• Hacker finds better use for a Windows machine
[Patrick Becker] had an ancient PC on his hands with a blown PSU. He converted this into a stylish home for his Betta splendens.
The aquarium itself is fashioned from a piece for construction glass block with the top cut off. This allows for a window that looks through the tank and shows off the motherboard [...]
• doomBox: Classic keys meet tiny screen
The doomBox is a dedicated gaming rig for lovers of ID Software’s classic title. [JJ] built this from an old Kodak DC290 camera that had a broken lens. Since this runs the Digita OS, he was able to use the Doom port that already exists. But the camera’s factory buttons were not well suited as [...]

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• 112-LED coffee table
[Joe] tipped us off about his 112 LED coffee table. This 12-ups the LED matrix from Friday and 31-ups the Shiftbrite table. Driving this grid is an ATmega328 in i2c slave mode. It listens for display data from a second ATmega328 and uses that to set the array of TLC5940 driven LEDs appropriately. Separating the [...]
• Extreme piano transplant
We always wondered what happens to ancient pianos when the internals can no longer be kept in a playable condition. [Jean Philippe Roch] gutted his elderly upright and fit a Korg Triton inside. After the break you can watch a few videos including a slide show of the work log.  [Jean] separates the Korg keyboard [...]

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• Two input devices made with common items
Here’s two input devices you can easily build with materials you already have on hand.
To the left, [John] built a 3×3 keypad matrix from paper and tinfoil. The rows and columns are made up of strips of tin foil on the front and back layers of paper. The layers are separated by spongy double-stick tape. [...]
• WRT54GL, meet Alice
When it comes to routers, there is one that is hacker’s favorite, the WRT54GL. But a slightly lesser known company, Pirelli with their “Alice Gate2 plus Wi-Fi”, seems to be a popular choice among our Italian friends.
[Esteban] has done everything from installing serial and parallel ports, to unlocking firmware while installing Debian. Our personal favorite [...]

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• 10×10 LED matrix
[KopfKopfKopfAffe] just finished a 3-year labor of love resulting in this 10 by 10 LED Matrix. This trumps the Shiftbrite table from earlier today by bringing an actual 100 LEDs to the display. These LEDs cost much less than the Shiftbrites, but since they don’t have their own on-board controller this project requires much more [...]
• Drilling perfectly centered holes
If you’ve ever been caught in the situation of needing to drill a clean straight hole down the center of a bolt or rod, you’ve probably tried and ended up with a broken bit or tilted hole, and a ton of cursing to boot.
[Vik] let us know about this nifty trick for drilling ‘down the [...]

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Borderlands DLC / Add-on pack The Secret Armory of General Knoxx has already been cracked despite being on the internet for a very short time. It has been spread through torrenting, Megaupload (MU), Rapidshare (RS), and Mediafire (MF) — as well as a large variety of other means. This includes not only the PC version of the Secret Armory of General Knoxx, but also the Xbox 360 version (which was leaked first) and the Playstation 3 (PS3) version. It is absolutely amazing how fast these things leak. The Gearbox team does an amazing job with Borderlands and their DLC releases…so I hope a lot of people support the developers by legally obtaining the add-on content! I made a similar post entitled Borderlands DLC Secret Armory of General Knoxx Cracked and Leaked as well about this. For those who haven’t actually played the DLC yet and are curious about it, check out information on the Secret Armory of General Knoxx. By the way, it got rated a 9.0/10 by Gamespot! That’s 0.5+ increase in comparison to the Zombie Island of Dr.Ned.

• Nokia USB cable is USB-to-FTDI in disguise
[Jethomson] worked out a way to use a Nokia USB cable at a USB to FTDI cable. He was able to pick up one of these cables for less than $3 delivered. A little probing worked out which conductors go with the appropriate signals and from there he developed a way to protect the 3.3v [...]
• Python IR tracking for the handicapped
[Techb] had a friend who was paralyzed after an accident and could no long use a computer. He rigged up an amazingly simple mouse interface using python to implement infrared tracking. The controller was built from an old hat by adding an IR LED and wireless mouse modified so that the button could be clicked [...]

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Many people recently used Windows Update to update their copy of Windows 7. An unlabeled update that didn’t look out of the ordinary, called KB971033, has caused issues with many machines. Do not worry though, it is very easily removed. Simply follow the instructions how to remove / delete KB971033. Enjoy being no longer annoyed by the update! Hopefully Microsoft won’t be as sneaky about it next time

It’s that time again! A time for more free iPhone / iPod Touch apps and games. These are free for a limited amount of time so get them while you still can!

ToDo Simple and Elegant ToDo list – Simplicity and elegance are put together within eTodo. With every UI detail polished and work-flow optimized, task management has never been easier and faster.

ActivePrint Traveler – ActivePrint Traveler is the easiest way to print from your Apple iPhone and iPod Touch. Now you can print photos, contacts, web pages, and plain text no matter where you are.

ActivePrint – ActivePrint 7 is the industry leading mobile printing solution, and now its the easiest way to print from your Apple iPhone or iPod Touch!

Blop – Blop is an addictive and tricky puzzle game about making shapes with blocks of colored tiles.

Bowling 3D – Bowling 3D is a fun bowling game on iphone and itouch, you need to beat AI compter opponent. Feature: – Realistic 3D graphics and physics engine – Awesome music and sound effects

• 10-bit rotary precision for servos
[Antonb] added 10-bit encoding to a standard servo. He’s removed the potentiometer, separated its shaft and used it to rotate a small magnet. By sandwiching an AS5040 rotatory encoder IC into the servo’s housing he can now measure the precise orientation of the servo horn. This is made easier by his tiny breakout board for [...]
• A second life for dead hard drives
[AndyUU1CC] has put together directions on how he built an Iambic Paddle out of some old hard drives. The iambic paddle is a device for telegraphy. More specifically, it is that piece that you always see people clicking with their finger when they send a telegraph. We hadn’t seen an iambic or “dual lever” style [...]

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• More cellphone controlled door locks
[Nicko Margolies] and his colleagues just moved to a new office. The doors are setup like a security checkpoint with electronic strikes and buttons on the inside to allow entry. The button simply completes a low-voltage circuit, activating the strike which made it quite easy to patch into. They build an interface board with a [...]
• Add pause button to the Atari 2600
We’re sure that if there had been a pause button on the Atari 2600 people would never have moved on to next-generation systems. Now you can dig the gaming relic out of the closet and pause your Atari games for some good old om nom nom.This hack is from the same person who pulled off [...]

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