Blog Title: MAKE: Blog

HOW TO - Make a "Smart Coaster"

Never burn your mouth on a hot drink again...

No matter your poison -- coffee, tea, hot chocolate, sake -- take a gulp too soon out of the pot and chances are good that you'll burn your mouth. But build this Smart Coaster and you'll always know when it's safe to sip.

According to my thermometer, common coffee brewers produce a cup of perfect coffee that is positively molten to the tongue, at 71ºC. Even as this marvelous beverage fills your room-temperature cup, temps can still reach a blistering 58ºC. Finally, after a couple of minutes cooling, your coffee is safe to drink, at a lukewarm 47ºC.

A simple circuit consisting of a thermistor, a special low-power operational amplifier (op amp) IC, an LED, and a couple of passive components will enable us to safely monitor the temperature of our coffee cup. Bundle this circuit inside a round metal container (metal helps conduct the cup's heat to the circuit) and you have a Smart Coaster.

Mini Monsters at Maker Faire Austin - CRAFT Video Podcast

Download the MP4 Video or HD Version | Subscribe to CRAFT in iTunes | mov | 3g2

I caught up with craftzine blogger and Austin local Rachel Hobson at Maker Faire Austin 2008, where she gave a demo on making the Mini Monsters from CRAFT:06. These fun little creatures, invented by Moxie, are unique and full of the personality you give them. This is a very kid-friendly project, and you can buy the Mini Monster Kit in the Maker Shed. Don't forget that all craft kits are 10% off until the end of November using promo code CRAFTER.

Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Kits | Digg this!

Perspectives - interviews without words

Perspectives, interviews with all the dialog removed via Waxy.

Bus Pirate - universal serial interface

Ian Lesnet sent in a link to his Bus Pirate project, a universal bus adapter that lets you interface with most standard integrated circuit serial protocols at different voltages - all from you PC's serial port. The idea is that you can debug, test, and prototype ideas a lot faster if you don't have to breadboard an interface circuit every time you work with a new chip.

the bus pirate is a serial terminal bridge to multiple ic interface protocols. we type commands into a serial terminal on the computer. the commands go to the bus pirate through the pc serial port. the bus pirate talks to a microchip in the proper protocol, and returns the results to the pc.

all pins output 3.3volts, but are 5volt tolerant. on-board 3.3volt and 5volt power supplies are available to power the connected chip. software configurable i2c pull-up resistors complete the package.

the serial terminal interface works with any system: pc, mac, linux, palm pilots, wince devices, etc; no crapware required. we considered a usb device, but usb isn't compatible with the huge number of hand-held devices that have a serial port. we also wanted a 3.3volt device with 5volt tolerant inputs, but most popular through-hole usb microcontollers were 5volt parts (e.g. the pic18fx550).

The device supports i2c, spi, uart/serial, and raw 2-wire and 3-wire. It looks like a pretty handy little tool, and Ian has included all the information you need to build one of your own.

The Bus Pirate

Eric Wilhelm on WCBS-AM and NPR

Eric J. Wilhelm, of Instructables, will be on NPR's "Weekend Edition Saturday" and WCBS-AM 880 this coming Monday to talk about The Best of Instructables for a holiday gift-themed program.

The airtime for "Weekend Edition Saturday" will vary by market. The WCBS-AM program will air on 11/24 at 10:20 am, 11:40 am, 12:20pm, 1:40 pm, and 2:20 pm (all times ET). You can listen to it live at http://www.wcbs880.com/

Also, you can log onto NPR.org/gifts at 1:30pm ET tomorrow for a live chat featuring Eric talking about ECO-nomical holiday gifts!

Best Of Instructables Instructables.com has become one of the most popular magnets for makers and DIY enthusiasts of all stripes. Now, with more than 10,000 projects to choose from, the Instructables staff, the editors of MAKE magazine, and the Instructables community itself have put together a collection of some of the best craft and tech how-to's from the site. The Best of Instructables Volume 1 includes plenty of clear, full-color photos, complete step-by-step instructions, and tips, tricks, and new build techniques you won't find anywhere else. Over 300 pages and 120 projects!

Papervision augmented reality in Flash

Papervision - Augmented Reality (extended) from dpinteractive on Vimeo.

I tried it out and it was very impressed by the speed and accuracy of the motion tracking (he did flicker a bit and have problems when my lights were too bright, so be prepared to work a bit to make him happy). This is a Flash implementation of augmented reality created by Digital Pictures Interactive; all it takes is your web browser, a webcam, and a printed marker symbol. Now, would it kill the little guy to smile every once in a while?!

It seems to be based on the ARToolKit developed by Dr. Hirokazu Kato of the University of Washington.

I enjoy Augmented Reality much more than Virtual Reality because 99% of the AR environment is the real world in all of its infinitely detailed glory and I can accept a few lower fidelity objects overlaid here and there. Even the highest quality VR worlds still feel much less than real in a way that usually pulls me out of the experience.

via BoingBoing Offworld

Greener Gadgets 2009

Mary Lou Jepsen with XO Laptop, via Inhabitat

GREENER GADGETS 2009

WHAT: The Second Annual Greener Gadgets Conference is a revolutionary event and exhibition promoting the importance of environmental stewardship in consumer technology innovation. This one day conference brings together electronics industry leaders, entrepreneurs, journalists and designers to address key green topics including sustainable design and lifestyles, product marketing, energy efficiency and more.

The event also will feature the Greener Gadgets Design Competition, an awards program to recognize forward thinking and eco-conscious designers for their hard work, environmental awareness and creativity.

Greener Gadgets offers an excellent platform for environmental discussion and serves as an opportunity to visualize the potential for a greener CE industry.

WHEN: Friday, February 27, 2009

WHERE: McGraw-Hill Conference Center, New York, NY

No speakers announced yet, but "Last year's keynoters included electronics engineer Mary Lou Jepsen of PixelQi and One Laptop Per Child, environmental photo artist Chris Jordan, and digital artist and inventor Natalie Jeremijenko."

Pete Drake's talking guitar

Musician/producer Pete Drake performs his song "Forever" with his steel guitar through a classic talkbox. A surreal and beautiful performance - the talkbox in use here is cool in and of itself!

The freestanding design with handle is inspiring and simple talkboxes are pretty easy to make. [via Boing Boing]

More:

HOW TO - build a talk box

The Sonovox - a retro Peter Frampton "Talk Box"

Steampunk mobile phone

Silly, but nonetheless cool, steampunk telephone. The coolest thing is the punch cards you use to call a number. Okay, that's also the silliest thing about it. As Apartment Therapy says, it would give new meaning to the term "calling card." I hope one of those dials displays signal strength.

Steampunk Cell Phone Takes Tech Backwards

Vegetable Instrument Workshop

Yes I hereby proclaim this to be International Vegetable Music Week!

Tyler of Oddinstrument shared pics from his Vegetable Instrument Workshop at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore. Attendees produced a number of auditory organics including a cucumber saxophone, coconut/carrot slide trumpet, and the butternut squash drum machine.

More:
Vegetable Orchestra performs
&
Carved carrot clarinet

PMC jewelry workshop

Julie is a teacher down the hall from me. From time to time she and other teachers offer workshops to other teachers after school. Over the past couple of days, she has showed ten colleagues from the science, special education, history, administration and art how to work with PMC, Precious Metal Clay.

Julie talked a bit about the fun of working with PMC as the workshop wound down.

PMC is a quick way to express yourself in metal. You can do everything with it, people are amazed at how easy it is and how quickly they can make something really beautiful. It's not intimidating. I think anyone can do it. You can teach a nine year old how to work creatively with it.

Together they made a whole mess of neat designs with the clay. Some people used molds that Julie made from shells, rocks, coins, buttons and lots of other cool found objects. Some made their own designs by rolling out the PMC and removing or adding material. When the clay dries to its green state, then gets touched up to remove any imperfections and strengthen the shape.

Once they are pretty much dried, they are then fired them in the kiln at high temperature between 1110 - 1830 degrees, depending and a hold time from 10 minutes to 2 hours, depending on the type of metals. When they come out, they look pretty much the same as when they went in, but after they are burnished and sanded, they come out to be a nice silver object.

There are a lot of places to get PMC, mostly from catalogs or online. Julie really speaks highly about her interactions with Whole Lotta Whimsy.

Have you used PMC? Do you have any experiences in teaching creative techniques to people? Post your thoughts in the comments!

Animated time/temp RGB matrix display

Nick Hall's made this very excellent time & temperature display - complete with weather animations -

The project uses 4 RGB LED Matrix Modules from Sparkfun Electronics, and is controlled by an Arduino microprocessor board with 16k RAM and Ethernet shield for internet connectivity to get time and weather data.

The Arduino and LED modules made it pretty easy to stick together. I just need to find a cool box to put it in.

I am working on getting it scrolling tweets and messages!

Windows Embedded CE Spark Your Imagination contest

In March of 2008, the Windows Embedded Group launched the SPARK Your Imagination program. This was the first hobbyist-focused program for the Windows Embedded product family. Before the SPARK program, the software cost $1000 per seat and you had to go through a distributor to get it. Not very friendly to weekend code warriors and hard to compete with free/Linux hobbyist software.

On Oct 27th (just a few weeks back), Microsoft launched a contest to bring attention to the SPARK program. The contest is entitled SPARKs Will Fly. It is based on the same concept as The Imagine Cup in that it is round-based and built around a theme; in this case the theme is “Build the home of the future.” Microsoft will advance 50 people to Round 2 and give each of them a VIA Pico-ITX Artigo board ($500 worth of kit) to develop their idea. Microsoft will select 3 finalist from this 50. They’ll compete on stage at ESC Silicon Valley 2009 for the top prize. The winner takes home $15,000. Check it out, I hope a Maker wins!

TGIMBOEJ: robot edition

The fine folks at Robots.net have started up a robot-friendly version of EMS Labs' TGIMBOEJ (The Great Internet Migratory Box of Electronic Junk) project. Looks like there's some juicy junk in there. I definitely have some amazing robot parts to add. Hell, I got bots I could toss in the box. Semi-cannibalized B.I.O.-Bugs, anyone?

TGIMBOEJ for DIY Roboticists Launched!

More:

• Catching up with TGIMBOEJ
• TGIMBOEJ has a wiki
• TGIMBOEJ withdrawal & deposit
• TGIMBOEJ video tour

Guerilla gardening

Graffiti doesn't have to be destructive or polluting, I'm seeing a new trend in eco-graffiti or "guerilla gardening" that's gaining traction. Here're a few examples:

Edina Tokodi (aka Mosstika) interview on Wooster Collective

Manual for City Farming Plant Modules by N55

If you've got a favorite example of guerilla gardening, please post it in the comments!

HOW TO - sponge hat

I suffer from a serious lack of fancy hats, but thanks to instructables user Rine, I can get my fine millinery supplies at the local grocery store and make a fancy hat from sponges.

Branching Out

Hey Makers, This is David J. Neff and you may know me as the MAKE Halloween blogger, but after meeting all the guys and gal from MAKE at Maker Faire Austin 2008 they thought I should join the party that's still going on. So I have been asked to build some of the kits from the Maker Shed and document how hard or easy they are to make along with some tips. Now I have made Halloween props for several years but none of those as complicated as some of the stuff in the Maker Shed. So tune in as an average guy takes on some truly cool projects. Feel free to leave me comments or shortcuts as I build and post projects.My first project was the LED Clock.

Best of GeekDad - LEGO, RPGs, Back to the Future and more...

Here ya go, best of GeekDad for the week!

How to Become a LEGO Millionaire
The economy may be in the tank, but collectors of rare goods will always be doing well when there are obsessed people in need of special pieces. And that includes LEGO.

A Starter Guide to Roleplaying With Kids
One dad shares his path to raising his kids in the proper geeky manner: by starting them on tabletop RPGs early.

GeekDad Holiday Gift Guide #3: Kids' Gadgets & Videogames
Need suggestions for your geeklings' holiday gifts? We're on it!

Taking the Kids Back to the Future
Sharing the movies that made us geeks with our kids.

Put on Your Game Face: Nintendo Miis vs. Microsoft Avatars Ultimate Smackdown
This week Microsoft introduced avatars into their online world. How do they stack up against the Wii's roly-poly Mii's?

Sneakey: copy keys from photos

Via Discovery News:

Scientists in California have developed a software algorithm that automatically creates a physical key based solely on a picture of one, regardless of angle or distance. The project, called Sneakey, was meant to warn people about the dangers of haphazardly placing keys in the open or posting images of them online.
...
When Savage and his students searched online photo sharing Web sites, like Flickr, they easily found thousands of photos of keys with enough definition to replicate. A more social person could simply use their cell phone camera to snap a quick picture of stray keys on a table top.
...
the researchers set up a camera with a zoom lens 200 feet away. Using those photos, they created a working key 80 percent on their first try. Within three attempts they opened every lock.

Check out the researcher's site here, where you can learn more and read their paper: "Reconsidering Physical Key Secrecy: Teleduplication via Optical Decoding."

So, if I'm understanding this correctly, you could have a camera with zoom hundreds of feet away from a door and leave it recording. If you've achieved the right angle, you could capture a few frames of the key pre-insertion-into-the-door that let you then make your own copy!

Maker Faire Austin 2008 - Kids Stuff

Maker Faire is fun for the entire family. There are plenty of things to make and hands-on activities for all ages. Take a look at some of the highlights and make plans to attend the next Maker Faire.
To download Maker Faire Austin 2008 - Kids MP4 click here or subscribe in iTunes.

More Weekend Projects are on the way.

LEGO Style

The Brothers Brick pointed out this amazing CGI animation of a LEGO fashion show by Fabrice Pathier (Four H). The clip features designs by Jean-Charles de Castelbajac.

Laser cut & animated Muybridge horses

Another nice "Things" video from Bre - laser cut animated horses!

Bit Blob buzzes & bleeps bigtime

Bleep Labs and Loud Objects have joined forces to bring the noise in the form of Bit Blob "the first being of pure noise" -

The Bit Blob is a digital noise maker that's controlled by connecting its contacts together, allowing you to bend your way through unlimited sonic madness. You can also connect LEDs, audio outputs, or other Bit Blobs between control pins.

Only 30 will be made for this holiday season.

More:

ThingamaKIT

Loud Objects Noise Toy kit

PC blasts off into outer space

Here's a really impressive PC mod in the shape of the Millenium Falcon from the Star Wars films. Check out the step-by-step build pictures at the link below.

Star Wars Case Mod

Music maker's gift guide

Musicians know how important it is to add a personal touch to their instruments - and really what better way to make something personal than to actually make it yourself? There are a number of very cool kits for sound-makers out there, from circuit-benders, to serious synthesizers. Here are some great gift ideas for those interested in crafting their own sounds.


Mini-Theremin kit - The theremin, invented in 1919 by Russian scientist Leon Theremin, is one of the world's earliest fully electronic instruments, and is also unique in that it was the first musical instrument designed to be played without being touched. The eerie, other-worldly tones as heard in the films mentioned above are created by the proximity of the player's hands to the metal antennas, with the resulting radio frequency interference being transformed into musical tones. Instructions are in Japanese but features highly detailed assembly pictures, sorry no English translation at this time. Easy to build and play!
price $29.95

Entire NES stuffed into its cartridge kinda makes you cry

This amazing mod crams an entire Nintendo Entertainment System from the 80s into one of it's cartridges complete with power and reset buttons, controller ports and composite video and audio output jacks. This is equivalent to the gaming version of the "clown car" where there is so much stuffed into such a small physical area that it's pretty hard to understand how this could work.

via Technabob

DIY Bicycle tire chains

Winter is upon us, and if you ride your bike to work you may want to think about making your own tire chains. This project doesn't look too hard to make, and I bet they would add a lot of safety to that cold morning commute.

More about DIY Bicycle tire chains [bikecommuters]

Lunch bag art

This dad makes his kid's lunch... and art on the lunch bags each day.

Anthony's busted ipod

After school today, Matt and Anthony came in with Anthony's busted Ipod Video. They asked me how good I was at fixing iPods. Never having been inside an iPod before, I replied, "well let's see what you've got." It appears that the back came off the ipod, and now it was bricked. Anthony was pretty upset, wondering if all his songs would be missing, and what he would do without his beloved tunebox. It would not power up at all. He showed how it could be opened by grabbing at it with his nails and separating the back. so much for specialized antimar tools.

We did a few searches on replacing ipod batteries. One page that looked promising turned out to be about the wrong generation. Not knowing which model it was, we looked up the various models to get the generation right. His turned out to be a 5th gen iPod.

Next we needed to know what to expect inside. I could see a couple of ribbon cables that appeared to have just pulled out of their fittings. If they could be placed properly back into their slots, that would be fine. They needed to go back into place in such a way that the back could actually be reattached.

Inside, there was a bunch of cool stuff. The 80gig hard drive was incredibly small. I couldn't believe how much capacity could be stuffed into such a small package. The screen was neat too. Real thin, backlight coming from the top. There was some foam and spacers in there to keep things from flopping around. Everything was held together with ribbon cables.

The ribbon cables would be fine as long as they did not get torn. I found the fitting for one of them on the side, and saw that there was a flip latch to hold it together. After securing that one, the next was the one at the bottom. We got it to go into the slot, clicked the case together and hit the power button. About this time, Anthony got about his 50th text message of our short session. The Ipod would not fire up. Anthony was upset. Then his father called. He explained that he was in the middle of fixing his iPod. There was some discussion of Best Buy and their warrantee policy. I was pretty sure that there was no chance of this relic being still covered.

While they were talking, I cracked the thing open again and took a look at the second fitting, down near the charger port. It was stiffer, with reinforcement of a piece of white plastic. I figured that it had to be that the fitting was not all the way in. I used my Warrantee Voider to get the ribbon into the fitting all the way. Once I got it running, I showed it to him, and he reported happily to Dear Old Dad that all was well.

On looking at the catches on the case, we could see that one of them was more worn than the rest. I figured that it would be good for a while, but it would eventually pull apart, so I suggested that we make a skin for his newly functioning Ipod. He said he had nothing planned, but I could tell that now that his iPod was running, his daily routine was about to resume. We didn't have a whole lot of time.

First we looked up the dimensions for the 5th generation iPod. The thing I was looking for was a good, full dimension drawing that I could use to make the image for the skin. I wanted to make it so that the sticker on the front would reach over to the back and hold the two together. The image and dimensions did not jump out of the browser at me, so we grabbed a ruler and went over to the computer to design up a skin.

We used CutStudio, which comes bundled with the Roland CAMM1. I don't like the software much, but it ports right to the cutter. Once you have the thing designed, you can only cut it, I have not been able to find a way to export it for editing in a more powerful program like Gimp or Inkscape.

Rather than having him do the design work, I chose to do it myself. His texts and calls were coming with increasing frequency, and I knew word had gotten out that he no longer had an excuse to be absent from his pressing duties. We had to work fast. A couple of quick measurements, some alignment of shapes, and the overall design was done. To add tabs to the sides so they would reach over the back, I had to trace over the outline and duplicate most of the shape. Anthony was impressed that it was possible to design something that was so close to the outline of his beloved.

When I sent the file to the cutter, it was done in a few seconds. He couldn't believe it when I showed it to him. Then we weeded it and put it on transfer tape. It took a few tries to get it onto the iPod squarely, but eventually it went on fine. In looking at it, I told him that it wasn't such a great fit, and looked kind of unprofessional, but would keep the back from falling off. I invited him to come back on Monday to make a better looking skin, maybe with a picture that he made on it as well.

He cruised out the door about 45 minutes after coming into my room for the first time ever, happy as can be with his resurrected iPod in one hand and buzzing phone in the other. Problem solved.

Do you have tales of repairs and making things right? How about advice on how to get the right patterns for skins to fit various models of phones or audio players? Would you like to make new skins for your laptop, digicam or even dashboard? Share your ideas in the comments or add pictures and video to the Make Flickr pool.

Build an Easy 5 x 5 Home Greenhouse for under $25

This is a nice instructable about making a really inexpensive green house. This is a great solution for keeping your plants warm for the winter. Check out the link for a step-by-step tutorial and video.

More about Building an Easy 5 x 5 Home Greenhouse for under $25

iPhone 2.2 update - download podcasts directly! Map enhancements

The new iPhone update is pretty good - the maps app has street view, public transit - but best of all you can now download podcasts over Wi-Fi and wireless. I've been doing podcasts in some manner for over 5 years and this is what I've been waiting for!

This update contains many bug fixes and improvements, including the following: * Enhancements to Maps -Google Street View -public transit and walking directions -display address of dropped pins -share location via email * Enhancements to Mail -resolved isolated issues with Schedule fetching of email * Improved stability and performance of Safari * Podcasts are now available for download in iTunes application (over Wi-Fi and cellular network) * Decrease in call set-up failures and drops * Improved sound quality of visual voicemail messages * Pressing the Home button from any Home screen takes you to the first Home screen * Preference to turn on/off auto-correction in Keyboard Settings

Pitch shifting with a "Voice Changer" kit

This is an interesting hack of a "voice changer" kit. I really like the sounds so far, and I think know it can be hacked a lot more. It would be cool to stuff this in a project box and add a few more hacking controls.

More about Pitch shifting with a "Voice Changer" kit

In the Maker Shed:


DIY Design Electronics Kit

Purely Platonic - A Primer @ MAKE

Dodecahedron Table Lamp by Charles Platt. Have fun with classic Platonic geometry while building your own dodecahedron table lamp. Page 164 - MAKE 11. Read this article now in the MAKE digital edition.

Or get MAKE 11 from the Maker store and/or subscribe to MAKE (use code CMAKE for $5 off USD).

You can view all our in depth Primers from MAKE here too.

Solar Power System Design - A Primer @ MAKE
Solering and Desoldering - A Primer @ MAKE
HOW TO - Make printed circuit boards - A Primer @ MAKE
Welding - A Primer @ MAKE
Microcontroller Programming - A Primer @ MAKE
Sensor interfaces - A Primer @ MAKE
MIDI control - A Primer @ MAKE
Moldmaking by MythBuster Adam Savage - A Primer @ MAKE
Working with carbon fiber - A Primer @ MAKE

Youtube in 720p HD - viewing and embedding

Last week I mentioned that adding &fmt=18 to a Youtube URL, or &ap=%2526fmt%3D18 to the embed code URLs allows you to view and embed Youtube clips in nice looking 480x360 resolution, encoded with the H.264 codec. The result is a much better playback experience than the standard 320x240 sorenson encoded clips, but a post today on webmonkey gives us another tweak that can produce even better results for some videos.

Above is an example of Collin Cunningham's brilliant LED investigation in high def.

By changing that fmt variable to &fmt=22 or tacking on &ap=%2526fmt%3D22 to the embed URLs—that's right, turn it up twice past 11—Youtube will kick out compatible videos at a whopping 720p resolution.

Here's some example embed code:

<object width="600" height="362"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/P3PDLsJQcGI&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&ap=%2526fmt%3D22"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/P3PDLsJQcGI&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&ap=%2526fmt%3D22" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="600" height="362"></embed></object>

The only downside to embedding videos this way is that it really raises the bandwidth requirement for viewers. On my home connection, it can take several seconds before the video begins playback, and depending on how well my wireless is behaving, it's not uncommon that the download rate will be slower thank playback, requiring quite a bit of pre-buffering. On the other hand, some videos are just worth the wait.

How To: Watch YouTube Movies in Full 720p HD Glory

duiPhone - iPhone breathalyzer

Andrew writes -

Our favorite new iPhone hack, the duiPhone, will let you know for sure whether you should hand the car keys to a friend after a long night in the bar… Once you blow into the mouthpiece, the application will determine your blood alcohol level - either telling you you’re good to go, or that you should consider calling a cab. We built this from a store-bought-and-hacked breathalyzer attached to a 3G iPhone - our first experiment with Tellart’s newest Sketchtool: NADA Mobile. Yes, this video was taken at our office. Yes, those are real 40s on the table.

Make Tokyo Meeting 02

MAKE: Tokyo Meeting 02 was held on 11/8 at Tokyo's Tama Art University, and the MAKE: Japan events just keep getting bigger, better, and wonderfully wilder. Here are a few highlights gleaned from the massive influx of pictures, video, and bloggings that this event inspired.

Here's a video featuring four particularly awesome things from the meeting:
・Make: hat
・Air canon
・iPhone radio-controlled model car
・Homemade tank

Click through to see more!

100 tons of paint

The coloured dome took Spanish artist Miquel Barcelo more than a year to produce, using 100 tons of paint with pigments from all over the world... - Wow!

Banana passenger seat

I dig this sweet bike hack. You'd want to be pretty confident in the tubing stability and mounting hardware before offering a ride to anyone you like. It is acceptable to require that they wear tube socks.

What happy people don’t do - Watch TV?

What happy people don’t do - Watch TV... I wonder if the Cornfield Electronics paid for this study? :)

Happy people spend a lot of time socializing, going to church and reading newspapers — but they don’t spend a lot of time watching television, a new study finds.

That’s what unhappy people do.

Although people who describe themselves as happy enjoy watching television, it turns out to be the single activity they engage in less often than unhappy people, said John Robinson, a professor of sociology at the University of Maryland and the author of the study, which appeared in the journal Social Indicators Research.

While most large studies on happiness have focused on the demographic characteristics of happy people — factors like age and marital status — Dr. Robinson and his colleagues tried to identify what activities happy people engage in. The study relied primarily on the responses of 45,000 Americans collected over 35 years by the University of Chicago’s General Social Survey, and on published “time diary” studies recording the daily activities of participants.

“We looked at 8 to 10 activities that happy people engage in, and for each one, the people who did the activities more — visiting others, going to church, all those things — were more happy,” Dr. Robinson said. “TV was the one activity that showed a negative relationship. Unhappy people did it more, and happy people did it less.”

More:

Super TV-B-Gone kit, the happy maker. A great beginner kit to get started in electronics, hack it, mod it, be happy.

Hacking at Random

Hacking at Random has set a date and location for what sounds like a rather worthwhile conference:

Hacking at Random

International technology & security conference. Four days of technology, ideological debates and hands-on tinkering.

On August 13-16, 2009 the 20th anniversary edition of the four-yearly Dutch outdoor technology-conference will take place near Vierhouten, NL.

What is HAR?
Since 1989 the international community that builds the internet has been getting together on a series of conferences to discuss the state of contemporary technology, the future of it and the sociological and political consequences of their work. The participants vary from students and people with personal interests to researchers, scientists and entrepreneurs who are widely recognized as the best in their field.

The atmosphere is friendly and relaxed, the average level of knowledge is high and outside of the official lectures the site is buzzing with energy, ideas and projects. The New York Times likened the 1997 edition to a "Woodstock for Hackers". We do our best to keep that atmosphere.

Woodstock for Hackers? I'm drooling already:)

The sound of dying drives

MAKE publisher and BoingBoing guest blogger Dale Dougherty points out this collection of unhappy hard drive sound clips you may be all too familiar with.

These are the last words of devices which will hopefully find new life as wind chimes clocks and more good stuff. Could be fun to build a percussive sample set out of these! [via BoingBoing]

More:

The Sound of Data

&

PIC digital clock project

Punkky is a watch enthusiast from Japan. On his blog, PIC Microcontroller Note, he's documenting the built of a 7-Segment PIC Digital Clock using the PIC16F628A MCU. It's his first MCU project. After working the kinks out on breadboards, he etched and hand-routed a board (he'll share the Eagle file with others if you ask).

Making a Digital Clock

On the death and 441-year life of the pixel

Pixel-based typography from 1567 - On the death and 441-year life of the pixel via DF.

The struggle to adequately render letterforms on a pixel grid is a familiar one, and an ancient one as well: this bitmap alphabet is from La Vera Perfettione del Disegno di varie sorte di ricami, an embroidery guide by Giovanni Ostaus published in 1567. Renaissance ‘lace books’ have much to offer the modern digital designer, who also faces the challenge of portraying clear and replicable images in a constrained environment.

iTunes U offers a wealth of free info

The iTunes U category @ the iTunes store gathers together a ton of free and interesting educational vids on a variety of topics including - engineering, mathematics, science, and much more - iTunes U

More:

Interactive electronics learning online!

How to make it, Science and Invention, Electric Experimenter & Practical Electronics covers

How to make it & Science and Invention covers... absolutely stunning.

But wait, there's more!

Electric Experimenter.

Practical Electronics!