Hackaday Lazy Afternoons

Lazy Afternoons

hello people. readers. hackers. jason and i have been crunching to get the podcast done so it can be released to you friday. we are telling you right now though it will be the best podcast ever. period. we have interviews via skype, we have hacking news, we have discussions, we have you guys calling into our number 206-888-HACK and leaving voicemails. keep doing it. we read the dumb e-mails you guys have sent us. it’s a great show and about an hour long so far. yeah thats right, an hour long.

it is most certainly a rainy afternoon though. im lazy. you’re lazy. we’re all going to sit around playing halo 2 with the exploits arent we? right. hence why i’ve brought you links to distract you away from your xbox for 5 seconds.

PWOT showcases the gamer’s manifesto (mild language like you care)
get a little usb action in your car [weirdguy0101]
make a frosted-glass pc case! very cool looking.
bring back your power wheels from the dead by making a new battery [ScottyB]

GPS AND TRON. NEED I SAY MORE? [toto]
really dirty (read: dangerous) marx generator [carpespasm]

so you’ve got your pizza, you’ve got your links for toppings, now what? oh that’s right. an easy to do hack! you got it buddy. this one actually comes from one of yesterday’s links.

the $1 laser light show sent in by [ahanda]
since im not shelling out $30 for Quicktime Pro 7, you’ll have to go to the site and check out the insanely awesome video. basically, you’re doing this:

Step 1. Get a laser pointer. the keychain kind you used to piss people off with at the movies.
Step 2. Break a CD that you don’t like (read: kenny g) and get a nice little triangle piece out of it.
Step 3. Bust out the bass. Whether it be your living room or 1988 honda accord with 12″s in the trunk, you’ll need a subwoofer with the speaker exposed.

This image sums up the rest. Watching the movie also helps. Now that’s a damn good laser light show for cheap!
laser diagram

 Enjoy people. Keep an eye out friday for the podcast. I’ll also dig up the proper podcast url for you RSS addicts.

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Shadow’s Dexterous Hand

shadow hand

The Shadow Robot Company is now offering its Dexterous Hand for public sale. The joints are powered by the company’s Air Muscles, usually in pairs to provide a variable grip. The Air Muscle is a rubber tube encased in a “Chinese finger trap” style plastic webbing. When the muscle is inflated with compressed air it contracts. This simple system results in a 400:1 power to weight ratio. The bundle of muscles required to operate the hand makes for a very large Popeye-esque forearm so we probably won’t be seeing anything humanoid based on this anytime soon. They have GPL’d control code available though so anybody that wants to start developing for this will probably have a pretty easy time. You still have to justify paying an “arm and a leg” for a hand. The site has some good movement videos for you to check out. Just don’t mimic the movements; there’s a reason robots can’t feel pain.

[via Future Feeder]

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Hackaday Links

Links

pardon the links being later in the day, but i was up till 5:30am brainstorming with jason over ideas and working on the next podcast (you’ll love it). tomorrow on lazy afternoons i’ll be posting about the next podcast, how you can get involved, etc.

Also, wanna leave us a voicemail? Maybe get it on the air? Got a question or comment?
Call us! 206-888-HACK

Also: Stop sending e-mails saying “not a hack, but this is really funny!” etc. the only thing you’re doing aside from wasting our time is giving us fodder for the podcast. you will be targeted. you will be subject to jokes….don’t say we didn’t warn you. we don’t mind things related to technology or hacking! go ahead and send those in…i just don’t need to know that costco is selling caskets on the cheap

Now onto those fresh links I always seem to have!

parallel port controller goodness [carpespasm]
some of you wanted to know how you can whip up a ddr pad to a pc to use for a controller? simple. just buy this attatchment. my friend has it and it works perfectly in both os x and windows.
the $1 laser light show! wicked! [ahanda]
people at microsoft think we should write down our passwords
netcraft now has a firefox toolbar. netcraft = must for hacking

and last and certainly not the least (this will leave you speechless):
the talking cybernetic sausage
(my hero)

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The Onion Router

onion router

Tor is an overlay network that lets you browse and use other TCP based services anonymously. Normally if you use a secure tunnel an observer can still see the destination and origin ip addresses; They may not be able to tell what the payload is, but they will be able to tell who is talking. Onion routing uses a series of encrypted hops to hide this information. The Tor client creates unique routes through a network of Tor nodes. First the client contacts a node and negotiates an encryption key with it. Once that link has been established the client instructs that node to contact another and get the next key. Once all of these keys have been collected the client can begin encrypting its information. The payload is encrypted by each key in route order. When the first node decrypts the payload it determines where to send it next. The encryption is removed one layer at a time as it travels along the route arriving at its destination fully decrypted.

Tor recently reached 100 verified nodes. If you’ve got some spare bandwidth why don’t you set up a node of your own. You can even use Tor to provide anonymous web services. Of course using Tor will make it more difficult for sites to show you “singles in your area”, so make sure you consider the consequences.

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Hackaday Links

Links

finding someone who copies 100% from your site makes you frustrated sometimes. hopefully that crap will be taken care of by this week. also, yesterday I got an interview done via Skype for the next podcast. should be fun. now let’s not forget these delicious links we have here!

more help with power over ethernet [barbobot]
get yourself pspwned [ash]
very useful for debauchery! DIY portable pa system [syfenx]
mmmm cute. portable photoshop
oh god. control a robot with a cockroach. [wetsmellydog]
make your own RJ-45 tester [joelanders]

hacker hunters…psh, whatever.
particle acceleration lets you read all kinds of stuff

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