CYBER DUMP 07 / MARU OS, SOFT ROBOTS, CRISPR, NOODLEBOTS, SPY GAME
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Welcome to Cyber Dump number 7, your weekly serving of techno-weeny hype. All source links are below.

- Youtube link
- Archive.org mirror
- Torrent
- Keybase mirror

OPEN SOURCE

Preetam D'Souza recently announced Maru OS, an Android replacement which, when plugged into an external monitor, turns into a full featured Debian based Linux desktop. It's currently being open sourced and is available for the Nexus 5 smartphone.

- http://blog.maruos.com/2016/02/11/maru-is-open-source/
- http://maruos.com/#/

BITCOIN

21 announced their micropayments channel, allowing users to send sub satoshi payments. Currently, that's about 0.0004 cent increments that can be sent in real time.

Although it's not the first payment channel ever, this could potentially be one that opens this kind of technology up to a wider audience - that is until the long awaited lightning network is released.

Currently it's only available for 21 bitcoin computers, though 21 will also be releasing a free client allowing automatic micropayments between any type of device.

- https://medium.com/@21/true-micropayments-with-bitcoin-e64fec23ffd8#.s8ezmd20q - https://21.co/free/

BIOHACKING

The THUNK youtube channel released a video detailing why CRISPR genetic engineering technology is very interesting and what the potentially massive implications are. This comes a couple of weeks after UK fertility regulators greenlit the use of this technology for research.

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_yqbrETO4U

AUTOMATION

Toyako Ramen in Shanghai have installed two robotic arms that can create on-demand japanese style noodles in 90 seconds. You can definitely imagine this sort of automation increasing in the coming years.

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKSiUK45iQU

SOFT ROBOTS

Researchers at the BioRobotics Institute in Italy have been developing a variety of soft robots. In particular, they have been mimicing the dextrous tentacles of an octopus to develop robots that could potentially improve surgical procedures.

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7AFsk40NGE
- http://www.nature.com/news/meet-the-soft-cuddly-robots-of-the-future-1.19285

3D PRINTING

Toy makers Mattel have announced a £250 3D printer called the ThingMaker, which would allow children to print out their own toys on demand. Details seem to be scarce, but it looks like it takes standard PLA filament, and it should be available at the end of the year. I wonder how hackable this thing will be.

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mw8w7cTKEHI
- http://arstechnica.co.uk/gadgets/2016/02/kids-will-soon-make-their-own-toys-with-mattels-300-thingmaker-3d-printer/

FLEXIBLE SMARTPHONE

Human Media Lab at Queens University have developed a bendable smartphone prototype which brings some new user experiences.

The video shows an interesting use-case, trying to replicate thumbing through the pages of a book combining the bending mechanic, and haptic feedback.

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sfc_Peev660

SURVEILLANCE GAME

Monomyth Games recently launched a kickstarter for their mass surveillance thriller game, Need to Know, where players are employed by the fictional Department of Liberty, and have to make choices to either stand up for privacy, or create the ultimate police state.

The game is already fully funded, and the tentative release will be sometime at the end of the year.

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaXJ16SU-HY
- https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/monomythgames/need-to-know-the-mass-surveillance-thriller-game

VIDEOS

Two longer videos today. The first is the keynote from the first Vision VR Summit, and features multiple speakers covering everything cool that's happening in virtual reality right now. The next video by Hak5 shows you a range of cool and silly BASH commands.

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hYDtxCtzdA
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YBuSlmv3P4

THIS WEEK ON NODE

I added a new isometric arduino tee and poster to the shop this week, check it out. If you'd like to pick something up from the shop, and help support NODE, that'd be awesome.

- http://N-O-D-E.net/shop/

I also showed you how to remove metadata from your files using a helpful command line utility. As well as that, we published a great written piece by Famicoman on mesh networking. Well worth a read. More coming next week, thanks for watching!

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5J_tA65cNbI
- http://n-o-d-e.net/hyperboria.html

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BY NODE