A mermaid’s purse is the iconic protective egg case of certain oviparous (egg laying) sharks and skates.
Here’s another version, made of crepes, perfect for protecting your eggs at breakfast time. Continue reading A Mermaid’s Purse, for Breakfast
Yearly Archives: 2012
Capitalism Works For Me! True/False
Start a conversation about capitalism and friends edge away slowly, and strangers even faster. This is what art is for. This is what art does well. It creates a space where new ideas and perspectives can be explored. A space unlike any other.
Basics: Introduction to Zener Diodes
Zener diodes are a special type of semiconductor diode– devices that allow current to flow in one direction only –that also allow current to flow in the opposite direction, but only when exposed to enough voltage. And while that sounds a bit esoteric, they’re actually among the handiest components ever to cross an engineer’s bench, providing great solutions to a number of common needs in circuit design.
In what follows, we’ll show you how (and when) to use a Zener, for applications including simple reference voltages, clamping signals to specific voltage ranges, and easing the load on a voltage regulator. Continue reading Basics: Introduction to Zener Diodes
Profile in the SF Chronicle
“In recent times, they have helped create an accepted definition of open source hardware, participated in the annual Open Source Hardware Summit in New York, and are in the exploratory stages of building a foundation to support open source hardware.”
You can read the rest of the (front page!) article here.CNC halftones with ASCII art
Recently we have seen some fantastic DIY examples of CNC image carving with traditional halftones and alternative versions with regions generated with reaction-diffusion equations. More impressively, all of this is now possible with freely available, homegrown software released by the people behind those projects (Here and here.)
Seeing these examples reminded us of another “classic” method of making halftones: ASCII art. In what follows, we walk through the process of using making CNC halftones for engraving or carving from both vintage and automatically generated ASCII art. Continue reading CNC halftones with ASCII art
