Citing references in papers has always been a tough nut to crack. Everyone has their own preferences and style when it comes to writing, and different scientific journals all have their own specifications for how to cite references. Some people swear by LaTeX and BibTeX, others use word and Endnote.
While writing my thesis, I’ve come across a set of applications that I believe can be useful for almost any and everyone who is writing a paper.
Creating led light drawings using a camera is a snap! All you need is a camera (with the ability to set long exposure times) and a tripod (We actually used a table!). Most of the pictures we took had shutter speeds ranging from 20 to 60 seconds; however, even shutter speeds as short as 4 seconds can work (you just have less time to draw!). The camera we used for this project is my trusty (and no longer manufactured) Panasonic DMC-FZ30. See more example pictures and tips after the jump.
I purchased a dome chair from a big box store last year and it didn’t hold up very well. The chair part ripped and fell of the frame. Since the frame was still left intact, I didn’t want to throw it away -so I reused it to make a new chair. Using duct tape (the best duct tape of all – Nashua 357), I created a new frame for the chair. This project was quick, cheap, and easy; it used less than $10 in materials and only an hour of my time. The result is a chair that is much sturdier than the original I purchased.
The SheekGeek office doesn’t have very good lighting and because of this, working on things at my work desk is always tough. I’ve tried a lot of different solutions to this problem such as the lighted helping hands set-up, sitting a small fluorescent light on top of my parts organizer, and even hanging the lamp from a couple of the bins on the top row of the parts organizer. None of these provided a good solution. The fluorescent lamp was rather blinding, and with every solution, my hands cast shadows on what I’m working on. This lead me to finally come up with a great working solution to my problem that casts no shadows.
A couple of years ago when I wrote for Hackaday I did an article about the Hacker’s Soldering Station. Since then, that station became too bulky and impractical for my office. I needed something that was easier to move, or possibly break down to take up less space. I looked around at what I had on hand and slapped together this quick fix that is the perfect solution for my needs.
So I received all this super cool retro Holiday-themed ribbon from my grandma. After using it for gift wrapping, I had a small piece left. This piece was too small for a bow or other wrapping decoration, so I decided to use it to make a Christmas decoration for myself – a bracelet! All you need is some good quality ribbon that has a good sized width. The ribbon I used is 1 1/4″ (1.25″) thick. Here is a video showcasing this quick and easy how to.