[Hack a Day] 2 New Entries: Scratch built RFID tags

Scratch built RFID tags

[nmarquardt] has put up an interesting instructable that covers building RFID tags. Most of them are constructed using adhesive copper tape on cardstock. The first version just has a cap and a low power LED to prove that the antenna is receiving power. The next iteration uses tilt switches so the tag is only active in certain orientations. The conclusion shows several different variations: different antenna lengths, conductive paint, light activated and more.

      

Running Debian and Android on the G1

[Jay Freeman] has a rather exhaustive tutorial on how to set up a Debian environment on your T-Mobile G1. The first major issue with this is that getting root level access through telnetd is being patched. It certainly is a security issue that needs to be fixed, but a user shouldn’t have to root their own phone to begin with. While the G1 comes with some Linux tools, they’re limited. [Jay]’s goal was to create a familiar Debian environment on the phone. It takes a few tricks, but if you’re familiar with the command line, you shouldn’t have any problems. Debian already has ARM EABI support, so creating a working image isn’t a problem. The image file is stored on the SD card and mounted using the loopback device. The G1’s kernel has module support turned on, so [Jay] created an ext2 and unionfs kernel modules. [Benno Leslie]’s Android version of busybox is used to perform the actual mounting. Once mounted, you just need to chroot into the environment to start playing with native Linux apps. [Jay] takes this a step further by using unionfs to make the Android and Debian environments share the same root. This is really a great how-to and it’s nice to know that modules can be added to the kernel.

[photo: tnkgrl]

[via Hackszine]

      

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[Lifehacker] 2 New Entries: iTunes Store Debuts Discount Movies and Albums [Saving Money]

iTunes Store Debuts Discount Movies and Albums [Saving Money]

The iTunes Store is now offering a weekly selection of albums and movies for download at $4.99 each. On the music side, pick up classics like the Clash's "Combat Rock" and Miles Davis's "Birth of Cool." On the movie side, it seems to be a tribute to California's Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, with classic Saturday afternoon popcorn fare like Terminator 2, Total Recall, and Red Heat (there's absolutely nothing classic about The Last Action Hero). Yes, they come laced with DRM, you'll have to burn them to your own CDs or DVDs for archiving, and you have to sign up with the iTunes Store and download iTunes to play them—but for those of you who haven't started shopping via iTunes already, at this price, you might be interested.

This Week's Great Movies Under $5 [iTunes Store via Ars Technica]

Hitchsters Adds the San Francisco Bay Area [Travel]

The ride-sharing application Hitchsters, which connected travelers arriving in New York City area airports so that they could share a car service into the city, has now expanded to include airports in the San Francisco Bay Area, including Oakland, San Jose, and San Francisco International airports. Any readers who've tried Hitchsters in New York willing to share their experience with folks by the bay? Let us know in the comments. [via]

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[Hack a Day] 3 New Entries: Liquid Tree

Liquid Tree

Liquid Tree is decorative, functional, and green. It’s a liquid feedback display created by [Jia Yi Lin] that is designed to tell you exactly how much water you’re wasting in the shower. Behind the pretty tubes is some interesting hardware. [Lin] used an Arduino board, and based her code off the Unipolar Stepper example. She’s posted her own code and wiring for the project. When hot water is turned on, the motors decrease the amount of liquid in the tubes. This causes the pattern to slowly disappear, indicating water consumed.

[via NOTCOT]

      

Gift card electronics

Gift-giving season is upon us, and it’s time for people to start panicking about what to give to their friends and families. Gift cards have gained in popularity over the years, as companies count on people to forget to use them. But how about gift cards that do more than store a token amount of cash? Best Buy is now selling a gift card that doubles as a speaker. It has a mini headphone jack that’ll plug into any audio player. You only need to spend fifteen dollars to get it. Target’s gone all out, with a gift card that is also a 1.2 MP digital camera. It comes with a USB cord and driver disk, and there’s even one with a 64MB USB flash drive. We’re very interested to see if these will take off, and what people will do with them once the cards are used up.

[via Gizmodo]

      

Super Nintendo clock

[Aaron] sent us this sweet Super Nintendo Clock that he built. When he found himself with a broken SNES, a friend challenged him to out do his previous NES clock. This time, the display would be located in the cartridge, and removable. Setting the time is done on the SNES controller and seems to work pretty well as you can see in the video after the break.

Now that the display is removable, he needs to build different displays. How about a laser projected display?

      

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