Thursday, April 7, 2005

Sony’s recently introduced Playstation Portable has proved popular with curious geeks who discovered various talents hidden within the new handheld video console.

The biggest ‘hack’ so far has been the manipulation of a web browser embedded within the PSP game ‘Wipeout Pure’, which can be easily coaxed into accessing the majority of Internet via a suitable portal. Jonathan Terleski was able to monitor the digital conversation held between his PSP and Sony’s website when the browser in his game ‘Wipeout Pure’ would try to download new software from Sony via the Internet. Using a suitably set up DNS server, Terleski configured his handheld console to access his own custom PSP portal, instead of Sony’s website, and then invited other owners to use his gateway to the web. [1]

From this discovery, Robert Balousek later created a web based IRC interface that allows people to talk to each other and hold conversations in real time via the Internet on their PSP consoles. According to Reuters, his IRC website has to date been used by as many as 100,000 visitors and Balousek now plans to introduce a web based interface to the AOL instant messaging network for PSP users.

Other notable recent ‘hacks’ include reading ebooks and comics and watching pre-recorded television shows, taken from a TiVo, on the Sony PSP.

None of the ‘hacks’ have yet employed writing custom software for the device. So far, most are spin-offs of Jonathon Terleski’s web browser hack. Other hacks, like the ebook reader and television show viewer, are made possible through use of the PSP’s built in tools for viewing video and images. Sony has not yet released an SDK which would allow end-users to write ‘homebrew’ software, therefore hackers are tied to manipulating software included with the PSP or available through the games purchased separately.

Speaking to Wikinews, Jacob Metcalf, who documented the web comic’s hack on his website, explained his motivation: “Web comics are already designed for on-screen reading and they have some of the same audience as people who play games – lots of the most popular web comics are about gamers, like PVP and Penny Arcade.”

He added: “I do wish that [Sony] would come out with an actual web browser like the Dreamcast had. South Korea is going to get a real web browser and I have a feeling in my gut that there is going to be Internet software for the PSP like a web browser and email announced at E3 this year.”

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

While nearly all cover of the 2008 Presidential election has focused on the Democratic and Republican candidates, the race for the White House also includes independents and third party candidates. These parties represent a variety of views that may not be acknowledged by the major party platforms.

As a non-partisan news source, Wikinews has impartially reached out to these candidates, throughout the campaign. The most recent of our interviews is Gaithersburg, Maryland’s Richard H. Clark (b. 1960), a senior software engineer and member of MENSA.

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Sunday, July 11, 2010

An official website belonging to the Punjab Police of Pakistan was hacked on Friday, a private TV channel reported. The hackers left a message on the homepage in which they asked the Pakistani government to “stop proxy war against India.” The messages of the chief minister and provincial inspector general were also erased from the site.

Although the hackers have not been identified, Pakistani sources say the slogan left on the site points to Indian origins; cyber security experts confirmed this and added that 150 Pakistani websites were hacked in the last three days. The Punjab police website has been hacked twice recently; in one incident, the official emblem was replaced with the logo of the Indian Punjab Police.

A police spokesman stated they would take legal action against an Islamabad-based company responsible for the website’s security as well as stop the use of its services from July 31. “We are also going to give the domain hosting of the website and its maintenance, including the data update to the Punjab Information Technology Board.” The website has temporarily been shut down.

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

A man has said he has “no regrets” after a romantic e-mail he sent to a woman ended up circulating around the world.

Joseph Dobbie, who is in his late 30s and lives in Berkshire, told Kate Winsall in the e-mail: “If I am twice as lucky as I dare to hope, you will find this note charming.”

After reading the letter, Ms Winsall forwarded the email to her sister, who then sent it on to her friends.

In the message, which contained five hundred and sixteen words, Mr Dobbie commented on how Ms Winsall’s smile made “time stand still”, going on to say this is the “freshest of my memories”. He also said sorry for being drunk at the party the pair met, and he asked Ms Winsall out for a coffee at London’s Tate Modern.

Due to the email, Mr Dobbie has received hundreds of e-mails and phone calls from people as far away as Australia, America, and South Africa. He has also revealed that he has changed his phone numbers as a result of the situation: “It got to the point where if I hung up either phone they would just ring again,” he said.

Mr Dobbie, who runs a web-design company, has said he wrote the note in the hope of meeting someone who would be thankful for such an effort. “My mother uses an expression ‘it’s cool to be cruel these days’ and I just don’t want that in my life,” he said.

He said Ms Winsall had been touched by the email, and she also apologised for its universal circulation. “I stood a chance with Kate. Now there’s no way she will say yes,” Mr Dobbie said.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Quarterback Brett Favre has been traded to the New York Jets for a conditional fourth-round draft selection in the 2009 NFL Draft. The trade was later confirmed by ESPN and the Jets themselves. The multiple National Football League record-holder was the starting quarterback of the Green Bay Packers from 1992 to the end of the 2007 NFL season. Favre, 38, announced his retirement on March 6, 2008 after much speculation over his future.

After a long dispute with the Packers’ management, Favre was reinstated by the NFL and was pursued in trade discussions with the Jets and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Jets were much more aggressive than the Buccaneers in their pursuit of Favre all along, offering a conditional fourth-round draft choice in the 2009 NFL Draft which could be promoted to a first-round selection based on performance criteria.

“Brett has had a long and storied career in Green Bay, and the Packers owe him a tremendous debt of gratitude for everything he accomplished,” the Packers said in a press release. Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum said of the trade, “We just felt like this was an opportunity to go get somebody of Brett’s stature and what he’s accomplished.”

The trade caps a roller-coaster off-season ride for Favre and the franchise that became synonymous with his legendary No. 4 jersey, which was planned to be retired in the Packers’ home opening game. Favre’s on-again, off-again retirement has monopolized headlines for the past two months as news began trickling to the media that the legendary passer was second-guessing both his retirement decision and his status in Green Bay. Favre was offered a $20 million dollar marketing contract from the Packers to remain retired.

Now, the Jets may have to clear cap space in order to have Favre on their roster — who is due to make $12 million this season — which may call for the release of Chad Pennington. A comment from Jets GM Tannenbaum all but confirmed the release of Pennington. “It’s a bittersweet moment for us. I have all the respect in the world for Chad as a person, as a player,” Tannenbaum said, adding that an announcement on a transaction involving Pennington will come later Thursday.

The Packer’s official website states that they will be holding press conferences at noon and 2:00 p.m. CDT and more information will be released then.

Tuesday, June 30, 2020

Recently, Finnish open-source video game developer Perttu Ahola discussed Minetest, his “longest ever project”, with Wikinews.

Started in October 2010, Minetest was an attempt by Ahola to create a sandbox game similar to Minecraft. Minecraft is a multi-platform commercial game, which was in alpha version when Ahola challenged himself to create something similar to it from scratch, he told Wikinews.

Minetest is an open-source game, which is free for anyone to download and play. It is written in the C++ programming language, and the source code is available on code-hosting site GitHub. According to Ahola, Minetest attempts to run on older hardware, with limited graphics, but to be accessible to more people: those who have outdated technology, and making it available for no cost. Minecraft, on the other hand, is a paid game, currently costing USD 26.95 for its computer version. Minecraft is currently owned by Microsoft, and performs poorly on older hardware.

A correspondent from French Wikinews contacted Perttu Ahola via Internet Relay Chat a few weeks ago, discussing Minecraft. This interview is built on top of the previous interview, as we take a deeper dive into knowing more about this free game which is about to turn ten years old in a few months.