SplatNet 2 Login Changes (and How to Avoid Making Nintendo Angry)

Background: I made Splatoon2.ink, a site that shows the current and upcoming map schedules for Nintendo’s Splatoon 2. It pulls data from SplatNet2, their app/site that connects you to game info via the Nintendo Switch mobile app. More information about the SplatNet 2 API can be found here, and source code for Splatoon2.ink can be found here.

Yesterday, a number of sites and tools that pull data from SplatNet 2 stopped working. This seems to be caused by a change to the Nintendo Switch app’s login procedure:

This new parameter appears to be an HMAC SHA256 hash that is likely made up of several pieces of user data and, potentially, a secret key stored within the app itself. Depending on how they’ve implemented this, it may be difficult or impossible to determine how to calculate this hash.

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Eat What You Like, but Less Of It

If I were to write a diet book, that would be the title.

One year ago today I started tracking my weight. I had been overweight for a long time, but I had never made any serious effort to do anything about it. I actually didn’t even know how much I weighed.

Now, one year later, I’ve lost 70 pounds, I’m well within the “normal” BMI range for my height, and I feel better (both physically and psychologically) than I have in years.

A lot of people ask me how I did it or what my secret was. The truth is, there is no trick, and you probably already know the answer: diet and occasional exercise. That’s it.

I never knew how easy this could be. My whole life I believed it would take more effort than it actually did. I think a lot of people have these same misconceptions.

But there are a few things I learned along the way that helped me stay motivated. These changes have made a huge improvement in my quality of life and I hope by sharing my experiences I can inspire others to do the same.

Note: These are just my personal experiences of what worked for me. Different things work for different people, and what worked for me may not work for you. This is not medical advice. Consider talking to your doctor before starting a new diet plan.

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iTunes Mini Player Shortcut

When Apple released iTunes 9, the behavior of the Cmd-Ctrl-Z shortcut was changed.  Previously, it would toggle the window between the full-size “regular” view, and the small, “mini-player” view.  This change was quickly reversed in the next version of iTunes, returning the shortcut key to its previous behavior.

With the iTunes 9.0.3 release a few days ago, the behavior of this shortcut key has changed once again.  Fortunately, the Keyboard Preferences panel allows you to fix this once and for all:

Just open System Preferences, go to the Keyboard settings, and add the following key shortcuts in the “Application Shortcuts” section under the “Keyboard Shortcuts” tab:

  • Zoom – Cmd-Option-Ctrl-Z (or any other key shortcut, it just has to be something different than Cmd-Ctrl-Z)
  • Switch to Mini Player – Cmd-Ctrl-Z
  • Switch from Mini Player – Cmd-Ctrl-Z

All of these should be added for iTunes specifically, as shown in the above screen shot.