The latest DIY ideas, techniques and tools for digital gadgetry, open code, smart hacks, and more. Processing power to the people!
We spent some time with the new Intel-based Macbook. Wow–it’s super fast. As we take photos, we’re automatically uploading them to Flickr via WiFi-Kodak wireless camera and the roaming EVDO Wifi network we’re broadcasting — so here they are, some of the first photos with hot system info action, too! Link.
Chad writes “For a while I have wanted to control things with a serial port. It was pretty easy to control a relay with a serial port. With a standard serial port you can control 2 relays. (with a parallel port you can control 8 relays, but I don’t have a parallel port on my system). A standard PC serial port has 9 pins. Pin 4 – DTR (data terminal ready) and Pin 7 – RTS (request to send) can be used to control a relay. These two ports don’t actually send data. They are used to signal the other device to tell it when to send data.” Here’s the HOW TO – Link.
Turn your optical mouse in to a scanner! Erik writes: “A Maker posted his project on a very large Dutch forum, after he read some datasheets of the sensor in his optical mouse. He wrote a application in VB for reading the sensors outputs, so he can use the sensor like a hand scanner. The software is available on the site and works on mice which use an ADNS-2610 optical sensor, recognisable by the eight pins, the sun-like mark and the text ‘A2610’.” Link.
This is a trend I think we’ll see over and over again this year with phones and the music stores carriers are going to roll out – the slow death of MP3 playback on phones, or having to have a Windows PC and Media player 10 to convert to WMA before your phone can play your music. Techdirt has a story about Verizon phones that will no longer play MP3s one upgraded to use their new music store, if customers complain they’ll get an old refurbished phone with older firmware, but it doesn’t appear that the user is warned before updating that they’ll lose their MP3 playing feature. [via] Link. (and more details here).
Unsat_rbd writes “A few years ago I was unable to find a desk that fit all of my needs, so I built one using simple components from a local hardware store. The finished product was inexpensive, durable, and portable (I just moved for the 3rd time in as many years). The design was meant for 3 21″ CRT monitors, A/V equipment, rackmount computers, and a mini-fridge.” Link.
On Slashdot I saw that ThinkComputers.org has an overview of some of the new gadgets at CES (yearly consumer electronics show in Las Vegas) and their round up includes a laptop with an display on the outside of the case…. “ASUS had a really cool concept that is not in production yet, but may be in a year or so. It is a laptop outfitted with an Auxiliary display, or external display. This display is used for quick date book and note checking to save the end user the time. ASUS is working directly with Microsoft on this technology and Vista will be outfitted it support this type of technology.” images here and here. Awhile back we made our own DIY version since it seems it’s going to take a bit longer until you can actually buy these, the how to is here.
Chris writes “After reading this article about how to make a DIY Retro Cellphone Handset, I just had to post an article about how I made my Bluetooth Handset…surprisingly there is no how-to to do this (AFAIK). Although it’s very simple. Here is what you need: An old telephone or just the handset. I used an old telephone form former East Germany (GDR/DDR) called “Apart 2001″, produced in the VEB Fernmeldewerk Nordhausen/RFT in the year 1990.” Link.
