Computer-controlled dance floor
“Comprising four 4 ft. x 8 ft. modules, the dance floor boasts 1,536 long-lasting and low-power-consuming LEDs that light to 4,096 different colors. Students are using substances as common as aluminum foil to achieve special effects. The dance floor, which makes use of one-half mile of environmentally friendly ribbon cable, can be controlled wirelessly by remote clients, thus facilitating visual interactions that were not possible in previous designs.” [via] Link.
MAKE Flickr photo pool member Pete Hidle posted up his amazing Etch-a-Sketch turntable project, he writes “Dualing Etch-a-sketch makes music by taking information from the Etch-a-sketch dials and translating it into digital information. That information could be used for anything, but in this example it turns it into techno music, using the Max/MSP software from 
Some folks are using Apple’s new media application Front Row on non-iMac Macs and others might want to use their trusty Griffin USB 
It looks like a lot of users of the T-Mobile Sidekick received a pretty nice “over the air update” Friday and throughout the weekend. AIM was updated, UI evolution arcade was added for Sidekick I users, Yahoo Messenger was added and many navigation, device, web, email and camera enhancements. Overall, looks like a nice update. 
Jake writes “When the temperature controller on my $50 garage-sale hot tub failed I balked at springing for another electro-mechanical thermostat so I built this one using junk box parts with the help of that classic: The Engineer’s Mini Notebook – Op-Amp Projects from Radio Shack.” 
A beginner’s PIC project, the Maker writes “I am unemployed at the moment, but I’m very busy. I tend to work late nights and wander over to bed when I run completely out of steam. The problem is that this happens at a different time every day. I end up being too lazy and stupid to re-set the alarm clock, so I don’t bother. I oversleep. Recently I realized that I need a special alarm clock that instead of going off at a particular time goes off after a set duration. Like an egg timer, but grand!. So, I made one, and I realized that it would be a great beginner’s project. It includes a very basic C program and a simple PIC schematic.” Thanks Zantor! 
Here’s a Flickr photo set on making a belt buckle from a hard drive. Ingredients: Hard Drive platter (Jaz disk), paper clip, hacksaw, screw(s), and small sheet of basswood (for guide). Out of the recent “technology” on a belt projects, I think I like this one the most – it’s subtle but still recognizable. [