Daily DIY

Leave a message for yourself with BrainCast, a new service that embraces the concept of the voice-mail reminder.

At one time or another, most of us have called our VM or answering machines to record a quick thought, idea, or reminder (e.g., “Don’t forget, tomorrow is Hawaiian shirt day”). With BrainCast, you dial a toll-free number, wait for the beep, and leave your message. Later, you can retrieve your messages online; the service sends you an e-mail notification so you don’t forget.

This is great for anyone who wants to archive, organize, and share these kinds of recordings. You can add notes and tags to your recordings and e-mail them to others (though I couldn’t figure out how to download them). However, you’re limited to calling from three different phone numbers (ostensibly home, the office, and your cell). Still, this free service (currently in beta) could definitely come in handy. — Rick Broida

Some time ago my girlfriend asked me if I would make her one of those telephone microphones like the kind that all of those hipster bands have. So, I of course told her I would. Much time passed… and then I made this.



This is designed to work with the old-style handsets with the carbon mics inside (see picture). It probably won’t work with most newer handsets.



I’m sure twelve year olds in 1994 used to call this a "purple polk-a-dot box." I apologize for my |33t h@><0r ignorance.


By: randofo

Some of you monkeys out there think you can PWN me. You need to be Spanked.

Here is an obfuscated ultraminimalized Monolith for you.

It is enlightening and harmless, except to the devil, who really hates it, because I’m letting you have it (for "free").



You’re curious. So Make it, if you have tools.


By: VIRON

I made this before we found out that music CDs from the store had viruses on them,

because I knew it was possible and suspected it was true.



I had to "fix" it today because the belt slips and the CD wouldn’t come out,

which gave me an excuse to un-make and re-make it.



Although I made mine in an external drive case it is actually easier to make it inside your (PC) Box,

but then there is the danger of someone being dumb enough to play the CD in the wrong drive.






By: VIRON

Music:

Option 1: play one sound file forward, copy it then reverse it, and then paste it on top of the original

and / or

Option 2: with midi : trigger sounds on a grid display in patterns that are the same left to right as they are right to left. for example, a triangle with an upside down triangle inside of it. It sounds good if the triggers make up notes of a chord. make the samples that are triggered to be sounds that are the same forward or reverse (see option 1).



Lyrics:

say what you want to say, then play it backwards and look for what it says. be imaginitive. for example i tried: "a cycle outside a cycle" and got "look outside, it’s light" when I reversed it. paste the first then the reverse (or vice versa =) ) spaced the same time from the center.



it may take a little work on the lyrics, you have to speak/’sing’ in between the two phrases. you can apply music: option 1 to the lyrics to help out.








By: jasonbates

Windows only: Open source app MediaCoder is an audio and video batch transcoder designed to give you super-simple conversion to and from some of the most popular media codecs.

Among other great features, MediaCoder’s Devices tab makes converting videos for your iPod, PSP, smartphone/PDA, etc. a breeze. MediaCoder is simple to use but does a lot. While I don’t do a lot of video conversion, MediaCoder is by far the most powerful tool I’ve used that remains easy to use. Am I wrong? Got something better? Let us know in the comments. Thanks Joe! — Adam Pash

A portable audio splitter for those who havn’t got an MP3, based on a small amplifier. All inside a 100ml bottle.


By: cornflakes

How to convert a vintage war-era headphone set and turn it into a working, usable set of ultra retro-chic headphones.



Complete the look at your office desk or cubicle by swapping your phone for a morse key.


By: deadinsect

This is a simple way to use your earbuds from your ipod etc as a backup means playing music for a small group of people. I got the idea when I saw someone cupping ipod headphones in their hand to get a slight boost in volume. This is a simple "what if" project, if you have any suggestions on changes to the design to help increase the volume let me know, that’s one the reasons I’m putting this up


By: geekboxjockey

How to clean a common headphone jack found on most portable devices. 1/8" jacks are found on most portable equipment (and with the proliferation of iPods, there are millions of such jacks). Being portable, the jack comes into contact with alot of grime and deals with many insertion / extraction cycles. This naturally gathers grime and grinds it in. A symptom of this problem is a scratching sound in the audio and sometimes premature wear on the jacks. But don’t fret, there is an easy and cheap solution to clean them with items found in your local mega mart. It’ so simple, you’ll do it often as preventative maintenance.



TRY THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK!!, YOU COULD SHORT SOMETHING OUT IF YOU ARE NOT CAREFUL, I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE



See the before pictures of the jack below. The white plastic really shows how much grime has gotten in there, also notice the flaky looking corrosion on the gold contact parts.




By: shoeBlade