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Altoid tins are the project cases of the year it seems. From Altoid’ed cell phone battery packs to minty optical mice. How odd it was to receive this “Curiously Strong” spam that was laser focused for me today (View image). I’ve been looking to make a gumball-like machine to embed a pre-paid cell phone with extended battery pack to SMS me when the “treat” levels get low, part of my research led me to think I’ll need a pretty hardcore enclosure to do this up proper. How fitting that I might use an Altoid gumball dispenser to mod, just like it’s tiny tin cousin.

Peter Kim sent this along- Handy musician Nathaniel Andrew has step-by-step instructions for building DIY drum triggers on the cheap. (via audioserve) You’ll need to score yourself some cheap Remo practice pads, and there is a little bit of hard work, though nothing impossible. Nathaniel claims the whole job takes 20 minutes, requiring only some standard components from Radio Shack, a soldering iron, a small piece of sheet metal, an X-acto, epoxy, a drill, and cutting sheers.

The Science Channel ran a BBC show called Making Millions the Easy Way, it was mostly about ways people have fleeced the casinos for millions of bucks using math, mechanics and group play. The MIT story was in there, but one thing I couldn’t find any information on was the wearable Blackjack computers that Keith and Marty Taft made. Read the transcript here, it’s amazing. For a mid-1970’s computer it was extremely advanced (it even used LEDs in the eye glasses). I’m thinking of making one and having an “open class” Blackjack game night at my house where everyone is encouraged to “play” any way they wish. Best hacker wins.

Here’s the MP3 of MAKE on Seattle’s NPR Weekday. I brought in lots of gadgets, chatted about some of the articles in MAKE, RFID gyms, water cooled grills and took calls. Special thanks to host Steve Scher and all the amazing inventors / tinkers that called in!

Physics guy and mobile device hacker Dan Bjorkegren made a brilliant web service for Seattle residents that I’m going to use from now on. It’s called SpotBus. If you’ve used Google Suggest you know how handy it is when you start to type and Google “suggests” search terms. Spotbus works like somewhat like that, as you type your start or destination location (in landmarks) is can find the locations and return the results right away. It’s a lot faster than Metro’s tool or a timetable. Great DIY remixing of “suggest” user interfacing and transit data!

If you’re wondering what the strength of duct tape might be Make reader Taylor reports in with some possible clues…I decided I needed a hammock in my dorm room, and what better way than duct tape. I attached 4 strips on either side to the ceiling, making a loop at the bottom. I then used some clothes line and 2 carabiners to attach the hammock. The whole setup can hold my 200 lb friend (he fell asleep for 4 hrs in it). Under that stress each strip is holding around 25 lbs (assuming the weight was equally distributed, which I did my best to do). I haven’t pushed it to the limits yet, maybe this weekend I’ll see just how much it can take (Photo 1, Photo 2, Photo 3).