Use a Powerbook as a level…(video)
Here’s “Pall Thayer’s fun with Apple’s Sudden Motion Sensor (ams/sms/accelerometer)” It’s pretty much the coolest widget I’ve ever seen – once installed on a new-ish Powerbook or iBook, you can use your computer as a level. While the act of viewing a level isn’t exactly earth-shattering, there are lots of new ideas and applications being developed: a virtual world controller and a marble madness port…(and here’s a puppet) [via] Link. If you’re wondering what this looks like, here’s a video (MP4).
Matt writes – “Like many people I enjoy gardening and growing houseplants. While my wife and I have a large garden during the summer months I have often thought about how it would be nice to grow things such as tomatos and beans indoors during the winter months. Now I could have the floors lined with even more pots and planters than I do now but as much as my wife likes the movie I don’t think she would appreciate the house having that little shop of horrors decor.” Here’s an inverted hanging planter constructed from a 2 liter soda bottle. I plan on growing tomatoes indoors in addition to the beans which I already have growing in one.” 
Sypherce in the 1emulation forums writes – “Here’s my first application for the DS, it sends PC Keyboard signals through wifi so you can use your DS somewhat like a PC Gamepad. Sorry for the lack of info, ask questions if you need help with my program.” I’m going to try this out with my DS later this week. The feedback in the forums looks really positive… [
Bcmeikle has a great way of making cheap(er) QuickTime video panoramic movies… “For some time now I’ve been making video panoramas but how to capture them has remained a mystery. Here’s a 
Clarke writes – “Building a campfire is, for many, an elusive skill. Books show us tidy pictures of tepees and log cabins, extol the merits of exotic fire starters and generally make the job unnecessarily complicated. This little film explains how to collect the three things needed to build a fire; tinder, kindling and fuel. Gathering the right kind of material in sufficient quantities assures quick, reliable campfire.” 
From the same folks who publish MAKE comes Rough Cuts, early access to books at they’re being written. I just started reading Flickr Hacks and it’s awesome. Here’s more info – “Sometimes you just can’t wait for the book. When you need to learn a new technology right now, turn to the Rough Cuts service from Safari Books Online. You’ll get early access to books on cutting-edge technologies-you can literally read them as they’re being written.” 
Great idea – check out Edward Vielmetti’s Superpatronbot – “Another evening’s work produced this working (but buggy!) Google Talk robot that looks things up in the Ann Arbor District Library catalog. Technology used: Jose Nazario’s from Ann Arbor’s DuckyLib library to do the RSS parsing of the AADL’s catalog, and Perry Lorier’s confbot (from Wakaito, New Zealand) to handle all of the Google Jabber stuff.” Thanks Brian!