National Geographic posted a video of a new request from Australian scientists to control the cane toad issue by introducing meat ants.

video

Ahhhh what could go wrong?

the can toad was introduced to Australia to control beetle populations but then the toad grew rampant and became an issue. apparently having not learned from mistakes, they want to do the same thing again.

I already have a sculpture series I'm working on directly inspired by  Australia and the cane toad, this is just more fodder. when, when will researchers learn...

introducing a carnivorous insect that multiplies at an alarming rate 'hoping' that it will go after the toads, and not EVERYTHING else is ridiculous... I love it. I truly do.

I use XBMC installed on an old xbox hooked up to my projector to play back movies and music. It's great, XBMC is free and far superior to apple tv and a great use for a cheap old original xbox.

I've been using it for the last 5 years and have loved it, but I decided I wanted to have a second unit in my bedroom. I had a spare xbox lying around pieced together from spare parts from repairs I did to other peoples xbox's, so it made sense to use it.

But how? I could mount an LCD on my bedroom wall, have cables running all over the place, but really, that'd be kind of .. typical. I don't watch enough media in my bedroom to warrant it taking over the space. I just want something there for watching an episode of Dexter or Office before I fall asleep. something more of a conversation piece than practical.

Enter the Commodore SXBOX-64 project.

Stage 1 (complete)

I found the motherboard schematics online and wired the xbox video out to hook into the 1982 commodores 5 inch CRT screen. it works perfectly! stage 1 was getting it running. wifi, software, and wiring. I'm also not cutting any wires, I'm building custom connectors for the internal connections so I don't destroy this rather vintage peice of hardware.

Stage 2 (what I'm doing now).

Build a new power supply for the CRT monitor (12v) that also spits out 6v for the wifi adapter and then add a relay so it's controlled via thexbox. I only want one power button. So when the xbox turns on, it should turn everything else on as well.

Stage 3

Replace commodore internals with xbox motherboard (but keep 1982 crt monitor. In order to do this I need to re-remove all the parts (I had to dismantle it already to clean it) pack them for safe keeping (so I can one day put it back to the original state if I want) cut the middle metal connector carefully, build a new power supply and then pack it all back up.

Stage 4

Keyboard hack. the commodore keyboard should control the xbox.

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This definitely isn't as easy as simply drilling 4 holes andmounting an lcd, and the commodore cost more than a base line lcdwould.... but this is about having some fun and making somethingincredibly geeky.

Progress. Working with a screen now. Twittering without a computer.

A few weeks back I decided to try out the Arduino platform for working with micrcontrollers. I've been using pic's for the last few years (mostly the 16f628a) but I just haven't been impressed with the software or the community. Arduino is fully open source, and so the hardware and software are both free to use and edit. There's nothing like this in the world of PIC microcontrollers.

if I had to describe PIC's I'd say it's like walking into a room and everyone inside the room stops talking the second you walk in and they all start giving you sideways looks.

Whereas with arduino the second you walk into the room everyone jumps and cheers and shakes your hand and throws piles of code at you. Here here! Look what I've made! You should make it to! here's how!

It's a completely different way of working and I'm loving it.

ANYWAYS, yesterday I managed to get an arduino connected to the internet AND sending a twitter to my account, and I have to say, it was pretty easy. where something like that with a PIC had me pulling my hair, it took me all of an hour on the arduino.

I have at least 20 projects on paper I've wanted to have Ethernet for and now I finally do.

My tools are almost where I want them for my next series. Just a few more purchases.....

Back in 1998 when I was using 3D Studio Max (now 3DS Max) version 3 and buying up every issue of 3d world magazine I could get my hands on, the sgi 320 system was there, in the ads taunting me with it's high end (for the time) specs and $7000 price tag a high school student would never afford...

Now years later I bought the empty chassis of a 320 and retrofitted it. It required cutting socket holes for a standard power supply, and building a custom motherboard bracket in plastic, but it works.

It'll be used for controlling my soon to be acquired CNC machine and therefore 3d work.

Can't say I really want to discuss openly what it is I'm working on, but lately I've had a fire lit under me again and I've been building non stop in my downtime.

I forgot how much I enjoy designing and printing circuit boards. It's pretty fun to brag and say "ya I print circuit boards in my living room. you should come see my etching setup".

Here's a few photos from design, etching in ferric chloride, drilling, sanding down edges, and completed. 18 small boards, took about a week, but that's in reality probably about 12 hours.

PETA apparently gets a lot of emails about Genpets as they're fast to respond, but I don't think they even bothered to read about it. funny.The entire project deals with animal rights, but they don't get it. doesn't surprise me.... 

"This is a hoax, you’ll be glad to know. In very poor taste.    – Martin, PETA".

Apparently stirring up debate and making people think is poor taste. Throwing red paint at people wearing fur is not though.... right. PETA, the glowing example.

never been a fan of PETA.

I grew up with a commodore 128. the fancy pants of the commodore line. I never had a 64, but my friend Nadine grabbed me an old 64 back in January for my birthday.

I've since gotten back into commodore and have been reading into how to program for them... which is CLEARLY the most optimal use of my time.

Anyways, I grabbed an old SX-64 portable commodore 64 off ebay. I need to post pictures of the restoration process as... it's crazy. there's layers of mud inside the machine and it still runs perfectly. amazing little 1mhz machine.

I've been experimenting a lot with hardware/software integration at work during downtime and one of my first experiments past simply pushing data was this!

My tweetbox! it sits in the corner of my cubicle so I can see the lastest twitter update of anyone in my feed.

PHP parses all the data from my account, and then feeds that to a Flash snippet I wrote, Flash then talks to a local server running on my laptop which handles talking over the usb port to a small microcontroller hooked up to the LCD. *phew! catch all that?

well it works...

a small red LED comes on when a tweet is new.

Rather random video...

http://www.ocad.ca/programs/art/intm.htm

Not sure how long that video will be up for but seeing as I didn't have a copy I grabbed the FLV file right away!

 The College I graduated from (OCAD) has that video of me on the page for the program I was in. I guess as an example of what you can do in the program. That interview was taken during graduation when I'd just won the program medal.

Back in my skinny black hair emo-ish days before a real job, hair cut and a gym membership...