Jason & Staysea » Hacking

Facetime as Remote Eyes

Jason McLeod — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 20:15:05 +0000

Everyone will remember at one time or another hearing the following when trying to find a fuse in the house.

“Is it off yet?”

“Nope!”

“How about now?”

“Nope!”

…

Sound familiar? I found that thanks to Facetime, I can setup my laptop, or my wife’s iPhone and call my iPhone and see the light go off. No more yelling, not hearing, or ridiculous back and forth. Worked great!

Picked my First Lock

Jason McLeod — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 19:14:51 +0000

I picked my first lock today. I was able to open my friends overhead cabinet at her desk, she lost her key a while back. Now she has snacks.

Worm that Transcodes Audio Files

Jason McLeod — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 15:38:20 +0000

This is the craziest thing I’ve heard in a long time.

“Kaspersky Labs has discovered malware that inserts links to malicious Web pages within ASF media files, posing a danger to Windows users who download music files from P2P networks. Infected files launch IE and load a page that asks the user to download a codec. The download, a Trojan horse, installs a proxy program to route other traffic through the PC. The malware also has worm-like qualities, according to Secure Computing. It searches for MP3s, transcodes them to WMA format, wraps them in an ASF container, and adds links to further copies of the malware, all without modifying the .MP3 extension.”

Source Infowrold

XBox Mech Softmod

Jason McLeod — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 03:26:30 +0000

Ok. So, now that I have a new XBOX 360, I had an extra XBox laying around doing nothing. So I decided to Softmod it using an exploit found in Mechwarrior, an awesome game, which I have played many time and enjoyed. Using the information found at the Xbox-Linux project, I was able to successfully replace the XBox Live menu on my original XBox, with a Linux menu, that boots up a version of Xebian linux. Add to it a nice clean install of MythTV to allow playback of video recorded on my MythTV box and we have an XBox that still plays all my games, and plays back video that I’ve recorded, in perfect quality. Absolutely Brilliant!

Technorati Tags: hack, mythtv, xbox

Hack your Motorola V3 Razr

Jason McLeod — Mon, 26 Sep 2005 15:43:26 +0000

I recently bought a Motorola V3 Razr. I have to say it is an awesome phone. Very slim, totally disappears in your pocket, and has a great feature set. Except for one missing feature, video recording. My old V551 had it, so why didn’t this one? They are practically the same phone.

Turns out it was a firmware problem. So, curiosity getting the better of me, and feeling slightly cheated, I went forth to the internet to resolve the issue. An excellent resource for information is MotoModders.net they have all the information you need to hack your phone to get it to do what ever your heart desires.

Technorati Tags: hack, razr, puppy

Seem editing is the first lesson you can learn. Seems are segments of the flash memory, holding settings. By downloading certain blocks, and using a hex editor, you can modify bits within the block, to turn on custom startup sounds, modify the outer screen when the phone is open, change the startup animations and more. Through this editing, you can effectively erase all the branding that your phone carrier has added to your phone. I don’t see why a phone that I own should provide free advertising for a company I have to pay money to. You want branding on my phone? Give me a discount.

You can NOT unlock a Motorola phone, through any software method. There is a hardware key that is required and if you want to unlock your phone, you’ll need to find a service center with someone willing to do it. Unlocking removes the carrier restriction so that you can use your phone with other GSM carriers. Not really a problem here in Canada, since there is essentially only one GSM provider.

Firmware upgrades can fix a myriad of problems, and provide new features in the process. The latest firmware version, R347_G_0E.42.08R (type in *#9999# on your cell to see your versions) provides video recording support, faster picture response, and name search for address book contacts. You’ll need the Motorola PST software bundle in order to make this change on your phone. If you can’t find it to buy it, then a local shop should be able to upgrade your phone for a small fee. There is always the potential that you will bugger up your phone flashing it, although slight. If you’re not sure about your skill level, or you really can’t live without your phone, why take the risk? Get someone else to do it for you. An important thing to note, is having a boot loader version of 08.23, you can check by holding down * and # while powering up your phone. If you are running a lower version, you’ll need to fix that first.

Other things you can do is download new skins to your phone to give it a snappier look. Install free java games that you find in your travels through the WWW. If you like hacking, your phone can be a fun place to play around.

Wine Glass Case

Jason McLeod — Tue, 20 Sep 2005 01:44:51 +0000

Staysea is taking a course called “Beverage Management” and she needed a way to get 6 wine glasses too and from school each week. Enter me and my handy hands, to build her a functional and elegant solution. Behold, the Super-Fantabulistic-Glass-Carrying-and-Display-Case-O-Matic.

Guess the Google

Jason McLeod — Fri, 05 Aug 2005 16:21:56 +0000

This is awesome. Guess the google is an online game that displays 20 images searched using Google, and you guess what the search term was. It’s pretty addictive.

Guess-the-Google

Bringing new life to an old desk.

Jason McLeod — Tue, 02 Aug 2005 22:01:17 +0000

Staysea has been using this desk for a while, with little success. It used to have a shelf spanning the entire width of the desk, where those 2 drawers are now. So, she was unable to pull her chair all the way up. But thanks to a little craftsmanship, I was able to cut out a span of the shelf. Build drawers, close in and face the drawers with the removed section, and give Staysea a brand new desk, complete with modern handles. Now she can sit at the window, get some sunlight, and actually pull her chair right up and under her desk.

Enable MSN Message Searching in Google Desktop

Jason McLeod — Mon, 07 Mar 2005 14:55:00 +0000

I’ve been using Google Desktop searching for a while now, and find it invaluable for finding information on my computer. But I was always curious as to why you couldn’t search your MSN Messenger history, until today.

Today, I discovered that when you download the Google Desktop SDK, the examples section, has the code for an Messenger indexing plugin. I only downloaded the kit to try and write my own, but this is a much easier. Once I compiled it and registered, indexed Messenger history. Very nice.

Here is the compiled component for install, if you don’t have Developer tools.

Download file

Hack A Day

Jason McLeod — Thu, 04 Nov 2004 20:32:19 +0000

You know how you’re browsing the web and find a really cool hack that someone has done and then later you can’t find it again? Well the solution is here. Hack A Day (www.hackaday.com) has recently launched in beta. It’s a depository for all those cool hacks that you’ve seen in a nice (stable?) environment where you can go back and take that second look. There are a nice variety, from using Google Desktop to building your own Batphone. Take a look.