February 02, 2005
"Hide Your iPod, Here Comes Bill"
"To the growing frustration and annoyance of Microsoft's management, Apple Computer's iPod is wildly popular among Microsoft's workers." Thanks Andrew
Posted by mikeindo at 10:37 PM
January 06, 2005
microsoft security products
Microsoft will soon enter the antivirus game and have already done so in the spyware market. Here's an idea, MS: instead of getting in on the billion-dollar industry of cleaning your products of infections, why don't you harden Windows in the first place!? Or maybe that's too much to ask. Seems they've made a pretty slimy decsison. How atypical. I can see it now: antitrust suits from other antivirus vendors after theirs have been made unusable or obsolete by the built-in, unremovable antivirus software. Same thing happened with the Internet Explorer web browser.
Posted by mikeindo at 03:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 04, 2005
site accessibility explanation
If some of you periodically have trouble pulling up this site (or Moviehead, or The Big Think, or Metaforest.net, all of which are on the same server), it's becuase of 'spam bots' hitting the server. Just as spam targets your email inbox, they now also target the comments sections of weblogging software running on people's computers. Each time it gets hit, the site automatically rebuilds and is consequently inaccessible for a few seconds. Plus, sometimes its gets to be too much and just the server needs rebooting, also obviously causing temporary downtime. But there appears to be a solution, and that might be an upgrade of that blogging software, which is currently underway! Movable Type has officially addressed this issue.
Posted by mikeindo at 10:56 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 03, 2005
tivotogo
"TiVo unveils portable service" "Subscribers will be able to transfer their recorded shows to PCs or laptops and take them on the road ... Users also will be able to copy shows onto a DVD."
Posted by mikeindo at 10:15 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 15, 2004
remote access
Buffalo's Wireless Secure Remote Gateway "offers secure access to [home] PC desktop and network resources." The coolest thing about it it features the Wake-On-LAN technology, which allows you to actually boot up a shutdown computer remotely! Example: you're on vacation and want to pull up some file on a computer at home, but you shut that computer down before your trip. Wake-On-LAN allows to you to tell that computer to start up so you can access that file! Slick feature built into a home network product, IMHO.
Posted by mikeindo at 09:29 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 15, 2004
streamripper
Record streaming MP3s from the Internet to your hard drive with Streamripper! New from Hasbro! (just kidding) Also available for Windows and the Mac.
Posted by mikeindo at 04:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 10, 2004
stop spyware with this registry hack
CAUTION: Editing the Windows Registry needs to be approached with care. Changes are permanent and accidental deletions of the wrong keys might result in failure upon boot and would require reinstallation of the Windows operating system.
Spyware is software that is installed on your computer without your knowledge or approval. It comes in via pop-up ads clicked on or it rides in on coattails of programs purposely downloaded (like Kazaa). At best it may just cause annoying pop-ups; at worst it logs your keystrokes to discover sensitive info like credit card numbers. Via the Windows Registry, you'd disable certain ActiveX controls (partially responsible for the execution of spyware) using a "kill bit." The procedure is detailed here.
Posted by mikeindo at 05:01 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 13, 2004
quest complete
I took and passed the CCNA this morning! I got a 922 (passing is 849). So now on to CCNP? Or a Microsoft one? Or security? Or Linux?
Posted by mikeindo at 11:22 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
tivo hacks
Add hours to your current system. (If this is your type of thing, you might've already seen something like this before elsewhere - this is little more than just having a place just to put this link for me!)
Posted by mikeindo at 11:14 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
April 28, 2004
oh god no
Some dude made a Tron costume...
Posted by mikeindo at 11:15 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
April 15, 2004
virtual private network
Below is a screenshot of our laptop at home (the outer-most window) connected to my office workstation (and then it to an office server) through a VPN. A Virtual Private Network is an encrypted tunnel between two computers or networks that provides a high level of security for sharing files, printers, and other network resources over an unsecure network like the Internet. I set it up to be able to connect to work stuff and maybe save a drive up there some evening or weekend!
Posted by mikeindo at 12:52 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
April 12, 2004
stream mp3s from home
"Slim Devices' remarkably good server software (allows you) to stream your home music library to your work." Very cool! - Thanks Giles
Posted by mikeindo at 05:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 06, 2004
spread the word
This is so perfect for all those easily duped folk! And yes, it's ironic that you'd forward this... - Thanks Laura
Posted by mikeindo at 08:52 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 25, 2004
thin air
Computer magazine reports that we'll soon be showing images without the need for a monitor or screen. "The Heliodisplay ... condenses the air above a video projector. The device then projects an image onto the condensed air." Like out of Minority Report or something.
Posted by mikeindo at 09:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 11, 2004
Voice-over-IP for home
Giles' friend Patrick posted on his site about Vonage and their home phone service. Interesting about price differences as well as the drawbacks.
Posted by mikeindo at 03:54 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 08, 2004
good ol' microsoft
Sometimes I come across a Windows computer problem and refer to the Microsoft Knowledge Base for answers. Occasionally, this is the response:
"To resolve this problem immediately, contact Microsoft Product Support Services to obtain the fix. For a complete list of Microsoft Product Support Services phone numbers and information about support costs, visit the following Microsoft Web site..."
So I gotta pay to get the support folk to tell me how/where I can get the otherwise free fix? RIDICULOUS! To see an alternative solution, click here!
Posted by mikeindo at 01:53 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
March 03, 2004
winxp remote assistance
This has been a head-scratcher! I'm trying to connect to my dad's WinXP Home computer at their house, which is behind a Belkin F5D6230-3 wireless router. (From my location, I have full outbound access.) We think we've set the right things on the router to enable port-forwarding - there are two sections that may apply called "Virtual Server" and "Special Application Ports." (I've got differing opinions from the Belkin folk about which is right, so I asked if I could set both and they ok'd that - hilarious that even they are not sure.) We just figured out that when dad sends me a Remote Assistance invitation from his computer, it imbeds his computer's IP address, which of course is a private, unroutable one provided by his router. So I edited the invitation to reflect his public address and hoped the router would properly forward the data stream to his computer. But it continues to say 'computer could not be resolved.' Even tried moving his computer into the DMZ where there's no firewall protection (in case that's the problem), and it still fails! So I'm left to think it's something on the computer itself that isn't set right. Google search results yielded some solutions, but I tried many of them and none have worked yet. But just to be sure, we'll remove the router from the equation altogether and see what happens then. ...Later... It's the router's fault after all! Disconnecting it allowed me to connect to dad's computer. So I went into his router again to tweak more settings and finally got the right combo to allow computer access while still keeping the protection of the router/firewall! (BTW, I just needed to add UDP port 3389 to the list of ports to be forwarded - already had TCP 3389 but nowhere online did it mention UDP!)
Posted by mikeindo at 09:40 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
February 17, 2004
plaxo
Plaxo online address book: members update their own info which then automatically updates their contacts' (also Plaxo members) address books.
Posted by mikeindo at 11:12 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
tivo
TiVo has a new product out with more room (250-GB drives) for HD programs. But still no DVD-R drive to save them in digital format permanently - you still apparently have to tape them onto a VHS tape! And there are security measures to prevent you from dumping programs from your TiVo box to your computer to burn onto a DVD yourself. Of course, if you have time, knowledge, and money, you can build your own with all the features you like! - Thanks Giles
Posted by mikeindo at 10:56 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 10, 2004
superfly
Ok, I'm embarrassed to say I just found out this weekend that a downloadable file on my site actually was infected with the MTX virus! It was a short humorous cartoon called Superfly and it was on my Fun/Games page. Honestly, though, I don't think many people downloaded it, but I thought the responsible thing to do would be to post a little alert about it anyway. Sorry!
Posted by mikeindo at 09:52 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 20, 2004
fedora
Red Hat is eliminating support for its Linux distribution versions 7, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, and 8, and in March will for 9. They're sure pushing home users to Fedora. How Microsoftian of them!
Posted by mikeindo at 09:22 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
1993 news
A 1993 Canadian news report on a new communication tool called "Internet". Thanks Ali
Posted by mikeindo at 09:19 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 01, 2003
Camp Allen Internet access?
Over the weekend at Camp Allen I called ahead to see if they had Internet access. They said they did and would just turn it on in our rooms upon check-in. Turns out it was just enabling the data line for dial-up! So no T-1 access or high-speed of any kind. But we brought some wireless access points so we tried use my father-in-law's dial-in work access and then use the APs to distribute the signal. Honestly, I think that's about as far as we got! Just got lazy from there. Oh well.
Posted by mikeindo at 03:27 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 17, 2003
Nightmare
Absolute nightmare at work the last few days. Server crashed Thursday night because of a corrupted Windows critical update! It wouldn't boot, just hung at POST and indicated that one of the two mirrired drives was not accessible and unreadable. I was under the assumption that mirroring allows the second drive to pick up the slack from the failed first one. Apparently, that only works if there's a hardware mirror with drives on different controllers rather than a software one run by the OS (which we unknowingly had). So, why do software mirrors exist at all if one failed drive affects the other?! So we 'broke the mirror' and then found there were a couple messed-up system files. Then successfully booted with rescue disk but still unsuccessful even after copying the floppy's files over. Had no choice then but to wipe the system/boot partition (it's about 10pm Friday by then), reinstall the OS and reload the backup. After a few last tweaks, we were done at 2am and left with the mirrored drive regenerating. But wasn't over. On Saturday network drives still inaccessible. Turns out the data partition was still on drive letter F from regeneration steps and all shares and permissions were gone. Changed it back to D and rebooted and it all came back. Done.
Posted by mikeindo at 09:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 05, 2003
Fedora
According to the guy who founded/runs HOTLUG, "Red Hat has decided to stop supporting their freely distributed version of Red Hat Linux and move it to another project called Fedora," for which Red Hat will not actually provide support. They are encouraging people (mainly businesses) to upgrade to their Enterprise level with paid annual subscriptions for support.
And speaking of Linux, my boss said no to my idea of spending two days at a local instructional course for Linux on the 11th. :( No way I could justify the $1000 cost myself!
Posted by mikeindo at 01:14 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 30, 2003
MT static pages
While changing over this site to Movable Type, I found that recreating my static pages (like the pictures and archive pages) were proving difficult. Well, here's an article explaining how! This'll be really helpful.
Posted by mikeindo at 08:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 21, 2003
Funny TechTV blooper video clip
Funny TechTV blooper video clip - Thanks Fay
Posted by mikeindo at 11:11 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 07, 2003
"Misconfigured routers are a greater
"Misconfigured routers are a greater risk than BGP, says one study."
Posted by mikeindo at 04:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 01, 2003
"Report: Widespread use of Microsoft
"Report: Widespread use of Microsoft software poses security risk" Gee, really?
Posted by mikeindo at 04:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 30, 2003
An oxyMORONic Windows message
An oxyMORONic Windows message
Posted by mikeindo at 04:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 29, 2003
Wilders.org security advisors site with
Wilders.org security advisors site with free tools and stuff.
Posted by mikeindo at 04:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 24, 2003
Comic strip about spam --
Comic strip about spam -- too true...
Posted by mikeindo at 04:29 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 22, 2003
A TechRepublic article about the
A TechRepublic article about the differences between Windows 2000 Server and Windows Server 2003 was wrapped up hilariously: "Maybe it's a good time to take a nice long look at W2K3 Server, with its beefed-up IIS6 and its new AD tools, and perhaps you too will make the decision to upgrade... to Linux." Harharhar!
Posted by mikeindo at 04:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 19, 2003
Just because the icon is
Just because the icon is not on the desktop does not mean the program is not installed on the computer. GRRRR...
Posted by mikeindo at 04:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Broadband Internet providers should supply
Broadband Internet providers should supply customers with modems that have built-in firewalls or at least include a separate firewall appliance with the modem upon purchase.
Posted by mikeindo at 04:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 17, 2003
Like an idiot, I showed
Like an idiot, I showed two casual users how to bypass a built-in anti-virus measure in Outlook Express in order to receive legitimate and safe attachments like .doc and .xls files that were getting blocked. I later figured out how to fix the problem, but the damage was already done. Now these users will use that trick every time an attachment is blocked and won't think twice about it maybe being a virus. One user's rationale was that you sometimes get in a wreck when driving, so you should expect your computer to sometimes get infected. Yeah, but you still wear a seat belt and do everything possible to prevent those wrecks! And there are other people on the road.
Posted by mikeindo at 04:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 16, 2003
"Electrical Grid Vulnerable to Hackers"
"Electrical Grid Vulnerable to Hackers"
Posted by mikeindo at 04:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 12, 2003
"Baylor University signs up for
"Baylor University signs up for difficult course on WLAN security"
Posted by mikeindo at 04:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 08, 2003
I read an article in
I read an article in InformationWeek magazine about Microsoft enlisting help to deflect attacks. Requests to Microsoft's site are now "handled by the Akamai Technologies Inc. caching system, which runs on Linux." Microsoft says the goal is to "help ensure customers can get to the Blaster worm patch..." Haha!
Posted by mikeindo at 04:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 01, 2003
A Minnesota teen was arrested
A Minnesota teen was arrested and is now under house arrest for the Blaster worm! Yay, Minnesota!
Posted by mikeindo at 04:44 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack