Four Island

Another update on the iPhone jailbreak situation. Things are getting more exciting as the dev teams work on their jailbreak and we can now expect to see a release within days, not weeks. Yes, days. How do we know? Someone on Twitter asked a pod2g for an ETA (wow, no kidding), and actually got a response:

@Pod2G the release date be count by days or week ?

asendari

@asendari I would say days.

pod2g

HOW EXCITING IS THAT? :D Of course, this doesn't guarantee that the release will be out soon, but I'm fairly hopeful for a SHAttering release this weekend. :)

The other thing I wanted to write about was the type of the jailbreak. If you didn't know, there are two types of jailbreak: tethered and untethered. Untethered is what you JailbreakMe folks are lucky enough to have; tethered, which seems to be more common, means that you have to jailbreak your iDevice every time you turn it on. Ouch. Anyway, as this jailbreak is not even out yet, we have no clue which type it will be, though some believe it will probably start out tethered. However, there is still hope. I did some poking around The iPhone Wiki (an official source for jailbreaking information) and found this gem:

Until Apple patches the bootrom in these things, (which is probably 5-6 months away...) their whole SHSH system becomes irrelevant and defeated (and lolz) because now the ramdisks can have all that SHSH+ECID crap patched out of them, allowing arbitrary downgrades all the way to 4.0 on a 4.1 (or later) out-of-the-box iPhone 4. But because Apple will eventually patch this, Saurik's SHSH system will always be important.

lemit737

Don't get it? What this possibly means is that even if this jailbreak turns out to be tethered, you should be able to use the jailbreak to downgrade to iOS 4.0.1 and then use JailbreakMe there to get an untethered jailbreak! I asked about this on the discussion page and someone confirmed that this could indeed be possible. So, don't worry about the type of jailbreak this will be; you'll probably end up with an untethered jailbreak anyway. :D

Anyway, there has been a lot of plot advancement in the iPhone jailbreaking world in the last few weeks! Let's just hope that this jailbreak is finally released this weekend, which would totally be great. :P

Yeah, I'm just going to borrow a few minutes of your time to rant about something that annoys me for a reason I cannot fathom. There's a myth going around that ketchup is a brand name (like how adhesive bandages are almost always called "Band-Aids") and that the substance as actually called "catsup." You know what I say here?

FALSE!

After about a minute of looking around Wikipedia, I found the answer. But before that, just think for a minute. What is ketchup? Really, what is it? Those in Australia know this better than we do in America because it's not often called "ketchup" there. What's it normally called in Australia?

Tomato sauce.

Yeah, if you've somehow forgotten, ketchup is tomato sauce. No, it's not the same tomato sauce you put on your spaghetti, but seriously, it's a sauce made out of tomatoes. It's not like sausages, where you don't know what it's made of; ketchup is tomato sauce. Really.

As for catsup, I think I'll let the Wikipedia article speak for itself:

Ketchup (also spelled catsup, catchup, ketsup) is a condiment that in modern times is usually made from tomatoes.

Wikipedia

Catsup is simply an alternate (and obsolete) spelling of ketchup. They're the same exact thing, and neither one is a brand name. So there.

I guess now you know how silly I get when someone is wrong, somewhere. Oh well. :P

Oh freaking God! So, there was a bit of unnecessary stress tonight. You may not have noticed it (especially if you live in Australia), but Four Island was down for a few hours today. But, no, it wasn't a usual outage involving a virus or a total creator failure. No, this one was pretty scary and most of you probably didn't even notice.

It started while I was in my house, surfing Four Island. Obviously, because Four Island is hosted in-house, I have to use a custom DNS server to be able to type in "fourisland.com" and related sites and actually get where I want to go. So, therefore, I was completely oblivious to the fact that Four Island was down until I received a call from my cousin, telling me that all attempts to access Four Island resulted in a parked site. You know, one of those annoying, stupid sites frequently used by domain squatters that almost always look exactly like this:

Yeah, Four Island had one of those. With the same annoying girl smiling in that cocky way. HOW DARE YOU SMILE! YOU STOLE MY WEBSITE! Anyway, after walking through the problem with him, me thinking that he misspelled the domain somehow, we realized that something else was happening because he wasn't doing anything wrong. As I was sheltered inside my house, protected by the magical DNS server, I couldn't see the problem, so I tried using the data service on my iPhone and I finally saw it. EVIL. PARKED. SITE.

WTF?

I dug deep into the problem, relaying as I researched things for my cousin to try to access (as I didn't want to cut too deeply into my data service) and every subdomain was also parked. Even my Tumblr was blocked! Caption'd, which is also hosted on Tumblr, was not blocked, however. Interesting.

There was only one thing that could've happened:

I lost fourisland.com.

Does anyone remember what yesterday was? Hm? The third anniversary of Four Island. But, hey, didn't I say earlier that Four Island actually existed for a week prior to September 22nd, but under a different name? Well, if you go back and read the actual post, you'll see what September 22nd is really celebrating. That's the day that I registered fourisland.com.

Yeah, that's right. Somehow, the domain lapsed and went back into the pool.

I seriously freaked out then. I was running around the house, screaming that my domain had been stolen, but simultaneously wondering out loud "WHY WOULD SOMEONE BE WAITING TO STEAL FOURISLAND.COM WHEN IT LAPSED? WHO CARES ABOUT ME??!!?!?!" Well, after I calmed down a bit and did some more research with Yahoo, my registrar, I finally discovered that the credit card on file used to automatically renew Four Island had expired some time between last year and yesterday. Yeah. And apparently, it's standard procedure at Yahoo! to park the site a few days upon lapse before putting the domain back into the pool. Oh yeah, and completely canceling accounts while forgetting to send any emails whatsoever that may have notified me of this. Thanks, Yahoo, you've been a big help.

Anyway, after some credit card action, Four Island was back under my control! Horray! I set up the nameservers and within 72 hours, Four Island should be back up for everyone. Yay! And just like that, the day I lost Four Island passed like any other. :P

Domain Name.......... fourisland.com
  Creation Date........ 2007-09-22
  Registration Date.... 2007-09-22
  Expiry Date.......... 2011-09-22

Guess what today is! You may know already, because there's a background picture and everything. Anyway, it's the third anniversary of the registration of fourisland.com, and, obviously, Four Island itself! You can relive the whole experience by reading this badly written post. :P You'll notice that that's not the first post--yeah, Four Island existed for a week before it was called Four Island.

You'll also notice something else--something that happened today. Yes, I've finally removed The Poll Of The Week. Yeah, Smiley, it's gone. :P For those of you who don't know, the Poll Of The Week was created from an idea by Smiley a little less than three years ago (the Thursday after Four Island was created) and it hasn't really proved to be the greatest thing for Four Island. I generally don't come up with the smartest polls and often just use it as a place to make humorous poll options and to use the word "Indifferent". Also, the whole "poll post" thing, while now abolished, was a pain.

Anyway, it's gone now, though you can still see the old polls in the Polls section of Four Island. I will probably move the Polls section to Four Island Other, or maybe to that Four Island Archive thing I mentioned once. Anyway, this post is becoming very painful for me to finish as it's 11:18 at night and I have to go to the bathroom. So, let me leave off this post on a random, big lettered note:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FOURIE :P

I love you all, and though it's a bit of a shame that today was an uneventful day for the third YEAR IN A ROW I--!!!!! explodes ...I know, I'm tired, and I should really go now. FOUR ISLAND ROXXORZ! runs away

Okay, this post may be a bit shocking to some people who know me and my feelings towards Apple products, specifically Macs, in the past, but I kind of feel it needs to be said.

I like Macs now.

I'll give you all a few minutes to find a defibrillator and restart your heart.

Done yet? Okay, good. Now, please, someone, tell me what my argument against Macs was. Anyone at all. Nothing? Huh? That's right, I can't remember a single, valid argument I had against Macs. I would just go "THEY'RE EVIL" and "THEY CAN'T DO ANYTHING" and then run away in a cloud of smoke. I was even reading back on Four Island and found an old post where I interviewed "an idiot" as to why he liked iPhones, saying only idiots liked them and, volia, I now have an iPhone. Interesting. :P

I think I must've had a scarring experience with a Mac in my childhood or something because I seem to make fights between Apple and I where they aren't necessary. I mean, come on, I don't even KNOW why I started saying that iPads were bad. Sure, I dislike how a lot of people are saying that they could be used as a replacement for a computer because that's definitely not what they should be used for, but I do, actually, like the iPad. It was a cool concept and it definitely would be like "holding the Internet in your hands".

Macs look really nice, they're fun to use and they're really, really fast. I actually know that, and I haven't been hypnotized by the Apple website, because my cousin has a MacBook Pro and I keep telling him that it's evil instead of telling him that I like it for some reason. Oh, and the magnetic power cord is just SO much fun. :P

Now, while this may be a bit out-of-the-blue, it really has been a while in the coming. While I love the freedom of Linux and the speed increase it has over Windows Vista, I really, really like professional looking and highly integrated operating systems and sadly, Linux doesn't really fit either of those. Linux has a thrown-together look going on and it has so many random programs that offer this functionality but it doesn't go well on this computer and it looks ugly over here and blah blah blah. So many programs to choose from that aren't so greatly integrated with this and that and it's so frustrating.

So, basically, I'm saying that I'm no longer hating on Apple products just for the sake of hating on Apple products. That doesn't mean I can't still hate on Apple, though. :P If it weren't for them locking down iOS, we wouldn't have to jailbreak and it would be so much easier to run awesome apps on your iPhone! :P Anyway, I've been meaning to post this since Sunday and this whole procrastination thing is really annoying me, so here goes.

EDIT: Okay, I know this post is kind of stupid, but I have some better reasons in a comment to a more recent post.

Good news for all of you who, like me, bought an iPhone 4 and received it pre-loaded with the unjailbreakable iOS 4.0.2: your suffering may soon be over. iOS 4.1, the first major update to iOS 4, is expected to be released today. Yes, today. Obviously, Apple has kept quiet about the release date, but two pieces of evidence clearly point to today as the final release date:

• After iOS 4.1 was announced at last week's Apple Music Event, the Apple website was updated to include information about the upcoming iOS 4.1 update. However, for a few days, the British and French versions of the Apple website clearly stated "Coming September 8th", while the American one still said "Coming Soon". This has been fixed.
• Apple releases beta and RC versions of it's iOS software for people with registered Developer iPhones and iPod touches to test out. However, another Apple goof has resulted in everyone being able to utilize the iOS 4.1 RC image, not just the developers. While this in itself is not indicative of an impending release, the fact that early this morning, the Game Center feature included in iOS 4.1 went live, is.

However good the chances seem that iOS 4.1 will be released today, though, it doesn't necessarily mean that the iOS 4.1 jailbreak will be as well. A series of misinformation from unreliable sources and contradicting confirmations from reliable sources has led to a lot of confusion about the upcoming jailbreak. One thing that we all seem to know for sure, however, is that the new jailbreak could take one of two forms: a userland jailbreak (like the JailbreakMe website jailbreak) or a bootrom jailbreak. A userland jailbreak, if a usable exploit was found, would be much easier to make and therefore would arrive faster. However, as seen with JailbreakMe and iOS 4.0.2, Apple can also patch them very easily. A bootrom jailbreak, conversely, would be a lot more difficult to create, but would be impossible for Apple to patch without releasing a new hardware device. The bootrom hole primarily used to jailbreak in the past was present in all iPhone 2Gs, iPhone 3Gs and iPod touches (first gen) and half of iPhone 3GSes and iPod touches (second gen) before Apple finally got around to patching it. A new bootrom jailbreak, if found, could be used to jailbreak iPhones and iPod touches for a long time to come.

However, that's where our definite knowledge ends. Many people suspect that Comex, the author of the JailbreakMe exploit, is going to be the one to provide the next jailbreak, and that seemed to be confirmed by iPhone hacker MuscleNerd:

@TechXero it'll be userland JB if @comex can pull trifecta.
Else, wait for new HW cycle (also remember: hole!=exploit)

However, Comex has very recently posted a tweet which may imply that this is not the case:

@ariif next jb might not come from me :D

Hopefully, if this is the case, it still means that a jailbreak will be ready for release very soon. Also, rumors have been making their way around the Internet that the iOS 4.1 jailbreak is already done and will likely be released today. While this would be a great outcome, it's fairly unlikely and we should all just cross our fingers that Comex is able to pull off "trifecta". :)

Lastly: while jailbreakers everywhere have informed several times that it would be unwise to update to iOS 4.1 without a jailbreak being available, those who are not yet jailbroken should at least give it a try. However, there is a chance, albeit small, that a new jailbreak might not work with iOS 4.1, instead relying on iOS 4.0.2. Even though this is incredibly unlikely, I suggest that you use TinyUmbrella to save your SHSH blobs (no jailbreak required) before upgrading to iOS 4.1 so that if this actually happens, you can safely go back to iOS 4.0.2. The newest version even includes the ability to prevent your baseband from being upgraded, for those of you who wish to unlock their phones, as the new baseband included with iOS 4.1 is not yet unlockable.

EDIT: It seems I forgot to post this post in the morning and now it is too late: iOS 4.1 is now out and more information about a jailbreak has been released. A hacker named "pod2g" apparently found a bootrom exploit (remember, hole doesn't equal exploit, but they definitely said "exploit", which means it's likely to work) just as Apple went public with the final release of iOS 4.1. The good news is that, yay, there will definitely be a jailbreak. The bad news? It might take a while.

In the mean time, I'm currently upgrading my iPhone 4 to iOS 4.1 because I have no jailbreak to lose and I can always go back to iOS 4.0.2 if need be. However, this will still probably not be necessary because the expected jailbreak is going to be a bootrom exploit. Regardless, let's all hope it comes out soon because I want my iPhone jailbreak! :P

Really, it's not that new, except that now, it's actually a semi-normal blog. What on earth am I talking about? I'm talking about reform. For a very long time, my blog has been dictated by the oppressive Poll Post, and more recently, a law requiring one non-poll post per week. That's isn't really normal. If you look at anyone else's blog you will see that they probably post whenever and that it's extremely unlikely that they'll have something The Poll Post.

Okay, I realize I'm not explaining things well, so let's jump right into the new plan:

• The weekly poll post will be abolished. While more inconvenient, if you want to see the results of the previous week's poll, you now have to use the Poll pages. Hopefully a better way to do this will arise as close to no one actually cares about the results of the Poll Of The Week.
• Caption'd, due to the new lack of a home, will be moved to its own blog.
• The annual goal requiring me to post once a week will also be abolished.

I think that this is a great idea and I'm really excited to be able to now have a more normal blog. Let's see how this is more beneficial:

• My blog can now be filled with real content more of the time, rather than annoying posts that appear every week, usually late at night when I'm tired and only just remembered to do them, which results in bad posts that don't really contain anything of value. That's poll posts AND Friday-night goal posts
• The freedom of posting whenever I want should promote the will to post frequently. I mean, now, I can! :P
• Caption'd now has its own site dedicated to it rather than being stuffed into a weekly post on another blog, which was just horrible. Caption'd can now have it's own schedule too: in fact, the new Caption'd schedule is a post every Wednesday and Saturday (instead of twice on Saturday).

Well, that's really it. My website just got a little bit more sane. :P Oh, the link to the new Caption'd website. Its in the sidebar, but here it is too: Caption'd. Anyway, I'm really excited about this new system and I can't wait to do a whole lot of free posting. :)

I like the dislike of baseball games, but seriously, people, vocabulary is key.

**vo·li·tion**  (v-lshn)
n.
1. The act or an instance of making a conscious choice or decision.
2. A conscious choice or decision.
3. The power or faculty of choosing; the will.

I was asking if you would ever go to baseball game because you actually wanted to, which 38% of us know is pure insanity. :P

Would you attend a baseball game of your own volition? Yeah (I am legally required to allow this as an acceptable answer) - 2 vote(s)! NO WAY runs screaming - 5 vote(s)! What's baseball? - 2 vote(s)! What's volition? - 4 vote(s)!

Okay, so I kind of failed at posting this week (or doing anything at all, really), but.... I have an iPhone! :P Yes, let this be a lesson to me: I have to stop putting down every Apple product that cones out just because it's an Apple product. Also, speaking of awesome iPhone, recent evidence suggests that iOS 4.1 will be released on Wednesday, so we can hope that a jailbreak will soon follow. Anyway, it's late and I want to go listen to Kate Nash, so here's your weekly Caption'd fix:

More, More, More

Exotic Animal Life

Okay, so as I mentioned recently, I got an iPhone 4. Yes, yes, I am the same person that hates Macs and is supposed to be Apple apathetic but forgets most of the time and the one that use to insult iPhones all the time (though that may be because I was forced to watch a half-hour video on iPhones when they first came out by my cousin) until I got an iPod touch and really liked it and have now shifted my ray of insulting to iPads. Yes, amidst all of that, I recently got an iPhone and what's more, I LOVE IT. :D It is just so awesome. Feel free to call me a hypocrite if you want. :P

I think the core reason I like it so much is that I liked my iPod touch so much. Now, I basically have an iPod touch, just better! :P Here are some of the things I really like about my iPhone 4 that my iPod touch 3rd gen didn't have:

• Well, to be obvious: phone functionality. Calling and texting. It's just so nice! I love having my phone and my iPod in one device, so that now I won't leave anywhere without it. And being able to send MMSes is great too, especially as my old phone couldn't do that. :P
• Retina display. Yeah, when I first heard about the iPhone 4, I was like "Okay, so it has a clear display. So?" RETINA DISPLAY IS AWESOME. Everything looks so clear on my phone! After I synced it for the first time, I spent a very long time just staring at the various screens because they looked so nice! Apple was actually right: the only pixels I could discern were the ones in the icons for apps not yet upgraded to support retina display (as well as the apps themselves). Looking at my brothers' iPod touches felt weird after that. :P
• Camera. I don't really know why the iPod touch lacks a camera because it isn't really a phone-specific feature, but I love having it now! And there are actually two cameras--one in the front and a higher definition one in the back. Now I can take pictures (and videos!) with my iPhone too! :D
• Built-in microphone. As it's a phone, the need for a built-in microphone is obvious, but it's useful for other things like Voice Control and Voice Memos and Shazam that you would need to plug a microphone in to use on the iPod touch.
• INTERNET (pretty much) EVERYWHERE (in America). It's a smartphone. And what do most smartphones require you to get? That's right: a data plan. While I don't have an unlimited data plan (AT&T redacted those earlier this year sadly--incidentally on the same day that the iPhone 4 was announced), it's nice to know that if I'm somewhere without WiFi and I want to talk to my friends or check my email or look something up on Wikipedia, I can! As my plan isn't unlimited, though, after about a month, I want to write a post on the data plan, if it's enough data (200MB) and if AT&T is screwing me over or not. Won't that be fun? :P
• The device just looks so nice! As you probably know, the iPhone 4 features a new design that looks different to every other iPod touch and iPhone as it has a flat back and a silver band running around the edge. It's preeety. :P

Yes, I love my iPhone. However, not everything's sunshine and butterflies. I do have a small list of complaints about it:

• The attenuation problem. Yes, it's true, but really, it's not that annoying. It's only if you cover the tiny black band in the lower left of the phone and it's not too difficult to avoid it.
• No available jailbreak. iOS 4.0.2 was released a few weeks before I got my iPhone, meaning that it came with it preinstalled. As you probably know, iOS 4.0.2 fixes the hole that made the jailbreak for 4.0 possible, so there are no currently available jailbreaks. However, the iPhone Dev Team have said that they know of another jailbreak and that they would probably release it when iOS 4.1 gets released; so here's hoping that's soon!

Yes, those are really the only problems I currently have with my iPhone. :P Yes, I've done a complete 180°, but still! The iPhone! It's awesome! :P Okay, by now you can probably tell that I'm a bit insane, so I'll let this post end. Also, I wrote this post earlier this week and I only realized I hadn't posted it yet when it was 11pm on Friday night. :P So, I guess I'll post it now and you people can tell me if I'm insane in the morning. Anyway:

**Starla**: IPADS ARE DISGUSTING! Oh mah gawd I luve my iPhone!!!!! <3 :D :D

Wow, it seems quite a few people have witnessed the horrors of Fourie! Nah, I'm just kidding, I love Fourie and his disturbing humor! Come on, all, let's all go on IRC! :D

Has Fourie abused you horrifically yet? YES: I'm so scarred! - 5 vote(s)! No, why? DOES HE DO THAT SORT OF THING? - 4 vote(s)! Lol, yes, but I love Fourie! - 1 vote(s)! Other/Indifferent - 0 vote(s)!

So, yes, as I mentioned yesterday, I now have an iPhone 4. Yes, I know, I'm such a hypocrite, BUT I LOVE IT <3. :D I will probably write a post about it tomorrow. Also, now that I actually have a data plan, it would probably be useful to me if Four Island wasn't so freaking large, so I'm planning on making a mobile layout for Four Island (possibly even before 3.0 is released). Gah, I wish 3.0 was already done because it would make everything so much easier. Four Island 2.0 is just such a mess.

Anyway, CAPTION'D!

Dance Dance Revulsion

Blind Date

Okay, anyway, I know I'm procrastinating my music review now as I now have three in the backlog. I will try really hard to get over my procrastination and write some good posts for this week, because it should be an awesome week and I don't want to waste it. hugs lots of people