Computers & Mobile

The latest DIY ideas, techniques and tools for digital gadgetry, open code, smart hacks, and more. Processing power to the people!

DIY iMac

DIY iMac

This is a nice, and cheap, way of making your own iMac. Of course the specs aren’t the same, and loading a CD would be pain, but it is an all-in-one computer. The Mac mini is so small that you can put it in a lot of interesting places, even on the back of a […]

NPR’s steampunk treatment

NPR’s steampunk treatment

Congrats to MAKE pal Jake von Slatt, Kinetic Steamworks, and Three Rings for the “All Things Considered”/NPR coverage. The piece was done by one Cyrus Farivar, a positively steampunky moniker, if you ask me. You can hear the piece at the link below. Steampunk Brings Victorian Flair to the 21st Century – Link

USB monkey

USB monkey

From the MAKE Flickr pool 0olong bring us this functional figurine – Stick his neck in your USB socket and he’ll unload his data at your whim. A pre-existing USB drive decorated with epoxy putty (a mix of Sylmasta A+B and SuperCarve) plus a couple of beads for eyes. Flash drives are so affordale now, […]

Mac AVR install simplified

Mac AVR install simplified

Perhaps you’ve considered dabbling in AVR programming on OS X, maybe even sharpen up on Unix syntax in the process. Unfortunately, installing the Mac/AVR toolchain can be a very frustrating experience to the uninitiated. The process involves locating and installing countless interdependent apps, tools, and libraries. But just before giving in and trying another OS […]

Real life email flag

Matt Mets’s Thing-a-Day projects are getting ridiculous: Tonight’s project is a physical flag that attaches to my computer and goes up when I have new mail. First, I found biff, which is an extension to Thunderbird that proves a socket interface to poll for new mail status. Then, I wrote a little Python application to […]