Use OpenDNS to Thwart Conficker

You should have heard about Conficker by now. One way to help mitigate its effects is to use OpenDNS for your DNS servers. I've been a big fan of OpenDNS for years and this is yet another reason to use it.

Adobe Acrobat Reader Vulnerability

In case you're unaware, there is a major problem with Adobe Acrobat which doesn't even require you to open a PDF file. The best thing to do? Uninstall Acrobat Reader and install Foxit Reader. Foxit Reader is much lighter on resources as well.


Update: Foxit Reader has a problem as well, but they released a new version on 3/9/09

Official Google Calendar & Contacts Sync

Finally, you can sync your Gmail contacts and GCal to your mobile phone without having to use third party tools. Read about it here.

Comcast 250GB Cap Goes Live October 1

For all you Comcast users out there, Comcast has decided to cap your previously unlimited Internet service at 250GB per month. That number is the total of your download AND upload usage. Comcast won't provide their customers with any tool to measure their usage and could care less how you figure it out.

So how can you measure the usage of all your devices??? It's easy if you have a Linksys WRT54GL router (or some versions of the WRT54G and WRT54GS) and the Tomato replacement firmware. It has a great built-in bandwidth monitor and graphs for various time periods (daily, weekly, monthly) so you know exactly how much bandwidth all the devices behind your router are using.

DNS Exploit Loose - Check Your DNS Server

To the 2 or 3 people that read my blog, make sure your DNS is secure. There is an exploit in the wild that can poison DNS settings (steering you to a malicious site instead of your banking site for example). Read this article for more details. There is a link to a DNS checker or better yet, just switch to OpenDNS. I've been using OpenDNS for years now. You should also look into using NoScript if you're running Firefox. It's an addon that only allows Javascript to run from sites on your whitelist. It's a pain in the ass at first because you have to whitelist everything you usually use, but it's one of the best ways to secure yourself from malicious websites (although if your DNS is poisoned, you're out of luck).

I Want the HTC Touch Pro!

The QWERTY sibling to the HTC Diamond has officialy been announced. It should be in the States toward the end of the year, just in time for my cell contract to be up for renewal.

20% Off Coupon For Fry's Customers Who Returned Stuff

Fry's customers in California, who returned items purchased with a credit card, may be eligible to get a 20% off coupon for future Fry's purchases ( if the return process hasn't completely turned you off to shopping there :P ) Details here.

Microsoft to Pay Search Users

Microsoft is getting desperate and willing to pay users who find items and buy them using their search engine. Hmmm, I wonder if I can stack this with Fat Wallet rebates?? :)

The Nokia 770 is still stuck in repair. I emailed Nokia and this is what the rep said:

"...our repair center is currently awaiting the parts necessary to complete the repair of your Nokia 770 Internet Tablet. We sincerely regret any inconvenience that this may cause and appreciate your patience in this matter."

It's been almost a month. Why don't they just send me an 800 to replace the 770? I fired off another email to them asking will they honor the warranty on my 2nd unit (when it goes out of warranty) if it ends up with the same, well known hardware problem as the first. We'll see what happens.

Yesterday, I rebuilt an old Sempron 2800+ system. It had a dead mobo and I got a refurb board to replace it. I still need a new cpu cooler as one of the blades broke off the fan while the dead mobo was buried in a pile of scrap. So the system's sitting around til I get a new cooler and find a hard drive to stuff in it.

Free WiFi @ Starbucks

AT&T recently announced that iPhones can now get free WiFi at their hotspots, which are located at Starbucks, Barnes and Noble, etc. Apparently, you can do the same with your laptop. Just change the user agent of your browser to that of the iPhone browser.

On a side note, my N770 is still being repaired. I sent it out 4/21 and the Nokia repair center has had it for a week:

Repair History:
Status Date Status
04/24/2008 Repair in Progress
04/24/2008 Received
04/14/2008 Pending Receipt by the Repair Center

Google Calendar Sync Arrives! (Finally!)

You can finally sync GCal to Outlook. We gave up syncing our phones to Outlook a long time ago and moved over to GCal. It's so much easier to sync whenever we want with Oggsync than having to remember when we get home to sync with Outlook. But for those who still use Outlook, this is a great tool.

AT&T U-Turns on U-Verse

This may help explain why AT&T is bumping up DSL rates. Their latest broadband initiative, "U-Verse", is costing more and going to reach less people. Brings back memories of living in a broadband black hole in the late 90s and early 2000s. AT&T or whatever they were called back then, promised to reach our house with "Project Pronto," which turned out to be "Project NoGo" as they never reached us. "Project Lightspeed," which followed, never reached us either leaving us with "Project DialupSpeed" until Comcast came to save the day. AT&T still has not reached us while Comcast started us off at 1 Mbps then bumped us to 2, 4, 6 and currently 8Mbps. Given AT&T's past successes, this latest effort should be dubbed "Project U-Turn" as they scale back their deployment goals again.

No Difference Between Coat Hangers and Monster Cable

Haha. Audiophiles think coat hangers sound just as good as Monster Cable. With the right packaging and marketing you can sell people anything at a premium, like water in a bottle!