Open Garden is trying to build a mesh network for mobile devices that does away with the notion that a single device must connect to the internet through a pre-defined path. Instead it’s created tablet, smartphone and PC software that will allow their host devices to crowdsource their connections by forming ad hoc mesh networks with other Open Garden devices. Collectively those clients determine which device or devices have the best connections to the internet – whether its 3G, 4G, Wi-Fi or Ethernet – and route traffic through those links.

It’s a hard notion for many people to grasp since we tend think of our connections as individual property, but Open Garden is trying to change that mindset. If everyone shares their connection, then everyone’s link to the network is optimized. Open Garden co-founder and CEO Micha Benoliel believes that Google Glass is an ideal candidate to demonstrate that principle.

Open Garden has succeeded in installing its networking software for Glass, which means the wearable can now act as a node in a larger mesh. The setup has an immediate advantage for Glass owners: they don’t need to pair Glass to their Android devices through Bluetooth or subscribe to a tethering plan from their operators. The Open Garden client makes the connection automatically over Wi-Fi.

But the bigger implication is that Glass could eventually become part of a larger networked community ranging far beyond its owner’s personal constellation of devices. A Glass user, for instance, might be able to leave his smartphone at home or in his office. Instead of losing connectivity, the Google headgear would search out other Open Garden devices – even other Glass units — hopping from node to node until it wended its way onto a mobile or broadband network.

To make its software work on Glass, Open Garden had to do more than just tap into the Mirror API. Benoliel said Open Garden’s developers had to delve deeper into the Android kernel to gain access to its networking functions, which will make distributing its software all but impossible when Glass becomes generally available to the public. But Benoliel is hoping Google will see the advantage of making Glass part of the larger mesh and is lobbying the search giant to clear the way for its app.

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Facebook's old Palo Alto headquarters during Hackathon 28

Initial public offering filings typically include a letter to potential investors from the company’s CEO. These missives are generally used to discuss basics like the company’s growth so far and its bright future ahead. In Facebook’s IPO document filed Wednesday, however, Mark Zuckerberg dedicated a significant portion of his letter to something a bit out of the ordinary: Teaching potential investors about “the Hacker Way.”

For one thing, it’s a sign of Zuckerberg’s commitment to maintaining a rigorous engineering culture at Facebook, even as it becomes an increasingly powerful media entity. It’s a statement that at Facebook, technology — and the programmers who push it forward — will always come first. The company’s “hackathons” (one of which GigaOM recently attended) are a key example of this. Hacker Way is also what Facebook named the road inside its new Menlo Park, California headquarters.

But it’s also a powerful statement on a larger scale. Digging into the SEC’s online database of company filings, it looks like the word “hacker” has been used just 6400 times in the past four years. That may seem like a lot, but out of the millions of words that have been filed to the SEC in that amount of time, it’s a pittance. And from the looks of it, practically every time the word “hacker” has been used in regulatory filings, the connotation has been negative: “Data security breaches as the result of hackers,” “The acts of a hacker causing damage or destruction to data” and so on.

For Zuckerberg to use this platform to embrace the word hacker and actively change its definition into something positive comes at an excellent time: Right now, the tech industry is waking up to how important it is to help the government and regulatory bodies understand what it is that they do. Facebook’s IPO could serve as a call for hackers everywhere to get more respect, which would be a great thing for the tech industry as a whole.

Below I’ve excerpted some key parts of Zuckerberg’s treatise on hacking from the IPO filing:

“The word ‘hacker’ has an unfairly negative connotation from being portrayed in the media as people who break into computers. In reality, hacking just means building something quickly or testing the boundaries of what can be done. Like most things, it can be used for good or bad, but the vast majority of hackers I’ve met tend to be idealistic people who want to have a positive impact on the world.”

“The Hacker Way is an approach to building that involves continuous improvement and iteration. Hackers believe that something can always be better, and that nothing is ever complete. They just have to go fix it — often in the face of people who say it’s impossible or are content with the status quo.”

“Hacking is also an inherently hands-on and active discipline. Instead of debating for days whether a new idea is possible or what the best way to build something is, hackers would rather just prototype something and see what works. There’s a hacker mantra that you’ll hear a lot around Facebook offices: ‘Code wins arguments.’”

“Hacker culture is also extremely open and meritocratic. Hackers believe that the best idea and implementation should always win — not the person who is best at lobbying for an idea or the person who manages the most people.”

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However, until the release date of such a magical device is actually announced, the whole idea is little more than pie in the sky. So what do you do in the meantime if you want to kick back and watch some video on your Kindle?

Turns out it’s not impossible.

One developer at the BBC, Mark Longstaff-Tyrrell, came up with an ingenious solution to this pressing dilemma. By combining the broadcaster’s popular iPlayer video streaming service, a few bits of software and the magic of closed captioning, he has built what he calls (with tongue in cheek) “iPlayer for Kindle”.

Here’s how it works. The program plays with closed captions running. Each time there is a line of dialogue, a snapshot of the screen is taken. Over the course of an on-screen conversation or a series of scenes, these snapshots are compiled. Once that’s done, they can be put together to form a fairly accurate representation of the program — sort of like a stop-motion version of TV.

In addition, Longstaff-Tyrrell came up with a workaround for the moments when this closed caption system isn’t helpful — for example, when a dramatic moment happens on screen, but there is no subtitling because nobody is talking. At those moments the system takes a series of grabs at regular points through a scene.

Once all these pieces are in place, those captioned scenes and silent scenes are compiled into a file which you could save and flick through on your e-reader — looking something like a comic book that you can flip through to see the action. Here’s an example.

Obviously, this doesn’t turn your Kindle into a video player. It’s basically a long and carefully constructed joke. Longstaff-Tyrrell says, for example, that you can always print out your episodes onto paper, a format which “also allows distribution via the postal service” and that since a typical episode will be “weighing in at only 20MB and with offline viewing, this format has a clear advantage over existing mobile iPlayer services”. Still, who knows how it could be useful — it’s certainly a different way to catch up with your favorite programs.

So, yeah, it’s a rough and ready hack — but, like all the best ones, it has a sort of crazy elegance about it. Count me as a fan.

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The post notes that anomalies in server traffic led the company to suspect its database has been accessed and take appropriate precautions, although it cannot be sure at this point in time. It also points out that the data accessed alone should not be enough to expose an affected user’s stored passwords. To get those, an attacker would also need the user’s master password, which is only really a risk if that password is easy  to guess using a brute force attack. Users with strong, non-dictionary-based master passwords should be relatively safe, although as some users don’t use particularly strong mater passwords, the company has elected to force all of its users to change their master passwords. In addition, the company will be validating users changing their passwords by either checking that the user is visiting from a previously-used IP block, or by validating against their email address.

As a result of the potential breach, LastPass is also beefing up the encryption it uses:

We’re also taking this as an opportunity to roll out something we’ve been planning for a while: PBKDF2 using SHA-256 on the server with a 256-bit salt utilizing 100,000 rounds. We’ll be rolling out a second implementation of it with the client too.

This potential breach is a reminder that storing your passwords with a third party like LastPass or competitor 1Password is risky. Their data is obviously a very attractive target for hackers, despite their encryption and robust security arrangements. But you have to weigh that risk against the convenience they offer: Using a password management tool makes it much easier to have a strong, unique password on every service you use. That’s much more secure than using the same password everywhere, which makes large security breaches, such as the recent PlayStation Network hack  or last year’s Gawker hack, so damaging, as attackers can gain access to wide range of different services with a single password. However, if you’re concerned about storing your passwords in a cloud service, you could always elect use a desktop password management tool like that stores your passwords in a local database like KeePassX instead; the downside is not being able to retrieve passwords everywhere. Whatever password management tool you choose, ensure you pick out a strong master password that’s not going to be easy to crack via a brute force attack.

Photo courtesy Flickr user subcircle

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You can use your own backgrounds with a simple hack, though. Basically, you just replace the background images OmmWriter uses with your own, and then choose between them within the app. This can be useful if you don’t like the backgrounds bundled with OmmWriter, or if you want to use an image of your blog, so you can see what your text will look like when it’s published, like this guy did here.

To do this, go to your Applications folder and select OmmWriter. Then, right-click it and select Show Package Contents. There are three default background images used in the free version of OmmWriter, with names “background_white.jpg”, “paisaje_1920x1200.jpg”, and “textura_oscuro_1920x1200.jpg”. Choose which file you want to replace and move it to the trash (don’t worry, you can always drag it out again). Now you need to rename the image you want to use as a replacement with the name of the image you removed. Then, all you have to do is drag your replacement image into the OmmWriter Resources folder and that’s it. When you restart OmmWriter, you should be able to choose your new background image.

Your replacement background image will have to be a JPEG. Since you can’t change the color of the text in OmmWriter, you’ll want to choose an image that’s light enough for you to see the text. You can find some good images from InterfaceLift, and you can always change the opacity of the picture with your favorite photo editing software if you need to lighten it up.

You can also use this method to replace some of the audio files OmmWriter uses for ambiance. OmmWriter is a great app for writers looking to boost their productivity, and this nifty little hack should help you get even more in the zone. Does anyone else use these distraction-free writing tools?

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Last week the news about yet another non-belligerent iPhone worm did the rounds and people responded by saying things like “How silly jailbreaker’s are for not changing their SSH root passwords,” and “It’s only a matter of time until a worm appears that’s not so friendly…” OK, yes, geeky people said those things. Normals will likely never know that jailbreaking is something you can do to a phone.

Well, the predictions of gloom have proven true. Over the last few days, and reported by The Mac Observer, a new worm has been identified. This one, (so-far limited to iPhone owners in the Netherlands), takes advantage of the exact same SSH-exploit as the previous worm. Once on a user’s iPhone, it circumvents Mobile Safari’s anti-phishing technology to present a spoof of a popular banking website. Users are tricked into handing over their online banking authentication details. The worm spreads from iPhone to iPhone, but is limited to jailbroken handsets connected to the same Wi-Fi network.

Apple has weighed-in with its own sage wisdom and advice on the matter. Speaking to The Loop’s Jim Dalrymple, Apple spokesperson Natalie Harrison said:

The worm affects only a very specific set of iPhone users who have jail broken their iPhones and hacked it with unauthorized software. As we’ve said before, the vast majority of customers do not jailbreak their iPhones, and for good reason. These hacks not only violate the warranty, they will also cause the iPhone to become unstable and not work reliably.

If you live in the Netherlands and have jailbroken your iPhone and installed SSH, you need to change the default password to protect yourself from this particular exploit. Just don’t think you’ll be safe — Apple might keep the iPhone platform locked-down tight, but you can’t argue against the obvious security advantages of doing so. To date, there have been four confirmed worms “in the wild” on jailbroken iPhones. How many confirmed worms have appeared in the wild that affect non-jailbroken iPhones? There you have it.

The Real Question Is…

But the real question, as I see it, is this; who jailbreaks any more? I mean, really… who? Why? The single biggest reason people originally went to the trouble of jailbreaking their iPhones was due to frustration at the lack of native apps. (Back in the early days of iPhone ownership, and before the app store existed, only Apple’s own home-grown apps were locally installed on the device. Every third-party apps ran inside Mobile Safari and, therefore, required access to the Internet.) I did a lot of travel back then, usually by air and train, so I didn’t always have a reliable Internet connection; this rendered most of my web apps useless. That annoyed me, and I very nearly did the whole jailbreaking thing just so I could install applications locally that would work irrespective of an active Internet connection. (Ultimately I wussed-out, too afraid I’d permanently mess-up my precious — and expensive — iPhone.)

But that was then, and times have changed.. What other compelling reasons were there to void Apple’s iPhone warranty? MMS, video recording, exchange server support, multitasking and Copy & Paste were the “most missed” features. Today we have more apps than you can shake an iPhone at. We have MMS and video recording, exchange support and copy & paste.

The only thing missing is “true” multitasking, but for the vast majority of iPhone owners (for whom multitasking is another way of saying “I want instant messaging!”), Apple’s Push Notification Service does a decent job of balancing productive multitasking with preserving battery life.

So… why jailbreak? Is it a form of protest against Apple’s broken application approval process? Is it because you absolutely must replace the default icons with something far less classy? Perhaps you can’t live without tethering? Tell us in the comments the (few) remaining reasons for jailbreaking an iPhone.

Just please don’t say it’s for geek cred… I might cry!

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Despite the odd syntactical choice made by Psystar’s copy editor, the ramifications are clear: you should, in theory, be able to install Mac OS X on any old PC hardware. Not only that, but Rebel EFI also reportedly scans your system for compatible hardware and downloads all the appropriate drivers where they are available.

Of course, Psystar is in the business of making money (though sometimes I wonder how it thinks that’s possible when tangling with Apple in court), so Rebel EFI isn’t free. It’ll cost you $49.99 to get the full version, which ships as a direct download.

You don’t have to dive in blind, though. Anyone can download and use Rebel, but the trial version limits some hardware features and only works for two hours. To prevent piracy, you see, or the unlicensed use of Psystar’s software. Yes, the irony is delicious.

Psystar bundles the Rebel EFI with the Darwin Universal Boot Loader, or DUBL, which allows for users to install multiple operating systems on the same computer on different drives. It supports up to six, so you could have OS X, Windows, and any number of Linux builds all running on the same machine, for example.

Rebel also uses the same “Safe Update” method Psystar includes on its pre-modded hardware, which automatically screens updates from Apple and lets you know if they’re safe to install. The same tool also checks with Psystar’s servers to make sure all your hardware is using optimal drivers.

Finally, Psystar has even introduced a new “home certification program.” The program encourages users of the Rebel EFI software to send in hardware components that aren’t fully compatible with the tool, so that the clone-maker’s engineers can correct the problem for all users affected. To me, sending your own hardware components in to a company with a questionable track record which could, theoretically, close its doors any day doesn’t seem like the wisest course of action, but to each his own.

If anyone is planning on purchasing the Rebel EFI, or even just downloading and trying out the demo ISO, we’d welcome an account of your trials and tribulations in the comments.

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The Knowledgebase Article makes it sound as potentially bad as it is.

Impact: Receiving a maliciously crafted SMS message may lead to an unexpected service interruption or arbitrary code execution

Description: A memory corruption issue exists in the decoding of SMS messages. Receiving a maliciously crafted SMS message may lead to an unexpected service interruption or arbitrary code execution. This update addresses the issue through improved error handling. Credit to Charlie Miller of Independent Security Evaluators, and Collin Mulliner of Fraunhofer SIT for reporting this issue.

All iPhones were vulnerable to attack, regardless of OS version. The only defense from having your personality rewritten or being possessed by a ghost was to shut the phone off, which was hardly practicable. While it’s always nice to see Apple give credit to the those who discover an exploit, it’s unfortunate it took the researchers going public to get the company to move on this issue.

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With the release of webOS 1.1, Palm Pre users cut off from iTunes 8.2.1 are connected again, at least until iTunes 8.2.2 shows up in Software Update.

For today, however, Palm can talk some trash. Or at least John Traynor, VP of Business Products for Palm, can and does on the company’s blog.

Oh, and one more thing: Palm webOS 1.1 re-enables Palm media sync. That’s right — you once again can have seamless access to your music, photos and videos from the current version of iTunes (8.2.1).

You have to love the “one more thing” bit, if not the battle between Apple and Palm over iTunes. A war which no one is winning, though ironically the biggest losers arguably are Pre users.

To recap, the Palm Pre was released on June 6 with “Media Sync” built into the OS for synchronizing with iTunes. On June 16, Apple published a knowledgebase article warning that newer versions of iTunes “may no longer provide syncing functionality with non-Apple digital media players.” That newer version, iTunes 8.2.1, was released on July 15, breaking Pre compatibility with iTunes. Pre users wondering why webOS 1.1 was taking so long to come out probably got their answer today, as Palm was likely waiting for Apple to break the hack so the Palm could patch it, and make no mistake, a hack it is. The Pre fools iTunes by using Apple’s USB vendor ID, identifying itself as an iPod. Whether or not that’s illegal, it’s certainly not fair.

It’s not fair to Pre users.

Palm advertises iTunes syncing as a feature of webOS, and when that feature suddenly stops working, they are at a loss until Palm issues a new hack. Sure, Palm blames Apple, but what does that do for Pre users who just want to listen to their music? Pre users are looking at a future in which their Pre won’t work half the time with iTunes. If Palm doesn’t have the resources to create its own media software, it should point users towards doubleTwist or Missing Sync for Pre. If Palm can’t do right by its customers, perhaps looking at it from a financial perspective would make sense. A hyperlink on a web page costs even less in development time than a miserable hack.

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Photo by Flickr user Jinho.Jung

Over in London, the experimental electronic music scene is positively flourishing.

Having lived in the UK’s capital city for the latter part of 2008, I discovered a bubbling sonic subculture — a community of creatives hijacking ice cream vans, reappropriating medical EPGs, and hacking instruments out of scraps of junk, all for the purposes of audio experimentation.

Particularly interesting is that, among these esoteric technologies, the iPhone seemed to be emerging as a burgeoning platform for sonic exploration. Since leaving London and moving to Helsinki, things have advanced even further as, in what is perhaps a world first, the iPhone orchestra (conducted via Wii controller, naturally) has been established.

The London Geek Community iPhone OSCestra’s inaugural performance was May 8 at Open Hack London, a one-day event supported by Yahoo! that brought together ultra tech-savvy hackers for a day of coding and communicating. The orchestra, a crew of eight musicians, opened with an impressive (and deliciously geeky) performance of the “Doctor Who” theme.

It seems that the iPhone is the perfect augmentation to any serious sonic-hacker’s audio artillery. Alongside its audio capabilities, touchscreen and Wi-Fi, the device can run third-party apps natively. Apple has made coding for the iPhone a breeze (even if getting your app approved isn’t so easy). Most importantly, though, the iPhone is readily accessible and relatively low-cost.

While it’s not clear when the The London Geek Community iPhone OSCestra will perform next, it’s actually surprisingly easy to get started making music in the same way. In particular, the musically minded among you who have been inspired by the iPhone orchestra will be pleased to hear that a combination of free iPhone and desktop tools were used for their performance.

The orchestra downloaded mrmr (free) from the App Store, an app that allows you to create highly customizable audio controllers and send the data to other devices using OSC (Open Sound Control). A controller could be a piano-style keyboard, a bank of faders, or an array of twisty knobs and flashy buttons — essentially interactive widgets that allow you to control sound and music.

Free desktop application OSCulator caught all the data, beamed wirelessly from mrmr on the iPhone, and sent it to Ableton Live. Live is my musical tool of choice, an incredibly powerful performance and production platform. In this instance, the orchestra performed using a bank of synthesizers running within Live. If you’re interested in going beyond Garage Band and making music on your Mac, it’s worth checking out the Live demo.

Thanks to the iPhone and, in particular, the growing number of sound toys and audio tools in the App Store, it’s becoming easier than ever for listeners to become performers. Drop by the comments, and let me know if you’ve been using your iPhone to make music.

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