Code Retard

Here are the final production images of the Xecuter CoolRunner.

Shipping has now begun to resellers and will be on sale at Only $19.99 from all TX resellers. get your orders in now ready for delivery next week !

Xecuter CoolRunner – Slim install with new version QSB for NAND-X/CoolRunner all in one.
Note the longer wire on CPU_RST. The signal is 20ns wide and goes from 1.2v to 0.7v and the SMC holds it up real hard, probably some JTAG protection strategy by MS. This is why many different RGH mods have had trouble with the Slims. The wire included is cut to the length that we have found to be optimum after a LOT of testing. The benefit of having a nice expensive scope to work with ;)

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Ever wanted to give your old 2D pictures or photos that extra oomph? How about adding an extra dimension to that dusty two-axis plane?

3Defy offers a fully functional 3D modeling environment, all within the comfort of your browser.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Eddie Cho/ CNET)

Users can use a small but effective set of tools to edit their pictures.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Eddie Cho/CNET)

3Defy Modeler is an interactive Web app that allows users to transform their photos into three-dimensional objects for free. Built by a team of passionate engineers, designers and 3D enthusiasts, 3Defy provides a a relatively basic set of tools to alter two dimensional images. Powered by Adobe Flash Player 11′s 3D technology, users can turn various objects in their images into separate layers. Each layer can be exaggerated by users using 3Defy’s built in tools. Users can push, pull, bend, or warp objects in various ways. Though 3Defy won’t replace your industrial level 3D modeler, it does provide enough tools to create some pretty “eye-popping” visuals when placed in capable hands.

As for users who are new to 3D work, we recommend starting simple: aim for only one or two objects in your picture to pop out. Here are some examples that we created in a matter of minutes. Granted 3D enthusiasts will probably prefer more feature-rich applications, but 3Defy is a solid, interactive demonstration of how Adobe’s new 3D platform can be utilized on the Web. Come take a dive and prepare to be 3Defied.

If you love avoiding the effects of the T-virus, exploring scary environments filled with zombies, and generally doing all things Resident Evil, you’re in luck – the next game in the series is headed your way on March 12, 2012. Capcom confirmed the release date for Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City late this week, and with it, some details regarding what fans can expect from the game and its collector’s edition.

Raccoon City features six different playable characters, a marked change from Resident Evils of the past. Gamers who pre-order from Best Buy, Amazon or GameStop will receive a special costume for all six characters in addition to a set of weapons specifically reserved for those who plunk their money down early – useful considering this specific iteration of the franchise will focus more on action and less on survival.

Here’s what you’ll see in the collector’s edition:

• Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City
• Steelbook with exclusive art
• Stylized foil sleeve
• Umbrella Security Service and Spec Ops Field Unit embroidered patches
• All eight bonus weapons

Operation Raccoon City will hit shelves on March 20th, 2012, but only for PS3 and Xbox 360 owners. While a PC version of the game has been confirmed, there is no official release date available.

Via CinemaBlend

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Battlefield 3 is an engaging multiplayer shooter, but newbies will find it rather unapproachable.
Image: Electronic Arts

Wired’s editors take their tentative first steps onto the Battlefield and are summarily shot to bits, in this episode of the Game|Life podcast.

This week, Wired senior editors Chris Baker and Peter Rubin, managing editor Marty Cortinas and I get into the podcast studio to share our experiences and feelings about a variety of things related to videogames, including:

• Battlefield 3 is out and we are not very good at it,
• The announcement of Grand Theft Auto 5 and our speculation as to where it might be set,
• BlizzCon and the panda-filled new Warcraft expansion, and
• Our ongoing “9 for 9? series of mandatory geek books, games, etc.

The podcast is embedded below, can be downloaded directly, and will be available on iTunes later today. As ever, feel free to write in with your comments and suggestions!

GameLife Reboot:
Episode 004

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Have you ever filled out a comment on a blog or forum, only to have your browser crash, losing everything you wrote? Or maybe you have an itchy thumb and accidentally hit the back button. Frustrating, isn’t it?

With a
Firefox extension called Textarea Cache, you can automatically save what you type in a comment box or Web form and retrieve it, even if your browser crashes. Here’s how:

Step 1: Install the Firefox extension, Textarea Cache.

Step 2: Fill out a blog comment or post to a forum.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Ed Rhee)

Step 3: To retrieve your text, go to your Firefox add-ons by hitting CTRL+SHIFT+A, then click on the “Options” button under Textarea Cache.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Ed Rhee)

Step 4: Click on the “Open cache window” button.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Ed Rhee)

Step 5: Review the text that was automatically saved and copy the text, remove it, or empty out the entire cache.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Ed Rhee)

Step 6: To get quicker access to the Textarea cache window, hit CTRL+/ to display the Firefox add-on bar, then click on the Textarea icon in the lower right-hand corner.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Ed Rhee)

That’s it. Now you can automatically save the text you type over the Web. If you’re concerned about Textarea Cache saving credit card numbers or passwords, worry not. The extension only saves text from large textarea boxes, not from small field boxes. Also, the cache is saved locally. Mozilla has reviewed the extension itself and given it its seal of approval.

Jforce comments on their website that they will be releasing Unstopabble “when its ready”, a moderately alternative path to take for an up and coming game developer, but one that should be applauded.

The footage that we have seen so far of Jforce: Unstoppable looks promising. There is a wide array of weapons and fast-paced shooter action.

Metal Gear Awesome’s Egoraptor can be thanked for the high quality sprites, having helped the unstoppable team out so far in their art development.

Further Jforce:Unstoppable Features:

• 40 unique weapons to choose from (including Ray gun, Shuriken i.e. Ninja Star, Freeze Ray , Rocket Launcher, Punching Gloves, Ball and Chain, Pistol, Electricity gun, Machine Gun, Portal gun, Land mines, Flame thrower, Light Sabre)
• Online co-op
• Online deathmatch/capture the flag
• Endless survival mode
• Level editor

If you have a few spare dollars lying about, pre-order discounts and beta access are available until November 12th by donating to the Jforce Games Kickstarter campaign.

Keep an eye on the game as it will be available on nearly every platform around, meaning you will be able to get a taste of it when it is released no matter what platform you play on.

Via [Jforce]

Let’s you flash full raw images (16 or 64MB) to your NAND. Started, as usual, via XeLL.

place “nandflash.bin” on the root of a usb device
start 2stage xell and shut off when prompted (replug power if you changed SMC)
- by default it checks blocks before writing, and will NOT overwrite or erase any block with ecc/other issues (perfect for fbbuild images with auto remaps)

Tapping the designated corner in the Dolphin HD browser will let you control many browser functions with gestures.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)

The makers of a popular
mobile browser called Dolphin HD confirmed that their software leaks the addresses of all Web sites a user visits, a potential privacy and security breach.

MoboTap, a Pasadena, Calif.-based mobile developer, told CNET today that Dolphin HD for
Android transmitted the Web addresses back to the company’s servers but that they were not stored. The addresses were used to determine whether to format Web pages in “Webzine” format, MoboTap said.

The privacy and security implications arise when a user connects to a secure Web site (usually shown by “https://” and a closed lock icon). The second, surreptitious connection to MoboTap is unencrypted, allowing an eavesdropper on a Wi-Fi network to learn what’s happening.

“In some cases, if you knew the URL you can take over the user’s session,” says Seth Schoen, staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which has advocated the adoption of encrypted Web browsing to thwart eavesdroppers.

Alan Cooper, a spokesman for MoboTap, downplayed the impact of the security snafu, saying that “we’ve never stored anyone’s user data” and have no intention to do so.

In a blog post, MoboTap said that: “With roughly 300 Webzines supported at the moment, it was necessary for the client to check the current user URL against a database housing these 300 Webzine columns… In terms of security, on a scale from one to ten, this is a zero.”

EFF’s Schoen disagrees. “I wish browser vendors would think things like this through before implementing them,” he said. “It seems like they could have forseen the security implications of it.”

Cooper said that “the issue has been 100 percent fixed already” in Android Market update 7.0.1. A post on a developer’s forum, however, says 7.0.1 “still forwards URLs.” Cooper said he would bring this to the attention of the developers for them to “double-check.”

He added, in an e-mail message, that:

Dolphin didn’t collect any device data in the API request, and doesn’t know which clients are being used. The request was served only to crosscheck the URL against the availability of a corresponding Webzine.

Using https for this functionality (which will become an opt-in service with accompanying notification of URL pinging) is a great suggestion and we’ll be working it into future versions.

Another privacy implication is that MoboTap was also notified what files you’re using Dolphin HD to browse even on your computer. A post on AndroidPolice.com suggested one way to fix the problem would be to block connections to the MoboTap-operated Web site, en.mywebzines.com.

Dolphin is a popular gesture-based browser for iOS and Android devices (see CNET’s coverage last month when the
iPad version was released, a video review, and our “how-to” report on browsing with gestures). Dolphin HD received an average rating of 4.6 out of 5 in the Android Market.

Update 2:10 p.m. PT: Just got e-mail from MoboTap representative Alan Cooper: “It came to our attention that yesterday’s hot fix did not fix the URL concern, and we’ve just published version 7.0.2, which fixes all URL issues. It’s just been pushed to the Market, and all users should be seeing it rolled out as an update shortly.”

Tell me if this sounds familiar: you start your trusty old Firefox browser and upon loading, it not only loads the last browser window with all your individual tab sessions, but a billion other empty new Firefox windows as well.

I’ve had this evil problem plague me for ages. I searched and searched and found that if I simply deleted the sessionstore.js file in my Firefox profile directory, it would eliminate the problem for a bit. However, the issue always came back and was never a permanent solution.

After further investigation, I found it to be attributed to my RoboForm plugin. If you use this, you know it’s an indispensable password and bookmark manager to say the least. Now I cannot live without my beloved RoboForm, so I figured I’d just have to live with this multiple Firefox window problem. Sadly, it was just lesser of two evils.

I did however come up with a band-aid solution. It’s only a superficial fix but it gets the job done for the most part. I wrote a simply batch script to delete the sessionstore files (including backup) which I made to run at each Windows startup. This cleared my old sessions but at least I didn’t have to spend five minutes closing a bunch of empty new windows.

Find the path to your Firefox profile, usually in the format C:Documents and SettingsUserApplication DataMozillaFirefoxProfilesabcd1234.default if you’re on XP. I suspect something similar for Vista and Windows 7. Once you know the location of your Firefox profile, look for two files sessionstore.js and sessionstore.bak. These two files, if deleted, will prevent the multiple windows from loading at each Firefox startup.

The batch script is as follows, saved as del-sess.bat on my computer:

del "C:Documents and SettingsUserApplication DataMozillaFirefoxProfilesabcd1234.defaultsessionstore.bak"
del "C:Documents and SettingsUserApplication DataMozillaFirefoxProfilesabcd1234.defaultsessionstore.js"

Then I simply added a shortcut to this file to my Startup folder in the Windows Start menu. This executes the batch file upon each Windows startup which cleans up the session files, preventing RoboForm from opening up new Windows when Firefox gets loaded.

RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook.

(Credit:
RIM)

Even with all the competition it faces across the
tablet space, and the fact that
iPad owners recently updated their software to iOS 5, Research In Motion said yesterday that it’s holding off on launching the second generation of its tablet software until next year.

“As much as we’d love to have it in your hands today, we’ve made the difficult decision to wait to launch BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 until we are confident we have fully met the expectations of our developers, enterprise customers and end-users,” RIM senior vice president for the BlackBerry PlayBook David Smith wrote in a blog post yesterday.

Smith went on to say that his company doesn’t expect to release the update until February. RIM had hoped to get the operating system to customers much sooner, saying in an earnings call last month that it would show off the OS in October and then launch it “thereafter.”

The February launch date is a major issue for RIM and its tablet. Unlike Apple’s iPad, the BlackBerry PlayBook lacks native e-mail, calendar, and messaging. In order for users to send out e-mails from the device, they need to have a BlackBerry smartphone connected to the tablet. PlayBook OS 2.0 is an integral component in RIM’s strategy if it wants to even come close to establishing a foothold in the tablet space, since it will bring native e-mail, calendar, and contact apps to the device.

However, Smith also said in the blog post that his company has “decided to defer the inclusion of the BlackBerry Messenger application to a subsequent BlackBerry PlayBook OS release.” He didn’t say when it might finally come to the operating system, but he did say that users will continue to need a smartphone in order to send messages to other BlackBerry users from the tablet.

The timing on that announcement couldn’t be worse for RIM. Earlier this month, Apple launched iOS 5, the latest version of its mobile platform. After downloading it to their devices, iPad owners were able to access iMessage, a platform that, like BlackBerry Messenger, lets users send free messages to others. Apple’s iMessage works across the
iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch.

Before February, RIM says that it will provide enterprise customers in its Early Adopter Program “a series of closed betas” to try out.

RIM showed off BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 at its Developers Conference last week. At the event, RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis said that the PlayBook is integral to his company’s plans going forward.

“We’re absolutely committed to the BlackBerry PlayBook,” Lazaridis said before attendees at the BlackBerry Developers Conference. “No doubt.”

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