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david Contra Hacker Group Hack Websites and Publish Databases - Subscribe
Hacked by Contra


*Updated 8:29pm hacksden.com has been hacked and finalize 10 out of 10 domains as said by Contra located on Twitter @ContraHax out of Stockholm, Sweden. Seems as though some sys admins and web developers are going to have some work to do in the morning.

Seems as though SEO.com and numerous other websites were was hacked recently by a hacker group calling themselves Contra. I found this out looking for a SEO company that my full time job uses. So sure enough I type in SEO company into Google, and what do you know...SEO.com...

According to their Twitter account they are located out of Stockholm, Sweden and have gone on a hacking rampage possibly finding a flaw in a CMS or vulerability in PHP, current details are unknown.

Some of those hacked websites by Contra include:

1. PrisonOfficer.com
2. SEO.com
3. Leetcoders.org
4. xscriptz.com
5. future-hackes.com
6. seoelite.com
7. codehacks.org
8. globalsecurity.org
9. patriotcouncil.com
10. hacksden.com

The add on the hacked website a video of Dance Floor Dale, and leave a message: From Sweden with <3, along with a link to their Twitter Account. Seems as though the internet is on a hacking frenzy. Here is a .FLV of a video that they have posted.

External Links
1. Dance Floor Dale

Disclaimer: I would like to make every one aware that I am in no way affiliated directly, or in directly with any hacking groups. I am a small time blogger that posts technology related news, nothing more, nothing less.
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david Google Street Car Video in San Antonio, Tx Jun 17th, 2011 6:03:59 pm - Subscribe
Google Car in San Antonio


Yes I was totally geeked to see a Google Car in San Antonio Texas! I was one of the lucky ones to see the Goog Car during my lunch hour. Yeah, sure everyone seems to see them going up and down all over the country, but to see and know what it is pretty damn cool.

This afternoon I took at late lunch, probably around the hours of 2:30pm to 3:00pm or so when a co-worker and I noticed something funny pass us up as we were in a Bill Millers drive through. I made the assumption immediately that it was a Google car, and laughed, and he said yeah it is!

Doing my best to catch up and making some abrasive maneuvers, I finally was able to pull up right behind the Googler in the Google Car. My location was at Wurzbach Pkwy and Perrin Beitel here in San Antonio, Tx. My co-pilot (no longer my co-worker) took some video footage on my iPod Touch, and the video below is what we have.



I made a few edits, not many...and removed our audio, and replaced with with Party Ben's Mashup - Every Car You Chase. I felt the music was only appropriate, being we were chasing it down.

Did you know:
1. The Google Street Car can driven by it's self.
2. The Google Street Car is monitored (driven) by an engineer.
3. The Google Street Cars are usually Toyota Prius hybrids and an Audi TT's.
4. The Google Street Car has multiple video cameras, radar and laser technology.
5. Google has developed a Google Trike for Parks and Trails.
6. Google has also developed a Street View Snowmobile that was used in the 2010 Winter Olympics.
7. Google has even developed a Street View Trolley used to examine museums.

External Links:
1. Location at Wurzbach Pkwy and Perrin Beitel Road
2. Autonomously Driving Google Car by Robert Scoble
3. Google's Driverless Car: The Next Alternative Vehicle?

Does any one else have any footage they would like to share, or any cool experiences?
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Mood: good
Music: Party Ben Mashup - Every Car You Chase

frost How To: Preventing Remote File Inclusion Exploits with PHP Jun 15th, 2011 8:29:11 pm - Subscribe
For years now I have participated in many coding Forums. Perhaps one of the biggest issues I see is people using $_GET or another unfiltered variable inside of an include, include_once, require or require_once statement. This is a major security risk, and in an attempt to help people stray away from this I have accumulated many different ways this can be done, "properly" (I quote properly because each person has their own preference). Let's get down to the nitty gritty, and see how we can do inclusions in PHP securely without opening ourselves up to being exploited through a remote file inclusion exploit.

First Things First
Most PHP hosts set the allow_url_fopen to be off by default, in an effort to help prevent these exploits. However, not every host does this, and not everyone uses a shared host. If you are on a VPS or Dedicated server, then you may inadvertently enabled this setting or never disabled it. So first things first, go and find your proper php.ini file, and turn this off. If you relied on fopen of remote files or file_get_contents, I would highly suggest switching over to CURL, as it will be much quicker, and allow for security in the event you did not code all the code on your site or using a mainstream item, like WordPress, where it may contain a vulnerability that anyone could see.

Implementing a White List
A common exploitable code that I have seen is basically something in the form of:
    include($_GET['page']);


If your host has allow_url_fopen enabled, you are just asking to be exploited with a remote file inclusion exploit. Basically, anyone could type in something like: http;//www.yoursite.com/page.php?page=http;//theirsite.com/remote/code/to/execute.php and viola, their code remotely executed and basically just opened up your site fully to them. As you can see, this is a huge issue, and is how a lot of malware and virus's get passed around. Implementing a white list will probably be close to one of the sure fire ways this will never happen. The array can come from a number of sources you want it to, hard coded in the file, from a database setting etc. I am just going to write it in line for simplicity reasons.

    $whiteList = array('index' => 'index.php', 'about' => 'about.php', 'contact' => 'contact.php');
if (!empty($_GET['page']) && in_array($_GET['page'], $whiteList)) {
include($whiteList[$_GET['page']]);
}else {
// default it
include('index.php');
}


As you can see, everything is hard coded, and there is no way for someone to inject their own URL into your site. This would prevent any type of remote file inclusion exploit from being able to be preformed. If you wanted more "security" you could change the names of the files to be something obscured, or include them from a different directory outside of the webroot, so that no one would access them directly. This is generally my preferred method, simply because there is a slim to none chance that you would get remotely exploited.

Using Basename and file_exists
Another method is using the basename and file_exists method. This method I find a bit less secure, given that they can include any file as long as it exists and in the current directory. What the basename does is remove everything but the name of the file. This prevents someone from entering in something like ../../somefile and having that file included, so if your permissions were not setup properly, it could give them access to various stuff, like SSH Keys, logs and other files that you do not want out in the open. The file_exists, make sure that the file exists on the server, this is just an extra precaution. Let's see the code used for this method:

    $file = 'your/path/to/file/' . basename($_GET['page']);
if (file_exists($file)) {
include($file);
}else {
include('your/path/to/file/index.php');
}


For this method, I showed you an example of using a path other then the webroot to include the file. This would attempt to prevent people from just probing for different files, and you can place the pages into their own directory, so only pages meant to be included are included. IE, you could have a 'pages' directory and keep them organized in there. If you are using this method, I would highly recommend using the pages directory or similar.

Other Methods
I am sure there are plenty of other methods, I saw one guy using base64, however, this are the two primary methods I recommend to people for their simplicity. My preferred method overall would be the basename with the pages directory, outside of the webroot. This would mask the pages, and make it more difficult to probe for your pages and remove the risk of a file accidentally being included when it should not. If you have other methods, feel free to post them in the comments.

Finishing Touch
This is just one step you can take to secure your site from being exploited by what we call Script Kiddies and the likes of others. This alone, will not completely secure your site so of course you will need to take other precautions on every other aspect of your site. However, if pulling up pages dynamically using a URL intrigues you, this method will help you to secure yourself from being exploited with a remote file inclusion exploit.

As always, I welcome non-trolling or flaming comments. I will remove any flaming or trolling comments, so please leave positive feedback as all that is being done here is attempting to educate users. If you feel I am wrong, tell me in a constructive way with proof and ways to fix it. Thanks, and hopefully this has helped you!
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Music: php, exploit, script, kiddies, remote, file, inclusion, remote file inclusion, basename, file_exists, white list, list, include, require, require_once, include_once, allow_url_fopen, fopen, file_get_contents, prevention, precaution, security, help, howto

david STELLAService Results of Internet Retailers Customer Response Times Jun 15th, 2011 6:05:43 pm - Subscribe
Stella Email Call Customer Response Times


Stella Service which used a network of full time mystery shoppers to evaluate, and rate each Internet retailers customer response times. They made over 1,200 interactions via phone, and email to these companies regarding a product or service and here are the results of
that survey.


1. Sierra Trading Post located at sierratradingpost.com ranked 1st when it came down to the shortest amount of time that customers had to wait on hold. 6 seconds!

2. Office Depot located at officedepot.com best at getting back to emails. 48 minutes!

3. Barnes and Noble located at barnesandnoble.com gets the worst support customer hold time 8 mins and 3 seconds.

4. Crate and Barrell located at crateandbarrel.com gets the worst email response time at 88 hours to get back to you. Keep in mind these are the averages.

Only one company made it in to the top 10 for the speedway email and phone support and that was The Disney Store, at disneystore.com 12 seconds to answer the phone, and 1 hour and 47 minutes to respond to email.

Would any one agree that response time under 1 hour is not bad to receive an email response? I know at where I work, we do our best to respond in the first 10 to 15 minutes.

External Link:
Top Response Times from the Top 100 E-Retailers
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david Text Messaging in Decline in 2010 Jun 15th, 2011 5:25:50 pm - Subscribe
Text Messaging in Decline in 2010


Entry remarks on the decline of text messaging in 2010 and how telecommunication companies plan on making that money back.

A CTA report says that texting only grew 8.7% in the second half of 2010. That's the smallest increase in a really long time. If people aren't texting what are telecommunication companies to do?

Will they just add data caps, and charge like crazy for that data? Will the make the consumer join a substadiesd plan? Would they introduce a data only plan that includes texting and increase rates? The answer is yes, yes, and yes. In fact you may already be
experiencing limitations like these. So what can you do? Try finding another provider, use an instant messenger! Bits are bits, and paying for texting is the most expensive data plan out there.

I have yet to experience texting outside of Google Voice, and refuse to pay for it. Guess I'm cheap like that.
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Music: This Week in Google

frost Caught by Harlan Coben a Mystery Thriller Book Review Jun 14th, 2011 7:16:10 pm - Subscribe
Harlan Coben is perhaps one of my favorite authors. I love Harlan's Myron Bolitar series as such I read any book he puts out. One of Harlan's more recent book, Caught, reached my eyes and I decided to give it a read. Immediately I became immense in the book, I love a good mystery and I knew that Harlan would produce. I also enjoy how Harlan uses familiar characters from his other previous books and as such it makes you smile just seeing the name when they read.

Dislaimer, This review may contain a few hints and spoilers, if you know Harlan Coben and prefer not to know anything about the book, I suggest you stop here and just buy the book and read it.

Caught by Harlan Coben Book Cover

A Viral Marketing Thriller
A mystery book about how Viral Marketing tear people's life apart hardly sounded interesting to me, but Harlan Coben was able to take the Internet Viral Marketing and make it into a great mystery. Wendy Tynes, who is a news reporter, has Caught yet another sick pedophile on her TV Show. However, Dan Mercer is not your average pedophile, and something about Dan has struck Wendy Tynes as being "off". While the trial for Dan Mercer is going on, a 17 year old girl comes up missing, Haley McWaid, who is a quiet girl, but also a perfectionist. Wendy decides to do some digging on Dan Mercer and some old school buddies, and what she finds will take you for one awesome ride.

Is everything as it seems? It appears not, and Wendy Tynes is bound and determined to unravel the truth, no matter what road it takes her down. With a bit of help from Win (Windsor Home Lockwood the Third appeared in the Myron Bolitar series) Wendy digs as deep as she can, but will she dig too far?

My Take
I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. The characters were laid out, in my opinion, great. If you have read the Myron Bolitar series, you will love the few appearances by Win in this book and it put a smile on my face. You will also find some brief appearances by Hester Crimstein, who is a TV Show Judge now. The book, Caught, is far from being predictable, which I love about a mystery novel. Caught also has many twists and turns and takes you for a thrill ride all the way through. In the end, I do not want to go into great detail, as I hate spoiling books, so I would highly recommend if you are a Mystery / Thriller book junkie, or just love Harlan Coben, check out Caught and give it a read, I bet you will find it hard to put the book down (I know I did).

External Resources
If you would like to see what Harlan Coben thinks about Caught, here is a YouTube video of his review:

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david Microsoft Windows 8 Developers to Code in HTML5 and JavaScript Jun 14th, 2011 7:01:00 pm - Subscribe
Windows 8 and HTML5


This entry states that Windows 8 Developers are to Code in HTML5 and JavaScript for a more graphically pleasing interface. Wow, this must really rub Windows developers the wrong way, but is it a time for WC3 standards? Let's discuses!

Microsoft has stated to developers if you wish to developer in a more immersive and Flashy front end, than you are going to have to code in HTML5 & JavaScript if you want those immersive apps that go full screen and stay in that experience you going to have to use HTML 5 and JavaScript.

Most of us are probably thinking right now. FINALLY! Microsoft is going to adopt standards into it's platform. But developers are saying, "we have decades of experience in .NET, Windows platforms, in Silverlight, and now you want us to throw away all of that? None of us have done scripting languages before!"

Microsofts rebuttal will probably be, HEY Developers! You can continue using .NET, Silverlight, etc, but everything else will be HTML5 and JavaScript coding for a more beautiful interface.

Your thoughts? I was so happy to hear about Microsoft going HTML5 to stay compliant, but now I understand all of those that are hurt by it. Is it time for a change? Does all software need HTML5 scripting? Who cares if the UI is pretty, I am more concerned with it working and functioning at 100%, but is this possible? I suppose we will have to wait for the Microsoft Build Conference in September for developers.

External Links:
Microsoft confirms its Windows developer conference is named BUILD
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frost Omaha Steaks Review Jun 14th, 2011 12:28:20 pm - Subscribe
When looking for easier way to obtain meals, I often look at fresh solutions, so to speak. When I came across this Omaha Steaks Mailer, I decided to take a look into Omaha Steaks and give them a try. My results are kind of mixed pleasures, but overall I was pleased with the product. What does get annoying is the constant mailers and phone calls. Luckily I can disable the phone calls, however, I cannot control the snail mail mailers. This is a minor annoyance, and some people may not even consider it an annoyance at all.



The Quality
Overall the quality is decent. I mean you could do just as good with a frozen steak on your own. My wife seems to think it is great quality for a frozen steak / meat and it has a great flavor. I think it is kind of so-so, the quality seems to be by preference. The burgers were very nice and easy to grill. They ship out the times to cook them, however, since we live in Colorado at a higher altitude those times needed to be adjusted. As part of a package we received some twice baked potatoes. They are almost always my favorite part of a steak dinner, and Omaha Steaks did not disappoint me with their twice baked. For coming out of a freezer, they tasted delicious, at least as good as the ones you can buy from your store's Deli section. I am not a huge hot dog / franks, fan, and unfortunately their Gourmet Franks did nothing to change my mind. They looked great, but in the end, they still tasted like a hot dog. I may try marinating them next time and see if I cannot produce a bit better Frank. My wife enjoyed them also, however, my little girl did not, which should not be surprising as she is almost 2 and can be a very picky eater. In my little test run, the quality of the food seemed decent, especially for being frozen and shipped.

The Ordering Experience
From start to finish the Omaha Steak experience could not be called "enjoyable", as when is spending money, and seemingly a lot money upfront, enjoyable? However, the easy of ordering online (I hate talking to sales people on the phone) was pretty simple, like most online ordering. With the optional account setup, I chose to setup an account. The process was basically, select what you want (in my case I just entered a promo code from the mailing). Overall, the ordering experience was simple and what was to be expected by today's standard of online ordering.

Breaking it Down
I think Omaha tends to over price their products, to intentionally "knock" down the price to make you feel like you are getting a good deal. I saw through this and broke it down to what it cost per each serving. Overall it is a decent deal, however, a membership to Costco with a vacuum pack sealer, could easily compete with the cost, and you would probably come out much better going that route. But for a small family, in my case 3, with only 2 adults this seems to be a decent deal. Why for the small family, well everything comes in it's own individually wrapped package. This is awesome as I can easily just make myself a burger and my wife a steak, if we both feel like something different, or if I am home alone watching the kid while my wife is going out. This aspect of Omaha Steaks was very appealing to me. I would imagine this being great for a single person, a small family, or perhaps an older couple whose kids have all left / gone off to college. If you have a bigger family, I would probably go the Costco / Sam's Club route, and I think that you would get more bang for your buck.

In the End
In the end I am buying another item from Omaha Steaks right now to give them another go, and it is a Father's Day special. Hopefully, it is a similar if not better experience. I do really think that this solution is not very frugal for large families and I do not like how Omaha Steaks "knocks" their prices down all the time. I mean really, it does make you feel like you are getting a deal, but it also feels like a scam. I know it is not a scam now, but I think it would present their appearance better having "real" prices and do "real" specials, instead of these constant specials and in my opinion, if you buy anything from them for their "real" price, you are a moron and you deserve to be wasting your money. Hope this review helps you decide if you want to give Omaha Steaks a try or not! Good Eatings!
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Music: omaha, steaks, review, decent, okay, mixed, pleasure, good, product, steaks, burgers, franks, hot dogs, online, ordering, experience, preference, test, trial, surprising, picky, food, frozen, delivered

david Nook Simple Touch Reader has a Web Browser Jun 14th, 2011 3:09:16 am - Subscribe
Simple Touch Nook Browser


Did you have the latest Simple Touch Reader by Barnes and Noble? If so you might be interested in knowing that it has a web browser.

The Newest Nook, The Simple Touch Reader has a web browser in side of it's system, and you don't have to root it. Barnes and Noble does not list the browser has a feature. I do not have one but it is said you can navigate to websites using the search bar. Reviewers have been stating that the browser is a little buggy, so I suppose that is why Barnes and Noble does not list it as a feature.

But is this the reason to get the Nook Simple Touch Reader? Black and white screen, with a slow refresh rate at 1 frame per second? Is the Nook cheaper than Amazon, or the Apple Bookstore? I guess if you want a reader, and browser you should get an iPad or Android Tablet.
2 Comments
Mood: good
Music: Funeral For A Friend - She Drove Me To Daytime Television

david Gmail Now Allows Pasting Images and Screenshots into Email Jun 14th, 2011 1:09:19 am - Subscribe
Google Allows Copy Paste in Gmail


This morning Gmail Now Allows Pasting Images into Email.

So how does this work? Well first off you will need Google Chrome, so the idea is to simply copy the image from an email or from the web and paste it right into the message.

It is also said that you can even post screenshots. If you are on an Apple iOS device. simply hitting:

Apple iOS Devices
Command-Control-Shirt-4 will save the screenshot to your clipboard.

Windows Operating Systems
Print Screen, CTRL+C CTRL+V

Gmail states that while this currently only works in Google Chrome, they plan on releasing this features for other browsers. This is a great feature, and I can't wait to share it for others around the office.
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david How to Optimize Your Mobile Devices for Efficiency and Productivity Jun 12th, 2011 10:04:06 pm - Subscribe
Optimize Your Mobile Devices for Efficiency and Productivity


This entry explains How to Optimize Your Mobile Devices (iPad, iPod, iPhone, and Android Devices) for Efficiency and Productivity.

The trick in doing this is limiting the amount of slides or pages on your mobile devices. The less you move around your mobile device, the more time you have to do other things, like typing up a correct TPS report.

To do this simply create folders or directories and name them properly. When organizing I always keep my names generic. The only exception are the apps the I use constantly. (eg: mail, settings, contacts, calendar, and all first slide items.

Slide one is reserved for those apps that I use constantly. When I turn on the devices, 9 times out of 10 I am choosing one of these apps. (This also includes the lower dock items.) Slide two is for all entertainment, productivity, and all other multimedia consumption apps, this includes but is not limited to Coms, Deals, Education, Entertainment, Finance, health, Lifestyle, Music, News, Photography, and so on. Finally the third slide is for games. Notice that the game folders that I have created are based on category, and not brand or games I play the most. The reason I do this is so I can find things easily with less hand gestures and eye movement.

Optimize iOS Game Slide


Keep in mind that the iPad, iPod, and iPhone search feature is there, but that will not limit your hand movements. I mean, we do our best to to type on these devices only when necessary right?

To those of you like me who have more than one mobile device stay consistent! All slides should be the same and all directories should stay organized from one device to the other. This is how I effectively save time and increase my daily productivity at work and at home.

I hope this helps you.
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david Apple Game Center Friend Request Share Jun 9th, 2011 6:07:34 pm - Subscribe
Game Center Share


Are you on iOS? Do you use Game Center, Plus+, or Open Feint? Well come share your username and give a list of games that you play, perhaps if we all share our usernames we can have a social group of friends playing Apple Game Center games.

Why don't we all share each others usernames / profiles so that we can share in the gaming iOS experience?

quote:
My Username on Game Center is:
davidpolancocom

My Username on Plus+ is:
davidpolanco

My Username on OpenFeint is:
davidpolanco

I have a great list of games that I play on a daily bases. Some of them include games such as:

1. We Rule
2. We City
3. Fruit Ninja
4. Infinity Blade

So what is your Game Center & Plus+ Username? I will be happy to add you to my friends list. Personally I believe this is a great way to play and interact with each other. If you play with in game gifts such as We Rule, expect more gifts. I don't know. I figured this would be a great way to share, and meet others in the gaming community. I don't mind being a guinnee pig since I live in public anyways. (being a blogger)

Please list your credentials as:
1. Game Center Username:
2. Plus+ Username
3. OpenFeint
4. Games that you play

I think if every one participates we can have a good list of gamers here.
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david Rovio to Release Angry Birds on the Roku Box Jun 8th, 2011 7:38:48 pm - Subscribe
Angry Birds on Roku


Rovio to Release Angry Birds on the Roku Box? Yep, and it's coming sooner than you think.

In the later part of the summer Angry Birds is to be released on the Roku Box. Personally I can't imagine playing Roku on my TV, but I think it would be pretty cool as a family game. Now is this anything like the Nintendo Wii with out the body movement?

Well either way, I think if the game gets released it should be free, but will it be ad-supported? Lots of questions, not many answers...I suppose we will have to way and see.

If you have a Roku Box be sure to check out the Channel Store every now again for the release!

External Links:
Roku bringing Angry Birds to the TV!
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frost Brueggers Bagel Sandwiches Review Jun 7th, 2011 2:18:54 pm - Subscribe
I love a fresh hot bagel for breakfast. The only thing to trump that is by throwing an Egg on it with some bacon and vegetables, thankfully, Brueggers in Lakewood, CO does just that! I have been a fan of Brueggers for a few years now and will generally have a breakfast bagel from them a few times a month. I am not one for crazy variety, if I find something I like I tend to stick with it. Brueggers offers me everything I need from my Bagel Breakfast sandwich, which I love so much!

A picture of bagels

Customer Service
Overall I would say the atmosphere at Brueggers is cozy. Whenever there is a line, I find the process to go quickly enough, as I have never waited for longer then 5-10 minutes from the time I ordered my Bagel till the time I sat down to eat it. I would call that being on the ball with service. The staff is wonderful and it is apparent they know what the are doing. I also truly enjoy their Punch Card system, buy 10 get 1 free. I usually get a "free" bagel every 2-3 Months, which in my mind is not a bad deal if I am going to be eating the Bagel anyways.

My Usual Order
As I stated, I tend to stick to something if it is good enough to stick to. At Brueggers, my favorite breakfast bagel is The Westerner on Jalapeno Cheddar. This is just an awesome bagel, I do get sort of sad when I go in hoping for my Westerner on Jalapeno Cheddar to find out they are out. The next best thing would be to have the Pesto Cheese Bagel, which is basically the Jalapeno Cheddar, just without the Jalapeno.

Overall
Overall I really enjoy Brueggers! From the speed of service, niceness of service to the quality of food, they really have their Bagel Shop down to a science. The next time you are out and about in the morning and looking for a great Bagel Breakfast, I would highly recommend stopping at Brueggers. They offer an awesome Jalapeno Bagel and of course my favorite sandwich inners, the Westerner if that is not your cup of tea, I am sure you can find something savory for yourself.
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david How to Reset & Recover Google Chrome Cr-48 Laptop Jun 5th, 2011 11:53:03 pm - Subscribe
Google Chrome Cr-48 Unresponsive


Recently I have experienced an issue with my Google Chrome Cr-48 Chromebook, and I feel that their may be others are experiencing this problem as well.

During the past 4 weeks or I set my Cr-48 down in replacement of my iPad 2. Keep in mind that I recieved my iPad 2 on the release date, but I continues using the Cr-48 for day to day use.

On one of these days I noticed after I authenticated myself in Google (logged in) on the Cr-48, and my tabs were loading, I was getting a message a few seconds later that stated.
quote:
Page(s) Unresponsive) - The following page(s) have become unresponsive. You can wait for them to becomse responsive or kill them.

Kill Pages or Wait were my options, and being the guy I am I decieded to wait. Well I waited for about 10 mins, and I recieved to log off my profile, and restart the Google Chrome Cr-48. After the 15 second reboot I logged back in to my profile, and I had the same issue. I tried another profile, (my daugthers) and I had the same problem, pages unresponsive. I logged off, and logged on as a guest, and what do you know. Pages unresponsive.

I decided to look around the Google Chrome Cr-48 forums and i found that I was not the only one experiencing these problems. Many of them (like myself) placed our Chromebooks in Dev Mode, but apparently this wasn't the issue.

A googler stated on the forums to disable the about:pages by simply entering about:pages in the address bar of the Google Chrome Cr-48, but this did'nt help either.

Others mention disabling flash, and other add-ons, but by then I was more interested in how to restet and recover my Google Chrome Cr-48 back to the day I received it.

How to Reset & Recover Google Chrome Cr-48 Laptop
1. Power down the laptop
2. Remove battery using the slide lock
3. Remove the small rectangular piece of black tape on the edge by the power prongs. (It's tuff to see, but it's there)
4. Once take is removed, slide the switch from the left to the right, then back to the left again.
5. Insert the battery that was removed from the Cr-48.
6. Now boot the Cr-48 Up

After that you should be good to go. The Cr-48 will reinstall it's self from it's partition and in a min or less you will be back to the welcome screen.

Here is a video to better help you with this, if you have any questions leave me a comment below and I will be happy to assist in any way that I can.

Reset & Recover Google Chrome Cr-48 Laptop Video Walkthrough

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david Twitters Official Imaging Service Release Jun 5th, 2011 7:27:39 pm - Subscribe
Twitter Image Service

A brief entry regarding Twitters new imaging service.

All thing D has confirmed that Twitter will be releasing an official Twitter sharing service this week at the D9 Conference. Twitters image sharing service will compete with other image sharing services such as twitpic.com and yfrog.com.

So what can we expect? Perhaps an easier image uploading service, video, or even image and video manipulation? Kind of like picnik.com? I guess we will have to see, but I am thinking more shadow boxing like Facebook integrates photos / videos in their newsfeed.

Just a guess.

External Link:
  • AllThingsD - Before Twitter’s Native Photos Came Out, Twitpic Had 46 Percent Market Share
  • Oh, follow me @davidpolanco.
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    frost Amazon Does not Accept Colorado Associates Jun 3rd, 2011 10:20:10 pm - Subscribe
    Recently, I wanted to try and sign up to be an Amazon Associate to promote a few books I have read etc. Deciding that this would be pretty trivial to setup, I ventured out to do become an Amazon Associate. Well the process was not trivial at all. When I was trying to signup, Amazon kept telling me that I had a bad state. No other error message. After using 3 different browsers and many different variations of for Colorado, thinking it wanted the state in a specific format, I opted to contact Amazon. Well here is Amazon's response:
    Amazon Not Longer Allows Coloradans to be Associates
    quote:

    Thank you for contacting us about the Colorado legislation. The Colorado government recently enacted a law to impose sales tax regulations on online retailers. The regulations are burdensome and no other state has similar rules. The new regulations do not require online retailers to collect sales tax. Instead, they are clearly intended to increase the compliance burden to a point where online retailers will be induced to "voluntarily" collect Colorado sales tax -- a course we won't take.

    We and many others strongly opposed this legislation, known as HB 10-1193, but it was enacted anyway. Regrettably, as a result of the new law, we decided to stop advertising through Associates based in Colorado. We plan to continue to sell to Colorado residents, however, and will advertise through other channels, including through Associates based in other states.

    There is a right way for Colorado to pursue its revenue goals, but this new law is a wrong way. As we repeatedly communicated to Colorado legislators, including those who sponsored and supported the new law, we are not opposed to collecting sales tax within a constitutionally permissible system applied evenhandedly. The U.S. Supreme Court has defined what would be constitutional, and if Colorado would repeal the current law or follow the constitutional approach to collection, we would welcome the opportunity to reinstate Colorado-based Associates.

    You may express your views of Colorado's new law to members of the General Assembly (http://www.leg.state.co.us/Clics/CLICS2010A/csl.nsf/directory?openframeset) and to Governor Bill Ritter (http://www.colorado.gov/cs/Satellite/GovRitter/GOVR/1177024890452), who signed the bill.

    We appreciate your understanding.

    Best regards,

    Heather T
    Amazon.com Associates Program



    Well that sucks for me and Amazon I guess. I just wish instead of blindly blocking Colorado they would have at least put an error message about it. I wasted a couple hours doing this and was not very happy. I of course understand their position, they just need to be more verbose about the situation and not try and hide it and make people even more confused. If you live in Colorado, I would ask you to take a stand, and if you feel the above is wrong, contact the Colorado General Assembly and urge them to change it.

    (sarcasm)But hey! At least Amazon still wants to sell to Coloradans. (end sarcasm) They just do not want Coloradans to become Associates to earn a little money on the side. In my opinion, if Amazon wants to do this right they need to man up and not even sell anything to Coloradans and explain why they are not doing it. I highly doubt that blocking people from being associates is going to make the Law Makers change their minds.
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    david GameStop Honoring Duke Nukem Forever Pre Orders Jun 2nd, 2011 3:13:30 pm - Subscribe
    Duke Nukem Forever Pre Order


    Finally Duke Nukem Forever is supposed to be released some time this summer. Actually, I have the release date as June 14, 2011 according to the official website .

    Did you pre order Duke Nukem Forever at any time in the last 14 years. If so (with a reciept) Game Stop is honoring all pre orders so long as you still have a receipt. Gamestop owns other companies like, EB Games, Babbage's, and Funco Lands. So if you do have that receipt from long ago they will indeed honor the amount that you reserved the game for.

    I do hope your receipt is not as faded to fail as mine is.

    External Links:
    Duke Nukem Forever Official Website
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    frost Tupac Shakur Still Alive? PBS.org Hacked! May 30th, 2011 12:06:14 am - Subscribe
    Late Sunday night, PBS.org was hacked and a news story was posted saying that Tupac Shakur and Biggie were still alive and living in a small town in New Zealand. Tupac apparently sent his Diary to a family member and the New Zealand city, to be unnamed, was closed down for security reasons. A friend of mine on IRC captured the image of the original site before it was taken down, see the image below.

    PBS.org Hacked, Tupac Shakur and Biggie alive in New Zealand, picture of article

    Not long after the posting PBS.org removed the article.

    For more information see Hacked PBS Reports Tupac Biggie Alive

    Have a great Memorial Day Weekend!
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    frost Sony Vaio F11 Laptop Review - Ubuntu Linux May 26th, 2011 10:13:16 pm - Subscribe
    Last month I was in need of a new laptop. After doing my looking at deals I came to a decision to purchase a Sony Vaio F11. It was on sale at NewEgg and had everything I was looking for in a laptop. Well the laptop was bought, thanks to David, and I have been using it solidly for about a month now. Over the month I have tried various Operating Systems on the Sony Vaio laptop, from Windows 7 to Ubuntu to Arch Linux. I have to say, my initial impressions were not great and my frustration level was very high. To avoid any real negative feedback, I still love my Vaio now that I finally have it working with Arch Linux, but it was rough getting to that point and here is how it panned out.

    Sony Vaio F11 Series Not Ubuntu Friendly

    Let's Use Ubuntu...or Not
    I have always had success with using Ubuntu, and Ubuntu is generally a 15 minute install without any hassle, especially on a brand new computer where nothing needs to be backed up. Well the Sony Vaio F11 is not an easy system to get up and running with Ubuntu. Right after the Live Ubuntu CD has been inserted you immediately encounter a problem...the touchpad does not work! Well, having used Ubuntu before and preferring not to use a touchpad, this was easy to work around to get Ubuntu installed, just tab to "Install Ubuntu" and use the keyboard shortcuts to do the rest. Ok, the installation was going through. After the installation and Ubuntu loaded up guess what? The touchpad was still not working. Having a USB Mouse to plug into the computer, I connected my eth0 to get online and do some googling using Firefox. What I found was that for whatever reason Ubuntu does not recognize the Sony Touchpad (I found this eerily weird given Ubuntu's Easy setup reputation) and there is a hack to get it working thanks to the Ubuntu Forums.

    Edit /etc/default/grub to include GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="i8042.nopnp"
    sudo update-grub


    Great, I now have a touchpad to use finally. Thinking it is wise to do an upgrade, I went ahead and ran:

    sudo apt-get update
    sudo apt-get upgrade


    The process goes through smoothly and I decide to reboot because Ubuntu tells me I need to Restart. I go ahead and reboot...wait a second, I was suppose to see Ubuntu show up...it appears the updates broke my system and now all I see is a black screen, which you can tell the system is on (given the green LED on the power button). Well this is the pits. After some more googling (from my wife's computer) it appears that the NVIDIA drivers that are in the Ubuntu repository do not go well with the Sony Vaio. The fix was again, easy, but annoying. I loaded up the Ubuntu Live CD, had my USB Mouse plugged in, went to "Try Ubuntu". Once there I loaded up a terminal (Alt + Ctrl + T) and blacklisted the NVIDIA driver. To do this I had to mount my drive and create a file, during the fdisk -l /dev/sda part, we need to find the sda number that is set for the root drive. This will generally be sda3 / sda4 / sda5, depending on how you set it up. If you did the automatic with a separate home partition it should be sda3. No matter, after you mount it, if it is not the right drive, use `umount /media/sdaX` and then try the next number. To know its the right drive, doing an `ls /media/sda` should come back with folders like `/etc` `/bin`...

    sudo su -
    cd /media
    mkdir sda
    fdisk -l /dev/sda
    mount -a /dev/sda3 /media/sda
    cd /media/sda/etc/modprobe.d/
    nano blacklist-nvidia.conf
    #Paste this text in the blacklist file
    # we black list the nouveau so we can install the proper nvidia drivers later
    blacklist nvidia
    blacklist nouveau
    #Save with Ctrl+X


    That should blacklist the driver. Before we reboot the computer, we will want to go and download the latest driver for the video card at NVIDIA, mine was a 450m Cuda, yours may be different depending on the model. We will want to save them to `/media/sda/opt`, if that is not a directory, go ahead and make it and then using Firefox, download the drivers and move them to that folder.

    Once that has been done, go ahead and reboot. Once the Ubuntu Login screen comes up, we want to run a TTY, so hold Ctrl+Alt+F2, this should take you to a terminal go ahead and login, your normal account should suffice (we will just sudo later). Once in the terminal, let's go ahead and install the proper NVIDIA drivers.

    sudo su -
    cd /opt
    chmod +x NVIDIA*
    ./NVIDIA*


    Go ahead and follow the prompts, at the end it should say it was installed, at this point we need to enable the NVIDIA driver.

    cd /etc/modprobe.d/
    nano blacklist-nvidia.conf


    Leave the nouvea driver blacklisted, but delete the nvidia line. Once this has been done and saved, type `reboot` and the computer should restart and you should have a working version of Ubuntu with the Sony Vaio F Series. Caveats, never upgrade NVIDIA from the Ubuntu Repository, it will ask you to, do not or else you have to go through this mess again. You cannot change the brightness etc without doing some modifications to the xorg.conf, if you would like this feature check out Vaio-F11 on Linux. Finally, under Linux, in order to get proper power management for a Vaio Laptop, you will need to compile a custom kernel (see the Vaio-F11 Linux site above for how to do that). Compiling a Kernel is not easy, but after you do it a few times it get's easier, given I need to re-compile mine I may write a blog about how to do it. But all in all, you now have a working Vaio F11 Series laptop on Ubuntu Linux! Congratulations (now aren't you glad you found this blog!).

    Conclusion for Ubuntu on Sony Vaio F11 Series
    I would not really recommend running Ubuntu on the Sony Vaio F11 series, until Ubuntu or Sony can address the major issues. If you do run it, at least you know the hacks / work around's to fix it. It is very unfortunate that the drivers are not compatible, and I do not blame Ubuntu in the slightest. Sony is notorious for having it's own set of drivers that use proprietary software which is not available on Linux except through hacks. It is workable, but just beware that it takes a lot of effort to get Ubuntu working on the Sony Vaio F11 Series. For me it took a good 5+ hours to find all this information and get everything "working". I formatted a few days later to see how the Sony Vaio F11 Series laptop ran on Windows 7..

    Continuation
    I will write a new blog in a few days about my experiences with the Sony Vaio F11 series laptop under Windows 7 and another on Arch Linux, given the extent of the information I have. So please check back, or better yet, subscribe to my RSS feed! I will update this blog with links once I post those items.
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