Month: November 2005

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The $0.00 DIY battery extender

444Eb201 Jake writes “I am going home for Thanksgiving. The bus ride there will take at least 11 hours, and I hope to use my trusty (Dell PDA) X50v for entertainment along the way. Obviously the standard battery will only last a fraction of that and I do not know if the bus will have any sort of power terminals available to me. My solution was to build a battery-powered charger, which would normally present little challenge. Being several hundred miles away from my workshop full of tools and scavanged parts, however, made this a little more fun Well, here it is, in all it’s hackey glory.” Link.

Dizzy – an aware kind of robot

Dizzy – an aware kind of robot

DizzyRick writes “It’s difficult to approach Dizzy without him becoming aware of it. And he’ll let you know he saw you by `talking’ to you, in a way that seems to convey emotion. If you move about, he will join the action by exploring his `terrarium’. When he gets hungry, he goes to his feeding point to have a lunch brake of an hour or so. While eating, he continues to react verbally to motion around him.” Link.

One Time Use Astrophotography – CVS PV2 and your telescope

One Time Use Astrophotography – CVS PV2 and your telescope

Pv2 Manual Infinity Attachm.ThumbnailJason writes “In anticipation of the Mars proximity last Saturday, I put together a quick howto on using your hacked CVS camera (or any digital camera, really) with a telescope. I was planning to do a follow-up with some photos, but the sky has been overcast in Minneapolis for 4 days now. Hopefully, some Makers out there had better viewing conditions and can share their pics. As for me, it looks like I’ll have to wait for some other celestial event before I can try this out.” Link.

HOW TO – Assemble an Open Source IPTV Production Suite

HOW TO – Assemble an Open Source IPTV Production Suite

58033934 B6133434D2 MMark writes “The ‘Open Source IPTV Production Suite’ is an ensemble of high-level animation, 3D, compositing and editing tools that are available as free, open source GPL applications. However, this is not a direct attempt to duplicate the production tools found in Apple’s Final Cut Studio. It’s an attempt to create a fully functional, professional software suite that is capable of generating high end VFX and 3D animation like those found in Shake and Motion and Maya. Don’t be fooled, just because the software is open source doesn’t mean that it isn’t of professional grade.” Link.