Oct 30 2009 Gallery of Stormtroopers On Their Day Off
This is a shot in a series of photographs on Flickr titled '365 Days of Stormtroopers', which features a new picture of Stormtroopers enjoying a day off every day from April 3rd, 2009 to April 3rd, 2010 (I guess every day's a vacation since the destruction of the second Death Star). There are currently 210 pictures in the series and every one is very well done. Granted, not as well done as this tauntaun burger, but I like my meat like I like ex's house: burnt.
Hit the jump for a couple more of my favorites and another link to the massive Flickr gallery.
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Apr 13 2009 It's Trippy Time!: The Bulbdial Clock
The Bulbdial clock is like a sundial except, instead of the sun, it uses little LEDs to cast shadows from the timepiece's center spoke. Impressively, it casts three different shadows to correspond to the hours, minutes and seconds. It achieves this feat by having three tiers of LEDs, with the highest casting the (red) hour hand (explanatory pictures after the jump).
Additionally, for fun and clarity, we used red, green, and blue LEDs for the three rings, making each shadow hand of the clock a different color. Each ring has 12 LEDs, and the 36 LEDs are efficiently multiplexed by an AVR microcontroller that also handles the timekeeping part of the project.
So it's a a sundial for inside -- awesome! I swear, what will they come up with next? Interactive adult DVDs? Haha, already been done. And not to brag or anything, but I did crack the disk. Ladies?
Hit the jump for a couple more shots and a link to the build page.
Sep 15 2008 LED Coffee Table With 4-Person Pong
This homebrew LED coffee table is packing 65 microcontrollers and 4,092 LEDs. Why? So you can play 4-person co-op Pong of course. Note: That's a mirror under the table and not a secret passage to Wiretown.
We'd seen designs with interactive LEDs that responded to objects on the table, and they usually had around 400 LEDs...so we decided to up the ante with 10 times as many. We built the table and then decided that simple interactions were not enough, and went to work on a full-fledged game. 4-way multiplayer pong, in fact. Being geeks, we were obligated to have the game controlled using 4 Atari 2600 controllers (circa 1977). Four players sit around the table and cooperatively try to get the highest score. Score increases with each paddle hit and a new ball is introduced on hits 5, 10, 20, 30, etc.
Speaking from experience, it's never a good idea to introduce new balls into a 4-way. I've been there before, and let me tell you: when the # poles > # holes, things get awkward. Read: The new guy accused me of staring.
Hit the jump for two really awful videos of the table in action.
Aug 28 2008 USB Hub + Torn Up Graduation Gown = USB Hub Monster, Kids Afraid Of The Computer
Want to make your own USB Hub Monster? It doesn't look very hard. You just take a regular hub, add a bunch of USB cables with armature wire taped to them, and then tear up the college graduation gown you keep in the closet but break out every year during graduation and wear to the bars to score free drinks, tear that sucker up, wrap the hub and legs, and presto: a, um, USB Hub Monster! Add red LED eyes for a real monster-y effect. Or, add some beef flavor to make it something your dog will tear up, like it wasn't going to anyways.
Hit the jump for one more picture of the monster in use.
Jul 16 2008 LEGO Millennium Falcon Time Lapse Build
This video is a little older, so you may have already seen it. But if not, you're in for a real treat. If you have seen it already, you're in for fond memories of a treat eaten awhile ago. It's a time-lapse video of some guy building a Millennium Falcon LEGO set. Not the 5,195 piece Ultimate Collector's set though, a smaller one. But it's not just a boring build, he actually makes the pieces dance around on the table and shit while being assembled. It's very well done and took over 38 hours to complete. Which is more time than I've ever spent on a project in my entire life. Hell, I've even had marriages that didn't last that long. Ask my current wife if you don't believe me, we just celebrated our 24-hour anniversary this morning. And honestly -- I think we're about ready to call it quits. Isn't that right, what's-your-face?
Youtube
Thanks to Lockjaw, who needs to learn to wear shoes. All it takes is one rusty nail.
Jul 8 2008 Surprised?: Dubai Constructing World's Largest Water Fountain. Up Next: Everything Else
In an announcement that surprised absolutely no one, Dubai has voiced its intention of building the world's largest and fanciest water fountain (not of the drinking variety.
Costing a whopping $281 million, the new fountains will shoot water 450 feet into the air and pump 22,000 gallons of water through it at any given time. 6,600 lights and 50 projectors will shoot video and images onto the spray as its in the air...
Cool, I guess. I mean, I love a good fountain show as much as the next person stoned out of their mind, but this seems a little excessive. Why does everything have to be so extreme? You're not trying to make up for anything down there are you, Dubai? Sure, I'll take a loo...MY EYE! So much for that theory.
Hit the jump for what the fountain looks like if you're tripping.
Jun 10 2008 Good Job: 14-Year Old Makes His Own Cars
Naman Chopra is a 14-year old boy in India who makes his own freaking cars. He's built two so far, a little red sports car and the limo seen there in the picture.
The black beauty is also made from junk and is capable of speeds of up to 130MPH. It has a 1498 cc engine borrowed from Daewoo Cielo. This car is equipped with power windows, power steering, manual 5 speed transmission, sun and moon roof, central locking, tubeless tires, 15" alloy wheels, clear headlamps, driver and rear passenger separation (just like in a real limousine), runs on gasoline, stereo, leather seats. Both cars are in perfect running condition.
Good looking, Naman -- very impressive work. You've definitely got a bright future in the automotive industry if you keep this up. I seriously can't believe the ingenuity of today's youth. They're making all sorts of incredible things. It's amazing. The only thing I was making at that age was out with Peder Lou. Oh, you thought I was joking about that last post didn't you? Well I wasn't. I've got enough emotional baggage to fill the all too familiar back of a 1991 Ford Econoline.
Hit the jump for more pictures (including the other vehicle), and a link to the more in-depth article.
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Jun 9 2008 Build An Arc Reactor And Be Just Like Iron Man, Minus Everything Cool About Iron Man
Some guy made a pretty reasonable Instructable about how to build your own arc reactor like Iron Man. You have to do some polymorph plastic molding and solder some LEDs though, so you may want to hire some child labor (my kids work cheap) to ensure you don't injure yourself in the process. Once its finished you just throw that sucker under a shirt and you're off to looking good. Well, as long as you're not pasty as hell and sporting a gray undershirt. Oh, it looks good on you though.
Instructable
via
Make Your Own Iron Man Arc Reactor [ohgizmo]
Apr 24 2008 Kid Makes Wrist-Mounted Flame Thrower, Somehow Manages To Not Hurt Himself
Everett Bradford is a boy. A boy with a dream. A boy with a dream of shooting flames out of his wrist. Well, Everett made his dreams a reality by making, what he likes to call, THE PYRO SYSTEM! It's basically a can of aerosol fuel rigged up to a barbecue ignition system strapped to his hand. It stops working at 0:25 and I thought for sure he was going to burn his face off when he points it at himself at 0:33, but, unfortunately for us, nothing. Now where the hell was your mother during all of this, Everett? Does she know about your little fire bracelet? She doesn't, does she? You told her you were going over to a girlfriend's house to mess around and then you came out here and filmed yourself fireballing it up didn't you? Everett, I'm going to go out on a sturdy limb here -- you have absolutely no idea what that thing dangling between your pasty white legs is for, do you?
Another longer video showing Everett's inspiration for the device, as well as an explanation of how it works (which was actually neat), after the jump.
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Mar 11 2008 DIY Vacuum Tube iPod Amplifier Seems Legit
I'm a huge fan of DIY projects. Especially ones that begin by destroying something beautiful. Unfortunately this is not that kind of project. But it is a DIY iPod amplifier -- complete with vacuum tubes. Raise the roof everybody! Did I just say raise the roof? I meant somebody kill me for even thinking that. The unit costs around $150, and as the name implies, it comes as a kit you get to put together yourself (picture after the jump). It looks pretty simple. However if you're new to DIY projects you may want to start with the DIY megaphone. What you do is you cup your hands together like you're catching a football, hold them over your mouth and yell something really loud. Maybe something like "SORRY YOU DIDN'T WIN THAT BLOGGIE YOU SO RIGHTFULLY DESERVED MR. GEEKOLOGIE WRITER!"
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