MightyOhm

Ladyada of Adafruit Industries created the Tweet-a-Watt to monitor energy usage in her apartment.

Each Tweet-a-Watt device contains some power monitoring electronics and an Xbee module.  The Xbee modules relay energy usage data for each Tweet-a-Watt back to a single receiver, which collects the data.

In staying with the overall green theme of the project, Ladyada used an Asus Wl-520gU wireless router to control the receiver and collect data.  This is the same router I used for my Wifi Radio project!  The WL-520gU consumes ~5W and has enough horsepower to run the python data acquisition scripts while still acting as a cablemodem gateway.

More info:

http://ladyada.net/make/tweetawatt/expand.html

Steve Chamberlin created an 8-bit computer from discrete logic and called his project the Big Mess o’ Wires.

The BMOW runs at 2MHz and has 512K RAM and 16K ROM.  It is constructed with primarily 7400 series logic and over 1048 wirewrap connections.

The feature list is very impressive:

• It can multitask.
• It has VGA video output.
• It can make sounds and music.
• It even runs Microsoft Basic!

Here’s a video of a music test from his site:

I am completely blown away by this project.  Has someone invited Steve to the Maker Faire??  I want to see this thing in person!

Check out his site and prepare to spend at least an hour looking at all of his plans and construction photos.

Totally amazing.

Hubble image of the colliding Antennae Galaxies

If you haven’t seen this, check it out.  This is amazing stuff – and there’s still a whole week of images left before Christmas!

Hubble Space Telescope Advent Calendar 2008 – The Big Picture – Boston.com

Today I decided to take Zazzle for a spin and created a fun t-shirt for the site.

I used GIMP to create the design and remain impressed with this open source alternative to Photoshop.

Like the design?  Great news! Thanks to Zazzle’s marketplace, you can get one for yourself!

If you order before November 4th, Zazzle will give you $3 off the price of the shirt.  Enter promotional code 3OFFZAZZLETS during checkout.

Update: There is one for girls, too.

Visit my Zazzle Gallery.

Are you as handy with Java as your are with a soldering iron? Do you code by day and flash micros at night? Does writing cycle accurate code turn you on? If you answered any one of these questions with a resounding yes, this stylish shirt is just for you.

A little motivation in the form of a web comic.

936 Little Blobs