Photo By Craig Smith
At five feet long, with a five-foot wing span, this has to be the most awesome mailbox on the block. I wonder if the mailman rides a Tauntaun? For more info check out X-Wing Mailbox at Makezine.com
Awesome, Huge, X-Wing Mailbox
-
By Dave Giancaspro
- August 13, 2010 |
- 12:13 pm |
- Categories: Armchair Geek
Lucasfilm’s Crafty Bonnie Burton: Glue, Glitter, and Sometimes Gore
-
By John Booth
- August 13, 2010 |
- 11:11 am |
- Categories: Armchair Geek, People
Bonnie Burton and her duct-tape-covered AT-AT planter. Image: Jim Carchidi
How ambitious is StarWars.com editor and author Bonnie Burton when it comes to turning piles of stuff into icons from a familiar galaxy far. far away?
Can you say Hammerhead Sock Doll? How about duct-tape-and-coffee-cup AT-AT planter? Or the couch-sized Jabba the Hutt body pillow?
Image: Jim Carchidi
And those are just some of the projects Bonnie – who’s also the author of the GeekDad-reviewed Draw Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and Girls Against Girls – has managed to pull off successfully. During a fun Star Wars Celebration V crafting panel on Thursday, she shared many more, and also a few that didn’t turn out so well, from a roadkill-esque split-belly Tauntaun couch “so disturbing that no one would sit on it” to an ill-fated attempt to turn her Lucasfilm office into a Dagobah swamp. (When Bonnie laughs about stuff like this and compares herself to Jordan in Real Genius, you totally get it.)
And even though my crafting ability probably peaked with a comb sleeve I made when I was eight, I was nonetheless inspired by the enthusiasm and resourcefulness on display.
She’s compiled a lot of these projects into The Star Wars Craft Book , which is due out next March, but she’s always on the lookout for other fan creations.
Macaroni noodle Star Destroyer, anyone?
One Lucky Thing About Friday The 13th: Pocket Zoo Is Free Today!
-
By Brad Moon
- August 13, 2010 |
- 10:30 am |
- Categories: Electronic Geek
Screen shot copyright Pocket Zoo (by Tiny Hearts)
If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch, this is a hard one to pass up. The developers of Pocket Zoo, the live animal cam app we looked at last month, dropped us a line to point out that their award winning Education App is free for today only.
Ponoko/Sparkfun Competition – Vote for the Winner Now!
-
By Nathan Barry
- August 13, 2010 |
- 10:00 am |
- Categories: Projects and Activities
Entries are now closed for our design competition in association with Ponoko and Sparkfun, but the competition isn’t over yet! We’ve selected our favourite 10 entries from the GeekDad Flickr pool and the comments left on the post, and now it’s up to you, the readers, to pick the overall winner.
Have a look at the list below and choose who you think should receive all the parts they need to build their winning design!
A big thank you from all of us here at GeekDad to everyone who took the time to enter, we wish you could all win, but in the words of the immortals, “there can be only one!”
Continue Reading “Ponoko/Sparkfun Competition – Vote for the Winner Now!” »
Geeky Birth Announcement is a Cut Above the Rest
-
By Natania Barron
- August 13, 2010 |
- 9:30 am |
- Categories: People
The creation of new life oft stirs the well of inspiration, and this video is no exception. Though I really enjoyed the Star Wars baby announcement from not too long ago, there’s something particularly endearing about the cute, lovey, sweetness of this geeky announcement, too. The rock, paper, scissors part is particularly amusing: go, go, DNA!
Dork Tower Friday
-
By Matt Blum
- August 13, 2010 |
- 9:00 am |
- Categories: Armchair Geek
Dork Tower #856 by John Kovalic
Read all the Dork Towers that have run on GeekDad.
Find the Dork Tower webcomic archives, DT printed collections, more cool comics, awesome games and a whole lot more at the Dork Tower Website.
Tags: Dork Tower, John Kovalic
An Insider’s Look At The MoonBots Teams: LegoAces
-
By Dave Banks
- August 13, 2010 |
- 8:30 am |
- Categories: Projects and Activities, Science and Education
With about a week and a half remaining in the first MoonBots Challenge, let’s take a look at another of the contest’s finalists: a group of guys who call John Glenn’s home state of Ohio home. The LegoAces, named after their Granville middle school mascot, the Blue Aces, are comprised of four middle school kids, Will, Eric, Daniel and Josh.
Their team captain, Thomas, a geek dad himself, says “I’m totally psyched about this cool program. I love that a room of our house has been taken over by robots and that these kids are getting a great head-start on learning how to work together and use all of the great tools that are available for collaboration.”
The LegoAces are no strangers to robotics competitions. For the past four years, they have competed in the FIRST Lego League and have made it to the state finals every single time. They have helped their fellow geeks by teaching classes in Mindstorms construction and programming, as well as hosting mini-competitions in the off-season.
When the call went out for MoonBots entries, it was no question that the LegoAces would enter. “The guys have been following every step of the Google Lunar X-Prize and the other X-Prizes for years and are big fans of both space exploration and Lego Robotics. Some of the team members have been participating for the past couple of years with a Lunar X-Prize team called “Frednet,” where they can stay in touch with the adventures and developments of an actual research team that is using an open source model to attack the Lunar X-Prize challenge. The MoonBots program is a perfect combination of an accessible robotics challenge and an awesome research area,” said Thomas.
Continue Reading “An Insider’s Look At The MoonBots Teams: LegoAces” »
Faster Than A Speeding Nerf Dart!
-
By Anton Olsen
- August 13, 2010 |
- 8:00 am |
- Categories: Electronic Geek, Projects and Activities, Toys and Technology
Photo by Anton Olsen
As I mentioned in an earlier post, the folks at Pocket Radar were kind enough to loan me a review unit of their somewhat expensive, but cool product. Sized like a big-boned iPhone, the Pocket Radar claims to be the world’s only pocket-sized personal speed radar.
As i hunted around the office for things to clock, my eyes landed on my little arsenal of Nerf guns. Specifically my modified Nite-Finders. Both guns on the left are modified with the same springs, the top one has an added PVC barrel. The Nite-Finder and Maverick on the right are stock. After a few quick tests to see that it indeed was well within the 11-350 mph range of the radar, I devised some scientific tests for the next weekend. The goal was to find out which Nite-Finder mod was most effective, and we threw in the Nerf Maverick just to see how it compared.
Travis and I set up in the shade of the garage on a 100 degree day and shot dart after dart down the drive-way. We continued collecting data from all four guns with a variety of darts until my dart retriever got tired and insisted we go get some ice-cream. The data was surprisingly consistent with just a few odd darts. I’ll present the raw data and my conclusions about the mods after the jump.
DC Comics and Chocolate Milkshakes: Great, in Summer or Anytime
-
By Jason B. Jones
- August 13, 2010 |
- 7:30 am |
- Categories: Everything Else
Art Brut photo by Flickr user prusakolep / Creative Commons licensed
Art Brut’s album, Art Brut vs. Satan, came out last summer but — as they sing on “DC Comics and Chocolate Milkshakes” — some things will always be great!
The indie rock ode to arrested development may well strike a chord with Geek Dads everywhere. Eddie Argos is no geek poser, either — his favorite DC character is apparently Booster Gold!
In a characteristically shambling introduction (his between song banter is often longer than his songs) to his arrested development anthem, “DC Comics and Chocolate Milkshakes,” Argos tells the crowd that earlier that day, the band went on a tour of DC Comics’ offices, and it was exactly as awesome as any four-color-loving nerd would hope (the front desk, he pointed out, is modeled after The Daily Planet.)
As it turns out, Argos’ favorite DC hero is the time-traveling Justice League member Booster Gold. But don’t feel bad if you have no idea who that is. “I think even [the DC staff] were surprised,” he says.
He also admits to being surprised by a fondness for Captain America.
Continue Reading “DC Comics and Chocolate Milkshakes: Great, in Summer or Anytime” »
Finish Your Trip Around the World With 10 Days in the Americas
-
By Jenny Williams
- August 13, 2010 |
- 7:00 am |
- Categories: Armchair Geek, Science and Education
Photo: Out of the Box Games
Last January I reviewed all of the existing (at that point) 10 Days in… games from Out of the Box Games. I covered 10 Days in Europe, 10 Days in the USA, 10 Days in Asia and 10 Days in Africa. One could say that all the games look the same, but there are notable differences to each one, and, honestly, you’d be missing the point. The games are quite fun to play, yes, but they’re also for learning and teaching geography. You absorb quite a lot of information and detail by studying a continent, reading country facts and planning a trip.
New to the family is 10 Days in the Americas. Also drawn by Dork Tower’s John Kovalic, this edition takes us to North and South America, and also includes Central America and many Caribbean countries. There are two features unique to this version. You can travel through the Panama Canal to link the Pacific Ocean with the Caribbean Sea, and you can take a cruise from one country to another by linking those countries with more than one adjacent ocean. Methods of travel in this version are by foot, ship (and cruise) and airplane. Basic game play is the same as in the other versions.
Continue Reading “Finish Your Trip Around the World With 10 Days in the Americas” »
See more GeekDad
