Don Sturrok made this loungy, immerse computer gaming rig out of an Ikea chair, aluminum pipe, and Kee Klamp and Kee Lite fittings from Simplified Building Concepts.
Computer Gaming Chair Becomes Reality
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Computer gaming rig from plumbing pipe
Posted: March 4th, 2010, 10:00pm MST
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RealNetworks settles RealDVD case, drops product, pays $4.5m
Posted: March 4th, 2010, 9:00pm MST
A follow up... RealNetworks settles RealDVD case, drops product, pays $4.5m...RealNetworks says it has settled the litigation over RealDVD, its software for making copies of DVDs on PC hard drives, agreeing to a permanent injunction against sales of the product and paying $4.5 million in legal costs and other fees to six major Hollywood studios and others that challenged the technology.
Here's our previous post from 2008....
RealDVD is being touted as one of the only legal ways to "back up" DVDs. It seems to make a copy on your drive, keeps the DRM and adds more Real player style DRM. Here's the funny part about all this - awhile back (1999) a ton of people were sued and got in trouble for trying to back up their DVDs, it still happens to this day although rare. That said you can't build a DVD jukebox without getting sued. Most people nowadays rip DVDs using many of the free open source tools (lots of posts on MAKE about that). Back to 1999, when the encryption(s) on the DVDs were broken allowing copies to be made (DeCSS) - they key actually came from the XingDVD player, from Xing Technologies, a subsidiary of RealNetworks. I'm pretty sure to this day 2600 magazine cannot even link to the DeCSS program, source, or anything. I'm sticking with HandBrake.Looks like I'm still sticking with handbrake... Makers, what do you use to rip DVDs? Or are you busy making things instead of archiving movies? :)
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Giant pile of scrap gears
Posted: March 4th, 2010, 8:45pm MST
Just this morning Cory Doctorow blogged this snapshot, taken by one "Joel," of an ancient gear burial ground at a scrapyard near Charlotte, NC. I wonder how many wild-eyed steampunks they've had come sniffing around since then. [via Boing Boing]
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Guitar slide from glass bottle
Posted: March 4th, 2010, 6:30pm MST
We've discussed numerous methods for making a cup from a glass bottle, but I don't recall seeing anyone use the neck before. Brookelynn from CRAFT has us covered, though, with this guitar slide made from a wine bottle:
One interesting historical example of upcycled crafting is the bottleneck guitar- or as it is now widely known, slide guitar. The unique resonant sound of slide guitar was originally formed by playing with a glass bottleneck over one finger and running the slide up and down the strings. While the materials for making slides have evolved, bottles are still a popular choice of material. We were given one, and as it has been used over the years, the piece has developed some lovely scratches that give the glass beautiful character. Slideplayer.com has two great ideas for making your own, including a "Burning Twine" method that sounds really cool (and drunkenly dangerous).
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Mr. Bond, your jetpack is ready
Posted: March 4th, 2010, 5:00pm MST
According to a piece on GOOD:
A New Zealand outfit called Martin Aircraft Company is going to start selling commercial jetpacks for about $75,000. They're 200-horsepower dual-propeller packs that can "reach heights of up to 2,400 metres and top speeds of 60mph" and don't require a pilot's license. Look for pill food and robot butlers soon.
[via HacDC mailing list]
Flying into the future: New Zealand company to make personal jet packs
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Maker Business: Zeichen Press
Posted: March 4th, 2010, 4:00pm MST
In response to our Maker Business coverage, I got a wonderful email from Fran Shea of Zeichen Press. She wanted to tell us about her foray into the small letterpress business she started with her sister-in-law, Jen. Being a huge letterpress fanboy, how could I resist? Here's a short interview I conducted with Fran. -- Gareth
Jen (left) and Fran (right) in their element in front of the type cabinets at Zeichen Press
First off, can you give us a little background on your company, where you're located, what you do, and what made you decide to go into this particular business.
We're in Minneapolis, MN. We do a few things: We design and letterpress-print a line of greeting cards that are sold in indie boutiques around the world. THE WORLD. We also design and letterpress-print custom projects like: posters, invitations, business cards, etc.. We also handle creative and marketing for companies that trust us to do that for them. Jen's background is in interior design, and mine is graphic design and art direction, so this seemed like a natural direction.
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How-To: Car tires to running shoes
Posted: March 4th, 2010, 2:28pm MST
Andrew Salomone wrote a project for CRAFT, in which is guides you though creating a pair of retro-style running shoes from old tires and a busted pair of jeans. It's upcrafting month on CRAFT, where we explore all the possibilities surrounding repurposed, recycled, and refashioned crafts!
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It lives! The lamp lives!
Posted: March 4th, 2010, 2:00pm MST
The half life lamp by Joris Laarman is apparently powered by living, bioluminescent hamster cells. Don't worry, no furry rodents were harmed in the making, the lamp is said to be made from an old line of Chinese hamster cells. There isn't much information available about it yet, however it is part of a show that is opening today at the Friedman Benda Gallery in New York. [via inhabitat]
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March Madness hacker-style: a program a day
Posted: March 4th, 2010, 1:00pm MST
Jersey hackerspace FUBAR Labs created a challenge: a program a day.
Starting this Monday, March 1st, FUBAR Labs members will be kicking off March Madness, an open challenge to all hackerspaces! One program, everyday. Any platform, any language.
Our members have been itching for March to come so they can challenge themselves, many of us biting our tongues upon the temptation to write a quick Python script or AVR program throughout February.Awesomely, the madness has spread, with hackerspaces like NYC Resistor and Hive 76 getting in on the action. But there's still a lot of March left, hackers! Noisebridge? TCMaker? PS1? The gauntlet has been thrown down!
(The image above was produced by the March Madness project of phooky of NYC Resistor.)
Readers: what did you come up with? Send me email at johnb@makezine.com.
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Playing pinball with your mind
Posted: March 4th, 2010, 11:30am MST
To demonstrate the capabilities of the Berlin Brain-Computer Interface, researchers from the project recently hooked their EEG up to a pinball machine, allowing a lucky test subject to play the game using only their mind. [via gizmodo]
More:
- EEG & EKG schematics
- Hacking the Force Trainer
- World premiere of brain orchestra
- Build: Hacking the Brain Machine
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Meticulously-crafted cell phone case by African "bamboobender"
Posted: March 4th, 2010, 10:36am MST
No, they don't call themselves that. "Bamboobender" is my hackish take on "sandbender," which many of you folks will probably recognize as a term coined by arch-cyberpunk William Gibson in his novel Idoru. Very roughly, a "sandbender" is a craftsperson who makes a living by carefully hand-crafting ornate enclosures for mass-produced electronics. We don't see a lot of that, at least in the first world (although mass-produced after-market "custom" enclosures and enclosure-decorations are common), probably because our personal electronics are still pretty ephemeral to us: we all know we're probably going to be sporting a new phone and/or MP3 player next year. This example, however, comes from Cameroon, where, I presume, the device turnover rate is a lot lower. It's the work of teacher, wordworker, and entrepreneur Lekuama Ketuafor, whose runs a sole-proprietorship cottage industry called Bamboo Magic. [via AfriGadget]
More:
Alt.CES: Wood-housed electronica: ostensibly green or faux-maker?
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Bread chairs
Posted: March 4th, 2010, 9:00am MST
Bread chairs by Enoc Armengol: not for sitting, only for nomming (and admiring)! [via Core77]
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Blind camera takes somebody else's photos
Posted: March 4th, 2010, 7:13am MST
Buttons is part of a project by artist Sascha Pohflepp called Blinks and Buttons. It is, essentially, a "blind camera." It has no optical parts, only a big inviting red button and an LCD screen. When you press the button, it records the time, then wirelessly searches the internet for a photo taken at the same moment. [Thanks, Billy Baque!]
More: Exporting 3D objects into the real world
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Behind the scenes of OK Go's Rube Goldberg video at Ignite Los Angeles
Posted: March 4th, 2010, 6:30am MST
We're in the middle of Global Ignite Week right now, and the first video from Global Ignite Week is up: a behind the scenes description at Ignite LA of the OK Go music video we covered recently:
Ok Go had a video idea for the recorded version of "This Too Shall Pass". They approached Adam Sadowsky, president of Syyn Labs, to design a Rube Goldberg inspired machine in which they would base their music video around. After months of preparation and 20 consecutive 18 hr days, they finally got the perfect take. Adam explains all the tedious fun!
Music & Machines: OK Go's Rube Goldberg Inspired Machine [via O'Reilly Radar]
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CODEORGAN turns sites into songs
Posted: March 4th, 2010, 6:30am MST
When fed a valid URL, CODEORGAN gets to work arranging an original, often quite danceable piece of music determined by several characteristics of the site's HTML. So explaineth the CODEORGAN -
THE CODEORGAN ANALYSES THE *BODY* CONTENT OF ANY WEB PAGE AND TRANSLATES THAT CONTENT INTO MUSIC. THE CODEORGAN USES A COMPLEX ALGORITHM TO DEFINE THE KEY, SYNTH STYLE AND DRUM PATTERN MOST APPROPRIATE TO THE PAGE CONTENT.
Neat - though I was expecting to hear something a tad more retro-8-bit based on the interface/aesthetic. I suppose the minimalist piano breaks derived from http://google.com aren't too far off the mark. [via Matrixsynth]
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Impromptu live streaming video rig
Posted: March 4th, 2010, 5:00am MST
We just finished up with Ignite Sebastopol, part of Global Ignite Week. During the setup the camera we were going to use to stream the event ended up not working, so we cobbled together this live streaming video rig using a clamp, some duct tape, a light stand, and my Nexus One using the ustream app. By connecting it to USB power we were able to broadcast the entire show. Even though the video quality was dubious, I was really impressed with the audio quality. [Thanks, Matt!]
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Build music with this Lego sequencer
Posted: March 4th, 2010, 2:00am MST
Artist slash musician Yoshi Akai makes a lot of electronic musical instruments, including this 3-channel Lego sequencer. A lot of his pieces have an awesome steampunk flavor.
[A]lmost everybody has played with Lego block. In an interface design, this experience is very helpful. Users can understand how to use the tools by intuition. Furthermore, the sound of the complex system is constructed by combining simple systems intricately. The devices that are using emotional designs play chaos sounds by uncomplicated movement.
Playing sound using crisp bread instead of vinyl records; pieces of Lego instead of synthesizer keys etc. It is more building music or finding sound than playing.[thanks, Pat!]
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