CCS-PK

There isn't long left to be able to take part in this project - it runs till 3^rd November - but you could always combine it with 'trick or treating' tomorrow night.

What's it all about? They want to get a measure of how "light pollution" is affecting the way many of us - particularly in the 'developed world' - view of the stars in the night sky. You will need to be able to pinpoint your exact location but that is pretty simply these days with a sat-nav system.

There's loads of information at the site including full details of exactly how to measure the brightness of the stars you can see. For example - you can view a map showing the results posted by people around the world - this one is for Europe.

This is one project at the "Windows To The Universe" website.

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If you hadn't noticed it's Halloween on Friday and - if you like making things a bit more technology-oriented - you might find the following ideas at the 'MAKE' site useful.

	An Arduino board and a few extras can create an automated spider to greet your 'visitors' - there's a nice video of the project in action at the site.
	Or perhaps a simpler project with this animated pumpkin head - again, there's a video at the site we've shown in the link.
	Then again, perhaps - if you're like me and enjoy Battlestar Galactica - you could create this Cylon-style pumpkin head. No video this time but it isn't difficult to imagine the LEDs in action.

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T-Mobile are due to launch their own 'smartphone' based on the Google-devised Android operating system. Even though it has not been used on any phone yet they have had over 1.5 miillion pre-orders. The open-source nature of the system - both hardware and software - marks it out from both the competitors we are featuring this week.

Mobile Magazine host the unboxing video this time.

This week we take a brief look at three of the current 'smartphones' which are out or due out very soon.

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Sony-Ericcson are set to compete with their Windows Mobile-based Xperia X1. While it is packed with features and is likely to cost less than the iPhone, it remains to be seen whether the 'applications' market that is so strong on the Apple device will be supported as well on this platform.

Engadget are the site chosen for the unboxing video today.

This week we take a brief look at three of the current 'smartphones' which are out or due out very soon.

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Gizmodo are just one site that feature an unboxing video.

This week we take a brief look at three of the current 'smartphones' which are out or due out very soon.

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The pictures below show Charlie Kratzer's basement which he has decorated with the aid of - probably quite a few - Sharpie pens.

The pool table and pinball machine help make it obvious he's no "average guy" either.

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Their article points to this one at the Technology Review website.

Wikipedia has a rather brief discussion here but further investigation led to this article about 'Opposed piston engines' of which the 'Free piston engine' is simply one type.

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Gizmodo published an article with details of almost every type of memory card available.

If you wanted to know more about them ... now's your chance.

Second coincidence this week.
I selected the Lexar Professional memory card picture to illustrate this article and then the next day I saw this item in the 'Photoshop Disasters' weblog. Different type of card but same manufacturer and consequently an almost identical label.

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At the end of last week they finally removed the remains of the train that caught fire in the Channel Tunnel back on 11^th September. It got me thinking about how they construct such large tunnels.

And by coincidence I saw this link about 20 of the world's tunnelling machines.

The one shown above is interesting because it was proposed by Roman Abramovich (Chelsea football club owner) when he was governor of a Russian province. It was intended to link Russia to Alaska which is where the Republican vice-Presidential nominee, Sarah Palin, is currently governor.

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Someone in the city of Chelyabinsk in Russia found out when the Quickbird satellite - used by Google for maps - was passing overhead to take pictures. And they organised themselves to create a giant 'smiley' face.

It will be a few months before the images appear on Google maps - let's hope their efforts were not wasted.

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