New DC Snow Teaser

Sweeet!! Check out the new teaser from DC, as always good fun riding and good tunes. DC's currently working on their follow-up to the Mtn. Lab video. The flick which is yet to be named features the entire DC team, including recent Finnish additions Lauri Heiskari and Iikka Backstrom.

This first song on the teaser is awesome but I can't find out who it's by and what it's called. I tried googling the lyrics, but no dice...HELP. Leave a comment if you know the song, I'd appreciate it. I pulled the video from DC's website, and posted to youtube for easier viewing.

Enjoi!

How to view articles at washingtonpost.com without an account

This may be something that is widely known, but I'm mainly blogging about it for my own personal reminder in the future. Like most people, I hate having to create an account just to read a news article at the WashingtonPost.com. I barely ever go there anyway, and it's usually to look at the job postings, which don't require an account to view.

Anyways, I recently dugg a story on Digg.com that was a link to a washingtonpost.com story and I didn't have to create an account. I was wondering how come I didn't have to create an account to view the article, so I checked the link and sure enough I found my answer. At the end of every articles URL there this piece of code without the quotes "?referrer=digg". So this obviously tells washingtonpost.com that any traffic comming from digg does not need an account to view the article, seems logical to me.

So to read any article at washingtonpost.com just right click( or Command Click) and "Copy Link". Then paste the link in the URL bar and append ?referrer=digg

Example:
Before: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/21/AR2007012101188.html

After: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/21/AR2007012101188.html?referrer=digg

I know there are websites out there that give you dummy accounts to use, but this is much easier, so don't bash me. And who knows, maybe Digg gets a couple pennies for every time they get referred from digg, so it works out for everyone.

Enjoi!!

Roger Federer sporting NEW Wilson Racquet

I was watching the Austrailian Open today when I realized Roger Federer is sporting a new Wilson Tennis Racquet. On the outside is a completely different paint job. Hopefully that's not the only thing that has changed. Wilson.com hints at a new racquet due with [K]ontrol, Power, [K]omfort...aka the [K] factor. Not much else is known about the raquet. In the preview video at wilson.com, Roger himself even says we have to wait and see what the [K] factor is all about.

Roger is also going to be sporting different tennis bags throughout the Aussie Open which hints at the new racquet.

What does this new racquet mean??

(1) Well, hopefully Roger's previous model, the nCode Six-One 90 will come down in price, along with the other racquets in the nCode line. There racquets are great racquets. I currently use the nCode Six-One 95, and wouldn't mind upgrading to the [K] factor. From the few pictures of the new racquet I don't notice too much change in the body or string pattern, so it appears to be easily adapted to from his previous model.

(2) There is most likely going to be a sale on Wilson Bags...and actually TennisWarehouse.com is currently selling Wilson bags dirt cheap. Get 'em while you can.

(3) Wilson is about to start selling a boat load of new racquets, and they wont be able to meet the demand like there was for the previous model. I remember I was on a month waiting list...and this was after it was out for atleast 4-5 months already. But the $200 or whatever it was at the time was worth it. Basically Roger is the best right now, and everyone wants to be like him.

So, keep an eye out for the new raquet. Checkout wilson.com and tenniswarehouse.com. I really like the new paint job. I liked the previous model's also, but this one really catches my eye and I know the fans are gonna go crazy over it. Can't wait to get my hand on a demo.

Enjoy the Austrailian Open!!

Photo courtesy of Ausopen.org

System recovery with Knoppix

Often when trying to recover a system, I need to look up some command for copying data to different devices. My 1337 skills are slacking these days, so I compiled a list of commands for data recovery and other commands that I will probably use in the future.

These are all commands that work in Knoppix, and I believe any other Linux distro.

Rescuing a non-booting Linux system

This is the most common scenario. Something goes haywire, and boom, no boot. No problem: boot up Knoppix and find all your local partitions nicely iconicized on the KDE desktop. (Or cruise the file tree to /mnt.) Click on the correct icon, and there are all your files. But they are wisely mounted read-only. Again, no problem: right-click the desktop icon to bring up a nice menu with a "Change read/write mode" option. This mounts the filesystem on the partition as read/write. Now you can edit any file.

The default user is knoppix. For operations that require root privileges, you need to su to root and assign a root password:

knoppix@ttyp0[knoppix]# su
root@ttyp0[knoppix]# passwd

To mount a filesystem read/write from the command line:

root@ttyp0[knoppix]# mount -t reiserfs -o rw /dev/hda5 /mnt/hda5

To unmount:

root@ttyp0[knoppix]# umount /mnt/hda5

If you get an error message "Could not unmount device, device is busy," something is reading the filesystem. Close files and cd out of the filesystem.

How do you know what mountpoint and filesystem to specify? Just read /etc/fstab:

root@ttyp0[knoppix]# cat /etc/fstab
...
# Added by Knoppix
/dev/hda5 /mnt/hda5 reiserfs noauto,users,exec 0 0

==============================================================
==============================================================
Hardware detection

Before going on a mad config file editing spree, it often pays to examine hardware information. Knoppix excels at this, as it has the latest editions of Linux's excellent hardware and system utilities: fdisk, lspci, iwconfig, ifconfig, dmesg, /proc, and so forth. (Checking hardware information is also handy for testing a system for Linux compatibility before you buy it. Sound cards, softmodems, and wireless NICs are especially troublesome; manufacturers often change the chipsets without changing the model numbers, and you need to know the chipsets to determine if Linux drivers are available. The Knoppix CD also contains a number of sound files, for quick sound testing, starting with "OpenMusic" on the welcome screen.)

* fdisk -l displays all partitions on all hard drives.
* lspci -v gives detailed information about every device and chipset connected to the PCI bus.
* cat /proc/cpuinfo tells exactly what CPU is installed.
* ifconfig displays, and also manipulates, network interface settings. Most commonly Ethernet cards and ppp, the modem interface.
* iwconfig is like ifconfig, but for wireless network cards.
* dmesg is interesting. man dmesg isn't all that helpful if you're not a kernel hacker. Just using dmesg | grep is a useful troubleshooting and system discovery tool. To see everything, run dmesg with no options.


==============================================================
==============================================================

Partitioning and formatting

First, install the second hard drive. Then boot Knoppix and open a root shell. If there are partitions already on the second disk, simply re-format whatever ones you need. Note that SCSI drives are designated sd, while IDE drives are hd. This command displays the existing disk partitions; be sure to use values appropriate for your system:

root@ttyp0[knoppix]# fdisk -l /dev/hdb

To format a disk partition:

root@ttyp0[knoppix]# mkfs.ext2 -c /dev/hdb1

This creates a plain-vanilla ext2 filesystem. -c checks for bad blocks. Of course, you can make it anything you like: ext3, ReiserFS, whatever:

root@ttyp0[knoppix]# mke2fs -j -c /dev/hdb1
root@ttyp0[knoppix]# mkreiserfs /dev/hdb1

What, no partitions? First, here's how to create them the command-line way, with fdisk. It's medium-safe to futz with fdisk, as changes are not written to disk until you give the command to do so. So, you can try different options and preview the partition table before committing to any changes. This sequence of commands creates a single partition:

root@ttyp0[knoppix]# fdisk /dev/hdb

Type "m" at any time to display a table of fdisk commands. Then, type "n" to create a new partition. Now, type "p" to create a primary partition. Hit Enter twice to accept the defaults. Or, if you don't want to use the whole disk, hit Enter once to accept the default starting point, then select the size you want:

+1000M

Hit "p" at any time to preview the new partition table. When everything looks good, press "w" to write the changes to disk. By default, fdisk creates a "type 83" partition, which means Linux. To see a list of partition types, press "l". To change the partition type, hit "t". Want to delete a partition? Easy as pie: press "d" and follow the prompts.


==============================================================
==============================================================

Copying files at the command line

Remember to create a directory to move files into:

# mkdir /mnt/hdb1/home/carla/backup
# cp -r /mnt/hda5/home/carla /mnt/hdb1/home/carla/backup


==============================================================
==============================================================


Cloning an entire drive

You'll need two hard drives the same size, or a destination drive larger than the source drive. Make sure no partitions are mounted on either drive. In this example /dev/hda is the source drive, /dev/hdb is the destination drive. The dd command makes an exact, byte-for-byte copy, including the MBR (master boot record):

# dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/hdb



==============================================================
==============================================================

Mounting confusion

Are you losing track of what's mounted, and in what state? No problem, here comes /proc to the rescue:
# cat /proc/mounts

This displays all mounted filesystems, the filesystem types, read/write status, and other attributes. How many hard drives are on the system? One of these will tell you (and remember, SCSI drives are sd, IDE are hd):

# fdisk -l

or

# dmesg | grep hd

or

# dmesg | grep sd




==============================================================
==============================================================

Copying to CD

KDE and Knoppix make this easy. Assuming there is a CD writer on the system, simply right-click on the desktop icon for the partition containing your files, and you will see "Create Data CD with K3b." Do File > New Project, drag and drop the files you want to copy, and there you go. K3b is very good at autodetecting and autoconfiguring your CD drives; it should do it all for you. If something goes awry, please refer to the developerWorks article "Burning CDs on Linux", which also teaches how to burn CDs from the command line.


==============================================================
==============================================================


Copying to other media

Zip drives, floppy disks, and USB storage devices will be automatically recognized by Knoppix, and icons will be placed on the desktop. Simply make the drive you want to copy files to writeable, then drag and drop until it's all done.


==============================================================
==============================================================

Copying over the network

You can configure Knoppix to connect to a network, just like any other Linux. Knoppix has its own graphical configuration utility: on the main menu find Knoppix > Network/Internet. Again Knoppix's excellent hardware detection comes into play; it even works on wireless NICs (assuming it's a wireless NIC that is supported in Linux!). Simply answer a series of questions, and you're done.

It's just as easy from the command line. As root, run:

# netcardconfig

Once your network settings are configured, there are several options for transferring files. cp is fine for locally mounted filesystems. Copying files over an untrusted network should be done with scp (secure copy), and in fact Knoppix won't let you use anything else. scp uses ssh for encrypted file transfer and lets you move files without setting up NFS or Samba. You'll need an ssh server running somewhere on the network to receive the files. This command copies an entire directory:

# scp -rp /mnt/hda5/home/carla 192.168.1.5:/home/carla/tmp




==============================================================
==============================================================


SSH quickstart

What, you have no ssh server? If you really do not yet have ssh installed, here is a quick-start guide to running SSH. But before using it for even routine remote administration tasks, you should study ssh in more depth. Note also that there have been a number of important security patches issued recently.

OpenSSH comes with all major Linux distributions, and yours should already have it. (To find out, type locate sshd.) If not, download and install it. It doesn't need to be on a special machine; any Linux PC can run SSH. Start it up like so:

# /etc/init.d/ssh start

Then, all you need is for the same user to have accounts on both machines. Using root is easiest, but potentially dangerous. And, of course, you can create user accounts on Knoppix as needed, with useradd and passwd. Then run the scp command as in the example above, and there you go.

The first time you connect, you'll get a "The authenticity of host X can't be established...are you sure you want to continue connecting?" message. Answer "yes." It will ask for the root password of the SSH server, and then you're home free. To move files as a non-root user:

# scp -rp /mnt/hda5/home/carla carla@192.168.1.5:/home/carla/tmp



==============================================================
==============================================================


Open a root shell on the host system

This lets you operate on the host system, as though you were logged into it directly. Identify the partition the host system is on, then open a Knoppix root shell and mount it:

root@ttyp0[knoppix]# mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/hda1
root@ttyp0[knoppix]# chroot /mnt/hda1
root@Knoppix:/

Nintendo Superfan

After watching the video...I realized one thing and that is that we need more people like this man in the world. He is a man of devotion and happiness. Five days without sleep, and hes as bright as a bulb. He knows what he wants and hes not going to let anything stop him. Yes..Maybe a little whack in the head but he has a dream. A dream that he is achieving by standing in that line and waiting through his stench, his fatigue, and his lack of a DS. So...Lets take a moment and raise our cups to this guy.

Are You Gonna Do It?

I dont know if this is true, but it was pretty interesting...

No matter how much resolve you could muster, it was still difficult to quit Apple if Steve wanted you to stay. You'd have to sit down with him for a reality distortion session, which was often effective at getting people to change their minds. One day, a few of us were talking about strategies to overcome Steve's persuasiveness.

"I've got it!", said Burrell. "I know the perfect way to quit that will nullify the reality distortion field."

Of course we wanted to know how he could do that.

"I'll just walk into Steve's office, pull down my pants, and urinate on his desk. What could he say to that? It's guaranteed to work." We laughed, thinking that not even Burrell would have the guts to do that.

A year and a half later, it finally was time for Burrell to quit, after months of scuffling with Bob Belleville and some of the other managers, who wanted to cancel the "Turbo Mac" project (a redesigned, faster Mac based on a semi-custom chip, with an internal hard drive) that Burrell was working on with Brian Howard and Bob Bailey.

Burrell told Bob Belleville (who was probably relieved, since he knew that Burrell didn't respect him) and the human resources department that he was quitting, and then made an appointment to see Steve that afternoon. When he walked into Steve's office, he was surprised to see Steve grinning at him.

"Are you gonna do it? Are you really gonna do it?", asked Steve. Somehow, word about the urination threat had gotten back to Steve, and he was genuinely curious if Burrell would go through with it or not.

Burrell looked Steve in the eye. "Do I have to? I'll do it if I have to."

Steve's expression gave him the answer, so Burrell turned and walked out of the office, no longer an Apple employee.

Link to Article

50 Most Expensive Adwords

In case any one is interested...

"Loan consolidation" ($69.16) currently owns them all
This is the list of the top 50 most expensive loan consolidations Google adwords as of September 11, 2006 (GMT+1) (according to wget, grep, sed & friends).

I found it rather amazing that the keywords loan consolidation for college, school, car etc. are much more expensive than, say... even private yachts, jets, luxury homes and so on!

Prices are shown in estimated average CPC (costs per click). Yes, just one tiny click from someone searching for these keywords is worth almost $70 to someone, apparently.

Adword Average CPC
school loan consolidation $69.16
college loan consolidation $68.35
car insurance quotes $66.88
school consolidation $66.29
auto insurance quotes $65.90
college consolidation $64.04
student loan consolidation rates $60.14
sell structured settlement $59.82
sell annuity $58.92
federal student loan consolidation $58.58
auto quotes $58.09
auto insurance quote $57.99
student consolidation $56.96
student loan consolidation $56.91
student loan consolidation interest rate $56.52
consolidate student loan $54.61
san diego dui attorney $54.56
car insurance $53.16
structured settlement $52.96
consolidate school loans $52.88
student loan refinance $52.44
consolidation of student loans $52.43
consolidation loan rate $52.04
citibank student loan consolidation $51.85
car insurance quote $51.80
consolidate student loans $51.23
private student loan consolidation $51.05
lasik new york $49.86
student loans consolidation $49.82
private loan consolidation $48.95
insurance quotes $48.78
teleconference services $48.72
the art institute of seattle $48.68
federal loan consolidation $48.61
plus loan consolidation $47.74
student loan consolidation programs $47.58
bad credit equity loan $47.46
houston criminal attorney $47.44
student loan consolidation calculator $47.19
cash settlement $47.12
consolidating student loans $47.09
orlando culinary institute $46.84
student loan consolidation program $46.77
orlando culinary institute $46.69
consolidation loan $46.54
loan consolidation $46.54
orlando culinary institute $46.51
ditech $46.32
auto quote $45.77
sallie mae student loan consolidation $45.69

Free $10 with Google Checkout

I recently started checking out(no pun intended) a bunch of Googles other features. I had seen the Google Checkout option at a few online retailers but had always just used paypal, or directly entering my credit card info. Come to find out that PayPal is not your friend at all, and will never take your side, unless you are the one that scammed someone using PayPal.

Anyways, I found out that If I sign up for a Google Checkout account I would get a $10 bonus. I know $10 can't buy you much these days, but I am always looking for a way to save money. This promotion ends March 31, 2007 and here is what the fine print says..."Limit one per buyer only. We will apply the $10 bonus to your first purchase of $10 or more (before shipping & tax) from participating stores. To receive the bonus, sign-up before February 15, 2007. The bonus expires March 31, 2007 and cannot be combined with other Google Checkout promotions. The sign-up confirmation page will display a full list of participating merchants."

So I signed up and am looking to spend my $10 on something...any suggestions. This would be perfect for 3 Bag's Of Crap from woot.com...but they don't use Google Checkout. It looks like they support a bunch of retailers, so I'll just search around for something that is around $11, possibly a gift for my newborn baby. Anyways, my buddies at work don't call me the "ultimate hustler" for nothing, so here is a good way to get free money and use Google Checkout as an alternative to PayPal...Enjoi.

The most common hacker is probably sitting in the cubicle next to you

According to the FBI, the most common hacker is probably sitting in the cubicle next to you, right now. This is someone who gets to work early, takes his or her turn cleaning out the office fridge, tells funny stories at lunch and, at some point, makes a very dumb move. It often starts when this hacker-next-door sees a file directory or workstation that’s just too juicy to pass by, like one named “Salary Comparison.” It’s simply too tempting NOT to peek inside.

Read More...

SNL - Dick in a Box

Dvorak babbles about Apple iPhone on CNBC

Episode 3 - Did that Farmhouse Just Moan

Episode 3 - Did that Farmhouse Just Moan?

My quest to visit the physical locus, to go behind, every website on Internet in order to meet and learn from their inspired creators has led me to an unlikely place: Amish Country. It is here, amongst the rolling hills, rivers and idyllic corn fields that a man named Eric White couldn't get laid and therefore used his technological genius to build a mechanical device that he believes is in fact superior to a human female for the purposes of sexual gratification. He calls it "The Virtual Sex Machine," and I shudder to think what the simple Amish folk riding by his farmhouse in their horse and buggies would think if they knew what gurgled and churned within. I mean, I'm Internet's Martin Sargent, I've been around, seen some unspeakable things, and it was almost too much for me. Will it be for you?

Podcasts

I have a bunch of podcasts that I look forward to on a daily basis. It's nice to get a good combination of podcasts so that each day you might get a new episode.

Here's what's on my playlist...
Diggnation
Ask A Ninja
Tiki Bar TV
CNET's Buzz Out Loud
DriveTime
Make: Video Podcast
This Spartan Life
Ctrl+Alt+Chicken
InDigital: Your Life in Gear
Shralp!

Check these out. There are a few others I enjoy, but they don't have as many releases as these do.

Finally a BLOG!

This if my first official post to a blog. I've been wanting to start a blog about my life for quite some time now. What better way to share your thoughts, problems, and happiness with the rest of the world. I'm mostly going to be writing about my daily life, technology, skateboarding, digg.com, and podcasts. But, at any time I could stray and talk about whatever interests me.

A bit about me. I am a 23 year old Computer Guru of sorts. I am always looking to learn more about computers and technology in general. I am a sucker for good graphics and surround sound...aaahhhhhhh. I am a hacker. My wife says I'm a nerd...and I am. I have a lot of ambitions and am striving to be an entrepreneur. I have a lot of ideas...if only I had the money to back them. Some day, hopefully.

Enjoy my blog. Talk to you soon.