Making Tutorials – It Really Is An Art Form

Revisions:
2-19-11: Initial release.

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Finally, this is the time I get to write an article about life and not something tangible like a game or a movie.

So ever since I started the blog back in September 2006, and many years later when I started my Youtube adventure in 2008, I realized that a lot of what I do is about helping people and more specifically, creating content related about tutorials.

As I reflect on what I have done so far, why do I do what I do? Why do I continue to spend time on working on tutorials to share on the Internet, an activity that can easily take more time than focusing on friends, family, work, or myself?  Why spend the time to do it with possibly very little return on “investment”?  Well, the answer may surprise you.

[How To] FTP Into Modded Xbox That Has Evolution X Dashboard (Or UnleashX)

Revisions:

1-15-10: Initial release.  Video is coming if you have a hard time reading. 🙂

1-16-10: Added my Youtube Video.

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Foreword: This tutorial shows the user how to FTP into their Xbox using the crossover cable or router method. Although this tutorial has a video (coming) and screenshots for the Evolution X dashboard, the METHOD is still the same for the UnleashX dashboard. You just have to be smart enough to recognize the network settings when you see it. – Versatile

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Introduction

With a modded Xbox original (softmod or hardmod), you have the ability to FTP into your Xbox to transfer files. What this means is that you can transfer files from the PC to the Xbox (music, games, emulators, roms, movies), and also from the Xbox to the PC. You can also install custom dashboards, and other homebrew programs.

If you are new to Xbox modding, then please read my other guide here.

This guide will show you how to connect to the Xbox via two methods, the crossover cable method and the router method.

Xmas – Thinking Ahead and Buying Moddable Electronics

With Christmas almost here, I thought I would share  short story with you guys and how this spawned an idea for this article.

Last week at the office, I had an Xmas party and during lunch I had heard one of my fellow co-workers talking about how she spent all this money over the past weekend for gifts for her 9 and 12 year old sons.  Among the gifts included a Nintendo DS Lite and the Sony PSP Go.

[STD] Why Some Gamers Are Smarter Than Others (Financial Wise)

Gaming Cabinet

Define STD: STD for The Underground Blog is short for Savvy Tech Dude/Dudette. The STD story is my attempt to share some insight into some of my practices, as well as others as to how they are using technology to make their life better, saving money, or perhaps bettering the environment. (Hopefully, I can find a female contributor… 🙂 )

Frequency of Story: When it feels right.

Personal Comment: I really love the STD idea, and with topics so broad, I can go anywhere with this series. The question is, how far down the rabbit hole do you and I want to go? 😛

In the meantime, I encourage all forms of interaction. Please sound off in comments, I’d appreciate it. If you have an idea, or want me to consider something different, I will. If you want to spread the word, be my guest. As time goes along, I’m asking for people to contribute, or if you want to be interviewed (I’ll protect your identity), then we can dig deeper. Please consider my offer, thanks!

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Blog Update: November 13th

Hey guys, just wanted to get a quick blog update because the next few days will be very exciting around here.  I recently beat Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and the single player was just WOW.  There are some very controversial missions in there, and when you play it will have you stunned.

I do not want to spoil it, but there is one mission where you are a terrorist and you are in an airport with guns and you have to take out civilians.  Another mission later on is an assault on the White House.  It was a lot of fun playing it, and to see all the different environments. It truly is better than the first game.

Now as we all know, MW2 has no LAN or dedicated server support.  This means you are forced to use Steam to play online.  Well, hell.  What if I don’t want to use Steam and play online with my friends?  What if I want to bypass Steam and play offline with a friend with the spec op mode?

I spent a good portion of my evening just doing that, and once I got it working, I was literally pounding my fist in the air!  There is something dead sexy about gunning a helicopter gun and covering your teammate on the ground as he tries to get to the extraction zone.

Now of course I know there are a lot of people out there wanting to learn how to play multiplayer online bypass the IWnet.  >_>  I also know Activision is also out there doing the same thing. 🙂

Not sure what to do, but I am sure something will come out of this.  Stay tuned.

Oh yea, as I went through the game, I took a lot of screenshots to become my wallpaper.  The picture above is one such example.  I will show off the album in a future post.

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On a side note: I have been working on a private blog for Tunngle to basically get Tunngle people together to plan something special when the international version of Tunngle is released.  We are starting to get some good ideas, and we need more people involved with the brainstorming or participation.

I may have to youtube a quick video to get the subscribers notified too. It is a lot of work, but the payoff will be great.

Next week is L4D 2 week, and you know what that means? I will be there playing it and most likely making a guide. Learning from my mistake witih L4D1, I am going to skip hamachi and garena.  It has been a tough decision, but its worth it because I am going to Tunngle for the guide/videos.

Garena has an immature player base, and the hamachi networks are just too small to have a good game going. Plus, I have to manually prune people out is no fun or productivity save on my end, so Tunngle all the way.

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If you are a big xbox modding fan, you might have noticed that Assassin’s Creed 2 is now leaked online before November 17th. Do you have it?  Are you playing it?  Let me know how it is, because I want to play it too!

The Underground Blog – 2008 Reflection

First of all, I want to thank all the viewers that have visited this blog for the year 2008. When I first started off the year, I only had one goal in mind: “Bring the undground knowledge to the common man”.  Did we succeed?  I want to say so, yes!

Check out this month of December page views.  You can see that Decemember was the first time we broke 100k views a month, which is amazing!

At the beginning of 2008, you know what our daily hit was roughly?  See the picture below:

So yes, we have made significant strides this year, and honeslty, I have no goal in terms of daily hits or anything like that.  As long as I have people viewing this blog, I am happy.

Notice that on this blog we do not spam you with donations or ads (except Voltaire’s PrizeRebel ad), but even that works because it helps everyone gets free stuff.

What were the top posts of 2008?  See the list below:

In general, people loved to play COD4 on cracked servers, so of course this is the hottest topic of the year.  After all, COD4 was a badass game!  Next in line were of course anything related to adult erotica passwords, and then the rest is a mirage of PS2/XBOX modding articles, as well as miscellaneous tutorials and things dealing with the internet.

I hope articles like these is what you guys are looking for as we try to decide what we shall write for 2009 and beyond.  Once again, thanks for coming to the blog, and if you want to become a writer, by all means let V1 know!  Thanks!

Pabswikk’s Monotonous Speeches [PMS]

Hello! Welcome to the latest edition of my posts.

As people who read my last post will know, this post is about the:

Console Wars!

As Christmas approaches, happy parents shop dilligently for the consoles their children want so badly.

New deal at Target: You can now buy the Nintendo Wii using only your soul as currency

So that all you readers can beg your parents/friends/lovers/God to get you the right one I am going to give a brief summary of the strengths and weaknesses of each of the three contenders. I will give each a rating out of 5 stars.

Nintendo Wii.

The release of this console led to every guy to ask the nearest girl to 'Play with his Wii'

Now, ridiculous name aside, I’m sure alot of you know more about Wii than I do. Hell I barely even play with my Wii anymore. I mean, wii all have one right? It’s definitely the cheapest and has the potential to give the most fun.

Whilst playing with my Wii, I realised that the companies other than Nintendo who were making games weren’t using the console effectively. With it’s motion sensing technology, I’m sure many consumers thought ‘OMFG SWORDFIGHTS’ One company realised what was going through every man’s mind and made ‘Red Steel’. I felt….underwhelmed with this game. And after the first 2 months of having the console I’d stopped playing. The Guitar Hero was released, and I played for another month. Now Christmas is approaching again, and I see no possible reason to get back into playing. But the point remains. This console can be fun, and is best used to have a laugh with mates. The graphics aren’t great, but graphics aren’t everything. It’s relatively cheap, can be fun and has a great name. Just don’t expect it to deliver all your gaming needs if you’re a hardcore gamer.

Final Verdict: * * *

A solid Three stars. Fun, accessible, and great for parties. And the controller is multi-use!

Xbox 360

You know why they call it the Xbox 360? Cos you see it, turn 360 degrees, and walk away.

Ok, that was a poor pun, but the xbox does have one reason people walk away from the it:

The Red Ring of DOOOOOOM.

Xbox has the worst figures when it comes to breaking down. Something in the region of 40% of all Xboxes collapse within a year of purchase.

The good news is its become so much cheaper in the past few years,  and it has a huuuuuuuuuuge range of games. It’s got more exclusives than the other two consoles and good internet access. It’s made for the casual gamer. Something you can play with mates, or by yourself, and not be a total geek. Good graphics as well, as good as anyone needs, and can also play DVDs. Unfortunately they lost the ‘High Def’ Vs ‘Blu Ray’ war, meaning that you can’t fully utilise their movie playing features.

Final Verdict: * * * *

This console has alot going for it, and will provide endless hours of entertainment. Possibly the best fact is that most gamers have one, so you and your friends can play over Xbox LIVE. Unfortunately that has a subscription fee, and the console is prone to breaking down.

Playstation 3

Am I the only one who feels threatened by this picture?

Ok. It’s the best console. Full stop. Best graphics, best hardware, and perhaps even the best looking. So why is it the least purchased?

The hardware is years ahead of it’s time. It won’t be until roughly 2012 that we see consoles matching it.

I can’t really diss this console, but I can point out why it’s not selling (And perhaps why it’s a bad purchase)

1) Not enough games. The same games are on this console as are on the xbox 360, albeit less of them

2) Companies aren’t maximising the consoles potential. The graphics on most games are xbox 360 standard.

3) It’s just too damn expensive. Full stop. Not worth the money.

Final Verdict: * * *

Give it a few years, wait for the price to drop more, then it will be worth it.

So in conclusion, what do I think you should play your games on?

Suck it conventional game consoles!

Yes. The PC.

Why do I choose this?

It’s got the most games, the best multiplayer games, and free internet play, if you have internet OFC.

It also can have splendid graphics, if you choose to splash some money. but even some lower end computers can play iconic modern games, on low grahphic settings. Everyone has a computer, making it easy to get started. All you need to do is going out and buy some goddamn games.

Also it has the easiest purchasing of games. For instance STEAM is cheap, and all your games are downloaded and stay on your account.

Next time on P M S:

The names Bond. James Bond

HUM THE THEME TUNE NOW!

Pabswikk’s Monotonous Speeches [PMS]

Howdy!

As any reader can probably notice I’m new here. I wish to contribute regularly to this blog. It will be updated from Wednesdays to Fridays and will hopefully manage to keep to my two topic schedule in each post I make.

My two topics will always be:

Topic A) Something I find interesting.

Topic B) Comics, or other media.

So without further ado, allow me to start my monotonous speech!

Consumer Stupidity!*

We all love consumers, or at least business men do. It’s all around us in our every day lives, no matter where we look, and one day most of us will fall prey to the pretty colors and forget to read the fine print:

LOOK AT THE PRETTY COLORS!!!!!!!

This as some of you will know, is the Xbox Elite. I was at a London based gaming store, checking out the games when I came across the Xbox corner.

You can buy an Xbox for about £100-170 depending on whether it has a hard-drive and the size of that hard-drive, plus some nifty other features. So the cheapest is £100 and doesn’t have a hard drive. The most expensive has a 60 gig hard-drive.So you can either get a cheap xbox which lacks some features that are important, but not unavoidable. Or you could buy the more expensive version which comes with hard-drive etc. The difference in space costs you £70

OR you could buy the PREMIUM VERSION AND THE ELITE VERSION!!!!!!

‘Oh Premium edition! You only cost £200 pounds for your 20 gig hard-drive and metallic paint coat!’

Wait. What?!? You’re paying more for less memory and a new paint coat? Ok, you’d have to be an idiot to get this. At least if you’re gonna buy premium, you’re probably going to dish out the extra £30 needed for an Elite right?

So what is the Elite? Well it’s got a fancy black paint coat, and a green and black HDMI cable. So for the same price you pay to upgrade from no hard-drive to huge hard-drive you can also get a paint job.

For a minute I thought ‘Wow HDMI cables must be so expensive.’

So I went two shelves across and found a HDMI cable for £5.

£5!!

I just saved myself £55 by moving partway down the aisle! It must be people either really like black stuff, or have a phobia of purchasing two items instead of one. No-one is this lazy.

Just to check, my friend and I posed a little test. We went up to a clerk to quiz him. We asked him if there was anything we were missing. According to this clerk, literally the only additional feature is the HDMI cable.

So my friend bought the cable by itself, went to the DIY store near his house, bought a thin black spray can and a tin of flourescent green paint. I warned him not to, but he went ahead with his plan. The next time I saw his Xbox, it looked exactly like the elite, except the little green bit on the cable was a little….less professional. But I would fall for the ruse any day of the week. So he ended up saving £40, and treated us all to a meal.

I’m kidding, he bought Fable II instead, the bastard.

Anyway the moral is, consumers are lazy idiots, and even a little research can save you a lot of money.

Companies love you and want your money and will do anything to convince you to give it to them.

Only an idiot would buy this shit. The white one looks better anyway! Go McCain!....Nah not really, I hate that guy

For the less ecomomically inclined Americans who can’t figure out my references to sterling, take all the numbers, double them, and you’ll get a rough idea of the amount of money we’re talking!

Now hopefully I haven’t bored you too much, because I have my second topic now, which I hope is more interesting than my first one!

THE WATCHMEN!

Who watches the Watchmen?

Now for all the comic book freaks out there, I’m positive you’ve heard of this, and for most people who use StumbleUpon/have access to the internet, I’m sure you have too. There is a major film being released about this seminar ‘Graphic Novel’ in 2009, and from what I’ve heard, it’s going to be the Dark Knight of the year. Perhaps it will be even better! (Oh no he didn’t!)

My next post will go into more detail about this, since my dear brother (An ex-blogger) told me to keep this short. So that was a little taster.

Goodbye, and good luck!

*All information not included in post was not included to make corporate companies look evil! Also, if you’re reading this, you’re reading the small print, which shows you’ve learned a little from my post. All information in this post is 100% accurate and all data was taken from www.gamestation.co.uk

XBOX – XBMC

Learn about XBMC, I have this on my xbox as well.  If interested, let me know and I will show you how to install it on your modded xbox.

[TiT] That’s It Tuesday – Issue 28

Hi underground visitors! Welcome to the twenty-eighth issue of TIT, or That’s It Tuesday! Every Tuesday, I, Versatile1, will give you a rant of whats going on in the blog, whats intended for the future, hope, dreams, etc.

I am back in action this week, and I’ve been pondering what to do with future articles. As you can see, every day almost there is a theme I try to adhere too, but after awhile it gets hard trying to pull things out of thin air. Or is it? The internet is full of useful information, right? Of course it is, otherwise I wouldn’t have wankers asking me about modding their consoles or asking how to find porn passwords. As both you and I know, this is useful information apparently.

What if I were to start a series something like “Confessions of a Pirate”, “Into The Mind of a Pirate”, “A Pirate’s Life”, etc where I would find someone to interview to talk about what it takes to be a technological pirate in the year of 2008. No, I’m not talking about pirates in the common sense like Jack Sparrow with parrots and pillaging, but a pirate like someone who:

• Enjoys using the internet to get illegal copies of digital media through bittorrent, usegroups, IRC, Rapidshare, and etc.
• Enjoys saving money and screwing the big time corporations out of their crappy products
• Enjoys exploiting their hardware
• Enjoys “free” software while smirking at those who buy for the same things
• Enjoys living care free despite possible copyright infringement
• Enjoys keeping hard drives full of digital media (CDs, or DVDs) in boxes or binders
• Enjoys ripping DVDs and converting them to avi files or copying DVDs

The list goes on and on and on. Perhaps you want to learn the tactics of the pirate, or you want to understand their mentality. Or perhaps you think pirates are evil, and you want to voice your opinion. Sounds interesting? It does to me.

However, if I were to bring such a series to life, what does that mean for the blog? Will you consider us evil for providing such information? If I said I was a pirate, does that influence your view of me? What if I said I despise pirates? What then? Piracy is a big issue, don’t get me wrong. It requires ethics, and I’m sure a whole slew of other controversial ideas.

There are blogs/websites that specialize in Warez, we will not. Education is what I will strive for, so drawing a fine line between legal and illegal information is hard for me. We’ll see. If you think this is a badass idea, sound off in comments please. Just writing about this makes me excited. Thanks!