Quickie: Weekly

Google Talk - Hack...

OK, here's the actual Google Talk client. It's pretty nice, does IM, can email contacts very quickly (Gmail) and the VOIP feature is crystal clear. The freaky part- Google Talk uses the same voice technology as Skype it seems, but uses an open standard for IM. I'm working on a way to record for podcasts, we'll see how that goes...You can get the Google Talk client for PCs here HACK: The play numbers on the about screen translate to, "wumpusgame"... so, "play wumpusgame" If you invite wumpus.game@gmail.com and IM that user, "play" you can play 'HUNT THE WUMPUS'

Puzzle of the Month: Popular Science, April 1960

Mark posted a fun puzzle from the April 1960 issue of Popular Science. Head on over to BoingBoing and solve it- it would be great to have a BOTHACKER solve it first! Link.

HOW TO make a desktop Line Following Robot

Cute project - Recently many kind of robot contests have being opened and some interesting reports of the challenge are found on the web. The Line Following is a kind of the robot contests to vie running speed on the line. I build a tiny line following robot which can run on the desk, moving the key board aside will do. It is for only a personal toy reduced its size less than one fifth compared to typical line following robots, not in formura. Link.

Geoblogging audio and video...

Rev Dan Catt is up to some neat stuff - In much the same way you can add audio (.mp3) and video (.mov) links. Geobloggers places audio and video in enclosure tags in its RSS and geoRSS feeds, making it possible to easily use geobloggers to create your own Podcasting feeds. Needless to say this turns PodCasting sideways. You don't need to subscribe to single users or site, you can subscribe to an area around your home, regardless of who the podcaster is. Same of course applies to Video, again a How To is coming up. All this throws out to Google Earth, CSV and normal RSS too. Link.

HOW TO Broadcast MP3's, Podcasts and other audio over Google Talk

Yes, it is possible to broadcast music, MP3's, Podcasts, etc. from your itunes, computer cd or whatever. Don't limit yourself to a boring microphone... share your music! Link.

HOW TO build a Permanent magnet generator...(power from wind)

Wouter writes "...an excellent, 49-page step-by-step how-to with photos on how to make your own pancake generator. It shows how to make jigs, a winding tool etc. The site also contains PDF's on how to make your own generator blades. Mr. Piggot is an enthusiastic wind generator man who's not afraid to share his extensive knowledge. More power to him". Link (PDF).

iPod scrubs. Animations for your iPod Photo and HOW TOs!

Digital artists and animators using applications such as Maya, or even Flash, can test their animations by “scrubbing” the playhead backwards and forwards on the timeline. A podscrub takes the same mechanism and applies it to the functionality of an iPod. The playhead is your finger and the clickwheel is the timeline. Simple as that. Link.

The Packet Sniffers - Maker friendly web show!

...a web based TV show that showcases technology and other things of geek interest. Episode 4 covers automotive technology - Laptop stand for your car, Zach explains EFI, Bumper mounted video camera, Zach's Axiom Industrial Computer, ECU & the body computer, Retrieving trouble codes from your ECU - 3 key turn method, Zach rants about auto tech, Commodore - aka Holden Automotive, ECU modding tools, OBD Scan Tools - what are they?, Scantool.net OBDII scan tool and Digimoto software, DIY EFI - Mega Squirt, Remote Keyless Entry - how it works (KeeLOQ) Extending the range of your RKE. Link.

HOW TO Integrate Google Talk with Google Sidebar

Nice HOW TO if you use Google Sidebar and Talk...After you install both Google Talk and Google Sidebar, you can select an option to integrate Talk into the Sidebar. (Then you can dock it to the side of your screen.) Do you think Windows is slowly becoming a bunch of device drivers to run Google apps on?... [via] Link.

Add A9 images on Googlemaps!

This is one of my new favorite google map hacks - Why not take A9 Local images and insert them into Google Maps search results? (A9 Local images are storefront snapshots - taken by Amazon's A9.com - of 15 major US Cities) How does it work? Greasemonkey lets me inject script into any page (viewed in Firefox), and the script I injected is set up to fetch an Address Search from A9.com, looking for a corresponding image. If an image is found, it's displayed in the "Info Balloon" on Google Maps Link.

Free Hydrogen Generator Plan with videos

Hydroman writes "You might say I am a shade-tree scientist. I am doing a research and development project of my own. I am making hydrogen from beer cans, water and sodium hydroxide. Visit my website to see the plans, watch the videos and leave comments in the forum. I had a lot of fun making the videos. This is an opensource project. Join in the fun!" Link.

HOW TO conference call with Google Talk

Open up a copy of google talk on all computers with which you wish to conference. After one copy is opened make a new shortcut for google talk but at the end of it add /nomutex. If you installed it to the default folder then your shortcut should read "C:\Program Files\Google\Google Talk\googletalk.exe" /nomutex. Open 2 instances of the software on every user's computer. After this start a chain: User 1 should connect on one instance to user 2. User 2 will connect on his second instance to user 3. User 3 will connect using his second instance back to user 1. With this chain everyone is connected to everyone. [via] Link. Or install Skype.

HOW TO Water-cool your PC

Two parts water, one part coolant, and one part guts are all it takes to water-cool your PC. It may seem a little extreme for a garden-variety desktop, but if your CPU runs hot or you've overclocked parts of your system, nothing beats the cooling power of classic H2O. Water conducts heat far better than air, and you don't have to be a turbogeek to perform the conversion. Modern kits make installation little more challenging than swapping a fan or a heat sink. [via] Link.

HOW TO strip down your computer for playing games

Turn that old Win machine in to a gamer box - This article describes how to use a clean boot to start your Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Me), or Microsoft Windows 98-based computer. When you use a clean boot to start your computer, Microsoft Windows loads only basic devices and services when it starts. [via] Link.

Die Dulci Fruere