Category: Tech

Posted on

ergonomically nice mice

currently i’m looking for a mouse with good usability/ergonomics and control. two promising candidates i’ve found so far:

logitech mx510 performance optical mouse (800 dpi/cpi, 5.8 mpixels/s data rate, up to 15g acceleration) (the u.s. model is red as opposed to the european model which is blue)
reviews: hardware pacers, geekextreme, extremetech, gaming nexus. brand new. should offer excellent control (it’s targeted towards hc gamers ;). eventually remove the removable little weight element [picture]

razor viper optical (1000 dpi/cpi, ?? mpixels/s, ?? g)
reviews: ex hardware, tom’s hardware. brand new. razor is renown for gamer gear. probably best control but not very handy for everyday use as it lacks back and forward buttons and other nice features the mx510 offers.

as i don’t intend to use the mouse exclusively for gaming purposes (i mostly use simulators, not fps) i’ll probably go for the logitech mx510 performance optical mouse due to its features (has more buttons).. looking forward to test-driving it :)

btw. it’s a pity that manufacturers don’t offer any truly smoothly scrolling mice.. and last but not least: i don’t like wireless mice for a number of reasons..

Posted on

the big picture or why windows is not the most important os

i’ve just stumbled over a funny yet thoughtful video interview snippet on msdn:

bill hill on why “windows is not the most important os”

though i disagree about the lack of “inner” upgrades for “homo sapiens 1.0” [1] there’s definitely some truth in bill hill’s remarks :) these days, we (particularly business-focussed) cs/it people are often blinded by details and thus can’t see the big picture anymore: in the first place, we shall develop things for people, not a particular platform or os. it’s general human computer interaction (hci) that deserves more attention.

apart from improving traditional graphical user interfaces (guis), there are also more visionary approaches in hci research such as the tangible bits project at m.i.t. (thanks to lili for pointing me to this site ;) or the various wearable computing projects.

[1] ;) for example, think of all the interesting projects at the border of biotechnology and medicine, such as the human genome project. or of the exciting experiments done by wearable computing researchers like kevin warwick, steve mann, thad starner, vernon reed, stelarc, bernt schiele et al.

Posted on

About hacking the Xbox

Meanwhile, I’ve finished reading Andrew “Bunnie” Huang’s Hacking the Xbox – An Introduction to Reverse Engineering. It’s a great book (apart from some formal deficiencies due to lacking publisher support) and I can highly recommend it to anybody who’s interested in any of the fields such as reverse engineering, hardware hacking, HW-/IT-security, video game consoles (particularly the Xbox), US laws and others.

Some points what this book is all about (in my very personal view as someone who read it):

* It’s about reverse engineering. It’s about HW-security and security in general. It’s about HW-hacking in the age of the DMCA. It’s about your rights to explore and excel and how to keep doing it despite of/in accordance with DMCA. It’s about having fun with challenges. It’s about online hacker communities and their backgrounds.
* It’s about (US) laws and ethics.
* It’s about economics of video game consoles.
* It’s about HW-hacking basics. It rather covers practice than theory.
* It’s not a step-by-step guide about hacking a Xbox as this would not match with current (unfortunate) american laws (DMCA).
* Important note: The entire book is legal according to US laws

My take: Unsurprisingly, I didn’t read this book for hacking a Xbox. I don’t even have a video game console as I’m not an avid “gamer” (I prefer having a nice joystick instead of a rather limited game pad and I prefer using a PC as I’m more into simulations than typical game console games -> well yeah, I know the Xbox is a PC in fact). Needless to say I don’t intend to buy one in the future, not even for running Linux on it. IMHO, hacking a Xbox mere for getting a cheap LinuXbox is not that attractive anymore (nowadays, you can probably get better HW for the price of a Xbox.. even saving you the efforts and expenses to hack the Xbox). However, it might still be attractive if you see it as fun or an educational challenge (although with today’s alternate-rom-chips and with the know-how provided by the Xbox hacker pioneers, it’s probably not that much of a challenge anymore). I’ve solely read the book to get a first-hand insight into the general topic of HW-hacking with the goal to learn judge the security-concepts of current security architectures such as TCPA, Palladium/NGSCB etc. And that’s exactly what I recommend this book for in the first place. Of course you can’t expect to be a security expert or a HW-hacking guru just after reading a book. In fact, you’re far away from it. But you get an idea of how much it takes to get there (i.e. to an equal level with Bunnie & Co.) and you get an idea of how difficult (probably impossible) designing secure hardware is. You also learn about the general problems and disadvantages of HW-based security approaches and how to do it better.

Unfortunately, many people don’t seem to understand the main aspect of the book. For example I suggested the local library to buy some exemplars, as I consider it to be a very valuable (a “must-read”) book for any CS/IT/EE student. Their answer: “We don’t cover books about game consoles”. Poor judgement (though not atypical). As a consequence, students who are interested in reading this book will need to purchase it (Domestic: See the Orell-Füssli shop at the Bahnhofstrasse in Zurich or books.ch; Intl.: See the web sites of NoStarchPress, Amazon etc.). I recommend to do so however. It’s definitely worth it as it will broaden your horizon in a new way.

Posted on

sonyericsson t630 instead of a smartphone

i’ve just read mobileburn’s review of the sonyericsson t630. seems to be a decent mobile phone more or less suiting my needs. of course they could drop polyphonic ringtones, games and outlook synchronization as i don’t use any of these. but the rest looks fine: it’s small, it’s handy and robust, it features a nice and bright screen and a sleek design, a good calendar/pim application and a long battery lifetime.

i’m pretty disappointed about the currently available smartphones (among them the p900). on one hand, they lack some of the features i’d really need, on the other hand they offer features i’d never use anyway:

need:

* connectivity: wlan/ieee 802.11b (featuring a switch on/off button). there are more and more public wlan networks and i like the spreading of autonomous citizen wlan networks in urban areas. wlan is the default wireless technology both in business and private environments. my home’s default connectivity is wlan, neither bluetooth nor gprs. i wouldn’t need rs232, bluetooth or irda support if there were wlan support.
* weight and size: a lightweight & small device i can easily carry in any veston/trouser pocket. i don’t like to carry “bricks” like the p900 (or even worse: the pocketpc pdas). what’s the worth of a reminder alarm if you don’t carry your smartphone/pda with you? i’m willing to accept a smaller screen size as a trade-in.
* robustness: similarly i don’t like to carry devices in leather cases. the device should therefore be robust enough to be carried in a pocket without any wrapping.
* handwriting recognition: i’d like to be able to write as i’m used to – using normal letters, not cryptic ones such as required by most currently available devices.
* operating system: i want a relatively open os. i.e. an os that allows me to develop applications using c/c++ and java. for example it should be possible to develop a customized data synchronization tool.
* slots: it should have an extension slot for additional memory. i favor an sd slot as i already have some sd cards and they’re good value.
* battery: battery lifetime should be at least 4 days (average use)
* emission and transmission: i’d like to have low emission yet reasonably good transmission quality

don’t need:

* camera/mms: i don’t necessarily need any camera and/or mms capabilities. quality is too bad so far, so there isn’t much to gain here.
* ms-compatibility: i don’t need outlook synchronization as i don’t use outlook (better: ldap synchronisation). i don’t need ms excel or ms word mini-applications as i seldom use excel or word. if there are any such tools included, they should support open file formats (text, rtf, html, xml..).
* games: i don’t need any games on the device. they’re nothing but memory hogs for me.
* ringtones: i don’t need dozens of built-in ringtones as i only use vibra notification.

unfortunately, none of the existing smartphones comes close to my needs. amazingly, even simple mobile phones such as the t630 are more suitable for my purpose. i guess i’ll go for the latter.