BuffaloFeeds » Hack A Day » September 22, 2009

Hack A Day (7 unread)

Photographic key duplication

Posted: September 22nd, 2009, 3:00pm MDT by Mike Szczys

[Ben] and his associates over at the University of California at San Diego came up with a way to duplicate keys using a picture of them. They developed an algorithm that uses measurements from known key blanks to extrapolate the bitting code. Because the software is measuring multiple points it can correct the perspective of [...]
Seawater cooled data centers

Posted: September 22nd, 2009, 2:00pm MDT by Mike Szczys

Remember Mauritius from High School geography? We didn’t either, but apparently it’s a small island nation east of the southern tip of Africa. It seems they are trying to develop an industry in eco-friendly data centers. The plan is to use a pipeline to gather cold water from the ocean, run it two miles to [...]
New Wii drive hardware emulation

Posted: September 22nd, 2009, 1:00pm MDT by Mike Szczys

The Wii-Optical-Drive-Emulator (WODE) makes it possible to load Wii and GameCube ISO files from an SD card or USB storage device. This hack uses the ribbon cable for the optical drive to connect to the Wii, requiring no soldering. The WODE is based on an ARM9 processor, runs Linux, and features a backlit LCD screen [...]
TI lashes out at their biggest fans

Posted: September 22nd, 2009, 12:00pm MDT by Caleb Kraft

Texas Instruments has issued a DMCA notice to United TI, a group of enthusiasts. They had been cracking the keys that sign the operating system binaries in an attempt to gain access and possibly expand on the features. This seems, at least a little counter productive to us. Texas Instruments doesn’t sell the operating system separately do they? [...]
Barcode scanner in Processing

Posted: September 22nd, 2009, 11:00am MDT by James Munns

Reader [Nikolaus] decided that instead of using an existing image based bar code decoder, he would write his own. Using the Processing language he created a scanner that parsed the black and white pattern when a bar code was centered on the image. His code then parsed that data and compared it with the initializing character to [...]
Cheap Yaris cabin filter

Posted: September 22nd, 2009, 10:00am MDT by Jakob Griffith

[Jake] never ceases to amaze with his inventions, from his Powered respirator to his Steampunk LCD and more. Today he proves that not every hack has to be an amazing one requiring hundreds of hours, tons of soldering, and an Arduino. Instead, he was tired of being charged $50 for a $5 cabin air filter. [...]
Introduction to FTDI bitbang mode

Posted: September 22nd, 2009, 8:53am MDT by Phil Burgess

It was an interface that launched a thousand hacks. Near trivial to program, enough I/O lines for useful work, and sufficiently fast for a multitude of applications: homebrew logic analyzers, chip programmers, LCD interfaces and LED light shows, to name a few. Today the parallel printer port is on the brink of extinction (and good riddance, [...]