io9: DIY

Blinky Light Combination Lock Keeps Aliens out of Your Quarters

Annalee Newitz — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 15:48:16 PDT

When I see scifi flicks from the 1960s and 70s, I always love the blocky, blinky lights on all the computers. Though they were obviously considered "futuristic" at some point before we all started fetishizing miniaturization and gesture-based computers. But now the DiY geeks over at Hackaday have found a way to make those blinky blocks into something useful: a keypad combination lock. Instead of keying a number sequence into it, you can key a color sequence. It's a great home electronics project, and it makes your front door look like it should open with that Star Trek "fffwwp!" noise.

Here's how it works: When you press each key, it cycles through three colors. You press the color you want. When you've got your color pattern set, all the lights flash green and the door opens. Obviously, if you want to be safe, you'll want to figure out a way to shield the keypad while you're unlocking it (this is a good idea with number-based keypads too).

You can go through all the steps to make this lock, from circuit boards to LEDs, or you can buy a pre-made keypad here. You'll still have to program it, though!

How to Make an RGB combination door lock [via Hackaday]

See Robots Dance and Kill This Weekend

Annalee Newitz — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 16:07:10 PDT

It's time once again for the inimitable RoboGames in San Francisco. This weekend, June 13-15, you can pack the bots in your hovercar, zoom out to the west coast of the United States, and spend 3 action-packed days ringside while robots small, medium, and sumo-sized beat the crap out of each other with saws, fire, and sheer kinetic force. There is nothing like seeing a 300-pound robot smack into the plexiglass inches from your face. Oh, and also there are robots who dance, play soccer, and do non-violent things too. Plus, art. RoboGames is basically a DiY robot extravaganza. Want to see what you're missing? Video below.

I was there when that happened. It was AWESOME.

Seriously, don't miss the RoboGames.

DiY Public Library Is a Low-Tech Beauty

LISA KATAYAMA — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 08:40:00 PDT

A new library in Casanera, Colombia shows us what humankind might have built with sticks and stones if they'd never discovered bricks, steel, and electricity. The Villanueva Public Library was built on a modest budget, designed by a bunch of university students in Bogota. And instead of importing fancy, expensive materials, builders used local timber and stones from nearby rivers to lower transportation costs. Then, instead of hiring experienced construction workers, they trained local people to build it.

The building consists of 32,000 square feet including a reading room, an auditorium, a children's library, offices, and open space for hanging out.

From the outside, it looks like a giant pile of stones or firewood. Images by Nicolas Cabrera

Villanueva Public Library, Colombia [Dezeen]

Can You Make A Science Fiction Film In Two Days?

Kevin Kelly — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 10:46:56 PST

If you're in the U.K. and have always wanted to make a scifi movie in two days with a bunch of your pals, it's time to test your fast-movie fu. Scifi film geekfest Sci-Fi London is launching its "48 Hour Film Challenge" on April 5th at the Apollo West End. Entrants will be given a randomly-generated film title, some dialog and a prop. They have two days to turn those ingredients into a movie "no shorter than 3 minutes, and no longer than 5 minutes" by April 7th. Those conditions don't sound much worse than what B-movie directors of the 1950s and 60s dealt with.

Other than those restrictions, the sky's the limit. Well, there is one other thing. According to the rules:

Use of a time machine or other similar instrument to stop the normal passage of time, giving you say 3 weeks to make a film in what seems like just a weekend to the rest of us - well, that is cheating and we won't stand for it - unless of course you use some kind of mind control and erase any knowledge of this rule or your cheating or the fact that the time machine was invented...

So you could use your time machine for ill-gotten gains, or just slip the judges (including director John Landis) a roofie for the same results.

Winners get a video camera. What? No Dalek-shaped chocolate cake?

Sci-Fi London [official site]

An Overload Of Scifi Toys

Kevin Kelly — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 18:51:30 PST

Phillip Torrone of the awesome DIY magazine MAKE: covered Toy Fair in New York City with a massive onslaught of photographs. While we told you about some of the items we wanted, Phillip went through his 500+ photos and tagged everything scifi related for us with "io9." What a guy. You can check out all of his scifi photos in the gallery below, and be sure to check out his blog at MAKE:'s website.

Make Your Own Mercury Porn

charliejane — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 14:30:23 PST

The Messenger Space Probe is flying past Mercury as you read this, taking pictures of the night side of the planet no human has yet seen. It'll be a while before we get images as cool as the 1997 NASA image on the left. But you can download realtime images from the probe's cameras, and combine them to make your own Mercury art right now. Click through for images and a tutorial.

NASA's Mercury Visualization Tool includes a slider bar. You can choose the time period of black-and-white images by the minute, the second and even the hundredth of a second. For each time period, there are images from the Wide-Angle Camera, the Narrow-Angle Camera and the sensor footprint. You can also choose a "phase" of the exploration, including WAC Approach Color Imaging or WAC Departure Mosaic.

Probably the best way to find the coolest Mercury images via this site is just to set a refresh rate of 1 second and then hit "play" on the slideshow. The site will jump forward in time a minute or so at a time. Just be prepared to hit "pause" when something good pops up. And then get ready to spend a few hours in Photoshop making your images sexier. Send us your best Mercury porn and maybe we can post a gallery. [Messenger Visualization Tool]

The Coolness of New "Heroes" Action Figures? Not So Much.

Kevin Kelly — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 14:00:06 PST

The most recent issue of Toyfare magazine came out yesterday, and it has a spread on all the new Heroes action figures that'll be out later this year. Since it's looking less and less likely that you'll be seeing new episodes anytime soon, it might be time to pick up some of these and bust out that video camera. Unfortunately, the Sylar figure does not have brain-eating action, so you might want to add your own visual effects. Maybe even ones that make these figures look a bit better because... yow.

A Lightshow Worth Freezing Your Ass Off Over

charliejane — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 06:30:23 PST

The super bright Comet McNaught loses its tail among the Southern Lights during a geomagnetic storm over New Zealand, in this photo from Minoru Yoneto. Comet-hunting requires a good telescope, a "Dobsonian reflector," and the willingness to freeze your ass off for hours. But then occasionally you get amazing photos like this one. There are tons more comet pics over at NightSkyHunter.com. [Night Sky Hunter]