Monthly Archives: January 2013

Mastercard opens up EMV card

Posted on January 23, 2013 by robertwilkie

Mastercard has seemed to open up its API for EMV (Europay, Mastercard, Visa) smart cards to try and get folks in the USA to adopt them.  EMV cards are a contact (and now contact less) smart card are used all … Continue reading →

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XBMC for Android seems to be ready now

Posted on January 23, 2013 by robertwilkie

XBMC, a multi-media client that is open source (originally for the XBOX) seems to have finally gotten things up and running for Android OS.  XBMC has alot of plugins that allow you to watch movies and other shows like Microsoft’s … Continue reading →

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Raspberry PI ROS, Picking on the Author

Posted on January 23, 2013 by robertwilkie

Interesting little write-up on using ROS (robotic OS) on a Raspberry Pi.  The author leaves out some details but its a good try. http://www.instructables.com/id/Raspberry-Pi-and-ROS-Robotic-Operating-System/?ALLSTEPS

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Build a folding sawhorse

Posted on January 23, 2013 by robertwilkie

I have been having needing sawhorses lately, and only have 2 has gotten me thru sofar, but sometimes I need 4 and start using my wife’s kitchen chairs.  This maybe a good alternative with some scrape wood and old hinges … Continue reading →

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Build your own Heat Powered Fan for $50

Posted on January 23, 2013 by robertwilkie

Having a woodstove that helps heat the house, I have been eyeing the “heat powered” fans for awhile since it would be nice to blow the heat around without the need for electric.  But these small fans run around $120 … Continue reading →

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Build a 3 LB battle Bot

Posted on January 22, 2013 by robertwilkie

I always had an interest in building a battle bot, just the cost (and destruction of it) kindof turned me off.  Oh and the time involved.  Anyways, nice write up if you want to build your own.  I can tell … Continue reading →

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Simple Prototype shield for TI MSP430

Posted on January 22, 2013 by robertwilkie

I like it, its simple and easy to use.  Funny thing is I think the materials for the shield are more than the MSP430 (figure $6-8) http://www.instructables.com/id/Quick-Cheap-and-Easy-Launchpad-Prototype-Shield-M/

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Xerox to have 1.5% growth for 2013?

Posted on January 22, 2013 by robertwilkie

I hope this analyst is wrong, but he sees only a 1.5% growth for Xerox in the next year (services and tech).  Which is no where near what I believe stockholders will want. http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericsavitz/2013/01/22/xerox-s-cuts-target-to-7/

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TI has a contest

Posted on January 22, 2013 by robertwilkie

Make a boosterPack for there systems and enter to win a contest (Free trip to CA, etc etc).  Basically it looks like someone in TI sees the success of arduino and RPi’s and it trying to build up that with … Continue reading →

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Breaking harddisk encryption

Posted on January 21, 2013 by robertwilkie

There is a tool, Elcomsoft Forensic Disk Decryptor, which can break disk encryption for many popular types out there.  How.  Well same way that has been done in the past, intercepting the keys.  🙂 http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2012/12/breaking_hard-d.html

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