We’ve covered some of the LEGO software, but it’s always worth another looksie, it appears LEGO has added more resources for designing your own LEGO bot – JBB writes “Lego factory A boon to lego robot builders, the lego factory lets you build a virtual model of your unique lego structure and order those blocks as a custom set. Add your robot’s sensors and other such items, and you’ve got a beautiful custom robot.” Link.
Jon writes “In 1998, artist Daniel Reynolds unveiled an exhibit of six and a half foot tall drinking birds. Reynolds’ birds work on the same evaporative method of the classic toy, but their enormous size leave the senses reeling. Check out www.drinkingbirds.com for photos, videos, and more information.” Link. The videos from the exhibition are both soothing and creepy.
Jamie writes “We had another Halloween party at the Casa this year, and somehow a flash of inspiration hit me when I was thinking about decorations: polystyrene foam balls painted like jack-o-lanterns, on christmas lights.” Link.
Overview of how a Maker solved his audio problem in his new car “iPod your Subaru Outback’s Closed Audio System – For some incredibly stupid reason, Subaru has shipped its popular Outback for the past two years with completely closed audio systems making it near impossible to use them with the immensely popular iPod. Here’s a clean, affordable solution for iPodding your closed Subaru’s audio system.” [via] Link.
Jason writes “I made this tutorial after receiving a movie from Iraq, but the music overpowered the narration. People who don’t use iMovie can at least take the lesson that music too loud becomes the only intelligible audio in a piece.” Link.
Don’t throw away your old CDs! Here’s a knitting pattern where you can knit coasters for your old CD disks. It only requires a small amount of worsted weight yarn and is a great solution to finish up yarn scraps from past knitting projects. Try using different colors of yarn for every other row and create a stripy spiral. Link.
Tom writes “Inventgeek.com has a great article on rescuing your LCD monitors from the dumpster. Those of us that have used LCD monitors for a while know that over time the backlight starts to dim and can eventually completely fail. Well for less than $20.00 and about a half hour of your time you can replace the backlight and rejuvenate that monitor to as good as new condition. Now if they can only come up with a way to do this with my old Plasma TV tube.” Link.
