6 Squared equals 36 Geeks

Six geeks in the house – a full contingent.

AOPA Online: FAA grants roadable airplane weight exemption

The FAA boosted hopes of Terrafugia officials to market a roadable light sport aircraft (LSA) by granting a large portion of the weight increase the company requested. The FAA said it would allow the vehicle to weigh 1,430 pounds, the same limit already allowed for LSA seaplanes. The company’s request to increase the weight from the LSA standard of 1,320 pounds to a higher 1,474 pounds was denied.

WolframTones: Generate a Composition

Make your own music online

Terrafugia - Transition® the Roadable Light Sport Aircraft

Woburn, MA — June 17, 2010: Terrafugia, Inc., developer of the Transition ® Roadable Aircraft, or “Flying Car”, has received an exemption from the FAA to allow the Transition ® a maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) of 1430 pounds (650 kg). This additional weight accommodates the structure and equipment necessary for compliance with the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) which are not found in other Light Sport Aircraft. Items such as airbags, an energy absorbing crumple zone, and a protective safety cage will increase safety both on the road and in the air. Exclusively applicable to the Transition ® , the FAA’s grant of an additional 110 pounds will allow a competitive useful load while providing a revolutionary level of crash safety in a Light Sport Aircraft.

By giving pilots a convenient ground transportation option, the Transition ® reduces the cost, inconvenience, and weather sensitivity of personal aviation. In addition to the enhanced protection afforded by applying automotive crash safety technology to light planes, the Transition ® reduces the potential for an accident by allowing pilots to drive under bad weather instead of potentially flying into marginal conditions.

Classified as a Light Sport Aircraft, the Transition ® requires a Sport Pilot certificate to fly and is designed to drive on public roadways and park in a standard garage. Terrafugia successfully completed flight and drive testing of its Proof of Concept Transition ® in 2009. Refundable airframe reservations are being accepted with first delivery scheduled for late 2011.

aM laboratory

There are a variety of music making methods on this site. This is just one.

Music of the sun recorded by scientists

Using satellite images of these loops, which can be over 60,000 miles long, the scientists were able to recreate the sound by turning the visible vibrations into noises and speeding up the frequency so it is audible to the human ear.

Western US lunar eclipse June 26 (this morning)

There will be a partial lunar eclipse on Saturday, June 26, for folks in the central and western part of the United States. It’s in the morning, so you’ll have to get up early to see it. Here’s what it’ll look like, more or less, from the Mountain Time Zone (so mid-eclipse is at 06:38 central time or 04:38 Pacific):

Stock Market Flash Crash Analysis

“Beginning at 14:42:46, bids from the NYSE started crossing above the National Best Ask prices in about 100 NYSE listed stocks, expanding to over 250 stocks within 2 minutes). Detailed inspection indicates NYSE quote prices started lagging quotes from other markets; their bid prices were not dropping fast enough to keep below the other exchange’s falling offer prices. The time stamp on NYSE quotes matched that of other exchange quotes, indicating they were valid and fresh.”

IEEE 802.3ba standard released

“[IEEE|Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers] announced the ratification of IEEE 802.3ba 40Gb/s and 100Gb/s Ethernet, a new standard governing 40 Gb/s and 100 Gb/s Ethernet operations. An amendment to the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet standard, IEEE 802.3ba, the first standard ever to simultaneously specify two new Ethernet speeds, paves the way for the next generation of high-rate server connectivity and core switching.”

YouTube - Human bobsled vs. motorcycle

Rollerblades for your body.

Children with home computers likely to have lower test scores

“Students in grades five through eight, particularly those from disadvantaged families, tend to post lower scores once universal access to home computers and in some cases to high-speed Internet service arrive in their home.”

Google Uses Remote Delete to Remove Android apps

Google has, for the first time, used the “Remote Application Removal” security feature implemented in Android to remove apps from users’ smartphones. The two applications in question were created by Jon Oberheide to demonstrate how easy it is to inject malicious applications into Android smartphones and jailbroken iPhones.
Although the researcher had removed the applications from the Android Market, some users still had the apps installed on their phones, prompting Google to delete them remotely. In such cases users are notified that the deletion will occur. Google points out that the removed applications didn’t cause any damage, having been designed to show how easy it was to infect smartphones rather than to cause any malicious infection.

Remote Kill and Install: Technical Info

Remote Kill and Install on Google Android: This blog post details the more technical aspects of the remote kill and install mechanisms on the Google Android platform.

Big Lunar Eclipse - NASA Science

This Saturday morning, June 26th, there’s going to be a lunar eclipse—and for many residents of the USA, it’s going to be a big one.

The eclipse begins at 3:17 am PDT (10:17 UT) when the Moon enters the sunset-colored shadow of Earth. By 4:38 am PDT (11:38 UT), the moment of greatest eclipse, 54% of the Moon’s diameter will be covered. From beginning to end, the event lasts almost three hours.

A fifth of Android apps expose private data

“About 20 percent of the 48,000 apps in the Android marketplace allow a third-party application access to sensitive or private information, according to a report released on Tuesday.”

Google Voice for Everyone!

Google Voice is open to everyone, no invites required.

Google Wave for Everyone!

Google Wave is open to all users at wave.google.com, as a Google Labs product — no invitation needed.

JavaZone 2010: Funny Movie Trailer

Every geek should see this trailer!


! Giveaway USB Camera

[img_5939.jpeg| FV RouchCam N1, is an HD 720p USB Video Camera. And we gave one away to Mike, from Santa Cruz for knowing that the music from the sun was produced from images of the Sun’s coronal loops. ]

! Backstage Geek Video!
Ben Made this [quick backstage of GeekSpeak video|http://vimeo.com/12878198] showing off the above camera’s performance – and you can meet all the geeks!