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Slashback: Circumvention, AOLandfill, Scoffing
Excuse me, is this the service entrance? We just posted about Microsoft blocking gamers with mod-chipped X-boxes from the Microsoft-run online gaming service; now NiteStar writes "Xbox-Scene.com just reported that a group of Xbox hackers named Team Assembly managed to change the serial number and MAC address of the xbox. After the change they managed to get onto Xbox Live (with mod-chip disabled) with a previously banned xbox ..."
Not so fast, mister. The Raindog writes "Since NVIDIA announced its GeForce FX graphics chip, the web has been flooded with a slew of previews and articles that do little more than regurgitate what must have been NVIDIA's official press kit. Slashdot had coverage a few days ago, but since then, a new take on NVIDIA's latest chip has surfaced without all the PR-inspired hype. As it turns out, the GeForce FX's features aren't all that remarkable next to ATI's Radeon 9700 Pro, which has been available for months now."
I liked the old .sig about a black hole that would blot out the sun. Matthew Davis writes "CNN.com ran a story about Jim McKenna and John Lieberman back in October requesting everyone to send the CD mailers they receive to them. When they reach 1 million CDs they'll hand deliver them to AOL. In a recent article by SiliconValley.com they quote Nicholas Graham, a spokesman for AOL stating, "If they reach their goal ... I'd be happy to give them directions and greet them at the door ... We would make a contribution ourselves to put them over the top" Does that mean they're putting Jim and John's address on the top of the CD mailing list?"
Now if only these were CD-RWs ... and they can keep sending me the nice, reusable cases, just no more paper sleeves, thanks.
Still teasing, Stephen. foolish_child writes "Not sure if you noticed, but in the newest paperback pressing of Cryptonomicon (1 November 2002, I think) there is a chapter from Quicksilver at the back. I spotted it in the railway station in Amsterdam, so maybe it's a European edition. I have been checking to see if it was also online but have seen no sign of it - hence the heads up. I'm sure someone will scan it in soon - it is SUPERB! (read it waiting for a train) - Enoch the Red, emissary of the Royal Society, landing in 1700's Boston looking for . . someone. Scary thing is how good his research is as usual - I've just been reading up on Leibnitz and Newton and Co. and . . . you've probably seen it already but I wanted to share :)"
This new edition of Cryptonomicon is probably in a bookstore near you already, and the book proper is (only) several months away.
One small step for BanKind. An anonymous reader writes "It seems CapitalOne's website works with Mozilla, as of this November, 2002. This is good news because many people have CapitalOne credit cards, and previously the site required Microsoft's Intarweb Explorer. This just shows how simply speaking up by e-mailing large companies can evoke change. For more info see here ." Update: 12/03 22:00 GMT by T : Note that this information renders moot the question posed here about Cap One.
I just recently (a weeka ago?) purchased the book in the US, and the Quicksilver part is in the back. Can't say I've read it yet, tho.
I'm a little more worried about them picking MACs/Serials that other people already have and wreaking all sorts of havoc when the legitimate owners of the Serial/MAC tries to get online when the hacker has alreayd logged in.
Why not fork?
Heck, if you really wanted to screw MS over, it is probably possible to write a little piece of software that will run on the box, set the MAC and serial to initial values, connect, and then be banned. Increment serial and MAC and repeat. Leave running for a day or two.
Pretty soon, EVERYONE would be banned. There's an ugly situation.
Team Assembly managed to change the serial number and MAC address of the xbox. After the change they managed to get onto Xbox Live (with mod-chip disabled) with a previously banned xbox
Not only that, you can arrange for any arbitrary XBox to be permanently banned!
I wonder if there's a way to pollute their blacklist with so many bogus entries that they have to give up.
Your attitude is saddening. This isn't about someone taking your rights away, it's about you taking someone else's rights away.
That you feel you are in some way entitled to usurp others' rights is perhaps a sign of the times.
You can't forge the IP address easily. Not unless you've already owned all the routers between you and their Live! servers. And if that was the case, why not just own the servers and be done with it?
And you also assume that they won't take legal action against someone who is distrupting thousands or millions of people from enjoying a service they are paying for.
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
Excellent. Now keep speaking up and make sure they know that you are pleased to be able to continue giving them your business because they respect your personal choices.
My bank in canada always had a Mozilla friendly site and I made sure I sent them a nice e-mail thanking them ,describing exactly why I prefer to use their services as opposed to my previous bank.
Positive feedback is just as important as negative feedback!
This raises a couple of interesting questions.
1. Are X-Box serial numbers laid out in some predictable pattern (sequentally for instance?). And if not: 2. Just how big IS that serial number space. Something tells me it's of BIGNUM proportions and it's the kind of thing that you woudn't be able to burn through in your lifetime.
I read the internet for the articles.
Going back to the bad old days while the Geforce FX was a bunch of unsubtantiated rumours, I remember the furore around the theory that the FX would only have a 128 bit memory interface.
Theory goes that by having a 128 bit interface the cards themselves are cheaper to produce. The fact that all bar one of the Radeon 9700 pro cards are using the ATI reference design is surely a testament to how much of a bitch it is to produce a 256 bit memory interface in the real world. But then they go and stick that f*cking vacuum cleaner thing on top. Are you expecting me to believe that a copper heat sink, heat pipes, and a rediculous vacuum cleaner thing is cheap to produce?
Nah, it's panic innit. NV30 is nowhere near as fast as it should have been and they're having to overclock it's tits off to get any reasonable headway over the R300.
Personally I blame specification overkill. Given that we won't be seeing DX9/GL2 based games for at least two years, what's the point of having 64k instruction long pipelines? Maybe nVidia are eyeing up the professional rendering market but... well... I dunno. It just seems a little over the top. The "ti200" version might be worth it, but then so is a Radeon 9700 (ordinary, not pro) and you can have that now.
Dave
I write a blog now, you should be afraid.
so what, its my damn hardware, i'll do what the hell I like to it and there nothing MS can do about it.
The X-box Live! servers are their own damn hardware, and they'll do what the hell they like to them and there's nothing you can do about it.
Mod all you like, but don't expect to be able to use their servers.
When we were looking at buying a new car a few months ago, toyota.ca told me that my browser was too old, and I should use IE5 or 'better.' I wrote to 'em and complained, pointing out that people who shop carefully online for cars are likely to shop carefully for browsers as well. :-)
A month later, there was a page up saying they were redesigning for Mozilla/Netscape7/Opera compliance.
Today Mozilla works flawlessly, on their remarkably well designed site.
Score one for the good guys! And I'm off to make sure Toyota knows I appreciate their effort.
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
I'm a happy owner of a 9700 pro. I'm sure future buyers will be happy with the NV30.
Despite all the puffery of the PR, they only claim about 40% increase over the 9700. 46 measly frames in Doom III with all the goods!!! Neither of these cards will run the Doom demo well! Hardly worthy of the claim creating a "new era of cinematic graphics". ATI started the new era, and NVIDIA is now matching ATI's offering with a slight increase in performance. Good job to both camps. We will all enjoy the benefits.
Future NVIDIA purchasers will have ATI to thank for the NV30's clockspeed and required hoover for cooling. There is little doubt that if it were not for the 9700 NV30 would be delivered later or clocked lower. I think ATI really surprised NVIDIA. We shall see who has the next surprise.
I think the big lie is that cinematic effects only begin with their deeper 2.0+ shaders. If you look at the DX9 demos from ATI, you can see the stock 2.0 pixel and vertex shaders offer plenty of opportunity for cinematic effects.
The hoopla helps deflects attention away from NV30's lower bandwidth and poorer clockspeed-t/performace ratio compared to the 9700. I suspect the deeper shaders will not perform well for gaming and will only be used in near-real-time applications.
Both will be decent cards that adequately handle requirements (DX9) that may only start to matter for mainstream games by the time we're debating NV40 vs. R400.
What did it say?
Just a snippet of info for those that don't know. Spoofing the MAC address of an Xbox is trivial, since as soon as the Xbox Live software is installed, an option is available for manually inputting a new MAC address. Right now I am spoofing my laptop NIC MAC so that I don't need to restart my cable modem every time I go online with the Xbox.
I strongly support the "I bought it, I'll hack it as I wish" attitude. It's my right to play DVDs under Linux, add mod chips to my consoles, and disable macrovision and region coding from my DVD player.
But.
This isn't about your hardware. This is about a service you pay for (and agree to a license for up front). You're welcome to hack your X-Box, but Microsoft is free to decline to let you onto their service. Seems reasonable to me.
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