Archive for the 'Cool Stuff' Category

PirateZoom

Published by Lloyd on September 16, 2009 in Cool Stuff, General Funky-ness, Microsoft, Personal, Photoshop and Technology. 4 Comments

PirateZoom

So, for my school graphics GCSE project, I need to create graphic products to promote The Pirate Party/The Pirate Bay. I wanted to do something cutting edge, something different from the business card-letterhead fever that seems to grip the classroom. So I want to make a DeepZoom app! I got 44 images from people in school, and getting any more is going to be difficult. I used these 44 to make a DZ model, but it didn’t turn out too amazingly – which is where I want you to help me out.

I need pictures. Lots of them. Basically what I need is an image of you, you and some friends, your dog, your cat, whatever, holding up a picture of the Pirate Bay/Pirate Party logo, or holding up a piece of paper with “I’m a pirate!” or “I pirate X” on it. I don’t mind. Get creative.

So, help a brother out! I’ll end up putting the whole project on the web eventually for you to play around with – maybe you can try and find your picture! Email your images to lloyd.humph at gmail dot com. Keep them under 1mb! Ideally I need over 500 images, but if I can get more I can make a bigger PirateZoom!

Heres the demo one I did – it doesn’t work very well since you can see many of the images many times. http://www.lloydhumphreys.com/content/piratezoom/

Thanks!

Installing BackTrack 3 to a USB Stick in Vista

Published by Lloyd on January 3, 2009 in Cool Stuff, General Funky-ness and Tutorials. 26 Comments

Not really TOTALLY Vista, but I did it in Vista, so ‘nuff said.

You’re going to want at least 2GB for this. They’re hella cheap nowadays, too, so just pick up a new one if need be!

 

1. Download the USB version from here:

http://www.remote-exploit.org/backtrack_download.html

 

2. Extract it (use 7-Zip or another unzipping utility). Don’t delete the image just yet in case you mess up. :)

image 

3. Format your stick – and not a Quick Format, a proper format.

Computer > Right click > Format > FAT32 > Format.

 

4.  Copy the /boot and /BT3 directories over to your newly formatted flash drive. (once the format is complete).

image5.  PAY ATTENTION.

IF YOU GET THIS WRONG, YOUR COMPUTER WILL NOT BOOT.

On your flash drive (NOT your hard drive) launch the X:/boot/bootinst.bat file. FROM your flash drive – so go to Computer, open your flash drives folder, enter the boot directory and double click bootinst – you might not see .bat. NOT bootinst.sh

This window will show up:

image

NOTE It says This installer will setup disk Z: to boot only Slax.

Z: is the drive letter of my flash drive. If it says C:, abort this as your current installation will no longer boot. DONT TYPE “X” as the window implies, close it at the top right.

I hit any key, and then it will either say Install Successful OR Install Failed and throw an error about permissions. If this happens, return to /boot and right click the bootinst.bat file, and hit Run As Administrator.

However, for me, I had a tiny problem.

When I launched with elevated permissions, I’d get C:, but when I launched normally I’d get Z:. to combat this, I turned UAC off, rebooted, and tried again. Problem solved.

6. Danaaaa! Done.

7. Now, reboot your PC with the USB flash drive plugged in. For some people, not all USB ports work, so if it refuses to work, try a different port. Also, ensure that your boot order is correct – enter the BIOS on boot (hit F2, F10, whatever it says on the bottom as you boot) then head to Boot Order and ensure that Hard Disk Drive is below all USB devices.

8. Exit and Save all BIOS changes.

9. It will boot into BT3.

10. If your screen goes black, leave it for a while – if it’s still black after five minutes, mash some random keys. If this still doesn’t work, push your power button as if you were turning the PC on again (not to reset it). This happens to me a lot. Then the screen will show up again.

 

Congratulations. You just created a bootable BackTrack 3 USB flash drive.

Oxite

Published by Lloyd on December 8, 2008 in Blog Welfare, Cool Stuff and Microsoft. 0 Comments

image

Doesn’t Oxite, the Open Sauce blogging engine from MIX Online look fabulous?

Yeah, I thought so too.

Oxite is an open source, standards compliant, and highly extensible content management platform that can run anything from blogs to big web sites. We know this because it runs MIX Online.

http://www.visitmix.com/Lab/Oxite

Download it here