Less than useful

This post is mostly intended for someone to come across via Google having trouble unlocking his or her phone.  There is a tonne of misinformation and lots of scams out there.

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My girlfriend had been using an unlocked 1G iPhone for a while.  That phone was locked to AT&T in the USA while she has beens using a cheap Bank of Montreal phone plan here in Canada.  She doesn’t want to pay for a data plan; she’s happy just using wi-fi on the iPhone whenever it’s available.

The 1G had started to die though, with error messages constantly popping up.  Each time the message would pop up, the screen would turn on, so the battery could only last a few hours.

She bought a used 8 GB 3G iPhone locked to Rogers to replace it, however the previous owner had updated it to official Apple iPhone firmware 3.1.3 which did several things to make unlocking it to other cellphone networks impossible.

With iPhones, there are two distinct hacks: jailbreaking means that you can run home-made software on your iPhone without needing to go through Apple’s official App Store.  Unlocking, like with any other cellphone, means that you’re not restricted to any one particular cellphone carrier.

In addition to the main iPhone operating system, (now known as “iOS” as it’s shared with the iPad), there is separate firmware that controls the modem in the phone: the part that actually connects with the cell network.  This firmware is known as the baseband.  Finally there’s a bootloader as well, which may be governed by the hardware iteration rather than software, but I’m not sure.  The jailbreak used to be mostly dependent on the operating system, the unlock used to be mostly dependent on the baseband version.  The bootloader determined whether or not you could restore your iPhone to older versions of baseband which could then be unlocked.

The sum total though was that with old hacks, it was impossible to unlock my girlfriend’s 3G iPhone to work with her cell provider.

Once iOS 4.0 was released however (June 21, 2010), the brilliant hackers that figure out how to jailbreak and unlock these things published exploits they had been withholding.  They’d been waiting for iOS 4.0 to come out to get more mileage and not waste them on an otherwise minor firmware update.  These current exploits work with ALL iPhones from 3G onwards, all basebands, and all bootloaders.

To unlock your 3G:

1. Sync your phone with iTunes.  Make sure it creates a backup.  If it doesn’t (from ericajoy, found with Google):
   • Open iTunes
   • Go to Preferences
   • Choose the syncing option
   • Remove the iPhone backup
   • Press OK and exit Preferences
   • Sync your iPhone
2. Update your 3G to the proper full iOS 4.0 with iTunes. It should be prompting you to whenever you connect your phone to your computer with iTunes open.
3. Download and run Redsn0w from the Dev-Team Blog.  The earliest version that works with iOS 4.0 is 0.9.5b5-4.  (Click the Windows link on the post I linked.)
4. It will ask you to point it to the IPSW file of your CURRENT FIRMWARE (which will be 4.0 now if you followed step 1.)  The file is called iPhone1,2_4.0_8A293_Restore.ipsw.
   • In Win7 it will be found in C:\Users\<YOUR USER NAME>\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\iTunes\iPhone Software Updates
   • In WinXP it would be found in C:\Documents and Settings\<YOUR USER NAME>\Application Data\Apple Computer\iTunes\iPhone Software Updates
   • Alternatively, you can just download it separately from a site such as this one.  (Look for the iOS 4 section at the bottom of the page and click the iPhone 3G link.)
5. Redsn0w will take some time to process the IPSW file, then it will prompt you for some options after you hit ‘next.’
   • The option you must select is “Install Cydia.”  Cydia is the programme that installs all the non-Apple approved iPhone applications, and will be required to actually unlock the phone.
   • On the 3G I recommend you also enable the “homescreen wallpaper” and “battery percentage.” The 3G isn’t really fast enough to do multitasking well, but it’s up to you.  Leave everything else unchecked.
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6. Your iPhone should be connected to the PC already.  Turn it off by holding the power button on top, and swiping across the screen when asked to.  Hit ‘next’ and follow the rest of the on-screen instructions.  Redsn0w is going to ask you hold the power button for a few seconds, then hold the power & home button for 10 seconds, and then let go of the power button while still holding the home button for 30 seconds.  You can let go of home once the screen changes and things start happening on your phone.  If gives you another chance to do it over if you screw up.
7. The rest of this is automated.  It can take a while to finish.  Redsn0w on your PC will soon say it’s done, that the rest takes place on your iPhone.  You can close redsn0w at this point.  I believe it took about 10 minutes for the iPhone to finish it’s business.  You now have a jailbroken iPhone 3G.
8. To finish the process and unlock the phone, run the Cydia app on your homescreen.  It will take some time to update itself.  (Roughly five minutes.)
9. Click on the search tab, and search for “ultrasn0w” (the “o” is a zero, like in redsn0w).
10. Install it, and select reboot once it asks you to.  Your iPhone 3G is now unlocked.

From now on, do not install any new official Apple firmware until you’ve absolutely confirmed that you can jailbreak and unlock it.

I haven’t been neglecting this blog, honest. I just can’t finish any of the articles I want to write for one reason or another.

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Just a quick thought. One of the most frequently heard questions I keep seeing over and over regarding the iPad is, “Why do you need it?”  Now I have no interest in one myself — if I only casually wanted a portable PC, I’d be all over it, but I intend to go back to school eventually, and the iPad just wouldn’t cut it with its on-screen keyboard.

But I want to point out, it’s such a bullshit rhetorical technique.  Everybody knows that nobody needs anything but food, shelter, and clothes if he or she is modest.

It’s perfectly okay to want/lust after something, and it’s nobody else’s business … except maybe creditors.  I guess being an Apple fan is just a slightly more abstract hobby.

I think most of my techy friends have moved onto Google Chrome at this point, but I’m still a bit of a Firefox die-hard.

These are my favourite add-ons which I believe aren’t as popular as things like AdBlock, and might be of use to you.

1. The best theme I’ve come across so far is “TwentyTen”

It’s modern, sleek, and uses the Win7/Vista Glass effect quite well.

2. ScrapBook – Saves webpages to your computer with a click.  It’s like bookmarking, but it actually keeps a record of the page.  It’s useful because you don’t have to worry about the page vanishing between visits.  I mostly use it to keep track of recipes, hah.

3. SpeedDial – Creates thumbnail links of your most important/frequently used webpages in new tabs (like Opera).

Procrastinating a bit from some contract work I need to get done tonight.

I’d seen Amazon Kindles in person a few times, and was absolutely blown away by the quality and legibility of the text on the screen.  I didn’t get to spend that much time with them though to really get a feel for the features.  I didn’t like how a lot of the device’s real-estate was used up by a keyboard though.

Today I spent a while with the Sony eReaders, and was surprised to find that they don’t look or feel nearly as nice as the Kindle.  They looked great in their press-shots and sounded vastly superior to me, but they felt quite cheap comparatively.  When these things are supposed to recreate the “experience of reading a book,” which detractors keep bringing up, it’s apparently a really big deal.

Speaking of e-book readers in general, the ability to change text-size I think is a killer feature.  However one thing I noticed on the Sony readers, and really disliked, was that they wouldn’t justify or typeset the text particularly well.  It’s especially obvious at larger font sizes. I don’t know whether the Kindle does this either, but it seems like it’d be a great feature to further enhance legibility.  Maybe most people don’t notice this sort of thing though.

It does make me think though that I really don’t want to be an early adopter in this instance, and it’s steeled my resolve to get through all the physical books I’ve acquired over the years before I invest in something that will be obsolete in a few months…

I’d been meaning to write about Avatar for some time since I’d seen it, as none of the reviews/articles/criticisms I’d seen on it quite captured my thoughts.  Now this Macleans article, by Brian D. Johnson, captures them far more succinctly than I could manage: Why Haven’t You Seen Avatar Yet?

The only thing I’d really like to add is to chastise people who are reading so deeply into what is really such a superficial movie.  The plot is so thin, the characters are so shallow, you’re just seeing what you want to see, or ‘jumping at shadows’ so to speak.  Despite the lack of depth, the movie still manages to be an awe-inspiring experience.  It’s really okay to just watch it with an open … or possibly empty mind.

I picked up a BlackBerry a couple weeks ago.  The impetus was that I started a new job with heavily-monitored internet, and an extremely restrictive firewall.  I wanted to avoid trouble with my new employer and couldn’t deal with being completely cut off for over half the waking day.  Suddenly having no access to personal email felt really isolating.

I chose a BlackBerry mostly because I really didn’t like tapping out long messages on an iPhone’s keyboard.  For plain internet browsing, I think the iPhone’s browser wins no-contest, but that wasn’t my main concern.  As it turns out though, I’m just ecstatic with this purchase, and I’m discovering more and more to do with it every day.

I was on Fido, but still had 11 months left in my contract.  I discovered that Rogers can be negotiated with to allow you to break your contract once in your lifetime, to switch from Fido to Rogers or vice versa, as long as you’ve been on your respective network for at least a year.

As the gadget comes up in conversation, I’ve noticed some inaccuracies, and as well, have found solutions to some common complaints:

1. Consumer BlackBerries do have push email (at least on the Rogers network).  It does not require a corporate server.  I have it set up with my Gmail account, but you can create an @rogers.blackberry email address instead if you prefer.  Without the slightest exaggeration, emails show up on my BlackBerry before my Gmail inbox.  The address to set this up is http://www.rogers.com/bis/ You can set this up from your desktop PC.  You will need the IMEI and PIN codes.
2. It took me a couple days to figure out, but with the default theme, you change the home screen icons by moving the applications you want to the top row of your apps menu. (Probably obvious, but two friends who’d had theirs for months never figured it out.)
3. The included browser is nothing spectacular, however you can install Opera Mini instead.  The 5.0 beta includes tabbed browsing even.
4. The included Maps application is quite rudimentary.  Google Maps is a spectacular replacement.  More information here.
5. I love the cohesive Messages programme, how it consolidates all incoming messages from your various IM applications, Facebook, emails, etc.  All except for SMS messages for some reason.  You can in fact combine the Messages and SMS apps by going to the Options in Messages, choosing General Options, and changing the SMS and Email Inboxes setting to Combined.
6. BlackBerry apps do not close when you push the red disconnect button.  They stay running in the background, eating at your battery.  This is actually a great feature, and a huge advantage over the iPhone, but if you’re not aware of it, you’re killing battery life and memory for running other apps needlessly.  Generally you can close apps by pushing the menu button and selecting Close.  Unfortunately this isn’t 100% consistent, and some apps require you use Exit instead.  (They often still have a ‘Close’ command, but in that case it won’t necessarily stop the programme from running.)
7. Related to the previous point, you can access applications running in the background by holding the menu button (the one with the BlackBerry logo on it).  Depending on your model, there will be programmes that you cannot actually close permanently.  (On my Bold, the Browser, Phone, Home Screen, Messages, and BlackBerry Messenger apps are always running.)

Some personal favourite apps include:

• ÜberTwitter is my favourite Twitter client.  It’s far faster than the seemingly popular Twitterberry/OpenBeak.
• Macleans is a nicely formatted version of the magazine, though it occasionally cuts articles slightly short and tells you to find the rest on newsstands.

The one minor gripe I have is that I can’t access Gmail-specific features from within the Messages app.  The BlackBerry suggested I download a special “Gmail plug-in” when I first set up my email account, which would allow me to do things like flag and categorise messages.  This works great, however I have to run it as a separate programme.  When I look at my email from within the default Messages app though,  I can’t do any of that Gmail-specific stuff.  It sort of defeats the purpose of having a consolidated inbox, and calling the programme a “plug-in.”  Hopefully I’m just missing something, or it will be corrected soon.

I can’t believe I didn’t think to write about this before.  At the time, it didn’t occur to me to take a photo until I was half done the glass…

Over a month ago I had the pleasure of attending the official launch party for Dieu du Ciel!‘s, a Montréal-based brewpub,  products in Ontario at Bar Volo.  I discovered Dieu du Ciel! through a friend (blurred in the background of the photo) who’d also introduced me to Bar Volo, previously the only place you could find these beers in Ontario.

I used to love beer.  The problem is, since discovering this brewery, nothing else has been as good.  I’ll occasionally still drop by the LCBO, but if they don’t have Peche Mortel or Corne du Diable in stock, I’m just not interested.

Those are the only two that are being bottled for Ontario currently.  The LCBO is low at this particular moment.  When they do have stock, they seem to primarily fill the Summerhill, Atrium at Bay, and St. Lawrence Market locations.

The brewery has an amazing variety of phenomenal beers.  November is supposed to be bringing a selection to taps at the good beer bars in Toronto (in addition to Volo): C’est What?, The Rhino, Victory Cafe, Smokeless Joe’s, etc.  One of the promised draughts is a cocoa-vanilla stout, Aphrodisiaque, the best beer I’ve had in my entire life.

I just wish I’d been aware of them in my previous trips to Montréal.  I need to make a trip there just to visit the pub.

Part 1

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How do you prepare a lather?

In classic shaving, you have a choice of cheap plain boar brushes ($15-25), or badger brushes.  Badger brushes are generally broken down into, ‘pure badger’ ($23-40), ‘best badger’ ($40-60) and ‘silvertip’ ($60-300+).  There are also synthetic brushes ($20-60) available for vegans ($1).

Boar brushes are stiff; pure badger are soft; best badger is stiffer than pure, but holds more water; silvertip is the softest, and holds a metric tonne of water.  I don’t know much about synthetic brushes, but apparently they’re ‘pretty good’ (whatever that means), so you don’t have to feel like you’re getting a poor experience if you conscientiously object to a rodent being killed for its coat.

I started with a $13 Omega boar-hair brush, found at Shopper’s Drug Mart.  It was good enough to really get me into this whole classic shaving thing.  I eventually upgraded to a mid-range ($160) Muhle silvertip brush.  It was a lot nicer, but it didn’t seem worth the huge premium.  I bought it because I felt I was invested enough into this method, and didn’t want to buy anything else for another twenty years or so.  After getting used to it though, the old boar brush was unusable: it felt like I was pushing a stiff old paintbrush around on my face.

I recently bought an Edwin Jagger best badger travel brush, and after getting used to the silvertip, the difference was huge.  It was prickly, scratchy, and took a long time to make a good lather.

Something else it reminded me of, new badger brushes stink.  The silvertip took some time to lose the scent.  I used the strongest menthol soaps I had until the brush no longer had its distinctive musk.  This travel brush will take some time.  Apparently you can use shampoo, conditioner, or Borax to get rid of the smell if you absolutely cannot tolerate it.

Ultimately the point of the brush is to generate a lather with shaving soap or cream, but secondarily it stimulates your follicles, helping lift the hair away from your skin before you actually go to shave.  It probably helps also clear away any dirt and oil.  The larger the brush (the more bristles), the more effective and faster it will be at each of these tasks.

All that said, I don’t think it really matters what brush you start with.  If you’re just experimenting, the cheapest brushes are good enough.  If you’re going to stick with the whole regimen however, you’ll eventually want to upgrade.  The trick is avoiding ‘acquisition disorder’ and just buying one good brush if you have some idea of what you want.  There are fanatics online with a dozen or more brushes (a very informative video on this subject).  So I suggest that you start with a boar brush, but skip straight to silvertip if you can afford it, if you decide to stick with making your own lather while shaving.

It’s awesome.

The general online sentiment however is that this device is a pile-of-crap, that you’re “a motherfucking idiot if you buy that piece of shit,” etc.

I really don’t get it.  One caveat: I upgraded from a PSP-1001.  Things like physical dimensions, and the extra memory cache present in the 2000 & 3000 series devices I have no familiarity with.  I love the tiny dimensions, the quality of the games available to it, and how freaking light it is.  It doesn’t feel cheap.

Most of the arguments against it seem to stem from a perceived high launch price and the lack of a UMD transfer option.

The price argument is stupid.  It’s the price of admission for being an early adopter.  This isn’t any different from any other new technology.  Can’t afford it?  Don’t think it’s worth it?  No one is forcing you to buy it.  But people love feeling entitled and bitching.

The lack of UMD transfer was hardly a surprise.  Yeah it would have been nice, but how could the company possibly ensure that there wouldn’t be thousands of software copies made from a single physical disc?

It wasn’t a deal-breaker for me.  I actually just went and traded in every single one of my UMDs because I figured I had enough games anyway, and I was never going to get around to beating those particular titles if I hadn’t already.  I’d owned them for years.  Something to be said for the PSP platform in general, the A-list titles typically have a good 50 hours of gameplay each, at least.

Having access to those A-list titles in such a tiny pocketable form though is of immense value to me.  Admittedly the novelty hasn’t worn off, but the Go goes everywhere I do, no pun intended.  The old PSP-1001 was a real brick to carry around; it wasn’t remotely pocket-sized, nevermind with that plexiglass Logitech Playgear case which was popular at the beginning.

With my PSP-1001 I was already ripping all my UMD games to the MemoryStick with hacked firmware and homebrew available to it.  I hated carrying around extra media, and they loaded many times faster from flash.  As it is, I’ve been declaring war on most physical media.  I was glad to trade in my UMDs.  I’m looking to dump my CD collection and have whole-heartedly embraced iTunes.  I’ve been buying PC games from Steam for years whenever possible.  So the Go really fits my mindset.

I did enjoy access to homebrew (NES/SNES emulators, an ebook reader, some indie games) on the old PSP, but I realised I wasn’t using any of it anyway.  The PSP-1001 d-pad was terrible for NES games with its lack of diagonals.  I’ve been reading books on my iPod Touch instead with Stanza.  The indie games were novel, but nothing I couldn’t live without.

The only nitpick I have with the device is that it’s silly that, while you can leave the screen on and watch video with the device closed, there are no real play controls outside.  There’s volume … but then screen brightness and mute/equaliser (really helpful).  At least you can pause with the ‘PS’ button.  This really makes it almost useless as an MP3 player as well, something that with the slightest bit of effort it could have been at least competent with.  (Technically, you could make playlists in advance…)

The only major issue I have with it is that you’re tied solely to the whims of the Playstation Network store.  You can buy digital titles from Amazon.com as well, but their prices are all worse-to-substantially-worse when you consider conversion from USD to CAD at the low end, and arbitrarily inflated prices at the high-end (Killzone: Liberation is $13 CAD on the PSN store or $40 USD on the Amazon.com store).

So far though, Sony seems to have been pretty good with sales, which is how Steam suckered me in.  I already owned Patapon 2 & Jeanne D’Arc digitally from my original PSP, but picked up the well-priced Killzone.  The sale this week had me picking up a Mercury bundle for $10 (Marble Madness-like games) since I felt I was lacking a good puzzle game.  That’s already a something-stupid 250 hours of gameplay or so…