Wow, finally it is here everyone! My iPhone 3 is pretty old now, it doesn’t hold charges good anymore and I have been eying on upgrading to the iPhone 4S. Heading to Craigslist now to search for one!

Here are very easy steps to unlock your iPhone 4S. This method was discovered by a Chinese hacker: Loktar_Sun

Note 1: This latest method to unlock iPhone 4S requires that your iPhone is jailbroken. Jailbreaking iPhone 4S is pretty easy with a tool called: GreenPois0n. You can download GreenPois0n here: windows — mac

Once you have your iPhone 4S jailbroken, follow these steps to unlock. In case you wonder, the jailbroken method using GreenPois0n is un-tethered.

Note 2: Make sure you have the latest iTunes.

1. On your iPhone 4S, open Cydia => add source: repo.bingner.com => search for Sam Bingner’s SAM package and install it.
    
2. Click on SAMPrefs icon.
    
3. Go to utilities. Select De-Activate iPhone. Make sure your iPhone is deactivated under More Information.
    
4. Click on By Country and Carrier in Method. Then select your carrier.
    
5. Click on More Information again. Copy your IMSI (International Mobile Subscriber Identity) in SAM Details.
    
6. Click on Spoof Real SIM to SAM.
    
7. Go to the main SAM menu and change the Method to manual. Paste the IMSI in the field.
    
8. Connect the iPhone to iTunes. It will reactivate your iPhone.
    
9. Disconnect your iPhone when done and quit iTunes.
    
10. Disable SAM in the SAMPrefs app.
     
11. Connect your iPhone to the computer. iTunes will start up and tell you it can’t activate the iPhone.
     
12. Close iTunes and open it again.
     
13. This time, iTunes will activate your iPhone and it will be unlocked! You will be able to turn off your phone and do whatever you want. The unlock will keep working, at least until Apple releases its usual countermeasures in a firmware update.

TIP: If your push notifications stop working, go to SAM again and click on Clear Push then connect to iTunes again.

Have fun everyone. Can’t wait for mine…

References:

- Gizmodo: http://gizmodo.com/5904166/how-to-unlock-the-iphone-4s-right-now

Ever since I switched to using MAC as my main OS, the Grab utility was the only tool I used to grab screenshots. It was great but Grab can only save the screenshots in .tiff format which Windows audience has trouble viewing. Every time, I had to use another imaging tool to convert .tiff to .png.

It has been time consuming so today I went ahead and looked for an alternative to Grab. My finding was surprisingly simple. MAC already has another wonderful image grabbing tool built-in. All I need to do to use it is to execute some simple shortcuts. Once grabbed, the images are saved to my desktop automatically under .png format, fit my needs perfectly.

Here are some of the commands on how to use the MAC OS X built-in screenshots grabbing utility:

This will grab your entire desktop:

Command + Shift + 3

This will grab the entire desktop but place on your clipboard so you can paste into a graphic program:

Command + Control + Shift + 3

This will allow you to drag and select an area on the screen:

Command + Shift + 4

This will allow you to select and capture an active window:

Command + Shift + 4 + Spacebar

Tips:

- Press ESC if you want to cancel the commands above.

- Add “Control” (similar to command 2 above) to the command to put data on the clipboard instead of saving to a file.

I have a Dell Quad Core 2.4GHz running Windows Vista Ultimate that I didn’t bother to use for several years now.

The problem? Even with such CPU power, the system boots very slowly, about 3-5 minutes before I can use it.  And once the system finishes booting, the harddrive keeps hammering for hours making things very slow and the harddrive sound gives me headache

It really bothered me to the point I stopped using it completely. Yesterday, I pulled it out => had it factory restored and loaded it with scrapebox; a software to do backlinks for websites.

Things went great but I experienced the same slow booting up and harddrive hammering issues.  I made a trip to Google and after about an hour of reading, I decided to make a Windows Vista Tweak and that fixed the problem entirely. The system now boots very fast, like Windows XP again! and the harddrive no longer makes annoying sound.

What Windows Vista Tweak did I perform? I disabled SuperFetch. SuperFetch is a program designed to give Vista users better computing experience. It preload the programs that we use often into memory so that when we need to run the programs, the programs can be started quickly.

It sounds great but it didn’t work that way. I am very happy now with SuperFetch disabled and I finally feel to have a useful computer again.

Here is how to disable SuperFetch:

• Click “Start” (or the Windows logo on the bottom left) => in the search box, type “services.msc” without quote and hit Enter
• You will see a whole bunch of lines => scroll down to find SuperFetch
• Once found, double click on SuperFetch => this would open up the SuperFetch Properties
• On the line  that says “Startup Type” => select “Disabled”
• Click “Ok” and restart your computer
• Done

That is it. In the many years of owning this computer, I finally feel that I have a useful computer again.

]]> http://www.unixnewbie.org/fixing-vista-harddrive-hammering-problem/feed/ 0 http://www.unixnewbie.org/windows-xp-guest-os-inside-mac-os-x/ http://www.unixnewbie.org/windows-xp-guest-os-inside-mac-os-x/#comments Sat, 22 Oct 2011 18:27:38 +0000 Stephen http://www.unixnewbie.org/?p=1300

As many of you already know, I have switched to use MAC fulltime. MAC is really good, the experience is awesome and I enjoy it a lot.

Still because I use many programs and some of them do not run on MAC so I need to power up my Windows PC from now and then.

Windows Emulators

It is a little bit inconvenience so I recently looked into running Windows Software inside my MAC. I have tried many Windows emulators including CrossOver, CrossOver works wonderfully but still, some programs do not fully work as expected.

Virtualization

I then looked into virtualization thinking… the only way to make these Windows software to fully work is to have them running inside Windows. It turned out that I am correct. The virtualization software I am using is called VirtualBox. This is a free virtualization program developed by Sun Microsystems, now Oracle. It is very simple to use and is very stable.

Steps by Steps

Installing VirtualBox:

• Simply download VirtualBox here
• Once downloaded, simply double click on it and follow instructions to begin the installation

How to install Windows XP OS Guess in VirtualBox:

• Start VirtualBox
• Hit “New” on the top left to start creating your virtual machine
• Click “Continue”
• Under Name, enter your virtual machine name, i.e. “Windows XP”
• Click “Continue” => then choose your memory size
• Click “Continue” several times => then choose your hard disk size
• Click “Create” to finish creating your virtual disk

Once your virtual disk is created, it will appear on the top left, inside the Virtual Box Manager => simply start it => virtual box will then prompt you to install the Guest OS => from here, enter your Windows XP CD into your CD drive and start the installation.  If you have Windows XP in your computer as .iso file, you can select it and begin.  Pretty easy.

One thing that I was struggling with was how to access the MAC OS X files from inside the Windows XP Guest. Here is the solution:

How to access MAC OS X files from inside Windows XP Guest OS:

• Once you have your Windows XP Guest OS fully installed => boot it up
• Click on “Devices” on the very top left menu => then click on “Install Guest Addition”
• Once complete, reboot your Guest OS
• Once Guest OS boots up => click on “Devices” => then click on “Shared Folder” => now choose the folders you want to access
• Here is how to access the files inside Windows XP:
  -  Click on Start => click on Run
  - Enter “explorer” without quote and click “Ok”
  - On the left menu => click on “My Network Places” => click on “Entire Network” => click on “VirtualBox Shared Folders”
• There you go, now you can open/edit/copy/paste the files/folders in your MAC OS X to your Windows XP Guest.

Hope this helps someone! Take care.

My Windows XP Guest OS inside MAC OS X

I have DSL from ATT for the past two years under the smallest plan.  Its speed? like snail… I got too tired of it and upgraded to the highest plan last week, ouch…

Then problem came. Because of the better speed, I started doing more downloading and watching movies, yea

Every time, yes, every time, I download a big file or watch a movie, the 2wire modem keeps restarting itself or other people call it 2wire modem drop out or connection drops repeatedly or whatever you call it.

It kept doing that for a week until yesterday when I couldn’t handle the frustration anymore and called ATT customer service. The gentleman was nice, worked with me for close to an hour doing this and that: from unhooking power to removing DSL filter, etc…

None worked so he finally concluded that the problem was with the 2Wire modem and that he would transfer me to someone who can send me a new one.

Then a lady greeted me with “It is a good day here at ATT, how can I make your day a good day?” That was pretty awesome so I told her that a support technician diagnosed my modem that it fails and I need a new one.  She said it would cost me money for a new modem.

I told her I was under the impression that I would get a replacement without cost. She said it would cost me $100. I told her that wouldn’t make my day a good day. She said, “we ain’t give any modem for free.”

If I happen to have to spend on a new modem, I know I can get it for much less else where so I didn’t buy from the lady. I started to search Craigslist and found several of them for just $20. I emailed the sellers with some questions and waited.

In the mean time, I googled to see if anyone experiences the same issue. It turns out there are MANY and there is a solution to fix the 2Wire’s constantly drop out issue.

After tweaking several times, here is the final setting on my modem that works:

Wireless mode: 802.11b
Max connection: 12mbps
Authentication: WPA2

Under this setting, my modem never drops. Under 802.11g and other max connection setting, my 2wire drops.

How to change 2Wire wireless settings:

• Open up a browser and type: http://homeportal/ => hit Enter
• Click on “Home Network”
• Click on “Wireless Setting” (this is located under the ATT logo) => if your modem is password protected, it will prompt you for the password, go ahead and login
• Scroll down, you will find wireless mode and max connection under Additional Setting.

Here is my list of the best free and open source software for Mac OS X.

Reference:

For a lot more good, free programs/applications for Mac OS X, check out this Ubuntu list: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ListOfOpenSourcePrograms

I have a friend who recently bought an iPhone 3GS off from craigslist and asked me if I could help him to jailbreak and unlock it. The phone was 3GS, 4.1 with baseband 5.15.04.

After checking around, I noticed that baseband 5.15.04 was unlock-able and in order to have the phone unlocked, we had two options: either to upgrade the baseband to 6.16.00 (without GPS capability) or to buy an unlock sim.

My friend decided to go for the baseband upgrade. I tried numerous guides using pwnagetool but it simply didn’t work. Basically, I was able to generate a custom .ipsw file and used iTunes to restore. The restoration completed successfully and the iphone was jailbroken but the baseband wasn’t upgraded. It kept staying at 5.15.04.

Finally, here is a working method to successfully upgrade iphone 3GS baseband from 5.15.04 to 6.15.00.

Tools used:

• Redsn0w 0.9.6 Beta 5
• iOS 4.1 IPSW
• There is no need to download iPad IPSW, Redsn0w will fetch the iPad baseband off from its servers and iTunes is not required for this method. Pretty good.

How to unlock iPhone 3GS baseband 6.15.00

I recently needed to change my name in my Gmail account, it was embarrassing but after spending over half an hour, I still couldn’t figure out how

I remember it was pretty easy several years ago but the feature is now a little more hidden. I kept concentrating on the “General” tab and overlooked the other tabs.

Here is how to change your display name in Gmail, after wasting nearly an hour

1. Login to your Gmail account
2. Click on Options (the gear icon on the top right)
3. Click on Settings
4. Click on Accounts and Import
5. The 3rd option: “Send mail as:” => click on “edit info” on the right and enter your new desired name.

I recently bought an iPhone 4 off from Craigslist. It was already jailbroken with version 4.3.5. While playing around with the phone, I happened to turn it off and it wouldn’t come back on.

After some Googling, I found out that the phone was “tethered jailbreak”. What this means is every time I need to reboot the phone, I have to connect the phone to a computer => run the jailbreaking software to start the phone.

I managed to get the phone started but I got pretty tired of having to use the computer every time I restart the phone so I tried to restore the iPhone 4 to factory setting.

Doesn’t matter what I did, I always got the error: Device isn’t Eligible for the Requested Build

After a lot more Googling, I found the solution: Simply put the phone into DFU Mode and iTunes will proceed with the restoration.

Step by step guide: how to restore jailbroken iphone to factory setting. how to put iPhone in DFU Mode.

1. Start iTunes
2. Connect iPhone 4 to your computer
3. Turn the phone OFF
4. When the phone is completely off => wait for a few seconds and hold BOTH: the home button and the power button
5. Keep holding both buttons for 10 seconds
6. Now release the power button => keep holding the home button for around 30 seconds.
7. iTunes will pop up a window saying it has detected the iPhone in recovery mode => you can now accept the pop up then click on the Restore button in iTunes to begin the recovery.

If you are searching for a way to change Yet Another Related Posts Plugin’s match threshold, here is how:

According to the plugin author, this option is hidden by default. To display this option so that you can change it:

1. First, go to the YARPP options (located under Settings, after you logged in to your WP as admin)
2. Now look on the top right of your screen, you will see the “Screen Options” button (as shown in the image below)
   
3. Once clicked on “Screen Options” => you then click on the option: “Relatedness” options
4. Now the “Match threshold” option should be displayed in your YARPP options and you can change it from there.

Hope this helps!