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Archives: November 2005

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November 30, 2005

Book Binding

Comic artist Toby takes you through the step-by-step process of binding your own book as he works on the assembly line to put together his comics for a MoCCA event. There are tons of photos and descriptions on the whole process. Link.

Bait and Switch Camera Stores...

Most Makers I know are usually thrifty (in a good way) and on the prowl for a good deal, but be careful...Today will likely go down in web history as another example of just how quick and bad things can get online - we've lived through the Kryptonite bic pen lock swarm, the recent Sony Rootkit and now read the story of someone who may have discovered when those low-cost camera sites have deals that seem too good to be true, they usually are. Link. If you're a fan of Digg, this saga is the most "Dugg" story along with the most comments, ever. It will be interesting to see what happens next...

Treehugger round up...

Our pals from Treehugger sent in their weekly round up - "An office chair made from an Audi driver's seat. Cant afford an electric scooter? Try a dog-powered one. And, we find lamps made from recycled plastic bottles..."

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Build a Magnetic Ball Levitator for $20

"There's a super article in Popular Electronics, May 1996, pp 48-52, 78, titled "Build a Magnetic Ball Levitator", by James Cicon. It describes how to build an electromagnet with an optical sensor which will keep a hollow steel ball floating in the air about 1/4" below the electromagnet. This is like the globe of the earth which is suspended in air under an electromagnet that can be purchased for about $125. The material costs for this project is only about $20." Link.

HOW TO - Build a Home Terabyte Backup System Using Linux

Wow, this will likely be commonplace in just a few years..."Build a low-cost, terabyte-sized backup server using Linux and back up your digital audio files, digital images and digital movie recordings. A terabyte-plus backup and storage system is now an affordable option for Linux users. This article discusses options for building and configuring an inexpensive, expandable, Linux-based backup server." Link.

The Big Idea...

MAKE's special projects editor David Pescovitz wrote a great article for Salon about "Big Ideas" in tech, including a section on the Maker mindset. "Robugs, biologically based software, the GeoWeb, transgenic art and other hot frontiers in technological innovation." I really enjoyed it. Oh, when you click the link, you have to "click here and watch a brief ad" to get to the article unless you have a Salon account....Link.

The Home-Built Effect Processor Express

"What you see before you is an OPEN DSP system. People are currently using it to create some of the most ORIGINAL-SOUNDING EFFECTS and INSTRUMENTS in the world, since its architecture is open. Its users tweak, modify, CUSTOMIZE, improve and develop the software it comes with. It's inexpensive and can be quite portable. It runs MIDI or connects to your Palm Pilot. Some programs don't require either to make fun and useful effects." [via] Link.

DIY Retro cellphone handset

Bill writes "When I saw the retro-phone handset on thinkgeek I knew I wanted one. Then I realized they wanted $30+ for it, and I thought to myself -- I can build that. So after some cutting, testing, and building I have finished my Retro-Cell phone handset, and I will show you how you can build your own for under $10.00" Link.

Another DIY iSight tripod mount

Here's another version of the DIY iSight tripod we posted earlier - Tguignar writes "I had a small metal adaptor made for me Friday afternoon at the shop we have at work - basically a small rectangle of some kind of iron magnets attach to with two holes in them, one of them threaded to fit the standard camera tripod screw. Sure enough, it works like a charm." Link.

PAiA Synth kit founder John Simonton...

"Godfather of DIY synths" John Simonton died today, a pioneer in synthesizer kits and founder of PAiA. His work continues to have a following today, including many wild instrumental creations. He'll be sorely missed in the music/Maker community." Link and Link.

Make your own Canon Digital Rebel remote

Here's how to make your own Canon Digital Rebel XT remote. "Instead of paying $20+ for a fragile remote on a short cable that has less features, I picked up about $10 in parts from Fry's." The article has a link to a how-to PDF and example photos. Link.

DIY $22 Stereo Digital Camera

John writes "When I first saw the Dakota disposable cameras at a locals camera store I knew I'd be buying a few so I could make a camera that only exists in my dreams, a digital stereo camera. After seeing the Use the (PureDigital) Dakota Digital Camera with your PC, I ran out and bought a few of these $11 dollar gems and set to work hacking them up. I figured I'd write up how I did it in case anyone else wants to try it themselves. It's a pretty easy hack all things told, but still darn cool." Link.

Meet the Blinkybugs

Obeyken writes "Electronic / kinetic bug art. I build these small, insect-like sculptures with simple motion-detecting "antennae" that respond to various stimulus such as movement, vibration, or air currents. When picked up, handled, or otherwise stimulated, the bug comes to life as its LED eyes blink rhythmically. I have one sitting on my monitor right now that blinks as I type. They're constructed from LEDs, bits of wire, guitar strings, and coin-cell batteries (the PCB battery holder is the bug's "body"). My original plan was to deploy them throughout San Francisco as a sort of "electronic graffiti" but thus far they haven't survived too long in the wild..." Link. You could also make your own, the design is the how-to.

TuneBuds - Shuffle - USB audio

Griffin has a nice new product hack, they tapped the USB on the iPod Shuffle and it's now both the lanyard and headphones in one - nice work "TuneBuds keep both the earbuds and shuffle handy around the wearer's neck. Just snap TuneBuds onto the shuffle's USB connector, and you're up and running (or dancing). TuneBuds' audio cable, integrated into the lanyard, keeps you free of excess cords and tangled lines." Link.

November 29, 2005

More wall art made from book text...

McWhizzleteeth has a follow up how-to on making two-tone text for wall posters made from the text of books - "The "Origin of the Species - wall hanging" project makes a nice use of opacity masks in Illustrator, embedding an image in a field of text by changing the opacity throughout. But pulling this off can be difficult to figure out. This guide will run you through the steps to embed an image in a field of text merely by changing the opacity of the text itself." Link.

The Rocketeer's Toolbox

Ever wanted to know what's in a Rocket Maker's toolbox? Stefan shows you! "Estes Industries, the 44 year old model rocket company, is now publishing its newsletter, "Model Rocket News," as a webzine. The current issue includes a piece I wrote called "The Rocketeer's Toolbox." It features numerous photos of well-used items from my own toolbox." Link.

Modded Xbox 360

That was quick, meet one of the first modd'ed Xbox 360s complete with - a window mod, 4" cold cathode, 12V fan mod (increase air flow), Silver and blue paint scheme, Blue ring of light, 60GB laptop drive upgrade (this is in addition to the 20GB normal 360 drive both can be, accessed from the dashboard and the upgrade drive can be updated with media from a PC) [via] Link.

Mozilla Firefox 1.5 is out...

The new version of the best browser in the world, Firefox, is out. I just installed it, it's faster, seems snappier and everything works as far as extensions except GreaseMonkey, but you can download a version from here that does work with 1.5. You can also make old extensions work with this little trick too. Last up, check out this great discussion on what extensions folks are using over on our Radar blog.

Video podcast tour of Squid Labs

The MAKE team visited Squid Labs in Emeryville, CA - Squid Labs designs chips, electronics, robotics, materials, embedded systems, manufacturing processes as well as recently launching Instructables. Saul Griffith was kind enough to give us a tour of their work shop, fab lab and some of their projects. We're trying this out as an iPod video podcast, check the comments for other versions too Link to M4V (iPod video). To get our videos and audio sent automatically to your PC/Mac with iTunes click here and click SUBSCRIBE.

Overheated consoles not really new...

Airship reminds us that overheated new gaming systems, like the Xbox 360s aren't really that new, take a trip down console gaming past..."Early Commomdore 64s had a similar problem with overheating brick power supplies. Commodore ended up beefing up the power supply dramatically. In the meantime, a healthy 3rd party market sprang up for replacement power supplies. Maybe Microsoft is just trying to stimulate the growth of 3rd party support for the Xbox?" Link.

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