Blog

Blitz Hacks

2012 Apr 30 05:54 PM MDT | Gaming⁷ Hacks⁹ JavaScript² Programming¹⁸ Python⁴ Web¹³ [2012]⁸ | Estimated 3-min read

Have you ever heard of Blitz Chess? It’s a type of chess, with time limits on each side.

Google developers have made an App Engine sample. You can play at blitz.appspot.com, but you need to have a Google Account.

After playing a few times, it was fun, but I thought I should go further than that. I read the server’s Python code, and found a checkmate hack exploit. I even tampered HTTP requests and deleted all the losses I had accumulated. However, the deletion hack can also be done natively.

Now, I shall share some fun with you. Execute this JavaScript, and you can might be able to now move **EVERYONE**'s pieces **ANYWHERE**. Note that moving your pawn back one space can kill one of your pieces and promote it. This is now encoded, but a lite version is provided.

I also have one to delete your losses, but I won’t give it away as-is…

Enjoy (hit Read More if needed):

Cloud Rendering Shenanigans

2012 Apr 6 06:07 PM MDT | Hacks⁹ Web¹³ [2012]⁸ | Estimated 1-min read

I have created a web-site that shows all of my cloud renderings of the samples. It is available at victorz.ca/misc/3d/.

At first, 1 render = 1 cloud unit, when the service was called Autodesk Cloud with its subordinate *Autodesk Cloud Rendering*.

Later, they renamed it to Autodesk 360 and its complement *Autodesk 360 Rendering*, and made 1 render = 5 cloud units. They also upped the limit to 75 cloud units, and made me have 50 used up (10/15 renders), which is nowhere near the 160 renders.

Still, I noticed a flaw: the cloud units are not subtracted until after the rendering is complete, which causes the following effect, -10 cloud units (-2 renders) remain when I sent 3 renders on the last credit.

To reproduce this, just send multiple renders when you're on your last credit.

No more Wii Programming

2012 Mar 10 02:19 PM MST | C³ Nintendo⁸ Nintendo-Wii⁸ Programming¹⁸ [2012]⁸ | Estimated 1-min read

I have created a Wii eject channel in the past. Today, I decided to uninstall my devKitPro SDK and release my notes on some important C functions.

// Eject Disc
DI_Eject()
// Return to System Menu
SYS_ResetSystem(SYS_RETURNTOMENU, 0, 0);
// Power Red
STM_ShutdownToStandby()
SYS_ResetSystem(SYS_POWEROFF_STANDBY, 0, 0);
// Reboot
STM_RebootSystem()
SYS_ResetSystem(RESTART, 0, 0);
// Power Yellow
STM_ShutdownToIdle()
SYS_ResetSystem(SYS_POWEROFF_IDLE, 0, 0);
// Power Auto Off
SYS_ResetSystem(SYS_POWEROFF, 0, 0);

FizzBuzz Test

2012 Mar 7 05:26 PM MST | Math⁷ Programming¹⁸ PHP⁴ [2012]⁸ | Estimated 1-min read

This is a controversial way to filter out noobs people who can’t program. Luckily for me, I did very well at it. So what is this challenge about?

Write a program that prints the numbers from 1 to 100. But for multiples of three, print "Fizz" instead of the number, and for the multiples of five, print "Buzz". For numbers which are multiples of both three and five, print "Fizz-Buzz".

Well, isn’t that easy… it only took me less than two minutes versus the people who either can’t do this or take a long time to.

<?php
// 70 second solution!
for($i=1;$i<;=100;++$i){
	$a = !($i % 3);
	$b = !($i % 5);
	if($a) echo $b ? "Fizz-Buzz": "Fizz";
	elseif($b) echo "Buzz";
	else echo $i;
}

Luminosity Hacks

2012 Feb 25 11:44 AM MST | Hacks⁹ Gaming⁷ Web¹³ [2012]⁸ | Estimated 1-min read

I have recently found the site known as Luminosity through an online advertisement. It is a site that measures your brain's health through the use of games.

This is a picture of my results:

For some reason, they don’t provide my percentile ranks. Either I have to pay, or they don’t have enough 15 year old males to compare me against. The redaction of half the first username really means nothing to me, so I didn’t bother to censor the second one.

My mostly-legit score for Luminosity.

My overall (mean average) score is 901.4, which is rounded down by convention. I attained the following scores for speed, memory, attention, flexibility, problem solving, respectively: 1011, 1137, 813, 916, 630.

Flexibility was my worst (around 480), so I hacked to buff up my score, which means my real overall score is actually around 814.

I think these scores are reasonable, since their "*flexibility*" is the ability to *recall vocabulary*, but I have a somewhat limited vocabulary.

My hacked scores on a new account

Identify what the operator ^ does

2011 Sep 11 10:25 AM MDT | Programming¹⁸ [2011]⁸ | Estimated 1-min read

What does the operator ^ do? Does the carat mean **XOR**, or does it mean **exponent**? One simple debug statement will solve the problem:

What is `0 ^ 1`? It will tell you three possibilities:

• 1: XOR
• 0: Power
• Other: your programming language is strange.

Windows Experience Index Hack

2011 Jun 10 08:35 PM MDT | Hacks⁹ Windows⁵ Windows-Advanced⁴ [2011]⁸ | Estimated 1-min read

I hacked my Windows Experience Index rating! My rating is way better than yours, if you don’t believe it, view the screenshot! For my real ratings, subtract 10 from each individual score. Yes, my real score is 5.9, but I deserve 6.82 as an average or even 6.8429525791137848568296393718408… as the root mean square! See how I did it in the full article.

Wind Waker Glitch *updated*

2011 May 30 07:23 PM MDT | Gaming⁷ Hacks⁹ Nintendo⁸ Nintendo-GC² Nintendo-Wii⁸ [2011]⁸ | Estimated 1-min read

I used some cheats on the Wind Waker with my Wii, but only to be reflected with this glitch. When I have to unlock the Earth Temple, I already have the Earth God's Lyric. As a result, going to Headstone Island and trying to "learn" the song fails. Using another cheat to “forget” the song, I go “learn” it again the way I am supposed to. Then I have to go find Medli, but she somehow disappeared from the location she should be at.

UPDATE: I have found a fix for my problem!

I tried a cheat to “downgrade” the Master Sword. The first one only affected the visual effect, but then I tried again and changed one value, which was taken from the *Fully Charged Master Sword* cheat (if only they had warned me about this), from F (15, 0b1111) to 3 (0b0011) because the least significant bit (LSB) is the sword, the next one is the master sword, then the half charged sword, then the full master sword. I believe that the weapon bits’ being full put Medli in the incomplete dungeon instead of Dragon Roost Island. I wonder if I could use this to get extra firepower with the standard or partial master sword (9, 0b1001, or 11, 0b1011)…