Category: Geek

When I first saw this headline, I thought that maybe it was a computer worm that had been turned into music. But they’re talking about an earth worm, playing a circuit-bent PCB, as it writhes around on top of it. As someone in the comments points out, given the mucusy wetness of a worm, while good for conductivity, might make this “hack” torturous for our little invertebrate friend. It’s shown being released back into the yard when its gig is over, but it might have been quite the shocking adventure. “Oh, PETA…?”

Another day, another cool steampunk hack. This one is a scratch-built USB mouse fashioned from scrounged brass parts, wire, little bits o’ fluff, and lots of great Victorian bluster.

[Via Brass Goggles]

A guitar builder from Baltimore, Jeff Ritzmann, saw our piece on Jake’s clockwork guitar and submitted some pics of his own steampunky creation, a modded Rhodes Jackson V. He’s putting it up for auction on eBay this Sunday. To demonstrate that it still plays, he kicks out the jams (MFers) on YouTube.

More pics after the jump…

Thanks, Jeff!

Our favorite geek watch emporium, TokyoFlash, has redesigned their website and added some new watches, including this wrist-band-based one, which seems particularly challenging to decipher, but maybe not as much as the JLr7, which you have to see to believe.

BTW: Did folks here see the reference to Tokyo Flash on 30 Rock? A geek in the building had something called (I think): The Japanese Pie Slice Watch (or something to that effect). Tiny Fey asks him what time it is and he has to mull it over for a while and then says, hesitantly, “I… think it’s…” [whatever time he said]. Made me laugh ’cause everybody with a TokyoFlash has a lot of figurin’ to do, when asked for the time.

BTW 2.0: I have a short piece on TokyoFlash in the latest MAKE, Vol. 9, called “Tokyo Time Hackers.”

This month’s Dorkbot DC will be held tomorrow night, Tuesday, at Artomatic, the massive DC art orgy holed up on several floors of an office building in Crystal City (hit the Dorkbot DC link for details and directions.

This month’s speakers include Tim Tate. No, not Street Tech’s Tim Tate, DC’s Tim Tate, an amazing glass artist who incorporates tiny vid screens, LEDs, found objects, and other cool stuff into his blown glass creations. Really gorgeous work, and one of the best things at this year’s event (so don’t worry OUR Tim Tate, he’s cool enough to dopplegang the name). Peter Blasser will also be presenting. We’ve covered Peter’s work before. He’s the crazy bugger responsible for the Fyrall Computer and other mad circuit-bends. Jack Whitsitt will also be talking about art in Second Life. AfterDork will meet up in the Artomatic Bar afterwards. Should be a wonderful program.

At Apple, even the swag packaging is pretentious! And the Applecore cares enough to lovingly detail the unboxing of a freakin’ Apple Store T-shirt. Now, we’re all for good design and smart packaging here at Street Tech, and we admit to several swoony Apple “out-of-box” experiences ourselvees, but this IS a bit on the obsessive side, don’t ya think?

You may have seen this on MAKEzine already, but it was too freakin’ cool to pass up. This guy in the Netherlands is selling a kit that turns the X and Y inputs of your oscilloscope into a clock. The kit uses the AtMega8515 microcontroller. It sounds like you can use it either on a scope that’s in active use, or an old one that you want to dedicate as a clock. I laughed at the idea of dedicating a working oscilloscope to a clock (I don’t even have my first scope yet, let alone one lying around!), but a quick peak at eBay shows a few old banged up (but working and cool-looking) models in the US$40-60 range. The clock kit costs $92 (69 EUR).

Last week, I got my copy of Recording The Beatles, a new magnum opus from Curvebender Publishing. I’m doing a review of it for MAKE Vol. 11.

I cannot begin to tell you how off-the-hook amazing this thing is. I was so excited by it, my hands were sweating when I first cracked it open. The “out of box experience” is intense. First off, it weighs a freakin’ TON. It’s oversized, hardbound, 540 pages long. It comes in a thick card slipcase, modeled on a ’60s reel to reel master tape box. Besides the book, you get all sorts of nifty goodies, like copies of B&W snapshots of the Fab Four and their engineers in the studio, a two-sided repro of the lyric sheet for “A Day in the Life,” a postcard to “The Beatles Band” from George Martin on vacation, a poster of the control surface of the main mixing board at EMI Studios, and other misc. stuff.

Inside the 11-pound wonder, you travel deep, deep into the minutia of the recording process. The book has detailed specs and photos of nearly ever bit of hardware used at Abbey Road from the mics to all of the tape machines and mixing consoles, the effects gear, the speaker systems, the studio instruments, the echo chambers, everything. The recording section goes through things like the Effects, how they were created, how they were used, what tracks they were used on, etc. There are even sidebar charts listing the tracks and the timecodes, so you can cue up the track to the place where various effects were employed. There are gorgeous photos throughout, even floorplans of Abbey Road and each of the studios within.

Another day, another brilliant Ben Heck hack, this time a very cool, sleek little Atari portable. Unlike many of Ben’s hacks, which are one or two of a kind, he’s thinking about etching a PCB for this one and selling ’em, for around US$300 each, with with trade-in of an Atari 2600 4-switch. Not bad. Also unlike previous projects, which are more conversation pieces than practical gaming systems, this one looks pretty usable. Look, the “giant” game cart forms a nice sun/bright light shade.

Ever since drooling over Todd Lappin’s crazy control panels and industrial tech home decor, I’ve been itchin’ to see what’s for sale in the Cape Canaveral cast-off showrooms of America. Of course, there’s always the legendary Black Hole in Los Alamos, which I’d love to visit one day. But the next time I’m in Hollyweird, I’m going to let my plastic do the talkin’ at Norton Sales, Inc. in North Hollywood. They have rocket parts from all of your favorite makes and models: Atlas, Apollo, Gemini, Titan, Thiokol, Reaction Motors, ABMA-JPL. Oh please, tell me we get to kick the thrust chambers and exhaust bells on the lot! For your more down to earth industrial applications, they have lots of used hydraulics, flow values, hosing, regulators, pumps, etc. It looks like an amazing place in which to get lost.

[Via /.]