smash's world (blog by Ben Guild)

Dubspace in Public Beta... The community of auto-enthusiasts with modifications.

2009-05-17T20:38:00.010-04:00

I've wanted to start this site for years, so this week I decided to not only do just-that, but also release it ASAP and develop it as people use it. This way, I wouldn't waste my time if things started going poorly, and all of my friends could help test it.

Everything's going well so far, check out Dubspace right-now.
“Dubspace is the community of auto-enthusiasts with modifications, show vehicles, and pictures to tell a story. — Add your vehicle: cars, trucks, motorcycles, SUVs, ATVs, and boats/watercraft.”

It's not for any particular kind of car/truck/vehicle, it's for everyone!
You can also follow the site's updates on Twitter.

This is what a totaled Dodge Challenger looks like.

2009-05-07T14:58:00.006-04:00

I saw this parked at my friend's body-shop today. Apparently someone was doing a drift or a burnout (trying to be a smartass outside the shop) and ended up totaling his ride. Not sure what he hit, but the damage is more than obvious.

Take a look at the photo below.

...Something else worth viewing is the integration of the Volkswagen Radios (in the new 2010 cars) with the Climate Control, and other gems that VW stays ahead of the game with. I guess this is why the new cars all come with a touchscreen radio standard... because the rest of the car needs it! (video I made today is embedded, below:)

Why I now love to listen-to/DJ/mix Deadmau5' music even more! [Autographed sneakers.]

2009-04-10T00:03:00.007-04:00

They were brand-new, now I can't wear them. :D
For those not familiar, it's pronounced "Dead mouse". [Wikipedia]

Opinion: You should be able to return lousy video-games.

2009-03-05T03:42:00.000-05:00

Before I knew to check the game-review websites for reference of whether something was worth buying, I always just bought whatever game I thought looked the "coolest"... literally judging a book, err... video-game..., by it's cover.

I think that the main reason stores like GameStop still exist is the fact that you simply can't return most of their merchandise if it's been opened. The reality is that copies of a video-game cost almost nothing to produce, and are sold at $50-60 a piece. Of course, this is to cover the costs of developing a game... but if you're making lousy video games, then you deserve to eat the cost if people don't like them. Okay, yes I know this would be damaging to the business overall, but it would definitely filter-out a lot of the crud from the market.

/end-rant

Bitsmash project retired, as well.

2009-02-16T17:59:00.006-05:00

Today I made the end-all decision to cancel the Bitsmash project. Reasons being:
1) The project was making basically no-income, yet cost $1300/month to run.
2) Lack of public-awareness. Lack of my own dedication as well.
3) Needed a lot of work, and couldn't justify it since there was just no money in it. (this also ties-into the lousy economy we're presently stuck with)
4) Need to consolidate my focus onto things that matter, rather than saturating the market.

My whole reason for starting any project is to fascinate people and/or make their lives easier. For this one, there just wasn't that much interest. However, I did learn a lot more (as with any project) about various technologies that I usually never use, and therefore it was still worth my time, I feel.

So long, Bitsmash!

"i like b-sides." .... do you need a new mix-tape?

2009-02-03T15:34:00.008-05:00

I launched this site today, it's pretty cool.
Basically it suggests songs to you that you wouldn't normally have or listen to, but are still good. It's kind of like a reversed iTunes Genius... it actually more of a iTunes Librarian that can help you find interesting books to read by just showing up to the library with a list of what you already have... except, for music. hah.

So yeah, basically the site works for just about anyone with any usable information in their iTunes Library (whether it be star-ratings or only Play Counts, as well as other factors like quantity of songs by that particular artist, etc.) -- so give it a try and grab some new tunes from those artists you already know and love! http://ilikebsides.com

DiggSuggest retired. New projects coming.

2009-01-21T11:40:00.003-05:00

Hi guys, I retired DiggSuggest today due to dwindling traffic. It got a huge amount of press when it first launched and was a success, but since Digg has since launched their own tool (as I'd hoped they would), there's no real need for it. :)

So, bye bye DiggSuggest! I'll release something new soon.

Mobile17 delivers 15-millionth piece of mobile-content! Huge milestone is approaching.

2009-01-13T08:47:00.003-05:00

Just wanted to post a quick note to thank everyone for supporting the project all of this time!
http://mobile17.com

FWIW, around this time two years ago we'd just hit 4-million. :)

Bitsmash API launched.

2008-12-08T06:03:00.003-05:00

Ever wondered what "DVBS", "PROPER", "SKIDVID", and "S03E01" meant in English... or what country the tracker is in? Well, if you haven't already been to Bitsmash, using this API now your BitTorrent Application could tell you this on its own!

Waiting for an update to 'Fallout 3'...

2008-11-17T18:44:00.025-05:00

I saw a friend of mine's roommate playing Fallout 3 at this house the other night. Very pleased with it, reminds me of a combination of Half-Life 2 (one of my favorites) and Smuggler's Run (similar theming, but a driving-game).

(Keep in mind I've never bought a "collector's edition" of any video-game, but with this one I decided I'd be able to use the lunch box... for lunch. haha)

So basically for the past 24-hours I've been on-and-off glued to the game for hours at a time. It's very open-ended, yet driven. Challenging, but not impossible or frustrating. Also, there are plenty of optional bonus quests to do on the side that aren't particularly distracting or annoying... they are actually satisfying to complete! (you discover new areas, get paid decently, meet people that give you more side-quests, etc.)

So yeah, highly recommended... BUT, I found a bug: (others have found it, too)
[source: Fallout @ Wikia] "There is a known bug in all versions of the game where, if you do not exit Galaxy News Radio via the back door as Three Dog instructs, you will be unable to return to the building to complete the quest via the front door (using the intercom will result in the doorman telling you that it's open, when it's not), and the side-door will be locked and require a successful very hard lockpick to open. It is not known if you can backtrack from Dupont Circle to the back door, but dialog from Three Dog when you accept the quest would suggest that you cannot. Picking the very hard side door will result in negative karma, but will allow you entrance to the building to complete this quest."

I never heard this part of the conversation with Three Dog, so naturally I just went out the way I came in. Nor did I receive a key for the door, which I'm pretty sure was required since I tried to use that door before even talking to him and it was locked. (requiring a key) Weird.

So obviously, this bug breaks the game. You cannot go any further unless you either:
a) browse around randomly and eventually discover 'Rivet City', where you can then resume your quest with a new goal.
b) check an online walkthrough at GameFAQs or something that tells you where to go next

As mentioned, this ALSO locks you out of the Dupont Circle region unless you find it manually... and also, the game is constantly telling you to "Return to Three Dog to talk about Dad" or whatever. Hah. This is one of the first times I've ever run into a bug like this in a game of this scale. Luckily, with these modern gaming-systems, they can patch it remotely and send out an update to everyone.
Yayyyyyyyyyy!

smash.me launched, my new homepage! (more juicy information "about" smash.)

2008-11-07T20:23:00.012-05:00

This is a new site I've started to complement my blog here at Smash's World... which of course will remain here until the END OF TIME.

'Smash.Me' (available at http://smash.me), is a syndicated "sandbox" of my online-activity that may or may not be interesting to viewers. The site also allows me to post new "tabs" for unique purposes (like cars, projects, etc.) and more static (non-changing) content/information that wouldn't normally fit here into a blog-entry. This also helps keep the clutter down for projects that should always be featured, rather than just mentioned in a single post.

I made the site over the past few-weeks in some spare time and feel pretty good about it. Check it out, and sign the guestbook!

A note about 'Whitesoap' and '73git': ... at this point I've closed these two projects down. The news-feeds backing both systems have been recycled into my Google Reader, and I am using this to provide interesting news on the main page of 'smash.me'. I felt this was the best decision possible as I want to focus further on online-tools and development... rather than aggregating online-information. (except if it's about me... hehe.) ^_^

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Simon Wai prototype)

2008-09-21T23:33:00.008-04:00

Way back in the day, I was too young to have had an original Sega Genesis. However, I had the Sega Nomad, the brick-sized Genesis "portable" that got an overwhelming 30-40 minutes maximum to a fresh set of 6-AA batteries.

My favorite game was always Sonic 2, it was so fun to play and there were lots of cool cheat-codes to do hidden things when you were bored. (Super Sonic, Debug mode, Level Select, Night mode, among others) So, naturally when I found out that there was an UNRELEASED BETA of the game floating around online in ROM-format, I had to check it out.

There are previously unreleased and/or incomplete levels in this version of the game... AWESOME. Plus a lot of the old classics in their incomplete or beta formats. It's pretty cool to play if you've played the game. I'm using an emulator called Genesis Plus to play it on my Mac right now.

FYI there are some key combos you need to know to play this:
A+Start at the main screen = level select (otherwise you can only play the first level)
B+Start for two-player
... I guess that's pretty much it.

Have fun, linked is a page at Sonic Retro with more information and a level-list that shows which zones are playable and which got either cut from the game, renamed, or combined/redesigned before the final release. There's a really cool one called Wood Zone that I'm really sad didn't make the cut, and also Hidden Palace Zone which seems pretty cool and is fairly playable in this beta, as well!

Magic Flashlights.... "take only what you need."

2008-08-12T12:53:00.002-04:00

Incredible production, had to post.

Magic Flashlights from Mike Benson on Vimeo.

Link: Breath controlled LED candles (Hack a Day)

2008-07-11T13:36:00.002-04:00

Saw this and had to post it:
Instructables user [cedtlab] has posted an interesting LED project that simulates birthday candles. The circuit runs on an AVR ATTiny45, and is powered by 4 AA or AAA batteries. By using a Charliplexing technique, they are able to drive all 20 LEDs with only 5 pins of the ATTiny. A thermistor is used for detecting breath by measuring temperature changes, and then blocks of LEDs turn off depending on the change detected. They have provided schematics and source code for everything. Make sure to check out the video of the "ficticious birthday party" after the break.

http://www.hackaday.com/2008/07/11/breath-controlled-led-candles/

Thunder-cloud rainbow...

2008-07-11T12:48:00.002-04:00

Thunder-cloud rainbow (2)
Originally uploaded by smashtheqube

My dad spotted this outside our house the other day, I grabbed a photo before it disappeared.

Comcast vs. Verizon FIOS Install jobs in Apartment Complex [HORROR]

2008-06-23T01:35:00.006-04:00

Check out these install photos. Is Comcast joking, seriously? The door doesn't even close/lock to the juncture-box because the wiring is a "coaxial-mess!!" Clearly they just don't care!! I hope nobody opens their monthly bill to find their neighbors' On-Demand purchases, hah.

Verizon neatly routes and wires their fiber-optic lines to the premises, rather than tens if not hundreds of separate, bulky cable connections. What a disaster... I guess Comcast's TV-Commercials is really all they have to convince you that you're actually getting close to the fiber-opticness of a FIOS line. "America's Largest Fiber-Optic Network"... yeah right, check out the picture below to see how you're getting connected for real.

Thanks to my buddy Jared for not only posing in the photos, but also for bringing this to my attention!

Verizon FIOS, super-clean install:

Comcast:

Paprika: Movie review

2008-06-21T15:49:00.012-04:00

Haven't posted in a while, sorry guys. Figured I'd review a movie I'd seen recently.

Paprika is an anime-film about a therapist with a device to enter people's dreams. (It's called a "DC Mini".) However, we soon learn that the device was stolen from its development facility, along with two others. To make matters worse, each device was taken before they were protected for use on just-anyone for just-about-anything. No safeguards... but this is where the magic of the story begins.

You'll have to watch it to learn the rest, I won't spoil it. But you're probably thinking... "dude, I am not watching a movie about something like this and reading subtitles trying to understand what the hell they're talking about"... NOT TO WORRY. I felt the same way (obviously) and switched the Audio to 'English'. Problem solved, and it's also available in French, Spanish, and a few others.

The colors / scenes / and plot of this film are fantastic... not at all as inspiring as I'd initially expected. The film absolutely blew-my-mind, especially since I could watch it in high-definition... it's out on Blu-Ray disc! My PlayStation 3 had no problems playing back the DVD and navigating its features. It's one of those movies you'll always remember if you don't usually watch this sort of thing; contacting you on a subliminal level almost. Its editorial-reviews use words like "mesmerizing" and "dreamed".

Anyway, definitely check it out. I'll try to post more often about interesting stuff again. Also, here's a link to the Wikipedia entry for a better understanding and more information... but beware of plot spoilers!! Enjoy.

Blackberry Curve (8310) Review

2008-03-21T00:34:00.004-04:00

A while ago I switched to a Blackberry... without telling anyone. No posts, no blurbs. And since then I've never looked back... well, only a little bit! I do miss my Sony Ericsson W910i that I special-ordered but foregoing email-in-my-pocket-on-the-fly any longer just seemed impossible.

When asked on Flickr what I thought about it... I replied: "It's pretty solid. I unlocked all of the carriers' themes and ended up choosing the Vodafone one, it's pretty neat. Applications I installed are Facebook, Google Maps, Opera Mini, Instant Messenger (AIM/MSN/Yahoo!), and MusicID. (last two were downloaded from AT&T for free, others from their respective developers' websites)

I haven't used my iPhone in months... I really like how this has an actual keyboard, flash for the camera, regular headphone jack (not needing an adapter), expandable memory, expandable functionality, and it's a bit more rugged and less smooth (doesn't slip out of your pocket when standing up or sitting down). Oh, and you can tether Internet via Bluetooth (like a normal phone) which was a huge turn-off for me with the iPhone. I need emergency Internet from time-to-time and any phone I look-at has to have it."

So yeah, I'm pretty happy with it. I honestly really think it's an all-around good device -- not too flashy, not too thin... yet not too impractical or ill-equipped. The ONLY thing I wish it could do was use the camera to record short videos for YouTube or emailing. This is the only downfall I've found... that and the lack of a 3G-connection, which isn't a huge deal at least right-now.

When I bought this I had about a 50/50 chance of returning it (as I have with past Blackberry purchases) but this one I've been using and loving, so until the iPhone can catch-up to my standards this is my lovely new center of all being 'smash'... you can call me a crackberry.

DiggSuggest - Using the Digg API to find stories for you!

2008-03-19T14:44:00.002-04:00

I wrote this script a few nights ago and have been playing with the results. It builds a local cache in a MySQL DB of stories then compares them to both your Digging history and their current popularity to give you great suggestions on what to Digg next! Feedback please, and Digg-it-up.

http://diggsuggest.smashsworld.com/

The "Err" sign I built with Peggy. (make yours today!)

2008-02-11T00:37:00.000-05:00

EvilMadScientist sells a kit called "Peggy" that allows you to build all sorts of things... including a Mooninite-sign from the ATHF bomb-scare in Boston, if you're crafty-enough.

Disclaimer: I highly recommend you have a good amount of soldering and electrical experience before attempting this, though. It wasn't a difficult kit to build (although it's very time-consuming and requires exceptional attention to detail in certain areas), but it's also not something that would be easy to learn-on either.

I built this sign in about 4-hours on Friday night and gave it to my friend for his birthday afterward, but I'll have to fix it later since 100 Blue-LEDs turned out to NOT be enough to finish "Err's" arm... I had to use some of the leftover pink ones and that made the Volkswagen symbol in his hand look more like some sort of torch or whip... haha.

I will fix that later.

Anyway, the only other major complaint I had with the kit was that the photo-sensor that they include (at least right now) isn't sensitive-enough for indoor use. I bought one of those 5-Packs of Photocell sensors for like $4 at Radioshack and just used one of those instead... much better. (video attached below)

UPDATE ON THIS: Apparently you can program the IC to handle different levels of light, or even they can do it for you before they ship the kit to you. So this is no longer an issue.

Some of Err's features (like his eyebrows) aren't on the grid of LEDs that Peggy offers, either... you have to be a bit creative on bending the leads for each LED and this becomes quite time-consuming. However, it's still a lot of fun to build... and if you're mad-skilled you can reprogram the IC (integrated-circuit) to control the lights more specifically (to make Err's eyebrows blink... or something.) By default, all of the lights are on unless you have it set to turn-off with the lights or daytime are present.

"Peggy" isn't just for building Mooninite signs, though! You can make whatever you want in whatever color you want, and even program it to flash, blink, etc. as I hinted-at above. I won't be doing that, but I will definitely be working on some other designs for friends in the future. It's a great gift and makes anyone's home just a-bit-more cutting-edge. ;)

Instructions, initial soldering:

After about 1 and a 1/2 hours I had all of the components and the first, test LED mounted and soldered:

Then... continued mounting and soldering the rest over the next 2 hours:

The finished project is shown below for scale. As you can see, there are some leftover Pink LEDs being used in the right-arm, I'm going to swap them out at a later date so that you can really see the "VW" clearly! (we are all Volkswagen enthusiasts, haha)

Pretty awesome kit. Check out their website for more stuff they make with electronic-components and simple circuits.

Over 10-Million Served!

2008-01-31T13:19:00.001-05:00

This morning, Mobile17's odometer rolled-over to 10-Million pieces of mobile-content created. It is a big-day for the company and you all can expect many great things to come. :)

Welcome to winter in New England.

2007-12-09T23:10:00.001-05:00

Awesome.

DSC02763.JPG
Originally uploaded by smashtheqube

Some updates to Whitesoap!

2007-12-05T14:58:00.000-05:00

Playing around with a new beta of the homepage, which provides a lot more useful information from the system. We'll see how it goes -- there's plenty more to come. It's a fun project and is nowhere near the end of its road. ;)

W910i Unboxed.

2007-10-24T21:49:00.000-04:00

I'm super-excited to report that my new phone is here from Hong Kong!!
A hearty-red Sony Ericsson W910i. No idea when this is coming out in the USA (rumored for the holidays), but it might not in general due to the W580i just being released... which is similar.

First off... I love this phone. It is amazing. The crisp screen, it's thin form-factor, great design... very few complaints from me:

No video calling support here in the USA (I tried calling a friend from South Africa that's living in Connecticut... he has a K800i. The call immediately failed, but voice-calling works okay obviously.)

No flash for the camera... although I will admit that I used it as a flashlight more often than for pictures.

No standard headphone jack on the phone (but they do include a cabled-adapter with microphone and send/end button on the remote, plus a set of very-well-fitting earbud headphones), but it does have Stereo-sound over Bluetooth. Nice! Hopefully we'll see a slick set of wireless headphones in the upcoming months.

At some points, the menu interface seems to 'lag' a little bit... not too bad but still noticeable. I hope they fix this with a software update.

As far as I know, there's no way to keep your Ringtones from showing up under your song-lists with music you've put on the phone... but I'll keep playing with it. This is definitely annoying.

The phone even has an accelerometer, so it knows when you tilt it (like the iPhone). You can even "shake" the phone to switch tracks. (although I haven't tried this and it probably isn't consistent)

The slide-out keypad allows for a massive 240x320-pixel display that's crystal-clear, unlike many phones that display somewhat "soft" images. Built-well, stays in your pocket, very thin, and seems durable.

Getting it setup for AT&T wasn't too difficult. I couldn't use my iPhone's SIM card since they're apparently only designed for that one phone, but ended-up getting a free replacement from the local AT&T store. Almost everything worked straight-off as usual, but I did have to manually configure WAP (mobile internet) and MMS messaging... took a few minutes to type everything in. (keep in mind those instructions are for the W810i, my previous phone, but the menus are similarly structured)

After I was online, I downloaded my two favorite freebee applications: Google Maps mobile (with traffic), and Opera mini. I didn't need any games since the phone already came with Lumines (a favorite of mine available for the PSP), and some 3D racing game (V-Rally).

The last thing, was getting it syncing via Bluetooth with iSync on my Mac. Unfortunately, Apple doesn't support it yet... but luckily someone wrote a plug-in!

So basically, this phone has great games, great music and video playback, a great camera, and isn't locked down like the damn iPhone. Nice!

A few other thumbnails:

A few other freebees it offers:

Track ID: A free version of many carriers' music recognition service. Hold it up to a song that's playing and it'll utilize your phone's internet connection to figure out what it's called in about 15 or 20 seconds. Awesome!

It came with a 2GB Memory Stick M2 memory-chip already installed... this thing is TINY, yet holds so much! Plus it includes a USB-key style reader, *and* a USB-cable... both of which transfer files very quickly over USB2. (photos/videos/music/etc.)

Also has a built-in FM radio for when you don't feel like listening to your music... although I don't think it works with "Track ID"... haha.

Anyway, in summary this phone should work nicely on AT&T(/Cingular), T-Mobile, or any other GSM provider here in the USA. A few extra steps (as I mentioned) are involved to get it setup, but in the end it's definitely worth-it. If we see this phone in-stores, it'll be a hot seller for sure!

I'm already creating ringtones on Mobile17. ;)

Mobile17 updated to support the iPhone!

2007-09-16T23:29:00.000-04:00

I'm pleased to announce that we now offer custom ringtones and graphics (created from your music and pictures), free of charge, for the iPhone. It's very easy to do. Try it out?

Digg this story and get the word out! Finally, an easy way for the iPhone to be further personalized.