DIY Camera Sling Keeps Your DSLR at the Ready
Standard camera straps aren’t the speediest or most comfortable. This simple DIY strap hack gives you the speed and comfort of a $50+ camera sling but at a fraction of the price.
We’ve shown you how to make a DIY version of the R-Strap system, this project is a DIY version of the Luma Loop—and is cheaper to build and requires less parts to boot.
You’ll need some basic parts like a laptop or other bag strap—the more padding the better!—a few inexpensive plastic buckles from a backpacking store, a keyring, and a 1/4-20 screw to secure the strap to the bottom of the camera. The project does require some stitching of nylon webbing either with a machine or by hand, but other than that the tool requirements are minimal. When you’re done you’ll have a comfortable way to carry your camera that doesn’t get tangled around your neck or restrict your movement with the camera.
Check out the link below for additional pictures and details. Have your own clever DIY camera-related hack? Let’s hear about it in the comments.
Build a Pizza Oven Out of a Weber Grill
We’ve covered building your own pizza oven before, from nice and cheap to really cheap. But none of these were crowned Best Pizza Food Cart by vlog Ah Nom Nom; that title belongs to San Franciscan PizzaHacker and his modified Weber Grill.
Sure, PizzaHacker’s pizza is delicious because it uses choice ingredients and a sourdough recipe to die for—but the other half of the equation is FrankenWeber, his modified Weber-grill-turned-mobile-pizza-oven. If you’re looking for an easy, movable outdoor solution to your DIY pizza needs, this might be the way to go:
Part of what makes this open air culinary spectacle work is the heavily modded Webber 22.5″ grill that’s been outfitted with fireproof blocks and a domed top comprised of refactory cement and perlite that’s been molded in the original Webber top. Using chunks of wood and charcoal, the Franken-Webber quickly reaches 1000F (the ideal temperature for cooking authentic Neopolitan-style pizza).
For a closer look at the FrankenWeber and its inner workings, check out the above video on Pizzahacker by Ah Nom Nom. There’s no specific how-to for building it, but it shouldn’t be difficult with the above materials and the close-up view in the video. If you’ve been hankering for some DIY pizza action but our past options just haven’t done it for you, this might just be the solution.
DIY PVC Laptop Stand for Exercise Equipment
When TV just gets too boring, there’s little else you can do to entertain yourself while on your exercise equipment. Reader Andy decided to stick it to boredom and build a laptop stand out of just some PVC pipe and some wire.
The design is fairly simple, and doesn’t even require any detailed directions. All you need to do is make sure you measure the size of your laptop, and build accordingly:
You can buy or fairly easily make a computer stand for a treadmill, because the consoles are fairly standard, or at least you can buy or rig up a standing desk to rest it on. There aren’t a lot of options for elliptical machines or exercise bikes that don’t have a lot of flat area to rest a laptop on, or oddly positioned hand rests get in the way. . . I finally just drew up a plan, bought a bunch of 1/2″ PVC pipe and fittings, and put this together. Then I tied it firmly onto my elliptical with wire (the foam rubber on the grips really helps here), and now my laptop fits securely in the space, and can’t slide around.
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No longer will you be limited to daytime TV while working out—this set-up is perfect if you prefer to watch Hulu, or if you just want to browse Wikipedia or your favorite software/productivity blog. If you’re looking for a more full-featured workspace, you could always go the Treadputer route—or, if you just want it to be a bit cleaner, you could mount the monitor to your machine (though that requires much more effort!). Got any other tips for using a laptop on incompatible exercise machines? Share them in the comments!
DIY Garage Parking Bumper Keeps You from Knocking Over the Bicycles
If you have a big car (or a small garage), you know what a commodity space can be—keep your parking perfectly spaced with an easy to build wooden parking bumper for only $10, courtesy of Lifehacker Reader Chris.
Chris tried several simple methods to keep from knocking down things in his garage while pulling up far enough that he’s all the way in, but the quality of solutions was tenuous at best—until he realized he could make his own wooden parking bumper (not unlike the plastic bumpers you could buy in stores) for under $10.
Both pieces are standard molding from the big box stores. My testing showed
that the rounded piece alone didn’t quite provide the “bump” needed to prevent over-running it. But the 2″ x 3/8″ extra strip beefed it up just the right amount for a gentle stop.
I glued the two pieces together, then drilled two counter-sunk holes so that the screw heads are recessed. I had 2″ concrete fasteners handy and I have a hammer drill, but you can drill the holes with a regular power drill and a good masonry bit.
The whole project only took Chris 20-30 minutes, allowing the glue to dry before drilling into the wood. Got your own parking tricks? Share them in the comments!
Make an Adjustable Car Dock for $2
Car mounts for GPS gadgets and smartphones are usually pretty costly, and they often only fit one device. DIY website Instructables features a simple guide for building your own that will fit virtually any—and for only about $2 in materials.
Especially now that smartphones are beginning to replace our dedicated GPS devices, you might need a new dock for your car—in fact, you may find yourself needing a new one every few years. Save yourself the cost by building one that will fit multiple devices, using just a few household materials.
The mount relies on a small nook or niche in your car to fit the base into, which shouldn’t be hard for a lot of cars. All it requires is some PVC piping, sheet foam (preferably of the self-adhesive variety), and a little heavy-duty plastic-coated wire. Building it is a cinch—it shouldn’t take you more than 10 minutes to hack one together, and doesn’t require anything more than some scissors and pliers. And, you’ll never have to plop down $30 for a mount again, no matter how many smartphones you go through in a year. Hit the link for the full instructions.
Build a Wall-Mounted Kitchen Computer
If you’ve been dreaming of having a computer in your kitchen but don’t like the idea of hanging it from a cabinet or having it clutter up the counter, this guide can help you build a sleek in-wall computer.
Putting a computer in your kitchen and having it look natural and part of the design is a big challenge. Ryan’s wife had been bugging him to put a computer in the kitchen so she could use it to access the internet, manage recipes, generate shopping lists and so on. She also had a pretty tall order when it came to the machine, she wanted it to be discrete, have a touch screen, be internet-enabled, with wires hidden and equipped with a barcode scanner for her to scan products and manage a kitchen database. Not dissuaded by such an ambitious list, Ryan set to work and built an in-wall computer that looks like it was designed and installed by a professional.
The build sports a touch screen, runs Windows XP with an interface cloned from the iPhone for easy finger-based navigation and use, and can do everything from displaying the weather to organizing the pantry. You can check out his build guide for detailed information including how he created the iPhone interface from scratch using the active desktop feature in Windows and coding a custom web page using icons he made and linking them to online services and software on the computer.
Top 10 Clever Kitchen Repurposing Tricks
It’s all too easy to spend hard-earned money on unitasking kitchen gadgets that aren’t all that helpful in the long run. Use the gear you already own, and some cheap household staples, to make your kitchen a better place.
Photo by cybrgrl.
10. Hang onions and garlic with pantyhose
Culinary stores sell fancy baskets and all kinds of other ideas for keeping onions, garlic, and similar staples dry and separated. Kind of ridiculous, considering you’re probably not looking to put them on display. Knot up an old pair of pantyhose and use them to hang onions and garlic vertically, while allowing the restricted air flow to preserve your aromatic items longer than an air-tight model. It’s one of pantyhose’s many alternate uses. (Original post)
9. Make perfect pancakes with a ketchup bottle
Pancakes are fun. Cleaning up after them is not. Lo and behold, the progression of ketchup and other plastic squeeze bottles into EZ-pour, high-volume dispensers makes them perfect for conversion into pancake batter dispensers (discovered via the Crafter-Holic blog). The price is right (free, if you buy ketchup), and the cleanup is as simple as shaking a bottle full of soapy water, or recycling the bottle if you don’t plan on future precise pancake pour projects. (Original post)
8. Steam scrambled eggs with an espresso machine
Next time you want to impress your guests with unbelievably fluffy eggs, skip the part where you watch the pan like a hawk on Ritalin. Beat together eggs, butter, and salt in a firm jar, then hold that jar underneath the steamer wand on an espresso machine. Turn the steamer on, then swirl until your eggs are soft but runny. Instant success, and your secret makes for a good morning tale. (Original post)
7. Trap fruit flies with a soda bottle
How-to site eHow explains how to cut a 2 L soda bottle into a fruit fly trap, one that lures the buggers in with sticky-sweet juice and keeps them trapped with, well, gravity and plastic design and such. It’s the fruit fly motel—they check in, but they can’t possibly find their way out. (Original post).
6. Clean a dishwasher with lemonade drink mix
It kind of makes one concerned about the thought of actually drinking something like Kool-Aid lemonade, but the citric acid in one drink packet is enough to clean the lime stains and calcium deposits that build up over time in the dishwasher. Give it a try—you’ll be surprised how well it breaks through the walls of grime (sorry, couldn’t help ourselves). (Original post)
5. Manage pot lids with vertical files & curtain rods
It’s odd that vertical lid and sheet storage is only a recent concept in kitchen design—haven’t lids been around for quite some time? Regardless of your kitchen’s age, you can upgrade its storage efficiency by creating vertical-oriented storage with very cheap tools. A vertical file holder can get the job done if it fits. If it doesn’t, squeeze some spring tension curtain rods into a tall cabinet and stash your cookie sheets, outsized lids, and other hard-to-stash items in there. (Original posts: vertical file, tension rods).
4. Cook pizza in a cast iron skillet
A well-seasoned skillet is a beautiful tool to behold, and it’s good for more than just scrambles and stir-fries. The Not Martha blog details how it can be used to cook a small pizza—the perfect size for when it’s just you and another eater, and a large pizza from the corner spot sounds like a bit of overkill. Plus, this one’s bound to be fresher, since you’re the one who pulls it off the heat when you’re good and ready to eat. (Original post)
3. Make a universal knife block with bamboo skewers
Bamboo skewers—from the dollar store or elsewhere—come pretty cheap. If you’ve got a long container, or can make one yourself, you’ve got a knife block that can fit nearly any knife you’ve got, no matter which brand or style. (Original post)
2. Roast coffee with a popcorn popper
Most of us have never truly experienced “fresh-roasted coffee.” And that’s a shame, since there are hundreds of thousands of unused popcorn poppers waiting to be converted into DIY coffee roasters. The Coffee Geek site has an excellent step-by-step picture walkthrough. It’s not as gourmet or controlled as, say, using a heat gun, but it is a lot more simple, and easy to work into a weekend routine of having the freshest coffee you can get available within 10 minutes. (Original posts: Popcorn popper, heat gun).
1. Do everything with your waffle iron
It’s a wonder they’re so prevalent in attics, basements, and garage sales, given that a waffle iron can be one of the most versatile tools in your kitchen. Given that it’s basically a heated, pressure-added mini grill, it can be put to all kinds of uses: making 90-second cookies, rolling your own waffle-style pizza pockets, and, our personal Sunday morning favorite, making bacon with far less mess than usual. “But,” you say, “I need even more waffle iron ingenuity!” We advise you run through the Waffleizer, a site dedicated to feeding your square-pocketed hunger. (Original posts: cookies, pizza pockets, bacon).
What common tools find new use in your kitchen? What expensive stuff have you put off buying by making do with what you already cook with? Tell us your money-saving, gadget-avoiding tips in the comments.
4 Fun Facts About Madonna’s Former Trainer
Tracy Anderson may not be Madonna’s trainer anymore, but she’s still a total fraud. The Daily Beast has a detailed indictment of her latest escapades, from which we’ve chosen four.
1. She makes bizarro YouTube clips with Gwyneth Paltrow.
See above. According to Jacob Bernstein’s Daily Beast piece, Anderson and Gwynnie are still BFFs, and in 2008 they made this weird little promo together (apparently with the help of Oprah’s production company) appeared on Oprah together. Note Gwyneth’s grim-eyed stare as she tells the camera, “I work out six days a week.” Also note what she perceives as her options: “when you’re 35, you either starve yourself, or you do serious cardio. But there’s no free ride.” I get that Gwyneth’s job dictates that she have what Anderson calls “a teeny-tiny body,” but what’s with the second person? When I turn 35, I’m heartily looking forward to neither starving myself nor working out with Tracy Anderson. Also, one YouTube commenter says Anderson’s workouts will leave you “looking like skeletors nutsack,” which I guess is body-snark but is also too awesome not to quote.
2. She even steals from herself.
In 2007, Anderson didn’t have enough money to outfit her LA studio. So she just started taking machines from the Indianapolis facility. As the machines disappeared one by one, she told her Indianapolis clients “the studio was simply undergoing maintenance.” Then one day her customers arrived for a class and the studio was completely empty. Invisible treadmills!
3. She never went to Juilliard, worked on music videos, appeared in Cats, or was sponsored by Carnation Instant Breakfast.
She claims to have done all of the above, but the Daily Beast could find no proof of anything in this grab-bag of impressive and unimpressive credentials (Carnation Instant Breakfast?). Tracy Anderson also did not invent the question mark, has not seen Obama’s original birth certificate, and cannot turn water into wine.
4. She calls going to jail “bummer times.”
In 2006, Anderson was very briefly jailed for the Dickensian crime of failing to pay the chimney sweep. The Indianapolis Monthly and The Daily Beast both persuasively accuse her of living a lavish lifestyle while ignoring her bills, but here’s how she describes the whole experience on her website:
There was a period of about 4 years in my life when I went through several “bummer times.” During this period, I got myself into an unfortunate situation in which several negative events happened to me because I let someone else take control of every aspect of my life from finances to business documents. My misguided trust led me to take on challenges I would never have dreamed of facing, and these events affected not only my business, but also my personal life and emotions.
That “someone else” is presumably Glynn Barber, an ex-boyfriend whose own version of events is that Anderson convinced him to invest in her business and then bled him dry. It’s a little hard to tell who is telling the truth about their relationship, but Anderson wants us to know her side — for our own good. She writes,
To anyone reading this who has felt hopeless or alone, I hope that my story can help you start to find the inner strength that you need to overcome and start healing, because no one else can give you the strength that you can give to yourself.
Tracy Anderson: firming the glutes, uplifting the soul.
Madonna’s Trainer Fights Back [The Daily Beast]
Tracy Anderson Method [Official Site]
Tracy Anderson Method : Madonna And Gwyneth Paltrow Workout [YouTube]
Earlier: Gwyneth Paltrow’s Celeb Trainer: Financial Charlatan
Celeb Trainer Tracy Anderson Wants To Give Everyone A “Teeny-Tiny” Body
Twelve Ridiculous Celebrity Car Poses
Celebrities have access to some of the world’s greatest cars. With some help from our readers we’ve found these twelve horrifying instances of them abusing, perverting and ignoring this privilege.
Celebrity: David Hasselhoff and Gary Coleman
Car: K.I.T.T.
Why So Embarrassing: It’s the creepy thumbs up that makes this picture awesome to everyone not in it.
Suggested By: F1Morgan, Scandanavian Flick
Celebrity: 50 Cent
Car: Pontiac G8 GXP
Why So Embarrassing: Though we love the car, it doesn’t particularly do it any good to get tarted up by 50 Cent on what seems to be the down-slope of his career. We bet Kanye could have sold more G8s.
Suggested By: BuickBoy92
Celebrity: Tim Allen, Martin Lawrence, John Travolta, William H. Macy
Car: Harley Davidson Bikes
Why So Embarrassing: The four of them look like a gay biker gang, but not in the good way. We do give them props for their realistic portrayal of the typical lame Harley owner in this shot from the film Wild Hogs.
Suggested By: Golferal
Celebrity: Michael Johnson
Car: C4 Corvette
Why So Embarrassing: Oh so 1990s. You may be fast, but you’ll never outrun this Glamour Shot.
Photo Credit: Mike Powell /Allsport
Celebrity: Mila Kunis
Car: Lexus SC430
Why So Embarrassing: We’re not big fans of the Lexus SC430, but it’s not particularly embarrassing. Parking it in a handicapped spot to grab a coffee is.
Celebrity: Michael Phelps
Car: Mazda6/Atenza
Why So Embarrassing: Immediately following his pot bust/gold medal marathon Phelps was tasked with pushing the Mazda brand in China. We’d probably start using drugs as well.
Celebrity: Andre Agassi
Car: Vector W8
Why So Embarrassing: Posing near a Vector W8 is only cool in a semi-ironic sort of way. In this case, Agassi is trying to show off all he has: big hair, awkward car, soon-to-be-ex girlfriend.
Photo Credit: John Russell/Getty Images
Celebrity: Danica Patrick
Car: Chevrolet Bel Air
Why So Embarrassing: Danica Patrick is talented, but she also understands the connection between her sex appeal and her ability to get sponsors. Unfortunately, this photo is just awkward. It’s supposed to be enticing and seductive but the strange outfit and uncomfortable look makes us wish we’d never seen this photo.
Suggested By: PowerMatic
Photo Credit: FHM/George Holz/JEGPhoto
Celebrity: Adam West
Car: Chrysler 300C
Why So Embarrassing: Adam West, Batman, drives an old man car. Whatever, he’s hilarious. He gets away with it. What he doesn’t get away with is the “NBR1BAT” license plate. Holy Vanity Plate Batman!
Suggested By: 57sweptside
Celebrity: Conan O’Brien
Car: Ford Taurus SHO
Why So Embarrassing: Yes, Conan O’Brien is trying to look ridiculous. Yes, we love the Ford Taurus SHO. This is embarrassing for Conan because his attempts at appearing silly fail. You look awesome Conan.
Suggested By: Nerdwa
Celebrity: Sting
Car: Toyota Prius
Why So Embarrassing: Really, the guy who wrote Outlandos d’Amour is suddenly out cruising town in a Prius. We thought tantric sex was about extending the pleasure. Hybrids cut it way short, Gordy.
Suggested By: JamesMarino
Celebrity: Michael Schumacher
Car: Fiat Work Van
Why So Embarrassing: Schumacher looks the part too well. Also, “the quick gardner” sounds like a bad German translation of a man who fires quickly in bed.
Suggested By: Mr_Sives_Remotoc.
Wii MotionPlus Review [Review]
The Wii MotionPlus, Nintendo’s hardware patch to make true on the promise of true motion-control gaming, is here. While it’s pretty damn amazing—it truly is 1:1 motion detection—it still isn’t perfect. And part of that is the software.
Click for gallery
The Hardware:
The are two components to the Wii MotionPlus, the hardware attachment itself and the software that supports it. The hardware, which consists of a sensor which detects rotation that hooks into the expansion/Nunchuk port of the Wiimote, allows the setup to feed back exact 3D positional information to the console. It still requires the other motion-detection systems of the Wii, including the sensor bar, which may contribute to the flaws of the overall system.
Here’s the best example of what we’re talking about. In Wii Sports Resort’s Swordplay mode, where you swing around a kendo sword, there’s a game called Showdown where you advance along a fixed path and swordfight about 50 continuous people. Even after calibrating your sword (Wii MotionPlus) at the start of the fight, the sword will go about 20-30 degrees askew after a few minutes of swinging, requiring you to recalibrate the system quickly by pressing down on the D-Pad. That wouldn’t be bad, except for the fact that the Wiimote is still susceptible to interference from bright sunlight through a window or any pair of incandescent lights it thinks are the sensor bar, which totally screws up your orientation.
But for the most part, it’s 1:1 motion. Wave your Wiimote around and the sword follows. You bowl or throw frisbees or swing a club or shoot a basket and the Mii on screen actually traces the actions of your controller. It’s a very different experience than the past three years of flicking around the Wiimote. If you control your environment (limit the amount of sunlight, don’t have any light bulbs to interfere), the hardware does what it claims.
The Software:
We tested it with the three types of games that are out now, Wii Sports Resort (Nintendo’s own offering that it’s been working on since the MotionPlus unveil at E3 2008), Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 (Golf) and Virtua Tennis 2009 (Tennis). We passed on Grand Slam Tennis since we didn’t think we needed to test two tennis games to get the idea of how tennis worked for the platform, and reviews on Amazon rate the two titles as more or less equivalent in MotionPlus usage.
Tiger Woods: The game lets you go 1:1 motion in terms of your swing, but still manages to keep the game a game. There are three modes of difficulty, basically how realistic you want to map your motions, with the advance mode putting the most control of drawing and fading into your hands. I’m not a golfer, so I can’t say with any kind of expertise how realistic this is, but it felt like what I was doing actually made a difference on screen. Instead of just going through any old swing, I had to pay attention to my form and keep the Wiimote face pointing the right way through contact with the ball.
The two questions that you have to ask are if the implementation actually makes you feel like you’re making 1:1 motions with the golfer on screen, and whether or not it’s fun. It is definitely fun, but it’s not exactly 1:1 in terms of being ultra realistic. As good as the Wii MotionPlus hardware is, the developers took the liberty of not making the speed of your swing reflect the speed of your swing in game. Point being, very few people can actually swing as hard as Tiger, so in order to make the game entertaining, they had to level the playing field. If you really wanted to do 1:1 golfing, you’ll have to pony up some club fees and go outside.
Virtua Tennis: Now tennis I do know, and Sega’s implementation definitely is not 1:1. In a MotionPlus tennis game you would imagine the avatar on screen taking his backswing at the same time you do, mirroring your forehand, backhand or even overhead smash windup. It does not. In fact, it still gets confused half the time as to whether you’re even doing a forehand or a backhand!
Trying to direct the ball crosscourt, down the line or up the middle is equally as futile—I could only get this to work accurately at most three shots out of five. The positional data from the Wiimote is there obviously, since other games have that data, but the game chooses to process it in a weird way. Like in golf, swings don’t map 1:1 in that the speed of your swing doesn’t quite determine how fast you swing. I can hit a decent serve, but I’m nowhere up into the 130s.
But the most annoying part of the game is the constant calibration. You have to point your Wiimote at the middle of the screen before every point (screenshot above), holding it still so the game knows where “front” is. Again, a huge waste of time when you want to be playing, and it puts the limitations of the platform in your face every few minutes.
As for the two questions of whether or not the game lets you feel like you’re playing 1:1 and whether or not it’s fun, we have the same answer. It is fun, but it’s definitely not 1:1. It’s a few steps up from Wii Sports Tennis (the first one, without MotionPlus), but it definitely isn’t a “realistic” tennis experience. You will, however, be able to get more of a workout since you’re trying to go 1:1 instead of just flicking your wrist. I’d imagine that this is similar to experienced golf players playing Tiger Woods; because you actually know what you’re doing, the fact that this isn’t quite 1:1 makes the process more frustrating.
Wii Sports Resort:
The fact that Nintendo’s own game is the best, both at showing the potential of the MotionPlus and in the implementation, should be no surprise. They developed the hardware and they’ve had the most time incubating their game, which makes Wii Sports Resort the most polished of the bunch.
I won’t go through each of the games—you can catch that on Kotaku’s review—but I will touch on some of the highs and lows. The previously mentioned Swordplay is pretty great, despite the quirks in the mode that caused frequent calibration issues, and really translates your swinging into sword motions well.
Frisbee and basketball and bowling and table tennis all fare equally well, and actually make you feel like you’re controlling what’s happening on the screen. It’s a feeling that was lacking from Wii Sports. Letting go of the frisbee (B button) at just the right time determines angle, height and power, and flicking your wrist in basketball actually determines the angle your ball approaches the hoop.
But the flaws of Wii Motionplus show up in games like archery and canoeing. In archery, you hold the MotionPlus with your non-dominant hand to aim the bow and pull your string back with the Nunchuk. The MotionPlus gets de-calibrated super easily so that “front” often means 30 degrees off to the side and 20 degrees down. And in canoeing (as well as table tennis), you have the problem of the Wiimote not knowing which side you’re pulling your controller to, so precision is not as perfect as you’d imagine.
Verdict
The hardware is a big step forward, but it’s not the end of the road. If I had to put a number on it, I’d say this was 80% of the way there to delivering true 1:1 motion detection in the hardware. Unless Nintendo releases a Wii MotionPlusPlus, I don’t expect that it will get all that much better in this generation, hardware-wise.
However, even with the slight limitation that the hardware platform has, the software can make up with it by allowing you to do things that cater to its strengths and avoid its weaknesses (like detecting which side of your body you’re pulling the controller towards). Sega’s tennis implementation, for example, is one that needs refinement, whereas swordplay and frisbee and basketball—for the most part—are fine.
But if your question is if the Wii Motionplus is fun, it definitely is. It’s the closest you’ll get to 1:1 motion gaming until either the Sony or Microsoft motion solutions come out in 2010. Go and give Nintendo some more of your money. [Amazon]
Really gives you the sense that you’re doing 1:1 motion
Wii Sports Resort is actually fun, and comes with one MotionPlus adapter
Not all games use motion equally well, with Wii Sports Resort being the best of the bunch now
Constant calibration in certain modes and certain games are annoying and somewhat of a waste of time
Houston-Hull, TX