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62 Projects to Make with a Dead Computer by Randy Sarafan Book site: deadcomputerbook.com Buy on Amazon We all have old, broken, or otherwise junk electronics stashed away in our closets. Randy Sarafan’s 62 Projects to Make with a Dead Computer is just what it sounds like and much more, inspiring makers to repurpose mice, […]
Physics professor Kieran Mullen of OU apparently has a hard-and-fast rule against laptops in class. To drive the point home, he staged a public execution of one by freezing it in liquid nitrogen and smashing it against the floor, where its broken remains were left as a warning to others. Of course the whole thing is staged and the laptop in question was old and worthless, but hey, any excuse to freeze stuff with LN2 is OK with me.
Architect Alan Tansey of Brooklyn, NY traced his mouse movement for one day. Click the image to see it full-sized.
Jason Moungey of macetech dropped me an e-mail yesterday to let me know that the 9×9 RGB LED matrix table they were showing off at Maker Faire Bay Area 2009 (as shown above) has been upgraded with a Bluetooth shield that lets it receive tweets that control the display. Construction and programming details are available here, and there’s a live feed of the table here.
High-temperature superconductor (Yttrium barium copper oxide) floating in the magnetic field of Neodymium magnets. This phenomenon is called the Meißner-Ochsenfeld-Effect and was discovered in 1933. The superconductor has to be cooled with liquid nitrogen which has a temperature of 77 K or −196 °C. If it is placed in a strong magnetic field it remains in its position. It also works if you turn the track upside down
Flickr user llemarie wanted an easy way to upload programs to an Apple I replica computer that he was building, because typing them in by hand was tedious and error prone.
But this video of Penn State’s Breazeale nuclear reactor “pulsing” is the first time I’ve ever seen any moving pictures of the phenomenon, which are somehow way more impressive. And since this is a phenomenon few of us will ever have an opportunity to witness first-hand, the 15 seconds it takes to watch the video definitely count as time well spent in my book. Note how the blue glow persists for some time after the reactor itself has been shut off.
