Like many of you, I used to make pots. Back when I was in elementary school. Back when getting dirty was the best thing ever, and “art” was something you did when your parents wanted rid of you for an hour or two. To their credit, my parents still have some of my misshapen failures on display back at home, but I’ve grown out of it. This video kinda made me think it might be fun to make one of these DIY USB pottery wheels and give it another shot, since a spinning platter full of wet mud is exactly what I want right next to my USB ports. Now all I need is a USB kiln…
It’s a well-known fact that I like naps. It’s also a well known fact that I hate waking up from naps. We’ve seen clocks that shake you, hide from you, or even electrocute you, but I feel confident that my brain would not be required to defeat any of those. The Turing alarm clock was designed to require the owner to prove awakeness by answering a series of math questions. It’s too bad I can’t do math in my head even while fully conscious, but come to think of it, it would be pretty cool if you could program this clock with other questions as well… Say you need to study for a bio test; just program the clock to not shut off until you answer a series of bio questions correctly. If, like me, you’ll do anything to shut the damn thing off, you’re guaranteed to learn whatever it takes to answer those stupid questions and get back to sleep.
I know Hasbro released an ‘Ultimate Lightsaber’ kit that allowed you to mix and match pieces and build your own custom lightsaber, but it was made of plastic and just didn’t have the appeal of the Force FX series from Master Replicas. So I was pretty surprised to discover that MR actually has a similar kit for building your own custom Force FX saber.
The kit includes 3 pommels, 3 handles, 3 center bands, 3 front bodies, 3 emitters and a tri-color blade capable of switching between red, green and blue. While all those components give you over 1000 possible combinations, the downside is that the blade is only illuminated by a single LED, which means you won’t get the nifty ‘rising out of the hilt’ effect when you power it on. However it still has all the motion activated sound effects, and since all the pieces are machined from metal, the final product will look a lot cooler than what you could build with the Hasbro set.
Just keep in mind that the Master Replicas’ Star Wars license has expired, meaning the Force FX Lightsaber kit is only available in limited quantities. So if you consider yourself a real fan, you’d better head over to Amazon where you can find one for $99.99.
Last January was a trying time for our great nation. Apparently a couple of terrorists went around placing false bombs all over major cities in an attempt to scare us into submission. Of course, the citizens of these cities were too smart, and quickly realized that these were merely LED signs flipping the bird. Well, except for the people of Boston, they feared for their lives.
We of course all know that this was merely a promotion for the Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie, and not some terrorist plot to instill fear in the masses. In apparent celebration of the one year anniversary of this amusing day, the folks over at Evil Mad Scientist have put together a DIY guide to make your own scary LED sign. Think of it as a really cool Lite Bright.
When I think about it, I spend more time playing with the NintendoDS than all the other consoles in my apartment. (As is evident by the newly discovered crack in one of the hinges.) I think it’s mostly because it’s the easiest system to just pick up and play, so I’m fairly intrigued by this piece of software called XtenDS which allows anyone to design their own ‘homebrew’ game thanks to an easy to use GUI interface.
The software includes support for sound effects, music, sprites, backgrounds, menu and option screens and even has more advanced functionality like a fully working collision system and an advanced scripting language. Just keep in mind you’ll need to have a homebrew cart like the CycloDS in order to load your creations onto your DS. (Or an emulator on your PC.) And there’s a good chance if you already have one of these carts, you’ve probably already found a way to get cheap games. But if you’ve had an idea brewing in the back of your head for the next great DS title, but lack the necessary programming skills to bring it to fruition, XtenDS could help make it a reality.
Popular Mechanics has published a list of 25 skills that every man should know, and each one includes a mini-tutorial complete with easy to follow graphics and photos where applicable. And given it’s Popular Mechanics you might think they’re all about how to weld, or rebuild your transmission, but thankfully that’s not the case. The list actually includes tutorials covering a wide range of useful skills like patching a radiator hose, retouching digital photos, navigating with a map and compass and even extending your wireless network.
In fact I’m not even sure why Popular Mechanics feels these are skills that only men should know. Do they plan on releasing a similar list for women that covers skills like churning butter, quilting or even getting those pesky stains out? Hopefully they remembered to change their clocks from 1908 to 2008 yesterday.
There are a few other skills I wish they had covered though. Like how to find interesting content to write about during a slow, pre-major-trade-show news week. Oh, and how to wrestle a bear. You’d be surprised how often that comes up during an average week for me.
If you’ve ever gotten into the guts of a computer, you probably know that a huge amount of effort is put into getting rid of excess heat. Heat-spewing processors are attached to a radiator with some gunk called thermal grease, which transfers the heat away from the processor die. The efficiency of the grease can make a sizable difference in the operating temperature of your computer, allowing you to either overlock a bit more, or turn your fans down. Arctic Silver has long been the standard high-performance thermal compound, but apparently, diamond dust does a much better job.
This article shows you how to make and apply your own diamond dust thermal compound, but here’s the nutshell: diamond dust is cheap, and 5 grams (25 carats) will set you back about $30. Alternatively, feel free to grind up any diamonds you find lying around the house. Along with a few other basic materials, you can mix up the compound yourself. The article says that a system that idled at 42C with Arctic Silver would idle at 29C with the diamond dust, and under load, the temperature dropped from 57C to 38C. That’s, what, an increase in efficiency of over 30%? Pretty spectacular, if you ask me.
Imagine how much easier the holidays would be if setting up and decorating a Christmas tree was as easy as pushing a button. No tinsel all over the place, no lights to hang, no ornaments to break, none of that hassle. Well unfortunately this DIY Christmas tree projector is about as close as you can get to that dream at the moment.
The projected tree includes red and white flashing lights and can be resized on the fly to fit any room by just moving the projector closer or farther from the wall. Construction seems pretty easy too, if you have a basic grasp of electronics and soldering:
It uses three LED’s, the green light stays on and forms the image of the tree. The Red and White LED’s flash on and off randomly like lights on a real tree would. The flashing is controlled my a Picaxe 08M micro. The unit is powered by a 9v battery regulated with a 78L05. The body of the unit is made from a plastic pipe the ends are cut out of thin plywood.
I’d actually like to see something like this taken to the extreme where instead of a bat-symbol being blasted into the night sky, you’d see a giant blinking Christmas tree. And instead of delivering presents, Santa was some kind of awesome vigilante crime-fighter. I hope Alan Moore is reading this.
There’s a bit of satisfaction that comes with recycling an empty pop can, since you know you’re doing your part to help the environment. But I imagine there’s even more satisfaction if you turned that empty can into a robot instead! So this Soda Can Robot Kit includes almost everything you’ll need to convert that can into a sort of insect-like robotic creature.
What’s even better is that the kit doesn’t require soldering or any prior knowledge of robots to put it together. So even if you still have “get advanced degree in robotic engineering” on your to-do list (I’ll get around to it some day!) you’ll be able to get it running in no time. Of course once it’s assembled don’t expect it to come to life like Johnny 5 or anything. From what I can tell it will just vibrate and jitter around your desk, but that’s still better than having the empty can just sitting there.
You can find it at ThinkGeek for $12.99, soda can not included.
When art meets technology, even in a very oblique fashion, we get interested. Particularly when it’s something as beautiful as this PC case made by Mr. Valerie Beetle from Pervomayske in Ukraine. Sadly for us, the page on which this was found is written in either Russian or Ukraininan and details of this masterpiece are shrouded in linguistic mystery. We suspect this image has been around for a while, so we’re not claiming any kind of breaking news here. But we figured some of you might enjoy this.
Few more pictures after the jump, as well as links. If anyone wants to follow through and translate some of that for us, that’d be great.
Related Tags: 
Permalink | 
No Comments
Imagine how much easier the holidays would be if setting up and decorating a Christmas tree was as easy as pushing a button. No tinsel all over the place, no lights to hang, no ornaments to break, none of that hassle. Well unfortunately this DIY Christmas tree projector is about as close as you can get to that dream at the moment.
