HOW TO – Computer-controlled music-synchronized flashing tree lights
Great holiday Instructable! “Use solid-state relays to blink the lights on your tree in time with music. String lots of lights onto the tree. Use as many sets as you like, but arrange them such that there are three light regions, each with a separate plug. Run these three plugs down the trunk so they can easily be attached to the light controller. Up to three strings of lights can usually be linked in series, so you can almost certainly cover even big trees. Plug light strings into the controller you built for Halloween (MAKE 03). Attach computer and sound system…” Link.
Ray and Cape write “We thought it’d be sweet to make shot glasses out of ice. There are some bars in Europe and Australia which are made completely out of ice and kept below freezing, we didn’t go that far but these are pretty cool (no pun intended), check it out. We used Dixie cups. They come in several different sizes. You will need two different sizes, we used 9 oz and 3 oz cups…” 
Here’s something to make when it’s cold outside. Snow! This site has a couple of snow machine designs that can be built from stuff you might already have (an air compressor, a high pressure sprayer, various plumbing fittings). There also has a page describing the physics involved in snow making. Thanks J. Wolf! 
Rachel Metz at Wired has a great article about using store-bought toys as raw material for your own one-of-a-kind designs – “Remote-control cars are so over. If you really want to be on the edge of holiday hipness this season, try a home-hacked version that drives itself. Artist Federico Muelas is a remote-control-car-hacking expert. He cracks open the remote, then connects it to an external chip, which in turn is connected to a computer. Through the computer, he reprograms the remote so, for example, cars can automatically zoom through an obstacle course.” 
Clever idea – use capacitors instead of batteries that could go dead in some devices – all in a 9volt form factor – “GoldCap capacitors offer an interesting alternative power source when compared to conventional disposable or even rechargeable batteries. They can be charged very rapidly and can also deliver a high peak output current. Their voltage however is quite low so a little electronic assistance is necessary to raise the output voltage to a more useful level.” [
Excellent guide on procuring LEDs from a cheap and plentiful source – “They come disguised as “Christmas Lights” – the “Forever Bright” line is especially good. And they are the subject of this article. Why bother? Cost. A string of 75 BLUE LED lights costs $10 on sale – and up where I am there’s a $5 rebate per string for “Energy Saver” lights. So that’s five bucks for 75 LEDs – or about 7 cents per LED for the expensive BLUE ones. Cheap.” 
In MAKE 04 we featured some great kit gift ideas in the magazine, “Kits for the Holidays”. But we didn’t have room for all the kits we found, so here’s another round for elves with makers on their list. MAKE subscribers can log in and view the full article 
