I ran across this recently, but I can’t tell if it’s real. It looks like a really good 3D rendering. Plus, the surface mount components on the PCB kind of ruin the valve tech feel.  Now, take this case and make it a “ship in a bottle”, that would be awesome.  Anyways, it’s interesting but not as cool as the Nixie Clock with GPS Accuracy that I recently posted.

BTW, I encourage you to subscribe to the RSS feed so that you can know when there are new posts.  If you don’t know how to use RSS feeds, figure it out; it’s the only way to keep up with your favorite blogs.  Sorry I’ve been out for a while. I had to move from California back to Arizona. California can fall off into the ocean, and I hope it does and takes Florida with it.

There’s a lot of buzz on the popular, tech blogs about the new T-2 amplifier from Neuhaus Labs.  It’s built on vacuum tubes and hand-wound transformers.  I’ve got about 14 years [at the time of writing this post] in the Pro Audio and Video manufacturing industries, so naturally, I was very curious to look at the T-2.  Short answer:  It’s a WIN!  Here’s my opinion.

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America’s entire science-fiction history is full of stories warning of a dystopian future where books are outlawed, art is destroyed, and the punishment for reading poetry is death.  Who thought that having “electronics books” was a good idea?  Not me, and here’s the proof:

Talk about irony. In an Orwellian moment, owners of Amazon’s Kindle discovered that their recently purchased copies of George Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm had been deleted by Amazon. Apparently, a third-party retailer who specializes in selling public-domain books used Amazon’s self-service platform to sell copies of two Orwell titles. Unfortunately, those books aren’t public domain in the U.S.A.

So, with a kindle, “they” can reach out and remove books from your possession.  Sounds a little like depriving you of your property without due process.  Here it comes.  It’s starting to happen for real.  This is the warning sign.  We’re already suckers for DRM crap and DCMA garbage; we can’t copy, move, lend, or basically use anything we pay for and own.

But there’s a flip side.  It turns out that, as usual, we are our own worst enemies.  Society has bred a kind of soccer mom criminal.  It’s become socially acceptable to simply go to a Torrent website and illegally download copyrighted material whenever it suits us.  Music, movies, books, games, and software.  Shoot, if young women could illegally download pregnancy, I’m sure they would.

So, the bad news is that we will end up creating the Firemen or Grammaton Clerics ourselves.  It won’t be government, but private corporations.  Think about it, who wants to get rid of your rights the most?  Is it your job, or the government?  The Government that we always seem to fear is by the people and for the people; the Government is ourselves (at least for now).  But what is the government becoming?  It’s becoming privatized.  We already know that huge corporations buy our politicians.  Since Corporations are running America, maybe we should be concerned about them being “big brother.”  Perhaps they already are:

At Work, here’s what happens:

1. Someone accuses you of doing something wrong to your boss.
2. Your boss didn’t like you anyway, and the accuser is kind of cute.
3. The boss concludes whether or not you are guilty.
4. You are not informed about the specifics of the charge.
5. You are not allowed to know who accused you.
6. You are not allowed to cross examine witnesses.
7. You are not allowed to examine evidence.
8. You have no representation.
9. You are terminated by a pink slip; it’s the first you’ve heard of it.
10. You realize you should have joined a union.

Man, at least with the government, you get some kind of fair shot.

Anyways, these dystopian book-burning warnings come in all shapes and sizes.  Pay attention to them!  Some of my favorites are Equilibrium, Idiocracy, 1984, Fahrenheit 451, Gattaca, V for Vendetta, I Robot, The Matrix, Metropolis, and Animal Farm.

Source: SHIFT

Greetings Professor…

This is cool no matter who you are.  Nice chess set with vacuum tubes that apparently light up when they are placed into the sockets on the board.  Very nice.  However, after a close look at the photos, it appears that LEDs are doing the actual illumination.  Well, I guess 20kV of filament voltage would burn the fingers.

This wonderful vacuum tube chess set, by maker Paul Fryer, actually has electricity running inside the board so that the tubes can draw power and glow as you move them from square to square. It is called, somewhat appropriately, Chess Set for Tesla, and Paul actually made seven sets last year.

From: WIRED

This is just plain cool no matter who you are.  I love Nixie tubes.

There’s no shortage of retro clocks using those gorgeous nixie tubes, but this one’s different. It mixes the 60s-era Eastern European IN-14 time-telling tubes with a serial GPS receiver that keeps its accuracy rock-solid. In addition to that modern wizardry, it also incorporates clever tube-saving features, such as programmable on-and-off times, along with a routine that displays a scrolling date across the tubes to prevent burn-in.

From dvice.com

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?

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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