Steve’s Hacking Blog

In the category of things already done, this one is the most dangerous. You can shoot your eye out, or otherwise hurt yourself or others, or break things if you aren’t careful. Here’s how to control it using Visual Basic. And tinker with the idea of making it autonomous.

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I’m going to make this short and sweet. There is a USB stick virus that people are STILL passing around. I first spotted this on my own systems a little over a year ago. It’s still going! I dont know what it is or what it does, other than replicate itself.. anyway… here we go.

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I got bored of my inability to take decent photos for this blog, so I walked down to the source to buy a new camera. While I was there something caught my eye. A small can-size usb-powered refrigerator. How the hell could that possibly work? Obviously a usb-powered fan in a box isnt going to keep my beer cold. I had to investigate. With my new camera. Heh.

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I know there are instructions on 7805-based regulators all over the web. Everyone uses this ridiculously inefficient chip because it’s cheap and easy to find. Here’s my take on it. This small 7805-based usb charger is built around it’s own heatsink, and its neccessary capacitors (i used surface mount caps) are soldered right onto the pins of the 7805 itself.

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Here it is, a very basic and very functional VGA and dual USB switch, with no additional electronic componants. With two 6PDT switches (~$2) you can basically make the computer think you are plugging/unplugging your mouse, keyboard, and monitor. perfect for the geek who is too cheap to get a KVM switch!

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