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Computing Hardware Mobile 

Configuring the Budweiser Red Light without a phone

Budweiser recently released the Red Light, a limited edition a wireless hockey goal light that’ll blast the horns and spin the lights when your favourite team(s) score a goal. It’s the perfect addition to any den or man cave inhabited by even casual hockey fans.

The Red Light has been such a hit for Bud that they’re now back ordered until May, and a brisk second hand market for them on Ebay with the kind of 200% to 300% markup you’d expect from a gizmo limited to Canada, leaving US hockey fans out in the cold. I was lucky enough to get one as an early birthday present from a friend…

but there was a caveat that came with it.

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Computing Hardware Mobile 

iPhone 5: 5 days in

So Friday Sept 21 finally arrived, and with it, the latest iteration of the venerable iPhone. Me being the new-toy-nerd that I am, and one that is beginning to come to grips with what may be a severe case of Fanboyism, I dutifully ran down to my local Rogers store and waited in line with the masses to get my hands on the shiny gadget I’d wanted all my life…since 9 days prior

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Computing Hardware Software 

Microsoft Surface: The lamentations of an iPad devotee.

Yesterday, Microsoft showed how grown up it’s become over the past 5 years by proving it still remembers what it’s like to be a kid. The venerable software giant held a special event at Los Angeles, but unlike any other Microsoft event, keynote, or trade show presentation that I can remember, this one was…well…cool. Like REALLY cool.

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Arts Computing Film Hardware Production 

The death of DSLR revisited: Blackmagic Design’s new affordable digital motion picture camera

Amid all the shiny new toys announced and demoed at NAB 2012 by the usual suspects of companies such as RED, Arri and Canon, one company not even known for cameras at all lay the smackdown on all the camera manufacturers. Past the initial shock and gadget giddiness, I’ve had a chance to collect my thoughts on this exciting new development.

Blackmagic Design -best known for their high end video capture cards and cross converters- unveiled their new DIgital Cinema Camera to the shock of everybody at NAB2012. It is a 2.5K camera that shoots in Prores, AVID DNx, and RAW in the ADOBE CinemaDNG format in 23.976/24p/25p/29.97/30p fps. All for $2995 USD. This is big news. Seriously. The key lies in how it shoots and records

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Computing Hardware Science 

Nano quadroters in autonomous action

The University of Pennsylvania’s GRASP Lab has been working with quadrotors from some time, demonstrating how the flying robots can be used for everything from assembling structures to flying through moving hula hoops. Back in January, they put out a video demonstrating the capabilities of their minaturized ‘nano quadrotors’ flying in formation. Vijay Kumar of U Penn gave a talk at TED 2012, and the video above goes into greater detail about the hows and whys of quadrotor development and application.  The second half of the video shows even more complex…

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Arts Computing Featured Film Hardware video 

Only Kinect

Media artist James George calls it “an old tourist movie from the future”. A walk down the summer streets of Barcelona recorded through a handheld 3D scanner. He was quite properly trying to avoid using a genericised trademark (like saying Xerox when you mean photocopy): he shot it using the output of a Kinect. Put to music by Alva Noto & Ryuichi Sakamoto the images become recognisable as much through their movement as their form. The two and a half minute  piece “alley posts” has been posted on Vimeo. George’s…

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Arts Film Hardware Photography Show video 

Filmmaking on a Lo-Fi Budget: The $4 Focus Lever

I first saw this while looking for some kitchen utensils at a home/kitchen store. It is a silicon jar opener. Composed of a rubbery silicon material with a hard plastic tightening collar, it is made to open the toughest of jars.

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Computing Featured Hardware 

Will we see a Commodore 64 in the NHL? Let’s hope so…

The venerable Commodore 64 has seen a bit of a revival of late, with the release of a new Intel based computer shoved into the shell of the 1980’s 8-bit dream machine. Its reach is extending beyond the computing realm to the world of hockey (only the best sport in the world).

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Computing Featured Hardware Science 

Mind-Probing HUD Glasses Finally Invented: Cyborgs Rejoice

He’s walking in the thoroughfare when a woman stops him and asks him for the time. As he check his psi-spectacle readout, a red alert pops up over her head — she’s anxious. What about?

Scene from a futuristic cyberpunk novel? No, apparently this is now a modern day scenario that has resulted from the research of one Rosalind Picard and others from MIT.

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“THE GEKITSUIOH GAME – Doodle War” at FITC 2011

Back in the days before smartphones were everywhere, high school students had a lot less options to kill time during a spare period or two. Some would actually go to the library to do their homework but most, depending on the proclivities of their particular clique, were either out by the football field smoking or hanging in the cafeteria playing cards and paper drawn spaceship games (the RPG set usually hung out in the library in my high school).

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Samsung Galaxy Tab giveaway on Rogers RedBoard Biz – 1 day left!

Rogers has really been promoting the business version of their Redboard blog – the Biz blog, which is “dedicated to helping Canadian businesses get a competitive advantage with business tools and providing the know-how to get the most value from them”. To help promote the new @RogersBiz Twitter account they are having a contest to win a Samsung Galaxy Tab Android tablet. All you have to do is go to the blog here, and in the comments, in 100 words or less, let Rogers know “how technology has changed your…

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