So I read an article on slashdot about how two hackers at the Hack in the Box convention in Dubai demonstrated how it is possible to compromise the OS due to a security flaw in the design….the flaw is that the OS trust that the boot process is safe. Now this may sound potentially groundbreaking, but I assure you it is not. The catch is that you have to have physical access to the machine. What the hell is the point in that?! If you had physical access to the machine, then the machine is compromised already anyways. Also, if you had access to the machine, no matter the OS, you could install whatever code you wanted on it…why the need for the boot code? What a waste of freakin’ time.
So I read an article this morning on Slashdot about a new technology that would allow you to insert small flexible nanotubes underneath your skin, which would essentially create a display screen…..right on your body. How awesome is that?! You could text people right from the palm of your hand, literally. Apprently Phillips has taken this idea to an artistic level and applied the technology into the realm of tattos, so you would be able to change a tattoo whenever you wanted or have the tattoo change based on your mood, or just have an animated tattoo. If this stuff isn’t the coolest thing ever I don’t know what is. It was also discussed in a similar article about how tiny wireless receivers could be implanted as well, essentially making you wireless. Now I am fairly certain that this technology isn’t anywhere near the commercial level yet but nonetheless, I am so getting a digital tattoo whenever it does. A display screen on my hand would be my dream come true. I’ll post the video below so you can see just how awesome this is. I realize the video is a year old but the article made it seem as if research companies were actually making some real headway on this, so apparently this could be reality in the next couple years. I apologize however for Phillips need to use naked people in their ad, was that really necessary? Its still pretty damn cool tho…enjoy.
While it is just as easy to go to twitter.com and update your status, it is just way freakin’ cooler to do it from the command line. Now I will have to disappoint you Microsoft loyalists and say that this only works in Linux. My bad. Anyways, I take no credit for this script at all, I am just informing you of it because it doesn’t show up many places and I thought it was a pretty useful script. The downside to this little piece of code is that you have to imbed your username and password inside the script itself, which most of the time is a bad idea, but if you’re willing to take the risk, it’s pretty damn sweet. To do this, just paste this code into /usr/bin/twitter (which you will need to create):
Obviously, you will need to replace the capitalized letters with the info required. Then you will need to make this script executable via chmod +x /usr/bin/twitter. Now to reap the rewards. Bust out a terminal and type in the work twitter, then write anything you want, that happens to be less that 160 characters long, and it will update your twitter account with whatever you typed after the word twitter. You are now so much cooler than you were before that it is actually making my brain hurt but, unfortunately, as cool as this may be, it will not get you any chicks. Enjoy![cc lang="bash"]
So one thing I miss about windows is the Active Desktop, or at least some features from active desktop. You can just drop cool animated HTML files into the active desk and it just plain works. Unfortunately, this is not as easy in linux. Enter a small program called xwinwrap. This nifty little bugger lets you run pretty much anything you can think of as a desktop background. You can even run things like the Quake 3 demo as your background, how freakin’ awesome is that. The instructions that follow I know for a fact works in Ubuntu Hardy and Intrepid.
1. Copy and paste this into your terminal to satisfy the needs of xwinwrap
This will run the matrix screensaver as your background. Just fool around with the commands and you can run pretty much anything with this sucker.
I waited until the end to include this for you lazy bums who don’t want to compile yourself. Here is a link to a deb package that will just install it for you. I did this for your own good b/c compiling your own software is good practice.
Here’s a video to show you what the final product looks like
Amarok is an awesome music program that any tunes junkie should get there hands on. While I realize that there are a ton of awesome Open Source music players, I just really think that Amarok rocks so I am going to show you a way to make it work even better. Amarok supports SQLite out of the box, which does its job, but it is not nearly as fast as MySQL in handling large music collections. I myself have a giant collection, so I need a database engine that can handle the load. Amarok 2.0 has since been released and it has built-in MySQL support, so no extra setup is necessary. While this is convenient, the standard repository version of Amarok for most distributions is still, and probably will always be, 1.4 ish. With that in mind, I am going to give some instructions on how to utilize MySQL for this version. First off, this guide is for linux users only. Again, my bad. Secondly, you will need the MySQL server and client packages, which can be obtained with the simple line “apt-get install mysql-server mysql-client” without the quotes of course. Now that you have the packages you will need to create an Amarok database within MySQL and create a user “amarok” that the program will use to access and maintain the database. This can be done with the following lines:
$ mysql -p -u root <<this will get you into the MySQL prompt (you will need to enter the root password that you set up during the isntall process)
now use these lines to set up the database:
CREATEDATABASE amarok;
USE amarok;
GRANTALLON amarok.*TO amarok@localhost IDENTIFIEDBY'PUT WHATEVER PASSWORD YOU WANT HERE';
That should get you all ready with a shiny new database and database user that amarok will be able to exploit. Note: obviously you will need to change the password abaove. I used the obnoxious capital message to catch you attention on purpose.
Now that you have a database, you will need to configure amarok so it can utilize it. Open up amarok and go to Settings > Configure Amarok > Collection. You should now see a dropdown box that says “SQLite”. Change that to MySQL and then the hostname should be localhost, the username should and database should be amarok and the password should be whatever you decided to replace the password with in the code above. Now hit apply and ta-da!, amarok will be using MySQL as its database engine. Enjoy!
Let me begin first by describing what “screen tearing” is. Screen tearing happens when you scroll, refresh a page, move to a new page, or something of the like and the screen sort of “tears” and doesn’t refresh all the way, or it artifacts and doesn’t move in some spots. The screen will update as soon as you click in another spot but it is just extremely annoying when you are reading an article and part of the screen doesn’t scroll. You will end up clicking several hundred times to get the screen to refresh and I can say that it is just really, really annoying. I am not sure if this is specific to a certain card, I have a GeForce 8400M by the way, or what but my Google searching seems to allude to the fact that it affects several different lines. The only way I have found to fix this problem is to downgrade to the 173.xx driver series, and then the problem will go away (at least it did for me). I am one who loves having the cutting edge software and all the new bells an whistle, but the screen tearing is just too much to handle. The direct link to the latest release of the 173 series is below, I hope this solves everyone else’s problem as well.
Nvidia Linux Latest 173 Series Driver (this is the x86 architecture version, so if you have a 64 bit chip you will have to navigate to that version)
If you are a windows user there is something you should know, you are not getting all of your maximum bandwidth capacity out of your computer. Windows had this nifty little setting that reserves as much as 20% of your bandwidth for QoS (Which stands for quality of service.) This should make you angry, at least it made me angry. I will now teach you how to get that bandwidth back. As a last note, this only works on XP Professional.
1. Click Start
2. Click Run
3. Type in “gpedit.msc” and hit OK
4. In the Group Policy window, expand Computer Configuration, and then expand Administrative Templates. Expand Network and click on QoS Packet Scheduler.
5. Click on limit reservable bandwidth in the right window
6. Select the Enabled option and then type zero in the bandwidth box then hit apply and click that OK button
7. Go ahead and restart the computer for good measure and all should be good
You may be wondering why not disable the bandwidth? Well the stupid thing about this setting is that the only way to get your bandwidth back is to enable the setting and set it to zero. I know what youre thinking, that’s stupid. I thought so too.
We have all been there at one time another. We have a computer that needs reformatted but there’s a catch. Either the CD drive doesnt work very well, or at all, there are no burnable CD/DVDs to be found, or the computer just plain doesn’t have an optical drive at all. This is something that has the potential to throw a major kink in your project, and just really piss you off. Well there is a very simple solution that even the most computer illiterate can handle. This solution is called UNetbootin. This little handy tool has the potential to take any bootable CD image and transfer the image to a USB drive and make it bootable as well. Not only can you use CD images that you have, but it also has the ability to download images from their respective websites automatically and install them to the USB stick. Even better, it’s available for both Linux and Windows. The program creates a a Syslinux install on your USB stick, although it does not format the drive so you won’t lose the data that is already on the stick. It supports tons of linux distros such as Ubuntu, Fedora, openSUSE, CentOS, Debian, Gentoo, Linux Mint, Arch Linux, Mandriva, Slackware as well as FreeDOS, FreeBSD and NetBSD although it is not limited to the ones on this list. It also has the ability to load utilities such as Ophcrack, BackTrack, Gujin, GParted and many more. I stuck the link below that leads to the Unetbootin sourceforge page. The program is pretty self explanatory and has a Wizard that makes it pretty much impossible to get lost so I don’t think any guide is necessary.
http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/
Oh…and I take no credit for this program. I am just using this to inform you as to how cool this useful little program is.
So you wanna be cool and have an awesome desktop for all of your friends? You could just do the easy thing and install linux….but if not and you are just all nice and cozy with windows, I will cave and give you an easy way to do that.
Windows won’t let you just download any theme you want as is so you need a little patcher program to help yourself along. I you have any service pack below Service Pack 3, then use this little guy here. If you are the security guru and went ahead and installed Service Pack 3 then use this sucker.
Download whichever file applies to you and save it to a place that is easy to find. Once this file downloads, unzip it with your favorite unzipper program. Unzipping is built right into windows so if you’re lost just double click on the file you just downloaded and a wizard will pop up to ease your befuddlement. (I really recommend Unrar by the way, but that is just my opinion). Now find yourunzipped file and double click on it, a button should pop up with some info, you can read through if you want, and then hit the “Patch” button and wait a few. There will be a window that pops up about “Windows File Protection” that will most likely freak most of you out, but its ok b/c I’m telling you to calm down and just hit cancel and everything will be alright. It will then ask you, “Are you sure you want to keep these unrecognized files versions” and you will now answer yes to this question. Another window will then pop up, prompting you to restart so go ahead and save everything and close out and then hit ok to reboot.
Now that you are back from rebooting and managed to locate this page again, you are ready to install some brand spankin’ new custom XP themes to reall show your friends how awesome you are. I can recommend two good sites for XP themes, Wincustomize.org and Customize.org. (I can’t imagine that these are the only two sites but seeing as how I don’t use windows very much anymore I don’t go around looking for themes for it, please feel free to recommend better ones in the comments.) Peruse these sites and locate a theme which you wish to install and then come back here once you have located one or two or seven. Once you have found the themes you like, download them to a place that is easily accessible but one that you won’t readily delete a couple months down the road b/c you don’t remember what it is. Now since these files are most likely located in a zip file, go ahead and unzip them with your favorite program into that special folder you have. Now open that folder and there should be a bunch of files in there that you have no idea what they are, just find the one that ends in .msstyles and double click on it. A window will pop up that looks something similar (but not exactly the same) as this
.
Just hit ok, and your new theme will be installed in a jiffy. If you decide you hate all your new themes and just wanna go back to plain old boring windows default, then just right click on your desktop, hit properties and click the appearance tab that is second from the left at the top of that window. If you have any questions you can post them here or email me arollyson@gmail.com .
Unfortunately for you your desktop with windows will never be as awesome as this….
It’s been forever since I wrote on this sucker but to be honest, I haven’t had a whole lot of time. It has been quite an eventful week and a half or so with many things to keep me busy. The first 3 weeks of the quarter have absolutely flown by, which I am very thankful for because the sooner the summer gets here, the sooner I get to go back to work and get un-broke. Although these events also prove to be a hindrance to my blog writ,ing and therefore your entertainment. Some of these exciting events include class, last minuted club presentations, class, sleeping, possible major violations of student privacy (set forth by FERPA) by Ohio State and the uproar that followed, partying, easter, and nazi zombies. Not real nazi zombies, just me, Dennis and Will lightin’ up some virtual zombies with a variety of weapons and yelling insults at each other in the process. B/c everyone knows you have to be lighthearted while enduring wave upon wave of flesh eating, undead nazis. But all of this has postponed my writing until about now, so now I will continue with my nonsense.
If you have never ventured into the dark corners of the internet, I will give you a short explanation of what you may find. These places are not for the light hearted, and definitely not for the easily offended. These little know corners of the virtual world are inhabited by some of the most guiltless and merciless people you will ever “meet”. These people are called trolls, and they might as well be real trolls for some of the shit they have done. While hilarious, their acts are definitely not something anyone in their right mind would put on a resume. One of these such web dungeons is a place called 4chan. 4chan is run by an infamous guy known as moot, and that is probably you will ever get to know about this mysterious dude. If you ever were to venture into the mouth of 4chan, you would find yourself on a relatively un-assuming main page with some anime strewn about. A ton of this site is devoted to this japanese cartoon style, but the place you are really looking for is the board called /b/. Unless you are prepared for it, /b/ is not a place I would suggest anyone on this blog to go. /b/ will, no joke, warp your f*cking mind. I have seen some of the most messed up stuff on there, some of which I really don’t even want to repeat in writing on my blog. No one reveals their true identity in this place, and for good reason as any one of these guys could probably be sued for things connected to them on the site had they posted any real info. Everyone goes by the name “Anonymous” and everyone there is referred to as a “fag”. Oldfags, newfags and every other form of the word fag you could possibly think of is used to refer to any given user on the site at any given time. Also, if racism offends you, DO NOT travel into this place……I will guarantee you that you get extremely pissed. The interesting thing about this board is that this is where all those internet jokes you hear about are born. Remember “Chocolate Rain”? Yea, that was them. Rickrolling? Yea, that was them too. Lolcatz? Yep, theirs as well. The thing about this place is that none of it makes any sense to anyone outside of 4chan at all. The humor is so bizarre that no one gets it, and if you do get it then it is absolutely hilarious to you and only you. Black humor is a major one as well. Some of the jokes on this board will scar certain people for life, and if you do get scarred as a result of this posting…I’m really sorry. I would never, ever, ever try to argue with these people either….they will win, whether you are in fact right or not. All they want is “lulz”. What is lulz you ask? Lulz are basically lol’s at the expense of other people. The get great joy out of humiliating, frustrating, and just plain demeaning others. There are many imitators but only one 4chan; for example, others such as 4chan, 7chan, 420chan, anonboard etc etc have popped up and either have failed legitimately or failed under very suspicious conditions with hints left on 4chan boards after the demise of a competitor. This is just a very brief glimpse into this weird, entertaining, yet very disturbing world. I would not recommend this really to anyone not prepared, but if you do so desire to go to this place…you will either laugh your ass off or leave utterly confused and disturbed. I myself find some of it pretty damn funny, although I times it does scare me a tad bit. I would tell stories….but I wouldn’t want to rot your brain.
If you truely want to test your stomach…travel on over here >> http://img.4chan.org/b/imgboard.html
Now that I have introduced you to this place I am either going to have to give a “Your Welcome!” or a “I’m so, so sorry”. So I put them both up in case of either case happening, can’t be too prepared. Don’t say I didn’t warn you either, so don’t get mad at me if you can’t sleep for a couple nights :p
Now, for your viewing pleasure……We go to Ollie Williams!!!
