Category: Mad Science

From the Shadows

Box

For some good tech related evening entertainment take a look at ‘From the Shadows’
. These guys have some pretty good stuff.

What is in the latest installment of the “Box”:

In “From The Shadows: Box 4.0” the FTS crew is coming to you, from the shadows with an inside look into the world of traffic technology. Join us as we bring “Red Light. Green Light” to you, from the shadows.

So if your burning to know what is up with traffic technology go have a look. I’m pretty sure it’s going to be more than just how to spot a stop light. You better get a few screwdrivers ready for this one.

From the Shadows.

info, video, tech, hack

DIY cellphone repair

Busted

My phone isn’t listed, too bad because of the photo you can tell that my phone isn’t in the best of shape these days. But if yours is on the list then you might be able to have at it with a screwdriver and some gaffers tape and make it all better. Then again even if your phone isn’t on the list you should do it. Remember, if it has screws in it, it’s made to be opened!

DIY cellphone repair

cell, phone, fix, DIY

Wiggler

I enjoy taking stereo photographs from time to time but many people have a problem viewing them. People either can’t cross their eyes or they can’t do the ‘far look’ thing and fuse the images together. Viewers are great – but they don’t do all that well over the Internet and most people don’t have setups to view them on their computer screens anyway.
So this could be a handy tool. What the Wiggler does is take two photos (or one side by side photo) and adds a sense of the third dimention by alternating them back and forth. Its pretty cool. I have a link at the bottom to an image that I made from two screens from the Google Earth program.

Wiggler

Lower Manhattan has been Wiggled!

wiggle, stereo, photography, 3D

Trebuchet Reloaded

Popsicle trebuchet

Today I received a comment about the Paper Trebuchet I blogged a while ago:

>Hi, John.
>Im about to build a cardboard trebuchet 4 my assignment but the site is currently unavailiable.
>can u please send me the plan if u still have it,thx.
>geniusjeff2002@xxxx.xxx

Well heck, I checked the site I mentioned in my original post and discovered that sure enough the plans are no longer there. The site looks pretty broken to me.
So I sent this to Geniusjeff2002 in hopes that I can still be of some help.

I just sent him an e-mail asking if there is another location to download it from, if I get a message from him I’ll post it here. I can’t find the one I downloaded from his site anymore, its lost on my hard drive. 🙁
In the mean time here is a more complex plan, it looks very cool. Ripcords Tennis Ball Trebuchet
If that is too complex then go with the Popsicle Stick Trebuchet (main page). This would be amazingly strong for its size and still be quite easy to build.
If you have any LEGOs about the house, I bet you could use them in place of the Popsicle sticks.
I hope this helps a bit and best of luck on the assignment.

Both the plans I found are quite good. The Popsicle one looks easy enough you could build them in a class room (if your insane enough to do somthing like that). So if anyone is looking for the paper trebuchet plans and can’t find them either give this one a try.

****UPDATE****
I submitted this to the MAKE blog and it was accecpted. Some less forgetfull reader than I noted that the Wayback Machine had an archive of the original Paper Trebuchet page! Very cool!
Build a paper trebuchet

paper, trebuchet, DIY, seige, popsicle, MAKE, cool, toy