RSSArchives: November 2005
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November 16, 2005
Build-it-yourself cell phones
Here's more about the DIY cell phone project - " Surj Patel is building his own cell phone, bit by soldered bit. It's not easy. It starts with parts that cost around $400. Then Patel and his partner, Deva Seetharam, have to write code to run on the tiny Linux-based computer that he's hoping will serve as the brains of his new phone. So why bother? After all, it's not like cell phones are hard to find or terribly expensive." [via] Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Nov 16, 2005 12:24 AM
Cellphones, DIY Projects, Electronics, Wireless |
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Write energy-efficient C code
Brian sent this along, something to consider if you're working on small form factor devices...It's good for the environment, good for your batteries, but it's weird to think about an algorithm's energy efficiency (it's not just CPU cycles they look at, but memory access as well) "PowerEscape has added a new utility to its development toolsuite. "Insight" aims to reduce power consumption by improving the "data efficiency" of C-language code. The company says improving data efficiency in the initial stages of development yields higher performance for the same amount of power." Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Nov 16, 2005 12:24 AM
Electronics |
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PocketMod: Make a disposable personal organizer
Rael had a great idea, use these PocketMods for Make for shopping lists and instructions for a project. "The PocketMod is a new way to keep yourself organized. Lets face it, PDAs are too expensive and cumbersome, and organizers are bulky and hard to carry around. Nothing beats a folded up piece of paper. That is until now. With the PocketMod, you can carry around the days notes, keep them organized in any way you wish, then easily transfer the notes to your PDA, spreadsheet, or planner." Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Nov 16, 2005 12:24 AM
DIY Projects |
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| Comments (3)
Get podcasts with Juice, the cross-platform podcast receiver...
Formerly iPodder, here's the latest version and information for this great open source podcatcher - "Juice has evolved from its basic beginnings as the world's first podcasting software to a mature, fully featured application. Donation-supported Juice has been downloaded over 1 million times since its debut last year, making it the world's most popular podcast receiver." Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Nov 16, 2005 12:24 AM
Podcasting |
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HOW - TO: Getting Started with RSS
Paul writes "If there's one word to describe my latest article, it's comprehensive. Focused on using RSS as a means to save time in one's daily routine, I take the reader through what RSS is, why it should be used and how to use it. I go through the installation, configuration and usage of RSS in Thunderbird, Google Desktop, RSSOwl as well as web-based feed readers with Google's Personalized homepage, My Yahoo!, and Bloglines. As with all of my articles, there's screenshots-a-plenty." Good one to send to the non-RSSers, or if you've always wondered what those XML and RSS buttons are on MAKE. Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Nov 16, 2005 12:24 AM
Online |
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November 15, 2005
Beck video with Sony QRIOs now live...
Mocapitator let us know that the new Beck video we mentioned, starring the Sony QRIO robots is now live on the Beck site. I just watched it and I think the QRIOs are a lot more interesting than their role in the video. I worked on a few Sony projects in the past in Japan and China, some with the QRIOs and they're creepy-cool. If you've seen the QRIOs in action, then this video might not seem that interesting, it's pretty much their dance routine when they're out in public - but still fun to watch. Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Nov 15, 2005 05:57 PM
Robotics |
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Cigarbox guitar - photos and a movie...
Nat sent in a link to his brother-in-law's Flickr photo set of the a great Cigarbox guitar construction. In MAKE 04, we have a fun article on how-to build and play a sweet-sounding 3-string instrument in an afternoon - Link. Bonus link - here's MAKE Editor-in-Chief Mark Frauenfelder playing a version he made, right in your browser or in iTunes (QuickTime).
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Nov 15, 2005 12:50 PM
MAKE Podcast, MAKE Video, Music |
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HOW TO - Spinning LED
Greg sent in this great LED project that spells words or makes patterns when it spins "The way this works, is you have an EEprom (electronically eraseable programmable read only memory). This stores data on different lines. You retrieve this data by feeding it binary numbers, (ie. 1=0001, 2=0010, 3=0011, 4=0100, and so on). Each line of code has 8 bits of data, and directly corresponds to how the row of LEDs are lit up. If you put in 10000001, then the top and bottom led would be on. This is kind of tricky to figure out, but you have to make a grid. Since I am using a 4 bit counter, I have a possibility of 16 addresses. So to make a letter, you have to draw up a 16X8 grid, and color in the pixels you want." Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Nov 15, 2005 11:50 AM
Electronics |
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Get better gas mileage at MaxMPG...
MAKE subscriber John writes "I started this site because of the importance, to ma at least, of vehicles that get good mileage. You don't necessarily need an overly complicated hybrid (though I'm a fan of hybrids) to get good mileage. My goal is to get at least 40 mpg out of my Nissan pickup simply by making the engine more efficient and improving the aerdynamics while not taking away from its utility. This is important to me because of the environmental impact of cars and because of national security. We are all impacted by the environment but I'm in the Navy, have been deployed to the Middle East four times and so have a keen interest in our nation weening itself from oil as much as possible." Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Nov 15, 2005 10:27 AM
Transportation |
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| Comments (1)
The Boy Mechanic: Volume 1 by Popular Mechanics
Edward writes "The Boy Mechanic: Volume 1 by Popular Mechanics. Offered thru Project Gutenberg. 700 Things for Boys to Do. This book was my first intro to making things when I was a kid. Published in 1913. The PDF version is richly illustrated." Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Nov 15, 2005 09:18 AM
DIY Projects |
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MAKE @ American Inventor - November 17th
MAKE will be covering ABC's American Inventor's auditions November 17th at 8am in San Francisco. If you're going, let us know (before or after if you want to share your experience). "AMERICAN INVENTOR is an exciting new primetime reality show for ABC from Simon Cowell and the producers of American Idol. Set to premiere in early 2006, the show will undertake the biggest search ever for America's best new invention. An embodiment of the ultimate American dream, the show will uncover the hottest new product and make some struggling inventor's dream come true. The show will celebrate the best in homespun American ingenuity and will turn one person's idea into the next big thing." - Link. Look for our special write up this week!
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Nov 15, 2005 09:00 AM
Announcements |
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HOW TO - The Magic Phone: Number Pad Matrix Decoding
I saw the start of Fabienne Serriere's awesome project at the Maker fair - here's the how-to! She writes "This How-To is the first in a series of construction instructions for a project titled The Magic Phone. I was inspired by the Port-O-Rotary from Spark Fun but wanted to take the project to the next level and with hardware I already had on hand. You may be able to extrapolate these instructions to different models of telephones, different telephony protocols, and even different projects." Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Nov 15, 2005 08:58 AM
Electronics, Wireless |
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Island made from plastic bottles...
The "Spiral Rainbow Island" created by Richie Sowa is an island is anchored off the coast of Mexico, close to Cancun. The island is made from over 250,000 recycled plastic bottles, packed into netting. Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Nov 15, 2005 08:56 AM
Made On Earth |
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HOW TO - Make an all weather Wi-Lan enclosure
Chris sent this how-to in from Grynx contributor Dan "This box will house my proprietary Wi-Lan HP45-24 radio unit and set as a client, a 2.4ghz 500mw HyperLink Amplifier connected to a Linksys WRT54G with a third party firmware and set as an access point, the Wi-Lan HP45-24 radio will be the main link back to my base radio. The whole idea of this enclosure is to be as "modular" as possible, i.e. if the PSU blows-up I can simply remove the PSU and replace it, OR if I need to relocate the whole box, I can simply unscrew all the antenna and take it away with me." Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Nov 15, 2005 08:51 AM
DIY Projects, Electronics, Wireless |
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Convert a SCSI enclosure into a SATA enclosure
Here's a step-by-step guide to converting any external hard drive enclosure (USB, Firewire, SCSI, etc) into an external SATA enclosure that meets the SATA standard. Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Nov 15, 2005 08:44 AM
Computers, Electronics |
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Notes from the Machinima Film Fest
Good overview of the Machinima film fest and making films in the virtual world, the entries are great! - "Machinima is film-making using video game engines, hybridizing traditional film, animation, and game development. Lots of fun...A full list of festival winners, nominees and presenters are up on the festival site. Big ups to Machinima Man Paul Marino and everyone who put it together. Already looking forward to next year's fest which will have two full days of machinima." Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Nov 15, 2005 07:51 AM
Virtual Worlds |
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HOW TO - Make a spider rifle
Matt writes "I have put together some free plans for building a spider rifle. This is a device which I designed and built from pvc & cpvc pipe that uses compressed air to suck up and kill household spiders." I don't think you have the kill the little fellows, so this could just be used to capture and release. Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Nov 15, 2005 07:35 AM
DIY Projects |
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| Comments (2)
Musical Instrument Maker's forums
"The Musical Instrument Makers Forum, an interactive forum for the discussion of musical instrument construction, design and repair - Acoustic guitar building, electric guitar making, archtop guitar building, violin making, dulcimer making, mandolin building, banjo building, or any other type of lutherie; pickup winding and rewinding; drum making; flute and recorder making and repair; brass instrument building and repair; and more. For makers of all instruments at any skill level from expert to wannabe." Thanks Dave! Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Nov 15, 2005 06:58 AM
DIY Projects, Music |
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Podcasts from O'Reilly
Go kick the tires on the new O'Reilly podcast page! "This week, O'Reilly's audio magazine program Distributing the Future features day three from the Web 2.0 conference: Vinod Khosla from Kleiner Perkins on the overabundance of money, Scott Cook of Intuit on learning from customers, Sergey Brin on the current state of Google, Dick Hardt on identity, and Safa Rashtchy talks to five teens." Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Nov 15, 2005 06:03 AM
Podcasting |
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November 14, 2005
Are U.S. innovators losing their competitive edge?
Interesting stories and challenges for Makers and inventors in the USA - "When James E. West was 8 years old, he propped himself on his bed's brass footboard one afternoon and stretched to plug the cord of a radio he had repaired into a ceiling outlet. It was one of his first experiments. West's hand sealed to the light socket as 120 volts of electricity shimmied through his body, freezing him in place until his brother knocked him from the footboard and onto the floor. Like more storied inventors who preceded him, he was quickly hooked on the juice--even as he lay shivering from that first encounter..." Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Nov 14, 2005 12:42 PM
Science |
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MAKE @ The NYC Toy Fair 2008 - Covering DIY!HOW TO - Build the arms of assistance.
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AHAB High Altitude Ballooning - Best of Weekend Projects
mp4|mov|hd|3gp|3g2|itunes This week on Best of Weekend Projects, we look back at part two of the AHAB (High Altitude Balloon Adventure). In this epic Bre & Co. travel to Eastern Washington to launch a GPS and camera enabled balloon...
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