HDTivo = Highly Delayed Tivo
Posted at September 14, 2006 10:21 PM - Category: Stuff
I'm nuts about TV. Seriously, it's my favorite media format. I'm especially a fan of serialized shows that follow a single story arc from week to week over the course of a season or a series. And luckily for me, this kind of show is becoming more and more popular (which is a welcome change from the sitcom and reality crap that used to flood the airwaves).
One problem with that kind of format is that if you miss an episode, it's more severe than other shows. So, it's one of the biggest reasons I've wanted a Tivo for a long time. For me, it's not the cost that's been the issue, it's HDTV support. So, when I heard word of the Series3 Tivo, I was all over it like white on rice. I've seriously been chomping at the bit to get one, no matter the cost. Now that it's out, most people are put off by the $800 price tag, but for something that's going to change how I watch TV and will keep everything in the nice, high quality I like, it's perfect for my needs, no matter what the cost.
Anyhoo, it was annouced by Engadget that it would be released this Tuesday, so I opened up Tivo in my browser before heading to bed so I could just hit Cmd+R in the morning to refresh the page and order one quickly. No, I'm not kidding. I did so and had mine ordered by 9am EST on Tuesday. My geek factor was high that day.
Unfortunately, there are two very bad things I hadn't planned on happening. The first was at 9:30am when I called up Comcast to get the required CableCards to handle the digital cable and encrypted channels I subscribe to. For those not familiar, a CableCard is basically your standard PCMCIA card that holds some data to allow any CableCard-using device to access the premium content you might be getting over your cable line. The FCC has mandated that every cable company provide them so that we're not forced into using the cable company's boxes. This Tivo will replace my cable box completely. However, despite being dead simple to install (slide in the slot, read some codes from the screen to a technician on the phone, and repeat for card number 2), they are requiring that a technician come out to install these for me. And apparently they are backed up, so I can't get it until Oct 2nd! Luckily, Lost, my favoritest show ever, isn't going to premiere until the 4th, so it should be all set in time. But if they had delayed further, someone at Comcast would be dead right now. So, no pure HD until the 2nd.
As for the 2nd issue, I got this message tonight:
Dear TiVo Customer,
Thank you for your TiVo Store purchase. Unfortunately, due to excessive order volumes for the TiVo Series3 HD Digital Media Recorder, your shipment has been delayed. We will be refunding all shipping charges to your account. The credit should post to your account within 3-7 business days.
Please be assured we will be shipping your order no later than Friday, 9/15/06. You will receive a shipment confirmation email with the tracking information at that time. We sincerely apologize for any inconveniences this may have caused. In the meantime, if you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us at (877) 367-8486.
Best regards,
TiVo Customer Support
Not as bad as the CableCard issues, but still... Good thing I chose the overnight shipping option, though :)
Hanso Exposed
Posted at September 8, 2006 11:24 AM - Category: Stuff
For those following The Lost Experience:
.99999... ~= 1
Posted at June 20, 2006 11:02 AM - Category: Stuff
I've never seen so much nerd rage generated over any one topic as the great .99999... == 1 debate. It's currently being "discussed" on digg. Read through that and tell me that's not the most anger you've seen over one simply equation.
BTW, the answer is that 0.99999... approximately equals 1. It's related the fact that infinity has no decimal representation, in that, 0.9999... is represented in decimal form as an approximation. Taking advantage of that fact results in the ability to say 0.99999... == 1. In decimal form, it does. In conceptual form, it does not.
Game Overload
Posted at May 12, 2006 04:08 PM - Category: Stuff
First, what the hell is a hurricane doing in the middle of the US?
Onto business, I've been getting a video game overload from E3 this week. Coming out of the show, everything points to PS3 losing big time this generation. It's expensive and doesn't do anything more than the rest. To me, it seems like a half-assed Wii cloned controller mixed with a half-assed XBox Live knockoff. The graphics also don't look significantly better than the XBox 360. For the 50% increase in price, you'd expect a 50% increase in quality. But the hardware specs don't lie and the system just isn't worth the cost. I know I'm not buying one. In fact, I think Peter Moore has hit the nail on the head. I'll be getting a Wii in addition to my 360 for the price of just the PS3. And, by the looks of it, I'm going to be having way more fun.
Speaking of the Wii, some people seem to be worried about it. I'm not. The one thing I've always noticed is that when you have to buy a special controller for a game (e.g. Samba de Amigo or DDR), you get a much better game experience. So, making it a permanent part of the system means there will always be that part of the experience. There's also the big reason for having the special controller: marketing. For years, new systems have been sold on the basis of better graphics. But that's only pushing games for existing gamers. New gamers don't really have a basis of comparison. If they see a motion blurred racing game or real time self-shadowing character models, they don't think anything of it because they don't see it as being an improvement, just their baseline. However, people are most definitely going to be talking about the new controller on the Wii. It senses where you are and lets you directly manipulate the game. That's going to be huge.
Any time I've ever seen someone play a video game who's new at them, they always swing and twist the control around trying to move it to manipulate what's going on the game. This is going to give people the direct manipulation that they want and need to really enjoy the experience. In terms of usability, as we've moved into this 3d universe, we've kept our 2d controllers. Emily has the hardest time trying to play Halo because it's not natural to map 2d movement on a controller to the 3d movement on the screen. I guarantee you if we both had Wii remotes, she would be much better at the game. For the first time, we have 3d games and we have a 3d controller. It's basically the promise of virtual reality without the silly helmets.
Misc
Posted at April 26, 2006 02:46 PM - Category: Stuff
The server this site is on (Beta) is currently being targetted by a DDOS attack. ThePlanet has their Cisco Guard XT doing it's thing, but it's still relatively slow due to the size of the attack (peaked at 60 MPPS. Sweet!). Why is this going on? Some hacker dude was running an IRC server or something related from this machine through an exploit script, which I assume pissed off whomever the attacker is. I'm the innocent bystander as a result. I've fixed the holes used to get in, along with putting up several other protections, so it should stop eventually. All this right after I fixed the whole crashing issue by upgrading the kernel. Yeesh!
Popular Mechanics (or P. Mizzle, as we call it on the street) has a neat article comparing various bio fuels. I've been thinking about replacing my car with something more energy efficient lately. What I really want is a SmartCar that runs on bio-diesel. That way I can run around town in a funky little car that smells like french fries or barbecue. I'm also working on getting my body up to snuff so I can bike into work each day. It's about 6 miles, so I can't just run right into it. But it will be nice to both save on gas and improve my health.
I've had a hard time finding a GT student to work on some various small coding projects here at ASO. I've had the flyer up for about 2 weeks, but only one person responded and they were somewhat underwhelming. I guess I'll have to widen the net or make it a contract job. And for those reading who would like to do this, I am looking for in-person people, so you'll have to be in Atlanta. If you know any PHP whiz's that live in Atlanta and could use a part time job, send them my way.
Has anyone else noticed a larger influx of spam lately? It seems like all my filters are failing, or the spammers are just getting better at subverting them. I've got to figure out DSpam with Exim, so I can use it with my own emails. Also, Yahoo!'s mail servers appear to be slowing down lately. I may just have to switch over to retrieving from GMail, but I don't know if I want to trust Google just yet...
Whoosh!
Posted at December 12, 2005 01:03 PM - Category: Stuff
You're all going to hate me. I got an Xbox 360. ducks
With it, I've got Perfect Dark Zero and Project Gotham Racing. Both are very excellent games and are keeping me busy with the single player and the multiplayer. They also share one big thing in common: motion blur effects. So, I think I'm going to go out on a limb and declare 2006: The Year of Motion Blur.
You'll remember in past years we had such graphical wonders as Cel Shading and Bump Mapping. Well, a new year is upon us and it's time for another overused effect to be upon us. Now don't get me wrong, PDZ and PGR both use motion blue quite well. It certainly adds to the "action" feel of PDZ's gameplay and it just makes sense in a racing game like PGR. But I feel we're going to start seeing this effect used whereever and whenever it can. I've encountered a few bugs in PDZ whereby the motion blurring gets turned up a few notches and everything really gets smeared across the screen. I predict we'll see at least one game where it's turned up way too much permanently.
I think 2nd prize will go to HDR lighting. I've noticed that turning up in these games too. PGR uses it properly, but PDZ does not. In the latter, what happens is the effect whereby you eyes adjust to light when going from dark to light or light to dark is too slow. So, if you go from a light area to a dark one, you end up in a dark room for 3-4 seconds before really being able to see what's going on. I understand there's an element of realism there, but it's also really annoying to be blinded all the time. Hopefully, they'll decide to fix this or tone it down with an online patch.
Maths
Posted at November 8, 2005 06:44 PM - Category: Stuff
I normally hate these things, but this one's kind of funny/cool:
| You Passed 8th Grade Math |
 |
Could You Pass 8th Grade Math?
Drool
Posted at November 1, 2005 06:55 PM - Category: Stuff
I think I've finally found the phone to replace my RAZR:
I want one...NOW!
Gaming Goodness
Posted at August 5, 2005 06:15 PM - Category: Stuff
I got myself a PSP this week, ordered from eBay with no games. So, in that short period, I had time to concentrate on the non-gaming aspects of the PSP. For those that don't know, the PSP also has functions for photo viewing, music, and video playback. It runs these off of a Memory Card that plugs in the side. In addition, the upcoming 2.0 firmware update is going to add a web browser to the whole package. So, even though I was stuck with a 32MB Memory Stick (I've gotten a 1GB one now) and no games, there was still an interesting amount of stuff to fiddle with.
Unfortunately, I messed up my chances at doing the cool stuff: homebrew.
No, the PSP doesn't make sweet tea, but it is capable of loading software off the memory stick. That means people have been porting games, emulators, and other software to the PSP. There's all kinds of good stuff out there. Unfortunately, it only works on the 1.0 and 1.5 version of the firmware. Not knowing any better, I upgraded the firmware first thing via the wireless facility (802.11b, baby!). So, I'm stuck at 1.52 with no way of going back down and no way of running any homebrewed software.
However, this has sparked my interest: how is the software written for the PSP and what is blocking it from loading? For the for first question, I was surprised to find out how Linux-like the PSP OS is. The IP stack on the wireless card identifies itself as NetBSD and looking through the firmware files reveals a very linux-like layout. While the OS isn't any sort of linux derivative, it's no secret that Sony likes Linux. This means that coding for the PSP can be really familiar for some users. There's even a PSP SDK to aid homebrewers. It's really interesting to see how fast stuff has been ported to the PSP.
To answer the 2nd question, it appears the PSP uses a wrapped file format for executables called a PBP. The file includes an "info" file about the archive, the executable, and some extra files for the PSP menu screen, such as icons and background images. In the 1.0 firmware, PBP's could easily be created and run on the PSP with no problem. When 1.5 came around, they added a digital signature check for the PBP's. This had always been supported, just not enforced. To get around this, the "kxploit" was found. There is a flaw in the PSP OS (that still exists!) that can be used to direct the OS from one PBP to another for execution. In 1.5, it was found that if this file was just a bare .elf, it would load just fine. Unfortunately, this was patched to need a signed .elf for 1.51 and 1.52.
So, we're stuck at this point with needing a way to get to an executable that will load on the system. Currently, it seems the only way to get in to the system will be through a buffer overflow in a save game loader. Some dumbass kid has been going around posting info about getting something to load on the 2.0 Japanese firmware. Basically, this kid got lucky, because if you read through his posts on forums and stuff, he clearly has no clue as to what is going on. Unfortunately, it's all in how you market it, and this kid got lucky there too.
In any case, I'm more than happy with the intended purposes for this device (games and video). However, it's definitely a fun project to try and get around the security checkpoints of the system. Who knows, maybe someone will figure it out eventually...
