Nerdly News Curated from Interesting Sites
NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts program is all about making high-risk, high-reward bets on unique and sometimes eyebrow-raising ideas for space exploration and observation. This year’s grants total $7M and include one of the most realistic projects yet. It might even get made! NIAC awards are split into three tiers: Phase I, II, and […]
As we’ve been covering this event, we’re hearing various groups talk about how they’re organized and how they’re planning out their actions to deliver much needed DIY supplies to front-line workers. Something that feels a little unusual in 2020 is that we haven’t seen much in terms of video breaking […]
The post Take A Look Into An Organized Community Response To Covid-19 With Smarter Every Day appeared first on Make: DIY Projects and Ideas for Makers.
Sony has revealed the DualSense, PlayStation 5’s new controller that will “bring a sense of touch to PS5 gameplay.” IGN reports: Announced on PlayStation.Blog, the DualSense will keep “much of what gamers love about DualShock 4 intact, while also adding new functionality and refining the design.” Touch was a big inspiration when designing the DualSense, and haptic feedback is one of the ways this new controller will help bring PS5 games to life. Sony mentions that this feedback will add ” a variety of powerful sensations you’ll feel when you play, such as the slow grittiness of driving a car through mud.” Adaptive triggers have also been incorporated to the L2 and R2 buttons, which will help players “feel the tension of your actions, like when drawing a bow to shoot an arrow.”
The angle of the hand triggers were changed and some subtle updates were made to the grip. One thing that will be missing from the DualSense is the “Share” button that was featured on the DualShock 4. Sharing from the controller is not gone, but that previous button was replaced by the new “Create” button. Sony promises more details will be revealed on this change as we get closer to PlayStation 5’s launch. DualSense will also have a built-in microphone array that will allow players to easily chat with friends, even for those who don’t own a headset.
As for the controller’s color, it is a bit of a non-traditional design as far as PlayStation is concerned. Usually, PlayStation controllers have a single color, but the DualSense has a two-toned design to make it stand apart. Additionally, the position of the light bar, which will be returning, was moved to “give it an extra pop.” Now, the light bar sits on either side of the touch pad, as opposed to the top of the controller. Here’s a picture of the front of the controller:
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
How much easier would life be if you could just grab hold of whatever mechanism you wanted to manipulate, move it like you want, and then have it imitate your movements exactly? What if you could give a servo MIDI-like commands that tell it to move to a certain location …read more
Sony still hasnt shown off what the PlayStation 5 will look like, but it just unveiled the controller for its next-gen console: the DualSense, which marks the biggest departure for Sonys controller design in its over 25-year history of PlayStation consoles.
The new controller has some big changes on the inside, too: the previously announced haptic feedback (replacing the old rumble technology in previous controllers) and the new adaptive triggers that can adjust the resistance of the triggers for different gameplay effects. Theres also an integrated microphone, a first for Sonys controllers, along with a (long-overdue) USB-C port. And of course, theres the new two-tone color scheme (similar in style to the PSVR) and an overhauled…
Want to let your kids poke around Netflix without them wandering their way beyond the kids section? Got a roommate who keeps inexplicably forgetting to use their profile and is totally screwing up your “Continue Watching” list? Good news! Netflix is now letting users set a PIN to keep individual profiles locked down. The new […]
Sony has revealed the design of the PlayStation 5‘s controller a follow-on to its popular DualShock line that takes on a new name for a new generation: DualSense. The DualSense controller is kitted out in black and white, and looks like a futuristic, plastic armor-plated robot companion more than a gamepad in some ways. […]
Have you ever had more time to hone in on fine details than right now? Sure, at first glance, this might not seem like the time to get tripped up on the nitty-gritty of minutia. But how often are you ever going to have this much time to really stop and think about hows and whys and make a truly informed, truly considered decision about anything?
Like which Adobe photo editing app do you need, Photoshop or Lightroom?
The debate has raged for years but since theyre both hugely popular with their own idiosyncratic skill sets, nows the time to be a real imaging expert in both with the training in The Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop for Beginner Designers Bundle.
The collection spans nine courses over 27 hours of instruction, all coming from one trusted authority you can count on to explain these elite apps. In fact, Marcin Mikus has legions of former students endorsing his curriculum, notching a 4.3-out-of-5 star rating for over 250,000 reviewers.
While both Adobe programs get plenty of attention here, the lions share of your training will naturally fall on learning Photoshop, the undisputed king of image editing software. Mikus beginner-friendly coursework will get you familiar with all the apps basic controls, then get you started working on a batch of projects to hone your skills, including retouching landscapes and adjusting portraits.
Once youre up and running with Photoshop, various courses focus in on more specific, yet highly useful training practice, helping students work with layers, curves and masks as well as LUT color fixes. Read the rest
Image: Apple
If you have an iPhone or MacBook, then you have probably used FaceTime, Apples built-in video and voice-calling app. While FaceTime has always been useful for keeping in touch, its become even more important for staying connected with friends and family while observing social distancing measures.
You can have up to 32 people on a FaceTime call, so its a good video-chatting option if you dont want to download another app to have a group video call as long as you and your friends all have Apple devices. You cant install it on a Windows or Android device, and its not available for all countries and carriers. However, you can use it between different devices if one friend is on their MacBook and the rest of your friends are using…
I came across Astonish Yourself: 101 Experiments in the Philosophy of Everyday Life when I took my kids to the California Science Center in Los Angeles in 2009 and found it in the gift store. It was written by philosopher Roger-Pol Droit, a researcher at the Centre de Recherche Scientifique and, as the title indicates, contains 101 mental and perceptual exercises you can perform on yourself.
In his introduction, Droit says the purpose of the experiments is to “provoke tiny moments of awareness,” and to “shake a certainty we had taken for granted: our own identity, say, or the stability of the outside world, or even the meanings of words.” Most of the experiments require about 20 minutes or less to complete, and often involve nothing more than merely thinking about something.
Some of the experiments you’ll probably want to try when you are alone at home (like calling your name repeatedly for 20 minutes, or repeating some other word to drain it of its meaning), but others can be performed anywhere (like imagining that the world was “created from nothing, just an instant ago” and will vanish “like a light going out” in 20 minutes).
Some of the experiments you can’t really plan in advance; they’ll happen by accident, like when you wake up without knowing where you are — a magical experience I love having, but Droit explains how to make the best use of this five-second-long “delicious lightness of a mystery without menace” the next time it happens: “What you do not know, for a tiny interval of time, is what the place is called, where it is, and you you are doing there. Read the rest
Spoken Word with Electronics is an audio series delivering to you a two side recording of unusual stories paired with vintage modular electronic sounds
THIS WEEK:
Episode #4: “To Forget to Remember”
Welcome back to Spoken Word with Electronics. I hope this week has gone well for you, all things considered. Here’s some audio theater:
This week we lead off with an uncommon recording of E.E.Cummings. One of my favorite poems of his is anyone lived in a pretty how town. It was first published in 1940 and has some interesting resonance today. He has a beautiful speaking voice, which surprised me, a blend of Oscar Wilde with Truman Capote, just with no capital letters. (E.E.’s name was often capitalized, unlike his poems)
Here’s the track:
Side A: E.E. Cummings Reads ‘anyone lived in a pretty how town’ with a Yamaha Loop and a Metasonix R55 VCO
Music for this track is a blend of a few things, but primarily a loop from a Yamaha Reface CP (GREAT FUN) along with other yamaha-based loops recorded over the last few years, and a Metasonix Voltage Controlled Oscillator, specifically the R55. The R55 (and its current version, the RK7) is based on a very unpredictable thyratron tube and is a wonderfully unpredictable source of noise and completely unique. It’s not unlike a tesla coil with sound. You can hear it floating through this isolated track at a gentle dissipating scrape about halfway through. Plugging an LFO into its VCA can produce a wonderful snoring sound; this is audible in the ending third of the track. Read the rest
[Fran Blanche] tears down this fascinating display in a video teardown, embedded below.
These displays can support up to 64 characters of the buyer’s choosing which is controlled by 6 bits, surprisingly only requiring 128 mW per bit to control; pretty power-light for its day and age. Aside from alphanumeric …read more
Image: Serato
Popular DJ and music production software company Serato has released an update to its Serato Studio DAW, and it comes with a big change: theres now a free edition. This free edition is feature-limited, but it does let you make, save, and export tracks.
Serato Studio is a digital audio workstation like Ableton or Logic, but it has features that are geared toward DJs and beat-makers. It integrates with Seratos DJ software so you can quickly make edits or mashups of tracks you already have. It also includes DJ-style channel mixing strips and works with Serato DJ-compatible controllers, so DJs can use them to make music with Serato Studio.
The free edition of Serato Studio has most of the functionality of the full edition, but with…
Image: Motion Twin
The excellent indie roguelike hit Dead Cells is coming to Android on June 3rd, according porting company Playdigious. Original developer Motion Twin first announced an Android version of Dead Cells was being developed back in May 2019, when the French studio gave its iOS version a summer release date. (The iOS version of Dead Cells released in August of last year.)
Now, Android fans just have to wait a little longer to play the ultra-difficult game on mobile. Theres no word yet on price. The iOS version launched at $8.99 and now costs $5.99 starting today. But it looks as if the Android version will indeed cost money, rather than being released for free with ads or some form of in-app purchase to unlock the full game. Playdigious says…
We spoke to CEOs and founders about how their companies have evolved from first entering the space and feeling like an island to now — a community of women changing the world for women.
Help us paint a more accurate picture
The post Tell Us What You’re Making For Front-Line Covid-19 Workers appeared first on Make: DIY Projects and Ideas for Makers.
In 1994, exercise equipment maker Life Fitness partnered with Nintendo on the Life Fitness Exertainment System with games designed for the Exertainment bike. Above is a promotional video for this short-lived product.
The footage shows how the system works and also alludes to Tetris and Pac-Man being made for the system as footage was even shown, but the only games to come out for the system were Mountain Bike Rally and Mountain Bike Rally/Speed Racer combo for the Lifecyle 9XS gym version.
And here’s a description of the the Exertainment System Mountain Bike Rally/Speed Racer cartridge that now sells for more than $1300 on the collector market:
Welcome To The Exertainment System Game Pak! In this one Game Pak you can select from three exciting game titles: Program Manager Your Very Own On-Screen Trainer! Life Fitness Program Manager is your electronic personal trainer. It sets your personal workout goals and retains personal workout information for up to four members of your family. Program Manager is perfect for motivating you to get in shape and for tracking workouts – all while you’re having fun on the Exertainment system! Mountain Bike Rally Wow! What a ride! Hop on your Lifecycle trainer and race against riders bent on winning at all costs. Watch out for punches and strike back at those cycling foes. But keep one eye on road obstacles. They’re at every turn. Quick, choose the ramp routes and leave your opponent in the dust! Speed Racer Ladies and Gentlemen, Start Your Engines.
While using a bandanna is one excellent way to craft a face mask, this jock strap hack takes only three easy steps and doesn’t require anything extra.
I made a Jockstrap Mask Tutorial, because Im ridiculous. pic.twitter.com/JiYhV3K8uh
— Emerson Collins (@ActuallyEmerson) April 3, 2020
Henry Rollins, the hardest working punk in show business, has launched a new long-form streaming radio show via KCRW in Los Angeles! The four-hour first episode of The Cool Quarantine features tunes from Rollins’s massive vinyl and cassette collection punctuated with personal stories about the artists. And as we all know, Rollins really knows how to spin a yarn. From Rolling Stone:
The debut episode, which runs four hours, features a story about Rollins and his pal, Minor Threat and Fugazi frontman Ian MacKaye, seeing Led Zeppelin in 1977 along with bootleg audio from the concert and a bootleg MacKaye made of the Cramps. Rollins also shares stories about the early days of MacKayes Dischord Records which put out Rollins first seven-inch with S.O.A. and his time in Black Flag.
For many years, Ive had this idea for a long-form show, Rollins said in a statement. I mean really long-form. Like hours. To do it terrestrially would be difficult because I would be crowding other shows out. But if it was online, hey. Its as many songs as I want, language issues are not a factor, and if anyone gets bored, they can just turn it off or mark the time they checked out and resume later.
The idea is that youre in your room and Engineer X and I come over with a bunch of records, he continued. We play you songs, I tell you stories and we do time together. Now that many of us are under some kind of confinement, we might as well get some good listening happening.
The poets like to say that the eyes are the windows to the soul. Fantasy writers say the journey to the magical land lies through the door hidden in the back of the closet. On the Internet, the portal is the API. The programmers just spell out the required parameters in the correct JSON or XML format and the effect is just the same. The right path will take you to amazing places. There are fascinating and very useful treasure troves of data out there and the APIs are the way to get them.
The APIs began as a mechanism that let computers talk to other computers but along the way theyve evolved into a large ecosystem of their own. Developers dont need to write everything themselves because theres often an API thats waiting to deliver the information in a form thats usually pretty close to what you might need. Theyre building blocks, like Lincoln Logs or Lego bricks for creating applications.