The latest DIY ideas, techniques and tools for digital gadgetry, open code, smart hacks, and more. Processing power to the people!
Here’s another laptop to picture frame project – this one uses an iBook. The iBook screen was flipped around, a new color added and the whole thing uses a hockey puck to stand on its own. The power button was moved to a more accessible spot too. Link.
Seems to me this would could be used with a GPS and low cost portable computer for the blind…“a belt which enables its user to feel his orientation in space via vibrotactile stimulation. This belt is equipped with a set of vibrators controlled by an electronic compass: the element pointing north is always slightly vibrating. That way, the person wearing the belt gets permanent input about his heading relative to the earth’s magnetic field.” [via] Link.
Here’s a pretty good overview and how to on setting up Linux on a Mac or PC. I usually carry a few Ubuntu “live CDs” when I travel – these CDs allow you to boot in to Linux, but it won’t mess up anything on the hard drive. More often than not, the folks I show it to start using Ubuntu, it’s a pretty nice system and this how to is really handy to get it up and running on that old computer gathering dust you might have. Link.
The most 30″ Apple Cinema displays, ever. Scientists at UC Irvine have completed the world’s highest-resolution grid-based display for visualizing and manipulating massive data sets. The Highly Interactive Parallelized Display Wall (HIPerWall) is a room-sized display that measures nearly 23 x 9 feet. The HIPerWall system, consisting of 50 flat-panel tiles, resides in the Calit2 Center of GRAVITY (Graphics, Visualization and Imaging Technology) at UCI, and provides a total resolution of 200 million pixels, bringing to life terabyte-sized data sets. HIPerWall’s resolution is nearly twice that of the world’s next-highest resolution display wall. [via] Link.
Make proto author David sent me a link to this interesting new service “Etchamac.com custom laser etches PowerBooks and iPods. A full PowerBook case (top or bottom) runs $200 while iPods are around $40. Pretty slick.” I think in the future the tattoo artist and their shops will add nice laser cutters to their businesses. You’ll go in with your ibook/powerbook/ipod/laptop thingie and either choose a design, or bring in your own. Perhaps they’ll even pierce that USB port too. [via] Link.
Here’s a simple HOW TO on adding a LED to an Apple keyboard. Arkku writes “I opened up the keyboard (three screws in the bottom), located the +5v and ground leads (red and black wire in my keyboard) and soldered a 3.3v/30mA 5mm bright blue LED to them, with a 68ohm resistor. To make the light reach the clear base of the keyboard, I also made a small hole in the white plastic that touches the clear acrylic at the bottom of the keyboard and taped the LED in that hole with electrical tape.” Link.
Last week the free VMware player was released. It lets you run virtual machines, but not create them. Here’s a HOW TO for creating your own virtual machines. In this example, a usable VMware image using the VMware player and FreeDOS. I think one day I’d like to make an OS jukebox, you’d put in a quarter and it would “play” any OS you want and then you access the net, etc… Link.
