Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with make

Help! I need some Beatles!

etc. — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 20:41:44 -0800

Making a Beatles DVD from YouTube videos. Looking for suggestions for clips. For our family's second annual MAKE our Christmas presents party, I drew my sister-in-law. She's a huge Beatles fan. She owns a fair amount of albums and reads every book about the Beatles she can get her hands on, so I was thinking of grabbing a bunch of YouTube videos and making a DVD compilation. (I'm also going to make a few other things, just in case you think this is too weak from a maker standpoint.) I realize they won't be HD quality (to say the least), but she won't care. She's not web savvy, so she'll never find this stuff on her own and would just be happy to have it.

The question is, if I want to make a 30-45 minute DVD, what YouTube videos should I grab? I searched YT for rare Beatles stuff, but I quickly realized--being only a casual fan myself--I don't really know what would turn a die-hard fan on.

I thought this would be a fun beginning, and I think this Lennon song would be great too, but after that I'd love to hear your suggestions. Rare stuff in general would be great, but fantastic clips of their more familiar stuff would be fine too. I'm thinking I'd like this to be more music video than a behind-the-scenes documentary, but I'm happy to hear all vid suggestions.

She's the kind of person who would put such DVD on in the background and play it over and over. If you were her, what clips would you want on such a DVD?

Much obliged for your help.

What non-food consumables can I make for holiday gifts?

mr. remy — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:07:08 -0800

I want to make lots of neat little gifts to give friends for Christmas. I'd like these gifts to be useable, elegant, consumable, and grown-up (not decorative, artsy-fartsy crafty crap). My recipients are Pragmatic New Englanders, and would be irked receiving potpourri, eye pillows, embroidered towels, door-hangings, pine-cone-bird feeders, or anything of that ilk. Hence: consumables. In the past I've had past successes making figgy pudding with brandy butter and a collection of homemade ketchups, relishes, mustards, and chutneys, but this year I want to move out of the kitchen. Blow me away with millions of amazing little home-made gift suggestions. Trio of caveats:

1) Soap initially seemed like a good idea, but now feels expensive to start, if I want to do anything but melt-&-pour.

2) Not into making fabric/textile art. I'm okay doing crafts, but I'm not – 29 year old male – gonna learn to embroider/knit/needlepoint. Also not consumable.

3) I have no access to a woodshop, specialty tools, nor lots of $ to spend on these projects. My kitchen, however, is loaded to the gills with specialty equipment I could commandeer in the name of the holidays.

Please make this Libirum stop spoiling my water

reverendjim — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 09:45:40 -0800

My doctor recently prescribed some Librium for awful stomach cramps. It seems that it is making all my food and drink now taste just terrible, like it's all got nutrasweet in it. I know the simple answer here is "just stop taking it", but that's really not an option. The Google is useless on this, and I really miss drinking water that tastes like water, and not water with some awful chemical in it. I guess, long question short: Is this the medication causing this or do I have a brain tumor?

Where can I make money online?

ptsampras14 — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 12:03:01 -0800

Where, oh where, can I make money online? I have a great computer expertise! Help! Where can I make money online? I have excellent computer expertise (not programing) but am quick to learn anything with a computer.
I am also a good writer, and am good at helping others with computers. I am not opposed to doing mundane tasks such as moderating web boards, or customer service..
I have tried online surveys with Pinecone Research but I have made $18 in two months and I am looking for something more,

Real life hobby for someone who enjoys building structures in computer games?

wastelands — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 17:10:18 -0800

Real life hobby for someone who enjoys building structures in computer games? Recently I enjoyed creating awesome defensive lines in Plants versus Zombies and playing the engineer class in Team Fortress 2. I loved Legos as a kid. Whenever I play a board game with friends, I'm always building little towers out of the pieces.

My question: What's a good non-software based hobby that would be good for someone who likes building structures? Bonus points for something that's not super nerdy. I don't really see myself painting Warhammer 40K miniatures or anything.

Thanks!

I need a pal!

WowLookStars — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 04:35:34 -0800

How do you make friends in a small town? My boyfriend and I have recently moved to Paris, TX (we'll only be here for the next couple years). It's got about 30,000 people and one quiet Junior College. As the more extroverted half of our rather introverted relationship, I've been trying to meet people to turn into friends. It's not going well.

My usual approach in a new city is to start on Craigslist, meetup.com or local websites and find events to go to. Craigslist doesn't really exist out here, and I haven't found any local (or regional!) communities. I've checked every bulletin board I can find at the grocery stores and the junior college. Only found one posting for an anime club, and we don't watch anime. Facebook doesn't even recognize Paris, TX as a real location, so I can't find gatherings that way.

Plug 75462 into Meetup.com and the results are... not encouraging. The closest Metafilter meetup is in Dallas - that's a 3 hour drive one way. I can't run one, can I? I'm really quiet here. Is there anyone nearby to come?

I haven't ever had trouble making friends before - it always just sort of happens when you're around a group of people, yaknow? :) Plus, I can strike up a conversation with almost anyone, given the chance. My problem is that I can't find any nice non-religious groups. This town is REALLY into their churches, so I suspect that social networking starts there. I don't want to join a church!

Little bit more background - we're 25ish, college degrees, and tend to be environmentalists and liberals, but not argumentative about either topic. We like hiking, kayaking, board games, and the occasional alcoholic night. Where should I look for new friends?

Bonus difficulty: Up until the last election, it was a dry township. I get the impression that these folks look down their nose at alcohol when in public, and voted through the change in private.

How can i get rid of my white panda eyes after a skiing holiday?

freddymetz — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 18:24:13 -0800

How can i get rid of my white panda eyes after a skiing holiday? After wearing sunglasses while skiing, that area remained white while the rest of my face tanned!
What can i do about this? Ideas that come to my mind are to continue tanning with a balaclava or to apply some kind of make up that will cover it up/even it out.
If anyone really needs a picture to answer my question, i can take one!

Tactile reminder device

jinatrix — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 16:41:45 -0800

What sorts of vibrating reminder devices are out there? The goal: I am looking for a small (pager-sized or smaller) wearable vibrating device that can be programmed to vibrate at certain intervals to serve as a tactile reminder system.

The requirements are: 1. it must be wearable, preferably on the ankle (out of sight), 2. it must be able to reliably go off at any programmed interval for a set number of recurrences or until manually stopped, 3. it should be relatively inaudible and not sound like a chainsaw.

Even better if it has some or all of these features: variable vibration strength, multiple vibration patterns (e.g. pulse length, number of pulses), countdown timer, daily alarm.

I am aware of a few products such as the epill reminder and invisible clock but am looking for alternate options to see what's out there. Also, I am open to suggestions involving a DIY approach, if anyone knows how to cobble something like this together using easily obtained components.

I'm a 35 yr old single male with no ties to anyone, totally alone and miserable. I need friends but I'm too untalkative and I can't change..

Anonymous — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 18:27:54 -0800

I'm a 35 yr old single male with no ties to anyone, totally alone and miserable. I need friends but I'm too untalkative and I can't change.. I'm in a real tough spot. I'll just give a rundown of the current situation. I'm 35.. I look a lot younger though. I make a good buddy.. like the steve buscemi character in big lebowski.

I known a few guys who were like the dude. Actually, more like john goodman's character. Older, big fat guys who still check out hot 21 year olds, who are perpetual losers, but lovable guys. I got a friend like that..not a loser though.. but you know, kinda a manly man kind of guy. Big, chunky balding, has a med. marijuana card, that kind of guy..

I'm like this short, youngish looking.. minority.. totally random. I usually make odd-couple friendships. Like those old cartoons.. the big dog, and the little dog hopping around him. I'm the little dog, only quiet. I usually pair up with the talkative big dog who talks a wee bit too much to repel everyone around him, so he turns to me and because I don't talk much, I pay attention.

So I wind up in that tough spot because I too become sort of annoyed, but then he's the only friend I got. I got no confidence to be friends with the people I think I really should be with.

I'm just not talkative, and I can't help it. That's how I am. I never thought early on.. hmm, I should talk more. No, I just do my thing.. I had friends before.. I'm fine how I am.

When I try to force myself to be more talkative in that way you need to be to make friends, it just doesn't go good. I become unfunny.. or just awkward. I relate more to guys like robert deniro who become really awkward when interacting with really normal social kind of people.. and sometimes you think they're better off as quiet..

It's hard. I don't got any friends anymore and finding new ones is.. not only difficult, but it's making me sink further into this isolation, depression, you name it.

What can I do??? What??

Twelve talented hands and 4 days to make something. But what?

Ookseer — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 11:44:20 -0800

Six reasonably talented and experienced makers-of-things, lots of tools, a few hundred dollars in supplies, lots of space, and four days. What can we build? It's a bit of a family reunion at the farm, and we're all the kind of people who grew up making and building stuff. There will likely be more than six people once all the spouses and children are counted, but we're all adults, and we all know how to use tools. (We all subscribe to Make magazine, for example.) To give a rough range of skills we have everything from a fine woodworker to a prop-maker for a major theater. One is a professional artist, another makes trebuchets for fun.

We've thought about doing a Junkyard War's style challenge (Split into teams, and both try to build the same thing.) but we haven't really come up with anything that is both fun and challenging, but that also isn't going to be huge amounts of work and stress.

Limitations:
- Two of the six people have movement disabilities, but will still need to participate somehow, even if only in the design.
- It should be a part-time project. We threw out the idea of a deluxe tree house because it would probably take too much time.
- Ideally it would last outside for a few seasons, as a bit of a memorial to the long family weekend. If it can be useful, all the better.

Some ideas so far: Kinetic sculptures. Some kind of tensegrity structure. Giant trebuchet (except we've all built small ones before.) A wind-powered.... ?

What else?

how to manufacture 1000+ units of new, custom fabric based product?

nolnar — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 05:19:44 -0800

I've made a new fabric product that I hope would sell 5000+ units. For viable efficiency I need to buy manufacturing of the product or its parts. I don't want to reveal my product idea, but let's use a SLR camera bag made in sturdy fabric as an example. My product has similar materials, size and complexity. How do I go from there? background: I lack previous experience from buying manufacturing of a product. (I also don't have business experience but I'll focus on that topic later so leave that for now)

questions:
(1) Are there companies with online services that take blueprints/prototypes/CAD-designs of a fabric camera bag type of product as input and output a number of units (100, 1000 ...) of either the completed product or parts for me to assemble?

(2) Are there for fabric camera bag type of product similar services to to print-on-demand book publishing or what http://www.cafepress.com/ et al offer? That is, I input the design and the company hosts my product page, handles the customers payments and manufactures and sends out the product. I get a portion of the money from each sale.

(3) Are there detailed product catalogs with generic standard parts to buy in bulk for this type of product? Something similar to the extremely detailed catalogs of electronic and mechanical components available from many companies. So for a fabric camera bag type of product there would be standard should straps, side pockets, plastic clip-on joints and so on in various shapes, sizes, colors and materials.

Note: I know that there are various craft communities/websites where custom fabric products can be made on demand from any design by hobbyist crafters, as discussed in this thread http://ask.metafilter.com/111371/How-can-I-design-and-make-a-custom-camera-bag . But that is not viable for the thousands of units in my example.

What can I do with Xanthan Gum?

woebot — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 18:53:33 -0800

What can I do with two pounds of Xanthan Gum? I've come into a couple pounds of xanthan gum. I know it's traditionally used as a thickener, but as a non-cooker I'm not really sure what exactly I can make with it. Any recipes or other secret uses for this stuff?

Practice to Build a Computer?

crayolarabbit — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 00:32:43 -0800

How should I prepare to eventually build a computer from parts? I have never done any sort of electronics or computer hobbying or hacking, but being an avid interneter and an even avider cheapskate, I've decided that I want to build a computer from parts at some point, like you see people saying they do.

What sort of smaller projects should I undertake first to teach myself the basics and practice the techniques? Bonus points if the project is available in kit form, so that I don't have to worry about getting the parts wrong and can just give it an evening's work.

Rotary Dial Awesome-o Mobile Phone GO!

parmanparman — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 19:39:55 -0800

I have found someone who can build me a mobile phone out of a rotary dial telephone. But Sparkfun doesn't really have a one-stop shopping list. Help me decipher exactly what parts from this article i will need and also please recommend a good antenna I can use that will give me the best reception but also be cell-phone-tiny. I will post a link to pics of the product being assembled step by step in projects when I am done, maybe video if I can find someone. This is really a personal dream project.

Where can I find a water gun in Boston? (or how can I make one?)

inatizzy — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 14:15:09 -0800

Where can I find a water gun in the Boston area today? (Or, how can I make my own?) I am participating in a Revolutionary Water Gun Battle tomorrow, but I don't have my "musket", yet. I underestimated how difficult it would be to find a water gun at this time of year. (It's the summer! Shouldn't they still be everywhere? Apparently not.)

So, first, is there somewhere in the Boston / Cambridge / Somerville, MA area where a person CAN find a water gun? (No more than 10-15 minutes out of the city, please; I will need to take a Zipcar if it's not T accessible.) K-B toys in Cambridgeside Galleria and Target on Somerville Ave don't have them - they say that they're out for the season, because they're stocked for back-to-school.

More importantly (since I think the odds of finding one to buy by tomorrow morning are pretty low): where might I learn how to make my own?

thanks!!

Where can I find people who like to know 'how stuff works' in socal?

tarthur — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 00:46:18 -0800

Where around socal can I meet other aspiring electronic do-it-yourselfers? [backyard imagineering] I'm having a hard time finding fellow young folks (I'm 21) who read and understand the liking of MAKE magazine... people who like to take things apart and play with electronics.

Looking for others interested in figuring out Arduino boards, LEDs and automation stuff and I desperately need someone who can teach me some new tricks.

Any ideas where I can find (remotely) normal people with similar interests? Are there any user groups or something a bit less geeky?

Low-Riders and My Sanity - Am Losing My MIND!

watercarrier — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 09:40:22 -0800

Would you go crazy if you were living in the boonies and every couple of minutes some dude comes careening around your corner on an ATV or motorcycle revving up slowly and maliciously? Just wondering if it's only me that's reacting like hot coals are being poured down my brain neurons. What would you do? What are my options? I live in the wild-wild-wild east and there's no *law* that anyone will be upholding soon. They're kids with wheels and noise and they've found that it's better than drugs. I've got music - loud to drown it out - got ear plugs - what else am I missing here? Is there anything I can do to deter these freaks?

Hivemind provides tech support herein

Willie0248 — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 18:30:09 -0800

An old rusty bike: Opportunity for cheap travel, or just junk? So I'm cleaning out my parents' garage and I run across my old bike from high school. Of course, after years of storage the tires are rotted, and basically every part of it is rusty and nasty. Every part except the frame... I get to looking at the frame and it's pretty much perfect. No rust or anything. I guess the wheels and fork are in okay shape too.

So basically, I have a perfect frame and passable wheels and fork. I currently don't have a bicycle, so would this be a fun project to rebuild, or is this something that is a lot harder than it looks? It seems like I could just order some decent replacement parts and ratchet those suckers on for a relatively cheap riding experience. Of course, I know nothing on the subject, so it could be better to just go buy a new or used functional bike.

Here are my questions, given the circumstances:
Is it worth it to build this thing up with replacement parts, or is it going to be too expensive to justify the effort?
If it seems feasible, what's a good source of how-to guides and technical references so I can get to work?

Help me build a simple intervalometer!

lord_yo — Tue, 27 May 2008 02:02:58 -0800

Help me build a simple intervalometer! I'm trying to build a simple intervalometer, i.e. a device which gives my camera regular impulses to shoot a picture at a defined interval. It would enable me to do custom time-lapse series.

Hooking up my camera to such a device is not a problem, as my Canon EOS 400D uses a easily available cable jack for the remote control.

I can solder, and have a basic understanding of electronics components. However, I don't know how to build the device itself. I'm looking for an DIY electronics kit (could be programmable, but doesn't has to be) or cheap hackable gadget (timed blinking lights? kitchen timer?) that I could convert into an impulse-giver.

The device would need to be configurable to set the following parameters:

- Time off - e.g. 500ms
- Time on - e.g. 10ms
- (optional): number of repetitions - e.g. 1000x

Example for a commercially available device: [pClix]

Aurduino or Make Controller

dylanSnow — Sun, 18 May 2008 19:55:53 -0800

I am trying to decide which to (learn) to use, The Arduino or The Make Controller Kit. Which should I choose as a first buy / entry level controller? I am going to have 10 days to sit down and really get down and dirty with a new project. I am very much an autodidact type of person. I have in to build a mind a multi-touch musical instrument.

I am an artist. I am have above average Actionscript 2.0 (working on 3.0) programming skills. I will be using flash to control the multi-touch
device.

At the moment, do to ease of use the Make Controller looks like the best bet, but it is $100. On the other hand The Aurduino seems to have way more how-tos and tutorials and is $35

Any suggestions, guidance or comments would be greatly appreciated.

dylan

Why did drinking tea + coffee make me feel very drained today?

gregb1007 — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 14:09:49 -0800

Why did drinking tea + coffee make me feel very drained today? After eating an omelet in the morning, I had coffee afterwards and tea a couple of hours later. During the hour after that tea, I felt very drained and exhausted, and ravenously hungry. Usually tea and coffee don't make me feel that way, so I am wondering what went wrong today. I want to avoid this feeling of utter exhaustion and incredible hunger next time I imbibe caffeinated drinks. Any tips?

(P.S: In case you are wondering, the sensation of fatigue and listlessness disappeared after I ate. But that should be quite obvious anyway.)

Help me use two big sheets of rubber.

crazy finger — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 20:18:32 -0800

What can I make with 2 7'x5' sheets of rubber? My Coleman air mattress failed and I had to cut-out and send-in the valve panel and the logo panel. This leaves me with 2 7'x5' sheets of rubber.

I know I should just toss these in the dump, but my dad is a WWII survivor and I am my father's son (pack rat). Plus I believe in reduce, REUSE, recycle...

What can I do with these? At the least, can some sort of charity use these?

Make Everything My Precious

bluefly — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 13:58:12 -0800

I'm using the 'make' utility on a Linux system. Is there a way in a Makefile to set all the intermediate files as PRECIOUS without having to list them individually?

DIY for the Non-Hardware-Elite

middleclasstool — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 08:42:43 -0800

DIY blogs that don't require you to be a goddamn logic board-soldering wizard? I could have sworn I saw a question about this a long time ago, but I searched the archives and even asked one of the mods, who had no memory of it. So I'll ask it:

I'm looking for DIY-project blogs and websites that don't require the electrical engineering proficiency of a site/publication like MAKE: and its related blog. I'm a programmer, so code projects are cool, but I'm crap at soldering and know squat about electronics and hardware hacks.

Particularly I'm looking for sites that have fun small-to-medium-sized projects (meaning cool bookcases are great, but not backyard sheds). Again, programming project ideas would be great, but I'm really looking for stuff I can build with my hands and my now not-unrespectable collection of power tools.

I know about instructables and finkbuilt and that's pretty much it. Ideas?

25 and No Friends, Cliques Everywhere. What Am I Supposed to Do?

MeysterR — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 20:36:38 -0800

25 and No Friends, Cliques Everywhere. What Am I Supposed to Do? I've been out of college for a few years now and I'm finding it extremely hard to find friends, forge new friendships/relationships, or just meet people my age in general, who aren't closed off and in their own little cliques.

Most people in my town seem to hang out with their small circles of friends from high school and college, that they seem to have just kept, and I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to do.

I've never really had that kind of social network to fall back on

I was new to my high school, had friends, and it was fine and all, but nothing really developed that turned into anything long-term, not like the people who were born, raised, and grew up with each other in that small, middle class suburban community.

The college I went to was in an even more suburban and cliquey area. I had some friends at school, but again, nothing lasted. There is a very transient nature to that area as well and there was also a social disconnect with the people; it's an incredibly wealthy, suburban upscale area with shallow kids who are pampered and spoiled beyond belief. It made sense to just come home when I was done.

So now I'm back in the area where I grew up (well, 20 minutes away, in the large city of the area). Even though I'm local to the area, I didn't grow up in this city and just have no real foundation of friends, and things just haven't been happening after 3 years either. What should I do?