[Aaron Shephard] at mini-itx.com just finished a backup DVD burning robot based on an EPIA M10000 Mini-ITX motherboard and scavenged parts. A Perl script interacts with stepper motors, LEDs, and sensors through the parallel port on the motherboard. The robot inserts DVDs for burning, flips them for labeling, and stacks completed discs in a pile. Coasters are rejected to a ‘penalty box’ for easy disposal.
We’ve also covered some other optical disc duplicators in the past.
[thanks maxthereal]
Using a custom built cable connected to the lower GBA slot and a copy of Canon’s SDK, [Steve Chapman] has come up with a very clever way of taking pictures remotely with a Nintendo DS Lite.
Currently the software supports bracket shooting as well as bulb mode. [Steve] points out that he is currently testing an audio based trigger system using the mic built into the DS and the software is still a work in progress.
While the weight saving benefits of using a DS instead of a notebook are obvious, there are things you do give up going this route. Traditionally, when you tether a camera to a computer the photos are saved directly to the computer where you can view the image on a much larger monitor. With the DS, it seems all you can do is remotely trigger the camera. Given the size and resolution of the screens maybe that’s all it can do.
[via Boing Boing Gadgets]
What would MacGyver do if he needed a high voltage capacitor but only had some foil, tape, water, salt, a nail and a plastic jug? He would build a salt water Leyden jar, that’s what. The Leyden jar is a very simple capacitor. Invented in 1745, it has been integral to many scientific experiments. Check the wikipedia entry to learn more about the history.
This specific type is quite easy to make. It uses a salt water interior instead of foil on the inside and outside. That means you could slap one of these together in a few minutes to impress your friends and/or electrocute yourself accidentally. Please be careful as this is high voltage.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22yI_nk09Fc]
[Bacteria] sent us this sweet video of the Multi Platform Plug’n’Play system running his new GameBoy Advance module. He’s made an addon for his unit that allows him to play his GameBoy Advance cartridges as well as GameBoy ones. Watch the vid for the details and some views of the insides.
After the overwhelming response to the Hackit we posted about automated hard drive destruction last fall, we finally decided to test out some thermite hard drive destruction ourselves. This has been done on The Screen Savers but they did not show up close results of the platters. So, aluminum and black iron oxide were procured through eBay, and until it arrived we watched some YouTube videos that showed a lot of fire and no real results. We decided to see what it would take to completely obliterate a drive.
With the amount of personal data stored on your computer, we all understand the importance of destroying the data that is stored on the platters of a hard drive before disposing of it. There are many ways to destroy a hard drive; software, physical disassembly, drills, hammers, magnets/electromagnets, and acid, but none are quite as outrageous and dangerous as thermite. That’s what we’re going to do here today. Follow along for pictures and videos of the results.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6Fr65PFqfk]
[Cal Henderson] delivered a keynote titled Why I Hate Django at the first annual DjangoCon. Django is an open source BSD licensed web framework written in Python. Google has posted the keynote in its entirety to YouTube, which you can find embedded above. While the talk is humorous (and takes many jabs at Rails developers) it does provide insight into what makes a good web framework. [Cal] is Director of Engineering at Flickr and is an authority on how to make websites scale. He points out that most frameworks are designed to get projects off the ground quickly, but are lacking when it comes to building an even larger service. He talks about several things in Django that need work and improvements that could be made. It’s really an interesting look at what it takes to go big. Continue reading “Why I Hate Django”
Maybe you saw the previous post and thought, “Well, that’s all well and good, but why is such a stylish case being used to ventilate cat feces?” Antec has heard your cries and has created a computer case with all the lovely curves of a litter box and just as much airflow. The Skeleton case has an open frame design with a 250mm fan on top. You mount the motherboard to a sliding tray. The power supply and hard drives are mounted underneath. It’s an interesting idea and easily replicated, but if cooling had been the goal, it would be a lot more enclosed. You can see the case with components installed on TweakTown.
[via acquire, thanks, xtine]
