[Guy John] sent in this cool sequencer project. He’s using the game Go as the input. A web camera pics up the location of the pieces on the grid and plots them in his sequencing software. You can see that it is still very much in progress, but it is coming along nicely. He openly admits that it may never be completely practical. There is still so much to be improved to get it even comfortably usable, such as motion detection to remove his hand from the mix when re locating the Go pieces. This project is very similar skittle interface that we posted back in july.  It would be kind of interesting, though probably repetitive, to actually play a game of go and listen to the variations in the music while you play.

      

pimg src="http://www.readwriteweb.com/images/songbird_newlogo.png"Earlier this week, the open-source music player built on Mozilla technology, a href="http://getsongbird.com/"Songbird/a, finally made its 1.0 release. After being in development for two years, this version feels like the kind of solid media player we've been expecting and hoping for all along. Although nothing is entirely bug-free, this release worked smoothly, with both performance and stability seeming greatly improved. Combine that with its extendibility through the the use of add-ons, and you'll find Songbird has a lot of promise as a worthwhile iTunes replacement. /p p align="right"emSponsor/embr /a href='http://d.openx.org/ck.php?n=12815amp;cb=12815' target='_blank'img src='http://d.openx.org/avw.php?zoneid=861amp;cb=12815amp;n=12815' border='0' alt='' align="right" //a/p h2What We Liked/h2 pWhen we looked at Songbird in the past, many readers were quick to point out a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/songbird-music-power-browser.php#comment-44853"the player's sluggish experience/a, a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/songbird-music-power-browser.php#comment-44757"tendency to crash/a, and a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/songbird-music-power-browser.php#comment-44705"bugs/a. Whatever negative experiences you had before that drove you away from the software, now is the time to get it another shot. /p pThis time around, the player felt fast, lightweight, and stable. It imported our iTunes library without a hitch, even the DRM-protected purchases and the accompanying metadata. /p pAs we played tracks, an add-on called a href="http://addons.songbirdnest.com/addon/73"mashTape/a, one of the six default add-ons, let us delve into artist info, discography, links, news, and scroll through flickr photos and YouTube videos. Others that ship with the player out of the box include a href="http://addons.songbirdnest.com/addon/106"Last.fm/a, a href="http://addons.songbirdnest.com/addon/1281"Concerts/a, and a href="http://addons.songbirdnest.com/addon/1205"SHOUTcast radio/a.#160; With these installed, you can sync your tracks to Last.fm's online service, check out upcoming concerts in the area, and stream music over the internet using the player./p p a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahintampa/3082738564/" title="songbird_2 by sarahintampa, on Flickr"img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3292/3082738564_5806700916_o.jpg" width="595" height="258" alt="songbird_2" //a p pIn addition, there are over a href="http://addons.songbirdnest.com/"70 add-ons/a available for download from the Songbird site, including the recommended add-ons like a href="http://addons.songbirdnest.com/addon/1230"LyricMaster/a, which puts the lyrics to your favorite tunes in the Songbird sidebar and a href="http://addons.songbirdnest.com/addon/238"MediaFlow/a which introduces a visually appealing cover flow view of your music./p pSongbird is based on Mozilla's Gecko engine, the same engine that powers Firefox. And like Firefox, Songbird also allows for tabbed browsing and themes, as well as the above-mentioned add-ons. The customization and extendibility Songbird provides are really what make the software so compelling. /p h2What's Missing/h2 pOf course, in pointing out Songbird's strengths, we would be remiss if we left out its weaknesses, too. Major features found in iTunes are still missing from the 1.0 release. Songbird can't automatically download album art, watch folders, offer feed management, or rip CDs. The a href="http://wiki.songbirdnest.com/Roadmap"roadmap/a promises these features are coming as is broader video support. However, considering it took the company two years to get to this point, some people may have trouble believing the promised February and April 2009 dates the roadmap lists. /p pFor iPhone and iPod Touch users, iTunes will still be necessary as only iTunes allows for syncing those devices and the installation of apps. Even iPod users have reason to worry that Songbird will break at some point given a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/eff_to_apple_free_speech_isnt_a_dmca_violation.php"Apple's tendency to shut down attempts to reverse-engineer/a their software.#160;#160; /p p a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahintampa/3082738416/" title="songbird_1 by sarahintampa, on Flickr"img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3042/3082738416_3d8c9be1a3_o.jpg" width="460" height="395" alt="songbird_1" //a p h2Why Apple Should Be Scared/h2 pFocusing solely on the missing features that make Songbird feel incomplete is near-sighted to say the least. Fast-forward to next year and you'll have a lot less to complain about. Remember, too, that the web browser you know and love as Firefox 3 didn't start off complete with an awesome bar, integrated add-on installer system, and full-page zoom, either./p pWhat Songbird delivers is something Apple can't: a more open version of iTunes that runs on PC, Mac, emand /emLinux machines. Apple's locked-down and closed iTunes player lets Songbird comfortably find its niche as the open, alternative music player, much as Firefox became the alternative web browser.#160; If the company ever reaches the point where it can match every one of iTunes features and provide the customization aspect, the decision to switch will become a no-brainer. Why have less when you can have more? /p pToday's Songbird is no iTunes killer...at least not at the moment. We're just not there yet - maybe we'll never be - but we're definitely enjoying watching the company give it a try. /p stronga href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/why_apple_should_be_worried_about_songbird.php#comments-open"Discuss/a/strong pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/4nbtbYvb36YWWENWkg7r1QfA1TI/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/4nbtbYvb36YWWENWkg7r1QfA1TI/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?a=QQ2mKDrp"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?d=1035" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?a=ZI6HmSP6"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?a=vFn28X7U"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?i=vFn28X7U" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?a=hlayM0v5"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?i=hlayM0v5" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?a=SIMtn44u"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?i=SIMtn44u" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?a=s7NDuzRF"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?d=52" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?a=YjVA27Ju"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?d=1034" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/readwriteweb/~4/wF1mDwjQQdc" height="1" width="1"/

centerimg title="Adtec AD-MP15A Pico Projector" style="MARGIN: 0px" alt="Adtec AD-MP15A Pico Projector" src="http://www.ubergizmo.com/photos/2008/12/adtec-admp15a.jpg" border="0" //centerbr / pFancy carrying a tiny projector that fits into the palm of your hand comfortably? Well, the Adtec AD-MP15A pico projector relies on LED technology for its light source, throwing out a bold, vivid picture for the whole family - as long as you're not living in a castle, that is. The Adtec AD-MP15A comes wih 15 lumens brightness and a 200:1 contrast ratio which isn't too hot by normal projector standards, but don't forget that this is a pico projector to begin with. Other specifications include a 0.3W mono speaker, a 20,000 hour LED life and easy connectivity to a range of compatible equipment such as a laptop, cell phone and other AV devices. You will be able to pick up the Adtec AD-MP15A in Japan later this month for $427./p pPermalink: a href="http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives/2008/12/adtec_admp15a_pico_projector.html"Adtec AD-MP15A Pico Projector/a from Ubergizmo (a href="http://www.ubergizmo.com"US/a, a href="http://www.ubergizmo.com/fr"FR/a) | a href="http://www.uberbargain.com/"Good deals/a | Hot: a href="http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives/2008/11/blackberry_storm_review.html"Storm Review/a/p pmap name="google_ad_map_081203082552" area shape="rect" href="http://imageads.googleadservices.com/pagead/imgclick/081203082552?pos=0" coords="1,2,367,28"/ area shape="rect" href="http://services.google.com/feedback/abg" coords="384,10,453,23"//map img usemap="#google_ad_map_081203082552" border="0" src="http://imageads.googleadservices.com/pagead/ads?format=468x30_aff_imgamp;client=ca-pub-7335032025195922amp;channel=9684588219amp;output=pngamp;cuid=081203082552amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ubergizmo.com%2F15%2Farchives%2F2008%2F12%2Fadtec_admp15a_pico_projector.html"//p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/wayYOr21y7Fkl7HUe6f7l1e4Ayw/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/wayYOr21y7Fkl7HUe6f7l1e4Ayw/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/ubergizmo?a=4gd4B5uj"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/ubergizmo?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/ubergizmo?a=Fqdd2nOP"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/ubergizmo?i=Fqdd2nOP" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/ubergizmo?a=wiEX6TBp"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/ubergizmo?d=52" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/ubergizmo?a=GtgNJ5Ew"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/ubergizmo?i=GtgNJ5Ew" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/ubergizmo?a=zbsyFFpI"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/ubergizmo?i=zbsyFFpI" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ubergizmo/~4/myMhlQmJ8wo" height="1" width="1"/

pstrong1984:/strong Poison gas leaks from a Union Carbide pesticide factory in Bhopal, India. It spreads throughout the city, killing thousands of people outright and thousands more subsequently in a disaster often described as the worst industrial accident in history./p pUnion Carbide chose Bhopal, a city of 900,000 people in the state of Madhya Pradesh, because of its central location and its proximity to a lake and to the country's vast rail system./p pThe plant opened in 1969 and produced the pesticide carbaryl, which was marketed as Sevin. Ten years later the plant began manufacturing a href="http://www.epa.gov/ttn/atw/hlthef/methylis.html"methyl isocyanate/a, or MIC, a cheaper but more toxic substance used in the making of pesticides./p pIt was MIC gas that was released when water leaked into one of the storage tanks late on the night of Dec. 2, a href="http://www.bhopal.org/whathappened.html"setting off the disaster/a. Gas began escaping from Tank 610 around 10:30 p.m. although the main warning siren didn't go off for another two hours./p pThe first effects were felt almost immediately in the vicinity of the plant. As the gas cloud spread into Bhopal proper, residents were awakened to a blinding, vomiting, lung-searing hell. Panic ensued and hundreds of people died in the chaotic stampede that followed./p pAn exact death toll has never been established. Union Carbide, not surprisingly, set the toll on the low end at 3,800, while municipal workers claimed to have cleared at least 15,000 bodies in the immediate aftermath of the accident. Thousands have died since and an estimated 50,000 people became invalids or developed chronic respiratory conditions as a result of being poisoned./p pRegardless of the numbers, all a href="http://www.american.edu/ted/bhopal.htm"evidence pointed to Union Carbide/a and its Indian subsidiary, as well as the Indian government, its partner in the factory, being responsible, mainly through negligence, for what occurred. Despite the extreme volatility and toxicity of the chemicals in use at the factory, safeguards known to be substandard were ignored rather than fixed./p pIn the subsequent investigations and legal proceedings, it was determined, among other things, that:/p ul class="list1" lipStaffing at the plant had been cut to save money. Workers who complained about codified safety violations were reprimanded, and occasionally fired./p/li lipNo plan existed for coping with a disaster of this magnitude./li/p lipTank alarms that would have alerted personnel to the leak hadn't functioned for at least four years./li/p lipOther backup systems were either not functioning or nonexistent./li/p lipThe plant was equipped with a single back-up system, unlike the four-stage system typically found in American plants./li/p lipTank 610 held 42 tons of MIC, well above the prescribed capacity. (It is believed that 27 tons escaped in the leak.)/li/p lipWater sprays designed to dilute escaping gas were poorly installed and proved ineffective./li/p lipDamage known to exist, such as to piping and valves, had not been repaired or replaced because the cost was considered too high. Warnings from U.S. and Indian experts about other shortcomings at the plant were similarly ignored./li/p /ul pThe aftermath of the disaster was almost as chaotic. Union Carbide was a href="http://www.bhopal.com/ucs.htm"initially responsive/a, rushing aid and money to Bhopal. Nevertheless, faced with a $3 billion lawsuit, the company dug in, eventually agreeing to a $470 million settlement, a mere 15 percent of the original claim. In any case, very little money ever reached the victims of the disaster./p pa href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Anderson_(chairman)"Warren Anderson/a, Union Carbide's CEO, went before Congress in December 1984, pledging his company's renewed commitment to safety, a promise that rang hollow in India (and probably to Congress as well)./p pAnderson was subsequently charged with manslaughter by Indian prosecutors but managed to evade an international arrest warrant and disappeared. Investigators from Greenpeace, which has kept up an active interest in the case, found Anderson in 2002, alive and well and living comfortably in the Hamptons. The United States has shown no inclination to hand him over to Indian justice, and most of the serious charges against him have been dropped./p pUnion Carbide, meanwhile, was acquired by the Dow Corporation in 2001, which refused to assume any additional liability for Bhopal, arguing that the debt had already been paid through various court settlements. It did go on to settle another outstanding claim against Union Carbide, this one for $2.2 billion made by asbestos workers in Texas./p pA few outstanding legal claims from Bhopal remain to be settled, both in India and the United States, but most of the court wrangling is over./p pThe victims of the disaster, those who live on, continue dealing with various health problems — including chronic respiratory problems, vision problems and an increased incidence of cancer and birth defects — and an environment that remains contaminated to this day./p pemSource: Various/em/pbr style="clear: both;"/ a style='font-size: 10px; color: maroon;' href='http://www.pheedo.com/hostedMorselClick.php?hfmm=v3:48cc9eb4b8a8482354ecc6b56f151739:kxhhkz4DUffnSCf8jv%2B7v44x8l4BKie%2FYRo4WeJY732GnQ4nDiD9BSvaR%2FQPx6QqXmVG%2FC4uDPtx5g%3D%3D'img border='0' title='Add to Facebook' alt='Add to Facebook' src='http://www.pheedo.com/images/mm/facebook.gif'//a a style='font-size: 10px; color: maroon;' href='http://www.pheedo.com/hostedMorselClick.php?hfmm=v3:82d4523a8b02e3ad5a3995ca5fc1b80a:EqId8d3OpbVpu5JWckWNEKCSVVRnt0hq%2BaWV4fey0vi21Cfh7%2BMXf3MEEmEyIGm9e3q%2BakzFEHYE'img border='0' title='Add to Reddit' alt='Add to Reddit' src='http://www.pheedo.com/images/mm/reddit.png'//a a style='font-size: 10px; color: maroon;' href='http://www.pheedo.com/hostedMorselClick.php?hfmm=v3:3e70225b1b8097a8e45bf4a0f1ec3f03:yaaCBCPr4Rb0oyJuBEhz5kWJYlyLLEYFk6mELMdBJdK9RvClF8CQSsBwFbqLfl%2FmsvR0IYczZDjw'img border='0' title='Add to digg' alt='Add to digg' src='http://www.pheedo.com/images/mm/digg.gif'//a a style='font-size: 10px; color: maroon;' href='http://www.pheedo.com/hostedMorselClick.php?hfmm=v3:36a75e658ce232fbdd9cef6c864d7290:a7hJ2TLNUU1aJrJ1PeiO23adVkCz6dOjIxMmjfiP8xK%2B3QyQ%2FI6OAovRTJzMHk9aSvuehIeaQg5W'img border='0' title='Add to Google' alt='Add to Google' src='http://www.pheedo.com/images/mm/google.png'//a br style="clear: both;"/ a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=d01f67d641f166da738dda1f9d2c8941p=1"img alt="" style="border: 0;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=d01f67d641f166da738dda1f9d2c8941p=1"//a img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=d01f67d641f166da738dda1f9d2c8941" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/ pa href="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?a=8GVQjD"img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?i=8GVQjD" border="0"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~4/473261698" height="1" width="1"/