Mini review: The $20 Griffin XpressCable digital audio cable for Airport Express is nice- if your looking to get the best quality audio from your AE (or iMac G5) to your stereo (with Toslink/Optical inputs) this worked out for me and it’s about half the price than the Monster cable version. Of course the other fun thing to do is to point a laser at it for science experiments. Link.
Waxy points to story about how Nintendo will be beaming demos wirelessly at E3. I don’t think there’s time to do a project around this before next week, but by next year we’ll likely have the ability to broadcast homebrew games, content and all sorts of things- for the DS and maybe the PSP depending on how all the hacks keep going. It could be a bit of war of the signals DIY vs demoware… Link.
In the Build your Own Arcade Controls Message forums there are tons of great ideas suggestions and how-tos- here’s on on flush mounting a Trackball. Frosty says “Basically, I set my router depth to match the depth of the top of the mounting plate (about 1/8″ of an inch), and routed the outline of the plate. When dropped into the recess, it sat flush with the top of the CP. The artwork was placed on the panel and mounting plate (covering it) and then Lexan on top of it“. Link.
The C64 DTV is a 30-in-1 Commodore 64 system for playing games using your TV. MAKE Flickr photo pool member bjepson hacked one up to use a PS2 keyboard. Photos here and project details here- Link. Pick up our 2nd issue of MAKE to get the thorough step by step and how-to!
Fun photo set of someone who’s gutted a monitor to turn it in to a low cost PC version of the iMac. It’s actually pretty amazing he managed to fit an entire computer inside the monitor case, although it does appear a lot of things were removed that may have served a useful purpose (like blocking radiation). Link.
This might be useful if you’re ever interested in building a high speed flash photography system. Two students used a procured BASIC micro-controller and bolt gun. With the aforementioned micro-controller, we simply had no choice but to build a flash timing mechanism to capture images of hot bolt-on-food action.Link.
The Juicebox is an embedded computer designed to form the core of a simple ebook/MP3 player device. This little guy can do a lot and here’s a site that has pretty much everything you’ll need to start hacking at it. For $50 or under it might be a good platform for projects, but I think the Gameboy SP has more things you can do with them (We have a great article on this in issue 02!) Link.
Extensive guide and resource on setting up your own soda fountain. I’d really like to make one of these one day, looks like post-mix is the way to go “For the vast majority of home users, the Post-mix system with ice bin will be the preferred method. The bin should be insulated, so you can get away with adding ice only every few days, or possibly even every week if the insulation is really good and you load the bin down with lots of ice”. Link.
SkypePTT from Usefulapps is a push to talk client for Skype to be used in conjunction with a Bluetooth enabled PC (the PC links to Skype, the phone is effectively used as a PTT headset). The obvious limitation ishat you need to remain within Bluetooth distance of your PC. Interesting, I’d like to see a client like this for all phones since it basically just makes your Bluetooth phone in to a headset. Link.
ExtremeTech has a good guide on setting up a Linux based home theater PC. The article details many of the ups and downs of setting up a system like this- they got everything working mostly (KnoppMyth distro) CDs, video, TV, guide viewing and show recording, weather and media libraries. In the end they have some good ideas for additions to the current distribution. Link.
Neat DIY-comment about the new Xbox 360. Henshaw expects the new faceplates to include game-themes and plenty of home grown versions. “There will be different colors, game-themed face plates, a lot of people making their own face plate with fabrics,” said Henshaw, who is growing a Chia plant on his 360′s faceplate. “What we found is that people tend to like electronics that allows them to be entertained the way they want to be entertained and people love the kind of device that allows them to make it a reflection of their own personality.”Link.
MAKE author William Lidwell had his work cut out for him when it came to selecting the winners in MakeShift 01, where readers were challenged with a scenario of being stranded far from civilization with a dead car battery. As he reports, “MAKE readers answered the challenge with audacity and vigor”.
If you have to be stranded with a dead battery, you’d be lucky to be stranded with a group of MAKE readers. Unless, of course, you were the one who left the lights on. Then they might just hang you over the side of a cliff as part of their solution…
