Have you ever heard of the "Carputer"? Yep, that one where the Intel Mac Mini is installed in a Subaru? Not yet? Then read up, 'cos this post's about it.

That image posted below is actually the "final" product. Sam, over A GThing Science Project, has apparently been cooking up this project for quite some time now ( five blogs' worth, in fact). And at last, after ripping his car, frying not but a few parts and soldering a whole lot of stuff to make the product car-friendly, it's finally finished.

And it sure looks like a whole lot of hard work was put into it. So, if you want to check out exactly how this guy did it, and all the pains that he went through for it, you can check out the site over at the Read Link. We'd have to say, this "homemade project from scratch" sure gives a whole new meaning to the word "perseverance".

Living up to its goal to "use the energy, unbridled creativity and resourcefulness of Makers to turn students of all ages onto technology, science and engineering", MAKER Magazine delivers yet another ingenious contraption in their Make Podcast. Their project this time: how to make a hovercraft by using materials that you can find in a typical grocery store!

This unique 05:53-minute video featuring Bre Pettis in one of their Weekend Projects basically shows you how to make your own hovercraft out of materials like old CD, styrofoam plates, plastic straws, water bottles and balloons. This homemade piece of machinery may not be able to carry a hefty load but looking at this interesting contraption, its pretty close to the idea behind the original hovercraft of today. Bre suggested a cool use for this homemade hovercraft by engaging in a race with another person's homemade hovercraft. Hmmm, looks fun. Don't you think?

Here's a video showing an ingenious idea of a homemade LED-illuminated wallet. The demo runs at 1:49 and the guy has uncanny humour in presenting his creation. The video also has superb editing (we like the part when one of the wallet exploded).

The wallet has several LED light installed in the interior of the wallet, the part where you put your paper bills. It has a button that is sensitive to pressure. So every time you open your wallet, voila! The LED lights are activated. The lights will stay off while the pressure is on the button, therefore the lights would always stay off while it's in your pocket. For more details on how to create your own illuminated wallet, just click on the video below.

By using a mutual capacitance between a nearby human body and itself, a proximity detector is able to nose out a person's presence. Now whether you're a robot builder, pet owner, model railroader, or you just love gadgets, here's a guide by offlogic that lets you in on how to create your own proximity detector.

Aside from Sharp IS471 (available here), you'll also be needing the following to build a proximity detector: a 940nm IR emitter, a PCB to mount the IS471 and IR emitter on, perf-board, 9 volt batter plus battery clip, soldering iron plus solder, and diagonal cutters.

The steps on making the proximity detector after the jump!

The commercially available Power Squid costs between $30 and $80, depending on whether you want the non-surge protected version or the surge-protected ones. It's not really a very expensive device, but some people take price in making something with their own hands. Dan Delcollo hacked apart a bunch of inexpensive extension cords and surge protectors to create his very own Power Squid.

The Power Squid works like a power strip, but instead of plugging your cords into a strip, you get power by plugging into little extension cord outlets that look a little like tentacles (hence, the reference to squis). Using a regular power strip, big transformers block nearby outlets, but with Power Squid the outlets can just dangle out of the way. It's especially handy for home theaters and workstations.

Dan managed to create a "cheap" version which puts emphasis on functionality and on minimizing cost; and a "de luxe" version, which was really aimed at being cool and more squid-like in appearance. Both versions have more plugs (7 on the cheap and 10 on the deluxe) than the commercial version which only has five. It has 1120 joules of surge protection, double than the commercial version. The Power Squids (homemade and commercial) should not carry more than 15 amps, the limit of the components used in their construction.

After much soldering and putting together cut up cords, 2- and 3-prong adapters and wiggly craft eyes, the homemade Power Squid is born!

 

If you ever find yourself harboring an alien life-form inside your body like Sigourney Weaver's crew, you could probably use a gadget like this. But it also work for terrestrial parasites like ticks and leeches (we think anyway). The details on how it actually operates is rather vague. Something about holding two copper pipe electrodes in your hand then turning the machine on. This sends a low voltage at certain frequency through your body "killing parasites and other bad organisms (sic)."

The inventor didn't say if the cure is worse than the parasites but he lived to tell about it . You know what they say, if the homemade gadget doesn't kill you it can only make you stronger. Hopefully it didn't make the parasites stronger, though.

Now we come to the more part and believe us it's MUCH MORE than a parasite zapper. "Although it may not be exsplained (sic) properly, but through exsperimentation (sic) of this circuit I accidently found this may be the electronic version for viagara," the inventor swears. "I once had a tummy pain, thus thinking, I, to like, my fiancee was getting apendicitis so I tested it out only to get the unexspected (sic) results [we think he means the Viagara Effect], but it sure got rid of the tummy pain..." Yep nothing cures appendicitis than Viagra.

Time for some good, clean, and educational fun! Are you really bad at directions? Well join the club, so am I! So to put some needed direction in our lives, why don't we do our very own homemade compass? Here's what we'll need:

• a compact disc (hopefully used/useless)
• a small magnet
• the outer case of a 50 pack of cd's. (you can use anything that will hold water and a floating cd, a cd-case looks nice)
• some hot glue
• some water
  

Step 1- Glue the magnet to any part of the CD, with a pole facing radially outwards. If the magnet's pole does not face as such the compass will give inaccurate directions.

Step 2- Lay the CD into a bowl of water and watch it align itself to the north.