One of my fav shows, they made a jet pack from plans on the web to see if it would work. Adam and Jamie embark on the longest and most ambitious build they’ve ever undertaken: creating their own personal flying machine from scratch. Are these machines as magnificent as their designers claim? To make the project more realistic, the two limit themselves to a build period of one month and a budget of $10,000. They busted the myth pretty well. Link.
David Randolph from G4TV’s Attack of the Show has a great how-to on making a micro-sized NES controller. Earlier, they made the world’s largest. This little project (pun intended) is pretty easy to do; however, it will require a new skill: PCB (Printed Circuit Board) creation. In volume 02 of MAKE we have Step-by-step instructions for making your own PCBs at home. Link.
PC Magazine has a review of the RadioShack VEX Robotics system. The VEX system was built with the education market in mind and is part of Dean Kamen’s popular FIRST Robotics competitions. At $299.99 (not counting batteries), the VEX System is more than just a kiddy construction set. It is best suited for the scientifically inclined teen (or classroom), and is a perfect fit for the robo-hobbyist who can’t afford an AIBO, but might be willing to build his own metal companion. Link.
Here’s a neat site that will speak the RSS feeds (the headlines and news) from many web sites using its PanaVox Speak Perfect Speech Technology. At the bottom of the site there’s a link where you can add your own. It doesn’t seem read RSS ads (interesting). So anyway, tried it and recorded the output. It read the MAKE feeds from June 8th and it turned out okay, I like that the robotic sounding voice has a Scottish accents. Here’s the MP3 I made.
Simple and nice how-to on building an electromagnet from Science Bob. Try making this special kind of magnet at home from things you may already have around the house. You will need: A large iron nail (about 3 inches), about 3 feet of THIN COATED copper wire, a fresh D size battery and some paper clips. Good project for the young MAKErs. Link.
As each hour goes by we’re getting closer to hacking up the $30 CVS one Time Use Camcorder. Here’s a flyer (View image)that actually has it for $19.99. Over on the camera hack forums you can check out the latest. New photos, USB dumps, parts lists and a lot of people about to literally crack this. By this weekend, I think it’s be out in the wild. Link.
Which models are these? What will TI do with the recalled calcs? Texas Instruments is replacing thousands of calculators issued to students in Virginia after a sixth-grader discovered that pressing a certain two keys converts decimals into fractions. That would have given students an unfair advantage on Virginia’s standardized tests, which require youngsters to know how to make such conversions with pencil and paper. Link.
