Aussie Company Releases Xbox Mod-Chip Designs

An anonymous reader submits: "According to an article in the Australian Financial Review, An Australian computer chip designer will this weekend risk the wrath of Microsoft by making its sophisticated Xbox mod-chip designs freely available over the internet. This release is the second and most advanced design to date that has been released by this company, the earlier release of a much simpler design was covered by a previous article on slashdot. Go get'em while they're hot everyone. When you consider what has been happening to companies who irritate console makers, these files might not be around for long!" The AFR article requires subscription, but the AussieChip site has more information, including a link to the terms under which the designs may be downloaded -- looks like they're looking for some dedicated amateurs ;)

Comments

Woohoo

[Anonymous Coward]

FP & free modchip designs...

Oh alright then.

[BillsPetMonkey]

Release the DMCA dogs, Smithers ...

Re:Oh alright then.

[aweraw]

Hate to break it to ya, but the DMCA doesn't apply in Australia... it's an American law...

Re:Oh alright then.

[tomstdenis]

Whoa whoa, you mean America doesn't rule the world yet? Dubya, send some troops and wrangle up a kangaroo or two.

Re:Oh alright then.

[thx2001r]

You're right,

MS will probably buy some MIGs and go and bomb them.

And, since the MS is an American company they won't be violating American law (as long as we call that Aussie company a member of the Axis of Evil, it's completely kosher to go bomb them!).

I'm sure MS can pony up enough mulla to good 'ol uncle George to get that company on the Axis of Evil list.

Re:Oh alright then.

[jericho4.0]

Yes, but violators better be aware of the DMCA if they ever plan to visit the U.S, remember Dmitry Sklyarov?

Re:Oh alright then.

[Anonymous Coward]

You are forgetting the sqrt(-1)th Law of World Politics, which states:

All stupid laws proposed in America will eventually find their way to Europe and Australia.

You may also wish to take note of the sqrt(-2)th Law of World Politics:

The stupidity of a law will increase with the square of the distance from the place where it was originally proposed.

Re:Oh alright then.

[stephanruby]

No, but their politicians can be bought by foreign companies. It's all good.

Re:Oh alright then.

[Anonymous Coward]

No, but their politicians can be bought by foreign companies.

Just wait a minute there.

As an Australian I take umbrage with that statement. Our politicians can just as easily be bought by Austrailan companies too. There is no preference for foreign companies, whoever offers the most will win.

Re:Oh alright then.

[stephanruby]

I was only making a reference to this recent Slashdot story. I don't know if this example is typical, but out of 200+ companies lobbying your South Australian government, it seems there is only one that is actually Australian.

Re:Oh alright then.

[Anonymous Coward]

Who wants to visit US?

Re:Oh alright then.

[Rip!ey]

Hate to break it to ya, but the DMCA doesn't apply in Australia... it's an American law...

Even better still, mod chips are legal here in Australia. Some of you will remember a previous /. article where Microsoft threatened to stop selling the XBOX here because of a court ruling that selling mod-chips for the PS2 was not a violation of Australian law.

Don't get to carried away with Australian law though. Some of ours are tougher than American laws. This is a country where recording TV programs to watch at your convenience actually breaks the law. Not a lot of people realize this.

Re:Oh alright then.

[Anonymous Coward]

.....Dubya, send some troops and wrangle up a kangaroo or two.

the following excerpt from a news article a year or so back may explain america's reticence to do so!

Killer Kangarooâ(TM)s in Australia

As virtual reality simulators assume larger roles in helicopter combat training, computer programmers have gone to great lengths to increase the realism of their scenarios. In Australia, this included adding herds of kangaroos onto the computer screen, since kangaroos distrubed by the noise of the helicoptor might give away a its position. Recently, the Australian army instructed a group of computer programmers to do exactly that - add kangaroos movements and reactions to helicoptors into their computer training program for helicoptor pilots.

Being efficient programmers, they simply reused some older code originally used to model the reactions of infantry men under the same conditions. They simply changed the icon on the screen from a soldier to a kangaroo, then increased the parameters for speed and movement.

Eager to demonstrate their flying skills for some visiting American pilots, the hotshot Aussie helicopter pilots âoebuzzedâ the virtual kangaroos in a low flight during a simulation. As predicted, the kangaroos scattered, and the visiting American nodded appreciatively ⦠and then did a double-take as the kangaroos reappeared from behind a hill and launched a barrage of Stinger misseles at the helpless helicoptor! Apparently the programmers had forgotten to remove THAT part of the original infantry coding!

The visiting American left with a newfound respect for Australian wildlife.

I can see it already.....

[Bogue]

"When I buy my xbox I should be able to do whatever I want with it, yada, yada, yada...."

Re:I can see it already.....

[sixdotoh]

why not? you paid the money for it. MS is just pissed because they're losing out on the money people are paying to mod it up... or are they?

Re:I can see it already.....

[t_allardyce]

If they have the right to fill whatever they sell with DRM and crap, then we have the right to mess about with whatever we buy.

Re:I can see it already.....

[Anonymous Coward]

What a bunch of BS hipocrisy. It is all fine and dandy to go against the 'man' whenever it suits your own cheapskate way of life. This is illegal, you WILL use it to pirate software, and if you say you aren't, well you are the biggest liar around. Grow up and realize that no matter what you say, you are still a god damned thief.

Re:I can see it already.....

[mark2003]

Idiot.

I want to chip my Xbox so that I can play games from any regions - why should I have to wait another 2 months to buy KOTOR in Europe when I can chip my Xbox and buy it from the States? The fact that we have artificial regions allowing companies to artificially maintain price is cartel behaviour and is being investigated by the EU as such.

go aussies

[sixdotoh]

alright, finally the aussies are living up to their criminal heritage!!! (hey, i was born there at least . . .)

seems the past few articles involving Australia on /. have been about them restricting rights.

Re:go aussies

[MavEtJu]

When I teased my girl about it, she countered with "only the ones who were too stupid to be caught, the real ones are still over in England.".

I am beaten, unable to use that argument again.

Re:go aussies

[mistered]

bash$ :(){ :|:&};:

You're evil.

Re:go aussies

[The Only Druid]

Two points:

Of the criminals who were sent to Australia, you should remember exactly two facts, at least:

One, until the American revolution, those criminals were being sent to America as indentured servants; When the revolution occured, there was no means of removing those criminals from the overcrowded British system, meaning that instead they inhabited numerous overpacked ships for weeks and months off the shore of the UK.

Two, of the criminals that were sent to Australia, something on the order of 70% (the numbers vary) were non-violent, and under the age of 20. The majority of these criminals were orphans who stole bread, prostitutes and the ilk. These weren't, without many exceptions, murders and real theives. Moreover, a significant portion of the colonists were Black Sheep of wealthy European families, sent to Australia with the combination of hopes that they might not embarass the family further, and that they might redeem themselves.

Now, as to their rights...hey I love the country, and hope to move back there, but its a country that has a list of books/movies/games/music that the government deeps innappropriate, and can, if it wishes, refuse to permit their import. This occured recently, with GTA: Vice City, which forced Rockstar games to censor the game slightly for release there. Its a dangerous rule...of course the US (my current home) is getting precariously close.

Re:go aussies

[JDWTopGuy]

What's it do?

Re:go aussies

[JDWTopGuy]

Wow, orphans and prostitutes! What a great family tree! :-P

Re:go aussies

[The Only Druid]

I guess I should add an extra detail: according to the University of Sydney's anthropology department, under 30% of the current Australian population has any significant ancestry amongst those original "criminal" colonists. The gross majority owe their ancestrry to the repeated waves of immigration by people from nearly every country in the world (although there is a surprisingly small population of non-whites, with the notable exception of the significantly large Chinese population).

Re:go aussies

[Anonymous Coward]

Lest mod this aussie OFFTOPIC thread down and lets talk tech

...please...

Re:go aussies

[The Original Yama]

alright, finally the aussies are living up to their criminal heritage!!!

Overall, more convicts were sent to the American colonies than to Australia.

seems the past few articles involving Australia on /. have been about them restricting rights.

DMCA, Department of Homeland Security... Need I say more? :)

Re:go aussies

[JDWTopGuy]

Dude, Chinese people are white. Or did you mean "non-caucasian"? (Just buggin' ya.)

Re:go aussies

[irc.goatse.cx troll]

It's sad that I'm such a nerd I had no problem reading that.. It's a simplified forkbomb. in english: it runs itself, which runs iself, which runs itself... untily our machine cries out in agony and you reboot it. Unless of course your machine has proper restrictions on it (see: man ulimit; ulimit -a)

Re:go aussies

[fermion]

One the essays in Salmon of Doubt, by the late Douglas Adams, talks about a sign on a bridge which stated the punishment for defacing the bridge would be exile to Australia. He was surprised that the bridge was still in one piece.

Adams then goes to ponder what one can say about a country where, at one time, one of the harshest punishment was exile to one the most beautiful places on Earth.

Re:go aussies

[Anonymous Coward]

I often think its funny when Americans pull this one out of the hat. I mean America is essentially made up of the religious wackos and freaks that Europe didn't want anymore. "Fuck off to America you weirdos" was the cry as the Mayflower left the dock.

Whilst Australia has largely thrown off its 'criminal' heritage, sadly America has revelled in its right wing religious freakdom. I'll tell you know where I'd rather live.

Re:go aussies

[tealover]

Most of Australia is a barren wasteland. I guess beauty if in the eye of the beholder.

Re:go aussies

[thynk]

Seems that my linux box at home doesn't have proper restrictions on it, and now... for some odd reason is no longer acception SSH connections. OOPS. I just hope it doesn't make any noise while it melts until I get home to reboot the poor thing.

This is limited to bash, correct? I use csh on HPUX at work and it doesn't fork, in fact, produces a syntax error.

Re:go aussies

[Anonymous Coward]

No, yellow.

Re:go aussies

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow, I guess that, if you've ever been here, you explored Oz from the comfort and 'realism' of a tour bus?

You wait till you see heards (?) of kangaroos moving away at speed-its like a flock of starlings...not flying though of course!

Also to see an emu run is amazing.

Yellow wattles, red bottle brush, flocks of white and yellow cockatoos, red, green and blue lorikeets, grey and pink galahs, don't mention the colours of budgie's, wombats, echidnas, the platypus, the list goes on mate. If you think most of Australia is 'barren' you're a sixpack short of a slab/kangaroos loose in the top paddock. Etc Troll?

Re:go aussies

[Drakonite]

Err... Seeing as how this one specifically is bash shortcuts, yes it is limited to bash.

Forkbombs on the other hand... You can make them for anything that doesn't have the proper restrictions setup ;)

Re:go aussies

[Anonymous Coward]

The majority of these criminals were orphans who stole bread, prostitutes and the ilk.

Okay, stealing bread I can cope with. Who cares if the occasional baker goes out of business? But "stealing" prostitutes is properly known as rape. This is no minor offense.

Re:go aussies

[mark2003]

The majority of these criminals were orphans who stole bread, prostitutes and the ilk

I, for one, think that stealing prostitutes is a heinous crime... Not sure about stealing ilks though.

Re:go aussies

[irc.goatse.cx troll]

As far as I know, That syntax is bash-specific. The concept of a forkbomb howver is a universal thing -- Just need to find the syntax in a langauge to fork another segmant of code, and have that segmant of code fork itself.

As for not having the limitations, No worries. About the only places I've seen ever limit properly are payed shell providers, as it tends to be annoying on a home machine (things like gcc dont like it, and dont even think about running quake).

Re:go aussies

[kedi]

" When I teased my girl about it, she countered with "only the ones who were too stupid to be caught, the real ones are still over in England."."
"I am beaten, unable to use that argument again."

Being neither English, nor Australian (neither American or Canadian for that matter) I am deeply impressed by the frankness and authenticity of both arguments :-).

Now I know that those who were sent to Australia were "stupid criminals" while those remaining in England (I presume not Irish, Scotts and Welsh) were/are the "clever criminals".

I am delighted to use both arguments in conjunction.

Re:go aussies

[BeCre8iv]

If the English sent their criminals to OZ, the pilgrims and traders went to the US - and look how that turned out.

I know where I would prefer to be - but immigrants to turn up in OZ get caged on guano island. - and it sucks when we (brits) do it too.

Great

[D4rkSt4lker]

Great, now they've "open sourced" the mod-chip. Now Microsoft will take advantage of exploits and use them against xbox owners.

Ohh, wait .. nevermind.

Please read before mod

[Anonymous Coward]

Okay, usually I don't so obviously troll; however, this is absolutely one of the funniest things I have ever read. If you can post anything better than this, please do so.

I was crying this was so funny.

Bloodninja: I lick your earlobe, and undo your watch.
Sarah19fca: mmmm, okay.
Bloodninja: I take yo pants off, grunting like a troll.
Sarah19fca: Yeah I like it rough.
Bloodninja: I smack you thick booty.
Sarah19fca: Oh yeah, that feels good.
Bloodninja: Smack, Smack, yeeeaahhh.
Bloodninja: I make some toast and eat it off your ass. Land O' Lakes butter all in your crack. Mmmm.
Sarah19fca: you like that?
Bloodninja: I peel some bananas.
Sarah19fca: Oh, what are you gonna do with those?
Bloodninja: get me peanuts. Peanuts from the ballpark.
Sarah19fca: Peanuts?
Bloodninja: Ken Griffey Jr. Yeaaaaahhh.
Sarah19fca: What are you talking about?
Bloodninja: I'm spent, I jump down into the alley and smoke a fatty. I throw rocks at the cats.
Sarah19fca: This is stupid.
Bloodninja: Stone Cold Steve Austin gives me some beer.
Bloodninja: Wanna Wrestle Stone Cold?
Bloodninja: Yeeaahhhh.
Sarah19fca: /ignore
Bloodninja: Its cool stone cold she was a bitch anyway.
Bloodninja: We get on harleys and ride into the sunset.

Re:Please read before mod

[Anonymous Coward]

bloodninja: Baby, I been havin a tough night so treat me nice aight?
BritneySpears14: Aight.
bloodninja: Slip out of those pants baby, yeah.
BritneySpears14: I slip out of my pants, just for you, bloodninja.
bloodninja: Oh yeah, aight. Aight, I put on my robe and wizard hat.
BritneySpears14: Oh, I like to play dress up.
bloodninja: Me too baby.
BritneySpears14: I kiss you softly on your chest.
bloodninja: I cast Lvl 3 Eroticism. You turn into a real beautiful woman.
BritneySpears14: Hey...
bloodninja: I meditate to regain my mana, before casting Lvl 8 Penis of the Infinite.
BritneySpears14: Funny I still don't see it.
bloodninja: I spend my mana reserves to cast Mighty of the Beyondness.
BritneySpears14: You are the worst cyber partner ever. This is ridiculous.
bloodninja: Don't shit with me biznitch, I'm the mightiest sorcerer of the lands.
bloodninja: I steal yo soul and cast Lightning Lvl 1, 000, 000 Your body explodes into a fine bloody mist, because you are only a Lvl 2 Druid.
BritneySpears14: Don't ever message me again you piece.
bloodninja: Robots are trying to drill my brain but my lightning shield inflicts DOA attack, leaving the robots as flaming piles of metal.
bloodninja: King Arthur congratulates me for destroying Dr. Robotnik's evil army of Robot Socialist Republics. The cold war ends. Reagan steals my accomplishments and makes like it was cause of him.
bloodninja: You still there baby? I think it's getting hard now.
bloodninja: Baby?

--

bloodninja: Ok baby, we got to hurry, I don't know how long I can keep it ready for you.
j_gurli3: thats ok. ok i'm a japanese schoolgirl, what r u.
bloodninja: A Rhinocerus. Well, hung like one, thats for sure.
j_gurli3: haha, ok lets go.
j_gurli3: i put my hand through ur hair, and kiss u on the neck.
bloodninja: I stomp the ground, and snort, to alert you that you are in my breeding territory.
j_gurli3: haha, ok, u know that turns me on.
j_gurli3: i start unbuttoning ur shirt.
bloodninja: Rhinoceruses don't wear shirts.
j_gurli3: No, ur not really a Rhinocerus silly, it's just part of the game.
bloodninja: Rhinoceruses don't play games. They fucking charge your ass.
j_gurli3: stop, cmon be serious.
bloodninja: It doesn't get any more serious than a Rhinocerus about to charge your ass.
bloodninja: I stomp my feet, the dust stirs around my tough skinned feet.
j_gurli3: thats it.
bloodninja: Nostrils flaring, I lower my head. My horn, like some phallic symbol of my potent virility, is the last thing you see as skulls collide and mine remains the victor. You are now a bloody red ragdoll suspended in the air on my mighty horn.
bloodninja: Fuck am I hard now.

--

BritneySpears14: Ok, are you ready?
eminemBNJA: Aight, yeah I'm ready.
BritneySpears14: I like your music Em... Tee hee.
eminemBNJA: huh huh, yeah, I make it for the ladies.
BritneySpears14: Mmm, we like it a lot. Let me show you.
BritneySpears14: I take off your pants, slowly, and massage your muscular physique.
eminemBNJA: Oh I like that Baby. I put on my robe and wizard hat.
BritneySpears14: What the fuck, I told you not to message me again.
eminemBNJA:
BritneySpears14: I swear if you do it one more time I'm gonna report your ISP and say you were sending me kiddie porn you fuck up.
eminemBNJA: OheminemBNJA: damn I gotta write down your names or something

------------

Wellhung: Hello, Sweetheart. What do you look like?
Sweetheart: I am wearing a red silk blouse, a miniskirt and high heels. I work out every day, I'm toned and perfect. My measurements are 36-24-36. What do you look like?
Wellhung: I'm 6'3" and about 280 pounds.I wear glasses and I have on a pair of blue sweat pants I just bought from Walmart.I'm also wearing a T-shirt with a few spots of barbecue sauce on it from dinner...it smells funny.
Sweetheart: I want you.Would you like to screw me?
Wellhung: OK
Sweetheart: We're in my bedroom.There's soft music pl

Re:Please read before mod

[Stubtify]

OH man that shit was hilarious. Whish u didn't post anon so I could put u on my friends list. haha still laughin about that pissing in the clothes hamper.

Re:Please read before mod

[Anonymous Coward]

eminemBNJA: Oh I like that Baby. I put on my robe and wizard hat.
BritneySpears14: What the fuck, I told you not to message me again.

didn't read beyond that cause I am laughing to tears

Re:Please read before mod

[SolubleFrank]

There are some other tales here
(Up the top, under J-Dogg)

Re:Please read before mod

[Alcohol Fueled]

Holy fuck man, that shit is hilarious! I'm so glad I read Slashdot tonight! Rofl!

Re:Please read before mod

[Kumkwat]

ARHAHHAHAHAHA

The bloodninja was the best....HARRRRR!

Re:Please read before mod

[tuber]

you guys do know that this is old as hell, right? it's all over the web like here and here.

Re:Please read before mod

[Anonymous Coward]

So what? Who fucking cares? It's new to us. Do you have mod point envy?

Re:Please read before mod

[ruprechtjones]

HAARRRRRR!!!!! I'm changing my sig to this, wayyy too fucking funny.

Re:Please read before mod

[Anonymous Coward]

Yawn. That's some of the stupidest crap I've ever seen. Mod this schmuck and all his dimwitted fans down.

"Mod Chips" or "Linux-Enabling" chips?

[Anonymous Coward]

Whoever controls the language of the debate controls the debate. (see "sharing" vs. "stealing")

Can we start calling these "linux-enabling" chips or something equally positive, something that shows that they are NOT primarily designed to circumvent copyright?

Re:"Mod Chips" or "Linux-Enabling" chips?

[Anonymous Coward]

Intel is the one that created the "Linux-Enabling" chips.

Re:"Mod Chips" or "Linux-Enabling" chips?

[kenthorvath]

Since when does mod or modification have a negative context? Call it what you want, but until "piracy chip" becomes the term used, we have nothing to worry about...

Re:"Mod Chips" or "Linux-Enabling" chips?

[OMEGA Power]

The term "mod chip" is not inherently negative and doesn't imply copyright infringment. All it says is that the chip MODifies the console to do something it was not designed/intended to do, be it run linux, play out of region games or any number of other things

Re:"Mod Chips" or "Linux-Enabling" chips?

[Anonymous Coward]

All it says is that the chip MODifies the console to do something it was not designed/intended to do

Exactly. That implies that you are messing with something you shouldn't be. Whereas 'enabling' implies that you are exercising some sort of 'right', which sounds more positive than messing with something.

Sure, both terms are exactly the same under the hood, but it's the public perception that we are dealing with, no?

Re:"Mod Chips" or "Linux-Enabling" chips?

[Anonymous Coward]

right. most of us are going to use it to develop anti-cancer simulations.

Microsoft Won't Have To Do A Thing

[aerojad]

Slashdot will surely keep this site down for a while to come!

that was easy

[Anonymous Coward]

need I say more ...

No worries mate !

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

An Australian computer chip designer will this weekend risk the wrath of Microsoft

Naah, who would risk going after those Ford Falcon driving weapon-carrying reckless Aussies, hey ?

Re:No worries mate !

[HillBilly]

But real Aussies drive Holden(GM) Commodores...

Re:No worries mate !

[The Original Yama]

"Real Aussies" drive American cars. Am I the only one who sees something wrong with that?

Re:No worries mate !

[chimpo13]

That's pretty good. You slashdotted those geocities sites with a reply that should be modded funny but will probably end up -1 offtopic.

Re:No worries mate !

[mallie_mcg]

Sorry those same cars that were designed in Australia, and exported to the US as a "Pontiac GTO" thanks to the US not producing muscle cars. (Aka: Holden Monaro). The two dominant manufacturers who own the vast majority of every car company is either General Motors (GMH/Holden in .AU) or Ford. And well you get to pick the lesser of the two evils, (fords just plain suck!)

Re:No worries mate !

[Anonymous Coward]

Umm, the GTO was designed by John Delorean and he was from the USA. Sorry buddy but you, sir, have no idea what the hell you are talking about. Do a little research before spewing forth oral defactations.

Mirror Link

[Anonymous Coward]

Slashdot away: http://www.hysma.com/xbox/

Don't forget!

[AndroidCat]

There's a distributed project to crypto-crack the Xbox private key. This would allow runnning Linux or anything else on an unmodified Xbox (no mod chip), and would keep the warranty intact.

Got some spare cycles and want to piss-off billg? Follow the link in my current sig. (The site is running outside DMCA-land, no worries.)

Re:Don't forget!

[Anonymous Coward]

yeah, I made up a similar project.. I think of a number and type it in a calculator, I close my eyes and press a bunch of keys, then I multiply it by 5 and check to see if it's the private key.. I think I'll have it before the heat death of the universe

Re:Don't forget!

[Anonymous Coward]

Great idea, except for the fact that it will take about a million years to crack the damned thing.

Keep it up though!
(I feel like I'm encouraging some little kid just top make him feel good)

Re:Don't forget!

[alienw]

Dude, just forget about it. Your project is useless. Cracking the key is computationally impossible unless you have a few billion years at your disposal.

Re:Don't forget!

[Anonymous Coward]

Got some spare cycles and want to piss-off billg? Follow the link in my current sig. (The site is running outside DMCA-land, no worries.)

Or do something actually worthwhile with your spare cycles, like Folding@Home.

Re:Don't forget!

[SuperBanana]

There's a distributed project to crypto-crack the Xbox private key. This would allow runnning Linux or anything else on an unmodified Xbox (no mod chip), and would keep the warranty intact.

Methinks voiding the warranty will not be a problem by the time the project finishes.

Remember Distributed.net? Aka, the guys who took years(and years...) to prove how easily they could crack RC5 given all that distributedcomputing power? :-)

Re:Don't forget!

[AndroidCat]

It's not my project.

Re:Don't forget!

[AndroidCat]

I haven't looked at exactly how they're trying to solve it, but it seems to me that it should be possible to take a few short cuts.

Re:Don't forget!

[evilviper]

This would allow runnning Linux or anything else on an unmodified Xbox

And how is that better than spending the same ~$200 for a normal PC that absoultely SMOKES the XBox?

Re:Don't forget!

[damiam]

"A few short cuts" might reduce the time from trillions of years down to hundreds of billions. Still, it's a waste of CPU.

Re:Don't forget!

[parkanoid]

Heh, there's of course the infinitely slim chance that the 286 in the corner will stumble upon the key at 2 o'clock this sunday afternoon ;)

Re:Don't forget!

[AndroidCat]

With most other companies, I'd say that you're right. Even knowing the public key and the algorithm wouldn't be enough to reduce the probable time required to find the private key.

But .. this is Microsoft. With all the fsckups in network and password security, are you saying that they finally got it right on a game console?

Re:Don't forget!

[JDWTopGuy]

Dude, it's a distributed computing project. Theoretically, with enough computers, it could be done in a few years.

Well okay, it would have to be something like a couple of stadiums filled with dual processor 3Ghz systems running full-time, but hey, they just might get lucky. They don't have to search the entire keyspace in order to find the right key.

Re:Don't forget!

[JDWTopGuy]

What would be really deliciously ironic would be a big stack of X-boxes running the cracking app.

Hehe.

Re:Don't forget!

[AndroidCat]

I wonder if a full keyspace search is required. We have the public key, the crypto-code, the plain text and the encrypted text.

The fact that a mod chip is even possible makes it sound like their protection is not exactly secure and sealed.

Re:Don't forget!

[Anonymous Coward]

The key is "BILL GATES IS A WEENIE NEENER NEENER NEENER!", but don't tell him that. (The guy who picked that key figured it'd never come out in a million years, then he got laid off.)

Re:Don't forget!

[bluGill]

I doupt it. The private key is a PRIME number, and by multiplying by 5 you by definition eliminate all chances of finding the private key. So if you ever get the private key it means that your calculator got a wrong result. This could happen in the case of radiation striking at the right time, but I have never seen a calculator give a wrong result so the odds are extreemly rare.

Re:Don't forget!

[Anonymous Coward]

Releasing Xbox games without paying big bucks to Microsoft?

Re:Don't forget!

[Anonymous Coward]

0.6 * 5
5.8 * 5
126.2 * 5
1007.8 * 5
1267.4 * 5
etc.

you have no dick

Re:Don't forget!

[damiam]

It's hard to mess up generating a public key. I doubt the software used to do it was even coded by them. While Xbox security is of course quite loose, there's no reason to expect the key isn't strong. What they're doing is like trying to get into a house by breaking down an armoured bolted door as opposed to jumping in the open window right next to the door.

Re:Don't forget!

[Anonymous Coward]

And how is that better than spending the same ~$200 for a normal PC that absoultely SMOKES the XBox?

I'm not sure what kind of PC you plan on buying for $200 that will smoke the Xbox, but I'm sure it will be a hell of alot bigger, louder, and hotter than the Xbox will ever get. Also if you include the price drop they have on the Xbox, throw in a remote controller. Now you have a xbox with remote controller for ~$200. Still have a PC with remote that can ABSOLUTELY smoke the xbox for $200? Thats what I thought.

Re:Don't forget!

[darc]

Again, as we have seen in billions upon billions of times, every single blasted time anyone posts anything about xboxen, this arguement comes up. So let's try this, again.

Find me a list of parts and prices, that includes the case, motherboard, miniscule amount of memory, hard drive, graphics card, fans, powersupply, dvdrom, ethernet, hardware MPEG2/AC3 decoding, and tv out.

A geforce3 will cost you roughly $90 minimum, add in the rest of the parts, and this calculation never works. So could you stop spreading crap about PCs that smoke the xbox? Otherwise, just prove it, and don't try to leave out the graphics card, that's the thing that powers consoles.

Re:Don't forget!

[mallie_mcg]

And how is that better than spending the same ~$200 for a normal PC that absoultely SMOKES the XBox?

Presently the XBox in .AU is a hell of a lot cheaper than a base computer, admittedly you get twice the power for approx twice the price, but when most of what people want to do can be done on 300Mhz machines (which they dont want to upgrade when the OS corrupts itself or some piece of h/w dies).

Re:Don't forget!

[alienw]

Actually, there's not much difference between having a single one or 10 million computers working on this. The numbers are still huge.

For a 128-bit key:

2^128 = 340282366920938463463374607431768211456 combinations
(2^128) / 10,000,000 = approx. 34028236692093846346337460743176 combinations per node

Not that much of a difference, is there?

Also, may I inquire how you can find the key without searching the full keyspace? I don't think microsoft engineers are stupid enough to choose a vulnerable encryption algorithm. If you knew how to crack whatever they use, you would be working for the NSA, not posting on slashdot.

Re:Don't forget!

[alienw]

The modchip simply replaces the xbox bios with a cracked bios that doesn't check for valid signatures. In hardware. I don't see how this reflects on or even barely implicates anything about the strength of the encryption Microsoft uses.

Re:Don't forget!

[evilviper]

Here you go: http://www.maincomp.com/shop/customize.jsp?id=1764 8

Of course, you have to customize it to get what you want, but that's not difficult.

I can't quite get it down to $200, but it's close, and that's because they don't have anything nearly as slow as the XBox has. However, with that price (slightly more than the XBox) you also get DDR, a 1.3GHz processor, a 16X DVD-ROM, PCI slots, a 350Watt power supply, you could spend $9 more to upgrade to a 40GB 7200RPM hard drive, install a CD/DVD-RW drive if you want one, etc.

In fact, you could get it quite a bit cheaper if you got pieces of it seperately, but I'm not going to spend an hour looking through pricewatch to prove my point to a loud-mouth on slashdot...

Re:Don't forget!

[Gregg M]

A. You can already run Linux on an unmodified Xbox.

B. Distributed took 250 days to find a 56 bit key. A 64 bit key took 1757 days to find. Now you want to find a key that is 2048 bits long?

Am I missing something? All this just to sign code so it runs with MS crypto? Let Microsoft keep their key.

Re:Don't forget!

[evilviper]

the XBox in .AU is a hell of a lot cheaper than a base computer

I haven't been to .AU, so I can't say with certainty that that isn't true, but I personally find that very hard to believe. It might be true in retail stores, but no doubt you can find cheaper machines elsewhere.

Besides, who is going to want a computer that has no expansion slots, no option for being modified, and not even a connection for a monitor?

but when most of what people want to do can be done on 300Mhz machines

Then why not get older machines? You can certainly get them for less than an XBox.

Re:Don't forget!

[Anonymous Coward]

may I inquire how you can find the key without searching the full keyspace

Well duh, you don't have to check every possibility to find the right one. You just have to keep checking until you find the right one!

Re:Don't forget!

[Anonymous Coward]

Well duh, you don't have to check every possibility to find the right one. You just have to keep checking until you find the right one!

He's right! Usually When I find the right key, it's always the last key I try!

Re:Don't forget!

[JDWTopGuy]

may I inquire how you can find the key without searching the full keyspace?

Confucious say: The place where you find something is the last place you look for it (unless you're stupid).

In other words, once it gets found, you don't have to keep looking. Therefore, you most likely haven't searched the full keyspace by the time you find the correct key.

From the forums on the Operation Project X site, by user "KONGEN":
All that I have learned so far is (taken from verios threads):

There are 2^2048 possible keys

What we are trying to do is factor the key.

Factoring the key means finding all the prime numbers that we can divide the Xbox key into (it must be an integer).

We know that the key is a RSA key - and we know that the key is two eual primes a the same length

We will be able to eliminate around 80% of the keyspace *before* only checking numbers that end in 1,3,7,9 (only primes can end at these numbers). Then by only checking with numbers that end in 1,3,7,9 we can eliminate 60% of the 80%. On top of this, we are only trying 309 digit numbers.

What we do is that we take a random number and try all the possible keys ending with 1,3,7 and 9.

Since this number of possible keys is so great we cannot possibly hope to check them all in our lifetime, so we go for the luck factor. we randomly generate a number within the range of possiblity (1,000,000) and check the possiblities in that range (400,000) and hope for the best

I hope this will help you.

KONGEN

Re:Don't forget!

[Jeff DeMaagd]

Aka, the guys who took years(and years...) to prove how easily they could crack RC5 given all that distributedcomputing power? :-)

Not to be too offtopic, I think the point was more to prove how rediculously flimsy DES was in protecting information compared to RC5. That is what the company behind RC5 wanted to prove, not necessarily d.net's objective.

You do have a point though. I don't know the details of the encryption scheme for XBox, so I don't know how quickly a solution is likely to be found.

Re:Don't forget!

[Anonymous Coward]

If, with luck, you only had to try half or a third of the keyspace, the number would still be on the same order of magnitude, and it would still be practically unfeasible.
Plus, MS didnt use a 128 bit key, it used a 2048 one! (didnt it?)

Re:Don't forget!

[zerocool^]

It's a testiment to how closely Microsoft guards their security for the X-box that, even when you eliminate more than 90% of the available keyspace, you still have no hope of finding the correct key via brute force in one lifetime. 2048 bit encryption is rediculous. Banks use 1024, and that's overkill.

Of course, if you look at it from microsoft's perspective, the xbox may be the equivilant of a bank. In a year or two, it might start making money.

~Wx

Re:Don't forget!

[Anonymous Coward]

The point of the RC5 competition certainly wasn't to prove/disprove RC5, it was supposed to be a demonstration of keylengths vs. brute force.

The results were obvious even before the challenge was issued, it was just supposed to prove that the brute force cracking of short keys is not just a theoretical threat.

But this was not news to anyone who understood crypto.

The fact that distributed.net bothered to continue with the slightly longer keylengths for so long is the only surprise, but is not really relevant.

The issue is really moot now, anyhow, because AES has replaced DES as a standard as well as an algorithm that's actually being used.

Re:Don't forget!

[Jarnis]

There is a distributed project ran by monkeys who cannot understand math behind the odds of cracking 2048bit key.

Even if they could harness every damn CPU on the planet, the sun would die out before they had any realistic chance of finding the key.

Considering that X-Box will be technologically obsolete within 3-5 years, Microsoft is (at best) laughing at these guys. Winning 100 times in a row in a statewide lottery is highly more probable than these guys finding the key.

Re:Don't forget!

[blibbleblobble]

"Dude, it's a distributed computing project. Theoretically, with enough computers, it could be done in a few years."

With enough computers and an efficient algorithm

I think one part of that equation (at least) is missing from the xbox project.

Re:Don't forget!

[Anonymous Coward]

"I think one part of that equation (at least) is missing from the xbox project. "

Really? What makes you say that?

Re:Don't forget!

[Anonymous Coward]

If, with luck, you only had to try half or a third of the keyspace, the number would still be on the same order of magnitude, and it would still be practically unfeasible.

Well yeah, statistically it's unlikely to a ridiculous degree that they would ever get it, but that's not the point. The point is that if you have a one in a gazillion chance you'll get it, why not at least try?

I mean, it's just as likely it will be the first key they check as it is that it will be the last key they'll check.

Re:Don't forget!

[djcapelis]

Nothing is computationally impossible, just computationally expensive. Though I agree the bf method they are using is not the best, it does distribute decently and there is always a chance... hell, they could just get lucky and hit it tommorrow... I suppose it's like playing the lotto, except you will eventually win, but the odds are extremely high and as you test more and more they get better... and better... and better.

Not that I understand anything about law

[nihilogos]

But Sony lost a case in Australia where they were seeking to make mod-chipping illegal. I would guess it's probably perfectly legal to sell them here.

A question

[ObviousGuy]

So if the reason behind making these consoles not work between different countries is to increase sales, has it been successful?

Have people bought more than one X-Box or PS2 because they weren't able to play their favorite game on the unmodded box?

Re:A question

[arkhan_jg]

Actually, the goal of region coding is not to increase sales of playback devices as such; it is to maintain artificial market boundaries.

Why? Because they can charge whatever the local market will bear, without having to worry about competition imports from the cheapest region undercutting them.

The second advantage is they can stagger releases between markets, thus spreading out the cash infusion they get from a major new release across a longer period - which is of financial benefit to them.

Re:A question

[Ataru]

Your "second advantage" sounds like hogwash to me. Why not get all the money at the same time, then stick it in the bank and earn interest on it?

Re:A question

[arkhan_jg]

Well, I'm not an accountant for the film or game or music industry, but staggering the funds is a standard reason given for varying release dates across regions.

If I was to hazard a guess (and it is literally a guess) I'd go for tax reasons.

To give you just one example of it being standard wisdom though, just look at this article in the washington post re decss.

"Even watching a movie outside the region it was released in can pose a financial threat, since the movie industry relies on the ability to issue movies on DVD at varying times around the world to recover the high costs of moviemaking. "

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A177 91-2003Jun20_2.html

flood the site

[jesler]

If Microsoft doesn't want anyone to see these designs, they need only bring the site to its knees with a flood of traffic, generated by a well-placed article on highly-viewed website.

oh... wait...

Ohhh mannnnn...

[GeneralEmergency]

What a way to piss in Bill G's morning coffee.

Great timing too. I just got my copy of "Hacking the XBox" from "Bunny" Huang in the mail.

Now...where'd that bottle of Ferric Chloride go?

Re:Ohhh mannnnn...

[Anonymous Coward]

Bill wont be pissed off at all because these aussiechip guys are just claiming that they have designed something that has been available on the internet for about 6 months anyway!

He'd just be laughing at the fools trying to pull the wool over everyones eyes by saying that they have done it!

PCB file

[Anonymous Coward]

The zip archive I downloaded from the site contains 2 .PCB files.
What is a good client for viewing them?

Re:PCB file

[GeneralEmergency]

The site said PROTel.

Re:PCB file

[pair-a-noyd]

Yeah but how do you use them on Linux??
Windows not spoken here...

Re:PCB file

[anubi]

Most likely a Printed Circuit Board file.

Look around the site. Look for any info they may be an industry standard gerber file.

Gerber files are what is sent to a photoplotter to make the masks for etching printed circuit boards. They are standard across the industry, coming in two flavors, RS-174D and RS-174X, which differ mostly in how the aperture tables which define pad and trace sizes and widths are implemented.

Protel's software is a graphics editor for making and editing printed circuit board manufacturing files, so there may be other editors that might be able to read it.

If you are unable to open the PCB files, most likely you may have to lay out the circuit board yourself if you wanna make one.

Re:PCB file

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, I'd say your thinking of RS-247D, and RS-247X. The X version has the apeture table embedded in the top of each file.

Given that the files are provided for personal use, I don't see a huge requirement for gerbers. Aside from gerber being a standard. Protel is almost a defacto standard here in Oz.

*alot* of pcb fabricators will accept the Protel files.

But if you're doing it your self, you'd probably be best printing the copper layers on a laser printer using transparency film.

The lucky pcb hobbist might have a Satcam or similar routing maching, which is free from the icky chemicals that you need to etch the board. Gerber files would probably work better here.

You can generate your own gerbers using Protel or their 30-day evaluation edition. www.protel.com

I don't like your chances of getting the Protel trial to run under Wine, it's windows software.
I don't know of a linux based CADD/CAM package that loads Protel .pcb files, perhaps there is one.

Re:PCB file

[benbobaggins]

The files are for Protel 99SE, and will also load in the latest Protel product, Protel DXP. This is appropriate as Protel is made by Altium, an Australian company. Their products kick ass - go buy some.

To the guy who wants to see them on Linux ... good luck. Do you know any decent (ie usable) Linux PCB editing software? If so please post details!

Re:PCB file

[Anonymous Coward]

I have the delightful pleasure of sitting in front of Protel DXP for a good many hours a day :) When its running properly, its a joy to drive.

Because of this, I have never gone looking for software that runs under linux for PCB stuff. I tried 99se once through Wine and it didn't do much except display the splash screen. Eagle is a name jingling around my head, but can't be sure.

As for PADS Protel translation, Protel will load PADS .pcb files from later versions (Power PCB 7 and up? or is it 4?). But you can't save them back in PADS format. PADS afaik, doesn't load Protel files at all.

The world of electronic design software is *so* twisted and evil. The Protel developers are probably the nicest / forwarding thinking EDA company I've dealt with.
Go Aussie :)

Re:PCB file

[jetmarc]

The files were created with Protel Advanced PCB, a program
to design printed circuit boards (PCB). You can probably
forward them directly to a board house and have them made
(such as http://www.pcb-pool.de/us_index.htm ). Note that
they will produce a blank board without any components on
it. With a bit of practice, you can solder them yourself.
http://www.farnell.com is a company that sells electronic
components. If you still have no idea on how to proceed,
it's probably better to order a ready-made board from that
aussie company. It will save you lots of hassle, and when
you have your girlfriend order it for you, you won't even
end up in their customer database.

Dear Microsoft Inc.

[SuperDuG]

I am writing you on behlaf of the X-Box Purchasing community. I would like to thank you for your wonderful product that you are selling at a loss, and tell you that we are all very happy to watch your stock index fall.

Anyways, I am writing you today to inform you that your wonderful copyright protection and region protection schemes have been broken. I request that you save the entire community some time next model and just forget the entire copyright idea all together. We want to play with our X-Box's the same as we want to play with our toasters, but you don't see GE breathing down our necks when we do it.

Sort of a word to the wise if we buy it, and we're bored, we're going to screw around with it. Anyways I hope you have a wonderful day monopolizing the Operating System industry and ignoring the supreme court.

Lots of love,

Everyone.

Re:Dear Microsoft Inc.

[Anonymous Coward]

Microsoft stock is up was up yesterday. Actually it is up 3 points since June 6. Your plan to bankrupt Microsoft seems to be failing. I would also point out that NOT buying the Xbox wouuld be an even greater loss to Microsoft.

What's even funnier is that their latest game - Brute Force - is doing very well. Since games are where they make their profit I would say that you and your "X-Box purchasing community" are pretty damn stupid.

Re:Dear Microsoft Inc.

[SmallFurryCreature]

Simple answer why GE doesn't mind you messing with the toaster. They don't sell bread.

And I think that if you somehow found a way to copy bread that you would be far to busy accepting nobel prices to be worried about silly little laws like the dmca.

Not true

[fobbman]

"When you consider what has been happening to companies who irritate console makers, these files might not be around for long!"

Not true. Thanks to one of the benefits of the Internet, now that this information has been released and has been covered by the major geek media, there will be enough people who will download it so that the information will live on for a long, long time.

Ban Computers

[t_allardyce]

I think its obvious what course of action needs to be taken: Ban computers. Computers are responsible for almost 100% of DMCA violations: These tools of outlaws come in several categories:

-Personal computers:
these remain the no.1 tools of criminal "hackers" allowing them to propogate virii and pirate material and to violate the DMCA

-General purpose processors and microcontrollers:
these are used as mod chips, clearly tools that are used to violate the DMCA

-The internet (another by-product of computers):
is responsible for allowing numerous DMCA and copy right violations including the spreading of mod-chip plans, pirate material, and George W. Bush jokes.

Im serious, i can guarentee that once personal computers are banned there will be atleast an 80% drop in the number of DMCA violations! If you dont think banning personal computers is a law that can be enforced then think again: There exist large databases of computer owners sourced from retail shops, online stores, credit card transactions, software licenses and ISP's. Personal computers also emit an EMF at the frequency of their internal clock, these can be detected and categorised - higher frequencies usually denote more powerful and therefore more illigal computers. Its true that there are legitimate uses for computers, but in this case they should be restricted to government use only.

Let me leave you with a thought: Terrorists also use computers!!!!!!

Re:Ban Computers

[pair-a-noyd]

"Personal computers also emit an EMF at the frequency of their internal clock, these can be detected and categorised - higher frequencies usually denote more powerful and therefore more illigal computers."

Not if your shit is Tempest grade....

Re:Ban Computers

[Anonymous Coward]

why do you think they have been pushing all of those aliminum cases?

Re:Ban Computers

[Anonymous Coward]

Amen. Same goes for televisions, as they may be misused as computer monitors. And we can't have ANY exceptions for computers owned by the government or laboratories. I agree 100%; our lives would be so much simpler without much of this so-called "enabling" technology.

Re:Ban Computers

[Zemran]

It is not computers that break the DMCA, it is people that break the DMCA !!!

So kill people !!!

Re:Ban Computers

[t_allardyce]

No no no! lets not get stupid here, kiling people to solve the DMCA problem would be stupid, and illigal - people are protected by some very old laws. I would suggest however that peoples brains be altered to prevent them breaking the DMCA and if this technology does not exist, then the brains should be removed. Its the only way to have computers without DMCA violations, the only way i tell you!!

Re:Ban Computers

[Anonymous Coward]

these remain the no.1 tools of criminal "hackers" allowing them to propogate virii and pirate material and to violate the DMCA

Of course you mean viruses?

Bittorrent Links

[countvlad]

As long as someone posts a bittorrent link after (preferably before) their site is /.'ed, I'll be happy.

Re:Bittorrent Links

[Anonymous Coward]

bit torrent a 55K file ? wtf.. are you kidding.... its not even worth the effort!

AHAHAHAH

[Iron Monkey543]

AHAHAHAHAA

Look at all them mice!

[bitserve]

Look at all them mice and keyboards!

You'd think if he could afford that many monitors that he could afford to buy a data switch.

Re:Look at all them mice!

[mesach]

Ummmm... are you sure you got the right thread?

The post about the guy with the 13 monitors and 9 pc's is over here

Re:Thanks!

[Anonymous Coward]

Here is a clue boat for you (in easy to understand baby talk):

1 - Microsoft is manufacturer. They sell box to stores. Store sell box to you.

2 - Microsoft make same amount of boxes whether you buy one of not. All the Linux geeks in the world couldn't affect demand enough to change that.

3 - When you buy a box your money goes to the store you bought it from. They actually make a profit.

4 - Microsoft sells games to stores. Stores sell to other Xbox customers.

5 - If Xbox does well then stores stock up on Xbox games. Microsoft gets paid whether you buy the game from the store or not.

I am tired of typing like that. The point is that you are a moron if you think that you are getting a good deal at the same time you are wripping off Microsoft. For the same amount of money you could build twice as good of a box and not have to hack it.

The thing about information...

[heli0]

"these files might not be around for long"

you can't unring a bell.

Re:The thing about information...

[mcrbids]

you can't unring a bell.

Yeah, but in 5 minutes, who CARES if you rang it? Seriously, how many copies of the DVD decoder thingy are still floating around? Compare with 1 year ago?

How many tweaks do you find for the once insanely popular Atari 2600?

Thats hysterical

[emkman]

oh my god I couldn't stop laughing. best off topic post ever!!

Obligitory BitTorrent Link:

[Hungus]

I have put a BT link on my webserver you can find it Here

Please note that I have only just now compiled BT and tested it locally. If it fails let me know and i will try to fix it my icq number is 1394535

Uncensorable mirrors...

[Myself]

If anyone actually gets ahold of this, despite the inevitable heavy slashdotting it will receive, please mirror it on Freenet! It's very hard to censor a network with no servers, no administrators, and no controlling entity. ;) If the Powers That Be don't want you corrupting your mind with impure knowledge, then such material belongs on Freenet!

If you're not familiar with the Freenet project, take look: Users donate bandwidth and space by running a "node", and the network's content exists in the collective datastore shared by thousands of nodes.

Data is duplicated as it's retrieved, so popular content gets more redundantly distributed. Node-to-node communications are encrypted, and so is the content in each datastore. You don't know and can't control what's on your own node.

The usual interface to Freenet is a web browser, since web pages and images can be easily inserted into the network. Other types of data (music, movies, programs) are common, and front-end programs exist to facilitate large uploads and downloads.

Check out Freenet, run a stable node, and play with it! The more you use it, the faster it gets. Bandwidth is more important than space; if you can host a node on something faster than a dialup it would be nice.

Oh, and here's the cool thing about Freenet that makes it perfect for things like modchip designs: Once inserted, content cannot be forcibly removed. Even the creators of the network can't delete something from it. The only way content falls out of freenet is if everyone ignores it.

Re:Uncensorable mirrors...

[Hungus]

If I could read more Japanese I would. English link?

Re:Uncensorable mirrors...

[/dev/trash]

It's very hard to censor a network with no servers, no administrators, and no controlling entity.

No servers? Then how does it serve content?

Re:Uncensorable mirrors...

[Myself]

The nodes could be called servers, or clients, or routers, or storage, depending on how you view them. The distinguishing characteristic of Freenet is that the people running nodes don't know what's in them.

Freenet's a nice place to publish blogs, since there's no advertising and no hosting cost. You're asked to run a node if you're able, to help the network in general, but you're under no obligation to do so.

Re:Uncensorable mirrors...

[thynk]

Does this mean I have a new source for free pr0n? woot!!! Will have to check this out when i get home.

Re:Uncensorable mirrors...

[blibbleblobble]

Also check out Konspire2B, a blog-like freenet for recent information, as opposed to archived content like freenet

Re:Uncensorable mirrors...

[GooberToo]

We recommend a processor equivalent to at least a 400MHz Pentium 2/3, with at least 192MB of RAM.

Shesh...what a pig of an application!

Re:Uncensorable mirrors...

[randomdef]

As nice as this sounds, in practice it just became a haven for kiddy porn and slow warez (alot more with the illegal porn though). i thought it was intresting but when half the links are (IMO) disgusting, i stop using it for any reason what so ever.

Re:Uncensorable mirrors...

[Anonymous Coward]

I tried installing freenet once...

I run behind a NAT router, so I assumed it would need a connection inbound. I did a little research and opened up what I thought was necessary.

I had it running for a couple of weeks. I honestly couldn't tell if it was working or not. Even given all the hundreds of statistics I could dig through, I still was none the wiser. I thought saw a trickle of data, and some statistics indicated a very miniscule amount of storage was in use, but I couldn't tell if that was from something I was doing or if I was properly configured, up, and running.

I gave it a go, but I'm not going to keep running something on my system that requires a CS degree to know if it's working or not.

If they want widespread support, they need to keep it simple for the users who are donating resources.

Re:Uncensorable mirrors...

[Paradise Pete]

If I could read more Japanese I would. English link?

Here ya go.

Re: computationally impossible

[temojen]

I believe the correct term is "statistically improbable".

Cracking keys amounts to trying lots of random valid keys to see if they are correct.

This is an upper-bounded (we know the size of the finite set of possible keys) NP-complete problem, which means that it could take a really long time to complete. Or it could find the right key tomorrow. The problem is that we don't know how long it'll take, but it's likely to take a LONG time.

Learn something about crypto

[bluGill]

The point of good crypto systems is that despite knowing the public-key, crypto-code, plain text and encrypted text, you cannot determin the private key used to encrypt it easially.

A mod chip is a lot easier to produce, because the xBox by design uses mostly off the shelf componants that anyone can buy. MS replced one chip (the BIOS) with one they modified to require some encryption (amoung a lot of other thing different from a normal bios). Take their BIOS out and put in a standard one and you have a standard PC. (More or less, MS used a lot of parts not normally on a PC, and in any case a BIOS has to be changed for each different chipset)

Re:Learn something about crypto

[AndroidCat]

Oh I know that. But given all those clues, the full keyspace might not have to be explored. I'm too lazy to get out my copy of Cryptography and Data Security (old but a classic) right now.

Re:Learn something about crypto

[alienw]

Those aren't clues. That's the whole point of an encryption algorithm. After all, if you have someone's public PGP key, you could take some text and encrypt it. But it wouldn't help you find his/her private key unless you know how to factor extremely large numbers that are a multiple of a couple of really large primes.

YOU ARE SO FIRED! (well, not really)

[YOU ARE SO FIRED!]

eminemBNJA: Oh I like that Baby. I put on my robe and wizard hat.
BritneySpears14: What the fuck, I told you not to message me again.

Sweetheart: I take your hand and kiss it softly.I'm reaching back undoing the clasp. The bra slides off my body. The air caresses my breasts. My nipples are erect for you.
Wellhung: How did you do that? I'm picking up the bra and inspecting the clasp.

Thanks for that. You made my day.

mellow misbehavers, mah-yeet? G'dah-yee. :-D

[finallyHasANickname]

Person A said blahblahblah about "criminal heritage."
Person B said,

Two, of the criminals that were sent to Australia, something on the order of 70% (the numbers vary) were non-violent, and under the age of 20. The majority of these criminals were orphans who stole bread, prostitutes and the ilk. These weren't, without many exceptions, murders and real theives. Moreover, a significant portion of the colonists were Black Sheep of wealthy European families, sent to Australia with the combination of hopes that they might not embarass the family further, and that they might redeem themselves.

Lemme get this straight. Their genes are from folks who were not mean and who happened to be down on their luck? Their genes also have the "spilled off" hedonistic parts of the ancient British aristocracy? Sounds like my kind of crowd, that is, after having mellowed it all through several generations of practicing democracy. For that matter, if you mix in a dash extra of respect for private property and some education and healthcare subsidy, well geez--that sounds like my kind of political party. Sigh. Remember when rich American Democrats used to party and when the poor ones used to know how to vote? ::::mumbling incoherently about reversing roles::::

Hmm. Say...

You don't suppose that Aussie genetic thingie explains Nevada too by some connection? (Area 51 isn't all that far away from the center of American hedonistic gravity, and the last time I checked, hypnotized Australians stacked up almost as efficiently as cordwood in spaceships for quick trans-global transport, but half of 'em started whining about "abduction" and such after coming to in the desert at night, mah-yeet. Know what I mean? It's like those fuggen union pilots just won't stop their indulgences--oogling at the humans half the goddamned night as if earth were their private zoo! They wouldn't even hide their faces either, the little green morons. I get so mad sometimes... Anyway... Then the press would get wind of it... seems like every fuggen time--and it got to be such a PR hassle that we finally just got FedEx and said hell with the rubbernecking pilots and all their bullshit but I digress...) :::::doing vain things to maintain my pompadour::::

What! ::::blink blink::::: Oops. :::::hurrying::::: What I meant to say was...

Hosted on Freenet

[Anonymous Coward]

Now on freenet at CHK@c1gWOutxO-0ebPP73wrutNLkIKYQAwI,k3w3C0mvMsBzec KB2oDZEw/AussieChipModChips.zip

This is NOTHING new, only a rip-off something else

[Anonymous Coward]

Check out this
http://warmcat.com/milksop

Thats the REAL creator of the CheapMod, Andy Green.

This news is NOTHING new as cheapmod information has been around for more than a 8 months.

If your going to post an article of this maginituted, do some research first.

What's the point?

[Pettifogger]

I'm not a gamer, but I just don't see the point of modifying an Xbox. I know Fry's isn't everywhere, but there's one near where I live that's selling a Linux box (sans monitor) for $229 right now. That's in the ballpark of an Xbox, and I know which one I'd rather have. Since a cheap PC is about the same price, why not just buy a cheapie and run Linux (or whatever you want) on that instead? But like I said, I'm not a gamer, so maybe I'm missing something.

Re:What's the point?

[angle_mark]

Yep, the point your missing is that the Xbox has high quality interlaced NTSC/PAL (depending where you live!) output built in. Most cheap pc video card hardware isn't capable of outputting a comparable quality signal to a television.

Hey and Xbox games are pretty cool in themselves too!

Re:What's the point?

[Ho-Lee-Chow]

Well, if you install a mod chip, you can replace the XBox's hard drive with a much larger drive and you can use the open-source Xbox Media Player to play various kinds of movies, music and pictures on your Xbox, transforming it into a cheap (and uncrippled) "Media Centre PC". On the other hand, they just found a way to run Xbox Media Player without using a modchip, so I guess there goes one excuse....

Re:What's the point?

[ozric99]

The point is that the Xbox is one of the greatest things Micro$oft has ever produced. It means that the modded xbox I have sitting in my living room now plays Xbox, PSX, Amiga, N64, SNES, Megadrive(Genesis for you folk) and arcade games. It's hooked up to the LAN so I can listen to my mp3 collection or listen to shoutcast streams. I can stream videos from the LAN, or simply play them from the huge hard drive I now have installed. I can stick a CF memory card into my computer in the other room and we can all view the pictures taken earlier that day on a big screen TV. Or maybe just boot into linux.

All accessible from the couch via the xbox's dvd remote control.

So yes, there's ample reason to mod your Xbox. :)

Re:What's the point?

[blincoln]

I modded my XBox so I could access files on the hard drive, and replace the included drive with a bigger one. I am also interested in copying games (which I own) to the drive to hack them and extract the audiovisual files for viewing/listening on my PC.

I don't pirate games, but I also don't like manufacturers telling me what I can't do with a console I own. I bought a chipped PS2 for the same reasons, and I've done similar extraction work with tools like Dreamrip on the Dreamcast.

A lot of the time, I just want to get at the music files. Majesco never released a soundtrack CD for BloodRayne, so I pulled out the tracks and listen to them that way.

Re:Parent poster is an idiot

[Lord Bitman]

Gee, I really want in on this video-game publisher thing if this is the case. I mean, I can just make games, and stores will just buy them, and keep buying them, and I can keep making more and always have a garanteed person to sell it to, even if stores arent selling what I sell to them.
Fuck-yeah, where do I sign?

Re:HOLY FUCK! WHAT A GREAT IDEA!!

[Lord Bitman]

Can we apply this to other things? Wouldnt it be great if instead of wasting time trying to tell people that guns are bad, we just told everyone that they should buy guns?! Gun stores would soon run out of firearms, AND THEN IT WOULD BE JUST LIKE NOBODY HAVING GUNS AT ALL!!! YOU ARE A FUCKING GENIUS, MAN!!!

Re:wow!

[Anonymous Coward]

what a crock of shit, these designs have been available on the internet for months.

this aussiechip mob is just a bunch of money hungry scammers!

$85 for that crap! educate yourself and buy something better for the same $ or something as functional at half the price!

Am I the only one who thought...

[Anonymous Coward]

If the Powers That Be don't want you corrupting your mind with impure knowledge, then such material belongs on Freenet!

KIDDY PORN!!!!!!

aussiechip are scam artists

[Anonymous Coward]

this is a bunch of bullshit, these aussiechip guys have done nothing but copy other peoples designs that have been available on the internet for months!

do a search for dual rodmod or regionfree chip and youll see this was done long ago.

sounds like aussiechip are pullin the wool over the authors eyes for some cheap advertising

Re:HOLY FUCK! WHAT A GREAT IDEA!!

[Anonymous Coward]

If everybody had a gun and were allowed to shoot whoever they wanted, a few years from now, you and all the other idiots in the world would be manure. It's called natural selection. Survival of the non-annoying.

Not true

[0x0d0a]

Dmitry Sklyarov was charged with breaking US laws *in* the US -- selling his company's software while physically the US.

It's not to increase sales

[0x0d0a]

The reason for regional restrictions is to allow the companies to impose price discrimination. The idea is that you want to charge any one person as much as they are absolutely willing to pay before going someone else. Normally, you have to set a single price -- if you charged the wealthy citizens of the US more for Super Mario Brothers 5, someone would just import Indian copies sold cheaply. However, if you can break up the world into incompatible regions, you can charge a much closer value to what people are willing to pay in each region. Basically, this tends to be a good thing for very poor countries (as long as the game/movie actually comes out in their region), since they have to pay less, and bad for wealthy countries. It tends to irritate customers, who are directly impacted by compatibility issues, and don't directly see cost differences.

Also, AFAIK, region coding has not been successfully argued in court to be considered a form of copy protection, and hence is not covered under the DMCA. The reason region free hardware DVD players aren't commonly sold in the US any more is because the DVD Consortium can exert pressure on their licensees, not because it's against the law.

same here

[Anonymous Coward]

its just the same as this

http://www.xbox-scene.com/articles/homebrew-dual bi os.php

except noone is getting free advertising! hehehe

Ahem!

[wildchild978]

So which company bought Senator Alston?

Re:Ahem!

[sk0pe]

I think it was several companies that bought Sen. Alston. Telstra, Newscorp (Murdoch) and Australian Consolidated Press (Packer) are the main parties to have benefited from Alston's position of Minister for Communications, Information Technology & the Arts.

Re:Ahem!

[sk0pe]

Oops, sorry... Packer's parent company is Publishing & Broadcasting Ltd

Original Poster Again

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, I realize that a few of you may have actually seen this before. However...
it is so rare that I read something so funny that it actually brings tears to my eyes...

Lighten up. Enjoy the humor.

HAARRRRRR!!!!!

AC

Re:Original Poster Again

[Anonymous Coward]

awesome, man. funnest stuff i've ever read. thanks for letting us un-with-it plebs know about it...

cool.
mike.

ps. to the critics HARRR!!

The point

[zakezuke]

1. The Xbox is a cheepo PC with an excelent output to TV display. I'm not up to date on current video cards but when looked at TV output before, they were all shite. I had to invest in a mpeg decoder card to get decent output. I'll have to check out my new vid card when i'm not so lazy.

2. The Xbox is a tiny PC, making it perfect to put on your entertainment stack. Nice for AV, possible additional application of car mount system (not sure about car mount xbox to be honest, it would be something worth looking into). While I do own a couple full towers for expanation, i'd consider an x-box just to stick on my entertainment center stack to watch movies and such.

---

In short, the xbox is a decent gamming platform but it's *computer* features are locked out of common man's reach due to a choice at microsoft. They are after all selling you a game box and not a computer. If I owned one, the first thing I'D do is get a mod chip and the ability to run Mozilla on my TV, check my e-mail and such.

But I'm just quoting off the top of my head, I don't know exactly how advanced the current linux project is for the x-box, and how viewable diffrent codexs are. But if it's half way decent for divx4 vids, well it's a serious consideration, given that most DVD players are limited to mpeg-1 or mpeg-2, and you can't exactly upgrade them to other standards.

But hey, not your bag? NO worries. I don't own one, and won't till they drop in price to like $75.00. But that's just me.

Re:The point

[n_jed]

I'm not up to date on current video cards but when looked at TV output before, they were all shite

Well that must have been a long time ago. It's just a nVidia card in an Xbox, most nVidia cards have tv out. ATI tv out is better but there is nothing wrong with nVidia's either.

I wouldn't expect mozilla's performance on a p3 733 to be all that great. probably takes a minute to load...

Re:The point

[zakezuke]

While a p3 733 isn't exactly a powerhouse penis extention, I find mozilla works perfectly well on a celeron 333. I'll agree that surfing with a amd 2000xp chip is a *hell* of alot more swift, 733 is more then adquate for web browsing.

Mod Parent Up.

[theTerribleRobbo]

'Barren' indeed.

Gnome PCB Simulator

[soliaus]

Heres a nice little utility for pcb simulation. I thought you guys might want to check it out.

http://gael.sourceforge.net/

AC, You are right.. I did slip a digit!!!

[anubi]

Mea culpa! Sorry, guys, for slipping a digit. Thanks, AC, for the heads-up. If I had not already contaminated my ability to moderate this forum, I would bump you up one for this. I think you slipped a sequence too, but you recognized the bug and pointed it out. Good enuf.

I must have been thinking of that little coax line I use all the time.. RG-174.. its tiny and flexible and I use it a lot for general purpose shielded line..

I googled around and I see I meant to say: RS-274D . I include the Google hotlink while I had it up for verification so the rest of you can look at the gerber formats and specs if you are so inclined.

Incidentally, AC... I note PADS PCB ( Power PCB ) also uses .PCB suffix.. do you know if the files are interchangeable between Protel and PADS?

( I still use PADS PCB for DOS.. It makes Gerber files. I really like that old proggie.)

Re:This is NOTHING new, only a rip-off something e

[Troed]

The CheapMod design was based on the original work done by Numbnut (Andy Green)

They give credit. I agree though that this story was totally pointless. Cheapmods don't work in v1.3 Xboxes - it would've been more newsworthy if someone had released their own LPC-periphial program and design which didn't need LFRAME.

Re:Thanks!

[Anonymous Coward]

Microsoft make same amount of boxes whether you buy one of not.

"Okay, we sold the first million Xboxes we made, let's not make any more."

humbug

[DABANSHEE]

He didn't sell one copy of his software while he was in the US.

Maybe a webtrader that has a contract to sell his employer's software, sold some copies in the US while he just happened to be visiting the US, but that's a completely different thing altogether.

it's for australians ONLY

[ReLik]

according to the site its only for aussies, so this was a pretty dumb article.

Re:HOLY FUCK! WHAT A GREAT IDEA!!

[Anonymous Coward]

That's a really annoying comment.... aBgn!
(sorry about that, - I'm on an Intel chip.)

Re:You are really, really gay

[Trollmotron]

Look everyone, It's Jeff K!

Allright, something's not right here

[Drachs]

I've got the PCB layout and the bom... But where's the firmware??

WETA

[sbszine]

Theoretically, with enough computers, it could be done in a few years.

Or a few minutes on Peter Jackson's new set up :)

Re:Thanks!

[Anonymous Coward]

Microsoft makes Xboxes based on general demand not on the demand of the 5 geeks who bought these strictly to put Linux on it and never buy a game.

Re:Thanks!

[Anonymous Coward]

no comment!yet

Re:go stupid aussies

[frovingslosh]

When I teased my girl about it, she countered with "only the ones who were too stupid to be caught, the real ones are still over in England.".

So her point is that she wants to make it clear that she is decended from the ones who were both criminal and stupid enough to be caught?