Ian McShane Rotating Header Image

Tech

Jailbreaking a UK iPhone

Dec 5th, 2007
by Ian.
6 comments

This was compiled from the conceited software write up and also iphoneatlas’ write up (I had a nervy 15 minutes of nothing whilst it was stuck in restore mode – cue much Googling!!).

I thought i’d write this up as I couldn’t find anything specific to say that the o2 iPhone could / has been broken. So here is my quick guide. The jailbreak operation took about two hours, including downloading both 1.1.1 and 1.1.2 firmwares and the aforementioned 15 minutes of shakiness – mostly due to having to Google a lot, just for my own sanity! Fixing the Edge and VVM settings was another 30 minutes.

Usual disclaimers apply, if you brick it that’s your too bad. On with the show. (more…)

RadRails – Unable to detect ruby install on OS X Leopard

Nov 30th, 2007
by Ian.
4 comments

I installed the RadRails plugin for Eclipse and Aptana today.
On first start, it complains that it is “Unable to detect ruby install” on my Leopard macbook.

Now, I know ruby is installed and working so had to try and figure out the path to the ruby installation.

Took me a while to work it out, I thought it would be under /usr/.. but it’s actually here:

/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr

After adding a new RubyVM with this path everything was good again.

Incidentally, although Aptana is available on it’s own as an IDE (built with the Eclipse framework), I decided to use it as a plugin for a native Eclipse IDE. That way I just have one IDE for Java, C++ as well as RoR. Made sense to me.

I’ve only had a quick play with it but it already beats the bejesus out of my Notepad and command line setup on XP. :)

[tags]OS X, Mac, Eclipse, RadRails, Aptana, Ruby on Rails[/tags]

Skitch

Nov 25th, 2007
by Ian.
No comments yet

Taking screenshots on XP was always a bit of a pain in the ass. ALT+PrtSc, paste into MS Paint (I don’t get Photoshop at work and I never really got to grips with GiMP), crop, resize, save as jpg (unless XP had gone up the spout in which case it was a bmp), email to QA/Dev or add to the defect tracking system… <yawn>

A good few months ago, I read about a startup called Skitch. At the time I was a 99% XP user and they haven’t got a Windows version just yet.

I installed this to my Macbook a couple of days ago, it’s fricken ace. Not only is it quick and easy to grab screens, you can overlay text or other simple graphics (arrows, boxs etc..), export to pretty much any filetype and even upload to your own space hosted on their site. It’s brilliantly productive, infinitely better than anything i’ve used before.

Here’s a video that explains it all in less than 3 mins. I don’t know if the beta is public yet but my account says I have some invites if anyone wants to give it a test drive.

[tags]Skitch, OS X, Productivity, Switch To Mac[/tags]

Ruby on Rails, mySQL, Mongrel and OS X Leopard

Nov 25th, 2007
by Ian.
1 comment

For the majority of my RoR development, i’ve used a Windows machine running Instant Rails. Apparently, the Mac is the so-called “favoured platform” for Ruby on Rails development so i’ve been looking forward to getting rolling with this on my shiny Macbook. However, i’ve spent a couple of days scouring Google and Groups trying to find the optimum way to get everything set up and running. There isn’t much information where Leopard is concerned, most of the posts and articles are geared toward Tiger and involve building and compiling Ruby from source with XCode.

Well, i’ve got mine environment up and running so hopefully this will save someone else a bit of time. Of course, that does assume that i’ve done this all in the correct manner! Any corrections or updates welcome! :) (more…)

iPhone (continued)

Nov 9th, 2007
by Ian.
No comments yet

Whilst the iPhone is sync’ing up (gonna take a while to sync mp3s and photos), i’ve been perusing the myriad leaflets stuffed in the bag by O2.
This one is hidden away in the t’s & c’s under the information about credit checks, which is a bit of a strange place to put it:

Making unauthorised modifications to the software on you iPhone violates the iPhone software license agreement, and the inability to use your iPhone due to unauthorised software modifications is not covered under your iPhone’s warranty.

At the moment i’m not sure if i’ll bother with any forthcoming Jailbreaks, when they manage to exploit 1.1.2. I’m looking forward to the SDK next year though.

Remote Mac access, without VNC

Jul 15th, 2007
by Ian.
No comments yet

As previously mentioned, I use a Mac Mini as a nice little media box for music and HD related goodness.
I’ve always struggled with remote managing it and ended up buying the wireless ‘Mighty’ mouse and keyboard combo so that I didn’t have to sit 2 ft from the TV if I needed to, for example, retag something in iTunes.
VNC always seems to be hit and miss.  I’ve tried RealVNC and TightVNC, both have their flaws and are too keen to drop the connection.  Even when i’m on the couch, 5ft away.

I’ve not even been able to set-up VNC for proper remote access, despite opening the firewall (both the HW firewall and the OS X firewall set to “allow all * to *”) and router to everything.  Looking at the firewall in real time I can see the packets being sent from the external interface through to the Mac IP internally but they never seemed to reach the Mini.  On the other hand, MSRDP has never failed me before coming through the same set up.
Then, don’t get me started on the enforced corporate VPN policy that effectively means I have to re-IP my network just to access device in my house when the VPN is active..

Anyway.  I’ve used the LogMeIn service to access Windows machines previously.  Last week (or maybe the week before) I saw a post somewhere (I thought i’d starred it in GReader but I can’t find it now) that mentioned a Beta version of the same technology for OS X.   BRILLIANT! :)

LogMeIn Free version for Mac (Preview)

As with most OS X apps, installation was SO easy;  Download, install, done.
It did a little auto-update once the install was finished (no reboot) and was ready to go.  No configuration needed other than specifying your LogMeIn username/password credentials.

I fired up a browser on my XP lappy (again, on the couch.  5ft away) and logged in.
After clicking the Remote Access button, it took about 20 secs to flash up a nice rendition of my OS X desktop in an IE browser window.
Security wise, it runs over HTTPS in the same manner as the PC versions.  LMI make quite a big deal about it being secure and easy.

The performance here is excellent.  By the looks of it, the connection is direct from my IE client window (There are a couple of ActiveX controls displayed through the add-ins menu in IE7) to the Mini, very much in the style of Webex.  Typing into finder via the LMI window sufferes only a marginally noticable delay.

Whether or not they’ve leveraged the Open Source angle of VNC to code their own flavour, I don’t know.  What I do know is that it is great, right down to the little details.
For example, using RealVNC or similar clients, a right click of a mouse on my XP machine whilst in a VNC session would bring up the Widgets layer – which over VNC, was slow as hell to render IN and then slow as hell to render OUT.
With LMI, a right click does EXACTLY what i’d expect it to, it brings up the context menu for the target.  Whilst bringing up the Widgets layer (when I want, using F12 :) ) in LMI it isn’t exactly lightening quick and smooth, it renders up in a 4 part mosaic, clockwise motion but it is infinitely quicker and better.

The better test will be tomorrow at work when I can give it a proper trial over the internet.  Hopefully it will be a bit quicker and easier to just FTP something from home to work via the UI than via SSH.

At the moment, for my needs at home it is a perfect replacement for VNC.

I REALLY HATE TICKETMASTER

May 16th, 2007
by Ian.
No comments yet

1. Over charging. I accept that a service charge of somekind is due when buying event tickets however charging a further £8 per ticket ON TOP of the £65 (Dolphins vs Giants @ Wembley) I have already paid is unacceptable. Especially considering they then charge another £5 ON TOP for postage.
2. Unable to run their website with any degree of reliability. Server unavailable? Amateurs.

I’m angry. The problem is that they have the monoploy and you can’t get tickets anywhere else.
I don’t know who is worse, Ticketmaster or the touts that buy up the tickets with no intention of going and sell them on.

Ultimate Everything

Feb 28th, 2007
by Ian.
2 comments

My last post mentioned that I had managed to use Noobz‘ latest downgrader and my copy of GTA:LCS to get from the OR 2.8 version of the PSP firmware back down to the Homebrew friendly 1.50.

Whilst trying to find something useful and interesting to do with my new old-skool style PSP I stumbled across the OE (Open Edition) custom versions of the OR firmware, released by a chap with the moniker Dark Alex.
I’m now running his 3.10OE-a release which enables a number of cool things i’ve found and a number of cool things I *think* it can do :D .

The actual upgrade process was simple, the hardest part was getting the right information and the right versions of the s/w. A lot of forum jumping and post trawling was involved, unfortunately most of the good information was buried amongst, people I assume are under the age of 15, writing “cud u pls hlp me make my PSP play copied games cuz i dont no how” – damn that kind of writing really is one of my biggest hates.. (Not to say that I am a Shakespearean literary genius.)

Disclaimer – If you brick your PSP it’s not my fault, just enjoying having the best paper-weight in your office.

Firstly, I couldn’t run the upgrade until my battery was fully charged – Even though it was connected to the PSU. Annoying.

*Stops*

Ok, I found the info that I was about to type up online already. This would have been helpful yesterday!!

After downgrading to 1.50, follow the guide below.
NB. I didn’t know about the motherboard limitation whereby later versions of PSP are hardcoded not to accept firmware lower than 2.0.. There is a link to a downgrader for this issue too but I did not need it.. (I have one of the earliest Jap import models :D )

http://www.gamerspress.com/index.php?title=3.10_OE-A_Install_Guide

I wonder if it’s possible to run *nix on a PSP yet….

Halfway up the down

Feb 27th, 2007
by Ian.
No comments yet

Following this item on BBC news, I decided to go ahead and attempt this homebrew stuff.

Every since I got my PSP, i’ve always kept the firmware up to date – for no other reason than I like having the latest and greatest. I don’t know why.

So, after following the instructions HERE I’m back down from 3.x firmware to a 1.5.

Now just need to work out what to do with it!!

Versioning a web development project

Feb 14th, 2007
by Ian.
No comments yet

This week, i’ve been trying to get my head around workflow using SVN.
As i’ve mentioned before, i have a Ruby/Rails project on the go at the moment and at the start I decided to use SVN for version control – Mostly because DreamHost provide SVN as a one-click-setup job.
Here is a list of what I wanted to achieve, in order:

1. Backup in case I lose my local working copy.
2. Automatic publishing to webserver.
3. A nice way to track changes throughout the project.
4. Be able to publish the changes dynamically to a webpage.

I use TortoiseSVN on my XP installation to manage my working copy.
The first requirement was easy to achieve, so long as I check in regularly I have a nice shiny copy on the SVN server (obviously).
The second was fairly simple. I just checked out the latest version to the root directory for the webserver and run “SVN update” when I want to refresh it.

When I started, I didn’t really have much comprehension of source control from a developer perspective so I just had the root of the SVN repository as my working copy.
I have since read up a bit, taking in the concept of trunk, branches and tags.
Today I spent a couple of hours working out how my folder structure should be and moving everything around using TortoiseSVN to the following structure:

http://U.R.L/ProjectName/trunk
http://U.R.L/ProjectName/branches
http://U.R.L/ProjectName/tags

I also changed the web version to use the latest release version using SVN switch %URL_TO_RELEASE_VERSION_IN_TAGS_FOLDER%.

My idea of the workflow is that I make changes to the working copy (a subfolder of branches, i.e /branches/0.1.x) and check in as required.
Once I am happy with the changes, I transfer the changes to the /trunk/ version which can then be accessed via the web for any remote testing I may rope people into.
Once the trunk version has been tested against I can go ahead and make a copy of that into the tags version as the next release, do a SVN switch in the web directory and all is done (along with any config changes to the app’s db of course).

I’m not sure if that is a ‘best practice’ way of running an SVN linked project but it makes sense to me and would seem to work out in an environment where there was more than one developer working on it.

Like I said, it makes sense to me but maybe I have missed the point and made some fundemental error somewhere?
For example, I still don’t get the ‘Patch’ part of SVN, would it be possible to just update the web directory using a patch from the latest release rather than running SVN update?

I’ve also been looking been looking into a product called Trac which appears to be a good project management/defect tracking application, anyone had any dealings with it? From research it looks like a pain in the ass to install (to Dreamhost at least)

← Earlier Posts Newer Posts →