Slashdot Mirror
What (non-PC) Hardware Do You Hack?
Lis writes "Mike Langberg at the Merc News interviewed Scott Fullam - Scott wrote the book 'Hardware Hacking Projects for Geeks' which includes things like a video periscope for your car, an Internet toaster, Cubicle Intrusion Detection Systems, and talking Furbys. (Instructions for the toaster and coffeemaker are up on the O'Reilly site.) Almost any kind of consumer electronic equipment can be modified to do things it wasn't intended to do. Ok, you'll probably void your warranty in the process, but you could end up with something even better than the original. Or not. But it's just gotta be interesting. So what have you hacked, and into what?"
I performed surgery on my Furby and created a secret stealing super agent. Muhahahaha...
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
Yes, yes. We all know you've built a girl robot for the prom. Haven't we all? But it's not really hacking if you built it yourself. Now can we stay on topic?
I've made up my mind and now I've got to lie in it.
*cough* She wasn't that secure in the first place.
its non-technical, but i think it counts for a hack.
When i was in high school there was a particular big dumb jock that would pick on me. It was a catholic high school. So I stole some official letterhead paper from the guidance counselor's office and an official envelope with the school info on it.
I proceeded to type up an expulsion letter on the letterhead paper, saying he had been caught masturbating on campus, and as a good catholic school we could not allow that. I made it sound much more official. Had my friend forge the dean's signature, and that if they (his parents) had any questions about it, feel free to call (phone number included).
Then I mailed it.
he never found out it was me that did that, and he did still pick on me... but i'd say I got even.
Running solar ignitors to a couple of bottle rockets mounted to the grill of an old Buick Regal, connected to a switch panel in the front?
Ok, maybe not, but it was fun to have bottle rocket launchers in the front of the car.
Once in a while, they actually went where you wanted them to (the rockets, not the car).
Almost any kind of consumer electronic equipment can be modified to do things it wasn't intended to do.
*eyes electric massagers*
You don't saaaay....
The coolest voice ever.
1) Hold clock up by power cord, against wall
2) Position IC over power cord
3) Apply hammer to IC, driving pins 1-16 into wall.
4) Connect ground, Vcc, and inputs as desired.
--Leo
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
I don't know that following the IKEA directions counts as hacking.
Now if you used all of the leftover pieces that for some reason you didn't "need" in the rebuild to create pulley system that saved you some trips upstairs (or an IKEAbot to do the work for you)... now *that* would be hacking.
I hacked several functioning consumer electronic devices into fully-working doorstops?
sig under development
It was my first electric motor. I was about 9 years old and had extracted my first electric motor from some doomed toy, and figured out how to attach wires manually to the brush leads and a battery and make it run. Unfortunately, as with most things I played around with at that age, I didn't know much about cause and effect.
I believe the motor was originally driven by two 1.5 V AA batteries, and I was using a 9V. (Hey, it's easier to connect!) My plan was to use it as a climbing winch, enabling Snake Eyes (tm) to sneak up on the evil Destro(tm)'s clifftop lair. I tied one end of a 3 foot piece of sewing thread to the motor shaft, and the other to Snake Eyes' left hand. I wedged the motor under a book and connected the battery to winch him to the top!
Little did Snake Eyes know what kind of evil Destro had in store for him. Little also did I know - it happened so fast that I am still fuzzy on some details. At some point, Snake Eyes stopped standing on the ground at the base of my dresser and entered into a state where he was spinning at insane velocities about the motor, attached by a tangled 6 inch piece of thread. I have no memory of a transition between these two states.
The moral of the story - if an evil overlord leaves an electric motor conveniently located for you to winch your way up the cliff face to his mountain fortress, don't use it!
who are those slashdot people? they swept over like Mongol-Tartars.
When I was in college, my friend and I mounted the nozzle from a squirt gun into the grill of his honda civic. We attached that to the windshield wiper supply line and installed a valve under the dash to swithc from windshield wiper mode to soak unsuspecting pedestrian mode. Not very difficult, but man was that good for days of stupid fun.
Slightly OT
I once bought an original Pole Position II arcade off ebay (about 120). After a few months the screen went a bit screwy, so i found a newsgroup concerning acade repair.
The people on the group were really helpful and were talking me through fixing the problem... however I kept the arcade plugged in so I could see the results. FZZZZZZPT! I get knocked about 5 foot, manage to crawl to my laptop and type very slowly "brb, ambulance"
my gf was first shocked, then scared, then calling me "pathetic"
Please, let's skip the jokes about 'port sniffing' here... /. is about stuff that matters after all ;)
I did that for my kids once, too. Lessons learned: 1. Don't put the peephole on the inside of the fireplace. 2. Kids are fuckin whiners.
"Would it kill you to put down the toilet seat?" -- Maya Angelou
I tried accessing his girlfriend but apparently it had exceeded the maximun number of simultanious connections :(
"It's better to be a pirate then join the Navy"
I knew a guy with a Civic that put a 12v computer P/S fan in his air intake ducting to "increase" airflow into the engine.
This was a waste of time. Everyone knows that a big wing is the biggest performance boost for a Civic. Also, a Type-R sticker is even cheaper and adds 20HP as well as improves handling.
You know those demented motorists who drive at 40mph in the fast lane on the interstate? I was looking for a way to get back at those pseudo-maniacs. I found a cute LED display (BetaBrite) in Sams. Picked one up, googled a bit and found the protocol. Put together a Java program to interface with the LED sign through RS-232. Placed it at the rear window/windshield, plugged it into my cigarette lighter socket and connected it to my laptop. Stored a few choice messages into the sign's memory.
Now, depending on the situation, I display the appropriate message on the sign. It's fun to see the looks on people's faces! Good to know that if you are a geek, you don't have to take road-abuse.