There are a billion ways to get the right shot. Most of them, pros will tell you, involve taking a huge amount of pictures. Macro shots of in-flight insects are no exception — I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to take a picture of a bug flying around but it’s hard. However, what if your shot was pretty much guaranteed to be perfect exposure technically? You could take shot after shot of bees zooming around and they’d all come out perfectly-focused and framed just right. All you’d have to do is pick out the best ones.
Well, Belgian photographer Fotoopa (not his real name) has put together a seriously cool rig that does this. It’s not easy to make, but if you’re dedicated, it looks like this might be the best way on earth to capture bugs in flight. Read More
Here’s a pretty easy DIY project, for someone so inclined. I’ll be honest, after checking around a bit on the price of commercial teflon mouse pads, I’m not sure why you’d want to take the time to make one. Essentially the project is this: take a teflon surface like a cookie sheet, baking pan, or skillet, and then modify it to the right size, and then finish the edges so you don’t injure yourself.
Areogel, the 90% air material previously used in such space platforms as the Mars Pathfinder Rover, is actually dropping in price. So much so that’s actually being used as insulation in some commercial applications. In fact the prices are dropping so much that it might soon be a standard option for residential homes.
I’m not sure exactly how useful these things are, but as a concept they are definitely cool. Flat pack furniture, sure. But I’m not so sure about flat pack vehicles, these look like they might have some structural issues.
Remember at CES when all of the companies were like “We’ll convert your 2D to 3D?” Yeah, ummm, nah. What will happen is that studios will back-convert some of their old movies – or movies not shot in 3D – to 3D using a time-consuming, partially automated process. Like in love, the first cut is the deepest:
The first step is to separate the shot into somewhere between two and eight layers of depth. Take, for example, an image of a man standing in front of a brick wall, with a blue sky behind the wall. The graphic artist might separate the shot into three layers: the man, the wall, and the sky. Then, he would take each layer and draw contour lines around any object that appeared there. He’d start by marking depth lines on the man using a computer, turning the image into a sort of topographical map. He’d repeat the process for any objects in the other layers. (If there were a bird in the sky, he’d draw lines there, too.)
When I used to go to NYU, I assisted in teaching a web class to graduate students. There was one woman in the class who was amazed that I was able to publish her information to the Web so quickly! She thought the Internet was a black box somewhere and that I had to ask permission to put stuff onto it.
Well now you can make your very own black box of Internet, courtesy of the IT Crowd. You can loan folks the Internet but remember to return it to a high tower where it can get the best reception. Read More
This particular DIY project makes sense. It’s been proven that in order to increase the MPG on your motorcycle (or scooter in this case), all you need to do it add a cowling. Cyclists use this concept in increase speed, the solar powered cars use this, it makes sense. That still doesn’t mean that you should do it, at least, not in this color.
Are we still expected, in the year 2010, to pay $20 plus $8 shipping for a Snuggie? And another $8 shipping for a second bonus Snuggie? NO! Show the fat cats at the Snuggie conglomerate that you’re onto their little ruse. Take a big piece of fabric – any fabric you want! — cut some arm holes, and sew some arms onto the arm holes.
Inspired by Avatar, this crafty fellow created his own version of the Pandora jungle. Made using conductive thread, fiber optic strands, and LEDs, he built a rather impressive looking patch of grass that lights up when you touch it. I’m not sure what the practical usage of this would be, but it’s one of those projects that is just cool to look at.
A man named Dave has cobbled together a remote car starter that uses a pre-paid phone to start the car’s engine. The launch sequence is initiated when the phone gets a call or when a particular event in the phone’s calendar comes up (he uses the calendar to start the car at specific times in the morning and at the end of the day so as not to waste minutes.
Apparently, it’s DIY Sunday here at Crunchgear. Here’s another little project for you to do, using an inexpensive digital picture frame and some steampunk aesthetic to create a pretty sweet looking clock.
The TI Chronos has been a bit of a hackers darling recently, but this has to be the coolest application of it I’ve seen so far. Rather then getting an RFID tag embedded in your hand, program your watch to use a pre-programmed combination of taps to activate the lock.
This is technically a DIY project, but I don’t know how many people are actually capable of doing this modification. What’s so scary about it? I dunno, shoehorning a Core Duo processor into a Sony Vaio UX17, one of the smallest netbooks available. Obviously this is a one off, so don’t expect to see it for sale any time soon.
So this doesn’t really serve any practical purpose, but it’s definitely cool. One of the frequent contributors to Make just created a captive ring demonstration using an aluminum rod and a lathe. Pretty neat stuff.
Most in-vehicle device mounts are expensive given their purpose. Please hold my phone in one place, here’s $30. Bah! Using few pieces of pipe, some craft foam, and a bit of plastic-coated wire, you can create your own vehicle mount quickly and cheaply.
If you’re a parent, you know that kids love them some wooden tracks. I’m serious. Kids could would totally spend hours whining about tracks and then, when they get them, refuse to play with them. That’s why I love Ikea’s wooden train set which costs like $10 and can make a few nice configurations.
But how many configurations can you make? According to this dude you can make nine permutations, shown above. In fact, with four extra curved pieces you could create 130 permutations which is quite a treat.
So here’s another little DIY project. This one involves making your own little laser light show. Now obviously it’s not going to make shapes in time with Dark Side of the Moon, but it still looks really cool. I might even have to do this one myself, if I knew how to solder. It’s definitely worth your time to take a look at this thing if you have any interest at all in DIY projects involving lasers and sharks.
Here’s one of the easier projects I’ve seen on Make in a while. Take an Ikea “Ivar” ladder, lay it on the floor, and use it as a camera dolly. Just the thing for shooting video, I could have used one of these while we were in Vegas. The best part about this project? It’s cheap. You’re looking at roughly $30 worth of parts to build this.
Who doesn’t want their own Tesla coil? Particularly if you can get one that isn’t incredibly dangerous or expensive to build. Well, this electrical savant built one in the 8th grade using vacuum tubes and a microwave oven transformer.
So this doesn’t really serve any practical purpose, but it’s definitely cool. One of the frequent contributors to Make just created a captive ring demonstration using an aluminum rod and a lathe. 
