NPR_Nut writes “A group of musicians took centuries-old instruments from the forests of Congo, brought them into the city – and plugged in! Their do-it-yourself amplification devices conjure up garage bands. African punk music from Konono Number One.” Link (WindowsMedia audio). Wow, this is really great- they also talk how they made the DIY pick ups.
Decent HOW TO for USB IR receiver …the construction is not that easy as for the serial IR receiver, but it should not be a big problem for an amateur solderer to solder the circuit referring to the following instruction. Since I wanted to build up everything as small as possible, it took me quite some time fiddling around to develop the following circuit. Link.
Nice hack! I have connected a Lassen iQ GPS module to my serial interface. Maps are downloaded from Google Maps servers with a small script. Google maps consist of 128×128 pixel tiles. You have to specify your address, so that map tiles around your area are downloaded. There is also a parameter for number of tiles you want. Zoom levels are possible but require to have a few tile-sets, one for each zoom level. Link.
John Carmack is working a potentially disruptive technology: A throatless rocket engine. Its made from plain aluminum pipes with few machined fittings. Carmack says: “The great thing about these engines is that it only takes me two nights to machine the parts, so we can test two engines a week if necessary.” It scales too: “If this line of tube engine development works out, we can make a 5,000 lbf engine with very little more effort than the test engine. [via] Link.
Perry writes “I invented this new type of cutting tool and have been having a blast with it. I want to see the cool things people can make and mod with them. The MP series cuts metal foils and plastic sheets. The other lines work great on paper, photo and vellums. If you make some cool stuff and I’d like to konw about it”. Clever, it’s a blade, inside a marker. Link.
Wow, I rarely use Excel, but here’s a good reason to keep it around- If you have Excel 2003 and use the social bookmarking tool Del.icio.us, you can backup your bookmarks in Excel. Link.
See our HOW TO…At $30 each these video cameras could be really useful for indymedia in latin america. The problem with expensive equiptment is that it centralized the means of production, you only have one camera, and when it’s lost it’s gone. But with $30 devices which record audio for interviews, video, and you can grab still’s from you can do some amazing work. It’s not so expensive that it’ll get stollen quickly. We could get one of these in to the hands of many media activists instead of the one digital camera per imc which is not the standard in most imc’s in countries with ‘under developed’ economies. Link.
