This might be handy for the LEGO makers out there, Marvin writes “My site describes a way to find and purchase Lego bargains on eBay. I provide links to a web site that provides (free) information that can help make an informed buying decision and discover real bargains. I show you how you can by […]
Gizmodo & i4U have posts about a $35k book scanner, it seems really neat and eventually they will come down in price – but I have an old collection of out of print books I want to scan in (now). I’m guessing I’m not alone, so we’ll likely see a few DIY versions sprouting up […]
Matthew writes – “There are a lot of LEGO Mindstorms robots out there, but I finally found the best. Nic_1 is a Johnny V impersonator that detects the direction of sound and follows it. Detection is accomplished by calculating the cross-correlation of two audio signals from the binaural sensor. The data is used to estimate […]
Here’s a Flickr photo set from LinuxMatt on making your own LEGO based iPod dock. I think the next step would be to use the Mindstorms to control the iPod. [via] Link.
Andrew Carol’s LEGO contraption “Before the day of computers and pocket calculators all mathematics was done by hand. Great effort was expended to compose trigonometric and logarithmic tables for navigation, scientific investigation, and engineering purposes. In the mid-19th century, people began to design machines to automate this error prone process. Many machines of various designs were eventually built. The most famous of these machines is the Babbage Difference Engine. Because of engineering issues as well as political and personal conflict the Babbage Difference engines construction had to wait until 1991 when the Science Museum in London decided to build the Babbage Difference Engine No.2 for an exhibit on the history of computers. Babbage’s design could evaluate 7th order polynomials to 31 digits of accuracy. I set out to build a working Difference Engine using LEGO parts which could compute 2nd or 3rd order polynomials to 3 or 4 digits.” [via] Link.
Nextbrick has a great LEGO project from Tom Johnson – “This is an orrery I made to help explain to my children why we have so much light in the summer and not nearly enough in the winter (we live in Alaska). No attempt was made to get relative sizes, distances, or the orbit periods correct. Rather, this model shows the inclination of the earth’s axis and why it causes the seasons.” Link.
