Hardware Hacking: Have Fun While Voiding Your Warranty

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 576 pages
• Published by: Syngress Publishing
• Edition: 1st Edition January 1, 2004
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 1932266836
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-1932266832
• Book Dimensions: 9 x 8 x 1.2 inches
• Weighs: 2.2 pounds

Reader Reviews
If you're the hard-core type that likes to take things apart and "fix" them, you'll like Hardware Hacking: Having Fun While Voiding Your Warranty by Joe Grand (Syngress). Your discarded toys will never be quite the same again. Chapter list: Tools of the Warranty Voiding Trade; Electrical Engineering Basics; Declawing Your CueCat; Case Modification: Building a Custom Terabyte FireWire Hard Drive; Macintosh; Home Theater PCs; Hack Your Atari 2600 and 7800; Hack Your Atari 5200 and 8-Bit Computer; Hacking the PlayStation 2; Wireless 802.11 Hacks; Hacking the iPod; Can You Hear Me Now? Nokia 6210 Mobile Phone Modifications; Upgrading Memory on Palm Devices; Operating Systems Overview; Coding 101; Index The first thing to know about this book is that it isn't a beginner's volume. There is some serious hardware modifications going on here. You should be comfortable with electrical theory, devices such as resistors and capacitors, and tools like soldering irons. Also, I'd recommend that you don't try these things on primary devices. I'd say there's a decent chance you could damage it trying some of these tricks. But having said all that, you'll enjoy the book if you meet the above qualifications. Since I'm not a major hardware geek, I don't know that I could do many of these mods. One of the mods that would be useful even to non-geeks is the chapter on the iPod. You will learn how to replace the battery and how to upgrade the hard drive on your earlier generation iPods, and you don't even need to be that handy. That tip alone would probably pay for the cost of the book. Each hack is very well illustrated with excellent photos and instructions, so you don't feel like you're reading assembly instructions written by something that was run through an automatic translator. So if you have some old video game consoles gathering dust in the basement, pull them out and see what you can do with them using this book. You'll end up being the envy of all your geeky friends. :-) Comment | | (Report this)