Things To Make And Do

Kiwi WiFi hackers are building cheap, incredibly powerful WiFi antennae out of Chinese cookware, such as a $2 parabolic dumpling scoop, and USB WiFi dongles. They’ve got extensive build and testing notes — via BoingBoing.
A 1978 issue of Women’s Day magazine, describing how to build an elaborate Star Wars play set, with moving conveyor belt, out of laminate, cardboard, plywood and the like — via BoingBoing

In a rather delightful tale of revenge on a scam-artist: a Powerbook seller on eBay twigged that he was being ripped off by an overseas buyer, who had even set up a fake escrow service to handle his phony payment. Instead of blowing it off, the seller sent the crook on a wild goose chase that culminated with him taking delivery of a P-P-P-Powerbook made out of keyboard bits glued to an old binder, after paying £350 in customs fees and friends of the seller who’d staked out his mail-drop photographed the whole thing for posterity — via BoingBoing

You can’t resist the allure of a professional moulage kit, perfect for simulating your own brutal wounds and accident scenarios in the privacy of your own home. For $549, you get a convenient carrying case filled with such essentials as: one foreign body protrusion, one eyeball, one eviscerated intestine, two crushed feet, one plexiglass pack for simulated glass in wound, one roll of tape and lots more — via BoingBoing

Scrap materials, the end of an ordinary box, scraps of leather or canvas, are all you need to manufacture a pair of comfortable, serviceable play shoes. So says the introduction to this Sunset article from 1943 on how to make your own Caterpillars. Another pair of make-at-home shoes. Tyre sandals with nothing but a tire and some webbing — via BoingBoing