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.

Why is it so important (and why am I going to change my behavior)?

Let’s say China gets into Google’s servers and finds my password. They can probably assume that they can now also get into my twitter and facebook accounts too (and they would be correct). They can probably access 100 different services and find information or change information about me to suit their needs. I know China is out for me.

So I have to get a new password for each site I visit.

I have a plan. I already have a password that is something like Y0u4reAB1gD0rk, but now I will add in something like the last three characters of the site in “their location in the alphabet” to the password. So for google you will have gle. g = 4, l = 12, and e = 5, so 21. I will change my password there to be Y0u4reAB1g21D0rk. Neat huh?

They will never catch me this way

So what about changing my password often? Do I need to do that? No.
The idea from changing your password often is that if your password is compromised you change it and the bad stuff stops. Well if you are using a different password for each site then the bad stuff was limited to that site and the bad guys probably locked you out anyway.

If you are using the same password for all sites then the bad guys are probably going to use your password really quickly. So you need to change your password like every minute to overcome this. Ready for that task? No. Don’t bother. Just create a good password for each site and change it every so often. I might go with once every 90 days or so, but really it just does not matter.

The password I used above: Y0u4reAB1g21D0rk is rated “BEST” by Microsoft

http://www.microsoft.com/protect/fraud/passwords/checker.aspx

According to KeePass my password Y0u4reAB1g21D0rk is 87 bits. This means it would take like 76 years to crack it. I can have my Grandchildren change it for me long after I am gone

BTW. The wikipedia article has some great quotes on writing down your password and not using the same one on multiple sites.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Password_strength#Time_needed_for_password_searches

Do you use the Remember my password feature in FireFox? Do you realize your passwords are stored on your HDD in an unencrypted state? Does this bother you?

It may occur to you that someone would need physical access to your machine to use that information. right? No. You could be the victim of a virus or trojan etc.

You may say that you password protect your computer, so no one can log into it but you. But what about when you sell your computer? What if it is stolen. I can boot linux and mount your HDD and access all that data.

I was unaware of this and DLS did a good job of explaining the concern:
http://lifehacker.com/5445101/your-passwords-arent-as-secure-as-you-think-heres-how-to-fix-that

So I still use KeePass, I still use the remember my password feature but now I enter a really good password to get to that data.

It is easy. Just open your options in FF and find the area to protect your passwords

It can be as simple as creating a TrueCrypt volume on a certain drive, which will look like a file or you can encrypt an entire volume. You can also encrypt a drive which can allow you to have an OS that is virtually undiscovereable by the authorities.

I do not need that. I just need a place to put stuff on my Thumb drive that no-one can get to. I keep the master password for the volume in KeePass and as soon as I remember that password I will be back in business.

With both of these programs there is no lost password feature, so write your master passwords on a sticky note and paste it to your monitor for me

I use dropbox to transfer files between computers all the time and this makes the process VERY fast. Great job dropbox!
http://forums.dropbox.com/topic.php?id=15519&replies=1

(actually I did this 12/13/2009 but they will be pushing it out to all users later this month.)

What is the big deal?

Well it isn’t a big deal really since I used blackra1n.com this time. I simple backed up my phone using itunes, upgraded using itunes and then downloaded backra1n from geohot. It was a piece of cake this time. It really was the most simple jailbreak ever. Just run his app, it does it all for you, then click blackrain on your phone after the reboot and all is well.

Isn’t there a catch?

Yes. My phone did seem faster for the 5 minutes it was not jailbroken. That was about it.

Why Jailbreak?

The only real reason I jailbroke my phone this time was tethering. I need to be able to use pdanet.
I installed:

• WinterBoard
• SBSettings
• PDANet
• Five icon dock
• Qik (even though I will use ustream more now)

All in all it was about 60 minutes of work. iTunes consumed the most time.

I move on to my wifes phone and upgraded without a jailbreak. With ustream on the 3G she has little reason to jailbreak.

I am using a 3G also. I am not using the “new” 3gs which would require a tether each time the battery drains

It was a bit bloated.

So I installed XP SP3 on a 1TB drive. The drive has some data on it already and the old 250Gig Drive I just unhooked.

I had considered installing Windows Server 2008 R2, but decided against it after thinking hard about my plans for the machine.

So what process do I follow for installation?

1. Windows Update – get that going first. Install everything except IE 8.
2. Microsoft Security Essentials – virus and malware protection
3. Firefox
4. FileZilla
5. uTorrent
6. DropBox from dropbox.com
7. Office 2007 – I use this machine to check my DeVry email and forward to gmail

So other than the initial crash when using windows update everything is working great. Super fast and just what I need to have my other machine up. I even used it to check a video setting for work today – watching video over RDP should not work well and it didn’t

I will try and update this with everything else I add on. I think my next post will by my Firefox add-ons.

*I bet you thought this post meant I was going from Windows 7 back to XP. Sorry to disapoint.

If you are not familiar with what I am talking about here is the short and sweet of it. Amazon gives you a special code to use in any of your ad links or banner links. You get one main code something like code-30 and then you can setup as many as you like “under” that. You can run reports on each code. So normally you would have one code for each site and even a code for each format under a site if you wanted. It is a way to segregate your ads.

Well if you do not use the right code when you go an build your links then all of your referrals are messed up. You get reports that one site is sending in orders when that is not the case.

So what to do? You run some SQL on your database:

update ‘wp_posts’ set post_content = replace(post_content, ‘code-30’, ‘subcode-30’);

And everything is ok.. Well for the future at least.