DIY urban farming

Growing plants on my roof is like trying to grow plants in space. For a long time I've been planning to build a green house on my roof in San Francisco. I've tried growing a few plants without the protection and they last two or three days before the wind sucks the life out them. So I was excited to see this new DIY approach to farming that uses a hydration system to grow plants in your windows.

The plan seems limiting at the moment, but what if we adapted the idea slightly and created a facade for a house that enabled plants to grow up the entire front of your house or apartment. With the use of hydroponics and a protective, greenhouse like cover I can see this as a real possibility.

Make TV

I've attended the past 2 Maker Fairs and it's been an amazing resource for engineers and innovators. As DIY culture goes mainstream Make's is broadening their audience and have released their first episode of a series called Make TV. This first episode highlights Cyclcide who supplied creatively constructed bikes that we rode at the Maker Fair and Coachella. Subscribe to their content, I'm sure it will be a good source of creative inspiration.


Maker Profile - Cyclecide from make magazine on Vimeo.

Designing A Rubber Band Powered Boat

I've been taking a mechanical engineering class and our most recent project was to design & create a rubber band powered boat that would travel 35 feet to the center of a pool and skewer a ring before a competitor. The requirements necessitated that the boat be 2 feet long or less and weigh less than 24 ounces. My teammates and I spent the past few weeks engineering a boat that accomplished the feat. I thought I would share the experience so I've included our deck and a short film chronicling the experience. We also used Google Sites to collaborate and it was a great hub for our team enabling us to brainstorm, hold online discussions, post sketch-up designs & coordinate meetings and materials.

Rubber Band Boat Deck

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: engineering design)

DIY Furniture

The Do It Yourself revolution is nothing new, but there have been some great videos popping up on YouTube that are well made tutorials. I've been impressed with the ability to pass along all the necessary steps required to build something useful. The most recent one that I've come across is a video on how to create furniture from cardboard. It's aesthetic and functional.