Categories
Blog News

iPhone replacement headphones

My original iPhone headphone set is wearing out after one year of daily use. They still work, but some of the rubber is starting to peal off around the headphones. Nothing major, but enough to start looking out for other iphone-compatible headphones.

The local shops in Brussels don’t seem to stock replacement iPhone headphone sets, only for the iPod. So I hit the webs, and found the v-moda duo headphones. I also found out that the local shops are charging a lot more (109 € at the time of writing) than when you order them direct from the States.

These look damn good on the V-Moda site, which, by the way, has quite a few good music samples playing on it’s website. And for a limited time, it’s only 5$ to send them (non-express).

I’ll let you know how they sound once they arrive…

Categories
Blog News

Ronald Jenkees' cool music !

This is very cool music – this has been on repeat for quite a while this weekend ! By the way, the intro starts out a bit naff, but just wait 10 seconds and the beat gets gooooooing !

You can buy his music either in iTunes or on his site.

Categories
Blog News

WordPress automatic upgrade plugin – security hole ?

I just found out about a new plugin for WordPress that allows you to upgrade your wordpress installation semi-automatically.

The plugin is a regular wordpress plugin that you need to install into the plugins directory in your WordPress installation, and can then be used either completely automatically or semi-automatic (by clicking on “next” for each step) to upgrade your wordpress to the latest version.

It is still in beta, but it seems to do the trick.

However, a glaring security loophole is that it will backup your current wordpress installation files and your database and copy them all in a folder in the root directory (called wpau-backup). It’s up to you to clean them afterwards by clicking a “clean” button.

If you do not do this or something goes wrong, a file containing all your sql data, plus the config files of your server are all there for the taking of anybody searching for it !!!

I can understand for the plugin to provide you with a backup, but the folder should be either automatically emptied at the end of upgrade, or not done at all. This certainly leaves a trace that this plugin is installed, even if the folder is empty and Google is also indexing these folders.

An alternative would be to zip up these backups with a password that the user must give when activating the backup. It would provide a least a measure of security, and zipped files at least won’t be so easy to read without the password. Also the plugin could set the directory to not to be indexed by Google.

A quick Google search for the words “wpau-backup” in blogs shows up a disturbing amount of sites that have this folder in their root path. Also a few messages about peope being linked to from these backup folders, leading them to question if either the plugin or the backup had been hacked.

Also, quite a few of those have apparently either been hacked or have badly configured their apache webserver, as you can simply click on parent directory and go up to the root of the server.

I’m thinking hacked, because I find pieces of wordpress installations all over, but nothing like any index.php file. A few of them have heaps of directories that link to other servers or other dns names, that seem to want to show you adverts.

I’m quite happy that my NoScript plugin was working, I don’t trust any of these sites…

Categories
Blog News Hardware

Kiss DP-558 power supply error message

A year or 3 ago I bought an advanced hard disk recorder from Kiss-Technologies (a danish firm, since then bought by Linksys who in turn have been bought by Cisco). It can do things most recorders nowadays still won’t do, and do it quietly.

  • Electronic Program Guide (EPG) when connected to the internet. For this, normally you would need a digital tv decoder and the flexview or whatever it is called. I can just select on the tv screen what I or the wife want recorded and voila! it is set. No more entering start and end times.
  • FTP access : I can store other media like avi’s or mp3 on the copious 200GB hard disk.
  • Plays DVD’s too.

All the above can be found, but usually you need to buy both a dvd player and a media player to get that functionality.

The problem of those marvellous machines however, is that they are no longer made (which is a damn shame), and the power supply was custom made, and used bad transistors. It is stated that within 3 years of purchase, the psu will fail. Most of the time, it’s just the power supply.

This was wat happened to us 10 days or so ago. It would just display ‘KISS DVD’ on bootup and no longer allow me to eject the cd.

I scoured the MPCC bulletin board, which specialises in media players or all kinds and found out that this message is the sign the psu has broken down.

Lucky for me, I found a reference to a small website called osCommerce run by Kim Tapdrup that specialises in repairing KISS DP power supplies. Either you can ask them to sent you the transistors and you do it yourself, or you can sent it to them for repair (they no longer sell the original power supplies, since those are out of stock). A repair costs around 40 to 50 euros post and packin included.

So I figured : what the heck, why not try it, and I paid for the repair and sent him the power supply from the DP-558 securely wrapped (it’s real easy to remove, since it is installed on a separate print plate).

And today a priority package from Danmark arrived ! I installed the psu again and lo! and behold! our beloved KISS DP-558 is working again. I’m hoping those new transistors will keep it humming for quite some more years !

So a big thanks to Kim Tapdrup for still running these repair services after all these years and being so prompt in repairing it !

Categories
Apple

iPhone tip : use different keyboards

On my iPhone I send emails and text in different languages, and I had started to really hate the auto-corrector in the iPhone. It was set to dutch, and it always wants to correct words that are correct in my English or French text.
That is, until I activated in Settings, Keyboards the different languages I needed.
Now I only need to tap the globe symbol on the keyboard and switch to the language I am using. And autocorrect works as it is supposed to !!

Categories
Blog News

Running update September 2008

The problem with running is that you stress your muscles more than when you are just walking around.
That means that you discover problems with your body that you thought you didn’t have. In fact, I thought everything was hunky dory until then. Compare it to a car that is always driven at 40 an hour. When you speed it up to 80, you’ll find out that it can’t take the strain without something giving.

I still run regularly about 4 kilometers once a week (hoping to find the time to bring it up to two times a week) but I need a knee bandage on my right knee. With the support of this I can run without any problem. Without it I can run short distances.

I’m hoping that this situation remains stable, or even improved (although I doubt it).

One of the alternatives I’m looking into now is finding a not-too-expensive fitness center where I can go run on the threadmill. I’ve noticed that this is much, much softer on your feet and knees that the actual road. Trouble is that nowadays almost all fitness centra work with an all-in formula, where you can do everything and anything you want, but you pay quite a large sum for it. I’m hoping to find a small old-skool one, where you can just select what you want to pay for.

Categories
Blog News

Kuifje in Brussels

I saw a famous person walking in Brussels…

Categories
Apple

iPhone 2.1 firmware is out (and cracked)

The iPhone 2.1 firmware was made available last friday, and already you can quickpwn the iphone first generation devices.

The upgrade process went very smoothly for my iPhone :

  • I upgraded to iTunes 8 and the new Quicktime
  • Then I inserted my iPhone and iTunes upgraded it for me to 2.1
  • Reboot the iPhone
  • Unlocking the SIM (Base) worked !
  • Then I started up QuickPwn (mac) and it hacked the device for me in 10 minutes.

Done !

Categories
Blog News

Excellent day at Plopsaland

We were very lucky yesterday and had an excellent day at plopsaland. The one day in the week it didn’t rain.

Today was a typical seaside day – RAINY ! 🙁

Categories
Apple

Iphone 2.0x upgrades are not worth it, so far.

I upgraded my original iPhone to 2.0, but so far the point upgrades have not tempted me at all. I’ll just wait a bit longer to get an upgrade that’s worth upgrading for. So far it’s all small upgrades, a bug fix here and there but nothing major getting fixed.

So far, I still don’t have the urge to upgrade to an iPhone 3G. I’m still very happy with my 8GB original iPhone. 🙂

My family and friends are astonished that I haven’t upgraded, me, the gadget freak. But my rule is : if it is well made and works well and fulfills all your needs, why change ?