UpGrade! – The Skeeball Machine Revisited!

Welcome back, to another day! Got a new project that I’m planning: the SkeeBalled! Machine upgrade time! For those not familiar with the SkeeBalled! Machine, let’s take a quick look into the past.

This project was started back in summer of 2009. My Junior year of high school just finished. My class had several meetings that summer, to plan for our Senior Trip. One of these meetings we discussed what to do for the bazaar, an annual yard sale/vendor sale at the school. I saw this as perfect timing, and announced about having a Skeeball machine there. It wasn’t really needed, but I had already thought about this idea before

Video Explosion Thursday! – Week 4

Welcome back everyone, to another exciting VIDEO EXPLOSION! Today’s clips include: Music Videos, the End of the World, and much more! Also, the About page has been updated! Check it out here! [EDIT: Ran out of time at the moment, but I will update this! Sorry!] Ok, I know you didn’t come here to listen to me talk today, so here’s my top 3 picks:

Creating a Custom Graphic

Hello! As you may have noticed, its been awhile since I last updated. Sorry! Before I go into details about this post, just letting you know that I am planning a Video Explosion Thursday this week, so make sure to come back soon!

Ok, so not much has been going on, the usual work week, and then trying to figure out something to do at home. The summer is where I usually come up with many projects, but since I’ve had this idea for awhile, I thought I might share it with you.

So, you have an old computer? Why not turn it into a MAME machine? Basically, MAME is a simple operating system that installs on Window’s computers. Then you install as many video games as you want, mostly old arcade ROMs that have been transported to the computer. MAME adds a level beyond that and makes the computer focus for video games only. The best part? You can buy arcade components, (Happ is a good example) and hook them up to the computer, and get that “retro” feel. You can then take it a step further and build a arcade cabinet.

I have the old computer, but the big cost is the arcade cabinet. A quality one can cost easily $500, and I don’t have that kind of money. So while waiting, I have been designing the graphics for the cabinet, and here’s part of the artwork that will cover the side:

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle? A project for clean air (sort-of)!

Here’s a quick project I decided to do:

The total build of the ‘Airvent’ Project

     I like working on my models and then also soldering my electrical projects. Unfortunately, the solder contains lead (which I have gotten horrible headaches from in the past) and special model paints that have the smell of gasoline. Not wanting to have to go upstairs from my basement all the time, it was time I did a vent system to rid of bad air.

The $25 Computer!

This sounds awesome! A $25 computer, WITH HD output! Now that’s a computer I can afford! Sourced from: Geek.com

David Braben is a very well-known game developer who runs the UK development studio Frontier Developments, but is just as well known for being the co-developer of Elite.

Over his career his studio has brought us the Rollercoaster Tycoon series, Thrillville, Lost Winds, and most recently Kinectimals. In the background, however, Braben has been trying to tackle another problem: getting programming and general learning of how computers work back into schools.

Braben argues that education since we entered the 2000s has turned towards ICT which teaches useful skills such as writing documents in a word processor, how to create presentations, and basic computer use skills. But that has replaced more computer science-like skills such as basic programming and understanding the architecture and hardware contained in a computer.

His solution is not to create his own course, but instead to manufacture a very low cost PC that can be given to kids for free and courses built up around their use. When we say low cost, we mean so low even the OLPC would be impressed.

Braben has developed a tiny USB stick PC that has a HDMI port in one end and a USB port on the other. You plug it into a HDMI socket and then connect a keyboard via the USB port giving you a fully functioning machine running a version of Linux. The cost? $25.

The hardware being offered is no slouch either. It uses a 700MHz ARM11 processor coupled with 128MB of RAM and runs OpenGL ES 2.0 allowing for decent graphics performance with 1080p output confirmed. Storage is catered for by an SD card slot. It also looks as though modules can be attached such as the 12MP camera seen in the image above.

We can expect it to run a range of Linux distributions, but it looks like Ubuntu may be the distro it ships with. That means it will handle web browsing, run office applications, and give the user a fully functional computer to play with as soon as it’s plugged in. All that and it can be carried in your pocket or on a key chain.

This tiny, cheap PC is going to be distributed through a new charitable foundation called the Raspberry Pi Foundation. It will also promote computer science studies in schools.

As for when the Raspberry Pi device will become available, Braben says he hopes to be distributing it within the next 12 months.

Video Explosion Thursday! Week 3

Top 5 Videos this week! Enjoy the selection below and comment if you liked any of them!

1. Concrete Hustle – Lightsaber Duel – Why? Because watching lightsaber duels are fun!

2. Legend of Zelda – Literal Trailer Parody – Fun remake on the LOZ preview that’s set to release later this year. Stop at 1:30 if you don’t want to hear the guy talking who did the voice-over talk randomly…

3. Festo – A robotic bird that looks real! Now the government can spy on us without us knowing! d:

4. Sun Drop Commercial – Some commercials are good, others are bad. This ones funny.

5. Thermite Hard Drive Explosion – What good is it if something doesn’t explode? Note: this is a project that can be done, I might do it one of these days…

Ok, that’s all for now folks! Make sure to subscribe via RSS feed, and check back often! Don’t forget to comment!

Blogging – Redefined

Well, it seems my last blog will hit the trash bin. So sad. This is Blog- REVSION 04! And I think its here to stay finally! ( I hope) So anyway, some of my old data will be transferred over here shortly, but its mostly a clean start!

Old Features Kept:

• Video Explosion Thursdays! Now with school over this may be more frequent. I also have fixed the embedding video problem…
• Recommended Stuff – Renamed ‘iLike’. Simplier, Cleaner, More Better, Yeah. Got it, done. That it.

NEW Features:

• None of the annoying log-in stuff for posting comments! It asks for your email, but that’s just to verify that your human. Unfortunately I can’t remove that. But neither I nor anyone else sees it, so no worries. AND if your really worried, enter in some random address. That works too.
• More frequent blog updates! I got too far ahead of myself on the last one. I’m calming down now and spacing it out. But don’t be surprised today if there’s a few posts, that’s because of the catching up.

Ok, well there you have it. I’ll post more soon on here. Stay tuned!

Hello world!

WordPress added this random post. I could delete it, but its a historical marker too. d: