Electronics, Tech, Software, Hardware… and anything else that ends up here.
Archive for the ‘DIY’ Category.
I’ve got a project coming up that deals with IR data transmission, so I thought I’d take some time and make a simple IR circuit to prove that I could. This is a very very simple IR Circuit. Basically, it goes as follows. (I’ll get a schematic up here eventually. I haven’t had success actuallly being able to make one… Linux: Still not ready for the Desktop IMO)
A few years back I started to get more nerdy than I had ever been. By more nerdy, I mean that I began to take an interest in a wide variety of things that leaned on the technical and electronic side. I became interested in making, modeling, and very much the “DIY” (Do-It-Yourself) mentality about things. If you haven’t heard of this phenomenon, it’s more of less born out of the desire to be creative and productive. The availability of materials and the lowering of costs has enabled individuals to create things that weren’t practically possible ever before. It’s gained the name “Making”.
Continue reading ‘The garage you’ve always wanted: TechShop Portland’ »
A month from tomorrow is my Birthday. Whenever it comes to a holiday or event that involves some gift receiving on my part, the question inevitably comes “What do you want for _________ ?” And my answer is inevitably “I don’t know…”.
The reality is that I do know, but the things that I want are so far outside of the normal range of affordability that I generally don’t want to bring it up. I don’t want to ask people for an electric car (if such a thing exists in the US – c’mon automakers, get with the program), or a $3000 projector, or a 42″ flat LCD TV, or whatever. Up until 9 months ago, one of the answers was “A new computer”, but having struck a deal with Hykel, my wife I bought a new iMac back in July, and it’s been great. So thankfully I don’t need a new computer. I’m very happy with it.
As the title says, this is a shameless plug. If you don’t know what that is, it’s a common expression that means “I have no excuse for this except my own self-interests. I’m not ashamed of that, but what I’m saying here doesn’t serve a higher cause.” At least that’s what I think it means. Anyway, I need your help… Continue reading ‘Shameless plug for a contest entry’ »
I’ve been looking forward to posting this for weeks, nay months. I would have to say that this project started out as an entirely different project early on. I stumbled across the idea on Paul Stamatiou’s blog. He built a little computer out of a Mini-ITX board and a couple of pieces of plexi-glass. I was pretty amazed at it, and I thought “I would like to do that. That would be cool.” I think as much as I loved the idea of having a NAS,I also wanted a project to do. I enjoy the DIY approach to thing and I love the feeling of accomplishment that comes with it.
After I got married, I wanted my wife to have a better computer. She was using a 2nd-hand windows computer that was pretty under-powered. She barely used it, so it wasn’t really an issue at the time. An opportunity arose and she ended up with a Power Mac that was several years old. It was free, and that was really nice. It was nice for a little while anyway. As her needs became greater, she became more and more frustrated with the unresponsiveness of her machine, I kept searching for a solution.
Enter the Hackint0sh…