Hello All!
I'm a complete and utter newb and I'm not afraid to say it because I am proud to share something i discovered. With some google searching I found a few different methods for getting the damned blackra1n to work. In a "hmmm" moment I tried something a little different and guess what? It stinkin worked!!! Here's what I did (and had to do again because I made the mistake of installing Icy as well as Cydia):
to jailbreak iPhone 3G 3.1.2 firmware using Windows (Vista but I'm sure it doesn't matter)
1. connect iPhone to your computer
2. put iPhone in
airplane mode
3. close itunes
4. open blackra1n and with iPhone ON hit "make it ra1n "
5. when blackra1n goes into recovery mode and itunes reopens close itunes then shut down phone with power+home
6. close blackra1n-rerun and hit make it ra1n
AGAIN
7. THEN turn phone back on
8.
take phone out of airplane mode
9. find blackra1n app, install Cydia, do whatever else you do
and there it is!!!!!
I also followed a guide on how to tether with 3.1.2 firmware. Though there's not a completely free option out yet, I've discovered that paying $10 once for the MyWi package on Cydia (after an 8 day free trial) is a lot cheaper than $60/month for internet. So far I haven't had any lag problems with my connection so I'm thoroughly pleased.
Now I'm off to conquer making my own kickass themes for WinterBoard w00t
