Google Maps Mania always has excellent finds like this one for MCE and Xbox 360 owners…“Here’s a great tip for browsing Google Maps from the comfort of your couch using the Microsoft Windows Media Center. Colin Savage picked up the Google Maps API and the Software Development Kit for the Media Center to create this page. Colin explains how to add the page to your own Media Center so you can use it to browse Google Maps.” Link.
Derek Yu writes “Creating pixel art is a skill I picked up because I needed graphics for my games. After a lot of practice, I became rather handy with it, and started to see it more as “real” art rather than just a tool. These days, pixel art is quite popular for gaming and illustration…In this 10-step tutorial, I’ll teach you how to create a “sprite”, which is a stand-alone two-dimensional character or object. The term comes from video games, of course.” [via] Link.
Nicrosin writes – “My Lexar JumpDrive gave out on me, I ended up fixing it (a piece was loose on the pcb) but destroyed the case in the process. So I found an Altoids Strips tin and used that for the case. Check out the set for the process.” Link.
Nick-oshean in the Gentoo forums writes – “This how-to will discuss how to get EVDO on Gentoo Linux. Specifically Verizon EVDO using the Keyocera KPC650 EVDO PCMCIA card. Most if not all EVDO PCMCIA cards are just serial modems with usb-serial hardware. So they basically just show up as USB devices. They could have just been serial devices but I guess it’s easier in windows to make it a USB device that converts to/from serial, maybe it’s easier to write drivers for or easier to work with. But it makes it relatively easy for us to support it in Linux.” Link.
A ton of MAKE readers sent word that their favorite alpha-Maker Macgyver made the super bowl “Entitled “MacGyver” the ad finds Richard Dean Anderson’s character in typical fashion: held hostage in a remote warehouse with time running out on a self-destructing bomb. Cleverly, MacGyver uses the purchases he had made with his debit card – everyday items at a convenience store – to free himself and escape to safety.” More info & Link to view ad. But wait, there’s more – MAKE is please to announce Lee David Zlotoff (creator of MacGyver) will be doing a regular column in MAKE!!!
Kevin writes – “One of the questions that is inevitably asked in every aquarium chat room, newsgroup and bulletin board is “just how large an aquarium can my floor support.” Then the answers follow from people who usually use basically correct structural principles to come to often incorrect conclusions. Unfortunately, I then jump into the fray and try to explain in just a few words, what cannot possibly be explained in just a few words. So the result is that no one fully understands my explanation, since it seems contrary to his or her experience. So here is the long winded explanation from some one (me) that has been working as a structural engineer since 1976.” Thanks Jason! Link.
“ReadyMade is a bimonthly print magazine for people who like to make stuff, who see the flicker of invention in everyday objects — the perfectly round yolk in the mundane egg”… and now they have a blog! Looks like it’s off to a great start! Go check it out – Link.
