Tech DC http://www.techdc.com home and office computer support for D.C., Virginia & Maryland Wed, 16 May 2012 20:41:47 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Rejuvenate Original iPhone with Whited00r http://www.techdc.com/rejuvenate-original-iphone-with-whited00r http://www.techdc.com/rejuvenate-original-iphone-with-whited00r#comments Thu, 10 May 2012 14:15:07 +0000 Rick http://www.techdc.com/?p=3827 No Apps

The original iPhone can only be updated to run version 3.1.3 of iOS. This means that the vast majority of apps in the iTunes App Store can not be loaded onto the original iPhone. It would be nice if Apple allowed developers to keep old versions in the App Store for people with [...]]]> No Apps

The original iPhone can only be updated to run version 3.1.3 of iOS. This means that the vast majority of apps in the iTunes App Store can not be loaded onto the original iPhone. It would be nice if Apple allowed developers to keep old versions in the App Store for people with old devices. But since they don’t, it’s great that you can jailbreak the phone to allow many apps to run.

Jailbreak Steps

I followed these instructions from iPhoneBlogr. This not only jailbroke the phone. It also unlocked the phone so that it could be used on non-AT&T carriers, especially useful if I want to use the phone when traveling abroad.

Then I restored the phone in iTunes using Whited00r 5.1.

Whited00r gives you a new app store with a links to older working versions of Skype, Twitter, Facebook, etc.

Conclusion

Performing the jailbreak can be a little scary for some people. But if you have your iPhone 2G or original iPod Touch in the closet or ready to go in the trash, give this a try. They are still good devices if you make the Whited00r updates.

]]> http://www.techdc.com/rejuvenate-original-iphone-with-whited00r/feed 0 Spam Scam http://www.techdc.com/spam-scam http://www.techdc.com/spam-scam#comments Tue, 10 Apr 2012 13:28:52 +0000 Rick http://www.techdc.com/?p=3809 This will be my last post. I’m retiring since I won “some huge amount of United States Dollars” in the lotto. How did I win when I’ve never played the lotto? It’s easily explained in this email I got today. I just need to send the Lieutenant General or General all my personal information. I [...]]]> This will be my last post. I’m retiring since I won “some huge amount of United States Dollars” in the lotto. How did I win when I’ve never played the lotto? It’s easily explained in this email I got today. I just need to send the Lieutenant General or General all my personal information. I literally can’t believe my luck.

I am Lieutenant General Peter A. Blay (Chief of the Defense Staff (Ghana). I am mailing you in respect, of the present development going on here in my country GHANA.

I decided to contact you, after much investigation which was carried out by the Bureau of National Investigation (BNI) and the Ghana Police Service, to make sure our country is free of these fraudulent activities,which is going on here in Africa and for our country to bear a good name.

The Airport Authority detected some trunk boxes after been scanned the authorities detected that the boxes contains funds on your name and email that has been tempered on, they were been smuggled into the country by foreign Personnel who were on transit from London.

These men were trying to enter the country with the trunk boxes, when the airport authority detected that these boxes contains, some huge amount of United State Dollars. After much investigation we found out that these men were among those men, spoiling the good name of Africa.

They opened up to us that, they actually work with a Lotto company before their dismissal and used the opportunity to perpetuate their crimes, they told us that the funds inside the boxes was won by you, but now they planned to turn back on you and decided to take the money all to themselves out of the country. We later found out on the investigation that was carried that, these men are truly members of a well established organization to act on their criminal activities.

As I write you this mail now, the three(3) men that were caught are now in the custody of the Ghana Police Service over here in our country Ghana,while we are trying to track the others left, because they have proved to us that they belong to one organization.

That is why we have to reach you by your mail address and name that was tagged the boxes, so we can make the arrangement on the transfer of the funds to your designation.

Your urgent response will be very much appreciated as soon as you have received this email.

Thank you for your kind attention, for us to make sure our beloved country Ghana, bears a good name.

Please in your reply include your
A: FULL NAMES
B: ADDRESS
C: DIRECT CONTACT PHONE NUMBER
D: SCANNED COPY OF YOUR INTERNATIONAL PASSPORT OR ANY RELEVANT IDENTIFICATION PASSPORT.

As this information will be required, by the authorities in Ghana to draft the new change of ownership in your name as the rightful owner of the funds in our custody and also to verify the information given to us because the documentations covering the boxes have been tampered on.

Regards,
General Peter A. Blay

]]> http://www.techdc.com/spam-scam/feed 0 First Real Malware for Mac http://www.techdc.com/first-real-malware-for-mac http://www.techdc.com/first-real-malware-for-mac#comments Mon, 09 Apr 2012 18:59:24 +0000 Rick http://www.techdc.com/?p=3776 Flashback

Flashback is the first malware (malicious software or virus) for the Mac that people should worry about. It can infect computers through a vulnerability in Java. It’s estimated that 600,000 Macs have been infected, about 1% of Macs in use. Flashback collects personal information such as bank and login information. To see if your [...]]]> Flashback

Flashback is the first malware (malicious software or virus) for the Mac that people should worry about. It can infect computers through a vulnerability in Java. It’s estimated that 600,000 Macs have been infected, about 1% of Macs in use. Flashback collects personal information such as bank and login information. To see if your Mac is already infected, follow the instructions from Macworld.

Unlike with Windows PCs, this phenomena is new to Macs. The closest previous infection I remember was when a torrent version of Apple iWork ’09 contained a trojan. But that just impacted people who downloaded the pirated torrent. Flashback is far worse since someone can get it by just visiting a website.

Protection

It’s easy to protect yourself against malware and viruses on a Mac. There is no need to buy anti-virus software which doesn’t really help much on a Mac. Instead, take these steps that deal with the exploits of Java and Flash.

1. Perform Software Update

Apple’s updates automatically patch Java and remove Flashback. Open System Preferences and go to Software Update, Check Now.

2. Disable Java in any web browser you use

Safari
Go to the menu item:
Preferences -> Security -> Web Content
Uncheck Enable Java

Chrome
Go to the URL:
chrome://plugins/
Click Disable for Java

Firefox
Go to the menu item:
Tools -> Add-ons
Click on Plugins and click Disable for the Java Applet Plug-in

3. Install a Flash Blocker

My favorite is ClickToFlash, the Safari Extension which gives you access to Flash content if you click on the Flash window. This has the additional benefit of hiding annoying Flash ads.

Another tool I use is FlashFrozen, available for $0.99 through the Mac App Store. This handles all Flash running on your computer. It is especially useful for Mac laptops which can have their batteries quickly run down by errant Flash sites.

 

UPDATE: Oracle (the owners of Java) have released their own Java updates now. If you have Java installed on your system, you should get the latest Java SE Development Kit from here:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jdk-7u4-downloads-1591156.html
After installing, go to Utilities – Java Preference. From there, drag the latest Java to the top. As of this writing, that is Java SE 7. Uncheck the older Java versions. The next time you start a program that uses Java, it will now use the newer Oracle Java that has the latest security patches.

]]> http://www.techdc.com/first-real-malware-for-mac/feed 0 Fax a PDF from a Mac http://www.techdc.com/fax-a-pdf-from-a-mac http://www.techdc.com/fax-a-pdf-from-a-mac#comments Sat, 31 Mar 2012 19:20:11 +0000 Robert http://www.techdc.com/?p=3763 Faxing seems to be an ancient technology that just won’t die.  It is still embraced, often even preferred or required, by many businesses.  Most people don’t want to have to own a fax machine any more but do have to fax from time to time.  There is a modern day solution.  You can easily fax [...]]]> Faxing seems to be an ancient technology that just won’t die.  It is still embraced, often even preferred or required, by many businesses.  Most people don’t want to have to own a fax machine any more but do have to fax from time to time.  There is a modern day solution.  You can easily fax any PDF from a Mac.  And since you can convert anything in a browser to a PDF easily on a Mac, it allows you to fax almost anything you could print out.

Apple makes a USB fax modem but sadly, they’ve not maintained it so it doesn’t work on the latest Macs any more.  Fortunately, US Robotics makes a great US Robotics USB Fax Modem that is compatible with a Mac.

Once plugged into a Mac, you’ll notice you have gained a new option via the Print PDF menu.

If you’re like me and have dropped your expensive home phone service for a cheaper Voice over IP phone line, then you may have a little more work to do to actually get a fax to go through.  In the case of the popular Ooma Telo Free Home Phone Service, you have to tell the line that you are about to fax so it can optimize the connection.  This is done by prepending a *99,, to the phone number you are faxing to.

]]> http://www.techdc.com/fax-a-pdf-from-a-mac/feed 0 Seagate Momentus Hybrid Hard Drive http://www.techdc.com/seagate-momentus-hybrid-hard-drive http://www.techdc.com/seagate-momentus-hybrid-hard-drive#comments Sat, 10 Mar 2012 21:40:11 +0000 Rick http://www.techdc.com/?p=3753 I recently upgraded the client’s old laptop hard drive laptop to a hybrid drive from Seagate: Seagate Momentus XT 750 GB

Hybrid

What’s special about it? It’s got 8GB of solid state drive. That makes its speed somewhere between a standard hard drive an SSD. The drive intelligently moves commonly used files to the solid [...]]]> I recently upgraded the client’s old laptop hard drive laptop to a hybrid drive from Seagate:
Seagate Momentus XT 750 GB

Hybrid

What’s special about it? It’s got 8GB of solid state drive. That makes its speed somewhere between a standard hard drive an SSD. The drive intelligently moves commonly used files to the solid state portion. The hard drive handles all that on its own, appearing to the computer as just one drive.

With the original hard drive in this 5 year old Mac, it booted up in 55 seconds. With the new drive it booted up in 43 seconds. But after three boots, it had moved the boot files to the SSD and was booting up in 24 seconds. It felt much faster for common tasks and commonly used programs.

If you need a large fast drive, this Seagate is a great compromise. SSDs at 750GB are prohibitively expensive. And standard hard drives are much slower.

]]> http://www.techdc.com/seagate-momentus-hybrid-hard-drive/feed 0 Why People Torrent http://www.techdc.com/why-people-torrent http://www.techdc.com/why-people-torrent#comments Tue, 21 Feb 2012 14:19:11 +0000 Rick http://www.techdc.com/?p=3741 Cartoon from The Oatmeal depicting why people torrent content illegally.

It’s clear why people torrent. But it took me a while to figure out why HBO does not offer HBO GO, their internet video streaming service, as a stand-alone option outside of cable, even for a high fee like $40/month. HBO’s co-president Eric Kessler [...]]]> Cartoon from The Oatmeal depicting why people torrent content illegally.

It’s clear why people torrent. But it took me a while to figure out why HBO does not offer HBO GO, their internet video streaming service, as a stand-alone option outside of cable, even for a high fee like $40/month. HBO’s co-president Eric Kessler said that they would never offer HBO GO for sale to non-cable subscribers.

The reason is that HBO is owned by Time Warner Cable. They want to keep the existing cable TV model going. Time Warner doesn’t want to become a “dumb pipe” for TV programming streamed from others.

An independent HBO would clearly find that it makes business sense to offer HBO GO for sale and bypass the cable/satellite providers. So Time Warner created a content/distribution cabal that unfortunately limits the options to consumers. Comcast purchased NBC for the same reason.

See Freepress’s ownership charts showing all the vertically integrated media organizations.

]]> http://www.techdc.com/why-people-torrent/feed 0 Sodastream Hack http://www.techdc.com/sodastream-hack http://www.techdc.com/sodastream-hack#comments Thu, 16 Feb 2012 22:51:06 +0000 Rick http://www.techdc.com/?p=3713 Sodastream is great at making bubbly water. To save on the cost and time needed to switch out the CO2 canisters, I decided to hook up a regular CO2 tank instead of using the small canisters from Sodastream.

ITEMS NEEDED

1) FreedomOne+ adapter from CO2 Doctor on this order page. I ordered the model [...]]]> Sodastream is great at making bubbly water. To save on the cost and time needed to switch out the CO2 canisters, I decided to hook up a regular CO2 tank instead of using the small canisters from Sodastream.

ITEMS NEEDED

1) FreedomOne+ adapter from CO2 Doctor on this order page. I ordered the model with 72H (meaning 72 inch length straight cable) and CGAWG (connector type for standard CO2 tanks, as opposed to PBWG for Paintball Tank connector). Other companies make similar adapters, but this one is well built and the company is helpful and responsive. With this modification from the CO2 Doctor, a 5 or 20 pound tank can be connected.

2) 5 lb CO2 tank that I fill at my local paintball store for $10. Gas companies also do refills. I consider myself a normal-to-heavy user of Sodastream with a few glasses/day. I make extra fizzy water (4-7 farts of the Sodastream, depending on mood). My pressure gauge still shows that I have a lot of CO2 left and I’ve been using the single 5 lb tank for over 6 months.

3) Sodastream. I liked the look of the Sodastream Pure model the most. It can hold only the smaller 14.5 oz cylinders which is fine because I’m not using the internal tank. I drilled a hole at the bottom of it and another hole in my kitchen counter to hide my large tank underneath (see pics).

VALUE

This isn’t cheap at $300 total: adapter from CO2 Doctor ($130), Sodastream ($80-130), CO2 tank ($65), and a single fill-up ($10). But any addict to carbonated water can easily spend this in under a year. And the ongoing cost or marginal cost per additional amount of carbonated water after the initial cost is almost nothing.

SODA

You can easily add syrups to make your own sodas. The Sodastream syrups don’t taste good to me and they contain Aspartame. Instead try the great syrups from Pittsburg Soda Pop.

]]> http://www.techdc.com/sodastream-hack/feed 0 SEO Services Continued http://www.techdc.com/seo-services-continued http://www.techdc.com/seo-services-continued#comments Mon, 13 Feb 2012 22:10:06 +0000 Rick http://www.techdc.com/?p=3710 Just got this Spam.

I had stopped by your site and took a look at your ranking for some of your terms and just wondered if you’d be at all interested in having your site improved in terms of where it’s ranked on the major engines with the terms you’d like as well as some I’d [...]]]> Just got this Spam.

I had stopped by your site and took a look at your ranking for some of your terms and just wondered if you’d be at all interested in having your site improved in terms of where it’s ranked on the major engines with the terms you’d like as well as some I’d like to suggest. I can get your site a much better ranking and have done so for about 400 people to date. Many of which now have a first page listing for ther keywords they wanted. Yes, I’m a real person, Yes, I actually just came back from viewing your site. I already know you get a ton of offers day to day. This is obviously different, I have plenty of references, work from home alone, have been doing this since the early 90′s and still find time to raise 3 little girls.

Call me at home if you want to, check out my site [removed]. I work at home all day long helping people out with their traffic and sites, automating page content updates via rss feeds (google loves that), doing press releases, article creation and distribution, building one way inbound links, Social Bookmarking, starting RSS feeds for your site, setting up Web 2.0 properties, social networking help for twitter followers, Facebook likes, setting up link wheels, etc. I have clients that are swearing by what it is I do for them and would love to show you some examples if you’re at all interested. Otherwise I won’t bother you again.

Winston
(319) XXX-XXXX
PO Box 8822
Cedar Rapids, IA 52408

So Winston, you’re a real person who just read my site. Did you read my most recent post on SEO Spammers like yourself?

]]> http://www.techdc.com/seo-services-continued/feed 0 SEO Services http://www.techdc.com/seo-services http://www.techdc.com/seo-services#comments Thu, 12 Jan 2012 14:23:26 +0000 Rick http://www.techdc.com/?p=3703 As always, I recommend to ignore spam emails suggesting that someone will improve your search rank by performing Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Google knows about the tactics that SEO Consultants use. And if Google notices that you are artificially trying to improve your rank, they can penalize or ban your site from their search. Instead, the best [...]]]> As always, I recommend to ignore spam emails suggesting that someone will improve your search rank by performing Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Google knows about the tactics that SEO Consultants use. And if Google notices that you are artificially trying to improve your rank, they can penalize or ban your site from their search. Instead, the best way to improve search rank is follow our Google SEO and Other Search Engine Results Performance Suggestions.

Here’s the latest SEO spam that I received from sify.com:

Hi,

I am Sunny, SEO Consultant.

I hope you are doing well and have time to read my proposal.

Advertising in the online world is one of the most inexpensive and highly effective methods of promoting a business.

We are a Leading Indian Based SEO & Web Development Company and one of the very few companies which offer organic SEO Services with a full range of supporting services such as one way themed text links, blog submissions, directory submissions, article writing and postings, etc.

We are a team of 85+ professionals which includes 28 full time SEO experts. We are proud to inform you that our team handled 180+ SEO projects and obtained 100000+ manually built links in the past 1 year.

Let me know if you are interested and I’ll present you with a proposal that would not only improve sales of your company but also brand your products.

Feel free to contact me in case of any enquiry.

Kind Regards
Name: Sunny
Designation: Online SEO Consultant
Country: India

]]> http://www.techdc.com/seo-services/feed 0 Unlock SIM for International Travel http://www.techdc.com/unlock-sim-for-international-travel http://www.techdc.com/unlock-sim-for-international-travel#comments Sat, 17 Dec 2011 19:27:35 +0000 Rick http://www.techdc.com/?p=3701 If you travel internationally, it’s nice to be able to put in a local-country SIM card for Internet and calls. This is far cheaper than International Roaming.

AT&T won’t do it

I just confirmed with AT&T that they changed their policy. They no longer unlock the SIM card on iPhones, even for customers in good [...]]]> If you travel internationally, it’s nice to be able to put in a local-country SIM card for Internet and calls. This is far cheaper than International Roaming.

AT&T won’t do it

I just confirmed with AT&T that they changed their policy. They no longer unlock the SIM card on iPhones, even for customers in good standing for over a year. Compare this to Verizon that will unlock a phone after 3 months.

So if you are buying an iPhone and travel internationally, don’t chose AT&T as your carrier.

]]> http://www.techdc.com/unlock-sim-for-international-travel/feed 0