Hack-A-Day Extra

December 29, 2005 by 10 Comments

gifts

From the photo above you can see the holidays have been treating me pretty well. [bugloaf] brought a bottle of pisco back from Peru for me. My parents mounted the laser-cut logo that [smouldering-dog] had sent me. They also gave me a copy of The Radioactive Boy Scout: The Frightening True Story of a Whiz Kid and His Homemade Nuclear Reactor. I should have it finished by Shmoocon, so if you see me there and ask for it, I’ll gladly give it up (since I don’t have any swag right now).

Team Hack-A-Day is still cranking away; turning in over 8 million points in 3.5 months. If you’re tired of your family you can always come idle in the #hackaday channel on Efnet.

More links after the jump.

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22C3 Day 00 And 01 Round Up

December 28, 2005 by 6 Comments

kaminsky
Today and yesterday’s 22C3 included tons of fun hacker stuff. Highlights from day 00 and 01 included a slew of topics from politics to hardcore geekery. We toured the CCC‘s annual hackfest to bring you the best of the new hacks.

We commence our tour with Hack-A-Day’s friend Dan “I Like Big Graphs and I Cannot Lie” Kaminsky. Dan presented yummy OpenGL graphics and DNS cache proof of the Sony Rootkit around the world. He also released Xovi, a tool which allows you to do network visualizations in realtime. Realtime: we dig it.

Next on to fun scanning of 3G wireless networks! The team of btk and ahzf presented a rather thorough intro to GPRS/UMTS packet theory (we use the term theory rather concretely here because packet loss and lag are rampant on cellphone based data networks all over the world). Slides for the talk in PDF format are here. They showed how to circumvent packet filtering / port filtering / data type filtering on data networks. This can be extremely useful when trying to run VoIP applications over a cellphone network since they are usually blocked.

Also of note was the talk on IrDA hotel system hacking presented by Major Malfunction. Which we mentioned when we were at Toorcon.

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Chaos Computer Club’s 22C3 Congress

December 28, 2005 by 15 Comments

ccc
Hack-A-Day is here at 22C3: Private Investigations, the Chaos Computer Club‘s annual hacker conference in snow covered Berlin, Germany. The CCC’s annual Congress is the European answer to Las Vegas located DEFCON. This 22nd annual conference has been lengthened from three days to four to be able to accommodate more talks.

We’ll be here all week reporting on the coolest hardware hack topics at the conference from talks to Blinkenlights. If you’re here, drop us a line in the comments!

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Open Source Motor Controller

December 28, 2005 by 7 Comments

 osmc
The OSMC project was started in 1998 to provide a high quality H-bridge speed control to hobbyists and professionals. The original design was intended to be used by people who were building Battle Bots and other competition robots, but the line has expanded since then. The project embraces the open source spirit by making the plans freely available and encouraging modification. This is the same controller that Trevor Blackwell used in his Electric Unicycle.

[thanks monster]

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Magellan EXplorist Upgrade

December 27, 2005 by 9 Comments

magellan

This Russian site has all the details needed to upload new maps to a Magellan eXplorist 300, 200, or 100. Inside the battery case are four pads that can be used for serial communication. You will have to use a MAX232 to shift the voltage levels. Since this occupies the battery space you’ll need to provide power as well. This can be tapped from a USB port. Once the cable is built you can download waypoints using OziExplorer.

[thanks Chris, Cary for corretion]

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Printed Circuit Board Etching

December 26, 2005 by 53 Comments

pcb

This isn’t meant to be the definitive PCB etching post. I don’t have any experience etching boards and was hoping readers could contribute their best/favorite methods for etching boards in the comments.

We’re linking to Tom Gootee’s page on toner transfer etching. The first step is to print the design on glossy paper using a laser printer. An iron is then used to transfer the toner to a prepped copper board. The board is then soaked in etchant to remove the exposed copper. The printer toner is mostly plastic and resists the etchant. Once the board  is etched, Acetone is used to remove the toner. Tom has been keeping his site up to date and as his research progresses.

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Tempest For Eliza

December 25, 2005 by 27 Comments

tempest

“Tempest for Eliza” is a program written by Erik Thiele to demonstrate the RF transmission properties of CRT monitors. The program is capable of transmitting sound over AM frequencies just by the unique way it drives the monitor. The electromagnetic emissions of CRTs can be a security problem as demonstrated by Van Eck phreaking, watching someone’s screen just by collecting RF transmissions. In the late ’90s Ross Anderson developed software to help reduce the RF transmissions of monitors. These specialized fonts combined with shielding can greatly reduce the risk of attack and is something the NSA has been researching for many years.

[thanks gsham]

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