Install Windows 7 On Your Netbook

May 16, 2009 by Eliot 47 Comments

windows7

No one will ever accuse us of being Windows fanboys; we’re certainly fans of netbooks though (or anything cheap enough that we don’t care if we accidentally burn a hole through it). We’ve heard from quite a few friends that Windows 7 is actually an excellent operating system to run on a netbook and is a dream compared to XP. Gizmodo has compiled a guide to getting the release candidate on your lightweight machine. It’s available now and will work for free for a year. The image is 2.36GB which you need to dd onto a USB device. They recommend at least an 8GB drive, but anything smaller than 16GB and you’ll have to use Window’s compact utility to save space. Other than these space considerations, the install appears to be easy. Let us know about your experiences using Windows 7 on your netbook.

Custom Motorcycle Display

May 16, 2009 by Eliot 21 Comments

motorcycle_display

[fibra] has been slowly building a custom controller for his motorcycle. It’s an automated chain oiling system that varies application based on RPM. The LCD can show wheel RPM, voltage, time, date, air, and engine temperature. A separate driver board has a MOSFET for controlling the oiling valve. The real gold here is the attention to detail. He built a one off circuit board. The case is laser cut acrylic that he then shaped. The box is molded smoothly into the original instrument cluster using epoxy. It’s excellent work that could be mistaken for a commercial product.

Massive Etch A Sketch From TV Screen

May 13, 2009 by Eliot 32 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mhu3zojL5Y4]

[Jeri] put together an absolutely massive Etch A Sketch for The FatMan and Circuit Girl show. She had removed the DLP chip from an HD rear projection TV and decided to repurpose the 52inch screen. The movement mechanism uses pulleys from screen doors with nylon lines. The two sets of lines are fed in a criss cross pattern so that the parallel lines move in the same direction. The lines move tent poles in the x and y which controls the movements of the golf tee stylus. It’s driven by two high torque motors from $9 Harbor Freight 18V drills. They tried several different powders, but ended up using aluminum powder from an original Etch A Sketch because it sticks to everything. It will eventually be hooked up for IRC bot control once they get a large enough h-bridge.

[via adafruit]

D-Link Adds Captcha To Routers

May 12, 2009 by Eliot 30 Comments

D-Link is adding captcha support to its line of home routers. While default password lists have been abundant for many years, it was only recently that we started seeing the them implemented in malware. Last year, zlob variants started logging into routers and changing their DNS settings. It’s an interesting situation since the people who need the captcha feature are the ones who will never see it, since they won’t log in to change the default password.

[photo: fbz]

Irregular Incurve Robotic Instrument

May 12, 2009 by Eliot 13 Comments

irregular_incurve

The Irregular Incurve is a robotic instrument built by [Xiaoyang Feng] as part of his ITP thesis work. It’s a MIDI instrument with an array of 12 strung bows mounted to a curved shower rod. The end of each bow has a tuning key. The strings are each picked using independently mounted arms. One servo controls the downward motion of the pick while the other controls the rotation of the shaft. A damper is also attached to each arm. The string vibrations are transferred to a spruce soundbox under the bridge. Below you can see a video of Gizmodo playing with it at the ITP show. Check out [Xiaoyang]’s Flickr set for images of the build process plus some early videos of the mechanism.

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LED Enterprise

May 12, 2009 by Eliot 19 Comments

[Wolf] built this LED Enterprise model. It’s a ‘sparebot‘ assembled from leftover LEDs and resistors. Unlike most sparebot sculptural oddities, this one actually works. If you place it near a magnet, a reed switch closes to turn on the LEDs. A mechanical switch would have just caused more stress on the model. The part count is very low, but took some forethought. Two resistors are used to raise the resistance of the red LEDs to match the white LED. A quite clever and simple model.

TouchKit Spark Released

May 8, 2009 by Eliot 14 Comments

touchkitspark

NOR_/D has just released their newest multitouch display system. The TouchKit Spark features a larger 35.4x23inch display surface than its predecessor, the Run. It uses ultrabright IR LEDs around the screen’s border for FTIR multitouch sensing. A high frame per second IR camera is included to increase tracking performance. The screen is fully assembled, but you need to provide your own projector and case. It can be built at table height or as low as 20inches. The device is designed to work with OpenFrameworks, but future software releases will have TUIO support.