Make your own postage stamps
There are a few services out there that allow you to make your own postage stamps and here’s a new one from Yahoo! In a few simple steps you’ll be configuring your stamps online with our simple customization tool. In days, you’ll receive your stamps in the mail, ready for use! All you need is a Yahoo! Photos account. I’ll eventually try this out once they allow you to use Flickr photos, I really want a LM555 timer chip stamp to send to friends, or other geeky stamps. [via] Link.
The genome-sequencing technique from 454 Life Sciences was selected as the Gold winner in The Wall Street Journal’s 2005 Technology Innovation Awards competition. Innovative technologies from around the world were eligible for awards in categories including biotechnology, software, security, energy and the environment, among others. Judges selected Gold, Silver and Bronze winners, as well as giving out an Honorable Mention award. [
Stunning photos of the Orrery clock from Make pal Jacob Appelbaum. The Orrery is a ten foot tall planet tracking display. The lower half is a mechanical binary calculation engine. Each layer is calculating the orbit if one of the six human eye visible planets (Mercury through Saturn) to 28 bits of accuracy. The Orrery is primarily made of monel (a nickel copper alloy), and stainless steel. The planet spheres are ground from natural stones that resemble each planet they represent. [
We’ve covered a lot of the R2-D2 droid building, in MAKE and Makezine.com – so, here’s a wonderful site with all you need to make your own Dalek. “We were the very first site devoted to the building of the Dalek, and it is still our intent to supply all the information you’ll need to produce an accurate full size working Dalek as seen in the long running BBC TV series Dr Who.” Thanks Rick! 
Rick writes “How to make ultra light weight boats and canoes. Plans are available but there are enough details on the web site for you to go from there.” From the site: What is Geodesic Airolite Construction? It is a simple, inexpensive, low-tech, forgiving system utilizing some exotic materials. The sequence consists of building a simple rugged wood framework, braced with triangulated KEVLAR® roving strands. This tough basket-like frame is then covered with Dacron. This is a first cousin to sail cloth; except it heat shrinks. It is a super-weight, airplane wing covering type of fabric, used on crop dusters. 
Nice tutorial from Jake “Apple’s AAC format allows podcasters to create “enhanced podcasts” complete with embedded photos at publisher defined points throughout the podcast. These files are only compatible with iTunes and iPods, leaving a large universe of listeners out of the picture. Microsoft’s Photo Story could easily create something similar, with a voice track narrating beneath a series of images, but the WMV file created in Photo Story isn’t compatible with most portable music players. One alternative that bridges the gap and maximizes compatibility is to create a script enhanced WMA file, These WMA files with embedded scripts play just like a normal WMA anywhere scripting isn’t supported.” 
We cover a lot of the new Voice over IP services (and gear) here, but you might wonder how secure these services are. The folks over at Skype announced “work is now complete and you can download the full report from Skype security center (PGP signature). There’s also an executive summary available” [