Using PyQt4 - New Series of Posts

I will be writing a series of tutorials on how to write Python GUI programs using PyQt4. This cross-platform series of libraries is available on Mac OS X, Windows and Linux. I use Windows for my PyQt4 programming but installing on Linux or Mac OS X (pre Snow Leopard) is just as easy. I had difficulty installing PyQt4 on OS X as i get 32/64 bit errors.

So the series will first cover writing your basic program with a window, advancing to buttons, labels, text boxes, then timers and other useful tools to write your own programs.

I will be using Python 3.1.2 or future updates, as I don't know Python 2 well enough to write tutorials.
When reading these tutorials I will be assuming you have a good understanding of Python's basic syntax, how to use functions, how to write and read from files, and how to use classes and modules. Classes are very important in programming, and it makes it much more efficient to program.

I will be writing the first few tutorials soon, and I will post the links back on this post, if you want to bookmark it!

Jailbreaking with blackra1n - 3.1.2

One of the main ways to enhance your iPhone or iPod Touch experience is to do something called Jailbreaking. Many hundreds of thousands of people do this to their iDevices.

The reason it is so popular? It allows for infinite customisation and unlimited apps from third party sources that Apple wouldn't agree to. It can also be used to add stuff into other apps and integrate better as the developers are not limited to the API's that Apple provide in their SDK for iPhone.

I will be using blackra1n - the newest and what i see as the simplest way to jailbreak. It seems just as safe as every other method. More info on it is available at geohot's blog.

BEFORE I START - DISCLAIMER
I am not responsible for anything that happens to your iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3Gs, iPod Touch 1st, 2nd or 3rd Gen. Be warned that using the jailbreak breaks your warranty with Apple - use it at your own risk.

Back to the good stuff.

Simply plug in your device into your computer, running iTunes 9.0.2 and your iPhone running 3.1.2. It works on Mac OSX and Windows. Proceed to blackra1n.com and click on the logo for your operating sytem at the bottom. Also donate money to him, he puts lots of time and effort into his work for his community.

Once you have dowloaded the file, simply run it and click on the big button that says - make it ra1n.

Your phone will reboot into a recovery mode, which most people who have jailbroken their device before will know all about.

Let it do it's thang, a picture should come up of geohot and some iPhones. Once it has rebooted, enter your pin and passcode if you have one and find the big black raindrop on it, with "blackra1n" under it.

Press the magic button. Now, if you want the unlock as well as the jailbreak, install the sn0w package on this screen. But I recommend you install Cydia and Rock. I haven't used Rock at all but have heard great things about it. Cydia is the package manager known to all, as created by saurik, one of the biggest names in the jailbreak community.

Any problems, head to hackint0sh.org and find the section of the forum that is suitable for your device. The community there is great and am an active member myself. Don't email me about your specific problems, i will just send you back a sarcastic link.

Good luck with your jailbreak!

Jailbreaking an iPhone/iPod Touch - Newbies Guide

One of the main ways to enhance your iPhone or iPod Touch experience is to do something called Jailbreaking. Many hundreds of thousands of people do this to their iDevices.

The reason it is so popular? It allows for infinite customisation and unlimited apps from third party sources that Apple wouldn't agree to. It can also be used to add stuff into other apps and integrate better as the developers are not limited to the API's that Apple provide in their SDK for iPhone.

The newest method of jailbreaking is a program called redsn0w, by the now world famous iPhone Dev-Team. Their tool is available for Mac OSX (10.4.11 and 10.5.6 upwards) and for Windows (XP and Vista). There is also called Pwnagetool, which allows for customisation of the firmware before you restore it onto the phone. For now, I will cover redsn0w as Pwnagetool is for MacOSX only and i don't have a Mac to run the program on.

Jailbreaking with Redsn0w on Windows

Now I only have a Windows box to test on but I imagine that the Mac way of doing it will be very similar if not identical.

I am assuming you are using an iPhone 3G with 3.0 firmware here. If you haven't got 3.0 on your iDevice yet, i recommend you do. If you are on an iPod Touch and don't want to pay for it, torrent sites are your friend. However, it is a fantastic update and I highly recommend paying for it (it is free on iPhone). If you wish to restore some firmware you have downloaded, Shift-Click the Restore button in iTunes and point it to your downloaded file.

BEFORE I START - DISCLAIMER
I am not responsible for anything that happens to your iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPod Touch 1st Gen or iPod Touch 2nd Gen. If you try this with an iPhone 3GS you are silly anyway, as it does NOT work with it. Be warned that using the jailbreak breaks your warranty with Apple - use it at your own risk.

Now my own safety that is sorted, lets begin.

Download the most recent version of the program for either Mac OSX or Windows at the iPhone Dev-Team page (0.7.2 at time of writing).

Decompress the program (I use 7-Zip but the standard un-zip function in Windows does the same job).



Open the program. It will ask you to point it to the firmware. If you downloaded it from a different source to iTunes, you should know where it is. If you did download it from iTunes, you should follow the following instructions.



Open an Explorer menu (right click on the start menu and click on Explore)
Type into the Address bar %AppData%. Then navigate through Apple Computer > iTunes > iPhone/iPod Touch Firmware or something similar.

You could also copy and paste the following into your address bar:

D:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Application Data\Apple Computer\iTunes

(if your user name isn't Administrator or your disk isn't D:, change these before you copy and paste it)

Copy and Paste it somewhere memorable and then point redsn0w to it.

(I do not know what this would be on a Mac)

Plug in your device if you haven't already (Will work with everything apart from the new iPhone 3GS)

Then, follow the instructions. It will ask you whether you want Cydia (which is the main program for installing anything) and you do, believe me.

Make sure your phone is turned off. Then you will put the phone into DFU or Device Firmware Update mode. Follow the instructions and the exact timings as close as possible.

Power button for 3 secs
Power + Home buttons for 10 secs
Release Power but CONTINUE HOLDING HOME for up to 30 secs.

redsn0w will upload the jailbreak data and reboot your phone (takes about 2-3 mins). Do not try and hard-reset (holding down Home and Power for 3 seconds) or turn on/off your iPhone/iPod Touch in this time, because you could brick your device.

Congratulations, you are now on a jailbroken iPhone or iPod Touch.

Enhancing your experience on iPhone/iPod Touch with Cydia

(thanks to www.cuppadev.com for the screenshot)

Cydia is the program that will be used to install most programs on your iPhone/iPod Touch that do not come from the App Store (which still works, by the way).

To use Cydia, simply press it's icon on the Home Screen of your iPhone/iPod Touch. On it's first run, it will simply say "Reorganising" and it will "respring" your phone, which is like a restart but isn't, it just restarts the OS on the phone.

After it has done this, press it again. It will ask you whether you are a Developer, Hacker or User. I click Hacker, as I like having the command line tools. But most people will use User, as they just want the useful apps that are visual.



Recommended Apps:

1: Use the Featured Apps Section/SBSettings

Most of the time, there are lots of fantastic apps in the Featured Apps section. For starters, you will want SBSettings, which puts lots of useful toggles and little tweaks into a menu accessable at any time you can see the status bar. OpenSSH if you are a PC or Netatalk if you are a Mac are also vital packages. I will do a seperate tutorial for SSH'ing into the iPhone at a future date.



2: Winterboard

Winterboard is a hugely powerful application that can adjust nearly everything visual on your iPhone or iPod Touch. There are literally thousands of tweaks and adjustments and addons that are available on Cydia. These are put into action using Winterboard.

(thanks for the screenshot from www.simonblog.com)

3: GRiS

Google Reader iPhone Sync is a fantastic, easy to use, quick app that is open source and runs on Python on the iPhone to bring Google Reader sync to the iPhone. Only useful if you use Google Reader.

4: Nes/Nes 3

Nes allows the user to play NES ROMS on the iPhone. While there are plenty of other emulators on the iPhone such as SNES, Games Boy and even MAME, the NES one is the only one I think works properly at a decent speed. However, I am only using an iPhone 3G and the iPod Touch 2G and the iPhone 3GS are much faster overall and so could probably run those fine. I cannot get NES to work on 3.0, but NES 3 is a paid-for alternative that has been optimised for the 3.0 software and SHOULD work. I haven't used so cannot confirm.

5: Terminal

Terminal is something that makes life easier for me, as someone who understands Unix command line, a lot easier as changing permissions and moving files can be done much more easily.



6: Cycorder

Only useful for the iPhone and iPhone 3G, this allows for recording video. Not fantastic quality and not completely full of features but better than the paid for alternative on Cydia, iPhone Recorder 3G and constantly developed by Saurik (again), the creator of Cydia (and Terminal and Winterboard and many of the other apps that are on Cydia).



Thanks to everybody I borrowed screenshots off (the iPhone Home Screen image and the winterboard screenshot). I do not claim them to be my own.

Enjoy your jailbroken iPhone or iPod Touch. Remember... I am not responisble for anything that goes wrong.

Making The Ultimate Browsing Experience with Firefox

Firefox is the most customizable browser out of the lot. So why not use that to your advantage? My Firefox browser looks nice, is easy to use and backs up my bookmarks automatically so i will never lose them.

Using Firefox 3.0.10, i have many customizations and addons that make my experiences of browsing the internet so much better as i have a great browser to do it with. Here are the first steps to browsing perfection, using addons and customization.

First, visually.

Now i used to use a nice looking Internet Explorer-like theme as it matched my taskbar and general theme. Now, i simply use an extension that makes Firefox see through with an Windows Aero-esque effect. It is here and is a simple click and install job like most extensions in Firefox (which is why i love it). It looks great!



However, i can see this is not for everyone and there are thousands if not hundreds of thousands of themes for Firefox. The main source is of course official and probably has most of them listed. However, you can always fire up your favorite search engine and look for them.

Secondly, bookmarking.

Bookmarking is literally saving a link. However, instead of just copying and pasting them into a big word document, it is easier to have quick 1 click buttons at the top of your browser. Firefox has a built in bookmarks bar at the top under the address bar. I use XMarks to backup mine and have used the Smart Bookmarks addon to make the names disappear cause i have a lot of them.

Thirdly, other extensions that make things easier.

Many people on the internet live with something called Greasemonkey which allows the browser to use various code snippets and enhance browsing. However, i haven't ever tried it. I use other various extensions which i will list here.

The All Glass Addon (Windows Vista and Windows 7 only, Firefox 3.1 beta 3 recommended, works fine with 3.0.10) makes Firefox look Aero-like as detailed earlier.
AnyColor (Most versions of Firefox) allows you to colour or add a photo background to your Firefox.
Google Reader Watcher (Most versions of Firefox) shows number of unread feeds on your Google Reader.
Hyperwords (Most versions of Firefox) makes every word on the internet interactive. Use it to translate, share or a multitude of other things with any words on the internet.
PDF Download (Most versions of Firefox) allows you to use PDF's in many different ways in Firefox. It adds extra functionality to your Firefox regarding PDF's.
Smart Bookmarks Bar (Most versions of Firefox) detailed earlier, makes bookmark names disappear and show on rollover.
Wolfram|Alpha Google (2.0-3.5) shows the new, fantastic Wolfram|Alpha search engine results next to Google Search results instead of those annoying sponsored links on the right hand side.
XMarks (Most versions of Firefox) automatically syncronises and backs-up your bookmarks all the time. Really fantastic. Also gives an icon in the address bar giving you extra information about websites. Can also back up passwords.

Making it all work together
Installing these addons mostly take care of making it all work together.

XMarks will require a user name and password and so will Google Reader.

Add more or delete search engines by clicking the box to the left of the search bar and clicking Manage Search Engines. (Tip: Add Wolfram|Alpha to the search box with this add-on)



Customizing your space at the top can also help. Right click on the top and click Customize and you can have everything you like wherever you like. I have moved my Address bar to the top bar with the File, Edit etc menus, along with my Search Box. I have moved my bookmarks to the bar with the Refresh, Stop and Back/Forward buttons. I also removed my Home button, as i don't use it anyway. It makes for a minimal workspace with more viewing space for your websites.


(You may also want to get rid of your bookmarks bar like I did if you did a similar thing to me by right click > Bookmarks Bar)

Of course many more add ons out there, but this is my lot and how I use them.

Honourable mentions (because i either have a different program/add on with a similar purpose or don't use anymore)
TwitterFox, Google Gears (use the Labs feature in Google apps), Fission, Cooliris, ColourfulTabs, Greasemonkey

Final look:



Any other add-ons you love? Love your Firefox? Give your tips in the comments.

Installing Windows XP From a Flash Drive

Now, the rage right now is small laptops or Netbooks (as they are more commonly known) for general web browsing and small document editing as they are not very powerful.

I was asked to install XP on a netbook (a very nice white shiny Aspire One with Linux Linpus Lite installed already, which isn't great). I thought, wow, this should be the same as any other install. Whack in the CD, boot it up, add service packs... oh wait. CD drive.

So i went about searching the internet for a solution. Eventually, i got a very helpful article here on installing it. Also, the disk i currently had was only SP1, so i decided to "slipstream" it with nLite, a very helpful program. My first attempt with auto key entry and automatic user making resulted in a very strange situation - my very legal, paid for, license key refused to work. And so, I used a plain SP3 install. I am currently installing it now, hopefully it should work. I read here that also using Compatibility mode on Vista would also help, and seeing as i am using Windows 7 as my primary system, it makes sense to use the compatiblity mode.

Update: I eventually managed to get it installed, but i had to use a different XP disc. I also had to restore the MBR in the recovery console using the XP install disc/usb stick.
Commands Used
Press [R] to get to Recovery Console on XP disc
fixboot C:
fixmbr
exit

Creating a Liquid Metal Background in Photoshop

Firstly, open up Photoshop. This should work for CS3 and CS4 that i know of, and possibly other versions.

Next, create a new image. This should be the size of your screen, in my case 1280x800 (pixels).

After this, get out a paintbrush. Now, you should pick a mostly solid circular brush with a diameter of around 50 pixels. Then, draw some random squiggles, quite a lot, but not too many, similar to the screenshot below.

Next, prepare a radial blur with the settings below in Filters > Blur > Radial Blur

(Blur: 50, Spin type, Good quality)


Next, apply this. You should end up with something like this:

Alright, it is starting to look like something interesting now! Next, go to Filters > Sketch > Chrome. Now, you can mess around with the settings depending on screen size etc, but for me i think Detail = 5 and Smoothness = 10 looks best (as below)


Click OK. Now you have your lovely liquidy metal background! Obviously, this can be adjusted in any way you like.

Here is my normal finished version:

Alternative Suggestion 1: Press Ctrl+U and adjust some hue settings with the Colourize box ticked. See mine below:



with these settings:


Alternative Idea 2: Start with a 320x480 canvas and make yourself an iPhone background! Here is a couple of mine I made earlier:



Sound off in the comments below. Feel free to use my backgrounds above :)

Intro

This is my second blog, centralized around tutorials and spreading the love of technology and its brilliance. I will be publishing everything and anything on this blog that i can do with ease and think others will enjoy or like to use for themselves.

My personal blog is located here. My twitter is here and my Skype is here. Questions in comments are great. Any ideas for the blog or if you wish to know more details about anything, email me and i will get back to you as soon as possible and/or edit the blog post to reflect that.