Free: dotfiles, Open Text Book, Readeroo, we are multicolored

Offtopic: You may have noticed there was only one post yesterday. And it wasn't the freebie post. Oops. Believe it or not, that wasn't totally my fault. (Although the late post today is partially my fault. :D )

I lost internet connectivity for most of the later part of yesterday and wasn't able to get it fixed. :( Today, the internet pipes still seem quite clogged up to me (pages loading slowly). At least it's a massive improvement over yesterday's situation.

On another note, with the recent Google PageRank updates (yeah, you're gonna hear about this from me too :) ), this blog is showing a PR3 for most data centers. I seldom check my PageRank but the last time I did (2 days ago :D), it was a PR4, so I guess I dropped by one. I wasn't affected by the first PageRank update 2 days ago (stayed at PR4, although I'm not sure when I hit PR4...), so too bad for me this time. Heh. At least I have the same PageRank as Youtube.

Ok, enough offtopic nonsense from me and onto some freebies...

dotfiles

Strictly for Linux geeks only, dotfiles is a place to show off your dotfiles (.bashrc, etc) or learn from the pros (shh... not so loud). I remember writing one of these quite a while back. Stolen from a site like this of course. :)

Open Text Book

Open Text Book is a blog that features free (open source) text books. It is updated on a regular basis.

Readeroo

A Firefox extension, Readeroo queues up articles into del.icio.us (I always have trouble typing out del.icio.us out) so you can read them later. It does this by cleverly adding a "toread" tag when you haven't read an article and changing that to "donereading" tag when you are finished with the article. The neat part is items will still appear in your del.icio.us account even if you're done reading with Readeroo.

we are multicolored

Create your own flags or see what flags have been made by others at we are multicolored. We are multicolored isn't really a program/web app that helps you out (unless you're into creating flags), it's really

to promote awareness around the contemporary immigrant experience.

But I thought it was interesting to see the dreams of others and where they come from. Kinda like PostSecrets.


The end. As always, comments are welcome and more freebies await you tomorrow. (If my pipes aren't clogged that is... :) )

Crysis PC Demo download links

- image shamelessly ripped from GameUpdates. :)

Description:

Earth, 2019. A team of US scientists makes a frightening discovery on an island in the South China Sea. All contact with the team is lost when the North Korean Government quickly seals off the area. The United States responds by dispatching an elite team of Delta Force Operators to recon the situation. As tension rises between the two nations, a massive alien ship reveals itself in the middle of the island. The ship generates an immense force sphere that freezes a vast portion of the island and drastically alters the global weather system. Now the US and North Korea must join forces to battle the alien menace. With hope rapidly fading, you must fight epic battles through tropical jungle, frozen landscapes, and finally into the heart of the alien ship itself for the ultimate Zero G showdown. - GameUpdates

The Crysis demo is finally out and as predicted, it requires some heavy duty hardware to run on. Just look at the recommended specs below.


Recommended System Requirements
OS: Windows XP SP2 / Windows Vista
Processor: Intel Core 2 DUO @ 2.2GHz
RAM: 2.0 GB RAM
Hard Drive: 12GB
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS/640 or similar
Soundcard: DirectX 9.0c compatible

Minimum System Requirements
OS: Windows XP SP2 / Windows Vista
Processor: 2.8 GHz or faster (XP); 3.2 GHz or faster (Vista)
RAM: 1.0 GB RAM or 1.5 GB RAM (Vista)
Hard Drive: 12GB
Video Card: 256 MB
Soundcard: DirectX 9.0c compatible


Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM, NVIDIA 8800 and 12GB of harddisk space??? Wow, EA wasn't fooling around. Crysis, not Vista, will be the leading reason for new hardware upgrades this holiday season.

Download (Crysis_SP_Demo.exe 1.8 GB) at:

• Torrent @ GameUpdates
• http://na.llnet.cdn.ea.com/u/demos/Crysis_SP_Demo.exe
• GamersHell
• Softpedia
• ActionTrip
• AusGamers
• FanGaming
• FileFront
• InterNode Games Network
• FileShack

More download links at Crysis online.


You may also need these latest drivers/hotfixes (courtesy of Crysis online).

• Nvidia beta drivers
• Microsoft Windows Vista Hotfix
  

3 Doors Down - Citizen Soldier Single & Video Free Download (Now With Lyrics)

Citizen Soldier was recorded by 3 Doors Down as a tribute to the National Guard. Well, at least that's what the description at the official National Guard site says. That's all I know about this song at this point, other than the fact that it's free to download. :)

The site mentions that you need to register to download the song and it's limited to the first 50,000 people... (and they really like to emphasize that the song is free by stating it's free twice in a row)

Sign up for FREE Song download

Complete the form below to get a free free download of 3 Doors Down - Citizen Soldier.

MP3 download is limited to the first 50,000 people

However, I don't think either of those claims is true. ;) You can definitely download Citizen Soldier without registering and you can also download the video! Ha! I sure caught them off guard. :)

My bad folks. You do need to register with the National Guard at this link to download the song. No real details needed though. Just enter anything! (I personally tested this again.) But registration is NOT needed for downloading the video! My apologies go out to everyone who were clicking their fingers off on the song download link below and coming up with a big blank screen. :)

Citizen Soldier Direct Download

Song - http://www.1800goguard.com/movie/getsong.php (256kbps/6.5MB) Sadly, registration is required to download the song.

Video - http://iostudio.vo.llnwd.net/o1/falconFLV/citizenSoldier_hi.flv (High Quality Flash Video/23.58MB)


If you need an FLV video player (to play the flv file you just downloaded), you can download FLV Player or try converting the video into other formats with Zamzar (just paste the above video URL into Step 1).

Edit: I know most people are probably not gonna download the video so I've decided to embed the YouTube video. But if you're a fan, trust me the big video download above is worth the wait.

Citizen Soldier Lyrics (transcribed by me)

Beyond the boundaries of your city's lights,
stand the heroes waiting for your cries.
So many times you did not bring this on yourself,
when that moment finally comes,
I'll be there to help.

On that day when you need your brothers and sisters to care,
I'll be right here.
Citizen soldiers holding the (light for OR lives of) the ones that we guide from the dark of despair.
Standing on guard for the ones that we sheltered,
we'll always be ready because we will always be there.

When there are people crying in the streets,
when they're starving for a meal to eat,
when they simply need a place to make their beds,
right here underneath my wing,
you can rest your head.

On that day when you need your brothers and sisters to care,
I'll be right here!
Citizen soldiers holding the (light for OR lives of) the ones that we guide from the dark of despair.
Standing on guard for the ones that we sheltered,
we'll always be ready because we will always be there...

there... there... there...

Hope and pray that you'll never need me,
but rest assured I will not let you down.
I'll walk beside you but you may not see me,
the strongest among you may not wear a crown.

On that day when you need your brothers and sisters to care,
I'll be right here!
On that day when you don't have the strength for the burden you bear,
I'll be right here!
Citizen soldiers holding the (light for OR lives of) the ones that we guide from the dark of despair. (Citizen soldiers)
Standing on guard for the ones that we sheltered,
we'll always be ready because we will always be there.

Edit: Thanks to Ari (in comments) for the fix to "guide from the dark of despair" from "died from the dark of despair"! The only explanation I can offer is that my ears are quite deaf. :)

Edit: Another fix courtesy of pvt hallmark (in comments) and Louise (via email) - from "holding the lives of the ones that we guide" to "holding the light for the ones that we guide". I ought to get my ears checked. ;)

Edit: Some say light, others say lives. Oh well, you get the idea. ;) Both are up till Brad steps in to correct me. :P

If you see anything wrong with the lyrics (I'm not too good at listening to what people are singing about :P ), please tell me about it below. :)

iNdependence 1.3 Beta & iDemocracy Updates

iNdependence 1.3 Beta

The Operator has announced iNdependence v1.3 beta, a popular iPhone jailbreak app for Macs. Here's what he says:

The 1.3 beta release is out. This release adds automated anySIM 1.1 installation and ringtone customization for firmware 1.1.1. See the CHANGELOG for details. Beware, this has had limited testing done on it, so there may be some bugs (especially in the new ringtone customization code). Also, there is no documentation yet for the new features (the CHANGELOG is the only documentation right now).

Full Changelog (emphasis mine):

v1.3 beta (Creemore) - 10/26/07

- Added anySIM 1.1 installation/removal to allow for SIM unlocking (finally!)
- Included warning when installing anySIM about needing a virgin phone
- Changed all reboot instructions to indicate that only the Sleep button needs to be held down to turn phone off
- Added confirmation and warning about deleting libarmfp.dylib when uninstalling SSH. This should solve the conflict between Installer.app and iNdependence
- Got Windows build working again (still out of date functionally though)
- Got ringtone customization working on firmware 1.1.1 (lots of new code for this so it could be a bit buggy still)
- Added 'Sync Ringtones' button to restore ringtones after iTunes clobbers them when it syncs
- Documentation has not yet been added for the new 1.1.1 ringtone functionality or anySIM installation

Edit: iNdependence 1.3 beta 2 out.

iDemocracy Updates

Meanwhile at the Windows camp, Drakenza is still working on the iDemocracy tutorials. He has updated the iDemocacy home page making it friendlier for new users and has added an FAQ and donation page to the iDemocracy wiki.

iDemocracy ver 1.2 is also in progress and can be expected in November. Official word from Drakenza:

iDemocracy is currently at version 1.1, but 1.2 is currently in development and will release sometime in November, with a number of new features that will hopefully remove the need for any computer knowledge whatsoever for anyone to do just about anything on their iPhones. Also, we're going to integrate a few other projects, such as PACAY/CARNAVAL, to make your lives easier.

I think I will have it done and released sometime in November. As for the features, it will have integrated activation, Installer.app fix built in, more available functions, etc... And some more big features :)

New: iDemocracy Activator

Nothing much seems to be going on in the iPhone unlocking world today. The iPhone Dev Team new jailbreak probably isn't out yet (at least I haven't seen anything out) and no word on a GUI Reviriginizer from either team either.

This isn't too surprising, when you realize that today's the day of the Leopard. Yup today a new version of Mac OSX named Leopard comes roaring out and suddenly the iPhone is yesterday's news. :P

TUAW is having a special - 24 hours of Leopard, while everybody else involved in unlocking are probably getting their paws on Leopard to see what new wonders are in store for them when Leopard meets the iPhone.

iDemocracy Activator

Luckily Drakenza isn't into Leopard (he uses Windows). So he has unveiled a new iDemocracy Activator based on CARNAVAL. I suppose its purpose is to activate your iPhone (duh!) after jailbreaking it.

Hopefully it works better than the last one he made. I'm not too sure if it works yet since Drakenza just uploaded it and there hasn't been any visible feedback so far.

If you're feeling adventurous, you can get iDemocracy Activator here.

Edit: iDemocracy Activator 1.3 out.


By the way, Drakenza is working on a iDemocracy tutorial. Here's what he says:

Preliminary work on a full tutorial with pictures and (possibly) videos has begun! Expect it soon.

Free: GIMP, BlueprintCSS, LoomTV

Yes, I suck at meeting deadlines. Fortunately, I'm still alive. :) Let's begin...

GIMP

GIMP means "GNU Image Manipulation Program". But do you care? ;) All you really want to know is that GIMP is a free image editor (think Photoshop) and works on Windows/Mac/Linux. GIMP 2.4 just came out and includes tons of improvements.

BlueprintCSS

BlueprintCSS

is a CSS framework, which aims to cut down on your CSS development time. It gives you a solid CSS foundation to build your project on top of, with an easy-to-use grid, sensible typography, and even a stylesheet for printing.

With an easy-to-use grid generator, quick start guide, tutorial and a few demonstration sites, what more can you ask for?

LoomTV

LoomTV looks interesting as it claims to revolutionize your internet video watching experience. Available for Windows/Mac (yes, it's a program), LoomTV requires a free LoomTV account to download (that means you need to signup with them). Unfortunately, that's about as far as I was willing to go, since almost everything on the site is written in German. If you're German and reading this (heh, what are the odds?), maybe you could try it out and share your experience.


Over and out till tomorrow. Later. Don't forget thatfreebies existed yesterday too!

Just Out: CARNAVAL v0.3, Virginator 0.3

CARNAVAL v0.3

Brasuco has updated CARNAVAL to v0.3. CARNAVAL helps you to jailbreak/activate/enable youtube/install apps for your iPhone. For information on what CARNAVAL does, see my previous post about CARNAVAL.

CHANGE LIST:

* BUG FIXES
* Now CARNAVAL checks if the jailbreak process worked before proceeding.
* Improved (I hope) instructions. - brasuco

Get it CARNAVAL v0.3 here.

Edit: CARNAVAL v0.4 out.

Virginator 0.3

Virginator-0.3 is an enhanced version of virginator_10 that offers better error reporting and sanity checks.

This is basically a better version of the Revirginizing Tool released by the iPhone Elite Team. If you don't know what that means, see my post about One Click (Easier) RevirginizingTool.

Get it Virginator 0.3 here.

Update: Virginator 0.4 here.

New Dev Team Jailbreak coming out soon!

Looks like something (jailbreaker) will be coming out soon!

There is a lot of problems noobs have with existing jailbreak/activation solutions.
Dev Team is working on very easy all in one (except anysim1.1) solution.
It's almost ready, so instead of f*cking with current methods u may want to wait a day or so for new one. - The most easy jailbreak solution is on the way. @ Hackint0sh

If your 1.1.1 iPhone is begging to be unlocked ASAP, try this easy guide that uses CARNAVAL (Windows XP/Vista only).


Edit: I forgot to mention this, but if you're trying to jailbreak via the tiff exploit, http://jailbreak.toc2rta.com has been redirecting to its main page for most of today. Use this mirror - http://jailbreak.kengz.com/ - instead.


Update: Drakenza has released the iDemocracy Activator/YouTube Fixer utility. It's a

New utility that should activate your iPhone using the lockdownd method. Includes YouTube fix. UNTESTED.

New utility that should activate your iPhone using the lockdownd method. Includes YouTube fix. BROKEN. MAY BRICK. DO NOT DOWNLOAD.

Consider yourself warned. But nearly 1,000 people have downloaded it already, so that must mean something. :) Scratch that. Drakenza says

The activator patch does not work!! Issues with crashing iPhones have been reported! DO NOT DOWNLOAD. We're working on a fix.

***Update:*** See new iDemocracy Activator.

Free: In Pictures, Best When Used By, MRI, MetaGlossary, TwitterWhere

I'm switching to a shorter format for descriptions so I have more time for iPhone coverage (not really). :)

In Pictures

In Pictures is all about picture based learning. Tutorials (Microsoft Office, OpenOffice, programming, etc) come with pictures to help you with different tasks. Easy to follow and task-oriented (eg. how to create/modify stuff), In Pictures is a great way to learn stuff.

Best When Used By

Save your perishables from expiry with Best When Used By.

Best When Used By is an easy-to-use service that alerts you when your perishable foods are about to spoil, saving you money, time, and frustration.

Learn more with their 3 minute tour. Most useful for those who stock up on food like squirrels. :)

MRI

MRI is a bookmarklet and

a free cross browser tool that lets you test selectors with any web page. Selectors, particularly complex ones can be difficult to get exactly right - MRI lets you experiment with them on any web page (local or online, static or dynamic).

Simply click elements to see possible selectors, or enter a CSS selector to highlight elements that are selected by the CSS selector you entered. If you do web development, I suppose you should be able to appreciate this time saver. :)

MetaGlossary

Need a definition? MetaGlossary could help you out. MetaGlossary

harvests definitions from the entire web, the world's largest, constantly-updated repository of information.

If a term isn't defined yet, you can even submit your own definition. Maybe I should submit one for tkhere. :P

[via Define Anything with MetaGlossary @ LifeHacker]

TwitterWhere

Read the twits around you with TwitterWhere. Enter a place, select the proximity and TwitterWhere generates a location based Twitter feed for you. I never knew I was surrounded by so many twits. :P


Ok, we're done for the day. There'll be more freebies tomorrow or see yesterday's freebies. See ya.

Today's the Day! 4GB+ Gmail Space and IMAP!

4GB+ Gmail Space

Today I opened up my Gmail and guess what I saw? No, not more spam. Instead...

You are currently using 1 MB (0%) of your 4336 MB.

Wow! 4GB+ of storage. Mmm...now what can I do with that much space... *Evil grin*... Actually I have no idea what to do with it (I'm under-utilizing it in fact). Any ideas?

In case you missed the announcement (like me), a few weeks back the official Gmail blog mentioned that more storage was coming our way. Google Operating System has more about this bump in space. Looks like by next year, you can hope to expect to have 6GB+ of Gmail goodness.

I'm just wondering if Google will consolidate all the space it provides for a user and tell us "Here's 20GB of shared space for Gmail, Picasa, Google Docs, etc". And throw in a dynamic space allocation app while they're at it. :) I'd prefer that to the separate storage counts given now as it's easier to manage one shared storage space. Plus if you only rely on certain Google web apps you'd have more space to keep skeletons in your virtual closet.

IMAP

IMAP Access for Gmail isn't really out yet. Not for everyone anyway. As reported by Download Squad, if you're lucky, you see it, else you don't.

Edit: It's official - IMAP for everyone, be patient and you'll get it soon.

Lady Luck is not with me today as I don't see the IMAP setting under "Forwarding and POP". Maybe I should trying logging in and out? Well, if you're one of the chosen ones, IMAP for Gmail works with iPhones as well.



Edit: See How-to: Proper Gmail IMAP for iPhone & Apple Mail @ 5ThirtyOne for tips on sorting Drafts, Deleted, and Sent mail on the iPhone as well as how to star/label messages.

How to Delete/Archive mails on the iPhone for Gmail

Be careful: If you set the Deleted Mailbox to [GMAIL] > Trash on the server, it will delete your mail instead of archiving it.

To archive your mail from the iPhone, set the Deleted folder to "Deleted" on your iPhone. When you delete a mail message on the iPhone, it will be sent to the "Deleted" folder on your iPhone and to the Archive on your GMail account. - Digg user Aereo

Another option, if you want the messages to be deleted, is to keep 'Deleted Mailbox to [GMAIL] > Trash on the server, and if you want to archive a message, drop it into the 'All Mail' box...it will be removed from the inbox and archived. - Digg user nbeighley

Just Out: CARNAVAL, Unofficial iPhone FAQ thread

What is CARNAVAL?

CARNAVAL stands for Complete Activation and Relief for the Nagged Anxious Vexed and Anguished Lad(y). :) It is the successor to PACAY (Point and Click Activation with YouTube) for the iPhone.

CARNAVAL helps you with:

* Jailbreak
* Activation
* Youtube
* 3rd Party Software

RW means Read/Write, it's a access directive that means that you can read and right files.


Cheers.

P.S.: CARNAVAL will help you jailbreak your phone. It's an interactive process, though. Instructions will be given during execution. That's because you have to do some procedures yourself in the phone for the first part of the jailbreak (putting the symlink). Aside from that, CARNAVAL is mostly automatic.

WARNING: CARNAVAL is for iPhone 1.1.1 only and you should have iTunes version 7.4 (newer version). Also, this is the first release, as the first to try you are helping the community as a tester but is also running the risk of using buggy software. - brasuco

Using CARNAVAL, you can jailbreak/activate your 1.1.1 iPhone and then unlock with AnySIM 1.1. CARNAVAL is for Windows XP/Vista and was written by Hackint0sh member brasuco. The quoted statement above states that CARNAVAL is in its first version release, however, brasuco has already updated it to v0.2. You can download CARNAVAL (1342 KB) at this Hackint0sh forum thread.

Edit: Newer version of CARNAVAL coming out soon. CARNAVAL v0.3 is out.

Also, I'd like to let you know that I'll be releasing an upadated version of CARNAVAL soon that might include some of your suggestions like international keyboad (actually, I thought it was already included. I guess I used the wrong plist to pack the final version of CARNAVAL). - brasuco

Does CARNAVAL work?

Hackint0sh members report that CARNAVAL v0.2 is easy to use and works fine.

Support

Help is available (provided by brasuco and other members) at the Hackint0sh forum thread for CARNAVAL.

---

Unofficial iPhone FAQ thread

An unofficial iPhone FAQ thread was started by Hackint0sh member LA20. You can read it to stay up-to-date with the latest developments and understand the meaning of some of the frequently used terminology.

One Click (Easier) RevirginizingTool

What is the RevirginizingTool?

The iPhone Elite Team (a fork of the original iPhone Dev Team) has released RevirginizingTool, a "one click" revirginizing program that runs on your iPhone. After running this, you should be left with a locked iPhone (ie the state your iPhone was in when you first bought it). This news is in development as it was out only 3 hours ago and steps to use it (also on the same page) are being updated as I type.

Edit: Only 2 hours after this posting, the steps have been refined to be much more user friendly. However, at the rate that things are progressing, someone is probably hard at work developing a GUI version of this - a proper one-click tool. And don't be surprised if that actually surfaces tomorrow. :)

Edit (Oct 24 2007): An automated script has been made. See newer version in the next sentence.

Edit (Oct 25 2007): Newer version of Virginator out.

Does it work?

Although this is supposed to be a "one click" tool, there are extra steps required, mainly to backup certain important files in case something goes wrong. If this tool works as advertised, then it would replace the IPSF server method that gained popularity a few days back.

Edit: Users are reporting success with the tool (at the link above).

Need help?

Threads at Hackint0sh about this revirginizer are being removed presumably because this tool is not developed by the iPhone Dev Team and they can't provide support for it.

Edit: Visit iPhone Elite Team's forum for discussion on this tool. You may not be able to visit the forum at the moment due to DNS problems.

Here's a working thread at the InsanelyMac forum. Very little posts though.

Free: Listas, Fonts, Fix-It Club, ASCII Art Generator, Documentaries, Gyminee, Crush3r, Songkick

In case you're wondering where Monday's freebies went, I'd like to know as well. Tell me if you find them. :) Just kidding, I kinda forgot/didn't have time for freebies yesterday. Besides, most visitors seem to have more interest in my iPhone posts. Hmm... is that a light bulb above my head?

Another change you may have noticed is the inclusion of the Intense Debate comment system. It's easy to install, has a ton of options (threaded comments, comment moderation, reputation, top commenters, recent comments widget and more) and recently had a login bug fixed. :) Yeah, I helped a bit with that bug. ;)

But the best part of Intense Debate, in my opinion anyway, is that it gives Blogger blogs inline comments. Do away with complicated hackery and just install Intense Debate. It's simple, free and gives you more features than the default Blogger comment system. A dedicated post on Intense Debate should be coming up some time soon, I hope. :)

Anyway on to the freebies that were supposed to be out yesterday...

Listas

Another day, another Microsoft web service. This time it's Listas, a web app that allows you to make lists on your own or with others, as well as sharing them out to the world. Different types of content can be added to the lists created, such as RSS feeds, videos and audio. However, I didn't test it out fully because I'm not too crazy about lists, but if you're the organized type, Listas could be right for you.

Free fonts

It's that time of the month again. Smashing magazine has compiled some fonts in its monthly Free Fonts post. Be sure to check out Moderna, Mido, Liberation and a couple more well made fonts.

Fix-It Club

Learn how to repair broken stuff at Fix-It Club. There are 145 guides available and membership is free and optional. Basically just visit the site and you're a member. Well, that was simple. :)

ASCII Art Generator

Take an image, run it through the ASCII Art Generator and you get an image made out of text. Try it out with the highest quality settings (tick color as well) and you'll be surprised at the resolution of the ASCII art and the size of the generated HTML. Hint: It's fun to use and nice to look at but it requires more overhead than the original image at the highest settings.

Free Documentaries

I guess the title says it all. Free Documentaries has loads of documentaries that you can immediately stream online for free. From Africa to Asia, catch the documentaries you missed or re-watch your favorite ones. As always, videos are hosted elsewhere so watch it while you can.

Gyminee

Ah, finally a high tech solution to a low tech problem. Computer users worldwide rejoice as Gyminee provides a way to improve your (un)fitness. You can create workout programs, track your exercise/diet goals and share them with buddies (GymBuddies) at Gyminee. In beta and currently totally free, Gyminee also supports the iPhone. Only one problem - looking at those tedious exercises has made me too exhausted to try them out. :)

Crush3r

Crush3r is an event planner/informer/inviter. Registration is optional for everyone involved (yup, that includes the creator). If you're worried no one will actually turn up, there's a handy poll feature that asks everyone for their best date and time. Customization is also possible and many options are available (RSVP, printing out invitations, photos/videos, map and more) but if you're in a hurry, just fill in the bare essentials and your invitations will done in a jiffy. Anyone want to try using Crush3r for their engagement/wedding invites?

Songkick

Songkick tracks your favorite singers/bands/performers and notifies you when they're touring in the vicinity so that you can buy tickets. They do this by crawling ticket vendors' feeds and the internet. Songkick has a plugin called the SongKicker that scans your harddisk for music files to track artists it finds. In addition, Band Manager can be used to add/remove artists you like/dislike. An interesting feature from Songkick is their embed code that is able to automatically list tickets from bands that you mention on your blog. Of course the bands must be touring for this to happen. :) At the moment, Songkick lists only acts performing in US/UK.


That's it for today's freebies. Or is that yesterday's freebies? :) Well, be sure to come back later for more freebies, I hope. ;)

Just Out: iDemocracy 1.1.1, IPSF Server (Revirginizer) Source, AnySIM 1.1.1 (useless) patch

iDemocracy 1.1.1 (1.1)

iDemocracy 1.1.1 (1.0) was just announced yesterday and today another version, iDemocracy 1.1.1 (1.1), is out! Other than bugfixes, it now includes AnySIM for unlocking. A user reports that jailbreaking works well and is easy to carry out. Changes:

• Fixes known issues: Springboard patch problems, symlink removal problems.
• Now installs BSD Subsystem.
• Now supports unlocking using anySIM
• User interface improvements.
• EDIT: I'm not including the "Connect to iTunes" or Youtube Fixes in the iDemocracy app. Rather, I'll put a Wiki page on the iTunes issue and if anyone still gets the Youtube errors, I'll release another app that fixes that.

IPSF Server (Revirginizer) Source

Geohot has set the IPSF server source free. If you recall in The Unofficial iPhone Revirginizer, this was supposed to be out on Monday. Well, true to his word, the source is now available, although people can't seem to figure out what to do with it (one person has reported success though). :) Edit: Here are some steps for Macs.
Edit: See one click revirginizing tool.

AnySIM 1.1.1 (useless) patch

Yesterday there were several forum threads on Hackint0sh about a new unofficial AnySIM patch that supposedly saves you one reset count. It was claimed that AnySIM increased your unlock counter by 1 (you get 5 when your iPhone is brand new). However, it turns out to be untrue as the actual call to the method has been commented out and will not run. So your unlock counter is not increased and the patch is not needed at all.

Break Out: iDemocracy 1.1.1, iNdependence 1.2.5, Jailbait

Only a few days ago, I was talking about the unofficial iPhone revirginizer and linked to some unlocking guides for Windows/Mac. However, up till now, jailbreaking the 1.1.1 firmware in Windows has always involved a lot of commands, headaches and swearing. A newly released program for Windows, aptly named iDemocracy hopes to change all this.

iDemocracy 1.1.1

iDemocracy jailbreaks only 1.1.1 iPhones and automates quite a number of things including SSH and AppTapp installation (to install 3rd party apps on the iPhone) as well as Springboard patching. Note that it currently does not unlock/activate iPhones. The current version of iDemocracy has some bugs that the author is trying to fix, so just keep a look out for a newer fixed version. Edit: Newer version out.

iNdependence 1.2.5

The popular jailbreaking app for Macs, iNdependence, has been bumped to 1.2.5. Changelog for 1.2.5 (emphasis mine):

- Put in factory activation (lockdownd patch) for all known firmware versions (1.0, 1.0.1, 1.0.2, 1.1.1)
- Due to the above change, activation will not return your phone to jail anymore (something requested by many people)
- Increased the SSH timeout to 300 seconds (5 minutes)
- Fixed YouTube enabling for all known firmware versions
- Switched from Dropbear to OpenSSH in hopes that this will finally solve the SSH timeout problems people are having
- Many documentation updates dealing with all the problems one can face when downgrading to 1.0.2 and doing the special upgrade to 1.1.1. I walked through this entire process myself again to ensure that the documentation is perfectly accurate and clear about all the steps.
- Updated the documentation about SIM unlocking and upgrading to 1.1.1 to be clear about the difference between anySIM 1.0 and anySIM 1.1
- Added dialog during SSH removal which asks whether user wants to also remove libarmfp.dylib at that time. The reason is because removing this file could cause any installed 3rd party applications to become inoperable.
- Ringtone customization still doesn't work in this release

Edit: iNdependence 1.3 beta out.

Jailbait

Jailbait is a Windows based GUI jailbreak app for 1.1.1 firmware written by XAlliedYouthX. It strings together some batch files in order to carry out the jailbreak (ie it automates the command typing through scripting, but has a graphical interface). Currently no one seems to have tested Jailbait yet (except for maybe the author), this is probably because it was just released.

Update: Jailbait author, XAlliedYouthX, recommends using iDemocracy instead.

Free: Five++ Defrag Programs & WorldCat

Lazy Sunday freebies!

Five++ Defrag Programs

Today at MakeUseOf.com, there's a post titled "Five Free Programs to Defragment your PC" which lists five free defrag programs (duh!) for your PC.

Defragging basically keeps files on your harddisk in order instead of leaving files strewn all over the place. In theory, this should speed up file access as files are located in the same place instead of hundreds of different areas. In my opinion, defragging does help in some way, as my harddisk is always quieter (less seeking) after it has been defragged.

Out of the five, I've used Contig and PageDefrag before and can say that they are wonderful for keeping your PC in shape. The reason I used Contig is exactly why Contig was developed - to defrag a couple of files. Sometimes when you are dealing with large files such as databases or media files, defragging just those critical files can net you a significant performance boost. PageDefrag's story is similar - I've used it to quickly defrag my page file.

If you're looking for more free defrag programs, checkout The Great Defrag Shootout: all the defragmentation utilities I can find @ Insights and Rants. Dozens of commercial and free defrag programs are listed along with their reviews by the author.

WorldCat

Looking for a book/CD in your library? Can't find it there? Why not search on WorldCat? WorldCat is

the world's largest network of library content and services. WorldCat libraries are dedicated to providing access to their resources on the Web, where most people start their search for information.

And it isn't limited to only the United States, Australia or just a single country. The entire world's libraries are at your fingertips when you search with WorldCat. Well, those that participate in WorldCat anyway. :)

WorldCat even provides search plugins/toolbars for you to install in your browser so that search junkies don't need to type in the URL to start searching. If you don't have time to browse through all your search results, simply register for a free account and save your search results into lists. You can also get your friends involved by sharing those lists if you want.

Like many other beta services, WorldCat has some hiccups to take care of. While I was testing out WorldCat, when I clicked on certain results, some redirected me to non-existent sites (holding pages) while others left me at the initial search page of the library (where the material was found) instead of the library's result page. The latter meant that I had to execute the search again, only this time I was searching in some library instead of WorldCat. However I didn't bother to carry out the same search again at an external library page (since that really isn't the point). :)


No more freebies for today! Be back on Monday for more! Yesterday's freebies still work fine!