Sony has gone on the record saying that the piracy is affecting PSP game sales. That’s a givein; if it’s free, take it. This time around, a peripheral manufacturer called Datel has cracked the PSP 3000 by forcing it into service mode. Datel did some silicon hacking on a chip level to find out how it could force the PSP to run arbitrary code. You’ll be able to buy a battery called LITE BLUE TOOL battery that will enable service mode on PSP 2000 and 3000s, including yours. It’ll be a measly $30 when it hits North America later this month.

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I have to admit, the last place I ever expected to see a tutorial detailing how to install OS X on a PC would be the Register. But hey, Brian Hurley has a fantastic tutorial for those of you too broke to afford Apple’s hardware. The process is very detailed and is more suited for a long weekend than an evening but the payoff is oh, so sweet. You’re getting yourself into piracy, hacking and tinkering to no end with this project, so make sure your data is backed up and you’re not at a university or somewhere similar. Happy OS X-ing!

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I’ve been waiting for this day for a long time. The Basement Scientist, a fine DIYer and hardware hacker, has finally received his MIDI shield boards from Batch PCB. What does this mean? It means that soon, he’ll do a run of MIDI shield PCBs that will be available for purchase. In turn, that means you can easily run MIDI through your Arduino, making it fun and easy to create your own instruments.

I received my two MIDI Shield circuit boards from Batch PCB over the weekend. I’m happy to report that they came out 100% error free. However, I think I’m going to make one or two minor tweaks before getting a bunch produced.

MIDI requires the use of the Arduino serial port pins, which are also used by the on-board USB programmer. With my current design the MIDI Shield has to be unplugged before the Arduino can be programmed, which is a pain in the ass. Instead, I’m going to add a jumper to the MIDI Shield. Remove the jumper, program the Arduino, then put the jumper back on. Much better than pulling the whole shield off every time you need to upload code.

I’m incredibly excited to get my hands on one of these shields. I was contemplating on building my own but TMS has done a fine job and I wholeheartedly support it.

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Looks like Defcon 16 is one of the best yet. The “Defcon 16 Mystery Challenge” is a competition for attendees to have at. Solve a series of puzzles and mysteries and you could win special black Defcon badges that give you free admittance for life. One of the puzzles includes this delightful yellow ball with a combination lock on the top. You say lockpick it, I say smash it.

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This past weekend, during the Defcon hacker convention in Las Vegas, several MIT students who were prepared to give a talk regarding the security of Boston’s public transit system were stopped. A judge ruled to ban the presentation after the city realized a gaping vulnerability was about to become exposed. For now, the talks have been stopped, but now everyone has focused attention to Boston. The city must have quite the security flaw going on.

Though the talks were stopped, Defcon attendees received the key data on a CD. It’s only a matter of time before the system is duped and Boston is forced to plug it’s security holes.

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We’re not actively covering the Black Hat 2008 security conference currently going on in Las Vegas but there is some crazy stuff happening. Similar to when I attended Defcon years ago with Hack a Day, there was a Wall of Sheep. The WoS displays people who got hacked and insecure connections to prove a point and expose weaknesses in wireless security.

During the conference, three journalists from a French publication hacked the press room Internet connection and stole a ton of login credentials from other people. They then tried to have the team running the Wall of Sheep display the stolen information, which included login info for eweek.com, cnet.com and many other sites. Security found out and banned the three jerks from attending Black Hat and Defcon.

Remember: hacking has a time and a place. The press room at a big event is not it.

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HOPE may be over, but that doesn’t mean you can’t keep building things and experimenting. Our good pal Phillip Torrone from MAKE and the famous Ladyada from Adafruit Industries have teamed up to created a video series dubbed “Citizen Engineer.”

In the series (which premiered at HOPE), Torrone and company run through DIY, soldering, hacking, phreaking and more. You’ll learn how to phuck with SIM cards and make payphones work for your benefit. If you love creating new things, you should check the video out.

Oh! And if you check out Freedom Downtime, you’ll see PT and Lazlow make a cameo.

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Well, it’s Sunday night and the Last HOPE Conference has concluded. It’s hard for me to reflect back, seeing as I never attended HOPE before. I noticed the place was dead today as vendors packed up and groups gathered to finish activities and chat. It really makes me think that the hacking of yesteryear is dead and that a new era of DIY, eco-hacking and software are going to change the game. It sounds a bit cliche but the Internet has evolved, security has changed and kids are finding new ways to spend their time instead of learning old techniques.

No matter. This year’s conference was a lot of fun. We got to dive into things we’re normally fooling around with and take a different approach to covering the conference. With that said, if you search around or click this particular link right here, you’ll be able to check out all of our coverage. From robot builds to t-shirts to speakers to lockpicking, we saw it all. It’s been real. Keep on hacking and make sure you leave your thoughts on this event in the comments.

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PacketWars had its own project going on the expo floor. Complete with a referee who was ready to smack any hacker who steps out of the line with any shenanigans that violate the terms of service. It’s competitive network combat, no holds barred. Bring your own laptop, plug in and defend your territory.

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Love it or hate it, you gotta admit the Segway intrigues you. If you’ve always wanted to try one out, now’s your chance. At HOPE, they’ll have Segway courses set up so you can race your friend. We watched as several people wiped out in a row and boy was it a gas. Follies!

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