Category: Blog News

News about me, my family and anything I comment on from the global news fronts.

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Blog News PSP

PSP Firmware Comparison Chart from PSP-Vault

In my web statistics I’ve recently noticed several Google searches that look for more info on what you can do with a psp and at what firmware.

For those people, following PSP Firmware Comparison Chart will help you get a better picture of which firmware can do what.

And for all those people looking for UMD-launchers or how to run pirated games from a memory stick, I’ll complete the overview from the above website :

  • You can only run pirate copies of software from a 1.00 or 1.50 firmware. Why ? Because you need kernel access to use an UMD launcher, and from 2.00 upwards the kernel is encrypted.
  • Certain games already *need* 2.00 to run, and you can expect newer games to require 2.50 or higher and you can also expect that this will keep happening.
  • New PSP’s in Europe have firmware 2.00 or later installed on them.
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Blog News

Mr. and Mrs. Smith copy protection

Fox 20th Century are doing copy protection wrong, in my opinion. They’ve implemented a copy protection scheme on at least some dvd’s that does not allow you to watch dvd’s protected by it on your mac.

Today I hired the dvd ‘Mr. and Mrs. Smith’ from our local video store, together with ‘Madagascar’ for Tom.

While Tom was watching his movie on the home cinema thingie, I tried watching Mr. and Mrs. Smith on my mac mini.

No Go. The mac-included DVD player software refused to see that there was a disc inserted, and if I quit DVD player the disc got ejected. At first I thought that this was a problem with the media, but that seemed ok.

On the back of the dvd box however, is a copy-protection symbol with the message : This DVD is protected from copying. This makes it impossible to make usable copies from it (translated from flemish).

All fine and well, but I wanted to watch the movie, not copy it ! Damn stupid way to go about it, if you ask me.

Videolan Client (VLC ) however, to the rescue. This open-source, cross-platform media player can read and play the disc without any problems, so that is what I used to watch my movie.

Oh, and after some googling, it appears that the new copy protection does not pose a problem for movie copiers : they either use Handbrake for Mac or AnyDVD for Wintel to copy the dvd.

So the end of the story is that once more, the guy who wants to watch the movie with the default software can’t, while the movie copier just uses another tool.

Categories
Blog News Programming PSP

Python on the PSP

I have a programming urge coming over me. They come and go. Usually they leave when I realise (once again) how much hard work has to go into something before it is somewhat playable or workable. However, lately at work I wrote some bash and python scripts that really worked and had some useful output !

Sooo, what better to look at programming than trying to write the latest app or game for my psp that millions will download and enjoy so much they will elevate me to programmer god ?

Yeah.
I know.
I’m just kidding.

But the urge to go forth and create something is still there.

There are some tutorials floating around on the web on how to start programming your psp using the psp sdk kit (you need either cygwin or linux). I looked them over, but didn’t like it. I don’t have enough time to start learning C or C++ again. Plus pointers still make me shudder.

So I looked to other possibilities, like the luaplayer, which lets you write lua programs that ‘play’ on your psp.

Nah, don’t have time to learn lua either. So what can I still do to scratch that (psp) programming urge ? PSP Basic ? Doesn’t exist (yet). Python ? Hey ! Look what Google found !

I found a site by a french guy who has already ported python to the psp, including some standard modules. He also added a tutorial to it that is really good and explains a lot.

Also, his blog makes for some strange readings !

If only… I had more time. Like I used to have, back when I was 20+ and still living at home. Not now when I have two kids to take care of and a full life. I can look at this code, even install it on my psp maybe and test it, but I don’t have the urge to continue and develop stuff using it.

Gah. Guess my urge to program is over.

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Blog News

Joel on Software

I just added a new site to my ‘worthy site’ link list, Joelonsoftware.com. I had managed to find his site once before a year or more ago, but lost the link when I migrated to Apple hardware. I tend to like to start ‘fresh’ again, and only copy my most used stuff across.

Joel Spolsky is a programmer who knows how to write, and has kept a log of it for a long time now. His site has been made into two books. Lots of his articles on his site are very interesting and extremely well thought out.

So in my quest for quality blogs, this one had to be added to the list.

An entry that he made in 2001 is very pertinent to the situation in Europe now (and I guess everywhere else where outsourcing happens more and more).

Two yuppies in a living room buying an e-commerce engine from company A and selling merchandise made by company B and warehoused and shipped by company C, with customer service from company D, isn’t honestly adding much value. In fact, if you’ve ever had to outsource a critical business function, you realize that outsourcing is hell.

Also read the comments.

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Blog News Links PSP Websites Caught !

Some good PSP links

More a note to myself than anything else, this is a collection of some good psp links :

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Blog News

French Readers ?

It’s frrrrreezing cold outside. Time to hit the sack.

I just checked my stats, and noticed that someone is running google translate on some of my postings. I’ve got one or more french/francophone readers !

I have my suspicions, though…

Categories
Blog News Hardware PSP

Firmware, PSP games & Recharging

Firmware :
For the moment I’m staying with my psp 2.0 firmware.
The only reason to downgrade to 1.5 would seem to be the UMD loaders that allow you to play pirated games. I’m not going to go that way.
The only reason to upgrade would be the new RSS capability and some new codecs and download capability to memory stick. I’ll wait, thank you. It works fine as it is.

Games :
Meanwhile I’ve bought several games, here’s a quick overview and a personal score :

  • XMen II Apocalypse : quite a good game, sorta RPG, topdown view, lots of stuff to do (3/5)
  • Ridge Racer : I bought this second hand, as I wanted to at least own one driving game, but it’s so darn good that I keep coming back to it time and time again for a quick fix ! I understand better now how people could become slaves to racing games like this… (4/5)
  • King Kong : some white lines mar the game, and the controls are not all they could be (but you can try different layouts). I’ve only progressed a little bit, need to play some more, but so far it’s scary. (TBD)
  • Lord of the Rings Tactics : bought, but still haven’t played it. I almost regret buying this. (TBD)

I still need a good rpg : Popolocrois for psp seems to fit the bill, if it ever gets released here in Europe. Meanwhile I’ve installed a SNES emulator (via a bootloader for firmware 2.0) and ChronoTrigger. Amazing what Square could cram into 3 Mbyte !!

All these games should be more than enough to keep me occupied !

I think, once I’ve finished a few games like King Kong or Tactics, that I will sell these secondhand and pick up a new one from there. Prices for psp games are extremely expensive, they should really, really lower the price, and this is coming from a working guy, not a young guy with a chronic shortage of pocket money !

Recharging :
I am amazed : It seems as if Sony has done a major job of keeping the power consumption extremely low when you put your machine on standby. Keeping your psp on ‘standby’ (instead of really switching it off where you need to keep the off position pressed for 5 to 10 seconds) seems almost not to use any power at all. Reactivation is (almost) instantaneous.

I continue to be amazed : I thought my battery would run flat in less than a day, but I can comfortably play my game mornings or evenings in the train (both morning and evening seldom happens – when there are friends on the train they take precedence) and not even get to two bars down (ie the battery still reports as full). However, if you play an hour or 3 the battery does suddenly drop a bar down. Maybe it is the game I play : XMen does not use the UMD disc all the time, which seems to consume the most power.

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Blog News

Sometimes things go 'click'.

A look is an invitation.

Sometimes things go ‘click’ in my head, like last thursday, when by accident I looked into the blue-grey eyes of a goodlooking woman and felt a sort of connection spring over. She looked. I looked.

And then we continued our separate ways. Neither of us gave any indication something had happened, except for that look.

That’s when I realised that a look, any look, is a doorway, an invitation to further communication. They don’t even have to be inviting. Angry looks, despairing looks or even looking away are means of communication that you can use if you want to.

Strange that it took me all this time to realise this.

Categories
Blog News Hardware

Pressure… Crack !

PSP

I have transformed my impulse buying into a higher level !

After months of not looking at it, after weeks of remarking regretfully to myself that I would have loved to have this when I was a kid, I succumbed to dreaming about it.

It took me a week of talking myself out of it multiple times (and back in again). After actually standing in the aisle with the gear in hands and then putting it back and walking away, a day later I finally cracked : I caved in, and bought a Playstation Portable (PSP). As you probably guessed from the picture with this piece.

It’s such a cool piece of kit that I could no longer resist it. Even though I have dozens of reasons why I don’t need it (for one, I’m too freakin’ old!) I said ‘Damnation to all reasons’ and bought it.

This is no longer impulse buying we’re talking about, this is crazed lemmings behaviour ! No, you don’t have to let me know what you think about that – I’ve probably already said it to myself…

I’ll post a bit more about using it (and what games I’m playing) later on, once I can spend some more time with the beast.

First impressions though :
– it looks and is extremely cool.
– you need a screen protector from day one – seriously.
– you need a good screen protector – the bad ones seriously degrade the screen quality !
– I can live with the battery charge – I don’t get to use it anyways longer than an hour or so per session… snif.
– An option to install a real hard drive in there (or otherwise : using a 4 or 8 GB memory card) will seriously let you expand your options what to do with it (play multiple games without changing discs, store more content).

Also, with regards to the last item above, Sony should be a bit more ‘open’ in letting people run unsigned code from their memory sticks : for now, if you want to run MAME, UAE or SCUMM emulators (there are dozens more) you need to have firmware 1.5, which you can only downgrade to if you have firmware 2.0 (Sony is at version 2.60 now).
Of course, it also allows you to run UMD-rips stored on your memory stick…

My psp (hmmmm ! that has a nice ring to it, my psp) has firmware 2.0. I’m still mulling about what to do : upgrading to the latest version (which more and more games require) or downgrading or just keeping it like that. I’ll probably be upgrading though, it’s not like I have time to do much more than play the occasional game on it.

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Blog News

Taking the train is waiting…

Winter is coming. And every year it is the same problem – the trains break down – or rather, the junction boxes or the powerlines.

Yesterday there was a broken power line in Brussels South.
Today there was (again) a broken power line in Halle.

There was only one train leaving, and I think we could (almost) simulate a Japanese train, what with all the people pressed together in it.

Pfffrt.