Plica Concept Threatens iPhone With Two Touchscreens
Posted on 02 August 2008
I know that probably most of you are enjoying your iPhone 3G and you are very satisfied with it, but when you will see this concept you might want to reconsider your thoughts. The cellphone is called Plica which means folding of a body part.
Plica consists of two touchscreens and it looks exactly like a regular cellphone. When the phone is folded in two screens, you will use one as a keyboard and on the other you will be able to see whatever you want to. Also, you can view the images on both screens which means twice the resolution. Plica is very functional kind of like a mini-laptop and it features USB and headphone jacks.
This could really be the iPhone killer as the double touchscreen is really great, the only problem is that this is only a concept. Plica was developed by designer James Piatt and I can’t wait to see this on the market.
My thoughts:
That’s an interesting concept but one of the things that it will fail at with regards to the iphone is the fact that it sports moving parts. Yes, you can operate it with one hand and one screen, but can you imagine juggling your venti mocha, your laptop bag, your light rail pass, and a headphone cord while trying to open that thing? No, you might not NEED to open it but folks will try none-the-less.
It’s also not as much of a “fashion” item as the iPhone is. But if the functionality is up to par(i.e. running android, remaining open source with a closed source carrier specific package so that phone service always remains consistent) then this would be the iPhone killer for those of us who have been hacking them to get them to do what they want.
Folks who bought the iPhone and use them the way Lord Steve deemed appropriate for all his iChildren… will never buy this. -Joe
So yes, it’s been a bit of a while since I last made a real entry here at Dev-Toast. The reason is really far beyond the scope of this website. For the longest time I’d been using Microsoft Word as my blogging editor and then posting directly from word. Then I was using Adobe Contribute CS3, which is great… if you only use Internet Explorer…
While stumbling around on the net with StumbleUpon, I found Windows Live writer. The big thing about it is that essentially what you see is really what you get. It downloads the CSS from your weblog so that you’re editing is done inside the constraints of the CSS style sheet. Very slick indeed. Keep checking back here for a full review on the HTC Kiaser also known as the AT&T Tilt among a plethora of other names.
-Joe
Quoted from http://talentshowdown.com/?p=188:
Feel Like a Hacker 3: Hack Netflix and Download Movies! · Common Sense
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*UPDATE*: From what some folks have been saying, it looks like Netflix updated the version of IBX (Individualized Blackbox component) used for their WM-DRM wrapping of the movies. This is no big deal. If you get the error “”IBX Version 11.0.6000.6324 isn’t supported yet”, there is only one extra step one would have to do. The only thing that has changed is that one can now use the mirakagi add-on (see http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=127943) for FU4WM to sniff out the keys, and then launch FU4WM to clean the files. In other words, here are the revised steps 12 and 14 (all the other steps remain the same):
12. Immediately after you click Yes and are presented with a ‘media usage rights acquisition’ dialogue, launch mirakagi and click ‘Start’ as soon as you see the ‘Play’ button become active in the rights acquisition dialogue in WMP. Mirakagi should then tell you that it has found a couple keys and that it’s done processing.
14. Now open up FU4WM and hit Next to get to the file selection dialogue, and click on ‘Add File’ to select the data.wmv file so that it appears in the list of files in the FU4WM window. Highlight the data.wmv file and click Next.
HOW TO RIP NETFLIX ‘WATCH NOW’ MOVIES
BY: DIzzIE [antikopyright 2007]
Disclaimer
The following is presented for informational purposes only. I do not take any responsibility for the actions you may take after reading the contents of this document. Circumventing DRM restrictions may (or may not) be in violation of various laws. Check to make sure the process is legal in your jurisdiction and does not go against Netflix’s own TOS. I most certainly do not advocate the breaking of any laws (save for public urination, which I hold to be an inalienable, worldwide right. In other words: it’s not my fault if your Netflix account gets terminated, you get a fine, go to jail, do not pass Go, do no collect $200, or your son gets run over by an unmarked black sedan (though he swears he saw a Netflix/M$ logo flicker in the windshield…).
Prelude
At the start of 2007 Netflix started offering a ‘Watch Now’ (netflix.com/watchnow) service that lets subscribers watch flicks and tv shows online at no extra cost. The limit is one hour per dollar, so if you pay $18 for your subscription, you get 18 hours of credits to watch shit online. All well and good, but the trouble is that Netflix doesn’t easily allow you to save the flicks and watch them at your leisure because the films are entrapped in some shittastic Windows Media DRM wrapper. Let’s see if we can fix that. This guide will thus show you how to save and decrypt the movies from Netflix so that you can convert them to other mediums and watch them at your leisure.
Tools of the Trade
In order to run the Watch Now service you’ll need a subscription to Netflix (duh), as well as be running Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or Windows Vista, Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 or higher (though there is a way to use the IEtab add-on in Firefox: hackingnetflix.com/2007/01/firefox_instant.html), and Windows Media Player 11. To decrypt the media files, you’ll also need a handy little program called FairUse4WM. (Oh, and we’ll use Notepad a little bit as well 
). The output media files will be unprotected WMV files, suitable for conversion to XviD or whatever format you prefer, using one of the hundreds of converter programs out there, such as the free Super ©, available at erightsoft.com/SUPER.html.
The Step-by-Step
1. Log in to your Netflix account and browse on over to netflix.com/watchnow to pick a flick to watch (you can usually watch the trailer within Netflix prior to picking a movie as well).
2. Click the blue Play button next to the movie of your choice. If this is your first time trying out the Watch Now feature, the Netflix Movie Installer (Netflix_Movie_Viewer_Installer.msi) dialogue will pop-up. Click yes to go through the installation process.
3. You should now see a Windows Media Player (WMP) dialogue pop up, saying ‘you do not have the rights to view this file…would you like to connect to the website…’. Hit NO.
4. In your browser window you should now see an error message from WMP bitching about not having the license to play the file. Ignore that shit, and open the source code of the website (right-click in the browser window and select View Source, or go to Tools and then View Source).
5. Hit Ctrl-F in Notepad (assuming that’s what the website source code opened in) and put in ‘WNPlaylistMovies’ (type that without the quotation marks and hit enter). The bit of code you’re looking for will look something like this:
Code:
ar WNPlaylistMovies = {”movies”:[{”id”:”4937292″,”title”:”Scat Girls From Space”,”streams”:[{”url”:”http://index.ehub.netflix.com/item/?x=sdjkdsjHDEFJKHE38DFAWKDJdjieEWIUiDWJIDWI.”,”bitrate”:500,”dlid”:473289292,”requiredBandwidth”:700},…
You’ll see a few more URLs listed, each with a different bitrate. You can pick the last URL which should have the highest bitrate and will also have the highest filesize (upwards of a gigabyte for full-length movies). Despite the bitrate listed in the source code, GSpot always seems to show that the bitrate is 6154 kb/s for the flicks downloaded for the highest listed bitrate.
6. Copy the ehub URL that you picked (including the quotation marks), and open up a new Notepad window.
7. Here’s the template you can paste into Notepad to make a link to the file:
Code:
<html><a href=”http://index.ehub.netflix.com/item/?x=sdjkdsjHDEFJKHE38DFAWKDJdjieEWIUiDWJIDWI.”>scat girls</a> </html>
8. Still in Notepad, go to File and Save As. Type in something along the lines of netflixrip.htm and under ‘Save as type’ select All Files. Save the htm file you just made wherever you want.
9. Open the netflixrip.htm file and right-click on the link you made. Select ‘Save Target As…’. You should now see the usual save dialogue pop-up in Internet Explorer, asking you to pick a location where you want to save a file called data.wmv.
10. The file will be around a gig or two, so pass the time as it downloads by going to the park and masturbating to some dead pigeons (or what have you…).
11. Back already? Well OK, assuming the file has finished downloading, time to exorcise the Micro$oft DRM demon. This part is a wee bit tricky and might take you a couple tries to get it down pat. Open the data.wmv file in Windows Media Player, and you should see the same alert you saw back in step 3. This time click YES to connect to the Netflix site and acquire the license. (In Internet Explorer 7, you might get a security warning about an ActiveX control, click on the security bar and select ‘allow ActiveX controls…’).
12. Immediately after you click Yes and are presented with a ‘media usage rights acquisition’ dialogue, launch FairUse4WM and click ‘Recover Keys’ and then ‘Start’ as soon as you see the ‘Play’ button become active in the rights acquisition dialogue. FU4WM should then tell you that a couple keys were found, and after you hit OK, it will then ask you something about a DLL file (to which you click Yes as well).
*UPDATE*:12. Immediately after you click Yes and are presented with a ‘media usage rights acquisition’ dialogue, launch mirakagi and click ‘Start’ as soon as you see the ‘Play’ button become active in the rights acquisition dialogue in WMP. Mirakagi should then tell you that it has found a couple keys and that it’s done processing.
13. At this point, swap back to the WMP player, which should now be playing the movie, and go ahead and close down WMP.
14. Now going back to the FU4WM window launch FU4WM, click Next and click on ‘Add File’ to select the data.wmv file so that it appears in the list of files in the FU4WM window. Highlight the data.wmv file and click Next.
15. If you screwed up, you’ll now see an error in FU4M telling you that the file “does not appear to be licensed to you”. Go back and click Recover Keys in FU4WM right after the license window pops up in WMP. When the ‘play’ button becomes active in the license acquisition window in WMP, click on Recover Keys in FU4M and try again. The timing can be a bit iffy, so keep trying and you’ll get it. If, on the other hand, everything went smoothly, you should now see a conversion status bar in FU4WM, telling you to “please wait while your files are converted” 
.
16. The conversion doesn’t take nearly as long as the download did, so I’m afraid there’ll be no time for pigeon masturbation at this stage 
(well, unless you’re quick…), though don’t do anything else for the few minutes that FU4WM is doing its thing, or you might get a rather glitchy video file.
17. Once the conversion is done, you should have a duplicate copy of the data.wmv file (sans the encryption, that is ), in the default save folder of FU4WM (…\My Documents\My Videos\, or wherever you specified). Feel free to open the file in Media Player Classic, VLC, or whatever, or convert the file to another format. Close down FU4M, and delete the yucky encrypted data.wmv file.
18. Rinse and repeat.
What about the Time Limit Thingy?
You might remember that in the first version of this textfile I boasted that there was a way to get around the time limit and get unlimited movies. No such luck. For, while the flicks you download don’t immediately show up in your Watch Now Viewing History (netflix.com/WatchNowViewingActivity), they do show up after 24 hours, no matter how much of the movie you view (that is, even if you watch only ten seconds of a flick, its full length will be recorded in your account after 24 hours). Other alleged ways of beating the time limit, like unplugging your modem, and flushing your cache/temporary files after downloading the flick also don’t appear to work as the time still gets deducted after 24 hours. As such, if you do manage to find a way to beat the time limit, do let us all know .
Now Don’t Get Cocky…
And lest you’re all too ready to start making torrents of the flicks, keep in mind that there have been some rumours about Netflix putting in uniquely identifying watermarks into the video files. Though I haven’t spotted any (while viewing my films legally within Netflix’s Watch Now viewer ), keep your eyes open.
And remember that it may be possible to track uploaders of files to torrent trackers (or other mediums) based on their viewing history (much like these dudes Arvind Narayanan and Vitaly Shmatikov recently demonstrated that users could be identified based on their ‘anonymous’ film ratings. See “How To Break Anonymity of the Netflix Prize Dataset” arxiv.org/PS_cache/cs/pdf/0610/0610105v1.pdf).
***
And there you have it, an easy way to rip and decrypt Netflix’s Watch Now media, enjoy!
Quoted from http://www.pspmod.com/forums/firmware/18495-new-psp-custom-firmware-v3-51-m33.html:
New PSP Custom Firmware v3.51 M33 !!! - PSPMod.com - Sony PSP Mod & Hacks Forums
A group of russian hackers have released a new PSP custom firmware which have got a lot of people rather excited. A few users seem to confirm it working but as per usual, only try such releases at your own risk. Help spread the word and DIGG THIS STORY
Summary of features offered by CFW v3.51 M33
- All functions of v3.51 firmware retained - PS1 support, high video resolution, MP3 visualizer, internet navigation, PS3 connection etc
- Launch official UMDS which require v3.51 firmware
- Direct launching of ISOs/CSOs
- Direct launching of homebrews and demonstrations
- Direct launching of PS1 images
- Ability to alter the CPU speed of the PSP
- Recovery mode
- Multi-region
- Bugfixes
- Customize all your icons etc
source: maxconsole/pspgen
more info:Translated version of http://www.pspgen.com/
The video:Video 3.51 M33 Install - m33, install, 3.51 - Dailymotion Share Your Videos
Download:zSHARE - custom firmware v3.51 m33.rar
INSTRUCTIONS:
NOTE: If your PSP is in firmware 1.50, copy the folders kxploitpatcher and kxploitpatcher% which are in the “1.50only” folder to ms0:/PSP/GAME/ and run the patcher first.
if you already have firmware SE/OE, just copy the folder M33CREATOR to ms0:/PSP/GAME150 if you have 1.50 copy to ms0:/PSP/GAME
1 - Download the firmware update 3.51 and rename to 351.PBP and copy into the ms0:/PSP/GAME/M33CREATOR/ or for 1.50 users to ms0:/PSP/GAME150/M33CREATOR/
2- Download the firmware update 1.50 and rename to 150.PBP and copy into the “ms0:/PSP/GAME/M33CREATOR/” or “ms0:/PSP/GAME150/M33CREATOR/”
3- on your PSP, run the “3.51 M33 CREATOR”. Once finished, the PSP will return to the XMB, and a new program, the “3.51 M33UPDATE” appears!
4 -now run “3.51 M33UPDATE”.
5 - Once finishes, press on X to shutt off. Restart manually.
download custom firmware v3.51 m33: zSHARE - custom firmware v3.51 m33.rar
the easy updater ! just copy the folder 3.51 M33UPDATE to game150 for oe users !!!! zSHARE - m33update_351.rar
Quoted from http://www.bspcn.com/2007/07/11/whats-hidden-in-the-iphones-fine-print/:
What’s Hidden in the iPhone’s ‘Fine Print’? | The Best Article Every day
11 Jul
Posted by admin as Uncategorized
Written by Doug Ross
Telecom Analyst Bruce Kushnick has inspected the iPhone’s terms of service and offers some surprising revelations (emphasis mine):
1) iPhone Requires a 2-Year Contract with AT&T.
2) Expensive: Requires $2,280, Over $1,730 in Wireless Costs.
3) Double Billing. You and the Caller Both Get Charged for the Same Call.
4) All Use of the Networks Are Always Rounded Up to the Nearest Kilobyte or Minute.
…This practice is now standard and is anti-competitive. In the 1990’s, phone companies, to be competitive, created “6 second billing”, where the call was rounded to the nearest 1/10th of a minute. This change adds 15+% to the average bill. Moreover, the companies now have all gone to full minute billing, full kilobyte billing, so that they can make an extra minute on almost every transaction…
5) Customers Are Billed for “Network Errors” and “Network Overhead”.
6) Billed Even Though the Call Doesn’t Go Through.
7) Bogus Fees Added to the Bill: Regulatory Cost Recovery Charge
The “Regulatory Cost Recovery Charge” is a made-up charge that should have been included in the cost of service instead of a separate line item. Most carriers are charging this fee, even though it is not government mandated or a legitimate tax. By making it a separate line item, the phone company gets more money and doesn’t have to include this line item in the advertised cost of service. According to AT&T:
“The Regulatory Cost Recovery Charge is a charge assessed by AT&T and is not a tax or government-mandated charge. This charge is subject to change from time to time as the cost of compliance changes…. The purpose of the charge is to defray AT&T’s costs associated with payment of fees and compliance with various initiatives imposed by the government. Please note that costs may be incurred and charged prior to initiation of any of the respective services.”
$175.00 Termination Fee.
9) International Messages Are Charged Additional Fees as Are Files Over 300Kbps.
…While it cost[s] nothing extra to send an email overseas using the Internet, AT&T has decided that all messages outside the US or larger than 300 K should cost extra:
“International messages not included. Charges for international messages sent from the U.S. are 20¢ for Text Messages and 50¢ for Picture/Video Messages. Additional charges for premium messages and content apply. Messages over 300 KBs billed an additional 50¢/message.”
10) Over Your Quota: Get Gouged: 40¢ Per Minute and 69¢ Roaming Offnet.
11) The Services Are Not Secure and Can’t Block Your Phone Number.
12) The Current Mobile Email Service Doesn’t Support Attachments.
13) Prohibited Uses and “Unlimited” Sales Hype.
Even though the service is called “unlimited” they are simply using that word as a marketing concept, not an actual service description. You can’t use the service for VOIP and worse “unlimited plans cannot be used for uploading, downloading or streaming of video content (e.g. movies, tv), music or games.” Here are just some of the restrictions [prohibited services]:
* With server devices or with host computer applications, including, without limitation, web camera posts or broadcasts, continuous jpeg file transfers, automatic data feeds, telemetry applications, peer-to-peer (p2p) file sharing, automated functions or any other machine-to-machine applications…
* for voice over ip…
* in conjunction with wwan or other applications or devices which aggregate usage from multiple sources prior to transmission…
* Except for content formatted in accordance with at&t’s content standards, unlimited plans cannot be used for uploading, downloading or streaming of video content (e.g. movies, tv), music or games. Furthermore, unlimited plans (except for dataconnect and blackberry tethered) cannot be used for any applications that tether the device
14) Service Is Not Intended to Provide Full-Time Connections: Unlimited is Hype - Don’t use the service too much or the phone company can terminate your service.
15) Wi-Fi Service is Limited - “To ensure that the Wi-Fi Service is not being used fraudulently, AT&T limits your usage of the Wi-Fi Service to 150 uses per month” …Does that mean that if you lose signal a few times during one session, or you are traveling and go between ‘hot spots’ you can rack up lots of ‘uses’?
16) “Offnet” Restrictions - If you have a service and you happen to call other ‘offnet’ services, including wireline phones, or non-AT&T subscribers, you have to ‘limit’ your use, be charged or be terminated.
17) Plan Goobly-gook - …There are plan fees, taxes and surcharges, roaming fees, text fees, Night and Weekend Minutes, Mobile to Mobile Minutes, Anytime Minutes and Rollover Minutes, EDGE/GPRS and BroadbandConnect, offnet, AT&T Video clips, Data Connect Unlimited, WI-FI CONNECT, constraints on ‘unlimited plans including “20% of 6 Megabits offnet”, “150 uses of Wi-Fi”, and other restrictions…
18) Comparing US and Other Broadband Countries: America Is being Laughed At.
Why did iPhone get deployed on a slow, closed network? That answer may not be known, but it is clear that iPhone is being deployed on an old-technology network, and is neither state-of-the-art nor fast. Here’s some info about the [wired] networks… “The median U.S. download speed now is 1.97 megabits per second - a fraction of the 61 megabits per second enjoyed by consumers in Japan … Other speedy countries include South Korea (median 45 megabits), France (17 megabits) and Canada (7 megabits).”
19) The Upcoming Wireless Spectrum Auctions - The upcoming 700 MHz wireless spectrum auctions are underway [and] the bottom-line is [that] America needs open wireless networks, and it should be clear to anyone who is considering buying an iPhone that the AT&T networks should not be the only network for this innovative product.
These types of anti-innovation restrictions make it clear why the incumbent telcos shouldn’t be permitted to bid on the newly liberated 700MHz spectrum.
Go to Save the Internet now and take action.
Update: Tim Wu has more.
Quoted from http://nanocr.eu/2007/07/03/iphone-without-att/:
So sue me » Blog Archive » iPhone Independence Day
I’ve found a way to activate a brand new unactivated iPhone without giving any of your money or personal information to AT&T NSA. The iPhone does not have phone capability, but the iPod and WiFi work. Stay tuned!
Update:
Magic iTunes 7.3.0.54 numbers:
Offset 2048912: 33C0C3
Offset 257074: 28
Offset 257013: 33C9B1
Add “127.0.0.1 albert.apple.com” to c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
Download Phone Activation Server v1.0 to activate your iPhone for iPod+WiFi use. Note that this application will not do anything unless you understand the magic numbers as well as add the hosts entry. Phone Activation Server (PAS) requires that you have the MS .NET Framework 2.0 installed.
Download PAS v1.0 Source Code.
Quoted from http://www.neomeme.net/2007/06/26/iphone-review-roundup/:
-
- Published by Ilya Lichtenstein on June 26, 2007 06:26 pm under John Dvorak, N95, iphone, reviews
- There has been so much hype around the iPhone that I, like Dvorak, just want to say Shut Up Already. Regardless of your opinion of the iPhone(I think it’s completely overhyped) there’s no denying that, for the smartphone-starved American market(no US carrier has picked up recent comparable smartphones like the N95 ),the iPhone is something quite different and revolutionary. Attempting to cut through the infinite hype and speculation, here are some reputable actual reviews of the iPhone. Not guesses
or assumptions based on a 10 minute trial- actual reviews from actual journalists who have had time to review the device in detail.
Looking at many actual reviews, perhaps we can see some consistencies that cut through the hype.
- Reviewer: Wall Street Journal
Bottom line: “Despite some flaws and feature omissions, the iPhone is, on balance, a beautiful and breakthrough handheld computer. Its software, especially, sets a new bar for the smart-phone industry, and its clever finger-touch interface, which dispenses with a stylus and most buttons, works well, though it sometimes adds steps to common functions.”
- Reviewer: New York Times
Bottom Line: “The iPhone is revolutionary; it’s flawed. It’s substance; it’s style. It does things no phone has ever done before; it lacks features found even on the most basic phones.”
- Reviewer: Newsweek.
Bottom Line: “Even those who never buy one will benefit from its advances, as competitors have already taken Apple’s achievements as a wake-up call to improve their own products. But for all its virtues, the iPhone is still a risky venture because it’s yet to be proven that, despite the wow factor, millions of people are ready to pay several hundred dollars more than the going rate for phones.”
- Reviewer: USA Today
Bottom Line: “Even a prodigy needs to grow up. I’d love iPhone to deliver my company mail, tap into a faster data network and provide expandable memory, instant messaging and GPS. The price could be lower, too. My wish list aside, iPhone’s splash of a debut is worthy of the attention it is receiving.”
- So, overall, what statements can be made about the iPhone?
Pros: Visual voicemail, fantastic email,dazzling web browser,Google Maps with free traffic reports,beautiful interface
Cons: No memory card, no Java or Flash,no video camera, no 3G, expensive
Quoted from http://www.neomeme.net/2007/02/07/nine-cool-things-you-didnt-know-you-could-do-with-wikipedia%20:
Neomeme » Nine Cool Things You Didn’t Know You Could Do With Wikipedia
Nine Cool Things You Didn’t Know You Could Do With Wikipedia
Published by Ilya Lichtenstein on February 7, 2007 06:49 am under tutorial, Uncategorized
You probably know Wikipedia as the world’s largest encyclopedia, suitable for research on most any topic. You know you can look up terms, but what you may not know is that Wikipedia features a ton of other information that can do a lot more than help you with that research paper. Wikipedia can also be a:
- TV Episode Guide. Just search for “list of ____ episodes” with the name of the show, and you will see every episode catalogued and summarized, often with trivia and other factoids.
- Cliffs Notes Replacement. Don’t want to read that weighty tome for your literature class? Don’t worry, Wikipedia is on your side. Just type in the name of the book, and you will be presented with a plot summary, themes, symbols, and other in-depth analysis.
- Learning Activities. This is from Wikiversity, a Wikipedia sister site. Whether you are a student wanting extra practice for a difficult subject or a teacher looking for homework assignments or handouts for your students, Wikiversity provides tutorials and worksheets on subjects ranging from AJAX programming to Philosophy. Wikiversity is currently woefully incomplete, but many subject have lengthy, well-written tutorials.
- Stock Images Collection. Need royalty-free stock images for your next web design or desktop publishing project? Turn to Wikimedia Commons, where you can browse images by subject, licence, or author. So if you need, for example, a radioactive Diderot for that big presentation to the investors, you’re all set.
- Music Database. Want to discover new music? Wikipedia has extensive cataloguing of music by genre, making it easy to find similar bands to those you already like.
- Time Capsule. Want to know what people thought of a topic years ago? Wikipedia archives all changes, so simply by clicking on the “history” tab on top of the page and then “Earliest” on the very bottom you can see an article as it was written years ago. Aside from demonstrating the fluid and ever-changing nature of Wikipedia, but also offers a glimpse into how people thought years ago. The value of this technique will increase over the years as Wikipedia gets older.
- Future Planner. Just as it can go backward in time, Wikipedia can also go backward forward. Wikipedia has articles stretching far into the next millennium. Want to see what you need to schedule for 2008? How about the World Cup in 2038? And be sure(assuming you’ve reached immortality) to pencil in the unsealing of that time capsule in 8113 AD.
- Trend Tracker. Perhaps even more important than what people are searching for on Google or other search engines is what people are researching. This page show the most popular Wikipedia articles. For example, following the Super Bowl, a lot of people went to research Prince,whose search numbers spiked recently. A list of sexual positions, however, remains an all-time favorite. Which brings us to our next and final topic:
- Teacher of Sex Positions. The list is more comprehensive than most books on the topic, complete with pictures. Hell, you can even use Wikipedia to look for porn.
And there you have it. I’ve only scratched the surface of the myriad uses of Wikipedia. It is truly an incredible resource I turn to time and time again. I conclude with this cartoon from xkcd, which pretty much sums everything up:
Quoted from http://www.linuxtoys.org/multiseat/multiseat.html:
Build a Six-headed, Six-user Linux System
Build a Six-Headed, Six-User Linux System
By Bob Smith
Introduction
A Multi-Seat Linux Box: This tutorial shows how to build a multi-head, multi-user Linux box using a recent distribution of Linux and standard USB keyboards and mice. Xorg calls this arrangement a “multi-seat” system.
Advantages of a Multi-Seat System: The advantages of multi-seat systems in schools, Internet cafe’s, and libraries include more than just saving money. They include much lower noise pollution, much less power consumption, and lowered space requirements. For many applications power and noise budgets are as important as initial cost.
Requirements: To build a multi-seat system you need a video adapter, keyboard, and mouse for each seat. For six seats, you’ll also need a motherboard with an AGP slot and five available PCI slots. In our test system we used USB keyboards and mice exclusively, but you can use a PS/2 keyboard and mouse for one seat if you wish.
Xorg 6.9 or later is required, but this already ships with many of the major distributions. Our test system uses the free version of Mandriva 2006 and we did not rebuild the kernel or install any additional packages.
Overview
We divide the implementation of a multi-seat system into five main steps:
- Select and Install the Hardware
- Install Linux
- Record Hardware Configuration
- Modify xorg.conf
- Modify gdm.conf
After installing the hardware and installing Linux, we read the hardware configuration from the lspci command from from the /proc/bus/input/devices file. Most of the effort in setting up a multi-seat system is in transcribing the hardware information into the xorg.conf file.
Step 1: Select and Install the Hardware
Selecting the Hardware: There are few set rules dictating what hardware to use in your multi-seat system. Of necessity, some of the keyboards and mice need to use USB, but there is no minimum CPU or memory requirements. We suggest building and testing a multi-seat system using a computer that you already have, and use the test results to help scale your hardware requirements. You may be surprised how modest the CPU and memory requirements are for a multi-seat system that is used only for web browsing.
If possible, try to use accelerated video cards, but for increased reliability, avoid video cards with on-board fans. Use recent video cards; older video cards often have a problem sharing the PCI bus. We’ve had good luck with nVidia cards but you can try recent cards from other manufacturers too.
Hardware for our test system: For our system we chose to use video cards based on the nVidia MX4000 chipset. They are accelerated, have no fans, and it was nice having one driver for all six video cards. The downside of nVidia is that the driver is closed source and you need to download and install it. If you use an nVidia card, be sure to check their web site for the recommended BIOS settings for your cards.
We used an ECS 755-A2 motherboard with an AMD64-3200 processor and 1 GB of RAM. Our power supply is a CoolMax 140mm Power Supply and the CPU heat sink is a Thermaltake “Sonic Tower”. During our testing we added a low noise fan to cool the video cards. Airflow is in at the bottom, past the video cards, up past the CPU cooler and out through the power supply. This airflow seemed to work pretty well. At quiescence, the CPU temperature was 31C, rising to only 38C after fifteen minutes of kernel compile. The current from the mains at quiescence was 0.25 amps, and during a kernel compile it was 0.35 amps.
You will probably need some USB hubs to connect all of the keyboards and mice. One problem to think about before permanently installing the hardware is cable management. Seven power cords, six monitor cables, three USB hubs, six keyboard cables, and six mice cables: that is a lot of cabling!
Step 2: Install Linux
Multi-seat capability is provided by Xorg 6.9/7.0 which already ships with most of the major distributions. When you install Linux, you might want to install all of the window managers including fluxbox and twm. If you are going to use the nVidia drivers, be sure to install the kernel source too.
Do the installation with all of the hardware connected and powered up. Mandriva did a great job detecting and configuring all six of our video heads. Select a default run level of 3 so that X does not start automatically after boot. You can check the installation by logging in and running startx. If all has gone well you should be able to move your mouse across all six monitors.
Mandriva makes up to ten entries in the /dev/input directory. We needed twelve since we had six keyboards and mice. We increased the limit to sixteen by changing the line in /etc/udev/ruled.d/50-mdk.rules from:
KERNEL==”event[0-9]*”, NAME=”input/%k”, MODE=”0600″
to:
KERNEL==”event[0-9a-f]*”, NAME=”input/%k”, MODE=”0600″
Step 3: Record Hardware Configuration
All hardware in our computer has a name that distinguishes it from similar hardware in the computer. In this step we record the names for each of our video heads, keyboards, and mice. Let’s start with the video cards.
Video cards are identified by their address on the PCI bus. We can list the hardware on the PCI buses using the lspci command. On our test system, the lspci command gives the following result: lspci | grep VGA 00:09.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV18 [GeForce4 MX 4000 AGP 8x] (rev c1) 00:0a.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV18 [GeForce4 MX 4000 AGP 8x] (rev c1) 00:0b.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV18 [GeForce4 MX 4000 AGP 8x] (rev c1) 00:0c.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV18 [GeForce4 MX 4000 AGP 8x] (rev c1) 00:0d.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV18 [GeForce4 MX 4000 AGP 8x] (rev c1) 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV18 [GeForce4 MX 4000 AGP 8x] (rev c1) The bus address is the first field in the lines above. The number before the colon identifies which PCI bus (computers often have more than one), and the second number gives the card address on the bus. You will need to know these addresses to build the xorg.conf configuration file.
The mice are easy to locate. Each mouse has an entry in the /dev/input directory. An ls can identify the mice. ls /dev/input/mouse* /dev/input/mouse0 /dev/input/mouse2 /dev/input/mouse4 /dev/input/mouse1 /dev/input/mouse3 /dev/input/mouse5 The keyboards are identified as a /dev/input/eventN file. Do a more of /proc/bus/input/devices. Each keyboard will have an entry that specifies the event file. The following two entries are for the first two keyboards in our system. more /proc/bus/input/devices I: Bus=0003 Vendor=046e Product=530a Version=0001 N: Name=”BTC Multimedia USB Keyboard” P: Phys=usb-0000:00:03.3-4.2.1/input0 H: Handlers=kbd event6 B: EV=120003 B: KEY=1000000000007 ff87207ac14057ff febeffdfffefffff fffffffffffffffe B: LED=1f I: Bus=0003 Vendor=046e Product=530a Version=0001 N: Name=”BTC Multimedia USB Keyboard” P: Phys=usb-0000:00:03.3-4.4.1/input0 H: Handlers=kbd event7 B: EV=120003 B: KEY=1000000000007 ff87207ac14057ff febeffdfffefffff fffffffffffffffe B: LED=1f
A table is a nice way to view all of the above information.
Seat Video Card Keyboard
(/dev/input/) Mouse
(/dev/input/)
| 0 |
00:09:0 |
event6 |
mouse0 |
| 1 |
00:10:0 |
event7 |
mouse1 |
| 2 |
00:11:0 |
event8 |
mouse2 |
| 3 |
00:12:0 |
event9 |
mouse3 |
| 4 |
00:13:0 |
event10 |
mouse4 |
| 5 |
01:00:0 |
event11 |
mouse5 |
Note the slight change in how the video cards are addressed. Also, you’ll find the numbering of the keyboards and mice easier if you plug each mouse into the same hub as its corresponding keyboard. Don’t worry too much about matching the video head to the keyboard. After setting everything up you can move the monitors or the keyboards around as needed.
Step 4: Build xorg.conf
The xorg.conf file has sections to describe keyboards, mice, video cards, monitors, screens, and seats. Most of the work in setting up a multi-seat system is correctly copying the information in the above table into the appropriate section of the xorg.conf file. Shown below is our configuration for seat 5. You should be able to use this configuration as a prototype for your additional seats. Note the places where the keyboard, mouse, and video card information is located. Since we were borrowing monitors for our test, we forced all of the monitors to be flat panel displays with a 1024 by 768 resolution. # Seat 5 Section “InputDevice” Identifier “Keyboard5″ Driver “evdev” Option “Device” “/dev/input/event11″ Option “XkbModel” “pc105″ Option “XkbLayout” “us” Option “XkbOptions” “compose:rwin” EndSection Section “InputDevice” Identifier “Mouse5″ Driver “mouse” Option “Protocol” “ExplorerPS/2″ Option “Device” “/dev/input/mouse5″ Option “ZAxisMapping” “6 7″ EndSection Section “Device” Identifier “device5″ Driver “nvidia” VendorName “NVIDIA Corp.” BoardName “NVIDIA GeForce4 (generic)” BusID “PCI:0:13:0″ EndSection Section “Monitor” Identifier “monitor5″ ModelName “Flat Panel 1024×768″ HorizSync 31.5 - 48.5 VertRefresh 40.0 - 70.0 ModeLine “768×576″ 50.0 768 832 846 1000 576 590 595 630 ModeLine “768×576″ 63.1 768 800 960 1024 576 578 590 616 EndSection Section “Screen” Identifier “screen5″ Device “device5″ Monitor “monitor5″ DefaultDepth 24 SubSection “Display” Virtual 1024 768 Depth 24 EndSubSection EndSection Section “ServerLayout” Identifier “seat5″ Screen 0 “Screen5″ 0 0 InputDevice “Mouse5″ “CorePointer” InputDevice “Keyboard5″ “CoreKeyboard” EndSection There is a simple trick to help verify that all the numbers in the xorg.conf file are right — pass the file through sort and uniq.
cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf | sort | uniq The output of the above command string will make obvious any errors in numbering the various keyboards and such.
Testing Your Xorg.conf File: It is a good idea to test your configuration and to sort out the keyboards and mice by bringing up the heads one at a time. Login remotely so that you are not using any of the video heads. Enter the following commands for each of the six heads (0 to 5). (The commands below are for head 5.)
X -novtswitch -sharevts -nolisten tcp -layout seat5 :5 & xterm -display :5 & If the above command fails, examine the error messages and check the xorg.conf file. If the command succeeds, use the xterm to help identify which keyboard and mouse go to which head. The keyboards, mice, and video cards are enumerated in the same order on every boot, so you will only have to move things around during the initial set up.
The above commands might be sufficient if you don’t need user logins. For example, a six headed kiosk might need only X and a web browser on each head.
Step 5: Modify gdm.conf
If you want user logins you will need to modify the configuration for your preferred display manager. The directions given here are for gdm but the changes are very similar for kdm, or for the X display manager, xdm.
Modify the [servers] section near the bottom of the /etc/X11/gdm/gdm.conf file to tell gdm which X servers to start. The lines should be: 0=Standard0 1=Standard1 2=Standard2 3=Standard3 4=Standard4 5=Standard5 You need to tell gdm how to start the X server on each head. The lines to do this are: [server-Standard5] name=Standard server command=/usr/X11R6/bin/X -nolisten tcp -novtswitch -sharevts -layout seat5 flexible=true You’ll need a section like the above for each head. The server name, “Standard5″ in the above example, must match the name given in the [servers] section. Customize the X command line options to meet the requirements of your particular system.
Once everything is configured, you should be able to start graphical logins by switching to runlevel 5. telinit 5 If everything works, make the default runlevel 5 by editing /etc/inittab or by setting it using drakconf.
Test Results, Costs, and Problems
Performance Results: Between resets, we found performance to be excellent for six users doing typical PC tasks, including web browsing, email, word processing, and games. The accelerated graphics cards seemed to do most of the work so that even arcade style games and web-based video did not put much of a load on the CPU. If “3200″ is an accurate assessment of the performance of the AMD64-3200, then a CPU with a performance of “1600″ would have been more than sufficient.
Cost: Not including the monitor, each seat in our system cost about $67. This includes $40 for the MX4000 based video card, $20 for a USB keyboard, $5 for a USB mouse, and $2 for half of a USB hub. Our test system uses expensive keyboards that have a built-in USB hub which we intended for per user flash disks or audio players.
The shared part of our system cost about $520. This includes $180 for the CPU, $50 for the motherboard, $90 for RAM, and $50 for the CPU heat sink. The case, power supply, and disk drive had a combined cost of about $150.
We give these prices just for comparison. You may find lower prices that these and we’d certainly recommend that you replace our $230 CPU and motherboard with an Athlon 2800+ set that costs about $80. We have not included the cost of the monitors since these prices are in free fall and your particular needs and tastes may dictate what you spend.
Problems: Did you catch the phrase “between resets” above? While the system worked very well, it was extremely unstable. In particular, we got a kernel oops fairly often when we logged out. A syslog trace of one such oops is available here. We’ve tried several things to fix this problem including:
- turning APIC off and on
- reducing the number of heads
- trying the ‘nv’ and ‘vesa’ drivers
- using NoInt10
- upgrading to the official X11R6.9 release
- upgrading to the 2.6.15 kernel
- using xdm and fvwm instead of gdm and Gnome
The problem persists. Please let bsmith at linuxtoys dot org know if you have any ideas that might help fix this problem.
A much less severe problem is that some programs assume that there is a single user on the PC. Screen savers can take a lot of CPU power and both KDE and Gnome complain if they don’t have audio output. Any shared resource, such as audio or a CD burner, can be a problem.
Longer term, we will need to address security issues surrounding multi-seat computers. Whether from students or cafe patrons, these systems are going to come under deliberate, malicious attack. Can we trust KDE and Gnome to withstand such attacks?
Summary
A multi-head, multi-user Linux system is now possible using commodity PC hardware and standard Linux distributions. Multi-seat Linux PCs seem inevitable given the potential savings in cost, noise, and power.
Further Reading
Chris Tyler’s page: Chris Tyler provided support at almost every step of the way in this project. His web site has a HOWTO that also describes how to set up a multi-seat system. Chris is something of an expert in X and I’m looking forward to his next book which will contain some of the material presented here. Chris’ web site is at:
http://blog.chris.tylers.info/
Xorg man pages: Xorg provides a full set of manual pages that describe the xorg.conf file and all of the commands used in getting X-Windows to run. The manual page for xorg.conf is at:
http://wiki.x.org/X11R6.9.0/doc/html/xorg.conf.5.html
The manual pages for the X commands are at:
http://wiki.x.org/X11R6.9.0/doc/html/manindex1.html
Quoted from http://thebrowser.blogs.fortune.com/2007/06/29/the-iphone-is-business-medias-paris-hilton/:
The Browser: Analyzing the tech biz The iPhone is business media’s Paris Hilton «
The iPhone is business media’s ParisHilton
The Browser nowunderstands how the folks attelevision news organizations like CNN(part of the CNN/Money family)feel when they privately complain aboutleading the news with stories about Paris Hilton. They know the story is overhyped and lacks the value of other news, but they struggle with the fact thatviewers seem to love it, even demand it.
The iPhone isourParis Hilton.
The news value of the product launch doesn’t merit all the coverage it is getting - but yeteverytimeThe Browser writes about the iPhonewegettons of reader feedback. (Some of it comes from Apple (AAPL)enthusiasts who seem to pore over every sentence looking for hidden or overt anti-Apple bias.) Sowe feed the beast with more iPhone stories and blog posts.
And like Paris Hilton, the iPhone won’t go away.To paraphrase New Yorkmagazine’s Undulating Curve of Shifting Expectations, there will be backlash to the iPhone and then backlash to the backlash. (We’rewell past the overhype stage, so expect the iPhone to be uncool in about 3 days, and so uncool-it’s-coolby mid July.)
Perhaps by the time we hitthe backlash to the backlash to the backlashwecan moveon to blogging about other news of the day. Like Paris Hilton’s latest exploit. Meanwhile, keep reading the Browser for more about, you guessed it, the iPhone.
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