Misc Hacks

4177 Articles

GardenMon(itoring Project)

July 23, 2007 by 16 Comments


[Ken_S] sent in his GardenMon (coral cache) project. It’s a set of light, humidity, moisture and temperature probes that monitor the surface and below ground conditions in his garden. He’s using several picaxe micro controllers to take readings with a variety of off the shelf and commercial sensors. Once he started collecting the data, he added a programmable servo controlled watering valve with a configuration that he tweaks accordingly.
The site is on geocities, so use the cache.

I had a few requests, and this fits, so I added a home hacks category.

ToorCon 8 Videos

July 21, 2007 by 6 Comments


We’ve been waiting with bated breath for our favorite hacker con, ToorCon, to post this year’s site. In the mean time, they’ve posted all of last years videos to Google Video. We had published a few of our own, but now you get to see the whole conference. After the break I’ve embedded one of my favorite talks from last year: Matt Fisher’s Everything About SQL Injection. It covers everything from the basics to some very clever attacks.

Continue reading “ToorCon 8 Videos” →

Automatic French Press Coffee Brewer

July 18, 2007 by 15 Comments

[Christoph] sent in [fingers] rather interesting coffee hacking project. (Use the fish to translate it to English.) Using various scrounged parts, he’s constructed his own automated french press brewer. A good french press is a bit of an art, so I can understand the desire to automate one. The grind itself isn’t too critical, but brewing time can vary with the roast and grind of the bean. Personally, I’ve found that decent brew temperature is the real key to a good press. [Fingers] machine provides a way to do everything consistently, but the custom aluminum brew chamber might be effecting the brew temperature.

Hack Some Bling Extra

July 16, 2007 by 8 Comments


I’ve been getting some good looking mods on the tips line, so I thought it was time for a bit of bling on Hack-A-Day.

[f00-F00] sent in his ever so lightly modded iPod. It’s a bit similar to his force feedback PSP mod, but in this case, the leds lighting up the clear case are music sensitive.

The not too shabby looking [flooky] sent in her latest use for the SEGA Dreamcast, a guitar. (Hopefully soon to have three more strings.)

[crait] decided to steal 5v to power a Dreamcast VMU from his PS/2 port.

Oh, and if you dig our logo, you might be amused by skulladay.

I’ve got my travel plans for Defcon 15 set up. [Eliot] will certainly be skulking around vegas, so we’ll see you there.

Virtualcogs Open Portable Gaming Platform

July 12, 2007 by 18 Comments


[David] thought you guys might like this – and I agree. It’s an open gaming platform built around a PSP LCD. It’s got all the basics, and it’s expandable. They’d like to put together an order for a run of boards, so let em know if you want one. If you’re lazy, here’s the specs:

  • MX21 ARM9 266MHz processor with 64MB SDRAM and 16 MB of FLASH
  • TFT LCD from the PSP (our thanks to Nathan at Sparkfun for helping us out with that)
  • stereo audio CODEC
  • stereo speakers
  • headphone jack
  • microphone
  • couple of joysticks
  • loads of buttons
  • battery pack
  • SD/MMC slot
  • expandable (can add GPS, bluetooth, accelerometers and gyros, etc…)

Most of the hardware is pretty decent, but the battery pack could use some help. Maybe a good surplus li-ion cell phone battery.