Backing Up Wii Games

Having purhcased a USB Gecko some time ago from OZModChips and since updating my wii to the new 3.4 Firmware (I know... shouldn't have done that), it became difficult to backup my game collection via wifi.

With that in mind I decided to switch back to using the USB Gecko to get things rolling again.

I found on the USBGecko site (www.usbgecko.com) a Wii mode ripper that claimed to be nice and fast and utilise the gecko's usb connection.

By following these steps, I am now able to once again backup my games and make sure they dont get scratched.

1. Download the following package - http://rapidshare.com/files/133785362/usbwiirip1.zip
2. Unzip the package to somewhere on your computer.
3. Inside the ZIP File is a readme.txt file that will explain exactly what needs to be installed and to where.
4. Once all is installed - Run the wiiripper
5. Insert the disc you wish to backup into your wii
6. Plug in your USBGecko to port B of your Wii
7. Run the PC Application that comes in the zip file
8. Click on the USB Menu and press the Connect button
9. Select Single or Dual layer Wii Disc
10. And press the backup button
11. Set the location for the backup to be saved to
12. Press OK

Sit back for four hours and wait for it all to happen.

Hope that helps someone new to the wii

Google Streetview - Why is it so?

Simple question.. who uses it???

Why is this such a major update to the iPhone that it was required to be released before frikkin Turn-By-Turn? COME ON APPLE.. think about it!

XBOX vs Wii - A simple test

My brother has just purchase an XBOX 360. He asked me to make an adapter to power the extra dvd drive he has from a pc.

Seemingly this is required because the xbox doesn't use a standard power adapter. Okay fine I can live with that. Why has no one created an app for the 360 that will let you rip the games for backing up over wifi.. ohh thats right... its not a wii.. cough cough splutter splutter. I thought my machine was inferior... turns out... NOT SO MUCH

iPhone 2.2 Update - Better Battery Life

I updated my iPhone to firmware 2.2 this morning, jail broke it using quickpwn as I'm not worried about the unlocking side of things. I have to say the battery life on this is fantastic!



Now it could just be me and wishful thinking however I've been able to send a few text messages make a few calls, make a few voip calls via wifi, GPS all over the city and I still have life left in my battery.



I do however have an idea. Why don't we start measuring battery life. Something simple like play a known mp3 track over and over and see just how long it takes for the battery life on the phone to deplete. Get a number of users who haven't upgraded to do the same thing and average the results.



Then take others that have upgraded, run through the same process and see what kinds of figures we get to.



Now that I think of it. Time to start a post on xsellize.com and see what we come up with.

Wii Ramblings

So I've been messing around with the wii for quite some time now. And have come to a conclusion

Those waiting for Warranties to run out are wasting their time and money.

Look at it this way. Here in aus a wii sets you back roughly $388.
A modchip costs - $150 installed
So with that in mind... Wii + Modchip = 388 + 150 = $538

Now with those two items games have gone down in price from $40-$90 down to about the cost of a DVD.

So working on that theory... If we divide the number of games required to make $388 which is the price of a we, we get a figure of roughly 6 Games @ $70 a pop (Which most of the good games are priced at)

Considering I know some people with collections over 55 Games which if purhcased at that price would amount to $3850 ... thats the same as buying 9 Wii consoles with some change left over.

So why wait for warranty to run out when the savings your making on your "backups" more than pays for the wii quite a few times.

Have been playing with mPlayer on the wii and have to say its comming along in leaps and bounds. If only someone could get XBMC to run on the wii.. that would be heaven. A wifi Media Streamer small enough to take with you :D

The Blessed iPhone

Well its been quite some time since I actually updated this blog, so thought it was time to put some more words down.

I've been playing with my iPhone alot lately, and have not got it up to the stage where the only thing missing is GPS Turn-By-Turn.

Forward text messages - Check
MMS Messaging - Check
Turn-By-Turn - Not happening :(

So how did I do it... well with the use of jailbreaks and cydia software installer.

After Jailbreaking your phone the two apps you want to utilise are SwirlyMMS which takes care of the MMS Settings. And biteSMS.

biteSMS is made with the idea that you will purchase SMS credits from them and use the app to send text messages at a reduced rate. The other thing this application does is allow you to use your cellular carrier to send messages.

So with the app setup to use my carrier all I do is slide my finger over an existing message and a popup menu appears.

Select Forward and BOOM away goes the message to whomever I choose.

SwirlyMMS cost me $8 and was the best money i've ever spent.

The Swirly team are constantly updating the app with fixes and optimisations so its deffinatly worth a look.

iPhone Craze Hits Me Too!

So after a long wait I finally have my own shiny black iphone to play with. AFter jailbreaking it withint the first hour of getting it home, I've not got a number of apps that I use daily, the most of which is twitterific. Absolutly loving being able to tweet from anywhere on the planet where the phone works.

Comming in september is some form of promising update that hopes to allow turn by turn GPS.. about time.. the whole reason i go tthe iphone over anything else... It looks cool, its so easy to use the anyone can pic it p and work it. And theres a great developer buzz about the device... so i expect quite a few kool apps to come.

I'll update this as when i learn somethign new :D

µTorrent Just Got Even Better

Not only is µTorrent one of the most fantastic torrent clients, it also turns out you can use to pass the time by playing tetris. How? I hear you ask. Well here's how:

1. Click Help --> About µTorrent
2. When the about box appears press the t for Tetris key and enjoy the game :D

Need to pause the action.. simply press p to pause and p again to resume.

So there you have it, the best BitTorrent client just got better.

Was Dying To Go Wii Wii's

So I finally bit the bullet and got myself a Wii. One of the best retail shopping decisions I have made in the past few years.

Not only is this thing fun to play with, but the consoles footprint in the TV Unit is so small you hardly need to move things around to get it in t here. The piano white looks amazing with most of the other hardware in the unit and the Silver plastic of the Wii Bar is the same as my LCD tv so I can't complain.

The games I've played so far:

• Mario Kart Wii
• Wii Sports
• Wii Play
• Crash Bandicoot Crapola or something like that.

With Mario Kart Wii came a plastic steering wheel shaped housing for the WiiMote, simply slide the WiiMote into the wheel and its like having one of those sensitive just like being there racing wheels. Sure you feel like a bit of a DORK holding this wheel up in the air like you did as a kid pretending to drive, but that soon wavers in favour of the fact you actually interacting with your new gaming machine.

I've also purchased myself a recharging station that plugs into the Wii's power pack. Not only is this solution elegant but it also leaves both USB ports available for controllers and keyboards when required. The bright Blue LED's that indicate when a controller is charging mimic the same colour as the Wii's DVD LED.

Which brings me to my next point. WiiConnect24... An idea that I personally think is fantastic. Why is fantastic? Well imagine that you need to remind yourself of something. Simply setup a email from your email client to be sent in the future at the time required and BOOM the DVD light flashes bright blue to let you know you have a new message to read :D Okay so its not that great, but its a nice feature non the less.

The WiiMote and Nun chuck are an absolute delight to use. Both easy to hold in the hand of a child and an adult, and in use they are very intuitive. The ability to store up to 10 of your Mii's (More on those later) inside the controller also allows playing games on a friends machine as yourself when ever or where ever you are.. Of course, providing you take the WiiMote with you.

Online okay is available for free.. that's right, completely free so you can play your mates whenever you like with no further ongoing costs such as those charge by M$ for their Live service.

At the moment all I'm seeing is pluses for this Console..; if i find a bad point, I'll let you know.

OpenWRT Backup - Restore

So you've just configured this router just the way you like it. You've installed the required packages and all now its time to safeguard your baby and backup your router completly. (Apart from bootrom & nvram) To do t his couldn't be easier... simply enter the following into an ssh session:

dd if=/dev/mtd/1 of=/tmp/firmware.trx

Now all thats needed to do is SCP the firmware backup to your computer for safe keeping.

So now lets imagine you've done something silly like rm -r -f /jffs/* and now your routers now doing what u like... or maybe you've changed config settings all over the place so much so that u just want to go back to when it worked. Well fear now more, since we've backed up, one simply command and about 3 minutes and we'll be back to normal.

To restore all you need to do is enter the following into an ssh session:

mtd -r write firmware.trx linux

So there you go, all those lost nights sitting up awake scared of router mishaps, now you're safe.. *sigh* night night :p

X-WRT with TFTPD in minutes

Download X-wrt Whiterussian version.. NOT KAMIKAZE.. I REPEAT.. NOT!~!! (Ignore me, and it wont work.. trust me I tried)

SSH to the router, and copy and paste the following commands one by one.

ipkg update
ipkg install atftp
ipkg install ip
ipkg install kmod-ext2
cd /lib/modules/2.4.30
wget http://www.linuxdingsda.de/mmc.o
echo "0x9c" > /proc/diag/gpiomask
insmod mmc
insmod ext2
mkdir /mnt/sd

echo 'echo "0x9c" > /proc/diag/gpiomask
ifconfig vlan1:0 192.168.100.10 netmask 255.255.255.0
ip route add default via 192.168.100.1 dev vlan1 table default
iptables -I INPUT -p udp -i vlan1 -d 192.168.100.10 --sport 1024:65535 --dport 69 -j ACCEPT

iptables -I INPUT -p udp -d 192.168.0.1 --dport 69 -j ACCEPT
iptables -t nat -I PREROUTING 1 -p udp --dport 69 -j DNAT --to 192.168.100.10:69

iptables -I INPUT 1 -p udp --dport 53 -j ACCEPT

atftpd --no-timeout --daemon --port 69 --user root.root /tftpboot' >> /etc/init.d/S95custom-user-startup

then simply scp the files into /tftpboot and robert is your mothers brother.

Hope that helps :D

Setting up a WRT54G as a tftp server

Install SDCard mod

Although this option is not 100% necessary it does make things a lot easier for you in the long run.
-DangerzAU-

Once you have your SDCard modded as per the instructions here, you will need to add a few extra lines to your routers startup configuration.

In the DD-WRT web interface, click on Administration --> Commands
You will need to enter the following into the text box on this page, and then click the Save Startup button.

umount /jffs
mount -o bind /mmc /jffs

Effectivly what these two lines do are quite simple. The first un-mounts the default JFFS2 partition, and the second, well it mounts the sd-card (/mmc) as the /jffs partition.

Install OptWare packages

Now that you have the SDCard functioning, its time to install the OptWare packages. This will be required to allow the installation of Atftpd later in the guide.
The installation is actually quite simple, however most is done via the SSH or TelNet interface of your router.

~ # mkdir /jffs/opt
~ # mount -o bind /jffs/opt /opt

This will first create a new jffs folder for us to use as a virtual mount point, it then uses the bind option of the mount command to "virtual" mount this folder as our new /opt folder. Doing this allows us both read and write access to the /opt folder which is usually marked as read only on the WRT54G's squashFS filesystem.

The next step is to simply use a nice warm and fuzzy script thats been created to setup all the required packages/folders and config files for using OptWare

wget http://pastebin.ca/raw/876251 -O - tr -d '\r' > /tmp/optware-install.sh
sh /tmp/optware-install.sh

Effectively what this does is download the config file to the /tmp folder (Ram) and then runs that file to install optware.

The next step in the process is to add a few extra variables into the routers default path. This can be done with the following line:

export PATH=/opt/bin:/opt/sbin:$PATH
unset LD_LIBRARY_PATH

This needs to be put into the Start-up commands folder of your router via the web interface.

Installing ATFTP

Now that we have OptWare installed, its time to finish up by installing tftp.

this quite simple to do. all thats required is to issue the following command:

~ #/opt/bin/ipkg-opt install atftp

once that completes its just a matter of adding some routing and virtual network interfaces to the router to allow a modem to communicate with the router, hence working as its TFTP Server.

Add the following to your Startup Commands and all should be well..

export IPKG_CONF_DIR=/opt/etc
export PATH=$PATH:/opt/bin:/opt/sbin

ifconfig vlan1:0 192.168.100.10 netmask 255.255.255.0
ip route add default via 192.168.100.1 dev vlan1 table default
iptables -I INPUT -p udp -i vlan1 -d 192.168.100.10 --sport 1024:65535 --dport 69 -j ACCEPT

iptables -I INPUT -p udp -d 192.168.0.1 --dport 69 -j ACCEPT
iptables -t nat -I PREROUTING 1 -p udp --dport 69 -j DNAT --to 192.168.100.10:69

iptables -I INPUT 1 -p udp --dport 53 -j ACCEPT

Thats all it takes.

Save the startup config, and all as the say.. Is DONE!

How-to: Schedule your speakers to automatically mute overnight

The process is fairly simple. We need to use a free third party utility to allow the mute to take place. There are many utilities you could use for this such as NirCmd or Wizmo, but today to keep things simple I am going to use a program called Mute.

The next step is to set up a scheduled task to enable and disable these utilities. All of these utilities unload themselves from memory once they have run. This means that unmuting can still be controlled through your normal muting methods.

The setup for Vista and XP are slightly different, but you will find all the instructions after the jump

Start off by downloading your desired mute program and save it somewhere you can get to easily.

Windows XP:

Open “Scheduled Tasks” (inside accessories of the start menu)
Double Click “Add Scheduled Task”
Click “Next”
Browse to your utility; E.g. C:\mute.exe
Select when you want it to run. (I chose Daily).
Click “Next”
Select what time you want the task to run; E.g. 12:00am
Enter in your username and password
Click “Next”
Tick the Open Advanced Properties tick box
Click “Finish”
In the Run box, make it “C:\mute.exe on”

You will need to follow the steps above to make a second task to unmute your computer in the morning. You will need to change the name of it to unmute so that it does not conflict with the initial task.
This will need to have the off argument instead of on.

That’s it. Your computer should now mute and unmute itself at the times you specified.

Windows Vista:

The Vista setup is similar to the XP setup, but you get a few more options. You can set it to only occur if the computer has been idle for longer than 10 minutes. This means that your computer game or movie won’t be interrupted.

Open “Task Scheduler” (inside accessories of the start menu)
Click “Create New Task” (not basic)
Give it a name “Mute”
Go to the “Triggers” tab
Click “New” (defaults to schedule)
Enter the frequency and time you want the mute to occur
Click “OK”
Go to the “Actions” tab
Click “New” (defaults to run program)
Browse for your program and put in the necessary arguments; E.g. On
Click “OK”
Go to the “Conditions” tab
Here, define how long you want the computer to be idle before activating the mute.
Click “OK”

You will need to follow the steps above to make a second task to unmute your computer in the morning. You will need to change the name of it to unmute so that it does not conflict with the initial task. This will need to have the off argument instead of on.

That’s it. Your computer should now mute and unmute itself at the times you specified.

Conclusion:

As you can see, it is not overly hard to set this up. It is also not very hard to turn your speakers off when you go to bed. I am often forgetful though so this method is ideal for me.

LISTEN77 - Get your free mp3's here.

http://www.listen77.com/

Check it out.. search for a song... click on the song you want... When the popup window opens (I'm assuming your using firefox) simply press the control key + U and this will pop up the page source.

Simply do a search for .mp3 and you will soon see a rather long link... copy this link and paste it into your web browsers address bar... And BOOM.. the download dialogue appears asking where you would like to save your new mp3. Let it download.. you are now the proud owner of an mp3 you really wanted.. all thanks to Listen77.

JAWBONE - NOISE IS NOTHING!

A good friend on mine just sent me this link, not only is it interesting its aboslutly awesome the way this device removes ambiant noise. If only I could afford one. Absolutly fantastic.. me thinks I better start saving :D

Maybe one day, when I get really good at this blogging stuff, I might be allowed to have a review unit. But from the demo, do you really need to review it.. its simply.. AMAZING!

Although said good mate, also just posed a very very very good question.... Will it filter out wives, girlfriends, children, small annoying pets. Who knows.. if you have one.. let me know.

AND ANOTHER "I DONT KNOW" TYPE PROBLEM

So I've installed the SDCard mod, I'm back to good old faithful DD-WRT and i've got a mount --bind setup for sub /jffs with /mmc/jffs

but when issuing a df command (Disk Usage) I get the following

~ # df
Filesystem 1k-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/root 2880 2880 0 100% /
/dev/mmc/disc0/part1 983771 62686 871095 7% /mmc
/dev/mmc/disc0/part1 983771 62686 871095 7% /opt
/dev/mmc/disc0/part1 983771 62686 871095 7% /opt
/dev/mmc/disc0/part1 983771 62686 871095 7% /jffs
~ #

So there's two /opt mount points.. how the hell is that even possible.. So.. I try to umount them and get the following

~ # umount -f /opt
~ # df
Filesystem 1k-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/root 2880 2880 0 100% /
/dev/mmc/disc0/part1 983771 62686 871095 7% /mmc
/dev/mmc/disc0/part1 983771 62686 871095 7% /opt
/dev/mmc/disc0/part1 983771 62686 871095 7% /opt
/dev/mmc/disc0/part1 983771 62686 871095 7% /jffs
~ #

Look at that.. Didn't make a frikkin difference.. Anyone know how to fix this one?

Things I Need To Document

SDCard mod to wrt54g - Followed the guide here.
Installation of DD-WRT - Didn't follow the guide, but here one is
Utilising the SDCard as /jffs - Followed the guide here.
Installing OptWare into /jffs - Followed the guide here.
Installing atftpd
Configuring WAN Interface for second IP Address
Setting up SSH Tunnel to home for unrestricted web browsing.

Started out great, Died in the ass!

So I decided it was time to try getting my hands dirty and installing openWRT on my WRT54G. Started out with DD-wrt and ran through the process of a firmware upgrade. All went very well.

Once the router rebooted I enabled uPNP and tried opening uTorrent. That worked a treat, if anything my torrents seems somewhat faster than ever before. Perhaps this was all my head, perhaps not, it was 2am and I didn't quite care at this point. I had better things to do.

The next step in my router config was to have atfpd load on startup and for the WAN interface to have a second ip address so as to allow it to talk locally to a modem I use for testing.

With DD-WRT i had to worry about settings up jffs on my mmc and setting up the OptWare packages etc, with openWRT because of the small default footprint this firmware has I didn't need to do any of this and it was simply a matter of ipkg install atftp, setting a few config options and firewall settings and BOOM.. was off and racing again with my test modem.

So far so good, I've got better speeds, I've got a much easier to install tftp server... seems to be going well.

Next hurdle, setup dropbear (SSH Server) in the router to listen on port 443 as well as 22. So this is where i couldn't work it out. Seems the simplest thing was stuffing me up. I can change the drop bear config and have it listen on 443, but then do I need to open the firewall to allow this connection through??? I'd tried leaving it at the default port 22 and using port forwarding to get it going, alas this would never frikkin work either.

So its 4am.. and I've had a skin full of this crap, dd-wrt although a lil bulkier due to its one size fits all nature, was all warm and fluffy in its configuation.. do it via the web interface and "OCCASIONALY" use the CLI when you really need to get your hands dirty.

So until the simple things become.. well simple in OpenWRT I'll be sticking with DD-WRT. Also.. just in case. I tried to flash FROM OpenWRT to DD-WRT and it wouldn't work with the default packages. I found the simplest way was to:

1. Download Tomato firmware from www.polarcloud.com (In the form of a .trx and not the standard .bin file).
2. Flash upgrade to that firmware
3. Then Flash Upgrade to DD-WRT v23-VPN (As this is the version I use)

The only problem i had with this process was that I couldn't log into dd-wrt with the standard username=root and password=admin
So I did the following

1. Log into the router via TELNET (This will be on by default in dd-wrt and the root/admin password combination will work here).
2. When prompted Username: root and Password: admin
3. This will then drop you to a command prompt. From here enter the following
4. nvram set http_passwd="" and press ENTER
5. next type nvram commit and press ENTER
6. Without rebooting, try and access the routers web interface (http://192.168.1.1). You should find the username to now be root and the password is blank, meaning.. THERE IS NO PASSWORD TO ENTER JUST LEAVE IT BLANK
7. Now using the Administration --> Factory Defaults select the Yes radion button and then click Save Settings
8. After a minute or so, you're router will be back to its pristine factory default state. The username will be root and the password admin.
   

I hope that helps some unlucky soul when having trouble upgrading to DD-WRT from a diff firmware.