Box-top licenses…
“You buy it, you own it” – but not if you buy Lexmark laser cartridges – Pay attention next time you rip open a cardboard box – you may be entering into a contract without realizing it. A recent decision in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reinforced the right of companies, in this case Lexmark International, the printer maker, to legally limit what customers can do with a patented product, given that the company spells out conditions and restrictions on a package label known as a box-top license. Link.
Nice HOW TO from Zapwizard – This guide will show how to make a separate LED to show exactly which drive in your system is active. This modification is done without warranty, I did this to three 80 conductor cables without any problems, if you screw up don’t blame me. First off this Mod only seems to work on IDE Harddrives, the two CD-Roms I connected (one Pionner DVD, and one Lite-On CD-RW) don’t even use this pin on the IDE cable. The CD-RW LED is always on, and the DVD LED is always off. 
Wonderful looking (and I bet sounding) hand cranked musical instruments – There is a mount for a contact microphone (piezo) on the back of each one, so it can be amplified. Each has a hand-crank in the middle, and all but the Spring Board Hand Crank have a feather-spine that acts as a plectrum that rotates when the hand-crank is cranked. As the plectrum rotates, it plucks something that vibrates and is amplified. The “something” that vibrates is in some cases a rubber band, in some wires sticking up, in one it is a metal strip, and in another one is a heavy spring. Each has a handy handle too. 
Excellent photos and write up from Mr.Bill –The Southern Cross I is a Z80-based single board computer kit from DIY Electronics. I finished assembling it on September 18th, after about eight total hours of work spread over three days. I’ll be using it to learn Z80 assembly language, with Programming the Z80 and Z80 Assembly Language Programming as references. 
Video game inspired quilting on Flickr, in the same set as some other sewing projects, including a nice jacket with a pirate-looking skull on it. I think the Tetris one in my favorite. [
