Foldaway house from South Africa
Cory Doctorow: An entrepreneur in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa has invented a "fold-away house" to be used as temporary shelter in disasters.

The waterproof, 14 square metre dwelling comes with two windows and a wooden door and weighs little more than 800kg, providing the basic requirements for emergency shelter.

Made from galvanised metal, it is easily transportable, being just 24 centimetres high when folded, and can be erected by a handful of people in under five minutes.

The container-like, modular structures can also be joined to provide accommodation for large families, as well as modified to include insulation and heat extractors.

Link (via Afrigadget)

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BLIP festival wrap up

The squarewave ring in my ears finally faded, here´s a round up of the coverage from the Blip Festival 2006 in NYC - MAKE was a sponsor and had a table there with our kits and zines. The fest consisted of a small but growing community from around the world - there´s something delightful about artists, composers and makers creating music from tossed gaming machines that are almost as old as the performers.

• GSW Report: Blip Festival 2006, Part 1 - Link.
• GSW Report: Blip Festival 2006, Part 2 - Link.
• Blip Festival: 8-Bit is Enough - Link.
• Blip festival - Link.
• Music @ MySpace - Link.
• Videos @ Youtube - Link.
• Quick vid from MAKE - one & two.
• Photos @ Flickr - Link.

The folks there liked the year one MAKE (soldering primer) the MIDI & circuit bending issues and the Mintyboost for charging Gameboys and music players - thanks to all the folks who stopped by to say hi, chat and pick up MAKE stuff.

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M-Audio O2 25-Key Ultra-Thin Mobile USB Midi Controller $74.99
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Karaoke King of the World
On a cruise ship in the Gulf of Finland, 44 hopefuls from 17 countries compete for the title of world´s best cover crooner. By Brian Raftery from Wired magazine.

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