炎炎夏日,干什么才够in,够酷?如果有个15岁的小孩说,要当“黑客”挑战苹果,你是否觉得这想法真够“雷”人?但是,以下这位小小年纪就小有名气的中学生,却不是闹着玩的。他的暑假就是要让IT界更热闹非凡,要让乔布斯挠挠头皮。
美式发音 适合泛听
These days most kids are pretty 1)sophisticated about technology. Take Ari Weinstein. He built his first website when he was in the second grade, and installed Linux on his friends’ iPods when he was 11.
The Philadelphia teenager is part of a 2)loose-knit group of hackers who cracked the code of iPhones and iPod touch software, so they can install any app they like. Whether Apple likes it or not.
Ari: OK, so I have my tools somewhere over here.
It’s known as jail breaking. And in this little corner of 3)cyberspace, Ari Weinstein is a bit of a star. It all started about two years ago when Ari got an iPod touch for his 4)Bar Mitzvah. Of course, the first thing he did was hack it.
Ari: It took me like two hours or so, maybe a little bit more, to jail break that iPod touch the first time. And I thought that was way too much time. It really…I thought it’s really silly that this is taking me this much time. Someone should make something that does it faster. And I realized, wait a minute, I can do that.
So he designed a piece of software that allowed anyone to do it. And he put it up online. He called it iJailBreak, and it was downloaded about a million times.
Ari: I remember I got no homework done that night.
It created a lot of buzz on blogs and tech sites, and at his school.
Not long after that, Apple 5)retooled the iPod operating system and added a bunch of security fixes. Then they came out with new models altogether. And that 6)put the kibosh on iJailBreak.
Apple is known for keeping a tight grip on its products. So it’s a safe bet that they aren’t too happy about hackers. A spokeswoman for the company says the7)modifications violate the warrantee, and cause the iPhone to become unstable and not work reliably. So far though, the company hasn’t taken any direct action against hobbyists like Ari.
Ari isn’t worried, but he has a lawyer advising him on a 8)pro bono basis, just in case.
Ari: I mean I call my lawyer. We haven’t actually, like, needed, to fight any lawsuits or anything.
He’s also trying to go legit. He’s working on software that will let people access information on their computers from their iPhones and other mobile devices. There’s just one problem: technically Apple doesn’t let jail breakers sell products at its store.
今时今日,大多数孩子对于科技都相当驾轻就熟了。就以阿里·温斯坦为例,他上小学二年级时就建了自己的首个网站;11岁时就在朋友的iPod上装Linux操作系统。
这位费城少年是一个架构松散的黑客组织的成员之一,这个组织专门破解iPhone和iPod touch软件的编码,以便他们可以安装任何他们喜欢的手机软件。他们可不管苹果公司乐不乐意。
阿里:好了,我的所有工具都在这里。
大家都知道这叫做“越狱”。在电脑空间的这个小角落里,阿里·温斯坦可称得上是个明星了。故事开始于两年前,当时阿里在接受成年礼时得到了一部iPod touch。当然了,他做的第一件事就是把它“黑”掉。
阿里:首次将iPod touch“越狱”花了我差不多两小时,或者更多一点儿吧。我想那太花时间了。那真是……我想那花了我这么多时间真是太傻了。应该有人干点什么让这个程序快一些,然后我意识到“等一下,我可以干这个啊。”
于是,他设计了一个可以让任何人都能将iPod“越狱”的软件。同时,他将这个软件放到网上。他称之为“iJailBreak”,而这款软件被下载了约一百万次。
阿里:我记得那天晚上没有做功课。
这件事在博客和科技网站,以及阿里所在的学校产生不少反响。
之后不久,苹果重置了iPod的操作系统,增加了一连串的安全装置。接着,他们又一同推出新款的产品。这让“iJailBreak”彻底失效了。
苹果以对自己的产品把控严密而著称。因此,可以比较肯定地说他们对黑客不会太喜闻乐见。该公司的一位女发言人表示,改动手机设置违反了保修规定,还破坏iPhone运行的稳定和可靠性。不过,到目前为止,苹果并未对诸如阿里这样的爱好者采取直接的行动。
阿里并不担心,但以防万一,他有一位无偿为他提供建议的律师。
阿里:我的意思是我与我的律师通过电话。我们其实还不需要解决任何诉讼之类的问题。
他现在也正尝试走正规途径。他正在设计一些软件让人们可以将iPhone或其他移动设备上的资料传到电脑上。但这存在一个问题,那就是理论上来说苹果不允许“越狱者”在其网上软件商店上售卖产品。
伴读小Tips
文中的科技“神童”可能让你目瞪口呆，但是如果你是电脑和电子产品“白痂”的话，读这篇文章也会有点瞠目结舌哦。因此，我们先简单介绍下文中的这方面的词语。
Linux是一套免费使用和自由传播的操作系统，类似于我们常见的微软视窗(Windows)系统。而app则是指一类手市应用程序，其特点是X件以“.app”为后缀。iPod、iPhone、iPod touch是世界知名电子及电脑厂商苹果公司的产品。iPod是其音乐播放器系列，同类产品还有iPod touch. iPod nano、iPod shuffle等等；iPhone是其手机系列。苹果公司其他著名的产品还包括iMac系列笔记市电脑以及近来炙手可热的iPad平舨电脑等等。
