Omnimaga
Omnimaga => News => Topic started by: DJ Omnimaga on April 01, 2011, 11:10:14 pm
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Since today is April Fools Day, it is hard to believe most stories on the Internet that are posted on April 1st or shortly before. Most of them often turns out to be hoaxes.
Well, I am sure a lot of you expected OS 2.71MP (http://ourl.ca/10053) to be fake and that a lot of people played around, pretending to have fallen for it. You were right.
So happy April Fools day everyone! Don't worry, TI did not screw the community over this time... at least... not yet. :P
OS 2.71MP was meant to be a parody of Texas Instruments stance against hobbyist programmers, taking it to the highest extent possible. I got this April 1st prank idea last July after TI released Nspire OS 2.1, which contained an anti-downgrade protection (http://ourl.ca/6358), and due to the cease and desist letter sent to TI-BANK (http://ti.bank.free.fr/index.php?mod=news&ac=commentaires&id=802) a few months before for the removal of OS 1.1 from their site. Around that time, while some people believed that they could eventually discontinue the 84+ line to make people switch to the crippled TI-Nspire, I and a few others kinda worried that instead they would simply attempt at crippling down the 84+ programming abilities too, as an attempt to eliminate calculator gaming from schools. Also, since OS 2.53MP broke some programs (http://www.ticalc.org/archives/news/articles/14/145/145828.html) and introduced some new bugs, we worried that future OS updates would continue to do so in the future. All of this gave birth to the OS 2.71MP idea, which was meant to be a joke, but also as some sort of wake-up, because due to everything that happened so far, a real OS 2.71MP could very well be possible in the future. That said, I doubt these chances are very high and I seriously doubt the OS would be THIS bad. O.O
We would like to thank everyone who helped planning the joke and participate into it, and especially ThePenguin77, who modified OS 2.55 to add randomizing code to cause crashes for 1% of every keypress, get rid of the no-stub assembly commands, add a 2-page APP limit, artificially slowing down the home screen output commands, remove some other code involving the parser hook and his idea of replacing the F1-F4 shortcut message with a TI-Nspire CX advertisment. Our apologies to Texas Instruments for over-exaggerating their low support toward 3rd-party calculator programming and using them in an April Fools joke for the 2nd year in a row, and also for temporary linking to files containing some of their code.
The OS links will go down in a few minutes and replaced with an OS patcher program (http://www.omnimaga.org/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=7456.0;attach=7032) to turn OS 2.55MP into OS 2.71MP, for those who would still like to see how it was like.
We hope we did not scare anyone too much. With OS 2.1 and compatibility issues in all MathPrint OSes, this might have made OS 2.71MP easier to fall for. :P We also hope that this April Fools joke doesn't become real, one day. O.O
On an unrelated note, as if this wasn't enough evilness, March 2011 had a total of 12666 posts, setting a new monthly record.
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Back in January, DJ came to me with a PM and asked me if I wanted to add make a fake OS for April fools day. This was after a whole bunch of OS mods by me so of course I said yes. Now 3 months later it has finally arrived.
Official list of things changed:
-OS 2.71
-Parser Hook bcall disabled
-USB hook bcall disabled
-Asm(, AsmComp(, and AsmPrgm tokens removed and deactivated
-Crash if ( (apdSubTimer) * (R & %00111111) ) == 0 when a key is pressed
-ClrHome, Output(, Disp, and ClrDraw are slowed down with a halt looop
-Apps over 2 pages throw Err:Invalid
-Output( won't display in row 8
-Asm(, AsmComp(, and AsmPrgm no longer appear in the catalog
-The CX ad
These started out as easy mods like changing all the 55's to 71's. But then things started requiring extra code, like the delays and such. So I made a reverse bcall routine at the end of page 0. It jumped to the end of page $73 where it check to see what address you jumped there from. Then depending on where you came from, it routed you to a subroutine. This meant all I had to do was insert a CALL into the regular code and I could mod it.
After the OS was good and dead came the whole converting it to an OS. I exported it from wabbitEmu and used some of brandonW's OS2Tools. While they did a good job of making an 8xu, it wasn't signed or compatible. So I then had to send it through RabbitSign and Packxxu to get it to it's final state. But unfortunately as Critor so well pointed out, RabbitSign doesn't add that ending to the 8xu which I didn't notice.
Anyways, hope you had fun. And I learned enough from this that I can probably free up about 64kb from OS's >=2.53.
Patcher (http://www.omnimaga.org/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=7456.0;attach=7032) | patch file (http://www.omnimaga.org/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=7456.0;attach=7033)
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I KNEW IT
WHY WOULD YOU DO SUCH A THING
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first!
No! I was ninja'd :p
I feel that as it was a prank, I must do a "first" :P
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Hahaha, it was so evil :D
So happy April fool day. :P
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Nicely done, actually. The 2.71 made it a little unbelievable. I'm excited for certain OS projects that will replace a certain industries current OSes. But I'm not naming names or pointing fingers, mind you...
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:w00t:
HOW CAN YOU DO SUCH A THING!
No, seriously, though that. Wow. How the heck? :\ :D
Great job, thepenguin. I can't believe it. That was the best hoax ever! So clever! And a functioning os. And the audacity of these people... :P
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On a side note, after posting the fake news, I realized something about the version number (which was chosen randomly):
2.71MP -> 2-7-1-2 letters -> 2-7-1-2 -> 2nd>MEM>Reset>All RAM>Reset
Interesting coincidence O.O
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:w00t:
HOW CAN YOU DO SUCH A THING!
No, seriously, though that. Wow. How the heck? :\ :D
Great job, thepenguin. I can't believe it. That was the best hoax ever! So clever! And a functioning os. And the audacity of these people... :P
Thanks it took a while.
Check back to post #2.
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:D
All of you are the greatest pranksters. This is the greatest prank in TI-Calc history! :)
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Haha nice changes Thepenguin, I actually never knew you changed the parser hook until nearly the end of this prank. XD
The sad thing, however, is that one day this might actually be real! O.O
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I knew it! :D (Well, DJ told me. And all other staff. I probably would have fallen for it otherwise.)
Epic job thepenguin77. That was a work of art :thumbsup:
On a side note, after posting the fake news, I realized something about the version number (which was chosen randomly):
2.71MP -> 2-7-1-2 letters -> 2-7-1-2 -> 2nd>MEM>Reset>All RAM>Reset
Interesting coincidence O.O
Whoa... Who knew :crazy:
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This certainly was extremely effective at bringing this issue to the community's attention. 14 pages of speculation and planning will greatly prepare us for when this day comes for real.
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Deep_Thought, NO! I thought you were on my side to stab DJ and thepenguin! :(
Who will stab them now?
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Well, let's not give TI any more ideas then they already have :P
Oh and.../me stabs ralphdspam
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Hehe, I only stopped falling for it when I saw the halt loop :D Until then, I was paranoid enough to believe it :D After that I thought "Wow, this is a cool idea! We should start having hacking/cracking competitions!" I mean, we could take modified OSes and we could be challenged to use them and work around obstacles that way we are prepared >_>
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I actually fell for it. I even told my friend. And my brother.
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Damn you guys! What an april's fools day!
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I freaked out for a minute when I first read it.
Then I realized it was April Fools Day and this is a calc modding site.
I figured it probably was a joke. I never believe news on April 1st
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I fell for it, only later I started doubting...
But it was really well though out. Congratulations!
Great aprils fools prank(the only one that worked for me yesterday).
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This was too damn fucking realistic joke, you even got me O.O and nobody ever gets me. nice :)
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I just KNEW this was a joke. ROFL 10 times :) Great job!
Actually it was KermM that took me off this joke. he said it was just string editing. (he was right)
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Well played, gentlemen.
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Actually it was KermM that took me off this joke. he said it was just string editing. (he was right)
It is not just string editing :)
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yeah, i know, it was also deleting some functions :P but you get the point of it.
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@Xeda yeah. That halt loop did seem a little bit strange, but I was too distracted by the fact that it was implemented in the first place. :P
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/me didn't fall for it, as he knew it ahead of time. XD
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I think I'm gonna write OS 2.99 tonight, with no support for BASIC programs :)
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Lol, but yeah I was kinda sure it would get people easier because of how we actually have a 8xu file for almost all of April 1st GMT-5 available for download and due to TI's recent history. However I expected the hackers to figure out quickly since they know assembly very well and could just disassemble the OS. :P
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I got so desperate and confused that day that I contacted TI Cares(Belgium):
Dear Stefan Bauwens,
Our latest TI-84 Plus OS is version 2.55MP.
We haven't released any newer versions yet and i can tell you that we have currently
no plans on removing the asm function in future releases.
We are always looking for ways to improve our service and we appreciate your
feedback. If you have a moment, kindly fill out a survey at:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Generic_English_Survey
Kind Regards,
BERT VERMEIREN
Texas Instruments
Customer Service
Education Technology
Another resource you can use to find answers to your questions and any other
information you may need is our Knowledge Base. The Knowledge Base is accessible to
you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You can access it at
http://support.education.ti.com.
I hope that you find this resource helpful. You can always visit our website at
http://education.ti.com/.
For other questions or more information you can email us at [email protected] or
contact us by phone at 00 800 4 84 22 737 Monday to Thursday from 09.00 to 18.00 and
Friday from 09.00 to 16.30. You can also fax us at 00 420 22 622 17 99.
---- Original Message ----
Country: BelgiumFrench
Name: Stefan Bauwens
Email: [email protected]
Type of Service: NoneOfTheAbove
Computer Software Setup/Usage:
Product Group: GrphHH
Product: TI-84 Plus or TI-84 Plus Silver Edition
Purchase Time: nomonth/noyearselected
Customer Type: NotSelected
Product Serial#:
Computer OS: NotSelected
Comments: Hello,
I would like to know if you yesterday or today posted accidentally a new os for the
ti 84+ on the website.
version 2.71 instead of 2.55?
It is now removed. Maybe this information I got was just for an april's fools prank,
I hope so.
Because I also heard that the asm function was taken out of this os. In other words:
TI is locking down the ti 84, limiting his program capabilities.
I so hope this is a joke.
WOuld you please try to find out, and tell me?
Greetings,
Stefan BauwensThe reply is what I got today.
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I cannot believe I fell so completely for this.
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;) at first we all fell
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I fell too.
Well, everyone fell at first because large companies leaking things is really plausible.
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Yeah. Some people felt surprised so many people fell for it, but the thing is that it's TI that was involved there. With everything they did before, it was believable that they could do such thing to a certain extent at one point, even if less likely. Not everyone knows ASM and how to disassemble files, so not everyone will understand the stuff about RabbitSign, especially that the post got lost among many others. Also there were the people that played along too.
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I guess if you would have posted this a few years ago we wouldn't have fell for it.
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True, or before OS 2.1 came out.
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Yeah. Some people felt surprised so many people fell for it, but the thing is that it's TI that was involved there. With everything they did before, it was believable that they could do such thing to a certain extent at one point, even if less likely. Not everyone knows ASM and how to disassemble files, so not everyone will understand the stuff about RabbitSign, especially that the post got lost among many others. Also there were the people that played along too.
One thing that kinda revealed it for me was the Nspire CX ad. I can believe that TI inserts something like that, but I wouldn't believe that they removed the alpha menu hint in order to make room for it.
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Well it depends. On the Quebec TI-84 Plus packages, on the back they encourage people to get a TI-Nspire instead. That said, removing the advice completely about the F1-F4 shortcuts are probably one thing that gave it away for non-ASM coders, since they would have at least kept one of the message or parts of it.
By the way, is it true that ThePenguin77 fixed Singapore in that fake OS? I heard he did but I'm not sure anymore. ???
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This was mine with critor on the TI-Nspire : http://vimeo.com/21883625
Don't forget to see the making off : http://vimeo.com/21884033
=)
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DJ, the packs I saw had from the 83+ to the nspire, including 89 and 92, but not the old 86 and 85, listing mostly genuine advantages, like the Memory space, screen resolution, ACT/SAT allowance, etc. but I wouldn't be surprised :P
For the hardware, the nspire is a better value by far, though, than any of TI's other calcs. Can't say about Casio's, since I'm unfamiliar with the hardware.
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The Prizm has lower hardware than the TI-Nspire, but much better than the 84+/89T calc. The Casio FX-9860G hardware is as good as the Prizm, although by default the processor is clocked at half the speed of the Prizm and the screen is much smaller.
@Levak haha nice stuff :D