Tag Archives: diy

Reverse periscope for eye-to-eye video webcams

Posted on January 26, 2009 by John Brownlee

A rather sloppy but effective hack that allows you to video conference while maintaining eye-to-contact through a homemade cardboard reverse periscope mounted on the screen. This comes from a German, which makes sense: as a race, the Germans value direct … Continue reading →

Retro-Mini Media Center is gorgeous like a Cadillac fin

Posted on January 19, 2009 by John Brownlee

As part of has final project for a BA in Modelmaking for Design and Media, Thomas put together this jaw-dropping jet age Mini-Media Centre case mod, which has all of the foam green sexiness of a 1950′s Frigidaire with the … Continue reading →

Scrabble tile keyboard

Posted on January 19, 2009 by John Brownlee

During the waning moments of the worst parties, someone always pulls out Scrabble (a game I hate) and tries to win me over from my face-curdled loathing by insisting I must be good at it, since I’m a writer. My … Continue reading →

DIY Penny Heatsinks

Posted on January 16, 2009 by John Brownlee

No need to bolt on an expensive heatsink to dissipate a miniscule amount of heat: a penny or paperclip will do in a pinch. DIY Heat Sinks [Tangentsoft via Hacked Gadgets]

Australian redneck fixes plasma television with baseball bat

Posted on January 13, 2009 by John Brownlee

I’m not really sure what is going on with this gentleman’s plasma screen — mine certainly doesn’t do that — but I sympathize with his technique: after a day of having a constantly spinning disc stuck in my DVD drive, … Continue reading →

Measure your unanswered email in kilobytes with an analogue dial

Posted on December 9, 2008 by John Brownlee

There’s a defusing aspect to email management: as emails pile up, it becomes less and less likely that you’ll actually read or respond to them all, until a critical mass is achieved, guaranteeing that you’ll just say “fuck it” and … Continue reading →

Simple DIY VGA to USB power adapter

Posted on November 26, 2008 by John Brownlee

There’s something so beautifully simple about this Instructables hack: simply take a male VGA-VGA adapter and solder it to a spare USB socket, then plug it in. Voila! A USB charger for your laptop. Not, perhaps, universally useful, but for … Continue reading →

Beautiful simplicity of a bottle opener

Posted on November 11, 2008 by Joel Johnson

In Africa (and many other places in the world, I imagine) bottle openers are made of simply a stick with a screw in it. Simple and — when beaded — quite lovely. Togolese Bottle Opener Simplicity [Afrigadget.com via Treehugger]

The BSoDomizer blue screens and Goatse.cx’s its unwitting victims

Posted on November 4, 2008 by John Brownlee

Over at the Mother Boing, Mark spotted the BSoDomizer, a magnificent maker prank device that bridges a VGA monitor connection and pushes up the infamous BSoD (as well as a gaping ASCII Goatse.cx) according to the whims of the owner … Continue reading →

Video: Crafting a sword from metal and leather and brawn

Posted on November 3, 2008 by Joel Johnson

Here’s a lovely video of two swordsmiths making a blade, set to some pleasant fingerpicked guitar. It’s from the Mad Dwarf Workshop, an Indiana smith(y?) run by two young men who certainly don’t fit the traditional mold of the pot-bellied … Continue reading →