My local thrift shop isn’t just a store like your typical Goodwill; it’s more like the city’s center of gravity for cultural relics, ludicrous products, and obsolete technology. On my last visit, I found a used rolodex among a four-player chess board game, and “Spice World” on VHS. A rolodex --if you don’t already know-- is a file index used for storing business cards and contact information, however the previous owner also used it to store his login credentials.

The first time I was locked out of a building, I improvised a lock pick set from my usually makeshift tie clip. If you don’t dress formally, a Tie Clip, like the name implies, clips a necktie to the fold of a shirt, keeping it centered to give a clean and unformed appearance. This trick works well if you don’t wear a tie clip, or want to carry acceptable lock picks through even the highest security. Although these lock picks are really only practical for simple and cheaply constructed locks.

ATARI CAMAC Assembler Ver 1.0
Donkey Kong Thur Feb 24, 1983

"[The source code] came off of 2 sets of tapes marked Dyer, which is unusual as most tape backups are of all directories of a DEC system at Atari. So when an individuals directory is the only part of a backup, it usually meant that one of the programs got his directory backed up special." - Kurt Vendel (Atari Historian)

Yesterday I purchased a pt cruiser (which is probably second only to the bmw as the most preferred car by yuppies) and like any good hacker, my first inclination is that it really needs a computer of some sort. I originally wanted to use one of my rackmount servers, but theres no trunk space. I'm still considering a mini-itx machine, but for the time being I found a much quicker solution. I have a unique pocket pc (a discontinued model made by garmin) with integrated gps, which makes it a great car computer.

If you look at their current product line, it's surprising to think that Dell used to make typical beige box computers. I currently use an Inspiron 1420, which is easily the coolest little notebook computer I have ever owned.

But to make it just a little more enjoyable, I decided to install Mac Osx Leopard.

Booting into linux (Ubuntu) on my Dell Inspiron 1420 severely reduces the wireless performance. I'm unclear as to why this happens, but it drops about 70% compared to windows. In a perfect world I would be able to move between my Office, Bedroom, Garage, and Kitchen without loosing the signal. Rather than buy high gain antennas or additional access points, I decided to move the router to better location. This location just happened to be outside.

That title is misleading, I was going to use "Hacking Sleep: Benefits and Drawbacks of Sleeping with an Eight Hour Offset," but the current one is more fun. Either way, I'm currently nocturnal and have been for over a month. It has turned out to easily be the coolest lifehack I have ever done. If you have a flexible schedule I recommend you try it. Note: Important details are overlaid on the story using javascript tooltips, if you are viewing this in an RSS reader (or some other type of browser that does not support scripts) you are missing critical pieces of information.