The Tap'd Instructables contest is generating some really cool entries, including this soda-bottle-based herb garden:
Any suggestions on maximum plant size that will work with this much soil space?
Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Instructables | Digg this!
Drawn linked to this fantastic PDF, ”Studies in Pen Art”, a scan of a 1914 pamphlet by William Dennis. It has loads of examples of penmanship and advice on techniques and equipment which is pretty much all relevant today - although not perhaps the emphasis on speed; even a commercial letterer today wouldn’t have to produce work as quickly - producing this kind of lettering by hand would be a project in itself these days and so more time would be devoted to it. Still, we all have deadlines and knowing how to work quickly is never a bad idea. The PDF is available for download from the Drawn page - worth a look.
This interesting art project consists of a computer speech to text loop that continually degrades over time. One machine reads text aloud that is alayzed by another computer which then speaks the text, while the next machine analyzes it and speaks the result as well. The result is printed out in real-time on a nearby printer to keep a record of the conversation. Also see Apple Talk by Jurg Lehni as a reference for this project.
Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Arts | Digg this!
A CD - cereal box spectrometer... Jerry writes -
A simple spectrometer can be built from a CD and a box. Cut a slit on one side of the box. Place the CD on the other side with about 60 degree angle. Look down into the openning on the box. The slit should not be too wide, otherwise the spectrum lines will be blurred. It should not be too narrow either, otherwise the spectrum is too dim. I use a 0.2mm wide slit.
Lovely Fingerprint rings from Camille Hempel via Cool Hunting. Great idea if you're casting your own jewelry!
This papercraft geared heart is so amazing - if anyone has more info about it, I'd love to hear it. The artist's site is here.
Last week marked an important milestone for the "Web as Platform" as the 1,000 API was added to the ProgrammableWeb registry. John Musser (see: Web2.0 Report) started tracking the first few web service API's back in 2005.
How do these 1000 APIs break down by type? The following chart, derived from our database, shows the the top 15 sectors or markets with the greatest number of competing API providers. As you can see there are already 71 mapping-related APIs alone"
Congratulations!
Unsung Geniuses: Florence Thomas of ViewMaster via DnR.
Most fans of the tiny fantasy worlds glimpsed through the lens of a View-Master viewer are probably unaware of the name Florence Thomas. Thomas was the Portland, Oregon sculptor employed by the makers of the 3-D viewer to create miniature dioramas of fairy tales and pop culture scenes which she then photographed for reproduction into the iconic circular white reels that have delighted children and adult collectors for decades.
Thomas produced her first reels for View-Master in 1946 --a series of Fairy Tales and Mother Goose rhymes that are still in circulation. According to one source, Thomas "developed special methods of close-up stereo photography and modeling which is now in common use by major motion picture studios" (John Waldsmith, Stereo Views, 1991). She created scenes of such detail and attractiveness that you feel you could step inside and look around a corner at a complete world
Recently I spoke with Francois Gossieaux of Beeline Labs about the role of online communities in the enterprise. Francois has been evangelizing the learning gained from his recent study “The Tribalization of Business” (see here for the Slideshare presentation).
The interview is broken into three parts. Francois is a great storyteller, bringing case studies in to support nearly every point. Here are a few insights I took away from our conversation:
Community for community’s sake: most businesses begin planning a community with traditional objectives (lower support costs, drive innovation, increase customer loyalty etc.). On the Social Web this is the equivalent of entering a personal relationship with an ulterior motive (which never works out quite right). Businesses should begin with the question, “how can I satisfy the needs of this community?”- and then follow the community’s lead. Be open to the unexpected.
In my experience this is one of the hardest things for companies to get behind and relegates this kind of "enlightened" community effort to either top-level leadership or skunk works development. Middle management is typically the most reluctant to deviate from standard practice and place a bet on community for the community’s sake.
Communities require a social framework to thrive - most companies have a mindset that reflects the legal, contractual and hierarchical underpinnings of their business and carry these behaviors with them into the community. This informs their planning, measurement and how they encourage contribution. These incentives have little sway on the Social Web where the mindset is social and trust, reputation and relationship are big drivers of contribution. As Francois says, “The most successful communities occur when you tap into that social framework”
Consider stories as a success metric: While there is a fair amount in this interview about measurement - this was my favorite: A great anectdote about how one company views the stories that emerge from their community as a key metric of success. Great stories are inherently viral and can have a profound impact on decision making in an organization.
Think Bigger: Most large companies are satisfied to have small communities; basically bringing a focus group online. Doing so misses the potential of the online community to transform your business. Consider how Intuit is now embedding live community directly into their application - allowing users to seek help and get questions answered directly.
Transformative communities blur the lines between company and customer and portend a future where retail ecommerce sites go well beyond ratings and reviews and provide problem solving, shopping mentors, product development and other services directly from the community. Where internet sites are co-evolved (from interface to feature-sets to codebase) in cooperation with community, where complex applications (desktop and cloud-based) meld standard functions with community functions. Communities are certainly helpful in providing feedback on customer behavior but that is just one small part of the story.
Theodore Gray @ PopSci writes -
All the components of glass can be found in two places: the beach and the laundry room. It’s possible to melt pure white-silica beach sand into glass, but only at temperatures of 3,000 to 3,500°F. Washing soda, lime or borax (a traditional laundry aid) added to the sand disrupts the quartz-crystal structure of silica and reduces the required temperature to a more practical, though still dangerous, 2,000°F, which I achieved with a backyard grill and a vacuum cleaner. Glass is thought to have been discovered around 7,000 years ago by Phoenician merchants when cooking fires were built over sand that, by chance, had some of these substances mixed in.Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in DIY Projects | Digg this!
Job Koelewijn's infinity bookcase via Neatorama.
Stormdrane made this beautiful Star Knot by following this tutorial.
Stormdrane's own tutorial for making a Paracord bracelet can be found in the new Make book, The Best of Instructables, reviewed recently by Marc de Vinck and available in the Maker Shed.
Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Crafts | Digg this!The work with sprouting seeds is rinsing them: don't rinse enough and you get really unappetizing mold in with your fresh greens. Here's a solution to that problem that makes your toilet a little less wasteful. In action:
Of course, you have the added benefit of the odd looks you'll receive when you explain that you sprout food in your bathroom!
Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Green | Digg this!
LEDs are in technology all around us, familiar and helpful for sure but you may wonder - Who invented them? How do I use one? Is it possible to make my own LED?!? Learn the answers to these baffling questions and more in - MAKE presents: The LED.
Suscribe to the MAKE podcast for more great movies and videos from MAKE!
Here is a great use for an empty soda can. Just be careful of those extremely sharp edges when working with any thin metal, especially aluminum.
Soft drink cans are easily recyclable as scrap metal, but I fancied trying something a little more direct - a simplified form of tinwork.All that's needed for this project is a strong pair of scissors, a cork-backed table mat, a pointed object (a scriber or just a ballpoint pen), a little bit of tape and some fine abrasive paper. Plus of course an empty aluminium drink can.....
More about How-to: Tin box made from a can [Vintage Glam]
Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in DIY Projects | Digg this!In our previous releases we focused on icons and Wordpress themes; however, there is a variety of further tools that graphic designers need on a regular basis; for instance, vector graphics. You can find dozens of our other releases in our Freebies section.
Every release helps to make the Web a nicer place, which is why we support designers and challenge them to release something for free in order to be featured on Smashing Magazine. And the results are quite often pretty impressive.
Today we are happy to release Swirls, Flowers and Circles, a vector graphics set designed by Pien Duijverman from Netherlands. The vector graphics can be downloaded for free and is available in formats AI (Adobe Illustrator CS3) and EPS (8.0).
You can use the set for all of your projects for free and without any restrictions. You can freely use it for both your private and commercial projects, including software, online services, templates and themes. The icons may not be resold, sublicensed, rented, transferred or otherwise made available for use. Please link to this article if you would like to spread the word.
We are constantly looking for creative designers and artists. You may not know it yet, but we may feature you in one of our upcoming posts.
If you would like to release a free high-quality font, a Wordpress theme, Photoshop brushes, a Drupal theme, some wallpapers or an icon set, please contact us. We would like to support you (both financially and with the broad readership of Smashing Magazine).
Sean sent us this link that describes how to extract essentials oils by steam distillation. Looks like an interesting project to try out. [Thanks Sean]
This is a cool trick for improvising a condenser when you don't have access to proper equipment. It could be used for simple distillation (say, to purify water), or, in the slightly more elaborate set-up pictured here, steam distillation (say, to extract essential oils from plants).
More about DIY steam distillation
Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in DIY Projects | Digg this!
If you're familiar with the audio spotlight, then you now how very awesome narrow beam ultrasonic speaker devices can be. They can project a sound efficiently over long distances without spreading like common speakers. One can essentially walk into the ultrasonic line-of-fire and begin to hear sound abruptly - certainly an interesting effect.
Though not much for documentation & details - this instructable shows off a transducer packed parametric speaker design. Hrmm, it seems the author is selling kits and sharing a good deal of info here. Apparently this setup will introduce a substantial amount of distortion to your signal - ultrasonic audiophiles be warned. - How to make parametric speaker
Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in DIY Projects | Digg this!
Nasco has tons of cool stuff, both fun and icky, from paper masks to preserved pig hearts. I think the range of items they carry is kind of surreal. Lots of disgusting decorating potential here!
Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Halloween | Digg this!
This "Bottle House" created by artist Jasmine Zimmerman is an open-roofed greenhouse made from hundreds of the plastic drink bottles that we use 70 million of everyday. The project will be exhibited in empty lots, rooftops, parks, and vacant buildings in order to spread the word about recycling and reporposing everyday objects in our environment. Pretty cool design that might just be a bit tricky to keep clean.
Jasmine Zimmerman, via Inhabitat
Here's a simple "flood and drain" hydroponics system made from junk.
Expandable Hydroponics System from Junk - Flood and Drain
Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Instructables | Digg this!
Sean Ragan converted his old digital camera to sense infrared light better by changing out a filter in front of the CCD. He has some nice insights into the problems that could arise when doing this type of modification such as filter thickness and cutting one down to size.
Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Photography | Digg this!
In the 1970s British bus driver Ken Fern went back to the land. Twenty-five years later he published the first edition of this now-revised compendium, a catalog and guide to a staggering number of mostly-perennial plants that can be harvested for food and other uses. Literally, thousands of seed, root, fruit, flower and leaf crops from a range of bulbs, trees, shrubs, climbers, bamboos, water plants and more. Beyond climatic needs and appearance, plants are described in terms of their taste and, often, highly-specific use (e.g. Asarum canadense. SNAKE ROOT: "a ginger substitute in flavouring cooked foods."). The index is conveniently broken up into edible uses (like condiments and egg and salt substitutes) and non-edible uses (like basketry, disinfectant, and tooth care); for more, check out 100 Other Uses. And actually, the Plants for a Future web site offers a searchable database of 7,000 plants. While much of the info from the book is available online, the printed format can be easier to parse and digest. There are sections on "green manures" and how to mulch with cardboard boxes or newspaper and straw, as well as how to make a pond. Despite all the ideas and potential outlined in the book, the final chapter, "Future Possibilities," truly emphasizes the magical allure of cultivation and experimentation.
-- Steven Leckart
Plants for a Future:
Edible & Useful Plants for a Healthier World
Ken Pern
2000 (2nd edition), 300 pages
$20
Available from Amazon
More info available from Plants for a Future, including lists of the best 143 plants for edibility and 54 for medicinal uses. --sl
Related Entries: |
There’s some lovely identity and online design work here. I found it via Graphic Exchange, who commented that the presentation style adds to the visual appeal. I have to agree. Identity work is often about the feel and weight of the physical artifacts - the headed paper, folders, envelopes - and a good way to document them is with good macro photography. You can’t feel the paper, but you can see how it might feel.
Anyway, here are some of my favourites - it’s only a very small sample and they’re scaled down quite a bit, so take a look at the full site. The UI of the site is all flash, but it’s a pretty good example of the genre. I like the way the colours change as you move through the work.
Michele created this Star Wars inspired cake depicting a cartoony Han Solo imprisoned in carbonite. Hmm, wonder if that first slice would free him or do him in? - Han Solo frozen in Carbonite [via Neatorama]
Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Crafts | Digg this!
Latency matters. Amazon found every 100ms of latency cost them 1% in sales. Google found an extra .5 seconds in search page generation time dropped traffic by 20%. A broker could lose $4 million in revenues per millisecond if their electronic trading platform is 5 milliseconds behind the competition. How do we recover that which is most meaningful--sales--and build low-latency systems?
