Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on February 15, 2008 by CyberNet.

The modchip offered by Team Xecuter has graced my original Xbox for years. The main reason that I modded my Xbox in the first place was so that I could stream television shows and listen to my MP3′s, which is something the original Xbox didn’t do out-of-the-box.

After years of silence Team Xecuter is back again, but this time they are doing something a bit different. Instead of creating a modchip they have assembled a repair kit for the Red Ring of Death (ROD) that have been plaguing Xbox’s around the world. The $13 kit, which hasn’t gone on sale yet, has been tested on 18 Xbox’s that have all had the ROD:

I have come up with a very simple, very cheap and very effective quick-fix solution to most ROD problem machines. I have so far tested the method on 18 Xbox’s and every one is still up and running (much to my surprise I might add – the older versions of this console are junk).

You’ll obviously need to take the Xbox 360 apart yourself to fix it with this repair kit, which is definitely not an appealing thought for those who still have the system under warranty (Microsoft has already extended warranties to three years). I think that someone with a system that’s out of warranty will be more apt to turn to this solution though… depending on how complex the solution actually is.

At the last report the Xbox 360 failure rates were estimated to be 16.4% according to SquareTrade, while the PS3 and Wii were just 3%. I’m not sure how accurate SquareTrade’s numbers are since they were only basing it on 1,000 Xbox 360 systems with warranties through them, but regardless that is still a big difference compared to the competing products.

Xbox Scene [via CrunchGear]

Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com

This article was written on August 22, 2007 by CyberNet.

Web Browser Wednesday

Like many of you, I use bookmarklets on a daily basis to complete tasks a bit faster. Many of them offer features that normally require Firefox extensions to do, and I am one of those people that try to minimize the number of extensions I use. Not only that but if you use other browsers, such as Opera or Internet Explorer, then you’re forced to look for an alternate method of doing some things.

What is a bookmarklet? Here is Wikipedia’s definition:

A bookmarklet is a small JavaScript program that can be stored as a URL within a bookmark in most popular web browsers, or within hyperlinks on a web page. Because Internet Explorer uses the term favorites instead of bookmarks, bookmarklets are also less commonly called favelets by users.

This article is the second installment in our “Best Bookmarklets” series. In the first edition we covered over 20 great bookmarklets that let you do everything from delete a site’s cookies all the way to searching a page for text. This time around we have about another 20, and we have personally tested each one in Firefox 2 , Internet Explorer 7 , and Opera 9 .

Note: To use any of the following bookmarklets just hold down the left mouse button and drag the hyperlink to the bookmark toolbar in your browser.

–Hyperlinks and Navigation–

• Open All
  Loads any URL’s found in the text you highlight.
• Target Alert
  Adds an icon next to URL’s that open in a new window, point to a different site, link to a movie clip, link to an audio clip, or the source is a PDF.
• 
  Makes internal links red, external links blue, and same-page links orange.

–Cache–

• Rewrite All – Google
  This will rewrite every link on the current page to point to the Google Cache version.
• Rewrite All – Coral
  This will rewrite every link on the current page to point to the Coral Cache
  version.
• Archive
  Pulls up a listing of archives for the current page on Archive.org.

–Websites–

• Digg All
  Diggs all of the articles submitted by your friends. All you have to do is go to your Friend’s submission page and run the bookmarklet. Be careful because you could probably get banned if you’re Digging too many articles too fast.
• MultiSubmit
  Submit an article to over a dozen social network sites at one time. The link for the bookmarklet points to a page where you can customize which services are used. Note: You will have to be logged into each service for it to work.
• In IE
  Opens the current site in Internet Explorer.
• In Firefox
  Opens the current site in Firefox.

–Web Development–

• Show Comments
  Shows and highlights any HTML comments that would otherwise not be seen.
• Show DIVs
  Outlines all of the DIV elements on the page.
• View Selection Source
  Lets you highlight some text/images on the page and view the source code for that section. Firefox has this built-in to the right-click menu, but this does kind of work for it if you need it.
• Get Site Size
  Returns the dimensions of the website.
• Show/Hide Grid
  Puts a grid on the current page divided out into boxes that are 50-pixels on each side. This makes measuring a bit easier.

–Other–

• Edit Site
  This lets you edit the content of a site. You can add/remove images, text, and just about anything. A great tool for taking screenshots and removing personal information from the page first.
• 
  Click on elements throughout the page to remove them, and then print the page. Great for removing ink-eating ads and sidebars before you send a page to the printer.
• Anonymous Form Filler
  Fills in forms and email address fields with anonymous information. Great for commenting on sites where you don’t want to enter in your information.
• Word Count
  Counts the number of words from the text you’ve selected.

We would love to hear about any bookmarklets you might be using. Let us know in the comments below if you have found any great ones, and we’ll add them to the list!

Sources for the above bookmarklets: Opera Watch, Jesse Ruderman, Bookmarklets, Masatomo Kobayashi, Opera Wiki, and Andy Budd

Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com

When my son was really small he loved trains and watched Thomas the Tank Engine a lot. He loved the oddly animated train and his pals. I always found Thomas more than a bit creepy. If you ever thought that Thomas might be plotting to kill and take over the world, then I have the Skyrim mod for you.

It’s called the Really Useful Dragons mod and it turns every dragon on the game into Thomas the Tank Engine. The roars of the dragons are even replaced with Thomas’ shrill whistle. That toot-toot will haunt your dreams. Here, check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cXuWBMZfi8

I love the first time you see Thomas in the video. He swoops in and lands atop the tower with dust puffing out. I think he was meant to burn cities and capture souls, what about you? You can fast forward to about 2:00 in the video to bypass the wait and see Thomas the Terror for yourself.

Want to try it for yourself? Grab the mod here.

[@kenyatta via Laughing Squid via Nerd Approved]

So – you’ve got yourself an Xbox One and have been playing the snot out of Peggle 2 now that it’s available on the console. But, let’s say for the sake of argument that you really like the PlayStation 4 controller and want to trust your hands to it over the Xbox One’s controller. Well – a new mod can make it possible to do just that as well as play with the Xbox 360 controller and even a keyboard and mouse combination.  (more…)

Xbox One Mod Makes It Possible To Play With PS4, 360, PS3 Controllers original content from Ubergizmo.

A couple of years ago we featured the HandyNES, the portable NES console by Sharon Smith aka lovablechevy. Earlier this year she got her first commission, and it was for another HandyNES. But her client had a great idea: to make the handheld look like the NES controller. Behold!

This unit is very similar to the original HandyNES. It’s also based on an actual NES motherboard, has a top-loading cartridge slot, a 3.5″ LCD screen, a 1500mAh battery that should last about 3 hours and is one of the smallest portable NES mods around. This time though the buttons and d-pad are from a NES controller, and it doesn’t have a USB port for a second NES controller.

Sharon shows off the new HandyNES in the video below, demonstrating features such as its A/V-out and low battery indicator.

If you’re interested in asking Sharon to make you a HandyNES, just contact her on her YouTube channel or on her Facebook page. She says she charges $550 (USD) for the basic unit. Check out Sharon’s thread on the Made by Bacteria forum for more on her mod.