The WinXPonMac contest has officially announced “narf2006” and “blanka” as the winners. The solution should be released soon. With this new development the only reason not to run XP on a Mac is that XP sucks… which is a pretty good reason.
[via TUAW]
Super Soda! has been posting a lot of projects, but this is one of my favorites. We covered otherpower’s wind turbine a while ago, but Damon Vander Lind’s turbine features hand-laid fiberglass blades. The core of each blade is hot wire cut out of pink foam by following a wooden airfoil pattern. The fiberglass is laid all at once with five layers at the base and two at the tip. Each layer is slightly offset to handle torque. The entire assembly is mounted to a permanent magnet generator contained inside an alternator case.
[thanks Ryan Bavetta]
I’m sure many of you remember me recruiting a new writer to work with me on how-tos for Engadget. Will O’Brien was one of the many who answered the call and has been cranking out quality projects. Today’s is modifying a standard R/C transmitter for use as a computer joystick. This “trainer” can be used with flight simulation software so you can practice flying without risking your plane. This is the first step in a future project.
Check out Will’s previous posts: Surface mount soldering iron, Popcorn popper coffee roaster, and Scaling video for better HDTV viewing.
Continue reading “How-To: Real Controls For R/C Flight Simulation”
I had been meaning to post K9spud’s VWCDPIC audio interface adapter ever since our first auxiliary input hack… and today I finally remembered to. It really is one of the best out there. Normally the the Volkswagen OEM head unit has the CD changer channels muted unless you’ve got a factory changer. The VWCDPIC interfaces with the already present CD changer plug and fools the head unit to connect any audio device you want. It also provides remote control of your audio device using the head units buttons. It’s very clever and can work with any audio device.
Snake robots are already freaking creepy; so who had bright idea to make sea serpents?! You can find a few details on the ACM-R5 at TechEBlog. It can swim 30 minutes on a charge. So, the impending revolution will either be short lived or our destruction will be incredibly swift.
[thanks William]
[Refik Hadzialic] has updated is site with a how-to that could be rolled into many different projects. Using a receiver and transmitter pair from Laipac he demonstrates how to communicate wirelessly between two microcontrollers. The pair costs about $12 and operates at 315MHz. He’s got a chunk of commented code in the article to give you an idea of how it works.
[Greg Lipscomb] from DIY Live gave us the heads up on his latest project: Macro photography with a disposable camera. While playing around with the Kodak Max outdoor camera he discovered that the lens was behaving similar to a jewellers loupe that he had. He figured that it could probably take macro shots with some tweaking. He disassembled the camera and then drilled a larger aperture since F11 would have been too small. Then he attached the assembly to the lens from his Canon 10D and fired away. He’s got example pictures on his site; they’re pretty good for something held together by scotch tape.
Continue reading “Macro Photography With A Disposable Camera”
