Stoneycase

How to Save Money on Motorcycle Insurance

2012-04-30T01:30:00.001-04:00

I recently needed to purchase motorcycle insurance for the first time. After researching, and finally purchasing a motorcycle insurance policy, I have some lessons learned. Particularly on how to save money on the policy. There are actual some easy things you can do to save money on motorcycle insurance. Saving money on motorcycle insurance entails three basic principles: buy only what you need, compare, and take advantage of discounts.

1. Shop Around: Ok this seems obvious, but seriously, there can be HUGE differences amongst insurance providers for the same coverage. Even if all you do is compare some of the large national names (GEICO, Progressive, State Farm, All State, etc.), go ahead and do the comparison. I guarantee you that you will be surprised. In my experience, a 6 month premium could be TWICE AS MUCH at one provider.

2. Motorcycle Safety Classes: Most insurance providers will give a discount if you have completed a motorcycle safety class. In some cases, this may be the same class you took to get your license! Make sure you get credit for the class. Forewarning though, if you're thinking of just taking a class to save on insurance...classes can be $300 or more. The discount is also only valid for 3 years from safety class completion date.

3. Drop Comprehensive Coverage: Comprehensive coverage, which is normally a "must" for cars and trucks, can be totally dropped for motorcycles. Particularly if your bike is older, or inexpensive. Comprehensive covers the bike in case of theft, flood, etc. Obviously check the terms, but for the most part comprehensive focuses on the bike itself. This will also have a deductible attached to it. Something like $250/$500/$1000. That's the share you pay in the case of a claim. So when bikes are older and less expensive, and you have a deductible, it doesn't make much sense to pay a bunch of dough monthly for comprehensive. The numbers aren't in your favor.

4. Drop Collision Coverage: Collision coverage, also normally a "must" for cars and trucks, can be dropped for motorcycles. Again, this is especially true if your motorcycle isn't worth that much money. Collision coverage takes care of the motorcycle in the case of an accident. But, it also has a deductible attached to it. So again, when your bike is cheap, it doesn't make sense to purchase collision either. Just buy a new bike.

Now, before I continue, some of you may thinking "dude screw you, you're telling me the best way to save money on motorcycle insurance is basically cut out all the good coverage". No, that's not what I'm saying. Consider the following scenario:

The average starter motorcycle (say 250cc or 500cc...something like a used Kawasaki Ninja, or Honda Rebel) costs around $2000-$3000 today. Obviously, not a super expensive bike, and of course, it's used when you buy it. Still, that's about what most people spend starting out, and the Ninja 250 is, by far, one of the most popular starter bikes. Ok, so we've got a bike for 2 grand, we need insurance. It's safe to say the average new rider (age 20-40, single, etc.) is probably going to pay anywhere from $50 to $100/mo, depending on coverage. Let's pick the middle, $75/mo. Let's say the rider goes full coverage, and opts for both Comprehensive and Collision. And let's say their deductible is $500. That might be low, because a lot of people choose $1000 deductibles. Remember, the deductible is what you have to pay, regardless, when you file a claim. So, to recap,

$2000 starter bike.
Full coverage, paying $75/mo, with a $500 deductible.

That means your 6 month bill for insurance coverage is $450. After one year of coverage, you've paid $900 for insurance. At this point, when you consider the deductible, an accident/fire/theft/damage will still cost $500...regardless.

$900 insurance for one year + $500 deductible = $1400

Compare that to the value of the bike, when you bought it, $2000.

You're one year insurance bill alone is 45% of the bike value. If you figure an actual claim triggers the $500, and add that in, your one year insurance bill is now 70% of the bike value!

Why the hell would you pay $75/mo for full coverage on a bike that only costs $2000?

Now that's just one scenario, but you can run the numbers for yourself. Just compare the cost of the full coverage plan in 6 mo and 12 mo increments to your bike value.

Drop collision and comprehensive for your bike if the numbers aren't in your favor. Use a 6mo and 12mo insurance premium value, and compare it to the value of your bike.

Remember, Collision and Comprehensive can be as much as TWO THIRDS of your policy cost!

Dropping collision and comprehensive can cut cost substantially. If you are financing the bike, unfortunately, this won't be optional and you likely can't drop either Comprehensive or Collision.

5. Join a big bike club: Most national insurance providers give modest discounts for joining motorcycle associations and clubs. No, not like the a discount for the Hells Angels. More like a discount for the American Motorcycle Association, Harley Owners Group, Gold Wing Road Riders Association, Gold Wing Touring Association, Motorcycle Safety Foundation [and] Venture Touring Society, BMW Motorcycle Owners of America.

6. Have good credit: All of the national insurance carriers are going to be checking your financial history. All of them also state pretty clearly that the better your financial history (i.e. pay your bills on time), the lower the rates. Sometimes it can be as much as half!

7. Drop Med Pay: Motorcycle insurance typically has something called "Med Pay", or Medical Coverage. This is basically coverage for your health and medical. So why drop it? Simple, you're probably already covered under your primary health insurance policy, and Medical Coverage like this is SECONDARY. That means it only pays when another health insurance policy doesn't. In the case of an average joe with health insurance at work, Med Pay will only pay AFTER his primary health insurance pays!

If you can take advantage of the above seven tips, you can easily get your motorcycle insurance down into the $50/month range with a national provider. The best part is, if you can take advantage of these tips, that $50/month can be buying you some kick ass insurance. You should be able to pick up $100k/$300k on medical liability, and good coverage for uninsured/underinsured. Defeinitely pay attention to these two areas in particular (Medical Liability and Underinsured/Uninsured). You want to go big here, if possible. A lot of people on the road don't have insurance, and that could leave you high and dry. At the same time, motorcycle accidents are often nasty, so having a high medical liability is wise!

How to Beat the Center for Copyright Information (and BitTorrent snooping, etc.)

2012-04-03T00:22:00.001-04:00

If you haven't heard already, there's a new sheriff in town. The CCI are set to police EVERYONE on the internet for "copyright infringement". CCI have partnered with all the major ISP's are being put in position to essentially enable logging of P2P and BT traffic. The plan? Watch it, document it, and start identifying offenders. Throttle that traffic, eventually cut it off, and fine them.

Yup, and you thought "the blackout" had made a difference. LOL. Epic.fail.

So you, like a million other people, seeing this news...are wondering, "Well WTF do I do now?"

You're now aware that the BitTorrent downloads and uploads are totally visible. And now, there's someone there watching, logging, and putting a bureaucracy around it. This probably isn't going to end well for you, if you continue.

CCI and it's methods (straight out of the MPAA/RIAA handbook), are, put simply, RETARDED.

So, how then should we beat the Center for Copyright Information?

How about a cyberlocker, or basically cloud storage. Yup, that's an easy way to beat CCI. All of that HTTPS will do the trick. Of course, this isn't really BT friendly.

How about a "BT anonymizer". Yup, that's an easy way to beat CCI. But that's limited to BT only.

Those are both good options. One is obviously a change in the pattern, totally different. The other is tailored specifically to the BT task at-hand. Both will prevent BitTorrent snooping. Both will easily defeat CCI.

A better option, is to find a hybrid. Find something that will cover the most, and take care of the task at hand.

Beat CCI with VPN.

Connecting to a VPN while using BT, or using the internet in general, will beat CCI and anyone else that attempts to employ the same lame type of policing on internet traffic.

We mentioned earlier the great speeds available on HideMyAss. That's definitely an option right there.

What you're really looking for, out of a VPN service (especially if you intend to pay) is quality and security. Go for L2TP and OpenVPN where possible. Steer clear of PPTP only. Providers with servers in the NL and in Sweden are good. Logging will be less of a worry. If you just use US or UK VPN, you're asking for trouble with BT/P2P useage.

For good VPN software and high speeds check out HideMyAss.

For the best deal on Usenet + VPN, go with Giganews + VyprVPN.

For a VPN focused on no logging and providing a lot of SE servers, go with VPNTunnel.SE.

For a provider using multihop VPN for added security, try iVPN.net.

For a new up and coming provider with a lot of servers and cheap prices see IPVanish.

For a little south-of-the-border flavor with your VPN, CactusVPN is cheap and easy.

For anyone who knows what "shell" means, you should check out Shells.net.

Ok so if that's not enough options for beating CCI, check back later. I'm sure we will have thought of something else. Probably while we were on the can.

HideMyAss VPN Review - 95% of Network Fast Enough for Streaming High Def!

2011-07-12T00:00:00.001-04:00

httpI came across a really well done VPN review on HideMyAss. The folks over at VPNandUsenetReviews.com did an amazing job on an indepth review of the HMA VPN software and service, including a full test.

They did such a good job they documented just about everything in the software, and then went off and did a full speed test. But they didn't stop there, they actually did some math on the results and produced some real conclusions! Amazing...

The basic conclusion is that HMA has a really fast network. Over 95% of it can support speeds suitable for streaming high def. Even if you accept some of the highest measures of speeds required, over 70% of the HMA VPN network still meets the requirements. Pretty cool when you consider it's only $11.52/mo.

The indepth review includes screenshots of almost all the HMA features in their VPN client software. It also includes all the speed test results from the 20 something countries that HMA offers.

Have a look at all the screenshots of the software and the full test here.

Personally I like both VyprVPN and HMA for VPN service and VPN clients. I think either one is an excellent choice. They both end up highly ranked over at that site too for obvious reasons (price, features, performance, etc.)

Usenet is going crazy with the retention upgrades

2011-04-20T23:43:00.003-04:00

For my first post since returning from my "walkabout" I am going to talk about the retention insanity going on with usenet right now.

And when I say insanity, I mean crazy-cat-lady insanity. Usenet service providers, like Giganews, are BLOWING UP their binary retention. Massive improvements.

Now, for those not in the know about usenet, I'll offer you 3 quick primers:

Check out my previous posts on the subject
Get your learn on here (don't worry, it's an easy read)
There is no number three.

Some of you are all, "whatever man, what's retention? why the hell do I care?" Well, put simply. Retention is how long a usenet service provider stores posts. Period. Retention is measured in days. It's broken into 2 primary categories: text and binaries. Unless you hang out in sci.space.science like, um, nobody I know (ha)...all you care about is binary retention. The larger the retention (in days) the more posts (i.e. stuff) available for you to sift through. More stuff (i.e. information) equals more fun. You care because this insanity of improvement has moved binary retention to within striking distance of 3 calendar years.

Unless you're really dense, or in a total fog (totally understandable, I just popped out of mine), you should be thinking to yourself...."Hmmm, 3 years of content - HORRY SHIET!!"

In celebration of this insanity, Giganews is running a promotion. Plus they have a great new signup discount as well. Now is the time to check out usenet if you haven't done so already. In addition to what's going on over at Giganews, you have Easynews, Newshosting, and UsenetServer all pulling the same shenanigans. Massively improving their retention for customers. Right now Giganews is in the lead, which is per the usual - they tend to keep the best retention in the business. If you're interested in seeing some comparison between the providers, head here: vpnandusenetreviews.com

At this point it's a day for day uptick on the retention numbers. Every one calendar day that passes, adds one day retention. In other words, they've expanded their storage space so much they are comfortable letting retention grow every day. I assume once they get uncomfortable this day for day uptick will stop. Let's hope that's not before we hit 1,095 days (365x3=1095).

BTW, this shit has been in the news and all over the web lately on the usenet sites, review sites, and the like. (just a friendly note on Slyck.com - decent content, but don't trust the recommendations. Anyone that recommends Binverse does not have your best interests in heart...do your research)

He's baaaaaccckkk! Stoneycase is alive and well

2011-04-20T23:07:00.000-04:00

Contrary to what you read in the tabloids, I am not dead. Keeping true to my motto: "Stoneycase, it's more than just a name, it's a frame of mind" I disappeared into the ether from the end of January, until...um...now. Yes, this exact moment. I just emerged. Yeah, it happened just like that. You see, a stoneycase frame of mind is well, kinda hazy...and somewhat difficult to navigate. Sometimes you just end up wandering.

However, I am reminded of a passage from one of my favorites:

Frodo felt Bilbo stir impatiently at his side. Evidently he was annoyed on his friend’s behalf. Standing suddenly up he burst out:

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.

by J. R. R. Tolkien (3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973)
from The Fellowship of the Ring
chapter: The Council of Elrond

So please excuse the wandering, and the absence. Though I can't promise I won't do it again...once a wanderer, always a wanderer...

NEW Ultra High Capacity Magazines from Surefire

2011-01-21T19:09:00.002-05:00

Surefire just released new ultra high capacity magazines for the AR15/M16 weapon - 60 and 100 rounds!

Little different topic than my usual tech/software/space/science - but this definitely qualifies as current events, educational, and/or unique. I actually think it's tech as well, since it represents a technological development for rifle magazines. Then there is the fact that they look like a whole lotta fun!

Unfortunately high capacity magazines have gotten a lot of press lately. I don't really want to get into a lot of that discussion. Let's just say nobody wins when you argue you those points. Suffice to say, crime is crime. Whether you fire one bullet or one thousand...consequences will never be the same.

Surefire, the ever popular company mostly known for it's flashlights, also makes weapon accessories. Their latest release of ultra high capacity magazines for the AR-15/M-16 rifle have catapulted them into the firearms market in a major way.

Until now, the options for magazines on the AR15/M16 weapon platform basically broke down like this:

1. 10 round magazines - Low capacity. During a few years this was all you could buy due to regulations. I believe some states and localties still forbid magazines that hold any more than this for even semi-automatic rifles. (such as the AR15)

2. 30 round magazines - Normal capacity. You can buy these today, with some exceptions. Check your local laws. IANAL. These are typical/normal, especially in the military or law enforcement. There are cheap ones, clear ones, with counters, etc. Consider this standard issue.

3. 40 round magazines - Higher capacity, but totally unreliable. In general, everybody steered clear of these pieces of shit. They were basically just longer than 30 round mags, but somehow managed to totally fuck up. Suffered from feed problems, spring problems, etc. You rarely see them for sale, or in use...but they do exist.

4. 100 round magazine drums - Ultra high capacity. In use in the military, and I believe, available to civilians. It's basically a big circle drum. It's huge, weighs a crap ton, and throws off the balance of the rifle. Plus you have to use crazy lubricant on it to make it reliable.

There is some variation, of course. For example, instead of a 100 round drum, there are 90 round drums. But they are all drums at that size. Or you would see 2x30 round magazines, joined together - sometimes even duct taped. But for the most part, this list was the playing field.

Surefire has stepped up to the plate and swung for the fences by releasing a 60 round and a 100 round magazine that basically seem to solve all of the major issues with high capacity magazines.

They maintain the relative size and shape of the traditional 30 round magazine. Amazing. They also are more reliable and require no special lubricant applications. Awesome. The 60 rounder also weighs less than joining two 30 round magazines together. Even better.

The uber-cool website Cheaper than Dirt! should be selling these babies very soon. God bless CTD. Surefire has the retail currently at $129 and $179 for the 60 and 100 round respectively.

Make sure you check out the pictures and video! Congratulations to Surefire for a significant advancement in magazine technology and weapons accessories. Way to go guys. More rounds down range, and on target, is always good thing.

Sharepod - Say Goodbye to iTunes and Copy your Music

2011-01-15T17:45:00.001-05:00

Sharepod is free software to change, backup, and share the music on your iPod.

Drop iTunes. It's a piece of crap. It's so bloated I don't even think "Beat the Bloat" could solve the problem.

Get with the times and check out Sharepod. For one thing, the footprint is tiny. Oh, and by the way, you can backup, copy, and share ANY music on ANY iPod.

If ever there was a reason to dislike Apple, and/or Apple software, that reason is iTunes. Unfortunately there are so many people that use this PoS, trying to get people to switch is damn near impossible. iTunes is on version 10.x these days, and it still sucks mightily. +100mb install file? Yeah iTunes has that. Persistent processes in the background, regardless of whether an iDevice is plugged in? Yeah iTunes has that. A totally retarded sync process? Yeah iTunes has that too. Hangups during "verification"? Oh yeah baby, iTunes is all over that. Application lag on ultra-fast core i7 machines? Aww yeah, iTunes for the win!

So just kick the habit. I know it's hard. I know a bunch of you have iPods and are used to dealing with the hassle that is iTunes. I won't even get into the iPhone, because without iTunes you can't even activate the damn thing (unless you do it in store, or elsewhere). Still, there's no reason why you shouldn't check out Sharepod.

Hell, at least use it to copy/backup/share the music on your iPod. That's something iTunes will NEVER do. Throw your iPod down, connect the cable, and start the share love. Friend comes over to your pad with sweet tunes on their iPhone/iPod? Backup that shiat! Get your SHARE ON, and spread the love amongst the people. Get Sharepod!

10 Great Android Apps - MORE Shit You Totally Need

2011-01-03T22:40:00.003-05:00

Another list of 10 NEW highly recommended and totally FREE Android Apps that you totally need.

Following up on my previous post, 10 Great Android Apps - Shit You Totally Need, we have a whole NEW list of another 10 Android Apps - MORE Shit You Totally Need!

As another belated Christmas gift to yourself, I offer you even MORE shit you totally need. All FREE! This isn't some NYTimes best apps of 2010 puff piece. This article, and my last one, are actually full of QUALITY FREE APPS. I swear to god I see another new article peddling the same crappy pay apps (that they most likely get paid to promote), I'm going to send the author and the editor a rage comic on the subject.

Oh, and if you're really hard up from Christmas, because all you got was a fruitcake and an ugly sweater, I suggest you also browse my list of Top 10 Android FREE Live Wallpapers!

Handcent SMS
The stock SMS/MMS for Android 2.2 is "meh". Handcent is "aww yeah baby". New styles, additional themes, customization, font packs, colors - more settings than you shake a stick at. Hell, it can even make your SMS look like the iPhone with "the bubbles". Some girl I met at a bar described the messaging that way when she saw it, "Oh that has the iPhone bubbles". LOL. Seriously though, it's a killer app and a definite improvement over the stock version. Free.

Liquor Run Mobile
This little app comes in handy more often than you would think! It lists all the liquor stores near you (or anywhere in general). Plus it has cocktail mixing directions and tons of other features. The mascot is perhaps the coolest part though, it's a bottle of booze running. Who couldn't love that mascot? I want a t-shirt with him on it. Free.

AppBrain App Market
Although similar to the Android Marketplace, this is definitely superior to Google's stock offering. There are more ways to sort, search, and filter. You'll find a lot more cool apps through this market than you will in the stock marketplace - guaranteed. Install it. Free.

Winamp
The original badass MP3 player is available on Android. And yes, IT REALLY WHIPS THE LLAMA'S ASS! This is probably the best free player out there. Plus it will sync with your desktop version of Winamp (if you so choose). All in all a really great player and big improvement on the stock media player. Free.

App2SD
Since Android isn't gay, like some of it's competitors...it allows you to install Apps to your microSD card. This is really nice and ultimately allows you to install tons and tons of apps. However, it's tough to know which apps support this feature of running on SD (not all do). Furthermore, you have to do it by hand - individually. SUCKS. But this little app solves all that. It searches your phone apps, finds which ones can be moved to SD, and helps you move them more efficiently. Free.

GTunes Music
GTunes is kind of like Google, for music. Search, and download. It's that easy. It will let you preview before you download too. The app also has charts for billboard, specific genres, and countries around the world. So if you're just looking for some 'Pop', hit up the chart, and start searching. Downloads MP3's right to the phone. Somehow I don't think the walled garden is down with that...so jump that wall, sucka! Free.

PageOnce Travel
I did an earlier article, awhile back, on a head to head comparison of PageOnce Travel and TripIt. Both apps rock, and both apps make this list. PageOnce is still slightly ahead because it offers free flight status updates. In addition to this handy feature it auto-creates your trips from your accounts. Very nice to have for anyone who travels, even if it isn't that frequent. Free.

TripIt
TripIt is still a badass app, and it sure as hell ain't no slouch when it comes to travel organization. Now that it can auto-create trips from confirmations sent to your Gmail account, it's taking big steps forward. It also handles things like dinner reservations, special events, etc. etc. I run both PageOnce Travel and TripIt, and you should too. Don't get caught at the airport or the hotel without your confirmation number. You're holding up the damn line! Free.

XBMC Remote
Ok, so first off, if you don't have XBMC...you should. God knows you have a ton of media on your computer(s). Music, Pictures, Video, Movies, TV Shows - I know you have it. Install XBMC, get a media library, and watch your content like a pro. Impress your friends. Find a nerdy girl and get her on your couch. Then, pull out your phone and use it as the remote. Aw yeah, baby...that's right. My full review is here. Free

ADW Launcher
This is the beginings of full customization of your Android phone (minus a custom rom, of course). ADW, and it's array of themes + customization give you complete control over the look and feel of the phone. Change the drawer, change the icons, change the status displays, change it all. There really isn't a limit once you get ADW Launcher going. Which is very easy. Download, install, find a theme, and use it. Then hit your home button. Done. Free. (maybe in the future I'll do a full howto on this...)

So there you go. 10 Great Android Apps - MORE Shit You Totally Need. Combined with my last list, that's 20 FREE and HIGH QUALITY Apps for Android. The best part is, I didn't have to sell out to write these lists, nor did I have to study Journalism in college and suckup to some loser in a turtle neck. New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal - I'm looking at you fools. Your app lists suck. Mine do not. Stoneycase - 2, MSM - 0.

10 Great Android Apps - Shit You Totally Need

2010-12-27T16:28:00.002-05:00

A list of 10 highly recommended and totally FREE Android Apps that you totally need.

Now that Christmas is over, I'm sure you didn't get everything you wanted! So, why not treat yourself to some cool new Android apps that don't cost a dime?

Below is a list of 10 Great Android Apps, all totally FREE. This is shit you totally need.

Each app has a link to the AppBrain market so you can download it to your computer, or you can just navigate to the app in the market on your phone. Screen grabs are included and the descriptions should do a decent job of telling you why that app is SHIT YOU TOTALLY NEED!

VLC Stream & Convert
I've posted on this awesome app quite a few times, so it's obvious I would put it on this list. Stream HD/SD/MP3 from your computer to your phone. Over Wifi/3G/4G. Convert files for playing on your phone. Use your phone as a remote control for VLC (i.e. control the computer's VLC from your phone). It's badass. Free version and paid version.

VLC S&C is the king of streaming

Streaming a 720p MKV file to phone via 3G

Pandora
Have you been hiding under a fucking rock? Download this app and listen to music. Enter info to create a channel (like a song name, artist, genre, etc.). Listen to music on that channel. It's kind of like being able to create your XM radio channels. Be careful with their updates though...sometimes shit breaks. Check the comments before updating this app. I'm still running an old version, but it seems like their latest fixed a bunch of bugs. Free application. Free and paid subscriptions available.

NextApp System Panel
Best app utility out there for Android. Check running tasks. Kill tasks. View processor, memory, and network useage. Collect device performance history in easy to read graphs. View the Top Apps utilizing processor power. Shows you tasks running that even Froyo won't show you. Free.

BatStat Battery Widget
Great widge for one of your home screen. Get percent readout on battery life, temperature, and voltage. Very accurate. Very easy to use. Minimal footprint. Does not drain battery. Beware of other impostors they will drain your battery! (kind of ironic when you think about it...) Free.

BatStat is next to the Airplane Widget

Pageonce
Display all of your "accounts" in one easy to read screen. Financial - like banking, savings, investing, etc. Bills - like comcast, att, sprint, etc. Subscriptions - like Netflix, etc. They just put out a big update for their Android app and changed the look and feel. Nice upgrade. You need this. Free and paid version. Edit to add: A lot of people are commenting on this...so some extra info for those interested: 1 - you enter the account info using the website, primarily. Account numbers are not displayed in the phone, just balances and pertinent particulars (cell minutes remaining, bill due date, recent transactions, outstanding balance, etc.) 2 - you can't access accounts or manipulate accounts from the phone (or the website). In other words, you can't transfer funds, change passwords, change address, etc. etc. It only displays info - no controls offered. 3 - you can put a special password for the app itself, which can be diff than your phone password. you can also allow/deny access to the phone using the pageonce website. All in all, unless you consider the ability to view your account balances a significant security risk, there really isn't much reason to worry.

Youmail
Visual voicemail. Customize answering messages by contact, or by contact groups. Manage your voicemail via the web. Very easy to use, very easy to setup. Free and paid version.

TV.com
Watch TV for free on the phone from CBS. It's one provider only, but the offering is good, and the quality is good. Full episodes, live TV and clips. Free.

ASTRO File Manager
Best file and folder manager out there for Android. View files/folders over the network. Has a great image viewer for viewing large picture galleries. Let's you basically treat the phone SD card and memory like Windows Explorer. Free.

JamBase
View shows and artists going on in your area. Add a list of your favorite artists, see when they play next. Use the locator to see whats going on around you. Learn about the show, venue, artist and even buy tickets. Very easy to use. Free.

ShootMe (Screen Grabber)
Take screenshots of your phone. Turn on the app and shake the phone. Presto - screenshot. Saves the pictures to a folder on your SD card. Very easy to use. It's how I make screenshots for this blog. Free.

So that's it, 10 Great Android Apps to get yourself as a post-christmas gift. The best part is everything is totally FREE. Look for another installment of Android Apps - Shit You TOTALLY Need coming in the near future!

Question: Are you using either Usenet or VPN Services?

2010-12-20T17:57:00.004-05:00

Do you use either Usenet or VPN services currently?

Hey Readers,

I'm curious - are you using either a Usenet newsgroup provider, or a VPN service provider? If so, which provider are you using for the service?

Giganews, VyprVPN, StrongVPN, Easynews, NewsDemon, TuVPN - another service provider?...

Thou shalt secure thine connection before traveling

Doesn't really matter if it's a pay or free provider, of either service.

All pimps wear this hat

I'm trying to figure out what is actually in use out there. I can look it up all I want, but I figure asking you readers is just as effective.

Is this how you get security on the net?

Please let me know in the comments! Yes/No (to either service), and who is the provider...THANKS!

**bonus - if you're willing to comment on how the service is, in your opinion, that would be AWESOME!**

Blogger Settings You Should Know - Blog like a Pro

2010-12-15T11:24:00.003-05:00

Changing your default Blogger settings so you can Blog like a pro!

1. Turn off Captcha. Seriously, it makes me want to kill kittens. And that's a bad thing.
Settings > Comments > Show Word Verification > No

For the love of god, please disable captcha!

2. Add your blog/website link to your profile.
Dashboard > Edit Profile > Homepage URL > Enter your blog address
Dashboard > Edit Profile > Select Blogs to Display > Select your Blog

Make your homepage URL your blog

Select your blogs and they appear on your profile

3. Get Adsense going. Put an ad up, or two. You might make a dollar, or not.

AdSense will make you rich in no time

4. Add the followers widget somewhere on your page.

5. Allow anyone to comment.
Settings > Comments > Who can Comment? > Anyone

Allow anon, it's important

6. Turn off comment moderation
Settings > Comments > Comment Moderation > Never

You can always delete comments later anyway...

7. Let the world know
Settings > Basic > Add your blog to our listings > Yes
Settings > Basic > Let Search Engines find your Blog > Yes

Get your blog listed by search engines

8. Get a real domain name
The cost is minimal to get a dot com for an entire year, $7.49 - $10.00
GoDaddy and Google are both top notch. Get a real dot com for yourself. Drop the "blogspot.com"
See my earlier post on GoDaddy deals ($7.49 domain name, and free private registration!)

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Gawker gets their butt handed to them - Gawker gets pwned by hack

2010-12-13T19:39:00.004-05:00

Gawker was hacked over the weekend, and much rejoicing was heard around the world.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/dec/13/gawker-hacked-passwords-posted-online/?page=1

Special note to my readers: I do not like Gawker, or their network of sites. I never have. This post may come off as 1/3 current events, and 2/3 rant.

Gawker Media, pretty much the most arrogant media house and blog conglomerate on the planet, got their ass handed to them by a group calling itself "Gnosis".

This weekend Gnosis beat Gawker like a red headed stepchild by posting about 200,000 user account emails and passwords for their various sites. note: Gawker runs Gawker.com, the gadget shithouse known as Gizmodo, Lifehacker, and various other sites where idiots pose as writers and journalists.

Of course anybody that graduated high school knows Gawker is pretty much a gigantic POS, so this doesn't come as much of a surprise. However, the really great part about this is the attack yielded a whole pile of lulz with defacement, posting of source code, additional cracking of twitter accounts, and posting of instant message logs. Not to mention the 1.5 MILLION ACCOUNTS CRACKED.

So yeah, it's safe to say that Gawker was served its ass on a silver platter this weekend.

To make matters worse for the imbeciles at Gawker, they actually brought this on themselves. First, you have to understand how arrogant and pretentious Gawker, their staff, writers, and sites are. This isn't hard. Browse any one of their sites and pick an article, the crap overflows the page, off your screen and onto the floor. Read about anyone who was ever critical of Gizmodo, or any of their other sites, you'll see so much arrogance on the part of staff and editors it's hard to believe people still visit their sites.

Second, you need to turn back the clock a bit to this summer. And refresh your memory on a certain young girl with the initials "JS". Yeah, Gawker saw fit to call out anyone and everyone who even laughed at the plight of said girl. They went on and on about "griefing", as if somehow they are god's gift to morality and we should all look to their sage wisdom.

Here's a tip boys and girls, it's never good to call people out on the internet. Nor is it a good tip to do in a bar, on the sidewalk, or really anywhere - at anytime. Except if you're Mike Tyson, it's the 90's, and you're standing in a boxing ring.

But the story doesn't end here, oh no. Gawker had the balls to talk even more trash in IRC, via email, and via IM once they started noticing "suspicious" attacks on their sites. Yeah, keep on poking that lion, it totally looks sleepy and lethargic..it's behind a cage, what can it really do?

Well, Gnosis and their group of "script kiddies" (yes, Gawker called them that) just showed them what a sleeping lion can do. It can go medieval on your ass, at a moments notice. Tearing your servers, database, accounts, and files to shreds.

Let's hope that some lessons are learned from this by both Gawker, it's readers, and the public in general. I'll try to encapsulate said lessons into simple points, in the hopes that they sink in, though I seriously doubt they will. Especially since everyone at Gawker has a history of acting like a complete jackass anytime anyone says anything even slightly negative about their "empire" or one of their sites.

Lesson #1 - Gawker, and their sites suck.
Lesson #2 - Never think you're too high and mighty, because someone will come over and knock your ass off that pedestal.
Lesson #3 - DO NOT USE THE SAME PASSWORD FOR EVERY SITE YOU VISIT!
Lesson #4 - Get your blog news, tech news, and other info from somewhere other than Gawker sites.

#3 is a really important lesson, and should be #1 - I just couldn't resist putting Gawker sucks at the top.

As a last and final note, I'd just like to send a shout out to a certain jerk editor at Gizmodo:

You suck. Your writers are worse than the average high school student, and your site is a POS. Most of the articles couldn't pass for scrawl on a bathroom door at a truck stop. I don't care how much ad revenue it earns, or who wants to suck on your ugly balls. I don't like you, your writers, or your site, and I never will.

Get a Domain Name - Dot Com for only $7.49

2010-12-10T10:47:00.009-05:00

GoDaddy is having a special on registration of dot com's.

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You can get off the www.XYZ.blogspot.com, for a whole year, for only $7.49. There is no minimum purchase. In other words, you need only purchase one year to get the discount.

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It's really easy to register the domain name of your choice, and the discount is applicable to a .com address. Unlike a lot of other specials that involve .us, .co, .info, .tv, or other random type domains - this one actually covers the popular .com type.

It's also really easy to transfer your blogspot.com address, so that it redirects to your new .com address. Google has help pages on it, as does GoDaddy. You can still use all the blogspot controls, widgets, and control panel too.

You can also set it up to cover XYZ.com, without the typical www prefix. (included in $7.49 purchase)

You may notice that my blog is now located at:

www.stoneycase.com

stoneycase.com

stoneycase.blogspot.com

Took me about 10 minutes to order and set it up.

Minimal expense, and it gets you off blogspot domain name - which is a big benefit on search engines and directories. Basically, you want to remove blogspot.com as quickly as possible. I found my search engine ranking went up, as did my pageviews. Plus it just looks cooler and more legit!

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Congratulations SpaceX!! - Images & Video from COTS 1 Demo

2010-12-09T09:17:00.006-05:00

Congratulations again to SpaceX for their successful demonstration mission yesterday! The Falcon 9 and Dragon vehicles performed admirably.

My first post yesterday covered their successful launch and achievement of orbit with the Dragon crew/cargo capsule. My second post yesterday covered their successful re-entry.

Here are some more images to continue the celebration.

Dragon with parachutes deployed

Recovery boat approaches Dragon

High Res of the Falcon 9 launch by NASA

High Res of launch by Parabolic Arc

High Res of launch by Florida Today

Youtube has some great video of the launch as well, here are some good selections:

Link 1 - HD coverage from NASA TV of the launch (no onboard video)

Link 2 - Original SpaceX webcast footage of launch (with onboard video)

Link 3 - Post Mission interview with Elon Musk (55min long)

Congratulations SpaceX!! - COTS Demo of Dragon is SUCCESSFUL!

2010-12-08T19:49:00.000-05:00

Congratulations to SpaceX for a successful demonstration today of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle and the Dragon crew/cargo capsule!! Way to kick some serious ass!!

Earlier today I made a post on their successful launch, separation, and initiation of orbit.

Launch today at KSC of Falcon 9 with Dragon by SpaceX

Around 10:30am EST SpaceX launched the Falcon 9 launch vehicle with a Dragon crew/cargo capsule on it from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. After reaching orbit, Dragon separated from the second stage of the vehicle and proceeded to circle our blue dot (i.e. orbit earth). For space nerds like myself, watching the SpaceX webcast of these events was cause for mass celebration!

Second stage engine with nose cone falling back to earth

Around 2:30pm EST Dragon did a re-entry burn, entered the atmosphere, deployed parachutes, and splashed down. SUCCESS!

This feat made SpaceX the first commercial company EVER to conduct the re-entry of spacecraft from low earth orbit. Big balls! :-D

All of this was part of a demonstration SpaceX conducted for NASA and the US Government on a program called "COTS". Essentially this program is designed to commercial spaceflight to service the International Space Station (ISS). The immediate goal is to service cargo to and from the ISS, with the strong possibility of rotating crew...eventually.

Business end of the Falcon 9 with 9 liquid rocket engines

Today's success is a huge milestone for SpaceX and commercial spaceflight in general. This is a big win for the US, a relatively small company, and the hopes of many that believe commercial spaceflight is the way of the future (at least to low earth orbit aka LEO). Respect to SpaceX and it's team that made this happen. Don't forget NASA and the US Government though - they are footing some of the bill here, and essentially creating the "marketplace" by creating contracts for SpaceX (and others, like Orbital Sciences Corp) to service ISS.

All in all, a very good day for space and spaceflight. Grab a pint, and toast to the stars tonight!

*note: I've got some video and other pictures I will add later, please check back tonight or tomorrow for another update!

Congratulations SpaceX!! - Falcon 9 / Dragon Test Flight

2010-12-08T11:13:00.000-05:00

Congratulations to SpaceX for the successful COTS demonstration launch today! HELL YEAH!

Falcon 9 looking sexy on the pad

Today's launch of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle with the Dragon crew/cargo capsule appears to be a huge success. Launch went well, first stage / second stage separation went well, and the Dragon capsule confirmed separation and powered on it's propulsion systems successfully in orbit.

Today's Falcon 9 launch at Kennedy Space Center, FL

Second stage kicking ass

Damn fine job. I watched the webcast with great anticipation, as this test had a lot on the line for the US, SpaceX, NASA, and human spaceflight in general. Very happy to see that it went smoothly. These screenshots are from that webcast. (www.spacex.com/webcast.php)

Dragon capsule separates and starts to kick ass on its own

All that is left now are a few orbits around the earth, re-entry (not trivial), and recovery (and inspection).

Dragon capsule can carry cargo and crew to LEO

Will be looking forward to additional updates on their COTS demonstration mission as it becomes available. I might post more, as information and images trickle in from various sources.

Ten Awesome Android Live Wallpapers - Free for Download

2010-12-05T01:47:00.002-05:00

A selection of 10 awesome Live Wallpapers for your Android phone, all FREE!

Android, unlike the iPhone, has "Live Wallpapers". Wallpapers that move, play videos, play games, and are interactive. Below are 10 awesome Android Live Wallpapers that you can download to your phone. Each live wallpaper is free, and I have provided screenshots for you as well. Unfortunately I didn't go to the trouble of making .gif's or anything - so the screenshots are static images. However I try to describe the movement or "live" aspects of each in the description. A link is provided to the live wallpaper in App Brain so you can download it too.

Let me know which ones you like and don't like, or if you have any favorites of your own!

1. Galactic Core
Very nice live wallpaper of a whirling galaxy that you can tilt and control. The free version has limited settings, but there is a pay version that gives full control. Detail and quality of the wallpaper is very good and the live movement is excellent as well.

2. Pac-Man
Really cool live wallpaper of the iconic arcade game. Pac-Man roams the levels avoiding the ghosts and doing what he does best. The AI is pretty good on this wallpaper, Pac-Man avoids the ghosts, collects points, gets the power-ups and then eats the ghosts.

3. Substrate
This is a collection of live wallpapers - each with it's own "substrate" flavor. I highly recommend this live wallpaper for the variety and the customization. Each live wallpaper comes complete with full settings, even though it's free. Shown here are Sandollar, Guts, and Sand Traveler. The live wallpapers are drawn on the screen, detailed, and then repeated.

4. Flying Toasters
From waaayy back when, the flying toaster returns! Toasters and toast fly across your screen. Need I say more? Nostalgia!

5. Flurry
The Mac OSX style "Flurry". For anyone who's ever owned a mac, used a mac, or knows what I'm talking about...this is a live wallpaper version of the Flurry screensaver. Pretty much a perfect copy of it too.

6. Galaxy Live
This is another collection of live wallpapers - each a different type of galaxy or nebula. Although not exactly true to the real stellar phenomenon, each live wallpaper is quite a sight. There are more than a half dozen to choose from, each various colors and detail. Movement is pretty much the same amongst them all, but the colors and details provide a nice variety.

7. 3D Matrix Code
There a lot of Matrix code live wallpapers, and they all pretty much do the same thing - stream Matrix code on your screen. This one has a slightly different twist by adding a 3D effect. There is some depth, or distance, to the code that changes its size. The developer also added some flames, which are actually a nice touch.

8. Living Music (Album Art)
This live wallpaper takes your album art and creates a live wallpaper with it. Album art is randomized and interchanged creating a nice look and feel. The album art is not colored though, but the overall grey color keeps the screen from feeling cluttered. There are other version of this same type of live wallpaper, though most of them are paid versions.

9. Liquid Particles
A cool live wallpaper that puts colored light particles on your screen that you can interact with. As you tap the screen the particles fly about until finally coming to rest. Tap the screen again and they continue to fly. Do nothing for awhile and they start flying on their own.

10. Metal Slug Zombies
Some live wallpapers also double as games. This one is a take on a fantastic old game - metal slug. Zombies walk across the screen and you bomb them. Tap the screen to drop the bomb. A plane flies in, drops the bomb, and the zombies explode. There are lots of settings that allow for customization of the background, the zombies, bombs, and other features. It also keeps track of your score.

There we have it, a top 10 list of free Live Wallpapers for your Android device. Let me know if you have any suggestions to add to the list!

Calibrate HTC EVO 4G Battery - EVO Tips & Tricks

2010-12-03T03:05:00.002-05:00

Get the most of out of your HTC EVO 4G battery. Calibrate and increase its performance!

As a followup to my earlier post on "how to save juice", I offer two tricks for ultimately increasing battery life.

First trick, a one-time only calibration:

This is a one-time only procedure.

Turn the EVO on and charge it for 8 hours.
Unplug it and turn it off.
Plug it back in and charge for 1 hour.
Unplug it and turn it on.
Wait 2 minutes and turn it off.
Plug it back in and charge for 1 hour.

There is circuitry in the phone (any phone) that controls charging. The goal of this one time calibration is to help make sure the circuit ultimately understands the "full" point for the battery. Many people have found that their EVO's ultimately show as "full" when they are really not. If you're phone is showing juice drain immediately after it's unplugged, you probably are suffering from this issue. Calibration like this will help, though it can be time-consuming.

Second trick, repeatedly filling the battery to increase the full point.

This can be done repeatedly and it has been proven to work very well:

With the phone in the on position - Fully charge the battery (until the led turns green at the top.)
Once the LED turns green, unplug the charger until the led goes off. (this normally takes 5-10 secs after unplugging the charger from the phone)
After the led goes off, immediately plug the charger back in.
When the LED turns green, power off the phone. (this shouldn't take too long for LED to turn green))

Green LED = Finished Charging, Full

Now...with the phone fully powered off:

1. Unplug the charger.
2. Wait until LED goes off.
3. Plug charger back in until the LED turns green. When it turns green, unplug the charger again repeat the cycle. In other words, unplug charger, wait for led to go off, plug charger back in, wait for led to turn green.
4. Repeat steps 1-3, oh say, 10 or more times. This may take anywhere from 30 seconds to 30 mins per cycle. (from when led green, unplug charger, wait for led off, plug charger back in, wait for led to go green again.) Typically only about 1 minute though.

Orange LED = Charging

Couple words on what the second trick is doing (this works for most any phone, really):

We are basically doing the opposite of a complete drain and recharge, which was common with old batteries (NiCad). We are continually "adding juice" by fooling the circuit. Notice that steps have you charge (orange LED) until full (Green LED). Then we unplug, and recharge (orange LED). The goal is not to empty the battery and recharge like ni-cads (those have memory, these don't). These are lithiums, so we need to do the opposite..We are trying to fill up the battery, i.e. make the "full point" more full than it is now. Think of it like like cheating in capacity. Since it's a "trickle charge" you don't really have to worry about overload - that's what the circuity is there for in the first place. We just want to fool the circuitry a bit.

This method seems to work pretty well, and you can easily notice that

You fill up the phone battery by charging it until the LED is green
When you unplug, and the LED light goes off
If you immediately plug the phone back in, the LED is ORANGE. Why?
Because the battery can take more juice - hence the 1 minute or longer cycle times
Each time you do this and it takes time to go from Orange to Green, you're doing good

You can find both of these types of tricks on mobile phone forums such as HoFo and XDA. I have found good success with both tricks on many phones, including my HTC EVO 4G (and an iPhone 3GS). I find the second trick is very effective and fixes the problem of losing battery immediately after unplugging.

How to Improve HTC EVO 4G Battery Life - 21 Tips & Tricks

2010-11-29T21:20:00.001-05:00

A how-to guide on improving the battery life of your HTC EVO 4G.

This is Part 1 of a 2 Part series on HTC EVO Batteries. This post will provide 21 tips & tricks to improve your HTC EVO 4G battery life. The second post will deal with how to calibrate your battery to get maximum capacity (performance).

1. Lower screen brightness. Go to Settings - Sound and Display - Brightness. Reduce the brightness using the slide or select "Automatic brightness" box to let the EVO use its sensors to adjust the screen according to the ambient light. There are also widgets for screen brightness in the Android Marketplace. I prefer just setting to Automatic.

2. Add the widgets for 4G, WiFi, GPS, and Bluetooth to a home screen. Use the + button on your home screen. There are stock widgets that let you turn these radios on/off. Also, there is a Power Widget that has a nice UI as well with the radios stacked across. Take your pick. This makes it really easy to quickly turn radios on/off, plus the widgets actually look pretty good.

3. Disable WiFi and 4G network notifications. Go to Settings - Wireless and Networks - Wi-Fi settings and for 4G, go to Settings - Wireless and Networks - 4G settings. Note, you need to turn on 4G to disable the notifications. Otherwise the option is greyed out. The logic is undeniable!

4. Disable "always on" mobile data. Go to Settings - Wireless and Networks- Mobile networks. Uncheck the box for "Enable always-on mobile data". So far I have no problems to report here, but please let me know if you run into anything in the comments! Note, a warning will be provided indicating applications will need manual refresh...mine did not. Mail is still received, SMS, etc etc.

5. Turn off background data. If you are really hard up for juice, go to Settings - Accounts and Sync and uncheck the Background data box so that applications cannot sync, send, and receive data automatically. Beware, this will impact HTC mail.

6. Reduce your screen timeout interval. The EVO's screen can be set to automatically turn off when you don't interact with it for a predetermined amount of time: 15 seconds, 30 seconds, 1 minute, 2 minutes, 10 minutes, or never. 1 or 2 minutes is pretty effective. It gives quick reads on the phone without becoming too annoying like 15 or 30 seconds.

7. Manually turn off the screen when not in use. The power button at the top of the EVO turns the screen off. Push it when not using the phone. Come on, I know you can do it...

8. Turn off auto-sync. Go to Settings - Accounts and Sync - Auto-sync. This is also not really recommend as a "useful" tip. Keep reading for a better option.

9. Change auto-sync frequency (Weather, News, Stocks, Twitter, Facebook,etc).Turning off auto-sync is kind of ridiculous, so take a look at adjusting how frequently data is retrieved/updated. The settings vary depending on the app (and some don't offer the setting at all), but it's generally found in the same place: Settings - Accounts and Sync. Select an account from the list and then tap "Account settings" to change the sync frequency.

Stocks will have the setting greyed out, if you're stock
Facebook's lowest level of sync activity is "Once a Day" (fcuking facebook)
News can go to "Manual"
Weather's lowest setting is also "Once a Day" (I like every 6, or 12 hours)
Exchange ActiveSync will have the ability to set Peak and Off-Peak activity

10. Disable wireless network location services when not needed. Go to Settings - Location - Use Wireless Networks. Note that this (or one of the other options) needs to be enabled if you want to see and/or use your location in apps like Maps. So again, not really recommended.

11. Turn off window animations. I know it's nice to look at and fun to show off, but eye candy uses extra power (albeit not very much). To turn it off, go to Settings - Sound and Display - Animation - No Animations.

12. Don't use a live wallpaper. Live wallpapers do use more juice than static wallpapers. Personally, I like the Live Wallpapers.

13. Use a dark wallpaper. The theory goes something like this: bright white wallpapers are more bright on the screen, and are therefore using more juice. Dark wallpapers just that, darker and the screen is dimmer. Less juice.

14. Change WiFi sleep policy. So the idea is this: when WiFi sleeps, 3G/4G wakes up to sync, get email, and retrieve other data. Since 3G will eat up more battery than WiFi, we change the sleep policy, so that Wifi does not sleep. Go to Settings - Wireless and Networks - Wi-Fi Settings. Press the Menu button, then Advanced, then Wi-Fi sleep policy. Choose "Never".

15. Monitor your running services (or consider using a task killer). Android 2.2 Froyo has taken more steps toward allowing you what services to kill, but beware, some services just start right back up after being stopped. You can add the Running Services widget to a home screen and view what's running in the background. You can also download a third-party task killer from Android Market and kill selected apps to free up some resources and potentially save some power. ESTaskManager isn't bad, and it has it's own additional widget will allow you to kill services/tasks from a home screen.

16. Choose your home screen widgets carefully. Widgets that need access to the internet to update information (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Engadget, Slacker Radio, Weather, Stocks, News, Mail) can suck up a lot of juice if not managed well, so choose them carefully and set their sync/update frequencies to a reasonable interval.

17. Disable notification lights. This may not be practical if you're someone who really needs/wants to know when something happens on your phone when you're not looking, but for everyone else, feel free to turn off those notifications. Go to Settings - Sound and Display - Notification, and uncheck all the boxes if you can handle notifications being turned off (no more blinking LEDs for SMS, Mail, Missed Call, etc.)

18. Turn off phone vibration. Go to Settings - Sound and Display - Phone, select vibrate and turn it off.

19. Turn off audible touch tones. In Settings - Sound and Display, uncheck Audible selection and turn off Audible touch tones.

20. Turn off haptic feedback. Haptic feedback is on by default. It vibrates the phone slightly when using the keyboard. You can turn this off, go to Settings - Language and Keyboard - Touch Input - Text Input; Vibrate when typing.

You can disable haptics in other areas of the system by going to Settings - Sound and Display - Haptic Feedback.

21. Turn off GTalk Automatic Sign-in. Turn off Google Talk feature because it stays running constantly in the background. Heres how: Go to your Apps: > Open "Talk" > Press the Menu Button: > Press "More" > Press "Settings" > Un-check the "Automatic Login". All this is going to do is when you turn on your phone Google Talk will not Auto turn on and start draining your battery. If you use Google Talk then just open it when you want to use it. Be sure though when you are finished using it you go to"Menu" > "More" > "Sign-out"

So that's it, 21 tips and tricks for improving your HTC EVO 4G battery life. If you have any additional tips or tricks to submit let me know in the comments and I'll update this list!

Look for another post on how to calibrate the battery to get the best performance from your HTC EVO 4G very soon!

Thanksgiving Post - Three Times the Thanking

2010-11-26T03:24:00.002-05:00

Three Times the Thanking. One man's experiences during Thanksgiving evening remind him of what he is really thankful for in this world.

On my Thanksgiving, I thought you all should know about 3 wonderful experiences I had. Because, you see, each of these experiences helped remind me of what I am thankful for.

Another post, to make up for some of the missed updates lately...I think you'll like this one too. (note: if you want more cool Hubble desktops, I added 8 more in this post!)

1. In the elevator at my building, on the way down, I stopped at a random floor. No big deal, it was about dinner time, I figured people would be out and about. In walks a guy holding food in tupperware, and his son. Clearly on their way to some dinner somewhere. Still standing in the hallway is a woman, head down, texting like crazy on an iphone. All three of them are dresed up. We sit there for awhile in the elevator, and as the door begins to close she says, "Hey come back out here! Wait a minute..." Without even looking up. Guy quickly stabs the open door button, he and the kid hurriedly exit. As he exits, he looks back at me and sighs, then says, "Sorry about that..." Woman didn't even look up for more than a second, but managed a "Oh what, uh..." as the door closed. She didn't even acknowledge her husband, her child, or anything that had just transpired. Wow lady, you just demanded your son and husband get out of the elevator so you could continue texting. Heaven forbid you get in the elevator and lose signal for a a whopping 2 minutes...

I am thankful for NOT BEING MARRIED. :D

2. Out and about, driving I'm coming really close a traffic light in the city. It's changing yellow and I totally could go - as could the car next to me on the left, and the one on the right. We are all about even approaching this intersection. It's one of those go or no-go type situations. Myself and the car on the left stop late, kind of in the crosswalk, but we stopped. Car on my right sped up and went through the light. *Flash* *Flash*. Red light traffic ticket. Yup, no joke, and those are not cheap around here. $150+ depending on the intersection and speed. And I was real close to just accelerating...

I am thankful for STAYING OUT OF TROUBLE. (knock on wood...)

3. Headed home, I'm thinking to myself, "Shit no dinner..." Yup, that's right, no fracking dinner on Thanksgiving. No family dinner, no turkey, no gravy, no stuffing, and certainly no pie. Quickly running through the options - which are extremely limited, I'm banking on two options - a local restaurant, and a McDonalds. It's still early I tell myself, only about 7:00pm. I have time...Well, the restaurant was closed (keep in mind it was only 7:30pm when I walked up to it). I hauled ass over to the McDonalds and went into the drive-thru. Parking lot was practically empty, not good. I sit at the order box for about two minutes, basically praying. A voice crackled over the box, "Hello?" I quickly ordered the Double QP meal and ask for another 2 cheeseburgers (breakfast!). She comes back on the intercom, "I'm sorry sir, but we are closed." Ah crap, I'm screwed. I just sort of moaned into the box, "awww...." I think she felt my desperation, because about 10 seconds later she came back on, "Sir? Are you still there? We have a double QP and a 4 piece nugget left - would you like them?" YES! - I practically yell back into the box. She starts laughing, asks me for a drink and I drive forward. When I get to the window, she tells me $4. Obviously not the real price, or the cost, of the food. I hand her a $20. She looks at me, I tell her "Keep it." She smiles, a few minutes later I have my food and am on my way. That lady, and her two remaining workers fed me my Thanksgiving dinner, and they didn't have to - they could have very easily just closed.

I am thankful for the KINDNESS OF COMPLETE STRANGERS.

Sad, but it could have been a lot worse (timestamp: 8:03pm, 11/25/2010)

Hubble Space Telescope - Best Images for Desktop Wallpaper (Part 2)

2010-11-26T02:28:00.000-05:00

Part 2, Finally! Eight new high-res images perfect for your desktop wallpaper collection.

Sorry for the delay, had to turn in a research paper for work, and then the holidays...you know how it is. To make up for the delay, I have 8 new images - all of them perfect for desktop wallpaper. 5 are from Hubble, and the last 3 are just awesome "astrophotographs".

I also have another post coming up on Thanksgiving. You see my dinner was, well, less than optimal. *cough* McDonalds *cough* *cough* :(

Colliding Galaxies
This Hubble image of the Antennae galaxies is the sharpest yet of this merging pair of galaxies. As the two galaxies smash together, billions of stars are born, mostly in groups and clusters of stars. The brightest and most compact of these are called super star clusters. The Antennae are undergoing a galactic collision. Located in the NGC 4038 group with five other galaxies, these two galaxies are known as the 'Antennae' because the two long tails of stars, gas and dust thrown out of the galaxies as a result of the collision resemble the antennae of an insect.

Butterfly Nebula
What resemble dainty butterfly wings are actually roiling cauldrons of gas heated to nearly 20 000 degrees Celsius. The gas is tearing across space at more than 950 000 kilometres per hour — fast enough to travel from Earth to the Moon in 24 minutes! A dying star that was once about five times the mass of the Sun is at the centre of this fury. It has ejected its envelope of gases and is now unleashing a stream of ultraviolet radiation that is making the cast-off material glow. This object is an example of a planetary nebula, so-named because many of them have a round appearance resembling that of a planet when viewed through a small telescope.

Heart of the Whirlpool Galaxy
The Whirlpool galaxy, M51, has been one of the most photogenic galaxies in amateur and professional astronomy. Easily photographed and viewed by smaller telescopes, this celestial beauty is studied extensively in a range of wavelengths by large ground- and space-based observatories. This Hubble composite image shows visible starlight as well as light from the emission of glowing hydrogen, which is associated with the most luminous young stars in the spiral arms.

"Ultra Deep Field"
This view of nearly 10,000 galaxies is called the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. The snapshot includes galaxies of various ages, sizes, shapes, and colours. The smallest, reddest galaxies, about 100, may be among the most distant known, existing when the universe was just 800 million years old. The nearest galaxies - the larger, brighter, well-defined spirals and ellipticals - thrived about 1 billion years ago, when the cosmos was 13 billion years old. The image required 800 exposures taken over the course of 400 Hubble orbits around Earth. The total amount of exposure time was 11.3 days, taken between Sept. 24, 2003 and Jan. 16, 2004.

R136 / RMC136
R136, formally known as RMC 136, is a super star clusternear the center of the 30 Doradus complex (also known as the Tarantula Nebula), in the Large Magellanic Cloud. It is a young star cluster, age 1-2 million years, of giant and supergiant stars. The majority of its stars are of spectral type O3,with 39 confirmed O3-type stars.Additionally, there are several confirmed Wolf-Rayet stars.

Helix Nebula (from Spitzer telescope)

The Helix Nebula, also known as The Helix or NGC 7293, is a large planetary nebula (PN) located in the constellation of Aquarius. Discovered by Karl Ludwig Harding, probably before 1824, this object is one of the closest to the Earth of all the bright planetary nebulae.The estimated distance is about 215 parsecs or 700 light-years. It is similar in appearance to the Ring Nebula, whose size, age, and physical characteristics are similar to the Dumbbell Nebula, varying only in its relative proximity and the appearance from the equatorial viewing angle. The Helix has often been referred to as the Eye of God on the Internet, since about 2003.

NGC 2170 (Nighthawk Observatory)

When stars form, pandemonium reigns. A textbook case is the star forming region NGC 2170. Visible above are red glowing emission nebulas of hydrogen, blue reflection nebulas of dust, dark absorption nebulas of dust, and the stars that formed from them. The first massive stars formed from the dense gas will emit energetic light and winds that erode, fragment, and sculpt their birthplace. And then they explode. The resulting morass is often as beautiful as it is complex. After tens of millions of years, the dust boils away, the gas gets swept away, and all that is left is a naked open cluster of stars.

Colorful Clouds of Rho Ophiuchi

This stunning mosiac of the sky around bright stars Antares (Alpha Scorpii) and Rho Ophiuchi reveals spectacular colors in a cosmic starscape. Near the top, Rho Ophiuchi and nearby stars are immersed in blue reflection nebulae - dust clouds that shine primarily by reflected starlight. Cool supergiant star Antares (lower left) is itself shedding the material that reflects the evolved star's yellowish hue. Characteristic of star forming regions, the telltale red emission from hydrogen gas also permeates the view along with dark, obscuring dust clouds seen in silhouette against the background stars and brighter nebulosities. About 500 light-years away, the Rho Ophiuchi star clouds, are well in front of the nearby globular star cluster M4, visible just below and right of center. The wide view spans about 6 degrees on the sky.

Hubble Space Telescope - Best Images for Desktop Wallpaper (Part 1)

2010-11-17T22:53:00.002-05:00

I love space. Space is the shit. It is the end all be all of everything. If you think creatures in the deep-blue are crazy, think back to your basic math and statistics, apply it to the galaxy (and then universe), and well...you get my drift. Folks, it is mathematically impossible that space is empty. Period. End of debate. In case you missed my earlier on post, "A Map of Your Galaxy"...the numbers involved here are enormous. Our minds can not even comprehend the vastness that is "space". The numbers are too large, it is literally meaningless to our feeble brains. Does not compute...

Perhaps one of the coolest pieces of hardware man has ever created is the Hubble Space Telescope, or HST for short. It has given us some of the most amazing and mind-blowing images humanity ever seen. (high res: closeup shot and the hardware in orbit!)

This post is dedicated to that lovely piece of hardware, and it will show my Top 5 images fit for desktop wallpapers. I will then follow this post up with another Top 5...for a whopping total of 10! Yes, I will try to encapsulate all of the many wonderous images HST has brought us into two posts of ten images...sad, when you consider my earlier statement about numbers...

Where possible, I will link directly to the official source (ESA/NASA/Hubble). We all love wallpapers, and that will be a goal here - badass wallpapers that knock your socks off. The small versions of the pictures just don't cut it, so make sure you click on all the images, and visit the links for the real view! Links will be provided for each image so that you can get ultra-high-res to suit your desktop needs. All credit for the images go to NASA/ESA/Hubble teams.

If you like what you see here, then I encourage you to support space exploration. I won't get into the debate of how, when, costs, or schedules. I just want you to support it. Don't talk shit, support it. Space exploration and space travel is the most difficult challenge humankind can attempt. I do not foresee that changing anytime soon. RESPECT that challenge, whether you support the agency, it's goals, or it's hardware choices - I ask you only to pay homage to those men and women who have worked so hard for so long, to bring space into your home, for your very own eyes.

Orion Nebula - Few cosmic vistas excite the imagination like the Orion Nebula. Also known as M42, the nebula's glowing gas surrounds hot young stars at the edge of an immense interstellar molecular cloud only 1,500 light-years away. The Orion Nebula offers one of the best opportunities to study how stars are born partly because it is the nearest large star-forming region, but also because the nebula's energetic stars have blown away obscuring gas and dust clouds that would otherwise block our view - providing an intimate look at a range of ongoing stages of starbirth and evolution. This detailed image of the Orion Nebula is the sharpest ever, constructed using data from the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys and the European Southern Observatory's La Silla 2.2 meter telescope. The mosaic contains a billion pixels at full resolution and reveals about 3,000 stars.

"Mystic Mountain" - This craggy fantasy mountaintop enshrouded by wispy clouds looks like a bizarre landscape from Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image, which is even more dramatic than fiction, captures the chaotic activity atop a pillar of gas and dust, three light-years tall, which is being eaten away by the brilliant light from nearby bright stars. The pillar is also being assaulted from within, as infant stars buried inside it fire off jets of gas that can be seen streaming from towering peaks. This turbulent cosmic pinnacle lies within a tempestuous stellar nursery called the Carina Nebula, located 7500 light-years away in the southern constellation of Carina. The image celebrates the 20th anniversary of Hubble's launch and deployment into an orbit around the Earth.

Spire in Eagle Nebula - Appearing like a winged fairy-tale creature poised on a pedestal, this object is actually a billowing tower of cold gas and dust rising from a stellar nursery called the Eagle Nebula. The soaring tower is 9.5 light-years or about 90 trillion kilometres high, about twice the distance from our Sun to the next nearest star. Stars in the Eagle Nebula are born in clouds of cold hydrogen gas that reside in chaotic neighbourhoods, where energy from young stars sculpts fantasy-like landscapes in the gas. The tower may be a giant incubator for those newborn stars. A torrent of ultraviolet light from a band of massive, hot, young stars [off the top of the image] is eroding the pillar. Since this one is verticla, it probably doesn't make a great wallpaper, but if you rotate - it works quite well! (due to the vertical nature of this image, it does not scale well for the site, please make sure to visit the link!)

Pinwheel Galaxy (HD!) - This new Hubble image reveals the gigantic Pinwheel galaxy, one of the best known examples of "grand design spirals", and its supergiant star-forming regions in unprecedented detail. The image is the largest and most detailed photo of a spiral galaxy ever taken with Hubble. The Pinwheel Galaxy (also known as Messier 101 or NGC 5457) is a face-on spiral galaxy distanced 25 million light-years (eight megaparsecs) away in the constellation Ursa Major, first discovered by Pierre Méchain on March 27, 1781, and communicated to Charles Messier who verified its position for inclusion in the Messier Catalogue as one of its final entries. On February 28, 2006, NASA and the ESA released a very detailed image of Pinwheel Galaxy, which was the largest and most detailed image of a galaxy by Hubble Space Telescope at the time. The image was composed from 51 individual exposures, plus some extra ground-based photos.

Witchhead Nebula (IC2118) - Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble -- maybe Macbeth should have consulted the Witch Head Nebula. This suggestively shaped reflection nebula is associated with the bright star Rigel in the constellation Orion. More formally known as IC 2118, the Witch Head Nebula glows primarily by light reflected from bright star Rigel, located just off the upper right edge of the full image. Fine dust in the nebula reflects the light. The blue color is caused not only by Rigel's blue color but because the dust grains reflect blue light more efficiently than red. The same physical process causes Earth's daytime sky to appear blue, although the scatterers in Earth's atmosphere are molecules of nitrogen and oxygen. The nebula lies about 1000 light-years away. (you can find a cropped version here)

Ok, so there are the first 5 images, I hope that you have enjoyed them and at least saved one or two. Please do browse around spacetelescope.org or hubblesite.org for more wonderful images from Hubble. Don't forget to check out the 2 high res shots of the hardware as well!

I will be following this post up with another 5 images soon. In the meantime, please feel free to tell me which are your favorite images, either from this list, or perhaps something I have missed. Maybe it will make my next 5!

A Map of Your Galaxy - The Milky Way

2010-11-14T13:10:00.002-05:00

Understanding our galaxy, "The Milky Way." An exercise that will expand your mind.

I've got a future post planned for some Hubble Space Telescope wallpapers...my favorites, to be exact. But before I get to that, I figure you need to put some context around what you are seeing, hence the galaxy and the map.
(note: click images for larger view)

Too many times people look at the Hubble pictures and go, "oh, that's cool" without even the slightest understanding of what they are actually viewing. HST has given us a window into the galaxy mankind has never had before. I want to try and bring that home by introducing you to a map of our galaxy.

That leads us to quick discussion on our galaxy, also known as the "Milky Way". The Milky Way is the galaxy in which the "Solar System" is located. The Solar System is our sun and anything drawn to the sun by the forces of gravity.

For those of you who slept through these classes (its alright, I skipped a lot myself...), I have some numbers for you:

1 light year = about 6 trillion miles
Our galaxy has a total diameter of approximately 100,000 light years
Our sun is about 26,000 light years from the central "bulge" of the galaxy
It takes 200-250 million years for the sun to complete one orbit around that central "bulge"
Surrounding the galaxy, there are approx 200 globular clusters, containing 1 million stars each
Our galaxy contains roughly 200 billion stars

This is your Milky Way galaxy. This is the galaxy that contains our sun, and our pale blue dot - earth. Looks pretty phenomenal eh? That scale in the lower left is 10,000 light years. You can use the numbers from above to do a little math on the size of our galaxy. 100,000 light years x 6 trillion miles = 600 quadrillion miles! (hint, quadrillion comes after trillion, and looks like this: 600,000,000,000,000,000)

That's a good image, but it's top-down, 2D. That's not how space works, so here is a side view, to give some depth and an understanding of the 3D nature of the beast...so to speak. A side view will also give you some idea of the "bulge" (aka nucleus), the globular clusters, and the various "arms"...as well as the approximate position of our sun on one of those arms.

Here is another side view that highlights our location in the galaxy, aka our solar system. In the above image you see the "local arm", obviously containing our sun. This tilted image does a little bit better job of bringing it home when you think about "you are here" (sort of like the mall map when you need to find the food court).

Alright, your mind should be sufficiently blown at this moment. You may also be asking yourself - wait, what's all this about the "universe"? Well a universe is a collection of galaxies. The Milky Way is one of the hundreds of billions of observable galaxies in what is traditionally known as the "observable universe". So take these numbers and start doing this with them n^n (n raised to the n). If your mind wasn't blown before, it should be ass-ploded by now. And oh, yes, there is a reason for the word "observable" in "observable universe". It implies that we know, but are not able to fully observe outside of this universe...in other words, we think we see our tip of the iceberg. Understanding the numbers from above, and the sheer size of that "iceberg tip", it should be clear that the possibilities are infinite. So infinite that even if we could put numbers on it, they wouldn't mean anything to us, as it would be larger and more complex than anything we could understand.

To wrap up, here is an absolutely amazing map of our galaxy provided by National Geographic. This has more information on it than any of the above pictures, but wouldn't make any sense if you didn't think about the numbers and the context. Still, our feeble human minds have difficulty grasping the sheer size of our galaxy, let alone the possibilities that exist in the universe. It also has a rocking "You are Here" label to make you feel really, really small. Leave it to Nat Geo to make a poster like this one, god I love those people. Click for high resolution! (larger original is here)

note: on this day, in 1971, NASA's spacecraft 'Mariner 9' reached Mars, and became the first object to orbit another planet! let's keep kicking ass, pushing the envelope, and going further, and further away from "home".

Free Internet TV - How to Watch TV for Free (with Sports!)

2010-11-11T11:58:00.020-05:00

This post will cover how to watch TV for free over the internet, including your favorite sports!

More and more people are watching multimedia content online. It's only natural that content traditionally found on "TV" finds its way to the internet.

However, for the most part, the television industry is fighting this expansion. Large cable providers do not want to lose subscribers to the internet. Studios and content owners don't want their shows and material available free via 3rd party. Advertisers are concerned that they aren't getting enough exposure due to these losses. What's all this add up to? It's really not that easy to find TV for free on the internet.

I'll try to fix that for you now.

First off, some basic software you should be aware of:

Hulu - This is probably the best known and most popular way of getting TV over the web. Hulu recently added a paid subscription tier to it's service. This highlights my above comments, studios want money for their shows being played online. Hulu had to institute a paid service tier in order to continue operating, and to be able to continue serving "premium" content (i.e. new shows). Some people may or may not know that Hulu Desktop software exists and works quite well. Try it! You can even use your TV remote control. (I'll cover that setup in another post later on)

Hulu Desktop Software

XBMC - This software has been around since the first XBOX. This is a great way to organize and play all of your existing TV content on your TV. Simply hookup your TV to your computer, install XBMC, and it will auto-create a library of movies and TV that you have on your computer. This software really shines for anyone who already has an existing library of movies, tv, pictures, and/or music. Myself, I have over 4TB of content that XBMC serves up nicely on my plasma tv. You can't go wrong with XBMC.

XBMC TV Library Screenshot

Boxee - This software is an offshoot of XBMC, but it has a more "friendly" feel. Boxee also contains what I like to call a "TV Scraper". It has a library of all the available TV online. You can watch TV from Hulu, Comedy Central, USA, etc. If it's available from the provider online, it gets scraped up and added to Boxee's library. So instead of just being able to watch what Hulu has available, you can also watch, say Comedy Central, via one easy to use interface. Boxee, much like XBMC will also organize and play any existing content you already have saved as well. Boxee also recently released a set-top box.

Boxee TV Library Screenshot

Now for some free websites that show TV online, including sports!

MyPremiumTV - This website has limited channels and plays a lot of overseas/international. However, you can almost always find big sporting events in the US on one of the channels. This could include NFL, MLB, NBA, etc. For example, most Sundays, some NFL games will be shown. The website is very friendly and does not do a lot of crazy pop-up advertisements. You can also go full screen, and the quality of the video is pretty good.

HackedCableTV - This website is somewhat more difficult to navigate, but it has a lot of channels. It also plays sports as well, in addition to movies, and regular channels such as TNT, TBS, Syfy, etc. There is international programming available too. This site tends to take a "scraper" approach, which means if there is more than one source for a particular feed/channel, it will list them (source #1, source #2, etc.).

FromSport - This website focuses exclusively on sports. It covers all kinds of sports as well, not just north american. In addition to american football and baseball, you can also find cricket, rugby, and other sports available to watch. Many times HackedCableTV will actually be linking to FromSport. Overall quality and speed is very good, however you may find that some sources are better than others.

That's it for now! Do you have any other free TV sources online that you would like to share? Post 'em in the comments and I'll add them to this post! Also, what are your thoughts on bogarting TV via online sources? Piracy? Doing what has to be done? Saving $100's every month on the cable bill? Trying to teach the industry that most of us don't want to pay for channels we don't need? Making the set-top box obsolete?

reader submitted:
Justin.TV - This is a good site, and good suggestion! Other users, around the world, host TV stations for anyone to watch. The TV stations can be regular "TV", or even a webcam show. You can find all kinds of good content on here, on a pretty regular basis. Quality tends to vary, as each user controls what they host. I have used this a little bit myself, but I often find good sports games (like NFL) get turned off fairly quickly. (thanks to Planet Ben and MarcABlax for this submission!)

Filmon - Another great reader submission! This is a site I hadn't tried before, but I was immediately impressed with the ease of use and quality of the channels. You can find major networks like KTLA (that's local Los Angeles), NBC HD, CBS, Bloomberg, and even a few international channels. All told there are about 30 channels or so (including 2 XXX channels!), which is pretty good for a single site. I would definitely recommend taking a look at this site for it's quality, ease of use, and fast load times. It looks like it used to be a pay service, but once they were sued in US court they decided to go all FREE! Their bread and butter seems to be the re-broadcast of free HD-OTA (over-the-air) channels, hence KTLA, KCAL, KTTV, etc. (thanks to Telia Tuli for this submission! note: he mentions the pending court case)

HackedCableTV - Alright, we got the site owner reading and commenting! Very glad to see that. Thank you for your support! He mentions an important note that should be passed along: a lot of these sites, like Hulu, Filmon, etc will tailor their offering to the country you live in. For example, without a US ip address, Hulu is a no-go. Filmon has both UK and US feeds, and tailors them based on ip. So try changing your ip address! Also, definitely head over to HackedCableTV.com, it's a great site, and it does a damn fine job of putting together all the tv available on the web. A great one-stop-shop for internet tv.

Fancast - This is an offering from Comcast that was launched earlier in 2008. This was submitted to me by a friend who, like me, does not have regular CableTV. You do not have to be a Comcast customer to watch TV and movies offered by Fancast, however some of the content is locked and available only for current Comcast customers. For example, HBO content is offered, but only for customers with HBO subscription. Also, mainstream shows are offered like Lopez Tonight, but only for comcast customers with existing cable subscriptions. So, it just depends on whether the free tv is enough for you. Quality is as good as Hulu, and the programming is as you would expect (new shows like Burn Notice, Bones, etc.).

ATDHE.net - Another reader submission! Woohoo! This is also a new one for me, and appears to be primarily sports, which is pretty cool. I see sports listed from all over the world, including the major North American sports like NBA, Hockey, etc. They also have the NFL Network! Big plus there. In addition to the sports channels they have about 12-15 "regular" channels. These include show driven channels, like The Simpsons, South Park, and Frasier. This site also has what looks to be some PPV action, with UFC and WWE channels. All in all, a pretty good site. Quality of the channels varies, but overall it is pretty good. Load times are quick, and pop-ups/advertisements are limited. (thanks to DDX for this submission!)

MyP2P.eu - And the reader submissions just keep on coming! MyP2P advertises on the banner for MyPremium, and this is one I have tried before. However, I am not a "huge" fan due to the software requirements needed to watch some of the programming. Without getting too much into detail, this site is really not bad, and plays both Live TV as well as Live Sports from around the globe. You can search by country, or by sport. There are music, entertainment, and kids channels as well. Overall, MyP2P has one of the largest channel listings of all the internet TV sites. It is fairly easy to navigate as well. Just be careful of the software like sopcast, etc etc that may be needed. You may also end up with problems steaming to Win Media Player too...Personally, I think it's easiest when they just use Flash, but YMMV. Still, this is a good site, with tons of good content - both TV and sports. Definitely check it out and decide for yourself. (thanks to DDX for this great submission as well!)

note: I am not necessarily endorsing stealing TV via online sources. I am not a lawyer. Some of these sources may be more legitamate than others. As for me, I don't have cable TV and catch all my NFL (as well as the recent MLB World Series) via these sources. YMMV.

hint: try these websites out on your PHONE! 3G is typically decent enough, though obviously wifi or 4G is better. also, make sure your phone supports Flash (sorry walled gardeners...) you can even go fullscreen on the phone!

hint: for those of you outside the US, you will need to change/disguise your IP address in order to access site likes Hulu. yes, this even includes the canadians. here is an excellent list of proxies by country, enjoy!

How to Beat Firesheep - Secure Open Wifi (Part 3)

2010-11-08T13:08:00.002-05:00

This is Part 3 of the Firesheep series, How to Beat Firesheep. Part 1 introduced the tool and the attack, Part 2 talked about the seriousness of the vulnerability.
Part 3 will tell you how to beat Firesheep.

Let's drop in a lil napalm and cook 'em down!

First, let's setup up some basic ground rules:

We all know you're going to be on Open Wifi at some point, so telling you "get off open wifi" is retarded
The problem is essentially owned by the website operators, not the Wifi operators. The issue is HTTP cookies, and the ability to session-hijack, not the ability to login to a Wifi access point at Starmucks.
Sites that are vulnerable to this attack today may not be vulnerable tomorrow, however, there will always be sites that are vulnerable, therefore it is important to at least try and browse securely while on Open Wifi

Some of these solutions will be geared toward the technically savvy. Some of them will be easy. Some of them may require that you pay money. Overall, I think at least one of these solutions will work for everyone.

Let's get started.

Secure your browsing on the Open Wifi by using VPN. This is by far the most effective and best way of solving the problem. This will encrypt all of your traffic on the wifi network and defeat anyone trying to use Firesheep against you. It can however cause you to spend a few bucks. Solutions like VyprVPN are perfect for solving the session-hijack problem. See my earlier review on VyprVPN here (figures it would come in handy!) quick note: VyprVPN is included free in Giganews subscriptions.
Secure your browsing on the Open Wifi by using SSH. This is very similar to using a VPN, except I would consider it much more difficult to setup. Essentially it provides the same benefit, an encrypted connection. Lifehacker did a good tutorial awhile back on setting up a free SSH server using your home computer here. Cygwin and OpenSSH are essentially the solutions here, but beware, setup is perhaps not for the faint of heart. Ducks need not apply.
Utilize SSL versions of websites (HTTPS rather than HTTP). This is easy. Many websites have HTTPS versions, even Facebook. However there is a major drawback: often times while browsing you will inadvertently switch back to HTTP. Try that Facebook link, then click around - see the problem? You're switching from HTTPS to HTTP in a heartbeat. This solution is easy, but perhaps less than ideal, and not very effective.
Install Firefox addons that will automatically direct you to HTTPS website versions. Two options are: HTTPS Everywhere and Force-TLS. This is also easy, and it will solve the problem of having to remember to type "HTTPS", or change your bookmarks. The addon will automatically direct you to the secure version of the site. Of course this still suffers from the same problem as #3, websites will easily switch you from HTTPS to HTTP, and is therefore still problematic.
Use the "Blacksheep" addon. Blacksheep is a firefox addon that will supposedly scan the Open Wifi you are on and determine if anyone is running Firesheep on it. So, if it you see a return, then at least you are aware of what's going on, and can hopefully take the necessary precautions. Still this does not solve the problem, it only makes you aware of the potential danger. Blacksheep does tell you the IP address of the attacker though. But if you're sitting in Starmucks, this may mean all you can do is yell out "Hey 192.168.0.XXX, you SMOKE POLE!" There is another drawback to this too - you don't need Firesheep to conduct this type of attack (Wireshark + WinPCap = Win). So although Blacksheep may detect Firesheep, it does not solve the session-hijack problem. The other issue here is this software is newly released, which could mean a back-and-forth between the "sheep". (fix, counter, fix, counter)
Use a Mifi/Cellular Modem/Hotpsot type device. I think every major cellular provider in North America sells these things. Some of them are just USB sticks you plug into the computer. In other cases, you can tether your phone to the laptop. The problem here is this costs money, a lot of money, and is tantamount to saying "don't use Open Wifi". Not an ideal solution, although it is effective at solving the problem.
Use Fireshepherd. This is a brand new piece of software designed specifically to combat Firesheep. It is not an addon like Blacksheep. Fireshepherd periodically sends out a stream of garbage that is intended to screwup or crash Firesheep. YMMV with this software. So far I have not read any reviews or done extensive tests myself. As I said, it's brand new. The other potential drawback is that this, like Blacksheep, does not apply to the actual root problem of session-hijacking. In other words, this may be another solution to the Firesheep issue, but not a solution to the session-hijacking problem. This is also vulernable to the same tit-for-tat as Blacksheep.
On a Mac? Try Meerkat. This is basically setting up SSH for your Mac, but Meerkat makes it a little easier. Of course, Meerkat costs money. There is a very good guide that deals with the entire Meerkat setup process here. Remember, OpenSSH is installed in Mac OS X by default. However, you still are going to deal with setup though, and again, that depends on whether you're a duck or not...

Warning from Blacksheep that Firesheep is active on your network

What are the other pundits saying? Most of them are going with VPN as the best solution, including the Firesheep developer himself. Hey, if Harvard recommends VPN, there must be something to it, right?

I heard these people were smart

I would honestly reccomend people look into a secure service like VyprVPN. Cost is minimal and benefits are great. Especially if you are conducting "work" over open Wifi, or if you are spending time on social, financial, or other private sites Consider it your own little private encrypted tunnel on an otherwise open network. I have no problem endorsing VyprVPN as an ideal solution that will keep you on Open Wifi, but keep you safe from kiddies session-hijacking your logins (VPN solves a number of other security concerns as well). As I mentioned in my earlier review, this service also comes free with Giganews, so if you're already on Usenet, now may be the time to look at Giganews.

I figure it's also worth mentioning solutions that are NO GOOD. In other words, these will NOT WORK.

Using Tor. Tor will not solve your problems. In fact, if the owner of the exit node is running Firesheep, you just got pwned, hard. Even the Firesheep developer thinks using Tor is a bad idea.
Enable WPA2 and tell yourself "it's all good now". Sure, you've done good, but you can still get pwned, pretty hard. ARP poisioning and DNS spoofing take a little bit more tech savvy, but software exists to conduct those attacks as well - on either a wirless WPA2 network, or a wired network. Google: Cain and Abel.
Using a VPN or SSH tunnel you don't know and trust. This is bad, mmkay? You just pushed the problem off to that exit connection. Since you don't know anything about it, and clearly can't trust it...you're basically asking for trouble. "Use VPN" is good, but just blindly using whatever VPN is not - get it?

As you can see from the above, the solutions basically come in two flavors:

Encrypt all of your communications on the wireless network (VPN, SSH, Meerkat, etc)
Encrypt the communications with the particular website (HTTPS, Addons, etc.)

Both of these flavors have one thing in common: encryption. If you don't know, now you know.

BTW, if you are running Firesheep for whatever purpose, be aware that Microshaft is detecting it as a "virus/malware". I lol'd. Another BTW, if you are using the standard Windows antivirus/antimalware you should seriously consider upgrading to an alternative.

Getting pwned by script kiddies is bad, mmmkay?