Most look at a toaster and see a kitchen appliance. Scott Fullam looks at a toaster and sees an engineering challenge. The hardware hacking renaissance is coming into full bloom with two new books: "Hardware Hacking Projects for Geeks," by Fullam, and "Hardware Hacking: Have Fun While Voiding Your Warranty," edited by Joe Grand. "The hope is to inspire people, through role models, to pick up a screwdriver and a soldering iron and to start hacking," writes Andrew Huang in the introduction to his "Hacking the Xbox." "Instilling this sort of exploratory spirit in the younger generations will be important in the long run for preserving the pool of talented engineers that drove the technology revolution." This is a Knight Ridder wire story from earlier this month. When was the last time you were inspired to pick up a soldering iron? Hobbyists return to tinkering with hardware | 
