Year: 2006

Mark Rehorst’s projects page…

Mark Rehorst’s projects page…

Interior Of Finished Amp SmallMark writes “I have a lot of different interests and I love to figure out how to make things myself.” Here are his project, lots to check out! – DIY Electrostatic Loudspeaker Construction, Tree House, Loft Bed Made From PVC Water Pipe, Stroboscopic Microscope Illuminator, Stereo Amplifier Based On LM3886 Chips, Stretched Membrane Mirror – a work in progress, DIY Full Suspension Carbon Fiber Recumbent Bicycle, DIY Binaural Microphone, Insect Photos and an Allied Radio SX-190 Short Wave Radio Receiver Link.

Newton MP3 player…

Newton MP3 player…

91374328 5Eb0A1312B MMAKE Flickr photo pool member MH2 made an Apple Newton MP3 player, he writes “I download carefully prepared mp3 files to my outdated Newton MP 2100… I set up the 2100 to shut down after 10 minutes. Ten minutes each night, then I sleep. Of course the 2100 is no iPod. Music can’t be cut up as conveniently in two minute pieces as large audio book files, but above 900 KB (which is approx. 3,5 min @ 22050 Hz mono 32 kbps) transfer to the Newton gets complicated. Of course the internal speaker has only poor audio quality compared to an iPod. Or any other decent mp3 player, that is.” Link.

Food hacking with Marc Powell

Food hacking with Marc Powell

86328126 C17Cb2B9C6 TMarc Powell gave an AMAZING talk (and made hacked up dessert for over 100 people at his Food Hacker’s Guide to Molecular Gastronomy at Dorkbot SF. Mark has a hacker’s skill and tinkering mindset with organic chemistry and enthusiastically uses liquid nitrogen, low cost materials and centrifuges for his kitchen. He showed how to use “meat glue”, make powdered yogurt and reveled all the crazy things restaurants are doing. Marc is a hacker chef based out of San Francisco’s only hacker bed and breakfast, Unicorn Precinct XIII. He apprenticed in the research kitchen of Heston Blumenthal’s Michelin starred restaurant The Fat Duck. Dorkbot-SF. Link. Flickr photos from his site and from the talk. Update: More photos from Scott Beale.

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.