New From The Future: Your Compromised Computer is Mining…
Bitcoin values are dropping, but this is an interesting glimpse of future ways malware authors will try to generate… coin.
DIY Projects
My First Epic Hack: The Lawnmower of Theseus
Much to my mother’s chagrin, my Dad always held the philosophy of “Use it until you wear it out.” It made some of our stuff look shabby, but it stretched dollars and made for good learning experiences. One day the engine on our trusty Snapper lawnmower seized up. At this point I was around 12 years old, and past the point of just handing tools to Dad while he worked on something (though being the tool gopher is an important mill to be pulled through in and of itself), but now diving into the heady space of troubleshooting. Minor problems consisted of re-sewing the grass bag’s opening so its elastic cuff would fit snugly over the chute, or having to coax the engine back to life come springtime.
New in the Maker Shed: Ephrem’s Deluxe Bottle Cutter
We’ve featured Ephrem’s Bottle Cutter in MAKE:Vol 28, Matt Richardson’s Video (shown below) and in Make:Projects, so it’s about time we made it available in the Maker Shed! This deluxe kit includes the bottle cutting jig, carbide polishing compound, a candle, instructions, and a special adapter to allow cutting on the neck of the bottle. Perfect making everything from drinking vessels to bottleneck guitar slides.
Laser Ball Is Life of the Party, Makes Regular Tennis Balls Feel Inferior
LeoneLabs on Instructables posted this fantastic how-to on adding 14 lasers to a regular tennis ball to make a Laser Ball. Why? He says that it’s fun to build, it can be done in an afternoon, and “lasers are cool.” The lasers are driven by a Teensy USB Development Board, which is stuffed inside the ball and controlled from outside with an infrared remote control. The Instructable shows you how to make your own in painstaking detail, but you can also follow the build step-by-step in this fun video.
Mannequin Forest: A Cyborg Menagerie
Kristine Diven and Micho Detronik of District VII explain the interactive elements of their art installation at Maker Faire Detroit 2011. Art and electronics collide in a project which explores surveillance and humanity.
New in the Maker Shed: Adalight – DIY Ambient Monitor Lighting Project Pack
he Adalight project pack, available in the Maker Shed, lets you build your own ambient light addition for your monitor or media PC television. Originally outlined in Sean’s post from October, this project pack is contains nearly everything you need (except an Arduino and a USB cable) for the Adalight project tutorial.
Repurposed 3D Glasses Make for Great Kermit Eyes
Childrens’ Technology maven and playful tinkerer Scott Traylor came up with this whimsical mod for used movie theatre 3d glasses. With his simple PDF template everyone can go green in more ways than one. From his site: