Fiction writer Benjamin T. Riitgers is a big fan of labor-saving technology. He decided to outsource the task of naming characters to a Teensy 2.0.

By augmenting a USB Human Interface Device (HID) with a second button, and the ability to read from a microSD card, he created The Character Name Generator – inspired by Matt Richardson’s Awesome Button. Now instead of a synonym for “awesome”, the non-manual nomenclator injects a random first and last name without any typing or thought required! All that was left was the addition of a snazzy case, and now the character name generator was all ready for automated appellation! Find more detail, including full instructions, on Instructables.

Final Dave has written an extensive blog post detailing how to create your own electronic drum set.

Whereas a typical electronic drum kit from the likes of Zildjian, DW, or Roland might cost $5K+, Dave’s DIY drums ended up around $300 including the $150 stand (though not including the laptop required to run the Digital Audio Workstation software). The system largely consists of piezo disks connected to a Teensy 3.2, in turn connected to a laptop via USB MIDI. The laptop then uses the MT Power Drum Kit VST virtual instrument plug-in with the Reaper DAW to produce real drum sounds. These can of course be listened to over headphones, which means that depending on what you select for what Dave refers to as “something to hit with your drumsticks”, you should end up with a practice kit that won’t annoy your neighbours. Dave chose LaserDiscs, which is both a pretty cool way to put some new funk into “obsolete” old tech, and, one would imagine, pretty cyberpunk-looking in practice. Prior to embarking on the project, Dave “had almost no understanding of electronics whatsoever”, so the project write-up is written with accessibility in mind, and includes links to all of the required equipment, as well as parts, and of course the code to make it all work. Check it out on Dave’s blog, and as a fun bonus, check out this wearable offshoot project: drum gloves!