Pelican Case Xbox 360

December 24, 2008 by Eliot 26 Comments

pelicanxbox

[Ben Heck] has put the final touches on his Pelican case Xbox 360. This prototype was constructed for use by troops stationed overseas. When he announced the project in October, he already knew some of the hurdles he would face. An industrial Velcro style product is used for all component mounting so the air/water-tight seal of the case remains intact. He sanded the surface so that it would stick better. [Ben] mentions that he ended up using less Velcro than he planned on because it held so well. Not being able to cut the case meant the DVD drive had to be converted to top-loading. The tray movement limit switches have been relocated so they now respond to lid position. He regrets not being able to motorize the lid, but let it go since this is still just the first attempt. Extra copper was added to all of the heat sinks to improve cooling. This Xbox is for sale and he’d love to hear from anyone that wants to put it into production. The write-up has a ton of pictures and you can see a video of it below.

Continue reading “Pelican Case Xbox 360” →

Internal Wireless Mouse On A Dell Mini 9

October 16, 2008 by Caleb Kraft 5 Comments

[strider_mt2k] sent in this new Dell Mini 9 hack. After seeing the recent GPS in a Dell Mini9 project, he decided to jump in and do some hacking of his own. His idea was to integrate his Logitech wireless mouse receiver internally. He basically added an internal usb port, allowing for future replacements if the mouse should it get broken or upgraded. The final result is completely hidden. There was plenty of space in the case, so there’s no bulge at all.

Reliable Instructions For OSX On The EeePC

September 23, 2008 by Anthony 21 Comments

We have run many EeePC hacks before. Like most people, what we really want is a Mac netbook. The folks over at Wired have written up some nice instructions to help you run OSX on your EeePC. The process is a little involved, so don’t expect to just pop in a disk and be home free. There are a few setbacks though. No flash support, hardware F-keys don’t work (volume, brightness, etc), and ethernet doesn’t work. WiFi works but only with a third party driver/app.

[via Gizmodo]

Xbox 360 Laptop In Progress

September 21, 2008 by Eliot 7 Comments

[Ben Heck] posted and update on a project he’s doing for THQ. This latest Xbox 360 laptop is being built as a contest prize. It’s based on a 60GB Xbox 360 and is slightly larger than the previous laptops. It can accommodate a standard 360 hard drive without modification. An Xbox Live camera is included as well.

We hadn’t realized how many Xbox 360 laptops [Ben] had built. There’s the original. The one he built as a how-to for Engadget. Then, the one based on an Elite and now this.

Pong Clock

September 14, 2008 by Eliot 5 Comments

[funnypolynomial] saw this Pong clock years ago and had been planning on building his own version. With a move looming he decided it was finally time to finish up his Pong clock since completed projects take far less room than incomplete ones. The core of the system is a ThinkPad. He separated the hinge and bolted the keyboard to the back of the screen. The display ribbon was long enough, but he had to extend the wires for the backlight. The power button was also extended and the battery removed. The software is a Windows screen saver that uses the two mouse buttons for navigation similar to how you set a two button watch. Every minute the the left player misses the ball and the right player’s score increases. You can see a video of the clock below. In the past, he also turned a digital multimeter into a clock. Continue reading “Pong Clock” →

Homeland Security Issues Policy On Laptop Seizures

August 7, 2008 by Nick Caiello 40 Comments

The US Department of Homeland Security recently disclosed a new policy that allows agents to seize laptops, or anything capable of storing information, “for a reasonable period of time”. Okay, so this seems normal; A government agency is declaring they may confiscate personal property. However, the strange part of this story is that under this policy, federal agents can confiscate these things without any suspicion of wrong doing or any reason what so ever. So what happens to your personal data after they seize your laptop? Apparently they share the data with federal agencies, and in some cases the private sector, as additional services such as file decryption or translation are needed. While this may seem like a major violation of privacy, it is important to note that this policy only applies to people entering the United States. However given the direction that our federal government is moving in the area of security, it wouldn’t surprise me if this policy will soon apply for domestic flights as well.

[photo: postmodern sleaze]

[via eff.org]

MSI Wind Extended Battery

August 1, 2008 by Benjamin Eckel 13 Comments

[The Tech Guy] shows us how he added cells to an MSI Wind’s battery. This hack is extremely simple but it may be difficult to get the battery back into your laptop. Also, we’re not too sure how stable it is, and you can definitely forget about taking this thing through an airport. It would be really nice to start seeing people fabricate custom enclosures. Until then, this hack is best reserved for people completely desperate for extended battery life.