We have all seen the Popsicle stick bridges that can hold some heavy weights. This cardboard tube bridge takes bridge building to the next level!

“Weighing 7.5 tonnes, the bridge is made from 281 cardboard tubes, each 11.5 centimetres (four inches) across and 11.9 millimetres thick. The steps are recycled paper and plastic and the foundations wooden boxes packed with sand. Balloons filled with 1.5 tonnes of water were used to test its resistance, said Ban’s assistant Marc Ferrand. ”

Via: Geekologie

Click To Play

Phil Torrone from Make Magazine and Limor Fried from Adafruit Industries presented a fantastic keynote at OSCON (O’Reilly Open Source Convention). The video is about an hour long but it is worth it.

Here are some links to a few item mentioned.
RepRap - 3D Printer
WRT54G - Linksys Router
Chumby
Botanicalls
Open Prosthetics Project
Arduino
Roomba
Make Store

“Open source hardware is a term slowly working its way into many new projects and efforts, but what is it? There are a few definitions, some of which come from “open source software,” which is usually considered software’s “source code under a license (or arrangement such as the public domain) that permits users to study, change, and improve the software, and to redistribute it in modified or unmodified form.” So how does this translate to hardware? This session will focus on electronic hardware, the layers they can be divided into, different document types, licensing concerns, and a show-n-tell of hardware. From the O’Reilly Media Open Source Convention, July 27 2007″

This steam punk watch is functional and is guaranteed to attract some attention. It looks like you may only want to wear it for a few hours at a time though…

Thanks Toshiki

Aleksei Stevens has created SoundBall, a ball that can detect if it is being spun or kicked, it then plays sounds depending on what just happened. I can see this being great fun for kids, also why not install an accelerometer in the soccer ball that is used for TV games and display how hard the ball was kicked?
Via: Crave

Sorry for the delay in selecting and announcing the winner of the comment contest. The winner of the ThinkGeek gift certificate is Mr. Maigo, comment #4 on the USB Controlled Traffic Light Status Indicator article. Congratulation on winning Mr. Maigo and thanks to all who participated.

“ThinkGeek started as an idea. A simple idea to create and sell stuff that would appeal to the thousands of people out there who were on the front line and in the trenches as the Internet was forged. From programmers, engineers, students, lovers of open source, to the masses that helped create the behind-the-scenes Internet culture. ThinkGeek started as a way to serve a market that was passionate about technology.”

Below is an example of a cool geek item that you could get with the gift certificate. What would you get with $50 to spend?

Morte Moya has created some neat NES gadgets. First he created an MP3 player from a NES controller. The next logical step was to make a speaker system from a NES game cartridge. What could be next?

Video after the jump.

“Some of you may have seen my NES Controller MP3 player. This is a companion project for it. I sometimes like to sit around and listen to music so I made these powered speakers. And since it was to go with the NES controller I made it in a NES cartridge.

Now before you even read any further. These are not really loud. Just so you know. They are great for sitting at your desk, but you would not want to have them as music for a party or anything. Now you could make a larger more powerful amp, but I didn’t. Just FYI.”

(more…)

Congratulation to winner of the last contest.

The prize this week is a mini tripod, have fun snapping pictures of your latest hack with it.

This contest will run for this weekend only (July 28 - 29, 2007) . To enter, identify the item pictured above and give an example of what can be done with it. Please do not give the answer in the comments.

Send an email to contest @ hackedgadgets.com with “Name the Thing Contest” as the subject, and the message body consisting of:
* The name of the item in the above picture
* An example of what the item pictured above can be used for

The winner will be chosen at random from all of the correct entries.

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Added July 31, 2007

Thanks to all who entered.
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Below is a pictures of the prize.