sprites

Send your own satellite into space

Zac Manchester is taking this whole private space exploration idea into his own hands. A Cornell graduate student in aerospace engineering, Manchester hopes to raise enough money to launch 100 chip-size satellites into space.

He and some collaborators have created a DIY satellite called Sprite, which Manchester calls the "world's smallest spacecraft." The devices measure the size of a couple of postage stamps, and pack solar cells, a radio transceiver, and a microcontroller onto a single silicon microchip.

Manchester's goal? He's trying to raise $30,000 on Kickstarter so he can send as many Sprites into orbit as possible to demonstrate that they can be safely launched and operated. … Read more

Defend against the swarm

GeoDefense Swarm is the follow-up to GeoDefense, and is an extremely challenging open-path tower-defense game. Like its predecessor, GeoDefense Swarm stands out for a unique play style that mixes frantic arcade action with bang-your-head-against-a-wall puzzle-solving. Aside from the new open-path format, GeoDefense Swarm has much in common with the original GeoDefense, from its psychedelic vector graphics to its drag-and-drop interface and the same selection of upgradeable towers (GeoDefense Swarm adds a sixth tower, the Thumper, which deals damage in a wide area). You're still destroying a set number of waves of geometric "creeps," all with differing health … Read more

Scientific Conservation scores $15.7 million in funding

Scientific Conservation, a company that specializes in energy consumption forecasting, has received $15.65 million in Series B funding, the start-up announced Tuesday.

The company is just one example of the way traditional IT is now intersecting with green tech.

Scientific Conservation offers software as a service (SaaS) that allows the company to monitor a building's energy consumption in real-time, apply that data to energy management diagnostics and analytics, and then use that created knowledge to predict the building's energy consumption in the future.

The result is a customized energy plan for a building that is always being … Read more

TOEFL study helper

Desktop Sprite for TOEFL iBT Words aims to help users who are studying for the TOEFL English language test. This simple program gives users a lot of information, but requires a great deal of their attention to learn.

The program's interface is incredibly simple since it requires practically no user interaction. Laid out like a stock ticker, users will find three command buttons that are intuitive to operate. Not surprisingly, this program does not provide a Help file for users, but fortunately, none is required since it is so simple. The program consists primarily of words scrolling through the … Read more

DIY eco eyeglasses made out of a Sprite bottle

You've heard of Coke bottle glasses. But you probably haven't heard of Sprite bottle glasses.

That's the concept that Suning Chen from China came up for the "RE-think + RE-cycle" design competition organized by Designboom way back in 2005. I just happened to come across this little DIY project while doing a Google search on PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles. (A public relations representative sent me a release on an upcoming Ecogear backpack made out of recycled PET bottles and I wasn't sure what PET stood for).

Naturally, you could make these glasses out of any … Read more