Trifsters Domain

iPhone 4S and iPad 2 Jailbroken (Untethered)

2012-01-21T09:49:00.001-05:00

Huh? What does that even mean? So I am writing this blog post to inform all my friends who are new to the iPhone and iPad within the last 18-24 months of some cool unofficial apps and tweaks that us geeks have been using and playing with since iPhone 2G was launched.

If you've never seen Steve Jobs introduce the first iPhone, please do. Even if you do not care about "ancient" history its a fantastic example of top notch presentation skills and communication of new ideas. Immense complexity, simplified.

The first iPhone didn't have apps. The web was it as far as extending its primary functionality. But then the computer science and programming geeks got a hold of the iPhone and started tinkering.

A few days after the original iPhone became available in July 2007, developers released the first jailbreaking tool for it,^[24] and soon a jailbreak-only game app became available.^[25] In October 2007, JailbreakMe 1.0 (also called "AppSnapp") allowed people to jailbreak iPhone OS 1.1.1 on both the iPhone and iPod touch,^[26]^[27] and it included Installer.app as a way to get software for the jailbroken device. From Wikipedia.

As you can see from day one, the potential to run programs (now known as Apps) was baked into the iPhone. It wasn't just a phone, it was a miniaturized computer with a direct connection to the internet.

For an indepth look at the reasons and history for Jailbreaking, I point you to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IOS_jailbreaking

So you made it this far (or skipped) in this blog post. What does Jailbreaking mean to you! It means several things in terms of installing apps from an alternate app store called Cydia. After you jailbreak, the Cydia app becomes the primary method of finding, trying, buying (some paid and some free) apps. This includes things from quick-access to settings via my favorite tweak SBSettings to complete icon and background theme system called Winterboard.

Home Screen of the Cydia "App Store"

SBSettings quick access toggles

It also lets developers release software that Apple would prefer not to include in their app store. The best example of this is My3G. This paid app allows you to bypass certain download limit restrictions when you are on 3G. It also allows FaceTime over 3G (your mileage depends on data speeds) and downloading larger apps and podcasts over 3G (the normal limit is 20MB then you need to be on wifi). Another great paid app is MyWi. This turns your phone into a mobile hotspot without having to pay your Cell Phone provider an additional fee (on top of your already expensive data plans). One word of caution, this is not for heavy use. I only connect my Wifi iPad 2 to it when I need some internet.


My3G app that removes download limits for green checked apps.

Ok, by now most people are moderately convinced that they're for some freedom on their iDevice. But IS IT SAFE?? There are risks involved when you tinker with your toys. You do jailbreak at your on peril however over the last 4+ years of jailbreaking, the iDevices have proven very resilient to error and the jailbreak developers are masterfully skillful. One Jailbreaks via a program for your Mac or Windows computer. The current Jailbreak for all devices iPhone 4 and older (including original iPad) is an application called redsn0w. The best site to get the software to Jailbreak is from the developers themselves at http://blog.iphone-dev.com/ (click the Redsn0w links at left). iClarified.com has the best instructions to walk you through the procedure (really, you can do it). http://iclarified.com/jailbreak/index.php

For folks on iPhone 4S and iPad 2 (collectively referred to as the A5 devices as their CPU is the Apple A5 chip) need to use the ChronicDev Teams Absinthe tool. As of this writing their websites are seeing heavy traffic however you can follow this guide with links to the software to download: http://iclarified.com/entry/index.php?enid=19462&laid=

Please feel free to comment and I'll look to update this post and respond in the comments as possible!

Apple Best; Dell Worst in customer support

2009-08-06T11:32:00.002-04:00

Since I've been trashing Apple the last week over the App Store its time to return some love that I've personally experienced. Cyn at the Lehigh Valley Apple Store provided excellent support to me for my iPhone and Andrew for mine and Michelle's Macbook.

Read all about laptop customer support from LaptopMag

Another insightful perspective on the Google Voice app fiasco: number portability

2009-08-04T21:51:00.001-04:00

Apple, Google Voice, and number portability

Engadget Editor In Cheif on Apple/ATT and Google Voice

2009-08-04T21:38:00.000-04:00

Video Games - E3 2009 - Attack of the Show

On the same Page re: Apple and AT&T

2009-08-04T10:43:00.002-04:00

It looks like someone else is now strategising how the Apple/AT&T Google Voice App(s) saga will conclude now that the FCC has stepped in. PC World steps in with a suggestion that I bantered about last night:

It's time for Apple and AT&T to fully consider what is at stake and do the right thing. Give the FCC a win if that's what it takes, but let your customers have Google Voice if they want it--as they obviously do.

Read the full article at PC World

Some more for good measure...

2009-08-03T21:51:00.002-04:00

Why not. Fast Company does a very nice article laying out its time to recognize more of the iPhone's shortcomings and other offerings benefits.

AT&T publicly lays blame at Apple over Google Voice apps

2009-08-02T18:09:00.002-04:00

AT&T has further inflamed the Google Voice apps vs. Apple battle. AT&T as publicly told the Washington Post that it has nothing to do with App approval and Apps in the Apple iTunes app store.

Check out the "update" at the end of this Washington Post article as see for yourself.

What happens next? Apple blames AT&T, some mid-level manager for making a bad decision and reverses decisions, approves Google Voice app and restores all others?

Should Google release their Google Voice app for the jailbreaking app manager Cydia?

This is fun.

I see your outrage and I raise you the Feds!

2009-08-01T06:25:00.002-04:00

For the past several days I have let it be perfectly clear on my frustration with Apple rejecting the Google Voice app from the iTunes App Store. You can relive assumption, outrage, resignation and analysis at the respective links.

I'm not even a developer. I haven't written code since undergrad and as a joe schmoe user I'm pissed.

Apparently the fine folks at the FCC love their iPhones too. The Washington Post, TUAW, TechCrunch, Chron, and News.com all have continued their coverage of this major issue.

The FCC is a giant typical bureaucratic government agency. Within one week of the Google Voice apps (Google's and 3rd party) being removed from the iTune app store the FCC head of wireless communications has a letter out to all 3 major parties. The FCC folks!! This isn't Mike Arrington rating for more web page hits or Google fanboy's. This the The Federal Communications Commission!

Like to be one of the many to welcome the FCC to this party. Kegs to the left and jello shots in the fridge...

The hits keep coming...

2009-07-31T08:18:00.004-04:00

If enraged iPhone users are a one-two punch combo, AT&T and Apple are getting clobbered, on the internets anyway. We're seeing double-digit daily articles on how screwed up Apple is with the App store and how utterly incompetent and borderline criminal AT&T has been running their 3G network.

Today's Roundup:
MG Siegler from Techcrunch: FedUp
Mike Arrington Quits...I Quit The...
Gizmodo on MA
MacWorld

When you assume you only make an ass out of u and me!

2009-07-30T19:32:00.006-04:00

Unbelievable! I not only take the time to author an original thought on the whole AT&T, Apple iPhone app store and Google Voice apps fiasco to get it, at least now, entirely wrong!!

Let's examine the latest today from Techcrunch.

Last time we reached out to AT&T to comment on the story, the company gave TechCrunch writer MG Siegler a very blunt and brief statement:

“Nope – Apple is the one who can talk about their App Store.”

But today, the company has begun sending out more detailed messages to some of the frustrated customers who have been voicing their complaints. The message below was written by Glenn Lurie, AT&T’s President of Emerging Devices and Resale.

Your letter concerning Apple’s decision on the Google Voice iPhone app was forwarded to me since I work closely with Apple.

While we’re very proud to offer the iPhone 3GS along with the thousands of apps available through the App Store, AT&T does not manage the App Store – and we are not involved in the approval process for apps in the App Store. I recommend in this particular case that you express your concerns to Apple.

I’m glad you’re enjoying your iPhone and hope that you continue to be an AT&T customer. We appreciate and value your business.

Sincerely,
Glenn Lurie

AT&T’s stance is no longer that it can’t talk about the App Store — it’s that it doesn’t manage the App Store, and that any concerns about this case should be directed at Apple.

WOW! Zing Apple. You've just been called out and bitch slapped from the company that cannot possibly f___ up its network and support to the iPhone any more! It's the constant roar since you hear since the release of the iPhone 3GS. Not any more do we hear how you have the #1 smartphone or how you've engineered and delivered an improving evolutionary device adding value with every HW revision and software update. The daily discussion is how you are completely screwing up the App store, completely screwing your app developers and how AT&T is so f______ incompetent it can't run a 3G cellular network THAT THE ENTIRE GSM USING WORLD runs flawlessly!

You use to be a master at managing your name, products and brands. Every message, move and decision has been 100% the wrong answer. As a solutions oriented iPhone owner I'd like to help you, basically, un-f___ yourself.

1. Put every Google Voice app back in the store.
2. In fact put every bandwidth using, hogging app in immediately. Full slingplayer, uncompressed Youtube over 3G, Qik, Ustream video streaming, MLB..you get the idea.
3. Extend middle finger to AT&T and show them the uncompromising determined and awesome company that you were when you started this iPhone (the awesome company that gave $100 credits for minor hiccups).

Update: Another terrible story about this Google Voice app removal
I keep finding them and I keep adding them. The world hates Apple right now. Lifehacker

Updated: Confused by AT&T blocking of Google Voice App for iPhone

2009-07-28T08:05:00.013-04:00

Update 1 29 July 09: Great article about this ongoing debate! http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/29/att-dont-blame-us-for-the-iphones-google-voice-ban/

Update 2 29 July 09: Wow the google voice and GV Mobile removal is blowing up: http://www.maclife.com/article/news/apple_admits_att_requested_gv_apps_be_pulled

Update 3: Gizmodo

Update 4: TUAW

Update 5: TechCrunch

I am confused by AT&T's decision to block the Google Voice iPhone app. As a new user to Google Voice I am struggling to integrate it into my mobile life. My wife, mom, sister and brother in law all use iphones and of course are on AT&T. To call each other its free mobile to mobile. Only myself (soon to be canceled) and mom have "landlines" to also direct a google voice call too.

Part of the features of Google voice is SMS notifications of VM. While Google Voice has integrated, free SMS in its implementation its only usable for fellow geeks. For me to text my full compliment of friends from/via google voice would confuse them. My GV number is not in their phone and its hard to get folks to use a new GV number. This is why number portability was so big. I've had my cell number since ATT was Cellular One (IIRC it went Cellular One, AT&T Wireless, Cingular, New AT&T Wireless)

My mom pointed out to call my GV number uses cell plan minutes. They won't use it and will only call my mobile number. Receiving GV VM transcriptions come via SMS to mobile number (3 seperate texts).

To address these changes in my life, I am canceling home phone to use GV number as a primary number to give to "new people and businesses". I'm INCREASING our cell phone plan to the next higher plan to allow for canceling of landline and accepting calls via GV. I've also upgraded my SMS plan from the 200/month up to the 1500/month plan.

Google Voice has made me INCREASE my services to some extent to AT&T. I'm sure there are a minority set of users that may reduce costs but in my well established existence under AT&T's rule, I see GV adding value to mobile services not lessening.

Please hit the comments to continue this discussion...

AT&T is a heaping pile of....

2009-07-26T08:16:00.001-04:00

Our Zeo is now myZEO

2009-06-15T19:42:00.011-04:00

There are few things that can drive me to take a few minutes and write an original thought blog post. Without hitting up the achieve link the iPhone comes to mind. What the iPhone has done to transform the smartphone, the Zeo is on target to re-think our approach to sleep ( I think of it as SmartSleep ).

I always love a new tech gadget so when my sister-in-law offered to let me try the newest product from a new client I was more than excited. The true story is that she gave it to her sister (my wife) and not only did I try it but I commandeered it as "mine."

The Zeo is made up of a sleep sensor and aesthetically pleasing base unit (i purposefully avoid term alarm clock but it even does that function only more advanced).

Each night the Zeo records all aspects of my sleep and awake states. It captures light and deep sleep, REM (or rapid eye movement) sleep and times awake. More than just noting these makers it captures the duration of each state of sleep.

That alone is quite awesome. Zeo takes it a step farther with the a web based application appropriately titled myZeo Personal Sleep Coach. The excellently laid-out Web 2.0 application allows you to upload your sleep data from your Zeo to your online account.

Here is an example of a night-view of a typical nights sleep for me.

There are many views and graphs to explore and my favorite is the weekly ZQ chart that shows a summary of your ZQ score. The ZQ number allows you to "quickly gauge the quantity, quality, and depth of your sleep each night."

The most apprehensive part when I started using the Zeo came when looking at the headband. It turns out to be super comfortable with soft adjustable straps on both sides and a padded sensor front. It is so comfortable that I usually wake up in the morning needing a moment or two to recall I am wearing it. Now with 3 small kids at home there are invariably going to be sleepless nights through no fault of my own. It looks like 4/28 and 5/4 were one of those nights from the above chart.

There is not much too improve on either. You can select days to not upload however I haven't been able to remove a specific day like 4/28. I did get lots of sleep that night but probably lost (or threw in a middle-of-the-night tantrum) the headband when tending to one of the kids.

It seems so many aspects were so well thought out. The headband with super easy adjustment, the base station with variable dimming and great graphical display and the myZeo website with dozens of additional features. If I could suggest anything, it would be the addition of an iPhone app to completely tie in my affection for tech gadgets.

...Oh and that alarm clock thing I mentioned earlier, Zeo uses a smart wake (no, really thats the name: SmartWake™) "alarm feature will look for a "natural awakening point" based on your sleep patterns to decrease the grogginess associated with waking from Deep sleep. When SmartWake is selected, Zeo will find a time to wake you within a half-hour of your set time, never later."

Internets: Zeo, myZeo and Zeology

Twitter and the Media elite....for the LOLs

2009-03-03T20:33:00.000-05:00

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Twitter Frenzy

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Joke of the Day

Hudson River Plane Landing (US Airways 1549) Animation with Audio

2009-03-02T20:41:00.001-05:00

Just how versitle is the iPhone???

2009-03-02T16:11:00.001-05:00

2009-03-01T10:19:00.001-05:00

FDA Peanut Product Recall Widget. Flash Player 9 is required. Visit http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/peanutbutterrecall/index.cfm to search for peanut product recalls or call CDC-INFO at 1-800-232-4636 for more information.

Windows 7 Beta Build 7000 Impressions

2009-01-08T16:15:00.003-05:00

The first install I needed to do was to install Windows 7 on the exact hardware (laptops) that I tested Vista on for the absolute personal direct comparison. The PDC build and even more so with the 7000 build Windows 7 install is awesome. Fast, straight forward and an enjoyable experience. Install was a clean one on fully reformatted HD.

Windows 7 PDC and 7000 also run signifiantly faster out of the box than Vista SP1 out of the box on my new Aluminum 13" Macbook. Boot times are significantly shorter. Also, Time from logon screen to desktop is faster and a smoother experience. There is a lot less hard drive thrashing while at the logon screen waiting for password input and an appropriate amount of activity when logging into desktop.

The taskbar in 7000 is very nice. Great feature improvements. Icons with running applications need much better change in graphics to allow user a visual que that it is running already. Yes need the equivalent of the OS X Dock blue dot. I was thinking about this and it wouldn't be to hard to change the grey to some colors that make up the icon to complement the visual-ness of the icon/button.

Snaps are very nice. Looking to play with them on multi-monitors.

I'd like a IE8 icon on desktop/start menu even if I change default browsers.

Windows 7 Beta

2009-01-07T22:00:00.001-05:00

Steve Balmer keynote at CES as seen in IE8 on Windows 7

Macbook Wheel

2009-01-05T21:08:00.001-05:00

Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard

My new toy...

2008-12-23T10:25:00.006-05:00

The perfect storm of some generous 30th birthday gifts in late October and some smart sales by Apple and Apple authorized retailers before thanksgiving I was able to buy my long sought after Apple Computer. I bought the base 13" MacBook. The gorgeous all aluminum one!

As a long time Windows guru and still a Windows enthusiest, I am excited and really enjoy using OS X. The operating system is so simply and elegantly laid out. Necessary configuration items are in one location (System Preferences) and has a simple subset of configurations for my Mac.
The Finder is a combination of Windows Explorer and the Start Button

Finally, the Dock is an enhance version of the windows task bar. It has applications to launch and marks open applications with blue spotlight under a programs icon.

iPhone 2.1 Software released.

2008-09-12T09:52:00.001-04:00

Since I like to have the firmware handy for things like restores and pwnage here is a link to download the new firmware for iPhone 3G and iPhone 2G.

3G: http://appldnld.apple.com.edgesuite.net/content.info.apple.com/iPhone/061-5198.20080909.K3294/iPhone1,2_2.1_5F136_Restore.ipsw

2G: http://appldnld.apple.com.edgesuite.net/content.info.apple.com/iPhone/061-5202.20080909.gkbEj/iPhone1,1_2.1_5F136_Restore.ipsw

iPhone is fast but will it blend?

2008-07-12T12:46:00.001-04:00

Waiting in line for a insanely in-demand product: check

2008-07-11T20:25:00.005-04:00

SO I DID IT! And I kinda really only did it because it took no extra effort to do and I always wanted to do it. I am talking about waiting in line and buying the latest iPhone from Apple, iPhone 3G. I went to the Lehigh Valley Apple Retail store to execute my fun. The morning started off sluggish but by around 6:45a Alex was today's early riser. I took him downstairs along with all that I need to head off to the Apple store.

Luckily, Grandmom Salerno (my Grandmom and Alex Great Grandmom) and my Mom are here for the next few days to help out and enjoy twin and Robert time while my wife is in Hawaii. I made my way over the the Apple store via a McDonalds for a coffee and egg McMuffin. I got to the Apple Store by around 7:15a. The line was about 150 people deep by then with the majority having arrived early this morning. The handful at the front of the line started a 6PM on Thursday. Their prized spots in line fetched $100+ before the store even opened.

In line with me was Josh (who didn't end up getting an iPhone), Glen, and a group in from San Diego visiting friends. I took the liberty of downloading and installing the iPhone 2.0 software on my first generation (2G) iPhone last night so was showing off some of the app store. By 7:45 we had our first pep-run from the apple store employees. Also had in-line-served Starbucks coffee from the local Starbucks. Starbucks is always a class act. They also gave out some free water to the line for about the first 2 hours of the opening.

There was no shortage of laptops, iPhone 2Gs and in line upgraders. After the first few waves of iPhone buyers between 0800-1000 eastern the line really began to slow. That's when we first new about the activation woes due to the line's constant following of tech blogs like Engadget and Gizmodo. Myself, I was on and off Twitter reading and posting status alerts. I was one of the early confirmers of the activation issues. Our Apple store manager "Pipe" was a cool fellow and did a great job communicating all the issues and status to the line. He had to "line-inform" from the back mid morning with local press. WFMZ channel 69 was on hand to take some video of the "festivities." It took about 3 seconds for the line to tell her what's going on as opposed to fighting for a never-coming apple employee comment.

Sometime between 1000 and 1100 we all met Phil! Phil was the "line crasher". And by crasher I mean he donted $200 to Josh's pocket and took his spot right in front of me in line. Phil was prepared. With pockets full of the cutest (yes I used that word) Coors light cans he was a guy right out of a Jimmy Buffett concert. Well buzzed and with about 3 hours less of a line he was good to go! WFMZ recorded and broadcast an interview with both Josh and Phil over the line position transaction. Phil was a trip and quite fun to have in line. He did disappear for a good 45 minutes to his car for some food and beers. He kindly offered but I decided to stick with coffee and water.Glen during most of this along with another gentleman and his 14-year old daughter were fighting with their laptops and finishing the activation portion of their iPhone 2G 2.0 software update. The same activation servers that handle the new iPhone 3G's activation also handle the upgrade process for the iPhone 2G 2.0 Software. It was some time we were about 10 people from entering the store that the activation servers came up for them to get their bricked iPhone 2G's working again. The App store is a hit.

The Cali crew were also a trip. There was a short blond in her mid-late 20's along with her brother, a former Marine and his wife. The short blond (I think was Amanda) was a loud chick. She was the mouth of our little group. The most interesting thing I learned in this group is how liked the white iPhone 3G 16GB was. They ate that one up. The Apple Store employees made their rounds in the line with some store demo units. The white one was sharp. I really laughed at it but there are plenty of takers out there for it. Apple Employee Josh sporting the navy blue employee shirt was kind to take our harassment, not answer our privileged info seeking questions and show us some things.

Side by Side the 3G iPhone killed the EDGE 2G iPhone in web page loads. It was a joke. Unless your wifi is connected to a strong cable modem, 3G is a total FTW!! The Google Maps, GPS chip and triangulation were very accurate. I also found the location on the iPhone 2G to have improved vastly from just the 1.1.4 firmware. I specifically asked to hear the speakerphone, my #1 bitch about the first iPhone. Unfortunately his Demo enabled phone had no voice service but a video sounded nice and loud.

Pipe let us know due to the iTunes activation portion of the purchasing process being down, that we would be able to buy our iPhones but would have to complete at home with our iTunes just like last year. To the tech savy group around me that was actually a win. The line crawled at least mentally until our admittance into the store around 12:05.

The in-store buying process was somewhat straight forward. The only AT&T issue MANY of us in line had is that if you got a employee discount on your cell phone plan or your cell phone plan was associated with a discounted account (FAN) such as a school or military discount the Apple POS (point of sale) system would error with and IRU account access error message from AT&T. This required a surprisingly fast call to 611, AT&T removed the FAN, the Apple POS completed the sale in realtime and I was off. The removal of the "discount" from almost everyone's affected AT&T account to complete the Apple sale was a non-issue. Everyone with a iPhone 2G already lost all their discounts last year so it was simply procedural. I will all out AT&T and Apple for an epic FAIL here though. They should have known the numbers of those class of customers going to Apple.

The iTunes/iPhone activation servers came back online around 3PM eastern and my activation process after that point was a non-issue. In my short time with the new HW, the Google Maps tracking with the gps trip was awesome. I used it to take a new road to the Pizza joint My Place. It showed me as I drove along Newburg Rd, E. Main and then finally onto Broad St. As I drove up Broad the "beating" blue dot tagged along and was only about 1/4 block behind my movement. Given this small test, I could see a turn by turn gps app for sure!

Given all of the events of today iPhone related for me is was a big success. For Apple/AT&T some of the activation woes signal EPIC FAIL in my book until about 3PM when they got their act together. All in All it should have gone smoother and Apple / AT&T should take some shit for that. For me, this was a great experience and I am very glad that I took the time to "enjoy" the line and buy a launch day iPhone 3G.

Twitter Whore

2008-06-07T20:29:00.002-04:00

OMG. WTF. ROTFLMAO.

Could you do without your electronics??

2008-05-30T12:09:00.002-04:00

Folks, If you think for one minute I found this funny you are wrong. I was as scared as the guy here who gave up his electrons for 40 hrs. This was planned for 1 week.

Revision3 blames antipiracy firm for DOS attack

2008-05-29T15:22:00.003-04:00

"They saw us as a "distributor" - even though we were using Bittorrent for legitimate reasons. Once we shut them out, their vast network of servers were automatically programmed to implement a scorched earth policy, and shut us down in turn.

Louderback says he called MediaDefender and was told that it had indeed been injecting torrents into the Revision3 network without permission for months, but MediaDefender denied responsibility for the DOS attack.

That quote is from a C|Net news posting on the incident. This I expect to be a BIG deal!

Raging Thunder iPhone game Awesome

2008-05-09T19:54:00.001-04:00

The video says it all. Hit up Install.app and Games section for the DL.

Fring is F'ing Awesome

2008-04-17T15:50:00.003-04:00

So I tried out Fring on my jailbroken iPhone. 1 word: Awesome. Get yours at Fring!

Xbox 360 meets Microwave Oven

2008-04-06T19:23:00.002-04:00

Battle of the Geek Chicks

2008-03-22T08:46:00.003-04:00

Every geek has suffered. We take undergraduate classes with 85+% male demo. Our only time to break that ratio was an elective with the business school kids. That was 7 years ago for me...and now there is a great selection of content being generated by some very intelligent, competent and professional ladies. Now that they've been complimented, we can objectify slightly: all are pretty damn cute.

I'll leave the lineup to the pros at TechCrunch. My newest favorite is Natali Del Conte of C|Net TV's LOADED podcast.

Knight Rider 2008 Premiere

2008-02-19T20:15:00.001-05:00

Wal-Mart to only sell Blu-ray. HD-DVD to be "euthanize[d]"

2008-02-15T16:41:00.001-05:00

"Since the beginning of the year, when Warner Bros. announced that it was pulling support for HD DVD, the prospects appeared grim. Toshiba and some of the other backers of the format put on a brave face, but most observers were wondering if and when Toshiba would acknowledge Blu-ray's fait accompli and let HD DVD join Betamax in The Place Where Unloved Formats Are Eternally Blessed. That time may be soon, according to a report in The Hollywood Reporter, which quotes "reliable industry sources" as saying that Toshiba will euthanize HD DVD in the months ahead."

From Ars

How Apple will Exceed its iPhone Sales goal of 10 Million in year-one...

2008-02-13T22:17:00.002-05:00

I've been closely observing "the machine." The machine as I have termed it is the Apple information management system. No its not some fancy enterprise piece of software; its not a Web 2.0 tool; its not even a computer system. It is simply Apple. From the trickle of leaks, one liners, silence, response of all information leading up to the iPhone announcement last year; this years Macbook Air.

It's a little comment made seemingly too soon (Nov: 3G iPhones in 2008). Its the lack of announcement at Macworld (16GB iPhones Feb). It is the silence about the unlocking/jailbreaking crowd. Its about mum on the SDK. Its about inverse buzz.

In the coming weeks, Apple will be in the consiousness of all in the tech industry, mainstream media, blogosphere, and fanboy world. They will release the SDK. Then come Apps. Then come killer Apps. Then....3G, New capability, Price drop (or increased capability/features at current price), then the next thing, and another, and iphone 2, iphone mini, iphone android(??).

The point of the post is to show past examples of the Apple Information Machine at work. Sometimes purring along like a nice economy car and sometimes in the fast lane like a Tesla electric sports car. Constantly in your consciousness.

iPhones can be bought for $399 8GB, $499 16GB at Apple Stores, Apple online and AT&T Corporate Retail stores.

Conservitive in the Tech World

2008-02-06T20:18:00.000-05:00

It's not the most common occurrence, a conservative (read: Reagan Conservative) that is also an avid technology world follower. However there are some basic principles that are important to highlight for the new younger generation being biased and manipulated by a far left national media structure.

When I started to write this, I multi-tasked Google for a bullet list of Reagan Conservative points. Only to find this timely blog post that really saved me 4 paragraphs. Hop over to Marks blog and read what Reagan Conservatism is about.

Let me expand this post to the tech world now. Mark G writes "Ronald Reagan embraced economic conservatives because he understood that low taxes, free and fair trade, less government and reasonable regulation were the catalyst that would create great economic growth that would be the best way to create opportunity and prosperity of the American people." It is important to view all the growth in the e-commerce, social, and informational progress of the Internet as a conservative success. Business has been free and unburdened by taxes, excessive legislation and first amendment support on the Internet. Multi-national, cross-national, global websites have brought people from all over the world a little closer. Business opportunities have allowed companies like Google, MySpace, Facebook and Yahoo to prosper. VCs and Start-ups are now back innovating new ways to capitalize on the success of the internet. Concerns of net neutrality have only been conjecture and threats by the minority of data providers have been vapor.

Market forces are pushing individual and corporate investment in national data networks. Verizon is running Fiber optic cable to your Door. Not your street, not your block, not your neighborhood and not your town. Your doorstep. One strand of this fiber Verizon is running can handle, ONE STRAND, every single phone call on mothers day of the entire day at the same instant at the same time. Cable companies are building out similar fiber to the node networks. Satellite providers have expanded capacity for high-definition content; moving to terrestrial wireless technologies to complete their product offerings. Billions and billions of dollars are being bid on prime wireless spectrum. $4.7 Billion dollars have been pledged by Google, a public company, for open access rules on a government auction. The government didn't push that requirement the open marketplace wanted that requirement and they were willing to buy and build said network for billions over the acquisition cost for the spectrum.

So as your are pondering this election season, please think past the one liner, one sentence, one paragraph answer to a question. See into the core philosophy of the candidates and align that with the right way to achieve a goal. Governments must remain out of the marketplace with burdensome and counter productive regulations. Governments should be stewards of the national economy and promote at all costs fair and open competition; the national economic environment from which all business must engage in open competition. Capitalism is an economic theory which stresses that control of the means of producing economic goods in a society should reside in the hands of those who invest the capital for production. Private ownership and free enterprise leads to more efficiency, lower prices, better products. That is the true goal of capitalism and a pillar of the conservative point of view.

Why Blu-Ray should win from here on out....

2008-01-26T11:03:00.000-05:00

Much has been made of the HD-DVD vs. Blu Ray format war. There are technical and capability differences in the formats. Consumers really don't care. They both have amazing and virtually equal movie quality. Consumers don't care.

Technical individuals in the computer, gaming, audio and video field whether they are content creators, enthusiasts, journalist or bloggers want a winner and end to this format war.

On the eve of CES 2008, Wanner Brothers movie studio who had been supporting both formats announced that they would be going to Blu Ray exclusively. HD DVD Consortium then canceled a early press event. A tech community wanting a winner, proclaiming a possible winner if not at least the front runner were embolded by the prompt tail-between-the-legs / take-my-ball-and-go-home feeling the HD DVD Consortiums cancellation instilled.

The wanters and waiters in the consumer realm were ecstatic. Here was enough reason to no longer wait and get that PS3 or other Blu ray player for the sole purpose that they wanted to flex that new 1080p HDTV's muscles.

The best bloggers and tech journalists have provided some reasons how blu ray can now clinch this "war". Here are mine in no particular order:

Reduce license fees to all blu ray parties (device and studios)
Reduce price of stand alone players
Strike deals with the biggest retailers to sell ONLY blu ray moives.
Release Blu ray blank media and burners for PC's Laptops
Advertise as the winner. Americans love to be told what to think.

Hopes for Macworld...teech on 2008

2008-01-18T13:10:00.000-05:00

It's been in incredibly long time since I sat down or even remotely had the time to write a blog post. Now that there is a slight lul in the action here at the Trif abode, I'll try and make some smart tech sense....

Let me start with the iPhone. I have now been an iPhone user and lover since the first week in July 2007. It is still the best phone I've ever owned. It is also be best mobile computing device (smartphone if you must) as well. I spend endless time on the couch watching TV with my iPhone as my internet surfing device. This is simultaneous to Michelle's usage of her 12" Inspiron laptop during tv watching times. The iPhone represents the richest web browsing experience of any mobile device and one that is on par with full brower clients like IE7, Safari and Firefox.

With my jailbroken (term for installing your own 3rd party apps), it is a fierce smart phone competitor to windows mobile and the blackberry. Some of the things that can be done to make it an even more competitive device or superior device is some of the outcomes I'd like to see from macworld.

This macworld comes a year to the announcement of the iPhone and about 6 months after its release. Some of the early shortcomings must be addressed. These range in technical complexity so I list in no particular order.

1. Copy and Paste
2. MMS (yes i know email is just as easy and free but sometimes you need MMS)
3. 3G (Edge is slow but not terrible as long as you are in metropolitan/suburban areas)
4. 3rd Party Apps (just can't come soon enough)

/*************************************/

So the above was typed before Macworld but I simply didn't have time to post it. Now that macworld has happened, some comments:

1. iPhone

Google is freaking the best company every. Location and the usability updated in 1.1.3 has me willing to forgo jailbreak apps of 1.1.2. I had the opportunity to stop at the Apple story and play with it. Worked great in Allentown PA.

WebApp Icons

Nice. I just recently re-organized all my iPhone bookmarks so this can make it easier to hit the most popular sites i goto like Twitter and Facebook.

Icon Re-arrangement. Executed with simplicity and ease that only Apple can bring to a consumer device. Excellent

No 3G. Clearly its not ready. Plenty of wifi available. Really a non issue for me.

2. Macbook Air

Awesome. Expensive. If I can get work to buy one I just may. As for the Trif household. I really see the iMac the way to go as a appliance computer for our downstairs. It will only be used w/o wires with the exception of the power cord.

3. Movie Rentals

This is how I want to watch movies. For 2.99/3.99 SD, I will rent and watch movies on my iPhone through iTunes. The movie industry just made ripping DVDs and encoding for iPhone not woth the work. Sorry Handbrake, you've been released.

Twitter Feed

2008-01-16T09:32:00.000-05:00

Check out the twitter feed on the blog at right.

Ringtones for iPhone | Free Ringtones for iPhone

2007-09-10T09:10:00.000-04:00

Last week Steve Jobs announed a bevy of new/revamped iPods. Additionally he announced ringtones for the iPhone. Through iTunes you can (re)buy a song on iTunes for $0.99 (in addition to the original purchase price) and custom select up to 30 seconds to make into a ring tone. Thanks for nothing Steve....

There are already several ways to get ringtones on your iPhone at no additional cost. iRingtoner is one app with instructions on modmyiPhone.com.

Immediately after the announcement of ringtones baked-in to iTunes, the hackers have unraveled how to get free ringtones on your iPhone. Its hardly a hack and more of a procedure. Ars technica has the scoop on the file rename hack for ringtones.

Qipit...

2007-09-07T20:22:00.000-04:00

Wouldn't it be great to be able to snap a photo of those meeting notes on the whiteboard or keep a digital copy of notes on your writing pad? Well some smart fella has created a website just for that. Check out Qipit.

Eudora lives to see version 8.0

2007-09-04T21:32:00.000-04:00

Most Penn Staters will recall and I am sure countless other long time email users the great Eudora email program. Scott Gilbertson writes on his blog at wired.com: "Eudora, one of the earliest and much revered desktop e-mail clients, has been reborn under the Mozilla Thunderbird umbrella. The new beta version of Eudora 8 and the Penelope add-on are available for download from the Mozilla site."

Grab the release here.

"My first iPhone bill...in a box

2007-08-17T20:00:00.000-04:00

Ok, so its not as good as Justin Timberlakes D*ck in a Box but this is still funny. Doesn't hurt that the chick if pretty freakin' hot!

Check out this video: My first iPhone Bill!

Add to My Profile | More Videos

Recover songs off iPod to PC

2007-08-14T09:41:00.000-04:00

http://howto.wired.com/wiredhowtos/index.cgi?page_name=get_your_music_off_of_your_ipod;action=display;category=Play

Here is a great article on moving music off of your iPod and onto your computer.

5th USENIX Conference on File and Storage Technologies - Paper

2007-02-21T09:09:00.000-05:00

5th USENIX Conference on File and Storage Technologies - Paper

Excellent paper on Hard Drive failure rates in the real world. Interesting to note that there is correlation of (higher) failure rates between SCSI, FC and SATA drives. Additionally the authors note there is no correlation to (higher) failure rates between manufactures. They do note that real world HD replacement rates are much higher than hard drive MTTF estimates from vendors.

My RoomBa cleans the Family Room...

2007-01-15T17:07:00.000-05:00

CableTV/Phone/Internet

2007-01-12T09:47:00.000-05:00

So I finally got the RCN triple package. So here's what I got and how it works...

CableTV (Full Basic): $30
Internet (10 Mbit down/800KB up): $30
Phone (Unlimited local, regional, and LD for 1 year; 5 features (caller id, etc): $30

Add my DigitalVision (little ones need Sprout and 3 PBS's :-)), HD and HD package (ESPNHD for me) and total bill is like $132 plus tax.

Separately with Verizon for phone (local only, crap), DSL (3mbit) and cable unbundled my bill was $157. So i save a few bucks and get better services in both the Internet and Phone experience.

I can only hope we get Verizon FIOS (fiber to the home) soon as well. Verizon is aggressively pricing their TV and Internet portions of this service. Also, the speeds at release of this service are 5 and 10 mbps. Expect 20, 25, and 30 mbit speeds in a year or two.

I'll re-post in a few months on the reliability and quality of the service.

MIT OpenCourseWare | OCW Home

2007-01-11T09:39:00.001-05:00

MIT OpenCourseWare | OCW Home

Free learning. All the info you can learn at MIT, free minus the actual degree. Really cool.

Apple iPhone

2007-01-10T16:05:00.000-05:00

Probably the most amazing device I have seen in a long time.

Read here how Apple, Cingular, Google and Yahoo! kept the secret for nearly 2.5 years of development!

I am so buying one when its out!!

OLPC

2007-01-10T15:59:00.000-05:00

The one laptop per child program has provided some more great details on their now final design. Check out this article.

IM, MS Word threats, and NSA-ATT

2006-05-22T10:20:00.000-04:00

So it has been some time since I posted howerver we do have several interesting revalations today...

Coming from our friends at Yahoo, a new work is infecting their IM (Instant Messaging) client known as Yahoo Messenger. This pesky work installs its own web browser and is engaging in spyware like activities. Ironically, the name of the insecure browsers it installs is called The Safety Browser. Check out some more about it here.

Late last week, word (ha!) surfaced on the internet the Microsoft's Word wordprocessor program has a exploit out in the wild. This exploit allows a hacker to take over your comptuer. The good news is that you need to use MS Word and open a document for the exploit to take place. Good thing only 99% of the PC world uses Word. Virus info here.

Finally, the NSA-ATT internet spying scandal is heating up. Today, Wired news/magazing published the 30-page affadavid and ATT documents describing the procedures and setup of the NSA spying equipment. Technically exciting, details things such as procedures, off-limit rooms, and fibre-splitting.

Undetectable "stealth" rootkits are infecting Windows XP SP2 Machines

2006-04-04T12:35:00.000-04:00

From E-Week:

"In a rare discussion on the severity of the Windows malware scourge, a Microsoft security official said businesses should consider investing in an automated process to wipe hard drives and reinstall operating systems as a practical way to recover from malware infestation.

"When you are dealing with rootkits and some advanced spyware programs, the only solution is to rebuild from scratch. In some cases, there really is no way to recover without nuking the systems from orbit," Mike Danseglio, program manager in the Security Solutions group at Microsoft, said in a presentation at the InfoSec World conference here.

Offensive rootkits, which are used hide malware programs and maintain an undetectable presence on an infected machine, have become the weapon of choice for virus and spyware writers and, because they often use kernel hooks to avoid detection, Danseglio said IT administrators may never know if all traces of a rootkit have been successfully removed."

Serioius IE Flaw...

2006-03-27T12:22:00.000-05:00

Researchers at various secuirty sites have seen an escalation in attacks using an unpatched Internet Explorer (IE) flaw to steal users account names, passwords and personal financial information.

Microsoft acknowledged the previously undisclosed flaw in a blog posting earlier this week, in which it urged users to practice "safe browsing practices" -- such as only visiting trusted Web sites. I'd like to offer my two cents, which is that readers who use Windows consider downloading and using a different browser, like Firefox, Netscape or Opera.

If you do not want to believe these dangers are real, please check out this article on what the attackers are doing with your computer.

Now more than ever it is important to stop using IE on a daily basis and switch to an alternative browser. If your attached to IE for a specific websites functionality, please be sure to only use IE for that site.

Media wall...

2006-03-24T20:28:00.000-05:00

So we started with one rack that was moved from upstairs in my house down to my newly finished basement. What a great way to finish that angled wall I put in to cover up some plumbing. This is the grey metallic color of the Benno CD/DVD tower from Ikea. Enjoy...

Access your comptuer from ANYWHERE

2006-03-18T21:05:00.000-05:00

I found a great program/site for accessing your home comptuer when you are away from it. It is called LogMeIn and it works like Remote Desktop but without the hasstle of having to know your comptuers IP address or complicated setups through firewalls.

Visit the LogMeIn site and sign up for the free basic remote comptuer access program.

Online Word-Processor/Collaboration

2006-03-13T09:39:00.000-05:00

From the you-don't-have-to-spend-a-grand on a word processor department, Writely (Beta) is a web based word processor. Great for simple to medium complex documents, this online, AJAX based application is a free product now owned by Google. When I read about the acquision of the product by Google I new it sounded famiar. I actually had an account already (which is good as new account requests are frozen until they move to Google's servers). Anyway, I found this to be great so try it out. You can actually collaborate on the same doc with others at the same time and all get the same changes. If you want an account let me know and I will invite you.

http://www.writely.com/

All Instant messengers, anywhere

2006-03-10T21:38:00.000-05:00

Tired of corporate or school firewalls blocking you favorite IM program. Try Meebo. Slick easy to use interface in your web browswer.

http://www.meebo.com/

Bobby

Far too long...

2006-03-10T15:20:00.000-05:00

So its been a long time of neglect for Trifster's Domain...lets see if I can get some good contenet back up here.

So for today, lets discuss the cool world of the Blackberry. Since RIM's patent dispute with NTP has been resolved we can not focus on the fun of being a blackberry addict.

The new breed of Blackberry devices have some awesome capability. With the built in web browser a world of web tools and Google awaits. Below is a sampling of my favorite programs for the blackberry with links (visit BlackberryForums.com for more great info):

UPDATED (3/12/2006):Opera Mini Web Browser

Blackberry Messenger
Use this cool tool to "PIN" message your fellow BB carriers.

Google Local
Download this program so you can have maps, satellite images, and directions right on you BB

Google Talk
Google Talk IM on the blackberry. Awesome

Google and Gmail
Access your personalized Google home or Gmail

AOL IM via RAMBLE
AOL IM on the BB. Great program.

Berry 411
Wireless Link: www.thebogles.com/berry411.jad
Desktop Link: www.thebogles.com/Berry411.htm
The best White Pages and Yellow Pages search software for the BlackBerry, this also has a built-in bonus of movie showtimes lookup and weather lookup!
.

BBToday
Wireless Link: blackberrytools.sourceforge.net/OverTheAir/bbtoday-1.5/BBToday.jad
Desktop Link: sourceforge.net/projects/blackberrytools
A very nice miniature PIM "Today Screen" that displays your appointments, number of missed phone calls, number of waiting new emails, as well as today's weather, as well as your favourite stock quotes.
.

BBReply
Wireless Link: blackberrytools.sourceforge.net/OverTheAir/bbreply-1.1/BBReply.jad
Desktop Link: sourceforge.net/projects/blackberrytools
Ever wish you have multiple different editable "Reply-To:" addresses when writing emails on the BlackBerry? This is the solution - you can now have customizable Reply-To: when writing emails on BlackBerry.
.

BBLight
Wireless Link: blackberrytools.sourceforge.net/OverTheAir/bblight-1.82/BBLight.jad
Desktop Link: sourceforge.net/projects/blackberrytools
Configures your BlackBerry light to stay always-on when out of holster. Or automatically turns on backlight when you hit a keypress (a problem on older BlackBerry models)! Be warned, this application affects battery life!
.

BBWeather
Wireless Link: blackberrytools.sourceforge.net/OverTheAir/bbweather-0.74/BBWeather.jad
Desktop Link: sourceforge.net/projects/blackberrytools
Display weather forecasts on BlackBerry on one button click, much faster than BlackBerry Browser. For entering a new city into this weather forecast application, you need an 8-character city code. (The city code is 4 capital letters followed by 4 numbers. Just grab those codes matching this pattern from inside the URL's when viewing weather forecasts at www.weather.com or www.theweathernetwork.com on your desktop PC, and save the 8 character code into the BBWeather software, and viola.)
.
QuickCompose
Wireless Link: www.marky.com/files/bb/QuickCompose.jad
Desktop Link: blackberryforums.com/showthread.php?t=25495
One hotkey access ("C" key) to immediately composing a blank new email message. Requires BlackBerryOS 4.1 or later. This readds the missing Compose icon from earlier BlackBerryOS software, while using the new convenient New Email interface of OS 4.1. Free utility written by Mark Rejhon (based on Ramble's version). To enable hotkeys, turn off "Dial From Home Screen" setting in Phone->Options. (You can press the phone hotkey before dialing, anyway). Hotkeys do not work on 71XX series, so you have to manually launch via icon. However, hotkeys works from PocketDay as an assigned key if you need hotkeys on the 71XX series.
.
QuickNote
Wireless Link: www.marky.com/files/bb/QuickNote.jad
Desktop Link: blackberryforums.com/showthread.php?t=25495
One hotkey access ("Q" key) to immediately jotting down notes that is automatically copied to the clipboard. Requires BlackBerryOS 3.6 or later. Free utility written by Mark Rejhon. To enable hotkeys, turn off "Dial From Home Screen" setting in Phone->Options (hotkey does not work on 71XX).

Spyware-Aurora/ABI/Nail and others removal

2005-10-13T10:00:00.000-04:00

**NOTE**
This post is not complete, but cannot delay due to the threat that exist
**NOTE**

Hello. In this long overdue posting, its time to write a step by step approach to virus/spyware removal for the masses.

To begin, first some explanation. Let's define spyware (source):
Spyware is similar to a Trojan horse in that users unwittingly install the product when they install something else. A common way to become a victim of spyware is to download certain peer-to-peer file swapping products that are available today. Aside from the questions of ethics and privacy, spyware steals from the user by using the computer's memory resources and also by eating bandwidth as it sends information back to the spyware's home base via the user's Internet connection. Because spyware is using memory and system resources, the applications running in the background can lead to system crashes or general system instability. Because spyware exists as independent executable programs, they have the ability to monitor keystrokes, scan files on the hard drive, snoop other applications, such as chat programs or word processors, install other spyware programs, read cookies, change the default home page on the Web browser, consistently relaying this information back to the spyware author who will either use it for advertising/marketing purposes or sell the information to another party. Licensing agreements that accompany software downloads sometimes warn the user that a spyware program will be installed along with the requested software, but the licensing agreements may not always be read completely because the notice of a spyware installation is often couched in obtuse, hard-to-read legal disclaimers. Any software that covertly gathers user information through the user's Internet connection without his or her knowledge, usually for advertising purposes. Spyware applications are typically bundled as a hidden component of freeware or shareware programs that can be downloaded from the Internet; however, it should be noted that the majority of shareware and freeware applications do not come with spyware. Once installed, the spyware monitors user activity on the Internet and transmits that information in the background to someone else. Spyware can also gather information about e-mail addresses and even passwords and credit card numbers.
Now that that is settled, lets get into the nitty gritty. Visit here for the top spyware infections as listed by computer associates.

One of the latest threats is a spyware that is known as Aurora. This pop-up producing spyware behaves very much like a virus. It is very hard to remove as it invades Windows(r) Safe Mode as well as normal boot. Suprisingly, through careful test (use friends comps as guiena pigs), the fools responsible for the Aurora make a removal tool that is actually your easiest way out of their mess. I know the sketchy are leery, but post scans with the right tools show little ills.

So lets get started with our removal. I think a procedural approach is the best. So to outline the overall process, we will detect, quarintine/eradicate, re-detect, analye the unique, then be gone of the pests. Forward note, if your IE is so messed up you cannot get to the links above and below, print this

1. We need tools to do this. While manual deletion and registry editing may be needed, its more wise to let the professional tools do their job. We sometimes have to help them along with that task. The first is an updated and functioning antivirus solution. I highly recommend Symantec Antivrus products. However, whatever AV product you have, its worthless if not updated. Take the time to update the software and spend the few bucks for the virus updates; its chump change well spend.

Now with that AV all updated. Do a FULL SYSTEM scan of your comptuer. Virii and Adware/Spyware will be detected. Delete and/or Quarintine if possible. May take multiple scans. If the same ones get detected, don't fret, we will get to them. For now, lets move on to spyware

2. Again, tools tools tools. There are some great anti-spyware tools out there but no single one is the end all solution. Spybot, Webroot and MS Antispyware are my favorites. Get Microsoft AntiSpyware here. Do install, update, and run scan.

After the scan completes, you may have a list of threats that need to be addressed. I suggest going down the entire list and chooseing remove for all the threats. Continue with the removal of all threats. Now please run another scan and note any repeat offenders.

3. At this point we have a list of persistant threats from your AV and AS programs. Now we need to reboot into safemode to try better to rid ourselves of those problems. So reboot your comptuer. Before you get the Windows "splash"/logo screen during boot. Press F8 to get the boot menu. From there choose "Safe Mode" only. That means NOT safe mode with netowork or other options.

Yes your way into the diagnostic safe mode and choose Owner or Administrator if prompted with a login screen. Once in open your AntiVirus program and do a full system scan. Delete threats found and if you cannot delete the threats use quarintine on them.

Repeat with your Antispyware program. Also remove all threats where possible.

Do both again. Check to see whose left on your repeat offender list.

4. Now we need to address the repeat offenders. Visit http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/or the removal tool list for more help on your left over threats. For AS threats, google them for removal help. Many message boards have specific removal instructions. I will detail the one that was very hard for me the Aurora/ABInetwork/DirectRevenue spyware.

Reboot so we are in windows normal mode.

SurfSideKick Removal
Aurora/ABI/Nail.exe Removal
OR
http://www.mypctuneup.com/

5. Please post comments with your spyware names and links to removal resources!

More Spyware

2005-08-09T13:08:00.000-04:00

I know I have covered Spyware in the past here in my blog, but an "old favorite" in the spyware category has been found to have even more sinister actions. The spyware known as "CoolWebSearch" has been known to take over your Internet Explorer and be a real pest.

Recently, from THIS article, researchers in the anti-Spyware field have uncovered a clever key stroke logger hidden deep inside "CoolWebSearch". Read that article and get a good spyware removal tool.

The Random Note...

2005-07-18T13:33:00.000-04:00

Wow. So it has been a very long time since I have posted. Our other blog has been the focus of our attention with the birth of my son. Below is the random thing that happend this morning...

So a kinda funny thing happened this morning...

I got to the van this morning to ride the vanpool into work and found the attached note in the door handle. So I have been out for 2 weeks but speculation has run rampet as to who the attended target of the note its. There are 4 guys and 3 girls in the vanpool. 3 of us are married and one is virtually married. The assumption is that the person is female and likes one of the men.

For Sale: DELL TrueMobile 1150 802.11b Wireless Mini-PCI

2005-05-14T15:34:00.000-04:00

Check out my auction for a DELL TrueMobile 1150 802.11b Wireless Mini-PCI.

How Xerox sucks...

2005-05-12T08:00:00.000-04:00

So this post is 3 weeks in the making. More!! 4-Weeks now. We have a Xerox Workcentre M24 Color Copier that Prints and Scans. It's a $13,000 workgroup all-in-one. $13-freakin thousand dollars.

The copier has worked very well for its first 87,000 print/copy outs. That is basically max designed usage for this unit. We are getting our money's worth. Now we also pay about $300 month maintenance on this machine and it includes some important consumables. What Xerox calls a drum is needed to press the toner on the paper. There are 4 drums total, one for each color. So they provide the Drums, Waste toner container, fuser unit, etc.. We pay for paper, toner and staples.

So It started not processing print jobs and no matter what changes we made on our network and print servers it would not work. We called Xerox in only to be told over and over and over that it must be something on our network. So lets get into the details...

We started with standard service calls to Xerox and they dispatched Adrien the area support person. Nice guy but culprit number one on blaming our network. Despite 2 calls to level 2 networking support in which they agreed with me they did nothing to fix the issue. It was commented they probably just told me that to get me off the phone. After putzing around with an unsuccessful software upgrade they replaced the ESS board. Basically this is a motherboard for a copier. It has the RAM, CPU, NIC port and add-in card for security and MAC address. We learned that the MAC address of the copier is not on the motherboard where the NIC port is but rather on the security card (so you can't copy money). Prior to board change, our network guys found about 16,000 traffic errors coming out of the machine. After there were no errors but still no printing. After 3 visits from Adrien, who's hands are completely tied by Xerox bureaucracy, the idiots up in Rochester (His IT engineers at Xerox HQ) called in an Network Analyst.

Kyp, as he goes by in the working world, was a very thorough diagnostician. We removed the copier from our network and replicated the problem on his laptop to copier via portable switch. He still had issues printing. He was here late on a Friday and after changing a time-out setting and setting IP from DHCP to static the machine printed. Only it printed a little. The change may have let a few jobs come through but it didn't last. Monday morning the copier was exhibiting the same behaviors of not printing.

After giving him a call he dispatched Adrien to replace the HD in the unit. It comes with a 10GB Toshiba laptop HD. Nice as it handles the large print job spooling very well as well as PDF scan-to-email. Fixed, It was like night and day. Instantly the copier started performing much much better. Spooling upwards of 20 jobs from the print server and processing them properly.

Sadly, this all took over 3 weeks to resolve and shows extremely poor support from Xerox. They did not take ownership of the problem and did not accept responsibility for getting the unit back up in a timely manner. This should have been fixed within 3 days, not 3+ weeks. Their process is completely asinine. They rather send a $200/hr tech to fuck around with it for weeks than send a $100 HD, $100 motherboard to try and resolve the issue. I would still recommend our copier but when dealing with Xerox support, tell them what to do b/c they do not have a clue.

2005-04-25T19:51:00.000-04:00

The view from my hotel room in the French Quater of New Orleans, LA.

Upgrade of the WiFi

2005-04-20T15:16:00.000-04:00

So after about a year of delay I have begun to upgrade my home wireless network from 802.11b to 802.11g. Basically I am going from 10mbps to 54 mbps in speed or an increas of about 5x. This is a major need not only b/c our cable modem has increased speed but also because the file traffic from servers and to/from laptops has incresed. Here is a breakdown of the hardware.

Wireless Router:
D-Link Wireless Cable/DSL Router 4-Port Switch - 802.11G - 54Mbps - DI-524
$19.99 after mail in rebate

Wireless Adapter Michelle's Notebook:
AT&T 6700G Wireless 802.11g PDMCIA WIFI Card
$22

Wireless Adapter Bobby's Notebook:
INTEL ProSet Wireless 2200 MINI PCI 802.11b/g (internal wifi card)
$28

Total network upgrade cost:
$70

Motorola T721 GSM Cell phone for sale...

2005-04-05T20:37:00.000-04:00

Check out my auction for an Motorola T721 AT&T Wireless cell phone. You can pay $15 on the 'net to have it unlocked to work with any carrier that uses a GSM network.

Car Troubles...

2005-03-25T10:20:00.000-05:00

So yesterday started off great, I woke up to 12" of snow on the ground and what amounts to a 3 hour delay. On the way down the mountain, I noticed after about 2 minutes of driving, an engine temperature of 190 degrees (normal engine temp) but no heat from the inside blowers. Well, about half way down Camelback road I stopped at the Village store with an engine temp of 240 degrees. I checked to find a low coolant resivoir. No sooner than that did the dashboard "light up like a christmas tree." The dash beeped with 2 warning lights. Good design VW. A red Water Temp light blinked and the yellow check-engine light came on and stayed. Now this car's temp stays at 190 like clockwork. Never has deviated from that reading the entire time owning the car. I know when it was high something serious was going on. I put some water in the coolant resivoir hoping it was just low but wasn't expecting much with all the sensor wizardry going on my dash. I would like to have those go on at about 210 - 230 degrees only because I think the car could give a little sooner warning. Also for a car with a washer fluid level light should have a (better) engine coolant level light.

After a little more driving, about 2 miles I pulled into my friend Dave's gas station, the Road Runner Sunaco. A call to AAA and 1:15h later I was on a flatbed to Halterman's VW in East Stroudsburg. This was the begining of the unpleasant portion of my experience. I already do not like their service center b/c I think they are overpriced in terms of hourly rate. However I think that is concistant at all VW's. They have an $85/hr labor rate. Compared to my Nissan, that's $20/hr. higher. They had 6 cars in front of me upon my arrival. Now I have no problem with them working on cars of other customers that are waiting. However, for cars dropped off I certainly expect to be bumped in front of them. Espically since I was a tow in emergency service they should have giving me a high priority. If you goto a hospital (excluding the shitty PMC) they don't put the heat attack behind the 6 paper-cuts who where there sooner. The more severe situations get helped sooner.

So thats bitch #1 with Haltermans VW in East Stroudsburg. My other bitch is they have only, only 2 VW mechanics working with a lot FULL of cars. Now, for those of you who have not been there, their service center is huge and georgous. A dual, High bay auto-garage door checkin lanes where you talk to a car-service rep/case worker. Here is an abobination of business efficency. They have 4 people on stools near wall mounted comptuers litteraly glorified secretaries sitting on their ass all day doing jack shit. That is in addition to a "garage foremen" who also sits on his ass at a much larger bar like desk. Those 5 people watched 4 (2 VW 2 Toyota) mechanics. WTF, no wonder their labor rates are sky high. That doesn't even begin to include the parts receptionist, parts "getter" and cashier. This isn't fucking wawa people. There wasn't a line to pay them. Why this gross excess of manpower. Who runs this place, do they have a college degree!

So back to my service. They said they probably couldn't get to it today and after a little talking with the "case worker" then the "garage forman" we agreed to revisit those chances in an hour. Working on the story I was stuck there I was hoping my physical presence would push them to get me infront of someone. Also I had nowhere to go. My wife's at home 10 months preggers and due 2 days prior. I had my laptop b/c I was on my way to work with some DVD's. So I watched iRobot. I was probably going to do that at home anyway so doing it there was no skin off my back.

After the movie, I went to hunt down some answers on the car. They were pretty stubborn not moving me in front of anyone, even people who dropped off their car. Now as a customer who often drops-off my car. I kind of expect my car to be worked on after in-store customers b/c thats the reason for dropping it off. So they can work on it at their convenience. But not this joint. So I had an idea, I called Young VW in Easton to see if they could look at it. Good news, it was their late night and would probably get to it. Now with that secure it was time to see if AAA would tow it down there. I was close but since I was at a shop, they didn't consider it within the scope of their towing services. Now if Halterman's was unable to do the repairs they would have towed it. Now I don't have a problem with AAA's answer. I did try and work them, 1. both tows within 100 miles 2. haltermans couldn't fix it today, Young could, 3. Wife's 10-months preggers but that was a stretch.

Now if it didn't cost so much to tow or it wasn't an overheat condition where its engine critical, I would have gone down there but Haltermans had me by the balls. So I left it and got a ride home from my sister who was done work mid afternoon. So for now on, I think I will go right to Young VW in Easton. They need to be more compeditive with a few VW's in the area unlike the Halterman's in East Stroudsburg who is "the only game in town."

Oh and the car, well they DID end up looking at it that day after all that shit. Broken water pump, under warrenty. Will be ready today at 16:30.

Snow Rant...

2005-03-23T19:51:00.000-05:00

[RANT]

Fuck You weathermen!! Every last one of you. I love how 2-3" of wet snow has turned into 12" of heavy-wet-road-crippling-car-skidding SNOW! I know the weathermen don't order or create the weather but at least they could semi-predict it somewhere close.

Also to the asshole driving the $50,000 Range Rover Land Rover. Your vehicle can fucking tranverse the worst off-road condiditons of the Austrailian outback. Go faster than 10 MPH in the snow. And turn your flashers off, I can fucking see you.

[/RANT]

Some humor...

2005-03-21T21:21:00.000-05:00

Ever wonder about store clerks and cashiers not even glancing at your signature when purchasing with Credit Cards. Well a gentleman did and we bring you the Credit Card Prank II.

So fucking left they are off the earth...

2005-03-20T19:55:00.000-05:00

I am talking about CBS News. There is a very good reason the rest of the liberal press and the fair and balanced Foxnews pounced on Dan Rather for "memo-gate". Tonight I watched a piece on 60 Minutes (SUN) about an Albanian buying .50 Barrett Sniper rifles and "smuggling" them to his home country. Mind you he bought them legally and took them to Albania legally, CBS News, 60 Minutes and Ed Bradly placed a fantastic amount of biased liberal spin as this should be some kind of outrage. Lets review the facts, not the spin, of this news article. 1. US Citizen legally buys US weapons. 2. US Citizen legally flew with weapons to home country. 3. US Citizen legally bought .50 cal ammo. I spend a lot of time b/t NBC News (central to liberal) and Foxnews (central to right) and am very satisified with their reporting. This CBS trash just astounded me.

Digital Music Revolution...

2005-03-19T08:30:00.000-05:00

So, almost since their inception I have been fascinated with digital music. It began in early to late 1998 as a frosh at The Pennsylvania State University. The MP3 file format had been release launching the ability to put your CD music on your computer in a compact file size. I was the first to hook up my stereo's aux in to my PC. Coupled with Winamp MP3 music player and a homemade jukebox was born.

It was later in that time frame that a small company called RIO release the first, commercial, MP3 player. Basic in features and memory it was a mild success; the focus of geeks. There were problems, the computer power and space needed to rip cd's to MP3's was high end. The CD burner was new, expensive and a slow 2x. No buffer under-run and a crappy windows 98 OS you needed to kill everything but easy cd creator.

So why the nostalgia? Well, it is time to fast forward to today. The landscape has changed. We are transitioning from peer-to-peer file sharing of music which bypassed buying music from artists and essentially created an illegal stealing service to now several pay for download music services. The debate and cause for the illegal P2P music swaping is old, we will omit that here. Music for sale online, competition among services and the illegal P2P services has reduced the overpriced (argueably) cost of CD's.

Today I make a case against iPod as a music player and iTunes as a service. First, if you are rich, money is not a real concern get an iPod and use iTunes. However if you have any any shred of value for your heard earned money, there are much better choices in terms of digital audio players and music services. I recommend players from Dell, Creative, and iRiver. I also love Wal-mart and online stores such as newegg.com, buy.com and pcmall.com for low prices of these products. For 5GB and lower sized digital music players, i suggest Napster To Go. Check out a good article here.

2005-03-12T14:43:00.001-05:00

Front of the Barefoot Resort card.

2005-03-12T14:43:00.000-05:00

This was Myrtle Beach Summer 2003 and a round at one of the newer tracks, Barefoot Golf Club. The Smiths are fun golfer. Gabe is cool.

Great Golf Experiences...

2005-03-12T14:28:00.000-05:00

So I have a ton of golf score cards and I decided that what better place to share than in my Blog. I will also start with the best course I ever played, Commonwealth National Golf Club. Phenomenal track in Horsham, PA. This round is of great importance to me. I played with my best friends on my wedding day, 28 May 2004. Life does not get any better than that. Scorecard forthcomming.

2005-03-12T14:24:00.001-05:00

Yardage Book Front Commonwealth National Golf Club

2005-03-12T14:24:00.000-05:00

Yardage Book holes 1 - 9 Commonwealth National Golf Club

2005-03-12T14:23:00.000-05:00

Yardage Book holes 10 - 18 Commonwealth National Golf Club

2005-03-12T14:22:00.000-05:00

Yardage Book Layout Commonwealth National Golf Club

Xbox recall and "I love being right"

2005-02-17T19:34:00.000-05:00

Two items of interest this evening. First, Microsoft Corp. is recalling Xbox Power Cords. Check out the recall website here. Second, after being accused of misplacing a Target giftcard I used to purchase a lamp, it was determined the one in my lovely wife's wallet was the card I used as I told her. Howerver it took checking the balance on target.com to reveal that I was right. I love being right. :-)

Spoofing and Phishing...

2005-02-14T08:34:00.000-05:00

Some or all of you may have heard of Spoofing or Phishing. It is an attempt by a rogue email and website to get you to send them confidential financial information. Credit card and account numbers, pins, etc. Very personal information. Un-educated (Dumb, maybe) peole fall for the prank. Below is a image of paypal Phish, the email wants me to think I need to do what it says. However the link in the message does not take me to paypal.com but to this address http://www.carina.sorescu.go.ro/ that is clearly someone in a foreign country trying to steal my shit. Beaware. Bastards.

2005-02-14T08:33:00.000-05:00

PayPal Spoofing email...

Thanks to ABCNews and Down with Spyware

2005-01-02T15:58:00.000-05:00

Hello,

I know it has been a lengthy bit of time since my last posting. I need to add a calendar reminder to my outlook I think. Anyway, I would first like to thank ABCNews for recognizing "Bloggers" (whatever that means) as their person of the year. It is a major achievement for ABCNews to recognize an internet group with such an honor.

Next I would like to expand on my latest experiences with Spyware. There is a fundamental flaw with peoples perception of safe internet usage and wise decisions. I would like to go over a few problems with the way we "surf the 'net." First we make certain assumptions about what is bad and what is good on the internet. One of the major problems is the assumption that when we are prompted to install a piece of software or need to click yes to approve a dialog box to make a certain web site work, that the software is safe and necessary for the site to work.

It is occasionally true that a web site may need a some software to work properly. Moreso, websites the are offering "FREE" stuff are trying to abuse your trust. Free search toolbars are the number one culprit for being and allowing spyware to enter your computers. Other problem software are free games and other add-ons that are pushed you internet surfers. So what can you do to thwrart these invaders of your computer? There are 3 main tools that you can put on your computer to remove, block and protect against spyware.

First, always have an up-to-date Antivirus program installed and working. This is an active defense to viruses and spyware. I suggest you look at getting one of the following:
Norton Antivirus
Mcafee Antivirus
Trend-Micro Antivirus

Second, install and regularly run a spyware removal tool. There are two really good ones and it is suggested that you update and run both weekly. Here are the links:
Spybot
Ad-aware

Third, and finally STOP!! using Microsoft Internet Explorer. It has a long and poor history with security vulnerabilities that not only can let spyware in but also let hackers take over your whole computer. You can get a really good browser from the folks at the Mozilla foundation, they took over the old Netscape browser code. http://www.getfirefox.com/

Copiers; Expensive and Flaky

2004-11-23T18:54:00.000-05:00

My latest pain to deal with is a copier. Now these new copiers do it all. First we are talking full color, high speed behometh. Our unit is a $12,000 Xerox Workcentre M24. Now would you expect support and assistance with the install, setup and operations of your new twelve-thousand dollar copier? Well my experience wasn't so obvious. First some details....

Our organization moved into some new real-estate in our offices and are together with another group and part of our startup funding we decided on a shared multi-function device. We needed a medium sized color print and scan capabilitie + copying. We settled on this Xerox unit b/c it provided all that functionality and has great scanning functions. The scan to email feature will scan multi page documents and email a PDF file very much like the HP Digital Senders will do.

So what's our problem, undocumented error codes. Turns out this is a huge shake-down. A shake-down for Xerox to secure maintenance fees or technican charges. Our error was Fault Code 016-503. Turns out it is SMTP server not resolved error. A change of smtp server addressing fixed the problem but it took an email to the VP of Marketing to get some asses moving on this. Now its fixed, were happy and its a great unit.

Slowwww Lately...

2004-11-14T08:36:00.000-05:00

So I have been very busy with a myriad of work, school, and home tasks. So what can a techie post about home projects...quite a bit actually. I have been finishing my basement and have framed out the walls and not working on the electricty. First let me comment that I Hate Electricians. What a dumb group of lazy F's. I was working down there this summer and tripped the circuit breaker. To my suprise I discovered that on one circuit was my basement outlet, 4 ceiling lights, living room outlets (3), living room lights, front-outside deck lights and front outside spot-lights!! What a idiot. All that stuff on one circuit!! More to come including pictures a little later...

Some minor things to report...

2004-10-19T20:52:00.000-04:00

This will be brief.

Google's Desktop search (http://desktop.google.com/) kicks ass!! So go get it.

Google's text messaging search is also cool: http://sms.google.com/

A blast from my past occurred this week as our division manager needed assistance reconnecting a Windows 98 PC to his home network. The usual checks were made ensuring the NIC was installed right. Those checks are to run WINIPCFG and make sure you have a listing for your network card, and hopefully an IP that is valid. A good check is to set your NIC's IP and try and ping it. If you get replies, its installed right. Next make sure you can ping your gateway. And finally make sure your cable is well connected. Also make sure the cable you are using is a CAT 5, 5e or CAT 6 cable. One error had someone switch from a Windows ICS setup with 2 PC's and using a crossover cable. Upon their upgrade to a router that cable will only work in the uplink port so be aware of your cabling.

Its the little ones you have to watch out for...

2004-10-12T13:30:00.000-04:00

What started out as a simple re-build job for a Gateway solo 1200 laptop turned out to be a bit of a chore. It started with the laptop struggling to copy the Windows 2K or XP setup files during the DOS portion of the install. In fact, I was getting various bluescreens during install with both OS's. I thought since both CD's were in good shape that there was an issue with the CD-ROM drive, a fair conclusion. However, after the install of a new CD-ROM I was still having issues. I broke out some old schoold Win 9x boot disks, loaded SMARTDRV read-cacheing tool and copied the i386 folder to the HD (fast and w/o issue). The install from the HD lead to the same blue screens. A new BIOS flash later I was making no progress until a different blue screen thanks to windows 2000 and stop error 0x00000067. That lead to 2 KB articles, one of which suggest bad RAM and to test and replace. NO! it could be bad chips? YES it was. Bootable memory check from http://www.memtest86.com/ confirmed bad memory from about 20 - 35MB segments on the computer. I just realized that that laptop has 64 MB on-board the motherboard and 64 MB in an add-in card. I will have to go back and check if its the on-board memory or the add-in SODIMM. Today's lesson, check those stop errors completely and run all tests before assuming.

Update: Well, I pulled the add-in RAM and the on-board soldered to the MB RAM is dead. Damn. Laptop is now only good for parts.

Cars...

2004-10-07T07:06:00.000-04:00

There is nothing more that I hate than having to fix, work-on, and diagnose car issues. Being the owner of a 1986 300zx there is always an issues to work on. But my new issue is with my 2001 VW Jetta GLS and the stock radio. Now for those not familar with Jetta's, the front stero in an '01 is 2 bays big. The head unit sits in the middle of the front dash and contains the radio and cassette. Above that is the single CD bay (aka din). For about a month or 2 now I have had little or no radio reception. Now the roof antenna appears undamaged and well screwed in. Playing with it by hand has no effect on the systems ability to get better signal. Where I am from in Tannersville, PA there are 3 strong radio stations that come in at about 60-70% quality: 93.5, 107.1, and 107.9. We also usually have no problems getting stations from NW NJ and the Lehigh Valley of PA: 106.3, 95.1, 96.1, 99.9, 103.7, 104.1. However NONE of those stations come in with even a whisper of clarity.

So this is my first "I need your help BLOG" Please post comments and suggestions to assit me in checking the system out.

UPDATE:
Many online sources point to the amplified antenna to be the culprit. Several things could be at issue. A poor ground due to corrosion or a friend amplifier. Since I have a partial signal, I would suspect corrosion. Stay tuned...

Fighting with a Compaq

2004-09-27T08:52:00.000-04:00

Well my latest fight with technology deserves a writeup. After fighting with a ME -> Windows 2000 upgrade on a Presario 5000 (PIII 1.0GHZ 256 MB RAM, 40GB HD) I was tasked to upgrade the video card. Now, in honesty, the upgrade to Windows 2000 was in response to remove the crappy Win 9X relesae that is Millennium edition.

The new video card was required by the kids to play The Sims 2 (32MB Video memory minimum). The integrated Intel 810 Graphics on this MB has 4MB of memory. Now, the Intel 810 chipset MB provides for disabling the onboard graphics controller, however Compaq's implementation sucks as dows Windows 2000's ability to disable such devices. Despite finally finding the spot in the bios (use F10 to enter) to disable, Windows 2000 decided to blatently ignore my request.

My last effort to get 2nd video card to be used as primary was to install Windows XP and disable the Intel 810. Well Windows XP is much smarter. After install, it used new video card automatically or in response to the BIOS setting. What a pain! Do not buy a Compaq or HP. For their "model" of a comptuer, in this case Presario 5000, there are about 500 (no lie) variations that makes it impossible to find out whats inside these machines.

Oh, I also learned that Windows XP SP2 appears to run just as fast, if not faster than Windows 2000 on PIII machines of this spec.

Some Links:
http://support.intel.com/support/graphics/intel810/sb/CS-009136.htm

Boys and their toys...

2004-09-24T07:59:00.000-04:00

Women, especially mine, have a long history of tolerating boys (ok, men technically) and the passion they have for toys. Whether it is cars, gadgets or gizmos we all have our passions.

I recently got a new toy, a Hitachi 2.5mm 7200RM 60GB ATA100 HD for my laptop. This is a big increase over the factory 40GB model. While only 20GB seperates the storage increase, it is bounds faster. The original 4200RPM HD was a dog at handling intense tasks and loading required of a tasked engineering machine. A decked out Dell Latitude C840 (P4 2.0Ghz, 1GB RAM, 64MB GeForce 440 Vide0) was a real desktop replacement for me at first, but after a year of software and wear, its weak spot was clear, the HD speed. This mechanical device is the most important and slowest in a computer. The mechanical nature of HD's preclude them from the same reliability and speed as their non-mechanical computer component counterparts. So if you need a speed increase on your laptop (or PC), spend a few bucks on a high-end HD, you will be glad you did.

Recommend:
Laptop: 2.5mm HD, 7200RPM or faster, 60GB or larger, ATA100 or faster
PC: 3.5" HD, 7200RPM or faster, 120GB or larger, ATA100 or SATA or faster, 8MB cache or larger

The new MP3 player

2004-09-22T20:37:00.000-04:00

I have been a long admirer of MP3 players. In fact, I have owned 2. A 6GB Creative Nomad Jukebox. Great device. 2nd, is a memorex 128MB flash based player, armband for the gym. Also great.

Lots and lots of talk have been given to the iPod. It is a great device. Really. But, and this is an important one, many are better, functionally. Nothing is going to beat the iPod styling. It is great. However, Creative has 2 products that really shine. The Creative Nomad Zen Touch has a touch based scroll bar that was made by Synaptics, the laptop touchpad maker that also made the iPod scroll wheel. The Creative Zen Touch boasts a 20 GB HD, USB 2.0 transfer, and a 24 Hr battery life. Awesome, and that kills the iPod by half a day. Purchased from newegg.com for $240, it is about $59 dollars less than the iPod and IMHO a lot better. Get this if you want a HD based MP3 player.

The second is the Dell DJ. You may recall I said, earlier, that Creative as 2 products that really shine. Well, they made and designed the Dell DJ. The Dell DJ comes in a 15GB and 20GB size and prices from approx $199 - $249 respectively. It is everything the Zen Touch is except it has a mechanical wheel to scroll instead of the cool touch pad. Expect about 10 - 14 hrs batterlife.

Check these out at http://www.creative.com/ and http://www.dell.com/

The plague that is SPYWARE

2004-09-21T13:10:00.000-04:00

Recently, I have been called upon by many peers, co-workers, and friends to fix their "broken" computers. I hear things like its slow, its doesn't work, "x" brand sux. However and especially of late, the problem is spyware. Have a million pop-ups or pop-under ads while web surfing? Some search page overtaking your browser, Internet Explorer? You are infected with spyware.

Spyware Defined: Silent background use of an Internet "backchannel" connection MUST BE PRECEDED by a complete and truthful disclosure of proposed backchannel usage, followed by the receipt of explicit, informed, consent for such use. Any software communicating across the Internet absent of these elements is guilty of information theft and is properly and rightfully termed: Spyware

Unknown to most people, especially computer savy but ignorant teens and young adults, they are allowing this software to infiltrate their PC's. It is happening at work, home, and school! In the next few paragraphs I will attempt to discuss a few sources of spyware (and/or adware).

The first and most plaguing entrance of spyware to your computer is Kazaa and other P2P, music DL software. Kazaa installs several annoying and resource hogging spyware and adware components. These components spy and report to their makers your surfing habits to target those annoying pop-up adds to you. Some of the included spyware are tools of the name P2P networking, BDE projector, and others.

The next spyware issue is not a specific program but a class of program. Internet Explorer "search toolbar" add-ins. These are often marketed with "cool" features of graphical add-ons and claims of the best search results. However, they often completely overtake your web browsers settings and lock you in to what THEY want you to see. On major offender is the CoolWebSearch bar. CWS for short. They force themselves to always be your start page, prevent you from visiting Microsoft's windowsupdate AND inundate you with Pop-Ups. WORSE! they often tell you you have spyware and offer removal tools that are also spyware tools themselves!!!

So what can YOU do about spyware to remove and protect yourself. Well there are a few options. To start, ALWAYS have a good anti-virus software installd and updated on you PC. An extremely effective and FREE anti-virus software is AVG Anti-Virus. You can read more at: http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_index.php.

If you need the comfort of spending money on an anti-virus solution I suggest Norton Antivirus, McAfee Antivirus, or Trend Micro antivirus. Find them at http://www.symantec.com/ http://www.mcafee.com/ and http://www.trendmicro.com/ respectively.

The next protection you should have, especially if you have a broadband connection to the internet such as a cable modem or DSL, is a firewall. A firewall performs a function similar to its name. It insulates your computer from the whole of internet connectivity. There are many levels of firewalls but I will provide guidance for the home and school user here. If you have Microsoft Windows XP, you already have access to a built-in firewall. Visit http://v5.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/ and install Service Pack 2 to enable it. If you have an older version of windows, I suggest a software firewall such as Zone Labs ZoneAlarm or Norton Internet Security. Check out http://www.zonelabs.com/ and http://www.symantec.com/.

This is all great, but what if you are already infected with spyware. Then you need a spyware removal tool. Leaders in spyware removal offer a version free for home users. Ad-aware from http://www.lavasoft.de/ and Spybot - Search and Destroy from http://security.kolla.de/ are your best bets. Download, install, update and scan.

There are several very persistent spyware programs out there, coolwebsearch is one described as a browser hijacker. The best bet is to use Google to search for methods of removal.

A Newbie's First post

2004-09-21T11:43:00.000-04:00

Hello Blog and Bloggers and friends. This is Trifster's first post. I am looking to keep this online posting as a resource for myself, friends. Expect a variety of topics, thoughts and ideas that hopefully you will find enjoyable to read and informative in your everyday life.

First, a little about me. I am a 25 (almost 26) year old Systems Engineer who is married to a wonderful wife, Michelle, and soon-to-be father! I have a B.S. Computer Science from The Pennsylvania State University and a M.S. Integrated Product Development, Systems Reliability and Design from Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ.

I enjoy many activities that include Golf, Skiing, Computer research and home improvements. I am a huge sports fan and enjoy Penn State college football, Flyers Hockey and Philadelphia Eagles football. If you like sports, get an HDTV. Picts of mine forthcoming.