TragicallyNull

TragicallyNull http://tragicallynull.com technology news, reviews and solutions Sun, 27 Apr 2008 13:57:13 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 en -bash: ./hldsupdatetool.bin: No such file or directory when trying to install SRCDS (Source Dedicated Server) http://tragicallynull.com/2008/04/27/bash-hldsupdatetoolbin-no-such-file-or-directory-when-trying-to-install-srcds-source-dedicated-server/ http://tragicallynull.com/2008/04/27/bash-hldsupdatetoolbin-no-such-file-or-directory-when-trying-to-install-srcds-source-dedicated-server/#comments Sun, 27 Apr 2008 13:57:13 +0000 John http://tragicallynull.com/?p=233 If you’re running a 64bit OS and you try to install SRCDS (Source Dedicated Server) and you don’t have the right packages installed you’ll get the following error “-bash: ./hldsupdatetool.bin: No such file or directory”. The problem is you don’t have 32bit libraries installed, which are required by the technological luddites at ValvE.

The solution? Run the following code in shell.
<code>sudo apt-get install ia32-libs</code>

]]> http://tragicallynull.com/2008/04/27/bash-hldsupdatetoolbin-no-such-file-or-directory-when-trying-to-install-srcds-source-dedicated-server/feed/ Team Fortress 2 Steam: engine error: no permissions to run tf http://tragicallynull.com/2008/04/20/team-fortress-2-steam-engine-error-no-permissions-to-run-tf/ http://tragicallynull.com/2008/04/20/team-fortress-2-steam-engine-error-no-permissions-to-run-tf/#comments Sun, 20 Apr 2008 05:16:54 +0000 John http://tragicallynull.com/?p=232 So you just bought Team Fortress 2 through Steam and you’re ready to go, but wait! When you try to launch the game you get the following error: Engine Error: No permissions to run tf. After some googling you’d think it was something to do with your Vista/XP permissions, but no! You’re already running as admin. The solution? Restart the Steam Client. Simple as that.

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]]> http://tragicallynull.com/2008/04/20/team-fortress-2-steam-engine-error-no-permissions-to-run-tf/feed/ Ghosts I-IV, I bought it, what? http://tragicallynull.com/2008/03/13/ghosts-i-iv-i-bought-it-what/ http://tragicallynull.com/2008/03/13/ghosts-i-iv-i-bought-it-what/#comments Thu, 13 Mar 2008 14:42:07 +0000 John http://tragicallynull.com/2008/03/13/ghosts-i-iv-i-bought-it-what/ So yeah, the very minute I heard that a major band who I respected was officially ditching the major record labels and putting out an entire album solely on their own, unlike Radiohead who still rely on the major labels for B&M physical CD sales, I bought it, sight unseen. The new entirely instrumental album from Nine Inch Nails consists of thirty-six tracks in four nine track albums, ergo Ghosts I-IV. It can be had as a digital download for $5 in either losses or super-high quality 320kbps LAME encoded MP3s, including a 40 page PDF of album art and both standard and widescreen wallpapers of each.

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that an entirely instrumental album from NIN threw me off slightly at first, and having listened to all of the tracks, I find it to be an exceptional album, but it’s clearly not going to be for everyone, especially if you’re expecting some high energy rock to trash to. This album is more about the nuance of instrumental composition and clearly a pet project of Trent Reznor, and while still having some clear rock influences the tracks are high experimental and branch out into many different styles of music, but most if not all of the tracks feel very tight, well thought out and will be enjoyable to most people.

But don’t take my word for it. The first 9 tracks are free to everyone who wants them, then if you decide you like it, and I’m pretty sure you will, the entire album is only $5. And honestly, even if you don’t like it, support people when they take risks for positive change and actually trust the fans to support them. Thank’s for “getting it” Trent.

Buy it, enjoy it.

]]> http://tragicallynull.com/2008/03/13/ghosts-i-iv-i-bought-it-what/feed/ Firefox 3 Beta 4: LOL Wut? http://tragicallynull.com/2008/03/12/firefox-3-beta-4-lol-wut/ http://tragicallynull.com/2008/03/12/firefox-3-beta-4-lol-wut/#comments Wed, 12 Mar 2008 23:02:22 +0000 John http://tragicallynull.com/2008/03/12/firefox-3-beta-4-lol-wut/ So I just downloaded a copy of Firefox 3 Beta 4 SG-1 Sigma 9 Gamma, and pretty much the gist of what I’m going to say is that I really hope they polish it before it goes live, because right now this son of a bitch is rough. Most noticeably are the new navigation icons, both in small and full icon modes, the full version looks like a direct rip of IE7 panel which I guess is part of the “Vista Specific UI” but damn, the RSS icon is just hideous with it’s unnecessary 1px shadow and beveledness and the unrefined bookmark star that looks like someone used the shape from Photoshop to make. Not only that, but they removed the sub-back arrow, now I have to right click to see as list of the pages I’ve been to, but not only that but in full icon mode the remaining forward sub-arrow doesn’t even give you feedback when you click it, very sloppy in my book.

On the upside I do like Smart Bookmarks which allow you to view your most visited websites as well as your most recently bookmarked, the star, for it’s uglyness is a very nice way to quickly bookmark sites and the new notification system, while a little hard to get used to, is much more functional than the show stopping popup. There are also a mirriad of other features and behind the scenes stuff I’m sure, but that’s what has jumped out at me thus far.

All in all Firefox 3 is a needed and feature rich update that takes what works and does it’s best to make it better. It would be nice to see a little more polish before it ships but I’m not complaining, it’s the best browser available and it’s free.

Download Firefox 3 Beta 4

]]> http://tragicallynull.com/2008/03/12/firefox-3-beta-4-lol-wut/feed/ Gmail 2.0 in the pipes. http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/31/gmail-20-in-the-pipes/ http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/31/gmail-20-in-the-pipes/#comments Wed, 31 Oct 2007 14:37:38 +0000 John http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/31/gmail-20-in-the-pipes/ Google is starting to slowly rollout Gmail 2.0. Among the updates is an improved contact manager as well as a rewritten back-end that promises to provider a faster email browsing experience. A Google spokesperson said about 1 percent of Gmail users have had this option enabled and they intend to provide more access on an on-going basis.

Read more on Blogoscoped

]]> http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/31/gmail-20-in-the-pipes/feed/ Things not looking good for Sony http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/31/things-not-looking-good-for-sony/ http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/31/things-not-looking-good-for-sony/#comments Wed, 31 Oct 2007 14:24:13 +0000 John http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/31/things-not-looking-good-for-sony/ It’s no secret that the Play Station 3 has been called a failure by many Sony anti-fanboys, but the sales data and delay announcements are starting to prove them right. Not only has the console suffered lack luster sales in what was expected to be a tremendous boom and complete console war domination, developers are constantly reporting game delays due to the PS3 being extremely hard and expensive to develop for, the most recent delay being the flag-ship title Metal Gear Solid 4.

The PS3 has been out for almost a year and has one of the most pathetic libraries in recent gaming memory to show for it. This is due to practically no Triple A titles being released and smaller 3rd party developers opting not to support the console, instead choosing to favor Xbox 360 or the Wii. Sony’s is a no-show in Amazon.com’s best sellers in video games list, with the PS3 taking only the 21st spot. Even still many people are purchasing the PS3 for the sole purpose of watching Blu-Ray movies, but with $200 HD-DVD players showing up at Wal*Marts the format war could easily be tipped in HD-DVD’s favor dealing a perhaps fatal blow to Sony.

]]> http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/31/things-not-looking-good-for-sony/feed/ Instant Jailbreak for iPod touch, iPhone ANY OS, Windows or OSX http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/29/instant-jailbreak-for-ipod-touch-iphone-any-os-windows-or-osx/ http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/29/instant-jailbreak-for-ipod-touch-iphone-any-os-windows-or-osx/#comments Mon, 29 Oct 2007 06:44:32 +0000 John http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/29/instant-jailbreak-for-ipod-touch-iphone-any-os-windows-or-osx/ Rezen and the guys from #iTouch on osx86.hu have done it again, further simplifying the Jailbreak process to a single website visit, effectively obsoleting all other software Jailbreaks. No apps to download, no resets to do, this Jailbreak does it’s work in just the first step of most other software Jailbreaks. All you have to do is visit jailbreakme.com on your v1.1.1 iPhone or iPod touch and click confirm. That’s it. It will crash to the icons and reboot itself, leaving you with a fully Jailbroken device with Installer.app installed.

It’s important to note that this Jailbreak only leaves you with Installer.app installed, no default SSH client. If you need to SFTP or SSH into your device, you’ll need to install the BSD Subsystem, Community Sources and then OpenSSH using Installer.app. Super easy to do.

Truly Jailbreak your iPod touch or iPhone with one click

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]]> http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/29/instant-jailbreak-for-ipod-touch-iphone-any-os-windows-or-osx/feed/ Patch TIFF exploit in Safari, iPod touch, iPhone http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/28/patch-tiff-exploit-in-safari-ipod-touch-iphone/ http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/28/patch-tiff-exploit-in-safari-ipod-touch-iphone/#comments Sun, 28 Oct 2007 22:09:44 +0000 John http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/28/patch-tiff-exploit-in-safari-ipod-touch-iphone/ Once you’ve used the TIFF exploit to Jailbreak your iPod touch or iPhone it’s a bad idea to leave your browser open to the fairly serious vulnerability, luckily someone has created a patch and it’s dead simple to install.

Step 1: Download patch-graphics from here. (Right-click, save as for best results. You might also have to remove the file extension .html depending on your web browser. You should be left with an extensionless file called patch-graphics)
Step 2: Using SFTP, upload the file to your iPod touch or iPhone to the /Applications/ directory.
Step 3: SSH into your iPod touch or iPhone and run /bin/chmod a+w /Applications/*
Step 4: Run the patch using the following command ./Applications/patch-graphics A bunch of text should fill the screen and you should be returned to the prompt.
Step 5: Success, you’re done. Visit the web with impunity.

]]> http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/28/patch-tiff-exploit-in-safari-ipod-touch-iphone/feed/ Apple doesn’t want your cash… At least not for iPhones http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/27/apple-doesnt-want-your-cash-at-least-not-for-iphones/ http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/27/apple-doesnt-want-your-cash-at-least-not-for-iphones/#comments Sat, 27 Oct 2007 06:45:00 +0000 John http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/27/apple-doesnt-want-your-cash-at-least-not-for-iphones/ In a hopeless effort to stop the resale of unlocked iPhone, Apple has introduced a new policy limiting customers to both paying with a credit or debit card and limiting sales to 2 iPhones per person. Apple estimates that over a quarter million of the 1.4 million iPhones sold have been unlocked causing then substantial financial losses as AT&T pays Apple monthly for each iPhone service plan sold.

Perhaps Apple really doesn’t get “stopping piracy” as much as MadDogg Steve Jobs’ open letter would suggest. Not accepting cash isn’t going to hurt the unlocked iPhone resellers, they’ll use disposable credit cards or Apple Store gift cards to purchase their iPhones, while people who legitamately just want to buy one with cash wont be able to. Anti-Piracy hurts your customers, always.

]]> http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/27/apple-doesnt-want-your-cash-at-least-not-for-iphones/feed/ Save battery-life by turning off SSH on the iPod touch, iPhone http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/26/save-battery-life-by-turning-off-ssh-on-the-ipod-touch-iphone/ http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/26/save-battery-life-by-turning-off-ssh-on-the-ipod-touch-iphone/#comments Sat, 27 Oct 2007 02:47:33 +0000 John http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/26/save-battery-life-by-turning-off-ssh-on-the-ipod-touch-iphone/ After Jailbreaking your iPod touch or iPhone you’ll have an SSH server running, necessary when first installing new applications, but once you’re done it continues to run in the background, even when not in use and can significantly drain your battery. But there is a solution, Services.app, a community application that lets you disable certain services including SSH.

Step 1: [OPTIONAL] Follow my guide to replace Dropbear SSH with OpenSSH.
Step 2: Install Services.app though Installer.app. It will be in the Utilities section. If you can’t find it, make sure you have Community Sources installed.
Step 3: Run Services.app.
Step 4: You should see several switches, Edge and Bluetooth are superfluous on the iPod touch even though they may appear to be on. The switch you’re interested in is the one marked SSH, simply turn it off when you don’t need SFTP/Shell access to your device, which should be 90% of the time. If you see two SSH switches, please follow my guide to remove one of them.
Step 5: You’re done!

You should see a boost in your battery-life if you’ve been using your iPod touch/iPhone with SSH running.

]]> http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/26/save-battery-life-by-turning-off-ssh-on-the-ipod-touch-iphone/feed/ touchFree - GUI iPod touch 1-click Jailbreak for Windows with Summerboard http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/26/touchfree-gui-ipod-touch-1-click-jailbreak-for-windows-with-summerboard/ http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/26/touchfree-gui-ipod-touch-1-click-jailbreak-for-windows-with-summerboard/#comments Sat, 27 Oct 2007 02:32:37 +0000 John http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/26/touchfree-gui-ipod-touch-1-click-jailbreak-for-windows-with-summerboard/ An even easier to use GUI version of planetbeing’s 1-click iPod touch Jailbreak application has been released depreciating most of my previous guide. The new version requires fewer reboots and installs the alpha version of Summerboard but still installs an old version of Installer.app that you will need to upgrade. Portions of the guide that are still relevant can be found below.

You can download the new version and get instructions on how to use it here.

Previous iPod touch Articles

Replacing Dropbear with OpenSSH
Uprading to Installer.app version 3.0a
Original command line touchFree guide

Final Steps for Safety

Courtesy of the iTouch Dev Wiki

It is a very good idea to change the default password from “alpineâ€ to something else. This prevents people who happen to see your iPod touch on a wireless network from logging into it and doing nasty things. To do this:

1. Install “Community Sourcesâ€, “BSD Subsystemâ€ and “Term-vt100â€³ packages from Installer.app.
2. Launch Term-vt100.
3. At the # prompt, type “passwdâ€ (without the quotes) and press return.
4. Enter your new password and confirm it.
5. DON’T LOSE YOUR NEW PASSWORD! :) If you do, in order to log into your touch from SSH or SFTP you will have to do a restore and start this process all over again.

]]> http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/26/touchfree-gui-ipod-touch-1-click-jailbreak-for-windows-with-summerboard/feed/ Mozilla: F- it, we can do it too http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/26/mozilla-f-it-we-can-do-it-too/ http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/26/mozilla-f-it-we-can-do-it-too/#comments Sat, 27 Oct 2007 02:10:19 +0000 John http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/26/mozilla-f-it-we-can-do-it-too/ Mozilla has announced, in a stroke of original genius, that they’re working on a “web on the desktop” application, they’re calling Prisim, to compete with the likes of Adobe Air, Microsoft Silverlight, Konfabulator, Apple Widgets, Google Gears and Microsoft Gadgets.

How will they be different? Well they say their platform won’t be proprietary, that is “they aren’t trying to replace the web”. Prisim is based off of the virtually unknown Mozilla Labs Webrunner. Prisim will eventually be available for Windows, Mac OSX and Linux, but currently only a pre-alpha Windows build is available.

]]> http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/26/mozilla-f-it-we-can-do-it-too/feed/ Internet to remain untaxed for 7 more years http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/26/internet-to-remain-untaxed-for-7-more-years/ http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/26/internet-to-remain-untaxed-for-7-more-years/#comments Sat, 27 Oct 2007 01:49:49 +0000 John http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/26/internet-to-remain-untaxed-for-7-more-years/ In a small victory for keeping the internet free, the U.S. Senate passed a bill extending the 1998 Tax Freedom Act for another 7 years. This will be the third time the act has been extended as a presidential veto is unlikely. It’s important to note that this doesn’t cover products purchased on the internet, only internet access itself. Something I find suspicious as I’m positive my Comcast internet bill includes several “regulatory” or other taxes.

Read more on Ars Technica

]]> http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/26/internet-to-remain-untaxed-for-7-more-years/feed/ Beware of OiNK scams, any site collecting money on behalf of OiNK http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/26/beware-of-oink-scams-any-site-collecting-money-on-behalf-of-oink/ http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/26/beware-of-oink-scams-any-site-collecting-money-on-behalf-of-oink/#comments Sat, 27 Oct 2007 01:28:13 +0000 John http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/26/beware-of-oink-scams-any-site-collecting-money-on-behalf-of-oink/ There are currently NO authorized websites that are working on behalf of OiNK to collect money for a new tracker or legal fees, this has been confirmed with Mr. OiNK himself. DO NOT give any of these sites money.

Some of the domains include oink.we.bs and oink.cx.la, they ARE NOT OFFICIAL and ARE SCAMS.’

Read more on TorrentFreak

]]> http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/26/beware-of-oink-scams-any-site-collecting-money-on-behalf-of-oink/feed/ The Pirate Bay to resurrect OiNK as BOiNK http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/26/the-pirate-bay-to-resurrect-oink-as-boink/ http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/26/the-pirate-bay-to-resurrect-oink-as-boink/#comments Sat, 27 Oct 2007 00:47:42 +0000 John http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/26/the-pirate-bay-to-resurrect-oink-as-boink/ The Pirate Bay has announced their own OiNK.cd replacement, BOiNK.cd, to be launched in the next few days. BOiNK will be a solely The Pirate Bay effort, not involving the previous admin of OiNK, yet relying on the now rogue OiNK community to congregate and provide and seed their torrents to kick start the tracker.

An important fact to note is that the tracker will be public, meaning anyone can download anything. Sounds great if you don’t have pirate friends and could never get an invite to OiNK, but making it public seems to almost doom it for failure unless they intend to create some sort of anonymous traffic filter to keep seeders and peers from each others actual IP. If anyone can download anything, the RIAA can stick their jollybots on the network and start collecting data on what people upload, something that HAS been very successfully prosecuted in the past. Not to mention public trackers do not enforce ratio requirements, meaning people rampantly hit and run (Download without uploading) making download ridiculously slow and there’s no reward system for people with fat pipes to seed.

It’s going to be interesting to see what The Pirate Bay guys come up with, but if security isn’t a top concern and they don’t give people a reason to fill the tracker with the same ridiculous archive of obscure music that OiNK was known for, I don’t know if they’ll reach the critical mass necessary to recapture what OiNK once was.

]]> http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/26/the-pirate-bay-to-resurrect-oink-as-boink/feed/ To iTunes: Warner music threatening to take ball and go home http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/25/to-itunes-warner-music-threatening-to-take-ball-and-go-home/ http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/25/to-itunes-warner-music-threatening-to-take-ball-and-go-home/#comments Fri, 26 Oct 2007 02:57:23 +0000 John http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/25/to-itunes-warner-music-threatening-to-take-ball-and-go-home/ In a move that’s becoming more common amongst content providers, Warner music is threatening to pull it’s content from the iTunes Music Store, seemingly over Steve Job’s insistent control of the prices for for said content. This in the wake of NBC choosing not to put their fall season on the iTunes Music Store, opting instead to start their own joint venture with News Corp, Hulu, to serve their content. Universal Music Group also chose not to renew their longterm contract with Apple, instead opting for shorter month-to-month contract terms.

Unfortunately it’s not because they want to charge less. According to some, NBC wanted to charge as much as $4.99 per episode, up from the $1.99 and Steve Jobs wouldn’t bend on the $1.99 price-point so they pulled their content. And it’s not a secret that the major music labels would love to have tiered pricing.

]]> http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/25/to-itunes-warner-music-threatening-to-take-ball-and-go-home/feed/ SanDisk sues everyone, kills Woot http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/25/sandisk-sues-everyone-kills-woot/ http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/25/sandisk-sues-everyone-kills-woot/#comments Thu, 25 Oct 2007 22:14:55 +0000 John http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/25/sandisk-sues-everyone-kills-woot/ SanDisk is suing 25 companies with products ranging from flash media card to mp3 players, refusing to cite the actual patents violated in their press release. They’re also attempting to use the ITC loophole, a loophole that allows patent holders to circumvent a Supreme Court ruling that companies who’s product as a whole does not violate a patent, but may include some patent infringing components may still be imported. A loophole that needs very much to be fixed A.S.A.P.

SanDisk also killed the Wootoff for nearly 5 hours today with their Sansa e260 media player, it’s unclear if it was the nearly 18,000 of these that Woot purchased from SanDisk, people outraged over these patent law suits or the fact that it was a crappy, crappy player, that can be blamed for the actual Wootpocalypse.

]]> http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/25/sandisk-sues-everyone-kills-woot/feed/ Verizon eats crow, pays users for capping “unlimited” usage http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/24/verizon-eats-crow-pays-users-for-capping-unlimited-usage/ http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/24/verizon-eats-crow-pays-users-for-capping-unlimited-usage/#comments Thu, 25 Oct 2007 00:14:47 +0000 John http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/24/verizon-eats-crow-pays-users-for-capping-unlimited-usage/ Version has agreed to “reimburse the terminated subscribers for the cost of the laptop cards or laptop-connected cellphones” for users who were terminated for breaching the invisible ceiling on their “unlimited” usage plans for the companies mobile broadband services, a cap that is reported be as low as 5GB per month. Version is also paying New York state $150,000 for penalties and costs, though, I’m not sure why. How did they wrong New York?

Hopefully this will be a step in the right direction for companies to better clarify their impossibly unlimited plans.

]]> http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/24/verizon-eats-crow-pays-users-for-capping-unlimited-usage/feed/ Danish record labels love the pirate tax http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/24/danish-record-labels-love-the-pirate-tax/ http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/24/danish-record-labels-love-the-pirate-tax/#comments Thu, 25 Oct 2007 00:07:45 +0000 John http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/24/danish-record-labels-love-the-pirate-tax/ Danish record labels are looking into levying a $19 pirate tax per user on all Danish ISPs to cover the imminent piracy that all users engage in. This tax would be MANDATORY for ALL users regardless of their downloading habits. This sort of preemptive pirate tax has been in place in Canada for decades and levies a tax on all blank media sold.

]]> http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/24/danish-record-labels-love-the-pirate-tax/feed/ Google to enable IMAP for Gmail in next few days http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/24/google-to-enable-imap-for-gmail-in-next-few-days/ http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/24/google-to-enable-imap-for-gmail-in-next-few-days/#comments Wed, 24 Oct 2007 05:44:15 +0000 John http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/24/google-to-enable-imap-for-gmail-in-next-few-days/ Previous speculation and documentation detective work has yielded several rumors about upcoming features for Gmail, one of them being IMAP support, and it seems it will be rolled out in the next couple of days. Some users are already seeing the change, having Forwarding and POP in their Gmail settings turn into Forwarding and POP/IMAP. As with all new Google features, they will be rolled out, seemingly randomly, over a few days.

This much needed update is especially good for iPhone/hacked iPod touch/mobile device users as now they can get and manage their Gmail from their device without having to delete email twice.

]]> http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/24/google-to-enable-imap-for-gmail-in-next-few-days/feed/ Amazon pattents search strings, seriously http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/23/amazon-pattents-search-strings-seriously/ http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/23/amazon-pattents-search-strings-seriously/#comments Wed, 24 Oct 2007 00:59:51 +0000 John http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/23/amazon-pattents-search-strings-seriously/ Amazon has been granted a patent for appending a search term to a URL without special formatting such as this. would take you to a page with search results concurrent with Amazon’s recent activities.

Amazon owns this now:
http://amazon.com/rampent-abuse-of-the-patent-system

Over-broad? Check. Obvious? Check. Disregard for prior art? Check.
Thanks USPTO.

]]> http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/23/amazon-pattents-search-strings-seriously/feed/ Verizon rolls out 20Mb/20Mb FiOS fiber internet connections http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/23/verizon-rolls-out-20mb20mb-fios-fiber-internet-connections/ http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/23/verizon-rolls-out-20mb20mb-fios-fiber-internet-connections/#comments Wed, 24 Oct 2007 00:53:05 +0000 John http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/23/verizon-rolls-out-20mb20mb-fios-fiber-internet-connections/ Version is starting to roll out amazing symmetric 20megabit internet connections for New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut for as little as $65 per month, with plans for the other 13 Verizon coverage areas “soon”. Symmetric internet connections are virtually unheard of in the consumer market, instead being sold as businesses or data centers at a much higher cost. Instead, home users are used getting about 128kbps upload for every 1mbps download, or even less in some areas.

Those of us who don’t live in Verizon coverage areas hope that this news will force cable companies to act and start trying to compete with FiOS instead of cowering behind the “there’s not enough bandwidth” excuse. Most cable providers have fiber to the curb, but wont take it directly to the home, instead using slower coaxial cable already in place to take it the last mile.

]]> http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/23/verizon-rolls-out-20mb20mb-fios-fiber-internet-connections/feed/ iPhone Elite team releases iPhone Revirginizer http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/23/iphone-elite-team-releases-iphone-revirginizer/ http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/23/iphone-elite-team-releases-iphone-revirginizer/#comments Wed, 24 Oct 2007 00:42:08 +0000 John http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/23/iphone-elite-team-releases-iphone-revirginizer/ The iPhone Elite team has done it again, providing a free tool to Revirginize your bricked iPhone that you upgraded to v1.1.1 after unlocking it. It will restore it to a pristine v1.0.2 that you can then update to v1.1.1 and unlock again. As with all new hacks, caveat… whatever user is in latin, in other words, be careful, make sure you know what you’re doing.

Download the Revirginizer

]]> http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/23/iphone-elite-team-releases-iphone-revirginizer/feed/ OiNK misreporting, propaganda continues http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/23/oink-misreporting-propaganda-continues/ http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/23/oink-misreporting-propaganda-continues/#comments Wed, 24 Oct 2007 00:25:03 +0000 John http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/23/oink-misreporting-propaganda-continues/ Almost all of the major news sources are misreporting the facts of the case in regards to the function and purpose of OiNK claiming that the site was “for-pay” or subscription based and “hosted copyright music on the server” when the site was COMPLETELY donation based and NEVER hosted files on the server, only small bits of generic information, .torrent files, on how to receive the files from other users, NOT illegal. It would be like telling someone how to fire a gun then getting charged for murder when they shoot someone.

There’s also the issue of IFPI using the stolen Oink.cd domain to spread propaganda, fear, uncertainty and doubt amongst the users of the site with messages such as “A criminal investigation continues into the identities and activities of the site’s users” when in actuality there was nothing criminally damning on the server in regards to the users. All of the data is generic, no transfer of copyright files EVER took place on the server, it couldn’t have by the virtue of being a torrent tracker, it just let people connect with each other.

They claim that there were over 180,000 users of OiNK, spread all throughout the world, a jurisdictional nightmare and simply cost prohibitive for anyone wanting to file suit against the users, especially given the completely spurious charges they would have to file. They have no proof that any file transfers took place and would therefore have to compel the users of the site to, in effect, point the finger at each other, impossible given that torrent clients don’t keep logs. Failing that, they would in some way prove that user x sent user y copyright files without any logs, something that would be near impossible.

Many large torrent sites have been taken down before, Lokitorrent for example, no users were ever tracked down and sued. It was much more fiscally sound for them to simply put the fear of god into pirates and try to scare them back into stores. Just more scare tactics from the people defending a dying industry on a gangrene business model, hoping that can win fans though lawsuits.

]]> http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/23/oink-misreporting-propaganda-continues/feed/ OiNK shutdown, servers raided, admin arrested curtesy of the IFPI http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/23/oinkcd-shutdown-by-ifpi/ http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/23/oinkcd-shutdown-by-ifpi/#comments Tue, 23 Oct 2007 11:20:29 +0000 John http://tragicallynull.com/2007/10/23/oinkcd-shutdown-by-ifpi/ The hugely popular invite-only p2p music site OiNK was shut down by British and Dutch police in conjunction with the IFPI after a 2 year on-going investigation. Several data centers in Amsterdam were raided, servers seized and the sites proprietor, a 24 year old IT worker, arrested.

The consequences for the owner as well as the users still unknown. However, since no illegal material was ever hosted directly on Oink, only distributed between users via torrent, they may have a hard time proving that any copyright violation actually took place on Oink servers. Nor do they have logs of the connections and data transfer between users, virtually the only incriminating evidence to take place during torrent transfers.

Read more on TorrentFreak

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