make

MySpace Hypertargeting vs Facebook Beacon: Which one is creepier?

I hardly ever click on banner ads, but today I was beaten into submission by the NY Times to find out more about MySpace Hypertargeting. I still can't figure out why the banner kept showing up for me...my only guess is because I read the technology section.

Hypertargeting appears to correlate data from profiles (in real-time) so that advertisers can most effectively target ads. On the surface this is not that different from Google Search advertising. But Google is far less intrusive (for now) than MySpace or Facebook which usurp data you never signed up to disclose.

From … Read more

Fabricators descend on Maker Faire Austin

AUSTIN, Texas--If you've never seen a machine that makes 3D models out of sugar, you should.

But unless you're part of a relatively small group of people who went to the Maker Faire in California in May, or are one of a few other people who know the machine's creator, you probably have never even heard of the device.

Similarly, you may not be aware--or at least the general public probably isn't--that there is a whole movement going on right now to build advanced, digital, relatively inexpensive personal fabrication and robotics tools that can do or … Read more

Jamming TVs in Austin

AUSTIN, TEXAS--I'm sitting in the lobby of the Radisson hotel downtown with a bunch of the folks putting on Maker Faire.

One of them is Make magazine editor Phil Torrone, who, among other crazy ventures, was the co-genius behind Roomba Frogger, when he and fellow hacker Limor Fried modified a Roomba vacuum cleaner and wirelessly directed it to run back and forth across an Austin street like the iconic classic video game during South by Southwest 2006.

This morning, however, Torrone is tired, as it's only 8 a.m. But he's got a goal, and it's … Read more

Yuwie: Social networking gone very wrong

I came across a very disturbing social networking site last week called Yuwie. It's another site that's decided that for some reason, using a free, and highly functional social service populated by your friends (like Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, etc.) is worth ditching for something built with very little ease of use or original design, but created to help you make ludicrous amounts of money by selling out your friends.

It works like this: you get a share of money for every page view on the service (the site makes its money by selling ads). Also, the more people visit your page, the more page views you get a percentage of. Yuwie then takes it a step further with referrals, letting you get a percentage of money from the activity of any friends you've invited to the service, along with their friends, and people who their friends have invited. This goes on for 10 "levels," so you could theoretically have close to 100,000 referrals if your friends and their invitees continue to invite others who use the service beyond the one-month probation period.

Does this idea sound familiar? It's a pyramid scheme. The problem with this, economically, is that it's unsustainable. The people at the top can't possibly pay out the promised amount, and the people stuck at the bottom aren't getting the same benefits as those who have spammed referrals to their friends higher up in the chain. Speaking of spam, even if you're on there with your friends, you're bound to get an intolerable amount of spam from people you don't know as the service grows. The second most popular group on the service at the moment has been specifically designed as a place to add random groups of other folks to beef up your bonus money. Is this the kind of network you want to be a part of? At least the site isn't asking for a sign-up fee--if it did, it'd be illegal. And it ought to be.

The worst part is that Yuwie is pretty much a carbon copy of MySpace, circa two years ago, with nearly identical profile features--meaning you're not really getting anything more than you would with a mainstream social network.… Read more

Weird science: Lisa the foreplay robot

The following was originally posted on the new MP3 Insider blog.

Could the next frontier of gadget interface design be modeled after female sexual arousal? Multimedia artists Matt Ganucheau, Kyle Machulis, and Kelly Moore have designed a female mannequin that uses strategically placed sensors to control audio playback. The mannequin, affectionately named Moaning Lisa, was unveiled at the recent Arse Elektronika conference, as part of a showcase of emerging erotic-based technology. While Lisa is currently programmed to only play a catalog of more than 200 female moans, her open-source architecture is capable of handling anything from an MP3 music library … Read more

Weird science: Lisa the foreplay robot

Could the next frontier of gadget interface design be modeled after female sexual arousal? Multimedia artists Matt Ganucheau, Kyle Machulis, and Kelly Moore have designed a female mannequin that uses strategically placed sensors to control audio playback. The mannequin, affectionately named Moaning Lisa, was unveiled at the recent Arse Elektronika conference, as part of a showcase of emerging erotic-based technology. While Lisa is currently programmed to only play a catalog of more than 200 female moans, her open-source architecture is capable of handling anything from an MP3 music library to advanced audio synthesis.

It may sound like Weird Science, but … Read more

'Making Things Talk'--DIY projects that communicate

Who doesn't love cool, do-it-yourself toys, the kind of projects that Make magazine has been celebrating for the last couple of years?

Well, now think of such things and imagine them talking to you, to each other or even to your cat.

That's the premise of Making Things Talk, a new book by Tom Igoe due out Oct. 15 from O'Reilly, publisher of Make.

The idea is just that, according to a press release I got this morning from O'Reilly: How to bestow "the power of communications upon your favorite tech creations through simple projects … Read more

Ringtone roundup: Make your own in four phone clicks

It's a pretty boring Billboard ringtone chart this week, with the same crowd of top-10 contenders simply shuffling around.

"Adios Amor Te Vas" by Grupo Montez de Durango is back in first place, while Henry Mancini's funky "Pink Panther" ringtone is in second and the Koji Kondo "Super Mario Brothers Theme" is in third.

So, let's review one of the quickest methods for making your own.

While there are many programs available for making your own ringtones, some cell phones offer you a simple three- or four-click solution.

This is old … Read more

Photos: The Little Professor MP3 player

I've been threatening to make my own MP3 player for a few months now, but after meeting with a group called Teuthis at this year's Maker Faire, I finally caved in and bought the Daisy DIY MP3 player kit. I mean, how am I supposed to objectively rate MP3 players for CNET if I haven't made one myself?

So here's a 16-slide photo gallery of the whole construction--starting with the bare board and ending with the final product. There's also a little time-lapse video footage of the construction in this week's Crave vodcast.

The … Read more