MIDISpeak: Speak & Spell MIDI Kit
Not a bad deal for $49. “MIDISpeak Module – Version 2, The Talking Toy MIDI RetrofitAdds a standard MIDI IN port to your Speak & Spell, Speak & Read, or Speak & Math. Non-English versions also supported. Trigger thousands of sounds–words, word fragments, garbled speech, percussion and bizarre sound effects.” Link. In MAKE 04 we also show you how to build music toys like this. Modify a Casio keyboard (or other electronic audio stuff) and start playing some of the strangest sounds you’ve ever heard.
This look really fun, and really scary, but it’s NERF, so it’s probably OK. “The FAR is a magazine fed spring powered rifle capable of firing Nerf darts in rapid succession. It uses a fast-action bolt system. This means that all that needs to be done to cycle the weapon is to rack the bolt back and release. The rifle is fed by a bottom feed detachable magazine that holds 5 rounds. The design of the FAR permits it to be fully disassembled and all components accessed for repair or replacement. Only a philips head screwdriver and a pair of hands are required for field stripping.” [
Rheslip made his own CNC machine – “I looked at a bunch of designs and decided to try a fairly simple 3 axis machine as my first effort. The idea was to use a Dremel tool for the cutting head and use the machine to engrave aluminum front panels for my guitar amps. As it turned out the machine isn’t accurate or rigid enough for that. A dremel just has too much slop in the bearings for accurate machining. The machine will do a reasonable job machining soft materials like plastic and soft woods, and it does quite a good job of plotting PCBs. I haven’t tried drilling PCBs yet but I’m pretty sure it’ll handle that too.” Thanks Star! 
Greg from DIY live wrote a good starter article on “…the ten most needed tools for the beginning Electronics DIYer. This is not an all inclusive list, and there are other important tools, but this is a good starting point for anyone interested in starting to play with circuits, and doing their own mods.” 
Excellent suggestions on a DIY spam filtering solution on 
Chris writes in with something to do with a laptop keyboard: “Ever wanted a laptop keyboard to use with your stationary computer? Lee Char did and took a keyboard from an old Compaq and ‘converted’ it to be connected to his regular computer. This is something that would be interesting to spin further on by interfacing this keyboard with an PDA instead, like an iPAQ. Anyone have an idea on how to do this?” 
