Celebrity Nerds: Lil’ Wayne’s got a modded Xbox

Celebrity Nerds confirms what you always knew, deep in your heart of hearts: that stars are nerds like us. Send in your own confirmations of this fact right here.

Now, we don’t have photographic evidence of this one, so Wayne, if you happen to be a reader, feel free to snap a pic of yourself with the console. Either way, we have enough proof to proudly classify Lil’ Wayne a… you know, nerd. GTR has published a video of the New Orleans-born rapper having a conversation with KRS-One during which he says he’s got an “Xbox that has every game from A-Z, Atari, Nintendo, pong, movies & even porn.” Whoa. Where can we get one of those? Wayne claims that the Xbox was a gift… but we bet he hacked it himself. Video is embedded after the break.

[Via Joystiq]

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Celebrity Nerds: Lil’ Wayne’s got a modded Xbox originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Oct 2009 15:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Acidmods moves a few buttons and a joystick on Xbox 360 controller

Hey, not all mods are outlandish and creepy. Some are just plain old… utilitarian. Acidmods got a request for a modded Xbox 360 controller that would move the X, Y, A, and B buttons and the right joystick. The fully functional finished product looks a little odd to the eyes, of course, but it’s also done so well that it looks like a stock unit. As you’ll see in the video after the break, the modded controller would take some getting used to for most of us, but it sure has character.

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Acidmods moves a few buttons and a joystick on Xbox 360 controller originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 05 Oct 2009 10:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hackers Release iPhone OS 3.1 Jailbreak Tool for Third-Gen iPhone

iphonejailbreak

Owners of the new iPhone 3GS can now jailbreak the latest iPhone operating system (3.1) thanks to the hardworking hackers known as Dev Team. One caveat: If you didn’t jailbreak the iPhone when it was running iPhone OS 3.0 or iPhone OS 3.0.1, you can’t directly jailbreak iPhone OS 3.1.

Confusing with all the numbers, isn’t it? Allow me to rephrase: If you own the latest, third-generation iPhone and wish to jailbreak it to run unauthorized apps, you have to have jailbroken it when running an earlier version of the OS (iPhone OS 3.0 or iPhone OS 3.0.1). If your iPhone 3GS hasn’t already been tainted with a jailbreak before, this new jailbreak solution won’t work. More details at the Dev Team blog.

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Computer scientist mods Xbox 360 to detect heart attacks, girls still mysteriously elusive



We’ve seen so many mods around here that sometimes it’s truly hard to get excited over the minor stuff. Well, this doesn’t fall into that category in any way. A computer scientist at the University in Warwick has developed a method to use Microsoft’s Xbox 360 to detect heart defects and help prevent heart attacks. Based on a demo created by Simon Scarle a few years back when he worked at Rare studio, it’s based on a modded chip that — instead of producing graphics for the game — now produces data tracking how the electrical signals in the heart moves about damaged cells, creating a model of it. The model can then be used to help doctors to identify defects and disturbances in the heart’s beating. This significantly decreases the costs and complications of creating a model of the heart, which is currently done by supercomputers and is very expensive. Scarle’s project and findings were just published in the August issue of the Journal of Computational Biology and Chemistry. Looks like we’ll all have a response the next time someone tells us that gaming is good for nothing, right?

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Computer scientist mods Xbox 360 to detect heart attacks, girls still mysteriously elusive originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 26 Sep 2009 15:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ben Heck throws together one-handed Xbox 360 controller, probably with one hand

Ben Heck. Just the mere mention of the name brings chills to the spines of all who mod, and if today’s the first day you’ve ever come into contact with those seven letters, prepare to be changed. Forever. The Great Modder’s latest gig involved the creation of a one-handed Xbox 360 controller, but the catch was that it required completion within a ridiculously short period of time. Essentially, the left analog stick was repositioned to fit on the underside of the controller, enabling the user to operate that with his / her leg while handling the right side of the pad as usual. Check out a video of the admittedly raw looking final product after the break, and feel free to grab some inspiration while you’re there.

[Via HackADay]

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Ben Heck throws together one-handed Xbox 360 controller, probably with one hand originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Sep 2009 02:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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R2D2 turned into retro gaming shrine, includes head-mounted projector

We don’t know exactly how to say this without overloading your nerd subsystem, but this R2D2 unit packs eight consoles, an integrated sound system and a projector for throwing your Jet Grind Radio sessions onto a wall. The only extras you’ll need are the masses of controllers you see above and the steady constitution to not erupt into geek euphoria. Popular Science reader Brian De Vitis is the man you have to thank for this splicing of console goodness, and he’s been kind enough to also provide a picture of the R2’s mobo-laden innards. It awaits just past the break.

[Via Hack N Mod]

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R2D2 turned into retro gaming shrine, includes head-mounted projector originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Sep 2009 05:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hackers Hone in on Jailbreak Solutions for iPhone OS 3.1

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Last week Wired.com provided an overview on iPhone OS 3.1, the latest upgrade for the iPhone operating system. As is always the case with iPhone software updates, this one removed unauthorized apps for jailbroken (i.e., hacked devices). We also forewarned iPhone 3GS owners of a major loss: After upgrading to 3.1, they cannot downgrade to an earlier version of the OS to jailbreak again and regain access to their unauthorized apps. Fortunately that problem has already been fixed.

Jay Freeman, creator of the unauthorized Cydia app store for jailbroken iPhones, has posted instructions on how iPhone 3GS owners can downgrade from iPhone OS 3.1 to 3.0. The process is actually pretty sneaky.

For the new iPhone 3GS, Freeman explains, Apple now verifies the authenticity of the software whenever you attempt to restore the device to factory settings (i.e., format the iPhone and reinstall the OS). Apple stopped signing 3.0, so iPhone 3GS owners could not downgrade from 3.1. Now Freeman has launched a method to trick iTunes into signing from his own servers. The instructions for downgrading are listed on his personal site. Even if you didn’t upgrade to iPhone OS 3.1, Freeman recommends you follow these steps anyway to “future proof” your iPhone 3GS through future updates.

Meanwhile, owners of the first- and second-generation iPhones are in luck: Dev-Team, the famous group of iPhone hackers, has released a tool to jailbreak and unlock iPhone 3.1 for their devices. So they need not worry about losing access to their precious unauthorized apps. It’s unclear when iPhone 3GS owners will get a jailbreak solution, but it appears the Dev-Team is hard at work.

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Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com


Hard drives quit their day job to pursue new life as a speaker system

We know what you’re thinking, why would you ever turn two decent hard disk drives into tinny speakers when it’s much more logical to use them as storage and buying cheap speakers instead… but if you’re the kind of mad scientist who likes to see doohickeys function outside their intended use, or have friends who’d be really impressed or amused, you might want to consider recreating this classy speaker set complete with transparent glass case and the requisite blue lights. All the instructions lie beyond the read link, and if you’re not quite convinced, we think the video after the break is likely to change your opinion for the better.

[Via Hack a Day]

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Hard drives quit their day job to pursue new life as a speaker system originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Sep 2009 10:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Forget Apple’s New iPods. Make an iPod Touch Box Pinhole Camera

ipod-pinhole

It is almost certain that today’s new iPods will gain a camera, bringing the iPhone 3GS’s best new feature to the plebeian masses. But what if you are stuck with the old model or worse – gasp – you foolishly bought an iPod Touch within the last few weeks? You can roll your own camera.

Forget about auto-focus, fixed-focus or size limits on emailed photos. With the iPod1 Pinhole camera, you don’t have to worry about any of these. You don’t even need an iPod — Flickr-er Wheehamx, who made this camera, used an iPod Touch box donated by his son.

The setup is simple, with a metal plate forming the pinhole and a lens cap and step-ring closing off the hole to form a “shutter”. A pair of internal wooden strips and screws let this camera take a roll of 120 film and Wheehamx even added a little transparent red plastic covered window to use as a frame counter.

How many megapixels does this camera have? None, technically, but the resolution is way higher than your average camera-phone, and the pinhole gives almost infinite depth of field for front-to-back sharpness. If you’re thinking about making one, do it quick before apple inevitably reduces the size of the packaging yet again and you’re forced to use – horror – 35mm film.

ipod1 pinhole camera [Flickr via iPhone Savior. Thanks, Seth!]

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HTML Signatures for Gmail 2

This article was written on November 09, 2007 by CyberNet.

Gmail 2 Logo We just wrote about how Gmail 2 breaks a lot of the Greasemonkey scripts that are available, and Gina from Lifehacker turned right around and released Better Gmail 2. As expected this version only has a fraction of scripts that the original extension had, and it still lacks some of my favorites: Google Calendar integration, Google Reader integration, and Folders4Gmail. None of those scripts have been made compatible with Gmail 2 yet.

One script that I have to have is one for automatically inserting HTML signatures into my emails. The script I used previously wasn’t all that complicated, and I decided to go ahead and fix it myself. I took it one step further, however, and made it work with both the new version and the old version of Gmail.

Note: This script is designed to insert your signature at the beginning of replies/forwards, instead of at the end.

Here’s what you have to do:

  1. Download and install Greasemonkey if you don’t already have it.
  2. Install the script
  3. You’ll need to have the HTML code for the signature that you want to insert. Once you have that just go to the Greasemonkey script manager and edit the script’s HTML signature. The code looks something like this (insert the signature where you see the green text):

    var htmlSignature = ‘<br>–<br>Ryan Wagner, Founder/Editor<br><a href=”http://cybernetnews.com/”>CyberNet Technology News</a><br><a href=”http://cybernetnews.com/”><img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/CyberNet.gif” style=”border:0″ alt=”CyberNet Technology News”/></a>‘;

    top.window.setTimeout(”top.window.frames[‘main’].frames[‘” + parent.name + “‘].document.getElementById(’hc_compose’).contentWindow.document.getElementsByTagName(’body’)[0].innerHTML = ‘” + htmlSignature + “‘ + top.window.frames[‘main’].frames[‘” + parent.name + “‘].document.getElementById(’hc_compose’).contentWindow.document.getElementsByTagName(’body’)[0].innerHTML;”,500);

    var allBody = document.evaluate(”//body[@class=’editable tr-field’]“, document, null, XPathResult.UNORDERED_NODE_SNAPSHOT_TYPE, null);
    allBody.snapshotItem(0).innerHTML = htmlSignature + allBody.snapshotItem(0).innerHTML;

This script does work with Opera, but only with the older version of Gmail. I used a special Firefox-only searching property to insert the signature for the new version of Gmail, and the reason being that Gmail 2 has some issues in Opera. In fact Opera users won’t even see a link to the newer version of Gmail unless they are masking the browser as Firefox or IE.

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