1. 1 how about a hardware platform that has a nice amount of memory and can be used to actually hack other hardwares do do multiple other things

2. A nice ground up build of a computer that can support many platforms(osx linux,windows while still maintaing great speeds.. and how about maintianing to have some basic programmers and other hardware built in

3. A nice ebook with projects and tools starting from basic tools, projects and programs to Advanced projects tools and programs... you like a compiled up with hundreds and thousands of hack programs projects and different amounts of hardwares which will come handy when someone is bored and wants to do sumthing to someone who is stuck on sum thing and needs help

4 how about sprusing up some great already made hardware (improving the design shrinking it with better quality hardware, maybe a nice case wit some leds or sumthin on that basis

Posted at 5:03PM on Jan 27th 2008 by Nabeel

2. collaborative super cheap rf receiver /| transmiter platform?
we could design it to receive gps, wifi, bluetooth, and NOAA weather satellite frequencies. It could be useful for decrypting satelite tv, or whathave you.

Posted at 5:08PM on Jan 27th 2008 by Emperor

3. a cheap logic analyzer/oscilloscope combination, with powerful triggering abilities?

Posted at 5:35PM on Jan 27th 2008 by julian

4. Some sort of usb oscilloscope, so there is no need for a crt but instead it can be shown on the computer screen or logged to a file.

Posted at 5:38PM on Jan 27th 2008 by error32

5. I second comment #3. These are probably the most cost preventative item on a workbench, and a lot would be learned in the process of building on.

Posted at 5:39PM on Jan 27th 2008 by Tim

6. A hacking course for beginners, with detailed lessons starting with simple hacks and building up to the (more or less) famous ones.

That, or a cheap O-scope.

Posted at 5:54PM on Jan 27th 2008 by Skyler Orlando

7. what #3 said.

I have a printer cartridge testing setup idea which would require a logic analyser, plus it would come in handy for a lot of other things.

Posted at 6:01PM on Jan 27th 2008 by jonouk

8. #3 is on target. i need a logic analyzer bad. it would probably need to be fpga based unless you can find a real good u-controller.

Posted at 6:07PM on Jan 27th 2008 by jake

9. #3, a logic analysis tool with a powerful software frontend would be sweet. its a project for both hardware and software peoples.

Posted at 6:12PM on Jan 27th 2008 by Emperor

10. A cheap and full featured usb oscilloscope would indeed be nice

Posted at 6:15PM on Jan 27th 2008 by Peter

11. I also agree that a quality usb logic analyzer/o-scope would be a great project. Existing standalone scopes/analyzers with respectable specs are prohibitively expensive (at least for many of us DIYers), while the cheaper USB ones only work at low frequencies. It also seems like this project could be nicely split up into several sub-projects - the analog h/w, the data acquisition/usb stuff, and a multi-platform OSS GUI.

Posted at 6:18PM on Jan 27th 2008 by turbo

12. I agree with Comment #6, Detailed lessons for the new hacker would be great. Ex.) Tools, Projects, Help, etc. etc.

Posted at 6:18PM on Jan 27th 2008 by zach

13. #3 got it, a logic analyser;

for what it can do, and how much it costs, this has been the stuff of dreams for me

Posted at 6:22PM on Jan 27th 2008 by jeanphe

14. I'd probably try to to build a machine that makes energy drink. Or somekind of supercomputer that can play crysis

Posted at 6:47PM on Jan 27th 2008 by Chaos Theory

15. it would be like herding cats, it's almost a requirement for a hacker to be very independent and making leaps of logic that others won't immediately understand. that said, if you could somehow tame a group of hackers, the electronics hobby world really needs a desktop automated system for making circuit boards, especially with plated holes and multiple layers (required for most high speed and bga chips). then someone could make their own logic analyzer that wouldn't suck from not being able to use the best chips.

Posted at 6:54PM on Jan 27th 2008 by macegr

16. Definitely something to do some real good to the world.
What can tech guys do? Starting to free ourselves from oil. How? By finding easy and cheap ways to convert our current cars to electric. Starting where? For example, on the electric engine...
http://myownhybrid.wordpress.com/

Posted at 7:00PM on Jan 27th 2008 by Njay

17. i like the noob tutorial... but i am a noob and so please don't count my opinion *goes in search of a tutorial now >.

Posted at 7:02PM on Jan 27th 2008 by zat

18. I think the most valuable thing we could do is reduce the cost of becoming a hacker. Money comes and money goes... but the amount of time invested to become a hacker is both large and irreplaceable.

I'd like to see a single, unified document that serves as an introduction to hardware hacking. Assuming a knowledge of math up to functions, there's no reason a sufficiently dedicated person couldn't be introduced to hardware hacking within their spare time over a few months, and for under 200$.

Dev platforms are also great. I'm happy to see someone got the AtMega microcontrollers to talk to flash memory cards. Maybe we could make an Atmel development board that lets you load programs for the Atmel to compactflash instead of using the STK500 or equivalent? If it could also write to the compactflash in a sane way, and have free pins and analog to digital converters, then we will have successfully reduced the complexity to entering the microcontroller world (yes, I know atmel has some usb flashdrive/microcontroller products, but we can do better). Graduate students around the world would also have a universal datalogger which can be programmed to produce output already in a .csv file, which would be damn cool for us SAS or R users.

Posted at 7:10PM on Jan 27th 2008 by Sean

19. +1 on the call for a USB scope/analyser. I've been eyeing off CRT scopes on eBay for a while now, but I'm hesitant to buy a piece of old technology. With a USB scope I could do very useful things like take screenshots of waveforms etc. Imagine how helpful it would be if the hardware-hacking blogosphere started posting waveforms of how their circuits work along with their hacks! Unfortunately I haven't come across any USB scopes which are A. Linux/Mac friendly or B. within my price range. Yay for a community project.

Posted at 8:30PM on Jan 27th 2008 by nullobject

20. Robot platform sounds good. A simple modular approach to code that will run on pic avr with abstraction. Think arduino but better. Hardware would consist of modular motors both servo and stepper with modular hardware interfaces all of the same size and interface layout. Brackets and connectors would be cheap and simple like lynx ses but simpler and cheaper. Plans should be available for cnc milling. high level software should be available for linux/win32 with a shared lib and gui should consist of use of existing platforms such as player/stage or ms robotics studio.
This opens the scope for everyone to have a say on many parts of the project, no matter the experience level.

i would second the scope but it is cheap to get a half way decent digital scope from ebay for

Posted at 8:33PM on Jan 27th 2008 by ginge