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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.

"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.

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.

September 26, 2009

Uranium ore for sale on Amazon.com

Two used units, anyway. You need to move quickly if you want the cheap one for $23.99:

Cracked casing. Has caused dog to grow third pair of legs. Still adorable. Good product.

Because after that one's gone, the price jumps up to $2500:

Found this in some old abandoned village while on vacation. Older, Russian model (PU239)? Please inquire about shipping. Not responsible for damage due to radiation or explosions.

Or you could just visit the manufacturer's website and buy it there.
And no, it's not a joke, but you wouldn't know it from reading the reviews on Amazon. The 168 reviews are, in fact, the best reason to check out the listing. Highlights include:

So glad I don't have to buy this from Libyans in parking lots at the mall anymore. I bought this to power a home-made submarine that I use to look for prehistoric-era life forms in land-locked lakes around my home town in Alaska. At first I wasn't sure if this item would (or could) arrive via mail, but I was glad to see it showed up with no problems. Well, almost no problems.

Great Product, Poor Packaging I purchased this product 4.47 Billion Years ago and when I opened it today, it was half empty.

I bought it for my cat I bought this for my cat and put it with a flask containing poison, in a sealed box. Do you think he likes it ? I've not opened the box yet.

September 24, 2009

Fascination: Mackenzie Cowell

Mackenzie Cowell is one of the founders of DIYbio.org. He is featured in the most recent of our ongoing series of video interviews with notable makers, sponsored by Dow chemical, over at elementsofhumanity.com. Mac is a big advocate, not just of the fledgling discipline of synthetic biology (or "biological engineering," as it's coming to be known), but of the idea that amateurs, hobbyists, and so-called "citizen scientists" have a meaningful role to play in its development. Check it out.

September 16, 2009

Source for low-melt casting alloys

If you've ever wanted to experiment with low-melting-point metal alloys, for casting toy soldiers or other purposes, Rotometals, Inc is a great online resource. Their Low-Melting-Point Bismuth Based Ingot 158-190-ALLOY, for instance, can be melted in a pot of boiling water. If you're concerned about lead or cadmium toxicity, their slightly-higher-melting 281-ALLOY contains only bismuth and tin. The also carry pure bismuth, indium, magnesium, and other metals and casting supplies in convenient quantities for small users.

September 11, 2009

Airless bike tires available now

More than one commenter on yesterday's post about tweels in development for the military expressed curiosity about the possibility of non-pneumatic bicycle tires. Turns out you can buy them, online, right now, from here, and here, and probably some other places that don't turn up in a Froogle search. I have not tried them myself but I'd be curious to have comments from anyone who has.

September 10, 2009

"Backyard Genius Awards"

Popular Mechanics has just published a cool top-ten list of amazing DIY projects. Topping out the list is Christian Ristow's Hand of Man, shown above, but they're all worth a gander. My personal favorite is Matt Denton's walking robot router, shown below.

Get $2 off MAKE, Volume 19

Borders is running a coupon promotion for the next four days (until 9/14) offering $2 off any magazine they carry on their newsstand. So, if you haven't picked up the latest MAKE, our "Robots, Rovers, and Drones" issue, you can get $2 off at Borders with the coupon found on the link below.

Grab the coupon here.
Find out more about MAKE, Volume 19 here.

September 2, 2009

Fascination: Theodore Gray

Our ongoing series of video interviews with notable Makers, sponsored by Dow Chemical, includes an interesting conversation with mad basement chemist Theodore Gray, a successful computer scientist whose personal chemical element collection drew so much web attention that he eventually was given a regular column with Popular Science, a 2002 Ig Nobel prize, and, most recently, a book deal for "Mad Science.".

In the Maker Shed:

Mad Science

Internet officially over the hill

AP photo of ~~Al Gore~~ Len Kleinrock, whose research during the 60s was fundamental in establishing the tube network.

Over at Boing Boing, everybody's favorite Xeni reminds us:

Forty years ago today, in Leonard Kleinrock's UCLA lab, a group of computer scientists managed to pass bits of data from one computer to another over some some gray cable. In doing so, they created the first node of what we now call (long dramatic pause)... the Internet.

The Internet itself could not be reached for comment, but inside sources say the globe-sprawling data transfer network is spending the day relaxing with friends and family, who have prepared a coffin-shaped cake with black icing and started teasing it about being an "old fart."

Thingiverse spawns new Parts Nebula

Device design repository Thingiverse has grown a new helpful appendage, the Parts Nebula -

Thingiverse citizens may now create structured part lists that can be shared and even embedded in their own websites. These part lists are designed to be as helpful as possible. They print out very easily for a trip to the hardware store. For those who prefer to shop online, suppliers can be added to parts to streamline the online part hunt. Parts themselves can be reused between Things, which saves time and effort. Last, but not least, there is an inventory system which allows you to keep track of what parts you have.

More infos on the Thingiverse blog. [via Boing Boing]

September 1, 2009

More planetary gear pr0n

This morning's planetary-gear motorcycle wheel post has induced an epicyclic fury in my heart that is terrible to behold. Here's a couple of gems from the inevitable YouTube frenzy. The first, above, shows a set of elliptical gears (ho-hum), and then proceeds to show some pretty amazing non-circular planetary trains. The second, below, shows an asymmetric train without a constant center. As Gareth would say: WANT.

August 25, 2009

Atlas of Golden Demon award winners

Say what you may about Games Workshop, tabletop wargaming, or the "miniature arts" in general, there's no doubt that GW's annual Golden Demon contests have produced some truly astounding artistry. Demon Winner is an unofficial fan-site that has collected more than 500 photos of winning entries from 9 countries across 15 categories every year since 1987. Shown above is Ben Jarvis's Slaanesh Demonette Assassin; below, David Rodriguez's Tyranids!.

August 21, 2009

Secret passage consultants

Steve Humble of HiddenPassageway.com wants to build your secret lair. For the right price. But even if the United Nations hasn't paid you that ransom yet, it's still fun to browse around his site. Yes, they will build you a rotating fireplace. What you do behind it is your own business. Props to Cara for the link.

August 19, 2009

Encylopedic online archive of vintage tools

walden_sb24_wrench_ratchet_goodrich_pat_f_cropped_inset2.jpg

Walden 3/4 Ratcheting Box Wrench for B.F. Goodrich, US Patent #928,719, 1906.

If you're interested in 20th-century hand tools, Alloy Artifacts is a great resource. Admittedly the page could do better in terms of user-friendliness, for instance by adding a search box and thumbnail-browsing of the entries. Still, in terms of the amount and quality of information available it's hard to beat. The tools are indexed by manufacturer, and each entry has a link to any relevant patents and a photo, like the one shown here, with a length scale and a close-up of the toolmark.

August 12, 2009

Bicycle pr0n

Boutique Cycles is a site out of Australia featuring user-submitted pics of tricked-out custom bicycles. Shown above, "Glowing Batavus" fixie by Netherlands user Kars, with an antique frame, Miche hubs, and custom-painted rims. The frame glows in the dark.

August 4, 2009

AR round-up

On Noah Zerkin's blog, he has a round-up of augmented reality (AR) project videos that have been floating through the aetherweb in the last few months. In the above vid, Aaron Meyers and Jeff Crouse, both involved with Eyebeam, the OpenFrameworks community, and interactive art in general, explain to RocketBoom their "World Series of 'Tubing," an interactive AR social game played with YouTube videos.

Augmented Reality Roundup (some of the exciting stuff from the last few months)

July 30, 2009

Online index of mechanical puzzles

John Rausch's Puzzle World website showcases some incredible and ingenious objects from Rausch's own puzzle collection, and from those of others. The site is divided into categories like interlocking solid puzzles, impossible object puzzles, sequential movement puzzles, etc. It's a nearly inescapable click-trap. Shown here are two of my favorites, so far. Above is Stewart Coffin's handmade "Jupiter" puzzle, and below is Harry Eng's "Jar of Tennis Balls."

July 29, 2009

Meet Cybraphon - the autonomous emotional robot band

Simon Kirby sends word of a hot new group destined for stardom and driven by solenoids. Ladies & gents, put your hands together for - Cybraphon!

[...] a robotic orchestra in a large display cabinet, inspired by 19th century automata. The unusual feature of Cybraphon is that it is emotional. It's mood is shaped by how popular it is online, as it obsessively googles for itself, tracks it's facebook friends, checks it's myspace page, and updates it's twitter feed 24 hours a day. If it's feeling popular (for example if it finds it's been covered in MAKE), then it will play more upbeat music. However, just like a real band it is addicted to its own celebrity so there will be an inevitable crash in its mood if its fame does not constantly increase.

Give the band an ego boost by checking out the demo track plus plenty of video from the build on the project's blog.

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