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Archives: December 02, 2005

December 02, 2005

The real life TRON race...

This is from earlier this year, but I didn't see how it was done - so here it is. Ever want to make your own TRON lightcycle game? But not a video game, real life! Here's a page that details how a group of racers hacked up gear and software to make a real life TRON racing game. Ingredients: "gps-receiver, backpack with laptop(Tatonka Serverpack with Gateway Solo 2500), keyboard, trackball (from old broken laptop), helmet (giro switchblade) with display (old viewfinder)" Link.

Posted by Phillip Torrone | 04:31 PM
DIY Projects, Electronics, GPS, Transportation, Wearables | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Hacking the PSP RSS Channels

The latest version of the PSP firmware gets you RSS feeds, specifically podcasts. Sounds good, but there are a few problems. The first is that the PSP doesn't actually download the podcasts, it "streams" them. So you need to have a Wi-Fi connection at all times. The second downer is you need to use their interface to add each podcast feed. There is some hacking of the file format of the stored feeds, here's the first pass at cracking it at bit - Link. Ideally, you'd have a desktop OPML to PSP-RSS list creator and also, Sony should consider making the PSP actually download the files so you can take them on the go...I don't think I'll update to 2.6 until this is fixed.

Posted by Phillip Torrone | 04:17 PM
PSP, Podcasting, Portable Audio and Video | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Scrollbar Scarf

Make pal Matt Gilbert sent us this cool looking hand-crocheted scrollbar scarf, complete with repositionable scroller. Buy one off the site or easily make your own. Thanks Matt! Link.

Posted by Natalie Zee | 03:57 PM
Crafts | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Make your own $100 laptop...?

The $100 laptop is a project from MIT's Nicholas Negroponte to bring a low-cost open source, windup-powered laptop to the world, targeted at children in developing nations. I really admire what they're doing, this could be the most amazing thing ever. I am about to leave for a quick trip, but I wanted to post this up before the weekend - is it possible to cobble together "something" like that, using eBay and hunting around for stuff - while trying to stay under the $100 limit? Maybe - so, here it is so far, my version using an old Apple eMate. It's not practical or scalable, or open source, but it's going to be under $100 and best of all, it's green too...

Read full story

Posted by Phillip Torrone | 01:39 PM
Computers, DIY Projects | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBack

HOW TO - Make a "Pintoid"

One of the winners from the Altoid contest was a pinhole camera made from the mint tin, the Pintoid - "Pintoids are pinhole cameras made from Altoid containers. A piece of pop culture transformed into something useful. An instrument to view the world with a dry, distorted, sense of humor. They tend to create curiously strong images." Here's how to make one! Link.

Posted by Phillip Torrone | 11:11 AM
Altoids and tin cases, Imaging | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Make an Apple Cube Aquarium

Here's a really good example of what you could do with an old Apple Mac G4 cube - build an aquarium inside of it! This project was inspired by this one (one of the first cube aquariums) and has some good info on making your own. You can also make a great fish home from a Classic too! [via] Link.

Posted by Phillip Torrone | 10:30 AM
Computers, DIY Projects | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

MAKE-like HOW-TOs for Home Depot?

Onyxfrog wants you! "I work at a Home Depot and over the holiday shopping season we have a 'santas workshop' setup and I get to run all sorts of demos and classes. It's lots of fun and I keep all my issues of Make with me for ideas but I would really like to hear and cool How-To's you guys have that can be done with products primarily from Home Depot. I actually made a cigar box guitar last weekend. So far I haven't been able to convince them to let me make a spud-gun but I've made plenty of mini-marshmallow guns =) If it wasn't so darn cold out I would love to do a Kite Aerial Photography demo. So if anyone has any ideas I would love to hear them!" Link. I think the $14 video camera stabilizer from MAKE 01 is a good one. Post your ideas in the comments!

Posted by Phillip Torrone | 09:05 AM
Announcements, DIY Projects | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBack

Open source audio editor for Mac/Win/Linux gets big upgrades!

Peter writes "Audacity, the excellent and free waveform editor for Mac, Windows, and Linux, is finally getting a major upgrade. The new beta does real multitracking, helps you transcribe music or interviews with pitch controls, adds better Mac support, and unveils many other improvements. Most promising for podcasters: an FTP upload option." Link. This is great news for Podcasters!

Posted by Phillip Torrone | 07:49 AM
Music, Podcasting | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Once an Altoids tin, now a pinhole camera...

Daniel on CNET has a great article about the excellent Altoids contest that just wrapped up "If you happen to find yourself looking to remake your leftover Altoids tins, the company that makes the mints says the creative bar is a whole lot higher than an ashtray or a trinket box. Earlier this year, Altoids invited customers to enter its Tin Million Uses competition. The idea? Challenge people to come up with the most innovative way to reuse the ubiquitous tins." Link. Many of the projects can be found in the pages of MAKE if you want to build your own too!

Posted by Phillip Torrone | 05:39 AM
Altoids and tin cases, DIY Projects | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

HOW TO - Build your first synth

Omegas writes in about the DIY Minimoog - "If you want to get started with analog synth building but Minimoog seems too complicated, see the instructions at Music From Outer Space on how to build your first synth. The Weird Sound Generator, as it's called, familiarizes you with the basics of analog sound generation and creates wicked sounds too." See previous.

Posted by Phillip Torrone | 04:23 AM
DIY Projects, Electronics, Music | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Making an PVC ROV Sub

This is an update to the underwater ROV submarine built a while back. It has an improved design, and is more versatile. Maker Jason writes "...the build process, and parts, I used to build an Underwater ROV with camera - This will be version 2 of my ROV adventures, I plan to take things I learned from version 1 and fix them, plus I will be adding features later. The plan is to make this a flexible platform that will allow me to add things like temp/pressure sensors, air lift balloons, torpedos, sonar, grabbing arm. But stage one is going to be working the bugs out the main platform." [via] Link.

Posted by Phillip Torrone | 03:31 AM
DIY Projects, Electronics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

InventionDB iPod contest...

Michael writes "InventionDB - the "wikipedia of projects" - is giving away a new iPod Video to the best project submission before 12/31/05. Everyone welcome. InventionDB.com is a free project-blogging engine built on top of an interconnected database of people, organizations, projects, resources and vendors. It allows anyone doing creative projects to quickly build online project portfolios connected to multiple team members, project resources, organizational affiliations and vendors used." Link.

Posted by Phillip Torrone | 02:35 AM
Announcements | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

HOW TO - Give your Mac a hostname with DynDNS

Nonstopmac writes "This article will show you how to easily setup a free DNS service that will give your Mac computer a static hostname. There are a lot of possibilities you can use this for, as most of the Internet connections offer dynamic IP addresses. Having a dedicated hostname can make it easier to remotely connect to your computer and run any kind of server." Link.

Posted by Phillip Torrone | 01:35 AM
Computers, Online | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

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