Well, maybe not. Apple may have good reason refusing warranty repairs to the computers of smokers, as proven by one of the customers who have his warranty money rendered useless: “[Steve] Jobs’ office did not help Derek, but he resolved some of the problems himself by disassembling his Macbook and cleaning it out with a can of compressed air.” Maybe it’s not the smoke, but the inevitable ash that flies around in a smoker’s environment.

Still, the least Apple could’ve done was state clearly within the AppleCare agreement that smoking may void the warranty. Apple’s protection program isn’t exactly cheap, and the company should at least make it even more clear what kind of activities will affect the warranty. Especially as it rolls out its own Black Friday promos.Source

Post from: The Gadget Blog

After deleting and repeatedly overwriting his unencrypted copies, the reporter finds himself served with a search warrant, and agents stream into the reporter’s home. One of the government lackeys uses Windows 7’s ability to save previous versions of folders to render the precaution useless:

He located the Documents folder, opened its Properties window, and clicked on the “Previous Versions” tab. Just as he thought, there were five previous versions of the folder – daily “shadow copies” made by the operating system as part of the System Restore mechanism. As these snapshots were prepared silently in the background and stored on a hidden disk volume, few users were aware of them. Agent Trallis was smiling. The good guys from Redmond were going to make his job easy again.

C’mon now Mr. author! I doubt anyone using TrueCrypt would remain unaware of Windows 7’s ability to save old copies of data—a feature that can be disabled by the way. Maybe the reporter in “The Hidden Shadow” was guilty of overconfidence in his counter-intelligence abilities, a narrow-mindedness that’s similar to the outlook of those who think anything Microsoft is necessarily bad.

In any case, this is a great heads-up for anyone using Windows, and with secrets to keep. Make sure to disable those Previous Versions!

Post from: The Gadget Blog

Recently however, I’ve realized my compulsion to buy stems from the slick marketing process built into Steam’s interface. By default, you are presented with the home page of Steam store once you load the client. Sometimes a pop-up appears, upon start-up or after exiting a game, detailing all the latest games and promos available from Steam. Both are designed to keep you aware of what’s new, subtly pushing you to open up your wallet and make Valve (and its partner publishers) richer.

Luckily, you can change the Steam client settings and lessen temptations to buy. It’s a simple matter of clicking on the File Menu of the Steam client and selecting Settings. Once the dialog pops-up, all you have to do is set your Favorite Window to anything other than “Steam”, and unchecking Notify me (with Steam instant messages) about additions or changes to my games, new releases, and upcoming releases. Then click OK to save the new settings.

What this does is minimize the temptations to buy new games. Now when you start up Steam, you’re brought directly to your games; you don’t get to see the store until you intentionally choose to go there, saving you from the skillfully crafted “buy now” messages plastered all over Steam’s home page. The same applies to disabling Steam’s notifications, as there are now less opportunities for Valve to ply its wares on your impressionable gaming mind.

With fewer temptations to buy, you indirectly save more money, and continue maximizing the advantage that attracted you to Steam in the first place: low-priced legit copies of PC games.

Post from: The Gadget Blog

Slate’s Farhad Manjoo recently interviewed Isidor Buchmann, the CEO of battery-testing equipment manufacturer Cadex Electronics, about characteristics of contemporary gadget batteries and how to use them to your advantage. Note that the tips below only apply to Lithium-Ion batteries, the most popular type used in gadget today:

Keep Your Batteries Away From Heat. Heat lessens a battery’s lifespan, and unfortunately many gadgets today (especially laptops) can get very hot. The solution, aside from keeping the unit as cool as possible, is to always charge the battery when the gadget is off. When using laptops that are plugged in, remove the battery once it’s fully-charged.

Maintain an Optimum Charge Level. As Buchmann says, “you should try to keep your battery charged from 20 to 80 percent”. This means you should actually minimize letting a battery drain, and of course be mindful of overcharging it. Once the battery is full, unplug!

Charge Before Storing. Storing a battery drained of all power definitely lowers its lifespan. So if you plan to stow away that power pack for a long time, make sure to charge it to around 40 percent. Aside from prolonging the battery’s life, you’ve also got power for those emergencies.

Reset Your Battery Meter. This is tricky: some gadgets reset their power meter once you let the battery completely drain before charging it up back to full strength—a clear violation of maintaining an optimum charge level. But, if not done frequently (i.e., only when you think your gadget’s remaining power estimates are off), the damage to lifespan should be minimal.

Do you have your own proven tips on prolonging your gadget’s battery life? Remember, the longer our batteries last, the more efficient we become!

Source

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Whether you need an HDMI cable to hook up that player to your HDTV, or a way to make full use of your computer’s USB port, the general rule when it comes to cables is to take the time and look for the cheapest alternative. For what is a cable, but a bunch of wires providing the bridge between standard ports? Standard means mainstream, mainstream usually means mass-produced, and mass-produced usually means razor-thin margins and really low prices.

That’s why stories like a Radio Shack salesman trying to sell a $24 cable depress me. I do understand salesmen are under a lot of pressure to make as much money as possible for their employers, but what about unsuspecting buyers who eagerly pay that much for a mini USB cable that was eventually bought for $1.05 at a nearby store?

Granted, there are times when it’s worth paying good money, like for really long HDMI cables, because you are paying to retain signal strength over a significant length. And of course, some of those cheap cables are faulty, especially if they come from no-name manufacturers (literally) looking for a quick buck. But be warned, dear readers! Before buying that cable, take the time to shop around for cheaper alternatives—just like you would for any other geek-related item.

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Hello! Greetings!!!:-)

My name is [redacted], Marketing Officer for [redacted] ([redacted]).

I would just like to take this bold opportunity to announce this WONDERFUL NEWS about a RARE PROMO OFFER for a FULLY-FUNCTIONAL website development service that we would like to provide you for your competitive business need to GAIN A STRONG POSITION in the industry, as well as to REALIZE/MATERIALIZE today’s untapped potential markets. For ONLY PhP 30,000, our Web Development Team shall ensure your PROMINENCE and UNMATCHED OUTPUT CALIBER, which features WEBMAIL functions, ONLINE BOOKING, WEB SECURITY features, and a DYNAMIC MEDIA GALLERY for your photos/videos. Also, we’ve already thrown in the offer a robust CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (CMS) and POST-PHASE REVISIONARY WORK, which deals with the completed website’s services for TROUBLESHOOTING, MONITORING, and MINOR UPDATES/BASIC REVISIONS that are available for one (1) month, FREE!!!

This offer has been sent to all enterprises close to our network, and is available for a VERY LIMITED TIME ONLY!

If you’re interested in availing this rare offer, please call/text [redacted] at [redacted] or their landline: [redacted].

Lastly, should you wish to first view the caliber of our past works, you are very much welcome to visit our official [redacted] website: [redacted].

E-mail inquiries are also entertained. Kindly send them to: [redacted].

Thank you and have a blessed day!:-)

Total character count is around 1438, give or take a few (since some text was [redacted]). That’s not the only irritation I share with Helga over the message; the SMS sender was trying to impress her through flowery marketese. Flowery prose may be called for in (old forms of) literature, but not when you’re trying to make a point within a limited format like texting (and social media services like Twitter). Mr. Marketing Officer should’ve gone straight to the point, and if still needed over a thousand characters to deliver the message, maybe he should’ve considered email?

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Seems there’s an “industry-wide” attempt to phish passwords from unsuspecting web mail users. As you many know, online email account access is gold for phishers, because they (to paraphrase what I wrote yesterday) the foundation for the online existence of a lot of people. Gain access to a web mail account, and you pretty much gain access to the owner’s social networking accounts, and even more important (and potentially lucrative) services like their PayPal. Impersonating other people is also much easier if you have full control over their web mail.

Google at least hasn’t been sitting on its hands. According to the BBC:

“As soon as we learned of the attack, we forced password resets on the affected accounts. We will continue to force password resets on additional accounts when we become aware of them.”

The firm stressed that the scam was “not a breach of Gmail security” but rather “a scam to get users to give away their personal information to hackers”.

And that’s exactly the point: while I like Gmail more than Hotmail, I don’t think it’s more secure than any other web mail service out there (again, Gmail just provides better functionality). Hopefully incidents like this remind users that they should practice better security, such as using different passwords for their different online accounts, and regularly changing these passwords. I plan to write a quick how to on creating very secure passwords without forgetting about them. Watch out for it soon!

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Courtesy plurk.com/dementia

From an experienced flood victim

By Gwendolyn So

Unbeknownst to many, my family and I are experts when it comes to flooding. By this I mean that for almost 10 years when we lived in a low part of Sto. Domingo Street in Quezon City , we experienced flooding INSIDE the house at least once a year and if I remember correctly, sometimes it was twice or even thrice a year.

The first time it happened we were in shock, but as it happened more and more it became routine. Here are some nuggets of wisdom that may help:

1. I learned that once the water reaches knee level, the gates can’t be opened anymore because of the water pressure. We thought we still had time to take the cars out but realized we were trapped. That time our cars submerged. Make sure you know which area near your residence is considered higher ground and take your cars there EARLY.
2. Do not despair so much if your cars submerge. They can be fixed. It’s expensive and takes a long time for the smell to go away, but it’s not the end of the world. After the flood, just let the car dry. We were still able to use our Hi-Ace and Mitsubishi Lancer despite their having been half submerged in floodwaters.
3. I learned that heavy stuff, like the ref and shelves, FLOAT. So every year from then on, we would TIE DOWN heavy appliances like the ref (too heavy to carry upstairs but in latter years we did lug it all the way up to the 2nd floor), the big shelves with wedding souvenirs and knick knacks and my dad’s collection of wine. How did we do that? Tie them to the windows.
4. Adrenalin will give you superpowers once you decide you’re not afraid of a little water and start saving what you can. In my case, it was my collection of books. They’re not rare first editions but regular books. However, I love my books and I’m not letting them drown! I was able to move and carry our heavy sofa powered by my body’s own adrenalin hormone.
5. You can have fun in the midst of disaster so I took out our cameras and starting taking pictures. It was to make everyone have a good laugh as we surveyed the chaos around us, the cockroaches and rats swimming by, the black inky spots of oily stuff occasionally floating around.
6. Apparently, no matter how much you’re enjoying yourself frolicking in the water and saving what you can, once the cold water reaches your chest (especially your nipples), you start to shiver and it gets hard to breathe. This is the time to give up and go upstairs.
7. If your electricity stays on, go to the switch box and turn off all the electric outlets downstairs but not upstairs.
8. Cleaning after the flood is a pain. Once the waters recede, you are left with mud everywhere. They stick so you have to get the hose and start using the walis tingting (how do you say this in English? It’s a broom made of just think twigs/sticks tied together in a thick bundle). You just keep the water running and sweep, sweep, sweep like there’s no tomorrow.
9. You must scrub the walls with disinfectant. If you only rinse with water, it will still smell. We used Lysol. Scrub, scrub, scrub like there’s no tomorrow.
10. First time water got inside our house, we didn’t know we had to use Lysol and that the drying process is super vital. So, after a few days, there was this nauseating smell and later we found molds growing everywhere! We had returned the furniture and appliances to their normal places and the walls behind grew molds. Yuck!!!
11. We were still able to use our ref that floated in flood waters. Just clean and clean and dry and dry.
12. Once electricity is available, get out all your fans and dry everything thoroughly.
13. Yes, paint will peel off and wooden drawers and shelves deform. Salvage what can be used. Once they dry, it’s still ok but sometimes the drawers get stuck because the wood expanded so you have no choice but to destroy it because icky water is still trapped inside.
14. Wait at least 2 to 3 days to dry everything. Use fans and hairdryers. Do not, I repeat, do not be in a hurry to return stuff you saved to their original places.
15. Have this mindset: Ah, it’s good I’m now forced to do a general cleaning of my house. Now I have no choice but to do it.

It is easy to go insane after this kind of calamity, to despair of the material things we lost (especially the cars), but please be thankful you got away with your life and that of your family and loved ones

Amen.

Post from: The Gadget Blog

• Middle click an app on dock – Open a new app instance
• Middle click a thumbnail from dock – Close app instance/tab
• Alt – bring up old-style file menus where they’ve been removed
• Winkey + P – multi-display config quick-switch (press twice to switch)
• Winkey + X – bring up laptop settings control panel
• Winkey + T – dock keyboard mode (use arrow keys)
• Winkey + (shift +) tab – Flip 3D task switcher
• Winkey + left, right, up or down key – manage window position

What are your favorite Windows 7/Vista shortcuts?

Post from: The Gadget Blog

Expose those joints to constant heat, in an oven set to 200 to 275 degrees centigrade, and the lead will melt, clearing out any cracks and reconnecting the joints. After the card has seen enough baking, leave it to cool for a few hours, and it should be working once back in a computer.

At least, that’s the ideal. Advice to achieve optimum results includes not putting the card upside down in the oven, and keeping a watchful eye on the process. Melting solder joints increases the chance of gravity acting on the card chips, causing them to fall off, while it’s possible to melt the lead too much, leaving unstable connections that may cause short circuits. Oh and of course, don’t try this on a perfectly functioning video card!

Source

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