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The Hack Furby Two-Fifty Challenge
vees writes "Have you ever wanted to reprogram your Furby toy to do and say vile and obscene things, but just needed a good excuse? How's two-hundred and fifty dollars sound? Peter van der Linden is offering $250 to the first person who modifies a Furby so it can be reprogrammed. If you can read a schematic and wield a soldering iron without causing permanent personal cosmetic damage, be sure to visit his challenge page for more information on how to win."
"I, Furby1, see no primes between 1E200 and 2E200 - over"
"Roger Furby1. Look for primes between 4E200 and 5E200, Furby2 continue look for primes between 2E200 and 3E200, Furby3 continue to look for primes between 3E200 and 4E200"...
Well, I think the idea is kind of cool...
--
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
--
--
You are a fucking moron.
You've reminded me of another really funny computer book, The Fortran Coloring Book by Kaufman. It's a real textbook, totally hand-written. Out of print now, but it's a pretty funny book.
Q: Why is '*' called the Nathan Hale operator?
A: Because he only had his asterisk.
--
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
I said what do you want from me furby? And do you know what he said? Tree fiddy! I said damnit furby, get off my lawn, I ain't giving you no tree fiddy!
Yeah, mine tells me to burn things. And to purify the sinful. I returned it and the replacement does the same thing. I took out the batteries and it still won't stop. I guess this is a common thing, so I'm gonna file a class-action lawsuit. Anyone else in?
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... just a customer that used to use Amazon (years ago) then Fatbrain (well, Computer Literacy) then BookPool.
.
Somebody is taking Slashdot a bit too seriously.
And, in this case, it's not Jon Katz (is it?).
Now hiring experienced client- & server-side developers
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
Java is the language of choice for this challenge because Peter van der Linden works for Sun and has written a couple of books about Java, including the excellent "Just Java" and he wrote and maintained the FAQ for comp.lang.java.programmer. He happened to suggest a programmable microprocessor, and because of his work he happened to suggest a PicoJava processor, which makes Java an obvious choice.
(BTW: Before he got into Java, he also wrote an excellent book about C called "Deep C Secrets", also known as "The butt-ugly fish book" in honour of the Coelecanth on the cover.)
The next Cmdr Taco duplicate will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and see it early!
At least a year ago, if it's not the same, the problem revolved around another one of those fine epoxy blobbed CPUs. Solve which CPU it's running and you've for the $250.
--
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
"Once Furby has been hacked, my goal is to give it a Java API allowing the device to become a general Java engine."
You know what's coming next...
1. Furby Webserver
2. Furby Home based mail server
(see earlier story)
3. Furby Quake engine
4. Furby running Linux
...and finally
5. The BeoFurby Custer
AAHHHHH!
AdFuel
I'm thinking of hacking a Furby by putting a Linux distro on it, hooking it up to my network with a PCMCIA wireless NIC, and then having the critter bring me a beer...
/home/hallway
/home/kitchen
/bin/ls.
/home/hallway
/home/office
/home/kitchen/beer.can /home/office/beer.can
Connected to furby.home.net
login: furby
Password:
Last login: Wed Oct 25 14:53:26 from hermit
[furby@furby office]$ cd
[furby@furby hallway]$ cd
[furby@furby kitchen]$ ftp fridge.home.net
Connected to fridge.home.net.
220 fridge.home.net ready.
Name (fridge.home.net:ftpusers): furby
331 User furby okay, need password.
Password:
230-You are user #1 of 6 simultaneous users allowed.
230-
230 Restricted user logged in.
Remote system type is UNIX.
Using binary mode to transfer files.
ftp> ls
200 PORT command successful.
150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for
-rw-r--r-- 1 ftpuser ftpusers 47458 Sep 24 16:56 lettuce.old
-rw-r--r-- 1 ftpuser ftpusers 10811 Oct 25 04:23 beer.can
-rw-r--r-- 1 ftpuser ftpusers 112848 Oct 25 04:25 chips.bag
226 Listing completed.
ftp> get beer.can
local: beer.can remote: beer.can
200 PORT command successful.
150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for beer.can (10811 bytes).
226 Transfer completed.
10811 bytes received in 1.64 secs (12 Kbytes/sec)
ftp> close
221 Goodbye.
ftp> quit
[furby@furby kitchen]$ cd
[furby@furby hallway]$ cd
[furby@furby office] $ cp
hermit
www.thegrinder.org
"Trying to make the 'Net a better place, one Linux box at a time..."
From the site itself:
The Hack Furby Two-Fifty Challenge was issued in January 1999
Talk about timely coverage of contemporary issues!
The next Cmdr Taco duplicate will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and see it early!
An extra 500 dollars if you can make the Furby pour hot grits down its pants, and run around screaming "Petrified Natalie Pr0tman!"
I am trying to encourage graduate students and others who have time and talent. This is a prize to encourage progress, of the kind that was often staked in the early days of aviation.
You people don't quite realize how important this is. Why, here in the year 2074, the Cursing Toy industry is one of the great indicators of our economy. It has aided human life in ways unimaginable, and honestly, no one can really imagine what life would be like without it.
--
Feminism is the wild notion that women are human beings.
Here is a page that is all about hacking furby.
I swear mine says obscene things anyway
If I had more time to work on this, the first thing I'd do would be to take the guts of a Gameboy Color and use them to replace the furby's internal systems. You get an ehnanced Z-80 processor (which we ALL learned how to program in our first year or two of college, right?), audio output, 8 control inputs (plus the analog? volume control) (connect these to the front/back button, upside-down detector and the "noise" sensor) and a boatload of interface options for your control system (i.e. the gameboy proto-firewire connector).
:)
It would be loads of fun... especially making a Furby that shouts "Pikaaachuuuu!" but I just don't have the time.
-Chris
I bet you had a problem with the guy who took a 12-gauge to his PC case, too.
"How many light bulbs does it take to change a person?" --BMcC-->
At school, Lisa and all her friends play with their new Talking Malibu Stacy dolls.
Stacy: Let's buy makeup so the boys will like us.
Lisa: [sighs] Don't you people see anything wrong what Malibu Stacy says?
Celeste: There's something wrong with what _my_ Stacy says.
Stacy: [in a low voice] My spidey sense is tingling -- anybody call for a web-slinger?
Lisa: No, Celeste. I mean, the things she says are sexist.
Girls: [giggle] Lisa said a dirty word!
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As blatantly stolen by me from SNPP.com
P.S. When my little brother was a baby, he got this toy called "My Pal 2" It was a robot that played different games and made noises. Well, we discovered that when you push all the buttons at once he started alternately laughing maniacally, barking like a dog, and shouting "God!" in a deep voice as if had just set his hand down on a hot burner or something. We never got tired of that thing.
Got any references? What is the statistical significance of those 'studies'?
From my personal anecdotal experience, most psychopats live in New York City, where the only non-human animals available for abusing are cockroaches. Since non-psychopats also perform animal abuse against roaches, I find it doubtful whether one can conclude anything from that.
OTOH, I must congratulate you -- few trolls get as many responses as you did. I like the funny trolls. Keep up with the good work.
And, yes, I'm for the death penalty, too, like you. Nothing pushes a point as effectively as reductio ad absurdum by wild exaggeration. Thanks.
Soon, we will probably see an announcement of FurbyLinux, the first version of the open source OS to compile on a Furby. FurbyLinux will feature a special tactile "fur" interface. Eyelids will droop lower to indicate high load average. X will run (Xeyes will be the included demo program). FurbyLinux will allow a Furby network nicely with other Furbys, however plush toys such as Microsoft Barney will implement non-standard protocols, allowing them to only transmit the words "innovate", "upgrade" and "assimilate".
Personally, I would vote for sending them to Canada. I don't know what Canada does with their criminals, but, it seems that the Canadians are a little *TOO* law abiding. There's something suspicious going on up there.
Mas vale cholo, que mal acompañado.
Furbies are just a stupid plastic piece of American consumerism,
Yes, we must stamp out all childhood fun! Good God, there might be children who actually become attached to this small, cute, colorful, furry doll! Whoever invented such an abomination?
I'll never understand the geek need to destroy anything that might be cute and fun.
Here's a hint to others who feel this way (and this includes Barney, etc): It's not designed for you! It's designed for small children! Get over it!
--
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
C'mon, it's cool! It's interesting....
Eating animals is not only itself a violent act...
Er, last I checked, humans are omnivores. We are supposed to eat animals. It's called the food chain.
Is it immoral when a lion kills an antelope?
--
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
Figuring out "which CPU" by looking at the hex was easy on NES (dump Mario Bros.'s program and see 0xA9 (lda) everywhere). It'll be a lot harder on Furby because the ROM can't be dumped; it's in the same black blob.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Are we going to receive Cease and Desist letters ordering us to stop using the Furby in ways it wasn't intended ? How about implanting a wavelan rig inside the furby to have it transmit a serial number to Digital Convergence =)
-Billco, Fnarg.com
You can see the google-cached copy here .
Expert C Programming: Deep C Secrets
Which is one of the best and funniest books on C that I have ever read. I mean, it actually made me laugh out loud many times.
"If I were stranded on a desert island and could only take one data structure with me, it would be the hash table."
I couldn't recommend it more highly.
Keep your Amazon-boycott-conscience clear and consider buying it at Fatbrain.
-Dan
I have written a truly remarkable operating system which this sig is too small to contain.
Check out this Furby riding the lightning.
"Ancillary does not mean you get to rule the world." --U.S. Circuit Judge Harry Edwards, speaking to the FCC's lawyer