Gadget design, robotics, hacks, DIY technology and more.

Inspired by this commercial product, my girlfriend and I did a small craft with her elementary school class (she is a teacher).

The main goal of this activity was to have the children make something useful by themselves by using everyday household materials and (what normally would be considered as) garbage.

Materials (per child)

• 2 Floppy disks (I got a bunch of disks from the Montreal Freecycle Group)
• 8 sheets of regular paper ( you can use old paper that has been printed on one side)
• a few pipe cleaners

Instructions

1. Print the note pad paper model that is available in PDF or SVG. Make sure this is printed at the original scale. You may need to modify it to fit the margins of your printer.
2. Take all the paper sheets and stack them while making sure they are well aligned together. Put the printed model on top of the stack and fasten everything with paper clips.
3. Cut along the model lines. This should result in 48 small paper squares.
4. Pierce the holes as shown in the model on every sheet.
5. Bind the two floppy disks and the paper by using one (or more) pipe cleaner(s).
6. Admire your creation!

Note: It turns out that the children are quite happy with their note pad and they even use it for taking notes (even if nobody prescribed them to do so).

I finally got the pre-ordered Big Buck Bunny DVD from the Peach Open Movie Project. All the files from the movie are under the CC license and it was done using the very excellent Blender.

As a follow-up to the successful project Orange’s “Elephants Dream”, the Blender Foundation initiated another open movie project. Again a small team (7) of the best 3D artists and developers in the Blender community have been invited to come together to work in Amsterdam from October 2007 until April 2008 on completing a short 3D animation movie. [...]
The Blender Foundation and Blender community have been the main financiers for Peach. As for the previous open movie, a pre-sale campaign to purchase the DVD set in advance will be organized.
- The Peach Open Movie

Now, I’m keeping an eye open for the Apricot Open Game project.

I started building a contraption but I had to stop since I accidentally burned seven LEDs at once. Now, I have to wait until I get the new LEDs I ordered before I can finish. Meanwhile, you can try to guess what it is that I’m building.

My brother was kind enough to be the cameraman for this video.