Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Team afterbug is proud to announce a new tool for your crypto toolbox: GnuPG Shell.
GnuPG Shell
GnuPG Shell is a cross-platform graphical frontend for GNU Privacy Guard.
GnuPG Shell can be used to encrypt, decrypt, and sign files, to verify signatures and to manage private and public keys.
In addition to source code, we provide pre-built installation packages for Debian Linux, RedHat Linux, and Microsoft Windows.
GnuPG Shell is built using:
- Python- An interpreted, interactive, object-oriented, extensible programming language.
- wxWidgets - A cross-platform GUI and tools library for GTK, MS Windows, and MacOS.
- Code::Blocks - A cross-platform IDE built around wxWidgets, designed to be extensible and configurable.
GnuPG Shell should make it a shell of a lot easier to keep your data secure. 
Alexa shows that, after the United States, Brazil is the second largest concentration of afterbug readers.
The top five countries for afterbug readers are:
We welcome our visitors from these countries, and from all of the nations of the earth!
LibriVox volunteers record chapters of books in the public domain and release the audio files on the Internet. The goal of Librivox is to make all public domain books available as free audio books.
The free audio books are available in MP3 and Ogg formats.
LibriVox has over 1,000 free audio books in the catalog. Download one for your iPod today.
Ever wonder what it would be like typing without a 
keyboard. Check out the Celluon Laserkey CL800BT which offers a look into the future of desk space saving and convienient typing. How it works is the mini tower that is the size of a large PDA projects a laser keyboard onto the surface in front on it. Just tapping your fingers on a plain desk surface with a projected keyboard is all it takes to type something up.
The laser is a red laser diode that casts a keyboard image on a surface, works best with non-reflective, opaque flat surfaces. The keyboard is in a regular sized QWERTY style and is visible in 1000-5000 lux ambient light.
The Celluon Laserkey CL800BT picks up 400 characters per minute which is pretty good for the average keyboard user especially a user getting used to pressing their fingers on a regular flat surface, so unique and cool.
The Celluon Laserkey runs on an integral lithium ion battery and has a 830mAH capacity at 3.7V. Adaptor comes in 1A or 5V depending on your capatability. Bluetooth technology needs v1.1 class 2.
Right now the Celluon Laserkey is compatible with Windows Mobile Pocket PCs and the smart phone edition so you can spead out your fingers and type on any flat surface avaiable (the Celluon Laserkey mini tower is easy to carry with you when you are on the go). also compatible with Palm OS, Blackberry, Symbian products, not to mention Windows 2000/XP or higher.
The Celluon Laserkey Cl800BT is one the coolest gadgets coming out in tech I think. Pretty soon a computer will be a screen with USB pocket portable drive sized hardware, a little nob for a mouse and now a mini tower with a projected image of a keyboard right in front of you. Break out the table cleaners because you will be able to type and use you free desktop space for anythings else you need it for.
It’s Monday morning and it’s time for a gentle reminder from the After bug staff.
Now would be a great time to change your passwords on all of the important systems that you access.
Even if you haven’t noticed someone else using your account, it’s a good policy to change your passwords frequently.
If you need help changing your passwords, visit our Change Password FAQ for instructions on how to change your password on the most popular systems.
Sony has come out with a sleeker and lighter version of its portable video gaming system PSP. Dubbed to PSP 2000 the hand held console is 19% thinner and 33% lighter that the previous version.
Some of the other changes on the PSP is the the UMB slot or the place where you insert the game or video. It now swings opens differently with a slight touch from your finger on the back of the console. The sides are a little more streamline to fit better in your hands and the speakers and some of the plug ports are in different places too. If you like detail upgrades the PSP 2000 has it.
The new PSP 2000 has a new AV connection port located on the top right hand corner of the console that connects directly to your TV. You don’t have to worry about finding a UMB converter to larger screen TV’s anymore just plug the PSP 2000 directly into the corresponding plugs. The only thing is that even though your favorite videos playback full screen on the television, the games keep the dimesions on the screen display of the PSP console. That means you will get a sort of “widescreen” effect or dark area around your TV screen with the display not filling out the size of the TV’s format. This can be fix by using the zoom in/out feature on your TV or you could just enjoy your PSP gaming in a theatrical style format.
There is a feature on the PSP 2000 with speeds up the load time by turning on a cash mode. Even though the load time on a Nintendo DS is a bit faster the PSP 2000 is still faster than its previous version. The PSP 200 also has the same great online features and media as well as a lot of great game titles to choose from.
When it comes down to it the new features on the PSP 2000 is worth getting yet not a must have. If you could put up with the old dimensions of the previous PSP and lack of ease with transferring the consoles content onto a larger screen then the PSP is a good keep.
Get ready for an incredible ride. This first person shooter game is one the best crafted games out there. Find yourself in the city of Rapture with music and mood set in the 40’s and 50’s filled with advanced robots and gadgets that one could imagine during its time. Along with incredible details put into the design graphics you find yourself totally into the game like you are really living in the world of Andrew Ryan. Every fixture, door, sculpture looks vintage and looks like it belongs there, no “check out this design to be wowed” graphic here. Every graphics feels like it was made for a big budget Hollywood movie that was made to make the audience feel just like they were in the past, including the science fiction of the past too.
As you go along, the battles that you come across are gory, graphic and intense. The damage sustained and delivered appears so real that you will be saying “ooohhhh” and “aaaoohhh” with every blow and surprise blow. The bad guys feel like they are from the original “Twilight Zone” and science fiction comic books of the 40’s and 50’s. The only thing is that these bad guys have some agility and speed. Somebody greased their gears, juiced up their cathode tubes and lit a fire under their boots pretty good because these guys mean business and are after you for a quick kill. You can use “plasmids” and “tonics” to build your character without needing high stats. The enemies are tuned into your fighting style and react accordingly to it, no pre-determined killing moves. You really got a fight on your hands and these bad guys are out to finish the job. Get the game on Xbox 360 as soon as you can and jump right into this magnificent and intense game that will have you completely zoned into it.
If you’re ever put in the position of calling tech support, for any product or service you benefit, you MUST follow a few simple rules that will make you become an integral and respectable person through the eyes of the totally insignificant persons you’re going to talk to.
First of all, impose respect from the first seconds of conversation, avoiding any signs of hello. This way, the tech support operator will realize that you’re a rushed person that has no time to chit-chat, and will definitely prove maximum efficiency in his further actions. You get a bonus if you’re interrupting him from his introductory phrase when he wishes you a good day and says his name.
You must also talk to the person who by now is all the more willing to help, with such colorful terms as “dude,” “man,” “muchacho,” and so on, even if he politely addresses you with “Mr.” or “Mrs.” insert your last name here. You will prove yourself a well-educated person that knows how to communicate efficiently and with dominance.
Since you’ve already been introduced, start complaining about a general issue that has absolutely no connection to your actual problem. And when I’m saying “general issue”, I really mean ANYTHING. If you’ve waited more than a couple of seconds on the line, make sure to remind that to the tech support operator, since obviously he needs to pay more attention to you and your issue. And if you haven’t waited at all, invoke the fact that you’re paying for this conversation. If it’s free, complain arbitrarily about things such as how tediously long the tech support line’s phone number is, complain about the fact that you’re talking to a different person every time you call, and of course, don’t hesitate to mention that you were better with the competition. This acts like spurs to a horse, and will allow the tech support operator to work harder, faster, and outside his normal realm of knowledge to get you to your required fix in record time.
When complaining, make full usage of the phrase “I’m paying for these services that I’m not getting”. I can assure you this will touch the operator’s heart and if he can’t solve your problem from behind his desk, he will come to you in person.
Don’t offer the person you’re talking to the time to identify you or to run some basic check-ups. Maintain constant pressure over him that you’re calling from the cell phone and that he needs to hurry it up. Anyway, these tech support operators have a big wide screen that displays the necessary information. They already know you called three weeks ago from a neighbor’s house, that you wore a blue shirt that day and that you’d had eggs for breakfast — they have access to all this information and more, and know that you want information regarding your bill when you’re calling at 3 AM.
By the way, about that 3AM… As often as possible, try to call only around these hours. Motivate them further by saying that no one’s answering the phone during the day, that someone answers and immediately hangs up, or even better, that the line was busy every time you tried.
Be sure to make full usage of the expression “This is unacceptable!”.
Furthermore, there should be no modesty during a conversation with tech support. You must mention that you’re Doctor Engineer Astronaut Sir “Shaman of the Mountains” Smith and you must enumerate all of your studies and qualifications. Avoid any kind of technical talk. Every bit information the operator shares with you is egregiously wrong. Remember, only you know how things are really going on.
Every call center in the world has a secret agreement with every other telephony provider, landlines or cellphones. The operators are actually paid to talk to you longer. That’s why when you’re being given detailed instructions about what to do, ignore everything and do the first thing that comes to your mind. Don’t offer any feedback, regardless. Again, the operators are monitoring you from the satellite and know what you did to your computer, How long it took you to do it, and what you’re about to do at any given time.
If you follow all of this sage advice, you will pass as an extremely polite man in front of the tech support operators, and those who had the honor of talking to you will tell this encounter to their colleagues, and they will all burst into laughter because they weren’t fully ready and prepared to talk to your highness on the phone.
This text is a joke and should be treated like one. It just concentrates a high number of customer stereotypes I’ve encountered in my two years of technical support over the phone. Depending on the effect of this one, I might have a second part I’ll write about at a later tine. This might not seem that funny to those who never interacted to technical support, but it honestly worths a read nevertheless.
There are vulnerabilities in Social Networking sites like Myspace.com where online criminals can easily take advantage and extract personal information. These password protected sites are highly monitored by hackers and vulnerabilities constitute a potentially bigger problem later on.
The “Zero Day” flaw, discover by Rick Deacon a 21 year old networking administrator from Beachwood, Ohio, is where a hacker takes over a person’s MySpace page and adds code to steal information. This risk has only been found in an older version of the Firefox browser and not the Internet Explorer browser as of yet.
The attack uses “cross-site scripting”, a weakness in Web applications to accomplish this hack. The user is required to click on a link to a Web page where the computer’s “cookie” information is then taken.
Deacon discovered the problem months ago and informed MySpace of it but the company has not fixed it yet. Deacon said “Facebook and MySpace both patch things that they find, but it’s like a sandbox”. He also added “There’s is so much. And there are probably hundreds more cross-site scripting vulnerabilities there. There’s no way they can find them all.”
These findings where presented by Rick Deacon at the DefCon hacker conferences. Right after the presentation he was informed that he was deleted from MySpace for violating the terms of service. MySpace did not comment on the findings and the deletion.
Professor Ulf Leonhardt and Dr. Thomas Philbin at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland published a startling discovery in the August edition of New Journal of Physics.
The two physicists have managed to reverse the Casimir effect. The Casimir effect a physical force which occurs between objects which are very close together. The Casimir effect is normally only important when objects are within about 10 nanometers of each other, but its effect is to pull the two objects towards each other.
The Scottish physicists have published a method for reversing the Casimir effect — which means that they can make object repel each other.
Their discovery only works today on very very small objects, but it can effectively levitate those tiny objects.
The initial industrial uses of this levitation will most likely be to reduce friction in small machine parts. It two pieces of machinery do not touch each other, they will not create friction with each other. This will reduce energy consumption and increase MTBF.
