If you are a proponent of 3-D printing, you may want to read this article on the uses of this tech in the Navy. Lieutenant Commander Michael Llenza makes some good points.
LCDR Michael Llenza on 3-D Printing
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Category Archives: Tech
Just Not Sure About BAMF Bikes
On one hand, BAMF Bike Co has a sort of libertarian appeal. They cut out the middleman and sell direct to the customer.
Their bikes look clean and tough with none of that stickered bs. And they come in any color you desire, as long as you want black. On the other hand, they sound both vaguely hipster and anarchistic:
BAMF stands for exactly what you think it does. BAMF doesn’t roll like those pretty boys with matching lycra kits and expensive power meters. If you ride a bike, and we mean really ride a bike, you know the cold burn on your face in the dead of winter, the sound of a body hitting the ground and the taste of a warm beer in the morning. You don’t ride so you can shave your legs and drive around town with a bike on the rack hoping to be seen…You hunt those types down and smirk as you rip past leaving them and their GPS and sunblock keychain wondering what the hell happened?
All the BAMF bikes are black (like the guys at BAMF are going to fight over color pallets) and come with minimal decal and a killer 4 color (gold, white, purple and blue) sticker kit for you to create the look you want. Put the stickers on the bike, a cop car or your friend’s back. They take bikes seriously…like tattoos. They don’t want you to show up and see the exact same machine as some poser. BAMF wants you to make it your own. Bikes are a permanent fixture in their life and they pour that passion into their work.
The Piledriver is a serious bike as you can tell from the name. It will turn your world upside-down.
I am not looking to make a statement with my bike. I want high-tech and durable. Without all the punky poser nonsense.
Memoto: No Friggin’ Thanks
I do not understand people who feel the need to track their life in pictures. There is a thing as too much and I would put Martin Källström’s useless invention Memoto in that category:
“We want to provide people with a perfect photographic memory,” says Martin Källström, CEO of Memoto. His startup is creating a tiny clip-on camera that takes a picture every 30 seconds, capturing whatever you are looking at, and then applies algorithms to the resulting mountain of images to find the most interesting ones.
Källström, a 37-year-old software developer, came up with the Memoto concept in 2011 and began working on it full time the next year with partner Oskar Kalmaru and product designer Björn Wesén.
I will not take kindly to people having one on when I am talking to them.
Have We Sunk to Bulletproof Whiteboards?
The Rocori School District plans to install bulletproof whiteboards to protect from a gunman entering school grounds. Maryland-based Hardwire LLC designed the protective device.
What the Heck is ÖKO?
I was planning on getting one of those carbon filters (like Brita), so I can filter the ship’s water when I am deployed in Japan. I think I might have found something better, ÖKO:
What is ÖKO
Pronounced “ooko,” ÖKO means “eco” in Swiss German, where the idea for our advanced filtration water bottle and its application was originated. ÖKO takes the concept of eco-friendly water container one step further with NASA derived filtration technology, packaged in smartly designed BPA free water bottles with a super-light, hightech blend of materials – ensuring that you’re always drinking safe, pure, potable water in style. It’s the ideal choice for everyday use, travelers, adventurers, hikers, yogis, runners, and anyone who needs convenient access to clean, clear, crisp water. And with 3 sizes, 6 designer colors, and 3 levels of filters, it’s easy to have the ÖKO bottle that’s right for you.
Hmm, good specs. I love technology. . .
The Navy’s Cyro, a Robot Jellyfish
The Navy is looking into using Cyro, a robotic jellyfish, to provide low-power (undersea) military surveillance:
Cyro measures 5 feet, 7 inches across and weighs in at 170 pounds. Its design was based on the real-life species Cyanea capillata, one of the largest jellyfish in the world. (Cyro is an amalgam of “Cyanea” and “robot.”) When submerged in a pool, the robot flaps its eight arms and swims gracefully.
Alex Villanueva’s RoboJelly was the older version of Cyro. . .
Nick D’Aloisio Sells Summly
Nick D’Aloisio, a seventeen year-old, just sold Summly to Yahoo for $30 Million. Here is a puff piece on the sale and here is a boo-hiss-shriek write-up of the summly buy. (I learned a new word from Emin Gün Sirer, the writer of the second piece, TL;DR. . .)
Aerogel, Lite and Lovely
I am surprised that not more has been made from Aerogel. It has amazing properties (the world’s lightest solid) and its construction is unique: Aerogel is pure silicon dioxide and sand, just as is glass, but aerogel is a thousand times less dense than glass because it is 99.8 percent air. It is prepared like gelatin by mixing a liquid silicon compound and a fast-evaporating liquid solvent, forming a gel that is then dried in an instrument similar to a pressure cooker. The mixture thickens, and then careful heating and depressurizing produce a glassy sponge of silicon.
Submarine for Sale in San Diego
Want a sub? Not a sandwich, but the actual sinky thing? Bill Rocco may have what you are looking for, a real-deal submarine designed by Henry Agard.
Tech Geeks- Maltz, Jol YIchu!
I’ll bet if you know what Skunk Works, Phantom Works, Lab126 and A9, Jony Ive’s lab, quattro GmbH, Velocity Lab, and PARC produce, you are on the cutting edge of tech:
quattro GmbH is a private subsidiary of Audi located in Neckersulm, Germany
The term “skunk works” comes from a tiny Lockheed Martin facility run by chief engineer Kelly Johnson in the 1940s, which started in a tent next to a malodorous manufacturing plant. That tiny space designed and built America’s first jet fighter in just 143 days, and created a philosophy for rapid innovation which companies copy to this day.
Now, as more companies have to do more with less, many are moving away from giant research centers and towards building something like a lean start-up inside their companies. Others have the luxury of a different model, where secretive labs work on projects that may never see the light of day.
A jet in 143 days? Wow- Maltz, jol yIchu!
Riot, Rapid Information Overlay Technology
Raytheon’s Riot software (Rapid Information Overlay Technology) is configured to track people’s movements and predict future behavior through mining data from social networking websites. Just as long as it does not spy on blogs. And determine what stories certain bloggers are going to post.
Chainsaw Slingshot, It Wasn’t Me
There are certain things that are easier to pretend I did not see: For your viewing pleasure, Joerg Sprave is mounting a chainsaw projectile into his stunning custom “bazooka” wooden slingshot. (There is an actual channel titled the Slingshot Channel?)
Kathryn Bigelow and the International Space Station
Kathryn Bigelow to Build Inflatable Room for the ISS
Okay, let’s test your ability to read headlines and determine content. Here is the headline: Bigelow to Build Inflatable Room for the ISS.
What comes to mind? Bigelow Tea? Kathryn Bigelow? Try Bigelow Aerospace:
SpaceX, Boeing, Blue Origin, Sierra Nevada—some of the biggest names in aerospace, newcomers or old guard, are competing to build new spacecraft and rockets to carry astronauts to the International Space Station now that NASA no long flies the space shuttle. But Bigelow Aerospace, founded in 1998, actually wants to add on to the station itself.
Bigelow, ISS
The company builds inflatable orbital habitats, more like balloons than the angular metal modules that make up the space station. For years Bigelow has floated the far-out possibility of combining multiple inflatables to create a hotel in space—lodging for space tourists who aren’t content to simply see the great beyond from the cabin of a plane. NASA, however, has recently announced it plans to Bigelow’s inflatable rooms as add-ons for the ISS.
A SpaceX rocket would carry the first Bigelow Expendable Activity Module (BEAM) to the station in 2015.
Kathryn Bigelow, of course, is the director of: Near Dark, Point Break, Strange Days, The Weight of Water, K-19: The Widowmaker, The Hurt Locker, and Zero Dark Thirty.
Google’s Sergey Brin in New York City
Love this picture of Google’s Sergey Brin. He is actually wearing the Google Glasses. On the subway. Doing my best Sherlock Holmes, I would say Mr. Brin is on the N or the R line. (Due to the seat color and background.) A passenger by the name of Noah Zerkin took the picture.
tubiQ, by Teknokat Marine
I find this tubiQ houseboat, by Teknokat Marine, intriguing. It is somewhat on the ugly, modular side; but if the price is right, its simplicity could be a winner:
TubiQ by Technokat Marine
Click on the PDF (right) for the specs. Of course, my heart be in tugboats, like the Irene.
Adam Harvey’s Stealth Wear
New York-based artist Adam Harvey has a new line of clothes out called Stealth Wear. This protection from drones will thwart thermal imaging, brought to you from the same guy who designed CV Dazzle (camouflage from face detection.) Adam and fashion designer Johanna Bloomfield came up with what looks like a high-tech poncho. Let’s hope the bad guys don’t get their manicured hands on it.