Hackszine.com: Life Archives

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June 13, 2008

Milk plastic

Casein, a protein found in milk, can be easily precipitated from standard moo juice with vinegar and turned into a malleable homemade plastic. Coffeebot wrote an Instructable that shows you how:

The final product is quite rigid when it's thick (1/8 inch or thicker), moderately pliable when it's a little thinner, and brittle if it's paper thin. It's also sandable and paintable.

I guess casein-based plastics used to be all the rage for buttons, jewelry and pens at the beginning of the 20th century.

Homemade Plastic From Milk [via MAKE]

June 10, 2008

Free magazines for iPhone users (and fakers)

If you have an iPhone, or the handy User Agent Switcher for Firefox, there are a couple of sites that offer free digital versions of several popular magazines. I guess the idea is to try and capture email addresses, but you can cancel through the input boxes and get straight to the content fairly easily.

If you are using Firefox, you can fake your browser into reporting itself to web servers as an iPhone by downloading User Agent Switcher and adding an "iPhone" entry with the following user agent string under Tools->User Agent Switcher->Options:

Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A102 Safari/419 (United States)

Once you've switched to that user agent profile, most sites will think you are browsing from the iPhone platform and display the content that is targeted to that device - in this case, free magazines. The two sites that provide magazine content targeted to the iPhone are:

I should mention that there are a couple of racier magazines to be found in there, so I'll stamp this one with a potential NSFW factor. I'm sure you were going to just scroll right past and check out the Reader's Digest anyway, so it's probably not worth mentioning.

[via LifeHacker and Geek.Phatus.com]

June 7, 2008

Turn a Brita filter into a reusable activated carbon filter

We filter our drinking water at home, though it's not because there's a risk of giardia or heavy metals in the tap water where we live. Personally, I just like the taste of water that's been run through activated carbon. If your own water is safe from heavy metals, but you still like the way water tastes when it's been through something like a Britta filter, there's an easy way to convert the filter to be reusable, saving a ton of waste and a bit of money.

Your standard Brita pitcher filter contains two components, an ion exchange resin that is used to reduce heavy metals, and a bunch of activated carbon which is used to remove chlorine and various organic impurities that can affect the water's quality and taste. I'm not sure about how to go about recharging or replacing the ion exchange resin, but activated carbon is available in any pet store, where it is sold for aquarium water filtration.

Below is a link to an Instructable which shows you how to convert a Brita pitcher filter into a refillable carbon filter. You'll only need a couple standard tools to do the conversion, and when it's complete you'll have great tasting water, you'll be able to do refills for about 50 cents a cartridge, and you won't be tossing a one-time-use hunk of plastic in the landfill.

Refill A "Disposable" Brita Water Filter With Activated Carbon

June 6, 2008

Electronic embroidery

I'm told that one of the most popular projects at the CRAFT table at Maker Faire is our friend Becky Stern's electronic embroidery. If you're into crafting, all it takes is a little conductive thread and you can make your own fabric gadgets.

Becky posted an introduction to electronic embroidery on the CRAFT blog today and I think I just learned how to backstitch. Her introduction shows how to wire up a couple of LEDs and a switch, but there are a lot of directions to take this. Of particular interest is the LilyPad, a tiny sewable Arduino board that's about the size of a half dollar. There are also various sensors designed around this platform, including sew-friendly accelerometers. There must be a good running jacket idea in there somewhere.

Electronic Embroidery - CRAFT Video Podcast
Conductive Thread and LilyPad Components at SparkFun

May 27, 2008

Conquer jet lag with a 16-hour fast

There was an interview with Clifford Saper, a professor of Neurology and Neuroscience at Harvard Medical School, in last week's Science Friday. The discussion was about a study which was just published in the journal Science about a second circadian clock in mammals that is driven by food availability. The research suggests that this second clock evolved as a sleep-cycle "reset" mechanism which allows mammals to very quickly adapt to optimize their wake period and maximize the chances of finding food during times when food is scarce.

This starvation override can take effect after only 16 hours of fasting. When the fast is cancelled by a sufficient caloric intake (read: real food), the body will shift its natural wake time to coincide with the event. So if you want to ditch your jet lag, or if you want to get up earlier in the morning, it might be as simple as fasting for the 16 hours prior to the time you would like to wake up, then eat a big meal. Your body will then override its normal light-based rhythm and wake at that same time going forward.

I'm going to give this a try. I've struggled all my life with getting up in the morning. Interestingly enough, I've also never eaten breakfast. My first meal of the day is lunch, which means I am basically fasting for over 16 every day between dinner and lunch the following afternoon. Perhaps if I skip dinner one night, eat breakfast early in the morning, and then start eating breakfast regularly, I'll turn into a morning person. I'm not really expecting results, but it's worth a try and I'll let you all know how it goes.

Science Friday: Circadian Clock Sets at Lunchtime [via ParentingSquad]

May 22, 2008

Keywurl: keyword search for Safari

Keywurl is a nifty little Safari plugin that adds simple keyword search to the address bar. Say you wanted to pull up the Wikipedia entry for hacks: just type "wiki hacks" into the address bar. Looking for photos tagged with makerfaire? "flickr makerfaire" will take you to the appropriate place.

The latest beta version for Leopard allows you to right click on any form field and add a search shortcut keyword for it. This would easily let you add keywords like "hacks" or "slashdot" that would let you query for articles on your favorite sites. Unfortunately, there isn't a Tiger build of this version yet, so revision slackers like me will have to wait. You can also get at the keyword settings manually through a new button in the Safari preferences panel.

I haven't been using this long enough to tell if I'm going to keep it, but so far it's really promising. At the very least, it sends me to the right place when I type in a search term into the address bar instead of the search bar by accident.

Keywurl

May 21, 2008

Aluminum foil is a scissor sharpener

I got sucked into reading one of those 15 amazing things you never knew about aluminum foil articles. One of the claims was that you could sharpen a pair of scissors by cutting aluminum. It sounded about as plausible as mending a broken leg by driving it over with a station wagon, but I'll be damned if it doesn't work.

It's as simple as folding over a sheet of tinfoil a couple times, and then cutting it repeatedly with the dull scissors. It doesn't really grind a new edge or anything, but it has a similar effect to honing a knife edge on a steel sharpener. What's nice is that you get the honing result without needing to get a precise angle on the honing tool. The scissors push against the foil and move past it at the right cutting angle and you get a sharper edge.

I wonder if this is how the Ginsu knife could slice a tomato so darned thin after grinding on a sheet of marble and cutting through an aluminum can.

15 awesome uses for aluminum foil

May 17, 2008

Protect your luggage with a starter pistol

I can't say how realistic this is, and I probably won't be using the advice myself, but Jon Udell wrote about a plausible strategy for subverting the TSA rules into protecting your check-in luggage. The trick is to declare a firearm (in this case a starter pistol) which, by policy, forces your bag to be inspected in your presence and then locked in transit.

I'm given a little card to sign, the card is put in the case, the case is given to a TSA official who takes my key and locks the case, and gives my key back to me.
That's the procedure. The case is extra-tracked...TSA does not want to lose a weapons case. This reduces the chance of the case being lost to virtually zero.

It's odd that you can't request to have any check-in inspected and secured for flight in your presence. It'd only be worth the hassle for a few people, and it'd save them a lot of grief. Then again, why can't we expect the same level of accountability and professionalism from security-cleared baggage handlers and TSA officials as we can from anyone at DHL or Fedex?

Personally, I just bring any laptops and cameras with me in my carry-on. It presents its own hassle during screening due to the asinine "remove all electronics and put them in separate buckets" policy, but at least they show up on the other end of the flight.

Pack a starter pistol to deter luggage theft

May 16, 2008

Python pizza status

Nothing goes better with some Python hacking than a little pizza. Nick Jensen couldn't wait for his pizza to arrive to begin hacking, so he spent the 30 minute wait-time writing a Python script to track the pie's progress:

I discovered an interesting XML feed the other day when I ordered a pizza from dominos. After seeing a dumb commercial about what some idiots do in their 30 minute pizza-waiting time, I remembered hearing something about being able to "track" your pizza online. So what did I do during my 30 minutes you ask? I went on over to dominos website to check out this amazing tracking device. It turns out to be just a flash app hooked up to an XML feed and Tamper Data revealed it was coming from here.

The details and the Dominos python script are below. Suffice it to say that you can pull an XML status on your Dominos order by hitting http://trkweb.dominos.com/orderstorage/GetTrackerData?Phone=phonenumber (where phonenumber is your 10 digits). You can easily parse this from other languages if you're not the Python type.

You've got 30 minutes... to write a python script
dominos.py

May 7, 2008

Radio controlled lawn mower

It's finally starting to warm up where I live on the 45th parallel, which means it's just about lawn mowing season. It's not a chore I typically enjoy, but this RC lawn mower designed and documented by Terry Creer looks like it might be a kick.

Here's the best feature, from the project website:

THE METHODS OF CONTROLLING AN UNMANNED VEHICLE DETAILED BELOW ARE POTENTIALLY LETHAL. YOU CAN KILL SOMEONE, AN ANIMAL OR A ROSE GARDEN IF YOU ARE NOT CAREFUL.

Sign me up! That also goes for anything else involving combustion, electronics and spinning blades of lopping frenzy. Here's a video on YouTube. I'm not sure you're going to get those nice striped patterns without a lot of practice, but I'm also not sure that it really matters.

If you're keen on making your own, it's basically an electric wheelchair with the joystick control replaced with the receiver circuitry and the lawn mover hardware bolted to the frame. The site has all the circuit and mechanical details. You should be able to scrounge for parts and put one together for $450 or so - less if you don't count the mower you've already got that you'd rather be driving from the porch.

DIY Radio Controlled Lawn Mower

May 3, 2008

Update the hacker map

When I created the "Hackers in Your Neighborhood" map last December, I wasn't sure what the response would be. I was really happy to see it end up being really positive, with lots of hackers and organizations adding their marker to the map.

I was just peeking in on its progress today and it looks like it's still alive with minimal vandalization and with lots of individuals and user groups making it to the list.

Some of the momentum has died down a bit, though, so now seems like a good time to do a little spring cleaning. Update your own record, if necessary, and make sure you list or update any hacker-friendly clubs or organizations that you know about. My hope is that this will make it easier for people to network and discover groups near them that they can participate in.

The same instructions still apply: Click the link to connect to the map, log in to your Google account, and you'll find an "Edit" button on the left. Clicking this will put the map in edit mode, where you can drag a new marker onto the map for yourself. Then just toss your name into the title and put your interests and project websites in the description field. If you're already on them map, select the marker you want to edit (try not to screw up others) and then update the text field.

For your personal icons, don't put it right on your address unless you really don't mind giving that info out. Centered on your city, town or neighborhood works fine too.

Some big goals for this round:

A club listed in every metropolitan area of the U.S. (red icon)
More resources for places to buy related parts or electronics ($ icon)
Coffee shops with free WiFi where fellow hackers are typically found (coffee icon)
Better representation in South America,
Africa, Eastern Europe, Asia, and Australia

Big shout outs go to the Philly Linux User's Group, which is the most recent addition to the map, the Twin Cities Robotics Club, who are doing a fine job representing my home base, and Raj, our sole hacker in all of India.

It goes without saying, but when you're done updating the map, try and track down an organization or a few interested folks in your area. You have your assignment. Now get out there and go put some brains together.

The Hackers in Your Neighborhood: Collaborative Hacker Map

April 26, 2008

iPhone LoJack - location tracking for your iPhone

Erica Sadun put together a great tool for iPhone users who'd like to keep tabs on their iPhone's location. Instead of GPS tracking, a small binary called 'findme' is used to geolocate the device based on nearby cell towers.

Combined with a simple curl shell script, a private Twitter account, and a scheduled launch daemon, your iPhone can then report its location at regular intervals, which you (or anyone you authorize) can follow using Twitter and Google Maps. You could use this to find your phone if it's lost or stolen, or you might just use it to give your friends and family a way to track your current location.

iPhone LoJack

Related posts:
Command Line Twitter
Open GPS Tracker

April 23, 2008

Scriptographer - Javascript for Illustrator

My friend Barrett sent along a link today to an Illustrator scripting plugin called Scriptographer. I'm sort of a slouch at Illustrator, so I had him give me the quick 411 and I must say, this is pretty cool.

If you're familiar with Javascript, Scriptographer will enable you to crank out little scripts that can generate illustrations procedurally. As an example, the bubbelbubbling script, show above, tuns your pen tool into a fountain of random bubbles that follow your drawing path. There are certain styles of artwork that could really lend themselves to a procedural drawing tool: fractals, patterns, random "particle" effects. These things would take forever to generate manually, but by defining the effect programatically, you can quickly experiment with your work in a more dynamic fashion, tweaking variables and fine-tuning your work as you go.

The project website also has a growing library of user-contributed scripts that are worth checking out. It's a good place to start for your own creations, or you may just find exactly what you're looking for, already crafted for you by another designer-coder.

Scriptographer

April 21, 2008

Post your Earth Day hacks

In celebration of my favorite planet, I'd like to open the comments up to any and all Earth Day hacks, links and activities. Think of it as an opportunity to quickly catalog a list of ideas and tools that can be used for the other 364 days of the year.

Here are a few simple things that you can do tomorrow. I figure it's as good a day as any to start forming a few practical habits, so for my list, I just chose a number of things that you can easily make a regular part of your day.

Bike to work. If you need to find a route, citybikemap.com is a good user contributed resource
Compost the garbage. If you don't have a composter, here are some construction ideas from Instructables: Sinmple Pentagon Composter; Mini Wooden Portable Compost Bin; Trench Composter
Avoid the purchase of anything with excess packaging
Turn lights off when not in use. Convert remaining incandescent bulbs to CFL
Check faucets and toilets for leaky valves. For your toilets, shut off the water while you are at work and see if the water level goes down in the tank. It's a common problem that's easy to fix.
Print no emails.
Bring a mug to work and use it instead of styrofoam or paper cups.
Reconnect with nature: start a garden; go for a hike; take the kids out and identify some plants and birds.
Reclaim some of the yard for native plants and grasses.
Encourage others to do the same, and share your own Earth-friendly tips and hacks.

You may be more or less ambitious, but I think this represents something that's feasible for much of the year. It'd be cool to get a read on what the hacker community is doing to make a positive impact on the globe, so make sure to post your own Earth Day hacks and resolutions in the comments.

March 28, 2008

CSS ad blocking for Firefox and Safari

Using Firefox's CSS-based chrome feature or Safari's advanced stylesheet preferences and a little clever CSS coding, you can disable most banner ads, making them invisible in your browser. This technique is considerably easier and more flexible than setting up a private DNS server or proxy to filter out images from ad-serving domains.

The trick is setting up a number of CSS rules that use "*=" substring selection on an element's properties. For instance, matching an IFRAME tag with the SRC parameter containing doubleclick would look like IFRAME[SRC*="doubleclick"] and matching an anchor tag with an HREF containing a url with "ads." in it would look like A:link[HREF*="ads."]. Giving the style "display: none ! important" to all of the possible combinations and adding the stylesheet to your browser's chrome effectively turns off the ad-serving web. The site below has a comprehensive CSS file that's been tailored to assassinate ads from most networks.

To be honest, I didn't realize that you could do this type of parameter matching and subselection in CSS, so it's worth looking at the CSS source for that alone. If you don't use it for this purpose, perhaps the technique will come in handy for something else you are working on.

Better Ad Blocking for Firefox, Mozilla, Camino, and Safari
Ad Blocking userContent.css