After reading many sources, I decided to try to update my iPhone by booting it into DFU mode and letting iTunes detect it.

What you will need:

1. Uninstall any previous version of iTunes that is installed and restart your computer
2. iTunes 10.5 – You should already have this. IF you don’t please download it
3. Reboot your PC
4. Connect the iPhone to your computer
5. Enter DFU mode -

• Press the Power button [on top] until a message pops up on your phone to turn it off. Please side and turn off your phone.
• Press the Power and the Home button simultaneously for 10 seconds. Please make sure to countdown the 10 seconds.
• Release the Power button and keep pressing the home button until iTunes detects that your phone has connected in DFU mode

If all goes to plan, and more likely it will than not, you should have iOS 5.0 on your device in a short period of time..

I hope this guide was helpful and if you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

Anyway! since I had synced my Apple iPhone 4 with the previous installation, it meant that the iPhone was only going to work with this library. I went onto the Apple Support forums regarding the iPhone to get some guidance however people were saying that it is impossible to do (silly people I recon). You buy a device which costs over $900 yet tied down to one iTunes library sounds kind of stupid. This prevents you from syncing new music, contacts and applications. It is a total pain in the ass if your iPhone is well populated with all your awesome music.

Please note:

THIS WILL MAKE ALL OTHER DEVICES THAT SYNC WITH YOUR NEW iTunes INSTALLATION unsyncable and therefore you will need to repeat the process if you want to sync the others. I personally like to have this one ID across all my installations so then it makes it easier in the future. Once you have done this, you can also backup the C:\Users\<username>\Music\iTunes\iTunes Music Library.xml file before and after the change and restore them as and when needed.

Here, I will show you how to fix this so then if you run into this problem or have already run into it, you can easily resolve this issue. I have gathered my information from the sources listed below.

You may also use this method to sync between an iTunes installation at work, home and even your laptop PC.

Sources:

• iTunes DB Cloner – Freaky Notes – http://www.corsino.com/blog/?page_id=27
• The magic space of the IT – http://www.magicspace.eu/

How it works:

1. We attach iPhone to PC – Start iTunes
2. Create a Back Up of iPhone
3. Navigate to Back Up created and close iTunes
4. Locate Info.plist file
5. Upload file to provided link
6. Grab Persistent ID
7. Use iTunes DB cloning software update Persistent ID code
8. Start iTunes and you should be [hopefully] able  sync your iPhone.

Notes:

• No jailbreak required
• Very easy to do
• Does not require too much expertise

Instructions:

1. So first things first, you need to connect your iPhone/iPod to your computer and start iTunes (if it is not already started automatically). You may get an error message similar to the one below:
   

   iTunes Error Message!

2. Click Cancel because we have devised a way of working through this. You need to now create a backup of your iPhone. You do this by right clicking the phone and choosing Backup on the phone as shown in the image below. Once Back Up is complete; close iTunes.
   

   iTunes Backup

3. Browse to this external websiteto upload the Info.plist file from your Back Up. This can be access while clicking the browse button on the website. In the filename field, enter the path below:

   %appdata%\apple computer\mobilesync\backup\

   

   Upload Dialogue Box

   If you have many folders, you need to sort your folders by the latest file created showing on top. Once you have found the date/time that matches your Back Up date/time then double click into the folder. Scroll down the list until you have located Info.plist and then click open.

   

   Upload box. Info.plist selected

   Once selected, click the Upload file button on the website. Almost instantly you will be given the Persistent ID code for the iTunes installation that the phone had synced to. You can pat yourself on the back for making it this far. It’s now going to get easier from here on. Please copy the letters and numbers which are inside the tags shown below.

   <string>ABC12398E30123EA</string>

4. We are now going to download and install a pretty straight forward application called iTunes DB Cloner [please click the name to download the application]. Using this software, we will finally be able to restore the iTunes Persistent ID to that of your phone. Download and install this application. Basically read the terms and conditions of the license and install.
5. Run the newly installed application. It will look something like:
   

   iTunes DB Cloner Window

6. Paste the Persist ID code that we have retrieved from the Info.plist file and paste it in the box labeled: “Enter new persistent ID:” [This box has a grey background colour as shown above].
7. Click the Update ID button. If it has successfully worked, you will see a notification window that tells you that your Info.plist file has been deleted/corrupted. This is normal and will force iTunes to re-create the iTunes.plist file. Once this is done then you will be able to close the application and start iTunes.

I hope that this works for as it has worked for me across many different computers and laptops.

Just a quick test post from my Android powered Google Nexus One!

The WordPress application can be found on the android market.

Cheers and have fun

Have a read of the new legislation: http://www.legislation.govt.nz/bill/government/2010/0119/latest/whole.html?search=ts_bill_Copyright+%28Infringing+File+Sharing%29+Amendment+Bill_resel&p=1#tmpn1011a

Namely, I suggest you read sections: 122A, 122B, 122C, 122E and 122F although the whole thing is important.

A small breakdown of how this will come in effect:

1. Charlie downloads the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie from a leading public bittorrent website such as ThePirateBay (almost all bittorrent downloads are from a public tracker) [copyright infringement made]
2. MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) contacts Charlies’ ISP – in this example, it is Orcon Internet Limited
3. Orcon Internet Limited verifies the IP (Internet Protocol) Address to an account that is owned by Charlie
4. Orcon Internet Limited issues a warning letter [cease and desist] to Charlie
5. Charlie has 7 days to acknowledge the request and make necessary modifications to his Internet habits to not make this mistake again. (Strike 1/3 recorded)
6. If Charlie is smart, he will stop downloading content from public trackers. Since Charlie does not understand all of this, he repeats the offence. A maximum of three strikes is recorded against Charlie.
7. Charlies’ information is handed to the MPAA who will contact the local disputes tribunal or district court (depending on how angry they are at Charlie).
8. Charlie loses access to his Internet account with Orcon Internet Limited and can be fined upto $15,000 in damages.

Knowing the MPAA, they will also find other ways to steal all of your money.

Interestingly, if you are a school, library or university, you are exempted from the rule as you cannot fully comply with it, however your network systems must be able to produce the information if an infringement notice is served.

So moral of the story: Because of this, hardcore internet users who downloads gigs and gigs of movies, games, music and other things are more likely to get booted off the Internet for six months. If they repeat the offence they may get prosecuted and fined $15k or more. This is a good and bad thing. Good: Everyone will notice in increase in their Internet speed – as in browsing pages and permissible downloading of content will not take ages as not that many people will be clogging the (Internet) infrastructure with downloads. The bad: well you don’t get movies, games, music, anime etc before release in NZ… anymore.

Be safe. Download carefully.

So what is a DNA Bank? Well, I can tell you it’s definitely not the bank you walk into to stash away your moneys or to take money out of your account. From a Wikipedia entry, DNA Banking refers to a repository of DNA, usually used for research. Having said this, how is Noah’s Ark a DNA bank? Well, according to the scientists in this episode, the Ark acts as a DNA bank in the sense that it has a couple of each specie. For example, a man and a woman, a male dog and a female dog – all on the Ark by the command of God. When the animals mated, they created an offspring which would have some genetic variation – thus spreading the genetic code and the genetic divide between you and I for example.

Six years ago, to be exact, on September 13 2004, Michael Schirber wrote an article titled Noah’s Cosmic Ark: Preserving DNA on the Moon which states that [the] DNA library might belong on the Moon. “It would act as a mini Noah’s Ark for repopulating the Earth after a catastrophe,” explained Bernard Foing, chief scientist with the European Space Agency, in a telephone interview with SPACE.com. “It would be a second chance.” The major benefit seen with constructing an Ark on the Moon is that it would take only a few days for a rescue mission as opposed to six months to a year from neighbouring planet, Mars where other people hope to set up an Ark.

The Frozen Ark

The Frozen Ark is a tissue bank that will store genetic materal from thousands of endangered animals. This bank has been set up in the UK. The idea behind the Frozen Ark is to preserve the “life codes” even after the species have become extinct. It is hoped that this will allow the future generations of scientists to understand long lost creatures and also help with the conservation programmes of tomorrow – BBC.

1: Scientists take whole insects, or small tissue samples from animals so life is not endangered

2: Tissue may then be frozen for safe-keeping

3: DNA extracted from tissue sample, either straight after it was obtained or after freezing

4: DNA can be used for research, which may one day lead to resurrection of extinct species

5: Some DNA samples are sent to other labs as an insurance against damage or loss

6: Unused DNA can be frozen, potentially for thousands of years

It is somewhat awry to think that this kind of man-made control is already under way. Some people and tribes believe that the End of Day is near, naming december 21, 2012 as D-day!. Whatever you think, I think this whole thing could just be another milestone that we as Humans and other living creatures on this Earth will go through; not entirely the whole D-day phenomenon but something of sizeable change…

Then again all this could be just crazy-talk. Choice is yours. End is Near!

This study, funded by “Sheila’s wheel home insurance” comissioned the study of 3000 women. Interesting read!

Something I will be telling the women in my life.. LOL!

IT Governance

Check out the presentation.

Anyway, I decided, I would create a diagram representing the interaction between the Blizzard Authenticator and the login procedure. I’ve not yet (at the time of writing this 13/05/2010) decided to packet-sniff login information or not. For now I guess I will not sniff, though, if I’m bored I’ll check this out.

So going from what we know about WoW and its login requirements:

• Username (email address)
• Password (password)
• Blizzard Authenticator Number (string)

Now that we’ve got the details, lets think about the data encryption used.

Blizzard have come up with their own protocol called “wow” which communicates data once there is a connection established. This information can easily be captured by using applications such as wireshark.

From becoming intimate with Google (<3), it seems that World of Warcraft uses two algorithms for the encryption of data; while the username is sent in plaintext. An interesting discussion leads me to come up with the following information:

• SRP6 – newest addition to a new class of strong authentication protocols that resist all the well-known passive and active attacks over the network. SRP borrows some elements from other key-exchange and identification protcols and adds some subtle modifications and refinements. The result is a protocol that preserves the strength and efficiency of the EKE family protocols while fixing some of their shortcomings. More info.
• RC4 – is the most widely-used software stream cipher and is used in popular protocols such as Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) (to protect Internet traffic) and WEP (to secure wireless networks). More Info.

So basically, wow sends 4 packets, two from the client to the server and two from the server to the client. Each message to the server is accompanied by an ACK message which would confirm the message and thus proceed to the next process or phase.

WoW in all its awesome fun, is quite a complex piece of software which incorporates a token, 2 factor even “strong” authentication to ensure player account security. For more information on this, please click here.

I do apologise for any errors and mistakes found in this document.

Read/Download PDF: Legal Aspects of Information System Security