Over at Evil Mad Scientist there is an easy DIY project that will make cleaning fun and better yet, it might encourage your slacker kids to help out a little. Hit the link if you want to see how simple it is.
Basically an unprinted circuit board is attached to an RC car of your choice which is used to mount a dust mop. After that it’s just cleaning and play. This has to be dirt cheap to produce in a factory. Remote controlled cleaning would sell a bunch of cleaning supplies. They got everyone to buy swiffers after all. Check out the video below.
If you don’t happen to have enough room for one of those 22-foot tall styrofoam robots to defend the homestead, that’s okay. Thanks to the wild and wonderful creations of robot insect builder TinyMinds, you can get your hands on some little robots which should do the trick just as well.
Whether its the flapping wings of the mosquito-like Gonzo, or the wobbling octopod legs of Cthulhu, each of these BugBots is truly unique.
Every lumpy, bumpy member of the BugBot family is handcrafted from a variety of found materials and electronic componentry, and runs entirely on solar energy.
While I do love the mechanical winged and legged critters, I have to say that my personal favorite are the googley eyed light-seeking bots (Ernie and Bert), who amble around on a single-minded mission to find the brightest light source around.
TinyMinds’ current menagerie of tiny robotic bugs range in price from about $60 to $80 a piece, and can be found over on their Etsy shop.
Individually cut and folded by Flickr contributor Lidia F. (aka “This Fffire“), these tiny Power Stars look just like their doppelgangers from the Super Mario game series (other than the defective ones with faces in the upper right corner). Lidia says she was inspired by Super Mario 64, so clearly she hasn’t upgraded her console in a while!
Each little Power Star is made from a single strip of paper, then hand-painted with yellow acrylics and embellished with some Sharpie eyeballs. Now, I can’t really figure out how in the heck she managed to make these, but if you’re out there reading this post, feel free to share some tips so we can all make hundreds of these tiny stars.
The girls of Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) are undoubtedly some of the dopest chicks you’ll ever encounter. Not only do they do they possess mad algebraic skillz and could probably kick your ass in World of Warcraft, they have the only finest taste in tech blogs.
In this hilarious rap vid clip from the school’s CMU Gurlzzz, pay careful attention starting around the 1:45 mark, and you just might hear a mention of a little blog that’s near and dear to my heart.
Excuse me now I gotta catch up with my blogs (blogs)
If you don’t like that then I’ll throw you to the dogs (dogs)
And if you DIGG it, then you my dawg
Gizmodo Notcot and technabob
Yep. When you start having your blog mentioned alongside DIGG, Gizmodo and Notcot in a viral YouTube clip, you know you’ve arrived.
Along with the Sony Ericsson P5i Paris and G702 BeiBei, Sony Ericsson is expected to announce a whole bunch of phones on the 17th of June. None of the to-be announced phones have been confirmed though, but their June 17th event would be better than any other time.
The latest additions to the list of rumored handsets belong to Sony Ericsson’s Snapshot and Fun series, which are the S302 and F305.
The Sony Ericsson S302 won’t satisfy your high-end phone cravings, as it only totes a 2 megapixel camera with LED photo flash and a built-in PhotoFix application. It seems that this phone is aimed squarely at casual photography enthusiasts. It’s also a quad-band GSM/EDGE phone, features a built-in FM radio, Bluetooth A2DP, USB connectivity, 20MB internal memory and Memory Stick Micro card support.
On the other side of the pond, meanwhile, is the Sony Ericsson F305, with a triad of stereo features, namely: stereo speakers, stereo Bluetooth, and stereo FM radio (although I would never know the difference). It also sports a 2 megapixel camera, M2 memory card support, and 2-inch 176 x 220 pixel resolution TFT display. Rumors hail this phone as a gaming device, though, so it’s likely that a QVGA device could come out in the future.
Availability for the S302 should come at around Q4 2008, with two color models: Thunder Grey and Crystal Blue. The F305 should be available by Q3 2008 in white. If all of these rumors hold true, and Sony Ericsson confirms both handsets on their June 17th event, that is.
While this doesn’t really qualify as a techie gadget or a video game, I came across this quirky game and thought it was just too good to pass up.
Instead of knocking over some ordinary pins with this bowling game, you knock over a bunch of little plastic lawn gnomes. The set comes with 6 colorful plastic garden gnomes (10-inches tall each) and a couple of bright plastic bowling balls (one blue, one red) to knock ‘em down with.
While you could sneak around your block stealing your neighbors’ lawn ornaments and bowling them down with a regular bowling ball, this set lets you gnome bowl without breaking any laws. You can grab the set over on I Want One of Those for about $50.
Do you prefer your robots cute, soft and able to hold your stuff? Me too, and that’s why I am enjoying the Robot a Day project from Canadian crafter Erin Wilk, aka Etsy seller anatomyofaskirt. Each weekday Erin creates a new, limited edition ‘bot made of vinyl, with convenient flip-top zipper head.
Each of her petite robot creations measures about 3″ x 3″ x 5.5″, making them just big enough to hold on to all of your spare robot repair parts (assuming you have a really tiny robot). Otherwise, your loose change will do.
I believe you already know Bele and Lokai? No? Let’s refresh your memory then:
Here’s a fun iPhone hack you’ll either really love or really hate. VistaPerfection 2.0 is a complete re-skinning kit for Apple’s wonderphone that lets it masquerade as a Windows Vista machine.
While many of you will ask: why the heck would you want to go and do that? Dunno. Maybe Spec Works (the guy who made it) just wanted to prove it could be done.
The install comes complete with wallpapers, sliders, sound effects and over 90 Vista-themed icons for everything from the computer to the recycle bin, and all of the standard iPhone apps too. There’s even a simulated version of Vista’s Sidebar and familiar Start menu.
If you’re ready and willing to deface your glorious chrome and glass iPhone with Microsoft’s bloatware user interface, head on over to ModMyiFone for the full download and instructions. (Requires a Jailbroken iPhone, SSH access and SummerBoard).
