mightymouse dot net

July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 April 2002 March 2002 February 2002 January 2002 December 2001 November 2001 October 2001 September 2001 August 2001 July 2001 June 2001 May 2001 April 2001 March 2001

AUGUST 2004

---

29th August 2004

---

A friend came over today, Mr Tegala himself. He came over early in the morning with his Xbox (and all kitted out in an Xbox T-Shirt and Cap!?) and it was our mission to mod it into the ultimate mediacenter. He bought along a Mega X-Key and the plan was to use that along with my copy of 007: Agent Under Fire to run an exploit and flash the TSOP in the Xbox to a new BIOS. It all probably sounds complicated and geeky, but I will explain some more when I finish writing my own Xbox hacking article which will go into detail of what it all means. I will get it done soon, I promise! Anyway, because of stupid problems we spent hours and hours trying to get this done. It took a while to figure out how to get the savegame onto the Mega X-Key. I had the software loaded onto a Windows 2000 VirtualPC on my Macintosh, but as the Windows 2000 install was new it was hiding the file extensions. Not just that, but I didn't have Winzip installed so I didn't know that the savegames were in Zip format. Got it sorted out in the end on my Windows XP machine. I couldn't find my Silver Conductive Paint so we ended up driving to Maplin in Watford to get some. Had to get a tiny paintbrush from WH Smiths while we were there. The next waste of time was when we couldn't figure out how to copy the savegame from the X-Key to the Xbox... it was very obvious when I finally figured it out, but annoying nonetheless. Finally when we were restoring the backup of his Xbox data to the new 120GB hard disk it was transferring at 40KB/s, which took nearly an hour because the FTP server in EvoX is rubbish. So much drama. It was amusing seeing the fear in Teg's eyes everytime that pesky 'Contact Customer Support' Xbox dashboard crash screen appeared :)
Track of the day: Third Eye Blind - Semi Charmed Life

---

25th August 2004

---

There was a problem with panic in that we did not realise there were two different versions of the Intel SCB2 motherboard available, one with IDE and one with SCSI. The idea was to buy an IDE Backplane for it and swap it over with the SCSI one so we could use cheaper and bigger disks. But, seeing as there were no IDE connectors on the motherboard (only blanks where they should have been) we were kinda stuck. We could use a PCI IDE Controller, and run some cables to the backplane which would sort out the problem, but in the end we thought it was too much of a hack (PCI IDE, longer cables, using up the PCI slot). After a lot of thought and looking at prices we came to the firm conclusion that SCSI is fine. We bought two Fujitsu MAP3735NC 73GB 10,000rpm U320 80pin SCA badboys on the 23rd and they are here now.
Track of the day: Da Lench Mob - Ain't Got No Class

---

18th August 2004

---

Bought a new server a couple of days ago and it arrived today. We have one running at dmesg.printk.net that we built in March 2003. This one is called panic.printk.net and is designed to be a more stable and secure platform for email and web, leaving dmesg for more fun and experimental stuff. Now that we have two servers, one can provide backup services for the other and we should be able to have hugely better reliability. Well, that is the idea. The machine we bought is an Intel SR1200 chassis with the SCB2 motherboard populated with two Intel PIII 1.26GHz Tualatin 512KB L2 processors, 512MB PC133 ECC Reg memory and an 18GB 10,000rpm U160 80pin SCA disk. Its great!
Track of the day: Macy Gray - I Can't Wait to Meetchu

---

12th August 2004

---

Track of the day: Outkast - Jazzy Belle

---

8th August 2004

---

Had a lot of stuff lying about, so I put some of it up on eBay. Anyone wanna buy:

• 4.3GB 50pin SCSI Disk
• Sun Sparcstation 20
• Sun GX Framebuffer Card
• Sun 10/100 Ethernet + 68pin SCSI Card

Track of the day: Cypress Hill - Valley of Chrome

---

7th August 2004

---

Got back from work fairly early and messed about on my computer for a bit. Finally got around to fixing the hardware page and sorting out the me page so that its xhtml compliant again. Left the house a little after 5pm on my bike and head for central London to meet my friend Saeed in Regents Park. There was a band playing crazy funky music, and they had a double bass, so it was all good. After chilling out for a while, we followed some signs to Fruitstock on the other side of the park. We sat, talked and messed about for a while before heading out again up Primrose Hill. We saw the same guy with the radio controlled car we saw back in June. The view was great, but I had to get back in time for dinner so we cycled back down to Baker St where I got the tube back up with my bike. Didn't actually do much cycling today, but it was fun relaxing in the sunshine.
Track of the day: Rahzel - Guess (You Never Knew)

---

1st August 2004

---

Got up at the crack of dawn. Why? Nobody knows. Sat up in my sleeping bag for a little while thinking about what to do before I got a little claustrophobic of our 2 man tent and had to get out. Got my stuff together and got out to meet a lot of dew and a great feeling of freshness you just don't get in a city. There was not a single soul awake, and nothing moved apart from birds and the horses. I reckoned on about two hours before people get up and we can get moving. It was fairly cold and damp at this time in the morning. I cycled around listening to Jurassic 5 and having fun with my camera to kill some time. After a couple of hours things had warmed up and dried up nicely, we packed our stuff into the car and could get a move on.

Parked up in the small town of Ormskirk ready to do some exploring. It was still early, and we headed off on some small roads through the countryside eastbound. The scenery was lovely with farms on either side, and cottages dotted on the road. We saw how they make turf as well. It was warm, and hardly any breeze, it couldn't be more perfect. After a little while we hit Burscough and followed the traffic to the Giant Car Boot Sale.

The boot sale was simply massive, the biggest I've ever been to. There was so much junk, it was amazing. After wandering around for a little while we didn't find anything worth buying and headed back out.

We headed back out north towards Rufford and cycled past the junction of the A565 we were at yesterday. It was defiantely time for some lunch, and we set ourselves a mission to get to Preston. But near the small town of Much Hoole we hit a little problem. Sid had about a dozen thorns in both his tires (Where had he been cycling? In a rose bush?), and pulling one out made it go flat. A couple of minutes, 2 new inner tubes and my mini-pump later, we were ready to roll again. Preparation for these things is pretty crucial, we would be stuck otherwise. I was out of inner tubes, but we had a puncture repair kit as well, so theoretically we should be ok.

We were flat out up to Preston, there was a slight following wind so it wasn't hard to keep up about 16-18MPH, and before we knew it, we were there. Had a short time relaxing for a minute with a baguette and some dandelion & burdock before looking at the time. We thought we had about 25 miles to go, and we had to be back in Ormskirk in 2 hours (It was less, more like 20 miles). Yikes. That means an average of 12.5MPH just to be on time. We pushed hard back down the A59, the headwind really wasn't helping. Every second of coasting we lost about 1MPH so we had to keep going all the way. We made good time, and with a water break after the first 50 minutes we managed to get back to the car in 1 hour 20 minutes. Knackered isn't the word.

Had a quick shower where Sid was staying and straight back into the car for a quick ride up to Wigan station. My train was cancelled, but there was an alternative route which was quite fast and had one change, so I wasn't too bothered. This weekend was amazing fun, we should do it again somewhere else. Did about 52 miles today. Seriously need some sleep now though!
Track of the day: The Herbaliser - Something Wicked