Impressive…  Take a handful of fat capacitors (probably 500uF to 800uF each) and hook them up to an electromagnetic coil; make a stylish weapon.  Now, the typical muzzle velocity of a handgun is about 1200km/h, whereas this gun only fires at 110km/h; so it won’t kill you, but it’ll hurt like Hell.  By the way, real rail guns supposedly fire aluminum projectiles at relativistic speeds (near the speed of light), which is why you only see them in science fiction.

Daniel Eindhoven is talented designer who created this  cool  coil  gun. It took around 40 hours to finish this outstanding job. It weights 5 Kg and, capable of delivering over 18J kinetic energy, and speeds up to 110km/h . This  weird coil gun has  laser pointer for easy aiming and it costs around 100 Euros. It needs 8 seconds to fire a projectile if is connected to  power source or 90 seconds with batteries. It is really impressive, I’m not a gun lover but this one is really made with creativity. You may also would like to check this Swiss mini gun, the smallest gun in the world.

From thecontaminated.com

I was right!  As warned in my previous post, the Russian’s are proudly gearing up their Soviet attitudes, as evidenced in this year’s Victory Day parade.  This Soviet veteran (along with his fellow comrades) was not only photographed at the celebration in Red Square, but he’s toasting with Vodka to honor the modern Russian military.

Do you see that patch on his arm?  That’s CCCP (Союз Советских Социалистических Республик) along with the Soviet Union Navy ensign flag.  Now, why would he be toasting the (non-Soviet) Russian military?  Hmmm…?  Maybe his new comrades are “like-minded.”

I’m just kidding. I love this old guy. Look at all those honors hanging from his uniform. That’s one salty sailor who has seen a lot of serious shit. And I promise you, he made it because of his political and moral training. Good job. High-5!

Seen in the parade photos are MiG-29 and Su-27 Fighters, Ilyushin Il-78 Tankers, Tu-95 and Tu-160 Bombers, Topol-M Missile Launchers, Msta-S Howitzers, T-90 Tanks, BTR-90 Infantry Fighting Vehicles, Ka-50 Attack Helicopters, Sprut-SD Tank Destroyers, and of course Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Tons of great pictures from this year’s Victory Day parade.

Fantastic video on the progression of information technology.  Example: It is estimated that a week’s worth of the New Your Times contains more information than a person was likely to come across in a lifetime in the 18th century.  Example: It is estimated that 4 exabytes (4.0×10^19) of unique information will be generated this year [the year this post was made], which is more than the previous 5,000 years.

Welcome back [Soviet] Russia!  We missed you…

May 9th, 1945 (Victory Day) – the day that Nazi Germany capitulated to the USSR.  It became an official Soviet holiday in 1965 and continues to be celebrated even after the fall of the USSR.  Traditionally, ceremonial military parades are held on the day, such as the one in Moscow on the Red Square.  However, on May 9th, 2008, the Russian Federation returned to the Soviet Union tradition of showing off its mobile nuclear weapons during the Victory Day parade, declaring its return to super-power status (Также неизбежное поражение тех американских капиталистических свиней).  This is the RT-2UTTKh Topol-M Mobile ICBM, NATO Designation SS-27 Stalin.

This is a brand new “modernized” version of the weapon system, with a whole new kind of ICBM.  Want to know why you should be concerned?

Got $342,275 USD to blow on a clock?  Look no further than a wind-up clock that writes the time on a piece of paper.  Bleeding-edge Swiss watch-maker Jacquet Droz invested ten years in engineering and building “La Machine a Ecrire le Temps” (the machine that writes time).  Personally, I was thinking that when I staff my mansion in New Zealand after overthrowing its government and installing myself as a dictator, I could use this machine for punching employee time-cards.

By some coincidence, in the 18th century, Jacquet Droz’s founder used to build automaton dolls to help sell his watches. Manuel Emsch’s idea was to build a similar machine that would be useful for the new millennium.

There are more than 1,200 components, including 84 ball bearings, 50 cams and 9 belts inside the machine. Wind it up, press the button, and the time is written on a small pad using a stylus. Manuel Emsch, creative head of Montres Jacquet Droz, came up with the idea and passed it on to the engineers and artisans of the company. The mechanism is kept inside a case made of liquid crystal, so that you can conceal or reveal it whenever you want.

Via DVICE

OMG, this is so funny.  I love these College Humor guys, and this parody of Billy Joel’s “We didn’t start the fire” masterfully captures the modern internet.  Also, I saw Billy Joel’s video debut on MTV back when they played videos.  For anyone over 30, this should be a scary wake-up call.

I remember a world populated with Commodore 64s, VCRs the size of microwave ovens, microwave ovens the size of dog houses, cassette tapes coming in as 8-tracks went out, and you could smoke anywhere (bus, airplane, library, work, you name it).  I’m an IT professional, and the modern Internet is a very scary place.  The future is cloud computing, wireless video and power and everything else, throw-away data centers, and vertical farming.  Whoa, I need to live a life of solitude in my airship as it floats along the air currents high above civilization; kind of like that world in BioShock, but up in the sky…

The Omega7Red website is now officially online.  I’m out of still in web development Hell, but now I can blog away about whatever steam-powered, clockwork-wielding, vacuum-tube-based, gun-carrying hottie that I want to.  And while I’m still a little unsure about what Aether is exactly, the first official blog goes to Farming.  Well, I have a farming background – Rice Farming.  Now, this:

Almost looks like it would work.  The large maneuvering fans, which look to be made of cloth and windmills, might just keep the airship lined up as it harvested the crop.  Though, I wonder what’s being used to cut and collect the crop (can’t see from this angle).  Usually, I would expect a cutting header pulled by beasts or tractors.  Anyways, it makes for a nice piece of art suitable for the kitchen, and it’s available in print.  Available for purchase here.

Glowbug is the term given to describe Amateur Radio operators (HAM) and sometimes their equipment because of their fondness for vacuum tube electronics.  This cute little toy oscilloscope is completely operational and uses vacuum tubes to drive its 7cm CRT. The casing is wood, and the brass fittings add a nice touch. This is actually a Mark II variant of an earlier design.

The schematic shows a pretty simple, yet brilliant pentode-based circuit, and the engineer is happy to explain the circuit in stunning detail.  I could build one in my sleep after many hours of lost sleep:

It uses three different small-signal rf pentodes – an EF91 in the timebase circuit, an EF184 in the Y amplifier, and an EF80 in the X amplifier.  The choice of tubes is somewhat arbitrary. The EF91 would be very suitable in all three functions since, among small-signal pentodes, it is unusual in having suitable characteristics for providing a relatively large anode voltage swing with little distortion.  But I do not find the EF91 visually attractive, so I opted for the other tubes in the main functions, relegating the ’91 to the back of the chassis, where its smaller size fits in nicely.  The EF184 has high transconductance, so is used in the Y amplifier where large voltage gain is required, while the EF80 is used with cathode-degeneration feedback in the X amplifier which requires much less gain, but a larger voltage output with good linearity.

Details: http://g4oep.atspace.com/toycro/toycro.htm#Mark II version with Added Brass [broken link]

It’s not SteamPunk, but it should be.  What this guy did is very extremely cool, right down to the vintage “wait a minute to load” program.

Sinclair ZX Spectrum – Guitars (rhythm & lead)
Epson LX-81 Dot Matrix Printer – Drums
HP Scanjet 3c – Bass Guitar
Hard Drive array – Act as a collection of bad speakers – Vocals & FX

Details: James Houston’s Senior Project