Well Sony managed to make a bit of a mess today with the Playstation Network. I am sure tomorrow this will be all over the news, hell if your smart I would short sale some Sony stock, but as for now it is just boys the their mothers basement raising hell.

As of right now what we know is that it appears to be a bug with the PSN mixed with the old ‘fat’ PS3s (and no that is not just the US consoles, haha). There was a bug dealing with the leap year causing the console to reset it’s clack back to Dec 31, 1999. Which is very ironic considering the Y2k problem, yet seems to be unrelated.

The good news is that it looks like if we are lucky, once the 2nd of March kicks in, all should hopefully work out. The bad part is telling a bunch of people that not only can they not play online, but ANY game that uses the trophy system, will also not run.

Ouch Sony, this is going to hurt!

I love it. It is nice and clean on the top, and the addition of the keyboard is just fantastic. Add in the bluetooth and you finally have a company paying attention to what the consumer really interacts with once the TV makes it home.

(Via Gadget Review)

I don’t really pay attention to smart phone’s that seem to come and go. Not that I am an Apple fan boy, but nothing compares to my iPhone. I can do video editing if I wanted, then still drop to shell and do a nmap scan, even use Metasploit. But then I saw this story on someone getting an NES emulator.

It’s not for the faint of heart, as it’ll require you to gain root access to your Pre followed by compiling FCEUltra and then tweaking a few display settings to get the games to run at 320×480 resolution. But if you’ve gotten your hands dirty before and you know your way around Linux, it’s a fairly straightforward five-step process. Actually, the fifth step is “Play your favorite games.” So that’s an easy one.

I now have a new found respect for the phone, but I doubt it is enough to ever think about getting rid of my precious iPhone. And yes, the iPhone does have an NES emulator.

(Via CrunchGear)

We all knew this was coming. I’m in a Chevy Malibu rental this week and it must be the worst designed car in the history of man.  I’m about 4 ft tall (and that’s pretty tall for an asian) and my head still hits the roof of this car while I’m slouching. Seriously.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — General Motors filed for bankruptcy protection early Monday, a move once viewed as unthinkable that became inevitable after years of losses and market share declines capped by a dramatic plunge in sales in recent months.

The bankruptcy is likely to lead to major changes and job cuts at the battered automaker. But President Obama and GM CEO Fritz Henderson both promised that a more viable GM will emerge from bankruptcy.

via CNN

Where I live, there are Mosquitoes, and not just a few, tons of big Mosquitoes. I blame New Orleans, move back to your own backyard! That is why I am excited about this little flower.

I have actually read about it several times, and now it has moved a little closer to production. US News has a little more information coming out on it:

The ProVector uses sugar, chemicals and a biopesticide called Bacillus thuringiensis to attract and kill the bugs. The insects feed on the deadly nectar through a metal screen on the artificial flower.

Kollars is now looking to market the devices where mosquito-borne illnesses thrive. He said the ultimate design is expected to cost between $7 and $10.

“One man can’t defeat mosquitoes,” he said. “They have killed more people than all wars combined. But I can start being part of the team that defeats them.”

Amen kind sir! I will gladly drop a grand to make my yard look like some kind of acid trip, where do I sign up?

(Via US News.)

Some other decent info here.

I have a MacBook that I LOVE. To use it as a penetration testing platform I installed all kinds of software, but mostly just found myself using BackTrack. The only thing I hated was having to reboot to Backtrack to do packet injection, and a few other wireless tools. that is till I found this baby:

This is the Fonera by Fon. It is currently running for $29, but you can usually find some decent coupon codes, and you can also pair it up with a better antenna for better range.

So why on earth do you want this router, and how does this in any way correlate with packet injection? Well you have to start by flashing the ROM to put a different firmware on it. While not the easiest task in the world, pretty much all you have to do is follow directions. Here is the guide to put Legend firmware on the Fonera.

The Legend firmware comes with the Aircrack-ng suite of tools. Including a very special tool we will use called Airserv-ng. Best described by the guys that made it:

Airserv-ng is a wireless card server which allows multiple wireless application programs to independently use a wireless card via a client-server TCP network connection. All operating system and wireless card driver specific code is incorporated into the server. This eliminates the need for each wireless application to contain the complex wireless card and driver logic. It is also supports multiple operating systems.

This is allowing you to use the Fonera for it’s great wireless transceiver, and the host machine as the number cruncher. This allows a machine with no wireless connection, non-compatible, or virtual machine to use the Fonera as it was an internal card. Which works great for running BT4 in a VMWare session and injecting from there. Usage is given on the Airserv-ng page:

At this point you may use any of the aircrack-ng suite programs on the second system and specify “192.168.0.1:666” instead of the network interface. 192.168.0.1 is the IP address of the server system and 666 is the port number that the server is running on. Remember that 666 is the default port number.

On the second system, you would enter “airodump-ng 192.168.0.1:666” to start scaning all the networks. You may run aircrack-ng applications on as many other systems as you want by simply specifying “192.168.0.1:666” as the network interface.

Now I know what some of you are saying, “This is great, but not a useful mobile application.” Don’t worry baby bird, I have you taken care of, you really think I would leave you hanging like that? That’s not my style. (Thanks DT)

This 4 AA battery pack from Radio Shack, with the “L” size adapter, and even the crappy over priced batteries will set you back less than $10. So now you have a complete mobile solution for doing what ever you would like with wifi.

This should be all the info you need to complete this setup. If you get stuck anywhere, or have other questions, please post them in the comments area below and I will do my best to help you out.

I remember when Myst came out on the Mac. I was actually pretty young, but a friend of my dads had it. We went over and played it for hours. The graphics were truly amazing at the time, it pulled you into the story like nothing else could. Then it come for my wonderful PC. I hated it . . I could never figure out how to do a damn thing.

Now all those wonderful feelings can be experienced again. Myst enters the app store today at a very nice price of $5.99. But what it lacks in price it makes up for in size. The app downloads at 730mb, but needs a whopping 1.5gb to play!

Here is some more info from 9to5Mac

- All the original Ages & gameplay

- High quality images (better than original Myst)

- Full music & sound effects

- Original movies & animations

- Auto-save (when quitting or phone call)

- “Bookmark” system to save & restore progress

- Swipe to turn

- Auto-zoom in certain close-up areas

- Quick access to hint guide

We even have a video too:

(Via 9to5Mac.)

Marco Tempest’s Augmented Reality card trick makes David Copperfield look positively ludditic

I’m guessing this is what a magic trick is like in the Matrix.  Except there’s no Keanu Reeves, no slow motion bullets, and no little pills to choose from.  So, not like the Matrix at all.

Illusionist and augmented reality artiste Marco Tempest has put together a video preview of his newest act, called (aptly enough) “Augmented Reality Magic 1.0,” and has been kind enough to share it with us. In the video, Tempest uses AR to demonstrate what’s going on in his fertile imagination as he performs a card trick — cards levitate, Jokers dance, and the birthday cake? Well, you’ll just have to see for yourself. The most impressive part is that the whole thing goes down in real time, and utilizes C++ with OpenFrameworks, OpenCV, ARToolkitPlus, MacCam, “and other Open Source goodies.” Nothing’s done in post-production. Are you prepared to have your mind blown?

No Wash boxers were designed by 29-year old medical student Rob Libfeld who claims he came up with the idea when he noticed how embarrassed patients in the hospital were of their soiled, all white underwear.

Highly Questionable: No Wash Boxers – Geekologie

Ok maybe not. But apparently their glowing white apple logo will make your eyes widen and cover your mouth.

In unrelated news, Apple is going to have 2 new devices with Verizon, aptly named the iWillBelieveItWheniSeeIt and the iWaitedHowLongForAVerizoniPhone?

Apple is preparing to launch not one, but two new devices with Verizon, according to yet another new rumor. Two “people familiar with the matter” speaking to BusinessWeek have leaked details about an alleged “iPhone lite” and a tablet-like device, one of which may launch as early as this summer (we assume to coincide with the release of iPhone OS 3.0)

via ARS