MAKE Magazine

HOW-TO get Microsoft to subsidize that netbook purchase you've been putting off

Phillip Torrone — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 09:00:16 -0800

Great post from Brian @ Hackszine on getting a netbook on the cheap! He writes...

Things I learned today:

Microsoft is encouraging people to use Live Search by running a generous rebate program. At times (such as this morning when I bought an MSI Wind), the rebate can reach 30% or higher.

eBay sellers techtreasure and multiwavevideo are also known as Mwave.com, a reputable seller of computers, such as the MSI Wind I bought from them this morning.

To be clear: yes, Microsoft is paying you to search. Here's how it worked for me this morning:

I started my search at Live.com and searched for "cheap" along with some product name; I tried a few variations such as "cheap wii" and "cheap laptop" and both worked.

Looked for the link titled "Buy A Cheap Laptop. You may get XX% off with PayPal if eligible." (This morning, it was 30%. As I type this, it's 20%)

Searched for the MSI Wind (Buy it Now items only), and purchased it using Paypal.

Made sure that at every step of the way, I saw the icon for "Microsoft cashback" at the top of the screen.

eBay has a page with terms and conditions, and Microsoft has a FAQ about the program. See a list of other stores that participate in this cashback program.

So, how did I make out? I paid $479 for the laptop, and qualified for $144 cash back. On top of that, there's a $50 manufacturer's rebate on the MSI Wind, so all told, $285. Get while the getting's good, and let us know how you fared!

FatWallet.com: eeePC 1000H for $330 shipped with live.com and ebay
FatWallet.com: *EDITED again* 20% off at eBay through MSFT cashback program

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DIY Halloween : A Mirror that Isn't

David J. Neff — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 08:20:33 -0800

I really think these make a great effect for your Halloween party or Haunted House. This seems to be a little more difficult than some of the other mirrors I have seen but it does make a cool effect. However try and use something a little scarier than what this prop maker did :-)

Aidtopia Haunted Mirror

- David J. Neff

How the New Yorker cover was made...

Phillip Torrone — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 08:00:33 -0800

Video and article about how illustrator Bob Staake made this week's cover of the New Yorker. Interesting note, he uses Mac OS 7 and PhotoShop 3.0 via Kottke.

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Making Austin Weird: DIY Shrinky Dinks

Luke Iseman — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 08:00:00 -0800

From now until the awesomeness that is Maker Faire Austin, I'll be highlighting projects that you can find at Travis County Fairgrounds on 10/18-19. Tickets here; see you there!

Reducing waste + getting a cool building material = DIY Shrinky Dinks. Hundreds of other projects of this quality + 10/18 to 10/19 in Austin makes for one amazing weekend!

Zombie sits up and takes notice

Patti Schiendelman — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 07:00:00 -0800

Make this lovely (and nattily dressed!) zombie sit up and scare your guests. The design uses a sprinkler valve, PVC pipe and a screen door opener. Propmaster shows us how here. via Hacked Gadgets

Tracking the time kids spend online - make your own internet usage tracker

Phillip Torrone — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 06:00:07 -0800

Linus Torvald has a blog and out of the gate he has a great post on a kid's internet usage tracker he made, nice! Linus writes...

...I'm happy with the kids being comfy with a computer, but we've set some basic rules for it. Notably, they can't just play all those flash games all the time. And sometimes, if they don't do their homework, we disallow it entirely, or - happily more commonly - we give extra time for good behaviour or for some homework that needs more googling.
But I'm a geek, and I'm not at all interested in trying to do any of this manually.

So I wrote (and recently re-wrote, since a disk crash destroyed my original) a simple internet usage tracker for them, which allows me to set usage limits per kid, and which tracks how much time they use online, and forcibly logs them off if they go over the limits. It's a stupid program, but it works pretty well (if you run Linux, of course ;), and since I had to rewrite it I asked some of the git people for help with the simple graphical UI that shows the kids how much time they have left.

So for any other Linux user with kids and git, and who wants to do the same, here's a pointer to the git summary page: tracker.git, and you can get it with

git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/tracker

if you want to play around with it. It's not fancy, it has no docs, no installation instructions etc, but if people are actually interested, I'll be happy to help. Why? Because I've always noticed that my own projects get so much better if others are involved, even if it's just as a user...

Build your own glowing butterfly wings costume

Jonah Brucker-Cohen — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 06:00:00 -0800

Here's a good project for Halloween. These electroluminescent butterfly wings use EL wire and some springs to keep the wire in the right shape when rounded into wings. Check out the link below for the detailed how-to on putting these together.

via Invent Geek

MAKE Projects - Volume 14

Phillip Torrone — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 05:00:11 -0800

In each volume of MAKE we have "major projects" these project pages are meaty step-by-step articles with start-to-finish photos, precise instructions and how-to learning that can range from making a VCR cat feeder to ariel kite photography. In MAKE volume 03 the projects are:

Living Room Baja Buggies by John Mouton. With wireless cameras on board, these radio-controlled racers give you virtual reality telepresence. Page 96

Taffy Pulling Machine by William Gurstelle. Make a simple mechanism that stretches delicious candy while it stretches the limits of multidimensional math. Page 106

The Pixelmusic 3000 by Tarikh Korula. Re-create a mid-1970s video trip by plugging this box into any TV and audio source. Beneath the fake wood paneling, a Propeller microcontroller simulates Atari's classic music visualizer. Page 114

Solar Power System Design by Parker Jardine. How to use solar panels to supplement your home or workshop electricity needs. Page 160

You can subscribe to MAKE to get in on this project action (use code CMAKE for $5 off) and you'll also get access to the MAKE digital edition, it's exactly like our print magazine, but online (no DRM), shareable, printable and can be accessed from just about any computer. Back issues of MAKE are also available in our Maker store.

Arduino shield triggers a gameboy with any MIDI device

Jonah Brucker-Cohen — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 05:00:00 -0800

This cool shield hack for the Arduino controller called the "ArduinoBoy" lets you interface it to any MIDI input to trigger sounds on a standard Gameboy. To get started, just use an existing Arduino protoshield, and scrap the breadboard for some custom circuitry and components outlined at the link below.

ArduinoBoy, via Create Digital Music

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Packing material looks like a giant alien spaceship

Phillip Torrone — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 04:00:28 -0800

Jason Rogenes turns packing packing material into glowing obelisks at Manuf®actured: The conspicuous transformation of everyday objects via BBG.

Artist Jason Rogenes first found his raw material while living in the commerce-driven, big-box store, strip mall environment of Los Angeles where polystyrene was inexpensive and easily procured. In this abundant byproduct of consumer culture, originally designed to protect packaged electronics and other products, he saw the potential for material transformation. For Manuf®actured, he has created a floating, glowing site-specific installation in the museum’s two story main gallery flanked by a wall construction of polystyrene and cardboard.

Bugging the real world

Jonah Brucker-Cohen — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 04:00:00 -0800

This article shows how to hook up an Arduino to a "Bug" machine from BugLabs over the USB port. Pretty cool way to make the Bug even more interactive outside of its existing attachments and have it effect things in the physical world.

Bug 2 Arduino, via Arduino Blog

Music Is Math by Glenn Marshall

Marc de Vinck — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 03:00:00 -0800

This video is entirely created in Processing. It's a great open source programming language that was developed for both electronic and visual artists. It's also the program the Arduino IDE is based on. Amazing work!

This is the HD and finished version of my video 'Music Is Math'. I just let the program run till the end of the music, I felt reluctant to interfere too much by trying to sculpt an ending, and just let the code run its own natural course. Music by Board of Canada.

More about Music Is Math

DIY: Crush Room

Marc de Vinck — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 02:00:00 -0800

Here is a project that will really impress the neighborhood kids. It's a "Crush Room", complete with spikes, skulls and blood! What else do you need for Halloween? Oh yeah, candy!

The point of this room (pun intended) was to get the kids into a closed room, then have spikes emerge from the ceiling and have the ceiling start to lower downward. It required a sturdy 4' x 7' x 10' frame, thirteen carved foam-cast skulls, 26 flexible foam spikes and a false ceiling. I almost gave up on the project because, of all things, I couldn't find a good way to make the spikes. Eventually, I figured out a way that worked. The finished room was a big hit and really creepy. Well worth the effort.

More about making a DIY: Crush Room

In the Maker Shed:

Animated Ghost Kit

Maker Faire Austin: Sashimi Tabernacle Choir

Marc de Vinck — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 01:00:00 -0800

Maker Faire in Austin is just a few weeks away! Where else are you going to experience 250 singing sea creatures? Be sure to check out the complete schedule at the Maker Faire website.

What can be more annoying than a billy bass singing fish? Try 250 bolted to a Volvo and singing Opera. This award winning art car from Houston has 300 pounds of batteries, 2 computers, and more than 5 miles of wire in the control system.

More about the Sashimi Tabernacle Choir @ Maker Faire Austin

More:

More about Maker Faire Austin 2008

Upgrade your Arduino projects

Phillip Torrone — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 00:00:45 -0800

Ladyada writes-

Running out of space in your big Arduino project? Good news! Finally, after months of backorders, one can now buy the latest improvement to the 'ATmega8′ line of chips: the ATmega328's.
The '328 has 32K of flash, and 2K of SRAM. Basically its got the capacity of an ATmega32 but in a slimmer package. These chips are notable for their ability to drop-in replace the ATmega168. So that means if you have an Arduino or compatible clone, it is a easy 2 minute swap.

If you have an Adafruit wave shield or GPS/datalogging shield, and you're annoyed that the FAT16 libraries eats up so much flash and RAM, upgrading will definitely fix the problem.

I've merged my previous updates to the Arduino bootloader to the most recent release and also fixed 2 annoying bugs that have prevailed this long. (1. the missing signature bytes when using the bootloader directly and 2. the broken EEPROM code). Download the '328-compatible bootloader files here.

There are 250 preprogrammed chips are in the Adafruit webshop or you can get blank chips from Mouser (but be warned that they're backordered till mid-December)

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How knives are made

Becky Stern — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 21:00:00 -0800

Joel Bukiewicz crafts amazing knives in his little Brooklyn studio. Cool Hunting has a video going inside his workshop for an interesting look at how his fancy fancy knives are created.

Ocarina from soda can

Becky Stern — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 19:00:02 -0800

Ranjit made a one-minute tutorial on turning a diet coke can into an ocarina - the "Diet Cocarina." Doesn't sound great, but hey, it's a start!

Get MAKE updates via Twitter - and MAKE Magazine print/digital/web support via Twitter! (and a special offer)....

Phillip Torrone — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 17:09:11 -0800

Twitter is a neat service that a lot of folks use to get updates from their friends and to just stay in touch, all in 140 characters, via email, phone or the web. MAKE has a Twitter feed too, you get updates from MAKE by visiting (or "following" make) at Twitter.

We are trying something new - If you're a MAKE print/digital edition subscriber you can direct message MAKE at anytime with questions, comments or suggestions. Anything about MAKE really... I think we're the only "magazine" that is offering support this way, if there are others let me know - I'd like see what's working and what's not. So far I've seen Comcast, JetBlue use the direct message and the @ replies feature. For fastest results with MAKE "d make yourmessagehere".

But wait, there's more! If you happen to be following MAKE on Twitter I will post a discount code each day for the rest of the week that will get you $10 off a MAKE subscription (USA) -- so if you're thinking of subscribing, follow us on Twitter and it could be your lucky day! I'll wait until the end of the day so you have time to add/follow make. This is likely a one time only promo to test the waters, when it's over it's over.

A little note for the current followers of MAKE on Twitter... Twitter was posting duplicate Tweets from our site, we didn't change anything on our end but we switched to another way of doing this once we saw the multiple message and that seemed to have solved everything, sorry if you received multiple messages.

Oh, last up - We also have CRAFT, HACKS and Maker Faire on Twitter. You can use these for CRAFT subscription support, comments and questions as well Maker Faire support (please direct message if you want immediate help or have questions). During Maker Faire Austin we'll be Tweeting the entire time with news, events and get togethers!

Steam Powered - California Steampunk Convention

Gareth Branwyn — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 16:48:54 -0800

On Friday Oct 31 - Sunday Nov 2, 2008, Steam Powered - the California Steampunk Convention, will take place at the Domain Hotel in Sunnyvale, CA. Presenters and performers include Greg Broadmore, Senior Conceptual Designer at Weta Workshop, Jake von Slatt (Steampunk Workshop), Abney Park, the Brassworks Band, Ann and Jeff VanderMeer (Steampunk Anthology), Studio Foglio, and many others. I'm planning on being there as well. Friday night, Halloween, there will be a Victorian Ball and costume contest.

Steam Powered

Homebrew Multi-touch display

Phillip Torrone — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 15:00:42 -0800

IDEO has a new lab blog that catalogs some of their projects and experiments, here's a multi-touch display... They released the code for the FTIR server and the Flash API here if you want to check it out...

At IDEO we're all about building to think. Learning from books and websites and product demos is cool, but we think the really good stuff comes when you get in there and start messing around for real.
In the case of multi-touch interfaces, that meant building a system we could start prototyping on. What we wanted was:
-a multi-touch display large enough to facilitate use by several people at once
-an API for flash that would let us quickly prototype multi-touch interfaces and applications

It took us about 5 weeks to get everything together. Kyle, one of our all-around gearheads, had already been building a drafting-table-style FTIR system in his garage which helped kick-start us.

Anti-slip stickers

Phillip Torrone — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 14:00:33 -0800

Nice skakeboard grip tape pattern made with subhead anti-slip stickers via BB. Usually used for slippery areas, designer Jesse Milden has a lot of nice patterns for keeping humans upright.

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Pinhole tophat

Gareth Branwyn — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 14:00:21 -0800

Seen on the Make: Flickr Pool, a pinhole camera housed inside of a top hat.

Abracadabra Pinhole Camera

MAKE/CRAFT at Crafty Bastards!

Gareth Branwyn — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 13:00:00 -0800

Brian runs an LED Throwie workshop

I'm building a Blinkybug. Kids LOVED the Blinkybugs... and the Mini-Monster kit.

Last weekend (Sept 28), Brian Jepson and I, along with the most awesome Esti Gerson, ran a mini Maker Square at DC's venerable Crafting 2.0 event Crafty Bastards! It was a surprisingly fun day, given the fact that Brian and I were coming off of a round-the-clock book push and the sky kept on leaking heavily at regular intervals. (I asked one friend, who stopped by the booth, how long he'd been there. He said: "About three cloud bursts.")

We ran LED Throwie and button ring workshops, and Teresa Levy did a paper bead workshop. We talked to a lot of enthusiastic MAKE and CRAFT readers, sold some merch, turned on some new folks to what we do, and talked up Maker Faire. A good time was had by all. If you're in DC next year when the crafty bastards pitch their tents again in Adams Morgan, it's definitely worth checking out. [Photos by Esti.]

Esti's Flickr Set for the Day

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Make: Philly's ArtBots

Gareth Branwyn — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 12:08:11 -0800

Our pals at Make: Philly held their latest meeting on Sept 14th. They had a speaker, world-renowned robotics Professor, Dr. Mark Yim, who's currently a professor at Penn and formerly Stanford. Dr. Yim's research focuses on modular reconfigurable robots and locomotion ("PolyBots"), MEMS, and batch fabrication techniques. After his talk, the Make: Philly challenge was for members to create an "art bot," a mechanized device that, when powered on, pushed, or propelled, will make some sort of mark. [Pics here are by Cyenobite and are under a Creative Commons license.]

MakePhilly 9_14_08

Madonna made from dice

Phillip Torrone — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 09:01:34 -0800

Robert keeps doing interesting things, when he's not making the coolest visualizer (now part of iTunes) he's making a giant Madonna out of dice... via BBG. He writes...

Those that know me know I am a sucker for multitudes. Many of anything intrigues me more than single things ever could. So it wouldn’t be much of a surprise to find out that I took 2925 dice and formed them into a bitmap image of the Madonna. Thats the Madonna, and not just plain ol’ Madonna.

Maker Faire wins "American Magazine Vanguard Award" !!

Phillip Torrone — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 08:20:07 -0800

Maker Faire won a "American Magazine Vanguard Award"! The first annual American Magazine Vanguard Awards (AMVAs) were announced last night during a ceremony for Ad Age’s annual “A-list.” The AMVAs recognize magazines “that are innovating smartly beyond print.”

Make is for nerds and dorks -- nerds and dorks who are proudly nerdy and dorky. The editorial mission is to "celebrate your right to tweak, hack and bend any technology to your own will." Published quarterly since 2005 by O'Reilly Media, it's tapped into the powerful DIY movement that has millions of consumers rewiring their own realities by making their own media (with tools ranging from iMovie to YouTube to GarageBand to Blogger to Facebook) -- only Make's not afraid of throwing a soldering iron or a little duct tape into the mix. It's about tangible creations -- and good old-fashioned American ingenuity.
Make earns an AMVA because of its remarkable Maker Faire, a cult event that has been growing almost mainstream. The first fair, held in 2006 in San Mateo, drew 22,000 attendees -- people interested in everything from growing their own food to building hybrid vehicles. In 2007, 45,000 showed up; this spring, 65,000. A second edition of the event started up in Austin, Texas, drawing 20,000 attendees; the second two-day Maker Faire Austin kicks off this month on the 18th. (Watch for Make to expand its fair to other cities in 2009.) Considering that some of the greatest leaps forward in American technological history have been scrappy homebrews (Apple Computer was a literal garage start-up), it's really kind of exciting to think that, given its explosive growth, the Maker Faire might well help along an invention or two that's truly important.

Maker Faire is labor of love for everyone involved from the staff at MAKE to all the Makers who make it one of the most inspiring weekends you can imagine. In just 2 weeks we have Maker Faire Austin (Oct. 18th and 19th) if you didn't get tickets yet, what are you waiting for??

Hand grenade mouse

Phillip Torrone — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 08:00:33 -0800

Very cool looking homemade / modded hand grenade mouse from a Russia modding forums. Looks pretty easy to remake...

Making Austin Weird: Blacksmithing!

Luke Iseman — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 08:00:00 -0800

From now until the awesomeness that is Maker Faire Austin, I'll be highlighting projects that you can find at Travis County Fairgrounds on 10/18-19. Tickets here; see you there!

Blacksmithing isn't just a scene in medieval movies: check out the Austin Metal Authority area at Maker Faire for "a live demo of blacksmithing techniques, including sculptural and functional projects." Yet another reason to plan on being in Austin on 10/18 to 10/19:)

DIY Halloween - Simply Weird :: Glowing Pickles

Phillip Torrone — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 07:50:07 -0800

Something a little weird to start your week. Yes I know this is not too scary but it does make a great great prop for the Mad Scientist lab in your garage. Check out how to make a Pickle Glow here.

Usual warnings with something like, don't just attempt something you see on the internet without knowing what you are doing.

More

DIY Pickle Light.

Balls 17 - Experimental rocketry launch contest

Phillip Torrone — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 07:00:07 -0800

Erik writes-

BALLS 17, the premiere experimental rocketry launch contest, was held Sept 26, 27, 28 in Black Rock, Nevada. The event website has details on BALLS 17 and the competition rules.
This is the extreme rocketry event where experimental rocketeers push the envelope of size, staging/clustering, altitude, home-made components and motors, and cutting-edge rocket tech. Not for the faint of heart and not for children. Bring your hard hat.

Here are Erik's fantastic photos!

Halloween inspiration - Carnivale masks from Venice

Patti Schiendelman — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 07:00:00 -0800

If you're looking for mask-making inspiration, look at these photos taken by Roadknight Labs of amazing masks made for Carnivale.

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Browse the web from your rotary phone

Jonah Brucker-Cohen — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 06:00:00 -0800

The "Phone Dial Web Browser" by artist / designer David Lu is a custom web browser that uses a vintage phone dial as a physical interface. Dial the IP address of the website that you want to reach and the browser will get you there. The project was built back in 2003 with a BX-24 microcontroller, basic electronics, and a Java interface to access the Internet.

phone dial web browser

Skateboard flower

Phillip Torrone — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 05:00:53 -0800

Ted Hunter's skateboard flower via NOTCOT. Ted writes-

This piece, I built is called Reach for Light. It was last shown at the Wood Turning Center in Philadelphia but was originally built for an art exhibition in Hawaii . It’s a good example of free hand vacuum veneer bending. The flower petal designs are actually printed using photo’s of real tulip petals. The inside is printed griptape (sticky back sandpaper) and the outside is printed styrene. The internal core is Canadian maple veneer. The shape of the decks are our Roarockit classic pintail skateboard shape that is included in our longboard deck kits.

Pole dance - Strain sensor+ LED experiment

Phillip Torrone — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 05:00:49 -0800

This is interesting, an interactive pole dance experiment that uses strain gauges to change the lighting and colors by Daito Manabe + Motoi Ishibashi. The best part about this video is you get to see a couple Japanese hacker/maker/engineers test it out. Well, at least that was my favorite part.

Somewhat related, here's a nice exchange about using a strain gauge from a scale to weigh a keg, clever!

New ZigBee sports ARM architecture

Jonah Brucker-Cohen — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 05:00:00 -0800

This ZigBee radio module has a 32-Bit ARM Processor and its architecture reduces component amounts on the PCB which ultimately reduces power consumption and the overall cost of these efficient modules. This package needs an external crystal and there's room for an optional 50 Ohm antenna as well. The two onboard ADCs and 8 general purpose I\O pins make this an even more handy interface than the current ZigBees to get started with wireless projects.

FreeStar Pro 32-Bit ARM-Based Radio Modules via Electronics Lab

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Typewriter robots get a facelift

Jonah Brucker-Cohen — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 04:00:00 -0800

We've written about Jeremy Mayer's typewriter robots before here on Make, but here are a couple new ones he has built that make interesting use of the keys as teeth and the innards as legs on this spider-like bot. He's also bent the body to add more expressive features to the "face" of this bot. Check out the link to his portfolio site for a tour of the rest of the bots.

Jeremy Mayer's Portfolio via Technabob

ReleShield for Arduino

Marc de Vinck — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 03:00:00 -0800

You might remember Mau and his Flush-O-Matic that I wrote about a while back. He sent me his latest work called the ReleShield. It's a relay shield for the Arduino that allows you to control high voltage appliances. No word on kits yet.

This is a prototype for use Arduino protoshield and a few other components, the purpose is simple but very useful. Ever wanted to control the lights from your home computer? Or perhaps some other appliance in the house.

More about the ReleShield

More:

The Flush-O-Matic

In the Maker Shed:

Make: Arduino

How To: Breakable Tombstone

Marc de Vinck — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 02:00:00 -0800

This is a great instructable on making a breakable tombstone. The end result is a tombstone that explodes when you punch it. This is a great prop for your next zombie movie.

So Halloween is coming up and you need to put your neighbor to shame. Well I am going to show you how to make a tombstone that not only is a good yard decoration but can be made into a breakaway tombstone for your movies.

More about making a Breakable Tombstone

Review: Rovio by WowWee

Marc de Vinck — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 01:00:00 -0800

Robert sent in this review of the Rovio robot by WowWee. The new Rovio can be controlled via WiFi, and has a built in Web Cam. Somebody please hack this thing ASAP!

Check out the detailed Review of Rovio

More:

WowWee Alive Cub dissection

Hacking the Esquire cover e-ink screen with an Arduino

Phillip Torrone — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 00:00:33 -0800

Matt hacked around with the Esquire cover e-ink screen (see our past posts) and did a cool Knight Rider type pulse... Source included. He writes-

Last month, Esquire magazine published a cover that contained an E-ink screen. I was really looking forward to it, actually... so much so that I marked it in my calendar to make sure I picked one up around the corner. There was quite a bit of hype about it, and a lot of people wrote about it on their blogs and websites, and Esquire even encouraged hackers (does that include me?) to play around with the screen. The local store had a couple of copies left over this past week, so I grabbed one, and decided to see what I could do in a couple hours of playing around.

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Best of CRAFT

Natalie Zee Drieu — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 13:00:00 -0800

Here are some of my favorite posts from the CRAFT blog this week:

Not so lazy Sunday... Weekend Project - Ultimate LED fan sign

Phillip Torrone — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 12:00:08 -0800

There's still time to start making or just watch this week's Weekend Project: Ultimate LED Fan Sign. You can view the video here, grab the PDF here and subscribe in iTunes to get all our Weekend Projects and PDFs delivered each week.

Making Austin Weird: LED Bling

Luke Iseman — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 11:10:10 -0800

From now until the awesomeness that is Maker Faire Austin, I'll be highlighting projects that you can find at Travis County Fairgrounds on 10/18-19. Tickets here; see you there!

You know you've got a geektastic event when even the fashion accessories start sporting LEDs. From Jared's project page at Inventgeek:

With the maker faire this month I decided to make some bling to bring. Having made 80 of these necklaces in august that I brought with me to burning man this year, the process is now super refined and easy. The cost to make one of these is very cheap, bordering on about 1.50 each. But the coolness factor is off the charts. At burning man I had a box of several colors of LED's as well as some color fading ones. The color fading ones were by far the most popular. Anyway here is the how to...

You can see Jared, and hundreds of other Makers, 10/18.

Brush knuckles

Phillip Torrone — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 01:00:43 -0800

Brush knuckles designed by Ken Goldman - for the toughest cleanings via BoJ.

Wooden knuckles.

Cupcake Knuckles.

Brass knuckle cup & purse.

Found object robot sculptures

Phillip Torrone — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 01:00:09 -0800

Nerdbots, ound object robot sculptures for your "inner nerd" via NOTCOT.

Oddly obsessed with all things robot, married couple Nicholas and Angela from Kansas City, Missouri, decided on a whim one day to do nothing other than to build one themselves.
After piecing together parts found at their favorite antique and thrift stores, they created their first robot friend. Since that first day, Nicholas and Angela have added many fabulously geeky robots to their beloved robotic collection.