Category: DIY

Boingo, developer of WiFI networks for public access, has put together a HotSpot in a Box package that allows anyone with broadband access to set themselves up as a Boingo affiliate. For just $700, you get a Colubris CN3000 router/firewall that supports up to 100 simultaneous users, software and marketing materials. Every time someone logs in to your Boingo network, you get $1, and there’s a bonus $20 for every customer you sign up. For those with a little tech savvy, this offers a turnkey opportunity to set up a big WiFi network for you and your neighbors that could bring in a good income, assuming you live in a densly populated area. The cost to end-users is $50/mo. for unlimited use, but only $25/mo. for 10 days of use.

Stinky pesticides got you down?
Eliminate your nasty pest problem with your own laser bug zapper.

Ever want to build a pc inside a toaster? With the Mini-itx motherboard, you can.

DIY hack for Orange SPV smartphone revealed

A bunch of keen users of Orange’s SPV smartphone were hacked off that they couldn’t load third party applications onto their mobile phones. So they discovered a way of manually editing two configuration files using a PC and sending those changes down to the SPV via synchronisation software. Delighted with their achievement, these hackers promptly published the necessary instructions on the Internet. This has led to a bizarre situation whereby SPV owners can go onto Orange’s Update web site and download a patch that will prevent the ‘hack’ from working – even though the only person that could install the hack would be themselves. Eh? To give these enthusiasts some incentive to stop finding ways to make the SPV more useful, Orange has announced that in about 45 days time it will probably launch a Web site aimed at helping those who want to develop applications which it will officially approve of.

We’re big fans of PC case moding here at Street Tech Labs, so we were especially thrilled to get turned on to RetroSystems. They have an awesome little gallery of some totally wacked retro-mods (Amigas running Windows, Mac SEs running Windows, PC/coffee machine hybrids (shown here), two PCs made into a V8 engine block, and more. They even sell mod kits for turning Amigas, Ataris and Nintendo game consoles into modern day PCs.

A man named James Gentles has come up with a way to take pictures from a camera suspended from a flying kite. The DIY piece he has created includes scematics for a simple modification to make the Aiptek Pencam take pictures every five seconds. With the 80 picture capacity of the camera, that gives you nearly seven minutes of flying time.

GideonTech has a DIY Guide on selecting an LCD panel and an overhead projector for an inexpensive projection screen TV/computer experience.

I added another screen to my PC, and it turned out be ridiculously easy (YMMV) under Windows 2000. (stop giggling, Mac people!).

This is perfect for info junkies to get more screen real estate, using spare screens and any old PCI card.

What better way to achieve the paperless office than to fill it with monitors?

A security company called iDefense has announced that they have discovered a vulnerability in the Linksys BEFSR41 EtherFast Cable/DSL router. The vulnerability allows someone to crash the router by simply typing a URL into their browser. If remote management is turned on, then this can be done from anywhere on the internet.

Upgrading the firmware to a version newer than 1.42.7 will fix the problem.

When I was a kid, people did whacky things like put neon tubes on the bottom of their hand-me-down Japanese import cars. Today, it’s all about customizing your computer to equal levels of refinement. On this site, which caters to the customizing crowd, you can read all about the latest mods in the Mods Dictonary. Heard of Appliqués, Fan Grills, Case Windows, Electro-luminescent cable (EL cable), or the infamous Hard Drive Mod (where you open up the sacred dust-free “skull” of a hard drive to replace the top plate with transparent plastic)? Totally destructive in terms of drive life and data security, it’s done for the sheer beauty of it. You can also get a drive bezel painted to match the rest of your case for a few bucks.

Heavily tweaked PC cases — the muscle cars of the 21st century!