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
Business
Jackson lost will to live, confidante says
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Michael Jacksonlost the will to live in recent years, a former close confidante said on Friday, as scores of fans camped out to be the first to see the singer’s final appearance in the “This is It” movie.Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, appearing on NBC’s “Today” show, unveiled lengthy conversations he taped with Jackson during their 1999-2001 friendship, and said the “Thriller” singer suffered deep emotional pain.”He lost the will to live,” Boteach said. “I think he was just going through the motions of life toward the end.”Boteach also said that Jackson, who had plastic surgery several times,…
Business
Apple updates site with environmental impact
Apple on Thursday updated its Web site with a new section on how its products are impacting the environment.Apple has made public information in several categories including Life Cycle Impact, Product Usage Impact, andProduct Environmental Reports. The company also created a section dedicated to its own environmental updates.Taking a look at the power management section will give you an idea of how extensive the information is that Apple provided. According to Apple, Mac OS X even regulates the processor in between keystrokes, saving power.”Designing green products includes considering the environmental impact of the materials used to make them,” reads Apple’s…
Hack
Home injection molding
[Kenneth Maxon] is a wizard who only does things one way, beautifully. While out of the average hacker’s production capabilities, his injection molding machine is amazing to behold. The machine has all features a commercial model would. It heats and cools the mold, produces over a ton of pressure to inject plastic with, and ejects parts automatically to name a few.
Hack
Experimental Robotic Platform
Introducing ERP: Experimental Robotic Platform. This is an open source, modular robotics platform that, as you can see above, didn’t fair too poorly in the Robogames 2009. [John] has been working on this platform for roughly 2 years and states that it will never be “finished”. It is a development platform, and is always changing and being updated. You can follow along on the project page to see the major design changes as they happen, such as the wheel suspension system cut from a single piece of plastic. All of the pieces, schematics, and software are available for download.…
Hack
Malicious ATM found at Defcon 17
A fake ATM machine, set to capture ATM information was found at Defcon 17 in vegas this year. Its design has a tinted plastic window at the top which attendees noticed had a computer in it. It was quickly removed by the police. Is this an amazing coincidence? We doubt it. Someone probably knew exactly who was going to be there and either wanted to scam some hackers or just wanted to have some fun.
Automotive
Environmentally Sound Automotive Air Filters
When I explain to someone that there are several lines ofvehicle air filters available that are environmentally sound Iusually receive a quizzical look back from that person. For somemotorists the idea of environmentally compatible automotiveparts is a foreign concept to them. Yet, when you think about itmany parts that come standard on just about any vehiclequalifies for that title. A catalytic converter is one part thateveryone knows about, even if they don’t understand exactly howone works. So, exactly what is an environmentally sound airfilter? Let’s take a closer look for all the details.As you probably know the air filter that…
Hack
Custom flex sensors
Flex sensors, like the ones used in the Nintendo Power Glove, are generally expensive and hard to find. However, [jiovine] demonstrates that they are easy enough to make from spare parts. He sandwiched a strip of plastic from ESD bags between pieces of copper foil, and wrapped the whole thing in heat shrink tubing. The sensor is able to detect bends in either direction, unlike the original power glove sensors. His version had a nominal resistance of about 20k ohms, but by choosing a different resistive layer you could create sensors that are more or less resistive.
Related: 5-cent…
Facebook
Hundreds Die In Urumqi. Does The World Care?
According to the latest news reports from Urumqi, a far-flung city in western China, “calm” had returned to the streets as the death toll from Sunday’s protests hit 156, with 800 injured, and 1,434 protestors detained. Officials say most of the dead were Han Chinese, while Uyghur groups report that 90% of those killed were Uyghurs. Though reports about the ethnic background of those killed and accounts of the protest may vary, one thing is clear. The Chinese government has cracked down, enforced curfews, and rounded up protestors in an effort to stop future unrest. Meanwhile, wall posts from Uyghurs,…
Hack
Printing circuits on the RepRap
[Rhys Jones] has been working with the RepRap team to develop a way to print circuit boards. The machine first prints the plastic substrate with channels for the metal to be deposited into. They adapted their pinch wheel feeder to work with solid core solder (flux creates a mess). The extruded solder’s specific heat isn’t hot enough to melt the plastic. They made a video (embedded below) of their test piece: an optical endstop. The team has also been experimenting with decoupling the feed mechanism from the extruder.
