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diy

A collection of:

DIY, home projects, how to etc   

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davidsundin   

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Vi Hart and More Fun with Fibonacci, Plants, and “Spiraly Things”


MAKE 28 Jan 2012, 8:30 am CET

Here are parts two and three of Vi Hart’s brilliant and dizzying exploration of the Fibonacci number, plant growth patterns, and the mathematics behind other cool, spiraly things.

More: Spirals, Fibonacci, and Being a Plant

Update Your Resume and Get a (Better) Job This Weekend


Lifehacker: Top 28 Jan 2012, 2:00 am CET

You're probably heard too many times to count that "in this economy, you should be happy to have any job at all." Perhaps that's true, but that doesn't mean you can't try to find something better if you hate the job you've got. Here are a few things you can do this weekend to prepare to make a positive shift in your work life. More »

This Week’s Most Popular Posts: January 21-27


Lifehacker: Top 28 Jan 2012, 12:30 am CET

This week we learned a few simple ways to avoid the extreme negative effects of long days in your office chair, got more from the long press shortcut on the iPhone, dabbled in a new operating system, and more. Here's a look back. More »

NEWS FROM THE FUTURE – Drone Pilot Discovers “River of Meat Blood”


MAKE 28 Jan 2012, 12:00 am CET

News From The Future-2

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Drone Pilot Discovers River of Meat Blood

A Dallas drone hobbyist was flying his rig around one bright Texan afternoon, scouting the skies, when he hovered across something perturbing: an enormous, oozing river of blood behind a meatpacking plant.

Pt 353-1

This was one of our predictions for 2012, not the rivers of blood, but drones being used by “citizen journalists” more and more – I think this is a good example, even if accidental. My friend Johngineer posted up a great list of “The future of Drones”.

Powder Room by JANEJIRA


IKEA Hackers 27 Jan 2012, 10:33 pm CET

Materials: kitchen cabinet Description: Get the expensive floating vanity look without paying high dollars! I used the kitchen cabinet here, and installed sideways. Best of all, I found the cabinet and doors on the clearance section, so I paid something like $20 for the whole vanity! The handle was a leftover from a kitchen project. Click to read the rest of the post >>

Keep It Weird: The Unmentionables


The Etsy Blog 27 Jan 2012, 10:32 pm CET

Photo by entropies

mtraub

For most of the year, intimate apparel is just that — bits of soft cotton and silk just for you. Smoothing and supporting, underwear serves as the ultimate in discrete infrastructure. But needless to say, when Saint Valentine rolls into town, catalogs of cross-abdominal leather straps and chafing peek-a-boo lace seem to breed on our doorsteps. I say, keep the diamonds out of my nether-regions, and let me snack on some thong cookies in the comfort of my birthday suit.

SugarLaneBakeShop

Underwear Sugar Cookies

ChipmunkCheeks

Bigfoot, flowers and panties

Check out the Related Items below for granny-panty-sized inspiration.

More Keep It Weird Posts

Cross-Stitched Hand Warmer


Instructables: exploring - featured 27 Jan 2012, 10:16 pm CET

These simple hand warmers are easy to make, and they really do keep your hands toasty warm! They are a perfect way to show your love to someone this Valentine's Day! You will need: Wool felt Embroidery floss Rice Prepare Felt and Embroider For each hand warmer, cut a piece of felt measuring 4 x ... By: molliejohanson Continue Reading »

Fused Filament Printing with Water-Soluble Support


MAKE 27 Jan 2012, 10:00 pm CET

Veteran Thingiverse user Tony Buser has printed a model (intended to be an approximation of the fractal Hilbert curve) using polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as a support material. Once everything is printed and cooled, the PVA is dissolved away in a glass of water, leaving only the polylactic acid (PLA) model. This technique, when perfected, should allow RepRap-style FFF printers to produce objects with overhanging parts that are currently very difficult, or impossible, for them to print. Tony used two of MakerBot’s Mk7 extruders mounted on a Thing-o-Matic.

How to Know When You're Wrong (and What You Can Do About It)


Lifehacker: Top 27 Jan 2012, 9:00 pm CET

We've all met a person who is always right, and we know how annoying they can be because they're often wrong. There's little that's more annoying than arguing with somebody who is clearly mistaken but won't admit it. The problem is, sometimes we're the one in the wrong and we don't realize it. Everyone has the capacity to become stubborn and unyielding, but also to notice when that happens and stop. Here's what you can do to recognize and admit fault when it is your own. More »

Ledswax


IKEA Hackers 27 Jan 2012, 8:25 pm CET

Materials: 100% IKEA Description: This is the first try out of a new combination of Leds and a candle light all based on Ikea materials. Click to read the rest of the post >>

Ponoko + Arduino = DIY MIDI controller framework


Ponoko - Blog 27 Jan 2012, 8:08 pm CET

Fantastic tutorial on how to build your own custom designs

Digital music production tools are so powerful these days that it seems you can compose and perform just about any kind of music entirely on a laptop. One of the weak points of digital production though is the physical interface: it’s hard to be expressive when you’re pushing your finger around a trackpad. You can have a lot more control if you have a few physical knobs and sliders and buttons. Enter the generic MIDI controller. MIDI controllers are a popular DIY project as they are relatively basic: a suite of buttons and knobs wired to some kind of controller and mounted in a case. Instructables user Fuzzy Wobble has put together a fantastic tutorial on how to build your own MIDI controller. His approach is clean and affordable, using Ponoko’s laser-cutting service for the panels, and an Arduino-clone for the controller. Best of all, the tutorial is not just about how to build one unit, rather he aims to show you how to design your own custom controller. He’s obviously a big fan of his Personal Factory, and his designs are gorgeous.

Posted in Ponoko News by Rich Decibels | No Comments

Snowflake Cutout Tank


Instructables: exploring - featured 27 Jan 2012, 8:06 pm CET

See the original tutorial on my blog, www.honeybearlane.com Materials You will need a tank top with wide straps like shown.  You will also need about a fat quarter of fabric.  Cotton, preferably.  Last you will need fusible interfacing and thread in the color of your choice. First start by ir... By: honeybearlane Continue Reading »

Steel Tube Chimes For Kids


Instructables: exploring - featured 27 Jan 2012, 7:58 pm CET

I've been building chimes with my Grade 6 students for a few years now and they really are an excellent metal-working project. What i've found with metalwork is that its tough to come up with cool projects that young kids can actually make and have real success with. Most of the typical metal projec... By: stumitch Continue Reading »

A Kids Project That Gives Back


Instructables: exploring - featured 27 Jan 2012, 7:58 pm CET

I've been teaching for 14 years but at only 2 schools. Both of the schools have whats called in our district "inner city" status. This doesn't mean we're in a big city, it means that a significant number of the students are living near the poverty level. Many of the kids come from some pretty impove... By: stumitch Continue Reading »

The Power of Retro Packaging


The Etsy Blog 27 Jan 2012, 7:39 pm CET

Photo by Goodnight Hollow

What is your earliest childhood memory of breakfast cereal? Perhaps your mother refused to buy the sweet stuff, creating an ongoing household battle that ended with you finally convincing her to bring home your first box of Lucky Charms. Maybe your mornings were a race, beating other siblings to the table so that you’d get first dibs on the toy inside the box of Frosted Flakes. In the world of advertising, no tool is more powerful than nostalgia. It’s difficult to measure the impact those cereal boxes made on our childhood brains — a bouncing rabbit, a colorful leprauchaun and a kerchief-wearing tiger greeted us in the morning, powerful symbols that we carry with us in our adult lives.

The cereal box has changed over the years — no longer simply illustrated, they’re visual overload. Filled with excessive messages and graphic flourishes, the product packaging of today does more to irritate than inform the buyer. It’s not always the manufacturer’s fault; packages you see on the shelf today are covered in government-regulated symbols and information. Nutrition facts, recycling symbols, and product warnings are packaging components that have been mandated by the FDA over the past 30 years. It’s hard to imagine a time when a bottle of root beer wasn’t covered in calorie and sugar counts.

Over the past few years, many companies are returning to their roots, reviving a retro aesthetic that plays at our childhood heart strings. PepsiCo, for example, released their throwback soda cans with designs that hearken to the companies’ ’70s and ’80s branding. General Mills also jumped into the time machine, releasing retro versions of Trix, Wheaties and Golden Grahams. When Doritos brought back their taco flavored chips from 30 years ago, the packaging came with it; the bag is a complete replica of what you remember from childhood. The throwback was so successful, the taco chips are now part of their permanent line-up. While these companies say their move toward retro packaging is a way of reconnecting customers with their childhood, they’re actually feeling the threat of the rise of private-label products, better known as off-brands. For example the new, clean branding of Walgreen’s Nice! brand visually jumps off the shelf, its simplicity standing out among a barrage of noisy products.

“Today’s moms are in their 20s, 30s, 40s, and ’70s packaging is what they remember,” said Amy Clark, director of snack marketing for Hostess, in a Wall Street Journal article. But that’s the problem — so much of breakfast cereal is for kids. Targeting the design of a cereal box to adults seems counterintuitive, a problem that Allan Peters on The Dieline recognized when General Mills deployed their retro cereal design. “Since most of these breakfast cereals are aimed at children, I wonder if their effectiveness will be lost on today’s youth. Are the kids of today’s ADD generation secretly fans of mid-century retro design?”

Now, new companies are turning to retro packaging to create history; recently established boutique and niche brands are dipping into the retro look, giving off the impression of a long-established product. An article in The Atlantic outlines how bath and beauty items are the most common targets for retro packaging, often skewing to an Art Deco aesthetic. Illustrator Daniel Pelavin recently took direct inspiration from old French soap labels when creating the packaging for a new line of products. Design historian and author Steve Heller finds nothing creative in such an exercise: “Such direct replication is like cultural or commercial grave robbing, in a way.”

Often we look at the past with rose-tinted glasses. “They don’t make ‘em like they used to,” we say while faced with contemporary products that don’t stand up against the tried-and-true brands of the past. Retro packaging reminds us of simpler, wholesome times, before fears of additives and unpronounceable preservatives  played into our daily lives. Companies may unfairly play to our yearning for simpler days, but it is often much more pleasing to the eye, a refreshing simplicity that is nowhere to be found in today’s message-laden boxes.

Scientists, hobbyists, and entrepreneurs: five fresh interviews from 2011


Ponoko - Blog 27 Jan 2012, 7:39 pm CET

Best of the Blog – Interviews, Thoughts & Opinions Here’s five of my favourite interviews from 2011: we’re talking printed organs, education, DIY, hobby printing, and the future of connectivity. Kick back and tune in!

3D printing organs

PopTech talks to Dr. Gabor Forgac, founder of Organovo, a company that sells “the world’s only commercial bioprinter proven to create tissue.”

What happens when you turn a middle school library into a hackerspace?

This guest article from Thomas Maillioux is a great story about what happens when you mix teaching with tinkering.

DIY in action at MIT

Ponoko co-founder Derek Elley talks DIY at an MIT symposium.

Rick Pollack from MakerGear

Rick Pollack, a pioneer in the hobby 3D printing market, talks to Derek Quenneville about running a maker business.

What happens when everyone and everything becomes connected?

This short film explores how connectivity is set to change our lives in ways never before imagined.

Posted in 3D Printing, Hardware, Interviews, Thoughts + Opinions, Maker Movement, Rich Decibels by Rich Decibels | No Comments

Make a realistic cheese heart


Instructables: exploring - featured 27 Jan 2012, 7:30 pm CET

It's here.  The best valentine's fix for a cheesehead-  the cheese heart.  I created this last year, and it was a major hit.  I think it's good to get away from the cookie-cutter gifting every now and then.  I'm no Troy Landwehr, cheese carver, so this isn't entirely anatomically correct; but you ge... By: dewrell Continue Reading »

How to Build a Lego Computer!


Instructables: exploring - featured 27 Jan 2012, 7:27 pm CET

Peace is a lie, there is only passion. Through passion, I gain strength. Through strength, I gain power. Through power, I gain victory. Through building a Lego computer, I gain hours and hours basement of sitting in a basement (lol) Welcome to the Lego computer build instructable!  Through this tut... By: greenyouse Continue Reading »

What to Write Down During a Class Lecture


Lifehacker: Top 27 Jan 2012, 6:30 pm CET

Your professor says an awful lot of things during class. You can't possibly write it all down, nor should you. To take the best notes (and ace your exams), pay attention to your professor's cues—conscious and subconscious. More »
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