Dimming LED bulbs designed to replace halogen lamps

Halogen bulbs put out a lot of focused light but they do it at the expense of burning up a lot of Watts and generating a lot of heat. The cost for an LED replacement like the one seen disassembled above has come down quite a bit. This drove [Jonathan Foote] to purchase several units and he just couldn’t resist tearing them apart to try out a couple of hacks.

Send an Arduino to the moon for $300

We’ve seen Kickstarter campaigns to put a single satellite into space and one to launch your own personalized postage-stamp sized satellite into low Earth orbit. This time, though, you can break the bonds of Earth and send your own Arduino compatible satellite on a collision course with the moon. The project is called Pocket Spacecraft, and exactly as its name implies, it allows you to send a small, flat, 8 cm diameter spacecraft to the surface of the moon.

'Blowing' a slope into place

Research scientists have developed a new method for stabilising areas with difficult soil mechanics. The concept is based on blowing expanded clay (Leca) spheres into enormous "sausage skins" made from geotextiles.

Low-power Wi-Fi signal tracks movement—even behind walls

The comic-book hero Superman uses his X-ray vision to spot bad guys lurking behind walls and other objects. Now we could all have X-ray vision, thanks to researchers at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.

A Google Gaming Console? It's Madness!

Bubbling up in today's news stream is a report that Google wants to get into the game console business and that Apple may too.

Google Loaning Out Street View Trekker Gear to Boost Maps

Over the years, the global reception to Google's Street View mapping project has been met with varying degrees of enthusiasm, ranging from clever photo-bombing participation to legal tussles in parts of Europe over privacy concerns. Now the company has decided to ratchet up the intensity of its Street View mapping project by opening up usage of its innovative Street View Trekker backpack device to third-party companies and organizations.

Wireless Witch: New MacBook Air Wi-Fi Issues? Try These 5 Solutions

There have been grumblings throughout the Apple customer community about the new Macbook Air $1,099.00 at Apple Store and Wi-Fi connection drops. Speculation looms—is this a wide-spread issue or with a particular batch from the factory? A problem inherent in OS X or just the operating system's networking stack? How will Apple handle the complaints?

Google's Blogger Cracking Down On Adult Ads

Starting this weekend, Google will be cracking down on Blogger users who start blogs in order to monetize adult content.

Car stereo AUX input taps into CD ribbon cable

[Gezepi] wanted to add an auxiliary input to the stereo in his 1994 Camry. At first look there wasn’t an easy way to patch into the system. But a bit of probing with an oscilloscope and figured out that he could inject audio through the CD ribbon cable shown above. The CD reader is a self-contained unit that receives commands through the cable, and passes analog stereo audio back to the receiver portion of the head unit. We’re not sure how he figured out which pins to tap into, but it may have been as easy as probing with some headphones while a CD is playing.

Shetland gears up for fresh oil boom

Shetland - Britain’s rocky sub-arctic outpost - is, according to the office of national statistics, “the happiest place in the UK”. And visiting the island this week, it was easy to see how it has earned that distinction.

Zinc-based transparent coating could cut cost of solar cells

Researchers at Oxford University have won a materials science prize to develop a high-technology coating with the potential to reduce the manufacturing costs of new-generation solar photovoltaic cells.

Korean team develops antibacterial silver coating

South Korean researchers have developed a technique that can be used to coat glass with a layer of antibacterial silver ions.

According to the team from Yonsei Univeristy in Seoul the process can be used to prevent the growth of pathogenic bacteria including E.coli, Salmonella, and Campylobacter and could be used to coat and protect medical equipment.