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Archives: May 2008

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May 31, 2008

Canoe Sail

Instructables user TimAnderson writes:

This 5 meter spritsail rig makes a canoe go really fast. It's easy to build, easy to control, easy to put up and take down. It tolerated gusts well and can be tuned for really light winds also. I use an aluminum sign as a leeboard and steer with a paddle.

Create a macro lens from an old 50mm

Lambert Smith has a great howto for converting a standard 50mm lens from an old SLR camera into a dedicated macro lens for your digital camera. By reversing the 50mm lens and using a number of extension tubes. The photo above is his conversion hack on a Canon Powershot G3, which has a non-interchangeable zoom lens. Custom adapters can be made by gluing filter rings back to back, so you can do this with a normal digital, a DSLR, or even a traditional film camera.

Once set up in this manner, your camera will have a fixed point of focus (unless you use a bellows). When taking a photo, you simply move the whole camera toward or away from the subject until it is in focus.

Reversed 50mm - A Dedicated Macro Lens

World Science Festival 2008 NYC (photos)

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MAKE hit the World Science Festival in NYC today, packed with tons of people - the event took over Washington Square park and parts of NYU. For the kids there were lots of hands on exhibits and for adults (and kids) lots of sessions/events/talks - it was so popular the ticketed events were sold out or standing room only - events like this and our own Maker Faire seem to indicated there is more demand than supply for science and that.. is a good thing! Great event, hope to see it happen each year in NYC! - more photos here & check out their site for additional day/evening events on Sunday.

Related:
World Science Festival.
Interview with Brian Green co-founder.

Editor's note: This concludes our "mobile post" series which will appeared on MAKE - sponsored by Windows Mobile - pt.

Lego Cylon

Legocylon 4
Legocylon 2-Up

Another excellent entry for the Make a Cylon contest - this Lego figure turned Cylon mini, complete LED visor action - Lego Cylon on DVICE

Don't forget - There's still time to enter the Make a Cylon contest. The deadline is 6/14/08 - so polish off / finish up those BSG projects and submit them to our Flickr pool!

Related:
Lego Sw Joule Thief
Star Wars minifig Joule Thief

- Cylons draw near

Begging robot creates sound, asks for money

Alexader Gurko's "Begging Bot" plays music just by synching up the sounds a floppy and hard drive makes when spinning their motors. After the song is done, the CD drives opens up and the bot asks for donations from the public. The sound is actually pretty interesting if you watch the above video.

[via]

More LEGO NXT contest goodness

I'm not always all about the NXT, there are just several cool contests going right now, this one from LEGO:

NXT NXT...? Are you seeing double? Yes! We are presenting a doubly fun building challenge where you create a robot that uses 2 NXT bricks! We are also giving you double the amount of time to enter this challenge (projects must be entered by June 30, 2008).
The 2 NXT's can be onboard the robot or the 2 NXT's can be separate (for example if 1 NXT is used as a remote controller for the 2nd NXT). The NXT's must communicate with each other.

LEGO Mindstorms NXT NXT Building Challenge rules

Join your fellow Makers this Sunday at the 2nd Maker Faire Austin Town Hall

Day/Time:
June 1st 6-9 pm

Location:
La Madeleine
35th and Lamar
3418 N Lamar
512-302-1486

More Information/Agenda:
makerfaireaustin.pbwiki.com

RSVP on Upcoming:
http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/624269/?ps=5

P.S. And, if you are in to crafting, please join us for our first Austin area release party of CRAFT:07 earlier in the day:

Our hosts are Rachel Hobson (Average Jane Crafter, BurdaStyle) and Leslie Bonnell (StitchLab), with special guests Jenny Hart (Sublime Stitching), plus Katie Dougherty and Sherry Huss of CRAFT. Snacks will be provided by Cookie Madness and door prizes include T-shirts and box sets from CRAFT, plus goodies from Chronicle Books, Naughty Secretary Club, Sublime Stitching, , Stitch Lab and more!

CRAFT: 07 Release Party
Sunday, June 1, 1-4pm
@ The Work*Shop
2438 W. Anderson Lane, #C5
Austin, TX 78757

Inches & millimeter watch mod

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Watchband4
Nice laser etched inches & millimeter watch mod.

May 30, 2008

Parsons Design & Technology show (photos)

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Tonight was the Design & Technology at Parsons the New School for Design MFA thesis show at the Chelsea Art Museum in New York. Lots of green themes and data visualizations, my favorite piece was the motorized "Controller nana" by Kan Yang (Kyle) Li - an experimental game controller hack for artists - More photos here.

2008 MFA Design & Technology Thesis Show
Opening:
Friday, May 30, 2008: 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.

Chelsea Art Museum
556 West 22nd Street

Hours:
Tuesday through Saturday,
11:00 AM-6:00 PM

Thursday,
11:00 AM-8:00 PM

Editor's note: This is part of the "mobile post" series which will appear on MAKE - sponsored by Windows Mobile. Only the links and voice that appear in the mobile post box (below) are part of the campaign on MAKE - pt.

SafeHistory: protect your privacy from visited link analysis

A couple of days ago I wrote about the visited link javascript hack that lets any website operator query a user's browser history to determine if they've visited any other particular site. One possible use for this is to detect which Web2.0 social applications a user visits so that you can display the appropriate link badges.

It's a creepy scenario, though, that a website operator can effectively bypass the browser's intended security model to invade your privacy by seeing if you've been visiting other sites. Hackszine reader Logical Extremes commented with a solution to this problem:

This is a common phishing vector. Rather than encouraging broader use, we should be educating and protecting against it. There is a Firefox add-on that explicitly blocks this.

Some hackers over at the Stanford Computer Science Department created SafeHistory, a Firefox plugin that protects against visited link tracking techniques. It works by only allowing the a:visited property to apply to off-site links that were previously visited from the current URL.

This seems to be a reasonable way to keep the functionality of visited links without leaking any additional information. I wonder how long it will be before this is adopted as a browser behavior standard.

Stanford SafeHistory
Protecting Browser State Using Same Origin Policy (PDF)

Previously:
Detect which sites a web user visits

Use CCTV cameras to make your music video

Clever, use CCTV cameras to make your music video...

UUnable to afford a proper camera crew and equipment, The Get Out Clause, an unsigned band from the city, decided to make use of the cameras seen all over British streets. With an estimated 13 million CCTV cameras in Britain, suitable locations were not hard to come by. They set up their equipment, drum kit and all, in eighty locations around Manchester – including on a bus – and proceeded to play to the cameras.
Afterwards they wrote to the companies or organisations involved and asked for the footage under the Freedom of Information Act.

Building a Hang Glider Camera Mount

This was originally used for a hang glider, but I am sure it would work in other situations. Why not use it on a down-tube of a bicycle, or attached a DIY dolly?

The design requirements are pretty basic. The mounts needs to be light weight and robust to withstand my less than perfect landings (I'm still a Hang-1 at this time). It must be easily and quickly attachable/detachable without special tools - has to be done in the field after all. It needs to be adjustable so the camera can be setup to point in any direction.

Read more about Building a Hang Glider Camera Mount

Related:

The StreetGrip

HOW TO - Add vectoring thrusters to a blimp

As part of DIY Drones BlimpDuino Project, Chris Anderson has a new piece up about adding vectoring thrusters to a blimp.

How to add vectoring thrusters to a blimp

Crabfu statue

I-Wei Huang, a.k.a. Crabfu, tries his hand at Sculpey, and the results are (predictably) FU-licious.

Crabfu Steamworks

Libelium Arduino contest winners

Libelium Winners

Libelium announced the winners of their 2008 Arduino contest. MAKE:Blog's own Becky Stern was chosen as a finalist! Head over to their site for video of each project - Libelium Arduino Contest Winners

"Skinny" Arduino compatible

Skinny Arduino

Sparkfun's intros their own iteration of the Arduino board -

Skinny is the first SparkFun hack into the Arduino realm. It's not perfect, but we think you'll like this new derivative. It's 3.3V, runs on LiPo batteries, low-cost, low-profile, and sexy red. Which is actually one of the reasons why it cannot be a certified Arduino board (Arduino boards have to be blue).
[...]

ATmega168V running at 8MHz internal oscillator

Low-voltage board needs no interfacing circuitry to popular 3.3V devices and modules (GPS, Accelerometers, sensors, etc)

USB connection off board

3.3V regulator

DC input 3.3V up to 12V

Resettable fuse prevents damage to board in case of short

Power select switch acts as on/off switch

Could come in handy for projects lacking enclosure depth. They recommend using a Lilypad USB link for programming - Skinny

Hand wrench

Paul Julius Martus designed this "hand" wrench and cast it out of bronze. Creepy and lovely! Via Core77.

Green Science Fair contest

Instructables has teamed up with Discover magazine to bring you the Green Science Fair contest. Deadline for entries is June 6 - there are some great prizes!

Green Science Fair Contest

Eliptical bike interview

In this video, Kristin White from TalkTech interviews Bryan Pate, co-founder of PT Motion Works about his elliptiGO glide bike, which is powered by an elliptical training motion. If you missed the elliptiGO at Maker Faire this May, this video is a good introduction. As a former ironman competitor, Bryan explains why this bike is a great alternative to the indoor elliptical trainer for folks who love to exercise outside but can't stand high-impact running.

Related:

elliptiGO Glide Bike at the Maker Faire site

Giant seven segment clock provides room lighting as well

This giant digital overhead clock by Realities:United and titled "Contemporary Architecture" was commissioned by NYC gallery, Artists Space and showed time overhead in a big way as well as provided room lighting. Check out the time-lapse video link below to see how it worked.

Contemporary Architecture Video

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