Sparky's Shocks

Long Long Past Dead

2008-10-13T21:45:00.001-06:00

Visit www.friedpope.com for the latest!

Slowly Moving

2007-06-24T11:47:00.000-06:00

I'm working on a new site that will eventually support this blog as well as many other pages. I can't say how long Sparky's Shocks has left to live, I'll post RIP when the time comes. Until then feel free to check out friedpope.com

UATree

2006-12-04T11:42:00.000-07:00

A few students at The University of Advancing Technology got into the Christmas hacking spirit this weekend and surprised the campus attendants on Monday morning with a TCP/IP enabled Christmas tree. The tree has been the centerpiece of holiday decorations at the university for the past few years, casting a static white glow across the commons late into the night. Static no more, the tree now hosts a web page from an embedded PINK Ethernet module. The page allows access to a Basic Stamp microcontroller preprogrammed with switching patterns for a set of solid state relays connected to the lights. The sectional nature of artificial trees made controlling the lights as simple as plugging in each level of the tree to a relay. Credit goes to these guys.

You can visit the UATree's embedded site at: uatree.0x58.com
(The site may be up and down, busy or flooded, and so on)

Visit our University's page at www.uat.edu
(Heavy on Flash)

Mozy Sniff's The Wii, Smells Good

2006-11-23T09:16:00.000-07:00

A big thanks goes off to hacker "Mozy" for reverse engineering the Wii's internet connection. He packet sniffed the Wii's User Agent, Shop Channel, Firmware updates, and Virtual Console. This is the beginning of a full set of hacks that should be popping up on the internet really soon. We can confirm that Opera 9.00 is already running on the Wii because it's User Agent shows up on the Wii Shop, it might be possible to hack the browser into functioning before Nintendo decides to release it to the public. Mozy's already been surfing the Wii pages using Firefox and a user agent switcher like this one. If your interested in reverse engineering the virtual console system or any other part of the Wii, this would be a great place to start.

Ok, the site just got Slashdotted so you'll have to wait for a cache.

Wii Giftcard

2006-11-14T23:02:00.000-07:00

My roommate steeped into my room this morning holding a small little white card with the Wii logo on the front. He pushed a button on the front and it lit up with a dazzling blue glow, yep LEDs. I know a good hack when I see it and that card has some endless possibilities. I've posted an Instructable to help everyone out there get into the guts of this thing.

Here's the link.

Pet Rock Finally Has a Purpose

2006-02-10T10:28:00.000-07:00

On the 26^th of January 2006, CNN reported that

Russia

had accused the British of conducting clandestine operations using a rock in a Moscow park. This is no cover-up article; the Russians had clearly found a “spy rock” posing as an innocent landscape article in Moscow. The fact that British Intelligence is far more skilled at the rock vs. paper game then the C.I.A. is a bit frightening.

"According to our experts' assessments, this device costs several tens of millions of pounds. You could only create this technological wonder in laboratory conditions."(Russian FSB)

It is imperative that the United States develop a landscape item capable of assisting our agents in the field. Perhaps our government is already using lawn items to probe our daily lives. Is that sprinkler-head spying on your joyful playground excursion? Are those tacky flamingos transmitting encrypted data to headquarters? For the sake of our national security I have assisted in the development of a system equivalent to those used by the British.

Meet Rock’nStix: it’s a work in progress, yet the possibilities are endless. At this moment the rock houses a Gumstix connex 200xm running at 200Mhz with 64Mb of ram and a NetCF expansion board. Gumstix computers are literally the size of a stick of gum, which makes them perfect for sticking in places where computers should never go. These little computers run Linux kernel 2.6.11 and are very versatile. The NetCF board attached to the gumstix adds real functionality with a Compact Flash slot and a full 10/100 Ethernet connection. Adding a 802.11g CF card would allow the rock to connect wirelessly to a network; imagine a “spy rock” mesh network. Gumstix are available with built-in Bluetooth for downloading all of those top secret blueprint photos from your camera phone. That feature alone rivals British infrared transfers. All of this fits inside a faux rock with plenty of room to spare. I’d like to see some padding and waterproofing added to the rock later on. Future versions might even include battery power, wireless technologies, audio, and maybe even a GPS. My rock can beat your scissors any day.

I used an Exo-Tera pet habitat rock and a piece of Plexiglas to create the housing. Three #4 machine bolts mount the electronics to the Plexiglas. A couple of screws hold the plexi to the rock and form the bottom of the housing. A Dremmel with a fiberglass reinforced cutoff wheel makes cutting the plexi fairly easy. Connections to the Gumstix are run through the little pet hole in the back/front of the rock.

PICtastic

2006-02-09T15:24:00.000-07:00

I just started playing with PIC microcontrolers last month and I have to say I'm thrilled with the relatively easy learning process. These little chips are inexpensive and full of power. As with a new car you tend to start noticing who else is driving the same model, I've started to notice where PIC's are showing up in my life. I opened up a shopping cart wheel the other day and found that it was controlled by a PIC12C508A, more on that project to come. So far I've experimented with inputs and outputs. My attempts at implementing PWM were interesting. I'm using the PIC16F767 for my basic projects. I will, however, be moving up to the C programmable chips. While assembly is pretty simple I should learn a higher language. If anyone tends to drop by here and has some helpful info on PICs, let me know.

Happenings

2005-11-07T11:38:00.000-07:00

Since I haven't updated this site in quite some time I though it necessary to fill in what I've been busy with lately. I'm currently going to school at The University of Advancing Technology in Tempe, Az. Unfortunately combining school with work at The Home Depot has left little time to indulge myself in journaling.

School Work

UAT is an outstanding university for those interested in technology. Both staff and students are very supportive of the interests and questions of their peers. I've met some great friends and even better some helpful faculty. The usual liberal arts classes are nothing special, but the major specific classes are very challenging. The color theory class I am currently taking provides me with a lot of incite as to how the industry uses color in general. It's also helped me to take an interest in art. My Modeling with Maya class has done the same thing for me.
TechForum 2008 just wrapped up this weekend. They call it "2008" because were always 3 years ahead of the curve. UAT brings in some of the top people from different technology related fields to present to and network with students and staff at the university. I had the chance to meet Joe Grand, the President of Grand Idea Studio. He's written numerous books on hardware hacking and even created devices like the Parallax RFID reader. I'm hopping to keep in contact with him about numerous projects and questions that I'll be working on in the future. If you're interested you can watch the videos at www.uat.edu/techforum.

DC480

This has been one of the most exciting aspects of joining UAT. DC480 is the Tempe area chapter of Defcon. The club meets on Saturdays to talk about network security and hacking related topics. They also created and host the TCP/IP enabled contest at the Defcon conferences. Last year they built and demonstrated a internet enabled reconnaissance device called I.C.A.R.U.S. This year the club is in the process of designing and building a internet controlled LED display that challenges the participants to learn new electronic design skills. If your interested in joining the contest visit the Contest's Website. The club also works on various projects to show off in the weekly meetings. Our latest project is the Anomoyus Megaphone which will appear here in a few weeks.

Work

I joined The Home Depot a few months back because I though I could change the way the company deals with customers at a personal level. I have never been happy with the service I've had at Home Depots in other places. The service I received really depended on the skills and enthusiasm of the employee. I love helping people and I am very adept at learning new skills. So far I'm not happy with the company at all. At the risk of loosing my job... I would like to say the upper store management sucks at store 0489. The one manager I do like is an assistant manager who is very friendly and easy to talk to. Scheduling is a pain. Never present a retail store with the hours that you can't work, present them with the hours that you will work. I have a feeling that the store will be loosing a lot of people very soon. I Quit:).

A LAN.... how grand!

2005-07-31T16:28:00.000-06:00

This post is to inform you of an upcoming LAN on the 7^the of August, 2005. The LAN will be held at [edit] and will commence at 6:00 pm. Renters will be moving into this house two days following the LAN, as a result the floors will have been cleaned and all seating/tables will be gone. If you would like to attend this grand meeting of gamers, please send me an email. There may be some odd jobs required of you the following day, in order to get the house in rental shape. Those who can bring tables and chairs, please do so. We will also need cables, switches, power strips, snacks, and sodas. The usual rules apply... no odd substances, keep the floors clean, sportsmanship, yada yada. Include your name, phone number, and address in the email along with what you will be bringing. Only those who RSVP will be allowed to enter, so please remember to do so (Limited Seating). Spread the word, the more the merrier.

Games to be played...
HalfLife and mods
HalfLife 2
CounterStrike Source
Battlefield 2
UT2004

Note: Most games will be available at the LAN, however please come prepared.

2005-06-02T13:11:00.000-06:00

I have to get me one of these! $11 at Wal-Mart, the JuiceBox. This thing has a tiny LCD, runs linux, plays music, costs $11, and rocks. Ahh... cheep gadget lust:) You can find out more about this little thing at www.elinux.org/wiki/JuiceBox.

Carputer

2005-06-02T12:51:00.000-06:00

Here’s a great mobile blog. I'm currently in a defensive driving course listing to Mr. Taylor instruct us all on safe driving. Wow, people are scary! Anyway, I just spent the last two hours planning out a car mod that should be a lot of fun. Most people know about factory carputers. They annoyingly ding at us when our gas is running low, or flash our break lights when we "toe" the pedal. They can also show our remaining miles of gas, the outside temperature, or our direction of travel. Sure you can get these things in a new car, but what about that 97' Civic in your driveway? I decided to design a little carputer of my own to automate a few simple tasks in my vehicle.

The first thing I thought I’d conquer is small stereo volume adjustments depending on vehicle speed. When a car is at rest road noise is at a minimum and your stereos volume can be fairly low. However, when vehicle speed increases so does road noise, to combat the added noise you turn up the volume on your stereo, right? When you hit a stop-light your stereo is a touch too loud. A microcontroller could automate this very easily.

Why stop at stereo volume. With a microcontroller, I could automate windshield wipers and headlights to start. Everything I automate needs to be manually controllable and I need to be able to cut the automation when necessary. That’s the concept, time to move on to building the thing.

Urban Spelunking

2005-06-01T10:05:00.000-06:00

I ran across this picture while setting up the site and I thought it might be a great way to start things off. The mole above is Steve, an good friend from high school... "What is he doing?" you ask. Urban spelunking, journeying into the depths of a city through any open crack you can find. In this case we entered a storm water intake at one end of a valley, made our way under a car dealership, a major highway, and finally a Wal-Mart Super Center. Urban spelunking and Urban exploration is catching on all over the world here are just a few sites to look over. Before you go out and try this yourself, make sure your safe... tell someone where your going and check the weather.

Cave Clan Australia
Urban Exploration Resource
Infiltration Zine

Zap

2005-05-31T21:38:00.000-06:00

I bring you to life... Blog! Now go fourth into the world and do good. Bring interesting news and projects to the masses. Oh and don't stick you fingers in light sockets!