This quick guide will explain how to install MAME (Multi Arcade Machine Emulator) onto your Jailbroken iPhone

Ok, before we begin, you need to check that you have the following configured:-

• iPhone (Jailbroken) with Cydia installed
• A PC (or Mac) with a SFTP (SSH Secure FTP) client (FileZilla is a nice ‘free’ client)
• A copy of the ROMs you want to play
• A fair idea of how to use Cydia, SFTP, SSH etc…

Step 1.

Install Mame4iPhone, simply search on Cydia for ‘Mame’ (from the ZodTTD repository) and it will be the 2nd or 3rd item down the list.

Step 2.

Install “WhatIP” from Cydia (this app will tell you what IP address your iPhone is using)

Step 3.

Go back to the iPhone home screen, and tap on the WhatIP icon. You should see something like this:-

Step 4.

SFTP into your iPhone – The default username / password is “root” and “alpine”  [As a side note, its a good idea to change this!]

Place the ROM’s into the following folder: /var/mobile/Media/ROMs/MAME/roms

Step 5.

Play !!!!

Hi Avid Reader,

As you probably know by now, I’m a VB programmer. I’ve spent many year using VB6, and am now (under duress) having to migrate to VB.NET.

The purpose of this article is to show you some cool hint’s, tip’s, trick’s and bug-fixes that I’ve found along the way. I’ll be updating this Blog entry as time moves forward, so stay tuned to this one!

List View Flickers

This is just plain stupid. The standard ListView control (as part of the Common Control Library 6) invalidates the entire control each time a new item is added – e.g. lvInfo.Items.Add(“Hello World”)

This can be fixed using a little bit of Windows ‘SendMessage’ tweaking;

' Place at the top of the Form Class

Declare Auto Function SendMessage Lib "user32.dll" (ByVal hWnd As IntPtr, _
 ByVal msg As Integer, _
 ByVal wParam As IntPtr, _
 ByVal lParam As IntPtr) As IntPtr

 Const LVM_FIRST = &H1000
 Const LVM_SETEXTENDEDLISTVIEWSTYLE = (LVM_FIRST + 54)
 Const LVM_GETEXTENDEDLISTVIEWSTYLE = (LVM_FIRST + 55)
 Const LVS_EX_DOUBLEBUFFER = &H10000
 Const LVS_EX_BORDERSELECT = &H8000

' Place in the Form_Load event

 Dim styles As Long
 styles = SendMessage(lvInfo.Handle, LVM_GETEXTENDEDLISTVIEWSTYLE, 0, 0&)
 styles = styles Or LVS_EX_DOUBLEBUFFER Or LVS_EX_BORDERSELECT
 Call SendMessage(lvInfo.Handle, LVM_SETEXTENDEDLISTVIEWSTYLE, 0, styles)

This fix gives you a nice, smooth update each time.

The next fix is “How to keep the last item entered into a ListView visible…”

lv = myFormName.lvInfo.Items.Add("My Information to Show")
lv.EnsureVisible()

Simple, but effective!

Getting the App.Path in VB.NET

Another simple one (when you know it!) :-

Dim AppPath As String = Application.StartupPath()

Reading and Writing INI Files

Microsoft wants us to abandon INI Files and use XML instead. Whilst this may seem logical, its not always the simplest way of doing something (which sums VB.NET up really….) – This Class will give you a simple way of reading and writing INI Files.

Public Class IniFile
 ' API functions
 Private Declare Ansi Function GetPrivateProfileString _
 Lib "kernel32.dll" Alias "GetPrivateProfileStringA" _
 (ByVal lpApplicationName As String, _
 ByVal lpKeyName As String, ByVal lpDefault As String, _
 ByVal lpReturnedString As System.Text.StringBuilder, _
 ByVal nSize As Integer, ByVal lpFileName As String) _
 As Integer
 Private Declare Ansi Function WritePrivateProfileString _
 Lib "kernel32.dll" Alias "WritePrivateProfileStringA" _
 (ByVal lpApplicationName As String, _
 ByVal lpKeyName As String, ByVal lpString As String, _
 ByVal lpFileName As String) As Integer
 Private Declare Ansi Function GetPrivateProfileInt _
 Lib "kernel32.dll" Alias "GetPrivateProfileIntA" _
 (ByVal lpApplicationName As String, _
 ByVal lpKeyName As String, ByVal nDefault As Integer, _
 ByVal lpFileName As String) As Integer
 Private Declare Ansi Function FlushPrivateProfileString _
 Lib "kernel32.dll" Alias "WritePrivateProfileStringA" _
 (ByVal lpApplicationName As Integer, _
 ByVal lpKeyName As Integer, ByVal lpString As Integer, _
 ByVal lpFileName As String) As Integer
 Dim strFilename As String

 ' Constructor, accepting a filename
 Public Sub New(ByVal Filename As String)
 strFilename = Filename
 End Sub

 ' Read-only filename property
 ReadOnly Property FileName() As String
 Get
 Return strFilename
 End Get
 End Property

 Public Function GetString(ByVal Section As String, _
 ByVal Key As String, ByVal [Default] As String) As String
 ' Returns a string from your INI file
 Dim intCharCount As Integer
 Dim objResult As New System.Text.StringBuilder(256)
 intCharCount = GetPrivateProfileString(Section, Key, _
 [Default], objResult, objResult.Capacity, strFilename)
 If intCharCount > 0 Then GetString = _
 Left(objResult.ToString, intCharCount)
 End Function

 Public Function GetInteger(ByVal Section As String, _
 ByVal Key As String, ByVal [Default] As Integer) As Integer
 ' Returns an integer from your INI file
 Return GetPrivateProfileInt(Section, Key, _
 [Default], strFilename)
 End Function

 Public Sub WriteString(ByVal Section As String, _
 ByVal Key As String, ByVal Value As String)
 ' Writes a string to your INI file
 WritePrivateProfileString(Section, Key, Value, strFilename)
 Flush()
 End Sub

 Public Sub WriteInteger(ByVal Section As String, _
 ByVal Key As String, ByVal Value As Integer)
 ' Writes an integer to your INI file
 WriteString(Section, Key, CStr(Value))
 Flush()
 End Sub

 Private Sub Flush()
 ' Stores all the cached changes to your INI file
 FlushPrivateProfileString(0, 0, 0, strFilename)
 End Sub

 End Class

 

This can be used in the following manner:-

 Dim settings As New IniFile(Application.StartupPath & "\My_INI_File.ini")
 gCustName = settings.GetString("General", "CustName", "Not Registered")
 gCustSerial = settings.GetString("General", "CustSerial", "")

Welcome again avid reader,

Due to a very wet spring followed by a wet July, and a fantastic August, we have an abundant crop of Sloes this year. Sloes are the fruit of the Blackthorn shrubs, and when ready to pick, show a white-ish blush on the otherwise deep purple berries.

These plum-like berries are very bitter, and are only used in Jams and preserves or as a core ingredient in Sloe Gin.

Traditionally you should wait for the first frost, or even place them in the freezer overnight, but after experimentation over the last couple of years I can categorically state that this seems to have no effect whatsoever, and just appears to be folklore!

My ‘Dengie’ recipe is as follows;

• 1 x empty screw-top wine bottle (or bottle with a cork that removes easy… e.g. Port, Sherry or Pineau)
• Fresh Sloes
• 1 x Small Wine Glass of Sugar (normal granulated is fine)

Method:-

• Clean and rinse the target bottle.
• 1/2 fill with Gin (use a half-decent Gin for best results)
• Tip the wine glass of sugar into the bottle
• Wash the Sloes
• Pierce the Sloes with a fork (no… a ‘Silver’ one is not mandatory – despite folklore!) and place in bottle till the Gin and Sloes reach halfway up the neck of the bottle.

Note: If the Gin reaches the neck before the Sloes, tip some away (into the next bottle obviously!) as the Sloes and Gin should reach the neck of the bottle at the same time.

Ongoing Care:

• Shake the bottles vigorously once a day for the first week (the sugar will settle, so try to get it evenly mixed)
• After Week 1, shake weekly
• Wait for at least 3 months then decant the Gin (minus the berries and any sediment – I use a fine mesh sieve lined with muslin cloth) into fresh bottles

Sloe Gin is best served as a sipping aperitif in shot-glasses, or over ice for a longer drink (or carried in a hip-flask for those cold winter mornings!).

I’m told that the boozy-Sloes can be used to make an interesting Jam/Jelly afterwards, but I haven’t tried this myself yet!

Hi All,

After much messing around, I have jailbroken my iPhone 3G that I updated to 3.0 firmware on Friday.

Please note that if you want to copy my instructions and do this to your own phone YOU DO SO AT YOUR OWN RISK.

NOTE: These instructions explain how to JAILBREAK an iPhone 3G NOT an iPhone 3GS.

“Jailbreak” means you can run ‘unauthorised’ applications that are not in the Apple Store – It does NOT mean ‘UNLOCK’  for use on other mobile networks. Please don’t ask me how to do that.

Ok, first of all, go to http://redsn0w.com, follow the link and then download the 0.7.2 redsnow jailbreak app and unzip to a folder on your desktop.

Plug in your iPhone to the PC and ensure that you switch it OFF after you connect the USB cable.

Next run the redsn0w.exe file.

Browse to find your ipsw firmware file. This will be located in:-

 c:\Document and Settings\<your login name>\applications data\
     Apple Computer\iTunes\iPhone Software Update. 

I suggest you back up the ipsw file before you begin.

Click “Next” and ensure that you ONLY INSTALL CYDIA – If you install ICY, most of the dependencies get screwed up and you can’t download anything in Cydia.

Next follow the on-screen instructions carefully, which are:-

1. Hold down the power button till the Apple logo appears
2. Immediately hold down the Home button (whilst still holding down the power button) for about another 8 secs.
3. Release the power button, but keep the home held down for another 20 secs

During this process, the PC may install a new USB driver. If things seem to fail because of this, just start the process from the beginning.

Once the Jailbreak process starts DO NOT DISCONNECT THE CABLE OR INTERRUPT IT!

The whole thing takes about 5 mins.

On completion, go into Cydia and search for OpenSSH and install that, then install WhatIP – Once both are installed, run WhatIP to get the IP address of your iPhone and then use something like PuTTY to SSH into your phone to test it.

The username is “root” and the password is “alpine” (these are the default), if you have been successful, you should see something like this:-

Now you may ask yourself “What are the advantages” of this?

Well, some of the ‘cute’ things that Apple have now released in their 3.0 update were previously available via Cydia.

Along with these things (like Cut’n'paste, video recording etc), there are a lot of apps that Apple simply did not want users to have access to.

Fundimentally the iPhone is a Linux phone based on a Debian distribution, and because of this there are a whole raft of applets and tools that are being ported to work on this phone.

Here are some examples of the Cydia app’s that I’ve installed and use:-

“Make it Mine” - This overrides the carrier name to anything you want.

“WhatIP” (mentioned above) – Shows the IP address of your iPhone

“CompactTV” – Watch or Download South Park, Family Guy, Simpsons and American Dad

Hi All,

I’ve just upgraded my iPhone to 3.0 and was alarmed to see that to utilise Internet Tethering (which frankly, would be a ‘last resort’), I would need to pay O2 an additioanl £14.68 a month on top of my existing data connection!

Fear not humble iPhone users, there is a solution out there. Browse to this URL from Safari on the iPhone:-

http://www.iphone-notes.de/mobileconfig/

Select your country and carrier,  and download the Tethering profile (ignore the warning message)

Note: This doesn’t mean you get data for ‘free’, but if you already have a ‘data package’ it should be included within that, rather than paying a separate ‘Tethering’ charge (like O2 are trying to get you to do!)

When you go back into Settings, General, Network you will now see that the Internet Tethering is ‘Off‘ (as opposed to ’set up’)

If you now tap on the “Internet Tethering“, you get a new screen that allows you to enable it

Just as a footnote – if you are wondering how I captured the screens on an iPhone, simply press the top power button and the home button at the same time, and the current screen is saved to the camera roll.

Hi all,

Nokia 6680

Having just upgraded to the iPhone, I then had the task of disposing of my old phone(s) – The problem is that the kids always want to steal my previous devices, but are on a different network to me.

One of the phones (a Nokia 6680) was SIM-Locked to Orange. This phone is of the type ‘BB5′, this means that the only way to unlock this till recently has been to take it to a shop. Well not any more!

This is the step by step guide to unlocking Nokia’s of the type: 6630, 6681, 6680, N70, N71, N90, N91

• Get a DKU-5 (or equivalent F-Bus) cable. The normal USB cable that comes with the phone is not suitable, it must be an F-Bus cable.
• Install Nokia PC Suite (any recent version)
• Plug the cable into the phone and then into your USB port and let your phone get detected.
• Close down any Nokia Applications that might start up.
• Right-Click on My Computer, and then on ‘Manage’
• Click on ‘Hardware Manager’ in the left-hand pane
• Expand the ‘Ports’ section and check which port the Nokia phone is on – NOTE THIS DOWN!

Ok – Next stage is to get the software.

You need to get the BB5 Calculator from here: http://users.net.yu/~dejan – [Direct Download LINK]

• Unzip the file to C:\bb5_unlocker
• Edit the “bb5_unlocker.cfg” file and change the COM Port to the one you noted above
• Double-click on install.bat
• Click on “READ PHONE”
• When it says ‘Done’, click on “MAKE LOG”
• Copy the xxx.log file (e.g. 317617303633274_BB5.log) from the /logs subfolder into the /psw folder
• Click on Exit
• Double-Click on BB5_calc.exe – it should say “Done”
• In the /psw subfolder, there will now be an xxx.psw file. Open this is in Notepad, and you will have all the unlock codes. You can either enter these manually, or :-
• double-click on BB5logunlocker.exe
• click on SP Unlock

Following these instructions, I managed to unlock two 6680’s in 2 mins flat!

Hello Avid Reader,

Yes… It’s true… I have succumbed to the coolest gadget of them all; The Apple iPhone.

I resisted for a while (mainly due to it only being available on O2 in the UK), but in the end managed to get O2 to take over our 12 phone contract from Orange, give us 3 iPhone’s and 5 Nokia E71’s (plus a couple of spare phones), and even pay our termination clause on the Orange contract. It just shows how desperate the carriers are to get you tied into a 2 year contract nowadays!

Anyway….

First impressions; As with all Apple packaging, you feel a little disappointed as it is always very minimalist, but once you start playing with the iPhone, you realise why it is so much better than the other touch enabled devices out there. I’ve had the LG Prada, HTC Touch, HTC Touch Pro, and even the Samsungs with touch sensative buttons. I can honestly say that they are not even in the same ball-park as the iPhone.

Ok, onto the top free Apps (and as always, please feel free to comment with your fav’s as well!)

1. Free RSS Reader – forget the others, this does exactly what it say’s on the tin. Add all your favourite feeds, or browse to a site and it automatically detects any feeds that are available.  Supports Landscape
2. Google Earth – Just because it is sooooo cool to zoom in on your own house. Supports ’tilt’ view.
3. eBay – Yes… I do need to know what I am bidding on or selling 24/7 !!!!
4. iTranslate – this does need a data connection, but allows you to save phrases so that you can prepare for your encounter at the patisserie in advance! – Also has the ability to play the phrase (a little scratchy,  but still useful!) out of the speaker/headphones.
5. last.fm – Ideal for all those Audioscrobblers out there… plays your fave’s and lets you listen to the usual last.fm radio selections.
6. MMS – because the iPhone can’t do this yet!
7. VNC Lite – Allows me to manage a server remotely. It’s a bit fiddly, but it does let you do everything you need to in an emergency (e.g. Reboot the server or reload your software)
8. midomi – Remember “Shazam!”… well that cost’s £1.00 per go!… Midomi is *free* (and surprisingly recognised me humming the Godfather theme!)
9. Stanza – good intuitive eBook reader
10. GuitarChords – handy pocket aide-memoir for all your Guitar Chord needs
11. Ok, this one is a ‘Paid for’ (£2.99) application called TV Plus, but what a fantastic applet… this program allows you to view the TV listings for your region, and then instruct your Sky+ or SkyHD box to record it no matter where you are! It uses a pre-registered “My Sky” account name / password to log into Sky and then remotely instruct your Sky box to record!

Silly Stuff!

1. Pac Man Lite – Namco’s original, now ported to the iPhone
2. Jellycar – I can’t even begin to explain this… just download it and laugh!
3. Labyrinth LE – great use of the inertia sensors for marble madness fun.
4. Darts -yep… it’s Darts!
5. FS5 Hockey – Remember those happy days at the seaside playing Air Hockey with your sister!

Tips;

1. Removing an App or rearranging the ‘Desktops’

If you hold down your finger on any icon for more than a few seconds and all the icons wobble. Once they are wobbling, you can drag them from one ‘desktop’ screen to another. You can also delete them by clicking on the (X) icon in the top-left of the icon.

2. Drag an App to the far right-screen to create a new ‘desktop’ area.

Thunderbird Syncing

Ok, this is a problem at the moment, only solved by using 3rd party app’s.

Here is a solution for contacts only (calendar to follow shortly apparantly)

1. Install Funambol Mozilla Plugin into your copy of Thunderbird [link]

2. Install the Funambol iPhone app (just search for it in the Apple App store)

3. Create a free account at Funambol [link]

4. Enter the account details into the options page of Funambol on both the iPhone and Thunderbird

5. Click on Tools, Funambol Plugin on Thunderbird and click on ‘Click to Syncronize’ and wait to finish

6. Click on the Funambol icon on your iPhone and do the same

You can set Thunderbird to sync both the contacts and calendar, but only the contacts arrive on the iPhone at present. The Thunderbird client can also be set to sync automatically (but not the iPhone end)

Last Update: 11th Jan 2009

Hi all,

As a developer I tend to install an awful lot of freeware, shareware and paid-for applications on my PC in order to assist me with the day-to-day development of applications.

However… over the years I have noticed a trend where Microsoft themselves release a lot of ”applets’ under the guise of “Microsoft Research”, “Technet” or “SysInternals” (www.SysInternals.com is now part of Microsoft Technet)

I have compiled a (not exhaustive, so please contribute) list of my favourite utilities and applications which are mainly from Microsoft (with a couple from other sources) that enhance Windows XP and Windows 2003. I haven’t tested them on Vista (as I still don’t use it!), but I suspect most of them will still work.

SysInternals Applets

• Process Explorer – A proper replacement for Windows Task Manager. This improved applet allows you to explore each process properly (instead of just showing 20 copies of RunDll32.exe like Windows Task Manager does!)

Process Explorer in Action

• FileMon – This shows all real-time file activity (with the ability to filter). Without this application I never would have fixed the album artwork issue I had on my Media PC (everything showed up as ‘The Searchers’ !!!)
• TCPView – This displays a list of all open TCP sockets, their destinations and the application that opened them. Essential for tracking trojan or malware infections.
• ADExplorer – Ideal lightweight tool for exploring Active Directory or LDAP servers. Fast, portable and free!
• BGInfo – Great applet for Server Installations. You can use this tool to display the configuration (machine name, IP address, MAC address + much more) as the desktop background. Great when you are using a KVM to access multiple machines.

BGInfo in action

Powertoys / Control Panel Tweaks

• Sequoia View – An excellent tool for visualising the contents of your hard disk (and where all the space went!)
• ClearType Tuning Control Panel – ‘Tunes’ the ClearType fonts to make them work with your LCD Display
• Command Prompt Here – Add’s an ‘Open Command Prompt Here’ option to Explorer’s right-click menu
• TweakUI – this is the ultimate Windows XP powertool, letting you change *lots* of system settings…

Fun Stuff & Utilities

• Webcam Timershot – Takes a picture of from your Webcam and saves it to your hard disk at preset intervals
• Virtual PC – Lets you run Windows, Linux or even Windows Server on your PC as a ‘Virtual Machine’
• Zune Desktop Theme – Get a nice tidy ‘Black’ look to your Windows XP desktop
• Mount ISO’s – This applet works like Daemon Tools, allowing you to mount an ISO as a virtual CD Rom drive

System Application/Applet Replacements

• Notepad2 – Everything that Notepad should have been! Line numbers, syntax highlighting, plus much more…
• 7Zip – Everything that PKZip used to be…. the ultimate Zip/unzipper, and even supports all those nasty .gz and .tar unix formats as well!
• PuTTY – Forget Hyperterminal, PuTTY is a *tiny* Telnet application that also supports SSH, Serial and just about every terminal type you will need. Ideal to put on your USB key.
• UltraVNC – This is a cross-platform remote control application that works in the same manner as PCAnywhere or GoToMyPC, except it’s ‘Free’, fast and works with all the VNC protocols. This means you can effectively control a Linux box from Windows (and visa-versa) or even your server from a mobile phone!

I will be updating this list periodically, but please feel free to comment with some more suggestions!

Paul.

Hi All,

I’ve had my trusty Samsung i600 for some time now, and I feel that I finally have it working to the point where everything I actually use is now installed on it!

So, here are my top 10 downloads / purchases for the i600

1. Windows Mobile 6

Yes, if you bought your phone a while ago, then you definately need Windows Mobile 6. It’s faster, more stable, and has a few new features. You can upgrade this yourself on the Samsung website, or (if like me) if you have Orange UK, follow my guide [here]

2. SDA_ApplicationUnlock.exe [sda_unlock Download]

This smart little applet allows you to run ‘unsigned’ applications on your Windows Mobile device. Obviously care should be taken, but generally, as long as you know what you are doing, all should be fine. I’ve tested this unlocker on the HTC Touch, HTC Touch Diamond and the Samsung i600 without any issues.

3. BirdieSync (commercial, but worth it!) [http://www.birdiesync.com/]

This applet basically crowbar’s itself into Microsoft’s ActiveSync, and thereby allows you to syncronise your Windows PocketPC / Smartphone with Thunderbird. Not only will it sync emails &  contacts, it will also sync with Sunbird and Lightning! Well worth the €19

4. Google Maps [www.google.com/gmm] (See item 10 as well!)

Ok… I know that i600 doesn’t have GPS built it, but as a ‘quick hack’, you can use an external GPS mouse, and armed with Google Maps, get a rudimentary Sat Nav. Obviously there are limitations dues to download speeds, and of course data costs need to be taken into consideration, but as a stop-gap this works well.

5. Ilium Software’s Screen Capture [http://www.iliumsoft.com]

This great little application allows you to take screen shots of your Windows Mobile device for inclusion in Blogs (I use it here a lot) or just for tech support purposes.

6. Mobile Registry Editor [Mobile Registry Editor Download]

This is probably one of the best registry editors for Mobile devices that I have come across. It runs on your PC (rather than the device), and uses ActiveSync as a conduit to access the registry. It’s fast, and easy to use. What more do you need?

7. BTCrawler [btcrawler-v110-beta Download]

This tool allows you to go a bit of Bluejacking on your Windows Smartphone or Pocket PC. The author of this software (http://www.silentservices.de) had to withdraw it after Germany brought in anti-hacking laws. Unfortunately some useful tools, such as this, suddenly became illegal. In any case, you can download it here (among other places), and it is great for diagnosing issues with handsfree kits etc.

8. BTARouter – Commercial [http://www.chartcross.co.uk/]

This commercial application (costs about £5) allows you to route all the Audio from your mobile device (MP3’s, games etc) into your Bluetooth headset.

9. Quickmark[http://www.quickmark.com.tw]

You will notice that there is a 2d ‘barcode’ on the home page of my blog – these are call QR Codes. You can see similar ones on other websites (I think Makezine used to have them…). The applet makes use of your Smartphone’s camera in order to ‘read’ the barcode. Once decrypted, it will then give the the ability to visit the site (for URL’s) or dial the telephone number. The applet is suprisingly fast (takes about 1/10th of a sec to pick up the details) and works flawlessly on my i600. Each screen capture is stored in the ‘My Documents’ folder on the mobile device as serialised BMP files, e.g. sshot000.bmp, sshot001.bmp etc.

10. GPS Test (Free) [http://www.chartcross.co.uk/]

This is a handy free took from Chartcross that gives you the means to test an external GPS mouse on your Windows mobile device.

Feel free to comment with more useful tools for us Windows Mobile 6 users!

Hi Happy readers,

Those of you that have a WM5 or WM6 device know the horror of Picsel – yes that interminable wait as you watch the spinner on your screen whilst it loads.

I have a nice easy solution for you!

This registry hack reverts all image views back to the default WM5/6 built-in viewer.

I suggest using “Mobile Registry Editor” by Breaksoft for this.

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\bmpimage\Shell\Open\Command

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\bmpimage\Shell\DRMOpen\Command

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\gifimage\Shell\Open\Command

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\gifimage\Shell\DRMOpen\Command

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\jpgimage\Shell\Open\Command

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\jpgimage\Shell\DRMOpen\Command

Change the "Default" value from “picselifv.exe” “%1" компютри втора употребаto “pimg.exe” “%1"

This takes instant effect, and makes for a much happier user )

Paul

6th June 08

Can’t make it to the casino because your TomTom’s broken? Don’t worry, you can still rock any blackjack game online with your knowledge of black jack rules and black jack strategies from GamblingCity.net!

Hi All,

Well once again I have a new phone!

It seems that Orange UK wanted to upgrade my business account (saving me £2000+ per year) and give me 6 new phones in the process!

The one I decided to play with is the HTC Touch, and obviously I had to get under the bonnet and have a little ‘tweak’ )

Unlocking

Ok, this is pretty straighforward. All you need to do is run two apps on the HTC, and one on your PC to recover the 8-digit lock code.

Here are the exact steps:-

• Download HTC Unlocker (Google to find it!)
• Connect your Phone and establish the usual Activesync Connection.
• Browse the the ‘My Documents’ folder on the phone and place the Cert_SPCS.cab and the EnableRapi.cab in there
• Run Cert_SPCS.cab and EnableRapi.cab by using “File Explorer” -Click through any warnings
• ON YOUR PC: Run Touch_Unlock.exe
• A few moments later you will seea file appear in the folder called Unlock_Result.exe
• Open HxD.exe and drag Unlock_Result.exe onto it.
• Look for your IMEI Number (its under your battery) and find it in the Hex File. The 8 Digits that appear after it are the unlock code.
• Place a Sim card from a different provider in your phone, and enter the 8 digit number when prompted (I had to do this twice on my phone)

As you can see, my unlock code was 55644428, but obviously that is tied to my IMEI number (before you try it!) – you will also note that I wiped out the last 4 digits of my IMEI (didn’t want the world to know that info!)

Bluetooth DUN (Dial Up Networking)

As you will know from my previous experiences with trying to get my TomTom working on the Samsung i600, it is almost impossible due to the BT DUN being removed from WM6. Well all is not lost my friends – it seems that on the HTC Touch (and maybe other HTC phones as well), you can install a .cab file that restores this functionality.

Instructions again:-

• Download the WM6 BT DUN Cabinet File [WM6 BT DUN]
• Unzip to Desktop on your PC
• Browse your HTC through ActiveSync and place in “My Documents” on the phone
• ON THE PHONE:Using File Explorer, run the WM6_BT_DUN.cab file and click through any warnings
• Reset your phone
• Run TomTom’s “New Phone” process.

I would recommend updating your TomTom using the TomTom Home application first. These updates seem to really help when it comes to setting up phones, and mine even downloaded the (600 contact!) telephone directory off my HTC without a hitch.

Starting the iPod Diagnostic Mode[photopress:nano_1.jpg,full,alignright]

In order to access the inbuilt Diagnostic menu on the Nano, you need to press a combination of keys immediately after restarting it.

1. Toggle the Hold switch to Hold, the off again.
2. Press and hold Menu and Select (the centre button) for at least 6 secs, or until the Apple logo appears! – for iPod 1G to 3G press Menu and Play – hereafter referred to as the ‘Reset Method’
3. As soon as the Apple Logo appears, press and hold |<< and Select – For iPod 1G to 3G press |<<, >>| and Select

Navigating the Diagnostic Menu

Once you are in Diagnostic Mode, use the >>| and |<< buttons to navigate the menus. In most cases Menu will go back one menu, and Select will select the menu option. You can exit the menu at any time by selecting Power, Reset or by pressing Menu and Select (Menu and Play for 1G to 3G) to reset it.

Note: The menu’s shown below are from my iPod Nano 3G, and may vary to the menus you see.

iPod Diagnostics BuildID: d002

SVC Sep 10 2007 v.0072

—————————————————–
>Power
Sleep
Audio
Video
LCD
IO
Memory
TouchWheel
About

Power:

Within here you have;

1. ACC_Identify – Shows ACC = 2.497V
2. BatteryA2D – Shows 4.062V Ref=255
3. HighPower – Puts the screen on full brightness and shows a start time, Voltage (3.982V) and current (100mA)
4. ChargeCurrent – Shows Cur=100mA Battery = 4.046V
5. Reset – Resets the iPod

Sleep:

Sends the iPod to “DeepSleep” – you’ll need to do the Reset method above to restart it.

Audio:

Allows you to test the Headphone detection and play test tone. Interestingly there is an option to record from ‘Line In’ – Watch out for the Test Tone, its *VERY* loud!!

Video:

Has one option “TVPattern” that didn’t seem to do much, and needed me to do the reset method above to get out of it.

LCD:

Within here you have;

1. ColorPattern: Shows a series of patterns on the LCD. |<< turns off the backlight, >>| sets it to dim, Select goes to next pattern. You have to look at all 25 before you can exit.
2. Backlight: This allows you to check the back light, using the |<<, >>|, Play and Action buttons. Menu exits this screen.
3. ReadLCMID: Reads vendor info about the LCD. Mine Shows Vendor ID: 38 PanelID: 55 BuildID: 71 Read ID: OK

IO: (Input Output)

1. ACC_Switchtest: Not sure what this is… Accessories detector?
2. IOStatuses: Mine shows; HP_DETECT: 1 LCD_ID1:0 LCD_ID2:1 USB_DETECT:0 FW_DETECT:0 ACC_DETECT:0 HOLD_SWITCH:1

Memory:

1. SdramQScan: Does a very quick SDRAM Test
2. NANDSPEC: Mine Shows; NandLBA=991232 NAND SIZE:3.819200

Touch Wheel:

1. TouchWheelID: Mine Shows; 0:9045003a, 1:c609013a, 2:8000023a, 3:8000033a, 4:8066043a, 5:8001053a
2. WheelAndKey: Lets you test the touch wheel and all the keys (interesting that this is the only place the wheel works!)

About:

This shows various information and the iPod’s serial number, as show below

About Information

SrNum: 6U73xxxxxx (Obscured on purpose here!)
Mod#: MA978
Regn: 1 0 2 0 37 0 1
Fwld:
01000000
1a1b9639
000a2700
00000000

HwVr: 00140010

vrsn: 1.32.f.2

So that’s it. Hopefully this will of use to someone who has a problem with the 3rd-Gen Nano!

Dear Avid Reader,

Since getting my Eee PC, I’ve been reading about the ability to overclock the FSB (Front Side Bus). This bus has the capability of running at 100mhz (as opposed to the default 70mhz). The net effect of this is that the CPU speed increases to 900 Mhz from the normal 630 Mhz (which is 70% of 900 Mhz of course!). You must if course be running Ubuntu to do this!

Once you have downloaded the scripts from [here], run the following commands from within the unpacked archive:

sudo ./tweak-gnome.sh
sudo ./install.sh all

Then reboot your EeePC

After doing this, Pressing Fn-F6 will automatically enable the FSB increase, and various other fixes for the EeePC will start working, namely;

• Asus Eee kernel modules
• ACPI support (suspend, hotkeys)
• overclocking code
• Wifi support
• Sound
• Boot speed
• Additional software sources
• Skype two way video

All this can be found on the Ubuntu Eee Wiki located here: http://ubuntu-eee.tuxfamily.org/

Now I know that I have already told you how to do a lot of this in my article about installing Ubuntu on an EeePC, but this does take a lot of the hassle out of it, and it definately gets the overclocking working!

Bluetooth [photopress:trust_usb_bt.jpg,full,alignright]

There has been lots of mods popping up lately that allows you to install a Bluetooth dongle inside your EeePC utilising the additional USB connections that are hidden on the motherboard… well you could of course use a tiny USB dongle like this. You can pick these up for £10, and its a lot less hassle than getting the soldering iron out! One supplier is Novatech [link]

Now as you all know, I *love* my Eee PC, and have spent some time making sure I could get Ubuntu working on it

But I have been totally blow away by the hacks that someone else has made to this diminutive laptop.

How about adding; GPS, Bluetooth, Modem, Flash Card Reader, FM Transmitter, 802.11N Wifi and more!

Well someone has done this, and documented it well. You can find all the internal upgrade details here [Link]

I may well be trying some of this myself, and will post an article with step-by-steps if I do.

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Again: The instructions here are for a European i600 **NOT** a USA i607. If you try this on an AT&T i607, you *will* brick your phone.

As you know; I am a great fan of my Samsung SGH-i600, but I have a little bad news for you… The *Free* WM6 Upgrade that is supplied on the Samsung Website [link] will not work on the ‘Orange’ branded units, or even those that have been ‘debranded’ ( – I have tested this using the various methods (and wiping my phone on each occasion!) in order to prove that it can’t be done.

Curse you Orange, and curse your nasty branded interfaces….

However…. A look at the MoDaCo Wiki [Link] shows a WM6 Flash (not official) !!! – So… I downloaded the 60Mb File, and lo and behold, WM6 on my Samsung – Wooo Hoooooo.

Here are the instructions in Full:-

Please Note: This is entirely at your own risk, and any damage caused directly or indirectly by this information is entirely your responsibility. If you brick your phone, don’t come crying to me – you have been warned!

• Make sure you have ActiveSync 4.5 or higher installed.
• BACKUP YOUR PHONE -Use ActiveSync to backup the contacts, and browse to the phone for images / mp3’s etc.
  
• Download the Modem Driver (required for ‘Flashing’) [ZIP] and install it.
• Download the i600UXXGG2 WM6 RAR file and unpack [Link to MoDoCo page] [Alternative Link to RapidShare Download of the same file]
• Ensure that you ‘disable‘ the USB Connection in the ActiveSync Connection Settings whilst you attempt this.
• Place phone into ‘Flasher Mode’ (click on image for larger view)
• Run the WM6 upgrader – Ensure that you have a fully charged battery, and that you don’t interrupt the (rather long) upgrade process – it will say complete several times… wait until the ‘Flasher’ screen disappears off the phone. (NOTE: Can take up to 5 mins)
  
• Wait for phone to reboot – it takes about 5 mins to complete the process - be patient whilst its on the Windows Mobile Screen!!!
• Wait for the phone to reboot again… (normal startup speed this time!)
• Restore the USB connection in ActiveSync
• Restore all your images / mp3s and re-sync your contacts.

Once completed, if you should see version CE OS 5.2.1437 – i600UXXGG2

You’ll notice it says 5.2 – well that is the official internal version number for WM6!

Impressions;

Well… you’ll notice that some of the icons have been improved. There is a new ‘Windows Live’ screen (Search and Live login), a Live Messenger icon and it seems a bit faster. I’ll update this as I use it over the next few days….

Some more Blackjack / SGH-i600 goodies for you;

1. Samsung i600 User Guide [PDF]
2. Modem Driver (required for ‘Flashing’) [ZIP]
3. Alternative WM6 Upgrade Instructions (if you haven’t got a UK ‘Orange’ version… Grrr) [Link]
4. Top 10 Applications for Windows Mobile [Link]

UPDATED on 18th Jan – Someone (somehow) managed to attack this page….

Dear Avid Reader,

Here we are once again with one of my ‘real world’ hack’s… This one gets used almost every day!

In my modest home in Latchingdon, Essex – England, I have a ‘Bar in the Garden’. This ‘Bar’ is approx 25′ x 18′ and has an indoor BBQ, Gas Heating and a Bar Counter with cupboards, fridges and glass shelves.

Clearly I needed to think carefully about the entertainment system!

My key requirements were:-

• Music, TV & Internet

Now the Music would obviously come from my huge MP3 collection (and even bigger CD collection), TV would come from Satellite TV via a dish on the side of the bar.

After messing about with Windows Media Edition, I decided on using Media Portal (www.team-mediaportal.com)  which is a fantastic open-source Media Center application. Not only does it provide the usual DVD/MP3/Pictures interface, but also supports TV Cards, EPG and even a TiVO-style recording facility.

All the sound hardware was derived from old HiFi amplifiers and surround-sound systems, and the TV was a £150 HD Ready no-name from Comets.

The app plays nice with Hauppauge TV / Remote combination cards, and has a very configurable interface (with skinning capabilities).

At the other end of my bar, I have the Guitar stuff – As you can see below, I’ve set up a 2nd LCD panel (using a TV Interface board I purchased off eBay), add a £20 DVD player from Tesco and you have a play-along-with-the-music system!

As part of my ‘real-world’ job, I write decoders and web interfaces for PABX auditing tools. This is a job that I have done now for nearly 18 years!

I decided therefore avid reader, that you should have a little look at what I do!

• “Man in a van”
• Remote Audit via proprietary software
• Rely on your maintainer’s site records

Man in a Van

Whilst this can be effective, it is has huge cost and environmental disadvantages. In addition, it is hugely time-consuming and can be inaccurate (imagine 10 different engineers all documenting the information in a different manner)

Remote Audit via Vendor Software

Ok – this is quite useful, but generally not particularly effective when you have multiple PABX’s. The reasons are; 

• You cannot automate the process
• You cannot compile the data to give a enterprise view of your estate
• The information is proprietary to each vendor

Rely on Maintainers Site Records

Really?  )

1. Capture the configuration of a PABX regardless of the Vendor
2. Store that information centrally
3. Allow reporting of the configuration in a common manner (that didn’t require PABX training)
4. Provide “enterprise” reports
5. Allow these reports to be run from ANY machine without installing any software (basically, “Web-based”)
6. Allow non-trained users to ‘explore’ the PABX in a tree-like manner
7. Automatically show any changes between two scans (e.g. “Swaps” or “Moves and Changes”)

The solution was “Asset Manager” – This application, borne from the company I work for, meets all of the about and more.

At present we support Mitel, Nortel, Siemens, Avaya, Ericsson and 3Com PABX’s, with more being added all the time. There is a live online demonstration at www.mit-comms.co.uk/asset_manager.asp which lets you explore the ‘tree’ and other reports.

The report engine is written to work with IE5.5+, Opera and FireFox without any plugins or applets.

Here are some examples of the reports it generates:- 

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Click on the Pic to see a bigger version

Hi All,

Well I went and got myself an Asus Eee PC the other day. What a fantastic piece of kit… but I have to say I didn’t like the OS much. You either have a ‘fisher price’ Xandros Linux desktop, or a Xandros KDE based one… Personally (and I am new to linux) I prefer Ubuntu’s Gnome-based layout.

Now in theory, this shouldn’t be too hard, but in order to make sure that this all works properly, I spent a great deal of time researching the process at EeeUser.com and various other sites.

This is my ‘How to’

1. Reboot your Eee PC and ensure that the boot sequence is set to ATAPI CD Rom as the first choice.
2. Plug in a USB CD Caddy and insert your Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon Live CD (Download Here)
3. Once booted, click on Applications, Terminal and type gconf-editor
4. Browse to apps/compiz/plugins/move/allscreens/options and uncheck constrain_y (Full details Here) – This allows you to move any window up beyond the height of the screen, which is very much needed during this install.
5. Double Click on the “Install” Icon on the Desktop. Any time a window doesn’t fit, hold down the Alt key and drag the window off the top of the screen so you can see the buttons.
6. Go through all the normal bits until you get to the Partitioning. Select manual and delete all the existing partitions. Create one partition of 4001Mb that is EXT2 and has a mount point of “/” – Ignore any “swap partition” warnings.
7. Complete Install (answering any obvious questions accordingly)
8. Reboot (after removing the CD)
9. Redo Step 4 again (it gets lost in the install)
10. Acknowledge the Athos “Restricted Driver” message
11. Minimise Disk Writes (All obtained from Eeeuser.com) by doing the following:-
    1. Adding the following to /etc/fstab tmpfs /var/log tmpfs defaults,noatime 0 0
    2. Repeat for /tmp, /var/lock, /var/run and /var/tmp
    3. Set defaults,noatime 0 2 on the main ext2 partition (See HERE for more details) to prevent excessive wear and tear on your SSD
    4. If you ignored me and added a swap partition as well, then edit the /etc/sysctl.conf and add a line at the end that says vm.swappiness=0 this will tell the OS to use RAM in preference to Swap files.
    5. Go into Add/Remove, and remove the pointless applications that are taking up room on your little 4Gb SSD… I removed the following:-
12. 1. Most of the games (Really…How often are you actually going to play these?)
    2. F-spot Photo Manager (I user Flikr, so not needed)
    3. OnBoard (on-screen keyboard… not needed as we have one!)
    4. Orca (I can see just fine thank you…)
    5. Xsane (Nope… no scanners or faxes plugged into my Eee)
13. Get your GMAIL all set up (Samsung tips here apply equally well… http://www.internet-tools.co.uk/blog/index.php?s=gmail)

Ok. So we have a working Eee PC running Ubuntu, but there are a few things ‘Broken’…. Battery Indicator, Wireless Lan, Webcam, Power Buttons, Lid sensor, Skype…..

Go the the Eeeuser.com site HERE to fix these issues (far to long to cut’n'paste here) and pn Samiux’s Blog HERE

But things I did fix from the Eeeuser site were:-

• Wireless network (via ndiswrapper method)
• Suspend/Resume/Power Down issues
• Webcam support (you have to enable it in the BIOS for Ubuntu to see it – it will reboot twice once enabled)

Click on the Pic to see a bigger version

The next thing was to make sure that everything took up as little space as possible. These were the steps I took:-

• Installed the ‘Littlefox’ theme into FireFox (takes up much less screen real-estate)
• Went into Appearance Preferences and set:-
  • All the fonts to 8pt
  • Icons to “Icon Only” (no text)
• Adjusted mouse sensitivity (wasn’t detecting my touchpad-taps very well)
• Set both status bars to 19 pixels in height
• Added my networked HP printer (I use a wireless gateway adapter connected to the Ethernet port on the OfficeJet)

Then I added some goodies…

• Enabled all the repositories in System, Administration, Software Sources
• Updated everything by going into System, Administration, Update Manager
• Installed all the BlueTooth stuff (so I can beam from my Samsung to the Eee PC)
• Installed Camorama (Web Cam Capture and Test App)
• Installed v2 of Skype (it has webcam support under linux)

And thats it…. all working, and I am in fact completing this blog entry on my Eee PC with Ubuntu!

Click on the Pic to see a bigger version

27th November – NOTE: When installing the ndiswrapper, make sure you place the ndis folder that you downloaded from the cd/website somewhere sensible! I deleted the folder (thinking that ndiswrapper would copy the relevant files somewhere) and spent 2 hours trying to get my wireless lan working again

29th November – Added some screenshots of it in action.

30th November – Firstly… sorry if you haven’t been able to view this blog… Fasthosts cobbled my MySQL server Secondly… I have had a minor problem (irritating, more than an issue) where the Eee PC will randomly reboot during the initial boot sequence. Essentially it gets ’stuck’ about 20% through the first Ubuntu progress bar, and then reboots just fine. Haven’t sussed what it is yet, but it only happened after I enabled the Webcam in the BIOS…

UPDATE: 12th May 2008

Sorry if you have experienced ’spam’ or URL redirections from this page. This has been caused by someone hacking my Blog (again!) – Let me know if you spot any more dodgy pop-ups going on. Cheers, Paul

Hi All,

We can you believe it? Finally we get WM6 (for Free!) from Samsung for our sexy little Euro-Blackjacks!

The link is: http://www.samsungmobile.com/promotion/i600/index.jsp

Countries now supported; Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and Ukraine – Austria still greyed-out….

OK, here are the steps required:-

1. Visit the link above and click on UK
2. Enter your version number, this should look something like i600???? to get this information, simply dial *#1546792*# on your phone, select 1 (Version), 2 (Software Version) and then make a note of what is detailed next to PDA Version
3. Complete the contact details, along with the serial number on the back of your phone (under the battery). The Serial should be under the bar code and look something like R7WP44????? (*last 5 digits hidden for obvious reasons!)
4. You should now see a screen that looks like this
   • 
5. Install ActiveSync 4.5
6. Right-Click save the Samsung Driver and then unzip into a folder somewhere and install using the “Setup.exe”
7. Connect your i600 (It will re-detect the drivers for the phone at this point)
8. You may be asked to ‘delete’ a profile (e.g. Windows PC 1) as it the Samsung only holds 2 profiles… just delete both as it makes no difference…
9. BACKUP EVERYTHING!!!!! using ActiveSync… Well… Sync everything anyway. The Samsung FAQ’s state “During the update, all of your data, including your applications, contacts and games, will be erased Please note that it is possible to re-sync your outlook data once your new Firmware is installed, but this depends on your Active Sync settings and saved PC data before you upgrade.” – Browse to the phone and backup all your pictures, sounds etc.
10. Download the Firmware Updater (I suggest using something like “GetRight” as its 90Mb!!!)
11. Run the Updater…. wait a looooonnnnnggggg time
12. Let the phone reboot as required, and there you have it…. Windows Mobile 6

Of course… all you need to do now is restore all your files and applications back again

NOTE: i600XXGD1 firmware (i.e. “De branded” WM5 as detailed in my other listings) seems to come up with “Invalid Version Number” when you run the Updater…. I will post more as and when I solve this….

Is it a conspiricy? I think so….

If you visit the Samsung upgrade site (http://www.samsungmobile.com/promotion/i600/index.jsp) you can download Windows Mobile 6 (WM6) for your Samsung SGH-i600, so long as you don’t live in the UK.

The only provider for the Euro version of the Blackjack in the UK is Orange, and they seem to have an agreement with all the manufacturers that ensures that the software on the phones is branded, and sometimes crippled!

If you visit the site, you will see that many countries are now supported… but alas no UK

[photopress:samsung_upgrade.jpg,full,centered]

Countries now supported; Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands (Holland), Norway, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland and Ukraine – in addition, it appears that Austria and Italy will be available soon as well.

Windows Mobile 5 and 6 Comparison 

I also found a great comparison document that shows the differences between Windows Mobile 5 and 6

Click on the Thumbnail to open the full PDF document in a new window.