Alspix’s how to on making a matchbox pinhole camera “My first couple of 35mm pinhole cameras attempted to be panoramic, wide angle jobbies but this time I thought it would be nice to get back to the classic square format. Here’s my latest contraption which uses 35mm film to provide square images of 24 x 24mm. Using this size means that you can get up to 50 exposures on a standard roll of 36 exposure film.” [via] Link.
Remember the how to on making spaceships and sci-fi weapons from household items such as aspirin bottles, pvc pipe, toilet bolt covers, some hobby store styrene, and some parts from old models? Well part three is up and it’s great! [via] Link.
Book of Joe has a handy overview of things you can do with a Rubbermaid 300 Gallon tank: “I happened on a photo of San Diego Chargers tackle Wesley Britt happily sitting in one in the latest (August 8) issue of Sports Illustrated. The caption describes him as catching up on the headlines in the shade and ice water as he comfortably reads the paper and soaks in one of these giant grey tubs (above). Rubbermaid got about a zillion dollars worth of free advertising from that magazine photo. I asked my crack research team to find out more about this sturdy-looking tub, which the Chargers have in multiples at their training headquarters. Turns out that those whose hobby is “ponding” — creating and maintaining your own pond at home — swear by these Rubbermaid tanks.” Link.
Tom sent in this fun how to from Jared and Dan “The idea for this project evolved out of necessity. Dan and I are both avid gamers. After a few hours of gaming with our normal high-end mouse pads you get a build up of sweat. The mouse and mouse pad becomes slippery and you start to loose your competitive advantage due to the loss of precision. While there are a couple mice on the market that have small fans in them to dry out your palm, they all have major failings in precision and accuracy. So after some thought and discussion we chose to build out our own custom mouse pad with a blower in it to suck the air down through the pad and away from the gamer’s hand. The result is astonishing!” Link.
It’s LED day today it seems – “Want to make a neat courier bag light? This light goes through the straps on a timbuk 2 bag and blinks in really cool patterns using a BS2. You’ll need: 16 x 470 ohm Resistors, 16 x LEDs 24 Pin IC Socket on/off switch, 9v Battery 9v Battery connector, 9 x Molex KK Connectors, 18″ 3/4″ Flat webbing, Breadboard, Wire… oh you’ll need some wire.” Link.
John writes “Did you run out and buy a big old string of white LED Christmas lights because you just knew that they were of the sweetest hackability? I know I did, and I’m going to build one of these right lights and keep it with my camera gear. You never know when your going to need a bit of fill light when doing a closeup, shooting a macro image, or just need somthing to make retroreflective things come alive.” Link.
The Spy Gear Night Vision Goggles generated quite a lot of interest in the wearable community since it’s basically a very low cost (~$50 USD) eyetap / wearable display. Here are some technical details on the Googles, which are basically a low cost camera and display. Great low cost way to make yourself more cyborganic. Link.
