Greener is better

For all those Greenies out there heres a nice like to the Greener Gadgets Design Competition:

http://www.core77.com/competitions/GreenerGadgets/

The grand prize winner was the Enerjar. Cute idea, again a PIC microcontroller runs the show. So where are all the people using ATMEL chips?

The jar measures the power usage of the electrical device attached to it - this would open some eyes to how much power that Quad Core, Quad SLI, 8 Gigabyte gaming computer is sucking out of your wallet, er, I mean the power grid.

Your own short range radar

Nice little PIC microcontroller project over at pyroelctro. Seems Chris has created a little device that can help him to park/detect objects at the rear of his car. This one gets 5 thumbs up for originality:



He has a video of himself parking his car, and how the little device can show what is behind him. Full schematics and project build instructions appear to be there, so what are you waiting for?

Etched Door with two Color LED lighting...Nice effect

So was browsing around at: http://swik.net/DIY+electronic and found some pretty interesting things.

I especially liked the etched glass/plexi design which used LEDs for the lighting. If I had space to do that sort of work, would love making one of those doors. I would think most companies would love to have a door custom made with their logo on it in this manner.

Very nice work. Done by a someone in Norway to see the original post from this person check out this link to his Forum post: http://forums.bit-tech.net/

Long time no post

Ok, so it's been a long time since I posted anything here. I've decided to start posting again. Enjoyed finding the nice techie links across the web. Let's see what I can find today.

NWN2 Graphics are pretty good!!

To Zoom in on Picture click on it

Effects are in some cases outstanding - use your spacebar (it's your friend) - you'll get time to enjoy the graphics.

With that said. Remember:

- looks better on screen before JPG Compression
- When the add AA to an upcoming patch the 'jaggies' will be gone (or close to)
- I have my resolution at 1280 x 1024 for my LCDs (would likely look better on CRT at 1600)

Give this game a break - I'm really starting to enjoy the game now...and graphics are
pretty good considering I have it set to Medium (Mid range adjustments)

Go get your copy.

Holographic displays...Oh My...

This is absolutely the coolest thing. Can't wait until the computer display gets replaced by these babies. Would bring a whole new aspect to porn on the web. (ok. ok...just kidding).







Take a look at the technology and videos:

http://www.io2technology.com/

Instek GDS-820C Digital Oscilloscope

Just picked up a GW Instek GDS-820C Scope for a very nice price. This model was the Dual Channel Color LCD 150 Mhz Bandwidth version. I likely wouldn't have got the 60Mhz Monochrome version of this scope for this price anywhere else - So I'm a 'happy camper'. The scope was missing the CD/Software but I easily got it off the Canadian website.

The scope appears to be a good buy. My only complaint would be that they could have used a slightly higher resolution for the display (used to the Tek TDS models). I'm also thinking that the scope will be pushing itself when reaching the upper limits of it's bandwidth - but for ATMEL AVR and PIC uController stuff it'll be fine.

This scope gets my thumbs up, and I hope that the Instek Power Supply reliability and reputation fall also on their Oscilloscope line. Only time will tell.

Lego Chaingun

8 barrels, 64 Shot capacity, up to eleven rounds per second continuous fire rate.
"Lego warfare will never be the same again."

Nice Job. And All I did with lego is build, houses, castles, spaceships....sigh - Just what we need Hi-Tech Lego building. Site is cool...want to check out the *other* creations but Wow...is this site slooooooowoowowwwww!!!

Check it out off peak hours...

www.mocpages.com

Philips LumiLIVE LED Fabrics

Not sure this is really a *new* thing, cause I've seen many do this on the DIY/Craft sites like MAKE: Magazine, etc. Of course a large company like Philips can easily produce a commercial version of fabric with LED/Conductors bound underneath/in it.

If you're absolutely craving this sort of expression or you just want to irritate the public by being the first to have a Coke or Nike advertisement appear on your chest, or couch, or bedspread, or panties (ladies?)...where ever the fablic may go...

Philips LED fabric (YouTube Link)

Must....Make....Slime....Home made Silly Putty

Well here's the science behind getting a nice slime going. Pretty inexpensive to make as well. Credit goes to Tony Alfrey & Lucille Nixon.

Go take a look at the website which describes this in detail:

http://www.sci-experiments.com/slime/slime.html

or goto thier main directory on the site and take a look at some of thier other 'experiements'...Alka-Seltzer Rockets!! woohooo...hehe

Main Directory - http://www.sci-experiments.com/

James Clar & Associates

Some of the stuff on this site is just plain cool. Mostly using light/LEDs in some unusual ways.

Thier R & D area is what you want to take a look at:

http://www.jamesclar.com/product/

Woohoooo Human Space Invaders

Seems like the only place I could link to this is Kotacu.com - This video was taken down from YouTube.com so it may have the same thing done to Kotacu if the original author (Guillaume Reymond) so decides to have it removed. Grab a look before it's gone. Wow this must have taken forever to do...LoL




Here's the link to the video @ Kotacu.com

Check out the author's site as well : http://www.notsonoisy.com

Great...Just Great...Now I have to change my profile info...

Forget the little girlie man hamburgers I was talking about before....pfft...10lbs come on you can do better than that.

Seems as though Fuddruckers in the Foxwood Casinos in CT has totally out done themselves in way of Burger size. Forget about asking for 'Super Size' here. I doubt you'd be able to carry the burger to your table. And you'd definately weight out at least 29 and a half points heavier than you did when you walked in. I couldn't touch another bite....

Remember though if you're going to try this beast - they need 48 hour pre order - and the cost is a pretty good deal: $250

Now it appears that Denny's Beer barrel pub has decided to try to reclaim the Largest Commercially Available burger title by proposing a 50lbs burger...well see about that. Recently Kate Stelnick (weighing in at 100lbs) became the first person to successfully eat the 9lb Denny burger (6lbs meat + 3lbs of fixin's) under the 3 hour time limit- Even a 400lb professional eater could only finish it in 7hours on his 3rd attempt. Grats Kate!

Check out the Norwich Bulletin article regarding the (almost) 30lb'er.
And if you want to see some interviews with Kate and related info try here @ katestelnick.com

Oscilloscope Tube Clock

Ok. I applaud Riad Wahby for taking the strange clock thing to a whole new level. He explains in detail how do make one of these beauties for your self.

Now this one is definately a conversation piece.

Take a sec and check out JFET.ORG - He has some other very interesting clocks as well. There is also some very good material (in the form of links) that you may want to check out.

Also his Voltmeter clock and Single Digit Nixie clock.

iPod Universal Remote

Now I'm not really sure why you would want to take an expensive piece of audio hardware and turn it into a glorified 'universal remote' - especially considering all the work involved. But for those who seem to do things for the 'fun factor' or 'coolness factor' go over to Engadget for the full How To...


Seeing as I've been busy past little bit and haven't had the time to add anything new, I'll be doing alittle overtime the next couple days. Maybe I can do some catch up.

I guess I'd have to buy a iPod first to try this....mmm...well it should work with any menu driven MP3/Audio player as the IR commands are stored as Audio Files then played back through a make shift IR transmitter which plugs into your headphone jack on the iPod (or other audio device).

VISIT Engadget's article on this.