EAO Switch Corp. in Milford, Conn., is offering the Series 56 rugged, vandal-proof pushbutton switch. The Series 56 pushbutton guarantees a stable force to the switch unit, independent to the force applied to the pushbutton. This means that even if extreme force is applied to the pushbutton over the lifetime of the switch, the switching unit is protected as it only experiences a steady, dispersed, constant force. The design of the Series 56 switch also features a snap-action switching system which delivers clear and recognizable tactile feedback. This is guaranteed over the whole of the switch, regardless of where on the press area is pushed. The shock- and dust-proof Series 56 is protected to the front and at the rear to IP67. EAO’s Series 56 range includes single and double-sided-pushbuttons and indicators; a pushbutton that mounts without the need for fixing screws; a glass-mounting pushbutton; secret-until-lit indicators; and pushbuttons with Braille and raised symbols. For more information contact EAO Switch Corp. online at
http://mae.pennnet.com/display_article/291440/32/ARTCL/none/none/EAO-offers-rugged,-vandal-proof-pushbutton-switch/
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Trace Systems delivers systems integration and IT support to Army satellite systems program
Managers at D&S Consultants Inc. (D&SCI) of Freehold, N.J., were tasked with finding a technology company capable delivering information technology and tactical edge network services for the U.S. Army’s worldwide satellite systems (WWSS) program. They found their solution in Trace Systems LLC, a provider of wireless communications solutions and services for security, tracking, monitoring, geo-fencing, and mobile tactical communications located in McLean, Va.
D&SCI contracted Trace Systems to support command, control, communications, computers, intelligence and reconnaissance (C4ISR) missions. The WWSS contract is a five-year indefinite delivery indefinite quantity contract and a partnership of the Project Manager, Defense Communications and Army Transmission Systems and the Project Manager, Warfighter Information Network-Tactical. The WWSS contract has a ceiling of $5 billion for services provided by the awardees.“Our mission is to provide our government customer with cutting-edge communications solutions,” Bill Garofolo, president of the information operations division of D&SCI, notes.
“As part of the WWSS program, our role will be to support D&SCI by identifying and deploying tactical edge network solutions that meet DOD requirements,” Jeff Barrows, vice president of programs for Trace Systems, says. “We’re committed to helping D&SCI deliver state-of-the-art communications solutions and services that support the deployed warfighter.”
For the contract, D&SCI is providing systems engineering, integration, communications, and IT services, as well as application development and information assurance services.
More information about Trace Systems is available online at www.tracesystems.com.
DHS selects Govplace IT offerings for FirstSource program
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)’s new FirstSource program is designed to consolidate information technology (IT) procurement across the department’s agencies. Govplace, located in Irvine, Calif., has been awarded a contract-with an estimated value of up to $3 billion-for IT products and solutions.
“These contract arrangements will help us speed up the delivery of IT commodities and ensure that we have a flexible and cost-effective process moving forward,” says Scott Charbo, DHS chief information officer. “It will also help further the integration of our information technology systems across the department, which is one of our most important goals.”
More information about Govplace is available online at www.govplace.com.
http://mae.pennnet.com/display_article/291460/32/ARTCL/none/none/DHS-selects-Govplace-IT-offerings-for-FirstSource-program/
“These contract arrangements will help us speed up the delivery of IT commodities and ensure that we have a flexible and cost-effective process moving forward,” says Scott Charbo, DHS chief information officer. “It will also help further the integration of our information technology systems across the department, which is one of our most important goals.”
More information about Govplace is available online at www.govplace.com.
http://mae.pennnet.com/display_article/291460/32/ARTCL/none/none/DHS-selects-Govplace-IT-offerings-for-FirstSource-program/
Ultra Electronics chooses Green Hills Integrity RTOS for line-of-sight radio
Ultra Electronics’ engineers sought a secure, reliable software platform upon which to upgrade the U.S. Army’s Area Common User System, Joint Network Node high-capacity line-of-sight radio, known as the AN/GRC-254(V) HCLOS. They selected the Green Hills Platform for Software Defined Radio (SDR) from Green Hills Software Inc. in Santa Barbara, Calif., for their mission.
The new radio, designed to deliver bandwidth-efficient links for voice and data transmission on the digital battlefield, is being upgraded to provide up to 16-megabyte-per-second traffic throughput.The Green Hills Platform for SDR includes the Integrity POSIX.1-conformant real-time operating system, dual-mode IPv4/v6 networking stack support, SCA core frameworks and operating environments, and waveform design and development tools.
http://mae.pennnet.com/display_article/291458/32/ARTCL/none/none/Ultra-Electronics-chooses-Green-Hills-Integrity-RTOS-for-line-of-sight-radio/
Artel to provide satellite services to U.S. Central Command
Executives at the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) needed to furnish satellite services to the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) in support of U.S warfighters in the Middle East and Southwest Asia. They looked to Artel Inc., a provider of information technology (IT) and managed network services located in Reston, Va., to meet that need.
Most areas in which U.S. warfighters are deployed lack the infrastructure for terrestrial communications services. As a result, the military relies heavily on satellite services to carry out its missions.
DOD executives awarded Artel two task orders, valued at more than $70 million if three one-year option periods are exercised, under the Defense Information Systems Network Satellite Telecommunications Services-Global (DSTS-G) contract. The DSTS-G enables the Defense Department, federal agencies, and other users authorized by the DOD to obtain global fixed satellite service bandwidth, as well as related satellite-based services and applications.
Artel will provide not only satellite connectivity, but also real-time, proactive monitoring and control over the day-to-day physical and logical configuration of leased bandwidth, earth terminals, and associated terrestrial interconnection resources.
http://mae.pennnet.com/display_article/291454/32/ARTCL/none/none/Artel-to-provide-satellite-services-to-US-Central-Command/
Most areas in which U.S. warfighters are deployed lack the infrastructure for terrestrial communications services. As a result, the military relies heavily on satellite services to carry out its missions.
DOD executives awarded Artel two task orders, valued at more than $70 million if three one-year option periods are exercised, under the Defense Information Systems Network Satellite Telecommunications Services-Global (DSTS-G) contract. The DSTS-G enables the Defense Department, federal agencies, and other users authorized by the DOD to obtain global fixed satellite service bandwidth, as well as related satellite-based services and applications.
Artel will provide not only satellite connectivity, but also real-time, proactive monitoring and control over the day-to-day physical and logical configuration of leased bandwidth, earth terminals, and associated terrestrial interconnection resources.
http://mae.pennnet.com/display_article/291454/32/ARTCL/none/none/Artel-to-provide-satellite-services-to-US-Central-Command/
Raytheon chooses RTI real-time middleware for U.S. Navy Destroyer program
Raytheon Company Integrated Defense Systems engineers in Tewksbury, Mass., required a solution to power the shipboard computing environment aboard the DDG 1000 Zumwalt Class Destroyer. They settled on the RTI Data Distribution Service from Real-Time Innovations (RTI) in Santa Clara, Calif.
TSCEI is an open architecture platform for software application development for the U.S. Navy DDG 1000 Zumwalt Class Destroyer program. TSCEI includes standardized hardware, an operating system, middleware, and infrastructure services.
The RTI Data Distribution Service combines with Raytheon’s Total Ship Computing Environment Infrastructure (TSCEI) Release 4.0 to deliver reliable, real-time data distribution throughout the entire shipboard network. RTI Data Distribution Service, furnishing the data distribution layer of TSCEI, enables high-throughput, low-latency messaging between shipboard applications. RTI Data Distribution Service enables applications to reliably share data and coordinate defenses.
“The selection of RTI came through a process which uses formal evaluation criteria and a source selection board to ensure that the Navy gets the best value,” Raytheon DDG 1000 System Software Development director Bob Martin notes. “This is an emerging product market and it was determined that the offering from RTI, a small privately held company, provides the best value to the Navy.”
http://mae.pennnet.com/display_article/291459/32/ARTCL/none/none/Raytheon-chooses-RTI-real-time-middleware-for-US-Navy-Destroyer-program/
TSCEI is an open architecture platform for software application development for the U.S. Navy DDG 1000 Zumwalt Class Destroyer program. TSCEI includes standardized hardware, an operating system, middleware, and infrastructure services.
The RTI Data Distribution Service combines with Raytheon’s Total Ship Computing Environment Infrastructure (TSCEI) Release 4.0 to deliver reliable, real-time data distribution throughout the entire shipboard network. RTI Data Distribution Service, furnishing the data distribution layer of TSCEI, enables high-throughput, low-latency messaging between shipboard applications. RTI Data Distribution Service enables applications to reliably share data and coordinate defenses.
“The selection of RTI came through a process which uses formal evaluation criteria and a source selection board to ensure that the Navy gets the best value,” Raytheon DDG 1000 System Software Development director Bob Martin notes. “This is an emerging product market and it was determined that the offering from RTI, a small privately held company, provides the best value to the Navy.”
http://mae.pennnet.com/display_article/291459/32/ARTCL/none/none/Raytheon-chooses-RTI-real-time-middleware-for-US-Navy-Destroyer-program/
BAE Australia selects Synthetic Vision from Mercury for brownout landing system
BAE Systems Australia engineers investigated display solutions in the development of a rotorcraft brownout landing system. The company has awarded a contract to Mercury Computer Systems Inc. of Chelmsford, Mass., for its Synthetic Vision display.
Brownouts can occur when rotorcraft attempt to land on dusty terrain. The downwash created by the rotors picks up dust on the ground, reducing the pilot’s visibility. To address this problem, civil and government groups are developing sensors that can detect terrain and obstacles.
“See and Remember,” a phrase coined by the Air Force Research Lab, refers to a brownout landing system that scans the landing area before the rotors kick up the dust. The scan is fed to a computer that “remembers” where the terrain is, and then draws it on a cockpit-mounted computer monitor in 3D as the craft descends. Synthetic Vision technology uses information from databases and sensor readings to generate this computer-drawn terrain for the pilot’s use.
Mercury has developed a patent-pending Morphing Terrain Engine that incorporates terrain sensor measurements that are captured and updated in real time via a standard interface, and then displayed with Synthetic Vision.
http://mae.pennnet.com/display_article/291461/32/ARTCL/none/none/BAE-Australia-selects-Synthetic-Vision-from-Mercury-for-brownout-landing-system/
Brownouts can occur when rotorcraft attempt to land on dusty terrain. The downwash created by the rotors picks up dust on the ground, reducing the pilot’s visibility. To address this problem, civil and government groups are developing sensors that can detect terrain and obstacles.
“See and Remember,” a phrase coined by the Air Force Research Lab, refers to a brownout landing system that scans the landing area before the rotors kick up the dust. The scan is fed to a computer that “remembers” where the terrain is, and then draws it on a cockpit-mounted computer monitor in 3D as the craft descends. Synthetic Vision technology uses information from databases and sensor readings to generate this computer-drawn terrain for the pilot’s use.
Mercury has developed a patent-pending Morphing Terrain Engine that incorporates terrain sensor measurements that are captured and updated in real time via a standard interface, and then displayed with Synthetic Vision.
http://mae.pennnet.com/display_article/291461/32/ARTCL/none/none/BAE-Australia-selects-Synthetic-Vision-from-Mercury-for-brownout-landing-system/
Deconstructions: Nanochip
This month Metropolis takes detailed looks at objects ranging in scale from the microscopic to the architectural. Links to the related stories can be found at the bottom of this article.
Earlier this year, two scientists announced that they had built a working memory chip about the size of a white blood cell. This was not only a computing breakthrough but something of a design accomplishment. Conventional memory chips are made exponentially smaller every year, à la Moore’s Law, but those are “just a smaller version of what Intel made five years ago,” explains James R. Heath, of the California Institute of Technology, who, along with UCLA’s J. Fraser Stoddart, created the device. Heath and Stoddart, by contrast, were designing on such a minute scale that they had to rethink completely what a memory chip could be. Indeed, the two men are chemists, not engineers, and they built their chips out of clusters of molecules instead of silicon.
The new chip is so small that they needed to devise molecules that would self-assemble in the required ways. Do terms like structure and architecture still apply at this scale? Heath says they do, noting that the chip’s circuitry, which is highly tolerant of defects, was based on some of the same principles as the Los Angeles freeway system’s. “When we first were exploring this, we actually made a computer [chip] that was designed along these levels—with streets, boulevards, and interstates.” Although the technology is about 15 years away from being integrated into your laptop, Heath is optimistic that the chip will ultimately have important applications. In the captions, he explains the details of his revolutionary design.
Deconstructions: Nanochip
Deconstructions: Dyson Stowaway
Deconstructions: Sittris Siliform Chair
Deconstructions: Ford Airstream Concept Vehicle
Deconstructions: Micro Compact Home
http://www.metropolismag.com/cda/story.php?artid=2624
Digital Experience
Digital Experience
One of the press-only events we attended at CES is PEPCOM's Digital Experience. We've already posted countless Spotlight articles from this event, but in this article we will discuss some of the products that we didn't feel warranted their own article. The companies featured in this article include Olympus, Lexmark, Parrot, SanDisk, Kingston, Samsung, and Fujitsu.
Olympus
At the Olympus table, there wasn’t anything really new except for a nice voice recorder, but we did play with one of their water-proof digital cameras for the first time. They actually had a fish tank with a couple of cameras in it, so we decided to go fishing. The camera did in fact function after being reeled in, or out…whatever. Not easily satisfied, we turned the camera on under the water just to make certain it still functions while underwater. As you can see in the photo, it still worked. By now, we were determined to break the thing, and apparently it rubbed off on the Olympus rep because she took it from Max’s hand and threw it on the ground. Seriously. The thing still turned on and seemed to work properly when we picked it up. Granted, we were on carpet, but it was still an impressive display of Olympus’ confidence.
Lexmark
Continuing with the underwater theme, we saw some underwater photos at Lexmark’s table. On the left was a photo that was giving up the ink in its watery grave and on the right was a photo with super powers of the waterproof kind. The idea was that Lexmark has a new ink system (and new paper) which is smudgeproof. And as I already mentioned it’s waterproof too, because let’s face it, who doesn’t like to take a swim with their family photo albums.
I suppose I should also mention their Innovations award-winning X5470 All-in-One printer at a $99 pricepoint and an awesome next day replacement warranty. Should anything go wrong with it, they will have a replacement at your door by 6am the next day if you call by 6pm the previous day. Pretty impressive for just $99.
Parrot
For a while now I’ve wanted to check out some digital photo frames to see the quality of the image and features. It’s not exactly mind-boggling technology we’re talking about here, but I don’t think it will be long before these are really mainstream, and I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the 7” frame I was looking at. The controls and GUI are very user-friendly and you can easily select specific photos and create multiple slideshows with optional transitions and linear or random playback. As soon as these start dropping to prices I deem reasonable you can bet I’ll buy some for myself and family. Maybe all we need is for Samsung or Dell to start making them to drive the cost of production down.
http://www.thetechlounge.com/article/375/Digital+Experience/
One of the press-only events we attended at CES is PEPCOM's Digital Experience. We've already posted countless Spotlight articles from this event, but in this article we will discuss some of the products that we didn't feel warranted their own article. The companies featured in this article include Olympus, Lexmark, Parrot, SanDisk, Kingston, Samsung, and Fujitsu.
Olympus
At the Olympus table, there wasn’t anything really new except for a nice voice recorder, but we did play with one of their water-proof digital cameras for the first time. They actually had a fish tank with a couple of cameras in it, so we decided to go fishing. The camera did in fact function after being reeled in, or out…whatever. Not easily satisfied, we turned the camera on under the water just to make certain it still functions while underwater. As you can see in the photo, it still worked. By now, we were determined to break the thing, and apparently it rubbed off on the Olympus rep because she took it from Max’s hand and threw it on the ground. Seriously. The thing still turned on and seemed to work properly when we picked it up. Granted, we were on carpet, but it was still an impressive display of Olympus’ confidence.
Lexmark
Continuing with the underwater theme, we saw some underwater photos at Lexmark’s table. On the left was a photo that was giving up the ink in its watery grave and on the right was a photo with super powers of the waterproof kind. The idea was that Lexmark has a new ink system (and new paper) which is smudgeproof. And as I already mentioned it’s waterproof too, because let’s face it, who doesn’t like to take a swim with their family photo albums.
I suppose I should also mention their Innovations award-winning X5470 All-in-One printer at a $99 pricepoint and an awesome next day replacement warranty. Should anything go wrong with it, they will have a replacement at your door by 6am the next day if you call by 6pm the previous day. Pretty impressive for just $99.
Parrot
For a while now I’ve wanted to check out some digital photo frames to see the quality of the image and features. It’s not exactly mind-boggling technology we’re talking about here, but I don’t think it will be long before these are really mainstream, and I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the 7” frame I was looking at. The controls and GUI are very user-friendly and you can easily select specific photos and create multiple slideshows with optional transitions and linear or random playback. As soon as these start dropping to prices I deem reasonable you can bet I’ll buy some for myself and family. Maybe all we need is for Samsung or Dell to start making them to drive the cost of production down.
http://www.thetechlounge.com/article/375/Digital+Experience/
5 Things You Need to Know About SLR Lenses
5 Things You Need to Know About SLR Lenses
There are two things I enjoy most in life. The first is photography and the latter, well…I like to tell people what to do. It makes me feel powerful. Strong. Like a small pony. Keep reading.
One of the most common questions I get as related to photography is “what camera should I buy?” I’ve already answered that question (sort of) with 10 Reasons to Buy a DSLR and 10 Reasons NOT to Buy a DSLR.
The next most common question (I mean next literally, as in directly after the previous question) is “what lens should I buy?” Well, that’s a tricky question because there simply is no one-size-fits-all lens.
My goal in this article is to give you some basic knowledge about lenses that will help set you on the path to lens buying goodness, or if you’re like me, indecisiveness. Hey, it’s a start.
What's My Lens Mount? Different cameras use different lens mounts. Before you start looking for the perfect lens, you need to find out what lenses your camera is compatible with. This information can be easily found on the camera manufacturer’s website, usually listed under “Specifications.” For example, I can see from Canon’s website that my EOS 5D DSLR uses the Canon EF lens mount and accepts EF (except EF-S) lenses. Likewise, the EOS 30D uses the EF mount and accepts EF (including EF-S) lenses. I should mention that there are lens mount adapters out there if you want to use a Canon lens on a Nikon camera, for example, but that's not really within the scope of this article...
http://www.thetechlounge.com/article/379/5+Things+You+Need+to+Know+About+SLR+Lenses/
There are two things I enjoy most in life. The first is photography and the latter, well…I like to tell people what to do. It makes me feel powerful. Strong. Like a small pony. Keep reading.
One of the most common questions I get as related to photography is “what camera should I buy?” I’ve already answered that question (sort of) with 10 Reasons to Buy a DSLR and 10 Reasons NOT to Buy a DSLR.
The next most common question (I mean next literally, as in directly after the previous question) is “what lens should I buy?” Well, that’s a tricky question because there simply is no one-size-fits-all lens.
My goal in this article is to give you some basic knowledge about lenses that will help set you on the path to lens buying goodness, or if you’re like me, indecisiveness. Hey, it’s a start.
What's My Lens Mount? Different cameras use different lens mounts. Before you start looking for the perfect lens, you need to find out what lenses your camera is compatible with. This information can be easily found on the camera manufacturer’s website, usually listed under “Specifications.” For example, I can see from Canon’s website that my EOS 5D DSLR uses the Canon EF lens mount and accepts EF (except EF-S) lenses. Likewise, the EOS 30D uses the EF mount and accepts EF (including EF-S) lenses. I should mention that there are lens mount adapters out there if you want to use a Canon lens on a Nikon camera, for example, but that's not really within the scope of this article...
http://www.thetechlounge.com/article/379/5+Things+You+Need+to+Know+About+SLR+Lenses/
Motherboard Picture Frame
Got computer junk lying around? I do too, cables, old drives, ancient cases. For the most part they are pretty worthless. Why do we hang on to all this crap? Occasionally I’ll scavenge an old video card for testing purposes or swipe a NIC in case of a catastrophic LAN party network card failure. But, for the most part, this stuff just hangs about and collects dust.
I’m not really an ace computer junkie, I love my machine, love to game, but I also find enjoyment in building and destroying things. Now, see if you can follow me. Loads of useless computer junk lying around…love of destruction and fabrication. Yes! You have it, why not build something useful from these relics of technocracy and destroy something in the process?
So, after some well-crafted blackmail involving some incriminating photos and a garden hose, Brian and Kurtis have decided to allow me to present my finely honed skills of breakery and construction-ism in a series of “semi-how to” articles. I say “semi-how to” as I intend to offer ideas for various uses of old equipment. At no point will I claim to be an expert at crafting anything useful or otherwise. With luck I will at the very least spark a fire of creative invention while managing to keep some old computer trash from ending up in the landfill.
Motherboards. Really quite beautiful if you examine the intricate copper spaghetti etchings sprawling like a London tube map, the capacitors rising like miniature rock formations, chips and sockets…quite breath-taking in a nerdly fashion. In my twisted electro-artistic mind, I saw an image. An image framed neatly by the detailings of a far out-dated and, as luck would have it, broken motherboard. A quick conversation with a fellow tech-hoarder and I was the proud owner of a dead Cyrix MII mobo. Yes, they still exist. However, this dinosaur of electron consumption was destined for reincarnation as a picture frame.
The trick to constructing a picture frame from this mobo was finding a way to 1) make the thing look in some way remotely similar to a picture frame and 2) remove all the ugly plastic junk that obscured the artistic vision inherit to picture frame building. To solve the first riddle, I carefully inspected the board to determine which sections would be both easy to use as frame rails and had areas that looked somewhat interesting as individual pieces. Mapping out the sections of the board that seemed appropriate, I measured then marked usable areas with a Sharpie. I decided to use both sides of the board in my attempt as the bottoms of most motherboards are quite stunningly detailed with minute curvy golden rivulets and green stuff. Cutting would undoubtedly be involved. I decided that I would employ the help of every modders sidekick, the ubiquitous Dremel, to aid me in my quest. Sadly, before I could advance to the heedless destruction and eardrum splitting cutting disc action, I had to get at those unsightly plastic parts.
This second problem I solved quite easily through the use of needle-nose pliers. I not-so-carefully removed the offensive PCI and AGP slots as well as the capacitors and other unsightly protruding objects. My intent was to make the motherboard as flat as possible while retaining all of the nifty looking circuitry and chipsets. Originally I had planned to remove the solder on the backside of the board by heating it up with my soldering iron and then simply lifting off the offending pieces. However, after several tries at the melting/yanking process, I relegated myself to just ripping the pieces off with my pliers. (Interesting side note, PCI and AGP slots really make a cool noise when you snap them smartly right off the board, as the wiring inside nearly mimics the sound of piano wire as it is strummed to the point of snapping.) Once all the ugly stuff was stripped off, I began the Dremeling.
Essentially, all that I really had planned was to cut four strips of motherboard out, then mount them frame-wise to a smaller, light-weight wooden frame. Dremel in hand, I set to it. I’m not entirely sure what most boards are constructed from, but foul humors were released when I tore into that mother. A dust mask is advisable and eye protection is a must. The Dremel cutting wheel not only tosses sparks, but little pieces of wire and circuitry to ensure an eye-sight-ruinin’ good time. Once the cutting was finished, I laid out my frame pieces to get an idea of the size. Of course my Dremeling skills are far from 1337, so some of the sides and corners required smoothing with the small grinding wheel attachment.
Next I built a small wooden under-frame from a piece of ½” square dowel I purchased from Lowe’s for about a buck and change. Typically when I build wood frames for canvas stretching (I oil paint in my other spare time), I employ the 45 degree angle method for the corners. For this project the neat complimentary angles weren’t a necessity. However, if you are the type that loves angles (and who doesn’t?), I think that it would be no big chore to accomplish, provided you have a decent miter saw.
After fashioning the wood frame by tacking the corners with my staple gun, I laid out my cut mobo frame pieces atop the wooden under-frame. Now this is where I have to stress the Bob Villa “measure twice, cut once” mantra. After building my under frame, I noticed that it was far too large to accommodate my mobo pieces and still resemble a usable picture frame. Luckily I erred such that I could re-use the wooden frame pieces. This time I measured correctly.
Next I painted the wooden frame with some left-over matte black spray paint. Since the inside of the wooden frame would be visible after the project was completed, I thought that a little paint might give it that “this wasn’t constructed in an afternoon look”, even though it was.
Feeling all tingly from the knowledge that I would soon be finished, and from inhaling a fair amount of hallucinogenic mobo dust, I reached for my trusty $3 hot melt glue gun. I once again laid out my cut frame strips on top of my newly painted under-frame. Lining the mobo pieces around the under-frame, I tacked them in place with spots of hot glue. The hot glue is a fantastic tool for this job as it securely holds the frame pieces in place, but can be removed with relative ease if you screw up the placement…several times…which I did. I managed to secure three of the motherboard frame edges before I noticed that the fourth and final segment was too short to form a proper square. Oh yeah, remember to measure TWICE, cut ONCE. Luckily I kept the leftover pieces and managed to cut a new section that fit properly. And, as an added bonus, the newly fashioned piece was formed from the area of the board that housed the USB, PS/2 and COMM ports. And fortunately they looked pretty freakin’ cool. How serendipitous. With the final segment tacked in placed, I strengthened the bond by applying still more hot glue to the back where the motherboard bits meet the wood sub-frame.
Almost finished. The edges of the motherboard frame required a little additional sanding with the grinding wheel to create perfectly square edges. I also thought it would look cool if I ground the area above one of the chipsets so that it offset it a bit, you know to give it that “artistic unbalanced look”. Anyway, I was finished. But what to put in my new cooler-than-lunchmeat picture frame? Holding true to the general theme of the project and as an homage to those pieces of techno-junk that gave their lives so that a picture frame could be born of their ashes, I opted to frame the Cyrix MII CPU, the pried-off capacitors and little leftover bits of junk. I seriously doubt that this frame will find its way to my wall in this configuration. But, I thoughtfully left a small lip of wood frame peeking out from either inside edge of the frame so that a thin piece of Lexan Plexiglas could be inserted later, thus rendering the frame useful for pictures of loved ones or non-Cyrix CPUs.
I am pleased with the results of my rampant Dremeling and hot gluing. Hopefully this project will inspire you to create bigger and better motherboard picture frames to be sent to your favorite auntie or inmate. Additionally, the only injuries I sustained were some burnt fingers from the glue and some dusty pants from the Dremeling. I managed to build this fine work in an afternoon. The final cost of materials was quite low. The mobo was donated and I had most of the materials lying around my house, stupid lazy materials! The only actual expenditure was the $1.49 piece of wood. Eventually I will slip in that piece of Lexan and nail on a wall hanger to complete the proper look of a picture frame. However, I have found cut leftover Lexan at Lowe’s or Home Depot for a buck or two, and to make a good wall hanger all you really need are 2 small nails and a piece of twine. Grand total I would say this project would cost between $4-5, a little less than the price of an ugly picture frame from a craft store.
I hope you have enjoyed reading and watching me build trash from other trash. Please mail me your ideas for future construction. Feel free to forward me pics of your motherboard picture frames and then I’ll write you back and say “hey, nice picture frame.” I must go now, I am having motherboard dust flashbacks and there is a lizard trying to steal my Popsicle.
I would like to thank Brian and Kurtis for letting me use up some of their precious web space. I hope it hasn’t been ill spent. I would also like to thank my good friend Y_Pestis for donating the dead Cyrix mobo and my buddy Adam for letting me borrow his Dremel until my Dad gives me his.
http://www.thetechlounge.com/article/59/Motherboard+Picture+Frame/
I’m not really an ace computer junkie, I love my machine, love to game, but I also find enjoyment in building and destroying things. Now, see if you can follow me. Loads of useless computer junk lying around…love of destruction and fabrication. Yes! You have it, why not build something useful from these relics of technocracy and destroy something in the process?
So, after some well-crafted blackmail involving some incriminating photos and a garden hose, Brian and Kurtis have decided to allow me to present my finely honed skills of breakery and construction-ism in a series of “semi-how to” articles. I say “semi-how to” as I intend to offer ideas for various uses of old equipment. At no point will I claim to be an expert at crafting anything useful or otherwise. With luck I will at the very least spark a fire of creative invention while managing to keep some old computer trash from ending up in the landfill.
Motherboards. Really quite beautiful if you examine the intricate copper spaghetti etchings sprawling like a London tube map, the capacitors rising like miniature rock formations, chips and sockets…quite breath-taking in a nerdly fashion. In my twisted electro-artistic mind, I saw an image. An image framed neatly by the detailings of a far out-dated and, as luck would have it, broken motherboard. A quick conversation with a fellow tech-hoarder and I was the proud owner of a dead Cyrix MII mobo. Yes, they still exist. However, this dinosaur of electron consumption was destined for reincarnation as a picture frame.
The trick to constructing a picture frame from this mobo was finding a way to 1) make the thing look in some way remotely similar to a picture frame and 2) remove all the ugly plastic junk that obscured the artistic vision inherit to picture frame building. To solve the first riddle, I carefully inspected the board to determine which sections would be both easy to use as frame rails and had areas that looked somewhat interesting as individual pieces. Mapping out the sections of the board that seemed appropriate, I measured then marked usable areas with a Sharpie. I decided to use both sides of the board in my attempt as the bottoms of most motherboards are quite stunningly detailed with minute curvy golden rivulets and green stuff. Cutting would undoubtedly be involved. I decided that I would employ the help of every modders sidekick, the ubiquitous Dremel, to aid me in my quest. Sadly, before I could advance to the heedless destruction and eardrum splitting cutting disc action, I had to get at those unsightly plastic parts.
This second problem I solved quite easily through the use of needle-nose pliers. I not-so-carefully removed the offensive PCI and AGP slots as well as the capacitors and other unsightly protruding objects. My intent was to make the motherboard as flat as possible while retaining all of the nifty looking circuitry and chipsets. Originally I had planned to remove the solder on the backside of the board by heating it up with my soldering iron and then simply lifting off the offending pieces. However, after several tries at the melting/yanking process, I relegated myself to just ripping the pieces off with my pliers. (Interesting side note, PCI and AGP slots really make a cool noise when you snap them smartly right off the board, as the wiring inside nearly mimics the sound of piano wire as it is strummed to the point of snapping.) Once all the ugly stuff was stripped off, I began the Dremeling.
Essentially, all that I really had planned was to cut four strips of motherboard out, then mount them frame-wise to a smaller, light-weight wooden frame. Dremel in hand, I set to it. I’m not entirely sure what most boards are constructed from, but foul humors were released when I tore into that mother. A dust mask is advisable and eye protection is a must. The Dremel cutting wheel not only tosses sparks, but little pieces of wire and circuitry to ensure an eye-sight-ruinin’ good time. Once the cutting was finished, I laid out my frame pieces to get an idea of the size. Of course my Dremeling skills are far from 1337, so some of the sides and corners required smoothing with the small grinding wheel attachment.
Next I built a small wooden under-frame from a piece of ½” square dowel I purchased from Lowe’s for about a buck and change. Typically when I build wood frames for canvas stretching (I oil paint in my other spare time), I employ the 45 degree angle method for the corners. For this project the neat complimentary angles weren’t a necessity. However, if you are the type that loves angles (and who doesn’t?), I think that it would be no big chore to accomplish, provided you have a decent miter saw.
After fashioning the wood frame by tacking the corners with my staple gun, I laid out my cut mobo frame pieces atop the wooden under-frame. Now this is where I have to stress the Bob Villa “measure twice, cut once” mantra. After building my under frame, I noticed that it was far too large to accommodate my mobo pieces and still resemble a usable picture frame. Luckily I erred such that I could re-use the wooden frame pieces. This time I measured correctly.
Next I painted the wooden frame with some left-over matte black spray paint. Since the inside of the wooden frame would be visible after the project was completed, I thought that a little paint might give it that “this wasn’t constructed in an afternoon look”, even though it was.
Feeling all tingly from the knowledge that I would soon be finished, and from inhaling a fair amount of hallucinogenic mobo dust, I reached for my trusty $3 hot melt glue gun. I once again laid out my cut frame strips on top of my newly painted under-frame. Lining the mobo pieces around the under-frame, I tacked them in place with spots of hot glue. The hot glue is a fantastic tool for this job as it securely holds the frame pieces in place, but can be removed with relative ease if you screw up the placement…several times…which I did. I managed to secure three of the motherboard frame edges before I noticed that the fourth and final segment was too short to form a proper square. Oh yeah, remember to measure TWICE, cut ONCE. Luckily I kept the leftover pieces and managed to cut a new section that fit properly. And, as an added bonus, the newly fashioned piece was formed from the area of the board that housed the USB, PS/2 and COMM ports. And fortunately they looked pretty freakin’ cool. How serendipitous. With the final segment tacked in placed, I strengthened the bond by applying still more hot glue to the back where the motherboard bits meet the wood sub-frame.
Almost finished. The edges of the motherboard frame required a little additional sanding with the grinding wheel to create perfectly square edges. I also thought it would look cool if I ground the area above one of the chipsets so that it offset it a bit, you know to give it that “artistic unbalanced look”. Anyway, I was finished. But what to put in my new cooler-than-lunchmeat picture frame? Holding true to the general theme of the project and as an homage to those pieces of techno-junk that gave their lives so that a picture frame could be born of their ashes, I opted to frame the Cyrix MII CPU, the pried-off capacitors and little leftover bits of junk. I seriously doubt that this frame will find its way to my wall in this configuration. But, I thoughtfully left a small lip of wood frame peeking out from either inside edge of the frame so that a thin piece of Lexan Plexiglas could be inserted later, thus rendering the frame useful for pictures of loved ones or non-Cyrix CPUs.
I am pleased with the results of my rampant Dremeling and hot gluing. Hopefully this project will inspire you to create bigger and better motherboard picture frames to be sent to your favorite auntie or inmate. Additionally, the only injuries I sustained were some burnt fingers from the glue and some dusty pants from the Dremeling. I managed to build this fine work in an afternoon. The final cost of materials was quite low. The mobo was donated and I had most of the materials lying around my house, stupid lazy materials! The only actual expenditure was the $1.49 piece of wood. Eventually I will slip in that piece of Lexan and nail on a wall hanger to complete the proper look of a picture frame. However, I have found cut leftover Lexan at Lowe’s or Home Depot for a buck or two, and to make a good wall hanger all you really need are 2 small nails and a piece of twine. Grand total I would say this project would cost between $4-5, a little less than the price of an ugly picture frame from a craft store.
I hope you have enjoyed reading and watching me build trash from other trash. Please mail me your ideas for future construction. Feel free to forward me pics of your motherboard picture frames and then I’ll write you back and say “hey, nice picture frame.” I must go now, I am having motherboard dust flashbacks and there is a lizard trying to steal my Popsicle.
I would like to thank Brian and Kurtis for letting me use up some of their precious web space. I hope it hasn’t been ill spent. I would also like to thank my good friend Y_Pestis for donating the dead Cyrix mobo and my buddy Adam for letting me borrow his Dremel until my Dad gives me his.
http://www.thetechlounge.com/article/59/Motherboard+Picture+Frame/
Gateway FPD2485W 24" Widescreen LCD
Introduction
Gateway has been quiet lately. We see commercials for Dell on TV all the time, yet Gateway has been shipping computers almost as long as Dell. Gateway was a well known brand back in the dot-com boom, and their distinctive cow-boxes and the Gateway 2000 moniker (which of course now sounds lame since its 2007, though it sure did sound cool back in the 90s).
Gateway is new to the high-end LCD business. While they’ve been selling LCDs with their computers for a while, only recently have they been selling the larger displays under their own name.
Gateway’s FPD2485W 24” LCD monitor is on the review block today, so we’ll see just how well it performs. We’ve seen 22” and 24” monitors from other manufacturers, and now it’s the newbie’s turn. Will it excel or just be another player in the LCD biz? Will the monitor be a worthy way to spend your tax refund from Uncle Sam? Read on to find out.
http://www.thetechlounge.com/article/396/Gateway+FPD2485W+24+Widescreen+LCD/
Gateway has been quiet lately. We see commercials for Dell on TV all the time, yet Gateway has been shipping computers almost as long as Dell. Gateway was a well known brand back in the dot-com boom, and their distinctive cow-boxes and the Gateway 2000 moniker (which of course now sounds lame since its 2007, though it sure did sound cool back in the 90s).
Gateway is new to the high-end LCD business. While they’ve been selling LCDs with their computers for a while, only recently have they been selling the larger displays under their own name.
Gateway’s FPD2485W 24” LCD monitor is on the review block today, so we’ll see just how well it performs. We’ve seen 22” and 24” monitors from other manufacturers, and now it’s the newbie’s turn. Will it excel or just be another player in the LCD biz? Will the monitor be a worthy way to spend your tax refund from Uncle Sam? Read on to find out.
http://www.thetechlounge.com/article/396/Gateway+FPD2485W+24+Widescreen+LCD/
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