DIY Projects

Here’s a nice way to personalize your laptop with a laptop sleeve made from an old sweater and ribbon – instructions are included, might make a nice gift as the holidays approach. Link.

Here’s how to make a low cost compact FM Transmitter to listen to your favorite tunes through any FM stereo receiver. The example is a DIY iPod FM transmitter, it’s in French but you can use any translate tool on the web to get most of the details. Link.

Great HOW TO on making a cold-cathode BAWLS lamp, Chris writes “Now every geek’s favorite energy drink is my desk’s favorite lamp. If you have 10 dollars and a few hours, this is a perfect use for those spiffy blue bottles you don’t want to throw away”. Link.

Awhile back I made a hand charger for an iPod shuffle, here’s another really good project that uses a hand cranked flash light to charge an iPod mini. Since the project uses a USB cable to charge (and eventually) just 5V you could use this for many other devices (PSP, cell phones, etc…) Link.

This site shows how you can set up your own SETI receiving station using nothing more than an old C-band satellite TV dish, general coverage receiver and your PC. With it, you can also do radio astronomy as well. Can’t beat that! Thanks Scott! Link.

If you’re one of the folks who have a new iPod nano and have scratches – here’s a HOW TO on using some Brasso, polishing cream and a little time to polish it up to like-new. Link.

Using an old modem to make a useful circuit to convert phone audio to regular line audio. This little hack is useful for those of us wanting to record Voip telephone calls for podcasts with good quality audio. Keep in mind that recording telephone calls without notifying all parties involved is against the law in many parts of the world. Link.