Month: March 2006

Hack Media: Podcasts

March 9, 2006 by 20 Comments

This is coming in a day later than usual; I got my new dual-core Mac mini on Monday and built a new iTunes Library on my NFS server. I then crashed it twice which turned into literal fscking nightmare. So I finally got it back up last night and started listening to my backlog of podcasts (which has grown enormously now that I can subscribe to them so easily). Highlights from the shows after the jump.

A big Thank you to everyone who has stopped by my Facebook profile to wish me a Happy Birthday today. I’m 25, my NFS server is running rock-solid, so is my new mini, and I got an official job offer in the mail, so today has been treating me really well. Happy birthday to my twin sister Adele, even though the international date line means I already missed it.

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Qtopia On The GP2X

March 8, 2006 by 23 Comments

Qtopia GP2X

Trolltech’s Qtopia is the application platform/user interface of choice of Linux handheld device manufacturers. It doesn’t matter if it’s a phone, PDA, or single application device. Hacker NK has successfully ported the GUI to the GP2X. With USB host mode,he’s been able to surf the web with Opera while using a full keyboard, mouse and WiFi adapter. The Sharp Zaurus PDA uses Qtopia with an ARM processor too and users have reported success pulling applications from the Zaurus software repository and running them on the GP2X. Here are some photos of the action one and two.

UPDATE: Commenters say that the GP2X forums have a Windows trojan. I think you’ll be fine if turn off Java.

[thanks omarnawaz]

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Pentium M Overclocking

March 7, 2006 by 24 Comments

pinmod

Laptops based on the Intel 915 chipset have a 533MHz front side bus and ship with a matching Sonoma processor. Dothan laptops only have a 400MHz FSB. If you pull the BSEL[0] pin on a 400MHz FSB Dothan CPU to low you can trick the 915 into thinking it has a 533MHz FSB CPU. This will gain you 33% more processor speed. Almost every other pin on the CPU is a ground so you just insert a U-shaped piece of wire into the processor socket to connect the two pins. If the system becomes unstable you may have to bump up the processor voltage (which involves another piece of wire). In the article, Dan Zhang is able to take a 1.8GHz Pentium M to 2.4GHz. It’s a pretty simple mod, but you have to go out of your way to do it since Sonoma laptops never shipped with a 400MHz FSB CPU.

[thanks jodathmorr]

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Canon PIXMA CD Printing

March 6, 2006 by 19 Comments

pixma

Canon’s first consumer printer capable of printing directly on CDs was released in 2003. Unfortunately for anyone in the US, this feature wasn’t included. Canon just put a plate over the CD tray slot. A community has sprung up to assist people in activating this feature. You need to remove the cover first. Then you can install the CD tray which you either purchased or constructed following their plans. The final step is to set a registry key so that the CD printing menu appears.

[via Digg]

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Xbox 360 Hard Drive Adapter

March 5, 2006 by 25 Comments

xbox 360 hard drive adapter

The official Xbox 360 hard drive connector combines a SATA connector and a power connector into one plug. Even though it is proprietary, some clever hackers have found a really easy way to interface with it. Since it is slot based you can just etch contact pads onto a circuit board and plug it in. The hard drive inside uses standard connectors, but this adapter will keep you from opening the case, voiding your warranty. It will also be much quicker to use daily. You can use Xplorer360 to get full read/write access to the drive. They’re selling the adapter in kit form for $17 and assembled for $20, but the high res pics show how easy this is if you just want to build it yourself.

[via xbox-scene]

Related: Xbox 360 Hacks, Xbox Hacks

Controlling A Cheap Color LCD

March 4, 2006 by 9 Comments

spark fun lcd

Spark Fun Electronics has made a name for themselves recently by selling interesting parts like this $20 color LCD. Hack-A-Day reader [Refik Hadzialic] decided to buy one and see how easy it was to use. It is a 128×128 display and should be a clone of the one you would fine in a Nokia 6100. He wired it up to an ATMega32L-PI8 microcontroller. He grabbed source code from a couple different places and eventually got something to work. In the end, the actual control commands seem pretty simple. Refik has been posting a lot of quick projects and info on his site, e-dsp. Have a look.

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LEGO Announces NXT Beta Testers… Officially

March 4, 2006 by 15 Comments

Yesterday LEGO announced that they had picked their 100 beta testers. They represent a broad cross section of blah, blah, blah. I’m not sure if I should be annoyed that I didn’t get picked or feel sorry for our buddy Jason Striegel who seems to be the only person that was officially denied. Oh well, time to go spend this extra $150 on Mega Bloks.

[via the excellent Nextbrick]

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