Inferno999.com

6/2/10 - The Hacking ... OF DOOM! ...2!

So, a few days ago Bethesda re-released Doom II for the XBOX 360 over XBLA for $10. A tough sell at its age, but considering how much fun I had with the Doom I re-release a couple years ago and the entirely new and exclusive 9 level episode, I figured it was worth it. Best $10 I spent all month! When it comes to mindless, fast action, arcade style first person shooters, nothing beats Doom! That, and the new levels are incredibly inventive! Shout out to Castle and Squibbons (Russell Meakim and Richard Heath respectively)!

What's missing? Cheats. Sure, playing through on Ultra-Violent difficulty was a decent challenge, but cheats are fun too and greatly add to the re-playability. A quick search through the usual places turned up nothing*, but I did find out that the new levels are packaged in a normal pc-playable Doom2 PWAD file (Nerve_demo.wad), which is packaged along with Midi's and other level data in doom2.disk, which is packaged along with the executable in a generic xbox container file (the XBLA download), which gets packaged into XTAF format containers when moved to usb storage. All you need to do is extract everything in the right order:

On the XBOX360, copy Doom II to your USB thumb drive.
Plug your thumb drive into your PC, open it using USB Xtaf Gui, and extract "\Data Partition\Content\0000000000000000\584109B6\000D0000". I ran into a problem mounting my 8gb thumb drive - solved by using a 1gb thumbdrive or clicking Help, Old GUI to download v17.
Run wxPirs, open the long file inside the 000D0000 folder you just extracted (D6FFF1F3474C79F3FEA07AE3010BAC94A91CEA6458) and extract \w\mission1\doom2.disk
Download and extract Disk Unpacker, edit the extract.bat file to include doom2.disk instead of doom.disk, put your doom2.disk file in the same directory as the extracted Disk Unpacker files, then run your modified extract.bat **
Go grab your extracted No Rest for the Living wad:
c:\assets\w\mission1\Nerve_demo.wad
CRC: ad7f9292
MD5: 967d5ae23daf45196212ae1b605da3b0

To play, load it up in your favorite Doom Source. I use ZDoom with ZDL; Download and extract both programs to the same directory, Run ZDL, configure it to look for ZDoom as a source port, Doom2.wad as an IWAD, and finally Nerve_demo.wad as an External File (PWAD). Launch, ignore the missing title screen, and enjoy.

*Though originally unable to locate a copy of the Nerve_demo.wad, I did eventually run across a copy renamed D2_NRFTL.WAD while researching .disk extraction: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=2XXZGR2V

Disclaimer: In accordance with our constitutionally protected right to free speech, I share only knowledge; none of the tools or files referenced in this post were created or hosted by me. I take NO RESPONSIBILITY for any results of the use of this knowledge. It is up to the individual to know their local laws and abide by them.

5/3/10 - More power to the Album Integrity Field!

Problem:
As far back as I can remember using iTunes, I've been dealing with this. It's rare (maybe 10 albums a year) but consistent. What happens is albums are being split when they shouldn't be. They stay this way until you hilight the entire album(s), "get info" and rename it to something new (simply reentering the name or checking the box next to the field doesn't fix it). Once they're re-merged, you can rename the album back to its original name. My guess is something's getting damaged during the database upgrades that happen after significant iTunes upgrades. I've also noticed that this only happens to music I import from CD and tag with complete track # of # and disc # of # attributes.

But don't take my word for it.
Notice how the Accelerator album is broken into three parts?

However, if you hilight all 13 tracks and "get info," itunes seems to know they're all a part of the same album, artist, # of tracks, and # of discs:

Here's another example, this time in CoverFlow with the Romeo + Juliet Vol 1 album. Notice the two albums, not only in the CoverFlow graphic but also in the list view below, showing track 5 and 6 as their own album:

And again, in normal list view:

Apple, please fix.

2/19/10 - Alpha-numeric Passcode on your iPhone and iPod touch

Originally posted by Mark Gurman

You know how Apple only lets you use four numbers as your passcode to unlock your device? That's as weak as banks PINs and school lockers. Everyone knows you need at least six characters and alpha-numeric at that.

We have your answer. We've built a profile from Apple's corporate development kit that allows alphanumeric passcodes. All you have to do is open this link (On your iDevice only!) and you will be prompted to pick a new passcode. You will be required to make a passcode with a mix of letters and numbers and you cannot put numbers in a consecutive order. For example you cannot choose "max1234" you would have to do something such as "max2746." If you ever want to remove this feature simply go to Settings/General/Profiles/9to5mac/ then click remove and confirm. Then change your code back to something numeric.

We aren't responsible for you forgetting your passcode and locking yourself out of your iPhone. Or anything else. Use at your own risk.

12/23/09 - How to: Strip DRM from Kindle books!

A fantastic Kindle For PC conversion tool has been made. And it works really, really well. And it is significantly easier than the old “Kindle-only” method.

Install python 2.6 for Windows, from here: http://www.python.org/download/
Download unswindle.pyw and mobidedrm.py via this zip file and unzip it somewhere on your PC
Open the unzipped folder and double-click unswindle.pyw
Kindle For PC will now open.
Select the book you want to convert, open it normally, and when it's done loading, simply exit Kindle For PC.
A ‘Save’ dialog will open asking you where you want to save your new decrypted .mobi file. Done!

NOTE: This only decrypts mobidedrm - it still won’t work on Topaz/.tpz files. Still, most books will work.

Original post here
More info here

12/21/09 - Tether iPhone 3.1.2 in 4 easy steps

Update to the latest firmware (3.1.2_7D11). There is no longer a need to partial upgrade or otherwise protect your basebands.
Download and run blackra1n rc3. Quite literally, it's one-click.
Run the new Blackra1n icon on your iPhone, then select and install sn0w.
visit http://m.peacefulinsanity.com/Tether.mobileconfig from the iPhone and install the mobileconfig. you now have tethering! (go to Settings -> General -> Network -> Internet Tethering to enable it)

Reset your network settings. Seriously, it'll help down the line. Settings -> General -> Reset - Reset Network Settings
If you want to enable installation of cracked ipa's (pirated iPhone apps), Install Cydia (you'll have to fully update it as well), go to Manage -> sources -> edit -> add and fill in http://cydia.hackulo.us/ . Once added, go to the search tab, search for and install AppSync for OS 3.1. Now just add your ipa's to iTunes and sync normally. =D

7/29/09 - Anyone noticing a pattern here?

iTunesSetup4.1	20,030,720 bytes
iTunesSetup4.6.0.15	20,625,683
iTunesSetup6.0.5.20	37,518,744
iTunesSetup7.0.0.70	36,636,224
iTunesSetup7.0.2.16	36,808,256
iTunesSetup7.1.0.59	37,844,544
iTunesSetup7.1.1.5	37,873,216
iTunesSetup7.4.0.28	51,414,328
iTunesSetup7.5.0.20	54,330,664
iTunesSetup7.6.2.9	59,782,440
iTunesSetup7.7.0.43	63,481,128
iTunesSetup8.0.0.35	67,822,888
iTunesSetup8.0.1.11	67,167,528
iTunesSetup8.2.0.23	77,690,152
iTunesSetup8.2.1.6	77,976,864

7/12/09 - Iphone sync error 13019

So, the other day I did some cleanup in my library. The next time I synced my iPhone it failed, reporting "unable to sync Mike's iPhone ... error 13019." My immediate thought was I'd somehow created a discrepancy between the two syncpoints. But even if that were the case, iTunes should be able to handle it, as it's done countless times in the past; content originates from the library (unless it's purchased on the iPhone, in which case it's copied to the library first) and therefore should always preside over any conflicts. Obviously unsyncing and resyncing everything would probably fix it, and if not that a full restore, but I wanted something a little more precision and far less time consuming.

Turns out I had renamed one of the voice memos in my library originally taken (ans still) on the iPhone. By deleting the voice memo off the iPhone I was able to sync normally again without having to sync 13 gigs of data back over. Hooray!

Archive -->