Now this is classic mad scientist stuff! The idea is simple, fling bullets at your target. Ok, it’s a little more complex than that but not very much. This is a simplified version of something that’s been popping up in the tech news lately, the DREAD system. I think the version form 1963 could be made from an Altoids tin and an electric motor from a Furby…
Just in time for the wintry weekend, a site that can keep you amused for days! Just stock up on paper before you get snowed in.
The Mission of the museum is to inspire everyone to greater heights, no matter what they choose. If this much variation and grace can come from a simple piece of paper, imagine what you can do!
Awards have been given out by Japan’s Ministry of Economics and Trade Industry for the top 10 robots in the area of service, industrial, civil, and small to medium sized venture robots.
It’s easy to see why Japan has given out these awards. Japan has a pretty low birth rate and their citizens are living longer and longer so it makes sense to build robots that will assist the elderly. I’m all for it, as the technology advances more and more of it will trickle down to everyday tasks. I for one hope that robotic fueling stations for cars become common. It might force car makers to establish a standard fuel port for cars but I think that would be a small concession for the convenience and environmental benefits such a system would create.
I saw a gob of the contenders at the 2006 NextFest in New York last September, and I can say that the Paro robot seals are going to be a big hit when they come across to the US. From the reactions of the kids that were interacting with them I’m sure that pediatric hospitals will be buying some of them. KHR-2HV robots are cool just because they walk like humans but they are low enough in price that you could see a few being used in a school setting to teach robotics.
Go follow the link and see who took home the top award.
It’s true, having a good tripod head can save you a lot of headaches but normally it costs quite a bit to buy one. The only solution is to build your own!
There’s some amazing software out there for panoramic photography. Various software packages warp, stitch and blend sequences of photos so that they (ideally) look like one big, high-resolution, panoramic shot. However, getting these shots to turn out perfectly isn’t easy when hand holding your camera or using a normal tripod, especially when some parts of the image are fairly close to the lens. Panoramic tripods can cost hundreds of dollars, but making your own isn’t that hard. Even better, it’s dirt cheap.
This is a beautiful take on a regular old alarm clock. It should inspire people to look under the covers and cases for the inner beauty that lurks within (ooo, impressive, eh?).
Hey great thread. I forget how I stumbled across it, but looking through the page, I became inspired to make something of my own from an old lightbulb. It’s kind of a retro-Victoriana mad scientist contraption.
An now for something beautiful in a mathematical sort of way. Evil Scientist Labs present Christmas Chaos. Simply put, it's a mega high resolution real time ray traced fractal generator system made from coloured lights and Christmas tree ornaments. Look like a veritable science wizard when you absent mindedly put one of these together at the breakfast table on Christmas morning.
One thing I greatly enjoy about doing this site is that fact that I run across so many cool things on the web. Some are practical others are neat too look at and some are just down right awesome. This would be one of the awesome finds. Coming out of China amidst copyright problems with a US based pinhole camera company, the EightBanners camera company has surpassed themselves in the area of beautiful and original pinhole cameras. The latest designs feature very professional looking aluminium body pinhole cameras that make pin sharp images on 120 format film. If a metal camera isn’t your cup of tea then I suppose you could buy one of their wooden cameras. Still the same high quality construction and a beautiful eye for detail. And the features of these are stunning. Soon you will be able to equip your camera body with a turret of pinhole types. Single pinholes, slits, crosses, zone plate… Wow! Best of all it looks like they will sell individual parts as well. Building a nice wooden camera body but you don’t want to make a shutter? No problem, you can get one here. Go have a look at their catalog and the online gallery of shots taken with these cameras.
Kind of takes the fun out of hacking one from CVS but if your looking for a pocket sized camcorder that is easy to use this would be a good choice. The pre-hacked version has one big advantage over the one you can get for a song, ok two big advantages other than the price. The ‘real’ version hold three times more video due to the 1 GB of memory inside and it comes with a built in USB connector. Now, speaking as a guy that owns two of the DIY versions I can safely say that it can be a pain in the ass to futz with a homemade cable when I want to unload the movies. It’s also an equal pain using the software that you can find on the ‘Net that ‘fixes‘ the cheap cameras. You might wonder why I own two of these cameras, well it’s so I can take 3D video with them. It’s fun and I’ll blog my exploits here pretty soon. I’ve also taken one of these cameras to Hawaii with me and got fairly good results. The 20 minute time restrictions keeps the shots short and trust me that’s a good thing. I normally keep one of these cameras with me just in case I spot something cool, you can’t beat it for size. I’d say that the Pure Digital camcorder would make a dandy gift for anyone looking for a take it where ever you go camera.
Well today after much fretting and taking of antacids I took the plunge and upgraded the site to the latest version (v 2.0.5) of WordPress. I can’t see anything that’s broken right now, if anyone does leave me a comment and I’ll fix it. At least I’ll try to fix it.
You know, sometimes you just want to kick ass and take names for free. These days finding that all joyful free method to do this is tough. That’s where True Combat Elite enters the pretty picture. It’s a gun toting kick ass first person shooter (FPS) that’s free. Yeah, ya heard me right, free (no, not like beer). It’s built on the popular steel belted free Wolfenstein 3D game engine and features some impressive graphics. Games by gamers, what a concept. BTW, before the whiny Mac and Linux users start going on about how they get left out of the ultra violence all the time you should know that the game can be downloaded for all the platforms out there (ok, PC, Linux and Macs) Truth be told I’m a bit of a PC video game virgin so I’m not up on all the latest and greatest in the world of game design (although I hear that F.E.A.R. is pretty good). I’ve always found ‘better’ things to do with my time at the computer than to play games. Well my porn surfing days look to be over because this game looks amazing! I now what I’ll be doing tomorrow, that would be killing stuff! Yearrgh!
Everyone is talking about this today. I remember first read about a free nitrogen laser in the Scientific American Experimenters Handbook when I was a teenager. I was more into building a Van de Graff machine but I could still appreciate a laser that didn’t need any complex lasing fluids or expensive tubes or one of those ultra cool multi Joule flash lamps. Ahh.. Such day dreams those made up… Oh yeah, about the laser. Pretty much is uses a great whopping spark to excite the nitrogen atoms in the air to a higher state and in turn that liberates ultraviolet radiation. Cool, eh? Hubert’s page has all sorts of cracking info on how that darn thing works, the kid did his homework Looks like you could build one for less than $50 easy. The 10KV power supply could be obtained from a TV or you might even be able to get away with using one of those cheesy air ionizers you find in second hand shops. Or you could buy one from Information Unlimited. (Weird, I Googled ‘high voltage power supply’ and saw the link, I had no idea those guys were still around! Very cool!)
With this simple gadget you can turn any key into a flashlight. Minimize fumbling around in the dark for the keyhole. It’s a simple enough concept that I don’t think I need to explain it any beter than that.
It’s true, having a good tripod head can save you a lot of headaches but normally it costs quite a bit to buy one. The only solution is to build your own!
One thing I greatly enjoy about doing this site is that fact that I run across so many cool things on the web. Some are practical others are neat too look at and some are just down right awesome. This would be one of the awesome finds. Coming out of China amidst 
is pretty good). I’ve always found ‘better’ things to do with my time at the computer than to play games. Well my porn surfing days look to be over because this game looks amazing! I now what I’ll be doing tomorrow, that would be killing stuff! Yearrgh!
