On January 17, a transatlantic conference call between investigators for the FBI and the UK’s Scotland Yard was compromised and recorded by Anonymous hackers. The subject of the call: the international criminal investigation into Anonymous. For more information, see The Guardian’s article on the hack.

via TPM Idea Lab

“The New French Hacker-Artist Underground” by Jon Lackman is a fascinating Wired article about the French UX collective, a shadowy group that uses covert actions to preserve neglected historical and cultural treasures in Paris. Over the past 30 years, the group has infiltrated art museums to demonstrate security flaws, and says it has completed 15 covert restorations, including the 2006 repair of the Pantheon clock:

A cadre spent months infiltrating the Pantheon, the grand structure in Paris that houses the remains of France’s most cherished citizens. Eight restorers built their own secret workshop in a storeroom, which they wired for electricity and Internet access and outfitted with armchairs, tools, a fridge, and a hot plate. During the course of a year, they painstakingly restored the Pantheon’s 19th- century clock, which had not chimed since the 1960s.

Thanks to Deborah Yoon for the tip!

photo via UX

Make has released their 2012 edition of the Ultimate Kit Guide, a special issue of Make Magazine with reviews of more than 175 DIY kits, from robots to food to siege weapons. Along with the guide, Make has started a new website dedicated to DIY kits, Make: Kit Reviews. And during the holiday season, Make is giving away a kit a day.

Make: Ultimate Kit Guide 2012, hitting newsstands just in time for the holidays, brings you top kits of all kinds, from beginner’s crafts to wooden kayaks to advanced robotics and everything in between! Whether you need a gift for the do-it-yourselfer who loves making things, or want to find the best kits to build yourself, this special issue will show you the way, with reviews of 175+ kits selected by the editors of MAKE.

We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists, directed by Brian Knappenberger, is an upcoming documentary about notorious hacktivist group Anonymous (trailer). The film is scheduled for release in early 2012.

We Are Legion is a documentary about Anonymous and hacktivism. The film explores the historical roots of early hacktivist groups like Cult of the Dead Cow and Electronic Disturbance Theater and then follows Anonymous from the early days of 4chan to a full-blown movement with a global reach.

via Epic Win For Anonymous

The web app, LoCreep, is a sort of “LoJack” for identifying and mocking creeps based on information derived from their phone number (but not identifiable information like names or social security numbers). Essentially it works like this: a woman signs up for LoCreep, she generates a number to give out to barroom lotharios and when the “creep” calls her back, his voicemail is transcribed with Twilio to a text message. That text message is broadcast to all her subscribed friends and then the mocking begins. After they have participated in a hearty round of schadenfreude, the women can then earn LoCreep badges. They can also research phone numbers.

Developed by college students Misha Ponizil, Randall Hunt, Paul Lee and Nabil Hassein, LoCreep won third place at the hackNY Fall 2011 Hackathon, a “24-hour coding events in which NYC startups present their technologies and students build original applications based on them”. It was most recently demoed by Andres Campanella and Misha Ponizil (cameo by Rebecca Zhou) at New York Tech Meetup on November 2, 2011. Xconomy New York reports that they are “not yet seeking funding but will once there is a solid business plan in place”.

via Betabeat

MacKenzie Smith of Grilled Cheese Social shows you how to make a grilled cheese sandwich using a sideways toaster.

via My Drunk Kitchen

photo by MacKenzie Smith

Using a four-player 1975 Bally Wizard pinball machine, Canadian Alan Amon has converted it to an atomic alarm clock “an arduino, 8 relays and a gps”. He has posted the entire howto directions on Instructables.

One of the more common problems faced by pinball collectors is where to put the next one. The thought came to me one day – what if I could re-purpose the pinball machine? I could then replace an existing appliance with the pin and my problem would be solved. With that in mind I converted my 1975 Bally Wizard into the most accurate clock in the house. And all I needed was an Arduino, A GPS receiver, an 8 relay board and some assorted odd bits.

via Instructables

Hackmeet is a conference on hacking and activism hosted by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and San Francisco hackerspace Noisebridge. The conference runs October 15 and 16 at Noisebridge and is free (donations accepted).

San Francisco hackerspace Noisebridge is celebrating its third anniversary with a Hacker Prom, October 1, 2011 at their Mission district headquarters.

It’s been 3 years since we initially opened our doors to all kinds of hackers from all parts of the world. Time to celebrate, hacker prom style! Bring a date (robots are totally allowed) and come on down to Noisebridge to relive those awkward moments from high school with your fellow hacker/maker.

Noisebridge has been featured on Laughing Squid a number of times. Here are some highlights:

- Noisebridge Has A Space Program
- Noisebridge Attempts to Teach Science To Juggalos at Insane Clown Posse Show In San Francisco
- KQED QUEST Tour of Noisebridge Hackerspace in San Francisco

photo by Opacity

photo via Power Racing Series

The Power Racing Series is an auto racing series for hacked Power Wheels toy cars. The event is aimed at hackerspaces and races take place at midwestern Maker Faires. Founder Jim Burke is raising funds for the 2012 season on Kickstarter.

The last race included over 22 cars, and got us noticed nationwide. Wired Magazine just ran a short piece on Power Racing Series in their October issue, and we will also be getting a blurb in the November issue of Make Magazine. We’re expecting even more cars and more races for the 2012 season. Unfortunately, our pocketbooks are saying otherwise.

Video Riot by artist Scott Draves is a site that lets users create psychedelic mashups of any YouTube video thanks to the magic of WebGL (currently enabled on Chrome and Firefox). For example: crazy time acid trip Keyboard Cat.

The effect is based on video feedback implemented with WebGL and its shading language, which means most of the work is done on your GPU. The videos are in WebM format which works on Chrome and Firefox.

Russian artist Morskoiboy has created a hydraulic cocktail typewriter that dispenses alcohol with each keystroke–in effect, turning words into cocktails. A most remarkable feature of the machine is only viewable on his making-of video at the 1:45 mark: witness the revolutionary Liquid Alcohol Display.

via reddit

German artist Tobias Leingruber recently installed a USB flash drive “dead drop” in a former NSA listening post near Berlin (see a video of the operation by Eddie Codel). According to Leingruber the drive contains secret cold war era files. Leingruber’s dead drop is part of an anonymous peer-to-peer network consisting of USB drives installed in public locations. The term originally refers to a communication method favored by spies in which messages between agents are exchanged via a hidden location (so the agents never have to meet).

photos by Eddie Codel

The latest episode of PBS Off Book takes a look at Hacking Art & Culture with F.A.T. Lab.

As we become more and more engaged with the internet in every aspect of our lives, powerful questions have arisen regarding the ownership of digital media and information, the relationship between corporations, governments, and individuals online, the power of pop culture influence, and the dissolving border between the digital and physical worlds. Taking these issues head-on is The Free Art & Technology (F.A.T.) Lab. An international group of 21 artists, hackers, thinkers, designers, developers, and entrepreneurs, F.A.T. Lab employs art, activism, pop culture, and a wealth of knowledge about how the internet works to create projects that challenge people and institutions to think a little deeper about this new world we all live in.

“Like This”, 2011
Interactive Object
29 x 47 x 4 cm
Wood, Acrylic, Alkyd Paint, VFD-Display, Arduino

Munich-based “computational artisan”, Mario Klingemann, created the interactive piece Like This based on Facebook’s well-known Like button.

It is not connected to Facebook since for obvious reasons it is not possible to register a “like” for another person without being logged in. Only the button design has been borrowed since it is such a cultural icon already and most people will immediately understand how to use it. Technically it contains an Arduino which takes care for permanently storing the count of button presses (so they do not get lost when the power is detached) and which also controls the display. Also what cannot be seen on the still photo is that you have to press the button for about a second during which a progress bar appears in order for your “Like” to count – so people who do not like it but still want to touch it can do so. The idea was to create a self-referential artwork that shows how many people like it. Apart from that I find it interesting to have an object in a gallery or show that is not only allowed to be touched but actually supposed to be.

It will be shown at the Ultra Social exhibition at the Urban Arts and Media Organization (UAMO) Festival 2011 in Munich from October 27-30, 2011.

via Make

photo by Mario Klingemann

Legendary hacker Kevin Mitnick shows Anthony De Rosa of Reuters how he can access a person’s voicemail without using a password by spoofing Caller ID. He demonstrates it live with Anthony’s voicemail, playing back a message.

Kevin Mitnick’s new book Ghost in the Wires just came out, about his days as the world’s most wanted hacker.

Outdoor survival enthusiast Tim Jones demonstrates how to start a fire with a block of ice.

via reddit

Junk-foodie Kari Schuster of MPLS.TV in Minneapolis, Minnesota, concocted the ultimate pizza, the Meta-pizza. By building a pizza made from pizza-flavored snacks, she made a pizza-flavored pizza like no other.

It occurred to me that up until now I had been limiting myself to pizza only in its natural state. It was obvious what I had to do next — find as many pizza-flavored items as I could and turn them into a pizza.[Editor's note: Sweet Jesus.]

Ingredients include:

Pizza Supreme Doritos, Pizzalicious Pringles, Pepperidge Farm Flavor Blasted Xplosive Pizza Goldfish crackers, Pepperoni Pizza Combos, and of course, the pizza hummus.

Manga! Abbondanza!

via BuzzFeed

photos by Kari Schuster

The makers of Sugru, a “soft-touch silicone rubber that moulds and sets permanently”, have laid out detailed directions on Instructables on how to make a digital camera bouncy, nearly indestructible and ready for use by small children, calling it the “Awesome Bouncy Kids Camera”.

Once your think you are all done and have left your final walls to cure for 24 hours (this time is necessary for an aggressive use hack such as this) it is worth checking that you camera is fully protected before handing it over to the child. Check that there would be enough Sugru walls to protect the camera by pushing it into a table surface from every possible angle. If you are fully confident that your camera is covered then start doing drop tests beginning from a small height, I would recommend starting at 10 cm, and working your way up. Remember it is better to be safe than sorry so if in any doubt, build more walls.

Sugru looks like a great way to modify or repair just about anything, not just cameras for children.

via Craft

The Enough Already is an incredibly clever application of the open source Arduino microprocessor that automagically mutes a TV when certain celebrities are mentioned. The hack was created by Matt Richardson of MAKE.

photo by Matt Richardson

Co-founder and Director of Brooklyn’s mechanical art “combine”, Madagascar Institute, “survivalist savant” Chris Hackett is returning to the Science Channel on August 18, 2011 at 10:30 PM with his television show, Stuck with Hackett. Viewers got an early sneak peek at the show in December 2010 during a Science Channel “special look at 2011″ programming week.

Presented as what happens “when MacGyver meets Survivorman“, Hackett searches out ‘obtanium’, his word for precious discarded junk, in a variety of places this season according to the show’s episode guide. These places include an abandoned hospital, an aviation junkyard, a grocery store dumpster and a plethora of other potentially unsavory locales.

Hackett has started blogging about his thoughts on the TV series, the inspiration for his craft and really, allowing his audience the chance to get to know him a little better in his own words at Stuck With Hackett. The Science Channel has even created a digital puzzle in his likeness.

Stuck with Hackett features “alternative engineer” and survival expert Chris Hackett. Each episode finds Hackett left alone in an extreme environment — from deep wilderness, to ruined cities, to arid deserts — with little more than his wits and ingenuity. The goal isn’t survival, however; it’s luxury…achieved by any means necessary.

photo via Science Channel

Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World’s Most Wanted Hacker is a memoir by Kevin Mitnick, a former computer hacker who, at the time of his arrest in 1995, was the most wanted computer criminal in US history. Mitnick now runs his own computer security consultancy.

Kevin Mitnick was the most elusive computer break-in artist in history. He accessed computers and networks at the world’s biggest companies–and however fast the authorities were, Mitnick was faster, sprinting through phone switches, computer systems, and cellular networks. He spent years skipping through cyberspace, always three steps ahead and labeled unstoppable. But for Kevin, hacking wasn’t just about technological feats-it was an old fashioned confidence game that required guile and deception to trick the unwitting out of valuable information.

Driven by a powerful urge to accomplish the impossible, Mitnick bypassed security systems and blazed into major organizations including Motorola, Sun Microsystems, and Pacific Bell. But as the FBI’s net began to tighten, Kevin went on the run, engaging in an increasingly sophisticated cat and mouse game that led through false identities, a host of cities, plenty of close shaves, and an ultimate showdown with the Feds, who would stop at nothing to bring him down.

Ghost in the Wires is a thrilling true story of intrigue, suspense, and unbelievable escape, and a portrait of a visionary whose creativity, skills, and persistence forced the authorities to rethink the way they pursued him, inspiring ripples that brought permanent changes in the way people and companies protect their most sensitive information.

In this music video for “Chase No Face” by BELL, artist Zach Liebermann and collaborators used a LED projector and a hacked Kinect motion sensor to project beautiful animated designs on to singer Olga Bell’s face.

via Make

The 19th annual DEF CON, one of the largest and oldest continuous hacking conferences, takes place August 4th though 7th at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas. DEF CON Kids, a hacking conference for kids age 8-16, premieres at this year’s event.

Turntable.fm co-founder Billy Chasen designed a DIY text message-operated door lock for his company’s headquarters.

via Leftover Takeout