After last year's meltdown of servers during SparkFun's 1st "Free Day", we sent them flowers of condolence. This year, after seeing that little image of a burning computer on their error webpage , we felt he urgent need to send down the entire Canadian fire brigade (yup, both extinguishers). And who better to put out […]
Wednesday Cool Links: Nook Hacking, Kerf...
Solar botics
September 27, 2012
Hey, looks like we are still being late with the Wednesday cool link posts. Our busy days at the office are filled with fighting the multiple misbehaving lasers (with other lasers), conquering fridges stuffed with food (curtsey of Solarbotics bosses) and withstanding the unexpectedly good weather (or so I've heard…). Today's link collection is random at its best, almost as if it was made by a miniature sheep grazing on a green sled dog that dreams of being a pirate... that is interested in fluorescent lamp sculptures, carrot guns, pixels and espresso machine-generated images. We're not even going to pretend to justify this assortment of links aside from the fact that they're kinda cool, so hopefully everyone can find something they can enjoy and be distracted by:
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Fluorescent Light Moon Sculpture Chinese artist Wang Yuyang constructed his own Artificial Moon using thousands of differently shaped fluorescent lights. |
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PlayStation gaming on a NOOK Simple Touch Improvements in processing power really hit home when you see an eBook reader playing PlayStation games. Sure, we’re talking about a system which launched more than 15 years ago (the original PlayStation launched way back in 1995), but this is a $99 device which seems to be playing the games at full speed! |
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Kerf Bending Patterns For all those of us who like playing with lasers! Kerf bending is a method of bending plywood by burning patterns along the desired bend. Here you can find some interesting patterns that not only work, but are visually appealing as well... And just to complete this section, another link on Laser-cut Lattice Living Hinges, with a mathematical modelling twist to it. Or torsion, I should say. |
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PIXELS by Patrick Jean Here's a clever and overall pretty impressive animation on 8-bit creatures overtaking NYC. PIXELS is Patrick Jean' latest short film, shot on location. |
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The Naked Espresso A really interesting take on a coffee ad campaign that involves hacking the espresso machine with an Arduino to output both analogue and digital signals. These signals are then converted from voltage to the relevant units and displayed through a processing application as the generative art animation. |
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Carrot Gun Improves Eyesight Just in time for your garden’s carrot harvest, Lou shows us how to make a carrot firing rifle. It’s cheap, easy, and quick. If you’ve got 15 buck and 15 minutes you can have one to call your own. |
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Mechanical Typewriter Keyboard for iPad If you like the old-time tactile quality of a classic manual typewriter, but have come to appreciate the ease of use of an iPad, you’ll dig Austin Yang’s iTypewriter mechanical typewriter keyboard. Each key is mapped to match up with the built-in iOS keyboard, so as you type, a mechanical arm tipped with a conductive pad swings out and taps the capacitive screen to render a character. |
Well I hope this post was as well-balanced as a calorie-counting vitamin-supplemented health freak diet and as lighthearted as popcorn with rainbow unicorns (hmmm, corn?) sprinkled with pink feathers… Yeah, let the random things rule, and happy (day after) Wednesday to everyone!
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Our sympathy...
Due to the horrific events happening in the USA, Solarbotics cannot guarantee delivery of Priority or Airmail orders for the immediate future. Our sincerest sympathy goes out to the victims of this brutal and cowardly attack. May time relieve you of your sorrow, and the attackers face their justice.
K SMD Motor Driver
Got a new kit for you - the K SMD L293D Motor Driver. No, no, the SMD isn't "surface mount" - it's the Secret Motor Driver! This L293D-based motor driver fits secretly inside most standard servo cases like the Futaba S3003/S148, and our own GM4 gear motors. It replaces the low-voltage original electronics with LED-indicated, […]
Holiday Shipping Deadlines
Within Canada: Canada Post Priority™ Dec 21 Canada Post Xpresspost™ Dec 20 Canada Post Regular Parcel™ Dec 11 To the United States: Canada Post Xpresspost Dec 16 Canada Post Expedited Parcel™ Dec 12 PuroGround Dec To Europe: Canada Post International Xpresspost Dec 8 Purolator: Canada, next-day delivery (where available) Dec 21 United States, next-day delivery (where available) Dec 21 United States via […]
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Please visit www.P65Warnings.ca.gov for more information. This item was manufactured prior to August 31, 2018.