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September 30, 2012

Woman Tied to Railroad Tracks

Carrie reminded me of the old animated cartoons where the stereotypical bad guy was always tying some woman down to the railroad tracks in the path of an oncoming train. Which made us wonder..."why would anyone do that?" As in, what do you gain from this act. It made me curious enough that I looked it up tonight. Here's a moustache-twirling animated character tying a woman to the tracks in the Rocky and Bullwinkle show. But it appears that this idea first appeared in the early silent films from around 1913 or so... http://www.hometheaterforum.com/t/272397/woman-tied-to-train-track-question

Posted by Rob Kiser on September 30, 2012 at 11:04 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Telegraph Hill gardener Gary Kray has passed away

I've been walking to work daily through the stunning gardens of Telegraph Hill, unsure who kept them up. Apparently Gary Kray kept up the Grace Marchant Gardens along the Filbert Steps. By night, he was a cab driver. By day, he tended the gardens pro bono.

The Filbert gardens, once full of trash and garbage, today are full of birds and flowers. He will be missed.

http://mobile.sfgate.com/sfchron/db_41686/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=HvhFdzOH

Posted by Rob Kiser on September 30, 2012 at 10:00 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

September 24, 2012

The Wild Birds of Telegraph Hill

Above: Unknown bird Townsend's Warbler (Dendroica townsendi) on Greenwich Steps, Telegraph Hill, San Francisco.

Above: Unknown bird Chestnut-backed Chickadee (Poecile rufescens) on Bottlebrush on Filbert Steps, Telegraph Hill, San Francisco.

Above: Unknown bird Chestnut-backed Chickadee (Poecile rufescens) on Bottlebrush on Filbert Steps, Telegraph Hill, San Francisco.

Above: Pygmy Nuthatch (Sitta pygmaea) on the Greenwich Steps, Telegraph Hill, San Francisco.

http://www.whatbird.com/forum/index.php?/topic/85149-birda-in-san-francisco-last-week/

Posted by Rob Kiser on September 24, 2012 at 9:16 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

The Mad Gardens of Telegraph Hill

Above:Bottlebrush on the Filbert Steps of Telegraph Hill, San Francisco. (Family = Myrtaceae, Genus = Callistemon.)

Above: Flowers of the genus Fuchsia on the Greenwich Steps of Telegraph Hill, San Francisco.(Family = Onagraceae, Genus = Fuchsia).


Above: Princess Flower.Princess Flower on the Greenwich Steps of Telegraph Hill, San Francisco. (Family = Melastomataceae ), (Tibouchina urvilleana).

Above: Angel's Trumpet. (Famiily = Solanaceae. Genus = Brugmansia spp.)

Posted by Rob Kiser on September 24, 2012 at 8:49 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

September 22, 2012

I Found a place to go if Dimocrats win in November

http://www.foxnews.mobi/quickPage.html?page=22995&external=1707196.proteus.fma#quickPage_html_page_22995_content_80443975_pageNum_1

Posted by Rob Kiser on September 22, 2012 at 9:00 PM : Comments (1) | Permalink

September 20, 2012

Walking in - 9/10/12

9/10

Walkn in

I watched the parrots of Telegraph Hill again and tried to figure out where he lived.
Princess Flowers and Roses and Agapanthus and a mailwoman delivering mail in a heavily tagged mail truck
Clear and sunny with a chance of Nirvana
Coit Tower was built during the Great Depression with land donated by Hitchcock Coit
I try to imagine the hill without the tower
I try to imagine getting approval to build it today

I find a garden kitty
As the water fills the sea

I recognize the power lines above the Greenwich steps from the movie
He definitely was on Greenwich Street, not Filbert Street
My calves tremble as I descend slowly
Into the shattered car window streets
The television was invented here in 1927 by the genius of Green Street
Across Broadway and downhill into the cool shadows of financial district towers
People stretching out in suits leaning hard into brick buildings
One of the cameras dies and I could kick myself for not charging the batteries last night
61 F. Another scorcher
A line of politely lined motorcycles and you could walk down a line of them and touch every bike you ever owned
Downtown, the winds die down and the flags won't fly
Its like Obama took the wind out of America's sails
We need an ad for Romney that says 'America - we're open for business'
And shows people turning around signs from closed to open
And dead flags fluttering back to life

I'm at work :)

Posted by Rob Kiser on September 20, 2012 at 12:44 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Walking in - 9/11/12

In the morning, the racket of countless conures...the Parrots of Telegraph Hill
The bells of Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral
I now know they are recordings, but still haunting
This is where Joe Dimagio married Marilyn Monroe

Walk past my motorcycle in the alley and how sad that it is there waiting on me
But I have no time for the bike today
Fresh young tires with nipples still to rub off

Down Grant Street and up Filbert Street as the sidewalks turn into steps
Countless stairs climbing to the sun in one of the most vibrant neighborhoods outside of NYC
A lady descends the stairs smoking a cigarette. Is she exercising or doing a Tuesday morning 'walk of shame'?

At Coit Tower, dripping wet sidewalks and Chinese doing their peculiar little exercise rituals
In the shade of Monterrey Cypress knolls of Telegraph Hill
Now down down down narrow Greenwich Steps cool shade and still I can see the poor housewife jogging up the stairs with a kettle bell and at the top her personal trainer points down and makes her trot down and do it all over again

Embarcadero tugboats and traffic streaming into the city on the top level of the Bay Bridge
I just missed Ted Kipping
http://www.treeshapers.com/aboutus.html
A worker bee rests in the shade collapsed on the sidewalk only his cigarette betrays his existence
Only it is the thing that keeps him alive it is what he lives for

Only a T-shirt today and still sweating on my walk in
Im shooting Melaleuca in Levi's plaza and I get run out of the plaza for having a "professional camera"

Try to explain that I'm not a photographer and only walkinh to work, but still he runs me off
Suddenly it dawns on me today is September 11th. That's why he ran me off
Now in shaded financial center and I wonder why some buildings are taller than others
I pause to shoot a homeless guy and "The Architect's Kitchen" rolls by.

I'm at work

Posted by Rob Kiser on September 20, 2012 at 12:40 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Walking in 9/17/12

Walkn n

Parrots squawking wake me up this morning.
A string of toddlers stumbles down steep sidewalks each clutching onto a fluffy ring on the chain
Eucalyptus trees and cool breeze and I'm on my little path into work
T-shirt weather today and climbing the roadside steps of Union Street.

Coit Tower is open
Ugly people kiss awkwardly in the sunlight
The dying cancer patients are wheeled past stunning Depression-era murals in the tower
Workers carry buckets of paint up insane crumbling staircases and power-wash ancient stone patios

They care for the grounds but they don't care about the grounds
They rake the purple Princess Flowers into neat piles devoid of pride and ambition
Just the indifference of tending a millionaire's grounds
He could be out here barking orders over the leaf blowers but he isn't

These gardens are to me a blessing and a curse
A curse because they are so beautiful but so difficult to capture
And it's not just me
Every idiot with an SLR is sort of laughing and shaking their heads, but not shooting
Ansel Adams said landscape photography is the ultimate challenge and often the ultimate disappointment

New Guinea Impatiens and a tourist taking flower photos with a flash
"Storms make trees take deeper roots"
German tourists shoot hummingbirds in the shade
I'm bleeding from vine-ripened blackberries

Finally I identify the flat where The Parrots of Telegraph Hill was filmed
But its nothing special. Just a modest little flat hidden by the mad gardens

Food trucks line Sansome Street and now the slow decline into financial district
Chicago brick of Jackson Street

People eating lunch in the park behind the TransAmerica pyramid

The most perfect air conditioner in the world
Feels like you're standing on Mount Evans but breathing the air from Havana
A girl with long, bright-orange hair
A homeless man with Santa Claus hair and a bright blue lollipop
Shoes ground down as only the homeless can manage
A worker-bee in a black suit guards a subterranean lift
Carrying supplies to dark people in dark cellars
A jackass on an insanely loud Harley and that's why ill never own one.

Posted by Rob Kiser on September 20, 2012 at 12:00 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

September 19, 2012

Walkin In - 9/18/12


Walkn n

Cool and cloudy with a chance of protesters
Climbing the Filbert Street steps
At home the heater is running but I'm climbing Telegraph Hill in a T-shirt
Today I'll go down the Filbert Steps
Finally a photo of a Cherry-headed Conure
Always the ripest berries are just out of reach
We picked them in summer fields as kids but the thorns seem sharper somehow
It dawns on me that i will never know these gardens. There are too many cats and birds and flowers
The police are tying off the parking meters for something tomorrow
Cop lies n says he doesn't know why
More hippie occupy protests? I ask
Who knows? It will get a lot crazier soon' he offers
A pigeon works the sidewalks of California Street
The message they painted on Battery Street is gone. Must have been water-based paint.
Dirty Hippies were very well organized. They shut down Battery Street and served a free meal.


Walkn home

Its dark and cold and not many people on the streets
I don't like it when people walk too close behind me and I keep stopping and doubling back to get them off my tail

You can't live in Stockton and stay the same person.
Wagering on the homeless takes something away from you
As the tides wash the sands from the beaches

On Sutter Street, the homeless gather cardboard and free newspapers as the cold night settles in.

A homeless woman crawls from her cardboard home and starts harassing me.
She pulls a chain from her pocket and starts threatening to beat me with the chain.
And then starts filming me with a cell phone. Which is sort of a surprise to me. Not that I mind, of course . I'm not doing anything.
But you have to wonder how someone who's sleeping in a cardboard box can afford a cell phone bill

She doesn't like that I'm standing here...
She summons one of her homeless friends from the next storefront/carboard home down the street.
"The dudes just standing there," he explains. "He's not doing nuthing. If you're so bothered by him then get in your box."

There's no battle to be fought here.

I think about the mesmerizing complexity of the Gardens of Telegraph Hill
So many flowers you could never learn them all.
I think about the parrott man and his Cherry-headed Conures.

No one cared about the birds. They fell into this little niche.
Birders saw them as an invasive species. A nusiance. But this drifter tuned them in and studied them.
And through his lens the world discovered them. How whimsical.

I wish there was something I could show the world. Something more than arcane lines of computer code.

Home

Posted by Rob Kiser on September 19, 2012 at 11:35 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Walking Home

Walkn home 9/18/12

On Sutter Street, the homeless gather cardboad and free newspapers as the cold night settles in.
A homeless woman crawls from her cardboard homes and starts harassing me.
She doesn't like that i'm standing here...
If you're so bothered by him then get in your box.
The dudes just standing there.
Theres no battle to be fought here.
She pulls a chain from her pocket and starts threatening to beat me with the chain.
And then starts filming me with a cell phone. Which is soft of a surprise to me. Not that i mind, of course . Im not doing anything.
But you have to wonder how someone whos sleeping in a cardboard box can afford a cell phone bill
Its dark and cold and not many people on the streets
I dont like it when people walk do close behind me n i keep stopping n doubling to get them off my tail
You cant live in Stockton and stay the same person.
Wagering on the homeless takes something away from you
As the tides wash the sands from the beaches
I think about the mesmerizing complexity of thegardens of telegraph hill
So many flowers you could never learn them all.
I think about the parrott man and his cherry headed conures. No one cared about the birds. They fell into this little niche. Birders saw them as an invasive species. A nusiuance. But this drifter tuned them in and studied them.
And through his leens the world discovered them. How whimsical.
I wish there was something i could show the world. Something more than arcane lines of computer code.
Home

Posted by Rob Kiser on September 19, 2012 at 10:41 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

September 16, 2012

Upgrading the Dell Inspiron Mini 1012

I ordered 2 Gigs of Crucial RAM for my Dell Inspiron Mini 1012 notebook. Got it in the mail yesterday, and then followed these directions to install it today. Took about 10 minutes to upgrade from 1 GB to 2 GB of RAM. It's noticeably faster, I think. So, not a bad deal. I think it was like $30.00.

I picked this thing up because my last laptop finally died, and Carrie had one like this. I sort of liked the form factor as a carry-along PC for my motorcycle adventures. Small and light, but not as hamstrung as an iPad 3, which is, as we all know, pretty to look at, but essentially useless.

Posted by Rob Kiser on September 16, 2012 at 4:23 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

September 14, 2012

The Devil's Maw

Alfred A. Arraj United States Courthouse

The Devil's Maw

As I get closer the building, it dawns on me where I'm going.  I'm walking into the same federal courthouse where they tried Tim McVeigh, the lunatic that blew up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City back in 1995.  I know because I was here in Denver when they tried him the next year.

I was living in a hotel in downtown Denver right across from the court hours when all the feds came rolling in to prosecute that wretch.  One night, I came home from work and they had all my belongings out on the sidewalk out in front of the Holtz on one of those rolling clothes caddies the bellman push through hotel lobbies.

"Dude...wtf?"

"Sorry, bro.  The feds came in and took all of our rooms.  We charge them higher rates, so you're on the street."

"Of course they pay higher rates.  It's not their money!"

But that was it and they tried McVeigh in that building and everyone was deathly afraid there was going to be another fertilizer bomb attack by his compatriots, but that never happened.  They shipped off McVeigh to Supermax down in Florence to rot away for the rest of his life.

This is absurd, I think as I approach the building.  It's an absurd abuse of authority for a government to prosecute its own citizens for a moving violation in which there was no crash, no injuries, no damage.  Just a citizen driving his vehicle down the road.  To force me to fly from California to Colorado for a court hearing when they only hold court two days a month is Kafkaesque.

The federal court house has those retracting truck barricades designed to prevent citizens that have been pushed too far from taking things a bit further still.

Two federal morons running a metal detector on the front end of fortress.  I slump through in my camo pants and camo boots. Leather jacket.  I have a few grand on me in case they start getting really stupid and wanting a cash bond.

My biggest fear is that they've issued a federal warrant for my arrest, and that I've missed my court hearing (I was supposed to be here at 8:30 a.m. and it's 11:00 a.m. now), and that they figure out who I am and that I have a warrant and they decide to "remand" me until the next court hearing, in two weeks.

Now, keep in mind that last night, I was in San Francisco, watching the guy beside me smoke weed openly on the streets.  But somehow, I'm going to rot away with Tim McVeigh in a federal prison for the crime of driving while free, apparently.

I walk into the court room on the 4th floor and this guy approaches me and hands me a sliver of paper with all my rights on it in a four point font.  

"If you were here the morning, the judge would have explained your rights to you..."

"I couldn't be here this morning, as I was in California this morning."

"You were in California this morning?" he clarifies.

"That's correct.  I got here as fast as I could."

He starts explaining my rights and I'm like "I'm well aware of what my rights are, and I'm not waving any of them.  I'm not pleading guilty to anything.  I want a jury by a trial of my peers.  I want an attorney..."

The typical unhinged rambling you'd expect from a middle-aged man in camo on a dirt bike.

"Well, if you were here this morning, the judge would have..."

"Look.  I told you already that I was in California this morning and I got here as fast as I could.  I'm fully cognizant of the fact that I am late.  I got here as quickly as I could and I don't need you to keep rubbing my nose in it."

"Look, Robert.  You've got me all wrong.  Would you like to step out of the courtroom and talk?"

So, we step out into a little anteroom.  The first thing I ask him is "Who are you?"

"I'm Greg Darrell McYurien, the U.S. Prosecuting Attorney.  I'm filling in for Haley today."

I think about this.  I know better than to talk to the prosecuting attorney.  He is the enemy.  I know that much.  This is clear.  I shouldn't admit anything to him.  Don't talk to the police.  Don't talk to the prosecuting attorney.  Don't open your mouth.

"OK.  Fair enough."

"Look...what happened here?  You were driving and got some tickets? Three tickets it looks like?"

"Yeah.  Dude wrote me up for driving my motorcycle with a suspended license, expired plates, and driving 60 in a 45."

"What were you doing in the park?  They get kind of excited about the plates because they get people driving off-road on dirt bikes with no plates."

"I was driving my bike out to CA."

"What kinda bike?"

"It's an enduro...a Honda..." I offer.

"OK.  Great.  I'm a bike guy myself.  You were driving your enduro from Colorado to California?"

"Yeah.  I've driven it from Alaska down to Cabo and back, but not all in one trip..."

"Excellent.  I love that.  I used to drive a KX400. I've got to get another bike when the kids are all out of school.  OK. Here's what I'll do for you.  I'll dismiss this ticket for driving on a suspended license.  I'll reduce the fines on the two other tickets to $35.00 each...speeding and driving with expired plates...how's that?"

"Will it go on my driving record?"

"No.  It's a federal park.  It doesn't get reported to the states."

"Deal.  Can I pay you in cash?"

"No.  You have to mail in a check or you can pay it online."

I leave, but before I get in the elevator, I start thinking about the federal warrants for my arrest.  The problem with the government is that, once something gets set in motion, it's nearly impossible to get it to stop.  If there's a warrant for my arrest, I've got to have some paperwork to carry around with me to prove that I'm no longer on the lam, but I'll be in the pokey in a different timezone.

So I go back into the court and motion for my buddy to come over.

"Did y'all ever issue a federal warrant for my arrest?"

No one is quite sure on this issue, so he starts working the court, going from the federal Ranger Rick nazis, to the judge, to the court clerk, and finally comes back with a verdict.

"No.  A warrant was never issued for your arrest.  If you didn't come in today, we would have issued one."

"Thanks.  Have a nice life!"
  

 

Posted by Rob Kiser on September 14, 2012 at 1:10 PM : Comments (1) | Permalink

September 11, 2012

Ted kipping

The gardener of greenwich steps is Ted Kipper http://www.treeshapers.com/aboutus.html

Posted by Rob Kiser on September 11, 2012 at 10:52 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

September 7, 2012

Mid-market tours in SF

http://mobile.sfgate.com/sfchron/db_41686/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=3cB1wFoF

Posted by Rob Kiser on September 7, 2012 at 8:53 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

How to turn off repeat SMS notifications in iOS5

How to turn off repeat SMS notifications in iOS5

At some point a long time ago I my iPhone started playing a sound multiple times for the same SMS text message. This got really annoying because my phone would make the SMS sound, I'd look at it and think I'll deal with it later and put it down, then a minute or two later I'd get another SMS sound, think I had a second message and so look at it again only to find nothing new was there. I understand some people like this behaviour, but for me it was annoying. I was thankful when Apple added the option to change it in Sounds-Messages settings.

However, in iOS5 I found the multiple SMS notifications occurring again and I couldn't find the setting in sounds anymore. Thankfully, after much searching I found it... so if you have iOS5 and want to have only one notification per SMS you will find the setting as follows...

How to turn off multiple SMS/text notifications in iOS 5

1. Go to the Settings app
2. Select Notifications
3. Select Messages
4. Scroll down and you'll see the Repeat Alert setting... change it to NEVER.

OMG I was ready to drop my iPhone in a bucket of water!

Posted by Rob Kiser on September 7, 2012 at 12:25 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

September 4, 2012

Is The iPad 3 The Worst Tablet Ever Invented?

If you own an iPad 3, and try to use it for photography, you've probably considered suicide. In all likelihood, you've already tossed your iPad 3 off of a bridge, and then jumped after it. But in the unlikely event that you're still alive, here is a list of everything wrong with the iPad 3, and why I think we should exhume Bill Gates' Steve Jobs' body and put him in front of a war crimes tribunal:

The iPad was never meant to take the place of a real computer, so the idiots at Apple deliberately hamstrung the little tablet in a successful attempt to make it as useless as possible. It was never intended to be anything but a little GUI device that you could tether to a Macbook Air. This is obvious to anyone that's had the misfortune of dragging their fat thumbs across one.

It is theoretically possible to connect your iPad 3 to your camera via Apple's proprietary USB cable called the Camera Connection Kit (CCK), but no one with any sense would ever try this.

I had no sense, so I tried it. The problem is that, when you hook the camera up to the iPad via the CCK, it will allow you to import all photos (or selected photos). You import them. Easy enough, right? Now, you can tell it whether to delete the photos or leave them in the camera. Hopefully you don't trust the idiots at Apple enough to delete your photos from the camera without copying them onto a real computer first.

So now, you have a copy of your photos in the miserable little hamstrung iPad. Let's say that you copied over 2,000 photos. Now, you go out the next day, and shoot a thousand more. So now, you have 3,000 photos in your camera. And 2,000 of them in the iPad Frustration. No problem. Hook up the CCK. It asks if you want to skip duplicates. Say "yes". Problem here is that Apple is so freaking stupid they aren't capable of skipping duplicates. After this import, you'll now have roughly 5,000 photos on your miserable iPad, 2,000 of which are duplicates.

No sweat, right? Apple sucks hard so I now have 2,000 duplicate photos in my iPad. No sweat. I'll just delete them. Not so fast, Pocohantas. Now you realize that the dimwits at Apple never intended on anyone ever actually trying to delete photos from the iPad. Remember, they never wanted you to do anything but hook it up to a Macbook Air. And now you're trying to pretend like it's a real device and using it without attaching it to a computer. You're stealing money from Apple, essentially. So, your pittance is that you get to go in and delete the photos one at a time. That's right. You get to touch each one of the 2,000 photos to tell it which ones to delete. Hahah. Sucker.

OK. Sure. There is a little trick where you can slide two fingers across the images one row at a time and you could, in theory, delete all 2,000 photos in say, an afternoon. Thanks Apple. Thanks for that.

Now, let's say that you took 400 photos of a mountain lion or a black bear. And the best image is Image 345. Ohhhh. I'm sorry. The photos stored on the Apple iPad have no file names. So, good luck with that. Hahaha. Idiot.

Thanks for that Apple. Thanks for drop-kicking me when you promised me it would be so freaking easy. It's not. It freaking blows.

Oh, but wait. If you just install the virus known as iTunes, then it will all work out, right? WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!

In order to delete the files via iTunes, you have to first sync the files from your iPad to your PC. So, think about this...you now have to sync thousands of photos that you don't even want onto a PC. Lord only knows how long this will take. And you're copying them to a real computer where you may or may not have enough space to store them.

Then, once the unwanted photos are safely copied form the iPad to the laptop...only then you can attempt to delete them from the PC, and then re-sync with the iPad, so that they're deleted from the iPad.

So, this is a royal pain in the @ss, but this is how it's supposed to work. This is the plan, according to Apple. It's been described as "over-sync", which is about right.

This assumes that you don't have your iPad synced with a different computer. It's hard to know because I'm running two iPhones and two iPads and 5 desktop PC's and 3 laptops. So, if you were to ask me at any given point in time which Apple device is synced to which PC, I wouldn't know. But this is not good enough in the Apple world. If you try to sync your precious Apple product with a computer other than the one it was last synced with, Apple gives you this dire warning:

"The iPad is synced with another iTunes library. Do you want to erase this iPad and kill yourself?

An iPad can by synced with only one iTunes library at a time. Erasing and syncing replaces the contents of this iPad, by deleting songs you've already purchased. This keeps the music companies happy because they get to keep making profits even though their entire business model is obsolete."

God I hate Apple. See, Apple, it's stuff like this.

I made the mistake of going through and creating an "Album" of photos on the iPad. The only problem is that the iPad only has a miserable file storage system, and doesn't expose the files across applications.

For the photos, the iPad doesn't store "Albums" in a separate place. It only tags them as belonging to the various "albums". So, you can't copy over "photo albums" to a PC, because the "photo albums" don't really exist on the iPad. They're more a fig newton of Apple's dim imagination.

One of the major underlying design flaws of the iPad is the lack of a true "file system". By this, I mean, it would be nice to do the following things that you can't do on the miserable little iPad.

Here's a simple list of demands--worded in (somewhat) clear terms:

Jail Breaking the iPad 3 with iOS 5.1.1

I have decided that the iPad is basically useless to me, in its current form. I will attempt to jail-break my iPad e with iOS 5.1.1 with the hope of turning it into something useful. It's not illegal. It will void my warranty, but I don't really care because the iPad is essentially useless to me in its current form.

How To Use Absinthe iOS 5.1.1 Untethered Jailbreak

Step 1: Download Absinthe 2.0 from here.

Step 2: Once the tool has been downloaded, find the compressed file and extract all of the contents like you would with any standard zip file. Place the files on your desktop for easy and quick access.

I put them in a folder on my desktop called Jailbreak:

Greenpois0n Absinthe 2.0.4 Windows Self-Extractor
-------------------------------------------------
Please extract the absinthe-win-2.0.4.exe to a reasonable location like
the Desktop or your My Documents folder.
then double click it.
This will extract the whole Absinthe files into a new folder called
'absinthe-win-2.0.4'.

Step 3: Using a standard 30-pin connector cable, connect the device to be jailbroken with your computer.

Close iTunes if it launches.

Step 4: Launch the Absinthe tool through the executable file which you downloaded in step 1. Open this folder and run absinthe.exe to run the actual Absinthe
jailbreak application.

When launched, the program will show an initial interface that will have some text-based information on it, and a "Jailbreak" button.

Step 5: If the device is connected properly as per step 3 then the Jailbreak button should be available. Press the button to begin the jailbreak process.

Step 6: When the payload process is complete and you're confronted with your device's lock screen, the ever familiar Cydia icon will be present on the home screen. The device is now successfully jailbroken untethered and you can now install any extensions or packages via Cydia, provided that your device is supported by them.

Sure enough, I see my little Cydia icon (mine was on the second screen, not the first, so I drug it to my first screen). I'm so proud of my little Cydia icon. Now, I have no idea what it can do for me, but it has to get better. There's got to be something better than iTunes for copying files onto and off of this iPad.


So, I launch my little Cydia icon and right away, it says:

"Preparing Filesystem"
"(Cydia will exit when complete.)"

OMG. Seriously? A file system? It seems too good to be true. Lord, please let this miserable thing work. Dear God please let me take control of this useless $800 iPad and get some value out of this brick.

It goes to a blank screen and I relaunch. Now I get the following:

"Who Are You?" Not all of the packages available via Cydia are designed to be used by all users. Please categorize yourself so that Cydia can apply helpful filters.

This choice can be changes from "Settings" under the "Manage" tab (on iPhone or iPod touch), or the "Sources" tab (on iPad).

User - Hacker - Developer

User: Apps, Tweaks, and Themes.
Hacker: Adds Command Line tools.
Developer: Everything, even scary internal stuff.

OMG this is like a dream. This is what I've always dreamed of in Windows. I've always dreamed that I could tell the computer "I know what I'm doing. I'm a computer consultant for Christ's sake. I've been programming for 30 fucking years." as opposed to someone else who might say "I'm just a housewife." I always felt like I should be able to tell the computer what my skill level was, but I never could until today. I have a feeling I'm going to love Cydia.


Oops. Now I get:

Network Error
Unable to Load
(The request timed out.)

This doesn't look good.

If I click About, it says:
About Cydia Installer
Copyright (c) 2008-2012
SaurikIT, LLC

Jay Freeman (saurik)
saurik@saurik.com
http://www.saurik.com/

Hmmm. Maybe this will fix my error.

1. Switch off automatic date and time setting Probably this is the one of the best things to do to resolve the slowness of Cydia. Not only helps Cydia to become faster but helps the entire system to be more reliable. Go to Settings> General> Date & Time> Set Automatically off Done.

2. Disable 3G service (most preferred)
The most reliable solution for Cydia, and proven to work and make Cydia faster on thousands of iOS devices.
Settings> General> Network> 3G off
n/a.

3. Turn off VPN (if connected)
Settings> General> Network> VPN off
n/a.

4. Disable Restrictions
This might help if your iPhone is overloaded all the time
Settings> Restrictions> Disable restrictions
n/a.

5. Update packages (if possible)
If you have ever noticed that sometimes Cydia loads your packages, update any "system" file appears in the update list. For example the "AppList" app is very useful for loading packages, and if an update is available it means a new solution id available too.

6. Re-install Cydia
A little complicated but worth trying. This step replaces the Cydia app on iPhone with a same or newer version to help resolve the common issue of slowness.

Before doing this step you must have a Cydia package, iFile on your iPhone, and an iPhone explorer (iPhone Browser or iFunBox) on your PC.

First, you must download a Cydia package (.deb) from this link:
http://www.datafilehost.com/download-69fed523.html
After you have the (.deb) file, place it anywhere you want in your iPhone using iPhone Browser or iFunBox.

Second, using iFile, navigate to your (.deb) file and tap it and click install [or installer]
Note: The installation will automatically download the new Cydia and replace the old one.

Respring your device and check the magic!

OK. What I ended up doing was connecting to a different wireless router in my house. I have 3, for some reason. So, I connected to a different SSID and voila! I have this thing working. OMG I'm so excited. :)

You just can't know how cool it is to have a jail-broken iPad 3. I mean, for a guy that has federal warrants, commutes between CA and CO, and rides motorcycle without a license plate, it's sort of ridiculous to have an iPad that isn't Jail-broke.

Right away, I see the application that I need to manage my photos. It's called Photo Albums Plus, and it isn't distributed through the Apple store, apparently. I somehow link my Facebook account to my Pay Pal account, and purchase the app for $6.99. I'm reasonably sure I'll be cleaned out by the time the sun comes up.

http://www.photoalbumsplus.net/

Posted by Rob Kiser on September 4, 2012 at 12:15 AM : Comments (4) | Permalink

September 3, 2012

Mr. Rogers

http://i.imgur.com/PwhsR.gif

Posted by Rob Kiser on September 3, 2012 at 10:03 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Animated GIF

http://chzb.gr/NMbpuM

Posted by Rob Kiser on September 3, 2012 at 9:56 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink