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)