Make: Online: February 2006 Archives

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Archives: February 2006

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February 28, 2006

PSP Homebrew Flash Player! (with photos!)

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They weren't kidding! Here it is - a Flash / SWF render / player for the PSP, made for, and by, the PSP homebrew community! - "The current version supports most action script through version 7 and runs on 1.5 only. We are currently testing for 2.x PSPs and will announce when it is working on 2.x firmwares. If someone gets it working, be sure to let us know." - Link.

Pictured, here I tried it on my 1.5 PSP and it works.

Keep reading for more photos of what ran, for your old timers, I used the files from Flashenabled the book - and they worked...wild!

Read full story

Roomba Hacking - Gamepad Control

Oliver, Sean & David have an awesome Roomba project - a Roomba Discovery carrying a wireless router being remotely controlled via a gamepad, they're going to post some tutorials and code soon, so for now enjoy the videos and photos - Link.

More images in their Roomba Gallery - Link.

See previous Roomba projects and how tos - Link.

Investigating the Nabaztag - WiFi bunny

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The Nabaztag is a cool little robotic WiFi enabled rabbit that will react to email, RSS and other data - they're only sold in Europe, but MAKE pal Harper not only managed to get his hands on one, but he took it apart, lots of fun, robo bunny guts and surprises - Link.

Flickr photos - Link.
Video on YouTube - Link.

February 27, 2006

How Stuff works on Google video...

There are dozens of great videos on Google video from "How stuff Works" - from how tvs work to how mufflers work, you could spend hours watching them all - Link.

HOW TO - Make a cheapPod

Radiorental writes - "I recently fried my mp3 player. One tiny little Linear Technologies chip had its part number blown off, so a $250 player is of no use because I cant replace a $0.50 part, that bums me out. So, what to do with a perfectly good 40G Tosh 1.8" HD? Stick it in a HD broken iPod off Ebay." Link.

Previous iPod projects, how tos and hacks - Link.
Projects from Instructables - Link.
Mod Your Pod in DIY: Mobile, Enhance your iPod with a Linux upgrade. Info and article (page 139) MAKE volume 02.

CD/DVD cases made with old 5 1/4 floppy disks

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Jarabito show how simple and easy it is to use old floppy disks as CD/DVD cases - "With old 5 1/4 floppy disks you can make cases for your cd & DVDs. You can use colors too! I bought them in a garage sales (1000 floppys for u$s 2). Only needs scicssors and adhesive tags for naming them..." Link.

See past CD/DVD case projects - Link.
See more projects from Instructables - Link.

HOW TO - Put DVDs on your iPod video

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Wired has a short how to on getting your purchased DVDs on to your iPod video (PCs only) [via] Link.

Pictured here, iPod video with movies from purchased DVDs - good to go.

Related:
Put your DVDs on your iPod video (Mac) - Link.
Tons of iPod articles, projects and how tos - Link.

Shotgun shell chair

I have a shotgun shell vase, but this chair blows it away - "...over 450 .12 gauge shotgun shells, the brass tips create a massaging texture on the top of the chair, much contrary of their intended use." [via] Link.

MAKE looks at slide rules..

Since we posted the collector article with mention of slide rules a few of you have asked where you can find out more and if we'll have an article in MAKE, well - we do!

Pictured here, the Nuclear bomb effects calculator (1962) and the Bristol Liquids SynchroValve Capity Calculator (1943) from Calculate This! by Robert Luhn. MAKE looks at slide rules. Info and article, page 50.

Build Your Own Nuclear Bomb Effects Computer - Link.

HOW TO - Read color coded resistors

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DIY Live has a short and sweet tutorial on reading color coded resistors - Link.

Related:

Resistor Color Code for 4 and 5 band resistors - Link.
Visit MAKE in the virtual world and use our interactive resistor calculator - Link!
Resistor Color Bands - Link.
Homemade Simple Cardboard Variable Capacitor - Link.
Soldering and Desoldering by Joe Grand in Primer - Step-by-step instructions for making (and unmaking) the perfect solder joint. Info & article on page 162.

DIY LED lighting Guide

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Matthew has a super LED lighting guide - "LED lighting is becoming increasingly popular in fish tanks, case mods, and even household lighting. This article intends to be a comprehensive guide to their advantages, powering them, and creating dimming solutions." Link.

Pictured here, LEDs from HOW TO - Build a 1,024,000 mcd portable light - Link.

Related:
Tons of LED projects and more - Link.
HOW TO - Make a LED Blinky - Make 04, page 165.

Be fredflare.com's 2006 Next Big Thing

Just like these 2 past winners from last year, you too could be the one of the 36 chosen ones -- fredflare.com's next big thing! From the site, "We're looking for creative girls and boys who make jewelry, clothing, accessories, printed matter, home items and more...36 of the most outstanding submissions will be featured for sale on this site alongside a bio with details about YOU and your super talentedness." What are you waiting for? Link.

Handmade Pac-Man Glass Beads

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We love these Pac-Man game beads complete with scared ghosts and power pellets. The colorful trinkets were all handmade by glass beadmaker Sarah Hornik. You can see the rest of her cool wares in her flickr gallery. Link.

Fan made U2 video in the virtual world

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Here's an amazing fan made U2 video - earlier we posted about the new (free) tool Avimator to make custom animations, so we'll likely see a lot of videos like this hitting the web soon. One thing worth noting, the group that makes the U2 videos not only has concerts for fun, but to raise awareness of the various causes supported by the real world band--causes such as ONE.ORG, DATA.ORG, and MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY.ORG. If Bono gets the Peace prize, I wonder if they'll have an event in the virtual world for this!

"U2 in SL" Movies - Link.

Related:
U2 Unwittingly Gives 'Second Life' Concert - Link.
U2 Bono, Former Rocker Bob Geldof Nominatees For Peace Prize - Link.
Make your own animations for your avatar with Avimator - Link.
Things for Makers in the virtual world - Link.

MAKE - THE best way to raise gear

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MAKE isn't just for reading, on no! A sharp eyed MAKE reader spotted MAKE on our favorite news show, Rocketboom, being used to adjust raise their gear since they've moved to an awesomely new 16 x 9 format - today's show also has some cool video of steam engine robots Link.

Previously:

Our interview with Andrew Baron from Rocketboom- Link.
Past articles about Rocketboom on MAKE - Link.

Collections

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WSJ article about collections, and what the collectors are worried about - "Young people today have little interest in the stamp, coin or knickknack collections of their elders, so an aging America can't help but wonder: What's going to happen to all those boxes in the basement?...In Palo Alto, Calif., Tom Wyman, 78, has about 900 antique slide rules. Mr. Wyman belongs to the 430-member Oughtred Society, named for William Oughtred, who in the 1620s invented an early form of the slide rule. The group hosts lectures to entice youngsters to embrace slide-rule collecting. But Mr. Wyman says such "missionary work" is a hard sell." [via] Link.

Pictured here, slide rule collection from the The Oughtred Society - Link.

Makers - what do you collect? Post up in comments (and links to photos if you have them!).

HOW TO - Repair keys of an IR remote control

Extremely simple one image how to on repairing defective keys of a remote control. Just glue small pieces of aluminium foil onto the graphite contacts of the keys. Use a hole puncher to cut the small pieces out of the aluminium foil. Link.

The Social Arcade Table

Nick writes - "As part of a university final year games module we created a new kind of arcade table. We used our knowledge of existing hit arcade games, and added our own new technology to enable interfacing with Bluetooth enabled camera phones in order to enhance playability. Here's the step-by-step documentation of how we built our own retro style, socially orientated games table." Link.

HOW TO - Make a "Chicken Moat"

Lower the drawbridge! Build your own chicken moat. Surround your veggie garden with a moat full of hungry chickens ready to eat bad bugs and protect your garden [via] Link.

HOW TO - Make the continents on a big metal globe

Hal writes - "I've written an article about how to make the continents on a big metal globe. I suppose the interesting part is getting data imported from NOAA and then turning it into vectors so you can cut it out." Link.