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June 30, 2008

Add-Art - turn the adverweb into an art gallery

Add-Art is an ad blocking extension for Firefox, but it's a bit different from other ad blocking hacks. Instead of simply removing ads, leaving a score of empty holes in ad-laden sites, Add-Art replaces all those nasty skyscrapers and leaderboards with a selection of images from a contemporary artist. The image above, for instance, is a cropped banner from Add-Art's current show, Hotel Vue des Alpes by Monica Studer and Christoph van den Berg.

In addition to turning your browser into an art gallery, blocking ads might actually speed up your browsing experience a bit. The Add-Art images are distributed with the plugin and are loaded locally from your machine, so there's no download involved for any of the ad units. Just think of all those bytes you could be saving while viewing lovely mountain scenery instead of dancing mortgage dudes.

Add-Art Firefox Plugin
Hotel Vue des Alpes

Made in Japan - Volume 21

This week:
Ball joint doll heads, "Plastitch" Models, Vocaloid Meets Generative Composition, Human-made Spider Web, Rice Paddy Art in Yamagata, Kakuyo's Strap-on Fisheye Lenses for Cell Phones, Breadboarding on StapaVision, Carioka Labs' Low-Temp Stirling Engine Car, Making Spacey Movies Through Slo-Mo, and Three "Emo" Recycling Tools.

Google Apps Hacks Slashdotted today!

Yay! Philipp Lenssen's Google Apps Hacks just got reviewed on Slashdot by JR Peck, who had some kind words for the book:

Well, this book is an excellent introduction to Google's many on-line applications. I use many already and still learned of a couple new ones when I read this book. It also does bring all that instruction into one place, and provides a very user-friendly style of instruction. There is also a very nice feature, 8 sections that take the reader "Beyond Google...". Each of these sections informs the reader about alternative software that provides similar functionality to the Google software described in the preceding chapter. This is really a great resource and an unexpected bonus for anyone who reads the book.

Slashdot | Google Apps Hacks

(In the review, JR raises a good point about the definition of a Hack. We use the definition "A non-obvious solution to an interesting problem", although JR leans toward some other definitions mentioned in the review).

From the Maker Shed:

Google Apps Hacks by Philipp Lenssen - all about Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Presentations, and more!
Price: $29.99
Buy it in the Maker Shed

Make and Craft @ AS220's Fools Ball

Last weekend, AS220 held its annual Fools Ball, a fundraiser that also happens to be Rhode Island's best party of the year. MAKE sponsored the event and provided copies of the magazine to attendees who signed up for an AS220 membership.

It was an incredible event. In addition to using the main AS220 building (Empire St, Providence) AS220 borrowed Trinity Rep's Pell-Chafee performance center and split it in half: one side was a kind of science fair, the other a dance floor. There was all sorts of cool stuff in the science fair:

The Make table with lots of projects. (See the earlier Make posts on the YBox2 Dashboard and FoolsBrd).
Jeremy Radtke's and Patrick Renner's mechanical contraption made of junk found in the AS220 basement
Will Brierly's homebrewed video game in a homebrewed cabinet.
An excellent light sculpture from Robert Kieronski of Lumion.
Shawn Wallace's Arduino-powered police sketchbot where you set the parameters for nose, hair, eyes, etc
Susan Clausen's sonic throwie wall. (Previously on Make)
Nick Yulman's orchestra of gizmos

And that was just the view from the Make tables. Elsewhere, there were performances, an open house in the Broad Street Studio (AS220's transitional arts program for at-risk youth), a bicycle-powered ice-cream maker, and a lot more. Check out all the photos tagged Fools Ball.

IM bark notification

Matthew replaced the controller in a robotic dog, and through some scripting, made a barking instant messenger notifier. The dog barks when you receive a message, leaving your speakers free to play music, and helping him stay polite without being glued to his computer.

More:

Instructable robot contest extended deadline

The instructables robot contest deadline has been extended to July 13. Prizes include a trip to the 2009 RoboGames in the San Francisco, a RoboPhilo Walking Android kit, and instructables gear. Randy says, "It doesn't have to be [instructions for] a full robot. It can be instructions to make any part of a robot or almost anything robot-related!" So put on your tutorial hat and make an instructable for the contest!

Cigarette tin "boom" box

Tiny "boom" box, built from a Lucky Strikes tin, an old MP3 player, an LM1877n-9 amp chip, and some garage sale speaks. It's dubbed the "Mobile Oppression Unit." Can it really be THAT loud? Or maybe it's the likely lo-fidelity when cranked that makes it oppressive.

Mobile Oppression Unit

Google Apps Hacks Slashdotted today!

Yay! Philipp Lenssen's Google Apps Hacks just got reviewed on Slashdot by JR Peck, who had some kind words for the book:

Well, this book is an excellent introduction to Google's many on-line applications. I use many already and still learned of a couple new ones when I read this book. It also does bring all that instruction into one place, and provides a very user-friendly style of instruction. There is also a very nice feature, 8 sections that take the reader "Beyond Google...". Each of these sections informs the reader about alternative software that provides similar functionality to the Google software described in the preceding chapter. This is really a great resource and an unexpected bonus for anyone who reads the book.

Slashdot | Google Apps Hacks

From the Maker Shed:

Google Apps Hacks by Philipp Lenssen - all about Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Presentations, and more!
Price: $29.99
Buy it in the Maker Shed

Snail car

If you've been to Maker Faire, you've likely seen Jon Sarriugarte's (Oakland, CA) SS Alpha Fox vehicle, or his awesome Boiler Bar. Now he and his cohort are building a Snail Car on top of a stripped down VW bug. You can follow the build here. [Via Boing Boing]

Lucky Dragons' homemade sound device

Luke Fishbeck of Lucky Dragons demonstrates his homebrewed interface sound synthesis using firewire interface and some custom electronics in yarny decor. On top of all those pretty shimmering sounds, it looks beneficial in respect to social bonding
- Lucky Dragons makes us a baby (Thanks, Ed!)

The Foamerator

Natalie @ Craft found this fun tutorial on making a Super Foam-erator - a great easy (and messy!) kid's project for out in the yard.

HOW TO - Blow stuff up

Hack n Mod has a round-up of deadly Don't Try This At Home projects, such as building a flame thrower, smoke bombs, fireballs, mini (Hollywood) mushroom explosions, and more. I don't know anything about pyro, so I'm not endorsing any of this, just thought readers might find it interesting. Personally, seeing a teenage wielding a homemade PVC flamethrower scares the bejezuz out of me.

DIY Explosives - Easy Ways to Blow Stuff Up

Japanese wind chimes

PingMag has an interview with Yoshiharu Shinohara, a Japanese "furin" (glass wind chimes) maker.

Lastly, please tell me what it takes to be a craftsman in this day and age.
Lately, parents of young people will come up to me, and say "My child is really quiet and withdrawn, and just likes to stay in the house all the time, so I want him to become a craftsman." But this is what I tell them: "Lady, you've got it all wrong. It's tough to be a craftsman these days. You've got to find your own way to market your product, explain it by yourself, and add value to the product so it will sell for a good price. If you're quiet and withdrawn, you'd better forget about being a craftsman." But you know, if you're good at it, you can use your hands and your mind and make much more money than your average white collar worker. (laughs) If you want to succeed as a craftsman, you've got to be passionate about your work, passionate about your wife, and passionate about your land. Look at my family. We all get along. My son's going to take over the business, and even my granddaughters says they want to make wind chimes. Even though they both went to a good university. (laughs)

Blowing in the Wind [Via Dinosaurs + Robots]

Final schedule for The Last HOPE - NYC July 18 to July 20, 2008

Make Pt0769
The entire schedule for The Last HOPE conference - Final schedule for The Last HOPE - NYC July 18 to July 20, 2008 is up in a variety of formats. The talks span three full days using three tracks. In addition, there will be a special fourth track for unscheduled talks that people can sign up for at the conference. The rooms are labeled Hopper, Turing, Engressia, and Zuse.

For the full schedule, go to http://www.thelasthope.org/talks.php
For an interactive, sortable list, go to http://www.thelasthope.org/matrix/
For the wiki version, go to http://wiki.hope.net/index.php/Scheduled_Talks_(Matrix)

Twilight @ The Zune space - interactive illuminated chandelier

Waldemeyer is one of my favorite makers on the planet, he's latest work is an interactive illuminated chandelier for Microsoft's Zune space in LA.

Waldemeyer’s latest project, Twilight, will be exhibited in the entrance of the new Zune space in Los Angeles, from May 2008. Commissioned by Microsoft’s entertainment brand Zune, the interactive chandelier illuminates the exclusive Zune-to-Zune sharing function that sets Zune apart from the rest by enabling users to share their music with the chandelier itself.
The room has been specifically designed as a haven for Zune users to make full use of Zune's social functions that allows spontaneous sharing of full-length sample tracks, playlists or pictures with other Zune users. The Twilight chandelier brings this function to an exciting new level: the Zune users in the room can send a song to the chandelier and watch as thousands of integrated lights react to the music, sending waves of light up and down the internal space in time to the beat. The installation is constructed of 15 sheets of organza fabric suspended from the ceiling to form a 3m by 3m cube. LED’s have been stitched into the fabric, creating illuminated silhouettes within each square to comprise an internal shape that evokes a conventional lamp-stand or natural tulip-esque form. The striking layering is best appreciated at daylight, when the fabric’s ephemeral qualities are exploited. As the eye moves up the chandelier, the lights appear to dissolve into mist as another layer of fabric masks each LED silhouette. The effect is of gazing into a fog, bringing a hint of Dickensian London to the blue skies of LA. At night, the installation transforms into a dazzling lightshow, with subtle interplay between LED and fabric as the light traces its weave.

Twitter Fail whale... a 3D sculpture from the MAKE Flickr photo pool

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MAKE Flickr photo pool member Hil writes -

[Here's] A little kinetic sculpture of the lovely Twitter Failwhale, based on the image by Yiying Lu that is used when Twitter.com is over-capacity. The image is called' Lifting up a Dreamer' I’ve wanted to make this since I first saw the image some weeks ago.

More:
Make Pt0766
You can follow MAKE on Twitter by simply here.

Most emailed articles from the last week or so on MAKE

We have a new feature on MAKE that allows you to email your pals, family and other Makers - here's what you've been emailing the most in the last week or so...

To email a post, just click "email this" on any post!

Wind-powered string plucker

From the MAKE Flickr photo pool

Ranjit from Brooklyn created this pleasant device and displayed it at the recent Figment Festival - seems a prime candidate to replace the windchime, hmm ... windstring?
- come see and hear this-- um-- whatever it is

MAKE NYC meeting tonight

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Reminder!

Make:NYC Meeting 7 - Monday, June 30th, 6:30PM
It's been a while, but we got our stuff together and we're ready to come back strong! This Make:NYC Meeting includes:

Labinar: Custom PCB Making - Design and Creation

Snap up a background on creating your own PCBs for electronic projects! See demonstrations of different PCB making techniques. Donate for a lab spot and we'll give you a blank PCB, mask for etching and parts to assemble a simple circuit.

Show and Tell

Meet your fellow NYC Makers and show off your creations! Bring your gadgets, gizmos, sketches, ideas, anything you'd like to put in the spotlight. We encourage NYC Makers to collaborate on and discuss DIY projects. If you're planning to bring a project, drop us a note at meetings@makenyc.org.

If you'd like to attend we have plenty of space for everyone, but please RSVP!

Location:

NYC Resistor, 5th Floor (Google Map)
397 Bridge Street between Fulton Mall and Willoughby
Brooklyn, NY 11201

(yes, right near the other location)

A/C/F to Jay St-Borough Hall
B/Q to Dekalb Avenue
M/R to Lawrence Street
2/3 to Hoyt Street

Meeting time is 6:30PM.

See you there!

Jelly bean gun from Hazard Factory

Saturday I went to Artopia in Seattle's Georgetown area. Lots of cool art everywhere! Divide from Hazard Factory explained his (very loud) jelly bean gun, yet another way to dramatically fling things into the air. Only use this outside!

More:
Make a Spud Gun Instructions and 3D PDF
The SGTC Mega-Launcher Spudgun