Computers & Mobile

The latest DIY ideas, techniques and tools for digital gadgetry, open code, smart hacks, and more. Processing power to the people!

Beautiful element photography on Wikimedia Commons

Beautiful element photography on Wikimedia Commons

I have been reading the Picture of the Day feed from Wikimedia Commons for about a month, now, and it is fast becoming one of the best parts of my daily newsreader experience. Every day there’s a gorgeous new publicly-licensed photograph pre-selected for quality by a vote amongst Wikimedia community members.

That’s how I happened upon the work of German inorganic chemist and photographer alchemist-hp (English-language page). She or he takes amazing photographs of element, mineral, and chemical samples and has a stated goal (badly translated by yours truly) “to create special pictures of all naturally occurring elements.”

Continue Reading Sean Michael Ragan2
Printable mechanical CFL dimmer idea

Printable mechanical CFL dimmer idea

Interesting concept from Thingiverse user 12meyer. All kinds of potential problems here, so this is more of the “way to think outside the box” kind of shout-out than the “where can I invest in your start-up” kind. One can, of course, dim fluorescent bulbs electrically, but it turns out to be kind of a PITA. The idea here is to exploit the spiral shape of the bulb itself to make an opaque cover that screws on or off to block more or less light, respectively.

Continue Reading Sean Michael Ragan6
Collin’s Lab: DIY iPad Stylus

Collin’s Lab: DIY iPad Stylus

http://blog.stage.makezine.com/archive/2010/05/collins_lab_diy_ipad_stylus.html

Fingertip input is great for most touchscreen usage like typing, web-browsing – all sorts of virtual button-pushing tasks. But for many people, drawing remains an activity best approached with a pen, pencil, brush, etc.

With a bit of conductive foam and wire, it’s surprisingly easy to make your own conductive stylus, suitable for use with iPhone, iPad and similar conductive touchscreen devices – and you’ll likely find it a lot more precise compared to regular fingertip input.

Continue Reading Makemagazineuser

Automatic coop door opener

The latest issue of MAKE, Volume 22, contains an automated chicken coop door opener project, by Alan Graham (Portland, OR). My geek BFF, Jeri Ellsworth, sent me a link to another, clever remote-controlled coop opener, put together by her friend “Slinky.” It uses a $5 power drill as the door winch and a Seeduino as […]

Continue Reading Gareth Branwyn4