Computers & Mobile

The latest DIY ideas, techniques and tools for digital gadgetry, open code, smart hacks, and more. Processing power to the people!

Make AOL Instant Message bots?

For years I’ve tried to create “AIM bots” little buddies you’d add to your instant message list – to interact with, to fetch useful information and deliver via your IM window. Back in the day there was a company called ActiveBuddy and they a great developer kit so you could make your own too (not sure if that’s still possible). As of today AOL has a new effort here so I think we might see a few interesting ones. Ideally, these bots could use RSS and anyone with a feed could create their own bots that their visitors could add and use. Would you use a MAKE bot? You could ask it “how do i solder” and it he’d return text and links to our pages on this online and in the magazine… [via].

Continue Reading November 16th, 2005 Phillip Torrone6

Build-it-yourself cell phones

Here’s more about the DIY cell phone project – ” Surj Patel is building his own cell phone, bit by soldered bit. It’s not easy. It starts with parts that cost around $400. Then Patel and his partner, Deva Seetharam, have to write code to run on the tiny Linux-based computer that he’s hoping will serve as the brains of his new phone. So why bother? After all, it’s not like cell phones are hard to find or terribly expensive.” [via] Link.

Continue Reading November 16th, 2005 Phillip Torrone8

HOW – TO: Getting Started with RSS

Paul writes “If there’s one word to describe my latest article, it’s comprehensive. Focused on using RSS as a means to save time in one’s daily routine, I take the reader through what RSS is, why it should be used and how to use it. I go through the installation, configuration and usage of RSS in Thunderbird, Google Desktop, RSSOwl as well as web-based feed readers with Google’s Personalized homepage, My Yahoo!, and Bloglines. As with all of my articles, there’s screenshots-a-plenty.” Good one to send to the non-RSSers, or if you’ve always wondered what those XML and RSS buttons are on MAKE. Link.

Continue Reading November 16th, 2005 Phillip Torrone

Convert a SCSI enclosure into a SATA enclosure

Here’s a step-by-step guide to converting any external hard drive enclosure (USB, Firewire, SCSI, etc) into an external SATA enclosure that meets the SATA standard. Link.

Continue Reading November 15th, 2005 Phillip Torrone

Homebrew GSM cellphone project

Surj Patel is working on a homebrew GSM mobile phone project – so far it looks like they’ve found a few candidates for the hardware to start tinkering with. Awhile back I was playing with the GM862 cellular module found in the Spark Fun Electronics rotary phone, and at $119 it might be another way to start building too. [via] Link.

Continue Reading November 14th, 2005 Phillip Torrone

Record anything with “Silent Bob”

“Silent Bob records all incoming music, streaming or otherwise, from the soundcard. When the user decides to record and pushes the button, no problem Silent-Bob has already started the recording 2 minutes earlier! Never miss the begining!” This could be handy for podcasters or anyone looking to record sounds to make their own ringtones. [via] Link.

Continue Reading November 13th, 2005 Phillip Torrone6

Put Macs to “Deep Sleep” hack…

“Up until recently, Mac users didn’t have a similar Sleep mode which required no power. When Apple announced new PowerBooks in October 2005, it also introduced Safe Sleep to Mac OS X, an extention to Sleep mode that allows for hibernation without power.” The article details how to put other Macs to deep sleep with a clever hack – the comments also have a lot of useful information. [via] Link.