Sweet Miscellany » tinkering

Making Your Own Kodachrome?

normd — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 14:53:08 +0000

Yesterday BoingBoing posted about this set of photos at Flickr – apparently of a home built machine for creating photographic film. The prospect of hobbyists filling in when industries die is intriguing. Is craft-brew 35mm film in our future?

The processing of Kodachrome is more complicated, but hopefully someone is on that project, somewhere….

Astrolabe

normd — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 07:44:13 +0000

Watching this TED talk made me aware of how rarely I think about the sky. I spend so much time indoors, and even if I go outside at night, it is only to hope in a car and drive somewhere. No looking up.

So, I plan to figure out how to make a simple astrolabe, and try it out sometime in the next few days.

Papercraft iPhone Stand

normd — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 14:28:26 +0000

Found via LifeHacker. I need to check out this site – if there are more videos like this, I am a new fan.

Iphone Paper Dock / Stand from Dessine moi un objet on Vimeo.

Paper Cone Speakers

normd — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 05:22:25 +0000

Need speakers, but all you have are earbuds for your iPod? A wee bit of tape and two sheets of paper are all the materials you need. It took me about ten minutes to make these, and they are at least as loud as the built in speakers on my iPhone.

“Computing” in the Cloud to Alleviate Boredom

normd — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 18:46:04 +0000

Like most American corporations, Windows Vista is the standard issue on the laptops at the company I work for. I won’t go into a rant about it – let’s just say it isn’t what I normally use at home. When I do bring my laptop home so I can work, I sometimes witness a kind of fatigue setting in, beyond my physical or mental exhaustion. The annoyances of the tools start to loom large.

The other evening I had a few hours of work to do that did not require access to the corporate network – so I booted from an Ubuntu live cd. Logging into Salesforce or the other websites I use during my work day. Felt like I had taken a refreshing nap, or shifted to a much more comfortable work chair.

Niche Electronic Gadgets

normd — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 18:23:37 +0000

“Craft electronics, if I may crib a term from the American brewing industry…”
Joel Johnson minted this phrase in an article about the CrunchPad over at boingboing.net.

Interesting comparison really. If small manufacturers can create niche products and sustain themselves, what might the future of our gadget use look like?

Johnson mentions the Chumby. When I saw it at the MakerFaire last year, I was intrigued, but the price was high enough to keep me from following up with a purchase.

I’m inventing, mostly

normd — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 16:21:18 +0000

I needed a way to attach my keys to my backpack. I had a number of these cable clamps cluttering my house, and had started using one of the smaller size ones to attach my keys to things. However, when the clamp was open, the keys and the clamp were likely to become separated. My solution was to drill a small hole in the clamp, thread a pink zip tie through the hole and loop it back through the same hole, then through the ratchet case. The case end is much larger than the hole I drilled, so it won’t pull through. The resulting loop can swivel, and as long as the keyring is attached, the resulting assembly is permanent.

Problem solved in less than five minutes, without epoxy, duct tape or a trip to a store!