Probleem met dataverbinding en WiFi op de HTC One X

Mijn nieuwe HTC One X van Tele2 had een vervelende eigenschap: de dataverbinding ("Mobiel netwerk") startte niet automatisch als ik WiFi had gebruikt. Bij het verlaten van het WiFi-bereik moest ik dan gaan rommelen met de vliegtuigmodus aan en uit zetten of zelfs de telefoon herstarten om het dataverkeer weer aan de praat te krijgen.

Na veel proberen en uitzoeken en zelfs een nieuwe ROM installeren, wat allemaal niet hielp, bleek het probleem te zijn dat het APN (toegangspunt) voor mobiel verkeer voor Tele2 niet goed staat. En uit berichten in forums blijkt dat het probleem ook voor andere providers geldt.

Repareer dit voor Tele2 als volgt:

• Ga naar instellingen > Mobiel netwerk
• Kies "Namen toeganspunten"
• Kies "Tele2 internet"
• Zet "Verificatietype" op "geen"
• Zet APN-type op "default,supl"

De instellingen voor andere providers kun je (met een beetje technische kennis en zoekwerk) vinden in de apn configuratie van CyanogenMod . 

Open Microsoft OneNote urls from Freemind (workaround)

Freemind doesn't support custom uri protocols. Because OneNote links begin onenote://, it's not possible to create a link to a OneNote page from Freemind.

There is a (somewhat painful) workaround though:

• Create a directory that will hold intermediate files
• In Onenote, right-click on the section or page that you want to link to and click the "copy hyperlink" option.
• In the directory with the intermediate files, right-click and select New > Shortcut
• Paste the OneNote hyperlink and click Next
• Choose a meaningful name and save the shortcut.
• In Freemind, make a link to a file (ctrl+shift+K), choose "all files" to see the shortcut, and select the shortcut you just created in the intermediate files directory.

The war on crapware

People download and install everything from the web, safe or not. Malware takes advantage of this, and virusscanners obviously don't work.

Every now and then, we, the ones "working with computers", have to clean up the computers of friends and relatives because of this. Everytime we visit, that is.

The idea: the friendly Trojan horse

Programmers could compile a stealth anti-malware component into their regular software. A friendly Trojan horse. Because anyone downloads anything, no one would notice.

After installation, the software installer executes the anti-malware component. This component performs the steps that we have to do manually each time on cleaning up a system:

• It removes the unnecessary components from the startup places
• It removes any additional toolbars from IE
• It removes search hijackers and other stupid malware
• It will stop and turn off unnecessary or crappy windows services
• n...

No questions asked. It does not ask the user permission to do this, since that would be a competitive disadvantage in the struggle against crapware.  It just removes stuff the we decide is crapware. To cover legal issues it could be mentioned somewhere hidden deep down in the EULA. That's how our opponents do it, so let's take advantage of their methods.

If the idea works, it could save us a lot of time. It may even result in a real visit the next time we visit anyone, because we don't have to fix any computer.

Ema Personal Wiki is free and open source

From today, Ema Personal Wiki, both the Android and Windows version, is free and open source.

• Go to the download page for the apps.
• The source can be found on github.
• The Windows app manual.
• The Android app manual.

Have fun with it. If you feel like coding, the first priority should be a search function in the android app.

Code injection in Early Modern England

Mary Stuart

Code injection methods like SQL injection, Javascript injection or buffer overflow exploits are well known devices to break the security of a system. Much less known is that code injection is a phenomenon that was invented centuries ago and was already used in early modern history.

In 1586 the catholic conspirator Anthony Babington plotted against the protestant Queen Elisabeth I to advance Mary Stuart to the English throne. Mary Stuart was being held captive. All her correspondence was spied upon and read by Walsingham, the chief minister of Queen Elisabeth. So Babington and Mary encrypted their letters about the conspiracy to prevent non-authorized eyes to read the contents. They used a mix of a cipher and a code, which was a quite common way of encrypting diplomatic correspondence in those days.

What they did not know, was that Walsingham employed a gifted mathematician and linguist, Thomas Phelippes, who managed to break the conspirators' code. Walsingham and Elisabeth could now read everything about the plot. As could be expected, it would be quite unfavorable for the Queen's health if the plan would be brought into practice.

They could just have arrested the two conspirators, but Walsingham decided otherwise and waited. He wanted to arrest everyone involved in the plot. Because the other conspirators were unknown, Walsingham and his cryptographer decided to insert a request into one of the letters from Mary to Babington. In the code that Phelippes cracked, they encoded a request to Babington to mention all his fellow conspirators to Mary and added this request to a genuine letter.

For the story's sake it would be nice if Babington had indeed replied with the names, but he was arrested earlier and the other conspirators were discovered anyway. Code injection nevertheless had been born. 

The end of the story should be an exhortation to be very serious about the security of your code. The letters decoded by Thomas Phelippes served as evidence in a trial against Mary and her followers. Mary was convicted of treason and executed in the end.