@ioi OK, I'm hooked. The NOOP makes sense, but do you read machine code, or how do you figure out which four bytes are the ones that call the dialog? I know how I'd do it on the Apple ][ GS, but I haven't done any assembly language/machine code since then.

@Daniel This is something that is very fragile.

Yes - you can go in and modify code - but at great risk.

I think we are all hoping that removing permissions (which didn't pan out as a real solution) or deleting a resource would let the code "call" that dialog - but fail gracefully with at worst a console message - and not a core dump or worse.

The problem with these hacks is they are very disruptive and can have unintended consequences. It also shows in concrete terms that it isn't something to do lightly.

@bmike, Of course it's fragile -- that's why I don't want to mess with it on my own system. I'm not particularly convinced this all is a good idea. But your bounty specifically mentioned deep hacking, so that's what I'm exploring.

@Daniel Indeed - I upvoted your contribution - it's exactly what I had hoped to see - even if it's not an answer. It's a bit risky here - where they really want the answers to be answers - but in this case - a hint or a lead is the best we've got...

@ioi - If you patch this and upload the instructions on how to patch it (what offset of what file, etc...) - That would clearly be the best answer so far...

@bmike & @Daniel, but it was my idea! hehe.

@bmike, and @Daniel — I don't see what's risky about it? Just make a backup of your binary if you plan on messing around with it. That's the most important thing; it's really not a big deal at all (imho). I could show you how to patch this, although it's quite pointless seeing as how that bundle is constantly changing. The changes would only last until Apple does a routine software update.

Also it's worth pointing out that my version of the that prefPane differs from 10.6.2, 10.6.7, 10.6.8, 10.7.0, and 10.7.1 - so in reality it's only an easy patch if you plan on using it with ONE of those versions. To patch all 5 is not exactly practical, you know?

@ioi I'd say patch 10.7.1 or wait for 10.7.2 - it's common for people that jailbreak / patch to be aware of this limitation and not update to break a patch like this. It's up to you of course if you care to do the patch and test if it actually works as intended :-)