This man really belongs on Broadway, but he’s coming to Queens for World Maker Faire on Saturday, and will be doing David Pogue’s iPhone Brain Dump on the Main Stage at 4pm. In this half hour, he’ll dazzle you with the coolest apps, share some undocumented tips and tricks, look back at the iPhone’s unlikely origins, and look forward to the future of mobile phones and applications.
Interesting homebrew process from Charles Lohr, who demonstrates it here with a multicolor-LED-controlling capacitive touch sensor that works from the reverse side of the glass, i.e. you can use it without actually touching the copper. No holes are drilled in the glass, so all components have to be SMT. Cool stuff.
Josh Billionsdemonstrates the Mapbag at Maker Faire Bay Area 2011. It is a bicycle messenger bag with a ring of vibrating motors sewn into its strap, whose positions correspond to compass points. This soft circuit project uses a LilyPad Arduino in conjunction with the GPS feature in an iPhone, allowing the user to set a destination and be given constant haptic feedback through the fabric in order to stay on course. Mapbag acts as an exploratory wayfinding tool – a fun and useful alternative to a standard turn-by-turn map.
A while back I did some experimentation with stewing plastic bags in canola oil and then pressing them into solid forms. The process I followed used this method for molding a self-lubricating replacement bushing on a washing machine. While the results were certainly interesting, they had a side-effect of being impregnated in the oil, leaving grease stains in their path forever.
Wendy D. Johnson has come out with her third knitting book, Wendy Knits Lace: Essential Techniques and Patterns For Irresistible Everyday Lace, which offers 20 projects that range from simple to advanced. Here she’s offered us a pattern to make this stunning Lace Stripes Scarf. Enjoy!
Denny Daniel is the creator and curator of the Museum of Interesting Things. At first glance these mundane objects from throughout history seem disjointed and random, until you realize that the common thread is inspiration and innovation.
The sometimes NSFW creations of Matthew Monthei have been seriously cracking me up for some time now. Anyone who cross stitches and then uses their crotch as a backdrop is pretty awesome in my book. Matthew is a regular contributor to the Subversive Cross Stitch Flickr group, which is where I first saw his work. […]
