Georgi’s Blog

Day 40

Today was a looong day. I was working all day rewriting a script that one of my collegues worked one before he left. I wasn’t too much work, just that the buggy IE… I did quite a lot though… I stayed for 11 hours today.

After work Vassil and I stopped by the pizza place for diner. Since I came home after the pizza, I’ve been working on the previous post and now I plan to go to bed. I’m coughing a little bit and I don’t like it. I ate 15 halls today but I’m not sure if they help. We’ll see tomorrow.

Hacks and tips on the LG VX8550 (Chocolate v2) from Verizon

Tools:

LG VX8550 from here
BitPim from here
0xED from here
MacBook from here
*nix server with Squid (optional)

Unlocking WAP

To unlock the WAP functions you need to edit one file and a proxy server. The server could be yours or a public proxy. It doesn’t matter much.
Here are the steps:
Configuring your phone and laptop to talk via Bluetooth:

• Open Bluetooth Setup Assistant ( From the Bluetooth, choose Set up Bluetooth Device)
• Click Continue, choose Mobile Phone without clicking Continue
• Go to Menu-> Settings & Tools -> Bluetooth Menu on you phone and choose Options with the right button. Select Discovery Mode and say Yes to the question Turn Bluetooth power on, if it asks, and change the mode to On.
• Now click Continue on your Bluetooth Setup Assistant. Wait a few seconds for the phone to show up.
• When the phone is found it will show up as LG VX8550. Select it and click Continue
• Look at your phone again. It will ask you “Pairing request from Compter. Accept?” Select Yes.>the_name_of_your_computer>
• Now click Continue in Bluetooth Setup Assistant and you will see an authorization number.
• At the same time, your phone will ask you for the same number. Enter it and click ОК. If everything went well, the phone will say “Paired successfully”. Hold a few seconds and select “Always Connect” when asked “Before connecting”.
• Look again at Bluetooth Setup Assistant. Select “Use with Address Book”, “Access the Internet with your phone’s data connection” and “Dial a specific number for your Internet Service Provider”. Continue.
• Fill in the fields as follows:
  • Username: your phone number + @vzw3g.com. If your number is 212-221-1221, then the Username will be 2122211221@vzw3g.com.
  • Password: vzw
  • Phone Number: #777
  • Modem Script: Verizon Support (PC 5220)
  • Select only Show Bluetooth status in the menu bar and Show Modem status in the menu bar
• Click Continue and then Quit

Unlocking with BitPim:

• Run the latest version of BitPim.
• Go to BitPim->Preferences.
• For Phone Type select LG VX8550
• For Com port enter /dev/cu.LGVX8550-BTDIAG-1 and click OK
• From the View menu click on View Filesystem
• Now click on File System in the left panel and go to directory OWS
• With the right button click on the file paramtable1.fil and choose Save. Save the file somewhere. Save it one more time somewhere else for backup
• Start 0xED and open one of the two paramtable1.fil
• At the start of the file you should see: 30 1E 00 01 . Change the third pair to 20, to end up with 30 1E 20 01.
• Save and close the file.
• In BitPim again right click on the file paramtable1.fil and select “Overwrite”
• Navigate to the file you just edited, select it and click on Open
• When the light on the bottom left corner is green, right click below the files and select Reboot Phone.
• When the phone is on again dial:##77647268550 which comes from ##program8550 and press Send. The password is 000000.
• From the menu go to Wap Settings->Proxy Address Setting
• Now you must enter your proxy.
• Change the port of the proxy from Wap Settings->Proxy Port Setting
• You can change the Username and Password if your proxy requires it.
• I advise you to change your Home Page to http://www.humpa.com/homepage

At this stage you should be able to setup a shortcut News & Info and to use it to go to http://www.humpa.com/homepage

Setting up the phone as a modem

If you have not done so, please go through the steps in “Configuring your phone and laptop to talk via Bluetooth”. After that all you need to do is:
Disable unsupported authorizations:

• Open Termina.app
• type: sudo pico /etc/ppp/options hit Enter and enter your password
• type in the following three lines :
  refuse-chap
  refuse-mschap
  refuse-mschap-v2
• Press ctrl+o and hit Enter, then ctrl+x and close Terminal.app

Now go to the program menu by dialing :##77647268550 which is ##program8550 and click Send.The password is 000000. From the menu Network Select->Mode Preference select 1X Only. Press ОК and you are ready to use your phone as a modem anywhere you have signal at the price of a phone call. To connect, go the the phone icon on your menu and select Connect. If everything went well, you should be online in a few seconds.

Unlocking EVDO

Without EVDO both your WAP and your phone will be limited to about 17KB/s. To unlock the power of the 3G network follow the steps in “Configuring your phone and laptop to talk via Bluetooth” and do the folowing:

• Run the latest version of BitPim.
• Go to BitPim->Preferences.
• For Phone Type select LG VX8550
• For Com port enter /dev/cu.LGVX8550-BTDIAG-1 and click OK
• From the View menu click on View Filesystem
• Now click on File System in the left panel and go to directory /nvm/nvm
• With the right button click on the file nvm_data and choose Save. Save the file somewhere. Save it one more time somewhere else for backup
• Start 0xED and open one of the two nvm_data
• At the bottom of the file you will see XXXXXXXXXX@dun.vzw3g.com on two places, with XXXXXXXXXX being your phone number. Now you have to change the dun.vzw3g.com part to vzw3g.com. It is very important not to delete anything, but just overwrite and add 00. If you select dun.vzw3g.com you will see on the left that you’ve selected: 64756E2E767A7733672E636F6D. In order to not change the size of the file change these with:767A7733672E636F6D00000000. On the right you should see how one of the dun.vzw3g.com is now vzw3g.com. Repeat with the second dun.vzw3g.com
• Save and close the file.
• In BitPim again right click on the file nvm_data ( in /nvm/nvm ) and select “Overwrite”
• Navigate to the file you just edited, select it and click on Open
• When the light on the bottom left corner is green, right click below the files and select Reboot Phone.
• When the phone is on again dial:##77647268550 which comes from ##program8550 and press Send. The password is 000000.
• From the menu go to Network Select->Mode Preference
• Then select Digital Only Hybrid and click OK

If you see ЕV and 1x in the signal strength field of your phone, than you have EVDO in your area. Now when you connect to the internet, through the modem or through WAP, you will use speed of up to 70KB/s

Please be careful what traffic you generate.Both volume and type.

More soon…

Reading for you: http://howardforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=295

Day 39

Today we were presenting our work. All went well including mine :). After the presentations, we all went to lunch, even though I wasn’t hungry yet. Then I found out that on Friday, Dan had finished our little java thingy and he gave me something new to work on. So it was again some perl and some other things till the end of the day. After work Vassil and I went to the store to buy water, since we were both out. I also got some Halls, because since Saturday my throat is a little sore. Today I also got a headache but I think that’s because I need some sleep. And that’s what I’m going to do right now.

Second to last weekend

I couldn’t get enough sleep this weekend… I don’t know why, but it didn’t happen. But I managed to do some other things. I fixed the tomatoes, I cleaned up the table and the chairs outside in our gazebo, I watched Die Hard 3 with Vassil and we ate some mmmmmmm pork stakes.
On the useful side, we didn’t do much, except putting the AC because it started to get hot sometime on Saturday.
Sunday, we went to watch Sunshine, after that I talked to Dary and then I got on the train to New York. I didn’t go back with Vassil, because during the movie I got a phone call that I can go and pick up the stuff I left on Friday…
Next weekend I’ll have to start preparing, because I’m flying home in 13 days.

Day 38

Today I had to go to Manhattan and I had to take the train in the early afternoon. Before that I went trough my presentation and I send it to Liz. After lunch we worked on our Java project for a while. I had to leave earlier for Manhattan, because I wanted to make a stop on my way…

After the talk I got on the 18:40 train to Long Island and I went home. Vassil and I went to Friendly’s to have dinner. We were both pretty tired but still we decided to try and watch the first Lord of the Rings. However that didn’t work out for us. We went to bed about 1/3 way though the movie.

Day 37

With the end of the Internship comming a few administrative tasks need to be completed. Today I released the new version of the tool I worked on yesterday and after that I prepared my presentation for the end of the Internship. We have 10 minutes to talk about our project, our team, our experience etc. In the afternoon hours I worked with Dan on the new project we talked about yesterday. It is the second day I go to work around 8 and leave around 7. I guess that’s a regular day after one gets more into his work…

After work I stopped by the Ice Cream store for a vanilla cone:

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

And before going home I passed by the deli for some chicken souvlaki Since I came home I’ve been working on the pictures from last week. Right now they are uploading to the server and soon they will be available in the gallery

Day 36

Today, even my manager asked me about the progress of my presentation. I guess it is time for me to do it. That will be my priority tomorrow. Other then that I worked the entire day on improovements and bug fixing and bug workarounds ( for IE). Because the they want the form to be quite clever, I had to write quite alot of Java Script and Ajax. That’s ok, but I hope it will not turn into some rusty web app with all these “enhancements”. Today I worked till 7pm and after I came home I ate a chicke souvlaki and watched this week’s photoshop user tv. Then I started writing in my blog to catch up since last Wednesday… I shouldn’t leave behind this, because it is hard to catch up later.

Day 35

Today we got emails to remind us that next week we have to do a presentation on what we have worked on and learned in the firm. I, of course, have not started mine, but I have to submit it by Friday, so I’ll have to do it in the next couple of days. We had a nice talk with my manager about future project that I can give my opinion on before I go back to school:). Tomorrow I’ll do some Java…

After work I spent the entire afternoon doing some more tricks on my phone. I found some interesting things that so far were available only on Windows machines… I also try to do tests so that I can show concrete data.

Day 34

The new week is the same like the old one. It is still the 7th week at this job and it’s out of interesting things to write about. We ate breakfast, we worked, we ate lunch, we workd and we left.

After work was more interesting. Vassil and I went to look for bright bulbs for the dashboard of the car and later I was playing around with my new phone. I started to gather some information on various tricks and soon I’ll be putting together what I’ve been able to find.

Fifth Weekend

This weekend was different. First Dary left for Bulgaria and second I remembered about the first couple of years when I lived together with Vassil. After we left Dary at the airport we came back and we started looking at Alien. Again some of the gallery/blog software was hacked and we had to update php and install suphp. Now every user runs php as himself and cannot fill the entire server with junk. For one day the hits to the web server went from 400-500 to 25,000 Fortunately we were able to brin them down to 500 by Monday. We watched Hackers on 720p quality which was cool. Sunday we didn’t do anything in particular. We were just on our computers, we went here and there … It was fun, but Dary wasn’t there so I can hug here.