It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand the basic problem that knee jerk reactions cause. In the case of Sony and the axing of the other os option for “fat” PS3′s in the recent 3.21 update, Sony simply took the easy route out. Instead of embracing or merely patching the hole that allowed such a hack to be performed, they banned the option to install Linux outright. Now, the debate as to how useful it was given the PS3′s limited resources isn’t…up for debate.
The simple fact is, if Sony releases a product and boasts of a certain feature for years as one of the main reasons to own a PS3 and then removes it suddenly because someone had a little fun with their property…well then, you can see the problem this causes.
But it’s ok. The dev community will always trump backward thinking corporate brute muscle. As such, Geohot is back at it and as promised, claims to have patched the recent PS3 update that blocked the other OS option thereby bringing it back to the masses. All you need to get the other OS juices flowing once again is a custom generated PUP file that is version 3.15 or older. Sounds easy enough. No hardware hacks needed.
One thing for Geohot to look out for are repercussions. With Sony’s incompetent, knee jerk response initially, seeing a patched version re-allowing Linux will no doubt cause some ill feelings, perhaps even a lawyer or two.
It’s sad really. Sony is effectively pushing away a great deal of tinkers who simply like gadgets and like to play with them. Whatever Sony’s stance is from here on out, they’ve already lost me as a customer for life. If they keep at it I’m sure I’ll have a few more people join my club too…
One of the joys in an open platform is the level of customization one can do. Take for example the overclocking efforts on various Android devices. Even a MHz here and there can do wonders for speed and fluidity. But Android isn’t the only popular mobile OS in town. The webOS folks have a few tricks up their own sleeve, with one of those tricks now also being overclocking.
Why overclock you ask? What’s the point? Well, simply put: It just makes everything better. Apps open faster, games run smoother, and the overall experience is more enjoyable. It’s not all smiles and fluffy unicorns though as those high MHz will eat away at your already challenged battery even faster than before. Another side effect — heat — is kicked up a notch as well.
From personal experience with my overclocked DROID however, both reduced battery life and heat are hardly any concern at all as I still get plenty of *cool* runtime. As always however, tinker at your own risk. Check out the oc’d action in the vid below. If you’re feeling lucky, go ahead and give it a shot and let us know how your Pre takes to a kick in the pants…
It’s the weekend. Time to relax right? Right! So how about a little more light hearted reading? Or maybe you’re looking for a small weekend project to keep you occupied? Well, I’m going to kill two birds with one stone here: The iBook G4 Clock.
If you’ve got an old iBook G4 sitting around or you know where to pick one up cheap, ripping out the internals and turning it into something a bit more useful in the age of Macbook Pros and quad-core mobile processors seems just about right.
If you’re not into the whole “weekend project” type of thing you’re in luck. Someone is doing the work for you and asking a small $75 fee for the trouble. If you’re intrigued, that someone goes by the name “pixelinfo” and can be found selling the iBook G4 Clock over on her Etsy page. Have at it.
OS X 10.3 + Nokia N900 = All kinds of geeky smiles. I know that mobile phones are gaining power and versatility by the day, but damn! Have you ever seen such a “modern” OS running on such a mobile device? Then again, if you call a 90+ minute boot-up time “modern” or “fast”, you deserve to be drop kicked in the face.
Moving on…the heroics of this feat come from the land of Finland, by a man who goes by the name of ” Toni Nikkanen”. Actually spending the time to get all of this digital tom foolery to work tells us two things. (1) It’s either very boring up there in Finland or (2) this man just really loves his electronics. I’ll let you decide. But that’s besides the point.
Using the knowledge contained within his nerdy little head and an N900 app called “PearPC” to emulate the PowerPC evironment, Toni was able to install OS X 10.3 (Panther) onto his beloved N900. The “damn” and other implied excitement above are a bit early unfortunately as the N900 simply can’t keep up with the demands that “modern OS” requests as highlighted by the 90+ minute boot time above, resulting in slow and pretty much useless interaction with the device and OS itself in it’s current form. ‘Tis a shame.
Hopefully someone with the know how could take this proof of concept and widdle it down further into an actual usable model. Until then, enjoy the video below showing off that feature film length boot time. Hey, it may be slow and unusable, but you can’t knock the guy for tryin’, right?
If you’ve ever felt your eyebrows weren’t quite to your liking or you simply want to have a little DIY fun, the DIY Eyebrow Hat certainly won’t disappoint. While some may tinker with such common tinker toys as RC Cars or small gadgets, you can take pride in knowing you made not only a gadget, but one that many people will see on a daily basis if you so choose. The materials needed aren’t really that expensive nor does the whole project require too much effort. The parts list according to the hats’ creator, Tom Judd:
1 x Arduino Board – located within the controller
4 x mini servos – tailored into the front of the hat
2 x slide potentiometers (adjust height of each brow
2 x rotational potentiometers (adjust pitch of each brow)
1 x Bowler hat
2 x synthetic eyebrows
2 x skin coloured plasters (to disguise your original brows)
A little elbow grease and some other miscellaneous crafty tools and you’re good to go. Weekend project?
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