UptownMaker

Three-for-one today, because I pretty much didn't touch a computer all weekend.  I need to figure out how to pre-post things. 6.  High resolution dislpays As Apple has famously pointed out , our eyes are capable of absorbing much greater detail than digital systems typically provide them with.  "Normal" vision (ie., not SEVERELY color-blind, or capable of being corrected to 20/20 with reasonable glasses/contacts) allows for a tremendous data density in a small package, and displays are finally starting to catch up with that. 7.  Gaming as a force for good Some folks out there have finally recognized that the competitive spirit can be harnessed for good- from MMOs like WoW being used as economic microcosms and social fishtanks to competitions in neighborhoods to reduce power consumption. 8.  The local food movement This is a fave of mine, because it means that it's now possible to buy locally grown food direct from the farmer at prices comparable to t...

So, in keeping with our ethic of keeping our food as close to home as possible, Beth and I elected to put together a bit of a garden this year. Rather than do it on the ground, as is more usual, I built some boxes up on stilts. Being the ever-resourceful scrap hound that I am, I found some really good sources for the material to make these boxes: My work was clearing out a part of the factory and disposed of a demo dumpster FULL of various types of wood scrap. The bottoms of all the boxes came from some old shipping crates we no longer had a need for- they are rough-grade 1/2" plywood with a 2"x4" frame around the edge and one 2"x4" across the middle for extra support. 3'x4', pre-cut. Saved me a lot of effort and basically made the whole thing feasible. The legs are largely made from scrap I found on the side of the road. Someone had done some concrete work and left the wood on the roadside for anyone to pick up. Warning: wood used for a concrete ...

Two-fer today, to make up for yesterday. I wish I could get it together and post daily. The first is a simple Jacob's ladder. I've always wanted one of these and it's an affront to my tinkering nature that more than 10 years after I started into electronics, I still haven't made one up. The second is a raised garden bed for my vegetable garden. We'll be moving next week (eep!) and I have no interest in tilling up a large patch of yard in a rental property, and I'll need to buy some kind of soil to make it support plants anyway (there's little chance of success in the area I'll be living in without doing so, due to the advanced age of the neighborhood), so I'm thinking I'll build beds on legs, about two feet high and four feet by eight feet. I figure that'll make it easy to work them, and you should be able to reach the middle pretty easily. Good drainage, etc. My company has a demo dumpster FULL of old shipping crates made of 1/2" p...