Amazon Goof lists Memory Card for over 1 Billion Dollars

Posted 7 months ago at 8:03 pm. 0 comments

The Transcend TS2GSDC 2GB Memory Card was accidentally listed for $1,268,210,425.88. Yes thats right $1,268,210,425.88. You save 28% from its original listing as $1,772,767,261.98. Save BIG At Amazon.com! Check out the name of the company who is retailing this.

[via Amazon]

Continue Reading…

Stanford University Make3D converts 2D Images to 3D

Posted 7 months ago at 6:13 pm. 1 comment

Stanford University will become a new media startup company… well not exactly but its certainly looking that way.  They have brought together another project called Make 3D. Its purpose is to convert 2D images to 3D using complex algorithms. You will be able to walk through your image and view it at any angle. Its not 100% perfect and it can’t ever be considering its just a photograph where certain areas are stretched and wrapped around a 3D model.

Make3D joins VectorMagic in Stanford University’s student projects. This is not the first time that a project like this was attempted. Microsoft was previously working on a 3D Panorama project that stitched photos together creating a sort of collage that depicted every angle of a building. Carnegie Mellon University previously released a video on their own project but not much has been said about it since 2 years ago.

[via Make3D

Continue Reading…

How to Stop AIM Today or Aim Dashboard from Popping Up When Windows Starts

Posted 7 months ago at 1:33 pm. 19 comments

commonproblemstest.jpg

A very frequently asked question. Not that its hard to do but I guess people can’t find it? Anyways follow the steps below on how to get rid of Aim Dashboard:

Disable AIM Today or Aim Dashboard from Popping Up In Internet Explorer

  • Open Aim 6.5
  • Click Edit
  • Click Settings
  • Click Sign In / Sign Out
  • Click None
  • Click Save

Disable AIM From Starting When Windows Starts

  • Open Aim 6.5
  • Click Edit
  • Click Settings
  • Click Sign In/ Sign Out
  • Uncheck Start Aim When Windows Starts
  • Click Save

You’ll need to do this to each and every screen name you have on the Sign On screen as its different settings per screen name. And thats all there is to this. BYE!

Bumped.org Site Restructuring and Changes

Posted 7 months ago at 1:55 am. 0 comments

Image1.jpg

Hey we’re back again and with a brand new theme! Bumped.org will enter Season 2 where it focuses on primarily blogging as it did before but with more integration between each blog as they will now be referenced within posts. The firpst major update is this tek site which now has more readability features making it easier for you and me organize all the crazy amounts of information that happens on the site.

CSS Topic Headers

Tek now features CSS Topic Headers seperating information within a post. It should organize some of the things that were annoying before.

Download Now!

Downloads of files will be contained in this lovely green border of love! So now you should have no trouble finding the file

440test_1.jpg

Image Borders will be used to contain the elegance of pictures as seen on web apps and psu blog.

  • Lists
    • Tek can now use lists
    • To display items for different things
    • Surprisingly it didn’t support it before haha.

BlockQuotes are back and retain the same style

The sidebar has now reduced in length significantly. Sidebars are now contextual and will suggest posts for you. Categories have been moved to category archives.  More important stuff will appear at the top of the sidebar, and you no longer have to scroll far down to see what you want.

 Bumped.org Site Planning & Structuring

Unfortunately parts of the site will shut down. Web Apps will be split in two and will be covered in a new untitled profile specific blog, the other half will become bumped.org the blog.

  • January 08
    • All AIM Skins Updated.
    • PSU Blog Launches.
    • Blog Hosting has been Discontinued.
  • February 08
    • Web Apps will be Discontinued.
    • Lifey will be Discontinued.
    • Forums will be Discontinued.
    • Untitled Profile Blog will replace Web Apps
    • Chatroom Trial Project
    • New Skin for Aim 6.8
  • March 08 - July 08
    • Bumped.org Game Project will be released
    • Bumped.org The Blog will Launch

iPod Touch adds New Features for $20

Posted 7 months, 2 weeks ago at 3:34 pm. 0 comments

Today Apple released at its MacWord 2008, several new features for the iPod Touch. The company plans to milk you for even more money with several new features.

Mail: View HTML Email, PDF, Microsoft Word, and Excel Attachements

Map: A Wi-Fi triangulation service will approximate the location you are at.

Home: Add up to 8 customizable home screens.

Stocks: View Stocks just like on the iPhone

Weather: View Weather just like on the iPhone

Notes: Take Notes just like on the iPhone

With all that said, its time for a major update for the whole website. See you after the jump! :D

AOL develops another new AIM Client For Mac

Posted 7 months, 2 weeks ago at 3:20 am. 0 comments

jump_1.jpg

This new client plays catch up to features already existing on Windows. It’s built with AIMCC SDK, and now allows support for plugins (previously a Windows exclusive feature). There seems to be a little discussion about why should AOL develop a new Mac client when iChat does everything. From all the people who post on message boards, there’s still quite a few people who did not know that iChat could use the AIM network. Others have been begging for AOL for years to develop a new Mac application. 

Some feel that AOL has abandoned Macs and left them outside in the cold to fend for themselves. It’s not that they didn’t have alternatives to choose from, there’s still Adium which has been serving the Mac community very well. However, with third party programs, you ultimately realize certain features will never be available to you and you’ll just have to live with it. So with all that in mind, pick the software you feel most comfortable with. You don’t need to worry about what so & so company is making. You can try it out by Downloading it here!

 

Wordpress: Pingback Spam From Spammers and You!

Posted 8 months ago at 7:40 pm. 1 comment

I don’t really care much about pingbacks and trackbacks but I guess they have their usefullness to the blogging community. Its not just bloggers who use it, but spammers as well. They use this easy oppurtunity to get their site listed because Akismet won’t moderate pingbacks. You’ll need a seperate plugin just to block them completely. I do recommend using two plugins to combat two different types of pingback spam which we’ll go into detail below

Blocking Pingback Spam from Spammers!

The plugin I suggest using is Trackback Validation Plugin. Its pretty good and has been filling in the holes that even Spam Karma left behind. It places all pingbacks on moderation allowing you to not have to wake up each day worrying about how someone found your post interesting but they didn’t agree with parts of it.. ya right.. You can try out the Trackback Validation Plugin.

Examples of Pingback Spam include:

Thanks for the nice read, keep up the interesting posts…..

I can not agree with you in 100% regarding some thoughts, but you got good point of view…

May I use some of your content on my website?…

I Googled for something completely different, but found your page…and have to say thanks. nice read….

Man i just love your blog, keep the cool posts comin…..

 

Blocking Pingback Spam from You!

I am one of the bloggers who insist that pingbacks should only come from external sources, not your own blog. If you want to show related posts, you should instead use the related plugin. This isn’t really the point though, pingback spam from your own blog is irritating only because it automatically adds it self to the comments even when you just wanted to link to a previous entry. Since there is no internal option to disable yourself from sending pingbacks, you can instead use the no self pinback plugin.

So I hope you try those out because quite frankly I’m tired of this whole pingback mess.

Aim Buddy Updates Box Gone Missing?

Posted 8 months ago at 11:21 pm. 5 comments

aimproblems.jpg

Usually, I consider this a bug but it has taken so long to get fixed that now I wonder if its actually a fix.

After upgrading from Aim 6.1 to Aim 6.5 the buddy updates box that shows when your away messages updated has gone missing. 

The buddy updates box now only shows for RSS feeds, Aim Share, and Aim Profiles. However, all update entries still show up at settings.aim.com, just not in the buddy info.

If you want something there to show up, just update your profile, add an rss feed, or even share a link, and the box will come back but only for those entries.

Note: If you add an Aim Share link, there is currently no way to remove it from listing until it expires and that can take a long time.

10 Things We Hate About AntiVirus Software

Posted 8 months, 1 week ago at 3:43 am. 1 comment

intitle_1.jpg

When it comes to antivirus software, I think programmers don’t realize they are unintentionally doing the same things they are trying to protect us from. They still produce pop ups and are hard to remove, it makes you wonder if these programs are viruses themselves. I did find that the majority of users hate their own AntiVirus software, and would gladly switch to another one if they weren’t so wary of the side effects. I know alot of you reading would chime in and say, they should use Grisoft or Avira, but this article is for us people with money, you know the ones who have jobs…

We’ll take a look at the Majors (Norton & Mcafee) and the Rookies (Kaspersky, F-Secure, Gri-Soft). More and more people are switching over to Kaspersky and F-Secure and I believe in the end they might become household names as soon as they start selling in Costco..

10. High Prices

If there’s anything that can deter you from buying any Antivirus Suite is its high price…

Product Name: Total Price/Amazon Price

Kaspersky Internet Security: $79.95/$49.99

Gri-Soft AVG Internet: Security $69.95/$54.99

Norton Internet Security: $69.99/51.25

Mcafee Internet Security: $69.99/$41.49

*F-Secure Internet Security: $59.90/47.92

I always say to myself, anything that costs more than a video game better be good. Its something we come to expect from software, and most of the time $49.99 seems to be the cap that most people would expect to pay. Keep in mind that these prices are for the 2008 internet security versions with up to 3 users. So its a good idea to retail below 49.99. F-secure was not listed on Amazon when this article was written, and its price is taken from its own website.

 

9. Toolbars And Junk

Aim Toolbar, Google Toolbar, Yahoo Toolbar, MSN Toolbar, Decline Decline Decline!!! I’m not sure why there is this big obsession over packaging your programs with toolbars. Maybe there aren’t much complaints about them, but everyone I’ve talked to just don’t know how the Fun Web Products Toolbar appeared on their browser. Its even worse when the program that is supposed to protect you from things like that, installs one anyway.

“The first thing you might notice is that is installs it’s own ‘Norton Toolbar’ into whatever browser you’re using. And it locks it in. Seriously, you cannot remove it without uninstalling Norton” ~Amazon Reviewer

 

8. Pop Up Ads!?

Previously when we bought any Internet Security Suite, some would come with a pop up ad blocker. Since the internet has changed and IE now has one built in there isn’t any need for all that anymore. But still (Mcafee! I’m talking about you) there is no point in having Pop Up Ads telling me to purchase some overpriced license renewal earlier in the year. These ads don’t come up often but periodically you’ll just see it there thinking your loaded and full of money!

mcafe.gif

7. Unnecessary Blocking

Blocking malicious websites might be a good idea for those of us who just stumble on them. But what happens when it starts blocking websites you know and love.

“One web site in particular (Home Shopping) will load OK…but if you go to the various topics (Jewlery, electronics etc.) it will not open them at all…and a blank screen is all you get…the only way to get those things to open is to COMPLETELY disable the Kaspersky program” ~Amazon Reviewer

 

6. Complicated and Hard to Find Settings!

You usually won’t see this problem in Norton and Mcafee, but as soon as you scurry away to the alternative antivirus software, they stop being nice and start being real! This is the Real World! F-Secure’s firewall really hates p2p programs by blocking every connection attempt. When I try adding some rules to the firewall, I feel like a complete idiot when its asking me about IPv6, UDP, and TCP. I only set those things up in my router. I never had to worry about that on Mcafee, but now I have to figure out what the hell they are talking about.  

“The worst thing is after I block a certain activity, there’s no way to go back and find out where to unblock it. Ok, if you are computer expert, I think you will figure out a way to unblock it. I’ve gone through help file, searched google, and forums for answers and still could not find the solutions.” ~ Amazon Reviewer

 

5. Constant Alert Pop Ups

You’ve seen those Mac commercials where PC has to allow or deny everytime something happens. Most people think Vista’s UAC is annoying, well why not add another layer on top of that when you install Norton, Kaspersky, and F-Secure. Norton doesn’t trust what your doing. Kaspersky wants to ask what muscle your going to use next, and F-Secure thinks everyone your inviting over is High Risk! I think Mcafee handles this somewhat well and tries to keep it to a minimum.

“…Apparently, this program has no brain. For example, I have the Live Search Toolbar installed in Outlook. It had to ask me if it was OK to run that dll file. In fact, each program that called up a process from a shared dll has to ask permission before it could run… ”

 

4. Tech Support

Tech Support should be the last and final straw for any problems you have. Just hope they are not outsourced, otherwise expect them not to help you since ”its not our fault.”

“I had to pay three dollars a minute to use the technical support telephone number. Of the seven minutes I was on that call, I was on hold for more than half the time (still being charged). When the technician finally emailed me instructions to resolve my technical issue, I quickly discovered he had sent me instructions for an issue completely unrelated to mine. In essence, I spent 21 dollars on hold music. ” ~Amazon Reviewer

 

3. Hard to Uninstall

Its always easy for spyware to install on your computer, but why is it soo hard to uninstall… hmm. In essence the same thing happens with Mcafee, Norton, and Kaspersky. Try removing them and you learn you’ll need an additional uninstaller to uninstall where the uninstaller left off…

“…you have to use an uninstaller from the Symantec web page, to guarantee that you remove its hidden installations that the uninstaller from the Add/Remove programs from the control panel will miss.” ~Amazon Reviewer

 

2.  Resource Hog

Nobody likes a hog, the ones who don’t play fair and doesn’t share. Mcafee, Windows Defender, Kaspersky, Norton, are all resource hogs. They come in, dump their tub o lard and take your precious time loading some obscure feature for whatever reason.

“Internet loading will be drastically crippled. Expect frequent system choppiness due to automatic downloading and background processes.” ~Amazon Reviewer

 

1. IT KILLS YOUR COMPUTER!!

It has happened to me, and many others. For some reason whether its our fault or not, the program just can’t take it anymore and boom, blue screens of death, constant crashing, and in my case, java just went up and left.  The last thing you want to do is call tech support, so off we go reinstalling Windows. I know the Mac user is laughing their butts off but you know your day will come soon! *SHAKE FIST*

“You’re better off with a virus than this POS. Two days after loading this tumor it was doing an update and froze my computer like a two week old penguin turd…Way too busy, not allowing you the use of your own computer. Had to run a recovery on my system” ~Amazon Reviewer

 

Aim 6.5.7.20 Released

Posted 8 months, 1 week ago at 11:39 pm. 0 comments

Aim 6.5.7.20 was released this week, and features the ALL NEW… actually nothing really is new, its just bug fixes. It does add a new module called “Hot Searches” which recieved a lukewarm response from the beta testers. I think they didn’t care much for it, quite personally. There are some UI changes to the buddy info and thats about it. All skins on this site will be updated on the weekend, so check back when they are ready.

McLovin12Four on your AIM Buddy List

Posted 8 months, 2 weeks ago at 2:17 pm. 0 comments

  aimproblems.jpg

So who is McLovin12Four, and how did he get on your buddy list? McLovin12Four is another Official AIM Bot that advertises for the movie Superbad.

If your buddy list has the category “AIM Bots” you should see him on your buddy list today.

If you do not want to see AIM Bots on your buddy list, delete the category by doing the following.

1. Click to Highlight the Aim Bots Category.

2. Right Click and Press Delete

More Myspace Phishing Attempts with MyspaceTV

Posted 8 months, 3 weeks ago at 2:17 am. 1 comment

booty.jpg 

Click her Booty and Win Free Stolen Account!

We’ve seen this phishing attempt many times, but here is another one using the MyspaceTV screenshots that can lure an unsuspecting victim to a phishing website that looks exactly like a login page. When a user clicks on the image they are redirected to ”myispaceverify” domain.  As such we always recommend not to click on pictures and links sent through messages and comments. This link was not caught by the Msplinks filter yet so this may prove that Msplinks takes a while to catch every comment or they figured out a way to bypass the filter, but lets not jump to any conclusions yet.

The hyperlink :

(http)myispaceverify(dot)com/index.cfmfuseaction=

login.process&MyToken-wed2c1crexf3-2af0-21-ac41-f7545c34f5c32.htm

thumbs320.jpg

Click for Larger

Use AIM in GMail

Posted 8 months, 3 weeks ago at 1:17 am. 0 comments

Today, Gmail released their first integration with AIM. You can sign into your screen name and it will display your most popular contacts. Gmail will automatically store all conversations so you’ll never lose any logs, it also supports friendly Gmail AIMnames. That’s all there is to it. Its not something spectacular but at least they did something.. and this took over a year to do.. Still there is no way to contact Gmail users using Aim 6.5, and there hasn’t been any news on the plan to completely integrate AIM with Gmail. In unrelated news, AOL plans to roll out a brand new update to their message board system. Almost daily, AOL’s message board system receives very critical responses about their lack of features and their use of annoying advertisements. 

 

Aim 6.5: Connection Timed Out Workaround

Posted 9 months ago at 9:15 pm. 55 comments

AIM Host Issue [Resolved]

Agh aren’t we having way too many AIM problems lately. A message displaying “Connection Timed Out” is affecting Aim 6.8, Aim Webmail, Aim Lite, practically all versions of AIM. By reports of users there seems to have been an outage on June 17, 2008, but it should be cleared up by now.

This was fixed the same day and it was found to be an AIM Host Issue.

If you are still affected by the outage and need to sign onto Aim, Try Aim 5.9

AOL Launches New AIM Chatrooms

Posted 9 months, 1 week ago at 4:42 pm. 0 comments

aimchat.png

The final integration between AOL and Userplane is finally here. AOL has launched Aim Chatrooms today that can be accessed through chat.aim.com. Each chatroom features audio and video capabilities allowing you to watch up to four people at the same time. Currently there is no way to create any chatrooms but you can however create a small private chatrooms within them.

Aim Chat

I also was able to speak to an AOL Journals staff about what they thought and if there were any plans along the way. She did state that they do plan to add the ability to create your own private chats but was unable to tell us when. She did hint that there will be a few releases before that happens. The chatrooms will be moderated by admins randomly for the time being, each chatroom has a notify AOL feature that will be sent to staff. For now chatrooms are pretty much empty and sparse but that will change once it gets more publicized.