Free Talk Live

"Open Source Ecology is a network of farmers, engineers, and supporters that for the last two years has been creating the Global Village Construction Set, an open source, low-cost, high performance technological platform that allows for the easy, DIY fabrication of the 50 different Industrial Machines that it takes to build a sustainable civilization with modern comforts. The GVCS lowers the barriers to entry into farming, building, and manufacturing and can be seen as a life-size lego-like set of modular tools that can create entire economies."

See founder's TED presentation on front page.

Today I bring you a story that has it all: a solar-powered, low-cost, open source cellular network that's revolutionizing coverage in underprivileged and off-grid spots. It uses VoIP yet works with existing cell phones.

At TEDIndia, Pranav Mistry demos several tools that help the physical world interact with the world of data -- including a deep look at his SixthSense device and a new, paradigm-shifting paper "laptop".

In an onstage Q&A, Mistry says he'll open-source the software behind SixthSense, to open its possibilities to all.

We talk about National Open Carry Day and some of the acts of civil disobedience around the country. Is open carry to extreme, you decide? Activist's break bad laws to bring attention to them with peaceful open carry protests including a soldier going on a military base open carrying and an activist open carrying in a bar.

Oceanside, CA Police Officer stops open-carry, freedom to record advocate and... actually acts like a civilized human being. Not enough to convince me that we aren't living in a police state, but I think it's worth giving this cop some credit. He allows the open-carry, he almost encourages this guy's right to record the interaction. I'm concerned that guys like this might be making all the rest look good!
Note: It is legal in the state of California to open-carry a firearm as long as it is not loaded.

A Google engineer has released an open source Java client for the Bitcoin peer-to-peer currency system, simply called BitcoinJ.

Bitcoin community member with the avatar “mike” made the announcement earlier this month, stating BitcoinJ is not an “official” Google project, but something developed in the 20 per cent of time Google allows its staff to spend on personal projects.

Man walking to a restaurant while open-carrying gets stopped and held at gunpoint by state police, despite the fact that open carry is legal. Frustrates the police officers by not answering their questions.

A Carmarthenshire primary school is being told it must stay open at the cost of up to £110,000 - despite not having a single pupil.

education officials say the school must be ready to open in the autumn - with a fully paid head teacher.

DARPA's ACTUV program aims to develop new tools for anti-submarine warfare that include unmanned autonomous ocean-going vessels that can track quiet submarines hiding in the depths. But in order to figure out what tactics work (and don't work) for their ACTUV software, they need to test a variety of maneuvers and sub-hunting configurations in naval scenarios.