This summer my family and I had an opportunity to visit San Francisco and tour Lucasfilm headquarters. This blog post covers how we ended up there, what we saw on our trip and how my wife and I successfully wrangled our young kids from SF,…
This summer my family and I had an opportunity to visit San Francisco and tour Lucasfilm headquarters. This blog post covers how we ended up there, what we saw on our trip and how my wife and I successfully wrangled our young kids from SF,…
I’m exploring something in the same wheel house as Daft Punk… R2-D2 builders are elite prop builders and have electronic, software and fabrication skills I’ve always aspired to. The problem with building a quality astromech is that you either have to have access to a shop with…
Over 10,000 people attended the Toronto Maker Festival over the course of two days this year at the Toronto Reference Library. I was one of a hundred makers, presenting “DIY Daft Punk”. This project replicates the Daft Punk’s Discovery Era Thomas helmet and Discovery gauntlets, using…
Thomas the Tank Engine Monster Truck Outlaw from insultcomicdog on Vimeo. Thomas the Tank Engine and the Grave Digger monster truck are popular in my house. We probably have 10 different Thomas trains of various sizes and vintages (wooden railway and other sets). This Christmas…
This year I thought I’d do something fun with my Jack-O-Lantern using ‘found’ items around the house. I’ve been working on a Daft Punk Thomas helmet, and wanted to repurpose a discarded fibreglass visor chassis that was lying around. All of my scratch built electronics and…
My first true lighting project was a night light for my son Owen. That was practice for my next project; a Thomas Bangalter (one half of the French house music duo Daft Punk) helmet. I’ve been a long time lurker on the RFP, and this…
Visualizing geotagged hashtags or key phrases is cool. I’ve used Twitter’s REST API before, but I have long wanted an excuse to learn how to use the streaming API so I could mine real time data. Some things I learned about the STREAMING API vs…
I decided to break the seal on my Pi and install Raspbmc to use it as media centre. Raspbmc is Linux distribution that brings XBMC (open source (GPL) software media player and entertainment hub) to the Raspberry Pi. I have an Apple TV and a…
I’ve been wanting to mount my phone to a GorrilaPod for a while. Having shot ~60 gigs of video on my iPhone while on parental leave over the last 6 months, I wish I would have done this hack sooner. Here are some commercial options…
Since the arrival of a MakerBot Replicator 2 at the Jam3 office in January, I’ve been 3D printing quick prototypes for work and personal projects. There are some amazing 3D models you can download and print off Thingiverse, but I’ve found it’s more rewarding to…
