Nice guys finish last- Techblog

Been a while.

2009-06-06T02:50:00.002-04:00

I'm finding a new thing lately. Well, not "new", but new to the last few years. Virtual money and real cash. It seems like in more and more venues, virtual money and objects are having real monetary value.

In places like SecondLife and IMVU, people pay real cash for virtual money, that they then spend in the virtual world. And on the same token, they can sell this virtual money for real money. The MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) games really started that. Entire companies existed that would sell you money in the game, if you paid them.

More elaborate is things like SecondLife and IMVU, which I've dabbled in. You can create things for these "games", then sell them for the virtual money. If you have enough of this virtual money, you can then sell it for real world dollars. I haven't made enough to turn around and sell it for any significant amount of money, but I can see how it works. And with the economy getting bad and money getting tight, I'm seriously considering trying to pursue this further. What's better than essentially free money, right?

Call for help

2008-10-28T13:09:00.003-04:00

Get this. I found a nifty website. It's simply called "Hard to Find 800 Numbers". And it's just that. A list of 800 numbers you can call. Everybody from Amazon.com to Google.com to Yahoo.com's corporate headquarters. Have a look.

Hard to Find 800 Numbers.

Ultra portable and ultra cheap

2008-10-06T18:50:00.000-04:00

Asus has started releasing what are being called ultra-portable laptops.
These things, when closed, are about the size of an average hasrdcover
novel, and half the thickness, while still sporting a full keyboard.

Well, that's not entirely true. The keyboard is significantly smaller
than a typical keyboard in order to save space. It definitely takes some
getting used to. The specs aren't bad, 1.6 GHz processor and up to 2
gigs of RAM, depending on your model. It works because it runs Linux.

That's right. No Windows operating system. Instead, it's Linux. It, like
the keyboard, takes some getting used to if you've only used Windows.
But like the keyboard, it's that easy to get used to, if you're willing
to try.

The hard drive isn't very large at all (mine has only about 2 gigs of
space), but with an SD card slot and three USB ports, it's real easy to
expand the memory on flash drives and the like.

Now, here's the kicker. The retail price for an Asus EEE PC with a 1.6
GHz CPU and 512mb of RAM running Linux? Just shy of 300 dollars. To me,
that's the most impressive part of this whole thing.

That's a great price, considering it'll do just about everything my
desktop computer (running Vista) will do, minus run the games.

All in all, it's worth checking out if you're looking for something
portable to use for photo editing and MP3's and office applications.

Avoid DirectBuy

2008-07-30T15:49:00.004-04:00

Now, I've heard of DirectBuy, a company that's supposed to allow you to buy stuff cheap. Well, consumer report websites are reporting that the place is a scam. Seemed that way to me from the start, but first hand experience from other consumers is always good. Anyway, get this. DirectBuy got wind that they were being critisized, and threatened the website(s) with legal action if said sites didn't take down the comments. Here's the letter.

Now, the letter also threatens that it can't be posted online. Pfft, I say. Here's a company scamming people, then threatening to sue consumer report websites that warn other people about the scam. How amusing is that?

Anyway, here's a link to the site where I pulled some of this information from. It's good read, and the information is pretty useful.

Free stuff

2008-06-25T07:03:00.003-04:00

Everybody likes free stuff, right? Well, I'm a tech guy, so I like free tech stuff even more. So when I read about FreeHeadset.org, needless to say, I was interested. Turns out, it's legit, and is what it says it is. Free headsets, for cell phones. I found one for my T-Mobile Dash. That's a shock to me, since I didn't think I could get accessories for the thing from anywhere but T-Mobile.
Now, I'm not entirely sure what they're getting out of it... However, the site offers both free headsets, and more expensive ones- some go over a hundred dollars, for some of the wireless and bluetooth options. So maybe they figure people will come for the free headset, and wind up buying one instead. Hard to say.
I can say this- they do have a hell of a selection. I noticed the old Nokia 5100 was even on the list. AKA, Nokia "Brick". I used to have one of those. I called it a cell phone slash self defense weapon. Unfortunately, even though it's on the list, they don't currently carry a headset for it. They say a headset is coming soon, and if you want, you can sign up to be notified when they do carry the headset. It's like that with a few others. But, for the most part, their inventory looks pretty good.
Now, you do have to pay a shipping and handling fee, but I haven't seen it be higher than $3.95 yet. In my book, four bucks for a cellular headset is a great deal. If you don't believe me, go to RadioShack.com and look at the cost of headsets there.

At the end of the day, that's definitely a good find right there.

Internet Explorer 8 Beta

2008-06-23T02:35:00.002-04:00

IE8 Beta. That means it's not great. There's still some bugs to be worked out. That's the nature of beta software. You test it, find bugs, report them, and they get ironed out.
That said, it looks like Internet Explorer 8 has some promise. There aren't any significant visual changes, but you can pick it up in how it deals with HTML code, when you know what to look for. It's pretty good, I'm mildly surprised. I expected IE8 to be IE7 all over again, with little to no change. One thing I like is, since they did do some heavy under-the-hood changes, they included an "Emulate IE7" button. Click that, and it's like instantly reverting back to IE7. Great for clearing up bugs with certain sites.
I admit, I haven't downloaded the new Firefox yet, so I can't run a side by side test. You'll have to look elsewhere for that, or wait until I get around to it. I'm sure I'll test it eventually, but for now, I'll say this. If you do use IE7, stick with it. Looks like IE8 will be worth the upgrade.

While I'm talking about the benefits of the Internet, I'm going to link this PCWorld story. Take a look. Great for naysayers that think the Internet is just for entertainment.

Another security risk

2008-06-07T20:15:00.003-04:00

I just read another article on PCWorld. Security analysts and Microsoft are saying not to use Safari, the Apple-made web browser, on your PC.

There's a security flaw in it, combined with IE, that allows malware to control your computer. Now, since you can't uninstall IE because it consists of some system files, your best bet is to get rid of Safari.

Apple has already said that they don't consider it a risk, so they won't be doing anything to fix it- which is pretty selfish of them, but what can you do? So, Microsoft is going to be releasing a fix, but they don't have an ETA on when.
How about that? More proof that Microsoft actually cares more about their customers than Apple.
Anyway.

Just in case, I should warn you- If you have iTunes on your computer and/or an iPod, check to make sure Safari isn't installed. For a while, Apple was 'sneaking' Safari in with iPod and iTunes updates without telling users.

The Gun Song.

2008-06-01T02:59:00.003-04:00

Yes, another video.

Someone showed this to me, and I thought it was great. It's a music video, but listen to the music carefully- the entire song consists only of the sound of firearms, from pistols to machine guns.

Windows 7 Multi-Touch

2008-05-28T18:23:00.003-04:00

While a couple Apple products have their own kinds of "touch screen" technologies, I just watched a video featuring the Multi-Touch technology that will be in Windows 7, the successor to Windows Vista.
Check this video out, it looks like the mouse we use to click may become obsolete.

Video: Multi-Touch in Windows 7

Rootkits Are A Threat

2008-05-25T18:40:00.006-04:00

A rootkit is malware, one or sometimes more programs, that try to take control (limited or otherwise) of your computer. It's something you have to be really careful of- even Sony distributed a rootkit for a while, disguised as CD copy protection.

I'm telling you this because I just read an article on PC World's Business Center that included tests of Antivirus software (you know, the stuff you should have on your computer, like McAfee or Norton or OneCare or AVG). The tests concluded that, unless the software is designed specifically to find rootkits, it does very poorly. That's bad news for all of us.

However, I was mildly surpised to see that Windows Vista, by default, stopped ALL of the rootkits on its own! Windows Vista, as you might know, is the new Windows Operating System (OS) that people have been bashing for two years. Personally, I use it, think most of the complaints are misleading. The more popular complaints come from people who obviously didn't know what they were doing, or who had little to no patience. The only time I had a problem with Vista is when I installed a new processor in my computer. And that's tricky to do, no matter what OS you use. Anyway, this particular bit is about the UAC.

The UAC, or User Account Control, is the thing that people say is annoying, it makes a popup show up on the screen any time you try to chance important Windows settings, or install certain types of software. The UAC has even been made fun of by Apple. Of course, anyone with half a brain knows that most of those Apple commercials are BS. They are amusing,
In this case, every time a rootkit tried to install itself on Windows Vista, the UAC caught it and stopped it.

For everyone that bought Vista and turned off the UAC, well, those rootkits would slip right in without a problem.

It doesn't seem so annoying when you get an example of why it's there, does it?

Spiders on drugs?

2008-05-21T17:16:00.001-04:00

This is my kind of science experiment. Take a look at this video.

Never underestimate what some bored people can do with a camera and Q-Tip.

Google Health?

2008-05-20T02:33:00.003-04:00

When someone says the words 'Google Health', people might immediately think things like website security, or maybe antivirus software. Google is definitely making more software these days.

But this isn't the case. According to an article I read on PC World's website, Google's Health service is now in a live Beta (test) stage. This is similar to Microsoft's Health Vault program, which I think failed. At the time, not enough people trusted the Internet, I think.

Essentially, you sumbit some information about yourself to Google, tell them things like your allergies and medications, and then they also can import health records from your doctors, hospitals, pharmacies... Walgreens even signed on with this.
Basically, it's a way for you to keep track of all of your health records all in one place, instead of letting everyone else do it for you. Plus, with all of your health information and records in one place, should you go to a hospital and the surgeon there needs some information about you, they can find literally everything they need.

It sounds good to me, and that's not just me plugging Google since I use some of their services. Granted, I'd wait until after it's out of Beta, and I'd definitely advise reading the fine print, but this is something I might suggest using.

I'll be keeping an eye on this as things develop. Assuming they get past the possible privacy issues, and if enough other companies sign on, I might use the service myself, and suggest it to people I know.

Keyloggers

2008-05-09T14:01:00.003-04:00

I've noticed that more and more, the significant threat to computer security these days are keyloggers that install themselves like a virus.
A keylogger is pretty basic. Anything you type into your browser (passwords on the Internet, surveys, even me writing this blog) can be picked up by keyloggers.

Not a good thing, right?

Now, we all know that you should have a good antivirus program and firewall on your computer, right? If you don't, you should look into that, in many cases, it can catch keyloggers before they become a problem.

But besides that, I found another program that adds an extra layer of protection against keyloggers. It's called KeyScrambler, and you can download it HERE. It's free, and as far as I can tell, it works.

Hell, even if it doesn't work, it's free. What have you got to lose?

Games!

2008-05-07T21:23:00.003-04:00

According to Pandemic Studies, Mercenaries 2 comes out August 31st.
Now, I own the first game, on the PS2, and if this is anything like that, then this is something that's going on the list of games that I Have To Have. If you know anyone that likes it when things go boom, this is definitely a game for them.
Hell, even Tessa, my young cousin, enjoyed playing the original Mercenaries game, after I showed her how to drive the Chinese battle tank. She got a bigger kick out of shooting up fortified bunkers than I did.

Here, have a sneak peak.

And if that's not good enough, I saw a headline today on PCWorld that really excited me. Doom 4 Is Coming.
If you've never heard of id Software or the Doom games, you've been living under a rock.

If not for Doom, we'd still think games like Pac Man are intense. Doom is the game that made shooting stuff in video games what it is today. Doom 3 was called the scariest game of all time, because of a clever mix of sounds and shading technology that made the shadows look real.

If id Software lives up to their history with this newest release, this is another game that I Have To Have.

Travel Woes

2008-05-05T16:02:00.003-04:00

I just read an article on PC World.com that included some advice to travellers from the ACTE- Association of Corporate Travel Executives.

Now, while I'm sure no members of the ACTE read this blog, the advice is still good, so if you have time, read the story HERE.

If you don't, I'll sum it up for you. Because of a recent ruling from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, U.S. Customs officials can now search laptops, PDA's, cell phones- even USB drives without reasonable cause.
Meaning if you have any data that you're carrying with you, even on your cell phone, they're allowed to take it, read it, and make all the copies they want.

My advice to you if you plan to travel- leave your data at home. Or, have electronic devices shipped seperately. Or, if you feel technically savvy enough, do what I did- encrypt the data and hide it on the computer itself. The program I use is called TrueCrypt, and you can get it HERE. It's free, and besides locking down your data with better encryption than the standard Windows login, it can also hide data from people that manage to get your password anyway.

Tip of the Day

2008-05-03T18:10:00.006-04:00

So, this was a suggestion to me- share my considerable knowledge of computers and the Internet with the readers. And have a section for Joke of The Day. Good idea, mom.

The current issue is, "Why can't I send an e-mail to an AOL mail account?" That includes WMConnect.com, since it's just an AOL clone. The answer is, I don't know. AOL is blocking a lot of messages lately, especially many with hyperlinks in them. Bad business, if you ask me. And if you are asking me, my advice is to ditch AOL. They're bad mojo. If you've got an e-mail account that ends in @aol.com, everyone on the Internet (they call it the IntarWeb, and it is their home) is making fun of you.
Seriously.

A great service that I've signed up for and many people I know use is Gmail. That's Google's mail service. Oh yes, if you didn't know, Google has become far more than a search engine. They've come to the point where they provide many services and products. I like Gmail quite a bit, it's a very nice service with many features.
One of the more significant features of it is that it comes with a calender. Let me explain. This calender, you can put an event on it and enable it so you can show it to your friends and family, enable it so people can come check your calender whenever they want and see what you have planned, and for people like me who forget everything, the calender will even e-mail you before an event to remind you! The reminder can be set up to be sent to you anywhere between 5 minutes and 24 hours before the event.
These are all optional features, but pretty impressive anyway.

Besides the calender and a host of other features, the regular e-mail service seems to work better than many subscription based, big name e-mail services (AOL, anyone?) And most importantly, it's free.

All that and if I don't say good things about Google now and then, they might just take away these money making ads on my blog.

eBay

2008-05-03T14:58:00.003-04:00

So, I'm going to start selling stuff on eBay. Anything I can get my hands on, from my old stuff my parents own to old electronics, even some of the XBox 360 games I don't play often (No, R6V2 is not going up for sale).

I'm hoping I'll make a pretty good profit, since a lot of the stuff I'll be selling isn't mine. My only concern is all the fees and listing things with prices to cover said fees without listening to my mother complain about me charging "too much" (she's addicted to eBay and would find my listings if I tried to post any without telling her).

Of course, she's probably going to read this anyway. Or someone she knows will read this and tell her.

How do you RSS?

2008-05-02T22:39:00.006-04:00

I'm starting to get a question of, how does one keep track of a blog without having to check it every day and/or add it to their favorites? Well, there's an easier way.

It's called RSS Feeds.

For example, if you click http://warlocc.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default and go to that page, there's a yellow box at the top that can tell you more about feeds, and has a little link that says "Subscribe to this feed". That allows you to subcribe to it with your web browser. Now, in the case of Internet Explorer 7 (if you're using IE6, it's time to upgrade. Get the new one HERE) you're basically just setting up a second list of favorites. Not much more productive than normal favorites.

Other browsers, such as Firefox, Safari, and Opera, also have their own RSS features worth exploring.

However, the bonuses start to add up if you have feed readers, like the ones from Newsgator.com. These allow special AddOns to your existing programs, such as Microsoft Outlook, or standalone software, to read blogs and feeds. If you have Microsoft Windows Vista (the latest operating system), you can use widgets in the SideBar to read feeds and blogs (like the ones you added to IE7- see what's happening there?).

My personal favorite for Windows XP is called Desktop Sidebar. You can get it HERE. It works with Windows 2000, Windows XP, and even Windows Vista. I use it on my laptop to keep up with everything from the weather to e-mail to even feeds of other sites. I will admit that if you're anything like my parents, it will be a little bit tricky to set up. But it does come with a help file and I'll tell you what- if you do decide to try it and have trouble, drop me a line with your question(s), and I'll help you figure it out.

All in all, if you're really interested in trying to track blogs regularly (feel free to track mine, I could use the clicks!), there are a lot of options for doing it. Even just doing a Google search for "RSS" can give you a lot of information and options.

My friends and family!

2008-05-02T19:27:00.006-04:00

So, I gave the link to this blog to my mother via e-mail. And knowing my financial situation, knowing that the Google Ads on this page earn me money (speaking of which, click any of the ads for me- I promise, it won't hurt your computer, and I make money when you do. What have you got to lose?), she then forwarded the e-mail to everybody she knows, and asked them to forward it to everybody they know!

So if you're reading this because you got an e-mail telling you to read this, feel free to poke around, I guess. Currently there's not much to see other than an entry or two, a game review (Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 on the Xbox 360), and ways to contact me through my games (XFire and XBox Live).

And I know the e-mail said "If you're interested, I can help you make a blog, a website, or install money-making ads to your current site/blog", so if you're one of the ones interested in that, drop me an e-mail at warlocc at comcast dot net or leave me a comment here on the blog itself (See the # COMMENTS link a couple lines down? Just click that to leave a comment.). I'll reply to either one.

Congress-what?

2008-05-02T12:40:00.003-04:00

So shockingly, I've found a politician that actually lived up to the claim of 'I'll try to help.'

One Barney Frank. I sent him an e-mail recently, not entirely expecting a response. But to my surprise, less than 24 hours after I sent the e-mail, I got a call from his office with some helpful advice. Granted, it wasn't the answer I wanted, but it was actually better than I expected.

That's one vote from me for Mr. Frank next time, anyway.

R6V2

2008-05-02T03:31:00.007-04:00

Alright, so lately I've been playing Rainbow Six: Vegas 2. I'll tell you this much, if you're a gamer, this is a game worth trying. Especially if you're the least bit into shooters or tactical games. And if you're like me and you played the first one, it's a huge improvement on it. Definitely worth the purchase, in my opinion.

I will admit, the game has been out for some time, so my little note of it here is old. Yes, I've had it since release, and since release, it's been probably the only game I've been playing on my 360.

Between character creation and ranking up, the game really sucks you in the way MMORPG's have been sucking people in lately. You feel like you're advancing, even after the game is long beaten. Now, I'm only a lieutenant at the moment, who knows if I'll still feel the same way after I hit Colonel or Elite, but damn, getting there is half the fun!

Aside from that, it's a very realistic feeling game. Some of the guns aren't quite exactly the same as their real life counterparts, but it comes very close. Close enough to impress me, and I've been gaming since games used a single stick and a single button.
If you can ignore the occassional glitch (most of which were fixed in a recent patch), I think you'll be suitably impressed with the maps and graphics.

I think honestly, my only complaint is that the weapons aren't totally authentic. Weapon range, accuracy, and stopping power doesn't quite live up to the real thing. But then, if I wanted the real thing, I'd join a SWAT team.

Testing a feature

2008-05-02T03:09:00.002-04:00

So, I'm about to test the feature that apparently lets me send my blog entries via e-mail. Testing, one two. Test test.

First post

2008-05-02T03:01:00.000-04:00

I've signed up for Google for a number of reasons, from AdSense (I'm broke and need extra cash) to trying to promote my business website to trying out some of their software. I have to say, for the most part, I like what I'm seeing.

I'm also noticing Blogger here. Seems that these things are all the rage, and since I've never tried it, what the hell, right? It might just be fun.

Working for Target

2002-11-06T20:27:00.000-05:00

I wanted to put this up on the Internet to get the complaint out where
people would read it-
Well, scratch that. It's not a complaint. More like a correction to a
common misconception.

I hear a lot of people talk and say that Target is a great store to work
for. My own friend recommended I work for Target. After a couple
suggestions and noticing a store being opened, I applied. They made me
an Electronics Specialist. Right up my alley.
One of the first things I noticed is how much they badmouth Walmart,
their biggest competitor. Sure, Target is a cleaner store, but arguably,
not better. Right off the bat, I can say this. I'm doing MUCH more work,
and getting paid about a dollar less. As a matter of fact, I'm an
assistant department manager, essentially, but Walmart still paid more.

Scheduling, as well, is much worse. When I worked at Walmart, at any
given time, we had three or more people covering Electronics. At Target,
it's only one or two, generally.

I could get into more complaints, but I'll leave it at this- don't
believe everything that everybody tells you, and don't think Target is
'better' than any other place, just because it looks better.