Windows 8.1 Preview

Microsoft released the public preview of Windows 8.1 at the BUILD 2013 developer conference today. Windows 8.1 brings an updated look and feel to good old Windows 8. The much discussed "Start" button and boot to desktop are here and many cosmetic and GUI functionality changes as well.

The bits can be had at http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/preview, but be forewarned, updating now will require a re-install of everything when the real Windows 8.1 is released. If you don't care or have another machine to experiment on, download it and have a look (I think it's a nice improvement), otherwise you'll have to wait until later this year when the update is released for real.

USB Breakout Board

A few months ago I anticipated the need to measure current and voltage on a few different USB chargers. I was going to cut up a USB cable, but I decided this might be a good opportunity to design a printed circuit board. Having never designed a PCB before, a simple USB breakout would be a good way to dip my toes into the PCB design waters. For some reason it's taken me months to get around to posting about it. Go figure.

Pebble Smart Watch [Review]

With glorious beginnings as one of the highest grossing Kickstarter campaigns of all time, the Pebble smart watch has a lot of expectations to live up to. I've lived with the Pebble for over three months now. Long enough to build some habits, form some opinions, and give developers a chance to come up with some compelling apps.

Detroit is for Makers

Whole Foods is opening a new, 21,000 square foot, store in midtown Detroit today. This is a big deal for the city as Detroit sorely lacks grocery stores in the downtown/midtown area. Detroit is featured in the Dark Rye, Whole Foods online magazine, June issue and contains a great article and video on Detroit area makers... Remake Detroit.

Archive the documentary

This is a excellent short documentary about the Internet Archive.

Archive is a documentary focused on the future of long-term digital storage, the history of the Internet and attempts to preserve its contents on a massive scale. 

Part one features Brewster Kahle, founder of the Internet Archive and his colleagues Robert Miller, director of books, and Alexis Rossi, director of web collections. On a mission to create universal access to all knowledge, the Internet Archive’s staff have built the world's largest online library, offering 10 petabytes of archived websites, books, movies, music, and television broadcasts.

The video includes a tour of the Internet Archive’s headquarters in San Francisco, the book scanning center, and the book storage facilities in Richmond, California. 

Directed by Jonathan Minard

Cinematography by John Behrens, Alexander Porter, and Fearghal O'dea

Produced at the Internet Archive on October 22-26, during the Books in Browsers Conference and 10 Petabyte Celebration - Internet Archive