Mister Jalopy writes- Cool site that highlights some common tube amplifiers. Virtually guaranteed to name every issue that your amplifer DOESN’T have. This page is designed to lead you through debugging a problem with a tube-type guitar amp. Just click on the appropriate links, making the appropriate tests as needed. This page fits older Fender and Marshall amplifiers best, especially in the sections relating to amplifier specific things like preamps, reverb and tremolo. Good companion for volume 2! Link.

Millions of phone thrown away could be trees. The seed germinates as soon it comes into contact with water. This takes a while because the biodegradable protection capsule needs to degenerate a bit and allow the water to enter. Just plant your mobile phone upright, covered with soil, no more than 2 cm deep. Keep it well-watered for four weeks until it sprouts. Then care for it as you would with any plant. Link.

inju writes- Here I use a 12″ Powerbook running KAID and have it connected to the Internet via ethernet. I run Wipeout Pure on the Sony PSP and start up a multiplayer game then pop back to my mac to look for the PSP broadcast on the “computer-to-computer” or ADHOC connection via my Airport Extreme. A little tricky, but once you get it going, it’s so worth while! Get Xlink Kai from www.teamxlink.co.uk. Link.

SYSTM Episode 2 is out, build your own MythTV box. Download the torrent and check it out. It’s a good starter if you’re interested in making your own High Definition TV recorder without the content being locked down, it’s also good if you don’t want to pay fees for using a TV listing service or a monthly fee. Another good resource to check out is the EFF cookbook here and our article in MAKE 02. Link to SYSTM.

Good DIY spot welding project. Kaden writes- There’s lots of reasons to have a small scale precision spotwelder…this particular guy builds *serious* small scale turbine engines. Not satisfied with the abilities of commercially available units, he did what any self respecting Maker would do, and built his own. Schematics, parts lists and more on the site Link.

Jim Aspinwall from PC World has some good TiVo tips and tricks. If you own a TiVo digital video recorder, you know that this magic appliance can change the way you watch TV. But, with a little work from you, your TiVo is capable of much more. With several innocent gimmicks, you can make using TiVo even slicker. If you have other good ones post them up in the comments! Link.

Justin Frankel (the creator of Winamp) has a new project called Ninjam. Ninjam allows two or more people to jam through the net with real audio (no MIDI goofiness like past internet jamming software). It’s like Skype for musicians, though the music is delayed a few measures to keep everything in sync. You plug your instruments in, the software provides a beat. Then you find out what a crappy guitar player you are. Link.