Nerdly News Curated from Interesting Sites
Song parodist and comedian Randy Rainbow really knows how to make lemonade from our lemon of a government.
His latest song, titled “Kavanaugh,” is set to the tune of Camelot from the eponymous musical and it slams on the Supreme Court nomination of Judge (cough*serial rapist*cough) Brett Kavanaugh.
Because when they go low, we go Lerner and Loewe.
Sasha Shulgin died in 2014 after a lifetime as a psychedelic pioneer and brilliant chemist, but the books he and his wife Ann Shulgin authored were just as radical as the lab work. Commemorative editions of PiHKAL and TiHKAL are about to be released and you can get them signed by Ann and a dozen other luminaries of the psychedelic world next month in Berkeley.
Sasha Shulgin, inventor (in his lab in Lafayette) of literally 90+% of the known psychedelic compounds we enjoy today, and his wife Ann, wrote books Phenethylamines I have Known And Loved (PIHKAL) and Tryptamines I have Known And Loved (TIHKAL). The new commemorative edition of them has hundreds of candid photos (from Sasha as a boy to Ann & Sasha’s courtship to photos of testing compounds, orange seventies couch and all) and a couple dozen essays from friends and colleagues. We’re having a release party on 8 October at Moe’s Books, and I hope to rock Ann’s world with all the love from all the merry freaks whose lives they’ve improved over the years. It’ll be an unusual opportunity to get the autograph of many of those luminaries all in one place, and Jon Hanna and David Presti will be speaking, as well as Ann, and we’ll have a roundtable discussion with the contributors. Probably right up your alley and hopefully that of your readers as well.
Starts 7 p.m. until 10 p.m., Oct 8., at Moe’s Books on Telegraph Ave.
Press release: Psychedelic Chemistry Cookbooks Reissued In Stunning Boxed Set Read the rest
If youve even vaguely considered applying to be a TechCrunch Top Pick at Disrupt Berlin 2018, which takes place on 29-30 November, you need to act now. The application window closes on Friday 28 September, so get moving and apply to be a TC Top Pick today. Why would you want to be selected as a […]
Program a robotic toy to move and you could be hooked on coding for life. That’s the idea behind Facebook’s newest educational initiative called CodeFWD. It provides online coding tutorials for teachers and students powered by Code.org, and if classrooms finish those, they can apply to be sent a free Bolt robot from Sphero, makers […]
While working with complex applications with an infinite number of requirements, developers have to face lots of unforeseen challenges. Am I doing this right, because this doesn’t look right? We’ve all been at that stage of app development, haven’t we?
Hybrid applications built using React for the web and React Native for mobile are becoming popular. Can I build complex applications using this stack? Is investing time in React worth it? What do you do if you come across an undocumented bug that doesn’t have a ready fix? Here, we go over these and similar scenarios as we attempt to build a front-end application for a restaurant.
It’s not Apple IIs, and it’s not Raspberry Pis. The most important computing platform for teaching kids programming is the Texas Instruments graphing calculator. These things have been around in one form or another for almost three decades, and for a lot of budding hackers out there, this was the first computer they owned and had complete access to.
As hacking graphing calculators is a favorite for Maker Faires, we were pleased to see Cemetech make it out to this year’s World Maker Faire in New York last weekend. They’re the main driving force behind turning these pocket computers with …read more
TechCrunch is returning to Europe with Disrupt Berlin to talk with the best and brightest people in tech from Europe and the rest of the world. In addition to fireside chats and panels, new startups will participate in the Startup Battlefield Europe to win the coveted Battlefield cup. You should grab your ticket to Disrupt […]
On 29-30 November in less than two short months thousands of tech startup founders, investors, innovators and entrepreneurs will make their way to Germany to attend Disrupt Berlin 2018. Its an amazing showcase of the latest and greatest startups and technologies from across Europe and around the world. Were serious about international participation, […]
With 41 days until the midterm elections, today is the day to put your lawmaker on notice: vote for the Congressional Review Act, overturn the Trump FCC ban on Net Neutrality, and restore Net Neutrality to America. The Vote for Net Neutrality chatbot is here to help: tell it where you live, it’ll tell you who’s running in your district and put you in touch with them. If you — like 87% of Americans — want Net Neutrality, this is your chance.
Photokina 2018 is going to be a busy show for new full-frame cameras, however Ricoh is getting the event off to a smaller, humbler start with its announcement of the development of the Ricoh GRIII APS-C camera. The Ricoh GRII is a classic street photography camera, combining a fast f/2.8 prime lens with an excellent 16-megapixel image sensor, but its a few years old by this point. Ricoh promises to overhaul the entire proposition with a new image sensor, new lens, and new image processing chip.
Slated for a release in early 2019, the Ricoh GRIII will be on show here at Photokina, which will provide an early preview of Ricohs progress between generations. As far as specs go, Ricoh has revealed that the new camera will stick to the same…
Rubik’s Cube has been around for what seems like forever now, and has spawned an entire subculture devoted to solving the puzzle with automation. Most Rubik robots put the cube in a specially designed cradle bristling with actuators and sensors, and while those rigs are impressive, they don’t come close to this robotic Rubik solver built into the cube itself.
Fair warning that [Human Controller] doesn’t provide much detail on this build other than pictures; even translating the Japanese web page doesn’t offer much more information. But there are pictures, plus the video below, which reveal the engineering masterpiece encased …read more
Your knowledge of JavaScript can be pretty well judged by your understanding of this. The fact that people find it difficult to comprehend is because of its use in multiple and varied scenarios.
Let’s get them right once and for all.
See something out in the world that you want to buy? Now you can just Snap it up.
Santa Monicas Snap Inc. announced a partnership with Amazon on Monday that will enable users to point their smartphone cameras at a pair of shoes, the barcode on the bottom of a shampoo bottle, or any other object…
Game of Thrones fans will have a chance to walk through Winterfell.
HBO has announced plans to convert several of their filming sets located in Northern Ireland into tourist attractions, as the show ends its historic run in 2019.
The planned Game of Thrones Legacy attractions in Northern Ireland will be on a scale and scope bigger than anything the public has ever seen, HBO said, promising fans the first opportunity to set foot inside some of the series most iconic locations.
Each site will feature the sets from the show as well as exhibits of GOT costumes, props, weapons, set decorations, art files, models, and other production materials. In addition, the premium cabler plans to install digital content and interactive materials to showcase VFX used in Game of Thrones.
No word as to the availability of dire wolves in the gift shop.
Game of Thrones Filming Locations in Northern Ireland to Open as Tourist Attractions [Todd Spangler/Variety][Photo: Flickr/CC BY 2.0] Read the rest
Everyone remembers popping their first wheelie on a bike. It’s an exhilarating moment when you figure out just the right mechanics to get balanced over the rear axle for a few glorious seconds of being the coolest kid on the block. Then gravity takes over, and you either learn how to dismount the bike over the rear wheel, or more likely end up looking at the sky wondering how you got on the ground.
Had only this wheelie cheating device been available way back when, many of us could have avoided that ignominious fate. [Tom Stanton]’s quest for the perfect …read more
Its been five years since T-Mobile picked up MetroPCS, and now the prepaid service is finally getting a fresh coat of paint. The PCS bit is getting the old heave-ho, while the brands owners are letting you know whos boss with the new Metro by T-Mobile brand name. The new name involves some new plans, […]
You heard it here first! Early-bird ticket sales are extended till September 28 for TechCrunch Sessions: AR/VR on October 18 at UCLA. Don’t miss out on the biggest savings for this event — book your $99 tickets here. Students, get your tickets for just $45 when you book here. What’s going to happen at TC […]
Googles upcoming Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL smartphones may be among the most leaked devices in modern consumer electronics history. With just two weeks to go until the official October 9th press event, where both devices will be unveiled presumably alongside some other Google-made hardware products, were getting yet another visual leak of the handsets, courtesy of WinFuture.
This comes after a torrent of leaks revealing what the devices look like and what the specs are, in addition to a look at a test device out in the wild when it was left in the backseat of a cab. This new leak, which includes a bunch of renders of the front and back of the devices, doesnt tell us anything we dont already know or have been almost certain of for quite…
A mill is one of those things that many hackers want, but unfortunately few get their hands on. Even a low-end mill that can barely rattle its way through a straight cut in a piece of aluminum is likely to cost more than all the other gear on your bench. A good one? Don’t even ask. So if something halfway decent is out of your price range, you might as well throw caution to the wind and build one.
That’s more or less the goal behind this extremely basic three axis mill built by [Michael Langeder]. Designed around a cheap …read more