computer hacks
sure, you can go out and get a media center pc already configured and good to go–but what’s the fun in that? also, there’s a ton of other components, cases and set ups you might want to cook up, so here’s an excellent guide on making your own media center pc.
integrating the service pack (the process is called slipstreaming) should be the way windows ships, but for now you can make your own…man, i could have used this 10 times already after i’ve needed to rebuild some of the test computers around here–install windows xp, service pack 2, with 1 cd. super handy, and worth the effort.
Continue reading “Installing Windows Xp, Service Pack 2, With 1 Cd”
a few of ya’ll sent this in, and it’s handy enough that it deserves a post!
portable firefox is a fully functional package of firefox optimized for use on a usb key drive. it has some specially-selected optimizations to make it perform faster and extend the life of your usb key as well as a specialized launcher that will allow most of your favorite extensions to work as you switch computers.
Continue reading “Portable Firefox, Browser On A Usb Device”
using rechargeable batteries, a 1u cpu-fan, a 118w peltier cooler, a cold-plate and some pretty hacked up pc parts, you too can make a beer cooler and keep that brew in the sun. not that you’d really go outside that much if your hobby was hacking up pcs to make coolers, i haven’t been outside in weeks.
looking at my kitchen today i saw there were some appliances that i don’t use, but i could just mod them to have a pc in them and not have to worry about people thinking it’s weird to have a server next to the coffee machine any more. this mod uses a toaster oven as the pc. i think my little xandros box wants to a blender and ftp server.
some pvrs like tivo let you record up to 2 different shows at the same time, which is okay, but if you’re not satisfied with that and don’t want to pay $4,000 to Sony for their version of more–for around $1,200 you can record up to 6 shows at the same time with this how-to from the folks at snapstream. sure, they’re pretty much just showing off what they can do with their own stuff, but it’s a pretty amazing–the worst part is the realization that there aren’t 6 things worth recording at the same time.
using just a cd case, you can make a clear hard drive, well, actually it’s a window to see in to a hard drive. the cool thing about this is–if you have a case mod that lets you see in to the pc, you can do this hack up, light it up and get a cool view of the hard drive heads writing.
