The "FOLKESTRONOMY" project consists of a mobile mapping device that connects to the Internet to update a map in realtime as participants interact with the project. The build consists of an Arduino connected to a GPS device that reads the coordinates and relays them to available wireless networks. This project is more complicated than this review merits, so I would suggest you to follow the link to read the excellent documentation of this project.

TagIt!

Not sure if this is a good idea or not. This guy added Velcro to the bottom of his notebook PC and the edge of the power supply unit to create a simple stand. There are obvious issues with the high heat of many power bricks and the shortening of the power cord by half. But I guess under some circumstances this would be a quick and dirty way of creating a stand.

Notebook/laptop stand from psu/power brick

The Sashimi Tabernacle Choir is an art car project by Richard Carter, John Schroeter (Houston, TX), and some thirty volunteers. The car incorporates 250 singing Billy Bass animatronic fish and 250 mechanical lobsters, including a conductor that's perched on a boom over the hood of the 1984 Volvo sedan the choir calls home.

After the car made an appearance in Lewes, DE yesterday, the Cape Gazette wrote:

Occasionally you witness firsthand an astounding display of American ingenuity. Such is the case with the Sashimi Tabernacle Choir art car that wowed dockside crowds in Lewes Wednesday afternoon. When you see such displays, you wonder: wouldn't we do better in Afghanistan and Iraq if we rolled more of these down the streets of Kabul and Baghdad?

The project's website has a lot of construction information, photos, and video clips of the car singing and twitching its goofy little heart out.

Sashimi Tabernacle Choir [Thanks, Judy Willard!]

Dark Roasted Blend has a gallery of seriously strange and guiltily entertaining car accidents.

Oops! - Weirdest Accidents

tnkgrl writes:

So like me, you have a MacBook Air SuperDrive... It's affordable, it's functional, it's sexy. If only it was usable with other Macs and PCs!

Well rejoice :) I have successfully hacked my MBA SuperDrive to work with other Macs and PCs. All you need is a $9 part (shipping extra) and a bit of soldering and you too can do this mod.

MacBook Air SuperDrive for all

Build your own dashboard G-meter using a PIC 18F452 microcontroller, a 20 MHz crystal, the ADXL320 Accelerometer, and a 7-Segment LED display.

Personal G-Force Meter [via]

Packing up for Maker Faire, I was debating whether to bring my old iPod as a back-up to my iPhone. That got me thinking about ways I might make use of my iPod besides just insuring music and address book redundancy. On TravelHacker, I found this round-up of 75+ tutorials on everything from turning it into a guitar tuner to using it as a universal remote, to an ebook reader, to turning it into money (ah, as in selling it...).

How to: Turn Your iPod Into Anything (75+ Tutorials)

NES Controller MP3 Player Sports Functional Cartridge Speaker [via]

If you are looking for the best in portable cellphone technology, do not look here at Make. This cellphone, called the "Thunder Super Radio HiFi" features a 1.3 megapixel camera, 2.4 inch TFT display, built-in mini boombox, and even an microSD card slot. What looks like a normal phone on one side, morphs into a mega ghetto blaster on the back with all the speakers needed to start a house party. Sorry, this one's not an April Fools joke.

Top 5 Weirdest Cell Phones Ever

On Alex's Tinkerlog, he has a piece on how he turned an old wetsuit (surf jacket, actually) into a sweet-looking laptop sleeve for his MacBook.

Neoprene MacBook sleeve - Link

five.b.oh writes:

I've been playing with Mobile Processing for a few months now and I recently wrote a little sketch that can shuttle bytes from an arduino board to a website and back using a cheap Motorola phone. All the work is largely based on samples and tutorials I found around the web. . . all I had to do was splice it all together.

Mobile.Processing -Link

In the Maker Store:


Arduino Diecimila - Link.

LEGO-touch is an application for designing LEGO creations on your iPhone or iPod Touch. From the website:

View, post, build, or edit other LEGO maniacs projects. Create your own LEGO characters in pals, post your LEGO self to represent in share. Play and download different LEGO games or challenge anyone to a build-off! Personalize your bricks with color-slider and more...

The community aspect of this software seems pretty interesting to me; collaborative designs, perhaps! - Link.

iPod laser pointer - Link

A better laptop stand for bed - Link

The Blow N Glo Special, built and driven by Maddog, is a nice-looking car built to compete in the San Fernando Valley Illegal Soap Box Federation races. The February issue of Hot Rod has an article about the S.F.V.I.S.B.F.

San Fernando Valley Illegal Soap Box Federation - Link

VideoNow Color Mod Uncut Cdr [Thanks, Craniac!] - Link

Car Carrier Trailer - Link

Weird America's World of Art Cars Videos - Link

Raising GPS from the Dead - Link

Related:

• OnStar Projects - Link
• OnStar eavesdropping - Link

Adding Internal USB (and internal ReadyBoost) to a UMPC - [via] Link

Solar UMPC - [via] Link

Make your own Solar Bag and the sun power will be with you - Link

Related:

• More solar bags... - Link
• Making messenger bags - The "beta" - Link

As it turns out, the iPhone has a built-in LIS302DL, a tiny 3-axis accelerometer. While some have attempted to use it from within the Safari browser (the Tilt game detects changes to the width of the browser page; it is basically used as a 1-bit input device), its potential is still somewhat untapped. After a rather lengthy bout of reverse-engineering (I had barely touched ARM assembly before this), I finally figured out how to access the raw data from the accelerometer itself, as can be seen in the video above. Source code is posted here. (update: yes, it is possible to access the accelerometer directly through UIKit without this hack -- however, you'll be locked to the default sample rate, which is too slow for some of the fun stuff)

Fun with the iPhone accelerometer - [via] Link

Nokia 6100 LCD Display Driver Tutorial [PDF] - Link
Color LCD 128x128 Nokia Knock-Off - Link

Earbud cord wrapper in 5 minutes or less! - [via] Link

Self-Sustainable Chair - [via] Link

Spicy Gadget Rolls has some basic tips on extending the life of Lithium-Ion (Li-ion) batteries, commonly found these days in cellphones, laptops, mobile media players, etc...

Battery Storage - If you plan on not using the Lithium battery for prolonged periods of time, then you'll want to have the charge level at 40% and place the battery in the fridge (not freezer). Storing the battery at 100% charge level applies unnecessary stress and can cause internal corrosion. On the other hand, if the charge is too low, the battery can become permanently unusable, due to battery self discharge. This is why manufacturers recommend storing your Lithium battery at 40% charge, rather than either extreme.

4 Tips to Extend Your Lithium Battery Life [Via] -Link

From the pages of MAKE:

Palm Pilot Notebook. Modified hardback book contains extra-powered PDA and travel keyboard. MAKE 07 - Page 138. Subscribers--read this article now in your digital edition or get MAKE 07 @ the Maker store now! - Link.