A couple years ago I bought an Epson StylusColor R200. My last Epson printer clogged all the time and I had to spend a bunch of time cleaning the nozzles every time I wanted to print, so I wasn't going to buy another one, but the R200 made really pretty pictures, had six separately replaceable cartridges and even printed on CDs. For $99 I figured I couldn't go wrong. I'd just buy a new printer if this one started sucking.

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Alvaro Mautone created a device that lets you control your stuff and check statuses with your phone via SMS. If you want to give it a go yourself, he provides a parts list and build instructions.

I've been working on a sister site for Modd3d and it's finally live. It's called Automat3d and it's all about controlling things.

Let's say you've finished building this fabulous animated prop for Halloween and now you need a way to control it, or maybe you are designing lights for a theatrical production and it would be easier if you could synchronize them with the music. Automat3d is there to help you out. The projects and how-to's there cover a wide range of cost and complexity levels, so there should be a little something for everybody. There's some other tech-type information (lighting, sound, etc) there too.

As I said the site is brand-new so check it out, and if you know of something that should be added to it please let me know.

Ye best be talkin' like a pirate today if ye knows what be good for ya!

Does anybody know when flip out like a ninja day is?

It used to be that your MP3 player played music, your phone called people and your game system played games. As portable electronics increase in capability their abilities continue to overlap. Now your phone probably makes a pretty decent music player and they have games for your MP3 player.

One thing that all genres of handheld gadgets are getting good at is being a remote control for some other piece of gear. High-resolution touch screens, wireless network connectivity and a thriving homebrew community makes these devices perfect for turning into the ultimate universal remote.

Here are a couple of examples that have popped up around the 'nets in the last week or so:

Nokia N810 as remote mixing console
This fellow uses VNC to connect to his Yamaha digital mixer using his Nokia N810.




DS-DSLR: Homebrew Nintendo DS remote for Canon DSLR
This guy is using his DS Lite to control his Cannon DSLR. The custom hardware/software combo lets him do fancy timing and even gives him Clapper-like remote control capabilities.

I went to see Delerium on Saturday night at the Showbox. Overall it was a good show and I'd love to see them again.

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It's been 50 years since Texas Instruments' Jack Kilby showed off the first working IC. It consisted of a single germanium transistor and a few other components and only produced a sine wave, but it paved the path to all the Wiis and iPods and other nifty toys we have today.

Well, if you're reading this then it probably means that the powering up of the Large Hadron Collider didn't cause all of existence to get sucked into a singularity or turn into goo. To celebrate, here's some nerdcore rap:

Forget shooting confetti; I want to soot fire from my arms! I hope this guy puts up a how-to for these things. I know they're probably dangerous, but everyone knows that danger is directly proportional to fun.

This quick demo shows how you can synchronize GlitchDS with a MIDI sequencer using "strum mode" and a Midify board.

In strum mode, pressing "left" on the DS takes you to the beginning of the GlitchDS sequence and pressing "right" steps you through it. The sequencer is sending note-on commands to the Midify board, which converts them to button presses on the DS. The sequence presses "left" at the beginning of the loop so that even if you started playing in the middle it would sync back up the next time around. Then it presses "right" on every remaining 1/8th note.