Day: January 8, 2006

Building a Lathe Tool Sharpening Jig

Building a Lathe Tool Sharpening Jig

Sharpeningjig1-SmBadger writes “This holiday season my lovely lady wife asked me what I wanted for Christmas. Since my hobby is hard to buy for, we often have these conversations. One of the things I had mentioned was a 8″ Slow Speed Grinder I had seen at Woodcraft (on sale no less) for sharpening lathe chisels. Something I haven’t really mastered the art of yet, but it’s hard to get good results on 80 grit 6″ grinder wheel.” Here’s how he made a lathe tool sharpening jig…Link.

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HOW TO – Make a flush iPod nano dock

HOW TO – Make a flush iPod nano dock

81800142 C208E111E4 MSimon made a simple iPod dock for his iPod nano using all the parts it came with. On the Flickr photo set he posted it shows making a hole in the desk, modding the connector cable and securing it flush on the desk. I go through too many devices to settle on one music player, but boy, this would make the desk less cluttered. Link.

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Update your phone? No MP3s for you!

Update your phone? No MP3s for you!

VerizonThis is a trend I think we’ll see over and over again this year with phones and the music stores carriers are going to roll out – the slow death of MP3 playback on phones, or having to have a Windows PC and Media player 10 to convert to WMA before your phone can play your music. Techdirt has a story about Verizon phones that will no longer play MP3s one upgraded to use their new music store, if customers complain they’ll get an old refurbished phone with older firmware, but it doesn’t appear that the user is warned before updating that they’ll lose their MP3 playing feature. [via] Link. (and more details here).

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Simulating Phase Shifter Pedals in Software…

Simulating Phase Shifter Pedals in Software…

DubstationscreenPeter writes “In response to the earlier post, I’ve heard back from people who are using circuit simulation software to create highly accurate models of physical circuitry in software. The folks at Audio Damage use the free SPICE model and software to produce audio/music plug-ins like an upcoming bi-phase effects pedal model. That’s not the only geeky tool out there that’s useful for music: an add-on for MatLab lets you visualize MIDI music files.” Link.

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The Book of Cool (How-tos)…

The Book of Cool (How-tos)…

BocThis looks like a great DVD full of how-tos, here’s a review from Kathy Sierra – “Without a doubt the coolest present I’ve ever gotten is The Book of Cool, which is really a set of DVDs (plus a companion picture book) on how to do… cool tricks. You might not want to learn rope tricks, but how about rugby tricks, bar flairing, card magic tricks, or my favorite–skateboard tricks? Besides being cool–it’s also a simple and elegant example of video instruction…There’s something for nearly everyone in this thing and it’s quite a lot of fun to watch, even if you don’t want to learn how to do a fake reverse thumb spin with your pen.” Thanks Terrie! Link.

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HOW TO – Make homemade cider…

HOW TO – Make homemade cider…

81152180 29Bde6F713 THolly writes: “Step by step instructions on making a batch of hard apple cider, from picking fruit through bottling and adding letterpressed labels.” Link. You can also see a very complete Flickr photo set here of making your own hard cider. Link.

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Review of the FLY Pentop computer

Review of the FLY Pentop computer

Leapfrog Fly Pentop Computer Opening ShotReview of one of my favorite new devices of 2005 by Barry Gerber – “When I first heard about LeapFrog’s Fly Pentop Computer it seemed like a perfect product for a half-serious half-humorous review. After all it is marketed as a toy for ‘tweens (ages 8-13) and you conjure up one sort of functionality or another by writing with the pen on a piece of paper. I mean, how much could such a device actually do?” Link.

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