Tuesday, July 31, 2007
PAX Tourney Training
As most of us well know, PAX begins in a little over 24 days. After scowering the forums I have discovered the Tournament listings and the rules therein. There is, of course, the Smash Bros tourney. We must begin the training soon, for fear we meet swift destruction at the hands of some Japanese 5 years old playing Game 'N Watch. Also, I noticed there are two (yes, TWO) Guitar Hero 2 tournaments. The first of which is a team battle and the second of which is a single tournament. I recommend intense training sessions so that we may destroy all who oppose us! PWL veterans, let us unite and destroy all those who stand in our way! For we will be victorious should we practice and train appropriately!
Also, here are tourney details!
Guitar Hero 2 Teams
When: Friday, 9:00pm~12:00am
Format: 2 vs 2, single elimination
Player Cap: 128 teams (256 players)
Rules
Cooperative
Difficulty: Hard (both teams may select Expert if they wish to do so)
Song Selection
For each match, we will provide a list of three randomly selected songs. Each team will have the option of eliminating one song from the list, and must play whichever song is left. For any best-of-3 match, this list is extended to 5 songs (teams still get only one pick per match).
Format
* Teams will be divided into 16 pools, each containing up to 8 teams (16 players per pool)
* Each match will be best of 1 song
* Both teams will play the same song at the same time, using 2 seperate stations
* Semi-finals and/or finals will be best of 3 songs
Super Smash Brothers Melee
When: Friday, 4:00pm~8:00pm
Format: 1 vs 1, single elimination
Player Cap: 256 players
Rules
Singles (1v1)
Stocks: 4
Time Limit: 6 minutes
Damage Ratio: 1.0
Stage Selection: Random
Pause: Off
Self Destructs: -1
Items: Off
During a match, the winner of an individual game must keep same character. Loser may switch characters if they wish to do so. This rule ONLY applies to a single opponent. At the start of a new match, you may select any character.
Stalling tactics and the Ice Climbers' freeze and infinite throw glitches are banned.
Available Stages:*
Peach's Castle, Kongo Jungle, Jungle Japes, Yoshi's Story, Yoshi's Island, Fountain of Dreams, Green Greens, Corneria, Venom, Onett, Mute City, Pokemon Stadium, Fourside, Mushroom Kingdom 2, Kongo Jungle (Past), Yoshi's Island (Past), Dream Land (Past), Final Destination, Battlefield
*Subject to change.
Format: Qualifiers
* Players will be divided into 32 pools, each containing up to 8 players
* Each pool will be organized into an 8 player single elimination bracket
* Each match will be best of 1 game
* The winner of each pool advances to the semi-finals
Format: Semi-Finals and Finals
* The winning players from each pool will be re-seeded and placed into a new 32 player single elimination bracket
* If time allows, each match will be best of 3 games (stock and/or time limit subject to change)
* If we are short on time, each match will be best of 1 game (same settings as Qualifier round)
* If time allows, bracket semi-finals and grand finals will be best of 5 games
Friday, July 27, 2007
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
How To Hack a Verizon RAZR v3m Mobile Phone
Verizon's history of blocking mobile phone features is nothing new. From their first branded phones, to their latest gadget offering, Verizon locks-down their own mobile device operating systems. Would you like to both utilize and customize your Verizon phone the way Motorola originally designed the RAZR? With a few pieces of software, you can access and customize your own RAZR. It's your phone, and you paid for it; you should be able to utilize all of its functions.
This guide will walk you through finding the right software, connecting your RAZR to a PC, and changing settings on the phone to enable both USB and Bluetooth file transfers with Windows XP.
Steps
1. Download the drivers. Motorola's v3m drivers for Microsoft Windows are required to connect your RAZR to a PC via a mini-USB cable. One approach is to download a "USB Driver Tool" and the "USB Device Drivers" from Hack the RAZR's site. For the latest version, download Motorola's EU Driver Installation from their developer's site. You will need to create a free account before downloading the installer.
2. Extract the driver archive to any folder (if applicable). For Motorola's official driver release, the extracted file is "Motorola_EU_Driver_Installation_v?.?.?.msi" (question marks represent digits of the version number), and for third party distributions, the extracted files should include eight .inf files and one .sys file.
3. Install the drivers. None of the v3m drivers are Microsoft-certified, so be sure you've obtained them from a reliable source before you continue.
* Recommended install. This requires the official Motorola drivers from their developer site:
1. Launch the installer by double-clicking on the "Motorola_EU_Driver_Installation_v?.?.?.msi" file (question marks represent version number placeholders).
2.
1st window: click the "Next" button.
3.
2nd window: select the "I Agree" radio button if you agree to the license shown in the window, then click the "Next" button.
4.
3rd window: click the "Close" button.
5.
Connect your RAZR. Find a "Type A" USB to "Type B" Mini-USB cable. Connect the USB end to your PC, and the Mini-USB end to your RAZR. The Windows hardware wizard will show a series of notification balloons from the system tray as it detects and automatically installs drivers.
* Alternative install. For drivers distributed by a third-party that have no installer:
1. Connect your RAZR. Find a "Type A" USB to "Type B" Mini-USB cable. Connect the USB end to your PC, and the Mini-USB end to your RAZR. This should prompt a hardware wizard to appear in Windows.
2.
1st window: select "No, not this time" radio-button, then click on the "Next >" button.
3.
2nd window: select "Install from a list or specific location (Advanced)" radio-button, then click on the "Next >" button.
4.
3rd window: click on the "Include this location in the search:" check-mark box, enter the path to the downloaded p2k drivers, then click on the "Next >" button.
5.
4th window: click on the "Continue Anyway" button. This only appears when Driver Signing is set to "Warn" in the "System Properties" > "Hardware" > "Driver Signing" options of Windows XP.
4. Download and install PST. Motorola's Product Support Tool version 7.2.5 is the latest as of this writing, but version 7.2.3 will also work with current p2k software. The PST software is intellectual property of Motorola, so no additional help or screen shots may be provided for obtaining the software.
5. Download and install a p2k seem editor. The p2k Seem Editor is a tool that provides a direct means of manually changing bits of a mobile device's settings. The program only needs be extracted from its archive to function, as it has no installer to run.
Originally found on HowardForums.com years ago, the original author and/or distributors have left no information to track the application's version or contributor history. Fortunately, the application is quite stable and reliable in its currently distributed form. Distributions of the application contain a Functions.csv file that assigns comments to specific seem bits, a hexedit.dll file, usually a readme.txt or .nfo file, and the p2kseem.exe program file.
6.
Perform a seem edit to enable file transfers. The Seem Editor is sectioned into three main interface groupings: the seem location, hexadecimal grid, and bit switches. To use the seem editor, values are manually entered into the seem location area in the bottom right corner of the window. This will provide search criteria when the "Load from phone" button is clicked. Upon a successful read, hexadecimal data will appear in the top left corner of the window. Clicking on any byte will show the appropriate data in the bit switching area at the bottom left corner of the window.
1. Load the p2k Seem Editor.
2. Enter 2742 into the "Seem" text box of the "Load" group.
3. Leave the "Record" text box of the "Load" group at the default value of 1 or 0001.
4. Enter 0000 into the "Bytes (h)" text box.
5. Click on the "Load from phone" button.
6. Rows of hexadecimal values should appear in the upper left corner. If you received a connection error, close the Seem Editor and reset the connection with PST by creating a new phone book, then load phone's data into the new phone book.
7. Locate the row designed by the number 000060.
8. Click on the 11th column of dual digit hexadecimal values on this row. The "Offset" will read 006a in the "Selected byte details" group. Alternatively, click on the first column of row 000060 and use your keyboard's arrow keys to navigate right until "Offset" reads 006a.
9. "Bit 0" in the "Selected byte details" group should have a comment next to it: "Bluetooth Or USB file transfer...". Put a check next to "Bit 0" (comment's suffix will change to "on"), and a check next to "Bit 1".
10. Double-check your bit changes and an offset value still showing 006a. Verify that the "Save" group and "Load" group check boxes' values match. Ignore the text alignment of the text box contents.
11. Click on the "Save to phone" button.
12. Click on the "Yes" button.
13. Change is complete. Unplug your phone from the USB connection and power cycle it for the changes to take effect.
14. Search for other seem edits online to change settings that would otherwise be unavailable in Verizon's modified RAZR operating system.
7.
Download and install a file transfer utility. Popular file transfer utilities include Mobile Phone Tools, BitPim, and P2k Commander. Find one that works best for your tastes. None of these applications are perfect, but each offers a different twist of functionality. P2k Commander is often touted as the easiest and most straight-forward of p2k-based file transfer utilities, even though it is full of bugs and coded with poor error handling.
P2k Commander is authored by an individual from Hungary, with contributors from all over the world. As of this writing, the current version is 3.2.2. The author has mentioned interest in releasing a new version in the near future.
Once you're comfortable with one, you should be able to browse, copy, and delete files, as well as view individual file and storage information.
8. Enjoy your new RAZR functionality! Now you'll be empowered to use all of your RAZR's features. Insert a 1GB flash card in your v3m and treat your phone as a camera, thumb drive, and MP3 player, all in one device. Enable Java and download Java apps to your RAZR (Brew-based Java apps only). Enjoy the newfound freedom of a completely unlocked mobile device.
This article Via WikiHow
Testing Out The New Digg Widget
*Update!*Neat! It works! Totally awesome, dude!
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Anyone Want To Join the PWL Alliance?
As some of you may be aware, PAX '07 is coming up really fast! As in like 35 days from the time of this posting. And they're out to break some records. This year at PAX, there is a convention wide LARP-fest called TerraDrive. Aside from the four main factions, the game is entirely fan made. You can make your own factions, your own history, your own heroes, everything. I've been considering making a faction of
Anyway, I was curious as to who would be interested in joining and if they had any ideas for the history, faction alliance, etc. Any help is appreciated. Let me know soon so I can make a posting on the TerraDrive Wiki.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Neat Idea for iPhone Contact Photos
I recently signed up for a biweekly newsletter called Photojojo. It's a neat little newsletter that talks about photo manipulation and neat things you can do with photos, etc. Anyway, I recently found a neat way to show your contacts if your one of the
Friday, July 13, 2007
The Force Unleashed
Why Do I Get Weird Looks....?
It's not as if Techno were some kind of crazy new thing. It's been in movies and tv shows for as long as I can remember. Also, I don't listen to crap. I listen to all kinds of good stuff. Long story short; I like techno. My coworkers do not. I do not care. I will continue to play techno at my w0rkstation and continue to rock! Also, I like other things besides techno. Also, here's a cool video!
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Monday, July 09, 2007
Photos From This Weekend
You can check out the rest of the photos and many more at My Flickr site.
Thursday, July 05, 2007
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
Monday, July 02, 2007
Elebits
So my question is this: Does anyone else have Elebits? Have you tried the edit mode and successfully shared them with others? Is it amazing?!
The 10 Best Geek Vacations
1 Tokyo
Skip the pachinko parlors and fish market, and head straight to Akihabara — the ultimate red-light district for gadget fetishists. After that, take in either the Ghibli (dedicated to anime kings Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata) or Bandai museums. Don't forget to save a day for the Sega Joypolis!
2 Chernobyl, Ukraine
The highlight of the Chernobyl bus tour: Prypyat, a town whose 47,000 inhabitants had to split within 36 hours of the meltdown. While wandering abandoned schools and other buildings, keep an eye out for freaky mutant plant life and salty squatters who have taken up residence in the "exclusion zone."
3 Palo Alto, California
Silicon Valley's ground zero is within spitting distance of the most influential tech companies, from Apple to Yahoo. Other attractions: gawking at the famous Hewlett-Packard garage, touring the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, and sneaking into the Google cafeteria. And if you visit SF, feel free to admire Wired's offices... from the street.
4 CERN
Jet to Switzerland and watch artisanal physicists actually make their own antimatter (samples not available). Who knows, maybe you'll spot the subatomic Higgs boson while peering into the Large Hadron Collider — 17 miles of super conducting magnets! Word to the wise: Book at least four months ahead.
5 Mauna Kea Observatory
Hawaii doesn't have to be about boring activities like lying on the beach sipping mai tais. Instead, rent a 4x4 and trek to Mauna Kea, one of the most striking observatories on Earth. Stop at the visitors center, where you can view sunspots during daylight hours. Leave the surf shorts behind: At an altitude of nearly 14,000 feet, it can dip below freezing after dark.
6 Sidi Driss Hotel
Welcome to the underground dwellings that were Luke Skywalker's Tatooine home in Star Wars. They're in the burg of Matmata, Tunisia, and are now lodging geekotourists. What else is there to do? Day-trip over to the nearby town of Gabes, which — despite what you may have heard — is not a wretched hive of scum and villainy.
7 New Zealand
A tour of The Lord of the Rings' shot locations is as close as you're ever going to come to meeting Gandalf. Guides will show you Matamata (Hobbiton), Kaitoke Regional Park (Rivendell), and Mount Sunday (Edoras, home to the horse-lords of Rohan). Eight-foot broadswords sold separately.
8 The South Pole
It costs around $5,000 and can be damn cold (minus 76 degrees Fahrenheit in winter), but a cruise around Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station will warm any geek's heart. Alternatively, sign up for a working vacation at McMurdo Station. It has the bleak landscape and soul-numbing chill, but there are bars to go to at night!