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Way back in the 17th Century German scientist Otto von Guericke demonstrated the power of vacuum forming by joining two steel half domes that two teams of horses pulling in opposite directions could not pull apart. In this video, MAKE Contributing Editor William Gurstelle recreates the experiment with two cake pans. And you can, too, in this easy to follow experiment.
As expected, I spent much of the holidays explaining our OpenROV project to my relatives. Much of that discussion involved detailing the maker movement, Maker Faire, Kickstarter, open source hardware, 3D printing. Almost all of the maker infrastructure we’ve utilized is completely new to them, not to mention the foreigness of underwater robotics.
Basically, I told them, we’re living in a golden age for inventors and inventing. That’s all they really needed to know.
My mom decided to challenge my thesis. She shared one of her ideas with me – a vibrating steel wool scrubber (think Sonicare toothbrush meets S.O.S pad) – and asked me what she, someone with no maker experience, could do about her idea. What path should she take?
So yesterday we dove in. We spent the day making, disassembling, and prototyping her idea – trying to find the shortest route from crazy idea to “Hey, this might just work.” This was a great opportunity for me, too. Distilling all the Zero to Maker lessons I learned into one morning with the least likely maker of them all: mom.
By the end of the morning, we took apart a Sonicare toothbrush as well as an electric nail polish remover and rebuil them with new steel wool heads. We tried to clean off dirty pots and pans, then went back to refining our device. By the end of the morning, we had a hacked electric toothbrush that worked surprisingly well.
But we didn’t stop there. As I explained to my mom, building and creating is only half of the process. The other half, sharing, is equally important. So we took a few photos of our creation, wrote a description of what we had done, and put her idea on Quirky. Within hours, we had already racked up a few votes, received comments, and revised our idea further.
Regardless of how our project does on Quirky, the entire experience was a success. I had given my mom the maker bug. I showed her how easy it was to take an idea and set the wheels of creation in motion. It flipped the switch for her. After giving her a tour of The Mill near her house in Minnesota (where she plans to take 3D printing classes in the near future), she now has enough information to make (almost) any idea a reality: prototype, share, repeat.
It’s also given the rest of my family an example, including the confidence and know-how, to get the ball rolling on any secret project they’ve been harboring. One of our family friends reported that he had spent the whole day in his garage prototyping his own ideas. He had tried his hand at inventing before and had grown discouraged because of a bad experience with a patent attorney. Now, after seeing The Mill and hearing about Maker Faire, Kickstarter, and 3D printing, he was inspired to get back into it. That’s wonderful!
I also wondered if we could coordinate something like this for reluctant makers all over the country (or world): Take Your Mom (or parent or friend or child) to MAKE Day.
A day of asking one friend or parent or sibling – someone who’s curious but cautious – what they want to make and spend the day at a local makerspace trying to make progress on a prototype. It doesn’t have to be total maker immersion, just a glimpse into the possibility will suffice. Like the Take Your Child to Work days that sought to give kids a perspective on the world of work, this could be a great way to invite the next swath of makers into the fold.
Could 2013 be the year of the TV for the high-tech industry?
With Apple chomping at the bit to revolutionize TV and Google renewing its efforts in the market, now Intel appears to have its ducks in a row to launch its own TV offering.
Intel is ready to start marketing a set-top box built on its chips that will deliver a mix of streaming and cable programming to subscribers in selected markets, according to TechCrunch.
The service will be aimed at viewers who want to stream content to their TVs but don't want to entirely slash the tether to cable, where they night want to still to watch programming such as live sports.
A major barrier to entry into the TV market by the chipmaker—reluctance of content owners to relax their iron grip over their goodies—has been surmounted by Intel, TechCrunch reports, citing a source in the video distribution industry familiar with Intel's plans. The source said the service will be announced "soon."
That raises the likelihood that Intel could be planning a splash event about the service at CES next week.
If that's the case, Intel will share the spotlight with Google TV, which will be getting a buzz bounce when LG introduces seven new HDTV models in five screen sizes that will sport Google's TV technology.
To make Intel's offering more palatable to the content industry, the chip maker has agreed to roll out its service on a city-by-city basis, TechCruch reports. Content providers are reportedly more willing to give Intel more control over how content is distributed in select markets where the providers may have more flexible deals with entrenched distributors.
The plan also allows Intel to work around holdouts in key markets which will prevent them from blocking the chip maker from launching its service.
Cutting deals for content
Intel's desire to become a "virtual cable operator" has been rumored for months. Initial reports pegged the launch date at the end of 2012, but Intel, no doubt, discovered, as Apple has, that the content nut is a tough one to crack.
It has been reported that one of the major hangups to the Apple TV set has been resistance by content providers to give the hardware maker the control it believes it needs to revolutionize the medium.
If Intel has discovered a strategy to vault the content hurdle to high-tech companies expanding their beachhead in the nation's living rooms, everyone in the industry could benefit, including Apple.
Intel has been trying to make headway for its chips in the TV realm for years. In 2009, for instance, it announced "Sodaville," an integrated chip with the power to run 3D graphics and 1080p high definition video.
The chip maker also joined the cadre of companies behind the launch of Google TV in 2010. Over the years, though, Intel has become increasing dissatisfied with Google TV implementations by television makers so, as Microsoft did with its Surface tablet, the chip maker decided to create its own hardware path into the market.
Security researchers from antivirus vendor Trend Micro have uncovered a piece of backdoor-type malware that infects Java-based HTTP servers and allows attackers to execute malicious commands on the underlying systems.
The threat, known as BKDR_JAVAWAR.JG, comes in the form of a JavaServer Page (JSP), a type of Web page that can only be deployed and served from a specialized Web server with a Java servlet container, such as Apache Tomcat. (See also "Security in 2013: The rise of mobile malware and fall of hacktivism.")
Once this page is deployed, the attacker can access it remotely and can use its functions to browse, upload, edit, delete, download or copy files from the infected system using a Web console interface. This is similar to the functionality provided by PHP-based backdoors, commonly known as PHP Web shells.
"Aside from gaining access to sensitive information, an attacker gains control of the infected system thru the backdoor and can carry out more malicious commands onto the vulnerable server," Trend Micro researchers said last week in a blog post.
Invites other malware
This JSP backdoor can be installed by other malware already running on the system that hosts the Java-based HTTP server and Java servlet container or can be downloaded when browsing to malicious websites from such a system.
According to Trend Micro's technical notes, the malware targets systems running Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7.
"Another possible attack scenario is when an attacker checks for websites powered by Apache Tomcat then attempts to access the Tomcat Web Application Manager," the Trend Micro researchers said. "Using a password cracking tool, cybercriminals are able to log in and gain manager/administrative rights allowing the deployment of Web application archive (WAR) files packaged with the backdoor to the server."
In order to protect their servers from such threats, network administrators should use strong passwords that cannot be easily cracked by using brute force tools, should deploy all security updates available for their systems and software and should avoid visiting unknown and untrusted websites, the Trend Micro researchers said.
Samsung is apparently still working on an update for a software flaw that could allow attackers to siphon personal data from a phone.
The vulnerability affects Samsung's S II and S III phones and several models of its Galaxy line, including the Note, Note II, Note Plus and Note 10.1, all of which use the Korean company's Exynos 4210 and 4412 model processors.
Exploit shared
The flaw and an exploit was disclosed in mid-December on XDA Developers, a forum for mobile developers. Samsung's engineers apparently made a poor configuration mistake involving the Android kernel and failed to restrict kernel address space mapped to userspace via the /dev/exynos-mem device driver.
An application incorporating the exploit was created by a developer nicknamed Chainfire on the forum.
Chainfire's application allows users to modify the phone to make the exploit ineffective, but the fix also disables a device's camera in some instances depending on the device's firmware version.
Chainfire warned that other application-based fixes that have been developed are seriously flawed, so users should not depend on those to provide protection until Samsung issues an update.
"The only true solution is a kernel fix that simply removes the exploitable memory device, but that requires a non-universal device update," Chainfire wrote.
Samsung downplayed the seriousness of the issue, saying in a statement that "the issue may arise only when a malicious application is operated on the affected devices; however, this does not affect most devices operating credible and authenticated applications."
Samsung's devices can be updated over the air by operators, or users can do it with a desktop computer using the company's Kies software, according to a spokesperson.
Play Store scans for hacks
Android applications submitted to Google's Play store are checked for malicious behavior, but there are many websites around the Internet offering Android applications, many of which purport to be a legitimate but are actually malicious software and could incorporate this exploit.
Since an exploit has been published, Trend Micro said that it is only a matter of time before hackers begin to use it.
Samsung said it "will continue to closely monitor the situation until the software fix has been made available to all affected mobile devices." It did not specify when the fix would be available.
Send news tips and comments to jeremy_kirk@idg.com. Follow me on Twitter: @jeremy_kirk
It’s been another record breaking year here in the Maker Shed, and we owe it all to everyone who purchased a kit, microcontroller, PDF or anything else from us in 2012. Thousands of orders were shipped from our warehouse in Sebastopol, California to makers all over the globe! Ever wonder what our most popular products are? Below are the top 10 products purchased in 2012:
#10
Deluxe Breadboard Jumper Wires – You can’t have enough jumper wires. I frequently tack on a pack when I place and order, it looks like I’m not the only one.
#9
Ultimate Microcontroller Pack with Arduino Uno – Makers are all about learning by experimentation, which is what the Ultimate Microcontroller Pack is all about. With plenty of components, you can learn the basics and go beyond without having to purchase additional items. It’s also great for advanced users who want a large selection of Arduino compatible parts.
#8
MintyBoost USB Charger Kit – Ah, the Mintyboost. It’s simple to build and extremely handy to have around. This kit charges nearly anything that uses a USB port using power from 2 – AA batteries. It’s open-source, hackable, and almost guaranteed to pull you out of a jam. My power was off for 3 days this summer and a MintyBoost kept my iPhone charged the entire time. It’s one of my favorites and apparently one of yours too!
#7
MakerShield Kit – The MakerSheild is an ever versatile protoshield for Arduino and Netduino microcontrollers. It has a nice, big prototyping area for building circuits and perfectly fits a mini breadboard for prototyping ease. With an on-board potentiometer, input and reset buttons, and 2 LEDs, it’s the a great choice for experimentation with microcontrollers. Don’t forget to check out Make:Projects for examples on how to use it!
#6
Getting Started with Arduino, 2nd Edition – This book by Arduino co-founder Massimo Banzi pairs perfectly with our Getting Started with Arduino Kit. The book assumes you know nothing about Arduino or programming and gradually teaches you the basics with simple, easy to follow projects. It’s a great way get your feet wet with the Arduino without being overwhelmed with complexity.
#5
Netduino Plus (2) – The Netduino Plus (recently upgraded to the Netduino Plus 2) climbed up the charts this year to our number 5 top seller. This powerful microcontroller is programmed using Microsoft #C or Visual Basic (The ‘net’ in Netduino is for .NET). It has the same footprint and pin layout as the Arduino (thus the ‘duino) making it compatible with many of the available Arduino shields on the market. The Netduino Plus features onboard Ethernet and a microSD card slot for increased storage space. The new “2″ version has four times the speed (168Mhz), six times the code space (384KB) and twice the RAM (100+KB) of the previous version.
#4
Arduino Uno – The original Arduino Uno is still the maker’s favorite microcontroller. It’s easy to learn, has a huge community, and there’s a shield for just about anything. From blinking LEDs to controlling UAVs, it’s easy to see why the Arduino is so popular.
#3
Make: School’s Out Summer Fun Guide – This special issue of MAKE was created to help kids fight summer boredom with making. Photos for the 50+ projects were shot in 3D for added fun and interactivity. The guide features everything from zip-lines to soldering and everything in-between!
#2
Getting Started with Arduino Kit V3.0 – Our Getting Started with Arduino Kit helped thousands of makers learn to use the Arduino Microcontroller this year. The kit contains everything you need to follow along with the Getting Started with Arduino listed above. Strong sales at RadioShack and Microcenter helped boost this popular kit to the number 2 position.
#1
Learn to Solder Skill Badge – The Learn to Solder badge has been used to teach thousands of people around the world to solder. It looks cool, is simple to make, inexpensive, and it’s blinky! We ship these to Maker Faires all over the world, as well as to hackerspaces, schools, and even Boy Scout camps. It’s a perfect introduction to making and a great way to learn a life long skill. Quantity wise, it’s easily our best seller of 2012.
Thanks for a great year! We’re looking forward to making 2013 even better.
Hewlett-Packard said in a legal filing last week that the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating its $10.3 billion acquisition of enterprise search company Autonomy, which HP alleges inflated its value through accounting tricks.
HP also said it has provided information to the U.K.'s Serious Fraud Office and the SEC related "to the accounting improprieties, disclosure failures and misrepresentations at Autonomy" prior to the acquisition, according to HP's 10-K filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
HP asked DOJ to investigate
The company said last month it had shared its allegations with those agencies, urging them to open civil and criminal investigations. The DOJ advised HP on November 21 of its investigation, the filing said.
HP disclosed an $8.8 billion write-down in November, around $5 billion of which was attributed to accounting improprieties by Autonomy. The write-down was for impairment of goodwill, a term covering intangible assets such as the value of a brand and good customer relations.
"We continue to reject these allegations in the strongest possible terms," Lynch wrote. "Autonomys financial accounts were properly maintained in accordance with applicable regulations, fully audited by Deloitte, and available to HP during the due diligence process."
Lynch wrote that he and his Autonomy colleagues have not yet been contacted by regulators. "We will cooperate with any investigation and look forward to the opportunity to explain our position," he wrote.
HP looked closer into the Autonomy acquisition, completed in October 2011, after a senior member of its former management team came forward following Lynch's departure.
Send news tips and comments to jeremy_kirk@idg.com. Follow me on Twitter: @jeremy_kirk
It’s been another record breaking year here in the Maker Shed, and we owe it all to everyone who purchased a kit, microcontroller, PDF or anything else from us in 2012. Thousands of orders were shipped from our warehouse in Sebastopol, California to makers all over the globe! Ever wonder what our most popular products are? Below are the top 10 products purchased in 2012:
#10
Deluxe Breadboard Jumper Wires – You can’t have enough jumper wires. I frequently tack on a pack when I place and order, it looks like I’m not the only one.
#9
Ultimate Microcontroller Pack with Arduino Uno – Makers are all about learning by experimentation, which is what the Ultimate Microcontroller Pack is all about. With plenty of components, you can learn the basics and go beyond without having to purchase additional items. It’s also great for advanced users who want a large selection of Arduino compatible parts.
#8
MintyBoost USB Charger Kit – Ah, the Mintyboost. It’s simple to build and extremely handy to have around. This kit charges nearly anything that uses a USB port using power from 2 – AA batteries. It’s open-source, hackable, and almost guaranteed to pull you out of a jam. My power was off for 3 days this summer and a MintyBoost kept my iPhone charged the entire time. It’s one of my favorites and apparently one of yours too!
#7
MakerShield Kit – The MakerSheild is an ever versatile protoshield for Arduino and Netduino microcontrollers. It has a nice, big prototyping area for building circuits and perfectly fits a mini breadboard for prototyping ease. With an on-board potentiometer, input and reset buttons, and 2 LEDs, it’s the a great choice for experimentation with microcontrollers. Don’t forget to check out Make:Projects for examples on how to use it!
#6
Getting Started with Arduino, 2nd Edition – This book by Arduino co-founder Massimo Banzi pairs perfectly with our Getting Started with Arduino Kit. The book assumes you know nothing about Arduino or programming and gradually teaches you the basics with simple, easy to follow projects. It’s a great way get your feet wet with the Arduino without being overwhelmed with complexity.
#5
Netduino Plus (2) – The Netduino Plus (recently upgraded to the Netduino Plus 2) climbed up the charts this year to our number 5 top seller. This powerful microcontroller is programmed using Microsoft #C or Visual Basic (The ‘net’ in Netduino is for .NET). It has the same footprint and pin layout as the Arduino (thus the ‘duino) making it compatible with many of the available Arduino shields on the market. The Netduino Plus features onboard Ethernet and a microSD card slot for increased storage space. The new “2″ version has four times the speed (168Mhz), six times the code space (384KB) and twice the RAM (100+KB) of the previous version.
#4
Arduino Uno – The original Arduino Uno is still the maker’s favorite microcontroller. It’s easy to learn, has a huge community, and there’s a shield for just about anything. From blinking LEDs to controlling UAVs, it’s easy to see why the Arduino is so popular.
#3
Make: School’s Out Summer Fun Guide – This special issue of MAKE was created to help kids fight summer boredom with making. Photos for the 50+ projects were shot in 3D for added fun and interactivity. The guide features everything from zip-lines to soldering and everything in-between!
#2
Getting Started with Arduino Kit V3.0 – Our Getting Started with Arduino Kit helped thousands of makers learn to use the Arduino Microcontroller this year. The kit contains everything you need to follow along with the Getting Started with Arduino listed above. Strong sales at RadioShack and Microcenter helped boost this popular kit to the number 2 position.
#1
Learn to Solder Skill Badge – The Learn to Solder badge has been used to teach thousands of people around the world to solder. It looks cool, is simple to make, inexpensive, and it’s blinky! We ship these to Maker Faires all over the world, as well as to hackerspaces, schools, and even Boy Scout camps. It’s a perfect introduction to making and a great way to learn a life long skill. Quantity wise, it’s easily our best seller of 2012.
Thanks for a great year! We’re looking forward to making 2013 even better.
