Great resource. Bicycle frame building has a reputation as being an arcane art; something that’s practiced by wizened old Jedi masters, or else carried out by huge, complicated robots in Taiwan, attended by a small army of engineers, technicians, and metallurgists. This isn’t so. Frame building is a craft like any other, with simple, consistent rules that mere mortals can master fairly easily, given sufficient attention to detail and care. [via] Link.
phpMMORPG is a Web interface that can be used to create an MMORPG with a back-end which permits users of the interface to create their own games. It features real-time chat, a map editor, a template system, a quest box, PVP, PVE, a loot system, and other functions. Except for the use of “marquee”, it uses 100% XHTML 1.0. [via via] Link.
Turtle’s 78 RPM Jukebox is a huge collection of popular Victor, Edison, and Columbia recordings in MP3, from 1900-1930. They also have techtidbits like: “N.K. captured this selection at 78 rpm and electonically slowed it to 71 rpm for our enjoyment. N.K. uses a Technics SL-1900 turntable (modified to spin at 78 rpm ± 10%), a Grado F1 cartridge and a 3 mil conical stylus tracking at 3 grams. N.K. uses Sound Forge version 5.0 and Audio Cleaning Lab version 3.0 digital processing software”. [via] Link.
Remember that lathe Steve Cooley shot time lapse videos of building things? The first video was making a table for his drill press the second video was turning some old wood in to a really neat looking table leg or something. Time lapse video are always satisfying to watch for some reason. Here’s the opposite, a bunch of photos making the lathe used in those timelapse movies. Link.
This July 10-16, my friends Gever and Julie are running “The Tinkering School,” a one-week summer camp in Montara, CA for kids aged 7 and up who want to build things. The session will culminate with the construction and riding of a small roller-coaster, with parents welcome to join the fun. Great people, beautiful setting, unique learning experience. Link.
I saw a really great documentary called Yank Tanks – it’s about the ingenuity of Cuban mechanics who often fabricate parts, turn chain saws in to mopeds, bake ceramic brakes in their back yards, all to keep 50+ year old cars running. “Every Cuban is a mechanic” is one of the quotes in the film- there were dozens of hacks and mods on the classic cars as well as the ways to repair them. The Yank Tank hackers are the curators of the largest, living, automobile museum in the world. Link.
Wow, scary. As the article asks- how can the MPAA tell if people are selling their own used DVDs or other things? The Motion Picture Association of America said Tuesday that it will fund the installation of 10 new surveillance cameras in downtown Los Angeles–ostensibly to help catch ne’er-do-wells who are selling counterfeit DVDs on the streets. [via] Link.
