Filed under: Car Tech

It’s a bad day for fans of local California news: According to General Motors, the days of the high-speed auto chase may be numbered. Today, the manufacturer is showing of a new kill switch component of the OnStar service, which will be installed in 1.7 million 2009-model GM cars. The new function allows police to remotely kill the engine of a car involved in a high-speed chase, a feature GM hopes will reduce the estimated 400 deaths that occur annually due to dangerous police pursuits. According to GM, the driver of a suspected stolen car will first be notified by an OnStar technician that the vehicle is about to be turned off. When the switch is flipped, the brakes and power steering will continue to work.

This sounds great, but we see some potential problems. First, the system is only limited to vehicles whose owners pay the $16.95 per month to be an active OnStar subscriber. Secondly, the system is only limited to high-speed chases involving stolen cars. Police can only kill an engine by contacting OnStar, which in turn must contact the owner of the car for permission. So, it’s no good if the suspect is running from the law inside of his own wheels.

That said, anything that can save even one life is OK in our book.

GM’s new kill switch feature reminds us a lot of the bait cars Canadian police have been using for years to catch car thieves. A bait car is left parked on the street like any other car — only a bait car is equipped with a hidden camera and a kill switch. Once stolen by an unwitting car jacker, the camera rolls and the police quietly pursue. After the camera has gathered enough evidence to convict the car thief in court, the cops remotely kill the engine and lock the bait car’s doors, trapping the mouse in their mousetrap. The program has been so successful, the Canadian police’s Municipal Provincial Auto Crime Team has its own Web site where you can watch videos of sucker after meth-addicted sucker get nabbed.

From USA Today

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• Volvo’s New Safety Features Wake Up Sleepy Drivers
• Hertz Vs. Avis (GPS Road Test)

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Filed under: News

Okay, this is just getting plain ridiculous. The Church of England, after initially threatening legal action against Sony if it didn’t pull Resistance: Fall of Man from store shelves, is now complaining about the game’s recent nomination for an award at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.

You might remember that Insomniac spun the church into a tizzy when it included the Manchester Cathedral as a playable level in Resistance. Why is this such a big deal? We really don’t know, but The Dean of Manchester Cathedral, the Very Rev Rogers Govender said they were disgusted “at the virtual desecration of Manchester Cathedral.”

Of course, the church wants Resistance pulled as a nominee for the PC World Gamers’ Award and has said the bad publicity has actually helped the game’s sales. That’s funny, because when you think about it, who’s ultimately responsible for the game’s bad press, and according to Govender, the game’s increased sales?

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Filed under: Gaming

We’ve seen products make their first appearance in the form of a UPC filing before, and it looks like Nintendo may now be following the trend, with a recent filing of its revealing what looks to be an awful lot like a new Wii SKU. According to Codename Revolution’s “distributor contact,” the mystery product is described only as the “New Pack,” and it apparently boasts a $289.99 Canadian retail price (which is the same as the current Wii SKU). While the UPC database unfortunately doesn’t have any other details, speculation on the internets points to either a new bundle (possibly including the Wii Zapper or another game) or a new color, a rumor we’ve seen come and go in the past. Whatever it is, it seems safe to bet that it’ll hit store shelves just in time for the holiday season.

[Via Pocket-lint]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

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HyON has just released a new portable media player known as the Xent X3 that not only keeps you entertained while you’re on the road, it also boasts a GPS navigation system to keep you on track even when you’re in unfamiliar territory. In addition, there is also a T-DMB receiver that allows you to catch up on your digital TV serials when you’re on the road. Hardware-wise, the Xent X3 is rather impressive, boasting a 3000mAh battery that is a boon to any frequent traveler. The Xent X3 is powered by a 500MHz Alchemy processor and boasts 128MB SDRAM, a 7″ LCD display, and an SD memory card slot. Chances are the Xent X3 will never make it out of Korea, so just drool over it at the moment until you import one.

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You’ve probably heard about Test Driven Development, a programming methodology which focusses on test cases as a framework for designing and developing code. You may also have heard of Behavior Driven Development, a more holistic approach which focusses on the behavior of an application before and during the development process.

Well let me tell you about my programming methodology — Comment Driven Development. Start by writing a comment, in plain language, that explains what a piece of code is supposed to do, and why. Then write the code.

Sometimes this is the most direct way to approach a problem; if it’s easy to explain but difficult to express in logic, the internal discourse you get from writing it down in this way can help clarify your thinking towards a logical solution. Conversely, sometimes it’s easy to write the code but much harder to explain it; in that case writing the comment can help you clarify the purpose of the code in such a way as to make it explainable to other people. The act of writing the comment is like a pre-cursor to documentation.

And indeed, there are times when I’m writing a comment and I find that my thinking on the code in question changes. Because the explanation sounds ridiculous, or because I have to explain a flaw or undesirable compromise. The act of explaining it to someone else — which is what a good comment should do — helps you to better understand it yourself, and sometimes that leads to changing or scrapping it entirely.

When I was writing my accessible drag and drop script, dbx, there were several occassions where I simply couldn’t work out what to do next — how to express in logic the behavior that looked and felt right. So I took to this technique, by beginning with an explanation:

//if - the direction of movement is positive; and
//	clone left/top plus clone width/height is greater than box left/top; and
//	clone left/top is less than box left/top
//or - the direction of movement is negative; and
//	clone left/top is less than box left/top; and
//	clone left/top plus clone width/height is greater than box left/top

Once I had that, it was simply a case of writing the code to implement what I’d explained:

if
(
	(this.positive
		&& cloneprops.xy + cloneprops.wh > boxprops.xy
		&& cloneprops.xy < boxprops.xy)
	||
	(!this.positive
		&& cloneprops.xy < boxprops.xy
		&& cloneprops.xy + cloneprops.wh > boxprops.xy)
)

Conversely, there were situations where I knew immediately what code to write, but I also knew that I’d quickly forget what it was for:

var sibling = dbx.getSiblingBox(this.box, 'nextSibling');
if(this.box == sibling || this.boxes[i] == sibling) { return; }

So in comes a comment to spell it out:

//look for a next sibling of this box
//and don't continue if there isn't one,
//or it's the same as the box we're inserting before
//so that we're not doing an action that would result in no change
//this filtering improves efficiency generally,
//and is necessary specifically to stabilize the animation
//otherwise the multiple unecessary calls would overload the animation timers
//and the result would be snap movement with no apparent transition

I’ve learnt the hard way how frustrating it is to come back on a script after time, only to have no clue how it works. Have a look at this example, for a chess analysis script I wrote many years ago:

sqR=new Array(vmr,vmr);
for(j=0;j<sqid[vmr][1];j++){
	if(sqid[(vmr-1)]&&(sqid[vmr][1]-sqid[(vmr-1)][1]==1)){
		sqR[2]=vmr-1;
		com(vmn,sqR[2]);
		}
	if(sqid[(vmr-9)]&&(sqid[vmr][1]-sqid[(vmr-9)][1]==1&&sqid[vmr][0]-sqid[(vmr-9)][0]==1)){
		sqR[3]=vmr-9;
		com(vmn,sqR[3]);
		}
	}

Don’t ask me what it’s doing — I have no idea!

So now I comment like it’s going out of fashion, with at least one line of comment for every line of code, and typically two or three. Sometimes my comments are mini-epics, like this monster:

/*
use offleft positioning instead of display/visibility,
so that the menus are still accessible to screenreaders
the height and overflow:scroll is to reduce the amount of rendered output,
which speeds up the onload process
(using clip or overflow:hidden would also hide them from screenreaders)
but there are rendering or positioning problems
in mac/ie5, old gecko and opera < 7.5
in fact it screws up opera 7.23 completely - parts of the browser UI freeze up (!?)
so the styles are hidden from opera < 7.5 using the html[xmlns] selector
http://www.dithered.com/css_filters/css_only/xmlns_attribute_selector.html
this means that it won't happen on pages without an xmlns attribute
in other words - on HTML 4 pages, any browser-based screenreader using Opera 7.5-8 won't get the submenus
opera 9 and other browsers aren't affected because all are included in later selectors somewhere
opera's own speech/reading capabilities are not affected either,
because it generates events that open the menus, resetting all of this
and afaik there isn't any other browser-based reader that uses opera
so the likelihood is that this hole won't affect anybody at all
nonetheless it's still unfortunate, but it's practicably unavoidable -
the only other way to differentiate opera versions like this is the selector:lang(xx) pseudo-class,
but then we'd need a new custom varible to specify the user's language code
the styles are also hidden from old gecko builds using the commented selector hack
and from konqueror < 3.2 using the backslash hack, because it makes the navbar collapse
*/

All of which documents a single line of CSS:

html/**/[xmlns] .udm u\l{position:absolute;left:-10000px;height:0;overflow:scroll;}

So, okay, this is all a bit tongue in cheek. But nobody will ever complain at you for writing too many comments! My colleagues have even complemented me on the quality and thoroughness of my commenting. Maybe it’s stretching the point to call this a methodology, but it’s still a good idea.

This article provided by sitepoint.com.

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Filed under: Action & Adventure, Animation, Comedy, Documentary, Foreign Language, Horror, Independent, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Thrillers, Mystery & Suspense, Shorts, Fantastic Fest, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels, Cinematical Indie

(Click on the image above to head straight to Cinematical’s Fantastic Fest 2007 photo gallery)

I just spent the last seven days at the 3rd annual Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas … and I think I need to start seeing a therapist. There’s just no freakin’ way that a person should be able to call this “work.” But let’s be honest: I’m lucky enough to attend festivals like Sundance, Toronto and SXSW — and I do work my ass off during those weeks. But the Alamo Drafthouse’s Fantastic Fest is more of a … working vacation. Yeah, that’s it.

How to explain the ceaseless deluge of movie-geek fun that was had at this year’s event … I have no idea. I suppose we could start with the people:

Fantastic Fest is the pulsating brainchild of Alamo Capo Tim League and his crack(-smoking) staff of hardcore movie geeks. Were it not for the passion, the knowledge, and the non-stop nerdiness of Zach Carlson, Lars Nilssen, Keir-La Janisse, Henri Mazza and the wonderful Karrie League, Fantastic Fest would be more like Mildly Diverting Fest. (And that’s just not worth a trip across the country.) The Alamofos also have a stellar programming crew that includes the likes of Harry Knowles, Matt Dentler, Blake Ethridge, Todd Brown, and a small handful of people I’m forgetting right now but will definitely add in later once the emails start rolling in. But the bottom line is this: Call it a genre fest or call it a “geek mecca,” but I can assure you that Fantastic Fest is programmed by grade-A, die-hard, 6-movie-a-day maniacs. Everything else is just gravy.

Continue reading Fantastic Fest ‘07: The Wrap-Up

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Filed under: Action & Adventure, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, RumorMonger, Remakes and Sequels

I’m so not a fan of most science fiction, but man, Doctor Who fills me with fangirl glee. Even when the show gets almost too campy to bear, I’m there, eating it up — but even with its misses and sometimes-silliness, the show has done a great job of bringing the series into the next century. And hey — any show that can survive the loss of their main character, Christopher Eccleston, and bring on the likes of David Tennant, well, they know what they’re doing. Why does this matter to Cinematical? Well, just the other day, The Guardian announced that the BBC might be considering another Doctor Who movie.

The details: Jane Tranter, the BBC controller of fiction, talked about a BBC move and said: “This move is not about making feature films about things that are on the television — those ideas are staring us in the face already and may seem too obvious.” However, when asked about Who: “I would not rule out a film version of Doctor Who, no.” Sure, she only said she wouldn’t rule it out, but that statement coming after the previous one is telling. Of course, it’s understandable that they would look into features since the show is doing so damned well for the BBC. I can only hope that if they do, we get more Tennant, and please, oh please, more Captain Jack Harkness. What say you?

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Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio, Portable Video

We were invited by iPhone / iPod touch file system hacker Niacin (who you might also know for his PSP and MSN TV Linux cluster hacks, etc.) and Dre to test out their new v1.1.1 file system hack. We know the whole v1.1.1 hacking thing has been massively confusing even to folks like us, so here’s a quick n’ dirty timeline to bring you up to date.

1. Apple releases iPhone, which was obviously cracked six ways from Sunday.
2. Through firmwares 1.0.1 and 1.0.2 Apple does not block these hacks in any way.
3. Firmware v1.1.1 is released for iPhone and iPod touch, which completely locks out file system access (and thus 3rd party software).
4. Awkward silence from Apple fans and the dev community as everyone ponders how to crack the new file system protections.
5. Hackers dinopio, edgan discover the symlink hack, which takes v1.0.2 iPhones up to v1.1.1 with read / write file system access. In other words, the hack only works on v1.0.2 iPhones (not the iPod touch) when being upgraded to v1.1.1, and still doesn’t grant the ability to execute loaded programs.
6. The next version of dinopio & co.’s symlink hack (which hasn’t yet been released to the public) grants the coveted execute privilege (so you can run those 3rd party apps), and enables another hack (by pumpkin) to make the new SpringBoard (the application launcher) recognize the freshly recompiled iPhone apps.
7. Hacker Niacin (aka toc2rta) and Dre claim they’ve managed to combine the symlink hack with a TIFF vulnerability found in the v1.1.1 firmware’s mobile Safari, which grants access to the file system. This is the hack we’re testing here.
   Note: Due to the nature of this hack, it’s to be considered ephemeral. Apple needs only to patch the TIFF vulnerability and file system access on v1.1.1 is out, with the touch and iPhone back to their previously not-too-hackable state.

And the result thus far? We’ve tested the solution, and we can confirm file system read+write access via the TIFF exploit on an iPod touch, meaning loading a simple image file on your v1.1.1 device gives full root file system access!

Caveats:

• The release has not at this time been released to the public. Niacin claims that will happen in the near future, possibly later this morning.
• Thus far the hack isn’t entirely without issues. We’re still trying to determine exactly what’s what, but we’ve lost read and write access unexpectedly. This may or may not be a problem with our machine or device, though, and not necessarily the hack.
• We did not test this method on an iPhone, but technically there should be no difference in the effect. Side note: your v1.1.1 iPhone would, at this time, need to be activated to load the TIFF. (How else are you gonna load it?) This is supposedly being worked on.

Quick terminal log using iPHUC on the iPod touch confirming write ability to root FS after the break.

Continue reading iPhone and iPod touch v1.1.1 full jailbreak tested, confirmed!

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

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Filed under: Cameras, Computers, Advice, Columns, Switched Video

You know all of those extra megapixels you shelled out for when you bought your digital camera? Well, while the higher picture quality will certainly come in handy for running off prints of your more frame-worthy snaps, the bloated file sizes of your photos can be an e-mail killer. Most of the time, the photos coming off of our cameras are a few megabytes each, at least . Chain a couple of those together in an e-mail and it’s likely your message will be too big to go through. If it does go through, you run the risk of annoying friends and family who are forced to spend time downloading the photos. What to do? Watch our simple tutorial on resizing photos for e-mail and you’ll be spreading the memories in no time.

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• How to Back Up Your Hard Drive Online
• How to Clean a Keyboard Spill
• How to Hook Up Your New HDTV

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