The latest DIY ideas, techniques and tools for digital gadgetry, open code, smart hacks, and more. Processing power to the people!
Here’s another great how to on converting an ATX power supply to a lab power supply, Abizar writes “Computer power supplies are US$15 but lab power supplies are US$100+. By converting the cheap (free) ATX power supplies that can be found in any discarded computer you can get a phenomenal lab power supply with huge current outputs, short circuit protection, and very tight voltage regulation.” Link. See previous.
300 hours and approximately 130 wood joints to build, Nicholas Falzone’s excellent case mod “The Sangaku case mod a fusion of computer technology with Japanese the furniture-making tradition. Sangaku translates to “mathematics tablet” in Japanese. The top connects the sides, with the shorter pieces lining up with the lines from the doors and the acrylic strip carrying the black from the front of the case up and over through the back. The two sides started out being four sliding shoji doors, two per side, but to get the lighting to work, I combined the two on one side. The joinery on the doors was made almost entirely by hand, using Japanese chisels and a dozuki saw.” [via] Link.
MAKE Instructable group member Radiorental made a really nice laptop bag from 1/4″ thick antistatic workbench rubber mats – “Materials are irrelevent. I wanted a slightliy durable material and opted for this 1/4″ thick antistatic workbench rubber mat. Some neoprene for the parts of the bag that will directly cover the laptop to provide some shock absorbsion and a combination velcro & tarp snap for fastning.” Nice work! Link.
I didn’t know Goodwill had eBay-like auctions, but they do. Make reader zw suggested that the “Cameras & Electronic Equip” section has a lot of good deals and interesting equipment. And it’s true, there are a ton of weird and cheap electronics, most of them under $50. I also saw a new 4G iPod for $150. I’m not sure how good the actual purchase and delivery is, it seems the member organizations of Goodwill Industries International are the only sellers. It might be worth checking out. Link.
Run a Mac, on a stick. “Running Linux, Windows or applications like Firefox, Thunderbird and AbiWord from a USB flash memory device is old hat. How about a Mac 128K or Plus on a USB key? Using a ‘portable’ Mac system you can: play with old system software and applications without dusting off your old Mac, impress your friends, or show others what the older Mac system looked like, use Mac on Windows and Linux.” Thanks Jim! Link.
If laser cutting your Powerbook isn’t your thing, here’s a HOW-TO on replacing the glowing white Apple logo with the old school rainbow colored Apple. The tricky part is taking off the back case, but they have some pretty good tips on getting it off without damage. The logo was replaced by multicolored “Roscolux” gels. [via] Link.
Wow, Intel smacks what they call “gadgets” a bit – they think the $100 laptop effort is more of a gadget than a “grown up PC…not dependent on servers in the sky to deliver content and capability to them, not dependent for hand cranks for power.” It will be a fascinating to see what happens in the next couple years. I think it’s not just one solution, but many…The $100 laptop seems to be using, or will use an AMD processor, not Intel, I wonder if that’s why they’re down on it? Link. See our less than $100 version made from an Apple eMate here.
