Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on February 22, 2008 by CyberNet.

Microsoft must be extremely unhappy with the “quality” of the cracks available for Vista right now. Earlier this month we showed that the Vista OEM BIOS crack is still alive and kicking in Vista SP1 despite claims by Microsoft that those types of cracks had been patched. I would mark that up as an “oops” by Microsoft.

The Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) team is flexing their muscles at all of the hackers out there right now though. Later this month Microsoft is going to release an update (via Windows Update) for both the RTM and SP1 copies of Vista that will notify users if they are running a pirated copy of Vista:

Gold and SP1-installed systems [will] detect the presence of the Grace Timer and OEM BIOS exploits then alert the customer of their presence. The dialog box (shown below) also provides customers with guidance about what they can do to fix it and provides a Web link for more details, so that customers can learn about the particular exploit and learn how to disable and remove it. If they are a victim of software piracy, the linked Web pages will provide information on how to get genuine software.

They then go on to say what the users will experience that are running Vista with one of the activation workarounds installed:

The timing of when customers will first see the “Activate Your Copy of Windows” message can vary depending on what exploit is running on their system. Customers whose systems have the OEM BIOS exploit, for example, may not see anything for 15 days due to the way activation was set up for our OEM partners. Systems that have the Grace Timer exploit will be immediately prompted to activate once SP1 is installed.

The update will not uninstall or disable the exploits that it finds, but a separate tool will be available to users who wish to do so. They expect that the next release of the exploitation analyzer will include the tool needed to remove the any of the activation workarounds. From what I gather the tool will not deactivate the system nor will it mark Vista as not genuine, but it’s possible that I’ve misunderstood just how this is going to work.

What I’m left wondering is whether Microsoft has plans to push out a new update to Service Pack 1 that is able to detect some of the additional OEM BIOS cracks that are out there. Those of you who are running pirated copies of Vista better tread lightly because Microsoft is coming after you!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Well, seems like LulzSec has returned, and moved beyond the DDOS attack! Not content to merely shut down one of Rupert Murdoch’s paper’s websites, the hacking group has instead planted a bizarro-Onionesque account of the mogul’s death-by-palladium on a Times redesign page masquerading as The Sun. Well played, #AntiSec. More »

Always wanted an 80’s arcade cabinet for your living room, but the square footage in your studio apartment won’t cooperate with your gaming plans? Well, a master mini craftsman has created a seven-inch replica of Space Invaders that can fit on your desktop, coffee table, or bedside stand. It was cobbled together using the guts of a Game Boy Advance, some lilliputian controls, and a custom cabinet coated in shrunken decals that’s made of medium density fiberboard. Best of all, thanks to those Nintendo internals, there’s an entire arcade’s worth of games at your tiny fingertips. Between this and its diminutive Donkey Kong cousin, perhaps mini arcade cabinets are the future of gaming. Video of the little gem in action is after the break.

Continue reading Mini Space Invaders arcade cabinet big on nostalgia, small in size

Mini Space Invaders arcade cabinet big on nostalgia, small in size originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Jul 2011 17:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s neither practical nor pretty, but this DIY tire-liner certainly looks effective

Summer is officially here, in the Northern Hemisphere at least, and with it comes puncture season. Here in Barcelona, Spain, the lack of rain from May onwards means the streets build up a tire-killing collection of sharp detritus, from the remains of broken beer bottles to shards of smashed car headlamps.

Taking a trip of more than a few kilometers without a spare tube, pump and tools is foolish.

Unless you are Bike Hacks reader Nicolás, who came up with ingenious and cheap anti-puncture shield for his tires. He simply cut the straps off an old messenger bag, which were made of already-recycled seatbelt webbing. He then cut the belts to size and pushed them inside his bike tires before replacing them and fitting the inner tube as usual.

Seatbelts are pretty tough. Try shoving something sharp through one to test it out if you like. It’s certainly a lot tougher than weak and easy-to-cut bike tubes. My first concern would be about the added weight, and then the difficulty of getting the belt lined up to keep it in balance. But then, on an old Dutch bike which weighs a ton already, this could be a great low-tech solution. Sure, you can buy proper tire liners, but are they free? I’ll stick with my patch kit, for now, but in an emergency, I now have a new idea of what to use for a tire-boot to repair any gaping holes.

Seat Belt Bike Tire Hack [Nicolás on Bike Hacks]

See Also:

• IT Clips Turn Inner-Tubes into Bungees, Belts
• $91 Worth of Rubber Bands From One Recycled Inner-Tube
• (Almost) 1001 Uses for Old Inner Tubes

File this under ‘questionably useful, but darling nonetheless.’ ZviZvi over at Instructables needed to update an outdated product for his Industrial Design portfolio, so he took grandpa’s old rotary phone and implanted an Arduino soul. With an involved bit of slap n’ solder and a WiFly shield, our enterprising Israeli modder transformed this once-luddite tech into an emoticon-tweeting wireless terminal. While the phone’s LED-lit dial is only capable of outputting ten heartwarming expressions, that’s still ten more than any rotary phone’s ever had before. Sure, you could always use that ever-accessible laptop (or smartphone) for your Twitter needs, but where’s the fun in that? Per usual, budding inventors can tickle their Emo in the source link below.

Rotary phone mod tweets your emoticons, heavy soldering still required originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Jun 2011 13:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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