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Archive: Computers
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January 30, 2007
Do it yourself grassroots media web sites
I'm really impressed with the open source collaborative news site platform - NewCloud, worth a quick gander if you're thinking of starting up a site for a particular cause/effort or project. Jeff writes -
"If you're looking to start up your own online media publication but want something more sophisticated than a blog, check out the latest release of the NewsCloud Open Source Media Platform. NewsCloud.com is a social network for news, like Digg but open source with a greater emphasis on building grassroots networks for collaborative journalism.
If you don't feel comfortable running your own Linux distribution, you might get your feet wet with a NewsCloud Journal or Group which you can customize with Smarty templates. NewsCloud promises more sophisticated hosting and customization options in the near future.
NewsCloud also offers a guide to bloggers for those that want to integrate more news content on their existing blog or promote their
writing on NewsCloud." - Blog post & Wiki.
Related:
- NewsCloud platform overview - Link.
- NewsCloud mission statement - Link.
- Sign up at newscloud.com - Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jan 30, 2007 06:06 PM
Computers, DIY Projects, Online |
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January 29, 2007
PDF - Open, ISO standard
Interesting, so PDF is going to be an open ISO standard.... The Portable Document Format (PDF) 1.7 specification for AIIM, the Enterprise Content Management Association, for the purpose of publication by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) - there of course a lot of efforts going on with (open document format) too. MAKE sends out our PDFs over iTunes/RSS 2.0 so I feel a little bit better now that it's going to open, we can't send out Open Office docs in the same way (yet) - but this pretty good. Adobe's announcement seems to be timed as Vista launches today (with included PDF-like XPS document Writer) - Link.
Here's a video of our 3D PDF of how-to build a spun gun!
Related:
- What is a 3D PDF? MAKE shows you! 3D PDF of Spud Gun - Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jan 29, 2007 05:25 PM
Computers, Online |
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Top 10 Flickr hacks...
Here's a great list of Flickr hacks from Thomas Hawk, he writes -
"One of the nice things about Flickr is that because of their open API a whole host of developers have built more and more interesting things to do with the site. It's interesting to me today that so many of the ways that I use Flickr are not even through the site as designed by Yahoo, but instead through the work of outside developers who are constantly creating new and interesting ways to experience the site. Today I thought I'd share what I think are the top 10 Hacks on Flickr." - Link.
I think my favorite is Flickr Leech, super easy to manage a ton of photos at once - Link.
Not on the list, but very useful - "Pool Cleaner" quick and easy way to delete photos if you manage a photo pool - Link.
Related:
- HOW TO - "Photocasting" with Photocastr - Link.
- Use the Kodak Wi-Fi Camera with Flickr - Link.
- Flickr printable books and posters - Link.
- Doing things with Flickr.... - Link.
- More... Link.
More:
- We're now stocking our Hacks books series in the Maker store, including Flickr Hacks. Flickr Hacks expands the fun and the utility of Flickr, Yahoo!'s popular digital photo-sharing service, by customizing this cutting-edge technology to store, sort, and share photos. The book adopts the game-like appeal of the Flickr site, in individual projects ranging from easy to advanced - Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jan 29, 2007 10:25 AM
Computers, DIY Projects, Imaging, Online |
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Resistulator dashboard widget
A follow up from our how-to use a multimeter video... Here's a resister calc dashboard widget for Mac OS X -
"Resistulator - A resistor calculator. It calculates the value of a resistor from the sequence of colored bands painted on the resistor. It also displays the corresponding color sequence when a resistor value is entered." [via] - Thanks Mikest! Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jan 29, 2007 12:10 AM
Computers, DIY Projects, Electronics, Online |
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January 28, 2007
Ultimate Mac shrine
Now *this* is a Mac collection, check out the homemade Mac bar! - Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jan 28, 2007 03:46 AM
Computers, Made On Earth |
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| Comments (1)
January 26, 2007
Find open source alternatives to commercial software
I like the way osalt lists open source alternatives along with their commercial counterpart, very handy....
Find open source software alternatives to well-known commercial software:
- Find alternatives for Visio -> Dia, OpenOffice Draw or Kivio
- Or for iTunes -> Amarok or Banshee
- Check-out Microsoft Access, Photoshop or Norton Ghost on you own.
Our mission is to provide easy access to high quality open source alternatives to well-known commercial products. And remember that open source software is also a freeware alternative.
Find open source alternatives to commercial software @ OSalt - [via] - Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jan 26, 2007 05:16 PM
Computers, Online |
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DIY supine computer desk/system
Ray made a homemade, low-tech version of the supine computer desk/system (The Ergopod 500) - Thanks Joe! Link.
Related:
- Office Organix, Ergopod 500 - Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jan 26, 2007 04:27 AM
Computers, DIY Projects |
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Ruler USB drive
This is pretty neat, a prototype of a USB drive that's also a ruler. You could make one of these on your own from an old or freebie USB drive and some woodworking ... [via] - Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jan 26, 2007 03:08 AM
Arts, Computers |
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January 25, 2007
About OHM and his LAW
Richjd posted up a PC application called R.EXE to help you learn about Ohm's law...
"OHM's LAW - What it is. How it works.
A personal LEARNING AID for the interested and patient learner. Just read the following pages with care or call them up using the HELP function under program execution.
A) Learn the color code for resistors through practice.
B) Learn to calculate rsistance for SERIES, PARALLEL, SERIES-PARALLEL circuits. Circuits are auto-generated and displayed. Answers are verified and a score card is kept. Chose a level of difficulty: (E)asy, (D)ifficult, (E)xpert. A calculator and notepad is needed for the more advanced levels. Just a notepad will do for the (E)asy level.
IMPORTANT: Answering questions on impulse will lead to failure and frustration. READ the instructions that preceed the cursor with care and respond in kind before going on (pressing ENTER).
REMEMBER: GIGO - Garbage In, Garbage Out" - Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jan 25, 2007 09:01 PM
Computers, DIY Projects, Electronics, Instructables |
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HOW TO - Ardunio, Bluetooth, PD, and Windows scripting button box
Danomatika writes -
"I made a small project that combines Arduino, bluetooth, pd, and windows scripting in python. Basically, an arduino wir;less play button provides transport control over FLStudio or any other windows app. Thought this might be useful to other makers!" - Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jan 25, 2007 01:06 PM
Computers, DIY Projects, Electronics |
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Nixie Clock - Big Blue Saw
Computer controlled rapid manufacturing meets Nixie, Big Blue Saw writes -
"This gorgeous image was sent in by one of our customers, who used parts from Big Blue Saw to make a Nixie clock. This digital clock uses Nixie tubes, neon tubes which display the time. The creator, Joe Hoffman, tells us that the Nixie tubes are of Soviet manufacture from around the 1960's. The center piece is acrylic.
Here are the original parts which Big Blue Saw made for Joe, laid out for incorporation into the clock. " - Link.
Related:
- Big Blue Saw - Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jan 25, 2007 06:28 AM
Computers, Online |
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HOW TO - Make your own laptop
Here's how to make your own laptop, Torquil writes -
"I decided to create a laptop that at any point, I could upgrade every component as they grew too old. For very little money, I have created a 2GHz processor laptop with 1GB Ram, and an ATI Radeon 9200 128MB graphics card. OK, so it is a PCI graphics card and could be faster, but everything is upgradable - I could slot in a motherboard with PCI Express in the future.
The size of this could have been a lot smaller. With a Nano-ITX mainboard and no external graphics card it could almost be as small as a regular laptop, but that was not my plan. It needed to be as powerful as a regular desktop or I could not use it every day for office applications and games." [via] - Link.
On a related note, here's a review @ Slashdot of our "Make Projects: Small Form Factor PC" PDF
"Make Projects: Small Form Factor PCs provides detailed step-by-step instructions on building a variety of small form factor systems, starting from the larger ones (about the size of a shoe box) and working its way down to the smallest (which is about the size of a pack of gum). It includes instructions on creating a digital audio jukebox, digital video recorder, wireless network range extender, home network gateway, network monitor, portable firewall, cheap Wi-Fi SSH client, and a Bluetooth LED sign." - Link.
Make Projects: Small Form Factor PC - Maker store.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jan 25, 2007 03:13 AM
Computers, DIY Projects, Electronics |
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January 24, 2007
Open source USB lab instruments (almost)
Syscomp Electronic Design have some great USB lab instruments: Oscilloscope, waveform generator, network analyzers and microcomputer kits. The software is open source for Mac, PC and Linux... but the hardware isn't. I'm going to see if they'd consider changing that and also doing kits...
"You know how useful it is to have your own computer, think what you could do with your own electronics lab.
- Complete lab exercises outside of scheduled lab hours
- Learn at your own speed
- Explore new circuits
- Equip a hobby workshop
System Features
- Virtual Front Panels: all controls are operated from the computer host
- Open source software runs under Windows and Linux
- Computer-Based for storage, processing, and printing of results
- Exchange data with other programs such as spreadsheets and mathematical analysis suites
- Modular design accommodates any combination of instruments and makes the system expandable with new instruments
- Connects easily to any computer via a USB port
Use the instruments separately or combine multiple instruments to create new measurement capabilities such as a curve tracer." - Link.
More:
- Open Instrumentation Project - Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jan 24, 2007 09:31 AM
Computers, DIY Projects, Electronics |
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| Comments (4)
HOW TO - Make a Google Earth panorama viewer
Here's how to make a really cool Google Earth panorama viewer -
"DigitalUrban is pleased to release its Panorama Viewer for Google Earth. The viewer has been created to be as easy to use as possible, all that is needed is a panorama - either from your local drive or via the web at sites such as Flickr - and a single change to the file name in Notepad.
We provide a step-by-step tutorial to create your first Google Earth panorama after the concept movie below which illustrates a series of London panoramas viewable in Google Earth." [via] - Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jan 24, 2007 04:20 AM
Computers, DIY Projects, GPS, Online |
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| Comments (0)
January 23, 2007
Google calculator for makers...
Bob sent in these great Google calc tips for makers--
One of the most useful tools I've found for Makers is Google's built in calculator. It knows about all kinds of units and is as simple as typing in plain English.
For example...
Say I have an LED that I want to run from a 12v DC power supply. I already know that the LED requires a forward voltage of 2v and and a forward current of 20 milliamps. What I want to know is how big does my current limiting resistor need to be?
I know I need to drop the voltage by 10 volts, and my draw will be 20 milliamps so I go to the google search page and type "10 volts / 20 milliamps" in the search box hit enter and out pops my answer... "(10 volts) / (20 milliamperes) = 500 ohms". Woohoo! Now, I've never seen a 500 ohm resistor, so I opt to use a 470ohm which is pretty close.
Next I want to build an enclosure for my little project, but I only have measurements in inches, and I want mm (because I'm an engineer :P ). This time I type "9 in in mm" and get "9 in = 228.6 millimeters". Great!
To celebrate my project I decide to bake a cake, but I don't have the correct measuring jug. The recipe says 2 cups, and I can only measure in fluid ounces. No problem, Google calculator has me covered! I type in "2 cups in fl oz" and get my answer "2 US cups = 16 US fluid ounces", Doh!, of course it is, but I'm curious to know what that is in gallons. Now we type "2 cups in gal", and get "2 US cups = 0.125 US gallons".
Now I'm obsessed with gallons and have some time while my cake is baking, I decide to find out how economical my truck is. I know a full tank is about 15 gallons, and I can do about 225 miles before I need to refill. I head over to google and type "225 miles / 15 gallons", and I'm surprised by the result "(225 miles) / (15 US gallons) = 6.37715558 kilometers per liter", what kind of measurement is that? Never mind, I can specify the units I want the results in. I retry with "225 miles / 15 gallons in mpg" and get "(225 miles) / (15 US gallons) = 15 miles per gallon" - ouch! Hmm, I need a new truck!
Maybe it looks better in different units... time to try something wacky! This time I tried "225 miles / 15 gallons in mm per fl oz" and got my result "(225 miles) / (15 US gallons) = 188 595 mm per fl oz". Looks much more impressive now :)
Also, google calc does currency conversions, 99 gbp in usd, gives "*99 British pounds = 195.2676 U.S. dollars".*
You can even do clever stuff like working out what people in the UK pay for gas in your local currency and measurements...
"0.89 gbp per liter in usd per gallon" gives us
"*0.89 (British pounds per liter) = 6.64504815 U.S. dollars per US gallon"
Ouch! $6.64 a gallon - It's a rip off!*
Google calculator for makers... - Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jan 23, 2007 05:34 PM
Computers, Online |
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| Comments (2)
Stream music to an Airport Express without iTunes!
You don't need to use iTunes to stream audio to an Aiport express. You can use the Win media player, WinAmp, Rhapsody, etc...
"oAEP - Stands for ovesen.NET Airport Express Player. This small application records the music and sound played by your pc and streams it to an Airtunes enabled Airport Express. It has never been this easy streaming music and sound to your Airport Express without using ITunes.
Yes, you red correctly. You can use Media Player, WinAmp or another music player with your Airport Express." - Link.
Source included. Neat, this means you can also stream formats iTunes doesn't like Ogg Vorbis (well, with a plug in you can).
Related:
- JustePort - Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jan 23, 2007 04:31 PM
Computers, Music |
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| Comments (2)
January 22, 2007
The complete guide to PDFs in iTunes
There are a small but growing number of PDFs appearing in iTunes, users can subscribe to podcasts to automatically receive audio and video - and recently - PDFs. At MAKE & CRAFT we have experimented with this from the start - we have also cataloged all the podcasts that send out PDFs we could find here. Eventually I think phones (including the iPhone) will be able to read PDFs via this method, perhaps a future iPod making it possible to easily distribute ebooks to these devices. For now, you can use a Mac, PC or even a Sony reader to sync to iTunes (using a hack) and read PDFs directly. Any RSS reader that supports enclosures should download the PDFs as well, the RSS 2.0 feed is listed with each podcast. Last up, Amazon is said to be working on a wireless ebook reader, using e-ink like the Sony reader, but with an internet connection. It's a good time to start thinking about this if you do anything with PDFs.
Here they are - please feel free to post in the comments if we missed one.
CRAFT magazine. Prior to launch and now each week at CRAFT we send out a sewing pattern, jewelry pattern, stencil, how-to or something from the pages of CRAFT. And starting very soon, we'll include some great origami each week to automatically receive as well.
FADER magazine is an awesome print, web and PDF magazine that is also distributed via iTunes. Each page is hot-linked so you can click the advertisements and/or extra information. The design and content are tops, they also have music from each issue that's part of the podcast.
French Pod Class uses PDFs & audio for French language lessons. Excellent use of podcasting multiple file types for learning.
Kasper Hauser distributes funny PDFs that go along with their audio shows and their book SkyMaul.
MAKE magazine, starting the day iTunes supported PDFs we've always had PDFs from MAKE in iTunes and sending out over RSS. We send out articles, stencils, how-tos and pages from MAKE. Each week we do a video podcast (Weekend project) and deliver a PDF along with it. At the end of 2006 we released a 3D PDF with Alibre design of a potato cannon and a paper craft turkey. The user can explore the objects, zoom in, rotate and "explode" them. In 2007 we're going to deliver more PDFs as well as files for 3D printers and laser cutters to create physical objects.
- MAKE magazine - Link.
- On iTunes - Link.
- RSS 2.0 - Link.
- Rick Steves audio tours for travelers are not only enhanced podcasts (photo slide shows with audio) but they have maps of the area you might be visiting. Enhanced podcasts only play on Mac/PC with iTunes/QuickTime and/or iPods.
Slate Audio Tours. Listen along and read audio tours of museums, unfortunately all the content is from 5/31/06 and there are only 4. But, if there's interest maybe they'll start back up.
Both Rick Steves and Slate are great for loading up your iPod/player - printing out a map from the PDF and listening as you walk about.
Times Online UK Sudoku & puzzle podcast has Su Doku, Battleship, Crosswords, kids games and more - All in PDF format, delivered automatically. At this time there are around 20 with the last one being published 12/25/06.
Wikinews. "Print" edition of daily news in PDF format automatically created and generated each day. The PDFs at this time aren't updating past November but the PDFs are available, so there seems to be something wrong. I'm going to email them, regardless - check it out it's a neat idea, a daily newspaper sent to your iTunes/RSS reader/eBook reader.
Here's an OPML file (a list of RSS feeds) with all the feeds available.
More:
- Podcasting and Rich Media PDF's - Link.
- Crafty Geeks Launch Sewing 2.0 - Link.
- Newspapers in PDF Format Catching On - Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jan 22, 2007 05:33 PM
Computers, MAKE PDF, News from the Future |
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Make: projects- Building the Perfect PC (review)
yyztech.ca reviewed our Make: projects book "Building the Perfect PC"
"As the tag-line on the cover says, "The perfect PC is the one you build yourself." and so this book aims to show the reader how building your own PC is the best way to get the PC you want. Since there are different "perfect" PCs for different tasks, the book shows the different trade-offs made while building everything from a budget PC to a server and a mini-PC.
At 400-odd pages, there is a lot of information contained in this book. The PCs you'll learn to build include: a basic home PC, home-office server, gaming PC, media centre PC, small form-factor and a budget PC." - Link (full review).
Related:
- Building The Perfect PC 2nd Edition - Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jan 22, 2007 03:59 PM
Computers, DIY Projects |
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| Comments (0)
HOW TO - Flash MIDI
Fred sent in a great Flash (Macromedia/Adobe that is) to MIDI control project --
"From 1734 when Louis-Bertrand Castel, a Jesuit monk, created the Clavecin Oculaire, a 'color harpsichord,' until today, artists have created instruments for performing color compositions. In the late 19th century, Alexander Rimington created the first 'color organ' for use in public performance. In the 1920s and 30s, Thomas Wilfred traveled the United States and Europe performing 'lumia' recitals with his 'clavilux.' In this tradition, I developed a computer system that allowed for the performance of user-controlled Flash animation.
The user interface is a Mad Catz Playstation 2 game controller and the UC-33e Evolution MIDI controller by m-Audio. The computer is an Apple iMac G5 with 1.8 GHz processor and 1.5 GB of RAM. The MIDI and game controller signal data is sent to Flash (.swf) files being played through the stand-alone Flash Player, utilizing ActionScript 2.0 code in Flash 8 via MAX/MSP 4.6 software. An LCD projector and sound system are the final destination outputs. " - Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jan 22, 2007 10:23 AM
Computers, DIY Projects, Electronics |
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January 16, 2007
The embarrassingly easy case mod (color LEDs)
Daniel writes -
"You know all those RGB LED projects with microcontrollers and power transistors and stuff?
Well, this is the almost-too-easy version.
Modern two-pin RGB LEDs are cheap and pretty, and they don't need so much as a current limiting resistor, if the input voltage is right. Just hook 'em up to about three volts and away they go.
It's thus trivial to install them in cars, computers, flashlights... you name it." - Link & video.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jan 16, 2007 04:48 PM
Computers, DIY Projects, Electronics |
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| Comments (5)
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