http://brepettis.com/blog I Make Things Wed, 19 Nov 2008 20:43:26 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I'm thrilled to find out that iTunes is featuring my podcast! If you haven't subscribed in iTunes, it may be the easiest way to stay up to date with the Things video podcast. Thanks iTunes! http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/11/19/things-featured-on-itunes/ Are you worried about keeping your laptop safe during travel? Cathy Moore creates laptop envelopes. She originally made one for her daughter and now she finds all sorts of fantastic fabric and makes them. They've got quilting in them to pad them. Cathy is e verywhere. You can find ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/11/19/things-cathy-moore-creates-laptop-envelopes/ I have added a second laser class! Sign Up For The Class! If you didn't get a chance to sign up for Saturday's class, on Sunday, November 23nd, you can harness the power of an Eplilog 35 Watt Laser! In this class you'll learn everything you need to know to make the ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/11/18/second-laser-class-added-on-sunday-2pm/ Things - Adam Mayer Explains The Teletype Model 15 from Bre Pettis on Vimeo. Before the internet, people got their news over the wire by using the magical and mechanical powers of the teletype. Adam Mayer walks us through the workings of this Model 15 teletype he restored. Adam recently went on ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/11/18/things-adam-mayer-explains-the-teletype-model-15/ For the last two weeks Thingiverse has been in stealth mode. Zach Hoeken and I schemed it up and he's been coding like crazy to bring it to life. Invite your friends to the thingiverse and share the universe of things with folks you know! Fred over at Creative Commons wrote ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/11/17/thingiverse-is-now-alive/ Things - Nick Farr Created a Polyalphabetic Substitution Cypher Slide Rule from Bre Pettis on Vimeo. You know when you had your notes taken from you by the teacher and read aloud in class? If you'd had one of Nick's Polyalphabetic Substitution Cypher Slide Rules (PASCSR) you could have avoided that! A ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/11/17/things-nick-farr-lazzzored-a-polyalphabetic-substitution-cypher-slide-rule/ Making these Things videos is making me very happy and having you watch them makes it worth all the work it takes me to make them. I'm having 100 Things Tshirts made by my friend 1aeon. He's my favorite tshirt artist and they are going to be good. They'll be ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/11/16/thank-you-for-watching-things/ I've been wanting to go to the ocean and stick my finger in it and taste it, so today I went to the Far Rockaways. It was windy, raw, desolate, and satisfying. You can get there on the subway too. (click through and press all sizes to be able to read ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/11/16/far-rockaway-walking-adventure/ My pal Diana Eng showed up with a bottle of wine, but know corkscrew. How do you open a bottle of wine in the workshop? With a drill, screw, vise-grip, and a broom-handle! Yay for levers! I normally embed the blip.tv flash video, but this video is a little fussy, ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/11/15/workshop-kitchen-corkscrew/ While working on the drawbot, I wanted to make breakfast for my friends. Luckily I had just the right tool for the job! Here is a regular old video file. (I have to link to the video file in every post so iTunes sees it) http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/11/15/workshop-cooking-scrambled-eggs/ Do you long to exterminate a friend with cuddly goodness? Deeanna created this friendly Dalek from a pattern on Ravelry to give to as a gift. Want to make your own "Extermiknit"? Check out penwiper's free pattern! You can download this ipod sized video file (which you can also get ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/11/14/things-deeanna-gunderson-made-a-knitted-dalek-extermiknit/ Needlepoint portraiture without a thimble has the highest thumb pain to awesomeness quotient. Megan Fenton breaks it on down for us and shares her amazing needlepoint project with us. Ok, subscribing in iTunes will now bring you the iphone/ipod compatible video file and I'm working on getting an hd iTunes ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/11/13/things-megan-fentons-embroidery-portrait/ Raphael Abrams and Max explore the smelly process of high voltage cooking! Feel free to subscribe in iTunes to get all these videos delivered automagically. You can also watch electricity jump up wires in a super HD video file and with a file for your iphone! Also, huge thanks to ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/11/13/cooking-with-a-jacobs-ladders-things/ This week I'm taking my screwdriver to the robopet. What will I find inside Mark Tilden's robotic dog? Thanks goes out to Danger's Closet for donating the beast. Now iPhone Compatible! Here's a big HD video file link and an iPhone video file link! Subscribe in iTunes to make it easy. ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/11/11/dissecting-a-robotic-dog-take-it-apart-tuesday/ [caption id="attachment_1390" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="mark tilden's robopet in skeletal form"][/caption] This documentation of robopet evolution is awesome! It really gives you an idea how Mark Tilden, one of my robotics heroes, thought through it. http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/11/11/robopet-evolution/ The big trak was a toy I lusted after as a kid. You could program it to go into the kitchen have your brother put an apple in it's dump truck wagon and turn around and bring it back to you. This came out in 1979 and with infinite money I ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/11/11/big-trak-beauty/ My daily video journey continues. Today I show how to create a flying spaghetti monster on the lazzzor. I will be teaching how to do this in the class I will be teaching at NYCR! If you're feeling friendly and would like to leave a review of this podcast, you ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/11/10/things-flying-spaghetti-monster-born-in-the-heat-of-a-lazzzor/ This video is inspiring me at the moment. http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/11/10/daft-punk-masks-in-the-city/ Sign Up For The Class! On Saturday, November 22nd, you can harness the power of an Eplilog 35 Watt Laser! In this class you'll learn everything you need to know to make the ideas in your head become a reality with a laser. In this two hour class, we'll walk through ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/11/09/fire-the-lazzzor-make-holiday-decorations-and-learn-to-rapid-prototype-using-the-35-watt-epilog-laser/ Subscribe in iTunes Jon Muller wanted a puzzle that could be done over and over again so he created this thing out of wooden cubes and magnets. It only goes together in one way, so far it takes first timers between 45 minutes and 2 hours to get it together! Nice ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/11/09/things-jon-mullers-wooden-magnetic-puzzle/ Single-Camera Stereoscopy from Kyle McDonald on Vimeo. Kyle McDonald says, Leaving Termini in Rome, in 3D. Uses the parallel viewing technique en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereoscopy Recorded on a single camera at 25 fps, with the right side delayed by one frame. Assuming the train was going 40 k/h, each frame is about 44 cm ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/11/09/single-camera-stereo-vision-on-a-train/ momo: a haptic navigation device from kristin on Vimeo. Kristen O'Friel made this super clever haptic navigation device which can lea you around town just by leaning. Besides being insanely cool, it's cute! http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/11/09/haptic-navigation-device/ My Gutter Problem from Bre Pettis on Vimeo. I'm making a video everyday this week. Today I've been working on learning how to make 3D models in Blender. It's a brutal learning curve and I haven't had time to make a things video so I popped up to my roof and ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/11/08/daily-video/ Subscribe in iTunes I recently lost my scarf and so I fired up the knitting machine and with the help of Kellbot and Diana Eng, I had a scarf in no time flat! Wonderful HD Video File http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/11/07/things-machine-knitting/ Subscribe in iTunes Eric Skiff's back hurt and his neck was strained from hunching over his laptop. He needed to get it up off the table. Can he make his vision for a laptop stand a reality with a little help from a laser cutter? (If you need an awesome steampunk-style portable ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/11/06/eric-skiff-beautiful-backache-battling-laptop-stand/ Subscribe in iTunes Eric Michaud needed a fork and he needed one bad if he was going to eat his ramen with any self respect. He whipped one up in QCAD and had one lazzzored by the time his ramen was done! Eric is also starting up a hacker space in ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/11/05/things-eric-michaud-must-have-a-fork/ Subscribe in iTunes So, you already know that I'm making videos like crazy this month. So far I've done three things videos. Today it's "Take It Apart Tuesday" so I'm taking something apart! George gave me a hard drive that's dead. Rather than throw it out, I'm going to take it apart ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/11/04/take-it-apart-tuesday-theres-treasure-in-them-there-hard-drives/ Subscribe in iTunes Adam Cecchetti wanted a chess set and he wanted it now. He got right to it and rapid prototyped one! He used inkscape to design it and a lasercutter to cut it out of acrylic. Chess Set HD Video File http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/11/03/things-adam-cecchetti-creates-a-chess-set/ Once I've shot the video and edited it, it's time to upload it and publish it. Here's my publishing checklist! Export a full resolution file from iMovie. Open it in quicktime pro and watch it one last time so I know I haven't missed any editing flaws. Compress it by exporting an "appleTV" ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/11/03/video-launch-checklist/ Bill is a good friend of mine and he's joining me in making a video every weekday in November. His series is called "Rock Star" and he's starting out with this video: Women Love Voters! http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/11/03/bill-cammack-rock-star/ Erica, who is the animator for Drawn By Pain, has a great tutorial here. She shows Erik Beck how make halo armor. It uses one of my favorite tools, a 3D unfolder called Pepakura! http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/11/03/pepakura-halo-armor/ Last night at midnight, my pals Phooky, X, Eric, and his brother Ian decided to build a robotic arm. Phooky and Eric started working on the gripper, X started working on making the sanguino talk to 6 servos with an atari joystick, Ian did research and I started mocking parts ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/11/02/robotic-arm-mockup/ If you don't like feeding your fish, why not make your own robotic fish using these plans? http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/11/02/plans-for-a-robotic-fish/ Subscribe in iTunes I'm going to be making a video weekday this month, but I'm kicking it off this weekend. Make sure to checkout yesterdays probe video. Justin Day is CTO of Blip.tv by day and processing obsessed by night. Justin created the NYCResistor processing study group and wanted a project ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/11/02/things-justin-days-spooky-box/ Subscribe in iTunes For all of November, I'm going to be producing a video for every weekday! I'm kicking it off early with this video about Raphael Abrams probe thing! Raphael Abrams of teuthis is one of those people who doesn't sit around daydreaming projects up, he just does them. He was ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/11/01/things-raphael-abrams-made-a-probe/ History Hacker, the TV show I created with JWM Productions for History is going to re-air on Wednesday November 12 at Noon and 6PM. It's on the History website and you can program it into your tivo. Only 300,000 people watched it the first time around. With approximately 300,000,000 people in ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/11/01/history-hacker-will-re-air-on-wednesday-november-12-at-noon-and-6pm/ We all want to live. When the zombies come, in order to live, we'll have to pretend to die. Erik Beck joins me in this video to show you how to survive a zombie uprising. Don't let the zombies eat you, Use make-up to blend in with them. Luxurious ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/10/31/use-make-up-to-blend-in-with-the-zombies-during-the-zombie-uprising/ Do sleep in a coffin, dislike the sunlight, and like really rare meat but lack the pointy teeth to really call yourself a vampire? Fret no longer! Eric Skiff and I have a video for you to help your vampire self esteem! Here's a luscious blood dripping HD fang ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/10/31/create-vampire-fangs-blood-sucking-vampire-fangs/ I made this leg tear video with my buddy Erik over at Indy Mogul. He's really good at making cheap diy special effects. When I make my low budget zombie movie, I'm getting Erik onboard! Here's a juicy Zombie M4V Video to get your zombie on! http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/10/31/legrippedoff/ Wow, I made this video two years ago! This was my first microcontroller project. These days it's a lot easier to get starter with microcontrollers with an arduino. If you're interested in microcontrollers, you should get Tom Igoe's book, Making Things Talk: Practical Methods for Connecting Physical Objects If ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/10/31/its-halloweeen-make-an-led-pumpkin/ photo.jpg, originally uploaded by bre pettis. My friend Erin Shafkind is organizing a wonderful series of portraits taken at the sears portrait studios. I got to participate in orange. http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/10/27/orange-at-sears/ My pal Alicia works at Bug Labs, a company that creates a customizable electronic device back in NYC and they just launched a bunch of really great videos. Check them out! http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/10/25/the-new-bug-labs-videos-are-great/ I found Matt Shlian's work while surfing Youtube. I'm a big fan of paper engineering and after seeing the way he makes paper move, I had to know more! How did you get into paper engineering? My studies in paper engineering began the way we often find our passion; it starts in ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/10/22/matt-shlian-paper-engineer/ It will be the 10th Roboxotica ever and it is going to be the best yet. I can't wait! http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/10/22/roboxotica-2008/ I'm working on my robot for Roboxotica and researching robotic arms for my Cherrytron 2000. I might have to make the robotic arm tell time somehow! Enjoy this video of robotic arms telling time. Update: Tutorial! http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/10/22/robotarm/ http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/10/20/bjork-takes-apart-her-tv/ I am having fun making these flat glasses. I've added a bit of foam that makes the glasses much more comfortable on the nose and ears. http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/10/18/flat-glasses/ Matt Joyce is pumpkin hacking! He used a dremel to install these LED eyes! Tara Young is a forest adventurer and video producer and editor at Etsy. Check out her blog for her latest video masterpiece. I met Eva for just a brief moment. She makes dolls and other things and ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/10/17/pumkin-hacker-forest-adventurer-and-doll-maker/ Eric Beug from assaultwithsugar.com is a serious individual. He's my first sunglasses customer. Related Post: Day After Wednesday Sunglasses - Link http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/10/16/eric-beug-wearing-my-day-after-wednesday-sunglasses/ NYC's Vincent Laforet managed to get his hands on the canon Canon 5D Mark II and shot a stunning video. If you get excited by camera equipment, check it out. There's also a behind the scenes video that you shouldn't miss. http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/10/16/vincent-laforets-canon-5d-mkii-video/ I am doing research to triangulate some activities that would be rewarding for parents and their kids to help make them smarter. I asked Twitter for some help and got an epic amount of responses. If you don't follow me on twitter, now's a good time to sign up and ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/10/15/what-do-you-wish-youd-learned-as-a-kid/ Custom Lasercut Sunglasses, originally uploaded by bre pettis. Sometimes I have to make something, ANYTHING. So I dug out some Optik Acrylic and lasercut it into a shape I like. Then I held it over a flaming torch until it became flexible and I bent it just right. Want a ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/10/15/day-after-wednesday-sunglasses/ Besides photos of the moon, the Natural History Museum has a lot of dioramas filled with animals that have been taxidermied. Check out this slideshow of photos from my Natural History Museum Adventure or go browse the set on flickr and tell me which photos you like ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/10/13/old-dead-animals-at-the-natural-history-museum/ I love the photos from the expedition to the moon at the Natural History Museum here in NYC. If you ever get a chance to go there, plan to spend at least half an hour or an hour just staring at these beautiful huge prints around the second floor of ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/10/13/men-on-the-moon/ While walking around town with my friend Martin, we ran into two gentlemen, Josh and David Trawin who were getting ready to go on a balloon walk. Update! Here is a photo slideshow of their walk! They have a foamcore frame and have set up their ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/10/12/balloon-walking-in-nyc/ I founded NYCResistor with some friends. We share the cost of the space to have an awesome clubhouse where we can meet to make things and hack. Today I'm working on a new video idea and digging stuff out of the junk pile. Zach is working on an rs485 bus ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/10/11/another-day-at-nycresistor/ Recently I made this video about Natalia. She's an artist from Uruguay who lives here in Brooklyn. I have always wanted one of her rings and so finally I bought one! Check her site, her store, and my article about her on Etsy's storque. http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/10/11/ziptie-ring/ Now I have the information I need to make a fake me with realistic dental records and put them in the basement like in that movie swordfish. Dental technology has gotten pretty impressive. It's been a few years since I've been to the dentist and it's really cool that there are ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/10/08/xray-teeth/ Earlier this week, I posted about the beginnings of the blinkenlights project. It started in 2001 in Berlin, but now Seven years later, in May 2008, blinkenlights is back. The City of Toronto asked the blinkenlights team if they would be interested in joining another Nuit Blanche (as they did ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/10/03/stereoscope-blinkenlights-in-toronto/ Next week, the citizens of Toronto will be wondering if they've walked onto the set of Bladerunner when they look up at the two curved towers of their city hall and find it transformed into a giant display showing user generated movies and games. They'll have to blink their eyes ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/09/29/blinkenlights/ My pilot aired on Friday and I watched with the Director and 50 of my friends at the Plan B bar in Brooklyn. It was really great to see it on screen with my friends after being totally jacked on anticipation adrenaline all week. I had just seen a ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/09/29/wow-just-wow/ My show, History Hacker, will be on TV tonight! It's is all about exploring our technological history by hacking the inventions of the past. If you can, I'd love it if you can watch it with your kids! While making it, I imagined families watching the show and enjoying ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/09/26/history-hacker-day-of-show/ Dan Johnson - History Hacker Sound Recordist Originally uploaded by bre pettis Dan Johnson was the sound recordist on the History Hacker pilot that airs this Friday at 8pm and Midnight. He's a total pro. Not only does he get the sound to sound good, but he had the best jokes of ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/09/23/dan-johnson-history-hacker-sound-recordist/ Hey DIY people in the world and astronauts too, My TV show pilot called "History Hacker" airs this upcoming Friday at 8PM and Midnight on the History Channel. I'm the host of the show and I check out inventors in history and take a hands-on look at their inventions. ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/09/21/help-turn-the-history-hacker-pilot-into-a-tv-show/ Best Friends Forever - Silent 700 Model 707, originally uploaded by bre pettis. So these two machines are connected via a telephone cable. You start them up and set them both to online. On one, press CMD and then O and it will write out "originate". This sets it up to put ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/09/20/best-friends-forever-silent-700-model-707/ I love 8bit sounds. Jose left a comment here and put http://8bitcollective.com/ in the url field of his comment and I couldn't resist the url. It's a really impressive community of musicians sharing their music. I found a great tune made by Boy Wonder called Lovestar http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/09/20/8bit-collective/ While out and about last night I took a poll and asked folks about the the least pleasant sounding words. I twittered the request and got more responses! Here's the list so far: slacks, lappy (slang for laptop), staycation, leverage, consumer, user, womb, moist, and webinar.  Thanks to the folks ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/09/20/hateworthywords/ For History Hacker, my fellow resistor Raphael Abrams helped prototype some projects with me. We were at NYCR working on making an AC Generator out of a bike when Adam had the bright idea to hook the two ends of the coil to a speaker ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/09/19/the-sound-of-electricity/ Earlier today I was drooling over the Red camera. They are freaking HOTT. They look like some cross between a mad max car and a space satellite. The story I heard was that the guy who started Oakley sunglasses basically said something to the effect of, "The sunglasses ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/09/17/videocameras/ Nick and Danielle Bilton were the grand champions at the Cupcake Decorating Championships. Twelve contestants made it to the final round as champions and each of the twelve champions got a cupcake champion medal! Looking back, a lot of things went really well and I got a lot ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/09/16/cupcake-champions/ Tonight, at the second Ignite, I will be presenting the Cupcake Decorating Championships. Here's how it works: Alicia, Francis and I made slaved over a hot stove to make cupcakes all day today with an epic amount of butter and sugar. We, plus a few folks from Cupcakes Take The ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/09/15/cupcakes-decorating-championships-at-ignite-tonight/ The Great Kitty War Has Begun, originally uploaded by bre pettis. OMG! Neon monkey killed "The Golden Cat" in Berlin today! (Has a heart of gold now) Martin saw my design and made his own MK-1 on his own lasercutter. Physical objects can now travel at the speed of the internets! - ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/09/09/the-great-kitty-war-has-begun/ The MK-1 is a monkey on a mission to defeat the evil kitten empire. Buy Now! With your order, you'll get a a flatpack kit and an instruction comic book. I've made lots of prototypes so that the tolerances are really tight and they basically snap together. If by chance you ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/09/08/the-mk-1-flatpack-monkey-buy-now/ Update: New Times - My show has hit the History Channel website and they changed the time it will be airing and added another showing.  The new showtimes for History Hacker are September 26th at 8pm and Midnight. Hacking History - History Hacker, originally uploaded by bre pettis. They changed the History ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/09/08/new-time-history-hacker/ photo.jpg, originally uploaded by bre pettis. My buddy Phillip calls a lasercutter the best multi-tool ever and I have to agree with him. I've been working on a kit made of lasercut parts that I'll be releasing soon. Phooky went to the Buckminster Fuller show today at the Whitney ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/09/07/the-lazzzor/ I've got a few things still up my sleeve and I've got some sweet stuff planned.  If you want to stay updated, you can follow me on Twitter, join the history hacker facebook group, subscribe to my youtube channel, find all the things I think are interesting on the web ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/09/05/cunning-and-subtle-plans/ Update: Because the 26th is the first presidential debate, the show will be shown at two times on the 26th. Once at 8pm and once at Midnight. Even though this time change means folks have to change the settings on their DVRs, it's a very good development! I'm really excited.  I ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/09/04/history-hacker-history-channel/ Bill's magnifying glasses with lights., originally uploaded by bre pettis. This weekend I worked on projects non-stop. Friday night I stayed up late making this blog look all snazzy. Then As I was falling asleep, a storm came up and dumped approximately 5-10 gallons of water through the plaster ceiling into ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/09/01/weekend-of-hacking/ On September 15th, at the second Ignite, I will be presenting the Cupcake Decorating Championships. Here's how it works: I'm going to bake as many blank cupcakes as my little oven can stand. First come first served. There will be with some basic cake decorating materials so you can decorate ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/08/30/the-cupcake-decorating-championship/ Acrylic Sculpture, originally uploaded by bre pettis. Now that we've got a lasercutter at NYCResistor, I thought I'd get used to it by making some of Bathsheba's awesome designs! Check out the other one I made too. http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/08/30/acrylic-sculpture/ As you can tell I'm working on the blog here.  I should have it looking snazzy soon! Photo by aturkus http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/08/30/under-the-hood/ I love geometric art. I'd like to make my own designs, but to get started I put together a pattern from Bathsheba. I'm really pleased with this! http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/08/24/geometric-art-on-the-lazzzor/ I just whipped up this design in inkscape. Inkscape isn't too hard to use if you're not measuring things. I just eyeballed everything, which required some tweaking. I outputted a dxf file, uploaded it to my new little archive of public lazzzor files. Then on the lazzzor computor, ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/08/24/rapid-prototyping-is-the-most-fun-ever/ My friend Allison Kudla is an artist that creates art at the intersection of robotics and biology. She just came out with a new piece involving lasercut leaves that continue to grow. It's beautiful and so I asked her some questions to learn more! >> How did you come up with ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/08/03/allison-kudlas-living-bio-tissue-art/ NYCResistor, my pal Dina, me, and the NYC geek scene were profiled in the New York Times today. It's a good article and you can check it out online. Make sure to watch the slideshow narrated by my buddy Nick Bilton. http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/08/03/im-in-the-new-york-times/ I was invited to participate for a day in the 5-in-5 Challenge, a competition to complete a creative project every day for five straight days. The 5-in-5 Challenge takes place at the Interactive Telecommunications Program, a Master's program at New York University. If I could go back in time, ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/07/30/etsy-street-a-visit-to-itps-5-in-5-challenge/ I've had a number of inquiries about the rules of the soldering championship all set to happen at 7:15 at M1-5 this Tuesday. Here's the details that have been revealed so far. With solder irons blazing, and the power of molten metal at their finger tips, New York City's electricity enthusiasts and ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/07/27/nyc-soldering-championships/ Ok, we make things and we can make video. It's time for a collaborative project! What is your most essential or favorite tool? Make a video that shares your most essential or favorite tool. Feel free to do it in whatever style you like! Woodmosaics has already made one about ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/07/24/the-tool-project-begins-with-a-pedal-powered-table-saw/ And they are having a graffiti art show! Come check it out! My friend Michael Zeltner from Austria is going to be there showing off his insanely cool "drip sessions" project where he documents via video and programming the way that graffiti artists draw. Really totally rad. Be there ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/07/09/the-austrians-are-invading/ I made a pinhole lens from a camerabody-cap today for my digital slr. - Link http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/07/05/digital-pinhole-photography/ This weekend, take some time to escape from the business and stress of your daily grind and make a hammock and lay around in it. MP4 | Blip.tv | Youtube | iTunes | PDF  Watch the video and print out this snazzy PDF.  Now get to it!  You're going to need a ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/07/03/make-the-urban-hammock/ I'm writing a series of blogposts about the history of the Chaos Computer Club over at NYCResistor. I just finished the first one and I invite you to check it out. Update: Here's the second installment! http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/06/28/the-chaos-computer-club-1981-1984/ This is the last video in my "Getting Started in Video" series that I've been doing at Etsy. The easiest way to edit video is to shoot it in one take.  Here on the Etsy Video Awesomeness Team, we call those videos "One-Take-Wonders."  But you can't always get it in one ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/06/19/getting-started-in-video-editing-and-publishing/ Lotta Jansdotter just came out with a book about printing called Lotta Prints. I caught up with her at her Brooklyn studio and she showed me some tips and tricks for using stencils and yams to make prints! MP4 | Blip.tv | Youtube | Howcast | Subscribe in iTunes Lotta has created ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/06/12/stencils-and-yams/ When I was in my 20's, I daydreamed about getting a job making musical instruments and I came this close to getting a job at Dusty Strings, a musical instrument making shop in Seattle. This video that Tara made here at Etsy pulls on my heart strings. Part of me ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/06/09/making-guitars-etsy-video/ I just published a video with a sweet dog. Dogs are hard to shoot on video. They wiggle, squirm, look around at everything and in general don't do what you tell them to do. Last week I had a chance Kate Moss (the dog) about a dinner party she was ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/06/03/a-vintage-dinner-party-with-kate-moss-the-dog/ Last year, some friends and I launched and lost a balloon with a bunch of cameras on it and multiple ways of tracking it. You can see the videos that I made about that here and here. Recently I've been wanting to play around with gps/ham/aprs trackers and there isn't ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/05/29/aprs-data-transmission-using-ham-radio/ I use twitter and I love it, but recently I've been frustrated with Twitter's uptime and it's got me thinking about having the data of who I connect to as mine instead of being owned by a company. Chats with Kewagi and Potatono led to the start of a ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/05/26/a-dream-open-source-distributed-microblogging/ You've got a camera, you've got some shooting know-how, and your audio is sounding sweet. Now, what about lighting? This video shows you three options for lighting your video. The "free" option is to shoot in front of a window. The cheap option is to use clip lights and the ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/05/23/getting-started-in-video-lighting/ Last weekend as I was making the roof of my apartment into a squirrel-proof fortress, I ripped the knees of my jeans.  After wearing the shredded dungarees around for the rest of the day, I decided I wasn't the type of guy who can rock the ripped denim.  The jeans ... http://brepettis.com/blog/2008/05/21/denim-dilemma-holy-jeans-fix-your-dungarees/