Category: Internet Related

HTC P4550 (Kaiser) – Dream Phone

I’d really like to get this phone, unfortunately I need to consider if it’s worth switching to AT&T for it though. It’ll be called the At&T 8925 (personally I prefer Kaiser). This phone may get me to ditch my hopes of getting the T-Mobile Dash. We shall see.

Stats (per PDAdb.net) :

  • 256MB of onboard Flash
  • 128MB of RAM, 3 megapixel cam
  • Slide-out QWERTY-type keyboard
  • HSUPA
  • Windows Mobile 6 Professional
  • 400MHz Qualcomm MSM7200 core
  • Wifi (802.11b, 802.11g)
  • microSD expansion slot
  • Bluetooth 2.0
  • 3.0 Megapixel camera with auto-focus

AOL's New CircaVie

AOL’s CircaView
Time line’s have never been an easy thing to create online. For some odd reason AOL has decided to answer this call (I don’t think anyone was actually yearning to create a time line, but oh well). This is an interesting site if you have the need to create a time line. It’s easy to use, makes sharing time lines easy, and helps you create attractive looking …well, … time lines. They are also embeddable (as you’ll see below) well fine then, the emdedding apparently hates WordPress.

Microsoft 'Gatineau' sneak peek

Microsoft ‘Gatineau’ sneak peek

One of the reasons we wanted to wait for our own announcement around the beta functionality is because we wanted to explain where we get our demographic data from. Beta 1 will include the ability to segment data by both age and gender buckets, so you can get more of an idea of what kind of visitors you have. Questions are already being asked on Dave’s blog about where we get this data from; the answer is that we do get this information from users’ Live ID (formerly known as Microsoft Passport) profiles, but I would stress that we get this information anonymously, and there is no use of PII (Personally Identifiable Information, such as name or e-mail address) in the product.

Sounds quite interesting, and I definitely hope to get into the private beta. Honestly, I don’t know how a stats program is really going to impress me, but I could always be proven wrong. Some leaked screenshots below
Gatineau Pic 2Gatineau Pic 4

Harry Potter – Deathly Hallows Leaked

Yes, it’s true. Harry Potter Deathly Hallows has leaked early. It’s real. Trust me. No, I didn’t read it, but I did verify that it’s real.
Download – Download Harry Potter Deathly Hallows Leak
Proof it’s real – Harry Potter Deathly Hallows leak
Yes, I am enough of a Harry Potter snob at this point that I will not read this half assed leaked copy. I want the real thing (and it’ll be here Saturday or Monday).

Security at my company

So the security at the company I am doing this internship for is abysmal. When I say abysmal I am actually being nice.
A quick example, I called IT this morning to install MS Access 97. The guy remoted into my computer, asked me to log out so he could enable my account as an administration. I log back in, and the real fun begins. He knows perfectly well that I am sitting right at the computer, but he still does everything I am about to tell you.
He goes to “run” and types in the full network location for a folder that happens to contain all kinds of software that the company uses. We’re talking things from AutoCAD, Nero, Maple, etc to Microsoft Office. So obviously I am a bit interested when I see the contents of this folder. He then goes into the “MS Office 97” folder and opens a document called (I kid you not) “Office 97 serial”. So here is the serial number for Office 97 sitting on the screen in front of me. Yes, I know Office 97 is nothing exciting, but the point is that he was flashing the serial for anything around.
So continuing …he installs Access 97 for me and then promptly says “ok, everything looks ok, have a good day, goodbye”. Yes, he hung up that quickly. Now at this point, I was shocked. Not only is 1. the serial number still open on my desktop, 2. the directory of applications (each with a serial in the directory, I checked) still open on my desktop, 3. the full network path for this folder of applications is still in my “run” field, BUT HE ALSO LEFT ME WITH ADMIN PRIVILEGES. I felt like calling this guy back and laughing at him, but instead I decided I didn’t feel like getting fired today.
It’s scary and frightening how poor the security is inside this company. I can only hope, and god do I hope considering what is it they/I do, that security to the outside world is drastically better than this.
p.s. I won’t say where it is that I am working because I can only guess they’d not like me telling the world how crappy their internal security is.

Microsoft Windows Seven – Suggested Features

This list of “highly suggested features” for Windows Seven (next generation Windows) has apparently been disappearing from websites all over the past few days.
So like normal, I thought I’d post what is becoming increasingly hard to find.
Windows Seven Suggested Features
There are no guarantees that any of these features will make it into Windows Seven, but these at least have a vague shot. Some of the features could be very interesting if they did make it in, but most of the coolest ones would be rather shocking if Microsoft did choose to include them.

Become a GoogleBot to Access Any Site

Become a Googlebot, get a Free Pass

The Problem:
Sometimes you conduct some search on Google and the engine returns a number of results, but when you try to open the ones that looks the most promising you get a registration page. One thing that you can do is click on the cached content to view the page directly from Google’s cache. But what if you want to view another page from the same site, not present in google’s cache?
The Solution:
It’s evident that there are some sites that allows Google but not you. So why not disguise yourself as Google? Thats exactly what we will do by changing the browser’s user agent to Googlebot.

Check out this site for a handy tip that will let you access just about any website (including those that require you to register for an account or any other access problems. I haven’t give this a shot yet, but I have heard from several people that it does indeed work as advertised. You need to alter your settings to the following:
User Agent: Googlebot/2.1
Compatible: http://www.googlebot.com/bot.html
Check out the site above to see how you can change your settings to the Googlebot user agent.

Interesting Links: 7.2.07

  • 7 JavaScript Techniques You Should Be Using: One thing to keep in mind as you go through these examples is that there is definitely more than one way to accomplish these tasks—the goal here is to shed a little light on how things can be done in a smarter way.
  • Coding for Content: It all started with one simple goal—an almost obsessive focus on content. That quickly translated to design ideas, but the visual framework was merely the tip of the iceberg.
  • NoFunc Javascript files: Why include ten .js files (ala Yahoo UI) to create one simple effect? Nomadic functions are small, optimized, and fairly specific.

I’ve been sitting on these links for nearly 4 months…oops. This is what happens when my OCD kicks in, and I file several bookmarks in my “Read Later” folder and then promptly forget about the folder. Anyways, very interesting links, well worth the read. The NoFunc site is particularly useful.

The Real "Fire Fox"

Rare Red Panda, or “Fire Fox”

This is the “other panda”, not the easily recognizable black-and-white kind. Red Panda is cuter than a cat, has a luxurious tail, resembles both a fox and a racoon, and is considered by many to be a living fossil. Only 2,500 individual animals can be found around the world, most in Asia (in Tibet), in well-known zoos, and a “select” few as fashionable Japanese pets. In China the Red Panda is also sometimes known as “Fire Fox”, a familiar name to everyone who uses the internet.

I just thought everyone should see this, in case they haven’t seen it before. I present to you, the real Fire Fox. I like the fact that the article describes him as having “a luxurious tail”. I thought that was pretty funny. Ain’t he cute?