The latest DIY ideas, techniques and tools for the kitchen, garage and backyard from food to furniture to fun & games for your family.
Good one for next year! Ryan writes “Most of us remember the popular memory game Simon from the late 70’s. In this hack, I converted simon to play on a christmas wreath. Bust this out next year along with some egg nog and impress your friends with a non-traditional wreath decoration.” Link.
Dan writes “Build the ultimate garage door monitor, if you like home automation, you will definitely like this. This How-To shows how to monitor the exact position of the garage door, and display its status in your touchscreen interface (in this case, Main Lobby). A lot of details, but easy to understand.”Link.
Electric clothing writes “At the next Dorkbot meeting in NYC (Wednesday, January 4th @ 7pm) Mikey Sklar will be explaining the process he used to install a $2 RFID tag in his left hand. His talk will cover why he choose to do this, the necessary materials, different tag options, and what he and other people have been doing with these tags.” Link. See our interview with a RFID implanter as well.
Interesting tactic, people were driving too fast in a neighborhood, so the neighborhood built “roadwitches” – “These type of “DIY traffic-calming happenings” are described by their creator as “roadwitches” and have included an 11-feet high rabbit, a big bed (for a sleeping policeman), a Casualty-style fake crash scene for Halloween and the setting up of a living room in the middle of the road.” Link.
Nick writes “Want an inexpensive Windows CE-based web browser, email client, MP3 player, voice memo recorder, rudimentary games machine, and home automation X10 controller that will also create and edit Microsoft Word and Excel files with handwriting recognition and 16-bit color in a package that resembles a space-age Etch-a-Sketch?…this is it” Link.
Nice project to go along with a new Xbox 360…Chuck and Sean write “How to inexpensively build your own arcade-style racing game chair. The site describes building a low-budget chair for your living room with parts from the junkyard as well as building a full-size version utilizing a 32″ TV. Lots of pictures and advice.” Link.
Ok, I’m going to try out a bit of experiment on Christmas day inspired by the “Call for Help-a-thons” – post up any and all questions about setting up your new computer, protecting a PC from viruses/spyware before letting the kids online, iPods, converting videos, PSPs – anything you happen to need help with. I’ll check the messages and answer them and/or do a Skype/Gizmo/Instant message session. Most folks won’t be at their computers and online, but if you’re reading Makezine.com and need a hand with your tech, post up and let us know. Lastly, if you didn’t get MAKE for the holidays and want a free copy of MAKE (digital edition) read the comments…
