Chris writes “Selected articles from past issues of ReNew magazine (sustainable technology – lots of DIY/MAKE-type articles). Of interest in light of recent blog entries see “Issue 83: Biodiesel on the farm – One Victorian farmer is running all his vehicles and machinery on biodiesel he makes from his own oilseed crop. He even supplies his own biodiesel recipe tips.” I’ll be reading a lot of these! Link.
The Juicebox is a cheap (under $25 in some stores) music, video, photo viewer from Mattel aimed at kids. There are some hacking projects going on, and we’ll have some articles on that soon, but here’s a good how-to on putting ebooks on one using JPEGBook which makes images from text and you view those on the Juicebox. Link.
I need to try this to confirm it works…It’s possible to send a VGA “video” signal down an ordinary Cat-5 ethernet cable. This is possible for two reasons: firstly, although VGA connectors have 15 (or 13) pins, only about 8 wires are actually necessary to send the VGA signal; and secondly, ethernet cable is twisted pair, and we can use the magic of twisted pair to push the analog VGA signal further than spec. Link.
Great resource. Bicycle frame building has a reputation as being an arcane art; something that’s practiced by wizened old Jedi masters, or else carried out by huge, complicated robots in Taiwan, attended by a small army of engineers, technicians, and metallurgists. This isn’t so. Frame building is a craft like any other, with simple, consistent rules that mere mortals can master fairly easily, given sufficient attention to detail and care. [via] Link.
Remember that lathe Steve Cooley shot time lapse videos of building things? The first video was making a table for his drill press the second video was turning some old wood in to a really neat looking table leg or something. Time lapse video are always satisfying to watch for some reason. Here’s the opposite, a bunch of photos making the lathe used in those timelapse movies. Link.
Great use for all those old CDs laying around, make a lamp! At a previous job, the head of QA had several stacks of several hundred CDs on the floor in front of floor to ceiling windows. The sunlight shining through the window would glow through these CDs in a very appealing manner that made the green light seam warm. From that point forward I always thought that a stack of CDs with a tubular light inside would make a very cool lamp. [via] Link.
DIY ammo for MAKE issue #2’s Marshmallow gun Howtoon! Marshmallows are spongy confections made of sugar beaten into a fluffy texture with the aid of gelatin. Marshmallows are essential components to many popular American snacks such as Rice Krispies Treats and S’mores (a sandwich of graham crackers, chocolate, and marshmallows melted over a campfire) Link.
