Stadia controllers can be re-flashed to generic PC controllers

Stadia controller

So I saw this controller for sale for 20. I figured that there ought to be a way to hack it to do something useful so it may be fun. Turns out all it needs is a re-flash of new firmware and it’ll become a generic controller.

All you need to do is peer it to your computer, go to https://stadia.google.com/controller and follow the prompts.

You might be slightly scared that the browser can talk directly to bluetooth devices, including the unlock, and re-programming the controller.

And yeah after that it’s all unlocked and good to go!

Not sure if it matters all that much, but for anyone wanting either a controller on the cheap, or if you bought into Stadia when it was a thing (did anyone remember other than the announcement and the expected cancellation?).

I guess it’s nice that google is providing an unlock service but I’m sure that won’t be around forever, so yeah. yay.

Silent Partner – Space Walk

aka the 20’s version of Opus number 1. Wait, what?

While feeling generally like crap the last few days and half sleeping letting YouTube play random crap it’d eventually come across a ‘live premier’ and they all of course have the same music.

At first in a haze I thought it was looping videos, but no it was 2 completely different people however the intro music was the same. So in the middle of the night the quest had started to track down the tune.

And in no time I managed to find what most everyone else found. It’s from ‘Silent Partner‘ who made a bunch of free to use music. And in the compilations on soundcloud is the Space Walk.

Silent Partner’s Space Walk

And of course you know them from ‘Spring in My Step‘ among many many others.

Although they do have an official channel now, with a short BIO in their about:

In 2013, YouTube reached out to producer Bryce Goggin, asking if he was interested in creating music for their new Audio Library which aimed to give billions of video creators access to free, safe to use music. His answer was simple – “Yes”. Goggin, who’s worked with the likes of Phish, Sean Lennon, Space Hog, and Pavement, recruited a close circle of session musicians to help take on the mighty endeavor. The team worked out of his studio in Brooklyn NY, creating a diverse collection of over 1k songs that would go on to be used in hundreds of millions of videos.

And from the official song:

Since June 2018, every YouTube premiere is preceded by a colorful countdown that features vibrant, abstract animations and a clock ticking its way down to zero. Every countdown also includes the same song playing front and center, a two-minute instrumental track that stirs up anticipation with its nostalgic electronic synths, drum machine percussion, and orchestral string plucks. This song, “Space Walk” by Silent Partner is often referred to as the “unofficial YouTube national anthem”.

Commenters on YouTube re-uploads of the song agree, as they’ve shared a variety of feelings about the track. One person noted, “People in 2030/2040 will be like: This is soooo nostalgic!! Only real ones remember this.” Somebody else wrote, “This is honestly such a fitting song for YouTube Premiere countdowns, it just perfectly goes with your imagination running wild about what you’re about to see.” Another user painted a picture of the end of YouTube with “Space Walk” as the soundtrack: “I feel like this is something that would play in the final minutes of youtube before the site shuts down. Just this music and a few minutes to remember everything that has happened on this site over the decades before it all goes away.”

“Space Walk” has been heard billions of times (literally). Ed Sheeran’s “Shape Of You,” the most popular all-time song on Spotify, has nearly 3 billion spins, and it wouldn’t be surprising to learn that the YouTube premiere song — across every YouTube premiere ever, music video or otherwise — has been heard more times than that.

And there you go. The site Uproxx has a great article on the hunt for the origin of the song. Like so many I’m just here after the fact, wondering what is the deal with the song.

If IVR’s, hold music and answering machines were still a touchstone, I’m sure Space Walk would be up there. But instead now it’s just intro lead music.

Space Walk mp3

And since it is royalty free here is the MP3 for anyone who really wants it that bad.

Go back to classic Gmail

going .. back!

So yeah I”m not a fan of the new layout, it somehow manages to only render properly at a high resolution, and display farless.  “Suprpsingly” the top option on the far right is to “Go back to classic Gmail”.

Out in Hong Kong people are a buzz that Google has a secret deal with Beijing where they are not only going to build a search engine with CCP’s blessing, but they will also be moving people’s data out here into Chinese datacentres.

Then I got this email:

Due to a new agreement between WhatsApp and Google, WhatsApp backups will no longer count against Google Drive storage quota. However, any WhatsApp backups that have not been updated in more than a year will automatically be removed from storage.

This policy will come into effect for all users on 12 November 2018, although some users may see the quota benefits earlier. To avoid the loss of any backups, we recommend that people manually back up WhatsApp before 12 November 2018.

So WhatsApp is the #1 chat app out in Hong Kong.  So now presumably all our chats are going directly to the CCP. Yay.

I can’t say I’m all that surprised, when I logon from Europe or the USA all my data of course goes through the CIA via Canada, or FBI/Interpol.. So there is no escaping any of this, but the reql question is what changed to get these kinds of deals in place.

I donno what to make of any of it.

And yes, it turns out that even if you opt out of the Google tracking, they still track.  Does this mean it’s time to actually go back to an abandonded / pay platform like Windows Phone/Office 365?

Speculate wildly!

So Google is starting to ‘shame’ sites for not using HTTPS

Really?

So I guess we are at that point where I’m going to have to turn on https for all the other ‘shared’ services I have.  Old links should still work, just expect to be redirected.

Old machines, however… yeah I guess you guys just got cut out.

I just modified the crazy regex hell I have to patch up AltaVista / UTZOO so at least that ought to be working.  The source archive seems operational as well.  When everything is working, HAPROXY is freaking awesome.

 

Holy crap did I get the most annoying trojan attempt ever!

Sit down kids, it’s time for an old man rant.

So yeah, I have one of those clients who wants to use ‘one of those’ file sharing sites. UGH.  I swear I’m to the point of just paying for an Office 365 subscription for them so I don’t have to deal with this kind of shit.  So I hit the site on my phone, then it jumps to this genchatu.top site.  Fantastic.

Then I’m alerted that my phone is 28.1% DAMAGED, and somehow my phone’s SIM card will be damaged!  Yes, it’s one of these scam sites!

Wow

Oh no, my phone apparently may be already physically damaged?  I guess this is once someone is tricked by this official Google looking image you’ll want to throw your phone against the wall.  As any user of Android will tell you updates from Google are non existent, and anything that could infect your phone, well is pretty much your problem.  You can beg the vendor, but lol, good luck.

I like to live dangerously, so yeah let’s look at the app.

Ace, alright, more like acehole!

So with this scary and official looking thing it’s trying to railroad you into “Ace Cleaner”  I don’t know how on earth they haven’t either been reported, or knocked out of the app store.  I guess Google is busy teaming up with Facebook trying to figure out how to censor the new appropriately instead of trying to squash actual scam artists.

I honestly haven’t tracked any of these ‘reviews’ to see how many are just idiots, or how many are just ballot stuffers.

Yeah, it’s a scam.

 

No backing away!

And of course you can’t just back away from the page, you get this nice thing along with something in java script that gets your phone to buzz and light up.  Thanks Google!  That’ll never get abused like the blink tag!

You have to be kidding me

Oh no, I’ve been threatened to be blocked.

How bad can this crapware be?

Oh dear.  From the application page, let’s take a look:

Version 1.1.9 can access:
Device & app history
  • retrieve running apps
  • read your Web bookmarks and history

So they know what you are running, and what bookmark’d sites you like.

Identity
  • find accounts on the device

They know WHO you are.

Contacts
  • find accounts on the device

They know WHO you KNOW.

Phone
  • read phone status and identity
Photos/Media/Files
  • access USB storage filesystem
  • read the contents of your USB storage
  • modify or delete the contents of your USB storage

Storage

  • read the contents of your USB storage
  • modify or delete the contents of your USB storage

If you have any USB attached device, (flash drive, hard disk…) they can not only READ, but can MODIFY and DELETE the contents.  NICE!

Camera
  • take pictures and videos

I suppose an album of bewildered users would be amusing from time to time.  Also having the phone send videos of them doing various things.

Wi-Fi connection information
  • view Wi-Fi connections

Naturally they want to know about the Wi-Fi AP’s you use.

Device ID & call information
  • read phone status and identity

I guess knowing your phone charge status, and IEME #’s are good to know too.  But wow check out the next laundry list!

Other
  • bind to an accessibility service
  • update component usage statistics
  • read Home settings and shortcuts
  • write Home settings and shortcuts
  • read Home settings and shortcuts
  • write Home settings and shortcuts
  • view network connections
  • read battery statistics
  • send sticky broadcast
  • change network connectivity
  • connect and disconnect from Wi-Fi
  • delete all app cache data
  • expand/collapse status bar
  • control flashlight
  • measure app storage space
  • full network access
  • close other apps
  • run at startup
  • draw over other apps
  • control vibration
  • prevent device from sleeping
  • modify system settings
  • write web bookmarks and history
  • install shortcuts
  • uninstall shortcuts

Read / Write the home page, guess who you’ll be visiting quite often?  Checking out your network, and say if you are somewhere where they want to upload a video, if they KNOW a WiFi network in the area they can have your phone join it, record you, upload it, and drop.  Yeah great!  I also like the drawing over other apps, that way you may THINK you are running another app, but they are just watching what you are doing.  And maybe they’ll pass control down, maybe not.

I suppose it may be fun too if they have a subscription service, to buzz and turn on the camera flash to warn you that you got infected once your subscription lapsed, so you better pay up!

Absolutely deplorable!

Where to go from here?

Seriously how do companies like this survive?  I guess quite well.  I guess I’m just more amazed by Google’s complacency in all of this.  But at the same time they are an ADVERTISING COMPANY, and I’m the product, Android is just the TV programme to get me to watch their annoying ads.  And considering their track record with illegal pharmacies, I guess it really is no surprise.

The truth is that no doubt that this kind of thing is just too profitable.  And people will just fall time and time again for this trap.