Category: Computer

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SkypeOut for FREE

Skype is a little program for making free calls within the US and Canada to all phones until the end of the year. Skype to Skype calls anywhere in the world are also free. It’s easy to download and use, and works with most computers. (from MsticAzn)

That’s right, till 12/31/2006, you can make any calls from your PC through Skype to any phone number in the U.S. and Canada for FREE.

There’s really nothing more to say about that, well besides some idiot was trying to convince me that Windows Live Messenger was better because it made FREE calls to any other Windows Live Messenger user and it ONLY costs 2¢ a minute for any outgoing call within the USA (maybe Canada too) through a contract with Verizon. Then when they realized their mistake, they tried to convince me Skype was out to get me and trick me because they’re taking a hit for every outgoing call. He even pointed out the following clause from Skype’s TOS:

Free Calls in the US and Canada: Until December 31st 2006, Skype is offering free SkypeOut calls from the US and Canada to US and Canadian mobile and landline telephone numbers. In return for offering this, Skype asks that You use the product sensibly and don’t abuse the free offer. Skype reminds You that it does not allow You to resell SkypeOut and that if Skype does see systematic or intentional misuse, it reserves the right to terminate your access to your Account immediately in accordance with clause 12.3 below.

He also brought up the fact they’re trying to tie me in and it’d be difficult to import and export contacts, etc. I don’t know what type of weed this guy was smoking, but I want some of it (maybe not). I was going to respond to his email, but others came and pointed out flaws in his logic.

Also to note, SkypeIn only costs €30 for 12 months. That’s about US$39 or $3.25/mo. What SkypeIn is that you can purchase a local (or even a non-local number) and anyone calls that number would reach you through Skype. Someone in the MS thread noted they purchased a number in Hong Kong so his friends and relative in Hong Kong could make local calls to him, which was interesting. If you want to try out the service first before locking in on a 1yr contract, they have a 3 month plan for €10 (~US$13 or $4.33/mo) which isn’t bad considering I was paying Verizon $25/mo when I had it.

The only bad part about Skype is that it doesn’t use the normal SIP protocols, so phone adapters like the Linksys PAP2 don’t work with it and you’ll need to purchase Skype-Ready products.

Someone on /. also pointed out SIPphone which is actually a bit cheaper than Skype ($12.00 for 3 months, or $35.00 for 12 months), but their area codes are a lot more limited. Then again, I don’t really know what area codes Skype is offering, but I would’ve expected more than this.

The last service I’d like to introduce is IPKall, the one I’ve been using and awesome for any folks living around the Seattle area. This service is provided for free and anyone (even those not living in or around Seattle or even in the USA) can use it. The area codes they provide are 206, 253, 360, and 425 and when you combine this with FWD or MutualPhone, you basically get completely free incoming calls. I’m not too sure about MutualPhone since I personally haven’t used it, but it actually looks like you can make outgoing calls for a small fee. FWD only allows incoming calls and outgoing calls to other SIP users. What IPKall does is connect a real phone number to a SIP number and FWD provides that SIP number that IPKall can forward to. It’s pretty neat and you get free voice mail too where if you don’t pick up the phone after 60 seconds (configurable), it’ll forward the caller to a answering machine and they’ll automatically email you the message he/she left to your email box. If you check out their forums, there’s also a bunch of other SIP providers you can use and other neat tricks you can do.

So I only make outgoing calls with my cellphone and have a real phone for people to reach me. This saves me $25 x 12 = $300 a year.

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BBQ at Tekman’s

So I went to sleep last night around 5:45am. I can’t beleive the sun was already out at that time. Well, maybe not the sun, but there was definitely light outside. I set my alarm to 12:20pm, but ended up hitting snooze till 1:30pm, haha. The BBQ was suppose to start at 1:30 and he lives all the way in North Bothell. Anyway, I get up and after forgetting which exit and ending up in Alderwood Mall, Lynwood, I finally arrive around 2:30 – 3pm.

The food was aplenty and the pork loins was actually really good and Angel’s brownies were *yummmm* SOOOOOOO GOOOOOOOOOD! Guy and Eric made beef ribs which I’m not sure if it was the sauce or beef ribs in general, but they sorta tasted weird, but in a good way. Maybe it was because it tasted pretty different from pork ribs.

We played poker some some time and I lost $10. My hands were terrible and the only awesome hands I did get, I ended up folding preflop. Guy I think was the big winner of making $9. Oh yah, I met a new friend of theirs, Matt, who seems to be interning for Microsoft this summer.

Derek called in the middle and we tried to convince him to come. When he did want to come, poker was already over, and we were playing board games. I was playing Ticket to Ride with several people, while the other group was playing Cities & Knights of Catan. It’s like a very complicated version of Settlers with knights and city upgrades and city walls and barbarians. I think they got annoyed I was asking so many questions about it, thought it looked like a lot of fun. I actually ended up placing 2nd after Guy with 107 points or something like that. Guy had ~120.

Afterwards, we were trying to decide what to do and ended up playing a game of HORSE (basketball). Wrexen ended up winning, but Guy had the most interesting moves.

Afterwards, we had another round of trying to decide what to do. We ended up playing more games after about an hour of brainstorming and half the group broke off to play Trivia Pursuit (a game which I totally suck at, my mind’s not made to remember random facts, hence why I have blog to jot down anything interesting so I can come back to it later). The other group (including myself) went to play Puerto Rico. Somehow I ended up winning, but I was just taking Guy’s and Xyon’s advice left and right.

The day was fun! I wonder if I have to go into work tomorrow… hmmmmmmm

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Media Immersion Pods

In Tokyo, the New Trend Is ‘Media Immersion Pods’ (from /.) – a very interesting article. Here’s some quotes I’ve taken out of it:

In Tokyo, though, the antidote to urban overload is more of the same. In the world’s most media-saturated city, people take a break by checking themselves into media immersion pods: warrens cluttered with computers, TV’s, video games and every other entertainment of the electronic age.

“In both the anonymity and role-playing games on offer at the Gran Cyber Café, you don’t have to exist in tight social norms,” Mr. Isshow told me. “Your identity can be in flux. You go to these places not to present yourself, but to lose yourself. Lose your name, your position, your pride.”

Mr. Isshow spoke through a translator, but here he introduced some English: “No-face-man, no-ID-man, no-pride-man.”

What they do there is up to them. Some people channel-surf. Others trade stocks. You can download music, read novels, watch pornography, play video games, have sex, go to sleep.

According to Mr. Isshow, Japan’s “petit iede,” or little runaways, come for downtime, free lattes and smoothies, and, at some branches, showers. They use the places as trial separations from home — staying a few hours, overnight or a few days, long enough to scare their parents. (A “night pack” allows use of the pod from 11 p.m. to 8 a.m. for about $10; some places sell toothbrushes and underwear too.) Periodically the management will remind a customer that the cafe is not a hotel, but above all Bagus respects people’s privacy.

I loved 16-A the instant I saw it. I closed the door, slipped into a low-slung leatherette seat and surveyed the all-you-can-eat tech feast, which includes VHS and DVD players, satellite and regular television on a Toshiba set, PlayStation 2, Lineage II and a Compaq computer loaded with software, all the relevant downloads and hyperspeedy Internet. In the nearby library were thousands of comic books, magazines and novels. On the desk was a menu of oddball snacks, like boiled egg curry and hot sandwich tuna.

Shizu was catching up on manga. One was “The Monetary System of Osaka,” a left-wing chronicle of graft and usury among the suits of Japan’s second city. Another was “Inu,” or “Dog,” by Haruko Kashiwagi. It’s considered clever, fairly high-toned and mainstream, which is surprising because, in part, it’s about a woman who has sex with her dog.

The extensive manga library also includes pornography for every taste. But sex at the Gran Cyber Café is not just in the fiction. All around me, couples were making out. Some were watching sex videos. They seemed blasé. Still, in the cubicles that seat two, the walls are a little lower, and the seats don’t have a massage option. Meanwhile other customers have taken a more professional approach. The Japanese Web site Tanteifile.com published an article about a freelance prostitute — a “delivery health” girl — who moved into a Gran Cyber Café after her workplace was raided.

Quite an interesting jump from Internet Cafes. Seems like you can get your own private room or be outside in a cubicle which you can see what others are doing. Must be like a massive library with tons of DVDs, magazines, comics, music, etc. What’s interesting is that you can actually stay overnight for a price of ~$10 (I’m assuming American money). That’s even cheaper than hostels and you even get an internet connection.

What I didn’t get was the tea ceremonies/festivals was similar to this. I mean it sort of made sense with the social status analogy, but are there really still social status in a country like Japan. I mean it’s not like you’ll be intermingling with royalties in these cyber cafes, which is another point that seemed to have left out. In tea ceremonies/festivals, there’s a lot of socializing, but in these cyber cafes, you’re really trying to escape reality and escape into your own fantasy.

Random Crap:

Calif. judge suspends state graduation exam – A California judge issued a preliminary injunction on Friday suspending the state’s high school exit exam, clearing the way for tens of thousands of students who have not passed the test to graduate. I remember I was the last year that didn’t have to take this exit exam. Or did I? I don’t remember. I was either the 1st year to take it or the last year to not have to take it. However, I don’t think such a test should prevent you from graduation, just like I never really believed in the SATs nor GPAs. However, I also feel that companies and colleges should be allowed to ask for your score and you always have the option of not disclosing them.

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FolderShare

FolderShare (from AT) – Keep important files at your fingertips – anywhere. All file changes are automatically synchronized between linked computers, so you are always accessing the latest documents, photos, and files.

I haven’t used this yet, but it sound interesting.

How It Works
FolderShareTM is a service that allows you to securely keep files synchronized between your devices, share files with friends or colleagues, and remotely download your files from any web browser. FolderShare consists of two components – My FolderShare and the FolderShare Satellite.

My FolderShare: Configure and manage your account from here.

Go to www.foldershare.com from any web browser and login to access your “My FolderShare” page.

From here you can do any of the following:

  • Setup devices to sync or share with
  • Invite others (via email address) to share your files
  • Manage your account – upgrade your subscription, change your email address or password
  • Get help
  • Download the latest software

FolderShare Satellite: The software you need to install on the device(s) you want to sync or share files with.

  • The FolderShare Satellite will run in the background when you are online.
  • As you update shared or synced files, it will automatically update them on the other devices connected.

I did a search on file size limit and came back with this:

Does FolderShare have a file size limit?
FolderShare can not transfer files larger than 2GB. There is a maximum of 10,000 files per library, and you may create up to 10 libraries.

Interesting…

Too bad I don’t trust to have my documents stored online on a sever other than mine.

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Difference between TKIP and AES

If you’re using WPA-PSK (Pre-Shared Key), the Linksys WRT54GL gives you two options for WPA Algorithm: TKIP and AES. I knew AES was supposedly the newer and better solution, but I wanted to find out what the main difference between the two was. After searching online for a bit, I found this Wireless FAQ.

19. Q: What is TKIP?
TKIP is a quick-fix method to quickly overcome the inherent weaknesses in WEP security, especially the reuse of encryption keys. TKIP is involved in the IEEE 802.11i WLAN security standard, and the specification might be officially released by early 2003.

20. Q: What is AES?
AES (Advanced Encryption Standard), a chip-based security, has been developed to ensure the highest degree of security and authenticity for digital information, wherever and however communicated or stored, while making more efficient use of hardware and/or software than previous encryption standards. It is also included in IEEE 802.11i standard. Compare with AES, TKIP is a temporary protocol for replacing WEP security until manufacturers implement AES at the hardware level.

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RedOctane Ignition 3.0

In my previous post, I mentioned I started playing this DDR like clone called StepMania. So I’ve got fed up with the Kraft Dance Pad. I finally figured out why I sucked so badly, not to say that I’m good, but I’m not as bad as I originally thought I was. The dance pad has what StepMania refers to as the Joystick Axes Problem where Up+Down won’t work and Left+Right won’t work because they implemented the the up, down, left, right buttons as joystick axes instead of buttons so to a computer up+down and left+right is never possible simultaneously.

So I asked around and apparently the industry standard for home dance pads is RedOctane Ignition, where 3.0 is the current version which supports PS1, PS2, Xbox, and PC USB. I was told to just search eBay and look for clones. The clones themselves costed more than used/refurbished Ignition 3.0s, so I decided to get the Ignitions instead. The going price for used Ignition 3.0 on eBay was ~$50 shipped. I decided to get 2 since I could probably save on shipping and it’d be fun to play with 2 people or even enter solo dual pad mode. Ended up purchasing 2 for $94 shipped. Sent payment on Wednesday and got my package today.

Setting it up was actually pretty fun. I didn’t know how they were going to break the foam apart to ship in such a small box.

redoctane ignition 3.0redoctane ignition 3.0redoctane ignition 3.0redoctane ignition 3.0redoctane ignition 3.0redoctane ignition 3.0

Turns out it’s puzzle-like and it’s working out pretty well. I gave it a try and all the buttons are associated with a button and not just the axes.

So I finally got my first B score in StepMania, which I’ve never gotten before with the Kraft Dance Pad (now I know why), though I still get E’s for over 50% of my attempts. I am getting better though, or at least I hope so.

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Hacking the Linksys WRT54GL

So I recently purchased a Linksys WRT54GL, hopefully to solve my lagging problem when the old Belkin router was ever overloaded with packets and connections. At which then I’ll have to unplug the router and power it back on.

There are several open source firmwares that work with this mode:
Sveasoft
dd-wrt
HyperWRT

The one I decided to use was dd-wrt. Sveasoft decided to charge for their newest firmware ($20/yr for support). Talisman, their old firmware which works on the WRT54G and WRT54GS, is still free, but Alchemy, their firmware that works on the WRT54GL is not. HyperWRT is the enhanced version of the existing Linksys firmware with bonuses, but has only a limited feature set. DD-WRT on the other hand is trying to replace what Sveasoft’s has done with Alchemy and to continue the project freely.

I finished upgraded the firmware to DD-WRT v2.3 (Standard Generic). The firmware upgrade went through fine, and I started customizing the settings and adding port forwards. However, I noticed that websites were loading awfully slow and when I tried to download a file, it would only get 4KB/s and eventually disconnect. I thought maybe I got the wrong version of the firmware, so I tried to installing the newest firmware from Linksys to see if the problem still occured. The firmware reverted back fine, but now I can’t seem to even go online. DNS resolving works, but no sites would connect. I made sure my connection worked on my old Belkin router and it did. So I was back to square 1.

I thought maybe I enabled some settings in DD-WRT that is causing problems in the Linksys firmware. Since DD-WRT v2.3 is rather new and may have bugs, I downloaded and installed v2.2 (Final R2). Since they never listed WRT54GL, I went for the Generic last time, but this time decided to give the WRT54G version a try. While upgrading the firmware, it reported the upgrade had fail. I was like oh shoot! But I was still able to connect to the router and decided to try the Generic v2.2. The one installed fine and I thought that’s good, until my router wouldn’t ever exit out of diagnostic mode. The power light would keep blinking. Pinging 192.168.1.1 didn’t get any response either.

I thought, crap, I broke my new toy. Started searching online for a way to hard reset the firmware like what I could do to my Linksys PAP2. There were suggestions of holding the reset button for 10 minutes, but it turns out that only resetted the settings and not the firmware. I finally found a site that taught me how to do it. It required opening the router and shorting 2 pins on one of the flash roms. This in turns allows you to force upload a firmware to it.

At first I was stumped on how to open up the router. I couldn’t find any screws and it looked like I’d break the rubber feet if I tried to pull on it any harder.

linksys wrt54gllinksys wrt54gllinksys wrt54gl

So I searched online on how to open it up and it turns out it was just as simply as pulling it apart. No screws involved. There is a warranty sticker which will be detached if you open the box, so do note by opening the router, you void your warranty.

linksys wrt54gllinksys wrt54gllinksys wrt54gl

Next was finding the chip and then the associated pins. It turns out I was doing this the hard way. I could’ve saved myself a lot of time and trouble trying to search for this pins with the handicap of part of the case was covering it. I won’t put you through the same headache, so lets continue for now.

linksys wrt54gllinksys wrt54gllinksys wrt54gl

You can unscrew the 2 antennas and then pop out the remainder of the case.

linksys wrt54gllinksys wrt54gllinksys wrt54gllinksys wrt54gllinksys wrt54gllinksys wrt54gl

Finding the chip was easy. It has the big word “FLASH” on it. On one side, you’ll see pins marked from 1 to 24 and on the other side, you’ll find pins marked from 25 to 48. The 2 pins we want to short are pins 15 and 16. You can enlarge the last image and the click on FULL SIZE to see which pins exactly. I’ve made them red so it can be found easier. Finding the pins were awfully hard, especially when 15 and 16 are smack in the middle. So if you CAN NOT ping your router (by default set to 192.168.1.1), unplug your router, find a sharp metallic object and short those 2 pins, and plug the power back on. I used a small screwdriver and that worked out fine. You should be able to ping the router now.

The next thing you want to do is rename the firmware you want to replace with to code.bin. Open up a command prompt (Start -> Run -> cmd) and type the following:
tftp -i 192.168.1.1 put code.bin
BUT DO NOT HIT ENTER YET

The next instructions I got didn’t work out exactly for me. I was told to reset the router and when my system was connected to the router, to push that binary through immediately. But by resetting the router, I wasn’t able to ping the router any more. So what I ended up doing was shorting the pins again, and made sure I could pin my router, and then I pushed the firmware through (hitting enter on the command prompt). If you get a timeout message, that means it can’t connect. If you get a transmission complete or successful, then means the firmware is in.

However, with the original firmware back in, it still wasn’t able to connect to the internet, meaning no webpage would load. I then tried installing DD-WRT v2.3 (Mini Generic). After the router rebooted, which took a few minutes, everything was fine and dandy. I didn’t have the lag which I saw initially and everything just worked. I had to reset my wireless setting and my port forwardings. I even boosted my wireless transmission power from 28mW to 251mW, which I don’t think I’m technically allowed.

But so far, life is once again good.

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Logitech Customer Service Experience

I had a very good RMA experience recently with Logitech. I had purchased the Logitech Wireless Headphones for iPod through one of the recent deals. These are the bluetooth headphones I spoke of recently. Apparently, they’re prone to crack and once cracked, they stopped working completely.

I had purchased the headphones back in late August. Headphones started to crack in mid-October, but they were still functional. Several emails went back and forth, but we didn’t get anywhere. But as their website stated, RMAs can only be done through the calling into their customer service center. Since they were still working, I didn’t bother pursuing it further. Finally, in mid February, they got completely cracked and stopped working, so I got over my phone-phobia and called in. 10 minutes later, the guy said I should be receiving a new set of headphones in 7-10 days and then to toss the old pair away. He did remind me to keep the transmitter as that wasn’t going to be included.

I asked if I had to send anything in or if I needed any provide any proof of purchase. All he had me do was confirm the crack was in the dead center and to read off a secret number hidden underneath the ear cushion and everything was fine and dandy. Didn’t have to send the old pair back. Didn’t even have to fax in my receipt or proof of purchase.

Just got my headphones yesterday and now I’m one happy camper again.

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iPod and iTunes communication error

So for the first time today, I got this error message:

“Another user on this computer is using the iPod software, so iTunes is unable to communicate with this iPod. Please ask the other user to log out.”

This error isn’t really documented well as Google only found 3 sites and only 1 with a useful answer: iLounge

I’m pretty sure it has to do something with my converting from Admin to User, but I made sure no other user was logged on besides me and even killed iTunes.exe. Didn’t really help. I tried undocking the iPod Nano and redocking it. Didn’t help either.

Apparently, there’s a process called ipodservices.exe that runs under SYSTEM. After killing that process, I was able to load my Nano into iTunes. I do have to admit I upgraded my iTunes yesterday to the latest version and had to install it with my Admin account. Maybe that was why this error occured.

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Running as non-admin on XP

So after the StarForce incident, I decided to remove the admin priviledges from my default login account. I made sure I knew the Administrator password and even created a 2nd admin account just in case. A lot of things require admin credentials to work properly in Windows XP, but so far the process has been smooth. I’ve made a shortcut that runs runas /u:Administrator cmd, which will create a command prompt asking me for the Administrator password and then giving me admin credentials on that command prompt.

Programs like Unlocker and Ethereal fail to run properly under my credentials which is expected. Ethereal was a easy fix where I just right clicked the shortcut and clicked Run as… and I can choose to run as an Admin. However, Unlocker still failed to work properly. It seems to require Debug access, which I have yet to test it, but I did learn how that Unlocker can be used through the command prompt:

Command line usage:

Unlocker.exe Object [Option]

Object:

Complete path including drive to a file or folder

Options:

/H or -H or /? or -?: Display command line usage
/S or -S: Unlock object without showing the GUI
/L or -L: Object is a text file containing the list of files to unlock
/LU or -LU: Similar to /L with a unicode list of files to unlock
/O or -O: Outputs Unlocker-Log.txt log file in Unlocker directory

So I just added the path to my environment variables and now I can execute Unlocker in any directory (with admin credentials of course).

Getting to the control panel applets with admin credentials was another obstacle. I did find this link: Run Control Panel Applets as Another User which provided enough information on how to do it, but I’d still like to be able to pop up a control panel window will all the links already having admin priviledges instead of remember everyone. I guess this will help me in the long term if I remember the shortcuts.

If you want remote desktop access, remember to add yourself into Remote Desktop Users.

So what does all get me besides complications? Better Security. Now I don’t have to worry about installing software that will install crap like StarForce onto my computer without me knowing. So far the change has minimal impact on how I do things, but if things start getting bad, I might probably just change back to Administrator.