Modd3d

Printers Have Become Truly Disposable

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 20:07:01 -0700

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.

Suck it did. Once again I had to make several passes with the "clear nozzle" tool before I could print anything. I put up with it for a while, but as time went on it got harder and harder to get the nozzles clear.

A couple days ago I wanted to print stuff and the printer said it was out of ink. This was no problem as I had purchased a replacement set of cartridges already, so I swapped them out. I "clear nozzle"d a few times and I printed my single page document. Today I wanted to print a map so I started "clear nozzle"ing. One time. Five times. Ten times. Each time one color would get better but a different one would get worse. Finally I clicked the button to clear again and a window popped up that informed me that I couldn't perform the nozzle clearing action because the printer was out of ink.

What? These were brand-new ink cartridges. Basically I used up an entire $75 set of ink cartridges to unclog a $99 printer. Pwned by my own printer. I should have listened to myself and just bought a new printer when the ink ran out the first time.

(I thought about pulling out the little sponge that now contained $75 worth of ink and selling it on eBay or something, but I figured nobody would want to squeeze it all back into a cartridge.)

I just got back from buying a new printer. I walked right past the Epson McClogsalot section and settled on a nice HP. HP has always worked okay for me in the past. I got my new printer for $30. Yep, that's right. Less than half the cost of the ink I just wasted in my old printer. Sure, it probably doesn't print super duper retina candy hi-res photos or print on CDs, but now hopefully when I'm trying to print out a map as I'm running out the door I won't be late for wherever I'm going because my stupid printer is clogged. And you can bet that when this one dies I won't even bother buying new cartridges for it.

(BTW, is it even possible to smash a piece of office equipment on the front lawn without "Damn it's good to be a gangster" running through your mind?)

Control Stuff From Your Phone

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 22:34:16 -0700

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.

New Site: Automat3d

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 00:01:00 -0700

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.

Arr! It Be Talk Like A Pirate Day!

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 15:04:38 -0700

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?

Controlling Things With Handhelds

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 21:31:03 -0700

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.

Delerium Concert Review

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 13:18:41 -0700

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.

They had three opening acts, which I felt was about one too many. First up was Sarah Fimm. I'd never heard of her before that night but I enjoyed her songs very much. It was just her and her keyboard on stage, but I was off to the side so I could see her "band" (guy with a laptop) backstage.

Next was Elsiane. She was good too. Her voice was very distinct; if Bjork and the Cranberries had a baby it would sound like her. She had a drummer and a bass player with her, but the music was fully orchestrated. It always weirds me out to hear a bunch of instruments that aren't on stage, but then again I have the curse of not being able to watch anything without over analyzing it.

The third act was Morgan Page doing a DJ set. He had an Allen and Heath controller probably hooked up to Traktor or something. He played like four songs and did a lot of things with effects and stuff. I enjoyed the set, but I think the problem was that by now everyone was ready for some Delerium. Plus this wasn't exactly the club/raver crowd. I got the "Um, I forgot my glowsticks at home" vibe from everybody. Again, he was good, but he seemed like a weird match for Delerium (unlike the first two acts).

After lots of sound-checkage and one microphone replacement, Delerium started playing. Bill Leeb was there in the back playing keyboards. There was a drummer, a bass player and a guitar player (here's a video that introduces them).

Kristy Thirsk came out on the second song. She's incredible. She has a very wide range and her ethereal voice gave me chills at a few points during the concert. She also versatile enough that she does an amazing job of singing songs that she didn't originally sing on the albums.

A couple songs later Elsiane came back out to sing with them. What happened to Leigh Nash? I was under the impression that she'd be there. I looked around the Intertubes but I couldn't find any clues as to where she might have gone. Elsiane seemed confused at first like her monitor wasn't working or something, but she settled in and sounded good.

Most of the songs had more of a rock quality to them than they usually do. This was due partially to the live instruments (much of Delerium's sound is very electronic and heavily produced) and partially to the sound guy's tendency to mix the guitar way up in the mix and the backing tracks with all the synths/electronic drum fills/chanting/etc. way down. I wanted to go play with the mixer but I'll bet I would have gotten in trouble.

Bill Leeb had two keyboards on stage with him. The top one was an M-Audio MIDI controller. I was trying to tell what the synthesizer he was playing was, but the back was covered by a cloth. Here's a not-so-great picture of it I found on YouTube:

Edit: Matrix says that it's a Kurzweil K2000. Thanks Matrix!

The highlights of the show for me were "Silence" (that song kicks much @$$ live), "Incantation" (I just like that song), and the acoustic version of "Heaven's Earth" they did during the encore.

Their light show was pretty basic. Lots of PAR cans. They had four moving-yoke lights (MAC 2000s? I couldn't really tell) that were enough to make up for all the PAR-cannyness in that small space. They had RGB LED light strips shining up on hangy pieces of cloth, except only one was blowing around like I think they were all supposed to. The effect was good though. There was also a cyc in the back where they were projecting trippy images.

I was surprised at how small the space/concert was. I guess I just figured that Delerium was big enough to pack stadiums by now. I'm glad they're not, though (even if my reasons are selfish- sorry Delerium). I think I got a better show in the small space.

Delerium will be in San Francisco tonight and will be making their way across the US through the first part of October, so if you have a chance to check them out I would highly recommend you do so.

Happy 50th Birthday, Microchip!

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 10:58:00 -0700

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.

LHC Turn On

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 01:44:14 -0700

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:

Wrist-Mounted Flame Cannons

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 01:14:20 -0700

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.

Sync GlitchDS with MIDI Sequencer

Mon, 8 Sep 2008 00:01:00 -0700

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.