MAKE Archive

  • Insert smiley emoticons hands-free with Auto Smiley

    Insert smiley emoticons hands-free with Auto Smiley

    What would you do with the openFrameworks and an hour to kill? Would you create an application to detect when you're smiling and automatically insert ":)" into whatever program is currently running? Theo Watson did, and called it Auto Smiley! :) He released it as open source! :) We can't possibly have enough smiley icons embedded into our emails and IMs can we? :) I mean, we all spend all day every day smiling maniacally, right? :) :) :)

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  • The coolest clock you’re going to see today: strobing LED hard drive digital clock

    The coolest clock you’re going to see today: strobing LED hard drive digital clock

    Making clocks out of hard drives isn't anything new. The hard drive platters make nice shiny backgrounds for your traditional analog clock, and provides just a little geek panache to an ordinary timepiece. This new strobing LED hard drive digital clock really takes things to the next level, though, as you can see in the video inside.

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  • DIY: It’s a ring on a stick!

    DIY: It’s a ring on a stick!

    So this doesn’t really serve any practical purpose, but it’s definitely cool. One of the frequent contributors to Make just created a captive ring demonstration using an aluminum rod and a lathe. Pretty neat stuff. [via Make]

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  • DIY: Build your own vacuum tube Tesla coil

    DIY: Build your own vacuum tube Tesla coil

    Who doesn't want their own Tesla coil? Particularly if you can get one that isn't incredibly dangerous or expensive to build. Well, this electrical savant built one in the 8th grade using vacuum tubes and a microwave oven transformer.

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