Month: January 2006

Go paperless with the ScanSnap…

Go paperless with the ScanSnap…

SsaboutHannes writes in with a great product at Macworld for going paperless – “The Fujitsu ScanSnap Mac – It was announced at Apple Expo last September in Paris and I bought one instantly. Within a few afternoons I scanned a few thousand pages (and threw away more than 10000 pages of paper!) and now I have no more paper at home (only books!). All of these pages are now saved as PDF and alltogether use around 800MB, so they easily fit on a 1GB SDcard, that I can view on my MDApro.” Link.

MIDISpeak: Speak & Spell MIDI Kit

MIDISpeak: Speak & Spell MIDI Kit

Midispell2Not 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.

HOW TO – Make a fast action NERF rifle…

HOW TO – Make a fast action NERF rifle…

Good1This 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.” [via] Link.

Nextbrick – LEGO blog…

Nextbrick – LEGO blog…

Suller PanzerJoel writes in with an awesome new LEGO blog…“Nextbrick, a just-started blog about construction toys with a heavy emphasis on Lego. There are just a handful of posts up at the moment, but enough that you should be able to get an idea of what we’re aiming for–short, fun blips from the world of Lego, two or three times a day.” Link. Also, if you have LEGO projects you want to post about, check out our forums – if there’s is enough interest we’ll provide a section for LEGO.

Cross Stitch Generator

Cross Stitch Generator

Crossstitchapp
Create your own cross stitch projects with your own digital images or photos. Dark Lilac’s counted cross stitch chart generator will calculate a pattern as well as a stitch count and color chart. As long as your uploaded image is scaled to the exact size you want (1 pixel= 1 cross stitch), the final stitch chart will be calculated accordingly. You can also check out the recently uploaded cross stitch charts like this cartoon dog. Link.

HOW TO – Build a Cool Linux Toy…

HOW TO – Build a Cool Linux Toy…

Test
Pramode C.E. writes – “With a low-cost general purpose microcontroller like the PIC16F628, bits and pieces of cheap, commonly available electronics components, and LOTS of code, you can build many interesting `toys’ and hook them up to your Linux machine – a really great learning experience for the hardware hacker who wants to learn Linux, or the Linux hacker who wants to learn a bit of hardware. This article describes how I went about building my temperature-sensing project – amateur Linux/hardware hackers might find some of the ideas useful when they start building things on their own.” Link.