CYBER DUMP 33 / TETHERED DRONE, ADRIAN ASSISTANT, VR BACKPACK, BITMESSAGE 101
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Welcome to Cyber Dump number 33, your weekly look at what's happening in this insane age of technology that we live in. As always, all sources mentioned are below.

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

DIY

I saw this really cool Raspberry Pi battery pack project on hackaday recently, and thought you might enjoy it. I like the form factor, and the small footprint, which fits the Pi3 perfectly.

https://hackaday.io/project/18041-lifepo4wered18650

The ADRIAN, open source RPi assistant was released this week too. It seems to do many of the same things an Alexa or Google Home can. The code isn't available yet, but apparently it will be released soon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEnu-aotG2s
http://www.theadrianproject.com/

3D PRINTING

Researchers at the National Insitute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have recreated some of the sniffing power of canines by 3D printing a dog's nose, and adding it to detection systems. The nose shape is apparently 18 times more effective than regular systems at detecting different vapors.

http://www.3ders.org/articles/20161202-3d-printed-dog-nose-could-help-detect-explosives.html
http://www.nature.com/articles/srep36876
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eoN5akXbVg

DRONES

Lots of drone news this week. Firstly, defence company Northrop Grumman, and DARPA have developed Tern, a long range autonomous drone which can be launched from ships.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGoKR-xUa4s

Alexander Shtuchkin on Youtube also created an interesting prototype which automatically swaps depleted drone batteries with freshly charged ones. The landing and placement is done semi-autonomously with the help of infrared tracking.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GgB5qnx6_s

As well as that, Fotokite announced the Phi, a foldable, tethered drone, that's primarily used for video. I like the idea of a drone that can be thrown up easily, and I think the use-cases could extend outside of boring selfies too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FX1BpdAmRss
www.fotokite.com

VIRTUAL REALITY

Here's something I've never seen before. A company called Exit Reality has created virtual reality trucks that drive to various places, allowing members of the public to experience the technology. Pretty cool.

http://exit-vr.com/

In other VR news, Zotac released the VR Go, a computer in a backpack, which is supposed to rid users of annoying cables. In the long term, I wonder whether desktops will even play a role in VR, if smartphones continue to get more powerful.

http://vrscout.com/news/zotac-vr-backpack-pc/

THIS WEEK ON NODE

Two new videos this week. The first is the latest Dead Drop episode, covering what's happening in the cypherpunk worlds. I also made a Bitmessage 101 video, covering some of the fundamentals for how the P2P messaging technology works, and why it could be important.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWT3LgSMEwU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lJaVRQRsr4

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BY NODE