ORIGINALLY AIRED: 9/13/2004

"H-Wing" Honda, Overclocking Video Cards, Defcon 12

Episode #2424

We talk with a "Star Wars" superfan who modded his Honda Del Sol into an "H-Wing" starfighter complete with R2-D2. We also show you how to squeeze a little more oomph from your video card and how to turn your iPod into a pirate radio station. Meanwhile, Kevin and Dan visit the hackers' lalapalooza known as Defcon 12.

Tech Topics

Alex had a digital tale of woe to start off the show: Although today marks the start of Monday Night Football, his much-vaunted widescreen LCD is on the injured reserve list. Thus, no scrumptious high-def NFL action for him unless he can stand to watch it off-kilter. Lesson of the Day #1: When transporting a delicate piece of electronic equipment worth thousands of dollars, DON’T stuff it in your pal’s Ford Probe – even if you buy it at Costco.

“Costco?” Kevin demanded. “They sell meat at Costco!”

“Hey, it’s good meat!” Alex protested.

INDUCE Compliance?
In related news, those who like to record television programs are urged to investigate the INDUCE Act, legislation currently being pushed through the Senate that would revoke the Supreme Court's “Betamax decision” of 1984. That decision (Sony vs. Universal) allowed for the home recording of television programs on video cassette recorders. Today, studios are once again taking up the fight against home recording with the rising popularity of much more advanced digital recording devices.

Savebetamax.org is organizing a “National Call-In Day” to contact members of Congress on Tuesday, September 14: http://www.savebetamax.org/

Here’s a discussion of the issue at slashdot.org.

TSS Calls Live Calls
Call #1: Chris from Tuscaloosa, Al. wondered how online gaming might be affected by a satellite connection.

Kevin guessed correctly that Chris had no other broadband choices in his area – no cable or DSL – and that satellite was his only option for online broadband gaming. Unfortunately, this is not a good way to play any of today’s more intensive games online. Upload speeds and ping times are poor with satellite broadband, resulting in jerky gameplay at best. “Plus, it can cost as much as $100 a month – for a not very fast connection,” Alex said. “You might consider moving first.”

Call #2: Chase from Marysville, Wash. owns a massive BFG Asylum GeForce FX 5800 Ultra video card. He wanted to know: If it already says that it’s overclocked on the box, can you overclock it any further?

Alex and Kevin agreed that anybody ought to be happy with the card’s performance as is, and that further gains would be negligible. However, TSS Lab guy Robert Heron said that typically manufacturers leave a 10 percent safety cushion that could be exploited with further overclocking, provided you add the necessary cooling. Yoshi suggested a liquid-cooling heat sink. “Give us a call and tell us if you fry your house down,” suggested Alex.

Here’s a review of the BFG in PC Magazine.

On the Scene at Defcon 12
Dan and Kevin filed a taped report from the Defcon 12 hackers’ convention held last month in Las Vegas. While Dan seemed mostly preoccupied by enticing “hacker babes,” Kevin checked out interesting events such as lock-picking contests. Most interesting was a device brandished by several proud hackers from Los Angeles: a 2.4ghz Bluetooth sniper rifle with a snooping range of up to a mile. “All of your data is vulnerable,” the inventor said proudly. Look for more reports on this unique rifle on Thursday’s show.

Feel the (Honda-Powered) Force
Like many a Star Wars fan, Shawn Crosby (AKA “Obi-Shawn”) dared to dream the impossible: to own his own A-Wing starfighter. Okay, so he couldn’t afford that particular piece of spacecraft, but he was able to transform his Honda Del Sol into something he calls the “H-Wing.”  Equipped with its own R2-D2 unit and blasters made of aluminum baseball bats, this ultimate geek ride gets quite a bit of attention whenever he drives it. “Most of the police have a lot of fun with it and generally don’t ticket me,” Shawn revealed. “But R2D2 gets all the chicks.”

For more on Shawn’s H-Wing, read Sean O'Rourke's article, or visit these sites:

Shawn's personal H-Wing site

Roadsquadron.com's index of modded Star Wars cars

Where it all begins: Starwars.com

Dark Deal: Pirate iPod Radio Station
Many iPod users attach an FM transmitter (such as the iTrip) in order to listen to their music on their car radio. But did you know you can extend the range of that radio transmitter, allowing you to broadcast your own rebel FM stations to people driving around you or in your gym? Oh yeah.

“What we need to do is hack this, but stay within FCC guidelines,” commented Kevin with a straight face. And you can do that by simply taking a knife, popping off the transmitter’s cover, and expose the antenna. This should boost your signaly 15 to 20 feet. But if you want to take it a few steps further beyond FCC guidelines, well, you’ll have to add an amplifier to the transmitter. Alex and Kevin tossed their transmitter over to Yoshi to do just that… and he unfortunately didn’t make the catch, thus rendering the bold experiment incomplete when something broke inside. Lesson of the Day #2: Don’t toss a delicate piece of electronic equipment on live TV.

For more info on iPod FM broadcasting, click on these links:

http://www.apple.com
http://www.griffintechnology.com
http://www.binaryelysium.com/itrip_amp
http://www.engadget.com/entry/3597373383872462/

Overclock it to 11
Our own Robert Heron came onto the set to demystify the mysterious world of overclocking your video card. In fact, leading graphics card manufacturers ATI and NVIDIA build in overclocking abilities in their drivers, which can be unlocked very easily. Better yet, this won’t void your warranty since it’s intended to be enabled in the first place. For more info, read Robert’s article here.

Sarah’s Download of the Day: Windows XP Service Pack 2
Despite all the complaints about SP2’s incompatibilities, it does offer some very useful features that Sarah showed us – such as the convenient Security Center (with default firewall) and the what-took-them-so-long pop-up blocker in Internet Explorer. For a vast array of info links, read Sarah’s article here.