Any of you remember the steampunk keyboard mod done by Jake von Slatt over at the Steampunk Workshop? For those who don't, let me give a quick run down of the website. Steampunk Workshop focuses on modding everyday items into steampunk themed artifacts done mostly by Jake and some by guest modders. The site contains some how-to projects and some build logs. It's an awesome site if you've got the steampunk bug like I do.


Make ran a feature today on a droolworthy project done by a chap named Dave Veloz. Using some of the mods featured on the Steampunk Workshop, he created an Mac Mini steampunk mod for his then fiance (they have married since then). Imagine the time it took... now that's dedication right there.


You can read more about the mod and see a picture of the happy couple over here.



More images & links>>

Are you perpetually self-conscious of your geek status? Are you always the first in line to get the latest gadgets so that you can show them off to your geek clique? Well… what better way to rack up the geek points than to create a roll-up keyboard yourself?


The people over at Instructables went all McGuyver and provided instructions on how to make a roll-up keyboard from your common, everyday junk. Yes my children, with a USB keyboard, a trusty screwdriver, stickers and a handful of nuts & bolts you can create the coveted +10 portable keyboard. It may not work that well, but what the hey – it kewl.


Now… if only someone would make a DIY Laser Virtual Keyboard…

Now this is really just a cross post of a DeviantART journal I made, but I plan on completing this guide on THIS site--since it's more appropriate. So here's part ONE, expect the rest once I finish this damn website up.


_Part 1: Set up Your Hardware
Chances are VERY good that, if you're reading this, you already have a PC. But, unless you're TV is already your PC monitor or you rarely use said device, you'll need a spare. How powerful it needs to be depends on the quality you ultimately want (i.e. HD or Standard Definition). What you NEED, however, is a sizable hard drive, a video card that can output something your TV can take in, a sound card (duh), and a TV tuner card of some sort.

Your HDD size should be big...but luckily large capacity hard drives aren't that expensive anymore. In my case, I was trying not to spend money (at least not a lot)...so I stuck with my spare PC's 80GB HDD. It works fine for my watching habits (so far)...but if you sit on your TV shows, you might need an upgrade.

The video card issue is very per-user. Again, in my case, my spare PC had a Radeon 9800 with DVI output--which my LCD TV takes in natively. DVI (like HDMI) is a digital connection, so I suffered no quality loss with this choice (which is good, since I was going for an HD DVR). If you're rolling a SD machine, this might matter less to you, in which case a S-Video output might be all you need (well, that and a corresponding cable).

I'm going to gloss over the sound card. You need to have one. If you want a nice speaker system, you need a receiver that'll take in whatever your sound card puts out. This is home theater talk...go bug someone at Best Buy about this.

Lastly is a TV Tuner. I'll touch more on the software side in part 2 but, for now, just note that you first need a TV tuner that's copacetic with your chosen operating system. If you're running Windows, you can simply drop by a Best Buy and grab something that'll work--but this may need more research if you're building a Linux or OSX DVR. Again, I'll get more into this in part 2--just expect to pay $60 - $180 for the TV tuner. Assuming you're using a spare that already had the previous hardware covered, this could be your only cost. In my situation, I only paid $40 (after $20 off) for an HDTV USB tuner. BTW, even if you AREN'T going the HDTV route, I'd recommend going ahead and spending the extra for an HDTV tuner card vs an SD only card. They're fairly mainstay now, and you're likely to upgrade your TV in a few years and would like to be ready.

More to come...


[Photo credit: Stratic]

tags: DVR, Record, DIY, Old, PC