Category: Gadgets

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Repair A Mouse With A Broken USB Cable

Recently a coworker of mine purchased a Logitech M500 corded mouse on Amazon. Its relatively inexpensive at $24.99 and perfect for office use.  As you can see from the image below, its a nice size mouse with a few extra buttons. I believe Logitech has been selling them for years.

Now I get why amazon has frustration free packing!

The mouse came in retail packing and upon cutting open the sealed packing he accidentally cut the USB connection off the mouse. He immediately tossed the mouse in the trash and proceeded to order a second. I saw this and said, hey don’t toss the mouse, let me attempt a repair.

Easy Mouse Repair

I considered soldering the wire back together, but that would prove to be messy and there would be a large bulge close to the base of the mouse. My second idea was simply to replace the entire USB cable from an older mouse that was sitting in my parts bin.

STEP 1 – Open the mouse

The Logitech M500 has the screws hiding under the 4 pads on the bottom of the mouse. Remove the 4 pads carefully and set aside. Then remove the 4 black screws to gain access to the mouse.

 

 

Carefully pry the top of the mouse away from the base to revile the internal components .

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Father’s Day Round Up! Great Gift Ideas For Dad

Father’s Day is approaching again and if you’re like me I always wonder what would be a good gift for Dad. There have been years where a bottle of wine was the gift of choice, or maybe a couple of dress shirts. How boring! Hopefully your Dad is as great as mine and not only deserves a fun cool gift, but would also appreciate your thoughtfulness.

Father’s Day Gift Ideas!

Is your Dad into computers? Maybe a fun USB drive would be the perfect gift? Low cost, yet thoughtful!

16GB Mercedes-Benz USB Flash Drive in the style of a Car Key!
$12.99 GeekGearStore.com

This is a very cool gift for Dad, especially if he drives a Benz and enjoys electronic gadgets. On sale at GeekGearStore.com $12.99 Continue reading “Father’s Day Round Up! Great Gift Ideas For Dad”

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Protect Your Internal Network With A LOW COST Honey Pot

It would appear that more and more companies and home users are becoming victim to bad actors intruding on their network. Weather it be a targeted attack or drive by malware, network security is a hot topic in today’s IT landscape. In this article I will describe how you can build a low cost Honey Pot that can help alert you to an intrusion before its too late.

What is a Honey Pot?

In simple terms a Honey Pot is a device  on your network that looks appetizing to a hacker.  Like drawing a bear to a pot of honey. This device will advertise services that appear vulnerable and maybe draw an attacker in for further investigation. At a minimum it can simply be used as an internal “trip wire” to alert you someone poking around.

Why does a honey pot work?

Stop Hackers WIth A Honey PotI’m Joe hacker and I have just installed malware on one of your employees workstations. I have quickly gained access and I am now able to execute code and commands. What is the first thing I’m going to do? If you said start poking around you would be correct. After I look for anything of value on my host computer I will quickly begin scanning the subnet looking for hosts that are alive. I will also begin mapping the network for services that are possibly vulnerable to attack. This is where the Honey Pot fits in. It has been patiently siting on your network waiting for someone to direct a packet of data in its direction and alert you to possible trouble.

I’m in! How much does a honey pot cost?

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A Blast From The Past – Panasonic Panapet Radio

I love when I find vintage electronics in the basement or back of my closet. During some recent spring cleaning I came across this 1970’s something Panasonic Panapet radio. In itself its not very remarkable, but when you think about how much technology has changed in the last 45 years its quite amazing. Also kind of funny that they named it “PANA”sonic “PET”

History Of The Panapet

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Fun Desk Clock From Recycled iPhone 5

Technology changes so fast, and we all want the latest gadget, but what is the cost of consuming so much? Big business wants us to keep buying devices, even if the old ones are still good. We wind up with millions of abandoned iPhones, Androids and tablets. Some are recycled responsibly while tens of thousands are just tossed in the trash or the back of your desk draw never to be seen again.   Here is a super simple way to recycle your old iPhone into a great retro looking desk clock.

Recycle Your iPhone into a clock – WHAT YOU NEED

 

I needed a stand for my clock and since my objective was to keep this project as simple and low cost as possible. I started with two 3×5 acrylic photo frames.

 

3×5 acrylic frame. Very low cost, about $5.00 at Amazon

 

You will also need 8 flat rare earth magnets (Neodymium) The stronger the magnets the better. Keep them small and flat, the actual shape round or square does not matter. $14.00 at Amazon

 

A little glue to hold it all together. I tend to like GOOP, but any strong adhesive should do. Goop at Amazon $ 11.00

 

 

The last two items you probably have around the house.

  • A colored spay paint for tinting the acrylic frames, I used black.
  • Some type of counter weight for the back of the stand to give it stability, I used a pair of hard drive spindle motors.
Putting it together

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Who Holds Amazon Accountable For Screw-ups?

I may just letting my misguided anger write this post. Let me first say I am a HUGE fan of Amazon and have spent over $6,500 on “stuff” in the last year. In the Amazon balance sheet that’s like finding a penny on the floor for you and I, however to me $6k is a good chunk of change.

How often does the giant make mistakes? And what recourse do we have as consumers? The simple answer is don’t shop at Amazon, but I would expect that to be hard to do. Even my parents who are terrified of someone getting their credit card number online shop Amazon.

Lost.. Where did you go?
What happened?

The beast know as Amazon loves to promise insanely fast shipping times. If anyone is going to invent a Star Trek like transporter its going to be Amazon. Recently I purchased a Blink camera system which was expected to arrive the next day. Great! I didn’t need it for two days, but early is good.

On the day of arrival everything was going great:

      • 2:13 AM – Package arrived at carrier facility
      • 8:08 AM – Out for delivery

Then pooof a delay was posted

      • 4:14pm – A carrier delay has occurred

Ok, what does that mean? Did the truck break down? Did the driver get sick? Maybe a flat tire? Who knows, the good news was that Amazon said they were going to get my shipment back on track and have it delivered tomorrow.

Wait, I just checked in with the tracking before I went to bed and a new message appeared.

      • 11:28 PM – Lost by carrier – undeliverables

Wow, another vague message. Was it stolen off the truck? Did it ever make it on the truck? Continue reading “Who Holds Amazon Accountable For Screw-ups?”

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Modern twist on a retro cassette tape

Customized 16GB USB Drive – Looks Like A Cassette – Size Of A Credit Card – With Pouch!

Growing up in the 1980’s I was exposed to various types of analog media. I did have a record player, but they were not “cool” at that moment and I only owned a few LP’s. I even had a chance to dabble with my parents  8 track tapes, however they were on the decline when I discovered music. The medium of choice for my generation was the cassette tape. (until the compact disk came out)

Remember the old days

I can remember heading over to the local mall to shop Sam Goody’s huge assortment of cassettes, and then stopping by my local Radio Shack to purchase blanks to make copies for my friends. That was another life, when we all had high speed dubbing Dolby tape decks and “piracy” was still on the seas!

 

I was reminiscing the other day about how far we have come with digital media and was wondering how I could combine my love for cassette tapes into a digital format. I started taking apart my old tapes and trying to merge a USB drive into them, but didn’t have much luck. Then I had an ah-ha moment and decided rather than convert a cassette into a USB drive, why not make a USB drive that looks like a cassette.

The USB Cassette Was Born!

Continue reading “Modern twist on a retro cassette tape”

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Yesterday Radio Shack Electronics Project Kit – Today Elegoo on Amazon

I feel as if I have been a technology geek for as long as I can remember. I often wonder why as a child of the 80’s I gravitated toward electronics and not sports. I guess I would lay some of the blame on my father who seemed to push me toward electronics and would bring me all sorts of fun gadgets from Radio Shack.

Early Kits – Radio Shack Science Fair 160 in ONE

I have very fond memories of the Radio Shack Science Fair 160 in ONE Electronic Project Kit. As a kid I didn’t appreciate the components, but simply followed the instruction “cook” book and wired the circuits with the included jumpers. I can remember making a crystal radio, touch sensors,  sound generators (or color organs as they were called) It wasn’t long before I started making my own creations.

As I got older, I noticed the kits had started to vanish from Radio Shack. In my late teens and early twenties I even worked at Radio Shack for a while and the kits were all but gone!

30 Years later and WOW – These kits are amazing!

Continue reading “Yesterday Radio Shack Electronics Project Kit – Today Elegoo on Amazon”

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Serafim Keybo – For Fathers Day!

Every year I try to pick out that unique Fathers Day gift that your Dad can use and probably will find interesting and fun. Lord knows Dad has plenty of aftershave, cologne, and wine. This year I am recommending the Serafim Keybo.

Projection Keyboard & Piano.. Tell me more..

A few moths ago I published a post, Don’t Throwaway That Old iMac Keyboard – Use It On Your Tablet. Since then I have been using my classic iMac Keyboard on my Samsung Galaxy Tablet and it has been working great. The only issue is I keep the tablet on my kitchen table and sometimes the keyboard gets in the way. I have become accustomed to using a keyboard on my tablet and was thinking there must be a better way. Continue reading “Serafim Keybo – For Fathers Day!”

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Key To My Heart 16GB USB Drive!

I found this USB key to my heart while surfing the Internet the other day and thought it was a very unique item. A fun loving gesture to tell that special geek in your life how much you care about them.

16GB Key To My Heart – $12

Just think of the possibilities:

  • 16GB of photos to share with the one you love.
  • 16GB of videos of your favorite times together.
  • Store your love notes, letters, emails ETC.
  • Turn it into a unique way to ask someone to PROM?

Continue reading “Key To My Heart 16GB USB Drive!”

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