I never thought I would say this....

I'm changing my primary development environment to Linux. There's just so much stuff that's much easier to do in Linux, and I'm tired of fighting with Visual Studio. This means that the initial releases of any projects will be Linux-based for the PC-side software. However, I'm going to do my best to make the code as portable as possible.

Also, I want to give everyone an update regarding the PS3 controller hacking that I've been working on. I've been discussing this a lot with Matlo, and I've come to the conclusion that the best first course of action will be to create a new PS2->PS3 adapter that will work with the newest versions of the PS3 firmware. In the long run, this will be a better first step for several reasons. First of all, there's a bunch of XIM users that have been left out in the cold and the driving force behind this project was to remedy that. With a working PS2->PS3 adapter, this would solve the problem of having to start from scratch. The XIM software would still be usable on the PC, which would mean that we can still use OBsIV's wonderful mouse translations.

The second reason that this will be a better first step is the cost. In order to get a micro-controller that's capable of sending all the necessary signals, you have to step up to something that's got quite a bit of horsepower. My initial goal was to use a ATMega 168 or 328, but there wasn't enough IO pins. This meant that the next best solution was the Arduino Mega which is $50 from sparkfun.com. Since there are still working adapters out there, $50 is just too much to spend to have to hack up a controller to get it working. I believe there's a good chance that either the ATMega 168 or 328 can be used to emulate a working adapter. If I'm right, not only will this cost far less than the other option, but it will also be far easier to build. Another plus to this option is that the firmware could easily be upgraded if the need ever arises.

So, where am I at in the development process? Not very far along, as it turns out. If it weren't for needing a few zener diodes, I could get started a lot quicker. However, I'm compiling a list of the components that I need and I'm going to get them ordered this afternoon. If all goes well, they should be here on Friday.