Saturday, August 25, 2007

Unlocked iPhone - Apple's new phone gets HACKED!

George Hotz, also known as "geohot", is making the media rounds with his new unlocked iPhone. Apple, in a profit-sharing deal with AT&T, have restricted the phone's use to only the AT&T Wireless network. An unlocked phone can be used on other carriers, such as T-mobile and other GSM networks. You can read about George's trials and tribulations with spending nearly 500 hours to unlock the iPhone on his blog: http://iphonejtag.blogspot.com/

It seems to require a fair amount of technical manuevering, a little soldering and some programming to accomplish the feat of unlocking your iPhone. Personally, I can't imagine tinkering with a $500 piece of equipment knowing full well that I could ruin the unit... only so I can switch from one crappy cell phone carrier to another.

While George is enjoying the spotlight before he packs up and heads off to start his college career at Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, I sure hope he has consulted an attorney. The gray area of unlocking the iPhone, or any cellphone for that matter, could potentially spell disaster for this 17 year old.

Last year, a team of lawyers from Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society, an exclusive legal group lead by Jennifer Granick, were able to get the Library of Congress to add an exclusion to the DMCA. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 was enacted to criminalize software copyright violations, among other harsh penalties to protect the profits of big software companies. The Copyright Office ruled that it's legal for people to unlock their own cellphones. It's also legal to sell or buy a phone that has already been unlocked. However, there are some other less clear distinctions...

The complication is this, as Granick says, "The Copyright Office only exempted the act of unlocking your phone, not the act of providing tools to unlock all such phones. Thus you may violate the law if you provide software, hardware and perhaps even instructions to help other people unlock their cellphones."

When the dust settles on George's little media blitz and 10-seconds of fame for unlocking the iPhone, will he be heralded as a technology guru pushing the envelope of technological reverse engineering? Or, will he be sued by Apple, AT&T and have crimincal copyright infringement charges brought against him?

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Liberty Tax School

It's about that time again. My office will be hosting our 10-week long tax course; the class meets twice per week for 3 hrs per class. Class starts in September. Day and evening classes are available. The tuition is FREE and there is a small fee of $99 for books and course materials. Upon completion of the course, certification is available to those that pass a test. There may also be employment opportunities available.

Take the class to pickup a new skill, sharpen your pencil for your own taxes or to make a few extra bucks during tax season. Email me at shorewood at(@) libertytax.com if you are interested in taking the class. Seats are filling up quickly so register today!

Sunday, August 5, 2007

Password changing humor

Yea, so last night we went out and had a few cocktails with dinner. Then a couple more cocktails. One thing led to another and of course, we end up in an argument. The wife takes my laptop and locks herself into our room. Knowing full well she has taken my primary source of entertainment, she thinks she has the upper hand. In an effort to stave off her temptations to dig through my computer, I had the forethought to change the password. I sure taught her a lesson!

This morning I went to check my email and up comes the login screen. This is where the funny part kicks in. I cannot remember the damn password! I remember thinking to myself as I was changing it to make it something simple. 42 password combinations later I still can't remember the freakin' password. Now I'm getting worried. Twenty google searches later and I realize there is a slim chance I will recover this password for less than $50.

I finally find some website that describes a wacky security loophole during the windows xp repair process that will allow me to reset the administrator password... two hours later I have access to my computer again! wh00p!

The moral of the story, do not change passwords while intoxicated.