Hackaday Links: June 3, 2012

When pigs fly…. close enough.

There are too many jokes to be made about this one. It’s a quadcopter made out of a dead cat. [Bert Jansen], the artist behind this, calls him Orville. He died from natural causes, and what better way to remember a feline friend that liked chasing birds?

Refurbishing an Apple ][

That thirty year old computer in your parent’s attic isn’t going to clean itself, is it? [Todd] put up a series of videos tearing down a 1982 Apple ][ plus, cleaning everything along the way, and doing a very nice demo of AppleSoft BASIC. This is where the revolution started, people.

Ohm sweet Ωhm

Cross stitch isn’t for grandmothers anymore. Adafruit put up a cross stitch tutorial to go along with their resistor color code cross stitch kit. Now down to Hobby Lobby to find black cross stitch cloth and make the ‘ol skull ‘n wrenches.

Welcome! To the world of yesterday!

Boing Boing found an amazing cyberpunk photo spread that appeared in the Mondo 2000 ‘zine back around 1992 or 1993. Even when keeping in mind that this is a self-parody, it’s still incredible. Hackers have laser pointers? And pagers?

Making Arduino projects smaller

[Scott] caught wind of a way to shrinkify Arduino projects, so he turned an Arduino protoboard into an ATtiny85 programmer. As a neat bonus, [Scott] can use the attached breadboard to build circuits around the ’85.

 

30 thoughts on “Hackaday Links: June 3, 2012

      1. The mouse I get.
        It makes sense. It’s art that makes commentary about the world around us.

        I’m not seeing the goal of attaching a taxidermied cat to a quadcopter. What is the message here?
        If the cat is not in some way commentary about the world around us (maybe I’m just missing the point?) then I think it is in extremely poor taste.

    1. Sony was Apple back when Apple wanted to be IBM.
      But that was then.

      Now Microsoft wants to be Apple, and Apple wants to be Facebook, facebook wants to be Google, and Google wants to be the functional API for a certain fallen angel.

      The future is gonna be AWESOME.

      1. Likewise. I’d put in my will a list of specific annual outdoor events that I must be flown over, and that I be rigged to spit fire. And pants are not optional.

      1. What is more important? I have never known a cat to not be excellent at killing pests, being cute, and wanting to cuddle when it is cold. It is their functional purrpose.

        People often fail to even acknowledge they have purpose at all.

        So then what exactly, is a requirement for respect?

      2. @rachaepsi: their functional purpose, like all life, is to thrive. As “responsible pet owners” we deny them that purpose in place of ones we’ve contrived for them. Having failed their original goals, I think it’s entirely appropriate to give them one last chance to survey the lands they once roamed rather than end up in a biohazardous waste bin at the back end of the vet’s office.

  1. You know if cats ruled the world, they would use taxidermied humans to make quadcopters, in second in choice to dogs. Cats can be more a nuisance than rodents. People make pets of rodents, so why would be acceptable to use a mouse as apposed to a cat? Either way it’s dead, an inanimate object. While it’s a bit creepy looking I sort of find it entertaining

    Personally I think the revolution began withe the appearance of the Altair 8800 in January 1975 issue if popular electronics, although perhaps those with more experience than can make a case for a product at an earlier date. Yea the apple brought it to retail, my first experience was with HP Apples clones at a community outreach class at the local High school. However IMO opinion the Vic 20 appearing at at any retail outlet may have been the revolution. Prior to the Vic 20 for us it was a 90 minute drive to the small city where on could purchase Apple or Commodore computers. Thanks to Todd for making his contribution.

    No self respecting shop should be without s cross stitch learning guide next to the parts parts bin So let us wash are grubby hands and get to it. Maybe a 3D printer could make a reasonable facsimile of cross stitching, if you have one?

    Today’s “cyberpunk” has it made. A $40 price subsidized cell phone can to the job a several of the essentials mentioned, A $99 price subsidized Android phone more yet.

    1. Things like the DMCA and patriot act have put a dampener on things since the old days. In the nineties you could fiddle with your own stuff and not be sued. Even if you fiddled with someone else’s, as long as it wasn’t destructive all they would do is shake a finger at you. Now they can throw terrorist charges in if they feel like it with mandatory 5 years of jailtime.

      Eventually somebody is going to make the wrong people mad and combine them. Decrypted the firmware of your own stuff? You incited fear into the board members you filthy terrorist! (more like unauthorized access to a computing system punishment requirement update of said patriot act)

    2. @n0lkk:
      The mouse is a fair bit more acceptable because it’s poking fun at this device that all of us use all day long that we refer to as as “mouse”.

      I don’t see any witty thought behind the cat. It’s just an abuse of what was once a living thing, done simply for the sake of doing so, as far as I can tell.

  2. Flying cat? The first Frisby was a dried out cat that had been run over by a truck (3FFB). The hyper sensitivity of “cat people” never cease to amaze.

    Look Ma, no batteries;
    http://www.thalabeach.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/sugar-glider.jpg

    http://cdn1.arkive.org/media/0A/0A635F5E-5967-4B23-9083-C6E0A72B7C18/Presentation.Large/Yellow-bellied-glider-gliding-between-trees.jpg

    This is where the revolution started, people.
    Maybe for you it did, but some of us still remember the MITS Altair 8800 from 1975.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altair_8800

    1. Yawn. The Altair was positively a johnny come lately on the scene. I’m guessing you weren’t around for the Litton ABS1230? Or the cheap knockoff by John Blankenbaker? Or the Apple equivalent of the day, the PDP-8?

      You kids get off my yard! :)

      Every feature found in modern computers existed PRIOR to WW2 – in specialty electrical machines designed to calculate gambling odds.

      Even Turing’s great contributions had been anticipated… and implemented… in parimutuel betting machines found throughout the UK and Europe.

      And Babbage put it on paper 40 years prior to that. Each generation added a twist or two, but it’s always clearly derivative of the guys that came before. Even the jaquard loom was a knockoff.

      What appears to be a revolutionary invention is always just the spread of an old idea to the masses.

      The revolution started when animals developed eyes and optic nerves. It’s been burning like a super nova ever since. I don’t see it ending any time soon, even if all that’s left of us is scraps of our DNA being hustled through deep space on an asteroid.

  3. A cat is imbued with the mythical property of always landing on its feet. That’s an ideal property for a quadcopter.

    Like many others, I find taxidermy a bit creepy; but it was still fun to see a flying cat.

    My cats watch Youtube videos with me, preferring those that contain cats. They’ll watch videos of themselves again and again. And they attempt flight on a regular basis; just yesterday I found my Bengal hanging from the top of the door frame. So I showed them this video, but they seemed nonplussed.

    So I guess that’s one vote for, and two against.

Leave a Reply to Thomas @ Stitch and FrogCancel reply

Please be kind and respectful to help make the comments section excellent. (Comment Policy)

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.