The Happy Tinkerer - Making Homemade Devices For The Fun Of ItWritten by Alan Detwiler
I've always liked to make gadgets and gizmos that have some function, either useful or not so useful. It started with simple things that many kids make - slingshots, a simple bow and arrow, a toy boat. Occasionally I made more involved items such as a canoe and a dune buggy. Then there was grass hut - 12 feet across, octogonal in shape, and thatched top to bottom with a thick layer of grass. I built it in a remote location, near a stipmine filled with water. Hauled cut grass in a 1972 Volkswagon convertible with top down. Piled grass high in back seat. It must have taken a dozen trips back and forth from a nearby hay field.Simple things appeal to me more than costly homemade items. A small project lets me pursue an interest without interfering with other goals. A project with a small amount of time invested seems more like entertainment. Time spent earnestly involved in creation of something designed and made with ones own ingenuity can be quite enjoyable. So now when I don't feel motivated to do more practical things I often turn to an idea about some device or other that I've wanted to try making but never got around to. I can recall many such improvised devices that gave me satisfaction and enjoyment. Ideas for things to make come from many places. Most often idea comes from some need. I do a lot of keying of text using a computer keyboard. I tend to keep room temperature a bit cool, cool enough that my hands become uncomfortable. I ended up rigging a length of electrical heating tape wound in a large coil-shape to surround keyboard. Tying heat tape to a large piece of cardboard keeps it in place. It does a nice job of keeping my hands warm. I can leave room temperature set where I want it. As far as I know, you can't buy anything like that.
| | Digital camera printersWritten by Jakob Jelling
The digital camera is not meant only for capturing images and storing them on computer memory disks. The real effect comes from hard copy of those fantastic images taken by users, that is printed photographs! In order to get printer copy of images a very important device necessary is printer. The digital image printing requires a few numbers of components that comprises total process of printing. This discussion is thus primarily focused towards analyzing and understanding this whole experience of digital camera printers.Scrutinizing in some more detail, it can be observed that in digital photography some really good and fantastic one-trick-pony printers have filled up market that are exclusively designed for sake of printing digital camera photos. These printers are not for purpose of printing everyday documents, simply because their cartridges and photo paper, that are sold together in single boxes, are not cheap and thereby economic for such purposes. Thus they are solely for reason of getting images into physical paper with a high degree of perfection and elevated quality. In these printers ink and paper are by and large sold together in single boxes, and average print costs to around 30 to 70 cents. However biggest advantage remains that these printers themselves are inexpensive.
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