Logan’s Run Gun Memories

 DS Pistol from Logans Run

One of the first props that I ever made was a DS pistol from the movie Logan’s Run. This was around 1986, way before the Internet was popular and prop makers had the crisp clarity of DVDs (I didn’t have a laser disc player, I didn’t even see one until the 87’s), that makes it easier to freeze frame images of props. I worked from plans a friend of mine had, I think they came from some sort of Logan’s Run guide book. Never having built a prop let alone a replica of one used in a movie, the materials used were a little sketchy. I remember using a few pill bottles for the tubes, Legos for spaces, and stacked sheets of ABS plastic that I ground down on a bench grinder for the grips. Other than falling apart once due to super glue failure it worked pretty well. Later in life I ended up owning a resin copy of one that had a light bulb in the end. that was pretty cool, not as cool as the ones that fired real flame but still… I can’t remember what happened to these, I think I sold them or traded them years ago but they were fun while I had them. It sure is nice to see that not everyone has forgotten this movie, the film was cool (read the book, way better) but the gun was the coolest.

Memory jogged via Props and Costumes form Logans Run

CF to IDE Adapter

CF to IDE adapter 

I’ve seen these in a local monster computer store here in Arizona. I was tempted to get one but I couldn’t think of a good reason to own one. Of course, if you want one you can get a CF to IDE adaper here if you wish. Just trying to help out.

I did speak to a guy that was building a robot that would run Linux off from an old desktop computer. He was trying to figure out a way to extend the battery life of the system, the motorcycle batteries just weren’t lasting as long as he had hoped. I told him about these and he was quite pleased. Using a compact flash card in place of a hard drive should save him a few amps off his power load.

Welcome to Akihabara News : Akihabaranews.com

DIY Dot-Matrix Display

DIY dot matrix display

 

 

 

Now this is a great DIY project. Building this will not only give you a real cool customizable display but it shows you just how versatile a micro controller can be. The PIC ( a PICAXE 18X Microcontroller ) runs 20 diffused blue LEDs to display just about any 4×5 pattern you care to program into it. Make a bunch of them and you could build your own scrolling sign, or just one and do something like make a compass display or whatever your mind comes up with.

[via MAKE

LED Dot-Matrix Display

MOO Card Test Set

MOO card test set

These are a set of free cards that I got from Moo.com. I like the way they look, some of the full frame formatted photos have white borders but I can fix that by uploading some edited photos. The paper has a nice weight to it. The surface is smooth satin and feels great. I’ll be buying more of these soon. I love the way that Flickr can be used to not only display your photos but to also serve as the source for physical items. These cards are darn cool. 

MOO card test set on Flickr – Photo Sharing!

STAX Food System

Chris Powells' STAX system 

If anyone asks me my opinion on weight loss I just say eat less and move around more. It’s a simple concept but it can be hard to do sometimes. Oddly enough, the ‘moving around more’ part, at least for me was never a problem. It was the eating less part that was tough. I hate feeling like my stomach is trying to digest itself. 🙁 Anyway, I saw this today and realized that keeping the food with you through out the day would help a lot. Lots of diets tell you to eat a bunch of small meals throughout the day but where do you keep the food? The Stax system solves this problem. The design is pretty clever. The food is loaded into color coded containers (protein, carbs, veggies, etc) and then into the bag. The bag has a gel pack to keep everything nice and chilly. It comes with a timer so you know when to chow down and the best part is you can use this with just about any diet you want. So if your looking to follow a diet you found in a book or prefer to ‘roll your own’ you can do both with this. It’s like a LEGO set for food, it gives you the tools to do the diet that works for you. Not too shabby.

Welcome to Chris Powell’s STAX

Homemade Wide Angle 4×5 Camera

 

This is a thing of beauty…

"My home-made 6×9 super-wide camera. Rigid-body, 47mm f/5.6 Schneider MC Super-Angulon in a No. 0 shutter. With a Mamiya RB67 back…The helical focusing mount is made by Schneider – the distance scale is calibrated for the 47mm Super Angulons. You can buy the mount for some other lenses too. I scavanged the Graflock adapter and some other bits from an old American 6×9 rangefinder camera called Graflex XL. The rest I fabricated myself at a friend’s machine shop in Richmond. It was inspired by the Hasselblad SWC. To use, it is not as nice as the SWC, but I did some comparison shots, and most people who saw them thought that the SA is sharper than the 38 Biogon." 

[via Make

Home made camera – a photoset on Flickr