My neighbor put a working Heathkit oscilloscope out in his trash. Naturally, I rescued it. Time to make another clock!

It's that time of year again: time to make a calender that appeals to geeks as nothing in the stores can!

My mother is selling my childhood home. I knew the one souvenir I wanted to keep. The only problem was, it could kill me.

I built an alphanumeric LED display that connects via USB to my PC and can display RSS feeds, the weather (like wind chill, above), the time, or just about anything.

See that little rectangle the size of Lincoln's nose? That's an electronic component - a smaller version of the big red thing in the picture. I have a congenital tremor in my hands, so I assumed that I would never be able to work with components that small. Turns out I was wrong.

So where's the art? Why is Galactic Studios a studio? Here's the movie that (re-)started it all.

According to Google, the search term "sexy calendar" frequently resulted in hits for galacticstudios.org. So to satisfy all you vintage computer pr0n fiends out there, here's 12 more lovelies for 2011. And you can print them out to make your own calendar!

Every year I make a calendar with pictures of my daughter. None of the available programs or services had the features I wanted so, as with my envelope program, I wrote my own. In the spirit of the season (New Year's, not Christmas) I'm making it available free for downloading.

Scientists use spectroscopes to identify chemicals - even in stars billions of light years away. They also use spectroscopes to find planets orbiting other stars. With about an hour of effort, I was able to build my own and show my daughter how scientists do it.

Grandma needed a really easy envelope printing program. I wrote one, and it's so convenient, I use it myself. Download it here and try it yourself.

The bird house launched a brood of babies on their way. Now's the time to catch up on what happened.

It's been observed that each generation thinks it invented sex. Likewise, each generation thinks its video games are classics. Sometimes, you just have to smack these kids upside the head.

Three years ago, I put a web cam in a birdhouse and filmed wrens building a nest, laying eggs, and feeding the young. This year, I'm doing again. Except now I have two web cams in the birdhouse, set up to give me a 3D view. Watch out, James Cameron!

When I was a teenager, I wanted to get an Altair 8800 computer, but I couldn't afford it. Now, I can. But I wanted something smaller, quieter, and about a million times faster. So I made it. I consider this the crowning achievement of my mid-life crisis nostalgia kick.

It's a cross between a workbench and a wheelbarrow, and it's a great place for a drill press and router table in a cramped workspace.

I just bought a new computer. As I was configuring it, I was reminded of this old story of how some software I wrote led to an unexpected payoff.

I needed a new calendar for work. The store had calendars with pictures of seascapes and mountain ranges, Elvis and Marilyn, doggies and dragons, airplanes and starships. Isn't there anything for software engineers?

Captain Kirk once told Mr. Spock that he should be squatting on a mushroom. If it's good enough for Spock, it's good enough for mighty Dungeons and Dragons warriors. So my daughter and I used fungus to make these shelves for her D&D figurines.

I wanted to design a clock from scratch. I ended up with a expensive, over-engineered, multiprocessing monstrosity. But it was fun.

Perhaps I'm a luddite, but I just don't care for the modern video games. Gimme Lunar Lander or Zaxxon and you can keep your fancy graphics. I built an arcade so I can play the classic games anytime I want.