Crave

I hear Mike Yamamoto has one in his basement.

(Credit: LiveJournal user SCAScot)

This contraption looks to me like something that the Beverly Hillbillies would hitch to the back of their car, but trust me, it's way cooler than anything that Jethro Bodine could scheme up. It claims to be the world's fastest margarita mixer. We talk a lot about booze gadgetry here, but this one really takes the (tequila-infused) cake.

(Credit: LiveJournal user SCAScot)

According to the LiveJournal user who documented it, this contraption made by "Uncle Don" (no, no joke) is made of "a small-block 400, a trailer, assorted parts and the ability to custom fabricate a 6-inch tall replica of a blender blade out of stainless steel." The tasty treats are mixed in a 25-gallon stainless steel tank, and in 10 to 20 seconds, "Dirty Don's Margarita Machine" can turn six bags of ice and 18 bottles of ready-to-drink margarita mix into some yummy frozen drinks.

"Uncle Don," for the record, is now officially invited to CNET's next office happy hour, as long as he brings the Margarita Machine with him.

Sorry, Make types, but there are no instructions for building your own; and sorry, booze snobs, there's no indication as to exactly how much Cuervo and triple sec you'd have to pour into this thing to make margaritas the "real way." It also looks so complicated that you might not want to operate it once you've had one of the drinks it produces. Nevertheless, it's certifiably awesome. Plus, it can probably mix daiquiris and pina coladas, too.

But can it automate the process of putting salt around the rim of your glass?

(Via Boing Boing)

A bomb-detecting robot in the repair shop in Baghdad.

(Credit: Sgt. Abel Trevino/U.S. Army)

In dangerous places like Iraq and Afghanistan, robots help to save soldiers' lives and limbs by ferreting out hidden explosives. In return, the soldiers help put the robots back together after a rough day of bomb-sniffing.

One of the main places that fix-up work takes place is the Joint Robotics Repair Facility at Camp Victory in Baghdad. The U.S. Army describes the JRRF as an "all-volunteer workshop" where the goal is quick turnaround--the shop adheres to a four-hour turnaround standard for repairs. If a given robot can't be rebuilt that fast, the soldiers who brought it in will head back to the field with a comparable unit.

"We make it a point that no one leaves this facility without an actual working robot," Chuck Burns, JRRF shop manager, said in an Army report from the robot facility. "As long as we have a serial plate we can rebuild a robot. We can rebuild from just about anything (and) create a robot from mix and match parts."

With the U.S. presence in Iraq now in its fifth year, the number of robots has grown to counter the rising use of improvised explosive devices by insurgents and other local fighters. The robot repair program is now three years old, and includes a number of forward repair facilities as wells as the one at Camp Victory.

"The initial requirement was for 162 systems (bomb-detecting robots)" that would be used to visually inspect IEDs, facility manager Maj. Stephen Mufuka said in the Army report. "Now we have more than 4,000."

The Talon robot.

(Credit: Qinetiq)

One of the robots singled out by soldiers for its abilities in finding, and sometimes detonating, IEDs is the Talon, made by Foster-Miller. That device scopes out suspicious areas with cameras, night-vision capabilities and a microphone, and can provide its operator with information such as the position of its arm and the grade of the ground on which it's maneuvering.

Qinetiq, the parent company of Foster-Miller, says that personnel at robot hospitals in Iraq repair more than 400 robots a week. All told, Qinetiq says, U.S. military personnel conduct more than 30,000 counter-IED missions per year in Iraq and Afghanistan. The need for more robots and repair parts prompted the Naval Air Warfare Training Systems Division last week to boost its contract with Foster-Miller from $63.9 million to $150 million.

(Credit: Cap'n Scurvy's Treasure Chest)

Here's a story for you. I recently invested in a cell phone with a QWERTY keyboard, and one of the things I love about it most is that there's no more need for triple-tapping or that whole T9word thing. The thing I hated most about T9word was its tendency to say "car" instead of "bar" when I was trying to text my friends and say "We're at this bar..." (Yes, I know there's a "next" key. That's way too complicated after midnight.)

That was more or less irrelevant, but it's what came to mind when I saw a post on Boing Boing about a bar made from a car--more specifically, the front of a 1961 Ford Econoline van repainted in "Flame Yellow." Unfortunately, it's a work by one very skilled person with a lot of time on his hands, so you're not going to be able to buy this anywhere unless you manage to commission the guy to make another one for you (or figure out how to do it yourself). But I'm impressed. This is, I must say, a way better car-furniture mashup than the Mini Cooper desk. First of all, the headlights and parking lights still function. But even better, there are speakers built into the grille.

All that and it still manages to look awesome. Perfect for all those parties you hold in your garage.

(Originally posted at Cap'n Scurvy's Treasure Chest, a blog with a name that gets major Crave approval)

(Credit: tomwet.de/photoshopped by Caroline)

Back in February, when I fell head-over-heels for the German pirate toaster, I had absolutely no idea that "art toasters" would become such a phenomenon. Yesterday, GeekSugar wrote about Your Name On Toast, which is a gimmicky little service that will customize toast for you at a ridiculous fee--but I guess it is for charity. Nevertheless, it was certainly more accessible than the hacked toast printer. So I suppose it was a step in the right direction.

But now, to beat the pirate metaphor into the ground, I think I see the "x" marking the buried treasure: I've found instructions for building my own pirate toaster. Well, kind of. MAKE Magazine's blog has linked me to an Instructables demo for building a customized "art toaster" that will brand toast with an image that I cut out of aluminum foil. (See image below.) You know, I think a homebrew pirate toaster might be even more awesome than one you buy in a store. Because pirates are resourceful, y'know?

(Credit: Instructables)

I'm so building one next week. Who's with me!?

(Credit: Tomwet.de (Photoshopped by Caroline))

To those who stepped in late: I'm on a quest for a pirate toaster. I'm looking for something like the skull-and-crossbones appliance sold in Germany that will allow me to brand a thoroughly awesome Jolly Roger into my morning toast. But at this point, it doesn't look like I can locate one here in the States. When we last left the Quest, readers, I had just learned about the Pop Art toaster sold at Target, which is a good try, but there are no pirates involved. I have no use for a toaster that can brand snowflakes or birthday cakes.

Well, there's good news out of Engadget. The guys over there have caught wind of a hacked CNC air gun that's been hooked up to a printer so that it can burn patterns into toast, thus turning it into "digital toast imaging technology." Perhaps it could be programmed to brand a skull and crossbones somehow? Hmm? Maybe? Check out this video:

So the auspices are in my favor. But hear me out: I will stop at nothing in my quest for this ultimate prize in kitchen-appliance booty. If you have one, I'm willing to barter. I have a katana that I'd trade you for it (good if you happen to come across any ninjas), or maybe some second-rate Blu-rays. Any takers?

(Credit: Sebastian Delmont)

Those little black Moleskine notebooks, once the scribble space of choice for Picasso and Hemingway, are now pretty much known as mandatory gear for brooding coffee-shop hipsters and aspiring indie rockers. But little did we know, they also make great external hard drives. A blogger by the name of Sebastian Delmont recently noticed a correlation between the sizes of his Moleskine journal and a hard drive, and cleverly realized that he could modify one of the sleek black books as the external casing for an internal laptop hard drive--saving a lot of cash in the process.

And there you have it, the Moleskine Hard Drive, constructed from a standard-sized Moleskine journal and an inexpensive Cool Drives hard drive. Perfect for storing all your bootlegged songs from Clap Your Hands Say Yeah shows.

(Via Boing Boing)

The perfect video for a Monday morning: a guy who makes coffee with a laser. Wow. Yes, it came from tinkering hub Make magazine's blog, but don't try this at home.

(Make via Gizmodo)

(Credit: Gizmodo)

I have some friends who like to make fun of me because I totally dig Dance Dance Revolution. Okay, I have a lot of friends who make fun of me for it. But considering I have never played World of Warcraft, I don't know any kind of programming languages, and I have never seen an episode of Star Trek, I need to have some other way to express my inner geek. Hence, DDR. Which is why I was totally pumped to read on Gizmodo that somebody has put up an extensive tutorial for how to make your own DDR deck, like the kind they have in arcades. It'll cost $400 and take approximately 16 hours as well as some building know-how, but that's a small price to pay for being the coolest nerd around. Way better than just a mat to hook up to your PS2.

Imagine how this could enhance your backyard parties! (Or rooftop parties, for us urban dwellers.) Pair it with the light-up inflatable bar (Tim Moynihan's inflatable girlfriend optional), and man, that's one outdoor shindig you sure don't want to miss. Just make sure you have a massive outdoor TV, too.

(Credit: Flickr user urban_data)

At first I didn't think this was really Crave-related, but I've been seeing it on so many blogs these days--Popular Science, Gizmodo, Notcot.org--that I figured, "Hey, what the hell, if everybody else is posting about it, we might as well too." Basically, a group called the Graffiti Research Lab has built (excuse me, the cool term is "hacked") a projector that can use lasers to put any kind of "tagging" on a large building or wall. It's called the "LASERTAG," which is some kind of acronym, but the Graffiti Research Lab doesn't seem to explain its derivative. While right now it's being touted as a form of next-generation graffiti, I can see this being used for everything from giant advertisements to really pricey party decor.

The Graffiti Research Lab has made this an open-source project and all the details are available on its Web site. So, what are you waiting for? Get to it! I recommend that you project a Mooninite on some massive building in Boston. I hear they love that stuff over there.

UPDATE: Thanks to Crave reader "CanadianAvenger" for clearing this up--"LASER" stands for "Light Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation." "Tag" is just "tag." The formal name of the project is, consequently, "LASER Tag."