this site shows you how to jack in to the gps receiver inside any gm onstar system.  it’s as simple as soldering a up a serial cable.  you can then connect to it and either run some gps diagnostic software, or switch the device to nmea mode so that you can use it with your gps mapping software in your car pc.

if you’ve got an onstar system but aren’t paying for the service this might be just the hack for you.  thanks for the link leo!

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i recieved an email from owen the other day:

fellow hackologists may be interested in a year and half long project of mine to build a computer controlled sheet metal cutting system. It uses a 100 watt CO2 industrial laser.

there are some videos on his site showing the co2 laser milling machine in action. it’s absolutely fantastic. just the control system itself is pretty intense. if you are interested in doing something like this, you should also check out his blog that chronicled the whole contruction.

i’m pretty sure i need one of these.

update: apparently i can’t spell (thanks pedant). i was thinking it was z for zippy.

the new psp game wipeout pure apparantly comes with a full featured web browser that is used to download updates.  normally it’s restricted for that purpose alone, but roto sent me a line this morning saying that it could be hacked to function as a general web browser with a little dns trickery.

just point the psp to a nameserver that you can control, make a dns entry for ingame.scea.com to go to your own webserver, and stick a /wipeout/index.html there.  when you hit download in wipeout, it will load up your custom page!

i’m told the browser supports javascript, so it wouldn’t be too hard to code up a quick address bar along with links to google, and (of course) your favorite site.

(thanks yuppicide for the link to the working mirror.  the author’s url is here but it’s currently down.)

update: just received some more detailed info from roto.  continue reading for more information.

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you’ll have to pardon me while i wax anthropomorhpic for a moment.  why is it that robots, designed or imagined, always exist solely to fulfill a purpose or pleasure for human beings?  don’t they have feelings too?  maybe it’s about time we made some robots whose sole purpose is to hook up with other robots, get a little freaky, and make some robot progeny.

in this article we’ll be exploring robot love.  i made a couple of simple lego mindstorms robots and programmed them to reproduce — i.e. they can swap code.  effectively, two robots come together, trade their genome, die, and two new robots are born in their place.

turn up the barry white.  get out your mindstorms.  let’s get it on.

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this hack is a prime example of how to make something useful out of something useless.

the $1 teleprompter:

• 1 clear cd case cover

• 6 cd cases

• scotch tape

just set this contraption on top of a laptop screen and the clear cd cover reflects the laptop screen in your direction.  your webcam is positioned just behind the cd cover, so your line of sight is aimed directly at the camera.

several of you sent this in, but kris was the first.  thanks!

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you know summer is coming when hackers start crawling out from winter hibernation, desiring nothing more than to burn things.  not satisfied with a magnifying glass, this project’s author created a 6′ x 4′ parabolic reflector that uses 112 mirrors to direct the sun’s rays at a single point

don’t take off your tinfoil hats quite yet, but just when you thought rfid tags were all about the man wanting to track you, somebody has come up with a more positive application.

dividuum figured that since some rfid tags can store a kilobyte of data, he should be able to gzip a sid audio file and squeeze it onto one of these larger tags.  he then wrote some software for his pc that interfaces with an rfid reader and will play the sid file contained in a nearby tag.  put a stack of cards next to the reader and it will cycle through them like a playlist.

follow the link if you want to download the source or check out a video of it in action.

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jim younkin is at it again.  earlier this month he created a pair of cordless ipod shuffle headphones.  now he’s out with an upgrade: shufflephones 2.0 – new hotness edition.

what i like about the second hack attempt is that he added another audio connector.  this could be used to connect to a stereo or to share music with a nearby friend.  it’s a pretty functional little headphone mod.

for version 3.0 — kickassness edition, i’m hoping to see the shuffle control interface mounted externally to the headphones so that you can switch tunes without taking the phones off.  hack on, jim!

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