It’s starting to get warmer out, and beer drinking Makers will soon be hacking up all sorts of ways to keep the brews cold. Here’s a classic article that Saul sent over. You’ll need a Keg of beer, full CO2 cylinder, tower conversion kit and a chest freezer. Post up other plans and articles if you have some favorite ones. Link.
I tend to like multi-function jewelry, I had an iButton ring to start my car awhile back which was a lot of fun, anyway if you’re not in to DIY Kegerators here’s the bottle opener ring. This is a stainless steel finger gizmo performs an essential service in the party season: the stylish Ring Thing is a handy little bottle opener. Only $10. Link.
GBADev has an annual competition to create home brewed GameBoy games. Instead of giving out cash and flash cartridges the aim is to manufacture a batch of 500 cartridges with the top entries (a “multi-cart”) complete with cart sticker, manual and box. The cartridges will be manufactured by an “independent party” (not Nintendo). The cartridges are in, you can order them now. The games look great. Link.
Here’s an older but useful article about all sorts of batteries you can build to power your digital camera. This is a good introduction to the types of batteries and cell capacities- as well as soldering up something you’ll be plugging in to your digital camera. Link.
Here’s a DIY LED how-to for computer cases. I like step by steps like this, they’re easy enough for anyone to do and build skills for more complicated mods. In this guide, you will learn how combine a spare molex connector and 2 LEDs to create a simple and effective lighting solution. Basic soldering skills are necessary, but apart from that, this mod requires very little experience (and very little money). Link.
AOTS had one of my favorite Makers- Simon Field, author of Gonzo Gizmos: Projects & Devices to Channel Your Inner Geek. Simon makes all sorts of projects from stuff found around the house. Film can cannons, three penny radios, solar marshmallow roasters and more. His website SciToys also has a lot to explore as well as the parts/projects to purchase. Link.
On Friday’s MAKE:Audio show we had a quick review of Mac OS X Tiger and now that’s we’ve been banging on it for a few more hours, here are some cheers and jeers. Spotlight search is creepy fast, it’s finding everything almost instantly. Dashboard and its Widgets are fun but take up a lot of memory, not sure if it matters though. The RSS screensaver is also fun, here’s a video of what it looks like. Only Macs that are 1Ghz G4 and above can do join in multi-video chats, but multi-audio seems to be fine on some sub 1Ghz machines here. Even if you bought QuickTime Pro 6+ you need to repurchase QuickTime 7. Overall a great release, it’s living up to all the stellar reviews. Some photos from the Seattle store (4th in line!).
