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Ask Slashdot: Your Most Unusual Hardware Hack?

Posted by timothy on from the my-water-into-wine-machine dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Another Slashdotter recently asked what kind of things someone can power with an external USB battery. I have a followup along those lines: what kind of modifications have you made to your gadgets to do things that they were never meant to do? Consider old routers, cell phones, monitors, etc. that have absolutely no use or value anymore in their intended form. What can you do with them?

6 of 258 comments (clear)

  1. Re:RS-232 WattsUp, Humidity Sensor, RPi 1, WiFi, G by justthinkit · · Score: 3, Funny

    Can't you just read the answer off your mom's utility bill?

    --
    I come here for the love
  2. A Fan of Security by LinuxSneaker · · Score: 5, Funny

    I was deployed to Iraq, and we had to download a very large file. Unfortunately, we were working on laptops that would lock the screen after 15 minutes, and then the laptop would loose connection. Considering that the file was going to take 8-10 hours to download, this was not acceptable. I found an oscillating pedestal fan, and I duct-taped a yardstick between the fan and a mouse connected to the laptop. Since the laptop would not lock due to the mouse movement, all I had to do is to place a few books to limit the moment area; the next morning the file was downloaded. I realize this might not be the hack for which you were looking, but since it involved duct-tape I thought it would count.

    1. Re:A Fan of Security by HornWumpus · · Score: 4, Funny

      Back in Pentium 66 days Intel shipped a bunch of mother boards that made it impossible to disable power management.

      We were shipping a 386 mode extended DOS batch application (long story). To keep the machines from powering down during a run we suggested a workaround. A thermal water cup pecking bird with a paper clip attached to hit the shift key on every peck.

      I sent a copy of the 'tech bulletin' to a friend who worked at Intel, thinking they should make it an official workaround. They never did.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  3. Re:Commodore Hack by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Billy Gates? Is that you Billy? Real sorry about the bulling thing in Jr High. What have you been up to? Care if I come over for a visit sometime?

  4. Re:The ultimate hardware hack by disposable60 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Ah, yes - the Ejectrode.

    --
    You're looking for quotes? See my journal.
  5. Half a clothespin by RJFerret · · Score: 2, Funny

    Yes, half of a clothespin (sans spring), saved having to order a hard drive mounting assy for my laptop's second drive port, perfect size to keep it snug. That'd probably be my most unusual, all the others were relatively mundane.

    Oh wait, as a kid, not allowed to read after bedtime, I ran a wire from a train transformer to the room door frame wrapped around a metal tack, a matching thumbtack on the top of the door with wire going to a spare 12v auto parking light bulb and back to the transformer completed the circuit. I got away with reading at night for years just needing to hide just the book, not flashlight too, if Mom checked on me from seeing light spilling out under the door.

    But I don't consider turning my door into a knife switch unusual.

    The day she pounded on my ground floor window from outside shouting "go to sleep" did make me jump and lay awake a long time though!