Use a Hot-air popcorn popper to roast coffee
Mike writes “…a great site about roasting your own coffee beans including links to how to modify a hot-air popcorn popper to roast coffee. Here’s a “make-y” link from the site”. Link.
Instructables
HOW TO bend acrylic
The first thing you need to bend acrylic is an acrylic bender. You can buy one for 200 dollars or you can build one. I suggest building one since it is a lot cheaper. I built mine using a heating element strapped to a board. All of which I purchased at a local supplier. The element sits between two boards that are attached to a main board with a gap between. The element sits about 1/4″ down from the top surface of these boards. This way you can heat the plastic without melting it to the element. I covered the boards in tin foil to help protect them from the heat and also to reflect the heat more toward the acrylic… Thanks jher! [via] Link.
Cheap Robotic Microhelicopter HOW TO
RC model helicopter prices have reached a point where all sorts of challenging (i.e. crash-prone) robotics projects become affordable. This document explains how to build a 300 g, 3D-capable helicopter with embedded Linux and Bluetooth datalink for less than 500 EUR. As a proof of concept, we provide software which allows the helicopter to be remotely controlled over Bluetooth with a PC joystick. Future work will focus on the integration of sensors (IMU, altitude, magnetic compas, GPS, camera) and flight control software (either third-party or dedicated). [via] Link.
Digiscoping With LE-Adaptor
“Digiscoping”, based on methods of marrying your digital camera to a conventional optical device, is an off-the-shelf solution for TreeHugger closeups of birds, concerts, and sporting events. The better way is to adapt a decent digital camera, which you may already have and spent a lot of time learning to link to your computer, to fit with a decent spotting scope. Link and Link.
HOW TO make Google Maps the EZ way
A few folks asked me the easiest way to make google maps for their sites, here’s a site that shows how to make them. You’ll just need a little HTML skill and a google maps API key to get started. Link.
Hacking the CVS Disposable Camcorder (another HOW TO)
Here’s another great HOW TO on hacking the CVS Disposable Camcorder. It’s pretty much the same as our MAKE HOW TO but uses a Palm III sync cradle as opposed to the cable in our HOW TO that was also used for Palm devices. Photos, instructions and software download…Link.
HOW TO Backup Del.icio.us with Excel
Wow, I rarely use Excel, but here’s a good reason to keep it around- If you have Excel 2003 and use the social bookmarking tool Del.icio.us, you can backup your bookmarks in Excel. Link.
