One year ago I blogged about microwave oven hacks and yesterday I ran across this intriguing usage of microwave technology: NATO pilots during the war in Kosovo has been fooled by microwave ovens they bombed, believing it was Serbian tanks. Some more information here:

According to a British officer who spent six months in the region and offered his own assessment of bombing damage, the Serbs lured the NATO planes using household microwave ovens to simulate the emissions of armored transport systems. (...) A NATO officer who gave an anonymous interview to the British Herald stated that only three tanks were found. "The Serbs use a lot of tricks to elude NATO bombs. The use of microwave ovens from houses in Kosovo to thumb their noses at the alliance was only one of their ruses." (...) it demanded nothing of them, since they used 100-dollar decoy devices (microwave ovens) which were available in every household. And the guided bombs cost around 30,000 dollars.

Yet another example of a lowtech jamming trick... Any this is a good example of how people hack existing technologies for other purposes.

Update: Spot on this topic, I just saw this on Boing Boing: a book about "extreme tinkering and radical self expression through technology" (which is obviously one of the topic I am fascinated of). It's entitled "Adventures from the Technology Underground : Catapults, Pulsejets, Rail Guns, Flamethrowers, Tesla Coils, Air Cannons, and the Garage Warriors Who Love Them (Hardcover)" by William Gurstelle who also blogs here.