The latest DIY ideas, techniques and tools for bikes, rockets, R/C vehicles, toys and other diversions.
Second Life Linux Client Alpha is here – “…the alpha version of our Second Life client for Linux operating systems is now available for preview testing! We used both GNOME and KDE desktop environments in our testing; the client was used internally on Debian, Fedora Core 4 and Knoppix versions of Linux. Residents are encouraged to try the viewer on the Linux OS of their choice and report any issues encountered in the newly created Linux client forum page.” Link.
This is crazy, I just recieved my Powerglove off eBay and another Gyration mouse for a VR glove project and Leadingzero built one! – “The time has come to bring new life into our old friend and to welcome him back as a productive member of society with the ‘Powerglove Mouse’. With this hack I can strap on the Powerglove and have total control over the mouse cursor on my computer. I can control the cursor’s position with a wave of my hand and activate the mouse clicks by simply bending my fingers – a beautiful integration of old and new.” [via] Link.
Here’s how Wrapper makes custom iPod cases – and their latest, your virtual character on an iPod case – “A cover for an iPod video that features a client’s avatar. We can make great products from online identities used in massively multiplayer games. Unike developers of single player games, MMORPG developers seem relaxed about gamers making copies of their avatars and using them in RL.” [via] Link.
Great video from Coolhunting! “Nullsleep makes music on Gameboys. Exclusively. And it’s really good. He performed recently at Monkeytown in Brooklyn, NY and the m ss ng p eces was there to capture it for CH Video. His interview, and excerpts from his performance, comprise the first in our series ‘8-bit’ which is about making music on low-fi gadgets.” [via] Link.
Wired article about earning a living by selling the things you make, in the virtual word – “Jennifer Grinnell, Michigan furniture delivery dispatcher turned fashion designer in cyber space, never imagined that she could make a living in a video game. Grinnell’s shop, Mischief, is in Second Life, a virtual world whose users are responsible for creating all content. Grinnell’s digital clothing and “skins” allow users to change the appearance of their avatars — their online representations — beyond their wildest Barbie dress-up dreams.” Link.
Andrew Carol’s LEGO contraption “Before the day of computers and pocket calculators all mathematics was done by hand. Great effort was expended to compose trigonometric and logarithmic tables for navigation, scientific investigation, and engineering purposes. In the mid-19th century, people began to design machines to automate this error prone process. Many machines of various designs were eventually built. The most famous of these machines is the Babbage Difference Engine. Because of engineering issues as well as political and personal conflict the Babbage Difference engines construction had to wait until 1991 when the Science Museum in London decided to build the Babbage Difference Engine No.2 for an exhibit on the history of computers. Babbage’s design could evaluate 7th order polynomials to 31 digits of accuracy. I set out to build a working Difference Engine using LEGO parts which could compute 2nd or 3rd order polynomials to 3 or 4 digits.” [via] Link.
Tom sent in this fun how to from Jared and Dan “The idea for this project evolved out of necessity. Dan and I are both avid gamers. After a few hours of gaming with our normal high-end mouse pads you get a build up of sweat. The mouse and mouse pad becomes slippery and you start to loose your competitive advantage due to the loss of precision. While there are a couple mice on the market that have small fans in them to dry out your palm, they all have major failings in precision and accuracy. So after some thought and discussion we chose to build out our own custom mouse pad with a blower in it to suck the air down through the pad and away from the gamer’s hand. The result is astonishing!” Link.
