What happened so far?
The forums and news sites are again full of coverage about a hack of the german Pay-TV channel Premiere (forthcoming name: Sky Germany). As we already stated in april, 2009 this is a hoax. There are no evidences or proofs whatsoever. Anyway you’d better read on, why we believe searching for a hack is useless.
I. Abstract
Coming from the Windows world most of us people know the .rar archive format very well. Besides the newer 7zip format, Rar allows a good compression and is widely used on internet distribution.
II. What do we need?
People who only need to have a decompressor for compatibility reasons can use MacPar Deluxe. Users who also want to be able to compress files aswell need to get SimplyRar:
» For Uncompressing only use MacPar Deluxe (download here)…
» For Compressing and Uncompressing use SimplyRar (download here)…
III. How do these tools work?
III.I.MacPar Deluxe
MacPar Deluxe is intended for unpacking only. The part of the name Par indicates its main use, as it is a tool for people downloading things from the usenet. Par files are files that contain repair information for damaged main files. Anyway: MacPar Deluxe also contains a very simply unrar engine.
III.II. SimplyRar
SimplyRar is a graphical user interface for the free command line version of rar for Mac OS. It contains (almost) all features of the command line. As a switcher I currently cannot tell what features are missing in comparison to WinRar for Windows.
After “We feed the world” the austrian film maker Erwin Wagenhofer has made a new documentary. This time he’s following the path of all our money. As mosts of us in the western world have saved money into deposit accounts or equity fonds this topic affects all of us. As we all want our money growing.
But how does money grow?
This is the main question Erwin Wagenhöfer tries to answer with this movie. And the answer is shocking. We people from the western world are too blind to get the whole picture. And this movie shows us the hidden parts of the picture. This documentary is must-see for everybody willing to be responsible for his actions. It simply opens our eyes.
Financial Times Germany wrote “110 enthralling minutes… Wagenhofer wraps his critics skillful but nevertheless clearly… and gets two-fisted to the point.” (original quote: “110 fesselnde Minuten… Wagenhofer verpackt seine Kritik geschickt und doch deutlich… knallhart auf den Punkt gebracht“ ct. via Amazon.de)
Where to watch
“Let’s make money” has just been released on DVD in Germany. We got no information when or if it will be released in the U.S. We recommend to check the IMDB regularly. Anyway there are english and french language trailers embedded below.
»Let’s make money on Wikipedia…
»Let’s make money (german website) …
English trailer
French trailer
I. Abstract
The following article will show you how to install firmware 3.0 on your iPhone 2G by also allowing to jailbreak, activate and eventually to unlock (JAU process). At the moment of writing this article is for Mac OS X users with iPhone 2G’s only.
II. Who needs this article?
We suppose 50% of all 2G users around the globe. As iPhone 2G’s were sold almost everywhere with Sim-Lock enabled (besides some T-Mobile Germany or Orange France unlocked 2G’s).
III. Warning
You’d better read all of this in detail before you do anything practically! If you feel there is something you don’t understand or something you will not be able to handle, then go and ask someone who is in the know.
!!!!!!!! Otherwise your devices may be terribly screwed up! !!!!!!!
IV. Required Downloads
Download these tiny things first:
» RedSn0w for Mac OS X…
» iPhone OS 3.0 for iPhone 2G…
» if you are using an iPhone 2G: get Bootloader 3.9 and 4.6…
RedSn0w is almost the same as QuickPwn was in the ancient days of iPhone firmware 2.x
V. Preparing for Take off
start RedSn0w
Browse to the downloaded restore firmware (iPhone1,1_3.0_7A341_Restore.ipsw)
Next
Cydia (and Unlock if you are using an iPhone 2G. If you are using an iPhone 3G, don’t select to unlock, since it will not work this way)
NextBrowse for the Bootloaders you downloaded
iPhone off
iTunes offVI. Fasten your seat belts // Get into DFU mode
NextDFU modeVII. Ignition sequence start
VIII. Possible issues
Although we haven’t been reported any yet, this doesn’t mean there can’t go something wrong. If you run into problems, try:
IX. Kudos
Fly out to the iPhone Dev Team. You guys should get paid by Apple…
I. Abstract
The following article will show you how to install firmware 3.0 on your iPhone 2G by also allowing to jailbreak, activate, and eventually to unlock (JAU process). At the moment of writing this article is for Mac OS X users with iPhone 2G’s only.
II. Who needs this article?
We suppose 50% of all 2G users around the globe. As iPhone 2G’s were sold almost everywhere with Sim-Lock enabled (besides some T-Mobile Germany or Orange France unlocked 2G’s).
III. Warning
You’d better read all of this in detail before you do anything practically! If you feel there is something you don’t understand or something you will not be able to handle, then go and ask someone who is in the know.
!!!!!!!! Otherwise your devices may be terribly screwed up! !!!!!!!
IV. Required Downloads
Download these tiny things first:
» Pwnage 3.0 for Mac OS X…
» iPhone OS 3.0 for iPhone 2G…
» if you are using an iPhone 2G: get Bootloader 3.9 and 4.6…
V. Preparing for Take off // Prepping your custom iPhone OS 3.0
start PwnageTool 
Expert ModeNext button (down right of PwnageTool window)
Next button
Create (here in german “Erstellen”)Next button
VI. Fasten your seat belts // Get into DFU mode
VII. Ignition sequence start // Restore
iTunes (make sure you’re using iTunes 8.2)Select your iPhone (found on the left column under devices)
Alt Key and Click the Restore button (this allows browsing for your custom firmware)
VIII. Possible issues
You may receive an “unknown error 1600”, “unknown error 2001”, “unknown error 10”, or “unknown error 20” . If this is the case you may try this:
IX. Kudos
Fly out to the iPhone Dev Team…
GeoHot posted a picture showing that he managed to run custom commands on iBoot. This seems to be the first major step for a jailbreak. Moreover GeoHot also managed to find the key for the Ramdisk while MuscleNerd of the iPhoneDevTeam obviously has already found the vfdecrypt key.
All this is good news. Anyway aswell as GeoHot and the DevTeam will have lots of work to do. Don’t expect anything soon, since GeoHot also found a new security addition called ECID, which obviously gets generated by Apple’s servers and which seems to be unique to every iPhone. Every restore seems to have to be validated by Apple’s servers. And this is bad news.
» Running custom commands on iBoot…
» Ramdisk key found…
» ECID signature layer found…
Everybody knows what DJ’s do: putting vinyl on the turntables an mix tracks into each other. This is basically the idea of DJing. The four guys Crazy-B, DJ Pone, DJ Need, and Little Mike (going under the name “Birdy Nam Nam”) are moving DJing at least one step beyond. They use their turntables more like instruments with not just mixing one track into another, they are mixing sounds into new compositions. With their styles they won several prices like the DMC Technics World TEAM Price in 2002.
We strongly recommend to watch those videos to understand what they are doing. The first is pure fun, the second allows more technical insight, and the third video is just raving the crowd and surreptitious advertising for Apple. Enjoy and don’t forget to buy their albums. You still know what buying music means, don’t you?
» Listen to Birdy Nam Nam on MySpace.com…
» Buy Birdy Nam Nam on Amazon.com (U.S.)…
» Buy Birdy Nam Nam on Amazon.de (Germany)…
Ich bin Neda. I am Neda. Je suis Neda. This is simply unbelievable. Neda, you’re gonna be the Jeanne d’Arc of Iran. That’s pretty sure. The wind is changing.
Nothing more to say about this.
» WeAreAllNeda.com…
» All about Neda on Wikipedia…
Pictures are courtesy of WeAreAllNeda.com:
You know what Dub is?! You know what beatboxing is?! Lemme tell you: I suppose you really don’t. I really love Rahzel for what he does, but I gotta tell you Dub FX is really version 2.0 of human beatboxing. I strongly recommend to watch the video below to fully understand what he does and second to get his album here asap.
Nothing more to say, but -=> o u t s t a n d i n g – a l b u m <=-
More infos:
The cat and mouse game goes into its next round. After the media companies have fought a quite successful lobby war against basic liberties, the operators of the PirateBay are now testing a service that anonymizes your traces as internet user.
The Business Model
3,000 internet users are right now in beta testing. 180,000 people world wide have registered. This is a solid business model as this service will cost €5 per month. With an conservatively estimated amount of users of 200,000 this is €12 million per year.
The Technology
The technology is well known as VPN (virtual private network). It means you connect to a specific network (this is called tunneling). From this network you then access the internet. Every website you access is thus being accessed through this network. Inside this VPN you get a new IP address and this is where iPredator becomes interesting for say civil rights activists in coutries that heavily censor internet pages – like iranian, chinese, and soon german activists and journalists aswell. In case you are using Peer2Peer networks to download media files there is a good chance, your IP has already been logged by one of the firms persecuting copyright infringement worldwide.
Persecution
Through your IP address you can be traced and for example ripped-off sued for copyright infringement – in Germany for example by a company called ProMedia (watch german Spiegel-TV article about ProMedia here). We will not delve into the doubtful business model of dinosaurs among the media companies, but all this comes to an end soon. All those persecuting companies will have to find a new business model as they will not be able to go after people loving music in the future anymore. And chinese, iranian, and german censorship will be able to be circumvented with just a click.
Addendum
Please pay attention to the legal situation in your country, living in countries with censorship: be extremely cautious. If you are living in the western consumption penetrated countries: consider going to the concerts and buying music. Otherwise your artist will not be able to make music in the future. You’d better listen to more intelligent independent music anyway, instead of those distributed by slowly dieing dinosaur media companies.
In the end remember one thing: using VPN technology to camouflage your traces does not make downloading music from illegal sources legal. Don’t do that.