The Altoids tin is something of a gold standard for teeny-weeny casemodders, artists, campers and other ingenious maker-types.

Jackie Chaves of BonAppetEats makes delightful jewelry that looks good enough to eat, but among her best-sellers are these cute miniature ponds inside Altoids Smalls mint tins.

Instructables contributor vmspionage posted instructions for making this tiny grill. It uses a single charcoal briquette. Fire it up, keep it in your pocket, and pull it out whenever you find a marshmallow!

[Video Link] Here is the vibrobot I made from an Altoids tin. It was featured in MAKE, Vol 10. — Read the rest

Luke Iseman sells a Bicycle Defense Kit for $19.90.

The Bicycle Defense Kit (BDK) offers options for dealing with aggressive motorists. Contained within an altoids tin, the 8 tools vary in detectability, potential to cause damage, and legality.

Specifically, cyclists can:

• Issue "citizen citations" with official-ish tickets.

Digital Open: Teen Altoid-hacks his way to tech glory

Field & Stream magazine shows how to pack a survival kit into an Altoids tin. They present several versions, including the Pocket Kit, Day Kit, and Wilderness Kit.
Link (via Life Hacker)

Aaron Dunlap is selling these excellent USB 9-Volt charger kits in an Altoids tin for the ridiculously low price of $9.50. I can't think of a better stocking stuffer.
Link

Update: Aaron Dunlap says: "I should point out that what I have for sale is kits to build your own charger in an Altoids tin or whatever you want. — Read the rest

JMG sez, "Instructions on how to make an external iPod battery pack from two 9 volt batteries and two AAs, housed in a playing card box. Claims to get 10 hours of play from it, and looks pretty easy to build. — Read the rest

The winner of a contest to invent a MacGyver-style invention using Altoids tins is a peach: make a set of iPod speakers out of two Altoids tins, two playing cards, and a set of headphones.

Link

(Thanks, Vidiot!)

In the DIY world cigarboxes have replaced the OATH (Obligatory Altoids Tin Hack). Here, Matt Richardson shows how to make an MP3 music box from a cigar box.

I decided I wanted to do a modern-day maker's riff on the old mechanical music box.

Building a PC? Why not throw in one of these 80 port USB charger-boards, so you can charge everygoddamnedthing you own? No data throughput, and it wants its own power supply (duh!).

80ポートUSBチャージャーボード

(via OhGizmo!)

Does your next door neighbor purchase heapin' helpin's of fertilizer from Home Depot? Is he growing an epic beard? He may be more than an annoying hipster experimenting with urban homesteading. No, no—it could be worse. He could be a terrorist. — Read the rest

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqdGACoRC2o

Institute for the Future teamed up with Sun Microsystems and Boing Boing Video to co-host the Digital Open, an online tech expo for teens 17 and under around the world.

We're publishing an 8-part series of videos profiling the winners. — Read the rest

Institute for the Future teamed up with Sun Microsystems and Boing Boing Video to co-host the Digital Open, an online tech expo for teens 17 and under around the world.

We're publishing an 8-part series of videos profiling the winners. — Read the rest

Yesterday on Boing Boing Gadgets, we looked at a stabby knife that lets you inflate your victim with rapidly expanding gaseous pain, considered an easily understood diagram for building a marijuana grow room and lusted after a solar-powered theremin in an Altoids tin. — Read the rest

Steve Lodefink (left) is guestblogging at Dinosaurs and Robots, a new blog about extraordinary objects that Mister Jalopy and I started.

An inveterate tinkerer and "broad-spectrum hobbyist," Steve just can't say no to a cool project. At 3, he was already reverse-engineering the peanut butter and jelly sandwich: "I figured out where all of the parts were, found a good tool, and built one.

In today's NYT, a story by John Schwartz on a demonstration of serious security vulnerabilities with RFID-enabled "contactless" credit cards. Snip:

They call it the "Johnny Carson attack," for his comic pose as a psychic divining the contents of an envelope.

John Duffell sez, "Altoids tins are too cool for the trash bin; many of us like to re-use our tins for various uses, and the fine folks behind the Altoid will be rewarding the most innovative ideas with cash prizes. Entries should consist of a brief description (no more than 100 words) accompanied by a digital photo." — Read the rest