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http://www.instructables.com/id/SBK1NAUFF78M26B/

I found these instructions in May 2008 and created a reasonably current snapshot of wikipedia that is still rather compact on a Psion 5MX. Not quite the same "curb appeal" as an iPhone, but a lot more functional.

Best,

There is one DIY 'portable' (luggable) DTV. There are some commercial ones but they are much much more expensive than analog portable TVs and as I mentioned, the battery life is likely to be much shorter and as you mentioned, it may not work in a moving bus/van/boat...) It may be difficult to get people exited by this oversight until someone notices that they can no longer watch instant replays on their portable at the ballgame. Tailgate parties will also be TV free.

This is why government should be as local and small as possible, when it attempts to micromanage the lives of 300 million individuals, something is always overlooked.

Please give an example of the breaking news that you are getting from twitter.
Is it something like this: http://www.instructables.com/id/The-Twittering-Office-Chair/ or http://aculei.net/~shardy/hacklabtoilet/ ?

http://www.instructables.com/id/Hidden_USB_Storage/ If I was in a situation like that I would use this...Unfortunately you won't be able to use USB 3, since that requires 8 contacts.

personally, i use this one as my keyboard. I made my own rollup board with only a regular board! (note: PS/2 board is required) ive seen the regular rollups go for $100 or so, this costs only about $20.

And square would argue distributing a patch counts as distributing a derived work.

How would that work when the patch differences are original creations? A derived work must contain some element from the original, and these patch files would not contain such. The patch files alone in a vaccuum, would be copyrighted by their respective authors, which in this case are the mod developers.

Patch modifications are legally sold everywhere for all sorts of products. If I wrote a set of instructions for how to turn your NES console into an x86 PC, I'm not violating your copyright because my instructions constitute an original piece of work. http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-a-Nintendo-NES-PC/

I think the real issue here is how these mod developers went about announcing their work. They were loud and proud. Big mistake. Going by their page, they made it very confusing as to what they were distributing and who owns what and what's official and what's not. The liberal use of Square Enix trademarks was also a bad idea. Posting trailer videos on Youtube with title lines blurring ownership was an even worse idea. A boring link to a boring file share to a boring ASCII patch file named "CE.2009.patch" on a boring fan message board would have been the way to go.

These guys got slapped with a C&D because they were conducting business like kids jumping in a puddle splattering mud all over the place. Square Enix was forced to assert their non-association with these guys as well as continue to assert their ownership. The way I see it, they had no choice.

trig function lookup tables - You would be surprised that they are still being used (both in paper and in code)

Well in code, it's generally done in hardware to interpolate between two values. In software you can find lookup tables for programs meant for MCUs and really small architectures.
But paper?... I'd need to see photographic evidence. I mean these days I really can't think of a situation where you'd find paper lookup tables for trig functions.

film - you mean like 35mm? There are filters in most semi-advanced photo programs that will emulate this.

I didn't consider that, though it's usually the emulation of what happens to the film under/in different environments. But technically it does emulate (simulate?) the effect of chemical reactions. I googled around a bit and found (not to my surprise) that video editing software suites offer quite a few filters to reproduce what are effectively "defects" in motion film (and of course the cigarette burns in corners, but that's just posing).

typewriters - http://www.instructables.com/id/Typewriter-Computer-Keyboard/

Awesome! That's something that someone may actually *manufacture* and I'd bet there are plenty of people out there that would pay for a keyboard that gives them the mechanical typewriter feel.

Emulating old stuff:

286 without math co-processor - Install Vista
trig function lookup tables - You would be surprised that they are still being used (both in paper and in code)
film - you mean like 35mm? There are filters in most semi-advanced photo programs that will emulate this.
typewriters - http://www.instructables.com/id/Typewriter-Computer-Keyboard/
horse dung smell in the streets - Go live in NYC, open the window and take a deep whif
Morse code - Well, everything is still binary these days so technically it's similar to really fast morse code.
the black plague - Swine flu?

I'm at work so I can't view the video, but I found something that might be similar that you can do yourself (if you have soldering/wiring/programming experience)

http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-3D-Controller/

Pretty cool stuff.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Homemade-speaker/

GPS chips, arduinos, and sensors that can detect pollution are cheap. http://www.instructables.com/id/How-To-Smell-Pollutants/ Get students to create a mash-up map of their local environmental pollution hotspots by wearing a portable detector around.

If you are good with a router-a woodworking router I mean-you could take the case from your laptop and laminate the outside with some sort of pretty wood veneer, and that leaves whatever RF shielding it has intact. Thinking about it, it is such a small area to laminate you could do it with just hand tools if you are careful, say a razor knife. Make a nice construction paper pattern then lay it out on the veneer and cut away what you need, then glue it on. Anyway, I imagine it has already been done it seems so possible...I will look... here's a link to an example. This guy uses a laser cutter but I don't think that is necessary either if you are just careful enough. In the replies there they make a point of bringing up the heating option, I guess that wouldn't matter a whole lot if your lappy had fans though.

They make custom skins for cellphones, seems a little biz niche there to do it with laptops or perhaps the new netbooks....

It's kind of a waste of a working HDD, but I'd create this DIY "USB Hard Drive"

Good for some laughs.

Go to Africa, see what it looks like, what people make a living of, then come tell us all about it. It may be true they use everything they have (I've seen them build a grill out of an old computer case), but an old hard disk will be too useless for them. Moreover, when you have to carry things that far, the lighter the better.

You can always try and build a wall clock.

Remove the cover while it's still plugged in and watch the reading head move back and forth while it is being accessed by the computer. It's a fun sight. Having cover removed will greatly shorten the life span and cause occasional reading errors, but it will continue to work for a little while more.

If you get bored, you can make a hard drive speaker: http://www.instructables.com/id/Hard-Drive-Speaker-System/

What's this tesla turbine thing? http://www.instructables.com/id/Tesla-turbine-from-old-hard-drives-and-minimal-too/

So many fun things to do with old hard drives.

Remove the cover while it's still plugged in and watch the reading head move back and forth while it is being accessed by the computer. It's a fun sight. Having cover removed will greatly shorten the life span and cause occasional reading errors, but it will continue to work for a little while more.

If you get bored, you can make a hard drive speaker: http://www.instructables.com/id/Hard-Drive-Speaker-System/

What's this tesla turbine thing? http://www.instructables.com/id/Tesla-turbine-from-old-hard-drives-and-minimal-too/

So many fun things to do with old hard drives.

Money may not be much of a concern, but what about time and skill?

I had family overseas recently and had the same thought, but didn't have as much money to spend. I decided to go the DIY route and made one of these Solarize your backpack and power all your gizmos

It's handy because it's lightweight and can be strapped (as the description says) to nearly any backpack, including most military ones, or taken off and set up somewhere stationary.

It also adds more of a personal touch to the whole idea. Buying something nice and expensive for a soldier is nice, but I've often times heard from them that having something personally made (even if it's a letter) is worth gold over there as well. Reminds 'em of home and all, y'know?

If you know how (or know someone that does) I would recommend making one of these.

(AC, so I'm not as much a karma whore)

http://diybio.org/ - open source hardware, biology, XMLizing lab protocols, the goods.
http://openwetware.org/
http://biopunk.org/
http://syntheticbiology.org/
http://partsregistry.org/
http://igem.org/ (international genetically engineered machines competition)
http://ponoko.com/
http://shapeways.com/
http://thingiverse.com/
http://instructables.com/
lifeboat foundation (AKA "fearmongers click here")

cat * > /dev/trend-spotting-machine

Yeah, but I bet it's easier to make a RFID protected wallet than extracting it from your skull.

There's an instructable for making magnetic Monopoly right here. As for finding the physics erotica, your on your own--I'm at work right now...

"How soon until homeland security shows up accusing him of terrorism?"

Only if he criticizes Israel and starts to wear a keffiyeh, no it's not a teatowel. Is this more interesting than The web browser is a dead end

For anyone looking for a visual, check out:

http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-WIFI-Antenna-Reception-Booster/

Wind chimes! Coasters! Frisbees! These things: http://www.instructables.com/id/Twitchy_Your_E_waste_Friend/ ...if that isn't safe enough, your data is too important and you should immediately quit your job and sever all ties with society and go live in a tent with a squirrel. Trust me, you'll feel better: Squirrels are great.

I was amazed at the power of the magnets I took out of an old hard drive.

Surely this stuff should be on the idle section of slashdot!

If I want DIY servo controlled stuff I can go to http://www.hackaday.com/ or http://www.hackedgadgets.com/ or http://www.hacknmod.com/ or even http://www.instructables.com/

To solder BGAs, try a toaster oven. I haven't tried it so I can't vouch for its effectiveness, but others have had some pretty impressive success with the method. Also, please note, ">" is generally read "greater than". What you wanted to use was "<", read "less than". (I have no other disagreement with you, so forgive me if this sounds a little confrontational.)

...not to mention that modding your blackberry to have a custom back-light color for your trackball is not as hard as you think.

Seems to me like you can do an awful lot with the Arduino platform. I recommend buying from the Make guys, as you'll also see that they've published a book recently with the Arduino developers/creators that maybe your kid would like as a follow-on? They are only $30.00 and the only requirement is a computer to plug the thing into for programming. I'm asking my wife for one :-). For project examples: http://www.instructables.com/tag/?q=arduino&limit%3Atype%3Aid=on&type%3Aid=on&type%3Auser=on&type%3Acomment=on&type%3Agroup=on&type%3AforumTopic=on&sort=none

Nothing says "get out of my way" like having a snake in your emblem... it's even better than a Jaguar or a Dodge Ram in that department. The only thing that could beat it would be an emblem featuring Trogdor the Burninator!

http://www.instructables.com/id/Giant-Match/

Not exactly what you're asking for, but there's this.

If you are interested in doing this yourself, look into "character LCDs" using the "HD44780" microcontroller. These are easily attached via the serial port...

Some example character lcd's and pricing

Instructable on doing a character lcd

and for the lazy among you,

Google search for "character lcd hd44780"

Grab your soldering irons and have some homebrew fun! It isn't that hard at all!

Well, if your going to post a dupe, at least post some new information about it. Like how to build one out of old hard drives.

Throw 'em all in a bucket with a hole in the top, and a power strip inside. Here's an instructable:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Vintage-Minnow-Bucket-Charging-Station/

Take a look at: http://www.instructables.com/id/The-IKEA-charging-box---no-more-cable-mess!-Very-e/

As soon as I learned of Photosynth i thought about implimenting this meathod of photography: http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Enter-the-Ghetto-Matrix-DIY-Bullet-Time/ If you were to make a rig that went 360 degrees it would make a very consistent and high quality synths.

How many solar cells do you need to power a pizza oven, anyway?

That would be much too inefficient (8-20%), and an oven is terribly inefficient with electricity too. What you need is an oven built with a large Fresnel Lens http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresnel_lens or reflective solar concentrators http://www.instructables.com/id/Multifacet-parabolic-solar-concentrator/. On a sunny day of course!

Put your ear buds on, slide one of these bad boys over your head and you're golden.

I was Google searching to see if a gas mask is even allowed on a plane (it wouldn't surprise me if they're classified as a weapon, since they could be used as one component in an attack), but lo and behold, this page actually has a picture of a guy flying American Airlines with a gas mask on. So, go for it!

Saskatoon Saskatchewan Canada has free citywide internet. It's slow as a dog during the day but quite usable at night for basic browsing/emailing etc. Great for us touring musicians!

Here is another smaller scale hack using a metal strainer/steamer as a collector.

But a satellite dish will only help the reception, not the access point on a city-wide basis, so it's benefits are limited. However, it might give hope to cottagers where wifi is close but not quite.

What the article describes as going from zero bars to five, sounds like range extension by a factor of at least five, so let's use 100m as an unmodified standard range, that's about 1/16th of a mile.

It would also help by almost as great a margin to have a small reflective dish in front of the transceivers to direct forward signals back into the larger dish (a forward collector), or else most of the transmission will travel away from the intended target. That strainer hack would be about the right size for the job, perhaps too big, but imagine that facing back into the satellite dish, directing emissions out the larger dish in a straight line. That should boost the signal strength up by at least another 80%, so call it 9x range extension.

The same improvements would apply at both ends, so by my math, a well-configured line-of-sight array with dishes and forward collectors at both ends should achieve at least 18x range extension, definitely over a mile.

I found this great instruction on Instructables (pops new) on how to create a usb wifi out of a 2.00 strainer from WalMart. Works like a champ!

My friend lives across the Ohio River and we're able to send the signal across the river that way.

15 seconds of Googling turned up this:

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-build-a-strikeheliostatstrike-paraboli/

You can build a parabolic reflector out of whatever you want, as big as you have the room for.

This article ispired me to look through Project Gutenberg for old Science and Math books.

This Calculus book looks decent.
Here's an Algebra book, but it doesn't look very good.

I also note that Chemistry has changed much in the last 100 years since the advent of quantum mechanics. I also can't seem to find any decent physics books on Project Gutenberg.

The US military has some nice textbooks online. I don't know how they got there though, they don't seem official.

I don't mean to dog cellular/wireless as a backup, but anything based on the POTS network is going to be more reliable in terms of being strong against blackouts and disaster. Latter day technologies are less likely so because generally the legal requirements for that strength are not there or are significantly less.

High-speed cable and DSL aren't that cheap (~$100/month and up) and T1's are cheap as hell nowadays (~$400/month is not uncommon, can be less) and you've got a 4 hour repair guarantee - if you're CO is online (they are built like bunkers), you'll be back up in 4 hours from almost any outage. Check with Speakeasy.net first as I think they have about the best service going, but there are other providers as well.

So, if your goal is primarily to gain additional uptime, go with a T1 - back that up with some kind of "unregulated" connection (cable/DSL) or wireless.

Another tack to pursue if cost-efficiency has a higher priority is using wi-fi to link to a neighbor. Using some simple technology expands the range of potential connectees considerably. Find someone with a different ISP than you (different Layer 1, that is) and get them to share with you - share both ways and you both get a reliable backup (as long as your network gear is on a nice big battery) for $0/month. Make sure neither of you scrimps on that battery equipment though! (Speakeasy encourages connection sharing and would even facilitate billing if desired even on their lower-end DSL connections if that becomes a problem/need.)

-Matt

P.S. Both of those links are step-by-steps, not theoretical articles.
P.P.S. I'm not connected to Speakeasy in any way other than as a very satisfied former (for now) customer. :-)

You can do the same thing that his $20,000 computer can do using just a paperclip.

First thing every morning:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/DilbertDailyStrip

I found this one on /. but it hasn't been updated in maybe a year:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/What-Is-What

I go through these two a few times a day:
http://lifehacker.com/software/top/index.xml
http://www.instructables.com/tag/type:id/featured:true/rss.xml

Why only phone conversations, when a laser microphone can listen in on all conversations. They are also easy to build.

high speed steel or oil hardening steel. I have made and hardened custom woodworking blades quite easily out of both materials. Both materials will cut unhardened tool steels.

Sadly I am unsure of the whole process as I was a sophomore and the student machinist was a senior. I do know that a lot of boring bars I used in high school and collage were simply ground hardened steel. Nothing special at all.

some links:
build your own lathe

a different take

Also my wife was reminding me that her late grandfather built a lathe. It is in her mother's garage. That machine uses an oak frame, not steel, and is powered by a washing machine motor. To change speeds you need to physically remove and change the gears. I have looked at it, but never used it.
Phil

Try a Ruben's tube, make fire produce sound waves to music. http://www.instructables.com/id/SFD3NQXF5VMX94O/

For those that prefer to just buy one that uses a bike:
http://www.econvergence.net/electro.htm

You can find all sorts of power inverters on eBay: http://electronics.listings.ebay.com/Parts-Accessories_Power-Inverters_W0QQfclZ3QQfromZR11QQsacatZ58020QQsocmdZListingItemList