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February 28, 2007

Multitouch table experiment

Ftirschematic
The tinker.it blog (and site) has tons of great projects for designers and artists, like this one a Multitouch table -

This is an experiment based on "frustrated total internal reflection" aka FTIR. This is a very basic demo and we did it just to see how it work and it took us just 4 days!

tinker.it » Blog Archive » multitouch table experiment - Link.

Run Windows Apps Within Your Mac Desktop

Click To Play

Since its beta release, Parallels has let Mac users run Windows simultaneously with Mac OS X on any Intel Mac, which is a real boon whenever you need that one Windows-specific program you just can't avoid. But the recent Official Update (free for all registered users of Parallels Desktop) offers the ability to bypass Windows altogether and get right to the apps you need. With Coherence mode, you can now launch and run Windows applications directly within your Mac desktop, just as you would any Mac app.

Even though the windows for your Windows applications are now divorced from the virtual Windows desktop in Coherence mode under Parallels, you'll still want to have your Windows virtual machine running before you launch any programs under Parallels. Otherwise, launching the application will take as long as launching Windows. But as long as Windows is running, launching a specific application is pretty snappy. Just click on its icon in the Dock, as you would any other program, and up it comes.

I've been testing out Word 2007 lately, which now lives right next to Word 2004 in my Dock. As you can see, opening it and getting straight to a new document takes no time at all, and I get my own Word 2007 window, making it look (almost) like a native Mac app. You can also access Windows applications that don't live in your dock by just clicking the Windows Start menu in what now effectively becomes a Windows-specific Dock just above your real Dock. - Link to video download.

Mouse taxidermy @ homeX

MAKE stopped in to homeX @ Parson's with James Powderly of EYEBEAM. Last night was mouse taxidermy, the linked photos are of mice taxidermy, so if that is something that you're not comfortable with please skip this - Mouse taxidermy involves dead mice.

Here's a bit about the class... the homeX concept is really interesting, it would be great to see homeX classes sprout up around the world, learning some of these skills...

Disruptive Home Economics will take us all through the center and to the fringe of what it means to make-it and do-it-yourself. Through in-class workshops and small group or individual assignments, this course will expose students, instructors and guests to a range of tools and public domain research selected to expand our concept of what we can make ourselves at home. We will start by making or modifying existing DIY and How-to projects and studying the way other makers solve problems and create documentation. Over the course of the semester, we will get hands-on experience designing, documenting and sharing our own DIY projects and research. We will take a generalist's approach and expose ourselves to projects that involve a wide range of mechanical, electrical, computational and chemical processes. We will combine novel tools and materials with common ones and build projects for ourselves as well as tools for others. Along the way, we will also look at the way local and global cultural contexts influence the tools and technologies we make and those we use, as well as the implications of open source production by the masses. Students will be encouraged to release their work as openly and widely as possible and to experiment with traditional and contagious distribution of their projects.

homeX » Week 6: Mouse Taxidermy - Link & photos - Link.

Related:

homeX - Link.
Mouse taxidermy - Link.
Taxidermy mouse (photos from students) - Link.
Mouse Taxidermy @ Instructables - Link.
Duck mouse - Link.

Modded handcrank flashlight powers phone

This is pretty straight forward, this maker took apart one of those hand cranked flashlights and soldered in a plug for his phone - this video shows you how -

Use A Flashlight To Power Your... Video - Link.

iMac night light

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Samantha writes -

I turned the shell of my dead iMac into a bedside lamp with an LED light from IKEA. Mmm, limelight!

Diary of a Necromancer - Little Miss Cleverpants - Link.

PID controlled bio-dome heating pad

Dscf0194
Seth writes -

After a month of messing around, I finally got my act together and started working on my PID heating pad controller. Well, actually it is only a P heating pad controller right now, but I will go into that later.
The Goal: Create a PID controlled heating pad to regulate the temperature of a Bio-Dome.

I got two Arduinos for Christmas, so I had most of the hardware to control the heating pad. I was hoping that I would just be able to modify the pad's circuits, but it is not just an on and off switch and the only IC on it was made in China by some unknown company so I could not find any info on it.

Jerd King - Link.

Silence Your MacBook's Whine

I've been using a MacBook Pro for about a year now, but with a growing desire to be able to swap internal hard drives whenever I feel like it, I've decided to switch to a black MacBook. It's basically perfect, except for a barely audible whine (which I'm convinced most people would not even notice). I had a similar problem with my MacBook Pro, but it was a bit louder; that was solved by having the LCD inverter repaired.

I checked out the Apple discussion forums and found a weird fix that worked for me:

1) open photo booth
2) force quit (not just quit, force quit)
3) sleep (i just leave the lid open and use the menu option)
wait until you see the pulsing light and wait for a couple seconds
4) wake up quiet

If I later start and then quit Photo Booth, the whine comes back. Also, if I leave Photo Booth running in the dock, it silences it completely, and only uses 3% of the CPU (Photo Booth doesn't show a live dock icon). But I love the Force Quit solution because it's so strange. Link

Related

Apple Discussion Forums - Link
MacBook (13-inch) hard drive replacement instructions (PDF) - Link
Apple Acknowledges MacBook Whine and Offers Logic Board Replacements - Link

Airplane photography - 1920s

Make 383
Here's a great 400+ page book (free) for download from the 1920's on airplane photography -

Airplane Photography - Google Book Search - Link.

Weird bass guitars

Strange Guitar 10
Check out these great bass guitars! Which one is your favorite?

Weird Bass Guitars | Weirdomatic - [via] Link.

Maker Faire proposal deadline extended to Sunday March 18, 2007

Make 386
Dale has some good news - the Maker Faire proposal deadline has been extended!

We are getting many, many terrific proposals for Maker Faire. Nearly half of them have come in at the last two days. To relieve this crunch, we've decided to extend the deadline about two weeks to Midnight (PST) Sunday March 18.

We will begin reviewing all of those proposals submitted by the deadline and follow up on them very soon. In other words, if you got your proposal in by the deadline, you'll hear from us before the date of the new extended deadline. You'll be ahead of the rest of them.

Last year, we did accept a bunch of proposals up until the week before the Faire because it's hard to say no to cool projects. However, accepting late proposals means that the programs and maps for attendees weren't as helpful as they could be. So, to demonstrate that we learned something from having done this once, we really want to give ourselves (and you) the time to do it right. Thanks for your help.

Finally, here's some ideas for topics that we're looking for:

Halloween projects (props, costumes, interactive displays, music)
Recycled things
Ham Radio
Weather stations
Cars (hot rods, custom vans, especially with a tech flavor)
Airplanes and Aeronautics (models, etc)
History of Science & Engineering
Biology/Biotech
Chemistry
Cool RC Toys & Mods
Video Games (retro, arcade and more)
Trains
Looms (historical or unusual)
Sewing demonstrations
Kites
Boats
Old Farm or Garden Equipment (Tractors, etc.)
Temporary Structures (Tents, Domes, etc.)
Unusual Tools or Machines
How to Fix Things or Take them Apart (Vacuums, Clocks, Washing Machines, etc.)

We are really excited to see the wide variety of projects already proposed.

Thanks,
Dale

Metal barrel revolving on pipe adds to playground thrills

Lrg Play Barrel
This looks like a lot of fun -- Popular Mechanics 1924

Modern Mechanix » Metal Barrel Revolving on Pipe Adds to Playground Thrills - Link.

Maker Faire (San Mateo Fairgrounds) tickets on sale...

Mfwa-2
Mfda-2
Tickets for the Saturday May 19th & Sunday May 20th, 2007 Maker Faire @ the San Mateo Fairgrounds are now available - save up to $5.00 if you order now.

Maker Faire - A two-day, family-friendly event that celebrates arts, crafts, engineering, science projects and the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) mindset. It's for creative, resourceful folks who like to tinker and love to make things. We call them Makers. Note: Maker Faire tickets will be sent via FedEx, beginning in April, no PO Boxes please.

Get them @ the Maker store - Link.

Hacking Sale Prices

The Consumerist had an interesting article last month about certain retailers using a price coding scheme to indicate different discount classes. For instance, if you are at Sears and see something priced ending with .95, it means it's an out of production, clearance product. At Office Depot, prices not ending with 0,9, or 5 are final markdowns, and supposedly the same holds true at Target for prices ending in 4.

This got me to thinking about other stores which do not use a price coding scheme. Is there a way to tell how much an item has been discounted if it's not quoted on the tag? Many places will price their products at *.99 initially and then discount items at 10, 15, 30, 50 or 75 percent. How far they go depends on the initial markup and how badly the item needs to move.

If you take a look at the possible prices at those typical discounts, you can see a few patterns. I've included a third decimal digit where it could affect the outcome when the number is rounded up instead of chopped at 2 digits.

10% 99(1) 09(1) 19(1) 29(1) 39(1) 49(1) 59(1) 69(1) 79(1) 89(1)
15% 99(1) 14(1) 29(1) 44(1) 59(1) 74(1) 89(1) 04(1) 19(1) 34(1)
30% 99(1) 29(1) 59(1) 89(1) 19(1) 49(1) 79(1) 09(1) 39(1) 69(1)
50% 995(5) 495(5)
75% 497(3) 747(3) 247(2) 997(2)

Assuming the prices would be rounded to the nearest cent (instead of floored), you get something like this:

Number after decimal Likely percentage off

00 or 50 75% or 50%

75 or 25 75%

99 or 19 10%, 15%, 30%

other *9 10% or 30%

*4 15%

So while a Target price ending in 4 might be clearance, chances are good that at a non price-coded store, this would only represent a 15% discount. Furthermore, assuming there is no price coding, if you find something that seems discounted and its price ends with 00, 50, 75 or 25, it's likely been priced at %50 or 75% off!

References:

February 27, 2007

Hacks Authors' Blogs: One Feed to Rule Them All

Hacks Authors' Feed

Here's a special post from Hackszine - great way to follow all the authors from our HACKS series....

Ed note: In this guest post, veteran Hacks series author Paul Bausch takes on a challenge that's been on my todo list for a while, providing a solution that should be of immediate interest to all readers of this site and just might serve as a seed for future hacking around here.

I have a shelf full of O'Reilly Hacks books across a wide range of subjects. I contributed a couple in the Web Applications category, but I also have Hacks books about digital photography, hardware, scripting languages, gaming, and operating systems. The series has introduced me to a number of authors who are doing unusual things with technology in their particular area of expertise. I thought it would be interesting to follow each of these authors outside of the Hacks series by subscribing to their blogs, collectively. I figured it would be a good way to keep up with areas of technology that I'm not necessarily tuned into. I have a collection of blogs that I read to keep up with what's happening in Web Applications, but I don't have a sense of what's going on with gaming, for example.

So I went on a mission to gather the Hacks authors' blogs using the tools I know best: Web Applications. I started with an Amazon power query for books by O'Reilly with "Hacks" in the title via the Amazon API, and ended up with a list of 80 authors' full names. I plugged each name into Google by hand, adding the word "blog" (or if that didn't turn anything up, "hacks"). Then I visited the blog to make sure it was the Hacks author I was looking for, clicked the orange feed button in the Firefox address field to get the feed URL, and copied the URL to a text file. I ended up with a list of 40 feeds. (A 50% blogging rate among an arbitrary group isn't too shabby.)

I plugged the feeds into Google Reader, and renamed each feed the author's full name. Here's what the final list looks like (click for larger view):

Here's the list of feeds as OPML if you'd like to try it: Hacks Authors.

I've only been tuning into this list for a few days, but I'm already getting to know these authors in a new way. And I was right—I am finding out about developments in tech areas I don't normally tune into. I especially found Brian K. Jones's recent post about Fighting Specialization appropriate, something I wouldn't have seen otherwise.

Related:

HOW TO - Turn your iPod mini into a flash based iPod

1318
Mark writes -

In this little proof-of-concept I was eager to try out if I could swap the Microdrive inside an iPod mini for a Compact Flash-card. These cards are getting bigger and cheaper by the day so my idea was, if this works out, we have a great way of extending the life of this little MP3-player.

geektechnique.org: turn your iPod mini into a flash based iPod - Link.

Ontario removes video slot machines over subliminal messaging

To-Most-Wanted
CBC has a story about slot machines getting pulled (no pun intended) over subliminal messaging - seems like it would be a fun experiment to try, winning and losing symbols...

Ontario's provincial gambling operator has pulled 87 video slot machines out of service or physically removed them from its casinos after a CBC investigation found what appear to be subliminal messages flashing at players.
Ontario Lottery and Gaming, the recently rebranded Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp., is concerned about three games on video slots made by a company called Konami. It shut them down as a precaution on Friday, and is looking into the issue.

Every time this video lottery game is played, it briefly shows a jackpot result. Every time this video lottery game is played, it briefly shows a jackpot result.

The games flash winning jackpot symbols at players for a fifth of a second, long enough for the brain to detect even if the players are not aware of the message, some psychologists told CBC News.

Ontario removes video slot machines flashing winning images - [via] Link.

I'm tossing this in "News from the Future" - if it really works surely every other video slots maker (and casino) will try this and claim it's a "software glitch"...

Hacks Authors' Blogs: One Feed to Rule Them All

Hacks Authors' Feed

I plugged the feeds into Google Reader, and renamed each feed the author's full name. Here's what the final list looks like (click for larger view):

Here's the list of feeds as OPML if you'd like to try it: Hacks Authors.

Related:

Giant Explosions REPRODUCED IN MINIATURE by home chemists

Make 382
This is great, a tiny grain silo explosion you can make yourself in your home lab, Popular Science 1933 -

HARMLESS, miniature explosions make experimenting with combustibles a thrilling, yet safe, amusement for the amateur chemist. With inexpensive homemade apparatus, he can duplicate the explosions in a gasoline motor and amuse his friends by burning air. When we say a substance burns, we imply that it combines with oxygen to produce heat and sometimes light. Hydrogen and carbon, as well as many other substances containing these two elements, display this property. A candle, for instance, is made of paraffin, a combination of carbon and hydrogen. When the wick is lighted, the paraffin melts and produces hydro-carbon gases, which decompose to form other inflammable gases and carbon.

Modern Mechanix » Giant Explosions REPRODUCED IN MINIATURE by Home Chemists - Link.

Knitted fruit

123345824 Baa0Ff9Ea2
These handmade knitted fruits are amazing!

Fat Free Food - a photoset on Flickr - [via] Link.

Feltedfruit
More:
Brookelynn Morris' felted a fruit bonanza - Brookelynn's felted fruit tutorial graces the cover of our new issue, CRAFT:02. More tips for creating felted fruit can also be found online & photos.

Find and Share Toy Instructions, Mods, and Hacks

toyinstructions
Brian @ Hackszine writes -

Jeremiah of Z Recommends has just launched a promising new site for hacking parents called toyinstructions:

a collaborative wiki of deep links to instructions, user manuals, and building guides for toys and children's games. This site also offers links to blog searches, photos, and Yahoo user groups for toy brands, and a moderated list of top fan sites.

As detailed in the project announcement, search results for specific brands and toys (currently limited to products included at launch, but open for anyone to contribute) link to relevant photo searches (Flickr), blog posts (Technorati), user groups (Yahoo Groups), and DIY project ideas (a Google custom search that currently searches Instructables and the Make: blog).

Here's what the page for the Super Soaker looks like, with its custom DIY link:

Super Soaker on toyinstructions

As Jeremiah points out, the site will only be as good as its contributions, so if you have hard-to-find toy instructions to share, I do recommend you help him build what could be a very useful site.

February 2007 Home | Next >