Month: January 2006

Autonomous Flocking Blimps

Autonomous Flocking Blimps

Flocking BlimpGreat project from Jed and Nikhil (videos) – “We designed a working metaphor of a new ecology of things by using networked objects. This was possible through the sponsorship of Sun Microsystems who donated instrumental technology. Through a defined research process we designed objects that behave and respond in specific ways and are part of a networked system that emphasizes autonomous and flocking behavior. There are two main components: feeding and flocking. ALAVs are 3 flying objects (Bubba, Flipper, and Habib) that exist in a networked environment and communicate through assigned behaviors forming three scenarios: ALAV with a person, ALAV with other ALAVs, ALAV alone.” [via] Link.

Public Library video game lending experiment…

Public Library video game lending experiment…

LibIt looks like lending out video games at libraries works, this is very encouraging I think…John Scalzo writes – “It has been one year since the “Great Video Game Experiment” was started at the public library where I work. And in those twelve months I’d have to say it has gone as good as anyone could have hoped. In the end, the numbers don’t lie, and a success is all this experiment can be called.” [via] Link.

Cross Stitch Pac-Man

Cross Stitch Pac-Man

Pacmanstitch
Here some really great cross stitch action of a Pac-Man game. If you are looking to do the same thing, just get yourself some blank cross stitch canvas, plastic canvas or fabric canvas from Joann.com. Then print out some of the cross stitch patterns from here (note files are large/high-res). You can also just find an image you like on the web and send it through Dark Lilac’s Cross Stitch Chart Generator to generate a pattern for yourself. Link.

LEGO orrery

LEGO orrery

OrreryNextbrick has a great LEGO project from Tom Johnson – “This is an orrery I made to help explain to my children why we have so much light in the summer and not nearly enough in the winter (we live in Alaska). No attempt was made to get relative sizes, distances, or the orbit periods correct. Rather, this model shows the inclination of the earth’s axis and why it causes the seasons.” Link.

Fixing a dying power supply…

Fixing a dying power supply…

SupplySid on the Hacks site writes up a good simple how to/tip – “My LCD display wouldn’t come on, it would just flicker. The LED on its external power supply was steady on when it wasn’t plugged into the monitor. When I did plug it in, the LED blinked at the rate of 2x per second. Measuring the power coming out of this supply using my multimeter, I saw that the power level wasn’t steady — it was pulsing slightly (about 2x per second). This was while unplugged from the monitor. Found a new power supply on eBay, and now everything’s fine.” Link. On a related note, the RSS feed on hacks site is awesome.

Phoning It In From ETel – Radio Handi Makes Its Debut

Phoning It In From ETel – Radio Handi Makes Its Debut

Letterbox2Brian McConnell on the Etel blog writes “Radio Handi enables people to create voice communities around any subject, place of interest or peer group, and to telecast live audio from MP3 feeds or conference phones. You can create a message board and party line for your club, for people who share an interest, or for your friends. With it, you can create an open party line that people can dial into from all over the world (30+ countries and 1 VoIP network to start with, much more to come). It’s also a great platform for ad hoc broadcasting. Just hook a microphone up to a Mac running Gizmo, and you can beam a live audio feed into a conference room that people can then dial into from all over the world (watch for a series of how-tos on ad hoc telecasting and other topics later this week).” [via] Link.

DIY Cellphone door opener

DIY Cellphone door opener

AutoitZerocool60544 in the AutoIT forums writes about a PC control project using a browser or cell phone “I use lego mindstorms’ motors, they don’t a lot of torque but I geared them down to be a little slower but stronger. The water bottles are the counter weights so their is always tension on the line. There are two motors on either side. (one near the closed position and one near the open position).” [via] Link.