Pierow’s Prattle

Michael Ossmann published a write-up on how to conveniently carry  a combination ethernet / crossover / modem / null modem / Cisco console cable.  His article was published in the first issue of Make magazine.  From his website:

There is nothing worse than showing up for an on-site visit without the correct cable you need for a job. So what is a network admin to do, carry around several bulky cables everywhere?

For quite some time I’ve been carrying a single CAT5 ethernet cable in my laptop bag along with “the world’s shortest crossover cable” and an RJ45 coupler. This allows me to turn my ethernet cable into a crossover cable and eliminates the need to carry around a second lengthy cable. Handy, but nothing to write home about. More recently I have been working with a lot of network devices with serial console ports, including Cisco routers and various other things. This means lugging around a null modem cable in addition to the non-standard RJ-45 to DB-9 console cable required by most Cisco equipment.
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Cydia on the iPhone 4

Searching for jailbroken apps using Cydia on an IOS device can be a slow and frustrating experience.  Planet-iPhones.com has introduced the Cydia™ Search application to allow you to browse Cydia apps by author, category and repository using the browser on your desktop computer.  Cydia Search checks all included repositories for new and updated packages once per hour to ensure that the content is current.

Once you’ve located a package you can view the actual Cydia entry as it would appear on an iPhone.

[Cydia Search at Planet-iPhones.com]

Most users can simply allow iTunes to upgrade the software on their iPhone or iPod but there may be times when you need to restore a specific version of the software.  (This is most normally the case when the devices is Jailbroken and/or Unlocked)

To manually update to a given firmware revision, you must first download a copy of the appropriate IPSW (short for IPhone SoftWare) file.  (Where can you download IPSW files?  Google is your friend)

Once you have a copy of the IPSW, simply follow these steps: (more…)

Security researchers Alasdair Allan and Pete Warden revealed today that the iPhone and iPad 3G regularly tracks the location of your iOS device and records the co-ordinates along with timestamp in a hidden file.

Allan said in a post on O’Reilly Radar:

“Today at Where 2.0 Pete Warden and I will announce the discovery that your iPhone, and your 3G iPad, is regularly recording the position of your device into a hidden file. Ever since iOS 4 arrived, your device has been storing a long list of locations and time stamps. We’re not sure why Apple is gathering this data, but it’s clearly intentional, as the database is being restored across backups, and even device migrations. ” (more…)

Critter from Critter’s Code posted a blog entry that could come in handy for archive files downloaded from the internet.

Essentially, when you have multiple archive files in a given folder, clicking on each one will expand that archive into its own separate folder.  If the subsequent folders each contain another part (a split archive, multiple RAR archives, parity data, etc.) you would then need to move each archive into a common folder for extraction.  A common example might be something like:

SoftwareArchive1.zip
SoftwareArchive2.zip
SoftwareArchive3.zip
SoftwareArchive4.zip
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Dropvox is a simple audio-recording app that runs on IOS (iPhone, etc.).  The application allows you to record audio notes to yourself and upload the M4A audio recordings directly to your Dropbox account.

After downloading the app, you simply link it to your Dropbox account, hit record, and it automatically uploads the recording. As an added benefit, you can optionally set the app to begin recording as soon as it is launched.

DropVox is a available for download from the iTunes Store for $1.

Zeroing or “wiping” the data on a disk is a practice that makes data on a disk less recoverable.  This does not ensure that the data can not be recovered but it certainly makes data recovery more complicated.  It is always a good idea to wipe a disk prior to donating or retiring a computer to help protect confidential information.

This procedure will erase all data on the disk and make it difficult to recover – needless to say, you should backup any important data prior to using this procedure.  Also note that this only applies to standard hard drives.  Solid state drives require special handling as noted in this post. (more…)

You can use Disk Utility to create ISO images in Mac OS X:

1. Select the CD/DVD on the left-hand side of the window
2. Click “New Image+” on the tool bar
3. For “Image Format” select “CD/DVD Master”
4. For “Encryption” leave it at “none”
5. Rename the resulting .cdr file to .iso

Note that the CDR file format is exactly the same as ISO format – simply change the file extension so that the image is more universal.  You can also use hdiutil to convert a .dmg file to an ISO:

hdiutil convert original.dmg -format UDTO -o newisoimage.cdr

Again, simply rename the .cdr to .iso

SailMail is radio based e-mail system designed for yacht owners to facilitate email communication while at sea. SailMail’s utilizes its own world-wide network of SSB-Pactor radio stations, satellite (Iridium, Inmarsat, Globalstar, Thuraya) or any other method of internet access.  Much of its underlying technology is built upon the Winlink software used by amateur radio enthusiasts but SailMail only requires a marine radio license, not an amateur radio license. (more…)

Getting Hulu working with media center XBMC has been a regular battle between users and Hulu, but a new XBMC plugin makes it dead simple.

[How to Add Hulu and Hulu Plus to XBMC (Again)]