tech.nocr.at » avi

Duke Nukem Forever And Ever

Frank — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 05:13:03 +0000

Duke Nukem Forever is probably the best known game that has never been released, as a matter-of-fact, some don’t even think it was ever written.

Duke Nukem Forever was supposed to be a highly anticipated sequel to the 2D classic Duke Nukem, but most people have spent half of their life waiting for the release. Now we finally have a firm release date; May 6th 2010.

How well will a 2D 90′s first person shooter character hold up against the massive games of today? I don’t really know, but having built up 12 years of hype around the release, it’s definitely some big shoes to fill.

Here’s to sneaking a floppy into your workplace to play Duke Nukem on a 386. Now just sit back and wait for the release of Duke Nukem Forever 2

/me ducks

Duke Nukem Forever And Ever originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/22. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Official Kinect SDK Coming Soon

Frank — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 06:02:03 +0000

Balmer let the world know during CES that Microsoft would be releasing an SDK for their popular Xbox 360 add-on the Kinect. Sources say that Microsoft may be preparing the release of the SDK sooner than they anticipated, in just a few months. “Sources familiar with the plans” told WinRumors that an official SDK and drivers are being prepped for a beta release “in the coming months,” potentially arriving with an upcoming XNA update dubbed the “Community Technical Preview.”

Ever since the release of the Kinect, hackers have been having a field day with it. Unofficial USB drivers for the Windows environment have already been developed and there are countless hacks out there from X-Ray vision to controlling World of Warcraft.

Now that Microsoft has acknowledged the popularity of the product and will be officially releasing the SDK maybe we might see another revolution in PC gaming, one that could rival the early 90′s.

Official Kinect SDK Coming Soon originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/19. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

U-Socket’s Now Shipping

Frank — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 04:07:12 +0000

For those of you who have been waiting patiently for their U-Socket’s to ship rejoice, they are on their way. FastMac’s U-Socet is a wall socket that offers your standard dual 110V outlets alongside dual USB ports to charge your multitude of gadgets.

For under $20 you can equip each outlet in your house with these valuable USB outlets. Imagine not having to cary around multiple USB bricks to charge your iPhone or Droid, simply plug the USB cable into any outlet and you are good to go.

The retail site says that delivery time is about three to four weeks. The sooner they can crack the big box home improvement store’s like Home Depot the sooner everyone will have USB jacks-a-plenty to charge gadgets.

[Link to U-Socket]

U-Socket’s Now Shipping originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/17. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Oxygen Audio’s iPhone Car Deck

Frank — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 05:57:36 +0000

If your car doesn’t come with some sort of built in iPhone control then you know your limited to bluetooth or cable hook-up to enjoy the tunes on your phone. If you want to eliminate the need for all those wires then the O Car stereo deck from Oxygen Audio might be something to consider.

The unit turns your iPhone itself into your car stereo by allowing users to control of the stereo functions right from their iPhone; Internet radio stations, GPS navigation, Google maps and pretty much anything your iPhone can play or do. Your iPhone docks right into the head unit and melds right into your car’s dashboard.

For US$349, the O Car has pre-amp outs, 4×55 watts of power, FM/AM presets and supports the iPhone 3G/3GS/4. The price seems a little steep, but if you want to enjoy streaming apps like Pandora and don’t want all of the clutter on your front seat it’s one of you’re only choices.

Oxygen Audio’s iPhone Car Deck originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/11. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Apple Removes VLC From App Store

Frank — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 21:24:25 +0000

Apple has removed the video player VLC from it’s App Store, so if you don’t already have it installed on your iPad or iPhone you’re out of luck.

Before you decided to send hate mail to Steve Jobs, you should know that Apple didn’t want to remove it. Rather, it’s a result of a single man’s crusade who coincidentally works for Apple’s competitor, Nokia.

Rémi Denis-Courmont (who is a lead contributor to the VLC project) launched a one man campaigned based on Apple adding DRM to their applications and thus violating the GPL’ed code VLC is released under. It’s important to know that Rémi acted alone and that VideoLAN, the group that’s responsible for the desktop version of VLC, had nothing to do with having Applidium’s VLC port for iOS removed. As as lead developer, Rémi was within the legal right to pursue the removal himself.

Denis-Courmont’s response to the removal of VLC from the App Store comes across quite snarky.

“At last, Apple has removed VLC media player from its application store. Thus the incompatibility between the GNU General Public License and the AppStore terms of use is resolved – the hard way. This end should not have come to a surprise to anyone, given the precedents.”

Thanks a lot for sticking to your principles, it sure out-weighs all the people who could have enjoyed the FREE app on their iPhone or iPad. Well done

Apple Removes VLC From App Store originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/08. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Video Camera Hot Wheels Car

Frank — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 06:41:03 +0000

I’ve tried really hard to stay away from all the CES stuff that has been flying around the inter-webs but this story about Mattel cramming a camera into one of their 1:64 scale Hot Wheels car was too good to pass up.

The idea is for people to get a first person view of what it would be like if you could ride inside a Hot Wheels car. Each car comes with enough memory to capture 12 minutes of VGA video that can be downloaded to your computer via USB or viewed on the tiny screen located on the underside of each car. With such limited memory using this as a spy camera is out of the question, unless something happens really quickly.

They should be available this fall for about $60. I’m sure the novelty of using it to record video will wear off quickly, leaving you with a very expensive small metal car.

[Link via Oh Gizmo!]

Video Camera Hot Wheels Car originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/08. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Open Source HTPC’s That Don’t Suck

Frank — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 21:30:11 +0000

In our next installment of Distros That Don’t Suck we will be looking at open source HTPC software. Sure you can load up VLC or even use Windows Media player, but having a dedicated solution with a UI that is made for a TV is a lot easier and pleasing. I’ve left the PVR-centric software like MythTV and Freevo off the list since their main purpose is to act as a PVR. I’ll be reviewing open source PVR software by itself at a later date.

XBMC – The Xbox Media Center Project started as homebrew software for the original Xbox gaming system and has since been ported to Linux, Windows, OSX, AppleTV and even as a standalone Linux based LiveCD/LiveUSB image. It offers a clean UI, intuitive interface and can play just about anything you throw at it. It offers a plugin system with a huge repository of community plugins to enhance the experience. It’s real easy to setup and it’s configuration is portable across operating systems. If you have an old Xbox laying around this makes a great HTPC that is powerful and best of all cheap.

MediaPortal – This is a Windows based HTPC software so technically it’s not 100% open source since it requires Windows and doesn’t offer a Linux port. If offers everything you would expect in HTPC software; Video streaming, DVD playback, Internet Radio, Picture Gallery and it’s own plugin system. You will need a compatible TV Tuner card to enjoy PVR features and to watch TV but it’s not needed to run the software. If you are a Windows fan and are looking for an alternate to Windows Media Center this is as close as you can get without the cost.

Element – Element is an open source HTPC system that comes pre-loaded with XBMC and the ability to play back just about any media locally or over the Internet. Element also has it’s own framework for offering add-on modules that allow you to play content from services like Hulu, Cooliris, Boxee, Clicker, Amazon on Demand and Youtube. They have adapted the UI’s of popular open source software like Firefox and Pidgin so that it fits the TV experience better than their native desktop versions. They also offer an Android app that allows you to use your Android phone as a remote control; definitely a neat idea for the times you can’t find the remote anywhere.

GeeXboX – A Gentoo based fully functional media center that can be run from LiveCD, LiveUSB, or be installed on a hard drive. GeeXbox is a very lean distro that doesn’t require a lot of processing power so it’s perfect for older hardware. It uses Enna as it’s primary media center application to play your music, videos or look at your pictures. This is the perfect distro for the no-frills experience when you just want to play your media and aren’t looking for any additional functionality.

Open Source HTPC’s That Don’t Suck originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/06. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Coolest DIY Lightsaber

Frank — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 00:41:00 +0000

Bradley Lewis of Sloth Furnace has created easily the coolest homemade lightsaber ever. Since we are still quite a ways away from having an actual lightsaber this will just have to do.

This saber is the brightest replica I have ever seen. It lights up almost instantly and has some sweet detail in it’s construction. Check out the video after the break of it in action. There is a complete gallery or pictures and videos over at SlothFurnace.

Coolest DIY Lightsaber originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/02. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Aerial Surveillance Drone

Frank — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 18:16:53 +0000

How about your very own aerial surveillance drone that is launched from it’s own mailbox? I know your probably calling me crazy right now for even thinking of it, but it’s true!

The ScanCam 200 is exactly what you want for security surveillance of your property. The unit is a small quad-rotor UAV drone that comes with it’s own climate controlled hangar. The unit can be remotely launched and even set to come back and land right where it took off from.

The unit sends live video back so you can see what it sees. The unit is completely autonomous and navigates itself from one preset point to another. While the unit is docked in it’s mailbox looking hangar, the unit recharges itself until it’s called back into action.

Aerial Surveillance Drone originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/08/30. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Old School GPS

Frank — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 04:19:32 +0000

Come on, we have all experience the dreaded “Satellite Lost” syndrome when using a GPS unit. A crafty hacker has created his own low-tech steampunk navigation system.

He soldered together a couple of brass tubes to a backplate and added a crystal face. Now all he has to do is print out step by step directions from Google maps and he will never have to worry about a lack of a clear sky view or even batteries. Plus, check out the resolution of that bad boy, perfect.

[Via Hack A Day]

Old School GPS originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/08/24. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Magstripe Hacking

Frank — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 04:12:19 +0000

Is there anything an Arduino can’t do? Instructable user sketchk3tch built this Arduino Magstripe Emulator which can spoof a card reader into thinking a card has been swiped. I can’t even begin to list the possible uses for this tool. Can you say “Hollywood style hotel door hacking device”. Not that we are encouraging that type of behaviour, but it would be fun to write some code that would quickly cycle through all of the possibilities. Check out the video of it in action after the break.

Magstripe Hacking originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/08/24. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Replace Batteries With USB Power

Frank — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 23:32:24 +0000

If you can avoid using disposable batteries then you should. Landfills are full of them and we are doing nothing more than killing our environment by using them. I know that rechargeable batteries are better, but there is always the hassle of having to recharge them and then you eventually have to toss them out as well.

When Apple recently released their desktop trackpad I was surprised to see that it was using batteries as opposed to USB power. Apparently others thought the same thing and did something about it.

Markbog over at the MacRumors.com forums did just that. He crafted together a battery size dowel and stripped down a USB cable to make it all happen.

I’m assuming the trackpad must have a voltage regulator or voltage step up since 2 AA batteries only give off 3V and the USB power spec if 5V. Either way, it seems to be working just fine for him.

Replace Batteries With USB Power originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/08/20. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Awesome Rubik’s Cube Solving Robot

Frank — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 02:36:56 +0000

I know that there are 100′s if not 1000′s of websites and applications that will help you solve the almighty Rubik’s Cube, but how cool is having a Lego robot built with the Mindstorms kit do it for you.

By using a Lego webcam and some homebrew software, the CubeStormer scans the Rubik’s Cube and can solve it in about 20 turns. “20 turns, I can do that with my eye’s closed” you might say, but can you not only solve a Rubik’s Cube in 20 seconds, can you also preform those 20 turns in a few seconds? Check of the video after the break of the CubeStormer in action.

Built entirely from lego elements with a lego web camera to scan the faces of the cube, The solve engine (algorithm) running on the computer is provided by the incredible “Cube Explorer” software which also provides the colour recognition required to determine the exact location of each coloured square.

Awesome Rubik’s Cube Solving Robot originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/03/16. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Boxee Set To Roll Out A Set-Top Box

Frank — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:05:07 +0000

Ohh you Americans with your awesome ability to watch full episodes of TV shows via Hulu and Boxee. Us Canadians are only stuck with the ability to watch our Canadian programming in some crappy player on some crappy Canadian broadcasters website. Actually it really isn’t all that bad, but then again, you have Boxee, we have awesome beer. You can always use a VPN is you really wanted to use it.

Boxee just announced that it will be releasing a set-top box that will run their fantastic software. There really isn’t much details on the upcoming device but then again all it really has to do is have a hard drive inside and HDMI out, no? It’s what’s inside that counts, the Boxee software.

Hopefully one day we will see Boxee up here in Canada with having to go through hoops to use it and with a connected device that costs oh let’s say under $200 to power it, you might never need cable or satellite again.

[Link to Boxee Box]

Boxee Set To Roll Out A Set-Top Box originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/11/13. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

DIY: Pirate TV Station

Frank — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 06:14:42 +0000

Miss the good old Analog TV days? If so, you can build you very own low-power analog television transmitter and join the underground. I’m not too sure on the legality of it, but now that all the networks (at least in the US) have vacated the analog spectrum you might not be harassed.

Tired of the blocky, JPEG-like resolution of digital television? Do you long for the days of RF modulation and regulated-yet-unregulated content? Do you simply have the desire to toss your converter box out the window and make use of those rabbit ear antennae that are just lying around? If so, then you might be interested in becoming a savior of analog television! This Instructable will show you how to create your own fully-fledged low-power analog television channel, with any video source(including your computer) as a source of content.
We created one that went live the minute analog tv went dead. We’re still the only analog station in NYC, but please join us in making more!!

[Link to Instructables via Make]

DIY: Pirate TV Station originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/11/12. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Use Your iPhone To Control Your Car

Frank — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 02:11:47 +0000

You knew it was bound to happen. With the iPhone already having apps to control everything from your iTunes to a remote computer you knew that someone would come up with an app to control a car.

The Spirit of Berlin team have developed an iPhone app that remotely controls a minivan. They developed the app for the 2007 Darpa Urban Challenge, so the likelihood of you getting the app from the app store is slim to none.

The iPhone connects with the driving circuitry via WiFi and offers a button for gas and brake as well as a wheel to turn the vehicle. The camera mounted on the front of the minivan transmits video to the iPhone in real-time.

In the video below you can see the operator in the camera’s view on the iPhone. It seems that the top speed of the van is limited (thank God!). This is every big kids dream, a real live RC of an actual car, problem is that this can be extremely dangerous. Plus, WiFi? I hope that their is some sort of kill switch if the van goes out of range or else there can be some serious consequences. Check out the video after the break.

[Link to iPhone RC]

Use Your iPhone To Control Your Car originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/31. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Mr. Wake – The Uncatchable Alarm Clock

Frank — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 04:23:00 +0000

The snooze button on my alarm clock has to be the most worn out button by far. I admit it, I am an alarm clock abuser. I tend to beat the crap out of the time telling device every time that annoying buzzer goes off. Now if I had me Mr. Wake which was designed by Vadim Ryazanov of Let’s Make Robots, I would actually have to get my ass out of bed to silence it.

Mr. Wake’s job is to protect the snooze button from abusers like me. By using a homebrew IR sensor to detect anything near it, the robot takes off if you try to even get close to it. Plus, what can be cooler than having a robot that not only wakes your ass up, but has it’s frame made out of heat formed pens. Awesome. Check out the video after the break of it in action.

Mr. Wake – The Uncatchable Alarm Clock originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/30. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Crush Your Cans With Electricity

Frank — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 04:39:28 +0000

Why would you crush your empty pop or beer cans with your foot or even your head when you could lug out a device that’s 30x the size of the can and probably use more electricity than the actual cost of the can? Because you can, that’s why.

By using a high voltage source and some large capacitors you can build your very own electromagnetic can crushing machine. Just remember that this is extremely dangerous. You are talking about an insane amount of electricity that’s flowing here and it will definitely kill you if something goes wrong. If you choose to not heed our warning and want more info on the project then you can visit Bob Davis’s blog, the creator of the device.

Crush Your Cans With Electricity originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Tap Tap Revenge Metallica For The iPhone

Frank — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 04:29:07 +0000

So I went to the Metallica concert the other night here in Toronto (it’s my 15th time seeing them live. Yes, if you are asking, I am a fan!) and decided that maybe I was having an early mid-life crisis and wanted to walk down the path of my early life as a dedicated hardcore Metallica fan. As a dedicated fan I scoured the band’s website to catch up on the happenings with the metal legends and stumbled upon their iPhone app, TapTap Revenge: Metallica.

Tapulous, the company famous for it’s addictive line of TapTap games has worked with the band to release a Metallica themed version of it’s TapTap Revenge games aptly called: TapTap Revenge: Metallica. The dedicated version of the game allows users to poke through 10 tracks of some of the bands most famous songs like “Enter Sandman” and “One”.

The game gives you the option to play in a fast-paced arcade mode where you are challenged with bombs and other objects. Career Mode allows you to work your way through the track list and there is even a Bluetooth battle mode that allows you to challenge other players via Bluetooth.

I’ll be honest, if your not a hardcore Metallica fan you might not enjoy this, but if you consider yourself a member of the Metal Militia then what are you waiting for? It’s only $4.99, it’s worth it if not for the music alone.

[Link to TapTap Revenge: Metallica]

Tap Tap Revenge Metallica For The iPhone originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Soccer Hero

Frank — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 03:44:08 +0000

Nothing like having a bunch of friends come over and play some Guitar Hero, especially when beer is also at play. Is especially better when you come up with some creative ways to play your favorite rhythm game.

These guys have the right idea. By using an Arduino and some piezo sensors they have managed to rig together a game of guitar hero that’s played with soccer balls. Unfortunately there isn’t too much info available on the project, but connecting piezo sensors to an Arduino is pretty easy. Check out the video below for all the action.

Soccer Hero originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/25. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Cool Your Xbox With Mineral Oil

Frank — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 06:52:17 +0000

You really have to be playing your Xbox non-stop to generate enough heat to justify submerging your Xbox motherboard into a non-conductive fluid such as mineral oil which B-rad used.

Besides the two obvious things that should never ever be submerged, the hard drive and dvd drive, every other component that was housed inside the Xbox case was submerged into a fish tank fill of mineral oil. Surprisingly enough, after he submerged his unit it ran on average 10 degrees cooler.

Maybe it’s worth while if you’re having a cooling issue, but one thing is for sure, having something like this out in the open will almost guarantee that you will never get laid.

[Link to B-rad's Xbox Tank]

Cool Your Xbox With Mineral Oil originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/24. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

PS3 Smashing Into A TV At 80 KMH

Frank — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 04:26:44 +0000

What happens when you throw a Sony PS3 into a 46-inch Bravia KDL46X 3100 LCD TV? Total destruction. What purpose does throwing a gaming unit at a TV at 80 Km/h? Well I really don’t think it has anything to do with scientific research. Could it be a viral marketing video for Sony Australia’s new “buy a Bravia get a PS3″ campaign? I think so Sony, I see right through you.

Sit back and enjoy the video after the break. It sure beats smashing your Wii-mote into your TV.

PS3 Smashing Into A TV At 80 KMH originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/22. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Open Source DS Bluetooth Adapter

Frank — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 02:58:31 +0000

Gordan Savicic and Gottfried Haider of DSbrut have just released their open source bluetooth adapter for the Nintendo DS. The adapter will allow the DS to interface to other bluetooth devices like GPS units and keyboards. This should really open up the homebrew scene.

Almost two years in the making, we’re happy to finally release our DS Bluetooth adapter. The tiny Slot-1 cartridge allows you to hook up the Nintendo DS wirelessly with other devices such as GPS-receivers, robots and so forth. Today we’re making all materials of the project openly available, including the schematics and a GPL-licensed software library for the Nintendo DS, because we believe in open hardware design and want to encourage collaboration in the hardware hacking community.
In our design, we use a tiny ATmega168 microcontroller to make the Nintendo DS speak to the RN-41 Bluetooth SMD module by Roving Networks. Using this piece of hardware the Nintendo DS can scan its neighbourhood and establish connections to other Bluetooth devices (supporting SPP). The module can also be remotely connected to, allowing for a range of interesting applications. We also developed a software library for the Nintendo DS, making it easy to use this new Bluetooth interface.

[Link to Open Source Bluetooth DS Adapter]

Open Source DS Bluetooth Adapter originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/20. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Jailbreak Resistant iPhone

Frank — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 05:15:12 +0000

Reports are flying around the internets that Apple is now shipping iPhones with a new bootrom that is resistant to the 24kpwn exploit that was used by the iPhone Dev-Team to jailbreak the iPhone. To be really honest with you I’m surprised it took Apple this long.

MuscleNerd, who is a Dev-Team member, has confirmed that the latest bootrom, iBoot-359.3.2 makes jailbreaking the iPhone impossible for the time being. People thought that the original iPhone would never be jailbroken when it was released too.

There has always been a cat and mouse game between manufactures and hackers. Take Nagravision, the company who creates the client access cards for the parent company of Dish Networks, Echostar. Hackers and Nagravision has been playing this game for years. A new encryption is release and shortly (some times not so shortly) there-after the encryption is broken. I’m sure it will only take some time and some crafty hacker will find another exploit that can be used to jailbreak the iPhone.

Jailbreak Resistant iPhone originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/17. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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More Linux Distros That Don’t Suck

Frank — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 23:56:37 +0000

Following Linux Distros That Don’t Suck from earlier this year here is a comprehensive list of, you guessed it, more Linux Distros that don’t suck. Some of these are more obscure lesser known distros that are quite powerful and very useful. Some of these come from personal use some of them came from the great comments you readers posted the first time I did this.

Remember that this is just a personal list, nothing more, nothing less. I’m not trying to start a holy war since that’s what usually happens when you open something like this up. With that being said, let’s us know in the forums what your list of Linux Distros That Don’t Suck would be.

SLAMPP – A Slackware based Live DVD that can only be described as a one-stop server system. Right off the DVD your up and running with pre-configured services including an HTTP server, FTP server, DHCP server, DNS server and a whole lot more. This is the perfect Distro for those “I really don’t know when I will need a fully functional small network server” times. Best of all, you can run it all without ever having to install anything on the host machine.

Pardus – Pardus, which is the scientific name for the the Anatolian Leopard (watch out Apple), is a Turkish Linux distro which is extremely underrated. It’s wonderfully crafted and has a lot of polish to it. You can tell that the developers have really put a lot of time and energy making this not only run really well but also make it really sexy. I would easily recommend this distro to novices and experts alike.

CrunchBang – Think of CrunchBang as Ubuntu for the advanced. It offers speed and style as well at the bleeding edge of packages. It’s highly customizable and comes with the nimble openbox window manager. No bloated Gnome or KDE here. This is the perfect distro if you really like Ubuntu but don’t like how it’s geared towards linux n00bs.

Sabayon – Sabayon promises to transform your computer into a powerful Gentoo Linux system in under 5 minutes. It’s a livecd (with the option to install) of the uber geek popular Gentoo. It’s very powerful and very polished like you would expect from any Gentoo system, but best of all it still acts like an other Gentoo system allowing you to use portage to pull from the Gentoo repositories.

PC-BSD – Alright, I know it’s technically not Linux, it’s BSD based, but it tries really really hard to be Linux. If you are more of a BSD fan but like the Desktop functionality that a standard linux distro offers then PC-BSD is perfect for you. Much like any out of the box distro you can listen to music, watch some video, work with office documents and you can even install applications with a gui. Best of all, it’s a rock solid BSD core that powers everything.

CentOS – Based on the rock solid RHEL, CentOS is one of the most reliable distros you will every find. It offers quick errata, package management that offers stable applications and has a very strong community behind it. They even get upstream fixes from RHEL. If you want a solid server based OS you can’t do much better than CentOS.

Slackware – The oldest of the bunch. Created in 1992, Slackware is the oldest surviving distro. It orginally came on 24 floppy disks as was built on top of kernel 0.99 and it was one of the hardest things to install. Thank God that things have changed. It’s now a highly technical and clean distro. No fancy tools for settings, you have to do everything by editing text files. You know what they say, if you learn Ubuntu you know Ubuntu. If you learn Slackware you know Linux.

There you go, another list of distros that don’t suck (according to me). You millage may vary. I really don’t want to start a holy war so I open it up to you to add to the list by visiting our forums and letting us know what you like.

More Linux Distros That Don’t Suck originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/06. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Nintendo DS On Your Mac Or PC

Frank — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 02:11:11 +0000

DeSmuME is a Nintendo DS emulator for the Mac and for the PC that gives you the full functionality of the DS; buttons, touchscreen interface and even the Wi-Fi connectivity. It’s feature packed and allows you to play both Homebrew games and ROM images. It also offers some extra features that are not available on a physical DS like taking screenshots, creating movies from game play, loading cheat codes and even saving your game play.

It’s 100% free and can be downloaded from here. You might also want to check out NDS Homebrew for an impressive collection of homebrew games and applications.

Nintendo DS On Your Mac Or PC originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/04. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Linux Distros That Don’t Suck

Frank — Fri, 15 May 2009 20:44:43 +0000

I, much like every other hardcore geek on the face of the earth, have multiple linux based distro iso’s laying around. Some of them are for testing and some of them contain tools that I use on a daily basis. I have had many people email me about the best distro out there. The only answer I have for them is “depends on what you want to do”. I have spent sometime working on a list of Linux distros and what they are good for.

Now, before I start. Discussion distro’s with people is like discussion religion. Everyone has one and everyone feels something different towards other people who aren’t of the same faith. I just want to remind everyone that this list is just what I see, and how I feel about each distro. It’s definitely not a “what’s right and what’s wrong” type of list. Enjoy.

Knoppix – The one that started it all. Knoppix was the first major LiveCD based distro to hot the scene and open up a whole new world of bootable operating systems. This is probably the best known and most complete LiveCD distro out there. It contains everything you need to act as a full production replacement system. Word Processing, graphics editors, media players, browers, mail clients. You name is, Knoppix has it.

SystemRescueCD – This one I keep with me all the time. SystemRescueCD is a massive collection of tools to help you get out of a bind. It aims to provide an easy way to carry out admin tasks on your computer, such as creating and editing the partitions of the hard disk. It contains a lot of system tools (parted, partimage, fstools, …) and basic tools (editors, midnight commander, network tools). It is very easy to use. Plus, it can also be booted via a USB flash drive. A must for anyone’s collection.

Dynabolic – Billed as a complete media distro, dyne:bolic is shaped on the needs of media activists, artists and creatives as a practical tool for multimedia production: you can manipulate and broadcast both sound and video with tools to record, edit, encode and stream, having automatically recognized most device and peripherals: audio, video, TV, network cards, firewire, usb and more; all using only free software!. Just boot off the CD and your ready to go.

BackTrack – The king of all penetration testing and security distros. If you’re worried about security or exploits then this is the one for you. With more than 300 different up-to-date tools which are logically structured according to the work flow of security professionals. This structure allows even newcomers to find the related tools to a certain task to be accomplished. New technologies and testing techniques are merged into BackTrack as soon as possible to keep it up-to-date.

NimbleX – This is one of my favorite all around LiveCD based distros. It’s full featured but a lot smaller than something like Knoppix. With everything you need to act as a Desktop replacement in a 200 MB CD image, what more can you ask for.

Gentoo – The hardcore Linux distro. What makes Gentoo unique compared to other distros is the need to manually compile every part of the OS. I know that their are gui installers now and pre built packages for the mindless, but having the ability to tweak and optimize every aspect of the OS will not only give you a stable system, but one hell of a quick one too. Mind you, all of this compilation could easily take you days before you have a base system, especially when you make Xorg and a windows manager like KDE or gnome.

Debian – My day to day OS. Debian is one of the oldest and most stable distros around. The core to a bunch of other distros like Knoppix and Ubuntu. If your looking for something that will give you no headaches and carries a very stable branch of applications, Debian is the distro for you.

Ubuntu – Ubuntu is Debian to the next level. It’s a fork of Debian that has quickly become the most popular Linux distro in the world. It’s easy to install, easy to use, and is probably the best Windows replacement OS that is Linux based. Ubuntu’s software repository contains applications that are more recent than say Debian, but the down side to that is the fine edge you walk on when it comes to stability.

Fedora – The big boy on the block, and by big boy I don’t mean popularity, I mean in size. Fedora comes chalked with what seems like every application ever made. Although to some this might be nothing more than bloat, to others it’s a full and complete experience. Install Fedora and you pretty much have every open source application that is useful at your finger tips. If you have never experienced Linux before this is a great distro to get your feet wet with.

I know there are other great distro’s like Slackware, DSL, and OpenSUSE, this list is just a collection of distro’s that I find useful or that I have had experience with. Feel free to add your recommendations in the comments.

Linux Distros That Don’t Suck originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/05/15. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Raise A Glass To Pownce

Frank — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 17:27:03 +0000

One of the greatest things about being a geek is the ability to tinker and toy with stuff without having to ask “Why?”. Some of the best “Why?” projects involve alcohol. Toss in a dash of social networking and you get a Pownce beer pouring robot.

It begs the question, “Why would you build a beer pouring robot thats activated by Pownce?”, because you can. Which leads me to my next question, “Why am I not surprised you’re single?”.

Raise A Glass To Pownce originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/10/25. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Margarator – Make Margaritas In Your Car

Frank — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 17:15:47 +0000

How many times you been cruising down the road when the craving for a nice tasty cold Margarita? I know I never have, but if I ever did the Margarator MSB-585 would come to save the day.

The blender was clearly created for on-the-go drinkers. IMHO, drinking and driving is a really bad idea. Making a drink while your driving in an even worse idea, but this 12V cigarette lighter powered blender could come in handy while your on a camping trip. Just don’t even get pulled over by the cops with one of these in your front seat plugged in, you’ll be in for a big surprise.

You can pick up your own Margarator for $110 from BarWare

Margarator – Make Margaritas In Your Car originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/10/25. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

3DS Max Now Owns Softimage

Ryan Yewell — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 16:38:48 +0000

You’ve probably heard of 3DS Max, the software suite that creates a lot of the visuals you see in games these days (and other media). You may have heard of Softimage as well, another software suite that is used in making games (and film/television). Well, Autodesk (maker of 3DS Max) just bought up Softimage’s business for the price tag of $35 million.

Marc Petit, senior vice president, Autodesk Media & Entertainment, states in the official press release that both products will “help us accelerate the work of our Games Technology Group, as we build the next-generation of real-time, interactive 3D authoring tools for games, film and television.”

Not sure if this is good news or not. Competition is healthy, but having the best of both worlds (and hopefully not the worst of both) being used in our entertainment mediums could be cool…

Autodesk plans to keep Softimage in the market, and continue to develop for it. Of course they also plan to take some of the Softimage technology and put it in their own product, 3DS Max. It remains to be seen how Autodesk will keep the 2 product lines both distinct and innovative.

You can tell that Autodesk senses some apprehension out there, and Marc Petit concluded the press release with these words, to calm those who use Softimage products… “we know users invest a lot of time and energy into mastering their favorite 3D product. To all 3D artists out there, I want to tell you that we understand your passion for the creative tools you use daily, and that with Autodesk, you can choose your passion.”

More info at http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?id=12022457&siteID=123112]

3DS Max Now Owns Softimage originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/10/25. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Perian Turns 1.1.2

Frank — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 03:01:45 +0000

Our favorite quicktime add on, Perian, turned 1.1.2. If you have never heard of Perian before then you should take this opportunity to slap yourself. The free plugin for quicktime allows you to play back all kinds of popular video formats like avi, mkv, flv, and more. It’s an absolute must for anyone who likes to watch video on their Mac.

Here’s what you’ll find in the latest release.

Fixed update checker never running – this version requires a manual install
Enabled frame-dropping on AppleTV
Fixed some frames being lost in AVCHD/.mp4 with newer versions of QuickTime
Fixed another ffmpeg crash on G3s

You can head on over to their site and grab the latest release.

Perian Turns 1.1.2 originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/10/22. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Xbox G4

Frank — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 03:27:02 +0000

I have seen my fair share of PC case mods, but an Apple case mod, especially one that encompasses a Microsoft created case, awesome. Inside this Xbox 360 Elite lives a functional G4 powered by an old Powerbook G4 867MHz processor. Modder Phil Herlihy had some spare 360 cases laying around and thought he would put them to good use and turn one of them into a Mac.

Unfortunately there was no way to get the Xbox’s DVD tray to work since all Powerbooks came with a slot loading drive so he had to cut a slot in the front of the unit to get it to work.

I’m an avid broken Xbox 360 collector, trying to develop strategies for hacking and repairing once-thought dead consoles. I’ve got plenty of empty 360 cases around with nothing to do but gather dust. When it hit me, The PowerBook logic boards are tiny. Perfect for one of those cases. Even better with PSU integration.

[Link to Xbox G4]

Xbox G4 originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/10/17. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Hunt Down Wi Fi Leeches With MoocherHunter

Frank — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 04:09:48 +0000

Last week we showed you how to screw with people who were stealing your Wi Fi signal by flipping their browsers and blurring their images. Today we show you how to hunt those Wi Fi moochers. The problem with leaving your Wi Fi unprotected is that malicious people can use it to download illegal files that can be tracked back to you. The best thing to do is lock down your Wi Fi to ensure that no one does something that you might be blamed for, but if you choose to leave it open and have a problem with a user or two taking advantage of it you can track them down and pay them a visit.

First thing you are gonna want to do is download MoocherHunter. MoocherHunter tracks the data that is being streamed from your unprotected Wi Fi right to their front door. The program is pretty straighforward to use and is part of a much larger wireless auditing toolkit called OSWA-Assistant which is chalked full of useful tools to make sure your Wi Fi is well protected.

Use this information wisely, don’t go out and do something stupid with it. Remember, this is to be used for personal research, not as an excuse to knock at someone’s door and start a fight.

Hunt Down Wi Fi Leeches With MoocherHunter originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/10/15. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Perian 1.1.1 Released

Frank — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 03:51:33 +0000

The world’s greatest QuickTime plug in has just turned 1.1.1. Perian is a free add on for QuickTime that allows for decoding of virtually every known codec in QuickTime. Some of the great changes include:

H.264 in AVI fixed
Some anamorphic AVI files are now supported
Performance problems due to PIC fixed with Xcode 3.1
Incorrect frame skipping on H.264 intra frames fixed
Better character set detection
The update checker is now much more polite
Several parsing and rendering bugs with subtitles fixed
Player freezing while loading subtitles with embedded fonts fixed
Audio fixed for some older MKV files with AAC/FLAC
Strange values in MKV chapters or video sizes are handled better
Initial support for SAMI subtitles added
Worked around a QuickTime bug (#5770288) causing frames to be lost during export
New codecs: DosBox ZMBV, VP6+Alpha, Nellymoser ASAO
Crashing on PPC G3 fixed
Fraps decoding artifacts fixed

You can check out the full change log here

[Link to Perian]

Perian 1.1.1 Released originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/09/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

24-Ct Gold Touch And Nano

Frank — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 03:05:36 +0000

The iPod is considered one of the worlds most stolen item, so let’s just up the ante and wrap it in 24-ct gold. For a mere $644 for your nano or $823 for your Touch you too can burn your money away and wrap your mp3 player up in 24-ct gold. They should sell big red lights that you could wear on your persons announcing to the world that you have more money than you know what to do with. With all of the staving children in the world and all.

[Via Gizmodo]

24-Ct Gold Touch And Nano originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/09/28. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Chinavision’s Projector Cellphone

Frank — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 05:45:12 +0000

3M just announced that their MPro110 tiny projector would hit the market in late September. This was awesome news for people who are on the road a lot and have to lug around projectors to do presentations. But did you know that Chinavision is already selling a tiny projector? Built into a cell phone no-less.

The Projector phone is a tri-bank unlocked GSM phone that come with all of the features you would expect in a smartphone. Touch screen, camera, bluetooth, microSD card slot, and a 640×480 projector that claims to project images up to 46″ in width. Check the video out and judge for yourself just how good the image is.

The phone isn’t small by any stretch, and comes with the worst “wanna-be” iPhone OS I have ever seen. You get a 1800mAh battery which should provide you with up to 3 hours of talk time and about 2 hours of projector use. For $370 you really can’t go wrong if your on the road and traveling light means something to you.

[Link to Projector Phone via OhGizmo!]

Chinavision’s Projector Cellphone originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/09/22. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

OS X 10.5.5 Available Now

Frank — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 01:56:33 +0000

Apple today released the 10.5.5 update to their Leopard OS. The update contains a long list of fixes for the core OS as well as app fixes like iCal, Mail, MobileMe, and Time Machine. Here’s a list of what’s included:

General

Includes recent Apple security updates.
Addresses stability issues with video playback, processor core idling, and remote disc sharing for MacBook Air.
Addresses an issue in which some Macs could unexpectedly power on at the same time each day.
Resolves a stability issue in TextEdit that could be found when accessing the color palette.
Improves Spotlight indexing performance.
Fixes an issue in which contacts might not sync properly with PalmOS-based devices.
Improves iPhone sync reliability with iCal and Address Book.
Includes improvements to Active Directory.
Improves Speech Dictionary.
Fixes Kerberos authentication issues for Mac OS X 10.5 clients that connect to certain Samba servers, such as Mac OS X Server version 10.4.
Includes extensive graphics enhancements.

Address Book

Addresses stability issues that may occur when creating a Smart Group.
Resolves a printing issue with address cards containing information that spans more than one page.

Disk Utility and Directory Utility

Improves reliability when rebuilding a software mirror RAID volume in Disk Utility.
Improves reliability of server status displayed in Directory Utility.

iCal

Updates iCal to more accurately handle repeating events.
Improves performance when choosing meeting attendees.
Resolves an issue in which the “Refresh All” option may be dimmed (“grayed out”) in the contextual menu for certain calendars.
Fixes issues with read-only calendars.
Addresses an issue that prevents an invitee from moving an event to a different calendar.
Resolves an issue with syncing published calendars.

Mail

Addresses performance issues related to displaying IMAP messages.
Resolves an issue with SMTP settings for AIM, Compuserve, Hanmail, Yahoo!, and Time Warner Road Runner email accounts.
Addresses stability issues that may occur when dragging a file to the Mail icon in the Dock.
Addresses an issue with the “Organized by Thread” view in which the date does not appear when the thread is collapsed.
Resolves an issue in which RSS feeds could temporarily disappear from the sidebar.
Improves Mail robustness when sending messages.
Improves reliability when saving drafts that have attachments.

MobileMe

Improves overall sync reliability.
Improves Back to My Mac reliability.

Time Machine

Improves Time Machine reliability with Time Capsule.
Addresses performance issues that may affect initial and in-progress backups.
Fixes an issue in which an incorrect alert message could appear stating that a backup volume does not have enough free space.
Time Machine can now back up iPhone backups that are on your Mac, as well as other items in (~/Library/Application Support).

OS X 10.5.5 Available Now originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/09/15. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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PwnageTool And QuickPwn For 2.1

Frank — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 04:43:20 +0000

The iPhone Dev Team strikes again. If you really want to run jail-broken apps on your 2.1 iPhone or iPod touch, the iPhone Dev Team has just released PwnageTool and QuickPwn for 2.1 devices.

The Dev Team has worked around iTunes 8 without having to patch the program, so jail-breakers can try the new tool without any fear of having to alter iTunes in any way.

The is one caveat: this does NOT work with the new iPod Touch 2g, it will only work with iPhone and first gen iPod Touches only. Maybe in the coming future the Dev Team will have a fix for you Touch 2g owners. Why not, they have been able to do everything else already.

PwnageTool And QuickPwn For 2.1 originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/09/14. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

iPhone Keeps Pic Of Everything You Do

Frank — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 02:21:22 +0000

So it seems that the iPhone and iPod touch is leaving a trail of what you’ve been up to, even if you don’t want it to. Do you know (and love) all of those cool swooshing transition effects that happen when you hit the home button or switch pages in Mobile Safari? Well that’s your problem right there. Seems that the iPhone takes a snap shot of your screen to produce those nice transition then it deletes them… the thing is, it don’t really delete them, more like a quick delete without an overwrite. Anyone with physical access to your iPhone and some hacking skills can build a trail of what you have been doing based on those screenshots that haven’t been deleted.

This can be a serious problem if people have access to your physical unit, but most people who find an iPhone or iPod touch would be more interested in selling it or using it for their own personal use. But since the hack has been demonstrated, it would be nice if Apple could pony up and fix the problem. This way if you even have your phone confiscated by law enforcement agencies you would be embarrassed by all those trips to dateanerd.com

iPhone Keeps Pic Of Everything You Do originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/09/11. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Gun O’Clock

Frank — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 02:31:53 +0000

Just the other day we talked about building your own Water Gun Alarm Clock today we bring you the opposite, sort of. The Gun O’Clock allows people to shoot their alarm clock with a special gun when the alarm goes off. The contraption comes with two modes.

The first mode is the “Time Mode”. In this mode the alarm goes off like any old alarm clock except it has an extremely annoying beeping sound, raises a shooting target, and mocks you with a voice message that says “Come On”. The taunting and beeping will continue until you pick up the special infrared gun and shoot the target.

The second mode is the “Attack Mode” and my personal favorite. In this mode you must shoot the target in a given amount of time and you must try to hit the bulls-eye. If you succeed the alarm clock will praise you. Just like having your own carnival game in your bedroom.

The unit is only available in Japan and sells for about $34.

Gun O’Clock originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/09/03. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

New Commodore Laptop, Yes I Said Commodore

Frank — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 17:56:18 +0000

With Asus having such great success with their UMPC the eeePC, why not have everyone jump into the game? Commodore (the machine that brings me such great memories of my hacking youth) seems to be jumping into the small laptop market. This tiny laptop was spotted at IFA. Not much is known yet about the machine, but I so want one. I’d put a C64 emulator on it and run around playing Summer Games or better yet, run my old Color64 BBS on it.

I think I just want to be spotted walking around with a laptop that bares the Commodore logo on it. Imagine the geek-cred you’d build with this in your backpack.

UPDATE

We have had some of the specs of the unit sent to us. They include:

10-inch screen
1.6GHz VIA C7-M processor
80GB hard drive
1GB of ram
built-in WiFi
optional Bluetooth

The specs are very similar to HP’s mininote and around the same price point of $600

[Via Crunchgear]

New Commodore Laptop, Yes I Said Commodore originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/09/01. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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How To: Make A Water Gun Alarm Clock

Frank — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 19:20:07 +0000

Having trouble waking up in the morning? If you are anything like me then anything short of an earthquake just doesn’t cut it. I know that shooting yourself with a water gun to wake you up might not be the smartest of ideas, but then again you could always keep some soap near the bed and shower at the same time.

To build your very own Water Gun Alarm Clock you will need the following …

battery operated alarm clock
motorized water gun
some 16 gauge wire
wire strippers
voltage relay switch
breadboard circuit
soldering gun

You could really clean this design up if you have some soldering skills by soldering the wires right to the relay switch, but you have to have some nimble hands to make sure you don’t short anything out.

How To: Make A Water Gun Alarm Clock originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/08/31. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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DVD::RIP – Rippin Linux Style

Frank — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 14:23:17 +0000

There is a ton of software available for both Windows and OS X that allow you to rip and encode DVD’s, but what about Linux? A few months back I did a segment on the Lab with Leo Laporte TV show on just that, DVD rippers for Linux. (Video after the break)

DVD::RIP is a full featured DVD backup program written in perl. It’s very intuiative and eay to use but also provides a feature rich control of almost all aspects of the ripping and transcoding process. Some of the key features are:

Runs on Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD
Rip to harddisk, on the fly or from an existent DVD image
Select audio track(s), viewing angle(s), multitple titles
Rip as much audio tracks as you like into one AVI/OGG/SVCD file
Supports nearly all of transcode’s video codecs, e.g: divx4, divx5, xvid, xvidcvs, ffmpeg, fame, opendivx and mpeg2enc
DivX/Xvid multipass encoding
(S)VCD modes, with multiple audio tracks for SVCD
Integrated video bitrate calculator based on target size resp. number of discs
Automatic splitting of the target files for best fit on the specified number of discs

Probably the strongest feature of DVD::RIP is it’s cluster mode which let’s you use any Linux machine you might have in your network for parallel encoding. Your rips come out much faster if you use say 2, 3, or 4 machines. Let me see Windows do that.

[Link to DVD::RIP]

DVD::RIP – Rippin Linux Style originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/08/31. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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A Doorbell That Twitters

Frank — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 13:48:31 +0000

As if twittering GPS units and twittering cars wasn’t enough you can now have a tweet go out when someone rings your doorbell too. This is a perfect project for those people who just insist on having a tweet go out about every aspect of their lives. It’s a fairly easy project to implement and can probably be adapted to almost anything. All you need is an Arduino board and, well, a doorbell.

[Link to Twittering Your Doorbell]

A Doorbell That Twitters originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/08/21. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

NES PC Casemod

Frank — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 02:20:18 +0000

Here’s another NES mod, not quite like the “Wii in an NES” mod that we featured a few days ago, but this “PC in an NES” mod is a stealthy and slick one never-the-less. At first glance you would see nothing more than the beloved 8-bit gaming system some of us grew up with, but under the hood you will find a fully functional Windows PC load with emulators so that you can play original NES games and games from other consoles.

The modded console hides a four-port USB hub that snaps cleanly to the original NES expansion port on the bottom, allowing for a variety on non-NES controllers to be connected as well as having the original NES controller ports rewired to work with the PC’s USB system. To really keep this modded system truly old school, the unit can only be connected via composite video, maintaining that old-school blurry image that concealed some of the graphic flaws of older games.

To get an idea what went on with the design, you can read up on the mod here.

NES PC Casemod originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/08/17. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Star Wars TIE Fighter Web Cam

Frank — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 02:22:48 +0000

I’m a big Star Wars fan. Maybe more so than the average Joe (yes I read a lot of Star Wars books if you must know) but I’m not sure if I’m a big enough fan to add a TIE Fighter web cam to my desk. For those ~~nut jobs~~ fans who would consider having one then you could have this beautifully crafter Advance X1 TIE Fighter just like Darth Vader had. It even comes with a built in mic all for about $45, if you can find it.

Star Wars TIE Fighter Web Cam originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/08/16. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Stretchy Fabric USB Connection

Frank — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 18:03:06 +0000

Ever wonder how to carry current in fabric? Me either, but if you have ever wanted to make your own e-style vest with all of the wires hidden this is perfect. Imagine having your iPod in one pocket, a battery pack in another, and your headphones all connected together with the wiring sewn right into the fabric. Plusea on on Instructables has put together a detailed write-up on making a USB cable partly out of stretchy cotton fabric. If the idea of having an e-style vest doesn’t rock your boat you could always wire up a jacket that shocks you every now and then, if you are into that kind of stuff of course.

[Link]

Stretchy Fabric USB Connection originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/08/15. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

DIY: Balancing Robot

Frank — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 16:49:08 +0000

Here’s a great project to work on if your just getting into robots. The self-balancing robot doesn’t use any fancy accelerometers or gyroscopes, all you really need is a motor and some gears (with a few additional items you might have around the workshop).

This is a very simple robot that uses a simple switch as a sensor and stands on only two wheels with inverted pendulum mechanism. When the robot is going to fall the motor starts and moves the robot to the direction it is going to fall, so the motor torque about the center of gravity that is higher than the motor makes the robot balanced.

Link to building a Simple Balancing Robot

DIY: Balancing Robot originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/08/13. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

USB Drive Watch

Frank — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 18:18:47 +0000

What better way to make sure you take that USB drive with you than have it also be your watch, unless you also forget you watch all the time, then your screwed. The Timeless Watch, which was designed by Ondrej Vaclavik, seamlessly integrates a hidden USB drive that also serves as the watch’s clasp. Perfect for getting your data across the border and through the TSA.

The watch is lightweight and requires no batteries as it charges up via USB. It’s not available for sale just yet and we have no word on how big the drive will be, but I guess you could always build your own from some spare parts.

You can see more pictures of the unit over at Ondrej Vaclavik’s site.

USB Drive Watch originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/08/08. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Tesla Coil Guitar Amp

Frank — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 13:56:03 +0000

I’ve been to many concerts that featured some incredible light shows. I was even at a Metallica concert here in Toronto that has some wicked flames going on stage, so much so that you were smacked in the face with an intense heat wave, but having shooting arcs of electricity onstage by using a tesla coil as a guitar amp just rocks.

It’s a match in Metal Heaven. Now, if he could only make it bigger and louder I’d go see him in concert.

Tesla Coil Guitar Amp originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/08/05. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Rear View Mirror TV

Frank — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 20:20:04 +0000

Who really needs to see the cars behind them anyway? Thanks to this alarming new trend in China, rear view mirrors will soon display TV or GPS maps instead of the constant need for checking behind you for that car that just might slam you from behind.

Models range from a basic LCD monitor to an advanced touch screen with Bluetooth integration (for dialing your “hands-free” phone of course). While some models do offer integration with backup camera so you can actually see what’s behind you, and most act as a basic mirror when turned off, why the heck I ask do you want one of these in your car unless you plan on having it turned off while your driving?

The real scary thing is that these aren’t just some one off item. Check out CnBuyNet and you’ll find an entire page of these things raging in price from $50 to $100. Long go the days of people using the rear view mirror to apply make-up, now you have to deal with them watching Survivor too.

Rear View Mirror TV originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/08/03. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

11 WordPress Plugins For Professional Bloggers

Frank — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 04:35:13 +0000

In a world filled with enough plugins to make your head spin, it can be quite frustrating looking for that right plugin to do that job your after. Most bloggers have spent countless hours sifting through google or wordpress.org looking for a plugin to do something they are after but just can’t come up with the name that they need.

Everyone can probably name their favorite plugin. The trick is to name the plugins that are worth installing, ones that can actually add something useful to your blog. Remember, plugins tend to slow down wordpress blogs, so it’s a good to keep an eye on performance and only activate what you actually need.

Once we switched tech.nocr.at over to wordpress some time ago we too spent countless days tweaking and installing plugins, looking for the right combination to do the job. So here I present to you, the list of must have plugins for any pro-blogger. All of them are installed and activated right here.

The List

Of course, these plugins don’t make your blog an instant success, but they do add some important and needed feature to a blog. Concentrate on content if you want to attract readers and let the plugins do their jobs and help you along the way.

Must Haves

The following plugins should be install on any blog no matter what type of content you have or how popular your blog is. No exceptions.

Akismet
This one is a no brainer, I mean, who the hell wants spam on their site?
WP-Super-Cache
Once one of your posts hits the front page of Digg or you become popular on StumbleUpon you are going to be thankful of this puppy. This plugin stores a static file of each page in html, which is easier to show than dynamic content. It lowers the processing of PHP and the database hits that can kill you.
All in One SEO Pack
Want to have your site indexed properly on search engines? Let this puppy take all of the hard work off of your hands.

SEO & analytics

Google Analytics for WordPress
Probably the worlds most used analytics package. Install this one and you will be greeted with more stats than you can handle.
WP-UserOnline
Does exactly what it says, tells your how many people are on your site right now. Even gives you referring URL’s and spiders too.
Google XML-Sitemap Generator
Search engines just love sitemaps, especially google. This plugin will create a XML-Sitemap for you automatically and keep it up-to-date.

RSS Plugin

Feedburner Feedsmith
Feedburner is probably the industry standard for rolling out your feeds. This plugin will ensure that any link on your site to your RSS feed is redirected to your feedburner account.

Comment Plugins

Move Comments
This plugin in will give you the ability to move comments from one post to another. Keeps your commenters on track.
CAPTCHA
Just incase Akisment didn’t get em, this one will help you out.

Miscellaneous Plugins

Related Posts
Shows a number (set by you) of posts that relate to this post a users is one. This is a great plugin for giving people a choice of similar content on your site and having them dig deeper.
Maintenance Mode
If you ever need to tweak or upgrade your system, this plugin will allow your to show a static HTML page telling people that you are down for some upgrade and tweak love. The best part is if log in, you can still access your site to test those tweaks and upgrades.

Well there it is, this list of wordpress plugins that are must haves. There is always room for improvement though. If you have a must have plugin in that we should know about then let us know.

11 WordPress Plugins For Professional Bloggers originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/08/02. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2008 | Permalink | 2 Comments | Read more in Tech News | Explore more in: ac, amp, avi, blog, bra, case, comb, comments, digg, ds, ea, follow, generator, google, hp, ical, id, ir, job, jobs, led, make, mit, mod, nda, nes, number, online, os, pen, plugins, press, proc, rc, ring, rss, security, seo, stumbleupon, switch, switched, tech.nocr.at, time, tor, tweaks, ui, wordpress | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

Anti-Paparazzi Glasses

Frank — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 02:39:54 +0000

Sure, if your being chased by an angry mob of paparazzi or if your afraid of big brother watching you you might need some diversion tactics like an IR hat or these anti-paparazzi shades.

If your in need of said diversion tactic then building these puppies is a snap. Attach two small but powerful IR LEDs to two pairs of wires, one wire per LED. Then you attach the LEDs to the glasses and voila, blinding shades, for those with cameras that is. You might want to attach a simple on/off switch and not but leaving the wires hanging like the video suggests.

Anti-Paparazzi Glasses originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/07/01. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Optoma Pico Projector

Frank — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 03:08:29 +0000

I love my iPod but most people have the same complaint – you love having portable video but can’t stand watching said video on a tiny screen. There just must be a light at the end of the tunnel real soon. Optoma’s Pico Projector, which is now in the prototype stage, is a mini projector for your cellphone, iPod, or other portable video device.

The Optoma is the first pico projector with DLP technology which should offer us a decent picture. Only time will tell is this product will be a success, but it should would be cool to display some video on a hotel wall or on the back of a food tray on an airline.

Optoma Pico Projector originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/06/20. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Torrent Relay – Browser Based Torrent Client

Frank — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 12:44:29 +0000

Have you ever wanted to download a TV show directly to you iPhone or PS3 but haven’t been able to because the only available format you can find is a torrent based one? Enter Torrent Relay. It allows you to download torrents via any web enabled device. Torrent Relay works by having the user surf over to their site with their web enabled device and either uploading a local copy of the torrent file or entering in the url of the torrent. Once Torrent Relay is done it sends it to your web enabled device.

It does have a few limitations, it is only able to download torrents that contain single files and has a size cap of 400 MB. You probably won’t be downloading any ISO’s with this but how else are you going to watch your favorite TV show on your iPhone?

Torrent Relay – Browser Based Torrent Client originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/06/13. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

HP iPaq 900 Set To Ship

Frank — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 01:56:50 +0000

The HP iPAQ 900 will ship starting on Jun 30th. The long over due “Blackberry Looking” unit will be powered by Windows Mobile 6.1, have a tri-band UMTS/HSDPA and quad-band GSM/EDGE radios. In addition, GPS navigation, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and a 3 megapixel camera.

This unit sure looks like a Blackberry, but will it function like a Blackberry. Probably not.

HP iPaq 900 Set To Ship originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/06/11. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

DIY Slingbox

Frank — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 12:32:20 +0000

Creative hardware hacker David laid out some steps on hacking together your own Slingbox. Using a Mac Mini, an old DV camera, and Quicktime Broadcaster he is able to capture the stream of his cable box with the DV camera then send it over to the Mac Mini via firewire, then using Quicktime Broadcaster he can multicast the single to any computer that has quicktime.

It’s not the easiest or prettiest thing to get going, but it works. There are a few down sides to the project like not being able to change the channel remotely like you can with a slingbox, but if you have the hardware just laying around it works quite well. If you can get your hands on a quicktime streaming server you’d be able to send the signal out on the internets as well!

Link to DIY Slingbox

DIY Slingbox originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/06/06. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

HTC Touch Pro

Frank — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 01:17:21 +0000

HTC has just unveiled their new HTC Touch Pro. It looks like one hot unit with all sorts of neat things packed into a small unit.

2.8” VGA display
Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional with HTC TouchFLO 3D interface
3.2 megapixel camera
512MB internal memory
288MB RAM
microSD memory card slot
GPS navigation
TV output (WooHoo)
Bluetooth connectivity
GPRS/EDGE/HSDPA/HSUPA connectivity

It looks like a money dropper to me.

HTC Touch Pro originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/06/05. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

xMod – Hidden Tweaks For Leopard

Frank — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 03:04:58 +0000

xMod allows you to tweak all of those hidden settings in Leopard. xMod allows you to tweak everything from Finder to Safari, and if offer various other tools that allow you to tweak such things as the default screenshot behaviour and even check the status of you drive. The interface is a bit clunky but easy to use. Still beats doing all of these tweaks via command line

xMod

xMod – Hidden Tweaks For Leopard originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/06/04. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Hand Cranked MP3 Player

Frank — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 14:03:10 +0000

For all of you who want to walk the bleeding edge of technology and help save the environment the Eco Media Player is for you. The worlds first crank-powered MP3 and video player will leaving you wondering what to do with all of your USB chargers. A play on the many AM/FM radio out there that operate on crank power, the Eco Media Player might just be the perfect addition to your survival kit since it also sports an AM/FM radio and flashlight. What will you do with all those free hours waiting to be rescued? Watch a video of course.

The player can store up to 500 songs and have a SD slot for memory expandability. Cranking it for a minute will produce 40 minutes worth of MP3 goodness. The unit also has a mini-USB which can help charge up other devices like cellphones.

You can pick it up for $275

[Via DVICE]

Hand Cranked MP3 Player originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/02/14. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Sidebar Separator Hack For OS X

Frank — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 15:59:28 +0000

Hereâ€™s a simple and useful hack put together by Jonathan Berger that adds dividers to the Finder sidebar.

â€œI use the Finder’s Sidebar pretty heavily, but it was getting to be a mess that could really use some dividers. Solution? Make an empty folder called ” ……………….” and stick it in there.â€

You will need a leading space. You can use any symbol in the pattern like dashes or +â€™s. Periods seem to work the best because you can make a long filename and when itâ€™s abbreviated in a skinny sidebar it will still look okay since â€œ…â€ is added at the end.

The last trick is to give your separator folders a blank icon to hide the fact that they are nothing more than folders sitting in the sidebar.

Link to Hacking Separators in the sidebar

Sidebar Separator Hack For OS X originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/02/05. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Only For The Uber-Geek

Frank — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 15:51:08 +0000

If you are willing to be seen in public with any Star Trek mementos (some of us are closet trekies) then these fabulous engravings are for you.

Iâ€™m not sure who does these, but if someone knows who is creating these master pieces please do let us know. Iâ€™d love to have a blood thirsty Klingon on the back of my MacBook Pro.

Only For The Uber-Geek originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/02/05. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Convert Your Videos Online

Frank — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 20:31:34 +0000

Ever get confused when it comes to video conversions? mp4, mkv, avi, they can all get quite confusing. Why not let someone else deal with that headache? In Episode 10 of Digital Underground.tv the guys show you how to convert your videoâ€™s online with the need of any software. If you have a slow machine it might just be faster to let someone take the load for you. Check it out.

Convert Your Videos Online originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/01/31. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

How To Make A Roll Up Keyboard

Frank — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:15:59 +0000

Now you too can be uber-elite with your own roll up keyboard. Itâ€™s quite simple, all you really need to do is remove the membrane from your run of the mill usb keyboard and stick some letters on it (in the appropriate places of course).

Besides having a full sized keyboard, and the owws and ahhs youâ€™ll get from your fellow geek, this might have health benefits as well. Considering most keyboards are a biological cesspool of gems and bacteria. This one will be super easy to clean and disinfect.

Link to making your own roll up keyboard.

How To Make A Roll Up Keyboard originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/01/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Make Your Own Solar Powered Charger

Frank — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 18:45:26 +0000

You know me and my USB charging obsession. Having this in your glove box or your backpack can come in real handy when your stuck in a mess. All you need is some sun and a USB cable for your specific device and youâ€™ll get some free energy for your device. Great for emergencies.

Make Your Own Solar Powered Charger originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/01/28. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Easy To Build CNC Machine

Frank — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 20:33:14 +0000

Have you ever wanted your very own CNC machine but just never been able to pony up the money needed to get one? Have a peek at this one that Tom McWire slapped together. Video after the jump.

“Here is a way to make a computer controlled milling machine. That puts the real power of a computer control machining into the hands of the average human. Small enough to set on the desk but scalable to any size. As inexpensive as possible without sacrificing accuracy (too much). All most all the parts can be purchased in local retail stores. And above all CHEAP you can be up and running for well under $200. With it you can do 2 Dimensional engraving and PC board etching and 3D milling and modeling in Foam, Wood, Plastic and other soft materials.”

Easy To Build CNC Machine originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/01/27. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

First Looks At Mobile Firefox

Frank — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 02:42:04 +0000

Mozilla has just revealed a first look into its new Mobile Firefox interface. The new mobile browser will come in two flavours: one for touch screen devices like the iPhone and most PDAâ€™s, and one for non touch devices, like most cell phones.

Firefox mobile offers a familiar layout to all you iPhone and iPod touch users out there. Taking there cues from mobile Safari the main screen offers a similar layout. Back and forward navigation buttons, a bookmark button, and a retractable address bar.

There are some additions over Appleâ€™s mobile browser: a zoom button and a tab button that offers a different experience of the Safari one. When you press the tab button it will display up to four tab previews on the same screen for easy switching.

First Looks At Mobile Firefox originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/01/25. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Handheld Gaming Powerhouse

Frank — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 17:55:50 +0000

I love me my portable gaming (yes the English was bad on purpose). I always have my DS and PSP stuffed into my backpack (along with every other portable gadget I own) just incase I am stuck somewhere and I have to kill some time.

I can already play NES and Gameboy games on my PSP if I choose by way of some crafty home-brewed software, but what I canâ€™t do is play them in the park on a nice sunny day without killing my battery.

This portable gaming device not only plays games from the three classic Nintendo systems, it runs on the power of the sun (hence my whole park and sun analogy above). Right out of the box this unit can handle NES/Famicom, Gameboy and Gameboy colour titles, as long as you can get the ROMs onto an SD card which the unit uses to store the games. Iâ€™m sure if you use Google in a crafty manner you too can figure it out.

Along with all the retro-gaming fun, the Mobile Power Station plays most popular audio and video formats. The unit features a 3.5â€ colour display, 2GB of built in memory and an SD slot for up-to another 2GB. Did I also mention that the unit can also display (or speak) e-books, has a built in voice recorder, and even a tiny LED flashlight. Heck, it even has a USB out so that you can use the solar cells to charge other USB devices.

What are you waiting for? Grab one from Chinavision for $123.

Handheld Gaming Powerhouse originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/01/23. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Semi-Pro Light Kit For $75

Frank — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 04:34:52 +0000

A quick trip to your local big box hardware store and a few bucks and you too can turn that spare room into a professionally lit ~~porn~~ natural model studio you have always dreamed of having. That is of course, if you have some camera equipment to go with it. Itâ€™s going to be pretty hard to convince any woman that you are a famous fashion photographer if you donâ€™t have some big camera mounted on a tripod.

For about $75 you can slap together some work style flood lamps, some foil-covered windshield heat protectors and some daylight tinted bulbs, thatâ€™s a lot cheaper than the $1000â€™s you could spend on some professional gear. The results? Youâ€™ll get about 90% of the quality youâ€™d get from a pro kit (if done properly) for less than a fifth of the price.

The guys at shuttertalk.com have a complete breakdown on assembly this diy light kit. If you are on a budget, this canâ€™t be beat.

Semi-Pro Light Kit For $75 originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/01/21. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Improve Your Cell Phone’s Battery Life

Frank — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 19:09:05 +0000

Cell phone batteries generally fail on you when you need them most. You know, when your on the road traveling and can only charge your phone at night when you get back to your hotel room.

Wikihow has a great article on how to make your cell phone battery last longer. You can increase time between charges by turning the phone off at night when you go to bed, not using the vibrate function on your phone, and not searching for a signal when there obviously isn’t one to be found. You can prolong the life of your battery by fully charging a new battery before you use it, keeping the battery cool by not leaving your phone sit out in your purse in an overheated car, and by cleaning the battery contacts on both the battery and on the phone itself.

Most new batteries donâ€™t suffer from the same pitfalls that their predecessors did like charging memory, or burn out when overcharged, but most of the tricks in the article can help you squeeze the most juice out of that battery.

[Via DIYLIFE]

Improve Your Cell Phone’s Battery Life originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/01/21. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

How To Make A Cheap Camera Stabilizer

Frank — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 15:36:08 +0000

There is nothing worse than watching a video that shakes so bad it makes you seasick or having to take that perfect still photo and only end up with massive blur. Well, if you happen to have some string, a bolt, and a washer lying around then you to can make a super cheap/super effective camera stabilizer Best of all, total cost will be around $1.

How To Make A Cheap Camera Stabilizer originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/01/19. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Control Your Computer With A Wii Remote

Frank — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 04:10:51 +0000

Probably the hardest thing to find this past holiday season was a Nintendo Wii, believe me I looked. Even now that the holidays are over it’s still really hard to get your hands on one. With all of the crazy fanaticism over the Wii and it’s Wiimote game play why not build your own? Okay so your not actually going to be build a Wii per-say, but you can easily build a system to take advantage of the Wiimote and all it’s cool functions like waving it around like your trying to spray paint something.

This crafty hacker put together a simple plan to build his own Wii sensor and interface it with a PC so that he could play PC games using the Wiimote. Best of all you can do all of this for about $50.

With a simple piece of hardware you put together (they have very detailed intructions on their site) and some custom software that’s free to download to interface your Wiimote to your PC you’ll be ready to take you Wii-like experience on the road (if you have a laptop that is). They have even created a bunch of games that specifically take advantage of the Wiimote.

Now if I can only convince my wife that it’s the same!

Link to all you need.

Control Your Computer With A Wii Remote originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/01/15. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Macworld Keynote

Frank — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 19:59:46 +0000

Just like was expected the blog-o-sphere went crazy over the Macworld keynote by Steve Jobs. Almost every blog was live-blogging the event, live-blogging the live blogs, and live blogging the live blogging of the live blogging (you get the idea).

This is why I wanted to wait until all of the mass hysteria over the keynote was done and over with before I weighed in on what happened. Unfortunately the iPhone coming to Canada didn’t happen as I thought it would. I guess the whole ComWave Apple trademark dispute still hasn’t been resolved. Apple has a lot of money, and money can always buy you what you want.

Here’s my lonely take on the 4 things SJ talked about.

Time Capsule: A brilliant idea in my opinion. Time Machine has become the single feature of Leopard that made the upgrade worth-while. A built in backup solution that just works and works well, is something that every major operating system was lacking. Time Capsule takes it one step further. You no longer need to have a dedicated drive connected to each of your machines to preform backups, with the Time Capsule (essentially a airport extreme with a built in hard drive) backups can now be done over the network. With a 500gb and 1tb model set to ship, you should be able to backup all of your macs without a problem. I wonder how long it’s going to take some crafty hackers to create an open source version of this so that we don’t have to be limited to the dedicated unit.

iPhone and iPod Touch: Nice features but in my opinion stuff that should have been there from the beginning. An SDK was long over due, and the basic iPhone apps like Mail should have been on the iPod touch right out of the gate. Plus, what the hell is the deal with the $20 charge for the touch features? Just because they can call anyone they are being penalized. I really thought the Canadian thing would go through, but I’m sure they still have a stickler with ComWave which has been using the name iPhone here well before Apple introduced the product.

AppleTV and Movies: This was probably the single rumour that had been floating around that was correct. We all knew that Apple was planning on getting it the Movie rental business. Revamped AppleTV’s and free firmware upgrades for current AppleTV owners will bring Movie rentals right to your TV without the need of a computer. The AppleTV upgrade will allow you to purchase or rent movies directly from it’s interface without having to use iTunes on a separate computer. You can also subscribe to podcasts and videocast right on the unit. Fox also announced that they will be shipping DVD’s with embedded digital copies of the movie so you no longer need to rip em to watch them on your iPod.

Macbook Air: I want one, i want one, and i want one. Now that i got that out of the way. The worlds lightest laptop. I don’t know how that justify doubling the price when you move to a solid state drive, but it’s one hell of a jump from $1700 to $3000 based on a hard drive choice. I wonder how many will flock to purchase these units.

I was expecting something completely out of left field, which we didn’t get. Call me crazy but I think this was one of the most over hyped Macworld keynotes I have ever seen. Yes the Air is nice toy but it’s still just a notebook.

Macworld Keynote originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/01/15. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Feature-Packed Flashlight

Frank — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 20:23:24 +0000

Just in case you ever need to change a flat tire in the middle of darkness, record it with night vision, and record the audio of the whole experience; then this one’s for you. The Flashlight DVR Compact by Swann gives you all that and a flashlight. You can record about 8 hours of video, audio, and stills onto it’s SD card. There is even a panic siren encase shit hits the fan.

The whole thing is encased in an aluminum alloy casing that will take a whole hell of a lot punishment. Having all of these gadgets in one device doesn’t come cheap either; $399 to get your fix

Feature-Packed Flashlight originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/01/12. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

14 Year Old Hacker Derails Train

Frank — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 20:33:45 +0000

I’m sure the media is going to put a nasty spin on this story about how all hackers are bad.

A 14 year old boy has been arrested after hacking into a Polish train system and using it like a giant train set which caused 12 people injuries. Initially it looked like he was being malicious, but I think it’s just the media trying to skirt the real problem; the kid was obviously bored and needed some form of stimulation. I’m sure the media is going to put a nasty spin on this story about how all hackers are bad.

“He had converted the television control into a device capable of controlling all the junctions on the line and wrote in the pages of a school exercise book where the best junctions were to move trams around and what signals to change.

“He treated it like any other schoolboy might a giant train set, but it was lucky nobody was killed. Four trams were derailed, and others had to make emergency stops that left passengers hurt. He clearly did not think about the consequences of his actions.”

Not that I am condoning this type of behaviour, but as we all know, curiosity sometimes gets the best of us. If anyone can gain that sort of access to public transport (with a modified TV remote control!) things are very wrong. What if it had been a terrorist? Iâ€™m sure it would be â€œdeadâ€ not â€œinjuredâ€ in the headlines.

Link to Full Story

14 Year Old Hacker Derails Train originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/01/11. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Pedal Powered Tennis Ball Launcher

Frank — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 01:37:07 +0000

Here’s an awesome hack for all of those tennis lovers. The pedal powered tennis ball launcher is built from a couple bikes and can launch tennis balls with the best of them (video after the break).

“Both cleanly powered and built from 2 recycled bicycles, scrap steel and wood, leaking 5 gallon water jug and a lacross stick, our pedal powered tennis ball launcher is a unique innovate or die entry. It allows players varying in skill levels to practice to be better at both tennis and cycling. The launcher is towed to the court on its built-in bicycle trailer. A bike is secured to it and functions to drive the device. Pedaling the cycle as one would on a trainer drives the two launcher wheels. The cyclist then aims and pulls the lever to launch balls to the hitter.”

Can you just imagine all of the fun you could have with this if you just started launching tennis balls in the middle of the road? Not that we are encouraging this type of behavior, but it would be quite funny.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBxUjBUdQ5o[/youtube]

Pedal Powered Tennis Ball Launcher originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/01/10. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Watch Full Length TV Episodes Online

Frank — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 20:46:49 +0000

Fancast allows you to watch full length episodes of your favorite TV shows. Fancast essentially aggregates all of the available full length TV shows that are already offered by the big networks, but Fancast takes things one step further, taking it beyond the video streaming by integrating movies and other services. Fancast shows directs you to iTunes or Amazon where you can purchase the product your watching (hey, these guys need to make money somehow).

I warn you now, it can be a tad confusing to navigate around, but it will give you your TV fix.

Fancast

Watch Full Length TV Episodes Online originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/01/09. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Google Enabled TVs

Frank — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 19:14:27 +0000

Some more interesting evidence why Google will soon become the new world order. Google and Panasonic’s parent company Matsushita have just signed a deal that will see the company launch flat panel TV sets that allow users to access various Google services like YouTube and Picasa right from their TV.

This isn’t the first time a company has tries to get into your living room, but it’s the first time that Google has stepped into this market space, and we all know how everything the Google touches seems to turn to gold. Having access to YouTube directly from your TV without the need of any additional hardware might just be what is need to finally deliver mass internet content directly into the living room. This might just make something like YouTube a major TV-esque network.

Google Enabled TVs originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/01/08. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Time Machine Over The Network

Frank — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 16:33:23 +0000

One of the most useful additions to Leopard that I use religiously is Time Machine. One of the only problems I have with it is that I must have a physical disk connected to my Mac in order to use it. Now I have a massive 3TB worth of network storage at home, why can’t I use that for my backups? Enter iTimeMachine which lets me do just that. This simple 2 button utility makes your shared network drives shown up in Time Machine’s possible backup destinations list.

Now I warn you now, it’s not the most user friendly application. You need to mount your share, fire up Time Machine, fire up iTimeMachine, quit Time Machine, go into Time Machine’s setting in the System Preference panel, change the the disk to your network share, then restart Time Machine. Are you dizzy yet?

It took me a few attempts before I got all of the voodoo and rubber chicken waving down pat, but it did work. It’s not perfect, but if your like me and want to use your network storage for your Time Machine backups it’s all you’ve got.

iTimeMachine

Time Machine Over The Network originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/01/08. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Windows Mobile 7 Details Leaked

Frank — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 16:35:07 +0000

InsideMicosoft just got a massive scoop on Windows Mobile 7 which is due out in 2009. There have been some leaks of Windows Mobile 6.1 floating around the net, this isn’t it, this is the next full release of Windows Mobile that will fix a whole slew of issues that have been plaguing the platform.

Looks like the new V7 will be brining multi-touch touch screen gestures (including flicking, drawing, and swiping. Ala iPhone), motion gestures (shaking, flipping, etc. Again ala iPhone), a Windows Vista-esque design, better navigation and a desktop like IE browser.

Guess Microsoft has caught on to the iPhone craze.

Windows Mobile 7 Details Leaked originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/01/07. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.