Lockedotnet

Enter your password securely

2008-03-19T09:59:00.003-08:00

I came across a nifty little utility that just might keep you from having your passwords stolen from you by a keylogger or similar devices and programs. Neo Aplin wrote this tiny little app called Neo's SafeKeys which will let you enter your passwords via a little onscreen keyboard. The really nifty part is that not only are you defeating keyboard loggers, but it places the buttons differently and the program window is a different size each time it's run, thereby defeating any program that attempts to log which button was clicked by mouse placement. All-in-all if you use public computers or even are just paranoid about your own and run Windows, this app's for you! If you missed the above link, here it is again.

Gabe Perez

2008-03-16T19:04:00.006-08:00

I came across this picture on the net today and I want to know more about it. check it our for starters:

So, where did this come from? Who is this Gabe Perez guy and what possessed him to do this? I think it's hilarious and want to know more. I apologize about the crappy image quality but for some reason Blogger does that to it when I upload it, to see a better version click here. Anyways, I searched and couldn't find anything, could any of my fellow stumblers help?

Baltimore police- HOW THEY REALLY TREAT PEOPLE

2008-02-22T20:19:00.002-09:00

Heres an awesome video of how the Baltimore Police really treat kids who are doing nothing more than skateboarding. As far as I can tell, these kids didn't even provoke this cop to act like a pompous ass, and this one in particular needs to be FIRED! He even says his name on the video so have at him!

Best rubberband gun EVER

2008-02-22T11:09:00.004-09:00

You've gotta check out this video, this gun was created by Anthony Smith over 4 months by hand, and is capable of shooting 40 rubberbands per second, with a capacity of 288. Awesome.. just awesome. Found at techeblog.

Penny Arcade Game

2008-01-25T11:05:00.000-09:00

I just found out that there is a new game by the creators of Penny Arcade in development, and it looks like it's going to be hilarious, and fun to boot. I heard about it on linuxgames.com, so even better than it just existing, it will have a native Linux version! Check out more on the game and view screenshots at the official site here.

False LOLs

2008-01-24T12:26:00.000-09:00

I came across a website today, NoMoreLOL.com, which advocates replacing the way too damn often misused LOL acronym with LOI (Laughing on the Inside,) which, honestly, is probably more accurate like 98% of the time. I know there's probably been like 2 times ever I've actually laughed out loud while reading something or chatting at work, but dozens of times I typed LOL (even though I don't use it often) and you know, Sai is right. Screw that, LOL doesn't describe what is going on at all most of the time. Anyways, the site made me LOI, so check it out.

Oh, and sorry about the lack of updates if anybody cares, I haven't really been much into it lately, I've got some serious financial issues I'm trying to deal with, and in the middle of all that my rent money got stolen at knifepoint, so.. I dunno, if anyone cares, click some freakin' ads or send me a buck or something :P

Constant parallellism

2008-01-15T10:04:00.000-09:00

So I read that there is a theory about how we all have our individual perception of the way reality is and what we perceive as being real. The article is here about this "Big Brain Theory" which states that in our perception, each of us has our own universe we exist in, along with all other entities, however given the likelihood of all things possible actually happening in a universe, we may mostly all be at simplest, a brain free-floating in space with what we see as reality existing only perceptually. Maybe it's true, maybe not, maybe we're actually all brains in vats hooked up to a vast created reality run by the network of brains themselves. I'm not sure about that, but I have held a theory about reality and the universe for a long time now and I figure I should publish it somewhere.

Now, there might not be any evidence for this, but there isn't any against it either, so make up your own mind after reading. There is no such thing as time. That sounds weird, but let me explain. An event that occurs in time has a series of stages, each occurring one after another in a fluid movement. You pick up a glass, you put it to your mouth, you drink. I think that all of these steps (and all the infinitely small steps in between) occur at once, and we perceive them in the order of time. I don't mean that they are all occurring at once in one place, I mean that there are an infinite number of parallel universes in which are contained every possible configuration of matter in the universe. So, as we move through the human concept of time, we are really moving between alternate realities in such a way that events seem to occur one after another the way we are used to. In this way, we can explain any event that would take place and every configuration of matter possible. Maybe it's far-reaching, but that would mean that technically, it would be possible to travel through 'time' or even teleport yourself or an object if we could somehow master choosing our path through universes. What this also means is that there exists a reality where every possibility has happened and so with control, we could alter the outcome of every event to prevent tragedies. Now I'm not going to argue whether that is a good idea or not, but I can't see how at least in some instances that could possibly not be. This is just something that I thought up when I was younger, and I still think I believe it, so why not publish. That's not all I've got, but it's all I can post this second, so stay tuned for more of my psycho theories later, and let me know what you think in the comments!

ps- Thanks to Christopher Fahey for the image.

PassiveAggressiveNotes

2008-01-09T16:18:00.000-09:00

I just joined the community over at PassiveAggressiveNotes, and I probably should have made up a quick post earlier, but welcome to any members checking out my spot here, check back for more cool stuff at random intervals!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO (DO NOT WANT)

2008-01-05T01:33:00.001-09:00

Any bluetooth headset can be eavesdropped even while not on!

2008-01-04T08:35:00.000-09:00

I just found some disturbing information about bluetooth headsets for all you cellphone happy consumers. Any bluetooth headset can be listened in on, EVEN WHEN YOU'RE NOT ON IT! Watch the video for more.

How to get any girl's phone number

2008-01-04T08:13:00.002-09:00

I stumbled across a post this morning that hit me like a brick to the face. David DeAngelo of X34 and author of "Double Your Dating" gives the secret to getting any girl's phone number and e-mail address after only 3 or 4 minutes of introducing yourself. As I read, I realized that this is the perfect plan and I can see how it would have to work, and I'm going to try it out. The juicy part is this:

After I've talked to a woman for about 3 or 4 minutes, I'll often say something like "Well, it was nice meeting you. I'm going to get back to my friends."

They usually don't know what to do, as they're used to guys clinging to them. Most of the time, they say "It was nice meeting you too..." Then, just as I'm turning to walk away, and we kind of disconnect, I turn back and say "HEY! Do you have email?"

The "HEY!" is a bit surprising, and "Do you have email" is non-threatening. In fact, I'm technically asking her if she HAS email, not if she'll GIVE IT TO ME.

If she says "yes," I take out a pen and paper and say "Great, write it down for me" and I have her write it down. (This is great, as I just treat the 'yes' that they give me as a yes to get it from them as well. And they've almost ALL gone along with it so far) Then AS SHE'S IN THE MIDDLE OF WRITING, I say "Write your number down there too."

When you ask for email, it's very low risk for a woman, so she'll think "Fine, I'll do that." Most women will give out an email address without thinking about it, because they know that they can choose later to just not answer.

I'll post later on how it works, but for now, click here to read the original post. Thanks David!

Happy New Year!

2008-01-02T08:04:00.000-09:00

OK, so I know I'm a day late, but whatever, its not like I had more than 17 hits yesterday, and half of them were probably me. Here's a toon courtesy of LeftHandedToons to ring in the new year.

Dumbest Cops Ever

2008-01-01T00:59:00.000-09:00

This video is great! I can't embed it, but click here to check this out. I can't believe these guys got away!

Loyalty

2007-12-31T16:13:00.000-09:00

Awww, poor little guy. This is one of the most touching pictures I've ever seen, and the best example of true loyalty imaginable.

My Mini City: Naknek

2007-12-29T22:11:00.000-09:00

I started my own little city on MyMiniCity.com, and I want all of you to come visit! This site lets you create your own little city, kinda similar to SimCity, except instead of getting bigger by your actions, your city grows by people visiting it. So why don't you pop by and check out Naknek, and if you want, you can create your own too!

Animated Bacon

2007-12-20T11:11:00.000-09:00

That's it. Animated bacon. All I know, all you need to know. Click the image to see the animation (it's somewhat of a large file at 1.47MB.)

The Land of the Free (My Ass!)

2007-12-19T11:24:00.001-09:00

I came upon this absolutely horrific account of an Icelandic woman's account of how she was treated upon arrival at JFK airport in New York due to staying a week longer than her visa had allowed in 1995. It makes me ashamed to even be a US citizen when I read things like this, and the worst part is this is becoming the NORM lately. Everybody please pass this link around, something really needs to be done.

Lost (English translation) - blog post by Erla Ósk Arnardóttir Lillendahl (original post)

Desktop Environments vs. Window Managers

2007-12-19T09:37:00.000-09:00

Many of you who are new to Linux have probably encountered the terms desktop environment and window manager, and might be thinking "what the hell are either and why do I care?" Well, if you're not running a brand new computer, you might have a lot of reason to care. I came across an article today on Download Squad that explains the difference in a newbie-friendly manner. Most Linux installations default to either KDE or GNOME. These are both what's known as desktop environments. This is something akin to what Windows is to a PC or what OSX is to a Mac, a full-featured environment that provides everything you need to access everything on your computer. This might seem like 'well, ok duh,' but there are other options. Back in the early days of Linux, you had to put together all the components of a complete system yourself. This involved a window manager.

A window manager does one main thing, and that is to handle windows. That includes the borders and controls that let you control what is visible and how you interact with it. It also includes the menus and desktop icons (if that is how the particular manager does it.) In addition to it, you also needed to have software running to handle your sound, any panels you wanted, screensaver, and anything else you wanted to run. This seems like it might be tedious and complicated, and sometimes it is, but it allows for a COMPLETELY customized Linux experience. You can control every aspect of your system and have it look, act, and work just how you want. And as a side effect of only running the components you need, window managers are much slimmer, quicker, more efficient, and if they crash, they don't take down anything else with them (like that novel you are working on and haven't saved for 25 pages.) A couple of my favorite window managers are Enlightenment and Window Maker. If you have an older PC that seems real sluggish currently, (or you think you can't even use) give one of these a try, you might find out your 233MHz PII can run as well as your 2GHz P4, and can look good doing it.

Tip: if you really are putting it on a 233 (or something slow) go with Window Maker, it is much slimmer than Enlightenment.

Special thanks to Kristin Shoemaker for her (sorry Kristin!) excellent blog post on the topic, check his article for more information on desktop environments and window managers.

Anti-Gravity Cat

2007-12-17T09:32:00.000-09:00

I know you've seen the thing with the cat with a piece of toast with jam strapped to its back, and I know you've seen the LOLcat labeled "Anti-Gravity Cat," but this brings whole new meaning to the phrase!

USB Flash Drive Virus Proof of Concept

2007-12-17T08:41:00.000-09:00

I came across something very disturbing a few minutes ago, and I think the world really needs to know about it. I know you all know that Windows is horribly vulnerable to every PC malady that has ever existed, but here's one that is basically built-in on purpose by Microsoft.

This particular exploit utilizes the built in autorun.inf 'feature' in all recent versions of Windows to run its payload, whose source code can be seen at QuantumG's site where I Stumbled Upon it. What the code does, is basically as soon as you insert the flash drive containing this program, opener.exe, and the 4 lines in autorun.inf, it will find any other removable drives, copy itself onto them, and hide itself. The actual process goes like this:

Open an explorer window for the drive we're running from.
Make sure there is only one copy of opener.exe running.
Scan the available drives for any that are removable.
Check that there is some free space on the drive.
Check that the drive doesn't already have an autorun.inf.
Dump the following into autorun.inf:
```
[autorun]
shell\eject=Eject
shell\eject\command=opener.exe
shell=eject
```
This creates a new shell command which I've just randomly named "Eject" and, importantly, makes it the default action.
Write a copy of opener.exe to the drive.
Mark both autorun.inf and opener.exe as hidden.
Do any other removable drives we can find.
Wait about a minute.
Go back to step 3.

This is very basic virus behavior, but if the author was malicious, absolutely anything they wanted to do could be done. This has very serious implications for users, and needs to be addressed post-haste by Microsoft. Let's get the word out, you can help by Stumbling, Digging, or doing whatever you can to share this post and get it fixed.

Original site at http://rtfm.insomnia.org/~qg/opener.php
Image courtesy of Francois Thé

WTF... really, WTF!?

2007-12-14T09:04:00.000-09:00

I have no idea what the hell is going on here, but I think I have an idea. I read somewhere about someone who replied to one of those Nigerian scams where the guy was trying to buy a laptop with some fake escrow site where he would send the laptop, but never get paid, and so of course, he got the guy back really good and as part of it he made the guy send him pictures of himself naked to 'prove it was really him' and have him send pictures of him doing all sorts of weird stuff to prove he didn't just get a picture of some other naked black guy. I bet this is along those exact same lines, someone told these guys that to get their scammed money or merchandise, they have to send a picture of them, all three with pickles in their mouth, and 5 loaves of bread on the one guys stomach while the other two hold him off the ground. LOL some people are so retarded! Enjoy!!

How to post HTML code on your website

2007-11-29T09:24:00.000-09:00

OK, so I came across this great tip that lets you see the passwords you have saved in Firefox, so I immediately went to post it on here, and after typing it up, putting the code in, and trying to post it, I found out that it won't show the code on my site because it is interpreting it. So, I had a new problem: how to show the code without it being read as code. It took me a few minutes to find out how to do this, and I had to use a few methods of searching before I found the appropriate answer, so here it is just for you:

Within the HTML example, first replace the "&" character with "&" everywhere it occurs. Then replace the "<" character with "<" and the ">" character with ">" in the same way.

Within the HTML example, first replace the "&" character with "&" everywhere it occurs. Then replace the "<" character with "<" and the ">" character with ">" in the same way.

Interestingly enough, in order to post these instructions, I had to replace "&" with ""&"", "<" with ""$amp;lt;"", and ">" with ""$amp;gt;"" so that they themselves aren't interpreted. To show you what I had to type to get ""&"" to display, view the source, cause it would be really really confusing if I tried to make it viewable, the first level of de-interpretation was bad enough, let alone the second. I better stop before I recurse into infinity showing what has to be input as code to display what the code should be. Enjoy!

View password 'asteriskd out' in Firefox

2007-11-29T09:08:00.000-09:00

Have you ever needed to see what that password you had Firefox remember last year was because now you can only get on that website from your computer at home, and need it at work? Or something like that. I know it's been awhile since I made a post, but come on guys, nobody has even noticed, have you? Anyways, to see what's behind the ***s, make sure you are on the page you want to get the password from, and it is entered in the box (you can see ****** in the box.) Now, click in the address bar up top, and replace the text in there with the following text: (copy and paste)

javascript:(function(){var s,F,j,f,i; s = ""; F = document.forms; for(j=0; j<F.length; ++j) { f = F[j]; for (i=0; i<f.length; ++i) { if (f[i].type.toLowerCase() == "password") s += f[i].value + "\n"; } } if (s) alert("Passwords in forms on this page:\n\n" + s); else alert("There are no passwords in forms on this page.");})();

When you press enter, you will get a box revealing the mystery!

Hundreds of useful links!

2007-11-06T11:07:00.000-09:00

I know it's been a little while since I posted anything, so I figure I'll give you a really good one. This is a list of several hundred useful sites that will help you do almost anything you could need to do on the computer. Enjoy!

Utilities, tune-up, maintenance & useful PC information
1-4a Rename - batch, mass file renamer & other useful utilities (2/18/04)
Active@ Kill Disk - free powerful hard drive eraser (11/7/04)
Add/Remove Pro - useful Add/Remove Programs utility
AnswersThatWork.com - ultimate online HelpDesk for PC problems (5/17/04)
AutoPatcher - install all the updates & registry tweaks (6/22/04)
BartPE - Bart's Preinstalled Environment (BartPE) bootable live windows CD/DVD (10/6/04)
Batchrun - create batch files Win 95/98/ME/NT/2000
Batchrun XP alternative - create .cmd files (using Notepad) (6/21/04)
Black Viper's web site - Windows configurations, setup, tweaks...
Black Viper archived - archived site (5/10/05)
Black Viper archived - archived site for XP SP2 (5/10/05)
Boot Log Analyzer - looks at your Windows BOOTLOG.TXT file for startup issues (5/21/05)
Boot Log XP - the best Windows boot analyzer (5/21/05)
BootVis - performance trace visualization tool for faster boot-startup times (8/1/04)
CDCheck - utility for prevention, error detection & recovery of damaged files (6/30/04)
CodeStuff Starter - view & manage all the programs that are starting
ComputerUser.com - very complete and updated high-tech dictionary for computer users (9/20/04)
Darik's Boot and Nuke - self-contained boot floppy that securely wipes the hard disks of most computers (11/7/04)
ExplorerXP - innovative FREEWARE file manager for Windows 2000/XP (5/20/05)
File Management in Windows XP - a lot of info & tips from The Elder Geek (5/20/05)
FileAnt File Manager - Windows file manager on tabs, FTP client (5/20/05)
Filex - complete reference on File Extensions & associated applications
freeCommander - dual pane, “swiss army knife” replacement for Windows Explorer (12/17/04)
freshdevices - excellent utilities like Fresh Download, Fresh Diagnose, Fresh UI, Fresh View... (5/21/05)
HDD Scan and Restoration Program - free HDD repair & data recovery software (11/7/04)
Help2Go - committed to offering free computer help & tutorials (6/23/04)
Lavalys - freeware system diagnostics & benchmarking solution (6/30/04)
Lockergnome Tips - “Your Top Technology Information Resource”
Low-Level Format, Zero-Fill & Diagnostic Utilities - info on HDD (Hard Disk Drive) utilities & formatting (11/7/04)
Low-Level Format, Zero-Fill & Diagnostic Utilities - manufacturer links for HDD utilities (11/7/04)
How to permanently erase data from a hard disk - site about permanently erasing data on a hard drive (11/7/04)
Motherboard Monitor - manage your fans, resources & alarms
MSFN's Unattended XP CD - create XP CD with Critical Updates, tweaks, drivers... (5/27/04)
MyCoolTools - real useful tools: VisualRoute, MySpeed, Visual IP Trace, eMailTrackerPro... (8/20/05)
nLite - excellent free Windows Installation Customizer, remove unwanted Windows components (8/28/04)
PC INSPECTOR File Recovery - data recovery program for FAT 12/16/32 & NTFS file systems (6/30/04)
PC INSPECTOR smart recovery - File Recovery companion for digital camera media... (6/30/04)
PowerToys - Microsoft PowerToys for Windows XP, TweakUI...
PrcView - explore & debug, process viewer for Windows (7/1/04)
Process Explorer - advanced task manager (6/26/04)
Regcompact.NET - registry compaction program that cleans empty values (5/3/2004)
RegEditX - unsurpassed RegEdit productivity
Registrar Lite - powerful & flexible freeware registry editor
Registry Guide for Windows - (formerly RegHelp, RegEditX, RegEdit.com)
RegShot - small & open-sourced registry compare utility
Restoration - restore files that are deleted accidentally & not in recycle bin (6/30/04)
SiSoftware Sandra Standard - The Diagnostic Tool
SpeedFan - monitors fan speeds, temperatures & voltages in PCs...
Startup Control Panel - easily configure which programs run when your PC starts
StartupList - WAY better than msconfig lists all auto starting programs (5/17/04)
Sysinternals Freeware - free very professional/quality system utilities (6/26/04)
Sysinternals RegMon - Registry monitoring utility
Textractor - captures text from screen
The Elder Geek on Windows XP - very useful free information site like Black Viper's
ToniArts EasyCleaner - very useful program to clean PC & registry (5/20/04)
TreeSize - tells you where precious space has gone to
TweakHound - Super XP tweaking guide (1/31/04)
TweakTown WinXP Tweaking - From Reformat to Relax (1/31/04)
TweakTown WinXP Tweaking - From Relax to Righteous (1/31/04)
Ultimate Boot CD - boot CD for any OS, also WinUBCD & other free apps (10/6/04)
UnH Solutions - free excellent system utilities (6/26/04)
User Profile Deletion Utility - Delprof.exe - get rid of old User Profiles that are no longer needed (5/14/05)
Windows MultiEnhancer - remove Windows DialogBox, Outlook Express & Internet Explorer annoyances (12/8/04)
Windows Registry cleaners, downloads - search, delete & cure invalid references to Windows Registry (5/6/05)
Windows service packs & updates - OS and application patch repository, no need for Windows Update! (8/16/06)
Windows Services - a list of all standard Windows Services for NT, 2000 & XP (6/22/05)
Windows update driver site - latest secure Windows certified hardware drivers (6/30/04)
Windows XP Home Edition Utility - setup disks for floppy boot install (6/30/04)
Windows XP Installation - Step-by-Step Windows XP install
Winuscon -unearths many Windows's most useful features (6/30/04)
Xteq X-Setup Pro - 1 of most powerful free tweakers, utilities in 1 program
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Tweaks & overclocking
ABXZone.com - Windows XP tweaks (1/31/04)
ClubOC.net - the original overclockers club (1/31/04)
Extreme Overclocking - tweaking PC hardware to the max (1/31/04)
Overclockers Club - XP Services removal guide (1/31/04)
Overclockers Online - news, reviews & the kitchen sink (1/31/04)
OverClockers.com - push system performance to limit (1/31/04)
TweakTown - overclocking, tweaking... site (1/31/04)
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Security, adware, spyware, spam, cookies, pop-ups...
AnalogX Script Defender - intercepts all requests to execute a variety of script types (.VBS, .JS, .WSH...) (5/15/05)
Anti-Virus freeware - free anti-virus software from TheFreeSite.com (8/11/04)
avast! 4 Home Edition - free antivirus software
AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition - free antivirus software
bartdart.com - “freeware for you” site, apps like Toolbar Chest, 2 tools below... (6/30/04)
CachePal - dump your IE cache files, browser history, & cookies quickly (6/30/04)
ScrubXP - cleans out temp files, cookies, history & Windows XP opened/searched files (6/30/04)
Bazooka Adware & Spyware Scanner - detects a multitude of spyware, adware, trojan... (2/11/04)
Browser Hijack Blaster - stop anyone from hijacking your home page + other features (6/30/04)
CastleCops - formerly ComputerCops, security professionals (9/5/04)
Cookie Viewer - discover info that websites leave on your computer (5/7/05)
CWShredder - small utility for removing CoolWebSearch & associated spyware apps (9/7/04)
Eraser - secure data removal tool for Windows (6/22/04)
Eraser - SourceForge open-source site for Eraser (6/22/04)
HijackThis! - powerful spyware tool, many other useful downloads (5/17/04)
IE Privacy Keeper - simple & fast browsing history cleaner for Internet Explorer (6/26/04)
IE-SPYAD - Restricted Sites block list file download, Registry entry (5/14/05)
LeakTest - test for any leaks in your Firewall (6/22/05)
MVPS Hosts File - Restricted Sites block list file download, Registry entry (5/14/05)
MVPS Hosts File - info & help for Restricted Sites block list/Hosts file (5/14/05)
Junkbusters home page - dedicated to fighting junk inside the PC (7/1/04)
Lavasoft Ad-Aware - useful adware/spyware scanner removal program
Microsoft Windows XP - site for latest updates, Service Packs & utilities (5/23/04)
Microsoft Security FAQ - FAQ about Microsoft Software & Internet Security
PGP Freeware - encrypt messages & keep e-mail confidential (6/30/04)
Pop-Up Stopper Free Edition - pop-up blocker with history, cookies... "privacy report" (6/30/04)
Privoxy - proxy web filter download & choice of OS's
Privoxy home page - web filter home page (based on Internet Junkbuster & updated)
Privoxy sources - IE6 enhancements, future versions...
Proxomitron - proxy web filter, similar to Privoxy - not sure of updates (5/7/05)
RegistryProt - compact, low-level realtime registry monitor and protector (5/15/05)
Sam Spade - network-query tool that can help you locate bulk mailers, spammers... (6/30/04)
ScriptSentry - specify which scripts/files should be allowed to run, like AnalogX Script Defender (5/15/05)
SECRETMAKER - handle spam, plus 6 other useful tools (2/23/2004)
SpamAssassin - excellent e-mail SPAM filter that's very flexible... (6/15/05)
Spy Sweeper - free Spyware removal tools & info (9/5/04)
SpyBot - Search & Destroy - powerful spyware/adware... detector & remover
Spyware Doctor - new version very effective for spyware detection (7/6/05)
Spyware Warrior Forums - help with Spyware, Hijackers & other Internet nuisances (9/7/04)
SpywareBlaster - + SpywareGuard, MRU-Blaster... prevent spyware from installing
SpywareInfo - online spyware remover, doesn't scan cookies (5/31/04)
StartupMonitor - notifies you when any program registers itself to run at system startup (5/15/05)
Sygate Personal Firewall - excellent secure Firewall, user friendly (5/12/05)
SwatIt - scans your computer for Trojans, Worms, Bots and other Hacker programs (9/30/04)
Trend Micro - online virus scanner (2/21/2004)
Wilders.org Security Advisors - website is totally devoted to security
WinPatrol - spyware program launch alert (6/30/04)
ZoneAlarm - excellent free firewall
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Internet browsers & other web surfing software enhancements
AltaVista Toolbar - toolbar w/Google like features + Babelfish translator button (6/30/04)
Avant Browser - versatile tabbed browser using IE engine (5/29/04)
Copernic search engine - allows you to search ALL search engines at once (11/9/04)
Gaim - multi-protocol instant messaging client for Linux, BSD, MacOS X, and Windows (6/30/04)
Google Deskbar - search using Google without opening your browser (6/30/04)
Messenger Plus! - the most popular add-on for MSN Messenger (6/30/04)
Googlebar - search bar plug-in for Mozilla (6/30/04)
Mozilla Firefox - Mozilla's next generation browser (5/28/04)
Mozilla Firefox Extensions - Most popular Firefox Extensions (5/13/05)
Mozilla Firefox Extensions - Free Download Manager: FULL of features, works w/FlashGot Extension (5/16/05)
Mozilla Firefox Extensions - Download Manager Tweak: still adds features, but smaller alternative (5/16/05)
Mozilla Firefox Extensions - fireFTP: cross-platform FTP client for Mozilla Firefox (6/8/05)
Mozilla Firefox Installation Guide - very useful simple guide & tips for Firefox browser (5/13/05)
Mozilla Suite - web browser, advanced e-mail... all-in-one Internet application suite (5/13/05)
Mozilla Thunderbird - Mozilla's e-mail & newsgroup client (6/30/04)
MyIE2 - tabbed interface solution for browser Windows filling taskbar (6/30/04)
Opera - full-featured web browser - surf the web faster, safer & easier (5/14/05)
SeaMonkey - from Mozilla.org, all-in-one Internet application suite (4/25/06)
Toolbar Chest - for OE - save window positions, layout & many more settings (6/30/04)
Trillian Basic - multi-network IM client - IRC, AOL, ICQ, MSN, or Yahoo... (6/30/04)
w00t! - counter-strike search engine (11/14/04)
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Useful software & links for freeware
100best FREE web space Providers - The Truth About Free Web Hosting
7-Zip - versatile zip extractor
AceFTP 3 - FTP client for creating/exchanging web pages
AceHTML 5 - web page creation, validation (6/19/04, no more updates)
AceMoney Lite - freeware manages your finances (6/30/04)
Adobe Acrobat Reader - useful Internet .pdf file viewer, other features... (6/30/04)
AnalogX - free Network utilities (8/12/04)
André Bacard's Privacy Page - Protect Your Computer, Financial, Internet & Political Privacy (11/29/05)
AutoHotKey - create Macros, automate tasks (6/11/04)
Bart's Network Book Disk - professional network boot disk (2/12/04)
Blogger.com - create your own blog/web page
Blowfish - The Blowfish Encryption Algorithm, useful for SFTP server transfer... (5/20/05)
CadSoft Online - Eagle Light Edition: free circuit board, electronics... CAD (7/3/04)
CORE FTP LE - FULL FEATURED FTP, SFTP... client for PC... website file transfer (5/17/05)
Cryptainer LE - award winning encryption package is totally free & never expires (11/29/05)
CYCAS - CYCAS CAD 2D + 3D + ARCHITECTURE (8/9/04)
DC++ - free ultimate file sharing client for Direct Connect Network (5/5/05)
Dir to HTML Wizard - Advanced Directory Manager (2/10/04)
DNSstuff - useful tools for network administrators, domain owners, users of DNS hosting services, etc. (6/23/05)
extendedPDF - make your documents much easier to read w/PDF's navigation (11/29/05)
FileZilla - FTP client for web pages, lots of useful features
Foxit Reader - free reader for PDF (eBook) documents, small <1 MB download size (10/22/05)
Free Download Manager - FULL of features, also works w/FlashGot Extension in Firefox browser (5/16/05)
FREE DOWNLOADS CENTER - free utilities download site (8/12/04)
Free SSH and SCP - secure transfer protocol for Windows 9x, NT, ME, 2000 and XP (5/20/05)
FreeBSD - FreeBSD makes an ideal Internet or Intranet server (5/7/05)
FreeDNS - Free DNS, Dynamic DNS, subdomain and domain hosting (5/7/05)
FreeCAD.com - The one site for all free CAD, CAM and CAE programs (6/19/04)
FreewareFiles.com - your free software resource - utilities (8/12/04)
Freeware Home - collection of free software & Internet services (8/11/04)
Freeware World Team - International Freeware Database (8/11/04)
FreeWorld DIALUP - uses a broadband Internet connection to make phone calls (6/30/04)
Ghostscript - PDF engine, 3 similar links right below... (3/11/05)
GnuPG - a complete and free replacement for PGP encryption (11/29/05)
GSview - display & print PostScript and PDF files, requires Ghostscript (3/11/05)
RedMon - Redirection Port Monitor - redirect Ghostscript .pdf to a file (or printer) (3/11/05)
Creating a free PDFWriter using Ghostscript - step by step on how to create a PDF Writer (3/11/05)
Hamachi - organize 2 or more computers w/Internet connection into secure virtual network (5/24/05)
HTML-Kit - web page creation, Multiple Validators
HTML-Kit Plugins Generator - very useful additions to HTML-Kit (6/19/04)
Internet Download Manager - handle your downloads & increase download speeds... (6/30/04)
IrfanView - free compact powerful image editor (6/30/04)
IZArc - the ultimate archive/compression utility supports many archive formats (1/21/05)
JXHTMLEDIT - excellent easy browser-based HTML/XHTML authoring tool based on Java 2 (5/17/05)
KeyNote - multi-featured tabbed notebook (6/30/04)
Microsoft Typography - free font tools & utilities site (8/12/04)
Moochers Freeware - your home for free software on the 'net (8/11/04)
NetLeech - excellent versatile download manager
NoteTab Light - Notepad replacement, MS Word alternative, handy ASCII MDI, HTML editor (2/19/04)
OnlineConversion.com - convert just about anything to anything else (7/18/04)
OpenOffice.org 1.1 - free open-source alternative to Microsoft Office (Excel, Word...)
OpenOffice Calc Tips - spreadsheet resource page & plug-ins (9/18/05)
osalt.com - find open source software alternatives to well-known commercial software (10/26/06)
Xnumbers - OpenOffice plugin, many features - improves on 15 significant bit calcs... (9/18/05)
Xnumbers - Excel plugin, many features - improves on 15 significant bit calcs... (9/18/05)
PC--->MAC - link page to MAC to/from PC utilities (3/11/05)
POV-Ray - free tool for creating stunning 3-D graphics (8/9/04)
PureText - copy text from Web pages, remove formatting... (6/30/04)
Python - powerful object-oriented programming language, like Perl, Tcl, Scheme, or Java (5/20/05)
Ramsinks - The Free GOOD Software List, another excellent site for free apps (12/10/05)
RoboForm - free password manager, form filler, password generator... (6/30/04)
StatCounter - invisible web tracker, hit counter, real-time web stats... (5/6/05)
SimpleServer:WWW - set up your own webserver... (2/10/04)
SmartFTP - like CORE FTP LE, free feature rich file-web transfer app (5/17/05)
SnapFiles - huge free software repository (8/16/06)
StatCounter - invisible web tracker, hit counter, real-time web stats... (5/6/05)
SystemTools.com - all free utilities (8/12/04)
Tech Support Alert - The 46 Best-ever Freeware Utilities (8/12/04)
The Exhibit Engine - PHP/MySQL application for smooth and versatile online photograph display (11/29/05)
The FreewarePC - run your PC all on FREEWARE (except OS) (8/11/04)
the GIMP - GNU Image Manipulation Program: photo, image composition & image authoring (6/30/04)
The International PGP Home Page - resource for PGP encryption program & the OpenPGP standard (11/29/05)
The Official Free Web Hosting Guide - the best free web hosting sites on the web (5/6/05)
The R Project - free software environment for statistical computing and graphics (9/18/05)
thefreecountry.com - Free Encryption/Cryptographic Software (11/29/05)
TheFreeSite.com - home of the Web's best Freebies (8/11/04)
Tripod - one the best free web hosting sites on the web (5/7/05)
TUGZip - provides support for a wide range of compressed, encoded and disc-image files (9/7/04)
Ultimate CAD Directory - free CAD viewers, reviews & great site for CAD (9/23/04)
web-based news aggregator - create your own custom newspage for your website (5/20/05)
Web Wiz Guide - site for web design & development
WinKeySim - create Macros, automate tasks... (5/21/05)
WinSCP - open source freeware SFTP client for Windows using SSH (5/20/05)
xe.com - The Universal Currency Converter (7/10/04)
Zip Central - free & easy smart zip file compression manager (6/30/04)

A.P. Lawrence - Unix, Linux & Mac OS X Help site (1/31/04)
Fedora Linux - free open-source alternative operating system
FreeBSD - advanced OS for Pentium, Athlon & other compatible architectures (5/21/2005)
FreeSBIE - FreeBSD-based operating system that works directly from a CD (5/21/05)
FRESHMEAT - vast Linux free resource site (7/1/04)
IntelliCAD 2001 - 3D CAD (might not be free anymore)
Java - download from Sun Microsystems
Knoppix - a bootable CD with a collection of GNU/Linux software (5/21/05)
LinuxHardware.org - Linux hardware/software resource site (1/31/04)
LiveCD - create your own LiveCD from a currently installed Linux distribution (5/21/05)
SLAX - small bootable CD containing the Linux operating system (5/21/05)
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Useful links for other great freeware download sites
DOWNLOAD.COM - useful vast free download resource site (7/1/04)
DriverFiles.net - excellent free “search for the device driver you need” site (6/30/04)
FreeByte - freeware programs created by Freebyte (7/1/04)
MajorGeeks.com - super tools & utilities download site (5/21/04)
NONAGS - the original & best genuine freeware site (7/1/04)
Nu2 Productions Website - free Utilities, BootCD & Disk, Multimedia apps... (7/19/04)
OnlyTheBestFreeware.com - pretty self explanatory (7/1/04)
PC World download - vast PC download resource site (7/1/04)
Pricelessware - the best of the best in Windows freeware (2/18/04)
Tucows Downloads - vast download site for Windows, Mac, Linux... (7/1/04)
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Audio/Video
Absolute MP3 Recorder - record PC sound directly to MP3 file
AnalogX - 30 different DirectX utilities & plug-ins for audio files (7/1/04)
ASIO4ALL - Universal ASIO Driver For WDM Audio (6/13/04)
auCDtect - audio CD authenticity detector (4/22/05)
Tau Analyzer - audio CD authenticity detector - updated version of Aucdtect (4/22/05)
Audacity - wav sound file editor, audio recorder... (1/6/04)
AVIcodec - multiple info on movies, particularly video & audio codecs (11/12/04)
BumpUp.exe - small useful filtering/edit tool for audio recordings (5/21/04)
Cdex - CD ripping & converting...
CDisplay Sequential Image Viewer - Windows image viewer for JPEG, PNG & GIF formats (8/11/04)
dBpowerAMP Audio Player - complete audio player (2/18/04)
dBpowerAMP Music Converter - Swiss army knife of audio (2/18/04)
Digital Sound Planet/Quartz Audio Master - audio recording software (5/21/04)
Etree Wiki - award-winning leader in lossless digital audio distribution (7/1/04)
EvilLyrics - view the lyrics of song that's playing, automatic search (7/1/04)
Exact Audio Copy - new audio grabber for CD-ROM drives
FLAC - audiophile lossless encoder
foobar2000 - excellent free useful “audiophile” audio player..
foobar2000 plugins - R1CH's foobar2000 Plugins, Winamp API Emulator (6/13/04)
iTunes - digital jukebox for Mac & Windows (7/1/04)
jetAudio Basic - jukebox, burner, recorder, many features (6/11/04)
KRISTAL Audio Engine - audio recording software (5/21/04)
LAME - open-source LPGL MP3 encoder
Media Player Classic - non-bloat replacement for Windows Media Player
MediaMonkey - free versatile music manager
Monkey's Audio - lossless compression
MPEG Home Page - Official site for MPEG-2, MPEG-4, MP3... lossy compressed formats (7/18/04)
MPEG.ORG - home page of the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) (7/18/04)
mp3DirectCut - a small tool for editing MPEG audio directly
MP3Trim - clean up & improve your MP3 collection (7/1/04)
MusicBrainz - community music metadatabase & comprehensive music information site (6/17/05)
Nero DriveSpeed w/ASPI manager - control DVD-ROM speed (2/3/2004)
Nullsoft Winamp - excellent versatile free audio utility (3 popular plugins below)
ASIO plugin
CDReader plugin
Monkey's Audio plugin
Kernel Streaming output plugin for Winamp2 - info & help @ Hydrogen Audio Discussion Forum (11/11/04)
Kernel Streaming output plugin for Winamp2 - direct download link (11/11/04)
Quintessential Player - free full featured audio utility
Shockwave Player Download Center - the standard for viewing rich media Web content (7/1/04)
Shorten - (SHN) lossless audio encoder (3/21/04)
System Tray Audio Card Switcher - switch default audio device via click on system tray icon (11/3/05)
Trader's Little Helper - for converting & trading lossless compressed audio files (5/30/06)
VLC media player - the cross-platform media player and streaming server (6/24/04)
Windows Media 9 HDTV Encoding Guide - Windows Media 9 HDTV Encoding Guide @ AVS Forum
Windows Media Encoder 9 - take advantage of Windows Media 9 Series
Windows Media Player - excellent popular free audio/HD video player
WMSnoop - free WMV frame-by-frame anaylsis tool (4/27/05)
Zoom Player - simple audio/video player, but gives Power Users all the tools & interfaces
ZynAddSubFX - opensource software synthesizer capable of making a countless number of instruments (8/20/04)
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HTPC setup...
3DChipset - ATi Radeon BIOS Flash Programs & Utilities
AC3Filter - DirectShow filter for AC3 decoding/real-time encoding (6/25/04)
AC3Filter - new improved release candidate (6/25/04)
AC3Filter - link that will self update w/each new AC3Filter release (7/18/04)
Ant Movie Catalog - manage your collection of CD/DVD movies (1/31/04)
AntennaWeb.org - antenna setup & resource site
AVI_IO - for supported video cards, capturing w/scheduling solution (6/14/04)
AVI_IO - WDM Video Capture Driver for XP (6/14/04)
AVS Forum Search Page - search forum(s), normal search (3/1/2004)
AVS Home Theater Computer - HTPC meta FAQ thread (6/20/04)
AVS Home Theater Computer Forum - thats THIS forum!
Beyond Remote Client and Server - view remote computers, transfer files/clipboard, chat, & power on... (8/21/05)
Bobyte Software - freeware AVI splitter & combining utilities (3/11/05)
BootXP - Windows boot screens
Chameleon - HTPC front-end framework with a very customizable interface (7/7/04)
CheckHD - CheckHD tells you all about high definition (HD) at your house (3/1/05)
CTpvr & CTtv - free PVR for Hauppauge PVR 250/350 TV tuner cards (7/7/04)
Dead Pixel Buddy - program for testing LCD screens for dead pixels (6/7/05)
Digital Theater Interface - HTPC user interface (2/8/04)
DirectShow Filter Manager - utility to help list, sort, find, add or remove DirectShow filters (7/21/05)
Filmerit - freeware application for cleaning and managing DirectShow filters (7/21/05)
RadLight Filter Manager - open-source tool allows you to change merit of DirectShow filters (7/21/05)
DirecTV - Control your DirecTV® satellite receiver with your computer
Dscaler - very useful, versatile free video scaler
DVArchive - Virtual Replay TV for your PC
DVD Profiler - catalog DVD collection
DVHSTool - read/write HDTV transport Streams to/from a D-VHS VCR
FCCHandler VirtualDub-MPEG2 - handles MPEG2 content
ffdshow - DirectShow decoding filter for decompressing DIVX & XVID movies
ffdshow - Free-Codecs.com alternate download site (6/23/04)
ffdshow - softpedia.com alternate download site (6/23/04)
Ffdshow FAQ - AVS Forum ffdshow FAQ thread
Freevo - home theater PC platform based on Linux
GB-PVR - fully featured Personal Video Recorder (5/3/2004)
GotTV PVR - all in one PVR for TV, movies, music, photos... (7/1/04)
GSpot - audio/video codec information appliance (1/26/05)
HDD - Intel Application Accelerator - support for hard drives >137 Gigabytes, <= Intel 860 (5/23/04)
HDD - Maxtor Big Drive Enabler - support for hard drives >137 Gigabytes, > Intel 860 (5/23/04)
HDTV Card Buyer's Guide - AVS Forum thread (V2.5 -updated on 4/11/04) (6/19/04)
HIP from ByRemote - Human Interface Programmer - simple & versatile minimal screen keyboard remote (9/29/04)
HTPCnews.com - HTPC news, reviews, gaming, guides... (6/8/04)
HDTVtoMPEG2 - AVS thread on HDTV to MPEG2 file conversion (10/5/04)
HDTVtoMPEG2 - download - HDTV to MPEG2 file conversion application (10/5/04)
HDTVtoMPEG2 description-download - (5/21/05)
How to record via 1394/Firewire to WindowsXP - AVS Forum thread - 2 download links below (10/5/04)
CapDVHS zip file - capture software for 1394/Firewire to Windows XP download (10/5/04)
HT core driver zip file - device driver for 1394/Firewire to Windows XP download (10/5/04)
iuVCR - universal video recording program (2/8/04)
Karnis' Custom Resolution Guide for PowerStrip - AVS Forum thread for 1080i HDTV-HTPC-POWERSTRIP-RADEON
LCD Master - LCD/VFD screen manager (pay version Girder required) (2/10/04)
Media Engine - HTPC front end - audio/video interface (7/7/04)
MediaPortal - PVR & many other useful features (5/16/04)
Meedio Express - access digital photos & music using your TV and remote control (11/3/05)
Mimic - HTPC front end - build complex, flexible user interfaces (7/7/04)
Moonlight-Elecard MPEG2 Player - excellent tool for viewing, e.g. SVCD streams (6/24/04)
MsDVR 2000 - digital VCR for personal computers (5/3/2004)
Multi-Median - HTPC front end - new standard for Home Theater PC (7/7/04)
My Movies - remote operated DVD index, free add-on app for Media Center Edition users (2/1/05)
My Settop Box - assemble your very own settop box using Linux (7/7/04)
MyHTPC - excellent free front end software
Got TV (at myHTPC) - can be used as integrated TV solution for myHTPC system
MythTV - PVR project, one of best HTPC front ends out there
NetRemote - remote control for HTPC
Nimo's Codec Pack website - A/V codecs & DirectShow filters (2/8/04)
Nokia Monitor Test - the best way - by far - to find stuck or dead LCD pixels (6/7/05)
OpenMC - Open Source Multimedia Center
OpenHTPC - Home Theater PC (HTPC) front-end software (5/16/04)
PCI Latency Tool - utility to set PCI latency & possibly improve stutter or FPS (1/26/06)
PowerStrip - advanced, multi-monitor, programmable hardware support for graphics cards
RadLight Filter Manager - allows you to change registered merit values of DirectShow filters (12/11/05)
Rage3D - ATI utilities site (6/18/04)
Rage3D Tweak - custom resolutions for ATI cards (6/18/04)
ReClock DirectShow Filter - get rid of jerky playback of AVI and MPEG material (6/24/04)
RefreshForce - permanently fixes the Windows 2000/XP refresh rate problem (8/14/06)
RefreshLock - enjoy higher display frequencies w/o hassle of installing special drivers (8/14/06)
RivaTuner - powerful tweaking utility for NVIDIA & ATI display adapters (4/25/06)
Server Elements NASLite - a simple dedicated file server using old hardware (12/5/04)
SME Server - Linux file server: versatile, simple, secure, cross platform (9/25/04)
Sony DVP-CX777ES RS232 controller - Windows program for Sony DVP-CX777ES 400-disc DVD player
SuperNudelist - CD/DVD megachanger for Pronto remote (2/8/04)
Surround Sound formats - surround sound formats explained with diagrams (7/18/04)
Test Patterns - test pattern apps for setting up a CRT projector with/PC (6/24/04)
TheaterTek - free demo version of TheaterTek, top rated DVD player (12/25/05)
TightVNC - HTPC network remote control
Titan TV - the most definitive source for what is on TV
TV tuner card drivers - WDM Video Capture Driver for XP
TV-Cards.com - information on TV tuner cards & PVR software (6/12/04)
Ultr@VNC - HTPC network remote control
VideoLan - video streaming solution for every OS (2/6/04)
Vidomi - plays TV quality XviD and DivX™ MPEG4 video (2/8/04)
Virtual VCR - DirectShow video capture application
VirtualDub - video capture/processing utility (2/8/04)
VobSub - can load subtitles (vobsub, ssa, srt, sub, ...) into movies being played (6/25/04)
VobSub - Home of VobSub, Media Player Classic (MPC) & other utilities (7/19/04)
Windows Media High Definition Video - watch stunning HD movies on your PC (7/1/04)
WMV HD Playback Tool - analyze your HTPC for WMVHD file playback & bottlenecks (2/4/06)
Xlobby - excellent free front end software
XMLTV - utilities to manage TV viewing (2/8/04)
XONE MEDIA CENTER - HTPC interface front end software (7/7/04)
YXY - aspect ratio for DVD players, like Zoom Player (2/8/2004)
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Links for backup & copying CDs, DVDs...
AfterDawn.com - video players & other free downloads... (6/24/04)
Audiograbber - CD-Ripper for Windows (7/1/04)
AutoGK (Auto Gordian Knot) - create excellent quality backups of your DVDs (6/23/04)
burn4free - new free burning solution & DVD copy (7/1/04)
burnatonce - master data and audio discs, read/write image files and copy on the fly (2/18/04)
BurnWorld.com - everything you need for CD/DVD burning info (1/31/04)
CDBurnerXP Pro - burn CD-R, CD-RW DVD+R/RW DVD-R/RW discs, a lot like Nero but free (9/25/04)
DAEMON Tools - useful for mounting DVD images... w/DVD Decrypter (1/31/04)
Doom9 - The definitive DVD backup resource
DriveImage XML - easy reliable program for imaging & backing up partitions & logical drives (4/25/06)
DVD Region Patches - codefree region patches on the web for DVD-ROM players
DVD43 - very good app for use with ripper-free software
DVDShrink - excellent free software to backup DVD discs
Free-Codecs.com - download latest video & audio codecs free (6/23/04)
IfoEdit - solution to DVD Copy 1:1
ImgBurn - ImgBurn can write most types of CD / DVD images (11/17/06)
Remote Selector - great free program removes Macrovision & region lock on software DVD players (11/1/04)
Ripping 101 - AVS Forum thread, DVD copying & burning info (10/9/04)
Smart Projects IsoBuster - the Ultimate CD & DVD data recovery software (3/11/05)
SmartRipper - DVD VOB file extractor/"DVD ripper"
softpedia.com - download audio & video codecs, software, games, drivers + news (6/23/04)
SVCD2DVD or HDTV2DVD - HDTV to DVD made simple (3/25/06)
The Firmware Page - firmware for optical CD/DVD drives (2/20/04)
vStrip - Descrambling/Ripping tool, hard to learn but guaranteed results (6/7/05)
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Removable storage & media
CD Media World - media resource & download site (1/31/04)
CDRLabs.com - removable media resource site (1/31/04)
DVD+RW Alliance - DVD+RW resource site
DVDplusRW.org - largest, independent, online source for DVD+RW (1/31/04)
Recipe for DVD - DVD resource site (1/31/04)
VideoHelp.com - also known as DVDRHelp.com & VCDHelp.com (6/23/04)
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I/O (Input/Output) info
EVERYTHING USB - USB I/O resource site (1/31/04)
FireWire-1394.com - FireWire I/O resource site (1/31/04)
Gary Field's SCSI Info Central - tons of info on the SCSI interface (1/31/04)
HDMI.org - catalyst for the DTV revolution (2/3/2004)
IR Remote - IR remote control article for HTPC (8/25/04)
IR Remote - IRAssistant - free alternative to Girder, remote control PC apps and actions (8/31/06)
IR Remote - JP1 Remotes Forum - main forum for JP1 remote issues (8/25/04)
IR Remote - Yahoo Group JP1 Users - IR.exe, Keymap Master, RemoteMaster for IR remote (8/25/04)
IR Remote - MiriServer - free software for IR remote control for HTPC (8/25/04)
IR Remote - WinLIRC - free software for IR remote control for HTPC (8/25/04)
IR Remote - LIRC - free software for IR remote control for HTPC - Linux OS (8/25/04)
PCI Express - introduction to PCI Express (6/23/04)
PCI SIG - PCI, PCI-X, PCI Express I/O site (1/31/04)
PDA Archives - resource site for older PDAs (7/1/04)
PDA - FreewarePalm - PalmOS & Pocket PC Windows Mobile PDA freeware (7/1/04)
PDA - FreewarePPC - PalmOS & Pocket PC Windows Mobile PDA freeware (7/1/04)
PDA - Handango - advanced search for many PDAs, sort prices for free downloads (7/1/04)
PDA - PalmGear.com - freeware for your versatile PDA (7/1/04)
PDA - Tucows PDA - lots of freeware for many different PDAs (7/1/04)
SCSI Planet - All the SCSI, all the time (1/31/04)
Wi-Fi - AvantGo HOTSPOT LOCATOR - JiWire for use w/Palm OS & Pocket PC devices (6/30/04)
Wi-Fi - JiWire - Wi-Fi Hotspot finder, product news, industry reviews (6/30/04)
Wi-Fi - NetStumbler.com - troubleshoot & shore up Wi-Fi security (6/30/04)
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Themes, desktop enhancements, miscellaneous...
Apple - Movie Trailers - Apple's site on movie trailers using QuickTime video (10/25/04)
Arkaos Visualizer - add visualization to music
Atnotes - drag & drop sticky Post-it like notes on your screen (6/30/04)
Atomic TimeSynch - synchronize with govt. Atomic clock (2/10/04)
BeyONdTV - showcasing features that the mainstream media ignores (5/3/2004)
BZ Hider - mouse cursor hider for Win32 (2/8/04)
CDCOVERS.CC - CD cover art, world's largest cover archive
Click-N-Type virtual keyboard - on-screen virtual keyboard
coverxp - print your CD/DVD covers in seconds... (6/23/2004)
Dave's Quick Search Taskbar Toolbar Deskbar - for search hounds with weary mouse-fingers (5/3/2004)
DeskColor - customize Icons on the Desktop
Desktop Icon Hider - hide your desktop Icons, Start Button (2/8/04)
DVDCOVERART.com Forum - DVDCOVERART.com currently down, alternative site (6/23/04)
ElmuSoft Download Page - many useful downloads like PTBSync, Atomic Clock Synchronization... (12/8/04)
EMS-Project - great free Internet surfing companion (6/26/04)
ESPN BottomLine - displays live scores & news on Windows desktop (7/1/04)
FeedReader - supports major RSS formats - aggregate and organize online news (6/30/04)
Gotcha Covered - batch downloading of album & DVD covers (2/8/04)
HP photo tools & templates - personalized photo tool for T-shirts, mugs, calendars... (7/1/04)
IconHider - hides Icons, for Win32 (2/8/04)
Jet Toolbar - useful desktop toolbar - float or dock & many features (6/30/04)
KeyTweak - keyboard remapper for Windows 2000 or XP (2/6/04)
Kill Win - shut down, restart, or log off Windows at specified times (6/30/04)
MobyDock - an Apple-like dockbar (5/3/2004)
MobyDock - DOWNLOAD.COM alternative (6/21/2004)
MobyDock - MajorGeeks.com alternative (6/23/2004)
Movie Wallpapers - movie wallpapers sorted by movie title (10/25/04)
Movie-List - great site for movie trailers (10/25/04)
MultiPatcher - Patch Windows XP to use Unsigned Themes & Visual Styles (5/3/2004)
Nostalgic Screensaver - shows your images similar to documentaries and biographies
ObjectDock - great interactive application launcher (2/20/04)
OSXP.net - some beautiful themes, wallpaper & icons a la mac (6/26/04)
Picasa - instantly find, edit & share all the pictures on your PC (1/30/05)
Rainy's Rainlendar - customizable calendar displays current month (5/3/2004)
SAMURIZE.COM - desktop customization program (1/31/04)
Set Your Computer Clock - world animation display + official U.S. time (5/17/04)
Set Your Computer Clock - via the Internet NIST Internet Time Service (5/17/04)
SmartBarXP - best Windows Start Bar replacement bar none (2/20/04)
Smiley & images site - The Ultimate Pointless Website (5/31/04)
Smiley site - Best Smileys Page Index (5/31/04)
Smiley site - clicksmilies.com (5/31/04)
Smiley site - my Smileys, German (5/31/04)
Smiley site - Mysmileys.com (5/31/04)
The Open Video Project - interesting archival video - a shared digital video collection, open-source (10/25/04)
Theme Doctor - top rated site for themes & screensaver downloads (1/25/06)
ThemeXP - almost infinite amount of quality windows substitute themes (6/26/04)
ThePhoneBot - use PC as telephone answering machine with Caller ID (9/16/05)
Video filters - some useful tools & effects... (6/13/04)
WindowBlinds - fully control GUI (2/6/04)
World Time Server.com - atomic clock synchronization (5/17/04)
Xnews - excellent Usenet newsreader for Windows (6/30/04)
XPthemes - your headquarters on Windows XP customization (6/26/04)
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Audio information links, measurement & loudspeaker design software
ACXO - acoustic correction & digital crossover for PC (9/22/04)
AlmusVCU - Linux convolver for Auralisation, binaural, Ambisonics & ITU 5.1 (9/22/04)
Audio DIY Projects - various projects, some involving use of PC & components... (8/15/06)
Boston Audio Society links pages - many categories of informative & hi-end audio links (9/23/04)
BruteFIR - Linux versatile basic convolver for crossovers, equaliztion, Auralisation, Ambisonics... (9/22/04)
Convolver - convolver plug-in for Windows Media Player & DirectX for room correction (8/15/06)
Digital Crossover Filter Construction/Playback - digital crossover filters w/driver correction (2/6/04)
Digital Room Correction - Digital Room Correction software by Denis Sbragion (9/22/04)
Digital Room Correction - instructions by Jones Rush on how to setup & use DRC (9/22/04)
Digital Room Correction links + guide - links & guide for DRC software by Denis Sbragion (9/22/04)
ETF audio file reader - for reading .etf acoustic measurement files, also a demo (1/22/05)
FRD Consortium - acoustic design tools (2/6/04)
Function Generator - generates sine, square & triangle wave signals from 1 Hz to 20 kHz (6/26/04)
Liberty Instruments - Praxis loudspeaker measurement software - free download (5/3/2004)
Martin J. King's MathCAD models - Quarter Wavelength Loudspeaker Design (2/6/04)
NCH Tone Generator - excellent audio test tone generator (9/14/04)
RAL/Realtime Analyzer Light - measure & equalize sound system acoustics (need dB meter, 3-day trial) (8/19/04)
Room EQ Wizard - Java application for measuring room responses and correcting modal resonances (8/15/06)
SketchUp - powerful tool for quickly & easily creating, viewing & modifying your 3D ideas (4/28/06)
Speaker Workshop - freeware site devoted to creating loudspeakers (2/6/04)
The Edge - baffle diffraction simulator (5/3/2004)
The LDSG - a COMPENDIUM of recommended speaker drivers, crossovers, electronics... (5/16/05)
UniBox - excellent free speaker design software (2/6/04)
WinISD Pro - free speaker design software (2/6/04)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Games & online gaming for PC
Download Free Games - download over 140 virus & spyware free games (7/1/04)
FILE FRONT - 50 latest games in reverse chronological order (7/1/04)
FilePlanet - online play foe IGN/GameSpy software games (7/1/04)
FILESHACK - fastest loading game site on the Web (7/1/04)
FRAPS - benchmarking, screen & video capture tools for DirectX & OpenGL games (9/21/04)
HappyPuppy.com - latest video & computer game downloads (7/1/04)
ItsYourTurn.com - play online games: chess, checkers, Battleship, Stratego, Go (similar variations)... (7/02/04)
Shockwave.com - games for everyone (7/02/04)
WORTHPLAYING FILES - search games by keyword or category (7/1/04)
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Hardware info, news, reviews, shopping
[H]ard|OCP - hardware site (1/31/04)
2CPU.com - dual CPU site (1/31/04)
Ace's Hardware - hardware site (1/31/04)
Active-Hardware.com - news, reviews, articles... (1/31/04)
AMD.com - products, support, resources (1/31/04)
AnandTech - hardware analysis & news site (1/31/04)
Ascully.com - reviews of DVD movies, hardware... (1/31/04)
BasicHardware.com - your basic hardware page (1/31/04)
bit-tech.net - UK's Premier Modding & Review site (6/7/04)
BuildOrBuy.org - DIY PC resource site (1/31/04)
CHAITGEAR - news & reviews for digital audio & video consumers (5/19/04)
CNET News.com - technology news & business reports (1/31/04)
CNET reviews - CNET reviews page (1/31/04)
CNET.com - product reviews, shopping, tech news, downloads (1/31/04)
DeviceForge.com - tomorrow's device technology today (1/31/04)
DigitLife.com – hardware resource site (1/31/04)
Directron.com - lots of PC info, quiet PC components & discounts (1/31/04)
EarthWeb - hardware/software news resource site (1/31/04)
eCoustics.com - gigantic list of consumer electronics reviews (5/20/04)
Explosive Labs - hardware/peripheral reviews, articles, news... (1/31/04)
ExtremeTech - hardware/software info site
Geek.com - the online technology resource (1/31/04)
GIZMODO - gadget guide, lots of new HTPC accessories... (4/22/05)
Hardware Hell - vast hardware/software resource site (1/31/04)
Hardware-unlimited.com - hardware reviews, articles, news... (1/31/04)
HardwareCentral - in-depth computer hardware info (1/31/04)
hARDWAREMANIA - hardware reviews, news... (1/31/04)
Hardwareseeker - hardware news, articles & reviews (1/31/04)
HEXUS.net - hardware news, reviews, articles... (1/31/04)
Hot Hardware - only the hottest PC hardware tested & burned in (1/31/04)
InfoWorld - news, reviews & analysis (1/31/04)
Intel.com - products, tools, resources, downloads (1/31/04)
LOSTCIRCUITS - reliable hardware reviews (2/7/04)
MBReview.com - motherboard reviews & database (1/31/04)
MeetTheGeeks.org - hardware, software, mobile computing (1/31/04)
MODTHEBOX.COM - Canada's premier case modding source (1/31/04)
MonkeyReview.com - hardware, DVD movie reviews... (1/31/04)
motherboards.org - motherboard resource site (1/31/04)
Neoseeker - hardware & games reviews index (1/31/04)
Network World Fusion - useful news, resources site, home page (1/31/04)
Nexus Hardware - hardware reviews, articles, news... (1/31/04)
PC Abusers - advice, news, reviews (1/31/04)
PC Magazine - articles, news, reviews... (1/31/04)
PC Perspective - excellent forums, e.g. Liquid Cooling Forum, “reference of choice regarding PCs” (11/12/04)
PCStats.com - vast hardware resource site (1/31/04)
PCWorld.com - news, reviews, how-to, downloads (1/31/04)
ProCooling.com - where the big players come to cool off (11/12/04)
Ram Electronics - resourceful hardware HTPC interface setup
Sharkey Extreme - hardware site (1/31/04)
SilentPCReview.com - reference site about quiet, low noise, noise-free PCs & components (11/12/04)
SiliconStrategies.com - info/news source for semiconductor industry (1/31/04)
STORAGE REVIEW.COM - hardware storage site (1/31/04)
TechFest - ultimate tech info source (1/31/04)
The Hank Files - the truth is right here... (1/31/04)
the INQUIRER - news, reviews, facts & friction
the TECH REPORT - personal computing explored (1/31/04)
The Tech Zone - computer hardware reviews (1/31/04)
tom's hardware guide - news, reviews, latest hardware (1/31/04)
VR-Zone - VIRTUAL ZONE - hardware resources, news, networking, audio, display... (1/31/04)
wide-format-printers.org - wide format printer resource site (1/31/04)
Windows Clusters Resource Center - large storage capacity resources (1/31/04)
Woody's Watch - Microsoft software advice, tips & news
X-Bit labs - hardware news & reviews site (1/31/04)
XtremeSystems.Org - computing with no limits (2/1/2004)
ZDNet - hardware/software reviews & prices, tool, downloads... (1/31/04)
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Bargain shopping for music, movies... & price comparison sites
Acoustic Sounds - high quality SACD, DVD, CD, vinyl... recordings of different genre (7/02/04)
Amazon - CDNOW - music, video, DVD site for Amazon (7/02/04)
Amazon.com - DVD, computer & video games, music, books... (7/02/04)
Auction Sniper - automates process of placing your eBay bid in closing seconds (5/13/05)
bargain$hare.com - special deal notices, to quote “You paid what?!” (3/11/05)
Barnes & Noble.com - deals on DVD & Video, music, books... (7/02/04)
Best Buy - deals on music, movies, games, electronics... (7/02/04)
BMG Music Service - music club with good deals & selection on various music genre (7/02/04)
brainwashed - unique site for new music of wide taste (7/02/04)
CD Universe - “your online music store” (7/02/04)
CHEAP-CDS - “Look, listen & buy online at Cost” (7/02/04)
Chesky Records - “The Premiere Audiophile Record Label” (7/02/04)
Columbia House - deals in music, DVD, video... clubs (7/02/04)
CPU Prices - price chart by month for 1,000 unit quantites - as indicator (5/21/05)
AMD CPU Prices - price chart for 1,000 unit quantites - as indicator (5/21/05)
Intel CPU Prices - price chart for 1,000 unit quantites - as indicator (5/21/05)
Deep Discount DVD - guaranteed lowest total price (7/02/04)
DVD Price Search - “the smartest way to compare DVD prices online” (3/7/05)
eBay - huge online new & used auction site
Elusive Disc Inc. - SACDs, DVD-As, XRCDs, LPs (7/02/04)
FatWallet - special deal notices, “The smart way to shop online.” (3/11/05)
freecycle - any & every item is FREE - be it a stereo, TV, fax machine, piano, or an old door... (11/14/04)
GEMM - world's largest music catalog (7/02/04)
Half.com - home page - deals on music, DVDs, movies, video games... (7/02/04)
Half.com - Music - excellent & cheap music (CD...) selection site (7/02/04)
Half.com - Movies - excellent & cheap DVDs/movies selection site (7/02/04)
Half.com - Video Games - excellent & cheap Video Games selection site (7/02/04)
HDCD Music Catalog - the most comprehensive source for HDCD-encoded CDs (7/02/04)
J&R Music & Computer World - audio, video, games, movies, music, computers, software... (7/02/04)
musicdirect - audiophile site for Gold & HDCD, SACD, XRCD, DVD-Audio & Video... (7/02/04)
MusicStack music marketplace - buy music CDs, used CDs, rare vinyl records... (7/2/04)
Negative/Neutral Feedback - returns just negative & neutral ratings for any eBay user ID (3/12/05)
Overstock.com - online outlet for books, movies, music & games... (7/02/04)
Price Watch - street price search engine
SecondSpin.com - buy used bargain or sell your DVDs, CDs, VHS... (7/02/04)
Spun.com - buy, sell or trade music, dvds, games (7/02/04)
Techbargains.com - save money on all your technology product purchases (11/29/04)
VCDGallery - VCD movies & SVCD (7/02/04)
XRCD by JVC - XRCD, extended resolution CD site (7/02/04)
Yahoo shopping - very useful price comparison site

Let me know if anything is broken and I'll fix it!

Pumpkin Pi!

2007-10-30T09:17:00.000-08:00

This ranks right up there with the Pi pie (which I'll post in a couple days) for awesomeness in the geekery category.

How men and women think different

2007-10-25T09:15:00.000-08:00

Apparently this is a real assignment received by an English Professor.
(Update: now you can actually read it!)

RECEIVED FROM AN ENGLISH PROFESSOR: This assignment was actually turned in by two of my English students:

Rebecca --last name deleted-- and Gary --last name deleted-- English 44A, SMU'S Creative Writing, Prof Miller

In-class Assignment for Wednesday Today we will experiment with a new form called the tandem story. The process is simple. Each person will pair off with the person sitting to his or her immediate right. One of you will then write the first paragraph of a short story. The partner will read the first paragraph and then add another paragraph to the story. The first person will then add a third paragraph, and so on back and forth. Remember to reread what has been written each time in order to keep the story coherent. The story is over when both agree a conclusion has been reached.
----------------------------------------------------------------

At first, Laurie couldn't decide which kind of tea she wanted. The chamomile, which used to be her favorite for lazy evenings at home, now reminded her too much of Carl, who once said, in happier times, that he liked chamomile. But she felt she must now, at all costs, keep her mind off Carl. His possessiveness was suffocating, and if she thought about him too much her asthma started acting up again. So chamomile was out of the question.

Meanwhile, Advance Sergeant Carl Harris, leader of the attack squadron now in orbit over Skylon 4, had more important things to think about than the neuroses of an air-headed asthmatic bimbo named Laurie with whom he had spent one sweaty night over a year ago. "A.S. Harris to Geostation 17," he said into his transgalactic communicator. "Polar orbit established. No sign of resistance so far..." But before he could sign off a bluish particle beam flashed out of nowhere and blasted a hole through his ship's cargo bay.

The jolt from the direct hit sent him flying out of his seat and across the cockpit. He bumped his head and died almost immediately, but not before he felt one last pang of regret for psychically brutalizing the one woman who had ever had feelings for him. Soon afterwards, Earth stopped its pointless hostilities towards the peaceful farmers of Skylon 4. "Congress Passes Law Permanently Abolishing War and Space Travel," Laurie read in her newspaper one morning. The news simultaneously excited her and bored her. She stared out the window, dreaming of her youth -- when the days had passed unhurriedly and carefree, with no newspapers to read, no television to distract her from her sense of innocent wonder at all the beautiful things around her. "Why must one lose one's innocence to become a woman?" she pondered wistfully.

Little did she know, but she has less than 10 seconds to live. Thousands of miles above the city, the Anu'udrian mothership launched the first of its lithium fusion missiles. The dim-witted wimpy peaceniks who pushed the Unilateral Aerospace Disarmament Treaty through Congress had left Earth a defenseless target for the hostile alien empires who were determined to destroy the human race. Within two hours after the passage of the treaty the Anu'udrian ships were on course for Earth, carrying enough firepower to pulverize the entire planet. With no one to stop them, they swiftly initiated their diabolical plan. The lithium fusion missile entered the atmosphere unimpeded. The President, in his top-secret mobile submarine headquarters on the ocean floor off the coast of Guam, felt the inconceivably massive explosion which vaporized Laurie and 85 million other Americans. The President slammed his fist on the conference table. "We can't allow this! I'm going to veto that treaty! Let's blow'em out of the sky!"

This is absurd. I refuse to continue this mockery of literature. My writing partner is a violent, chauvinistic, semi-literate adolescent.

Yeah? Well, you're a self-centered tedious neurotic whose attempts at writing are the literary equivalent of Valium.

Asshole.

Bitch.

True story.

I found this at opey.

New electronic Rubik's Cube

2007-10-24T23:40:00.000-08:00

I came across a sweet little digital toy online today that is basically an electronic Rubik's Cube. There is a little LCD on each square and you drag on them to rotate. The cube is called the Fentix Cube and is available in limited quantities from the Kinetica Museum in London.

TV-Links.co.uk taken down, owner arrested!

2007-10-24T09:43:00.000-08:00

This is a sad day for freedom. Just yesterday, the popular website tv-links.co.uk was shut down by a multinational police investigation led by FACT, an anti-copyright infringement group. The part that really sucks is that tv-links never even hosted illegal content, AT ALL. The site merely linked to video on Google and a few other video sites. Everything that could be seen as illegal was on other sites, yet tv-links got shut down and the owner arrested for finding this content and linking to it. This effectively makes the entire internet illegal since linking to something that isn't yours is apparently infringing copyrights, and I don't think that's right. The staff of tv-links has started an online petition to try to do something about this, and I encourage everybody to sign it, just click on the link to sign.

Beer Girls

2007-10-23T10:06:00.000-08:00

I read about a practice that I find appalling that is happening right now in Cambodia, and probably many other places. They're called beer girls, and the spend their evenings and nights working at the bar trying to sell their employer's brand of beer. That's not the disturbing part though. What really bothers me is that most beer distributors hire these girls from poor families with promises that they will earn plenty of money and be taken care of, and then throw them into the fray with less than an hour of training, and they are only paid for what they sell. This comes to an average monthly salary of US $55, which is less than half of what it costs just to survive. The girls are under heavy pressure by their employers to do anything that is necessary to sell the beer, and that means they have to drink with each of the men buying from her, often ending up very drunk at the end of the night. That also means that after working all night, drunk, knowing they will not be able to pay even for their rent, when the drunk men want to have sex with them for a better 'tip,' they frequently have to take such offers or risk becoming homeless and possibly even losing their job when the customer complains.

This is a despicable practice which is gotten away with by many of the brewers who make the most popular beers around the world, and probably by the brewer of your favorite beer. They avoid scrutiny by listing these girls wages as 'promotional' or 'advertising' costs and not disclosing that each of these $500-600 per year advertising costs are actually a persons entire salary. Because of these conditions, around 20% of these girls contract HIV/AIDS directly because of the job and with such low wages cannot afford treatment and die within 3 months to 2 years. Most of those who do are under 25 years old and are instantly replaced with casual disregard for their life and their family. What can we do about it? We can make this issue known to the public and not sweep it under the rug. We can tell these companies that we won't stand for slavery in the name of profit, and we can vote with our wallets. To find out if your normal beer company engages in this practice, visit the Beer Girls website at beergirls.org. For more information, case studies, and other research about the issue, visit FairTradeBeer's reports page.

The Essence of Human Nature

2007-10-22T09:24:00.000-08:00

New employment technology, untapped US market

2007-10-21T23:14:00.000-08:00

I came across an extremely interesting article about a new technology in use in Japan that I believe needs to come over here. The original article is available for your viewing pleasure at http://joi.ito.com/archives/2007/10/21/otetsudai_networks.html.

The handheld device shows the location of all of the workers located in the area, and using it, employers are able to find people who are qualified for the particular job they need filled. This is in response to an increasing trend for young professionals to be in varying positions and not be locked into one job. This is not only the case in Japan, and I think that this would be not only extremely popular, but profitable here in the US. I would like to make this a reality, and am seeking somebody who is interested in getting this project off the ground, starting here in Anchorage, Alaska. I have the connections and ability to obtain space on radio towers if the interest was generated and the technology was obtained, licensed, or developed. I think this would be a great opportunity for a new startup, and would love to work with like-minded others to make this a reality. This is clearly an untapped market in the US, and potential for a national corporation exists, so forward-looking and thinking individuals who are business-oriented and enterprising should contact me immediately and we will discuss what we can do to bring this to our country. I can be reached by commenting on this article or email at lockext &t gmail /dot/ com. Decode the address, if you're human it shouldn't be too hard. ;) I'm looking for people who are serious about doing business and want to make this happen before somebody else takes over the market! Don't wait, let's make it happen!

Ninja bear!

2007-10-21T22:18:00.000-08:00

This bear could kick most anyones ass with a stick!

Bear Has Sick Stick Skills - Watch more free videos

Windows Vista important security announcement

2007-10-21T13:20:00.000-08:00

It's come to my attention that there is a serious security issue in Windows Vista that all users should be aware of. It involves the use of Unicode characters to change the way that a filename appears in the explorer and desktop to make a dangerous executable in screensaver (.scr) format appear to be a harmless JPG. This vulnerability doesn't appear to exist in XP, only Vista. The following screenshots, as captured by Max Ried, demonstrate the vulnerability and show how serious the problem is.

The file on the XP desktop: The file on the Vista desktop:

As you can see the only way to identify it as not being just a picture is by hovering your mouse over it. It appears to me that this is done by using a particular character, which is actually 2 Unicode characters, one being the circle of commas, the other being the code which causes everything after it to be typed backwards. You can see how it works by copying the character, and pasting it into any text entry box, such as notepad.exe, then start typing right after you paste it. The character is at the bottom of this post as it becomes very hard to type forwards if pasted anywhere in the middle of the article. It looks like the filename is made up of the code to insert the gpj. backwards at the end of the filename (or appear as such to the viewer,) and then the actual filename, Nice Picture.scr. Apparently XP is not affected because it does not correctly support Unicode for filenames within explorer.exe and therefore the desktop. This vulnerability was first demonstrated at Heise Security and adapted here to include my additional data on the cause.

Another view of the problem in the 7Zip program, first in XP:

And in Vista:

And now the character I believe is responsible, along with the character that makes it possible to copy and paste it, otherwise the character doesn't take up any space and therefore can't be highlighted to copy, it would just cause everything you typed after it to be backwards, as I'll demonstrate here:

‫‬‭‮‪‫‬‭‮҉

this is what happens after you paste and start typing
‫‬‭

Breadcrab

2007-10-19T11:37:00.001-08:00

Hahahahaha.. if you don't get it you obviously haven't played halflife.

I want a Wii!

2007-10-18T11:32:00.000-08:00

With all the hype surrounding these next-gen video game systems, its hard to decide which is worth getting. I know what to get though, and I've known since about 1988. Nintendo! They've always had the best games and they were always designed to be fun, not just pretty. Unfortunately I can't afford a Wii, so heres where we pull some strings. Everybody Loves Coupons is running a spiffy little contest where for nothing more than making a blog post about the contest, you can win a Wii! The site is regularly updated with coupon codes that you can use to save money when you shop online, which I don't but you might, so check it out.

What side is your gas tank on?

2007-10-18T09:09:00.000-08:00

I have personally owned about 9 cars in my life (and trucks,) and seeing how that is a ridiculous number for being only 24 and having only had my license since 16 (8 years,) you would think that I would know how to tell what side of the car my gas tank is on. Well, I did know on all my cars, but the first week or two I had to turn around a couple times, and you know that you have to check et the gas station when you borrow or rent a car. However, there is a little known secret that can save you time and effort when you need to find out what side the tank is on in an unfamiliar car. Just look at the little gas pump icon on the dash! If the pump handle is on the left, so is your gas tank. If it is on the right, you guessed it, your gas tank is too. Why this isn't told to all drivers at 16, I don't know, but let it serve you well from now on! Here is a handy diagram you can print out and tape to your dashboard or steering wheel if you can't remember.

Heritage of a geek, or how to run DOS games.

2007-10-17T09:15:00.000-08:00

Well.. here we go again. Over the years I have started dozens of websites with the intent to create something that people will read, enjoy, and if the cards fall right, recognize me for. I've been a professional in the IT field for over 10 years, and have seen all the great modern milestones in computing and been an active part of them. I was on CompuServe when it first became big back in 1992 or so. This might not be that impressive, but you have to consider the fact that I lived in bush Alaska, in a little village called Naknek of about 300 people. You might wonder how there could be a local access number for such a small village, and the answer to that is that there wasn't. There was a number in Anchorage, the only city in Alaska, but it actually cost much more to dial in-state than out-of-state, so we dialed to Seattle, at about 20 cents a minute, plus the 25 to 50 cents a minute it cost for CompuServe itself, as back then there was no such thing as unlimited service plans unless you were rich or part of the company. I remember the experience of downloading a file for the first time. It cost extra to download things in those days, and we were connected at 2400 baud because they told us the phone lines wouldn't be able to handle a higher speed, so I was very limited in what I could get. It turned out the only thing I could afford to download was a 755 byte windows icon. That was the most impressive damn icon I ever did see though, and I promptly changed my CompuServe icon to it so I could derive some enjoyment from my half hour conquest of the wily little bugger. It probably would have been even cooler had it not been Windows 3.11.

Later, we upgraded to Windows 95 when it came out, and got a Pentium 'Overdrive' which boosted my then-powerful P5-60 to a blistering 100MHz. We also doubled our RAM to a total of 16MB. The problem with the first Pentium desktops was that at the time, no games existed for Windows really, since Win95 just came out, and Win3.1 was utterly worthless for games, lacking respectable graphical routines entirely. WinG was a sad attempt to provide such routines, but lacking any form of acceleration and focusing on static images, it didn't make for very exciting games, and was mostly limited to point-and-click adventures reminiscent of Myst (which I believe used WinG). Luckily, it was done away with in Win98 SE when DirectX 6 was released and for the first time bundled with the OS. Back to the problem I speak of, all worthwhile games at the time were for DOS, and since before the Pentium, timing was regulated by clock cycles which were rather predictable. The Pentium rendered all programs using this method unusable as it ran at many times the speed of previous processors, so when you tried to play a game, you would hit enter (or whatever) to start the game, and half a millisecond later a minute had gone by in the game and you were already dead! I'm sure many of you fondly remember this wonderful aspect of bringing in the new, and not being able to use any of your old software. Yeah, that was great. Now, there are programs that let you get around this problem, such as MoSlow and several others, but since most people are using Windows XP or *gag* Vista, neither of which have true DOS support, the best way to play those old games you still have lying around (or wish you did, but we'll get to that in a minute) is with a DOS emulator. There are a couple options for such, but I'll focus on a favorite of mine, DOSBox.

DOSBox will let you run a virtual DOS computer from your Windows, Mac, or Linux machine and play all those old DOS games as they were meant to be played. There are even some features that could never be achieved on a real DOS machine, such as saving the state of the system (like saving the game at any point in time rather than having to find a save point) and adjusting the speed, as well as other benefits. When you first run the program, you will have to create a directory (folder) for your virtual computer. I'm going to assume you know how to create a folder on your computer, so create one in your C drive (or whatever your main hard drive is) and call it something useful, like DOS. So now you have C:\DOS. This is where you will put all your DOS games to play. I'm going to assume you have downloaded or copied the game Albion to the folder C:\DOS\ALBION (remember that game? 2 nerd points if you do!) Up till now you have been working in your current OS (Windows XP I assume) but now it is time to go back to the realm of DOS, so run DOSBox. You will be presented with a beautiful black screen, just like you had years ago on your 286! Or maybe that was just me and other geeks.. but anyways. You will see that you are in Z:\> This is not where we want to be however, because we want to play Albion. What we need to do is "mount" the C:\DOS folder to be the C:\ drive in the emulator. Type in the program:

MOUNT C C:\DOS
and hit enter

You now have a C drive, w00t! Change to it by typing:

C:
and hit enter

From here, if you type dir and hit enter you will see your ALBION directory. Change to it by typing 'cd albion' and hit enter. Now another dir will show you all the files there. Run albion.exe by typing albion and hit enter. Now you're playing! The steps to run any other DOS game are exactly the same as well, and I am totally confident you can get your favorite old game running too! For more in-depth help running DOSBox, Abandonia has a great, thorough, beginners guide that will help you get the most out of your new toy DOS. Click here to get there.

Now! The fun part begins..

What you might not know, is that all of those old DOS games you wondered what happened to, still exist, and are no longer sold, but have been released to the world by their creators for free as "Abandonware" because they are long past their window of profit! There are several places on the web that you can download almost any old game you can think of. Not only that, but it's completely legal and free. I will tell you about a few of my favorite sites for abandonware.

Home of the Underdogs - This was one of the first, and is one of the best abandonware sites out there. I've been using these guys for my old games fixes for years now and don't intend to stop anytime soon. There are a few games on here that aren't available for download due to licensing issues, but there is still tons of great information and screenshots, amongst other cool stuff. Major props to these guys for keeping these wonderful games alive!

Abandonia - Another great site, with tons of old games for download with full reviews, screenshots, box art, manuals, music, and whatever else you want to know about the games. They also have a great feature where for each game they list several other games that you are likely to enjoy if you like the current one.

Dan's 20th Century Abandonware - This one is a little different. It is the same type of stuff, old software that has been released to the public, but Dan has a different focus than the other sites. Dan has an awesome collection of rare software that is not contained anywhere else. He does not have games though, his focus is on application software for several platforms. I highly recommend checking it out and reading about what he does, but don't expect to find games. This is a site that I am glad exists however, because with the majority of people only interested in keeping old games around, otherwise much of this software might disappear entirely and all that will be left of it will be in the memory of the creators and the previous users.

Well, that about sums up all you need to know to start playing all those wonderful old games you haven't seen for years! I hope you found this useful and will continue to find my site full of useful information, as I plan on making it that way. Being my first post, please comment on what could be improved, what other things you would like to see, what you would like to learn how to do, etc. I have a huge amount of information and all I need to put it out there is to know what people want to know. Also, I have a couple suggestions for games to try if you don't already know:

The Secret of Monkey Island - One of the best adventure games EVER, and hilarious. A MUST play!

Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge - The even more awesome sequel, also a requirement for any gamer.

Alone In The Dark - A great '3d' horror/adventure game, I remember it fondly.

Civilization - The original strategy game that all other strategy games wish they could be. If you haven't played this you are missing a very important part of life.

Settlers 2 Gold - Another awesome strategy game that I have sacrificed many hours to over the years.

Rampage - If you don't know what this is, I just don't know what to say. You play a giant monster and smash buildings and eat people. Great fun!

I'll probably think of more that you MUST play, and I'll update when I do!

This post was entered in a really cool contest that I read about at GeeksAreSexy which is awarding $1300 in cash and prizes for the geekiest and greatest blog posts that teach you how to do the things that we, as geeks, love, so you too can be blissfully nerdy! If you want to get in on the geek action, check out the contest here!

My current desktop theme

2007-10-13T00:54:00.000-08:00

Well, by popular demand, here is my current desktop theme. It is ThinIce controls, LiNsta-Black-Plastic-Alu window borders, and Tango icons. I gotta say, Tango is a GREAT set of icons, and I use it not only here, but on my WinXP box at work using the Super Turbo Tango Patcher program.

pics

2007-10-11T19:18:00.001-08:00

Help find Steve Fossett, or earn money!

2007-10-11T09:43:00.000-08:00

I just found out that there is a good way that everyone on the net can help in the search for missing pilot Steve Fossett, and it is very easy. I implore everyone to go to http://www.mturk.com/mturk/ and sign up for this service (it is an Amazon.com service) which will allow you to accept jobs (many of which you can earn money for) including reviewing satellite images for objects that could be the wreckage of his plane. This is very important, and a good cause, and when you decide you are finished looking at satellite images for plane wreckage, you can use the service, called Mechanical Turk, to either submit jobs to be done by members of the internet community for a fair rate, or you can work on jobs submitted by others with a known amount to be paid on completion. If you submit jobs, you will be able to review the work done and accept or reject it, and you will only be charged if you accept. As a member of the community working on jobs, you post your solutions and if accepted, the amount earned is deposited in your Amazon.com account, and you can then transfer it to your personal checking account.

PingMyBlog

2007-10-10T11:55:00.001-08:00

Along the same lines as the last post (trying to get traffic) I found out about this site called PingMyBlog.com which will automatically ping all of the popular blog listing sites so your site is registered and linked to, which is a GREAT idea, and we'll see how it works! I read about it on a nifty little site called Ortis' blog 'bout blogging. Try it yourself and see what happens.

Million Blog page

2007-10-10T11:51:00.000-08:00

You ever hear about the Million Dollar Homepage? Basically it is this: a large grid of square boxes, each one of them with an image and a link to whatever webpage someone pays $1 for. I found a pretty much identical site that allows you to take one square for free, so I did. The page is at http://www.anthonyjudelawrence.com/million-blog/ and my link is the second from the top, second from the right (the second from the top-right corner diagonally.) You can get one too, so do it and post about it so it will be useful!

5 Ways to make money online

2007-10-09T09:55:00.000-08:00

I found a great post on TopSecretBlogger that lists 5 ways you can make money with your blog, which is definitely a goal that probably all bloggers have. I will definitely be using some of Zakk's advice on my own blog and maybe if I get some traffic I'll be able to eat this month. Anyways, check out the article at this link and enjoy!

Yet Another Facet of Murphy's Law 4

2007-10-09T09:37:00.000-08:00

Well, here we go again, another day, another problem. I'm not sure why I have such bad luck or if that's just life or what, but sure seems to be the former. But at least I can rant about it here so that nobody can read it. Well, if you're reading it I guess that's moot. Actually that gives me an idea for Yet Another Facet within this Facet! It's a Facet within a Facet! Any time you spend time writing something that you intend for somebody to read so you can get it off your chest, nobody will read it! So, let's escape that control sequence and return to the outer loop (if you're not a programmer that probably doesn't make sense so here is some info if you're interested.) As you may or may not know, I live in Alaska, and it is starting to get damn cold out. As you also may or may not know, I don't have a working vehicle and am not going to be able to afford one anytime soon (unless people start coming to my site and clicking the ads *wink wink nudge nudge*) so I have to ride my bike to work and back every day. And it's not a short ride either. So, OF COURSE, as soon as you are forced to ride to work and it is freezing out, you will NEVER be able to find your hat and gloves!!! And if you are me, you won't be able to afford new ones either. :P Alright I'll stop. I'd say have a nice day, but since nobody is reading this, it seems kinda pointless, so I guess I'll just end the post.

How many internet mail list subscribers does it take to change a light bulb?

2007-10-08T12:31:00.000-08:00

1,343:

1 to change the light bulb and to post to the mail list that the light bulb has been changed.

14 to share similar experiences of changing light bulbs and how the light bulb could have been changed differently.

7 to caution about the dangers of changing light bulbs.

27 to point out spelling/grammar errors in posts about changing light bulbs.

53 to flame the spell checkers.

156 to write to the list administrator complaining about the light bulb discussion and its inappropriateness to this mail list.

41 to correct spelling in the spelling/grammar flames.

109 to post that this list is not about light bulbs and to please take this email exchange to alt.lite.bulb.

203 to demand that cross posting to alt.grammar, alt.spelling and alt.punctuation about changing light bulbs be stopped.

111 to defend the posting to this list saying that we are all use light bulbs and therefore the posts **are** relevant to this mail list.

306 to debate which method of changing light bulbs is superior, where to buy the best light bulbs, what brand of light bulbs work best for this technique, and what brands are faulty.

27 to post URLs where one can see examples of different light bulbs.

14 to post that the URLs were posted incorrectly, and to post corrected URLs.

3 to post about links they found from the URLs that are relevant to this list which makes light bulbs relevant to this list.

33 to concatenate all posts to date, then quote them including all headers and footers, and then add "Me Too."

12 to post to the list that they are unsubscribing because they cannot handle the light bulb controversey.

19 to quote the "Me Too's" to say, "Me Three."

4 to suggest that posters request the light bulb FAQ.

1 to propose new alt.change.lite.bulb newsgroup.

47 to say this is just what alt.physic.cold_fusion was meant for, leave it here.

12 to compare the naysayers to Hitler.

143 votes for alt.lite.bulb.

jacked from http://www.pinetree.net/humor/emaillightbulb.html

Weirdness is everywhere

2007-10-08T10:03:00.000-08:00

So I was riding my bike to work this morning, like every morning, except that it was goddamn cold and I had to wear two coats, and about halfway there I saw this guy standing on the side of the road brandishing a cardboard sign at cars passing by. The guy looked about 30-something, native (maybe American Indian, but most likely Alaska native), and wasn't a beggar or anything like that. If he was he was in the crappiest location a beggar could pick, hell he wasn't even at a cross street, let alone a stoplight. Anyways, I was curious so I slowed down to look, and his sign said, in big bold letters, "CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS SUCKS!" I laughed, but I wonder what his purpose was.. any ideas?

Burn, Elmo, burn!!!

2007-10-06T22:46:00.000-08:00

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Sharks Hoax

2007-10-05T10:11:00.001-08:00

Ubuntu Hardy Heron 8.04 announced!

2007-10-05T09:45:00.000-08:00

It seems like only months ago I was still using Ubuntu Breezy Badger 5.10, which even then was an incredibly useful, simple, and stable OS. So much so that from the moment I installed it, I forsook my Windows partition entirely and it languished in a state of disuse from then on. I still used the files on it though, so I couldn't delete it entirely yet. Then I decided to move to Dapper Drake 6.06 LTS, and it was then that I moved to a bigger hard drive. I copied everything from both my partitions that I wanted onto my new 80gig, and installed 6.06. Being a long-term-support release, it was remarkably stable and polished, and I never had any problems with it of any sort besides taking some time to figure out how to get stuff I wanted to try running, but that just makes it more fun. :)

I currently run Ubuntu Feisty Fawn 7.04, and it is by far the nicest, quickest, and most stable OS I've ever run, and I wouldn't trade it for anything (though I would and do give it away to as many people as are willing to take it.) These days, all the talk is about Gutsy Gibbon 7.10, and thousands or millions of people are trying out the pre-release versions quite successfully from what I've heard, though I don't really put any OS on my system until its the full release. However, I just read today that the next new version of Ubuntu has been announced as 8.04 Hardy Heron, and will be released in April of 2008! This is great news and Ubuntu is advancing rapidly as the biggest and one of the best distributions in Linux history, and putting a face to Linux that people can identify with and see for its benefits, even when they have never seen any Linux before. The announcement was made by Jono Bacon on August 29 this year on his blog at this address.

Yet Another Facet of Murphy's Law 3

2007-10-04T11:17:00.000-08:00

Maybe I'm making excuses, but hey, whatever. Murphy is a cruel and cunning dealer of misfortune, and for this, I salute. Without fail, if you decide to do something and make a promise to continue doing it, something will get in the way. Like when you say you're going to update a webpage every day, and then your internet stops working... uhh yeah..

Awesome trippiness

2007-10-04T11:13:00.001-08:00

I came across this java app today that is just absolutely mind-bogglingly trippy, and I want to share it with all of you, which is probably actually just myself looking at my own page, but anyways, check it out right here but don't blame me if you zone out and miss an appointment/job/date/whatever.

How Software Companies Die

2007-09-28T10:25:00.000-08:00

I came across a great short essay that hit home with me regarding programmers, software companies, and their interaction, and it happens to be written by Orson Scott Card, who just happens to be the greatest author of all time! Of particular interest is the Ender's Game series by Card, which is one of the greatest stories I've ever read and probably had a great deal to do with who I am today. Anyways, check it out at the following address:
http://www.apocalypse.org/pub/u/kjc/cool/Card.on.Software.html

Yet Another Facet of Murphy's Law 2

2007-09-28T09:11:00.000-08:00

YAFOML™ 2:

Any time you have something scheduled that you intend to do (college class, appointment, job, vacation, etc.) something will invariably arise that demands your attention at exactly the time you were supposed to be doing said schedule item. The item that just came up will always be inescapable and the scheduled item will always have been already paid for with no chance of a refund.

This one happens to me all the time. Most recent case: I am a computer instructor for a job training and staffing agency where I teach MS Windows (blech) and Office to potential job-seekers as well as other individuals funded by any of various organizations, their employer, or possibly themselves. Unfortunately, this is only a part time position in the morning. This leaves the afternoon for other stuff, like finishing my college degree.. So I've been planning on getting back into it for awhile now because working part time doesn't cut it for getting the bills paid. However, we recently applied for a grant which would necessitate my working full-time and a pay raise if approved. This was in June or July we submitted our proposal the first time. A couple months went by and turned out there was one item left out of the proposal (which was also missed by most other applicants) making it non-functional. The RFP was re-released with the full requirements and a checklist so items would not be missed. So by the time all of that was done we made our second submission in September. Now just today we found out it made it past the initial review and now are waiting on further information. In the meantime I had applied for college admission months ago, and was waiting to sign up for classes until I knew my schedule, but by now classes have long since started and I'm not in 'em. Damn you Murphy... damn you......

Holograph for real

2007-09-27T13:28:00.000-08:00

Check out this awesome video of the real technology being developed to give us holographic display capability.

Yet Another Facet of Murphy's Law 1

2007-09-27T11:54:00.000-08:00

I have been doing this thing for years now, where I come across with another facet of Murphy's Law every day, and I think it's about time I shared it with the world. I will try to post on a daily basis the new facet I discover, so you can all share in my agony. This is something that happens to me all the time, I don't even have to try to come up with these, so in the spirit, here's the first one.

YAFOML™ 1:

The moment, or in the moments shortly after, setting up, customizing, and populating a web site with content on your personal internet link and receiving traffic, your connection will stop working.

This one is really horrible. This is exactly what happened to me with my previous site. I set up my box at home with a full LAMP server on Ubuntu Linux 7.04, got it all up and running, had a few people look at it and got my first comment, and then the next day my link stopped working. In that particular case I was running a wireless link to my ISP from the roof of my building, and it had been working great all winter. However, summer started and the leaves grew out on the trees, and behold, no more net! This tortured me to no end, as I'm a complete and utter internet junkie and require a connection to survive, but since I get my internet free as a founding member of my ISP, I'm on the very bottom of the priority list to get it fixed. So 3 months later, I finally got a 2.4GHz link put up, which was working great, until I turned my server back on.... (yeah I know, don't I ever learn?) Shortly after which, the unit powering the link decided to stop working. It didn't die. It didn't give any indication it wasn't working. It just stopped being able to contact any other computer on the net. That was last month :P We'll see how long it takes for them to get around to doing something about it this time...