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Hacking the iPhone by John Furie Zacharias
It only took a week for the iPhone honeymoon to be over. It's popularity makes it a juicy target for exploitation. Dr. Charles Miller, a former NSA employee working on the securities vulnerabilities of Apple's Safari browser hacked the iPhone in short order. Apparently, the iPhone can be breached fairly easily through the Safari browser simply by visiting the wrong website where malicious code can be introduced or by using the device on a public wi-fi network.
According to the New York Times, Dr. Miller showed a reporter exactly what would happen when a person browsed a malicious website:
Once he was there, the site injected a bit of code into the iPhone that then took over the phone. The phone promptly followed instructions to transmit a set of files to the attacking computer that included recent text messages — including one that had been sent to the reporter's cellphone moments before — as well as telephone contacts and e-mail addresses.
"We can get any file we want," he said. Potentially, he added, the attack could be used to program the phone to make calls, running up large bills or even turning it into a portable bugging device. |
Do me a favor. Read that last paragraph again. Now, Apple iPhone is exclusively using the AT&T phone network and we know NSA has spying facilities in every AT&T data center. So, when a former NSA employee says the iPhone can be turned into a portable bugging device, it's not just tin-foil-hat conspiracy theory talk.
Dr. Miller works with Independent Security Evaluators and they have set up www.exploitingiphone.com to explain the vulnerabilities of the iPhone they have found. The Register also reports some additional iPhone hacks in development.
Writing down the bones: an exercise by JudeAs a novice writer, I frequently find myself seeking new books — or revisiting old favorites — which offer solid writing advice and enlightening exercises.* One such book is Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within, by Natalie Goldberg. Humorous, thoughtful, and personal, Ms. Goldberg both instructs and inspires with chapter topics as diverse as Beginner's Mind, Pen and Paper, and my favorite Blue Lipstick and a Cigarette. Here's one of her exercises, guaranteed to help you view your work in an entirely new light:
WRITING DOWN THE BONES: Freeing the Writer Within
by Natalie Goldberg
[excerpt]
Syntax
Try this. Take one of your most boring pieces of writing and choose from it three or four consecutive lines or sentences and write them at the top of a blank piece of paper.
I can't write because I'm an ice cube and my mouth goes dry and there's nothing to say and I'd rather eat ice cream. Okay. See each one of those words simply as wooden blocks, all the same size and color. No noun or verb has any more value than the, a, and. Everything is equal. Now for about a third of a page, scramble them up as though you were just moving wooden blocks around. Don't try to make sense of what you write down. Your mind will keep trying to construct something. Hold back that urge, relax, and mindlessly write down the words. You will have to repeat words to fill a third of a page.
Write I'm an mouth rather cream say eat ice and nothing dry I an write rather say and my goes cube because an there's I'd to dry goes write and mouth cream to I'd rather dry cube I'm an write I and nothing say goes an can't because nothing rather I'd dry to and say cream goes ice rather to my cube nothing there's say. Now, arbitrarily put in a few periods, a question mark, maybe an exclamation mark, colons or semi colons. Do all of this without thinking, without trying to make any sense.
Write I'm an mouth rather cream. Say eat ice and nothing dry! I an write rather say and; my goes cube because an there's. I'd to dry goes write and mouth cream to. I'd rather. Dry cube I'm an write I and nothing say goes. An can't because nothing rather; I'd dry to and say cream goes ice. Rather to my cube nothing there's say? Now read it aloud as though it were saying something. Your voice should have inflection and expression. Try reading it in an angry voice, an exuberant, sad, whining, petulant or demanding voice to help you get into it.
What have we done? English is usually locked into a sentence syntax of subject/ verb/ direct-object. There is a subject acting on an object. "I see the dog"—here "I" is the center of the universe. We forget that while "I" looks at "the dog," "the dog" is simultaneously looking at us. It is interesting to note that in the Japanese language, the sentence would say, "I dog seeing." There is an exchange or interaction, rather than a subject acting on an object.
The more you are aware of the syntax you move, see, and write in, the better control you have and the more you can step out of it when you need to. Actually, by breaking open syntax, you often get closer to the truth of what you need to say.
Here are two examples of poems taken from Shout, Applaud, a collection of poems written at Norhaven, a facility in Minnesota for the disabled. These women were never solidly indoctrinated in English-language syntax, so these are good examples of what can be created outside of it. They are fresh, and full of surprises.
Maple Leaf
by Betty Freeman
That I dream the lady does to be young
and to be in her pretty red Christmas ball.
Her dress looks beautiful like a swan.
The swan floats with his thin white feathers
when his soft snow head
floats under to be like snow again.
Then I like to be a woman like the one,
to be with a long wing.
Everybody
by Shirley Nielson
I was wearing a blue
coat. It was cabbage and wieners.
They were big cooked wieners,
the smell was cabbage
ah delicious smell
of cabbage out not summer noise was
running water in the kitchen somewhere.
* Look for additional suggested writing exercises to be published here in the future.
 Silly Sunday has arrived. This is the day when the HelpForum contributors admit to some of their true web surfing habits. They aren't always busy reading technical manuals and new Web 3.0 company press releases. They aren't always going cross-eyed in front of their monitors using Photoshop. No. Sometimes, they need a break, too. As a matter of fact, to become an outstanding HelpForum contributor, it is simply a requirement to read comic strips, play online games and watch funny videos.
Yes, it's Sunday, Bloody Silly Sunday, and I'm once again reveling in horror/scifi classics. On the bill today: Curse of the Demon (aka Night of the Demon) and Rocky Horror Picture Show, two tasty productions not to be missed.  It's in the trees! It's coming!Released in 1957 and directed by the inimitable Jacques Tourneur (of Cat People and I Walked With A Zombie fame), this cult flick is a treat from beginning to end. Dark, intelligent and genuinely 'creepifyin'...
plotline: Dr. John Holden ventures to London to attend a paranormal psychology symposium intending to expose devil cult leader Julian Karswell as a fraud. Holden is a skeptic and does not believe in Karswell's power. Nonetheless, he accepts an invitation to stay at Karswell's estate, along with Joanna Harrington, the niece of Holden's friend and colleague who was electrocuted in a bizarre automobile accident. While there, Karswell secretly slips a parchment into Holden's papers—a parchment which might contain an ancient death curse. Recurring ominous events finally convince Holden that his only hope to break the demonic curse is to pass the parchment back to Karswell.—Rick Gregory, IMDb  In just seven days, I can make you a man. Dig it if you can.Released in 1975 and directed by Jim Sharman, this rollicking, randy cult classic really needs no intro, but here's one for those rare few who've not yet been indoctrinated. overview: What do a Transylvanian transvestite, a cryogenically-preserved motorbiker and a Frankenstein's monster wearing gold lamé underwear all have in common? They're all crucial parts of Rocky Horror Picture Show, the comedy cult classic which is at once hysterical, indispensable and truly disturbing. Innocent young lovers Brad and Janet are stranded when their car breaks down, forcing them to seek refuge in the castle of Dr. Frank-N-Furter, who is hosting a celebration...a screamingly funny, sinfully twisted salute to sci-fi, horror, B-movies and rock music, all rolled into one deliciously decadent morsel.—IMDb, amazon.com So...ready to join me in a bit of a mind flip?
* * *
click the countdown above
or here for a rocky horror playlist
now, everybody sing...
Michael Rennie was ill
The day the earth stood still,
but he told us where we stand...
And Flash Gordon was there
in silver underwear
Claude Rains was the invisible man...
Blogdrive Mobile Access by John Furie Zacharias
With all the current hype and buzz about the Apple iPhone, I thought I should take a few minutes to remind people that they have mobile access to their blog at Blogdrive. As long as your mobile device can send email, you can post on your blog. You could use a Palm device or send from Gmail. I recently tested the Blogdrive mobile access feature using Gmail. Chrysalis uses his BlackBerry to post on his blog Not to Scale to remain in contact with his friends and family as he travels across Europe and North America.
Set up your mobile access on Blogdrive
1. On your blog manage page, under Settings, click Authors.
2. On your Authors page, click Edit.
3. On your permissions page, enter a unique name in the form field provided:
Mobile Access: myblogname. [__sparky__] @ post.blogdrive.com
4. Click the big gray Submit button at the bottom of the page.
Go Mobile
Once you've set up your mobile access on Blogdrive, you can then simply email your updates to the address you've set up (above) with any mobile device you use. They automagically publish to your blog. It's really that simple. It's available to everyone.
So, did you notice the addition of the nifty little HF favicon up there? *points to your browser's URL field and/or window tab* You say you've always wanted one for your blog, but balked at paying $37.95 for an .ico-producing software program? Well, fret no more, dear reader. Now, with FavIcon from Pics, you can create and download—free of charge!—static and animated favicons online to your heart's content. Here's the quick and easy 'how to':
Using FavIcon from Pics easy interface, locate your source image (the image you want to use) on your hard drive and select it. Next select 'scrolling text' and/or 'animate favicon' if you'd like those features. Select 'generate favicon.ico'; then download the zipped file, which will contain a static favicon file, an animated version, and a readme.txt file.
To add your favicon to your blogdrive blog:
- Open the zipped favicon folder now residing on your hard drive, and extract the files. Your .ico image will be there.
- Upload the favicon.ico file to the image folder in your blog's file management area.
- Next, navigate to your blog's layout & design area and select 'main template.' Add the following HTML tag to your code after the <head> tag, but before the </head> tag, substituting your blog's actual url for "yourblog.blogdrive.com":
<link rel="shortcut icon" href=http://yourblog.blogdrive.com/images/favicon.ico>
Note: If you are housing your favicon.ico file on an external server, change the pathway to reflect that location accordingly:
example: <link rel="shortcut icon" href=http://www.fabfotos.com/images/favicon.ico> To add an animated favicon, add the following code instead, substituting the appropriate blog name pathway:
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="favicon.ico" >
<link rel="icon" href="http://yourblog.blogdrive.com/images/
animated_favicon1.gif" type="image/gif" > And that's it! To test your new favicon in Internet Explorer, add your site to your favorites, then reopen the page. To test it in Firefox or other Mozilla-based browsers, reopen your web page and watch the address bar or the browser tab change. More information is available on the help page and the Favicon Validator page.
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