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

Spider Pig (Epic Choir Version!)

In homage to the new Simpsons' movie, here is Spiderpig... IN CONCERT!!!

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Hermes!

And now, a very familiar kitty who got his name... from a talking motorcycle.

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

How To Hack a Verizon RAZR v3m Mobile Phone

I figured you might like this article, Frank, so I figured I might as well post it here if you wanna try it out.

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

Digg recently released the Digg Widget, which allows you to copy and paste it onto your website. I just wanted to see if it worked on Blogger. Here goes nothing!
*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 my our own called the PWL Alliance. (Stands for People Who Larp, or People who Lose, or People With Lives, or People Wanting Literacy, or whatever you so wish it to mean to you)

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 insane cool people who can afford an iPhone. Check it out here at Stillframe's Flickr account. Also, check out some of the neat things they have at Photojojo, you just might be interested.

Friday, July 13, 2007

The Force Unleashed

Ever wondered what The Force could really do? Have you ever wondered what actually happened in between Star Wars: Episode 3 and Episode 4? Ever just wanted a game where you could be the bad guy with crazy Force powers and throw things and pull things and generally all kinds of awesome force stuff? Well I have! And Lucas Arts has finally decided to deliver! Check out the crazy trailer and other details about the upcoming game at their website.