Unlock Samsung Galaxy S2 SGH-T989D (Tested with Koodo)

Tested with SGH-T989D with Android 4.0.4 from Koodo

This guide exploits the flaw found in the UVLE1 Radio T-Mobile binary that allows users to disable network lock through a hidden menu.

Warning: Following these instructions will in most cases void your warranty. There is also a chance of damaging your phone or "bricking" it. I take no responsibility for anything that happens from following these instructions. Follow the instructions at your own risk. Follow your local laws.

Disclosure: Due to me messing with my Galaxy S II, it's currently unable to shut down properly. The screen turns off but the button lights stay on. I have to hold down the power button to reset it. This is an example of one of the many things that can go wrong.

a. Preparation:

1. Download Odin and ClockworkMod Recovery. I personally used Odin found here (ignore the other files) and ClockworkMod found here, but you should be able to just use the one included in the first zip. Extract the Odin exe and ini. Leave the recovery as a tar file.
2. Download your stock radio binary from here. You can see which radio your phone natively uses by going to Settings->About Phone->Baseband version. For my Koodo phone, it was the TLLG2.
3. Download the flawed UVLE1 radio binary. If it is unavailable from the previous site, you can find it here or from a quick google search.
4. Using a usb connection, transfer the 2 radio binary zips to your phone.

b. Install and Run ClockworkMod Recovery Using Odin (original source, summary with adjustments below):

1. Run the Odin exe and connect your phone, if Odin successfully detects your phone, there should be a yellow box that says COM something. If not, dial *#7284#, which will open a hidden menu. Don't touch UART, set USB to the other setting and back, this should cause the drivers to be reinstalled on your computer.
2. Set your phone to recovery mode by holding down volume down and the power button. When the phone vibrates, release the power button, but hold the volume button until the recovery screen shows up. Some people reported that they needed to hold both the volume up and down buttons. When the screen shows up, press volume up.
3. In Odin, click the PDA button and select the recovery tar file. Once this is successful, your phone should boot up.
4. Reset your phone again like in step 2, but this time hold both volume up and down. This should bring you to a blue ClockworkMod Recovery menu.
5. (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) At this point, before you proceed, you should use CWM's backup and restore option and create a backup. Reboot the phone and copy the backup (clockworkmod folder) to your computer. Then return to the ClockworkMod Recovery menu by repeating step 4.
6. Select "Install zip from sdcard" and navigate to the sgh-t989_uvle1_radio.zip. After successful install, select the reboot phone option.

c. Use the Hidden Menu to Disable Network Lock (orignal source, summary below):

With SIM from another provider inserted
Dial *#197328640#
Press [1] DEBUG SCREEN
Press [8] PHONE CONTROL
Press [5] SIMULATION
Press [6] NETWORK LOCK
Press [3] PERSO SHA256 OFF
Wait 30 seconds
Press Home, Back
Press [4] NW LOCK NV DATA INITIALLIZ
Wait 60 seconds

(It's questionable if the waiting does anything)

d. Restore to Stock Radio Binary

Not doing this will likely cause network connection issues

1. Open the ClockworkMod Recovery again using step b.4. 
2. Select "Install zip from sdcard" and navigate to the stock radio zip (eg SGH-T989D_TLLG2_Koodo_radio.zip). After successful install, select the reboot phone option.

Your phone is now unlocked!

Sources:
http://galaxys2root.com/t-mobile-galaxy-s2/how-to-root-icsgb-on-t-mobile-galaxy-s2-sgh-t989/
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2024514
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1895400
http://xenomorph.net/android/sgh-t989/

Guild Wars 2: Commendations and Badges to Gold Ratios

I thought it would be useful to create a couple spreadsheets to see which items are most profitable when converting Guild Commendations and WvW Badges to Gold.

Google Spreadsheet

Skyrim: Clean-Up/Repair Whiterun, Solitude, Windhelm After Civil War

After finishing the civil war storyline, you may have noticed that Whiterun and either Solitude or Windhelm, depending on which side you took, have some destroyed structures left over from the battle. These structures never repair themselves, and may look ugly. Fortunately, there are console commands to repair the cities.

Simply run the following console commands to repair each city:

Whiterun:

"FC90C".enable
"FC90B".disable

Solitude:

"100D97".enable
"100D98".disable

Windhelm:

"101FD2".enable
"101FDD".disable

And that's it! If you want the city to be destroyed again, simply swap the enable and disable. Make sure you make a save before doing this, just in case. If you want to run this through the bat command, make sure you put the file name in double quotes or it will throw an error.

Bitcoin Prices Rocket Sky High

Among recent news, the value of Bitcoin has reached record highs. As of March 14, 2013, the price on Mt.Gox is USD $47/btc. Now, the question is, should you sell now?

Viewing the data from Bitcoin Charts, one can see that during the first few months Bitcoin was released, the price was a mere $3/btc. Just last year, the price was averging $5-10/btc.

Chart taken from BitcoinCharts.com

With the steep upwards slope at the right side of the graph, there's a good chance of a steep downwards slope sometime in the future. But who knows, maybe the steep upwards slope will continue.

Tera is Now Free to Play

Tera: Rising, a fantasy MMORPG published by En Masse Entertainment has gone free to play, as of February 5, 2013.

The game features a unique battle system, which requires you to aim at your target with a reticle instead of simply clicking of them. Leveling up to the cap, 60, mostly consists of quest and dungeon grinding. Once 60, it becomes a gear grind. The game features entertaining boss battles, guild vs guild wars, and battlegrounds fights.

Play as 1 of 6 different races and 1 of 8 classes. Classes are Archer (ranged dps), Berserker (melee dps), Lancer (tank), Mystic (healer), Priest (healer), Sorcerer (ranged dps), Slayer (melee dps), and Warrior (melee dps/tank).

Tera races from left to right: Castanic, Human, Aman, Popori, High elf, and Baraka.

Aside from the 6 races pictured above, the game also features the controversial Elin race, a race visually comparable to little girls with animal ears and tail.

ArmA 2: Combined Operations - Free For All Dogfight Map

I've recently been playing ArmA 2: CO, and I thought, "hey, why not try to make my own map." Well it turns out, making a simple F-35B dogfight map is actually ridiculously complicated. Arma 2 uses SQF script, something that seems similar to PHP, but with an interesting event handler. If you play on a server that's slightly glitchy, don't blame them; I can tell you first hand it's complicated. In the end, however, my map was quite successful.

Forum Post

Download Dogfight_F-35B_4P_FFA.Desert_E.pbo from my Dropbox

If you don't have a copy of ArmA 2, I invite you to try out ArmA 2: Free.

Choosing a Username - A Quick Guide

So you're about to create a new account, and you see the box to input your username. What will you type? The most important thing to ask yourself is: What will this account be used for?

1. The Business/Formal Username

If this account will be used for business or school purposes, you'll want to use a formal username. A formal username typically consists of your full name, or your first initial and your last name. If the your name is common, the username will probably be taken. In this case, it is fine to add a period or underscore to split your first and last name. Or, you can add some numbers to the end of your name. Don't do anything with this account that you wouldn't want a prospective future employer to know about.

2. The In Game Name / Gamertag

This will generally be your alias for games and forums. To make a good and lasting gamertag, you'll want to create a unique username, one that nobody else has. You do not want to simply add numbers to the end of a username that has been taken. To make sure your username is unique, search it up on Google. If you get any hits that aren't yourself, pick another name. If you have trouble thinking up a username, search for lists of prefixes and suffixes, and just combine some of them.

When using this username, you generally do not want to give out any of your real personal information, except maybe your first name.

3. The Hacker-handle / Burn Account

This username is used for things your probably shouldn't be doing, things you don't want people to know about, or you're just creating a one-use email to sign up for another account. It really does not matter what you choose for your name in this case, even random numbers and letters is fine. Just make sure it doesn't contain your real name and is different from your gamertag. Make sure it isn't affiliated to your real identity in any way. You'll also probably never want to use this username ever again.

TLDR: Think ahead into the future and make sure you won't regret your choice of username.

Minecraft Dota/Moba/LoL Map!

Zealock has created a pvp Minecraft map that emulates a Dota/LoL/Moba game in first person. Based on the League of Legends map, players on two teams take down the other team's towers and eventually their nexus to win. Complete with a redstone powered shop system.

It can be found here: http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/1161133-minecraft-dota/

Although a server can run the game barebones without any mods, as the map implements a large amount of redstone circuitry to run, I've created a bukkit plugin that will improve the gameplay, which can be found here. Details about it can be found on the BukkitDev page.

Action Replay for Legend of Zelda Minish Cap on gpsPhone

Godmode/Invincibility for "1865 - Legend of Zelda, The - The Minish Cap (U).zip" on gpsPhone on iPod/iPhone with PC. (This really is the only cheat you need.)

Follow the tutorial for creating a *.cht file here, but instead of pokemon, name the *.cht file "1865 - Legend of Zelda, The - The Minish Cap (U).zip.cht" with the following text inside:

Infinite Health 

5CB4A820 19D7B24D

And you're done!

Valentines Day Bitcoin Hacking

Reports are sketchy, but it seems that Tradehill, a Bitcoin exchange, has recently been compromised. If you did not know, Bitcoin is a virtual currency. It's completely electronic and not backed by anything. That is to say, all records are kept electronically, and each Bitcoin is only worth what other people are willing to pay for it. As a non physical currency, it is vulnerable to hacking.

Read more at:
TheVerge
SiliconAngle

Action Replay for Pokemon Emerald on gpsPhone 7.1.3

This guide will outline the steps to use action replay cheats for Pokemon Emerald on gpsPhone on your iPod Touch or iPhone using a Windows computer.

This guide assumes you have already jailbroken your iPod, installed gpsPhone 7.1.3, its BIOS, and the GBA ROM Pack with 1986 - Pokemon - Emerald Version (UE).zip, and already have it working without cheats.

Skip to Step 4 if you know how to use OpenSSH and WinSCP.

Step 1: Install SSH on your iPod. Under Cydia, it's called OpenSSH. It's also a good idea to install SBSettings so you can disable SSH when you want. (note: SSH poses a security threat to your iPod. It is recommended to change the root password, disable it when not in use, or uninstall it when you don't need it anymore.)

Step 2: Install WinSCP on your PC. If you are using a Mac, you'll need to find a Mac equivalent. You will need to find your iPod's IP address. Its under Settings>Wi-Fi->[Press the little arrow by your network name].

Step 3: Run WinSCP, type in your iPod's IP. For username, type root. The default password is alpine. Navigate to the folder /private/var/mobile/Media/ROMs/GBA.

Step 4: Open Notepad, and copy&paste the following:

Masterball
128898B6 EDA43037
Rare Candy
BFF956FA 2F9EC50D
Faraway Island (Mew)
8DEB234A 4C8DC5EC
Navel Rock (Lugia)
842CB8A9 7F8B0149
Birth Island (Deoxys)
4A99A22B 58284D2D
Southern Island (Latias) 1
7703F025 00394020
Southern Island (Latias) 2
181690CB 4E53CB05

Save it as RomFileName.cht, or for Pokemon Emerald 1986 - Pokemon - Emerald Version (UE).zip.cht. The file MUST end in *.cht, not *.txt. All the letters in the code MUST be in UPPER CASE.

(note: Save before using cheats, in case your game glitches up. The Rare Candy and Master Ball cheats put them in your PC, use the Toss menu and toss 0 of them to remove any extra stacks. The map cheats will teleport you to your desired location when you walk through a door. Remember to disable them after you are done. You can replace the codes with up to 8 different ones, these are just the ones that I liked. I found that only Action Replay codes work, and of those only a few of them. I haven't found a working infinite money code, instead use the Rare Candy cheat and sell stacks of 99 of them to the store.)

Step 5: Drag and drop the file into the /private/var/mobile/Media/ROMs/GBA folder on your iPod.

Step 6: Run gpsPhone. In game, press menu, and you can now use the Toggle Loaded Cheats menu.

The Toggle Loaded Cheats menu.

Internet Warfare?

Recently, the US Government has taken steps to curb internet piracy, introducing bills such as SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act). This has sparked outrage among the internet community, some calling it a copy of the Great Firewall of China or even the start of an American totalitarian government. In response, people have decided to boycott companies in support of SOPA. Some websites, including Wikipedia, temporarily held a blackout on their sites protesting these proposed laws.

Just today, the American government shut down MegaUpload.com, accusing the company of supporting internet piracy. Soon after, websites such as justice.gov (the website of the Department of Justice) and UniversalMusic.com have been running extremely slowly or have outright crashed, probably due to a DDoS attack. A loose association of hackers, called Anonymous, has claimed responsibility. Government propaganda and media has often mislabeled Anonymous as a terrorist group. 

Please support freedom of the internet, and fight against Lamar Smith (introduced SOPA) and Patrick Leahy (introduced PIPA).

A Guy Fawkes mask, often associated with Anonymous.

The proper Anonymous logo.

A Simple Mincraft 1.0.0 TNT Cannon

Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot

Ubuntu has released 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot. Personally, I think the name sounds odd, but I guess it has always been that way. Although I've never personally tried it, I have heard that it contains quite a few prominent and annoying bugs, such as Nautilus and the menu bars crashing. Of course, it still costs less than Windows, since it's free.

Picture from UbuntuManual.

Video Game Cats Comics

I've comic strip that seasoned gamers will find hilarious, VG Cats. Its not the most widely known comic strip, but it'll give you a good laugh if you get their references. Basically, the author makes fun of various video games, such as Mario, Final Fantasy, Halo, and various Steam Games. Be advised, some comics may not be suitable for young children and parents.

Wallpaper taken from VG Cats.

Black Screen Installing AMD/ATI Catalyst Drivers on Ubuntu

When I tried installing the Catalyst driver for my Radeon 6870 on Ubuntu, I ran into a whole bunch of problems. Twice I ended up with a black screen at restart. First of all, the fglrx driver included in the Ubuntu repositories may be outdated, or may not support your chipset. Secondly, when searching for the proper driver on the AMD website, the result may not be right. When I searched for drivers, the result was Catalyst 9.3, when at the time of writing this post, the most recent version was actually 11.9.

To Install Catalyst on Ubuntu:

1. Download the most recent version here.

2. Then follow the instructions here, replacing the version number with the most current version. Basically, the commands are as follows, replacing the words in red italics with what applies to your system:

cd /where you downloaded the driver/

sudo ./ati-driver-installer-*-x86.x86_64.run --buildpkg Ubuntu/version name (e.g Natty)

sudo dpkg -i *.deb

sudo aticonfig --initial

Reboot your system and you're done.

ArmA 2 Free Realistic Action FPS

I've stumbled across this cool first person shooter: ArmA 2: Free. It's in my opinion the most realistic war simulator game that's also free. The free version lacks a local singleplayer campaign, but there's a lot of online co-op and team vs team servers. It features a wide array of weapons, vehicles, and a semi-destructible environment. You can destroy buildings and vehicles, even make craters in the ground from artillery, but of course there's limits. The downside to this game is that there's no permanent ranking or level system. Individual servers may implement their own ranking system, but scores are usually wiped every server restart.

Windows 8 Developer Preview

Keeping this short, Windows 8 is designed for touch screen tablets, not normal desktop PCs.

Here's a screenshot of the new menu system

Apple Launches iOS 5

Apple has recently launched the new iOS 5 for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. Although I'm not an Apple hipster, but it does seem impressive, adding a few cool new features. However,  there have been a few reports of updates failing and phones being bricked. I think I'll wait a bit until they iron out the bugs before I update my iPod Touch 4G.

Picture from the Apple Gallery.

Minecraft!

Its Minecraft! An awesome sandbox game where you can build anything you want with blocks. Beware of creepers though, they blow up your stuff.

Here's a screenshot from play.thetaylormc.com:27965