Tag Archives: repurpose

Digital Picture Frames

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I have been interested in digital picture frames for a while. For some time now, I’ve hated stuff. I hate having big books with pictures in them. So I’ve looked into digital picture frames and a lot of DIY projects by transforming a laptop.

I can see the benefits of reusing a laptop. You could update the photos with wi-fi and remotely access a computer you have hanging on the wall. That’s great, but I had an even dumber idea than repurposing a laptop.

DVD players have gotten tremendously cheap. I’m thinking I could take a DVD player, either a portable one with a screen, or hook up a small DVD player to a cheap LCD (like a 5 inch XBOX or PlayStation LCD) and use it to show photos.

I could probably just throw a bunch of photos into iMovie and make a slideshow and set it to repeat. Some of these DVD players even have remotes, so not only do you have a cheap Digital Picture Frame, but you have a remote control, too.

Plus, I could throw small pieces of home movies onto the disc. If you put this together, you still have a decent DVD player. I’m thinking that a shadow box could hold all of the components easily. You would just have to mount the devices in the shadow box.

Even easier, I’ve seen some new portable DVD players that have tablet PC style hinges that let you turn the screen around or fold it over to have it in tablet form. Each DVD Player-based Digital Picture Frame (or just one frame and lots of DVDs) could serve as an album. One DVD player’s a wedding album, another is childhood photos, etc.

Click here for my del.icio.us links for Digital Picture Frame Projects.

PowerMac G4

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The other day, I won an ebay auction on a 450mhz PowerMac G4. I’ve got it hooked up to a 19 inch Acer monitor. I installed Tiger on it and it runs okay.

I’m not a fan of the 20GB hard drive, so I’ll be swapping it out with a Seagate 120GB later this week. I’ll probably use the PowwerMac as a test bed for experiments. I’ve been thinking about making it a server and / or making it a “widget machine.”

For some time now, I’ve been thinking about having a “widget machine.” This computer would have either Yahoo or Dashboard widgets displayed on a monitor. It would have news stories, weather, sports, pictures, and maybe tv listings.

Before more RAM was installed into the Titanium PowerBook that was its function. It would display images as a screen saver. I had the crazy idea of taking pictures of the inside of the fridge so when the screen saver would activate, I could get an idea of what was possible for dinner. It also had (then Konfabulator) widgets displayed with sports, weather and news. Plus, it was an internet terminal when I needed one in a pinch.

At worst, the PowerMac G4 will turn out to be a widget machine. If you’ve got ideas, let me know.