Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World's Most Wanted Hacker

Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World's Most Wanted Hacker by Kevin Mitnick is a true story about a guy who the world's most elusive computer hacker. He broke into computer systems of some of the world's largest companies, evaded the FBI for years and at one point was even labeled "unstoppable". He was able to gain access to millions of credit card number and sensitive company information but yet he never used any of it. He simply did it for the thrill of the "cat and mouse" type game.


Thursday, September 15, 2011

Install Google Chrome In OpenSUSE 11.4

1. Go to http://google.com/chrome and download the rpm package.
2. Open terminal and type the following:
cd Downloads/
sudo zypper in google-chrome-stable_current_i386.rpm

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

My Top 3 Android Apps So Far





So I got a Samsung Galaxy Tab a couple weeks ago and thought I'd post a few of my favorite apps so far:

1. Open Home - A home replacement application that's highly customizable, fast and adds tons of functionality

2. Dolphin Browser HD - A powerful web browser that supports Flash, bookmark folders, pinch zoom, tab browsing and addons

3. Trillian - Connect to Yahoo, MSN, AIM, Facebook and more from only one app

Updated: 6-10-11

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Enable "Add To Panel" in Elementary OS [Linux]

In Elementary OS the "Add to panel" option is disabled by default. Here's how to get it back:

1.Open Terminal and type the following:
gconf-editor

2. Go to apps/panel/global and uncheck "locked down"

You're done! Pretty simple quick tip for anyone annoyed by not having that option :)

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Geeky Tattoos

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Apple's iPad Production Timing May Freeze Consumers, Android Rivals

Apple has started production of its latest iPad and talk of front facing cameras and a lighter design is everywhere. The timing of this news, delivered by the Wall Street Journal, is exquisite since it could just freeze consumers as a bevy of Android devices hit the market.

The Wall Street Journal, which has been rock solid about Apple upcoming products, reports that the new iPad will be thinner and lighter, have a camera for videoconferencing with FaceTime, and be available on AT&T and Verizon. In other words, the Journal backed most of the credible rumors about the iPad.

The most notable thing about the Apple iPad 2 production news is the timing of it all. To wit:

The iPad is in production just as Motorola starts pushing its Xoom tablet to the masses. Motorola chose to take on the iPad with a rather bizarre commercial during the Super Bowl.
This news surfaces just as Hewlett-Packard plans to unveil its tablet plans, which revolve around the webOS.
Dell is plotting a 10-inch tablet that runs on Windows 7.
And it’s also worth noting that there are a bevy of Android-based tablets on deck.
Add it up and the Apple iPad production news is perfectly timed. Just as you’re about to ponder a rival tablet, there’s a great reason to hold out a few weeks—the iPad 2. Couple the prices of Android tablets, which are generally too expensive, and the potential of a better iPad on deck and I’m willing to bet more than a few consumers will hold out for Apple’s latest dream device.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

iPhone FINALLY Available For Verizon Next Month

We've waited and waited, and now Apple and Verizon have made a million dreams come true: the iPhone is coming to Big Red. After talking up his new LTE network a bit, Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam confirmed a CDMA (non-LTE) version of the iPhone 4 is coming to Verizon Wireless next month. Talks started way back in 2008, and the phone has been in testing for a year -- it sounds like they wanted to get this one right. Current Verizon customers will be able to pre-order on February 3rd for the standard $200 price for the 16GB model on a two year agreement, $300 for the 32GB version -- everyone else can order on February 10th (see it compared with AT&T's iPhone 4). Just to clarify and put any wild rumors to bed, the phone is Verizon 3G (EV-DO) only, no 4G data or GSM roaming. It's not a world phone or an AT&T + Verizon phone, it's just a Verizon phone.

Outside of Verizon connectivity, the phone is basically unchanged, although Verizon's CDMA network doesn't support simultaneous voice and data as with the GSM version. It does have the new antenna design we were hearing about last week, but that's just because CMDA requires a different configuration of antennas. (Apple says they didn't go LTE just yet because first-gen chipsets would force unwanted design decisions, and customers want a Verizon device now.) That slight modification also equates to a slight bump in where the volume buttons and mute switch -- a new case might be required. Software-wise the big innovation is five user WiFi hotspot functionality, something that's standard on Android phones, while Apple has kept the iPhone only able to tether directly to one computer.

Friday, December 31, 2010

How To Install Windows 7 With Only Upgrade DVD

To install Windows 7 using only the upgrade version follow these steps:

1. Install Windows like you normally would making sure to select the Custom option (I am not going to go over this in detail. If you need help installing Windows search for instruction on Google)

2. When you get to the step that asks for the product key leave it blank and finish the setup.

3. When it boots into Windows go to Start and type regedit in the search box.

4. From regedit search for MediaBootInstall and change the 1 to 0 and exit regedit.

5. Got to Start and type cmd making sure to push ctrl+Shift+Enter instead of just Enter

6. Type slmgr /rearm and push enter. Restart the computer.

7. Go to start and type Activate Windows.

8. Finish activating Windows including putting in your product key.



Need help with this? Discuss it here on my forum.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Mac App Store Opens January 6

Apple announced that the Mac App Store will open on Thursday, January 6th, launching in 90 countries and offering free and paid applications.

"The App Store revolutionized mobile apps," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "We hope to do the same for PC apps with the Mac App Store by making finding and buying PC apps easy and fun. We can't wait to get started on January 6."

As with the iOS App Store, developers of paid applications will receive 70% of revenue, while Apple keeps 30%.

Apple announced the Mac App Store at its "Back to the Mac" event in October, saying the store would launch for Mac OS X Snow Leopard users within 90 days. The January 6th opening date meets that schedule with two weeks to spare.

Monday, November 8, 2010

RockMelt, the new social browser

RockMelt, a new browser that lives in thecloud and uses Facebook authentication to synchronize a user's browsing experience across machines, went into limited public beta today.
It was built around the premise that the browser is busted. The thought is that older browsers aren't made for the way we now use the web, and maybe it's a solid way of thinking. After all, browsing is a passive activity, and the Internet is increasingly about interaction.
There are some unique concepts here, namely the fact that RockMelt lives in the cloud. This allows your "browser experience" to be, in a way, profiled. Your settings, bookmarks, etc., are all backed up online.
Using Facebook for authentication, your user environment can be replicated anywhere RockMelt is installed. And really, that's what RockMelt is all about: The user environment.
Users of Google Chrome will feel at home, because RockMelt is built on Chromium, the open source project behind Google's browser. The major differences are columns running down each side of the browser.
The left side depicts your favorite Facebook contacts. When a contact is listed on the left bar, you'll be able to quickly initiate Facebook chats with them or post content to their Facebook walls. You can also easily send them e-mails through the seamless contact popout.
Straddling the right side is your bookmarks -- and here's another area where RockMelt's cloud is put to clever use. Bookmarks are updated from the cloud, so content is cached and waiting for you when you log on.
All in all, RockMelt is an interesting twist on the browsing experience. The social elements of the browser make for a compelling and streamlined online interaction process. And because it's powered by Chromium, it not only supports Chrome extensions, it's guaranteed to support the latest and greatest aspects of the web, like HTML5 and CSS3.

RockMelt is in limited beta and you can apply for an invitation.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Apple Researching Scratch-Proof Coating For iOS Devices

Apple is researching a new scratch-proof coating, presumably for its mobile devices, that would prevent scratches.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark office published new application filed by Apple for “Nitriding Stainless Steel for Consumer Electronic Products” that describes a new system that avoid scratches by placing a layer of nitride over a stainless steel exterior.
In addition to providing a durable, hard surface that is both scratch and impact resistant, the nitride layer allows for the natural surface color and texture of the underlying stainless steel to remain visible to the user... It is this natural surface color and texture of the stainless steel that adds to the aesthetically pleasing appearance of the consumer electronic product, thereby enhancing the user’s overall experience.
Apple acquired LiquidMetal in August 2010 gaining the technology behind a new metallic/glass substance that has twice the strength of Titanium but that can be molded like plastics.

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Send Free Faxes Online With GotFreeFax.com

GotFreeFax Screenshot


GotFreeFax.com allows you to send free faxes online to anywhere in the US and Canada but there's a catch. You can only send two faxes a day with a maximum of 3 pages per fax. Need more than that? Us the Pay-Per-Fax Service and you can send a fax up to 30 pages in length for $2.98. It's simple to send you free fax. Just fill out the form with your name and email and the recipients name and fax number and click Send FREE Fax Now. You'll receive a link in your email that'll you'll have to click before your fax is processed. Once clicked you'll receive another email stating that your fax is being processed and it'll provide a link to a personal status page for your fax that'll let you know when it's been processed and faxed to your recipient.

Friday, October 29, 2010

LimeWire Shut Down Permanently

File-sharing program LimeWire has been permanently shut down after a federal judge found it guilty of assisting users in committing copyright infringement "on a massive scale." A legal notice on the company's Website reads:

THIS IS AN OFFICIAL NOTICE THAT LIMEWIRE IS UNDER A COURT-ORDERED INJUNCTION TO STOP DISTRIBUTING AND SUPPORTING ITS FILE-SHARING SOFTWARE. DOWNLOADING OR SHARING COPYRIGHTED CONTENT WITHOUT AUTHORIZATION IS ILLEGAL."

The case resumes in January 2011, when damages will be assessed. The statutory minimum for music copyright infringement is $150,000 per infringement, and the damages assessed may total up to as much as (or possibly more than) $1 billion.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

How To Rebuild Spotlight Index In OS X

1. Launch Terminal (located in /Applications/Utilities/)
2. Enter this command:
sudo mdutil -E /
3. Provide your password when prompted
4. Wait until index is finished rebuilding, this can take a while depending on the size of your hard drive, amount of files, etc.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

PlayStation Phone

It's hard to believe that what we're looking at is real -- but we assure you, the picture above is in fact the PlayStation Phone you've long been waiting for. As we reported back in August, the device you see is headed into the market soon, likely boasting Android 3.0 (aka Gingerbread), along with a custom Sony Marketplace which will allow you to purchase and download games designed for the new platform. The device snapped up top (and in our gallery below) is sporting a 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8655 (a chip similar to the one found in the G2, but 200MHz faster), 512MB of RAM, 1GB of ROM, and the screen is in the range of 3.7 to 4.1 inches. Looking almost identical to the mockup we hit you with this summer, the handset does indeed have a long touchpad in the center which is apparently multitouch, and you can see in the photos that it's still bearing those familiar PlayStation shoulder buttons. For Sony buffs, you'll be interested to know that there's no Memory Stick slot here, but there is support for microSD cards.

The particular model in these shots is still in prototyping mode. As such, the unit doesn't have a custom skin (not even SE's Timescape design seen on the Xperia devices), and is said to be rather buggy. We're digging into more facts as we speak, but it's likely that much of what we reported earlier is still accurate, and though the device could still be headed for a 2010 release, 2011 is looking much more realistic. Still, there's a lot of time between now and the holidays... so keep your fingers crossed!

Source: Engadget

Saturday, October 23, 2010

More Verizon iPhone Rumors

The mythical Verizon iPhone could become reality this January, as Apple is reportedly finishing the prototype for a CDMA smartphone. The news comes from Daring Fireball's ever-scoopful John Gruber, who says that N92 is the codename for an engineering verification test unit of a Verizon-bound iPhone 4.

In the wake of the recent batch of countless Verizon iPhone rumors, Gruber, usually reliable for Apple-related scoops, speculates that the Cupertino company will unveil its CDMA version of the iPhone 4 at the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2011, with sales starting at the end of the month.

Sources told Gruber that the Verizon iPhone prototype is not in production yet, but it is still at engineering verification testing (EVT) stage, a step before the device verification test (DVT) status (like the lost iPhone 4 prototype) -- the stage prior to mass production of the device. Gruber says the EVT stage is "right about where you'd think it would be if it were scheduled to go on sale in January."

Yes to CDMA, But Verizon-Only? Maybe
The CDMA version of the iPhone 4 is not necessarily Verizon-bound, Gruber says. In the U.S. it could be released on Sprint as well, and it would also work with Canadian CDMA carriers.

There are more than 164 million CDMA subscribers in North America, more than 36 million in Latin America, and more than 300 million in the Asia-Pacific region, according to figures from the CDMA Development Group. Instead of targeting only the U.S. Verizon subscribers, Apple could target the huge CDMA market in Asia, whereas Latin America's CDMA subscriber figures are not negligible either.

Source: PCWorld


I've pretty much given up on these rumors but who knows. What do you all think? Do you think that the iPhone is finally heading to Verizon and do you think that if it does that it'll be a big seller for Verizon? Let us know in the comments.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Mac OS X “Lion”

So, after a long hiatus I'm back and kicking things off with an announcement from Apple about the new version of OS X, 10.7 Lion, due out in summer of 2011.  It brings some of the features from the iPad to OS X.  First, one of those features will be an App Store specific for OS X but it's not specific to Lion.  It'll open within the next 90 days and will be added to the current version, Snow Leopard, as well.  Also new is the Launchpad application launcher, which will give you an iPad-like grid of icons and let you create iOS-style folders for applications, and the all-new Mission Control, which offers a unified view of all your open windows, open apps, and your dock.

There's no specific release date as of this writing but look for it sometime in summer of 2011.

Monday, January 11, 2010

Long Time No Post, eh?

Yes I have completely abandoned this blog and forgot it even existed but I might be bringing it back with some new content soon if I can find the time so stay tuned :)

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Moving the "My Documents" folder in Windows

You might be asking "why would I want to do this?"  Well for one it'll save space on your hard drive that it's originally located on and second in case your Windows partition ever becomes corrupted you won't have to worry about losing all of you personal documents.  To do this follow these steps:

1. Right click My Documents and click Properties.

2. Click the Move button under the Target tab.  This will bring up a second dialog box like the one below:

Select Destination Dialog (move My Docs Howto)
(Click the picture for larger view)

3. From that second dialog box you need select where you want the folder moved to.  Select your choice and click OK.

4. Click apply in the My Documents Properties dialog box.

Wait for your files to transfer to your new destination and your finished.  Pretty simple huh? ;)

Monday, February 25, 2008

Optimus Keyboard

Here's the preliminary report:

  • The OLED displays look really good, and are bright and colorful, just like we'd hoped.

  • Key changes were instant (or almost) in Windows mode, but had a slight delay in Mac mode, where some key bindings were also little out of whack. These are known issues, though, and are being worked on.

  • The keyboard itself is friggin massive, and very sturdy-feeling. The thing is a tank.

  • Replacing keys is pretty easy, but larger keys are more difficult to pull off. You're really only intended to replace the standard-sized keys, so far as we can tell.

  • Typing on it, well, sucks. We kind of hate to say it, but this thing more than likely won't replace what ever keyboard you're writing your novel on -- it's better off used as an absurdly configurable swiss army knife for tasks like gaming, Photoshop, or just about any other productivity app that doesn't require a lot of typing.

  • Okay, why does typing on the Optimus suck, you ask? Well, although the keyboard uses mechanical switches and a lot of high quality components (evident when we pulled off some keys), and there is some clicky tactility to keypresses, as a whole it just requires way too much force to depress keys. And the larger the key, the more force is required, so enter is easier than space, but harder than tab. Let's put it this way, we sit around and type all day long and this thing wore us out in about 30 seconds to a minute. Carpal sufferers, beware.

  • The Configurator is everything we hoped it'd be and more. The ability to paint directly onto the keyboard maps with the image editor of your choice is most excellent. Mapping keyboards to applications and conditions is ridiculously easy. Not everything was working properly though, since we were testing early beta software.


We'll have some video in a bit. We so can't wait for people to start getting their keyboards so we can benefit from their wacky layouts.

source: Engadget

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=3_eDq4uMV8k]

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