That’s right, too bad for the guys at iPhoneSimFree. They were the first to announce the software hack for the Apple iPhone which allows you to unlock the iPhone up to version 1.02. On their website, they sell it for $60 per license. But now a group of hackers announced a free open source version of the unlock software called iUnlock! Thank god for the open source community!

Currently the open source packages are scattered around the net, if you want to hack your iPhone, you can figure out what packages to use but if you want to wait a little longer, someone will put together the complete package with detailed tutorials. iPhoneSimFree should not have waited this long to release their hack to the public, that wait cost them a lot of potential money because that was the only hack available at the time, now there is a free competition.

Free Open Source v.s Commercial: Open Source wins if it promises to do the same job. iPhoneSimFree doesn’t even guarantee that their software works for versions after 1.02. I’m sure if the open source hack gets popular, they will make it work for any version of Apple’s firmware. That’s why I love open source, they update each step of the way!

For information about the packages and actually do the hack see here!
BTW, there’s also a GUI hack too which is confirmed to work!

:: Update :: anySIM Download
Get anySIM free for download here!

Okay, it’s about time I blogged to push Vanessa Hudgens down a slot. Over the past 4 days or so, blogging about Vanessa Hudgens and including pictures was a great hit, not only did I made $30 a day via Adsense but I got over 4000+ hits in that period of time. So enough of that! A little update about Vanessa though, generally Vanessa’s fans support her all the way and accepts that she made a mistake. Okay so next story…

A couple of days ago, I went to a photo shoot for my Stony Brook Blog and the pictures finally came in today. I personally wasn’t too happy of them. I initially thought that they were going to be great because they were taken by professional photographers but I guess it doesn’t make that much of a difference.

Here are some of the pictures:

So moving on, I went to the NYPIRG office in Stony Brook University for the first time today. For those of you who reads my blog knows that I’ve been canvassing for NYPIRG since May. I love the organization so much that I signed up to volunteer to work on the campaigns at school! I’m going to do voter registrations soon! Watch out!

I got an email today notifying me that PayPerPost approved my account! I can now start making sponsored paid money. PayPerPost is another awesome way to make some good money using your blog and a great alternative to Google Adsense. The way it works is that sponsors will pay us bloggers if we talk and advertise their product or services.

How I got involved with PPP was simple. I was simply looking for a way to make money with my blog, you know.. a little money on the side. And I visited PPP and found that people were making thousands from just typing a blog post. It’s really that easy and anyone who owns a blog outside of MySpace or Blogger are basically eligible to do this.

What I plan to do with the extra cash? Well, I’m gonna first, pay for my hosting for my website. The extra money that comes out of it will go to investing in various web services to better my website and blogging experience, maybe get equipment for my soon to come podcast. So sign up for PayPerPost, it’s highly recommended by me!

PayPerPost is highly recommended for any blogger to make money, defiantly another service you should use if you are already using Google Adsense.

Blog advertising

Probably no one will read this because everyone is reading Engadget or something but I will post this anyway for those who frequent my blog. Rumors of Apple’s iTouch and the “Fatty” iPod Nano were true. They even reinvented the regular iPod and now calls it the iPod Classic. Three new designs for the iPod, the iTouch is exciting, Apple yet again continues to take the mp3 market by storm.

The “fatty” iPod mini was exactly what rumors predicted. Images were released last week on blog sites of the new iPod mini. Apple quickly took legal action to get them to take it down. That move by Apple directly confirmed that the ugly design was indeed the one that they manufactured. By the looks of that thing, it’s essentially a regular iPod that shrunk in height. In my opinion, it is pretty ugly, for those of you out there still looking for an iPod mini, buy yours today before they sell out. They are cheaper now and still better looking than the new.The iPod classic looks exactly the same as the 5th generation Apple iPod. One physical difference I noticed was that it has a bevel, unlike the 5th generation, the screen is now bulged up like the 4th generation. The music library interface has some improvements but no major change or new features were noted. Again, there is no real benefit in upgrading.

Now the iTouch is something to rave about! It features all the things on an iPhone without the phone. Yes, it does internet, yes it does YouTube and they do it at an affordable price of $299 for the 8GB model. Physically, it looks like an exact replica of the iPhone which is good. Something else that is new is that it has the ability to now wirelessly download music from iTunes, I think this feature will defiantly boost sales from the music store because it will be the only other way as of now to get music without a computer. I was really hoping that they allow it to share music like they have it with the Microsoft Zen and then have an option to also but it via iTunes if one likes. This product will sell because there are no contracts with AT&T involved or other fees.

I’m seriously considering getting one because it’s simply HOT! The only thing that is stopping me right now is that I just got a iPod about 2 months ago. I should have waited.

Never mind the “Rob K” part of the title, it’s an inside joke for a friend of mine!

Did you ever want to know your IP address but didn’t know how to get it? Well there are several ways. One with the ipconfig command if you’re on Windows or the arp command on Linux/Unix and two if you go to whatsmyip.org but there’s something way better for you guys out there! And for Rob.

There is MoanMyIP.com where a voice of a girl moans your IP address to you. Man, things you find on the internet these days… But I’d rather have a girl who’s about to have an orgasm scream out my IP address to me than to type having to type in a few commands to get it! Nothing beats this, not only does she read it out for you, but in a voice to die for.

DISCLAIMER: I’m not responsible if you get fired at your job for simply trying to look for your IP address. If you need to hear your IP at work, you can go to HearMyIP.com. It’s owned by the same people but HearMyIP allows you to hear it in a male robotic voice. It guarantees your job at the end of the day.

TIP: If you go and visit the site multiple times, she says some pretty unique things before she reads your IP address again. Check it out, go back a few times!

I haven’t checked my Google Adsense account in a while but more recently I’ve been re-introduced to SEO tricks and tactics so I checked it today. Whao! $100.38, It’s time for them to pay me! This amount was made in about 2 months time on just my blog domain. I’m looking into SEO (Search Engine Optimization) again to increase traffic and click through rates on my blog. I believe my blog has a lot more potential than it does currently and can make a lot more money. I’m just not doing a good job of placing the ads in the right locations.

There are plenty of people out there who blog for a living. I don’t happen to be one of them but it would be nice if I was. If you want to start a blog and learn how to make money, just leave me a comment and I’ll be glad to help you get started!

For those of you who hate Microsoft Windows, you’ll love what I found on Digg this afternoon. It’s this amazing wallpaper by lahandi from DeviantArt! Check it out!

Isn’t this the best linux wallpaper background ever? The bottom reads “In a world without walls and fences, We need no Windows and Gates”. Genius! Need I say more?

I personally think that Bill Gates is a great man and he has created something wonderful, after all it is a business for Microsoft. I don’t hate Microsoft or Gates, but this is a great wallpaper!

Download it here:
http://lahandi.deviantart.com/art/Kill-Bill-52784151

I saw someone take a quiz titled “How Addicted to Blogging Are You?“, he scored 75%, and I said to myself, oh I’m probably a lot less than that. So I thought it would be fun and interesting to know how addicted to blogging I was so I took this little quiz at Mingle2.

The results took me by surprise! I’m 80% addicted to blogging! Gee, maybe I am addicted, I only have 5 blogs that I author and spend about at least an hour reading different blogs a day. What? Thats not normal? You guys don’t do that too? Oh, I’m sure you do… No? Crap! I am addicted! Ahhhh HELP!

Well to think of it, its not all that bad, I’ve almost replaced everything I use to do to get information from like watching TV or reading newspapers to reading blogs. I don’t even watch the news on TV anymore, all I do is go to Digg.com and get all my news. Is that so horrible?

Here are the questions I answered on my quiz:

Q: Where is your blog located?
A: My own domain (for example: www.tonycai.com)

Q: How often do you update your blog?
A: Several times a week

Q: How many blogs (actual blogs, not individual blog entries) do you read a day?
A: 6-12

Q: How much time do you spend reading blogs?
A: 1-2 hours a day

Q: How many different blogs do you post entries on?
A: 4

Q: Have you ever ‘live blogged?’ (where you blog about an event as it’s happening)
A: Yes

Q: How do you stay up to date with all your favorite blogs?
A: I visit each one individually and read it

Q: Have you ever blown off an important task, such as studying for an exam or making a deadline, because you were blogging?
A: No

Q: If something interesting happens to you, do you immediately think about how you’re going to write about it on your blog?
A: Sometimes

Q: What do you usually blog about?
A: Anything and everything, including personal issues or something funny you saw at the park the other day

Q: What kind of blogging do you do?
A: Professional & Personal

Q: Have you ever tried to convince a friend or family member they should start a blog?
A: Yes

Q: Have you ever come up with a great blog idea while doing something completely random, such as taking a shower or watching a movie?
A: Yes

Q: When this quiz is over, do you plan on blogging about your blogging addiction?
A: Yes

Go ahead and take the quiz and post me your results! I’m interested!

Wow, I haven’t used any of my time today to work on my project, SBUGuide because there are so many great discoveries today. The long awaited hack for the iPhone has been confirmed. You can soon unlock your Apple iPhone to work with other SIM carriers such as T-Mobile.

There are two methods I found today which are promising. One done by George Hotz 17, a hardware hack that allows the use of the iPhone for other carriers and a software hack by iPhoneSimFree, a team which Engadget confirmed that their software works. It will be distributed with a cost to the public soon.

Of course, this is all bad news for Apple and AT&T, looks like their exclusive partnership isn’t so exclusive anymore thanks to the l33t hacking community. WOOT WOOT!

The bad news for me is that I’m stuck on the stupid Verizon contract for another year and a half. One thing I dislike about Verizon’s Wireless service is that they install Verizon’s firmware on their phones usually crippling features such as simple OBEX or Bluetooth. Another is that the phones do not use SIM cards, hackers tend not to hack Verizon phones because of it.

You can find instructions of the hardware method on Hotz’s Blog.

Back to school is getting nearer for most of us, some have already started. Everyone is trying to market their products towards students, from Back to School sales to providing a list of essential needs for a students success. Most of it I think is BS! BestBuy released their annual Back to School campaign called “Knowledge for College” which is a guide to products which are recommended for college. All they want is more $$ from you of course.

Mozilla released it’s Firefox Campus Edition today, which was disappointing for me at least. It comes with the core Firefox browsing engine along with three extensions. What ONLY 3? I was expecting it to come with at least 5 NEW features or at least a new theme. The extensions that it comes with are FoxyTunes, Zotero and StumbleUpon.

• FoxyTunes – Basically a iTunes control from your browser.
• Zotero – Citing and organizing your college research.
• StumbleUpon – Internet channel surfing and social bookmarking.

I have to say all these features are pretty much useless, none of these make the Campus Edition worth downloading in my opinion. But if you prefer, you can get it here.

If you already have Firefox, you can make yours “Campus Edition” by just downloading the extensions here.