Homemade Stylus that works on tablets and touch screen phones!!!

         I love to play on my ipod touch during free time. I love drawing. But I hate drawing on my ipod toutch. There is this fun application for Apple devices called draw something which I love to play with my friend. We both are supposed to pick out of three things to draw and send it to one another so that we can guess. But the problem is, you don't have much control when drawing with your fingers so the pictures turn out messy. One thing that you can use to help drawing easier would be a stylus. But styluses that are manufactured are expensive.
         
         So I decided to look up online some instructions to make a simple stylus. I finally came a across one website (link at bottom of post) that showed me how to make my own stylus. All you need is a cotton swab, a cup of water, and tin foil. Heres how to make it:
  
       1.) Cut out a strip of tin foil (enough to wrap around the cotton 
                         swab, but not on top of the cotton)

       2.) Wrap the foil around the cotton swab (make sure the foil         
                         touches  the cotton but doesn't cover up the cotton)

       3.) Dip the cotton completely in water.

       4.) Enjoy your stylus!!! :) ^.^


                 Here is the link: http://www.labnol.org/gadgets/make-stylus-pen/19872/ 

2nd Star Party on Vista Hill

               On Saturday June 23rd I attended my first star party. On Saturday July 21st I attended my second star party. This one went a lot differently then I expected it to be. For one thing, two of my friends also came along so I had more company. But the drive to Foothill Park on Vista Hill had not gone as we expected. We left home at 7:30p.m. The Star Party would start at 8 o clock and the park entrance would close at 8:30. We took the same 280 North highway. But the GPS made us take a different exit from the one we took last time. So we came to a hill the we had to drive up. We soon ended up at a three way fork in the road at 7:45. We took one of the forks that went high up the hill. The GPS kept  telling us to go up the hill till it finally found our destination at 8:00. However, there was no entrance into the park. So we decided to keep going up. We finally reached the top at 8:25 finding no entrance into the park. We were thinking that perhaps we missed it. So we went down for a bit till we reached the place where the GPS said the destination was. But we still didn't find the entrance. So we decided to call up my friend (at 8:30) who had already reached the park. They were about to give us the the address to the place when the phone got cut of. So we decided to keep going down till we reach the highway and take the exit we took last time. When we came back to the fork we realized that we took the wrong fork.   So we took one heading a bit downwards. We finally reached the park entrance at 8:45. We were able to enter the park from a different entrance.


               Soon we found a parking space and had diner with my friends. Then my friends and I went up to see the telescopes. We first went to two telescopes that showed us Saturn. Then we went to some others in the back. There were two young cousins that had memorized the star chart and knew where many stars, planets, and constellations were.  They showed us Vega, M28, Saturn, and some other cool stars. Then we met another man that showed us nebulas, more m things, the sky cross which is a constellation shaped like a cross, and some other constellations.He also showed us the stars of the great dipper. When he was explaining how stars were born we saw a shooting star. It was my first one cause I allways miss them. This one was very bright and made a sound. Then we went back to the cars and started naming some constillations. Some included two story apartment, cheese, shopping cart, and toyota Prius. We finally went back home with happy memories and were glad that we found our way to the Star Party. 

A Sunset from Vista Hill. 

         
            

Star Party on VIsta Hill, Palo Alto

On Saturday June 23rd, I attended my first Star Party. But for me, used to the elaborate kind of party, this felt more like a hike then a party. You were allowed to eat diner you made at home there. There were no party games, food, or presents. But the party was overflowing with different types of telescopes. Why??? Well its a Star Party. At these festives that occur every 2 weeks (AT DIFFERENT LOCATIONS) , members of the Peninsula Astronomical Society gather with their telescopes to do some star gazing! There are many refracting and reflecting telescopes available to look through. That night, which was pretty cloudy, we saw  a 17% waxing crescent moon. We were able to see one of the moons newest white craters. I forgot its name, but I know that it starts with an 'a'. I also got to see Saturn a few of its 82 moons!!!!!! It was so bright through the telescope. I also got to see a few stars such as Vega.

          
              One man showed us how to operate a telescope. He showed us how to set the telescope with a meter to a position that could automatically show us  a celestrial body. The man also showed us how to take pictures through a telescope. The trick to get a clear shot of something is to capture as much light as you can. Then on your camera, you can zoom in on a object to see it better.

Dusk sky on Vista Hill 

            After two hours of star gazing we went home. I can't wait till the next star party!!!! Who knows what else I might see.!!!! ^.^ 




         

Telescope for viewing the moon.

   




            

Economic Crisis

Comics About the Economic Crisis  
  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Google's Driverless Car

Google, the one and only, has again made another enormous leap to the future. Google has programmed a software on laptops that can drive a car!!! The software uses Google Street View with artificial intelligence software that combines input from video cameras inside the car, a LIDAR sensor on top of the vehicle, radar sensors on the front of the vehicle and a position sensor attached to one of the rear wheels that helps locate the car's position on the map. The sensor that is attached to the top of the car detects the cars surrounding including other vehicles, street signs, and traffic lights.  I learned about this on the TV show Brave World on the Science Channel. Interesting topic. Watch the show!!!!

A Toyota Prius with a LIDAR sensor on top

          

Google Street View























Here is the episode of Brave World I saw: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J17Qgc4a8xY 

  


       Here is a Wikipedia article on the car:                  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_driverless_car 

Spotify

So who is Spotify anyway???? -.-''''''''' OK!!!! So what is Spotify anyways??? Spotify is an AWESOME application you can download for FREE on your PC, laptop, phone, tablets ect. But what type of application???? ITS AN APPLICATION FOR MUSIC!!!!! Spotify allows you to listen to music. You can check out top on the charts, radio stations, or make your own playlists. I use it a lot and it works very well. I like it very much. You can even share music with others thanks to Facebook. I don't do that though cause its my moms account I use, and its her Facebook account that is used. And I anyways don't have a Facebook account. So please do try it out!!!

Here is the link to the Spotify website: http://www.spotify.com/us/

Here is the link to download Spotify: http://www.spotify.com/us/get-spotify/overview/

Here is an image for how the app looks:

COMMENT READERS!!!!!

HI EVERYONE THAT READS THIS (DON'T KNOW ALL YOUR NAMES)!!!!!!! PLEASE COMMENT ON  ALL MY POSTS (YOU DON'T HAVE TO ON THIS ONE). I REALLY WANT FEEDBACK OR HOW YOU LIKED :) MY POSTS. YEAH....THATS ALL. BYE BYE!!!!!
                         ^.^

                                        

Mafia

There is this AWESOME and addicting game that requires nothing but a minimum of three players. Its called Mafia (no, its not a violent game). YES ITS FREE!!!!! I learned it a few years ago, and I never knew that I'd still love it considering my fickle nature. All you need is a brain (just for creativity) and a minimum of 3 players (though "more the merrier" does apply to this game). I wish I can tell you how to play, but it takes FOREVER for me to explain the rules. But its a really simple game. Here is a wikipedia link to a whole lecture of the game (the rules are listed there to) : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mafia_game .
                   You can even make modifications to the game as well!!! Tip for people playing with three people: even the narrator MUST have another role. Yep!!! Thats all I have to say about this game. Its really fun and you must try it!!!! 

Lick Observatory on Mt. Hamilton

The first "outing" I had this summer was my trip to Lick Observatory on Mt. Hamilton. I went on June 16th to the quiet mountain top telescope. The trip is approximately 32 miles from Sunnyvale, about an hour and two minutes by car. Driving on the mountain is vigorous. You first drive on Quimby road that continues on top of the first hill you pass. The road is wide at first when you are passing the schools. But when getting on the actual hill, the road narrows and gets emptier. You then merge onto the actual Mt. Hamilton. You continue on Mt. Hamilton road till you reach the observatory. Radio signals on top are crystal clear as well as the noise in general  on top of the mountain. It is very hot on Mt. Hamilton.You need sunglasses to look at the Observatory, a round white building that looks like a door knob. Inside the observatory, you can look at pictures of the observatory, view a video about Mr. Lick, take a tour of the telescope, or check out the gift shop. During the summer, you can check out the starry night concerts where you can also take a good look through the telescope. Lick Observatory is free. SO GO THERE!!! ;) 

Lick Observatory

Telescope

Lick Observatory was the world's first permanently occupied mountain-top observatory. The observatory, in a Classical Revival style structure, was constructed between 1876 and 1887, from a bequest from James Lick. In 1887 Lick's body was buried under the future site of the telescope, with a brass tablet bearing the inscription, "Here lies the body of James Lick".

The 36-inch (91 cm) refracting telescope on Mt. Hamilton was Earth's largest refracting telescope during the period from when it saw first light on January 3, 1888, until the construction of Yerkes in 1897. Warner & Swasey designed and built the telescope, with the 36-inch lens done by Alvan Clark & Sons.

In May 1888, the observatory was turned over to the Regents of the University of California.