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Friday, December 30, 2005

Hmm... that Google ad is totally unrelated to what I'm reading

Comments

If you're looking at adult or gambling Google ads, you may be infected with a trojan. This trojan will replace the Adsense ads you see into its own ads instead, except that those types of ads are banned on Google. Sneaky.

Categories:
Tech

 

Thursday, December 29, 2005

WMF windows exploit installs malware upon viewing or even download

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By surfing to particular websites, you will get infected with some malware via a wmf exploit. Different websites download different malware. Even if you didn't open the infected wmf file, but did download it, you will get infected if you are running a desktop search tool such as Google desktop, reports F-secure.

As of now, it seems that you are vulnerable to this exploit, if you're running windows 98, xp, 2003, (even fully patched) prolly any version of windows that can handle the wmf extension, which is a vector image format. A video of it infecting a windows system here - http://www.websensesecuritylabs.com/images/alerts/wmf-movie.wmv

Currently from what I read, no anti-spyware, anti-virus or firewall is able to remove this, although one said that a trial version of counterspy may have removed it and another said Mcafee VS Enterprise was able to stop the code from executing through buffer overflow protection. F-secure stated that enabling DEP for all programs may help prevent this but not necessarily so.

One workaround is to run this command - "regsvr32 /u shimgvw.dll" which may cause problems with MS Paint and rendering of thumbnails with windows explorer. "regsvr32 shimgvw.dll" may be used to re-enable wmf rendering after a patch is released. Another way is to use a sandbox program such as Sandboxie to run the browser within a protected boundary.

Categories:
Tech

 

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

P2P file sharing with firefox

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This (to be released) firefox extension adds peer to peer file sharing capabilities to firefox, allowing you to share files with other people. Communications are supposed to be encrypted, so this may help with privacy and bypassing that pesky firewall at work/school. This adds yet another functionality to firefox, but I'm still using Opera as its RSS handling is much more intuitive.

Categories:
Cool Tech

 

Free CBS comedies on Yahoo

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2 episodes of "Two and a Half Men" and "How I Met Your Mother" each made available on Yahoo TV. Lasts till Jan 2.

Categories:
Cool Videos

 

Tuesday, December 27, 2005

Nap time!

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Take a quick break, have a 20min nap instead of kitkat :) Only problem with this idea is that I find myself wanting to stay asleep rather than wake up when the time is up.


Categories:
Cool

 

Friday, December 23, 2005

A Windows piano solo (Mp3 Warning)

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Windows sounds integrated with some clever piano music = a rather nice piano solo. Maybe this should be your startup tune instead?

Categories:
Cool

 

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Why you should build you own PC

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The horror stories of dealing with tech support and pre-installed bundled programs come alive as they evaluate Dell's gaming PC. Another good reason to build and maintain your own PC.

Categories:
Tech

 

Safer browsing via VMware

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Ever since Vmware released VMware player earlier this year, I've been wanting to find a reason to play with it. I was thinking maybe I could try OSX86 via the player, but installing it natively seemed much more appealing. Now that the browser applicance is released, perhaps this would be the time to try it out.

However, when looking at the space requirements for the browser appliance, I figured it was an overkill to download the 200+Mb zip file, unzip it to 1Gb or so file(s) to use with the 28Mb VMware player, just for surfing the web (of course, I suppose you could do other things as well). I'm sure that the Damn Small Linux(DSL) package which is around 50+Mb(100+Mb unzipped) would do the job just fine. If the guys at DSL were to strip out the other apps included with the distribution to make a DSL powered browser appliance, I'm sure it could go even lower.

Categories:
Cool Tech

 

Monday, December 19, 2005

The police shot at some dude's laptop

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Thinking that his laptop was a bomb, the (Israeli?) police shot at it with bullets using a robot. Luckily, his harddisk remained intact and he was able to get a replacement. Everything's fine now, just that I can't stop laughing at this incident. I'm not sure why, just that it seems funny after everything is over.

Categories:
Funny

 

Friday, December 16, 2005

So where is the ban on California, putfile?

Comments

Not too long ago, I wrote about putfile banning Singapore from accessing its videos. The reason was and I quote from putfile's webpage:

"Putfile Says Goodbye To Singapore

At dawn on December 2nd 2005, Singapore hanged a citizen of Australia, despite a plea for clemency from the United Nations. Whilst Putfile is not a human rights campaigning organization, we believe that if a country must have the death penalty, there is no need for it be barbaric. It is enough of a punishment, and a deterrent, to take someone's life in a painless manner, without having to be barbaric about it. Putfile prefers to not continue to provide our free uploading service to a country that executes prisoners by hanging, a method of execution which can take up to six minutes to painfully execute the victim.

For this reason, we are at this time terminating all service to users from Singapore. We shall be happy to restore service following any positive move from the government of Singapore towards abolition of hanging as an execution method.

Goodbye Singapore,

Putfile."

And recently someone was put to death in California by lethal injection despite pleas for clemency I might add. In fact, he has even been nominated for the Nobel Peace prize. So why hasn't putfile banned USA from accessing putfile.com? After all the execution was not without its problems, starting at 12:01, with the staff taking nearly 20 min to find a suitable vein and his death was announced only at 12:34. Is this the more humane, painless method that putfile supports? I don't know about that, but I do know that this seems to be a double standard here, don't you think so too?

 

Neat video of MGS on PS3

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Yup it's Metal Gear Solid on the PS3. Watch the real-time rendering of Snake as the devs change the lighting effects and camera angles live.

Categories:
Cool Videos

 

$1000 is yours if you prove Starforce broke your optical drive

Comments

Yup this is classified as funny by me. It seems to be a more of a joke than proving anything if you read the fine print.

I mean you have to somehow ship 2 CPUs under warranty and prolly 1 monitor to Moscow, get yourself there, buy an additional copy of the Windows operating system (assuming you already own one), hope you're the 1st one there and that they are satisfied with your demonstration. Unless you live in Moscow, the costs of the above don't justify the paltry reward and I haven't included any other expenses incurred while living in Moscow. And if you're unlucky enough to fail, you'll be listed as a loser!

So what are the benefits? US$1000, your trip to Moscow paid for and 2 days lodging. I'm sure that's really attractive.

And what are you going there to prove? That your optical drive stopped working after installing a Starforce product. At first you think this sounds reasonable, but think again. It states that "Should the subject Drive fail to read or write CD/DVD discs in the second PC, you will be acknowledged the Winner." So if after installing a Starforce product, the optical drive stops working in the original PC AND the 2nd PC, you win. However, if it works in the 2nd PC, you lose!

What's wrong with that? Nothing, except that if the drive works in the 2nd PC, don't you think the Starforce product could be the problem, since no 3rd party products are installed, as stated in the terms. Also, any other problems as a direct result of the Starforce product installation are also ignored (I heard USB functions could be impaired).

In the end, I can only find this to be an amusing PR stunt like many other have stated, though I hope someone wins it.

Categories:
Funny

 

Bank reward in your favor - a calculator

Comments

So a bank decides to reward a person who did them and their customers a big favor with a fantastic new plastic calculator. In the bank's defence, they did actually reward him with something. I mean they could actually just say "thanks dude". Since when could people actually demand to be rewarded for doing something voluntarily? Naturally it would be politically correct for the bank to reward him with something more generous and befitting the nature of his actions, but for him to say that his reward is not enough is also quite ridiculous.

Categories:
Funny

 

Wireless USB

Comments

Here's something useful - a wireless USB solution. Plug in your USB device into the wireless USB hub and the wireless USB dongle into your PC and you're set. But what if your USB device draws power from the USB port like so many USB devices out there? Surely you'd need to plug into a power point somehow. The distance stated in the article also doesn't seem that great - more than 30 feet.

Categories:
Cool Tech

 

Was Mona Lisa really happy?

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So what do you think? I'm pretty sure she looks happy, but apparently she's only 83% happy. She's also 9% disgusted, 6% fearful and 2% angry. Huh? You mean a computer program can tell us all that? I wonder what people would give for a program that could tell what others are feeling.

Categories:
Funny Tech

 

Screenshots of the new Messenger

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Some screenshots of the new Microsoft Windows Live Messenger.

Categories:
Cool Tech

 

Funny Xbox 360 video

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Why is the Xbox 360 the hottest gift this Christmas? Watch this video to find out...

Categories:
Funny Videos

 

Thursday, December 15, 2005

What happens to cars behind a Boeing 747?

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The answer? Don't drive behind the 747 ever. But if you have to, choose the most aerodynamic car which in this case is Ford Mondeo.

via http://googlevideos.blogspot.com/

Categories:
Cool Funny Videos

 

Fun, addictive flash game

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Using weapons or your limbs your objective is to kill other players. No registration is required, but by doing so, you get to compete in a league and fight with other skilled players. Of course, I prefer just choosing quick start.

Categories:
Cool

 

Spray on concrete

Comments

Spray a bit of this on sugarcane stalks and voila, 20 min later you have a wall that's stronger than normal concrete. Sounds like a handy spray to bring around for camping or survival training. With a couple of these sprays, you could build a decent camp shelter or a BBQ pit.

Categories:
Cool

 

Stymie RIAA / MPAA spider bots

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The idea is not really new, but this method seems to be light on server's resources. Essentially, the whole point is to generate a list of flag-raising filenames that seem to indicate copyright infringement. Of course since there's a recent case about some person getting sued with no evidence of infringing files even existing, this may cause you more trouble than it's worth (unless you can countersue them for falsely accusing you).

Categories:
Cool Tech

 

A remake of towers of Hanoi

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If you solved the towers of Hanoi before, this shouldn't be too difficult for you. In fact, in my case, my mouse was hindering my solving speed most of time rather than the puzzle itself.

Categories:
Cool

 

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

So Dark The Con Of Man

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The DaVinci Code - witness the biggest coverup in human history.

Categories:
Cool Videos

 

Cheating Google

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By running an unpopular ad campaign, this guy managed to earn free impressions using Google adwords. Not really a great cheat as he explains in his article, nevertheless, it shows the limitations of pay per action advertising models, proving sometimes pay per impression is the way to go.

Categories:
Cool Funny Tech

 

Say 'NO' to needles

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This is definitely something I'm looking forward to - "needleless" injections. Kudos to those who found this method of administering vaccines and other medicine. Hopefully everything in the future uses this and it wouldn't increase the prices of medicine.

Categories:
Cool

 

Ipod underwear

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I'm not sure of the point of these underwear but it amuses me that people would even want to hang on to their ipods to this extent. Maybe it'll make a great Christmas gift but I won't bet on it.

Categories:
Apple Funny

 

Command and conquer online

Comments

An easy way to pass time if you're stuck in the office or the school computer lab with no way to install programs. I'm not sure about this, but I think you could most prolly download it and store it on other servers or even locally on your workstation to prevent the rather long (2mb) download. Hopefully if the server software gets released, other servers could be created to relieve the current load on the server.

Categories:
Cool

 

Where did these ancient artifacts come from?

Comments

2 page article that challenges some of the assumptions of science that many have now taken to be facts. As it brings more questions to the origins of humankind, I believe it is good to keep an open mind.

Categories:
Cool

 

How fast can you react to bullets?

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Today's time waster - a flash game that tests your reaction speed. Quite fun at first, but does get boring after a while.

Categories:
Cool

 

Some cool CSS tricks

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A nice list of CSS tricks. Useful to know.

Categories:
Cool Tech

 

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Firefox tweak guide

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This covers much more than just the normal about:config tweaks you see regularly. Some of it are in fact quite advanced, so I wouldn't recommend those tweaks if you're not too tech savvy.

Categories:
Cool Tech

 

Credit card sized USB drive

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A USB drive that really fits into your wallet! So don't go sitting on your wallet or you'll lose more than just your credit cards.

Categories:
Cool Tech

 

Play SimCity classic online

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Play SimCity classic online and remember the good ol' days.

Categories:
Cool Tech

 

Mind boggling puzzle game

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This is a nice yet frustrating game to play while you're free, preferably when you really have nothing to do. Using clues given by the webpage's title, the picture shown and accompanying caption, you have to guess a password which is to be typed in lowercase. There are 99 levels in total, with some secret levels and B levels.

Here are some extra clues as I start to solve some of the levels:

1st level: The caption is a mirror image, it has something to do with time zones. Open up Windows time (double-click on your clock) and check for that time zone. What is the location listed?

2nd level: It is an inverted mirror image.

3rd level: It is made up of two words. Grab an analog clock/watch and use the flight times listed at the rightmost column to form letters that make up the password. The relevant timings are the rows that are lighted up.

4th level: Fairly obvious from the title and red tag. Not too sure about the relevance of the picture though.

Categories:
Cool Tech

 

Monday, December 12, 2005

Conan O’Brien iPod Ad Parody

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Mirror

Nice little iPod "ad".

Categories:
Apple Funny Videos

 

Sunday, December 11, 2005

Stunning Illusion

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Can a coin pass through glass? How about a salt shaker? Don't be too quick to answer...

Categories:
Cool Videos

 

Saturday, December 10, 2005

Free runners/Parkour

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Saw this on digg and it looks really cool. If you like this video, do a search on free running on youtube and you're guaranteed to get more of this type of videos. I particularly enjoyed the one called "Mr. Jumpy Jefferson from SKOOPY.COM". Also you may want to check out Tom Yum Goong or Ong Bak if you haven't already.

Update: Singapore free runner

I just saw this video on youtube on it looks like there's at least one person in Singapore doing free running. Come to think of it, Singapore is a pretty ideal place for free running with all those high-rise buildings.

Categories:
Cool Videos

 

If you like a song, shut up!

Comments

This story has been spotted on digg, prolly slashdot and techdirt. I skipped reading it on digg and slashdot, but finally read it on techdirt just a while ago. It seems that whatever your motives are, you're better off not posting anything remotely related to songs at all, at least those that have connections to the MPA. Better yet, stop listening and buying those songs since you never know when you might be "infringing" on something.

Categories:
Tech

 

Friday, December 09, 2005

Very fast password cracker for Windows

Comments

Good program to test the security of your password or to crack your forgotten windows password, though the download might be a bit large as it uses rainbow tables to speed up the cracking.

Categories:
Tech

 

Eye-Spy Cam

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Link: 'Throwaway' Camera Designed to Help Police

A baseball-sized camera designed to be thrown by police to monitor tricky situations. So what if the police officers suck at throwing baseballs? Would they need to undergo baseball training as well?

Categories:
Tech

 

Christmas decorations via Google ads

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Link: Search Google for peppermint

Google spreading some Christmas spirit via its ads.

Categories:
Cool

 

Battlefield 2 For FREE! (or something similar...)

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Link: Battlefield 2 For FREE

Another free game from the Koreans. The screenshots look fantastic, not too sure about the gameplay though.

Categories:
Cool

 

Beautify your keyboard with some plants

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Link: Living keyboard

Some dude decided to use his keyboard as a garden. Here are the results.

Categories:
Cool Funny

 

What if you drank supercooled water?

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Link: Supercooled water

3 videos of water changing into ice in seconds. I just wonder what if you accidentally drank the water...

Categories:
Cool Tech Videos

 

Thursday, December 08, 2005

Grand Theft Auto: Lego style

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Link: Grand Theft Lego

Exactly as the title says. Funny video modelling GTA with lego bricks.

Categories:
Cool Funny Videos

 

Scientists discover how cancer spreads

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Link: Scientists discover how cancer spreads

Looks like they made another breakthrough in fighting cancer. It seems that cancer sends out envoys (as the article calls it) to prepare a site for infection. Blocking these envoys could be prevent the spread of cancer. Hope this discovery helps in the battle.

Categories:
Cool Tech

 

Add value to Firefox 1.5

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Link: Fun with Firefox

This is a good article on useful extensions and some cool themes for Firefox 1.5, some are useful like Fasterfox, others are just for fun, literally. It's a quick 5 min read so it's perfect for those new to Firefox.

Categories:
Cool Tech

 

Playing poker while people are shooting at your DSL?

Comments

Link: Don't Play Poker Online While People Are Shooting At Your DSL

When I read this, I couldn't believe that person's incredible misfortune to actually get a big poker hand, stake a large bet and have someone shooting at his DSL at that exact same moment. It's funny to read about it, although I'd hate to be the guy who had that winning opportunity within reach. I guess what they say is true, if it isn't meant to be, no matter how hard you try, you'll never get it.

Categories:
Funny Tech

 

Did Apple just launch another iPod?

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Link: Creative’s new Zen Vision:M (with video)

Oops it's Creative with it's new Zen Vision. It looks slick and seems to be above Apple's 5G iPod in many aspects, like longer battery life and more video formats supported. If Creative solves the problems I've heard on its other players like limited viewing angle and inability to function without prior driver installation, it may have a great player here. I do hope it doesn't scratch easily though, lol.

Categories:
Apple Cool Tech

 

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

X-MEN 3 Announcement Teaser

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Link: X-MEN 3 teaser

Just saw this on digg. Not much is shown, as expected of a teaser. Still, it's nice to watch.

Categories:
Cool Videos

 

Dark Eye - Living Design Showcase

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Link: Dark Eye

An up and coming well made site that allows users to submit and rate sites, kinda like digg or shoutwire, but looks cooler and gives you instant thumbnails of sites when you hover your cursor over links. I haven't surfed this site much though, it's a bit slow ever since it got digged. I did submit this site up there though, just for fun.

Categories:
Cool Tech

 

I oppose Putfile's move by mirroring any putfile video requests

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Link: Putfile Says Goodbye To Singapore

I think this is pretty ridiculous, so I've decided that if any Singaporean happens to stop by here and wants to watch a putfile video, I'll download it and host it at Google video, which btw happens to be better than Putfile and submit a post here.

I'll take this chance to say something good about Google Video.

First, Google allows anyone from any country to access its videos, which is prolly why you actually hosted the file on an external server in the first place. I doubt you want your viewers to tell you they can't access your video and end up serving the videos directly. And you argue that Singapore is a small country anyway. Yeah I'll agree with you on that but what's stopping putfile from banning other countries in the future?

Second, Google uses flash so it's cross-platform or at least I think it is. While it's not really a big problem, some people don't really like dealing with wmv files. With Google it's all in flash so no problem there.

Third, putfile's action is clearly discriminatory. The grounds for banning an entire nation is based on a totally unrelated action by that nation. So good luck to you when hosting videos there.

Categories:
Tech

 

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

Russell Peters Live in New York

Comments

Link: Intense Comedy night with Russell Peters

If you haven't watched him before, I suggest you check out this extremely funny video.

Categories:
Funny Videos

 
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