Sunday, December 16, 2012

Opps... I forgot my password.

In my quest to keep this 'blog updated everyday, I ran into an obstacle so grande... so gigantical... so Esperanto... that I could not overcome the force. I came across the password barrier. Let's talk passwords for a moment shan't we? Here's list for passwords that are easily hackable:

a
password
?
SamuelLJackson
cat

Now here's a list of strong passwords (one of them being mine that I use for sites like Blogger.)

Ain'tNobodyg0nnaguessThi$damnpa$$word!YO


The problem with strong passwords is that they are hard to remember. For instance, here's my AOL strong password.

A0L$ucksREALLYBADLY!SoWhyareUstillUsingit?

My daughter recently had her Yahoo account hacked by what I assume was a hacker. The password was only medium, not well done. The hacker then began using her Yahoo email account to send out SPAM. I've since changed her password to the following:

101110100100101111100010101000011000101010100111111111111100001100010100000010111111100001111000100100010000010111111110010100000001100010010011011001001001000100

She hates typing it... but it's the only way to keep the pirates at bay. Don't let them dock their hacking boats close enough to swim onto the beach that is known as your computer's Sandy Bridge Processor.

With that being written, expect a follow-up tomorrow, next week or next year.

Yours Truly,

-gj

Saturday, December 1, 2012

I ate too much tofurkey.

My new year's resolution is to create a new blog entry here everyday. In the meantime, it's nothing but excuses. WELL EXCUUUUUUUSSSSSE ME!

Who knew tofurkey was loaded with L-tryptophan? And to make matters worse, someone slipped a Soma into my vegan gravy. I slept for days. That pretty much covers from Thanksgiving until now... but what about the blogless period of time from November 12th to Tofurkey Day? Well, on a few of those days, I had writers block. Then someone stole my computer keyboard. Also, my dog ate my blog.

Since this blog is 100% high tech, here's my story and I'm sticking to it. I bought a Samsung Chromebook. I think I'm digging Google Chrome as an operating system. I got the one with 3G so in case I can't hack my way onto a WiFi network, I get 100 megs a month to send that emergency blog post to Blogger from wherever... whenever. There's also 100 gigs of Google Drive cloud storage for two years as part of the deal.

I may even take back the Windows 8 touch tablet I bought on the Wacky Wednesday before Black Friday. Let me now finish today's posting with a joke. Windows 8.

You've been great. Don't ever change.

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Adobe Reader, Flash and Oracle Java - PU!

I was having a good Sunday. My friends went to church. I took medicine for my sore back and that gave me some creative juice. I drank the juice but not the Kool-Aid. I refuse to drink the Kool-Aid.

You don't need Java. You don't need Flash and your don't need Reader. They all suck. They're a cesspool that bring in malware. They constantly need updating. I never got a virus on my paper... lined or otherwise. Unfortunately, computing without the above poo-poo is not a pleasant experience in the real world. So many idiots program their webpages and apps to require Java, Reader and Flash, that you might as well be Amish if you're not going to have those apps installed on your compooter.

This blog post is now three paragraphs. I didn't want to go there. Just make sure your required crapware is up-to-date. Update your OS too if there are any updates available. Then take a chill-pill and chillax.

Monday is coming, until the end of the World as we know it.

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Got me a case of the LinkedIn spooks O_o

LinkedIn.com scares me. It seems to know so much about me. It knows where I work. Where I've worked. Who I know. All sorts of stuff. It knows if I'm wearing boxers or briefs. It knows I don't like sausage or pepperoni. It knows who I've slept with and how many times we did it. It knows what I ate for breakfast and dinner... but oddly enough, not what I had for lunch.

How does LinkedIn know all this? Is there a LinkedIn spy hiding under my bed? Let me look... I'll be right back.

........
        ........
                ........

Nope... nobody under my bed except for my cat, Mr. LinkedIn. Wait a moment... it just occurred to me... my kitty's name is Mr. LinkedIn! I didn't think about it much because I didn't name him. He was given to me by LinkedIn when they installed the spy camera detectors and anti-evesdropping microphones in my home, office and car. These are devices that LinkedIn uses to make sure nobody is spying on their users. Privacy at it's best.

Thank you LinkedIn. Why did I ever doubt you? You are our protector. All hail your glory.

Unsubscribe.

Friday, November 2, 2012

Do you know which way to set your clocks?

This time of year, it's always confusing. Am I a boy... am I a girl... no wait. Let's start over.

This time of year, it's always confusing. Should I set my clocks ahead one hour or back one hour or ahead 23 hours or 46 hours? See what I mean. Anyone can Google the correct answer, but here's a simple poem I wrote to help you remember which way the wind blows.

Roses are red, dead roses are black. In the spring, spring ahead... in the fall, don't smoke crack.

Now, on to my real solution to the problem at hand: (get it... clock hands?)

Get a head start on this weekend's upcoming time change by setting your clocks back 1 hour now. Or, set them back 2 hours and then ahead one hour at 2 AM on Sunday. Or maybe at 1 AM. Now I'm confused...

If it's Tuesday, this must be Belgium. If you don't believe me... look it up.

http://www.nist.gov/pml/div688/grp40/wwv.cfm

I've gotta go so I'm not late... or early.

Hello.

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Why is a large breasted woman trying to sell me solar panels?

Facebook. The downfall of civilization as we know it. Zuck knows who the next President of the United State for America is going to be, but he's not telling. Going to the country... gonna eat a lot of peaches.

So today I patronized Best Buy to get a Windows 8 touchscreen desktop computer. Instead, I bought a Windows 7 touchscreen desktop computer. I think I'll put Windows 8 on it, but first... I must RTFM.

How different is Windows 8? Even I, A Computer Pro, doesn't be knowing how worksy. It's all confusilated. No "START" button to shut it down when I'm done. Actually, I never turn off my computers... and if it's yellow, I let it mellow.

That reminds me of a funny story, but I'll save it for later.

Tatas for now. () ()

Thursday, October 25, 2012

This is NOT your father's Apple :(

Back in 1977 or so... I headed to Lawndale and bought myself an Apple ][ for ][ thousand dollars. I brought that beast home in my 1971 Z/28 Camero. I had a muscle computer, in the trunk of a muscle car. I also had a girlfriend. Let's call her Anna, to protect her identity... even though that's actually her name. Doh!

Anna and I liked to get cozy... or whatever you kids call it now-a-daze. We liked to do the deed (I was a boy scout - see footnote*) until the new Apple ][ stole my attention away. No longer was I a slave to pretty girls who would _ _ _ _ me. I was now a geek who would rather compute than play "that game."

I should hate Apple for this, but I've stuck with them through the years. Eventually I married, divorced and remarried. Even though I've now been happily married for 22 years... I'm still typing at an Apple keyboard and staring at my words on an Apple computer screen. Hang on a moment... Beck's on the line.

Sorry... he was looking for you. Anyway, I fell asleep and lost my train of thought. It doesn't matter. I hate Apple now. It's no longer the company I once loved. I feel it's a greedy corporation that doesn't really care about its customers. I hereby divorce you... Apple!

Good day.

*P.S. What's this Windows 8 everybody's talking about?


Monday, October 22, 2012

Once a week is not enough!


I've checked with Dr. Ruth and her baby. They both agree. It was a candy bar floating in the pool. But that doesn't explain why this tech blog is only being updated once a week. I'm going to do further "research" and I'll get back to you with an answer... in less than 7 days.

This is going to be a busy tech week. Microsoft is going to screw up Windows for good on Friday. I look forward to that. Apple has some sort of secret annoncement and most tech pendents believe it's going to be a new Newton. See what I did there?

With any luck, I'll find out when I can buy a Samsung Galaxy Note II from AT&T. I'll also be visiting some craft brewery and tossing back a cold pint of something. Due to the busy schedule, I've canceled my planned intervention. Sorry.

Keeping it real... as in real stupid... -gj

Sunday, October 14, 2012

A week... seriously?

How am I supposed to come up with something interesting to write about everyday? Sure, I get ideas but I like each blog entry to be excellent by Klingon standards. nuqDaq 'oH puchpa''e'

I believe in quality over quantity, eggs over easy, moon over Miami and of course life on Mars. Speaking of which, Windows 8 is like 12 days away or something. Are you excited? Are you ready to learn Microsoft Windows all over again? A couple of weeks ago, I installed Windows 8 (I got it early because I'm special) on my wife's notebook PC. She hates me now.

Did I mention my main computer is a Macintosh? That's how I roll.

tl;dr: Butterflies are neither flies nor made of butter.

Did you miss me?

Sunday, October 7, 2012

I have a really small phone.

This dude was driving down the highway in Farmville, when his car broke down in front of a farm. He walked up to the front door of the farmhouse and rang the bell. Farmer John, answered.

"Hello Mr. Farmer," said the dude with the broken down car. "My name is Richard and my Tesla has broken down 100 yards east of here. I have a really small phone and my battery is flat. By the way... call me Dick."

"Bad luck Dick," said the farmer. "There's not a mechanic within 100 miles from here. I could offer you a room to stay for the night, but I only have one bedroom in the house and it belongs to my daughter, Veronica. You'll have to sleep in the barn."

The next day, the farmers cow was pregnant.

Moral of the story... don't let a tech guy do a blog post over the weekend.

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Can you hear my fake email now?

It's happening again. Back in March, spammers lead a campaign to infect millions of computer with the infamous ZeuS/Zbot, which is known for its effective ability to steal online banking credentials and upload them to a remote server controlled by the attackers. 

Now stop that! When you get an email from AccountNotify@VerizonWireless.com don't click on any links. Better yet, follow the advice of Twitter's @HypheNet below.

http://www.hyphenet.com/blog/2012/03/26/fake-verizon-wireless-bill-notification-emails-lead-to-malware/

Read and repeat.

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

NO "Corporate eFax message" for you!

Faxing sucks. It's old technology... just like the CD and condoms. Nobody needs it. I threw my fax machine into the Chicago River years ago. I tied a cement block to it, just in case cuz I don't need to see the Chicago Fax Police knocking at my door asking... "hey... wassup?"

eFax sucks too. Just attach the scanned document(s) to email and be done with it. Now we have some spammer in Argentina sending out fake eFax email with a malicious payload. Once again we turn to Dynamoo's Blog for the story.

http://blog.dynamoo.com/2012/10/corporate-efax-message-spam-69194194222.html

Bottom line ______
                                see what I did there? Don't click on any links in email. Hover your cursor over the link and see where it goes, Moe.

Seacrest, OUT!


Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Oppa is I want a Note II... too.

Have you seen the Samsung Galaxy Note II? It's now available in Europe. Eyyyyyyyy.... sexy phablet.
Oppa is Gangnam style<--- So that's what happens when you try to copy and paste from a lyrics website? Sneeky... Oppa is Gangnam style!

But what is Gangnam style? Can I go to a Korean BBQ and order dog on a stick, Gangnam style? It turns out there are quite a few Dog Cafes in the Gangnam district of Seoul. The good news is, they don't serve dog on a stick. As a matter of fact, a dog cafe is an animal friendly eating establishment.

http://www.world-walk-about.com/northern-asia/dog-days-at-a-seoul-dog-cafe/

PSYch! But why the misdirection? This blog posting is supposed to be about the Galaxy Note II. Well, I don't have one. I'm going to have to wait until the end October to find out when they will be available in the USA. In the mean time... Oppa is Gangnam style!

http://www.samsung.com/global/microsite/galaxynote/note2

Grrr... WANT!

Thursday, September 27, 2012

With six... you get Mongolian Payroll.

Dear Intuit: stop spamming me. You say it's a trick? Let's check Dynamoo's Blog.

http://blog.dynamoo.com/2012/09/intuit-spam-buycelluleanscom.html

Oh... it IS a trick! My bad. Sorry Intuit. Now I'm hungry. There's a Mongolian BBQ about 3 miles from my place. I'm gonna head on down there with my Windows 8 tablet and have brunch.

Chow.

Sarah Jessica iPhone 5

An iPhone 5 walks into a bar...

and you know the rest.

Who said, "blogging is easy?"

Neigh.

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

I'm not recommending those condoms...

I really do hate The Facebook, even though I'm on it and slightly active. Well, at least I'm active for my age. But the new intrusive ads are an insult to my intelagentz. Personalize an advertisement and pretend it's my recommendation? I say, NOT!

Here's how you can not too.

http://www.starkeith.net/coredump/wp-content/uploads//2008/05/windows-311-startup.png

Oops, sorry. That was on my clipboard. Nice memory though, eh? Take two...

http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-57475395-285/remove-your-name-from-facebook-social-ads/

That's it for now. What? You want more? Okay, then here's a little tune for y'all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oskFooIXjQ  Arrrg... my ears!!!


Saturday, September 22, 2012

It was a genuine Windows emergency!

Hey, Windows users... did you feel it? Did you feel the big one? On Friday, Microsoft pushed out an emergency 'out of cycle' update for Internet Explorer. I guess since they're running those pricy IE9 commercials during The X-Factor in the USA, they thought... "oh f!, we better fix the GAPING SECURITY FLAW!"

Damn straight, homie. You gotta put a rubber on that to keep the zero-day off your box, aight?

http://securitywatch.pcmag.com/none/303008-microsoft-releases-emergency-ie-patch

What's it all about, Alfie? Victim computers are compromised just by visiting a malicious Website, which gives attackers the same privileges on the machine as the current user. --writing credit to Metasploit exploit developer "sinn3r" from the "Rapid7 blog."

Now what? Is it safe to get back into the pool that Microsoft is constantly peeing in? I'd say yes. But then again... I'm existential. Strange, that got a blue line. Maybe I'm not doing it right.

P.S. I got an iPhone 5 but I'm not going to keep it.

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Dear #Apple & #ATT:

On Friday 9/21 when the stupid new iPhone 5 comes out, I'm not going to play the stand in line for the Emperor's new clothes game. Fool me once, shame in me. Fool me fivece, shame on YOU! It's bad enough I'm willing to spend money on a new phone... that's same as the old phone. Oh wait... I forgot. Faster, thinner, longer, lighter. So is my ****!

Since Apple and AT&T are playing the, "oh... we didn't have enough iPhone fives to sell online but you can line up like a Lemming and buy one on Friday game," I'm taking a stand! No no NO!

Because I'm a business customer, I can't buy an iPhone 5 from anyone else besides AT&T. My devious plan is to reserve one at Sam's Club... aka: Upscale Walmart. I have an appointment at 10:30 on Friday to get a shiny new iPhone 5 there but it will have to be a new personal account. No worries, I'll either convince AT&T to move it to my business account later, or I'll throw it through their window smashing it to bits.

And it always boils down to the least common denominator, right? Bits. It's just bits. Nothing more.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Germany is at it again...

Don't fall for it! The German government wants you to believe that Internet Explorer 9 is dangerous. Oh sure... so does my last blog entry and I certainly know what I'm talking about. But you can't trust the German government ever since that little incident back in the late 30's early 40's.

I don't know which I hate more... Nazi Germany or Internet Explorer, but according to Microsoft's main IE website: www.microsoft.com/ie, there is nothing to worry about on the IE front. One would assume that if there was a problem, we would see a flashing .gif on the landing page for Internet Explorer warning the potential downloader it prolly ain't a good idea to use IE right now.

So... to sum up this blog post in a few words: Germany lied, IE is questionable and I'm enjoying some fine kosher wine for the Jewish New Year. Happy 5773 to me and all my Jewish Internet pals.

Wow... I feel old. My Bar Mitzvah was way back in the 30's... but now's my chance to relive the 70's!

L'shanah tovah!

Monday, September 17, 2012

Oh NOES! Internet Explorer DANGER!

Sigh, it was just too good to be true. I've seen those Microsoft IE9 videos touting Internet Explorer as the fastest and safest browser. Now this?

http://mashable.com/2012/09/17/microsoft-internet-explorer-targeted-attacks/

The sky is falling... the sky is falling! Seriously, this is some nasty $%^! If I were you... or me for that matter... I'd bail on IE until the coast is clear. And I'm not talking about the weather, whether you like it or not.

Use Chrome. You can get it here. www.google.com/chrome

You're welcome. Now go hide your head in a hole.

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Myriad

TIL: it's not a myriad at all. (adj)

For example: He looked up to see myriad stars shining in the clear winter sky.

Read more using the link below: 

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Should_you_use_Of_after_myriad_in_a_sentence#ixzz26hnjZAAu

P.S. Perhaps, you've just been holding it wrong.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Edith Roman's STILL a _ _ _ _!

Why don't I heed my own advice? I'm the one who says NEVER use an unsubscribe link sent by a spammer. That just validates your email address. Yet I gave fat ugly smelly old Edith Roman a chance. Since I've been bombarded with UCE from her professionaltraining3.com domain, I have grown to despise her. I have made an Edith Roman pin cushion and dart board.

On the bright side, don't forget to update Windows. We're in a "2nd Tuesday of the month cycle week." Oh... and if you see Edith Roman... tell her she sucks and then kick her in the shins.

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Edith Roman is a _ _ _ _!

The Can of Spam Act is specific. There are rules that can't be broken. Yet ugly _ _ _ _ Edith Roman runs afoul of these rules and doesn't wipe. Meet the new queen of SPAM. Ladies and gents of the Internets... I present to you... Ms. Edith Roman.

If you receive email from her scummy direct marketing list, unsubscribing does no good. As a matter of fact, it just reinforces that your address is real. You might as well change it at this point.

Where's the FTC on this matter? Where's LBJ? Where's the IRT? Where is 4th Street, USA?

Monday, September 10, 2012

Time to go daddy... GO!

For those who chose to pick a domain registrar based on cheapness and a poor reputation... you may think about leaving GoDaddy.com after today... when their servers come back up. This was a big outage. Where was the redundancy? Where what the technical expertise? Where's the old dude with the five-o-clock shadow and the earing?

Just in case your looking for info on how to GO from GoDaddy... Mashable has the scoop:

http://mashable.com/2012/09/10/godaddy-alternatives/

Now... Go Now!
"I don't want to see you go.
But, darling... you'd better go now."

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Eric Rapaport is back... did he email you?

In 2007, Eric Rapaport sent out a mass emailing and put up a website making substantial claims.

"Yes, I am formerly commander and director Rapaport of the CIA. The Central Intelligence Agency fired me so that they could get away with bank frauding me for money I made writing small parts of microsofts product line and for money I made writing various movies, with out being prosecuted."

... and it goes on and on and on and on. So as usual, I did a little research and I found that Conrad Longmore had figured it all out. Here's a link to his findings and you can read it on Dynamoo's Blog.

http://blog.dynamoo.com/2007/05/eric-rapaport-spam.html

This past week, it appears that Eric Rapaport is at it again. I got an email message from him. I'm going to read it again right now, but first... I must put on my tin foil hat and have a power nap.

Picture yourself in a boat on a river... ZZZzzz

Thursday, September 6, 2012

International FedEx spam day.

First of all, let me just say that I've already spanked myself for missing two days worth of posting. Now that I've started off this blog entry with a completely inappropriate sentence, let's get down to business.

I keep getting invoices from FedEx in my email. They're coming from this guy.

http://www.fedxmx.com/milton-ballard

Oh sure, some may think the messages are forged and spam because they're actually coming from compromised email servers all over the World. But if I were going to impersonate myself... wouldn't I do the same thing? Wait, now I'm confused. Let me check again.

*Correctiom: the email is forged and not coming from Milton Ballard of FedEx. My bad.

*Correction #2: It's "correction" not "correctiom."

Thanks for watching and have a nice day.

Monday, September 3, 2012

No holiday for me...

At first I was thinking... cool, it's a holiday here is the USA. I can take the day off from blogging. But then I remembered my new promise of, "a blog a day." Who's stupid idea was that? Not to mention it's the weekend and a holiday weekend to boot. No news. No tech tips. No virus warnings. What am I supposed to write about?

Did you hear that Lindsay Lohan may or may not have a stolen NeXT Cube in her bedroom? Let me see if I can find a pic... because you know the rule.

Note: I started this post on Sunday 9/2 at about 11 PM. Then I started Googling images of NeXT Cubes and Lindsay Logan, but I fell asleep before finishing this entry. Are there extra points for that?

... to be continued

... or maybe not

Saturday, September 1, 2012

What's in my coffee? Not Java 7...

Dang Poindexter... what the **** is up with Java 7?

http://blogs.computerworld.com/cybercrime-and-hacking/20926/despite-new-patch-java-7-still-dangerous-go-version-6

Pretty simple. It's in the punchline. Despite the new emergency patch delivered by Oracle on 8/31, Java 7 is still dangerous. Stay with version 6 for now.

What's Java? Why do you need it?

http://java.com/en/about/

Friday, August 31, 2012

YouTube wants to set me up with a hot Russian chick.

...all I was trying to do was watch Clint Eastwood at the RNC and YouTube tempted me away with an ad from RussianDatingAgency.com

I knew I shouldn't click on it, but I couldn't resist. The picture of 18 year old Anya from Lugansk, Ukraine was irresistible. Wait... I have a son that old! Now I'm feeling ashamed. I also have ties older than that and wear them all the time. More shame. Shame, shame, shame.

tl;dr RussianDatingAgency.com could be a front for the KGB. Now I'm in hiding. Thanks, YouTube!

Thursday, August 30, 2012

Zune, don't fail me now!

When I read on Engadget that Microsoft is no longer offering Zune HD apps and select features on August 31st, I panicked. I took off all my clothes and ran around screaming until I became so tired, I fell asleep in a fetal position on the floor.

When I awoke, I had a few beers and then rushed over to the Zune Marketplace. I downloaded all the Zune HD apps. It didn't take long. Maybe about 5 minutes. There weren't many. O_o ... I doubt I'll even use them. I have a Windows phone and I don't even use that.

Well then... I have nothing more to say.

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Is it okay to yell "hijack" on a crowded Yahoo?

This morning, I got another email messages from Robert Scoble. I find it odd that @Scobleizer's email address is www.kqs_28@yahoo.com. I thought it would be more like something @RackSpace.com, but what do I know? Anyway, it wasn't even an important email message... just some pill to help me enhance my 'bro factor in the pants department, if you know what I mean wink, wink. ;) ;)

I'm pretty smart... so I'm gonna assume that Bobby (we're on a first name basis in my mind) didn't actually send me that email. Chances are his Yahoo email account was hijacked and is sending out soup. Oops, sorry... I meant "spam."

Was your Yahoo email account part of the 450 bazillion that was obtained during the great Yahoo hack festival? Find out here -> http://labs.sucuri.net/?yahooleak

Blog ya tomorrow, byejack.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

What's up with the Intuit Quickbooks Spam?

4 out of 5 Doctors have no recommendation on using Quickbooks for general business accounting, yet most companies that I know of, use either Quickbooks or an abacus. Hence the evil prayers on Quickbooks users. Somewhere in criminal land, someone is sending out forged email from Intuit.com (makers of Quickbooks) telling users they'd better click the link to upgrade or their program will cease to function. That's some scary S. But it's actually a trap. The link will take the poor unsuspecting clicker to an infected Wordpress based webpage and it goes downhill from there. There are literally a googolplex of compromised Wordpress pages on the Interwebs.

tl;dr - don't click on a link without hovering over it first to find out where it really goes. Capish?

Gratzi!

Monday, August 27, 2012

Photos of 8 different iPhones.

People constantly come up to me and ask, "gj d00d... what do iPhones look like?" I know it's a common question. With Samsung making so many different iPhone models, it's hard to know which is an authentic iPhone and which is an Apple knock-off.

Let's look at some pictures of iPhones from Mashable's website.
http://mashable.com/2012/08/27/samsung-counter-sue-apple/

They are all shiny and black with lots of buttons and stamped with the official Samsung logo. Take note that Apple's knock-off has only two buttons and very little writing. The buttons have no markings so you never know what they do.

Also, the iPhone runs Android. It's an operating system developed by Google. It looks nothing like the iOS from Apple, which is very limited and illegal to copy.

So don't be fooled by imitation. Flattery will get you somewhere.

Sunday, August 26, 2012

AirPush Ads and Android

I found and installed what appeared to be a really cool app for my Motorola Atrix cell phone. It's in the Google Play store (formerly know as the Android Market.) The name of the application is Retro Phone.
DO NOT download and install it. As cool as an old fashioned rotary dial is for your modern cellular phone, the developer has elected to crap up the app with AirPush. That generates random advertisements in your Android notification bar, even when the app isn't running.

The developer also felt it was necessary to dump a bunch of browser shortcuts on the Android home screen. Shame on you, Miracle Software, LLC. You suck!

Here's a link to my review of Retro Phone.

P.S. I'm surprised Appbrain Ad Detector failed to find AirPush in this app. All the other ad detector apps flagged it. I prefer Addons Detector anyway. Here's a link to my review of Addons Detector.

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Why do I hate Anti-Virus software?

It's a bitter pill, but someone has to swallow it. Not me. I don't run anti-virus software on my computer. I'm smart enough to adhere to Windows User Account Control warnings and Mac OS X built in security to keep my 'pooters malware free. I don't necessarily recommend this to the average computer user... it's just the way I roll. Hey, did you hear the one about McAfee causing chaos with a recent update? #riding #bareback :)

http://www.scmagazineuk.com/mcafees-defected-update-causes-user-chaos

Friday, August 24, 2012

Mac OS X 10.8.1 is fo' reelz.

To those who wait for the .1 fix of any .0 product... Apple has updated Mountain Lion.

The 10.8.1 update includes general operating system fixes that improve the stability and compatibility of your Mac, including fixes that:

• Resolve an issue that may cause Migration Assistant to unexpectedly quit 
• Improve compatibility when connecting to an Exchange server in Mail
• Address an issue playing audio through a Thunderbolt display
• Resolve an issue that prevents iMessages from being sent
• Resolve an issue when connecting to SMB servers with long names
• Address an issue that may cause the system to become unresponsive when using Pinyin input

I also hear it clears acne and may make you sterile, but these claims are unsubstantiated at this time.

Check the "software update" under your "Apple menu."

Thursday, August 23, 2012

AT&T *finally* adds shared data plans.

AT&T Mobile Share begins today. There's not much of a savings, but you get unlimited talk and text... and can share a data plan between devices. I have four lines on my account and was paying about $230 a month for 700 shared talk minutes, unlimited text and data on the phones. Now I'm paying the same amount while sharing 4 Gb of data allowance and I have unlimited talk and text. Who talks on their cell phones anymore, anyway?

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/07/atts-shared-data-plans-not-the-savings-we-hoped-for/

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Cool, where's this mystery link go when I click on it?

Lately, I've been getting a lot of spam from Yahoo email accounts... including from people I know who have Yahoo email accounts. It is incredibly easy to hack a Yahoo email password if it's not a "strong password." Also, I believe Yahoo had its security (cough) breached and a bunch of passwords fell into the hands of bad guys (and perhaps bad girls... but probably not bad girls.)

tl;dr - Make sure all your passwords are strong passwords!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Password_strength

Whoa, that's a hard read. Let me make it easier for you.
http://www.microsoft.com/security/online-privacy/passwords-create.aspx

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

How to identify SPAM - via Mashable.com

My new goal is to treat y'all to a new post every day. You know... something useful... like the below article from Mashable. P.S. Don't forget your Windows, Adobe and Java updates. It's that time of the month, again.

http://mashable.com/2012/08/21/how-to-identify-a-scam-e-mail/

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Moved from SquareSpace to Blogger

Today, I closed my SquareSpace account and moved my website back to Blogger. Don't worry, I'm going back to SquareSpace... but I'm playing hard to get. Thanks to Google, for being there on the rebound.