What could be better than working with USB, robots, legos and our imagination? Our beloved memories of childhood play with Legos has now turned into adult fun with the new robotic line of Mindstroms.

The Mindstroms from Lego is based off their NXT Technology whereby a main NXT brain unit controls 5 different robotic functions for you to let the imagination run free. Build anything you want with the legos, intuitive robotic software or get extreme with Lego’s open source developers kit.

So what are the 5 building blocks of the Mindstrom units?

• Touch sensor
• Sound sensor
• Light sensor
• Ultrasonic sensor
• Servo motors

Through these sensors, some crafty lego design build your robot and communicate via USB for software download and development stages. The world’s next Frankenstein is only a lego or two away.

So this is how it works.

Build your lego monster with available parts kits.

Launch the intuitive robot software and use pre-defined commands to build motion, touch, light and other sensory functions.

Last, connect and communicate via USB to test your functions and ultimately download the finished firmware version to the NXT Lego robot.

The USB monster Lego kits, or Mindstroms are available for $250 from Amazon. This is one excellent gift for the 9+ age who’s into computers, gadgets and tinkering.

Readyboost is a Windows Vista feature which uses flash memory to enhance computer performance.  The reports have varied about it’s success, but one thing is for sure - you need a Readyboost drive to use the feature - well, until now.

Here is a USB hack or work-around for turning any regular USB stick into a Readyboost drive.  First, lets look to see what Windows would like in a Readyboost drive:

• The USB Key must be at least USB 2.0.
• The device must be able to do 3.5 MB/s for 4 KB random reads uniformly across the entire device and 2.5 MB/s for 512 KB random writes uniformly across the device.
• The USB Key has to have at least 64mb of free space.

If your USB key is at least USB 2.0, but is rated slower for the random reads and writes required to use ReadyBoost, more than likely you have seen this message:

If so, plug in the USB Key, and cancel Autoplay if it pops up.

Click on Start button, and select “Computer.” After Windows Explorer opens, in the right window pane find the USB Key you want to use.

Right click and select Properties, then select (more…)

For many IT managers USB port connectivity can still pose a large threat to company security.  One quick down-and-dirty method is disabling the read and write from any system USB port.  This can be done through a quick registry edit.

Here is the full Microsoft article explaining how to disable a USB port (link). Note:  This is a registry edit so be sure to backup your registry first and know how to restore it in case something terrible happens.

To disable the access to USB port, in windows XP and 2000:
1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK.
3. Locate, and then click the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\UsbStor
4. In the right pane, double-click Start.
5. In the Value data box, type 4, click Hexadecimal (if it is not already selected), and then click OK.
6. Quit Registry Editor.

To re-enable a disabled port:

1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK.
3. Locate, and then click the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\UsbStor
4. In the right pane, double-click Start.
5. In the Value data box, type 3, click Hexadecimal (if it is not already selected), and then click OK.
6. Quit Registry Editor.

I reported a while back on a product called Unlocker if you are having problems unlocking your USB drive from a Windows operating system. Today I bring you another package which does the same function; however, is easier to use.

USB Drive Ejector is a simple utility which lists all USB devices on your buss and with a double click - you can unlock and eject the device.

This is a great tool to have in case you’ve ran into:

1. Cannot delete file, access denied
2. Sharing violation
3. Source destination file in use
4. File is in use by another program, etc.

However, you should always proceed with caution when a stubborn drive wont eject. Sometimes…and I mean sometimes…there are reasons. Such as virus software scanning the memory device or Windows writing to the device in cache memory. These examples are far and few between so a couple of common sense activities might be in order, such as (more…)

I don’t own an iPhone, but my neighbor & buddy & fellow entrepreneur does. Recently he showed me some cool things he’s done with the phone. So here are 6 iPhone hacks any iPhone owner would probably want [to check out]. Note: You take responsibility for your actions.

1. iPhone Interface Tool - This toolkit lets you move files around on the iPhone, run any desired applications on the iPhone or activate the phone without iTunes.
2. Use LED lights to create your own flash for the iPhone camera.
3. Drop your iPhone and broke the screen? No problem, learn how to replace it here.
4. Here’s another way to unlock your iPhone SIM card.
5. Include the WiFi music store with this firmware version of 1.1.1 release.
6. Not a true “hack” in the traditional sense, but create and order your own customized cover design for the iPhone.

When my buddy isn’t chatting it up on his iPhone or texting with the footer “Sent from my iPhone” he runs a nice little Photo Birth Announcements business. (more…)

So it turns out a white onion is not only good for salsa, but good for charging iPods too. Here is a video showing you how to charge an iPod with an onion, Gatorade and USB cable.

I knew those electro-lights are good for something. For those not interested in watching a 3 minute video here is the down-n-dirty:

• put two holes on either side of your onion with screwdriver
• soak the thing in Gatorade until most is gone (about 1 cup worth)
• use the iPod USB cable and push in the USB connector into the onion.

Your iPod will then turn on and charge shortly there after. So for about 1 cup of gatoraid soaked into the onion will get you about 30 minutes of charge time.

Source: TreeHugger, YouTube link
If you like this we have other USB hacks and USB Tutorials.

Do you have a UPS that went south on you? Don’t throw it away, turn it into the ultimate hard drive storage spot.

Our good friend Alan from Hacked Gadgets found this 77 second video on hacking your broken UPS to include a USB drive. Who would ever think to look in a UPS for your porn library secret files.

[Thanks Alan] link to video here.