pm to hear David Bellamy!), and tomorrow at 11.30am.
Books
Plants for a Future: Edible and Useful Plants for a Healthier World
Creative Vegetable Gardening
Nowtopia: How Pirate Programmers, Outlaw Bicyclists and Vacant-lot Gardeners Are Inventing the Future Today.
Websites
Heritage Seed Library - old & endangered varieties of vegetable seed
Plants for a Future - practical experiences with 7000 different useful & edible plants growing in the UK
links for 2009-07-30
Friday, July 31st, 2009-
A proposed Bill to put before the British Parliament intended to abolish many of the restrictive laws and regulation believed to hamper individual freedom, civic society and business
A wiki Bill, the Great Repeal Bill has been drafted by ordinary citizens in a collaborative effort. It is as much an initiative in open politics and move towards direct democracy as it is an effort in deregulation.
-
Gilles Vigneault: On fabrique des chaises, on sait pas qui va s’asseoir dedans…
From the comments:
Ce que Twitter nous annonce, c’est un monde où bientôt tout le monde pourra savoir à tout moment exactement où tout le monde est et ce qu’il font dans l’instant présent. -
Flickr Hive Mind is a data mining tool for the Flickr photography database, allowing search by: metadata tags; Flickr photography groups; Flickr users and their contacts and favorites; text annotation; the Flickr Explore algorithm for interestingness. Flickr Hive Mind can also be an effective tool to identify stock photography with licenses that allow non-commercial (and sometimes) commercial use.
-
Using the P2 WordPress theme to create a private Twitter-like group
Easier for some than hosting their own http://laconi.ca instance, perhaps -
Respondents have more trust in TV ads and expert online reviews than in their online friends, with 52% trusting television ads and 47% trusting expert reviews. But most surprising is how consumers respond to online friends versus banner ads, which are considered a weak branding source in many areas. But the 33% of people who trust their online friends is only slightly higher than the 31% who trust banner ads.
-
Wiki entry on search.creativecommons.org
-
"A database of 4,806,498 freely usable media files to which anyone can contribute."
-
Creative commons search engine
links for 2009-07-03
Saturday, July 4th, 2009-
What a great idea - let's hope it seizes the imagination, & really takes off :-)
