tech.nocr.at » keys

The PS3 Has Been Pwned, Again

Frank — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 06:07:19 +0000

Wasn’t it just yesterday that we reported on the new firmware for the PS3 that was suppose to stop all the jalbreaking? Well it seems that we we can now safely answer the question of whether or not it would stop people from unlocking their units for good.

A few mere hours was all it took to pick apart firmware 3.56. Hacker Youness Alaoui (aka KaKaRoToKs) announced on Twitter that he had successfully unpacked the new firmware and published it’s signing keys, paving the way for people to create custom firmware based on 3.56 and allowing hacked PS3s to regain access to the Playstation Network.

And the cat and mouse game is-a-foot. No doubt that Sony will release another security fix in a few days and that will be hacked as well. This reminds me of the old satellite hacking days where the big direct to home satellite providers would change their keys almost daily. Not with the intent of stopping hackers since their keys had been cracked, but with the intent to annoy the average person to the point that they stopped doing it. Now that they keys are in the wild I think that Sony’s only chance to stop this will be with the release of the PS4.

The PS3 Has Been Pwned, Again originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Sony 1 – Geohot 0

Frank — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 02:13:53 +0000

Remember the decision from a few weeks ago where a judge didn’t think they had jurisdiction to decide on the fate of jailbreaker George Hotz, aka Geohot? Well, Sony has finally seen their day in court and has managed to win a restraining order against Geohot.

We all know that once you put something on the internet it lives forever; the restraining order against Hotz only prevents him circulating the jailbreak. Sony would have to go after every single person who has the keys up to have any chance of stopping the spread of their keys. They can’t be that stupid, can they? Of course not.

Sony also released firmware version 3.56 today. Will the new firmware bring us new goodies? Not a chance. The purpose of the upgrade is to put a stop to all of the jailbreaking that has been running wild. We have confirmed that the update does indeed prevent jailbreaking, the question that remains is will it do so for good. After all, we do remember the cat and mouse game that went on for years with the PSP modding community.

Sony 1 – Geohot 0 originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/27. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

A Look At Android 3.0 – Honeycomb

Frank — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 01:17:27 +0000

Google gave everyone a sneak peak of the next version of Android (Honeycomb) at CES earlier this year. Today they released the SDK for the upcoming tablet geared OS. Here’s a look at what we all can expect from Honeycomb.

The biggest change is the UI. Older versions of Android weren’t geared towards tablets, Honeycomb changes all of that. You will now have more space on your home screen to accommodate more widgets and icons. As you can see from the image above, you will be able to fit all sorts of things on your home screen(s)

Home Screen(s)

The layout of the screens look much like older versions. There is a new 3D look to all of it that might cause problems with older hardware, the new Tegra 2′s should be able to handle it without much effort.

Notification Bar

The notification bar has been moved to the bottom ala Windows and they have added some new buttons that work like the capacitive hardware buttons on most Android devices. They have also added a recent apps button that will show you the current state of apps running the background.

Keyboard

The new keyboard is a great improvement over the older iteration with larger reshaped keys. They also include keys like “Tab” which should make the transition for desktop users easier. Copy and Paste has also seen some change. Much like iOS, a long press will select a word and you can drag the selector to choose more text.

Over all it looks like a great improvement, especially if you are running 2.2 on a tablet currently (like I am). A welcome upgrade if I ever saw one.

A Look At Android 3.0 – Honeycomb originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/26. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

DIY: Lock Your Door Via Text Message

Frank — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 19:44:53 +0000

Billy Chasen thought that using keys to open his office was so 2000 so he decided to build a door lock/unlock system via text message.

Using a servo motor, a tiny web server, and some piping claps from Home Depot he built a unit that can lock or unlock a door via a text message. The system uses a white list of allowed users so people can’t randomly open his door.

As you can see from the video above, the unit works well. Some clean up and maybe a project box for the unit is in order, but it doesn’t take away from the unit’s functionality. If your not up to using SMS you could always consider the WiFi Door Opener or the Secret Knock Door Lock.

[Link to Opening A Door Via Text Message]

DIY: Lock Your Door Via Text Message originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/16. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

PSP Keys Hacked

Frank — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 02:54:40 +0000

First is was fail0verflow crippling the PS3 security and now Mathieulh has revealed that he has found the KIRK encryption/decryption keys that are used to sign PSP code.

What does all of this mean? Much like the PS3 keys that were discovered last week during a presentation at the CCC, any piece of software for the PS3′s little brother the PSP can now be signed as if it was actually from Sony. Sony and the PSP homebrew community have been playing a cat and mouse game for years and it now looks that it will all come to and end.

Homebrew for the PSP can now be signed with the proper keys and therefore make it look like legitimate software. No more custom firmware or loaders needed in the near future, a homebrew modders dream come true.

PSP Keys Hacked originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/02. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Top 10 Of 2010

Frank — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 05:51:37 +0000

Another year is almost behind us and thanks to our dedicated and loyal readers our 3rd successful year bringing you the latest in gadgets, gaming, technology and the bizarre.

We have brought the monkeys in (by monkeys we mean a crafty worded perl script) and have compiled the the most viewed posts here on tech.nocr.at. This list doesn’t just contain posts from 2010, it contains the top ten most viewed posts this year regardless of when they were created.

Without further ado, tech.nocr.at’s top 10 posts of 2010:

Let us know in the comments what were your favorite posts of 2010.

Top 10 Of 2010 originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/12/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2010 | Permalink | Comments | Read more in Tech News | Explore more in: 2010, ac, cable, cat, comments, distro, diy, door, ds, ea, game, Gaming, id, ipod, key, keys, knock, led, leech, linux, loa, lock, mobile, nginx, open, os, pen, press, ring, rip, secret, sega, shuffle, speed, tech.nocr.at, technology, vga, wifi, wordpress, wp super cache | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

Duplicate Keys From An Image

Frank — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 03:48:10 +0000

Think your keys are safe on your desk? Think again. Computer programmers at UC San Diego have created some software that can pose a serious threat. Dubbed “Sneakey”, it can analyze an image (not even a good one) of a key from almost any angle and create an exact replica. In the picture above, the team successfully reproduced a key using an image that was shot with a telephoto lens from 200 feet away.

“You only need to click a few control points in the image of the key and the ‘Sneakey’ program does the rest,” programmer Benjamin Laxton told a UCSD reporter, “It normalizes the key’s size and position so that each pixel then corresponds to a known distance. From this information the height of each of the key cuts can easily be computed and likewise the bitting code can be extracted.”

What can you do to protect yourself? Apparently not much. Keep your keys in your pocket at all times and you should be safe.

Duplicate Keys From An Image originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/11/06. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Rebooting Linux Magically

Frank — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 12:23:46 +0000

If you have ever had a filesystem fail on you in Linux then you are quite aware of that “bottom of the pit” feeling you get in your stomach, especially if you are remote to the server and have no physical access to it. What to do if the system can’t load the reboot or shutdown binaries to reboot your system and have fsck save your butt.

magic SysRq key is a feature built in to the kernel that lets you preform a number of interesting operations inculding rebooting a system. You can issue keystrokes to the magic SysRq device in /proc so you can send a hard reboot directly to the kernel with no disk access required.

[Link to Linux Journal article on rebooting via SysRq]

Rebooting Linux Magically originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/08/26. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Split Keyboard

Frank — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 04:16:20 +0000

A keyboard with a built in Wacom, awesome. Alright, so it’s not exactly a Wacom that sits nestled between the QWERTY and YUIOP keys, but it does act as an independant desktop display with pen-based input capabilities.

According to the manufacture, the design is “said to provide benefit in keeping your wrists in a more neutral position, so why not take advantage of that empty space between the QWERT and the YUIOP to get some more work done.”

Although the patents for the technology date all the way back to 1994 to 1997, the guys over at Ergonomic Keyboards now say “Shipping in 2008″ on their website, which coincidently looks like it was built sometime between 1994 and 1997

Split Keyboard originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/08/15. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

DYI Chromakey Screen

Frank — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 05:22:08 +0000

One of the most difficult things about getting really clean chromakeys is making sure that your green/blue screen is nice and smooth and free of wrinkles.

Here’s a how-to for building a nice green/blue screen for chromakey effects. The design uses fabric ties for a nice taught trampoline like look.

Link to Cheap Portable Chromakey Screen

DYI Chromakey Screen originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/06/26. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Order Pizza From The Command Line

Frank — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 16:42:13 +0000

Only for the truly hardcore. Why would you do something as simple as pick up the phone to order a pizza from Dominos when you can simply use the command line to get you some zza.

“Pizza Party is a free text based software package for ordering pizza, or for throwing pizza parties. Pizza Party has many features to make ordering pizza easy:

Can order pizza with only a few keystrokes.
Can save pizza preferences.
Can use batch files for ordering many pizzas.
Has easy to use flags for ordering different toppings.
Runs on most UNIX-like operating systems.
Supports most currently popular topings like “mushrooms”, and “pepperoni”!
Unattended / background operation.
Pizza Party is distributed under the GNU General Public License.”

Just imagine, a cron job that would order pizza for you on a schedule. Priceless.

Order Pizza From The Command Line originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/06/10. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Wine Stopper USB Key

Frank — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 17:07:58 +0000

I know that there are many useless USB keys on the market. From dinosaurs to hello kitty dolls, but a wine cork? Brilliant. Key all of your sensitive and confidential data on one of these then pop it into a bottle. I mean, who would ever think to look inside of a wine cork for a USB key? Just make sure you don’t start drinking too much wine and toss the bottle and cork out with the recycling.

Wine Stopper USB Key originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/06/06. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

How To Open Any Door With A Single Key

Frank — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 15:02:21 +0000

Bump keys have been around since the dawn of time, okay, maybe since the dawn of locksmithing. With a bump key any door is vulnerable.. or that is what the guy in the video says. You will be taught how to make a bump key that will help you open any door. The only condition is to have some skill and the key to fit in the lock.

I wonâ€™t comment on any moral issues that comes with the video. I will say, remember that using a bump key on a door that isnâ€™t yours is considered illegal.

How To Open Any Door With A Single Key originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/02/04. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

How To: Upgrade Your Old Mac To Run OS X

Frank — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 21:22:24 +0000

Now that the 24th anniversary of the Mac is upon is, and now that Macworld is literally just around the corner, why not a fun and cool hack to get that old 512k Mac you may have lying around or sitting in the closet put to good use?

The hack allows you to still use the original Mac 512k keyboard and mouse, and by using an Atmel AT90USB162 to create a standard USB HID device the keyboard and mouse appear as standard USB devices, as will any modern USB deviceYou don’t even have to spend countless hours coding drivers for the custom micro-controllers that make it all work, it’s available right on the site.

[Via Hackaday]

â€œThis is a Macintosh 512k which I upgraded to run OS X by replacing the innards with a modern Mac Mini and various supporting components, including a grayscale CRT monitor, an LS-120 floppy disk drive, and a microcontroller-based USB device that interfaces the Mini to the original keyboard and mouse. Why? Mainly because I wanted to experiment with creating a custom USB device. Also I guess I wanted to waste hundreds of dollars and countless hours building a semi-useless computer with a 9 inch black and white screen and no arrow keys.
The most interesting part of the project for me was the circuit that allows the old original keyboard and mouse to be used with the Mini. It is based on an Atmel AT90USB162 microcontroller, which is basically a standard AVR ÂµC with a special coprocessor dedicated to USB signaling. It comes with a C library that makes it relatively easy to create USB devices like HID keyboards and mice, speakers, storage devices, etc.â€

How To: Upgrade Your Old Mac To Run OS X originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/01/14. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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USB Credit Card

Frank — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 03:46:02 +0000

I have enough trouble keeping track of all of the usb keys i either own or owned at some point in time, imagine if that usb key was your credit card. Koreans can now share in all of the fun of having their credit cards on their key chains. Wave this baby near a cash register and you’ll pick up the bill, just be careful not to pay for the dude next to you. The really neat thing about it is by plugging it into your computer you can make online purchases without having to remember your verification code.

For the love of God, don’t lose your keys!

USB Credit Card originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2007/12/28. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

SuperCoder 2000

Frank — Unknown, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

The SuperCoder 2000 is the perfect keyboard for coders, come on, how many keys do coders really need? I wonder what this post would have looked like if I used the SuperCoder 2000?

01 01 01 00 01 10 10 00 01 10 01 01 00 10 00 00 01 01 00 11 01 11 01 01 01 11 00 00 01 10 01 01 01 11 00 10 01 00 00 11 01 10 11 11 01 10 01 00 01 10 01 01 01 11 00 10 00 10 00 00 00 11 00 10 00 11 00 00 00 11 00 00 00 11 00 00 00 10 00 00 01 10 10 01 01 11 00 11 00 10 00 00 01 11 01 00 01 10 10 00 01 10 01 01 00 10 00 00 01 11 00 00 01 10 01 01 01 11 00 10 01 10 01 10 01 10 01 01 01 10 00 11 01 11 01 00 00 10 00 00 01 10 10 11 01 10 01 01 01 11 10 01 01 10 00 10 01 10 11 11 01 10 00 01 01 11 00 10 01 10 01 00 00 10 00 00 01 10 01 10 01 10 11 11 01 11 00 10 00 10 00 00 01 10 00 11 01 10 11 11 01 10 01 00 01 10 01 01 01 11 00 10 01 11 00 11 00 10 11 00 00 10 00 00 01 10 00 11 01 10 11 11 01 10 11 01 01 10 01 01 00 10 00 00 01 10 11 11 01 10 11 10 00 10 11 00 00 10 00 00 01 10 10 00 01 10 11 11 01 11 01 11 00 10 00 00 01 10 11 01 01 10 00 01 01 10 11 10 01 11 10 01 00 10 00 00 01 10 10 11 01 10 01 01 01 11 10 01 01 11 00 11 00 10 00 00 01 10 01 00 01 10 11 11 00 10 00 00 01 10 00 11 01 10 11 11 01 10 01 00 01 10 01 01 01 11 00 10 01 11 00 11 00 10 00 00 01 11 00 10 01 10 01 01 01 10 00 01 01 10 11 00 01 10 11 00 01 11 10 01 00 10 00 00 01 10 11 10 01 10 01 01 01 10 01 01 01 10 01 00 00 11 11 11 00 10 00 00 00 10 00 00 01 00 10 01 00 10 00 00 01 11 01 11 01 10 11 11 01 10 11 10 01 10 01 00 01 10 01 01 01 11 00 10 00 10 00 00 01 11 01 11 01 10 10 00 01 10 00 01 01 11 01 00 00 10 00 00 01 11 01 00 01 10 10 00 01 10 10 01 01 11 00 11 00 10 00 00 01 11 00 00 01 10 11 11 01 11 00 11 01 11 01 00 00 10 00 00 01 11 01 11 01 10 11 11 01 11 01 01 01 10 11 00 01 10 01 00 00 10 00 00 01 10 10 00 01 10 00 01 01 11 01 10 01 10 01 01 00 10 00 00 01 10 11 00 01 10 11 11 01 10 11 11 01 10 10 11 01 10 01 01 01 10 01 00 00 10 00 00 01 10 11 00 01 10 10 01 01 10 10 11 01 10 01 01 00 10 00 00 01 10 10 01 01 10 01 10 00 10 00 00 01 00 10 01 00 10 00 00 01 11 01 01 01 11 00 11 01 10 01 01 01 10 01 00 00 10 00 00 01 11 01 00 01 10 10 00 01 10 01 01 00 10 00 00 01 01 00 11 01 11 01 01 01 11 00 00 01 10 01 01 01 11 00 10 01 00 00 11 01 10 11 11 01 10 01 00 01 10 01 01 01 11 00 10 00 10 00 00 00 11 00 10 00 11 00 00 00 11 00 00 00 11 00 00 00 11 11 11

Ouch, I’ll stick to my qwerty keyboard.

SuperCoder 2000 originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2007/09/06. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

New iPhone Killer? Motorola ROKR E8 and E7 Leaked

Frank — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

I must say, this phone does look quite slick. The picture above is the new Motorola ROKR E8, it’s basically a thin bar shaped handset with a JAVA/Linux based interface. It is rumoured to have 2GB of integrated memory and a microSD memory card slot for expandability. With a 2-megapixel camera, touch sensitive keys, mini USB port and a standard 3.5 mm audio jack for music it’s set to be a slick unit.

Now the above might just be the one cell phone that will give the iPhone a run for it’s money. The E7 is expected to have a touch-screen TFT display with VGA resolution, a 5 megapixel camera with 3x optical zoom and xenon flash, GoForce 5500 graphics accelerator, GPS, Wi-Fi, and 2 GB of internal memory. Plus it’s only 14 mm thick. This might just be the perfect iPhone alternative.

New iPhone Killer? Motorola ROKR E8 and E7 Leaked originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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