labby.co.uk » hardware

decommissioning a cash machine ATM

Gregory — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 09:06:37 +0000

I was walking through the local town centre and I came across a cash machine ATM being removed.

It was good to see in this era of hackers that the system was running on the most secure OSes available – windows.

Note the script failing to find commands.

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Playstation 3 PS3 firmware update 3.21

Gregory — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 14:59:12 +0000

I am guessing that I am not the only male in the world currently having major rows with his wife because of Sony’s latest firmware update.

I bought a 250GB PS3 slim and took it back to the shop because it does not have the OtherOS functionality, then paid the same amount for a PS3 60GB that did have the functionality.

This morning my wife came to play Final Fantasy XIII and was told she needed to do a firmware update to enable the Playstation Network. I just happened to glance up and see that the firmware update would remove the OtherOS functionality and told her to stop immediately. Argument 1 – never tell a woman to stop.

I sent Sony a complaint:

Your latest firmware update 3.21 has crippled the usage of my PS3. I use the otheros functionality on a daily basis and my wife uses the playstation network.
Your update means that one or the other of us cannot use the PS3 for the use it was purchased for.
I will be fully investigating my rights as a consumer because your company has purposefully removed a feature that was a major part of the reason I purchased the console in the first place.

I fully intend to do as I told them – I will be researching the sale of goods act carefully and consulting my local Trading Standards and Citizen’s Advice Bureau.

I know this is a knee-jerk reaction to the hypervisor exploit that has been released, but I don’t see why I as a legitimate consumer should lose functionality because someone finally cracked the gaming system.

This to me feels like Sony throwing their dummy out of their pram because things are not going their way.

When it comes down to it if we consider the age of the OtherOS capable PS3s we are a minority – not an insignificant number but there must be more of the new slimline users out there than the old machines simply considering the likelihood of failures over time.

I am not a Sony fanboy nor a Microsoft one. I have a Wii, PS3, xbox 360 and don’t play any of them – I much prefer my PC which runs Linux. I have set up the PS3 for my child to learn to use a computer before I actually buy him his own PC.

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ubuntu numpad moves mouse cursor

Gregory — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 21:49:25 +0000

Somehow, somewhere along the line my number pad stopped working as a number pad and instead started controlling the mouse cursor (in Windows it is referred to as mousekeys).

I use my number pad on a very regular basis and soon became extremely frustrated at this.

Here’s the solution:

System – Preferences – Assistive Technologies

Keyboard Accessibility

Mouse Keys

Clear the checkbox [ ] Pointer can be controlled using the keypad

No need to reboot, it is instantaneous and sticky across reboots.

Adding a new IP to eth0 eth0:0

Gregory — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 10:26:53 +0000

My server has multiple failover IP addresses.

Mainly so I don’t forget, here is how to add a new failover IP under ubuntu (and I would assume any debian based distribution of linux):

ssh into the server

sudo jed /etc/network/interfaces (jed or whatever your editor of choice is)

find the line that starts

auth lo eth0

and add the eth0:0 (or whatever) part to that line

Mine now reads

auto lo eth0 eth0:0 eth0:1

You now need to add the virtual eth port.

For this you need the new IP (I will use 192.168.1.22 in my example)

You will also need to call the new port something (I will use eth0:0)

You also need the broadcast address (I will use 192.168.1.255)

You will also need the netmask (this is generally 255.255.255.0)

You will also need the network (I will use 192.168.1.0)

iface eth0:0 inet static


address 192.168.1.1
netmask 255.255.255.0
broadcast 192.168.1.255
network 192.168.1.0

Save the file, exit back to bash and type
/etc/init.d/networking restart
wait a short time for the network to update and you should be able to ping the new IP.

Audigy 2 Value digital I/O module hack bypass

Gregory — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 19:44:57 +0000

I just purchased one of these cards from ebay specifically to play HD audio through the DVI port of my TV.
No need for the Creative Sound Blaster Digital I/O Module at all to do this – all it takes is a mono (preferably) or stereo 3.5mm headphone plug, the header plug from a motherboard’s LED with wire attached and a little soldering.
If you are using a mono 3.5mm headphone adapter connect each wire as follows (there will only be one core and one shield):

If you are using a stereo 3.5mm headphone adapter connect each wire as follows:

Connect the 3.5mm plug to the white port of the sound card (labelled digital IO) and the jumper header to the 2 pin socket on the soundcard.
You may need to turn the jumper header around 180 degrees to get the audio working – one pin is digital audio in and the other is digital audio ground.
In the sound control panel you need to enable digital I/O or “Audigy Analog/Digital Output Jack” and disable “IEC958 Optical Raw”.

Edit for ubuntu Karmic Koala 9.10:

You will need to install alsamixer so you can toggle the options:

$ sudo apt-get install alsamixer

$ alsamixer

Use the cursor keys to select the options:

“IEC958 Optical Raw” – press ‘M’ so the display shows ‘MM’

“Audigy Analog/Digital Output Jack” – press ‘M’ so the display shows ‘OO’

Finally press Escape to exit the program.

Mail me if this helps you, it’s nice to know I have been useful :)
labby.co.uk has catchall mail, so anything sent to any address at that domain will reach me :)

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