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Hackable Christmas Presents? 205

Posted by Cliff from the only-66-shopping-days-left dept.
An Anonymous Coward asks what many of you may start thinking about in another month...if you already haven't: "While sitting thru various classes..I started wondering today what I'll drop hints to people with money for what to get me for Christmas..I want something to hack on and with..but preferably in the sub $300 dollar category. Remember the fun of hacking things like the C64 or Spectrum or whatever? A fun home machine to hack on.. preferably not a PC (though I know you can get them in that price range) but something a little different. A cheap ARM or Mips based machine or something. Suggestions from anyone?"
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Hackable Christmas Presents? More

Hackable Christmas Presents?

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  • Lego Mindstorms (Score:3, Interesting)

    by camusflage ( 65105 ) on Saturday October 20, 2001 @08:25AM (#2454346)
    Want to have fun with embedded development? How about the "cool" factor of running Java on an embedded system, one which is embedded in Legos? Check out Lego Mindstorms [mindstorms.com].

    • Now that would be an awesome toy to hack on. You could make some pretty durable robots with that.

      Add some extra hardware to allow it to understand simple commands, then you could almost make a usable home robot.

      --
      .sig seperator
      --

  • ...old PDP-10. I am sure that someone will pay someone 300 bucks to take it off their hands.

    --
    .sig seperator
    --
  • The console itself is only $300, and Im sure with sufficient trying you could figure out how to play homebrew games in it (and when you do, go ahead and forward me the info) though this might be a bit if a challenge :)

    • Re:XBOX! (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      MAME on an XBOX.. super cool! http://www.otakunozoku.com/xbox/index.html [otakunozoku.com]
      • Yes, thats very cool, but will I ever be able to download an ISO? Since he used an official development platform, isn't he under some sort of Licensing agreement?

  • Hmm.. well, .. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Forkenhoppen ( 16574 ) on Saturday October 20, 2001 @08:36AM (#2454363)
    The Dreamcast is an ARM and MIPS-based machine, and highly hackable. It's also nice and cheap, so you could even suggest it as something your kids could split in on for you. (As long as they don't pull a fast one and be the ones who end up using it all the time. ;-)
    • There's no MIPS in the Dreamcast. Perhaps you were thinking of the Playstation? The Dreamcast uses an Hitachi SH-4.
      • Yeah, sorry, you're right.

        (When you install the dev kit that comes with kos [sourceforge.net], it comes with two compilers. One of them's called "SH" and the other "ARM," so I figured that the AICA's audio coprocessor was ARM and the main one was probably MIPS. But I'm wrong, so, um, nm..)

        Dreamcast is still a goodie, though; even if you don't want to program the DC itself, you can always program the VMUs. There are compilers and emulators out there [mc.pp.se], so it's not too hard to get started even if you don't have a DC..

  • Agenda VR3? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by DocSnyder ( 10755 )
    PDAs are a lot of fun to hack. The Agenda runs GNU/Linux and is powerful enough for most tasks.
    On "http://www.agendacomputing.com/", it's available for $249.

    • That thing looks sweet. I really like the "H2O" case.

      /me adds to bookmarks and starts thinking about who wants to buy him one

      • Read the reviews first - at least the last revision I read about (no idea if that's actually the most recent revision) was a bit of a stinker, apparently. Maybe OK for hacking, maybe not...

  • Aaargh, heeeelp (Score:4, Funny)

    by joss ( 1346 ) on Saturday October 20, 2001 @08:40AM (#2454370) Homepage
    No, please, not yet. Don't mention the C-word for at least a month. I want to go to Japan to escape Xmas - they are pleasantly unclear on the concept there. Sometimes they make a token effort - one department store had a christmas display showing father christmas nailed to the cross.

    Anyway, you don't need to go out of your way to give a true hacker a hackable device. In fact, its oxymoronic. A hack is where you figure it out yourself and modify something in an unforseen way. Giving somebody a "hackable" toy is condescending.

    Slightly offtopic - I plan on making a homemade EEG (Electro-encephalogram, scan brainwaves) for an Xmas present to myself, I can handle the software side, but can anyone tell me what components I need to get some sensible signal into the serial port.

    • I plan on making a homemade EEG (Electro-encephalogram, scan brainwaves) for an Xmas present to myself

      Neat! I've had a fair bit of experience with EEG and ERP work, (I have worked in a couple of university labs doing just that) and I think it would be no more than making a clean little amp. Check out this email [blu.org] which has actual schematics. Have fun!

    • Check out these guys [serialdaq.com] I purchased one of the ADC-3 units for the lab I work in to monitor some gauges. If you want to work on this somewhat collaboratively, let me know. This sounds like a fun little project.

    • Crap, let me know if you find anything! Just yesterday we were talking about REM sleep in my psychology class, and the professor mentioned that people can be trained to have lucid dreams by having someone watch them sleep, and play a tone (or other stimulus that will reach the person in dreams) while they're in REM sleep. I've had a project in the back of my mind for ages, a "smart alarm clock". Details aren't important, but I thought, if I could build a basic EEG that could detect REM sleep, I could build that into the alarm clock! Lucid dreams, and waking up on time! Realistically I probably can't do it, but anyway, awesome idea..
    • Byte magazine, 1983 or 1984 IIRC. Steve Circia's Circuit Cellar gives complete plans for a
      homemade EEG.
    • Good story, only it's not true! :)

      http://www.snopes2.com/holidays/xmas/cross.htm

  • Hack on something you may not have before. Check out some of the Ports [netbsd.org] of NetBSD [netbsd.org]. In particular, the Dreamcast [netbsd.org] and the Playstation 2 [netbsd.org]. Or maybe the HITACHI Super-H family based Windows CE PDA machines [netbsd.org] are more your style.
    • The only problem with PS2 Linux is that it's only available on the Japanese Model, and sadly they have no plans to make it available on the American or European versions of the PS2. See PS2 Linux.Com [ps2linux.com] for the sad news.

      On a happier note I've noticed that a Russian Company called Runix [runix.ru] has ported the Linux Kernel to PS One. The port doesn't come with installation instructions or anything, but you can get the code.... I wasn't exactly sure what to do with it once I got it though. I don't even have a PSOne.. oh well.
  • doesn't anybody learn simple escape artist
    and slight-of-hand magic anymore nowdays?

    must everything have "no user servicable parts"
    (and batteries not included) with the box?

    magic is technology in its purest form.

  • It's free and totally hackable (Score:3, Funny)

    by CbZen ( 252124 ) on Saturday October 20, 2001 @08:53AM (#2454382) Homepage
    a sister ;)
    you can even reprogram her brain,
    and sometimes it's quite fast!
    also exists in "brother" version.
    (bZen
    --
    It isn't easy being the parent of a six-year-old. However, it's a pretty small price to pay for having somebody around the house who understands computers.
  • Just did a search on e-bay and found lots for around (US)$15. This was the machine I started hacking on.
  • I'm giving my brothers 3Com Audreys this year. These are really hackable and are great little toys.

  • Hackable linux-based phone (Score:5, Interesting)

    by AtomicBomb ( 173897 ) on Saturday October 20, 2001 @09:02AM (#2454389) Homepage
    Why not get a TuxScreen [tuxscreen.net]? With a Strong Arm processor + 16MB EDO/4MB flash, touch screen, PCMCIA/serial... for just $99. It is a dream for any geek.... (It has also been slashdotted [slashdot.org].)

    It is not only hackable, in fact, please hack it... It sells at a price probably lower than the parts (est to be around $300)!!! Kudos to Tim Riker from tuxscreen.

  • while waiting for the coffee to brew (Score:3, Informative)

    by motherhead ( 344331 ) on Saturday October 20, 2001 @09:05AM (#2454397)

    Hackable toys... [hobbyrobot.com]

    Want some programable robots? how about just robot arms? then here [wirz.com].

    Still more robot resources [machinebrain.com]... (I am looking for killer robotic laser-beam eyes, if anyone has a link...)

    Hackable portable DVD player [totaldvd.net], (might break the price limit though)

    whoops, coffee's done...

  • 3com Audrey (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Squash ( 2258 ) on Saturday October 20, 2001 @09:09AM (#2454402) Homepage
    Here is one of the more interesting toys I've gotten lately, the 3com Audrey [tigerdirect.com]. Now on sale at TigerDirect for $89. Take the plunge and get the 3com 3c19250 USB Ethernet adapter, available Here for $30. [helloweb.com]

    The quick breakdown on the Audrey, they run QNX 6.0 out of a flash disk, and have a browser, mail program, scheduler, memo pad, and some other tools built in. It can also sync with your PalmOS device. Hardware-wise, it is a Geode 200mhz processor, with 32 megs of ram and a 16 meg flash. It has a built in 56k modem, 2 USB ports, an infrared keyboard, 640x480 touchscreen, stereo sound with built in speakers.

    Once you have followed the directions listed in the threads at the I-Appliance BBS [linux-hacker.net] you will be able to install other applications from QNX 6.0, or even upgrade your system library so you can run 6.1 binaries. People have turned this unit into remote terminals, digital picture frames, mp3 players, home automation terminals, etc. You can't put linux on it because it (yet) because it doesn't actually have a BIOS, but once you get familiar with QNX you really won't mind. You get download QNX 6.1 for free, there ISO is Here [qnx.com]. It is a pretty nice OS in its own right.

    I've got two Audreys, I use one to run QNX-based ICQ and AIM, so I can dualboot to play ReVolt or take apart my main machine for whatever reason. The other one is my girlfriend's and she uses the builtin apps for scheduling etc plus for web surfing in the bedroom.

    The only downside to the Audrey is that its pretty... Shall we say... Lacking in testosterone. Everything from the shape of the unit, to the bootup giggle, to the layout of the manual, to the clear, oddly shaped stylus... Definately was being marketed to the fairer sex. But that's ok, cause chicks will dig it.
    • How is the mail client? Can it do IMAP or only POP3? Does it store the messages on the local flash (?) card? I'm thinking about getting one of these for my mother as she is not technical at all and doesn't want a PC in the living room. If this thing has a good email client she would be set!
      • It does POP3, but it leaves all mail on the mail server, so as to not take any local storage. The mail program is pretty personable. You can type a regular text message, or you can record an audio message that gets sent as a wav file, or you can scribble on the touchscreen and it will send it as a gif. It has an addressbook also, which is a component of the contact application, which also syncs with your palmos device.. Fairly integrated.

  • Those $300 PCs....stupid question... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by dmorin ( 25609 ) <dmorin@@@gmail...com> on Saturday October 20, 2001 @09:13AM (#2454409) Homepage Journal
    Ya know, I constantly hear about being able to easily get these cheap PCs. I'm gonna ask a stupid question -- WHERE? Every time I go look I can only ever see systems that are closer to like $800. I've desperately been looking to snag a cheap machine for a linux server, and had to rely on the kindness of strangers to give me castoffs, which often don't work (such as the current one that has a dead bios battery I can't seem to replace :().

  • Samsung N501 (or other NUON based) DVD player (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Rumor has it that VM Labs is about to release a development kit for "NUON enhanced" DVD players. The Samsung N501 is probably the best of those available now (older NUON players like the Toshiba SD2300 don't support CD-Rs). There are discussions about this at NUONtalk.tv [nuontalk.tv].

    (Even setting aside the hackability factor, the N501 is a very cool DVD player: Jeff Minter's Virtual Light Machine + MP3 playback = mind altering eye candy.)
  • In the glory days of 8-bit home computing, you could just turn the machine on, and in three or four lines of code, just switch to graphics mode and start drawing stuff on the screen - squares, charts, dot patterns, whatever. What's the fast way to do this on modern PCs, either Windows or Linux? I've got a BBC Basic Interpreter for the PC that my dad and I wrote, and that has stuff like "MODE 1" and "PLOT 69,100,100", so I can do it, but the BBC basic language is a bit klunky nowadays.

    ps. Anyone want a copy?

    • I've got a BBC Basic Interpreter for the PC that my dad and I wrote, and that has stuff like "MODE 1" and "PLOT 69,100,100", so I can do it, but the BBC basic language is a bit klunky nowadays.

      ps. Anyone want a copy?


      Heck yeah. I also need to find a Beeb emulator that will run Elite, and I'd really like to find a way to dump my Elite disc image out to an 80-track floppy so I can play on the model B I have sitting in the basement.

      • Heck yeah. I also need to find a Beeb emulator that will run Elite,
        Email me, and I'll tell you where to find BBasic, as it's not quite ready for prime-time. As to emulation, I use Horizon, which has disappeared from the web unfortunately. Try Ian Bell's home page. I've just started running "Elite- the New Kind" which is at http://www.newkind.co.uk [newkind.co.uk] which is a complete port of BBC Elite to the PC. It's fantastic.
    • Start->Windows->Accessories->Paint
    • On Linux:
      1. SDL [libsdl.org] + C lets you do graphical stuff. It's not as simple as you want, but after a few days of immersion it's straightforward.
      2. Postscript (via ghostscript). Type 'gs' and a window will pop up. At the prompt, type:

        1 0 0 setrgbcolor /Times-Roman findfont 30 scalefont setfont 100 100 moveto (Hello) show to put some text on the screen. Type 200 200 moveto 200 300 lineto 300 300 lineto 300 200 lineto 200 200 lineto stroke to draw a box. Adobe has a postscript tutorial on their site. If you stick your commands in a file, it's a postscript program. You can print it on a postscript printer, or run it through ghostscript to create an image, or distill it into a PDF.
        Or try this:/red 0 def /green 0 def /x 0 def 0 1 10 { x 400 moveto red green 0.5 setrgbcolor 0 100 rlineto stroke /x 15 x add def /red red 0.1 add def /green green 0.1 sub def } for for a set of colored stripes.
  • I modified the Gift exemption voucher [adbusters.org] saying that the people I give it to don't have to give me anything for xmas or my birthday. I still give them gifts, until they reciprocate with a similar voucher (only 1 person so far). What I do now is buy stuff throughout the year when I see something I know that person might appreciate, which means I'm buying them more presents now :)

    "He who possesses little is so much the less possessed... Thus spoke Zarathustra."

  • Hackables abound. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Mentifex ( 187202 ) on Saturday October 20, 2001 @09:25AM (#2454422) Homepage Journal

    http://www.homestead.com/hackfurby/ [homestead.com] is the classic Hack Furby website by John Tokash.

    You can also hack the Cue:Cat, the LEGO Mindstorms kit, and the entire universe of reality in what is called reality hacking -- just don't collapse the wave function, or poof! we will all disappear.

    But the coolest, technologically most disruptive hack has got to be the hacking of the Artificial Mind at http://sourceforge.net/projects/mind [sourceforge.net] where 350 plus open source AI projects are rushing to bring you the ultimate Christmas present of the Technological Singularity [caltech.edu].

  • I am quite impressed with OpenCores [opencores.org]. To test their cores you will need some kind of advanced EPROM-burner. I am not aware of the price of this, but you could ask OpenCores.

    Wouldn't it be fun to be able to run free software on free hardware?

  • How about a TI-85? (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Works for us college kids....
  • If I had a Commodore 128D with the monitor and all of the disks working, I could have some serious hacking fun.

    Ah I remember the things I used to get up to with my C64 (One of my first hackable Christmas presents). Then when the Commodore 128 came out I did some pretty cool hacks to the Machines in display in K-mart. But not as nasty as what I did to the TRS machines in Radio Shack! Those where the days.

    Maybe a G3 phone direct from Japan could be fun or going to Japan this Christmas might be fun especially in Akihabara.
  • check out the boards and the local computer fairs for old laptops, the black and white 486's are really cheap.

    then see what you can get done with 'em. home made internet appliances, email stations, mp3 songlist fetching and playing from bathroom, whatever...

    i am thinking of taking an anchient winbook with infra red and 10baseT and useing it as a master remote control unit.

    but it won't be able to get me my beloved grey goose and lemonades... which is why i posted all those robot links earlier... gearheads? build/sell me a bartender.
  • I wanted to be terse. But slashdot refuses messages that are shorter than the subject and/or written in less than 20 seconds.
    • Perhaps one of those Intel microsocopes that you run from your PC? (I don't know if the intel is any good - anyone got a better suggestion?)

      Or, on the more macro scale, one of those telescopes that are similarly ran int he same way.

  • Get a Sun UltraSPARC box! (Score:3, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 20, 2001 @10:05AM (#2454472)
    You can get a Sun Blade 100 for less than a $1000.
    The Blade 100 is a fine machine, it has a
    64-bit Sun UltraSPARC-II CPU (500MHz) inside,
    an IDE disk, CD-ROM drive and even a soundcard!
    It makes a perfect 64-bit workstation. Don't
    bother with a Sun monitor though, they are too
    expensive for no good reason; you'll be better
    off with a normal PC monitor.

    The CPU is not particularly fast for everyday
    tasks, but floating point and integer maths
    performance rocks ("openssl speed" beats an
    Intel PIII 600MHz by a factor of three!)

    A very nice Christmas gift indeed.
  • I know, I'm on slashdot.org, but does it have to be always somethings hackable? What's up with something different? The new Pennywsie Album (you can ogg it if you want to), tickets to next years warped tour ;) etc. There are so many cool things that are nor hackable...
    I prefer buying hackable things by myself.
    X

  • 3Com Audrey = $120 (Score:5, Informative)

    by ChrisCampbell47 ( 181542 ) on Saturday October 20, 2001 @10:10AM (#2454476)
    3Com Audrey. 25,000 built, failed in the market, currently being liquidated at 80% discount via TigerDirect.com. By the $90 unit and the $30 ethernet adapter.

    Then, hack it:

    We've already got various customization hacks worked out. It's only a matter of time before someone figures out how to:

    • Add a hard drive
    • Add 802.11b
    • Get Linux running on it

    Supplies are dwindling. You may want to go ahead and by one (or four) now.

    • That looks great.

      I would buy one now but they dont seem to ship to the uk :(

    • Re:3Com Audrey = $120 (Score:3, Interesting)

      by YKnot ( 181580 )
      I want one. Problem is, I am in Germany and TigerDirect will only take international orders by phone and they are very vague about additional handling and shipping charges, customs and taxes. Does anyone have advice about these topics, especially taxes and customs? I don't want to end up paying twice the price of the product in additional charges, just to get it to this side of the pond. That would kind of ruin the price/performance of the deal. Are there online services which handle international shippings for a reasonable fee and provide the knowhow upfront? Damn, I really want one.
  • Would be kinda neat to take apart a GBA and try to get it to run other things-- nothing in particular jumps to mind, but hey, at $100, why not buy extra parts and try building something like the old GB camera for it?
    Or, y'know, you could blow the other $200 on games and take your mind off work once in a while.

  • MP3 Player (Score:4, Interesting)

    by pjrc ( 134994 ) <paul@pjrc.com> on Saturday October 20, 2001 @10:34AM (#2454505) Homepage Journal
    An open-source MP3 player circuit board, perhaps? [pjrc.com]


    Ok, mod be down for shameless self promotion! But you gotta admit, it doesn't get much more hackable than this.

  • The IPAQ 3635 is a mid range PDA for which linux is available. 16MB Flash, 32MB RAM, and a host of other niceties.

    Right now it can be had for $450 or less new at some places, and compaq has a $150 rebate on this model, lowering it further to $300 or so. Hacking Linux on it would be great fun, and the hardware is pretty much exposed to the world, so hacking the hardware (if you're into that) can yield a great deal of fun as well.

    -Adam

    "Okay, we've destroyed his credit rating, repo'd his car, owes money to an escort agency, and is a wanted felon. What else?"
    "List him as pregnant."
    -UserFriendly
  • I've got a dreamcast, and I've read those things can be hacked pretty well, I've seen web servers, linux distributions, and more running on it. I bet if you learned the hardware better, you could spend quite a long time with it. and they're only 80 bucks, now :)
  • What about a Apple Newton?? Lots on ebay, very tough, multithreading, 166Mhz ARM (a real one, not Intel half CISC one...), lovely to use (very impressive actually). I even think it's better than EPOC. I haven't looked under yet though...

  • palm pilot / hanspring / some sort of palmos (Score:3, Informative)

    by StandardDeviant ( 122674 ) on Saturday October 20, 2001 @10:43AM (#2454521) Homepage Journal
    I mean, there are a ton of ways to program the little guys, and it's vaguely practical too. And of course people have used them to drive robots and stuff using their onboard serial/usb port. I picked up a handspring deluxe for <$100 a week ago at Fry's.

    Here's some programming-palm linkage:
    Lisp (scheme) [lispme.de]
    waba -- micro JVM (~71k), quite cool if you're into Java [wabasoft.com]
    extra classes and tools that work with waba, really nice data storage classes for example [uwa.edu.au]
    a ui gen program for waba, written in waba :-) [c2i.net]
    super waba, a bigger derivation of waba [superwaba.org]
    waba community site [wabaworkbench.com]
    [yeah, I've been having lots of fun with waba :) ]

    All of the above is free (beer & speech). LispMe you can actually hack code ON the pda. PocketC [orbworks.com] also allows you to hack code on the pda, but it is shareware (not _that_ expensive, about $18 iirc, the runtime is free). The java stuff you compile on your machine and HotSync across onto the target. And of course both Palm and Handspring have developer sections on their sites with tool stuff and doc sets you can nab for free.

  • Wait until Tuesday Afternoon to make up your list! (Score:3, Informative)

    by Knobby ( 71829 ) on Saturday October 20, 2001 @11:11AM (#2454561)

    Alright, usually I wouldn't post something like this, but you may want to wait until Tuesday afternoon before submitting your holiday wish list to your significant other.. Why you ask?

    Apparently, Apple is planning to announce some "breakthrough Digital Hub" device.. There's a lot of speculation floating around, and rumors that Apple's iTunes, Quicktime, and "another unnamed project" group are responsible for whatever this thing does.. I'm going to spread anything specific, but I wouldn't be surprised if Apple releases a consumer machine based on a combination of the cube and the iMac to replace the iMac.. WHo knows what Apple's up to, but I'd pass this along so you aren't kicking yourself for turning in the list a day early..


  • The Game Boy Advance and Color (especially) are inexpensive and very well documented. The GBA has an ARM processor which is pretty reasonable, and the GBC has a Z80-like chip which is more "retro". Both are fun. (Expect to pay another $100 or so for a kit to read/write cartridges.)

    • The Game Boy Advance and Color (especially) are inexpensive and very well documented. The GBA has an ARM processor

      I can speak from experience. GBA is a joy to program for; it's much like programming an MS-DOS PC in C, as once you get your libraries done, everything else is pretty smooth. Start here [gbadev.org] for tools and documentation, and go here [qksrv.net] for hardware, specifically the MBV2 cable (load 256 KB programs directly into GBA's RAM) and the Flash Linker (load up to 128 Mbit (16 MB) programs into a flash cartridge). However, try to buy them sooner rather than later, as Nintendo will try to sue the makers out of existence, claiming that the devices are suitable "only for piracy [nintendo.com]" and ignoring the homebrew development scene.

  • The challenge [afu.com] may have been won, already, but the price meets your criteria. Maybe you could add memory, install Linux and make it your personal slave. All that love and at garage sale prices, too!
  • you want hackable eh? well do i ever have a product for you

    get a big giant clever for christmas (do they still make ginsu knives?)

    then get a nice big hunking slab of meat

    and hack away!

  • Pocket PC! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by dasmegabyte ( 267018 ) <das@OHNOWHATSTHISdasmegabyte.org> on Saturday October 20, 2001 @11:42AM (#2454611) Homepage Journal
    I just love hacking around in my cassiopeia. Not only is it nice and small so it can be played with wherever, but it has an easy to use ide (embedded visual studio) and a serial port just waiting to be hacked. I've convered it into a mini code reader and have been working on writing software to make the unit act as an oscilloscope.

    The price? Well...a new one's going to run you about 500$, but we don't need a new one...we need something we can conscientiously hack. Mine was a refurb developer's model which cost my lovely mother $200 with a 90 day warranty direct from casio.com.
  • You just can't beat the Dreamcast [dcemulation.com] for a cheap machine to hook up to your TV or stereo and do cool stuff with. The Cybiko [cybikoxtreme.com] has all sorts of wireless Gnutellaish potential. If you are looking for a machine that will be otherwise usefull, all the latest cell phones support J2ME [sun.com], which could be used to build any number of cool things.
  • Hack the Boogie Bass!!
    Slashdot had a post regarding the hack of a boogie bass last January. http://www.ai.mit.edu/~vona/bass/bass.html
    I read this post with virtually no sleep for a couple days and it seemed like the ultimate project. Hang one in you cube!!

  • Vectrex (Score:2, Informative)

    by Grr ( 15821 )
    Is the machine I always considered the ultimate hacking challenge. It's pretty unorthodox with it's vector display and gives a great perspective on the road PC technology could have taken. Also there's lots of info [roachnest.com] on it, because nearly everyone that has one uses it as a hacking project.

  • CerfCube (Score:2, Informative)

    by anguish feast ( 250701 )

    I've been eyeing up Intrinsyc's CerfCube [intrinsyc.com]. It cost $379 but it's worth a look. There was an thread on /. a couple months ago so maybe some /.ers can give you some first hand feedback.

    Or maybe you want to consider Buy Nothing Day [adbusters.org]. If so, get you Christmas Gift Exemption Voucher [adbusters.org] here [adbusters.org].

  • Great Attitude (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    "While sitting thru various classes..I started wondering today what I'll drop hints to people with money for what to get me for Christmas..I want something to hack on and with..but preferably in the sub $300 dollar category.

    How about you ask for a cure for your greed?

  • Hack a Gamecube! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by 2nd Post! ( 213333 ) <gundbear.pacbell@net> on Saturday October 20, 2001 @12:06PM (#2454661) Homepage
    It's a ~$200 machine...

    It's PPC (Okay, not MIPS or ARM), but wouldn't it be cool to get OS X, or at least Darwin, running on it?

    It's got DVD (sorta), a G3, an ATI chipset... and since Darwin *is* Open Source, it's entirely possible to get Darwin running on it.

    It may be possible, once Darwin runs, to get OS X to run!

  • dyi-battle bot (Score:3, Funny)

    by Dr. Galazkiewicz ( 91111 ) <dgo@technologist.com> on Saturday October 20, 2001 @01:32PM (#2454830) Homepage
    Why get a computer? Last week I bought an electric wheel chair, complete and working. I allready have a second hand R/C aircraft radio and some wheels.

    This isn't much different from hacking 300a's(drilling & welding) to run in SMP.

    Sure it will not run linux, but it will scare the crap out of the familty pet.
  • I hear B.I.O. Bugs [wowwee.com] are quite hackable, and are based on work by roboticist Mark Tilden.

    The SliMP3 [slimdevices.com] is quite hackable, as the code's all in Perl (see the developer's list [yahoo.com]).

    LEGO MindStorms [lego.com] are a perennial favorite, and are extremely hackable [crynwr.com].

    And let's not forget TiVo [tivo.com], which is a hacker's playground [tivofaq.com].

    Finally, one of the new Compaq iPaqs [amazon.com] can be hours of fun once you install Linux on it [handhelds.org] and begin having wireless fun with it [bitshift.org].
  • If so, you may get something hackable. On the other hand if you ever posted as AC or was a bad boy, all you'll get is a lump of coal.

  • Two suggestions: TiVo and/or DirecTV (Score:3, Interesting)

    by nlh ( 80031 ) on Saturday October 20, 2001 @03:51PM (#2455062) Homepage
    I have two suggestions (or three depending on how you look at them), based on recent experiences.

    One is legal, the other isn't quite (unless you're in Canada)

    1) TiVo: As has been discussed quite often on here, the TiVo is a fun little toy that you can get for ~$200 at your local electronics megastore. It's a linux box inside, and you can do lots with it (drop it to shell, add additional hard drives, install Ethernet (TiVoNet) and stream stored MPEG files to your other PCs on a LAN, etc.). Check out these links for more info:

    http://www.tivofaq.com/hack/ [tivofaq.com]
    http://slashdot.org/search.pl?query=TiVo [slashdot.org]

    2) DirecTV. This is slightly shady, but still loads of fun. There's a large community of people out there (mostly in Canada, where they don't sell DirecTV service so they're forced to hack it) who spend inordinate amounts of time learning about the DirecTV datastream and how to do crazy things with it. For ~$400, you can get a complete setup tha includes an 'Emulator' that allows you to unlock all channels. The more interesting part is how emulators work (they involve having a Pentium-class PC emulate some functions of the DirecTV access card).

    For $80 (for the dish and IRD) + $300 (for an H-Card, emulator hardware, and a cheap $30 emulator PC from eBay) you can have the whole thing, wires, bare circuit boards and all, sitting in your living room. Check these:

    http://www.hackhu.com/ [hackhu.com]
    http://slashdot.org/search.pl?query=DirecTV [slashdot.org]

    3) This is the hybrid: There's a box out there called a DirecTiVo that combines a TiVo and a DirecTV box (hence the name). If you wish, you can combine these two hacks into one piece of hardware (DirecTiVo boxes support both TiVo tinkering and DirecTV emulation). Neat-o.

    --noah
  • There are lots of web pages with poinetrs to corss compilers for the Game Boy Advanced and development information. As I understant it, you can get a writable flash-cartridge for it for about $175.00

    So if you already have a PC to run the tolsl on thats about $275.00-- right in your budget range.

  • TiVo (Score:2, Informative)

    by rodsbooks ( 522589 )

    I've just bought a used TiVo for $100. New units go for between $100 (for a unit that's good only with DirecTV) to $500 or so. Hackable and new sub-$300 TiVos might include a 20-hour unit from Best Buy (IIRC) and a 30-hour unit from here. [tivo.com]

    Before going further, let me say just what a TiVo is. The one-sentence description is that it's a digital video recorder; it records TV shows to a hard disk much like a VCR records TV to a tape. This description doesn't do the device justice, though. To begin with, if you buffer your live TV through the TiVo, you can get VCR-like effects, such as pausing live TV, performing instant replays, rewinding, and running something in slow motion. You can then hit a button to catch up to the live broadcast during a boring stretch (like a commercial). The devices get even more interesting if you subscribe to the TiVo service, which is $10/month or $250 for a lifetime subscription. When you do this, the TiVo device calls in using a built-in modem once a day and downloads TV listings. You can then search them to find programs you want to watch (no more need for TV Guide or the like). You can tell the TiVo to record specific shows, or entire series. In the latter case, the TiVo will do so even if the show changes time slot (but not if it's rescheduled at the last minute, say because a sporting event runs over). You can tell it to search for shows or movies by title, actor name, and so on, so if you like, say, Sandra Bullock, you can feed that name into the unit and it'll record all her films that it finds in the listings. You can tell the TiVo to record "suggestions," which are programs that match your profile of likes and dislikes that it builds up if you give ratings to shows.

    Anyhow, TiVos are very hackable. They run on Linux, and use a 50MHz PowerPC CPU. Among other things, you can add or replace a hard drive. [newreleasesvideo.com] You might therefore get a low-end TiVo and expand it to over 100 hours capacity for the cost of an 80GB hard disk. You can also add an Ethernet card [9thtee.com] to connect the thing permanently to your LAN. (Even without the Ethernet card, you can get a bash prompt or PPP connection over its serial port.) There's a TiVo hacking FAQ [tivofaq.com] available. It's a bit outdated in some important ways, but it's a good way to get a feel for what you can do with the device.

    FWIW, I've not yet hacked my TiVo in any way (I've had it for just a few days), but I plan to upgrade the hard disk and get a serial connection going within a week or so.

  • Hacking. (Score:2, Funny)

    by chris_sawtell ( 10326 )
    Get yourself a cpu chip, a bundle of ICs and wire-wrap sockets, some board to hold the whole thing together, and a power-supply from a scrap PC.

    For the cpu the 6809 - if you can still get them - is a really lovely set of instructions. Another possibility is an RCA 1802 or whatever is available nowadays. Another set of instructions with power beyond anything else at the time. Now hack away. Think of a FORTH-like inner interpreter for the 1802/Cosmac in less than 40 bytes! I made a multi-channel datalogger with one of those with only 256 bytes of RAM and 2k bytes of ROM. Those were the ( good old ? ) days of hacking. Forget distractions like Chistmas and new fangled notions like Linux until at least next February. Have some real fun.

  • Basic Stamp, PC/104 (Score:2, Interesting)

    by cfulmer ( 3166 )
    Basic stamp microcontroller (www.parallaxinc.com).

    Gotta get your feet a little dirty with both hardware and software.

    PC/104 embedded processors and modules. www.pc104.org.

  • The Tuxscreen!!!!!!!! (Score:2, Informative)

    by digit ( 3825 )
    The Tuxscreen is ARM and only $99!!
    go to tuxscreen.net
  • It still seems to be relatively easy to find old 8-bit systems at thrift stores, swap meets, electronic junk store type places, auctions, etc; chances are you could pick up a Vic-20 or Atari [48]00 or TI/99-4A, and give someone a real trip down memory lane.


    Most of the old systems were pretty much self-sufficient, so it's just a matter of hooking them up to the TV, plugging them in, and turning them on...no need to load editors, compilers, etc since BASIC was in ROM and ready to go at powerup.


    And regarding BASIC, I can hear the sneering already, but think of it as a challenge: what's more likely to be a fun hack, writing C++ for an embedded system (in days when that can mean a Pentium-class CPU, megs of memory, even running Linux) or making a Timex-Sinclair do something cool with only 2K memory and BASIC to work with?

  • These cameras support "scripting":

    KODAK DC290

    KODAK DC265

    KODAK DC260

    KODAK DC220

    With GPS coords I can create a map of the places
    I've been. Click on the map and it'll show the pictures taken there (or near there). Not sure what processor they use though???

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