The guys over at fireCore have just released Seas0nPass, an application that will jailbreak your second generation AppleTV. Seas0nPass requires you to tether your AppleTV briefly during boot in order to preform the jailbreak by loading custom IPSW files onto your AppleTV.

fireCore is a name that is synonymous with AppleTV hackers. The group also released aTV Flash, unlocking software for the first generation AppleTV that added additional functionality like XBMC and a browser.

Seas0nPass is open source and free and only works on the second generation AppleTV, so don’t try using it on your iPad or iPhone. It currently only works with OS X 10.6 or later and a Windows version is currently under development.

Remember, jailbreaking an Apple device can lead to rendering your device useless if you don’t know what your doing. By the looks of it over at fireCore’s website most people seem to agree that jailbreaking the second generation AppleTV is riskery than other Apple devices. If your okay with the risk you can grab Seas0nPass here.

Seas0nPass: 2nd Gen Apple TV Jailbreak originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/13. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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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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At first glance this might look like your average beer fridge, one that could possibly be in any dorm room in the country. If you take a closer look (or watch the video after the break) you will see that it’s actually an air cannon powered beer launcher.

A fancy iPhone interface allows the user to choose a beer and load it up in the cannon for delivery. Next, you aim the cannon with the help of it’s built in webcam. When you have chosen your beverage and aimed it in the right direction you click fire.

You better be good at catching, getting hit the head with a full beer being launched from an air cannon will hurt, I promise.

Beer Shooting Fridge originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/04. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Don’t have a snowblower? Need some exercise? The pedal powered snow plow might just be what the doctor ordered. Custom built by Craig, this three wheel bike with a wooden plow is perfect for scraping up that light covering of snow.

The custom 3-wheel bike with sidecar was made years ago, a replica of a bike my childhood friend had. Last winter I added a snow plow accessory. Up to 1 inch of snow doesn’t make it worthwhile to fire up my big 8HP snowthrower. And shoveling my 90′ long driveway by hand can be too much. So my bike plow makes it easy to make a few runs up and down the driveway to make 2 or 3 piles that can then be easily hand shoveled off to the side. A lever pulls up or lets down the plow with a rope and pulley. Pulling the lever all the way back cantilevers the rope and pivot point so it locks in place. The plow blade is hinged with a bungee cord, so hitting a discrepancy in the road allows the blade to flop and give like a real plow. The bike can turn on a dime so raising the plow and returning up the adjacent path is quick and easy. I can do ‘reverse’ by pushing down on the front wheel with my foot to roll it backwards.Totally useless with larger snow falls, but the light ones make snow removal fun. (yes, my neighbors do think I’m odd)

A wonderful way to get the job done without pumping exhaust from a snow blower into the environment.

Pedal Powered Snow Plow originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/12/31. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Following our list of Linux Distros That Don’t Suck, More Linux Distros That Don’t Suck and Even More Distros That Don’t Suck, we are going to start to narrow our lists to a specific role.

In this installment of our “Distros That Don’t Suck” we are featuring routers/firewalls. Sure you can use your default DLink or Linksys hardware router to preform these tasks but why not bring it to the next level with much more control and features like VPN and bridging?

NOTE: The contained list includes projects that are 100% free and open and don’t charge for additional components or functionality. There are plenty of projects that offer a lite or free version of their solution but charge you for more advanced features.

pfSense – pfSense is a FreeBSD based stateful packet filtering firewall with a whole slew of features. Besides your basic NAT/Firewall capabilites, pfSense offers packages that can enhance it’s feature set like a transparent virus proxy for web surfing and Snort for sniffing packets. pfSense also comes with PPTP, IpSec and Open VPN support baked in and support for OpenBSD’s CARP hardware failover which allows you to have two boxes configured as a failover group. I’m been using pfSense for a few years now and love it. It’s an enterprise grade product with an easy consumer interface. Definitely my favorite.

m0n0wall – Another FreeBSD based stateful packet filtering firewall which is what pfSense is based on. It’s pretty much has the same feature set as pfSense with a few minor exceptions. It’s really stable and is one of the older distros in the firewall/router game. m0n0wall will run on pretty low end hardware and offers an embedded option so you can run it on embedded hardware like an ALIX board. A great option if you want something you can set and forget.

IPCop – Originally a fork of the SmoothWall project, IPCop is a Linux based stateful firewall built on the netfilter framework. IPCop offers a simple update mechanism to install updates and offers many addons that add additional functionality like QoS and virus checking. Geared toward the home or SOHO user, IPCop offers a highly configurable firewall/router that can run on almost and hardware you have laying around.

DD-Wrt – If you don’t have a spare computer laying around to power your router/firewall and would like to take advantage of a hardware WLAN you already own then DD-Wrt is right up your alley. A fork of OpenWRT, DD-WRT is a Linux based alternative firmware suitable for a long list of WLAN routers. If your hardware router is supported a simple firmware upgrade to DD-WRT will add a lot of the same functionality to your hardware that most of the distros in this list offer. A great way to mod existing hardware to squeeze every last bit of performance out of the unit. May I suggest the Linksys WRT-54G-L.

Zeroshell – Zeroshell aims to provide an easy to install and maintain Linux based firewall distribution. Zeroshell is powerful enough for an enterprise load but surprisingly easy to configure with complete set of options like VPN, QoS and VLAN support. Based on Linux and available as a LiveCD or Compact Flash image, Zeroshell falls into the “easy and powerful” category. Great for someone who doesn’t want to screw around too much and just wants something that works.

I’m sure I have missed other great projects that offer a firewall or routing. If you know of a distro that should be in our list let us know in the comments.

Open Source Firewall/Routers That Don’t Suck originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/12/30. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Following my first two distro lists; Linux Distros That Don’t Suck and More Linux Distros That Don’t Suck, I bring you the long awaited third installment in my distro lists; Even More Linux Distros That Don’t Suck.

As a fore-warning, this list is just what I have used in the past and what I have experience with. I know that talking Linux is like talking religion, everyone has one and not everyone likes the other guy’s. With that in mind you are free to comment and hammer me about my list, just know that it’s only my personal experience here.

Mint – What can I say, it’s Ubuntu done right. If what you are looking for is a solid desktop replacement OS, one the whole family can use then look no further. Based on Debian and Ubuntu, this distro comes with everything you need to get going and it looks sexy as well. It’s got full multimedia support right out of the box and it’s super easy to use. Perfect for grandma.

ZeroShell – This distro is awesome. I have used this multiple times on embeded devices and it’s always come through for me. It’s fully administered via a web page and it offer’s a host of network services like Load Balancing, UMTS/HSDPA 3G modem connections, QoS and Lan-to-Lan VPN just to name a few. If you need a solid industrial all around firewall/gateway this should be at the top of your list.

Tiny Core – If you think Damn Small Linux is bloated then Tiny Core is for you. At a whopping 10MB with a full desktop, this has to be the smallest release I have ever seen. If 10MB is too big for you, you can grab a 6MB version that is console only. This is an awesome distro if you want to start small and build on it. Perfect for those older systems.

Elive – Based on Debian, Elive looks to provide a complete desktop replacement while offering eye-candy with minimal hardware requirements. I have this installed on an older laptop that my daughter uses. She loves to work with multimedia and this distro scratches her itch perfectly. It’s runs well on older hardware while still looking good. If you like to work with video, 3D or audio then you should give this distro a once over.

Mythbuntu – It’s really not a distro per-say, it’s a custom roll of Ubuntu with MythTV built it. For years I used KnoppMyth for my MythTV needs and only recently did I switch to Mythbuntu. If you don’t feel like building your HTPC from scratch take a look at this, you won’t be disappointed.

Tinfoil Hat – For the truly paranoid. As their website says “The Illuminati are watching your computer, and you need to use morse code to blink out your PGP messages on the numlock key.”. This distro is perfect for those who fear for their privacy. It’s compiled with static libraries and ships on a single floppy.

LegacyOS – This was formally known as TeenPup which is based on PuppyLinux. The main purpose of this distro is to ensure a smooth user experience on hardware that’s 5-10 years old. If you have an old machine laying around and are looking for a decent suite of software then look no further. Don’t plan on doing any intense processing with it but basic usage it’s great.

As always this is a list of distros I have experience with, this by no means is a “perfect” or “greatest” list. It’s just stuff I have used and like, feel free to let me know what you think in the comments.

Even More Linux Distros That Don’t Suck originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/09/06. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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The awesome heat-seeking Nerf gun won Make’s Gadget Freak Design Contest. The mod consists of a Nerf Vulcan Blaster hooked up to a few Devantech TPA81 Thermal Sensors and is controlled by an ATMega 168 processor.

The unit acts exactly as it should, it tracks you via your heat signature and fires nerf bullets at you. No word yet on whether chaffs/flares will work to confuse it, but one thing is for sure, the Disintegrator Rubber Band Gatling Gun could use this heat-seeking mod.

Currently you can’t buy the mod at your local Toy’s R Us, but you can head on over to the creators website and build your own.

Heat-Seeking Nerf Gun originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/09/04. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Every wanted to build you very own auto tracking sentry gun? No? Me either, but now that I take a look at it I do want to build one. Not one that fires bullets or anything, but one that would have a water gun on it to keep people out of my office.

If you’re like me and wanted to make one of these you would probably ran into the same issues I have. So to help all you poor suckers out the software we developed is open source and freely available on the website. The only reservation we have is that you make it a point not to hurt anyone or anything, we take no responsibility for anything.

The point of making it open source is to encourage joint development of the software and hardware possibilities.

If you follow the instructions properly you will end up with exactly what you wanted. After collecting all the hardware you will probably spend a long weekend putting it together. It doesn’t take a genius but it helps to be able to solder and do some basic handcrafts.

You can head on over to his website where he has detailed instruction on building one and all the software you will need to make it work.

DIY: Auto Tracking Sentry Gun originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/11/06. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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High speed video can be so much fun. Watching something that we normally take for granted on high speed film can really be amazing. Remember the bullets that were shot at 1,000,000 fps? Normally when we see a bullet being fired it happens in the blink of an eye, but when it’s slowed down you can actually see how the impact happens.

Take this video of a water droplet hitting a container full of water. You can actually see the droplet bouncing thanks to a thin layer of air which separates the drops from the water surface. Check out the video after the break.

Water Drops At 2000 FPS originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/27. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Seriously, you’d have to be a cast member of the TV Show Madmen to be able to pull off something like these mini lighter cufflinks. Seriously, who smokes any more (besides me. I know I know). Not even the modern day super spy would want to be caught with these things, they’d opt for the mini laser cufflinks.

If you still think that walking around with something attached to your very flammable shirt that can easily catch fire since it carries flammable fluid inside, then you can head over to Etsy and pick them up for $40 off of YougNeek.

Mini Lighter Cufflinks originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/07. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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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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What in this world could protect your computer(s) or network better than a firewall? If you said not connecting your machine to the Internet your right, but most of us can’t live for more than a few minutes without being online. Hell, it gives me the shakes.

Now, here at the Frank residences we have multiple machines. A family machine, a MythTV box, various gaming consoles, a bunch of laptops, and a bunch of servers that preform various tasks. We also have multiple static IP’s to help out with the work load. It’s a lot of traffic coming and going, and although a basic Linksys or Dlink might do just fine, I was looking for something more flexible, something more powerful. I have gone through many open source firewall/router packages in the past and they all have their pro’s and con’s, but one the I have stumbled on and love is pfSense.

This project started in 2004 as a fork of the m0n0wall project, but focused towards full PC installations rather than the embedded hardware focus of m0n0wall. pfSense also offers an embedded image for Compact Flash based installations, however it is not the primary focus. It has a powerful packaging system that allows you to add additional functionality like a squid proxy server or Radius server to it’s already long list of features.

Right out of the box you get some neat features that you might only see in a massive commercial product.

• Outbound Load Balancing – If you have multiple Internet connections you can use the built in load balancing feature to bridge them together into one fat pipe.
• VPN – Built in OpenVPN, PPTP and IPsec servers for when you fell like calling home.
• Redundancy – Setup 2 multiple firewalls. In case one pfSense server dies, the other one will pick up the slack.
• Real Time Graphing – See exactly what’s going on with your traffic.

If you have a spare PC laying around and want the solid protection that a industrial grade firewall can offer then give pfSense a try. You really don’t need to be a BSD wizard to install it either. Download the iso, burn it to a cd, load the cd and choose install. All of the configuration and settings are changed via’s it’s intuitive web page.

Give it a whirl, you won’t be disappointed.

Industrial Strength Firewall, Poor Mans Budget originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/05/12. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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We have featured many things that would explain why people with tons of money are really stupid. But it seems that every time I stumble across some new over priced useless piece of technology it beats the last.

Take this solid gold (yes solid, not plated) PC. I’m not quite sure how much gold is used in the case, but I am sure that it costs more than the internals, which are; an Intel Core 2 Duo, 100GB drive (WTF, solid gold and all you get is 100GBs?), 4GB of RAM, 8 USB ports, and 2 FireWire ports (and Apple wouldn’t put any in the latest MacBook).

No word on pricing either, but I’m pretty sure none of us could afford it.

Pure Gold PC originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/10/31. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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The first Mobile Firefox Alpha codenamed fennec is up for download on Mozilla’s site. Currently, the only mobile device that it actually runs on is Nokia’s N810 tablet, but you can play with it on Windows, OS X and Linux. I’m sure it will only be a short amount of time before we start to see this thing complied to run on everything from an iPhone (I hope) to a Blackberry (I REALLY Hope).

If you download and play with the alpha let us know how you made out in the forums

Mobile Firefox Alpha originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/10/17. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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What happens when you smash an old Atari 2600 and a Guitar Hero guitar together? The Atari Hero of course. Conner over at Slippery Brick has done just that. This crazy casemod is a real beauty. The guitar is wrapped in a custom circuit board pattern, and in place of the strum bar is a tiny (i mean real tiny) LCD screen so you can enjoy all of that 8-bit action. If that wasn’t enough for you, he also embedded the fire button in the neck of the guitar and added a custom joystick and paddle controller right into the body.

It took Conner about 2 months to build this slick casemod and by the looks of it it was totally worth it. The unit plays any classic Atari 2600 game you can throw at it. The whole thing is powered by a couple AAs. I wonder how much game time you get with only two AAs powering an LCD and the Atari itself. Probably not that much.

Now if someone could only jam a 360 or PS3 into a Guitar Hero guitar so that you could play Guitar Hero on your Guitar Hero guitar. A boy can dream, can’t he?

[Link to Atari Hero]

Atari 2600 + Guitar Hero = Atari Hero originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/09/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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For the longest time we have seen portable apps for Windows. You know; the kind of applications you can drag onto a USB stick and have them run directly from the stick and never, and I mean ever, have to install anything on any machine that you may run them on. Now with U3 technology (sorry kids, it’s only available for Windows) installing and creating portable apps has even become easier.

I did a segment on the Lab With Leo show earlier this year on just that, portable apps for your Mac.

Freesmug have an awesome list of great OS X apps like Word Processor, FTP clients, IRC clients, and more. They also have a few paid versions of portable Mac exclusive apps like Mail.app, Ical, and Addressbook so that you can keep all of your setting in synch.

theplaceforitall.com – This has two of the greatest portable apps that I use all of the time, versions of the popular web browser Firefox and the email client Thunderbird. Both of these are compiled for both the Mac and Windows, so it doesn’t matter what OS your on, you can run them both and you will maintain all your settings across both platforms.

Because of the complex way that some settings are stored in the Mac operating system it’s hard to come by or even create portable apps, but I’m sure it won’t be too long before that wall comes tumbling down.

Portable Apps For Your Mac originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/09/21. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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The crafty open source developers at Codeweavers have beaten Google to the punch and release Mac OS X and Linux native versions of Google’s Chrome browser.

Before you start to jump for joy, this is more a proof of concept that and actual production run browser. The developers don’t recommend that you run their port of Chrome as your main browser. In my testing with the Mac port of the browser I quickly noticed that it was missing that smooth look and shine that you get with the Windows version. This might be okay if you just want to test drive Chrome and don’t have a Windows machine, but not something you might want to use day to day.

Maybe this will light a fire under Google’s butt and speed up development of Chrome for other OSes. Then again, maybe not.

[Link to CrossOver Chromium]

CrossOver Chromium Brings Chrome To OS X And Linux originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/09/16. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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The Freedom Stick is exactly what it’s name implies, freedom form firewalls that are placed in countries like Chine or the one in Italy that has been erected to block p2p users from the Pirate Bay.

The project has been brought forward by the CCC (Chaos Computer Club) and is basically a version of TOR and Firefox that can run on a USB stick. The aim is to provide every internet user with the opportunity to surf the Net without fearing censorship or prosecution.

It was designed with ease of use in mind and can easily be run by people with little or no computer skill. Download the archive for the CCC’s Chinese Wall page and unpack the contents to a USB key. If you have autostart enabled the system will launch the Vidalia Control Panel and Firefox which will allow any user to sure the net using the anonymity of the TOR network.

Freedom Stick – Freedom From Firewalls originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/08/19. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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If your a geek then you must have loved the old classic Trek episodes, the one’s with the red shirts that never made it, and what about those over sized phasers (compared to the later Trek series). Well, now thanks to Kip Kay you too can have a cool looking Star Trek phaser that emits a blue laser. By using a classic Trek toy phaser, a blu-ray dvd player diode, a resistor and switch he was able to slap together a phaser that actually fires off a blu(e)-ray.

As always kids, if you want to do this then don’t point the laser into your friends eyes. You could blind him and then be left to read to him comic books for the rest of your life.

DIY: Blu-Ray Laser Phaser originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/08/14. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Google street view has captured some interesting and wacky things since the trucks first hit the road to start snapping pictures of street views in major urban areas across the world but I don’t think I have seen anything as dramatic as this house burning in Sherwood, Arkansas.

I’m actually quite surprised that emergency services actually let the truck drive right close to the house while they tried to put out the fire. Let us know of any other wacky and embarrassing Google street view snaps you might have come across.

Google Street View Captures Blazing Home originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/08/12. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Setting up Mozilla Weave

Set Up Mozilla Weave On Your Server originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/08/09. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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For the love of God kids, don’t, and I mean don’t try this at home. Everett Bradford has been working on a Pyro like system (just like the one from X-Men) for his final project for a mechanisms class (what ever happened to building volcanos and the such?). This thing looks quite dangerous, but it does do a nice job of imitating the fire throwing ability of Pyro from X-Men.

The Pyro System is my final project for a mechanisms class in the spring of 2008. It gives me the power that the X-Men character Pyro has

UPDATE: Seems that the second video went missing. I have correct the post and you can now see the flamethrower in action

DIY Flamethrower originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/08/07. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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It’s hasn’t been the biggest secret around these parts, I have been working feverishly at creating a “new” social bookmarking service. I know what some of you are already saying; “but we already have delicious”.

Avalinks takes a fresh look at social bookmarking.

• Watchlists to follow family and friends
• Make your bookmarks public for the world to see or private for just you
• A Firefox extension to make bookmarking a snap
• Accessibility to your bookmarks from anywhere
• Full del.icio.us based API. Easy integration into current applications
• iPhone support for accessing your bookmarks – http://m.avalinks.com

We are still working out some of the kinks and some of the features like a Firefox extension that will allow you to synch your bookmarks across different computers, no matter what OS you are using. This way you will have access to your bookmarks from any computer, anywhere, anytime.

Stop on by and give it a whirl. You never know, you might just like it.

Avalinks

Avalinks – Social Bookmarking Reinvented originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/07/16. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Type “about:robots” in the address bar on Firefox 3.0 to see a little bit of wisdom form our metallic brethren. If you stumble upon any more Firefox easter eggs drop a comment so we can check them out. Remember, Robots are Your Plastic Pal who’s fun to be with.

Robot Easter Egg originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/06/24. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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For all of you hardcore 8-bit gamers, you can now play your favorite NES games right in your browser. Available exclusively for Firefox, FireNES allows you to browse and play through some 20,000 NES games. The beauty of it? You don’t need any additional software, just download the extension and it will run in Firefox no matter what OS you use.

Now if they could only create a PSP or XBox360 Firefox extension i’d be set.

FireNES

FireNES – NES Games In Your Browser originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/06/08. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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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.

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What makes a railgun special is that it uses magnetic fields, which means it’s not as messy. You can dump tons of juice on it and get the shell going pretty damn fast. Check the video out after the break.

“If you’ve got a little over 10 megajoules as with this demonstration model, you’re looking at 5,600 mph. When the system is completed, it’ll be firing shells with over six times that energy (well over 13,000 mph) using 64 megajoules of energy”

10 Megajoule Railgun originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/02/02. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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This is one of those things that everyone should just have in their car for unforeseen emergencies. A fire-piston will allow you to start a fire anywhere at anytime without the use of a lighter or matches.

“The principle of increasing temperature by method of compressing air is explained by the adiabatic process in which the internal energy of a gas must increase when a mass of air is rapidly compressed or the volume of a mass of air is rapidly decreased. The resulting increase in internal energy results in a temperature rise sufficient to light an ember, just like the pressure produced by an ice skater’s blade is sufficient to increase the internal energy of the ice which turns ice under the blade into water.”

Link to making your own fire-piston

[Via Make]

How To Start A Fire With Air originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/01/31. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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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 PDA’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 Apple’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.

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Wanna build your very own Lancer just like the one in the Gears of War game? Okay so it’s not technically a real weapon, but the plastic chainsaw moves, the unit lights up and it really does fire nerf bullets (Video after the break).

All you’ll need is a toy chainsaw and a nerf gun and you too can pretend to go on a violent rampage. Just don’t get any ideas and walk out in public with the unit since law enforcement would probably shoot you on the spot if they ever saw you with it.

[Via Joystiq]

Build Your Own Gears Of War Lancer, Sort Of originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/01/23. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Many a days I sit around the office popping people with rubber bands. You know, just like you did as a kid. Wrap the rubber band around your index finger and thumb and let it launch. Imagine launching 40 of them a second. Composed of 479 pieces, the Disintegrator shoots 40 rubber bands per second and as far as 22 feet. 24 revolving barrels hold up to 288 standard #36 sized rubber bands.

You can table mount it like a turret or shoot off the hip. As the video below shows, you really don’t want to be caught in the cross fire when this bad boy is fired. You will only get about 7 minutes of fire-power from a 5 hour charge, but I’m sure that will be more than enough time to get your point across.

I wonder what the kind people at the TSA would say if you walked into an airport with it? It only shoots rubber bands, and it’s velocity is well below the limit for a firearm.

The gun isn’t for sale, it’s a hack-together project that took over 2 months to pull off. However, the creator has the constructions details on his site

Link

Disintegrator Shoots 40 Rubber Bands Per Second originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/01/17. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Your out for dinner with friends or family and your crackberry goes off. Do you feel a compulsive urge to see who it is? Must you be one with the Internet at all time? We have all done it; we have all at one point or another had technology rule our lives. For some people technology is a must, I bet most people could not remember what they did with their time before computers were around.

Here are 20 sure-fire ways to know if technology is ruling your life. If you qualify for any of them (some of us, including me, qualify for almost all of them) then maybe some fresh air would be in order. Either that or you need to aim for achieving all of them. That would make you an uber hardcore geek.

1. You’ve bought and sold things on eBay.
2. You carry your laptop with you wherever you go (or you wish you could).
3. Your kids photo are no longer in your wallet but are set as your wallpaper.
4. You no longer use a watch but check the time on your cellphone.
5. You have a thumb drive on your persons at all times.
6. You have had an online affair.
7. All of your friends know you by your username or avatar.
8. The only funny thing you’ve seen in months is the lol cats
9. You no longer purchase greeting cards; you send them via email.
10. Instead of reading a physical paper you read it on your pda.
11. You Google urls instead of actually typing them in.
12. You are – or have been – a member of a Google group.
13. You no longer debate real people but frequently do it in online forums.
14. You watch TV shows on your computer instead of watching them on a TV
15. Between your TV and Internet access you would rather lose your TV.
16. You can’t remember the last time you used a pen and paper.
17. You’ve watched Bill Gates on the Daily Show but never seen a full episode.
18. When you hear the word “Spam” you don’t think of food.
19. You have become an expert in a field thanks to Wikipedia.
20. You would rather text someone instead of calling them.

Have I missed any? Feel free to add to the list in the comments.

20 Signs That Technology Rules Your Life originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/01/14. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Here is two great pieces of software to make sure that you are getting the best open source replacement software you can get your hands on. WinLibre (for Windows) and MacLibre (for the Mac) allow you to install and update some of the best open source software available for the two platforms. This is great if you are setting up a fresh system and want to grab all of the cool apps that you need like Firefox or Thunderbird. You can also run the application periodically to check for any updates or to install newer versions of the software you already have installed.

Both applications are free and available for their respective operating systems.

Quickly Install Open Source Software originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/01/08. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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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.

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- A camera (e.g. web cam)
- A hand-held line laser
- Two plain boards in the background
- A Windows PC
- DAVID-Laserscanner software (free)

Once you’ve got your equipment together, print off the calibration sheets that are included with the David Laserscanner software and apply them to you 2 plain boards.

Your two boards must form a perfect 90 deg right angle, this is key to the scanning process.

Next, point your webcam at your calibration boards and turn off any image enhancements that your camera might have (i.e., ambient light boot, auto exposure, etc).

Next we fire up the David Laserscanner software and auto calibrate our calibration boards. You must have as bright a room as you can get for this step, you almost want a complete washed out look for perfect calibration.

Once your done grab your line laser and turn all of the lights off, you want to make sure that the room is a pitch black as possible, all we want the camera to do is see the laser. Then, at a high angle, slowly pass your line laser over the object from top down, repeat the scan until you have a solid mesh form of your object.

Export your scan into an .obj format and load it up into your favorite 3d modeling program and enjoy.

Although it does take a while to get a decent scan out of the thing it sure is cheaper than some of the solutions out there. If you have the interest and some free time, it is a definite check out item.

Poor Mans 3d Scanner originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2007/12/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2007 | Permalink | Comments | Read more in Hacking And Security | Explore more in: 3d, ac, avi, beer, boot, bra, camera, cheap, ds, ea, fire, hack, hacking, id, ir, key, laser, light, lights, loa, make, mod, os, owl, pc, proc, rc, scanner, time, ui, web cam, webcam, wind, windows | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

As the site says, it’s “Page Rank and much more”. It would be a bit much to list everything that this site looks up about your URL, so you are just going to have to click the link and find out for yourself.

Another nice link to have is : http://www.unofficialseoblog.com/top-10-must-have-seo-firefox-extensions/2662/

Webstatistics 2.0 originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2007/10/03. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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The IT department here at tech.nocr.at has taken up a new policy on help desk questions. I better get my fire retardant suit on before calling them

[Via flickr]

tech.nocr.at IT Helpdesk Policy originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2007/08/27. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Isn’t it about time that you start using Firefox with Adblock Plus and NoScript ? Might as well throw in another good add-on called StumbleUpon as well.

::UPDATE:: It has been confirmed that this only works when the html document is opened locally. The reason I didn’t wipe the article all together is the fact that things like this usually are a seed to find an actual working way to get this done.

Scripting is baaaad originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2007/08/16. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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A new addition to the Secunia Software Inspector series, the free Secunia Personal Software Inspector (PSI), is now available for BETA testing. Capable of detecting and categorising more than 4,200 applications.

So far, I have run it on a Vista Ultimate and XP SP2 box and it has come back with some impressive results. It found some software that I hate to admit, had totally forgotten about, on my system that was out of date. As for cons, I have only found two thus. One, it detected my Firefox install as 2.0.0.4 instead of 2.0.0.6. The second being, not so much a technical fault, but a person preference. It is not portable, you install it and it works on that box.

What they don’t tell you on the site is that when it detects out of date applications, it provides you a direct download link. This is good and bad, you are not seeing where this download is coming from, so you are trusting Secunia. It’s good for us lazy computer geeks though, because it is only one click.

Finally, they provide you a detailed write up on the out of date software you have and links to find out what vulnerabilities affect that software package.

In closing, this is a great piece of software that I will definitely keep tabs on and take around with me, along with my File Hippo Updater

Check out and follow this project at https://psi.secunia.com/

Are you secure: Secunia to the rescue originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2007/08/01. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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By using a low level driver to re-direct all the network traffic to the Pico, before Windows and the TCP/IP stack see it, means that any attacks on your computer will hit the Pico before it has a chance to affect your computer. This actually provides a physical separation between your machine and the internet (or network your connecting to, think free internet hotspot).

It’s $179 plus $30/year for updates, it isn’t exactly cheap but if you prefer paying for anti-virus and anti-spyware rather than using free versions, this might be great for you.

Yoggie Pico Firewall originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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If you’re like me you probably own a metric ton load of microphones from all of those podcasts you might do (okay I realize some of you might not do podcasts). I’ve been known to drop a pretty penny on microphones and other gear, hell I even own a mic that I paid over $500 for (I know I’m crazy).

One of the problems with having a studio pro microphone is the inability to make it very portable. Pro mics usually use an XLR type connector and I have yet to run across a laptop that has an XLR input. Because of the lack of XLR inputs you usually have to carry a pre-amp and some sort of firewire or USB breakout box to make it all work, way to much when you are trying to travel light.

CEntrance has all the angles covered with its new, self-contained, XLR input, USB-based MicPort Pro. The idea behind the device is quite simple: It takes any XLR microphone (or input) and converts it to a self-powered, single channel, 24-bit / 96Khz audio interface – all you have to do is plug it in with its supplied USB cable. You can get it now for $149.95.

MicPort Pro: Podcasting Dream originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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hField claims that the Wi-Fire can increase your Wi-Fi signal by using a powerful internal directional antenna, a high sensitivity receiver and some software. If the device can actually do what it claims it could mean much better reception while you’re on the road.

Wi-Fire supports both Mac and Windows and will run you about $79.

1000 Foot Wi-FI. Yes I said 1000 Feet! originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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The decTOP computer system comes with 128MB of RAM, a 10GB hard drive (both of which are upgradeable), and is powered by a 333MHz AMD processor. If your looking for a rendering machine or cluster node this isn’t for you but it’s more than powerful enough to run a firewall appliance or a file server for the home. It’s got built in VGA, Ethernet, USB, and even has audio.

This bad boy comes without an OS on it but this simple tutorial shows you how to slap Ubuntu on it. Best of all, you can pick this puppy up for $99

[Via Lifehacker]

A basic server for under $100 originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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This is a great way to have a video chat with someone if you’ve had problems getting iChat’s video to work behind a firewall, or if both parties are on different platforms. Great idea, great system. Thumbs up from my end.

TokBox – Instant Video Chat originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Don’t get me wrong, these are great programs and very useful in their own right, but not the solution. That’s when I happened on a website called VConvert.net which downloads the flv, converts it, and delivers you the video in formats for your PC, MAC, iPod, PSP, iPhone, and even your Cell phone! (Phones capable of playing .3gp)

Tools that do one task, and do it well.

Media downloading made simple originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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81% of our readers are regular Firefox users, good for all of you.

Firefox: 400 Million Strong originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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How To Make A CHARGER BOX Very Easy – No More Cable Mess! – Funny videos are hereLink: How to make a Charger Box via Lifehacker

Clean up cable clutter originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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