The 50 Greatest Gadgets of the Past 50 Years
PC World has their top 50 gadgets of the last 50 years – I’m pleased to say we’ve modded most of these, and they’re all still useful for new projects! – “After a lot of Web surfing, spreadsheet wrangling, and some near fistfights, we emerged with the following list. Some items in our Top 50 are innovative devices that appeared briefly and then were quickly consigned to museums and future appearances on eBay, but whose influence spread widely. Others are products we use every day–or wish we could.” [via] Link.
Hans writes “Laser Chess was created by Mike Duppong back in the late 80s, and you can find lots of software versions of the it on the web. However, a Brazilian student named Alexandre Van de Sande actually made a actual working laser version of the game!” 
Excellent reason to roll back any PSP, a Commodore 64 emulator! – “64psp began life as an experiment to learn how to program the PSP. No PSP C64 emulators existed at the time and the Frodo source code appeared to have a gentler learning curve. A PSP port of VICE is also in progress. Both emulators have their plus and minus points, so why not try both?” [
Steve writes in with his progress on making an iPod breakout box with some new BASIC stamp action – “Work on the iPod breakout dock continues, and I have achieved reletively painless interaction with a BS2 microcontroller. This simple starter circuit has a single push button, an LED to let me know I am actually pushing the button…This small step, along with the iPod code generator I released previously, opens the doors to more complex interaction. In my case, there will be another device attached downstream, but that will have to be explained at another time.” 
Make your own gift wrap – Jack writes “This year as I was putting together Christmas gifts, I realized that I’d forgotten to pick up a roll of wrapping paper. At this point, I recalled the Make-a-Flake site I came across a while ago, and it hit me that I could prevent another trip to the store and at the same time, make custom wrapping paper for each of my giftees. Win-win!” 
Pat sent in this holiday treat, how cars are made! “…a video of the making of a very important (and common) mode of transportation: cars. Thanks to the good people at Toyota Motor Manufacturing in Georgetown, Kentucky for supplying the 5-minute narrated video of the manufacturing process. It goes from stamping through painting and powertrain through the end of the assembly process. At the end, you see the car being driven off the line.” 
Here’s a great how to on Instructables on making a pedal powered air compressor, Aaron writes – “replace the electric motor of an air compressor with modified bicycle drivetrain. pedal. keep pedalling…use the existing motor mount to install an axle with one fixed cog and a belt pulley. You’ll need bearings. try a 1/2″ axle with radial ball bearing cartridges. make the bearing housing out of a slotted tube that has a drilled out nut and a regular nut to allow a bolt to tighten the tube around the bearing….”