iPad Retina Display External Monitor

Two summers ago I bought an iPad 3 LCD off ebay.  These are 9.7" 2048 x 1536 IPS panels, which use an internal DisplayPort interface.  In May, I finally got around to building an external display out of the panel, which can be clipped directly onto the side of my Macbook Pro's screen, and is powered by a USB port.

I have been using the display on a daily basis for the last four months, and it has held up beautifully.  It took a little while for my eyes to get used to the tiny 264 pixels-per-inch pixel density, but I can now comfortably use it at native resolution.

The display's build log can be found here.

Monitor Arm

By a combination of luck and keeping a close eye on the reuse mailing list, I have acquired a pair of nice, large computer monitors: A 24" 1920 x 1200 SyncMaster 245BW and a 25" 1920 x 1080 HP 2509m.  Both screens were easily repaired by replacing dead capacitors on their power supply and inverter boards.  Due to the small size of the stock dorm room desks, the two monitors plus my laptop could not actually fit on my desk with space left for anything else, so I built a monitor arm that bolts to my loft out of some 80/20 extrusion.

iMac Mini

I started this project because I had a small pile of Macbook laptops and white iMacs in various states of functionality.  For this project, I used the stand and friction hinge from a 2006 iMac, the LCD from a Macbook that had coffee spilled on it, and the motherboard from a Macbook with a smashed screen.  The keyboard header on the motherboard was missing, so I had no way to use it in a laptop.  I decided to build a miniature iMac-like computer out of the parts I had.  As it turned out, I built the computer only to find out that the USB ports on the motherboard I used were dead, rendering the computer useless.  It was still a fun project though.

How to Fit Your PC in a Power Mac G5 Case

Whether you are an apple fan or not, it is hard to disagree with the fact that the Power Mac G5 computer looks great, inside and out. My goals for this project were to preserve the look of the case, inside and out; fit my PC's hardware, including a full length ATX motherboard, 2 GPU's, and a CoolIt ECO; and keep the system fully upgradeable, meaning no modifying the hardware.

Birch and Mahogany Home Theater PC

This is a home theater PC I built from mostly spare parts.  It was designed to be as compact and quiet as possible, given the parts I used, and also not look intrusive in a living room setting.

Triple Monitors

I recently switched GPUs from an HD3650 to a 9800GTX+, and because I also have an old 8500gt, I now have two nVidia cards.  This means that in Windows Vista, I can run two video cards (Vista requires the two cards to use the same drivers, but W7 does not).  To get the setup working, I had to do some modifications to the 8500gt, as well as build a stand for my monitors, since my desk is too small for three.

Python Game and Cipher

I wrote this simple game in Python using the tkinter graphics module.  This is my first attempt at writing a game, so it is very basic but (hopefully) entertaining at the same time.

Skull Flash Drive Mod

I built this flash drive out of Sculpey for a flash drive modding contest on TheBestCaseScenario.com 

Once the skull was baked, the flash drive was glued in it using epoxy, and the opening was painted over.

Water Cooled Laptop

Many laptops tend to run very hot, and as a result their tiny blower fans have to work hard to stop the computer from overheating.  Simple ways of fixing this include taking some compressed air to the heatsink, or reapplying thermal paste.  But this is a far more interesting solution.