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The latest DIY ideas, techniques and tools for the kitchen, garage and backyard from food to furniture to fun & games for your family.

DIY Xbox Media Center

Oldie, but goodie- XboxMediaCenter is a free open source (GPL) multimedia player for the Xbox™ from Microsoft. Currently XboxMediaCenter can be used to play/view most popular video/audio/picture formats such as MPEG-1/2/4, DivX, XviD, MP3, AAC, JPG, GIF plus many more less known formats directly from a CD/DVD in Xbox DVD-ROM drive or of the Xbox harddrive, XBMC can also play files from a PC over a local network and even stream media streams directly from the internet. Link.

Continue Reading June 4th, 2005 Phillip Torrone

Bicycle frame building

Great resource. Bicycle frame building has a reputation as being an arcane art; something that’s practiced by wizened old Jedi masters, or else carried out by huge, complicated robots in Taiwan, attended by a small army of engineers, technicians, and metallurgists. This isn’t so. Frame building is a craft like any other, with simple, consistent rules that mere mortals can master fairly easily, given sufficient attention to detail and care. [via] Link.

Continue Reading June 3rd, 2005 Phillip Torrone

DIY MMORPG

phpMMORPG is a Web interface that can be used to create an MMORPG with a back-end which permits users of the interface to create their own games. It features real-time chat, a map editor, a template system, a quest box, PVP, PVE, a loot system, and other functions. Except for the use of “marquee”, it uses 100% XHTML 1.0. [via via] Link.

Continue Reading June 3rd, 2005 Phillip Torrone

Tinkering School for Kids

This July 10-16, my friends Gever and Julie are running “The Tinkering School,” a one-week summer camp in Montara, CA for kids aged 7 and up who want to build things. The session will culminate with the construction and riding of a small roller-coaster, with parents welcome to join the fun. Great people, beautiful setting, unique learning experience. Link.

Continue Reading June 2nd, 2005 Paul Spinrad

Sony Sterile CD Burning…

Sony is introducing “Sterile Burning” where owners of CDs can only burn one copy, but not copy of copies. Holding the shift key on CD insert or using a non-Windows OS will likely get around all this. The technology Sony is testing, which was developed by a UK anti-piracy firm, First4Internet, allows for copying ripped and burned tracks from a copy-protected disc to a blank CD in WMA format. The DRM on the disc remains intact and prevents the CD from being duplicated. Link.

Continue Reading June 1st, 2005 Phillip Torrone

TaxProf Blog: Virtual Games, Real Taxes

If you have to pay taxes on virtual property, can you insure your virtual property? Sunday’s New York Times picked up the theme in The Game is Virtual. The Profit is Real (5/29), which discussed the growing market for virtual property used in on-line games like Second Life, The Sims, Ultima Online, World of Warcraft. Players buy and sell virtual property on sites like eBay, Ige, and Gamingopenmarket, with the Times noting annual profits of 25k, 100k or more taxable to the gamers. Some of the sites even allow on-line charitable contributions. Link.

Continue Reading June 1st, 2005 Phillip Torrone2

MPAA May Not Seek Broadcast Flag in DTV Bill

Our TVs are safe for now! Maybe (Previous info and interview here). The Motion Picture Association of America is unlikely to push for a broadcast flag component in DTV legislation establishing a 2008 hard date because the bill’s main author, House Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton (R-TX), is against the provision. Meanwhile, the MPAA will keep briefing House and Senate members on a broadcast flag bill’s importance and seek other ways to get the content protections it wants. [via] Link.

Continue Reading June 1st, 2005 Phillip Torrone

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