While serendipity searching today, I bumped into the rather Giger-esque sculptures of French artist Pierre Matter. Here are the Open Gallery pages of his work, and here’s a page of photos on Knutz.net
Amazing Bio-Mech Art by Pierre Matter
Das Blinkenrack
Like many a geek, I become strangely enthused around rack-mounted gear festooned with lots of lights, toggle switches, buttons, and displays. Make those displays analog, needle gauges and… I need some time alone. So I was thrilled to discover the Flickr Control Panel Pool, and to see my old pal Todd Lappin right there in the middle of things. His Living Room Media Rack is awesome. Love his incorporation of the ThinkGeek TIX LED Clock (Top Right).
After his Control Panel set, check out his Project Precita set chronicling his house renovation/re-decoration using lots of recycled laboratory, industrial, and safety materials. Very inspiring. I wish I had the time, money, and energy to make my house into such a unique and cool piece of livable art.
[Via Boing Boing]
Chris Anderson’s LEGO NXT Autopilot
Chris Anderson, the big hat at Wired, has been pursuing some fun geekery on his blog, The Long Tail. He wants to start a 3D Robotics League, and in that vein has launched a project to build an under US$1,000 UAV. As part of that, last night, he bodged up a prototype of a LEGO NXT Autopilot using the new Hitechnic Gyro Sensor and a compass sensor. He plans to upgrade the compass to Bluetooth GPS. He may also have to add a ultrasonic sensor to handle landings. Still, pretty freakin’ cool.
In other LEGO Mindstorms NXT news, another builder used the Hitechnic gyro sensor to make an NXT faux Segway. Check out this video.
More iPod Tips and Tricks
Hackszine has an item on a simple way of bringing a “dead” iPod back to life. Certainly worth a try. The piece also has links to several other pieces offering other iPod resuscitation tricks.
How-To: Upgrade or Replace an iPod HD
Command-Tab, a recommended site of “mac geekery,” has an excellent how-to piece on replacing the hard drives on various models of iPods. Includes a list of supported Pods and what HDs will work with them.
Cool NDS Robot Kit
Engadget hipped me to this robot kit that turns your Nintendo DS into the brains of a three-wheeled robotic platform. The kit costs US$100 and comes with three servos, the platform, wheels, battery, cable, and all hardware. You do need the DSerial2 board to connect the servos to your DS. With your RoboDS, you can do things like hook up a webcam so that people can drive it over the Web. The prototype of the bot has been set up this way. You can drive around the builder’s basement, watch other people drive, and chat with other would-be builders. Kits will allegedly be available on April 7th.
Printer Hacks Round-Up (Yee-Haw!)
Printers have always fascinated me. Maybe that’s because I was trained in printing and co-ran a small print shop. So I can relate to that romantic Franklinian idea of the power of “the press.” Now we each have one of these engines of liberty on our freakin’ desktops!
Anyhoo… I’m surprised there aren’t more printer hacks out there. Many of the hacks that have made their way online have been featured on Hack-a-Day. Yesterday, they did a round-up of projects they’ve covered so far and some new ones.
I wish there was a book on printer hacks, but I guess it wouldn’t have a very large audience.
Confessions of a Sprint Sales Rep
The Consumerist continues to coax the confessions out of wireless carrier sales reps, now putting Sprint under the harsh lights, in a room with one table, one chair, and all the time in the world to sift through the guts that get spilled. Highlights:
•Get the Sprint Employee Referral Offer: “Get on the SERO plan! Sprint Employee Referral Offer. It’s a nice little plan designed specifically for friends and family of Sprint employees. They require that you have an email address of a Sprint employee, but that’s simple to get. Remember that business card the sales rep gave you, or should have given you if they’re were good. Take that name and use it, john.x.doe@sprint.com. To see the plans themselves or sign up, go to www.sprint.com/sero ($50/1250 minutes/7pm nights/unlimited vision)”
•Get a big discount for working for a big company (or saying that you do): “Get a discount because you work for the man! Are you an employee of a major organization? Tell Sprint you work for them then! You’ll get anywhere from 7-28% off of your monthly bill. Tip, Chase bank employees get the highest discount (I believe it was 28%). Even if you don’t work there, they don’t ask for proof that you do. ”
Previously, on Street Tech:
Cingular and VerizonRep Tips
T-Mobile Rep Tips
Massive Multi-Screened Displays
At first I thought this was a joke, but it’s not. CineMassive sells multi-screen display systems, from two-screeners to six. They even have portable multi-screen units for mobile computers. This sorta screen real estate don’t come cheap. You could certainly do your own for cheaper, but it wouldn’t have the NORAD charm of this monster. It actually does make me sort of wistful for the time I had a dual display on my desk.
Game Theory Supports Net Neutrality
Fascinating post on Slashdot:
“‘A world without net neutrality is one devoid of intellectual development’ said Sir Tim Berners-Lee in a presentation to congress last week. Well, now there’s a computer model that uses game theory to back that forecast up. Developed at the University of Florida, the model shows that everyone looses if the IPs get their way — even, eventually, the IPs.”