Emily Gertz

My New Book Is Out! "Environmental Monitoring With Arduino" from @OReillyMedia

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:52:41 -0500

Want to know the temperature? Humidity? Noise level? Local radiation?

We can measure that!

My new book is out: Environmental Monitoring With Arduino, published in both e-book and print formats by O'Reilly Media, co-authored with Wired's guru of "What's Inside," Patrick Di Justo.*

Our book features several projects combining open source computer programming and environmental sensors. Each one shows any DIY electronics maker, even beginners, how to build their own gadgets that monitor noise levels, detect electromagnetic interference (phantom/vampire energy drain), measure local, radioactivity, and more.

We also explain how to put your data online on web pages, Twitter, and the crowd-sourcing data network Pachube.

Patrick and I began devising these projects as a means to teach me Arduino and circuit-building. O'Reilly has been an enthusiastic partner in bringing them to the wider world. Now we're looking forward to seeing how people build, hack, and improve upon our original designs.

* Patrick is also co-author of The Science of Battlestar Galactica.

Friday Cat Blogging: DIY Tweeting Arduino Cat Toy

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 12:26:46 -0500

Arduino On My Mind Dept: My new O'Reilly book, Environmental Monitoring With Arduino, is here! So lately I've been eyeballing maker, hacker, and crafter blogs and feeds more avidly.

I deeply admire that Mark de Vinck devoted so much thoughtful attention to designing and building and decorating this Kitty Twitty Cat Toy -- it tweets a message when Tabby bashes at the little lure on the wire -- because my utilitarian mindset does not bend naturally toward this approach to using Arduino.

Then again, the true Rulers of the Internet must be appeased.

Image and link via Make Magazine

Friday Cat Blogging: I dream of George

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 13:03:55 -0500

He's warm and relaxed, sitting on my lap, flitting his tail expressively (very George, that) as I stroke him from head to rump. Under my hand, it feels just like George's fur felt: soft, thick.

In the real world he's still dead, I don't forget that. But we are getting this special chance to visit together, outside of time and space.

George front, Pushkin back, April 2009:

Latest @TPM Byline: "UN Seeks Help in Poverty Fight From Social Media Gurus"

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 11:16:57 -0500

Excerpt (also, a run-on sentence, for which I'm fully culpable):

"With around five million cell phones in use around the world today -- and that number poised to only grow exponentially in the coming years, especially in developing regions -- mobile connectivity remains one of the most powerful tools that UN staff should harness, said Adam Hirsch, Chief Operating Officer of social media blog Mashable, particularly if and as online payment systems around the world start to standardize around a few protocols and systems, such as near field communications or NFC (also called "wave and pay" technology -- found most prominently in Google Wallet technology)."

Read the whole thing at Talking Points Memo Idea Lab.

Friday Cat Blogging: How to gift-wrap a cat

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 18:04:43 -0500

(Oops, hit the publish button too early. Well, it's Friday somewhere...)

H/T The Consumerist

Latest Byline: "Earthscraper Concept Takes Sustainable Design Underground," for Ecomagination

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 11:19:15 -0500

"Earthscraper has become the architectural equivalent of a shot heard 'round the world. Since first surfacing this past summer on a handful of major design and tech blogs like archdaily.com, thetechnologyreview.com, and gizmag.com, this conceptual design for a 65-story, 82,000-square-foot inverted pyramid underneath Mexico City now commands over a quarter-million stories in diverse publications around the globe.

"Why has the experimental skyscraper design, created for a 2009 "Skyscrapers of the Future" competition in the architecture magazine eVolo, attracted so much attention?"...read the rest at Ecomagination.

Latest Byline: "This Guy's Toast," Q&A with designer of "The Toaster Project," for OnEarth

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 20:49:51 -0500

Designer Thomas Thwaites is on The Colbert Report tonight. [Updated on 11/15 with link to the video-EJG]

I recently interviewed him for OnEarth Magazine about "The Toaster Project," his attempt to "build a simple electric appliance from scratch."

Here's an excerpt:

Something I really like about The Toaster Project is that you use a light touch when discussing environmental problems that other writers go at with a sledge hammer.

I think that approach is slightly retrograde. It's not looking forward. The fact is, you can't just stop, rebuild everything, and then start again on a different kind of path. The only way is to gradually move towards changing things for the better.

Everyone is constrained by their lives. In a way, we have free choice about everything we do, but who's got the time and energy to make those free choices according to conscience all the time?

I call that "the underwear problem." No matter how much you want to shop ethically, or how much money you spend, your underwear is going to be this mass-produced commodity, made too cheaply by people who may not have been treated very well. But who has the time and skills to opt out by making their own underwear?

You can go to absurd lengths, living in a sort of teepee in the forest and growing your own food. That's nice as a project, but it's not a solution to a problem that is a global consumer problem. There's no way smallholding is going to feed the seven billion people in the world. That kind of retreat is not useful, I think....read the rest at OnEarth Magazine.

"Ms Bialek is the face of prejudice that Cain has been waiting for."

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 10:54:21 -0500

Perceptive comment by user Arf about Herman Cain's motivations and goals, in response to this John Cassidy post at The New Yorker:

Herman is not worried about the allegation rendering his Presidential campaign a failure. He is not running for President. His concern is the impact on his bid to be a Fox New's [sic] analyist. Like Sista Sarah, he can play the victim wronged by false accusations. Ms Bialek's narrative given under the eagle eye of Ms. Alred's representation fits the false accusation narrative perfectly. Bialek is the "she-said" half of the tale and nothing more. Interesting that she attended a Tea-party function, has high profile legal representation and recites facts that fit a social, and not strictly business narrative. To succeed in Sarah World Mr. Cain must have a coterie of accusers. Ms Bialek is the face of prejudice that Cain has been waiting for.

Latest Byline: "Nanocrystal Device Could Be The Next Big Battery," for TPM IdeaLab

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 20:55:31 -0500

A small Wyoming company believes it may have discovered a game-changing alternative to conventional batteries.

On Tuesday, materials scientist Michael Haag introduced attendees of the two-day World Technology Summit to the "Quantum Energy Device" or QED -- a battery of sorts made not from chemicals, but from silicon nanocrystals.

Haag is founder and chief technology officer of Universal Nanotech, a small Cheyenne, Wyo.-based start-up company.

Haag said the device keeps a charge dozens of hours longer than a typical AAA alkaline battery, and at a fraction of the weight.

In early testing, he said, a regular alkaline battery containing more than 20 grams of active material discharged all its power along a bell curve in 2.5 to 3.5 hours, while the QED, with only 300 micrograms (less than a tenth of a gram) of active material, maintained an even level of power for five days...read the rest at Talking Points Memo IdeaLab.

Image: Universal Nanotechnology's silicon nanocrystals

Friday Cat Blogging: Lady and the Cat

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 21:00:27 -0500

Recently Ellie came over for an afternoon of semi-recreational cooking. Inevitably she succumbed to Pushkin's wiles, and we took a break to admire His Nibs.

Latest Byline: "Pulling Back the Curtain on Supply Chains," for Ecomagination

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 20:36:54 -0500

My latest article (complete with a very cool illustration) examines whether there's a real environmental benefit when manufacturers create transparent or traceable supply chains: identifying each step involved in a product's path from raw materials to store shelf:

"It's a tough moment for retailers: consumers are spending less money on products, but are demanding more and have an abundance of choices. While demand remains fairly strong for products that purport to save the environment, manufacturers that fail to legitimately back up environmental claims have met increased skepticism from consumers, which has led to lowered sales.

"One major UK retailer is taking a bold step to make its environmental promises stand out from the competition. Marks and Spencer in August announced that it was committing to "full traceability," and would document every farm and factory involved in creating its clothing and home products lines...read the rest at Ecomagination.com.

Monday Cheer: Knitting patterns based on "Moby-Dick"

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 12:18:04 -0500

I'm fascinated with conceptual crossovers between creative media. (This may sound like an intellectual pursuit I just cooked up for the purposes of blogging, but it's true. For example, I once sketched out plans for over dozen artworks, a collage series, based on lyrics from R.E.M. songs.)

Part of the appeal, I think, is that this sort of creative work blurs the lines between high-, middle-, and lowbrow. I'm fascinated by Mark Rothko's exploration of light and dark, but it was The X-Files that wove itself into my regular life every week for the better part of a decade. Feminist media theory can be a great read, but it's Buffy the Vampire Slayer that actually puts it into practice.

I've also become a bit obsessive about knitting in the past few years.

So of course I am slavering to seeing knitwear designer Ann Weaver's new collection, "White Whale":

#Hurricane #Irene news & alerts list: twitter.com/ejgertz/ny-metro-news-noticias

Sat, 27 Aug 2011 20:40:13 -0500

Whipped up this little list to better keep an eyeball on local hurricane doings:

Friday Cat Blogging: Mac OS X Maru

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 15:32:35 -0500

An homage to adorable, internets-famous Maru. The box-on-a-box is a nice touch.

Apple's practice of naming its OS upgrades after big cats has led to amusing parental computer support sessions. "What do I have? Tiger? How old is that? The geek guys from town told me I need a Leopard!" I love you, Dad.

Kudos @kookizu / via ModernCat

Monday Cheer: They Might Be Giants cover Chumbawumba

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 17:47:00 -0500

They Might Be Giants covers Chumbawamba's "Tubthumping"

Speaks for itself. Also claps while yelling in unison.

via The Onion AV Club