How-To’s
Lasers: Barcode scanner “gun” has real laser inside!
by firestorm_v1 on May.18, 2010, under Hardware, How-To's, Investigative Dissassembly
I know it’s been a while so here’s another post. In this post, I’ll go over the hardware in this gun style barcode scanner that holds a real helium-neon laser tube with power supply! Although this post only covers the basic modding, there’s nothing to stop you from gutting the gun and using the HeNe tube for your own nefarious plan. 🙂 (continue reading…)
Web: Stupid HTML trick to get past content filters
by firestorm_v1 on May.02, 2010, under How-To's, Miscellaneous, Networking, Software
I know it’s been a while since I posted, and I do apologize. Life has definitely not been kind to me in the regards of time however I have not forgotten anything. I have two major posts coming up hopefully within the next week, however here’s a quick article about a trick I discovered while working on a project with a friend. The project was to see if their content filter could be broken in their chat application andthrough a little bit of HTML know-how and some PHP code, I was able to crank out a generator to do just that. Read more to find out the details. (continue reading…)
Basic Stamp: A quick guide on using a legacy joystick
by firestorm_v1 on Feb.03, 2010, under Embedded devices, Hardware, How-To's, Microcontrollers
In this post, we’ll be going over the basics of using an old regular PC-gameport joystick with Parallax’s Basic Stamp powered Boe-Bot. This howto will have all the information you need to get started including code, schematics and a parts list. We will be covering how the joystick is wired and how to go about interfacing it with the Boe-Bot for an easy to use and easy to expand analog control method for your Boe-Bot. Next step, world domination! (continue reading…)
Using Clonezilla to make your HD bigger
by firestorm_v1 on Dec.29, 2009, under How-To's, Linux, Software
(Ok, innuendo aside…)
Well, the Christmas/Yule break is over with and it’s time to get cracking. If you were like me this holiday season, you were either placed in the position if needing to do a hard drive upgrade for someone else or you received a new hard drive of your own that warrants upgrading. The CloneZilla site didn’t contain very clear instructions for what to do so I decided to write this howto documenting the process. In this howto, I will cover using the free application “CloneZilla” to perform a hard drive upgrade on a test installation of Windows XP from 4GB to a 10GB drive.
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Breaking into APC’s BR24BP battery pack
by firestorm_v1 on Oct.27, 2009, under Hardware, How-To's, Investigative Dissassembly
In this post, we will show what was necessary on how to get access into the BR24BP battery pack for APC’s BackUPS RS/XS series of battery backups. Read more for additional details, caveats and some good to know general informaton on how you can replace the stock batteries in the battery pack with your own batteries to save money and time.
Add an SD card slot to a WRT54G v2
by firestorm_v1 on Sep.09, 2009, under Embedded devices, Hardware, How-To's, Linux
In this post, we’ll cover step-by-step how to add a SD cardslot to your Linksys WRT54G running DD-WRT and how to configure it in the DD-WRT UI. Granted, this has been done a lot already, however there is a significant lack of information on how to do it on the older V2’s. Read more for the complete step-by-step guide. (continue reading…)
Make APCUPSd tweet for help!
by firestorm_v1 on Aug.18, 2009, under How-To's, Linux, Software
Please note: Twitter stopped using “Basic” authentication methods on their API calls and unfortunately this method no longer works. User “Laramy” (comment below) has provided a workaround and I am currently working to test this. This document is still posted for archival reasons.
Well, the world is abuzz with all things twitter so I figured that I’d join the fray. But rather than tweeting about farts being blasted into an office chair or a toilet that twitters or even a tweeting toaster, I decided to do something useful with this thing called Twitter. I have APCUPSd running on a Linux box that tweets when the server detects a change in power. Read more to find out how you can incorporate this into your linux server.
Setting up Ubuntu to tftpboot with menu for installations
by firestorm_v1 on Aug.17, 2009, under How-To's, Linux, Networking, Software
This howto will cover performing the necessary steps for configuring Ubuntu Server 9.04 to distribute pxelinux images over the network for you to use to install Ubuntu or your favorite Linux distribution over the network. No more fumbling for installation CDs or boot floppies!
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What’s on your workbench?
by firestorm_v1 on Aug.17, 2009, under How-To's, Networking, Software
A lot of people keep asking me, “What tools do you use to hack with?” and I’ve always told them about the same handful of items listed below. These are the tried and true and have never let me down. Read more to get a full list of items that I use regularly that you might find useful on your workbench for hardware hacking.
