Pick Bob's Brain!

Jailbreak any iDevice running iOS 5.0.1 (iPad 2 and iPhone 4s Included!)

2012-01-25T07:29:00.000-07:00

The great folks over at http://greenpois0n.com have done it again! They have released an untethered jailbreak for the iPad, iPhone (yes even the iPhone 4s!), and iPod Touch! I have and iPad 2 and an iPod Touch, so I was very excited to see that I can have my devices on the latest software and be able to install just about any app I want (used mostly for development purposes). Here's how to jailbreak your iPad 2 and iPhone 4s in 7 easy steps!
Note: As always I am not to be held responsible for any damage or wasted time that may occur from attempting this jailbreak.

Step 1. Head over to http://greenpois0n.com and click the link to the right to download Absinthe v0.2 for either mac or win (depending on your computer's operating system).
Step 2. Extract the downloaded files to your desktop and click to open Absinthe.
Step 3. If you haven't already, plug in your iPad 2 or iPhone 4s.
Step 4. Once your device is plugged in, click the jailbreak button.
Step 5. Be patient and wait for the process to finish. It took me 3-5 minutes on 2 different iPads.
Step 6. When the software tells you to unlock your device, just do it.
Step 7. On your home screen you should see an Absinthe app button. Launch the app to install Cydia. Once it is installed the Absinthe app will be replaced with Cydia, and you will be all set to go!

See, wasn't that easy? You can can contact me if you have questions, but I would suggest to either google them or email the development team in charge of the jailbreak over at http://www.greenpois0n.com.

How to Gain Root or Superuser Access on Most HTC Phones

2011-12-06T08:37:00.001-07:00

I have a friend at work that just got an EVO 3D by Sprint. He really likes the phone, but wanted to be able to get Root access to it. He didn't want to tinker with trying to find a way to root it, so he brought it to me. Here's how I rooted the EVO 3D. This process will also work with almost any HTC phone.

First I want to give a quick definition of "rooting". Basically when you root an android device (phone, tablet, etc), it gives you access to the root directory. Once you have this access (also known as super user access) you can delete any system file you want. This includes any 'bloatware' or software pre-installed by the manufacturer that they won't readily allow you to uninstall. If you delete the wrong file, though, it will render your device useless. This is one of the main reasons most android devices aren't sold with root access enabled.

**DISCLAIMER**
I cannot be held responsible for any issues that arise from rooting (or attempting to root) your phone. This information is for education purposes only!

Enough with the jibber jabber...Let's get down to rooting!

I found a few walkthroughs online for rooting an EVO (for a list, go here)
.

If you want to back up your apps first, start with step 1. If you don't care about your apps and their data (most apps will be automatically downloaded from the Android Market after a restore). The only reason to back them up is in the event that something goes wrong with your phone and the rooting method doesn't work. (or your phone stops working)

To backup your apps, we will need to get temporary root access and then install and run Titanium Backup.

To get this mythical temporary root access, we will first need to download and install the HTC EVO drivers. These drivers can be found here.

Make sure your phone is not connected to your computer, and then install the driver software.
On your phone go to menu > applications > development and verify that 'usb debugging' is checked.
Download and extract this file. It is the program that will allow you to have temporary root access for your phone.
Double click on the Run_ME_Fr3vo_ROOT.bat file that was extracted from the zipped file.
While it says "waiting for device" in the window that pops up, plug in your phone. Make sure once it is plugged in that the USB mode is set to external drive/SD rather than charging only.
Once all of the devices have been installed, the temporary root software will kick into action.
After it is finished, unplug your phone and go to the Android Market. Search for "Titanium Backup" and install the Titanium Backup root app.
Once installed, run the program and then press your menu button. Press batch, and press the run button next to "Backup all user apps". This will backup all of the apps you have previously downloaded (not including the apps that came with your phone).

Once you have backed up all of your apps, we need to uninstall the temporary root to be able to install a more permanent root.To uninstall the permanent root, follow these steps:

Press the menu button and go to settings > sd and phone storage.
Press factory reset data.
Press reset phone.
Press erase everything.

Your phone will restart and will delete all data from the phone (apps, contacts, etc) Note: This will not erase anything from the SD card. All pictures, ringtones, etc will be saved.

We are now ready to gain a permanent root. To do this we are going to use the Revolutionary Exploit and the Android SDK. The Android SDK can be found here, and the Revolutionary Exploit can be found here. Also download the TWRP Recovery from here. Rename the file to PG58IMG.zip, and then copy it to your sd card on your phone. Don't put it in any folders. Just put it into the main folder of the card.

Here are the steps to root your phone:

If you haven't already, install the Android SDK.
Plug your phone into the computer, and then go to the Revolutionary Exploit site (http://revolutionary.io/). Leave this page open, as we will need to use it in a minute.
Extract the zip file to its own folder and then run the program (revolutionary.exe).
At the top of the window it will tell you the type of phone that is connected, as well as the HBOOT version and the Serial number. Take these three pieces of information over to the Revolutionary website and enter them into this form:
When you fill this form out, click on 'Generate Key' and it will give you a beta Serial number. Go back to the Revolutionary exploit screen and enter the serial number in the space provided and press enter.
The phone will reboot a couple of times, and eventually the black Revolutionary screen will go away.

If you now look at the top of your phone's display it should say unlocked and S-Off at the top.

Now we need to update your phone with the new recovery software.

If you are still in the HBOOT screen (the one that Revolutionary left us at), press the volume down button until power down is highlighted. Then press the power button to turn off the phone.
Once the phone is powered down, remove the battery for 10-15 seconds.
put in the battery and the back cover. Press and hold the volume down button and at the same time press and hold the power button. This should boot the phone back into the HBOOT screen.
HBOOT should pop up asking if you want to install the update. Choose yes, and it will install the recovery software for you.
Once this is done, press the power button to restart the phone, and wait for it to boot up.
Run through the setup process and you will be taken back to your home screen.
We need to delete the PG58IMG.zip file, so plug your phone into your computer and delete it.
As long as the phone is plugged into your computer, download this superuser app and copy it to the location you previously had the PG58IMG.zip file.
Pull the battery again, and then go into the HBOOT screen (holding down power and volume down after putting the battery back in). Press volume down until recovery is highlighted, and then press the power button. This will load the recovery program.
Once you are in the recovery program, press volume down and select to install a zip (by pressing the power button)
On the next screen go down to 'Choose a zip to flash' and press the power button.
On this next screen press the volume down button and select the superuser file we previously copied to the phone. Select it by pressing the power button again and it should install the super user file. This app will allow you to get super user permissions in the android operating system.

After one last reboot of your phone you should be all set to go!

I was able to use this same method on an HTC Sensation as well. It works perfectly!

A Word on Hacking

2011-12-06T07:58:00.001-07:00

In the year since I last wrote a meaningful post, I have had a few excellent experiences in the world of hacking. I will in the next few posts be explaining these, but I thought I would first get something out of the way up front.
Yes, I'm a hacker. I'm not a hacker in the sense you think though. When most people think of hackers, they think of the groups that deface your Facebook wall, take down the Playstation Network, and publish volumes of sensitive government documents just to show how powerful they are.
While these types of people are indeed hackers, I like to think of my type of hacking as a hobby. Wikipedia defines this type of hacking as

a person who heavily modifies the software or hardware of their own computer system. It includes building, rebuilding, modifying, and creating software (software cracking, demo scene) or electronic hardware (hardware hacking, modding), either to make it better, faster, to give it added features or to make it do something it was never intended to do.

This is what I like to do. I like to modify any and all electronics I have to make them be better than originally planned, or to do something they weren't intended to do. I haven't done much with hardware hacking. Mostly this is because I'm too chicken. I'm worried that I'm going to break whatever it is I am working on. I like to stick with software hacking, and I'll be posting some examples and even some how-to articles in the near future.

A couple of items I'll discuss are

Modding WIIs
Jailbraking the iPod Touch and iPad 2
Rooting various Android phones
Jailbraking a PS3 (as soon a I get one...which will be Christmas time!!)

Along with these new guides I will be re-enabling my comments, and will hopefully be able to moderate them a little better.

Thanks for reading!!

Make Money Online!

2010-09-07T16:28:00.000-06:00

I have been recently looking for new ways to make money online. I know that you only get out of something what you put into it. I think I have found a website that will actually do this for me :) The site is called Minute Workers.
Minute Workers is a new site that allows other people to pay you for signing up for sites, doing surveys, and playing games online. It isn't very hard to do, but the amount of money out there to be paid is incredible! A couple of sample items I found were filling out a survey, signing up for and playing an online game, and just signing up for a website. All of these things are free, but people will pay you to do them! Here's a couple of tips I have for you if you plan on signing up for this site:

If you plan on filling out surveys or signing up for newsletters, create a separate email address for this purpose. You are going to be inundated with junk mail, and you don't want that filling up your primary email inbox, do you?
If you are going to download a file or play a game, use a virtual machine. The two that I have used in the past are Sandboxie and the Microsoft Virtual PC. Each of these will act just like a computer. If you happen to get infected with a virus or spyware, you can just close the virtual machine and not have to worry about getting infected!

I plan on using this service a lot. I hope you do too! If you are interested in signing up, follow this link and you will get paid a dollar just for signing up!

Poll-a-rama

2010-03-19T08:35:00.000-06:00

I know its been a little while since my last post. I've been thinking over a few things. I am trying to decide which direction to take the blog. I would like to know what my readers want to see more of. I have 2 polls (so far) to get a better idea of what people are wanting. Please take the time to fill them out. Thanks!

Which Version of Windows do you Use?	What would you like to see next?

How-To: Make Your Blog dofollow & Remove the rel=nofollow Tag

2010-02-24T15:14:00.004-07:00

If you are new to blogging, you may not have heard of the term dofollow. This term relates to how google and other search engines scan (aka crawl) your site. Search engines can follow any link on your webpage through to another site. This 'following' helps the page that is linked to, because it shows that there is another, unrelated website that is linking to it. The dofollow blog or website is nice to find on the web if you are trying to market your site. If they allow you to post comments with a link to your site you can get free links to your site and potentially more traffic and advertising revenue (we'll talk about advertisers later.)

By default Blogger adds a nofollow attribute to links posted in the comments section. I'll show you how to disable this and allow search engines to help your followers out with more traffic and a higher page rank!

Before I get into removing nofollow tags, I'll show you how to add your url to your blog comments!
At the bottom of this post there is a box to add comments. Just below that box you will see a box labeled Comment as: followed by your name, or a "select your profile" option. Click on the down arrow and choose Name/URL:

In the following box, type your name and the URL you want to link to:

Fill out this form, add your comments, and away you go!

Now onto the best part: How to make your Blogger/Blogspot blog dofollow friendly!

If you haven't done so already, backup your blog's template.
Check the box labeled Expand Widget Templates:
Either scroll down, or press ctrl+f and search for data:comment.authorUrl' rel='nofollow':
Delete only the part that says rel='nofollow' and click Save Template.

That's all there is to it! Your blog is now a dofollow blog! Get this information out there and you can potentially see a large influx of traffic and more comments then you ever thought possible!

And in case you were wondering...YES this is a dofollow site!

How-To: Back Up and Modify Your Blogger Template

2010-02-24T08:23:00.000-07:00

I realize that lately I have been writing about how to modify/change/customize your blogspot blog. I keep referencing this article, but it doesn't talk specifically about backing up and modifying your template. I'm going to dedicate this article to the backing up and modifying of your blogspot blog template.

To backup your blog, follow these steps:

Go to your blog and log in.
If you aren't already at your dashboard, click on customize on the top or your screen:
Once on your blog's dashboard, click on layout:
Once on the layout tab, look for the Edit HTML link:
This is the meat and potatoes of your blog! The template has all of the information needed to display any blog widgets, customized color settings, and even extra code to change the layout of your entire blog! To save your current template, click on the download full template link on the right hand side of the page, and then choose a location to save it to:

There you have it! You have just backed up your blogspot blog's template! If you want to create a new blog with your existing layout, you can go into the Edit HTML section for your new blog and upload the template from your old blog! Some colors and pictures may need to be added, but that would be it!

If you have any other questions, please let me know!

Tech Tip: How to Change the Size of Desktop Icons in Windows 7 and Windows Vista

2010-02-23T18:04:00.000-07:00

I recently updated all of my computers to Windows 7. The biggest issue I had that I had to look up every time I installed it on another computer was how to make the icons on the desktop smaller. I am not a fan of large icons. I can see fine, so I don't need my Internet Explorer icon as big as my hand! It is a very easy fix, and one that I have since committed to memory.

Here's the simple fix to change your desktop icons. As far as I know this only works in Windows 7 and Windows Vista. If it works with any other operating system, please let me know!

To change the size of your desktop icons all you need to do is hold down ctrl on your desktop and scroll the mouse wheel. I know it is really easy, but I kept forgetting how to do it!
In typing this post I found that there is another way to change the size of your desktop icons, and it even works in windows XP! Here are the steps:

For XP

Right-click on the desktop
Click on properties
Click on appearance at the top
Click Advanced
In the Item section click on the down arrow and choose icon
Select the size you want the icons on the desktop to be and choose OK

For Windows Vista/7:

Right-click on the desktop
Choose personalize
At the bottom of the page click on window color
On this page click on Advanced Appearance Settings at the bottom
Select icon in the item box, and choose the size you prefer
Lastly, click on ok and close out of the other windows to see the changes

This may not be rocket science for some of you, but I know it would have saved me a headache or two!
As always, the only stupid question is the one not asked (most of the time!)

Tutorial: How to Create an Email Signature

2010-02-23T07:54:00.002-07:00

Recently I have had more and more requests to help people add a signature in Outlook Express. I figured now is as good of a time as any to make this post! I'll be showing screenshots from Outlook Express in Windows XP, but the same steps (or fairly similar) will apply in Outlook, as well as Windows Mail.
Here are the steps to add a signature to your email:

When your email is first opened, click on tools and then options:

In Options click the 'signature' tab:

In the 'signature' tab, click on new:

From here you need to make a decision: do you want your signature to be a text-only signature, or would you like to have a graphical email signature? If you would like to use a text-only signature, fill out the 'text' box as seen here:

If you prefer to have your picture or some type of color/font formatting, choose file. The one thing you need if you choose file is just that- a file. If you are using Outlook or have Microsoft Office, you are in luck! Microsoft Word can create html documents complete with picture, color, and different fonts! Open Word and create the desired signature (you can drag and drop pictures in the file if you want them). Save the file as an .html file, and make sure to note the location of the saved file. From here just choose 'browse' to the right of the file field, and select your file (you may need to change the 'files of type' field to html). Click on open to set your signature to your newly created html document!

The final step to make sure that your signature is included in your email is to check the box labeled "Include signatures in all outgoing messages":

From here click on OK and you are all set with your own customized email signature complete with picture and formatting!

I am totally aware that there are some minor differences between the different email programs. If you need specific help with a different email program (Outlook 2007, Windows Live Mail, Mac Mail, etc), please ask!

Tutorial: How to Change Your Blog's Favicon

2010-02-22T10:54:00.004-07:00

I'm sure there are many of you that have noticed the cute little blogger icon (aka favicon) in the address bar of your web browser . There is a fairly simple way to go about saving an image like this to your blog, and I'll share it with you today!
The first thing you need to change your blog's favicon is a favicon. There are a couple of sites that have free favicon generators. The one I used to create the favicon for my blog is the Dynamic Drive Tools website. I like this site because it is fairly straight forward, and really easy to use. To create your favicon, use the following steps:

Browse to http://tools.dyanamicdrive.com/favicon.
Click on the "Browse" button in the middle of the page and find the file on your computer you want to be your favicon.
Click on the "Create Icon" button and wait for your favicon to appear below.
When your favicon appears, click on "Download Favicon" and choose a location on your computer to save it.

Ok. Part 1 is complete. You have your favicon created and on your computer. Now for part 2: adding your favicon to your post.

There are 2 ways you can store your favicon on the internet. The first way is to save it to your own personal web space and link to it from there. The other way is to save the file to the blogger servers and link to it as I showed you in my previous post. When you have the favicon file saved on the internet, we are ready for part 3: updating your blog code to allow a custom favicon.

I'm going to once again refer back to a previous post. Once your template is backed up and you are staring at a big box full of code, look for this:

Just above this line paste the following lines:

<link href='[THE LOCATION OF YOUR FAVICON.ICO HERE]' rel='shortcut icon'/><link href='[THE LOCATION OF YOUR FAVICON.ICO HERE]' rel='icon'/><link href='[THE LOCATION OF YOUR FAVICON.ICO HERE]'/>

Once this code is added, just click the button, and then view your blog!

If this didn't change the icon, press ctrl+f5 on your keyboard to refresh the whole page. One issue I have found with Internet Explorer is that you have to add the site as your favorite before the favicon will show up.

I hope this works for everyone! I am not a fan of the orange blogger icon, and am very happy to have found a way to change it! As always, if you have questions please ask!

Tutorial: How to 'Host' Images on the Blogger Servers

2010-02-11T14:39:00.001-07:00

My post today is on saving pictures on the blogger servers, but not actually displaying the picture unless it is clicked on through a link or something.

I know many of you are trying to think of a reason why you'd want to do this. My next post will give the perfect reason why you'd want to store a picture on the blogger server without actually displaying it on your blog posts!

The first thing you need to be able to store a picture on blogger is-
a picture! Here's the perfect one to use:

You can obviously use any picture you want to.
Once you have a picture, go to your blog dashboard, and then click on 'new post'.
On the new post page, choose to upload a new picture by clicking on the picture button.
On the next screen, choose to browse to your new picture and click the upload button:

Once the picture is uploaded, make sure that the 'saved' button is grayed out like so:

Your image is now saved on the Blogger server!
To link directly to it, all you need to do is click on the preview link:

and then on the picture when it pops up. With the picture in its own web browser window, look up in the address bar. Just before the name of the image, you'll see a section that has some numbers with a -h just before the \.

If you notice just before the flamingo.jpg there's 's1600-h/'. Delete the -h and then press enter. The picture will look and act as if you were hosting it on your own server! If you want to see a difference, try it for yourself.

As always, if you have questions, please ask me!

My next post will be all about changing the annoying little Blogger Icon in the address bar!

Tutorial: How to Hide the Blogger Navigation Bar

2010-02-09T08:16:00.002-07:00

I don't know about you, but the Blogger/Blogspot navigation bar is kind of an annoyance more than a help. I know that it does have some uses as far as being able to get to my dashboard quickly to write new posts,(that's why I have a separate shortcut for it) but I think any site looks better without it. That's why I'm going to show you today how to remove this little annoyance of the Blogger navigation bar (or at lease hide it).

First things first: I know you can't easily remove the navigation bar. It is something that Blogger has put in here for ease of use. I want my site to not look like its hosted by Blogger, and this is the primary reason for hiding the nav bar from the top of the page.
The first thing you need to do before attempting this is to backup your template. Yes, we are going to modify your blog's html template yet again. For a refresher on how to do this, see this post.
Once your template is backed up, scroll down in the code and look for:

/* Variable definitions

This is found at the top section of your template code. Once this is found, add the following code just above it:

#navbar-iframe { display: none ! important; } //turn off nav bar

This code hides the nav bar from the top of your Blogger site. If you want to see it again, but don't want to delete the above code, just put // in front of the above code.

If this doesn't work for you, please let me know and I'll find out what's going on.

Tutorial: Remove the Wrench and Screwdriver Icon from Widgets

2010-02-04T15:28:00.002-07:00

I am always looking for ways to make my blog better looking. One item I have been seeing is the annoying little "wrench and screwdriver" picture next to each widget on the page: .

Here's how you remove this:

*Please note: we will be editing your blog template. Please back it up as described in this previous post.

After your blog template is backed up and in a safe place, go back to the 'edit html' tab in the layout section of your blog dashboard. Once again if you don't remember how, see here.

On this html page, make sure to click on the "expand widget templates" checkbox at the top of the screen.

From here we are looking for the all-important find feature. To activate this feature, press CTRL and F at the same time on your keyboard. It will pull up a box like one of these:

In Internet Explorer 8:	In FireFox:

In this find box we are going to type

<b:include name='quickedit'/>

and click "Next". Delete every line you find that exactly matches the above box with quickedit and all.

Once all lines that include the above code are deleted, save your template. This should remove all of the "wrench and screwdriver" icons from your blog, while preserving the "pencil" quick edit icon to be able to edit your post from the front page.

If you have any other questions, please ask!

Tech Tip - How to tell if an email is a hoax

2010-02-03T17:33:00.002-07:00

How many times have you gotten an email that has "FW:FW:FW:FW:FW:FW:FW:" in the subject line? Most times these emails are cute little messages about "let's start a snowball fight" or "make a wish and forward this email to 50,000 friends and it will come true". We know those aren't email hoaxes. There are some emails, however, that litter your inbox with what the sender thought was a legitimate story. 90% of the time or so these turn out to be a hoax.

There are 2 websites in particular I'm going to share with you to help combat the plague of the email hoax. The first is Snopes, and the second is TruthOrFiction.

When you first get an email forwarded to you, sit back and think to yourself "does this seem too good or too outrageous to be true?". If it is too good to be true, it is probably a hoax. Bill Gates isn't going to give you money for forwarding this email. Just use common sense when determining if an email is a hoax or not.

If you just aren't sure if you have an email hoax on your hand or not, head on over to Snopes.com. Click in the search box at the top and type in the general topic for the email you received (Bill Gates, the name of the missing child, Bank of Nigeria, etc). Snopes has a large database of these emails and the explaination for each (whether it be true, or a hoax).

If Snopes doesn't find anything, head on over to TruthOrFiction.com. This site is similar to Snopes. It also catalogs email hoaxes and tries its best to share with you, the user, any information regarding this hoax. If the email happens to be true, you will be alerted to this fact as well.

The next question when dealing with an email hoax is what to do with the email? The obvious solution is to delete it. I prefer to take a more proactive approach, however. If I find that an email is a hoax, I will click on "Reply All" and send an email to everyone in the previous sender's email. I will tell them something to the effect of "After researching this email, I have found that it is a hoax. Please do not forward this email on. For more information see this link:" and then I will paste the link from the location I found the email hoax info on. After replying to the email hoax, I would suggest to just delete the email.

Please follow this advice and don't contribute to the mass amount of email that is being haphazardly forwarded with out any idea of whether it is an email hoax or not.

Thanks and goodnight!

How-To: Change the Width of your Blog

2010-01-29T19:51:00.006-07:00

I've been spending the last couple of days tweaking different settings on my site. I figured I could put these in some posts and share my blog customization and blog tweaks with you.

I use Blogger (aka BlogSpot) for my website. I am fairly new to it, but it has a somewhat straightforward interface. At first there were a couple of things that were annoying me. The first was the width of the page. I like having a wide area to display information. Luckily Blogger makes it fairly easy to tweak a good portion of their site.

The first thing you want to make sure you do is log in. I know it sounds stupid to even have to say that, but there are some people that may miss that step (I'm not talking about you of course) :-).

Once logged in, go to your blog settings by clicking on "Customize" if you're looking at your blog:

or if you are in your dashboard click on "layout" for your blog:

You will then be presented with the all powerful Layout tab! From the Layout section, you will want to click on the "Edit HTML" link:

I know this is a little daunting, but trust me, you'll be a pro before you know it!
From the first look of HTML template section, there is a lot of code which will probably make no sense to you. Ignore that for now. We are going to backup your template just in case anything goes wrong.

To backup your template click on the "Download Full Template" link and save the file to a location on your computer:

Once the file is saved, (it will have a weird name like 'template-5071698506020515690.xml') you are ready to start tweaking!

Scroll down about 1/3 of the way in the html box until you find a line that contains '/* Outer-Wrapper'. Below that you will find a line that has 'width: 660px;. If the number next to width is a little different, its ok. All it means is that someone has already changed the width of your page. The value we are concerned about is the number (660 or whichever it is). The larger the number, the wider your blog will be. I played with mine and determined that 800 was a good number.

When you have changed the number, click on and reload your blog. If you aren't happy with the size, play with the width until you are!

As always, comments, questions, and concerns can and should be made through the "Comments" link below.

Next up: getting rid of the annoying "screwdriver/wrench" picture under every BlogSpot widget!

Tutorial: Install Jalbum and Create Your First Online Gallery!

2010-01-26T19:40:00.005-07:00

A few weeks ago I wanted to backup all of my pictures to the internet. I wanted to upload them, but I also wanted a way to view them without just seeing a big directory of pictures. Through my searches online I came across an awesome program named Jalbum. Jalbum is a free program that will automatically create a photo album from pre-selected pictures. I'll attempt to walkthrough the setup, install and album creation here.

The first thing you will want to do is create a login at the Jalbum website. Once the account is created, you can then download the software. When the download starts you are at a donation page. You don't have to donate (the program is free). If you feel in the future that it is worth it, by all means help out the developers by donating.

When Jalbum finishes downloading, there will be a new icon on your desktop named, you guessed it, Jalbum!

When Jalbum is first opened, you are presented with a login screen:

This is the username and password you created when you first signed up with the Jalbum.net website. You don't have to log in, you can just close this login screen and continue on.

The first screen you are presented with is the meat and potatoes of Jalbum. From here you have 2 options to start building your album: you can click the "add photos" button to browse through your pictures and add them, or you can just drag and drop pictures (or whole folders) into the main window. I'll add a folder and a couple of pictures to illustrate:

As you can see, there is a folder named "Sample Pictures" and a couple of other sample pictures from Windows.

Once you have the selected pictures added to the list of pictures, you are ready to upload them! All you have to do is click on "Make Jalbum" button on the bottom left:

When Jalbum is done processingh the pictures, you are prompted with two choices, Preview and Publish:

If you click on preview an Internet Explorer window will open and you can see what your gallery will look like when it is online. Clicking on publish will upload your pictures and the gallery to the internet. (Here's the link to my uploaded sample album.) If you need more space to upload pictures to, you can always sign up with a web hosting provider like GoDaddy.com or 1&1.com

That's all there is to it! Of course there are many, many other features and options that are included in Jalbum. There is the ability to share pictures on Facebook, add comments, or even to sell them. I won't go into it here, though. I'll let you have the fun of learning that all on your own!

FAQ: Online Acronyms

2010-01-21T17:32:00.011-07:00

I am always engaging in some form of online chat; whether it be through an instant message or through an online game. There is a certain vernacular that is used in the online world. Some of it has spilled over into the real world, but most just looks better and is more understood online. I'll try to help educate some of you in the fine art of the online acronym.

Here's a table of some of the most commonly used acronyms:

2	To
4	For
afk	Away From Keyboard
asl	Age, Sex, Location
atm	At The Moment
b4	Before
bbl	Be Back Later
bf	BoyFriend
bff	Best Friend Forever
brb	Be Right Back
btw	By The Way
cya	see YA
dl	DownLoad
f	Female
fb	FaceBook
gf	GirlFriend
gg	Good Game
gl	Good Luck
gtg	Got To Go
ic	I see
idk	I Don't Know
imo	In My Opinion
imho	In My Honest (or Humble) Opinion
j/k	Just Kidding
k	OK
kk	OK
lmao	Laughing My A$$ Off

lol	Laugh Out Loud
m	Male
myob	Mind Your Own Business
nsfw	Not Safe For Work
omg	Oh My Goodness
pk	Player Killer
pls	Please
plox	Please
pos	Parent Over Shoulder
ppl	People
pwn	own (as in "I owned you")
qt	Cutie
rofl	Rolling On the Floor Laughing
roflmao	Rolling On the Floor Lauging My A$$ Off
rtfm	Read The F'ing Manual
sup	what'S UP
tks	ThanKS
thx	THanks
ty	Thank You
u2	yoU to
ur	yoUR
w/e	WhatEver
w/o	WithOut
w8	Wait
wb	Write Back or Welcome Back
wtg	Way To Go

I know many people that read this already know what these mean. I hope there's at least a few of you that learn something from this.

I have added a 'share to facebook' button for my blog. If you feel this site is informative and you would like to share it with your facebook friends, please do so. You can also email it via the email button below. Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

FAQ: Links to Free Programs Part 1

2010-01-19T16:42:00.004-07:00

Today as I was driving in to work I was thinking of all the different free programs I have been asked for in the past. Most of them I use on a daily basis. I figured what better way to get things rolling today than to share a list of them with you. Some of these programs will get a dedicated post in the future, and some won't. All of them are free as well!

* Also please note: These are the programs I use. You may have found something different/better. I know there are alternates to each of these. Please share your info with me. I'm all for learning about new and potentially better programs/ideas!

Here we go:

Handbrake http://www.handbrake.fr	I use Handbrake to convert my DVD's to a single video file to stream to my Xbox 360. It is continuously being devloped. It supports the newest video types, and 5.1 surround sound!
VLC http://www.videolan.org	VLC is an all in one video viewer. I have used it with Flash video, avi, mkv, and wmv videos. I haven't found a video file yet that wouldn't play in VLC (with the exception of Quicktime video)
AC-3 Filter http://www.ac3filter.net	AC3Filter is a program used to decode-you guessed it-AC-3 audio. If you don't know what AC-3 audio is, google it, or wait for my post on AC-3 filter :-) I use AC3Filter in conjunction with windows media player 11 to get surround sound out of my videos.
Magicdisc http://www.magiciso.com/tutorials/miso-magicdisc-overview.htm	If you ever have downloaded an .iso, .img, or .bin file, you know how frustrating it can be to have to burn the disk image only to find out that the file you just downloaded was corrupt or had the wrong information on it. Magicdisc allows you to 'mount' the disk image into a virtual drive. It will look and act the same as if you had burned the disk image and put the physical disk into you drive.
Imgburn http://www.imgburn.com	Once you have downloaded a disk image (.iso, .img, .bin, etc), and you know that it has the right info on it (by using Magicdisc, of course), you need a way to burn it. Imgburn is a free program you can use to burn just about any type of disk image out there. Of course, if you have Windows 7, you can burn an image directly through the OS (right-click on image, left click on burn image to disk).
Jalbum http://www.jalbum.net	Jalbum is a program used to create and upload an online photo gallery. They even offer server space to do this! Its only 30MB, but that is better than nothing! It allows for incremental updates, so if you add a couple of pictures to one folder, it will only update and upload those pictures as opposed to having to upload the whole gallery again!
GIMP http://www.gimp.org	GIMP is an image editing program similar to Photoshop. The main difference is that GIMP is free! I know there are some other missing features, but they are features that I haven't found (or needed) yet.
Orb http://www.orb.com	How often have you been at work or on vacation and have wanted to listen to some music on your computer or watched a video you have downloaded at home? With Orb you can stream media from your home computer through your web browser and to your computer no matter what network you're on. All that is needed is a high speed internet connection. You can even stream live tv from your home as long as you have a tv card connected to your computer.
Firefox http://www.getfirefox.com	There's not too much to say about Firefox that most people don't already know about. Firefox is a free, open source web browser. It is an alternative to Internet Explorer, and is growing in popularity. One thing that stands out about Firefox is the amount of add-ons for it. I'll be posting later about this feature, but for now, suffice it to say that I am right now posting to this site through Firefox.
Windows Live Mail http://download.live.com/wlmail	I support the Windows Live family to some extent. I have used this email program and can say that it is a good alternative to Outlook Express or Windows Mail. Having installed Windows 7 on all of my computers, it didn't take too long to realize that it doesn't ship with an email program. My wife requested Windows Live Mail, and is happy with it. If it makes her happy, it must be a good program!
Filezilla http://www.filezilla-project.org	This program isn't for everybody. If you don't know what FTP is or have had the need to connect to an FTP server, skip this link. It is a free FTP (File Transfer Protocol) client that will allow you to download and upload files to a remote server that is already configured with this service.
No-IP http://www.no-ip.com	No-IP is a service that allows you to create your own domain (www.yourdomainhere.com). It has pay and free services. Either one comes with a no-IP program you install. After service is setup with them, the program will keep track of your internet address, and if it should change, will update the link to your domain name. I have been using this for about 10 years, and have had 0 problems with it.
Log Me In http://www.logmein.com	Log Me In is a service that I don't know if I could live without (j/k). All joking aside, it is a very easy way to remote control a computer that is connected to the internet. You have to sign up for a free account at logmein.com, and install the free program on your computer. You then log into their website, and select your computer. You can have multiple computers from multiple networks on your list (I have about 15), and log into them all at once!
WinRAR http://www.rarlabs.com	There are many types of compressed files. ZIP, TAR, and RAR to name a few. WinRAR can uncompress most types of compressed files. WinRAR is a program many would say isn't free, because it isn't. There is a very nice feature that can be used after the trial is finished, however. After WinRAR is installed, at any point you can always right click on a compressed file and choose 'extract'. You can choose to extract the files to either a new folder, or the folder you are currently in. If you are extracting multiple compressed files, you can right click and extract each to its own folder! It is very versitile, and simple to use.
µTorrent http://www.utorrent.com	µTorrent is a program that is used to download .torrent files. Many large companies now use Torrents as a way to distribute updates, traiers, and beta versions of their software. The reason bittorrent is so popular is that if you are downloading the file, most likely you are uploading the file as well. The more people that are sharing it, the faster any one person can download it. I'm not going to go any further into that now, but I may in the future.
Rocket Dock http://www.rocketdock.com	Rocket Dock is a neat little program I came across when reading about add ons for windows XP. If you have ever seen a Macintosh with OS X or later, you have probably seen the chooser bar. This is a shortcut bar that allows you to add icons for programs you frequently use (similar to the quicklaunch bar in xp). You can customize Rocket Dock with different icons, change the location of the dock, and even change the transparency of the software.
Notepad++ http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net	If you read my earlier post about basic web design, I suggested to use notepad to write webpages from scratch. I started out using notepad, until I came across Notepad++. Notepad++ is notepad on steroids! It allows for multiple pages to be open at once in the same window. You can install additional plug ins to allow for spell checking, color coding, and uploading to a remote location directly from the program!
Ccleaner http://www.ccleaner.com	I already tackled Ccleaner in this post. If you have any other questions about it, or want to learn more, please comment, or send me a note via the 'suggestion' form to the right.
Anti-Malware http://www.malwarebytes.org	Once again, this program has already been mentioned here. Let me know if you have any further questions about this as well.
Microsoft Security Essentials http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials	I have tried many different anti-virus programs, both paid for and not paid for. I recently came across this little gem from my search for a better antivirus solution. This from the mothership (Microsoft). It is a free program (Shocker!) and works extremely well with both Windows XP and Windows 7 (I don't do Vista, so don't ask j/k). I haven't tested this with Windows Vista, but I can't imagine that it has any problems with it either. If someone wants to try it and get back to me I'd appreciate it!

Well there you have round 1 of Bob's Link-O-Rama! There will be more in the future, but for now I think that is enough to keep everyone busy. As always, leave comments and suggestions!

Tutorial: Free Spyware and Malware Removal

2010-01-18T13:52:00.008-07:00

How many times has it happened: You're sitting on your favorite game, social networking, or shopping website, when you get a very real looking pop-up. This pop-up tells you that your computer may be infected with spyware, and to "click here" to fix the problems.
If any of you have clicked to "fix" the problems, you may have started to notice new problems cropping up. That is because the ad you believed was legit was nothing more than a malware installation program.
Malware can come in all sorts of flavors. Spyware and Adware are two of the most common descendants of malware. Malware can be any program that negatively affects your system (Mal in spanish means bad). The biggest question I get about malware is how to remove it. Today I'll share with you the (not so) secret software I and many computer techs use to remove malware and its offspring.

The program I'm speaking of today is Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware. Malwarebytes' software comes in two different flavors: free and pro. The only difference between the two is that the pro version keeps monitoring your files real-time and updates itself automatically, while the free version only scans and updates when you tell it to. I'm going to show you how to install and scan the free version today. If you want to know more about the pro version, click here.

To download the free version, click this link. It will take you to the cnet download page for the Anti-Malware free version. Click on the big "download now" button, and choose to run the program. It is a 5MB download, so it shouldn't take too long to download.

Once downloaded, choose to run the program, and then choose your preferred language. Make sure to accept the agreement (after reading it, of course), and keep clicking on 'next' until it installs the program. The last page of the installer has two check boxes: 'update now' and 'run anti-malware now'. Make sure both of those boxes are checked and click finish. You have just finished installing and updating Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware!

When the program first comes up you are presented with two options: 'perform quick scan' and 'perform full scan'. If you are installing this for the first time I would suggest to perform a full scan. If you don't have much time, a quick scan will suffice for now.

With your scan type chosen, click the 'Scan' button near the bottom left-hand side of the window. This will start the scan. If you decided to run a quick scan, it should finish in a few minutes. (It took 8 mins to run on my computer) If you decided to run a full scan it could take a couple of hours, depending on how many files you have on your computer.

If you are lucky enough to not have any malware found on your computer, you will get a little pop-up saying that nothing was found. If you are the unfortunate owner of malware, you will be shown a screen with what has been found. In either case you will also get a notepad window with the scan logs open up on your desktop as well. You can close this, unless someone requested an anti-malware log file. The file would be useful in the troubleshooting process when working with another technician. If no one has asked for this file, it is ok to just close it.

If Anti-Malware has found any malicious software on your computer, you will be prompted to remove it. Generally you don't need to uncheck any of the boxes that came up. Just click on remove now, and let the program do its thing. When it is done it may ask you to reboot. Even if it doesn't, it is always a good idea to do so.

There you have it. Hopefully this will help with any malware infestations you are confronted with. If you have additional questions, you can comment on this post, or send me an email using the suggestion box to the right >>.

Blog Button

2010-01-15T15:05:00.015-07:00

If you find my information useful in any way, feel free to add my button to your site!

Just copy the following code and add it to your site!

<a href="http://www.bobknowsthe.net/" title="Pick Bob's Brain : Tech Help for the Helpless" target="_default" style="border: 1px solid #99c9ff; <img alt="Pick Bob's Brain : Tech Help for the Helpless" src="http://file.bobsonlineworld.net/bobsbrainbutton.png" /></a>

If you prefer a text link, use the following code:

<a href="http://www.bobknowsthe.net" title="Pick Bob's Brain : Tech Help for the Helpless" target="_blank">Pick Bob's Brain!</a>

Pick Bob's Brain!

Tutorial: Clean Out Temporary Files for Free

2010-01-15T10:40:00.007-07:00

Last night I was talking with my wonderful wife about some of the ideas I had for this site. There are so many things I want to share with you! My organizational skills aren't the best, and I was just thinking randomly about what content to put here. As we were talking, she suggested that I start off with the most common complaint I get: the slow computer.

Often times a slow computer can be fixed fairly simply by using a couple of free programs. The first one I'll talk about is called CCleaner, and the second is called Anti-Malware.

CCleaner is a program that will clean out temporary files left over from old program installs or various other locations including your web browser temporary files. Any time you go to a website it is downloaded and saved in a folder. The reason for this is so your computer doesn't have to re-download the same content should you click on a link and then click the back button to go back to the previous page. While this is all fine and dandy, over time your computer will fill up the temporary internet files folder. When the temporary internet files folder is full, your computer will overwrite the oldest content with the content it is downloading. As you could imagine, it can take some time to find and then copy over even 500 megabytes of old files. This is where CCleaner comes in. When you go to the CCleaner website, http://www.ccleaner.com, there is a link on the right hand side to "Download Ccleaner now...". On that page I would suggest to click the alternative download link to automatically start the download process. Choose to run the file, and start the installation. Once you get to the part in the installation with a bunch of check boxes, there's an option at the bottom to install the Ccleaner with Yahoo Toolbar. This is your decision, but personally I am not a fan of additional toolbars in my web browser. If you don't want this toolbar, uncheck that box and then choose "install". The program will install and then you can click on "finish". Ccleaner will automatically open for you.

The easiest way to have Ccleaner is to open it and just click on "Run Cleaner". If you are presented with an error box about deleting files, just click on ok. Ccleaner deletes temporary files, so of course there are going to be some files deleted from your system.

When Ccleaner is done, just close the program and restart your computer.

Congratulations! You have just cleaned out your temporary files and hopefully sped up both your computer and potentially your internet connection as well!

My next post will center around Malwarebytes' "Anti-Malware" and how to get rid of the annoying popups you may encounter while on the internet.

Tutorial: Basic Web Design (Intro)

2010-01-14T19:01:00.011-07:00

I've had a few people ask me about building websites. I'll eventually try to explain all that I know about designing websites. For now I'll just start with the basics.

There are 3 ways to build a website. The first way is to pay someone to do it for you. While this suits some people, it is just too costly for most. I like the feeling that I 'created' something that works and looks the way I want it to for next to nothing cost-wise.

The second way to build a website is to get a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) program like Adobe Dreamweaver CS4. While a program like this lets you build a website without having to know any code (its like using Microsoft Word), it is fairly expensive.

The third way, and my favorite way to build a website is with a text editor such as notepad. If you have ever wondered how to start a webpage this way, its your lucky day! I'm going to attempt to describe the basics of a webpage.

FAQ: Tech Support Do's and Don't's

2010-01-14T14:51:00.020-07:00

Seeing how I work in the tech support field, I figured I may as well start my sojourn with a list of tech support do's and don't's.
I have held a tech support job since 2001, and have had what I believe to be sufficient experiences to determine the best and worst practices when calling in for technical support.

First the dont's:

DON'T cut off the technician when they are opening the call. All this does is frustrate the tech. The more they are frustrated, the less help you will really get.
DON'T start the call by asking for a supervisor. Most of the time it is a different person you're speaking with and they could possibly even fix the problem for you!
DON'T tell the technician you are a 'computer tech'. If you try to prove your technical knowledge, you shouldn't have called in in the first place.
DON'T pretend you understood what the tech asked. If you don't understand, tell them you don't understand.
DON'T assume the technician uses the same vernacular you do. "The internet is broken" means something completely different to a computer tech than it does to you.
DON'T yell. It will not get your point across. We know you are frustrated. We are sorry you are, and we want to fix your problem and make you happy again.
DON'Task if everyone has the same problems you have. Technical support mostly talks to people that are having problems. If it isn't broken, what is the point in calling tech support?

Hopefully I can quell some of the frustrations on both ends of the support spectrum. Keep in mind I am a technician on the phones, so this advise is coming from my standpoint. If your experience or advise differs from mine, please share!

Now for the do's:

DO know your phone number, username, or identification information before you call. If you aren't sure, grab an old bill, receipt, or invoice before you call.
DO write down the technician's tech ID and name. If they don't give you any information, at least ask for their name.
DO give the technician the information they ask for. If they need to know, they'll ask.
DO restart your computer/other electronic device before calling technical support. Rule 1 of tech support: Reboot and then ask the questions. 80-90% of problems can be fixed this way.
DO at least try to read the manual before calling. Most questions are answered in the first couple of pages. Granted many manuals are full of technical jargon that most people can't understand, but at least try.
DO try to thank the technician if they fix the problem. Whether by speaking with a manager or just with the technician, let them know when they do a good job. It makes us happy to know that you are happy. A happy tech is a helpful tech.
DO ask for a manager if the technician is abusive or generally not nice. We are still in the customer support realm even if we aren't labeled as "customer service representatives".
DO follow along with the technician. If you get to a point where you aren't sure what to do, ask.
DO have a pen and paper ready in case there is information needed to be written down. Most calls will end with the technician giving you a reference number, and in some cases, a better contact number to get to their department.
DO write down what you did to fix the problem. If you have the problem again you now know how to fix it, and if a friend has the same problem, you can be the smart 'techy' person and get the warm fuzzies when you fix their issue!
I know there are more DO's and more DON'T's, but just this basic information will get you started on the path to tech nirvana.

Many Reasons....

2010-01-14T08:11:00.005-07:00

I was sitting at my desk this morning reading a random e-book about how to do something-or-another, when I had an 'ah ha!' moment. I realized that I could start a how to site with just the many tidbits of knowledge I have acquired over the years. Now granted, I don't see myself as a 'guru' or anything like that. I'm just a guy that has had questions and have found the answers. Its my turn to give back to the Internet and give to anyone who reads this blog a little of my knowledge.

I'm going to start off with some basic information that has helped me find answers in the past, but will gladly take any suggestions as to what content to include.

Thanks for reading, and happy learning!