I have to say that some of the steampunk mods that I’ve seen don’t always look that good, but I’m truly amazed at Woodguy’s creations. He does custom steampunk additions for your computers.
The steampunk aesthetic tends to polarize opinions. Some people love it, some people hate it. But no matter what you think of steampunk, you’ve gotta hand it to Woodguy for his craftsmanship.
His handmade steampunk computer accessories are made from wood, brass, and copper, then finished off with a patina to give them that truly antique look. I have to warn you though, they aren’t cheap. Prices start at $325 (USD) for a mouse/keyboard combo to almost $1,000 for a monitor, keyboard and mouse.
You can check out his website for further details, or his Etsy shop.
[via Yanko Design]
Written by range on March 19th, 2010 with no comments.
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My brain is overloading with the coolness of this little LEGO robot. On top of being remote-controlled, NIKO can receive its commands via Twitter! Now that’s a cool use of social-robo-networking!
The robot receives its commands thanks to a Nokia N900 phone. Users can tweet special commands to @N900Niko to put the robot through its paces. NIKO can move forward, turn around, and even take a photo thanks to the N900.
I have to say that tweets are the perfect way to send simple commands. Check out the video below to see the NIKO in action:
Click to View Embedded Video Clip
[via Make:]
Written by range on March 19th, 2010 with no comments.
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As Wired’s Charlie Sorrel said, books contain much of human knowledge, but they are quite hard to preserve or archive compared to other media. A setup invented by professor Masatoshi Ishikawa and his team at the University of Tokyo could change all of that. Ishikawa and company are working on a high-speed camera that takes 500 shots per second. One simply flips a book’s pages in front of the camera, and custom software takes care of aligning and flattening whatever distorted pages were captured.
Watch and be amazed. Freakin’ magic:
Click to View Embedded Video Clip
I really hope this technology gets refined and popularized. The benefits that the human race would gain from a digital, searchable database of all the world’s books and other written text is immeasurable. As amazing as that sounds, that may just be a part of Ishikawa’s awesome gifts to the world: at the heart of the scanner is what he calls the Super Vision Chip, and he and his team are looking at other applications for it, such as tracking individual bacteria and building a motion-capture system for video games.
[via Wired and IEEE Spectrum]
Written by lambert v. on March 19th, 2010 with no comments.
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Aaron Alai made sure that prospective employers – and lovers – will remember him. They’ll remember him as the nerd with the business card that lights up.
Touching two points on the card activates the small LED on the lower right of the card. The unusual schematic is deliberate; it’s actually the molecular diagram of acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter. Double nerdery in the hizzouse.
Click to View Embedded Video Clip
Check out Alai’s website for more details. I’d rather have a business card that will make whoever I give it to unconditionally like me. I bet some biologist can come up with a card like that, probably lace it with hormones or something. Man, I wish I was a nerd.
[via Hacked Gadgets]
Written by lambert v. on March 18th, 2010 with no comments.
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As news of the 3D version of the Batman: Arkham Asylum hit, Kotakuite deanbmmv pointed out that people who bought the PC version of the game don’t need to re-buy it because there’s already a way to play it – and other PC games – in 3D for free… as long as you have an NVIDIA graphics card.
The NVIDIA driver will use anaglyph images – red and cyan, as shown above – to produce the 3D effect, and of course you’ll need to wear glasses with red and cyan filters to see the effect. If you’re not okay with that, then skip the rest of the article. If you’re fine with that, the first thing that you should do is to make sure that you have the latest NVIDIA drivers.
You can go to NVIDIA’s website to download the drivers. Once you’ve done that, restart your computer, then navigate to “Start>All Programs>NVIDIA Corporation>3D Vision and click on “Enable 3D Vision Discover.” All that’s left to do is to test it on your games; deanbmmv says that if your game uses DirectX, then it can probably be played in 3D. Check out his post on Press X or Die for more details.
Written by lambert v. on March 17th, 2010 with no comments.
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Ever dreamed of having a your very own Xbox 360 laptop? Well if you’ve got some money to spare, you can bid on this portable Xbox 360 over on eBay.
Modder TheTwoJ and his friend spent over $2000 and 650 man-hours to build this bad boy, so it really deserves a loving home.
At the heart of the Xbox 360 portable luggable is a brand-new Elite Jasper, hooked up to a widescreen 17″ Gateway LCD monitor. The case was completely hand-built and has a full QWERTY keyboard, and a built-in Xbox Live Camera in the lid. The laptop also has an integrated wireless adapter and a 120GB hard drive under the hood. And if for any reason you want to play games on a bigger monitor, there’s a switch to send your display output to an external VGA port.
The system still requires the gigantic-ass Xbox 360 power brick to run, but at least TheTwoJ was kind enough to mod it to provide power to all components with a single cord. Unfortunately, there’s no way to run it on batteries, but it’s highly doubtful you could operate this power-hungry thing for long without a car battery or two anyhow.
In order to keep the 360 cool inside this case, he loaded up the X-Top with lots of fans. I’m hoping that it’s not actually as loud as it sounds in the video clip below, and that’s just the microphone that’s really extra sensitive to noise. Check it out for proof that the X-Top really works:
Click to View Embedded Video Clip
And if you’re concerned about the whole thing overheating TheTwoJ says not to worry. He’s been putting the X-Top through its paces for about three months now without a hitch. You can check out the full build log over here, and if you’re ready to throw your hat into the ring to own this, head on over to eBay now.
[via Ben Heck Forums]
Written by technabob on March 16th, 2010 with no comments.
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Maker/Problem-solver Steve Hoefer made an Arduino-based glove that can play Rock Paper Scissors. Why? Why the hell not! You think a nerd would pass up the opportunity to play with a computer? The glove has an accelerometer that detects when the user is shaking his fist to signify the beginning of a round. A flex sensor takes care of determining what move has been pulled off, i.e. whether you played rock, paper or scissors, and a layered edge-lit display shows what move the computer played. LEDs are used to show the score.
So how does the Arduino Mini Pro fare in Rock Paper Scissors? “It wins. A lot. And it adapts.” The glove remembers a user’s playing habits, so if you have a pattern of moves (whether you’re aware that you have a pattern of moves or not), the glove will adjust accordingly.
For example, if most of the time your opening move is Rock, then the glove will start using Paper as its initial move more often. Or if you usually play Paper twice in a row, then the glove will learn to play Scissors after your first Paper. It’s Rock Paper Scissors Championship Edition, and it seems that ironically, you’ll have a higher chance of winning if you don’t have a strategy and are totally random.
Click to View Embedded Video Clip
Tinkerers and hackers should check out Hoefer’s website for more details, as well as instructions, tips and the source code for the Arduino. Maybe you can build a glove that incorporates Lizard and Spock as well.
[via Neatorama]
Written by lambert v. on March 16th, 2010 with no comments.
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She may not look like much, but she’s got it where it counts kids:
The DC-Falcon was crafted by Steve Perry aka pezzapoo. Apparently the cult classic console and Perry’s Millenium Falcon toy were perfect for each other. The Dreamcast’s gameport plate easily fit into the side of the ship. After “lots of soldering” and the addition of two fans to keep the mod from bursting into flames, the DC-Falcon was born.
Click to View Embedded Video Clip
Neat. Someone should make an Xbox 360 Death Star mod; I think the 360’s ring is a perfect stand-in for the Superlaser Focus Lens.
[via Benheck.com]
Written by lambert v. on March 14th, 2010 with no comments.
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