mp3 from Andrew “Bunnie” Huang’s talk at USC on reverse engineering.
Also check out the Chumby device that Andrew is working on, that is discussed during the talk. You can see Andrew’s virtual Chumby here.
I saw this article today, claiming that the WiiConnect24 update breaks Wii systems and suggesting you ship your system back to Nintendo.
I checked the error codes quoted ( 110213 and 32002, ) the problems appear to be with the settings on the wireless router. Make sure that the WiFi channels used by the router are either 1 or 11, I had mine on 6 initially and had problems.
Next make sure you check your firewall settings, it might seem a little extreme, but allow TCP & UDP ports 28910, 29900, 29901, 29920, 80 and 443.
These changes made my Wii update go from sucking a grape through a straw slow ( approx. 2 hours, ) to downloaded within minutes fast.
The portable gadgets - similar to a pocket PC and linked to a database of 6.5m prints - will enable officers to identify suspects within minutes.
Police say they will particularly help identify people using false identities, although fingerprints can be taken only if a person gives permission
Under the pilot, codenamed Lantern, police officers will be able to check the fingerprints from both index fingers of the suspect against a central computer database, with a response within a few minutes.
If they verify it on the street and the person is currently not wanted by anyone but is known to the system for a reason - that is sufficient for fixed penalty notices.
Currently an officer has to arrest a person and take them to a custody suite to fingerprint them.
The information on the device is encrypted and there are electronic safeguards to prevent misuse, if the machine was lost or stolen.
As they say “No one is innocent Citizen, we are just assessing your personal level of guilt”.
Officials at Willett Elementary School, Attleboro a city south of Boston consisting of about 45,000 residents, have banned kids from playing tag, touch football and any other unsupervised chase game during recess for fear they’ll get hurt and hold the school liable. School administrators from around Attleboro also took exception to dodgeball a few years back, claiming it was exclusionary and dangerous.
This leads me to remember what A.S.Neill said about children never having enough time to play, and all the horrible manifestations that result, but as I don’t have the sources to hand I will leave you these Neill quotes instead :
Allow children to be completely free to play as much as they like. Creative and imaginative play is an essential part of childhood and development. Spontaneous, natural play should not be undermined or redirected by adults into a `learning experience` for children. Play belongs to the child.
Most of the schoolwork that adolescents do is simply a waste of time, of energy, of patience. It robs youth of its right to play and play and play; it puts old heads on young shoulders.
I am not decrying learning. But learning should come after play. And learning should not be deliberately seasoned with play to make it palatable. Learning is important – but not to everyone.
Children, like adults, learn what they want to learn. All the prize-giving and marks and exams side-track proper personality development.
I decided to buy Super Monkey Ball for the Wii yesterday, I felt I needed a game that I could pick up and play in short bursts, which Zelda is not. Wii Sports is good, but not amazing, it feels like it was thrown together to show the possibilities of the Wii-mote.
I’m not sure about the whole monkey-in-a-ball thing, I am assuming that somewhere placing monkeys in balls was the next logical step. The Wii version appears to differ from previous incarnations as it has something resembling a plot. The plot is kinda lost on me, something about pirates in flying ships stealing bananas or some such, seems to me to be a bit superfluous, and there are end-of-level-guardians, if you are into that-sort-of-thing and feel that Monkey Ball was lacking.
Monkey Ball comes into it’s own on the Wii, the Wii-mote is almost the perfect way to control the characters movements round the various courses. Monkey Ball has always been about pure motor skills, which is now emphasised by the gyroscopic control. I’m not saying for a second that the game is any easier, but it certainly is more engaging than previous releases, once again I must stress how intuitive the Wii-mote is.
I also bought Pikmin, which I’ve played countless times before, but I love it and it was only $10. With it being a GameCube game the disc is just over half the size of a DVD, and I wasn’t sure how the Wii was going to handle it being pushed into the slot-loader, but the Wii did what it was supposed to and just accepted the disc. In the Wii menu it displays the name as GameCube, and when selected the Wii flips into some GameCube mode, which unfortunatly ignores the Wii controls. The bottom line is, unless you have a GameCube controller, which I should add, can be bought cheaply, then you will have little success playing GameCube games on your Wii.
The new Zelda game will not disappoint, the game is amazing, unfortunatly I got a migraine last night after 10 minutes of playing Zelda, so I haven’t much more to add, except to say, if I gave the impression that I had doubts about it, then for the record, I don’t.
To wrap up, here are two articles via /., both involving Wii disassembly, the first is mainly pictures off the Wii in various states of deconstruction, the second disassembles all parts and includes discussion.
I wish I loved the Human Race;
I wish I loved its silly face;
I wish I liked the way it walks;
I wish I liked the way it talks;
And when I’m introduced to one,
I wish I thought “What Jolly Fun!”
A former Russian spy by the name of Alexander Litvinenko, had been investigating the murder of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, one of the few Russian journalists to write about alleged human rights abuses in Chechnya and an outspoken critic of Russian President Valdimir Putin ( who also, as it turns out, was a former KGB operative, ) and Russian policy in Chechnya. Anna Politkovskaya was shot dead at her Moscow apartment building in October of 2006. At the beginning of November 2006, Alexander Litvinenko had a meeting, which is believed to be with an Italian by the name of Mario Scaramella, who is involved in an Italian parliamentary inquiry into KGB activity. The meeting took place in a Sushi Bar in Piccadilly, London where he received documents relating to the Politkovskaya case, and was taken ill shortly afterwards. Poisoning was not suspected for another 10 days.
“He gave me some papers which contained some names on it - perhaps names of those who may have been involved in the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, and several hours after the meeting I started to feel sick.”
Tests conducted at the University College Hospital London by Clinical toxicologist John Henry, revealed that he had been poisoned with a potentially lethal dose of Thallium. The poisoning became obvious when all of Mr.Litvinenko’s hair fell out.
“It is tasteless, colourless, odourless. It takes about a gram - you know, a large pinch of salt like in your food - to kill you.”
Russia denies poisoning spy, of course thats what they would say if they had.
Alexander Litvinenko was a colonel in the KGB and a lieutenant-colonel in the FSB before defecting to the UK in November 2000.
Oleg Gordievsky, also a former colonel in the KGB, and defector to the UK, believes that Alexander Litvinenko met with two Russians prior to the meeting in the restaurant, at which time the poison was administered in a cup of tea.
It is interesting that his poisoning fell on the anniversary of Litvinenko’s defection, around the release of a new James Bond film, and at a time that MI6 are activly recruiting. Probably completely coincidental however.
UPDATE : Learn to speak Russian
UPDATE : The women of MI6 interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s Womans Hour over the Terror Bill in January 2006.
UPDATE : Litvinenko had received death threats, prior to the meeting.
UPDATE : The plot thickens.
UPDATE : Amnesty International calls on the Russian Government to protect detainees from torture and rape.
UPDATE : Full Wikipedia entry for The Alexander Litvinenko poisoning.
Picked up my Wii and my copy of Zelda, the controllers seems really intuitive, and the gameplay is way more physical than a regular console.
I’m gonna stop typing now as it’s kickin’ off round here ….
UPDATE : It is slowly becoming obvious that between the total of 12 buttons shared between the wii-mote and nunchuk, and the different actions the wii-mote’s gyroscope and accelerometer and the nunchuk’s gyroscope can make sense of, that there are a lot of potential combinations available. Zelda is breaking me in slowly, very slowly, baby-steps, which is kind of appreciated. The sports game also gives a helping hand, so it’s much easier to enjoy the natural feel, without having to take the physical limitations of the console into consideration as much. The contrrollers seem really comfortable in the hands, and because they are seperated, the hands fall into a very natural position, very ergonomic. I think a big screen is really needed, it would certainly help prevent over-shooting, though I’ve only had it a short time, so maybe I just need to develop the required sensitivity in my movements.
The controller appears to go to sleep if unused, and a slight touch wakes it up. I’m not sure if it switches off completely if left unused, I think it must do as you wouldn’t want it to wake up anytime it was moved when not in use, but if it had been in use recently you would want a fast restart, however you would want the battery life to be preserved as much as possible, so a sleep-mode is desirable. During it’s waking faze there will be a lot of communication in both directions between the wii-mote and the console, as there is feedback from the wii-mote in the form of sound and vibration.
Every single part of the Wii seems well thought out, it is a classic piece of Nintendo ergonomic design, set up and use can be performed trivially by pretty much anyone. There are more parts than usual, which also means more points of failure, but as it’s all brand-spanking-new I’ll worry about that another day, though if you have small children who have inquisitive minds and the ability to act upon it, I’d tape down the receiver on top of the tv, and tack the cables down, but I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you how to suck-eggs.
With Twilight Princess, all the classic Zelda features are there, slightly tweaked in places. It feels very polished and certainly looks it, though personally moving away from the cell-shaded rendering of WindWaker feels like a step back, but I’ve only just started playing it and it looks fantas-tic.
UPDATE : Firewall settings
Word from the UK, Casino Royale is teh r0×0r
Daniel Craig is apparently best Bond since Connery ( provided you believe Connery to be the best Bond, I do, but Brosnan came close. ) Also supposed to be good for those of us who read the books ( I’m currently up to Dr.No, and I’m really enjoying them, so different, yet so much better than the films. ) Casino Royale sticks quite well to the book, but has been brought up to date.
I’m out to see it tonight, so proper reviews sometime soon. All crtitical contributions gratefully accepted.
UPDATE : So a group of us went to see Casino Royale this evening.
There were criticisms as to the plausability of the scene located around the construction site, by those working in construction. The obligatory Bond “bit” with the gunbarrel was considered over-rendered, though considering the poor quality of earlier versions, maybe they were over-compensating ;O)
The film contained large chunks of the book, some parts had been reworked to suit, liberal use of artistic license was employed, but it stuck very close to the essence of Bond, walking that very thin line between the Bond of the novels and the Bond film stereotype. I’m all for the Bond of the films to become more like the Bond of the books, and this, for me, is a step in the right direction.
I’m fairly keen to gloss-over the revisionist history of Judy Dench as M, there are probably other examples too, but as with the construction site critique, I can live with the idea that it’s just a movie.
It is, I must say, beautifuly shot, and they really have found some lovely places to shoot, that whole high-roller life style just oozes from the screen. The locations contrasted well, and they appear to have gotten great weather. You can tell I’m English, I went to see a movie and I comment on how the weather was within it :Op
Action, lots of action, more so than in the book, and is very well cut to really give recent action flicks a run-for-their-money. I am quite embarrassed to admit it, I did actually get a touch of vertigo at the begining of the film.
Product-placement was reasonably discreete I guess, there was heavy mobile phone usage, though it didn’t detract from the film at all, more a sign-of-the-times really, though I guess Bond films always have been, and I guess it all adds to the high-roller high-tech feel.
The Humour was very dry, it’s quite a dark film, but the Brits around me were giggling away, a lot more frequently than the locals, though I did feel they entered into the spirit of it after a while. Casino Royale is a fairly down-to-earth plot, it is without the grandios megalomanic scenarios found in some of the other films which are known as a sterotype of the Bond flick.
I did feel that everyone in the cinema really enjoyed the film, and I think Daniel Craig was universally accepted, that he had earned his double-O status with the audience … err … so to speak. I think fans of both the books and the films will not be disappointed, and indeed might be considered a fairly accesible film for those who wouldn’t normally see a Bond movie.
90 second flash animation illustrating the Imperial History of the Middle East, from the Maps of War website.
Maps of War also has an interesting animation detailing who between the Republicans, Democrats, or the Founding Fathers, were responsible for America’s deadliest wars.