Ask About Repositioning Flights and Cruises to Get a Better Deal

When searching for a vacation online, you might not get the best deal. Susan Johnston, writing for US News, reports that asking about repositioning flights and cruises can save you a lot.

Airlines use repositioning flights to move aircrafts from one airport to another, and the same applies to cruise lines, which typically reposition ships twice a year. These flights or cruises tend to be cheaper but provide services similar to traditional offerings, according to Greenberg. He suggests asking about these options on the phone.

Next time you're taking a vacation and the cost seems a bit high, call your airline(s) of choice and ask about repositioning flights. You might just save some hard-earned cash.

5 Budget Travel Tips You Haven't Heard Before | US News

Image by file404 (Shutterstock).

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Tardis Bookshelf with Sound and Lights

Here's the list of parts I used:

MAIN TARDIS
------------------

2 - 2"x6"x 6'
2 - 2"x4"x 6'
2 - 3/4"x 4'x 8' Sheets of plywood (AB or AC (depends on the wood grain you want to see and how much money you have))
1 - 1/2"x 4'x 8' Sheet of plywood (AB or AC (depends on the wood grain you want to see and how much money you have))
8 - 1/2"x 3"x 6' Pieces of lumber (or something that can be made to that size of wood (eg. 1/2 Plywood))
1 lb box of 8x2" Screws
16 gallon wet/dry craftsman shopvac cage float (image later) this was an easy way to make the light on top since we had one laying around from an old shopvac.
Plastic Water Bottle
Acrylic sheets(got custom cut at a shop in Topeka KS)
Black spray paint(must be made for plastics)
BEHR Premium Plus Sapphire Lace Paint in Eggshell (1 Gallon)
Valspar Signature Golden Flame in Semi-Gloss (1 quart)
Clear Gloss Defthane Spray (for protection of PULL TO OPEN sign)
3" c/c Wire Pull (small handle)
Black Pull Handle
1/2" Lock
2 - Malamine edge ironon 3/4 x 8 White
1 - Malamine 3/4" Sheet 4'x 8'
1 - Door catch (metal hook type)
1 - Magnetic Door Catch
1 can of Spray adhesive
1 can of fixative
6 - Blum 95 Degree Thick Door Clip Top Frameless Inset Hinges
2 - Small hinges
1"x18 gauge Brad nails
A small Metal Bowl or some other rounded object to use as the top of the top light

ELECTRONICS
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2 - MicroSwitches with lever
6 - Terminal connectors (depends on switch size (used to hook up the switch without solder)) 
Arduino Uno or Other Compatible system (I used the Iduino Uno)
ElecHouse MP3 Shield (Image Later)
1 GB SD Card
5 Meter roll of cutable LED Strip
16' Extension Cord (for Power)
1 Outlet Box and Outlet
2 Adapters (12V 120 - 300 Ma and an arduino compatible Power cord (look At Arduino website)
4 or more 1/2"x2 gauge brass screws (to hold the switches)
Two NPN Transistors (pn2222 or other small one that can handle more than or equal to 12V)
A small BreadBoard 300 or more points of connection
20 ft. of telephone wire (approximately)

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Arduino Air Cap-Sense Piano

I recently got my shipment of 10 buzzers I ordered about a month ago, so as soon as I got them I was eager to make something fun with them, so I looked around a bit and searched for what to do with them, and by spending some time on www.arduino,cc and posting lots of questions on the forums, I figured out what I am going to make.

I decided to make an air piano which is based upon cap-sense and the arduino.

Materials;
    Aluminum tape or aluminum foil     Some wires     8 10M Ohm resistors     Piezo buzzer     Arduino     9V battery or USB cable

Basically, there are square pieces of aluminum tape stuck onto a thick card which is attached to a jumper cable and a resistor, 8 replicas of this are made, then all the other ends of the resistors are attached together and to pin3 of the arduino, this will act as the common base pin for all the sensors. The resistor values can be 2M or 10M or 40M Ohm. 2M Ohm will make it so that it only senses when you press on the aluminum tape, 10M Ohm resistor makes it so that your hand can be sensed at a little height of 2-4cm or so and 40M Ohm will sense quite a bit further, but it gets a little messy as if the aluminum tape pieces are too close together then at that height interference occurs therefore other keys might get pressed. If you want to use this 40M Ohm version then you have to make sure to place the aluminum tape pieces a little far away from each other.
I used 10M Ohm for my device and it works perfectly when I wave my hand over the note I want to use.

The principle behind this is that the aluminum tape detects the difference between human body capacitance and the capacitance of air, or in other words the aluminum tape is given a small voltage by the arduino which creates an electrical field in that area, and when our finger(being a conductor) touches it or moves close to it so as to disturb the electric field, we form a capacitor. This change is detected by the aluminum tape and therefore sends a signal to the arduino with which we can tell it to send a signal to the buzzer.

(I have heard that we can also use resistive sensing instead of capacitive but I'm not exactly sure how it works.)

For more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitive_sensing

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Easy stitch and glue monkey hand puppet

First of all, thanks for checking out my first instructable!  I've been a lover of designing and making things for many years and since becoming a primary school teacher (currently Year 2, 6-7 year olds) I've begun designing DT projects to teach my kids new things.

Our topic at the moment is Africa, and what better to design and make with textiles than a hand puppet?  So, here goes!

Tools you'll need
- Printer
- Sharp scissors (especially important if you're doing this with children)
- A large needle (helps with drawing thread through holes)
- Permanent marker pen (bullet tip sharpie works well)

Materials you'll need
- 1 piece of dark brown felt (50cm x 30cm)
- 1 piece of light brown felt (20cm x 30xm)
- ~1m Dark brown embroidery thread
- Tacky glue (I found Bostik All Purpose glue worked very well)

Now you've got your tools and materials, let's get started!

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HowLongToBeat Helps You Schedule Your Gaming Sessions

There are so many great video games out there, and so little time to play them. HowLongToBeat is a community-based site that predicts how long you'll need to get through various video games to help you better plan which one to play next.

Once you navigate to the site and create an account, you can browse through a list of thousands of video games. Click the one you're interested in, and the site will tell you how long it should take you to complete the game if you're only interested in the main quest, if you want to complete the side objectives, and if you want to truly discover every nook and cranny the game has to offer. The times are all based on community members' reports, so popular games probably have more accurate data, but I couldn't find a game that wasn't at least listed.

For the curious among you, you can dive deeper into each game's page to find discussions and user reviews, see what platforms people are playing it on, and time yourself against the fastest-reported speedrun. Once you complete a game yourself, you can add your own time to the database to keep improving the service. If HowLongToBeat taught me anything, it's that I own far more games than I have time to play, but it at least helped me prioritize which ones I might get through during this long weekend.

HowLongToBeat via MakeUseOf

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Custom 3d printed car parts

The ability of 3d printing to form any shape is quite remarkable. To be able to imagine a part, design it and then simply place an order online and have it arrive in the mailbox is amazing. Especially when the part in question could not realistically be made any other way.

Take for example these lock levers from my 1962 Valiant. The originals are a diecast aluminium and feature a very fine spline. I doubt they would be able to be manufactured any other way. Even with CNC machining I imagine the part would have to be made in two pieces if it was possible at all.

The replacements were needed due to an oversight on my part. I had made some lovely new door trims for my the Valiant. The fronts turned out so well i went ahead and made the rears to match. However in my enthusiasm I did not take into account the lock levers which only feature on the rears. Show here is the locking lever spline protruding through the trim baseboard before trim, and after I had finished the trim with the padding. No spline protrudes and therefore the original lock levers do not fit. So how to fix this without remaking the whole door trims?

3D printing to the rescue!

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