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Does it still make sense to buy DVDs?

Posted by stephencraig20 on March 23rd, 2012

Today we live in a world where iTunes slings movies to our iPhones and iPads, and with Netflix is there really a need to buy DVDs anymore. Our world  is progressing drastically, and DVDs are getting left in the dust. The hard truth is that Blue ray will soon take over and then even Blue ray will go extinct. The internet is getting more sophisticated and our media is now being put online. Itunes gives you  Here are a few options if you would like to purchase your media online:

Netflix

 

Convenience: The best feature of Netflix is the movies come to you so no more car trips to Family Video. Also it’s easy  to pick up a new movie, just check your mail or log on to netflix.com.

Biggest Movie Selection: Netflix has over 100,000 movies, Blockbuster Online has just 80,000. An average video store has about 15,000 titles, and a Redbox kiosk only has about 70-100 movies.

Free Trial: They want to earn your business before charging you for it. Netflix lets you try their service free for 2 weeks. If you like it Netflix hopes you will continue on.  If not, simply cancel your account before the 2 week trial ends and you owe nothing. Canceling is easy just log in and select “cancel account”. And it takes just 3 minutes to set-up a free trial.

 

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DDoS Attacks

Posted by stevenrulz on March 19th, 2012

DDoS is a type of DoS or denial of service.  DoS is an attack on a computer or network rescource to try and make it unavailable to access.  DDoS is different than a standard DoS attack in that it uses muliple devices to carry out the attack.  There are many different methods that can be used to carry out a DDoS.  One is to use malware or a zombie agent.  This compromises a target computer causing it to carry out the DDoS. This gives the attacker several different machines to attack from making it easy to hide where the real attack originated.

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Hackintosh

Posted by stephencraig20 on March 18th, 2012

OS X is made to run on Apple computers only and that is Apples right to do so. However there are programs that allow you to trick the Mac OS into believing that a pc is a Mac such as Kalyway, this is a program that you boot onto your pc that has a cracked version of Mac OS embedded into it. There is no such thing as a full version of OS X, there is only an upgrade, but Apple was kind enough to extend the license to all computers connected to your Apple ID.

Going through with a hackintosh is a crime and is considered theft because you are using a cracked version of their program and running it off a non Apple computer, so you are robbing them of sales. Doing this as an “Educational experience” is still illegal. There is no circumstance that makes this legal.

It is not impossible for you to get caught without telling anyone about it because on the off chance you get your wireless or Ethernet driver to ork with a cracked version, OSX does occasionally send data home for performance purposes and Apple can tell by the data they receive whether or not you are running the Apple hardware. THE LAW IS ON THEIR SIDE!

 

 

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Anonymous

Posted by Trey on March 2nd, 2012

Have you heard of any of the hacking events including Operation Facebook and Operation Sony? How about any of the more recent hacks such as Operation MegaUpload? These are just some of the hacking attempts by an unidentified group dubbed ‘Anonymous’. This is a very powerful group of mostly talented hackers who have done a lot of hacking work, mainly for the good of the Internet. Anonymous also includes members of image boards and Internet forums, commonly known as ‘trolls’.

There are no exact members or leaders of Anonymous, due to the complex nature of the group. Joining Anonymous is as simple as concealing yourself while engaging in online activities.

One of the works of Anonymous is a recorded call between the FBI and British police forces. It’s an uneventful conversation, but just the fact that they managed to do it is fascinating.

In 2010, members of Anonymous attacked Visa, MasterCard, PayPal, and other companies who apposed Wikileaks. In December of 2010, the FBI sent over 40 search warrants for anyone having to do with the attacks against anyone opposing Wikileaks. There were no arrest warrants sent, but they did mention that DDOS attacks are against the law and can sentence up to 10 years in prison.

One of their more recent attacks was known as Operation Blackout. This was a plan to take down SOPA and PIPA in November of 2011. Though almost all of Anon’s attacks are only DDOSing, they threatened to go physical against the United States Government if SOPA and PIPA were taken any further.

Anon’s most recent plan is dubbed Operation V (which has been recently canceled due to unpreparedness). This plan was going to destroy the United States Government completely, allowing us to replace it with a newer one run how the Four Fathers set the current one in place to be run. Anon members see the US Government brainwashing our citizens into thinking we’re free when we’re really not. Voting means absolutely nothing to the government. The US is run by money and big businesses rather than the people, like it was meant to be.

Resources: Personal knowledge and Wikipedia.

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iPhone, Android, Windows Phone 7, or BlackBerry

Posted by Trey on February 27th, 2012

This is a question asked by many, from everyday users to old women wanting to watch soap operas on their phones. All mobile operating systems have both, but the choice is all up to you. Personally, I like iPhones for the apps and simplicity, but I also like Android for the customization abilities and speed. I don’t like Windows Phone because there aren’t many apps and they’re usually useless, nor do I like BlackBerry because RIM has chosen to stick to a Java base on the phones, which is both slow and ancient. Let’s continue to the pros and cons of each mobile OS.

iPhone

Pros:

  • Simple to use
  • Attractive interface
  • Lots of quality app
  • Nice and easy to use notification system
  • iCloud (for safely and easily saving photos, videos, documents, contacts, email, etc.)

Cons:

  • Not many customization abilities
  • No Flash Player
  • Must use iTunes for media
  • Most apps cost
  • Battery life

Android

Pros:

  • Cheap
  • Lots of devices to choose from
  • Fast
  • Very customize-able
  • Flash Player compatible

Cons:

  • Most applications are poorly designed and/or useless
  • Tons of glitches
  • Virtually no sync abilities

Windows Phone 7

Pros:

  • Attractive interface
  • Quick & lightweight
  • Very usable

Cons:

  • Not many apps
  • No ability to add ringtones
  • Updates vary from device-to-device
  • No Flash Player

BlackBerry

Pros:

  • Durable
  • Battery life
  • Many devices for multiple uses

Cons:

  • Java based
  • Horrible media player
  • Extremely slow loading times
  • Complicated web browsing
  • No Flash Player
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Adobe Photoshop CS5

Posted by Trey on February 27th, 2012

As Photoshop’s 20 year anniversary, Adobe released CS5 (version 12) and so far it has been a huge success. Adobe added loads of new features to the release of CS5, including Content-Aware Fill, Edge Detection, Puppet Warp, 64-bit for Mac OS X,  painting and brush enhancements, enhanced HDR, auto Lens Correction, and Mini Bridge. Let’s go a bit more in depth on the new features I find most useful.

Content-Aware Fill: This feature allows you to remove areas of an image and it will automatically detect the surrounding areas and fill the section you’re removing with what it generates to be there. This works really well for removing blemishes or impurities from pictures. The easiest way to turn this on is to go to the ‘Spot Healing Brush’ tool and select ‘Content-Aware’ from the options menu.

Edge Detection: In the past, it’s been a pain to select things such as hair and rough edges. With the edge detection in Photoshop CS5, you can highlight an area and it will automatically find what you’re trying to select.

Puppet Warp: The puppet warp feature allows you to create pivot points to drag and manipulate a layer. This is more for minor adjustments. You can’t make someone go from sitting to standing up while still keeping it realistic.

Photoshop CS5 is a great update to CS4. Many bugs were also fixed, such as the name saving issues and some other minor glitches.

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Why do you Insist on Dirty Music?

Posted by Zach Bornheimer on February 21st, 2012

Hi, my name is Zach Bornheimer and I wanted to ask you; why do you insist on dirty music?

No, I’m not saying dirty as in… you know… dirty, but rather in a sort of, “Track 07 off Unknown Album by Unknown Artist… What the heck is this song?” type of way.  I have 8 tips I can recommend to you for cleaning up your dirty music and getting that library in tip top shape.

The purpose of this post is to convey to you where you can find more in-depth information of optimizing iTunes, give you the 8 tips at face value, and to introduce myself.

  1. Import Whole Albums
  2. Get album artwork
  3. Upgrade your music’s quality using iTunes Match
  4. Use TuneUp for fixing those dirty ID3 Tags
  5. Legalize your music with iTunes Match (Yes, I know that song to which you are listening is illegal)
  6. Use Dupin to remove duplicates
  7. Use Smart Playlists
  8. Categorize songs by players, genres, and artists

So what qualifies me to give you this information?  First, I’ve done it successfully and second, I am, among other things, a Jazz Musician (I have single songs that can range from 30 seconds to 3 hours)…I know how to manage my music.

Do you want to see how I do it?

Check out the entire article on zysys.org: http://zysys.org/blog/tech/itunes-tips-and-tricks

Oh, yeah… Nice to meet you!

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Benefits of a Home Server

Posted by stephencraig20 on February 20th, 2012

Home servers can be very useful, I use one because I have multiple computers that I like to back up files from.   A home server really has very little hardware requirements, my home server has 2GB of RAM and a 300GB hard drive and a Pentium 4 Processor. It is recommended to have a wired connection to your router, however I have a high end wireless PCI card that works just fine for my needs. Now of course there are many different Operating Systems that you can use, which will show me any folders that I am sharing on the computer Server-PC.

I don’t use any of those, I choose to use Windows 7 for my servers operating system, because I can go and buy WHS (Windows Home Server). Or use the OS, which I already have because it is stable and is still receiving security updates from Windows Update. Windows 7 is perfect for internal/private file sharing because you could just set up a network drive to view shared folders.

Say you want to take it a step further and access your files from a computer outside of your house or IOS device, whether its across the street or across the globe, it is possible.  By changing the DMZ settings on your router, you can make your PC accessible from everywhere. And since Windows 7 does not come with the server software that Windows Server does, all you have to do is download a program called FileZilla Server and Apache, both of these are free.  FileZilla Server allows you to share your files in a folder view across the globe using a service called FTP.  For instance, I could use an FTP client like FileZilla, to connect to my server, or I could use Windows Explorer and type in ftp://myIPaddress/.  Apache is a http server program that I can store my files on, I would just type in http://myIPaddress/ on any web browser.  Using Apache to store your files on is a bad idea, unless you password protect the htdocs folder.  I stream all of my music, pictures, and movies from my server to my mobile device.

 

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Help MicroSpoof

Posted by stephencraig20 on February 18th, 2012




I am looking for a Co-owner for MicroSpoof

I am looking for someone who is familiar with wordpress

and who can post some articles on MicroSpoof about once a week.

But also help out with site maintinance when needed.

————————————————-

Some duties that will be asked are:

- Post an article once a week

- Advertise their articles on their social network of choice

- Help with site maintinance such as plug-ins and Google Ads

- Pitch me some ideas on how to improve the website to make it more appealing to the viewers

————————————————-

If you are interested please email me at stephencraig20 (@) me.com

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What Do You Want To See?

Posted by stephencraig20 on February 13th, 2012

Here is your chance to tell us what you want to see an article on, or something you would like to see change on our website. Please leave a comment telling me your ideas!

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