apparatus

Student turns old turntables into drawing machine

Robert Howsare, a student from Ohio University, has built a rudimentary yet interesting drawing machine out of two old turntables and some wooden planks.

The home project, which cost a mere $50 to put together, is simply known as the "drawing apparatus." The drawings produced by the machine are surprisingly attractive, with random asymmetrical lines and patterns as shown in the below video. In fact, I personally found watching the rotating turntables and planks entertaining, and even therapeutic to some extent.

So before you throw out any outdated but still functional hi-fi components, you may want to consider the ways they could be repurposed first. … Read more

Gooey physics-based fun for Android

The award-winning World of Goo is now available in the Android Market.

Previously a hit on the PC, Mac, Wii Ware, and iOS platforms, now Google Android users get to join in on all the ooey, gooey physics-based fun.

If you've never played World of Goo, it's a visually stunning puzzler that lets you create structures out of tiny, elastic balls of goo. Think Apparatus or X Construction, but covered in slime. As you can imagine, it's incredibly challenging to create, say, a structurally sound bridge from elastic gooballs, but that's why this game is so fun. Also, each level only gives you a finite number of gooballs to work with, which teases your brain even further.

With its superb graphics, sound, intuitive gameplay, and superchallenging puzzles, we think World of Goo is a winner. Give the demo version a try, and let us know if you're as addicted as we are.

The World of Goo demo is available for free in the Android Market. The full version, with every chapter, is available for $4.99.… Read more

World of ooey-gooey contruction

World of Goo is a visually stunning physics-based puzzler that lets you create structures out of tiny, elastic gooballs. Think Apparatus or X Construction, but covered in slime.

The idea of the game is to get the gooballs to the intake pipe, which is usually in the sky, beyond some sort of chasm, or otherwise out of reach. In order to do this, you must use your gooballs to create bridges, towers, and other structures from a predetermined starting point. As you might have guessed, it's quite challenging to create something structurally sound from the elastic gooballs. Also, you … Read more

World of ooey-gooey contruction

World of Goo is a visually stunning physics-based puzzler that lets you create structures out of tiny, elastic gooballs. Think Apparatus or X Construction, but covered in slime.