the pilgrim

This is one of the more elaborate mods on an SK-1 that I've seen to date. AND it comes in a suitcase.

diy revolution

There was a really interesting post on the Make blog the other day by Johnny Lee. He argues that the resources and equipment for the diy community have improved in quality so much so that it has somewhat leveled the playing field for hobbyists and professionals:

"Take 10,000 professional engineers vs. 1 million hobbyists with roughly equivalent tools. Which group will make progress faster? Now, consider that you have to pay the 10,000 engineers $100K/year to motivate them to work, and the 1 million hobbyists are working for the love of it. Does that change your answer? Even if it doesn’t, you have to concede that there does exist a ratio that will make the output of these two groups equal. It’s merely a matter of time."

Check out the entire post here.

Outside of the field of electronics, I immediately thought of the community biolab Genspace in Brooklyn. The fact that there is a growing community of amateur biologists concurrently tackling scientific research and teaching kids how to cut DNA in a non-academic setting is pretty mind-blowing.

1983

Robots that will flirt with you? Hmm...

a. magic pulsewave electronics

I have been internet-stalking this guy for a minute - not only for his creative use of DIY electronics but also for the beautiful casing designs. He even includes schematics on his blog for some of his creations. Kudos!

Check out his blog here. And you can buy his handmade gear on Etsy here.

arduino love

I've seen the future, and it involves arduinos. This clever little open-source microcontroller has gone from powering LEDs and robots to large-scale museum installations.

And now this...



NYC Resistor is holding a class on arduinos this Saturday with all of the proceeds going to the Japan Society's earthquake relief fund. If you ever wanted to build an arduino for a good cause, here's your chance: Arduino 101.