You may have already seen this on other hardware hack sites, or on Screensavers, but in case you haven’t, this is an extremely easy and quick-to-make parabolic reflector that can be used to direct the signal on your wireless (WiFi) antenna and to boost its gain (betweenb 10 and 12db). Definitely worth trying before investing in a larger commercial antenna. You can make the reflectors and mounts out of scrounged material, such as cardboard and wire mesh, or even cut-open Pringles cans.
Koss Canal-Type Headphones Hack
Nice DIY piece at Headwize on modding the US$20 Koss “The Plug” headphones so that they provide better audio clarity, improved acoustic isolation, and sound less tinny than the unmodified ‘phones (or the original modded version that appeared on the same site).
[Thanks, Craniac!]
DIY Retro-Computing
Tom Owad, of Applefritter fame, has just released a book with a very unique concept: hands-on teaching of modern digital computer concepts through the re-construction of a computer antique: The Apple I. The book is called Apple I Replica Creation: Back to the Garage and is published by Syngress Press, the same folks who publish the awesome Joe Grand hardware hacking books: Hardware Hacking: Have Fun While Voiding Your Warranty and Game Console Hacking. A PDF version of Chapter 3 of the Apple I book is available here. We haven’t seen the actual book yet, but we’ll try to get ahold of one and do a proper review.
Podcasting Public Radio
I’m assuming that most of you have heard about podcasting at this point. Basically, it’s XML feeds of downloadable audio that are scanned by an RSS aggregator of sorts which knows to only download the new stuff. I’m using iPodder to grab some news and such.
So while digging around I came across this excellent collection of public radio podcasts.
Apple-Based Car Computer Website
From the site: Realtime Satellite GPS driving directions/maps, WiFi Wireless Wardriving and Websurfing, MP3 music & CDs, Radar detection (beta), Rear view USB camera (with infrared)
Roll your own GPS cable (and other hacks)
I don’t know why I keep coming across these great, ugly hardware hacks that require giant globs of glue, but they’re giving me a major buzz. This guy shows how to make your own Garmin GPS serial cable using a piece of old credit card and a serial cable. Amazing.
Padme’s a man, baby!
Someone has cobbled together an overview of the new Star Wars, built from scraped screen shots (where did those come from?) and analysis of fan discussion. This guy would make a great qualitative researcher. I’m sure that Lucas’ Sith lawyers are headed towards this guy’s house even as we speak.
[Massive spoilers]
Hardware Hacks
Peter Torrone, who writes for all the Kool Kids, has some great articles agreggated at Flash Enabled, including links to his Engadget piece on kludging your old digital camera so it will auto-snap pictures every second until the card is full. Hint: good for kite photography.
It warms my heart to see these youngsters carry on the Streettech tradition. How long has this site been in place now? Six years? That’s about three centuries in Internet time (not to be confused with Swatch time).
Starquake Rips Milky Way A New One
Notice anything out of the ordinary in the Milky Way this past December 27? Astronomers did. A neutron star 50,000 light years away had a little event, an explosion so intense, it unleased 10,000 trillion trillion trillion watts of energy. That’s more oh-la-la in a 10th of a second than our sun grunts out in 100,000 years! Incredible. And just to give you an idea of how perilous our universe can be: if this star had been “only” ten light years closer to our solar system, it could have been lights out for much of life on Earth. Makes you wonder if any higher lifeforms were caught in the path of this thing. The good news (so you Nihilists can put down your Glocks) is that, there are none of these unusual types of stars (called “super-magnetic neutrons” or “magnetars”) in our cosmic neighborhood. Read more at BBC News.
Virtual Realm, Real Pizza: Evil, Brilliant
According to a piece on CNet, Pizza Hut has partnered with Sony Online to offer real-world pies to players of EverCrack… er… EverQuest II. Type in /pizza while playing the freakishly addictive fantasy RPG and a Pizza Hut order window will pop up. Of course, you’ll still have to extricate your tremendous ass out of your groaning task chair to answer the front door, and sadly, you’ll have to pay with real-world money not in-game platinum pieces. As much as the thought of this horrifies us, we have to admit, it’s brilliant marketing and probably the shape (a very large, Michelin-man shape) of things to come.