The digital hourglass
Excellent project – “The digital hourglass is a German design project, developed by Susann Hamann and Fabian Hemmert from Germany. The project was created for two classes in the “Interface Design” course of study at Potsdam University of Applied Sciences, supervised by Prof. Reto Wettach. Aiming to create a new alarm clock, Susann and Fabian focused on the amount of sleep, not on the time of waking up. Also, the interaction should be intuitive and close to what would be done with a real hourglass.” [via] Link. More here (German).
Tom Atwood from fantastic Robot Magazine has a special review of robo servos – “Hitec Robotics’ new robot servos are purpose-designed for robots and offer performance that is superior to that of standard hobby servos in most robotics applications. The new HSR-8498HB servo offers more than 100 ounce-inches of torque and comes with three different case configurations, so that you can custom build robotics joints. If you are looking for brute power, the standard-size, super high-torque HSR-5995TG servo offers up to 400+ ounce-inches of torque. These robot “muscles” are designed for hobby, classroom and robot contest use, and are ideal for android and quadraped locomotion, as well as sensor, gripper and arm movement.” 
Don on the Wired blogs has a bit about free DIY bot creation “Microsoft and Conversagent are giving away free licenses for their BuddyScript SDK for MSN Messenger. Now developers can build their own IM bots for MSN Messenger at no charge. The free license period lasts “at least six months,” but the company will extend the licenses beyond the initial six month term for developers who create a groundbreaking bot.” [
This is a handy little maker-friendly list of construction tips from Eric – “Everybody has their own way of doing things. Here are a few of my favorite construction methods. Choosing Solder, Using Altoids Tins, Manhattan-Style Islands, Manhattan-Style with IC’s, PCB Enclosures, Kynar Wirewrap Wire.” 
