Hasta La Gadget!

So what happens after 2 a.m.?

(Credit: Unplggd)

Usually a blight is something you’d want to avoid, but according to Unplggd, if designer Vincent Gerkens has his way, the more blight out there, the better.

Fortunately he’s referring to Blight, a concept that involves attaching solar panels …

We’re actually pretty high on HP’s Mini 1000 Mi Edition, which trades in XP for a custom Ubuntu build with a slick, polished interface, and it looks like early Mini 1000 owners can now get in on the action as well — a Mi Edition installer will soon available for download. If you’re currently running Mi Edition or know someone who is, you can actually build an installer flash drive right now, but we’d wait for the official Windows-based utility to appear in the next few days. No guarantees that HP’s Mi Edition installers work with any non-Mini 1000 machines out there, but given the proliferation of drivers and tools for hacking OS X onto various netbooks, we’re definitely hoping the community takes to hacking the much more open Mi Edition the same way.

[Via Download Squad]

Filed under: Laptops

HP to publicly release Mi Edition Ubuntu installer originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Feb 2009 07:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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What’s better than a Blackberry with a clicky touch screen? A Blackberry with 23 clicky touch screens, of course. And like most smart ideas, this one is, upon seeing it, completely obvious.

Over at the Mozphone blog, Billy May mocked up this mashup between the Blackberry 7130 and the Optimus Maximus keyboard. The result is a real keyboard that can be instantly and infinitely reconfigured, offering all the advantages of a regular "hard" keypad with many of the benefits of a touch screen.

Blackberry should make this thing. The Storm, despite selling 500,000 units, has been regarded as a disaster (and while half a million sounds a lot, it doesn’t even cover the advertising bills). This hybrid design is not only innovative, it allows Blackberry to stick to what it knows best — email units with real keyboards. Plus, possibly more importantly, it just looks awesome.

Maximizing Channels of Communication + Throw-away Concept #1 [Mozphone via Core 77]

Nikon doesn’t just make cameras. The company is split into some rather more scientific divisions, one of which makes microscopes and scientific imaging equipment. The latest from Nikon Vision is this stereo microscope which can be hooked up to a camera — a previous version worked with compact cameras but this is the first to pair with a DSLR.

Essentially the ‘scope — named the "Fabre Photo EX" — is a beefed-up version of the previous Fabre Photo: bigger, heavier and possibly more productive. The $1200 microscope will work with both DX and full-frame (FX) Nikon cameras, and offers a magnification of up to 20x. Available February 20th.

Digital SLR Camera Fits Into Nikon’s Microscope [Tech-On. Thanks, Annazilla!]

An anonymous hacker in Austin, Texas, punked morning commuters earlier this week by changing the public safety message display of two LED road signs to warnings of zombie attacks.

Some of the messages included apocalyptic warnings like "The End is Near !!!," "Zombies in Area – Run!" and "Nazi Zombies, Run!"

Hacking LED road signs isn’t considered a difficult task because many of the people in charge of setting their security protection are (usually) not technically savvy. For example, the control pad inside the LED casing usually has the same default four-letter password ("DOTS") as every other sign. In addition, many sites on the internet provide easy hacking How-Tos, though you don’t need to follow a road map to notice that the back of the panels are only protected by a small lock.

Clearly, someone should invest in a proper locking mechanism, or at least something better than a Master lock from the drugstore.

And once the back of the case is opened, there’s very little to stop someone from changing the messages. The control pad features a simple menu UI that makes it easy to change the password in the rare case it’s not "DOTS" and you can also quickly program it within seconds.

If you take into account the fact that almost anyone can walk up to the signs without being noticed, it’s quite easy to understand how it’s a perfect recipe for mischievous hackers. Actually, it’s more of a surprise it doesn’t happen more often. MIT students, to name one famously hack-happy group, have been posting road sign hacks on the net for many years. However, their humor often veers closer to East Coast cultural worries, such as unexpected attacks from Godzilla (see pics below).

Despite the fact that no one was apparently hurt on the road during the few hours the signs were hacked, it’s not surprising the authorities immediately took a harsh view on the activity.

Austin Public Works representative Sara Hartley went on the record within hours of the hack with threats of indictment for the as-yet-unknown prankster. According to a report by the local NBC News affiliate in Austin, the type of hack perpetrated is a class C misdemeanor which is punishable with a fine up to $500.

The intersection where the hack occurred was near the high-traffic
boulevard in the city and the sign was being used for a nearby
construction project, just like it’s used everywhere else. According to
the report, contractors of the construction are the ones who own the
sign, but according to city law, it’s the city that’s responsible for
any messages displayed. This obviously creates a difficult situation
for both parties, since they have to figure out who gets to pay for a
stand-by in case a rogue techy gets any funny ideas.

Check out a couple of the videos detailing the Austin hacks below.

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Photos (in chronological order):Chris Nakashima-Brown/AP Photo, i-hacked.com, Eric Schmiedl/MIT , Alessondra Springman/MIT