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Archives: November 2005

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November 29, 2005

Sonic teenager repellant

This guy invented a device that he says emits sounds only young people can hear - it's used to chase them away and stop them from doing bad things. Nooo!! Not the Ludwig Van, and the dreaded Ninth Symphony! "Howard Stapleton, inventor of the Mosquito, with a speaker mounted on the wall behind him, at a store in Barry, Wales, where boisterous teenagers once gathered. The device projects a very shrill and very annoying tone that only youths can hear. Then they flee." Thanks Nick! Link.

Powerbook Tattoo

Here's a Flickr photo set of another laser etched Powerbook - this one looks like a really intricate scene with the Maker's initials. I really like this design as it uses the light up Apple as the centerpiece. Nice work! Link.

Linux Scarf

Here's something you can make for any Linux lover at heart. A knit scarf complete with Linux logo and penguin. In the true spirit of open source, you'll find the complete pattern and logo charts to help you get started right away! Link

Ask The Mythbusters

Slashdot is inviting folks to post their questions for the Mythbusters - not sure if it's too late, but have at it! - "Who are the Mythbusters? Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman are the hosts of a unique and popular television show on the Discovery cable channel. Working from a background in the special effects industry and shooting on location at effects warehouse M5 Industries, Jamie and Adam attempt to shed light on hearsay, rumour, and myth. Along the way they usually run across a little bit of science, too."... Link.

MIT's $100 laptop to run Redhat

"The $100 laptop designed by the Massachusetts Institute for Technology (MIT) and the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) association, previewed at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) conference in Tunisia last week, will be using a Redhat Linux variant as its operating system." [via] Link. The article also mentions there might be $200 versions for the general public to purchase.

PSP Firmware v2.60 Released

Sony has a new release of the PSP firmware, this one is 2.60 and it actually has some interesting features. This latest update's main features include WMA support, DRM capabilities, and a RSS Reader. The RSS reader makes the PSP one of the few MP3 players that can get and play podcasts via Wi-Fi without a computer. Review here and the update will hit your PSP via network update or here. On a side note, what is up with this PSP graffiti?

November 28, 2005

TiVo Beta supports podcasting...

Neat, podcasting on TiVo - I hope it will download more content based on traffic conditions, then you sync that to your music player. David Zatz says "TiVo is beefing up their HME offerings by centrally hosting applications and partnering with Yahoo! Yahoo! weather, traffic, and photos are available by entering your account info on the TiVo box. Also being tested are Internet radio (Live365), the podcaster application I previewed at Digital Life, Fandango movie tickets, and some various games. TiVo's beta is scheduled to continue testing into early 2006." [via] Link.

HOW TO - Make Flipbooks

A couple free ways to make flip books - PC: "Flipbook Printer is a program that lets you make your own printed "Flipbooks" from avi movie files using business cards. Makes a great present - have the kids send a flipbook of them waving hello to the grandparents, or send your loved one a movie of you smiling or blowing them a kiss. It's the ultimate in low-tech movie making!" Link. For Macs try "Movie Flipper".

DIY Xbox 360 glitch fixes

"Early users of Microsoft's Xbox 360 are coming up with innovative ways to fix some of the first reported glitches plaguing the new videogame console. One of the fixes involves dangling the unit's power supply in midair with string...Other 360 owners joined in, saying that once they cooled down overheated power units -- by using fans or in one case, a half-filled bottle of frozen water -- their consoles stopped crashing." [via] Link.

Soda + Mentos = The Soda fountain

Here's a fun Google video of what happens when you put Mentos in soda (you might want to mute the sound). The video doesn't explain how it works, but there's an overview here "Mentos contain sugar, glucose syrup (more sugar), hydrogenated coconut oil, starch, gum arabic, an emulsifier and natural flavor. The gum arabic which makes Mentos chewy, cause the surface tension of the water molecules to break even more easily, releasing more carbon dioxide gas. This effect is enhanced by the fact that, as the candy dissolves, it forms nucleation sites -- tiny pits on the surface of the mint where more carbon dioxide bubbles can form. When all this gas is released, it thrusts the entire contents of the bottle skyward, in an incredible soda blast." Link to video.

IR control from USB?

Gene is looking for a scriptable USB-IR controller - "So far I have not been able to find such an animal. I bought the first generation of Robosapian. The robot from wowwe toys. It comes with a real crazy remote control. You have to press many keys in certain combinations to make the robot do anything. If I could program a dynamic IR device with the codes and then create scripts.. It would be possible for me to make my robot do all kinds of neat things. Also I am into doing time lapse videos. That is where you setup a camera and let it run for about an hour.. I throw the video into my computer and use the editing software to speed things up. That is fine.. But I have an Olympus 8mp digital SLR camera. It also has an IR control out. A programmable IR device as I described above would really help me out with my camera. I could setup a high resolution picture every 15 seconds using a laptop on location replacing the IR controller. This would produce a very high quality time lapse once I put it in my editing software." I think the USB-UIRT might be a good start, any other suggestions for Gene? Link.

iSock Knit Patterns

Just in time for the holidays, Macworld UK has published some iSock knit patterns by Sally Kentfield. There are 3 different patterns to choose from including this Santa iSock pattern. Great gift ideas especially for those new video iPods. Macworld article. Link.

HOW TO - Building a better Tall Bike

Great bike hack on Instructables from Maxwell - "How to Build a Tall Bike, one that you can stop safely, and could be construed as street legal in most places. With this method, you'll be able to stand over the bike, allowing you to hop down easily, have two brakes, a full complement of gears, And have a better riding position than two bikes stacked on top of eachother. You'll only destroy one bike, The top portion is bolted to the bottom bike, so if it breaks, or you get tired of it, the bottom bike can be reverted to normal. All in all I think this makes for a suprisingly sane tall bike. Not that you'll look any less the madman riding it through traffic." Link.

Cheaper veggie diesel...

In MAKE 03 we showed you how to make your own biodiesel, and now there appears to be a big breakthrough lowering the costs to get the esters "Japanese scientists may have found a cheaper and more efficient way to produce "biodiesel." The renewable, vegetable oil-based fuel can be used in conventional diesel engines, which are found in about 2 percent of cars currently sold in the U.S. and in about 40 percent in Europe." [via] Link. Also - listen to our interview with a biodiesel Maker.

Making Red Lights for Astronomical Observing

Mike writes "While LED circuits are pretty simple by Make standards, they are essential to amateur astronomers. This is because red light affects the human eye less than other colors, allowing astronomers to see their gear without destroying their night vision. This article shows how easy it is to create red LED light sources and give some examples of how to use them, including map readers, flash lights and interior lights for an eyepiece case." Link.

The Solar Powered Coffee Roaster

Saul sent this along from David Hartkop, a Solar coffee roaster inventor - "My brother Mike is a 'classically trained' coffee roaster, and I invented a solar-powered coffee roaster for him. We've been selling coffee online for a year at solarroast.com and I'm designing a bigger machine to build in the garage in Oregon for this summer. It concentrates 4.5 KW of solar thermal energy on a fully sunny day, and is manually trackable 360 degrees azimuth and 90 degrees zenith. The motors of the roaster are powered by photovoltaics, and he can crank out around 7 lb of coffee an hour. (in 2 lb batches)." Check out this awesome photo of the solar roaster!

Using an Oscilloscope

Ever wonder what an Oscilloscope is? Or how to use one? Here's a good guide on getting starting "An oscilloscope is easily the most useful instrument available for testing circuits because it allows you to see the signals at different points in the circuit. The best way of investigating an electronic system is to monitor signals at the input and output of each system block, checking that each block is operating as expected and is correctly linked to the next. With a little practice, you will be able to find and correct faults quickly and accurately." Link.

Make a "book wall hanging"

Great Instructable on making your own book wall hanging. I saw this in person a couple weeks ago, and I'm making a few as gifts for the holidays! - "Take one of the many beautiful books available at project Gutenberg and convert it into a wall sized readable book. Makes great gifts for the literary types in your life. This is the complete text of Flatlands, and how to generate and print it, at 60 x 42 inches. That's huge! Take a look at the PDF." Link.

Building a marble shooting airgun

Interesting page documenting a homemade air rifle (also check out the potato cannon) - "Air guns are normally small air powered rifles that shoot relatively small projectiles, primarily used for target practice. Usually, they are pumped up with an internal cylinder, activated by hinging the barrel towards the stock. My home made air guns experiments however take their lineage more from potato gun technology than target practice rifles." [via] Link.

HOW TO - Revive your old remote

Chris writes "Remote controls are a consumption product. They fall in the floor, the get coffee spilled over them, the get stepped on (maybe not..) - and they wear out. In this how-to we will show you how to revive your remote by swapping the buttons around. Easier then you think actually." Link.