This is Drew Barrymore’s debut as a director- and she did not disappoint.  The movie is fun to watch and enjoyable on multiple levels.

I have always wondered what the actual rules of roller derby are-  apparently there is a position called a “pivot” that is supposed to have a striped helmet cover (the movie only had the jammers wearing the star covers).  Basically you have a giant moving pack with two jammers (one from each team) behind it.  The jammers must attempt to pass the pack in order to score points.  (The aforementioned pivots are simply the last line of defense for the pack.)

All too often movies these days annoy me with awful camera work designed to do one of two things:

1. Make up for weak action shots

or

2. Induce feelings/moods that the director was to inept to create in any other way

I’m happy to say that Drew didn’t fall prey to this- the actual derby scenes were entertaining, and craptastic camerawork was not used as a cheap ploy to make the matches seem more action-packed.

Will see this movie a second time.  Highly recommended.

http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2009/08/mysteryboxchallenge/

Wow.  I should have tradmarked the name.  Wired themselves even did a story on me prior to that one…funny:

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2008/08/the-defcon-16-m/

Just about everyone calls the contest “Mystery Box Challenge” and has for over five years.   I love people who can’t come up with original titles

There is extreme geek-coolness factor going on here.  A projector that fits in the palm of your hand AND can be run on batteries-  but does it live up to the hype?  Kind of.

This projector has been on the streets for a few weeks now, showing up in brick-and-mortars like Office Dept and BestBuy.  You can find a complete list of vendors on 3M’s site.

The current street price is $359.99.

Inside the box you’ll find a rechargable battery, power cable, VGA cable, RCA Video cable, female-to-female RCA, and manual.  According to the manual the female-to-female adapter is for devices that may have a male connector end, such as some cell phone video connections.

The projector itself is small.  I mean small.

The form factor in many ways makes up for the area the projector lacks the most in: lumens.  Since the light source is an LED, the picture simply isn’t that bright.

In an average room it was ‘ok’, in a bright room you practically can’t see the picture at all.  Such is the case with most projectors, the darker the room, the better the picture will look.  The picture looks really good in a dark car at night.

The manual lists supported VGA resolutions:

At 1024 x 768 text was clear and easy to read on a wall opposite my lamp.

In my battery drain tests the rechargable Lithium-Ion battery lasted 52 min. projecting the movie Hackers.  The unit can run off of  wall power, and it takes just shy of 2 hours to charge the battery.  You won’t be getting a full movie out of a single battery charge.  The wall-wart is rated for 5v, 2A.

Final thoughts:

If you know what you are getting into, the MPro 110 is a cool little projector.  The form-factor is amazing.  I’m sure we’ll see increased brightness in these little guys, and there are laser based versions on the way as well (coming soon to a cell phone near you).

If you have any questions or requests for tests prior to purchasing please ask!

]]> http://lostboy.net/archives/141/feed 0 http://lostboy.net/archives/138 http://lostboy.net/archives/138#comments Wed, 17 Jun 2009 10:55:39 +0000 admin http://lostboy.net/?p=138 I’ve been trying to update the references and write-ups on the Mystery Challenge. So far I’ve hit the AP, Forbes, Wired, Cnet, and numerous blogs. I am sure I am missing some-

https://ten-five-seven.org/on-the-web

If you know of any references to the Mystery Challenge, please let me know-

Headed by Jerry Jewel, SullTronix first entered the animatronic/professional haunt industry with their talking skull line.  Recently they have been awarded the IAHA 2009 best new product award for their new full skeletons.  Jerry’s group, ScareU, routinely produces some of the best haunted house attractions in the country.   Notice the electronics are hidden inside the bones, really professional work.  Pricing and purchasing information available on their website.

Thrown together while watching Star Trek II: Khan! Khan!

What did you do with your afternoon?

http://www.dhs.gov/ynews/releases/pr_1244227862914.shtm

Congratulations Jeff.

]]> http://lostboy.net/archives/89/feed 1 http://lostboy.net/archives/83 http://lostboy.net/archives/83#comments Wed, 03 Jun 2009 06:49:30 +0000 admin http://lostboy.net/?p=83

Nao from Aldebaran

The Aldebaran group has started hitting magazines such as Servo and Nuts and Volts with ads for NAO, their new humanoid robot.  Full production hasn’t begun yet, but you can order directly from their site.

As soon as I get my hands on one I’ll post a hacker’s perspective review.

Stay tuned…

If you don’t know who the Schmartboard guys are they make the surface mount ‘easy solder’ boards.  Basically you purchase boards that have a mask that is raised, so your surface mount parts fit down into ‘grooves’ in the boards.  Solderpaste is already there, and you simply tack the SMT part down.  

They also have recently launched the solder by numbers website, a social networking site for electronics geeks.  

I joined the site, and I’ll give a full review later.  So go register to win your free stuff.