Sorry, this is coming in so late. The last 24 hours have been
USB Drive Hacking
[wesley mcgrew] has been playing around with Sandisk’s U3 Smart USB Drives technology. U3 is designed to make implementation of portable applications easier. The USB drive appears as a CDROM drive and can autorun applications. Wesley has a guide for how to patch in your own CD ISO. This ties in pretty well with the dangers of USB drives that we’ve covered before (one, two) and Schneier has a recent post on USB security issues as well.
[UPDATE: [matt] pointed out a recent Security Catalyst podcast with Abe Usher on podslurping]
DTMF Detector For Home Automation
Scienceprog has posted how-to build a DTMF tone detector. DTMF are the standard sounds used in tone dialing. Plugging this circuit into your phone line you can decode the all the tones on the line back into their original number form. This would be useful for issuing commands to a home automation system or any other device that you wanted dial-in access to.
Xbox Rapid Fire Mod
[Xboxplaya978] has posted instructions detailing how to add two rapid fire trigger buttons to your Xbox controllers. He got the original plans from Mattie on Xbox-scene, but his site has since gone down. The circuit is based on an a-stable multi-vibrator used to flash LEDs. Halo players have been drawn to this mod because it makes using the battle rifle or covenant carbine a lot more enjoyable.
Related: Xbox 360 Hacks, Xbox Hacks
PSP Remote Serial Interface
This PSP remote interface article gets submitted from time to time, but keeps falling through the cracks for some reason. [XyTec] submitted it most recently and I finally remembered to post it. It’s a guide from last July on interfacing with the PSP’s remote port. The port is a serial interface at 2.5V so you need to do some level shifting. Once the cable is complete you can use it get a serial console, add GPS or dump debug info along with many other possibilities. A remote emulator program is provided.
Computer Remote Using Xbox Receiver
[Odin84gk] always wanted a remote control for his PC. He didn’t want to spend a lot of money to get a good one or waste money on a cheapy. He decided to go with something he already had: an Xbox DVD kit. He built an adapter cable for the Xbox receiver using instructions on redcl0ud’s site. Using the standard setup the remote driver just spits out key combos, but to make the remote truly flexible he combined it with AutoHotKey. AutoHotKey catches the key sequences and can execute complex scripts based on them.
S1MP3 Memory Upgrade
The S1MP3 is a Chinese MP3 player branded by at least 50 different manufacturers. Some only play music, but others can play MP4. Have a look at the gallery to get an idea of the variety. S1MP3.org has been developed to support users of the players and create opensource firmware. Here’s their guide for upgrading the memory of a player. If you can’t get a donor player, the site says you can get a new 1GB memory chip for $9.
[thanks ex-parrot]
