Author Archives: the machinegeek

Indie movie trailer: Software Wars

Kaspar sent in a link to this video trailer for the indie film Software Wars. Its stated focus is “about how free software will save you thousands of dollars and lead to a better world.” They report having conducted many hours of interviews thusfar, with a goal of producing a 90 minute movie in the […]

Free Commodore ezine for retro enthusiasts

For all you Commodore retro enthusiasts, there’s an online mag for you. Known as CommodoreFree, its a free to download magazine dedicated to Commodore Computers and is available in text, HTML and PDF formats, as well as including Commodore 64 D64 disk images. This ezine covers covering programming, gaming, hardware and Commodore related meetings. Its […]

OWASP AppSecUSA 2012: reverse engineering .NET applications

Last October the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) AppSecUSA 2012 conference was held in Austin, Texas. In this conference video Jon McCoy presents the practical information on reverse engineering .NET Framework Desktop Software. The presentation goes beyond basics to illustrate modification of security areas of apps. The speech is intended to give a security […]

Digital IR theremin

Chris from Pyroelectro developed this all-digital-hardware Theremin. He descibes, “The Digital IR Theremin uses comparators, digital logic, and a single 555 timer for tone generation. When you wave your hand in front of the infrared proximity sensor, it outputs a tone with varying pitch depending on how far away your hand is from the sensor!” […]

EHSM open source meeting in Berlin December 28-30

Kaspar writes informing us of the premiere of the uniquely named Exceptionally Hard and Soft Meeting (EHSM) which will be held in Berlin, Germany on December 28-30, 2012. “EHSM is turning out to be something like the OSH Summit this side of the pond. Online sales are closing on the 16th so I am just […]

Resorbable circuits: transient electronics that dissolve inside you

Scientists at Tufts University in Massachusetts have announced the development of implantable circuits which are capable of being dissolved and absorbed into the human body over time. Known as resorbable or transient electronics these ultra micro devices are covered by magnesium oxide, along with an outer jacket of silk allowing them to be implanted into […]

Arduino Esplora comprehensive dev kit geared toward beginners

Beginners to the MCU scene may want to check out the Arduino Esplora. This new board design is open source and based on the Arduino Leonardo. The Leonardo’s ATmega32u4 is augmented by the inclusion of a number of on-board peripherals, including a microphone, LDR, accelerometer, potentiometer, analog joystick, temperature sensor and sound and light output […]

Review: Analog Devices ADF4351

Sebastian has been tinkering with the Analog Devices ADF4351 eval board and written a review. “The ADF4351 from Analog Devices (ADI) is a modern wideband PLL synthesizer with integrated low phase noise VCO. It is capable of generating signals between 35 MHz to 4400 MHz with a very low jitter of typical 0.3 ps. ADI […]

Freediag open source vehicle diagnostic suite

Ever wonder what’s happening on your vehicle’s data bus? Here’s an open source software tool suite which hopes to open this data to your Linux box. “Freediag is a suite of vehicle diagnostic protocols and an OBD II (mostly) compliant scanning tool, currently for Linux platforms. Multiple graphical user interfaces for the scan tool are […]

DEFCON 20: Hacking [Redacted] Routers

At last summer’s DEFCON 20 conference, speakers FX and Greg gave this presentation on exploring Huawei routers. These devices are growing in market share in many countries, even used by tier one ISPs. They explore the device’s software platform and security, highlighting the architecture, configurations and services available as well as summarizing their efforts in […]

Official DEFCON 20 badges on sale

A limited number of DEFCON 20 “Human” badges are available from HackerStickers. The badges, described in an earlier post, are essentially a Parallax Propeller dev board and are being offered for $40 (plus shipping.) Each badge comes with 6 batteries, 2 PS/2 connectors, and 1 VGA Connector. These are the same badges given to attendees […]

PSoCWorld virtual conf December 12-13, 2012

Cypress Semiconductor, manufacturers of the line of Programmable System-on-Chip products known as PSoC, are hosting the first annual PSoC World virtual conference, on December 12th and 13th, 2012. “PSoC World is something truly new and exciting that Cypress is doing for all of us PSoC developers. It will give us an opportunity to see how-tos […]

DIY USB password generator

Benjamin Lunt writes to inform us of a small hardware HID project which for which he’s developed a PCB. The device design was created by Joonas Pihlajamaa (Jokkebk) and posted on CodeAndLife where it’s very popular. Joonas’ device is a small USB HID keyboard device that types a password stored in EEPROM every time it’s […]

DCC 2012: FlexRadio and SDR architecture

At the 31th Annual ARRL and TAPR Digital Communications Conference held last September in Atlanta, GA, FlexRadio VP Stephen Hicks N5AC gives an in depth presentation on SDR and its potential. He outlines his company’s new Flex 6000 series, a Linux based commercial product based on components used in government radios. While this is not […]

Xilinx CPLD design techniques online documentation

Xilinx has an online searchable database of information on programming their CPLD devices. It includes a number of cool tips and code samples for implementing bidirectional signals, clock dividers, global nets as well as information on CPLD attributes, the schematic library and controlling I/O pin voltages. In many cases code examples are provided in VHDL, […]

DEFCON 20: tools for GPS hacking

At DEFCON 20, Fergus Noble and Colin Beighley discussed the basics of GPS operation and how hackers can access and use its data. They have developed and released a new set of tools which they hope will make GPS accessible to hackers and experimenters. These resources include a library, libswiftnav, which contains a complete toolset […]

Visual Micro Arduino IDE for Visual Studio

Tim Leek informs us that the Visual Micro crew have extended their Arduino IDE for Visual Studio to include a unique Arduino debugger. “The debugger includes many features such as trace/break/step and update of variables on a running Arduino. The IDE and debugger has been successfully tested with various Seeduino boards. The debugger and graphical […]