Tricks of the Trade By Tim Lillis
Tech out that tinfoil.
Have a remote controlled
device that your infrared
remote won’t reach? Try
this low-cost IR repeater,
suggested by Andrew Turley
at
pillowsopher.com.
Using tinfoil, make a curved
plane, like a radar dish. You
can use almost anything
as a base, though you don’t
need one. I used an old business card holder.
Don’t worry about smoothing
out the wrinkles, they’ll actually help spread the signal.
Experiment with placement
for the best signal.
Now you can change that
song, channel, movie, or
how-to tutorial all from the
next room.
Have a trick of the trade? Send it to
tricks@makezine.com.
Timothy Benson is an embedded software engineer whose hobbies include
homebrewing, motorcycles, and music.
I-Wei Huang is a concept artist and
animator in the video game industry
and a steam-powered robot builder.
crabfu.com
Jeremy Kerfs is an avid runner and
robotics enthusiast.
Joe McManus is a network security
researcher at Carnegie Mellon
University and is off on adventures
in the woods the rest of the time.
Portable Espresso Machine
$169 mypressi.com
Feel the need to pack some serious espresso gear when you travel
far from a café? Me too. The next time you’re confined to a hotel,
tent, or non-coffee-obsessed relative’s guest room, consider bringing a Mypressi Twist. I’ve tried other portable espresso makers,
and they made disappointing quasi-espresso. The Twist is the real
deal. With a nitrous oxide cartridge and its specially engineered set
of tiny regulator valves, it generates the proper 9 bars of pressure
needed to transform fresh grounds and preheated water into a
nuanced, crema-topped shot of espresso.
John Edgar Park is the host of the
Maker workshop on Make: television.
Joseph Pasquini is an avid amateur
radio operator with a career spanning
over 15 years in the fields of information
security and systems management.
Christopher Singleton, a father of
three boys, is a maker, inventor, writer,
and product development specialist.
Bruce Stewart is a freelance technology
editor and writer, as well as an infrequent
contributor to Wired’s
geekdad.com.
Natalie Wolchover is a 23-year-old
ex-physicist who just dropped out of a
Ph. D. program at UC Berkeley to start
a career in science journalism instead.
Have you used something worth
keeping in your toolbox? Let us know at
toolbox@makezine.com.
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