Young Hackers Unite at Mini Maker Faire!

We packed up my friends' kids and hit the Brickworks on Saturday to check out the first  Mini Maker Faire Toronto. It was the "ultimate celebration of making, crafting, DIY-ing, tinkering, hacking and sharing" and a cool way to spend the day. There were interactive displays for young and old. But these two wizards enjoyed the demo of the Hackasaurus project from Mozilla. They may be a bit too young to start coding but they did like the stickers. I liked the plugin from Mozilla. It teaches kids (and many adults) how web pages are built and allows them to make changes themselves. I like anything that teaches kids how to think like hackers (not crackers!).

In the background you can see Hacklab TO and their super cool Makerbot. I bought myself some jewelry, some mother's day gifts and got to see lots of fun hacker projects. My 14 year old niece was most impressed with an LED purse that lights up when your mobile phone rings. Natalie Silvanovich from KW's Kwartzlab Makerspace used a lilypad arduino to let her purse communicate with the phone. Fun! She also told us how she hacked a Tamagouchi. Nerdy girls are cool!

Still tethered: Can I upgrade to 4.2 and jailbreak my iphone 3GS?

The problem with the jailbreak is that you have to keep up on all the latest versions of firmware from Apple and to not upgrade until the new crack is available. I haven't been keeping up with it, so I've never turned my phone off, or I need to run blackra1n again. I switched mobile carriers this week, so I had to turn off the phone and then re-education myself on the landscape of jailbreaks.

Blackra1n would not work on my netbook using Windows7. I tried running it in compatibility mode as recommended on other blogs, but that wouldn't work. Then the version of Blackra1n on my laptop wouldn't work because ASL.dll could not be found, but I found a solution to that. I went back to these instructions to jailbreak and unlock my iphone. After the first jailbreak, I had to reset the wifi, which required me to run blackra1n again and enter my wifi password again. But then I was back in business.

I'd like to upgrade my version of software to 4.x so that I can download more apps and play Angry Birds. But I want to make sure that if I do, I can still unlock my phone.  

I have an iphone 3GS version 3.1.2 (7D11), model MC132C, firmware 05.11.07.Can I upgrade to version 4.2 and then jailbreak it with blackra1n? Or do I need to use a different tool? Help. Any suggestions will be appreciated.

My iphone looks like a negative

For a week now, my iPhone colours are negative and I thought that I'd have to redo the jailbreak and all that. But when I finally gave it the 3 minutes it needed, a web search provided me with the fact that you can convert your iPhone display to black & white by clicking the home button 3 times fast. This is an accessibility feature, as it makes reading easier for some people, but it makes colour photos look terrible. And 3 quick clicks removes the B&W feature. Very cool. As the thread reveals, this feature can be turned on & off in the Accessibility Settings. I love it when a tech issue is solved in much less time than imagined. It rarely happens.

Now, if only I could find a solution to my Wordpress multiple domain hosting issue...

Open Source Advocates Unite!

Did you know that this is Open Source Week? Unfortunately the Ontario GNU/Linux Fest Conference has been cancelled after three years of successful conferences that I didn't know about until after the fact.

But don't despair social techies: our friends at Free Geek Toronto are staging their first unConference: Social Technology Conference/Unconference on Saturday October 23 in downtown Toronto at OISE. Lots of great speakers to talk about the great social uses of open source software.

Enjoy!

My land line is broadcasting Chinese language radio

This may sound like the title of a David Sedaris novel, but this is the situation I find myself in right now, on the 2nd day of a new job where I'm working from home. I have no phone and I'm cut off from colleagues who are not online. ARGH!

I'm using the Rogers Home Phone which is on a dedicated VOIP line. I discovered that there was no dial tone. I've unplugged all the phone and I'm using only one hard wired phone. I've reset the phone modem box a few times and when I do, I get Chinese language radio over the phone -- one way only. And it is not a soft murmur, it is full volume! After a while, that dies out and I'm back to no dial tone. For about 30 minutes, I had a dial tone and was able to check my messages and make one phone call (just like in prison). Mid-call, my colleague could no longer hear me. When I tried to disconnect the line, the dial tone was lost. I reset the phone modem and again, and Chinese language radio was broadcasting full volume once again from my telephone.

Unable to CALL Rogers, I tried to use their web chat, however it would not work with my computer. I guess that the system is not compatible with either Firefox browser or Ubuntu. Shame on you, Rogers. Your digital empire is big but thin if you cannot support all your customers.

Has anybody else had issues with tech support websites while using Ubuntu?

What is the best Linux equivalent to Microsoft Project

The deadline is looming on a detailed project plan, so rather than work it out in the Open Office version of Excel, my mind has wandered to finding a more productive option. While the added productivity may not get the plan done by the due date (today), it will certainly help me to manage the project over the next seven months.

I have just started a new job where I'm managing a large project from the ground up. I'm still relatively new to Linux & Ubuntu, so I'm looking for suggestions on open source freeware that will substitute for Microsoft Project. There is a handy list on the Ubuntu forum: ListOfOpenSourcePrograms. This extensive list suggests Planner, OpenWorkbench, or GanttProject. Any feedback on these tools and other open source project management software will be greatly appreciated.

Block text ads in Gmail

When Rogers Yahoo inserted ads into their webmail that I was paying for, I was furious. I threatened to leave them (and still plan to), but then discovered Adblock Plus, a plug-in for the Firefox browser. It also works on the Opera browser and makes the webmail experience far less distracting, and has kept me from making good on my threats to Rogers.

I'm now using a Gmail account for a new project and I'm finding the tiny text ads at the top very distracting. My eye is constantly drawn to them! I was going to quit using Gmail, but then I remembered about my friends at Adblock Plus. A post on the Adblock Plus Forum suggested that I add this to my list of filters:

mail.google.com##.mv

I'm the set-it-and-forget-it type, so I had no idea how to add a filter to Adblock Plus, so I thought that I'd write this down for the next time I need to do it. Maybe it will help you too.

How to Add a Gmail text ad Filter to Adblock Plus:

1. In the Firefox toolbar, you should have an ABP icon (red stop sign). Click on the down arrow beside it. Select "Preferences" or use the shortcut Ctrl+Shift+E.
2. Click on the "Add Filter" button in the lower left corner.
3. Copy in the filter info: mail.google.com##.mv
4. Click OK.
5. Start enjoying the Adfree environment.