Hasta La Gadget!

We’re sure that when trying to search for free and open WiFi hotspots, you’ve come across some network names that are pretty creative, sometimes funny, sometimes rude, but usually telling us not-so subtly that we should get our own internet. Well if you’re interested in coming up with some funny network names yourself, you might be interested in the WifiTagger which is a hack that allows you or anyone that connects to the network to change the name. It will accept up to four lines with a max of 32 characters per line. We guess it can even be thought of as digital graffiti.

Basically what the hack does is that it rewrites the firmware of a router of a certain brand/model so that instead of broadcasting a single network name, it will be able to broadcast four separate 32-character messages. If you own that particular model of the router yourself, you can log into it via your smartphone and update the messages whenever you like. In fact the hack has been designed so that anyone in range can connect to the hacked router without a password, renaming the networks to anything they wish. Sounds a bit novel, but it could prove to be fun.

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It is just a matter of creativity when it comes to implementing the various uses of the Raspberry Pi mini computer which costs you a mere $35 upfront. Michael Clemens stumbled upon the idea of using a Raspberry Pi as the main brain of a device which will read audiobooks aloud with a single push of a button. Pressing the very same button again will pause the audio playback, and if you want to skip to the previous track, just press-and-hold the very same button. Hmmm, it does make us wonder whether throwing in a few more buttons might do the trick for next, back and fast forward/rewind functions. Perhaps Michael wants to keep things as simple as possible.

This idea came about so that Michael’s 90-year-old grandmother-in-law is able to listen to audiobooks, considering how she is visually impaired at that age, making it rather tedious and time consuming to operate consumer electronics with more than a single button. Ebooks and other data will be stored on an SD card, and you can load books through a different method as well – by hooking up a USB flash drive. Supported audio formats include FLAC, MP3, and OGG Vorbis.

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Electronic waste is one of the biggest problems that affects not only America, but also the rest of the world. Most electronics (or the parts that make them up) are full of toxins, and simply throwing them out will have detrimental impacts on the natural world. The good news is that electronics can easily be recycled, and oftentimes, they can also be reused. 

For those of us that have purchased cellular phones on Ebay or Craigslist, we understand the need to get the skinny on what we’re buying. For instance, if a phone is carrier-locked, that means it’s worth way less and a potential buyer could be buying a brick (or a unlocking headache.) Fortunately  all phones around the world come with an IMEI code, and if you plug that into the website IMEI.info, you’ll get all the relevant technical details. For instance, this is my phone. Even nicer, if you’ve got an iPhone, it will tell you what carrier it’s on and whether it’s unlocked. Next time you’re buying a secondhand iPhone, make sure to run it by this website.

>>imei.info

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Raspberry Pi works as an Audiobook , LapPi project sees Raspberry Pi as a laptop,

The Raspberry Pi is one hot piece of commodity when it was first introduced and shipped earlier this year, allowing hobbyists to take advantage of its relatively low, low price to come up with projects of their own. We are willing to venture out and say that the LapPi is one of the more creative and interesting methods of implementing the Raspberry Pi, where you have a laptop built from scratch. Of course, with a 700 MHz ARM11 processor running underneath the hood accompanied by 512MB RAM (although the newer Pis come with 1GB RAM it seems), it is not much to work with in the first place, but at least you can run some of the more basic programs out there at decent speeds without missing a beat. Other connectivity options include Ethernet, USB, and HDMI, and the LapPi project will also boast of WiFi and Bluetooth support, in addition to a keyboard, a touchpad, a display, and batteries to keep this puppy going while you are on the move. Not only that, avid DIYer SilverJimmy also decided to include GPS, a microphone, and stereo speakers to get you started on the right footing.

The LapPi is powered by a 10-pack of rechargeable AA batteries, although there is an option to have 8 alkaline AA batteries juice it instead. However, folks who are averse to DIY projects might just purchase a netbook instead, as it will probably cost the equivalent of cobbling the LapPi together.

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