In December 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek reported that LEGO Friends was launched, a LEGO product line aimed to appeal to girls. The product line, which consisted of predominantly pastel-colored bricks and stereotypical themes, drew worldwide attention and controversy. Now, according to CNET, Adafruit Industries founder Limor “Ladyada” Fried (who has a Masters of Engineering from MIT) has worked with LEGO artist Bruce Lowell to create Ladyada’s Workshop, a LEGO version of Fried’s Adafruit workshop meant to inspire girls to pursue interests in engineering. The set has been submitted to LEGO Cuusoo, a site where LEGO set concepts can be voted on to become a real product. If Ladyada’s Workshop concept can get 10,000 votes, it will be made into a real LEGO set. “So now it’s up to you, if you want to celebrate art, design, science, engineering and open-source hardware place vote for ‘Ladyada’s Workshop’.”

Ladyada’s workshop is a place where you explore all the cool things you build and use when you’re an engineer! Computers, pick-and-place machine, laser cutter, soldering station and more! In Ladyada’s workshop you can run your own open-source hardware electronics company, complete with Mosfet the cat.

This is Ladyada’s desk, she uses a computer, a soldering iron, microscope and other tools to design electronics!

This is a pick-and-place machine. It uses cameras to pick up super-tiny parts to make the circuit boards you’d find in computers, cell phones, TVs and pretty much anything electronic!

via Geek Gestalt

photos & images by Bruce Lowell for Adafruit Industries

Bio Computer by tech enthusiast Mike Schropp is a homebuilt computer that doubles as a planter for wheatgrass. The heat from the CPU warms the soil above, which aids in the germination and growth of the wheatgrass. Schropp built Bio Computer for his five year old son.

Thanks to Mike Schropp for the tip.

Brock Davis cheered up his grumpy kids at breakfast by making a Banana Peel Trucker Hat for a banana to wear.

Brock describes how to made it:

1 or 2 bananas. One to make the hat, one to model the hat. This could also be made using one banana. Carve the shape of the hat using an x-acto knife. Leave one of the banana peel sides longer, to make the rim of the hat. Most bananas come with a little sticker. Use this sticker to serve as the logo on the hat, if you want your hat to have a logo.

Simple project, takes about 5 minutes yet the memories will last a lifetime.

via Brock Davis

image via Eva Giselle

Graphic designer Eva Giselle and web developer Jesse Lupini recently discovered that a bottle of beer can be opened with an iPad adapter. Lifehacker reports that it can be done with most any Apple power adapter.

image via laptopbatteryinc.co.uk

via Lifehacker

Hacking Autism is an ambitious project to develop free software applications to improve the lives of people with autism (video). Last Fall the project hosted its first hackathon, which focused on touch-enabled applications for the autism community. Hacking Autism recently released their first app, Mihi, a simple iOS app that helps kids communicate their feelings. Hacking Autism is sponsored by HP.

On April 20th, hackers at MIT converted the Green Building on campus into a giant playable game of Tetris (video).

via BostInno & Hacker News

photo by Erik Nygren

5th Ave Frogger is a hacked version of the classic video game Frogger that captures the positions of cars on 5th Avenue in New York City and maps them into the game in real-time (video). The game was developed by art director Tyler DeAngelo. He recently set up the game by 5th Avenue so pedestrians could give it a try.

via BetaBeat & engadget

The Hackerspace Passport by Mitch Altman encourages hackers to visit far-flung hackerspaces around the world. It is for sale at Adafruit Industries.

Hope Number Nine, the 9th Hackers On Planet Earth conference, takes place July 13 to 15 at the Hotel Pennsylvania in New York City. The Yes Men are this year’s keynote speakers. The event is organized by 2600: The Hacker Quarterly, and a portion of ticket sales during the month of April will go to the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Floppy disk enthusiast Dweller has been grappling for some time with how to archive his personal collection of 5000 3.5″ floppies. So he built a Floppy Autoloader that automatically copies and photographs a floppy disk in about three minutes (video).

via Hack A Day

KettlePizza is a hood-like attachment you place on top of your ordinary kettle grill so you can make pizza (and other baked treats like cookies) outdoors.

Imagine authentic woodfired pizza from your kettle grill.

Making cookies

via The Awesomer and werd.

“Computer Security: You Make The Difference” is a 1990 internal AT&T video about computer security issues and in particular, the dreaded hacker.

With effective computer security measures, this hacker will only waste his time and ruin his evening—not our corporate future.

video via AT&T Tech Channel

On January 17, a transatlantic conference call between investigators for the FBI and the UK’s Scotland Yard was compromised and recorded by Anonymous hackers. The subject of the call: the international criminal investigation into Anonymous. For more information, see The Guardian’s article on the hack.

via TPM Idea Lab

“The New French Hacker-Artist Underground” by Jon Lackman is a fascinating Wired article about the French UX collective, a shadowy group that uses covert actions to preserve neglected historical and cultural treasures in Paris. Over the past 30 years, the group has infiltrated art museums to demonstrate security flaws, and says it has completed 15 covert restorations, including the 2006 repair of the Pantheon clock:

A cadre spent months infiltrating the Pantheon, the grand structure in Paris that houses the remains of France’s most cherished citizens. Eight restorers built their own secret workshop in a storeroom, which they wired for electricity and Internet access and outfitted with armchairs, tools, a fridge, and a hot plate. During the course of a year, they painstakingly restored the Pantheon’s 19th- century clock, which had not chimed since the 1960s.

Thanks to Deborah Yoon for the tip!

photo via UX

Make has released their 2012 edition of the Ultimate Kit Guide, a special issue of Make Magazine with reviews of more than 175 DIY kits, from robots to food to siege weapons. Along with the guide, Make has started a new website dedicated to DIY kits, Make: Kit Reviews. And during the holiday season, Make is giving away a kit a day.

Make: Ultimate Kit Guide 2012, hitting newsstands just in time for the holidays, brings you top kits of all kinds, from beginner’s crafts to wooden kayaks to advanced robotics and everything in between! Whether you need a gift for the do-it-yourselfer who loves making things, or want to find the best kits to build yourself, this special issue will show you the way, with reviews of 175+ kits selected by the editors of MAKE.

We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists, directed by Brian Knappenberger, is an upcoming documentary about notorious hacktivist group Anonymous (trailer). The film is scheduled for release in early 2012.

We Are Legion is a documentary about Anonymous and hacktivism. The film explores the historical roots of early hacktivist groups like Cult of the Dead Cow and Electronic Disturbance Theater and then follows Anonymous from the early days of 4chan to a full-blown movement with a global reach.

via Epic Win For Anonymous

The web app, LoCreep, is a sort of “LoJack” for identifying and mocking creeps based on information derived from their phone number (but not identifiable information like names or social security numbers). Essentially it works like this: a woman signs up for LoCreep, she generates a number to give out to barroom lotharios and when the “creep” calls her back, his voicemail is transcribed with Twilio to a text message. That text message is broadcast to all her subscribed friends and then the mocking begins. After they have participated in a hearty round of schadenfreude, the women can then earn LoCreep badges. They can also research phone numbers.

Developed by college students Misha Ponizil, Randall Hunt, Paul Lee and Nabil Hassein, LoCreep won third place at the hackNY Fall 2011 Hackathon, a “24-hour coding events in which NYC startups present their technologies and students build original applications based on them”. It was most recently demoed by Andres Campanella and Misha Ponizil (cameo by Rebecca Zhou) at New York Tech Meetup on November 2, 2011. Xconomy New York reports that they are “not yet seeking funding but will once there is a solid business plan in place”.

via Betabeat

MacKenzie Smith of Grilled Cheese Social shows you how to make a grilled cheese sandwich using a sideways toaster.

via My Drunk Kitchen

photo by MacKenzie Smith

Using a four-player 1975 Bally Wizard pinball machine, Canadian Alan Amon has converted it to an atomic alarm clock “an arduino, 8 relays and a gps”. He has posted the entire howto directions on Instructables.

One of the more common problems faced by pinball collectors is where to put the next one. The thought came to me one day – what if I could re-purpose the pinball machine? I could then replace an existing appliance with the pin and my problem would be solved. With that in mind I converted my 1975 Bally Wizard into the most accurate clock in the house. And all I needed was an Arduino, A GPS receiver, an 8 relay board and some assorted odd bits.

via Instructables

Hackmeet is a conference on hacking and activism hosted by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and San Francisco hackerspace Noisebridge. The conference runs October 15 and 16 at Noisebridge and is free (donations accepted).

San Francisco hackerspace Noisebridge is celebrating its third anniversary with a Hacker Prom, October 1, 2011 at their Mission district headquarters.

It’s been 3 years since we initially opened our doors to all kinds of hackers from all parts of the world. Time to celebrate, hacker prom style! Bring a date (robots are totally allowed) and come on down to Noisebridge to relive those awkward moments from high school with your fellow hacker/maker.

Noisebridge has been featured on Laughing Squid a number of times. Here are some highlights:

- Noisebridge Has A Space Program
- Noisebridge Attempts to Teach Science To Juggalos at Insane Clown Posse Show In San Francisco
- KQED QUEST Tour of Noisebridge Hackerspace in San Francisco

photo by Opacity

photo via Power Racing Series

The Power Racing Series is an auto racing series for hacked Power Wheels toy cars. The event is aimed at hackerspaces and races take place at midwestern Maker Faires. Founder Jim Burke is raising funds for the 2012 season on Kickstarter.

The last race included over 22 cars, and got us noticed nationwide. Wired Magazine just ran a short piece on Power Racing Series in their October issue, and we will also be getting a blurb in the November issue of Make Magazine. We’re expecting even more cars and more races for the 2012 season. Unfortunately, our pocketbooks are saying otherwise.

Video Riot by artist Scott Draves is a site that lets users create psychedelic mashups of any YouTube video thanks to the magic of WebGL (currently enabled on Chrome and Firefox). For example: crazy time acid trip Keyboard Cat.

The effect is based on video feedback implemented with WebGL and its shading language, which means most of the work is done on your GPU. The videos are in WebM format which works on Chrome and Firefox.

Russian artist Morskoiboy has created a hydraulic cocktail typewriter that dispenses alcohol with each keystroke–in effect, turning words into cocktails. A most remarkable feature of the machine is only viewable on his making-of video at the 1:45 mark: witness the revolutionary Liquid Alcohol Display.

via reddit

German artist Tobias Leingruber recently installed a USB flash drive “dead drop” in a former NSA listening post near Berlin (see a video of the operation by Eddie Codel). According to Leingruber the drive contains secret cold war era files. Leingruber’s dead drop is part of an anonymous peer-to-peer network consisting of USB drives installed in public locations. The term originally refers to a communication method favored by spies in which messages between agents are exchanged via a hidden location (so the agents never have to meet).

photos by Eddie Codel