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EricBall

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Blog Entries posted by EricBall

  1. EricBall

    Apple TV 4 games?

    By EricBall,

    http://arstechnica.com/apple/2014/01/report-apple-tv-successor-with-revamped-os-coming-in-first-half-of-2014/
     
    Reading the article this morning I had the question - could an Kinect device make it possible to play touchscreen style games on your home TV?
     
    The problem is the two aren't equivalent. A touchscreen gives visual position feedback and an actual touch input. While a Kinect is a "zero button mouse". The list of existing Kinect games doesn't include ports of most popular touchscreen games like Fruit Ninja and Cut The Rope.
     
    That's not to say it couldn't be done, but it would take a significant amount of development. Apple would need to also provide a default control system for unmodified iPad games. Maybe a "ghost image" of the player's hands (representing two fingers) and some way to change from "not-pressed" to "pressed". (Open versus closed hand maybe?)
     
    In other Apple news, a Belgian computer store put up (and then took down) a page which suggested an update to the Mac Mini will be coming in February. I hope so, I just got (for $100 +$50 shipping +$25 duty) a Mac version of the classic IBM buckling spring keyboard. http://pckeyboard.com/page/category/SpacesaverM
     
  3. EricBall

    Minecraft PS3

    By EricBall,

    Apparently the big game for early teens in Minecraft - at least according to my 13 year old son. Unfortunately, he hasn't been able to partake in the game himself as we still haven't replaced the home computer (when will the Mac mini be upgraded to Haswell Apple, when?), nor can it be installed (even the "classic" version) on his Chromebook. But now the Xbox360 port has been ported to the PS3 - so I downloaded it as an early Christmas present.
     
    We originally tried to play the demo (which seems to dump you into the tutorial with no way to save, but is otherwise unrestricted) split-screen, but doing so makes the text & icons difficult to read / distinguish at normal TV distances. So we've dropped back to local single player games.
     
    My first game (seed = Daddy 1) started me in the middle of the ocean with one mushroom tree on the top of a mountain. Not a good start when you need wood to build a crafting table in order to craft almost everything else. My second start has worked out better and I have even survived getting lost, a creeper explosion and various other hazards. I'm mining (spiral staircase), exploring, and getting a little bored.
     
    Technically, it's impressive. A nearly infinite, procedurally generated, massively modifiable, persistent sandbox world. But as a game it's less impressive. Once you get beyond the first few days in survival mode the challenge of simply surviving drops considerably. Yes, you can work towards entering the Nether and the End Game Dragon, but the game doesn't push you to do so. So the "game" drops back to the grind of mining for resources. Yes, you could spend time creating massive structures, but that's what creative mode is for. (My son likes creative mode because it gives easy access to TNT and blowing things up.)
     
    I'm going to still play for a while longer. I want to put a skylight in my mine and explore a nearby cave. But I don't think I'm going to still be playing come the new year.
     
  4. EricBall

    Future acquistions

    By EricBall,

    I want to get an Acer C720 Chromebook for my son to use at school. (Supporting the school's BYOD & Google docs plans.) Sure the screen & keyboard aren't as nice as the new HP Chromebook 11, but the Haswell Celeron in the C720 will make for a far more pleasant user experience.
     
    Unfortunately, the C720 isn't available in Canada. (It probably will be at some point, but there's no indication of when. It will also probably have a international keyboard, which is guaranteed to have quirks.) In the US it can be ordered from Amazon, but is currently out of stock. So I'm waiting. (In theory it's also available from Best Buy, but again it doesn't appear to be in stock.) OTOH, I will probably be going to the US in the future, so maybe at that time it will be in stock.
     
    I also want to buy a Mac Mini as a "home computer". But while Apple has upgraded the iMacs to Haswell, they haven't done the same for the Mini yet. And while the rumors included a Haswell Mini announcement as a possibility in the recent iPhone 5s and iPad Air events, that didn't happen. However, the Haswell iMacs were announced separately from the events, so maybe the Mini will be as well.
     
    OTOH, two things I'm not planning on acquiring are the PS4 and Xbox One. Between the PS3, Wii U and 3DS I have more than enough "modern" consoles to suck as much free time playing games as I am willing to spend. (Not to mention other free-time projects I could be working on.) I also have more half-finished games than I can count; so I'd rather spend the time playing those than spend money acquiring a new system.
     
  5. EricBall

    Infinity Blade II

    By EricBall,

    A few months ago a few iOS games were released for free on the AppStore, Infinity Blade II being one of them. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough space on my iPhone 4S at the time to complete the download. But I recently unchecked the 2012 C3 panel recordings (to add the 2013 Pinball Expo panel recordings) and freed up enough space to complete the install.
     
    Ghods it's a pretty game.
     
    It looks like a AAA PS3 game. The environment is lush and detailed and the characters are graphically and mechanically impressive (although everyone wears full helmets so you don't get any facial work). And the variety of enemies is astounding. I don't think I've seen a non-boss opponent twice (except when I restart the game).
     
    The game itself is fairly simple - you engage in one-on-one sword battles with opponents. In battle you swipe & tap at the screen to attack or defend. There's upgrades and options and different paths to take. But the basic gameplay is battle & defeat your opponent, then select the path to your next opponent. Rinse & repeat. If you are defeated you can either retry the battle or restart the level. You are one of the "Deathless", so you can never truly die. (And when you die, you still keep all of your gold and possessions.)
     
    Before I start giving negatives, let me say that I am enjoying playing the game - even with the negatives. There's something ultimately satisfying in making that perfect parry / block / combo; especially on an attack which previously hit (or killed) you.
     
    As I mentioned, the gameplay is very repetitive. And while each enemy is graphically unique, their attacks are not. There are also a small number of "finishing moves" your character will automatically execute when you defeat an opponent. Your opponents can also execute attack moves (like a shield swipe / bash) which you cannot.
     
    I haven't gotten really comfortable with the controls. I find myself parrying my opponent rather than blocking or dodging as I find it easier to swipe than to tap the correct onscreen button. But there are some attacks which can't be parried, so I'm trying to learn how to do both.
     
    Due to the nature of the storyline, you start at the same location when you are "reborn" and travel over much of the same path. (Although each time you defeat a boss more paths open up.) And as you travel along the path you encounter opponents at the same spot (although each time the opponent is different and more powerful). So the world isn't as "big" as in would be in a console game. (But it's pretty. Oh so pretty.)
     
    The story is some kind of mis-mash of quest to find & free "the Worker" while defeating "Deathless". It would probably make more sense if I played the first Infinity Blade. But, as with most games, your character moves through the story rather than creating the story. So I'll just have fun fighting each opponent and not worry too much about the story.
     
    Of course, all of this wonderful graphics and gameplay comes at a price - the game is hard on batteries. It's the smartphone curse - the more you use the non-phone features the less value it has as an actual phone ('cause the battery is dead).
     
  6. EricBall

    Grand Theft Auto V

    By EricBall,

    As has been splashed all over the news, GTA5 sold $800M in the first 24 hours, the most of any game and far more than any movie. I'm sure than most of the approximately 13 million copies were pre-orders, so it remains to be seen how many more sales will happen over the next month (or however long the advertising blitz continues). But in any case I'm sure Rockstar and Take-Two Interactive are celebrating.
     
    What amazes me is with just the first day sales, GTA5 is already near the top of the best selling games list for the PS3 and XBox 360. (Although the exact break between the two has not been given and Wikipedia incorrectly lists it as 13 million copies for the Xbox 360 alone.) This also means one copy of GTA5 was bought for every twelve PS3 & Xbox 360 consoles ever sold!
     
    OTOH, I have to wonder why "everyone" decided to pre-order it or buy it on the first day. I'm sure there will be a huge glut of used copies available before Christmas after people complete the single-player game. I'm sure some multiplayer "crews" pre-ordered the game so they could train-up rather than getting pwn'd later by other early entrants.
     
  7. EricBall
    http://www.nintendo.com/3ds/new/
     
    I guess Nintendo realized that most people play 3DS games with the 3D turned off, so they could sell a cheaper system without the 3D screen.
     
    My son has a 3DS XL (currently playing through Mario & Luigi: Dream Team) and I admit we generally play with the 3D off. I'll turn it on and IMHO it does add to the games. But in most cases the "wow" doesn't offset the annoyance of having to keep everything steady and I'll turn it off again. However, I wonder if there are any games which will be impossible to play on the 2DS because they require 3D.
     
    The commenters on http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/08/no-joke-new-nintendo-2ds-plays-your-3ds-games-in-2d/ don't like the hingeless form factor. One even pointed out the different control positions (including start & select) may cause problems with some games.
     
     
    Also in the Nintendo news, Nintendo is getting rid of the Basic Wii U and dropping the price of the Deluxe Wii U http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/08/nintendo-lowering-price-of-32gb-deluxe-wii-u-to-299-on-september-20/ and has announced a Zelda Limited Edition which I guess I'll be getting.
     
     
  8. EricBall
    In summary, the demo is better than the game.
     
    Many moons ago I downloaded the free demo for my PS3. I played through that demo numerous times, searching for secrets, discovering combos, and finding new ways to wipe out hapless stormtroopers and rebel scum in efforts to achieve the frenzy bonus. So when I saw a kid selling it at a garage sale, I scooped it up (along with Prince of Persia). Now that I'm playing the actual game, I'm pining for the demo.
     
    The one thing which is keeping me playing is the story. I want to find out what happens to Starkiller and whether he decides to be more than Vader's puppet. But there are many other things I dislike about the game.
     
    The first thing I dislike is in the demo you have access to most / all of the force powers & combos while in the game you only gain them as you advance through the story. So while the demo is basically the first half of the second level of the game, while you're playing the level in the game you can't do cool things like throw your lightsaber or fry someone with lightning.
     
    The second thing I dislike is after you gain those force powers some enemies gain immunities to them. So some stormtroopers can't be picked up using the force while others shrug off lightning attacks. So rather than having fun creatively killing them with combos, I find myself wading into the melee swinging my lightsaber 'cause that seems to always work (so far).
     
    The third thing I dislike is the game likes to try to overwhelm you with large numbers of lesser enemies, even when you're faced with a minor or major boss. So while you're trying to eliminate one opponent, there are others taking you down (often from long range). And because they are immune to force grip, I can't even throw them into each other. (Not that it's easy to aim those throws.) Starkiller is fearsome at short and medium ranges, but long range needs throwable objects. And the level design often means there aren't any objects you can throw either. (The grab also really needs a "next object" mechanic.) Plus I'm playing this game at only the second difficulty level - I'd hate to play it any higher.
     
    Finally, there are the typical complaints with this type of game, i.e. "what do I need to do to open this door?", "how do I defeat this boss?", "#%@ third person camera".
     
    Oh, one quirk I found. In the game you can find crystals for your lightsaber (to simply change color, or add powers) and costumes to wear. But when the game goes into a pre-rendered scene you're shown with the default costume and lightsaber color!
  9. EricBall
    I was recently looking at the Apple TV as a way to cheaply provide AirPlay in a second location and I wondered if there were games for it. Surprisingly there aren't any.
     
    Sure there are rumors, suggestions, hopes & fears there may be in the future. But right now the Apple TV is simply a media extender - great for watching streamed movies, TV & music or duplicating your iPhone / iPod / iPad display. But there are no native apps - other than those developed in partnership with Apple.
     
    And that's kinda strange to me. Sure it's somewhat underpowered (similar to an iPhone 4), but that's seldom stopped developers in the past. It has Bluetooth, so it's just software to add a controller or two. The storage might be a little tight, but it's a streaming device so you can assume it's connected to the network.
     
    But maybe Apple has missed their window of opportunity. Somewhere in the transition version 1 (Mac like) to version 2 (iPod like) they forgot to take a step back and review their assumptions. So now with similar low priced micro-consoles like OYUA they will have competition and the limitations of the Apple TV become much bigger.
     
    Then again, I always wondered why Microsoft didn't create a version of Office (or even Works) for the original Xbox. Then they really could have taken over the living room.
  10. EricBall
    Assuming MS can bring down the price of the Xbox One to match the PS4 (likely by not including the Kinect as dropping the HMDI IN port & functionality would require new hardware - maybe for the slim version), gamers will be picking consoles this November/December based on brand loyalty and exclusive launch titles. (I expect there will be very little difference between consoles for non-exclusive titles.)
     
    the Xbox One has the following exclusive games confirmed for 2013:
     
    Dead Rising 3 - a sequel to Dead Rising which sold 1.7M copies and Dead Rising 2 which sold 1M copies
    Forza Motorsport 5 - a sequal to Forza 3 (2M) and Forza 4(1M)
    and Ryse: Son of Rome - a hash & slash action-adventure by Crytek
     
    and the Playstation 4 has the following exclusive games confirmed for 2013:
     
    Driveclub - a street racing game by the creators of MotorStorm (3.31M), MotorStorm: Pacific Rift (1M)
    Killzone: Shadow Fall - a sequal to Killzone 2 (2M) and Killzone 3 (<1M)
    a sequel to Super Stardust (~400K)
    and Knack - an action-adventure / platform game directed by Mark Cerny
     
    IMHO the winner so far is the Xbox One as Forza 5 could be considered a "system seller". Also Ryse, with it's blood & violence gameplay, probably will appeal more to the hard-core early adopter than the cartoony Knack.
  11. EricBall
    Gaming sites are filled with rants regarding the Xbox One and Microsoft's decision to allow publishers to limit or restrict sales of used games.
     
    I think Microsoft's biggest problem was not in the decision, but how they presented it. Imagine if they had presented it like:
     
    The power of the Xbox One isn't just the boxes in your home! Xbox One games can use the power of Microsoft Azure via your broadband Internet connection to provide even more realism and deep game play.
     
    And because the Xbox One requires a broadband Internet connection, all games will be available as digital downloads! In consideration for people without unlimited Internet, games will also be available on disc from retail outlets.
     
    And since you only require the disc to install the game, anyone else can use the same disc to install the game while only paying the digital download price. You may also return the disc to Microsoft authorized retailers to receive Microsoft Points.
  12. EricBall
    It appears to me that MS going with the all-digital-download model for Xbox One games. Even if you buy the physical disc, the Xbox One treats it like a digital download - just copying the game from the disc rather than downloading over the network. No, MS hasn't said this explicitly but I think it's the best explanation for what they have said (in public statements and in leaked private statements).
     
    Of course, everyone wants to know how this model will effect certain properties typical to the physical model, i.e. the ability to borrow, lend, rent, sell, trade & buy used. Traditional digital download models, i.e. iTunes & Steam, simply discard these properties. eBooks can be borrowed from libraries, but that is a intentional extra feature and not something which is inherent & implicit to eBooks. The question is whether MS will provide similar features for Xbox One games, and how those features will be implemented.
     
    On the subject of used games, I often see the statement that game buyers consider the resale value as part of the price of a game. (i.e. a game may be $60 on the shelf, but it's really only $40 because it is worth $20 in GameStop credit.) While this may be true for people who buy games frequently, it's not true for me. I have less time than money, so I tend to buy infrequently. I also don't tend to sell my games after I have finished them.
  13. EricBall

    home theater audio

    By EricBall,

    I've just ordered the Andrew Jones designed Pioneer 5.1 speaker package to go with the Yamaha RX-V573 receiver / amplifier I just bought.
     
    Last week I visited a hifi dealer to do a receiver listening test. I concluded there were minor differences between the various (similar price & quality) receivers, but not significant compared to the expected differences caused by the speakers and the listening environment. So I went by features, specs & prices instead. The Yamaha had the features I wanted (AirPlay), good specs (4 ohm ratings, good power), and I got it on sale (last year's model).
     
    Speakers are a little trickier. Although I could have done listening tests, any test is going to be flawed because it won't be in my listening environment and is easily tricked by slight differences in volume and music. In addition, I was trying to keep my spending down. The Pioneer SP-FS52 floorstanding speakers are getting excellent reviews and have a flat SPL graph. (I originally was looking at the Fluance XL7F, but they have a big dip in the midrange.) Plus, they are inexpensive: C$600+tax for the full 5.1 set.
     
    Of course I sold the speaker stands at last year's garage sale....
  14. EricBall
    from http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/03/20/xbox-durango-requires-all-games-to-be-installed
     
    "Every Durango console will have a hard drive, although its exact capacity has not been chosen," reads help documentation in the Durango XDK. "It will be large enough, however, to hold a large number of games. All games will be installed on the hard drive. Play from the optical disc will not be supported."
     
    My question is why. I can't think of anything (anti-piracy or anti-resale) which would require entire games to be stored on the hard drive. Any data which is stored on the drive has to start on the disk, so why not leave it on the disk?
  15. EricBall
    With the house fire, I'm in the market for a new monitor - so I dropped in at my local Best Buy to get a feel for what is available. I felt like I was buying a Model T - I could have any size I wanted, as long as it was 1920x1080. I've since confirmed this via Newegg - there are a few 1920x1200 (all 24" 16:10 so I suspect they are the same panel) and a few 2560x1440 or x1600, but the majority are 1920x1080.
     
    Now I understand the economics at work - HDTVs use the same panels and they don't need more than 1920x1080 for their content. So it's cheaper to use the same panel for both solutions.
     
    Now, I should be overjoyed with 1920x1080 considering the number of years I used 640x480 (and even lower if I consider the A2 and CoCo). And I probably won't be wanting in most cases. But I do start to wonder if trying to get the biggest monitor within my budget might backfire. Is 27" too large at 1920x1080? IIRC the original Macs assumed 72dpi, which means I could go up to 30" !!!
     
    Speaking of Macs, one upshot of sticking with 1920x1080 is that's the max resolution for the Mac Mini over HDMI. Going higher (up to 2560x1600) requires a DisplayPort (or Thunderbolt).
  16. EricBall
    It's too bad that CableCard never replaced set top boxes. I just hung a TV on the wall (32" which I can see while I do dishes) and now I need to figure out how to mount the cableco STB if I want to watch something more than basic cable.
  17. EricBall

    Playstation 4 musings

    By EricBall,

    So Sony has decided to partner with AMD to provide the processing power in the next Playstation console. They are sticking in a single chip eight x86-64 AMD "Jaguar" cores and a AMD next-generation Radeon™ based 1.84 TFLOPS graphics engine backed by 8GB of GDDR5 RAM. The single chip "APU" will likely also include a dedicated video encoding & decoding processors.
     
    My first question is whether 8GB of RAM will be enough (although that's a leap from the 512MB of the PS3 & XBox360) - and whether there will be bottlenecks trying to feed 8 cores and a modern GPU through the unified connection.
     
    My second question is whether the size of the APU would drive down yeilds (and thus increase costs). Then again, it might be multiple chips in a single package. The AMD Jaguar is also the "next generation", so there may be problems there is well.
     
    And finally I'm wondering why x86 at all. One of the problems with x86 is the decoder complexity to handle the decades of cruft inherited from the x86 line. AMD might have been able to remove some of this since the PS4 doesn't need to be backwards compatible, but there's still a drag on the overall design. However, Sony might have determined that pressures from the PC world have advanced x86 beyond what Power & ARM are currently capable of.
     
    I'm also bemused by the comment "no PS3 compatibility at launch" as if PS3 emulation is a realistic possibility. While the plan may be to provide On-Live style streaming of PS3 games, I'm not certain whether latency issues will ever be overcome enough to make this viable.
  18. EricBall

    TVs & DVDs

    By EricBall,

    Yesterday I bought an LG 55LM6400 (pick it up Tuesday) for C$1300. It's a 55" passive 3D HDTV. Again I declined the extended warranty - hopefully I won't have reason to second-guess that decision again. My buying decision started with passive 3D (which also implies LCD - but I would have gone with LCD over PWM flicker plasma anyway) as the glasses are cheaper, don't require batteries & give a more stable image to boot. Yes, there is some loss of vertical resolution, but I read some semi-independent testing which found it wasn't as bad as you might think. That cut the field of 55+" TVs down to a small number of makers (LG, Toshiba & Panasonic) & models. With the new models announced at CES, the current models are now on sale.
     
    Buying a new TV has gotten me to thinking again about building/buying some kind of DVD library - a box with a HD containing rips of all of my DVDs which would then be connected to the TV. Unlike a lot of people, I'd rip the entire DVD so I still have all of the menus & extra content - not just a recompressed version of the movie. XBMC can do it (and more besides), but I'd prefer something smaller, cheaper & quieter than a HTPC. A Raspberry Pi can run XBMC, but the current release has problems with DVD menus.
     
    But then again, it's not like I'm watching DVDs all that often - and how difficult is it to get up and put one in the PS3?
  19. EricBall

    PS3 - Uncharted 3

    By EricBall,

    The pack-in in my PS3 bundle was Uncharted 3, so I'm playing through it. (Probably much to my wife's annoyance as she would really rather I didn't play shooters.)
     
    Playing through it is a good description as the game is linear. Sure, sometimes there are battle areas where you get a little more choice for directions to go, and there are short branches for "hidden treasure" (which doesn't seem to do anything from a gameplay perspective). But there's really no chance of getting truly lost - you are either killed/captured if you get too far off course (and then restart from the last checkpoint) or you get to fumble around until you find the way back to the path. Time is also flexible - although the game tries to hurry you along, typically there's no penalty for going slow.
     
    In theory, the reason for this linearity is so the story isn't compromised. The problem is the story is like an action movie - with all of the problems they have. Now, I haven't played the other Uncharted games, so there's probably a bunch of backstory which would help explain Drake's motivation in doggedly seeking this lost city in the face of almost overwhelming opposition, and why his friends would follow him through this near suicidal adventure. I also don't understand the villains. They send hordes of minions out to kill Drake, but then don't kill him when he's at their mercy. (And minions who would rather fight Drake than escape a burning building.) The villains also seem to have the ability to follow Drake through every puzzle, almost like they know the answer, but never get ahead of him.
     
    Then there's the combat. I'm gradually learning how to make better use of the hand-to-hand combat rather than just mashing the square button. There does seem to be some intelligence as I found last night if I maneuvered myself close to a club I'd pick it up and use it. There also seems to be some timing as I get better results pressing the square button slower rather than as quickly as possible.
     
    I'm also figuring out how to shoot from cover, although aiming from cover seems to expose Drake more than I'd like. The game also doesn't explain the advantages between the different handguns (you can only carry one at a time).
     
    I'm playing on "Normal" difficulty, which is still probably a little on the easy side for most of the game. Not only can Drake take a huge amount of damage, but he regenerates if you can avoid getting hit for a minute. None the less, there's a few spots which were very difficult to get past, like the RPG attack on the top of the castle. (It turns out it's better to be more exposed so you can avoid the rockets than take cover and die in the explosion.) And while having Drake run towards the camera may be more cinematic, it makes it much more difficult to follow the one safe path!
     
    Last night I had a gun battle with a bunch of pirates in a ship graveyard. (Why pirates would be patrolling inside the graveyard is one of those action movie plot holes - try not to think to hard.) The problem was Drake was unarmed and there wasn't any good cover other than underwater. (And you thought you hated swimming as Mario...) I eventually found a place which had some weapons, then (after a couple more deaths) I found a machine gun nest which I could take out. This made it much easier to handle the bad guys with sniper rifles, although I still died a couple of times being attacked from my blind side & via a few grenades.
     
    But eventually all of the bad guys fell to my bullets & fists and the graveyard was strangely quiet, with nary an obvious exit. Finally I realized I needed to climb a tower (there's lots of climbing in Uncharted, but it's rarely difficult). What I didn't know is climbing the tower triggered a few more baddies to come out of hiding and send me falling to my doom in a hail of lead. So it's back to the last checkpoint to try again...
  20. EricBall

    Acer Aspire One upgrade

    By EricBall,

    After the fire we bought an Acer Aspire One (D270) netbook to use while our laptops were being cleaned. It's biggest problem isn't the 10" 1024x600 screen or the correspondingly small keyboard but the 1GB of RAM. The Intel Atom N2600 isn't a speed demon either, but it's surprisingly adequate for basic web surfing. But once that RAM fills up the system slows to a crawl. So I'm looking at upgrading the RAM and replacing the hard drive with an SSD.
     
    Although officially the system will only support 2GB of RAM, it appears that at least 3GB of a 4GB stick will be recognized even by the preloaded Windows 7 Starter Edition. So now I need to do some price shopping, while trying to avoid the line between "cheap" and "cheap 'cause it's junk".
     
    I have the same problem shopping for an SSD, as there are a lot of reports of people's SSDs suddenly becoming non-functional within the first year. Therefore I'm trying to research people's experiences with warranty replacement, particularly in Canada, on the assumption the drive will fail and I will need to replace it.
  21. EricBall

    Wii U 4 me?

    By EricBall,

    Back in August we had a house fire which destroyed much of the contents by heat & smoke, including my Wii & PS3. Insurance will replace both, but I'm debating whether I should replace the Wii with a Wii U or not.
     
    Actually, the first question is whether to replace them at all. I mean, my free time is fairly limited, and we try to limit my son's game playing time. So why drop $$ on a console which doesn't get used?
     
    The PS3 will get replaced because it's a decent Blu-Ray player (although it's non-HDMI audio is limited). And my son will have his 3DS and my wife an iTouch. So there's no shortage of games machines around.
     
    OTOH, the insurance will cover the Wii, so no cost to me. That also means I can still play the GameCube games (assuming I can buy some controllers somewhere) and will have access to the Homebrew channel.
     
    But I won't be able to play any Wii U games . . . not that the launch batch has any true must plays. Sure, New Super Mario Bros U is "the best 3D Mario in decades", but I've never been a super big fan of 2D Mario, I prefer the action-adventure style of SM64 and Zelda. So while I can perhaps see getting a Wii U at some point in the future, I can live without for the moment. But that also means any games come with the sticker shock of buying a new console.
     
    But, if I replace the Wii with a Wii U then the insurance will pick up some of the cost and I'm future proof for the moment. But I'll lose GameCube compatibility (eBay, since I sold mine at a garage sale...) and the Homebrew channel (although I can get emulators for the PC). Which is what I'll probably do, but not today. I wonder what Black Friday & Boxing Day sales will bring...
  22. EricBall
    Many years ago when I was a university student, I worked at Bell Northern Research (the R&D division of Nortel, RIP). One of the projects I worked on was a device which sat between an endpoint and an X.25 network and encrypted the data portions of the packets. A similar device at the destination handled the decryption. Although I didn't get down & dirty with the crypto, I learned enough to have a passing understanding of the field - including the wisdom to never roll your own crypto; use a proven standard instead.
     
    But I'm thinking I might want to do just that.
     
    The problem is passwords - we all have too many of them to ensure all of them are unique and sufficiently strong. Stories like http://arstechnica.com/security/2012/08/passwords-under-assault// have shown how easy it is for hackers to learn a site's passwords by brute-force testing (by using password dictionaries & heuristics developed based on other password files). And once your password from one site is exposed, they can use that same password at other sites. The obvious solution is to have unique passwords for each site, but how to keep track of each password - especially if you want the password to be uncrackable without a complete character by character search.
     
    The standard answer is to use a key derivation function like PBKDF2 which takes a master password and a site-specific "salt" (random string which does not have to be secret) to create a site-specific password. PBKDF2 also makes cracking the master password more difficult by using a cryptographic hash function thousands of times over & over again.
     
    I was going to use PBKDF2, but then I started looking deeper into how it works and realized that although it repeated the hashing function multiple times, each time it used the master password (which isn't random) and padding (zero bytes) - thus making the input less random. The second problem is even though it repeats the hashing function thousands of times, that doesn't prevent a brute force attack which can run over days and use GPUs to try multiple attempts in parallel.
     
    The latter issue is why scrypt was created. It creates a large array of random data, then randomizes that data, then hashes it to provide the result. The theory is a PC can easily handle the large array while a doing the same for a GPU or custom hardware would be cost prohibitive. The problem I have with scrypt is twofold: first, it uses PBKDF to create the random data (as a very large key) and then uses it again to create the output - and as I've looked under the covers at how PBKDF2 works I'm not sure that's an optimal solution. And second is I don't like some of the details of the randomization portion. Plus, I think I can do better with a simpler function.
     
     
    With all due respect and recognition to Colin Percival and scrypt, I would like to propose the following Sequential Memory-Hard Key Derivation Function based on SHA-256. The following is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License.
     
    SHA-256 follows the Merkle–Damgård construction where a padded message is broken into N 512-bit message blocks M[1], M[2], ..., M[N] and the message digest H[N] is calculated via the following process:
     
    H := hash( H[i-1], M )
     
    hash is the 64 rounds of the SHA-256 compression function
    H[0] is the first thirty-two bits of the fractional parts of the square roots of the first eight prime numbers
    H[N] is the 256-bit message digest of M.
     
    My proposal is to extend this construction as follows:
     
    H[0] := Salt
    H[1] := hash( IV, IK )
    H := hash( H[i-1], H[(i-1) ** H[i-1]] || H[(i-1) ** ><H[i-1]] )
     
    hash is the 64 rounds of the SHA-256 compression function
    IV is the first thirty-two bits of the fractional parts of the square roots of the first eight prime numbers
    IK is the 512-bit initial key
    N is the number of iterations
    Salt is a 256-bit random number
    H[N] is the 256-bit derived key
    ><h is the bit reversal of h
    m ** h is the integer portion of m multiplied by h as a binary fraction
    || is the concatenation function
     
    The intent of this KDF is to make it infeasible, due to computation & memory requirements, to determine the initial key (by brute force or otherwise) given knowledge of the derived key and the Salt.
     
    The purpose is to create hashes or passwords (via appropriate mapping) based on a master password and context and/or application specific information. In this context, 512 bits (64 8-bit characters) of input and 256 bits (43 base64 encoded characters) of output should be sufficient for most purposes. SHA-512 may be extended by the same method to double the initial and derived key lengths. Initial keys longer than 1024 bits may also be reduced by an initial hashing (preferably using SHA-512 to generate a 256 bit initial key). Derived passwords longer than 512 bits may be created using methods similar to those in RFC 2898 or RFC 5869.
     
    The idea is you'd have a file containing the following information: site info (e.g. [email protected]), the salt, and the length of the output password and 64 characters used to translate the 256 bit derived key to the site password. When you wanted to access the site you'd select the site info, enter the master password and cut & paste (or transcribe) the output password.
     
    My current challenge is twofold: first, getting some real cryptos to look at it and figure out if there's any problems with the idea (i.e. repeatedly using the hash will devolved the derived output to a small set of values), and second figuring out whether this will actually provide the desired result.
     
    The hypothesis is using lots of RAM makes it more costly to brute force the master password. However, my KDF only outputs 256 bits (32 bytes) per hash iteration. So you need a ridiculous number of iterations to use up a sizable amount of RAM. The question is then at what point is enough RAM enough. Maybe use the PBDKF guidelines as a guide to the number of iterations and let the RAM usage fall where it may.
  23. EricBall

    personal cloud computing?

    By EricBall,

    About three weeks ago our house caught fire. No-one was hurt (although the cat didn't make it) and the majority of the damage is smoke & heat related. (The fire appears to have started from some loose batteries - probably a shorted 9V.)
     
    At this point I don't know if my desktop tower computer can be saved, but I'm mulling over options to replace it. As a temporary solution (while my wife's Macbook & my work laptop were out for cleaning) I bought a netbook (asus Aspire One) which does a remarkably good job for most tasks. So much so that I'm wondering what I need a desktop for. I'm concluded the main tasks (other than video capture, which I may do via my wife's MacBook or my MythTV backend) are CPU & memory hogs (like stitching panoramas or giant GIMP files).
     
    So I'm wondering - is there the possibility of using something like Amazon EC2 to handle the times when I need a PC with more CPU and memory than the netbook?
  24. EricBall

    Tempest MAME 2012 pt2

    By EricBall,

    My Tempest MAME cabinet is coming along well. After some initial learning curve frustration, I now have 3D Arcade configured as a front end. It displays the games as 3D cabinets in a spinable cylinder. It still needs some tweaks and some additional setup, but it's now close enough to be usable. The main task is now going through all of the games and making sure they work and making any necessary configuration tweaks. In doing so, I've run into a problem...
     
    MAME is, first and foremost, an emulator. The idea is the software should reproduce the hardware as closely as possible - using the original software (ROMs). In slavish dedication to this ideal, the MAME devs flag any games which don't meet those standards with a warning screen, e.g.: "There are known problems with this game. The sound emulation isn't 100% accurate. Type OK or move the joystick left then right to continue." In current releases of MAME this warning message cannot be bypassed, and unlike the "ROMs are copyrighted, so you're almost certainly violating the law" warning, it appears every time you run the game. Which presents a problem for me since my Tempest cabinet doesn't have a joystick or a keyboard.
     
    One solution is to recompile MAME after modifying the code the eliminate those warnings. But that's a chunk of error-prone effort which I have no desire to perform. I'm sure if I search I can find someone who's done that for me, but I'm thinking a better alternative is to modify my keyboard encoder wiring to map the buttons to left & right arrows (typical for joysticks) which will allow me to bypass the warning manually. Unfortunately, this has two annoying facets. First I'll have to go back through the reconfiguration process to remap the buttons used by MAME and 3D Arcade to be compatible with the new keys. Second I'll have to physically change the wiring, which will probably involve some soldering.
     
    Right now I'm using a keyboard encoder scavenged from an actual keyboard, but I'm thinking I might want to look and see if there's a cheap alternative.
  25. EricBall
    Due to my basement purge, my Tempest cabinet is getting an upgrade from a P3-450(?) to an Athlon XP 2000+ (1.2GHz).
     
    The first step is to install Windows XP. Although this PC previously had XP installed, it's hard drive now contains Mythbuntu and is in a different PC. As I detailed in my previous entry, I spent several hours trying to get a 37GB drive to format before giving up and dropping in a 10GB drive (which I formatted FAT32). I managed to find the XP manual & key and the install went smoothly from there (other than one heart-stopper when it wouldn't boot after I put in the cards).
     
    But then came trying to update. I know XP is no longer supported, but would it kill MS to make installing SP3 a little less difficult? The default Windows Update won't work, the SP3 installer won't work without SP1 or SP2 and one of those is broken too. But after digging through multiple dead links and dead ends, I did install SP3, which then asked to download a huge number of security fixes. But it's done. I also installed the current drivers for the motherboard (older) & chipset (newer), so I should be golden for graphics & sound.
     
    The second step was to update my ROM set from 0.97 to 0.146 (current). To my shock the ROM set is now 42GB! (0.97 fit on 3 DVDs) And that's without the CHDs (250+GB) and extras (15GB). It's a good thing I kept some of my old drives and could drop in an 80GB to store it. But before joining the torrent swarm, I tried to use ClrMamePro to bring my 0.97 files as close to current as possible. After several hours of trying to TorrentZip the results, I gave up and decided to let the torrent figure out if any of the files hadn't changed.
     
    I ended up downloading 39GB for the ROM set and 15GB for the extras - and blew through my 60GB monthly download limit. On the plus side the month starts on the 24th, so I only had to last a couple of days before the limit reset. But on the down side I now know the limit warnings are based upon the previous day, not current.
     
    In any case, I'm now complete and ready to rock. One challenge with the Tempest cabinet is it only has the original controls: a spinner and two buttons (plus the player buttons) and a vertical monitor. Great for playing Tempest, not good for 90% of the other games. However, I discovered last night that MAME will let me use mouse left/right for joystick left/right. This means I can play Space Invaders and lots of other games - not just Tempest and Cameltry. I've made up a list of over 100 possible games. MAME also had a primitive, but functional, game selection screen, so I can play even without setting up a front end.
     
    I need to do some research to figure out what front end I want to use. Previously I'd used AtomicFE, but it's no longer being developed. 3D Arcade looks cool (especially the cylinder select), but has the same problem. Maybe I need to spend some time on BYOAC and find out what's current and can be used with my spinner CP.
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