The story of Hans Moleman

If you're a fan of the Simpsons, surely you've seen Moleman:



Well, I can't say for sure, but there's a very good chance he was named after me. Here's why.

Moleman's name was originally Ralph Melish. He first appeared in Season 2 (1992), and later, in Season 4 (1994), became a reoccurring character. But his first name was never mentioned, he was just called "Moleman". (This was because some of the writers thought he looked like a mole, obviously.)

Back in 1999, I started a little website for my streaming-video-over-broadband sales (which that technology was still in it's infancy back then), and I had one webcam. That quickly grew to 7 webcams, and a huge following (remember, this was before Facebook and Twitter, too.) Strangely enough, I got big in Japan - still am, but I don't know why. I never got naked, never did anything weird, just watched TV and lived my life. Also, being a huge Simpsons fan, I had their images all over my website (and since I knew the rules, they all linked back to Fox.)

Anyway, around early 2001, I got an email (and then an official letter) from Fox to Cease and Desist using any Simpsons images, and to remove them from my website immediately. I ignored it. A month or two later, I got an email from Matt Groenig - the creator of the Simpsons himself - who said he had been to my website, watched me on my webcams, and found me "strangely interesting", and that I had his permission to keep using the images, as long as they linked to the official Fox website, or to another part of my own.

Later that year, Moleman's first name was given in an episode of the Simpsons: Hans Moleman. Also, he claimed to be 31 years old - the same age *I* was in 2001. Not only that, but I was drinking a lot back then (I spent roughly $3,000 a month at the clubs on my favorite drink, Crown Royal), because, well, this was right after my divorce. Moleman uttered his now-infamous phrase, "Drinking has ruined my life!" in an episode of The Simpsons that year as well. Also, I walk with a cane, though that probably is a coincidence.

So, draw your own conclusions. ;)

Jailbreaing DOES NOT "void your warranty"!

Recently, I was in a bike shop getting my tire fixed, and the girl behind the counter had an iPhone. When I asked her if she'd jailbroken it yet, she told me "Oh, we're with Verizon. We don't jailbreak our iPhone." When I asked why not, she replied "Because it voids our warranty. That's what they told us at Verizon." I corrected her, telling her that simple was not true.

Why is it not true? Because jailbreaking your iPhone (or iPad, or iPod Touch) is perfectly legal under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (otherwise known as the DMCA.) In fact, it's expressly ALLOWED (see this MacWorld.com article for an explanation; also see the Electronic Frontier Foundation [aka EFF] page on this here.)

Jailbreaking your iOS device is nothing more than installing software. If the act of jailbreaking your iOS device did indeed "void your warranty", then that would mean that installing any software - even software you purchase from the Apple App Store - would also "void your warranty". Because that's all jailbreaking is - installing software. Don't want your iOS device to be jailbroken any longer? Just plug it into your computer, start iTunes, and tell iTunes to restore it to factory defaults. Sure, that wipes your device, but it also installs the factory iOS version that came with it, so that once it's done restoring, it's just like the day you bought it.

Now, way back in the day, when the very first iPhone came out, GeoHot opened up the case and physically soldered the iPhone's circuit board to jailbreak it. THAT would void your warranty, since opening the case and/or mucking around with the physical hardware is irreversible. But installing software? Even if said software isn't "authorized by Apple"? Nope, that doesn't void any warranty, regardless of what Verizon, Apple, or anyone else may claim.

It's just common sense.

iOS Financial Tracking Apps

I've loved using financial tracking apps, ever since Microsoft Money debuted (which I preferred over Quicken.) But, having to keep all those receipts and remember to input them when I got back to my computer was a PITA. I've been checking out pretty much every financial/receipt tracking app on the App Store, and thus far, only two really stand out.

1. Mint.com Personal Finance - manage your money, budgets, expenses and bills
   • Pros: it's free. It auto-updates your transactions (if your financial institution is supported.)
   • Cons: Can't really track cash accounts, or financial institutions that are not supported. It auto-selects the category for the transaction based on the type of place you are at (which, while sometimes useful, can often be incorrect), and cannot be changed in the app. No way to really track a budget.
     
2. PocketMoney - checkbook, budgets, expenses.
   • There are two flavors: the paid version ($4.99), and PocketMoney LITE, which is the free (albeit ad-supported) version. Both are identical (except for the fact that there are no ads in the paid version), so you don't lose any features. Try out the LITE, and if you want to get rid of the ads, purchase the full version.
   • Pros: lots of them in this app: the ability to track any type of account (cash, checking, credit card, savings account, investment, et. al), an intuitive and easy-to-use interface, budgeting, etc.
   • Cons: Unlike Mint.com Personal Finance, PocketMoney does not automatically retrieve your transactions, meaning you have to manually input each one.

I prefer PocketMoney, especially since my credit card is not supported in Mint.com, and thus I'm unable to effectively use the Mint.com app to track my purchases. Speaking of which, the Mint.com app is really designed to be used along with the Mint.com website online, which is the only place you can choose a different category for any expenditures.

Top Cydia tweaks to install after jailbreaking

Coming on the heels of the iPhone 4S / iPad 2 (aka A5 devices) untethered jailbreak for iOS 5.0.1, here's the list of the top Cydia tweaks to install, in my opinion. As with the App Store apps list I made, this is broken down into FREE and PAID categories.

FREE

1. Action Menu
2. Activator *
3. CyDelete
4. FolderIcons
5. KuaiDial
6. Lockscreen Multitasking
7. MultiIconMover
8. NewTabSearch
9. Pull To Dismiss
10. Pull To Refresh Mail
11. Pull To Refresh Safari
12. SBAdBlockToggle (requires SBSettings)
13. SBSettings
14. SiriToggles
15. Unified Ipod for IOS 5
16. Update Hider for iOS 5
17. WeatherIcon
18. Katra-based Weather Icon theme (requires WeatherIcon)
19. WiFiFoFum
20. Winterboard

PAID

1. Action Menu Plus Pack
2. AdBlocker
3. FolderEnhancer
4. iBlacklist
5. My3G
6. Navigate From Maps
7. Springtomize 2 - iOS 5+
8. WiFi Booster

The "Dream Team" for the A5 (4S/iPad 2) has been assembled!

Pod2G, the man who made the iOS 5.0.1 untethered for A4 devices (iPhone 4, 3Gs, first-gen iPad) a reality has announced that the "Dream Team" for the A5 jailbreak has been formed.

After announcing that an untethered jailbreak for the iPhone 4S/iPad 2 should be released in about a week, Pod2G announces that he joined forces with planetbeing, MuscleNerd and p0sixninja and they are all working together now to find a way to release the iPhone 4S/iPad 2 jailbreak.

Yesterday, the hacker issued a FAQ on why the jailbreaking isn’t available yet. The main reason is that right now, we would need a developer account to inject the untethering files into our iPhone 4S/iPad 2. Hopefully that will change, and soon we will be able to jailbreak our A5 devices.

"@planetbeing, the legendary hacker behind iPhone Linux and lot of jailbreaks has joined the A5 research!

The famous @MuscleNerd, the leader of the iPhone Dev Team, who did a lot of tests for Corona and whom integrated it and made it simple in redsn0w is willing to help also.

And last, but not least @p0sixninja, the leader of the Chronic Dev Team, and my partner for years on iPhone security research has started to code and fuzz the Apple sandbox.

We now have a dream team to find a path for a public release of the A5 jailbreak.

Cross your fingers."

Wonder TRIPLET powers...ACTIVATE!

Excessive battery drain on the iPhone 4S / iOS 5

Interesting tip over at LifeHacker: battery drain in iOS 5 (and/or the 4S) could be a bug in the Time Zone settings that causes location services to go nuts and poll way more often than it needs to, draining the battery.

The solution for now seems to be manually switching off the automatic time zone updates located at Settings → Location Services → scroll to bottom to see System Services → Setting Time Zone, switch to OFF.

Most people don't need this on anyway; it's function is to automatically adjust the time zone when the iPhone crosses into a different one (say, if you're flying from Florida - EST - to California - PST.) You can always re-enable this, or just manually change the time zone if you happen to be traveling to a different time zone.

Even if it this setting isn't affecting the excessive battery drain that Apple IS investigating, turning this off will definitely make a difference, probably between 3-7% per day and upwards, and we all kn ow that every bit of battery life counts.

Yes, I know, "old news" for some, but I'm just now catching up on the iPhone 4S / iOS 5.x info, seeing as I got my 64GB 4S yesterday.

iOS 5.0.1 untethered jailbreak is live!

pod2g's untethered iOS 5.0.1 jailbreak has been successfully done and released by both the Chronic Dev team (greenpois0n) and the Dev Team (redsn0w), for all A4 devices (anything besides the iPhone 4S and the iPad 2, both of which use the A5 dual-core processor.) pod2g is hard at work on the A5 jailbreak, and has done it already; he's just waiting on iOS 5.1 to make sure he doesn't burn an exploit that took him months to develop.

edit: Chronic Dev's info on this: http://greenpois0n.com/?p=150

If you're already tethered jailbroken on iOS 5.0.1, all you have to do is install the Cydia package to become untethered jailbroken. Those of you who are doing an upgrade to iOS 5.0.1 (like me, who was waiting to upgrade my iPhone 4 until an untethered jailbreak became available) will have to use redsn0w to do the upgrade (which is normal.)