GeekwithEnvy

How To

Nintendo’s Secret Song and How to Hear It

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Who doesn’t love finding hidden things? In video games there are often many different hidden secrets within the content and sometimes these little gems are referred to a “Easter Eggs”.

Easter Egg

One unique secret is actually a song known as “Totaka’s Song”. This interesting little number was created by Kazumi Totaka, a video game the composer who has created music for titles such as Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins and The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening.

The song, like any good secret, can be quite difficult to find. One of the easier ways to find the song is in the game Mario Paint where all you have to do to hear the special tune is click on the “O” when your at the title screen of the game.

Here is a list of known titles that contain this secret song:

  • Animal Forest (Japan) and Animal Crossing (World)
  • Animal Crossing: City Folk
  • Animal Crossing e-Reader cards (#P15, “Boy”, “Who’s Dunnit?”)
  • Animal Crossing: Wild World
  • Animal Crossing: New Leaf
  • Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru
  • The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening and the DX version
  • Luigi’s Mansion
  • Mario Artist: Talent Studio
  • Mario Paint
  • Pikmin 2
  • Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins
  • Virtual Boy Wario Land
  • X
  • X-Scape
  • Yoshi’s Story
  • Yoshi Touch & Go

 

How To Test Your CPU Performance with SuperPi and wPrime

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superPi

For a custom PC builder there’s nothing more satisfying than finishing up your build so you can put it to the test. Sure you can open up an application and perform certain tasks to give you an idea of how your new build is performing, but you can also use specific programs that are designed specifically to benchmark.

One of these applications is actually quite simple. SuperPi calculates Pi to a specific number of digits and then displays the time it took to calculate the answer for each iteration. You can also determine the accuracy of the calculation which can also help determine stability of the system, this is perfect for overclocking.

It’s important to note that SuperPi is intended to test single threaded performance, if you’re looking to test multi-threaded performance you can utilize wPrime.

wPrime uses a recursive call of Newton’s method for estimating functions, with f(x)=x2-k, where k is the number we’re square rooting, until Sgn(f(x)/f'(x)) does not equal that of the previous iteration, starting with an estimation of k/2. It then uses an iterative calling of the estimation method a set amount of times to increase the accuracy of the results. It then confirms that n(k)2=k to ensure the calculation was correct. It repeats this for all numbers from 1 to the requested maximum.

 

How To Put Your iPhone in Field Test Mode

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iphoneFieldServiceSS

Field Test mode can be handy if you’re knowledgeable about cell phone technology but it can also help you get a clearer picture of what your cell phone reception is like in a given area or perhaps you’re just somebody who just likes to tinker with things, either way here’s how it’s done.

If you’re iPhone has a recent version of iOS on it (4.1 and up), which covers most phones, then you should be able to access the Field Test Mode with most carriers.

To Access Field Test Mode:

Dial *3001#12345#* 

This will allow you to look at lot’s of otherwise hidden information about your phone and it’s connection to the network. For the average user, the most notable feature is the ability to look at your overall connection to the network.

The number is in dBm and is much more precise than just looking at a set of bars. As a general guideline anything below -100 is starting to get pretty bad, the lower the number the better and -35 or -40 is about as good as it gets.

 

 

How to Upgrade Your Mac

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macUpgradeOWC

Apple’s latest line up of computers are extremely thin and compact, it’s amazing how much can fit in such a small form factor. All of this makes for an amazing design but it also has a downside.

To those of us who are more inclined to tinker with our machines, it can appear as if there’s almost no way to upgrade Apple’s latest and greatest. There is good news however. If you want to add some RAM or your own SSD to your Mac, then there’s probably a way to do it. You can even get step-by-step instructional videos on how to do it along with all the tools you will need.

All of this can be found at OWC (Other World Computing). OWC offers all kinds of options for upgrading your Mac, they sell the hardware and tools you will need to get the job done and all of it is reasonably priced so you can save some cash by doing it all yourself.

The upgrade projects can vary in skill level quite a bit, some of them are quite simple while others will require you to be pretty confident about tearing down your Mac. It’s safe to say that most of these upgrades are for the bold but if you’re not up to doing it yourself then in some cases OWC can do it for you.

All of their installation videos are available on their site but you can also view them on their YouTube channel. OWC also offers repair services for your iPad along with a ton of accessories and additional software.

 

 

How To Make Homemade Ninja Turtle Ooze

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Who wouldn’t want to have a little glowing ooze around the house? I came across this awesome video that shows how you can make your own Ninja Turtle glowing ooze.

Interesting Fact:
Did you know that the UK version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was named Teenage Mutant “Hero” Turtles? The name was altered due to strict guidelines that were in place that deemed the word “ninja” to be too violent.