Puzzle

Xbox Serial Number Statistics

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Slashdot had a story recently on how in 1942, the allies were able to estimate the number of German taks produced based on the serial numbers of the tanks. In 2010, a German hacker is doing the exact same thing with Xboxes. This article describes the generic approach, shows some results, and provides previously unreleased raw data of 14,000 Xbox serials so you can do your own statistics! read more

CPUID on all CPUs (HOWNOTTO)

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A while ago, an engineer from a respectable company for low-level solutions (no names without necessity!) claimed that a certain company’s new 4-way SMP system had broken CPUs or at least broken firmware that didn’t set up some CPU features correctly: While on the older 2-way system, all CPUs returned the same features (using CPUID), on the 4-way system, two of the CPUs would return bogus data. read more

How much change is in a vending machine?

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There is only one way to find out – all you need is a giant pile of money and a vending machine that sells soda for $1.25: If you put in a dollar note and press the “return change” button, you will get the dollar note back directly. If you put in two dollar notes (the maximum it takes) at a time, it will give you change for the two dollars. read more

Microsoft vs. Standards

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Here is a fun game for long car rides: One person names a respected standard implemented by dozens of IT companies, and the other person names Microsoft’s competing technology. Example: MPEG Audio (MP3/AAC) – Windows Media Audio. read more