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SPOT community site SPOTStop points to the new “How Smart Watches Work” article on How Stuff Works. If you’re curious how SPOT watches work, the specs, service and some of the technical details this is a great article. Awhile back I modd’ed my Sunnto to look a little tougher, and solar charged it.

MrJerm says…“When I went to my local hardware store and showed them the list of materials, they already knew what it was for…the $14 steadicam must be catching on….I added a $10 “fitness set” from Sports Authority. The neoprene girdle is a good thing to wrap around the handle, providing grip and smoother (for me) pans. The jogging weights easily slip on the bottom, making it possible to gradually increase the weight as I become more comfortable with the setup. And when the steadicam is not in use, the jogging weights make good…jogging weights….”.

From Michael’s “Optical Illusions & Visual Phenomena…This is pretty freaky, you stare at the green dot in the middle, as the background grid turns the yellow dots will disappear. Steady fixation favours disappearance, blinks or gaze shifts induce reappearance. All in all reminiscent of the Troxler effect, but stronger and more resistant to residual eye movements. Might be cool to make a video game that has this effect.

If you’re working on, know of, or are interested in car & transportation hacking- submit the best car hacks, mods, personal stories, project ideas, DIY links, etc. Here or in the comments! We’ve just finished up our second issue for the year and we’re looking at our third issue (transportation will be included). Here’s a great one submitted by Maker reader John- Motorcycle and scooter modification tutorials.

I’m going to use this script to have my Mac message a hacked up phone with dummy SIM that will be attached to the TV so I can see when I received an IM- check it out- “…this script is intended to work with iChat to detect new incoming messages, and send a notification (address book contact) to your bluetooth phone that the instant message has arrived. Many cellular carriers offer AIM forwarding services for mobile devices, however, they often use SMS and therefore cost per message. If your phone has bluetooth, why not take advantage of that functionality?”

Make Flickr pool member apbeatty is making a magnetic stripe card reader and documenting it as he puts it together. Here’s a bit about the project from issue 01. If you have a project you’re making from the magazine, or any project join the photo group and post on up!