tingilinde

a simple polonium detector

A super-simple ionization detector - just the thing for finding Polonium (a very small chamber suitable for alphas). Probably good enough for most targets of certain governments, although improving the design is easy.

The cute thing about the Darlington pair is that it is just two bipolar transistors combined to cascade amplification. In the early days these sometimes were packaged in a single case. Sid Darlinton of Bell Labs patented it for two or three transistors on a single chip of silicon ... if he would have done it for an arbitrary number, Bell Labs may have held the patent to the integrated circuit.

more appletv hacking

Spending a few minutes looking at one of the AppleTV hacking sites, one finds major changes from a week ago.

My favorite is turning it into a music machine ..

As long as you can live within the 256MB ram limit, there appears to be considerable potential.

apple tv hacks

The realization that the Apple TV is really a little Mac (with limited RAM) has led to some curious hacks... putting asterisk on it is my current favorite.

A small bsd/os x box that can be purposed for non-desktop things moderately interesting.

mark frauenfelder on the colbert report

We're big fans of Make and were delighted to see Mark on the Colbert Report last night

Colbert seemed in awe and fascinated.

Too bad the balloon hasn't flown, but amazing publicity for the DYI crowd.

cheap wifi reflector

Charles sends an image of a reflector used to increase signal strength for a wifi antenna in a PowerMac G5.

A slightly modified kitchen stainer:-)

It wouldn't be optimal, but if you have one sitting around you may be able to get a few dB on your wifi basestation.

I wouldn't recommend wifi for a fixed desktop for a a couple of reasons ... if you can run a cable, you'll get better performance. But if you really need to (by the way - the antenna design on the PowerMacs - at least mine - is really awful). Get your tinsnips ready ...

improving skype on ibook g4s

Regular Skype users should buy a handset or headset to isolate feedback from their speaker(s) and microphone. iChat AV does the right thing on the iBook G4 and Powerbook and turns off the speaker closest to the microphone. Skype uses both speakers and is much more prone to feedback.

A simple trick is to cover the right speaker grill with almost anything. I have been using a dime with single sided foam tape on one side. People have been pointing out that a regular dime also works well.

It isn't as good as a headset, but ten cents offers a large improvement.

will make: make it?

Larry pointed out O'Reillys new Make: magazine - described as "the first magazine for technology projects..."

The description is wrong if they mean this is something new - magazines like this have been around since the late 19^th century. I hope it turns out to be useful, but for the past twenty years the track record for similar offerings has been poor

Many of the projects are mentioned on the web. Having everything in one place with well written articles will be a bonus, but I suspect O'Reilly will have pages with extra information and links on the Web. Getting parts for some projects is also a big issue. Popular Electronics remained relevant in the sixties and seventies as projects went beyond what was available in local stores and homes by selling partial parts kits.

I wish them luck, but this will be difficult to sell to people who don't do it already. In the meantime, for those who do fool around with things, the editor points out web resources.

If you want to build a homemade Steadicam, this is one of many projects. There are so many projects on kite aerial photography that I will only point out a few links that we've visited before .. Charles Benton's (he has a side interest in slide rules), Scott Haefner's and James and Susan Aber's are great places to start.

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It points to ThinkCycle - a place for collaborative ideas and designs for stuff. The idea seemed great to me years ago when it came out, but there isn't as much activity as one would hope.

I should also mention The Society for Amateur Scientists. You can get CD archives of the old Scientific Amercian Amateur Scientist columns there (ranging from easy to maddening and fascinating to brilliant).

WebEE has a nice list of interesting projects for those who know which end of a soldering iron to hold.

Other interesting sources are Ian Purdie's project page (I used to play around with amateur radio telescopes and Ian has some simple ideas). The Stirling Engine page is cool - a very simple Stirling Engine is here.

There is a huge amount of stuff out there from beginners to experts.

a good product gone wrong

Transparent duct tape - I haven't used it (someone mentioned it last night and a search of the 3M site turned it up).

Somehow this seems wrong. It may work wonderfully, but ugly duct tape is a badge of honor.

thermite and mit

Greg sent a note on an unfortunate fire noting that it is something of a dream for MIT students. This prompted me to recall a story about MIT students thermitng a train to the rails. This has always struck me as urban folklore, but Greg answered with the following note:

Absolute truth. There used to be a light rail on Mass Ave in front of MIT, and it was thermited to the tracks. They closed the above ground line soon after. And, some group (not that I have any personal knowledge) thermited most of the gates to Harvard yard closed.

The cleanest subway trick didn't use thermite at all. As you pass over the Charles river, from the MIT-Kendal stop to the bridge, power briefly vanishes from each car because there were separate Boston and Cambridge generating loops. A few MIT students greased the track on the bridge, just below the power break. The train couldn't gain enough power or momentum, and kept sliding back into the station. The "T" engineers moved the break point out by a few hundred feet to prevent a repeat incident.....

wow

For those of you who have never played with a thermite reaction, my simple advice is don't!

Basically aluminum and ferric oxide powder (Fe₂O₃). I won't mention proportions or how to trigger it - this is a highly exothermic and dangerous reaction..

homemade segway

Steve points out a great project -- a homemade segway.

she screamed when she woke up next to the insect

Every now and again you see something that jogs the memory ...

Norm tells the story of a relative who decided to invent his way out of his sleeping problems...

It seems he reasoned that cool air from the outdoors would be just what his sinuses needed but, being cheap, it didn't make sense to cool the bedroom. A piece of wood with a couple of holes was placed under the window and two tubes served as pathways to his nostrils. Keeping the tubes in place while he slept accomplished with a leather football helmet and a bit of handiwork.

Ugly, crude and pure sleeping satisfaction ...

Now his wife had been traveling during this inventive phase and, in the style of a true boffin, he neglected to tell her about his discovery. Oh well - the memorable things in life are surprises. Her travels left her fatigued and she retired early falling into a deep sleep on the cold autumn night. He followed a few hours later fitting his sleeping apparatus before the sandman came.

It is not pleasant to wake up only to find that you are sharing your bed with a huge insect...
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Believe it or not the device is a real apparatus for people who need oxygen through the night. A modern version of a leather football helmet.

the astor cube prank

Some pranks sweet.

The Astor Cube hack was clearly worth doing. Thanks for the link Margot!