This article presents a reflection about why this growth happened just in the latest years, as well what it means for the PHP world.

Click here to read the full post…

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WolframAlpha - Screenshot

• Firmware: It is the software / OS of your iPhone. This hack is for 2.2 version.
• Jailbreak: It simply means that to enable your iPhone to be able to install third party applications. In laymans terms it makes your iPhone to install application which are not form the Application store.
• Unlock: It means that your iPhone can accept SIM from any mobile provider.

PS: Please note, this hack will only work on iPhone 3G with firmware version 2.2. If you don’t have the latest firmware then upgrade it using iTunes. The catch with this hack is that you can only use one unlocked SIM card. In other words, if you ever want to use another SIM, you have to do the entire process again.

1. Upgrade your iTunes to 8.0.2 by launching it and clicking “Download iTunes” below. Or download it and install it manually.
   
2. Allow iTunes to upgrade your iPhone to the latest 2.2 firmware. Don’t worry about the implications (losing jailbreak, unlock) as QuickPwn will take care of this for your. This step is necessary because QuickPwn doesn’t actually upgrade your iPhone. Instead, QuickPwn expects to be pwning the same firmware that your iPhone is on. If you don’t know anything about baseband versions, you can ignore this message. Otherwise, make sure you’ve updated your iPhone to be running on 02.28.00 baseband firmware, which should have been included in the 2.2 firmware update.
3. Download QuickPwn 2.2 for Windows or Mac. Extract the file and launch the QuickPwn 2.2 application. Then follow the prompt and connect your iPhone to your computer via the USB cable. When the blue arrow button lights up, click it.
   
4. QuickPwn is smart enough to detect the firmware ipsw file you downloaded via iTunes (something like C:\Documents and Settings\coderetard\Application Data\Apple Computer\iTunes\iPhone Software Updates\ on Windows XP). If it can’t find it for whatever reason, download the 2.2 restore firmware ipsw file for 3G iPhone1,2_2.2_5G77_Restore.ipsw directly from Apple’s servers. Then browse to the or restore firmware ipsw file you downloaded. After the green checkmark appears, click the blue arrow button.
   
5. On the next page, make sure you select the “Cydia” checkbox. You can check “Installer” and replace logo as desired. Click the arrow button after making your selections.
   
6. Now get ready to rumble…
   
7. READ THIS STEP THROUGH COMPLETELY FIRST, lest you be caught off guard: Click on the Blue arrow button which will bring up a screen with some instructions (below). Follow them exactly to a tee. Just to prepare, here are the directions: 1) Hold Home for 5 seconds, 2) Hold Home and Power together for 10 seconds, 3) Release Power but continue to hold Home for 30 seconds. Throughout the process these three steps, you DO NOT LET GO OF THE HOME BUTTON until after the third step. I didn’t have to hold it anymore after it counted down to 21 seconds left.
   
8. Then sit back and relax while QuickPwn does all the hard work for you, you’ll see some activity on your iPhone screen and hear your computer beep a few times, but when it restarts finally and says it’s waiting for activation, it’s ready to use. Now you can close QuickPwn.
   
9. It’s now a good time to set up your wireless network settings on your iPhone 3G so you will be able to connect to the software repositories in Cydia.
10. Now Launch the Cydia app, which will reorganize then restart. You’ll need to launch it again afterwards.
11. When prompted at the “Who Are You” screen, just choose the first option “User (Graphical Only).”
    
12. Click on the Manage tab on the bottom menu bar. In the Manage tab, click on the Sources button in the middle. You will need to add the source to the yellowsn0w repo to utilize the soft unlock.
    
13. Click on “Edit” on the top right, then “Add” on the top left. In the URL, type: http://apt9.yellowsn0w.com/ as shown below. When you are done click “Done” and then “Browser.”
    
14. Now click on the “Search” tab and type “yellowsn0w” and install the app “yellowsn0w.”
    
    
15. For US T-Mobile users, you will need to disable the “Enable 3G” setting in your network settings.
16. Now restart your iPhone 3G with your SIM card inserted. Wait for the slide to unlock screen and then wait 15 seconds more. If you don’t see the SIM card working, reinsert the SIM and wait another 10 seconds. Now try and make some calls with your newly unlocked iPhone 3G!
17. For T-Mobile users, continue reading if you have problems:
18. Download and install BossPrefs and via Cydia
19. Disable all functions with BossPrefs (don’t worry if you can’t disable EDGE)
20. Reboot your Phone with BossPrefs (not the normal manual way – this is important!)
21. Wait a minute and a half when you see the slick to unlock screen
22. Take out your T-Mobile SIM card and insert it again
23. Wait for 10 seconds
24. Go to Settings and turn on Airplane mode, then turn it off again
25. Take out your T-Mobile SIM card and put in any AT&T SIM card and wait for a minute. Ignore the “Waiting to activate” prompt
26. Now take out the AT&T SIM card and put in your T-Mobile SIM card again
27. After a moment you will see the activation succeeded prompt. Now you should be able to pick up a T-Mobile signal

Find Original Post at:  http://www.coderetard.com/2009/01/01/how-to-fully-soft-unlock-iphone-3g-22-firmware-yellowsn0w/

If you want a new function added or face any difficulty, feel free to contact me.

• Initialize:
  • Just include it at the very top of all the JavaScript file as:

    <script src="rochak.js" type="text/javascript">

• Usage:
  • For example to trim a string:

    rochak.Function_Name(Parameter);    eg:
    var str=rochak.trim(str);

• Complete JavaScript Function List:
  1. lTrim(string):
     • Function to trim all the white spacing from the left side of any string.
  2. rTrim(string):
     • Function to trim all the white spacing from the right side of any string.
  3. trim(string):
     • Function to trim all the white spacing from left and right side of the string.
  4. isValidEmail(string):
     • Function to validate a typical email pattern.
  5. getType(variable_name):
     • Function to find the type of the variable. A Clone of PHP\’s “var_dump()” function.
  6. inArray(array, string):
     • Function to find if the string is in the array. Clone of PHP\’s “in_array()” function.
  7. inArrayI(array, string):
     • Function to find if the string is in the array. Clone of PHP\’s “in_array()” function. (its case insensitive)
  8. getMouseX(event):
     • Function to find the current X position of the mouse/cursor.
  9. getMouseY(event):
     • Function to find the current Y position of the mouse/cursor.
  10. getMouseXY(event):
      • Function to find the current X and Y positions of the mouse/cursor as an array.
  11. getBrowserName():
      • Function to return the name of the web browser.
  12. isBrowserIe():
      • Function to return “true” if the browser is “Microsoft Internet Explorer” else return “false“.
  13. isBrowserOpera():
      • Function to return “true” if the browser is “Opera” else return “false“.
  14. isBrowserNetscape():
      • Function to return “true” if the browser is “Firefox” or “Netscape” else return “false“.
  15. getTotalImages():
      • Function to return the number of images used in the current page.
  16. explode(delimiter, string):
      • Function to Split a string by a specified delimiter. A Clone of PHP\’s “explode” function.
  17. end(string / array):
      • Function to return the last character of a string or the last element of the array. A Clone of PHP\’s “end” function.

Change log (1.1)

1. isBrowserFirefox():
   • Function to return “true” if the browser is “Firefox” else return “false“.
2. isBrowserSafari():
   • Function to return “true” if the browser is “Safari” else return “false“.
3. isBrowserChrome():
   • Function to return “true” if the browser is “Chrome” else return “false“.
4. $$(idName):
   • Function to similar to “document.getElementById(‘idName’)”.

To download the latest code, right click here and click on “Save link as” or “Save target as”.

• rochak-1.0.js
• rochak-1.1.js

Or visit:   http://www.phpclasse.org

Well, my definition of an Infected computer is that it has some virus or worm or trojan or some spyware. There may be a case that it is infected with all of these….god bless that user

How do you know if you are infected?

Although there is no hard and fast rules, but the most common symptoms of an infection are:

1. Your PC get very slow overnight or in 2-3 days.
2. Your hard disk space magically get filled up.
3. The default homepage of your browser changes to some weird address.
4. You get Popups or alerts randomly.
5. You can NOT enable the option to “view hidden and system files”
6. When you click your Drive Icon or USB drive icon, you get a “Open With” dialog box.
7. You get some unknown and random Toolbar installed on your browser.

How to clean the PC?

Now thats a million dollar question I understand installing an Antivirus software may slow down your PC by a fraction, but trust me it is still very important before you go online. In fact a Antivirus alone is ineffective in todays Web 2.0 world. You need Antivirus, AntiSpyware and a basic firewall. I would advice you to use AVG Free 8

However if you are already infected, chances are you will not be allowed to download and / or update any Antivirus software. But no worries, thanks to Combofix. It is an amazing free tool to clean up your PC. Just run it and within 10 mins your PC would be clean as new. Once combofix has done its job, dont forget to install and update an Antivirus software (preferably AVG FREE .

May the forces of AVG be with you

PS: If you found this post helpful, you may want to try to “How to speed up your PC“.

LG Prada look-alike handset is considered to give a tough competition to Samsung INNOV8 and Sony Ericsson C905 as these phones also feature a 8 megapixel camera.

The phone claims to be the all-in-one multimedia device and comes with features like Dolby sound, DivX and XviD for video playback, an integrated GPS, a geotagging function for photos and multiple codec support. It supports Wi-Fi and 3G. It is also compatible with up to 7.2 Mbps HSDPA.

The basic features of the LG KC910 camera phone include Bluetooth 2.0, a microSD card slot expandable up to 8GB, support for quad-band GSM, LCD touchscreen and a TV-out support.

Expected to release in October in North American, the LG KC910 phone’s price is still under wraps.

The trick, reported by MacRumours, is simply a press of the “Emergency Call” key from the passcode entry screen, followed by a double-tap on the home button. That takes the miscreant into favourites, from which they can access the address book, from which they can get into the e-mail client (by tapping a contact’s e-mail address) or the browser (by tapping a URL).

Clearly Apple has missed a trick here, and a fix should be quickly forthcoming, but it bodes badly for a device which is trying to sell itself into the enterprise and is already under fire for lacking important security features.

Concerned users can secure their devices by disabling the home button double-tap (Settings > General > Home Button > Checkmark Home), though it really shouldn’t be working at all at that point.

Users might argue that a device password should never be relied upon, but one that is so trivial to bypass makes a mockery of the very concept. It’s unlikely that this security problem will do more than attract ridicule to the iPhone security model, but it’s ridicule that Apple could do without while they’re trying so hard to have the iPhone taken seriously as a business device.

The revelations come as no great surprise – version 0.9 of the SDK was launched last week with the same omissions – but the Android Developers Blog has now confirmed that version 1.0 will be similarly bereft, and provided some explanation of why.

The GTalkService has been scrapped for security reasons. The idea was that incoming alerts would be routed through the same internal system as other notifications, which would make for a great user experience but lousy security, as there would be no way of checking the provenance of a notification.

There were other issues around temporary contacts having access to genuine identity information, the combination of which amounted to more than the development team could address in the time available.

The time problem has also nixed any comprehensive Bluetooth support – Android phones will be able to use a Bluetooth headset, but that’s all. There’ll be no file exchange or keyboard support, making it much like the iPhone in that respect.

These limitations aren’t likely to stop anyone buying an Android-based handset, but they might frustrate users when they do. It seems likely that anyone buying a first-version Android phone will be able to download an update later, though eventually Google will be hoping to appeal to a demographic who won’t want to be concerned with such complexity.

Amazon’s EC2 was likely the brainchild of a mid-level ops director who overbought for a data center and had to come up with a way to save his own ass. Use a free, open source project like Xen for virtualization, give it a sunshine-up-the-ass name like Elastic Compute Cloud, and start pulling in all those venture capital dollars like Cisco and Sun did during the first dotcom catastrophe. Fuck me, give that man a raise.

Unfortunately, Bezos and company are a day late and a buck short. This time around, we’re working with substantially less money and substantially more developer incompetence.

A Cloud Is Easier To Draw On A Whiteboard Than A Grid

EC2 is very popular with the Web 2.0 crowd, which is strange, considering the hurdles that these Javascript all-stars need to overcome. The first, and presumably most difficult, is that Amazon wants money in exchange for their services. That’s a stark realization for a budding young social network developer: Web 2.0 runs on cash, not hugs. Who would have thunk it?

Once you’re past that, there’s the matter of reliability. In my experience with it, EC2 is fairly reliable, but you really need to be on your shit with data replication, because when it fails, it fails hard. My pager once went off in the middle of the night, bringing me out of an awesome dream about motorcycles, machine guns, and general ass-kickery, to tell me that one of the production machines stopped responding to ping. Seven or so hours later, I got an e-mail from Amazon that said something to the effect of:

There was a bad hardware failure. Hope you backed up your shit.

Look at it this way: at least you don’t have a tapeworm.

-The Amazon EC2 Team

Datacenter hardware will bend you over your desk every now and then – no matter who owns it. If it’s yours, though, you can send some poor bloke down to the server room in the wee hours of the morning and cattle-prod constant status updates out of him. As a paying EC2 customer, all you’re entitled to is basic support, which amounts to airing your grievances on a message board and hoping that somebody at Amazon is reading. Being the straight-up gangster that I am, I luvz me some phone-screamin’, and I just can’t get that kind of satisfaction from Amazon.

Of course, I could pay more for extended support, but it would be nice if the fucking thing just worked.

What You Looking At, Google? You Want A Piece Of This?

While I’m running my mouth off here, I might as well take a swing at Wonka’s Chocolate Factory.

Google App Engine launched with great fanfare from the Python community. “Finally,” they said, “somebody has figured out how to make Python scale.” The thought is that any developer will be able to run his Twitter-Facebook mashup on the same framework that Google uses to run their apps. Infinite, magical scalability that you don’t have to think about, data storage that you don’t have to manage, and a language that’s easy to program. Sounds great!

That’s all well and good, but something tells me that the Google search engine (you know, the thing that makes money) isn’t written in Python, making this just a proper beat off for the web programming community. I have further evidence. I have yet to see a program more impressive than a task and time manager running on the Engine. Killer app, indeed.

Google App Engine offers a developer all of the things that he would look down his nose at an ops manager to provide: data storage, web hosting and caching. Web developers are too busy to worry about the app to figure out why the database is running slow. No, it couldn’t be a grotesquely complex query anywhere in my code. It’s a database problem. The DBA must have fucked something up in the config. Yeah, that’s it. If those DBAs weren’t always down at the pub, we could get some real work done around here.

I do have to give both Google and Amazon some credit, though. Both noticed that the only ones to make any real money off of the California gold rush were the outfitters who sold mining equipment.

Cloud Computing’s Next Form: Green Tech

As time goes on and venture capitalists get pitched, this technology will continue to change names to mask its stagnation. The next time around, it will be pitched as a “green” technology. Why ruin the environment with your data center? You can run a social media website and still love the earth.

Energy-efficient computers powered by sunshine. This will be an instant hit. There will be greenhouse gas output dashboards with neat little Ajax widgets. You’ll have calculators to figure out how much to pay for carbon offsets each month. Don’t believe me? Follow the money. “Green” technology is the most efficient, modern way to capitalize on liberal guilt. You also get to pass it off as altruism. Combine that with a web development community that runs on self-satisfaction and you’ve got a recipe for profit. Best of all, you can squeeze money out of an investor for this by making him feel ashamed to be a person of means.

What started as a noble cause has finally finished its devolution into a racket.

No matter what the name, you, the developer, will still be dealing reliability and accountability. Using someone else’s infrastructure for your application will forever be a business risk, but it sounds so much less so with a cuddly name. Your CTO will fall for the next cycle pretty easily. The compunction he feels for his latest data center build-out will outweigh the downsides of an external dependency.

Al Gore even said so.