I disassembled/repaired my first iPhone today (an AT&T iPhone 4). The disassembly wasn’t too bad. Getting a couple of the steel case screws back in was kind of a bitch.

I have a customer whose 13 year old smashed the front glass and back glass, dropped the phone in water, and neither of the cameras worked. Shit happens, right? I replaced the front glass display and both cameras. Overall it was a lot simpler than I thought. If I had tiny little Pomeranian-sized hands, that would have helped a lot.

Update 6/Oct/2012: I must have done a good job because the customer gave me another one of his kids’ iPhones to fix.

It dawned on me the other day that we are nearly living in the age of the Jetsons. My 15 year old kid and all her friends have iPads and they all talk to each other via FaceTime.

So, I ask, “Where’s my flying car and where is my talking dog?”

well ain’t that some shit

theverge.com reports:

A file reportedly containing 1,000,001 iPhone and iPad identification numbers has been posted on Pastebin, with hackers claiming to have stolen the data from a laptop belonging to an FBI agent. The poster claims to be in possession of a full file containing 12 million unique device identifiers (UDIDs), as well as personal data including “full names, cell numbers, addresses, zipcodes,” though this information was redacted in the released sample. The data was posted under the Operation AntiSec banner, associated with hacktivist groups such as Anonymous and LulzSec.

According to the Pastebin post, the file was originally taken from a Dell Vostro laptop owned by Supervisory Special Agent Christopher K. Stangl — the attackers reportedly used a vulnerability in Java to gain access to the machine. The supposed name of the file in question, “NCFTA_iOS_devices_intel.csv,” indicates a connection with the National Cyber-Forensics & Training Alliance, an intelligence-sharing organization dedicated to tackling cybercrime. The apparent incompleteness of the information suggests that it came from an app developer, or group of developers, rather than Apple itself.

The Next Web has put up a tool allowing users to check whether or not their UDID was included in the dump. As investigation into the incident continues, it will be intriguing to see if any correlations emerge between users — particularly, whether any link can be identified between using a particular app and appearing on the list. We’ll update this post with any further information as it comes in.

Calculating the Cost of Full Disk Encryption

I’m going thru all my old CDs to get rid of CD cases. I want to free up space on my bookshelves. I’m keeping the liner notes and discs and putting them in a CD binder.

In the meantime, I am obsessively deleting from iTunes & re-ripping my CDs to AIFF format. After ripping to AIFF, I pull into xACT using the Lossy section. I encode using 256kbps VBR constrained. It sounds freaking amazing in my car (Alpine CDA-105 head unit connected via USB iPhone cable) and at home on my stereo (via WiFi or docked iPod/iPhone). I also use the Lossy tab if I’ve downloaded a FLAC formatted album.

It probably seems crazy to re-rip all these old discs when I could just subscribe to iTunes Match, but being an audiophile, I really think the “256kbps VBR constrained” from xACT sounds better than the “256kbps AAC iTunes Plus” from iTunes. It seems to be more dynamic in range and just sound better overall.

I’m estimating I’m only 1/10 thru my discs. It’s tedious but fun at the same time.

I saw a video the other day of a news story in Laredo, TX where a news team goes to three different McDonald’s burger stands. They successfully order the infamous “McGangBang” at all three restaurants.

I had to try it for myself in good ol’ Brandon, MS.