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It’s that time of the year again. Our nation’s brightest are graduating, ready to enter the world of adulthood. How about one last childish moment before taking the big step? If you are among those that are graduating, be it high school, university, or AA, then you can bring some humor to that special day by making your hat spin when you take the stage. Check out the instructions from a student at Virginia Tech.
Read More 
| A. Kemp’s Hat Trick
This just may be the coolest way to eavesdrop on a conversation. You can now build your own Clear-and-Present-Danger-esque laser microphone using inexpensive materials:
By reflecting any type of laser (with no modification of the emitted light) off of a thin media (like a window plane) the Laser Snooper is to capture the reflected beam. The reflected beam is modulated by the vibrations in the pane from noises on the other side of the window. The receiver detects this modulation and reconstructs the noises and conversations. Also, the device in mind was made with parts that are very cheap and easily obtainable.
How cool is that?
Read More | Laser Snooper
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HOW TO: Hack A PSOne LCD Into Your Computer
Posted by Jesse Easley Categories: Features, Mods / Hacks, PC / Laptop,
I’ve been wanting to do something neat to my computer for a long time. I thought of etching something into the side window, thought of adding water cooling, I thought of doing a bunch of things. Well, in my search ventures online to find something neat to do I found a really cool mod to do with your PC using a PSone LCD Screen. Jump on down to see how it went.
Click to continue reading HOW TO: Hack A PSOne LCD Into Your Computer
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HOW TO: Back Up And Upgrade The Mac mini Hard Drive
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Features, Mods / Hacks, PC / Laptop,
Recently I picked up a PowerBook, and while I expected it to be “okay”, I did not expect to fall in love with OS X the way that I have. I am completely smitten. So much so that I had to pick up a Mac mini so that I would have a desktop Mac solution (and because it just calls your name when shopping at the Apple Store). The 80 GB version struck my fancy, but soon I realized that I am not one that enjoys playing mouse cursor beach ball all that much. The mini had half a gig of RAM in it, but the 4200-RPM drive was just holding me back. It was time to upgrade to a 5400 RPM 100 GB drive. Rather than taking it in to a service center where they would overcharge me, I did it on my own. If you want to upgrade your Mac mini’s hard drive, read on for our tutorial which takes a look at backing up your data, replacing your hard drive, and restoring your data.
Click to continue reading HOW TO: Back Up And Upgrade The Mac mini Hard Drive
And Apple fans continue to find ways to prove that Macs are cooler than Windows-based PC’s. In all actuality, you have to give it to whoever came up with this. Modding an old Mac G3 into a beer dispensing, futuristic looking tower? That is certainly thinking different.
Read More | G3 Beer Server via TUAW
The story behind this paper camera is an interesting one dating back to the seventies. This site gives a brief synopsis of said history, and provides downloadable PDF templates which can be used to build your very own Dirkon camera out of paper.
The name Dirkon is a play on words based on the combination of the parts of two words: Dirk- is the beginning of the Czech word dírka – pinhole, and -kon is the end of the name of a well-known Japanese camera which needs no introduction.
For all you new-schoolers - sorry, no LCD viewfinder here.
Read More | DIY Dirkon via MAKE
How To Build A PC DVR
Posted by Jesse Easley Categories: Home Entertainment, Mods / Hacks, PC / Laptop,
I’ve been wanting a TiVo for sometime, and while searching the interweb I found a great article about how to build a complete DIY media PC. It may look daunting, but the satisfaction you will earn from building a highly scalable DVR solution, which can also stream music/video and run emulated game software is unmatched by anything TiVo, ReplayTV, or your local cable company can give you.
Read More | MAKE
Wow, who would’ve though that these to heroes from years past would come back as one? Certainly not us. In a very complex procedure, the old school Game Boy can be hacked to read from a floppy stocked with ROMs. This setup puts approximately 10,000 games at your disposal - kind of like an iPod for games, except, not. Pretty cool, but who the heck would want to carry that around?
Read More | Power of ASM (Google Translated)
What could be cooler than a Mini G5? The next best thing – a G4 Cube made to look like a G5. With A LOT of time on your hands and the right materials, you too can achieve G5 greatness on your G4 Cube. Granted the website is not in English, but at least there are enough pictures to figure out how to do the mod. Now if only someone can do something similar to the Mac Mini – I’m curious as to what that would look like.
Read More | Conf.co.jp
Nintendo’s Power Pad And Power Glove As MIDI Controllers
Posted by Edwin Soto Categories: Mods / Hacks, Music, Video Games,
Assuming that you may not know what MIDI controller is, here’s a quick explanation:
MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a computer based musical language that has been expanded since it’s inception in the early 1980’s. MIDI controllers come in many forms - most of them keyboard format. They are used to “control” the respective software integrated with the host computer.
So what did Jeff Hoefs do that is so special? He made a cool mod using a Nintendo Power Pad and Power Glove, which he can now use as a MIDI controller. Nerds unite and check out this site.
Read More |MAKE: Blog
