Unlock iPhone 3G iOS 4.2.1 Baseband 05.15.04

I went to unlock an iPhone 3G I found on a volcano (true story) and it seemed to go without a hitch...except when I tried to actually use the phone on a network.  Even though it acted like it was jailbroken and ultrasn0w unlocked it, the phone never would actually work on the network.  After some research, I discovered there's a bug with baseband 05.15.04.

The fix seemed simple:  while jailbreaking with Redsn0w, install the iPad baseband.  The problem with this fix? The latest version of Resn0w kept crashing when trying to jailbreak with the iPad baseband.  I also saw a fair share of running pineapples that didn't seem to be running anywhere and continuously rebooting Apple logos.

So after a lot of research and trial and error, it took the right combination of iOS and version of Redsn0w to work.  I give you my solution:

1)  Download iOS 4.2.1 IPSW here.

2)  Download Redsn0w 9.6b5 here.

3)  Run Resn0w 9.6b5 and select the IPSW downloaded in Step 1.

4)  When asked to select your options, check "Install Cydia" and "Install iPad Baseband".

5)  Continue to follow the rest of the instructions to jailbreak your iPhone.

6)  Open Cydia and install ultrasn0w.

You'll be unlocked!

Download Anki Decks from Web/Browser

If you have ever encountered a annoying and nondescript message from Anki when trying to download a deck, give this a try.  I came about it when I realized one of the offices I work in had blocked access to Anki's download repository.  There are other solutions involving firewalls and anti-virus blocks, but this just gets straight to the point:

1)  In your browser, go to http://anki.ichi2.net/file/search .

2)  It's all a big running text file, but you can search for certain phrases.  For example, I searched for "French" and scanned through the matches until I found a couple decks I wanted to try out.  Here is my example:

 [579, null, "HTAL French ", "A compilation of other decks as well as a few facts I've added myself. Deck is incomplete as of October 2009.", "French", 0, 3834, 475343, 976, 1256700637.820281, "6f3d2421c99cf1c28f7ea48685e92bcd.zip"]

See that "579" at the beginning?  That's the important number you want to keep track of -- just use the number associated with the deck that you found.

3)   Open up the web page http://anki.ichi2.net/file/get?id=579 but replace "579" in the address with the number associated with the deck you want to download.  You should be prompted to download a "Get.zip" file. (NOTE: This doesn't work very well in Google Chrome, but Internet Explorer won't give you any trouble.)

4)  Open the zip file.  "Shared.anki" is the only file you need to concern yourself with, so download it somewhere on your computer.

5)  Open Anki and click the "Import" button to select the "Shared.anki" file we just downloaded.  You're set!


NOTE:  Here is the error message I was receiving.  It's very likely that something is just blocking the access or DNS settings need to be tweaked.  I'm positive that my office has security settings in place that make it unreliable.

File "ankiqt\ui\getshared.pyc", line 64, in fetchData

File "urllib2.pyc", line 124, in urlopen
File "urllib2.pyc", line 383, in open
File "urllib2.pyc", line 401, in _open
File "urllib2.pyc", line 361, in _call_chain
File "urllib2.pyc", line 1130, in http_open
File "urllib2.pyc", line 1105, in do_open
URLError: <urlopen error [Errno 10061] No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it>

Access 2007: The Database Has Been Placed in a State by User on Machine That Prevents It From Being Opened or Locked

Problem:  You get the message "The database has been placed in a state by user on machine that prevents it from being opened or locked" when you try to open a shared database over a network.  The database can only be opened by one person while the others receive the above message.

Solution:  The database should automatically open in shared mode, but network security settings may interfere with this.  Try one the following:

1)  Does the first person opening the database see a notification at the top that warns "Security Warning: Certain content in the database has been disabled".  If so, then click on the "Options..." button, select "Enable this content" and click OK.  The notifications should disappear and others should now be able to open the database, but should also Enable the content in the same manner.

To fix this in a more-permanent manner, from the "Options..." button given in the warning, click on the "Open the Trust Center" link at the bottom of the window the appears.  From within the Trust Center window, go to Macro Settings (on the left) and select "Enable all macros".  From now on the security warning should not appear.

2) If you do not see a security warning as describe above, the security settings could still be a problem and Access just isn't notifying you.  In Access, click the Office button in the upper-left corner, select "Access Options", select "Trust Center" from the left menu, and then click the "Trust Center Settings..." button.  From the Trust Center, select "Macro Settings" from the left menu and choose "Enable all macros" from the options.
3)  Create a shortcut to the database by right-clicking the Access file, selecting "Send to >" and choose your Desktop.  From now on, open the database from the shortcut on your desktop.  Solutions #1 and #2 may still apply to this setup.

Excel 2007: How To Remove Extra Spaces from Text in a Cell

Some data imports in a spreadsheet can cause some extra spaces to appear before or after text in a cell.  To clean it up, check out the Trim function built in to Excel.  Trim removes any extra spaces besides the spaces between each word.

1)  Create a new column next to the data you wish to trim.  (Unfortunately you can't apply to Trim directly over the top of the current text).

2)  Click the Function (Fx) button next the text box where you input data.

3)  In the "Or select a category:" drop-down, select "Text".

4)  Find Trim from the bottom list and click OK.

5)  Click on the cell that you wish to clean up.

6)  Apply to any other cells or columns you wish to clean up.

7)  Copy the data and paste the values over the original cells.  Voila!

How to Read Skype Chat History

Two points first:

1)  You can read the history from within Skype by opening up a chat window for a contact and clicking on the links near the top of the chat window that indicate how far back to display conversations.

2)  The Skype log files are located here:  c:\users\username\AppData\Roaming

Okay, now to read Skype history without having Skype open (and you must have Skype closed to unlock the files), try using this free software:

SkypeLogView

Very simple.

iPhone Screen Will Not Rotate On Its Side (Landscape Orientation)

Before trying these steps, make sure that you have restarted your iPhone.  Also note that some apps do not allow for the screen to sideways and therefore will never change to landscape orientation.  But if nothing (pictures, web pages, etc.) will never rotate, then try these steps:

1)  Double-tap the home button (black button at the bottom center of your iPhone) until a menu of apps appears as a bottom row on your screen.

2)  Swipe the row to the left.  You will see iPod controls plus at the left-most side an icon with a clockwise-pointing arrow.

3)  If this arrow circle has a lock in the center of it, then it means your landscape mode is locked.  Tap it to unlock it.

Disable Subscribers on Facebook

When Facebook rolled out the subscription services, I immediately approved it while not knowing exactly what would change.  I learned it allowed non-friends to subscribe to my updates, even when I didn't accept their friend requests.  Having no need for this, I wanted to disable it, but nowhere in the account or privacy settings could I find the section on subscriptions.  Here's how to prevent people from subscribing to your content:

1)  Go to your profile (not the newsfeed, your actual profile page that someone sees to learn about you).

2)  Click on "Subscribers" on the left-hand menu.

3)  On the page that opens up, you should see a button "Edit Settings" in the upper-right.  Click it.

4)  In the first section "Subscribers" change the drop-down option from "On" to "Off".

There you go!

UPDATE:  For the new time line, you'll find "Subscribers" under the down-arrow menu to the right of your name at the top of your profile (and just below your cover photo).