A very simple cut together video of me disassembling a broken Lexmark x646e printer and trying to remain calm through the process.
Not terribly interesting, but I do go through explaining how a laser printer works in this and the following parts.. Continue reading I break down a Lexmark x646e Printer for recycling
I’ve decided to build a few Internet Radios.
Sure, you can probably buy one for €100, but where’s the fun in that?
Since I have a pile of Linksys WRT54G’s, I’ve decided to turn them into something useful.
Here’s the first part in a series on How to Build an Internet Radio. Continue reading Building an Internet Radio – Part 1
Many people asked me for a video explaining what the Xiaomi Mi Smart Home gateway does.
I tore it apart in the last video without explaining to people what it is. So I’ve made a follow up video to give a very brief overview of the functionality of the Kit, and provide a few links for English resources.
I’ve pulled enough things apart to see what makes them tick. So I’ve decided to put them on video, with some commentary.
Here’s the first installment, a teardown of a very solid little Smart Home Controller from the massive Chinese tech powerhouse Xiaomi.
Continue reading Xiaomi Mi Smart Home Gateway Teardown video
It’s been fun Europe, but I just had to go. It’s not you, it’s me.
We’ve relocated to Sydney, Australia. The work/life balance in Ireland started to get to me and I was tired of not being able to spend much time outdoors with my kids.
So now we’re Too Far South, the family loves it. Decent weather, proper meat and big cars.
If you’ve recently done an update on your debian or ubuntu Linux system, and you’re running dnsmasq, you might have noticed that it’s no longer responding to remote queries.
Check your /var/log/syslog
Do you have a line saying something like
dnsmasq[14673]: Ignoring query from non-local network
Well, thats because dnsmasq has decided to change the default behaviour for service DNS queries.
It will now only answer to itself by default Continue reading DNSMasq suddenly stopped working?
Eskom has developed a great webapp it calls MyEskom. Once you create an account and tell it where you live, it’ll give you localised information on the state of the power grid.
It looks pretty good on a phone, better on a tablet, and aweful on a proper web browser.
Its great that they’re making the information freely available, I’m just not keen on having a web page open that hurts my eyes. I want a simple 2-line summary of what’s going on.
So I dove into the background and figured out which HTTP POST to fake to get all the information I needed. Then I wrote a simple python script to do just that, and print out what I wanted to know.
The output I get now is very simple, but it contains everything you need.
Power Status: high/up/red
Turn off: Electric Stove,Geyser,Pool Pump,Dryer,Dishwasher,Heater,Normal Lights
Code is available on github
Feel free to fork it, contribute and make something awesome.
I made a Christmas tree, in the only way I knew how.
Its not fancy or big, but its certainly nerdy and awesome!
A few months back, I got my hands on a Raspberry Pi. As soon as i got it, I realised I didn’t have a use for it.
Then a week back, I had a pair of MyVu Solo’s. Sure, they’re not exactly the latest and greatest in Personal Media Viewers, but they would serve the purpose of displaying information.
The problem though, is (apart from looking ridiculous), they completely occluded my vision when I put them on.
So I’ve hacked them apart, and am in the process of turning them into a monocular display.
Here’s how I did it (and as far as I can tell, I’m the only person who didn’t destroy bits in the process)
Continue reading wearPi – Stripping down the MyVu for an HMD
Yes, WiMax (or WiMAX for those that care).
I spent a few weeks, a long time ago, getting the Imagine WiMax Motorola USBw35200 dongle working under Linux using the Sprint 4G Developer software, but it was a nasty hack.