Thursday, December 08, 2005

Color Photos taken 96 years ago!

Color film was non-existent in 1909 Russia, yet in that year a photographer named Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii captured hundreds of photos in full, vivid color. His photographic plates were black and white, but he had developed an ingenious photographic technique which allowed him to use them to produce accurate color images

read more | digg story

Thursday, November 17, 2005

Set up Linux and OSX to login using Active Directory

The Big Nerd Ranch has posted a blog on how to setup Linux and OSX so that you can login using your AD user name and password settings.

read more | digg story

Friday, November 11, 2005

VOIP No Longer for the Underdog

This is a good eWeek commentary on how VOIP "telephony" has progressed and where it's running into trouble.

read more | digg story

Monday, November 07, 2005

Start your own GeekSquad

Put GeekSquad out of business. Here are some helpful tips on how you can set up a remote support website to make extra money fixing people's computer problems using One Click VNC servers.

read more | digg story

Saturday, November 05, 2005

Dreamcast 2.0?

Is the Xbox 360 the second coming of the Sega Dreamcast? 1up.com lists 23 parallels between the consoles that spell doom, and 10 reasons why the 360 could succeed where the Dreamcast failed.

read more | digg story

Saturday, October 29, 2005

Could Not Parse File

I had an issue this morning when I tried to do an update with yum

[root@localhost yum.repos.d]# yum update
Setting up Update Process
Setting up Repos
dag 100% |=========================| 0 B 00:00
//var/cache/yum/dag/repomd.xml:1: parser error : Document is empty

^
//var/cache/yum/dag/repomd.xml:1: parser error : Start tag expected, '<' not found

^
Cannot open/read repomd.xml file for repository: dag
Error importing repomd.xml from dag: Error: could not parse file //var/cache/yum/dag/repomd.xml


I did a search and found out that it pretty much had to do with the file "repomd.xml" that it was downloading from the DAG mirror, so I just switched mirrors in my /etc/yum.conf and everything started working as it should have.

Monday, October 17, 2005

Slashdot is losing its edge to digg.com

Digg.com is quickly reaching Slashdot when comparing daily visitors according to Alexa's Traffic Rankings (see link). Slashdot isn't as cutting edge as it used to be: stories get barely 200 replies. Maybe that CSS update was too little and too late.

read more | digg story

Sunday, October 16, 2005

Make Ubuntu usable in few minutes

Easy Ubuntu allows you to Add extra repositories, Activate the "audio preview" feature in Nautilus, Active the num lock at system startup, Replace the GNOME foot logo with Ubuntu's logo and Install: multimedia codecs, Firefox plugins, support for RAR and ACE, P2P software, Skype, AMSN cvs with webcam support, NVIDA or ATI driver for 3D support.

read more | digg story

Ubuntu 5.10 Breezy Badger Has Been Released!!!

The Breezy Badger is available for download now! Plese use the torrents to help the server.

read more | digg story

Microsoft, others teach kids to code

A story about a new kids-oriented Web site by MS dedicated to teaching kids about computer programming. Includes a roundup of other kids' programming resources we've discussed in the past.

read more | digg story

Thursday, October 13, 2005

Geek goes popular on Myspace

Looks like this guy really wanted to be popular on myspace. Actually kind of interesting when you read it, heh.

read more | digg story

Saturday, October 01, 2005

Hacking the hackers

Take a look at this video profiling the world of computer hacking -- it's not just for nerds anymore.

read more | digg story

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Ingenious $100 Laptop at MIT

Not only is this laptop cheap, but its design is very well thought out. The battery doubles as a handle and the shoulder strap is the power supply and plug. I would definitely buy a few of these.

read more | digg story

How to log on to Windows XP if you forget your password

This article describes how to log on to Windows XP if you forget your password or your password expires and you cannot create a new one.

read more | digg story

Saturday, September 24, 2005

Microsoft's nightmare inches closer to reality

A decade ago, Microsoft worried that the Internet could become a software platform that threatens Windows. Ten years later, that amorphous nightmare has a name: Google.

read more | digg story

Friday, September 23, 2005

Hacking the Linksys WRT54G wireless router

Pretty much everything you need to know about hacking the Linksys WRT-54G.

read more | digg story

Monday, September 19, 2005

Tutorial: Setting up a server with SuSE 10.0

this is a very detailed tutorial about how to use the new SuSE 10.0 to set up a web, mail, and ftp server.
It covers every aspect of the installation and demonstrates the setup process with the help of 50 screenshots, allowing even beginners to follow this guide. Experienced system administrators will benefit from this tutorial as well.

read more | digg story

Saturday, September 17, 2005

Bare metal Linux server restore with tar

When my production Web server, running Red Hat Enterprise Linux, began generating filesystem errors, I found my backup system put to the ultimate test. My bare-metal restore saved the day for me. Here's how you can put a similar scheme to work.

read more | digg story

The first page ever on the World Wide Web

The World Wide Web began as a CERN project. The first website went on-line in 1991. This is a link to a copy of the original "World-Wide Web Home" of CERN, created by Berners-Lee.

See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CERN#Computer_Science_and_CERN

read more | digg story

G4 Founder/CEO Replaced (TechTV programming to return?)

Charles Hirschhorn, Founder and CEO of G4TV has been replaced! Charles was best known for his acquisition and transformation of TechTV into what is now the game centric G4TV. Will the new CEO add more tech programming? Time will tell..

read more | digg story

Friday, September 16, 2005

Cool FireFox Wallpapers

Very nice FireFox wallpapers. High Quality.

read more | digg story

Light transmitting concrete

A wall made of LitraCon has the strength of traditional concrete but thanks to an embedded array of optical glass fibers, view of the outside world, such as the silhouette of trees, houses and passersby, are transmitted inside the building.

read more | digg story

How to bypass those annoying automated recordings at most major companies

Strategies and how to get directly connected to someone with a pulse instead of listening to a damn recording at most major companies. Very interesting and helpful.

read more | digg story

Inside the iPod Nano (subSystm)

So you've seen pictures of the iPod Nano insides, but what about video? This video compares the Nano to older iPods, and of course shows you how easy it is to crack one open.

read more | digg story

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

REVIEW: Yahoo! Mail Beta

First complete review of the new Yahoo! Mail, unavailable to most users. Screen shots. Tabbed mail reading.

read more | digg story

Windows In Your Pocket

All it takes is a minor error in the Windows Registry or a virus infection, and your operating system can become unbootable. But with a properly configured USB flash drive on hand, you'll always have a compatible replacement no further away than your pocket or keychain. In addition, the flash drive can also provide...

read more | digg story

Microsoft releases new photo sharing app

Microsoft Codename Max allows you to import photos, arrange them in a photo album, and share them with your friends. It's very cool, check it out!

read more | digg story

Photoshop - how to make people look Pretty

A great tutorial by Lunacore.com on "Beautify a Face".. very detailed with downloadable image so you can follow along... lots of other nice tuts over at www.lunacore.com.

Be sure to mouse over the last picture so you can see the difference.

read more | digg story

Google Blog Search Launched!!!

Google's latest service "Blog Search" has been launched!

read more | digg story

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Firefox gets "Supernatural"

"A couple weeks ago, we were approached by some very cool people in Hollywood working on a new show called Supernatural on The WB. Not only were they Firefox users, they wanted to help spread the word about Firefox too."

read more | digg story

Wednesday, September 07, 2005

Google Official Says Frustration Drove Him From Microsoft

A former Microsoft executive whose defection to Google set off a legal battle testified that a tirade from Bill Gates was a low point before he decided to leave.

read more | digg story

Websense Bypass PoC

I'm not sure why but one of the things that bugged me most at my previous job was the web filtering. They used websense and for awhile wherever you went you would get that stupid block page. I guess it really only got to me because I couldn't find any lasting solutions to get around it, I found one but that caught on pretty quickly till it was found out by the admins. Here is another one of those solutions that I'm not sure will last but hey its worth a shot.

Websense URL Filtering Bypass PoC

Oh and yes you do need Perl to run this

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Linux Newbie Administrator Guide

The Linux Newbie Administrator Guide is "A complete reference for new Linux users who wish to set up and administer their own Linux home computer, workstation and/or their home or small office network." Weening myself off WinTendo seemed nearly impossible until I found this jewel.

read more | digg story

Monday, September 05, 2005

New file format causes Mass panic at Microsoft - POOR MICROSOFT

The decision to adopt OASIS formats, pioneered by the open source OpenOffice project, has naturally angered Microsoft whose Office suite dominates the commercial market.

read more | digg story

Friday, September 02, 2005

In central New Orleans, a Web firm pushes on

Employees of New Orleans-based Web firm, Intercosmos Media Group Inc., have chosen to stay with their servers, located in a 27-story skyscraper. They're goal is to keep the servers, which house some 800,000 Web sites, up and running.

read more | digg story

Thursday, September 01, 2005

The 20 Biggest Tech Secrets

We reveal some of what vendors are keeping mum, such as: You never have to pay full price, extended warranties rarely pay for themselves, and the big sites do have customer service numbers.

read more | digg story

Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Parasites brainwash grasshoppers into death dive

A parasitic worm that makes the grasshopper it invades jump into water and commit suicide does so by chemically influencing its brain, a study of the insects' proteins reveal.

read more | digg story

Tuesday, August 30, 2005

How the vi editor would look if it had been made my Microsoft

See how things might have been if Microsoft had done vi. Truly funny!

read more | digg story

Build Your Own Home Television Server

Rig your tv to your computer LAN. Interesting hacks on creating DVDs from the tv, editing video, and more. Includes details and step-by-step instructions on software and hardware required. Cool project.

read more | digg story

The most accurate broadband Speed Test on the internet.

The most accurate broadband Speed Test on the internet. Very easy to use. DSL, Cable, Dial Up, you name it, this one test covers them all. Results appear on the screen in a easy to understand format

read more | digg story

Five Reasons NOT to use Linux.

I love Linux. I use it on my servers, I use it on my desktops, and I use it on my entertainment center, where it powers my HDTV TiVo and my D-Link DSM-320 media player, which turns my network into a media library with terabytes of storage. Heck, I even run Linux on my Linksys WRT54G Wi-Fi access points, which hook the whole shebang together.

read more | digg story

Monday, August 29, 2005

The 46 Best Freeware utilities EVER!!!

Here are the best freeware utilities ever made. it even includes fire fox. And a free spy-ware remover.

read more | digg story

Saturday, August 27, 2005

GM will launch self-driving car in 2008

This will totally give new meaning to the term auto-pilot: GM will be launching a vehicle with an actual self-driving system in its 2008 Opel Vectra.

read more | digg story

Thursday, August 25, 2005

Top 15 Tech Shows

The 15 best free downloadable tech shows currently available on the Internet.

read more | digg story

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Apply Custom Views to All Folders in Outlook 2003

I just have to say that ever since this client asked me to change the folder view on all their users I was searching everywhere for a solution. It would appear to be all too easy, but I guess it didn't make sense enough to become an actual feature. I pretty much followed this article and got it working.... Minus the creating the shortcut with the special "/cleanviews". I just started up Outlook and began making the changes as it said. View the article here.

Thursday, August 18, 2005

More Whax and Auditor hacking demos

I've scoured the net to locate every single movie and flash demo for Whax (formerly known as Whoppix) as well as Auditor. These are essentially hacker distros of Linux made to boot directly from a CD with no installation. Also, for those screaming dupe, the torrent actually works this time: http://members.cox.net/puzzlepants/whax.torrent

read more | digg story

The New Project List

Well I have a list of definite projects I have to work on at work now.

Rebuild Spamshield solution
Create Webapp to interface with MySQL database
Redesign two company websites

Then I'm also going to be working on a business plan, marketing plan, and a sales plan. So I'm gonna start enlisting some help for that stuff.

As far as the projects go, The Spamshield is pretty much my company's attempt at an Anti-Spam offering. It never really made it out of development before it was sold and promoted though, so now I have to make it work.... which really means redo it. It was Gentoo based and I'll probably end up using Catalyst , after I get it how I want on the main machine, to create the installation CDs. The webapp I was thinking of using Ruby on Rails to build with (maybe cakePHP) , the current asp web front is in need of some feature overhaul. So instead of learning ASP and working with it, I decided to use Ruby on Rails and see where it will take me. The two company websites are for the company I work for and the parent company, they are pretty much in need of some help....badly. So I just have to see what my imagination comes up with on those.

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

HOW TO: Shopping for major discounts at Dell

I no longer work for Dell, I quit my job there, but I worked in Nashville in the S&P Small business division...

read more | digg story

Mad rush for $50 computers

The day is here... the 7AM rush for the $50 ibooks. See the video of what went down. This is some pretty hilarious stuff, especially the old lady talking about kicking people in the balls.

read more | digg story

Monday, August 15, 2005

Call For Help Is Coming Back To The USA!!!

Through the 18th episode of TWiT (this week in tech) from Leo LaPorte's mouth, Call For Help is going "worldwide" with details to follow. So stay tuned all you techie freaks and TechTV lovers, cause Call For Help is coming back to US shores soon!

read more | digg story

Hybrid Supercar

Wow, this Hybrid Supercar can do 0-60 in the low 4-seconds and can get 50mpg. Developed by a bunch of High School kids, the car is call "The Attack" and looks just as good as it performs.

read more | digg story

Sunday, August 14, 2005

Run Your Own Wireless Internet Service provider (WISP)

Setting up a wireless Internet Service provider (WISP) for your office or neighborhood doesn't have to be a taxing or expensive ordeal. If you build your network from easy-to-buy equipment and use Linux, you can use the power of shell scripts to make network management easy. This article gives you the tips and scripts you need.

read more | digg story

Thursday, August 11, 2005

Explosive carrying truck detonates, leaves 80 ft crater

A tractor-trailer that was carrying 35,500 pounds of explosives overturned and exploded Wednesday left an 80 ft wide, 35 ft deep crater on U.S. Highway 6 in Utah. The truck was "pretty much vaporized", and "The entire road is gone, shoulder to shoulder..".

read more | digg story

Monday, August 08, 2005

Getting Rid of Sidefind


A very little nasty piece of spyware that when you remove it, it will take pretty much everything you got with it. So here are some links on how to remove it

Spywareremove.com
Paretologic.com
Antivirusworld.com

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

Cisco Routers Ripe For The Picking


The new interview with Michael Lynn gives a little more meat to the whole story about the Cisco IOS having a very serious flaw, one more serious than they really wanted people to know. Our very infrastructure is dependent upon Cisco technologies and this right here could pose a serious problem for everyone. Of course it is still possible to get a copy of that presentation that everyone is trying to make disappear, however, a majority of the people won't really make heads or tails out of it. There are that select few though who could actually use that info to do harm.

Link to the interview

How to Create Your Own Podcast - A Step-by-Step Tutorial

So, Are you wonder how Kevin Rose and the Diggnation folks make their podcast? Here you are a step by step Tutorial to do your own Podcast.

PS.
Don't Forget Digg.com when you became famous on Itunes Podcasts. :)

read more | digg story

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Firefox Popups

You know those annoying flash popups...Well you can say goodbye to them now.

read more | digg story

Monday, August 01, 2005

New law to make publicly free wifi illegal

2 senators have propose a law that will ban cities from implementing free wifi for their citizens. instead, they will allow private companies to capitalize on what would have been free for everyone. call your senator and revolt!

read more | digg story

Tech Shows

This is a list of the best free downloadable tech shows currently available on the Internet. This site will be regularly updated with new shows and information.

read more | digg story

Sunday, July 31, 2005

Wi-fi from 125 miles away

Team PAD set the new world record for wi-fi distance, a whoping 125 miles!!

read more | digg story

Saturday, July 30, 2005

Systm Episode 3 Released!

Episode 3 of Systm was just released - it's called "Making High Quality A/V Cables".

read more | digg story

A Hacker Games the Hotel

A vulnerability in many hotel television infrared systems can allow a hacker to obtain guests' names and their room numbers from the billing system.

read more | digg story

RPMdb problem

I just had this issue after trying to do a yum update

rpmdb: PANIC: fatal region error detected; run recovery
error: db4 error(-30978) from dbenv->close: DB_RUNRECOVERY: Fatal error, run database recovery

To solve that problem I had to rebuild the rpm database located in /var/lib/rpm. I first deleted the __db files that were there and then I just ran rpm --rebuilddb. So rm /var/lib/rpm/__* && rpm --rebuilddb did the trick after I said yes to each db file I needed to delete.

Cisco tries to suppress IOS vulnerability at BlackHat

Flaw affecting ALL versions Cisco IOS revealed at Black Hat by former ISS employee Michael Lynn...

read more | digg story

Senator Clinton, Burned by "Hot Coffee"

Over at the EFF, they have a release about how Hillary Clinton is violating the First Ammendment just too keep in the head lines. "Unfortunately, it's we the taxpayers who have to bear the cost of defending these politically motivated, certainly unconstitutional laws in court." -nuff said.

read more | digg story

Purchase a Skycar!

As a result of the recent successful hovering flights of the M400 Skycar, Moller International is accepting deposits to secure delivery positions for our M400 Skycar until after the Skycar has flown from hover to full aerodynamic flight and returned (transitioning flight). A limited number of delivery positions are available.

read more | digg story

Friday, July 29, 2005

Diggnation on ABC News (confirmation from Alex)

"That's right people we just finished recording Diggnation Episode number 5. Not only that but a crew from ABC News Feed service was here to capture the whole thing! They are doing a story on Podcasting and they chose our Podcast to feature in their story.....

read more | digg story

Try every Linux Distro under the Sun!

"A new service is on the horizon. Fans of Linux who want to try all the different distros to decide on the best one are in for a treat. A new service called Distro of the Month is set to begin shipments on October 1, 2005 and is taking subscribers now.

read more | digg story

Tux on iPod mini Tutorial

Linux on your ipod has many advantages over Apple's default menu navigation appearance. With linux you can have the ability to play a wider set of fun games, unlock infinite expandability of your portable hard drive, navigate faster through menus, play with fun little applications built in and have a wider variety of playable audio file formats.

read more | digg story

Thursday, July 28, 2005

How to create Firefox extensions

Everyone has a good idea at one time or another to implement a new feature in a web browser. Well, with the goodness that is Mozilla Firefox, now you can do just that. You need to have a vague understanding of XUL and Javascript, but you certainly don't need to be a master of either.

read more | digg story

Sunday, July 24, 2005

10 steps to crack wep

10 Steps to Crack WEP video can be found here.Software : Whax REL 3.0

Hardware:Netgear WAG511 + dell d600


The WEP crack video using Auditor can be found here.
Software : Auditor Security Collection (auditor-150405-04)

Hardware: WG511 + Dell latitude D505

More Videos



Friday, July 22, 2005

google maps adds hybrid feature

They just keep making it better. This is the end of our overlay hacks. They have a "hybrid view". Good job google. Maybe they are out of new ideas? hardly.

read more | digg story

Thursday, July 21, 2005

Sony's PSP to browse the Web, play TV

Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) will release a system software update for its PlayStation Portable (PSP) next week that will add several new functions to the handheld gaming device, including the ability to browse the Internet and download TV programs, the company said Thursday.

read more | digg story

How to pick a lock

ever wondered how to pick a lock...well now you can know. i have tried the pin column lock explanation they gave and it was open with no problem

read more | digg story

How To Install Windows in Ubuntu Linux

Running Linux? Want the compatability of Windows? You can now have it with this moderately easy guide.

read more | digg story

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Why Everyone Should Mod Everything

Electrical engineer David Randolph on how and why everyone (even the biggest n00bs) can and should find the inspiration to become modders and what it really means to be a "modder".

read more | digg story

Run GNU/Linux from a USB pen drive

You can carry GNU/Linux in your pocket with a functional, quick, and useful USB pen drive distribution. Pen drives are faster than CDs, and the small distros that fit on them don't require huge amounts of memory for the operating system and applications.

read more | digg story

Monday, April 25, 2005

So much to do, So little time

I seem to have slacked off big time in my updating here.

First off, the new job is getting a bit tiresome thanks to management but I can deal. The work is still proving to be interesting though. I have been trying to keep up my skills on the side as well. I'm currently trying to up my skills in Linux by doing a Stage 1 installation of Gentoo, which is pretty much starting with very little and trying to build up a system from it. I'm currently doing this on my laptop which is not very fast, so it will probably take me a few weeks to finally get it done. Not because it's that slow but I seem to need some extra steps in between all the slow steps that are dragging things out. I have a system at work that is Gentoo so that is the main reason why I'm doing this, it doesn't work right now and I'm trying to get a better background in Gentoo to try and fix it. After Gentoo I'll probably try to get into some LiveCDs and the eventually LFS (Linux From Scratch)

To all who know me its definitely no secret that I prefer using linux over windows, but at work that's pretty much most of my job. I'm pretty much getting everything down since I really didnt have much background in administration within a windows environment, but I think I can hold my own with Exchange and Active Directory now. I'm really into the scripting now, since I know you can script just about everything I'm trying to build an admin console for myself that will house some of my most used scripts.

Idea Bin:
Net Admin LiveCD (WMI scripting, Nagios monitoring, blah blah, ...and other stuff)
Custom Linux Distro
Office solution for small/med sized businesses (Computers, Phones, Software, pretty much all the basics)

Thursday, March 31, 2005

Maybe it is working

Well it appears as if this freaking thing is working, so I should now be able to better categorize my posts

this freaking thing isnt working

this isnt working

Monday, February 07, 2005

Old logo

I had first started techlife as a club on blackplanet.com, this used to be one of my logos


Friday, February 04, 2005

[::: Bad Boy of Tech ::: Black Sheep of Psych :::] Toolbars

I don't really use any of the toolbars/desktop utilities that are out
right now, I usually just google everything from the main page and all
my popups are blocked thanks to Firefox. Now with everyone fighting
for a place on your desktop and web browser with a search bar I may
just have to try them out to see if any are of any use.

Microsoft
MSN Toolbar - I'm definitely not a windows guy but I'll still try
this out to what it offers.
Microsoft Desktop - Oh wait.... that's built in, Let's see how it compares :)

Yahoo
Yahoo Toolbar - I think I've used this one before but I'll install it again
Yahoo Desktop - "Requires Windows XP or Windows 2000 SP 3+" .... yea, ok

Google
Google Toolbar - Just Google it
Google Desktop - Haven't tried this but I'll give it a shot


--
Posted by TJ to ::: Bad Boy of Tech ::: Black Sheep of Psych ::: at
2/4/2005 05:25:46 PM