you know summer is coming when hackers start crawling out from winter hibernation, desiring nothing more than to burn things. not satisfied with a magnifying glass, this project’s author created a 6′ x 4′ parabolic reflector that uses 112 mirrors to direct the sun’s rays at a single point
don’t take off your tinfoil hats quite yet, but just when you thought rfid tags were all about the man wanting to track you, somebody has come up with a more positive application.
dividuum figured that since some rfid tags can store a kilobyte of data, he should be able to gzip a sid audio file and squeeze it onto one of these larger tags. he then wrote some software for his pc that interfaces with an rfid reader and will play the sid file contained in a nearby tag. put a stack of cards next to the reader and it will cycle through them like a playlist.
follow the link if you want to download the source or check out a video of it in action.
whirlyman sent us a link to instructions for turning a usb flight stick into a realistic helicopter flight control system for use with your favorite flight sim.
steve, the project’s creator, did something really interesting here because his control system externally manipulates the stock ms flightstick. the stick wasn’t disassembled or altered to connect the realistic controls for the pedals, cyclic and collective.
update: ugh — geocities bandwidth limit exceeded. for those of you who just want to take a quick look, i’ve added a couple pictures and a link to google’s cache after the break. let me know if a better mirror exists and i’ll post it.
this is really fantastic. christiana yambo over at censtron wanted to show us how to make a wave vessel — a television-turned-audio oscilloscope machine.
their documentation shows you how to take an old television set and hook it up to your stereo for audio/visual effects the likes of which most people only see in winamp. a switch on the side of the tv allows you to choose between two visualization modes.
you can see a video of the wave vessel in operation on their site, complete with a ‘you spin me round’ dead or alive soundtrack. my opinion: pete burns looks much better on the wave vessel.
here is a slick hack involving a bicycle wheel and a persistence of vision toy.
one thing that’s really cool about this one is there is a second led row that blinks out bitmaps backwards on one side of the wheel. this lets you print out text messages and have them be readable from both sides. it appears to work really well — i’m thinking that the author is probably not a republican
since we are on the topic of rubick’s cube hacks, i would probably be derelict in my duties if i didn’t mention the manhattan sculpture that a crew of hackers briefly transformed into 512-cubic-feet of rubick’s goodness.
this one definately ranks right up there with the mit media lab srubbing bubbles. art hacks are so incredible. they have a subversive way of giving regular folks a brief look at life through hacker goggles.
correct me if i’m wrong, but technology was supposed to make our lives easier, take care of us, make us dinner, raise our children, and, fulfill our every dream.
so what has technology done for you lately? nothing? well, my friend, today we have a hack that will change your life forever. today sammo sent us a link to jp brown’s amazing rubick’s cube solving robot.
the final task on my big list of things to do can finally be crossed off. life is good.
