More retro-cellphone handset goodness! This time from my friend and fellow Maker, Captain Mouse!

Her blog is here: http://buttonsformouse.blogspot.com/

And when you visit, do not miss Mandelbrot the Fractal Teddie Bear!

Dan writes:

This whole thing started when I dropped my graphire3 wacom tablet.  Everything worked just fine, but the case cracked and would not stay together.  After some soul searching I decided that since I couldn't use the thing in its current condition I might as well try and improve it.

It's a busy weekend here in the SF bay. The incredible, annual, flammable Fire Arts Festival is taking place. It's put on by The Crucible, a "con-profit collaboration of arts, industry, and community". From the site:

"Each July The Crucible’s Fire Arts Festival celebrates creativity through fire and light with a spectacular open-air exhibition of interactive fire art, performance and the largest collection of outdoor fire sculpture on the West Coast. The Fire Arts Festival is our major fundraising event, and proceeds benefit The Crucible’s arts education programs for youth and adults."

Keep a special eye out for SPWS pals Alan Rorie, Jon Sariugate, and Dodger Stirling.

Also, this Friday there's a fundraiser for illustrious Neverwas Haul.It will be held at The Shipyard Labs in Berkeley.  From thier site:

"We will begin the evening with High Tea aboard the Neverwas Haul at 4pm, followed by drinks and h’ors doevres at 5:30pm, dinner on the various levels of the Haul at 6:30pm, and finishing with a rousing burlesque show and libations until the wee hours of the morning. "

Jake and I are having a bit of a discussion on the Discovery Channel's latest ploy to appeal to our nerdly senses. The show is called Weaponizers-in short, teams outfit vehicles with radio controls, fill them to the brim with gigantic (yes, real) guns, and then blast the living snot out of each other.

Jake says he won't like it unless they focus on the mechanical aspects. I say I'll like it as long as they focus on blasting the living snot out of each other.

I'll also like it because my friend Cowboy is in it. He's a pretty bad-ass Texan (aren't they all?) who I fondly remember as being the guy who finally got me into a proximity suit and within spittin' distance to this fire.

The living snot.

This thing is amazing, but seeing as how this is a family-friendly website, I have the full post over at my personal blog, ladycartoonist.com.

Heh.

Most of the things that I make, with the possible exception of the Wimshurst Machine I recently completed for an article in Make: Magazine, best fit under the category of "prop" rather than "instrument."  That is clearly not the case for this telescope as it is surely as capable an instrument of science as it is a true beauty!

Ross writes:

I've always found your website an inspiration.  Here is one of the products of that inspiration: a large steampunk-style reflecting telescope in mahogany, brass, and copper.  The telescope won awards in craftsmanship and in mechanical design at last summer's Stellafane conference in Vermont, the world mecca for amateur astronomy.

I have more pictures (at full scale) at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8315630@N04/

The Stellafane site has a few more pictures, about half-way down the page:
http://stellafane.org/convention/2008/2008scopes.html

Best,
Ross Sackett, Ph.D.

 One more gorgeous shot under the cut and the rest at Ross' Flicker! Thanks Ross!

Have a look at this video of a gorgeous Jacob's ladder!  I love the sound that it makes, I must have one now!

Be sure to click through to see the build and while you're there do not miss the other projects that include:

• Steampunk multi-tool holster
• Nautical thumb drive
• PC Casemod with working magic eye tube!
• USB Switcher with NIXIE indicator!
• Laser printer motor gyroscope (brassy!)
• Tesla coil

And more!

I fear that I am going to have to seriously up my game if I'm to compete with the likes of this fellow!

If you were popped out of the timestream and found yourself suddenly in the distant past, how much of our modern technology could you re-create? I've often thought that I could climb back to the vacuum tube era of the 1920s or so.

Author H. P. Friedrichs has realized this thought experiment and gone a step further by re-creating the transistor as well. You can read detailed descriptions of these adventures in technology in his book Instruments of Amplification.

Instruments of Amplification, written and illustrated by H. P. Friedrichs, is jam-packed with nearly 300 pages of history, science background, basic theory, and hard-to-find hands-on details pertaining to the construction of an amazing array of homebrew amplifying devices.

Rooted in the same "build-it-from-scratch" philosophy that made his first book, The Voice of the Crystal, a success, Instruments of Amplification reduces complex devices to their essential elements and then shows how they can be constructed from commonly available materials.

Instruments of Amplification is available from my favourite bookseller, Lindsay Books.

Jon dropped me a quick note with a link to pictures of his winning entry in the xLAN case mod competition.

It reminds me of my own water-cooled PC project from a couple years back, only with clockwork and way more awesome! 

Thanks Jon!