Archive: Online
November 6, 2009
Online servo database with user reviews
A reader just sent me a link to servodatabase.com, which lists RC servo specifications and provides user reviews, a comparison engine, and various forms of sorting. Looks like a very good resource. [Thanks, Phil!]
Posted by Sean Michael Ragan |
Nov 6, 2009 06:00 AM
Electronics, Online, Robotics |
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November 5, 2009
SUCCEED Blog: "A collection of the world's most epic, awesome, mind blowing Succeeds"

"FAIL" is a shortcut for thinking, not very encouraging and overused, "SUCCESS" is where it's at - many of the "success" posts found on this new site are projects from MAKE!
SUCCEED Blog: "A collection of the world's most epic, awesome, mind blowing Succeeds"
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Nov 5, 2009 08:00 PM
Online |
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Nonexistent town in Google maps
Interesting article in the Telegraph about "Argleton," a town that appears in Google maps but does not, apparently, exist in the real world. The best theory I've heard is that the town is a "trap" intended to catch those who steal map data. [Thanks, Glen!]
Posted by Sean Michael Ragan |
Nov 5, 2009 08:48 AM
Computers, GPS, Online, Transportation |
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November 2, 2009
Large collection of repurposed train cars
Paul Overton calls this great round-up of creatively reused rolling stock from Web Urbanist a "megapost." I like that term. There's railroad-car homes, offices, hotels--even a railroad-car footbridge. [via Dude Craft]
Posted by Sean Michael Ragan |
Nov 2, 2009 08:00 AM
Green, Mods, Online, Transportation |
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November 1, 2009
Sign up for the Make: Newsletter

Don't forget, we're now publishing a monthly Make: Newsletter. The November edition will be emailed out this coming week. The newsletter covers news and happenings around Maker Media, what's going on here at Make: Online, and contains original material, such as my new "Maker's Dictionary" column, a growing glossary of perennial tech terms and cutting-edge DIY, science, and tech-related jargon and slang.
You can sign up for the newsletter here.
Here to see last month's edition.
Posted by Gareth Branwyn |
Nov 1, 2009 01:01 PM
Announcements, Makers, Online |
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October 31, 2009
Anatomy suit one-piece zombie costume
Well, OK, I think it's really three pieces. But the head and body are a single piece which eliminates the neck seam and makes the effect way more realistic. Then each hand/forearm is one piece, but those seams are concealed by the tattered shirt. A commercial product from TheHorrorDome.com. [via Boing Boing]
Make: Halloween Contest 2009
Microchip Technology Inc. and MAKE have teamed up to present to you the Make: Halloween Contest 2009! Show us your embedded microcontroller Halloween projects and you could be chosen as a winner.
Posted by Sean Michael Ragan |
Oct 31, 2009 11:27 AM
Halloween, Online, Wearables |
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October 30, 2009
Thinkgeek Halloween pumpkin template contest
Our pals at ThinkGeek are having a contest to see who can design the coolest/geekiest pumpkin-carving template. You can view/download the entries at their contest page.
Make: Halloween Contest 2009
Microchip Technology Inc. and MAKE have teamed up to present to you the Make: Halloween Contest 2009! Show us your embedded microcontroller Halloween projects and you could be chosen as a winner.
Posted by Sean Michael Ragan |
Oct 30, 2009 07:00 PM
Announcements, Halloween, Online |
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October 23, 2009
Great online haunt resource
If you're still looking for ideas for this (or next) year's Halloween display, check out HauntProject.com. They've done a great job of assembling cool Halloween projects from all over the web and have nearly 1,000 indexed and categorized as of this writing. Shown here are three of my faves so far. Above, a sweet crashed flying saucer prop by Scott Rossi. Below, a motorized monster-in-a-box by Bob and Cindy Stewart.
Finally there's this squishy-eyeball doorbell modification by Scott of Modd3d:
Make: Halloween Contest 2009
Microchip Technology Inc. and MAKE have teamed up to present to you the Make: Halloween Contest 2009! Show us your embedded microcontroller Halloween projects and you could be chosen as a winner.
Posted by Sean Michael Ragan |
Oct 23, 2009 07:00 PM
DIY Projects, Halloween, Online, Remake |
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October 22, 2009
From BoobTube to SmartTube

Tired of reading all of those racist, anti-Semitic, gross, nasty, hateful, and just plain dirt-dumb stupid comments on YouTube? Now you can make everyone as smart as a rocket scientist, or at least as smart as a Nobel Prize-winning physicist (and prankster, juggler, painter, bongo player, and lock-picker), namely Richard Feynman.
FeynTube is a Greasemonkey script that replaces all YouTube comments when quotes from Feynman. You can switch off FeynTube simply by switching off the Greasemonkey icon at the bottom of your browser.
The FeynTube page describes how to install both Greasemonkey and the FeynTube script. [Thanks, Blake!]
More:
Richard Feynman Video
Feynman and ants
Cross-Stitch Your Favorite Physicist
Richard Feynman: The Douglas Robb Memorial Lectures
Posted by Gareth Branwyn |
Oct 22, 2009 04:00 AM
Online, Toolbox |
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October 14, 2009
Geeky pumpkin carving collection
What's that you say? It's a little early in the month to be burning the gallery-of-dorky-jack-'o-lanterns card? Not to worry. I've got four more where this one came from.
Posted by Sean Michael Ragan |
Oct 14, 2009 12:23 PM
Crafts, Halloween, Online |
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Virtual homebrew synth
Nick created interactive flash versions of two of his homebrew synths. Though I was at first expecting all the synth's interface functionality recreated in software, the wide array of strange samples is still fun to experiment with. Sweet panel design too ... but the interior's aesthetic is even better -
Don't miss Nick's other awesome examples of synth-DIY, did I mention they're awesome? (they are)
Posted by Collin Cunningham |
Oct 14, 2009 08:35 AM
Music, Online |
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October 13, 2009
Dental training mannequins
These impossibly creepy artifacts are just the tip of the iceberg of awesometasticness that is Steve Erenberg's Radio Guy. Be warned, Steve's site is chockablock with incredible medical, scientific, and industrial antiques he's collected, mostly from the 19th and early 20th centuries, and is a major click-trap.
Posted by Sean Michael Ragan |
Oct 13, 2009 09:00 AM
Online, Retro, Science, Wearables |
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October 7, 2009
Vampire and/or werewolf hunting kits
Everybody's favorite Xeni recently linked to this cool collection of slayer kits from around the web. Many of these are antiques and have sold for large sums at major auction houses, but I remain dubious as to how serious anyone ever really was about the whole business. [via Boing Boing]
Make: Halloween Contest 2009
Microchip Technology Inc. and MAKE have teamed up to present to you the Make: Halloween Contest 2009! Show us your embedded microcontroller Halloween projects and you could be chosen as a winner.
Posted by Sean Michael Ragan |
Oct 7, 2009 07:10 AM
Halloween, Online, Retro |
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October 6, 2009
Drilling square holes with a Watts drill
Interesting thread over on The Home Shop Machinist describing the use of H.J. Watts' 1918 US patent 1,241,176 drill, based on the Reuleaux triangle (Wikipedia), for drilling a (mostly) square hole.
Posted by Sean Michael Ragan |
Oct 6, 2009 02:00 PM
Online, Retro, Toolbox |
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Fascination: Bruce Hood
Are you one of the nine out of ten adults who purportedly believes you can tell when someone is watching you from behind? If so, does it occur to you that this is a kind of supernatural belief? Dr. Bruce Hood, Director of the Bristol Cognitive Development Centre at the University of Bristol and the latest subject of our ongoing series of interviews with notable Makers, has some fascinating theories about how such "routine" supernatural beliefs come about as natural consequences of the normal psychology of child development. He also talks briefly about how his own childhood enthusiasm for the paranormal eventually came full circle in his mature scientific interest in the psychology of paranormal belief. Fascinating stuff.
Posted by Sean Michael Ragan |
Oct 6, 2009 06:00 AM
Announcements, Makers, Online |
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October 5, 2009
Help write the Necronomicon
The Howard Phillips Lovecraft Historical Society, whose work I dearly love and have written about before, is compiling a complete prop edition of the Necronomicon from reader submissions! There was, apparently, a "Necronomicontest" of some sort to encourage submissions, the deadline of which has now passed, but they are still accepting "mad ramblings" here.
Posted by Sean Michael Ragan |
Oct 5, 2009 12:00 PM
Arts, Halloween, Online |
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October 2, 2009
An older human ancestor than Lucy
Yesterday was a big day for anthropology, seeing the first publication of some 15 years worth of analysis of a 4.4 million-year-old fossil skeleton of Ardipithecus Ramidus first discovered by Gen Suwa, then a graduate student of Berkeley paleoanthropologist Tim White, in Ethiopia, in 1992. Science magazine has made all eleven papers freely available to anyone willing to register at their site.
Posted by Sean Michael Ragan |
Oct 2, 2009 09:00 AM
Announcements, Biology, Online, Science |
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September 30, 2009
Free sample chips available from Microchip Technology
The sponsors of this year's Halloween contest are giving away microchips! To score some, go here, register, then choose the product line and device family you're interested in and click on the orange icons to order free samples. From their press release:
Hey Makers in the United States, UK, Germany, France and Italy... We have the exclusive on some great news from Microchip! Beginning Friday, October 2, you will be able to get free microcontroller, analog and memory samples from http://www.microchip.com/samples/. That's right, you don't even have to pay for shipping and handling! This is a great opportunity to get some parts for your embedded microcontroller project in the Make: Halloween Contest 2009.
Make: Halloween Contest 2009
Microchip Technology Inc. and MAKE have teamed up to present to you the Make: Halloween Contest 2009! Show us your embedded microcontroller Halloween projects and you could be chosen as a winner.
Posted by Sean Michael Ragan |
Sep 30, 2009 12:00 PM
Announcements, Halloween, Online |
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"How Round Is Your Circle?"
Britons John Bryant and Chris Sangwin have written a book called How Round is Your Circle? that looks incredible. I haven't read it (yet), but the promotional website by itself has me sold already. Highlights include Reuleaux tetrahedra, square-hole drilling, and self-righting polyhedra.
Posted by Sean Michael Ragan |
Sep 30, 2009 08:51 AM
Online, Reviews, Science |
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September 28, 2009
Classic gear design text free on Google Books
If you are curious about the technical details of designing and laying out gears and gear trains, you can download a complete, free, public domain copy of the 1922 edition of the American Machinist Gear Book from Google Books right now.
Posted by Sean Michael Ragan |
Sep 28, 2009 09:00 AM
Online, Retro, Robotics, Toolbox |
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