how-to take apart the Motorola XOOM & SparkFun Toolkit recommendation

how-to take apart the Motorola XOOM & SparkFun Toolkit recommendation

the original Motorola XOOM tablet is getting a bit old by mobile electronics standards, but it’s still a great tablet mainly thanks to several official OS upgrades (currently on early Jelly Bean), and plenty of unofficial ROM support. it had excellent specs when it launched (early 2011) and runs quite stable with moderate overclocking which …

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SparkFun third hand kit – better than a frozen rhesus monkey

SparkFun third hand kit – better than a frozen rhesus monkey

i purchased a SparkFun Third Hand Kit while on a Cyber Monday shopping spree this year. i’m not sure how i ever lived without one!

but what does it do?

it’s a better version of the infamous Helping Hands tool (you know the one that can never articulate just the way you need). useful for holding small parts …

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our new tortoiseshell cat is a bitch princess

our new tortoiseshell cat is a bitch princess

this is Pepper, or Princes Peppers as she has become more commonly called.

she is a tortoiseshell, or tortie for short. apparently torties are known for their tortitude, a fact i wasn’t aware of when we got her! more on that in a moment.

how did we end up with a dirt-colored princess?

my absolute best buddy of 13 years, …

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just make something!

just make something!

the maker/DIY trend isn’t about Arduinos or 3D printers. it’s not about laser cutters and hackerspaces. it’s about creating instead of just consuming.

you don’t have to be an artist or a scientist. many makers/hackers have both strong left and right brain tendencies. you also don’t need to know how to write code or operate a …

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a complete guide to hacking your vehicle bus on the cheap & easy – part 2 (interpreting the data)

a complete guide to hacking your vehicle bus on the cheap & easy – part 2 (interpreting the data)

in part 1 of this series, i covered the basics for how to interface with a vehicle bus using an inexpensive USB or Bluetooth ELM327-based scan tool. in part 2 below, i’ll go over how to actually use that hardware interface to collect and analyze data with the intention of discovering how to interact with …

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