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"And I wonder how long Google will continue beating this dead horse."

It's a Zombie horse.

Remember when the I-Opener was all the rage at Slashdot?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-Opener

Graveyard of obsolete devices but an informative read:
http://www.linux-hacker.net/cgi-bin/UltraBoard/UltraBoard.pl

Crippleware has its place, and I hope Google sells (other people) a metric shitload of these things so I can get a (used) one for almost nothing after (inevitably) enough people buy them expecting them to be a "regular compyooter".

Here's an archive of sorts for some niche products of yore and a reminder of the business models they served:

http://www.linux-hacker.net/cgi-bin/UltraBoard/UltraBoard.pl

"The attempt was a bust if I recall right."

The I-Appliance BBS is an interesting source of info on orphan devices whose business models shat the bed, beginning with the famous http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-Opener

http://www.linux-hacker.net/cgi-bin/UltraBoard/UltraBoard.pl

I could care less if someones business model fails, and if they gimme free stuff I'll happily put it to use.

This is an old site that hasn't been updated in years. I used it a while back when hacking iOpeners was still popular (those were the days!). He sells some equipment for hard disk upgrades and there's some hacking info, specs, schematics, etc. in the forums. www.linux-hacker.net

The I-Appliance BBS is full of the orphaned products of companies who believed that applies to computers:

http://www.linux-hacker.net/cgi-bin/UltraBoard/UltraBoard.pl

"No one is going to buy a $200 computer that's coin operated or advert crippled when they can have the same thing without those problems."

Damn right.

The I-Appliance BBS

  http://www.linux-hacker.net/cgi-bin/UltraBoard/UltraBoard.pl

is full of interesting hacks on the leftover hardware from companies with "sell a crippled computer" business models. People want small fully capable computers, not broken shit that fits someone else's idea of what they should want.

"i'm fairly certain we will yet see more and more useless devices like this end up new-in-box, on ebay, for a fraction of the initial msrp, before this year is out."

Sweet! More stuff for Slashdotters to play with! Someone elses business model is not my problem.
Cool hackables for cheap works for me and many other geeks.

Some examples from the past:

http://www.linux-hacker.net/cgi-bin/UltraBoard/Ult raBoard.pl

"People forget that Net PC devices were a threat to people whose business depended on the PC model."

Quite right, which is why they were crippled, which of course killed the market.
There is a small hobby where people try with varying success to un-cripple some of them:

http://www.linux-hacker.net/cgi-bin/UltraBoard/Ult raBoard.pl

It should not be crippled either, or it will end up among the Ipaq-tastic curiosities on the I-Appliance BBS:

http://www.linux-hacker.net/cgi-bin/UltraBoard/Ult raBoard.pl?Session=

Contrast the iOpener, which was a little web terminal sold at a loss with the plan of recouping the cost by selling service subscriptions. But rather than following the cellphone model, where the hardware is only discounted if you sign up for service, they just trusted that nobody would buy the hardware without also buying service.

When hackers realized it was a generic PC and started buying them en masse, iOpener responded by smearing glue on the circuit board, changing the BIOS, and generally sticking their head in the sand. Linksys got it right with the WRT54GL: sell the good hardware directly to hackers at a fair price.

Today, iOpener is but a sad little footnote in the annals of hardware-hacker history, while the WRT54G(L) is riding high.

Every once in a while, I get angry at hackers who aim to make Xbox or PSP hardware more useful by imbuing it with software that doesn't suck. "Why would you aid the enemy by embracing their hacker-hostile business?", I agonize. Then I remember that those game systems are sold at a loss. Awesome. :)

When building crippled "appliances" that are not easily hackable, they'd better be based on a viable business model.

If not, they are another entry in the rolls of the I-Appliance BBS, which dates back to Codeman's I-Opener hack.
Why fool around with old compu-junk? Same reason Hillary climbed Everest.

http://www.linux-hacker.net/cgi-bin/UltraBoard/Ult raBoard.pl

Why not hack the i-opener? Linux-Hacker is the first link on Google for hacking i-openers.

There are generally a few on eBay that are sold as hacked if you don't want to go through it yourself. Buy a hacked one, sell the old one for someone else to hack.

I use to support these things while working for Earthlink/MindSpring. They're not that bad after you put Linux on them. I've thought of buying one myself just to throw in the corner for a stats setup for my network, computers and hosting servers - just don't have the time.

any list of tech duds that doesn't include the venerable iOpener is.. well, incomplete.

W

http://www.linux-hacker.net/
They have a robot section.

Google the i-opener (or iopener).
Cost $100
Came with a smallish LCD screen and if you hacked it just right it would run Linux (cost another $50 or so in parts, including a cheap small hard drive.)

Some details here and here.

People are hacking on the Mattel Juice Box and home routers as well, your opinion of not "minor league" must be set very low.

I've been working on something similar: last Christmas, I picked up 3 Network Everywhere NWR04B wireless routers on sale -- $18 each! -- and have been trying ever since to duplicate this guy's success in getting uClinux (a version of Linux for CPUs with no MMU) running on the thing.

The guy who got it running originally hasn't responded to my emails, so it's a good thing he made his kernel tree available. Alsoplus, I think he used a JTAG adapter to load the image; since I wanted to make a firmware image that anyone could upload with the web interface, I had to reverse engineer the firmware checksum too. (Luckily it was a pretty simple checksum, or else I don't think I would've been able to do it...I'm really learning all this as I go along.)

In July I finally managed to get a kernel panic, am now trying to get BusyBox working on the thing. I keep getting these errors:

Unhandled fault: external abort on linefetch (D4) at 0x00000001
fault-common.c(97): start_code=0x740040, start_stack=0x71ffbc)

which, from what I have been able to Google, may be because of differing opinions (libc/uClibc vs. the kernel vs. the chip) about whether or not this thing has an FPU. If anyone's got any suggestions, please leave a note -- I need all the help I can get.

It's been an incredible learning experience -- I know more now about how the kernel interacts with CPUs, the filesystems, compilers and the bootloader than I ever had. (Still got tons to learn, mind you.) I'm looking forward to the day I can get a Beowulf cluster of these things going. :-)

KDE 3.4 is really slow on a Pentium MMX class machine with 192 mb of ram

I disagree. Just a couple of weeks ago, I installed slackware-current on a laptop hard drive fitted inside an i-opener upgraded to an AMD cpu running at 200MHz and 128mb RAM. KDE 3.4 was usable enough with the 2.6 kernel running. This is just an anecdote, but still...

We want to be able to play movies off the SD cards. That is exactly why we need some hacker to figure out how to make it play our own movies off of the SD card. The video quality is not bad at all IMHO. Yeah, it's not a PSP, but for $23 ($12.50 for the box and $11.50 for the MP3 adapter) it's pretty darn good. If we could make it play our own videos, then $23 is DEFINITELY worth the price.

Even if nobody figures it out, it's a damn good deal for a portable MP3 player WITH BUILT IN SPEAKER. It's like a portable radio - I can't think of ANY other portable MP3 players that have a built-in speaker and it's hard to find *any* MP3 player for $23.

Brian

Did anyone ever figure out how to install Linux on a 3Com Audrey? Now that little gizmo was promising, running QNX. Needs a bootloader and uCLinux...

More hacking info here:
http://www.linux-hacker.net/cgi-bin/UltraBoard/Ult raBoard.pl?Action=ShowBoard&Board=MJB/

Get and old Mailstation Mivo 100. It is a little email device with a nice 8-10 line LCD. Out of the box these thing would only connect to a specified server. On the older ones, you could reset the thing and change the phone number and email server that it called.

Regardless these things have a lpt port.

It won't fit in your shirt pocket. They are about size of a large paperback.

Here is some more information:

http://www.linux-hacker.net/cgi-bin/UltraBoard/Ult raBoard.pl?Action=ShowBoard&Board=mswhatever&Idle= &Sort=&Order=&Session=

First off, I have 1.5/768 DSL coming into the house from Speakeasy. It goes to a Netopia R910 router, and from there my Ethernet connection goes to a Linksys 16-port 10/100 switch in the basement (I have the DSL splitter outside the house, so it comes in on a separate run). That switch services the basement and 1st floor drops, then I have a cable going up along the vent stack, into the attic, and down to the 2nd floor geek room I use as a home office. In that room is an 8-port switch that I connect a wired run into the master bedroom (for my wife's iMac), and in my room it connects the computers and a Linksys WAP54G that's hooked up to a booster antenna.

Then, for the networked devices themselves, my wife has a work laptop (Win2K) that she keeps in the basement most of the time. My preschooler has an iMac DV (G3, 450 MHz) that he uses to play games - it's wireless. There's also a TiVo Series 2 with a Linksys wireless USB adapter. Upstairs is where most of the gear is - my iMac G4 (1.25), my wife's iMac G4, a Dell Dimension 4600 that's been upgraded and tweaked for gaming and XP MCE, and both a networked laser printer and an Epson inkjet. I've got a small collection of handhelds (Palm Tungsten T, HP iPaq 1930, Zaurus 5500, and a Newton 2100), and there's a Shuttle SFF Celeron box in the basement running ClarkConnect Office Edition as the web and e-mail server for the house. Plus I bring my PowerBook G4 home from the office a lot.

For systems currently not in service, I have a Mini-ITX fanless box that I was running the old Mitel SME Server on at one point, and a Netpliance i-Opener (an obsolete "Internet-in-a-box" machine), that has been hacked into a decent low-end PC, with a small hard drive and a faster processor (and a re-flashed BIOS). That used to be in our living room at one point. I keep a lot of miscellaneous gear in the house, both functional and non-functional - you never know when you might need something and I rent a small office in the next town for my business, so I don't have the storage space there.

About once a year, I pile all the stuff that's been untouched for a year into the van and head down for the MIT flea, hoping to sell off some of it to free up space and recover a little cash. My most entertaining sale I ever made at one of them? Andy Ihnatko bought my spare java Ring at a flea a couple of years ago. They'd sent me two when I ordered the eval kit back then. I still wear mine on occasion, and it's the geekiest thing I own, bar none.

The basement where my server lives is also the home of my workshop - I do occasional electronics stuff down there and bicycle repair work - I own two bikes (a road bike and a mountain bike) and ride a few times a week. That, golf, and my family are the token non-geek things in my world.

Your camera already works, so why fix something that's not broken? I couldn't imagine tinkering with the code or hardware of a late-model digital camera -- it'd be way too complex. Most of the functions are probably implemented in hardware, too, so modifying any sort of firmware is unlikely to get you anywhere. The level of integration is sure to be extremely high.

The only cameras that have been looked at and disassembled are the Dakota Digital/CVS "one-time-use" cameras. It's because they're cheap, and hold the promise of extended reuse. They don't have very many features, and probably can't have any more added to them. The attraction is the challenge of breaking a "closed" system, and getting something for (close to) nothing.

The original blue Dakota was based on a custom Sunplus chip. So far there's been one modified firmware release that fixes bugs and extends the picture limit. This model has been discontinued, however. More info here, here, and here.

The newer models have been looked at in depth as well, and they're based on SMaL chipsets. So far methods of reading and writing have been uncovered, and a method of downloading pictures via hacked drivers is documented. The eventual goal is a GPL driver and sofware, and possibly firmware upgrades. Current progress here, and background info here and here.

I think the ideal UI for streaming music is a 3Com Audrey, a diskless Internet Appliance from a few years ago that failed to sell, and can now be bought on EBay for $85. It has a nice sharp color touch screen (7-inch 640x480) with a stylus, wireless keyboard, USB LAN dongle, audio output jack and a second USB port. It looks cool too, kind of like a Jetsons version of an Etch-a-Sketch. I bought steveral and am using them to stream music all over my house.

The Audrey runs QNX, an embedded version of Unix. A growing Audrey hacking community has replaced the original email, web browser and address book software with useful things like MP3 players, a nice text editor and a full-featured web browser. You can download different memory images from various people and load them via a Compact Flash card, and you can easily back up your file system to another computer's hard drive.

I found setup to be extremely easy, despite being a networking newbie. I just plugged it into my hub and it worked. All I had to do was add a couple lines to the boot file, courtesy of helpful posts on various Audrey forums, and it connects automatically to shares on my main computer. Have it run the mp3 player at startup and your parents will have no trouble using it.

This doesn't address your desire to automate ripping CDs, but for my money it's the perfect UI solution.

...meet the i-Opener. The year 2000 called, they want their computer design back.

With so many OSS people using AMD CPUs, and uCLinux heating up, has anyone gotten Linux to run on the 3COM Audrey? It looks like the bottleneck is running LinuxBIOS on the HW. Who can breathe (after)life into this dying platform?

Whatever happened to Linux on the 3COM Audrey? Now that LinuxBIOS supports the Audrey's GEODE, what is holding back that platform?

I did this about two years ago using a Websurfer (about $50) and a old small HD with DOS and a batch script, for my mom's TV.

The I-Opener ($40 now) can do the same thing. See http://www.linux-hacker.net/ they have a real good forum about this sort of stuff.

The most recent actual "hack" I've been involved with is the single-use (Dakota) camera. So far, the 25-picture disposable camera has been made to also support time-lapse computer-controlled photography, continuous video (i.e. Webcam) modes, and been able to store (in my brief, informal test) 58 pictures.

The rest of these might not be considered hacks per se, just projects.

A project that never got finished would have put a high-power subwoofer amplifier in my car, complete with an authentic '60s fluorescing vacuum tube as a level display. Much classier than the usual LED-bargraph arrangements popular with the kiddies these days. Unfortunately, in the middle of building this I got offered a job and moved 'cross-country, but didn't have room to pack the unfinished bits+pieces and all my electrical test equipment in my little 2-door.

In my college years, I had the position of running an underground student newspaper. An issue was released 'every few weeks' when its dedicated editors were free/bored enough to put one together, but one thing everyone thought would be nice would be to commandeer the University (dorm) cable system after-hours for a student-run movie and wierd footage channel. Starting at about midnight or so, this would replace a lame "information channel" text marquee (which was always several weeks out of date and advertising events whose deadlines had come and gone), that was currently occupying a perfectly good cable channel.

We had obtained keys to the main hub room (also the cable feed room), so inserting the signal was not a problem. The student TV footage was intended to begin late at night, when university officials were guaranteed not to be watching, and would be pre-recorded. This presented a minor problem, however: everyone on the 'staff' had early classes and poor memories, and could not be counted on to get into the hub closet after hours to insert the day's programming and press 'play'. Also, while some students (volunteering for the Computer center) did legitimately have access to these areas, students going in and out of there after hours would arouse unnecessary suspicion from campus security.

It was decided that the best solution was to equip the VCR with a 'remote control' of sorts that would allow it to be controlled over the dorm network via the abundant Ethernet connections available in the room. This would allow for automated starting and stopping as well as manual intervention as necessary; footage could then be loaded during the daytime hours at the convenience of those involved.

Making a VCR Internet-ready is not has hard as it sounds. I simply built a board with eight simple Darlington transistor circuits (corresponding to 8 data pins on a parallel port) to drive the important VCR function buttons via this port. A simple Web server (disposable '386) running a perl-based CGI interface allowed Web-based control of the parallel port bits, which in turn operated the disposable VCR with wires soldered into the appropriate front-panel switches.

The tricky part then became finding controversial/interesting/non-stupid, but legal, student-produced content worth displaying, but that's another story.

---first post---

ok i did some hacking on the walgreess version and here's what i have done..

first thanks to zonyl for getting me some cameras to mess with..

ok if you look at [this] you will see there is a daughter board on there with the nand flash for picture storage ..

if you remove that board you can add a smartmedia socket and using smartmedia card you will be able to get the pics with a smartmedia reader standard jpg's but it will not do more that 25 pics still (think its using fat12)..

also there is a serial port there labeled rs232 it a ttl level serial port ..

pin 1 rx []square on board pin 2 tx pin 3 gnd pin 4 data out ?? for lcd ?? video ?? if you hook up a max232 type chip to the board and a pc , in a term program hit space bar and the camera will return a 0x01 hex (looks like it does autobaud rate)

and if you hit the - key twice it will trigger the flash and count the remaining

counter down but does not write to flash .

and if you send a 029 dec (hold alt and type 029 on keypad then release alt) if will change the format of the data coming out on pin 4..( dont know yet )

so far thats all i got in one night .. codeman

---next post---

here are some pic to get a better idea of how it works

daughter card removed [here]

smartmedia socket added [here]

here it is complete. [here]

another one [here]

there is a door for the smartmedia card

codeman

---first post---

ok i did some hacking on the walgreess version and here's what i have done..

first thanks to zonyl for getting me some cameras to mess with..

ok if you look at [this] you will see there is a daughter board on there with the nand flash for picture storage ..

if you remove that board you can add a smartmedia socket and using smartmedia card you will be able to get the pics with a smartmedia reader standard jpg's but it will not do more that 25 pics still (think its using fat12)..

also there is a serial port there labeled rs232 it a ttl level serial port ..

pin 1 rx []square on board pin 2 tx pin 3 gnd pin 4 data out ?? for lcd ?? video ?? if you hook up a max232 type chip to the board and a pc , in a term program hit space bar and the camera will return a 0x01 hex (looks like it does autobaud rate)

and if you hit the - key twice it will trigger the flash and count the remaining

counter down but does not write to flash .

and if you send a 029 dec (hold alt and type 029 on keypad then release alt) if will change the format of the data coming out on pin 4..( dont know yet )

so far thats all i got in one night .. codeman

---next post---

here are some pic to get a better idea of how it works

daughter card removed [here]

smartmedia socket added [here]

here it is complete. [here]

another one [here]

there is a door for the smartmedia card

codeman

---first post---

ok i did some hacking on the walgreess version and here's what i have done..

first thanks to zonyl for getting me some cameras to mess with..

ok if you look at [this] you will see there is a daughter board on there with the nand flash for picture storage ..

if you remove that board you can add a smartmedia socket and using smartmedia card you will be able to get the pics with a smartmedia reader standard jpg's but it will not do more that 25 pics still (think its using fat12)..

also there is a serial port there labeled rs232 it a ttl level serial port ..

pin 1 rx []square on board pin 2 tx pin 3 gnd pin 4 data out ?? for lcd ?? video ?? if you hook up a max232 type chip to the board and a pc , in a term program hit space bar and the camera will return a 0x01 hex (looks like it does autobaud rate)

and if you hit the - key twice it will trigger the flash and count the remaining

counter down but does not write to flash .

and if you send a 029 dec (hold alt and type 029 on keypad then release alt) if will change the format of the data coming out on pin 4..( dont know yet )

so far thats all i got in one night .. codeman

---next post---

here are some pic to get a better idea of how it works

daughter card removed [here]

smartmedia socket added [here]

here it is complete. [here]

another one [here]

there is a door for the smartmedia card

codeman

---first post---

ok i did some hacking on the walgreess version and here's what i have done..

first thanks to zonyl for getting me some cameras to mess with..

ok if you look at [this] you will see there is a daughter board on there with the nand flash for picture storage ..

if you remove that board you can add a smartmedia socket and using smartmedia card you will be able to get the pics with a smartmedia reader standard jpg's but it will not do more that 25 pics still (think its using fat12)..

also there is a serial port there labeled rs232 it a ttl level serial port ..

pin 1 rx []square on board pin 2 tx pin 3 gnd pin 4 data out ?? for lcd ?? video ?? if you hook up a max232 type chip to the board and a pc , in a term program hit space bar and the camera will return a 0x01 hex (looks like it does autobaud rate)

and if you hit the - key twice it will trigger the flash and count the remaining

counter down but does not write to flash .

and if you send a 029 dec (hold alt and type 029 on keypad then release alt) if will change the format of the data coming out on pin 4..( dont know yet )

so far thats all i got in one night .. codeman

---next post---

here are some pic to get a better idea of how it works

daughter card removed [here]

smartmedia socket added [here]

here it is complete. [here]

another one [here]

there is a door for the smartmedia card

codeman

---first post---

ok i did some hacking on the walgreess version and here's what i have done..

first thanks to zonyl for getting me some cameras to mess with..

ok if you look at [this] you will see there is a daughter board on there with the nand flash for picture storage ..

if you remove that board you can add a smartmedia socket and using smartmedia card you will be able to get the pics with a smartmedia reader standard jpg's but it will not do more that 25 pics still (think its using fat12)..

also there is a serial port there labeled rs232 it a ttl level serial port ..

pin 1 rx []square on board pin 2 tx pin 3 gnd pin 4 data out ?? for lcd ?? video ?? if you hook up a max232 type chip to the board and a pc , in a term program hit space bar and the camera will return a 0x01 hex (looks like it does autobaud rate)

and if you hit the - key twice it will trigger the flash and count the remaining

counter down but does not write to flash .

and if you send a 029 dec (hold alt and type 029 on keypad then release alt) if will change the format of the data coming out on pin 4..( dont know yet )

so far thats all i got in one night .. codeman

---next post---

here are some pic to get a better idea of how it works

daughter card removed [here]

smartmedia socket added [here]

here it is complete. [here]

another one [here]

there is a door for the smartmedia card

codeman

and netappliance I-Openers href

A little different from what you're asking, but here's what I did for a similar setup...

I picked up a discontinued Audrey from 3com and put that in my kitchen, networked through the powerlines using Seimens Powerline ethernet adapters. It mounts a SMB share from my Windows box (can also mount NFS shares) and plays my music through it's built-in speakers, or through attached computer speakers. There's a headphone jack on the device for external speakers.

It runs QNX with a full root shell, along with a web browser and other fun doodads. The mp3s play flawlessly (and there's a plugin for OGG) while taking up very little real estate on my counter. Anywhere I go in the apartment with a powerjack I can get to my Windows box. Wireless is also an option using a Linksys WEP11.

Best of all, my girlfriend loved it and wants me to get a couple more for the apartment. When not in [musical] use, it doubles as a digital picture frame.

Some sites to look over...

Audrey's on Ebay

AudreyHacking.com

www.linux-hacker.net Audrey Forum

Infinity flash image

Look around e-bay for an I-appliance and mod it. I bought a gateway connected touchpad for $75 and it works great. It runs linux from a compact flash and has a mount for the lcd to hang from a kitchen cabinet. Linux-hacker is a great place to look for advice on hacking as well as buying/trading i-appliances.

The Audrey is quite hackable. You should check out this or this

In a fit of nearsighted vision, I got 10 Visor Deluxes, 10 Xircom 802.11b Springport modules, and 10 3Com Audreys from liquidation sales last year. I had the idea to put the Visors into ad-hoc mode, and dot an area with these nodes to provide a mesh network. But so what? With the Springport slot occupied, I can't find any peripherals, like a camera, to give the nodes anything worth contributing to the network once they're on it. The Audreys look even more limited. The mesh is up, but what can I use it for?

Remember the I-Opener?

Yea, that little Internet Appliance created by venture capital-funded Netpliance, whom had NOWHERE near the amount of money Microsoft does.

They according to this post on the I-Appliance BBS created SEVEN versions (including the original) of the I-Opener before heading to the land of failed dotcoms.

It's a good thing they called this X-Box 1.1v, cause I'm sure there'll be a LOT more point revisions in the future - Microsoft has the fundage to do it.

That's exactly what I['m doing with my audrey. The audrey has a nice touch screen so its easy to use. Mounts nfs/smb shares, has and IR port that you control with a learning remote.

You can buy them for about $100 and with a 32meg CF card update them pretty quickly. Mine has a digital picture frame that runs and pulls random pictures from a share, a full screen mp3/ogg player and a callerid display. It sits beside my sofa so I can get to it easily.

Check out Linux Hacker BBs and audreyhacking.com

It really won't be that popular until xbox mod chips don't require soldering in 20 points. I wouldn't be willing to fry my xBox to have linux run on it.

I don't see xBox hacking getting as popular as Tivo hacking or even Audrey hacking until they can overcome the need to solder to the mother/daughter/whatever card.

I think the project is cool though, regardless. I'm sure by the time they get it figured out so that any pseudo-hacker can do it, MS will have xBox^2 out. [xCube/xBox^3 ??]

I'm not sure why everyone is looking to "screw" MS anyways. Just do it because you can, not because you are trying to stick it to them.. for what I really don't know. Perhaps the annoying paperclip *shrug*

You can have internet access in your kitchen NOW with an Audrey for ~100 bucks. I have it and it works great. I use it as a terminal to control the mp3 player, bring up my Perl based recipe database, caller_id application.... etc.

Audrey hacking

Quanta also built the Netpliance I-Opener and the Gateway Connected touchpad. Both of which run QNX. Theres a hacking group that stays up to date on various projects on the message boards here. Im not sure what else Quanta has built, but the I-Opener is really built like a tank.

We can also help you get a clean image of the internal SanDisk.

Thanks,

Chase

This thread on I-appliance talks about the VIA Shuttle, which is halfway between a laptop and a desktop.

anadantech - outpost, with 1GHz Celeron, $330

Keep an eye on the forums at linux-hacker.net. This is where the original IOpener hack was, and the forum is full of people reverse engineering internet appliances and game consoles. I'm sure the mysmart pad will come up pretty soon if it's not already on there.

...are a good place to start.

http://www.linux-hacker.net/cgi-bin/UltraBoard/Ult raBoard.pl?Action=ShowBoard&Board=dtv&Idle=&Sort=& Order=&Session=
or here

Not being a fan of the games, I didn't expect much of "The Spirits Within", boy was I wrong. The animation was nothing short of breathtaking and I was actually surprised by the unpredictability of the plot. In short, the movie far outshined my expectations and I eagerly awaited a sequel.

Now I have to explain to everyone I told about this movie (who were also equally impressed by it) that there won't be a sequel. This is really a shame - we can wipe Circuit City out of I-Openers, but we couldn't make movies such as Final Fantasy profitable for the studio.