Interesting tactic, people were driving too fast in a neighborhood, so the neighborhood built “roadwitches” – “These type of “DIY traffic-calming happenings” are described by their creator as “roadwitches” and have included an 11-feet high rabbit, a big bed (for a sleeping policeman), a Casualty-style fake crash scene for Halloween and the setting up of a living room in the middle of the road.” Link.
Rick writes “After reading a post in MakeZine about Kanita shoulder bags, I was inspired to make three shoulder bags from 4.7 liter jerry cans for Christmas presents this year. The Kanita bags sell for a whopping $128.89, which works out to CDN$123 or US$105!! Granted if I took my labour into account, I would have to charge about that much too. But, as a DIY project, it works out to less than CDN$10 to make each of these.” Link.
Nick writes “Want an inexpensive Windows CE-based web browser, email client, MP3 player, voice memo recorder, rudimentary games machine, and home automation X10 controller that will also create and edit Microsoft Word and Excel files with handwriting recognition and 16-bit color in a package that resembles a space-age Etch-a-Sketch?…this is it” Link.
MAKE’s editor-in-chief Mark Frauenfelder will be on a special NPR Talk of the Nation. This will be a live, call-in talk program on the “Do It Yourself” culture this Wednesday, December 28th the 3pm ET (noon PT) hour. Tune in, turn on, call in, make stuff… Link. To figure out what station it will be on in your area, use the station finder. We’ll also post a link to the podcast when it’s up too.
Trevor writes “Here’s a simple mod I did to an old telephone reciever to make it compatible with my laptop- for use with Skype. I tried using the original coiled telephone cord, but for some reason I couldn’t get adequate microphone volume through it. Funny, because telephones are made for talking…” Link.
PDF downloads on how to make those cool (but expensive) enclosed glass ecosystem – “Here you have the choice of two different ecosystems, a “dry land” ecosystem like the one in our Virtual Ecosphere and a marine aquatic one.” [via] Link. If anyone has made one of these, post up in the comments and let me know how it worked out.
Wow, now you can upload a PNG image and have a part cut and sent to you, made from metal or plastic, no need to use CAD software. Simon writes – “I’ve just added support for PNG images. I’m really proud of this new feature, as it will allow even people who don’t know how to use CAD software to start creating with Big Blue Saw. There are still a couple of quirks to work out over the next few weeks, and the help files will need to be updated, but this feature was much needed.” Link.
