DIYParts.org is a grassroots effort that enables and ecourages the sharing and trading of computer parts that are still useful, but would otherwise mostl likely end up discarded…one of the goals of the project is to get unused older personal computer systems to parts of the developing world and to people who have thus far been sidelined in the “digital revolution”. The old hardware can be made useful by loading it with open source operating systems like GNU/Linux. [via] Link.
The Sprint Treo 650 is… notable for what it does not include: dial-up networking (or DUN) over Bluetooth. Fortunately, a skilled Treo 650 user (known only as shadowmite) spent several hours tracing code and discovered that Sprint had not removed DUN; they had merely hidden it. A two-byte change in the Treo’s Bluetooth management code reveals the hidden setting. Trevor Harmon has posted step by step for setting up dial-up networking with the Sprint Treo 650 smartphone using Bluetooth and Mac OS X. [via] Link.
Mash-up artists and remixers have lacked a single, killer app, but they may have just gotten it. Ableton Live 5 now (finally) supports MP3s, instantly searching your entire hard drive for audio files. Drag and drop audio in, and the software instantly tempo-matches and slices up beats for manipulation. Once this hits public beta shortly, we may see the mash-up scene explode. Link.
A neat How-to on building your own office irrigation system. There are retail systems for over $60, but this DIY version can come in around $30 or so. Pump, tubing, connectors, dripper, timer, a few other things- and you’ll have the greenest cube. Link.
A few months ago we posted up about the $11 Mattel JuiceBox project, some photos in the MAKE Flickr Photo Pool and some resources for hacking up these little guys for other projects. Slashdot has a story on it today with a lot more comments and resources that might come in handy too. Link.
Interesting article on Forbes- Standard & Poor’s Equity Research reiterated a “sell” rating on Audible. They cite podcasting as a growing threat. It does seem that a lot of people are listening to more things they might have discovered (and bought) on Audible, I think the market for Audible content is actually increasing if they can become the hub for all great things in spoken word (free and fee). Link.
Here’s a periodic table of Perl operators. You can download the PDF for free or order one through Cafe press at cost. The sources are primarily Michael Lazzaro’s “Perl Operator List, TAKE 6”, Larry Wall’s Apocalypse 3: Operators and Luke Palmer’s Synopsis 3: Summary of Perl 6 Operators. [