A few weeks ago I wrote a post about how to fully encrypt your dual boot computer running Windows and Ubuntu. That is how I currently have my laptop set up. It's great for security in the event my laptop gets stolen.
Well I did run into one problem with my setup though. On the Ubuntu side I ran all of the latest updates and after a reboot my Windows 7 option was missing from the Grub menu. The Truecrypt boot loader was still there, just the option to boot from Windows 7 was missing.
No problem though, I just had to add the Windows 7 entry manually. The first thing you should know is that Windows is installed on my /dev/sda1 partition. For the rest of this post I'll assume you have the same setup. Here is how I did it:
Last night I had to do a monthly release at my company, which means sitting around after hours and babysitting the developers while they deploy code to make sure they aren't screwing up anything on the servers. Not really exciting stuff, but at least I get the day off today and a free meal just for staying late!
Anyway, the developer I was working with just got a brand new Lenovo Thinkpad T530 laptop for work running Windows 7. It's pretty bad ass and my Desktop Tech, Frank, set it all up for the developer. There was one issue that went over looked though. I'm not sure Frank would have caught it because setting up the laptop doesn't require a lot of connecting to network resources or file shares, or he would have caught this issue I think.
Anyway we are sitting around and the developer says, "Hey Paul, I can't connect to Server X for some reason." I asked him to try to ping Server X and he reported back that it was timing out. I asked him what the IP address he was getting for Server X was and he gave me some strange public IP address. That was the first WTF moment.
I asked him to run ipconfig /all and tell me what IP addresses he had for his DNS servers. He reported the first two being 216.146.35.240 and 216.146.36.240, but the last two were the DNS servers handed out by DHCP. I had him check his TCP/IP properties, and sure enough two static addresses were added. I had him remove them, but a few minutes later they popped back in. Again, WTF!
Well it turns out this is fairly common on Lenovo's. It is caused by some pre-installed software called Sendori. Not sure what the purpose of it is, but it hi-jacks the DNS settings and puts a static address in there. I just had the developer uninstall Sendori, and everything was fine.
Thank God for stuff like that, or I would never have anything to write about :-)
Password security has been a constant issue ever since computers were invented. The issue with passwords is that they are becoming easier and easier for hackers to crack them, that means you have to be just as diligent keeping your passwords secure.
Check out this infographic from the folks at LifeLock that breaks down how easy it is for the bad guys to crack your password:
By now the first of several oligopoly debates has aired and the winner of the debate I suppose depends on if you are a Depublican or a Republocrat. You all know that half of America will be all googly eyed at their candidate and will completely shut out what the other candidate is saying. In short, these events don't matter.
[Edit - I did watch the debate, and I do have to say the Romney dominated. Even MSNBC (Obama's fan club) agrees.]
Yesterday, Democracy Now did a piece about how the Commission of Presidential debates is basically a scam that seeks to keep out viable 3rd parties. Well they are not the only ones realizing that this control by the two parties is a complete farce and voting for either party doesn't matter.
Now Wikileaks is trying to get out the word that voting for either party will invite absolutely zero change to our country. No matter who you vote for, you will essentially get the same government. They are asking for you to skip voting and instead donate to their cause. They are calling this campaign Vote Wikileaks. Check out their video:
I don't know about you, but the majority of Wikileaks supporters I know lean very far to the left. Left leaning voters usually vote Democrat, and Obama is the star Democrat for sure. However, if Wikileaks supporters decide that supporting truth is more important than supporting a President with a myriad of failed policies, then they might succeed in siphoning away some much needed votes for Obama in this close election.
I personally agree with Wikileaks that voting for either Obama or Romney doesn't matter. They are more alike than they are different. I don't see a lot of change coming with either of them in office. I disagree on skipping voting though. Those who don't vote, vote for a dictatorship in my opinion. Those who don't vote accept the choices others make for them in that way. Therefore I would recommend listen to the reasoning behind this video, but instead of skipping your vote, vote for a 3rd party.
By voting for a 3rd party you tell the current two party system that they are broken, and you are not going to support it any more. Even if your candidate doesn't win, that is still one less vote for a failed two party system.
What are your thoughts on the subject. Let us know in the comments!
A little while ago I started using Bill Me Later for purchasing stuff for Bauer-Power and for Tech Chop. It was quick and easy, plus it easily integrated with my Paypal account. Well a few months ago I finally went big-time and got a business credit card to use with my online ventures and wanted to transfer the balance of my Bill Me Later account to the credit card.
The problem with that is that Bill Me Later only allows you to make cash payments by bank transfer. Same with trying to go through Paypal to make payments. That means in order to transfer the funds to your credit card you have to get a cash advance. That usually means borrowing at a ridiculously high rate. A rate that is higher than the normal purchase rate.
Well I found a good workaround if you have either an Android phone or an iPhone. There is an app called Squareup that allows you to accept credit cards from your smart phone. They offer a scanner, but you don't need it. You just need to sign up for a free account for an individual. Pretty simple right?
Now all you need to do is install their free app and login with your credentials. You can manually enter your card information and the amount you need to pay off your Bill Me Later balance. There is a charge of 2.75% per swipe so you will want to account for that, however after you are done you will receive money in your bank account and your credit card company will look at it like a regular purchase transaction instead of a cash advance! Boom!
The money transfer will occur usually the next business day. That means the day after you do this, you can send your cash into Bill Me Later and clear out that account.
Know of an easier way to transfer your Bill Me Later balance to a credit card? Maybe one that won't cost you an extra 2.75%? Let me know in the comments.
Last Friday I wrote about how I had deleted my personal Facebook profile, and I was going to delete my personal Twitter account today. Well, it turns out I don't have the strength to do it. My addiction is too strong. Not to mention that after having pressed the delete button on Thursday night it, and before undoing the delete on Sunday morning, I got to thinking about how futile that move really is.
The whole purpose of that exercise was a reaction to the news of the Stellar Wind project that the Government implemented under the Bush Administration right after 9/11. If you haven't heard of it here is a description from Wikipedia:
Stellar Wind is the open secret code name for certain information collection activities performed by the United States' National Security Agency and revealed by Thomas M. Tamm to New York Times reporters James Risen and Eric Lichtblau.[1] The operation was approved by President George W. Bush shortly after the September 11 attacks in 2001.[2]
The program's activities involve data mining of a large database of the communications of American citizens, including e-mail communications, phone conversations, financial transactions, and Internet activity.[1]
There were internal disputes within the Justice Department about the legality of the program, because data are collected for large numbers of people, not just the subjects of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants.[3] In March 2004, the Justice Department under Attorney General John Ashcroft ruled that the program was illegal. The day after the ruling, Ashcroft became critically ill with acute pancreatitis. President Bush sent White House counsel Alberto Gonzales and Chief of Staff Andrew Card, Jr. to Ashcroft's hospital bed, where Ashcroft lay semiconscious, to request that he sign a document reversing the Justice Department's ruling. However, Ashcroft was incapable of signing the document. Bush then reauthorized the operation, over formal Justice Department objections. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director Robert Mueller, Acting Attorney General James Comey, and many prominent members of the Justice Department were prepared to resign over the matter. Valerie Caproni the FBI general counsel, said, "From my perspective, there was a very real likelihood of a collapse of government." Bush subsequently reversed the authorization.[2]
During the Bush Administration, the Stellar Wind cases were referred to by FBI agents as "pizza cases" because many seemingly suspicious cases turned out to be food takeout orders. Approximately 99 percent of the cases led nowhere, but 1 percent bore fruit.[2] One of the known uses of these data were the creation of suspicious activity reports, or "SARS", about people suspected of terrorist activities. It was one of these reports that revealed former New York governor Elliot Spitzer's use of prostitutes, even though he was not suspected of terrorist activities.[1]
In March 2012 Wired Magazine published "The NSA Is Building the Country’s Biggest Spy Center (Watch What You Say)" talking about a new NSA facility and says "For the first time, a former NSA official has gone on the record to describe the program, codenamed Stellar Wind, in detail." Naming the official William Binney a former NSA code breaker. Binney goes on to say that the NSA has highly secured rooms that tap into major switches, and satellite communications at AT&T and Verizon both.[4] The article suggests that the otherwise dispatched Stellar Wind is actually an active program.
As Wikipedia says, the NSA isn't just monitoring social media. They are monitoring e-mail, phone conversations, financial transactions, and pretty much all Internet activity. That means that the only way to stay under the NSA's RADAR all the time, you pretty much have to go live in a tent our in the woods. Needless to say, deleting your Facebook makes no difference.
Plus I got to thinking that if the NSA gets me to get rid of my social media presence out of fear, then they in essence silence me and my dissent. Since freedom of speech is still legal in the United States at the time of this writing, that means that if they silence me they WIN. Well screw them! You won't silence me!
Okay, time for a little break from all of the politics and to get back to some new and exciting technology. This time the technology we are talking about involves money. Okay, there may be some politics in this, but nothing too crazy. Mainly some references to our ridiculous Federal Reserve program.
So what am I talking about? It's a relatively new virtual currency called Bitcoin. It is a peer-to-peer based currency which means that there is no central authority like a Government, bank or clearing house controlling it. Plus it is a very REAL currency with an exchange rate, that is actually doing much better than the American dollar. In fact at the time of this writing 1 bitcoin (BTC) is worth about $12.44 according to Mt. Gox, the Internet's number one Bitcoin exchange. Here is a description from the organization that created Bitcoin:
Bitcoin is an experimental new digital currency that enables instant payments to anyone, anywhere in the world. Bitcoin uses peer-to-peer technology to operate with no central authority: managing transactions and issuing money are carried out collectively by the network. Bitcoin is also the name of the open source software which enables the use of this currency.
Not only that, but all transactions are anonymous. Sort of like cash except even more so because in order to send money you don't have to be there to make the transaction. You can send it electronically. Plus all transactions are protected using very high grade encryption. That means if you are worried about privacy, this might be the perfect way to use your money without a nosey Government being all up in your business.
Also, unlike other forms of electronic transactions, there are no central banks or entities that the Government can use to trace where funds go. It's nice for the privacy conscious.
Check out this video made by We Use Coins, a group who is trying to make Bitcoin easier to use and understand for beginners.:
If you want to see an example of Bitcoin in action, you can take a look at Wikileaks. If you have been living under a rock, Wikileaks is a site that provides Government and corporate whistle-blowers a means of disseminating secrets to the public. They are also currently being persecuted by the US Government for releasing an epic ton of classified Government documents.
I personally am not ready to convert all of my money to Bitcoin, but I am trying it out. I am using a Bitcoin mining site right now to try to generate revenue, and if things go well I may use it more. Who knows?
Do you use Bitcoin? Why are why not? Any good tips? Where are some good online stores that accept Bitcoin? Let us know in the comments!
10:00 AM
Paul B
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