Amateur Boat Building
Gary writes “This site has project information for amateur boat builders. This sounds particularly fun–The infinite modular sharpie: “TIMS (The Infinite Modular Sharpie) is an idea that has been around for a couple of years: Basically the idea is someone builds a bow and stern unit, then at a messabout, a number of people bring “middle” sections, and the whole thing is strung into a single boat.” I Googled “messabout,” and it’s “A Messabout is a gathering of amateur boat builders and lovers where YOU get to see and usually try out many different amateur built boats.” Link.
Coding Duck writes “MANGA is a series of the network products of PePLink. I am now working as an software engineer in this company. Someday I realized that I have a lot of spared MANGAs under my table. Some of they are manufacturing phototypes, engineering samples or units with outlook defects. Therefore, I desired to get some (as much as) funs from our MANGAs. MANGA system is originally designed for networking, but we think it can be more. Lets record our ideas of “how to abuse your own products” 
Sydney small business owner Eddy Stevens has won a four-year legal battle against Sony, with the High Court ruling that modding of PlayStation consoles is legal. The decision has far-reaching implications for consumers and the manufacturers of computer games. Mod chips allow gamers to ignore manufacturers’ regional coding systems and run cheaper games – made for markets outside Australia – on their consoles. 
Xbox modification has come a long way in the past couple years. With the introduction of the TSOP mod, potential modders no longer had to shell out money for a modchip; rather just bridge two points on the Xbox motherboard. Now one doesn’t even have to open up his Xbox. Welcome to the world of soft modding. Using code exploits in certain games, a user is able to load a phony gamesave that will boot into a Linux based operating system and allow a user to mod his Xbox… in under ten minutes. 
Two German students have invented a beer mat, or coaster, that uses sensor chips to determine when the beer glass it supports is empty and then radios the bartender for a refill. One of the students interviewed for the story suggested that lifting mugs from sensing mats could double as a voting system during karaoke competitions. [
If you’re in Europe Oct 17-20 join us at the MAKE Faire At 
If a household ladder is extended with a melodic function, it will develop into a real musical instrument. The ordinary ladder transforms into a soundladder. Stepping on a bar of the ladder creates a sound or tone which is different from rung to rung. So you can create a piece of music by stepping up and down on the ladder. Together with a partner you can even play a duet. 