DIY Rapid Prototyping machine!

Those of you who know our older posts, will be familiar with the fact that we LOVE the idea of Rapid Prototyping, we previously blogged about a desktop prototyper which is available for around $5,000. But recently one of our favourite sources of inspiration, Make Magazine, started to produce their own machine, which in their own inimitable style you have to build from a kit.

Ladies and Gentlemen, what you see above is the Makerbot industries “Cupcake”, sure it looks a little like you would find it in an evil mastermind’s lair, but truly this is a breakthrough. See, whilst other machines are going to cost you thousands, this will cost you only $750 for the basic kit. That’s right, only $750!

This is a perfect example of what happens when industrious people get inspired and take it upon themselves to make a change. It could be seen as another example of what we call the everybody spirit.

Once you move into this realm the possibilities are pretty much endless. Make your own products to sell, unique art-pieces, odd shaped “things” that only you know what they are… open your mind.

Everybody says thank you Makerbot Industries, we really really appreciate the effort you put into inspiring us! Click the image above to be inspired yourself and start to think about how much you could make!

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DIY Wooden Lamp kit

There are many of us out there who enjoy building things, lord knows I’m one of them. There are many models around my desk, house and indeed parents’ house that confirm this as fact.

So, recently whilst searching for something else (as ever) I stumbled upon this item on a Chinese website for Geeks… (Ahem, no comments please). This is a made from lots of different sizes and shapes pre-cut pieces of wood and all the necessary pieces of electrical wiring. Now I can’t begin to tell you what the sites says, it’s all in Chinese, but it has lots of pictures. Pictures help. I haven’t even tried to use Google translate to get more details, but it seems it is available the world over for a fair price.

Everybody says well done Chinese Geek fellas, it’s a nice item which we wouldn’t mind on our desks here at Everybody towers.

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Low resolution bar in Belgium, actually made of pixels

Well, not actually made of Pixels, but the wall is covered with them. The Pixel bar is a new wine and Tapas bar in Brussels, Belgium whose walls are completely covered in soundproofed foam cushions. Over 8,000 of them in total, each made from cubed foam pads in 27 different coloured covers.

When viewed from afar, the image is that of a pixelated countryside scene, close up it is a beautifully abstracted bunch of coloured blocks. As ever the simple ideas are the best, and when executed in such a perfect manner you get something as special as this.

Everybody says great work to the designer behind the bar, Charles Kaisin… Right, Brussels is about 2 hours from here, Friday afternoon drinks there? 6:30pm anyonne?

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Hipstamatic iPhone app for the digital Lomographer!

So if you’ve seen some of the recent pictures in our gallery and read the descriptions, you’ll know that the guys here at Everybody have fallen in Love with an iPhone app called “Hipstamatic”.

It does pretty much everything you want from a virtual Lomo camera, but with much less fuss. But what’s Lomography? Well, it is a recognised style of photography based on cheaply produced Russian plastic cameras from yesteryear. For a great explanation and examples of true lomography, have a good look around “here“.

But what of our digital version? Well, there’s been a bunch of photo apps on the iPhone for ages, which do everything from tilt shift mimicry to low-quality lomo shots. But finally Hipstamatic comes to save the day. Heralded by many users as a great piece of software, it is nothing short of brilliant. Being able to change Lenses, Flashes and Films (just as the real world lomos allow) gives an amazing variety of effects that ensure a huge range of results.

Whilst the resulting images are not the highest of resolutions, that isn’t what the result is about. Remember that you don’t have to run down to the photo place in the city to grab your prints at lunch time any more… you simply have them there, ready.

We’re gonna keep posting the pics we take using this great little app, and hopefully you will start your own digital analog album. As ever click the picture above to get a link to the software’s homepage, and if you have an iPhone it is well worth the $1.99 to get you started, then also a few extra dollars for the extra lens/flash/film packs.

Everybody says well done Hip photo people, great product that’s easily worth a few quid/dollars/euros of anyone’s hard earned

Something to do in Rotterdam tomorrow

In case you are stuck for something to do in Rotterdam tomorrow (Sunday 21st March), we might suggest you get yourself down to the Kunsthal in Rotterdam for the “Made in Holland” exhibition. It’s on for a couple more weeks, but tomorrow being the first day of spring, and the equinox, there might just be the chance of a nice sunny day.

The exhibition covers everything from the Speediest of Speed Skaters’ Speed Skating Skates (say that fast!), to aerodynamic brollies, designed to not turn inside out. Delving into the famous archives of the TU Delft, it documents over 400 years of innovation in this small corner of Europe.

The museum has a great little park next to it, as most people in Rotterdam know already, so can certainly have a nice sit out if the weather is anything like.

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Saturday: 404

Don’t worry, it isn’t a real 404!

Just a quick little post… Looking for something totally unrelated the other day and Everybody stumbled upon a reference to one of our favourite films of all time. The Big Lebowski.

The Illustrator, Dave Mott, has both a fantastic style and the set of illustrations in his portfolio blog show this in the best possible manner. He produced this as a concept for the HTML 404 error pages. As he says so many quotes from that film make great 404 pages. Click Walter to go and see his work!

Everybody loves the work of this Illustrator and hopes that you will spend a few minutes looking around his site. Maybe even commision him. Brilliant work Dave.

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Falcon: old and new combined

With my rocky history with motorcycles I have to admit I’m not particularly bothered about them, but as with all other things there are always outstanding examples which make you stand up and pay attention.

Recently I stumbled upon one of those examples and had to point you in its direction. Falcon is a Los Angeles based motorcycle manufacturing company based on high standards of manufacture and quality in design. Ian Barry, co-founder and designer, has been obsessed with old British bikes like Triumph and Norton for years leading to his designing the Falcon when he met his business partner Amaryllis in LA.

Both spent two years sourcing vintage materials and machinery from around the world to create a workshop in Downtown LA where they could make their dream a reality.

So the first result is pretty much what you see above here, an imagining of what would happen would Triumph have produced a Board racer. It’s called “The Bullet” and is effectively a custom Triumph motorcycle, starting years ago as the derelict frame and engine of a 1950 pre-unit Triumph Thunderbird (which for all you movie buffs is the self same motorbike Marlon Brando can be seen riding in the classic movie “The Wild One”.

Everybody will be keeping a keen eye on this and we would advise you to as well, absorb the beauty of the bike, it really is something special. They plan many more bikes all based on vintage forms, so it’s going to really be a thing to watch over the next couple of years.

Good work vintage bike fellas!

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Spiral radiator by Marco Dessi

Nothing ultra new in terms of recently designed stuff, especially if you follow the world of interiors and furniture design, but I still love it. I picked up some materials from my shelf this week and found the leaflet I have showing my second favourite radiator of all time. (Yes it is sad I have a favourite, radiator, and possibly even sadder I have a second favourite, but let’s face it, ordering and ranking is what we do every day to help ourselves with decisions… granted my more important decisions are not radiator based but you know what I mean.)

Anyway, this Radiator was shown at the Cologne fair in 2007 by Italian born designer Macro Dessi, as a concept. He designed it in 2006 and his own little bit of blurb about the product is as follows:

“The raw expression of functional industrial radiators was a source of inspiration for the radiator . While maintaining this raw strenght [sic.], the object was transformed for living spaces. The rotation of the individual element is reminiscent of the sheet metal spirals of old- fashioned radiators.”

I have to say that having just experienced one of the longest, and coldest winters in recent memory, I for one, would be more than happy to actually place a couple of these beauties in my house, and even, for that matter, next to my desk in the west wing of Everybody towers.

Everybody says… great work Marco, let us know when we can buy it!

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Zipshot: Self assembling tripodular standing device

There are up-sides and down-sides to every single product, the most successful ones being those with less downs. Usually. Not always anyway. But this is one of those products which I would have been very interested in when travelling recently, despite its obvious down-side. I use a really, really good Manfrotto which, granted, is a little large, but stays still in a howling gale, but I had to leave it at home on a recent trip to New York due to baggage limitations and stuff like that.

The product you see above is the new Zipshot from Tamrac. It’s a self assembling mechanism, it pops up from a small form factor in a second and allows (apparently) relatively good stability. It will handle a camera and lens combo of up to three pounds (which for you Continental types is around 1.25Kg.) not much, but it would certainly be great for holding video cameras steady for long shots of landscapes or to create time lapse videos.

It’s available now from many places for around $50-60 US it is certainly worth it for those people who hike or travel extensively.

Everybody says nice work Tamrac, it’s a great thing to have in our camera bag.

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Recycling should be heard not just seen!

OK, as most of you know, living in the Netherlands you have to recycle. No seriously, it’s, like, the law and stuff, paper, cardboard, plastic, old batteries, glass – your hair too if you want. Anyway, I’m kind of used to it now, but you have to take it seriously, it’s for the best in the long run, apparently.

A couple of friends had recently bought new iPod Nanos and Shuffles in the clear plastic boxes. Which are kind of cool (does anyone remember the original iPod packaging – that was awesome) but then you have an empty plastic box. What to do, what to do… Well this company has some great ideas for the use of them. Turn that empty box into a speaker for the iPod which came out of it, genius. All you need to do is switch the top from your box for the new one with the speaker mechanism on it to the clear plastic base. $40 US isn’t a bad price.

One question is, what do you do with the top you replaced? now you have one part of a cool box, but not the part you can put anything in… or am I being too damn practical again.? Hope it gives you ideas, it made me think about repurposing some of my old bits and pieces – being such a geek is useful at times, but being idle is the thing I have to get over.

Everybody says well done AudioCubes.com, great idea.

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