Archive for February, 2008
Build Your Own Portable Skype Phone Handset
Do you have an old cordless phone (preferably one with an intercom) kicking around that you’re no longer using? Instructables makes it easy to transform that old-school phone into a slick portable Skype handset. In this build log, Sam details how to crack the phone apart, find the sound output on the board, solder on headphones, [...]
MIDAS: Multifunction In-Dorm Automation System
Ah, to have attended MIT instead of a small liberal arts school in Connecticut. I could have been matching memorized decimal places of Pi over Hot Pockets with my friends, instead of drinking Dubra vodka and painting the walls of my dormitory with vomit. I could’ve been pop-riveting together homemade robots, instead of skipping Philosophy [...]
Build Your Own Magnetic Spice Rack
Okay, so this one skews a bit, um, domestic for our usual taste. But if you’re anything like us, you’ve got a cluttered drawer or cabinet full of crusted over, dusty spice bottles. Trying to find a pinch of chili powder while you’re making a caffeinated rib-eye can mess up your whole process. Luckily, Amber at My [...]
Build Your Own NES Hard Drive Enclosure
First thing’s first: We definitely don’t condone the destruction of working vintage technology. So for god’s sake, if you have old 8-bit NES games you don’t want, sell ‘em on eBay like everybody else. If on the other hand, you’ve already been collecting vintage games, and have 200 copies of that dual Mario Bros/Duck Hunt [...]
41 Hilarious Science Fair Experiments
Check out this collection of 41 hilarious real science fair projects, and pity the science teachers of the world. My favorite part is how, most of the time, the student matches the experiment perfectly. “Do video games affect you,” is matched by an utterly blank-looking kid in a black sweatshirt with a skull on it, while [...]
Build Your Own Tic-Tac Box LED Torch Lamp
Over at Grynx, Chris J. has posted instructions and a dead-simple schematic for building your own LED mini torch flashlight from an empty Tic-Tac box. Turns out all you need are a few batteries, an LED light, and a 27Ω resistor, meaning that those with ANY soldering experience can toss together a simple, elegant LED [...]
Build Your Own Electric Toothbrush Lock Pick
You’ve seen it a million times in the movies. A professional crook, armed with a squeeze-type lockpick, disables a bank vault with just a few squeezes. Or maybe you’ve even seen the electric versions of these automatic lockpicks, with no squeezing required. Now, thanks to Inventgeek, it’s possible to build your own using a simple [...]
Giant-Scale Versions of Your Favorite Snacks
Kit Kat bars are amazing. Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups? Delicious. But what if they were…bigger? Pimp My Snack takes your favorite snack foods, and radically up-samples them through reader experimentation and participation. The site seems to be based in England, so a lot of the snacks may not be familiar to a US-based audience (what [...]
Build Your Own Camera Image Stabilizer for One Dollar
This is one of those ideas that is so simple, it’s brilliant, and you’ll be wondering why you didn’t think of it sooner. We don’t want to spoil the surprise, but YES…you can make a killer image stabilizer for your camera (digital or SLR) using just a washer and a bit of string. It’s portable, [...]
Build Your Own Coke Blak Lamp
My word, I have been excited about Coke Blak, the “fusion beverage” that is “Coke Effervescence Mixed with Coffee Essence,” since I first read about it. I anxiously awaited its April 5th, 2006 appearance in stores, but when that date came and went, couldn’t find it anywhere. Around the end of April, I began seeing signs [...]
