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February 28, 2008

Excel Hacks: Display a "please wait" message

Excel Hacks, 2nd Edition Cover

Here's Hack #111, Display a "Please Wait" Message, from David and Raina Hawley's Excel Hacks, 2nd Edition. Millions of users create and share Excel spreadsheets every day, but few go deeply enough to learn the techniques that will make their work much easier. Yet there are many ways to take advantage of Excel's sophisticated capabilities without spending hours on advanced study. In Excel Hacks, you'll learn how to:

Reduce workbook and worksheet frustration--manage how users interact with worksheets, find and highlight information, and deal with debris and corruption.
Analyze and manage data--extend and automate these features, moving beyond the limited tasks they were designed to perform.
Hack names--learn not only how to name cells and ranges, but also how to create names that adapt to the data in your spreadsheet.
Get the most out of PivotTables--avoid the problems that make them frustrating and learn how to extend them.
Create customized charts--tweak and combine Excel's built-in charting capabilities.
Hack formulas and functions--subjects range from moving formulas around to dealing with datatype issues to improving recalculation time.
Make the most of macros--including ways to manage them and use them to extend other features.
Use the enhanced capabilities of Microsoft Office 2007 to combine Excel with Word, Access, and Outlook.

Hack #111: Display a "Please Wait" Message - Link

Related:

Excel Hacks, 2nd Edition @ the Maker Store - Buy now
Excel Hacks, Second Edition--New from O'Reilly: Hook Up with Excel Expert Hackers - Press Release

February 27, 2008

Wiindow curtain control

Hackszine reader clickthegoogleads wrote to us about a set of Wiimote controlled curtains:

The curtain control system is an existing system from Goelst and is called "G-Rail 6200". Normally it is controlled by infrared or wallswitches. However, it can also be controlled with a CAN bus. I used this CAN bus to interface with an old PC. ... GlovePIE has no function to send messages to a CAN bus. So I started up my good old visual basic and made a little program that handles the CAN messaging. In the first version I used the keypressed event. I made a GlovePIE script that sends out keyboard keys when the Wiimote has a certain orientation and voila... L is for left, R is for Right and S is for Stop.

Is there anything that Wiimote can't do?

Wiindow Curtain Control - Link
GlovePIE - Link

Excel Hacks: Display negative time values

Excel Hacks, 2nd Edition Cover

Here's Hack #87, Display Negative Time Values, from David and Raina Hawley's Excel Hacks, 2nd Edition. Millions of users create and share Excel spreadsheets every day, but few go deeply enough to learn the techniques that will make their work much easier. Yet there are many ways to take advantage of Excel's sophisticated capabilities without spending hours on advanced study. In Excel Hacks, you'll learn how to:

Reduce workbook and worksheet frustration--manage how users interact with worksheets, find and highlight information, and deal with debris and corruption.
Analyze and manage data--extend and automate these features, moving beyond the limited tasks they were designed to perform.
Hack names--learn not only how to name cells and ranges, but also how to create names that adapt to the data in your spreadsheet.
Get the most out of PivotTables--avoid the problems that make them frustrating and learn how to extend them.
Create customized charts--tweak and combine Excel's built-in charting capabilities.
Hack formulas and functions--subjects range from moving formulas around to dealing with datatype issues to improving recalculation time.
Make the most of macros--including ways to manage them and use them to extend other features.
Use the enhanced capabilities of Microsoft Office 2007 to combine Excel with Word, Access, and Outlook.

Hack #87: Display Negative Time Values - Link

Related:

Excel Hacks, 2nd Edition @ the Maker Store - Buy now
Excel Hacks, Second Edition--New from O'Reilly: Hook Up with Excel Expert Hackers - Press Release

February 26, 2008

Wii Linux

This is awesome news from the GameCube Linux Wiki:

24 Feb 2008: Long time, no see Although we haven't posted any news in the last 2 years, we have silently continued our work keeping the kernel patches up to date. With the latest 2.6.24 release we have added support for the USB Gecko adapter as a console and terminal, so you can now logon into your gc-linux distro using minicom or HyperTerminal (TM). And last but not least, we have finally run natively Linux on the Nintendo Wii through Team Tweezers' twilight-hack. We have released a small usbgecko-enabled Proof of Concept mini-distro to prove it. Did I say have fun? :)

On a side note, I'm trying to put some instructions together for getting a dev environment set up with libogc and devkitPro. I'm not going to be able to test without a Wii, but this looks like a good place to start. Shout out in the comments if you know of any good Wii dev howtos that have sprouted up.

GameCube Linux Wiki - [via] Link

Excel Hacks: Highlight alternating rows and columns

Here's Hack #21, Highlight Every Other Row or Column, from David and Raina Hawley's Excel Hacks, 2nd Edition. Millions of users create and share Excel spreadsheets every day, but few go deeply enough to learn the techniques that will make their work much easier. Yet there are many ways to take advantage of Excel's sophisticated capabilities without spending hours on advanced study. In Excel Hacks, you'll learn how to:

Reduce workbook and worksheet frustration--manage how users interact with worksheets, find and highlight information, and deal with debris and corruption.
Analyze and manage data--extend and automate these features, moving beyond the limited tasks they were designed to perform.
Hack names--learn not only how to name cells and ranges, but also how to create names that adapt to the data in your spreadsheet.
Get the most out of PivotTables--avoid the problems that make them frustrating and learn how to extend them.
Create customized charts--tweak and combine Excel's built-in charting capabilities.
Hack formulas and functions--subjects range from moving formulas around to dealing with datatype issues to improving recalculation time.
Make the most of macros--including ways to manage them and use them to extend other features.
Use the enhanced capabilities of Microsoft Office 2007 to combine Excel with Word, Access, and Outlook.

Hack #21: Highlight Every Other Row or Column - Link

Related:

Excel Hacks, 2nd Edition @ the Maker Store - Buy now
Excel Hacks, Second Edition--New from O'Reilly: Hook Up with Excel Expert Hackers - Press Release

February 25, 2008

Botanicalls Twitter: flora tweets

With Monday finally wrapping up, it's time to start thinking about next weekend. Why not spend it Twitter-enabling your house plants?

Botanicalls Twitter answers the question: What's up with your plant? It offers a connection to your leafy pal via online Twitter status updates that reach you anywhere in the world. When your plant needs water, it will post to let you know, and send its thanks when you show it love.

I've managed to make it through the winter with only two plant casualties so far. There isn't a whole lot I can do about the scarcity of light in Minneapolis, but with a little Arduino hacking I could at least remove watering issues from the equation.

Botanicalls Twitter - Link

Make a remote connections to Windows Home Server

Windows Home Server may seem like an unusual piece of software, but it's worth playing around with if you are considering a home server for your Windows systems. You can get a 120-day evaluation version from Microsoft, and OEM versions are available from retailers like Newegg.com. Here's a Windows Home Server hack from Preston Gralla's Big Book of Windows Hacks. This one shows you how to connect remotely to your home server so you can keep an eye on things back at home. Hack #129 - Link

Related:

Big Book of Windows Hacks @ the Maker Store - Link
Big Book of Windows Hacks--New from Make: Tips & Tricks for Unlocking the Power of Your Windows PC - Link
Hack #156 from Big Book of Windows Hacks: strip down your Windows installation - Link
Big Book of Windows Hacks #16: a grab bag of Vista interface hacks - Link

Excel Hacks: Reduce workbook bloat

Here's Hack #15, Reduce Workbook Bloat, from David and Raina Hawley's Excel Hacks, 2nd Edition. Millions of users create and share Excel spreadsheets every day, but few go deeply enough to learn the techniques that will make their work much easier. Yet there are many ways to take advantage of Excel's sophisticated capabilities without spending hours on advanced study. In Excel Hacks, you'll learn how to:

Reduce workbook and worksheet frustration--manage how users interact with worksheets, find and highlight information, and deal with debris and corruption.
Analyze and manage data--extend and automate these features, moving beyond the limited tasks they were designed to perform.
Hack names--learn not only how to name cells and ranges, but also how to create names that adapt to the data in your spreadsheet.
Get the most out of PivotTables--avoid the problems that make them frustrating and learn how to extend them.
Create customized charts--tweak and combine Excel's built-in charting capabilities.
Hack formulas and functions--subjects range from moving formulas around to dealing with datatype issues to improving recalculation time.
Make the most of macros--including ways to manage them and use them to extend other features.
Use the enhanced capabilities of Microsoft Office 2007 to combine Excel with Word, Access, and Outlook.

Hack #15: Reduce Workbook Bloat - Link

Related:

Excel Hacks, 2nd Edition @ the Maker Store - Buy now
Excel Hacks, Second Edition--New from O'Reilly: Hook Up with Excel Expert Hackers - Press Release

February 24, 2008

LED security camera disruptor

The German translation isn't perfect, but this site describes a privacy product that defeats security cameras. A simple IR LED array in a headband is able to oversaturate the pixels in the camera's CCD to the point where even adjacent pixels are effected, shrouding the wearer's face in a white halo.

Infrared Light Against Security Cameras - [via] Link

February 23, 2008

Remote file access through email

Shantanu Goel put a proof-of-concept Outlook macro together that will send you files in response to a specially formatted email. The idea is that you can activate this and leave Outlook running on your computer at work and if you are offsite and need to grab a document it's only an email away.

This project came into being after reading this post at lifehacker (original post and solution here). It listed a method to retrieve mails on your home/office PC by sending a "magic email" to it, but it was only for mac's. Seeing that people wanted it for windows as well, I thought of making something up during lunch time at office.

If you think about it, this is kind of a clever way to get around a corporate firewall. It'd be funny to add some directory listing functionality to it and formalize an email file transfer protocol.

Remote File Access Through E-Mail -Link

February 22, 2008

Extracting encryption keys after a cold boot

In this video, researchers at Princeton demonstrate the ability to lift encryption keys from RAM that has been powered off for a brief period of time. When you use a full disk encryption product, the key is stored in RAM while the machine is unlocked and operating. This data is typically considered safe as long as it's not paged out to disk since RAM is considered volatile. The truth, though, is that the volatility of the data in unpowered RAM is dependent on a few factors including temperature and the length of time it's been without power:

Contrary to popular assumption, DRAMs used in most modern computers retain their contents for seconds to minutes after power is lost, even at operating temperatures and even if removed from a motherboard. Although DRAMs become less reliable when they are not refreshed, they are not immediately erased, and their contents persist sufficiently for malicious (or forensic) acquisition of usable full-system memory images. We show that this phenomenon limits the ability of an operating system to protect cryptographic key material from an attacker with physical access. We use cold reboots to mount attacks on popular disk encryption systems -- BitLocker, FileVault, dm-crypt, and TrueCrypt -- using no special devices or materials.

By rebooting a laptop off of a USB drive with a small-footprint kernel, an attacker could pretty easily dump the full contents of RAM with little risk of loosing data. Even if the machine's BIOS is configured to disallow booting from external drives, the attacker could use an upside-down can of compressed air to cool the RAM prior to shutdown and then quickly transfer the RAM to a second machine.

Since it's not a trivial task to swap keys, there are other even more sinister attack scenarios. For instance, a key could be swiped when convenient, then used to inspect the disk contents at multiple points in time at a later date. Screw up and leave your computer recently-powered and unattended once, and the drive could be accessed at any point in the future. The machine wouldn't even need to be stolen for this opportunistic approach to be effective, so you might never know that your data's security is compromised.

If you use disk encryption as a last defense for the security of your data, it seems prudent to shut your machine down completely (no hibernating) several minutes prior to it leaving your immediate control.

Lest We Remember: Cold Boot Attacks on Encryption Keys - [via Jay] Link

Knoppix Hacks: Install Windows patches securely

Knoppix Hacks, 2nd Edition Cover

Here's Hack #94, Download Windows Patches Securely, from Kyle Rankin's Knoppix Hacks, 2nd Edition. Knoppix Hacks offers a collection of tips and techniques for using the enormous amount of software Knoppix offers--not just to work and play, but also to troubleshoot, repair, upgrade, and disinfect your system without having to install a thing. The book includes scores of hacks covering both the standard Knoppix live CD and the feature-rich DVD "Maxi" distribution (included with this book). In this book, you'll learn how to:

Investigate features of the KDE desktop and its Internet applications
Save settings and data between reboots with persistent storage
Use Knoppix as a system administration multitool to replace failed servers and more
Use the CD/DVD as a rescue disc to repair filesystems or a system that won't boot
Rescue Windows systems with Knoppix to back up files and settings, hack the registry, and more
Explore other live CDs based on Knoppix
Use Knoppix to automatically detect and configure hardware
Remaster Knoppix to include favorite software and custom branding

Hack #94: Download Windows Patches Securely - Link

Related:

Knoppix Hacks, 2nd Edition @ the Maker Store - Buy now
Knoppix Hacks, Second Edition--New from O'Reilly Media: Using the Linux Live CD to Hack, Repair, and Enjoy Your PC - Press Release

February 21, 2008

SIXAXIS hacks

Hackszine reader IraqiGeek writes:

I made an application that uses libusb-Win32 and PPJoy to map the Sony Sixaxis into a windows joystick with the accelerometers working and mapped.
Unfortunately, the gyro on my sixaxis seems to be faulty. So, while the code is already there to read the gyro data, it can't be used for anything.

The installation process is not exactly the shortest, but I've made a step-by-step how-to describing it.

I did a little digging and there are a couple of other noteworthy SIXAXIS hacks. In addition to IraqiGeek's driver, there is another Windows SIXAXIS driver that people are using with some success. I also was able to find a third Windows driver which contains full source, in case you want to do something more interesting than play games.

Speaking of more interesting, there also exists an open source library for Linux. If you check out the above video, you can see that a gumstix embedded computer is using the SIXAXIS input to control a number of servos.

The six R/C servos are connected to a Gumstix board with built-in Bluetooth module. Inertial measurements from the SIXAXIS are received directly through a PF_BLUETOOTH socket (not through the joystick API, due to HID descriptor issues). Heuristics explicitly discriminate between two types of motion (rotation or translation).

The author was even able to use this setup to control a small helicopter. Pretty cool stuff, I must say.

Anyone know if the SIXAXIS sensor data can be easily polled with an Arduino? Maybe this could be a be a cheap option for a 6DOF IMU.

Using the PlayStation 3 controller in Bluetooth mode with Linux - Link
SixAxis source driver for Windows - Link
Use your SIXAXIS on Windows (ps3sixaxis_en.exe)- Link
WinSIXAXIS (IraqiGeek's libusb/PPJoy driver) - Link

Knoppix Hacks: Wipe a hard drive

Here's Hack #59, Wipe a Hard Drive, from Kyle Rankin's Knoppix Hacks, 2nd Edition. Knoppix Hacks offers a collection of tips and techniques for using the enormous amount of software Knoppix offers--not just to work and play, but also to troubleshoot, repair, upgrade, and disinfect your system without having to install a thing. The book includes scores of hacks covering both the standard Knoppix live CD and the feature-rich DVD "Maxi" distribution (included with this book). In this book, you'll learn how to:

Investigate features of the KDE desktop and its Internet applications
Save settings and data between reboots with persistent storage
Use Knoppix as a system administration multitool to replace failed servers and more
Use the CD/DVD as a rescue disc to repair filesystems or a system that won't boot
Rescue Windows systems with Knoppix to back up files and settings, hack the registry, and more
Explore other live CDs based on Knoppix
Use Knoppix to automatically detect and configure hardware
Remaster Knoppix to include favorite software and custom branding

Hack #59: Wipe a Hard Drive - Link

Related:

Knoppix Hacks, 2nd Edition @ the Maker Store - Buy now
Knoppix Hacks, Second Edition--New from O'Reilly Media: Using the Linux Live CD to Hack, Repair, and Enjoy Your PC - Press Release

February 20, 2008

iPhone WebClip speed dial

Nate True figured out a quick way to add speed dial icons to your iPhone 1.1.3 home screen:

So the new iPhone 1.1.3 firmware allows you to put icons on your home screen for websites, but I know many of us want to put phone numbers on there for a Speed Dial screen.
I've put a little hack together that lets you have a (somewhat) speedy speed dial icon. There's no jailbreaking required for this one - it can all be done using Apple-approved Web Clip creation.

The difficulty is that it's not as easy as loading a tel://[phone_number] URL in Safari and then adding a bookmark to the home screen. When you cancel the call, the URL displayed in Safari returns to the previous item in the browser's history. Nate's hack is to use a data: URI to redirect to the tel: address. When you cancel the call to add the bookmark, the browser returns to the data: address and you can bookmark that. Since it does an immediate redirect, clicking the link on your home screen will immediately trigger the call dialog.

If you wanted to type the whole thing in, you'd essentially enter something like this in the address bar (all on one line):

data:text/html,<html><head><meta http-equiv='refresh' content='0;url=tel://12345'/></head></html>

Thankfully, Nate put together a page that will do the dirty work for you and generate the appropriate data URI for bookmarking. Just point your iPhone's Safari address to http://[phonenumber].tel.qlnk.net, then cancel the call and bookmark the resulting link.

For step-by-step photo instructions and info on using a different icon for the speed dial button, just follow the link.

iPhone 1.1.3 Speed Dial on your home screen - Link

Knoppix Hacks: Install multimedia codecs

Here's Hack #39, Install Multimedia Codecs, from Kyle Rankin's Knoppix Hacks, 2nd Edition. Knoppix Hacks offers a collection of tips and techniques for using the enormous amount of software Knoppix offers--not just to work and play, but also to troubleshoot, repair, upgrade, and disinfect your system without having to install a thing. The book includes scores of hacks covering both the standard Knoppix live CD and the feature-rich DVD "Maxi" distribution (included with this book). In this book, you'll learn how to:

Investigate features of the KDE desktop and its Internet applications
Save settings and data between reboots with persistent storage
Use Knoppix as a system administration multitool to replace failed servers and more
Use the CD/DVD as a rescue disc to repair filesystems or a system that won't boot
Rescue Windows systems with Knoppix to back up files and settings, hack the registry, and more
Explore other live CDs based on Knoppix
Use Knoppix to automatically detect and configure hardware
Remaster Knoppix to include favorite software and custom branding

Hack #39: Install Multimedia Codecs - Link

Related:

Knoppix Hacks, 2nd Edition @ the Maker Store - Buy now
Knoppix Hacks, Second Edition--New from O'Reilly Media: Using the Linux Live CD to Hack, Repair, and Enjoy Your PC - Press Release

February 19, 2008

One-handed Wii controller

Ryan Culy designed a single-handed, combination Wiimote and Nunchuck (motechuck?), making Nunchuck-enabled Wii games accessible to a friend who is missing a hand. It's a solid concept and a nice looking custom acrylic execution. Benheck named this one his Hack Pick of the Wii-k:

The basic idea is that you strap the nunchuck to one arm and press the analog stick against your leg to use it. The C and Z buttons are ported out and attached to the side of the main Wii-mote, thus making it the main controller but with nunchuck support. I picked this project because it has a good purpose and I've had lots of requests for something similar, and unfortunately haven't gotten around to doing it myself. So this proves it can be done, way to go Ryan!

Wii Controller for Single-Handed Use - [via] Link

Knoppix Hacks: Rock out with Knoppix multimedia

Here's Hack #18, Rock Out with Knoppix Multimedia, from Kyle Rankin's Knoppix Hacks, 2nd Edition. Knoppix Hacks offers a collection of tips and techniques for using the enormous amount of software Knoppix offers--not just to work and play, but also to troubleshoot, repair, upgrade, and disinfect your system without having to install a thing. The book includes scores of hacks covering both the standard Knoppix live CD and the feature-rich DVD "Maxi" distribution (included with this book). In this book, you'll learn how to:

Investigate features of the KDE desktop and its Internet applications
Save settings and data between reboots with persistent storage
Use Knoppix as a system administration multitool to replace failed servers and more
Use the CD/DVD as a rescue disc to repair filesystems or a system that won't boot
Rescue Windows systems with Knoppix to back up files and settings, hack the registry, and more
Explore other live CDs based on Knoppix
Use Knoppix to automatically detect and configure hardware
Remaster Knoppix to include favorite software and custom branding

Hack #18: Rock Out with Knoppix Multimedia - Link

Related:

Knoppix Hacks, 2nd Edition @ the Maker Store - Buy now
Knoppix Hacks, Second Edition--New from O'Reilly Media: Using the Linux Live CD to Hack, Repair, and Enjoy Your PC - Press Release

February 18, 2008

Actionscript mapping APIs

Yahoo recently released an official AS3 API for Yahoo! Maps, which provides another option for Flash-based GIS applications. This adds to Mapquest's official AS3 API and a couple of partially-complete, open source AS2 APIs for Google Maps.

All of these services provide the traditional AJAX APIs, of course, and that's perfect for a lot of uses. By using Flash as the rendering engine, though, there are new options available for the developer. Things like incremental scaling between tile sets, map rotation, and more advanced multi-level vector and raster overlays immediately come to mind.

Yahoo! Maps for ActionScript 3.0 - Link
Google Maps Flash Interface - Link
MapQuest AS3 API - Link
UMap: Google Maps Flash Overlay (flash above above AJAX map) - Link

February 17, 2008

360 degree video in Flash

Quentin Lengelé put together a cool demo for a Flash application that uses the Papervision 3D library to pan around a 360 degree video while it's playing:

The idea was to apply the BitmapData of that movie on a GeoSphere.
The GeoSphere is made in 3DSMAX with flipped faces and exported in ASE Format.
The ASE Format is readable by Papervision3D.

Then you just need to draw your bitmapData into a texture you apply to the ASE in ActionScript.

I'd be really interested in seeing a DIY version of the 360 degree camera hardware. Has anyone taken something like this on?

360 Degree Video with PaperVision 3D - [via] Link