Randomness

[blacknblue]

Have you had any problems with stability from running those Xebian boxes? I have always wondered about using the mechassault hack on my son's box, but I hate to risk messing up his toy.

[dark_rain]

Mine are both chipped, with replacement drives that are dedicated linux. I'm xromwell (i.e. bootloader on cd) to boot cos I'm too damn lazy to flash up their modcips with cromwell.

They've been good as gold when it comes to stability. I still have the original drives, so converting them back would be quite easy. Good value too, clocks up to about £35 for a complete system (ebay)

I've never tried the mechassult hack, but I hear that its safe as long as you follow the directions CAREFULLY. I.e. be careful with hdd settings when installing

[blacknblue]

I would be at a loss where to obtain the chips now, since MS went ballistic about it. I considered putting in a second HD though, or swapping one out.

I guess I am just superstitious about flashing chips I fear. I fear greatly. I know it is a routine operation. I know that probably everything will go smoothly. I realize that thousands of people do it safely every day. But I still can't bring myself to tinker with the chip programming. I don't really know why. A deep phobia that I picked up in my early days and never conquered for some reason.

[JadziaKathryn]

Also, I was more thinking in non-US terms. There is no way that any union in Europe, especially in my country (Sweden), would ever accept this on a large scale.

That wouldn't surprise me. I respectfully submit that I like Europe very much, but find much of their ideology ridiculous. And that is all I have to say on that subject on a public board.

[dark_rain]

If you want to change the device configuration (like changing drives) you'll need a modchip, or at least a TSOP flash. The chips should be quite easy to get ahold of and are perfectly legal if you run cromwell on them.

Personally I'd avoid TSOP flashing. It's a hell of a lot of effort and doesn't have any real advantages going for it. v1.6 boxes cant be TSOPed anyway, their bios chips are not reprogrammable.

I'm using a pair of Aladdin XT's, simply because they were the cheapest I could find at the time. If you can get them preflashed with cromwell, it's a ton easier to get going. The best chip with cromwell at the time is the DuoX 2 Gs. Just google that, cos I can't pull up us sites that easily from the UK. I did find this supplier though. http://www.xraychips.com/catalog/produc ... cts_id/101

Good luck if you give it a go!

[blacknblue]

I will let you know. I am thinking of either trying something like that, or diggin out the old PII out of the basement and reviving it for a router. The wireless-G router I am using does a good job, but I am thinking that somebody is hacking into my hotspot periodically. I haven't installed any monitoring software on the two client boxes, but I have reason to be suspicious. Since they are both desktops now (my laptoip finally bit the dust) I was thinking that I could refurbish an old box with some flavor of linux for a server/router and load it with a sniffer and a good firewall, and clamav for anti-virus maybe if I wanted to be paranoid, and all the other goodies that you can't have with a simple router. I don't really need wireless now.

I could try the hack you mentioned, or the old box. Or I could just sigh and wander by the local flea market I suppose.

[Entilzha]

If you don't need wireless why don't you just turn the wifi part of the router off?

[blacknblue]

Because Linksys, in its aggravating wisdom, has decreed that everytime the thing gets unplugged it resets itself to default for some reason. And it overheats periodically which means I have to unplug to let it cool. In other words, junk.

[dark_rain]

Have you looked at ipcop?

[blacknblue]

I am following the link as I type this.

[JadziaKathryn]

Here's something of potential interest: French Try to Outlaw Inciting Extreme Thinness

PARIS - The French parliament's lower house adopted a groundbreaking bill Tuesday that would make it illegal for anyone — including fashion magazines, advertisers and Web sites — to publicly incite extreme thinness.

The National Assembly approved the bill in a series of votes Tuesday, after the legislation won unanimous support from the ruling conservative UMP party. It goes to the Senate in the coming weeks.

My gosh, the model in the picture here is obviously malnourished. No wonder she's not smiling. Probably doesn't have the strength, poor thing.

I don't think that legislation alone is going to solve the problem with anorexia. But it can't hurt, either.

French lawmakers and fashion industry members signed a nonbinding charter last week on promoting healthier body images. Spain in 2007 banned ultra-thin models from catwalks.

But Boyer said such measures did not go far enough.

Her bill has mainly brought focus to pro-anorexic Web sites that give advice on how to eat an apple a day — and nothing else.

Good grief. I had an apple and that wasn't even my whole bedtime snack! Had some nice bread with it too. If this bill can stop people from encouraging others to starve themselves, I say, good for France.

[Linda]

I don't know that a law will help much. Pencil thin arms and all ribs showing has to become hideous and not beautiful in the public esthetic for it not to turn up in the fashion photos. BTW, that dress is ugly, but then I have never understood extreme (and super expensive) fashion.

[Distracted]

Hmmm. Dunno how they'd enforce that.

With her season 3 figure, JB might have broken this proposed law if she'd done any modeling in France. I wonder who sets the standards?

[blacknblue]

Homosexual males with a passion for HIV positive prepubescents.

[Escriba]

Well, Audrey Hepburn is a style icon for women and she was really skinny.

But men always liked Marilyn Monroe more.