WEBVTT - Cool Hardware Hacks 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:02.880 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.240 --> 0:00:08.760 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology with 0:00:08.920 --> 0:00:14.960 tex Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hi, welcome 0:00:15.000 --> 0:00:17.239 to tech stuff. My name is Chris Polette. I'm an 0:00:17.320 --> 0:00:19.720 editor here at How Stuff Works, and as usual, I 0:00:19.800 --> 0:00:23.000 have sitting right here next to me, senior writer Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:23.079 --> 0:00:26.200 How do folks? And Uh, today I think we're going 0:00:26.239 --> 0:00:29.880 to talk about hacking, yes, and not as in that 0:00:30.000 --> 0:00:32.440 irritating cough that your coworker has its sitting in the 0:00:32.479 --> 0:00:34.000 cubicle next to you and you want to hit them 0:00:34.000 --> 0:00:35.920 over the head with a brick. Nor are we talking 0:00:35.960 --> 0:00:39.760 about traditional computer hacking where you hack into systems, where 0:00:39.800 --> 0:00:43.800 you create program hacks. We're talking about hardware hacking. Yes, 0:00:43.840 --> 0:00:47.040 And you know, hacking is not necessarily evil either. You know, 0:00:47.080 --> 0:00:49.519 it's got sort of a bad reputation. Hacking is basically, 0:00:50.200 --> 0:00:52.400 you know, taking something apart, seeing how it works, and 0:00:52.400 --> 0:00:54.000 trying to do something different with it than it was 0:00:54.000 --> 0:00:57.040 originally intended for. Yeah, it's really just finding new ways 0:00:57.120 --> 0:01:00.440 to accomplish certain tasks. So it's not in a necessarily 0:01:00.480 --> 0:01:03.400 evil at all. And uh, yeah we should we should 0:01:03.440 --> 0:01:05.479 just go ahead and get rid of that negative connotation 0:01:05.480 --> 0:01:08.280 of hacker, so you're on out. Hacker means someone who 0:01:08.360 --> 0:01:12.240 finds new ways of doing things exactly. So say I 0:01:12.920 --> 0:01:17.080 so say we all, I'll start galactical fans out there. 0:01:18.520 --> 0:01:23.119 So you want to go first, well, actually before yeah, 0:01:23.200 --> 0:01:24.760 before we get too far into it, I want to 0:01:24.800 --> 0:01:26.440 talk a little bit about what you kind of need 0:01:26.480 --> 0:01:29.240 to know in order to be a hacker. Um, you 0:01:29.480 --> 0:01:32.360 hurt yourself, Well, you need to know how stuff works. 0:01:32.520 --> 0:01:34.760 I mean you can't. You can't take something apart and 0:01:34.800 --> 0:01:37.960 improve it without knowing how it works in the first place. Um, 0:01:38.080 --> 0:01:39.440 or at least you can't do it and hope to 0:01:39.480 --> 0:01:42.640 be successful. So there's certain things that a lot of 0:01:42.680 --> 0:01:45.399 hardware hacks require you to know before you really get 0:01:45.440 --> 0:01:47.480 into them. A lot of that is just things like 0:01:47.520 --> 0:01:52.120 basic electricity, UM, how circuits work. If you're doing something 0:01:52.120 --> 0:01:54.160 with computers, you need to know all about things like 0:01:54.200 --> 0:01:59.760 bits and bites. You may need to know about resistors, capacitors, diodes, transistors, 0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:04.720 um A. A healthy knowledge of how to solder is 0:02:04.840 --> 0:02:08.720 very helpful. Yeah, just knowing how to use certain tools 0:02:08.720 --> 0:02:11.160 like wire cutters and you know, or even something as 0:02:11.160 --> 0:02:13.480 basic as a screwdriver. And I'm not talking about the 0:02:13.560 --> 0:02:16.360 drink um and you can have one of those after 0:02:16.440 --> 0:02:22.640 you're done. Yeah, don't drink and hack. So really, hacks 0:02:22.639 --> 0:02:25.560 are not meant for the average person. They really meant 0:02:25.560 --> 0:02:30.840 for people who want to get into the whole um. Uh, 0:02:30.880 --> 0:02:34.600 you know, let's figure out how this works. Let's let's see. Uh, 0:02:34.880 --> 0:02:36.959 I want to do some electrical engineering. I mean, the 0:02:37.000 --> 0:02:39.960 average person can get into hacking. Yes, they can learn 0:02:39.960 --> 0:02:42.280 how to do this sort of thing, but you can't 0:02:42.320 --> 0:02:44.960 just jump right in and expect to be successful and 0:02:45.160 --> 0:02:47.960 or safe. Yeah, it might might be a good idea 0:02:48.040 --> 0:02:50.359 to start small and work your way up. Yeah, I've 0:02:50.360 --> 0:02:52.799 got a small one I can start with. Okay, So, 0:02:53.040 --> 0:02:57.600 uh I saw something written by Michael Berman, who had 0:02:57.720 --> 0:03:01.720 the Maxwell smart shoe phone. Yeah. Yeah, his hack was 0:03:01.800 --> 0:03:04.239 about as simple as it gets. Now, that's not that's 0:03:04.280 --> 0:03:07.000 not I'm not trying to cast aspersions at Michael. I 0:03:07.000 --> 0:03:09.280 wouldn't have done this, and he did a great job. 0:03:09.360 --> 0:03:11.959 It was very funny and I appreciate it quite a bit, 0:03:12.440 --> 0:03:15.480 so the Maxwell smartphone. If you aren't familiar with Get 0:03:15.520 --> 0:03:18.840 Smart the television series and not the movie. Not the 0:03:18.840 --> 0:03:21.880 movie so much but the television series Maxwell had a 0:03:21.919 --> 0:03:25.200 special shoe phone that he could use to dial back 0:03:25.200 --> 0:03:29.240 to headquarters. This was in the nineteen sixties before and 0:03:29.400 --> 0:03:32.640 you know, people had cell phones, so this was actually 0:03:32.960 --> 0:03:38.000 a novel kind of idea today, completely unnecessary but still funny. 0:03:38.120 --> 0:03:41.360 So what Michael did was he just he took it 0:03:41.440 --> 0:03:43.880 to the simplest level you can imagine. He took a 0:03:43.920 --> 0:03:47.640 man's dress shoe, he hollowed out part of the heel, 0:03:48.240 --> 0:03:51.880 and he shoved a cell phone into it. Thus you 0:03:51.920 --> 0:03:55.360 have a hacked Maxwell smart shoe phone. And that's really 0:03:55.400 --> 0:03:58.240 as simple as as it gets. I mean, a hack 0:03:58.320 --> 0:04:00.840 does not have to be complicated. It can be very 0:04:00.960 --> 0:04:02.840 very simple. Now the complicated wants tend to get a 0:04:02.840 --> 0:04:06.280 lot more attention. But anyway, that's my first one. All 0:04:06.400 --> 0:04:11.040 right then, UM, I've got a couple uh that I 0:04:11.080 --> 0:04:14.120 picked that I thought were kind of cool, different different 0:04:14.160 --> 0:04:16.880 things you can do. Um and I chose two of 0:04:16.920 --> 0:04:19.280 my favorite sites that I know there are lots and 0:04:19.400 --> 0:04:22.120 lots and lots and lots of hacks on of all kinds, 0:04:22.800 --> 0:04:27.200 um and um. The first one I chose from instructibles 0:04:27.200 --> 0:04:31.240 dot com, which which is an awesome site. UM and 0:04:31.440 --> 0:04:35.760 uh Basically the one I chose was someone had posted 0:04:35.760 --> 0:04:40.200 a way to use bluetooth, your bluetooth cell phone to 0:04:40.279 --> 0:04:44.520 make all the calls using your home's phone wiring. Yeah, 0:04:44.520 --> 0:04:46.800 it's pretty neat, um, and I'm not going to go 0:04:46.839 --> 0:04:49.400 into great detail on how to do all these different 0:04:49.720 --> 0:04:53.720 pieces of the puzzle, but you know essentially what you're 0:04:53.760 --> 0:04:56.600 gonna do. Assuming that your your house is already wired 0:04:56.839 --> 0:05:01.440 for a landline service, but isn't connected to a landline, 0:05:02.240 --> 0:05:04.960 maybe you just have a cell phone to make calls. Um, 0:05:05.000 --> 0:05:10.640 you can actually take a cellular gateway and UM, you 0:05:10.640 --> 0:05:13.560 would plug like you go to the place where, if 0:05:13.560 --> 0:05:15.920 you will, like the terminus of all the the home 0:05:16.000 --> 0:05:20.080 phone wiring is and connect the cellular gateway and then 0:05:20.279 --> 0:05:24.200 you hook it up to the phone and uh, once 0:05:24.240 --> 0:05:28.279 you plug in the jacks, the phones into the jacks 0:05:28.320 --> 0:05:30.960 and you're in the different rooms. Uh, that goes back 0:05:30.960 --> 0:05:33.520 to the cellular gateway, which uses Bluetooth to make a 0:05:33.520 --> 0:05:37.359 connection to your phone. Um, and then it sends the 0:05:37.400 --> 0:05:40.600 call out to uh you know, via the cell phone network. 0:05:40.960 --> 0:05:44.200 So it's a very very elegant situation. Of course, you 0:05:44.240 --> 0:05:45.920 have to again went back to what you were saying, 0:05:45.960 --> 0:05:47.440 you have to know a little bit about the wiring. 0:05:47.440 --> 0:05:49.840 You have to know uh something about how the different 0:05:49.920 --> 0:05:52.680 kinds of cables work. You might be working with a 0:05:52.720 --> 0:05:55.960 couple of different kinds of phone cord um, but it's 0:05:55.960 --> 0:05:59.680 pretty neat now. He posed an interesting conundrum, however, So 0:05:59.760 --> 0:06:02.719 what happens if you step out for a while and 0:06:02.760 --> 0:06:05.840 someone's house sitting for you or you know, and it 0:06:05.839 --> 0:06:07.719 needs to make a call, say, I don't know how's 0:06:07.800 --> 0:06:10.680 on fire and they don't have the cell phone? What 0:06:10.720 --> 0:06:13.880 are you gonna do? Then? Well, were you're going to 0:06:13.960 --> 0:06:17.120 answer that? Okay? Well, they were saying that A simple, 0:06:17.200 --> 0:06:19.040 a simple way to get around that is you can 0:06:19.080 --> 0:06:23.480 actually add a second phone, like a paid uh like 0:06:24.120 --> 0:06:27.400 um when the prepaid minutes phones, you know, put an 0:06:27.400 --> 0:06:29.240 hour or worth of minutes on there and put it 0:06:29.279 --> 0:06:32.280 as the backup phone, and it will automatically channel UH 0:06:32.400 --> 0:06:34.479 to the other phone, and it will allow you to 0:06:34.520 --> 0:06:37.359 do that because the cellier gateway can handle making the 0:06:37.360 --> 0:06:39.240 switch from one phone to the other. You know, you 0:06:39.240 --> 0:06:43.960 could prioritize the phone one versus two, or if you 0:06:44.000 --> 0:06:46.919 have a plan, for example, if you and your wife 0:06:46.960 --> 0:06:50.160 were at home and you're on different carriers and one 0:06:50.200 --> 0:06:52.120 of them gets free weekend minutes. You could say, okay, 0:06:52.120 --> 0:06:54.640 well on Saturday and Sunday, we want to use this 0:06:54.680 --> 0:06:56.719 phone to make our calls. And all you have to 0:06:56.720 --> 0:06:59.440 do is pick up the you know phone jack phone 0:06:59.440 --> 0:07:01.560 at the local handset and it would make the call 0:07:01.640 --> 0:07:05.159 for you. So it's a pretty nifty, pretty nifty hack, 0:07:05.240 --> 0:07:09.160 I thought. Now Chris said, uh, specifically that it was 0:07:09.200 --> 0:07:12.320 a pretty elegant solution. Here's an interesting thing. Hacks don't 0:07:12.320 --> 0:07:16.800 necessarily have to be elegant. Um, some hacks are really 0:07:16.840 --> 0:07:19.800 not elegant. It's just that they work. That's the most 0:07:19.800 --> 0:07:22.080 important part of any hack is that it works, not 0:07:22.160 --> 0:07:27.280 that it's pretty or that it aesthetically pleasing, which brings 0:07:27.320 --> 0:07:30.640 me to a very specific kind of hack. Um, it's 0:07:30.760 --> 0:07:33.600 a specific you know category, I should say, the Rube 0:07:33.600 --> 0:07:38.240 Goldberg device. Yeah, these are the devices where it's incredibly 0:07:38.320 --> 0:07:42.400 complicated and it just accomplishes a very simple task. So 0:07:42.480 --> 0:07:45.360 it may be something as simple as pressing the toaster 0:07:45.520 --> 0:07:49.640 lever down on your toaster and um, and cooking some toast. 0:07:49.880 --> 0:07:51.680 But it may turn out that you use you know, 0:07:52.840 --> 0:07:56.320 an erector said, and a coffee pot and a host 0:07:56.360 --> 0:07:59.960 of action figures and a fishing rod and all sorts 0:08:00.000 --> 0:08:02.840 of things order to accomplish this. Uh. The idea here 0:08:02.920 --> 0:08:04.840 is to try and make as complex machine as you 0:08:04.880 --> 0:08:08.000 possibly can that's really interesting to look at um and 0:08:08.040 --> 0:08:10.600 has a lot of different moving parts that looks like 0:08:10.640 --> 0:08:13.360 there's no way it should work, and yet it does work. 0:08:13.800 --> 0:08:16.680 And if you've never seen one, actually, YouTube has tons 0:08:16.720 --> 0:08:19.640 and tons of videos on Rube Goldberg devices. I recommend 0:08:19.880 --> 0:08:22.680 checking some of them out because when they work, they're 0:08:22.680 --> 0:08:26.000 really fascinating and and you chances are you have seen one. 0:08:26.000 --> 0:08:28.239 I mean, there was a big car commercial that uses 0:08:28.320 --> 0:08:30.840 a Rube Goldberg device to turn a car on at 0:08:30.840 --> 0:08:35.280 one point, um or Peewee's Big Adventure. There you go. 0:08:35.400 --> 0:08:38.079 His breakfast machine was a big Rube Goldberg device, yea. 0:08:38.320 --> 0:08:40.360 And it was named for the you know, someone who 0:08:40.440 --> 0:08:44.200 is fascinated with these, um the drawings used to hear 0:08:44.280 --> 0:08:47.320 in magazines. Yeah, yeah, he would draw these these really 0:08:47.480 --> 0:08:51.040 weird contraptions, and it was that same concept. And of 0:08:51.080 --> 0:08:53.800 course Rube Goldberg was his name, and the device is 0:08:53.880 --> 0:08:56.319 course named after him. And it's so funny to call 0:08:56.360 --> 0:08:58.959 something a Rube Goldberg device. It's as generic a term 0:08:58.960 --> 0:09:01.680 as you can imagine. Because it can look like anything, 0:09:02.200 --> 0:09:05.200 and it can take up an entire house worth of space. 0:09:05.320 --> 0:09:09.680 I've seen some that went multiple levels and through a yard, 0:09:09.880 --> 0:09:12.520 and I mean, they're really fascinating things. And I recommend 0:09:12.520 --> 0:09:16.400 playing Raymond Scott's Powerhouse as you're listening to that. That's 0:09:16.440 --> 0:09:19.400 the song was Dun dun d you know. I have 0:09:19.440 --> 0:09:22.720 a classic hack to um. I'm thinking of John Draper 0:09:24.080 --> 0:09:27.600 Captain Crunch for those of you who who may not know. 0:09:28.120 --> 0:09:30.520 A long time ago, there used to be a whistle, 0:09:30.600 --> 0:09:33.559 a plastic whistle in a box of Captain ground and U. 0:09:34.679 --> 0:09:40.440 John Draper figured out that they hurts tone that the 0:09:40.440 --> 0:09:42.280 whistle made when you blew through it. If you blew 0:09:42.320 --> 0:09:44.120 it into a phone, it would let you make long 0:09:44.160 --> 0:09:48.320 distance calls for free. And even when he was in 0:09:48.360 --> 0:09:51.520 the Armed Forces stationed overseas, people would call him a 0:09:51.679 --> 0:09:54.199 long distance and he could blow the whistle and it 0:09:54.240 --> 0:09:57.720 would basically erase the call from the you know, because 0:09:57.760 --> 0:10:00.720 they had played the tone during that. That's that led 0:10:01.280 --> 0:10:03.840 to a lot of people learning how to hack um, 0:10:03.880 --> 0:10:06.960 you know, making these what they call blue boxes, you know, 0:10:07.000 --> 0:10:09.880 because people like Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak used to 0:10:09.920 --> 0:10:12.320 make them for their classmates apparently in college. From what 0:10:12.400 --> 0:10:15.560 I've read, Yeah, the was was has quite the reputation 0:10:15.600 --> 0:10:18.360 of being the phone freak. Oh yes, yes, And and 0:10:18.679 --> 0:10:21.680 soon he will probably be voted off of Dancing with 0:10:21.720 --> 0:10:24.160 the Stars, if he hasn't already by the time this 0:10:24.320 --> 0:10:26.400 place that may have already come to pass, it hasn't 0:10:26.400 --> 0:10:28.840 even shown yet. Yeah, anyway, I hope he comes on 0:10:28.880 --> 0:10:31.840 a seg. I'm voting for him anyway. So I've got 0:10:31.880 --> 0:10:35.200 another one from also from instructibles. Okay. The neat thing 0:10:35.240 --> 0:10:37.320 about instructibles is it's not just that they show you 0:10:37.360 --> 0:10:39.760 a hack, but they will show you how to build 0:10:39.800 --> 0:10:42.600 it yourself, step by step, and in some cases it's 0:10:42.640 --> 0:10:45.200 not that difficult. Now in other cases it takes you know, 0:10:45.240 --> 0:10:48.240 a steady hand, especially when it comes to soldering things 0:10:48.320 --> 0:10:53.040 or taking any sort of potentially expensive piece of electronics apart, 0:10:53.120 --> 0:10:54.920 because you never know if you're gonna be able to 0:10:54.880 --> 0:10:57.880 play back together again. So um, I don't recommend you 0:10:57.920 --> 0:10:59.840 just rush out and try them unless you have a real, 0:11:00.040 --> 0:11:02.520 you know, kind of a background with the source of 0:11:02.520 --> 0:11:06.319 stuff already, or are completely willing to ruin something that 0:11:06.440 --> 0:11:08.520 may or may not be valuable to you. Yeah, you 0:11:08.520 --> 0:11:11.199 also have to remember that whenever you open up any electronics, 0:11:11.280 --> 0:11:14.439 chances are you've just voided your warranty. So um, you know, 0:11:14.520 --> 0:11:17.559 anytime you're doing a hack, you know, you don't expect 0:11:17.559 --> 0:11:20.040 you'll be able to return it to the store and say, hey, my, 0:11:20.040 --> 0:11:22.280 my such and such broke because they're gonna say, yeah, 0:11:22.320 --> 0:11:25.440 you broke it. Um. But this one was a Game 0:11:25.480 --> 0:11:30.560 Boy DS that UH was charged by solar panels. So 0:11:31.200 --> 0:11:34.920 in this hack, the hacker used four sixty millimeter by 0:11:34.920 --> 0:11:38.959 sixty millimeter solar panels that perfectly covered the outside case 0:11:39.120 --> 0:11:43.959 of the DS and was able to wire those into 0:11:44.240 --> 0:11:48.559 the battery pack for the the DS, and it can 0:11:48.640 --> 0:11:51.560 charge the battery. Now, the only thing that was missing 0:11:51.679 --> 0:11:55.640 from that particular version of this was a a chip, 0:11:55.960 --> 0:11:59.800 a circuit protection UH chips, so that would prevent over 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:03.600 charging because otherwise, if you left the DS on the 0:12:03.600 --> 0:12:05.800 sun for too long, it would overcharge the battery, which 0:12:06.520 --> 0:12:11.360 could be bad with a capital by but UH and 0:12:11.360 --> 0:12:14.240 and they hackor acknowledge that said it said that he 0:12:14.320 --> 0:12:17.200 got the chip and now he's redesigning the hacks so 0:12:17.240 --> 0:12:20.439 that it can incorporate the chip. So yeah, look for that. 0:12:20.600 --> 0:12:23.280 It's an interesting little way that you can recharge your 0:12:23.640 --> 0:12:25.400 DS just by leaving in the sun for a couple 0:12:25.400 --> 0:12:30.880 of hours. That's that's that's awesome. Yeah, and you know 0:12:31.200 --> 0:12:34.560 my next hack is a is a Nintendo related hack. 0:12:35.360 --> 0:12:39.600 This one came from Make TV. Actually it's Make magazine, 0:12:39.600 --> 0:12:42.640 which is O'Reilly's. Um. You know, I think this is 0:12:42.679 --> 0:12:45.760 sort of classical hacking because they tell you how to 0:12:45.760 --> 0:12:48.400 do all kinds of things. But um, they love taking 0:12:48.440 --> 0:12:51.880 stuff apart. Um. In fact, they have sort of a 0:12:51.920 --> 0:12:55.520 motto that essentially, if you haven't taken it apart, you 0:12:55.559 --> 0:13:00.280 really don't own it. Um. And uh, you know a 0:13:00.280 --> 0:13:02.880 lot of stuff when I was a kid, Yeah, and 0:13:02.920 --> 0:13:04.520 how much of it works now. I was about saying 0:13:04.520 --> 0:13:09.320 I owned stuff that wasn't even mine. Well, um, the 0:13:09.360 --> 0:13:11.160 one that I thought, well, I I the one that 0:13:11.200 --> 0:13:12.839 I picked. There are tons and tons of cool ones, 0:13:12.920 --> 0:13:15.080 and um, the one I picked was actually from the 0:13:15.120 --> 0:13:18.560 TV show. Uh. They have a podcast which is not 0:13:18.679 --> 0:13:23.160 quite as cool as ours, but pretty cool. Nonetheless, Um, 0:13:22.720 --> 0:13:26.480 you know I have to plug us, you know. Um. Anyway, 0:13:26.520 --> 0:13:31.160 they had someone had made a personal flight data recorder, 0:13:31.320 --> 0:13:35.599 if you will, um, using a we nun chuck of 0:13:36.440 --> 0:13:38.240 for those of you who are familiar with a Nintendo 0:13:38.320 --> 0:13:41.320 WE that's probably just about everybody on this podcast. Um. 0:13:41.679 --> 0:13:45.920 You know that the controllers are have motion sensors in them. Uh, 0:13:46.000 --> 0:13:49.440 there's a little chip inside called an accelerometer. And UM, 0:13:49.440 --> 0:13:51.679 it turns out that you don't even have to take 0:13:51.840 --> 0:13:56.160 the nun chuck apart. Um. There is a little piece 0:13:56.280 --> 0:13:59.559 of electronic equipment that you can plug into the end 0:13:59.679 --> 0:14:03.040 of of the plug and uh it allows you to 0:14:03.080 --> 0:14:07.440 access the information in the accelerometer. So, UM, what they 0:14:07.480 --> 0:14:10.800 did was they got a micro controller board. UH. And 0:14:10.880 --> 0:14:14.160 this is a piece of electronic gear. Essentially, it's a 0:14:14.160 --> 0:14:17.240 a circuit board with chips in it. And you know 0:14:17.280 --> 0:14:19.120 it's the kind of thing that you that you probably 0:14:19.160 --> 0:14:21.720 find in all kinds of different electronics. It takes user 0:14:21.760 --> 0:14:25.680 input from dials and knobs and translates it into instructions 0:14:25.720 --> 0:14:29.080 for the different electronic components. Well, if your input is 0:14:29.080 --> 0:14:31.840 coming from the WE nunchuck, you have a power source 0:14:31.960 --> 0:14:35.200 in this case, some double A batteries UM, and an 0:14:35.280 --> 0:14:37.600 l C D screen. All it takes is a little 0:14:37.640 --> 0:14:41.640 instruction UM from a laptop. You give it some very 0:14:41.680 --> 0:14:45.440 basic programming. UM. And they made a little plastic box. 0:14:45.480 --> 0:14:49.360 They took a a a Pelican case which is very 0:14:49.760 --> 0:14:54.480 h well known waterproof divers use these to protect different things. 0:14:54.480 --> 0:14:57.520 Because there they locked down in their waterproof um. They 0:14:57.520 --> 0:14:58.840 cut a hole in it for the l c D 0:14:58.960 --> 0:15:02.520 screen and put all the guts inside except for the nunchuck, 0:15:03.040 --> 0:15:05.960 and uh, what it would allow them to do once 0:15:06.000 --> 0:15:10.120 the board was programmed with the information was they basically said, look, 0:15:10.200 --> 0:15:14.920 tell me what the accelerometer is sensing and so uh 0:15:15.120 --> 0:15:18.760 they got it to tell them exactly what kind of 0:15:18.800 --> 0:15:22.560 gravitational force was was pulling on them at the moment. 0:15:22.640 --> 0:15:25.400 So uh, you know, they rigged this up and went 0:15:25.400 --> 0:15:28.800 on a roller coaster at the Mall of America and uh, 0:15:28.800 --> 0:15:30.680 it's really great because they're talking about it and he 0:15:30.760 --> 0:15:33.880 said the the the person into the podcast says, look, 0:15:33.880 --> 0:15:36.640 you know, I'm pulling two g s Um. It's absolutely 0:15:36.680 --> 0:15:39.440 cool because you know there's no movie. You know, it's 0:15:39.480 --> 0:15:43.680 just the we nunchuck. UM. It doesn't require very very 0:15:43.720 --> 0:15:47.120 you know, it's it was probably uh, you know, forty 0:15:47.520 --> 0:15:53.200 worth of plastic and uh and circuit boards plus the nunchuck. Um. 0:15:53.240 --> 0:15:57.160 You know, very inexpensive and fun little project to do 0:15:57.360 --> 0:16:01.080 and not something that you would normally find, but really 0:16:01.120 --> 0:16:03.520 cool to see it something like the nunchuck used in 0:16:03.560 --> 0:16:06.880 such an unusual way. I thought, well, moving from very 0:16:06.920 --> 0:16:13.600 inexpensive hacks to incredibly expensive ones, um I have. Actually 0:16:13.640 --> 0:16:19.640 it's another broad category steampunk hacks. Now. I wrote how 0:16:19.720 --> 0:16:22.600 steampunk works and if you're not familiar, steampunk is kind 0:16:22.640 --> 0:16:25.800 of a well started off as a sort of a 0:16:25.840 --> 0:16:29.000 sub genre of fiction that kind of attaches to fantasy 0:16:29.000 --> 0:16:33.680 and science fiction. UM. Now it's almost a cultural thing, 0:16:33.720 --> 0:16:37.480 you know, a subculture. It's gone beyond just literature. The 0:16:37.520 --> 0:16:40.320 idea is that it's, uh, it's exists in a world 0:16:40.360 --> 0:16:44.080 that never was. It's kind of this Victorian age world 0:16:44.560 --> 0:16:49.680 where steam technology um continue to develop beyond things like 0:16:49.720 --> 0:16:52.760 the steam engine, so that everything seems to be steam 0:16:52.800 --> 0:16:56.760 powered and that we, the people who inhabit this world, 0:16:56.800 --> 0:17:00.480 have access to technology comparable to the the kind that 0:17:00.520 --> 0:17:03.280 we have today. But it's all steam powered stuff. So 0:17:03.320 --> 0:17:07.560 there's lots of brass and copper used, and there's lots 0:17:07.560 --> 0:17:11.840 of rivets, and everything looks really industrial and um, it's 0:17:11.840 --> 0:17:13.959 got a very unique look. If you're not familiar with 0:17:13.960 --> 0:17:16.080 what steampunk stuff looks like, you really need to do 0:17:16.080 --> 0:17:19.239 a search because it's very unique and um, I think 0:17:19.280 --> 0:17:22.400 it's gorgeous. Have you've ever seen the Wild Wild West 0:17:22.440 --> 0:17:25.040 TV show? Yeah, you know they would always pull these 0:17:25.520 --> 0:17:28.359 crazy gadgets out, you know, from behind the link in 0:17:28.359 --> 0:17:30.080 the in the train cars and you're going, you know, 0:17:30.400 --> 0:17:32.040 they didn't have that kind of stuff. That was sort 0:17:32.040 --> 0:17:35.119 of a I'm guessing probably an inspiration for some of 0:17:35.119 --> 0:17:37.520 the steampunk type stuff because it's sort of in that 0:17:37.560 --> 0:17:40.560 same well, they didn't really have that kind of technology 0:17:40.560 --> 0:17:43.200 that well, you know, it's anachronistic like that. It's it's 0:17:43.400 --> 0:17:45.440 and and it also draws a lot of a lot 0:17:45.480 --> 0:17:48.479 of inspiration from the works of Jules Verne and H. G. Wells. 0:17:48.560 --> 0:17:51.120 Those are kind of the two patron saints of steampunk. 0:17:51.280 --> 0:17:53.359 So you think about like twenty Leagues under the Sea 0:17:53.400 --> 0:17:55.800 and you look at the Nautilus. The design of the Nautilus, Yeah, 0:17:55.880 --> 0:17:58.280 totally steampunk, I kind of get it. Or the time 0:17:58.280 --> 0:18:04.240 machine from H. G. Wells, those weren't to burst your bubble, 0:18:05.160 --> 0:18:07.960 I forget I said that anyway. So there are lots 0:18:08.000 --> 0:18:10.200 of people out there who do steampunk hacks where they 0:18:10.200 --> 0:18:13.520 take modern stuff, they tear it apart and they rebuild it. 0:18:13.560 --> 0:18:16.720 So it looks like it kind of has this old, 0:18:16.720 --> 0:18:19.800 tiny look. Retro futurism is a good way of putting 0:18:19.840 --> 0:18:23.320 it because it looks old and yet futuristic at the 0:18:23.359 --> 0:18:25.720 same time. And there are tons and tons of artists 0:18:25.720 --> 0:18:28.680 out there, and a lot of them are really really talented. Um, 0:18:28.720 --> 0:18:31.680 but I was just gonna talk about Data Manswer. Now 0:18:31.720 --> 0:18:36.280 this guy is really really phenomenal. He he will build 0:18:36.320 --> 0:18:39.639 out a steampunk keyboard for you if you want, and 0:18:39.680 --> 0:18:42.399 you can tell him what what materials you want and 0:18:42.400 --> 0:18:45.199 what style you want. And these things range from like 0:18:48.280 --> 0:18:52.080 they're really expensive, mainly because you're talking about workmanship, you're 0:18:52.080 --> 0:18:55.919 talking about materials, because copper is not cheap. Um what 0:18:56.040 --> 0:18:58.000 is if you, you know, go into the street lights 0:18:58.040 --> 0:19:00.800 and stealing. Well, that's sure, but he us not do that, 0:19:01.480 --> 0:19:04.320 I would like to think. Um, actually, I'm sure he 0:19:04.359 --> 0:19:06.080 doesn't do that. Everything has to be on the up 0:19:06.119 --> 0:19:09.840 and up. But he also gives them all really interesting, 0:19:09.960 --> 0:19:13.200 fanciful names. That's kind of part of the culture. So, 0:19:13.280 --> 0:19:16.360 for instance, he has a steampunk computer that is called 0:19:16.440 --> 0:19:19.640 and I'm going to butcher this name, but the Nagy 0:19:19.680 --> 0:19:26.000 Magical movable type pixel O Dynamo Tronic computational engine. Alright, 0:19:26.040 --> 0:19:29.680 then that's his computer and it looks awesome. His keyboards 0:19:29.680 --> 0:19:31.919 are amazing. He's got tons and tons of stuff. If 0:19:31.920 --> 0:19:34.000 you go to data manswer dot net you can see it. 0:19:34.000 --> 0:19:37.040 It's a and and he he agreed to UM to 0:19:37.800 --> 0:19:39.960 let me use some of the images for the article. 0:19:40.080 --> 0:19:45.040 So he's top aces in my book. You know, how 0:19:45.080 --> 0:19:47.240 about you got anything else? Now? You know I had 0:19:47.359 --> 0:19:50.680 my my too big in my classics. Okay. The only 0:19:50.720 --> 0:19:52.440 other thing I can talk about is that there are 0:19:52.520 --> 0:19:56.000 hacks out there that are dangerous. Dangerous hacks not just 0:19:56.080 --> 0:19:58.040 if you don't know what you're doing, but they're dangerous 0:19:58.040 --> 0:19:59.320 even if you do know what you're doing and you 0:19:59.400 --> 0:20:01.719 end up with them. You're not like talking poking yourself 0:20:01.760 --> 0:20:04.040 with a hot soldering I mean, that is dangerous, yes, 0:20:04.040 --> 0:20:05.680 but that's not what I'm talking Sucking yourself with a 0:20:06.240 --> 0:20:09.480 monitor that hasn't discharged the electricity from then also dangerous, 0:20:09.400 --> 0:20:11.360 is not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about things 0:20:11.359 --> 0:20:13.960 that are dangerous once you build them and they're working properly, 0:20:14.119 --> 0:20:18.240 like spud guns. That would be dangerous. But some one 0:20:18.359 --> 0:20:20.640 talk like Chris, come on, work with me here about 0:20:20.640 --> 0:20:23.920 things like spud guns or pneumatic rifles. There are a 0:20:23.960 --> 0:20:25.679 lot of these out there and their hacks other and 0:20:25.760 --> 0:20:28.080 most of the people who make the hacks will tell you, hey, 0:20:28.080 --> 0:20:30.520 this is really dangerous stuff and it's neat to do, 0:20:31.080 --> 0:20:34.280 but you've gotta be really, really careful because one, if 0:20:34.359 --> 0:20:36.560 you put too much pressure in these things, they will 0:20:36.600 --> 0:20:39.200 blow up and you will be hurt too. If you 0:20:39.280 --> 0:20:41.760 pointed at someone and you pull a trigger, that person 0:20:41.800 --> 0:20:45.520 will be hurt. Um three. In most in many places, 0:20:45.920 --> 0:20:49.040 it may be illegal to construct such a device, So 0:20:49.560 --> 0:20:51.679 be careful when you are looking around at hacks that 0:20:51.720 --> 0:20:53.800 you want to tackle. Make sure that you know you're 0:20:53.840 --> 0:20:55.680 not going to be violating any laws. You're not gonna 0:20:55.680 --> 0:20:57.800 get any trouble, and you're most importantly, you're not gonna 0:20:57.840 --> 0:21:01.600 hurt yourself or someone else. Right. So that's advice we 0:21:01.600 --> 0:21:03.840 should all live by, don't you think. I think? So 0:21:04.080 --> 0:21:06.880 you know what that brings us to? Oh yep, well, 0:21:06.920 --> 0:21:11.120 listener mail, I wish I could hack that sound. Yeah, 0:21:11.240 --> 0:21:16.040 keep wishing. So today's listener mail comes from Dale Johnson 0:21:16.119 --> 0:21:18.720 and this actually came to us via Stuff you should 0:21:18.800 --> 0:21:21.639 know that's a sister podcast of ours, and they wanted 0:21:21.720 --> 0:21:23.359 us to kind of tackle this one because it had 0:21:23.400 --> 0:21:25.159 the word hack in the title. But I don't think 0:21:25.160 --> 0:21:27.600 they read the email very carefully because it's totally different 0:21:27.680 --> 0:21:30.600 kind of hack. This is the hack hacks, the famous 0:21:30.640 --> 0:21:34.280 hacks from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Oh yeah, these are 0:21:34.320 --> 0:21:37.359