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! Link.
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.” Link.
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. Link.
MAKE pal Jean interviewed Garnet Hertz (we covered his work in MAKE 02)“Aside from exhibiting a dead frog with a miniature web server embedded in it ( allowing web visitors to re-animate it’s limbs! ), this quest has more recently lead him to using a living roach atop a modified trackball to control a 3 wheeled robot, infra-red sensors providing navigation feedback to the cockroach, with the hope of creating a pseudo-intelligent system with the cockroach as CPU!” Link.
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! Link.
Justin writes,”I took a letterpress class last Saturday at San Francisco’s Center for the Book, a maker-rific and tremendous Bay Area resource. I learned how to use a Vandercook 4 printing press and by the end of the day long workshop, the class had designed and printed 40 copies of a book!” Link.
Chris writes “I’ve been a regular user of Skype for about a year now and have been using my own solutions to try to make this as user friendly as possible. But it was never perfect and I’ve always been the only one in my house using it as it hasn’t been user friendly. Then I heard about the Sipura and started looking around on how to use it, and then I heard about VoIPBuster which provided free VoIP calls to land lines all over the world. In this how-to I will explain why I made the choices I made and show you how easy it can be to have this up running in your own house. Calling nationally and internationally for free to regular telephones.” Link.
