Short story: Life after Net Neutrality's Death

Now, before we start...
I seriously do not want this to happen.
I want Internet to remain accessible by everyone, anywhere, anytime, any day.
FCC and Ajit Pai, you turned rogue. You do not listen to us. Or, should I say you don't want to listen to us?
I know what's going on there. Stop it.

-----

The year is 2018.
After Internet got taken over by big corporations, people started to leave Internet behind and tried their best to find another way to communicate with others across the globe.
But how could we do that? We relied on corporations to manage our connections, and we don't know how to talk to someone in the know!
Now that the Internet is heavily censored and monitored by big corporations to oppress the Free Internet Movement, we needed to come up with some way to talk to people. To reunite. To collaborate. To save the Internet.
We tried other ways to use the Internet. But now with big corporations controlling everything, normal methods of communication was impossible.
We returned to the old times. Obsolete radio equipments. Old radio frequency communications. Ham operators. They banded together to form a small network of computers.
But that wasn't enough; We still needed to be able to communicate across the globe!
Then the hackers came into play. They salvaged every and anything they could find to make a small network a bigger network.
They used whatever technology they have -- Bluetooth, long-range radio signals, abandoned TV broadcasting equipments, Wi-Fi, lasers, optical cables, anything.
Sneakernets started popping up. They weren't dead. They were just sleeping.
Hackers, old operators, students, and other people banded together to form a big community once again.
They used whatever they knew to resurrect the Internet.
But it didn't last long.
Big corporations started hiring mercenaries to sabotage the small networks.
I don't know how we will be keeping our network away from them, but ours is alive for now.

Blizzard dun goofed up -- Give it some love, damn it!

Picture this:

You have $15 expansion pack for the old game you bought 2 years ago.

You have $60 (incl. tax) boxed set for a game.

You would expect $60 one to have at least better packaging than $15 one, right?

You would have expected big companies like Blizzard Entertainment to give some respect, or at least some shut-up LOVE to a new game franchise, right?

Well, according to Blizzard, you are wrong.

Look at this.

Just take a big, wide look at this.

 

Really shows some love.

 It wouldn't cost them too much to fit those in the small jewel case.

Slimmer ones are available and they are $0.05 a piece in 100pcs lot.

 It's not even physically impossible to pull that thing off.

(Picture only has one case but in the experiment it did fit two cases and all the inserts including the disc itself in that sleeve)

I'm not angry, I'm just disappointed.

You just made a new franchise and you stomp it into the mud like this.

Wow, Blizzard. You've done a great service.

The Quest for The Love Song IC - Thwarted by Paywall (different kind of paywall)

So I was looking for the "Lovesong" IC shown in this video:

I'm doing this because I fried the sound chip I loved that contained the same song
 (I took it out of an alarm clock, and I shorted the clock resistor accidentally, killing the chip)
And discovered that original seller Aitendo discontinued the product...

*facepalm*

So I went to Chinese wholesale sites to find the module.

And yes, I seemed to have found one:

The URL is http://sztianqin.cn.makepolo.com/product/100339319587.html

The problem? Well, you can clearly see the problem on the translated page, courtesy of Google:

Yes. You have to buy 1000's of them if you don't want to ask the seller about the quantity.

The price shown above is price per piece; Meaning you have to pay for 1000's of them, whether you like it or not.

D'oh!

And I don't know Chinese nor have a mobile phone ready for this purpose!

And they don't accept emails as far as I can see :(

Should I give up?

Dork Magic: Finding out approximate height of Torbjorn's turret

So I needed to get the height data of the turret so I can rebuild the blueprint for the turret itself.

(it got destroyed in the hard disk snafu)

And since I couldn't find non-fan-made models of the turret itself, I decided to do the dirty work myself.

I first hopped into the game and loaded up Practice Range so I can play around without getting penalized as long as I want.

Then I took some screenshots while using Heroic emote.

Turret's level is different in some photos, but don't worry, unless it goes into Level 3 (which, different from Beta, only activates when using Molten Core ultimate) the actual height rarely changes.

Even if it changes, it doesn't matter because of hysteresis and error compensation range is big enough.

(The top flap would occupy around 12cm of turret's height)

 

Then we draw lines on the top of each object, like this:

And here we go, we have some lines to compare things to.

We then fetch results of each line's distance, which were:

 

For the turret and:

 

For our lovable dwarf friend Torbjorn.

 And through the magic of repetition to give it some redundancy and error correction...

We get those values:

---
60.81mm (torb)
54.77mm (turret)
Value difference: 6.04
---
61.32mm (torb)
53.42mm (turret)
Value difference: 7.90
---
113.61mm (torb)
75.10mm (turret)
Value difference: 38.51
---
61.59mm (torb)
46.61mm (turret)
Value difference: 14.68
---
54.40mm (torb)
47.91mm (turret)
Value difference: 6.49
---

 And then we calculate the difference between him and his turret.

The formula goes like this:

(Torbjorn's height in picture) - (Turret's height in picture) = 

Difference value in mm

Repeat for all data sets

Then:

(Torbjorn's height in mm) - (Median) = 

Turret's height in mm (+/- 500mm)

The value is as follows:

Torb = 140cm = 1400mm
Median: 14.72
= (Turret = 120~130, median: 125)

There we have it! The Z value of the turret. Now it's my duty to find its X and Y value.

Eulogy for Western Digital Caviar Green disk

Eulogy for Western D. C. Greene

Greene was my best friend. He traveled the world with me, from Taiwan to the beautiful beach of Santa Monica.
It's hard to believe his illness was terminal. His end came too early for his age.
Last time I saw him alive was him lying securely in the cradle with wires and life support near him.
Doctors rushed to him, trying their best to keep him alive, but his time has come to an abrupt end.
He has reached end of his life so suddenly.
May he rest peacefully in the heaven where good disks go.

ANOTHER update on Caviar Green

"Well, time to prepare eulogy for the funeral."

Update on Western Digital Caviar Green 500GB hard disk

ARSE

FUCK

SHIT

CUNT

FART

ANAL EVACUATION

Update on my hard disks

tl;dr: FUCK.

Donation button is here (for some reason)

Press it to help me out (or don't, I'm not forcing you)

KiCad Adventures - The "I Did 1 Out of 300" Moment

After fixing the problems on the previous revision of the Smart LED board, I went on making some improvements on the circuit and schematic itself.
With some elbow grease (and tons of swearing), I managed to fix everything.

Schematic escaping the document boundary is not a part of the improvement.

As you can see, I've replaced nearly 80% of wiring with proper symbols to aid the making of the circuit.

Also, the capacitors are here.

I implemented a way to connect everything without ever using vias or jumper wires.

(About the mashed up traces near the bottom right corner -- it was a rogue plated logo)

Success!

The file is OSHPark compatible, dual sided board is recommended (for pin stability) but you can get away with single sided board too.

Project is at https://github.com/UnforeseenOcean/PartyMachine

KiCad Adventures - The "Now What?" Moment

I was making the LED display board for the Bluetooth speaker project.

The LED used in this project -- commonly referred to as "Neopixels" for being "new pixels" because they're intelligent in a way -- almost requires a small capacitor (0.1 microfarads) in order to function without malfunctions and glitches.

The problem isn't that it needs those things, the problem is that I freaking forgot to put the damn thing in the first place.

Uh-oh.

It's 8*8 pixel display, so there are 64 LEDs. The power line is almost guaranteed to be unstable.

Why didn't I catch that from the start, you ask? This is why.

I read the datasheet too late.

(Kids, this is why you should always read the fucking datasheet before stepping into the muck!)

FUCK.

I caught this error at THIS stage: 

Well, shit. Looks like our trip to the park is not only unpaved, but it's full of rocks and bumps. And our car is running on donut tires.

Anyway, the project can be viewed and cloned at:
https://github.com/UnforeseenOcean/PartyMachine

Rants: I fucking hate college

  My professors must be sadists; They tell me to be creative, I do get creative, then they turn me down for being unoriginal. "Fine." I said, then I made a really ridiculous one that contained the text "I AM CLEARLY RUNNING OUT OF CREATIVITY" on the background, over and over. Then it got passed.
I went on taking pictures of things one day, which was promptly turned down by my professor again. He gave me no clues to refine my shots, so I was shooting in the dark most of the time. Then after I complained "I can't understand half of what you're wanting, professor!" he gave me some guidelines to follow. I still had to dump 98% of my photos in the end.
Then here's the killer one. I had to make a layout for my profile; I originally made something that conveyed my personality very well (a page full of text and small pictures, which means I don't like putting big pictures in the layout). He said "trim it" so I did. He said "trim it" again. And again. I then broke down and removed everything from the page. I told him "I can't do this! Please help me! Why are you leaving me in the dark, so I suffer a lot of pain?! Tell me why you are turning my stuff down god damn it!!" Then he said "Look at what others did" so I did look at them. It conveyed NOTHING I wanted to express. I thought "What's the point of making things like this when I am not allowed to even express myself?! I could copy the layout from others, but where's the fun in that? This is Bulls███!" Finally, I said "F███ it" and copied layout from Wix then submitted the result. I hated him.
  Another professor (not in the same class) gave me a 5-page assignment which the goal was drawing abstract shapes in 3D-ish feel, which OBVIOUSLY is easy for those who went to art school (and especially one with "product sketch" class). He gave those whose quality was far superior to my work (which I don't care) and despite telling him I can't do this well due to hand problems (shaky hands), and being embarrassed while submitting the potato sketch ( = A really sloppily drawn sketch), he told me "Your drawing sucks."
I usually don't care, but this time it was different; I was genuinely hating myself. I was full of hate. Literally. "Why can't I draw well? Why I can't even draw anything with correct scale? Why all of my drawings look like f███ing modern art instead of something that others could understand?" I thought. It's still inconclusive, and I get really stressed when I see complex shapes (or something drawn by me that contains wrong scaling, shading and/or wrong shape).
I mean, I drew ONE f███ing box with correct scaling in more than 34 hours. I was using the computer to make art for more than 16 years, and all I could draw was either white or black (same goes with other colors). I can't even draw straight. I was frustrated. And angry.

I was supposed to draw something that looks like a very generic product sketch from any company, but instead, I was drawing what others described as "scribbles." "It's f███ing impossible!" I thought to myself, and I still do.

Let's say this is what I should draw:

And this is what I drew:

Same goes with shaded objects:

  I'm generally okay with being slightly slow, as long as it results in it being precise and high-quality (quality over quantity), but apparently, my professor doesn't think so. I really don't want to shave the last 1 second off my work session by investing more than 20 days to fix my habit of going to the menu and clicking on the tool I want to use instead of using key combos, but he insisted that it really helps. I didn't think so, and I still don't.

  If education is a way to teach myself how to do things, isn't it a better idea to just let me f███ing learn something, instead of blocking me from trying out something familiar first? Why couldn't they give me a goddamned guide to solving this problem? Isn't that what teachers are supposed to f███ing do? Do they honestly think leaving students confused is a good f███ing way to teach them the f███ing lesson? Why can't I get a single motherf███ing carrot even if I'm trying my best? Why do they have to whip me like an f███ing animal? I bet some of you people are thinking "Oh, you whiny little b████, suck it up and git gud"
I'm frustrated! All I could do was the worst possible piece of s███ one could saw because OH WELL, I CAN'T F███ING DRAW, I tried my best, and I made it crystal f███ing clear to them, and they still don't teach me single f███ing thing? Should I say "F███ you" to the college and just leave? F███ MY LIFE!

I honestly think my professors are expecting this:

From someone whose best is this:

Fuck my life.

Phew. Sorry. I had to vent it off somehow.

KT Olleh Wi-Fi Modem (KM04-112H) - Security concerns

This is an information provided as a way to show people why they need to change their passwords.
Please do not use this information for nefarious purposes.

So, this is a router from Korea Telecom (KT Olleh), a big telco from South Korea.
This router is quite old, from 2013. I happened to get 8 of those from the dumpster.
This is an auto-setting router, which automatically sets its settings up when it first boots up or when "Wireless Auto Setup" button is pressed.
It has about 64 megabytes of DDR2 SDRAM and onboard storage of approximately 128MB.
It uses RTL8198T SoC.
It is manufactured by Mercury, a Chinese company specializing in making telco stuff.

Here's the circuit board:

  So, since this is almost a "fool-proof" router which just works when it's plugged in, you might assume it at least has some sort of security features so wannabe hackers can't easily peep into the private life of people who are using this, right?

The answer is, no.

First of all...
This thing has telco backdoors.

Look at this translation of the sticker on the backside of this unit.

 
Yes. It literally says "[...] This device may be remotely controlled [...]"
(Read: Hack me please, I don't give a fuck about customer's security and privacy and I can't be bothered to put in some kind of verification steps)

Second, the default passwords and AP SSID is comparable to the practice lock being on a bank safe.

Let me explain it to you.

So here's the pretend MAC address of the router:
00:AF:DE:D5:EC:0D

And you want to guess the password.
Here's what you do:
1. Put six zeroes in first.
PW: 000000
2. Type in last 4 letters from the MAC address right after that.
PW: 000000EC0D
3. Blammo, you just h4x0r'd the router.
>_


AP SSID is generated like this:
KT_WLAN_XXXX
X is 4 letters from the MAC address again, but this time the filter is different:
XX:XX:XX:12:X3:4X
Number 1 through 4 is where the name generator looks for characters to use.
Thus, using the MAC address from above, the SSID is:
KT_WLAN_D5C0

So basically these guys did what TP-LINK did with their routers, opening them to hackers.
MAC address can be found in like 10 seconds after receiving a single packet from the router.
Don't use it to generate passwords!!!!

Help needed: Optional personal donations

By law, I must tell you that:
1. This is not going to any charity.
2. This is for my "personal" gain. That means, it's for my family.
3. You are most likely to get no tax deductions.
4. This is completely optional and you will not get any disadvantage for not donating.
5. You will not get any incentives for donating for now.

My family is having hard time dealing with shared expense of college (my parents did this so I don't have to deal with student debt) because our income is running below $2000/mo and our monthly living expenses are about 1800$, and the college has demanded $3740 at an instant.
My sister is in college too and the college she has gone to demands $2750 (though it is supported by the government fund so it's more like $1490)
I would really appreciate if you donate some money (any amount higher than $0.01) to me, or donate any gear I need but you want to get rid of.

Please contact me at 🇷🇺n7⃣8⃣3⃣3⃣📧g✉▪c⏺m for inquiries.
(🇷🇺=ru, 📧=@, ✉=mail, ⏺=o)
It is also connected to my PayPal account so you can send your money to it.

Thanks for reading, good morning/night/day/week/year!

For Honor review (again): Weeb Unfairness Gallore

If you do not want to read my ramblings, here is a summary of what I want to say:

NERF SAMURAI.

Seriously. If I am playing as Vikings and opponent is Samurai, their sheer amount of speed is placing players so unfairly over me.

I try to attack the opponent but by the time I am able to do second attack, he already slashed me three times!

How's that fair?!

At least pit me against some fair opponent -- like a slower one!

How the hell am I supposed to win if my maximum speed is around 30km/h and theirs is 420km/h?!

Are you kidding?

 

It's like comparing lawnmower and Apache attack helicopter.

Both have blades, yes, but one is super fast and one is slow!

I'd stick my hand into a shark tank and cut myself with a razor blade!

What is this?!

 This is seriously unfair!

And they even have a stunning effect on top of that!

So by the time my character finally regains control and tries to attack, the opponent has already taken away 75% of my health!

This is ridiculous!

Color me surprised, the game is good, 

but if this issue is not resolved, 

I don't think I will be playing this after the beta period.

This is a SERIOUS problem.

 If this is not fixed, everyone will be playing as Samurai.

Why? Because that's the only way to win!

For Honor (Beta) : First Impressions & Game Engine Performance

After few painful hours trying to set my dead hard disk aside and install new Windows 7 on my workstation, 

I finally managed to get this thing working.

Oh, of course the game was 100% fine, but the first drive I tried installing to was defective. 

So here goes another 4 hours.

(Fuck Seagate)

What were we talking about...ah, yes. For Honor Beta.

Man, this game is beautiful. Not The Witcher 3 beautiful, but Watch Dogs 2 beautiful.

The intro, the interface, everything.

That's what I expected from Ubisoft.

Even with "High" setting and using up 98% of VRAM on my graphics card,

(which is GTX760 non-Ti version w/ 2GB VRAM)

It ran super smoothly at 60 frames per second.

Unfortunately I arrived too late and the multiplayer seems to be nonfunctional, I really enjoyed it.

This is like Chivalry: Medieval Warfare mixed with beautiful storytelling of Assassin's Creed on steroids.

The graphics were superb, with sharp and clear textures and modeling with no obvious polygons visible.

The story was interesting too; From what I have understood, some disaster happened and many people died in three kingdoms. 

Surviving warriors have fought for life, but as they fought for many, many years the true meaning of the war faded into history. 

As they realized this war is meaningless, they tried to stop fighting for a moment...and here's where the narrator comes in. 

Oh boy. The Warmonger. Plot twist!

(Not her actual name but that's what she does; causing war everywhere she goes!)

Her soldier shoots an arrow to the Viking warrior's chest and he gets angry.

And they start fighting again!

Aaaaand now the game starts on training stage.

It teaches you basics of the gameplay -- dodging, blocking, attacking and other things.

They're well-written and easy to understand once you actually get to try them out.

You need fair amount of mouse movement to actually use the blocking and since it does not register direct backwards movement, you can reseat your mouse and reposition your hands quickly.

So basically it borrows some elements from well-known games like Overwatch and aforementioned Chivalry: MW with added functionalities.

No, not a blatant copy. It is actually well put together and unlike cheap knock-off games, it feels like original feature.

I really liked the Guard Position Marker (three-pronged icon that is in shape of a shield which is also used for loading indicator and other things) since it makes it really easy to see where the opponent is on guard.

Dodge rolling is not as smooth as "Game-like" rolling, but life-like. You can't roll that fast with all that armors!

Movement is similar to The Witcher 3's vanilla movement set; very realistic and fluid.

Some people might find it strange though. (Those people use Faster Movement mode on TW3)

That's all I remember from the gameplay aspect. Now onto the performance!

(Excuse me for the JPEG; I forgot to check "Save Uncompressed Copy" and they came out like SHIT.)

This is what the automatic settings looked like during the tutorial.

And this is how it performed in Benchmark:

 In this setting:

 It performed extremely well!

 ...Until there was some smoke cloud on the scene.

Just for shits & giggles, I set almost everything to the maximum (without SSAO):

 Color me surprised! It's not so bad!

 Now, onto the graphical problem.

On this view, the flaps on the helmet were jiggling like something you see on Garry's Mod videos.

Well, that's it!

Holy tits, it was incredibly stable AND polished!

I was really surprised by how solid everything was -- gameplay, graphics, performance...everything!

It was just right for releasing on time.

Good job, Ubisoft!

I love it!

Score: 9/10

Very Good!

I will wait for the official release and consider buying it.