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Hacking Barney

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the purple-is-scary dept.

Tom Rothamel writes "This site looks at the use of a Microsoft Actimates Barney in a human-computer interaction context. Be sure to download the pdf! "

19 comments

  1. purple is scary. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hmmm first barney, then tinky winky. my god purple is scary. - Derek (wh00 h00 lookz like 1'm first)

  2. Wow (meaningless scribble follows) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Now that's really something!

    "Whoa, Saevak(sp?), that's extaordinary, what would you like to do next?" -STIII

    I'd almost consider buying one of those things now, but not quite...

    uselinux@email.com

    (I'd especially like to have it automatically reboot my wintendo box for me when it crashes and hop up and down happily afterwards.)

  3. DIE BARNEY! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE

  4. www.ntk.net strikes again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Needed to know this 3 weeks ago...

    http://www.ntk.net/index.cgi?back=archive99/now0 129.txt&line=177#l

  5. Can Barney dis Billy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I read that the EULA for one of MS's products that produces little animated characters in Windows explicitly forbids having the characters do or say anything "detrimental to the interests or image of MS corporation". Wonder if the same applies here. Can you make Barney say "Bill Gates is a turd" or even, "Please get Linux. It hurts me to see you crash". Of course, the reverse engineering may itself violate the EULA, but the free speech issue is more interesting IMHO. What happens when the kiddies start getting MS propanganda in their playpens?

  6. Barney is Evil.. :> I loved this.. hehehe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Excellent :> hehe...
    Figures that Barney is easier to ftp to than an NT box.. *grin*

  7. forget barney HACK A FURBY by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I heard it's been done, have any info? send it my way.

  8. Darn, teletubbie actimates! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Microsoft makes teletubbies? I guess Falwell was right after all. They are evil!

  9. Barney Protocol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Whats sad is they haven't provided much info on the protocol itself. I'd love to have
    AF_BARNEY sockets in the Linux system

    Alan

  10. Is it just me ... by zztzed · · Score: 1

    ... or is the phrase 'Barney Protocol Stack' amusing?

  11. Interesting... by Erbo · · Score: 1
    I think the Teletubbies ActiMates will open up whole new lines of inquiry for the PARC/MIT researchers. Their tummy-mounted display screens may prove to be more versatile output devices than Barney's hands and arms.

    Also, the Teletubbies are (if I am not mistaken) viewed with a lot less acrimony than Barney. Sadly, only Laa-Laa and Po are offered; apparently, Micro$oft felt that Tinky Winky was too controversial for their purposes. Pity; the use of Tinky Winky as an I/O device would offer whole new ways to piss off the Falwellites.

    The only drawback to this continuing research, as I see it, will be that it will be impossible for me to read the ensuing reports without busting out in maniacal laughter, inviting quizzical gazes from my fiancee...

    Eric
    --

    --
    Be who you are...and be it in style!
  12. Interesting... by gavinhall · · Score: 1

    Posted by Doctor P:

    You could always buy the poe and then dye it purpul...and squish the circle on his head into a triangle. Teletubbie buy-buy (M$ slogan)!

  13. Barney is'nt the right embodiment for this. by BigD42 · · Score: 1

    What we need now is for someone to strip the circutry out of a Barney doll, and refit it to a Tux doll. That would be a must buy toy

    --
    --- Linux... a college project gone horribly right
  14. Mindstorm application? by Plasmoid · · Score: 1

    Imagine combining the speech unit from these with the moving parts of Minstorm. A robot(or whatever) that blinks it's eyes and sings^H^H^H^H^H warns you of errors.

    --
    You don't exist. Go away. --SysVinit Halt
  15. Barney Protocol by scrytch · · Score: 1

    Probably wouldn't happen until there was an RFC submitted for it and a protocol number assigned by the IANA. Somewhere John Postel is screaming. Or laughing madly.

    --
    I've finally had it: until slashdot gets article moderation, I am not coming back.
  16. PDF is portable, doofus. by Trixter · · Score: 1

    PDF = Portable Document Format. It's essentially Postscript with bytecodes and compressed. With a viewer for just about every platform (Linux, Mac, FreeBSD, Sparc, RS 6000, SGI, OS/2, etc.) and PDF-to-Postscript converters for everyone else, PDF a great way to distribute content if you want the layout, graphics, etc. to be perfectly preserved. It's cross-platform.

    If you don't care about layout, then yes, HTML is better.

  17. Is there anyone else interested in cracking Barney by Ex+Machina · · Score: 1

    or Furbys? I mean like buffer overflows in the IR protocol, leading to hostile code execution resulting in reprogramming of actions and sounds. In essense, we could create aa Furby worm/virus. How cool would it be to have Furbys advocate Linux to 4-year olds?

    Ex Machina "From the Machine"
    xm@GeekMafia.dynip.com [http://GeekMafia.dynip.com/]

  18. die pdf!!! by Fizgig · · Score: 1

    From the looks of the paper, a Tex file would have been very appropriate. I bet come Monday, when they get /.'d, they'll reconsider.

  19. Is it just me ... by Soko · · Score: 1

    Maybe it's how they're going to "de-commoditize" network protocols...

    --
    "Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm." - Anonymous