Category: Technology

• Beware of Phishing

  08.04.08 |Scam, Technology| Permalink | Comments Off on Beware of Phishing

  Today Phishing comes in many forms. Be aware of it and never fall into the trap. When I first discovered phishing, it was in the form of email. The email will ask you to go to certain site which the sender will make you think that it is legitimate.

  An example would be an email from your personal bank asking you to update your personal information in the bank site. The site will have the bank logo, the same look and exactly the same functions. But the URL is different from the usual. If you update any personal information like login and password, you will fall in the trap and may lose money over it. To avoid, do check the URL and make sure it is really legitimate.

  Second type of phishing is through SMS where they send you a SMS saying you won a million dollars. In order to get 1 million prize money, you need to deposit a few thousand to their bank account. Don’t be greedy even if they claim that they are from reputable company. Do check with the stated company by calling their company hotlines and not the contact in the SMS.

  Third type of phishing is through phone where someone called you up, saying that they are your bank officer. They want to do bank maintenance and they will fish for confidential information. Do not give them any login or password! Better still, do not give them any information but take his/her name and contact. Call back the bank and check the references.

  Beware of Phishing, they are out there to get U!

  
  
  

• Upgraded to iPhone 2.0

  07.30.08 |iPhone, Technology| Permalink | 3 Comments

  
  
  

  Finally I upgrade my first generation iPhone to 2.0. With some tips from my friends, it was easily done. It took a mere 10 minutes but of coz the download of files and recovered back up data took longer. For those who want the crack version, you can look at iclarified site. Instructions are very detailed. Please backup before doing anything.

  How is the new version? Good and bad, let me talk about the bad. It is no longer installer.app but Cydia installer. I do not like Cydia as it does not allow me to add new source. You can only install apps that are there. Some claims that old apps will not be able to work on 2.0, another bad. I will miss my iZoo, iWoman, Bible Reader, weDict with pronunciation and others.

  The good, there are more new apps available. I have to install it through iTunes 7.7. There are a lot of free apps out there. For you to sign up to iTunes, you need an AppleID . The bad is when you register, it asks for your credit card or pay pal US account.

  Now it has a search in the contact lists which is good. It allows me connect to CISCO VPN which means I can download my company email when I am connected. And I finally got my ringtones of my favorite songs working.

  There is as far as I went for a night’s work. I will blog about this when I discovered more. Do let me know if you find any good apps out there.

• Laser Computer Mouse

  07.25.08 |Technology| Permalink | 2 Comments

  I blog about my computer mouse before. After using it for 3 months, I am very satisfied with it. Why?

  First I discovered that it has a 2 year warranty. I was very surprised by it because I never knew a computer mouse has warranty. Later I found out my other MAC mouse also have warranty.

  Secondly it runs on batteries as it is a laser mouse. It has provided a USB charger with 4 chargeable batteries. The mouse uses only 2 batteries. I can interchange the batteries after the battery is dead and on top of that, the charger is very useful. Environmental Friendly.

  Thirdly it is portable as I can carry it with me anywhere. However the receiver is a little bit bulky but I can live with that. I still like the previous one I had, it was a prototype that the receiver can be kept in the mouse itself. The design was definitely better.

  I will see how long this laser mouse can last. It should be 2 years, else I get a new one free. 🙂

  
  
  

• Hate Spam & Block It Out For Good

  07.02.08 |Technology| Permalink | Comments Off on Hate Spam & Block It Out For Good

  I created a public forum for new mothers using PHPBB. It has been running for a few years and last year it started to get registration spam. Bots were creating accounts maliciously. However they cannot spam the forum because they can never get themselves activated. The forum still needs an admin to activate it.

  I am not sure why they want to spam a local forum. They really have nothing better to do. I constantly get email, 30-40 emails per day on account creation. I was too lazy to look at the php code to fix it.

  Today while I was sick of working, I took a look at the code and fix the spam problems for good. It took me 30 minutes to fix it. Now the forum totally block out spam for good. I haven’t received a single email on activation of account now. They can leave my mail box in peace.

  If you want to block out spam in forum, try writing the simple registration form yourselves. It is not that difficult with php. The bots will be clueless on how to spam your forum and they do not want to spend extra time on it. You will be left alone.

• iProtected

  06.24.08 |Technology| Permalink | 3 Comments

  You can steal my notebook but you cannot steal my data. Recently my company bought the encryption software called PGP to protect the data in the notebook. The data in my notebook is not encrypted.

  Even if you steal my notebook, you cannot get to my data. It is encrypted with a security password. It is a powerful tool and it encrypt the whole hard disk.

  It is very simple to install, in fact I didn’t know it was installed until it asked me for a password. It is advisable to defrag the hard disk before installation, it will speed things up.

  After it is done, it will ask you for a password.
  Now every time I boot up my notebook, it will request for a password before loading the operating system. I heard with this software you can even protect your mobile phone.

  Let’s hope I don’t have amnesia and forget my password.

• Hunt The Mouse Down

  04.22.08 |Technology| Permalink | 2 Comments

  Last weekend, PC fair in PISA and boy there was lots of people. Not only that, people was buying a whole lot of things. I saw many people coming out with bags and trolleys to wheel their electronic gadgets home. It was jam pack in the stadium.

  I was a last minute shopper. I wormed my way in and was given at most 20 minutes because my family was waiting outside. I went for a mouse hunt. I wanted a wireless mouse. The ball mouse were dirt cheap, wonder anyone still uses that. I couldn’t decide whether I should pick an optical mouse or a laser mouse. Well it all depends on price.

  I found that a lot of wireless mouse were very small in size and had ergo problem. I finally found one that I can live with. Let’s hope it doesn’t break down fast. It is a wireless laser mouse. What I like about it was it is bigger and has a USB charger. Yeap, I have to play my part to save the environment. You too!

  
  
  

  One thing I like to say about the packaging for the mouse. It is not very customer friendly. I don’t understand why companies want to use so much plastic to wrap a mouse. It is also tough for me to open, nearly cut my fingers.

  
  
  

  The verdict on the mouse, so far I was able to plug and use it without much configuration. However the receiver is huge compare to the last one I had. Let’s hope it will stick with me for at least 2 years.

• Apple iPhone Arrived

  03.25.08 |iPhone, Technology| Permalink | 10 Comments

  Finally, the iPhone I ordered from apple store cost US399 arrived today. I got this for my husband as I wanted a 16G one. Mine will arrive sometime in May. However I am equally excited. Why? Because this is the first time I hacked the iPhone.

  Now it is pretty easy to unlock, jailbreak or activate the iPhone so that I can use it with the local telco. I have been waiting for iPhone to come to Malaysia for so long. I couldn’t wait any longer. As soon as I found out from my friend, it can be hacked using a software, I made a purchased.

  Here is the cool software:

  
  
  

  Yeap, tested and it works. There is cool software you can install in the iPhone if you know how. You can even use it as a game boy. Ok, I can go on and on about it forever but I shall not. It is late and I wanna snooze.

  P/S Everyone: Don’t let any sales ppl cheat you of your money, charging you a bundle to hack. By the way, it takes only 10 minutes to do it. Download and unzip, install on yr PC, hook yr phone and start it up, click the button on the software and it does the job.

  
  

  

  
  

• The Only Battery You Will Need

  03.18.08 |Technology| Permalink | 2 Comments

  Often I get frustrated when I see good shots and my digital camera beeps to tell me battery running low. No matter what type of rechargeable batteries I used or alkaline battery I bought, it goes low fairly quickly.

  A camera shop introduced Sanyo Eneloop batteries to me but it was too pricey here. Recently I went to Singapore and got a pack with the charger. I found out that Changi Airport was the cheapest. 2 AA batteries with charger were SGD27.00 with no tax. With Eneloop, I can take up to 500 shots with my camera. You can read all the good reviews written about the batteries.

  I am happy as long as my digital camera doesn’t beeps. Now I need not buy any more alkaline battery and pollute the environment. It can be charged up to 1000 times. One good thing about Eneloop, you can use it immediately without charging it. This is because the Eneloop has a very low self-discharge. You can keep it for 6 months without used it still have 85% of the energy. It works like a disposable battery and also a rechargeable battery. You do not need to keep charging it every time.

  
  
  

• Meaningless Message

  01.02.08 |Technology| Permalink | 1 Comment

  Have you ever receive such message where you cannot do anything with it?

  Ad: Lam called and urgently looking for you.
  Me: *no idea who Lam is* Did he say what it was?
  Ad: No
  Me: Did you ask for his contact number?
  Ad: No
  Me: What do you want me to do?
  Ad: *speechless*

  Now what should I do with message like this. I think my voicemail box does a better job, at least the caller would leave his/her contact in it.

  I know some of us are not used to leaving message on a recording machine. I was once like that but got the hang of it after I started my job here in Penang. Everyone is given a virtual receptionist. A few classic voice messages that I received that I love to share:

  VM#1

  Hello, hello, ……*tut* *tut* *tut*….

  VM#2

  *music*

  VM#3

  Hi, I am calling from ABC and would like you to call me back. *what number should I dial?*

  VM#4

  Hi, I am bla…bla…bla…Please call me back at 2…7421. *too fast to catch what the number was, even after replaying the message a few times*

  VM#5

  Bla bla bla……………………bla bla….bla bla bla…. *ran out of memory*

• Blu Ray

  11.30.07 |Technology| Permalink | 1 Comment

  Yesterday I was browsing the electronic store and found this blu ray player. I asked my hubby what is blu ray? He told me it is a new technology. Blu Ray is the next generation optical disc format that is better than DVD or VCD.

  With Blu Ray, we are able to do recording, rewriting and playback with high definition video. It can store last amount of data. I heard 5 times more that DVD. WOW. I am talking about 25G or 50G of data and it is erasable.

  However now you need a player to be able to play Blu Ray Disc. Time to change your player.