gr8 xbox softmod of 2010: chapter 2

the process continues. Erring on the side of caution this time means I’ve committed myself to dumping near 2gb of auto installer deluxe on the peecee. if I wired it into the network, provided I had a reliable cable long enough, it might go faster, but the wireless maxxed out at 250kb and I killed it when attempting to leech the file from the internet. even with our connection, the halfassed almost broken antenna on this wireless card couldn’t do better.

I’m at 24 minutes and counting downward before I can dump the last 2 roughly 95mb pieces from a 2nd usb stick. after dumping the pieces, I uncompress them, follow the tut for modifying Auto Installer Deluxe, tweak it as necessary... rom packs don’t bother me, they can be added later. 

I moved the recently modded xbox and old commie workhorse monitor off the desk and set up the dam peecee. Of course nothing I did with the usb hard drives would work. Not the 74gb maxtor 4k080h4 formatted as it was, not once I tried to reformat it with the mac to FAT/MSDOS.

I went to computer management in win2k, signed and reformatted the drive. I probably missed a step or some shit, b/c once I’d done that and it appeared a viable blank drive in win2k, I ejected it and plugged it into the mac mini’s usb hub. Nope. It sees it, but won’t let me write to it. Read only? Wtf? What did I do to make it like that?

Not being able to read the dam thing under windoze made me reformat it WITH windoze, hoping it would shuttle back n forth better like that. Nope. Mac wouldn’t write to it. So I forget that plan, went to usb sticks, and forget that the dam HP pc, this fellow thrift store find.

according to system properties its an AMD athlon with 512mb of RAM. I think it has another 60 or 70 gb hd in there. The floppy’s probably still connected, it buzzes every once in a while. It had a hp cdrw in there when I got it, I dropped in another thrift store salvaged dvdrom drive. I think it’s the one that had a copy of Friday in it the day I brought it home.

6 minutes. Hopefully the process will accelerate a good bit after this bottleneck has been passed. Tweak AID, find out how to dump the finished version back to the damn burner and burn it.

a few go-rounds with AID patcher and I’ve got an ISO small enough to fit back on the usb stick from whence it came when it was still lowly rar files. 25 minutes from now I can copy the damn thing at an actual civilized speed for usb, burn the ISO with disk utility ... if it will let me.

Then...nah. I need more coffee to have that much momentum. I’m still stuck on the now. Getting the dam peecee to function should not take this frakking long. I really need a win box for the basics like this shit, but with usb2 and a dvd burner and something approaching real world features.

maybe someday...

the gr8 xbox softmod of 2010: prequel thru chapter 1

This will be a curmudgeon's journal of a process. My noobiness may show, be warned.

Working with a thrift store purchased xbox game system,
a memory card (necessary files put on card by l33t p4l),
and a copy of the game necessary for the exploit.

The story before my present attempt is littered with reading how-tos, viewing yt vids, and forming a greatest-hits of the effective practices I learn among them all.

I scored my first xbox cheap to play just the very few games on the console that interested me. I got a job at a tech company and a cow-orker did an upgrade of that unit with the only hard drive I could lay my hands on, a 30gb.

I've outgrown that and have a 74.5gb in a usb housing that system profiler lists as IDE. The idea is that running through the relatively familiar territory of softmodding the existing drive would lead to upgrading it to the 74.

Then press on with auto installer deluxe and begin slapping stuff on it.

Could it really be that simple? Do I even have the correct bit to open the frakking case? Will the hdd play nice?

Can I even get the dvdrom to read Mech Assault?

tune in tomorrow...

[update]

the thrift store xbox came with a dvd remote but no receiving dongle, 2 s-type controllers, the short breakaway end of a third s-type controller cable, power and video cables and the console itself.

I got it home a few weeks ago, connected and powered it up and found a really scuffed up Sega GT/JSRF disk in it. I sulked at the time b/c it didn't boot that and wouldn't boot Serious Sam II either. I had a full plate of other chores and tasks at the time, so I tabled the console for future tinkerage.

Flash forward a few weeks and my mate is pulling a long shift at work, so I've steeled myself to this adventure. I've gained several years worth of use from the first softmodded xbox I learned on.

Macrohard's idea of what the xbox is for is quaintly limited. I like being able to use xbmc as a pseudo-tivo and media center at least as often as I use this console for playing games. And the games I usually play are old platformers, emulated classics, or homebrew from the community of independent and hobby developers.

There's a Xbox Resurrection project floating around various parts of the internet. People who want to make the absolute most out of a modded xbox have come together to make it like a living, playable video game museum. Complete with box art, videos of trailers or commercials, and how-tos.

Expanding upon the concepts of the auto-installers, Resurrection seems to create a home node of a video-gamers library of congress, and the concept will surely go upwards and onwards from its somewhat humble beginnings on this hardware.

Tonights activities included learning how simple and subtle some things can be. I tried to copy a gamesave from an xbox memory card to the hard drive inside, only to discover I barely knew anything about navigating a stock ms dashboard. Took me almost half an hour to figure out the simple right arrow selected the gamesave itself, not the card it was on.

MechAssault (proper version obtained several years ago)
+
memory card with appropriate krayzie linux installer files
+
finally knowing how to copy the gamesave to the HD
=
modded xbox with backed up eeprom.bin and alternate dashboard.

now onward to backing up the original HDD, cloning (or whatever) that to the new HDD, and using AID to format the new HDD.

when it rains it leaks

With the right push, one of these tracks could be a single. But after two albums of holding my interest, the band has dropped an album of meh upon us.

What band? Does it matter? The cycle's the same.

Some performers travel relentlessly, honing tracks live until they're polished gems for a proper album. Some can get away with their fanbase sharing these works as they progress.

We know what happens when bands have open taping policies. Ani DiFranco, Dave Matthews Band, Mike Doughty, Phish, Grateful Dead, Rage Against the Machine...there are artists and bands at all levels who embrace the obvious benefit of an engaged fanbase.

Where commerce begins to fuck art is when a band or artist scrapes the dregs from the bottom of their brains, the last and least inspired pieces of art, or unpolished, untested, virginal music. Sometimes wisely, artists learn to edit themselves, hold back until something feels like it's ready.

Then there's the times when something else happens. The public was all ready for a familiar set of songs from DMB back in the day, but instead of what at-the-time were referred to as 'the Lillywhite sessions', the band released something else. Better or worse? Didn't matter...wasn't the right songs at the right time.

I fear the recent trend of keeping the music far under wraps from the fanbase until it's been paraded in front of journalists and posers. These so-called professionals then trickle their reviews out with uninformed opinions that mislead the fanbase, usually far more knowledgable than the reviewer anyway.

The disrespect paid by whoring the music for the capitalist scam before sharing it with the devoted can never be underestimated. It's causing a frothing furor in a forum or two presently, and I've seen favoritism play itself out in other communities.

People watching can be amusing, can be devastating, can be nauseating. Today's been a little of all 3, at least so far. This time the music has yet to make itself matter to me, make me feel anything for it. It's just boring, but there's always the chance it will grow on me.

But this story's not even halfway over just yet...

mudhead returns

I started giving myself an internal mic-delay more than a year ago. Tried to keep spewing daily into text files, but filter what got posted. Most people refer to this as rational editing, others as unrealistic to the blogger/journal-keeping ethic.

I've had a trying summer with minor health problems unworthy of further mention, aside from the fact that I finally multiplexed my blogs and then the juggernaut of posting that I'd primed in the earlier year began sputtering out. I slept a lot, I took my meds, I whined and pissed and moaned. I forgot to eat, I drank a lot of coffee and gatorade.

I did some sporatic freelance work with vigor, had an out of town visitor.

I dunno if it's the sudafed, which despite needing and being doctor-advised to take them every 4 hours, still requires my ID to be swiped whenever I purchase more.

But...the sudafed might've had something to do with it. I know it gives me the blurry head.

But I beat New Super Mario Bros Wii, which is different than NSMB for the DS and shouldn't really be...maybe someday there'll be a direct port of the DS version for the wii itself. But knowing nintendo, probably not.

I beat Super Mario Galaxy, the first one...at least beat the middle. Getting all the stars in a mario title is tougher than the gold / platinum bolt crusade in Ratchet and Clank.

I keep watching, hoping the ps3 keeps getting cheaper. I imagine them dropping the price from $299 to $249 for the holidays. I can't imagine it being less than $269. Used ones keep turning up for anywhere from $175-200 on the low end.

I whine here b/c I thought I had licked this damn sinus infection and now it's gone into my -presently deaf- right ear. dammit.

I'll close the window, turn up the heat, and flick on the wii.

Kevin Smith deserves a Special Internet Achivement award for the smodcast alone. Then the Smodcastle, AFAIK the world's first podcasting theater.

Aside from a consistently quality experience, funny miscellany...the multiplexing he's done hasn't watered it down. I've even got a somewhat derivative idea of my own thanks to Brother Kevin.

if I can clear up this damn head on my shoulders, I've gotta get my ass down to helLA and catch a live smod, dammit.

nintendo stop wasting my time!

I actually bought NSMB for the wii.

I'm just insulted by the game on a regular basis. There's no save point where I need one, so I've spent the last few months staggering over and over again through the 2nd World. I've beaten every one of these levels, and any decent emulator would let me save where it makes sense, not where the designers decided to waste my time.

Every time I die, usually caused by some snot-nosed insult of a gap placed right where the designers engineered me to HAVE to land...they waste seconds of my time on their demon face deathmask animation AND then the absurd delay at the map screen before letting me pick up where I left off, at the last bullshit death the game built into itself.

I enjoyed NSMB for the ds. I wanted a direct port, or at least the option to play a direct port of that. Instead we have a seriously fucked up affair with multiplayer grafted onto the platforming experience like frankenstein's monster.

I appreciate Mario platformers with skill required, like SMW. NSMBw isn't NSMB. It's NSMB with 10-20x the cheap deaths and bullshit tricks to keep you wasting time in the death-penalty loop.

Weak.

bitching about bejeweled (among other stuf)

"going dark for a while." Love how they say that on 24. aka torture-porn or the jack bauer power hour, depending on the favorite references of your surrounding crowd.

Then again maybe I've been dark for a few weeks already, if this and nearby blogs are any indication. Dumping rough compositions, blog posts, reviews and other musings into text files between binges of consuming the very same stuff I usually reflect upon.

Multiplexing myself worked okay far as the sites go, I just need an in-home espresso machine and two or three clones, then each of them could take a different theme blog and run with it.

I lol'd to see a blogger writing month. I don't think there'd be any actual content in my posts if I posted everyday, unless I was reviewing a particular site, book, record, movie...

I've been churning the gears, tumbling over the inspirations and scraps of notes, feeling vital now that the temperatures I associate with summertime have come to our semi-coastal current city. Caffeine and temps above 72 get me up and about. Vacuuming the floor and the rugs, doing the dishes.

In fact last night I built a small speaker stand out of salvaged wood, probably an old futon frame, found near the dumpster a few weeks ago. But that's another lame story undeserving of a post itself until properly perfected, probably painted matte black.

---

I continue to be frustrated with the devolution of Bejeweled Blitz on facebook, what began as a truly skillful pursuit limited to a mere minute each game. Now it's a resource hog...not that in previous incarnations it ran even on a G4...but now it makes an intel mac whine.

Either my brand new mouse with brand new batteries is glitchy only when playing this game, or they've engineered all playability out of it entirely in the process of diverting users to chasing their 'coins.'

The same path that led Zynga to irrelevance, the tired purchasing of virtual credits with real money. Same tired capitalist model isn't gonna take root without resemblances to gambling, but the clueless chumps keep trying the same broken wheel in search of a smoother ride.

I once upon a time could lose 20 minutes at a crack playing Bejeweled Blitz, but now it's a chore getting through five minutes in a row. The pointer moves the wrong block, moves the right block but the wrong direction, or fails to notice its proper position entirely.

It would seem that in order to compensate for the performance issues, the flash app has been allowed to become more and more resource-intensive. Doesn't matter what browser, either. Mac os 10.5.x (whatever the current patches and updates are) on an intel mac with 2gb ram seems to perform similarly, as one might expect from a plugin, agnostic of browser.

I haven't honestly trotted out Opera, but Firefox, Chrome and Safari, all of which I updated to their recentest versions, including the goddamn adopey trash plugin itself, all hammer the processor and spin up the fan from the 1500rpm range to 2400-2600.

Weak...

swatted down to bounce higher

I'm limping in here after getting swatted down in a forum.

I posted about some guys I know in a couple different indie bands. Next poster listened, didn't like, said so. The wind is out of my sails somewhat.

Not really much, just enough to be reminded that there are people who criticize the sunset, and then those of us who either watch it or we don't and then we move on.

If their music works for their fans, their crowds, themselves...what else is there?

There's constructive criticism, never a bad thing, delivered by someone with personal involvement, invested in the outcome.

Then there's just lame-ass spitballing, shit talking and posturing.

If you don't play an instrument and don't sing, don't write...where the fuck you get off telling someone else their style is wack?

Critic is just a fancy-ass word for hater.

I think I just graduated from the realm where haters can fuck with me.

See you when you get there...

an unheard plea; etc processing thanks

Here we are again Memorial Day and everyone's stirred up their patriotic feathers, tripping and stumbling over themselves to thank veterans in the most ostentatious, visible way possible.

I really wish we could finally come to some sort of across-the-board agreement in America that we all support the troops. We all have differences with the government.

My hackles get riled up when some ignorant person spouts off that any veteran "gave" me my freedoms. I just wanna ask if they read the same history books and founding documents I did!?!?

I stop these misled people and speak: "say it with me now:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

I usually then - if and whenever necessary - ask "what part of 'by their creator' means any veteran who isn't my parent created me??"

It would really be great if we could just grow the hell up and get over the fair-weather patriots and the chest-thumping misled pride of the 'white' man. Whitey did plenty of foul deeds in his day and will reap what he sowed, not the least of which being eventual minority status.

I love my country, I love the land and the water and the sky. I don't trust the government, but they're a damnsite better than the corporations and the moneyaddicts.

I get an ever-increasing bad taste in the back of my mind whenever the boorish overly proud ignoramuses pretend that any sort of dumbed-down redneck lowest common wrasslin'-loving denominator is patriotic. Being dumb is anti-American, and as much as you'd like to hide from this fact, it is ESPECIALLY so if you are being dumb while caucasian.

Digression aside, have a good weekend!

I stand up in salutation of our veterans and the choices they made. I get choked up looking at the flag and thinking about the people who had every right I do to be here living this free life and died instead.

I personally choose to remember everyone who has died in my family, on Memorial Day. I think everybody pretty much does. When I was a kid it was a weekend to make sure that someone in the family had been up to the cemetary and brushed the leaves and grass back and away from the headstones of my grandparents, great aunts and uncles.

That's what all this is for. Thank a veteran for their service, NOT for giving you what your creator did. Perhaps for fighting to protect our way of life, then...

But remember whoever you've lost. That's what it's about. Spend time with everyone else, look back, look forward. Maybe light some fireworks, do some fishing, cook outside.

trolls and grief

I think I'm molting. Facebook is a coat I used to wear that feels weird now, and might end up in a box of stuff I'd donate to the goodwill.

Had a friend once who deleted her myspace every other week or so. Seemed she liked the "game" of making the page more than having or keeping one. I've considered dropping my facebook page entirely, or backing off to just IRL friends and family ONLY.

My experience with facebook has been less and less worthwhile, more worrying and regularly annoying. I've watched friends jump ship from myspace for lesser reasons.

I regularly get inundated by their suggestion-bot and added a bunch of "friends" who attended the same hi skool as I did. I just dumped the mafiawars app, despite having joined a "group" a few months ago and having tricked out my character.

I climbed past level 500 and mastered the 2x leveling every 24 hours "trick" that most of the wikis and howtos seem to think they invented. Anybody with a grasp of basic math can sort out how quickly those games are apt to get boring. Most people just don't bother thinking that far ahead about much of anything.

I don't think I've ever spent that long playing an RPG. And for all the opinion otherwise, it's just a stat-building RPG with an extensive PR budget. And millions of apathetic sheep toiling away, grinding down their code for them, chasing absurd phantoms.

I got an invite to join a group praying for the death of the President from a foreign "daily player" of MW. I replied that I thought he/she should be ashamed for the suggestion, and then un-friended them. I also quit MW on the spot, deleted all my "friends" who'd been added to pad the mafia size.

I'm not sure how I ever let this many potential-leaks into my friend list to begin with. I guess for a while I drank the kool aid even tho I knew better. I had friends IRL who played the damn thing and I felt obligated to stick around. Even had a measly few moments of actual teamwork vibes over the months I played.

Anyway, I dumped the fake friends, I dumped the app/game, I deleted all the groups related to such tripe, and cleared my account of that sporge and garbage.

I still seemed to have a troll in my midst. I'd post something about how the tea party is wack as fuck and some wiseass would reply with a limbaugh-ism. So I deleted his wiseassery and him too. I'm king wiseass of my shitty little mountain. Cross me at thy peril.