Hacks

Kickstarter: Thumb Drive That Emulates an Optical Drive

If you have ever tried to install (or re-install) an OS from a thumb-drive on a netbook, small laptop, or other computer without a built-in optical drive, you may have learned the frustrating lesson, as I did, that they are not always hardware equivalent. Many laptops and netbooks will cheerfully boot from an optical drive attached to a USB port, but gronk at the exact same files, or ISO image, on a thumb drive attached to the same port. It’s enough to make you want to throw things. Who wants to buy and keep track of a USB optical drive just for that one purpose?

Making EL Wire Change Color

It’s not a dramatic color shift, but it turns out you can control the hue of EL wire over a narrow range by varying the frequency of the resonating driver circuit. dcroy (upper video) did it back in February using a 555, and Paul Stoffregen (lower video) unknowingly repeated the work recently, having noticed that a single fixed-frequency driver produced slightly different colors in two different lengths of wire.

Solar Light Bulbs from Recycled Bottles

Solar Light Bulbs from Recycled Bottles

The 2-liter plastic bottle solar light bulb is an genius way to light up a room while reducing the amount of power you consume through creative recycling. Recently, a group from Manila called Isang Litrong Liwanag (A Liter of Light) got together to build and install solar lightbulbs in a 500 house pilot program. Not only do they get better lighting, but they can spend the money they save on other, more important expenses. It’s amazing what a little sunlight can do.