Author Archives: KaBaDaBrA

Diablo III on May 15th

May 15th is around the corner and I’m sure there are millions of people like you and me who are so eager to get and play this game! I had been playing the Diablo 3 closed beta for a while and honestly it is superb! Yeah it’s short and beta servers had a bit of issues here and there, but the final product I’m sure will be up to Blizzard’s usual awesome standrards! Keep your eye out on this countdown timer – www.diablo3countdown.co.za – the day when evil rises again nears!!

Image CRUD for Codeigniter

So by now if you’re in the CodeIgniter scene i’m sure you’ve heard of grocery CRUD?! Well – the same guy, Johnny Skoumbourdis, who brought you grocery CRUD now brings you image CRUD.

Image CRUD is an automatic multiple image uploader for Codeigniter. With the same philoshopy of grocery CRUD library. Just simple line of codes and you have all the functionality that you need.

It really is easy to use, easy to implement and overall just really great!

Thanks Johnny! Hope this becomes apart of grocery CRUD in the near future!

To download image CRUD or view examples, click here.

Grocery CRUD – Dependent Dropdowns

Want to use categories with subcategories in Grocery CRUD? Or a vehicle list with models? Or dropdowns with Country, State and City? Below I have made an example using Grocery CRUD. Download the example and files here.

Step 1: Add the dependent dropdown data to your controller

Below are the basic setup details for your dependent dropdown. Just add it right below the “$output = $crud->render();” in your controller’s function.

• dd_state = Gets the current CRUD state. E.g list, add etc.
• dd_dropdowns = Set your dependent field variables here. In my example I used ‘countryID’,'stateID’ and ‘cityID’. The parent dropdown should always go first and its children should follow in order that they will be created.
• dd_url = The URL to the function that gets and creates the child dropdown data. The parent URL always stays blank. They need to be in order as per the ‘dd_dropdowns’.

//DEPENDENT DROPDOWN SETUP
$dd_data = array(
    //GET THE STATE OF THE CURRENT PAGE - E.G LIST | ADD
    'dd_state' =>  $crud->getState(),
    //SETUP YOUR DROPDOWNS
    //Parent field item always listed first in array, in this case countryID
    //Child field items need to follow in order, e.g stateID then cityID
    'dd_dropdowns' => array('countryID','stateID','cityID'),
    //SETUP URL POST FOR EACH CHILD
    //List in order as per above
    'dd_url' => array('', site_url().'/examples/get_states/', site_url().'/examples/get_cities/'),
    //LOADER THAT GETS DISPLAYED NEXT TO THE PARENT DROPDOWN WHILE THE CHILD LOADS
    'dd_ajax_loader' => base_url().'ajax-loader.gif'
);
$output->dropdown_setup = $dd_data;

Step 2: Copy the ‘dependent_dropdown.php’ to your views folder.

The ‘dependent_dropdown.php’ file containts all the PHP code that will dynamically create the dropdown file for you.

Step 3: Load the view in the view/display file.

Load the following PHP code in the view (at the bottom), the same one that gets used by GCRUD to create the output, css and js files.

if(isset($dropdown_setup)) {
	$this->load->view('dependent_dropdown', $dropdown_setup);
}

That’s it! Now you can successfully create dependent dropdown files.

View a LIVE demo here.

Download this example here

The CodeIgniter CRUD – GroceryCRUD

I’ve been working with Grocery CRUD the last few weeks and it is honestly the best CRUD I have worked with and really easy to use. Grocery CRUD (CRUD = Create, Read, Update and Delete) is a library that makes a developer’s life easier. Just few lines of code and you can create a full stable CRUD with nice views. A totally automatic system that even a newbie in PHP can work with.

As a php web developer you will often have the problem to create a simple, stable and secure backoffice system. How many CRUD different did you create for you customers? I suppose many . How much time did you spend to create them? It actually takes a lot of time (sometimes weeks) to create all the business logic, the models and the views again from the beginning for each table. As you can see there are similar things in those projects. The Create (or else Add) the Update (or else Edit) , the Delete and of course the listing grid .

 

With grocery CRUD and with the power of Codeigniter framework , you can create a full CRUD system in just one minute. With this Codeigniter CRUD generator , you don’t have to copy all your css, JavaScripts, tables, forms, grid, functions , models, libraries, views again and again to your backoffice system. Just few lines of code and you are ready to have your own CMS. The CRUD is working well with Codeigniter 2.0.x and 2.1.x

 

Here is a simple example of a short few lines of code:

function offices()
{
    $output = $this->grocery_crud->render();

    $this->_example_output($output);
}

The above the code will produce the following:

In the example above the set table name (offices) get the default Crud with add-edit and delete (create-update-delete). All the views are ready and you don’t need anything else.

If you’re using CodeIgniter 2.x then give Grocery CRUD a go, seriously worth your while and speeds up your productivity so much.

The Grocery CRUD website: www.grocerycrud.com

Live Grocery CRUD examples: www.grocerycrud.com/examples

Grocery CRUD support: forums

iXtreme LT+ v3.0 for 0272/0225/0401/1071 Slim Liteons

Official release of the iXtreme LT+ v3.0 for 0272/0225/0401/1071 slim Liteons

- Support for topology data on AP25 enabled titles. Will correctly answer any ap25 challenge eliminating need for dae.bin to create a backup.
- No need to make new backups everytime dae.bin is updated on console
- Extra support for rare firmwares
Topology Data

When ap25 was first introduced I devised a way of calculating any challenge which I called the silver bullet which I made reference to along time ago.
This was withheld until it was absolutely necessary. It was easier to replay the fixed challenges.
With unique per console ap25 challenges it has become necessary to use the silver bullet.
A series of measurements are taken across the disk. This topology data is then used to calculate a response to any ap25 challenge.
It is very important that the drive used to create the topology data is reliable at reading discs as bad topology data equals bad ap25 responses.
Liteon drives using 0800 v3 seem to be more accurate for this purpose. Only ap25 enabled titles require topology data. Activation of ap25 on older non-ap25 games although technically possible is highly unlikely.
Currently topology data for xgd3 titles are similar and topology data from one xgd3 title will pass on another xgd3 title although this is not advisable.
Per title title topology data is best as there are slight differences between titles and newer titles could have different topology than existing ones.

abgx360 v1.0.6 Released

Changes affecting all platforms:

- XGD3 support.
- Replaced AP25 replay sector support with support for topology data (for consoles which do AP25 checks — make sure you have LT+ v3.0 or later).
- Added “Min Kernel Required” (to boot the game) when checking an XEX.
- Added improvements to AutoUpload (used by uploaders) including extended C/R for SS (using the original disc) to make sure files uploaded to the database have very accurate angle measurements.
- Added optional command line argument “–speed” for setting drive speed when checking a burned DVD. Example: “–speed 12″ will attempt to set the drive speed to 12x. You can try to set any speed you like, but setting a speed higher than what your media supports may cause read errors if the drive’s firmware doesn’t govern it. “–speed 0″ will set the drive’s default speed.
- Added optional command line argument “–showsstable” for when you want to see the SS C/R data but you still prefer medium or low verbosity. The SS C/R table has also been updated with “Mod?” being split into “Tol” (response tolerance) for the CCRT entry and “Mod” (response modifier) for the drive entry, also “Pad?” has been renamed to “Typ” (type). Thanks Redline99!
- Added vendor specific additional info and bus type when displaying optical drive names (bus type displayed on Windows only).
- Updated the list of optical drive sense code errors.
- Updated the game ratings definitions.
- Fixed a bug which negated the ability to recover from a write error when rebuilding an ISO using the low disk space method. It’s unlikely that a write error would be recovered on subsequent retries, but at least now it will write the data in the correct place if it does recover.
- Fixed a bug which caused “Unknown Media: 0×00000000″ to be displayed if the “Secure Virtual Optical Device” media flag was set and the “XGD2 Media Only” image flag was not set (The “XGD2 Media Only” flag has also been renamed to “Original Media Only” in abgx360 since they are using the same flag for XGD3).
- The archaic caution message about angle 359 was removed, but you are still able to “fix” it if you still have iXtreme < v1.4 (really old and not suitable for XBL anyway).
- Ability to “extract entire video partition (253 MB)” was removed; this doesn’t make sense for XGD3 and isn’t even very useful for XGD2 since it was just including a bunch of padding data that isn’t even part of the real video partition… it was only needed for very old methods of concatenating with stealth files and a game partition to make a working backup.

Note: The way video is checked/fixed is now a little different for both XGD2 and XGD3. The previous way was to check/fix both L0 video and L1 video off of L0, and then to check/fix “SplitVid” (L1 video on L1) afterwards by comparing it to L1 video on L0. Since XGD3 has no room for L1 video on L0, and to keep things consistent, video will now always be checked/fixed according to L0 on L0 and L1 on L1, and the “SplitVid” check is now gone (nominally). The only effective difference is that L1 video on L0 is no longer checked, but this is not a problem… it’s not even supposed to be there and it’s not visible to the host console when using a “safe” custom firmware. You can rest assured that only old and unsafe custom firmwares will read L1 video from L0; newer ones will read it properly from L1 (this is necessary in order to replicate the read/seek performance of an original disc).

There is also a big annoying yellow message if you have “Check/Fix Video padding” enabled and you check an XGD2 game with L1 video on L0 (or any data in that area). To make the message go away you will need to either add command line option “–pL0″ to confirm that you want to blank it out (XGD2 ISOs without L1 video on L0 will appear to have bad video data when checked with older versions of abgx360), or you can simply disable “Check/Fix Video padding”, as it still makes no difference in terms of stealth… this option only exists as a way to make sure ISOs are “clean”, with no extra data in areas that aren’t CRC checked. Note that this version of abgx360 doesn’t care about L1 video on L0… it will pad L0 video with zeroes whenever video is autofixed or manually patched.

Sorry if the command line options are annoying (you can add them under the “Misc” tab of the GUI), but you can be sure that an improved v1.1.0 GUI is in the works…

Note: The GUI has not been changed and will still display version 1.0.2, don’t worry about it as long as the CLI app displays v1.0.6

Download from www.abgx360.net or download abgx360 1.0.6 here

Patch and Play XGD3 Game Backups LT+ 3.0

Tool Needed:
1. Xbox Backup Creator v2.9 Build:0345
2. AP25 Topology Data (See Below)

Patching Current Games:
1. Until the new ABGX is released, games cannot be burned as they traditionally were.
2. Instead We will be using Xbox Backup Creator to inject the new Topology data for your games.

Follow These Steps:
1. Open Xbox Backup Creator v2.9.

2. Click on the Image Tools tab.

3. Change the Action from Extract to Inject.

4. Hit AP25 Sector.

5. Select the ISO you want to Patch. Then Select the corresponding AP25 Patch that you downloaded.

Master Topology Files:

http://www.xbox360iso.com/individual-xgd3-ap2-t536386.html (Need to register)

Thanks to kill_seth for his tutorial

Source: http://www.xboxmb.com

iXtreme LT+ v3.0 for BenQ and Phat Liteons

C4Evas iXtreme LT+ 3.0 in association with Team Jungle & Team Xecuter

- Official release of the iXtreme LT+ v3.0 for BenQ and phat Liteons
- Support for topology data on AP25 enabled titles. Will correctly answer any ap25 challenge eliminating need for dae.bin to create a backup.
- No need to make new backups everytime dae.bin is updated on console
- Topology Data

When ap25 was first introduced C4Eva devised a way of calculating any challenge which he called the silver bullet which I made reference to a long time ago. This was withheld until it was absolutely necessary. It was easier to replay the fixed challenges. With unique per console ap25 challenges it has become necessary to use the silver bullet. A series of measurements are taken across the disk. This topology data is then used to calculate a response to any ap25 challenge. It is very important that the drive used to create the topology data is reliable at reading discs as bad topology data equals bad ap25 responses. Liteon drives using 0800 v3 seem to be more accurate for this purpose. Only ap25 enabled titles require topology data. Activation of ap25 on older non-ap25 games although technically possible is highly unlikely.
Currently topology data for xgd3 titles are similar and topology data from one xgd3 title will pass on another xgd3 title although this is not advisable. Per title topology data is best as there are slight differences between titles and newer titles could have different topology than existing ones.

If you are using the latest dashboard and your xdg3 game backups are not working any more, you will need to get it flashed with LT+ 3.0.

Christmas Eve Release of iXtreme LT+ v3.0 Nears

Some Additional Info as the Christmas Eve Release of iXtreme LT+ v3.0 Nears

With the final testing stage of BenQ and phat Lite-On underway in preparation for the scheduled Christmas Eve release of c4eva’s iXtreme LT+ v3.0, we thought we’d drop some additional bits of info into your Stockings in the form of answers to some recent questions.

Version 3.0 of iXtreme LT+ for BenQ and Lite-On (both phat and slim) does in fact retain support for truncated backups, although it is strongly recommended to use full burns made with a compatible Lite-On iHAS drive flashed with the iXtreme Burner MAX fw. Support for truncated backups, however, remains excluded from Hitachi in its forthcoming 3.0 version.

While abgx360 v1.0.6 remains in progress, the new version of Xbox Backup Creator can be used temporarily as an alternative for injecting the necessary new AP25 topology data files into existing backup ISOs. XBC doesn’t perform the same degree of validation of topology data files, and provides no means to verify their authenticity or correctness, so be very cautious if using files from unknown sources until abgx360 is released. In addition to extracting/injecting AP25 topology data files, the new XBC also works with the existing 0800 v3.0 ripping firmware to dump backup ISOs that include proper topology data from original game discs. At the time of writing, it has yet to be definitively determined whether the new XBC will be released alongside LT v3.0, or if it will be released later. The new abgx360 is still under heavy development, and will release in due time.

Recently, there have been some rumors and bogus info spread by a sad individual that is attempting to trick and confuse people with fake release dates, false info, bogus IRC channels and Facebook accounts (note: we don’t post on Facebook, only Twitter), and mislabeling things as “official” when they are in fact not. We’d like to remind users that the only official sources for news and info from c4eva and the team are here at c4evaSpeaks.com, the #c4e channel on EFNet IRC, the Team-Xecuter, JungleFlasher, and abgx360 websites, as well as reliable news outlets such as Xbox-Scene. Be wary of news or information from other outlets that don’t cite the official #c4e IRC channel or one of the aforementioned sites as the original source.

Source: c4evaspeaks

Resize Images Using jQuery

Today I needed a script to resize images on the fly dynamically. I did not want to lose the ratio of the image, so found a little jQuery script on how to do it.

var max_size = 200;
$("img").each(function(i) {
  if ($(this).height() > $(this).width()) {
    var h = max_size;
    var w = Math.ceil($(this).width() / $(this).height() * max_size);
  } else {
    var w = max_size;
    var h = Math.ceil($(this).height() / $(this).width() * max_size);
  }
  $(this).css({ height: h, width: w });
});

The script resizes the images without distorting the proportions. First of all, a variable is declared called max_size that is set to the maximum height or width that the picture needs to be resized to. Then using jQuery we match all img elements and using the each function, we go through each one of them resizing them as necessary. The if statement checks which side of the image needs to be kept to the maximum and the other one is calculated proportionally.
In the final line, the new height and width values are assigned using CSS.

Credit: Adeel Ejaz
Source: http://adeelejaz.com/blog/resize-images-on-fly-using-jquery/