Wireless headphones can be a wonderful way to help clear up the clutter inherent in most desktop PC systems. However, after plugging a wall wart in, and the headphone jack into the computer, the number of wires used has actually doubled. After [Parker] found an old set of JVC 900 Mhz wireless headphones (and a generic 900MHz transmitter), he cracked open the case to see what he could do with them. Realizing that the transmitter used a 12V DC source, he powered it with an unused floppy connector (which provides +12V, +5V, and two ground lines). He also wired…
Hack
Internal Wireless Headphones
Hack
Universal credit card in the palm of your hand
Do you remember the magnetic card spoofer in Terminator 2? It was a bit farfetched because apparently the device could be swiped through a reader and magically come up with working account numbers and pin numbers. We’re getting close to that kind of magic with [Jaroslaw's] card spoofer that is button-programmable.
Building off of a project that allows spoofing via an iPod and electromagnet, [Jaroslaw] wanted something that doesn’t require a computer to put together the card code. He accomplished this by interfacing a 20-button keyboard and a character LCD with an AVR ATmega168 microcontroller. Card codes can be…
Hack
Hacking USB serial port adapters
The folks at Openschemes.com have written up an article on how to convert a USB serial port adapter to a low voltage serial interface for interfacing with microcontrollers. Though you can always just buy one, this is a fairly quick and cheap solution, especially if you are in a pinch or don’t have access to a retailer. The specific models you should watch for, are the ones with two chips, a microcontroller and a line translater.They go through the process of finding exactly where to patch in to add an extra interface. It only takes a couple wires and…
Hack
Introduction to FTDI bitbang mode
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, some would say). Largely rendered obsolete by USB, few (if any) new peripherals even include a parallel connector, and today’s shrinking computers — nettops, netbooks, media center PCs — wouldn’t have space for it anyway. That’s great for tidy desks, but not so…
Business
Changes To Student Loan Payments Scrapped
Wellington, Sept 22 NZPA – Changes that would have seen students paying off their student loan in their holidays have been scrapped. Currently people with student loans have to make repayments if they earn over $19,084 a year. The changes would have switched the threshold to weekly, fortnightly or monthly, in line with an individual’s pay period. The total yearly threshold will remain unchanged, however students who work full time during the holidays may have found themselves over the $367 weekly threshold and having to make payments while they save for the year ahead. Revenue Minister Peter Dunne said the…
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Eee PC NAS
Hack a Day reader [The_Glu] shared with us a project of his. He used an Eee PC 701 he had lying around with a broken LCD, along with three 1TB SATA drives to create a custom NAS server for his house. The server features a number of other interesting components, including USB2SATA converters to connect the hard drives, as well as a 2 line LCD to display RAID information and server status. The entire project is wrapped up in a custom made Plexiglas enclosure with case fans to keep the whole thing cool. While this may not be the first…
Facebook
How To Plan Your Monthly Facebook Page Strategy
This is Day 30 of the 30 Days to 3,000 Fans program. You can learn more about the program here.
There’s an old proverb which says “He who fails to plan, plans to fail” and while there are people that will debate the importance of planning, mapping out a guide for the next month will make things a lot easier. What blog posts will you be writing? What content will be most effective to drive new fans to your Facebook? What steps will you take to promote your Facebook Page? While we’ve listed 29 techniques to boost your fan base,…
Software
Kaspersky Anti-Virus & Internet Security 2010 9.0.0.710 Beta
Kaspersky Anti Virus 2010 ndash the backbone of your PC rsquo s security system offering protection from a range of IT threats Kaspersky Anti Virus 2010 provides the basic tools needed to protect your PC Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 ndash the all in one security solution that offers a worry free computing environment for you and your family Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 has everything you need for a safe and secure Internet experience Kaspersky Internet Security 9 0 ndash is a new line of Kaspersky Labs products which is designed for the multi tiered protection of personal computers This product…
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How to write udev rules
Since the adoption of Kernel 2.6, Linux has used the udev system to handle devices such as USB connected peripherals. If you want to change the behavior when you plug something into a USB port, this section is for you. As an example, we will use a USB thumb drive but these methods should translate to any device handled by udev. As a goal for this exercise we decided to create a symlink and execute a script when a specific thumb drive was loaded. The operating system we used for this exercise is Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope.
Background Investigation…
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Software pulse width modulation
Pulse Width Modulation is a topic that tends to give a lot of beginners trouble. [Daqq], whose nixie plasma ball we covered a few days ago, has a simple but effective PWM project that you should take a look at. The circuit used 9 LEDs clustered together into 3 sets of RGB modules and connected them to an AVR ATtiny2313 through some current limiting resistors. Most of the time the PWM function of the AVR’s timers would be used to generate the signal but this application calls for 9 signals which is more than can be produced by this…
Facebook
Friend.ly Photo App Spreading Through Facebook Like A Virus
A new Facebook Connect application has spread quickly around the Facebook social graph by tagging all of a user’s friends who have the same zodiac sign. This is the latest in a series of new photo tagging applications which have been spreading like wildfire across the site. The Facebook platform lets users easily tag their friends but by prompting users for unrestricted posting and unrestricted photo upload permissions, the application is able to spread like crazy. It leads me to wonder whether Facebook will begin cracking down on these types of apps.
The way Facebook’s new permissions system is that…
Tech Support
Replica Handbag Bags That Suits Your Lifestyle
A lot of hype is out when a new brand release is a new brand or line. As that happens, handbags become more popular. The luxury bag models offered are loved by celebrities. The famous brands of bag models represent quality and elegance. The world of Replica handbags is not that different from the original handbags. With originals, as the price is low, the customer is expected to be confused regarding the quality & the prices offered. They have their profits margin included over and above the cost incurred in the acquisition of the product they are marketing. The better…
