Simple and handy phone tether – Killbox writes “I was talking to a friend who has a Sidekick about an old pager bungie I had on my TREO (I wont forget it if its clipped to me lanyard!). I mentioned that I wanted to make one out of ao old phone handset cord – So I went home and built it! one 25′ coiley cord made about 5 of these, some terminal connectors i crimped on, keyrings and clips. Total cost under $4.” Link.
Here’s how to make an wooden lung, from a 1952 Popular Mechanics: “Could a life have been saved in your community if a mechanical respirator had been at hand for immediate use? Often just a matter of minutes means the difference between life or death for a little child stricken with polio, or a victim of drowning or a paralyzing accident. Here’s a chance for every community to be ready at little expense for such emergencies. Members of clubs and civic organizations can do a great service by making one of these respirators and placing it in competent hands. Save a life — maybe your own.” Thanks Charlie! Link.
MAKE pal Bre Pettis has an excellent MAKE video podcast with Peter Zdebski, who makes things! He’s working on an IMDb AIMbot (like the MAKEbot). It will make querying the IMDb database for ratings go a lot faster on his sidekick (cellphone). He also shows the night vision illuminator he made from a mish-mash of parts he got at Frye’s. Click here to view video (MP4). Click here to get the video delivered automatically with iTunes. This video will play on PC/Mac/Linux/PSPs and iPod video devices.
Liquid Paper’s Mod Dots Shop has a new take on the ever trusty straight pins. She’s created a line of teensy lovable objects atop pins like birds, kitties and my favorite “Teensy Ninjas” shown here. I imagine they can safely protect your crafting area from harm. From the site, “Ninjas are handcrafted from polymer clay. Each ninja stands about 1/2″ high (not including pin). Set contains 1 ninja armed with shuriken (throwing star), 1 ninja armed with nunchucks and 1 ninja armed with a sword and a Mod Dots pincushion.” Link and Flickr.
MAKE flickr photo pool member Zapwizard writes “I don’t have enough money or time to replace my headunit, or buy the Radioshark. So instead I am integrating a iTrip FM transmitter directly into the Mini. The iTrip was wired up, I choose to wire it to +5volts from the USB, as I couldn’t find a reliable source of 3.3volts. A dummy headphone jack allows the iTrip to turn on. Later when I replace my headunit I can just jack into the headphone jack and get straight audio.” Link.
I met Bruce from “The Tao of motion control” he makes incredible X,Y machines “The purpose of this site is to suggest that motion control is also an emerging medium for artistic expression. Despite the universal use of motion control in industrial settings, its use by artists has been hampered by the enormous cost of commercial equipment. Because access to the tools of this medium is crucial for its exploration, one strategy open to motivated artists is building their own equipment from scrapped components flowing out of industrial sources.” This one moves a metal ball over sand to make a zen garden. Link.
Second Life hacks is moving along, but here’s a nice hack that just popped up to check out – “If you want to grab textures out of Second Life to see how people have made those neat trees, the stunning clothes, or maybe an old texture you lost, GLIntercept is the tool for the job. GLIntercept is a program that grabs OpenGL information directly from memory. It does a lot more than just capturing textures; with it you can extract prim information, avatars, and textures. This information can be exported into other 3D programs, such as Maya. This hack, however, is just about the images.” Thanks Brian! Link.
