If your like me and many others all over the internet, you have multiple email accounts possibly one for friends/family, one for spam mail, and another you’ve had for years.  Well wouldn’t you like to view them all in one place?

If you have Office for Mac 2008 version you can respond to and have at your finger tips one place to see all your mail from multiple sources.  I’m only talking about Office 2008 Mac, but you could be doing this with other email clients such as thunderbird.

Settings for GMAIL

First inside of your gmail account you have to let GMAIL know that you want to be able to view your mail from other sources.  In the top right corner you will see what looks like a gear next to your name, click the gear icon and you get a drop down, click on “Mail Settings”.

Once inside of Settings, click on the heading labled “Forwarding and POP/IMAP” make sure to “Enable IMAP” here is where the process gets tricky.

Gmail changed the default settings ports that IMAP is associated with,so when you set up your client make sure to use SSL authentication.

• IMAP Server: imap.gmail.com
• SSL:yes
• PORT: 993

• SMTP Server: smtp.gmail.com
• SSL: yes
• PORT: 465 or 587

Make sure to use your full gmail address “emailname@gmail.com”, then your password and things should work well.  If you still have a problem I have attached some links that helped me out.

Configuring other mail clients (gmail, google link)

Outlook 2007 mail client (gmail, google link)

If you haven’t heard Blackberry has a new Tablet coming to market it’s called the Playbook, a press release was sent out back on September 27, 2010 here.  While we won’t really know what to expect we can say this, apple and samsung will have some competition in the tablet market very soon.  Here are youtube videos of the Playbook in use with a nice comparison of the Playbook and iPad.

The videos looks awesome, let us know what you think about this device and what potential it has for personal or business use.

TBTR

If you didn’t know by now McAfee one of the premier leaders in Antivirus, Encryption, Firewall and other web centric solutions has just been acquired by Intel Corp for an estimated 7.68 Billion dollars in CA$H.  Right off the bat it leads me to believe two things here 1.) Intel is looking for a better bottom line, and an acquisition will take care of low cash amounts very quickly. and 2.) McAfee my have been about to go bye, bye, leading us to believe that without the acquisition McAfee’s old style mentality my have been spit into pieces.

 
Which ever reason I’m truly not sure but this does something for consumers right away.  For those who have purchased McAfee it ensures a long life that your products will continue to work, and support will continue.  One thing we know about Intel they always seem to make things work, they hire the best, and work you to death or so I’ve heard.
While the ink is still just drying we are all going to benefit from this purchase, especially if you use McAfee or maybe your looking to use it either way it’s worth it’s weight in GOLD about 7.68 Billion worth.

TBTR

Microsoft and Bill Gates (The riches man in the world) should be proud and over joyed at the soon to be success of the new Windows 7 OS.  PC manufactures, along with others should be burning the midnight oil with glee knowing they have a product that we can all stand behind. According to CNNMoney article “Windows 7 ready to launch” Experts expect that PC users will change their operating system for the first time in about eight years when Windows 7 launches today.

We all know someone or heard about someone that had horrific experiences with Vista.  As a network administrator I gave recommendations to my superiors about what technology we should implement, and what we should wait on.  I always stated that we should wait out the Vista movement for the next flavor, and I was 120% right from a support stand point.  Vista came along and gave us too many issues I felt like from a support stand point it would have been a true nightmare not only for me but for management as well.

Windows 7

I don’t see the issues of the past with Windows 7 I see an operating system that has been tested, tested, and tested again.  Personally back before the summer started I started using Windows 7 on a older less powerful machine.  “Wow” are the words I uttered when using Windows 7 for the first time, because I think Microsoft finally got it, the bells and whistles don’t mean a thing if the OS does not perform some of the most basic functions with ease.  I can speak from experience that Windows 7 is a great OS to use on your current system, and also on a older system that you would have normally thrown away.  Don’t listen to the clutter that’s gonna start about well you should just buy a new computer, I would presume that those Tech support places will all be saying this, but resist my friendly computer user unless your computer is a Pentium II or lower with less than 512MB.  If it’s any better than that I’m tell you Windows 7 should be an eye opener.

What about Windows XP?

Well for those of you who have used Windows XP in my opinion you will gain a better Operating System in Windows 7, and workhorse right out of the box, new features, speed, and the capability to take off where Windows XP ended are clear indications that you should go for it.  Lets just say with the introduction of Windows 7, in 6 months no one will remember that thing called Vista in my opinion.  Now if your using XP at this point and you are going to install Windows 7 your gonna have a problem upgrading.  This has always been the Microsoft policy when upgrading, if your two generations back in Operating systems, they don’t make it very easy for you to upgrade with a “One click solution” I would guess there will be many companies taking advange of this (creating software to help Windows XP users upgrade).  My best advise for anyone looking to upgrade from Windows XP to Windows7 please do yourself a favor, make a backup of your critical data, such as documents, pictures, program data for specific programs and such.  Then insert your new Windows 7 OS CD and choose to do a clean install on your computer or laptop.  Then place your data and programs on the new OS.

Windows XP all flavors (Pro, Home, Media Center, Tablet, and x64) will be unsupported in the next two years so upgrade is eminent

Don’t let the experts scare you into buying a new computer, the one thing I have noticed is that with older machines I have had great success with Windows 7.  Currently I run Windows 7 in VMWare on my MacBook Pro and it’s been working like a charm, to my credit I had to tweak some stuff, but that’s what I do.  I hope your success with Windows 7 comes soon, I will say that you will not be disappointed going from any other OS to Windows7

Chime in and tell me if you have been using Windows 7 or if you plan on upgrading to the new OS in the comments?

TBTR

Recently Google celebrated a milestone the 1 year anniversary launch of the Google Chrome browser.  I remember when it was swirling around the internet that Google was about to drop a browser on the Internet community we were all a buzz over it.  That was over 366+ days ago and what have the super geeks at Google been up to, well they have been making improvements in the Google Chrome browser.  They say that the Google browser now has quicker load times, and runs web applications faster.

The stable release of Chrome under windows was released yesterday some of the benefits are listed below:

• 150% increase in javascript performance
• Redesigned new tab page
• Some HTML 5 features are included
• Form auto fill
• Side by side view
• Ability to remove items from the tabs

Give the stable version a try here

For those of us who use a Mac or Linux they state that at this time, there is no release, but they are making rapid progress.  You can download a copy of the developers version for Mac & Linux which will let you try Chrome on your Mac or Linux, but understand it’s not a stable release.  Us geeks can try it out anyways and at least see how things are coming along.

TBTR

With the introduction of Windows 7, we are at another crossroads in time. Microsoft is releasing Windows 7 in late October, in my opinion that day will be the death of Vista. The major reason is because worldwide acceptance was never on the radar for Vista, EVER! and Windows 7 is ready to pounce. Microsoft can show the share holders the value of Vista but when that value is inflated with numbers that come from new PC sales, not existing customers upgrading, also not tied to the number of New PC sold with the Windows XP downgrade, I hope you see the point I’m making.  Vista was never accepted in very wide circles, you had to take it when buying a new computer and this made the numbers looked very good for Microsoft in doing that kind of a move.

Many small to medium sized businesses never moved from Windows XP, and we know why that never happen. Microsoft had finally over time gotten something right with the release of Windows XP SP2 and the OS (Operating System) was so stable, that you were in awe that it could continue to run for weeks and even months without crapping out. Microsoft had to push back the end of Lifecycle on Windows XP, because it was so stable, and the heat they took for saying it was coming to an end without a good alternative had many people crying foul.

One of the other major problems with Vista was the overly abundant versions of the OS from the simple OS to the most complex and secure model, I believe there were 6 different versions, and for a consumer wanting to upgrade from any other OS they had a technical decision that most just could not make so the easiest thing to do was just to stay with what you had.

Windows 7 is coming on October 22, 2009

I remember when Windows XP dropped and people were at the Mall ready to purchase it at 12:01AM. Some people were camped out at the door steps of the local best buy looking to grab a first copy. Microsoft had that kind of effect on people (geeks) but now days everyone knows bugs are gonna be an issue with any brand new OS. My father always said “Never buy a new car the first year it’s in production” in my opinion my father knew what a beta tester was even way back then.  Even Mac has had it share of bugs with the Snow Leopard release. Since we all know how Microsoft is famous for releasing a product, to the masses knowing damn well it’s an unstable release, some will fear the same with Window 7 and will not brave the weather to be in a store at 12:01AM to purchase the OS.

You have a decision to make, upgrade of clean install?

With any OS you have to make a very important decision about weather you should upgrade, or install the new OS as a clean install (meaning you delete the data on the hard drive and install the new OS on the formatted hard drive). Upgrades are an unknown factor when it comes to computer systems, meaning that you could have a smooth install or one that deletes all your hard work that you have acquired over the years. It’s always a good idea to have a full backup of your computer system, from software files, to personal photos, and personal data files from your most used applications.

Once you start the process of upgrading you can’t turn back so weigh the decision very seriously. Take the time to read the information about the upgrade process. One thing I will say is that Microsoft will throw a ton of PDF’s at you explaining how to do something with their OS. It’s truly a Google, or should I say Bing search away.

Why upgrade?

The major reason you should upgrade to any OS is because of the new capabilities of the software, along with refinements in speed, access, and security to name a few. It’s amazing how much faster a system will run with the right equipment inside your computer. Understand that a lot of times when someone upgrades their PC they are doing this for reasons only they know. Some people notice how much faster the new OS will access their data, some people will notice how finding items, and doing normal task will speed up with a simple upgrade. The upgrade is supposed to give you access to possible new features that were not included in the older previous versions of the OS.

Why Clean install?

Clean install, is the best way to start your OS life with a existing computer. Note: If you already have a brand new computer with Windows 7 installed you will not need to even read this post. Clean install means you wipe the hard drive of your computer with many of the free (disk erase) tools on the net. Understand this will totally delete all Software, and Personal files from your PC. You will never be able to get them back so make sure you backup your data and personal files, there I said it again. Backup, Backup, Backup oh and don’t forget to look at the backups once your done. I’ve seen first hand a company backup data, but the never looked at said data before wiping out a hard drive and poof, the damage is done. One company I know of was totally down for 7 days, they had no computer systems to use and lost a lot of business because backups were never checked.

That clean install is just like having a new computer, remember when you first bought your computer home from the store and you took the time to set it up and when you turned it on it was so fast you thought it was a mistake. That is what a clean install will do for you, if you just upgrade some of those old files and programs are gonna start up as your new systems starts, thus slowing down your computer. I suggest you either consult a real technology professional, when doing a upgrade or clean install. Or at least I suggest you take the time to view some of the thousands of pages that Microsoft has out there to help you upgrade your system.

The jury is still out on how popular the new Windows 7 OS will be, but I can say this, I’ve been using a version of Windows 7 that seems to be working like a charm and I have had no issues, oh except the time I closed my laptop while using VMWare on my Macbook Pro, while Windows 7 was running in the background processing a programs data (blue Screen of Death). I will probably say I caused that crash, with all my awesome geekness.

TBTR

As an avid blackberry user and former Network Administrator I have come across a ton of scenarios where backup was needed but not practiced.  Some methods I’ve used to fix these problems come from knowledge base articles, to online forums, to just plain old common sense.  There is one thing that as a tech junkie I have to talk about today.  That subject is about Backing up your data, While there are many articles on the net about backing up your personal (Computer) data many don’t talk about backing up your cell phone data.

I have been a blackberry user for over 5 years now, and in that time it’s come to my attention over and over again, the question is not if I will lose data it’s when?  That “when” you may never know, but since blackberries and Smart Phones in general are the norm now days.  We all have to take the proper precautions to save our data.  Some of us have saved data for years, and while most people can’t understand why someone would want to save so much useless data.  I have a ton of reasons I’ll go into on another post some day.

Why Backup your Smart Phone

Simply you have over time added more and more task, contacts, memo’s, notes, and other things to your Smart Phone that if you lost today, you have no where to get it back.  A lot of these phones can carry an enormous amount of data including files, pictures, calendars and other things.  These items are usually stored in the ROM of your smart phone.  Wikipedia.org defines ROM as Read-only memory (usually known by its acronym, ROM) is a class of storage media used in computers and other electronic devices. Because data stored in ROM cannot be modified (at least not very quickly or easily), it is mainly used to distribute firmware (software that is very closely tied to specific hardware, and unlikely to require frequent updates). ROM cannot be removed from your phone, it’s a permanent storage area within your device.

This ROM is your internal MEMORY which saves your data, pictures, and other items to your device.  Some smart phones also have a memory flash card that lets you create a place to store more data, that you can also remove from your phone and even access with a computer given the right software sometimes. Usually this flash card only saves pictures, music, video, and items that you record, but it does not save any contacts, calendar, task or other items that are part of the phones software.

I understand ROM, but tell me why I need to backup

A Smart phone is just like a computer it can fail, and if it does will you be able to recover that special number, or contact calendar from your device?  In most cases NO, you will never get that data back and it’s over.  You have to start from scratch with entering all your contacts again, which means an enormous amount of your personal time, not to mention the loss of critical items that are gone forever.  Don’t even think about sending your device to a specialty tech shop that deals in lost data, if you do plan on spending hundreds of dollars.

You don’t need to lost your data, at least you can always have a backup with in reach at any given moment.  Most Smart phones come with software that you can use to import contacts, task, calendar functions and other things that help.  Along with that most of them allow you to backup your data right to the same computer that you use to do all these functions.  I’m only going to discuss the blackberry method today but remember there are many manufactures out there that also do this, please consult your device manual for more information.  Better yet call your carrier, and ask for the data team or someone that can help you set up backups with your phone and the accompanying software, that is what they are there for in my opinion.

Blackberry backup method

You will need:

• Blackberry device
• USB Cable

Since I’m all about saving time and allowing you to get the best resources for answers I took the time to sift the net and found some resoruces that should help you in the process.  They tell you how to make that backup of your device and should help as a written example of how to do this, I hope my words hit home.  Remember this can happen to anyone, it’s only a matter of time.

Indiana University With a Blackberry, how do I backup and restore data

BlackBerry Cool Backing up your Blackberry (Cool Screenshots)

BlackBerry Rocks How to backup and restore your Blackberry (Even Cooler updated Screenshots)

TBTR (Comments are always welcome)

It’s not everyday that you will need a utility like WinMerge but, I will tell you this it can save you a ton of time. WinMerge 2.8.6 is another great Open Source tool created with you the user in mind. Why do you need WinMerge? Why should you even give WinMerge a chance to grace your desktop real estate? I think if you work with text based files such as HTML, CSS, or just Text files in general then this tool will help you a lot.

Visual differencing and merging of text files

Say your working on a new project where a client has updated his HTML code and your trying to fix the problem they are having because something is just not right. If you use WinMerge you can input the old HTML code on one side, and the New HTML code on another and compare the files. You can see where the changes have been made and with that being said, fix the issue without having to go line for line in a HTML document that could be pretty long. WinMerge will color code the changes and show you where the differences are no longer will you have to rely on site alone.

Handles DOS, UNIX and MAC text file formats

Not only does this tool let you see the differences of files, but if you want it can Merge the files together to create a new document. This is a great feature where changes have been made and you want to make sure to keep all text streamlined and in working order. WinMerge will do the trick with ease.

Website: http://www.winmerge.org/

Download Link: WinMerge 2.8.6

Enjoy,

TBTR

You mean to tell me you have 12 seconds to leave a video about what your doing? Don’t we already have Micro-blogging sites by the dozen. How much time and effort went into making a service or site called 12 seconds. Talk about trying to get the VC money, and then some ridiculous conglomerate to buy you out. I’m so sick and tired of people piggy backing on other services. They say ” oh well what if we decided to take what they do but flip it.” 12 seconds will not be along for the ride too much longer. They want money, they need money to keep it going, so who’s gonna pay up some VC that has nothing but money to hang out the window. When you think about it 12 seconds as a company should last about 12 seconds long.

Most of the videos I see on the site, suck because they try to go past the 12 seconds and then the video looks stupid. The thing just cuts off WTH, I’m listening and your cutting off the video because you forgot this is only 12 seconds long. Think about why it’s only 12 seconds and you will see it’s not because of some crap about we figured that 12 seconds is about as long as the brain can stand to watch some online webclip crap. It’s because the ratio of video to users with 12 seconds cost less then just letting your user go crazy with unlimited time to do nothing but record their living room. One thing is that with the time constraints it does make for interesting videos if done right, I will agree with that.

12seconds.tv allows friends and family to record and share short video updates about what they are doing or where they are. You can use a webcam or a cellphone. It’s a FREE, easy, and fun way to stay in touch.

This is my rant and the truth is we should all be ashamed to follow as the mass of people try every new service or web 2.blah out. Right now this micro-blogging is all over the place and honestly it’s getting out of hand. Who’s gonna take the lead and stay in it for the long haul. We all know Twitters problems about money they turned off SMS for overseas users, and in Japan they have turned on the ads which also lets you know the ads are coming soon. Is it just me or is Pownce the only one that could see, if you give the users something great they can use we will pay for it. Or was pownce so hard up for money that they had to ask for money up front just to keep things going with out losing the farm if you know what I mean.

My prediction is that 12 seconds will only last just about that long 12 months, then some VC or competitor will come in and buy the thing lock, stock, and barrel. I guess I’m a little upset that I didn’t think of such an idea cause the truth this I want an account but I’m so tired of signing up for stuff all over the net.

Enjoy the success 12 seconds,

TBTR

Photosynth has failed to deliver the demand was high and the Server Administrators were higher. Photosynth from Microsoft launched just over 12 hours ago and the website is down, and you thought Microsoft does not have these type of issues. Photosynth is a cool new program from MS that takes pictures and kind of turns them into a 3D pic it’s some amazing stuff check this video out:

Maybe they will have the site up and working soon but we all should remember just because you have Billions in the bank don’t think it can’t happen to you..

Enjoy,

TBTR

Remember when I said this as a joke?

Just for shits and giggles lets assume your out somewhere ladies and you see a hot guy with an iPhone, tell him if he can cut, copy, and paste on his iPhone you will go home with him no questions asked and do all the things he likes… Then when he has racked his brain and figured out he can’t do it say, I’m going over to the guy with the blackberry curve cause he can cut, copy and paste… Full Post here

Well Copy and paste on the iPhone is here…well…sort of. It seems the feature should be coming to the iPhone pretty damn soon. Take are look at this article from GeekBrief.tv. For me this might mean I’ll finally buy one, not really but I’ll look at them more now when I’m in the apple store.

It seems that Zac White a college student has figured out how to implement copy and past on any iPhone App without violating the iPhone SDK agreement. He has started a website called Openclip.org to introduce it take a look here. Ah…. an you thought it was not there because of some coding crap when it turns out that Apple just said it wasn’t a priority.

Here is the Video Explaining how it works:

Cut and Paste for iPhone from Cali Lewis on Vimeo.

So remember “Don’t play my little joke on anyone, you just might wake up next to them”

Enjoy,

TBTR

Imagine a program that many of the top podcasters use on a daily basis. When you want to record, mix, and master your recordings use Audacity. Audacity is a FREE Open Source software for recording and editing sound.

With Audacity you can:

• Record Live Audio
• Convert tapes & records into digital files
• See a massive list of features here

Audacity runs on:

• Linux
• Os X
• Windows (from 98 to Vista)

Personally I use Audacity to record & edit my podcast for TheBlackTechReport. I absolutely love this program the ease of use and shear horsepower of this program is internationally known. A great plus to using Audacity is the great community input and resources created by the developers and users of audacity.

5 Audacity resources:

• File Management Tips
• Navigation Tips
• Podcasting with Audacity (full resources)
• Noise Removal
• Official Audacity User Manual

Remember with any program it might take a little time getting used to it, but don’t let that scare you I wanna see you using this wonderful program.

Enjoy,

TBTR

When it comes to download Wednesday I’m always thinking of new and exciting FREE software to write about. Today’s Free download comes from Pidgin which formally had the name GAIM.

I remember using GAIM along time ago when you had to download and install the 3 major players in IM AIM, Yahoo, and MSN. GAIM was one of the first but they changed the name to Pidgin. I heard they changed the name for legal reasons but that’s another story.

Pidgin is a multi-protocol Instant Messenger client that allows you to use all of your IM account at once from ONE program.

Pidgin runs on all Windows and UNIX platforms.

Pidgin can work with:

• AIM
• YAHOO
• Google Talk
• MSN
• IRC (Wowzer I’m excited about this one)

And about 12 other services

Give Pidgin a try you just might like it.

Link to Pidgin Site
Link to Download Page
Link to Third Party Plugins

Enjoy,

TBTR

We have all heard the saying “Nothing is Free” I guess it depends. Today one of my Twitter friends posted a link to a free download from ZoneAlarm. It seems ZoneAlarm is trying to get the word out about a product called ForceField.

The product creates a virtual bubble while you surf so if you hit the wrong website by accident it will protect you. Lately the best way hackers have figured how to install software on your computer is by creating websites that mirror the original site like instead of you going to google.com you type goolge.com by accident. This is only an example but if you hit the site goolge.com there is code that installs on your computer through your browser and with in seconds your infected. ForceField is supposed to help you ward off these threats.

Totally FREE Patch Tuesday – for 24-hours (ending Wednesday August 13 at 6am PST), you can download a free copy of ZoneAlarm ForceField, a $29.95 value.

ZoneAlarm ForceField provides a protective layer around your browser, shielding you from drive-by downloads, browser exploits, phishing attempts, spyware and keyloggers. So your passwords, your confidential information, and your financial data remain protected.

Here are some links to help you understand why you should take advantage of this opportunity.

Well the video does nothing for really explaining what ForceField does but I added it anyways.

I found the better video to explain what ForceField does…YES….FTW

This is the link for the offer:http://www.zonealarm.com/patchtuesday

Don’t forget to pass this link along to others TODAY.

TBTR

We all need email in today’s world for a host of reasons.  To communicate with staff, friends, and family not in that order.  Since email is so important I wanted to bring to the table a product that will help you out with your everyday emails.  If your a PC user then your probably familiar with Outlook Express, and Outlook.  Outlook Express was created as a free email client included in your computer build.  Outlook Express has been around for a long time and gone through various revision I think we are up to Version 6 at this time.

If your smart or wealthy you probably upgraded to Outlook which was created on the same platform as Outlook Express but with the intent of the business user in mind.  When this happened many people said Outlook Express would die and by all accounts in my opinion it has.  Microsoft has done no active updates to Outlook Express in years thus leaving another dinosaur in the dust.  While we could argue the point of weather Outlook or Outlook Express is a good product we will save that for another post.

The Open source movement has created great products in my opinion Thunderbird from Mozilla.org is one of the best email clients I’ve used.  Since today is Download Wednesday I just had to bring Thunderbird into the picture Thunderbird has won numerous awards and we have to remember the product is FREE.

Thunderbird provides you with a fast robust email client that can not only hand emails but RSS feeds, and newsgroups all in this one product.  While I like to personally keep all those in separate programs I have to commend Mozilla.org for including this sort of as a one stop shop.

I have created two screencast that show you the process from downloading the product, to install, and the configuration or setup.

Video 1: Download, and Install

Video 2: Configuration

More information about Thunderbird features here and Thunderbird download link.

Popular Thunderbird addons listed under this article on Makeuseof.com

Enjoy and leave comments.

TBTR

This post might get a little technical please forgive me a head of time for showing my full geekyness.

Wireless routers get older and older every day, if you were an early adopter of WiFi technology. The price and headache you paid in the early days is now a thing of the past. All good things must come to an end or end of life cycle in geek terms.

Most wireless routers were made with the future in mind by way of something called a firmware update.

What is firmware? According to wikipedia.org firmware is a computer program that is embedded in a hardware device. It can also be provided on flash memory or as a binary image file. This can be uploaded onto existing old or new hardware by a user.

Usually this gives the device new code that can fix issues (software bugs), add features, or totally change a device to do new, different and exciting things.

New is what happens when you install Tomato Firmaware on your old Linksys WRT54G, GL, GS, Buffalo WHR-G54S/WHR-HP-G54 and other Broadcom based routers.

Routers that are known to work with Tomato:

• Linksys WRT54G v1-v4, WRT54GS v1-v4, WRT54GL v1.x, WRTSL54GS (no USB support)
• Buffalo WHR-G54S, WHR-HP-G54, WZR-G54, WBR2-G54, WBR-G54, WZR-HP-G54, WZR-RS-G54, WZR-RS-G54HP, WVR-G54-NF, WHR2-A54-G54, WHR3-AG54
• Asus WL500G Premium (no USB support), WL500GE
• Sparklan WX6615GT, Fuji RT390W, Microsoft MN-700

This will not work on Linksys WRT54G/GS v5 or newer WRT54G/GS routers.

Your probably asking yourself why do I need this? Well the truth is you don’t need this at all. The reason why we talk about this today is to let you know that if you have an old wireless router mentioned above, and it’s crashing or your always having to reboot the unit. You don’t have to toss it you can update the unit and turn it into a super router.

With any firmware updates you run the risk of bricking your unit just be sure you can afford to do this before ever doing a unlicensed firmware update.

Other programs that do the same thing listed here:

• DD-WRT
• FreeWRT
• HyperWRT Thibor
• OpenWRT
• Tarifa
• X-Wrt

Have Fun.

TBTR

Yesterday (read the story here) we reported that the popular game Scrabulous had been taken down for the US and Canada customers of Facebook because of a lawsuit filed by Hasbro. Well I won’t say chalk one up for the little guy I will just say, damn the little guys are smart.

The Agarwalla brothers in a very short amount of time have gone back to the drawing board. They have come up with a new Facebook application called “WordScraper” talk about punking someone.

We know Hasbro had every right to file the lawsuit they did against the brothers and Facebook I mean the name was just to similar but now the boys have gone back to the drawing board and created something else similar but with some different rules, now that’s Pimpin to me.

I wonder how Hasbro feels now, not only did they start a storm that according to others could have been avoided but now the brand in some circles may have even been hurt permanently. I mean we know the large number of people on Facebook are probably early to mid twenties. Working successful young people that lets face it don’t like to be told too much on what to do. The Hasbro brand is really faced with a challenge, to fix a wrong they could have avoided. The lawyers that were used in this lawsuit are probably right now trying to figure out another way to create a revenue stream to line there pockets.

Do I think this will hurt Hasbro in the long run probably not most of the people using it didn’t have kids anyways. I will say that this is probably not over and we have just seen the little guy Pimp the big fish.

Wordscraper on Facebook

Hasbro

TBTR

Today came word that the very popular game Scrabulous was taken down by Facebook.  It seems the program was infringing on a little well known game called Scrabble owned by Hasbro.  While I never played this game online I always saw many people who did.  What’s up with Hasbro?  Are they just haters on the Agarwalla brothers, and their company, RJ Softwares.

The Brothers created the game and have been in my opinion reaping the rewards.  While Face book took down the application it seems they really didn’t want to get the middle of this feud.  The website Scrabulous is still operational and the facebook application is no longer being used in the US or Canada but in other countries Hasbro has no rights to the name that is owned by Mattel.

It seems at this time Mattel has not filed any suits to rights overseas but if one starts you can bet the other is going to do it.  While this is news nothings really new with this we all know how people create something better than the original, but instead of going to the company and trying to license the rights they keep building on a application that’s stolen.

On another note Facebook users are fighting back by creating groups to try and get the Scrabulous application back all I can say is Good luck with that.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=37928471248

http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=75441

www.Scrabulous.com

www.scrabble.com

TBTR

Working a full time job you probably sit at a computer for 8 hours then go home and you have another computer your using. Using so many computers there are gonna be times when you wish you had access to your documents from any computer at any time. If you have Google Docs your not missing a thing in fact your probably laughing right now saying “Is this really news TBTR, I mean honestly.”

There’s nothing to download; you access your documents, spreadsheets and presentations from any computer with an Internet connection and a standard browser. And it’s free.

Scenario your at work taking care of some last minute changes to a document, you get a call and leave in haste. When you get home your winding down about to watch your favorite TV show when you get a call that your friend she needs the list of things you were writing ASAP. You think back did I email that document before I left work? Then you remember it’s saved to your hard drive at work not at home. This leaves your friend with out the document and there is nothing you can do about it. Well sort of, if you had written and saved that document in Google Docs you could use your computer to login find the document and then edit or just send the document to your friend. Thus fixing a situation that may have been disastorious.

Online storage and auto-save mean you needn’t fear local hard drive failures or power outages.

While this is little far fetched it’s still true Google Docs is an online application that lets you create documents, spreadsheets, and presentations online at anytime from any computer. Google has set up the system to enable anyone to share, and collaborate in real time. Google Docs accepts most popular file formats, including DOC, XLS, ODT, ODS, RTF, CSV, PPT, etc. Access to your documents can be emailed to anyone you want and they get instant access.

You can publish to the entire world, just a few people or no one — it’s up to you. (You can also un-publish at any time.)

With Google Docs there is nothing to download it’s all done over the internet that also helps with backup of documents. No longer do you have to worry about a hard drive failure or misplacing some important documents you have access from anywhere. Google Docs even lets you post a document to the web with a single click you can set this for viewing by select people or anyone around the world.

You can now track how much traffic a particular published document is getting through Google Analytics.

While most of this article is written for the newbie in mind here is where I explain some of the NEW features that have been placed in this Online Application.

• A host of free templates for documents, spreadsheets or presentations
• Analytics tracking on published documents is now available
• Custom Colors can now be chosen for documents or slides
• Output can be to a PDF file so no need for Adobe Acrobat
• Tech-Savvy users can now apply CSS to documents
• Notes can now be added to your slide presentations
• Off line access to your Google docs, sync when internet connection established
• Presentations can be saved as PPT
• View Google Docs on your mobile phone
• Many more features

While Microsoft has stepped up and offered some of the same things with Office Live, Google Docs 100% FREE. While they do offer this for free there is a pay service if your a organization and want to put the whole company on it’s called Google Apps check it out.

This video explains a lot enjoy.

video by: leelefever

Try out Google Docs it helps you live longer

TBTR

While looking for great sites to write about I stumbled across Snapter. Snapter uses your digital camera as a mobile scanner to scan documents, business cards, white boards, and books into your computer in .jpg or .pdf format. Snapter claims to make your camera photos of documents look like scanned documents.

The software automatically crops, stretches, flattens and converts photos into more portable images. I downloaded Snapter installed the application and started using the system. I decided first to take a picture of my receipt from a laptop purchase I had on my desk. I took this picture with my BlackBerry Curve. The picture while nice is not the best of quality when I later zoomed in on the text. Then I decided to take the same picture with my Canon Powershot SD750 I got 100% better quality.

Use your digital camera as a mobile scanner to scan documents, business cards, whiteboards, and books.

Next I decided to try the book I used my recently purchased HTML, XMTML & CSS Book by Peachpit Press. I turned to a random page and clicked a good picture. The image came up but when I clicked to process the output that’s when It went south. Although it worked I could only see one half of the book after the image processed. The picture was of both sides but it seems that some how the light or dark area in the ream of the book wigged the processor in Snapter out. I tried several times to move the line to tell the software that I wanted the other page included on the scan but I could never get it to go far enough.

Snapter makes camera photos look like scanned documents!

Snapter says they have improved the image process algorithms, but in my opinion it still seems to be an issue. Again it could be user error but I tried 3 times with the same results. I will say this if I really took the time to sit back take great pictures of documents and then tried to make .pdf files I would probably get better results but my frustration factor reached critical mass and I stopped trying to tweak it. To help others there is a Getting Started Guide.

The software is not Freeware that is why this was not included on the Wednesday download tag. You get a 14 day trial to use the software with no limits, after that you get a watermark over every scan that you make. The best part is after the 14 days it still works. Kudo’s to the Snapter team for allowing that you know some students would like to use this but cost is a factor.

While I only did limited examples of what you can do here the website will shed more light on the advantages of Snapter.

3 Thumbs out of 5

TBTR

Today I wanted to let you know about OpenOffice which is the clone of Microsoft’s costly product Office. OpenOffice while different gives you some great features such as:

• Text Documents
• Spreadsheets
• Presentation
• Drawing
• Database

The products listed are FREE you don’t pay for them because OpenOffice is a Open Source product. If you don’t have the money to purchase the most popular product Microsoft Office, download OpenOffice here.

Enjoy

TBTR

Have you ever spent money today only to find out tomorrow you could have downloaded that program for free? Today’s Wednesday download brings you a great tested, tweaked, and seasoned free Anti-Virus program.

We all know how important it is to have a Virus program installed and actively running on your computer.

Most new computers come with commercial grade Virus Programs but after just 90 days those programs deactivate leaving you high and dry.

While you could just purchase the upgrade for that Virus program your using, what about alternatives. Free programs are always great and AVG free is the one I recommend.

I have used AVG commercial and Free Versions for over 4 years with great success. So if your looking for a Virus program or your pre-installed Virus program has deactivated after trial try AVG. Understand again there is a commercial version of this program which has many more features, so if you like the free version, please purchase the product in the future.

Click here to download this free program

Enjoy,

TBTR

HTTrack is a Free/Open Source program that can copy a website to your local hard drive. You could set it up to copy a small website or even a huge website, but I would caution you from downloading a site with gigs and gigs of data. The program has some settings you can change but for the most part out of the box it’s ready to go.

Why would you copy a website 1.) To show people how a website works, 2.) To Grab all images out of folders. I could give you many more reason but lets just stop here. As you look at the HTTrack website there are alot of things from documentation, FAQ information, to how not to use this program.

The following video is one I found on youtube Mike explains this pretty well the video is about 4 1/2 minutes enjoy:

Video by: Mike from Northern Kentucky University

TBTR

Today is the incredible attempt by Mozilla.org to set a Guinness World Record for the most downloads in a 24 hour period. Today while I was Plurking (Plurk is a social site much like twitter for micro-blogging) a conversation started and I just had to write this post.

Conversation link: http://www.plurk.com/p/hmpq

See some people got the link to the FF3 download ahead of time and started

posting this on twitter, plurk, pownce, friendfeed, and other places on the net. This got me to thinking “What if phishing (phishing is an attempt to criminally and fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as user names, passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy entity), and hacker websites decided to put a fake link out there? What kind of damage could they do on such a historic occasion?

4 quick ways people could exploit this day in history:

• Today would have been the perfect day for the internet marketer to make a fake site and send out a fake link by email
  • ···The response would have been enormous everyone waiting on the FF3 link would have clicked
• Web hosting companies could have directed tons of people to there landing page for new hosting accounts.
  • ···This would only work for those techies looking for hosting
• Weight loss blogs, and companies that make weight loss products could have rode the mother load on this one.
  • ···Do you know how many people are over weight, the link alone saying how to lose 10 pounds in 2 days, would have prompted sign ups.
• You can’t forget about Porn sites looking for more passengers on the boat of love would have found new subscribers.
  • ···One picture with the hottest girl of 2008 could have gained millions of hits and new subscribers
• Hackers could have made a page that looks just like the FF3 landing page and redirected millions of people to sites that steal information, or install A Trojan horse.
  • …If you think your safe, your not everyone can get a Trojan horse if the hacker is well seasoned.

I could go on thinking of the perfect ways people could have gotten you to click on a fake link today just because you wanted to download FireFox 3. Since I kind of got your attention now I’m just gonna say this Please be careful today downloading FF3. You will see tons of links posted where you can download the latest FF3 but there is only one offical link and that is:

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/

TBTR

Are there times when you wish you had done something amazing, something special, interesting, or even by the seat of your pants? Tomorrow is one of those days in technology when you want to be a part of something big maybe even huge.

Mozilla’s new Firefox 3 browser is ready for release tomorrow June 17th. Mozilla hopes to set a Guinness World Record for the most software downloaded in 24 hours. They have been working on a new version of the popular browser for a while. Honestly version 2.0 didn’t need much help it’s stable, and fast, but progression is the name of the game in technology.

This event reminds me of when the latest record would come out and I would watch the stats to see who was the top selling Album of the week. I had to ask myself if I even cared about this launch and this attempt at a world record.

I’ll give you 5 reasons why I’m overly interested:

1. I want to support the Open Source movement. (Free Software)
2. Firefox helps me surf the internet without harm from IE(Internet Explorer) exploits.
3. In years past this browser has beat other browsers (IE, Opera, Etc) in testing over and over.
4. Cool features in Firefox let me customize my browser, and adds plug-ins to extend the functionality without alot of time and effort.
5. I wanna be a part of history once again.

My last check on the number of people who have pledged to join this attempt was at 1.34 Million and growing check here.

So if you want a better browser then the auto installed Internet Explorer join me in helping the open source community and possibly setting a World Record on Tuesday June 17th 2008.

Spread the Word

Follow Firefox’s Twitter Account

FAQ (Frequently Ask Questions)

TBTR

What is Flock?

Flock is a cross platform browser meaning you can install the browser on Windows, Mac, and Linux machines. Flock is build on another favorite of mine from Mozilla called Firefox. Since Flock comes from the Open Source movement you don’t have to pay a dime for it, remember nadda, nothing. A better introduction on what Flock does is here:

When was Flock Build?

Flock was founded in 2005. The flock founders in my opinion, noticed that the internet was changing when social websites started popping up on the net. They have positioned themselves to understand first what was happening, and make a move in a different direction from a browser/surfing perspective.

Why use Flock?

If your into social sites and you want to better surf the web and stay connected Flock. The Flock browser lets you reach across multiple networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, Pownce, Flickr, and others. Flock lets you share things easily such as photo’s Video’s and links. The Flock browser even gives you a build in blog editor to make blogging even easier right from the browser. More about social surfing of the internet with Flock here:

Conclusion

Try out Flock if your really starting to get bogged down by all the social sites out there Flock has a great way of keeping this stuff in a nice group. The experience is enlightening and I think you will see the rewards very quickly. Remember Flock is different so take your time getting to understand Flock, but I assure you once you get the hang of it your in love.

Get your copy of Flock now

Comments about your experience and recommendations are appreciated.

TBTR

Today is download Wedensday here at The Black Tech Report, from this day on we will be bringing you a host of programs that refect our Free Commitment to the readers of this blog.

We will post a small bit of information about a product that we have found or that we use. We chose Wedensday because it’s the middle of the week and its the day you kind of look up and say well what’s new around my blogsphere.

We are making a commitment to the readers that you can depend on something intresting every time we post on “Download Wedensday”. You can be assured the programs will be useful and FREE (nadda, zero), so check back often and see what we have in store for you.

Remember to pass on this link for the story to any of your friends who are interested in technology or are new to the internet.

Thanks,

TBTR

With all the passwords in your life from your home computer to your work computer to your email passwords. You could have any where from 3 passwords to 10 passwords or many more. While one password for all those systems can work for you. The problem with that is the fact that once a crook has figured out your password they now have access to your entire online life.

In the past I have talked at length about how important it is to have secure passwords. Well with programs such as Password Safe and Any Password. You have the capability to save your passwords and related information in on place which makes it easy to retrieve this at anytime.

There are many more programs to do this with, but I wanted to talk about those that I have personally used before.

Password safe is released under open source and free software

When installing Password Safe you have a choice to install 2 ways:

• Regular (uses registry, suitable for home or single computer)
• Green (for disk-on-key; does not use host registry pen or usb drives)
  • Oh you can purchase a copy of the U3 Version which installs on your U3 USB drive learn more about U3 here.

The database is kept with the extension of (.psafe3)

You can create new passwords enter notes, URL information and keep a copy of the last 255 password changes. Also you can tell the system when the password has to be changed by a specific date or number of days. The encryption that Password Safe uses is Two Fish which is considered very secure.

Any Password has two versions of the program you can download for your computer one is the free version which works great but with limited capabilities and Any Password Pro which has some expanded capabilities. Any Password is not vista ready in the current version, but they say that is coming soon for the free version beside Any Password Pro is Vista ready at this time. Pocket Any Password version is free and available for Pocket PC 3.0 (2002) or higher running on ARM, MIPS, or SH3 processors. All passwords are protected by the RC2/MD5 encryption algorithms.

• The install options don’t let you choose to install on any removable media such as pen or usb drives.

The database is kept with the extention of (.apw)

With the addition of Any Password Pro you get these added features:

* ability to store files
* expired password notification
* sending password or other information automatically to other applications
* database synchronization
* data file compression
* ability to run from removable devices
* and more…

Which ever program you choose to install just remember what happens if your computer gets stolen or your hard drive goes bad. You could potentially loose all the passwords to your systems. This is why I tell people to email a copy of the database to your online email account such as hotmail, yahoo, or gmail. That way you can reinstall the program later in time.

Any password is capable of doing what you want but my 2 minute review says that Password Safe has more capabilities. I would suggest you download the both of them and make a choice for your self but I do think that you get more with the Password Safe which is 100% free all the time.

Any Password Download

Password Safe Download

Password Safe U3 Version Download

TBTR

I use itunes to purchase new music and to import my old cds on occasion. Well lately I have been wanting to concentrate on things at my computer weather its surfing the internet, blogging, or writing technical documents at work. Today I was sitting around and decided to look up white noise which is sort of noise canceling music. In itunes there are many tracks to choose from I will say that I never thought in a million years that I would purchase something like this but I did. In fact I purchased a track called “brown noise”. There were two versions one runs for 60 minutes and the other runs for 4 minutes. I started the track and then started to blog but noticed that at the end of the track the sound would always fade just enough to notice and throw my concentration off right before the track would repeat. I then decided to look around and saw a post from someone on how to stop this annoying thing from happening. Making this change to the track in itunes lets you loop the track to keep the brown noise playing for hours on end.

Here is where I share with you how to:

1. Right click the track, and click “get info”
2. Click options
3. If the track is showing for example 4:00 minutes in the stop time area and you notice the fade out starts at oh lets say 3:55 minutes change the time of the track in this window to 3:30 minutes. You could change it to 3:54 but that might be to close to the end and you might get some of the fade out.
4. Now set the track to loop by choosing to repeat the track and there you have it. Not only will it loop for hours on end but you also only paid $.99 for the short track instead of the $9.99 for the 60 minute version.

TBTR has helped save you $9.00 that could go towards a starbucks chi tea or soon a full gallon of gas.

TBTR

As a Network Administrator there are times when I have to setup passwords for people. This could be the first password for a new employee or it could be a password reset. It used to take along time to setup these passwords, cause I would have to think up a password at times I would make a complex password and then other times out of time I would choose a very simple password. The problem with simple is if the person never decides to change the password to something complex it creates a possible security risk. Your network could be compromised. A simple password cracker could be used to break the password and then let anyone with bad intentions enter your network easily.

So one day I was looking for a way to create a complex password and I googled for a program and came across Secure Password Generator it’s created by PC Tools Software. The program is very simple it helps you create secure complex passwords. You can do this in two ways one is online on the site, or you can download the freeware application. The online version can create a password using SSL connections which are very secure so that prying eyes can not sniff your connection to steal the password.

You can create passwords from 4 characters to 64 characters, the longer the password the harder it is to break. If your creating a password for someone to use the longer the password the more motivation for the person to change it to something they can remember.

If you do download the application you get included a password checker which makes sure the password you choose is a secure one. Also a added bonus of the download version is the password revealer. Have you ever put a password in Internet Explorer so that when you revisit that site it will remember you? What happends if you forgot that password there is no way to find out what it was, well with password revealer it works with Internet Explorer to reveal saved password that you have entered in web-forms but may have subsequently forgotten or lost. So go ahead download the program or use the online version either way you should be satisfied.

TBTR

So you thought you got away with a nice new Mac and other stolen goods. Here is a story that speaks to the heart of the digital age. A Mac users apartment was burglarized, normally you fill out the police report information, file the insurance papers if you had insurance, wait for the premium to go up oh, and just caulk it up as a lost. But now days we have so many ways of finding our laptops with factory installed programs and with .Mac service from apple. This user was able to use back to my mac software. Which is like a screen sharing program it enabled her to use the photo booth application on her laptop to take a picture of the thieves. Then a little trip to the police station, with picture and evidence in hand an arrest was made. So the moral of the story is 1.) Hide your Mac when company comes over and 2.) Pay for the subscription to .mac service…

Read the rest of the story here

TBTR

This past weekend my father had some issues with his DSL providers email. I wanted to share with all of you how you should approach the same kind of issue. This podcast is short and from now on I think short and simple will be just good enough for all of us. I talk about getting two seperate email addresses so that you can use one for family and friends. Then use the other email for SPAM or signing up for things on the internet. Although these help you remember you will never be able to 100% stop SPAM.

Enjoy,

TBTR

Today I got wind of some bad news coming down the slopes of geekness. AOL the current owners of the Netscape Browser have decided to discontinue the software package. After 3/1/08 there will be no more security updates to the package l, Thus creating another lonely fizzle in the Pre/Post Dot COM bubble. I saw this come across the wire and I closed my eyes and could hear TAPs slightly playing in the back ground for all to hear.

Looking back Netscape at one time was the most popular software on the planet, and I had a piece of it. I remember going to the computer store and buying the Netscape Navigator 2.0 software which came on 3.5 Floppy Disk. I may actually still have those disk floating around my house although in all the moves over the years I may have trashed them.

Netscape was the best browser back in the mid 90′s the company was started by by Marc Andreessen and Jim Clark, who both grew the company into a force to be reckoned with, but like all good things it had to come to and end. Microsoft first tried to compete with Netscape by creating a browser but was far more inferior then Netscape and fail miserably. So the powers that be at Microsoft decided to give the software away for free, and also to bundle it with the manufactures of PC’s. Not only did this give Microsoft a great second wind in the fight, they tied the browser so much into the Operating Systems that they were sued by Netscape and the Department of Justice for those practices.

Netscape didn’t know what hit them they tried to compete but with Microsoft throwing money at the Internet Explorer division like President Bush throws money at the IRAQ war they had no chance. I guess knowing they had no fair chance for survival in 98 they open sourced the software which crated other browsers such as FireFox, Opera, and others that worked wonders.

The possible threat to Microsoft was fully squashed with never being able to pick up again. Some of us Geeks have been around these parts (the internet) for a long time while others are just getting here. We always look for who will be the one to dethrone Microsoft and I gotta tell ya, there are some companies that are giving it a good go right now. The only problem is when you competitor can give you COLD hard Cash up to 50 BILLION Dollars to buy you out right, CASH! The competition is only gonna last so long. Companies like Microsoft will get there way some how we just know it.

The Black Tech Report…