The Wrong Advices

It’s now possible to use the iPhone to make calls on the Telstra network but unfortunately it’s not a complete hack. At the moment it’s not possible to receive calls or send/receive text messages.

To compound things the procedure to unlock the phone is fairly complex and you need to be a bit of a techie to pull it off.

If you’re game, here are the instructions:

1. Get the required hardware and softwares: (these are the ones I have used): An Infinity USB unlimited SIM reader/writer, a silvercard, SIM-EMU 6.01, and WoronScan 1.09
2. Get the IMSI, Ki of your carrier using WoronScan (I will call them IMSI-b, Ki-b)
3. Use SIM-EMU and create 2 files (1 Flash and 1 EEPROM) using the ICCID of the AT&T sim (ICCID-a), IMSI-b and Ki-b
4. Then use these 2 files to create a sim using the infinity usb unlimited reader/writer
5. Put this sim into a normal unlocked phone and make some calls/receive calls/data services
6. Then use SIM-EMU to change the IMSI of the original Flash file to IMSI of AT&T sim (IMSI-a)
7. Again write the silvercard with the new flash and eeprom files
8. Put this sim into the iphone
9. Activate using the Cingular method as described at Hacktheiphone.com

More information can be found at the Hackint0sh forums where the info first surfaced.

The first thing you realise when you use SeeqPod is so many people leave their files completely unsecured. This is great if you are doing the searching but not so great if you’re the one who has left the door open, especially if you have some sensitive documents lying about.

As for the service itself, I’ve found myself using it quite a bit lately. A song pops into my head and I type it in and more often than not it finds what I’m looking for.

The site is flash-based and comes with a built-in player which allows you to queue up songs and create playlists. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it a complete solution but it does the job.

You can also embed songs but from what I can see the MP3s are downloaded from the original source each time and are not cached on SeeqPod’s server, so most of these files will probably disappear pretty quickly once webmasters notice the spike in traffic, leaving you with a broken player.

They also have a page designed for the iPhone, which allows you to download MP3s directly to the device. This is pretty handy if you want to grab a song on the run.

Link: SeeqPod

Bitlet is a new site that allows you to download torrents without the need for any client software.

It’s usage is pretty straightforward. All you have to do is copy and paste the url for the torrent file you want to download and hit enter. Your files will start downloading in a popup window which shows download speed, percentage completed, as well as any transfer errors. Bitlet also allows you to resume transfers should you need to interupt your download.

[Link] - Bitlet

I was browsing the Mozilla website when I noticed they have their own page full of Firefox tips. There are a lot of cool little hacks but these few I thought looked particularly handy.

• Force resizable frames
• Display Sidebar on the right
• Change the cursor for links that open in new window
• Prevent sites from disabling the context menu

They also have two pages devoted to keyboard and mouse shortcuts.

Microsoft’s been in a punchy mood of late. First there was the news that they were releasing their own analytics package, then they acquired AdECN (an advertising exchange platform), and now they have pulled off a coup at Digg, and will be serving contextual ads for the social news monolith.

What I found the most amusing about the Microsoft/Digg deal was the following comment from Digg CEO Jay Adelson.

They’re a young ad service, they’re innovative, they’re willing to work with us on the cutting edge. (Source)

I can’t remember the last time someone called Microsoft young or innovative, let alone cutting edge. It may have been some time back in the Windows 3.1 days, when their OS was fresh and relevant.

I saw this over at Digg. It made me laugh.

No one can escape the Harry Potter hype - not even the Dark Lord himself.

I’ve always been a big fan of the Star Wars films but when George Lucas started messing with them with the Special Editions, he lost me. With each iteration the changes just kept getting worse, but nothing offended fans more than the changes to the Han Solo/Greedo encounter from the first film.

Now George has been caught on the Indiana Jones 4 set wearing a “Han Shot First” t-shirt.

Is he finally admitting he made a mistake or is this just another “screw you” to the fans?

Seeing as these shirts are available at the official Star Wars store I’d have to say it’s more the latter.

YouTube has added a very basic customization feature to its service. With only one style of background and nine color schemes to choose from it’s hardly something to get excited about.

At the moment this feature only allows you to display videos from your favourites or a custom playlist. You should be able to get around this for individual videos by creating a custom playlist for each one you want to embed, but it’s not a very practical solution.

While this is probably only the first step in YouTube’s personalization plans, it really does seem like a half-hearted effort. The official YouTube blog didn’t even bother to mention the new feature was available.

Link: YouTube Custom Player

Wired has an interesting article exploring the mechanics of the software that the FBI used to track down a 15 year old student who made bomb threats against his school.

The software is described as a “computer and internet protocol address verifier” or CIPAV for short. If you go through the list of data it captures, it looks like a common piece of spyware or malware.

This is the information it tracks:

• IP address
• MAC address of ethernet cards
• A list of open TCP and UDP ports
• A list of running programs
• The operating system type, version and serial number
• The default internet browser and version
• The registered user of the operating system, and registered company name, if any
• The current logged-in user name
• The last visited URL

While tools like CIPAV are obviously important for exactly the circumstances under which it was used here, the following statement irked me a little.

Under a ruling this month by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, such surveillance — which does not capture the content of the communications — can be conducted without a wiretap warrant, because internet users have no “reasonable expectation of privacy” in the data when using the internet.

I think your average Internet user would disagree. As one of the commenters on the Wired story remarks - if you employ a firewall or use anti-virus software, that demonstrates an expectation of privacy.

With both Google and Ask taking measures to improve privacy in reaction to user concerns, the above statement seems particularly out of place.

Further reading:

• FBI Spyware: How Does the CIPAV Work?
• ‘Thank You For Your Interest in the FBI’
• Ask to introduce anonymous Web search
• Google cookies will ‘auto delete’

10 years after the first Alexa toolbar hit the Internet, a new Firefox compatible version has been released, named Sparky.

Some of the features include:

• Sparkline - A very small condensed traffic history graph. Gives you a quick view to show whether the site is moving up or down.
• Rank - Shows the traffic rank of the site.
• Reach Indicator - Provides a qualitative view of whether a site’s rank is good or bad.
• Related Links - Provides up to 10 Related links in the browser’s File | Edit | View menu.
• Shortcuts - Clicking on Sparky brings up a menu of other handy shortcuts, including Alexa Detail pages, Cached Pages, Search Pages and more.

If you feel like testing out Sparky you can download it here, but if you are looking for a more useful solution I’d recommend installing the SearchStatus extension. It is a far superior tool.