💾The USB Club, Flipper Zero, and Kitchen Farming
p2p irl
Greetings my fellow Randominians!
I’m quite excited to say that we’ve passed over 1200 subscribers by a SMIDGE.
That is to say - 1 subscriber. :)
It’s quite exciting! I’m hoping to hit 1,500 this year.
I haven’t had a lot of extra time recently to work on growing the newsletter - so if you feel so inspired to share it with your friends - it’d mean the world to me.
I do have some exciting personal news. We’re looking at buying a house in the next few months! We started the process of mortgage pre-qualification and finding a realtor.
Franklin TN Apartment complexes have raised the rent to the point where it’s just as much as a mortgage. Ugh.
Have you been enjoying the latest season of Stranger Things or The Boys? The latest season of The Boys is absolutely nuts. They really cranked up the stakes this season.
I’ve been expanding my Phonk playlist quite aggressively since the last time I shared it. Between this and my lofi vybes playlist - I’ve been staying quite busy in Spotify.
Turn on the phonk, get in the drift car, and let’s spin into today’s topics.
💾The USB Club
Ever wish there was a secret P2P social network you could only get into with USB drives?
Believe it or not - I actually used to think about this quite a bit. It would be cool if there was some sort of “tech physical” social network.
I wrote about this idea last year when I found the Dead Drops USB network.
That network is still going - with new USB’s added around the world each month. It’s more of a community-run thing at this point.
USB Club may be attempting to do something similar . . .
with possibly more of a hyper exclusive feel.
Will it be a USB that you buy? or is this just an example of the one you might use yourself?
Each tweet is quite cryptic - and it will be fascinating to see what sort of concrete details come forth.
Maybe they’ll sell out a drop of USB’s with some sort of “on USB” social network you can only access when using the USB.
Maybe you’re supposed to create your own in order to gain access . . .
Check out this sick USB cross by @hipcityreg.
Maybe you’re supposed to meet up with other USB Club members and swap data. Music you haven’t released, HTML wikis, videos/memes that are hard to find on the internet - etc.
That would be pretty fun!
It would be a cinch to create some sort of personal HTML wiki that can only be viewed offline.
Feather.wiki is a really awesome tool for creating this sort of thing.
At the moment - USB Club just has a simple little landing page - with only the option to add your email to get updates.
I can’t wait to see what happens . . .
Check it out!
🧑💻Flipper Zero
Remember the Pwnagotchi?
The Kawaii Wifi network tester. No better way to test your WIFI for weaknesses and test at your friends/family (with the necessary consent).
There’s a new one in town called the Flipper Zero, and it’s jam-packed with awesome features. JAM PACKED.
It even has a cute little dolphin on the screen as your little white hat hacking sidekick.
Explore any kind of access control system, RFID, radio protocols, and debug hardware using GPIO pins . . . The idea of Flipper Zero is to combine all the hardware tools you'd need for exploration and development on the go. Flipper was inspired by pwnagotchi project, but unlike other DIY boards, Flipper is designed with the convenience of everyday usage in mind (source)
I’m amazed at how versatile it is. Here are just a few things you can do with it.
It can communicate with wireless devices like garage door openers or IOT devices via its 433MHz antenna. You could use this to open your garage door - or someone else’s during the zombie apocalypse
125kHz RFID low-frequency proximity card reader, writer, and cloner. In theory, you could clone a backup of your access card for work
NFC module for reading, writing, and emulating NFC cards. You could use it to create that NFC business card.
Infrared Transmitter - You can use it to turn off a TV, or lower/raise the volume. An exceptionally handy tool when you’ve asked and no one at the restaurant can find the remote. You can save signals to the internal library too!
See? You could probably find yourself using one of these features at least once in a while - like the IR transmitter.
It would be fun to have one of these for creating NFC business cards, or for rogue TV’s.
Check it out at the link!
🪴Kitchen Farming
Wish you could grow vegetables in your kitchen?
I’m always excited when I find a new project that wants to achieve the dream of making an indoor garden.
There’s a Kickstarter for a kitchen farm kit called MULTO that looks fairly easy to manage - and it looks really nice too!
Here’s the promo video.
You can get it in multiple versions too - so it can fit any kind of kitchen.
I think what I like most about it is that it’s very neutral and pleasing to the eye - like a piece of furniture.
Multo works on Hydroponic principles - but fortunately that all runs itself. All you need is to manage the lights, liquid nutrients, and eat delicious vegetables.
Of course - you’ll need to buy new pods and liquid nutrients from Multo from time to time - but it looks like you can buy supplies whenever you want, rather than being forced into a subscription.
Go check it out!
🐙The Land of Random
Random vibes from the Interwebz
Crab Rave x Bongo Cat
Extremely Cursed vibes
Memlink Web Pages
Make a self-contained micro-website. THE LINK IS THE WEBPAGE HOW COOL IS THAT
Jelly
Destroy the cube - behold the physics
No Phone Man
Man lives in forest with no phone. This is his blog. It’s really cool!
Palworld
Pokemon - but with guns. The official trailer is finally here!
3D Printing with Sound
What I want to know is who will be the first artist to release a song that can make something cool on your 3D printer?
Experimental Urban Cities
The Dutch city of Almere is experimenting with some really cool architecture - like houses on piers, bright colors, and other cool features.
🕸️The Land of Web3
Food Fighters Universe is an upcoming NFT project that looks like it has a quite a bit of potential. With Andy Nguyen (a very successful restaurant creator) at the helm - the goal is to create a chain of restaurants with NFT perks - both IRL and in the Metaverse. At the moment, they’re focused on building a strong community - and partnerships with creators like Snoop Dogg. I’m looking forward to hearing more “alpha” in the coming weeks! The website is really cool too - and it has a separate 3D and 2D version.
Mint a letter on Polygon. They’re encrypted too!
Want to lock special content to NFT holders only? Do it with NFT Keyhole.
This massive Twitter thread by Pastry.eth breaks down how to mint your own NFT collection.
🎵TikToks You Can’t Miss
It’s the absolute truth and every diehard PC user knows it
I’ve never had the opportunity to do this but I’m jealous
90’s anime is a serious vibe
I really want a croissant now - cooked by this guy’s mom.
Man hits the vintage star wars collector’s motherlode
Wait what who still has private trains
That’s all for this week. See you next time!