Here’s a good step by step on making your own Power over Ethernet (POE) cable to supply power to your router/access Point/wireless gateway using only your RJ-45 connection. Power over Ethernet allows you to run only a single RJ-45 cable (Ethernet) to your access point, and run the power over the unused pairs of wires within the RJ-45 cable. Link.
AizeMashu via the MAKE Flickr blog made the coolest OS switch (literally). “I bought a generic electrical switch from Radio Shack and wired it to switch my computer OS between Linux (left,) Windows (right) and boot disc (the off setting.) To get an idea of how macro this image is, the switch is mounted on a 3.5″ external drive plastic knockout”. Link.
Making your own homebrew PSP docking station “When my PSP arrived, it was always in my hands, but a couple of days later, the problem of having a place to put the console became stronger and stronger (especially when you have nothing but your standard pack)… I began to feel anxious… What if it falls down the table? And what if, while is on the bed, I sit on it? And so on…” Link.
MAKE Flickr photo pool member abstrakone is restoring an arcade machine using a PC as the brains and adding new hardware to make it work like a regular arcade machine. Follow the photos and how he did it here. For more details and resources on making your own arcade controls, here’s a good resource that MAKE reader Jake sent in. Link.
Pretty interesting low cost way of accessing NASA Earth observing satellites. Sophisticated signal processing techniques and simple proof-of-principle antenna arrays built from PVC pipe, aluminum foil and copper wire could revolutionize the way NASA obtains data from its Earth observing satellites. Link.
Neat, you type in words (like MAKE) and it’ll play back the letters as morse code, musically- here’s an example (MP3). We covered SMS vs Morse code earlier this week, banner year for the dot dash! These patterns are very much like International Morse Code — a method of encoding each letter and number into short and long sounds called dots and dashes. In this activity, you can compose and play your own rhythmic patterns using International Morse Code. [via] Link.
The Das keyboard is a pretty cool geeked out keyboard without letters on the keys- oddly enough I used an unmarked keyboard in the past during a project, the CEO of the company kept wanting to change things on the server, and the IT staff used a keyboard like this so he couldn’t- any way here’s a DIY version if you don’t want to pay the $80. [via] Link.
