Yesterday we posted the Retropod saga with accompanying photos of what never was- an iPod case made from a Sony Walkman. But wait! Flickr member nickee has posted another version, a waterproof one! Nicolas’s simple note to me was “How to Protect your iPod Photo when you war kayaking”. Link.
Fortune has a great article about the new DIY economy. Love this part- To be fair, all this amateur energy isn’t exactly a new force. When exciting technologies emerge, Americans have always pounced and created something original. In his 1936 New Yorker article “Farewell, My Lovely,” E.B. White eulogized the Model T and the creativity it inspired in its owners: “When you bought a Ford, you figured you had a start—a vibrant, spirited framework to which could be screwed an almost limitless assortment of decorative and functional hardware… Gadget bred gadget. Lots of friends of MAKE as well as the magazine was mentioned too! Link.
Darn, my dog isn’t big enough for this- but if you have a dog over 45lb and have longed to take the pooch on a scooter ride you both enjoy- the Dog Powered Scooter might be for you. Simply harness the dog and clip them into the frame and off you go. With just a few outings pulling the scooter the dog quickly learns when to slow (by feeling the braking) and which direction to turn by again “feeling” the side pull on the harness. The two unit looks like you could cover a lot of ground. Link.
The world’s best radio, on your time- I like the sound of that! PublicRadioFeeds.com has a ton of feeds to all the public radio stations that publish their audio so you can subscribe to it. The science feeds are my favs of course- Dr. Karl, Quirks and Quarks, Talk of the Nation Science Friday, The Science Show, This week in Science and new one called Hack I am going to check out. Lots of great stuff. Link.
This project consists of retrofitting a vacuum cleaner to fire a projectile through the usage of air pressure (or lack thereof). The parts: Vacuum cleaner, obtained from a garage sale, 12″ wooden dowel, 10 feet PVC pipe, and Tee fitting for the pipe. I’ve seen bigger versions of these do some amazing things like send a ping pong ball through metal cans. Link.
If you live in Bat country, this is good project- A bat detector is an instrument that will detect the presence of bats by tuning into the echolocation ultrasounds they produce. There are a variety of commercial bat detectors available but what excited me were the numerous internet sites with home-built detector circuits. I stumbled across these sites while trying to decide what to do with a 1968 Braun Cylindric T2 cigarette lighter. What resulted was the Cylindric Ultrasonic Bat Detector. Link.
Rob Cockerham makes weird things, some of them work, some of them are more social engineering pranks, and some are brilliant costumes. Check out the “How much is inside Adventure” projects and “Incredible stuff I made”…Link. I think I like the paparazzi costume the best.
