Well our next task in HomeX was to taxidermy a mouse. This without doubt was the oddest thing I have ever done in school. I added some red LED eyes to make my mouse a little more possessed.

Photos

Update:
The Taxidermy Mouse makes it to Make Blog.

This is my iPod; I’ve had it for about three years now. Let’s just say that this iPod has taken its share of falls. The other day tops them without a doubt. I’m riding my bike up 6th Ave late for class. I’m in the middle of the road, cause you can ride the fastest there. I’m listing to some good music, new stuff I just got. As I pass 11th street I see my iPod start to rise out of my pocket. Since my bike only has a front brake I could make any quick moves. I see the iPod shoot into the air and at that second said, “There it goes - done”. The iPod slams to the road and slides down the street. Remember that this is 6th Ave, one busy street. I start to pullover and see that a nice taxi just ran right over it. I say, “Ahhoo DONE!” I am dreading to go look at it. I see some lady trying to grab it, but I run and pick it up. I look at the screen and yes, the iPod was still playing, I could not believe it. There were really now dent and it was all still in one piece.

To think, this was the iPod that Apple recalled but I never sent it in. I have to say this is the indestructible iPod.

In my HomeX class we built a Arduino board from scratch. I posted step by step photos on how to build your own Arduino.

Photos
Schematic
Board

Well I guess I need to tell the full story since everyone is asking. I was out in South Boston with my friend Ryan. We went to ironically a Graffiti art show that night. After the show we left and were walking around looking for a bar. We walked down the stairs of a bridge near Lucky’s Lounge. When we got under the bridge at street level we looked up and saw the glowing LED Adult Swim Ad. Right off the bat we thought that it was LED Throwies developed by the Graffiti Research Lab. I had to go up there and take a look.

I am currently enrolled at Parsons School of Design in NYC. I took a class called Geek Graffiti a couple of semester ago. In this class we worked in conjunction with the GRL to create technologies for urban communication. I was very familiar with the technology and LED art, so I had an idea what this was. By no means was I scared or thought was a bomb.

A couple of people outside the bar saw me climb the bridge and grab the LED Ad. People around said that they liked the Ad. “It has been up for a couple of weeks, its nice. It turns on at night.” They even mentioned some artist that they thought it was. By no means were these people scared or threatened by the LED Ad.

The Ad was far out on the bridge so I had a hard time getting to it. It was attached with magnets and hard to get off. I told Ryan to catch it but he missed and it broke. We brought it back to his place and started to dissecting it, I wanted to see how the circuit worked. After some testing I found out the construction of it.

The LEDS are attached to a circuit that takes an average level of the light using a photo resistor. Based on the level of light the LEDs will fade on or off. It is powered by 4 D batteries. The Ad life is about 2 - 3 weeks.

Ryan and I documenting the constriction of the piece and posted it to Make Blog and Flickr. This was about two weeks ago. The response was good. A little after this the creator contacted me and said:

“I am glad you got one of the adult swim signs, there are other’s out there as well so keep looking up. We were hoping that people would take them.” After this the story was over, well until the other day in Boston.

After speaking to many reporters I have to say the whole situation is getting out of hand. I respect the police and authorities for acting on the bomb scare. The bomb squad needed to sit back and realize what the Ad was. The word terrorist or bomb should never have been released to the public unless they were certain.

Take a look at this photo and this photo, The bomb squad should have been able to figure this out, before it got out of hand.