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RSSArchives: December 2008
December 31, 2008
Homemade New Year's eve ball
Mactech's homemade New Year's eve ball!
It's 20 feet tall, made of two pieces of 3/4" EMT with a coupler that wasn't strong enough, so I taped some shims along the joint...guy wires to keep it from keeling over sideways. There are a couple of pulleys to hoist the ball.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Dec 31, 2008 06:45 PM
Holiday projects |
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Cause of ZUNE leapyear problem - Freescale date routine
After doing some poking around in the source code for the Zune's clock driver (available free from the Freescale website), I found the root cause of the now-infamous Zune 30 leapyear issue that struck everyone on New Year's Eve.
The Zune's real-time clock stores the time in terms of days and seconds since January 1st, 1980. When the Zune's clock is accessed, the driver turns the number of days into years/months/days and the number of seconds into hours/minutes/seconds. Likewise, when the clock is set, the driver does the opposite.
The Zune frontend first accesses the clock toward the end of the boot sequence. Doing this triggers the code that reads the clock and converts it to a date and time. Below is the part of this code that determines the year component of the date:
year = ORIGINYEAR; /* = 1980 */
while (days > 365)
{
if (IsLeapYear(year))
{
if (days > 366)
{
days -= 366;
year += 1;
}
}
else
{
days -= 365;
year += 1;
}
}
Looks like it's a leap year thing and it might happen again in 4 years... For now those with ZUNEs can just wait a day. This bug and the android "run every word you type" bug - typing "reboot" would reboot the phone are 2008's weirdest mobile device bugs.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Dec 31, 2008 05:20 PM
Gadgets |
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Sustainable building design contest
Tripod: a student entry from last year's contest.
The EPA just announced its newest lifecycle building challenge:
Enter the third year of the Lifecycle Building Challenge competition, to shape the future of green building and facilitate local building materials reuse. Submit your innovative project, design, or idea for reducing to conserve construction and demolition materials and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by designing buildings for adaptability and disassembly.Lifecycle building is designing buildings to facilitate disassembly and material reuse to minimize waste, energy consumption, and associated greenhouse gas emissions. Also known as design for disassembly and design for deconstruction, lifecycle building describes the idea of creating high-performance buildings today that are stocks of resources for the future.
There are awards for both full buildings and building products, and both students and professionals can submit entries ("professionals" built or unbuilt, students only unbuilt). More info here.
Posted by Luke Iseman |
Dec 31, 2008 04:00 PM
Announcements, Green |
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Serv O'Beer with iPhone for the perfect pour
Serv O'Beer is a project showing you step by step how to turn a bottle of beer using Construx, servo, and an ioBridge module. The system uses the accelerometer feedback to turn the servo controlling the position of the bottle. Enjoy the perfect pour while taking out all of the physically demanding work. Happy New Year and Cheers!
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Dec 31, 2008 01:50 PM
DIY Projects, Instructables, iPhone |
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Interactive gaming with an Arduino
This is a really cool game demo by Lok Neville Lee that uses an Arduino, accelerometer, and Papervision3D to interact with the character on the computer. The graphics look great, and the controls are awesome. I really hope more games are in the works!
More about Interactive gaming with an Arduino
Posted by Marc de Vinck |
Dec 31, 2008 01:22 PM
Arduino, Arts, DIY Projects, Electronics, Gaming |
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Make a little chair out of a champagne cork holder
Super cute! Make a little chair out of a champagne cork holder via Lifehacker. Dot writes-
This is a fun and easy thing to do with those little wire pieces that hold in a champagne cork. And with New Years Eve coming up, you know we'll have a few of those lying around!
The resulting tiny chair makes a cute little christmas ornament, or dollhouse furniture, or just an interesting little nicknack! And a neat way to save a momento from an important bottle of champagne (like from a wedding, hot date, or special event)
This is very easy, and some would say obvious, but when I first saw this done I thought it was so cool. And I figured you guys would too !
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Dec 31, 2008 11:00 AM
Crafts, DIY Projects |
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Santa Cruz's DIY Parade
Santa Cruz, CA has its very own DIY parade tonight. Several years ago, when the town's First Night organization could not raise the funds for a formal celebration, this DIY parade emerged as its replacement.Now, the annual New Year's Eve, Do-It-Yourself Parade has become a regular affair in its own right, inspiring school girls and square dancers, flame throwers, trash-orchestra members and many, many people dressed in illuminated lights and wires to saunter from Laurel to Water streets to ring in the New Year.from Santa Cruz Sentinel report.All anyone needs to do to join the parade is show up.
The parade starts at 5:30 pm. If you're in Santa Cruz or going there for the parade, take some pictures and tell us about it.
Posted by Dale Dougherty |
Dec 31, 2008 10:35 AM
DIY Projects |
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How to roll your own Mac for under $240
How to roll your own Mac for under $240 via HAD. The useless ninja writes -
MSI is a company known mostly for its PC components. They recently jumped into the netbook bandwagon with just about every other major pc manufacturer. Their Eee like machine, the MSI Wind, ended up being an extremely popular little laptop. Along with the laptop they made a not too well known desktop with roughly the same dimensions as a ream of printer paper.
The MSI Wind PC is a great computer; I have three of them. It comes with a 1.6GHz Intel atom CPU, two SATA connections for 3.5" and 5.25" bays and 6 USB ports. You can pick a barebones one, requiring ram, a hard drive and possibly DVD drive, for $140 or so..
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Dec 31, 2008 10:00 AM
Computers |
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Mixing clay plaster and lime paint
Here's a brief, introductory video on how to make your own clay plaster and lime paint from skilled cob builders who have written a step-by-step book on building with cob:
Posted by Luke Iseman |
Dec 31, 2008 10:00 AM
Green, How it's made |
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Make: television -- pole camera rig
Another in my continuing series of behind the scenes photos from the Make: television set. This is the tilt and shoot rig we built for the pole camera. We mounted it on top of a very long pole and used a remote control and two servos to take photos. You can see next to the rig a piece of paper with every single screw, nut, washer, bolt, drill bit, etc. taped to it, along with annotations. Bill Gurstelle created this prop sheet so that I had all the parts to build it on-camera.
Posted by John Park |
Dec 31, 2008 09:00 AM
Make: television, Photography |
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Book Review: Show Me How
Show Me How: 500 Things You Should Know
Derek Fagerstrom, Lauren Smith & the Show Me Team
Collins Design, $24.95
I wanted to like this book more than I did. Don't get me wrong, overall, it's pretty darn cool. I'm a big fan of both creative information design and comics, and the two forms are used here to fairly impressive effect. It's just that, trying to present 500 different how-tos, on a staggering number of subjects, almost exclusively in graphical form, is a tall order. I give the authors A+ for effort, but in many cases, a B- in effectively communicating the information required. These are, after all "how-tos," and if they don't effectively communicate how to accomplish the task at hand, they fall short.
As a test, I looked up anything I already knew something about. In almost every instance, I found that what was presented landed just shy of communicating the essentials of what one would need to know to satisfyingly complete the project. For instance, for the "Pulling a Perfect Espresso Shot" how-to, it doesn't say anything about the amount of pressure to apply to the pellet in the porta-filter (extremely important in getting a "perfect" shot) and it uses time (25 seconds) to determine when the shot is pulled, rather than color (which is a far more relevant determinant).
Where this book excels is in giving you an overview of a subject, say wine basics, or basic style tips (for men: how to shine shoes, look dapper in a tie, understand suit fabrics, etc), how to identify cuts of meat -- that sort of thing. Also, the more whimsical entries are fun, like how to make a clandestine sidewalk graffiti painter, how to mount an elephant or a camel, how to make a voodoo doll.
I also found the book generally inspiring, the sense of activity and creativity that it encodes, and the colorful and fun way that it attempts to convey the excitement of making things. If nothing else, this book is a great overview, a survey, of things you should know how to do and some things you might want to do just for fun, and after you've been introduced to them here, you can hone your skills elsewhere, with stuff you can find online, for instance.
The greatest reason to recommend this book is its cover price. It retails for $25 and is only $16.50 on Amazon. It's a handsomely-designed, full-color, 320-page tome, for less than a Yuppie Food Coupon. For a bargain like that, how can you afford NOT to have it handy in the outhouse?
Show Me How: 500 Things You Should Know
Posted by Gareth Branwyn |
Dec 31, 2008 08:00 AM
Crafts, DIY Projects |
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Rubik's Cube mosaic puzzle
Mad Maxine sent in this amazing Rubik's Cube puzzle, for the truly dedicated cube solver. You could glue it together if you wanted a permanent installation for an art piece or tabletop.
Posted by Patti Schiendelman |
Dec 31, 2008 07:00 AM
Arts, Kids |
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Situational awareness mast "Zippermast"
Wow, the situational awareness mast "Zippermast" from Geosystems is very clever! via Hizook.
The situational awareness mast (or Zippermast) from Geosystems Inc. is a telescoping linear actuator that can vertically translate a robot's sensor suite for better visibility. In this video, a Zippermast is affixed to an I-Robot Packbot...
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Dec 31, 2008 06:50 AM
Robotics |
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Power Pack - Generating power with the motion of a back pack
Finally, you can recharge your iPod with Clif bars. When the military needed to recharge batteries on the move, they turned to University of Pennsylvania professor Larry Rome, an expert in muscle power and, it turns out, a capable inventor. His solution the world's first electricity-generating backpack Rome, who studies fish muscles, says the idea struck him in a Navy meeting. US troops were lugging 50-pound packs, including 20 pounds of batteries for high-tech gadgets. The brass wanted to use muscle power to generate electric power, but the best existing technology was shoe generators, straight out of Get Smart. I said, "That's a terrible idea," recalls Rome. "The force of the heel strike is only over a couple millimeters. The right way became obvious: with every step, these guys are lifting 80 pounds 5 to 7 centimeters - that's potentially 36 watts of mechanical energy." To turn his brainstorm into hardware, Rome grabbed an old external-frame backpack from college days and called his lab's "very line machinist" Fred Letterio. In their basement shop full of mills and lathes, the two added springs to suspend the cargo compartment from the pack frame. As the wearer's stride raises and lowers the pack. the load slides up and down. driving vertical rods to spin a geared DC servomotor up to 5.000 rpm to generate electricity.
With a 40-80 pound load. Rome's pack generates 7 watts, plenty of juice to simultaneously power a two-way radio, GPS receiver, and night vision goggles (or cellphone, PDA, digital camera, and iPod). The load can be locked for stability on sketchy terrain, and then unlocked to generate power again. Ultimately, the generator pack (patent pending) will weigh just a couple pounds more than a regular backpack. Carrying it burns 3% more energy, but wearers say it's more comfortable, and the extra work costs only a couple of extra candy bars. ("Food is 100 times more efficient than batteries.") Green bonus: the technology could keep tons of toxic batteries out of landfills.
>> Lightning Packs lightningpacks.com
From the column Made on Earth - MAKE 5, page 20 - Keight Hammond.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Dec 31, 2008 06:00 AM
Green, Made On Earth |
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Screw heads demystified
We can thank instructables user arcticpenguin for this excellent explanation of cross-head, cross-point, cruciform, and square drive screws and drivers!
These screw types have a "+" shaped recess on the head and are driven by a cross-head screwdriver, designed originally for use with mass-production mechanical screwing machines. There are a few other recessed drive screws presented that you also want to be aware. So, why all the confusion? Why all the damaged screw heads and drivers? Why is this screw and driver thing so awkward? Read on and be amazed while I unravel the mystery of screw drives and present some you may have never seen.
Posted by Becky Stern |
Dec 31, 2008 06:00 AM
Instructables, Toolbox |
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Make a cheap perpetual calendar
Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories - Cheap Perpetual Calendar...
A quick, handy, geeky, and seriously inexpensive perpetual calendar for your desk.
Got 12 cents and a scrap of cardboard? You're good to go!
Cut twelve slits, stick in your pennies, and... here it is, all built...
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Dec 31, 2008 05:45 AM
Crafts, DIY Projects |
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Side steering car
Side steering car... Modern Mechanix, 1932.
FORDS have been forced to do strange things in the past, but the honors for odd performances to date go to a machine, built by a Pontiac, Mich., mechanic, which can move sideways at an angle of 65 degrees, and thus make parking an extremely simple matter.
As demonstrated in the photo above, the machine has each of its wheels mounted on a steering hub, so that a turn of the steering mechanism operates all four wheels.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Dec 31, 2008 05:08 AM
Transportation |
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Mario inspired flowerpots ready to bloom
These two Super Mario Bros-inspired flower pots bring back the 8 bit graphics found in that game to your private garden or home. Pretty cool idea to integrate the old school graphics into modern living. Just don't try to head-butt them like Mario used to do.
via FFFFOUND! and via Blade Diary
Posted by Jonah Brucker-Cohen |
Dec 31, 2008 05:00 AM
Arts, Furniture, Gaming, Green |
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Behold ... the Rusty Growler!
From the MAKE: Flickr pool
Tremble at the feet of Rusty Sheriff's mighty "555 astable tone generator with tuned keys" - sporting a big ol' 8" woofer and a laser-cut case. No performance samples to be found but the name/design alone is satisfying enough - Rusty Growler
Please, share pics of your awesome works in the Make: Flickr pool - we love this stuff!
Posted by Collin Cunningham |
Dec 31, 2008 04:00 AM
DIY Projects, Music |
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A lightbox built with love
My pick for best gift of '08, Boris writes -
My sister suffers from seasonal affective disorder, also known as winter depression. A commonly prescribed therapy is light therapy - about thirty minutes of bright light in the morning. Bright in this context means more than 10 000 Lumens. You can of course buy commercial light-boxes, but I wanted to construct one by myself...What a good brother, truly heartwarming. He even cared enough to share his build process ;)
Posted by Collin Cunningham |
Dec 31, 2008 04:00 AM
DIY Projects, Holiday projects |
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