Sarc had a tibook with a broken LCD, so he removed it and uses an external monitor. From the MacNN forum post:
Since I operate the computer on "closed-lid" mode, I was having trouble keeping the LCD closed because it didn't allow the heat to dissipate, so the fans where running constantly ... I removed it. After it was gone, the computer would still think that it had an LCD attached. After a lot of Googling, I found on this helpful page that a magnet-operated sensor manages the 'open' or 'closed' status of the lid. The magnet was inside the lid, so I removed it and now its under the masking tape shown on Pic. 1. It has to be placed on that precise spot on top of the trackpad.
Levelhead by Julian Oliver is an "augmented-reality spatial-memory game" using semacode imprinted cubes as player interface -
levelHead uses a hand-held solid-plastic cube as its only interface. On-screen it appears each face of the cube contains a little room, each of which are logically connected by doors.
In one of these rooms is a character. By tilting the cube the player directs this character from room to room in an effort to find the exit.
Some doors lead nowhere and will send the character back to the room they started in, a trick designed to challenge the player's spatial memory. Which doors belong to which rooms?
There are three cubes (levels) in total, each of which are connected by a single door. Players have the goal of moving the character from room to room, cube to cube in an attempt to find the final exit door of all three cubes. If this door is found the character will appear to leave the cube, walk across the table surface and vanish.. The game then begins again.
I've been enjoying Joel Johnson's fawning fanboy coverage of Syd Mead on Boing Boing Gadgets. Hey, I'd fawn, too. I'm a huge fan of Mead's and even thought about becoming a conceptual or industrial designer on his inspiration. In this episode of BBtv, Joel talks with Mead about the awesome one-of-a-kind Spinner police vehicle from Bladerunner that the folks at LEGO did as a present to Syd.
Seed Magazine posted an interesting photo series documenting scientific laboratories after dark. Describing the top photo above -
Much of the fundamental knowledge that underpins our search for extraterrestrial life and supports our understanding of our solar system's history and evolution emerges from this small room in Theodor Kostiuk's laboratory. On the rightmost table, infrared light from a powerful carbon dioxide laser excites various molecules to reveal their spectroscopic signatures. This and other lasers in the lab often operate overnight to increase the precision of their measurements.
- Labs At Night [via Music Thing] Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Science | Digg this!
The Delft University of Technology has shrunk their robotic ornithopter design down to a very impressive 10cm - that's almost 1/3 the size of their previous design.
Specs for the Delfly Micro -
Size: 10 cm, from wingtip to wingtip Weight: 3.07 gram; Battery: 1 gram Camera and transmitter: 0.4 gram; Engine: 0.45 gram; Receiver: 0.2 gram; Actuators: 0.5 gram; Rest: about 0.52 grams. Battery: 30 mah lithium polymer, for three minutes fight. Flap frequency wings: 30 Hz Materials: Mylar foil (wings), carbon and balsawood. Range: 50m
Hit the site for more media + info - Delfly Micro Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Robotics | Digg this!
Nice review of The Maker's Notebook on Duffbert's Random Musings:
Ok... this might be the most unusual book review I've ever done. I'm about to review a book consisting of... blank pages. Ah, but what blank pages they are! :) It's the Maker's Notebook by O'Reilly Publishing and the staff at MAKE magazine. I was given this as a gift from a friend, and I don't think she could have given me something that appeals more to me on so many levels.
The Hexayurt Project looks great, tons of info and more on the site...
The Hexayurt is a prize-winning shelter you can build yourself for about $200 (backup link). Suitable raw materials include common building materials ( fire safe insulation boards,) hexacomb cardboard and plastic. You cut six 4' x 8' panels in half diagonally to make the roof, and use six more whole panels to form the walls. It takes about two hours. The design (backup link) is in the public domain.
Different materials are appropriate for different uses - insulation, extended life, low cost, durability in extreme environments and so on. The design is in the public domain, and is in active development as a Free/Open Source style project.
The Hexayurt Project also includes groundbreaking work (pdf) (backup link) on providing simple services like interior lighting at incredibly low cost.
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This pretty cool: a modular nixie driver kits that let you gang up a whole bunch of nixies in a row. The site has a really beautifully illustrated assembly guide too, A+ on the documentation. I'm thinking this would be perfect for a nixie clock or a giant, mile long display of those cool orange nixie numerals.
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Big Blue Saw, a leading online retailer of machining services, announces the first Free Part Day, allowing everyone to receive a custom machined metal or plastic part of their own design. On Free Part Day, August 6, 2008, customers across the Internet will be able to design and create their own custom plastic or metal part.
During Free Part Day, a customer might, for example, order a tailor-made aluminum nameplate, a specialized lifting arm for a hobby robot, or a custom sized plastic decoration. The shape of these parts is limited only by the customer's imagination.
"This represents a great opportunity for people to find out about Big Blue Saw's machining services by offering everyone a way to get a free plastic or metal part of their own design," said Simon Arthur, founder of Big Blue Saw. "We are also proud to present Free Part Day to our loyal customers as a thank-you for their patronage."
Big Blue Saw is on the cutting edge in the new field of digital manufacturing services. Its customers upload their designs for anything their creative imaginations demand: model aircraft, decorative craft tools, robotic rovers, or movie prop replicas; Big Blue Saw then turns the designs into physical parts using robotic manufacturing machines including waterjet and laser cutters. Customers have the flexibility of having their designs come to life in a range of materials ranging from aluminum to stainless steel to plastic.
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SanFran maker DocPop put his dollar to work as decoration -
Several of the tables at this year's Zinefest were offering "make your own buttons" services. The basic idea was that for one dollar, you could draw a little image and have it made into a little 1″ button. I did three water colored buttons before I remembered an old idea I've had about cutting up a dollar bill and turning it into buttons. The result worked out even better than I imagined, especially the pyramid and eagle sections which must have been designed with this idea in mind because they seem to fit so perfectly.
This maker was fed up with the amount of noise his PC's internal fans were making so he built a mod to control their speed with an automotive rheostat. Check out all of the intricate details on the link below.
A group I'm in, the Columbus Society of Communication Professionals (CSCArts.org), just held a grown-up Pinewood Derby fundraiser for the American Red Cross. It's like the thing the Cub Scouts do every year, 'cept these cars are built by professional print, web, and environmental designers. And they're *really* cool. ChiaCar, Typemobile, SushiCruiser -- even an iPhone car. Thought your readers might enjoy seeing them.
This hack shows how to modify the Xbox headset adaptor to illuminate the volume control knob with an LED. The idea behind this was that the maker seems to play Xbox in the dark a lot and needed a way to see the volume knob on his controller. He warns that this might void your warranty, which made us extra eager to post this to Make.
Ukranian sound-maker Younat's socket sampler substitutes electrical sockets for the usual button switches (I'm guessing those plugs are wired as jumpers) - seems an interesting and possibly economical alternative to traditional designs [via Synthtopia]
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This project details how this maker managed to listen to recordings his grandfather made from a 1940s electronic wire recorder. Lots of really interesting details on this hack at the link below.
James Watt, maker of the Solar Thereamin I build a while back, has another really cool project. This time he created 2 pocket synthesizers inspired by the Atari Punk Console and a post on the Voices of Saturn Synth kit. I really hope he turns this into a kit like the solar theremin. [Thanks Jim]
Since I appear to have a lot of altoids tins kicking around I wondered what other musical toys could be housed in 'em. The mention of The Voice Of Saturn on the Make blog a few weeks back got me onto the 'atari punk console' so I put one of 'em + power and a clock into one tin and a simple analogue sequencer in another tin and I've got the heart of a modular synth set-up up and running :) My sequencer was inspired also by the voice of Saturn sequencer but I simplified and modified it so it can run in series or parallel so you can have as many sequential steps as you like. Going to add an LFO next and maybe a solar power supply + whatever other nonsense I can think of.
This looks like a fairly easy project for anyone who wants a pro quality microphone. The total cost is about $20, and it shouldn't take that long to build either.
For decades condenser microphones have been the staple for high-quality recording and live sound assignments. Unfortunately, not everyone can afford to own a good one. Well that's about to change. I've written this article so that anyone who wants a great condenser mic (or those who just want more of them) can have their wish.
Sonic State has a great video montage of the Synth DIY 2008 show from the UK. It looks like the event was really cool. I only wish it were a few thousand miles closer! I wasn't able to embed the video, but it's just a click away.
We've already posted a number of videos from the Synth DIY UK show at Robinson College in Cambridge earlier this month. A new item has just been posted by Noisecomformist over at our sister site Sonicstate.TV. There's a lot more of the DIY aspect in this piece and you can see even more of what was on show.
Hat Development Platform, v1...External hatband has ultra bright RGB 1W LED mounted in center, regulated DC-DC boost convertor power supply, Adafruit Industries boarduino, and a rather generous prototyping area. The possibilities are nearly endless.
LED changes color based on compass heading.
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From the MAKE Flickr pool: user Queen Esoterica hacked her Ikea kitchen butcher block counter to include a bowl. She writes:
You shove cut stuff into the bowl (I tend to cut right to left). then you can take the bowl to wherever you're cooking and then brush the trash into the (soon to be plastic-lined) drawer, for easy transport to the trash. I got two bowls of equal diameter, one deeper and one shallower. To use the deep one, you have to remove te drawer. But I didn't even forsee how great this would be for baking! It was great!
This would be a dream for me. I might be inclined to use the bowl for scraps, too, depending on what kind of cookery's going on.
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This Basic Stamp Microcontroller Based Garage Parking Assistant may be overkill for the application but that is what makes it fun. :) What fun would it be to hang a tennis ball from the ceiling when you can use technology to give you a traffic light that represents your optimal parking distance.
And here's what the project site has to say:
"The Garage Parking Assistant makes it easy to pull in the garage by signaling you with a traffic-light style display of when to pull in (GREEN), slow down (YELLOW) and stop (RED). If you pull too far in the Red LED blinks to let you know. Although this type of project has been done before I wanted to take my own approach and simplify the code and hardware while making it easy to adjust/personalize for your own use. By default all measurements are in inches, although you could easily use centimeters since that value is available as well. The range of the PING))) sensor is split up into four zones labeled Zone1 through Zone4. Please see the first attachment for a map of the zones. The values for each zone are inches from the sensor/wall."
