How To Connect Official SNES Controller to the PC

2-26-12: Initial release.

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So as a gamer that loves old school games, I grew up with the NES and SNES console. I have fond memories playing SNES with my friends, and still to this day, I still play SNES occasionally.

But what do you do if you want to play SNES on the PC, but you want the authentic feel of the SNES controller? Well, guess what? You can connect the original SNES controller to the PC if you have the appropriate USB adapter to connect to it.

If you go to Amazon.com, you can purchase a Mayflash USB adapter that allows you to connect two SNES controllers to your PC (or laptop type device). Once you purchase the adapter and with shipping, it will be approximately $10 or so.

Once you have the adapter, all you got to do is literally plug your SNES controller into it, and then plug in the USB to the PC. Afterwards, go ahead and configure your SNES controller with our favorite emulator (or equivalent PC game) and have fun!

See the Amazon link below if you want to purchase it, as well as a video tutorial.

Amazon Link

Video Tutorial

The New iPhone 3.0. Update – Unlock and Jailbreak…Windows…2G/3G/3GS

Its been a really long time since I last posted here. But I feel it’s my duty to keep the ‘Underground Community’ informed about the information I have access to. Personally, I feel that the ‘Underground’ has lost its true meaning, its sense of presence – after 3 WordPress bans and removing of  ‘Objectionable’ Content on the blog. I still believe that V1 i.e. this blog is a better way to communicate with the community rather than V2 as this blog is better known. Also, I feel that this ‘ban’ has limited my potential in terms of a writer here.

iPhone 3.0 Explained

Now to move on to the topic for which this post was actually written. I’m sure that most of you have heard of the new 3.0 update from Apple to the iPhone; and the subsequent release 3.0.1. If you have not, then let me give you a brief expansion:

The iPhone 3.0 update came out with the iPhone 3GS on June 17, 2009. It can be compared to the Windows 7 release: much awaited features were added which increased stability and enchanced user experiece. Apple finally incorporated many of the features we asked for 🙂 Among them, some are:

1. Copy and Paste Text
2. Copy and Paste Photos
3. Search Spotlight – Search your iPhone for anything
4. Search in mail, Calendar and iPod
5. Landscape Keyboard in SMS, Mail and Notes
6. Multimedia Messaging or MMS
7. Support for new Calendar types
8. Improved Stocks Application
9. Connect iPhones/iTouches with bluetooth
10. Notes syncing with iTunes

[Gadget Hack] Upgrade Your Linksys Router (or Equivalent) to Tomato Firmware

Revisions:

7-25-09:  Initial release.

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In today’s day and age, just about every one is using a wireless router in their house.  The dominant router is the Linksys variation, as shown above.  Did you know that you can flash your Linksys router and upgrade it to a custom Linux firmware called Tomato?

Why would I want to do this?

The Linksys router with factory defaults is pretty limited in terms of its functionality.  By updating the firmware to use Tomato, you will have everything that you can do on the original Linksys router firmware, but you can do more!  I don’t know all the specifics, but you can do things such as:

• Schedule when the Internet can be on during certain times of the day
• Throttle bandwidth for specific applications
• Determine what applications receive what part of the bandwidth priority
• Increase the transmit power of the router
• Enable WPA, WPA2 encryption
• Turn the router into a bridge
  

and more!  Honestly, you are taking a $60 router, and converting it into a router that costs as high as $600 developed by Cisco. Ok, maybe not that high, but its pretty good!

To really learn more about Tomato, you can visit the makers website Polarcloud.  Here is the link to their FAQs here.

Update on yesterday’s post — More info on the battle of smart phones

 

When the concept ‘mobile phone,’ and the actual device were introduced around 30 years ago, people were amazed by the idea that one could build audio communication with others without the limitations and boundaries of location. (Quote THE STANDARD, an acclaimed English newspaper in Hong Kong.)

Nowadays mobile phones go far beyond; from video conferencing, word processing to online banking, this little device can do it all. It is a market that anyone would want a piece of, and different venders have been very active in providing new platforms, functions and devices to gain advantage in this enormous battleground.

One of the hottest topics in the mobile world lately must be the bang Apple iPhone brought to the market, and it continued to heat up in the past two years. From iPhone 2G to the latest iPhone 3GS, each launch has created huge expectations, and in reality its market is still expanding rapidly. According to the latest data from Gartner, Apple’s share of worldwide smart phone sales grew from 5.3% in the first quarter of 2008 to 10.8% in the first quarter of 2009. Gaining over 10% of the global market within two years is indeed very impressive, but what’s more significant is that in some sense this figure is created by one product only (if we consider all versions of iPhone as one). The 50000+ applications available for download also suggest the new market trend Apple has set.

Another smart phone that the market has showed great interest in is Sprint’s Palm Pre. Even though there are concerns about lacking in applications in the App Catalog, and no access to the webOS SDK(software development kit) by developers, Palm Pre still sold out fast when available in the US recently. Some critics believe the impressive sales of Palm Pre were largely related to current Sprint customers looking for an upgrade, rather than a flow of new Sprint subscribers, but the solid selling number shows its first stage of success, and there are huge noises of interest from countries and markets including Hong Kong, which are yet to have a scheduled launch date.

RIM
Another leading smart phone platform, Research In Motion’s Blackberry, also has a fruitful year. In the previous fiscal quarter, RIM’s $3.42 billion revenue increased 53% from $2.24 billion in the same quarter of last year, and shipped approximately 7.8 million devices After promoting ‘consumer models’ Blackberry curve 8900 and Blackberry Storm, RIM turned their focus back to business users, and launched Blackberry Enterprise Server 5.0 recently. BES 5.0 is a push-based server software, focusing on enhancing the connection link between BlackBerry smart phones and enterprise systems, applications, corporate phone environments and wireless networks. It integrates with IBM Lotus Domino, Microsoft Exchange, and Novell GroupWise, providing highly secured access to email, organizer data, instant messaging, browser and other enterprise applications.

President Obama’s insistence on keeping his BlackBerry device is a great example (especially for RiM) showing how tightly BlackBerry could merge into one’s life and BES 5.0 plus future launches would definitely stick to this angle.

All these platforms have their own advantages and supporters; along with the Android ‘Google’ phone, Windows mobile 7.0 platform, Nok ia’s partnership with 1nte, the haule of smart phones has probably lust began.

7 Web Tools for Web Developers

Well, we certainly hope that everyone is enjoying the Olympics thus far. We support Team USA of course.

Now, there are many web developers out there of all levels. Each developer uses their own tools. Of course, it’s always good to have a large number of tools in the chest. Here are some good tools any dev. should use.

1) Notepad++
This is like a pumped up and pimped out Notepad. You can code in many languages, ranging from HTML/XHTML to PHP, CSS, Java, Javascript, Python, and others. It is a lightweight program that has syntax highlighting, multiple files in a tabbed file system, multi-language support, macroing, page preview, and TextFX, which lets you do things like run HTML Tidy. Now you will never need to suffer through the lack of features in regular old Notepad.

2) Codetch Plugin for Firefox
This puppy is a must-have for users who want to edit code on the fly. This tool is like Dreamweaver except free. It loads extremely fast (I notice no lag time) and it can edit code permanently for any file on your server. This makes validation very simple since you can fix an error right away because the code changes permanently.

3) VIM
This tool is called Visual Editor Improved. It is friendly and easier to use than its original, Visual Editor (VI). VI and VIM are modal editors meaning that the same key can have more than one job depending on the mode you set. It isn’t that intuitive, but it is amazing with efficiency once you get used to it.

4) Emacs
This program is sort of like VI in that it was (and is) more of a Unix/Linux program. However, this program is pretty beast with its custimazations. It has a powerful macro feature like Notepad++, can view and edit the file system, manage remote files, browse the web, check e-mail, and others. This program takes some getting used to. There is a simpler to use version called Xemacs out with standard menus and icons.

5) HTML Validator Plugin for Firefox
This simple plugin simply validates the XHTML on the current website with the W3 Validator. It lists each error with error messages, help on correcting said errors, and syntax highlighting of the error. It also has HTML Tidy to clean up your page.

6) Web Developer Toolbar for Firefox
This toolbar lets you validate your pages, edit pages (not permanently, but you can see what the change looks like), view your page in different sizes and resolutions, and get a speed report. This tool is pumped up with many different little settings to play with that will make any dev’s job easier.

7) Firebug Plugin for Firefox
This plugin lets you inspect you code, view code as an outline, and debug your code. It shows you what parts of your code are affected by lines earlier on. Changes you make are not permanent, but you can view results immediately after a refresh. It structures the code very nicely for ease of use.

Here are 7 non-IDE tool that anyone web dev should use to save money, space, memory on their pcs while speeding up their work.

Enjoy!
Voltaire

A very big Sorry to all of you!!

Hey, kick me, punch me, abuse me! I know I deserve it all! I have not posted for 2 weeks in a row!!! Sorry, all the communtiy members and the viewers. I am here to clear all your doubts and rumors. I am not leaving this “job”. I had gone for my summer vacations to Parwanoo, its a nice place. Btw, it am covering for the left posts now.

 

Ok, I am writing about me experience of playing Sims on the DS. We all know that Sims is a good game, actually a great game.. but I prefer playing it on the computer or on the PS.  DS has  a small screen and you dont get the “feel”. I suggest that poeple should try games like COD.

Another tip:  There is this new range of mouse for the computer by Moserbaer. Its slim and soo attractive. It is anytime better th4an the original “fat” mouse. Try it..

 

Also, The Second gen iPhone is almost near relase!!!! I am going to buy it, what about you?? Check my Second Gen iPhone post in the ‘Apple’ category’

I am posting this from a friends house, and I have to leave, so please forgive me for such a short post. 🙂 I know that this is not my day, but I am just covering up for myself :þ

[DIY] RFID Part 2 – DartMail

This month’s That’s GN: RFID edition will be one week early. Why? Because I have ants in my pants. This stuff is old, about 5 years, but it’s too good to wait for.

Just think of it – one of the fastest means of physical short distance transportation of a single object combined communication.

There isn’t much I can say, you have to see it to believe it. It’s not shocking, it’s not revolutionary, but it does pose some incredible theories if this is implemented “outside of the box.”

Here is a video showing what exactly DartMail is and does: [ DartMail ]

Unfortunately it’s not a how to, however there is plenty of information here: [ Phidgets ] on how to make and/or buy the materials necessary for this project.

Enjoy, I’ll be shooting people pictures myself quite soon!

God speed, and Best wishes.

¥

[DIY] RFID Part 1: Make your own RFID blocking wallet

Identity theft is continuing to be an epidemic, especially in America, and one of latest ways ID thieves accomplish this is by pocket RFID scanners that grab innocent bystanders’ credit card or smart card information just by walking by them in a parking lot. You can protect yourself against this with a surprising, simple and stylish technique.

All you will need is some aluminum foil, scissors and duct tape. It has been suggested that keeping multiple cards next to each other or a cell phone will stop them from working, and this is one way you can possibly prevent that as well.

First, you want to make a sheet of RFID blocking tape. Place a large sheet of foil on a table, preferably a square based on the width of the foil you have, and then put duct tape over it. You can cut the shapes needed out of this. If you want extra security you can place two sheets of foil, although one is plenty.

Here are links for directions to a vertical tri-fold style wallet, which is the most efficient RFID wallet. If you already know how to make a duct tape wallet or have your own preferred style, that’s fine as well.

[ Directions for duct tape wallet ]

[ RFID blocking wallet details ]

You can also make your jeans anti-RFID though I’m sure most would rather just make a wallet.

[ Anti-RFID pants ]

Another project you can do is line your briefcase with [ 1 ] millimeter of dilute salt water, if you carry RFID sensitive things in some sort of case or backpack. This also blocks RFID, though aluminum foil is preferred.

For all of you who don’t use wallets, for example any females with purses or something else, I personally suggest a separate wallet style card holder, perhaps a pocket large enough for your cards, with some separators and a flap with a snap by cutting a small hole on the flap and on the bottom front, just like a purse. However, a full duct tape wallet is just as cool!

Also, this will be part 1 of a monthly series on RFID. There are some nifty DIY projects I have up my sleeve and hope to continue in the future. Watch out for them on the last Thursday of each month!

[ Source: http://www.rpi-polymath.com/ducttape/index.php ]

God speed and Best wishes.

¥

Zen V Plus Review

After using the Zen V Plus for about a month now, I would have to say that this product is rather worthy for those who are looking for a more solid, smaller capacity mp3 player with plenty of features such as the FM tuner, microphone and video playback. Another plus is its scratch-resistant chassis and better capability to keep dust out of the screen. Although, the Zen V Plus comes bundled with all sorts of software, one does not need to install any of these and can just get by with Windows Media Player or other third party software to transfer files.

Despite the size of the screen, the photos come out very clean and vibrant. For those who are left handed or simply not used to pressing the play button with the right thumb, one can always configure the menu orientation to be displayed in all four directions.

On the other hand, video playback is simply a novelty factor since it only supports RGB playback (basically playing back video as a stream of jpegs) at 15 frames per second. Also, the codec used for the Zen V Plus is usually 3 times the size of a typical divx file.

To make up for the seemingly unspectacular video performance (although it was expected from its hardware), the FM tuner and microphone as well as the audio truly makes this player shine. The FM tuner is very good in catching signals, unless one is surrounded by thick concrete walls, and has a nice feature in searching for FM channels. The microphone is very useful for making reminders and short notes, but not recommended for studio purposes. The line-in jack might come useful for recording mp3s from other players, but remains untested on my part.

Overall, this player has a lot of bang for the buck. Nonetheless, the battery lasts longer than the prescribed 15 hours depending on video and menu usage.

Another Good Review Source: http://reviews.cnet.com/mp3-players/creative-zen-v-plus/4505-6490_7-31935066.html
http://www.anythingbutipod.com/archives/2006/10/creative-zen-v-plus-review.php

[Edit 6/28/08] UltraSurf – World’s Best Proxy Surfing Technology

[EDIT: 1/30/08 – We at The Underground strive to get you the best programs, information, etc. It has come to my attention that Ultra Surf is not working as well as it should. Anti-virus programs have now named it a Trojan and will not let you install it with the anti-virus on. Because this file is marked potentially dangerous, you are downloading it at your own risk. If you have already downloaded it, you may remove it if you wish. There hasn’t been any large complaints about it but for the security of your info, you may want to scan your computer, delete the ultra surf file (if necessary), and find an alternative proxy program (or wait for us to do the searching for you!).]

Addition: 3/7/08 – Download link for a newer version of Ultra Surf has been added

Addition: 6/6/08 – Removed Rapidshare links to not violate WordPress ToS.

Addition: 6/28/08- Added Direct Download Link From UltraReach/Wujie (UltraSurf’s Company)

So at one point we had a post telling you all a bunch of proxies that would let you access blocked sites at school, libraries, etc. Well we found that, actually, the blocking programs got a step ahead and even blocked those site so you couldn’t even get to the proxy page in the first place. Well guess what, here at The Underground we like being the one with the step ahead so I did a little searching for you all… and found this- UltraSurf!

Why does this work instead of the proxy web site?

• Because the web blocking programs block the sites but they can’t block a proxy program running on the computer itself.
• That’s right, this is a program, not a website.
• UltraSurf is the back door you are looking for!

Here is some info on UltraSurf:

“So what exactly it is??

It is the flagship software product from UltraReach Internet Corp. for Internet anti-censorship. It enables users inside countries with heavy Internet censorship to visit any public web sites in the world safely and freely. it enables users to browse any website freely just the same as using the regular IE browser while it automatically searches the highest speed proxy servers in the background.

Learn More

What does it means??

• 100% freedom to have 100% information in most secure way.
• It means no matter where you are you can access 100% freeversion of internet I mean no firewalls no restriction nothing….
• Almost all schools, universities and corporate offices raise firewalls to filter out not work related sites, now those firewalls will be of no use or they have to change their plans.
• Everybody can access various social networks like Orkut, Youtube, Myspace, Hi5, Facebook, Linkedin etc. which are blocked almost in 99% schools and offices.
• 100% real time and it’s encryption is better then any online banking system.

How to get going??

It’s very simple you have to just-

• download an exe file [Download Below]
• then extract it
• and run
• Set proxy if u have any (generally in offices internet are provided through proxies, you can find that, through tools>>internet options>>Connections>>LAN Settings>> there you are with proxy server for your LAN and it’s port
• Just copy that to proxy settings of Ultrasurf.
• Then a window will pop up, says some thing in Chinese, just close this window
• And open fresh internet explorer
• There you are, you can surf any information.
• For office people: beware don’t spread words to your colleagues keep this info as limited as you can, coz if system people got to know about it then they’ll take your comp for scrutinizing.

What is the Flip Side??

I should start with a quote that I’ve learnt in my life

“Too much freedom can Make you or it can Break you”

The flip side is that you can access to anything, I think you got my point, In school, universities and Work office various sites are blocked to raise their efficiency and productivity, and it is very much likely that if anyone get freedom he/she will definitely try to miss use it.
“

– Source

So do you want this program now, or should I just give it to you later? Lol, like I guessed, you want to Now. Well fine I guess I can give you a couple of download links…

• Rapidshare: [download removed]
• NEW – VERSION 8: [download removed]
• Geocities: on request
• Other: on second request (shouldn’t need this but just in case)
• Direct Download Link From UltraReach/Wujie: DOWNLOAD

Please Use Rapidshare if you can because I’m gathering points for your downloads. THANK YOU!

OK so once downloaded, unzip it (if at school, put it on your student folder so it will go with you from computer to computer, just hide it a little) and run the program. It will open up a web browser and another small program window. You will also see a Lock in the bottom right corner of the screen (I don’t know how to get it off but it doesn’t really bother me). Minimize the small program window and surf away on the web browser!

Enjoy your surfing freedom! Use it wisely and try and keep it a secrete because the schools, libraries, etc. will eventually find out if enough people are using it. This thing would spread like good gossip!!!