Cool Contest Prizes
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If you are on the road or at the office and just remembered that you forgot to feed the cats what do you do? Drive home and feed them right? Well if you are Mathew Newton you can use your phone or your work computer to feed the animals. This Internet Enabled Cat Feeder project would have been a good addition to the contest that Cisco was running a while back! Via: TechEBlog "In order to facilitate remote control of the dispenser (i.e. to allow user-driven operation rather than leaving it to a timer and the associated drawbacks this could create) I had to somehow connect the motor directly to the network, or a locally-sited PC. I dropped the latter idea because I didn’t really want a dedicated PC sat alongside it… particularly in the kitchen. (Okay, I admit, I would’ve been quite happy but my girlfriend on the other hand…!) Besides which, before this cat feeder project came charging in I was (and indeed still am because of this!) in the final stages of studying for the Cisco CCNA qualification and whilst sat there wondering why mutli-channel Ethernet relays cost so much (e.g. this one for £249) it dawned on me that if I could tap in to the port status LEDs on an old Cisco switch then I’d have a multi-port network-enabled relay interface for next to nothing! " |
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Lenovo wanted to prove that their Laptops are very tough. The laptops feature full metal frame, shockproof hard drive protection and a spillproof keyboard. What better way of proving how durable they are then to install them on busses that are on their way to a Lenovo event. These seats are actually functional however they are obviously not just normal laptops bolted to the wall. The keyboard is the same keyboard from the laptop allowing you to have a seat or surf the web! Via: Gizmodo "On the occasion of ‘Lenovo Live 2008′ they turned existing folding seats in those busses and trams into notebooks with a real key- and touchpad. Thus the product promise could be experienced with all senses before arriving at the event." |
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Thanks to t0n10 from Poland for sending in this cool project tip. Often bigger isn’t better, but when it comes to binary clocks. Bigger is definitely better! Have a look at the massive binary clock that the guys at Wroclaws Technology University made. |
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If your holiday festivities are lacking some flashing LEDs then you have to look at the latest project that our friend Ian from Dangerous Prototypes has made. It’s a circuit board LED Christmas tree Ornament! "Holiday cards that blink and beep have always fascinated us. This is our hackable DIY version, made with an ATtiny13A and a few LEDs. Push the button to play a short light show in the tree. We’re sending these to friends and family this year. It’s a handmade, hackable gift, and it was a ton of fun to build." 
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Keith Chester is going to be putting on a AVR Micro Controller Class on December 12, 2009. If you are in the area (see below) and want to learn a bit, check it out! "FUBAR Labs and Hive 76 - a New Jersey and Philadelphia hackerspace, respectively, are teaming up to provide an introduction to AVR micro controllers class. Both groups are non profit and ALL proceeds go to both groups. The class comes with all the hardware you need to begin developing your own micro controller projects and several sensors, allowing you to make real-world interactive projects immediately after the course is done! The class will last three hours. Included in the kit:
So, you’ll be going home with roughly $60 in parts.. all yours for the hacking."
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Manekinen from Poland send in some of his interesting projects. If you are wanting to play a great computer prank on someone this Automatic Caps Lock Circuit is sure to fit the bill. It automatically "presses" the caps lock button ever now and then! I can just imagine the frustration it would cause in your typical office. I probably hit the caps lock button 3 or 4 times a day by accident, I would think the user would just think they are having an exceptionally bad day for hitting the button.
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