I think they came out well, though obviously not all of them are actually for passport photos. I ended up using a single flash, camera left through an umbrella, with a metal reflector to the right of the camera. If anyone else wants one, let me know and we can set up a time.
From a recipe in the Betty Crocker cookbook. Basically 2.5 cups white flour, 2 cups wheat flour, 2 tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar, 2tbsp oil, and some yeast. Come out to HackPGH tonight to try some 
I’ve decided to take a new direction with my art, so I created this wood gavel. Hope you enjoy it!
Actually, we just set up the donated lathe at Hack Pittsburgh, so this was a quickie project to try it out. It’s actually a metal lathe, so I’m anxious to get some metal stock and try it out!
Thanks to Matt Stultz for providing the sounding block and inspiration to take a nice photo of it!
Here’s an image of Mario, drawn using the machine code for Super Mario Brothers. Created using C++, the EasyBMP library and the GIMP. Source code after the break.
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Some time ago, I picked up an LCD photo frame that was on clearance, however it’s screen quality turned out to be quite unsuitable for actually showing photos. I wasn’t sure what to do with it, but I thought it would be a shame to waste the thing, so I decided to turn it into a ridiculous clock.
The idea is pretty straightforward, I just built a circuit to hit the ‘next’ button every minute, then generated 720 photos to store on it, one for each minute in a 12-hour cycle. I chose to write out the time in words, however really anything could be used and displayed. Build instructions after the break. Continue reading
I’m making a wooden frame to house and protect an LCD computer monitor, so that it can be hung on a wall at the museum. The monitor will display the ferrous wheel program, hopefully helping guests to understand the relationship between magnets and sound. The idea is that if you don’t understand how the piece works, you can look at the display and see what the vision system is doing.
At any rate, I got to play with some scrap wood and power tools, so I am satisfied. I’ll post an update after the frame is painted, the monitor is mounted, and the whole thing is hung on the wall. If you want to build your own; here are the plans!
I’ve had a great time visiting wonderful people in California this past week. Thanks to Mars and Amelia for offering a place to stay, and to everyone who put up with me and my requests to see what they do :-). I am leaving fully re-inspired to do cool stuff, and look forward to the next time I can come out this way!
I’ve put up a set of my trip photos on Flickr.
