BuffaloFeeds » Hack A Day » January 25, 2011

Hack A Day (11 unread)

Abusing HTTP status codes

Posted: January 25th, 2011, 4:00pm MST by Caleb Kraft

Concerns over privacy online are an ever growing theme. Every day we see people complaining about the policies of facebook and the like. [Mike Cardwell] points out another method of gleaning a bit of personal data from you that you may not have seen yet. By embedding a hidden image or using some really simple [...]
Wireless Sniffing and Jamming of Chronos and iclicker

Posted: January 25th, 2011, 3:00pm MST by Joseph Thibodeau

The ubiquitous presence of wireless devices combined with easy access to powerful RF development platforms makes the everyday world around us a wireless hacker’s playground. Yesterday [Travis Goodspeed] posted an article showing how goodfet.cc can be used to sniff wireless traffic and also to jam a given frequency. We’ve previously covered the work of [Travis] [...]
Inaccurate Breathalyzer is still quite nice

Posted: January 25th, 2011, 2:00pm MST by Mike Szczys

Sure, [Hunter Scott's] Breathalyzer can only differentiate between hammer and sober, but look how nice it came out. He’s using an MQ-3 alcohol sensor which, from previous projects, we know is very difficult to accurately calibrate. But if you want to monkey around with embedded systems you’ve got to have a goal. [Hunter] chose a gorgeous aluminum [...]
Monocrome to Magnificent: computer display chronology

Posted: January 25th, 2011, 1:00pm MST by Mike Szczys

Remember when CGA came out and made monocrome monitors look horrible? Well CGA is crap, VGA is where it’s at. Wait… weren’t there a couple of standards in between those two? Take a walk down memory lane and relive the evolution of computer display technology. You’ll start with displays that are more or less CRT [...]
Jamming gripper completes robot drug dealer

Posted: January 25th, 2011, 12:00pm MST by Mike Szczys

Here’s an inexpensive way to build your own jamming gripper. [Steve Norris] combined a robot arm with a few inexpensive items to achieve similar results as the original. Much like the last DIY version he started with a balloon and some coffee grounds, but instead of using his own body as a vacuum pump he [...]
Sparkfun free day recap

Posted: January 25th, 2011, 11:00am MST by Chris Nelson

It looks like the dust has finally settled with sparkfun’s free day. They managed to give away $150,541 to users and $22,988 to charity. The general idea is you could ether take $10/year you’ve been a sparkfun customer, or take a 10 question quiz and earn $10/correct answer plus some money for charity. It looks like some technical [...]
Radios without power sources

Posted: January 25th, 2011, 10:00am MST by Mike Szczys

[Goodhart] is sharing his process for building a couple different AM radios. It’s surprising how few components he’s using; the first build is just a germanium diode, some wire, and a piezo earpiece. But it strikes us that both of the radios he gives build instructions for have no power source. We’re also amused by [...]
Jeep-uter adds push button control to your vehicle

Posted: January 25th, 2011, 9:00am MST by Mike Szczys

[Ed Zarick] built a module to control his vehicle which he calls the Jeeputer. The name’s a mash-up of Jeep and Computer; the device itself is a combination of Arduino, character LCD, and a collection of shift registers and relays for interfacing. Watch the video after the break to see what this can do. We were surprised [...]
VR! now with more kinect, wiimote, and vuzix

Posted: January 25th, 2011, 8:00am MST by Caleb Kraft

Those of us that remember when you could actually go to a mall and play on a VR game machine, tend to remember it fondly. What happened? The computing horsepower has grown so much, our graphics now days are simply stunning, yet there’s been no major VR revival. Yeah, those helmets were huge and gave [...]
Refurbishing a refrigerator for fermenting

Posted: January 25th, 2011, 7:00am MST by Caleb Kraft

[Mikey Sklar] wrote in to show us how he refurbished a neighbors useless refrigerator as a fermentation chamber. [Mikey] is a fan of making breads, kemchi, yogurt, and tempeh. To make these, it helps to have a completely controlled temperature for them to ferment in. [Mikey] developed a temp controller for this in the past, but had [...]
555 Design Contest, Win $1500+ in prizes!

Posted: January 25th, 2011, 5:06am MST by James Munns

Sure, microcontrollers are useful, easy to apply, and ubiquitous, but where is the fun in the easy route? Well, for those of you out there with a little imagination and a 555 timer sitting around, there could be rewards in store. Brought to you by such famous personalities as Jeri Ellsworth and Chris Gammell, the 555 [...]