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I'm really tired of reading these kind of stories. Databases on commercial providers ARE going to be stolen. It is irresponsible to be storing dangerous information given that hacks and theft are inevitable. For instance, why does Sony need to know my exact DOB? They actually only NEED to know whether I'm allowed to buy all games/DLC on the system, or only content that's suitable for people less than 18yo. This problem is much bigger than "just" PSN. If anyone cares, I wrote up a proposal - really more a philosophy, with a technical proposal to counter the "it will never work" arguments - at http://larwe.com/blog/larwe.php/2011/04/27/sony-and-the-libertarianism-of-data Grrrr.

I am working on some similar projects for 11-12th graders though my budget is more in the $10 per student range. There are challenges with doing this without (a) soldering - and the risks, and (b) lead exposure. Anything intended for kids younger than 13 needs to be Pb-free to meet CPSC guidelines and avoid liability issues. For 9th graders you might need to check ASTM regs also regarding choking, entanglement, etc. It's a bit of a bear and it becomes harder the younger the kids get. I am using largely recycled components from junk cellphones and other sources (TDMA cellphones in particular are available dirt cheap and have lots of interesting projects) - http://www.larwe.com/technical/2260lcd.html documents some of my reverse-engineering though it doesn't explain why I'm doing it). A couple of interesting projects that can be made without soldering (just twisting wires) - Use a Hall effect sensor or reed switch, in combination with a light (LED, bulb, whatever) and a handful of small magnets to demonstrate making a "recording". Glue the magnets onto a strip of paper, or just use a piece of tape sticky-side up. Pull the tape past the sensor and watch the bits as they're read out on the bulb. Works best if you color say all the north poles red, so they can work out what is 0 and what is 1. - Make a light-following robot with two pager motors. There are a load of designs around, this one is not the simplest but is illustrative http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/6897/photovore.html If you want to liaise further, feel free to contact me using that website.

Here's a nice "Applesoft Basic for the Web" in JavaScript: GScript BASIC. It's especially aimed toward kids.

for stealing the Commodore key and calling it the "Windows" key on the Microsoft keyboards that came decades later than the old 1980 Commodore VIC-20 keyboards that already had a patent for a special logo style key for software shortcuts. outdates the Microsoft keyboard by decades and had programmable function keys that worked as page down and page up before the 1981 IBM PC keyboard. I recall in 1980 some word processing and spreadsheet programs for the VIC-20 displayed the programmable function keys as pg dn and pg up on the VIC-20 information screen for the help for those programs. While the programmable function keys are not labeled as page up and page down on their key tops, they were used for such in business software for the VIC-20 one year before IBM and Microsoft used them for such. Also the VIC-20 is just basically based on the old CBM PET series from 1977 that was based on the KIM-1 which even outdates the Apple 1 and TRS-80 series computers by a few months. Some of the homebrew keyboards made for the Kim-1 had pg up and pg down keys, programmable function keys, etc long before many of the others had them.

So basically a lot of this stuff had existed before 1981 when IBM made the IBM PC keyboard. But IBM could claim that pg up and pg down keys existed on their Mainframe dumb terminals before 1977 dating back to the 1950's and trump everyone else in patents. :)
Even Apple has prior art to that on the old Apple Logo keys but the original Apple // did not have Apple logo keys until Steve Jobs stole them from the Commodore VIC-20 to make their Apple //e computer later turning the Commodore key into open Apple and closed Apple keys that do the same thing as the Commodore key.

The supplied operating system may be a weird version of Windows, but you can install Linux on it as well. Go to http://www.larwe.com/technical/geode_linux.html where they have detailed instructions.

On the other hand, I'm sure a lot of people (myself included) categorically refuse to pay the Windows Tax. AMD ought to be offering a version of this device with no operating system preinstalled.

• SpeakEasy DSL terminating equipment, including VOIP terminal adapter ($85/mo for *everything*), and no need for a local analog loop. Good riddance, SBC!
• Smoothwall box
• Primary Windows desktop
• Wireless router to pick up various boxes in hard-to-wire locations and the occasional guest laptop.
• Linux server w/ big drives to hold music and test server configs (http/SMB/VNC/audio streams/etc)
• Linux box dedicated to audio playback. It has a reasonably powerful FM broadcaster attached (~80 yard range) so we can listen to local MP3/OGGs or distant streams anywhere in the house/yard. Great for cookouts! Playlists are accessible through a variety of methods, so just about any box on the network can manipulate the queue.
• A hacked Virgin Webplayer at the main stereo for streaming something different from what's going out on the FM broadcaster.

What I'd really like to find is a better music storage system. Move it all out of the file system and into a database. I'm thinking of something that would store the track in whatever format (OGG/MP3/flac), plus whatever metadata you might care about (artist, track title, track #, track length, date, album title, album genre, song genre, writing credits, publishing company, lyrics, album cover & back art, liner notes, producer, band members, guest artists, who played what, record label, affiliated artists, sources of samples or borrowed riffs, drugs the band used while recording, ...).

Work up APIs to plug file-systems into the database so that it can present the data as if it were actual files with appropriate filenames and ID tags. Let the streaming software and Samba look at it as if they were actual files in a filesystem. Create multiple virtual directory systems (similar to Evolution's vFolders) based on whetever metadata you care about (all non-classical/non-jazz instrumentals; everything with "love" in the title; Beatles recorded before 1970 with only Mac-Len co-writing credits; everything that samples James Brown; P-Funk and ALL related side projects; etc.). Have it name the file according to whatever scheme you prefer (Artist-SongTitle.foo)

Let's hope it at least goes better than it went last time.

Remeber your ancient TNT graphics card that had 16MB of memory?

Uh, I remember when a friend's ZX81 computer was much nicer because it had the 16 kByte RAM module, ours had only 1 kByte.

The homepage for Lewin Edwards is interesting. He is doing other neat projects in addition to his submarine project mentioned in the article.

Virgin's Webplayer. They go for $150 to $200 on eBay these days, but an enterprising person put together a coop to bulk order surplus and returned units for Boundless. We ended up ordering almost 400 Webplayers together, and Boundless set the price at $100 each. That opportunity is over, but only time, energy and willingness is stopping anyone else from putting together another order.

People are doing all sorts of different things with them. I'm sure someone is making an X-term.

...the ruggedized Webplayer I'm designing for a canoe trip down the Yukon river this summer. The plan is to take a solar-powered Webplayer with me, connected to which is a USB camera and a microphone. The camera will be fitted to a headband, it will see what I see. The mike will be somewhere where it hears what I say. I'll use this gear to make a report of this two-month trip from Whitehorse (Canada) to Emmonak (somewhere near the Bering sea). Pity there is no affordable, reliable wireless datacom coverage yet, or I would be able to beam this data right to my website... Hm, reminds me of the 'gargoyles' from Snow Crash...

If you feel left out, because the co-op is out of WebPlayers, check out ebay which has some WebPlayers for sale. Some of them are even less than the $110 offered by the co-op.

I'm planning on taking my WebPlayer apart, not reprogramming it. If you're into that as well, check out this page.

Thalia

Full instructions here: http://www.larwe.com/techref/webplayer.html

Fellow Virgin WebPlayer owners (in case you got one -- I do!), here's the news you've been waiting for. As reported on The Register, and found in the new WebPlayer FAQ's, you do not have to return your webplayer and you do not have to pay anything for it. Pretty nifty, especially if we can figure out how to hack it. Read up more on this message board.

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I have one of these things. And, it's really funny too because I already packed mine up and was planning on sending it back to them - then I got the email telling me that they were being discontinued. So, lucky for me now I don't have to pay shipping back to them! Actually I'm hoping they'll let us keep the damn thing and just forget about it. Is it really worth spending the time on? I took mine apart soon after I got it. It has an M-Systems Disk On Chip 2000 64Mb flash memory card with embedded Linux. I have found a site from an EE where he talks about hacking it - check it out here. It's got an open IDE connector but the question was always the BIOS. Nobody has ever successfully removed the DiskOnChip and gotten the iBrow (aka "Webplayer") to boot. Apparently the BIOS has a password that noone has been able to hack yet. The message boards over on the Linux-hacker site have a section dedicated to the Virgin Webplayer. But, as far as I know the project has advanced very far. When I took it apart, the only thing I reall wanted out of it was the Samsung flat panel LCD screen. Oh well.. we'll see what happens

Sorry forgot to include the address! http://www.larwe.com/techref/webplayer.html