Why putt golf balls into a paper cup when you can have your own variable-terrain putting green? This course…offers players three cups and three skill levels. The most advanced level raises two platforms that change the terrain of the course – and the challenge that golfers face.
When I was still living in Dallas, our local recycling center included a giant steel dumpster, open at only one end, with an elevated platform you could climb up to chuck your glass bottles in. I was in high school, then, and it was pretty common, when we were bored, to go down there on the weekend and pass an hour or so smashing glass bottles into the dumpster just for the fun of it. You’d see “grown-ups” there doing the same thing, and more than once perfectly “respectable” suburban adults would see what we were up to and join in, which inevitably put a big grin on everybody’s face. I’m sure this kind of impromptu bottle-breaking game happens naturally at recycling centers all over the world.
Our favorite eyes and ears in the international hobby market, Fra Fondi, is at the Shizuoka Hobby Show 2010 in Tokyo. On Hobby Media, he’s posted a bunch of coverage already. The text is in Italian, but the tour-of-the-floor videos speak for themselves. Frankie will be liveblogging tonight at 6pm PDT (9pm EDT) from the […]
The first entry in our Gadget Freak Design contest is in, and it’s a doozy: Matthew Katzenstein created this sweet 3×3 RGB LED matrix, controlled by an Arduino Diecimila, that plays a game of blue-vs-red 3-dimensional tic-tac-toe. The video, above, is lengthy and quite detailed. You can watch it work at 5:30 (it should automatically start there if you click above); the whole video can be seen here.
Our pal Fra Fondi, who’s keeping an eye out for us for R/C-related content, in support of our Volume 22 release, sent us this link. The Gadget Show cast seems perhaps a bit too scripted with the over-the-top enthusiasm, but the R/C cars, the jumps, and the record-breaking are pretty cool. Vorza Flux HP RC […]
It’ll be no secret, to our regular readers, that I am a giant fan of Dustin Wallace’s “Robotagami” product and the concept behind it. Dustin, whose work I’ve covered here many times, just recently added a “mini” version of his original humanoid Robotagami figure, water-jet-cut in 0.035″ stainless steel, for $25. I ordered one immediately. Making these is a side-line for Dustin, who works full-time as a mechanic, and so far hasn’t had time to put together proper instructions for the “Mini.” So I thought I would help him out, promote his product, put together my new toy, and try out my fancy new light tent at the same time.
Silicon Valley software engineer Ari Krupnik makes what he calls “pixel mosaics” as a hobby. Besides dice, he’s also used bullet casings and M&Ms. You may have seen Ari in this full-page ShopBot ad in MAKE 14. His rendering of Che Guevara, above, uses 400 black dice. He’s also done one of George Orwell. (“Maybe one day my prose can be as fluid as his,” says Ari–hear, hear!) This page includes another dice example and some good detail on Ari’s process.
