Hasta La Gadget!

Pwnie Express first made waves in the hacking and cybersecurity community when they released the Pwn Plug, a device that looks like an electric air freshener but is actually a computer used for penetration testing, i.e. assessing a computer network’s security by attacking it. Their latest product is much bigger, but still covert.

The Power Pwn is a fully functioning power strip, with eight 120/240V AC outlets. But it’s also a “fully-integrated, enterprise-class penetration testing platform.” It runs Debian 6 and is loaded with tunneling and snooping software. It has internal Wi-Fi and Bluetooth antennas, as well as a 3G external antenna for long distance pwning.

If you understood the previous paragraph – I certainly didn’t – you might want to head to Pwnie Express for more information or to pre-order the Power Pwn. It costs $1,295 (USD) and should be available by September 30. Meanwhile I’m going to check my power strips for Ethernet ports.

[Thanks, Sir Mason!]

A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, the term “rebel” applied to military officers, royalty with funny headgear and bathrobe-wearing hippies wielding candy-colored glow sticks. Alicia Foley adds some good ol’ Earth punk to the good guys of Star Wars with her bad-ass vest:

Now that’s a rebel.

[via Nrrrdcakkke via Albotas]

I have failed you. I have failed us all. Last year Matty Collector offered a Club Lion Force subscription, which entitled customers to receive action figures of the Voltron Lions together with their pilots. And yes, when all the Lions are complete…

That is a 23″ Voltron robot, and this is where I fail you. I didn’t spot this offering soon enough, and unfortunately the Club Lion Force subscription is sold out. Fortunately Matty Collector also made each Lion available for individual purchase. Unfortunately three of the Lions – the Green, Yellow and Red – are already sold out. Fortunately there are units being sold on eBay. Unfortunately they’re more expensive there. Enough. I’ve taken your heart through enough punishment. It’s time for your brain to explode:

The replay killed me. As I said, there’s still a chance for you to form feet and legs and the right arm if you head to eBay. The last two lions, the Blue and the Black, will be available from Matty Collector this August and October, respectively.

[via Doobybrain]

I can’t remember the last time I shared an article here on Technabob, but for Hideo Kojima, I’m willing to making an exception. This month marks the 25th year of the Metal Gear series of videogames, and the PlayStation blog was able to interview Kojima for a surprisingly honest retrospective.

While the one page article is barely enough to tell a story that spans 25 years, Kojima still managed to share a lot in the interview, like how he almost left Konami after a game that he had already spent 6 months on was cancelled. Fortunately his superiors gave him a chance to create a combat game for the MSX. The result? The first Metal Gear.

Kojima also mentions how in 1998, he heard about “a console on which polygons could be created in real time” – the PlayStation. He was pumped up at the thought of creating a Metal Gear game where the player could change the position of the camera because he considered his creation a “hide-and-seek” game. The result of that excitement is one of my favorite games: Metal Gear Solid.

Kojima also mentioned that he had “bitter memories” of the production of Metal Gear Solid, because he was “only” a designer and not a producer, and thus had no say about a lot of things like the budget and release date.

If you’re a fan of the Metal Gear series or Kojima, I highly recommend that you read the entire interview on the PlayStation blog. I will share one last tidbit for my fellow fans: Kojima said that on August 30, he will share what the Fox Engine – a cross-platform video game engine developed by Kojima’s studio – can do. Thank you very much Kojima-san for all the great games. You don’t have to make Metal Gear any more. But I guess it’s too late for that.

Metal Gear Solid art by Yoji Shinkawa, from the book The Art of Metal Gear Solid

The first time we featured programmer Will Powell, we learned how he was able to make a crude version of Google’s Project Glass augmented reality glasses. It turns out that Powell has made another version of his hack that is capable of translating spoken language and displaying the translation in subtitles.

Like with his earlier project, Powell used a pair of Vuzix STAR 1200 glasses as the base of the hack. If I understood what Powell said on his blog, a Jawbone Bluetooth microphone picks up the audio and sends it to a mobile device, which then processes the words using translation API made by Microsoft. The translation is then passed on to a Raspberry Pi, which sends a text of the translation to the Vuzix display and a transcript of the conversation taking place to a TV. Below is a shot of the subtitle being displayed on the glasses’ monitor:

And here’s a shot of the transcript on the TV:

Finally here’s a demo of the hack in action. Note that there is a significant delay in the translation, which according to Powell occurs mainly when the audio goes through the translation API.

The sheer number of gadgets needed plus the fact that the Raspberry Pi is physically connected to the glasses via an S-video connector means that this is not a portable system, but I am still amazed at what one man armed with off the shelf parts can do. Besides, all devices – including the ones Powell needs – get more powerful and smaller in time. The time when we’ll be able to reenact Casa de mi Padre is closer than we think.

[Will Powell via Ubergizmo]