Tag Archives: Technology

Technology

The Hack Attack Continues! Injecting DD-WRT into a Linksys WRT54G v6!

Comments (0)

Many of you will remember my post detailing on how much I loved my router after doing the Tomato firmware injection for my aging Buffalo router. Today was a charity challenge that I took upon myself. Sol was back in town and we were due to hang out together with regards to family… so I would spend some time with family and him. When we arrived back at his home residence, I wanted to check out his router and see if it was a possible candidate for the Tomato Router upgrade.  To my dismay… He had a Version 6 of the WRT54G router.

I was in dismay, but I remembered that the folks at DD-WRT had their own custom firmware of their own. Much like my Buffalo router, the WRT54G v6 router does not want to play nice with custom firmwares unlike any of its siblings from v1-v4. The DD-WRT community is rather good with resources, so they have this helpful link from Bitsum on how to inject the firmware into the router. To sum up the steps:

  1. You have to download the VX Works “Prep”, VX Works “Killer”, and DD-WRT Micro firmware
  2. Throw the VX Works Prep to put the router into “Management” mode via a firmware update and let it proceed
  3. After the router is in “Management Mode”, upload the VX Works Killer firmware and let that do it’s thing.
  4. Inject the DD-WRT Micro (Generic) Firmware via a TFTP command (Windows folks, use this: ftp://ftp.linksys.com/pub/network/tftp.exe if command line scares you)
  5. When the injection completes, congrats you have a  poor man’s equivalent of a $600 Cisco grade router.

After I did the injection… Sol noticed a slight increase of his internet speed. Obviously, the next step was to hook him up with OpenDNS to protect him and my auntie from phishing sites and other malicious attack sites as well as speed up the backbone of his connection. The procedure only took 5 minutes over all and once again was totally worth the effort. My hack attack urge was satisfied and the best part… I got to make Sol’s return a fun one. Hopefully his online gaming addictions or even YouTube addictions much easier to palate for his connection.

For those about to do the jump to inject DD-WRT to their compatible routers… Just take a note from me when I did the Tomato router hack about the MAC addresses. Take down the MAC addresses for your router and keep them on hand, the DD-WRT hack does change your MAC addresses so you will have to “clone” them to restore them back to the original ones so you don’t have to fool with calling your broadband provider to have them release your “old” router’s address.

Reviews, Technology

Why didn’t Longhorn finish?! My thoughts on Windows Vista

Comments (0)

Acknowledgement: I would like to thank my friend Maczimus out in Fort Worth for letting me borrow his copy of Windows Vista to do this review. Had it not been for him… I would have no way to shell out the cash just for an operating system I do not intend to use full time.

So earlier you all got to look at images of me playing with Vista from a virtualized environment safe from the confines of VirtualBox for Linux. I won’t lie and sugar coat things… I admire the passion that Microsoft’s art team had when they designed Vista’s interface. It’s an eye pleasing experience, see my “desktop” below. (Click the image to see the full size one)

Vista makes for a pleasing operating system to work with, but it is not without some “trimming” that had to be done. I used Windows Vista Ultimate but trimmed down the weight of the OS with vLite to trim Vista’s hard drive footprint from 8GB to a cool 3GB. Unfortunately, I don’t have physical hardware to do a full install of Vista with the Aero effect works as VirtualBox does not support Direct3D just yet… So I cannot say much about that. The Windows Sidebar is much in vein like Apple OS X’s widgets, not too much to write about. The main thing that kills me is that the entire OS even after being thinned out by vLite is that it is seriously RAM heavy and processor heavy. It is not as responsive as Windows XP and that actually depresses me…

I have seen videos like this one (YouTube – Windows Longhorn Concept) which show the raw ideals of what the future Windows operating system was supposed to be. It makes you wonder what happened to the hard development for the OS and why did it become the monster that it is. It’s got the eye candy, the presentation, the “security” of the UAC (I say it with sarcasm) but at too high a cost. Sure, I am not using the “complete” OS… but not everyone can afford the power of eye candy due to hardware. The UAC can get rather bothersome as it babies the user with needless permission requests… I ended up turning it off because it simply annoyed me to death. The best comparison can be made to the UAC… It would be like using Ubuntu Linux and every time you wanted to open up Firefox, Thunderbird, or Filezilla to connect to the web, you’d have to be halted by a Sudo prompt asking for your password every initialization.

For Microsoft, it has hurt them as many businesses have been urged not to adopt Vista just due to sheer cost. Many perfectly great machines on Windows XP or Linux would sing on barely anything… With Vista on the same machines… you’d have to do some serious upgrades just for a tolerable experience. Bumping up multiple systems to 512mb to 1GB of RAM is not a cheap task nor is the other option to completely rebuy new machines for a business. Dell’s IdeaStorm ended up being stormed by angry users distraught that Vista did not play nice with their new systems and it spawned a topic called “Don’t Eliminate XP Just Yet“.

As much as Microsoft wants Vista to take off… I feel it will fall a fate much similar to that of Windows ME. Some of my readers will remember the day when ME hit the market, it almost felt like a rushed bolt-on to Windows 98… To me, Vista feels like a sloppy bolt-on to Windows XP. If Microsoft wants a market dominating OS like what XP is… then I hope that Windows 7 will be much better than Vista and it needs to be true to what Project Longhorn was all about. I wish I could really like Vista, but to need ridiculous requirements just to make it run just decent is ridiculous. I mean, it’s bad when someone can throw in a Ubuntu Feisty disc, load up Compiz-Fusion and do all the eye candy inside a virtual machine when a 1.73 Ghz emulation of a session of Windows Vista can’t due to requiring Direct3D drivers. If Microsoft forgets that there’s a market for users with weak machines… Linux may just steal that emerging market they have fought so hard to build.

Microsoft, make an OS that the masses don’t need to buy a brand new machine or even $200+ in parts just to make it work… or you may just push away former faithfuls like myself to consider alternatives that we don’t even have to spend a dime on. If you care about sealing in your future markets in developing countries… you’re going to lose ground concentrating too much on “cool factor” rather than efficiency and utility.

Technology

Virtual Machines – The Bridge of Tolerance.

Comments (2)

Earlier this week, I had installed 2GB of RAM into Suzaku and I was finally able to realize the power of my machine. Preload aided the strength of my machine by precaching application data and dramatically cutting down my load times. I had mentioned that I had been curious about virtual machines and had fun playing with Linux distributions.

Maczimus got me into VirtualBox, but he had reminded me that I had only tapped the source… I was reminded to add the main VirtualBox repo and then to try doing a purge to clean out the VirtualBox-OSE and use the full version. So I would go ahead and do the purge and install the full deal.

After the full install… I would be told by him to install the Guest OS integration so I would be able mouse in and out of my virtual environment, integrate my virtual machine into my host, or even dynamically resize the session as the user sees fit. After installing the guest options… well… the result is complete fun. Here are images so everyone knows what I am talking about. I installed Windows Vista to have an environment to help my family out should I need to bounce into it. I can’t convert my entire family and friends to Linux, so at least with a virtual machine of Windows with Crossloop, I can help from a distance… rather than try to describe what they should be clicking on. Click the images if you want to see the full 1200 x 800 resolution images!

Current desktop before running VirtualBox

Vista trapped in a window

Illusion? No, just streamless integration!

OMG?! eye c wut j00 did thar!

Personal, Technology

Picture Post: Suzaku’s Operation on the Lab Table

Comments (0)

So… I got my RAM in yesterday and the modification part of me went absolutely nutty! I removed the sticks from the Crucial/Newegg parcel and beheld the RAM in their electro-static shielding bags.

After beholding the RAM, I had to get my “tools” for the procedure. The tools of the trade: a magnetic tip screwdriver with a small bit-driver and a vintage Revlon nail file to be my “scribe” tool to pry up the plastic bezel.

I would go ahead and loosen the screws holding in the plastic bezel as a preparatory step so I would have to have less hassle with that.

I would unbolt the second DIMM slot and replace the first stick as it is the easiest to access.

The original stick of 256mb

“Prepping for the Operation”

Check out the 1GB versus the 256mb!

Bolting up the first stick

The next daunting part was using the nail file to slowly pry up the plastic bezel without breaking anything. Luckily, the bezel doesn’t require too much pressure to pop off. After the bezel came off, it was time to pry off the keyboard and then find DIMM slot 1 waiting for me.

After popping offer the DIMM 1 cover I’d drop in the second 1GB stick and “sew the incision site” to a close…

Check it out! A 1GB stick literally “under the hood”!

After every screw was bolted up, the Dell PhoenixBIOS had a “cute” message saying “It appears you have increased RAM installed on this system”. I would take Maczimus’s advice and get Preload installed to cut load times from programs… After the install… I would notice a surprising drop in load times. For example, Open Office Writer went from 15 – 20 seconds to now 2.3 seconds. VirtualBox seems to lap up the 1GB of allocated RAM from my total 2GB and it was wonderful! I would say that the install was rather great and it’s shows that RAM does make a difference.

Site News, Technology

A Distro Testing Teaser…

Comments (0)

Virtual Box Running DSL

Click the above thumbnail for the original!

Notice something? I am running VirtualBox inside of my Ubuntu install to try playing around and testing it. Some distributions run great for me with only allocating 128mb of RAM, but it can be a tad straining on my machine with only being loaded up with 512mb of RAM. After the new RAM install and Suzaku toting 2GB, that should change things where I can run more distributions without taxing the main system. Hopefully, this should allow me to capture better images of the distributions I hope to try out and test.

Personal, Reviews, Site News, Technology

A Boring but Possibly Productive Weekend

Comments (1)

Well… with most of my plans in shambles, it gives me time to try to get some important things done for the site and as well as generate fresh new content. Here’s a run-down of what all is to come possibly with the following days and even into next month:

  • My book review of Snow Crash by Neil Stephenson
  • My evaluation of Puppy Linux 3.01 – Seamonkey
  • (Possible) Evaluation of Damn Small Linux
  • Introspective on the semantics of “best friends”
  • Notes and “diary” of doing a charity laptop project (Negotiations in the works)
  • Devil’s Physical: The 60,000 Mile Maintenance Event
  • Picking up a Callpod Dragon Extreme Bluetooth headset to evaluate and review
  • Funny adventures with my cousin Sol’s return to Dallas for Spring Break
  • Tips for the poor college student avoiding debt
  • The return of my retuned workout logs

It looks like a lot, but that should be my next set of things to post, rant, vent, and discuss until I get my hands on the consumer release of the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 communicator. Apparently some sources strewn about the web from XDA Developers’ forums have made claim that the processor for the XPERIA X1 is a Qualcomm MSM7200a with a smaller die print and powered at 525mhz. The small footprint means potentially a power efficient processor, but higher power means it’ll be able to really show off. There are rumors about Windows Mobile 6.5 being debuted when the X1 hits retail shelves and possibly HTC releasing their ODM version of the X1 branded with their own name… It’s a damn shame that the device won’t come out sooner, because I’d love to really have some fun with a new phone.

Personal, Site News, Technology

“Damn it feels good to be a gangsta” by Geto Boys

Comments (0)

Any of you who have seen the great movie “Office Space” know this song. It’s when Peter gets promoted and just acts like an all around badass with his new found powers. He even goes as far as undoing the static laced doorknob to avoid the pain of being shocked. Tonight, I raised the bar with my cell phone knowledge and data mining to a new level. The song above represents how I feel after my game of cat and mouse. It’s locked in the next entry due to reasons beyond my control. If you want the code, just contact me on AIM, MSN, Yahoo!, e-mail, IRC or phone/text me.

Technology

Thoughts on the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1’s Potential Impact on the Future Market

Comments (0)

Mobile Burn has a pretty good pair of videos that they posted on YouTube showing their encounters with the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 communicator. Though in some of the other Mobile World Congress video clips on YouTube, the Sony Ericsson representatives are rather tight-lipped saying that they are bound by both Sony Ericsson corporate and Microsoft that even demoing the phone dialer application can not be demonstrated as quoted by Magnus Anderson (Sony Ericsson’s brand marketing team) in this YouTube video from msmobile.com and mytreo.net. Processor specifications, amount of RAM to be put into it, and even other specs have not officially been revealed other than what is publicly available to the press of the Mobile World Congress event out in Barcelona, Spain.

The main gist of the videos featuring Magnus Anderson seem to be that the XPERIA panels are to represent every “experience” you have in life. An idea that each panel represents each “experience” focal to a part of your life. When you apply that principle, it could be quite useful. One panel may have your work and productivity applications and maybe a big clock applet for your “at work” panel with a default looking Windows Mobile 6 Home Screen. Another panel could have the Sony XrossMediaBar (XMB for short) looking interface with direct access to your music, movies, and photos when you’re in for an “experience” to relax. Another could be the GPS application’s home screen for when you need directions. The possibilities are almost ENDLESS and the experiences becomes tailored to the user. A corporate grade communicator that does not force the user to conform to just one interface puts the XPERIA X1 as a communicator with a sense of fun.

The matter that the XPERIA X1 will be using the microSD form factor for memory cards isn’t much in Sony’s interest, but it does make way for a bigger impact as far as media capacity is concerned. At the time of this article, NewEgg has microSDHC (the HC acronym meaning “High Capacity”) cards go as high as 8GB for about $79.99 with 4GB microSDHC cards going as low as $24.99! For me, personally, this is much better than being “hard locked” in to a device that is limited to 8GB on board with no opportunities to expand the memory. By allowing users to expand their devices at their own paces, it gives them an opportunity to “catch up” with the trends. This can easily be seen with the iPhone camp with regards to the 4GB and (as of recently) the 8GB model… Imagine being that poor soul who bought the 8GB at Christmas and then hearing the announcement last week that Apple is now pushing the limits with a 16GB iPhone. It would probably irk you to no end, unless you find someone who wants yours and will pay a pretty penny so you can dump out for the upgrade. With how rapidly miniSD is developing, I do not doubt that a 16GB card could be out by the time the XPERIA X1 goes live and on sale. This gives mobile phone users the choice and ability to grow to their needs rather than being bottle-necked and then having to get into the kink of reselling and rebuying.

The platform of the device being a Windows Mobile 6 device rather than a Symbian UIQ device really changes things up. Currently, the market of corporate applications caters more to the Windows Mobile or Palm OS. This has somewhat of an impact on me, as medical/drug databases like Epocrates do not cater to UIQ users. The convenience to have a database of drugs on my phone rather than carry a bunch of books about them or even things like pharmaceutical law are rather important with my future profession. Add to this mix that with a Windows Mobile 6 update due out in 2008, things like a “full browser experience” like the iPhone should be due for mass consumption. Keep in mind that the next Windows Mobile release codenamed “Photon” is probably due soon, if Sony Ericsson is not about dumping their consumers off a bridge by providing a free update… the XPERIA X1 may be rather future-proof.  Want to see an example of a company angering consumers, check out Apple charging $20 for some additional software to early adopters of the iPhone. Sony Ericsson’s reputation of taking care of their fans has been demonstrated when some fans of the P990i had noted the “final” firmware update to their phones that cause rather poor stability. Users had made their complaints public to a UIQ web forum that Sony Ericsson developers have been known to drop by and say hello… Surprisingly enough, they decided to make things right and release a proper “final” firmware release to stabilize the usability of the P990i.

For media capabilities, the XPERIA X1 looks like it may be a rather fun device. I don’t know if anyone will take much advantage of the device for mobile gaming applications, but if they keep in mind about the touch interaction, that could make for some fun games. As far as music, movies, and photos… On one of the images of the XPERIA panels, one of them looks very akin to the design principles of the XrossMediaBar of the PS3/PSP’s fame. If that keeps true to the final product, accessing media may be a rather painless experience. For the audiophile that has it all, the XPERIA has a 3.5mm jack port for those nice Shure E2C earbuds you shelled an expansive amount of money on. This is also great if you want to still be able to use that line-in adapter or FM radio broadcaster for your car. If you’re a Bluetooth audio fanatic like me, you’ll definitely be glad to know that A2DP, AVCRP and the other Bluetooth audio/video control standards are all present with this device. The vibrant high definition 3″ VGA screen will make viewing photos and movies in a broad 65,000 colors a pleasure. Bundle in the Cybershot grade 3.2 megapixel camera on the XPERIA and it’s quite a media device if you decided to go big on the microSDHC cards.
Connectivity is a big focus with Windows Mobile devices. The XPERIA is equipped well around with technologies like 3G (UMTS) and HSPDA to ensure for fast data streaming and provide true speed to mobile internet usage. Stack on top being able to do secure connections and transactions without having to worry about encryption errors would make a device like the XPERIA a good integration device that can play nice with the corporate setting, especially with consideration to Blackberry Enterprise Server usage. Add to that, Sony Ericsson’s PlayNow recently signed distribution deals with a bunch of record companies and adding 5 millions new tracks as of lately… You can also throw on top of that the aGPS module on the phone and more than likely ways to keep the maps fresh and updated. This lethal cocktail of features in connectivity makes for quite a robust device.

The big thing that I will say will level the playing field will be that the phone should be that the XPERIA will be available in unlocked form. For American folks, it will allow them the freedom to keep their provider while enjoying a great communicator device that will not have hindered functionality (rather than forcing users to pick who their provider is). I will make a guess to say that if Sony Ericsson is clever about shaking up the market in America, the unlocked version should be going for about $500 – $600 unlocked at any Sony Style shop or official Sony Ericsson vendor. Though with all due respect, I don’t doubt that with AT&T and T-Mobile being highly compatible with this device that it could be released to both carriers and branded/locked. With the branded ones, the devices with a 2 year contract and some data plan of some sort could break the device into the S350 – $400 price range. The subsidized pricing on a contract and XPERIA X1 purchase could put fuel to the fire for the “smartphone” category.

Zero’s Pearl of Mobile Phone Advice: If you have not bought an iPhone, Blackberry device, Nokia’s N-Series, or an HTC communicator, I would wait until the XPERIA X1 comes out. For what it is packing, it could be one of 2008’s best buys. Sure, the iPhone’s second generation is rumored due out close to the end of this month (iPhone Updates site), but the iPhone may need more than another storage upgrade and 3G baseband chips if they want to play the smartphone market like how Sony Ericsson is with the XPERIA X1.

Personal, Technology

Technology Preview: Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 Smartphone

Comments (0)

So I think I may have found the phone that I’ll be chasing after… No, it’s not the “Jesus Phone” or iPhone depending on who you talk to. Oddly it’s not an HTC device either. It seems Sony Ericsson have formed an alliance with Microsoft to use the Windows Mobile platform on their next PDA phone. The thing that struck me as odd was the device has a shape much like the one of the P5i concept images… The only thing that didn’t compute was that device was powered by Windows Mobile. I had remembered all of the hype saying that the new P-series phone was going to be using the next iteration of the UIQ Symbian interface. As far as a release date…

The Sony Ericsson XPERIAâ„¢ X1 will be available in selected markets from the second half of 2008.
Source: Sony Ericsson Corporate Press Release for the Xperia X1, 2/10/2008

The release date makes it seem like it could hit the Asian and European markets by late summer or early fall. That could lead to a domestic American release by late fall or Christmas this year. (Take my estimates with a grain of salt – Zero)The device has some rather impressive specifications… It is thinner than the HTC TyTN II/Kaiser and has a screen just a little bigger. Here’s the specs courtesy of the official Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 product page.

Size
* 110 x 17 x 53 mm
* 4.3 x 0.7 x 2.1 inches

Weight
* 145 g
* 5.1 oz

Available colours
* Solid Black

Screen
* 800 X 480
* 65,536-colour TFT

Memory
* Up to 400 MB Phone Memory
* Memory Stick SanDisk Microâ„¢ support
Actual free memory may vary due to phone pre-configuration

Networks
* GSM 850
* GSM 900
* GSM 1800
* GSM 1900
* EDGE
* HSDPA
* HSUPA
* UMTS 850
* UMTS 900
* UMTS 1700
* UMTS 1900
* UMTS 2100

Camera
* Auto focus
* 3.2 megapixel camera
* Photo light
* Video recording

Music
* Bluetoothâ„¢ stereo (A2DP)
* Media player
* Music tones
* PlayNowâ„¢
* Windows Media Player Mobile
* 3D games
* FM radio
* Java
* Video streaming
* Video viewing

Internet
* Internet Explorer® Mobile
* RSS feeds

Communication and Messaging
* Polyphonic ringtones
* Speakerphone
* Vibrating alert
* Video calling
* Email
* Picture messaging (MMS)
* Predictive text input
* Text messaging (SMS)

Design
* XPERIAâ„¢ panels
* Optical joystick navigation
* Navigation key
* Picture wallpaper
* Touch navigation

Organizer
* Alarm clock
* Calculator
* Calendar
* Document editors
* Document readers
* Flight mode
* Handwriting recognition
* Notes
* Phone book
* Tasks
* Touchscreen

Connectivity
* aGPS
* Bluetoothâ„¢ technology
* Modem
* Synchronization
* USB support
* WLAN

Windows® Mobile® Operating System
* Microsoft® Outlook Mobile: email, contacts, calendar, tasks
* Microsoft® Office Mobile: Word, Excel, PowerPoint
* Internet Explorer® Mobile
* Windows Mediaâ„¢ Player Mobile
* Windows Liveâ„¢
* Exchange ActiveSync®
* Voice control
* Utility Applications: file explorer, calculator, pictures & video, notes
Source: Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 Product Site

It’s got a rather good specifications and when compared to the size specifications of HTC’s TyTN II, it’s very well compacted! I am really looking forward to the release and with Sony Ericsson not playing by exclusivity rules (ahem Apple), I will be picking one up once they hit the States.

Wonder why the Xperia X1 looks so familiar in style or design? According to Engadget, it’s made by (no surprise here) ODM company HTC.

Enough with my word porn… I’ll make with the pictures! Credit goes to Sony Ericsson’s Xperia X1 product mini-site for the images.

Here’s a YouTube that I found on Engadget of the advertisement for the Xperia X1: http://www.youtube.com/v/O0z8F6jUzVc
(Embedded clip removed, it borked my layout)

Enjoy the media folks!