Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Digg: HowTo: Using the scanner lamp inside your computer

This is a tutorial how to get the lamp from your scanner and install it in Digg: your case. Well explained and with many pictures. read more | digg story Note: I'm going through All of My RSS feeds after christmas, so this may not be the last post for 12/28/2005.

New from IKEA - FARTFULL

Two Questions. One, What on earth is this thing; and Two, shouldn't IKEA consult a Native English speaker before putting this on their catalog!? read more | digg story Special Note: This is one of the First digg stories that I've submitted! :-)

HP "unbiased" take on refilling ink Cartridges

In trying to make a (rather late) Christmas card for a distant relative, I stumbled upon the "unbiased" (supposedly) results of an "unbiased" (supposedly) survey conducted by HP. The results? Don't refill your ink cartridges. I could go on about it here, but it's more funny if you see it on their website in person. I like (parenthesis).

Tuesday, December 27, 2005

More 'puter Humor

I've amassed a HUGE library (over 50) of computer Humor. Rather than post themall in seperate posts (I would probobly overload Blogger's servers if I did that) I've posted them on my filesite. Check it out! It's under "'puter Humor"

Saturday, December 24, 2005

The Night Before Startup

In honor of Christmas Eve, here's a play on the Poem "The Night Before Christmas." Apoligies to Clement C. Moore. It's available at http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/article09-209.

Monday, December 19, 2005

Digg Article: Office Poltergeist - Open Source PC Prankster

Direct from Digg Description:

  • Play spooky sounds
  • Open or close cd drives
  • Transmit text through your victim's keyboard
  • Make windows shake
  • Turn monitors on and off
  • Move windows slightly left and right
  • Send popup alert messages
Download for some good times! Your antivirus Program may detect the server program as a trojan. However, I took a look at the source code, and everything looked kosher. Besides, do you think that a Trojan author who's trying to gain control over your machine would give away the source code to potential anti-virus companies!? read more | digg story

Saturday, December 17, 2005

Digg Article: Lavasoft launches the ARIES Rootkit Remover

Take this, Sony! Seriously, Don't Sue me!? read more | digg story Update: I have addedd this item to my utilities CD, available from dankeenan1.tripod.com. Click on "Utilities CD."

Thursday, December 15, 2005

Digg Article: Wireless USB arrives

Direct from Digg Description: "Here’s the wireless USB PC dongle and hub. Works pretty easily, just plug your existing USB devices into this and it will communicate to a USB dongle plugged into your PC. It’s able to transfer at 480MBps and can operate upwards of 30 feet away from the PC." read more | digg story

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Song "If every Day were christmas"

I heard an awsome song on the Digital Experiance Podcast (see my "Podcasts" Section on the sidebar) today. This is a description from the Website: "The song is a collaboration between 32 singers from 9 countries -- a group collectively known as Podsafe for Peace -- all brought together by the populist phenomenon of podcasting and the desire to pool their talents for a worthy cause. And few causes make more sense at Christmastime than UNICEF, which aids children in need around the world. The song was produced by Slau and co-written by Orlando Pagan." You can listen to it at http://tinyurl.com/aqe5u. You can also find it on Digital Experiance Podcast #95 and Typical PC User Podcast #73.5. Here are the lyrics: ---VERSE 1--- First winter snow outside my window, Feels like that time again to me For Mistletoe, a Christmas show And the lighting of that famous Christmas tree. ---VERSE 2--- People are shopping for their loved ones And making plans for a Christmas feast But it all goes by in the blink of an eye And then we have to wait another year. ---CHORUS--- But what if every day were Christmas? What a wonderful world this would be. We would never feel blue, We'd make all our dreams come true If Christmas were every day. ---VERSE 3--- This time brings out the good in people. Just look around now and you'll see. Everybody's nice and full of life and they give to those who are in need. ---CHORUS--- ---BRIDGE--- So throughout the year, From the summer to the spring, I'll take yuletide cheer until then, It's Christmas again. ---CHORUS--- ---CHORUS--- ---BREAKDOWN--- If Christmas were every day. If Christmas... If Christmas... If Christmas... If Christmas... If Christmas... If Christmas... If Christmas... If Christmas... If Christmas... If Christmas... If Christmas... If Christmas... If Christmas... If Christmas... If Christmas... If Christmas were every day. (It's time to bring out the good in people.)

Sunday, December 11, 2005

Digg: Phony E-Mail Tricks eBay

Direct from Digg Description: A sophisticated phishing attack has proven so successful, it has tricked eBay's own fraud investigations team into endorsing it as legitimate

read more | digg story

Digg: Firefox-logo in deep space! Photo by Hubble of star V838 resembles FF-logo

Direct from Digg Description: The Hubble Space Telescope took a photo of the variable star V838 Monocerotis which lies near the edge of our Milky Way Galaxy. If you rotate the photo a bit, the star resembles the FIREFOX LOGO very much! Pretty old (march 2004) but still funny to see that firefox even has divine approval... read more | digg story

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Firefox 1.5

The Mozilla Corporation (not the Foundation anymore) has released the newest release of it's Popular Firefox Web Browser. When I installed the Browser and ran it for the first time, A Wizard guided me through the upgrade process. It checked my extensions and themes for incompatibility, and offered to update them (automatically). If there weren't any updates for them, It Disabled it. New features include integration of the MiniT and Tabrowser Preferences. However, it will break some of your extensions and themes that do not have updates. For example, SpoofStick, an extension I like that tells you what domain you're really at, does not have an updated version. As with most things open-source, I would be surprised if The update doesn't come within the next month or so. Go out and download the New Browser from http://www.mozilla.com. Happy Browsing!

AIM Triton

This is a long rant about AOL's New AIM, so get your reading glasses ready:

Rant On
The New Version of AOL's New AIM came out recently, and I have a few things to say: IT SUCKS! For starters, It occupies a total of 26,764 K of Ram, minimized to the System Tray. That's about 26.1 MB of Ram, just sitting there! Let's start with the Install Routine: After downloading the Installer from the Installer (I've never been a big fan of self-downloading installers...), I came upon this screen. Something that's bugging me about this is that regardless of weather or not you check to make AOL Explorer your Default Browser, It still makes itself your Default Browser. Next, during the install Routine, it adds a File called "HostManager" to your Startup Section of the Registry. It then adds another Program to your startup section called "Run IPH." Then, AIM adds itself to your Startup Section Without Asking Your Permission! When the software is done installing, You are presented with the so-called "friendly" interface for setting up AIM. It looks as though AOL has acquired plaxo, based on the little "powered by PLAXO" icon in the top right-hand corner. You are then asked to fill out rather personal information. Part of the thing that bothers me here is that I have never heard of this Company (Plaxo, not AOL) before, and debated in my head weather or not to fill this stuff out. I filled it out with John Doe information. As if telling the world who your Boss is isn't bad enough, you then are asked to fill out Your Home information. Plaxo then wants to know the names, address, and other knick-knack personal information regarding your Contact lists in Outlook, Outlook Express, Yahoo! Mail, and MSN Hotmail. As if that weren't bad enough, you are then Prompted to Import all of your contacts into your Buddy List. You are then informed that Setup is complete and all of the so-called "benefits" of having one universal address Book. You can also choose if you want to install the Plaxo Toolbar in Outlook and Outlook Express. Regardless of weather you Check it or not, the toolbar is installed. In the automaticlly-launched AOL Explorer, Some very-flashy (literally, the entire thing is done in Macrodobe Flash) Advertisements liter your screen. Who would have thought that Ford would sponsor AOL!? AOL's IM Start Page demonstrated the New features of AIM Triton. What comes up when you try to close the Browser. Firefox, Mozilla, and Camino have something similar to this, but the thing that bothers me is the Second Sentence: "By Closing the browser, you will Close all Tabs." Well, duh! This is the AIM Triton Main Windows. Let's play "Find the Ads!" I spy with my little eye... Two ads in that small bottom section alone. As we all know, AOL is infamous for adding many unwelcome Desktop Icons to the Windows, Mac, Linux, whatever Desktop. This is the "Before" Screenshot. This is the "After" Screenshot. Note that there is also the infamous "Free AOL and Unlimited Internet" Icon on your Start Menu. When you try to uninstall the Product, it does an awful job. I had to manually clean out the Registry from all 30 References to "AOL," and All 8 References to "AIM" from the System Registry. It's obvious: Don't even think about the new AIM. It's going to completely screw over your computer with junk you didn't even ask for.

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Table of Analogs in Windows and Linux

A while back, I posted a Table of analogs for Windows and Linux Software. This post linked to a digg article that linked to a non-existent webpage. I'm here to patch that hole with my own table of analogs. This will be an ongoing project. Each time I make a change to it, It will be a new post. It's Available at http://dankeenan1.tripod.com/. Click on "Table of Analogs."

AOL can edit your AIM Buddy List

Something very disturbing happened today. I come home, I start up Gaim. I get an IM from "AOL System Msg" telling me that they have added AIM boats to my buddy list. Worse yet, they all are AOL services, such as moviefone. The Actual Transcript went like this: (14:57:24) AOL System Msg: AIM added a new AIM boats group to your Buddy List.

(14:57:29) AOL System Msg: Send IMs to moviefone and shoppingbuddy for great holiday flicks and gift ideas. (To remove 'em, just delete them. Learn More) If you use AIM, I strongly discourage you from using it. Then again, what would you expect from the company famous for Closed internet systems (or buying Netscape and destroying it, whichever you prefer).

Monday, November 21, 2005

Holy C***, this thing still Works

I was very upset when I got home today because I was just told that my Beloved SanDisk Mini USB Key had gone through the Wash (You can stop laughing now). It went through Both the Washing Machine and Dryer. This was very upsetting to me because only part of it was backed up onto my hard drive. However, Lo and behold, It still works! Without Issues! Let this be a testament to SanDisk, and how awesome their Products are. If an employee of SanDisk is reading this, Please, by all means Keep up the good work! You can be assured that all of my Memory purchases will be coming from SanDisk from now on.

Friday, November 18, 2005

The Basics of Security on Windows

For the past few months, I've been working on a presentation entitled "The Basics of Security on Windows." I've been doing this mostly because I have people hounding me (both at school and at home) about things that have gone wrong on their computer. These are PDF files available from http://dankeenan1.tripod.com/index.html. Give me feedback on what you think, as this is still a draft.

Monday, November 14, 2005

The table of equivalents of Windows software in Linux-Digg Article

This is for all you linux fans out there (including myself). This is a Direct Quote from Digg.com: "Newbies usually search for Linux analogs of Windows software, and advanced Linux-users cannot answer their questions since they often don't know too much about Windows. This list of Linux equivalents / replacements / analogs of Windows software is based on our own experience and on the information obtained from the visitors of this page."

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Error Message Generator

Two posts in one Day! A new record! Anyway, I had to post again to tell the world about the Error Message Generator. If anyone here has seen the PC Magazine Backspace colum, you know what I mean. It includes limitless possabilities. The one I made looked like this:

Google Reader

Google Labs (Famous for coming up with new Projects almost monthly) has come out with an RSS Reader similar to Yahoo!'s My Yahoo! Service. You can search for Feeds using (surprise, surprise) the built in search function. If you know the location of the feed, you can also manually enter in the feed location. It also supports importing and exporting via OPML files, good if you've amassed a large collection of RSS Feeds in Products like Mozilla's Thunderbird. If you want to add my feed to Google reader, go to http://tinyurl.com/e399e. Near the top of the window, You can click on the "subscribe" Button. If you need a google account and Don't Have one, you can e-mail me at keenan.dan@gmail.com. I will send you an invite for G-Mail, which includes a google account. You may not need to do this sometime in the future, but for now, that will get you a g-mail account.

Friday, October 21, 2005

New and Improved utilities CD

Good News! I have completely ant totally revamped the utilities CD I mentioned in an earlier post. Although it does include software for the Mac Platform, I still have to learn more about the Mac platform itself before I can create the Disk image. This means that the Disk is available only for windows at the Moment. For all you Mac fans out their: I'm am working on it whenever I can. To get the new file, you need to Get BitTorrent. The Torrent file is at http://dankeenan1.tripod.com/. Click on "Utilities Disk (Via BitTorrent" to get the image. Let me know what you Think!

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Digital Life 2005

I recently went to the Digital Life Convection, and I wanted to share some Photos I took with the World. Go to http://dankeenan1.tripod.com/ and click on Digital Life 2005 to look at the Photos. outdated Update: I have moved to flickr to host the photos. A special note to those who use Google's Picasa2: Don't generate web pages with it! It will be located at http://shrinkster.com/ag0.

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

"Internet Explorer Gains Ground on Firefox"

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, been really busy with camp and stuff. Anyway, here goes. According to an artical from LinuxInsider.com, Firefox is beginning to loose market share. Not only that, it's loosing market share to IE. Could just be a normal blip in the graph, could not. We'll see in September. Speaking of September, I'm going to randomly assume that everyone of school age can't wait until school comes. Honestly, do you think that I would, scratch that, anyone would want to go back to school (There are a few exceptions, but I'm starting to rant. )

Monday, August 01, 2005

Other Camp

I'm at another camp (photography), and I have to admit, it's better than I expected. Past camps at from the YMCA have been awful, including the counselor that made me were a tu-tu. That must just have been a problem with the counselors though, because I actually learned something! Which is Saying a lot given the fact that I usually know more than the counselors with these camps. Below is one of the photos I edited. If you want to look at the full size version, click on the image.

Monday, July 18, 2005

Cybercamp

I'm Posting this from my first day at Cybercamp. Cyber camp is a cool, fun, Computer camp where the people in charge actually have a clue. I'm currently in programming, and have had (some) success with Basic programs in VB 2003 (C++). Here are some photos from camp.

Thursday, July 14, 2005

Game Boy Advance: Mountain Men

Take a look at this interview with Chris Grubb and Neal Mueller. What on earth...

Tuesday, July 05, 2005

What the f$<% ?

Two Strange (and Funny) Websites top the Charts today. One of them is The Fool's World Map. This website is dedicated to the Idiot People out there who have no clue as to how the world's countries are positioned. Another one is NetOp's Computer Self defense Movie. It's only point is supposed to be to advertise NetOp. However, the Point the most of us (employees of NetOp Past and Present excluded) is seeing a computer kick the c#%& out of someone. Take a look at these websites - they're worth a chuckle.

Monday, July 04, 2005

Bill Gates Speech

I got an e-mail today that talked about A speech Bill Gates made to High-scholars. It's a parody! Note that e-mail addresses have been changed to protect the innocent.


Subject:
FW: Bill Gates' Speech.....
From:
"Schmo, Joe E, CFPSD"
Date:
Fri, 17 Jun 2005 09:00:19 -0500
To:
someone@optonline.net
Joe Schmo
Corporate Planning
(123) 555-1234

-----Original Message-----
From:  Doe, Jennifer W (Jen), CFPSD
Sent: Friday, June 17, 2005 9:45 AM
To: Doe, Joseph (John), CFPSD; Schmo, Joe E, CFPSD; Dolor, Lorem I, CFPSD
Subject: Bill Gates' Speech.....



Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not  learn in school.  He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.



Rule 1:  Life is not fair - get used to it!

Rule 2:  The world won't care about your self-esteem. The  world will expect you to  accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about  yourself.

Rule 3:  You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school.  You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4:  If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5:  Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity.  Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping:   they called it opportunity.

Rule 6:  If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine  about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now.  They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were.  So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's  generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8:  Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT.  In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer.  This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9:  Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF.   Do that on your own time.

Rule 10:  Television is NOT real life.  In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds.  Chances are you'll end up working for one.

Friday, July 01, 2005

Identity theft info

Check out http://vmc1010.blogmatrix.com/2005/05.22/0000/. It has some good info on Viruses and Adware/Spyware. It's from the Typical PC User Podcast. Something Else to look at is http://vmc1010.blogmatrix.com/2005/05.09/0000/. That one has more info on how to prevent Identity theft. Check it out!

Irrelevant Rant

Rant On
I know that this is irrelevant, But this needs to be known. This post may qualify as a rant to some, but it is not pointless. Last Saturday, I went to a Catholic Church with my Grandfather. He is immobile (and has been for a very long time) an is in a wheelchair for a broken leg. Well, we went to church, and I was absolutely Mortified that the only way to get into the Church (A house of God, mind you) was a grand staircase and an extremely small wheelchair lift. I mention extremely small because he did not fit in the lift. My Father and My Uncle had to hold the front doors open so his legs could stick out, and had to push the two buttons so the lift thought the doors were closed. Even worse, WE HAD TO FIND SOME TO TURN THE F#%$*&@ WHEELCHAIR LIFT ON! This is ridiculous. I know that a church doesn't have to follow the Handicap rules, but you would expect a church to make modifications for this purpose. I also know that the church in question is fairly new, so you wouldn't have to worry about the historical value. After mass, we needed to do the same thing to get him down the stairs, but their was a luncheon after mass the whole extended family was going to attend. Thinking that there would be a similar lift, we didn't worry about. We thought wrong. The absolutely only way to get into the multi-purpose room where the luncheon was to be held was 5 steps. I should mention at this point that My grandfather is not the leanest man around (Hint Hint). It took a team of FIVE people to carry him down the stairs. Another problem, some bright architect decided to put the Handicap accessible Restrooms AT THE TOP OF THE STAIRS! This makes absolutely no senses to me whatsoever. Thankfully, he didn't need to use the Bathroom. Something else I want to mention, is that it took SEVEN people to get him back up the stairs.
Rant Off

Thursday, June 23, 2005

Cool WebSite

While stubling across the web, I cam across a cool website about some person who uses a self built "solar death ray" to burn/melt/physiclly deform things like a floppy disk, rubber duck, twinkie, etc. Two Questions:

  1. Why on earth would he build something like this
  2. How come the Combined force of all that solor energy hasn't destroyed an unintentional target, i.e. Bike, Self, House, etc?
This website is located at http://www.solardeathray.com/. Check it out Note: This will be added to my cool WebSites List as soon as I get the Sidebar Issues worked out.

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

System Info Utilities

If your like me, friends, family, and sometimes complete strangers ask you for computer help. One of the Utilities I like to carry with me on USB Key whenever I do this sort of thing is Aida32. Aida 32 id a wonderful program that seems to give you more information than you will ever want. How ever, Aida 32 is a pain in the butt to get and install because the person who wrote it now works for a large company, and can no longer give the softeware away for free. Even if you do manage to find a copy online, it comes in a not-so-easy-to-install-software-with Zip file. To make things easier for myself, I created an Installer for it. Also, Because People ask me questions about it a lot, I have also created a CD with Aida32 and Many other Decent Utilities on it. You can contact me for either of these files at Note: The Website is working now. You can go to http://dankeenan1.tripod.com/index.html and CLick on Aida32 to get aida32. The iso Image it much to large for a free hosting account, so I'll create a torrent for it when I get a chance.