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There's something of the hacker in all IT people ... there has tobe because you spend so much of your time figuring out how thingswork and how to fix said things when they break (which is usuallyfar too often). It follows, then, that most of us are also fascinated by coolhacker-style projects that deliver solutions in unexpected andnovel ways. I just found a site, High Low Tech run by the High-Low Tech Group at the MIT Media Lab, that has aload of cool, hacker-style, craft-oriented projects. The project that first caught my eye was the DIY Cellphone. This is a fully working albeit basic cellphone in a veneeredplywood enclosure and so ugly that you wouldn't want to be seenwith it in public unless you were wearing a pocket pen protector. The project creators explain: "By creating and sharing open-sourcedesigns for the phone's circuit board and case, we hope toencourage a proliferation of personalized and diverse mobilephones. Freed from the constraints of mass production, we plan toexplore diverse materials, shapes, and functions. We hope that theproject will help us explore and expand the limits ofdo-it-yourself (DIY) practice. How close can a homemade projectcome to the design of a cutting edge device? What are the economicsof building a high-tech device in small quantities? Which parts areeven available to individual consumers? What's required for peopleto customize and build their own devices?" The circuitry, case design, and software are all available on the GitHub repository . So, for $150 in parts and a bit of labor you could have your owngeekphone. Other projects on the site include a Piezo Powered Tambourine which I don't know how I've managed to live without, and Animated Vines. Talking of hacks, I've also just found a cool commercial productthat's a cool hack on the Apple Magic Trackpad. The Magic Trackpad is a terrific input device though I find thatplacing it next to the Apple Wireless Keyboard -- which is what looks like the elegant way to arrangethese devices -- is, at least for me, a recipe for disaster as mylarge, clumsy hands occasionally brush the Trackpad resulting inunexpected and annoying relocations of the mouse. I now keep theTrackpad separate from the keyboard which makes finger fumblingmistakes far less likely. A product I found, the Mobee Magic Numpad , makes the Magic Trackpad much more useful by adding newfunctionality to it. The Magic Numpad consists of an OS X application as well as threeplastic overlays that fit exactly over the top surface of the MagicTrackpad. Each overlay has a different layout of "pads" that act asvirtual keys and are mapped to various functions so you choose theone that best suits your workflows. An application that you download from Mobee's Web site handles themapping of touches on the Trackpad virtual keys to the execution ofthe virtual key functions. You enable "numpad mode" through theMobee application that lives in the system bar. The simplest overlay defines four configurable virtual keys at thetop edge that, from right to left, default to a key that disablesthe "numpad mode" (this returns the Touchpad back to its entiresurface being a pointing device), a key that launches the OS Xcalculator, and the keys F17, and F16. Below those virtual keys are more that make up a numeric entry andbasic mathematical operations. The remaining pad real estate can beused as normal to control the mouse. The other overlays add moreprogrammable virtual keys as well as a number of fixed keys forthings like cursor control and editing functions. On the simpler, more compact, layouts the areas not taken up byvirtual keys still allow for normal mouse control but, because youhave to disable the single and multi-finger tap gestures (donethrough the OS X trackpad control panel applet), you lose somenormal trackpad functionality. You can leave the configurable virtual keys to be whatever theirdefault is or select them to act as a predefined function key,launch an application, or execute a keyboard shortcut (such asCTL+V or CMD+Del). You can also write on the overlays so you canremember what the configurable virtual keys are to do. My only complaint with the entire product is that the overlays areprinted in white on clear film so while they look consistent withthe whole Apple aesthetic they can be hard to read in some lightingconditions (white on silver doesn't have much contrast). However,get your lighting right and this is a cool hack. For $30 the MobeeMagic Numpad gets a Gearhead rating of 4 out of 5. What great hacks have you come across recently? Tell Gibbsand follow him on Twitter (@quistuipater) and onFacebook (quistuipater). Read more about data center in Network World's Data Center section. We are high quality suppliers, our products such as Semi Automatic Machines , China Folder Gluer for oversee buyer. To know more, please visits Semi Automatic Machines.
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