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Toward an open-source Pick and Place machine
So, there’s some really cool, empowering stuff going down these days with regard to manufacturing. Cartesian machines (i.e. CNC mills) are relatively simple to build from off-the-shelf parts; there are a bajillion people doing this and plenty of ready-made open-source designs available. More recently, hobbyists have gotten in on designing open- ( Read more... ) -
I quit, I win, final, no talkbalks
It’s like third grade all over again, except that I could theoretically have ice cream for breakfast if I wanted to.
cexxy version -
Windows 2000/XP Driver for (some) Veo Stingray and IBM PC Camera V5000 webcams
UPDATE: For Veo Stingray drivers, try these first. In case they disappear… Stingray 300V (Win98/ME/2000/XP) and Stingray 323V (Win2k/XP only). The one sold by AllElectronics uses the 323V driver.
I picked up an old “Veo Stingray” camera from surplus dealer AllElectronics. These things are pretty junk by modern standards (320×240 resolution, ( Read more... ) -
Tubthumping (or, Sears/Kenmore washers are shit, do not buy them)
So there we are, minding our own business, when an angry demon springs to life in the basement. He is on a rampage, pounding against the walls with all his might, THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP BANG BANG BANG. We race downstairs. Turns out it is only the Sears Kenmore front-loading washing machine’s internals beating themselves to death during the final ( Read more... ) -
No, she cannot has cheezburger. Laser pointer, yes!
We got a kitty last weekend. Like many new additions of the human kind, we hadn’t really planned on it*, but now we are in love with her. Her name is Spirit (she comes pre-named).
She had no trouble settling into the new house, except for spooking out at the noise from the radiators at first. She’s such a little attention whore - follows the ( Read more... ) -
Banned from Google (or, How I Became A Dirty Rotten Spammer)
An update, 1/28/2011: It turns out there was a legitimate problem on the site after all! Specifically, hacked by spammers at some point and filled with invisible links & keywords. Skip down to the comments for the details, and be aware that the rant that follows is based on a fairly complete lack of information! (Said information being over a year ( Read more... ) -
DIY-Spy: a homebrew 2.4GHz wi-fi spectrum analyzer
I was reading the Thinkgeek catalog a while back and an interesting gadget caught my eye: “Wi-Spy”, a 2.4GHz spectrum analyzer on a USB stick. Coming from the world where “spectrum analyzer” refers to a big benchtop box with a name like Le Croyright, we can’t afford those Agilent on it, my first thought was, “A good spectrum analyzer in the GHz ( Read more... ) -
Throwies overtake Kendall/MIT station sculpture
Blinking RGB LED throwies adorn the “Steaming Globe” sculpture near the Kendall/MIT station just after the 4th of July fireworks show. No idea how this could have happened.
Kids had a blast pulling them off and throwing them back onto the globe (and each other!). The whole rest of the night as we walked around, we saw blinking kids.
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Plans for independence day weekend?
I want to do a big BBQ that weekend. I'm leaning for Sunday (assuming people have plans for Saturday), but what works for who? (If you are reading this, yes, you are totally invited) -
You are invited to participate in a research study. Afterward, there will be cake.
Heh… I’ve just completed NIH certification to administer human test protocols. I feel like that’s got to be worth a few mad scientist points.
So, I’m working on this project at work involving research into new forms of computer interface peripherals. (No, not that one.) As part of the project, we are required to test these interface concepts with ( Read more... )
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