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https://hackaday.com/2008/07/23/shih-chieh-huangs-recycled-bots/ | Shih Chieh Huang’s Recycled Bots | Kimberly Lau | [
"News",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"art",
"glow",
"robots",
"santa monica",
"SantaMonica",
"sculpture",
"shih chieh huang",
"ShihChiehHuang"
] | We’re really sorry to have missed
GLOW
. It was a unique all-night art and music event that took place the evening of July 19, 2008, in Santa Monica, and lasted until dawn. We were most intrigued by [
Shih Chieh Huang
]’s haunting robotic sculptures. They were eerily beautiful, and appeared to be alive and “breathing”. He took some unusual materials – plastic bags and bottles, computer fans and circuit boards, among others, and combined them all to give the creatures otherworldly auras. Simultaneously familiar and strange, the sculptures are designed to evoke marine life, yet they’re completely different, in both materials and structure. More coverage and pictures of the event can be found at
LAist
,
NOTCOT
, and on
Flickr
.
permalink | 5 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "39446",
"author": "Me",
"timestamp": "2008-07-23T22:53:14",
"content": "@ all ‘that’s not a hack’ whiners – Go whine somewhere else.If you had paid attention to the ‘art’ in question you would have noticed that they are hacked-together bits of hardware and other materials doing some... | 1,760,377,784.538984 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/23/modding-the-oppo-980-for-better-audio-output/ | Modding The Oppo 980 For Better Audio Output | Will O'Brien | [
"classic hacks",
"digital audio hacks"
] | [
"audiophile",
"cd",
"dvd"
] | There’s an
interesting thread
discussing mods to improve the inexpensive Oppo 980 DVD player for better performance. The power supply, capacitors and opamps can benefit from some higher end components. [Occam] suggests several replacement opamps options for upgrading the audio output. The realatively low cost of Oppo gear makes it a better risk than modding a multi-thousand dollar DVD player.
permalink | 5 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "39440",
"author": "diy audio projects",
"timestamp": "2008-07-23T15:35:55",
"content": "the dac is likely the weakest link. run the digital out into an external dac and then into a preamp of your choice. damping the transport would be good too.Gio",
"parent_id": null,
"dep... | 1,760,377,784.169843 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/22/hacking-at-random-2009/ | Hacking At Random 2009 | Eliot | [
"cons",
"News"
] | [
"berlin",
"ccc",
"cccamp",
"conference",
"hackercon",
"hackerconference",
"har",
"har2009",
"toorcamp",
"whatthehack",
"wth"
] | Hacking At Random 2009
has recently been announced. It’s brought to you by the same people who held the outdoor hacking event
What The Hack
, which we
covered in 2005
. Date, location, and many other details are still up in the air. They’re looking to host 3000 attendees and we’re guessing it will be similar in nature to last Fall’s incredible
Chaos Communication Camp
near Berlin. 2009 will also feature the beta run of outdoor hacker event
ToorCamp
near Seattle. Two great events we’re certainly looking forward to.
[photo:
mark
]
permalink | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "39438",
"author": "Davood Safvat",
"timestamp": "2008-07-23T22:20:13",
"content": "Hi Salam",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "39439",
"author": "FooBar",
"timestamp": "2008-07-25T10:44:23",
"content": "It’s not the exa... | 1,760,377,784.249801 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/19/openmoko-usability-review/ | OpenMoko Usability Review | Caleb Kraft | [
"Cellphone Hacks",
"iphone hacks",
"News"
] | [
"apple",
"cellphone",
"freerunner",
"iphone",
"iphone3g",
"mobilephone",
"openmoko"
] | [Dave Fayram] has
put out two videos
covering the interface of the FreeRunner from
OpenMoko
. For those unfamiliar, we’ve covered it a
few
times
before. It is an opensource mobile platform that includes a full X server. They encourage people to make their own software and even release the CAD files for chassis modification.
He points out some glaring faults and compares it to his
iPhone
. Some of the major faults he has listed and shown are:
Bezel around screen makes input difficult.
Extremely slow interface
Can’t play mp3s.
On screen keyboard is tiny.
It is marketed at around $400 so the comparison to an iPhone seems legitimate. We do need to keep in mind, however, that the FreeRunner is opensource. The more support we show to them, the better it will get. The thought of an opensource handheld platform, comparable to an iPhone is quite enticing. At this point though, the comparison is pretty one sided. Hopefully more software development and support from the community will make this device something to get very excited about.
[via
Daring Fireball
]
permalink | 20 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "39277",
"author": "Dean",
"timestamp": "2008-07-19T23:44:39",
"content": "Open source or not, the more support you show for something the better it will get if the people behind it are any good.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "3... | 1,760,377,784.592232 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/19/sim-card-reader/ | SIM Card Reader | Eliot | [
"Cellphone Hacks"
] | [
"cellphone",
"gsm",
"mobilephone",
"reader",
"sim",
"simreader",
"smartcard",
"smartcardreader"
] | Adafruit Industries
just announced their next kit: a
SIM card reader
. Using the kit, you can read or write any SIM card. You could use this for fun things like recovering deleted contacts and SMS messages. The kit looks like a very straight forward design (based on
[Dejan]’s work
); the only chip is a hex inverter and the board is powered by a regulated 9V battery. With all through-hole components, it should be easy to assemble. You can talk to it using the board mounted serial port or connect to the extra pin header using an FTDI USB cable just like the
Boarduino
. The FTDI option is bus powered, so you won’t need the battery. [ladyada] has collected some resources in case you want to
learn more about smart cards
.
permalink | 19 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "39261",
"author": "ladyada",
"timestamp": "2008-07-17T06:50:31",
"content": "mmm, not quite sure where you saw this was announced. :)the kit isn’t available yet, i havent posted about it on my forums or blog and the documentation isnt complete. the kit will be announced on friday, a... | 1,760,377,784.497017 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/19/usb-nes-controller-plus/ | USB NES Controller Plus | Will O'Brien | [
"classic hacks",
"home entertainment hacks"
] | [
"games",
"nes"
] | USB NES controllers are old school these days, but [Jay] put together a
nice new take on the project
. He shoehorned a USB interface adapter, USB hub and a USB memory stick to store his collection of NES roms and emulators right on the controller. He even dug up a black USB cable to keep the original look of the controller. Now he can just plug in and load his game selection directly from the controller.
permalink | 6 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "39255",
"author": "mechaman",
"timestamp": "2008-07-19T15:08:33",
"content": "Now this is a hack worthy of duplication. I may have to try to apply this to a genesis, snes, or n64 controller. I haven’t rtfa yet, but I’m surprised that there haven’t been others to do this before.",
... | 1,760,377,784.290504 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/18/hope-2008-wikiscanner-20/ | HOPE 2008: Wikiscanner 2.0 | Eliot | [
"cons",
"News"
] | [
"hackercon",
"hope",
"thelasthope",
"virgil",
"virgilgriffith",
"wiki",
"wikipedia",
"wikiscanner"
] | [
Virgil
] presented the
next version of Wikiscanner
at
The Last HOPE
today. To build the original
Wikiscanner
, he scanned the monthly database dump of anonymous edits and compared that against a purchased list of known company IP addresses. The 34.5 million edits account for nearly 21% of all edits. The idea was to unearth businesses and groups white washing critical pages. This only handles anonymous edits though. Users could log in to avoid having their IP reversed.
In the
new version
, [Virgil]’s team developed a
Poor Man’s CheckUser
. If you spend too much time editing a talk page, your session could end and when you hit save it attaches your IP. Most regular users will then log in and remove their IP. They found 13,000 username/IP address pairs by searching for IPs being removed and replaced with usernames. These are some of the most active users. Using this list, they could potentially uncover
sockpuppets
or potential collusion by top editors.
Another update to the Wikiscanner is based on the trademark database. In 2.0, companies are now associated with edits to their respective products. Link distance is also taken into account. So, pages that link to a corporation page are also tracked.
As part of a joke, [Virgil] compared a list of IP addresses that were specific to each MIT building. You can see exactly which building was editing the “tentacle rape” page. No, really,
that’s a real example
.
Finally, [Virgil] showed some wiki tools that others have built: a tool for
building graphs from arbitrary data
, a tool that
shows the age of text
for credibility, and another that does an
overview of all page edits
.
permalink | 0 | 0 | [] | 1,760,377,784.127387 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/18/hope-2008-cold-boot-attack-tools-released/ | HOPE 2008: Cold Boot Attack Tools Released | Eliot | [
"cons",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"appelbaum",
"coldboot",
"hope",
"jacobappelbaum",
"memory",
"princeton",
"thelasthope"
] | The team from Princeton has
released their cold boot attack tools
at
The Last HOPE
. Earlier this year they showed how to recover crypto keys from the
memory of a machine that had been powered off
. Now they’ve provided the tools necessary to acquire and play around with your own memory dumps. The bios_memimage tool is written in C and uses PXE to boot the machine and copy the memory. The package also has a disk boot dumper with instructions for how to run it on an iPod. There’s also efi_memimage which implements the BSD TCP/IP stack in EFI, but it can be problematic. aeskeyfind can recover 128 and 256bit AES keys from the memory dumps and rsakeyfind does the same for RSA. They’ve also provided aesfix to correct up to 15% of a key. In testing, they only ever saw 0.1% error in there memory dumps and 0.01% if they cooled the chips first.
We saw another interesting tool today:
coreinfo
is a library for the custom BIOS coreboot. Using it you can examine the memory directly without any damage.
The Q&A session at the end of [Jacob Appelbaum]’s talk included a discussion of possible countermeasures. We’re convinced that this won’t be solved until there’s a fundamental change to RAM design. One of the interesting suggestions we heard was building a “RAM condom”. It would be a riser card that the RAM plugs into. When the case intrusion system triggered it would blank the RAM. It’s an interesting idea; anyone want to build it?
permalink | 11 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "39245",
"author": "Snaptastic",
"timestamp": "2008-07-19T02:16:03",
"content": "I love that photo. The reflection with the hackaday logo on the phone, awesome.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "39246",
"author": "pascal",
... | 1,760,377,784.216755 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/18/the-trackable-last-hope-conference-badge/ | The Trackable Last HOPE Conference Badge | Will O'Brien | [
"cons"
] | [
"badges",
"cons",
"nyc",
"soldering iron burns",
"SolderingIronBurns"
] | While Defcon badges have taken on the habit of being hackable electronics,
The Last Hope
badge is taking a new shape this year. It’s dubbed the
Attendee Meta-Data project
(AMD for short). Aside from the tombstonian dimensions, it features a trackable RFID tag that’s going to be used to create a different sort of conference experience.
Sure, the creators might use the badges to make sure they meet all the lovely ladies in attendance, but the idea is to use the data to improve the conference experience for everyone. Attendees have the ability to add tags indicating their interests. Combine that data with actual location tracking and people can now network and interact based on what and who they’re looking for. It’s social networking coming full circle to include actual socializing.
permalink | 6 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "39240",
"author": "Jack",
"timestamp": "2008-07-19T07:18:43",
"content": "well thats just a spiffy idea huh",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "39241",
"author": "ck76",
"timestamp": "2008-07-19T07:42:58",
"content": "I’... | 1,760,377,784.326732 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/18/hope-2008-the-impossibility-of-hardware-obfuscation/ | HOPE 2008: The Impossibility Of Hardware Obfuscation | Eliot | [
"cons",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"crypto",
"hope",
"karstennohl",
"matlab",
"rfid",
"silicon",
"thelasthope",
"tlh"
] | The Last HOPE
is off and running in NYC. [Karsten Nohl] started the day by presenting The (Im)possibility of Hardware Obfuscation. [Karsten] is well versed in this subject having worked on a team that the
broke the MiFare crypto1 RFID chip
. The algorithm used is proprietary so part of their investigation was looking directly at the hardware. As [bunnie] mentioned in his
Toorcon silicon hacking talk
, silicon is hard to design even before considering security, it must obey the laws of physics (everything the hardware does has to be physically built), and in the manufacturing process the chip is reverse engineered to verify it. All of these elements make it very interesting for hackers. For the MiFare crack, they shaved off layers of silicon and photographed them. Using Matlab they visually identified the various gates and looked for crypto like parts. If you’re interested in what these logic cells look like, [Karsten] has assembled
The Silicon Zoo
. The Zoo has pictures of standard cells like inverters, buffers, latches, flip-flops, etc. Have a look at [Chris Tarnovsky]’s work to learn about how he
processes smart cards
or [nico]’s guide to
exposing standard chips
we covered earlier in the week. | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "39238",
"author": "TJHooker",
"timestamp": "2008-07-19T04:07:04",
"content": "We’ll see how impossible in a few years when the IBM Cell BE based QS20 and PS3 still have a proven DRM platforms based on die keys and Type I hypervisors.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"rep... | 1,760,377,784.448027 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/18/xim360-mouse-and-keyboard-for-360/ | Xim360: Mouse And Keyboard For 360 | Caleb Kraft | [
"News",
"Xbox Hacks"
] | [
"360",
"xbox",
"xfps",
"xim",
"xim2",
"xim360"
] | Many a computer gamer has scowled at the thought of trying to control an FPS with thumb sticks. When you’re used to the precision and speed of a mouse, the analog stick feels, well… just wonky. XIM360 has built, what is hopefully a
big step forward
in inputs for the 360. The device is an add on to the
XFPS
, and supposedly delivers an experience that is “what you’ve always hoped to get”.
The project came into existence when people, let down by the poor performance of the XFPS started augmenting it to try to get desired results. They used a board called XIM to get better control. The new board, XIM2 was built from the ground up to achieve the best possible experience. The XIM2 is
now available for pre-order
.
More information can be found on their
website
, as well as a large user forum of modders and hackers.
[via
Xbox-Scene News
]
permalink | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "39235",
"author": "BigD145",
"timestamp": "2008-07-19T02:24:15",
"content": "This is shit. Really. Games and platforms should natively support custom key mapping and mouse/keyboard.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "39236",
"a... | 1,760,377,784.764965 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/18/techie-hall-of-shame/ | Techie Hall Of Shame | Kimberly Lau | [
"News"
] | [
"deb perelman",
"DebPerelman",
"hackers",
"hacking",
"kenneth kwak",
"KennethKwak",
"system admins",
"SystemAdmins",
"terry childs",
"TerryChilds"
] | In the aftermath of
[Terry Childs], the jailed disgruntled software engineer
who created a God password and effectively locked San Francisco officials out of their own computer system, IT Grind unveils its
Techie Hall of Shame
. The Hall of Shame highlights figures who give computer professionals a bad name. From [Roger Duronio], the systems administrator who wasn’t satisfied with his raise, to [Kenneth Kwak], who installed spyware on his boss’ computer in order to gossip, the wrath of the IT professional can wreak thousands to millions of dollars of damages for companies and corporations to clean up. As much as these figures seem to be singular figures, we think they also serve as cautionary tales. Always have backup. If you suspect you’ve got a disgruntled employee, you should probably at the very least keep another expert eye on him. And hire more than one person to manage your systems. [Deb Perelman] asks her readers who else they think would be worthy of the Hall of Shame. We’re curious to know what you think, too.
[via
digg
]
permalink | 12 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "39223",
"author": "h_2_o",
"timestamp": "2008-07-18T19:21:43",
"content": "I have one that should be on there. A company i once contracted out to the owner passed and his daughter who had the IQ of a peanut and hated me took over. She considered herself to be a brilliant IT person... | 1,760,377,784.725254 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/18/cheap-arm-color-lcd-platform/ | Cheap ARM Color LCD Platform | Will O'Brien | [
"classic hacks",
"handhelds hacks",
"home entertainment hacks",
"Portable Video Hacks"
] | [
"cheap",
"games",
"portable",
"pspish"
] | Today, [sprite_tm] let us in on one of his
pet projects
. This is an inexpensive portable game platform runs about $50 and happens to use an ARM CPU and a 320×240 color LCD. Because it’s so cheap, he’s been working on reverse engineering the thing and there’s already a proof of concept
homebrew
version of Pong out for it.
Update: Yeah, yeah – title’s fixed.
permalink | 6 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "39217",
"author": "Orkie",
"timestamp": "2008-07-18T14:56:29",
"content": "Nice, we’ve been doing the same for Blackfin PMPs. I do know another guy who got his own code running on this same ARM PMP a while ago, but he lost interest after he worked out how the hardware worked so it’s... | 1,760,377,785.137589 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/17/why-we-mod/ | Why We Mod | Caleb Kraft | [
"handhelds hacks",
"Playstation Hacks",
"PSP Hacks"
] | [
"homebrew",
"psp",
"sony",
"sonypsp"
] | [Codejunkie] has written up a great explanation as to why we mod. He’s specifically talking about the
Sony PSP
, but many of the points he makes carry over to any modding. Though the “why” question may seem like a no brainer to most of us, we do hear it a lot. We strongly suggest you take a few moments to
read his article
.
Who hasn’t been asked this question? We all have different reasons to mod things. Some people do it to make improvements, some people do it just for the fun. He lists some of the more practical reasons and makes some insightful comparisons.
For example, he likens some modding to making personalizations to your car. Has anybody asked why you put a custom shifter knob on? No, because we are used to this, just as they are used to being locked out of their electronics. He also talks about products that are crippled from the factory. We’ve
covered this situation
on Hack a Day before. Is it wrong for you to want your product to function to its built in potential?
He covers a few thoughts on homebrewing software for the PSP as well. There’s no reasonable explanation for why you shouldn’t have full control over something you own.
permalink | 12 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "39205",
"author": "36chambers",
"timestamp": "2008-07-17T23:45:23",
"content": "Great article- a recent crippleware issue I dealt with;Sansa E250 Doesnt Support SDHC cards-but if you “mod” it and install ROCKBOX firmwareIT DOES…..I mod so that I can give it to the man, and take back... | 1,760,377,785.033037 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/17/nodeblinky-rechargeable-and-full-of-blink/ | Nodeblinky, Rechargeable And Full Of Blink | Caleb Kraft | [
"LED Hacks",
"Misc Hacks",
"News"
] | [
"AVRmega",
"blinky",
"led",
"lightemittingdiode"
] | [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Si—o0fEto&hl=en&fs=1]
Over 2500 unique patterns and up to 25 hours of winky blinky fun, that’s what you get with
Nodeblinky
. This contraption was designed by the Image Node crew as a learning platform and a way to raise money for their upcoming
Burning Man
display.
The kit measures 4″ square and has 28 LEDs spread across its surface. An AVR ATmega168, rechargeable 9 volt battery, and two LED drivers power it. One section of their site states that it has over 2500 unique patterns, while another area says 5000 combinations of patterns. Either way, its pretty trippy as you can see in the video above. There are 4 brightness levels as well as 4 running modes to keep you amused. The kit can be purchased for $40 or the assembled unit for $80. They do freely give out all the details though, so if you really felt like building one yourself, you probably could.
permalink | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "39202",
"author": "westopher",
"timestamp": "2008-07-18T00:06:57",
"content": "What song is this?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "39203",
"author": "tony",
"timestamp": "2008-07-18T01:11:21",
"content": "I don’t know... | 1,760,377,785.370784 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/17/should-you-get-a-seedbox-for-your-bittorrent-needs/ | Should You Get A Seedbox For Your Bittorrent Needs? | Kimberly Lau | [
"downloads hacks"
] | [
"bit torrent",
"bittorrent",
"filesharing",
"hosting",
"seedbox",
"torrent"
] | Torrentfreak offers up a few reasons
why you should get a seedbox if you’re a bittorrent user who likes to share a lot of files. A seedbox is a dedicated private server used exclusively for torrent transfers. [sharky] discusses a few pros and makes a few claims that we think might be a little overblown. Although the seedbox will speed up your downloads and allow you to bypass ISP limits on your bandwith, we’re a little leery of the claims that the seedbox is completely safe and secure, or that it’ll protect you from getting sued by the RIAA or MPAA. As pointed out
in the comments
, paying for a dedicated hosting service and paying for cable is no different. Of course, the seedbox also costs money, so you’ll have to weigh whether you’d rather have speed or risk getting throttled by your ISP. Torrentfreak does list a
few
hosting
solutions
that may be reasonably priced.
[photo:
nrkbeta
]
permalink | 20 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "39194",
"author": "Thund3rstruck",
"timestamp": "2008-07-18T00:41:33",
"content": "I’d love a seedbox just for the central management and reporting features and the ability to queue up downloads and be able to power off workstations.Unfortunately TorrentFlux (at least the WAMP relea... | 1,760,377,785.275034 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/17/maximize-the-iphone-3gs-battery-life/ | Maximize The IPhone 3G’s Battery Life | Kimberly Lau | [
"Cellphone Hacks",
"iphone hacks"
] | [
"apple",
"battery",
"battery life",
"BatteryLife",
"iphone",
"iphone 3G",
"iphone3g"
] | Gizmodo has posted a guide for
extending the battery life of your shiny new iPhone 3G
. Apple is notorious for pushing products with unimpressive battery life, and the new
iPhone
is no different. The battery isn’t user-replaceable, which means you can’t keep a spare, and the energy needs of the 3G chipset adds to the problem. Apple
provides some useful tips
on maximizing battery life for your iPhone. The tips include common sense advice that applies to nearly all electronic devices – turning down the brightness on your LCD screen, turning off radios not in use like Bluetooth, WiFi, GPS, and 3G, and setting Auto-lock to a minute or less will keep your devices running smoothly for longer.
We like to carry an extra USB battery
like this one
; you can also make your own like
this one with an Altoids tin
.
permalink | 21 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "39179",
"author": "Aaron",
"timestamp": "2008-07-17T22:56:22",
"content": "The MintyBoost (the second usb extra battery you linked to) does NOT work with the iphone.http://ladyada.net/make/mintyboost/(it’s listed under the ‘sorta works’ section, but my new 3G doesn’t charge off of m... | 1,760,377,785.096078 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/21/fun-with-radioheads-data-from-house-of-cards/ | Fun With Radiohead’s Data From ‘House Of Cards’ | Will O'Brien | [
"Laser Hacks"
] | [
"3d",
"augmented reality",
"houseofcards",
"Radiohead",
"video"
] | Radiohead recently released the 3D data that was used to create the video for their song ‘
House of Cards
‘. [Micheal_z] sent in some of the results of
his groups playtime with the data
. The first effort involved some data translation. Then they created an atomizer of the head and put it up on their ungodly huge
8160×4000 pixel multi-touch display
.
The video below was created by
tracking the background image to orient and overlay the projection
.
Editors Note:
All links changed to Internet Archive in May of 2024
permalink | 0 | 0 | [] | 1,760,377,785.171269 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/21/pic-based-boiler-controller/ | PIC Based Boiler Controller | Will O'Brien | [
"classic hacks",
"home hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"heating",
"microcontroller",
"pic"
] | We’re used to central A/C, so we were surprised by
this
PIC controller based heater controller. It’s based around a pump controlled boiler/radiator system. A PIC 16F84 is used to input the set point and control a pump to circulate the heated water as needed. You can grab full schematics on the
project page
.
Update: We added a screen capture of the schematic after the break since the site keeled over.
The image is wider than our normal column width, so right click and view it to see the entire image.
permalink | 9 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "39342",
"author": "jc",
"timestamp": "2008-07-21T16:18:06",
"content": "It would be nice if people hosted their pages on real web servers, instead of those toy sites, like Yahoo and GeoCities.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "393... | 1,760,377,785.218038 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/20/the-next-hope-announced/ | The Next HOPE Announced | Eliot | [
"cons",
"News"
] | [
"conference",
"hackercon",
"hope",
"thelasthope"
] | Against all previous indications-including being called
The Last HOPE
-the conference will not only be returning in 2010, it will be at the Hotel Pennsylvania. We’re looking forward to
The Next HOPE
, which will probably followed by The Last HYPE, which in turn will be followed by: We’re Super Serious This Is The Last HOPE.
permalink | 18 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "39324",
"author": "2bithacker",
"timestamp": "2008-07-21T05:14:50",
"content": "I thought it odd that they’d be ending a successful convention.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "39325",
"author": "davis",
"timestamp": "200... | 1,760,377,785.336136 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/20/simple-fish-feeder/ | Simple Fish Feeder | Will O'Brien | [
"classic hacks",
"home hacks"
] | [
"fish"
] | [BahaTanju] sent in this oh so simple
fish feeder
. It’s a mechanical light timer with a simple dispensing bottle mounted to the rotating time wheel. As the timer rotates, food is dispensed and the aquarium light is activated. If you have bigger fish, you could adapt this to work on a solenoid and use a timer with multiple on/off settings.
permalink | 17 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "39318",
"author": "eric",
"timestamp": "2008-07-20T17:27:36",
"content": "This is just one of those hacks where you smack yourself upside the head and go “WHY DIDNT I THINK OF THAT!?” Brilliant.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "3... | 1,760,377,785.47662 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/19/iphone-pwnage-tool-20-released/ | IPhone Pwnage Tool 2.0 Released | Eliot | [
"Cellphone Hacks",
"iphone hacks"
] | [
"activate",
"iphone",
"iphone 2.0",
"iphone 3G",
"iphone dev team",
"Iphone2.0",
"iphone3g",
"iphonedevteam",
"jailbreak",
"pwnage",
"pwnage tool 2.0",
"PwnageTool2.0",
"unlock"
] | Earlier today, the
iPhone Dev Team
teased that they wouldn’t release their latest Pwnage Tool
until Sunday
. Since this was
yet
another
in a week long
bit of teasing
, we were somewhat surprised when a few hours later they posted a rather relaxed
Thanks for waiting :)
post announcing that Pwnage Tool 2.0 is available. Here’s a
direct link
to the tool and
a mirror
courtesy of [_BigBoss_].
According to
TUAW
, Pwnage Tool 2.0 will activate, jailbreak, and unlock first generation iPhones running any firmware up to and including version 2.0. Unfortunately,
it will not unlock an iPhone 3G
(at least, not yet).
iPhone 3G
owners can still use the tool for activation and jailbreaking (so you can run 3rd party apps not supported by Apple and the new iPhone App Store).
So far, skimming through the 1322 comments on their announcement post, I’ve not seen any complaints or death threats about the tool bricking iPhones, but one should still proceed with caution. According to one update to the post, some people either get an error 1600 from iTunes or they notice a “failure to prepare x12220000_4_Recovery.ipsw” in the log. They’ve provided a workaround, however. If this happens to you, simply
mkdir ~/Library/iTunes/Device Support
or alternately nuke all the files in that already extant folder and re-run Pwnage Tool.
UPDATE:
Image is from Engadget’s iPhone review
we covered earlier
.
permalink | 17 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "39302",
"author": "Spud",
"timestamp": "2008-07-20T07:24:17",
"content": "If ATT would get their head out of their ass and get this Direct Fulfillment BS sorted out, I might be able to give it a test.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_i... | 1,760,377,785.42536 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/19/creating-web-applications-for-the-iphone/ | Creating Web Applications For The IPhone | Kimberly Lau | [
"Cellphone Hacks",
"iphone hacks"
] | [
"ajax",
"apple",
"cocoa touch",
"CocoaTouch",
"dominiek ter heid",
"DominiekTerHeid",
"hacking",
"iphone",
"iphone 3G",
"iphone3g",
"javascript",
"web"
] | [Dominiek ter Heid] wanted to prototype an application for the iPhone that incorporated GPS. He experimented, and came up with a step-by-step tutorial on how to create a web application that would push GPS information to his iPhone through the use of JavaScript and AJAX. This tutorial will save web hackers who want to play with the iPhone 3G a lot of grief. Using
Cocoa Touch
, and a
CSS/JavaScript pack called IUI
, he successfully created a web application that looks native to the iPhone and is able to grab GPS information. The application integrates the
GoogleMaps API
with the
GeoNames database
. We look forward to seeing the types of creative applications that this prototype will inspire. What sort of web application would you want to create for the iPhone?
[via
digg
]
permalink | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "39300",
"author": "kamu",
"timestamp": "2008-07-20T09:02:25",
"content": "A web application that gives me a free iPhone. Oh and a telco that gives unlimited data for a decent price.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "39301",
"a... | 1,760,377,785.882812 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/19/hope-2008-community-fabrication/ | HOPE 2008: Community Fabrication | Eliot | [
"cons",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"fabathome",
"hacktory",
"hope",
"philadelphia",
"rapidprototyping",
"reprap",
"rp",
"thelasthope"
] | Today at
The Last HOPE
, [Far McKon] from Philadelphia’s
Hacktory
presented on community fabrication. Over the last few years we’ve seen a lot of different accessible rapid prototyping machines created. There’s the
RepRap
, a fabrication machine that has
achieved self replication
; our friends at Metalab have gotten their
own version of the machine
running too. The Hacktory has recently acquired a
Fab@home
machine. Fab@home hopes to make manufacturing using multiple materials accessible to home users. Multiple materials means people have constructed objects that vary from
embedded circuits to hors d’oeuvres
. We can’t talk about edible prototyping without bringing up the
CandyFab
machine, which fuses sugar. The Hacktory has enjoyed their machine so far, but have found the learning curve fairly difficult. While it’s great to see the cost of rapid prototyping dropping, we’ll be much happier when the ease of use improves. | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "39296",
"author": "pascal",
"timestamp": "2008-07-20T01:58:08",
"content": "btw the image text translates as “Metalab: People, Technology, Magic”, which I think is hilarious.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "39297",
"author":... | 1,760,377,786.06774 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/17/xbox-controller-usb-labotomy/ | XBox Controller USB Labotomy | Will O'Brien | [
"classic hacks",
"computer hacks",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"crappy drivers",
"CrappyDrivers",
"games",
"xbox"
] | [sprite_tm]’s back with one of his excellent Atmel projects.
This time
he decided to turn an original XBox controller (cause he likes ’em) into a standard USB HID device. He gutted the custom USB chip that Microsoft installed and replaced it with an Atmel ATMega88. The ATMega required a few changes to the board, but nothing too off the wall.
permalink | 10 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "39170",
"author": "twistedsymphony",
"timestamp": "2008-07-17T14:04:56",
"content": "seems like a lot of work when he could have just installed a driver on his PC.http://redcl0ud.com/xbcd.html",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "391... | 1,760,377,785.834291 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/16/machine-embroidered-led-matrix/ | Machine Embroidered LED Matrix | Eliot | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"csu",
"leahbuechley",
"smd",
"video",
"wearable"
] | Our favorite electric textiles expert, [Leah Buechley], put together this
machine embroidered LED matrix
proof of concept. For the vertical rows, the top thread is conductive, while the thread on the underside (the bobbin) is not. For the horizontal rows, the the thread is swapped and the fabric acts as an insulator between the two layers of wiring. You can see a small brown bunch of thread next to each LED: this is the via to wiring on the backside of the fabric. The matrix is being controlled by a
LilyPad Arduino
. This is an interesting idea and has the potential to make prototyping wearable projects much faster. Here are
two
more
pictures of the project.
permalink | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "39166",
"author": "johnny",
"timestamp": "2008-07-17T11:07:43",
"content": "this is great. Siegfried and Roy will be very excited about these developments.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "39167",
"author": "aXit",
"times... | 1,760,377,786.261461 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/16/nyc-soldering-championships/ | NYC Soldering Championships | Will O'Brien | [
"contests",
"News"
] | [
"electronics",
"hack-a-day",
"ignite",
"ignitenyc",
"nyc",
"solder",
"soldering",
"solderingiron"
] | [Matt] let us know about the
New York City Soldering Championships
. They’ll be happening during the
Ignite talks
on July 29th at 7pm. 25 people will race head to head to assemble a fully functional electronics kit. Participants have to register in advance and are encouraged to bring their own iron. The kit hasn’t been chosen yet so people can’t practice. We hope they at least consider using a few SMD parts just to keep things interesting. Shout out if you’re planning to attend or compete!
[photo:
Nick Bilton
]
permalink | 13 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "39154",
"author": "Aud1073cH",
"timestamp": "2008-07-17T04:55:39",
"content": "yes – smd parts… – perhaps they could also throw in an soic package ic chip, or some small piezo discs (need good temp. control techniques or you burn through them)perhaps some crazy point-to-point as wel... | 1,760,377,785.936673 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/16/tennis-for-two-resurrected/ | Tennis For Two Resurrected | Eliot | [
"home entertainment hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"emsl",
"evilmadscientistlaboritories",
"oscilloscope",
"tennisfortwo",
"videogame",
"williamhiginbotham"
] | The first video game every created is attributed to physicist William Higinbotham.
Tennis for Two
is played on an oscilloscope using two controllers. Each one has a knob that controls the trajectory and a button to hit the ball. The fine folks at Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories have
recreated the game so you can play it on any oscilloscope
. An ATmega168 is used to control everything. It takes user input from the paddles and outputs an the X and Y analog signals for the scope. An
R-2R
style DAC is used for the output stage which gives a 256×256 resolution. Everything is built on top of one of their
business card sized project boards
-which really shows how useful such a simple board can be. The source code is free and the write up includes plenty of detail. We’d love to see what modifications people come up with since the base game doesn’t even have scoring. There’s a video of EMSL’s system embedded below.
permalink | 8 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "39147",
"author": "HeBD",
"timestamp": "2008-07-17T03:49:01",
"content": "wow took me a minuet to realise how they detached the ball from the rest of the trace so well… they didnt! its a dual trace scope lol.no info on the original design. with digital accessible and easy to do i th... | 1,760,377,786.221327 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/16/turn-any-motor-into-a-servo-with-repraps-new-board/ | Turn Any Motor Into A Servo With RepRaps New Board | Will O'Brien | [
"classic hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"awesome",
"reprap",
"servo"
] | [Zach] just let us know about a
new board
that’s available from the
RepRap project
. It uses an AS5040 magnetic rotary encoder to measure the absolute position of the rotor of whatever motor you’re using. This is actually pretty damn exciting. Powerful servo motors are expensive, but with one of these, you can use whatever motor you can get your hands on. Big DC motors are cheap, but even used DC servo motors expensive. Best of all, the encoder is
open source
and you can score a kit version for a
paltry $20
. Now we can make that 8 horse power servo…
permalink | 20 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "39128",
"author": "Doug Parker",
"timestamp": "2008-07-16T16:37:39",
"content": "Does this mean I can use my washing machine motor? Oh, shoot, that’s AC…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "39129",
"author": "twistedsymphony",
... | 1,760,377,786.175969 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/15/iphone-3g-under-the-hood/ | IPhone 3G: Under The Hood | Caleb Kraft | [
"Cellphone Hacks",
"iphone hacks",
"News"
] | [
"3g",
"apple",
"iphone",
"iphone3g",
"mac",
"macintosh",
"teardown"
] | TechOnline has
cracked open
the iPhone 3G to find out what makes it tick. They’ve released detailed diagrams as well as some
videos
of the dissection.
Calling this an incremental update, they note that the changes seem to be additions and improvements rather than a total rebuild of the original platform. They get into the nitty gritty, discussing not only the layout and structure, but even the importance of each chip manufacturer.
Some of the improvements are obvious, like 3G. Others include the battery not being permanently attached, and the headphone jack being flush mounted. Most of the changes were in who manufactured each chip.
[via
TUAW
]
permalink | 6 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "39122",
"author": "ouphie",
"timestamp": "2008-07-16T08:34:29",
"content": "I work for Triquint and was stoked to hear we were in the new iPhone. Though the most I could get out of anyone was a “neither confirm nor deny” speech. Now if we can just muscle what remains of Skyworks a... | 1,760,377,786.111738 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/15/pspseq-30-psp-sequencer-release-and-interview/ | PSPSeq 3.0, PSP Sequencer Release And Interview | jimmierodgers | [
"handhelds hacks",
"Playstation Hacks",
"Portable Audio Hacks",
"PSP Hacks"
] | [
"audio",
"homebrew",
"interview",
"psp",
"pspseq",
"sequencer"
] | DSPmusic.org
has just released the latest version of its homebrew PSP music sequencer
PSPSeq 3.0
. With PSPSeq you can create songs with up to 16 independent audio tracks, use WAV audio clips of your own and then modify them with a number of settings, or even use some of the built in synthesizers to generate sounds. There are strong looping and recording features as well. If you are into homebrew music apps on the
PSP
, then this will give you a strong offering of features. We had a chance to catch up with the author, [Ethan Bordeaux], and ask a few questions. You can check out the short interview after the break.
Q: What inspired you to write a music sequencer for the PSP?
A: My inspiration started with my main music project I was working on before PSPSeq – myself and some friends designed custom DSP hardware to create autonomous generative music (the project was called
Chiclet
). I created the synthesis engine running on the DSP. I learned a lot from the project but wanted to make a tool that could contain some of my synthesis and sequencing ideas but in a more user friendly package. Around the same time a friend of mine from the Chiclet project (
Noah Vawter
) was working on a PSP music sequencer called PSPKick. He kept telling me what a great platform the PSP was for homebrew, and for my 30th birthday a bunch of my friends chipped in and bought me one.
I also considered using the
GP2X
however the PSP has a lot more horsepower and a larger installed base so I went with that. I like the GP2X quite a bit conceptually but wanted to pick the fastest system so I could make the best synthesizer and sequencer possible.
Q: How many people are involved in the project?
A: I’m the only developer for the project. I made everything from the synthesis engine to the GUI and the documentation. The one place that I have received help is with demo tunes. The PSPSeq community has been great for that. While I enjoy writing music I think I’m better at making things that make music rather than writing it myself, and really enjoy hearing the music created by users.
Q: What features do you hope to have in future releases?
A: For the moment I’m just enjoying having finished the latest release. I really feel like PSPSeq 3.00 is capable of making some great music and that the full potential has yet to be tapped. That said, the two big features I would like to add to PSPSeq are configurable LFOs and some sort of mixer stage with additional FX.
permalink | 9 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "39117",
"author": "Jim",
"timestamp": "2008-07-16T06:26:40",
"content": "how good is this compared to psprhythm?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "39118",
"author": "ethan",
"timestamp": "2008-07-16T07:52:41",
"content... | 1,760,377,786.373328 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/15/exposing-and-photographing-silicon/ | Exposing And Photographing Silicon | Benjamin Eckel | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"hacking",
"silicon",
"silicondie",
"smartcard",
"ublog"
] | Have you ever wanted to break open your IC and see where those pins really go? [nico]
goes through his process
of dissolving ICs to their core and photographing the tiny die. The technique involves liquefying the package in sulfuric acid until all the packaging material and pins are gone. He even explains how to use sodium bicarbonate (common baking soda) to neutralize the solution thus allowing for simple sink disposal. Although silicon hacking is generally done by funded hackers with a really nice lab, it is certainly possible to execute some of these techniques with limited equipment and chemical access. For instance, if you can’t get sulfuric acid, send your IC off to a failure analysis lab like
MEFAS
. For more information and stories on silicon hacking, check out [Chris Tarnovsky]’s
process for hacking smartcards
and [bunnie]’s talk
Hacking silicon: secrets behind the epoxy curtain
.
permalink | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "39114",
"author": "Ziggit",
"timestamp": "2008-07-16T05:38:11",
"content": "In my highschool’s electron microscopy club, we managed to find a pre prepared sample in a ti brochure (it may have been another company, but I can’t remember). it was pretty cool. sadly I no longer have th... | 1,760,377,786.306716 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/15/atmega88-webserver/ | ATmega88 Webserver | Benjamin Eckel | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"ATmega88",
"Atmel",
"AVR",
"HTTP",
"TCP",
"webserver",
"youritronics"
] | If you are an Atmel fan, you may enjoy
this webserver built around the ATmega88
. Since it has full TCP and HTTP support, communication can be done using a standard web browser on any system. We also noticed that the code uses AVR Libc and the processor can be replaced with an ATmega168, both used on the Arduino platform. Honestly, we think the most interesting part about this project is the firmware. The author has assumed that the webserver will only be sending one packet per request and the code is optimized for this setup. This leaves around 50% of the memory for the web application.
[via
YourITronics
]
permalink | 15 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "39099",
"author": "Shackadoodl",
"timestamp": "2008-07-16T00:03:02",
"content": "Wow, just genius, i knew that you could make arduinos work together with processing server, but imagine 10 of those little puppies working together on a big project while sending data to a central apach... | 1,760,377,786.504848 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/15/scavenging-a-wwvb-module-from-an-rc-clock/ | Scavenging A WWVB Module From An RC Clock | fabienneserriere | [
"Misc Hacks",
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"atomic",
"atomic clock",
"AtomicClock",
"parts",
"radio controlled",
"radiocontrolled",
"rc",
"rc-clock",
"rcclock",
"scavenge",
"wwvb"
] | [Chris Kuethe]
shows how
to scavenge what could be a pricey
WWVB
module from a radio controlled clock. WWVB is a special radio station in Colorado that transmits an atomic-clock-derived signal to RC clocks. The clock model he uses, the
Atomix 13131
, goes for less than twenty bucks. He also shares the link to another tear down of a
Sony branded radio controlled clock
for similar purposes. So if you’re looking for a cheap way to obtain a WWVB module, the scavenging method could be the thrifty solution you seek.
(
Disclaimer: A sticker for an event I organize is in the background of the photos, it’s not meant to be there as product placement.
)
permalink | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "39096",
"author": "twistedsymphony",
"timestamp": "2008-07-15T23:32:47",
"content": "Awesome… this goes perfect with the Nixie clock build that was just posted. now where is the hack with the MCU code to interpret the WWVB output into easily usable data.nixie + atomic clock = head a... | 1,760,377,786.634774 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/15/sensesurface-custom-inputs-on-your-lcd-screen/ | SenseSurface: Custom Inputs On Your Lcd Screen | Caleb Kraft | [
"computer hacks",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"knob",
"laptophack",
"mixer",
"SenseSurface",
"tangible",
"tangibleinterface"
] | [Lindsay Williams] has come up a novel way of constructing custom physical inputs for your programs.
SenseSurface
is a viable alternative to
building a new interface
for each application. Simply place the dials, buttons, and sliders on your screen wherever you want them.
A sensor board, placed behind the display, picks up the signals from the inputs. The only limitation to the number of inputs available is the size of your screen. Inputs are held on magnetically, and have a low friction backing to avoid scratching or gouging your screen.
Here is a
demo video
showing use with one knob. It doesn’t appear to slip or slide at all while they are turning it. We’d love to play with it a little bit and see what it is like, as well as see more information on what technology is being used.
[via
Music Thing
]
permalink | 7 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "39090",
"author": "supernova_hq",
"timestamp": "2008-07-16T00:04:09",
"content": "Now that is what I call a genuine novel approach to increasing interface usability!No more dremelling to add another knob to your panel, just stick it on!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"... | 1,760,377,786.579923 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/15/install-debian-on-the-nokia-n810/ | Install Debian On The Nokia N810 | Kimberly Lau | [
"Tablet Hacks"
] | [
"linux",
"maemo",
"maemo4",
"n810",
"nokia",
"nokia n810",
"NokiaN810",
"OpenSource",
"os2008",
"tablet"
] | The
Nokia N810 tablet
is a great buy, especially for hackers. It already ships with a Linux-based operating system, called
OS2008
, which is based upon
Maemo 4.0
. However, for those who aren’t fans of OS2008, you can
install Debian easily
with some patience and an extra memory card. The Debian install includes OpenOffice, Firefox 3, AbiWord, and IceWM. You should be aware that there are pitfalls. Some of the applications run slowly, and you may be in danger of losing data if you run into problems.
[via
Unwired View
]
permalink | 8 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "39087",
"author": "James",
"timestamp": "2008-07-15T22:35:48",
"content": "I hate to be picky, but the N810 already runs Debian. ‘Maemo’ is a Debian-based distribution, in much the same way Ubuntu is a Debian-based distribution.It is a hack though ;-)",
"parent_id": null,
"d... | 1,760,377,786.688986 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/15/iphone-dev-team-shows-ssh-access/ | IPhone Dev Team Shows Ssh Access | Caleb Kraft | [
"Cellphone Hacks",
"iphone hacks",
"News"
] | [
"apple",
"iphone",
"iphone3g",
"iphonedevteam",
"jailbreak",
"jailbroken",
"shell",
"ssh"
] | They still haven’t released the jailbreak yet, but the iPhone dev team hasn’t been sitting idly by either. They recently posted
this video
of ssh access on the iPhone 3G. Not only have they succeeded in hacking into the phone, they say that apple
can’t fix it
without a hardware change. Having root level access to the device opens up many more possibilities than just hooking an API.
permalink | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "39085",
"author": "jdog",
"timestamp": "2008-07-16T16:18:36",
"content": "Resistance is futile. But seriously, I understand that Apple wants to keep this device closed because they can see the $$$ potential from the sale of games and apps. As I own an earlier model of the iPod Tou... | 1,760,377,786.848688 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/15/ice-carving-robot/ | Ice Carving Robot | Will O'Brien | [
"classic hacks",
"cnc hacks",
"Misc Hacks",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"cnc",
"more power",
"MorePower",
"robots"
] | [Bruce] and [Jesse] put together an
ice carving robot
a while back. For the most part, it’s a CNC machine that is placed on top of the ice. In order to handle the actual ice cutting, they opted for a weed eater turned super rotary tool.
permalink | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "39083",
"author": "pip",
"timestamp": "2008-07-15T19:06:17",
"content": "blast from the past.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,786.943314 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/14/dell-tablets-support-multitouch/ | Dell Tablets Support Multitouch | Eliot | [
"Multitouch Hacks",
"Tablet Hacks"
] | [
"dell",
"delllatitude",
"delllatitudext",
"gizmodo",
"latitude",
"latitudext",
"multitouch",
"osx86",
"tablet",
"windows",
"windows7"
] | [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arrkdO_SDm8&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999]
Dell announced today that it will be offering a
free multitouch upgrade to their Latitude XT tablets
. You may remember Microsoft using an XT when they first demoed the
multitouch features in Windows 7
. Dell’s new firmware update will allow users to scroll, scale, and assign macros to other gestures. The laptop is using capacitive touch technology, so don’t expect accurate tracking of multiple fingertips. We’re happy to see a manufacturer take time to roll this out even if widespread adoption probably won’t happen. Now to see if some one can get it
working with OSx86
. As with most technology we
encourage you to build it yourself
.
[via
Gizmodo
]
permalink | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "39080",
"author": "seamonkey420",
"timestamp": "2008-07-15T06:23:48",
"content": "i’ll be updating my work Dell XT Tablet w/it once it comes out! :) finally, something i love about my XT (but thats prob because i have to support over 300 of these tablets at a firm.. hehe..)",
"p... | 1,760,377,787.086677 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/14/deepnote-guitar-hero-bot/ | DeepNote Guitar Hero Bot | Benjamin Eckel | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"controller",
"guitar",
"guitarhero",
"videogame"
] | A team of five high school seniors have released some videos of their
new Guitar Hero bot named DeepNote
. This bot uses a group of custom photodiode modules with an 8 nanosecond latency placed on the screen to sense the notes. The Parallax Propeller system takes this input and controls solid state relays hooked into the guitar’s circuitry. After we looked at a few videos of the early prototype system, we could really see how it has evolved. They have custom PCBs and a really nice frame for the photodiode sensors. You can find
more info on their How It Works page
and view a demo video embedded below.
Related:
AutoGuitarHero
and
Slashbot
[via
Engadget
]
permalink | 18 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "39065",
"author": "pip",
"timestamp": "2008-07-15T03:21:20",
"content": "AWESOME!!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "39066",
"author": "Marilynn",
"timestamp": "2008-07-15T03:25:49",
"content": "That’s pretty cool, but... | 1,760,377,786.90524 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/14/diy-joystick-glove/ | DIY Joystick Glove | Will O'Brien | [
"computer hacks",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"dataglove",
"games",
"glove",
"gloves",
"input",
"inputdevice",
"Joystick"
] | [Elf] sent in this interesting
DIY joystick glove
. There aren’t many details on the actual glove switch design, but from the schematic on the site, it seems to mostly consist of micro-switches with some pot adjusted transistors to calibrate the X-Y signals.
Related:
Data glove USB interface
and
Clove 2 one handed input
permalink | 0 | 0 | [] | 1,760,377,786.808994 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/14/dewalt-16-how-rambo-would-remodel/ | DeWalt-16, How Rambo Would Remodel | Caleb Kraft | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"ar15",
"assaultrifle",
"dewalt",
"gun",
"hellokitty",
"m16",
"mod",
"rifle",
"toolmonger"
] | [David Wiggins] has sent some info on this
DeWALT M-16 gun mod
to Toolmonger. Inspired by a picture of an earlier version back in 2003, he decided to go a step further. He already had the M-16 and only lives a few miles from a DeWalt factory service location so he was able to get original stickers and battery casings. After some careful dremmeling and a layer of Krylon, he had the DeWalt-16. Lets be clear, this thing still shoots bullets, not nails.
If modding your M-16 to be a DeWalt power tool is just too manly, you could always go with the
Hello Kitty AR-15
.
permalink | 14 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "39052",
"author": "pip",
"timestamp": "2008-07-15T02:30:07",
"content": "roflcopter, but not a hack. fail.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "39053",
"author": "Michael L",
"timestamp": "2008-07-15T03:31:58",
"content":... | 1,760,377,786.989775 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/14/modifying-a-servo-for-continuous-rotation/ | Modifying A Servo For Continuous Rotation | Benjamin Eckel | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"continuous",
"continuousrotation",
"cr",
"crservo",
"instructables",
"rotation",
"servo",
"walkerrobot"
] | [robomaniac] shows us how to
modify a standard servo to allow continuous rotation
. This is a classic robotics hack and has been around for a while, but we really like the way he put this together. Although you may need some soldering and desoldering tools to open the servo up, the hack is a physical one. All you really need to do is cut off a plastic tab on one of the gears. If you want to see an example of a bot you can build with one of these CR servos, he just posted
this one motor walker
.
permalink | 7 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "39045",
"author": "Entropia",
"timestamp": "2008-07-15T02:04:41",
"content": "Putting the bad English aside, I wouldn’t go about modifying a servo for continuous motion like that. You lose one kind of nifty feature by removing the whole controlling logic, which is the ability to dri... | 1,760,377,787.034946 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/14/victorian-nixie-tube-clock/ | Victorian Nixie Tube Clock | Caleb Kraft | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"clock",
"mantle",
"mantleclock",
"nixie",
"nixieclock",
"nixietube",
"tube",
"victorian",
"victorianclock"
] | [John Clarke Mills] has pieced together this tastefully done Victorian style Nixie tube clock. He picked up a kit from nixietube.com and an old clock off of eBay. A little bit of elbow grease and solder later, he has this very nice mantle piece. Well done.
For those unfamiliar, a
Nixie tube
is used for displaying numbers or letters. They are a glass tube, filled with a gas (usually neon). There are metal structures inside that glow when electricity is applied. First widely used in the early sixties, Nixies were pretty much replaced when LED technology got cheap.
We noticed that
nixietube.com
was down, so you might also check
TubeClock.com
and
neonixie.com
for kits.
If you’re looking for more inspiration, read about the
Nixie counter clock
,
Russian vfd
, and the
6502 driven Nixie clock
all previously on Hack a Day.
[via
Retro Thing
]
permalink | 8 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "39040",
"author": "stopwhining",
"timestamp": "2008-07-15T01:55:13",
"content": "this is a true thing of beauty.simple,basic classic beauty.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "39041",
"author": "Jeremy",
"timestamp": "2008-... | 1,760,377,787.399692 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/14/mister-jalopy-on-npr/ | Mister Jalopy On NPR | Caleb Kraft | [
"News"
] | [
"diy",
"make",
"misterjalopy",
"mrjalopy",
"npr"
] | [Mister Jalopy] is an outspoken recycler. He believes it is wrong that we live in a “throw away culture” and we here at Hackaday tend to agree. There is so much potential left in products, long after they may have given up their original purpose. He has been pushing to get companies to work with the public, to encourage re purposing and hacking. The belief is that it can only improve a company’s relationship with their customers.
[Mister Jalopy] appeared on
National Public Radio
today. They discussed the benefits of making your own stuff, as well as the legalities involved with modifying off the shelf products.
We covered his
open house
last October. Tons of fascinating stuff there.
[via
Hoopty Rides
]
permalink | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "39038",
"author": "Chris",
"timestamp": "2008-07-15T00:54:22",
"content": "Companies may get better customer satisfaction with this – however that is not their primary goal. Profits are. The only problem with this is that the re-use of products interrupts their business plan which f... | 1,760,377,787.152978 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/25/wiremap-a-volumetric-display/ | Wiremap, A Volumetric Display | Caleb Kraft | [
"News",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"3d",
"alberthwang",
"lasthope",
"volumentric",
"wiremap"
] | While at
The Last HOPE
this year, we were fortunate enough to see
Wiremap
, a volumetric display made from thread. Using a projector and 256 individual strands of cotton thread, [Albert Hwang] produces 3D effects. The result is a visually stunning piece of work.
[Albert] started with 85 coat hanger wires and a projector that ultimately failed due to the focal requirements. His final version, on display at The Last Hope was his third design and has 256 individual strands. To get the 3d effect, he splits the image into vertical pieces and arranges them so that they’ll hit the appropriate strand. He uses custom software which is available for download on his site. He encourages people to make their own, and send him ideas for improvements.
His site has pictures and videos of the final products and variations, plans for the hardware, and downloads for the software. It would be nice to see some more construction shots.
[via
NYC Resistor
]
[photo:
mightyohm
]
permalink | 9 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "39548",
"author": "garrett",
"timestamp": "2008-07-26T02:36:36",
"content": "Just let the video buffer to 4:30 and start watching then. The first four minutes are pretty boring.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "39549",
"autho... | 1,760,377,787.273971 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/25/predictive-blacklisting-with-dshield/ | Predictive Blacklisting With DShield | Caleb Kraft | [
"News",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"antivirus",
"blacklist",
"blacklisting",
"dshield",
"malware",
"pagerank",
"scanning",
"security"
] | The
DShield project
is hoping to change how we protect our networks from malware with
predictive blacklisting
. Using a method similar to Google’s PageRank, DShield collects logs from network administrators to help develop a score based on maliciousness. They combine this score with information about where the malware has already hit to determine an overall threat level.
Similar to antivirus programs, the system still relies on networks being attacked to rate the threat level. They have shown though, that the predictive method is consistently more effective than manual blacklisting. The system has been available for free for the past year. Those utilizing the system have been reporting positive results. They do note that there are a few people whose network infrastructure doesn’t match up with the predictions very well. If you would like to participate, go to
their site
and sign up.
permalink | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "39544",
"author": "Eighty Seven",
"timestamp": "2008-07-26T01:08:49",
"content": "Your post advocates a(x) technical ( ) legislative ( ) market-based ( ) vigilanteapproach to fighting spam. Your idea will not work. Here is why it won’t work. (One or more of the following may apply t... | 1,760,377,787.43712 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/25/hope-2008-youtomb-a-free-culture-hack/ | HOPE 2008: YouTomb, A Free Culture Hack | Eliot | [
"cons",
"News"
] | [
"con",
"dmca",
"dmcatakedown",
"freeculture",
"hackercon",
"hope",
"mit",
"mysql",
"takedown",
"thelasthope",
"video",
"youtomb",
"youtube"
] | YouTomb
is a research project designed by the MIT Free Culture group to track video take downs on YouTube. To succeed, the team needed to track every single video on YouTube… which is close to impossible. Instead, they built several “explorer” scripts to track what videos were interesting. One explorer tracks all of YouTube’s lists: recommended, featured, most active, and more. Another explorer picks up every video submitted to YouTube, and a third crawls Technorati.
The explorers just find the videos; a separate group of scanner scripts checks the current status of videos. It checks both the new videos and ones that have been killed to see if they return. YouTomb archives every video it finds. They display the thumbnail of the video under fair use, but they’re still determining whether they can display each video in full.
YouTomb is tracking a little more than 282,000 videos right now and maintain a
public MySQL snapshot
for anyone that wants to build their own tools. The code is also open source. They’ve been archiving all their historical data too, all 70 million rows of it.
They’ve started trending country censorship. Germany, Poland, and France all have hate speech bans, so any video with a swastika can’t be viewed there. Thailand blocks anything that impugns the king.
Crank That
is blocked in 200+ countries.
YouTomb got
a lot
of press
when it was initially released. The team feels that this is the result of a clear interface. They encourage others to take the time to present data clearly. As a final note, they pointed out that you can always
file a DMCA counterclaim
to get your videos restored.
permalink | 9 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "39536",
"author": "b10hazard",
"timestamp": "2008-07-25T22:35:45",
"content": "I request that Crank That be banned in one more country.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "39537",
"author": "Vinnie",
"timestamp": "2008-07-25... | 1,760,377,787.524141 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/25/uv-drip-bicycle-tracker/ | UV Drip Bicycle Tracker | Will O'Brien | [
"classic hacks",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"gotducttape"
] | [Che-Wei Wang] has a few more projects up his sleeve aside from his
pneumatic power suit
. This is a bit artsy, but he created an ultraviolet ink dropper to leave
a trail of invisible ink
wherever he rides his bike. Just think of it as a modernized version of [MacGyver]’s paint can under the bad guys car tracking system.
permalink | 8 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "39528",
"author": "loosenut",
"timestamp": "2008-07-25T17:33:42",
"content": "somehow i dont think having a constantly wet rear tire is the best idea.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "39529",
"author": "Haku",
"timestamp"... | 1,760,377,787.48154 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/24/drill-powered-mini-bike/ | Drill Powered Mini Bike | Eliot | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"dpx",
"dpxsystems",
"electric",
"electricdrill",
"ev",
"minibike",
"powerdrill",
"video",
"weedwhacker",
"weedwhackermotor"
] | DPX Systems
seems to deal exclusively in devices powered by handheld drills. In addition to the
mini bike in the video above
, they’ve made systems for wheelchairs, toolboxes, and hoists. The device costs $630, but we know most of you just need prompting that something is possible to be well on your way to building your own version. We’re still more fond of
weed whacker machines
.
[via
Toolmonger
]
permalink | 25 | 23 | [
{
"comment_id": "39512",
"author": "Mike",
"timestamp": "2008-07-25T04:39:15",
"content": "wow. that is awesome! I have a few drills sitting around, i might have to make use of them right now!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "39513",
"author"... | 1,760,377,787.66866 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/24/dns-cache-poisoning-webcast/ | DNS Cache Poisoning Webcast | Eliot | [
"News",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"blackhat",
"cache",
"cachepoisoning",
"dankaminsky",
"dns",
"DnsCachePoisoning",
"doxpara",
"jerrydixon",
"jonhart",
"michaelrash",
"openbsd",
"opendns",
"pj",
"richmogull"
] | UPDATE:
Full audio of the webcast is now available
Today
Black Hat
held a preview webcast with [Dan Kaminsky] about the massive DNS bug he discovered. On July 8th, multiple vendors
announced a patch for an undisclosed DNS vulnerability
. [Dan Kaminisky] did not release the details of the vulnerability at that time, but encouraged security researchers to not release their work, if they did happen to discover the bug. On the 21st, the
full description of the vulnerability was leaked
.
In today’s webcast, [Dan] covered how he felt about the handling of the vulnerability and answered a few questions about it. He started out by talking about how he stumbled across the bug; he was working on how to make content distribution faster by using DNS to find the server closest to the client. The new attack works because DNS servers not using port randomization make it easy for the attacker to forge a response. You can read the
specifics of the attack
here.
[Dan] talked about the work that had been done since the July 8th announcement. A handful of researchers had contacted him with exact bug in hand, but as requested, did not release the information. When first announced, 86% of all servers voluntarily tested using the checker on
doxpara.com
were vulnerable. 13 days later, the vulnerability was published and only 52% of the people using the checker are vulnerable. That’s not perfect, but 13 days gave plenty of companies enough time to both test and roll out their patches.
[Jerry Dixon], the former Director of the National Cyber Security Division, pointed out that even though the vulnerability was eventually leaked, the patches had already been out for 13 days; this isn’t a zero day vulnerability with no fix. So, we’re in a fairly good position. That being said, even since our
Metasploit announcement yesterday
, they’ve pushed new module code that will
take over an entire domain
. Security researcher [Rich Mogull] has feels that producing this exploit code quickly was “
bullshit
” and “
only helps the bad guys
“.
[Dan] pointed out that some related work people have been doing to mitigate DNS cache poisoning using firewalls. [Michael Rash] wrote about
using iptables in Linux
to randomize outbound requests and [Jon Hart] covered using
PF in OpenBSD
. The team is actively contacting vulnerable servers to get them to patch. They’ve also advised IDS vendors to look for multiple replies with the same ID as a telltale sign of this attack.
You can check your DNS servers using the tool on
doxpara.com
. We’ve personally switched our machines to
OpenDNS
‘s servers 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220. Not only did it give us some piece of mind, but the performance is way better than our ISP’s overloaded DNS. | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "39508",
"author": "adam",
"timestamp": "2008-07-25T04:57:27",
"content": "after the NANOG mailing list blew up my inbox, i realized that this was a big deal. i’ve tried running the doxpara tool on my home isp but it’s not working, so i too switched my router over to opendns. i’m j... | 1,760,377,789.252109 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/24/hope-2008-methods-of-copying-high-security-keys/ | HOPE 2008: Methods Of Copying High Security Keys | Eliot | [
"cons",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"barrywels",
"highsecurity",
"hope",
"impressioning",
"key",
"keycopying",
"lock",
"lockpick",
"lockpicking",
"oliverdiederichsen",
"security",
"thelasthope"
] | [Barry Wels] is well known for his lockpicking talks, but this year he wanted to talk about how he copies high security keys. If a key blank is available, you could make a copy just by viewing the original. High security keys generally have profiles with more side cuts, which means you can guess at how deep a specific pin is by observing how many cuts it crosses. He also showed that you could imprint your arm with the key and use that as a guide. If a blank isn’t available, you could fill a similar key with solder and file that down.
[Barry] showed two different kits for casting keys. The first used soft clay in a clam shell to make an imprint of the original key. The form is then filled with a low melting point alloy (probably
Wood’s metal
) to create the new key. A second style uses a metal form and two part silicone to create the mold. This method works for most high security keys, but will not work on keys with active elements like sliders or magnets.
Finally, [Barry] talked about his favorite method: impressioning. Unlike picking a lock, when you’re done impressioning you have a funtional key. You start with key blank and file off the top layer. Place the blank in the lock and turn it till it jams. Then, you rock the key up and down. Observing the key under light you’ll see a small mark where each pin is. File a bit where the marks appear and repeat the process. You can’t use too much force or you might break the blank. This also works on dimple keys and as this video shows,
laser cut keys
. [Barry] highly recommends the
impressioning book
by [Oliver Diederichsen].
[photo:
Rija 2.0
] | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "39505",
"author": "seaniepants",
"timestamp": "2008-07-25T15:43:51",
"content": "This is cool. Makes me want to start messing with locks. I just wish I new german so I could read that impression book.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_i... | 1,760,377,789.441415 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/11/hackit-ripping-dvds/ | Hackit: Ripping DVDs | Juan Aguilar | [
"HackIt"
] | [
"drm",
"dvd",
"dvdauthoring",
"dvdripper",
"dvdripping",
"encoding",
"HackIt",
"piracy",
"rip",
"ripping"
] | A recent report from Futuresource Consulting states that just under 1/3 of Americans and just over 1/3 of UK residents have
engaged in some form of DVD ripping
in the last 6 months. Though [Jacqui Cheng] of Ars Technica was unphased, we were very surprised to learn that one of the most common methods is possibly the most low-tech, yet certainly cross-platform: hooking a DVD player to a DVD recorder via coaxial cable or composite. Our toolbelt is somewhat different, as we imagine yours is.
When working on a Mac, we find that
Handbrake
works really well. It is intuitive and efficient, featuring useful options and a virtually nonexistant learning curve.
Options on a PC are far more diverse. Our goto app is
DVD Shrink
: finding the download is a little tricky, but once installed, it makes ripping and burning a snap. We really love how easy it is to alter the compression of audio and video, and selectively include or exclude extras, menus, audio streams, and even legal warnings. We only have 4.7GB to work with, so we make space where we can.
When the source DVD is under the size limit, we prefer not to alter it in any way; for this, we use
Alcohol 120
. It is capable of creating nearly identical copies of any DVD, even copyrighted DVDs or video games.
It is entirely possible, likely even, that all you’re interested in is ripping. There are entirely too many options to name them all, but we are partial to
DivX
for rip-only operations. It is cross-platform, easy to use, and encodes in the DivX format. Playback is another issue (cough –
FFDShow
– cough). One of the most accessible ripping options, though, is an often ignored but useful app: Nero Vision. It is part of the
Nero 8 suite
, and although it is officially DVD authoring software for beginners, it features a functional ripping option that encodes ripped files in MPEG2 format. This is truly useful if you intend on authoring custom menus on the destination DVD, although
Adobe Encore
is a far better option for the actual authoring.
The great variety of options is part of what surprised us at the popularity of the low tech solution. Still, given the variables (level of user proficiency, platform, destination media, etc.), we wouldn’t be too surprised if our readers all vouched for different methods. That’s the question: what method do you use to rip DVDs?
[photo:
William Hook
]
permalink | 45 | 45 | [
{
"comment_id": "38820",
"author": "BLKMGK",
"timestamp": "2008-07-12T04:55:25",
"content": "Slysoft AnyDVD underneath DVD shrink – no compression at all on main movie. Copy it to a media server running unRAID, and watch it using XBMC for Linux. Rip HD media using Slysoft, eac3to, and meGUI to end u... | 1,760,377,789.608613 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/11/biped-robot-version-3/ | BiPed Robot Version 3 | Benjamin Eckel | [
"cnc hacks",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"biped",
"instructables",
"robot",
"v3"
] | Instructables user [
alex.v
] posted
version 3 of his BiPed Robot
. This robot is designed to mimic the control and movements of a human’s lower body. It has 12 degrees of freedom and a nice custom framework CNC’d from acryl sheets. The electronics consist of servos controlled by a custom board built around an ATmega8 and 3 ATtiny26s all programmed in assembly. He also has custom desktop software written in VB which allows direct control of the robot and graphs sensor data.
His site contains pictures, videos, and design materials
.
permalink | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "38817",
"author": "defyboy",
"timestamp": "2008-07-12T09:50:59",
"content": "They look just the same as they did 3 years ago, new news please…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "38818",
"author": "vampyre",
"timestamp": "20... | 1,760,377,789.290169 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/11/subwoofer-makes-cornstarch-dance/ | Subwoofer Makes Cornstarch Dance | Juan Aguilar | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"cornstarch",
"ferrofluid",
"magnetism",
"motion",
"subwoofer",
"vibration",
"video"
] | People tend not to think about the non-Newtonian properties of foodstuffs, but we’re glad at least one person did. When it comes to cornstarch, it’s indeterminate viscosity when mixed with water made it the perfect solution for a pretty neat trick: making a
liquid move in reaction to a subwoofer
. The unique motion can be attributed to the physical properties of the solution: when enough force is applied quickly, it acts as a solid. Otherwise, it flows like a liquid. The erratic bouncing of the sound waves combined with a little tactile manipulation create varying degrees and speeds of applied pressure, which in turn create a mass of flowing shapes that almost appear to be alive.
We’ve covered weird fluids before, but this is perhaps most similar to
SnOil
, a game that uses ferrofluids to achieve a similar result. SnOil, however, does not depend of vibrations to create shapes in the fluid, it uses small electromagnets and magnetically charges liquid instead. We love the ordered appearance of the SnOil unit, but the chaotic motion of the cornstarch and it’s non-Newtonian properties make it appear almost otherworldly. We wonder how ferrofluids would react in a situation similar to the cornstarch above, since it would respond to both the vibration and the voice coil’s magnetic field.
[via
Neatorama
]
permalink | 11 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "38806",
"author": "stopwhining",
"timestamp": "2008-07-12T03:25:17",
"content": "that just looks soooooo creepy and wrong. at the same time it looks sooooooo cooool.i love it.it’s weird off the wall surprises like this that keep me hitting this site every hour or so throughout the d... | 1,760,377,789.529953 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/11/microfluidic-art/ | Microfluidic Art | Kimberly Lau | [
"News"
] | [
"art",
"chips",
"j. tanner neville",
"J.TannerNeville",
"microfluidic"
] | Microfluidics
expert [
J. Tanner Neville
] decided to
turn his work into art
. Along with his student, [Austin Day], they turned lab chips into miniscule works of art by developing a technique of patterning proteins onto substrates. Each colored line you see is actually a groove full of liquid about 20 microns in width. Another student of [Neville’s], [Albert Mach], is currently working on a method of preserving the liquid for longer amounts of time. As you can probably guess, the dye tends to dry up within a few days. He is also taking submissions for artwork, so we encourage you to submit! We’re certainly looking forward to what else [Neville] and his students come up with next.
[via
io9
]
permalink | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "38804",
"author": "TheSkorm",
"timestamp": "2008-07-12T02:55:47",
"content": "I’d like to see this put to better use. Something like some fluid computers that clock in the MHz.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "38805",
"author... | 1,760,377,789.21361 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/11/memristor-based-memory-prototype-by-2009/ | Memristor-based Memory Prototype By 2009 | Benjamin Eckel | [
"News"
] | [
"2009",
"EETimes",
"HP",
"memory",
"memristor",
"prototype",
"ram",
"RRAM"
] | An article in EETimes suggests that we may see
a memristor-based memory prototype
in development as soon as 2009.
The memristor
is claimed by many to be the theorized fourth passive circuit element, linking the fundamental circuit variables of charge and flux. This news may not sound that exciting to most computer geeks, but this new component could usher in a new era of computer memory by forming the basis of RRAM (resistive random-access memory).
Scientists at HP labs have finally confirmed that the memristor behaves as their theories predicted. The reason that the component will work so well for memory is that the process is nonvolatile and the bits themselves will only change after the CPU tells them to. The bits in
current DRAM systems slowly fade out
and require a refreshment every 50 nanoseconds.
[via
/.
]
permalink | 5 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "38800",
"author": "stopwhining",
"timestamp": "2008-07-12T02:43:06",
"content": "this is not a hackthis is serious hi-sci-techi can’t wait for had to do their first post on dna based cpusi can see the comments now“since when has bacteria been a hack? whine whine”great stuff keep it ... | 1,760,377,789.481247 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/11/7-really-creepy-robots/ | 7 Really Creepy Robots | Kimberly Lau | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"alberthubo",
"cracked",
"creepy",
"robot",
"uncannyvalley"
] | Creepiness is a hard feeling to objectively evaluate, but we dare you to not get creeped out by these realistic
robots listed by Cracked.com
. It’s the
uncanny valley
of robots that are almost, but not completely lifelike, and which repulse most humans. It begs the question: how could you resolve the uncanny valley problem? Would you build a robot to look exactly like you, as [
Hiroshi Ishiguro
] did, or would you build one to look like a famous figure, like the
Albert Hubo
?
[via
BotJunkie
]
permalink | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "38799",
"author": "Earl Jr.",
"timestamp": "2008-07-12T05:14:06",
"content": "I’d just avoid the uncanny valley problem completely with robots like keeponhttp://youtube.com/watch?v=nPdP1jBfxzoIt’s recognizable enough to emphasize with and avoids uncanny valley (of course, you won’t ... | 1,760,377,789.32203 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/11/packet-trace-anonymization-with-pktanon/ | Packet Trace Anonymization With PktAnon | Juan Aguilar | [
"News"
] | [
"anonymity",
"anonymizer",
"anonymous",
"networks",
"security",
"xml"
] | If you’re a network researcher or systems administrator, you know that network traces are often necessary, but not easy to share with colleagues and other researchers. To help with both ease of use and handling of sensitive information, the Institute of Telematics has developed
PktAnon, a framework that anonymizes network traffic
.
It works by using a profile-based scheme that supports various anonymization primitives, making it easy to switch between different network protocols and anonymization methods. New primitives can easily be added, and several pre-defined profiles are bundled into the distro. The profiles are all XML-based.
Essentially, there are two major uses for network traces: anonymizing user traffic in order to research it, and anonymizing in-house usage, thus preventing the leakage of sensitive information. It’s a rather rigid scheme, but using profiles for this was a stroke of genius that made it a lot easier, more flexible, and as a result, more useful and powerful.
[via
TaoSecurity
]
[photo:
mlpoulter
]
permalink | 5 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "38794",
"author": "bgugi",
"timestamp": "2008-07-12T01:42:36",
"content": "scientology raids…come on, guys…rules 1 and 2…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "38795",
"author": "Anon",
"timestamp": "2008-07-12T02:14:57",
... | 1,760,377,789.398666 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/13/fabr-another-3d-printing-project/ | FABR: Another 3d Printing Project | Will O'Brien | [
"classic hacks",
"cnc hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"3d",
"8020",
"reprap"
] | [Lou]’s been working on his own 3d printer:
fabr
. We find it appealing because the entry cost is quit a bit lower than something like the reprap. 80/20 isn’t that cheap, but you don’t need a large commercial laser cutter to build the chassis. The steppers he used appear to be inexpensive ones that can be salvaged from dot matrix printer. To drive it, he’s working on a custom microstepping board and hopes to eventually develop an Arduino shield to control the stepper drivers. That’s right, it’ll get an Arudino to act as the CNC control interface.
permalink | 7 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "38942",
"author": "J Swift",
"timestamp": "2008-07-13T18:19:44",
"content": "Its nice to see more people building 3d printers at home.I have built a RepRap printer, so I would like to clear up just a few statements in this article which are misleading.1. I built my RepStrap for just... | 1,760,377,789.36237 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/12/music-and-visual-arts-at-the-last-hope/ | Music And Visual Arts At The Last HOPE | Benjamin Eckel | [
"digital audio hacks",
"News"
] | [
"8bit",
"cdm",
"createdigitalmusic",
"highlyliquid",
"hope",
"music",
"thelasthope",
"visualization"
] | [
Peter Kirn
] from Create Digital Music has an article up highlighting many of the
great music and visual performance pieces
planned for
The Last HOPE
on Friday night. If you are around New York and not accustomed to hacking conferences, this could be a great excuse to go check it out. Here are some of our favorite projects.
In the field of visuals, [
Joshue Ott
] and [
Ezekiel Honig
] are scheduled for an exhibition. [Ott] is best known for authoring
superDraw, an amazing app used for generating visuals for music
. The above video shows superDraw in action. [Honig] will provide his usual brand of warm and noisy ambient soundscapes.
Representing the 8-bit scene, [
Paris
] (video above) and [
No Carrier
] are also scheduled to attend.
[
Michael Una
] will also be on hand to showcase his live looping and robot assisted performances. The above video shows one of the robots he will be performing with. This robot was built around the
Highly Liquid MIDI kit
.
permalink | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "38939",
"author": "Carlyle S.",
"timestamp": "2008-07-13T06:45:26",
"content": "Excellent post. Too bad last hope is half a dozen states away. :(",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "38940",
"author": "Peter Kirn",
"timestamp... | 1,760,377,789.755945 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/12/handusb-data-gloves-interface/ | HandUSB Data Gloves Interface | Benjamin Eckel | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"atmega",
"Atmel",
"AVR",
"gloves",
"touch",
"usb"
] | Following
today’s earlier post on data gloves
,
HandUSB is a glove interface
designed to relay fingertip touch data to a computer via USB. Although the gloves themselves are not extremely interesting or useful for your average hacker, the project has some good documentation. The electronics are all open source and he has links to the EAGLE files and the AVR Libc code. You can also find a demo program written for DOS. This project uses
AVR-USB by Objective Development
so if you are looking to move on from your USB-serial chips, this project would be a good resource to study.
[via
YourlTronics
]
permalink | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "38937",
"author": "thegimpster",
"timestamp": "2008-07-13T06:12:18",
"content": "Its cool looking and all, but what is it used for? I know the other one was used as a keyboard, but can you do the same w/ this one? I still want one.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"repli... | 1,760,377,789.944691 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/12/toool-picksets-at-the-last-hope/ | Toool Picksets At The Last HOPE | Benjamin Eckel | [
"cons",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"blackbag",
"centipede",
"hope",
"last",
"lockpick",
"lockpicking",
"magentic",
"pick",
"picksets",
"ring",
"toool"
] | Speaking of laser engraving, the blackbag blog announced that
Toool has designed 2 unique picksets
for
The Last HOPE
this year. First is the credit card sized snap-off set seen above. They have named this one The Last HOPE emergency pickset. The other pickset is a new version of the ‘double sided pick’ series. This set consists of picks with the same tool on either end, but they are sized differently. This set will contain 8 picks with promised improvements. If you are interested in more complex picks, check out
the centipede
.
permalink | 14 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "38927",
"author": "MikeFez",
"timestamp": "2008-07-13T02:42:22",
"content": "Before some moron says something along the lines of “not a hack”, go tohttp://www.hackaday.com/category/daily/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "38928",
... | 1,760,377,789.90185 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/12/epilog-zing-personal-laser-etching/ | Epilog Zing Personal Laser Etching | Benjamin Eckel | [
"Laser Hacks",
"News"
] | [
"engraving",
"epilog",
"ladyada",
"laser",
"zing"
] | The new Epilog Zing
is designed to bring laser engraving to the home for personal use. It’s got 25 watts of power, a small enough footprint to fit neatly on your desk, and the video above shows it has a pretty high resolution. But
compared to the mini18
, the Zing has less Z movement, a lower wattage, a smaller engraving area, and about half the speed. Also, with a price set around $8,000, we don’t think many people will be buying them for personal use just yet. However, if you have a small home business that requires these services, the Zing could be perfect. If you are looking for more information on laser engraving, see [ladyada’s]
laser information page
.
[via
Engadget
]
permalink | 13 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "38916",
"author": "john.s948@mint.us.to",
"timestamp": "2008-07-13T02:37:55",
"content": "not a hack",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "38917",
"author": "cromag",
"timestamp": "2008-07-13T03:33:22",
"content": "perhaps... | 1,760,377,790.230481 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/12/igiveup-bluetooth-handset/ | IGiveUp Bluetooth Handset | jimmierodgers | [
"Cellphone Hacks",
"iphone hacks"
] | [
"airsoft",
"apple",
"bluetooth",
"bluetooth headset",
"gun",
"headset",
"instructables",
"iphone",
"iphone3g"
] | Instructables user [ManaEnergyPotion] has posted a rather humorous
Bluetooth handset hack
. He simply took apart an airsoft handgun and a Bluetooth headset, and then placed the components neatly within the case. The earpeice is actually in the barrel of the gun, while the microphone is in the handle. You pull the trigger to answer a call, or to end a call. The best part is that they took this to the iPhone product launch, and posted a video of people’s reaction to this as an actual product concept. You can check it out after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=on4P94lyGyE&hl=en&fs=1]
permalink | 36 | 34 | [
{
"comment_id": "38883",
"author": "Shadyman",
"timestamp": "2008-07-12T19:46:30",
"content": "Just remember not to answer your phone near any police officers.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "38884",
"author": "jjrh",
"timestamp": "2008-... | 1,760,377,790.016569 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/12/clove-2-glove-for-one-handed-input/ | Clove 2 Glove For One Handed Input | Caleb Kraft | [
"classic hacks",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"bluetooth",
"cemtech",
"clove2",
"glove",
"hid",
"inputdevice",
"keyboard"
] | [Christopher Mitchell] (
previously on Hack a Day
) has come up with a rather interesting input device.
The Clove 2 glove is a Bluetooth data input interface
. The goal is to be able to “type” without the use of a traditional keyboard. Key strokes are achieved through finger movements. Your computer simply sees this as a Bluetooth HID device and some software translates it for you.
While it may seem confusing, he’s designed it to be very similar to typing on a keyboard. Each finger movement or combination is a key stroke. Just like typing on a regular keyboard, there are modifying strokes such as ALT or shift that effect others. Most common used keys require the least combinations of finger movements.
[Christopher] put some extra effort in to making this user friendly by adding some features that you might not have thought of at first. For example, the ALT and shift keys work similar to a phone interface. When you press them, the next keystroke is effected. There is also audio feedback to let you know that this has happened. Each normal keystroke makes a click, while each modifier has a unique tone.
They’re not being stingy with information either. The site has a complete writeup of how to make the glove yourself. Each step has a detailed description and pictures as well as downloadable schematics.
This method of input seems so unobtrusive. We can visualize this being used in warehouses or even by doctors for different types of input when keeping your hands available is necessary. Maybe a sock version should be next in line!
permalink | 23 | 23 | [
{
"comment_id": "38860",
"author": "vampyre",
"timestamp": "2008-07-12T16:20:15",
"content": "this is nice, if it could be made into soemthing that wasn’t hot to wear i might actually use it.i think a bra computer interface device would be far more useful. It would let guys interface with their woma... | 1,760,377,790.145422 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/11/nvidias-problems-worse-than-expected/ | NVIDIA’s Problems Worse Than Expected? | Benjamin Eckel | [
"News"
] | [
"Asus",
"chip",
"dell",
"faulty",
"G84",
"G86",
"graphicscard",
"heat-cycling",
"HP",
"inquirer",
"NVIDIA"
] | According to the an article in the INQUIRER, it is very possible that
all chips with the G84 and G86 architecture are faulty
. The problem is said to be excessive heat cycling and when NVIDIA was questioned,
they blamed their suppliers
for the issue. Although NVIDIA is claiming that only a
few chips that went to HP
were affected, the INQUIRER points out that all the chips use the same ASIC across the board, which has not changed in the architecture’s lifetime. They also point out that Dell and ASUS are having the same issues.
The article then goes on to theorize why we have not seen more complaints. They say that failures of these type usually follow a bell curve distributed over the time domain and we are only on the initial up-slope. This is probably due to the different use patterns of the users. For example, people with laptops are turning their computers on and off more than desktop users, thus facilitating the heat cycling’s effect. They suggest the quick fix as more fanning, but eventually NVIDIA will have to do something about this.
[via
Engadget
]
permalink | 7 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "38787",
"author": "Nicholas Lombardy",
"timestamp": "2008-07-12T02:12:40",
"content": "This is yet another reason AMD continues to provide the better value…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "38788",
"author": "nhojflow",
"... | 1,760,377,790.185345 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/11/radiohead-makes-entire-video-with-friggin-lasers/ | Radiohead Makes Entire Video With Friggin’ Lasers | Caleb Kraft | [
"News"
] | [
"geometricinformatics",
"houseofcards",
"laser",
"lidar",
"music",
"Radiohead",
"scan",
"velodynelidar"
] | [Radiohead], being no
strangers
to
out of the box
delivery ideas, are preparing to release a new video that was
created without the use of cameras
. The entire video for the song House of Cards was “filmed” using lasers.
The system, known as
Geometric Informatics
and
Velodyne Lidar
, scanned the entire environment 900 times a minute to capture an entire party in real time.
The video was originally set to be released in mid July, but appears to have been moved back.
permalink | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "38785",
"author": "David R",
"timestamp": "2008-07-12T02:09:40",
"content": "the article itself says 900 times a minute, not second. that’s 15 times a second.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "38786",
"author": "Scott",
"t... | 1,760,377,790.268444 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/11/iphone-dev-team-releases-jailbreak-video/ | IPhone Dev Team Releases Jailbreak Video | Caleb Kraft | [
"Cellphone Hacks",
"iphone hacks",
"ipod hacks",
"News"
] | [
"apple",
"cellphone",
"iphone",
"iphone3g",
"iphonedev",
"IphoneHack",
"jailbreak",
"mac",
"pwnage"
] | [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R63lKICiWfg&hl=en&fs=1]
The iPhone dev team, notorious for jailbreaking the iPhone has just
released a video
of the iPhone 3G hacked. Keep up to date with it and watch for a release on
their blog
. This is a major update to the
PwnageTool
which is already available for previous versions of the iPhone.
They have added a lot of new features such as: canned web searches, custom installer configuration, and custom root partitions. They promise to release it soon, but state that it will not be this weekend. You can get a the
high resolution version of the video from our mirror
.
permalink | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "38784",
"author": "Christopher Reitmann",
"timestamp": "2008-07-12T03:01:30",
"content": "I thought that when you bought the new 3G you had to sign a policy and contract or something? If you jailbreak your new iPhone won’t they know?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"re... | 1,760,377,790.363339 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/11/engadget-goes-in-depth-with-the-iphone-3g/ | Engadget Goes In Depth With The IPhone 3G | Caleb Kraft | [
"iphone hacks",
"News"
] | [
"apple",
"cellphone",
"iphone",
"iphone3g",
"mac",
"macintosh",
"mobilephone",
"phone"
] | Over at Engadget, they’ve taken some time to
completely review the iPhone 3G
. Take a few moments to stop reading about all the trouble
activating
them and read about the phone itself.
In short, they hit the following points:
The case feels thinner than it is.
The shape of the case makes it wobble on a hard surface.
Call quality is greatly improved.
Speeds are greatly increased.
Battery life is underwhelming.
They seem positive in their conclusion, we’ll have to wait and see how they feel after a little more time with it.
permalink | 7 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "38778",
"author": "Nate",
"timestamp": "2008-07-12T00:52:17",
"content": "Once again not a hack. Hack a day becoming just another tech news site with a hack here and there.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "38779",
"author": "... | 1,760,377,790.305947 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/11/hacker-sentenced-for-stalking-internet-celebrity/ | Hacker Sentenced For Stalking Internet Celebrity | Kimberly Lau | [
"News"
] | [
"amorhilton",
"crime",
"hacker",
"hilton",
"jeffrey weinberg",
"JeffreyWeinberg",
"lexisnexis",
"myspace",
"stalker",
"stalking"
] | [Jeffrey Robert Weinberg] has been sentenced to 2 years
in state prison for a single act of computer intrusion. He had already served time in federal prison for
hacking into Lexis-Nexis
. Weinberg was caught through his cyberstalking – he went after an Internet celebrity. [
Amor Hilton
] was a MySpace user with a
popular show on Stickam
. Hilton found herself locked out of her MySpace account, and her cellphone account disconnected. She alleged that he demanded phone sex and nude photos of her. [Hilton] worked with the police to identify the hacker using a photo that he sent. After [Weinberg] completes his sentence in state prison, he will have to face repercussions for violation of his federal probation, which came with severe restrictions on his computer usage.
permalink | 19 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "38760",
"author": "YoYo-Pete",
"timestamp": "2008-07-11T22:02:33",
"content": "What an ID10T.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "38761",
"author": "Sean",
"timestamp": "2008-07-11T22:17:14",
"content": "im waiting until... | 1,760,377,790.503851 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/11/map-abstraction-api-in-javascript/ | Map Abstraction API In Javascript | Juan Aguilar | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"abstraction",
"api",
"googlemaps",
"javascript",
"mapping",
"mapquest",
"maps",
"mapstraction",
"yahoomaps"
] | Maybe you’ve tinkered a bit with the Google Maps API. Most of the software produced with it is not all that useful or entertaining, but
a few gem
have shone through. Still, wouldn’t it be better if applications produced with it could be easily ported to other online mapping services like Mapquest or Yahoo! Maps?
This is possible with Mapstraction, a
Javascript API that works with nine mapping services
and plans to incorporate more into the fold. Mapstraction has open-source features that normalize functions across the biggest services, which makes searching for map data a consistent, predictable experience no matter which service you use.
Some of Mapstraction’s current features are what you would expect: point, line, and polygon support, image overlay, GeoRSS and KML feed importing, and several others. We’re really looking forward to future versions with OpenStreetMap support. Currently Mapstraction works with only commercial mapping services, but
OpenStreetMap
combined with Mapstraction directly hits the sweet spot; a customizable, open source map.
[via
Hackszine
]
permalink | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "56944",
"author": "Kazelkps",
"timestamp": "2008-12-28T03:32:05",
"content": "Hi!jzxv!http://piyytlsc.comqnnim znjhn",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,790.396805 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/11/breath-controlled-led-candles/ | Breath Controlled LED Candles | jimmierodgers | [
"LED Hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"attiny",
"AVR",
"birthday",
"candle",
"charlieplexing",
"instructables",
"led",
"microcontroller"
] | Instructables user [cedtlab] has posted an interesting LED project that
simulates birthday candles
. The circuit runs on an AVR ATTiny45, and is powered by 4 AA or AAA batteries. By using a
Charliplexing
technique, they are able to drive all 20 LEDs with only 5 pins of the ATTiny. A thermistor is used for detecting breath by measuring temperature changes, and then blocks of LEDs turn off depending on the change detected. They have provided schematics and source code for everything. Make sure to check out the video of the “ficticious birthday party” after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBYuQnvVfzI&hl=en&fs=1]
permalink | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "38757",
"author": "James",
"timestamp": "2008-07-11T20:33:46",
"content": "I would think the easier/cheaper method would involve a piezo mike — the DS uses the onboard mike to pick up “blowing”, which I’m pretty sure is just wind noise over the microphone. Aught to be easy enough t... | 1,760,377,790.453376 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/14/science-fiction-help-or-hindrance/ | Science Fiction, Help Or Hindrance? | Caleb Kraft | [
"News"
] | [
"books",
"io9",
"io9.com",
"metaverse",
"movies",
"nanotechnology",
"playinggod",
"science",
"sciencefiction",
"thediamondage"
] | [Annalee Newitz] from io9 has written a piece about how
science fiction can impact the public’s perception of scientific research
. She’s covered stories ranging from Frankenstein, for showing the negatives of humans “playing god”, to The Diamond Age, for showing an inspiring use of nanotechnology.
We wonder what direct impact science fiction has had on research. Depictions of a 3D metaverse have always been compelling, but is pouring effort into half measures like Second Life a waste of time compared to serious computer interaction research?
We discussed this for a little while and concluded that whether inspiring or hindering, the very act of critically thinking about technology was beneficial. What books have inspired you in the past? Was it because they showed a better world or were they a stern warning?
permalink | 8 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "39030",
"author": "brokenlcd",
"timestamp": "2008-07-14T23:55:49",
"content": "The Sprawl trilogy by Gibson and Stephenson’s Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon were very inspiring, especially Cryptonomicon.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_i... | 1,760,377,790.759643 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/14/mac-tablets-made-by-fans/ | Mac Tablets Made By Fans | Caleb Kraft | [
"laptops hacks",
"Mac Hacks",
"Tablet Hacks"
] | [
"cintiq",
"diycintiq",
"diymactablet",
"itab",
"mactablet",
"modbook",
"pressuresensitive",
"tablet",
"touch",
"touchscreen",
"touchsensitive",
"trolltouch",
"wacom",
"wacomcintiq"
] | Macintosh makes a lot of wonderful pieces of technology, but they do not make a tablet. Pictured above is the
Modbook
, the closest you can currently get to a Mac tablet. Though not officially built by Apple, they are an Apple Premier Developer and that isn’t too shabby.
Several people have taken it upon themselves to fashion Mac tablets of their own, varying from extremely professional looking finishes down to duct tape and wire. Lets take a look at some of the more popular ones out there.
First lets go to the place that started many of these projects. Though not strictly a Mac tablet, the projects at
Bongofish.co.uk
deal with making your own
Cintiq
. The instructions are quite in depth and the
forums
have several Mac projects to view.
Back around 2004, [Joseph DeRuvo Jr.] put together this fantastic little mod. He grafted a
Troll Touch
screen to a Mac laptop and made a custom case for it. He did a fantastic job of enclosing everything and making it look great. One cool feature is that the cover that protects the screen, folds back to form a stand when needed. This guy put a lot of hard work into this and it shows.
Another extremely polished model is the
iTab
. Inspired by the DIY Cintiq at Bongofish, [wiestudios] has put together this beautiful piece. Going more with Wacom than Mac style, it’s another fine bit of engineering. It even has an apple and crossbones etched in the back!
Polish isn’t everything though, sometimes simplicity can bring a project into the hands of the average Joe. Check out [Florian Mourer]’s
ongoing project
. He plans on building a custom enclosure at some point, but for now he’s got a pretty simple modification working. Again, this one uses a Wacom board so it is pressure sensitive. Unlike the others, he is limited to only a portion of the screen being sensitive due to the size of the tablet he had available.
Our very own [Caleb Kraft] has also ventured into the area of making Mac tablets. Using a cheap Wacom board, some duct tape, a screw driver, and a torx wrench, he shows us
how to build
a pressure sensitive Mac tablet in 15 minutes.
With the advent of the iPhone, it seems that a Mac tablet should be on the horizon. This is just one of the many cases where hackers have the technology first. | 17 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "39021",
"author": "pascal",
"timestamp": "2008-07-14T23:50:31",
"content": "this is one hack I don’t get — how could anybody spend $2500 on the modbook when Lenovo sells the X61 tablet at ~half the price? and frankly there is no big difference between a cintiq and a tablet pc: no pe... | 1,760,377,791.088008 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/14/radiohead-releases-laser-music-video-with-data/ | Radiohead Releases Laser Music Video With Data | Caleb Kraft | [
"News"
] | [
"3d",
"houseofcards",
"laser",
"lidar",
"musicvideo",
"Radiohead",
"video"
] | Radiohead has released their music video for “House Of Cards.” We’ve
already covered
some of the tech involved. If making an entire video without cameras wasn’t edgy enough, they’ve released all the point data for people to play with and remix. The band is encouraging people to post their creations to their
YouTube group
.
Head over to their
Google Code page
to watch a making of video as well as
view some of the datasets
in 3D. There is a link to the entire dataset for download as well.
permalink | 8 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "39014",
"author": "RetepV",
"timestamp": "2008-07-14T21:44:25",
"content": "Wow, looking at that clip makes me nauseus (serious!). I wonder what it does to people with epilepsy. Or maybe I’m latent epileptic?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"c... | 1,760,377,790.920884 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/14/ard-e-cheap-arduino-robot-platform/ | Ard-e: Cheap Arduino Robot Platform | Will O'Brien | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"classic hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"cheap",
"robots"
] | [Adam] sent in his robot:
Ard-e
. It’s build on a cheap remote control bull dozer kit along with a pile of cheap parts. He managed to keep the cost under $100. You might be getting sick of the Arduino love, but we love how the platform makes it possible for the micro controller novice to get results without taking advanced assembly language.
permalink | 5 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "39009",
"author": "firetech",
"timestamp": "2008-07-14T17:19:56",
"content": "Cool cheap hack… I love the cheaper hacks!!Speaking of the Arduino… Can we get a hacks column on the right for all the projects that use the Arduino?I know there seem to be a fair amount of them lately.",
... | 1,760,377,790.877821 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/14/refillable-canned-air/ | Refillable Canned Air | jimmierodgers | [
"Misc Hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"air",
"airduster",
"cannedair",
"dangerous",
"recycling",
"reusable",
"reuse",
"schrader",
"schradervalve"
] | While not very technical, [3eff_Jeff] posted an
interesting modification to an empty air canister
that makes it refillable. He was tired of drilling holes in the ozone, so he carefully drilled a hole into the top of the can instead. In the name of caution, he made sure the can was completely empty first by tying the trigger down with a rubber band. After waiting a while he carefully drilled the hole using an oil lubricant, and then epoxied in a Schrader valve from a leftover bike tire tube.
Due to compression of the air as it is pumped into the can, it becomes quite warm. He found that if the can is allowed to cool to room temperature, the air would become very cold once leaving the canister, which would cause condensation problems. So he uses it right after filling, and then empties it out when not in use.
We do not recommend anyone trying this, but it is a unique way to make a commonly used disposable resource in the computer field reusable. If we can use something more than once, we’re definitely for it. That’s why we support
recycling components
that would otherwise make their way to the landfill.
permalink | 31 | 30 | [
{
"comment_id": "38979",
"author": "Bobby",
"timestamp": "2008-07-14T08:02:38",
"content": "Interestingly enough, there was a commercial product like this sold through Office Depot about 10 years ago. It was called EnviroDust or EnviroDuster. It was sold by Fellowes I believe. I’ve often thought ... | 1,760,377,790.987765 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/13/funkytown-performed-by-old-hardware/ | Funkytown Performed By Old Hardware | Eliot | [
"digital audio hacks"
] | [
"funkytown",
"lippsinc",
"music",
"nude",
"obsolete",
"obsoletehardware",
"oldhardware",
"Radiohead"
] | Inspired by [James Houston]’s remix of
Radiohead’s Nude on obsolete hardware
, [bd594] put together this
mix of Lipps Inc.’s Funkytown
. No sampling was used, but he had to loop the footage of the Avaya dot matrix printer’s drum part because it shook the table too much. The guitar and bass line are performed by a
Commodore 64
. An Intel 14.4 external modem uses DTMF tones for the first part of of the lead and a
TI-99/4A
beeps out the rest. The TI is also used as a speech synthesizer and a Maxtor harddrive plays the the vocal track.
[via
Matrixsynth
]
permalink | 8 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "38974",
"author": "dinK3r",
"timestamp": "2008-07-14T06:52:29",
"content": "coolest hack i’ve seen in years!!!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "38975",
"author": "steveorama",
"timestamp": "2008-07-14T07:14:21",
"cont... | 1,760,377,791.340262 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/13/will-it-blend-tests-the-iphone-3g/ | Will It Blend? Tests The IPhone 3G | Kimberly Lau | [
"iphone hacks",
"News"
] | [
"funny",
"iphone",
"iphone3g",
"tom dickson",
"TomDickson",
"will it blend",
"WillItBlend"
] | [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLxq90xmYUs&hl=en&fs=1]
The
Will It Blend?
host, [Tom Dickson], is at it again. This time, he blends the new
Apple iPhone 3G
. We’re completely in awe of how efficient the blender is at the destruction of electronics, and this time, it’s no different. Watch in fascination (or horror) as [Dickson] turns the latest iPhone into ashes.
[via
Neatorama
]
permalink | 27 | 27 | [
{
"comment_id": "38946",
"author": "Steve DiRaddo",
"timestamp": "2008-07-14T02:40:24",
"content": "the iphone is way overrated.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "38947",
"author": "TheBlunderbuss",
"timestamp": "2008-07-14T02:49:30",
... | 1,760,377,791.232539 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/11/usb-popcorn-popper/ | USB Popcorn Popper | Will O'Brien | [
"classic hacks",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"gadgets",
"usb"
] | [sophia] sent in this interesting little video of a USB popcorn popper. It might just work too – we’ve burned our digits a time or two on a hot flashlight. The bottom is a jar lid, fitted with a pair of high intensity flashlight bulbs. These are wired directly to a USB cable (maybe a bit unwise). When plugged in, the bulbs are on and heat the metal container. Just add oil and popcorn… As usual, you can catch the video after the break.
USB Popcorn Maker
–
The best free videos are right here
permalink | 17 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "38740",
"author": "Floe",
"timestamp": "2008-07-11T15:50:55",
"content": "Uhm.. according to my humble physics knowledge, an USB port can supply a whopping 2.5 Watts (5V * 500mA). And that’s really supposed to be enough for heating that can? I’d be a bit less unbelieving if there wo... | 1,760,377,791.037848 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/10/dancing-wall-e-and-rhythmic-synth/ | Dancing Wall-E And Rhythmic Synth | Juan Aguilar | [
"digital audio hacks",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"dance",
"music",
"nycresistor",
"rhythm",
"robot",
"synth",
"synthesizer",
"wall-e",
"walle"
] | Whether you loved, hated, or didn’t see Wall-E, it’s hard not to fall in love with the iDance Wall-E toy. Connect him to an audio source and
Wall-E will dance around like an epileptic Billy Bass
.
[Gian Pablo Villamil] at NYC Resistor wondered whether it would work with his custom made Rhythmic Synth, and to his and our delight, it does!
The Rhythmic Synth
is an older project of his; it is a simple rhythm generator with 4 pitch knobs, 4 modulation knobs, and 4 phase switches. The case was taken from an old external Iomega CD-ROM drive.
Getting the Wall-E to dance isn’t much of a feat, but something about the dancing combined with a synth with embedded lights just screams robot dance party, and that can never be wrong. We’d love to see the Wall-E dancing to a cleaner, more complete synth:
maybe this one
. Check out Wall-E busting a move after the break.
permalink | 9 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "38731",
"author": "Crash",
"timestamp": "2008-07-11T07:11:36",
"content": "A robot that convulses to noise, what an achievement…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "38732",
"author": "36chambers",
"timestamp": "2008-07-11T09... | 1,760,377,791.130494 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/10/spotlight-on-tinyminds/ | Spotlight On Tinyminds | Kimberly Lau | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"beam",
"beambots",
"etsy",
"handmade",
"robots",
"solar",
"solar energy",
"solar-powered",
"SolarEnergy"
] | Etsy
places a
spotlight on tinyminds
, creator of the much-hyped solar robots. [Jenny], the brains behind
tinyminds
and self-described “all round nerd and non-stop crafter”, claims to draw inspiration for her
BEAM
solar bug and monster robots from things as varied as paper and wood. She describes the process of creating her robots and working with solar energy as “magical”. The fact that they’re solar-powered is a huge advantage – these “pets” never die and never need recharging, only light. Her
Cthulhu robot was linked to by BoingBoing Gadgets
, and is unfortunately sold out at the moment. tinyminds has plenty of other
inventive
,
equally
inspiring
robots
available for purchase.
permalink | 6 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "38725",
"author": "BigD145",
"timestamp": "2008-07-11T07:05:12",
"content": "Neat, but typically missing pictures from the back.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "38726",
"author": "jimmys",
"timestamp": "2008-07-11T07:17:... | 1,760,377,791.168425 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/10/pirate-bay-hits-the-road-angles-for-encryption/ | Pirate Bay Hits The Road, Angles For Encryption | Juan Aguilar | [
"News"
] | [
"decryption",
"encryption",
"ipaddress",
"piratbyran",
"piratebay",
"privacy",
"security",
"thepiratebay",
"torrent",
"torrents"
] | Piratbyrån and their hearties from The Pirate Bay are on a
pan-European summer journey
that will end at the
Manifesta art biennial
in Italy, but in the meantime they’ve been hard at work lobbying for
total network encryption
, a system that would protect users of a network (say, a P2P network) from deep packet inspection and other forms of activity analysis.
The system by which this will be achieved is called IPETEE, and it works by replacing the basic operating system network stack and doing all encryption and decryption itself. More details can be found in the
IPETEE technical proposal
.
Ars Technica pointed out numerous holes in the scheme, noting that most torrent apps already have encryption options. IPETEE applies to more than just torrents, though, so the larger problem is that encrypted packet still need source and destination IP addresses, meaning that one of the most crucial things you’d want to keep private (your destination site) is still accessible.
permalink | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "38723",
"author": "TheSkorm",
"timestamp": "2008-07-11T03:28:12",
"content": "You may be able to find the destination ip, but that info can useless if the network is setup correctly. Being a P2P, most target IPs will be client computers, which won’t run sites. The data could have be... | 1,760,377,791.377769 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/10/portable-air-conditioner/ | Portable Air Conditioner | Juan Aguilar | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"airconditioner",
"airconditioning",
"cooler",
"styrofoam",
"swampcooler",
"temperature",
"temperature-control"
] | The dog days of Summer are looming just over the horizon like a hot sticky wave of impending doom, but you don’t have to take it lying down.
Building a portable air conditioner
is cheap easy, and we daresay refreshing.
You’ll need the following materials: a condenser, heater core, or radiator, a styrofoam cooler, a submersible water pump, a few case fans, some adapters to power the works, and a few other materials. The pump circulates cold water through the condenser as the fan pushes air through it and the rest of the box.
We’ve never been huge fans of swamp coolers like this one since they offer no true refrigeration cycle. What’s more, they pump a good deal of humidity into the air, which makes the heat worse in the long run, or creates a vicious cycle of cooling and humidifying. Still, when the heat is scrambling our brains, it’s hard to say no to any relief, however ephemeral.
permalink | 16 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "38711",
"author": "redfireant3",
"timestamp": "2008-07-11T02:09:11",
"content": "try a hand full of salt with ice and water, cools faster.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "38712",
"author": "Andrew Cooper",
"timestamp": "... | 1,760,377,791.428266 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/10/cheap-hack-may-double-solar-panel-power/ | Cheap Hack May Double Solar Panel Power | Benjamin Eckel | [
"News",
"Solar Hacks"
] | [
"efficiency",
"mit",
"solar",
"solarpanel",
"wired"
] | MIT researchers have devised something they call the
Solar Concentrator
which is to be placed on top of existing solar cells. Its purpose is to separate the visible and infrared spectra of light by absorbing the visible spectrum and routing the energy to specialized cells. They claim this could lead to doubling the panel’s efficiency and greatly reducing costs.
We have seen many
promising advances
to solar panel efficiency in the past few years, but what is special about this one is the amazingly simple and cheap technique. Essentially, all the team has done is coat a piece of glass with simple organic dyes. After the organic molecules absorb the visible light, they remit the energy to the sides of the glass where it can be routed to their specific cells. The process is more efficient because the dye absorbs the light rather than something expensive like silicon. That means less silicon, and thus a better price range. Also, the fact that this material is just a piece of glass also opens up the possibility of solar windows.
permalink | 9 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "38708",
"author": "Skyler Orlando",
"timestamp": "2008-07-11T02:51:43",
"content": "Yeah, if you could control how much light was absorbed, you’d have self-powered auto-dimming windows! lol",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "38709"... | 1,760,377,791.468483 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/10/tangible-sequencer-interface-with-skittles/ | Tangible Sequencer Interface With Skittles | Benjamin Eckel | [
"digital audio hacks"
] | [
"candysequencer",
"kylemcdonald",
"sequencer",
"skittles",
"tangibleinterface",
"video"
] | Using a webcam, some cardboard, and a bag of Skittles, [Kyle McDonald] created this
tangible interface for a beat sequencer
. The Skittles are dropped onto the rows which correspond to a drum channel and each Skittle represents an 1/8th note. For such cheap components, the system seems to recognize the sequences pretty quick. This is probably due to some clever programming with the
processing
back-end. He claims his inspiration was the
BallBearing sequencer
, which uses the ball bearings as contact switches to determine the sequence rather than having a webcam analyze the surface.
It would be really nice to see this project expanded into a full blown instrument. the webcam could allow for dynamic surfaces and he could certainly add more control to the system with some knobs and/or sliders. He claims these features, and the source, will soon arrive.
permalink | 8 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "38703",
"author": "toki mccown",
"timestamp": "2008-07-11T01:16:51",
"content": "the next step in Skittles technology",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "38704",
"author": "dane",
"timestamp": "2008-07-11T03:07:28",
"con... | 1,760,377,792.073671 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/10/motorized-unicycles/ | Motorized Unicycles | Caleb Kraft | [
"Roundup",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"bombardier",
"embrio",
"monowheel",
"motorcycle",
"motorizedunicycle",
"noah",
"segway",
"singlewheelmotorcycle",
"trevorblackwell",
"unicycle"
] | The
Segway
may be a technological wonder, but motorized balancing transportation has been around for a while. We’ve gathered up some of our favorite motorized unicycles for your knee scraping enjoyment.
The design above makes us immediately think of the
very recent wonder
by [Ben Gulak] that earned him the
cover of Popular Science
. Strangely enough, when reading about [Ben] we didn’t see any mention of
Noah
. Designed by [
Andre Franca
] of Brazil, it won 2nd place in the Plascar Automotive Design Contest in 2007. The designs are extremely similar.
[scheerti] posted the mysterious wonder above on
S-blog
. It’s in Hungarian though, so we’ll just have to live in suspense until someone helps us out with the translation.
Bombardier
, the maker of many popular recreational vehicles,
released a design
a while back. Unfortunately, they stated that it may never be produced. It has a unique “landing gear” system for parking. You can see it under the front fender in the left shot above. The EMBRIO was an exercise in design, showing what Bombardier envisions recreational vehicles to be like in the year 2025.
Not to be left out of the race, Audi has shown off
a unique design
. Designed by [Tilmann Schlootz] This award winning design incorporates a spherical wheel and multidirectional drive train. That means that this bad boy can go any direction while facing any direction. Check out the seating, it converts smoothly from one seat to two. Just imagine helping your date into the SNOOK for a night on the town.
If those others were too wild or fast for you, why not check out some more traditional models. Pictured above is [Trevor Blackwell]’s
electric unicycle
, which is pretty much exactly as it sounds. There is also the
enicycle
and the
Einrad-Fahrzeug
.
For a more rugged application,look at
Le Monorue
. It was designed by [Jackie Chabanais] who has also created a ton of other single wheeled vehicles.
Out on the fringe, you will find
the Riot Wheel
. Different from any other single wheel design out there, it defies classification. Built for a trip to
Burning Man
, it gained instant publicity and has since been
featured
on Discovery Channel’s Monster Nation. While we’re talking about different ones, check out
Leviskate
. You stand on it like a skateboard… or at least try.
Lets not forget about good old [Dean Kamen], the inventor of the Segway. He’s
filed a patent
for a single wheeled version too. Unlike the Segway, this one comes with a seat! | 11 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "38697",
"author": "giskard",
"timestamp": "2008-07-11T01:04:30",
"content": "these are just flat out bad ideas. the diy ones are cool from the because i can perspective, but if they aren’t fast enough to be laterally stable, they’re useless as more than a toy, and if they are fast ... | 1,760,377,791.597606 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/10/black-ox-robot-for-sale/ | Black Ox Robot For Sale | Kimberly Lau | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"anime",
"blackox",
"crunchgear",
"gigantor",
"preorder",
"robot"
] | Remember
Gigantor
, the anime about the original “Iron Man”? Fans of the show will want to take note:
Vstone
, maker of robots and other products, is now accepting orders for the Black Ox, Gigantor’s nemesis. It’s a real robot with 22 joints, and can be controlled via a wireless remote. The product can only be ordered
online
, and it’ll cost you a pretty penny. We hope you have $7,450 laying around. it’s $930 for the down payment. It’s as if the company were pretty much daring hobbyists to make their own cheaper versions.
Street knowledge media
has even more pictures.
[via
CrunchGear
]
permalink | 7 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "38690",
"author": "Jack",
"timestamp": "2008-07-11T00:30:23",
"content": "now only if it could shoot lasers yo",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "38691",
"author": "mike",
"timestamp": "2008-07-11T00:49:55",
"content": ... | 1,760,377,792.197389 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/10/neo-freerunner-software-review/ | Neo FreeRunner Software Review | Kimberly Lau | [
"Cellphone Hacks"
] | [
"arstechnica",
"cellphone",
"development",
"freerunner",
"linux",
"mobilephone",
"open source",
"openmoko",
"phone",
"software"
] | A first look from Ars Technica
at the newly released Neo FreeRunner phone
by OpenMoko reveals some interesting information. There are three different software stacks available to use; the Neo FreeRunner will ship with the GTK-based stack, referred to as om2007.2. It offers conventional smartphone applications, but most importantly, it includes “full root access to a Busybox shell with all of the standard scripting tools like sed and awk”. The ASU stack is what OpenMoko developers are currently working on; there are promises of a more user-friendly experience. The FSO stack, also currently in development, aims to resolve the issues brought up by having different software stacks for the same phone. Since none of the stacks are considered “fully functional”, OpenMoko may have a difficult time attracting a mainstream audience. Hackers may be hampered by the lack of available documentation, although there are
resources
for
OpenMoko
enthusiasts
, if you just search hard enough. The final conclusion? While OpenMoko may be difficult to use, it compares favorably to competitors such as Google’s Android platform, which is less flexible.
permalink | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "38687",
"author": "miknix",
"timestamp": "2008-07-10T23:56:07",
"content": "“Since none of the stacks are considered “fully functional”, OpenMoko may have a difficult time attracting a mainstream audience.”Looking at other alternatives, Windows Mobile for instance, I can say that Op... | 1,760,377,792.029785 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/10/iphone-20-firmware-jailbroken-3g-taken-apart/ | IPhone: 2.0 Firmware Jailbroken, 3G Taken Apart | Juan Aguilar | [
"Cellphone Hacks",
"iphone hacks"
] | [
"3g",
"apple",
"firmware",
"ifixit",
"iphone",
"Iphone2.0",
"iphone3g",
"iphonedevteam",
"jailbreak",
"teardown"
] | Oh, iPhone Dev Team, you are a hoot. It isn’t that you managed to
jailbreak the iPhone 2.0 firmware
on the day of its release, although we can’t help but smirk at that. It isn’t even that you revealed your handiwork in a playful way. We simply love that you expertly work us into a frenzy for the new jailbreak installer with few casual images and some aloof words. Now give us the installer before we get too antsy, please.
Not to be outshined, though, iFixit has posted a
full iPhone 3G teardown
, stripping away the sleek casing to feast on the goodness inside. They found some interesting changes from the last model: the glass screen, for example, is no longer glued to the LCD, which will no doubt make repairs less expensive. The battery is also unsoldered, meaning you won’t have to send the phone in for repair if the only battery needs maintenance.
permalink | 6 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "38681",
"author": "DarkFader",
"timestamp": "2008-07-10T22:52:07",
"content": "Luckily, people are wanting the iPhone so badly already, that this jailbreak doesn’t really increase the number of buyers. But thanks for letting us know though.I hope jailbroken iPhones work nicely with ... | 1,760,377,792.15041 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/10/magnetic-movie/ | Magnetic Movie | Juan Aguilar | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"auroraborealis",
"magneticfieldlines",
"magneticfields",
"magnetism",
"movie",
"nasa",
"semiconductor",
"video"
] | Magnetic field lines may be invisible to the naked eye, but they behave in ways that would amaze us if only we could see them. [Ruth Jarman] and [Joe Gerhardt] from Semiconductor wanted to make them visible for everyone, so they produced
Magnetic Movie
, a film that combines animations, theoretical models, and actual VLF recordings of the entire Earth’s magetic forces to create a film that shows magnetic fields moving and jumping through the air in living color.
The film is part art project and part scientific experiment, but we can enjoy it on both levels, as watching the path and motion of magnetic field lines is both beautiful and informative. Get a glimpse for yourself after the break.
permalink | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "38678",
"author": "pascal",
"timestamp": "2008-07-10T21:59:19",
"content": "oh you should really add a “ultra-high-latency blogging” category, this has been on infostetics months ago :)but not bad, it’s beautiful enough…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}... | 1,760,377,791.948466 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/10/optical-dj-controller/ | Optical DJ Controller | Will O'Brien | [
"classic hacks",
"digital audio hacks"
] | [
"dance",
"dj",
"music"
] | [Adrian] sent in
this
sweet little optical DJ controller. The ‘turntable’ was made from a CD and an encoder wheel created with a laser printed transparent overhead sheet. You can score some optical gear from a spare mouse, or just buy the parts. A PIC18F452 encodes everything into a midi signal. You can find a good photo of the schematics
here
. And you can hit the demo video after the break.
permalink | 5 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "38673",
"author": "gardeski",
"timestamp": "2008-07-10T16:37:38",
"content": "wow, slick concept and good skratching, i’m impressed, how-to please",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "38674",
"author": "36chambers",
"timestam... | 1,760,377,792.113211 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/10/new-sparkfun-designs/ | New Sparkfun Designs | Juan Aguilar | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"LED Hacks",
"News"
] | [
"arduino",
"atmega",
"charger",
"ic",
"led",
"pcb",
"sparkfun"
] | Sparkfun has recently released a
bevy of new boards and other devices
, with some very intriguing new builds among them.
The first board that caught our attention is the
Wee
. It is a compact Arduino compatible controller that features a small size, low voltage, and many other minimalist attributes. It is built around an ATMega 168V and uses all SMD parts.
For even tinier fun, check out the
LilyPad LED
. It is a LED designed to be incorporated into clothing, featuring large holes for threading, a thin and extremely small PCB and a very bright 250mcd light. It is also washable, meaning that one or many can permanently be incorporated into clothing without fear of losing them. You can see these in the
turn signal jacket
we covered earlier.
The last one we’ll discuss is the
LiPoly Charger
, a USB lithium ion battery charger. Based on the Max 1555 IC, the LiPoly can use USB bus power or a 2.1mm center positive wallwart power(it uses the more high-powered wall-wart if both are connected). It can’t charge NiMH batteries, but it is still compact, efficient, and very useful.
permalink | 6 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "38667",
"author": "Norm",
"timestamp": "2008-07-10T12:34:15",
"content": "really loved the lilypad led.. there are so many ways to play with it.. intertwining your sewing with thin metal wires and arranging the lilypads on the wires would allow powering from a centralized source.. i... | 1,760,377,791.994896 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/09/laser-exposing-pcb-resist/ | Laser Exposing PCB Resist | Will O'Brien | [
"classic hacks",
"Laser Hacks"
] | [
"electronics",
"etching",
"laser",
"pcb"
] | [andre] sent in his first attempt at using a
HD-DVD laser diode to expose photosensitive resist
to create PC boards. We’ve been meaning to give this a shot with the ol’ Epilog laser cutter. For the test, he coated the board with some resist and hand exposed it with the laser. Finally, he etched it with some sodium hydroxide.
permalink | 10 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "38612",
"author": "lwr20",
"timestamp": "2008-07-09T15:07:20",
"content": "I suspect he *developed* the board with Sodium Hydroxide and then etched it with something else… But I can’t check ATM because the link is broken :(",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []... | 1,760,377,792.335583 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/08/touchkit-ir-multitouch-screen/ | Touchkit – IR Multitouch Screen | Will O'Brien | [
"home entertainment hacks",
"Misc Hacks",
"Multitouch Hacks"
] | [
"ir",
"kit",
"ladyada",
"multitouch",
"nord",
"preorder",
"projector",
"surface",
"touchkit"
] | If you’ve got an extra grand laying around, you can pre-order one of [nortd]’s
touchkits
. It features a unique custom made acrylic screen with a crap ton of IR LEDs embedded in it. An included IR camera provides the input and a projector (you get to supply your own) is used to light the surface. We mentioned this in our
multitouch roundup
and you can find a video of it embedded after the break.
[via
ladyada
]
permalink | 11 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "38601",
"author": "Leif902",
"timestamp": "2008-07-09T06:40:10",
"content": "Or, for 40 bucks you could imitate Johnny Lee and build one out of a Wii Remote. Take your pick.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "38602",
"author": ... | 1,760,377,792.243042 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/08/microwaving-rfid-cards/ | Microwaving RFID Cards | Eliot | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"contactless",
"creditcard",
"mastercard",
"microwave",
"paymentcar",
"paypass",
"rfid"
] | Buzzsurf
microwaved an RFID card
so you don’t have to. Pointless, but real, unlike those
piles of $20s
.
[via
Synaptic Seepage
]
permalink | 9 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "38592",
"author": "HeBD",
"timestamp": "2008-07-09T04:39:49",
"content": "well maybe only some $20 have rfid inside to help the cops track crims???",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "38593",
"author": "J. Carnelian",
"times... | 1,760,377,792.29106 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/08/nokia-haptikos-patent-application-reveals-its-technology/ | Nokia Haptikos Patent Application Reveals Its Technology | Juan Aguilar | [
"News"
] | [
"haptic",
"hapticfeedback",
"haptics",
"haptikos",
"nokia",
"patentapplication",
"patents",
"touchscreen"
] | We’ve been waiting for more information on the Nokia Haptikos, the haptic feedback touchscreen announced last October and largely forgotten until now. We knew that it would be a device that could raise sections
of its touchscreen to simulate the feel of buttons or keys, we just weren’t sure how Nokia would pull that off.
Now we have a better idea, as
Nokia’s recent patent filing for the Haptikos
gives away some juicy details.
The secret behind the device’s feedback is a “plurality of closely spaced voltage controllable protuberances,” or in other words, several small fluid filled compartments just under the screen’s surface. Under them are several piezoelectric members that can be controlled independently; when they extend upward, they apply pressure to the fluid compartments, raising the surface of the screen in that area.
Nokia has yet to work out all the kinks, but you can see the parts that do work by downloading the
Haptikos patent application
(PDF file).
[via
Engadget
]
permalink | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "38589",
"author": "alex mccown",
"timestamp": "2008-07-09T04:18:17",
"content": "i have the voyager (touch screen phone with keypad) and i have gota say IT SUCKS i have also had the iphone IMPOSABLE TO TEXT i would be really interested in geting this phone if it allows software to b... | 1,760,377,792.461341 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/08/guide-to-creating-small-planets/ | Guide To Creating Small Planets | Juan Aguilar | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"imageediting",
"panoramic",
"panoramicphotography",
"photography",
"photoshop",
"planets",
"rasterbation",
"rasterbator",
"smallplanets"
] | We at Hackaday often dream of having our own personal planets where we wouldn’t have to deal with other people, but our spaceships aren’t quite ready. While we figure that out, you can do the next best thing: render small planets using Photoshop or GIMP with a few other graphics apps and this
guide to making small planets
like the one pictured above.
The first step is in the photography itself. You’ll want an equirectangular panoramic image that includes more natural terrain like grass or dirt than man made terrain like streets or sidewalks, as this is easier to work with. Take approximately six photos from a tripod-mounted camera, turning the camera about 30 degrees after each photo. This should give you a full 360 degree panoramic landscape stitched from the individual photos.
Next you’ll want to do the actual stitching: this can be done very carefully in Photoshop, but a light
imaging app called PTGui
makes the job go much more quickly. Resize the image so that it is squared (uncheck “Constrain proprotions”), then rotate it so the sky is on the bottom (flip vertical works too, but the image will be a reflection). Then go into the filters and select the Polar Coordinates filter, from which you will choose the “Rectangular to polar” option. That’s all there is to it.
See the guide for another way to create small planets; it doesn’t make real ones either, at least you can add to this
Flickr pool featuring small planets
.
[photo:
Blyzz
]
[via
Willo
]
permalink | 9 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "38580",
"author": "alex mccown",
"timestamp": "2008-07-09T04:23:56",
"content": "lol nice one … reminds me of some book i red in 9th grade … forgot the name",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "38581",
"author": "Wolf",
"time... | 1,760,377,792.804936 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/07/08/lively-googles-stab-at-second-life/ | Lively, Google’s Stab At Second Life | Juan Aguilar | [
"News"
] | [
"avatar",
"avatars",
"google",
"lively",
"mud",
"muds",
"second life",
"SecondLife"
] | Google has just released their own avatar based social arena a la Second Life, which is called
Lively
. It will require a client download and install like the popular MUD, but after that it can be accessed via IE and Firefox.
Lively
allows user to create their own online spaces that can include natural or human-built settings and customize their avatars (which are relatively cartoonish in comparison to SL avatars). Google’s engineering manager for Lively [Niniane Wang] explains that they wanted to
create a more socially rich environment
than was possible with emotes and other chatroom features.
Lively’s core functions are not particularly novel, but it does innovate with various web integration features. Videos and images from the internet are viewable from within Lively, and users can embed their own personal Lively areas into their blogs or websites (hello
VRML
).
Lively is not nearly as expansive as Second Life yet, with no form of currency included and only stock items, clothes, avatars, and geometry to choose from. What’s more, it is only available for Windows XP and Vista, with no other OS support announced. We can see this getting better in the future, but those of you
who’s lives are so great that you need a second one
(or a third) will probably want to jump on this now.
permalink | 10 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "38571",
"author": "tjhow",
"timestamp": "2008-07-09T03:06:23",
"content": "wtf? stop posting bs",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "38572",
"author": "alex mccown",
"timestamp": "2008-07-09T03:55:48",
"content": "@ tjhow... | 1,760,377,792.759019 |
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