This is one small computer, actually it looks more like a memory card reader than a computer. Don’t be fooled by it’s incredibly small size, this thing is more powerful that my netbook. CompuLab’s TrimSlice packs one hell-of-a punch for such a small unit.

The unit comes in a solid metal case that can take some abuse, doesn’t need a fan to keep it cool and uses only 3 watts of power. CompuLab will be gearing this unit to the HTPC market and hasn’t announced an OS for it yet, but I’m sure the modding community will jump all over this once it’s released. This would be great for a small server connected to your TV running something like XBMC or a MythTV frontend.

No official pricing has been announced yet, but CompuLab is aiming for a sub-tablet price and it should be shipping sometime in April.

[Link to TrimSlice]

Tiny Computer Looks More Like A Card Reader originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/25. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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If you spend any time in hotel rooms then already you know how vauable a resource and outlet can be. If you don’t carry a power bar around with you your gadgets have to compete for the one or two outlets that may be free in your room. Nothing is more annoying that swapping around plugs just to make sure you charge up all of your gadgets.

FlipIt is a brilliant design to help you with just that. The idea it quite simple, a normal plug slips through the slots in the FlipIt, allowing both cords to be connected at the same time and using up only one outlet.

Currently they only offer a USB charging device, but hopefully we will see universal AC cords with this brilliant design at the end so we can charge our laptops or other devices.

For $15 you really can’t go wrong, head on over to their site to order one.

FlipIt – Never Hog An Outlet Again originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/21. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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In a bit of a shocker, Eric Schmidt announced today that he would be stepping down from his CEO role at Google.

Why would someone at the helm of such a super power decide to step down? Simple, Larry and Sergei have grown up and are ready to lead Google. The company is as strong as ever. The stock price is up 32% in the last three months, the search end of the business is as strong as ever and in Q4 of 2010 the company made $8.4 billion in revenue.

Larry Page was once CEO, before Schmidt. In 2001, three years before going public Schmidt was named to the post. Wall Street dislikes young CEOSs and being only 29 at the time, Page wasn’t thought to be ready to lead Google. Schmidt was the perfect choice, a former computer scientist who made a name for himself while at Java, and was to later be CEO of Novell. During his his decade long tenure, Schmidt ran the company with Larry and Sergei at his side, never making a single decision with out them.

So now the Schmidt is gone and we may possibly never see Jobs back at Apple, will the two companies kiss and make up? You never know. One other possibility is Steve Jobs and Eric Schmidt getting together to start a new company. I know it’s a far stretch and I’m hoping that Job’s medical LOA isn’t anything serious, but together, no matter what they did, would be awesome.

Eric Schmidt Stepping Down As Google CEO originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/20. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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I was just talking to someone from Steam TV Networks about the need for a sturdy dock that can hold up a tablet or phone, something that keeps the device propped up when using it to watch video. Kensington has release just such an item built for the iPhone.

Kensington’s new PowerLift is a sturdy dock that also contains a 1,200 mAh lithium-ion polymer backup battery. This bulky yet small unit is perfect for those long flights; prop it up on the fold out tray and you can enjoy countless hours of media goodness. 20 additional hours of music playback, 5 additional hours of video and even an extra hour and a half of FaceTime.

The unit also has a built in USB cable, perfect cable management, and it has some LEDs to let you know where the charging level is at. Its up for pre-order on Kensington’s site and will run you about $50.

Kensington’s PowerLift Backup-Up Battery originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/19. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Engineers at the University of Michigan have put together a prototype device that can be powered and communicate via the audio jack on an iPhone. Currently if you want to create an accessory that is to be used with the 30 pin connector on the iPhone you must pay a licensing fee to Apple as well as a percentage of the profit made on said device. Using the audio jack for accessories will save money as there will be no need for licensing or proprietary hardware.

The parts used to build the device cost a total of $2.34 (in bulk), and the audio port can deliver several milliwatts at 3 V and offers bidirectional communications at a data rate of 8.8 kbaud. You won’t be able to run any data-hungry applications, but this should be more than enough to transfer text or a remote signal. The developers envision small, low-powered sensors for thing like element detection or moisture sensors. Check out the video of a prototype ECG sensor for the HiJack.

[Link to HiJack]

HiJack: Cheap iPhone Accessories originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/16. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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I’ve been playing with this surprisingly fast Android tablet for about a week now and so far I am impressed. Stream TV’s eLocity Android 2.2 powered tablet might not be an iPad killer, but it sure puts up a good fight.

The solid 7-inch tablet is powered by NVIDIA’s dual core Tegra 2 processor, comes with Froyo out of the box, is rooted by default and can output a crazy amount of video formats at 1080p via it’s included HDMI port. Although it shows some impressive stats in the video arena, the eLocity does more than that. 4GB of internal storage, a USB port and a MicroSD expansion slot coupled together with the super beefy Tegra 2, the A7 acts more like a powerful computer in your pocket than a PMP.

Not only is the video playback smooth and crisp, this is the only Android device I have ever used that can actually do Flash well. Even when you are on a website with multiple Flash ads watching a video, the A7 came through without a single hiccup. Mix that in with the fact that the device is rooted out of the box, you have one powerful device that is open and free, unlike the “other” guy’s tablet. The only problem I have seen so far is the unit’s battery life. I’ve been able to get about 4 hours out of it with moderate use and only about 2.5 hours of video play. This is more than likely due to the processor as the dual core Tegra 2 could easily power a full size laptop.

The unit doesn’t come with the Android Marketplace out of the box, but a crafty hacker has already created an alternate ROM that offers the Marketplace as well as Ad Hoc networking support. The eLocity A7 is currently WiFi only, by using the Ad Hoc network you can tether your unit to an existing smartphone’s 3G connection. Stream TV is toying with the idea of partnering up with a carrier and offering a 3G model.

At time of print there still is no word on any accessories for the unit, but it does have an expansion port on the bottom that will probably be used for a dock at a later day. A dock would be greatly welcomed, the fact that it can do 1080p without a problem makes this device a perfect addition to your home theater setup.

If your looking for an alternative to the iPad and don’t want to pay a monthly cost for something like the Galaxy Tab, Stream TV’s eLocity A7 is perfect. Priced at $350 it’s a great deal for such a powerful little unit.

[Link to eLocity A7]

Review: eLocity A7 Android Tablet originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/12. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Now that the PS3′s key have been leaked, its open territory for homebrew and hacking. Many people have been wondering what type of action Sony will be taking to combat this so called “piracy”. We have seen how ruthless they are with the PS3′s little brother the PSP and it’s no doubt that they will be just as ruthless with the PS3.

Digital Foundry claims that Sony can take some drastic measures including remotely disabling a jailbroken or hacked PS3. Even if you have never signed up for a PSN account, the PS3 communicates with the Sony mother-ship each time it’s turned on. The initial boot-up call back is used to upload error logs and download updates to the “What’s New” modules. It also sends a list of recently run apps.

Just that capability alone gives Sony a lot of power. Will they remotely disable systems? Who knows, but if they start to do that they open the door for some serious legal action. You know when the first PS3 that someone paid hundreds of dollars for gets killed and their unit is clean, Sony will be in a PR nightmare.

Sony Could Remotely Disable PS3s originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/12. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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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.

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I can’t begin to count the amount of iPhone chargers I have. Multiple ones from Apple, knock off units I bought because I left them at home, I even have an awesome unit from iGo that can charge two USB devices from it’s internal battery. But I bet that none of them are as green or as cool as this unit.

The Visible Green Charger will reduce standby power by up to 85% when your iOS device is not in use. The awesome electroluminescent cord will light up and flow quickly to indicate that your iOS device is charged up to 65% and will slow down as the device’s battery starts to fill up.

The Visable Green Charger will retail for $40 when it hits store shelves later this month. Currently the device only supports iOS devices but the company behind the unit, Dexim, hopes to expand it to other gadgets that can take a charge through USB.

[Link to Visable Green Charger]

Electroluminescent iOS Charger originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/10. 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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Here’s a perfect project for the upcoming summer; a bike powered USB charger to keep all of your gadgets charged while you ride.

The USB bike generator works by placing a rotating wheel against the rim of the rear wheel with a heavy spring. The attached wheel turns a stepper motor to generate an AC current that is changed to DC via a rectifier (which is nothing more than 4 diodes). The DC power is then feed into a USB car adapter to charge your gadgets.

It’s a really simple project that produces great results, best of all, it’s really cheap to build and put together.

[Link to USB Bike Generator]

DIY: Bike Powered USB Charger originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/05. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Instructables hacker Philysteak527 modified a Nerf gun, making it semi-automatic thanks to the modern marvel of compressed air. This mod isn’t for the faint of heart since it involves the design and manufacture of a bolt-action the fit’s the specific gun you are using.

Philysteak527 used some polyoxymethylene plastic and a CNC lathe to create the parts needed for the bolt. Toss in some brass fittings, a solenoid, tubing, and some electronics and your set. Check out the footage of it in action after the break. You will definitely be the big boy in the school yard with this. You might very well have the SWAT team called in as well.

[Link to Semi-Automatic NERF Longshot]

CO2 Powered Nerf Gun originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/05. 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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We talked about a Japanese newspaper reporting on the details of the new PSP Phone last week and now we have stumbled across some nice and clear video of the unit running. YouTube user “xxmajstor” displays this Android powered beatuty. More reason to drop my iPhone and move to the new PlayStation Phone

This video is of the Sony Ericsson ZEUS-Z1 “PlayStation Phone”. The unit looks like it has L and R shoulder buttons and a volume control right in the same location as the PSP-Go. The slide out features some game controls including the reported “touch strip”. If the video wasn’t enough, pay close attention to the presence of a PlayStation controller icon on the screen.

Video Of The Playstation Phone originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/02. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Sure, you can control modern day video equipment like you Slingbox or satellite receiver via the web, but what if you have some old school gear that can only accept commands via good old fashioned Infa-Red? Instructables hacker nmcclana has put together a small embedded web server that transmits IR signals (Video after the break).

The Web Clicker, as it’s called, uses a Propeller Platform USB and E-Net Module and can play back any recorded IR command via an AJAX web interface. The unit is small, sleek and uses next to no power. You can purchase most of the componets pre-built or you can live on the wild side and download the PCB designs and etch the boards yourself.

This can be used to control anything that accepts and IR signal, not just a TV or DVR. You could add IR modules to just about anything these days so this project would be great for home automation.

[Link to Instructables]

Control Your TV From Your Phone originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/02. 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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Speaking at the Chaos Computer Club on Tuesday, a pair of researchers demonstrated a method of eavesdropping on encrypted GSM calls and text messages by using a few cheap pay-as-you-go cellphones and a variety of open source software.

The ability to listen in on cellphone calls has been available to law enforcement agencies for a while, but even if the average person could they would have to invest in about $50,000 of hardware to do so, until now. The modern day phreaking takes advantage of security flaws in the GSM network and puts the power within the reach of almost any tech-savvy user.

By using custom firmware that they built in a few cheap Motorola cellphones, they created a bunch of cell phone "sniffers" that send real time raw cell network data back to a computer via a USB connection. By sending a target phone an SMS, they were able to determine what random network ID number belonged to the target.

All that was left was to decrypt the raw information they captured. This was easily accomplished with the use of a 2 GB rainbow table.

I’m sure with time, the software and firmware that was used in the demonstration will make it’s way into the average Joe’s hands and we will all be doomed. It’s not really modern day phreaking, back then all of us were just curious. There is no other use for this besides grabbing peoples personal communications.

Eavesdropping On GSM 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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I’ve tried a few thing to cut our electricity cost. I’ve priced out both a solar and wind powered system to power all of the computers we have in the house that run around the clock. I’ve also added timers everywhere to help with the soaring cost of electricity in our neck of the woods. One think I haven’t considered is building our own fusion reactor. Now that I come to think of it, I’m not even gonna consider this.

Besides the obvious fact that this is ridiculously dangerous and potentially fatal to you and your neighbors this could easily land you in jail for a very long time. If you willing to take this insanely stupid risk then there is a write-up over at Instructables to show you just how to put it all together. The parts list if far from your average run to Radio Shack, so be warned. Like a neutron radiation detector, deuterium gas and our course, a large lead shield.

Remember, if I haven’t said it yet, THIS IS VERY DANGEROUS and shouldn’t be done. You can probably follow the build to get a grasp of how fusion reactors work, but putting this together will easily have a few black helicopters landing on your front lawn real quick.

[Via Instructables]

Yikes: Build A Fusion Reactor originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/12/25. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Do you remember the Disintegrator that shot 40 rubber bands per second? Well how about a rubber band gatling gun that shoots 100 bands a second? It will cost you $500 but if you have money to burn or are just crazy then it will be perfect for you.

The unit weighs nearly 20 pounds and even has varying length barrels for different size rubber bands. It comes with it’s own stand so that it can be used as a turret (can you say arduino hack to turn this into a sentry) and works off of crank power.

Just keep in mind that at $500 you could go out and buy a real gun but if you live somewhere where guns are frowned upon this is perfect for you.

[Rubber Band Gatling Gun]

Rubber Band Gatling Gun originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/09/14. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Although this is still a concept, this holy power bar might just work when you need a prayer to keep your gadgets from being fried by power surges. With a full 12 outlets, this will be perfect for oversized power bricks and adapters, it’s the catholic way!

If these actually make it to production, I’m sure the various archdiocese’s across the world will be lining up to buy them. You know that every church will want one to power their circa 1970′s PA system. It’s the holy way to power your sermon.

I’m going to stop making all sorts of jokes about this or I very well might be the way who gets hit by lightening.

Holy Surge originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/09/03. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Here’s an awesome idea. Let’s take some homemade Play-Doh, change the recipe around a bit and make it conductive. You could make all sorts of cool circuits, like say wrap some of it around a cell phone to act as an insulator and then try to bring it on a plane. As someone who once shut down a major airport with a home made battery powered usb charger I don’t recommend bringing the cell phone wrapped Play-Doh experiment on a plane.

Squish Circuits, as they are refereed to, were developed at the University of St. Thomas by undergrads Samuel Johnson and AnnMarie Thomas and essentially are nothing more than homemade Play-Doh recipes that make the Doh either conductive or insulate.

With a small battery pack and something else that can use that power like a small motor or an LED you could make tons of fun circuits.

You can find both the conductive and insulating recipes here.

Homemade Conductive Play-Doh originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/08/31. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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The original Commodore 64 was a complete game changer in the personal computer realm. No personal computer of it’s time could come close to it. Countless games, dedicated users and the most innovative demo scene made it, IMO, the greatest computer of all time. I cut my teeth on one, learned to code in assembly on it and even ran a BBS for years and years off of one. Now it looks like it’s making a comeback, sort of.

The original 64 was put to be in 1994 and after being dead for over 15 years, it seems that the hardy 64 will rise again, sort of.

Commodore USA will release a new version of the classic called the PC64. It won’t be an 8-bit machine like it’s name-sake but instead will house modern day components in the classic shell. The unit will be powered by an Intel Atom processor, come with 4GB of DDR3 Ram, include a 1TB SATA drive and have HDMI output.

I’m just disappointed that we won’t see a good old 1541 or 1581 disk drive. No work on pricing but it should be available by the end of the year.

A New Commodore 64? originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/08/31. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Looks like someone is trying to de-throne Apple’s iPad. Japanese company Redstar are taking pre-orders on their Linux powered tablet.

The 10″ tablet is multi-touch friendly, comes with 1024×600 resolution and is powered by a Freescale iMX-37. It will also include 4GB of internal memory, 256MB of RAM, WiFi, Bluetooth, 3G and a SDHC memory card slot.

No pricing information or shipping date has been set yet, but I know as a happy hacker I can’t wait to get my hands on one, especially since it will run Linux. Imagine all the possibilities. If you know Japanese, then you can hit their website to get more info, otherwise, check the video below of the unit in action.

Shogo Linux Powered Tablet originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/08/30. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Most larger gadgets that recharge via USB require at least 10 watts of power like Apple’s iPad. The iXP1-500 dongle claims it will allow devices to recharge from underpowered USB ports.

I’m not quite sure how they accomplish this for $5, but I assume it must have some sort of capacitor inside that stores juice from these underpowered ports and then sends it down the USB port.

XMultiple Technologies (the makers of the iXP1-500) say that its “100% guaranteed to work”. Hocus pocus or simple electronics? I’m not sure, but if anyone out there gets one be sure to let us know.

Boost USB Port Voltage originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/08/20. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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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.

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As a male who owns a home with a lot of grass there is nothing more I hate then cutting the grass on a hot sweltering day. Since my son is only three and he can barely reach the mowers handle I’m SOL with getting him to do it.

Maybe I should build this awesome radio controller Arduino powered lawnmower? I can just sit in a lawn chair and drink a beer while the Lawnbot 400 does all the heavy lifting for me. I would quickly become the envy of all the males who live on my street. Check out the video of it in action after the break.

This instructable will show you how to make your Arduino into an R/C interface that you can use for just about anything requiring remote control. I will also show you how I built an R/C lawnmower using my Arduino, a cheap R/C transmitter and receiver pair, and a couple of electric-wheelchair motors from Ebay. I have used this interface to control anything from basic LED’s to Bipolar stepper motors, mini-robots, lifeless R/C cars from the thrift store, and even a 100lb lawnmower (all with appropriate motor controllers). It is very flexible and easy to change and very simple to set up.

[Link to Lawnbot build tutorial]

Arduino Powered RC Lawnmower originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/03/18. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Ever been caught with a dead cellphone and no source of juice anywhere to power that puppy up? Come on now, you know you have. Well, Sharp is ready to settle that problem once and for all.

By dropping your conventional backlit LCD and using a passive matrix LCD screen the SH6230C will use a lot less power than a conventional phone. The passive matrix screen can display the time and SMS/e-mail all the while using an incredibly small amount of power. Don’t count on too many features either. Besides offering your standard dumb phone features the only extra bell you get is a 5-megapixel camera, but if you spend a lot of time outdoors this phone should never leave you high and dry dead.

The phone will run on GSM networks and is set to make it’s debut in China sometime this month with a $500 price tag.

Solar Powered Cellphone originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/02/21. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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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.

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You might be wondering why you would spend $250 on a flashlight, especially since you can pick up a cheap one at a dollar store for, well, a dollar. There are two reasons you would do so. One would be because you are filthy rich and really don’t care how much you spend and Two, hmmmm, well you decide for yourself.

• The mPower Emergency Illuminator was designed by the Porsche Design Studio (so far not worth the $250).
• It comes with what the company calls “groundbreaking battery technology”. The unit has dual battery barrel’s. One barrel holds you run-of-the-mill batteries and the other holds the “mPower Reserve Battery” that has a minimum shelf life of 20 years from activation. The user chooses when and where to active it. (still can’t see why I would pay $250)
• A built in USB port for charging other gadgets (Maybe. Actually, nope. Still not worth it)

So as you can see, you’ll have to be filthy rich to justify this purchase, or just an idiot.

[Via DVICE]

mPower Illuminator: A $250 Flashlight originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/11/12. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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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.

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What the hell is the Snegenes-P you ask? Snes + Genesis + NES – Portable. If you’re the hardcore 8 or 16 bit gamer and refuse to use one of those fancy handheld emulators like the Gemei X760+, then why not build yourself one of these?

Modder Trstn18 smashed together components from all his favorite consoles into this custom see-through case so that you can see all of the messy goodness. Coming in at 8.6-inches wide, 5.4-inches tall and 1-inch thick, it’s not really portable in my opinion. Powered by 6 2600mAh batteries, this beast should get you somewhere between 5 to 7 hours of game play on a single charge. It also has composite video and stereo outputs so you can enjoy all of your 8-bit goodness on your TV.

As you can clearly see, the back of the unit is a bit of a mess. I’m not too sure how comfortable this thing will be when you hold it with a massive cartridge sticking out the back.

[Via Ben Heck Forums]

Snegenes-P originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/11/10. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Got a dead 360 laying around that you can’t fix? Turn that sexy piece of hardware into a fully functional PC. The guys over at Hack N Mod have posted a detailed mod which converts a 360 console into a fully functional PC. Best of all, no red ring of death on this one. Check out the video after the break.

The main challenge with an Xbox to PC mod is fitting everything inside the cramped space of an Xbox 360. The CPU and the power supply have different sizes and line up differently. Innovation is the name of the game as electric0ant shows through careful planning and his project illustrations. Check out a few below. The complete step by step is given on his project page.

Now if only someone could cram a fully functional quad core into an altoids tin, that would be awesome.

[Link to Resurrect a Dead XBox 360 into a PC]

Turn A Dead 360 Into A PC originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/11/07. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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I have seen my share of of really weird USB devices, but a set of breast warming pads that work off of USB? Just imagine plugging in your bra to your laptop as you are working at your desk.

I’m not sure how much good this will do you while your out and about, where keeping your boobies warm might be what you want, but then again you can always have a battery pack or solar panel on the back of your jacket to power it.

[Link to USB Breast Warmer]

USB Boobie Warmers originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/11/05. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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We have all heard about how fuel cell technology will revolutionize the world of power since they are instantly recharged with a small shot of methanol. Toshiba finally releases a practical fuel cell charger for real world geek use; a gadget charger.

Toshiab’s Dynario charger uses as little as 50 ml of methanol to recharge itself in about 20 seconds. This really is the first stab for them at consumer commercial fuel cell chargers and they have only created 3000 units that they plan to sell for $328, plus another $34 for 5 cartridges.

This is still a far cry from being affordable for common use, but it is a first step in easing power issues for all of us geeks.

[Link to Toshiba's Dynario]

Fuel Cell Charger originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/11/04. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Looks like Apple is taking another step to put a nail in the coffin of the hackintosh community. Looks like the developer build of Mac OS 10.6.2 lacks support for Intel’s Atom processor which every netbook around uses and is very popular in the hackintosh community.

If this is a conscious move on Apple’s part and they let the build go live we might be looking at another cat an mouse game between Apple and the legions of hackers in the hackintosh world.

For the longest time Apple hasn’t really anything heavy at stopping people from installing their OS on non Apple hardware. With a move like this, which really doesn’t streamline the OS and looks like a blatant attack on the hackintosh world, I wonder how long it will take set community to find a work around. You can never keep the power of the people down (I just had to throw that one in there).

10.6.2 Kills Off Atom CPU Support originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/11/04. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Seriously, why has no other company come up with the idea of creating sexy looking batteries? We have gradients on every web 2.0 website out there, why not some colour on our batteries too?

Well first off, most devices that use batteries keep them hidden so nobody will ever see the flashy looking skin to your powercell and secondly, does it really matter? DC power is DC power. It’s doesn’t matter if it comes from a black and copper Duracell or a Volta.

[Link to Volta Battery Packaging]

Batteries For The Web 2.0 Generation originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/11/03. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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I’m always up for a good practical joke, especially the kind that involves electronics and can drive people mad. Get your soldering guns out kids, this is a good one.

The Annoying Beeping Thing is a simple circuit board that is powered by a single 9-volt battery and outputs a high-pitched whining sound through a tiny speaker or piezo buzzer.

As you can see from the pictures above it’s hidden inside of a transformed but this thing is so tiny that you can practically hide it anywhere. Make sure you don’t let the joke run on too long as it might really get on someone’s nerve who might not think it’s all that funny. Check out the video after the break of it’s construction and to hear it in action.

[Via Make]

Build An Annoying Beeping Thing originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/11/02. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Wow, there really is a sucker born every minute, but is there anyone out there stupid enough to spend $147 on a so called “Audio Grade” electrical socket?

The Wattgate 381 and claims to bring you crystal clean sound. I’m no electrician but doesn’t the quality of your sound actually come from the components inside your amplifier? WTF does electricity flow have to do with it? It’s not like this is some surge suppressor that cleans your power and makes sure that you don’t have power fluctuation. It’s a freaking socket.

I’m sure this will go perfectly with the $400 Monster Cable you bought and that $500 Denon Ethernet Cable.

If your stupid enough to buy one, you can pick it up here

Sucker Alert: Wattgate 381 “Audio Grade” Socket originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/25. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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In case you missed anything this past week, we have everything from cooling with mineral oil to video editing on your iPhone. Enjoy.

Gadgets

Asus Keyboard PC

Gaming

Cool Your Xbox With Mineral Oil
PS3 Smashing Into A TV At 80 KMH
Open Source DS Bluetooth Adapter
Black Wii For The Brits
Rock Band For iPhone Now Available

Hacking and Security

Remote Control That’s Impossible To Lose
DIY: Build A Solar Power Station
PS3 Laptop
Hard Drive Lock Pick

Mac

Dead: ZFS For The Mac
Rebel EFI: A Thorn In Apples Side
ReelDirector: Video Editing For Your iPhone

Tech News

Project Eagle Claw: Taking Out The Scammers
Skype And Chrome Go Portable
Microsoft’s App Lab
Windows 7: Will You Upgrade?
B&N Nook Officially Released
Super Fast Robot Hands

In Case You Missed It: Week 42 Round Up originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/25. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Remember all of the hype behind ZFS for OS X? Remember how everyone was talking about how great it would be to add such a powerful and robust file system for the Mac? Something to replace the aging and outdated HFS+. Well you can forget about ZFS. Apple has decided to shut down the project. Maybe they got busy with other stuff and forgot about it. Maybe it just wasn’t what they were looking for. Who really knows, but as time goes on, Apple will be behind the gun if they continue to use HFS+

From the project page on Mac OS Forge:

ZFS Project Shutdown

2009-10-23

The ZFS project has been discontinued. The mailing list and repository will also be removed shortly.

It’s hinted that this was caused by legal issues surrounding the merger of Sun Microsystems and Oracle, which caused Apple to back away from the next-generation file system technology. After many rumors, including ZFS support that was going to be added in Snow Leopard Server, but that ended up being removed in the final version, it now seems like the saga of ZFS on Mac OS X is ending with a whimper.

Dead: ZFS For The Mac originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/24. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Why lug around a generator when you could go green and build yourself a portable solar power station? Okay okay okay, so you’re not gonna the the juice out of this thing that you would out of say a 1500 watt gas generator, but if what you require is less than 400 watts of power then this is perfect for you.

The portable power unit has a solar panel that charges a 12 volt deep cycle battery which then in turn feeds a 400 watt inverter. This will also save you money in the long run. Besides the initial investment in the hardware there is no operating cost to use it. The only thing you require is sunlight, which last time I check is still a-plenty. Especially during the day.

[Link to Portable Power Station]

DIY: Build A Solar Power Station originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/22. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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If your like me then you also have a huge pile of hard drives sitting in the corner. You know, the drives you really should through out but your waiting to build your massive multiple terabyte raid array with a whole bunch of 20 gig drives. Well, why not put one of the hard drives to use as a lock picking device? Yes, you heard me right, a LOCK PICKING DEVICE.

The Spanish guys over at sorgonet.com have done just that. By taking an old hard drive, an old mouse, a power supply and some screw drivers they built an impressive, yet odd looking, lock picking device. Take a look at the video after the break to see just how fast this thing works.

Lock picking has become a very addictive sport over the years, but remember it’s just a sport. Don’t build one of these things and use it for no good. Plus, I’m sure you’ll get some weird looks walking down the street carrying one of these.

[Link to translated How To Build A Hard Drive Lock Pick]

Hard Drive Lock Pick originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/18. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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A pioneering Dell employee has create a prototype portable data center. This won’t be replacing any of the big shipping container data centers that the likes of Google or Sun are building, but this is a great start to of things to come. This would be great in a disaster recovery plan to bring systems back up on a temporary basis after a catastrophic event.

Pike has crammed two servers running dual-core, 2.5 GHz Intel processors (Harpertown), 32 GB of memory, 4 TB of disk space for storage, a power supply, a 5-port Gigabit Ethernet Switch and even some solid-state drives into a metal box. The box consumes about 325 watts, is relatively portable and provides enough performance to act as a DNS server or a data center for a small business

With those specs this thing would make one awesome war driving machine, lol.

[Via GigaOM]

Portable Data Center originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/17. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Yep, you heard me correctly, a nuclear battery. Researchers at the University of Missouri have created super tiny nuclear power sources that can be used as batteries. Dead gadgets and XBox 360 controllers will soon be a thing of the past.

The secret to these tiny power plants is the use of new liquid semiconductors instead of solid ones. Don’t think you can run out and pick a set up at Radio Shack just yet. The current focus is on powering nano electromechanical systems not your digital camera. Which in my opinion might be a good idea. We have all heard of cell phone and laptop batteries exploding, imagine if something goes wrong with one of these. You’ll have a lot more to worry about than burn wounds.

Nuclear Battery In Your Pocket originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/08. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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This is a ridiculously simple way to create a drill powered outboard motor. Another crafty Instructables user shows us how he uses his cordless drill to power his boat. The drive shaft is a 10 mm wire rod that is connected to a right angle drill which drives a 3-blade propeller.

Drive time might be limited since running a drill at full tilt for prolonged periods will quickly drain your battery so you’ll have to extend it’s life by adding an external battery. Then all you will need is some solar panels to change that external battery and you’ll be set.

Drill Powered Outboard Motor originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/08. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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A crafty Instructables users has figured out that by using a pair of spining hard drives you can create the same gyroscopic effect that the pros use to keep their cameras nice and steady. A camera stabilizer is perfect for taking those steady shots when your conditions might be less than favorable for doing so, like driving in a car or running (think paparazzi).

Although I wouldn’t say this is a beginners project, it’s not too hard to pull off and your materials list can probably already be found around your house.

• Needed: 2 discarded harddisks (HDs)
• Some old discarded computer, or parts
• The part in the old computer which holds floppies en HDs at a 90 degree angle…
• A wooden box or plywood etc..
• A hand grip
• One or two strips of aluminum
• A camera screw
• 3 or 4 car USB phone chargers
• A 12 V power source (lead acid cell, a discarded NiCd cell, or (rechargeable) batteries)
• Some rubber washers and a piece of inner tire
• Contact glue

A little bit of soldering experience, some free time and $50 in parts you too can build yourself this image stabilizer. Just remember, if you plan a career change and decide to become a paparazzi, everyone else around you will give you some weird looks if you run around with this thing.

[Link to Gyro Image Stabilizer]

DIY Image Stabilizer originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/07. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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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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Most people who own gadgets that are USB powered have a billion different charging cables. A USB cable to use with your computer, a few wall warts to change your stuff at home or at the office, a car USB charger, hell, some of us even have battery powered altoid tins to charge our iPod’s and Cell Phone’s. What about the poor folk who ride their bikes everywhere they go? Do we have something for you.

Now you can build this not so easy and somewhat complicated device that will charge your gadgets as you pedal around town. Originally created by a group of guys using a grant from MIT. The device, which was originally planned to charge your mp3 player as you run ended up evolving into a bicycle based charger.

If you want to attempt this yourself, you’ll need about $275 and some advanced knowledge of electronics. Although this project isn’t for the faint of heart, if you ride a bike all the time you can charge everything you have on you. Plus, it’s super green and allows you to do your part to help mother nature.

Pedal Powered USB originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/05/14. 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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Where did I go this time? Well, as some of you might know, my passion, the place that I cut my teeth, was the bbs (bulletin board system) world and I have been working feverishly at getting my second bbs up and running. Besides the almighty Diskshop BBS I have also managed to setup a second BBS, Hysteria. I have also been contributing to the Enthral (which the BBS software that powers Hysteria) code base. Enthral is a great new BBS package for *nix/bsd systems.

I’m gonna start getting back into the swing of things over the next few days, bare with us as we get setup and ready to bring you the wacky, the new, and the shinny of the technology world.

Still here, somewhere originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/05/07. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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You must show your true colours when it comes to this gadget sitting on your desk. People from far and wide must know that you have a serious addiction to the Dr. Who series or else you will be ridiculed to no end.

If you are will to suffer the harassment then you will appreciate the famous time travelers phone booth turned fridge. The unit will hold a 12 ounce can f soda and comes with a flashing Tardis light with some sound effects. All this joy can soon be yours for the low price of $44.99 from Entertainment Earth

USB Powered Tardis Micro Fridge originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/11/06. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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What good is a powerful smart phone if you can’t double it as a Game Boy? It hasn’t taken much time for someone to do just that, create a Game Boy emulator for the Android phone OS. The emulator isn’t quite ready for the masses just yet (unless you feel like pulling you hair out trying to figure out why you can’t play Madden 99 on it), but it’s a start in the right direction.

Enjoy the bleeding edge of game play from 99 on your bleeding edge from from 08. Who would have thunk?

[Link to AndroidBoy]

AndroidBoy – Game Boy Emulator For The G1 originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/10/31. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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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.

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When was the last time you say a gaming console released that didn’t come from one of the big three? A while a bet. So you might be happy to know that Envizions Computer Entertainment will be releasing the Evo “Smart Console”. The interesting spin on this new console is that it’s nothing more than a Linux-based computer. It’s not a new concept, Linux has been powering many desktop products from your WiFi router to your Tivo, but gaming?

The unit includes an overclocked Athlon 64×2 5600 processor and an ATI Radeon 3200 graphics card. Development will be geared specifically to the Evo unit so no built in MAME emulator or anything of that nature, but this does open up the world of Linux gaming development.

The new console is set to ship on November 20th with a hefty price tag of $600

Evo “Smart Colsole” Is Linux Based originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/10/23. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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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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Looks like we are being told to be afraid of hackers again, this time they are going after our cellphones.

Security experts at Georgia Tech are telling us that hackers could soon turn their attention toward creating botnets out of our cellphones. With more and more smartphones making their way into consumers hands and with every generation of phone becoming more powerful it’s a serious possibility.

These botnets could be used to send spam or other malicious attacks. A user could go out searching for ringtones for their phone only to download something with a nasty payload that could take your phone and turn it into a zombie. Now before people start panicking, this is all speculative at this point, but quite possible. Remember that most cell companies have yet to plug the hole in the bluetooth stack that leaves your phone vulnerable to a snarfing attack.

It’s a scary though to have millions of infected phones that are almost always on and just waiting for a command. I wonder what a DDOS attack vie edge or 3g would do.

Is Your Cell Phone Safe From Hackers? originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/10/16. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Looks like Ben Heck has been raising some crafty apprentices. Only a few months after Ben Heck Forum member hellraizer churned out an impressive portable Nintendo 64, he has struck again by crafting an handheld Dreamcast using a Lazer Doodle shell like he did with the N64.

Inside the chassis he jammed a Dreamcast, Quantam controller, PSOne LCD screen, power supply and what must be some serious battery power. All-in-all you get about 3 hours of game play, which is better than what I get on my PSP. Check out the video after the break.

[Link to DarthCast]

DarthCast originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/10/16. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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This monitor is small. I mean really small. It measures 77mm x 127mm x 17mm, with a 4.3 inch backlit WVGA (800 x 480) display. So what is so special about a tiny monitor anyways? We see them all the time in our gadgets and in our cars. This tiny unit is 100% USB powered. That’s right, no power cables, no VGA cables, just a single USB cable does it all.

The idea is not to have this act as your main monitor (although I guess you could if you were using something like an NSLU2) but to use it to house a chat window or a widget so that it doesn’t get in the way of what you are working on. For $200 you get the unit with a built in kickstand to keep it upright. Yeah I know, $200 is a tad expensive, but if you don’t want to deal with all of the extra cords then you will have to pay the price.

[Link to USB Monitor]

USB Monitor originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/10/13. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Looking for a simple way to synchronize files or folder across multiple platforms, if so then Synkron is for you. Synkron is a power file-syncing app that synchs files and folders across Windows/Mac/Linux platforms. You can sync multiple folders, schedule automatic synchs, and even has restore capabilities incase a file has been accidentally overwritten during a sync.

Synkron is a local sync tool, so your files never pass through any third party server. It also supports filtering by extension and also has a file and folder blacklist system. Best of all it’s free.

[Link to Synkron]

Sync Files Across Platforms With Synkron originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/10/10. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Commercial laser cutters can cost anywhere from $10,000 right up to millions of dollars. Although there isn’t much info on how this crafty hacker went about building his very own 30 watt laser that can cut through steel, the Australian maker is answering questions in the comment section of the video. Maybe if we all ask really really really nicely he might put together a page detailing all the steps he took to put it together.

My 30 watt ULS powered Laser table with 54x30x9 dimensions. Still a few things to add like a rotary attachment and a martensitic stainless steel top.

DIY: 30 Watt Laster originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/10/04. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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My beloved VisualHub, oh how I will miss you. That’s right, Tyler Loch (founder of Techspansion) has decided to close the door. Now I know there are a lot of tools on the Mac to help your compress or re-compress video, but none are as simple and powerful as VisualHub. For less than $25 you got Flash, DVD, mp4, divx, WMV and more, plus it is super easy to convert a video into a format that is friendly to the Mac family of products like the iPhone and AppleTV.

Tyler says that it was a difficult decision and is a personal one. He’s readjusting his priorities. He also has no current plans to move VisualHub into the open source world.

VisualHub Discontinued originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/10/03. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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This crafty UK hacker decided to put his old Gamecube to good use and cram a PC into it. It took him over a year to put it all together. It’s not exactly a powerhouse of a machine, but it is one of the cleanest casemods using a Gamecube I have ever seen.

PicoCube is based on the tiny Pico-ITX motherboard, one of the only boards that will actually fit in such a small space. I’ve also got an 100gb SATA hard drive in there, 1gb of RAM, along with a Pico PSU and 4 USB ports. You can see a slot for the DVD drive but with everything crammed in there, it wasn’t long before temps got too high and the unit shut itself down. I may replace the lid in the future or rework things on the inside.

[Link to PicoCube]

Put Your Old Gamecube To Good Use originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/09/30. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2008 | Permalink | Comments | Read more in Hacking And Security | Explore more in: ac, case, casemod, cube, drive, ds, dvd, ea, game, gamecube, hack, hacking, hard drive, house, id, Mac, machine, mod, mods, nes, pc, pico, power, small, space, tiny, usb | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

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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There have been quite a few lightsaber add-ons for your wimote’s before, but this one from Thrustmaster actually looks quite cool. The units are powered by three AAA batteries and have 17 blue or red LED’s for some glow in the dark fun. I’m not sure how much they will add to gameplay, but they will cause some fun when you swing it around and smash the light on the end table in your living room.

[Link to Thrustmaster]

Thrustmaster’s Lightsaber Wimote Add-On originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/09/28. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Furutech is preying on the stupid with this $18000 power cable. Yes, I did not miss a decimal point in there, the cost of this power cable is $18000. Yes I will agree that some power cables are better than others. Better shielding, thicker gauge of wire, but $18000, you must be off your rocker.

Then again, a cable that costs as much as a decent used car must be good right? Well it does come with Piezo Ceramic series connectors (I have no idea what these actually are) so you probably get clean power. These would go just perfect with the ridiculously expensive ethernet cable we told you about a few months back.

$18000 Power Cable – I’ll Take Two Please originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/09/25. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Clips Of Windows 7 In Action originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/09/22. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Jon Bennett has created a WiFi controller robot that can be controller via the internet or from a computer up to 500m away. The robot is built from an RC car that he picked up at a thrift store, a Linksys WRT54GL router running the Open-WRT firmware, a network camera. The bot can be powered by two different type of micro-controllers: the PIC microprocessor or an Arduino. You can use whichever one your are more comfortable with. If you follow Joe’s guide, it shouldn’t cost you that much to put together. Check out the video after the break of the bot in action.

The goal of this article is to give a high-level overview of the project and provide some implementation details of the software and electronics. It is not meant to be a step-by-step how-to guide, but there should be enough information for someone with motivation and some background knowledge in electronics and software to be able to make their own Wifi Robot. All of the source code is being released under the terms of the GNU GPL v2, so by all means, use the code, and improve it!

You sure could have a lot of fun with this project. Maybe at some image processing code so that it can figure out where the sidewalk ends and can make it’s own decision to turn right or left.

[Link to WiFi Robot]

DIY: WiFi Robot originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/09/21. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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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.

© tech.nocr.at 2008 | Permalink | Comments | Read more in Mac | Explore more in: 10.5.5, ac, air, apple, avi, back to my mac, backup, backups, book, bra, bus, car, cat, display, dock, ds, ea, email, fix, graphics, ical, id, invite, iphone, ir, leopard, light, Mac, macbook, macbook air, machine, mail, messages, mirror, mobile, mobileme, nda, nes, os, os x, pda, phone, power, proc, raid, remote, ring, rss, security, server, sidebar, space, sync, text, time, time capsule, time machine, tor, ui, update, video, yahoo | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

A crafty hacker on the benheck forums decided that building a portable Xbox had been done so instead he decided to build a wireless video interface for his Xbox 360. The device acts more like a “thin client” and streams whatever his Xbox is playing. The unit has a 1.2GHz A/V receiver and the guts of a wireless controller. It’s powered by two 2600mAh batteries running at 7.5V and even has it’s own built in charging circuit.

It’s a crafty build and great for playing Xbox games while wondering around the house. Plus, it will keep your girl friend/wife off your back for hogging up the TV.

Xbox 360 Wireless Interface originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/09/15. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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3M is reportedly close to rolling out a super tiny, portable digital projector. This tiny unit could be used to project pictures, powerpoint slide shows, pr0n, movies, or whatever else you might want to slap on a wall or screen.

The lucky guys at Popular Science got their hands on the MPro 110 and reported that after plugging a DVD player into the device they were able to project a movie up to 11 inches wide on various pieces of furnature and walls.

When the projector hits the shelves it will cost $359 and will have the ability to connect up a laptop, digital camera, iPod, and any other mobile device that outputs and image. At that price this would be a perfect item to keep in your bag so that when on the road you could easily show a presentation or lay back in your hotel room and watch a movie on the wall. Although, at 11 inches you would need to have everyone huddled around the screen in order to actually watch anything. Let’s hope that this is just a start in the right direction.

Tiny Projector originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/09/14. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Sure, you could head on off to Ikea and pick up that $49 coffee table to fill that void in your apartment. Or, if you truly are the hardcore geek we all know you are (why else would you be reading this blog?), you could go out and pick up SparkFun’s LED coffee table and challenge your friends to a four-way game of Pong.

This is one hiccup, this is a one of a kind piece that took two years to build, so picking this unit up might cost you a pretty penny. On the flip-side, if you have a few spare years and work well with power tools and electronics you could always try to piece one together yourself!

[Link to SparkFun's Pong Coffee Table]

Four Way Pong On Your Coffee Table originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/09/13. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Big retro gamer? Emulators no fun? The wife upset because you have 8 consoles hooked up to the family TV? Well then the Super Genintari is just right for you. The Super Genintari combines 4 classic arcade systems into one unit. An Atari 2600, NES, SNES, and Sega Genesis are rolled into one package.

You can have all 4 system cartridges plugged in at once and it only requires a single AV cable, which makes switching between Sonic and Super Mario Brothers a breeze.

The whole box measures about 14″x10″x5″ and is made entirely of transparent bronze acrylic, formed and shaped on a homemade strip heater. All of the openings for the buttons, cartridges and controller ports were carefully cut with a cordless Dremel. The face buttons are clear acrylic domes with each system’s logo epoxy glued in place and back-lit with orange LEDs when pressed. The entire system is incredibly easy to hook up, consisting of only one standard power cord and one A/V cable. It’s a little on the large size considering the room needed for all the boards, cartridge connectors and built-in transformer, and there’s also the fact that I refused to use clone systems since I wanted 100% compatibility and faithful reproduction. (No Yobos, Super Joys, etc.)

[Link to the Super Geintari]

Super Genintari – 4 Game Stations In One originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/09/11. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2008 | Permalink | 23 Comments | Read more in Gaming | Explore more in: 2600, ac, atari, cable, car, cart, comb, connector, console, control, controller, dremel, ds, ea, emulator, game, gamer, Gaming, genesis, heat, id, ir, led, make, nda, nes, open, os, pen, power, press, rc, ring, rip, rod, sega, snes, switch, tor, ui | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

I love hardware mods. The idea of taking one thing and then using your imagination and hands to make it unique unlike anything else truly is an art form. This crafty hacker took an old NES and put it inside of a toaster. I just hope nobody at his place tries to actually toast bread with it. Video after the break.

I had an awful lot of people suggesting that my previous project (the Super Genintari/Leviticus) looked like a toaster. I then discovered that I had an extra NES and toaster laying around and knew what had to be done.

Ripped all the main guts out of the toaster and replaced them with an NES board, some orange LEDs, AC adapter and controller ports. Kept the front lever functional as the main power on/off switch and the crumb tray just for fun. Composite audio/video jacks are on the rear of the unit. The temperature knob does nothing.

[Link to Nintoaster]

NES In A Toaster: The Nintoaster originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/09/09. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Every night I fall asleep listening to my iPod, and every morning I wake up with it dead as a door nail. This cleaver hack actually came to me via my wife. She said “You put USB ports in everything else, why not the alarm clock”. So I did. As you can see from an old episode of The Lab With Leo some time ago I demonstrated exactly how you go about adding some powered USB ports to your alarm clock to keep everything from your cell phone to iPod fully charged.

Here’s what your gonna need.

• Alarm Clock with an internal power supply of 9–12V DC
• PCB Mounted USB Port
• +5V Fixed Voltage Regulator (7805)
• Multimeter

First thing you want to do is open up your alarm clock and make sure that the internal power supply is giving out 9–12V DC using your multimeter.

Once we have satisfied those requirements, your going to want to find a suitable location to house the usb port, something that will not interfere with the internal componets of the alarm clock once you put it back together

With the USB port mounted you are going to want to wire the USB port and the 7805 as per the instructions that come with the voltage regulator. Make sure to leave enough slack with regards to wiring if you ever need to open the alarm clock back up again.

Voila, power to your usb device via your alarm clock.

DIY: Add USB Ports To Your Alarm Clock originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/09/08. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2008 | Permalink | 2 Comments | Read more in Hacking And Security | Explore more in: 7805, ac, alarm, alarm clock, arm, cat, cell phone, clock, dead, diy, door, ds, ea, fix, hack, hacking, house, id, ipod, ir, iso, lab with leo, lock, make, open, os, pc, pcb, pen, phone, power, ring, tag, time, tor, ui, usb, volta, wire | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

Almost every laptop user has faced this problem at one time or another. You plug in your USB mouse and thumb drive only to be out of ports for your camera or iPod. Well, someone at RiTEK must have also run into this stumbling block because they have the perfect product for you. The Yego USB Flash drive is not only a conventional USB thumb drive,but it also acts as a mini USB hub. It not only free up the port that it used, but also give you an additional port as well.

If security is your concern then the Yego can lock it’s ports and only let in the person with the right password. We’re not talking file-by-file encoding, we are talking the entire flash drive is encoded with a password. It’s got an LED indicator that let’s you know which port is operating and even comes with a power save mode.

It’ll work with all flavours of your favorite OS and can be picked up in sizes from 128MB right up to 8GB

RiTEK

A USB Stick That Increases Your Ports originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/09/08. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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This is one of the craftiest gadgets I have seen in a long time, a calculator that is power by a few drops of water, 3 drops for 3 months of power to be exact.

Just think of the 10′s of millions of calculators sold or given away each year. Now imagine the batteries that are lying in landfills from those 10′s of millions of calculators, if everyone had an H2O powered calculator you could easily wipe that environmental impact out.

So what are you waiting for? You can pick up your very own H2O calculator for only $24.95 from solutions.com

Water Powered Calculator originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/08/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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I’m a huge old school gamer. NES, MAME, Super Nintendo, Gameboy, you name it (I’m really showing my age here), so much so that I must have gig’s of roms (all legal of course) and emulators on every machine that I own. Well, this portable media player is right up my alley.

The EM-SOL2GIG is a solar powered media player with a twist. It can play MP3s and MP4s as well as emulate the NES/Famicon, GameBoy Color, and SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis. It’s also got a built in text-to-speech system so you can have all of those e-book read to you, instant audiobook.

The portable unit offers a 320×240 display and is about 1″ thick. The large solar panel can also be used to charge other gadgets as well as the unit’s internal battery.

You can pick up this unit over on Amazon for $169.99.

Solar Powered NES, Genesis & Gameboy Emulator originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/08/24. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Everyone has seen solar gadgets that provide juice to electronics or charge batteries up, but these units require you to be in a good source of sunlight for hours on end just to get a bit of juice. While some people might be outdoors most of the day, the majority of people aren’t in the woods for hours on end.

This little gadget put a spin on the idea of alternate energy. The M2E Power charges up a set of batteries by using kinetic energy. Strap this little unit to your belt while your walking or running and it will collect energy from your movements.

There still is no news on availability or pricing, but this is a great idea on harnessing some of that kinetic energy you produce every day.

[Link to M2E Power]

Charge Your Batteries While You Walk originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/08/22. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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