Posts Tagged ‘Projects’
No One Needs To Know About Your Paper iPad [Ipad]
Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News, Technology on February 7th, 2010
Someone might judge you for putting together a mock iPad, but it's certainly not going to be us. Be it for practicing the Tablet Sutra or faking out a fanboy friend, here's the template you've been looking for.
Courtesy of Jess Silverstone at Revolutionary Concepts, this template can be printed on standard paper and will fold into an iPad that's just about the same size as the real thing, as long as your printer is capable of borderless printing.
Here's the front and the back, and here's what your arts and crafts project will look like when it's all put together:
So have at it. I'm not gonna ask any questions. [MacRumors]
Recreate an Extraordinary Radiohead Video with Ordinary Tech and This Guide [DIY]
Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News, Technology on December 31st, 2009
Radiohead's "House of Cards" video was equal parts bizarre and beautiful, until you found out it was all data visualization. Then it was just mind blowing. This detailed Instructable teaches the technique with stuff you probably have around the house.
Point Clouds with Depth of Field from Kyle McDonald on Vimeo.
Those are the results of Kyle McDonald's at-home structured light 3D scanning, a technique that recreates images in "point clouds" purely from data on shape, color, and the relative distance between objects. Using only a digital camera and a projector, McDonald shows how you can replicate the effect that distinguished Radiohead's music video for "House of Cards," released last year:
While you'd need an advanced laser set up to do things just like Radiohead did, this guide will still have you blowing minds in no time. [Instructables]
Gray Matter: DIY X-Ray Photos [DIY]
Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News, Technology on December 17th, 2009
With some film and a saltshaker, you can take radioactive pictures.
Everyone knows light exposes film, but other forms of radiation do as well-a fact you can use to take pictures in some pretty unusual ways.
It's also how radioactivity was first discovered. In 1896, French physicist Henri Becquerel stored some x-ray film in a drawer along with a uranium rock. He suspected that uranium might emit strange rays when exposed to sunlight, but this sample had been kept entirely in the dark, so he was surprised to find, on developing it, that the mineral had exposed the film. The discovery of natural radioactivity won him a Nobel Prize.
It's not hard to repeat Becquerel's experience at home with standard film. I took apart a 10-pack of Fujifilm ISO 3000 instant film and wrapped each piece in tinfoil. This must be done in absolute darkness because 3,000-speed film is extremely sensitive. (I sacrificed the first pack practicing in the light.)
Next I set a big, flat butterfly-shaped earring directly on top of the wrapped film. I suspended the most radioactive thing I have, a small radium puck from an old classroom set, several inches above the earring. This allowed the radiation to shine through it and onto the film, exposing it right through the foil wrapper. Then I developed the film by pulling it through the rollers of an old Polaroid camera (once again, in complete darkness).
This exposure took about 36 hours, determined by trial and lots of error. If you're willing to wait longer, less-radioactive sources work too, even common salt substitute. Yes, sodium-free salt (potassium chloride) is sufficiently radioactive (from the isotope potassium-40) that after several months, a saltshaker-ful will form an image on film. Provided you don't forget and eat the radioactive source on your breakfast.
Achtung! Stronger radiation sources such as radium watch hands, and any source that's flaking off fine particles, should be handled with care to minimize exposure and avoid contamination.
Photo credit: Mike Walker
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Make a High-Speed Spear Launcher, Ensure No Parents Let Kids Trick or Treat at Your House [Projects]
Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News on October 27th, 2009
Bored? Why not direct your restless energy into building a Atlatl, an ancient spear-throwing device that'll let you toss a spear far farther than you could before.
Using leverage, this simple device will radically increase your throwing power. Finally, you can deliver messages to your neighbors via notes stuck into their doors with a spear thrown from across the street. That way they'll know you aren't fucking around. [Make via Lifehacker]
Make a High-Speed Spear Launcher, Ensure No Parents Let Kids Trick or Treat at Your House [Projects]
Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News on October 27th, 2009
Bored? Why not direct your restless energy into building a Atlatl, an ancient spear-throwing device that'll let you toss a spear far farther than you could before.
Using leverage, this simple device will radically increase your throwing power. Finally, you can deliver messages to your neighbors via notes stuck into their doors with a spear thrown from across the street. That way they'll know you aren't fucking around. [Make via Lifehacker]
There’s Still Time For DIY Halloween Decor [Halloween]
Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News on October 24th, 2009
Make brings up this handy resource to add a little fright to your front yard this Halloween. The Haunt Project is a collection of Halloween-related DIY projects, ranging from harmless decorations to stuff that's just dangerous.
The picture above is a crashed UFO prop, complete with chasing LED lights.
Or there are the "ghost sliders," where you attach a set of casters to kneepads in order to drift across pavement like a ghost. This is dangerous. Don't blame me when you end up eating asphalt instead of candy and get your jaw wired shut.
There are hundreds of projects at the link. Check it out if you need something to keep you occupied this weekend. [Make]
Build Your Own Battlestar Galactica Viper Rocket! [Rockets]
Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News on August 7th, 2009
Estes may have discontinued its wicked Battlestar and Star Trek replica rockets almost 20 years ago, but some clever hobbyists have info on how you can still build one today.
Verna Rockets has a full debrief on its own builds, complete with links to several sites with parts and instructions. You'll find everything you need to build a flying model rocket that looks like a Recon Viper, the U.S.S. Enterprise, even The Black Hole Space Probe from "The Black Hole"
Confession: I always get psyched by rocket kits. Have any pics of your own launches that you'd like to share? [Verna Rockets via Hobby Media]
Sun-Powered DIY Project List to Geek Out the Rest of Your Summer [DIY]
Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News on July 19th, 2009
While this Lifehacker list of the top 10 DIY sun-powered projects won't be much help here in Boston (where we literally saw the Sun three times in June), you may find some use for it in your sunny neck of the woods. [Lifehacker]
USB Cigar Puts Your Laptop One Martini Away From Benderhood [Cigars]
Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News on July 1st, 2009
We appreciate a good electronic cigar, but we never imagined that we could roll our own with USB storage.
Over at Instructables, there's a step by step on boring a cigar, treating its surface, and then loading it with a fiery LED along with a USB stick. The result is a classy cigar USB dongle that can possibly lead to computer mouth/throat cancer. But don't feel bad for your laptop, it'll turn obsolete well before its needlessly induced nicotine addiction claims its life. So you'll thoughtlessly drop your computer in a retirement home (a landfill disguised as a recycling center) from where it will spend the rest of its days doing its damnedest to poison you back. [Instructables via Geeky Gadgets]
Apple’s Internal Secrecy Protocol Is Ridiculous [Apple]
Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News on June 23rd, 2009
Apple is known for being secretive to the extreme, but did you know some of their employees look like they're dressed up for Dungeons & Dragons LARPing while at work?
Here's stuff from the NYT article that we already knew:
Secrecy at Apple is not just the prevailing communications strategy; it is baked into the corporate culture. Employees working on top-secret projects must pass through a maze of security doors, swiping their badges again and again and finally entering a numeric code to reach their offices, according to one former employee who worked in such areas. Work spaces are typically monitored by security cameras, this employee said.
This stuff is common in normal companies even, and a good majority of tech employees have badges as a permanent fashion staple. But this, this is interesting:
Some Apple workers in the most critical product-testing rooms must cover up devices with black cloaks when they are working on them, and turn on a red warning light when devices are unmasked so that everyone knows to be extra-careful, he said.
That seems a bit over the top to me, but hey, you know what? It seems to be working for them. [NY Times]
