Have you ever been in a situation where you needed to get up to go do something, but didn’t want to leave a game for fear your system would go to sleep while you were away and you couldn’t use a software hack to nudge the system? Maker Todd Harrison had a similar issue and decided to build a device that closes a circuit every 25 seconds inside a Wiimote shaped candy tin.
Cool project – Bunnie (designer of the Chumby) writes – Tor is an open-source project that is dear to me for many reasons. For those who are unfamiliar with it, in a nutshell, Tor can enhance your anonymity on the internet: it obscures who you are, and what sites you are visiting. This is important, […]
While Princeton University’s National Spherical Torus Experiment was shut down for improvements over the winter break, scientists and engineers availed themselves of the opportunity to recalibrate the reactor’s neutron sensors. To do so, they assembled a circular toy train track around the torus and ran a toy locomotive carrying a chunk of neutron-emitting californium-247 along it for three days. The New York Times explains:
Wooden pallets are easy to come by and can be made into a neat sled (or sledge) using Stiffey’s Instructable.
Rather than spending thousands of dollars per classroom, students and faculty could make them in the building. With a project like this in your school, this could be a great way to do some electronics, system design and get a taste of mass production of the components. While this may not fit in to your current curriculum to have students build these systems, it could be a great way to collaborate across subject areas, or it could be a great after school club activity.
Using BlueMaemo, the Bluetooth multi-tool for Maemo, you can turn your Nokia N900 into a PS3 controller. Install the latest alpha via the application manager with extras-devel enabled. The above video is in Italian.
Bunnie’s blog points out a rather sweet hack by xobs which swaps Chumby’s LCD display for TV output. It requires new firmware + minimal hardware modding – def seems worth it for those looking for bigger display options. Read more in the Chumby wiki. In the Maker Shed: Chumby Guts
