HOW TO – Fix your old NES
DIY live has some good tips on fixing that old NES “I took apart my nintendo, and found the 72 pin connector. I took my smallest flat head screw-driver and pried every pin up a little. Over time, they had lost their springiness (I don’t know if that is a word, but it describes what I am talking about). This is a pretty good fix. It may not be the best, but it works. Another thing to help out is to clean the pins of your old cartridge. You can take a wooden pencil with the red eraser, and rub it on the pins of the cartridge. Make sure you get all of the eraser off of the cartridge.” Thanks Star! Link.
A few folks emailed about this, so here’s one I spotted – “This is a small wireless sensor platform providing a bluetooth SPP link to three axes of accelerometer data. The accelerometers are sampled by a PIC microcontroller (onboard ADC) at roughly 100Hz (rate can be changed via firmware). Data from the ADC conversion is sent to a remote computer using the PIC’s UART in conjunction with a drop-in bluetooth serial part. Even with two dual-axis accelerometers onboard there are up to 17 free I/O lines and two additional ADC channels depending on the device configuration. Three sockets provide access to all PIC signals. Over-the-air programming allows for easy firmware updates and rapid prototyping without the need to have a PIC programmer or special cable. Schematics, parts lists, and firmware sources are available online.” 
Handy how to from Bob Bilson on Instructables “Need to ship out something, but you don’t have a shipping box? Check out the copy machine. Grab an empty copy paper box and follow these instructions.” 
Remember 
It looks like lending out video games at libraries works, this is very encouraging I think…John Scalzo writes – “It has been one year since the “Great Video Game Experiment” was started at the public library where I work. And in those twelve months I’d have to say it has gone as good as anyone could have hoped. In the end, the numbers don’t lie, and a success is all this experiment can be called.” [
Nextbrick has a great LEGO project from Tom Johnson – “This is an orrery I made to help explain to my children why we have so much light in the summer and not nearly enough in the winter (we live in Alaska). No attempt was made to get relative sizes, distances, or the orbit periods correct. Rather, this model shows the inclination of the earth’s axis and why it causes the seasons.” 
