Technically Speaking

Shortly after Apple released its latest version of iTunes, version 4.5, someone has found a way to circumvent it. In the same vain, people are starting to write tools for you to take advantage of the new features within iTunes 4.5, keeping the open-source option alive. Below is an excerpt of the step-by-step instructions to make it work on a GNU/Linux platform. I’m sure that more such ideas will be coming out the woodworks really soon.



Enjoy, and read the complete details here.

Be aware that you do this on your own risk. If the steps below
set your cat on fire and melt your iPod, you are the one to blame!

1. Go to http://www.apple.com/ipod/download and download the Windows updater application (setup.exe).
2. Go to any Windows XP or Windows 2000 box and install the application (I know this sucks, blame Apple not me
3. If you can connect your iPod to this box, run the updater and be happy.
4. If you only have a firewire card in your Linux box, copy the updater.exe file from the target installation path (default is c:\Program Files\iPod\…) to your Linux box.
5. Open the updater.exe file in a hex editor, e.g. khexedit
6. Search for Copyright
7. Delete everything before these lines:
   

   
   0000:0000 7b 7b 7e 7e 20 20 2f 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 5c 20 20 20 {{~~  /—–\
   0000:0010 7b 7b 7e 7e 20 2f 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 5c 20 20 {{~~ /       \
   0000:0020 7b 7b 7e 7e 7c 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 7c 20 {{~~|         |
   
   0000:0030 7b 7b 7e 7e 7c 20 53 20 54 20 4f 20 50 20 7c 20 {{~~| S T O P |
   0000:0040 7b 7b 7e 7e 7c 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 7c 20 {{~~|         |
   0000:0050 7b 7b 7e 7e 20 5c 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 2f 20 20 {{~~ \       /
   0000:0060 7b 7b 7e 7e 20 20 5c 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2f 20 20 20 {{~~  \—–/
   0000:0070 43 6f 70 79 72 69 67 68 74 28 43 29 20 32 30 30 Copyright(C) 200
   

8. Save the file under a new name, e.g. firmware_new.bin
9. Connect your iPod to the Linux box and backup your old
   firmware (just in case so if anything goes horribly wrong you can use
   this file to restore your iPod):

   # dd if=/dev/sda1 of=firmware_backup.bin

10. Upload your new firmware:

    # dd if=firmware_new.bin of=/dev/sda1

11. Disconnect your iPod
12. When the Plug-in image appears on the display, plug the iPod
    back in (you need a powered firewire cable or the AC outlet for this
    step!)
13. Wait for the iPod the extract the new firmware (watch the progress bar)

done…
”

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The word on the web is that a Super MP3 format is coming in the next few months. The new format will preserve the original 5.1 format of music and funnel it down to a common stereo format through the use of psychoacoustic encoding techniques. The psychoacoustic encoding captures the spatial and speed information of the additional channels.

The files will still be somewhat lightweight and backward compatible, so you can use them on your iPod or MP3 player of your choice. They will contain the 5.1 information so you can move them to your home theatre system and enjoy the richness of sound. One of the drawbacks of this format is the inclusion of a “digital dog tag”, if you will, called LWDRM (Light Weight Digital Rights Management).

LWDRM allows copying of MP3 files, but the user needs to mark files first with a digital signature and register it. So when a file appears on a P2P network, the original copyright violator can be identified directly through the signature - Is this the end of free illegal file sharing?

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I’m confident that the end is not near for illegal, but free file sharing. But this will, without doubt, create a speed bump for maybe a week or so.

I have recently seen a few movies, over the past weeks, that I would like to quickly comment on, as well as point out a few new movies that I will be keeping an eye on.

• HellBoy - I was so hoping to enjoy this movie but unfortunately I just wasn’t feeling it! I suppose that you have to know the comic book roots to have a better understanding of the characters and their abilities. I really felt that Liz was the real hero of the story. She literally saved HellBoy from a pretty grizzly death. IMHO the movie gets a reluctant thumbs down. Here is a good summary that sort of mirrors me view of the film, I just didn’t like it as much:
  

  However, there is much to like about the film. Again, Perlman is excellent in the title role, fully embodying Hellboy on every level, completely stealing the show from his so-so co-stars. The special effects are impressive, definitely a step above some of the more awkward CGI sequences in Blade II. On a technical aspect, Hellboy is superb, from the cinematography down to the shoes on the extras’ feet. The film just needs a sense of humility and more attention to those in the audience who don’t know anything about where it came from - Hellboy is so damn in love with itself, you almost think there’s something wrong with you if you don’t completely fall for its smoke-and-mirrors comic-book freak show.
  

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• Kill Bill Vol. 2 - I enjoyed this flick. It summed up the first part very nicely, although I think the first movie was packed with more action. I would have liked to see more footage of the Master, Pai Mei, in action. What footage there was of him was absolutely superb.

• Master and Commander - I bought the DVD because I heard that this was a really great movie. This is a perfectly watchable film but I didn’t buy into it being one of the best movies of the year. Probably just didn’t suit my taste.

• SpiderMan 2 - Should be good on story continuation as well as action packed.

• Van Helsing - Looks good for action, monsters, visual effects and stunning (picturesque) scenery.

• iRobot - The story seems to be good, Will Smith is starring and it is set in a futuristic setting. Should see some very imaginative things in this flick.

• AVP - I’m still anxiously waiting to see this movie. I don’t expect to be disappointed here. Another featurette has emerged as well.
  

The face you see is that of my namesake, well first name only, Tony Fadell. Tony is labelled “The unacknowledged father of the iPod”. While Tony was working on building his own company, Fuse, he failed to get funding and he became an independent contractor and invented the iPod and peddled it to Apple. he rest is history.

So, Fadell designed the iPod as an independent contractor and shopped it to Apple, which hired him to bring it to market. How he did it was spelled out in Electronics Design Chain Magazine, though the article makes no reference to Fadell.

…

So, Fadell designed the iPod as an independent contractor and shopped it to Apple, which hired him to bring it to market. How he did it was spelled out in Electronics Design Chain Magazine, though the article makes no reference to Fadell.

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I find these facts fascinating because I find it rare that now-a-days individuals will try to sell their inventions to big companies and actually find results from it. How will the company now treat such an asset? Is he still bringing the Mac-Daddy ideas to the table or was he a one hit wonder?

If it wasn’t for the two scientist Daryl Chapin and Gerald Pearson, solar energy probably wouldn’t be a part of our lives today.

Daryl Chapin, an electrical engineer, and Gerald Pearson, a physicist, joined chemist Calvin Fuller on April 25, 1954, to demonstrate the first practical solar cell made of silicon — later to become the prime ingredient in computer chips.

But it had taken more than a century since French experimental physicist Edmund Becquerel discovered the photovoltaic effect in 1839 before the process that converts light into electricity could be commercialized with the technology developed by the Bell Labs trio.

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Believe it or not, the photovoltaic cells they discovered are essential to the Internet. If it wasn’t for the reverse engineering of the electricity to light process we wouldn’t have the bases for fiber-optics. We may have the Internet but it wouldn’t be quite as fast.

IBM and Stanford want to make it clear to the masses that electron are not the tiny little particles that we all have been taught they are. Instead they are more like fuzzy wave functions that produce magnetic fields in one of two directions. Make sure you get this straight.

Physicists often like to remind people that our simple-minded picture of electrons is woefully naive. Electrons aren’t so much tiny little particles whizzing around an atomic nucleus as they are a kind of fuzzy wave function—a probabilistic distributions of electric charge, forming an amorphous cloud. Funny thing, though: physics also tells us that electrons have spin—which is kind of hard to imagine about a probability cloud. But the experimental observations and the math all work out that way, and so there we are. Which brings us to today’s announcement that IBM and Stanford are teaming up to push what could become the next big thing in computing: spintronics. Electrons can spin in one of two ways, conventionally known as “up“ and “down,“ which indicates the direction of the magnetic field it produce. The phenomenon lends itself to binary systems, i.e. computing; manipulating the electrons’ spin (and hence magnetic field) could offer a new way to store and process informaion.

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MRAM technology is based on this principle, and hopefully, will eventually lead to instant-on computing. Just think, no more waiting for your computer to boot-up.

It is rumored that Yahoo will be announcing its latest version of their Instant Messenger today. Yahoo is quickly releasing their “All New Yahoo Messenger” on the heels of rival companies America Online and Microsoft releases. Since Microsoft and AOL has spruced up their IM clients, Yahoo has vowed not to be outdone and has integrated a few new features of their own.

The software looks similar to MSN Messenger in its ability to display digital photos or play a round of checkers in the messenger chat window, for instance. However, Yahoo added the option of displaying avatars, which are cartoon images that people can customize with different appearances, outfits and backgrounds to reflect their moods. Avatars have been popular in Asia, but have yet to gain broad adoption in the United States.

Yahoo Messenger also expanded familiar perks. The company increased its arsenal of animated “smiley” emoticons, adding 13 new faces to its existing 35 choices. The service also still offers PC voice calling, PC-to-mobile phone text messaging, a Web cam and news updates.

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The ability to span the other services still has not been incorporated into either of the IM clients, to me this clearly states that the big three still aren’t willing to play nice. With the IM being a free tool I fail to see what will be lost by either company if they make their Messengers compatible to each other. Each company has stated that they would like to have their Messengers interoperate, but no plans have been made to move forward. I guess I will have to stick with Trillian.

Harvard researchers have discovered a way to administer drugs, as an alternative to the often feared syringe, by using a stream of gas fired at the patients skin.

The gas contains sharp particles which remove the surface layer of the skin and create tiny holes allowing a drug to be administered.

The development could benefit people such as diabetics who need regular injections, campaigners said.

The technique, known as microscission, bombards small areas of the skin with a stream of gas holding tiny crystals of inert aluminium oxide.

The rough surface-layer of the skin is removed, creating tiny holes - microconduits - in the underlying layers of the skin.

The crystals and loosened skin are taken away with the gas flow and the whole process takes less than 20 seconds.

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I’m sure many of us wished for this when we were little kids.

The latest version of NetStumbler was released yesterday. NetStumbler is a wireless network tool that allows you to detect Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) using 802.11b, 802.11a and 802.11g and analyze them.

* Verify that your network is set up the way you intended.
* Find locations with poor coverage in your WLAN.
* Detect other networks that may be causing interference on your network.
* Detect unauthorized “rogue” access points in your workplace.
* Help aim directional antennas for long-haul WLAN links.
* Use it recreationally for WarDriving.

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As you can see, this can be a very useful tool in helping you find WiFi networks or tweak existing networks. Although it is a Windows only tool, I highly recommend it for it is a must have tool.

Sometime this week, Palisade Systems will launch a song-filtering software that will block the trade of copyrighted material. The software, PacketHound, was created by Audible Magic and it utilizes Palisade’s network-monitoring technology. PacketHound is strongly backed by the RIAA and has gain much interest in Washington, DC. The software will most likely be installed on university networks as a sort of “right of passage”.

“It’s the kind of thing we hear from universities or customers that act more as an ISP,” said Doug Jacobson, Palisade’s founder and chief technology officer. “They want to take the position of not filtering out all peer-to-peer [traffic], stopping copyrighted works but not the other content.”

Audible Magic’s technology, which will be released as an option in the newest version of Palisade’s PacketHound network-management services, has formed the centrepiece of an ongoing debate over the future viability of peer-to-peer networks. As the filtering technology begins to appear this year inside university and other networks, the intensity of that debate is likely to grow.

For much of the early months of the year, RIAA executives helped guide Audible Magic chief executive Vance Ikezoye around Washington, D.C., offices, advocating the song-blocking technology as a tool for stopping copyright infringement on file-swapping networks. If built into file-trading programs such as Kazaa or Morpheus, it could help block large numbers of illegal trades, the record industry group said.

File-swapping companies — some of which have contended that filtering their networks is impractical or even impossible — said they were sceptical of the claims, noting that neither RIAA nor Audible Magic had given them a demonstration of the filtering tools. Industry trade group P2P United says it has repeatedly contacted the company asking to see the filters in action.

Ikezoye said he still has not demonstrated the technology for the peer-to-peer companies.

“What we’re looking for is a real serious business discussion,” Ikezoye said. “At this point, it doesn’t look like anybody’s interested in real business.”

Palisade’s version of the technology sits inside a network, rather than inside a file-swapping program. If installed in a university, for example, it could look inside students’ emails, instant messages and peer-to-peer transfers, seeking audio “fingerprints” that could be compared with information in Audible Magic’s database.

If a match is found, it would block the transfer of the song midstream. Jacobson said the identification process would not work on an encrypted network, such as is used in several newer file-swapping programs. However, the Palisade software could also act to block those applications from using the network altogether, instead of blocking individual song transfers, he said.

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As said above, the technology hasn’t been truly demonstrated and I believe that this leads to a bit a of strong skepticism in the peer-to-peer world and among some students and universities. I, for one, am curious as to seeing how long it will take for someone to circumvent this new technology. We shall see!

Palisade System press release

Audible Magic application info

With the accomplishment of improving areal densities for hard drives to 80GB of data per square inch, Toshiba has implemented their technology in their latest 2.5-inch HDD. In doing so they have produced the world’s highest capacity HDD for laptops. Along with the increased storage capacity, Toshiba has also improved the drives power consumption and shock resistance.

Check out the specs

Model name: MK1031GAS
Capacity: 100GB
Number of platters: 2
Number of heads: 4
Average seek time: 12msec
Data transfer rate: Ultra DMA/100
Rotational speed: 4,200rpm
Buffer memory: 8MB
Interface: ATA-6
External dimensions
(WxDxH; mm): 70 x 100 x 9.5
Weight: 99g
Energy consumption efficiency: 0.005W/GB
Shock resistance: Operating: 3,185m/s2 (325G, 2msec)
Non-operating: 8,330m/s2 (850G, 1msec)

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Read more about it.

MacBidouille posted a story about a famous fashion designer, Karl Lagerfeld, who claims that he has 40 iPods because he loves them so much. I find it hard to believe, perhaps something was lost in the translation [French to English], for it almost seems like he meant to say that he owns a 40GB iPod. But when reading the translated quote, we find that he really means 40 iPods.

The French text reads :

“These sweats are for someone that never jogs [talking about the clothes on the picture] even if the metal grey color is very chic, it is not for me. However, I love iPod, I have fourty of them. I recorded all the music I love on them.”

40 iPod, that is a maximum of about 1,5 TB of music, or roughly US$400,000 at the iTunes Music Store. That is, of course if Apple can provide that much music.

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Quite obsessive, no?

The Gravity Probe B launched today after a brief delay of a day. This space probe was originally dreamed up in 1959, a year after the first American satellite and the creation of NASA. The $750 million satellite’s 18 month mission is to prove two of Einstein’s fundamental gravity predictions — namely, predictions about the nature of space and time, and how the rotating Earth warps and twists the fabric that combines the two.

The mission is widely expected to prove Einstein right, producing what one NASA official called a “ho-hum” result.

Scientists at Stanford University designed the spacecraft around four spheres of quartz the size of ping-pong balls. They are the most perfect spheres ever made.

Theory predicts that by lining up the satellite in space with a distant star and setting the balls spinning, their alignment should shift off kilter in small but measurable amounts in response to the mass and rotation of the Earth.

Einstein proposed in 1916 that space and time form a fabric that can be curved by the presence of the Earth and other large celestial bodies. The curving warps the fabric like the depression a gymnast creates by standing on a trampoline.

Two years later, other scientists suggested that the rotation of a large body, like the Earth spinning on its axis, should drag the fabric of space-time with it, twisting it as it does.

Scientists have measured the warping effect before. The twisting effect, called frame-dragging, has never been directly detected. Gravity Probe B was built to detect both.

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I find this experiment quite intriguing because it is expected to find Einstein as being correct. As we progress in science, many theories are replaced for we have obtained a better understand in science. A few of Einstein’s theories have already been disproven. I halfway expected Einstein’s theory to be proven inadequate due to new governing theories, but it looks like these theories will live a while longer, if proven correct.

This is a cool little tip for those that like sticking it to the establishment.

One may now listen and search for Apple iTunes music via this front end or any webserver running the perl script called iTMS-4-ALL, which was written by Jason Rohrer, programmer of the secure filesharing system MUTE who hopes the script ‘helps revive everyone’s ITMS interfaces.’ Music activists Downhill Battle, who organised the Grey Tuesday protests for disseminating censored music, run a copy of the script and say ‘this is a cute tool, but it has the potential to become a powerful weapon to fight the major record label monopoly’ in the ways they outline. Playing the music requires QuickTime for the ~600kb downloadable MP4 snippets to be heard.

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Apple has released new HD and Pro versions of their video editing suites. The products included in this announcement are; Final Cut Pro HD, Motion, DVD Studio Pro 3, Shake 3.5, Logic Pro 6. On top of all this, Apple has also introduced Xsan, a clustered filesystem for Mac OS X systems.

Thanks Michael

Apple computers has announced to the BBC that they will be incorporating speech technology into their new versions of the OS X operating system. Not much else has been said about the announcement but the addition will be a great step towards helping those with limited sight or blindness get more use out of computer technology.

Apple has confirmed to BBC News Online that the screenreader will definitely be included in the new versions of OS X but was unable to say when this will be available.

Last year those needing a screenreader in order to use a Mac were dealt a blow when Alva - makers of the Outpoken speech interface - announced they were discontinuing the product from the beginning of 2004.

Given the preference for Macs in some areas of business - for example sound recording - blind and partially sighted people should no longer find that the technology is a barrier to job opportunities.

Apple says it will make programming guidelines available to other software developers so that they will be able to make their own applications compatible with it.

Spoken Interface is part of a bundle of accessibility features which include a screen magnifier, contrast enhancements and the ability to replicate mouse actions using the keyboard.

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NewsFlash:

A new chemical concocted by scientists at the Tyco’s Fire and Security Division looks and acts just like water except for one thing… it doesn’t get things wet.

During Tuesday’s Good Morning America, a representative of Tyco Fire and Security displayed the amazing properties of the chemical that’s called “Sapphire.”

The chemical has all the firefighting properties of water, yet it will not cause the damage to items that is usually associated with water.

As part of a demonstration, Pelton submerged several items into a tank of Sapphire that was on the Good Morning America set. Books did not get wet. Electronics were not be destroyed. Items that were submerged in the liquid were dried in a matter of seconds, and showed no ill effects according to Charles Gibson, Diane Sawyer and other members of the Good Morning America staff who saw items plunged into it.

Charles Gibson/Good Morning America: “It looks like water, but it’s not.”

The Sapphire is intended to become part of fire suppression systems in buildings. It would automatically be sprayed out of a building’s sprinkler system when a fire is detected.

Dave Pelton/Tyco Fire and Security: “This material would protect various artifacts, collections. You could use it in museums, libraries, places of cultural property.”

There was a substance that had similar properties produced in the past, but that fire suppression liquid was damaging the ozone layer. The new substance by Tyco is supposed to be environmentally safe.

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My brother was kind enough to direct me toward a fine piece of software that allows you to, in essence, share clipboards across a network. It is called Spike and it is available for free. Prior to Spike, I was using Synergy, a virtual KVM software, to access three of my computers. While Synergy allows you to share your keyboard and mouse among your computers, it also has the ability for you to share a common clipboard among computers. I have recently switched my setup to a hardware KVM (to utilize my 19″ monitors and save some desk space) and lost the handy clipboard feature. Spike is now a welcome addition to my repertoire of computer tools. Spike’s clipboard functionality differs from Synergy’s in that Spike is giving you access to various clipboards on the network instead of merging all clipboards on the network into one. Spike also has a little security feature that you can enable to keep certain clipboard items private, if you are using the software on a multi-user network. If you like jumping back and forward between computers, like I do, then this is an indispensable tool. Oh yeah, there are two platform versions of the software, one is designed for Windows 2000/XP and the other is for Mac OS X 10.2/10.3.

Yes, that’s right, today is my one year anniversary writing on this blog. I owe many thanks to my brother for introducing me to this pastime. A year ago, I didn’t even know what a blog was, yet I was technically savvy. When I finally understood the idea of blogging, I knew how I could use it for my own purposes. Thus, here we are today.

It has been a knowledge filled year. I have read much content, visited many blogs, found new technology daily, basically, many hours have been spent glued to the computer throughout the year. Although I still have the passion to continue to blog, I find it hard to find the time to do it to the level in which I would like. This is not a bad thing, it only means that my son is growing up and needs his father to entertain him. But when he goes to sleep for the evening, I sneak off to my computer room/office to find things to write about. No worries all, I’m hooked to this hobby and I see myself hanging in there for at least another year, maybe two.

I have learned much this past year, keeping me in my true form, “Jack of all trades”. I have always been one to know just as much as I feel I need to know about things and then the rest bores me. If you haven’t noticed, that is basically my style of blogging. My appeal should captivate all that suffer from ADS, even though I don’t have the affliction. I have learned about blogs, at least enough to generate a somewhat steady stream of traffic to my site. I have learned about the various browsers out there, finally settling on Mozilla….I highly recommend Mozilla Firefox. I have learned about news aggregators; I wouldn’t be able to blog without one. I have learned a little bit about CGI, PHP, CSS, MovableType, and Gallery. I have started many other blogs/websites for work and fun. I have built a Linux machine, that I am currently experimenting with, and I am planning on buying an Apple laptop sometime this year. Without this site, I wouldn’t have accomplished or strived for so much.

I think the best thing about my blogging is that I have made some great friends and acquaintances online and I actually meet one of them in person. So all-in-all, it has been a great year. Let’s see what I can get into this year.

I seem to keep finding these little sweet stories that depict someone completely fed up with computers and they do a complete 180 when they finally try a Mac. Well, here is another story that will certainly be loved by all of the Apple supporters out there. Santa Cruz Style posted a story of a man, Lex, a self-proclaimed “crotchety ‘old man’” and his aversion to new technology. His disdain for technology goes way back to when pong was first invented and to some degree he still abhors the technological advances of today, like the cell phone and email. Through the years he realized that he was going to have to conform a bit and learn to embrace a necessary evil, as he describes computers. Apple was there to guide him to the light.

I managed to get through college, graduating with a bachelor’s in English, without ever using a computer. I typed hundreds and hundreds of pages on an old portable manual typewriter.

Sadly, as the years ticked by, I realized I could only hold out so long. Eventually it was inevitable that I’d have to accept (and embrace… yuk) the computer into my life.

Thank the gods for Apple computer. They took what some of us perceive as a bitter pill and made it palatable. For years now, I’ve found comfort in Apple’s computers and the Macintosh operating system. Not only do they make better and more intuitive products, but I relate to them as the rebels they are in the computer industry.

These mavericks built an empire founded on going against the grain and defying the status quo in a world ruled by corporate dullards with narrow minds and no vision. It’s why us creative types will always rally to Apple’s corner and support them.

If it weren’t for Apple, I’d probably still be locked up in a dusty old hobby room typing this column on my antique Smith Corona portable typewriter.

Don’t misunderstand me though. Even with Apple’s killer products, I still can get a bit grumpy around computers. For the most part, I’ve always considered them a necessary evil in my life.

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Lex has since made other leaps into the technological arena with his introduction to the iPod and to the GarageBand software. In reading this article, I come to believe that Lex didn’t really hate technology, he just didn’t have use for any of the inventions that came around prior to him finding the Mac. We can now call Lex, more correctly, a closet technology enthusiast. This may sound a little cliche but maybe a Mac can do this for you too.

Read the whole story here.