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Make a motion-triggered spy cam

Mark Frauenfelder at 3:09 pm Thu, Feb 12, 2009

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MAKE's Kipkay shows how to make a motion-triggered spy cam. Instructables has the how-to.

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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  • sammich

    jimkirk @ 20 – look further back…

    from merriam-webster -”Main Entry: 1sol·der
    Pronunciation: \ˈsä-dər, ˈsȯ-, British also ˈsäl-dər, ˈsōl-\
    Function: noun
    Etymology: Middle English soudure, from Anglo-French, from souder to solder, from Latin solidare to make solid, from solidus solid

    - those dastardly Normans couldn’t be arsed with the ‘L’… but we remembered…

  • Takuan

    “soul-dur”

  • arkizzle

    What am I, chopped liver?

  • zeroy

    In thirty years of professional electronics work, I have never heard anyone pronounce the ‘l’ in “solder”. If I did hear it, I would take it as a shibboleth indicating that the speaker knew nothing of what he/she spoke.

  • Xopher

    Solderity forever!

  • teapot7

    zeroy at #10 writes:

    > In thirty years of professional electronics work, I have never heard anyone pronounce the ‘l’ in “solder”. If I did hear it, I would take it as a shibboleth indicating that the speaker knew nothing of what he/she spoke.

    Or that they were not American. I’ve never heard it *not* pronounced in Australia.

  • Jerril

    @13: I’m from the Ottawa Valley in Canada, notorious for smashing our consonants into mush (pronounced “odwa valley” in the local dialect, for a glaring example) but for what it’s worth, it’s more or less “sodder” here, too.

    I say “more or less” because I think the “inaudible” L does end up modifying the o, but I can’t really put my finger on how, exactly.

    Deliberately saying “sodder” makes me sound like I have a head cold, but I definitely wouldn’t spell my pronunciation of solder with an l.

    Further contemplation things that I say something more like “sowe-der” instead of “sahwder”

  • Takuan

    sawder the joint using soldur and your soddering iron.

  • Takuan

    and a bit of flooox.

  • jimkirk

    It’s an American thing.

    http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/solder

    It’s from the middle English soudure. I don’t see an “l” in there.

  • webmonkees

    Nice, but the source parts are a bit expensive. I gave up on Radio Shack long ago..

    A cheap motion-detector lamp (the fixture is $13, cheaper than the standalone module?)
    wired creatively; ..just run a cord out with the switched AC line (when the detector goes off)

    and you now have a remotely switched outlet that turns on any particular AC device you want. (Use good technique/judgment on that)

    I have plans for installing a tape player that loops Monty Python’s Holy Grail clips whenever anyone approaches the bridge..

    A catapult is optional.

  • Teresa Nielsen Hayden / Community Manager

    Sammich, late but never: It’s not because y’all remembered. I’ll bet you a dozen doughnuts that some hyper-U class warrior reinstated the ‘L’ because that’s how it is in Latin. (I haven’t looked it up. Bets are no fun if you look it up.)

  • arkizzle

    Zeroy, soLder in UK and Ireland too I’m afraid.

    Any Canucks wanna chime in?

  • Alpinwolf

    Again with the language barrier, Arkizzle?

    Heard a good one over the holidays. Not stoopid, just interesting.

    The network device: router. Pronounced by some as “rooter”, and others as “rauter” (rhymes with one-who-shouts.) I’d only ever heard “rauter”, until a new addition to the clan thought that was the weirdest thing, evar. A debate ensued, partly regarding how one pronounced route, as in a path. I discovered I change it depending on verb vs. noun.

    What’s it like in the UK?

  • thickdot

    Make your own Lime Wash…tres Provencal oui?

    Basically, you take some hydrated lime from your local building supply center, mix it with equal parts water, allow to stand for a bit, mix some universal colorants and apply using various techniques. End result is a beautiful, colorful wall. I’ll be trying it soon.

  • Anonymous

    Canuck… trapped between two worlds as usual, we hear both.
    Varies by region and individual, usually as a function of which they most identify with.

  • thickdot

    and in woodchuck country it’s pronounced “sahwder”…get it right!

  • Anonymous

    Canadian here, we pronounce it american-style. The L is not enunciated.

  • Tagishsimon

    Somewhat ironic subject matter for BoingBoing.

    • Antinous / Moderator

      Somewhat ironic subject matter for BoingBoing.

      But you can use it to catch anyone trying to install a camera aimed at you. Seriously, my car is in the communal condo garage. I would love to have one of these in case one of my neighbors gets irritated and decides to key it.

  • Blondy

    Oh man, That cat is so busted!

  • arkizzle

    The way this guy, and some other Americans, say ‘solder’ (sodder) always reminds me of the way the Bush administration used to pronounce ‘Sodom’ Hussein.

    Anyone care to put me out of my curiosity, and tell me along what lines the ‘sodder’ pronounciation divides? Is it regional? Trade-specific? Speech impediment? Original pronounciatioin based on the root word ‘soudur’? A mixture of all?

  • arkizzle

    Alpin,
    Yeah, not picking on it though :)

    I just think it’s interesting and wondered who says each version and where the difference came from. As to the UK/Irish pronounciation of router.. it’s ‘rooter’.

  • arkizzle

    JimKirk..

    “It’s from the middle English soudure. I don’t see an “l” in there.”

    No, but funnily enough, in the modern English word, there is an “l”.

  • Takuan

    I love Kipkay.

  • robulus

    I’m sure you could come up with many places to put this motion triggered spy cam.

    Yes. Yes, I’m sure you could.

  • sammich

    Alpinwolf @ 22 – we do have “rauters” in the uk, but ~do~ exercise caution when attaching one to your computer.

  • trialex

    It’s soLder !

    The L is not silent!