One physical hack I like that’s quick, dirty and nifty is using CAT6 for audio cabling. It’s typically in surplus, and provides decent quality for the average speaker.

While some people have put more time and effort into CAT6 as speaker cable, I find this a nice hack.

Another dirty and quick hack is getting a little bit more out of an old modem. The issue with this modem is that it’s CPU load was too high and being in QLD the modem would get too hot and die. Simple solution, drill a large hole in the top and stick an old P2 fan on it.

Other notable hacks include:

• Washing machine machine motor and whipper snipper combined into a make do generator.
• Powering a RouterBoard from lanten batteries.
• Setting up a Nokia phone up Zenoss to create SMS alerts

Since I didn’t want to get charged $27.50 for 100MB of data on ReiverNet at the Oaks Auroa hotel (amazing place), I looked for some ways around the system. Before leaving I read up about ICMPTX( IP over ICMP, e.g. ping packets ) and NSTX(IP over DNS). ICMP didn’t seem to work, but hostnames were resolvable, so I done some more reading on NSTX.

Turns out that some software called iodine has taken over the roll of NSTX. I was able to convince another user to compile iodine for snow leopard because I forgot to install xtools before I left, and followed this tutorial on installing on FreeBSD and this. In no time I had free internet at the cost of their name server. If they charged a decent rate, I wouldn’t have worried.

The tunnel is ok for low bandwidth uses, like HTML, but other content slows the pipe down quickly.

HPT (Hazard Perception Test) is a test to test your reaction time for hazards when driving. It is required for Queensland drivers to take the test to move from a P1 to P2 licence. The test is taken online where you are shown several one minutes videos, and you must click on the hazard as soon as you spot it. I always like to play around with online systems testing security so I gave this setup a shot. I used the practice tests to see how the system worked, and it was pretty easy to work out a way to cheat the system (like most online exams).

Since it was encrypted using HTTPS Wireshark was out of the question, however this doesn’t mean you can’t still see what’s happening. I found a nice tool called “Live HTTP headers” which shows you all the requests. The first thing I noticed is that the videos are preloaded. You can see all the requested URLs in Live HTTP headers.

To watch one of the videos before taking the test, all you have to do is grab the URL for it (see the screenshot above) and paste that into a new tab. The videos seem to be able to be downloaded at least twice. You can then watch the videos, and then take the exam, and know exactly what’s in the exam / video.

It’s not overly hard to do, and actually quite fun.

I’ve had my Canon S3 IS camera for awhile now, and it’s a brilliant camera with lots of nifty little things, and buttons and this and that. It turns out beautiful images, esp macros. I really like it, and I’m 100% happy with it.

Harrison has showed me CHKD which has made me even more happier with my camera. CHDK is a firmware enhancement that was turn my camera into something even more better. I can now play games on my camera, and run scripts that make beautiful HDR images so much easier. I used a script to take 25 photos on the teddy you see to your right, and patched it together using photomatix. It even tells me the percentage of battery I had, something which was an annoyance on the old firmware.

I really like the new firmware, however I’m sure they can find more fun things to do with the cameras.

The installation is really simple, find a card reader, plop the two files onto the card, re insert card, go into play mode, press the mode button, press firmware update, put your hands on your head, spin around three times yelling “IMAFAG” and flap your arms like a chicken.

It’s that simple.