Author: dave-o

Amazon has sold out of my geeky DIY/craft book . . .


. . . but the publisher, No Starch Press, still has copies on hand. Order directly from them if you’d like a book in time for Chrismanukwanza (or Winter Solstice, Robanukah, Kristallmass, whatevs you’re in to). Use the coupon code “SHRED” and save 35% (!!!). Every order from No Starch includes *FREE* ebook editions (PDF, ePub, and Kindle-compatible mobi). Alternately, if you want an autographed copy, you can hit me over email (dave[at]davideriknelson[dot]com) and we’ll work something out (an especially attractive offer for folks living in Washtenaw County, MI, since I can just hand you your copy instead of straining the already overburden USPS).

Nice, Quick Overview on Making Your Own Printed Circuit Boards Using a Laserjet Printer

FYI, this is basically a standard etching method, it’s just that they transferr the layout to the copper using “toner transfer”–i.e., a laser-jet printed copy of the circuit layout and a hot iron–instead of mucking around with photo-emulsion or tracing or what have you. Nifty!
Make Your Own Printed Circuit Boards on a Laserjet! – YouTube

*thank trek!*

I am a professional “content creator” and I am against SOPA and PROTECT IP

If you, your family, or friends are having trouble groking why folks are up in arms about SOPA and the PROTECT IP Act, take 10 to watch these Colbert Report clips (posted with rights holders’ consent and encouragement–or, damn, at least I *hope* so; otherwise they’re going to shut down this entire site and lock me up for 5 years [not a joke!; those are actual provisions in SOPA]).
Just to reiterate: I’m a professional writer. This is how I make my living: I write things, I sell those things, people send me checks; those checks aren’t big. I have royalty agreements on some stuff, but have yet to ever see an actual royalty check. (I also write other things, for which I never expect fungible payment; this is one of those. Since I read lots of things that other folks write with no expectation of seeing a check, I’m eager to likewise contribute to the largest and most accessible lending library in human history. Let us call this process “dropping a dime in the heavenly jukebox.”)
SOPA and PROTECT-IP do *nothing* to help or protect “content creators” like me. In fact, almost *nothing* that’s happened in copyright law since the 1960s has done anything to benefit the vast bulk of all artists; it *has* done a great deal to enrich corporate rights holders (who were often robbing those artists you love. Please see the biography of *any* bluesman ever for details.)
Here’s the takeaway: These laws bludgeon regular citizens–like yourselves–with no corresponding benefit to the workers who did the heavy lifting (and when I say “workers” I don’t just mean the writers, musicians, actors, etc. My *publisher* doesn’t use DRM on their ebooks; user-level piracy isn’t a threat to their business, and they know it). This law is for 1%ers.
As an independent business person and content creator in the economically depressed state of Michigan, I’ve contacted my reps raising these very points; they’ve been at best ambivalent. So, if these laws sound like a bad idea, and you want to contact your reps, that’d be great. Tell them David Erik Nelson sent you; he’s a “content creator” and he’s against SOPA and PROTECT IP.
SOPA Censorship Bill on the Colbert Report

Happy Non-Denominational Gift Buying Season! SAVE 35% ON “Snip, Burn, Solder, Shred”

. . . and get the ebooks (in PDF, mobi, and ePub formats) for *FREE*!

Order Snip, Burn, Solder, Shred directly from the publisher, use the coupon code SHRED, and save 35% (i.e., pay one fat quarter *less* than you would ordering from Amazon). And Amazon would nick you another $10 for the Kindle version, where-as No Starch tosses it in for free (along with a really slick PDF–pretty as hell on an iPad, if you’re an iPad person).
Buy a paper copy of my book for your cousin and keep the PDF for yourself–or, Hell, buy a dead-tree version for your cousin, give him the digital bundle on a thumb drive, and *keep a copy of the ebooks for yourself, just like Jake Sparrow would.* It’s fine by us! See if Amazon will give you *that* deal.
It’s about *sharing* the love is what we’re saying, and ’tis the season for that.

“Circuit Snippets” by T. Escobedo

If you have a little soldering experience–including building any of the electonics projects in Snip, Burn, Solder, Shred–then you’re ready for T. Escobedo’s “Circuit Snippets.” This document includes several dozen sound circuits (largely guitar effects, although they work with any sort of instrument you can plug into an amp), which range from the relatively common (e.g., distortion pedals, phasers, envelope followers, pre-amps, auto-wahs) to uncategorizable strangenesses. In terms of quality, many of these sound as good as mass-market stompboxes at one-tenth the price.
(The Synthstick entry has a bit more about Escobedo’s FolkUrban website, but the short story is that it was really cool, had lots of great designs for different instruments, and disappeared with GeoCities in October 2009. I saved PDFs of “Circuit Snippets” and the Synthstick, but many other Escobedo fans have done a much better job of archiving than I did, scooping up all of the audio samples, too. The “Circuit Snippets” mirror at Guitar HQ UK is one such faithful recreation of the old GeoCities page.)
“Circuit Snippets” by T. Escobedo

“The Synthstick” by T. Escobedo

For years, Tim Escobedo maintained the excellent FolkUrban website, which featured a wide array of instruments–both traditional and electronic–cunningly made from cheap, common supplies (lots of PVC and tupperware, grocery sacks, etc.) His projects were a huge influence, and served as invaluable templates to my tinkering; the synthstick was the first synth I ever built, and its VCO (the core noise-making circuit) found its way into many of my projects, as well as those built by my students (sharp eyes will see something very similar nestled at the heart of the Cigar Box Synth, Project 17).
GeoCities evaporated in October 2009, and Escobedo’s entire site with it. I archived the Synthstick and his collection of Circuit Snippets as PDFs, but these don’t include any of the audio examples. Happily, I’ve discovered that many other tinkerers loved Escobedo’s site as much as I did, and archived various chunks; Googling for “T. Escobedo” is a good place to start.
“The Synthstick” by T. Escobedo

“Making PVC Didgeridoos” by Steven L. Sachs

For years, Steven L. Sachs maintained a great page on didgeridoos. It largely concerned making PVC didges like the Electro-Didgeridoo (Project 11 in the book), but also offered info on modifying lower-cost store-bought bamboo and teak didges into instruments that, sonically, could often pass for their genuine (and expensive) eucalyptus cousins. When GeoCities folded in October 2009, it took Steven’s site with it. I’ve archived a PDF of his page, and humbly offer it here:
“Making PVC Didgeridoos” by Steven L. Sachs

A nifty little entry-level woodworking gift project


If you have a decently stocked tool room, then this is a great intro-level woodworking project with gift-quality results. FYI, even if you don’t own a Dremel or drill press (I don’t, the charger for mine died this past weekend), you can totally get by with just a hand-held power drill for this project, you’ll just need to be a little more attentive (and will likely get a slightly soarer arm–a drill is a lot heavier than a Dremel).
Project: Wooden Salt Cellar @Craftzine.com blog
Oh, and one safety tip: This project describes using some fallen wood from a fruit tree. If that’s not an option for you and you’re instead going to buy lumber, make sure and tell the salesperson what you’re up to: construction wood is very often sprayed with chemicals in order to prevent pests from chewing it up (arsenic used to be common, although I think that’s been outlawed in many States). A lumber yard will *always* be able to steer you toward food-safe wood.

LEGOs in Spaaaaaaaaaaaace!

collectSPACE – news – “LEGO figures flying on NASA Jupiter probe”

They have launched aboard the space shuttle, visited the space station, and flown to Mars. Now, three more “very special” LEGO figurines are set to fly to Jupiter with NASA’s Juno spacecraft.
The specially-constructed LEGO Minifigures are of the Roman god Jupiter, his wife Juno, and “father of science” Galileo Galilei. The LEGO crew’s mission is part of the Bricks in Space project, the joint outreach and educational program developed as part of the collaboration between NASA and the LEGO Group to inspire children to explore science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

If you’re wondering why they look so classical and funky, space.com explains:

The trio resemble the typical small toys that LEGO sells, but are made out of metal.
“They are basically the size of the normal LEGO figures which you will see, but they are made out of aluminum, very special aluminum and they have been prepared in a very special way,” [Scott] Bolton [principal investigator for the Juno mission and space science and engineering director at the Southwestern Research Institute in San Antonio] said. “They are made out of a special space-grade aluminum. They have gone through all the testing to make sure that they fit on our spacecraft in a way that is like our other science instruments.”

In other words, those are the most over-engineered LEGO minifigs you’ll ever see, kids.
(photo credit)