When I first learned that the PwnageTool is available for iPhone firmware 2.2, I cannot wait to get my iPhone jailbroken again for the new firmware. After I successfully did it, I wanted to try out the Goolge Street View, but I could not figure out how to use it. There is no indication on the settings to view the map in Street View. After playing with it for a while, I finally found that if you do a search or drop a pin, you can see a new person icon.

Click on the person icon let you see the new street view.

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In the past, I usually downloaded the latest FireFox manually for setting up machines. It’s kinda tedius and I finally decided to write a script to do it automatically. Here is the code. Note that the site doesn’t not get updated frequently. For example, the latest FireFox 3.0.4 didn’t appear at the site several days after it’s available to public. I have also modified it to download Thunderbird without a problem.

FTP_SITE = 'releases.mozilla.org'
REMOTE_DIR = '/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/latest/win32/en-US/'
LOCAL_DIR = 'c:/Software/firefox/'
FILE_MASK = '*.exe'

from ftplib import FTP
import os

def handleDownload(block):
    downloaded_file.write(block)

ftp = FTP(FTP_SITE)
ftp.connect()
ftp.login('anonymous')
remote_files = ftp.nlst(REMOTE_DIR + FILE_MASK)
newestfilename = os.path.basename(remote_files[0])

if not os.path.exists(LOCAL_DIR + newestfilename):
    downloaded_file = open(LOCAL_DIR + newestfilename, 'wb')
    ftp.retrbinary('RETR ' + REMOTE_DIR + newestfilename , handleDownload)
    downloaded_file.close()

ftp.close()

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My forum started to get a lot of spams since the beginning of this month. The spams were from some kind of spam bots. My first reaction was to find SMF mods that can deter the spams from coming. There are a few mods available for fighting spams. However, I could not get these mods to install for some reasons.

Finally, I came up with a way to stop the spams without additional mods. Here is what I did.

1. Click on ADMIN menu and click on Registration on the left.
2. Click on SETTINGS.
3. Change Complexity of visual verification image: to High: Angled letters, considerable noise.

After the changes, there are no more fake users created by spam bots.

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	Navigon Traffic Activation Service
	Navigon FreshMaps Map Update Service
	Bracketron UFM-100BL Nav-Mat GPS Friction Dash Pad
	Motorcycle Mount for Navigon 2100 2100 Max 5100 7100 GPS
	invisibleSHIELD for the Navigon 2100 (Screen)
	Navigon 3.5″ Protective Hard Shell Case
	Navigon 3.5-Inch Premium Leather Case
	Hard Shell Carrying Case for Navigon 2120 2100 5100 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator + Screen Protector (Many Colors Available)
	Essential Kit for the Navigon 2100 - includes Car and Wall Charger with Rapid Charge Technology - Gomadic Brand w/ TipExchange Technology

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When I tried to install a printer on several Windows XP machines, I got this error message constantly.

Cannot install printer. The print processor does not exist.

System reboot doesn’t help and the strange thing is that network printer installation is fine. The printer I tried to install already has a driver on the system. When I tried to install it , it asked me if I want to keep the existing driver and I clicked Yes. The fix is instead of keeping the driver, you choose to copy over the existing drivers.

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My Navigon 2100 comes with Mobile Navigator 6 preinstalled. Like MioMap 3.3, you can change the skin of it. The file is in MN6 directory and it’s called MN6ResourcesBinary.res . There is an active thread discussing the skin for Navigon 2100 on GpsPasSion.com. If you have time, you can read through the 100+ pages of discussion. There is another thread dedicated to just the finished skins. This is where I got the skins for my package. You can download more skins from this thread.

I modified a script that does skin switching for MioMap 3.3 to work with Mobile Navigator 6. Therefore, you can switch the skin from within Navigon 2100. You can find the script in my Navigon unlock package. The script is called tweaks.mscr in the Script directory on the storage card. If you want to add more skins, just create a separate directory for each skin under Skins directory and put the MN6ResourcesBinary.res file in that directory.

Here are the screenshots of the skins I included in release 4.2.

350Z by BLUE

Mini Cooper by josephgullett

L0st3 by L0stS0ul

Superman by cajnape

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Google Earth is finally available on iPhone. The options are limited compared to the desktop version, but it still offers a lot for you to play with. There are two functions that are unique to the iPhone version. Firstly, you can tilt your iPhone to adjust your view for mountainous terrain.

Here is a screen shot showing the area near Grand Canyon when you tilt your iPhone.

• Tip: You can create the tilting effect by using two fingers to swipe down the screen.

Secondly, you can use the Location feature to fly to your current location.

When you first start up Google Earth, you are presented with the screen of the 3D earth. There are four icons at four corners.

The top left icon lets you search Google Earth. Similar to Google Map, you can enter your search in different ways. You can enter intersection, area, landmark, contact, or zip code.

• Tip: There’s no mention on how do you enter intersection, so I tried different combination and finally got it to work. You have to enter intersection in this format: Street 1 & Street 2, City State.

The top right corner is a compass. It points to the north of the map. If you press it, it reset the current view to north-up view.

The lower left icon is for flying to the current location.

This is a screen shot of current location in Google Earth.

This is a screen shot of current location in Google Map for comparison.

The lower right corner is the options icon. It lets you change settings and there is a help section about how to use Google Earth for iPhone.

There are two overlays included: Wikipedia and Panoramio.

This is a screenshot showing both Wikipedia (W icon) and Panoramio (blue square icon) . When you touch the Wikipedia icon, it shows you the corresponding Wikipedia article.

When you touch the Panoramio icon, it shows you the photo taken at that location.

Overall, this is a nice application, definitely one of my favorites. If you have not downloaded it yet, here is the link.

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I helped one forum user to modify my Navigon unlock package to use in a Mio C230. The default navigation software is Destinator. The original thread is here.

Note that the tweaks application is only for Navigon 2100. Please just ignore it.

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I have been struggling with my email shared folders for quite a while now. I always thought the problem is at the server end. After working with my email admin for a few days, we finally found that the problem is related to Thunderbird.

There is a feature called IDLE command support in Thunderbird. If I have this feature turned on, it’s very slow to access the IMAP shared folders. To turn it off, follow these steps.

1. Click on Tools -> Account Settings.
2. Click on the Server Settings of the affected account and click on Advanced… button.
3. Uncheck the box Use IDLE command if the server supports it .
   

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