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	<title>blog.portblue.de &#187; internet</title>
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	<link>http://blog.portblue.de</link>
	<description>think, imagine, feel</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Sat, 26 Dec 2009 12:42:43 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	
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			<item>
		<title>How to secure WordPress</title>
		<link>http://blog.portblue.de/2009/12/how-to-secure-wordpress/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.portblue.de/2009/12/how-to-secure-wordpress/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 20 Dec 2009 21:00:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>dreamon</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[english]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[internet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[software]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.portblue.de/?p=458</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A friend of mine recently set up his own WordPress blog, so I gave him a few hints on how to secure his blog and I thought I might as well share it with all prospective WordPress users out there   Although WordPress is an excellent system for getting your thoughts out to the [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: justify;">A friend of mine recently set up <a href="http://www.chinasocialgames.com/">his own WordPress blog</a>, so I gave him a few hints on how to secure his blog and I thought I might as well share it with all prospective WordPress users out there <img src='http://blog.portblue.de/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' />  Although <a href="http://wordpress.org/download/">WordPress</a> is an excellent system for getting your thoughts out to the world, the WordPress developers <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wordpress#Vulnerabilities">could do more</a> to make the system really secure. In the meantime, here are a few steps you can take yourself:</p>
<ol style="text-align: justify;">
<li>Change the SQL table prefix: You can either do that via the configuration files before you run the WordPress installation, or via <a href="http://www.seoegghead.com/software/wordpress-table-rename.seo">a plugin</a> later. My advice is to do it before you set up your blog, just to be on the safe side. Otherwise your blog will use the same table names as 99% of all self-hosted WordPress blogs, making it vulnerable to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sql_injections">SQL injections</a>.</li>
<li>Secure the administration interface: Your administration interface is located in the subfolder ~/wp-admin/. Again, since all WordPress blogs use the same subfolder, this is another common point of attack. There are various ways to add another layer of security here. Unfortunately, you cannot just rename the wp-admin folder. But you can use a .htaccess file to restrict who will be able to access the folder. One possibility, for example, would be to only allow access from a certain IP. But then you would have to tie yourself to a certain location to access your blog, and if your ISP uses dynamic IPs, this won&#8217;t be an option anyway. Another option is to add another htaccess user/password combination. Of course, this requires that you type in two different login credentials each time you log in, which is a bit of a hassle. But there are other options as well. Simply try your luck at Google.com <img src='http://blog.portblue.de/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </li>
<li>Get the <a href="http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/secure-wordpress/">Secure WordPress plugin</a> and use it to further secure your administration interface. Simply install it and play around with the settings a bit. Not all settings are important, but you should definitively apply the option to remove error messages on your login page. Again, this is something where the WordPress developers could have done more. In case somebody makes it to your login page after the measures we have taken above, WordPress will by default tell them if they entered a correct user name. Why is this a bad thing, you may think? Well, normally people neither know the user name nor the password you&#8217;re using to access your blog. So they would have to guess millions of possible user-password combinations to log in. But if WordPress gives them a notice as soon as they hit a correct user name, they would only have to continue looking for your password. That makes it a lot easier for them, and they could step by step <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brute_force_attack">brute force</a> their way into your system. See more below.</li>
<li>Change the name of your administrator account: You will need direct access to your SQL database to do this. Most web space providers will give you a link to a tool to handle administration of your SQL databases. Normally, they run some flavour of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PHP_my_admin">phpMyAdmin</a>, but you could also install the script yourself. Again, all WordPress blogs use the same name for their administrator accounts. And again, this is something where I think the WordPress guys could have done more. As I said above, things will get a lot easier if attackers already know which user name you use to sign in to your system. And since they will also know where to look for blog&#8217;s login page, they are already half the way. I can&#8217;t go into detail here too much, since WordPress changes over time and I don&#8217;t want to give the wrong advice.  <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&amp;q=change+wordpress+admin+name&amp;aq=f&amp;oq=&amp;aqi=g10">Google is your friend</a>.</li>
<li>Adding to this, I also suggest your set up a new user with lower privilidges that you use to do your every day blogging. In case somebody catches you typing in your password, he won&#8217;t be able to cause too much trouble at least. Note that WordPress alows you to specify a display name for your new user account that is different from the actual name you use to sign in. Make use of this feature!</li>
<li>Get a spam filter. You&#8217;ll be surprised how many comments a new WordPress blog receives during its first days.</li>
</ol>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Hope this helps <img src='http://blog.portblue.de/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
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		<title>Alternatives to QQ&#8217;s chat software QQ聊天软件的替代</title>
		<link>http://blog.portblue.de/2009/10/alternatives-to-qqs-chat-software-qq%e8%81%8a%e5%a4%a9%e8%bd%af%e4%bb%b6%e7%9a%84%e6%9b%bf%e4%bb%a3/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.portblue.de/2009/10/alternatives-to-qqs-chat-software-qq%e8%81%8a%e5%a4%a9%e8%bd%af%e4%bb%b6%e7%9a%84%e6%9b%bf%e4%bb%a3/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 14 Oct 2009 18:42:47 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>dreamon</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[english]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[annoyances]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[asia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[china]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[internet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[software]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.portblue.de/?p=318</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Many Westerners who would like to use QQ, China&#8217;s largest instant messenger &#38; social network, feel deterred by the standard QQ software. The programme feels very heavy, looks bloated and is full of advertising. And since the QQ network is usually not THAT important to us, we either look for alternatives or we rather not [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://blog.portblue.de/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/QQ.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-399" title="QQ" src="http://blog.portblue.de/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/QQ.jpg" alt="QQ" width="170" height="383" /></a>Many Westerners who would like to use QQ, China&#8217;s largest instant messenger &amp; social network, feel deterred by the standard QQ software. The programme feels very heavy, looks bloated and is full of advertising. And since the QQ network is usually not THAT important to us, we either look for alternatives or we rather not use it.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">I have posted about <a href="http://blog.portblue.de/2006/06/lumaqq/">LumaQQ</a>, a Java-based alternative to the original software, about three years ago. I didn&#8217;t use LumaQQ for too long back then and from what I can gather <a href="http://lumaqq.linuxsir.org/main/">from their homepage</a>, the project seems to be dead by now. The Pidgin QQ plugin, which comes with the main programme by default (<a href="http://www.pidgin.im/">download here</a>), was much more convienent and has bascially worked flawlessly for the last two years. Until last summer, when Tencent decided to close the channel for third party clients. At first, users were still able to &#8216;circumvent&#8217; their blocks by changing a setting in Pidgin that told the server you were using a much newer version of QQ. However, Tencent was quick to fix that hole and now you will usually receive a message like this one when trying to sign in: &#8220;您的号码可能存在异常情况，已受到限制登录保护，需激活后才能正常登录。激活网址：http://jihuo.qq.com&#8221; &#8212; literally: Don&#8217;t come back until you got the propper software. Adium, Pidgin&#8217;s sister-client for Mac OS X, <a href="http://forums.cocoaforge.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&amp;t=20203">suffers from the same problem</a>, but won&#8217;t get fixed either until the Pidgin devs update the libraries.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Unfortunately, QQ isn&#8217;t the highest priority on the list for Pidgin&#8217;s developers. Moreover, I&#8217;ve heard that the Pidgin QQ plugin is based on LumaQQ code, so I&#8217;m not too optimistic about receiving a fix soon. So what options are left? There are a couple of Linux apps that still boast QQ support, <a href="http://kopete.kde.org/">Kopete</a> for example. But as I don&#8217;t use Linux for everyday work that doesn&#8217;t really help. And I wasn&#8217;t able to get Kopete to sign on using it on Windows via the experimental &#8216;<a href="http://windows.kde.org/">KDE on Windows</a>&#8216;. Seems all the third party clients are having this problem. So until someone comes up with a solution to circument Tencent&#8217;s new block, the only option left would be to use <a href="http://web.qq.com/">WebQQ</a>. <a href="http://web.qq.com/">WebQQ</a> works similar to <a href="http://webmessenger.msn.com/">Microsoft&#8217;s Web Messenger</a> for MSN. It&#8217;s an online interface for their chat network that runs in your browser and enables you to log in from any computer with internet access. Unfortunately, the website is Chinese-only, so it may be a little difficult to navigate if you don&#8217;t speak Chinese. Give it a try, though &#8212; you might have to stick with it for a while.</p>
<ul>
<li>WebQQ: <a href="http://web.qq.com/">http://web.qq.com/</a></li>
</ul>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Switching to WordPress</title>
		<link>http://blog.portblue.de/2009/10/hello-world/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.portblue.de/2009/10/hello-world/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 10 Oct 2009 22:13:38 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[english]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[annoyances]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[internet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[software]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.portblue.de/?p=1</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[As most of you have probably noticed, the short outage tonight was caused by a switch from Blogger over to WordPress. From now on, this will be the default platform for this blog. Reasons for switching were numerous, but what finally convinced me to switch was the fact that blogger.com, the frontend that Blogger used, [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: justify;">As most of you have probably noticed, the short outage tonight was caused by a switch from Blogger over to WordPress. From now on, this will be the default platform for this blog. Reasons for switching were numerous, but what finally convinced me to switch was the fact that blogger.com, the frontend that Blogger used, was blocked in China some time this year. Every time I wanted to blog I had to log in via VPN, and the pain of doing that just wasn&#8217;t worth it anymore.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The last few issues (missing pictures, empty blogroll etc.) will be sorted out tomorrow <img src='http://blog.portblue.de/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' />  As for tonight, all I wish to do is to thank the great people who took the time and wrote up the tutorials needed for me to finally make the switch!</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress">http://codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress</a></li>
<li><a href="http://underscorebleach.net/jotsheet/2006/05/move-blogger-to-wordpress">http://underscorebleach.net/jotsheet/2006/05/move-blogger-to-wordpress</a></li>
<li><a href="http://justinsomnia.org/2006/10/maintain-permalinks-moving-from-blogger-to-wordpress/">http://justinsomnia.org/2006/10/maintain-permalinks-moving-from-blogger-to-wordpress/</a></li>
</ul>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>NateOn 네이트온 for Non-Koreans (Pidgin)</title>
		<link>http://blog.portblue.de/2009/03/nateon-for-non-koreans-on-pidgin/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.portblue.de/2009/03/nateon-for-non-koreans-on-pidgin/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 30 Mar 2009 08:15:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[english]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[asia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[internet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[software]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.portblue.de/?p=77</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[When you live in East Asia for a longer period of time, you notice that a large percentage of people here do not use established chat networks like Windows Live (MSN) or ICQ to communicate. It is commonly known that the usage share of the larger chat networks differs between countries &#8212; e.g. AOL Messenger [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div style="text-align: justify;"><a style="" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.portblue.de/blog/images/nateon/nateon.gif"><img style="margin: 5px 10px 0px 0px; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 79px; height: 81px;" src="http://www.portblue.de/blog/images/nateon/nateon.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a>When you live in East Asia for a longer period of time, you notice that a large percentage of people here do not use established chat networks like <a href="http://messenger.live.com/">Windows Live (MSN)</a> or <a href="http://www.icq.com/">ICQ</a> to communicate. It is commonly known that the usage share of the larger chat networks differs between countries &#8212; e.g. <a href="http://www.aim.com/">AOL Messenger (AIM)</a> has a larger user base in the United States, whereas ICQ is more common in Europe, with MSN catching up fast. People in Vietnam prefer <a href="http://messenger.yahoo.com/">Yahoo</a>, and generally speaking MSN is not a bad choice when you&#8217;re Asia.</p>
<p>Things work somewhat differently in China and Korea. In China, as I <a href="http://blog.portblue.de/2006/06/lumaqq.html">mentioned in an earlier post</a>, the most common chat programme is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QQ">QQ</a>. And just that makes it one of the largest chat networks worldwide <img src='http://blog.portblue.de/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' />  Now what QQ is for the Chinese, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NateOn">NateOn</a> is for Koreans. NateOn itself doesn&#8217;t differ very much from MSN, in fact it used to be compatible to MSN until some time ago, or so I heard <img src='http://blog.portblue.de/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' />  But has evolved into a separate independent network and has even <a href="http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2575038">overtaken MSN</a> in South Korea in terms of user numbers. Its main advantage is its connection to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyworld">Cyworld</a> 싸이월드, South Korea&#8217;s larget social network community.</p>
<p><a style="" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.portblue.de/blog/images/nateon/nateon_client.gif"><img style="margin: 5px 0px 0px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 120px; height: 220px;" src="http://www.portblue.de/blog/images/nateon/nateon_client_th.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a>There are websites explaining to foreigners how to <a href="http://qq.bur.st/">set up a QQ account</a>, but setting up a NateOn account is somewhat more complicated and not encouraged by Nate itself. The main obstacle here is that new users will usually need a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resident_registration_number_%28South_Korea%29">Resident Registration Number</a> 주민등록번호 to register, a number similar to American social security numbers, only available to South Korean citizens. Foreigners living in Korea will also receive a similar number with their &#8220;alien registration card&#8221;, which can be used in a similar way. But for people outside of Korea there is little chance to get around this barrier. Usage of other people&#8217;s numbers or number fraud had been common when submission of a valid registration number became mandatory for signing up for online services in Korea, but is nearly impossible these days. Thankfully, there is another, more indirect way to get a NateOn account.</p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">Getting a NateOn Account</span></p>
<p>The trick is to register a <a href="http://cyworld.nate.com/">Korean Cyworld</a> account. Cyworld and Nate are basically the same network, so Cyworld accounts can be used with NateOn as well. The difference between registering with Nate and registering with Cyworld is that the latter offers another way of registering without the need for a resident registration number: You will have to scan your passport and e-mail it to Cyworld&#8217;s help desk. Getting a Korean friend to help you with this is recommended.</p>
<ol style="padding-left:5px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">
<li>Head over to the Korean Cyworld website at <a href="http://cyworld.nate.com/">http://cyworld.nate.com/</a> and look for a <a href="http://www.portblue.de/blog/images/nateon/register01.gif">box</a> in the upper left corner. This is where you will log on to Cyworld when you completed registration. Click the <a href="http://www.portblue.de/blog/images/nateon/register01_th.gif">orange link</a> in the lower left corner of the box that reads 회원가입 (&#8217;sign up&#8217;).</li>
<li>You will be taken to a Flash <a href="http://www.portblue.de/blog/images/nateon/register02.gif">menu</a> where you can choose from three different options: &#8216;regular user&#8217; in the upper left corner, &#8216;company/organization&#8217; on the right, and &#8211; you guessed it &#8211; &#8216;foreigner&#8217; 외국인가입 in the lower left corner. Follow the registration <a href="http://www.portblue.de/blog/images/nateon/register02_th.gif">for foreigners</a>, click 외국인가입. At the next page, ask your Korean friend to translate the disclaimers for you and make sure you understand what they say. Afterwards check all three checkboxes and proceed by clicking the orange button which reads 동의 (&#8216;agree&#8217;).</li>
<li>At the next page you will be asked for a proof of identity. There are three different options, of which you will have to choose the last one 외국인등록번호(없음) (&#8216;no alien registration number&#8217;). Proceed by clicking the orange button again. You will be asked for your email address. Click the right radio button 네이트 이메일 없음 (&#8216;no Nate E-mail address&#8217;) and type in your E-mail address. If your domain is not among the ones listed, choose the last option 직접입력 (&#8216;direct input&#8217;) and enter your address directly, <a href="http://www.portblue.de/blog/images/nateon/register03.gif">like this</a>. Now click the grey button to send a confirmation E-mail to your account. A popup window will open. Check your mailbox, but keep all browser windows open. Cyworld&#8217;s confirmation E-mail will contain an eight-digit number which you will have to enter in the popup which just came up after you pressed the grey button.<br />Now you have to fill out the registration form. This is quite straightforward:
<p>비밀번호 입력 Enter password<br />비밀번호 확인 Confirm password<br />이름 Full name<br />성별 Gender: 남자 male, 여자 female<br />생년월일 Date of birth: 양력 Gregorian calendar, 음력 Lunar calendar<br />유선전화 Landline phone number*<br />휴대폰 번호 Mobile phone number*<br />국적 Nationality<br />메일 수신여부 Receive Cyworld E-mails: 받음 Yes/ 받지않음 No<br />서류파일 Attach file</p>
<p>Please note that Korean phone numbers are required here (*). Your Korean friend should be able to help you with this. It&#8217;s very unlikely Cyworld is going to call you anyway. Fill out the form and submit it by pressing the orange button again. I&#8217;m not sure what the &#8220;Attach file&#8221; link does. It&#8217;s optional anyway.</li>
<li>Your first log-in attempt will take you to a page telling you to scan your passport and email it to <span style="font-style:italic;">cycop1@nate.com</span>. Whether you scan it or take a photo is up to you. But make sure the image files are of reasonable file size. Files over 3MB are likely to be rejected by the mail server. Also, asking your Korean friend to write a few lines is recommended &#8212; one should always try to show his courtesy <img src='http://blog.portblue.de/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> <br />Now all you can do is wait. It can take between a few hours up to a few days and not all applications will be accepted.</li>
<li>After you received your confirmation E-mail from Cyworld, your first login attempt will take you to a page asking you change your password, if the password you have chosen is considered too weak. Enter your old pass in the first box, the new one in the second and in the third. Now you&#8217;re all set to launch NateOn <img src='http://blog.portblue.de/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' />  Download the <a href="http://nateonweb.nate.com/download/messenger/windows/en/index.php">English NateOn client</a> and log in using the E-mail address you just used to log on to Cyworld and your Cyworld password. It seems that NateOn needs write access to its programme directory in /Program Files/, so make sure you run it in Administrator mode or set the permissions accordingly.</li>
</ol>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">Setting up Pidgin-NateOn</span></p>
<p>The next step would be to find a way to incorporate NateOn into a multi-protocol messenger, in order to reduce the number of programmes you have running at the same time. Fortunately, this can be done with Pidgin 피진. After completing the registration above, completing the following steps should be a piece of cake <img src='http://blog.portblue.de/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
<p><a style="" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.portblue.de/blog/images/nateon/pidgin_buddylist_nate.gif"><img style="margin: 5px 10px 0px 0px; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 100px; height: 138px;" src="http://www.portblue.de/blog/images/nateon/pidgin_buddylist_nate_th.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a>A little background information first: <a href="http://pidgin.im/">Pidgin</a> is a free, open-source, multi-platform chat client that allows you to connect to different chat networks through only one single client. Its more famous Mac counterpart is called &#8216;<a href="http://www.adiumx.com/">Adium</a>&#8216;. Where you had to use several clients to communicate on MSN, ICQ, QQ etc. before, Pidgin unifies them all. MSN, ICQ, AIM, Yahoo, Google Talk, QQ are among the protocols Pidgin supports. You can extend Pidgin&#8217;s functionality by installing plugins &#8212; e.g. plugins to read your old MSN or Trillian logs, or to make it connect to even more networks, like <a href="http://code.google.com/p/pidgin-facebookchat/">Facebook Chat</a> or <a href="http://eion.robbmob.com/">Skype</a>. As you probably guessed by now, there is a plugin for NateOn as well <img src='http://blog.portblue.de/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' />  called <a href="http://nateon.haz3.com/">Pidgin-NateOn</a>. Since not many people are aware of this, I will provide a small rundown on the steps required to set up Pidgin with NateOn support here.</p>
<p><a style="" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.portblue.de/blog/images/nateon/add_nateonplugin.gif"><img style="margin: 5px 0px 0px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 222px;" src="http://www.portblue.de/blog/images/nateon/add_nateonplugin_th.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a>I assume you have <a href="http://pidgin.im/">Pidgin</a> installed already. So head over to <a href="http://nateon.haz3.com/">Pidgin-NateOn&#8217;s website</a> and <a href="http://kaisyu.ohpy.com/99779/36">download the plugin</a> (click the small .rar icon at the bottom of the post). The file is really small and should download instantly. Unpack the <a href="http://www.rarsoft.com/">WinRAR archive</a> to Pidgin&#8217;s installation folder (by default &#8220;C:\Program Files\Pidgin\&#8221;). Choose &#8220;Yes&#8221; when Windows asks if it should overwrite the existing folders. Afterwards, run Pidgin and click &#8220;Accounts&#8221; &#8211;> &#8220;Manage Accounts&#8221;. The Account Manager will come up. Click &#8220;Add&#8221; in the lower left corner to add a new account. Choose &#8220;NateOn&#8221; from the protocol list and <a href="http://www.portblue.de/blog/images/nateon/plugin_setup.gif">enter your login details</a> &#8212; that is, enter the E-mail address you use to log on to Cyworld as Username and your password in the corresponding box below. You may choose to have Pidgin remember your password or choose a buddy icon, but that&#8217;s up to you.</p>
<p>After that is done, click &#8220;Add&#8221; and close the Account Manager. Make sure Pidgin can connect on port 5004 <img src='http://blog.portblue.de/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' />  &#8212; that&#8217;s typically the port used by NateOn. Now wait for the connection to be established. A new group will be created in Pidgin&#8217;s buddy list that contains all your NateOn contacts. Before you start chatting, make sure you set up Pidgin correctly to enable <a href="http://blog.portblue.de/2008/06/making-pidgin-unicode-compatible.html">Unicode support</a>. Enjoy chatting! <img src='http://blog.portblue.de/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </div>
<p><b>Links:</b><br /><a href="http://nateon.haz3.com/">> Pidgin-NateOn (plugin website)</a> (<a href="http://web.archive.org/web/*/nateon.haz3.com/*">> Internet Archive mirror</a>)<br /><a href="http://kaisyu.ohpy.com/99779/36">> Pidgin-Nateon Plugin Download</a> (Protocol svn 137 Plug-in Win32 binary): click small archive icon at bottom of post<br /><a href="https://launchpad.net/%7Epidgin-nateon">> Launchpad Pidgin-NateOn Plugin Project</a><br /><a href="http://qaos.com/article.php?sid=2789">> Pidgin-NateOn Installation Tutorial (Korean)</a><br /><a href="http://pidgin.im/">> Pidgin Homepage</a><br /><a href="http://dev.haz3.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&amp;t=18">> Pidgin-NateOn Adium Plugin status (Korean)</a><br /><a href="http://nateonweb.nate.com/">> NateOn Homepage</a><br /><a href="http://nateonweb.nate.com/download/messenger/windows/">> NateOn Messenger (Korean) Download</a><br /><a href="http://nateonweb.nate.com/download/messenger/windows/en/index.php">> NateOn Messenger (English) Download</a><br /><a href="http://nateonweb.nate.com/download/messenger/mac/">> NateOn Messenger Mac Version (Korean) Download</a><br /><a href="http://translate.google.com/translate_t#ko%7Cen%7C">> Google Translate: Korean -> English</a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://blog.portblue.de/2009/03/nateon-for-non-koreans-on-pidgin/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>39</slash:comments>
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		<title>The Chinese Nintendo 64: iQue 神游机</title>
		<link>http://blog.portblue.de/2008/12/chinese-nintendo-64-ique/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.portblue.de/2008/12/chinese-nintendo-64-ique/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 23 Dec 2008 14:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[english]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[asia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[china]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[games]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hardware]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[internet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[japan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[shanghai]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[software]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.portblue.de/?p=67</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A not-so-well-known and very peculiar item on the video game market is the so-called &#8220;iQue Player&#8220;, a Chinese version of the Nintendo 64. When the Nintendo 64 had already been abandoned in favour of the Gamecube in Western markets and Japan, Nintendo decided to re-release the system in China around 2003 &#8212; at a time [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div align="justify"><a style="" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.portblue.de/blog/images/ique/ique_player.gif"><img style="margin: 5px 10px 0px 0px; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 126px;" src="http://www.portblue.de/blog/images/ique/ique_player.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a>A not-so-well-known and very peculiar item on the video game market is the so-called &#8220;<a href="http://www.ique.com/M_Player.htm">iQue Player</a>&#8220;, a Chinese version of the Nintendo 64. When the Nintendo 64 had already been abandoned in favour of the Gamecube in Western markets and Japan, Nintendo decided to re-release the system in China around 2003 &#8212; at a time when the Chinese economic reform 改革开放 was fully underway, China had joined the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Trade_Organization">WTO</a> and companies around the world were exploring business opportunities in the Middle Kingdom. The Chinese people were starting to make money and selling video games in China became profitable.</p>
<p>Nintendo didn&#8217;t want to be left out and set up iQue 神游科技(中国)有限公司 (lit. &#8220;Shenyou Technologies Ltd.&#8221;), a Suzhou-based Joint Venture with a Chinese company, to produce the iQue Player, a system based on the Nintendo 64 which uses System-on-chip technology &#8212; i.e. the whole Nintendo 64 has been reduced in size to fit on a single chip that rests in the controller. The controller itself connects directly to the TV. Games are stored on a quite small (size- and memory-wise) 64MB memory card (divided into 250 so-called &#8220;blocks&#8221; 格), which, by default, contains a full version of <a href="http://www.ique.com/games/61011.htm">Dr. Mario</a> 马力欧医生 and time-limited demo versions of <a href="http://www.ique.com/games/11011.htm">Super Mario 64</a> 神游马力欧, <a href="http://www.ique.com/games/21011.htm">Zelda: Ocarina of Time</a> 塞尔达传说-时光之笛, <a href="http://www.ique.com/games/51011.htm">Wave Race</a> 水上摩托 and <a href="http://www.ique.com/games/41011.htm">Starfox</a> 星际火狐. <a href="http://www.ique.com/game.htm">A dozen first party games</a> are available for the system and can be downloaded to the memory card from iQue Depots 加油站 (lit. &#8220;charging station&#8221;) or via USB from the Internet at 48 Yuan a game. The motivation for chosing this hardware architecture has clearly been the problem of piracy. The Chinese have always been clever at circumvention copyright protection mechanisms. Cartridges didn&#8217;t keep them from doing their business: China was the place of origin of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_V64">Doctor V64</a>, a Video CD player that was able to copy and run Nintendo 64 games from CD. By selling outdated but attractive games at a low price, Nintendo hoped to deter piracy.</p>
<p>List of <a href="http://www.ique.com/game.htm">games available for the iQue player</a>:</p>
<ul style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">
<li><a href="http://www.ique.com/games/11011.htm">Super Mario 64 神游马力欧</a> (31 blocks, game ID: 10011)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.ique.com/games/51011.htm">Wave Race 水上摩托</a> (32 blocks, game ID: 51011)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.ique.com/games/52011.htm">Mario Kart 64 马力欧卡丁车</a> (48 blocks, game ID: 52011)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.ique.com/games/61011.htm">Dr. Mario 马力欧医生</a> (13 blocks, game ID: 61011)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.ique.com/games/41011.htm">Starfox 星际火狐</a> (46 blocks, game ID: 41011)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.ique.com/games/11021.htm">Yoshi&#8217;s Story 耀西故事</a> (68 blocks, game ID: 11021)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.ique.com/games/52021.htm">F-Zero X 未来赛车</a> (63 blocks, game ID: 52021)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.ique.com/games/21011.htm">Zelda: Ocarina of Time 塞尔达传说-时光之笛-</a><br />(114 blocks, game ID: 21011)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.ique.com/games/12021.htm">Super Smash Bros. 任天堂明星大乱斗</a><br />(65 blocks, game ID: 12021)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.ique.com/games/21021.htm">Paper Mario 纸片马力欧</a> (160 blocks, game ID: 21021)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.ique.com/games/51021.htm">Excitebike 64 越野摩托</a> (62 blocks, game ID: 51021)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.ique.com/games/21041.htm">Animal Crossing 动物森林</a> (62 blocks, game ID: 21041)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.ique.com/games/41021.htm">Sin and Punishment 罪与罚-地球的继承者-</a><br />(129 blocks, game ID: 41021)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.ique.com/games/21051.htm">Custom Robo 组合机器人</a> (65 blocks, game ID: 21051)</li>
</ul>
<p>What makes the system interesting for European gamers is that Custom Robo and &#8211; until the advent of the Wii&#8217;s virtual console &#8211; Sin and Punishment were Japan-exclusive releases for the Nintendo 64. I personally found Paper Mario and Animal Crossing very attractive as well, since these two games had been released around the end of the N64&#8217;s lifespan and therefore have not received much coverage by the media and are hard to get these days. Although the iQue Player is a &#8217;small Nintendo 64&#8242;, it differs a little from the original machine and games need to be specifically ported to the system, giving them a slightly different look, sound and feel when compared to the originals. That being said, I was still surprised people didn&#8217;t try to hack it and make it run ROM images or make the games available on the internet. Even ROMs of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/64DD">64DD</a> games &#8211; a system arguably even less widely distributed than the iQue &#8211; have been <a href="http://64dd.net/modules/specials/?sr0858">released already</a>, so it&#8217;s indeed confusing nobody tried to take advantage of the iQue&#8217;s unique architecture and easy access to its hardware.</p>
<p><b>Getting an iQue Player and Setting it up</b></p>
<p><a style="" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.portblue.de/blog/images/ique/mario64_chinese.gif"><img style="margin: 5px 0px 0px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 86px;" src="http://www.portblue.de/blog/images/ique/mario64_chinese.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a>My days of video gaming have long since passed. But having read about the iQue before, I couldn&#8217;t resist the opportunity to explore the system myself while in China. Especially since a number of games have been released for the iQue that used to be Japan-only titles back in Nintendo 64 days, like <a href="http://www.ique.com/games/41021.htm">Sin and Punishment</a> 罪与罚-地球的继承者 and <a href="http://www.ique.com/games/21051.htm">Custom Robo</a> 组合机器人. After all, this is not about playing video games but about cultural experience <img src='http://blog.portblue.de/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif' alt=';)' class='wp-smiley' />  And as little people know, all games available for the iQue have been localized for the Chinese market, which means that all in-game dialogues translated into Chinese, including the voice acting in games like Starfox. Surprising if you consider that localizing wasn&#8217;t a very common thing in the era of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_video_game_consoles_%28fifth_generation%29">fifth-generation video game systems</a>.</p>
<p>With the economic crisis at its height, I figured department stores would give me a good deal on the system. Wrong. Xujiahui&#8217;s Pacific Department Store 太平洋百货 wanted 498 Yuan for the system. The same price the system used to cost when it was released five years ago. Since China&#8217;s generation of gamers has long since moved on to more sophisticated systems like the Wii or the PSP, I figured I could find a <a href="http://search1.taobao.com/browse/0/n-0-----------------g,zhy5htv37i----------------40--commend-0-all-0.htm?at_topsearch=1">better deal on Taobao.com</a>, the Chinese version of eBay and found a brand-new system for around half the price.</p>
<p>It took me a while to figure out how the iQue worked. The system runs on 220V/50Hz, the same power frequency as the rest of China and Europe (Japan and the USA use 110/60Hz). It is surprising, though, that while Chinese television uses the European 50Hz PAL system, the iQue&#8217;s output signal is 60Hz NTSC, the American standard. This is strange because TV signals usually run on the same frequency as power grids, but might be connected to the fact that the Nintendo 64&#8217;s PAL conversions were usually of very poor quality, running at lower speed and lower resolutions than their NTSC counterparts. I was fortunate to find that the TV I am using supports NTSC signals, but I am not sure if this is the case with most TV sets in mainland China. It might have affected sales, but the system never really took off anyway and plans for it to be released in other Asian markets have been abandoned.</p>
<p><b>Buying Games from iQue Depots</b></p>
<p>As mentioned above, games can be downloaded to the system&#8217;s memory card from iQue Depots, called 加油站. These can be found in most major first-tier cities thoughout China, a <a href="http://www.ique.com/s_salestation.htm">list</a> being available on the iQue homepage. Those who think about getting an iQue for nostalgic reasons should hurry though. I noticed that most of these stations are being removed. Mainly because the industry is moving on but also because games can be downloaded from the Internet now too.</p>
<p>The following is a list of iQue Depots in Shanghai:</p></div>
<p>
<ul style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">
<li>浦东八佰伴八楼，玩具区，张扬路501号<br />Pudong Babaiban, 8th floor, Zhangyang Rd. 501</li>
<li>新世界商城八楼，玩具区，南京西路2-68<br />New World Department Store, 8th floor, Nanjing Rd. West 2-68</li>
<li>东方商厦五楼半，玩具区，漕溪北路8号<br />Oriental Department Store, 5th floor, Caoxi Rd. North 8</li>
<li>太平洋百货徐汇店七楼，玩具区，衡山路932号<br />Pacific Department Store Xujiahui Branch, 7th floor, Hengshanlu 932</li>
<li>久光百货六楼，玩具区，南京西路1618号<br />Jiuguang Department Store, 6th floor, Nanjing Rd. West 1618</li>
<li>太平洋百货淮海店五楼，玩具区，淮海中路333号<br />Pacific Department Store Huaihai Branch, 5th floor, Huaihai Central Rd. 333</li>
<li>反斗城正大店四楼，陆家嘴路168号<br />Fandoucheng Zhengda Department Store, 4th floor, Lujiazui Road 168</li>
</ul>
<p><a href="http://www.ique.com/s_salestation.htm">> Complete list of iQue Depots 加油站</a></p>
<div align="justify"><a style="" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.portblue.de/blog/images/ique/ique_depot.gif"><img style="margin: 5px 10px 0px 0px; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 151px;" src="http://www.portblue.de/blog/images/ique/ique_depot.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a>I personally found the nice Fuwuyuan (服务员, fúwùyuán n. clerk, service personnel) in the Jiuguang Department Store 久光百货 next to Jing&#8217;an Temple 静安寺 most helpful <img src='http://blog.portblue.de/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' />  Downloading games to your iQue memory card 神游卡 works as follows: You connect your memory card to the iQue depot and wait for the menu to come up. You will be presented with an overview of what is already on your card and how much memory is left. Unfortunately, all the memory is used by the games and demos by default, with Zelda taking up roughly half of the memory. You will have no choice to either delete some demos or upgrade them to full games. This is definitely a weak point of the system, since iQue memory cards cannot be bought separately, except for a few used ones from Taobao. And I am not sure if memory cards from one iQue Player can be used on another one &#8212; I could imagine that games will be locked to the first iQue player running it.</p>
<p>The option to download games from the Internet has alleviated this issue a little, since the system retains a record of games that have been bought. So even if you delete the full version of Dr. Mario, you will be able to download it for free again from iQue depots or the Internet at a later time. Another advantage of this system is that demo versions of games are easy to come by, which wasn&#8217;t the case in times of large, expensive, difficult to produce game cartridges.</p>
<p><a style="" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.portblue.de/blog/images/ique/ticket.gif"><img style="margin: 5px 0px 0px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 94px;" src="http://www.portblue.de/blog/images/ique/ticket.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a>After having chosen a game, the iQue depot asks you to swipe an iQue ticket 神游票, available at 48 Yuan, to certify that you have paid for the game. Scrap off the cover to see the bar code and swipe the card through the card reader. Downloading the game to the memory card takes a while. When the process is finished, you will be taken back to the main screen to choose a new game or to log out. Keep the iQue ticket as a memory <img src='http://blog.portblue.de/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
<p><b>Connecting to the Internet</b></p>
<p>Later during the iQue&#8217;s short lifespan, the iQue online service &#8220;iQue@Home&#8221; 神游在线 was launched. This service is supposed to enable users to download games and demos from the Internet rather than through iQue depots. A <a href="http://www.ique.com/images/img_machine/athomehandbook/athome.htm">detailed manual</a> on how to do this is available on the iQue homepage (in Chinese). According to the <a href="http://www.ique.com/M_athome.htm">iQue@Home homepage</a>, this connection was also supposed to enable people to participate in long-distance competitions with other players, chat and compare their scores online. Since the status of these items is still on &#8220;to be released soon&#8221; 即将推出, I suppose these features won&#8217;t see the dailight anymore &#8212; a fate the iQue player shares with other Nintendo systems like the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/64DD">64DD</a> or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellaview">Satellaview</a>.</p>
<p><a style="" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.portblue.de/blog/images/ique/ique_software03.gif"><img style="margin: 5px 0px 0px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 113px;" src="http://www.portblue.de/blog/images/ique/ique_software03th.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a>At first, I wasn&#8217;t able get the software to do much more than <a href="http://www.portblue.de/blog/images/ique/ique_software03.gif">browse the memory card&#8217;s contents</a>, since it <a href="http://www.portblue.de/blog/images/ique/ique_software01.gif">couldn&#8217;t connect to the Internet</a> for some reason. But thanks to the extremely quick and helpful <a href="http://www.ique.com/service.htm">iQue Customer Service</a>, it was possible to single out the poor Internet connection at Jiaotong University as the reason <img src='http://blog.portblue.de/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_sad.gif' alt=':(' class='wp-smiley' />  The software uses two non-standard ports, 16976 and 16977, so make sure you open these before proceeding.</p>
<p>According to the manual, the oldest iQue players don&#8217;t support connecting to the Internet, but this is merely a problem of an outdated operating system. Start your player and check if the system menu has a <a href="http://www.portblue.de/blog/images/ique/ique_online.gif">coloured text string in the upper left corner</a> that reads 神游在线. If it doesn&#8217;t, head over to the next iQue Depot and upgrade your operating system (&#8220;UOS&#8221;) to the latest version.</p>
<p>Before connecting the player to your computer, download the iQue@Home software from <a href="http://www.game.ique.com/">http://www.game.ique.com</a>. This is the standard version (简易版, 1.2MB), to find the full version (完整版, 205MB), go to <a href="http://www.ique.com/M_athome.htm">http://www.ique.com/M_athome.htm</a> and click the second link &#8220;完整版205M&#8221; (compressed <a href="http://www.rarlab.com/">WinRAR</a> archives). I&#8217;m not exactly sure what the difference between these two is. But given the size of the second package, it may very well be that it contains encrypted/compressed images of the games, saving you the trouble to download them from the internet every time you just want to move games back and forth between the card and your computer. The item &#8220;Game data&#8221; in the installation dialogue supports this guess. It&#8217;s just speculation, though.</p>
<p>To connect the iQue player to the computer, a simple USB cable that fits the plug on the iQue controller is needed. I&#8217;m not sure what these cables are called, but it&#8217;s the same type of plug that most digital cameras use these days. Connect your player and wait for the Windows device manager dialogue to pop up, asking you what to do next. Tell it to install the software automatically. After that, run the iQue@Home software and run the update when asked. Please note that the software was designed for a Chinese environment, so it may be best to change your operating system&#8217;s codepage to Chinese or use Microsoft&#8217;s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_AppLocale">Applocale</a> utility, which allows you to run non-Unicode applications in your own locale. It&#8217;s available for download on <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/tools/apploc.mspx">Microsoft&#8217;s homepage</a> and a detailed tutorial on how to use it can be found <a href="http://alcahest.club.fr/perso/apploc/applocale.html">here</a>. Use Applocale to run &#8220;C:\Program Files\iQue@home\pkgs\update\Update.exe&#8221; with the argument &#8220;launch&#8221; and set the programme language to Simplified Chinese 中文(简体).</p>
<p>Wait for the application to connect, afterwards you will be taken to the software&#8217;s main screen, which has three links &#8212; to buy games 购买游戏, to browse the memory card 游戏存取 and to join the iQue Club 神游俱乐部. If the link to buy games and to join the iQue Club are <a href="http://www.portblue.de/blog/images/ique/ique_software02.gif">greyed out</a>, the software wasn&#8217;t able to connect. Check the connection to the iQue player, reconnect to the Internet, relaunch the application and make sure ports 16976 and 16977 are open for the software. If all that doesn&#8217;t work, have a look at the programme&#8217;s log files, which are stored at &#8220;C:\Program Files\iQue@home\data\logs&#8221;, or ask the <a href="http://www.ique.com/service.htm">iQue Customer Service (Chinese)</a> about the problem.</p>
<p><a style="" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.portblue.de/blog/images/ique/ique_software05.gif"><img style="margin: 5px 10px 0px 0px; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 126px;" src="http://www.portblue.de/blog/images/ique/ique_software05th.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a>Click the link at the very top to buy games, download demos or download game manuals. You will be shown a <a href="http://www.portblue.de/blog/images/ique/ique_software04.gif">list of games</a> to choose from. After selecting a game, you will be taken to the game&#8217;s <a href="http://www.portblue.de/blog/images/ique/ique_software05.gif">info page</a>, which contains a decription of the game and information about how much memory it requires. Click 我要试玩 to download a demo version or 下载指南 to download the game manual. To download a full game, you need to have a 48 Yuan iQue ticket 神游票 available. Uncover the passwort on the backside of the card and enter it on the game&#8217;s info page, afterwards click 我要购买. Afterwards, the items you chose will be <a href="http://www.portblue.de/blog/images/ique/ique_software06.gif">transferred to your memory card</a>. When the transfer has <a href="http://www.portblue.de/blog/images/ique/ique_software07.gif">succeeded</a>, go back to the homepage (click 首页 in the upper left corner) and click the second link to check the memory card&#8217;s contents.</p>
<p>The third link on the home page takes you to the <a href="http://www.portblue.de/blog/images/ique/ique_software08.gif">registration page of the iQue Club</a>. I&#8217;m not sure what this club is used for exactly &#8212; and since Christmas time is the busiest time of the year (even in Shanghai <img src='http://blog.portblue.de/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> ), I&#8217;m not sure when I will be able to check up on this. I&#8217;ll definitely post the information here as soon as I find out. Consider this tutorial a work in progress &#8212; suggestions are very welcome <img src='http://blog.portblue.de/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
<p><span style="font-style: italic;">Comments (26-08-2009):</span> One user asked about upgrading the iQue player&#8217;s operating system (UOS升级系统). I would be glad to give a few clues on that, but the iQue Homepage is inaccessible at the moment &#8212; at least from outside China. From what I can gather from a <a href="http://209.85.135.132/search?q=cache:hScuTw7gB6cJ:www.ique.com/Player_upgrade.htm+http://www.ique.com/Player_upgrade.htm&amp;cd=2&amp;hl=en&amp;ct=clnk">Google cache link</a> to the former website (<a href="http://www.ique.com/Player_upgrade.htm">http://www.ique.com/Player_upgrade.htm</a>), you need to upgrade the UOS operating system at an iQue depot and purchase a so-called  &#8220;charging pack&#8221; 加油装,  containing a USB cable and a CD with the iQue@Home software to go online. Technically, though, any standard USB cable that fits the player&#8217;s port will do,  but given the lack of iQue depots and since the iQue website seems to be offline, I am not sure there is still a way to upgrade the player now.</p>
<p>It has been quiet around the original iQue player for a while now, but that is just reasonable. When Nintendo started selling the iQue to Chinese customers they made a mistake many companies made at that time: they sold outdated hardware to customers who grew increasingly more confident and didn&#8217;t like to be sold second-class products. Given that, it comes as no surprise that the iQue player pretty much failed in China, at least when compared to the success of the DS, the PSP or the Wii.</p>
<p><span style="font-style: italic;">Comments (27-08-2009):</span> iQue homepage is back online. Seems it was a temporary problem.</div>
<p><b>Links</b><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IQue_Player">> Wiki.en: iQue Player</a><br /><a href="http://www.ique.com/M_Player.htm">> iQue Website: iQue Player</a><br /><a href="http://www.ique.com/game.htm">> iQue Game List</a><br /><a href="http://www.ique.com/M_athome.htm">> iQue Online Service: iQue@Home 神游在线</a><br /><a href="http://www.ique.com/images/img_machine/athomehandbook/athome.htm">> iQue Online Manual</a><br /><a href="http://www.ique.com/s_salestation.htm">> List of iQue Depots 加油站 in China</a><br /><a href="http://www.ique.com/service.htm">> iQue Customer Service</a><br /><a href="http://dicasonline.com.br/reportagens/7/ique-player-e-o-console-chines-compativel-com-o-nintendo-64/">> Dicas Online: iQue Player review</a><br /><a href="http://64dd.net/modules/games/index.php?system=ique&amp;type=released">> 64DD.net: List of iQue games</a></p>
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