In case your GPS Breaks - How to Use Your Wristwatch as a Compass

Hold a watch with 12 o’clock at left. Move your arm so the hour hand points at the sun. The spot halfway between the hour hand and the 12 is south. This is for the Northern Hemisphere. In the Southern Hemisphere you point the 12 at the sun, and halfway between that and the hour hand is North.

From Wired Magazine

The Joy of Wikipedia

Have you guys met Wikipedia? If not, do so...because there is no better online source for factual information about EVERYTHING. Best of all, it's a social network which ensures that all the information is democratically monitored and edited. No political agenda involved. If the facts and data aren't correct, someone will call it out and change it or delete it. Elegant and simple.

Check out the Ultralight Trike section here. Hey... I forgot to tell you that you can also make your images available for public use through a creative commons license. That's my friend Bob Munsie in the image who I captured about five years ago on a particularly beautiful and cloud-filled day!

Jetpack Dreams

Follow up to my earlier post about the second annual Rocketbelt Convention, which was held this past weekend as
part of the Thunder of Niagara air show on the Air Force’s reserves
base in Niagara Falls. Check out the video of GoFast! pilot Eric Scott, who blasted off for
a 15-second, 110-decibel rocketbelt demonstration.

Check out TokBox for Instant Video Chat with no plug-in required

This is TokBox and it is a new video chat channel that sets up very quickly with no plug-in required. It allowed me to get it working on my mac laptop in about two minutes after registering. Once it is set up, you can invite someone to chat via email or you can send them to your custom user page on the TokBox site. The person who you invite can participate in the video chat with you even without registration.

It is very easy to use and has simple controls. You can freeze or close the camera or sound and can also use it to leave a video message for someone who is not online. There is a pop-up feature that lets you put the chat window on top of your other programs so you can work while you are conversing, and it can also be embedded into other applications (Like I am doing now in this blog!)

TokBox can also be a part of your social network. You can add and save friends and include interests or common tags if you like (i.e. Quik Owners), and sort your contacts in such a way.

I'm going to be testing this for the TrikePilot Social site and would encourage you all to give it a try. I will post instructions on how to embed the widget into your member page shortly, but for now, feel free to try and reach me for a chat. Could be fun (or scary!) to see your faces and voices from around the world finally! ;)

Alternative Music Player to Embed into your Trikepilot Social Page?

Get Your Own Free Player at Ivoon.com

This one is pretty cool. You can build up your own playlist from songs they have at the site, or upload your own. Then you can display the songs on your own webpage, or even in one of the comment posts on Trikepilot Social. Looks and works just like an iPod! Just copy the embed code from your playlist page on Ivoon and paste it into your member page using the HTML code.

More Simulator Ideas?

I think when I have the time this winter I'm going to be working on a trike simulator similar to this. Made by a Sam and Bill Rotomoto from Montana for Maker's Faire 2007. They live in Montana, and it obviously has had an effect on their heads.


Check out their website:

Andes Engineering makes Hang Glide which I actually flew at the Kermit Weeks' Air Museum in Florida during Sun-n-Fun 2006.
 
Here is another idea that is similar, but hard to tell from the poor video quality.