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.

Hollowing a lightbulb...nice...not sure what to do with it tho.

Puttering around Make: Magazine's craft blog and found this link which was quite cool...

Not sure why you'd want to clean out a burnt out lightbulb - the website owner says it's good for things like mini fishy tank or small plant pot.

Go take a look: How to hollow a lightbulb.

The 'Make Controller' (Coming soon)

Ok. I'm always a little happy when the new issue of 'Make:' Magazine comes out. Found a little item in there that others may be interested in checking out (but while you're there check out the magazine - cause it's a good investment).

It seems Make: and MakingThings are attempting to come up with an extremely flexible and powerful controller board - designed specifically for the hobbyist. They're trying to make it simple enough for the average joe while keeping it attractive to the hard-core hobbyist.

From what I understand (very quick read) the design is 2 part - The processor board and the application board. With things like USB 2.0, ETHERNET, CAN, SPI and lotsa lotsa other features - all for a low low price of........$150 - well...they even include the schematics (not the processor board)...I'd say we have a winner here. Jump over to the site and pre-order (after I do)...hehe

Make: Controller details and Preorder

Balance - It's all about balance.

I'm completely fascinated at the way two wheel robots balance. I've been hunting around the web for information on them and there are several sites related to this topic. Here's some of what I found:

nBot - Balancing Robot
Ted Larson's Stuff - I enjoyed the camera tracking/following.
Joe - Mobile Inverted Pendulum

Or go all out and make your own segway:

DIY Segway-style scooter

Indoor RC Helicopter DIY

Ok, here's another one from Make Magazine's blog. It offers fairly good instructions on the design and building of your own indoor flyer. My suggestions are if you are planning on building one yourself - take a look here first, it may save you some time.

Ben Hui's Site on Angelfire

DIY Electrostatic Speakers

Nice little description of how to create your own set of these thin babies.
Hmmm. Wonder if anybody is interested in these? Give it a try, your iPod
will thank you.

http://amasci.com/esloud/eslhwto.html

Scratchitti - Rune Clock - Alternatives to Nixie Tubes with neat results

I would have loved at some point in my life to create a nice Nixie Tube clock or timer. But from what I understand the cost of these tubes has gone thru the roof.

With this in mind I was fascinated at the attempt Theodore Johnson made on creating custom edge lit digits. The results are very promising. Seeing as it's possible to create custom digits variations are possible.

One of those 'variations' is the Rune Clock he created. Maybe not the most practical clock - but a nice project all the same.

Take a look at this and some of his other good clock projects:

http://users.rcn.com/ted.johnson/

Flamethrower?

You gotta be kidding. Now if any of you crazy people out there go out and build one of these then burn down your house or god forbid someone else's - Don't come crying to me. It amazes me what people will build. I can't even think of a reason to use one of these things other than displaying the creation after it's made and tested.

This has got to violate several state/provincial/federal laws. But not my place to comment. Just thought the person put alot of effort into the design.

Has several pictures of him testing it too: http://www.chaffinchshoelace.com/view/2690/

A DIY Hovercraft - woohooo!

Ok so it doesn't have many of the features of your typical hugely expensive hovercraft, but this one you can build in your backyard with a spare shopvac, a little wood and a bench/seat. Go on, you know you want to build it...


Site Link.

One for the little kiddies!!! Build your own Hubble Telescope!!

This is more for the kids. This site contains information on building a very nice little model of the Hubble Telescope. Doesn't even have to have the lens replaced, hehe. All the information is on the site including the step by step instructions, and *.PDF templates and color wrappers for the materials to give the model that realistic skin.

Hope on over to the Hubble Site @ http://hubblesite.org/

Come on - don't have to be a kid to enjoy this one....er...ok...maybe it's better for kids.

Boda Blocks

I'm tossing around the idea of doing something similar to what Leah Buechley has done at the University of Colorado at Boulder. She's merges Art, Electronics and Mathematics into a nice 'blocks' construction set. I would have taken this to another level by using more colors and made each block self sufficient. Like little living entities. Maybe I should give this one a try.


Take a look at some of the things she's done. The LED blouse/T-shirt, and bracelet are pretty cool ideas as well. Heres her site link: http://www.cs.colorado.edu/%7Ebuechley/research.html

Another quickie

Ever wanted to create your own comic strip? Well I realize that Mac users can get a Photoshop plugin or tool to create comic strips - think it's called a Comic's Life. But this one is for everyone who has a browser, I tried my hand at a couple - here's one of them:
















Well that didn't upload nicely...oh well you get the idea. You'll have to try it yourself.

http://www.stripcreator.com/

World Domination!!! Mu Ahh Ah Ah Ah!

Ok. So interested in creating your own evil master plan?
Not sure where to start? I got a suggestion:

Create your own Evil Master Plan Here.

Throw your data into this bag...

Ok this one was sent to me over email with the following question:

"What do you think would happen if you squeezed the thing? Would the data spill all over the place?"

Good question, but I think this USB 'bag' drive would get more and more difficult to carry around as it got full...what will they think of next...

(personally a set of LEDs indicating the capacity remaining would do fine) I think the think is called a flashbag hehe - check the website and press materials here:

http://www.plusminus.ru/flashbag.html

Speaking of burgers in the header above

I never could find the original website I saw a person giving a step by step account on how to create and cook a HUGE HUGE burger.... But this one at least gives you an idea just how big they can get. And what the hell is the last picture? It takes two of them to eat it? Wimps.

Go to Denny's Beer Barrel Pub for the meal of kings, er...fat kings. (11 lbs of beef wow)

Create a handheld Linux device using a Zipit

The ZipIt Wireless Instant Messaging device has built-in WiFi (802.11b), a 320x240 grayscale LCD and thumb-style keyboard. All this is powered by a LiIon battery and currently retails for about $100 USD, although I've seen it on E-Bay for as little as $50 USD.

The AiboHack Site discusses hacking: 'by using some WiFi tricks you can perform a software reflash upgrade of your ZipIt device to run Linux direcly. For more advanced hacking, a hardware modification is recommended.'

This little hack is quite cute, and the possibilities of using this device are quite limitless. Also if you wanted you could make this device an indoor pager which recieves Sports scores, stock quotes, news bulletins, etc.

For more information take a look at the AiboHack site. Obviously you void your warranty on the Zipit so use a device you don't mind loosing.

Save a snowflake? For decades?

Popular Science had this one, gotta try it sometime, but were just coming out of our cold season. And this year it never got cold enough - seemed unusually warm this year.

How It Works

1. Set microscope slides, coverslips and superglue outside when it’s 20°F or colder to chill them. Catch flakes on the slides or pick them up with cold tweezers.
2. Place a drop of superglue on the snowflake. Note: Gel glue doesn’t work. Find a brand that’s thin and runny.
3. Drop a coverslip over the glue. Don’t press down hard or the flake could tear or melt from the heat of your finger.
4. Leave the slide in a freezer for one or two weeks and don’t touch it with warm hands. The glue must completely harden before the snowflake warms up.

Here's the original link, please check it out there.

Startrek to a whole new level

Now some people are into startrek and some people are into startrek.

Check this little beauty out... http://www.24thcid.com

Amazing

Old Tech Handset for Cell Phones

Well it's a cute idea, but someone in the UK has been doing for a while. I would think lugging around a large handset such as this would become old *very* fast. They do have one thing going for them tho. By using the handset away from the phone you elliminate the RF radiation from the antenna beaming directly through your head...wooohooo....less tumors.

Cute idea, but for ~30 USD I would suggest making one yourself. I'm sure you have 2 or 3 old phones kicking around somewhere.

Check it out if you want, can't seem to find the original UK site that sells em, if someone has it let me know and I will add that reference, I'd prefer to promote his site as I believe he was the first.

Chris

The 'DEATH CLOCK'

Curious when your ticker is going to give out on you? Possibly when you'll be hit by that big Mack Truck? Well now you can do just that by using the 'Death Clock' at www.deathclock.com.

Check it out before it's too late...hehe

Solutions to the Room-mate's hang over.

Over at "IMAKEPROJECTS.COM" they have just the solution for that room mate who enjoys partying during the week and is constantly late for Class, Work, or maybe the Job Classifieds:

A Grenade

Ok. Ok. The grenade would take care of the problem but would likely remove a small portion of your apartment or house. Instead why not create the next best thing - A 'Sonic' Grenade.

The little beast uses a 110db personal alarm as it's heart (easily purchased at the local 'dollar store'). They show the construction of two seperate models. The Standard edition:

And a really cool 'Deluxe' model, which uses a PIC for some fancier features.

I would think that although these projects are funny as hell (I enjoyed thinking of the limitless uses), they could potentially be harmful to someone's hearing in an enclosed space. I'm no expert on this, but please check into the possible hazards associated to 110db sound bursts before attempting the project yourself.

Laser listening device (LBLD)

I think I mentioned this in one of my earlier posts. Something about using a Laser for communications. Well if it wasn't here I remember having the conversation recently. It would be nice if someone published plans on putting together a LASER listening device. You know the ones you bounce the LASER off the window and the vibrations are amplified so you can hear the noises/converstaions in the room (hmmm doesn't seem legal does it? Not sure that it is - but here's the site for your viewing pleasure).


Here's a couple sites:

Here for a description and sample audio.
Here's a better copy of the schematic.
More information/plans for the LASER Bounce Listening Device

Wonder why this person didn't use IR or Non-Visible band laser light? Seems like that would be a little less 'obvious' at night.

A hot water bottle re-breather? For $100?

Hmmm. This guy is definately been diving too much lol. But he does get the thumbs up on being creative with his materials.

Check out the details on his web-page: www.atlimp.com/pend2.htm

BTW - DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME! (You may now continue to the page to figure out how you are going to make your own - crazy)

Case of Fans

So your computer is a little on the hot side. Overclocking that CPU to the max. Want a good cooling solution and don't care about noise? Well this guy may have the solution for you:

The AMAZING case of fans!!!! hehe - Wonder if it's quiet?

Take a look if you're interested: The Amazing Case of Fans

P.S.: Thanks York for this one...

Micro-copters, not RC but IR-C

This is a very cool project. Still can't find any mention of whether he sells these kits or it's simply a little project for himself. I would think you'd have a hard time finding the parts for these things, but they definitely are cool.


Pixelito, @ 6.9 grams, 4 channel, no servos, full carbon with no swashplate. There is a little video of the helicopter flying around - really cool stuff. Alexander has out done himself. Nice little project. Check out his site: http://pixelito.reference.be/

Oh and I forgot to mention - Love the Hamster.

Smallest Linux Computer?

Looking around for small computers for some projects in my head (hello anybody in there?) and I came across this little GEM: The Picotux. The one thing I hated about it was the cost, and shipping charge.

The Picotux 100 is around ~$150 CAD and shipping will run you an additional ~$60 CAD.

Frying your CPU

If you've ever wondered what would happen if you stopped cooling your Computer's CPU and removed the passive heat sink as well...well....see for yourself. I'm surprised they didn't get hurt doing this. I would recommend no one try this themselves - be content with the videos.

AMD Processor & Intel Processor

All Metal Starwars Blaster Replica DIY

Found an interesting little DIY project for those Star Wars fans. A full metal Storm Trooper Blaster pistol (Rifle?) from Plumbing supplies. Definitely fits the imaginative side of Hacks/Mods. I'm sure someone would get a kick out of making this replica - and for the cost, ~50$ not too bad.

Take a look at Studio Creations website How-To. There are lots of other DIY projects there take a look at them all.

Vista - Rant Time

Now for a less useful entry.

I wonder how Microsoft can continue to be so clueless of what it's consumers really want from their Operating Systems. I used to work for the friggin' company.

Well Microsoft Windows VISTA will likely be yet another OS to give us all the fancy new User Interface features (i.e.: Bells and Whistles) without really solving the past Operating System problems.

I'm thinking: The day Microsoft builds an Operating System that has all the 'crap' stripped out of it and gives the user the option to add the modules they really need without having to worry about this dependency and that dependency. For example, 90% of my spyware / advert problems went away after switching to the Firefox browser. One reason I would appreciate this feature is that I could build a barebones version of Windows for use with my Snapstream PVR setup. This would eliminate all processes, services, applets, etc. that weren't critical to Beyond TV running.

Ah but as with every manufacturer these days, Microsoft is continuing to follow suit by provided 15 trillion flavors of the new OS. For example according to the website there will be the following releases of the OS (obviously this could change on release):

Windows Vista Business
Windows Vista Enterprise
Windows Vista Home Premium
Windows Vista Home Basic
Windows Vista Ultimate

I don't know about everyone else but this is getting out of hand. I do understand fully the reasons for having 2 different retail versions - One for home and one for business. I DO NOT understand why it's necessary to have five (or even 10 if you count the obvious OEM versions of the ones listed above).

When is someone going to give me the option to add different features and remove them. When I install an OS, I expect the OS to do 2 things and only 2 things: display my Files/Folders graphically, and allow me to execute applications from those Files/Folders. Ah well, I guess I'm getting a little peeved about their marketing model.

I'll wrap this up, time to install Linux, or pick myself up a Intel Mac.

Let me know your feelings on the matter. I'd love to hear them.

A *real* USB THUMB drive

Not really sure if this device exists any more, cause the site doesn't have it listed although there are some pretty cool alternatives like SUSHI drives, Hello Kitty Drives, etc.

Check it out. The website is www.Dynamism.com

I'm sure making one yourself would be easy enough - just remove the Thumb drive from it's plastic packaging and make a silicone mold of your thumb. Cool idea. Let me know if anyone out there actually does it.

LASERs

I've always been fascinated with LASERs since a child. Wanted to study Physics/Quantum Machanics because of it. I remember looking into building a CO2 and Ruby Pulsed LASER when in my young teens. Obviously that wasn't a financially feasible thing to a kid. Well over time they came out with LASER diodes which were solid state components which produced coherent beams of light (we now know of these as LASER pointers). Back when the initially came out there weren't any that were in the VISIBLE wave length, or if there were they were extremely expensive. Now you can walk into a DOLLAR store and pick one up for about a 1-5$. When I first got one for presentations it cost me 170$, wow was I an idiot back then.

Seems we've come a long way in portable LASER devices. Most (or ALL?) pointers are limited to the under 5mw power I believe. A company in the US sells high powered handhelds for pretty reasonable prices. A good place to go for people interested in doing amateur 3D hologram projects or 3D object scanning.

Check them out at www.wickedlasers.com.

2 Skin or not 2 Skin?

So you have a PS2, XBOX, XBOX360 or PSP but find the device doesn't have that unique look that you want? Want your device to stand out in the crowd?

DecalGirl.com may be your solution. They have some of the coolest skin/decal mods for your entertainment devices (and other things as well). They also do iPods and brake calipers!? So what are you waiting for go check some of the cool images you can wrap your device in. Very reasonably priced.

I wonder if I buy a XBox 360 skin whether it's reason enough to get the console itself? mmm. Don't think that will fly. I'm very short on cash now so it'll have to wait.

Jump over to their site and take a look.

Robodump 1.0

Now this is something, well, um, I'm not even sure how to describe what it is until you see it. The person made a fake 'crapper'...Ah never mind just go see the sight and you'll figure it out.

Great idea for work.

LINK

Chris

Hacker's Playboy Magazine.

In case you don't already know about this magazine I point you in the right direction. It's about as good as they get, been out I think 5 issues now and going strong. I got a subscription to the first issue and I don't plan on dropping it from my required reading.

Check out thier website and subscriptions in PRINT (Digital versions are available online to subscribers).

Chris

Spark Fun Electronics - 12ft Digital Office Clock

When I saw this I remembered doing business with them online through E-Bay, I think I purchased one (or several of thier PIC programmers). This little project definately caught my eye. I especially like the fact that it's a good idea which was OVER OVER done. Like that. Kudos to the guys at Spark Fun Electronics.



If you want info on doing it yourself and want to get the materials (I believe they sell them) - head on over to thier site before the project isn't listed anymore.

I think I'll try this scalled down, using those really cool purple'ish LEDs, make it a 4' one...

Chris

LED Graphics displayed on Bike Spokes!!!

Wow! Now that's cool. Remember those clocks where you flipped a long stick back and forth and it created the Time (and Date sometimes) into thin air as it swung back and forth. Well take that idea and place the same solution on a spinning Bike wheel.

The possibilities are endless. Take a look at this one over at the instructables website.

There is a kit AND pc board available and information on how to update the graphics to whatever you like.

Have fun on this one. The instructables website is a wealth of some seriously valuable (and some worthless) hack instructions.

Happy Creation Day. Many more to come. Create this, Create that, Hack this, Hack that. That's what I'm talking about. This is going to be a long year....