The latest DIY ideas, techniques and tools for digital gadgetry, open code, smart hacks, and more. Processing power to the people!
Get a free copy of Linspire until the 6th: I downloaded it, burned the ISO, and it worked just fine off a Sony VAIO and lots of other old PCs around here. You do need to join their software service if you want to do more it seems, but overall it’s a great Linux distro to play with. So far, my favorite “live” CD to carry around is WHAX – post your favs in the comments. [via] Link.
Cool project from Michael J. Mahon – At the outset, when designing NadaNet, I envisioned that it could be used to support parallel computing on Apple II machines. To add more processors and save space, I decided that I would package several Apple //e main boards together, without keyboards or peripheral slot cards. (I didn’t disassemble the Apples myself, but found a box of Apple //e main boards being sold as an auction lot for about a dollar each!) I settled on a wooden cube about one foot on a side which I slotted to hold up to 8 main boards. For whimsical reasons, I called it an “AppleCrate”. [via] Link.
New beta of Skype for Windows, looks promising…call quality is the best ever for talking, laughing and sharing stories. It’s now faster to get set up, and easier to add your contacts, so you can get more friends talking for free. You can forward calls on to mobiles, landlines and other Skype Names. Make calls instantly from Outlook email or Internet Explorer with our new toolbars. Personalise your Skype — play around with sounds, ringtones and pictures to show the world who you are. Link.
A little while ago Lifehacker posted instruction how you could use Gmail’s SMTP server to send mail from any e-mail address. Drawback: Google would always rewrite your From: address back to your original Gmail address, kinda defeating our original idea. Last week then, Google added a new feature allowing Gmail users to add multiple e-mail addys and to choose one from a drop-down list when sending a message via the Gmail interface. What hasn’t been mentioned yet is that once you’ve added another verified e-mail address to your Gmail account, Gmail’s SMTP server would happily forward the new From: address! And this is how you do it… Link.
Evidently this isn’t the first, but somebody’s running a bot on Google Talk which essentially creates a chat room for Talk users. A few folks seem to think this is Google’s doing, although I can’t see this having as much practical application as oh, say, actual rooms. Source code included. Link.
From Etsy – a place to buy and sell all things handmade…an inside-out computer. The motherboard, instead of being hidden away, faces outward for all to see. The entire case was made by hand using oak hardwood and 1/4″ amber-tinted plexiglass. [
A time-lapse series of the PVR assembly. Nothing fancy or great. Just a quest for a DRM free PVR. Photos