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2009/09/05

[MAKE Magazine - daily] - MAKE Magazine

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Qlocktwo clock tells time with words

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I like the design of this clock by designers Biegert and Funk. It tells the approximate time by illuminating the correct words. Could be a fun re-make!

[via core77]

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Free classroom electricity posters

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Looking for a way to liven up your maker classroom? How about some spiffy posters? No shipping hassles, here, these are pdf downloads. The files are on the large side, so your size limitation will be on finding a printer big enough to get the size you want. They look like 11" x17" should be no problem.

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Steel 'Velcro'

Dn17739-1 500
Steel 'Velcro' @ New Scientist...

For all its usefulness, Velcro hardly inspires excitement. But German engineers have taken inspiration from the mild-mannered fastener to create a version of the hook-and-loop concept with enough steely strength for extreme loads and environments. A square metre of the new fastener, called Metaklett, is capable of supporting 35 tonnes at temperatures up to 800 ÂșC, claim Josef Mair and colleagues at the Technical University of Munich, Germany. And just like everyday Velcro it can be opened up without specialised tools and used again.
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Recreating a Vermeer masterpiece in Lego

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Cleveland math teacher Arthur Gugick recreated Johannes Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring in a mosaic comprised of pre-printed Lego tiles.

As far as I know I'm the only one currently producing these types of Lego mosaics. (My next one is Jimi Hendrix) There's been only one other person who's ever made this type of mosaic. He did a portrait of a girl in 2005/2006. He never attempted another such mosaic. I'd like to think that I came up with the idea independently (my first decorated tile mosaic was of Jerry Garcia and seen at BrickFest 2006).

See Guckick's Flickr page for more projects like this.

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Walking on programmable springs

By way of Solarbotics' twitter feed comes this demo for using programmable spring actuators to create robot legs with built-in stepping reflexes.


A walking robot using programmable springs

For more details on Programmable Spring Actuators

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Repurposing cement bags as bellows

These enterprising blacksmiths make their wares using bellows made from cement bags.

[via afrigadget]

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Erector girder (he)art

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Barbara Gilhooly, a St. Paul, Minnesota artist, repurposes old Erector set girders to make art.

As an artist I use found objects, wire, wood and many recycled or re-purposed materials to create. I have been known for my wire sculptural work and one of the forms I create in wire are 3-D hearts.

The erector set hearts began as a small experiment in my studio using the long girder pieces from an old erector set I formed a three dimensional heart about 10 inches long. What interests me is combining the industrial material and hardware with a very organic or soft form. This contrast appeals to me as a metaphor, as well. The whole 'broken heart' idea turned into a durable 'industrial heart"!

In terms of making the hearts: I use mostly vintage Erector sets with the original hardware and some pop rivets. Most were found on ebay. I've made over a dozen hearts and the sizes range from 18" to 5" in length. I bend the girders and shape with my hands and rubber mallet to form the curves. I work intuitively, I make the overall shape and then fill in with cross bracing.

To learn more about Ms. Gilhooly's work check out her etsy store or www.lisafontanarosa.com.

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3D-printable gyoza press

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Yum, nothing like homemade dumplings, but where to find a gyoza press? Why, your nearest 3D printer (or 3D printing service like Shapeways)! Delicious, by mr_seeker on Thingiverse.

More:

Ice Cream Gyoza on CRAFT

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Visualization of changes to Darwin's Origin of Species over time

Pt 2133
the preservation of favoured traces | ben fry via Waxy.

We often think of scientific ideas, such as Darwin's theory of evolution, as fixed notions that are accepted as finished. In fact, Darwin's On the Origin of Species evolved over the course of several editions he wrote, edited, and updated during his lifetime. The first English edition was approximately 150,000 words and the sixth is a much larger 190,000 words. In the changes are refinements and shifts in ideas — whether increasing the weight of a statement, adding details, or even a change in the idea itself.

The second edition, for instance, adds a notable "by the Creator" to the closing paragraph, giving greater attribution to a higher power. In another example, the phrase "survival of the fittest" — usually considered central to the theory and often attributed to Darwin — instead came from British philosopher Herbert Spencer, and didn't appear until the fifth edition of the text. Using the six editions as a guide, we can see the unfolding and clarification of Darwin's ideas as he sought to further develop his theory during his lifetime.



Made with processing (Arduino IDE's mutant cousin)....

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Fascination: Louise Leakey

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In this installment of our ongoing series of video interviews with notable Makers and scientists, sponsored by Dow Chemical, paleontologist Louise Leakey talks about the challenges involved in finding fossils, and outlines her plan to crowdsource the search. Louise comes from a long line of Leakeys in Kenya, and is co-founder of the Turkana Basin Institute there.

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In the Maker Shed: MCH64 programmable logic starter kit

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The MACH64 programmable logic starter kit takes you from mystery to mastery in the black art of Complex Programmable Logic Devices (CPLDs). Learn to turn Software into Hardware with this incredible technology! The MACH64 kit comes complete with everything you need to learn, experiment, design and program with CPLDs. The included 250+ page manual starts off with the technology of CPLDs and then eases you into the ABEL Language used to program CPLDs.

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Hidden messages in the ROM of 8-bit console games

Pachicom
Hidden messages in the ROM of 8-bit console games (warning graphic language!)... Magweasel writes -

Programmers for 8-bit consoles, whether American, European or Japanese, stuck hidden messages — sometimes accessible, sometimes non- — in their games all the time. One of my favorite has always been the one thrown into Pachi-Com (パチコン), a very primitive pachinko simulation released for the Famicom in 1985 from Toshiba EMI. You can load the .NES ROM up in any hex editor to see a long message right at the top of the image, written in romaji
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Last weekend for MAKEcations

If you're thinking of taking a MAKEcation (learning to solder, hacking your cooler, or building a trebuchet), this weekend is your last chance! The long weekend will give you plenty of time to do a project, with time left over for the BBQ! Documentation is due next Wednesday, September 9 in the MAKE Flickr pool (tagged "MAKEcation").

Top prize in each category: $100 Maker Shed Gift Certificate

Runners up: The Best of MAKE or The Best of Instructables

Teach your family to solder:

Cooler hacking challenge:

Family trebuchet challenge:

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GPS beatmapping

Face Removal Services brings us the GPS Beatmap -

Looping musical phrases are represented on a map as overlapping circular territories. As the vehicle approaches the center of a circle, the volume increases. In areas of the map where territories overlap the vehicle generates dynamic mixes of the overlapping musical phrases. By exploring a very large map of many overlapping territories the Beatmap creates complex, dynamic mash-ups.

The map can be explored on foot, by plane, boat, train, or automobile. In this footage the map is explored by car on the Bonneville Salt Flats, allowing the user to freely accelerate, swerve, and slam to a stop for optimum musical control of the instrument.

A bit more description available on their site. [via CDM]

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Weekend Project: Mini Fume Extractor


Candy tin fume absorber helps keep your air clean and your lungs healthy.
Thanks go to Marc de Vinck for the original article in MAKE, Volume 19.
To download The Mini Fume Extractor click here or subscribe in iTunes.
Check out the complete Mini Fume Extractor article in MAKE, Volume 19
and you can see that in our Digital Edition.

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Weekend Project: Mini Fume Extractor (PDF)

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Candy tin fume absorber helps keep your air clean and your lungs healthy.
Thanks go to Marc de Vinck for the original article in MAKE, Volume 19.
View the PDF of this project. and then subscribe to MAKE Magazine for other great projects
you can do over the weekend.

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Ping-pong gun packs major punch!

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MAKE subscriber Ross sent us info on this rather powerful pneumatic ping-pong ball gun, built by Ron Kessinger and presented at Denver's Club Workshop -

You can think of this as a variation on a potato cannon, however his is built to run on compressed air, and it runs on much tighter tolerances.
[…]
It runs off of a compressed air line and a standard wall outlet. After firing a few "dry" rounds, he proceeded to shoot off a few (ok a LOT) of ping pong balls filled with water. These things might not weight a lot, but they are moving FAST. A sheet of drywall was no match for them, and even particle board failed spectacularly when faced by a 1" sphere of water.

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Dang! That'd make for one rough game of table tennis … a very short game as well - eep! =( For more pics, vids, and info, head over to the TINYenormous blog

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Firefighting ingenuity that can help save lives

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Central Florida firemen Jeff Ponds and Jimm Walsh have an ongoing section of their site vententersearch.com called "What's in your Pockets?" where they showcase some of the more interesting improvised tools of the trade sent in from readers.

[via Matt Billings]

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Arduino music player

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John has created something of an update to the music box with an Arduino Duemilanove

The disc is laser-printed on an HP LaserJet 4 (with duplexer) that I got from FreeCycle. It's a PostScript program that I run via The GIMP and then print as a 600dpi bit-map. The filled-in sectors on the inner three tracks are done with a Sharpie as required.

The clamp will be replaced by a hinge when I've finalised the location of the arm relative to the disc.

There are at least a few parts here that you could scavenge out of computer CD drives or scanners.

There's more coming: code, schematics, sample audio.

Related:

In the Maker Shed:

Makershedsmall

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Arduino Duemilanove

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Open source 'Frankencamera' is fully programmable!

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Computational photography researchers at Stanford have developed this open-source 'Frankencamera' using a sensor from a Nokia n95 cell phone, Canon camera lenses, and an ARM development board. Their goal is to create a future where your digital camera is no different than any other computer, and you can load new programs into it in order to change how it works. Of course, you can kind of do that now with Canon cameras by using CKDK, however their approach is from the ground up and should be much more versatile.

I love my Nikon camera, but I would love to be able to open it up and reprogram it at my bidding!

[via technabob]

More:

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Eyeborg


Eyeborg Press Parts2
This was making the rounds a couple months ago, but I don't think we posted it on MAKE - Rob Spence is a filmmaker who lost his eye and decided to replace it with a wireless video camera...


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