Make: Online: October 2005 Archives

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Archives: October 2005

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October 29, 2005

HOW TO - Make a (real) Pumpkin PC

Here's a photo diary explaining how a group of Makers made a PC using a real pumpkin as the case. The Pumpkin PC uses a Latitude D410 motherboard and red flashing fans for eyes. It would be cool in version 2 to have a LCD screen that pull Flickr photos with tagged Jack-o-lantern photos. [via] Link.

Jewelry made from electronic parts

Stunning collection of jewelry made from electronic parts. Capacitor necklaces, diode earrings, Cat5 bracelets - my fav "1.1MΩ Purple Resistor Necklace: Necklace created from 32 1.1MΩ resistors, their leads wrapped four times around a central ring to create this pattern, with additional resistors accenting the edges." [via] Link.

PC inside retro TV

ZSK made a great PC in retro TV case mod - "I managed to purchase a relatively cheap EPIA M board on eBay and set about looking for a case for it. In the end I found a great 1970s National "portable" television set (once again thanks to eBay) which I thought would make the perfect case for my first ever computer case mod." [via] Link.

Super Mario and friends - woven in fabric

It's really interesting to see the retro gaming characters start to appear in so many hip crafster projects lately. "mario and friends- for my weaving class we had to make a weaving about 5 yards long and 14 inches wide. we got to play around with weaving structures and what we used for our weft. i really enjoyed the technique brocade, so i decided to translate mario and some other characters into my weaving." [via] Link.

Programming The Nintendo Game Boy Advance...

Programming The Nintendo Game Boy Advance - This unique and highly-anticipated book was not released in book stores due to legal problems with Nintendo. As a result, the "e-book" edition is available here, exclusively, for free as a downloadable PDF e-book. [via] Link.

Tons of free stencils...

This site has a ton of free stencils to down, exacto out and use as you please. There are stencils for just about anything out there - Animals to Vegand & Vegetarian. [via] Link.

Gallery of photos taken with microscopes

Great photos from Nikon's "Small World - Gallery" - The Nikon International Small World Competition first began in 1974 as a means to recognize and applaud the efforts of those involved with photography through the light microscope. Since then, Small World has become a leading showcase for photomicrographers from the widest array of scientific disciplines... [via] Link.

HOW TO - get audio output on RS-232 (serial port)

Here's a really neat project that plays audio out of a PC serial port running Linux. It works by resampling audio to the baudrate of the serial port. Some comments on the site point out that this is a lot like the old days of TRS-80s, TI-85's and Sinclair ZX's when you wanted to get audio out of them. [via] Link.

Recycled beer bottle tumblers

These tumblers are made from old beer bottles - I think it's a really neat idea, but the price is a little steep ($25). What you could do is collect old / weird bottles and use a glass cutter to make your own tumblers, cups and classes for super cheap. Link.

Daylight Saving Time

Just a reminder (since I've been saved each year by someone reminding me)...It's daylight savings time, so on October 30th at 2am, roll your clocks back an hour. Lots of computers will likely do this on their own, but alarm clocks and other gadgets might not. [via] Link.

Dell SC420 PCI-Express Modification

Dell included a 16X PCI-E slot with the Dell SC420. Oddly only enough pins for an 8X card are present, and they placed 2 dividers preventing the use of a 16X card even though it's a 16X slot. Knocking out those two dividers and running a 16x card at 8x is the plan. With the minimal effects of 8X vs. 16X, this modification was a go! [via] Link.

Print photos on Flickr

Great news - you can now print photos directly on Flickr! "You can order prints to be delivered by mail, or pick them up at your local Target store for one hour printing, even. In both cases, you get 10 free 4x6" prints to get started." [via] Link.

Intel's Urban Atmospheres at the SFMoMA

Make pal Jacob hit the Urban Atmospheres presented by Intel. "Welcome to a party where the guests are tracked by RFID and their location is graphed overtime. They are represented by a baron a projected bar graph whose color changes depending on their location in the party. More information about this opening can be found on the Urban Atmospheres website." Link

GPS Hack - Pretec compactGPS serial modification

Pretec compactGPS serial modification - a description of how to modify the compactGPS to work with a standard serial port. This mod will allow you to use the device using your PDA serial port, a PC serial port, and a PDA/GPS car kit. [via] Link.

Macromedia Flash in the new Jaguar XK

About 5 years ago I wrote a few Macromedia Flash apps to be used in cars along with a "Flash and Telematics" article - besides my hacked up car the project didn't get any far. But! The new Jaguars will now use Macromedia for their user interfaces! "...audio, navigation, climate control, telephone and vehicle settings can all be adjusted making it a critical design component in the driving experience, now fully enhanced with screen graphics reminiscent of a quality website." No word, if you can put in your own . SWF files. [via] Link.

HOW TO - Hack power from your iPod Nano

Great iPod hack from Fabienne Serriere "For this week's Nano Hack we will cover how to get power off your iPod Nano’s battery. Power can be useful when you need to run other small low power devices in conjunction with the Nano. These devices can be small circuits, lights, etc. In next week’s installment we will use the power we draw to power a glowing sleeve for the iPod Nano." Link.

HOW TO - Setup RoundCube webmail on your server

Paul writes "You recently posted my article on how to ubuntu linux for novices, and now I've got another for you. In this how to I show you how to setup and tweak the latest AJAX webmail client that recently gained lots of buzz, RoundCube. It's easy to use, fast UI will make it a threat to Gmail, Kahuna and other webmail clients as it goes from alpha to beta." Link.

Tea Serving robot kit

This kit is made of computer designed precision modern materials, but is as close to the original design as possible. The driving force of the original tea-carrying doll came from a spring made of whale whiskers (actually whale teeth). All the other components, such as its gears, body and escapement for speed adjustments, were made of wood. How does it work? When a tea cup is placed on the tray, the stopper is released by the whale spring attached to the doll’s arms; the spring forces the stopper to engage again when the cup is lifted from the tray. [via] Link.

Translator may allow you to "switch your mouth to a foreign language"

Mr. Jou, a graduate student in language technologies at Carnegie Mellon University, was simply mouthing words in his native Mandarin Chinese. But 11 electrodes attached to his face and neck detected his muscle movements, enabling a computer program to figure out what he was trying to say and then translate his Mandarin into English. The result boomed out of a loudspeaker a few seconds later. [via] Link.

USB-Based Guitar shipping...

Brian Moore has taken their excellent iGuitar line of digitally-equipped guitars, and added class-compliant USB, via the new iGuitar.USB model. Plug it into a USB jack, and you have instant access to your sound in recording and effects software, no drivers required. Fully bus-powered, so you don't even need a power brick. Unlike Gibson's so-called "digital guitar," what's great about the iGuitar.USB is that you can connect a single USB cable between your guitar and your computer for audio: no breakout boxes or multiple cabling required. [via] Link.

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