Hacks

Moonlight: Silverlight for Linux

Moonlight is an open source implementation of Microsoft’s Silverlight web application platform. It’s built on top of Mono, the open source .Net project. What’s unbelievably cool is that a group of Mono hackers spent the better part of last month heads-down, creating a substantial portion of the Silverlight implementation from scratch: The past 21 days […]

Battery conversion hacks

Battery conversion hacks

Have you ever needed a D battery in a pinch, but could only find Cs? Since AAA, AA, C, and D batteries are all 1.5 volt cells, they are electronically interchangeable. They differ only in physical size and energy storage capacity. So, if you’re in a pinch, you can cobble together an adapter with a […]

The Hacker Crackdown: now in podcast form

The Hacker Crackdown: now in podcast form

For those who haven’t yet read, Bruce Sterling’s The Hacker Crackdown is an account of the FBI raids on phreakers and crackers during the early 90s, as well as the subsequent formation of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. More importantly, though, the book is a snapshot of internet culture, influencers and influences as the network was […]

Whistle to control your computer

R2D2 was on to something. Think easier speech recognition with reduced error rates: Use Linux® or Microsoft® Windows®, the open source sndpeek program, and a simple Perl script to read specific sequences of tonal events — literally whistling, humming, or singing at your computer — and run commands based on those tones. Give your computer […]

HOWTO use the Wiimote buttons in Flash

HOWTO use the Wiimote buttons in Flash

A while back, WiiNintendo posted the keycodes that are detectable by Javascript when the Wii’s buttons are pressed. With this ability, you can create Javascript games that will play on your Wii. Unfortunately, even though the Wii browser ships with the Flash plugin, those keycodes cannot be detected natively in the Flash environment. Quasimondo came […]