Picked up this great tip from hackszine the other day. Apparently NBCOlympics.com has only made available the more popular, U.S. Olympic events to the internet, yet there are many folks out there who are interested in the many other events, but cannot view this material as it is location restricted. Not to worry. Hackszine has come up with a great solution to this by using a proxy that is located in a country which has not restricted the desired content. Read on for a brief explanation.
First, check out the CCTV Internet rights holders for Beijing 2008 Olympic Games site and find a country that you think may host the event you wish to see. This site contains a list of all rights holders to the 2008 Olympics and their respective URL addresses, however if you try to access one of the URLs, you will most likely get a message telling you something like your country is restricted to this content, or possibly nothing at all. To access these sites, we must trick these URLs into thinking we are accessing them from another non-restricted country. Do this by configuring a proxy server in Firefox from the specific country who’s URL we are trying to access. For example lets use Japan’s server at http://gorin.jp which does not even come up at all for me.
Note that not all proxies are free so the kind of proxy server we are looking for is typically referred to as an “Open Proxy”. You can do this by either doing some good old fashioned google searching for open proxy servers in “*desired country*”, or check out xroxy.com where they maintain a nice list of free proxies from all over the world.
Searching through xroxy, I find about 5 or so Japanese proxy servers. Lets use 58.80.207.41 on port 3128. Now select “Tools”, “Options” in your Firefox file menu.
Once the options window comes up, click the “advanced” icon in the upper right, then the “Network” tab just below to the left, and then the “settings” button to the right.
Now the “connections settings” window will pop up. First select “Manual Proxy Configuration”. Now we can begin entering in the proxy information. Take note that the proxy we will be using from xroxy is listed as an “SSL” server. Under “SSL Proxy” type in the address “58.80.207.41″ and for the port type in “3128″. Hit “ok” at the bottom of the connections settings windows and then “ok” on the options windows to exit and save.
Now lets give that URL another try.
BAM! There ya go, works like a champ!
Make sure you note that not all proxy servers will be SSL servers and those that are not will simply go under “http proxy server” in Firefox’s Proxy Configuration window.
Mad props to Hackszine for conjuring up this great little trick.
Here is another great how-to from wired magazine’s how to wiki. This article is a brief, illustrated walk through on how to hot wire your car should you one day find yourself totally screwed and key-less. Link to article.
This is a cool and informative video I picked up at Hackaday on how to trip a parking garage’s proximity sensor for getting in and out of the garage. Materials needed are one car and a soda can. Hackaday also mentions that a magnet from a hard drive may work just as well, if not better in some situations. Check out the video below.
Wired has published a good old fashioned guide on the ancient art of setting up a wiretap. If you have never taped a phone line before, you will find that it is quite easy and rather inexpensive to do. Check out the article from Wired’s how-to Wiki
Despite the many flashlight hacks around these days, which often seem to pack tons of candles in a very small package, I have always remained a fan of the Maglite and its doubled use as both a light, and a weapon. If that wasn’t enough for you already, look into this tutorial video by Instructables user jayandersons in which he will show you how to pack a little extra punch to your ol’ Maglite. About 10X more punch to be fair.
KipKay has released yet another great hack. This time he shows you how to spy on air traffic control and other civilian aviation band frequencies. No extra parts needed. You just need an old transistor radio, a philips and flathead screwdriver, and some free time.
I don’t why, but lately I seem to be stumbling upon a great deal of material related to keys. This one is certainly one of the most interesting, and sneaky projects yet. I-hacked.com has posted an interesting how-to on duplicating a key via a camera phone. Basically you take a quarter (for scale), place it next to a key that someone has left lying around, and take a top-down shot of it with your camera phone. Once you have the picture uploaded you can then begin scaling a print of the photo to match the proper size of the quarter. You then cutout the print and then use a piece of aluminum from a can to cutout against the printout thus giving you a thin, working key that can be inserted into your unsuspecting cubicle mate’s locked cabinet for your next office prank. Link to tutorial at i-hacked.
I was sifting through carlitoscontraptions a little more and came across yet another great idea from Carlos. Next time you break a shoelace, just use a little heat-shrink tubing to get the job done. This would be a good excuse to throw a little tubing in your next emergency survival kit as it takes little to no space at all. Check out Carlos’s Article here…
The minute I finished posting about the “Swiss Army Keys” project I found earlier, I immediately had to start fashioning my own. I documented my experience and have posted an Instructable on making something similar. Below is a brief tutorial on how I made it.
Let me first state that I stumbled on this Idea browsing through the edcforums. There was a post a while back where someone had posted some pictures on building one of these sweet little babies. Check out the original forums thread started by shadeone here. I take no credit for originating this idea, I’ve just documented my own experience building one.
Materials
Leatherman Micra - ( I used a cheapo Husky clone that I got at home depot for $2)
Keys - (be sure to make copies of them first)
Drill
Something to cut the keys with - (I used a Dremel with a cutoff wheel
Disassemble the Multi Tool
Start by unscrewing and Disassembling the tool. Make sure you save all of the little parts and washers. Note that I was able to fit 3 keys per side so only undo one side if you are doing 3 keys or less.
Select a Matchup Piece
Set one piece aside to use to match your key against when you are cutting it.
Cut Your Keys
Cut down your keys to roughly match the end of the piece you picked in the previous step. You will be drilling a hole in them so be sure and leave as much meat as possible. You can fine tune it later.
Mark and Drill the Holes
Place each key one at a time inside the tool in the direction you will be placing it and mark the hole with a fine point marker through the hole in the tool. I placed mine teeth down so it is easier to pull them out by hooking a fingernail in the grooves across the top.
Once you have marked all keys, mark your starting points with a punch or nail and drill your holes. The size of the hole may vary depending on what kind of multi tool you choose. Start small as you can always bore it out more if necessary.
Put it Back Together
Re-assemble the tool substituting the keys for the tools. Be careful of three things. 1) Be sure you put a washer in between any metal-on-metal contact. 2) Make sure you place the keyring attachment piece somewhere where it will not interfere with a key. 3) Most importantly, remember to leave a gap in the middle of each side for the pliers/cutters to fit into when you collapse the tool. ( I placed two keys all the way to one side, then a bunch of washers and then a key against the other side.
One little tip: If there is a skinny leather punch or mini screw driver piece, you can stick this through the hole when re-assembling the tool to help keep the washers and the pin in place. This also worked well to wiggle around to get everyting to fit together properly.
I was browsing the forums at edcforums.com and came across this little tool mod for making a multi-purpose pry bar for your key chain. Its basically a 1/4″ wrench with the box end cutoff at a slight angle to make a clever key chain pry bar that can double as a screwdriver if you slip a standard 1/4″ driver bit through the hole. What a great idea. Check out the forum post for more pictures.
I was browsing through some older posts at DIYHappy and came across an article that linked to a forum post at edcforums.com where one of their users, shadeone, posted a little pictorial how to on creating this genius Swiss Army Keychain. I will definitely be attempting one of these very soon. Link to post….(scroll to bottom of the forum post)
The following is a list of some of the strangest and most useful survival tips and tricks I have found in the past. Although some are “old news” and you may have seen these before, all of them are invaluable in my opinion and hopefully there are one or two you have never seen before that will possibly help you in a pinch someday.
1. DIY Altoids Tin Survival Kit - A while back, Field & Stream Magazine drafted a mean article on creating a mini survival kit whose contents could fit inside an altoids mint tin. In their 19 page article, they take you through step-by-step in creating a killer survival kit that can easily be carried in your back pocket.
2. Make an Emergency Light From a Pencil - This one is a very clever trick from shootingeggs @ metacafe in which you can get a surprising amount of emergency light from simply just attaching two wires from a car battery to a pencil lead.
3. DIY Altoids Tin Emergency Candle - This is one of my favorite survival tin hacks. EaKLondon @ Instructables shows you how to make a very simple emergency candle from a mint tin.
4. Predicting the Weather with Clouds - In a survival situation, the weather could seriously wreck your situation and possibly even kill you if your not prepared, but by using the clouds, you can gain insight into what the weather is doing. Check out this Instructable by randofo on how to predict the weather by observing the clouds.
7. Make a Fire With a Bar of Chocolate and a Soda Can - This is an oldie but goody. You basically start a fire by polishing the bottom of an aluminum can with melted chocolate and use it to magnify reflected sunlight. I’ve found that toothpaste (if available) helps get some of the bulk out of the way.
9. Mini Burner Stove From 2 Soda Cans - This is probably one of the best ideas I have ever seen. In this video you learn how to make a simple and brilliant emergency stove from two aluminum cans. The beauty of this one is that it makes a great, lightweight, backpacking stove as well.
10. Drink From A Tree - Water is key. In this video Funditor shows you how to steal a significant amount of water from a tree or plant. Just a note, make sure you know the plant is not poisonous before doing this as any toxins could potentially wind up in the water and make your situation worse.
11. 2 Minute Stove for $1 - Another soda can stove trick. This one is much simpler than the one above and would be good if you need a quick stove to boil some water.
12. Improve your night vision - You may find yourself in a situation where you must move about in the dark. This video will show you 10 simple steps to help improve your night vision.
13. HOW TO - Make emergency eyeglasses - Not everyone is blessed with great eyesight and should you loose or break your glasses, you could possibly become extremely hindered. Here is a way to craft an emergency set of glasses from just some paper or cardboard. You will look silly as hell, but hey, you can see.
HackWordPress.com has put together a nice little compilation of all their various wordpress hacks. According to the site they will keep the post updated as new hacks come in. So far they have a decent number of Theme Hacks, Stylesheet Hacks, Post Hacks, Comment Hacks, Page Hacks, Categories/Archives Hacks, and Blogroll Hacks. Link to wordpress hacks compilation page.
Ok, this has to be one of the coolest hack videos I have seen in some time. It seems like some sort of hack that controls the speed of the floppy drive motor to create different pitches hence playing a little tune from Star Wars. Unfortunately there is little information on this at the moment however if anything comes up, we will be sure to post. Classic!!!
