Add content-appropriate ambient lighting to your computer with AmbilightUSB
Mike Shatohin wrote in to share his AmbilightUSB project, which is a re-make of Philip’s Ambilight technology.
Computers & Mobile
The latest DIY ideas, techniques and tools for digital gadgetry, open code, smart hacks, and more. Processing power to the people!
MAKE magazine physical easter egg finally discovered
It took five years, but a reader–specifically Flickr user Tom Arthur–finally figured out the secret feature we designed into the magazine, oh very much definitely on purpose, back in 2005: It’s sized to fit perfectly inside a classic NES case. Tom is now the only reader able to equip the Soldering Iron of 1000 Truths. Congrats! [Thanks, Tom!]
Glass lens doorknob gives preview of room beyond
Probably not all doors should offer previews, all the time, but this is undeniably wonderful. As it is, the knob offers bi-directional viewing; I wonder if you could half-silver one side and make it one-way? Johnny Strategy at Spoon & Tomago writes:
In conjunction with Design Tide Tokyo, architect Hideyuki Nakayama – a protégé of Toyo Ito -　has teamed up with UNION, a manufacturer of door handles and levers, to create a glass globe doorknob. As you approach the doorknob you catch a glimpse of what appears to be another world, waiting for you to enter and join, but in fact is a reflection of the room on the other side of the door.
[via Gizmodo]
Willow Garage PR2 controlled with Kinect
The OpenKinect windfall keeps rolling in. The folks over at Willow Garage look like they’ve been having a blast developing an improvised teleoperation system and generally riffing on all the wonderful possibilities inspired by the Microsoft Kinect controller and OpenKinect driver.
How a coffee maker moves and heats water with no moving parts
OK, almost no moving parts. Practically no moving parts.
I never expected to be able to appreciate my cheap Wal-Mart coffee maker for anything other than its price tag Once again, Bill Hammack has managed to amaze me with some little marvel of engineering design I take for granted nearly every day. Thanks, Bill, as always. Keep ’em coming!
Free downloadable Mentat training calendar for 2011
A month ago, I blogged about Ron Doerfler’s beautiful Age of Graphical Computing calendar for 2010, lamenting the fact that it’d only appeared on my radar at the end of the year. Well, I’ve been keeping an eye peeled, and Ron just released his 2011 calendar. It’s not about graphical computing, but about what is perhaps an equally interesting mathematical curiosity: Techniques for doing fast mental math. And it looks to be just as beautiful.
Touchscreen made of ice
We’ve seen some pretty interesting touchscreen hacks over the past couple of years, but this one definitely stands out for it’s unique surface. A group of Finnish hackers from Nokia substituted the standard opaque white screen used in most rear projection touchscreens with one made of blocks of ice.
