DIYs & Mods

In the days of the Cold War, espionage was a big deal. This was back when spy bots didn’t exist and spies relied on obtaining information personally. If you weren’t a spy, you might as well have swallowed cyanide because during the Cold War everyone was a spy. That’s why Brian Dereu wants to cash in on spy-wannabes everywhere. He’s ...

The Duemilanove (meaning “2009” in Italian) is the latest addition to the Arduino line of microcontrollers. It looks like it’s predecessor, the Diecimila, and also shares similar specs with one main subtle difference: the Diecimila has a jumper which is used to select a power source (USB or external power) while the Duemilanove automatically selects the appropriate power supply , ...

Using an ATtiny13 microcontroller and some matrixed LEDs, hacker Randomskk designed a jar full of electronic fireflies. A bulb is picked at random and flashed on one to three times. 255 different patterns are available and the entire thing is powered by a watch battery. Seems like it’d be pretty easy to make your own. What do you think? Weekend ...

Wearing a tuxedo without these cuff links should be a crime. Artist Laura Swingle hand crafts these highly detailed clay Nintendo cartridges in to a variety of jewelery pieces. Laura’s Etsy shop offers a limitless supply of creativity as she is open to taking requests on turning any two games into these cuff links, so long as she can find ...

Found on Science Toy Maker, this water bottle launcher was made by a school teacher looking for some good, clean fun. Apparently it’s quite easy to do and launches 2 liter soda bottles into the air with ease, drenching everyone around with water. Head over to STM for the full build instructions. Link [via]

I have to admit, the last place I ever expected to see a tutorial detailing how to install OS X on a PC would be the Register. But hey, Brian Hurley has a fantastic tutorial for those of you too broke to afford Apple’s hardware. The process is very detailed and is more suited for a long weekend than an ...

Yesterday, the LEGO World event began. To promote the event Leon Krijgsman of Jetix (more X-Men, please) rolled through the streets of Amsterdam in this LEGO Ferrari F1. This automobile is made up of 80,000 LEGO bricks and that’s not counting the LEGO pit crew who maintain it. The event will be held in Zwolle until the 21st and will ...

Not much is known about this massive creation of a spacesuit other than it was made by one Dr. Photon and found on Flickr. It was apparently used for a scene in a short film on MySpace. Either way, we like what we see. Very Planet of the Apes. Link [via]

Jean Shin is pretty cool. First, we saw her bizarre melted wave of vinyl records (we hope no Journey vinyl was used.) Now, we’re taking a look at Jean Shin’s TEXTile, an interactive sculpture that’s comprised of 22,528 recycled keyboard keys that are fashioned in a way to make it appear as a tapestry. At its base is a customized ...

You’re running out of time to come up with an original costume idea for Halloween. Luckily, Kevin at the Craineum’s blog is making a Megaman costume for his son and he’s letting everyone know how it’s done. He’s written up detailed instructions on making your own, for your own kid. Don’t got a kid? You’re not squeezing your ass into ...