Nov 10 2009 No: Roombas Programmed To Play Pac-Man

Been waiting for someone to hack a bunch of Roombas to play Pac-Man? Me neither, but somebody did AND YOU'RE GOING TO WATCH THEM OR I'M GOING TO TOOTHPICK YOUR EYES OPEN AND MAKE YOU.

The vacuum, long an instrument for chasing cats, has now been turned against its own. What better use for automatic home appliances than to have them chase each other in classic video game style?

Built using our spare time, Roomba Pac-Man is designed to showcase the extensive Unmanned Aerial System software suite that we have developed to support our personal research. It was also a great opportunity to use some of our skills for our own entertainment.

Neat idea, but did you have to use robots? Why not kittens? I mean, you just handed over like $1,500 to the iRobot company. Which, despite the number of emails I've sent, the government still refuses to classify as a terrorist organization. OPEN YOUR EYES YOU BUREAUCRATIC BUTTPLUGS! Unless....OMG the government's in bed with the robots! Initializing expatriation! New Mexico here I come.

Project Site

Thanks to Jonny S, mary, Jackie and Boomer, who vacuum the old fashioned way: with a shaggy dog taped to a broken tree branch.

Sep 16 2009 Hack And Slash: College Student Kills Would-Be Robber With Samurai Sword

John Pontilillo, a Johns Hopkins undergrad, killed a would-be robber with a samurai sword after finding the thieving bastard attempting to pilfer items from his garage. Nice, John, I would have done the same thing. Except blindfolded because I'm like 30x tougher than you are.

Hours earlier, someone had broken into John Pontolillo's house and taken two laptops and a video-game console. Now it was past midnight, and he heard noises coming from the garage out back.

The Johns Hopkins University undergraduate didn't run. He didn't call the police. He grabbed his samurai sword.

With the 3- to 5-foot-long (HOW LONG WAS IT?!), razor-sharp weapon in hand, police say, Pontolillo crept toward the noise. He noticed a side door in the garage had been pried open. When a man inside lunged at him, police say, the confrontation was fatal.

Pontolillo...struck the intruder no more than twice, police say, nearly severing his left hand and inflicting what police termed a "spear laceration."

Hell yeah, vigilante justice. This is exactly why I booby-trapped my Pop Tart cabinet. Next time my roommate tries to steal some, BOOM! Literally, boom: monster effing explosion. Say goodbye to your face, Dave -- it sucked anyways! Seriously, your mom doesn't even love it. I know because she told me WHEN WE WERE MAKING LOVE. She talked about you the whole time.

Hopkins student kills man with samurai sword [baltimoresun]
and
Picture Source

Thanks to Justina, An, draw and jawn, muzakx, Kate from NashVegas, Alan, Alex, Carrie and e., who would have used nunchucks.

Aug 26 2009 Smoke Bud: Another Hacked Roadsign

Another day, another hacked roadsign, this time in Raleigh, NC outside North Carolina State University. Honestly, I have no idea what this bud is of which the sign speaks (you hear that, mom -- no idea!), but if it's anything like banana peels and grape leaves, you count me in. Whee, I see stars! I mean it -- I'm passing out somebody catch me.

Tampered sign promotes pot [abc]

Thanks to Milkman, who better stop using the backdoor.

Jun 19 2009 Over The Line!: Road Sign Hacked In DC

Apparently somebody hacked a couple DC traffic signs to say dirty words. In case you were wondering, there's a UC missing in the first line and an ALL in the third. Some people, no class.

If you think your commute can be offensive, you should have been driving northbound on the Virginia side of the Key Bridge Thursday morning.

It appeared that someone hacked into an electronic sign near the Rosslyn exit for the Key Bridge and posted an inappropriate message.

Another sign at Chain Bridge Road and the GW Parkway had a similar message but was turned off earlier.

Oh hell yeah GW Parkway. I OWN YOUR ROADZ! You hear that, George Washington -- it's mine now. Put that in your cherry pipe and smoke it!

Hackers steer commuters toward offensive sign [wtop]

Thanks to Zekcus, who hacked a Circus of Values vending machine in Bioshock to stop making that scary laugh.

Apr 27 2009 They Were Everywhere!: ESPN Gets Hacked, Konami Coded, Unicorned And Rainbowed

Somebody hacked the ESPN.com site to accept the Konami code (↑ ↑ ↓ ↓ ← → ← → B A) and then to start adding unicorns and rainbows to the page every time you hit ENTER. I can attest to it working because two tipsters hit me up with the goods before ESPN caught on. Suffice it to say, I unicorned the hell out of that shit and then cooked pork chops on the grill. Unfortunately, when I came back to write this it had already been fixed. So if you're the one that did it, do it again (but not to Geekologie) so everyone can play with it. Then, I want you all to write your congressman about the unicorn olympics and sick that would be.

Hit the jump for another screenshot of the site from a reader who also wanted to display his bacon loving pride.

Continue Reading " They Were Everywhere!: ESPN Gets Hacked, Konami Coded, Unicorned And Rainbowed "

Mar 15 2009 Guy Loses Finger, Replaces With Flash Drive

Jerry Jalava is a hacker who lost half his left ring finger in a motorcycle accident and decided to replace the digit with a USB drive. So now he sports a rubber half-finger with thumb(!)drive inside. Awesome. Plus, if he ever has to wear a wedding ring it won't count because it's not a real finger. Am I right? Because that's why I cut mine off. Just kidding, I was really high and trying to make a bong in shop class.

Hit the jump for three more shots of the digital digitry.

Continue Reading " Guy Loses Finger, Replaces With Flash Drive "

Jan 29 2009 Aaaaand The Roadsign Hacking Has Begun

Are you surprised? Of course not. What's there to be surprised about? You post an article about how to hack something, and people try it. Simple as that.

(Traffic Controller Bruce) Jones, who has one of only two keys to the locked access panels on the portable signs, said that the hacker broke into the panels [arguable] on each sign and bypassed the passwords before leaving five different zombie messages and even changing one of the passwords. Jones said he had to wait until 8 a.m. to call the manufacturing company to figure out how to override the hacker's work [Bruce, please see original article]. He speculated that the hacker could be a computer genius from UT.

A computer genius from UT! Or, I dunno, somebody who read an article on the internet. Whatever the case, the zombie thing was cute in the beginning folks, but it's time to start thinking outside the brain. The robots are coming too, you know.

Hit the jump for the other five messages left on the signs and the link to a video news report.

Continue Reading " Aaaaand The Roadsign Hacking Has Begun "

Sep 15 2008 Uh-Oh: Large Hadron Collider Hacked, Countdown To Destruction Initiated !!

Last week a group of hackers busted all up in the Large Hadron Collider's network and did stuff. Okay, so they didn't really do anything. That we know about.

Calling themselves the Greek Security Team, the interlopers mocked the IT used on the project, describing the technicians responsible for security as "a bunch of schoolkids."

However, despite an ominous warning "don't mess with us," the hackers said they had no intention of disrupting the work of the atom smasher.

"We're pulling your pants down because we don't want to see you running around naked looking to hide yourselves when the panic comes," they wrote in Greek in a rambling note posted on the LHC's network.

Of course they're not going to disrupt the atom smashing. They have to make sure the LHC is fully functional before they bust back in. Then they'll use the system's time machining capabilities to travel back in time and fulfill man's quest to have sex with dinosaurs. Lizard people yo, lizard people.

Hit the jump for a video explaining the experiments conducted using the LHC.

Continue Reading " Uh-Oh: Large Hadron Collider Hacked, Countdown To Destruction Initiated !! "

Jul 1 2008 Valve Hacker Blows $20 Million With Stolen Credit Cards, Is Not The Brightest Criminal

A 20-year old hacker that goes by MaddoxX (not the best page in the universe guy) busted up in a third party Valve server and stole the credit card info of Steam Cyber Cafe users. Then he proceeded to "burn 13 million Euros playing poker online and shopping for notebooks, flat screens and MP3 players". Holy crap, this kid is either the worst poker player in the world or painted the walls of his apartment with flatscreens. And still, that'd have to be a huge freaking apartment. But then MaddoxX got real stupid about the whole thing and boasted about the hack in April of 2007 and posting a bunch of stuff about the feat, that led to his recent arrest.

MaddoxX then posted an archived file that included unverified credit card numbers, transaction amounts, Valve's supposed bank balance, and data that reportedly allowed the creation of counterfeit cyber cafe certificates.

In addition to the Valve caper, MaddoxX is being charged with hacking his way into an Activision server and subsequently downloading an unfinished version of Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. MaddoxX also stole 50,000 credit card numbers from an English ticketing website.

You just had to have that Quake Wars before everybody else, didn't you MaddoxX? Tssk, tssk. Seriously though, stealing from other gamers? That's just wrong. Robin Hood, MaddoxX, Robin Hood. It's "steal from the rich and give to the poor", not, "steal from the gamer and give to the Amazon". You greedy bastard.

Valve Hacker Caught by Dutch Police [shacknews]

Thanks Peter, now lets take turn sucker punching this guy in the nads.

Jun 16 2008 Wii Fit Balance Board Hack Uses Movement To Explore Google Earth, World Of Warcraft

Tired of only playing Wii Fit on the balance board? Want to use it for something else? Well look no further.

A couple of guys from DFKI (the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence) took a Balance Board and connected it to a regular old laptop PC. A custom C# application communicates with the controller via Bluetooth, translating simple leaning movements on the board into 3D moves on the computer.

There's a video after the jump showing how they use the board to navigate Google Earth and World Of Warcraft. But if you can't watch videos at work the picture above gives you a pretty good idea of what it looks like: some geek humping an imaginary woman from behind.

Hit the jump for the demo video, and the slightly NSFW video of a chick playing the Wii Fit hula-hoop game in her underwear in case you've been Bin Ladening it up in a cave for the past month and haven't seen it yet. Note: Try your best to ignore the idiotic pantstain that's filming it, he's one ugly bastard.

Continue Reading " Wii Fit Balance Board Hack Uses Movement To Explore Google Earth, World Of Warcraft "

Apr 9 2008 Mario "Frustration" Levels With Commentary

This video has been around for a while, so you may have seen it already. And if you have, that's awesome, you should definitely mention it the comments section. I saw it some time ago myself, but not with this guy's voice-over, which made it better. It's probably NSFW though, since every other word the dude says is a curse word. Oh, and it's unbearable long, so let it download and then just skip around for about 30 seconds or a minute (depending on how you feel) to get the gist. If you like it there are about a million other videos on Youtube of hacked Mario levels that are unbelievably impossible (search mario impossible or mario frustration and feel free to post links to any good ones). While it does look tempting to give playing one a shot, I know exactly how it'll end -- with my leg stuck in the television and bleeding (yes, I had to buy an old CRT from the thriftstore after my ladyfriend traded the LCD for "the most comfortable pair of shoes ever").

Youtube

Thanks to Randomnigel, whose blog I found this on, for having it there

Dec 28 2007 Password Undies Prevent Unwanted Entry

Password Panties are underwear that have a little password screen on the front of them. They were being sold on Etsy, but I'm pretty sure you could get creative with Photoshop and some iron-ons and make your own. Now I hate to brag about my skills in the realm of password hacking, but I am a pretty l337 hax0r. Which means I'll be in those panties in no time. And I don't mean wearing them, although I will sometimes. User Name: Geekologie Writer. Domain Name: Pretty woman at the bar. Password: Let me buy you drinks until you're wasted. Access Denied?! But I bought your drinks all night! What do you mean it takes more than just free drinks -- you prude. Thanks a lot, now i'm broke. I guess it'll be another computer pr0n night. :(

Password Panties: You better remember this login! [dvice]