RH writes- A pseudoscope is an optical instrument made with two prisms. The mirrors in the prisms reverse the image in each eye causing some items viewed through it to look quite unusual: convex objects become concave, things pointing towards you may look like they are pointing away and vice versa. This site describes more illusions that can be seen with it and how to make one for around ten dollars (holding up 2 $5 prisms). Link.
Great use for all those old CDs laying around, make a lamp! At a previous job, the head of QA had several stacks of several hundred CDs on the floor in front of floor to ceiling windows. The sunlight shining through the window would glow through these CDs in a very appealing manner that made the green light seam warm. From that point forward I always thought that a stack of CDs with a tubular light inside would make a very cool lamp. [via] Link.
Nice how-to on Lifehakcer using open source app synergy for multi-montoring. There’s one mouse pointer and I can move it back and forth across the monitors just like I was on a single system. While I can’t drag windows from one monitor to the other, I can copy and paste text across and move files easily with mapped desktop drives on both ends. Link.
DIY ammo for MAKE issue #2’s Marshmallow gun Howtoon! Marshmallows are spongy confections made of sugar beaten into a fluffy texture with the aid of gelatin. Marshmallows are essential components to many popular American snacks such as Rice Krispies Treats and S’mores (a sandwich of graham crackers, chocolate, and marshmallows melted over a campfire) Link.
Steve designed a headphone adapter for the Treo 650 to keep with him at all times for emergency Bhajis loops and Microbe music creation urges. He turned a piece of the good 3/4″ birch plywood into a general pill shape, sanded down to have no rough edges… (10 minutes modelling done in second life). Link.
Youngsters visiting Michigan State University’s 4-H Children’s Garden are discovering unseen information about plants in the palm of their hands. A new device called the Personal Science Assistant (PSA), similar to a hand-held personal digital assistant, reads the plant label (a radio frequency identification product known as an RFID tag). The application brings up information and pictures about each of the plant’s parts: root, stem, leaves, flowers, fruit and seeds. Link & project page.
Memories! “BBS: The Documentary” is an 8 episode series about all aspects of the history of the dial-up Bulletin Board System, or BBS. 3 years in the making and the result of over 200 interviews, this collection puts in one convenient package a sense of the variety and wide-reaching effects of the BBS phenomenon. All in all, over seven and a half hours of material is included across the three region-free DVDs. [via] Link.
