Hacks

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]