Category: Cool Stuff

Creative combination of Zelda and Pac-Man

(via Aeropause via 4 Color Rebellion)

zelpac.jpg

Some genius took Zelda and Pac-Man, mixed them up in a magical mixing bowl, and baked it up reaaaaallllll goodly. The result is the clever and delightful, umm, well, it has no short name, but the long name is “The Legend of Zelda: The Collecting of Pills”

If you are into gaming, you really need to check it out.

[tags]Zelda, Pac-Man, retro gaming[/tags]

Nintendo Revolution to emulate Genesis and TurboGraphx-16

(via TechEBlog)
I hope this DailyTech posting is true.  I love my TG-16.  There were some great games made for that system.  Too bad the company (NEC) didn’t support the system – like so many other failed technologies, it was better than the competitors at the time.

Nintendo of America, Inc.’s, President Satoru Iwata announced that his company’s new gaming console, the Nintendo Revolution, would support not only all NES, Super NES, and Nintendo 64 games, but also Sega Genesis and Turbo Grafx 16 games by way of emulators.

[tags]Revolution, Nintendo, TG-16, Genesis[/tags]

Surprisingly, 42 may indeed be the answer

(via Slashdot)

Very interesting article over at the Seed magazine web site.  It’s a great discussion of number theory, placement of primes, the relationship between heavy elements’ energy patterns and prime number locations, the Riemann Hypothesis.

There is an important sequence of numbers called “the moments of the Riemann zeta function.” Although we know abstractly how to define it, mathematicians have had great difficulty explicitly calculating the numbers in the sequence. We have known since the 1920s that the first two numbers are 1 and 2, but it wasn’t until a few years ago that mathematicians conjectured that the third number in the sequence may be 42—a figure greatly significant to those well-versed in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

It would also prove to be significant in confirming the connection between primes and quantum physics. Using the connection, Keating and Snaith not only explained why the answer to life, the universe and the third moment of the Riemann zeta function should be 42, but also provided a formula to predict all the numbers in the sequence. Prior to this breakthrough, the evidence for a connection between quantum physics and the primes was based solely on interesting statistical comparisons. But mathematicians are very suspicious of statistics. We like things to be exact. Keating and Snaith had used physics to make a very precise prediction that left no room for the power of statistics to see patterns where there are none.

But I have to admit, I’m not certain I believe that solving the Riemann Hypothesis will allow one to crack Internet encryption (bad reference to TV show involving math).

[tags]42, H^2G^2, Hitchhiker’s Guide, Riemann Hypothesis, 42[/tags]

Preserve a snowflake for years

Popular Science has an article on how to catch, photograph, and keep snowflakes using superglue.

frozensnowflake.jpg

  1. Set microscope slides, coverslips and superglue outside when it’s 20°F or colder to chill them. Catch flakes on the slides or pick them up with cold tweezers.
  2. Place a drop of superglue on the snowflake. Note: Gel glue doesn’t work. Find a brand that’s thin and runny.
  3. Drop a coverslip over the glue. Don’t press down hard or the flake could tear or melt from the heat of your finger.
  4. Leave the slide in a freezer for one or two weeks and don’t touch it with warm hands. The glue must completely harden before the snowflake warms up.

[tags]Snowflake, Popular Science[/tags]

MAKE blog link dump

As I’ve done before, I’ve gotten behind on reading and posting all kinds of interesting content out there. In an effort to catch up, I’m making a large link-dump style posting instead of putting each of these in their own article. The following links/stories are all from recent MAKEzine blog posts.

  • Run an NES emulator on your XBox 360 via MCE.Xexter in the Maxconsole forums figured out how to run a NES emulator on an Xbox 360 using a Media Center, no sound – but the games run at full speed, nice! – “Found a way to add a menu for the roms list so you will have to edit the nes.htm and change to whatever Nes rom you want to play. I’ve included a Public Domain rom for testing but have verified Zelda1-2, Excitebike, and TecmoBowl and all worked.”
  • Learn HOW-TO use an oscilliscope“An oscilloscope is easily the most useful instrument available for testing circuits because it allows you to see the signals at different points in the circuit. The best way of investigating an electronic system is to monitor signals at the input and output of each system block, checking that each block is operating as expected and is correctly linked to the next. With a little practice, you will be able to find and correct faults quickly and accurately.”
  • Stop-motion video via LEGO bricksCalazon Enterprises made a fun stop motion LEGO movie, with an unhappy ending for a frog. When will the frog abuse craze end?
  • LEGO soccer arenaAs stated on the MAKE blog: “What you’re looking at isn’t an arena filled with thousands of people, it’s an insanely detailed arena, made out of LEGO.”lego-arena2.jpg

    lego-arena1.jpg

  • Another LEGO PCThis is not unique. But at the same time, LEGO PCs are not very common. Being in to case mods, I always enjoy seeing these.

    legopc-1.jpg

  • How hearing aids are made
  • Make your own projector
  • Build your own generator“The key to this design is that it will require a horizontal shaft motor, which can be found on old drum style lawnmowers, roto-tillers, and lawn edgers. The most common motor size you will find on the used market will be a 3 or 3.5 horse power model. Larger motors are harder to find because most of them are snapped up for building go-carts or mini bikes. “
  • Build a plexiglass PC casePlexi-PC1.jpg

[tags]MAKEzine, MAKE blog, DIY projects[/tags]

Build your own laser listening device

(via Hack-a-day)

Have you ever wanted to build your own laser listening device so you could act like one of those cool S000per sekrit! spies?  Well, here’s your guide.  The audio isn’t really that good, but it’s a start.  Get one built, and improve it.  Also, the original guide used to put together this laser device can be found at this DynDNS site.

[tags]Laser listening, eavesdropping[/tags]