Weekend update... I fixed the audio issue on the Citizen Engineer video, transcoding to Flash seemed to mess something up. So here it (above) & in HD again... and if you just want to see techno soldering action video (below).

We'll be presenting this along with a quick chat about open source hardware at the NYC ignite. Oh, and lastly! Slashdot has it in their "Firehose" section, vote it up!

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Some nice iPhone charge up hacking...

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Mike Perrucci, aka Mazeguy, builds amazing domino runs - he's even worked with Penn and Teller. His site has lots of info about building runs, including this Tips and Tricks page, where he shows you how to incorporate Slinkies, soda cans, and toilet paper. Great fun if you have a lot of time and a high tolerance for frustration . . .

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This post is for out readers in Salt Lake City. William Hessian is going to have an "Art Hunt" today (July 26th, 2008). Think of it as a scavenger hunt where the prize is a piece of artwork that you keep. This time it's for the "Desert Tortoise" art that can be found in the public parks of Salt Lake City, Utah. Check out his site on Saturday for the hard clues, then Sunday for medium ones, and finally Monday for the easy clues.

In June of 2008, Minnesota artist William Hessian is going on a roadtrip to create 6 miniature artwork hunts from the midwest to the westcoast. The art as treasure miniature art hunts are part of a project which William hopes will bring people to the parks & art to those that are willing to search for it. Visual clues for each hunt will appear here on www.williamhessian.com, which will help the hunters locate the miniature treasures

Read more about the Art Hunt in Salt Lake City

More about the previous, and completed, Art Hunts.

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This elegant sampler design built by Ofir uses laser-cut cardboard with conductive paint - beautiful work, looks (and sounds) like a lot of fun. Head over to the site to see the whole Ohm noisemaker instrument family - "ohm" lofi cardboard sampler

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Awesome progress shots of Justin Gray's (Graywrx Sculptural Welding, Oakland, CA) latest project: a jet turbine-powered tracked robot. You can see pictures and videos of some of his other flame-throwing robots on his blog.

Unnamed but almost finished 7/5/08 [Flickr set]

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I love the creativity found in this "next-gen" remote-controlled vibrobot. It has a PICAXE brain, uses a 16-pin DIP socket as its vibro-feet, and a universal TV remote as its controller.

SOCBOT - the next generation vibrobot

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From the MAKE Flickr photo pool

Steven Goodwin shares tips and measurements for making the perfect study hall instrument - If there's one piece of science that every kid knows, it's that twanging a ruler on the edge of the desk makes a noise, and by changing the amount of overhang will change the pitch. Give anyone a new ruler, and the first thing they'll do is twang it, to see how it sounds. This is an interesting fact of life.
[…]
So, to bring an element of fun back to the proceedings, we can combine these facts to build a very simple 'rule organ'. By taping thirteen rulers to a nearby desk, each with a different amount of overhang, we have a rudimentary musical (?!?!?!?) instrument. So, how much overhang is necessary, and how do we do it? Head over to his site for the specifics - Rule Organ

- The Rule Organ on Flickr

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Artist Ruth Whiting had a show up in Asheville, NC of her oil paintings of cables and plugs. Many of the paintings celebrate the details of the cable much in the same way plants are often rendered: luscious. Via BoingBoing.

More:

• Internet meme paintings by Jeremiah Palecek
• Password painting
• #BADA55 In A Can
  
• CAPTCHA Paintings

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I always wondered what went into those high-end speaker cabinets, and instructables user billbob has resolved my curiosity. He covers electrical construction, but mainly focuses on making really stellar speaker boxes, and has tons of pictures and tips. I know just as well as anybody around here that electronics projects aren't always that great looking, but here's an anomaly.

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After a frustrating day at the office, it feels good to go make something that simply works.
(playing with a bunch of ultra-bright LEDs doesn't hurt either)

Peggy v1.0 kit

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David Carter is the author of many silly pop-up books for kids - he also wrote The Elements of Pop-ups, a book about the construction and mechanics of pop-ups. He's put together a page of movies and PDF dies showing how to make your own pop-ups.

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Reuse a crashed hard drive or two for a set of wind chimes. Easy to make and sound great. Thanks go to Thomas Arey for the original article in Make Magazine.

To download Hard Drive Wind Chimes MP4 click here or subscribe in iTunes.

Check out the Hard Drive Wind Chimes article MAKE 12 "Hard Drive Wind Chimes" & You can see that in our digital edition.

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This mod shows you how to replace the AA batteries inside your old G3 powerbook's battery. Sure you can go buy a replacement, but why not just pry it open and do it yourself?

Replace the Cells in Your Apple Powerbook G3 (Lombard or Pismo) Battery

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Reuse a crashed hard drive or two for a set of wind chimes. Easy to make and sound great.
From Make Volume 12 by Thomas Arey. View the PDF

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"Fold Loud" by JooYoun Paek merges the ancient art of origami with digital music control to create a calming interface for sound - Playing Fold Loud involves folding origami shapes to create soothing harmonic vocal sounds. Each fold is assigned to a different human vocal sound so that combinations of folds create harmonies. Users can fold multiple Fold Loud sheets together to produce a chorus of voices. Opened circuits made out of conductive fabric are visibly stitched onto the sheets of paper which creates a meta-technological aesthetic. When the sheets are folded along crease lines, a circuit is closed like a switch. Thus, the interface guides participants to use repetitive delicate hand gestures such as flipping, pushing and creasing. Fold Loud invites users to slow down and reflect on different physical senses by crafting paper into both geometric origami objects and harmonic music.Visit the site for more pics and a video demonstration - Fold Loud

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This miniature antenna tower project has a 4 Element Yagi-Uda and some blinking lights at the top for transmission. Check out the full parts list and instruction set at the link below.

Tower Model

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Peter writes in -Matt Hallock has a how to for building a lo-fi fisheye camera lens for around $10 using supplies found at your local hardware store. Fisheye lenses are crazy cost prohibitive for most of us, but this method gets you 90 percent of the effect, plus a little Holga-esque unpredictability to boot!

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This mod shows you how to add 3 cymbals to your current Rock Band setup. Now if only you could hook up your current drum kit to the game instead of having to work around the plastic set you get.

Rock Band Cymbal Mod development

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The Dan Perez Studio website has a great 3 part series on mold making and casting. He makes the molds using room temperature vulcanizing rubber so it's easy to use. If you want to cast parts for you next project, check out his website, it's really good.

Read more about Mold-making and casting

More:

Check out the article in MAKE Volume 05 by our own Gareth Branwyn that features Dan Perez.

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