Category: DIY + Hacks

We used to feature lots of awesome PC casemods here on Technabob, but the rise of laptops and mobile devices has all but killed the desktop PC except for high-end gaming and professional workstations. So with that, the number and frequency of cool mods has decreased dramatically.

If there’s one bit of kit that’s essential to a proper steampunk outfit, it’s a pair of goggles. Sure, you could just go down to the army surplus shop and buy some old industrial goggles, or you could do what John Park did, and make the kind of goggles that Daft Punk would have had if they were a victorian era act.

Super Mario 64 is still considered one of the greatest video games of all time. Its combination of great 3D platforming and innovative control and camera scheme was pretty groundbreaking when it first came out back in 1996.

Survivor’s Eye of the Tiger will always be associated with Rocky III. After all, it was the theme song for 1982 boxing flick, in which Sly throws down with Mr. T. Given its era, it only make sense that the track would sound pretty darned good played on old computer equipment.

While most levitation is achieved with magnets, it’s also possible to suspend small objects in air using sound waves. Thanks to engineer Asier Marzo, you can even create your own acoustic levitator, which can float lightweight objects like water droplets, styrofoam beads, and even insects.

Operation was one of my favorite board games growing up – because it really wasn’t a board game at all, but an opportunity to play around with electricity and pretend to be a surgeon. So what could be better than combining this fun game than an edible version made from cake?

Who doesn’t like flamethrowers? Everybody but space bugs and fire extinguishers, that’s who. Now, Allen Pan of Sufficiently Advanced just went and made the best flamethrowers ever. You see, these wrist-mounted fire shooters activate their wearer throws a punch.

Binge watching your favorite shows is making you soft and doughy, but that’s okay – the Cycflix is here to help. Basically, the Cycflix is an exercise-powered home entertainment system that makes you workout for the right to watch Netflix.

When the Super Soaker was first released in 1990, parents were freaked out that kids would fill the toy with harmful chemicals like bleach. But they never saw this coming – a squirt gun that blasts molten liquid metal.

For all of the terrible damage and dismemberment that robots will surely bring in the near future, they also have their uses. Imagine taking a robot with you on a heist and having it crack a combination safe for you.

Many fans fondly remember LEGO set #1682, the Space Shuttle Launch. It was released 27 years ago, and is a classic. Well, last month Adam Woodworth created a tiny drone version of LEGO’s shuttle that could fly indoors, which was cool enough, but now he has created a larger version that can fly like an RC plane.

Thermal cameras are pretty nifty devices. They let you see the heat signature of objects by capturing infrared light. There are off-the shelf thermal camera devices like the ones from FLIR, but they’re kind of pricey, and not particularly friendly to hacking into your own projects.

We thought that we had heard the last of Flappy Bird, but it is back in a not so big way – on a Dreamcast memory card. The long-dead console still has a massive fanbase, so it is no wonder that one hacker has ported the game to the Dreamcast’s interactive memory card.

If you have ever wanted to know what you can do with a 10 year-old Roomba, check out what Roland Saekow did. He turned his aging Roomba Discovery 4210 vacuum into a racing bot. Watch it take on an obstacle course at UC Berkeley’s annual student vehicle challenge.

If you aim to become your city’s friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, you are going to need a few thing – a costume and a web-shooter for instance. Well, here’s one way to make your own web-slinging gear, even if you don’t have a wealthy benefactor like Tony Stark.

Why toss paper airplanes by hand, when you can have a machine take care of the hard work for you? Now you can make a semi-automatic paper airplane launcher for yourself. This thing is a cool paper airplane gun/paper airplane aircraft carrier in one.