In early 2011 my robot club, the Dallas Personal Robotics Group, was looking for a way to help our beginning members build up their skills. To this end, we produced a series of lessons covering 5 topics needed to make a simple, programmable robot: making PCBs with the toner transfer method, programming ATtiny microprocessors, laying […]
A lot of people find it easier to fall asleep with a dim light such as a nightlight in the room. But the down side of most nightlights is that they waste electricity because they are on all night when you really only need them to be on while you are falling asleep. So I […]
About 2 months ago, after years of begging and pleading from my family, I reluctantly agreed to get another cat from the local shelter. We already have a menagerie of beasts that share our home, but for some reason they felt we needed another. I admit, I do like our new addition to the family. […]
The average life expectancy of a hot water heater is about 10 years, so it’s not a question of if it will leak — it’s simply a matter of when. In my part of the country, homebuilders have been installing these tanks in the attic. This saves space, but also means that if you don’t […]
By John Baichtal and Adam Wolf Do you remember those classic video game arcades filled with rattling quarters, 8-bit songs, and flashing lights? You can reclaim that excitement in your own living room with this Coffee Table MAME Console. In 1997, Italian software developer Nicola Salmoria released the first iteration of MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine […]
I have always hated mowing the lawn. I was the guy who only mowed when the grass got to be 6″ taller than the neighbors’ lawns — not because I don’t like my neighbors, but because mowing was such a pain. After being hit by one too many rocks, I decided I no longer wanted […]
When I read the Geekcon 2010 call for projects, I thought, what the hack — I’ll do it. Inspired by Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way, I decided to let creativity into my life, and start inventing things. I watched Sterling Johnson’s magnificent “Giant Stinson Beach Bubbles” clip on YouTube, and when I described it to […]
