Here’s this week’s “cool stuff being made!” – “…animation of the making of a flat panel display. In fact, you’re probably looking at one now. This shows you how once again you are surrounded by manufactured products: cars, food, clothing, flat panel displays. Without manufactured products, the world would be a quiet and empty (and hungry) place.” [via] Link.
Matthew writes “A project I’m finishing off involves a simple little front end that I’ve decided to implement using some DHTML. As I was reading up on JavaScript’s setTimeout method as part of my DHTML research, an interesting thought crossed my mind: would it be possible to make a strobe light out of that old archaic CRT monitor sitting on my closet floor and such a weak (as in weakly typed) language as JavaScript? Well, I decided to give it a try and it actually worked out pretty well — although it did give me a mild headache after I had the not so keen idea to stare directly at it for a few seconds. Here’s the code you need to make use of that old dust magnet.” Link.
Ningyo or Kokeshi? If you’ve seen our post last week on Japanese craft books, you may have also found a lot of Japanese craft sites along the way, but have no idea what they are saying. Check out Makewrite’s full Japanese craft translation guide and how to use Google Translate to see your what your favorite Japanese craft sites are sayin’. Makewrite says, “It may actually make less sense translated into English than it did in Japanese, but that’s half the fun.” Link.
Really cool looking globe lamps are posted on the craftster.org site. Crafter slone2601 has one problem though, “They hang a little lopsided, so I taped them with electrical tape (which I’m sure you can see), but I want another/better option. Any ideas? Also I would love any feedback.” Any Maker with ideas out there to help? Link.
More on the RFID zapping project “The RFID-Zapper is a gadget to deactivate (i.e. destroy) passive RFID-Tags permanently…Goals are a proof-of-concept and the construction of at least one functioning and appealing prototype, as well as a documentation of the project, so that everyone can build an own RFID-Zapper. Since the project found so much positive resonance, we probably are going to work on some other realizations of the concept, e.g. building an RFID-Zapper from scratch, without a single-use-camera.” [via] Link.
DIY satellite of sorts…A Russian Orlan spacesuit with three batteries, a radio transmitter, and internal sensors to measure temperature and battery power – “One of the strangest satellites in the history of the space age is about to go into orbit. Launch date: Feb. 3rd. That’s when astronauts onboard the International Space Station (ISS) will hurl an empty spacesuit overboard. The spacesuit is the satellite — “SuitSat” for short.” [via] Link.
AntonOlsen writes “This is an easy to build dc-dc switcher that can drive quite a few LEDs at 3.3V with a single AA battery. Version 1 is going in a mini mag light and I’m thinking version two will make a very light weight bike light.” [via & instructions] Link to photos.
