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Hacker Helps Family Recover Minivan After Losing One-Of-A-Kind Car Key (bleepingcomputer.com)
An anonymous reader writes: A hacker and a mechanic have helped a family regain access to their hybrid car after they've lost their one-of-a-kind car key while on vacation. The car in question is a Toyota Estima minivan, which a Canadian family bought reused and imported from Japan. When they did so, they received only one key, which the father says he lost when he bent down to tie his son's shoelaces.
Because it was a hybrid and the on-board computer was synced to the battery recharge cycles, the car owner couldn't simply replace the car key without risking the car battery to overcharge and catch fire. After offering a reward, going viral on Facebook, in Canadian media, and attempting to find the lost keys using crows, the family finally accepted the help of a local hacker who stripped the car apart and reprogrammed the car immobilizer with new car keys. The whole ordeal cost the family two months of their lives and around $3,500.
Because it was a hybrid and the on-board computer was synced to the battery recharge cycles, the car owner couldn't simply replace the car key without risking the car battery to overcharge and catch fire. After offering a reward, going viral on Facebook, in Canadian media, and attempting to find the lost keys using crows, the family finally accepted the help of a local hacker who stripped the car apart and reprogrammed the car immobilizer with new car keys. The whole ordeal cost the family two months of their lives and around $3,500.
One of my friends has a Nintendo 3DS. He bought a new game for it to play in the car on a weekend road trip the night before we left, and ran it for the first time after we were on the road. The game came on cartridge. He put in the cartridge, powered up the system, and had a "fuck my life" moment when it refused to let him do anything until he downloaded an update. If he hadn't been able to tether to my phone, he would have been screwed and unable to play it for several hours. This was a CARTRIDGE GAME that effectively refused to run until it managed to connect to the internet and download something.
Cool story bro. Too bad it's bullshit.
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Yes, I am calling you a liar. I know you're a liar, because whatever update was required to play the cartridge game, was already on the cartridge. Claiming that you had to connect to the internet before it would let your friend play is a full-blown out-right LIE
If you want to have a raging hate-on for consoles, go right ahead. If you want to convince others to hate consoles, you're going to have to not fucking lie.