Daily Bits

General

Battlestar Galactica PC Mod

by

Here’s another DIY project for you. It may be a tad more complicated than the DIY mobile phone stand I wrote about the other day, but you will not regret looking at these images.

Battlestar Galactica may very well be the best sci-fi TV show ever created, and those who fell in love with it know the emptiness that the end of the show brought. If you think I am exaggerating, go get the DVDs and watch!

So anyway, this guy called Boddaker must have been a hardcore fan, as he created a modified PC set up about three years ago, based on BSG. It may be three years old, but I think staring at the images will never get old. Words will not do his creation any justice, so here, take a look – and have something ready to wipe that drool.

The set up in all its glory.

The most welcome sight for many a pilot in the show – and the stressed out viewers as well.

Ingenious use of the logo.

Roslin’s favorite weapon. This one’s not so deadly and looks prettier, I think.

And how many times did DRADIS give you a near-heart attack while watching the series?

If those images are not enough to satisfy you, here is a video from the creator.

And if you want to give this a try yourself, here are the specs.

  • EVGA nForce 590 SLI motherboard
  • AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ CPU
  • Two EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS graphics cards in SLI
  • 4GB (2x2GB) Crucial Ballistix Tracer Red DDR2 800MHz
  • Cooler Master 850W modular PSU
  • Pioneer slimline slot loading DVD drive
  • Logitech G15 keyboard and G9 mouse
  • IZ3D 22″ 3D monitor
  • Western Digital RaptorX 150GB HD (x2)
  • Swiftech pump, blocks
  • Black Ice Stealth 360 radiator
  • PC Ice clear fluid
  • Primoflex red tubing
  • 10″ LCD
  • 2.5″ LCD (x3)

You can probably one-up this guy simply because of developments in technology, but he will always be the first to execute such a concept.

Via bit-tech

Printing in 3D with Bone

by

3D printing is fast growing in popularity, and while access to 3D printing may not be that prevalent yet, the interest is definitely there. People have been printing all sorts of things in 3D these days – even chess sets! I don’t think there’s anything cooler – as of now – as what Juliana Meira do Valle and Michael Storey have done. Juliana is a DXArts/Art major and Michael is a Mechanical Engineering major. That is a perfect combination for this kind of project, don’t you think?

Basically, they decided to make meal to use as material for 3D printing. With this meal, they printed out, well, bones. How did they do it? They had two recipes for the bone meal.

Initial Bone Recipe

Powdered Bone Meal — 5 parts by weight.
12x Powdered Sugar — 1 part by weight.
MaltoDextrin —- 1 part by weight.

The other recipe resulted from the fact that they needed something stronger.

Secondary Bone Recipe

Powdered Bone Meal — 4-5 parts by weight.
UF plastic resin glue — 1 part by weight.

The result? Awesomely realistic bones!
3d Bones

This project has huge potential in many different aspects. Think about it – if someone can create “real” bone material, then 3D printing can be used for a host of medical purposes! Less critical – perhaps – but no less interesting is printing out entire skeletons for museums and similar purposes! Mark my words, we are going to hear about 3D printing a whole lot more in the months to come. In the meantime, hats off to these two students!

Via Open3dp

Why Pi Is Wrong

by

2Pi
I am going out on a limb here and throw a challenge to hardcore Pi lovers out there.  It feels weird, to be honest, as I have made it a point to “celebrate” Pi Day ever since I heard about it.  In fact, yesterday, I joined countless other people around the world in making a toast to 3.1415…

One day after International Pi Day, however, I discovered a video by Vi Hart, who is a self-proclaimed anti-Pi person. So why is Pi wrong? Allow Vi to explain it all to you – with a nice looking raspberry (I think) pie to boot.

Indeed, every math student who had to struggle with all those formulas might agree with Vi.  I have to be honest and say that I love how Vi neatly illustrates how Pi makes things confusing.  Still, I am not about to abandon the idea of celebrating Pi every year.  If, however, you want an alternative to Pi, check out The Tau Manifesto.

Via Vi Hart

The Best Use for Pizza Box Supports

by

I know someone who is very handy with old boxes and those sorts of things.  He’d get “trash” and cut them up to make them useful – like a DIY iPad stand, for example.  But, have you ever thought of making something useful out of those plastic pizza box supports that come with every pizza you order?  If you’re anything like me, you’ll end up with so many of those things.  Either that or you just throw them away every time.

Here’s a cool idea from Serious Eats: recycled pizza box support as a mobile phone stand.

Pizza Box Support

It’s rather simple, actually.  You just need to get that plastic thingamajig, and make sure you wash it thoroughly.  I would think that dishwashing liquid can remove all that grease.  (The last thing that you would want is grease to get all over your phone and probably ruin it.) Snip off the front leg and mount your mobile phone.  I am not sure about the angle – you might have to do a little bit of cutting off here and there to get your desired angle, but you get the idea.  I say it’s a cheap – not to mention semi-creative – alternative to mobile phone stands that you can buy today.

This got me thinking – what other “everyday things” can you turn into something useful like a mobile phone stand?

Via Serious Eats

 

Google Person Finder for Those in Japan

by

People Finder
The whole world is watching the events unfold in the east following the 8.9 magnitude earthquake that hit Japan earlier today. Though the country is the most prepared country in the world for this kind of natural disaster, today’s event is another reminder of how helpless us humans can be when the forces of nature are unleashed.

While many of our readers may not be directly affected by the earthquake and the following tsunamis, let us collectively show our support to our fellowmen in whatever way we can.

If you know anyone who is affected by the earthquake and tsunamis, or you have any information related to the disaster, here is a tool that you can use. Google has come up with a People Finder site, which is both in English and Japanese.

Let’s say a prayer for everyone out there.

Reality Touchscreen: The World’s Largest?

by

Touchscreen
And you thought the iPad 2 is at the top of the list for huge screens…

Think again, folks. The Reality Touchscreen developed by engineers at the University of Groningen is the real thing. This screen measures in at 10 meters wide by 2.8 meters high. For those of you who speak/think/count in feet, that’s 32.8 feet wide by 9.2 feet high. Every other touchscreen display is suddenly paling in comparison, isn’t it?

So how did the engineers create the screen? In the news report published by the university on their web site, they made use of hardware that can be bought off the shelves and public domain software. All they needed was a splash of creativity – and engineering know-how – and they got themselves a nice big toy.

After you watch this touchscreen in action – see the video below – you will most certainly want to play with it, but it is no mere toy. This touchscreen can take more than a hundred simultaneous touches. More so, the screen itself is transparent – something which reminds me of those cool computer screens in sci-fi movies and TV shows. For those who put a lot of weight on design, you will appreciate the curvature of the screen.

On the technical side, this baby is powered by 6 HD projectors, 16 IR lights, and 6 cameras. These make the immense multi-touch capacity possible. The display has a 4900 x 1700 resolution and has a 120Hz refresh rate.

Now see for yourself what a little do-it-yourself can do.

Awe-inspiring is an understatement. I want one of these!