“BURN STATION is a mobile copying station which – as it travels through suburban spaces – supports the free distribution music and audio. It is software as well as a local network. But above all BURN STATION is a social event which congregates people together to listen, select and copy net label and net radio audio files with a Copyleft Licence.” [via] Link to project and link to downloads to build your own.
Great holiday Instructable! “Use solid-state relays to blink the lights on your tree in time with music. String lots of lights onto the tree. Use as many sets as you like, but arrange them such that there are three light regions, each with a separate plug. Run these three plugs down the trunk so they can easily be attached to the light controller. Up to three strings of lights can usually be linked in series, so you can almost certainly cover even big trees. Plug light strings into the controller you built for Halloween (MAKE 03). Attach computer and sound system…” Link.
Here’s an excellent “open” hardware project for controlling lighting/effects systems – you can build your own, buy an assembled kit or improve the design and modify source code – “This DMX USB interface is based on the FTDI 232BM chip, it’s a USB to serial converter. Using a simple application on a PC you can send and receive DMX512.” Thanks Ladyada! Link.
Meet the Cubatron, it’s not Castro on a light cycle, it’s the world’s largest true 3D color graphics display. Assuierupe has a very cool Flickr photo set “The coolness of this display hack is difficult to convey via static images, but check out the project page for a couple of videos of the device in action. The device was built by Mark Lottor for Burning Man, and now takes up a corner of his Menlo Park living room.” Link to photos. Project page.
Ray and Cape write “We thought it’d be sweet to make shot glasses out of ice. There are some bars in Europe and Australia which are made completely out of ice and kept below freezing, we didn’t go that far but these are pretty cool (no pun intended), check it out. We used Dixie cups. They come in several different sizes. You will need two different sizes, we used 9 oz and 3 oz cups…” Link.
Interesting article from the NYTimes about Cafepress (you can make your own shirts with their service) – “Many people used to make their own clothes and build their own furniture. The Industrial Revolution, with technological innovations like power looms and power lathes, and now today’s far-flung supply chains, made it easier and more practical to buy ready-made apparel and housewares. Lately, however, mass production has been cast not so much as the best thing that ever happened to consumers but as an annoyance, even a problem. It stands in the way of our individuality. What can save us?”… Link.
Nice mod if you have an old Dreamcast laying around, Raph writes – “The image on a TV is always a little too blurry for my taste, and the quality of a VGA image is very superior. I had always dreamed to be able to use my SNES on a PC monitor, but the SNES did not have a VGA output. When I learned that the Dreamcast could output a VGA signal, I installed a VGA connector on it almost instantly.” [via] Link.
