Bits'n'Bobs and other flotsam.

[Gaffer]

I had a new idea (they're rare but they do exist ).

Rather than add lots of flotsam and jetsam here and there, I thought I'd dedicate 1 thread to mindless ramblings.
This could then be added to by me as and when .

I'm going to try and add stuff that maybe doesn't deserve a seperate thread and may not even be Wii related....but stuff that I might need to "let out" all the same.

The first post is a recent one that should really have kickstarted it:

Originally posted 4th October

OK......long time coming but here's a quick entry for you to chew on .

1: WPA on the DS?
We all want it. Most of us don't understand why Nintendo didn't implement it. For those of us who don't want it, it's a right PITA.
What am I going on about?
Router security of course.

When the DS arrived, it had WEP security as it's highest....fairy nuff.
When it was updated to the lite, WPA had arrived (yaay). So why did Nintendo not add in WPA?
Their excuse is that "most households utilise WEP". True, but at least allow the option of WPA then. That way "most" households can continue with WEP and "savy" households can use WPA.

Nope, they've stuck to their guns unfortunately......but is this amendable?

Well, I'm not entirely sure how the WEP is handled by the DS. I'm assuming it is all software/firmware based. I say this because the PSP initially had only WEP, and an early firmware update allowed you to choose WPA.

Not only that, but enterprising 3rd parties have already added WPA to the DS .
Yes, you read that right folks, a chap in the US has started a project that adds WPA capability to your DS. This involves a firmware update that allows you to choose a WPA protocol in the WFC settings in the home screen.

Here it is.

He only got as far as v0.21 I'm afraid. Why? Well Nintendo USA decided to try and sue him. They sent him a "cease and desist" letter and ordered him to remove all firmwares to a 3rd party site and close that section of his site down .
This is why I included the Google cached link as opposed to a direct one.

So that looks like it's dead in the water - when it all appeared to be going so well too .

However, what it does show is that it is at least entirely possible to do it.
We could go 2 places from here:
1) The same author relocates to a server in a different part of the world (China maybe? Sweden?) and restarts the project under a psuedonym.
2) Someone else starts a similar project or starts from where he left off (again, located in a "harder to reach" corner of litigation world).

A third option is for Nintendo themselves to acknowledge that they need an udpate.
After all, why allow WPA2 on the Wii, blabber on and on about how Wii and DS are interconnectable, and then refuse to allow WPA/WPA2 on the DS?
Bizarre behaviour methinks.

In fact, someone else summed it up pretty well here:

Originally Posted by Julian Blog

If someone actually needs or wants their wireless network to be secure, WEP is not an option. WEP+MAC address filtering is still inherently insecure. This is true today.
For some time perspective, the GameCube was released long before 802.11g was even close to finalized. The Nintendo DS was released after WPA was finalized. Going forward, most consumer wireless devices will support WPA. As of a year ago, even with about 8 regular users of my network, I could switch to WPA. Except for the Nintendo DS. If the Revolution is also released without WPA support (it’s likely, since the DS doesn’t support it anyway), it’s going to be many many years before people can realistically begin using WPA instead of WEP—at least anyone who owns Nintendo hardware. Now, you may not need to switch to WPA, but some people do.
It’s just stupid to release a modern 802.11b or g device these days that does not support WPA. I’m willing to grant that WEP is more popular today, but that’s because WPA is much much newer! WPA will become more popular in a few years if devices actually support it.
It’s also important to note that WPA is easier to use than WEP. There’s no such thing as a “HEX equivalent password” with WPA.
I don’t understand the reasons not to support WPA. These devices Nintendo is releasing will be with us longer than average computer hardware.

So how could Nintendo do this update?
Simple, in the same way PSP does. Future published releases have a firmware updater (you're warned beforehand about having it plugged into a stable wall supply first ) that update your DS' WFC ability to WPA/WPA2.
It would need to be as reliable as the PSP ones though (having said that, most people who homebrew on their DS' use flash carts as opposed to physically chipping the console, so unlike modded Wii's, you're unlikely to get a brick if you update from the game cart on a DS).

So the ball is in Nintendo's court. Someone has even SHOWN them how to do it already, there is no excuse to let it "lag behind" the Wii so much re:security.



2: My new Wiimote battery solution.

On to different things, I got fed up with the constant battery changing of the Wiimotes. True, I haven't touched my Wii for nigh on over 1-2 months recently (not due to lack of games, more due to lack of time), but even sitting there not doing anything didn't stop the bleedin' 'motes thirst for power.

So I bought what is quite possibly the fastest/best charger on the planet.....Energiser 15min charger (£14):



I also bought 2 sets of these (8 Ni-mh batts in total = £8 ) on the right to go with them. 2800mAh...mmmmmmmm .
Now the 15min refers to 2200mAh batts....the 2800mAh actually take about 30min to recharge.
As the charger has individual "rails" for each battery, it doesn't matter wether you charge one or 4, or some fully flat and some slightly flat, they all charge independantly.

Having said all that, I'm not too impressed with the 7dayshop batts. Even though advertised as 2800's, they don't appear to last much longer than the Energiser 2200's.
So my advice is to buy the charger, remember to keep all batteries the same rating (and if possible, the same manufacturer too), and it's worth specifically buying a named brand such as Duracell/Energiser, which even though advertised as only 2200-2400 seem to last as long as these "higher capacity" ones yet take less time to charge as well .

Overall, a good buy if bought with decent Ni-mh batts then.

More updates to follow

[red daze]

Got the same charger gaffer - its only a tenner in tescos - but its fantastic - chargers quick too!!

Great blog/thread btw!!

[Gaffer]

For my next ramble:

As you know, I have a modest website. It has evolved from a simple single page that held my bookmarks (that I could access across all computers at Uni), into a kind of bloated hydra.....lots of pages and facets (a lot of which is mindless info/ramblings.....------I have to put it somewhere ).

Anyway, the problem was that the design was also stuck in the past (FIRMLY in the past).
We initially had HTML to play with. That kept updating and then we got given Javascript. With this came a new idea of sort of "fusing" the two functionalities into DHTML (simple way of looking at it I know)....which has evolved into XML and given us an offshoot of CSS.
On top of this, there are now many other ways to code websites, such as Flash (Ugh!), Java, PHP etc etc
...PHEW!, that's a lot of standards.
These standards continually update so you need to keep abreast of them if you want to maintain a "healthy" site.
The problem is, I taught myself HTML, got stuck with JavaScript, and recently started getting to grips with CSS (I don't use programs to do the work for me, I like hardcoding myself using textedit/bbedit). Now we have a whole LOAD of engines to use .....I can't keep up. So whereas before we had HTML (for structure, view of layout, and with no interactivity), I now use HTML/DHTML (for structure), CSS (for how you view the layout) and JavaScript (for the odd bit of interactivity). I "ignore" the other methods as I can achieve most of what I need with merely those three .

So there I was, stuck in the past, hardly having ventured past bog standard HTML........and I was ignoring the white elephant in the room.
You see, the structure I have been using in my site is based on an old "stuck-in-the-past" component of HTML called Frameset (or simply Frames). With the advent of all these new ideas for coding, even though HTML is still the gutrock, the single idea of Frames kind of.....well....died. Ages ago. You see, even though frames are supported, they were never a good idea in the first place. Frames break some very basic rules of how the internet should work:

1. Frames focus the site on layout as opposed to structure. HTML markup is designed to be a platform-independent way to indicate the meaning of the contents so that each browser can render the document on whatever platform it is running on. Frames violate this principle as everything is designed to accomodate only browsers running on big-screen graphical displays.
2. Framesets are not addressable, which means that you can't store a page as you click through. Even though you see something in the main window, the address bar is always pointing to your index.html address. Meaning that you can't isolate and bookmark individual content anymore.
3. Frames are incompatible with some browsers....importantly Wii's Opera browser and also many mobile browsers (such as those on mobile phones and pda's).
4. They can include content from completely unrelated sites...meaning that the content of what you see is no longer related to where you are. Also, copyright issues may be a problem (eg, if you link to an external site but remain within your own frame/address bar......does the owner of the linked site know/like the idea of it being viewed from within yours? - probably not).
5. There is a BIG issue with electronic readers for partially sighted and disabled people. In short, most of them simply don't work with frames.
6. They add at least one level of unnecessary complexity, both to the design of the page, and to its navigation.
7. They increase apparent load time, and load time is the second most critical consideration in any site design.

I could go on and on, but suffice it to say that there were 2 main issues I didn't like....Point 1 was a problem because I didn't like scroll bars when viewing through lower res:

--->

...and Point 3 was a problem because the site was simply "broken" when viewed from the comfort of my lounge on the wii .

So I decided to quickly re-arrange a few things during my breaks. I initially wanted to follow a design similar to this in which the site looks like it's on a "page" with a toolbar at the top.
However, the CSS needed was very complex, so even though it functioned OK, it looked like it was all over the place, with background graphics not working properly.
There are other methods you can use like PHP or Flash, but I'm not well versed in those methods.

THEN I stumbled upon a JavaScript way of doing it. Before I go any further, let me just confess that I'm good at coding HTML, OKish at CSS, but utterly crap at JavaScript (and completely non-existant at the others).
So this code wasn't made by me, it is freely available and has been updated from EchoEcho.

This is what I've ended up with:
--->

The big advantage of this is that not only have I gotten rid of the dread Frames (finally - I can now browse the site on my Treo as well as my Wii), but I have optimised everything to display correctly on any screen res from 800x600 all the way up to uber massive Apple Display 2560 x 1600 . If you also want to use this utility from EchoEcho on your site, remember that the following line in your html document will break the code: <!doctype html public "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd">
Instead, just use this: <!doctype html public "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> (ie, chop out the http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd and you'll be good to go).

I still have things to "sharpen up" a bit which I'll slowly do when I get more time (not now). Firstly, I'd still like to go to the macRabbit style layout as linked above. I like the look of the site appearing to be on a "page" within the window. This would have the benefit of the site actually appearing nigh on identical regardless of screen res (only the outside "grey" area would increase in size with higher res's, whereas at the moment my site "re-sizes'/"re-wraps" dependant on size of browser). It's also a look that more and more sites are migrating to: MyCheats, 1up, dejal, FileJuicer, etc etc.

I also have some code to clean up as is. For instance, rather than repeat the same code over and over identically across all your pages, you can store the code as an external file and then simply call on it to load as the page does. For instance, if you have some JavaScript doing something in odd pages here and there, simply save it in plain text as a whateveritscalled.js file (change the .txt to .js by renaming) in, for example, the root of your directory. Now, if a page needs that script, rather than type it out fully, type this instead:
<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript" src="whateveritscalled.js"></script>
Now the page will simply load the info from the external page.

However, I tried this with both floating toolbar scripts but it didn't work. It would also mean that I could simply alter 2 files and as a result change the appearance of the toolbar in all of my pages in one fell swoop......but for some reason it won't work (it works with my pop-ups, so I'm confused). Maybe someone with more coding experience could help me here?
Until then, I think I've improved enough for now......


EDIT: Thanx Red Daze (Sorry, I just missed your comment )......Oh, and with the batteries, it's worth noting that non-rechargeable AA's give 1.5v each, but NiMh ones actually only output 1.2v each. However, they give this slightly lower voltage for longer (a bit like "tortoise and hare" - slightly lower v (and the unit might then require slightly more I to compensate) but more longevity). So your 'motes might quickly go from 4 to 3 lights, but they'll stay at 3 for much longer (the wiimotes are now getting 2.4v rather than 3v, but are also drawing slightly more current to get the same power - and for a longer period).

[Ed00wii]

You could rant for England...

[TheKeyboardDemon]

Originally Posted by Ed00wii

You could rant for England...

Olympics event perhaps, I'll give the 1 above a 9.4 I think, over to the next judge then.

[wiimadjay]

Olympics event perhaps, I'll give the 1 above a 9.4 I think, over to the next judge then.

very good rant. a 9.2 from me. and from the next judge?

[LandShark]

Next judge is holding up a..... 9.1! and last judge

[OakyBoy]

I'm holding up a 9.5!



Great thread mate.

[Gaffer]

Hee heeee, I take it from that that it's a Gold medal then .

Quick update: managed to get the external .js file loading to work - it's implemented now.

I'm on the hunt for an emulator that can precisely show how a site will appear on the Wii.....it renders pages slightly differently to anything on a mac/pc .

Extra musings: I'm debating whether to switch the SD cards between my Wii (2Gb norm. speed) and my 5MP camera (512Mb high speed card). The problem is, even though I'll be able to take 4 times as many piccies, it's noticeably slower to access the card when taking/reviewing.
I dunno, I'm loath to leave 2Gb of "real estate" in the Wii when there's nothing useful to put in there .

On a side note, I'm watching the Arg Vs Fra Rugger match 3rd place playoff at the mo'........FANTASTIC effort on the Argie's part (although that's mainly due to a lackluster French performance).

Can't wait for the Brazilian GP (GO HammieBoy GO ).......will hopefully make up for the utter utter sh**e of the Footie performance (WHEN are we gonna get rid of that useless lump McClaren?.........any thoughts on a replacement?....I've always thought Martin O'Neill would be a GREAT England manager - but don't know if he'd leave the premiership/Villa (<---not that I support them - I don't, I've just always thought highly of him since he helmed Celtic especially ))

[Gaffer]

More flotsam:

Just got a new gadgety thing from Ikea of all places. They're basically 4 strip lights, but with about 8 colour choices. You can even cycle them through and also blend them through all 7 cyclically if you want:


The medical reasoning behind this is as follows:
If you watch movies in pitch-black rooms, the amount of light may be very low from the screen (eg a night scene) in which case your iris is very wide (fully accommodated).
Now an explosion occurs on-screen (action movie? )...so your iris has to contract to it's maximum amount.
So it has gone from fully dilated to fully contracted in an extremely short time (the blink of an eye? ). In the period of a film, it may do this hundreds upon hundreds of times....it's THIS that causes eye strain.

Using ambient light behind a TV (a la Philips ambilight) means that the room is never dark enough (despite a night scene on-screen) to require full (dilated) accommodation by the eye. So at the most, the iris will be required to change from fully contracted to only partially dilated........overall this causes less eye strain.
It also doesn't really make a difference re:the colour of this ambient light (so you don't actually need an ambilight....any old light will do).

I have a choice of pink/purple/aqua/blue/green/yellow/red/white.
I think I've plumped for "wii-style" aqua myself.


(oh....and yes, it does make a noticeable difference )