Archive for March, 2007
Linux MCE is the hotness
3Once I’m working full time and have some extra cash (hopefully fall 2007), I will definitely be building a Linux MCE box. Linux media Center Edition is so hot. I can’t wait! Watch the video and be impressed.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4422887272477313460Source: DownloadSquad
Xbox 360 Hackability
0As far as I know, efforts to hack the Xbox 360 have been mostly foiled by the hardware and software protection onboard (though, yes, I know that certain models with certain drives and at a certain update can be hacked, in this article I will refer to widespread hacks, like the original Xbox has). Why bring this up? I was looking at the Xbox website today and heard about how those who don’t hook their Xbox up to the internet can download updates on their computer, burn them to a CD/DVD and load them into the Xbox with that.
This sounds like an excellent attack vector for Xbox hackers. One small bug in the code for authenicity verification of the software could allow unsigned code to be loaded. Another possibility is that the encryption used on the downloaded files could be broken and their format reverse engineered. This would let you put things on the Xbox and it wouldn’t know the difference between something from Microsoft and something from elsewhere.
This sounds like a fun possibility to me. If only I had the time to devote to such a thing. Oh well, I know there’s people nerdier than me that will do it. Here’s hoping homebrew software on the 360 takes off soon!
Maybe Dell’s not so bad
0I know a recent post echoed some bashing of Dell’s customer service, and rightly so. But I have to applaud them when they do something right, very right, for once. Dell recently created an Ideastorm website, where users make suggestions to Dell and then vote on the suggestions of others. Overwhelmingly, selling computers preinstalled with Linux was the suggestion(s) with the highest votes. One of the many suggestions regarding preinstalled Linux already has over 110,000 votes. In a surpising, but good move from Dell, they’ve decided to investigate further. They’re doing this through the Linux Learnings Survey. In it they’re asking users about exactly what they want out of a preinstalled Linux system. Make sure to participate and hopefully Dell will start selling Linux systems, which would make the adoption of Linux much easier for everyone. A big hurdle for Linux is people getting it installed and working on their hardware. This would eliminate that problem. So good going Dell!
PS2 Reborn
0Today I decided to boot up my Playstation 2 to get some more progress done in Kingdom Hearts 2. Unfortunately the dreaded “Disc Read Error” problem finally took over completely. Previously, the system would load a disc about 1 in every 4 tries. Now it simply wouldn’t work. I was not satisfied with this so I decided to fix it myself. With guidance from the excellent folks at Ars Technica, I opened up the PS2, cleaned out the dust, cleaned the lens with some lens cleaner and realigned the drive laser. After all this, my PS2 is as good as new. Not too shabby for a 7 year old video game console. The disc read error problem had been creeping up on my PS2 for the last two years, slowly rearing its ugly head more and more, but now it’s gone! Now I can finally enjoy Kingdom Hearts 2 once again. (and maybe start finally playing Okami and Final Fantasy XII soon too!) For those that want to try this with their PS2, be careful! Follow the Ars Technica guide I mentioned very carefully. Also, take a look at the official Playstation message boards for further reference on the “Disc Read Error” problem.
Dell: Absolutely free Vista upgrade 70% off
0Sounds like Dell’s support is no better than Gateway’s. Read this article about a guy who was promised a free upgrade to Vista when he bought his PC, but had the hardest time getting them to uphold their promise. But this shows that Dell is better than Gateway, they eventually fix their mistakes when you take it up to corporate, instead of continuing to ignore you. I’ll have to port over the Gateway article to WordPress soon…
Dubai, Synchronicity and Massive Engineering
1Wednesday in CSE453, Buckley showed us some info he received about the massive engineering going on over the last few years in the United Arab Emirates, specifically in Dubai. Then the next day, I saw a show on the National Geographic Channel about the islands being created off the coast of Dubai. When I randomly hear about something from completely different sources in a small period of time, I decide it’s time to read up on the topic. It’s quite interesting really. It shows that when money is no object, anything can be engineered.
The presentation that Buckley showed us included the Burj Al-Arab but the show I saw focused on the island, including the Palm Islands and The World. The Palm Islands are land masses coming off of the Dubai shore in the shape of massive palm trees. The world is a group of man-made islands shaped to be a miniature version of the world map. These islands are completely man-made and HUGE. Just check out the Google Map. Make sure to not zoom out, that view must be old. The links I’ve supplied can say more than I can about these things, so i’ll leave it at that. This stuff is impressive!
Nerdcore
0Everyone loves nerdy YouTube videos. Well I do anyway. Here’s three I found this week.
Monzy performs “Kill -9″ at Stanford:
LinuxBIOS with X Server inside
Linux: Revolution OS: (thanks to Dan for this one)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7707585592627775409Hello World!
0Here we are… another new website for Kevin. I think this will be my 8th attempt at a personal website since I started doing this whole web design thing in 1999. Each revision adds something new and refreshes the web design process for me. The old website worked well, and as you can see the new look is similar. That’s partially by design. This new website runs on WordPress.
My old website was a content management system of my own design, built to resemble WordPress. It worked well enough, but it was getting old. The layout code wasn’t very flexible. I never did get around to developing the input interface I wanted to and always ended up entering content directly through phpMyAdmin. That got tiring fast. The largest problem was the comment spam. I periodically deleted it from the database, but it was getting to a rate of 10-20 a day. That’s too much. WordPress solves all that. Extensible code, a wealth of themes and plugins to use and modify, and most of all… a comment spam blocker!
The current layout you see before you is a first draft. It will be adjusted and tweaked in the days and weeks to come. As you can see by the page footer, this theme that I created is a remix of the fSpring and Shaded Grey WordPress themes. Once I’m done with it, the theme may not resemble those two much anymore.
There’s currently one other article there for you to read. Tomorrow I’ll have another all new article. Each day after that for the next week, I’ll bring back one of the articles from the old website. I may even bring something back from the websites earlier than that (back from when this place was called KM3K World, as those who have known me a long time will know). I’m looking forward to getting back into this whole web design thing. Huzzah!
