http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/hackaday/LgoM/~3/RIePYSy3QkM/

http://hackaday.com/?p=74478

Here are the contronl modules for a sous-vide project over at Nerdkits. [Humberto] and crew continue doing a great job of focusing a project on one goal, then explaining the steps needed to get there. In this case they wanted to build their own sous-vide appliance that was cheap, and didn’t really require the user to deal with mains voltage. We like it because most of the parts can be found at a hardware store and big box store.

He started with a slow cooker, which is pretty standard. Next he needed a way to switch power to the device. Instead of using a solid state relay, he went for a standard dimmer switch. It’s build into a double gang electrical box, and controls an outlet which is occupying the second position in that box. Now current to the slow cooker is limited by the position of the dimmer. The next task was to add a cardboard frame which marries a servo motor to the dimmer’s knob.

With the control scheme in place [Humberto] needed a feedback sensor. He built his own water proof temperature probe by covering an LM34 temperature sensor with shrink tube and sealing the ends. Just one probe in the cooking water isn’t very reliable so he added a second between the slow cooker’s base and ceramic vessel to improve the performace of the PID algorithm. He goes into detail about that in the video after the break.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/hackaday/LgoM/~3/DpBk3pbZq3Y/

http://hackaday.com/?p=74481

[Rob Morris] has been hard at working improving his guitar augmentation techniques. Here he’s demonstrating the use of an iPhone to control the effects while he plays. This builds on the work he shared a few years ago where he strapped a Wii remote to the body of his ax.

Just like the Wii remote, the iPhone includes an accelerometer. As you would expect the best parts of the older hack made it into this one, but the inclusion of the touch screen adds a lot more. In the clip after the break he starts by showing off the screen controlling a whammy bar functionality. But we really love the octave offset feature that comes next. This kind of sound manipulation simply can’t be done using a purely physical method (like the whammy bar can). But he’s not done yet. The demo finishes with a Theremin feature. You’ll notice he plucks a string but no sound comes out until he starts touching the screen. This turns it into an entirely different type of instrument.

The only info we have about putting this together is the list of packages he’s using:  TouchOSC, Max/Msp, and GuitarRig

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/hackaday/LgoM/~3/NT1QM-goPxM/

http://hackaday.com/?p=74495

[Bryan] got his hands on a solar panel and decided to take it on the road rather than throwing it on the roof of the house. On sunny days it will top off the car battery, letting him use his stereo in the middle of nowhere without needing to keep the engine running. Instead of buying a ready-made solution he chose to design and build his own charging circuitry.

The charger uses an Arduino, which draws its own power from the panel via a regulator. It senses the voltage level of the battery and the available juice from the panel, connecting or disconnecting it from the electrical system as necessary. The system includes a set of LED indicators, which he installed in the dashboard near the cigarette lighter. This also gave him an excuse to install a voltmeter which uses a 2.5 digit seven segment display to read out the battery voltage. You can see a brief overview after the break.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/hackaday/LgoM/~3/flhy2X3ytVU/

http://hackaday.com/?p=74525

That awful buzzing/beeping beside the bed in the morning might not seem so bad if it were a cascade of bubbles instead. At least that’s what [Will] is hoping for. He took a child’s toy and turned it into a bubble blowing alarm clock.

We’re guessing you’re not going to be too happy with the alarm settings feature. This isn’t using a real-time clock, or any clock at all really. [Will] rolled his own light detection circuit using a PNP transistor whose base is controlled by an LDR. When the light level in the room reaches a certain threshold the bubbles start streaming out of the front of this thing. He test the system in the video by switching a lamp on and off in a dark room.

Up at dawn has never been a way we could describe ourselves, but the one-wire control method seen here could easily be provided by a microcontroller rather than the LDR. Oh, and for those that don’t get it; the [Lawrence Welk] show always started with a screen full of bubbles.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/hackaday/LgoM/~3/XeT8jYNTjm8/

http://hackaday.com/?p=74466

[Reza] has been working on detecting hand gestures with LIDAR for about 10 years now, and we’ve got to say the end result is worth the wait.

The build uses three small LIDAR sensors to measure the distance to an object. These sensors work by sending out an infrared pulse and recording the time of flight for a beam of light to be emmitted and reflected back to a light sensor. Basically, it’s radar but with infrared light. Three of these LIDAR sensors are mounted on a stand and plugged into an Arduino Uno. By measuring how far away an object is to each sensor, [Reza] can determine the object’s position in 3D space relative to the sensor.

Unlike the Kinect-based gesture applications we’ve seen, [Reza]‘s LIDAR can work outside in the sun. Because each LIDAR sensor is measuring the distance a million times a second, it’s also much more responsive than a Kinect as well. Not bad for 10 years worth of work.

You can check out [Reza]‘s gesture control demo, as well as a few demos of his LIDAR hardware after the break.

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/blotter/entries/2012/05/16/hays_county_sheriffs_office_se_1.html?cxntfid=blogs_the_blotter

The Hays County sheriff’s office is asking residents that have a coded gate granting access to their property to provide the code so that dispatchers have it on file for emergencies.

Gated communities, private residences, apartment complexes and commercial properties are among the properties the sheriff’s office is seeking codes from to update its databases in the Emergency Communications Division.

Residents should email their gate code to vips@co.hays.tx.us with GATE CODE in the subject line or call 512-393-7373, according to the sheriff’s office.

The agency is also requesting the following information:

-The name of the location

-A contact person

-The physical or 911 address

-Any special instructions or extra information, such as whether a pet lives at the home or a resident is hearing impaired

-A phone number

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/blotter/entries/2012/05/16/man_indicted_on_first_homicide.html?cxntfid=blogs_the_blotter

A Travis County grand jury has indicted a man and charged him with capital murder in the 2011 slaying of a store clerk, police officials said today.

Frederick Manuel, 46, right, could face life in prison or the death penalty if convicted of killing Azizali Momin, 41, left, last year.

Police officials said that on Jan. 20, 2011, officers responded to a shooting at the All Star Grocery at 4600 Teri Road in Southeast Austin. A man entered the business with a weapon and demanded money from Momin, then shot him and left the scene with an undisclosed amount of cash, officials said. Momin was pronounced dead at the scene.

After videos of the All Star Grocery robbery were released to the news media, an anonymous caller contacted the homicide tip line and said Manuel matched the description of the man in the video, an arrest affidavit said. The caller said Manuel lived near Teri Road and had a drug addiction, the affidavit said.

Manuel has a lengthy criminal record, including arrests for armed robbery, being a felon in possession of a firearm, drug possession and family violence, the affidavit said. Police spoke with the managers of an apartment complex where Manuel worked as a maintenance man; they said they viewed footage of the robbery on the website of America’s Most Wanted and believed Manuel was the killer, the affidavit said.

After conducting surveillance on Manuel, police took him into custody and questioned him in April 2011, the affidavit said. He became nervous and demanded to speak with a lawyer, the affidavit said. Manuel remains in custody.

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/blotter/entries/2012/05/16/woman_hospitalized_after_being.html?cxntfid=blogs_the_blotter

A woman was hospitalized after being struck by a police car in downtown Austin on Tuesday evening, police officials said.

Police spokeswoman Veneza Aguinaga said that about 6:40 p.m. Tuesday, a police car was taking a suspect to the Travis County Jail when it stopped at a red light at Seventh Street and San Jacinto Boulevard. After stopping, the officer turned right but did not see a female pedestrian and struck her, Aguinaga said.

The woman was taken to University Medical Center Brackenridge with injuries that were not life-threatening, Aguinaga said. The suspect in the car complained of pain and also was taken to the hospital, even though he did not have any visible injuries, Aguinaga said.

The wreck remains under investigation by police.

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/blotter/entries/2012/05/16/two_children_ejected_in_crash.html?cxntfid=blogs_the_blotter

10:32 a.m. update: Austin police say a car traveling north on Congress Avenue ran a red light, hitting a minivan on the westbound frontage road of Ben White Boulevard.

Police say the three children in the minivan were not properly restrained. Two of the children were sent to Dell Children’s Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

The driver of the minivan and the car also went to a hospital with minor injuries.

Earlier: Two children were ejected from a car during a crash that occurred at the intersection of Ben White Boulevard and South Congress Avenue, police officials said.

Police Sgt. David Daniels said that around 9:15 a.m., a car ran a red light at the intersection and struck another car. Two children were ejected from the vehicle, Daniels said, but they did not suffer life threatening injuries. They were transported to an area hospital as a precaution, he said.

No other details were immediately available.

American-Statesman staff photo by Rodolfo Gonzalez

http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/16/military-news-roundup-green-on-blue-a-call-for-a-nuclear-reduction-and-natos-supply-line/

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/16/when-good-things-happen-to-bad-ideas/

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/16/sweden-sweden-as-conservative-icon/

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/16/extremists-and-enablers/

http://www.snopes.com/photos/medical/cfl.asp

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/hackaday/LgoM/~3/Oy44UNaEQJE/

http://hackaday.com/?p=74460

Here’s two builds that print text to a TV with only two pins:

Still Alive with an Arduino

After seeing all the builds that play Still Alive, [Bob] decided to take a 1972 amber monitor and recreate the cut scene at the end of Portal. The build uses the TVout library for Arduino. There were a few problems with running the Unix and Still Alive animations at the same time, so [Bob] flips a bit in the EEPROM at the end of the command line animation and restarts into GLaDOS’ report. You can check out the old school color monitor here

ATMega Video Text Generator

[Stian] didn’t think his build was good enough for Hackaday, but his friend [Mikael] thought otherwise. [Stian] wrote a library to generate an NTSC video signal in real time. It’s a text-based build with 37×17 character resolution and only requires about 3kB of RAM. As a bonus, it only takes up two pins on [Stian]‘s ATMega128.

You can check out the videos for both these builds after the break.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/hackaday/LgoM/~3/fHV4V6ChdME/

http://hackaday.com/?p=74447

Everyone’s favorite electronic component distributor, Jameco, rolled out a new way for you to make a few bucks off of your projects. It’s called Club Jameco and looks like a great place to design, sell, and learn about new projects from around the Internet.

The premise behind Club Jameco is simple. You send Jameco a short description of one of your projects. If the folks at Jameco think your project will sell, they’ll post it on Club Jameco for some feedback while you write up the instructions and the BOM. Once your project is done, Jameco will build it, sell it, and send you a nice royalty check in the mail.

Already there are some pretty neat projects up on Club Jameco like a build your own transformer kit and a photodiode geiger counter. We’re sure Hackaday readers have a few interesting projects up their sleeves, so we’ll wait patiently until we see them on Club Jameco.

Tip ‘o the hat to [War_Spigot] and [PUNiSH3R] for sending this one in.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/hackaday/LgoM/~3/5mczzvuz4MQ/

http://hackaday.com/?p=74453

Sooner or later, you’re going to need a logic analyzer. If you don’t have a Bus Pirate or Logic Sniffer lying around, [Joonas] has a great MacGyverism that turns an oscilloscope into the simplest logic analyzer ever.

The basic premise of the build is tying four digital lines to the analog input of an oscope. This is done with a 74HC126 buffer that provides a high impedance input for the logic probes and outputs the four-bit status of each logic channel. With a few resistors in an R-2R network, the state of four digital lines can be easily read.

[Joonas] included the source code to turn his Picoscope 2000 into a logic analyzer, but there’s no reason why this couldn’t be done with any digital scope that has a serial output. Not bad for a very, very simple logic analyzer – just one chip and a handful of resistors – that costs less than $5.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/hackaday/LgoM/~3/tKAclbny38A/

http://hackaday.com/?p=73763

Nearly everything at [HAD] is at least based on science in some way or another. If, however, you would like to do some actual scientific experiments with stuff around the house, [Observationsblog] might be for you.

The particular posts that [Ken] wrote in to tell us about were all about acids, bases, and natural indicators. In his first post he goes over some definitions of acids, bases, and what pH exactly means. A good refresher for those that have forgotten some of their high school (or college) chemistry classes.

The other two posts have to do with making your own natural acid/base indicators. The first is called Anthocyanin, and can be extracted from Red Cabbage.  Quite specific directions can be found here. Similar directions can be found to turn the Indian spice of [Turmeric] into an indicator as well. Although these concepts probably won’t help build your next robot, they could easily be copied inspire young minds for a great science fair project!

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/hackaday/LgoM/~3/oo1xbz95fC4/

http://hackaday.com/?p=74430

[ften] was having plenty of fun running Android on his HP Touchpad, but he soon discovered that the tablet’s micro USB port didn’t provide enough juice to his peripherals when running in host mode. He started digging around and found the perfect means of providing the extra power while maintaining the device’s stock appearance.

He pried the tablet apart and installed a small DC step up converter in an empty space located behind the Touchpad’s dummy SIM slot. After wiring the converter to the battery terminals, he installed a micro USB adapter in the empty slot, which fit perfectly after a bit of sanding.

He hacked together a USB Y-cable to pull power from his new USB jack, while retaining the existing data connection through the original USB interface. You can see the results of his work in the video below, and while [ften] hasn’t said how much his mod affects the Touchpad’s battery life, he has confirmed that it will still shut down gracefully once you inevitably sap the battery dry.

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/blotter/entries/2012/05/16/austin_police_seek_robbery_by.html?cxntfid=blogs_the_blotter

From the Austin Police Department:

Case: 12-1350164
Date: Monday, May 14, 2012
Time: 2:20 a.m.
Location: Trinity Street and East 7th Street

Narrative:

On Monday, May 14, 2012, Austin Police officers responded to a robbery in a parking lot at the intersection of Trinity Street and E. 7th St.

The investigation shows that three females were assaulted and robbed by three White or Hispanic females. The suspects took the victims’ purses and left the scene on foot. The victims received minor injuries.

It is believed that these suspects then attempted to use several stolen debit/credit cards at several businesses. These businesses were able to provide detectives with surveillance photos of the suspects and suspect vehicles.

The suspects are described as:

Suspect #1
White or Hispanic female
Last seen driving a gold or green Ford Expedition

Suspect #2
White or Hispanic female
In her 20s
Long dark colored hair
Last seen wearing a red shirt and shorts

Suspect #3
Hispanic Female
25-30 years of age
Heavy build
She has tattoos covering her arms and chest. She was last seen wearing a white tank top and blue jean Capri pants and another time wearing a black tank top and beige colored shorts with black shoes

This case remains under investigation by APD Robbery detectives. Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call the Robbery tip line at (512) 974-5092, Crime Stoppers at (512) 472-TIPS or text “Tip 103” + your message to CRIMES. You may be eligible for a cash reward of up to $1,000 if your tip leads to an arrest or charges being filed.

http://coilhouse.net/2012/05/opossum-massage-by-me-pearl/

http://coilhouse.net/?p=31459

DOIN IT RONG:

DOIN IT RITE:

Via Tristan.

Post tags: Better than coffee, Crackpot Visionary, Flora & Fauna, Memes, Silly-looking types, Stroke Material

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=2094

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/16/jogging-for-the-exit/

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/hackaday/LgoM/~3/a2NM8FyyNpw/

http://hackaday.com/?p=74400

Browsing around today, I saw this little kit on kickstarter called Kinetic Creatures.  These flat packed models are made from cardboard and can be assembled without tools. Their mechanical legs are operated either by a simple cam that you turn by hand or by a motorized attachment. I love the basic idea here. This is the kind of thing that my 6 year old would really enjoy doing that also serves to get him into making things (he’d probably insist on motorizing it with scraps, he collects dc motors and has quite a collection).

I did notice that they mentioned using it as a robotic platform, adding custom electronics to the empty space allowed in the body of the animal. This initially got me quite excited, thinking that I could, for $30 have a 1 foot tall quadruped platform that looked awesome, then I realized it can’t turn. I guess I’ll have to hack it a little bit to put separate drives in for each side. That would be a cool upgrade they could offer.

Have any of you tried to do turning with a set of only 4 [jansen] legs before?

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/blotter/entries/2012/05/16/killeen_police_seek_missing_ch.html?cxntfid=blogs_the_blotter

UPDATE: The Killeen Police Department announced today that the missing 8-year-old has been found safe. According to the announcement:

Killeen Police were called to 305 Elms Rd. at 7:53am advising the 8 year old missing child, Markell Foster had been located. Upon the officers arrival they learned that Markell had run away from home and hid under a mobile home in the same trailer park and fell asleep. This morning while he was coming out from underneath the mobile home he was seen by a park resident who escorted him back to his residence. Markell was unharmed and has been reunited with his family.

The Killeen Police Department would like to thank the volunteers with the Killeen Citizens on Patrol, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and all other community members who unselfishly gave their time and resources to assist the department with their search for the missing child. We would also like to thank the media who acted quickly to inform the citizens of this missing child.

EARLIER:

From the Killeen Police Department:

Eight-year-old Marqual Roshon Foster is missing. He is 3-foot-6 and 72 pounds, last seen wearing a white tank top, dark shorts and black flip-flops. He lives on Elms Road in Killeen.

http://www.avclub.com/articles/may-16-2012,75183/?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=feeds&utm_source=type_savage-love

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap120515.html

How much of planet Earth is made of water?

http://www.overcomingbias.com/2012/05/eventual-futures.html

http://www.overcomingbias.com/?p=29746

I’ve noticed that recommendations for action based on a vision of the future are based on an idea that something must “eventually” occur. For example, eventually:

• We will run out of coal, so we’d better find replacements soon.
• Earth will run out of stored energy of fossil fuels and radioactivity, so we’d better get ready to run only on sunlight.
• Earth will run out of place for trash, so we must stop making trash.
• The sun will die out, so we’d better get ready to move to another sun.
• There will be a race to colonize other planets and stars, so our group should get out there first so we don’t get lose this race.
• Chips will use X instead of silicon, so our chip firms must use X now, to not be left behind.
• There will be no privacy of any sort, so we might as well get used to it now.
• Some races will win, so we’d best fight for ours before its too late.
• Firms will be stronger than nations, unless we break their power soon.
• There will be a stronger world government, so let’s start one now.
• There will be conflict between China and West, or Islam and West, so we best strike first now.
• Artificial intelligences will rule the world, so let’s figure out now how to make a good one.
• We’ll invent all that is worth inventing, so let’s find a way now to live without innovation.
• We’ll know all the physics there is, so lets find something else interesting now.
• There will be a huge deadly world war, so let’s stock some bunkers to hide in.
• Nanobots will give everyone anything they want, so why work now?
• The first nano-assembler’s owner will rule the world, so we best study nanotech now.
• More fertile immigrants will out number us, so we best not let them in.
• The more fertile stupid will make the world dumb, unless we stop them now.

The common pattern: project forward a current trend to an extreme, while assuming other things don’t change much, and then recommend an action which might make sense if this extreme change were to happen all at once soon.

This is usually a mistake. The trend may not continue indefinitely. Or, by the time a projected extreme is reached, other changes may have changed the appropriate response. Or, the best response may be to do nothing for a long time, until closer to big consequences. Or, the best response may be to do nothing, ever – not all negative changes can be profitably resisted.

It is just not enough to suspect that an extreme will be reached eventually – you usually need a good reason to think it will happen soon, and and that you know a robust way to address it. In far mode it often feels like the far future is clearly visible, and that few obstacles stand in the way of planning paths to achieve far ends. But in fact, the world is much messier than far mode is willing to admit.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/hackaday/LgoM/~3/k9T_P3xFR4E/

http://hackaday.com/?p=74405

Inspired by a design he saw on the EEVblog, [George Graves] put together this constant current dummy load.  You might need on of these if you’re testing power supplies or batteries. They pull a constant current regardless of the voltage of the supply. [George's] version extends the range of the original a little bit by running the op-amp at 8 volts. He says that everything runs fine at 1 amp. He tried 2 amps but things got hot pretty quickly. What we really like though, is he took fantastic pictures. Sometimes even simple things can catch our attention with the right pictures!

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/hackaday/LgoM/~3/joWAzFVIy0Y/

http://hackaday.com/?p=74394

So you’ve got a really cool project that requires a wireless controller and a ton of different channels. What are you going to do? Are you going to go pick up an expensive RC controller? Nah, you’re going to build your own. This project makes a generic 20 channel controller for your projects by stuffing an SMDuino and an XBee module inside a ps2 controller.  Unfortunately you lose the force feedback since you have to remove the motors to make space for the extra components and batteries. You do end up with a decently ergonomic and aesthetically pleasing controller though.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/hackaday/LgoM/~3/RuymxLwLodE/

http://hackaday.com/?p=74376

[DJ Sures], mastermind behind the EZ-B Bluetooth Robot controller, sent in a really interesting build where he controls a robot with a 1983 TRS-80 computer.

The robot in question is [DJ Sures]‘ adorable WALL-E we’ve seen before. WALL-E is controlled through a Bluetooth connection to a desktop PC with the EZ-Builder hardware and software package.

To get the Trash-80 talking to WALL-E, [Sures] connected a tiny Bluetooth module to the TX pin of the 6402 UART. It’s a very, very simple modification that adds a Bluetooth serial connection to one of the first notebook computers. After syncing the TRS-80 and WALL-E to the computer running EZ-Builder, it’s a piece of cake to make the robot respond to the clanging of a 30-year-old keyboard.

There’s a video of [DJ Sures] going over his build after the break with a wonderful demo of WALL-E freaking out to a little dubstep. Check that out after the break.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/hackaday/LgoM/~3/pPOiVcRkyDo/

http://hackaday.com/?p=74381

These cool looking little bots are part of a fleet of floating water sensors built by The Lagrangian Sensor Systems Laboratory (LSSL) at UC Berkeley, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories (LBNL) and the California Department of Water Resources.

In an emergency such as a levee break, flood, or spill, they can be deployed to gather information in a way that is completely impossible with stationary sensors. These 17″ tall bots can steer with the help of their twin props and communicate water quality information back to the base via cellular communication and short wave radio. They describe the resulting data as being like a “google traffic map” showing speed, depth, and contamination of the water.

There’s a ton of detail on their site, including breakdowns of how the software and hardware are put together. There’s even a bit of the evolution of the hardware showing the abandoned previous models.

http://robertreich.org/post/23109587949

ROMNEY HAS PUBLIC AND PRIVATE MORALITY UPSIDE DOWN

Mitt Romney’s reaction to J.P. Morgan Chase’s mounting losses from reckless trades is “the market will take care of it.” His spokesman says “no taxpayer money was at risk” so we don’t need more financial regulation. Romney has even promised to repeal Dodd-Frank if he’s elected president.

Yet at the same time, Romney has come out strongly against same-sex marriage. He’s also against abortion. He has no problem with government intruding on the most intimate of decisions a person makes.

He’s got private and public morality upside down. He doesn’t want to regulate where regulation is necessary — at the highest reaches of the economy, where public immorality has cost us dearly, and will cost even more unless boardroom behavior is constrained. Yet he wants to regulate where regulation is least appropriate — at the level of the individual, in bedrooms and other intimate spaces, where private morality should govern.

This is a dangerous confusion. It should be a matter of personal choice whom to marry and when to have children. But it is undoubtedly a matter of public choice whether big banks should be allowed to take the kind of risky bets that plunged the economy into the worst downturn since the Great Depression, and whether people with great wealth and should be able to buy our democracy with huge campaign contributions.

Please see the attached video and pass it on.

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/blotter/entries/2012/05/15/officers_get_brief_suspension.html?cxntfid=blogs_the_blotter

Two Austin police officers received short suspensions as discipline for a December incident in which they transported a keg in a patrol car, according to memos released today by the City of Austin.

Officer Ricky Hollis and officer Brian Spain were suspended for one and two days, respectively, after a citizen complained to police officials after seeing the two put a keg into the car.

The memos say that on Dec. 6, the officers, while in uniform and on duty, drove the wrong way down a one-way private drive, stopped at a house, then got a keg out from inside and put it in the trunk of the unmarked patrol car.

The memos do not say if the keg contained beer, or whose house they went to. The officers were not answering a call at the time of the incident, the memos said.

The two officers were cited for not devoting “their time and attention to the business of the department” while on duty, the memos said.

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/blotter/entries/2012/05/15/police_seek_man_accused_of_ste.html?cxntfid=blogs_the_blotter

FROM THE AUSTIN POLICE DEPARTMENT:

On Monday, May 7, 2012, at approximately 6:08 p.m., a white male cut the security chain link fence and entered the supply yard of L&O Electric, Inc., stealing copper and aluminum.

The suspect is described as: White Male In his mid 30’s Bald head 5’10” to 5’11” 185 to 195 lbs

He was last seen wearing a dark and light striped polo shirt, light colored shorts and black and white tennis shoes.

This case remains under investigation by the Austin Police Department Property Interdiction Unit. Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call the Property Interdiction Unit at (512) 974-4277.

http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/15/an-outpost-of-afghan-dining-inside-an-american-military-base/

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/15/thing-falls-apart/

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/hackaday/LgoM/~3/PDzYPxCuQ2A/

http://hackaday.com/?p=74368

When [GG] was 12 years old, he was introduced to BugBooks, the wonderful ‘introduction to digital design’ books from the early 1970s. It has always been a dream of [GG] to build the TTL computer featured in the BugBooks, and now that he has the necessary time and money available to him, the Apollo181 has become a reality.

[GG]‘s computer is built around a 74181 ALU, an exceptionally old-school chip that provides the core of a computer in a neat 24-pin chip. With a 256-byte RAM and a few additional logic chips, [GG]‘s computer is an exceptional piece of engineering able to perform 625,000 instructions per second when clocked at 2.5 MHz.

This isn’t [GG]‘s first homebrew computer build; last year we saw his incredible Z80 minicomputer. Now we can’t wait to see what’s on tap for next year. After the break, you can check out [GG] loading in operands and operators into his computer and letting the Apollo181 churn away on its program.