Simple Machine

No doubt you've seen some of the hack logs being released. One part that stands out over and over again is the heavy database usage. It used to be early on that virus and hackers would destroy data, usually just for lulz. However, with the explosive commercial growth of the In ...more

In a previous article, I showed how to make a powerful airsoft BB machine gun with a portable air supply using about $50 worth of PVC and air fittings. For this project, I have simplified the design to make a machine gun out of only 4 parts totaling about $15 that runs directl ...more

Have you ever been away from home or on holiday and noticed an open network connection? FREE INTERNET! But then you find out that every search or page redirects you to an "enter password" or "signup here" page. Well, there are ways around this. In this article, I'll show you ...more

Welcome to Minecraft World! Check out our advanced tutorials and come play on our free server. While it may first appear complex, the Multi-Channel music sequencer made famous by User FVDisco is rather simple in principle. It relies on proper combination of timing and tone to ...more

Welcome to Minecraft World! Check out our advanced tutorials and come play on our free server. Real time redstone clocks are a marvel of redstone technology. Not only can they keep track of time, they are capable of powering other more complicated redstone machines. Regardles ...more

Welcome to Minecraft World! Check out our advanced tutorials and come play on our free server. As we all know, redstone can be a very useful tool for make basic things in Minecraft more complex and intricate. For beginners to redstone, today's article will give you a basic un ...more

Big Block Games has a pretty good indie track record. They've spent years developing their fun free-roving space game, Black Market, which is still in Beta. And they've spent just as much time with their much simpler, but fully completed physics platformer, Super Goblin War Ma ...more

Security awareness seems to be a hot topic these days on the web, with developers making apps and devices that can hack networks and machines with just a few clicks. But these applications aren't only exploiting security flaws in systems and networks, they're being used by ama ...more

There's no doubt about it—the most elite military force in the United States is hands down, the Navy SEALs. They can operate at sea, in the air and on land, and their ability to conduct missions underwater separates them from most other military units in the world. They've fou ...more

In Google definitions a macro is defined as "a single computer instruction that results in a series of instructions in machine language". Basically a macro is a programming script that tells the computer what to do. You can tell a computer (via a macro) to move a mouse, click, ...more

It's really a shame that it is so hard for people to make money on the internet these days. The dot com bubble has receded and scams are plentiful on the web. There are, however, a couple of legitimate ways to make a few extra bucks online, Amazon Mechanical Turk, or MTurk for ...more

It may look like a modern take on Oliver Twist but, we assure you, this is for real. Before you get too alarmed, however, you should note that the headline reads "how to steal cars" and not simply "to steal cars." We are, after all, dealing with the fine people at Machine Pro ...more

WonderHowTo is a how-to website made up of niche communities called Worlds, with topics ranging from Minecraft to science experiments to Scrabble and everything in-between. Check in every Wednesday evening for a roundup of user-run activities and how-to projects from the most ...more

Creating any object you want is as simple as point and click if you have a 3D printer at home. If you don't have one handy, there are a few companies that offer printing services online. But to help services realize your design in extruded plastic, you have to make a 3D comput ...more

You're sitting in front of your grandmother's Windows XP machine that has the worst infection you've ever seen. Safe mode? No dice. Restore points? They're compromised. Even worse, all of the files are hidden and none of the executables will run! This leaves her computer in a ...more

Big brother is watching when you're playing around on another system—and big brother is that system. Everything from operating systems to intrusion detection systems to database services are maintaining logs. Sometimes, these are error logs that can show attackers trying vario ...more

Here's a delicious Byte of information for you. A proof of concept program on Linux was coded to exploit a known bug in how the Linux Kernel (versions 2.6.39+) handles permissions for the /proc/pid/mem directory. /proc/pid/mem is an interface for reading and writing directly t ...more

Reverse shells are useful for issuing commands to a remote client when the client is behind something such as a NAT. You might say, "But can't a normal shell or simple SSH tunnel do the same thing?". No, it can't. All over the internet I see a lot of confusion regarding the di ...more

Time-lapse photography used to require expensive and dedicated equipment, but in today's futuristic world, we now have easy access to universal machines like the iPhone, which are pretty much tricorders. Reel Moments is a time-lapse app for the iPhone from Nexvio. It’s a ‘pic ...more

This is Null Byte's fourth part in a series about fully securing our computers (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3). In our last Null Byte, we went over how to encrypt an entire operating system to protect our data, however, this doesn't fully protect us. In the case of legal extortion, t ...more

Remember the good ol' days when you actually had to swipe your credit or debit card to make a payment at the store? Now all it takes is a flick of the wrist to purchase goods with your card, thanks to RFID (radio-frequency identification) technology from Chase (blink), Visa (p ...more

Check out this awesome Under the Sea themed party, hosted by Jessica of Party Box Designs: Theme: Under the Sea Colors/Patterns: Blue, Orange, Green, White, Polka Dots and Stripes Center Pieces: Tall Cylinder Vases with Goldfish, Sand and Seaweed Party Favors: Take Home Goldf ...more

The developer community has already made some incredibly quick progress on implementing assemblers, interpreters, and emulators for the proposed virtual computer in 0x10c, Notch's latest game. But the truth is that the majority of programmers out there couldn't be bothered wit ...more

Cryptography is a quintessential part of computer security in the modern world. Whenever you buy something on eBay or log into Facebook, that data is encrypted before it's sent to the server in order to prevent third parties from eavesdropping and stealing your sensitive infor ...more

Flash memory can be a tad unpredictable at times. I have had 4 flash drives die out on me over the last few years, and they usually die without warning. When a flash memory based device dies, the data is likely impossible to recover. Adversely on an HDD, or Hard Drive Disk, ev ...more

Big name individual hackers and hacker groups everywhere in the news are getting caught and thrown in jail. Everytime I see something like this happen, I won't lie, I get a little sad. Then I wonder, how are these guys getting caught? If a group like LulzSec, with all the fame ...more

You may have asked yourself, "How do hackers take my password, if the website owner can't?" The answer is simple. When a website stores your login password for the site, it is run through a cryptographic hash function before it enters the database (if the website isn't Sony). ...more

It's been an eventful week for Google+. Facebook decided to up its game and start rolling out several major updates intended to address privacy concerns. We got a glimpse into the future of Google+ via an insightful discussion between +Bradley Horowitz and +Tim O'Reilly. And G ...more

Since the beginning of last year, every six months or so the fine folks at Wolfire Games have gathered indie developers together to release a combo gaming pack called Humble Indie Bundle. Not only are the included games good, but the way one buys them is what makes Humble Indi ...more

Remember what life was like before your iPhone? Before there were palm-sized smartphones with seemingly endless features, there were phones like Motorola's RAZR that peaked with its embedded camera. Before that, there were simple flip phones with texting capabilities, bulky tw ...more

Whenever we make a homemade circuit, we use what are called through-hole components. Any components with long metal leads is a through-hole component. They are great for soldering to, but it's tough to fit enough through-hole resistors and capacitors into a smartphone. To get ...more

Fans of Doctor Who know that the sonic screwdriver is the ultimate tool. It can unlock doors, turn on lights, detect life forms, solder wires, and sabotage weapons. Presumably, the sonic screwdriver creates sonic vibrations to achieve whatever the doctor wants by vibrating th ...more

Microcontrollers are great. You can do anything from water your garden to catch wildlife trash diggers in the act—and on the cheap. I prefer to use the Arduino microcontroller because of the large and helpful community built around the website. Though it is my favorite, there ...more

If you are a pet owner, going on vacation can be stressful. Usually, you need a friend or neighbor to come over everyday and feed your pets. However, by enslaving robots you can keep your pet happy and enjoy a stress-free holiday. Today, we make an automatic pet feeder from c ...more

In my Wireshark article, we talked a little bit about packet sniffing, but we focused more on the underlying protocols and models. Now, I'd like to dive right back into Wireshark and start stealing packets. The filtering capabilities here are very comprehensive. You can filte ...more

If you've ever been inside of a real laboratory, you probably noticed how expensive the equipment is. You'd never be able to afford even just one of those ultra high-tech machines required to splice genes or split atoms. Even the lesser machines can be prohibitively costly, in ...more

Oh yeah, this is a big topic, at-least for me. All the frequent flyers will/should be interested in this topic. I'm sure all of you have heard at-least something about the TSA, and most of it should have been bad. Complaints, lawsuits and general disgust surround this organiza ...more

I may be a bit weird, but I enjoy listening to music at night as I fall asleep. Sure, you could create a playlist of songs so that it stopped after all the songs finished playing, but I have a rather extensive database of music and I enjoy listening to them randomly. Also, I l ...more

We're officially seeking Null Byters on a weekly basis who are willing to take the time to educate the community. Contributors will write tutorials, which will be featured on the Null Byte blog, as well as the front page of WonderHowTo (IF up to par, of course). There is no ne ...more

We're officially seeking Null Byters on a weekly basis who are willing to take the time to educate the community. Contributors will write tutorials, which will be featured on the Null Byte blog, as well as the front page of WonderHowTo (IF up to par, of course). There is no ne ...more

I have owned quite the plethora of electronics in my life. A commonality between most of these devices' screens is frozen or dead pixels. This is probably the most annoying thing about buying new hardware—your LCD, or worse, LED display has one or more pixels that continues to ...more

Are you finding that the Google+ features you've been waiting for are still not rolling out quickly enough for you? Although we've provided many solutions to Google+ issues with different Chrome extensions, it still seems like it's not enough. Now that we've been using Google+ ...more

A woman from space that who has been dead hundreds of years has been resurrected on the internet and you're the IT assigned to fight the viruses attacking her. Child of Eden is a mesmerizing musical game, with fluid animations, great game play, and lots of replay ability. Pla ...more

Wondering why your inbox is looking a little threadbare? It may be that you've violated a few unwritten rules of email etiquette. Here are a few basic tips that the web-savvy know by heart. Use "Reply All" Sparingly Let's begin with an example. Say that your boss emails a ne ...more

Technology: The Less You Know the Better? I'm sure everyone is now aware of GPS technologies and tracking techniques these days, with the release of numerous documents (even lawsuits) on big name companies like Apple, Microsoft, and Google. Yes, 2011 was a good year for eye-o ...more

WonderHowTo is a how-to website made up of niche communities called Worlds, with topics ranging from Minecraft to science experiments to Scrabble and everything in-between. Check in every Wednesday evening for a roundup of user-run activities and how-to projects from the most ...more