Testing Grounds

Normally I don’t delve into current events, or for that matter any event. I like to give information on technical problems and show people how to do projects on my blog. But while I was traveling through a Meijer store a week ago I found something so ironic it needed to be shared on the internet. (For those of you who are not familiar with Meijers, it is a shopping center like Wal-Mart only based in the mid-western United States.) While looking to see if there were any PC games on clearance I passed by an inactive Xbox 360 display. But it wasn’t turned off, the Xbox on display was just suffering a disturbingly common problem called the Red Ring of Death.

I think it is funny how a store expects you to buy a product that has obvious flaws. True, microsoft is addressing those problems, but that still didn’t stifle the chuckle I got walking by this.

Oh yea, I’ve heard from reliable sources that Meijers has let this go on since at least December. Great business practice.

And if you think that was photoshoped, here is the video:

Many people have heard about how to format a hard drive. Some mistakenly believe that just because you can’t view your data, that means its not there anymore. Formatting C:/ does nothing but delete the references to your data, the data is still there for people to find if they are looking for it. There are many programs that can detect this data and recover it – for both good and bad purposes. I know of a few live Linux installs that can do this, see my earlier about live Linux CD’s for those those.

I would like to mention that there is no sure-fire way of deleting data from magnetic media. If you overwrite it, delete it, or wipe it, there will always be a way to recover the original data. However, there is a bright side to that flaw, just because you can recover it, doesn’t mean it will be cost productive for a thief or other interested party to do so. The following tip will help reduce the likelihood of data recovery, but once again there is no sure fire way of protecting your magnetic data – short of igniting a pound of thermite over your hard drive and melting it.

If you are selling your computer you either want to wipe the hard drive completely, or destroy it and make the buyer get their own. Personally, I like taking the hard drive out and making a clock out of it. But for those who need to sell the hard drive too, here is a free (I’m all about some free) program that has 4 built in flavors of wiping your hard drive – or just individual files. It’s called Eraser, and its homepage is here:

http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/

Eraser uses 4 main algorithms that overwrite the data you tell it to. It will overwrite 1, 5, 7, or 35 times. The 1st option uses only random data to overwrite the data, the second and third options use a Department of Defense algorithm, and the last one uses the Gutmann method. It is one of the best methods out there to reduce the likelihood of data recovery.

With Eraser you can create automated erasure events, erase the free space on your hard drive, and choose a custom method for erasing. Meaning that you can customize the number of times Eraser overwrites data. It can be set anywhere from 1 to something around 999,999 times. Needless to say, It would take a long time for your hard drive to complete that many cycles, but if you had something you absolutely had to make sure that nobody ever saw, you might need to pick that option.

What I like most about Eraser is the addition of an “Erase” option when you left click on files and folders in Windows. I never “delete” anything anymore, I erase it.

You may have heard the various exploits of PC modders out there who decide to get a clear acrylic case and turn their computers into oil filled silent machines of death and destruction. The problem with most of them is that they are filled with vegetable oil, or some other heavily organic oil that will spoil after a month or two and needs to be replaced. There is an easier alternative: Mineral Oil. It doesn’t spoil, it doesn’t smell, and it is absolutely crystal clear and has the appearance of water. Which begs the question, why not put a computer in an aquarium filled with mineral oil?

Well that’s what my friend, the admin of leetupload.com, and I did. We got our inspiration from http://www.pugetsystems.com/submerged.php and made a few changes of our own.

This project is so unnatural, it defies logic. Drop an expensive piece of electronics INTO A VAT OF CLEAR LIQUID?!?!? WHATS WRONG WITH YOU MAN?!?

Nothing, mineral oil is an insulator. This means it has no effect on electronic equipment. Gotta love chemistry and physics.

If you are going to attempt this project on your own, here are a few things to keep in mind:

1. If you have all of the hardware necessary (a computer), it will cost you about $30 to get a 5 gallon aquarium from somewhere like K-Mart or Wal-Mart.
2. Finding 5 gallons of mineral oil is INSANELY HARD. It is considered a strong laxative, and can be used on horses. Some farm equipment dealers might have gallon jugs for about $11 apiece, or you can do what we had to do, and buy 37 individual pints and buy out two Wal-Marts and a K-Mart worth of mineral oil:

That’s a LOT of laxative. The total was just a tick over $60 for that, Which brings the total cost of the project to about $90 – $100

Ok, now to get started on putting the computer into the aquarium. I used a sheet of plexiglass to hold the motherboard in place, so that way when it is filled with mineral oil, the mobo will appear to be floating.

I scored onto the plexiglass where the screw holes on the motherboard are, and drilled where it was scored, so that way I could screw the motherboard onto the plexiglass. If you are doing this project, DO NOT try to screw the motherboard onto the plexi without drilling it first! It will crack!

Check out how the power supply will fit at the bottom:

Then see how the plexi/mobo combo fit into the aquarium with the power supply:

Now your probably wondering how we kept the plexi upright? Do you see that piece of duct-tape holding a clear cube up towards the top of the mobo? I super glued 4 pieces of plexiglass together, glued that onto the plexi/mobo, and am getting ready to glue that to the side of the aquarium.

We got lucky and the aquarium came with a suitable top to seal everything up in nicely. It even had a place where we could have the exit to the cables, but it was in the wrong spot. So I fixed that with a dremel and a carbide bit:

Here is what it looks like from the top:

We made absolutely sure the glue is dry before we continued. There was a gap of about 3 days before we began the next phase of the project. After you connect all of the cables, fans, and other junk, its time to put the oil in. We decided to just go for it rather than test it out, and everything turned out fine. The following pictures are of us filling it with mineral oil, and it still working.

Before oil:

Monitor with dry computer, with bag underneath to prevent spillage from harming the floor.

It boots before the oil:

Trust me, use a funnel

Linux boot screen:

From the back:

The hard drive needs to be outside of the oil. There is a membrane pressure switch that will shutdown the hard drive if it is submerged in anything.

Had to hot glue the wires and everything on the top. This was to seal it in case of accidental bumping, and help prevents what little evaporation will happen over the years:

After we emptied the bottles:

And just in case you don’t believe us, here is some video proof. Pay special attention to how smoothly the fans operate in the oil, and the ripples they make in it:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uV6uGihVQN8]
Here is the leetupload.com tutorial on how to do the project.
http://www.leetupload.com/tutorials/1337_fleet/

Please Digg this story at: http://digg.com/mods/Oil_Cooled_PC_5_Gallons_of_Silent_Death

Have an old Quantum Fireball laying around collecting dust? Does that 1990′s era, 4 GB hard drive in your desk drawer make you laugh when you think of your 1 TB RAID Array? Well turn it into something useful! This tutorial will show you how to turn that craptastic HDD into a thing of beauty, a clock.

First lets get the material list. It is quite large, and depending on the hard drive you have, you may need more, or less. This is what I needed for a 9.something GB Quantum Fireball from 1998:

• Old/Neglected Hard drive
• Hammer
• Punch
• Drill
• Massive set of drill bits
• Hobby Lobby Clock kit ($5.99)
• Epoxy or other extremely strong glue
• Set of latex gloves (if you have superglue – I’ve glue my fingers together many a time)
• 3/8″ Drill bit capable of drilling through metal
• Parts dish
• Hack saw
• Nail file capable of filing metal
• 2 Hours of free time
• a vice
• 6 inches of stranded copper wire

I think that’s it. A lot of stuff eh? But its worth it, you will be known as the classy geek.

Take all the screws on the outside that you can see off. Then take the ones that you can’t see off. These will be hidden under stickers that said “Warranty Void If Removed”. Screw warranties, we’re making a clock! When you’re done, it should look like this:

Concentrate on the read write head block in the lower left hand corner of the HDD. Take off all the screws circled:

Now you can take that 1st metal piece off. It will have one of the most powerful magnets you have ever seen, and it will take some prying to get off. If it looks like there are no screws holding it together – there isn’t any – its just how powerful the magnet is.

Now take off the final screw holding it all together. Then pop out the read/write block from the HDD. It should now look like this:

Now, start dissembling the screws holding the HDD platters in.

Once that is done, remove all the metal pieces holding the platters in, remove the platters, and you should have this:

Now you get to hammer stuff! See how there is no convenient hole in the middle there to put the shaft of the clock mechanism? Make one. If you’re lucky, the next step will make a hole big enough. If your not, follow the step after and drill a hole in the middle.

Flip the HDD around and use a punch to hammer out the spindle shaft:

When that is accomplished flip it over and take the spindle assembly off:

NOW you have a hole to put a clock mechanism into. Or do you? In this case the hole is not big enough. This is where the drill bit comes in handy:

The Hobby Lobby clock mechanism is roughly 3/8″ wide. I have that size drill bit, so i drilled and hollowed it out a bit:

Now get your epoxy/superglue and glue the clock mechanism face:

And put that on the back of the HDD:

Depending on which glue you chose, wait until it is completely dry. In the meantime, working on the clock hands would be a good idea. Put the read/write heads in the vice and stark hacking each individual head off:

With the two heads that will become the minute and hour hands separated from the rest of the read/write block, file one down until it is short and the size of an hour hand:

Use some super glue or epoxy to affix these to their respective parts in the Hobby Lobby clock kit. Depending on your tastes, you might want to snap off part of the hands and glue it directly to the base of the ring that connects the hands to the clock mechanism (That’s what I did).

Now start work on the second hand. Take a stranded copper wire, and wrap it around the second hand until it is completely covered – then snap off the excess at the other side of the base:

Do you remember some of the leftover parts you had when you took the platters off of the spindle? There should be 2 rings that just barely cover the edges of the platters. Glue two of them together to make one big one, this will keep the platter off of the hard drive case, and make it look better:

When that sets, glue that spindle to the HDD platter of your choice:

Glue that platter to the HDD case:

Now your clock hands should be dry enough to handle. Put those onto the mechanism
poking out through the hole in the middle:

Polish the surface up a bit, and add the second hand and a battery – and guess what? YOU’RE DONE! Congratulations, you have an awesome bit of geek hardware!

First, let me define what war-driving is. Its where someone drives around and tries to find a Wi-Fi hotspot in a neighborhood, business, park, whatever. They want free Internet access – or if they are a different kind of person, they want to intercept information that could compromise your passwords, online bank accounts, even your identity. There are ways to protect yourself from these people using software that helps to encrypt your traffic. I’m not much of a software guy, so I’ll go into the hardware options.

• Wi-Fi Paint
• New invention, you can either buy paint, or an additive that you add to latex paint

• A physical sheet of metal, such as sheet aluminum, aluminum foil, brass screen, or any other metal that can be used as a Faraday cage.

I have no experience with the first option. It seems rather simple, the concept is that it it turns the paint in your home or office into a Faraday cage. If you don’t know what that is, check out the Wikipedia article here.

What I do have experience with, is the sheet metal option. If you go to your local hardware store you can find some aluminum flashing. This stuff is awesome. You can make just about anything with it, but it comes in especially handy with this hardware mod. The design I am showing in this post is for one-directional shielding. If you have a road near your house, this is a good thing to have. Or if you suspect a neighbor is dropping in on your wi-fi, use this to block him/her out.

WARNING! USE GLOVES! SHEET METAL IS EXTREMELY SHARP AND EVEN IF YOU ARE CAREFUL, YOU WILL GET CUT! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

I think I got it from Home Depot a few years ago, can’t remember. Anyway, you need to cut a section about 1.5′ by 10″ and fold it into thirds, kind of like an open tri-fold board. then trace the bottom of that onto a second piece of aluminum, cut that out, and put that on the bottom like so:

now, you can do a few different things depending on your resources. You can epoxy the two sheets of metal together, duct tape them, aluminum tape them, or if your like me – do all three. Let’s see how that’s done shall we?

Glue the bottom:

Use aluminum tape to tape the sides, this will prevent any excess radiation from leaking through the tiniest of cracks. It is used for the ducts in your house, but i love using it for just about anything.

Now, the reason for the duct tape. If your actually doing this project, and have it in front of you, you will realize that the edges are insanely sharp. If you have a small child, dog, or pet rodent around, its probably not the safest thing. So you have to idiot proof the thing with even more tape:

Now its relatively safe.

I’ve experimented with different positions and the results they give, and found that this configuration with your wireless router is the best:

Depending on if you have a second story on your house or not, you might not want the top as I have it. If your wondering on what proof I have, here is photographic evidence that you have not just wasted your time, and that in fact, that piece of metal actually does something:

BEFORE:

(This is a hotspot finder available at electronics stores)

AFTER:

So it looks like it cut it in half. The difference was probably greater, because I live in a suburban neighborhood, I may have been picking up a neighbor’s wi-fi and not my own. I like to think this because sitting in my living room on a good day I can find about 5 routers to connect to. Hope you have as much luck as I did.