Inventor Underground
Didn’t make the cut with your invention? “The place to be if you are an inventor who has auditioned for any of the new Inventor related television shows such as Modern Marvels (History Channel), American Inventor (ABC) or Made in the U.S.A. (USA Network). Perhaps you never made it to an audition, let this Invention Hub shine the light on your invention web site. The network programs are interested in the top 10 Inventions, Inventor Underground is interested in the other 10,000.” Link. See our previous coverage of American Inventor.
Peter Green made a portable Mac Mini! “Why the Mac Mini Portable? Well, in short I wanted a machine that was really dinky to just pop in my rucksack, and while the PowerBooks/iBooks are pretty small, they still take up a fair amount of space. I wanted something with a very small screen that was more or less hand-held, and mac just don’t do that [yet].” [
Jeremiah writes “As a new Linux user, there is a sense of frustration. You can’t seem to get anything working correctly or you just don’t know how. I know exactly how that feels, and after spending countless hours searching forums and guides, I have compiled a list of the ten guides I find most useful as a new Ubuntu user (and Linux user for that matter). So, here they are, not listed in any particular order.” Thanks Jason! 
Brian sent this one in – might be good for projects “Never heard of it, but at $35, it sounds like a good buy for any wacky projects that need a cheap GPS. There’s probably a USB/Serial converter in the cable, which you could rip out and then hook the GPS device itself up to a regular serial port, if you are messing with an embedded system that doesn’t have USB.” 
Scout’s Pirate web camera project – “So, I got a bit bored with the look of my old Logitech Web Camera. It’s ugly and frankly it’s too obvious. The people in my office know from my pranks to be on the lookout for me so I decided to do an overhaul. Since National “Talk like a Pirate Day” is just around the corner what better way to commemorate this occasion than with a Pirate Web Camera.” Arg! Tbonerocks. 
MAKE pal Jean interviewed Garnet Hertz (we covered his work in 
SpiderWrench has a Maker challenge! “Ok, I really need help with this. I have several prototypes without power, (or rather, I have been forced to use an AC power strip with 30 individual, ugly chargers and a mess of wire everywhere) here is the situation: I need to be able to charge 30 new cell phones on a single power supply. Through some risky experimenting on my part, I have been able to charge 3 cell phones off of a single wall transformer, and I know I need more power to get 30 up and charging. I have thought of using a modified laptop/PC power supply, and I think it will work, but I do not want to risk blowing up 30+ $300 cell phones which are not mine to blow up.” Post up ideas in the forum!