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DISCONTINUED

noreply@blogger.com (Dustin Howett) — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 02:14:00 +0000

If you are reading this, you might be more interested in checking out the new, WordPress-powered Howettblog!
Bounce on over to http://blog.howett.net!

iTunes App Store Hacking

noreply@blogger.com (Dustin Howett) — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 16:52:00 +0000

Last night, I tried to figure out how the iTunes App Store (as accessed from the iPod Touch) worked.
I was able to simulate the app store experience, and here are the few notes I took on the matter.

All replies from the App Store are gzip-compressed.
If any of these steps fails, the connection is terminated.

The device queries phobos.apple.com for a "bag" (ix=2), which contains a signature and a signing key.
The device sends a non-binary plist (XML property list) of its current applications to a WebObject called "availableSoftwareUpgrades"
The app store replies with a list of all the information for those applications. It is up to the iPod itself to determine whether/not there are upgrades.
Periodically, the device makes a request to metrics.apple.com (which replies 100 Continue instead of 200 OK), which I believe is for stats tracking.
The device reads software categories and loads icons (WebObject viewFeaturedSoftwareCategories)
The device loads the contents of a category (WebObject viewGenre)
The device loads an application's information descriptor (WebObject viewSoftware). This for some reason contains the text to be used in the price display, as well as the "INSTALL" or "BUY NOW" text.
The device initiated a secure connection to download an application. This is where I had to stop my research, as I couldn't track this.

Tools used:

curl (Commandline URL Fetcher)
Wireshark (packet capturer/analyzer)
Apache (Web Server, used here to serve fake App Ptore pages)
A single firewall rule on my router to redirect all traffic coming from the iPod back to my computer (iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -s ipod -p tcp -j DNAT --to 192.168.254.1. Note: I couldn't redirect to a computer inside the router's network, so I had to hook up via WiFi to the router AND via Ethernet to the modem)

Not much useful information into the app loading process was gleaned from this, unfortunately, though I did manage to snap some "neat" screenshots of my meddling.

Applications are signed, though, so even if this was an exploitable vector, the device would need to be jailbroken first, thus making this useless.
Neat nonetheless.

If Gentoo Linux were a Car...

noreply@blogger.com (Dustin Howett) — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 20:33:00 +0000

You go pick up an engine (in pieces) and body parts from the central warehouse.
You find that your version of sys-car/transmission is too new and you need to get a newer version of sys-car/engine out of storage.
You put together the engine, transmission, and body. You're pretty psyched, only to find that you have yet to install car-misc/seats.
You install the seats, but find that the latest version of car-misc/seats does not correctly recognize the human body, due to an incompatibility.
You downgrade car-misc/seats and in the process must downgrade sys-apps/steering-wheel for height concerns.
You install the radio separately, which is the easiest part.
You turn the car on and it explodes.

Latenight philosophy with DH and DS

noreply@blogger.com (Dustin Howett) — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 19:55:00 +0000

"Me" is me, "Dustin" is DSollick. Dustin was reading through (and critiquing harshly) a story he wrote.

Dustin: No shit, nothing without life?@!
Me: Actually it's wrong
Me: :P
Dustin: that too, lifeless worlds
Dustin: lifeless universes
Me: The earth existed long before there was life, for example
Me: indeed
Me: THEN AGAIN
Me: what if all these lifeless worlds and lifeless universes
Me: are just things in our lives? Just things that exist because we, life, observe them?
Me: Sometimes I look in a mirror and wonder how I came to be. How I inhabit this body. What if I inhabited a different body? What recognizes vision and sound and acknowledges it? Is it a mind? Does a mind do that? Or is it the soul. I don't think you can hook up eyes and ears to a brain and have a person. I don't think they'll see the world like any of us. If at all. But what.
Me: What happens when I die? When I am reborn. Do I inhabit another body? Obviously. Do i live through 18 years before I ask the same questions? I had life experiences at 3 that I can't remember but I know i saw them through my eyes, these eyes. These. Where would they be stored? That says it's the mind. My soul would remember. Can I tap into that?
Dustin: I wasn't expecting a philosophical discussion
Dustin: x.x
Me: Neither was I.
---
Me: is that how it happened
Dustin: yes.
Dustin: XD
Me: in your collective consciousness?
Me: What if we are made up of collective cohesive consciousnesses working as one? Hmm. I don't feel like multiple people, but what if we are? What if I are? Am? Is.. ? But really.
Me: Interesting thought
Dustin: I'm really glad the 11-page copy I wrote didn't make it; these are laughable, that one was grimace-worthy
Me: lmao!
Me: Maybe we are mosaics of consciousness. Each part of us coming from a different place. Varying morals. Maybe people get tainted. Maybe serial killers are tainted with a single bad piece. Spreading out like ripples.

Total: ∞ packages (0 good luck, 1 mistake)

noreply@blogger.com (Dustin Howett) — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 00:09:00 +0000

I'd just like to put this out there for everybody...

Make frequent backups. Maybe every month.
Do not, under ANY circumstances, accidentally try to install Haiku to /dev/sda. Ever.

Now that the advice is out of the way, it's story time!

Yesterday, I was trying to install Haiku to my 512MB flash drive, which, when I plugged it in, got assigned /dev/sdb. The Haiku build system was, at the time set to write to /dev/sda2 (my 3GiB Haiku partition). I deleted the "2" and went on with my business. I ran jam -q haiku-image to build it.
"Hmm, this is taking a while."
"dd, wrote 134 MB to /dev/sda"
"/dev/sda?! WHAT?!"
"OH MY GOD!"

It wrote 134 MB of 0x00s to the beginning of my hard drive, clobbering the bootloader, partition table, and the root filesystem of my Linux installation (/dev/sda1).

It also got to the "Populating Image" step, so it was happily chugging along writing a Be File System over my entire hard drive and filling it with Haiku data.
^C!

Programs still ran, not all the files on / were lost, and I was in a state of panic.
One reboot later confirmed the obvious - no more system. Also, no more files in /. The filesystem layout was in memory, and I should have taken the time to recover some of the data before I reformatted.

fsck told me that /usr was trashed.. /usr is like "Program Files" and more for Linux... Random data written in random places on a volume is... bad ;)
/ was definitely a goner...
/home somehow survived, guaranteeing that my 8 years-worth of data would stick around for a while longer!
Fortunately, I had backups from August 15th!
Unfortunately, they were from August 15th. That means 3 months worth of upgrades to do...

Restored / and /usr, some of /var (installed package database only), and went to work upgrading.

500 compiled and installed packages later (the last of which are still going) and Jesus is... Well, for the situation, I have to say he's done pretty darn well. Kudos, me.

Once this is all done?

BACKUP TIME!

I think I need a NOS.

Prayer to install Linux

noreply@blogger.com (Dustin Howett) — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 01:10:00 +0000

Leon wanted to bless his system before he installed Linux, and I came forth with the following:

Blessed be this computer system. Remove from it under the name of the system lord Linux all sins of the hard drive and RAM. Cleansed be its bits and its bytes. Praise be the system lord Linux.

- Dustin L. Howett

It releases the system from the grips of the demons of Windows, and thus asks for it to be forgiven of its Windowsy transgressions. :)

Election 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Dustin Howett) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 12:19:00 +0000

I'm making a note here-
HUGE SUCCESS.

OBAMA 2008!

V9m Back from Repair!

noreply@blogger.com (Dustin Howett) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 12:10:00 +0000

The screen isn't actually that staticy.
I digitally enhanced this in The GIMP.

My RAZR² V9m has returned from the Motorola Repair Facility...
They sent me a completely new phone! The one I sent out was manufactured in Week 49 of 2007, and the one they sent back was manufactured in Week 39 of 2008!
It was marked as a Sprint phone but it had the US Cellular firmware on it. I flashed it over to DST and then Telus and it's now active and completely working on my account, despite Verizon's best efforts to keep me from it.
(Hint: *228 option 3 will activate any valid device on any account.)

Lying to the Verizon Guy

noreply@blogger.com (Dustin Howett) — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 07:07:00 +0000

I got my new phone a couple days ago (a RAZR² V9m)! OH MY GOD! IT'S INCREDIBLE!
It was originally a Sprint phone, but I flashed it to the Verizon software on the way to the mall.
So, we're about to leave the mall, and I decide to try to get it activated on my account. The Verizon guy at the booth is busy, so we wait a little.
He comes around to help us; I ask, find out I need my mom's social security number (last 4) since she owns the account technically. Okay, that's fine. I call her, get that over with.
I hand him the phone.

VZW Guy: VZW Guy looks phone over and notices the battery cover.; This is a Sprint phone.
Me: The battery cover was a replacement.
VZW Guy: Ah, alright.; VZW Guy fights to get the battery out.; Where'd you get this battery?
Me: eBay.
VZW Guy: Ah. Okay. [He gets battery off] This is a Sprint phone. Says so right here.
Me: The entire body was a replacement.
VZW Guy: I'll be surprised if this works. I'll try it, but I'll really be surprised.

He's working, I make a loud comment to Heather about Verizon opening up their network to allow other carriers' phones. He interjects: "Not yet. Next year."

VZW Guy: It won't work.; VZW Guy tries various numbers, to little success.; This is a Sprint phone.
Me: I know.
VZW Guy: If you told me that earlier, we could have saved some of this trouble. We can't activate it. I suggest you sell it on eBay or something.; VZW Guy puts the phone back together, turns it on. Verizon Wireless logo pops up!; What did you do, make your own phone?!
Me: [Admitting the Obvious] I flashed it.
VZW Guy: Ah.

Fun fun, but you can't lie to Verizon Guy! He knows all!
I can't blame him; he's a trained drone.

Later, I call tech support, tell a lie about the tech telling me that it could be added to their DMD (Device Management Database); they try to activate it and fail (Very nice peppy girl whose name I can't remember; also this guy named Anton or Anthony or something similar who was completely awesome.)
He put in a ticket and they're adding it to the database.

Major props to the VZW call center techs! Booth guy wouldn't do that! :P

Flashed my phone over to Generic, and will get the Verizon data in there myself. Screw using backed up data! (You need to back up the Verizon data and apply it to a flash to get everything working; texts, web, apps, etc.)

Yay!

Vista Woes Pt. II; What gives?

noreply@blogger.com (Dustin Howett) — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 10:38:00 +0000

Getting wireless working in vista sucks. I'd rather BITE MY OWN ARM OFF. What gives?
Getting vista to accept a non-signed device driver sucks. What gives?
Getting the Group Policy editor to work sucked (had to remove system policy file).
I was running on battery power until my computer died, and vista never even told me.
It just sat there and then shut off, degrading the capacity of my battery further. What gives?
30 GB volume, I barely have anything on it and it's got 10 GB free. What gives?
Right this moment I have a restart pending for reconfiguration and a program that says "Cancel pending.. Please wait.. This may take several minutes. Please do not exit from this operation." (Not like I can exit, or anything.) What gives?
Installing the windows update for my video card caused it to shut off and not start up anymore: boot = windows failure = poweroff. Safe mode to the rescue. What gives?

Point of Note: I still don't have wireless working. At all. It connects to my router, and that's it. Its dumb ass can't get an address from DHCP, when everything else (including older versions of Windows) can.

I choose Bite my Own Arm Off. It really would be less painful and time-consuming.

I believe I've restarted this thing 30 times in configuration.

For some reason, Vista boots through GRUB?
Not even kidding. My Grub -> Vista GRLDR -> Vista BootMgr.
I don't remember installing that. Is that legal?
It appears GRLDR is a giant GRUB binary. It contains the stage1, stage2, every stage1.5 AND a menu.lst configuration file, all in one. Neat.

Anyway, I'm staying up all night or something.

I decided to install Vista.

noreply@blogger.com (Dustin Howett) — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 16:25:00 +0000

So.
I attempted to install Vista (Really Windows 2008 Server Standard) once-
On my 12 GB partition.
It said "This drive requires at least 9978 MB free!"
Alright, I figure that's fine and reformat it; there are well over 12000 MB free.
It then says "Windows suggests that you have at least 17000 MB free on this drive."
I figure again that that's okay, it's just a suggestion!
Apparently not. "Windows could not find any suitable drives."
That was some weeks ago.

Today, I tried again (new hard drive, 30 GB windows partition, etc.)
The install completes without a hitch.
Then, I start installing drivers. 300 megs worth of drivers. Wonderful! (This is still downloading, btw.)
Sounds worked out of the box, so did my touchpad + scroll and cardreader, it was pretty amazing.

Windows shuts off when I close the laptop (like, when the phone rings and I have to check the caller ID)- Minor annoyance.
Windows asks me for permission to do EVERYTHING- Minor annoyance.
I disabled Administrator and made my account the administrator (just so there weren't two). Fine.

I'm apparently not allowed to shut the computer off?
"Restart [tooltip: This power option has been disabled by the administrator.]"
Excuse me? I am the administrator, and I sure as hell did NOT disable this.

Oh.
Internet Explorer comes pre-configured in super anal high security mode!
"Internet explorer wants to warn you about going to mozilla.com."
"Internet explorer will not allow you to download this file from mozillamirror.com"
[Repeat last message for 15 different firefox mirrors: I add one of them to the whitelist and click 15 more times until I get lucky and it tries to use the one I whitelisted.]
Annoyingly enough, I CAN'T DISABLE THIS MODE!
Screw IE.

I'll have more updates as time goes on (Still getting everything set up and downloaded and such. Jesus.)

I have just one question.

noreply@blogger.com (Dustin Howett) — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 04:39:00 +0000

What do you have to press to open the Force Quit dialog?

Here's a hint: They're all keyboard keys.

The accelerator for Log Out makes sense!

Force Quit is Option-Command-Escape

On another note, I absolutely love OS X. I take back all the bad things I said about it.
I'll put up some screenies some time.

Happy Hacking!

The LHC

noreply@blogger.com (Dustin Howett) — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 16:37:00 +0000

So, I'd like to take just a few seconds to point out a current favourite site of mine:
Has the Large Hadron Collider Destroyed the Earth (dot com)

Cheerio!

Humanity

noreply@blogger.com (Dustin Howett) — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 14:01:00 +0000

I miss being human.

I'm sitting here, being all deep and emotional-- can't put any of it down because it doesn't make any sense--
the best I can do is...
I miss being human.

Stupid sleep deprivation.
Stupid crying.
What's wrong with me?

I sleep 12 hours a day, and waste away the rest of it in front of a computer.
I think I'm becoming one myself. I barely feel anymore, and that scares me.
Maybe I'm just tired.

CMS Refresh

noreply@blogger.com (Dustin Howett) — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 23:46:00 +0000

I've been toying with this idea I've had for a little bit now (on the order of... thought of it last night and then slept.)
I think I'm going to either...

Re-write the CMS's display code in HTML5 (Here's part of the spec)
Re-write the CMS from the ground up using the same database format (for the most part)
CMS? What CMS? Oh, you mean that place? I'm surprised you still get hits there!

My first thought was #1, #2 came a couple minutes ago, and #3 has always been there in the background.
I know nobody reads this (read: nobody will ever read this) but I'd like your opinions!

Another blog?

noreply@blogger.com (Dustin Howett) — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 22:51:00 +0000

I'm following in the footsteps of some of my friends, and putting up a blog on Howett.net!
Yay!

It always was difficult for me to keep up with updating...
Better luck this time?

I'll be putting more technical stuff here, for the most part.