I was watching this video : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81lBL_5xHno and had a thought.

Initially the thought was something like “Books are the original form of distance learning.”

And then I realized that when the press was developed that might not have been the purpose. Perhaps it was. You could read the Bible (and interpret the interpretation, in German I believe, by a Great man – Martin Luther) without the assistance of a member of the Church. If I remember correctly–from the dvds i watched–this was a reason the Church was so against the press.

Anyway. Watch your “p”s and “q”s.

So are books a form of distance learning? Does the average author of a book of learning intend an instructor to be present when the book us used for learning? I think not.

Certainly some books are meant to be used by an instructor in a classroom, but the vast majority of books going back many, many years are meant to be read by a person intellectually capable of grasping the content within. I do not mean to say that I would not have learned more by attending class under Master Luther rather than “reading” the New Testament on my iPod (yes iPod at the time–old school). I would hope that at least Mathew, Mark , Luke and John in their little nutshell would have written their pieces with the intention that a simple person such as myself could understand what they wrote.

To wrap this up. Books are the original form of distance and time spanning learning. No instructor needed. If you think I can only learn by attending a class where you speak to me you are mistaken.

I agree. Speak up, get involved, and be loud. This is not a one way street. If all I do is preach and you listen you are sure to learn less than if you question, challenge, and participate!

It finally stopped locking so I had to replace it. $150 and I had it replaced. I had to drill out one rivet that was holding in the window rail at the bottom to get out the actuator. I went to ace and purchased a stainless steel replacement button screw with a locking nut.

The hard part was the heat. It was like 120 in the garage….

Anyway here are some pics:

I only have AT&T so I had to unlock the G1 first here: http://www.unlock-tmobileg1.com/. Within an hour I had my unlock code. I tried to call TMobile and although I was able to give them some story about the phone the email came back in the morning telling me I had to have my service for 60 days.

Then I have a problem with the speaker on the phone. I will probably end up replacing the earpiece, but for now I thought I could root it and patch the speaker volume settings. I needed root and I figured I would installed 2.1 at the same time since I was on 1.6.

I followed this: http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/index.php?title=Full_Update_Guide_-_HTC_Dream which also includes this: http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/index.php?title=DangerSPL_%26_CyanogenMod_5/6.

So I can tell you it was a bit scary compared with jailbreaking, but if you follow the directions and be careful to check the antenna version you will be ok. I hope to upgrade to 2.2, but 2.1 is much better than 1.6 for sure.

I also missed sbsettings, but my3g is really why I jailbroke this time.

So I jailbroke and installed sbsettings, pdanet and my3g. Today I also added Signal.

You can see it in action here:

Sugru earbuds

So I picked up some Sugru and applied to to my stock iPhone earbuds. I wanted to use the stock earbuds since they have the controls on the cable. The problem is they always fall out of my ears. Always.

So I lubed up the ears and placed the earbuds in then applied the soft playdough like sugru to the buds. It took about 20 minutes and I let one cure before doing the other. Anyway. Sugru.com It was like $9 for 6 sachets. So like 1.50 for the buds. It has been a month and they are still going strong. I can even switch between earbuds.

Do not want to submit another assignment, don’t want to finish the next task or consider the next topic.

I guess you pick it up and run with it. Just do it. Something. Now. Start…..

Restore. You just lost everything about your phone that made it yours. Let iTunes do it’s thing and rename your phone to it’s old name.

Now to jailbreak:
1. Download blackra1n from here: http://www.blackra1n.com/
2. Double click on the app you just downloaded. Your iPhone is still connected and iTunes is probably open. Ignore anything from either. Only pay attention to BlackRa1n
3. Once your iPhone starts back up you should see a black teardrop on the screen as an app somewhere. Click it.
4. Install cydia and click go or whatever (do not uninstall backra1n at this point – I never do).

Then open cydia and install these apps at least:
http://huberblog.com/2009/12/28/jailbroken-again-at-3-1-2/

Also if you install openssh — or any app you use does — then you need to change your ssh password. It is alpine right now and we all know it.

http://www.cultofmac.com/how-to-change-your-iphones-default-ssh-password/20871

I then renamed the m4v to flv. Took the contents of the zip I downloaded from longtail (link above) and placed the js and the swf on the target server. I uploaded the videos to a hosting location I use and added the required code to my entry:

<script type=’text/javascript’ src=’swfobject.js’></script>
<object id=”player” classid=”clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000″ name=”player” width=”400″ height=”315″>
<param name=”movie” value=”player.swf” />
<param name=”allowfullscreen” value=”true” />
<param name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always” />

<param name=”flashvars” value=”file=http://www.everythingboomerang.com/f4c_files/MMSAP_Foundation4Children.flv&image=MMSAP_Foundation4Children.jpg” />
<embed
type=”application/x-shockwave-flash”
id=”player2″
name=”player2″
src=”player.swf”
width=”400″
height=”315″
allowscriptaccess=”always”
allowfullscreen=”true”
flashvars=”file=http://www.everythingboomerang.com/f4c_files/MMSAP_Foundation4Children.flv&image=MMSAP_Foundation4Children.jpg”
/>
</object>

and I was set.

You can see the output here:
Foundation for Children

I ordered a new battery from Amazon: Maximal Power Battery with Change Tool Kit and Photo Instructions for iPhone 3G, 3G S (Silver)

Worked like a charm. Battery is taking a charge and came with 50% which is appropriate. We will see how long it lasts, but at least it works.

So back to e_cell. Stay away from them. Horrible customer service and many reports on the web of the same problem I had. I should have listened:

http://modmyi.com/forums/hardware/695368-iphone-3g-does-not-turn-after-changing-battery.html

I think this bad company is also at amazon under the name eForCity but I cannot be sure.

Again. e_cell sells bad batteries shipped from the UK, so returning them is pointless.

My youngest daughter is just old enough to start using the colors and letters apps I wrote back in the day. These are VERY simple apps that ask the child to pick the right color or letter. Some basic looping and control manipulation from 2003/2004. I updated the letters app so that it is using System.Speech so I have learned something from the process already.

http://github.com/jasonhuber/KidsGames – is the link. Of course they are compiled in the bin directory if I uploaded that, so feel free to just dl and check them out:

Enter iKeePass. A .99 download and you can just point it at your database and you have keepass on your iPhone.

Not so fast

First. How do you get your database on your iPhone? You need to download it to the keepass application at least once (and then each time it changes).

This is where dropbox comes in. Just copy your database file to your public folder in dropbox. Right click the file and copy the public url under the dropbox menu and email that to yourself. Open your email in your iPhone and you are set. Enter everything except the filename in the server for ikeepass and the filename when you press the + for add.

What if I have a kdbx and not a kdb file?

Yeah I had this problem too. Looks like KeePass version 2.X uses kdbx and 1.X uses kdb. iKeePass does not work with kdbx yet. The good news is in KeePass 2.X you can export to kdb. This post almost gives you everything you need sans the iKeePass stuff.

For the iKeePass parts, the developer has done a good job of detailing it at his site here:

http://ikeepass.de/bl0g/?p=175

Cool AND secure. Now if my keepass database password was not 32 characters long I would be set….

I tried to purchase a new battery from ebay user ecell. I received the battery: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200363623970&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT.

I installed it using the instructions I found on the web: http://www.rapidrepair.com/guides/iphone3g/iphone3grepairguide.html

Everything went well except the battery would not charge. Nothing I could do to make it charge. Replaced the old battery and I was back to where I started …. Fun.

After that I loaded it up like and virtual hard drive and logged in with my google creds.

I was pleasantly surprised, but certainly underwhelmed. I was immediately given my email and calendar but little else. I could open more apps like twitter and facebook and any webpage I wanted since it is basically a Google Chrome Browser running as an OS, but that was about it. Perhaps I am missing something, but really if I have an iPhone and a laptop why on earth would I install this OS?

It is not even useful for my kids since any educational apps require an actual Operating system to run. My kids need to learn Windows or at least Linux/OSX to have anything they can translate into schoolwork. So I am struggling with a use.

If I were to use it on a second machine I would be left with no way to share a keyboard and mouse without a switchbox (lame) and basically a browser running on a machine otherwise capable of running windows 7 ( my 8 year old’s Acer Aspire One). I can just open Chrome on my laptop and be happy – but I use Firefox…

If I needed to check my email and calendar and perhaps check out a link or two I can do that with my iPhone easily.

Anyway here are my shots. It is nice and all, but was it needed? I personally do not think so at this point.