[Sydney] sent in this fantastic portable Dreamcast, built by [techknott], in response to the one we posted yesterday. While we agree, this one is much more polished, we want to point out why the post yesterday is more Hack A Day material. Sure, it looks more “hackish”, but that’s not what we are referring to. What we want to draw your attention to, is the lack of information. Yesterday, there was a build log. Today, there is not. Sure the other one could have had much much more information and we’re not commenting on which one is “better”. We’re…
[techknott]’s portable dreamcast
Why are you fat?
Your quest to loss some weight if you are interested, will not see the light until you identify why
you are fat in the first instance and then work to avoid all the identified reasons. Though in the beginning, a lot of fat
people do not want to accept that they are fat and usually pick a quarrel if anyone makes an observation, there comes a time
when they can no longer hide from it.
The thing is, when you finally agree that you are fat, do you just say ‘okay, I know am fat and there is nothing I…
GNS3 (dynamips) and Voice-Labs
I hear often that it is hard to practice/demo voice related configurations with GNS3. This is only partially true.
It is correct that GNS3 cannot substitute Multiservice routers like 28xx etc because the DSP resources cannot be emulated. For using T1/E1 or FXS/FXO connections you need the real hardware interfaces and of course another PBX/router interface to connect your T1 to. If you have a double T1 you could use a T1 x-over to let the router do both ends.
For all other configurations like Dial-peers, translation patterns, SIP-UA configurations, CME, ephone registrations, CUBE etc, GNS3 can do the job. Just an example…
Internal Wireless Headphones
Wireless headphones can be a wonderful way to help clear up the clutter inherent in most desktop PC systems. However, after plugging a wall wart in, and the headphone jack into the computer, the number of wires used has actually doubled. After [Parker] found an old set of JVC 900 Mhz wireless headphones (and a generic 900MHz transmitter), he cracked open the case to see what he could do with them. Realizing that the transmitter used a 12V DC source, he powered it with an unused floppy connector (which provides +12V, +5V, and two ground lines). He also wired…
Capacitive buttons control all life
Projects involving Conway’s Game of Life and utilizing a Nokia 3310 screen are quite popular with electronics hobbyists. [Droky] put these two together and went one step further by adding capacitive sensors to control the Game of Life. His work is a great example of how to use the Atmel QTouch capacitive sensor (QT100a datasheet). This chip does the heavy lifting that we’ve seen in other touch sensitive solutions. It operates from 2V-5.5V, requires only three capacitors and a resistor, has a one pin active high output, and sells for around $1 in low quantities. One thing [Droky] overlooked…
Does It Really Matter How Many Fans You Have?
Last week we finished up the 30 Days to 3,000 Fans program and while some people may or may not have reached the 3,000 fan target, the real question is: does the number of fans really matter? Last night I was watching a video of Seth Godin where he says “it’s worthless to have lots and lots of friends on Facebook.” With so many people selling the importance of having fans, followers, and friends though, how could Seth Godin, a thought leader in marketing, make such an assertion?
It’s Relationship Marketing
Seth has a valid point. If you don’t build…
Frankenstein has a thing for coin-op
The amount of detail [Doug] put into his Dr. Frankenstein MAME cabinet is outrageous! Usually we’re more interested in the guts, but in this case the real story is the cabinet itself. Painted to resemble weathered metal, the effect of dripping water is visible on every rivet. There are illuminated portals on either side: one shows the monster, the other shows the bride and the good doctor. Sprinkled throughout the case are analog dials, lamps, and other laboratory bits. [Doug] tops off the design by concealing the power switch inside a book of Frankenstein’s lab notes which is tucked…
Junk bots win awards in Vietnam
In a national competition for creativeness in children, junk bots have reigned supreme. Pictured above is a detail from one of [Vu Van Thankg]’s junk bots. Created entirely from parts pulled from the trash, this thing has 11 motors which supposedly allow full arm and hand control. We know you’ll be upset at how little information there is, but the pictures alone show so much. Just look at the rig he put together for this arm. If that isn’t inspiring, we don’t know what is.
[via BoingBoing]
Edison cylinder recordings need more cowbell
[Norman] spent three years developing and building his own Edison cylinder phonograph with electric pickup. We’re glad he did, and that he shared it with the world because the product is a thing of beauty. Every part is clean and precise with plenty of room for adjustments to accommodate differences in media. He’s reused the head from a VCR and attached it to a CNC machined polypropylene mandrel. The needle is interfaced with the cylinder via a delicate passively driven carriage. This consists of an aluminum rod with the cartridge at one end, and two wheels at the other.…
Attracting Extra Web Hosting Customers By Targeting Cities, i.e.
Web hosting companies are constantly on the lookout to find newways to attract visitors to their websites. One avenue that manyweb hosts miss is targeting visitors who are searching for webhosting by city, such as New York Web Hosting, by state, such asCalifornia Web Hosting, or by country, such as Canada WebHosting. These pages show examples of pages that review andprovide information on web hosting companies in those cities.These searchers are looking for a hosting company in aparticular city, state, or country, but given the proper messagethey can often be convinced to try your hosting company.Afterall, given the nature of…
Seawater cooled data centers
Remember Mauritius from High School geography? We didn’t either, but apparently it’s a small island nation east of the southern tip of Africa. It seems they are trying to develop an industry in eco-friendly data centers. The plan is to use a pipeline to gather cold water from the ocean, run it two miles to the island, and use it as inexpensive cooling. Because rooms packed with servers generate copious amounts of heat it’s easy to see how this can reduce the cost of maintaining a data center.
The thing that struck us here is, how eco-friendly is this?…
Six monitors, one video card
With most of us utilizing at least two monitors these days in our day to day operations, six monitors, while an awesome thought, might seem a little too excessive. After all, do we really have space for multiple video cards?
AMD has a new setup in their testing lab that is running six Dell 30inch displays at 7680×3200 through a video card holding six DisplayPort connectors.
Maximum PC has the scoop on the setup, and they say that this single GPU will be coming out on AMD’s DirectX 11 capable chips. Details are slim with the amount of video…