Wake up calls for phones?
Sean was looking for a service that would automatically call his phone with a text to speech message at a specified time “I would like to be able to program my computer to call my cell phone or a regular phone with text to voice messages–eg reminders, important appointments or wake up calls and for pranksters…The catch is that the other person should not require the same software to receive the call. Anybody know of any software that does this univocally?” I found a web service that does this (some free and some fee) here. I usually use my built in alarm clock on my phone, but it doesn’t of course talk to me or call anyone else.
Want to study sharks? Build your own Tintin-esque sub – “The grandson of famous oceanographer and filmmaker Jacques Cousteau believes the best way to learn about sharks is to become one. Fabien Cousteau, inspired as a child by the comic book Red Rackham’s Treasure, where the main character, Tintin, adventures underwater in a shark-shaped submarine, decided as an adult to build his own.” Thanks Saul! 
Here’s a great new Instructable in the Make group on building a five foot tall Jacob’s ladder from Ewilhelm, he writes “This classic climbing arc completes any mad scientist’s dungeon. Don’t touch the electrodes: they’re at 12 kV! Get a neon sign transformer rated for 9 – 12 kV and 30 mA. Make sure it’s an old style, heavy coil transformer and not solid-state. The solid-state transformers won’t start the arc. I got a Transco 12 kV 30 mA transformer on Ebay for $35. It didn’t have a wall plug, so I wired one on.”… 
I asked Scott and Bjoern to write up what they’re up to when I saw the challenge of making a functional music player in 30 minutes, they write “d.tools is a hardware and software system that enables designers to rapidly prototype the bits (the form) and the atoms (the interaction model) of physical user interfaces in concert. d.tools was built to support design thinking rather than implementation tinkering. With d.tools, designers place physical controllers (e.g., buttons, sliders), sensors (e.g., accelerometers), and output devices (e.g., LEDs, LCD screens) directly onto form prototypes, and author their behavior visually in our software workbench.” More info and downloads 
Greg Smith’s kids started a company that makes costumes for Roombas. The company is “myRoomBud” and they’re currently selling a few different variety of Roomba skins. Mooba Cow, Roor the Tiger, Zeb the Zebra and Spotty the Leopard. They’re motto is “If you don’t dress up your Roomba, it’s just a naked vacuum.” [
I think Quanta makes Apple’s Powerbook too, I wonder if they made the 
Paolo writes “Here’s a project developed by the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne to build insect robots that are able interact with cockroachs communities.” On the site there are photos, videos, PDF schematics and software to download. 