tech.nocr.at » images

DIY: FlashRing

Frank — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 17:33:19 +0000

Adding a ring flash to your DSLR is a real nice way off adding a soft glow to your portrait images. Problem is that professional ring flashes can cost you a lot of money.

DIYPhotography.com has a simple solution if you want to play around with a ring flash but aren’t ready to commit the money to buying one, a cheap DIY papercraft ring flash that can be customized to any camera. Just plug in your camera and flash specs into the ring flash template creator, print out the pdf, then put it all together with come cutting and glue. A great way to get started.

DIY: FlashRing originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/05. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Hotlink Prevention In Nginx

Frank — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 05:52:59 +0000

Hotlinking, inline linking, leeching, piggy-backing, direct linking or offsite image grabs. No matter what you call it 99% of the time it’s wrong. Bandwidth costs money. I spent sometime over the holidays examining my logs and noticed that there were a ton of sites hotlinking back to images we had posted. Worst of all, most of them were profiting off the images.

Here at tech.nocr.at we run nginx as a front-end proxy to WordPress. Stopping hotlinking in nginx is as simple as adding a small snippet of code in your sites-enabled file. Add the following code inside your server statement.

location ~* ^.+\.(jpg|jpeg|gif|png)$ {
  root   /path/to/webroot;
  valid_referers none blocked server_names ~(yourdomain.com|google.|yahoo.|bing.);
  if ($invalid_referer)  {
  return 403;
  }
}

The above will allow images to be displayed if they come from your domain, google, yahoo and bing. If you have other sites you might want your images to be linked from just add them in the valid_referers statement. If someone tries to hotlink to one of your images they will receive a 403 error. If you wish to have a different image displayed instead of the 403 error, letting them know they are hotlinking, then you must replace the return 403; line with this:

rewrite  ^  http://yourdomain.com/hotlink.jpe;

Notice how the image file ends in .jpe? If it were you end in .jpg it would end up in a loop and never be displayed. Simply create the image you want to use and change it’s extension to .jpe before you upload it to your web host.

Hotlink Prevention In Nginx originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/03. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

DIY Image Stabilizer

Frank — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 05:03:59 +0000

A crafty Instructables users has figured out that by using a pair of spining hard drives you can create the same gyroscopic effect that the pros use to keep their cameras nice and steady. A camera stabilizer is perfect for taking those steady shots when your conditions might be less than favorable for doing so, like driving in a car or running (think paparazzi).

Although I wouldn’t say this is a beginners project, it’s not too hard to pull off and your materials list can probably already be found around your house.

Needed: 2 discarded harddisks (HDs)
Some old discarded computer, or parts
The part in the old computer which holds floppies en HDs at a 90 degree angle…
A wooden box or plywood etc..
A hand grip
One or two strips of aluminum
A camera screw
3 or 4 car USB phone chargers
A 12 V power source (lead acid cell, a discarded NiCd cell, or (rechargeable) batteries)
Some rubber washers and a piece of inner tire
Contact glue

A little bit of soldering experience, some free time and $50 in parts you too can build yourself this image stabilizer. Just remember, if you plan a career change and decide to become a paparazzi, everyone else around you will give you some weird looks if you run around with this thing.

[Link to Gyro Image Stabilizer]

DIY Image Stabilizer originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/07. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Nintendo DS On Your Mac Or PC

Frank — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 02:11:11 +0000

DeSmuME is a Nintendo DS emulator for the Mac and for the PC that gives you the full functionality of the DS; buttons, touchscreen interface and even the Wi-Fi connectivity. It’s feature packed and allows you to play both Homebrew games and ROM images. It also offers some extra features that are not available on a physical DS like taking screenshots, creating movies from game play, loading cheat codes and even saving your game play.

It’s 100% free and can be downloaded from here. You might also want to check out NDS Homebrew for an impressive collection of homebrew games and applications.

Nintendo DS On Your Mac Or PC originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/04. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Hunt Down Wi Fi Leeches With MoocherHunter

Frank — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 04:09:48 +0000

Last week we showed you how to screw with people who were stealing your Wi Fi signal by flipping their browsers and blurring their images. Today we show you how to hunt those Wi Fi moochers. The problem with leaving your Wi Fi unprotected is that malicious people can use it to download illegal files that can be tracked back to you. The best thing to do is lock down your Wi Fi to ensure that no one does something that you might be blamed for, but if you choose to leave it open and have a problem with a user or two taking advantage of it you can track them down and pay them a visit.

First thing you are gonna want to do is download MoocherHunter. MoocherHunter tracks the data that is being streamed from your unprotected Wi Fi right to their front door. The program is pretty straighforward to use and is part of a much larger wireless auditing toolkit called OSWA-Assistant which is chalked full of useful tools to make sure your Wi Fi is well protected.

Use this information wisely, don’t go out and do something stupid with it. Remember, this is to be used for personal research, not as an excuse to knock at someone’s door and start a fight.

Hunt Down Wi Fi Leeches With MoocherHunter originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/10/15. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Baffle WiFi Leeches With An Upside-Down-Ternet

Frank — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 02:11:29 +0000

Have you ever had someone leach off your Wi Fi? You could always encrypt it or use any multitude of tricks to hide your network, but why would you do that when you can have some serious fun with them. Blur their images, or flip them upside down to get them really scratching their heads.

Essentially what you need to split up your net block so that you have a trusted block and an untrusted one. That coupled along with a few snippets of code will lead you to a wealth of possibilities. Imagine all the fun you could have with those neighbors who decide not to pay for their own access and ride the carpet on your hard earned dollars. Plus, it’s a whole lot of fun.

[Link to Upside-Down-Ternet]

Baffle WiFi Leeches With An Upside-Down-Ternet originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/10/07. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Chinavision’s Projector Cellphone

Frank — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 05:45:12 +0000

3M just announced that their MPro110 tiny projector would hit the market in late September. This was awesome news for people who are on the road a lot and have to lug around projectors to do presentations. But did you know that Chinavision is already selling a tiny projector? Built into a cell phone no-less.

The Projector phone is a tri-bank unlocked GSM phone that come with all of the features you would expect in a smartphone. Touch screen, camera, bluetooth, microSD card slot, and a 640×480 projector that claims to project images up to 46″ in width. Check the video out and judge for yourself just how good the image is.

The phone isn’t small by any stretch, and comes with the worst “wanna-be” iPhone OS I have ever seen. You get a 1800mAh battery which should provide you with up to 3 hours of talk time and about 2 hours of projector use. For $370 you really can’t go wrong if your on the road and traveling light means something to you.

[Link to Projector Phone via OhGizmo!]

Chinavision’s Projector Cellphone originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/09/22. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Change Can Be Good

Frank — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 04:10:15 +0000

Someone somewhere once said that change can be both scary and good, well we have undergone some small changes that have instilled both those feeling in us here at tech.nocr.at.

Syndication

Some of you might have already noticed the new syndication images off to the right sidebar.

Since I have received many emails asking if we have an RSS feed for the site, I thought I might as well layout the fact that we do prominently in the sidebar. For those of you heavy twitter addicts we also have an automatic tweet system that will notify you every time we have a new post on the site. Click on either of them to join the fun.

Comments

It’s hard to build a good community without an active user base, and there is no better way to build an active user base than through commenting. Every month we will be offering “dofollow” links to the sites of the top commentators on our home page. Please don’t just post for the sake of getting listed. This like “first post” or “up” don’t count. Be engaging and we will be rewarding.

Forums

I have been asked by many readers why I don’t setup a forum on the site so people can interact and ask questions about hardware hacking and the such. Forums are great and plentiful but we like to do things differently here at tech.nocr.at. Why not get a BBS going for interaction?

What’s a BBS you ask? Wikipedia defines a BBS as:

A Bulletin Board System, or BBS, is a computer system running software that allows users to connect and login to the system using a terminal program. Originally BBSes were accessed only over a phone line using a modem, but by the early 1990s some BBSes allowed access via a Telnet or packet radio connection.

BBSes were where the entire hacker scene started in the early 80′s, and many years ago I too ran run (and still run it today). The Diskshop BBS still has some of the great hacker networks that started it all like zeronet and fidonet, plus we have some of them old time great BBS door games like LORD and Tradewars.

To access The Diskshop BBS you will need an ANSI telnet client. SynchTerm is one of the best and it works on Windows, OS X and Linux. Download it and install it. Once you have that done just telnet over to bbs.diskshop.ca and you will be on your way. For those of you who might be afraid to use an old school telnet interface you can always use the http interface at http://bbs.diskshop.ca

Enjoy.

Change Can Be Good originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/09/01. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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MacBundleBox: 15 Apps, $50

Frank — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 19:11:14 +0000

It’s time for another Mac bundle deal, this time MacBundleBox is offering 15 Mac apps for $49.95. That’s an 85% discount overall. The apps included in the package are:

Headline – A full-featured RSS/ATOM feed reader with an ultra-minimal UI.
Mac Pilot 3 – A system optimization and customization utility.
iConquer – A game not unlike Risk.
Mahjong Forests – A traditional mahjong game.
Shoebox Express – A solution for organizing all your photos by content.
Caboodle – A way to collect random snippets of text or images on your machine.
Narrator – A program that will read out stories in multiple voices.
WriteRoom – A distraction-free word-processor, and possibly the most popular app in the bundle.
Scribbles – A simple drawing utility.
Money – An accounting app.
Operation – A simple project management application.
Aurora – An iTunes-integrated alarm clock.
Compositor – A CoreGraphics-based image editor.
Sofa Control – Allows you to control your applications remotely, using an Apple Remote.

You can head on over to their website to pickup the package if anything tickles your fancy.

MacBundleBox: 15 Apps, $50 originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/08/15. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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How To Speed Up WordPress With Nginx And WP Super Cache

Frank — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 03:43:16 +0000

Edit: Fixes suggested in the comments have been applied to this howto

We recently moved tech.nocr.at over to a bunch of VPSs in order to achieve some decent load balancing and speed. Even though SliceHost isn’t a sponsor, I’d like to give them a quick plug. SliceHost is easily the greatest VPS provider bar none. You pick the Distro you want, you tweak it, you set it up, all ports are available, you do as you wish. If you setup multiple VPS with them you can even have private IP’s between them in order to load balance or cluster. Prices start as low as $20/month. If you use them, click this link so that I can get some referral love. Now on to the article..

WordPress can be a blessing and a pain at the same time. It’s great for displaying dynamic content yet it’s displaying that exact dynamic content that can put a massive stress load on your system. WordPress’s query routines aren’t exactly the best. Let’s not even go into how much of a hog Apache can be, but for running dynamic content and prettying up your url’s, mod_rewrite can’t be beat. By using WP Super Cache to help reduce the load on your SQL queries and by placing Nginx in front of Apache as a reverse proxy, you’d be amazed and how quickly your site will load and respond, even enough to withstand a digg of slashdot effect.

Here’s what you are going to need.

This how-to system assumes that you have your Webserver running under a debian style distro like Ubuntu, but It can easily be modified for other distros like Fedora or CentOS.

Assuming that you already have WordPress running under Apache the first thing we are going to do is install the Wp-Super-Cache plugin and active it under your plugin folder of your WordPress installation. Pay close attention to the installation steps in the included readme.txt file, you have to follow each step properly in order to ensure proper caching.

Wp-Super-Cache creates static html files of your pages lessening the load on your SQL queries. Once you have it running and working let’s move on to our next step, reconfiguring Apache.

Apache can be a resource hog, especially when it has to span multiple child processes in order to serve up content. We are going to have to do some tweaking to apache’s conf file so that it will work behind Nginx.

Open up your /etc/apache2/ports.conf file

sudo nano /etc/apache2/ports.conf

We need to change Apache from port 80 to 8080 as Nginx will be server content to the real world via port 80.

Listen 8080

Next we are going to turn KeepAlives off on Apache since Nginx will be dealing with all of the actual browser connections. This will ensure that all of the child processes in Apache die quickly and don’t hang around chewing up memory

Find the KeepAlive entry in your /etc/apache2/apache2.conf file and set it to off

KeepAlive Off

Now that we have made the needed changes in apache we need to restart it so that they take effect.

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

Next we are going to install Nginx which is a powerful and extremely lightweight http server that is perfect for reverse proxying or load balancing to backend servers like Apache.

sudo apt-get update | sudo apt-get install nginx

Once nginx is installed we are going to need to modify it’s config file located at /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

sudo nano /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

Your conf file should look like this.

user www-data;
worker_processes  2;
 
error_log  /var/log/nginx/error.log;
pid        /var/run/nginx.pid;
 
events {
	worker_connections  1024;
}
 
http {
	include       /etc/nginx/mime.types;
	default_type  application/octet-stream;
	access_log  /var/log/nginx/access.log;
	sendfile        on;
	tcp_nopush     on;
	keepalive_timeout  3;
	tcp_nodelay        on;
	gzip  on;
	include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*;
}

Now we need to move on to the actual site config file for our Nginx setup

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/default

Your file should look something like this (replace domain.com of course)

server {
        listen   80;
        server_name  domain.com www.domain.com;
        error_log   /var/log/nginx/domain.com.error.log;
        access_log  /var/log/nginx/domain.com.access.log;
 
# Main location (path to you blog, relative to your domain root)
        location / {
            proxy_pass         http://127.0.0.1:8080/;
            proxy_redirect     off;
 
            proxy_set_header   Host             $http_host;
            proxy_set_header   X-Real-IP        $remote_addr;
            proxy_set_header   X-Forwarded-For  $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
 
            client_max_body_size       10m;
            client_body_buffer_size    128k;
 
            proxy_connect_timeout      90;
            proxy_send_timeout         90;
            proxy_read_timeout         90;
 
            proxy_buffer_size          4k;
            proxy_buffers              4 32k;
            proxy_busy_buffers_size    64k;
            proxy_temp_file_write_size 64k;
        }
 
    # Static files location
        location ~* ^.+\.(htm|html|jpg|jpeg|gif|png|ico|css|zip|tgz|gz|rar|bz2|doc|xls|exe|pdf|ppt|txt|tar|mid|midi|wav|bmp|rtf|js)$ {
            root   /;
        }
	# if the requested file exists, return it immediately
	if (-f $request_filename) {
	break;
	}
 
	set $supercache_file '';
	set $supercache_uri $request_uri;
 
	if ($request_method = POST) {
	set $supercache_uri '';
	}
 
	# Using pretty permalinks, so bypass the cache for any query string
	if ($query_string) {
	set $supercache_uri '';
	}
 
	if ($http_cookie ~* "comment_author_|wordpress|wp-postpass_" ) {
	set $supercache_uri '';
	}
 
	# if we haven't bypassed the cache, specify our supercache file
	if ($supercache_uri ~ ^(.+)$) {
	set $supercache_file /wp-content/cache/supercache/$http_host/$1index.html;
	}
 
	# only rewrite to the supercache file if it actually exists
	if (-f $document_root$supercache_file) {
	rewrite ^(.*)$ $supercache_file break;
	}
}

The above (especially the if statements) help Ngnix pass the static html files that are created by WP Super Cache directly to the users thus freeing up Apache to do nothing more than handle the dynamic requests.

Now it’s time to restart Ngnix and get the whole ball of wax working

/etc/init.d/nginx restart

What we have essentially done is taken the load of serving static files like images, css, and js files off of apache and passed it on to Ngnix which runs a lot faster and leaner than apache for serving static content. All requests for any dynamic content like php still gets passed on to apache. Clean and simple.

In closing let me mention that this is just what works for me, i’m sure that there might be a better way to use WP Super Cache and Ngnix to speed up WordPress, but what you see above has really helped with the load on both of the tech.nocr.at front-end web servers.

How To Speed Up WordPress With Nginx And WP Super Cache originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/08/11. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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GIFAR Image Vulnerability

Frank — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 04:33:01 +0000

Researchers at NGS Software have developed a method to embed malicious code into a picture. When the picture is viewed, the malicious code embed in the picture could send the attacker the credentials of the viewer. Social sites like Facebook, Myspace, or Digg are particularly at risk, but the researches say that any site which includes log ins and user uploaded pictures could be vulnerable.

The attack is a simple mashup of a GIF picture and a JAR. The code in the JAR is compiled and then combined with the info from the GIF. The GIF fools the browser into opening the image as a picture but the Java VM recognizes the JAR part of the file and runs the code.

The researches claim that there are multiple ways to deal with this hole. Web apps could continuously check for hybrid files and filter them, but they say that this really needs to be dealt with at the browser level. This could not only put images at risk, but nearly all browser content.

More details on the GIFARs will be presented at Black Hat this week in Las Vegas.

GIFAR Image Vulnerability originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/08/04. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

3G, GPS, MobileMe, Oh My

Frank — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 00:30:22 +0000

After all of the rumours (what else is new) the 3G iPhone is finally here.

Hits the shelves on July 11th (in Canada too!)
$199 for 8GB, $299 for 16GB
Black, with a white 16GB model
GPS

In a clear action of trying to play catch up to Google, Apple also announced a suite of software that will be revolutionary. (If they decided to roll it out in 2002). MobileMe is a much needed update to the .Mac system. MobileMe will let users log into a website using a billion dollar url; me.com, to access their email, address book, and calendar for a mere $99 a year, you know, much better than Google’s $0 a year charge.

On the plus side it will now be compatible with Windows, errr, oh yeah, Google’s bee there and done that too. Sounds like it should me meh.com and not me.com

For all of you hardcore, here’s the official Apple press release …

SAN FRANCISCOâ€”June 9, 2008â€”AppleÂ® today introduced the new iPhoneâ„¢ 3G, combining all the revolutionary features of iPhone with 3G networking that is twice as fast* as the first generation iPhone, built-in GPS for expanded location based mobile services, and iPhone 2.0 software which includes support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and runs the hundreds of third party applications already built with the recently released iPhone SDK. In the US the new iPhone 3G is priced at a stunning $199 for the 8GB model, and just $299 for the 16GB model.** iPhone 3G will be available in more than 70 countries later this year, beginning with customer availability in 22 countriesâ€”Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and the USâ€”on July 11.

â€œJust one year after launching the iPhone, weâ€™re launching the new iPhone 3G that is twice as fast at half the price,â€ said Steve Jobs, Appleâ€™s CEO. â€œ iPhone 3G supports Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync right out of the box, runs the incredible third party apps created with the iPhone SDK, and will be available in more than 70 countries around the world this year.â€

iPhone 3G gives users ever faster access to the Internet and email over their cellular network with quad-band GSM and tri-band HSDPA for voice and data connectivity around the world. iPhone 3G supports Wi-Fi, 3G and EDGE networks and automatically switches between them to ensure the fastest possible download speeds. The new iPhone 3G also makes it easier to multi-task with simultaneous voice and data communications, so with iPhone 3G you can browse the web, get map directions, or check your email while you are on a call.
iPhone 3G includes the new iPhone 2.0 software with both the iPhone SDK and key enterprise features such as support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync to provide over-the-air push email, contact and calendar syncing as well as remote wipe and Cisco IPsec VPN for encrypted access to corporate networks. The iPhone SDK allows developers to create amazing applications that leverage the iPhoneâ€™s groundbreaking Multi-Touchâ„¢ user interface, animation technology, accelerometer and GPS technology on the worldâ€™s most advanced mobile platform.

iPhone 3G includes the new App Store, providing iPhone users with native applications in a variety of categories including games, business, news, sports, health, reference and travel. The App Store on iPhone works over cellular networks and Wi-Fi, which means it is accessible from just about anywhere, so you can purchase and download applications wirelessly and start using them instantly. Some applications are even free and the App Store notifies you when application updates are available. The App Store will be available in 62 countries at launch.
Additional features available with the iPhone 2.0 software include the ability to do real-time mapping and track your progress with GPS technology, mass move and delete multiple email messages, search for contacts, access a new scientific calculator, turn on parental control restrictions for specified content, save images directly from a web page or email them to your iPhone and easily transfer them back to your photo library on your MacÂ® or PC. iPhone 3G delivers an amazing 10 hours of talk time on 2G networks and 5 hours using 3G, with up to 5 to 6 hours of web browsing, up to 7 hours for video playback and up to 24 hours for audio playback.

iPhone 3G takes advantage of MobileMeâ„¢, a new Internet service that pushes email, contacts, and calendars from an online â€œcloudâ€ to native applications on iPhone, iPodÂ® touch, Macs and PCs. With MobileMe email, messages are pushed instantly to iPhone, removing the need to manually check email and wait for downloads, and push keeps contacts and calendars continuously up-to-date so changes made on one device are automatically updated on other devices. With iPhone, you can even snap a photo and post it directly to a MobileMe Gallery to share with friends and family.
iPhone 3G will be available in the US on July 11 for a suggested retail price of $199 (US) for the 8GB model and $299 (US) for the 16GB model in both Apple and AT&Tâ€™s retail stores and requires a new two year contract with AT&T for qualifying customers. iPhone 2.0 software will be available on July 11 as a free software update via iTunesÂ® 7.7 or later for all iPhone customers. For further information about iPhone 3G pricing and availability in the US and internationally, visit www.apple.com/iphone.

*Based on 3G and EDGE testing. Actual speeds vary by site conditions.
**Based on iPhone 3G (8GB) and first generation iPhone (8GB) purchases. Requires new two year AT&T rate plan, sold separately.
Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone.

3G, GPS, MobileMe, Oh My originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/06/09. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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FeedJournal: RSS Feeds Like A Newspaper

Frank — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 03:09:23 +0000

Not one who cares about the convenience of RSS feeds? Do you really not care about the amount of trees that are saved just by using RSS? Then FeedJournal is just right for you. FeedJournal is a new service that allows you to create a newspaper like pdf from your RSS feeds. The layout looks much like your run of the mill newspaper and you can select the number of columns and whether or not you want images.

Overall FeedJournal presents a neat trick for reading, but with most feeds being update almost per second, Iâ€™m not sure if Iâ€™d be using it to keep abreast with the world.

FeedJournal: RSS Feeds Like A Newspaper originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/02/21. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Leaked Screen Shots Of Windows 7

Frank — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 19:15:20 +0000

Could these be the first screen shots of the upcoming Windows 7? These screen shots appeared on a Chinese forum. No one has yet been able to confirm if these are real, but you never know, Microsoft is very secretive about the upcoming replacement to Vista. They do look a lot like Vista, but this could just be an early build.

What do you think?

(Click on the images to see full size)

Leaked Screen Shots Of Windows 7 originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/01/24. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Automator Image Tweaking

Frank — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 22:12:27 +0000

When you write for a blog one of the most time consuming things you do, besides actually working on the text, is to work on images. Resizing, cropping, etc..

The guys at tuaw have come up with a pretty easy step by step on creating an Automator plugin that will allow you to manipulate images quickly. You will need Pixelmator installed to pull this off, but let me tell you something, it will greatly speed up the process of making quick tweaks to your images.

tuaw – Link to article

Automator Image Tweaking originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/01/08. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Archos TV+ – AppleTV Killer

Frank — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 01:35:04 +0000

Archos recently revealed complete specs and images for their highly anticipated AppleTV killer, the Archos TV+. The compact device is just about the same size as the Apple TV, but it packs some much nicer features.

The Archos comes with twice the storage for less cost than the Apple TV. The TV+ is also capable of recording content from analog sources (via component or S-video inputs) and is also a full DVR complete with program listings that gives you a whopping 700 hours of video.

The unit ships with a qwerty remote control to take advantage of the optional Opera browser with Flash capability so that you can surf the internet from the comfort of your couch, hell it can even read PDF’s. Network connectivity is provided via the built-in 802.11g WiFi card or via a wired ethernet port.

The 80GB version will cost you $249 while the 250GB version should set you back $349. Expect to see the product hitting stores later this year.

Archos TV+ – AppleTV Killer originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/01/03. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

About

Frank — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 05:13:28 +0000

tech.nocr.at, founded on July 1, 2007, is a weblog dedicated to bringing you an unbiased clear cut view on all things related to technology. In addition, we bring you reviews of the hottest gadgets and gizmos. tech.nocr.at is edited by Frank Linhares and is currently seeking contributing editors. If your interested drop us a line with some sample work to jobs@tech.nocr.at

Frank Linhares (Founder, Managing Editor)

Frank Linhares, born and raised in the big smoke, Toronto, Ontario. ever since his younger years running around with a 300 baud modem he has always been at the bleeding edge of technology. be it the original newsgroups back in the day to bbs message networks. from good old school vax and unix hacking via war dialing, to being a 2600′er he’s been there doing what he can to advance the cause.

In 2005 Frank started the techPhile podcast and the simple reboot podcast. Since then he has moved on to co-host and produce a video show all about technology, Digital Underground.tv. Its a monthly tech based show covering news, view, and reviews in the world of tech. Frank has had the pleasure of interviewing many of the movers and shakers in the tech-world; Leo Laporte, Kevin Rose, Amber Macarthur, John C Dvorak, and Andy Walker just to name a few.

Frank has made guest appearances of the following programs talking about technology, new media and hacking: command-N, hak.5, This Week in Media, This Week in Tech, Lab Rats, and the Computer America radio show. Frank was also the regular hardware hacker on the Call for Help and Lab with Leo television shows which aired on TechTV in Canada and the US and on the How-To network in Australia.

Ethics

The tech.nocr.at editorial staff is bound by the following code of ethics:

Test the accuracy of information from all sources and exercise care to avoid inadvertent error. Deliberate distortion is never permissible.

Diligently seek out subjects of news stories to give them the opportunity to respond to allegations of wrongdoing.

Always question source motives before promising anonymity. Clarify conditions attached to any promise made in exchange for information. Keep promises.

Make certain that headlines, news teases and promotional material, photos, video, audio, graphics, sound bites and quotations do not misrepresent.

Never plagiarize.

Give voice to the voiceless; official and unofficial sources of information can be equally valid.

Distinguish between advocacy and news reporting. Analysis and commentary should be labeled and not misrepresent fact or context.

Distinguish news from advertising and shun hybrids that blur the lines between the two.

Avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived.

Remain free of associations and activities that may compromise integrity or damage credibility.

Disclose unavoidable conflicts.

Deny favored treatment to advertisers and special interests and resist their pressure to influence news coverage.

Be open and honest about product reviews.

Be wary of sources offering information for favors or money; avoid bidding for news.

Admit mistakes and correct them promptly.

Abide by the same high standards to which they hold others.

About originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2007/12/24. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2007 | Permalink | Comments | Read more in | Explore more in: 2600, ac, air, amp, audio, bbs, blog, boot, car, cart, cat, computer, ds, ea, error, exchange, follow, graphics, hack, hacking, hp, id, images, ir, job, jobs, lab with leo, led, leo laporte, lines, Mac, make, mit, mod, nda, nes, network, open, os, pen, photo, press, radio, rc, reboot, ring, rod, smoke, sound, tech.nocr.at, technology, text, time, tor, tron, ui, video, wrong | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

Webstatistics 2.0

Frank — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 04:00:00 +0000

Are you a web designer? Do you own a web site? Well if you are a stats junkie like the rest of us, here is the site for you: http://www.xinureturns.com/

As the site says, it’s “Page Rank and much more”. It would be a bit much to list everything that this site looks up about your URL, so you are just going to have to click the link and find out for yourself.

Another nice link to have is : http://www.unofficialseoblog.com/top-10-must-have-seo-firefox-extensions/2662/

Webstatistics 2.0 originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2007/10/03. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

How to be a whistle blower

Frank — Unknown, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I just spotted this Wired (as in the magazine) Wiki Article on how to be a whistle blower. I’m not sure this will be the definite source but it’s food for thought.

Link: How to be a Whistle Blower

How to be a whistle blower originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2007/09/27. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

PSP Slim gets digital TV Tuner

Frank — Unknown, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Sony just launched the 1-SEG digital TV tuner in Japan. This puppy makes it possible to via high quality video over the air including an EPG. Unfortunately the only way to get one of these is to pack up your life and move overseas.

PSP Slim gets digital TV Tuner originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2007/09/24. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Best of the week – Sept 17 – 23

Frank — Unknown, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Mac Errors (Frank)
Unofficial Linux Support For New iPods (Frank)
Make it all portable: Thinstall it (Rob)
VMware goes flash with 3i (Rob)
Wii to get Turbografx Titles (Frank)
USB 3.0 to promise 5 Gbps (Frank)
6V Battery hack (Frank)
NES Clone – Good cheap memories (Frank)

Best of the week – Sept 17 – 23 originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2007/09/23. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

SecURLs: Daily dose of security

Frank — Unknown, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

There are tons of places to get RSS feeds and security information, including right here, but this site includes RSS feeds from security blogs around the world, and the latest security podcasts all wrapped up in a nice splashpage-like package.http://www.securls.com

SecURLs: Daily dose of security originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2007/09/19. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

I Hack Charities DOT org

Frank — Unknown, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Johnny Long of ihackstuff.com started a project that is unlike any other. A charity that hackers devote their time on humanitarian projects according to their expertise. What makes that different than any other humanitarian project? It involves hackers. The best of the best in security and IT.

Are you a hacker? Want to give back a little? Check out the site for more information.

iHackCharities.org

I Hack Charities DOT org originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2007/09/18. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Best of the week – Sept 10 – 16

Frank — Unknown, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

iTunes Movie Rentals? (Frank)
iPhone: User racks a $4,800 bill (Frank)
How To: Add RAW support to low end Canon camera (Frank)
Mouse Danger in Vista (Frank)
Hacking an Alarm Clock (Frank)
Un-Portable Nintendo DS (Frank)
Urine Powered Batteries (Frank)
DS gets VOIP (Frank)
iPhone firmware 1.1.1 may break soft unlocks (Frank)

Best of the week – Sept 10 – 16 originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2007/09/16. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2007 | Permalink | Comments | Read more in Tech News | Explore more in: ac, alarm, alarm clock, arm, batteries, camera, clock, ds, ea, firmware, Gaming, hack, hacking, images, iphone, ir, itunes, lock, Mac, mouse, movie, nes, nintendo, nintendo ds, phone, portable, power, rc, rental, security, unlock, vista, voip | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

Top 10 Windows Errors

Frank — Unknown, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I love it when Windows errors pop up when you least expect them. They guys over at Newlaunches.com have compiled a Top 10 list of the Biggest Windows Errors. If any of you have snaps of any Windows errors at the most inappropriate places drop us a line.

Top 10 Biggest Windows Errors Via Newlaunches.com

Top 10 Windows Errors originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2007/09/15. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

iPod Touch Factory Menu

Frank — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 18:48:49 +0000

A new iPod touch owner stumbles across a test/factory Menu which shows a bunch of status icons, most intriguing of all of them is the Bluetooth icon. Could the unit have the capability for bluetooth? Only time will tell as these units start to hit store shelves.

[via Gizmodo]

iPod Touch Factory Menu originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2007/09/14. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Outside – MMORPG of the year

Frank — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 13:27:03 +0000

Why spend the monthly charges on those expensive MMORPGs when you have “Oustide” which is free and possibly the MMORPG of the year.

All the features are so true too. Fully PvP rawr! The penalty of death sucks though – if you thought the experience point penalty in EverQuest was bad, think again

[via codefront]

Outside – MMORPG of the year originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2007/09/13. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Best of the week – Sept 3 – 9

Frank — Unknown, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Small Fry 1,000,000 Volt Mini Stun Gun (Frank)
Hackers at Microsoft (Rob)
Windows Error: â€œOperation Completed Successfullyâ€ (Frank)
26.25 Gigaflop Super Computer – $1256 (Frank)
Learn to Hack (Rob)
New Phone-less Ipodâ€™s and more (Frank)
How To: VGA over Cat-5 (Frank)
Eco-Friendly DVR (Frank)
Inflight USB: Power for you gadgets from an audio jack (Frank)

Best of the week – Sept 3 – 9 originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2007/09/09. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

SuperCoder 2000

Frank — Unknown, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

The SuperCoder 2000 is the perfect keyboard for coders, come on, how many keys do coders really need? I wonder what this post would have looked like if I used the SuperCoder 2000?

01 01 01 00 01 10 10 00 01 10 01 01 00 10 00 00 01 01 00 11 01 11 01 01 01 11 00 00 01 10 01 01 01 11 00 10 01 00 00 11 01 10 11 11 01 10 01 00 01 10 01 01 01 11 00 10 00 10 00 00 00 11 00 10 00 11 00 00 00 11 00 00 00 11 00 00 00 10 00 00 01 10 10 01 01 11 00 11 00 10 00 00 01 11 01 00 01 10 10 00 01 10 01 01 00 10 00 00 01 11 00 00 01 10 01 01 01 11 00 10 01 10 01 10 01 10 01 01 01 10 00 11 01 11 01 00 00 10 00 00 01 10 10 11 01 10 01 01 01 11 10 01 01 10 00 10 01 10 11 11 01 10 00 01 01 11 00 10 01 10 01 00 00 10 00 00 01 10 01 10 01 10 11 11 01 11 00 10 00 10 00 00 01 10 00 11 01 10 11 11 01 10 01 00 01 10 01 01 01 11 00 10 01 11 00 11 00 10 11 00 00 10 00 00 01 10 00 11 01 10 11 11 01 10 11 01 01 10 01 01 00 10 00 00 01 10 11 11 01 10 11 10 00 10 11 00 00 10 00 00 01 10 10 00 01 10 11 11 01 11 01 11 00 10 00 00 01 10 11 01 01 10 00 01 01 10 11 10 01 11 10 01 00 10 00 00 01 10 10 11 01 10 01 01 01 11 10 01 01 11 00 11 00 10 00 00 01 10 01 00 01 10 11 11 00 10 00 00 01 10 00 11 01 10 11 11 01 10 01 00 01 10 01 01 01 11 00 10 01 11 00 11 00 10 00 00 01 11 00 10 01 10 01 01 01 10 00 01 01 10 11 00 01 10 11 00 01 11 10 01 00 10 00 00 01 10 11 10 01 10 01 01 01 10 01 01 01 10 01 00 00 11 11 11 00 10 00 00 00 10 00 00 01 00 10 01 00 10 00 00 01 11 01 11 01 10 11 11 01 10 11 10 01 10 01 00 01 10 01 01 01 11 00 10 00 10 00 00 01 11 01 11 01 10 10 00 01 10 00 01 01 11 01 00 00 10 00 00 01 11 01 00 01 10 10 00 01 10 10 01 01 11 00 11 00 10 00 00 01 11 00 00 01 10 11 11 01 11 00 11 01 11 01 00 00 10 00 00 01 11 01 11 01 10 11 11 01 11 01 01 01 10 11 00 01 10 01 00 00 10 00 00 01 10 10 00 01 10 00 01 01 11 01 10 01 10 01 01 00 10 00 00 01 10 11 00 01 10 11 11 01 10 11 11 01 10 10 11 01 10 01 01 01 10 01 00 00 10 00 00 01 10 11 00 01 10 10 01 01 10 10 11 01 10 01 01 00 10 00 00 01 10 10 01 01 10 01 10 00 10 00 00 01 00 10 01 00 10 00 00 01 11 01 01 01 11 00 11 01 10 01 01 01 10 01 00 00 10 00 00 01 11 01 00 01 10 10 00 01 10 01 01 00 10 00 00 01 01 00 11 01 11 01 01 01 11 00 00 01 10 01 01 01 11 00 10 01 00 00 11 01 10 11 11 01 10 01 00 01 10 01 01 01 11 00 10 00 10 00 00 00 11 00 10 00 11 00 00 00 11 00 00 00 11 00 00 00 11 11 11

Ouch, I’ll stick to my qwerty keyboard.

SuperCoder 2000 originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2007/09/06. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Windows Error:

Frank — Unknown, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Not too long ago we posted about a roll your own windows error site that allowed you to do just that, create your own Windows Error dialog boxes. Here we see a truly genuine (no pun intended) Windows Error. I wonder if it will be fixed in the upcoming service pack?

Windows Error: originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2007/09/04. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Jam Sessions – Mini Amp For Your DS

Frank — Unknown, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Think Guitar Hero for the DS. Ubisoft takes a serious leap with Jam Sessions for the Nintendo DS. The game is basically a guitar simulator, and while you can play along with whatever the game is jamming, the serious fun comes from the improvisational aspects of the game: You can pretty much play the DS like a guitar. The game hits stores this month, but if you wait until November, you can pick up the Jam Sessions bundle while comes with a mini amp so you can drive everyone crazy.

Jam Sessions – Mini Amp For Your DS originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2007/09/04. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Best of the week – Aug 27 – Sept 2

Frank — Unknown, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

How To: Make a USB Air Conditioner (Frank)
Free File: SpaceMonger (Rob)
How To: 360 Controller with a PSP (Frank)
Network Magic: Easy Mac and PC networking (Frank)
How To: Build a Night Vision System (Frank)
Image retargeting (Rob)
Microsoft puts the smack down on AutoPatcher (Rob)
Hidden Flight Sim in Google Earth (Frank)
Apple and NBC get divorced (Frank)
iPhone goes *poof* during Unlocking (Frank)

Best of the week – Aug 27 – Sept 2 originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2007/09/03. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

tech.nocr.at IT Helpdesk Policy

Frank — Unknown, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

The IT department here at tech.nocr.at has taken up a new policy on help desk questions. I better get my fire retardant suit on before calling them

[Via flickr]

tech.nocr.at IT Helpdesk Policy originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2007/08/27. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Best of the week – Aug 20 – 26

Frank — Unknown, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Blinged Out Shuffle (Frank)
Howto: Hide Files Inside of Images (Rob)
Fix a Wet Cell Phone (Frank)
Relaunch of suprnova.org (Rob)
tech.nocr.at on your Cell Phone (Frank)
Mac Upgrade Kit: Hammer and Cheque Book (Frank)
Google Earth Sky Easteregg (Rob)
Coin-Operated Washer/Dryer Hack – Real or Fake (Frank)
Media downloading made simple (Rob)
Rumour: New iPod Nano on Sep. 5th (Frank)
Lab with Leo: 100th Episode Party (Frank)
Google gPhone set to launch in 15 days (Frank)

Best of the week – Aug 20 – 26 originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2007/08/26. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Relaunch of Suprnova.org

Frank — Unknown, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

2 PM EST, or as the site predicts:

Suprnova Returns

(soon we will return with suprnova.org – the number 1 site in the world for waffle recipes. how do you like yours? with chocolate? syrup? ice cream? maybe plain?! we have all the pictures of waffles you will ever need. and we will have the biggest waffle forum in the world! all for you waffle-people. waffles! WAFFLES!)

Relaunch of Suprnova.org originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2007/08/21. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Best of the week – Aug 13 -19

Frank — Unknown, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Nmap 127.0.0.1 : Flash Style (Rob)
Vista powered Super Nintendo (Frank)
Free File: HTTP File Server (Rob)
Fully mechanical Pong – No TV (Frank)
Free File: Emergent Task Timer (Mike)
Emgeton Mini One – Windows powered iPhone Clone (Frank)
Hack your remote control (Frank)
Free File: PC Decrapifier (Mike)
WhiteDust Gone? (Rob)
Unlocked iPhones available in Hong Kong (Frank)
It’s time to Evolve (Rob)

Best of the week – Aug 13 -19 originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2007/08/19. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Apple’s collapsible connection patent

Frank — Unknown, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Apple is expected to introduce a widescreen ultra-portable laptop in the coming months. A new design patent has revealed that it may contain a c collapsible connection receptacle on the back to house all of the I/O ports.

Under the design proposal, the ports maintain their original form whether the connection system is in an open or closed position. When the connection system swings to the closed position, the ports also swing with it such that they are flush with the mobile device.

At some point later this year or in the early New Year, Apple is expected to introduce its first ultra-portable notebook in quite some time. Rumor is that it will lack an optical drive, include on-board NAND flash, and have a 13-inch widescreen LED backlit display.

Apple’s collapsible connection patent originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2007/08/16. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Hack your remote control

Frank — Unknown, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Have you even been sitting on your couch and had to stretch your arm out until your tendons creaked? Ever lean forward in your armchair and fallen off because you were trying to get your remote control to work? Ever have to arm the remote at the TV and wave it around like an aerosol paint can?

Do I ever have the hack for you (Video at the end). This little quick hack will let you boost the range of your remote control. If works so well that I can now use my remote as a lightsaber and slice cheese, okay maybe not cheese, but I can aim my remote at the TV with clear line of sight and change the channel from across the house! Awesome.

Hack your remote control originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2007/08/15. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Skype on your iPhone

Frank — Unknown, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Shape Services has announced its IM+ Skype service for the iPhone. The service is actually web based in order to get around the lack of third-party application support, but otherwise works just like a regular client. You can chat, as well as do Skype to Skype calls, and you can even call regular phones if you have a SkypeOut account.

There is a catch, though. Unlike PC based calls, you’ll need to pay even if calling another Skype user: IM+ places the free VoIP call as usual, but then calls you back on your iPhone at SkypeOut rates. Still, if you are making calls abroad, it’ll be a lot cheaper, and the service is free while in beta testing.

Skype on your iPhone originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2007/08/14. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Nmap 127.0.0.1: Flash style

Frank — Unknown, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

A design flaw found in ActionScript (Flash) has been allowed the scanning hosts via trial and error. Whenever a port is queried by Flash that isn’t open, it responds with a “SecurityErrotEvent” instantly. But, when a port is open, it doesn’t get that response for an extended period of time, while it waits for a reply to

“policy-file-request”. PoC can be viewed at the below address. Now the question is: What ELSE can you do with this information once you have this ability. I’ll leave that up to the color of your hat.

scan.flashsec.org/

Nmap 127.0.0.1: Flash style originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2007/08/13. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Installer.app for the iPhone: Install iPhone apps via Wi-Fi

Frank — Unknown, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Getting homebrew applications on your iPhone, while possible, can be a tad tricky. Fear not, now there is installer.app that makes installing homebrew apps on your iPhone a snap. Much like the ATV Loader for the AppleTV Installer.app lets you update or install a variety of iPhone homebrew applications like the NES emulator or iPhoneDoom.

All you will need is a command line tool for the iPhone like iPHUC or something similar to get installer.app onto your phone. After that it as easy as pie to install or update homebrew apps without ever having to fiddle around with command line utilities.

Maybe Apple will finally see that opening up a development platform for the iPhone can only bring them more profit. Don’t take a page out of Sony’s book and stifle growth on such a wonderful product like was done to the PSP. Just my two cents.

Installer.app for the iPhone: Install iPhone apps via Wi-Fi originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2007/08/13. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Best of the week – Aug 6 – 12

Frank — Unknown, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

iPhone unlocked, almost (frank)
Flashlight that will make you puke (frank)
Daily Free File – Coconut Battery (mike)
NES controller for your iPod (frank)
NES on your iPhone (frank)
Multi-Touch Macbook (frank)
Blackjack, Save $840 a year (mubix)
Facebook source code leaked (frank)
Robotic Bartender (frank)
Laptop battery hack (frank)

Best of the week – Aug 6 – 12 originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2007/08/12. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2007 | Permalink | Comments | Read more in Tech News | Explore more in: ac, battery, book, control, controller, ea, ebook, facebook, flash, flashlight, Gaming, hack, hacking, images, iphone, ipod, jack, laptop, light, lock, Mac, macbook, make, nes, os, phone, rc, robot, security, touch, unlock | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

EA and Hasbro to dust off board games

Frank — Unknown, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

EA and Hasbro have joined forces to bring you those classic board games that we all grew up with and loved.

The agreement gives EA the exclusive worldwide tight to create digital versions of the classic board games. Monopoly, Scrabble, Yahtzee, Nerf, Tonka and Littlest Pet Shop could hit the shelves in early 2008. EA will then develop “interactive experiences for a mass audience to play across key platforms including mobile, online, handheld, PC and consoles,” the companies said.

My only concern is that the gaming industry is running out of ideas. Then again, just imagine how cool the graphics will be on the Xbox 360 when you finally get the building on Park Ave.

EA and Hasbro to dust off board games originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2007/08/11. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Hacker Conference: Before

Frank — Unknown, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

So, you are getting ready for your first Hacker conference, you have no idea what to expect. Here is what I did, and I’ll tell you how it worked out: What I should have brought and what I shouldn’t have, etc.

I should precursor this by saying, this may be my first trip to Defcon, but this is by no means my first hacker con. I have gone to and assisted with ShmooCon two years running. So here is my list of DO’s and DON’Ts for the con you go to:

DO:

1. Bring at least one extra pair of clothes. You never know when you can be pushed into a pool unexpectedly.
2. Bring a laptop. Most people will recommend against it, but if you properly prepare your laptop, you’ll be glad you have one if you need it.
3. PREPARE you laptop.
a. Wipe it
b. Reload it with your choice of OS
c. Choose the SLOW formatting/partitioning options
d. Pick a different user name than you usually use
e. PICK A DIFFERENT PASSWORD THAN YOU USUALLY USE
4. Bring an extra charger or power supply for every electronic you have (USB cables that charge as well, will do)
5. Check out the weather patterns for the area the con is held. Dress accordingly, but remember, hotels have AC and heat.
6. Offer the free space in your hotel room up on boards, you’ll not only meet new people and interesting people. But be wary of thieves.
7. Carry a light bag. If you check to huge bags of luggage, make sure you stuff a small one in the fold, a small back pack will suffice.
8. Leave extra room in your bags. Hacker conferences are to hackers, what Disney Land is to little kids.
9. Bring a disposable camera. Yes it’s crappy quality, but if you loose it, or it’s stolen, meh, no big deal. Loosing a Canon EOS1D because you turned around for a split second sucks, even more so if it is a company camera.

DO NOT: (For each of these I have reitterated the fact that you should not do them. Just in case anyone gets confused)

1. DO NOT run up to “Hacker celebrities” and start acting like they know you. They are not from Hollywood and might not react kindly. Kevin Mitnick is used to it, run up to him all day.
2. DO NOT connect to Wireless of any kind around this cat (Render Man):
3. DO NOT expect to see everything you want to see. It is impossible and there is no right or wrong answer to what you should be doing.
4. DO NOT bring anything back from the conference that could get you stuck in Vegas. Lockpicking kits are one example of such items. Know the laws of where you are traveling from and to. Trust me, it is very hard to explain to whoever is paying for your travel (even if it is just your pocket book) why you have to pay an extra $200 just to adjust your flight because you had a nice little chat with the authorities.
5. DO NOT connect to ANYTHING personal. This means instant messengers of all types, your blog, personal email, your bank account.
6. DO NOT CONNECT TO WORK EMAIL. OWA IS OFF LIMITS

and lastly, DO NOT miss out on the night life. If you’re a geek/hacker, these are your people. And, if you can’t make it to Defcon, here are some other conferences that you can look into:

Black Hat
Interz0ne
Outerz0ne
Notacon
PhreakNIC
ToorCon
ShmooCon
SummerCon
Hackers on Planet Earth (HOPE)

One final DO: Do what you want, it’s your money, your time. You should have fun.

Hacker Conference: Before originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2007/08/02. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2007 | Permalink | Comments | Read more in Hacking And Security | Explore more in: ac, air, amp, blog, book, cable, camera, car, case, cat, charger, ds, ea, email, gag, hack, hackers, heat, id, images, ir, kevin mitnick, laptop, light, loa, lock, mail, make, mit, os, personal, pocket, power, rc, ring, rip, small, space, split, time, tor, tron, usb, vega, wire, wireless, wrong | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

Bluetooth Adopts New Core Version

Frank — Unknown, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

The board of directors over at the Bluetooth Special Interest Group announced the adoption of Core Specification Version 2.1+EDR (Enhanced Data Rate). The new spec is set to make device set-up faster and increases batter life of bluetooth devices.

Other key enhancements include…

Improved Pairing – The new pairing process enables all consumers to quickly setup their bluetooth devices. “Man in the middle” protection eliminates the possibility for an undetected middle man intercepting information.

Enhanced Power Optimization – The 2.1+EDR upgrade offers further optimized power consumption through a feature called Sniff Subrating which increases current battery life by up to five times in many devices like mice, and keyboards.

Link to press release

With all of these new snazzy improvements porn via bluetooth is only a step away.

Bluetooth Adopts New Core Version originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2007/08/01. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Duck Hunt on iPhone, without a hack

Frank — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Just a few days ago we talked about hacking up your iPhone so that you could run an NES emulator on it. Now super cool developer Deron Dantzler has created a full featured version of the great NES classic Duck Hunt that runs on the Safari browser on your iPhone. Instead of a light gun, the game uses your fingertip to shoot down those pesky winged critters. It takes a little trial and error to get used to the finger presses, but eventually you’ll get the hang of it.

Deron did a fabulous job on getting all the pieces to look just like the original NES game. It even runs quickly on an EDGE connection. Unfortunately, there’s no sound, but maybe someday Apple will just give us the Flash support we all want and we’ll be done with all this workarounds.

To play the game on your iPhone just point your browser here

Duck Hunt on iPhone, without a hack originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

MAME On The iPhone

Frank — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

You all knew that it was bound to happen. A developer using the alias Kaisersoze has successfully ported an initial build of the arcade emulator MAME to run on the iPhone.

As is still the case with all homebrew stuff for the iPhone (Apple, will you wake up already!) you’ll have to do some hacking to get it up and running. You’ll also need to know your way around a compiler since you can only pick up the source code and compile it yourself for now.

MAME On The iPhone originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

New iPod won’t work with Linux

Frank — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Seems like the kids at Infinite Loop have decided to stomp out any third party applications messing with the iPod, including Linux. The iTunes DB now contains a couple of encrypted hashes that validate the information in the music list; this essentially fingerprints the iPod/iTunes pairing and prevents apps from modifying the DB without access to the hash key, any software that attempts access will now show up with 0 songs.

This is truly unfortunate for the people out there that prefer to manage their music collections with something like Winamp on a PC or with libgpod on Linux. Maybe it’s time to hold back on any upgrades until the software catches up!

New iPod won’t work with Linux originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Social Messaging: Pownce v. Jaiku

Frank — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

I think I am finally grasping this whole concept of social messaging. I don’t know if being over 30 has made me un-cool or if, god forbid, I have become like my parents were when I was young, square and old fashioned but I has taken me a while to grasp the concept of social messaging services like Pownce, twitter, and jaiku.

I’ve had the opportunity to use both Jaiku and Pownce for quite a while now. I’m finding it hard to spend so much time between social networking and social messaging. Most of the time I create one profound statement and just post it to all of the “Social” sites that I use. This has taken me down the path of taking a real good look at which service I want to focus my energy on and use that service solely.

When you try to compare the features of the two services on paper you can clearly see a winner in Pownce. On that note, not everything you read is necessarily true. Jakiu offers an easy and quick medium to communicate with people and to have people communicate with you. A Simple and effective way to receive messages. Pownce on the other hands offers that and much more. Take the file transfers for example, a great and effective way of getting a small file specifically to a person or a bunch of people at a time. Lets not forget the event feature, want to plan a party? A great way to get the notice out. The downside to all of this is that it takes more time and effort to keep up with the on goings of all your friends. I know that there are other mediums like email, im, and upcoming to achieve all of this, but you can keep everything in one nice package and for a minimalist like myself, what more could you ask for.

If you want to keep your social messaging nice and simple Pownce isn’t for you. You should stick to services like Jaiku and Twitter. It will make your life a lot easier, but if you want to roll up all of these cool features into one nice service give Pownce a try. You just might be pleasantly surprised.

You can follow my on goings on Pownce here: http://pownce.com/franklinhares/

Social Messaging: Pownce v. Jaiku originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Why StumbleUpon is better than Digg

Frank — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Before I go on my observations between digg and stumbleupon let me just say that I am happy with digg and stumbleupon equally, as a user. This is just a numbers crunch that explains on paper why traffic referrals from stumbleupon are better for your site than numbers from digg, in the long run.

Back, which seems so many moons ago, I ran a small podcast called the techphile podcast, which from time to time, received its fair share of traffic. After doing some serious data mining from the logs of the old podcast and from this site there seems to be some clear patterns that form with regards to traffic that is referred from both digg and stumble upon. Lets break this down and take a look.

Traffic

August of last year I had Kevin and Alex from Diggnation on the podcast, the story was quickly dugg to the front page of digg, which brought some insane traffic to the site.

Day 1 – Digg, 6,800 hits, StumbleUpon 143
Day 2 – Digg 11,340 hits, StumbleUpon 221
Day 3 – Digg 4,832 hits, StumbleUpon 289
Day 4 – Digg 132 hits, StumbleUpon 498
Day 5 – Digg 31 hits, StumbleUpon 732
Day 6 – Digg 0 hits, StumbleUpon 1184
Day 7 – Digg 0 hits, StumbleUpon 2132
Day 8 – Digg 0 hits, StumbleUpon 1932

You can clearly see the pattern. Digg will bring you an insane amount of traffic right off the bat, and probably kill your server like it did mine. StumbleUpon will lessen the load off the bat and spread the traffic over time.

Bounce Rate

This is the butter that makes StumbleUpon sooo smooth. Digg users generally crawl digg’s frontpage looking for stories. StumbleUpon’s users crawl looking for interesting sites. This translates into repeat users, which for a blog is a lot better than a single hit on a single story. Think of it as a target focus. SU users are looking for fun and interesting sites. Digg users are looking to read a static page. I much prefer having people land on the site looking for something new as opposed to someone hammering the site for a specific story.

Remember, I’m a heavy digg user; the experience is great, but as the managing editor of a blog looking to generate traffic. Static traffic is great but if we can keep people coming back that’s even better. StumbleUpon wins this round!

Why StumbleUpon is better than Digg originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Google gPhone

Frank — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Google announced a few weeks ago that they intend on bidding on the 700 Mhz band if the FCC opens it up to competition. Google has now developed a prototype cell phone that could hit the markets within a year that would offer consumers a free subscription that would be subsidized by advertisements. Google is currently shopping the prototype around to various manufacturers with hopes of offering a better mobile web experience to users than is currently offered.

Could this product have a tie into the 700 Mhz frequency bid? This will sure fuel rumors about google offering it’s own cell phone service via the 700 Mhz range. All that google is saying is that they are partnering with carriers, manufacturers and content providers around the world to bring Google search and Google applications to mobile users everywhere.

Via Computerworld

Google gPhone originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

One hour in jail for an iPhone

Frank — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

How’s this one for all the people who live outside of the US who want to get their hands on an iPhone. Cameron Johnson, a 42-year-old from Toronto spent an hour in a holding cell at the Niagara Falls border crossing and paid a $400 fine for purchasing an iPhone for him and one that he planned on selling on Craigslist with a substantial markup. Canadian Customs officials caught the iPhones in the back

â€œThe one officer said to the other, ‘Hey Ted, look! An iPhone!’” said Mr. Johnson, who manages a portfolio of online domain names. “And of course, they had to get rid of the grin and be serious with me. They said to me they had to seize [the iPhones] and I started blubbering.”

“I remember thinking to myself while I was in the holding tank, ‘What am I doing here and why does my technolust get the best of me?’” said Mr. Johnson,

You can’t really blame him. When the iPhone was released I drove into Buffalo to purchase one only to be turned back from the AT&T store because I didn’t have a US address or a credit card drafted from a US bank.

The way the rumors are flying around Canada about unlimited data plan costs for the iPhone when it finally hits Canadian shelves, $400 a month would seem just right.

[Via The Globe and Mail]

One hour in jail for an iPhone originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

MythTV and Zap2It Labs to offer TV Listings

Frank — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Fear-not fearless open sources PVR’ers, the people over at MythTV are real close to striking a deal (albeit a pay one) to have listing services continued.

Zap2It labs, which has provided free TV listings in Canada and the US announced last month that they were discontinuing their free service. Shortly thereafter a group of Mythtv and XMLTV developers joined forces to explore alternate avenues.

The answer, http://scheduledirect.org. They are offering the same level of service as was offered by Zap2It labs for $15 / 3 months. They aren’t quite ready to offer the service yet but they are assured that the service will be ready to go before the September 1 deadline that was set by Zap2It labs last month.

They have an announcement list setup to let everyone know as soon as they are good to go.

MythTV and Zap2It Labs to offer TV Listings originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Nokia launches mobile social networking site

Frank — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Shortly after buying media sharing site Twango, Nokia launched a closed beta of a brand new mobile networking site.

Mosh, short for Mobile Sharing, allows users to share media and applications from their mobile phones. It’s also got some really cool features like the ability to tag and share content with other people and create collections of content, like clouds.

The site will be free to users and won’t be limited to Nokia handset owners. Anyone with a WAP compatible device or standard browser will be able to access the system. However, if you do have a Nokia device you can download an application that will offer quicker access to Mosh. You will also be able to access the site from your computer avoiding costly mobile data charges associated with downloading content on your phone.

In order to upload content, a user must first register, although anyone can view the content. Registered users can upload individual items with a maximum size of 100MB. Nokia hasn’t specified the monthly upload quota but said it is generous and “higher than any user will probably need.”

Nokia launches mobile social networking site originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Google to offer more space, at a cost

Frank — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Google will begin to offer users of Gmail and Picasa, it’s online photo storage and sharing service, the option of expanding the amount of storage space for its users accounts, for a cost!

Starting on Friday, users can sign up through their Google accounts to buy more space. Cost will vary from as little as $20/year for 6 additional GB to $500/year for 250 GB. It will also be offering a 25 GB plan for $75 and a 100 GB option costing $250.

This is a new twist. Google has traditionally offered all of its services for free. Could this be a sign of things to come in the future? Only time will tell.

Google to offer more space, at a cost originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Google todo away with paid video

Frank — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

First we report that google is going to offer more storage on gmail for a cost an now google is doing away with their pay per video content. I guess it won’t be that big a deal if the content that people purchased was to remain payable, but this is a huge problem since any content that users might have paid for will be rendered useless on August 15th, 2007.

You might think who the hell would ever have paid for content on google video? Well I am one of these poor suckers. Some time ago i purchased some of the old Call for Help episodes that I was on. Users of purchased content received the following email:

Hello,
As a valued Google user, we’re contacting you with some important information about the videos you’ve purchased or rented from Google Video. In an effort to improve all Google services, we will no longer offer the ability to buy or rent videos for download from Google Video, ending the DTO/DTR (download-to-own/rent) program. This change will be effective August 15, 2007.
To fully account for the video purchases you made before July 18, 2007, we are providing you with a Google Checkout bonus for $2.00. Your bonus expires in 60 days, and you can use it at the stores listed here: http://www.google.com/checkout/signupwelcome.html. The minimum purchase amount must be equal to or greater than your bonus amount, before shipping and tax.
After August 15, 2007, you will no longer be able to view your purchased or rented videos.
If you have further questions or requests, please do not hesitate to contact us. Thank you for your continued support.
Sincerely,
The Google Video Team

What the hell, they move from a pay for content model with video and switch over to a paid model for something they have always offered for free? Maybe they realize that since buying YouTube they might as well just do away with Google video, who knows.

Google todo away with paid video originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Imified gets pownced

Frank — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

I’m always running around when I’m not typing about on tech.nocr.at. Between the Videocast, my family, and tech.nocr.at I have little time for anything else. I do try to let people know what I’m doing on my Jaiku and Pownce accounts. The problem with these two services is that they don’t offer SMS support here in Canada.

Enter imified, the tool that lets you interact with web applications via your IM client. I’ve been using these guys for a while to update my Jaiku account and just recently the announced a plug in for Pownce. The plug-in takes advantage of the limited Pownce API and enables you to post messages, links, and events to your Pownce account.

Funny how all of these micro-blogging systems like Jaiku, Pownce, and twitter have come full circle. I’m back to using an IM client to update these services. Maybe I should just IM people directly.

Imified gets pownced originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

TokBox – Instant Video Chat

Frank — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Toxbox is a free service that lets you talk with your friends over live video. It allows you to setup a video chat in seconds. I was able to get up and running in literally minutes. I was prompted to invite someone to the chat via email. They click the link and can participate even without registering. Controls are nice and simple – volume, mute, or kill the camera. You can even embed the windows on your own website.

This is a great way to have a video chat with someone if you’ve had problems getting iChat’s video to work behind a firewall, or if both parties are on different platforms. Great idea, great system. Thumbs up from my end.

TokBox – Instant Video Chat originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

IT Crowd Season 2

Frank — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Channel 4 over in the UK has announced that the uber cool tech comedy show The IT Crowd will begin to air Season 2 on Friday August 24th. If you have never seen The IT Crowd before you really don’t know what you’re missing. The show is based on a fictitious IT department working out of the basement at a financial company. The characters are very funny with some great British humor. They don’t get too technical on the show but they do have a great sense of what most IT departments are like in medium size business.

On a side note, NBC will be airing an American version of The IT crowd this fall. Richard Ayoade, who plays Moss on the show, will be pulling double duty playing his character on both the original Channel 4 version and on the NBC American version.

My God please don’t go and screw this up NBC.

IT Crowd Season 2 originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Skype wont let me log in!

Frank — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Hello all,
Here’s the latest on the sign-on problem. We’re on the road to recovery. Skype is stabilizing, but this process may continue throughout the day. An encouraging number of users can now use Skype once again. We know we’re not out of the woods yet, but we are in better shape now than we were yesterday.
Finally, we’d like to dispel a couple of theories that we are still hearing. Neither Wednesday’s planned maintenance of our web-based payment services nor any form of attack was related to the current sign-on issues in any way.
We’ll update you again as soon as we can. Thanks for hanging tight.
Please see our Heartbeat blog for ongoing updates.
UPDATED 17 August, 2007 11:00 GMT

There are a lot of industry professionals that often rely on Skype. Bloggers, Internet Radio stations, Podcasters, all of these people who rely on Skype (sometimes more so than their POTS line or Cell phone) are out of luck today. They woke up and were unable to sign on, unable to get to their list of clients, or interviewees. Some times we don’t realize just how quickly an internet service that drives our lives can disappear. If you weren’t able to to sign in to your favorite instant messenger would you still be able to contact everyone you had on that list? Maybe, maybe not.

Skype is working hard at getting everything back up and clicking on the hearbeat link above can get you an actively updated list of down/up services at Skype.

Skype wont let me log in! originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

UNI – The Modular Computer

Frank — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Richard Choi had developed a modular computer concept called UNI. In UNI, every important functional part of the PC is separated and broken up into individual modules. Whenever you want to upgrade your computer all you have to do is buy the required module and plug it in.

The designer has also named each module with an easy to understand name. For example, the â€œThinkâ€ module is where the processor resides. While the â€œStoreâ€ module houses the hard drive.

I love the idea of easy and simple upgrading, but with me leaving my power supply to my laptop at home at least 3 or 4 times a month I can only imagine how many times I’d leave the “Input” or “Store” module behind.

UNI – The Modular Computer originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Tokyo’s Sewer System – Awesome

Frank — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Yesterday I was chatting with Rob about some news that came across the Japanese wire regarding the iPhone. So after stumbling across the internets for some more info on the story I stumbled across these amazing pics.

So this might look like it’s something that Mr. Alex Lindsay over at the Pixelcorps might have whipped up in XSI or Maya but it’s actually Tokyo’s underground sewer system. Wow!

Tokyo’s Sewer System – Awesome originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Microsoft kills Skype

Frank — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Well not technically, Microsoft’s Windows Update caused a reboot of a substantial amount of Skype’s authentication servers.

“Normally Skype’s peer-to-peer network has an inbuilt ability to self-heal, however, this event revealed a previously unseen software bug within the network resource allocation algorithm which prevented the self-healing function from working quickly.” — Skype Heartbeat Blog – Mr. Villu Arak

Some of you may of heard over the weekend about the Russian Hackers who claimed ownership of Skype being down. They even went to the extent of posting supposed exploit code, which Slashdot trolls ripped to shreds.

Microsoft kills Skype originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Microsoft Update Catalog

Frank — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Tired of downloading all those updates? Do you have a network that isn’t connected to the internet? Microsoft FINALLY is stepping up to the plate after sites like AutoPatcher.com has been doing this for ages.

http://catalog.update.microsoft.com

It is a step in the right direction but still a far cry from the portability, ease of use and extras that are included in AutoPatcher.

Microsoft Update Catalog originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

tech.nocr.at on your cell phone

Frank — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

FeedM8, the mobile feed reader created by Wattpad, has officially launched today.

FeedM8 uses patent-pending technology to enable content to be accessed and read on your cell phone. This allows content creators to wash their hands from creating multiple feeds to support a multitude of various mobile platforms. FeedM8 also let’s you search for content with short codes, and will also modify the content and graphics to work with your screen size and network bandwidth. Registering for a Publisher account also lets you join in on some revenue sharing on the advertising, earning 60% from ad splits and referrals.

Be sure to get tech.nocr.at on your phone! Point your phone here

tech.nocr.at on your cell phone originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Google to offer refunds to video customers

Frank — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Last week we reported that Google was shutting down it‘s paid Goggle Video operation. Goggle preceded to send out emails to customers who purchased video’s from Google’s site explaining that they were getting out of the paid video game and offering a coupon that varied in value (depending on how many video’s you purchased) to use with Google checkout.

Google has now apologized for the way it shut down the paid video service and said that it will refund their credit cards and allow them to watch their videos for another 6 months.

“When your friends and well-intentioned acquaintances tell you that you’ve made a mistake, it’s good to listen. So we’d like to say thank you to everyone who wrote to let us know that we had made a mistake in the case of Google Video’s Download to Own/Rent Refund Policy vs. Common Sense,” the company wrote.

It’s now offering credit card refunds to “everyone who ever bought a video” from Google Video, and people who already received Google Checkout refunds will be able to keep them as well. It will also allow people who bought or rented videos to keep playing them for another six months.

“We won’t be offering the ability to buy additional videos, but what you’ve already downloaded will remain playable on your computer,” the company said.

Google opted for the Checkout refunds because the company thought it would entail fewer steps and offer “a better user experience,” it said. People who want the credit card refunds will need to fill out an online form to make sure Google has their current credit card details.

[Via InfoWorld]

Google to offer refunds to video customers originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Big names sign up to iTunes rival

Frank — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Some of the heavy weights in the record industry including Universal and SonyBMG have begun selling music through a new download based service, challenging Apple’s iTunes store.

gBox will allow music fans to download tracks directly from the gBox site or from online retailer Amazon. However, only US customers can currently make use of the service.

Last week gBox inked a deal with Google, which allows gBox to benefit from a special advertising deal. The search engine giant will get standard advertising fees rather than a cut of sales under the arrangement.

With Wal-Mart also now selling DRM free music on their site for $0.94 a pop it’s a wonder if this might be what gives iTunes a run for it’s money, especially now that the music is DRM free which means you can easily play it on an iPod.

Big names sign up to iTunes rival originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Google Earth Sky Easteregg

Frank — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

I was playing around with Google Earth’s new “Sky” feature, and it turns out that Google Campus, US is near the California Nebula.

All of the Sightseeing spots still “work”. Check out some of the other sights, like Forbidden City or Manhattan. Add your home address into your “My Places” (While in Earth mode) switch over to Sky mode and find what star it is next to.

Google Earth Sky Easteregg originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Software awards scam

Frank — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

UK based professional and shareware author Andy Brice was surprised at how well shareware sites were rating one of his apps and some of the apps that were in the same class so he ran an experiment.

He wrote a text file and turned it into an .exe file, which of course would never run. He then wrote a PAD file (similar to a read me file) that said this file doesn’t do anything at all.

He then just waited to see how many awards he would garner for this masterpiece and then he posted the results on his blog. The results were quite surprising. 16 awards in total for a file that did absolutely nothing, nadda, zip, zilch.

Link to article [Via Robert Clark]

Software awards scam originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Lab with Leo: 100th Episode Party

Frank — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

The wacky kids in Vancouver that produce the Lab with Leo TV show are having a meet-up to celebrate their 100th Episode. If you’re local to the area you should make the trek out and meet the cast and crew of the Lab. If you are wondering, yes Leo Laporte will be there, as well as the entire crew of the show; Matt, Kate, Sean, Ryan, and the bunch. I have also been told by the powers that be that Victor Lucas from Electric Playground, Alex Lindsay, the guys from Tiki Bar TV, and me, Frank Linhares.

Where: The Alibi Room – 157 Alexander St, Vancouver, BC
When: Thursday Sept. 6th – 7pm – 10pm
RSVP here on Facebook

Hope to see all of you there!

Lab with Leo: 100th Episode Party originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Lightning Bolt Hits Plane

Frank — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Bet you thought that a lightning bolt hitting a place would cause mass destruction, nope. Here’s a snap of a plane getting hit by a lightning bolt while taking off from the Osaka Airport. Lightning is not dangerous to commercial airliners, as the electricity flows around their aluminum skin. It’s real easy for us on the ground to look at the scientific fact that no one would get hurt, try telling that to the people on the plane, I would have soiled myself.

[Via Gizmodo]

Lightning Bolt Hits Plane originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Microsoft puts the smack down on AutoPatcher

Frank — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

AutoPatcher.com has been a safe haven for Sysadmins who don’t know how or want to deploy a WSUS “Windows Server Update Services” server (and all the headache that comes along with it). For those who don’t know, AutoPatcher was a portable “Windows Update”+. You could literally take it around on a thumb drive, (or the Switchblade) and get your machines up and patched. So, this way, if you have more than one computer at home, you no ling have to wait for each to download all the updates from Microsoft. Another instance where AutoPatcher came to the rescue? What if you have a network that isn’t connected to the internet, like a lab or private network? Neither Windows Update nor WSUS have a modular version that is as streamlined as AutoPatcher was. Something tells me that the recent release of “The Microsoft Catalog” has something to do with it. Antonis Kaladis posted the take down notice on their site. You can sign the petition that the Neowin community started (petition)

Microsoft strikes again.

Update:
Neowin posted two great articles, one says how you can help fight back.
Microsoft Remains Silent on AutoPatcher
Community fights back for AutoPatcher

Microsoft puts the smack down on AutoPatcher originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Media downloading made simple

Frank — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Ever seen an online video you wanted to save for later? Something informative, or just plain hysterical? I have. I’ve tried the Firefox Plugin “Video Downloader“. It works, but you have to be using Firefox (Yes, there still are people in the world who don’t use it) and that doesn’t make it very portable. Then there is the fact that once downloaded it is in FLV format, which is playable only in a browser or Flash Player. I have also tried Zamzar, the convert “Anything to Anything” site. Another very useful tool, but you have to download the FLV, then upload it to them, and wait for them to convert it and email it to you.

Don’t get me wrong, these are great programs and very useful in their own right, but not the solution. That’s when I happened on a website called VConvert.net which downloads the flv, converts it, and delivers you the video in formats for your PC, MAC, iPod, PSP, iPhone, and even your Cell phone! (Phones capable of playing .3gp)

Tools that do one task, and do it well.

Media downloading made simple originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Rumours: Microsoft to take over RIM

Frank — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Rumours are flying all over Wall St and Bay St at the purchase of global wireless email and data provider Research in Motion, the maker of the almighty Blackberry, by the massive Microsoft. Speculation even spilled over into the currency markets last night bumping the Canadian dollar up by three quarters of a percentage.

Could this be a signal by Microsoft that their effort to crack the wireless push email market has failed with Windows Mobile and now they just choose to buy, not only an established player in the game, but the largest player in the game.
I sure hope that if Microsoft does purchase RIM that they leave the cash cow as it. We all know how Microsoft can screw a good thing up.

Rumours: Microsoft to take over RIM originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

TorrentSpy Blocking U.S. Users

Frank — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

TorrentSpy, the BitTorrent search engine, is now blocking all US-based IP addresses that try to use its site. This is in response to a federal court order that ordered TorrentSpy to log users’ IP addresses, as well as their activity on it’s site.

Since the court order goes against TorrentSpy’s own privacy policy, which ensures users it will not collect any personal info without the users consent, TorrentSpy has blocked its search service from US users as to not violate any of it’s own policy.

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) sued TorrentSpy last year for copyright infringement by way of facilitating users’ trading of pirated material through file-sharing networks. The ruling judge ordered TorrentSpy to track users so that the data could be given to the MPAA, but said that the service could mask IP addresses for the time being.

I guess there are some benefits to being a Canadian citizen

TorrentSpy Blocking U.S. Users originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Apple and NBC get divorced

Frank — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Seems like NBC is getting a bit greedy, okay they are very greedy. Apple today released a press release noting that they and NBC would be parting ways. Apple stated that they have decided not to carry NBC’s upcoming season of shows since the contract would expire during the middle of the television season leaving iTunes users hung in the middle of a series.

NBC wanted to raise the price per episode to $4.99, let’s lay this out; $4.99 per episode, most TV shows usually run a 22 episode season, so $4.99 x 22 = $109.78. Are they on crack? You can buy most seasons for about $50 on DVD, a much higher quality that iTunes offers.

This is typical of old media, see an opportunity and then rape the consumer for it.

Apple and NBC get divorced originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

160 GB 1.8″ Drives from Toshiba

Frank — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Hot on the heals of the 160 GB iPod Classic announcement Toshiba announced a new 1.8-inch hard drive for us with consumer devices like MP3 players. The so wonderfully named MK1626GCB is the highest density 1.8-inch drive on the market right now.

Instead of buying a new 160GB iPod Classic, maybe buying one of these puppies and putting it into my current 80GB iPod video would work out just fine, and save me some bucks if I want to increase the storage space on my iPod.

I smell a homebrew hack in the makings.

160 GB 1.8″ Drives from Toshiba originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Firefox: 400 Million Strong

Frank — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Firefox has made the 400 million mark, quite impressive. The open source browser has only been around for about 3 years, so achieving this number is quite impressive. There are reportedly about 120 million or so regular Firefox users, which makes me wonder what happened to the other 280 million went.

81% of our readers are regular Firefox users, good for all of you.

Firefox: 400 Million Strong originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Life TV

Frank — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Everyone has heard of Justin.tv and iJustine. Innovators, or attention freaks, you decide, but they are the ones that started the craze. Live video feeds of every day people doing every day things. People around the world have jumped on this new medium of sharing, even big names in the Tech world like Leo Laporte (twit.tv/live) and Chris Pirillo (live.pirillo.com) to name a few. But this last Friday (Aug 24 2007) marked the first time this culture of “Live TV’ has boiled over into the real world:

Xanga.com has provided Kane, from a Washington D.C. radio station called Hot 99.5, a back pack with a similar setup that Justin from Justin.tv has. Kane is going to broadcast his life for 30 days with a possibility to renew. What does his new wife think about it? Are we going to see this leaking to Hollywood? Maybe not tomorrow, but who wouldn’t watch Paris Hilton’s JailbirdTV

Life TV originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Built for Blackberry Software

Frank — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

I’m a pretty serious Blackberry junkie. When I roll out of bed the first thing I do is pick up my 8830 to check my day, email, and the website, hell I’ve even posted to tech.nocr.at from my little beauty. Email, contacts, and calendar isn’t the only thing available to us power users though, RIM has launched Built for Blackberry where you can find all sorts of helpful and time wasting apps to help you along your day. It’s very well organized so you won’t waste any time digging through all the apps that are available. If you own a Blackberry, this one’s for you!

Built for Blackberry Software originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.