Blog
Idealog writes “Frustrated that Apple has yet to deliver a display-capable remote for iTunes, I decided to use VNC and the Palm TX to come up with my own solution.” [
DIY Plasma pencil?
Janet sent this in and has issued a Maker challenge to build a “Plasma Pencil” – “The pencil generates a “cold plasma,” which can be used to kill germs that contaminate surfaces, infect wounds and rot your teeth. In the future, it might be used to destroy tumors without damaging surrounding tissue. Laroussi, an associate professor at Old Dominion University, hopes the beam will soon find its way into doctors’ and dentists’ offices.” Link.
Plane entertainment hacking…
On the flight to Amsterdam, for Euro OSCON and the Make Faire, there were entertainment devices in each seat, music, movies, games, etc…all on demand and all quite nice. Turns out, if you try hard, or if the system happens to crash at your seat, you can spot that it runs Linux and you might also get a free premium movie…On the way back, I’ll try and write up how to repeat it. Here’s a photo of the shell, wohoo! Link.
Cassette Jam ’05
Digitaler Lumpensammler sent in this wonderful collection of cassette tapes – when memories were named memorex…There are hundreds on this Japanese page – and the funny thing is you can tell exactly which ones were from the 80’s. Link.
Making High-Temperature Superconductors
Richard writes “Making High-Temperature Superconductors – This is the Makers way of doing it. I did this for my Grade 11 Science Fair project, that was in 1987. This site did not exist then!” Read on for the instructions on making ceramic superconductors in a high school science laboratory. Link.
Simple monitor hack.. 3 monitors on their side!
Ric writes “I came up with a simple hack that makes a lot of sense… everyone wants more desktop space but can’t afford expensive hi res monitors… well I ran across this when tinkering with my new video cards…I placed three monitors on their side and used rotation software to make them into one workspace… 3000 pixels by 1280 pixels… view whole web pages in one view… see US letter docs at 100% in one screen… its just magic and cheap.” Link.
Crocheting Hyperbolic Space
Dr. Daina Taimina, a Cornell University mathematician, creates intricate crochet pieces in order to better illustrate the physical model of hyperbolic space. “The beauty of Taimina’s method is that many of the intrinsic properties of hyperbolic space now become visible to the eye and can be directly experienced by playing with the models.” Dr. Taimina’s crochet models are on display at the Smithsonian’s collection of American Mathematical Models. The Institute for Figuring has collected a great deal of information about her work in online and real-world exhibitions. Thanks Jeff! Link