Archive for June, 2008

MAC Mocking comic

I’m an Anti-Mac… And I have my reasons to be so… And I stand on facts and many factors to be Anti-Mac…

My friend passed this picture in my forum so I thought of sharing it with everyone:

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Laser Surveillance Defeater

Y’know those Laser listeners thingies that you point at some room and you listen to what they’re saying in that room?

I’ve seen such stuff in Metal Gear 2, Splinter Cell and few movies… I always wanted such thing…

I didn’t know how it works or whats the theory behind it…

Passed by Hackaday And saw this little hack that’d defeat it. The thing is that whatever you say makes the windows vibrate in a way that reflects whatever you say, thats how the laser thingy picks up whatever you’re saying behind it

This little piece of hack vibrates the windows in a way that’ll defeat the laser’s readings… with a 9v battery as a power source

Click here to check it out

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MAC vs PC… Match 2 (PWN2OWN)

I didn’t bring anything related to security in my previous match, so I thought of bringing my favorite (2 minutes flat pwnage)…

Charlie Miller made a quick $10,000 for hacking a MacBook AIR in 2 minutes… Imagine, he pwnz0r3d a MacBook Air in the same amount of time that you take to, ummmm, pick your nose and playing around abit with what you’ve picked? going to wash up your face? something like that…

For those who says “MAC is virus free”, well… it is. But the SYSTEM ITSELF IS VULNERABLE WHICH MAKES IT EVEN WORST!. I’m not trying to say that Windows XP, Windows VISTA and Linux distros aren’t vulnerable… They are… And they are targeted by malwares…

But why PC is targeted by malwares? When we think about it as if you were a malware developer, Where do you strike to get more victims? WINDOWS\LINUX!! BECAUSE IT GOT MORE USERS!!

Even though MAC is growing bigger, its only a matter of time until malware shifts from Windows to Windows’n'MAC. Notice that they’re not shifting to Linux, because Linux users are experience… Not dumb enough like most of MAC and WINDOWS users… Few exceptions…

Nuff malwares crap. Lets go to the system’s vulnerabilities. in that PWN2OWN contest, MAC GOT KNOCKED DOWN FIRST… Then came along Windows VISTA after some struggles (4 hours… Still not as fast as 2 minutes)… Ubuntu survived.

Chickening out from Malwares and considering extreme security wouldn’t matter as long as you KNOW how to secure yourself and treat your computer properly and carefully… Most of those who complains about Viruses (In Kuwait) download movies and crap from Limewire, iMesh and other places which by stupidity download viruses and malwares…

One thing I’d like to quote from TheRegister:

The better take-away is that exploits like these are a fact of life for everyone no matter what kind of machine they choose (are you listening, Mac Guy?). Another lesson: just as quickly as Microsoft or any other developer adds new measures like page protection to their code base, hackers, ethical and otherwise, are find ways to work around them.

As always, I leave links as references… Click here to visit the MACWORLD post related to PWN2OWN… And click here to visit the TheRegister post related to PWN2OWN

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Second Cup Al-Bustan Complex: Day 1

I had to go there with a friend… So I thought of giving their stuff a shot… And I kinda regret it.

I even had to ask my friend (Sicko) to come there out of boredom… Well I’ll keep it short since I hate this place…

Prices:
*   Ordered Halloumi sandwich and it wasn’t as good as I expected… It was less than the decent Haloumi sandwich… And costs 1.500KD… Thats much for that sandwich
*   My friend ordered Cappuccino… I don’t know how much it costs but it wasn’t so special

Space:
*   Its crowded inside… Well why can’t it be? They’re watching a soccer game…
*   To me, its waaaaay too open… And since I’m a guy who works on a laptop, its annoying because people can see what I’m doing
*   Parking?  C’mon it’s Salmiya… Don’t expect to get good parking without having a hard time

Quality:
*   No special Haloumi Saandwich
*   No special Cappuccinos

Atmosphere:
*   Since there’s a soccer match, I kinda predicted it’ll be noisy and annoying
*   According to a friend of mine, he said its not that much of a difference in noisiness…

Notes:
*   The only good thing in here is their Internet connection, Pay 1KD and you’ll get 24 internet hours.
*   Seatings aren’t good
*   Lack of power sockets…

Conclusion:
I’M NOT COMING HERE AGAIN!!! Unless they fix things over… I prefer going to the Falafel shop in my area than coming in here! I prefer drinking Nescafe over drinking their cappuccino!  Hell, I prefer eating my own Cheese’n'Toast over their Haloumi Sandwich… Noisy, annoying, Bad layout, Bad Quality in goods Coffee House…

I wonder why people make big fuss about it?

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ASUS says: IN YOUR FACE ACER PREDATOR!!!

Remember the Predator that Acer announced? The one that really amazed me?

Well its still amazing and it kinda changed the way I look at Acer (Globally not locally)… Then again, ASUS strikes back…

As I daily browse Engadget I saw this article about ASUS’s ARES CG6150… Annoying name, yet great specifications but will surely cost alot:

Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650
NVIDIA’s nForce 790i Ultra SLI chipset
Can hold up to 8GB of DDR3 RAM3-way SLI setup with GeForce GTX280s
Up to 4TB of HDD space
Blu-ray optical drive
Twin gigabit Ethernet jacks
Two power supplies (never thought it was out there)
A custom liquid cooling arrangement

THAT’LL COST!

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MAC vs PC… Match 1 (CNET)

I’ve always been a MAC hater… I hate it with passion… And I hate people and the stereotypes who think that MAC is better than PC (and mostly make it sound like x827364928374 better than PC)…

I respect MAC… I really do. For an OS thats running on such lower-performance hardware (if we compared by numbers since they’re all running on Intel) doing whatever its doing.

So decided to look for benchmarks and tests that others made over the MAC vs PC debate (considering Windows XP\Vista is running on PC… not Linux neither any other OS) so people would shut up after reading few of my posts about this… And to be honest; If things turned out that MAC is better than PC considering various factors, I’ll switch to MAC and start flaming PC myself!!!

So I’m starting with CNET… A trustful resource… Though they didn’t bring up the security measurements since they both suck in security (Yes… MAC got owned in 2 minutes flat… google it and read about it… I’ll get to it later on)…

Here’s CNET’s Link… Read it for further details

According to CNET’s fight, they brought MacBook Pro against Acer TravelMate 8200.
From the laptops they matched up I went like “Oh SHIT! PC is getting pwnz0rd!” because Acer sucks (well maybe from where I’m from… Their gaming PC is amazing)…

Round 1- Prettiness:

I can’t deny that Mac looks pretty and neat… Its what makes people think MAC is better than any other PC… So a round goes for MAC

Round 2 – Screen Prettiness:

Even though they’re running on the same screen size, MAC ruled… I gave up on Acer at this point yet thought of giving it up till the end and blame things on CNET for choosing Acer (They should’ve gone for Asus or Dell)

Round 3 – Features:

Apple prides itself on its products’ audiovisual capabilities (remember the “digital lifestyle hub“?). But the MacBook Pro includes the bare minimum of A/V features: a microphone and some pretty good speakers, DVI and VGA signal connections (the latter via an included adapter), one four-pin FireWire port, and only two USB 2.0 ports for connecting to external peripherals, such as a camera or a mouse. The TravelMate 8200 easily trumps the MacBook Pro with all of that plus an S-Video output, S/PDIF, and two additional USB 2.0 ports. And while both laptops include a built-in Webcam above their displays, the TravelMate 8200’s camera can rotate 225 degrees, letting you snap shots in front of, above, or behind the laptop. Advantage: Acer.

I quoted that from CNET Round 3… IN YOUR FACE MAC USERS!!! I CAST STRONGBAD’S DOUBLE DOUCHE!!

If you have lots of MP3s or digital video, storage capacity matters, and the TravelMate 8200 provides an extra 20GB of storage space compared to our MacBook Pro test configuration. (It costs an additional $100 to upgrade the Apple’s hard drive to match the Acer’s.) While both laptops are equipped with DVD burners and ExpressCard slots, the TravelMate 8200 accommodates some additional critical expansion features, including a more traditional Type II PC Card slot, a smart card reader, and a 5-in-1 flash media card reader that recognizes MultiMediaCard, Secure Digital, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, and xD formats. Advantage: Acer.

Acer is kicking the butt right now… 20GB difference isn’t much and MAC offers an upgrade to match things up… But $100 for 20GB? THATS THE DIFFERENCE!!

Round 4 – Performance (What I’m really looking forward for):

And since CNET is doing the fight, they KNOW what they’re doing… After all they’re a trustful computer resource…

The TravelMate 8200 smoked the MacBook Pro, pushing nearly twice as many frames per second as its competitor. We were able to salvage some of the MacBook Pro’s dignity, though, by using Boot Camp to run the benchmark on Windows XP. Though it was still no match for the Acer, the MacBook Pro running Windows turned in a more respectable 21.6 frames per second. The bottom line: Though PCs remain best for gaming, Boot Camp bridges the gap considerably.

I am surprised myself… Even your MAC couldn’t get faster Windows XP ON YOUR OWN SYSTEM!!!… It’s like, WE PWNZ0RDED YOU ON YOUR OWN SYSTEM!!!… Isn’t Windows XP a system that’s MEANT to be installed on PC? Your Boot Camp’s Windows XP is running close to our typical PC’s Windows XP yet MAC is OUT OF THE RACE (Cept for Cinebench… Well good for you MAC users)…

Round 5 – Battery Life:

Acer lasts 8 minutes longer than MAC… It’s a close call… Yet 8 minutes can mean something when your battery dies before shutting down…

Round 6 – Bundled Softwares:

Well Mac wins in here. They slip some good softwares and in greater amount in MacBook Pro more than Acer..

Round 7 – Warranty and Support:

They both suck! =P

Round 8 (Final Round) – PRICE (Another thing I’m looking forward to):

PC RULED!!!

What we learn from this fight:
*   MAC is just fancy
*   Acer is better than what I thought… Yet it still sucks
*   Acer kicked MAC’s butt… So imagine if they brought up Alienware or Asus in the fight?
*   OUR Windows XP in YOUR MacBook KICKS YOUR OWN MAC OSX … Its just like saying (We know your own system better than you!)
*   Its a somekinda outdated fight… 2 Years old… MAC improves… SO DOES PC
*   They were using Windows XP… Not Linux… Linux is a total different case…

I enjoyed this fight… But this isn’t the only fight hopefully… I’ll bring more… If anyone got a link and wants to drag something in this fight please contact me and I’ll be glad to add (Please use a trustworthy resource… CNET for example or any similar thing)

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A better way to detect Gay\Straight Men\Women =P

If you read my previous post about detecting gayness by fingers length, you’ll enjoy this one. If you didn’t, you might enjoy this one as well =P

While I was browsing Wired.com (which I enjoy doing so… Along with checking Engadget.com), I saw this post which really drew my attention.

Some weird researchers from National Academy of Sciences led by Ivanka Savic found a way to figure out if you’re gay or not by taking some MRI scans of your head.

If you have larger RIGHT brain hemisphere that’d mean you’re into women (that goes for both guys and girls).
If you have larger SYMMETRIC brain hemisphere that’d mean you’re into men (that goes for both guys and girls).

We can build gay detecting devices in the near future… And it’ll be a funny scene if a Doctor who actually read this post went and took some MRI Scans… I’m sure he\she\it will laugh their asses out when the patient goes off the MRI scan room =P (or maybe hook up with’em…)

Science is getting more creepy… Click here to read the Wired article covering this thing. And practice on the picture above for future needs.

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FPV RC Car!

Short description:
An RC Car with a head mount vision…
No need to describe more…

Check the video:

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BOMBERMAN ONLINE!

Was hanging out in Dunkin’Donuts with Ace and Kitsune was on his way. Talking about random stuff (as usual) then he brought the word Bomberman and I went like “I think I have this game somewhere”…

So I found the game after digging in my laptop… And thought of sharing the fun…

Need to register for an account… A browser window will appear asking you for a username and password. Fill’em in and a new window will appear. You’ll be ready to play this game after the new window is done loading.

Click here to download the game and play

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Amazing AirCraft damage control!!

Bad news to Mingash (The guy who assume he shot an Apache or whatever with a crappy ol’ rifle)

As always, daily checking Engadget to see new and fun stuff (well, to me they are)…

And I passed by this: A system provided by DARPA and Athena’s Damage Tolerance and Autonomous Landing Solution to auto adjust aircrafts with damages (missiles, guns … etc)… Landing as if it was totally nothing.

The demonstrated on a scale-model of F-18 with around %60 of one of the wings getting damaged while the F-18 is in the air.

Now Mingash must think of another way… maybe learn some hacking skills to hack that system THEN shoot it with his magical rifle =P

Can’t wait to find something similar for cars…

Click here to read Engadget’s review about the whole thing.
Click here to see the demonstration

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