Yes, it's true. They have done two three things to try to stop the hacking:
Setup that nasty terms of use contract to try to scare away any customer they might get. And if THEY cancel the contract, they still claim they can charge the money ($499).
Reprogrammed the BIOS to not boot off the IDE header and put epoxy on the BIOS chip
Clipped some IDE pins usually 4
However, you can scratch the epoxy off and get a copy of the old BIOS and it still boots. You can replace the pins a number of ways, including soldering the cable directly to the stub of the pin still left. Lastly, they aren't breaking IDE pins off all units, just some, but it seems all the units have the new BIOS and epoxy.
It is still hackable, and it is still very easy to hack. You might get lucky and get a unit with the IDE intact and only have to worry about the epoxy. Get one that isn't eraseable, because the unit is programmed to be flashed remotely. However, with it running your own OS, who cares.
Let's face it, they have all the sense God gave a Windoze box. They apparently don't see the oppurtunity they are missing by selling this thing at a price that makes them a little profit which woul dprobably be around $425, according to rumor of the cost being $403. So, that being the case, is it worth $425 to get a 200Mhz Pentium class box?
Regardless of what happens there's still a certain hackable number of I-openers out there. They are going to be available in swap meets, garage sales, etc. Will Netpliance release to us, the serial numbers that are hackable? That would at least enable us to find those easily for sale, and it's not going to hurt Netpliance's business anyway.
Maybe it will help as a Linux marketing tool, but Apache runs on so many different flavors of Unix that I doubt it can be contributed strictly as a win for Linux. The big sites are using Solaris and a lot use *BSD. There are some big sites using Linux (according to http://www.netcraft.com), such as eToys, DejaNews, and some little-known site called SlashDot. It is defintely a win for Open Source, and has been so for a long time.
Yes, I would agree with Mylex over Adaptec. However, since I'm not footing the bill I would have to consider the Compaq SMART2. I've seen Smart 2SL controllers go for around $500 now.
I use several SMP machines for raw processing power that are constantly looking at a fast data stream and performing calculations. The data is written to the hard disk in 2GB compressed files which are processed FIFO. Each 2GB file is broken down into 4 512MB pieces (one per processer) and filters begin breaking them down further by frequency range which adds up to a lot of disk access. Total data examined is around 70GB a day. The Smart2 controller is used to stripe the array (redundant or not) which adds a lot of speed. The systems operate 24 hours a day with constant disk access, so if your process writes a lot of temporary files or requires a lot of disk access for any reason, I would consider SMART2 (2SL, 3200, or 221). Support under Linux is superb. Mylex also makes a DAC960-based controller but I have no experience with those boards.
I would agree with you. There's a lot of discussion on here about the wheels, but that's not the point. The point is the software that is controlling the body is doing an excellent job. Regardless of whether it's RC or AI is not the point. The first step to making a robotic snake is a realistic chasis with proper locomotion, and S5 has that. Look at S2, it is always in an S shape with two curves. Snakes use more than 2 curves, usually 4 (double S) and that's what S5 has!
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Setup that nasty terms of use contract to try to scare away any customer they might get. And if THEY cancel the contract, they still claim they can charge the money ($499).
Reprogrammed the BIOS to not boot off the IDE header and put epoxy on the BIOS chip
Clipped some IDE pins usually 4
However, you can scratch the epoxy off and get a copy of the old BIOS and it still boots. You can replace the pins a number of ways, including soldering the cable directly to the stub of the pin still left. Lastly, they aren't breaking IDE pins off all units, just some, but it seems all the units have the new BIOS and epoxy.
It is still hackable, and it is still very easy to hack. You might get lucky and get a unit with the IDE intact and only have to worry about the epoxy. Get one that isn't eraseable, because the unit is programmed to be flashed remotely. However, with it running your own OS, who cares.
Let's face it, they have all the sense God gave a Windoze box. They apparently don't see the oppurtunity they are missing by selling this thing at a price that makes them a little profit which woul dprobably be around $425, according to rumor of the cost being $403. So, that being the case, is it worth $425 to get a 200Mhz Pentium class box?
Regardless of what happens there's still a certain hackable number of I-openers out there. They are going to be available in swap meets, garage sales, etc. Will Netpliance release to us, the serial numbers that are hackable? That would at least enable us to find those easily for sale, and it's not going to hurt Netpliance's business anyway.
Maybe it will help as a Linux marketing tool, but Apache runs on so many different flavors of Unix that I doubt it can be contributed strictly as a win for Linux. The big sites are using Solaris and a lot use *BSD. There are some big sites using Linux (according to http://www.netcraft.com), such as eToys, DejaNews, and some little-known site called SlashDot. It is defintely a win for Open Source, and has been so for a long time.
die please ;)
Yes, I would agree with Mylex over Adaptec. However, since I'm not footing the bill I would have to consider the Compaq SMART2. I've seen Smart 2SL controllers go for around $500 now .
I use several SMP machines for raw processing power that are constantly looking at a fast data stream and performing calculations. The data is written to the hard disk in 2GB compressed files which are processed FIFO. Each 2GB file is broken down into 4 512MB pieces (one per processer) and filters begin breaking them down further by frequency range which adds up to a lot of disk access. Total data examined is around 70GB a day. The Smart2 controller is used to stripe the array (redundant or not) which adds a lot of speed. The systems operate 24 hours a day with constant disk access, so if your process writes a lot of temporary files or requires a lot of disk access for any reason, I would consider SMART2 (2SL, 3200, or 221). Support under Linux is superb. Mylex also makes a DAC960-based controller but I have no experience with those boards.
I would agree with you. There's a lot of discussion on here about the wheels, but that's not the point. The point is the software that is controlling the body is doing an excellent job. Regardless of whether it's RC or AI is not the point. The first step to making a robotic snake is a realistic chasis with proper locomotion, and S5 has that. Look at S2, it is always in an S shape with two curves. Snakes use more than 2 curves, usually 4 (double S) and that's what S5 has!