The story goes that the screen broke on this iPod and dude decided “why not have some fun before it dies?” That’s when he “cut the frame and the body in half, I kept only the screen and the hold switch/battery/headphones module in the top half. The bottom half held the hard drive and the mother board.” This is a nice, but not easy, solution for all the people complaining about having to hold the device while watching video. Nice. More photos

Some Brazilian peeps have written a little something in Python bring an iPhone-esque keyboard functionality to the beloved Nokia N800. What’s really interesting? The developer has never even used an iPhone. As I see it, no ‘predictive text’ is the only downfall to this. I’ve always viewed the N800 as nothing less than impressive, but I still love my iPhone. But then again, from what my friend Adam in SF keeps saying about his N800, I may just get one. Install for N800 via jk

A new attack has been found in which Internet Explorer could be used to activate Firefox and run malicious code. It’s done through a Firefox protocol handler used to to execute ‘firefoxurl://’ commands. According to Vnunet, “If Internet Explorer is used on a page that tries to use the ‘firefoxurl://’ the browser will activate Firefox automatically and allow malicious code to be run in JavaScript.” The exploit was found by security reasearcher Thor Larholm, and there is currently no patch but Mozilla says they’re working on it.

Now we’ve heard about some of the hacks taking place and unlocking and such, but I wanted to wait until a major breakthrough like this occurred to write about it.

Some peeps at the IRC channel #iphone now have complete access of iPhone’s filesystem. apparently the tutorial is called “How to Escape Jail,” and Engadget says, they show you how to “enable custom ringtones, wallpapers and more for your iPhone”. Yes! Not being able to to do custom ‘tones on iPhone was a bummer for me (along with other things); and thought you can already do custom wallpapers?. There is no tool for the general public. maybe soon though, but the picture above is offered as evidence.

A new contest has been organised for the 15th DefCon, which ups the stakes a little. Own the Box is a hack-the-box contest with a difference - if you get access to the machine then you get to keep it.

Obviously the motivation for hackers is bragging rights and the chance to win themselves a server or two. The motivation for putting your box into the competition though is only bragging rights, and only if it survives, which it probably won’t.

Are you a defensive ninja? Are your services unbreakable, your builds airtight? Do your countermeasures have countermeasures for counter-countermeasures?

So prove it, bucko… Bet your box on it, on the most hostile network in the world.

Some clever Renault boffins hacked this Formula One car to sing We Are the Champions by varying the note of the engine. It seems that they perform the little stunt quite regularly, in one case with making the car sing God Save the Queen, which is odd, considering that Renault is French. You have to wait 30 seconds through the video, while the people tweak noisily. I’ve been around Formula One cars during testing, and the noise is indescribable.

A hacker has penetrated the Pentagon email system, forcing the Department of Defense to take around 1500 computers offline. Apparently the hacker infiltrated an “unclassified OSD email system” that involved “administrative manners but not classified information related to military operations.”

U.S. Secretary of Defense said the Defense Department gets “perhaps hundreds of attacks a day”. Gates also stated “I don’t do email. I’m a very low-tech person.” Read [AFP]

All you need is some off-the-shelf parts and two enormous mountains that are 237 miles apart from each other. Ermanno Pietrosemoli managed to set up a wireless connection from El Aguila in Venezuela, to Platillon Mountain, at a rather impressive speed of 3mbps.

I’m sure that almost all coverage of this will include a joke along the lines of, ‘I can’t even get WiFi in my [insert place that you should get WiFi, the more comical the better]!’ It’s true though, isn’t it? WiFi coverage is rubbish in most places, except the International Space Station, the North Pole and a mountain top in South America.

These drug dealers get ten out of ten for planning, but no points for engineering. Worried about hauling a huge stash of drugs, they hooked up a rocket that would fire their pharacopia a safe distance away if they were in danger of being busted. What a fantastic idea.

If stopped by law enforcement officers en route to their destination, they planned to open the trunk of the vehicle, raise the methamphetamine-filled rocket into launching position using a string and pulley system, and launch the rocket into the air (see Photo 13). The two men had tested a similar rocket filled with 2 pounds of gravel that reached a height of about 1,200 feet and, based on the results of that test, expected the plastic bags containing the ice methamphetamine to melt or disintegrate and the drugs to scatter into the air.

The problem was that when they needed it most it didn’t work.

On June 24, 2005, the men had an opportunity to test their device when a Missouri State Highway Patrol (MSHP) trooper attempted to stop their vehicle on Interstate 70 in Callaway County. The vehicle exited the interstate and entered a restaurant parking lot; however, the two men failed to activate the rocket. The driver then fled the vehicle and discarded a small bag containing approximately 2 grams of methamphetamine, while the passenger remained in the vehicle.

This is an enormous mechanical spirogragh machine used to create unusual, and huge art pieces. Rosemarie Fiore created the ‘Good-Time Mix Machine’, from an old farirground ride called the Scrambler.

I connected a gas generator and air compressor to buckets of paint and secured them into the seats of a Scrambler amusement park ride. Once the ride was in motion, paint sprayed out of the benches onto vinyl tarps placed underneath. The result is a series of enormous hypocycloid designs which recorded the hidden patterns created by the ride as it turned.

You can see a video here, which is quite impressive. It’s amazing that as the paint drained, it didn’t become unbalanced and shake itself to pieces. :: Rosemarie Fiore