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Computers & Mobile
The latest DIY ideas, techniques and tools for digital gadgetry, open code, smart hacks, and more. Processing power to the people!
Hand-built Cuban refugee boat
Spotted in the MAKE Flickr pool, from user huebner5000. He quotes an unnamed source:
This Cuban chug arrived Wednesday, December 16th, 2009. The chug held 17 Cubans who are now legal U.S. citizens. The chug, we were told, left Cuba at 5am December 14th and landed at Dry Tortugas at 2am December 16th.
It’s all made from scrap metal and junk. The hull, reportedly, is flattened corrugated roofing material. There’s one more picture here.
Custom ShapeLock GPS mount
Having a hard time figuring out how to affix your GPS unit to a secure spot on your dash? Crappy suction cup mounts always falling off? Sandbag mounts sliding around all over the place? If you don’t mind sticking things in your HVAC vents, you might consider trying something similar to this custom ShapeLock GPS mount from Portuguese maker Rui Cabral.
Phone Guitar kicks out the jams
Built for a presentation on mobile development for MobileCampBrussels, the Phone Guitar is an amalgam of five smartphones, three mobile platforms, three programing languages, two third-party apps, a custom cross-platform sequencer app, a stick, some battery powered speakers, and plenty of duct tape.
How-to: Avoid “Facebook malware”
Nice tip spotted in the BB comments for avoiding “Facebook malware” – In Firefox, install AdBlock plus, add these filters (above). Now you can browse the web without Facebook installing applications you don’t want or sharing information with sites you do not want information shared with, or at least only ones you choose. This will […]
iPad: Will it shred?
By now we all know that the iPad does indeed blend. But does it shred? Built to Shred host Jeff King and pro Chad Knight put the iPad through it’s paces. Does the iPad shred? You’ll just have to watch the video to find out.
Google makes french fries with a potato cannon
This is just a commercial, really, but it’s pretty entertaining. Google advertisers wanted to push their whole “Chrome is fast” angle and so they set up and filmed a series of “tests” where they trigger some fast real-world event and load a page in Chrome at the same moment. Guess which process finishes first every time? Yeah, OK, that was an easy one. It’s hardly “science”–not even the watered-down television kind–but it is, in fact, fairly amusing to watch a potato get blasted through a fry-cutter and into a vat of cooking oil. They also spray paint onto a giant ear model using acoustic waves and zap a tiny pirate ship with a Tesla coil. The making-of video is recommendable, as well. [Thanks, Alan Dove!]
