Hack

Do you have sharp programming skills, a passport and a love of adventure? If so, be aware that an ambitious new startup named ComeHackWithUs is currently seeking a dozen candidates to travel to a tropical island retreat and spend two months coding. You'll bring the ideas and the company will be tasked with providing the environment to help develop those ideas into a finished project.  Read More

The Power Pwn is a fully-integrated, enterprise-class penetration testing platform. A successor to the popular Pwn Plug, the device features a highly-integrated modular hardware design. Backed and funded by the Defense Research Projects Agency (DARPA), it aims to provide corporations and security-conscious individuals with a cheaper and easier means to defend themselves against hackers, by providing them with the same set of tools as their digital assailants.  Read More

Part of the huge appeal of the electronic follow-me game of Simon was its simplicity. Anyone in the family could step up and play without needing advanced scientific know-how or seriously fast hand-to-eye co-ordination skills. It was an entertaining challenge where the punishment for incorrectly following Simon's lead resulted in no more than a disapproving buzzer sound ... until now. A group of hackers has constructed a modern violence edition as a qualifying entry for this year's Red Bull Creation competition that is quite literally a bone shaker.  Read More

Electric soldering guns like the ones made by Weller are so named due to a passing resemblance to a hand gun, but to me they've always looked more like a B-movie imitation of a classic phaser from the Star Trek TV series. If you're wanting a soldering gun that really looks like a pistol, then take a look at Mike Warren's mod, which combines an old air pistol and a battery-operated soldering iron into an oddly pleasing hand-held heat weapon. The gun even uses the magazine clip as a battery pack.  Read More

Last year, Portugal's Catarina Mota was part of a New York hackerspace team that created a toy piano made from Jell-O (and some electronics) for a competition in Brooklyn, NY. Being a lover of mixing electronics with low-tech materials like fabric and paper, she has now created a paper box that opens up to reveal a 12-key touch piano/synthesizer sporting some cool LED light action. The Piano Box is built around an Arduino Mega board running the CapSense and Tone libraries, and features twin speakers, capacitive keys made from paper-covered copper tape, and some custom code that's available for free download to allow anyone to make their own paper synth.  Read More

Sonic technology that allows audio to be specifically directed at a limited audience, as opposed to booming sound out as far and as loud as possible, has been around for a good many years but has yet to penetrate the mass consumer market. That situation could well change very shortly, however, thanks to the Soundlazer. The low-cost, pocket-friendly, open source, and completely hack-friendly parametric device developed by Richard Haberkern uses ultrasonic carrier waves to transmit sound from a connected music player on a narrow beam to a select listener.  Read More

The two-hundred and ninety-five feet (ninety meter) tall Building 54 on MIT's Cambridge campus has become the canvas for a number of carefully planned and daringly executed visual displays over the years, not strictly allowed by the administration but often looked upon with some appreciation. The building is home to the Institute's Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Science (EAPS) and has a host of meteorological instruments and radio communications equipment on its roof - but its the grid-like windows to the front that have become the main attraction to hackers, as they are known. The latest hack is the successful realization of a long-standing challenge, a huge playable game of Tetris.  Read More

The PriNXT may not be the first functioning printer made of Lego, but given that it was made by 14-year old Lego Mindstorms wunderkind Leon Overweel, we won't hold that against it.  Read More

It's probably best to make clear from the outset that Konkreet Labs' Synth in a Book is, for now, one of a kind. But as a demonstration of just what can be done with a MeeBlip hackable synthesizer kit, it may just be the perfect specimen. Though this particular hack may not be for the faint of heart, MeeBlip's range of synths include all-in-one kits suitable, MeeBlip says, for everyone.  Read More