Interesting Sunday Projects

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5 Simple Ways to Stretch Your Gaming

Dollar

By Z. November 07, 2008 | 7:00:00 AMCategories: Culture, Games, How-To

Image by Simon Davison via FlickrBeing a geek is both

time-consuming and expensive, and being a gamer-geek even more so. Sadly, with our economy in perpetual shambles, the latter seems to have become an even more difficult issue than the former. So how’s a gamer supposed to afford new titles as well as

incidentals like, y’know, food?

Subscription-based rental services like GameFly can alleviate both the sting of current generation game prices and the hassle of driving to your local retailer to stand in line with the rest of the yahoos, but this comes at a cost. That cost, of course, is the lack of

personal ownership. The disc isn’t yours; it’s merely in your possession.

While renting is a fiscally responsible move, it goes against that innate nerdy urge to procure, to collect. But for those of us who are unable to resist that damnable desire to acquire there is a solution. To paraphrase Ash Williams, one merely needs to shop smart.

Continue reading "5 Simple Ways to Stretch Your Gaming Dollar" »

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Your Costume Automatically Loses

By Chris Radcliff October 31, 2008 | 6:30:00 AMCategories: Hacking the Holidays, How-To, Star Wars

I'm not one to talk; if I make a costume at all this year, it's likely to be something that's geek simple, like MC Frontalot. Still, I think everyone can agree that this AT-ST costume by Cheston wins the geek costume contest hands, or at least articulated legs, down:

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Design and construction are described in great detail on the MY350Z forums, so I expect to see a whole platoon of these next year.

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Geeks Getting Off the Grid

By Bruce Stewart October 02, 2008 | 7:30:00 AMCategories: How-To

So you think it's hard being a parent in today's society? Try having a newborn in a one-room house you built out of mud and rocks! Actually, my brother-in-law Abe and his wife Josie, are doing just that, and he tells me that little Leo fits quite nicely into their off-the-grid lifestyle. And they're happy to share the details of how they're getting off the grid so others can benefit from their experiences.

While the topics they cover may not fit into the normal definition of "geeky" technologies, learning how to harness your own energy from the sun and the wind,

building shelters out of compressed earth, and creating aquaponic systems (the practice of growing vegetables and fish together in a man-made ecosystem) seem pretty darn cool and geeky to me.

If this sort of thing intrigues you, Abe and Josie have just updated their Vela Creations website with a ton of useful info and resources on things like wind-power, solar power, water storage, grey water, composting and much, much more. They are truly "walking the walk" when it comes to getting off the grid and trying to live their lives using sustainable means, and they are documenting all of their projects and research in the hope that others will be inspired to adopt more sustainable lifestyles. I know reading their site has inspired me to get back to that water collection system project I've been talking about for too long now...

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Making a Pirate's Treasure Map

By Russ Neumeier September 19, 2008 | 4:55:00 PMCategories: How-To, Pirates

You've got the eye-patch. You've got the peg-leg. You've got your sword. You've got a Jolly Roger ready for hoisting. Your voice is hoarse from talking like a pirate all day yesterday, but you don't have a treasure map...What do you do?

Make one. It's what we did on a rainy Saturday morning.

And you probably already have everything you need at home right now. It starts with a paper grocery bag, and ends with a bit of playing with fire.

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Curious?

Just follow the Wired How-To Wiki article Make A Treasure Map From A Paper Bag. Better yet, try it out and add details to the wiki page when you're done.

How To Build a World: Working with

Wikis

By Michael Harrison September 06, 2008 | 10:00:00 AMCategories: Games, How-To, Projects, RPGs

In this third post in my series on world building (start at the beginning if you are so inclined), I'm going to talk about process. Specifically, how you can build your new world one article at a time using a wiki service.

A wiki is simply a type of web-based content management that employs multiple pages and cross-referencing for knowledge management. In plain English, it's a way for you to unload all your fancy ideas into a centralized bucket in an organized and easy fashion. Better still, you can share access with friends and players.

There are a number of free wiki services available. I've used PBWiki and Google Sites to moderate success, but the one that I've settled on for my weekly Dungeons and Dragons game is a site called Obsidian Portal. A wiki provider and Web 2.0-style social

networking site all rolled into one, Obsidian Portal is designed specifically for RPG campaigns and is perfect for world building.

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, and video is just a whole bunch of pictures strung together, I put together a screencast of my process for using Obsidian Portal for my world building campaigns. Check it out:

World Building with Obsidian Portal from Michael Harrison on Vimeo. See also:

How To Build a World, Part 1: The Basics How To Build a World, Part 2: Questions to Ask

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How to Build a Paper Cup Waterwheel

By Kathy Ceceri September 05, 2008 | 7:30:00 AMCategories: Environment, How-To

I live in an area -- near the confluence of the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers in upstate New York -- that was once booming with water-driven industry. Today hydroelectricity is still an important source of energy. In fact, in place of the old mills on the creek that lies on the other side of our street there's a small hydroelectric generator.

The plastic cup waterwheel, right, is one of many designs I showed the students in the Solar, Wind and Water Power class I taught last summer. I just added the directions to Wired.com's How to Wiki. Using only masking tape, styrofoam plates and pencils, it's a perfect project for little kids who aren't ready for hot glue guns or power tools.

I adapted the paper cup waterwheel from Wheels at Work: Building and Experimenting

with Models of Machines by Bernie Zubowski, illustrated by Roy Doty. (I used to love

Doty's "Wordless Workshop" home improvement comics when I was a kid.) The wooden wheel is my version of this kit, and the small foam wheel in the center is based on

directions for a fully-functioning mini-hydroelectric generator. I tried making the turbine but couldn't get it to work. If you have better luck, let me know!

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Kathy Ceceri is the author of Around the World Crafts: Great Activities for Kids who Like History, Math, Art, Science and More!

Making Fireflies

By Dan Olson August 29, 2008 | 10:30:00 AMCategories: Electricity, Family, Fun, How-To

In busy times, it takes a certain combination of inspiration, spare time and a little cash to stop dreaming and start

making. I was inspired to make a cheap solar light back in June based on an Instructables post involving deconstructing solar garden lights and reinstalling them in mason jars. My inspiration held out long enough to search fruitlessly for some cheap solar lights but not long enough to make anything.

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Fortunately for me, Evil Mad Scientist attacked the concept again recently, further reducing the time and money required to get something made. Inspired again, I picked up 12 CR2032 3v batteries and a bag of 25 diffused 5mm yellow LEDs at my local electronics store. A twenty-five cent roll of tape from the bargain bin completed my purchases. Total cost was under $20. One firefly was about $1.50.

I made the first firefly at a stoplight on the way home. Unwrap the battery, slide one leg (lead) of the LED onto each side of the battery and you have a firefly. A little tape around the battery covering both leads keeps it lit. If it won't light up, flip the LED around for a quick polarity lesson. The longer leg is the positive anode.

At my house, proper presentation is the key to early adoption. You can't be too excited about a new project or they'll go back to the couch. Casually toss a lit firefly on the table and instruct them to stay out of your bag and they'll have ten of them glowing before dinner's ready.

True to their nature as little makers, they started testing multiple LEDs on the same battery. Luck (and some bent LED leads) taught them about switching the power on and off. We put one firefly in an empty widemouth drink bottle and made a garden lamp, no glass jars required.

This project was painfully simple, requiring absolutely no skill and little cash. It was fun to see the boys light up their fireflies and run around in the dark. Inspiration, time and cash all came together.

LED's, Fireflies, Li-ion Battery

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GeekDad Rates 7 Methods for Learning

to Ride a Bike

By Dave Banks August 27, 2008 | 9:00:00 AMCategories: How-To, Outdoor Activities

We've been trying to get our kids to ride their bikes for about a year and a half. It hasn't been a constant battle -- we would try for a bit, then take a month off. Rinse. Repeat. It's been tough, but that's what makes today so rewarding. Today, we have success. All three kids riding: spinning around the driveway, hair waving in the wind, ear-to-ear smiles on their faces. Life is good.

Last year, Geekdad Dan Olson took a look at how to encourage kids to ride bikes. Dan made a lot of great points addressing the psychological aspects of motivating kids to ride. Today, I'm going to evaluate a variety of physical methods for getting kids on two

wheels.

Like many parents, we had our children riding tricycles at an early age. This gave them two necessary skills that would carry over to bike riding: pedaling and steering. These very early experiences paid off too. When the time came for a bike with training wheels, they weren't afraid and understood what they were supposed to do.

In researching this post, I was amazed to find that quite a few people feel very strongly that training wheels on a child's bike are an unadulterated evil on par with letting kids play with loaded automatic weapons in the middle of a highway during rush hour.

We don't subscribe to this school of thought. Rather, we believe that just getting the child on the bike is the most important thing. Our kids aren't going to be commuting to school on bikes anytime soon. So bicycles - for them - are a tool for exercise and fun. And as long as they were riding around outside instead of lounging around watching Spongebob, we were happy.

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When it came time to ditch the training wheels, I did some research on the best practices for getting kids rolling on two wheels. I was surprised at the variety of methodologies people had for getting kids to ride by themselves. Here are seven of the most popular ways, plus a rating on how each works:

Continue reading "GeekDad Rates 7 Methods for Learning to Ride a Bike" »

The Styrobot

By Kevin Kelly August 25, 2008 | 4:22:41 PMCategories: How-To, Projects

For years I've been saving the styrofoam packing that protects the new devices that arrive in our American household. Computer gear especially is sheathed in custom-fit styrofoam armor, and I hated to throw it out because it was beautiful stuff. I took the little bits to the recycling center, but the large, intricate, weirdly organic pieces I stockpiled in my

basement. I was just looking for an idea of what to do with them.

A year ago I saw pictures of two styrofoam robots created by Michael Salter at a museum in North Carolina (before he exhibited one in San Jose this past June). They were

stunning. Not only was it art from junk, but it looked easy to do. My son and I could handle this. A recycled styrobot would be the perfect geek dad project.

I had five years' worth of foam accumulated. I had some space in my studio to assemble it. I got my foam cutters handy. So we began designing. The bot had to fit in one story. I also wanted it to disassemble easily so I could move it. I decided to make it in five parts: a torso and four limbs. I would cut the foam when I needed to, but did not want to spend much time sculpting it. I discovered the fastest way to glue the pieces was using silicon seal.

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The Styrobot is made entirely of the foam packaging material that arrived at our house in the last five years. I learned that a styrobot consumes a huge amount of this stuff so several times I was tempted to grab pieces I'd see in other people's garbage. But the monster was already getting too big. Once you started adding the detail work, you can go through a lot of styrofoam. So I committed to depleting the pile I had, and to use every bit somewhere on the bot.

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We worked on it off an on for many many months. This delay was necessary because the silicon glue needs one or two weeks to fully set. It took me a while to figure this out, even though the sealant instructions (which of course I did not read at first) clearly spell this out. I figured that like most glues it would set overnight, but it really does take several weeks for the silicon glue to set if there is any stress or weight on the joint. We used Lexel silicon sealant, which is very sticky, clear, and cheap. I think we went through four tubes of it.

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The second major tool needed for a Styrobot is a foam cutter. On Amazon I purchased a Woodland 4-inch hobby version running off a low-volt transformer. The thin wire heats up when the the switch in the handle is slid on. The hot wire slices through the foam easily. It takes some practice to cut square and even, but even kids can get the hang soon enough. There's always plenty of foam scraps to practice on. There was no replacement wire included with the Woodland, which is a shame because you WILL break the wire eventually. I replaced it with some nichrome wire I had on hand. Overall this tool is handy. Heats up instantly, and for 95% of the time is all you need.

The drawback to the hobby cutter is that it can't handle foam wider than four inches in its smallest dimension. Some big screen packing overwhelms that dimension, so I built a really fast-and-dirty foam cutter from some steel piping, guitar strings and a model train transformer.

Any number of plans for large foam cutters can be found on Instructables and elsewhere on the web. Main thing is to have a sturdy frame to stretch the wire, and connect the wire to a low volt transformer. I thought a variable transformer such as used for model trains would allow me to adjust the temperature to the proper degree, but I found that it didn't matter for the set up I had. For the cutting wire I used cheap guitar strings. The thinner strings make a nicer cut, but I found they tend to break quicker. The broader the cut the more pressure you exert on the wire, which tends to weaken when hot.

My son and I had a lot of fun making it. Pick up a piece and glue. Cut and glue.

Styrofoam is pretty light, so the entire robot can't weigh more than 20 pounds. The two legs of the robot are free standing. The torso sits by gravity up the two legs. The two arms

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hang on the torso via a small styro shelf on the arms. I can move the whole body in pieces in a few minutes. Maybe I should rent him out. Here the Sytrobot hangs out in my office.

Summer Project: Brewing Root Beer

By Anton Olsen August 19, 2008 | 2:00:00 PMCategories: How-To

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Nothing says summer better than Root Beer floats. This weekend the kids and I started on the first half of that magical concoction.

Hopefully we can find an ice-cream maker to borrow for the second half next weekend. We started out with a kit from MrBeer.com (aka Mr. Root Beer). We might consider graduating to other sodas and getting our ingredients from cheaper sources, but the price of the Mr. Root Beer kit isn't much over $20 shipped. I have brewed a few batches of their beer in the past so had the handy 2.5 gallon keg for mixing the root beer and a box of empty bottles for bottling.

Continue reading "Summer Project: Brewing Root Beer" »

How To Build a World: Questions to Ask

By Michael Harrison August 17, 2008 | 10:00:00 AMCategories: Games, How-To, Projects, RPGs

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Last week, I posted an introduction to world building. In this second post of the series, I wanted to address the first step that any worldsmith should take in their journey of creation.

Before you draw a map, before you write up a mythology, before you start naming plants and mountains and seas, you need to think about what questions to ask.

This might seem a little backward. Shouldn't you be answering questions about your world? Well, yes, of course. In time. I've found that it helps to first collect a series of questions to ask about your new world. Making up an entire world from scratch isn't easy work, and if you're like me, sometimes you don't even know where to begin.

There are a lot of great resources out on the web with questionnaires and checklists for just this purpose:

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• Novelist Eliza Wyatt, who opened the invitation for August as World Building Month, posted a handy list of world building topics that can guide your own questions.

• The Wikipedia entry on Worldbuilding has a section of Construction Steps that provide fodder for the brain.

• James Wyatt, award-winning game designer and author of the 4th edition D&D Dungeon Master Guide, has a column in the now-online Dungeon Magazine called Dungeoncraft. Wyatt embraces the game's new default "points of light, world of darkness" setting: the world is a vast expanse of wilderness with

flickering beacons of civilization. This gives every world builder the chance to fill in their area with whatever strikes their fancy. Read every column if you can. Once you've built up a list of questions to answer, you have a checklist for your world building pursuits. Now you can start to answer those questions:

• Write out your answers by hand in a notebook. GameMastery makes a nifty pre-fabricated Campaign Workbook that you can use for this purpose, but some paper and pen work fine, too.

• Type everything out into Word, or even better, Google Docs. Then you can share it with others.

• My personal favorite: create a wiki! I'll discuss this in more detail with the next article, but nothing beats your own wiki for world building purposes. Get a free account with PBWiki, Google Sites, or even better, Obsidian Portal, a wiki/social site designed specifically for roleplaying campaigns and world building.

Next up: building your world with a wiki. See also:

How To Build a World, Part 1: The Basics

How To Build a World, Part 3: Working with Wikis

Photo by Bill in Ash Vegas

How To Build a World: The Basics

By Michael Harrison August 06, 2008 | 1:00:00 PMCategories: Games, How-To, Projects, RPGs

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Kids love to build their own worlds. They do it without

prompting as they "play pretend" with toys and with one another, but some excel and go on to greatness. Everyone takes joy in a good story, but one that is set in a dynamic, believable world really stands out.

When he was a young boy, C.S. Lewis and his brother created the world of Boxen, inhabited by anthropomorphic animals. Lewis later went on to integrate many of his childhood creations into his Narnia books. At age 8, Ed Greenwood wrote of the "stoic swordsman Durnan, the blustering old rogue Mirt, and the all-wise, ancient wizard Elminster." Today, those denizens of the Forgotten Realms are familiar to millions of Dungeons and Dragons players worldwide. Both authors are well-known for their stories, but they're even more renowned for the worlds that they created.

Since August is World Building Month and I've been hard at work on creating the setting for my new D&D campaign, I'll be detailing the hobby, discussing some well-known created worlds, and outlining some tools and tricks that modern worldbuilders can use to craft their own imaginary universes. Read on for an introduction to the basics.

Continue reading "How To Build a World: The Basics" »

Introducing Your Kids to the Web:

Shopping

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I wasn't paying much attention to how my boys were using their computer time last week. The laptop hummed on the dining room table as they plotted together. Over three daily sessions, they covered an oversized sheet of paper with Lego products, quantities and prices copied from the website.

Their list was heavy with Bionicles and Indiana Jones sets. A recent birthday money purchase got them into Mars Mission. They were still developing their distribution plan for the wish list when the cleaning happened.

The list was an accidental casualty, consigned to the bin in the alley. They moaned about the time lost on the list, but quickly sat back down and asked for more paper to start all over again.

Then Dad stepped in and drew their attention to the glories of web based shopping sites. "Guys, look at the buttons on the Lego site. You can create online wish lists and save them. You could print them or even email them when you are done."

Point and Click is much more efficient than handwriting. The list was recreated (and expanded) in one session on the web. My nudge helped them explore the site, adjusting quantities and figuring out how to remove items from the lists. Sometimes I forget that they don't always know instinctively how to use the web.

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How to Keep Your Geek Cred After

Seeing

WALL-E

By Matt Blum July 07, 2008 | 11:00:00 AMCategories: How-To, Movies

As any proper geek, or anyone who's ever seen a movie with one, knows, it is absolutely essential to nitpick every movie you see. The amount of nitpicking should always be in inverse proportion to the quality of the movie, because that way you avoid ruining really good movies and you make lousy movies more fun by picking them into little, tiny pieces of nonsensical plot.

To fail to nitpick after seeing a movie is to lose a certain measure of geek cred, particularly if you saw the movie with other geeks. To prevent this catastrophe from befalling our readers who see WALL-E (which by the way is the best movie I've seen this year and you should all go out and see it right now), we hereby provide a list of things you can nitpick about after seeing it. Send it to your iPhone/Blackberry, or—if you must —print it out for your hipster PDA and take it with you so you can sit back and enjoy the film without having to find the little things you can find fault with later. This list does not contain any spoilers for anyone who has seen a trailer for or read any review of the movie.

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• Robots falling in love? Please.

• Sound doesn't travel in space. Everyone knows that. The space scenes would be kinda dull without the sound? Doesn't matter.

• EVE stands for "Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator," right? So how come she's looking for plants on Earth? It should be "terrestrial," not "extraterrestrial!"

• Could the 2001: A Space Odyssey references have been any more obvious?

• The Axiom has been jettisoning its trash into space for 700 years? Where does it get the raw material to fix the machines, feed the people, keep the engines going, etc.? I know the movie's trying to make a point about excess, but a ship like that just couldn't keep going that long without recycling!

• The waving? Seriously. It's cute and all, but it got a little out of hand. Pun intended.

• Why does EVE have to have a "female" personality? Just because WALL-E has a "male" one? It's OK for robots to fall in love, but homosexual robots are just unacceptable, obviously!

• If WALL-E and EVE reproduced, would their offspring go off to other planets, find plants, and then crush them into blocks?

Please understand that I hold the movie in the highest regard. That's why I could only think of eight things to list. If you have more, feel free to mention them in the comments.

Duct Tape Bullwhip Looks Cool, is Just

Dangerous Enough to be Fun

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We got a cool nudge from Cindy Hopper, via our main man Chris, pointing to an awesome DIY post on her website demonstrating how to make a great Indiana Jones-style bullwhip at home from brown duct tape.

You will need:

• 1 roll of brown duck tape (we found this at Wal-Mart) cut into 3- 12 foot lengths

• 10″ piece of 3/8″ wooden dowel rod

• a foot or so of twine for the “popper” if desired

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Check out Cindy's blog for the rest of the instructions. And watch out, you could cause a welt with that thing!

RFID Tags: Invasion of Privacy or a New

Kind of Art?

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You've heard of them, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID, pronounced arfid) tags, little transmitter chips that broadcast your identity to airline check-in stations as well as to anyone who has a RFID snooper. The phenomenon has all sorts of people up in arms over the possibility we'd be tracked wherever we go, or that criminals could clone our identities from nearby.

Some people use the technology to make art.

This year, the Dana Centre's festival has asked us to run a 1 day RFID workshop on May 14th. Lead by Alex Zivanovic and Nick Weldin, this intensive 5 hour workshop will be followed by an exhibition of the work produced.

Registration is free and open to at least 30 people. You will get to play with RFID modules, antennas and tags and an RFID shield for Arduino. These components will be sold on site.

To be able to get something out of it, we advise people to have a solid understanding of Arduino already as 5 hours is very little time and Alex and Nick won't go over the basics. If you're a newbie but desperate to get going, do email me and I'll make sure you're put in a team with people who will help you get there faster.

"Technology and design consultancy" tinker.it is offering the class in associated with the TakeAway Festival. To learn more go to http://www.takeawayfestival.com/node/129. (Note, the class is in London!)

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GeekDad Wayback Machine: Radios

That Work for Free

By Ken Denmead April 21, 2008 | 9:38:00 AMCategories: How-To, Physics, Science Experiments

One year ago, you were reading this on GeekDad, by Kevin Kelly:

Crystal Radios are an old standby of GeekDads. For the early mists of time GeekDads have been showing kids how to pull radio stations from thin air with the barest snips from the basement. Here are some very simple radios that you can have your kid make in a few hours. They seem too simple to work. But unbelievably they can hear music or talk programs coming out of this scraps of metal. How does it work?

Ken Reitz's cool crystal radio

Aha! Glad you asked. They use the ingredients of the first radios, solid state bits of matter wired up in various circuits, including long antennas and coil tuners.

There are an amazing variety of crystal radio types, some of them very sophisticated, and worthy of midnight engineers. The best source for instructions and books and a

newsletter and kits for crystal radios is the Xtal Set Society. They sell the classic book Radios That Work For Free, and many other plans books. They also sell a bunch of very cheap but effective starter kits, like this one, the XS500 Basic Crystal Radio Kit, selling for $15.

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Another great starter project for kids is the Quaker Oats box set broadcast AM crystal radio. You use the cardboard cylinder of a Quaker Oats box for the wire coil. Download the free PDF free plans. They even give some useful science fair hints for this project.

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And for those who get into it big time they issue a paper newsletter with new circuits every six months or so. There's hours and hours, if not years, of things to play around with here. I've found that kids can at least get a weekend of curiosity from one of these.

Hacker Collective Offers Nerd Classes

By John Baichtal April 10, 2008 | 3:56:00 PMCategories: How-To

Hacker hangout NYC Resistor is offering a bunch of great classes for those who want to get into hardware hacking.

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Saturday, 4/12 -- Game Boy Software Development 101

Tuesday, 4/15 and Wednesday, 4/16 -- Soldering 102 and Electronics 102

If you miss out on those sessions, check out their calendar for more. They also have Soldering 101, Electronics 101, Rapid Prototyping and three Arduino classes.

Makes me wish I lived in NYC! Someone tell me there's something as cool as this in Minneapolis!

How-To Wiki: Kid-Proofing Your Home

Theater

By Brad Moon March 31, 2008 | 7:57:20 PMCategories: DadHacks, Furniture, How-To, Television

It's not just a grilled cheese in the VCR to worry about these days... Advice from a GeekDad who has gone through an awful lot of time, energy and three sets of speakers in a quest to come up with a kid-resistant home theater set-up.

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By Dave Hinerman March 26, 2008 | 7:43:14 PMCategories: How-To

While it's good to dream, many of us realize it'll be a long time before we can build our own Predator UAV. Or maybe we just want to start small. Thanks to YouTube and Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories we can build our own micro robot for cheap:

Pager motors are available from a number of surplus electronic parts outlets such as BG Micro, or you could salvage one from an old pager or cell phone. (You do have old pagers and cell phones lying around, don't you?)

While this may seem like a simple toy to entertain the kids for a few minutes, it actually demonstrates what may be up-and-coming medical technology. According to Gizmodo, scientists are proposing to build nanobots that use a similar means of propulsion to travel through a person's arteries, delivering medicine to clear blockages.

Hows that for fighting plaque?

Discover the Earth's Magnetic

Personality

By Dave Hinerman March 09, 2008 | 4:08:08 PMCategories: Earth, How-To, Science Experiments, Space

A gigantic spot, large enough to swallow the Earth in one gulp, slides into view on the edge of the Sun's surface. It creeps over a period of days across the Sun's visible disk, growing ominously. As it nears the Sun's

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center a massive solar flare erupts from the spot, triggering a coronal mass ejection that hurls billions of tons of hot plasma directly at our planet! Is this the end of life on Earth? What can save us from being baked like cookies?

Actually, this scenario has played out countless times in the Earth's history. The reason we're not all just crispy spots on the ground is that the Earth has a powerful magnetic field that deflects the solar plasma toward the North and South Poles. The only visible effect of this process is the aurora, which occurs when the energetic plasma strikes the atmosphere. But it's possible, with a little know-how and some easy to find materials, to see the effect solar plasma has on our protective magnetic field.

As part of its public education efforts NASA has developed a series of simple classroom experiments that illustrate a number of principles from planetary and space science. This article, A Soda Bottle Magnetometer, describes how to make a device to measure how much the Earth's magnetic field flexes when it's struck by a coronal mass ejection. The magnetometer is essentially a very sensitive magnetic compass, and it's quite easy to build. It's also an easy project to "set it and forget it." You can set one up in a quiet corner and look at it occasionally; if the kids notice some activity you can take them to the NOAA Estimated 3-hour Planetary Kp-Index Web page to see if the professionals have seen the same magnetic activity. Strong fluctuations in Earth's magnetic field can indicate aurora activity, too. If you see a large change in the magnetic field in the evening, give a look to the sky outside. You may be rewarded with some visible aurora.

Sunspot activity should pick up over the next five years or so, since a new 11-year sunspot cycle has just begun. So keep this little project in mind to show the kids that it's possible to see the invisible if you know how to look.

Make a Tron light for your room

By Russ Neumeier February 25, 2008 | 7:01:00 AMCategories: How-To, Movies Here's a fantastic Instructibles - a DIY light that looks like it came from the movie Tron.

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The Instructibles post is here - How to Make a TRON Style Lamp. The instructions are very detailed, and my first thought is a bit much for a Geekdad with his kids...but I'll leave that up to you - after you've viewed each of the steps.

Build Your Own Kaleidoscope

By Dave Banks February 15, 2008 | 10:42:00 AMCategories: How-To

I found this great video on making your own kaleidoscope out of basic household items. The best part is that it's so easy to do, you can experiment with different objects that you place in the business end of your kaleidoscope. You could build several in an afternoon. There are a few steps that require adult

supervision, but this is a great hands-on project for kids!

The possibilities are wide open - any suggestions for items to place in the kaleidoscope? Old LEDs ... Legos ... what do you think?

Marshmallows: Not Just For Roasting

Anymore

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My son, Adian’s, kindergarten class was learning about three dimensional shapes and objects last week. His teacher opted to bypass the usual visualization tools (Tinkertoys, LEGO, K’NEX, etc…) and used marshmallows and toothpicks instead. This actually worked out pretty well. The toothpicks can be stuck in pretty much any which way and the whole thing eventually hardens to a surprisingly strong finished product. Can’t really beat the economics of the supplies either, although I’m not sure how she got little pointy wooden sticks past the same school board that’s removing playground equipment because of insurance liability issues. But I digress… Aidan brought home his creation and I think it’s a pretty complex little model for a five year old.

I was curious about the possibilities inherent in this technique (what can I say, it’s been a slow week), and had a look around the Internets. Turns out, there’s quite a community of marshmallow builders out there. Not just primary school kids and their teachers, but engineers and MBAs seem to be rather taken by the marshmallow challenge. Who knew?

Here's a Toronto marshmallow and toothpick building contest, for example, or how about marshmallow molecules?

Once I started digging into the hidden realm of marshmallow-related activities, it became more and more difficult to ignore the cooler (I mean darker) side of the web. Of course, I can only be referring to the Laser Guided Marshmallow Blaster and its ilk.

A link to instructions for building a variation on one of these devices was posted last year by Geekdad’s Bruce Stewart. If you don’t feel handy with the PVC, there are even companies that specialize in ready-built marshmallow armaments.

Apparently you can eat these things too, but that doesn't seem to be as much fun...

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By Bill Day February 13, 2008 | 10:21:00 AMCategories: Art, Culture, Family, Fun, Geek Girls, How-To, Projects, Star Wars, Toys

The Craft Magazine blog recently posted a video of Bonnie Burton talking about how to make Star Wars crafts. These ideas coud fuel a fun Dad+geeklet (or Mom+geeklet, or whole geek family) craft day.

Click To Play

Read the Craft blog post and check out the StarWars.com Kids section for more.

GeekDad Review: Eccentric Cubicle

By John Baichtal January 15, 2008 | 4:24:29 PMCategories: How-To

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O'Reilly's Make series of books has made a name for itself with how-to books that present all manner of crazy projects that we are -- theoretically -- able to build ourselves. With Eccentric Cubicle, they deliver once again. However, as it's written by Kaden Harris, you get a delightfully eccentric slant as well. Harris is Canadian but doesn't use the Metric system. He worked as a graphic designer, a sewage treament specialist, and as a scrap yard worker ("My scrap fu is STRONG," he says on his web site.) Funny and extremely knowledgeable, you find yourself drawn into Harris's narrative while being continually amused by his banter.

The projects comprise the bulk of the book so I'll start off with them. Let me just preface by saying that these projects are hard. While beginners will definitely enjoy reading the book, actually building the projects might require a decent quantity of tools and

materials, not to mention considerable handiness about the workshop. Allegedly Harris sent out the plans to a number of beta testers but I have the feeling that these daring individuals were no slouches with the drill press.

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Liquid Light Meets the Disko Skull: Think of those gadgets that project trippy light effects, kinda like having a pan of colored oil and water on an overhead projector. Only the projector is stuck inside a PVC segment and pointed at a rotating mirror skull!

Haze-o-Matic 3000: Basically a fog machine, but this one is steampunky and ornate with bellows and tubes everywhere. Way cool.

Hammerhead Live Mechanical Drum Machine: Amazing-looking analog drum machine that bangs on drums and cymbals with wee drumsticks.

The other projects in the book include Active Deskchop (a guillotine!), BallistaMail (a desk-mounted crossbow that shoots mail tubes), Maple Mike (golf ball launcher), DeskBeam Bass (turns your desk into a giant speaker), the Gysin Device (psychadelic spinner that allegedly induces an alpha state in your brain) and iBlow USB Bubble Machine (a quickie bubble maker). Densely packed with information, Eccentric Cubicle supplements the amazing projects with a series of "nano projects" that read as small tutorials. One covers home brewed wood finishes. Another helps you make a retractable electrical cord. This sort of thing can only add value to an otherwise outstanding read. One quibble: The book is called Eccentric Cubicle but I gotta say the connection to the workplace is a little thin. However, these projects are plenty cool wherever you build them. Anyway, as I've often said about DIY books, you can have tons of fun simply reading the book. Harris is an engaging and downright funny writer who is constantly including sassy asides, historical trivia, and jokes. For example, on the bubble machine project, he included 6 large grapefruits and a volleyball net into the parts list, just for yucks. A lot of DIY books are dry and to-the-point. Not this one.

Eccentric Cubicle is an educational and entertaining read, whether or not you want a mail-flinging ballista on your desk.

Toy Hacking Workshop

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I'm guessing at least a couple Robosapiens are busted already. Or maybe last year's gifts are long forgotten and destined for the trash bin. Well, what better to do with the junk than pop it open and play with its electronics? For those who are too scared or success-oriented to DIY, there's a cool-sounding Toy Hacking workshop being held in London this month.

Don’t know what to do with those spare toys lying around post-Christmas season? This workshop just might be the thing for you. After a successful Pimp my Gadget workshop in Budapest, we have the pleasure of having Adam Somlai Fisher and Massimo Banzi lead his 2 day fun workshop during which you will be doing some wire bending, learn about basic electronics and hack toys!

Put on by Tinker.it, a "technology and design consultancy" with offices in London, Milan and Amsterdam, they also offer workshops on Processing and Arduinos. No electronic knowledge is necessary but you do need to bring a laptop and a toy to hack. Tickets are 90 pounds or 75 for students.

What I wanna know is, why can't we get cool workshops like this around where I live? (Note, the picture is of a similar event put on for students of the Willem de Kooning Academy.)

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GeekDad Review: D.I.Y. Kids

By John Baichtal December 20, 2007 | 4:50:34 PMCategories: Art, Clothing, How-To

Observation #1: It's hard for male geeks to understand the difference between he-geek and she-geek. Every fiber in my body wants my daughters to like computers, electronics and gaming. What I have to accept is that girls have different interests and aptitudes that are, in their own way, just as geeky.

Observation #2: Crafting is how girls connect to their inner geek.

Recently I read D.I.Y. Kids (Princeton Architectural Press) by Ellen and Julia Lupton, identical twin sisters. One is a curator at the Cooper-Hewitt design museum, the other a professor of English at UC-Irvine. Together they've created a really neat book that helps young people with crafty, creative projects.

With sections focused on Graphics, Home, Toys, and Fashion, the book's 90+ projects range from making your own stuffed animals to printing a zine or designing an alphabet. Graffiti wristbands, decoupage purses, book plates! All of the projects described were actually done by kids and the results displayed, giving the book a genuine feel. My favorite involves helping kids create their own tiling computer wallpaper. Most kids are content to download their wallpaper from the Internet, feeling like they can't create anything cool on their own. With the a technical how-to and some creative

encouragement, whatever they create will be far more original and unique than anything found on the internet. None of the activities in the book are too crazy or difficult for the average kid.

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I should note that, despite my weighty intro on girl geeks and craftiness, the fact is that most of the projects in this book can appeal to pretty much any kid, and these sorts of activities are a great precursor to more advanced geekiness. The most important skill to learn, of course, is the confidence that you can "Do It Yourself" and you don't need to buy something or limit yourself to a product's intended uses. D.I.Y. Kids inspires with its genuineness and creativity. If you're looking for geeky activities for kids too small for the "big stuff" or more interested in the crafty end of the spectrum, you could do worse than this book.

Review: The Best of MAKE

By John Baichtal December 16, 2007 | 5:32:34 PMCategories: Books, How-To, Projects

"Void your warranty," MAKE Magazine urges its readers. The best DIY magazine ever, MAKE has been engaging and inspiring thousands of readers for the past two years. Now, in the The Best of MAKE they have collected their coolest 75 articles thus far. Here are a measly ten that caught my eye:

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Your Electronics Workbench: What you need to get started in hobby electronics by Charles Platt. A lot of people interested in getting into electronics find themselves facing the puzzle of what equipment they need. This article answers those questions, and it's followed by a comprehensive list of various gadgets and where to get them,

Rumble Mouse, by Greg Lipscomb. Add a cell phone vibrator to your mouse to let you feel those caps you bust!

Two BEAMbots: Trimet and Solarroller, by Gareth Branwyn. BEAM robots are, like, a kajillion times cooler than those battling robots you see on ESPN 6. Among their many unqiue attributes, BEAM bots are built without expensive microcontrollers, which, until the development of cheap units like the Arduino, was a huge stumbling block to amateurs trying to break into the hobby.

Hack a RoboSapien, by Dave Prochnow. As I mentioned in a previous review, Wowwee's line of robots -- including the Robosapien -- were largely created by Mark Tilden, a robotics guru who encourages the hacking of his creations.

Gun-Operated Alarm Clock, by Roger Ibars. Forget banging the top of your alarm clock to turn it off, shoot it with a video game light gun.

VCR Cat Feeder, by James Larsson. Hack a VCR to dispense kitty food at a certain time. Everyone over thirty just made a joke about flashing 12:00s.

Making Biodesel, by Bob Elam. Make diesel fuel out of french fry oil!

Rocket-Launched Camcorder, by John Maushammer. Anything rocket launched is cool. Add a disposable drugstore camcorder to the mix and record your flight for all time. Building an Ornithopter, by William Gurstelle. Author of such classics as Whoosh Boom Splat: The Garage Warrior's Guide to Building Projectile Shooters, Gurstelle describes how to build a model aircraft that flies by flapping its wings!

Microcontroller Programming, by Sparkle Labs. One of the most mindboggling innovations of the past few years, and which has not gotten a lot of press, is the

development of dirt cheap microcontrollers. Granted, it's not the sort of story that can be sandwiched between "puppy saving kid" stories on the 5:00 news, so I suppose it's not surprising it hasn't sent weeping crowds into the streets. But trust me, it's big.

Plus 65 others! Whether it's inspiration or just enjoyable reading, this book is chock full of cool stuff. Each story includes a description of equipment and supplies you need to do the project, followed by step-by-steps. But my favorite parts are the writers' asides where you get a flash of the DIY spirit that made these projects possible in the first place.

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GeekDad Review: The Unofficial LEGO

Builder's Guide

By John Baichtal November 28, 2007 | 12:51:38 PMCategories: How-To, Lego

A lot of LEGO builder books are intended for power users. They employ obscure Technic parts in their projects and assume a level of sophistication beyond the ability of most casual builders. The Unofficial LEGO Builder's Guide (No Starch) is not one of them! ULBG is directed firmly at beginners, but doesn't neglect aspiring power users.

Author Allan Bedford starts out with the basics. What's the correct terminology for the flat pieces and the wedge-shaped bricks? (Plates and slopes!) What are the best ways to connect bricks to maximize your model's stability? One section goes into detail about brick storage. After a certain point, the whole "big tub" approach begins to be inefficient because you spend a long time search for the right brick. Bedford offers tips on how to organize your collection.

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ULBG is extremely readable, and part of the reason is that Bedford intended his book for two audiences: first, kids in the 7-10 range who had built LEGO products but needed a gentle nudge to create their own designs. Secondly, he thought adults might like it. "I knew that there were latent adult LEGO builders who just needed a bit of information and encouragement in order to be able to begin working on their own models." To Bedford's credit, he does not talk down to his younger readers. In true geek tradition, the book is equally readable for both kids and adults.

Continue reading "GeekDad Review: The Unofficial LEGO Builder's Guide" »

Fire in the Sky: Collecting Iron

Micrometeorites

By Dave Hinerman November 27, 2007 | 9:05:00 AMCategories: Astronomy, How-To, Space

Perhaps as a child you made a wish on a falling star, and perhaps as a parent you've encouraged your young ones to do the same. But wouldn't it be neat to have a falling star you could carry in your pocket, to make a wish on whenever you wanted to?

Falling stars aren't stars at all but meteors - bits of rock or iron that have drifted through space until they were caught by the Earth's gravity and pulled into the atmosphere. Most meteors burn up as they hurtle through the upper atmosphere, making the familiar bright

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streaks we call shooting or falling stars. Some meteors are large enough to survive the trip and become meteorites - meteors that have reached Earth's surface.

Finding and collecting large meteorites is challenging, but micrometeorites can be collected in your own back yard. Micrometeorites are tiny bits of meteoric material that survived the trip through the atmosphere not because they're large, but because they're so small they travel slowly through the air and don't get hot enough to burn up.

This article at Bizzarre Stuff tells how to collect iron micrometeorites anywhere using distilled water, a magnet, a microscope, and a few household items:

http://bizarrelabs.com/met.htm

This article, a lab assignment for a Physical Science class at California State University, Fresno, gives a simpler method:

http://zimmer.csufresno.edu/~fringwal/09-The-Hunt-for-Micrometeorites.pdf

According to the Bizzarre Stuff article, the best times to catch micrometeorites is during a major meteor shower. One of the best showers is the Geminid shower, which is

conveniently just a few weeks away. Also, a contributor to the article says that another good way to find micrometeorites is to melt fresh snow. Snowflakes usually form around dust particles, but in a pinch any tiny piece of rock or iron will do. Since winter is fast approaching us northern geeks, we're coming up on prime micrometeorite hunting season!

So the next time you see a falling star, don't just make a wish - catch it!

DIY Cardboard Castles

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A recent GeekDad post mentioned a UK company that will send you a cardboard rocket for 30 pounds (around $US62) plus shipping. For those of you who found that deal less than titillating, I have a better deal for you:

A company called Mr. McGroovy's Box Rivets sells kits for building cardboard castles, pirate ships, and other designs. Basically you supply the cardboard and McGroovy's supplies the instructions, patterns and rivets. The latter are the company's signature product. They are plastic attachments that permit you to connect two pieces of cardboard far more efficiently than tape or staples. In addition, they are easily removable (with a special tool) and reusable.

Homemade Speaker

By Don Shump November 09, 2007 | 1:31:08 PMCategories: How-To, Projects Just in time for the weekend: a homebrew speaker using a plastic cup, business card, Legos, wire and a magnet.

How it works?

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or repels the coil and makes it to move. The vibration generates the sound that we hear thanks to the air.

Most of today speakers have a resistance of 8 ohms. This homemade speaker may have less than 8 ohms and may not be able to make loud sounds but basically it shows exactly how it works.

Using different materials, may cause the sound to change, even to make it louder. I'm certain that you could replace some of the bits with what you have on hand. Let us know what sort of hacks you come up with!

How To Make a Speaker (via BoingBoing)

GeekDad Review: Making Things Talk

By John Baichtal November 08, 2007 | 8:40:04 AMCategories: Gadgets, Hacking kids, How-To, Projects

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About the time home computers became commonplace, people got the bright idea that this

wondrous new gadget could interface with everything electrical in your house. Why couldn't you control lights and temperature via a computer? Why can't your clock radio talk to your toaster? Ultimately, while fascinating, the home automation phenomenon never really took off. Part of the problem was that the microcontrollers needed for interfacing between analog and digital worlds were prohibitively expensive. No longer. A couple of years ago a half-dozen developers collaborated on a

microcontroller project that eventually came to be called the Arduino. Affordable, open source, programmed by freeware and easy to use, the platform's popularity has grown exponentially since its introduction. Already tinkerers have begun expanding Arduino's horizons beyond anyone's expectations. For instance, Leah Buechley developed a

wearable Arduino and accompanying clothing-based power supply, actuators and sensors (connected with conductive thread, how cool is that?) Clearly the idea has expanded far beyond smart homes.

Enter Making Things Talk: Practical Methods for Connecting Physical Objects. Written by Tom Igoe, one of the original developers of the Arduino microcontroller, the book is a guide to this exciting new platform. In some respects the technology can intimidate because it such a huge idea: interfacing the analog with the digital, or as Igoe puts it, making things talk to other things. And while the Arduino has made these

once-impossible tasks attainable, there is still a learning curve. Igoe pulls no punches; while there is some introductory info, the book assumes you have a basic familiarity with electronics, as well as experience programming microcontrollers. The Arduino platform uses Processing, a free and open-source programming language designed for artists and hobbyists, so the learning curve is relatively low compared to some other languages.

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Igoe's book takes the reader step by step, beginning with tools you'll need, covering various networking theories, programming tips and other techniques. Along the way he outlines 26 projects that are the meat of the book; the first is a pink monkey that has been hacked to serve as a computer mouse. Project 13 involves relaying solar cell data

wirelessly. Project 19 shows you how to determine a heading using a digital compass. Some of the projects serve mainly to illustrate many of the different possibilities of the technology rather than to be "cool" -- for instance, Project 8 shows how to make a 19,200 baud infared transmitter-receiver set but doesn't pair that tech with some neat gizmo. Others are more of a complete project, like the cymbal monkey (Project 12) that bangs its cymbals when it senses toxic chemicals in the air around it.

The cool thing and the scary thing about the Arduino phenomenon is the vastness of its potential. Making Things Talk is a thick and very dense manual that does an admirable job of covering as much terrain as possible.

Build Your own Dobsonian Telescope

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Ah, November. Clear dark nights, not too cold. A great month for stargazing -- to say nothing of the Leonid meteor shower, which will swing by in a couple of weeks. For meteors, all you need is your eyes, or else a good pair of binoculars. But if you want to look at planets, you'll need a

telescope. You have a couple of options: buy one or, less practically but far more geekily, make a telescope! OK, let's get building!

While the idea of a DIY telescope sounds intimidating, it's far from impossible thanks to a guy named John Dobson. A former Hindu monk who started building telescopes to learn about the universe, he eventually left his order (which frowned on his explorations) and began promoting astronomy as a hobby. He designed a simple and easy-to-build alt-azimuth mount for a Newtonian telelescope, a combination which became known as a Dobsonian.

So how do you build your own Dobsonian telescope? Not surprisingly, the answer lies on the internet. There are a number of schematics available. Craig Jones built two telescopes and kindly provides notes, photos and PDF diagrams on his site. The San Francisco Sidewalk Astronomers and Ray Cash have similar resources on their site. Typically materials cost around $300 and up, depending on the design. The mirror, finder and eyepieces comprise the bulk of the expense, and some are cheaper than others.

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Finally, if you'd like to build your own telescope but need more help than the schematics provide, consider looking online for a kit. There are many, many suppliers out there; expect it to cost a little more than a home-made Dobsonian and a lot more than a "department store" telescope.

Photo by Craig Jones.

DIY Jabba the Hutt

By Ken Denmead November 05, 2007 | 8:11:00 AMCategories: How-To

Found on Boing Boing this weekend, detailed, step-by-step instructions on how to make your own, "life"-sized Jabba the Hutt. Dang, wish I'd seen this before Halloween! Link.

Forbidden LEGO: Do Try This at Home

By John Baichtal November 03, 2007 | 10:24:51 AMCategories: How-To, Lego

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Forbidden LEGO, it conjures up memories of my mom busting me for making guns with my LEGO bricks -- we had a no war toys house. But the title actually refers to the fact that the models presented in the book would never, for a variety of reasons, be produced as an official LEGO product. As the authors explain, the company sensibly enforces very strict and specific rules that builders follow in creating models. Of course, countless prototypes are created that violate these rules; some of them these ended up in Forbidden LEGO.

So what are these rules that cannot be broken? The authors (former LEGO employees) describe them thus: 1) No non-LEGO parts. 2) No modifications required of users, for example, drilling a hole in a LEGO brick or clipping off part of it. 3) No shooting out a projectile strong enough to tear through Seran wrap. 4) Never use glue when building. 5) No tinkering with battery pack voltages.

With all the introductory and explanatory text, and with detailed CAD instructions, there are actually only five projects in the book. I have no problem with this! There's a lot more value to be gleaned from the book than just the models. The authors' funny anecdotes as well as their insights on the LEGO corporate dynamic serve as a welcome

accompaniment to the projects. The first model is a paper airplane launcher. The second project describes a catapult that uses a spoon to launch candy through the air. The third is a cannon that shoots ping-pong balls. The third project is an ATV supercharged by two MINDSTORMS battery packs. And the final project shows you how to build a LEGO machine pistol that shoots out bricks at high speeds. Of course, keeping with the book's theme, every model includes a list of LEGO rules violated.

In some respects this book embodies the true value of the LEGO toy -- it's not the official models you buy in boxes, though those are great; we're having so much fun with Mars Mission at home. But what's wonderful about LEGO is what you invent after you build the model. You throw away the instructions and create something new and crazy. Whether it's forbidden or not is up to you.

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Olafur Eliasson's Nerdy Art

By Kevin Kelly October 30, 2007 | 8:30:23 PMCategories: How-To, Outdoor Activities, Toys

More than once, the nerdy Icelandic/Danish artist Olafur Eliasson has donated 3 tons of white lego bricks to a community and had their kids construct cityscapes. The resulting art is beautiful. I much prefer fantasy constructions with Lego, to any reproduction of an existing thing, which most Lego building seems to be about. These community built cities have all the glory of community built cities in real life.

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Eliasson has attracted a following among technologically oriented folks in recent years. His art is often conceptual, brainy, and frequently geometrical or even mathematical. He is said to be one of the most represented modern artists on Flickr, because his stuff is so photographic and technical, yet very approachable. Perfect Flickr fodder.

If you can catch a show of his at any museum don't miss it and don't forget to bring your kids. For those in the Bay Area, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art current has a very nice installation of Eilasson art. Our 11 year old son loved it, and I can't say that's true about most modern art. This show includes a wire frame car covered with ice in a 0-degree room. You need a blanket to view it. Very exciting. And some cool wave making machines, weird mathematical walk-in kaleidoscopes, and cool stain glass tunnels.

My favorite, though, was a room full of his models and experiments in shapes. You could see the rough work, the illuminated aspects of prototypes, and the sheer genius arrived at by trying and trying. It's a great show. We went directly from this show to the

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Halloween Panic Time

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A couple weeks ago I wrote about how it was high time to get ready for Halloween. Well, guess what? With crunch time waaaaaaaaaayyy past, prepare for full-blown panic if your costume isn't done or your party plans are incomplete. I know at my house, there will be some tense moments with a hot glue gun before my mission is done. Here are a couple of last minute resources you may have overlooked:

1) Candy companies love Halloween. For example, Hersheys.com has tons of resources like spooky treats, costume ideas, trick or treat bags, and pumpkin ideas.

2) Check out GeekDad fave Instructables' DIY Halloween 2007 photo gallery. Most of the entries have instructions or at least an interesting story behind them so don't be shy with the mouse.

3) If all else fails, rush to your nearest bookstore and pick up Make Magazine's

Halloween special edition. In addition to costume advice, the zine has tons of ideas for haunted houses, ghostly parties and creepy canapés. Cylon Jack-o-Lantern! Home-made fog machine! Edible heads!

Photo courtesy of Windell H. Oskay, www.evilmadscientist.com.

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The Snap-O-Lantern!

By Vincent Janoski October 26, 2007 | 7:23:37 PMCategories: How-To

Windell Oskay at Evil Mad Scientist Laboratory shows us how to make a snap-o-lantern sure to scare the bajeezus out of trick-or-treaters. A clever use for those mini-pumpkins that bounce around our house every year for sure! Plus, it is a good excuse to delve into microcontrollers. There is still time folks, there is still time. For me, alas, there is none, being in the final stages of making two costumes for the geeklings this year that incorporate fleece, vinyl, motors, and liquid. But the snap-o-lantern is giving me all kinds of ideas to work in moving parts for next year's pumpkin carving!

AOL CD Art Bike: the Koicycle!

By John Baichtal October 20, 2007 | 12:44:26 PMCategories: How-To

We all know the initially ingenious-seeming but ultimately annoying and doomed AOL CD distribution program of the '90s and early '00s. As AOL lapses into well-deserved obscurity, we are left with the fact that over ONE BILLION of the disks have been distributed. While some found their way into collections the vast majority became landfill. A tiny percentage were turned into art. The following is the Koicycle, a fish-shaped art bike created by a guy named Matthew. The scales, of course, are AOL CDs.

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Photo courtesy of Matthew.

Maker Faire Austin This Weekend

By Bruce Stewart October 19, 2007 | 11:42:13 AMCategories: Art, Family, Field Trips, Fun, Gadgets, How-To, Outdoor Activities

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I'm here in Austin, Texas getting ready for this weekend's Maker Faire at the Travis County Expo Center. If you're anywhere in the vicinity of Austin and looking for some good, geeky family fun, I highly recommend checking out this event. There's lots of posts on makezine.com about the preparations taking place, and a tangible air of excitement around town as geeks are arriving with all kinds of interesting gear and gadgets. I don't know who is more pumped up for this one, me or my boys (ages 5 and 12). "Can't the Maker Faire start today??" my 5-year-old just pleaded with me.

I'll have my camera in hand and will post some highlights from the Maker Faire here, but I know already it will be a whirlwind weekend with not enough time to see and do all that we want to. Heck, looking at the schedule for the Make booth, I feel like I could just stay there all day!

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Stay tuned for more posts from the Maker Faire, and if you're there look for me and say "hi". I'll be the balding dad with two kids pulling me in opposite directions :-)

Cooking Up Some Home-made Fun

By Ken Denmead October 11, 2007 | 7:50:00 AMCategories: How-To

I know I did this once or twice as a kid, but it's been decades since then, and I thought I'd share the experience with the Geekdad community. Last night, as part of a project my older son is working on for school, we made a batch of home made, dough-like play substance (looks around to make sure no trademark attorneys are reading). I didn't remember how easy a process it was!

3 cups flour 1.5 cups salt 3 cups water

3 tablespoons cooking oil 6 teaspoons cream of tartar

Mix in a large pot until smooth. Heat on medium low, stirring constantly. Dough will begin to dry and become sticky. Continue heating and stirring until a ball forms in the

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middle of the pos, and the dough is no longer sticky to the touch. When it gets there, take it off the heat and let cool for a bit, then wrap it in plastic and cool. Add food colorings to make different colors.

Pictures and more commentary after the break...

Continue reading "Cooking Up Some Home-made Fun" »

Sunday Afternoon Project: Building a

Mouse Trap Car

By Dave Banks September 23, 2007 | 5:05:30 PMCategories: Cars, How-To, Projects, Toys

After a horrible couple of months of high humidity and scorching heat, we have finally had our first taste of fall weather and we decided to find something we could do outside, for a change. After thinking about a few projects, we decided on a mouse trap car. Many of you will recall making a mouse trap car - either as a project in physics class or maybe in another after school group. Mouse trap cars teach elasticity, inertia and

automotive propulsion in its simplest form. There are as many ways to build this type of car as you can imagine (here's one set of plans), with a variety of materials, but the only general requirement is the use of a standard mouse trap as the sole source of propulsion. Schools and clubs often use the mouse trap car as a source of competition, with awards given for speed, distance and accuracy.

Our car cost less than $3 to make, not including some materials that we found around the house (including those clear plastic blanks from a CD spool for wheels). It took just a couple hours to build, including glue drying time. This one worked pretty well, but we'll have to try some different wheels to see if we can get a straight drive.

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Fast Kites from Tyvek House Wrap

By Kevin Kelly September 21, 2007 | 4:06:12 PMCategories: How-To, Outdoor Activities, Toys

It’s shocking how many different ways you can make a kite, and how many different materials you can use to build it. It is also shocking how destructive a strong wind can be to any form or material. Design is key for a kite’s success.

The other day I met with a group of friends to build some large experimental kites in one day. The goal was to explore the virtues and challenges of building more with less (material). Our host and kitemaster was Saul Griffith, who conducted the day from his outpost at control tower of the old Alameda Naval base airport.

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Saul shares his space with Squid Labs and the Instructable crew. They have a large room chock full of supplies, tools, and attitude. You need a heavy duty sewing machine, a hot fabric cutting knife, or some carbon fiber rod? They got it on hand.

Our assignment was to create five large kites very fast and fly them the next day at the Family Day Kite Festival at the Marina in San Francisco. We had five groups of four novices, and after an hour of kite history, we had chosen a rough design and started making.