Tight little hack that I never knew existed!

Free mp3 Downloads from Google. With this simple trick, you can get tons of mp3 download links using just Google

All you have to do is search for this..
"Band or Artist name here" last modified mp3 "index of" -html -htm -php -asp
For example i want to get some Red Hot Chili Peppers’ song…
"Red hot chili peppers" last modified mp3 "index of" -html -htm -php -asp

via pinkprank

Cool, now you can use some regular PC camera to scan 3D objects!

DAVID is a freeware software for laser range scanning. All you need is a PC, a camera (e.g. a webcam), a background corner, and a laser which projects a line onto the object you want to scan. So everyone can use it to scan objects without high costs; this is the big advantage over commercial solutions which are rather expensive.

DAVID has been developed by the computer scientists Dr. Simon Winkelbach and Sven Molkenstruck from the Institute for Robotics and Process Control, Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany. The concept has been published as a paper at the German Association for Pattern Recognition (DAGM, Deutsche Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Mustererkennung) and can be downloaded here.

The object you want to scan has to be put into the corner of a room or in front of two planes with an exact angle of 90°. The camera of course has to be pointed towards the object. The special thing about our solution is that you freely hold the laser in your hand, “brushing” the laser line over the object. Meanwhile the computer automatically calculates 3D coordinates of the scanned object surface. See the screenshots to get an impression of the software.

via digg

It is nice to have friends at Microsoft and cut up some cool stuff… The point of the story is the waterjet machine though, we really need one of these, it looks like you can cut anything!

A few days ago, some friends of mine from Microsoft stopped by with some junk X-Box circuit boards. So, we stuck them under the machine, and cut them to bits.

via

Here’s a cool bush hack on Windows XP Notepad. I tried it and it works. It must be some kind of political scheme or somethin’
Must have been a bug one of the programmers made on purpose or something…
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Today, I was trying to bookmark some stuff on Google and Yahoo and noticed that there weren’t any bookmarklets for them that were available.

They have toolbars but I rather have a simple button to click then do click, scroll, click…

So I hacked one real quick. Now you can just click a button on your browser to save your favorite sites to Google or Yahoo Bookmarks
In Firefox,

Click and drag

In Internet Explorer,

Right click on and choose “Add to Favorites” and add to the “Links” folder.

In Safari,

Click and drag to your toolbar.

If you are still using IE or Safari, why haven’t you switched over to Firefox?

Get Firefox NOW!

Nicely done Wii drum machine hack!

Bob Somers managed to turn a Wiimote into a drum machine using this custom script and GlovePIE. Video after the jump.

Now if you could just get two Wiimotes running at the same time, along with some sort of foot switch mechanisms for the kick drum and hi-hat, you’d have a full-fledged electronic drum kit. Anyway, we like the graphics of the Wii demo better. But both approaches look like tons o’ fun

Instructions:

With all the hacks for the Wii remote going around, I kept hearing people say they couldn’t wait until someone made a drum machine.

So I did.

To get this working, you first need to go over to either WiiLi.org or LiquidIce’s Wii Hacks page and get your Wiimote working with bluetooth. Follow all the great information they have to get your remote working with GlovePIE. Once your remote is working fine with GlovePIE, then your ready for the following files:

• Download WiiDrums.zip

NOTE: You’ll need the latest version of the .NET framework to run the Wii Drums program, so shame on you if you haven’t been keeping up with your Windows Updates!

Unzip those files to a directory of your choice and run the setup program. When you get a security warning, click Install anyway, sorry I haven’t paid Microsoft lots of money to be a “verified publisher”.

Once the program is installed you’ll see a program on your Start menu called DrumSounds.

Connect your Wiimote, load up GlovePIE, and run the WiiDrums.PIE script I included in the WiiDrums.zip file. Then run the DrumSounds program from your Start menu, and make sure it is the front-most program. Then just follow the instructions on the program and have fun drumming!

via via

The guys Will at posted his howto on .  He shows us how to solder and assemble the Make Daisy MP3 Player from
scratch! Well, this MP3 Player has always been on our priority list for hacking and modding so
check it out and make one for yourself! We plan to hack it with some LCDs and more…

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Here’s the guts of wii dissected by Sparkfun team showing all the parts including some type of I2C
interface and Broadcom wireless solution as you can see in the above pics.

U7849 6Q63 could be anything. All those flat round things (330, 100, 4R7) are inductors 33uH, 10uH, and 4.7uH. These are predominantly used for DC to DC step-up or step-down (also called boost and buck respectively). They can also be used for filtering - probably both on this board. Filtering is crucial for a clean RF signal out of the Broadcom Bluetooth IC (center).

BCM2042 is a low-cost Bluetooth wireless keyboard/mouse IC. It features an 8051 core and RAM/ROM memory featuring the HID bluetooth profile and stack. Any chance they used a flash part that we can hack instead of the masked ROM (un-changeable) version? Highly unlikely. But lemme know if someone figures out how to get into the core. The small crystal is 24MHz. They make it look so easy don’t they?

Here you get a feel for the pinout of the connector. The small LEDs are shown. I can’t identify M 626 3322 IC but it has the Mitsumi logo - seems to be connected to something on the power system.

Hitting Digikey, the H7824HE comes up as an MSOP-8pin Mobile Phone Audio device from Rohm - that seems very plausible as it is located near the speaker connection.

Accelerometer and EEPROM

Finally, the ADXL330 with date code 0614 (my chip was manufactured the 1st week of April of 2006!) with the ‘to be expected’ three axis filtering caps and power decoupling cap. The ST 4128 BWP part seems to be a 128kbit I2C serial EEPROM - datasheet is here. This agrees with the pinout of the ST datasheet. Pins 1 through 4 are grounded (address lines E0,1,2 are 0), VCC is pin 8. Pin 7 is WC (write control) and is tied to resistor R38. Pins 6/5 are the Serial Data (SDA) and Serial Clock (SCL) lines. Anyone feel like clocking out the internals of the I2C EEPROM? My guess is that it contains mundane info like a Bluetooth identifier, perhaps a serial number, and some trimming values for the accelerometer and IR sensor. A task for another tutorial some day…

Okay so we couldn’t wait that long.

We hot-aired off the EEPROM and soldered it down to our SSOP breakout board. We then hooked up the unit to an AVR micro that could handle the I2C communication and clocked out all the I2C data from the M24128 into the AVR and down the serial pipe to the computer and captured it. You will find the binary file here. My bet was that the EEPROM contained all constants like Bluetooth ID, firmware revision, etc. And that all the fun Wii Remote functionality was burned into the Broadcom part. David’s bet was that the Broadcom part was just the Bluetooth HID stack and protocol and that it pinged the EEPROM during boot up for actual Wii Controller firmware. We were both right!

Looking at the binary file, the fun thing to note is the word ‘Nintendo’ a couple thousand bytes into the file. Boy would that be fun to alter. The real kicker was that we found unencrypted 8051 code in the file. We don’t know if it is checksumed or anything, but you should be able to hack away. This seems to indicate that the entire Wii Remote functionality is contained on this M24128 EEPROM. Nifty.

via

Wow, check out this upcoming HDTV!

You thought the largest HDTV screen war is over? Well! That’s not actually the case! And, before you make any presumptions about Panasonic loosing hold of owning the world’s largest HDTV display for its 103-inchie plasma panel, let me steer you in the right direction! This time Dallas Cowboys Stadium has clinched the title of owning the world’s largest video screen of over 20,000 square feet that earlier rested with Tokyo’s horseracing track.

Remember, back in July, we told you about Mistubishi’s high-definition video screen for Tokyo’s horseracing track that is 218 feet wide and 37 feet tall. Now, the Dallas autorities has shown its love for the football lovers with the announcement of this enormous retractable roof stadium which will not only own the world’s largest video screen which will run from the 20-yard line to the 20-yard line, measuring 180 feet in length and 50 feet in height, but will also hold the title of the biggest domed stadium in the world! There will be eight video boards in this facility to allow fans on all levels to view the game in crisp, clear images during the game. The stadium will see its completion in 2009!

via bornrich via engadget

Nice, someone get it for me on Christmas!

Water and fire usually don’t work so well together. There are some exceptions, of course, like the steam turbine engine or using fire to boil water and cook up a nice heaping plate of pasta. Another exception would be the new Float from Mathmos. This candle powered light brings together these two elements in a rather pleasing way.

Simply fill the mouth blown glass vessel with water to the top of the chrome candle guide. Float one of the Mathmos Candles in the water and light. The flame will stay in the same place as the candle reduces in size casting moving light through water, glass and metal. Works with most household candles. Designed by: Roger Arquer.

via random-good-stuff