Archive for February, 2008
Roxio BackOnTrack Online Contest
Feb 26th
We have looked at loads of free backup solutions and as our readers pointed out they all have their limitations. It’s either capped uploads, downloads or slow as hell speeds.
The old saying you get what you pay for is some times true… (AtA tries to avoid it as much as possible) When dealing with your data and backups its probably better to deal with a reputable company charging a modest price ($50 a year or $90 for 2 years) than a company you never heard of.
Can any one say file hijacking and blackmail?
Check out what happened to our good friend Paul over @ Bauer-Power.net when he tried to use Media Max’s free services. Let’s just say it wasn’t a good experience that left him all warm and fuzzy inside!
Enter Roxio’s new BackOnTrack online service. It has unlimited automated backup goodness written all over it. If you are someone who loses files and bangs their heads against their desk for hours on end (name with held due to us liking sex) then this is the solution for you. Aparently you back up automatically and can restore from My Computer!
We will be giving it a test run this week and in the mean time we have a contest for you. The information is below and all you have to do is leave a comment or sign up for our Email Updates. Either way or both will give one or two entries respectively. Check back for our full review later on this week!
AtA and Roxio present a little contest action once again.
Contest prizes include:
(2- First place prizes) Roxio t-shirt and flash drive
(Grand Prize) 1 year subscription of Roxio BackOnTrack Online (valued at $49.99) plus 1 flash drive and Roxio t-shirt
Roxio BackOnTrack Online is a simple online digital media protection solution that automatically keeps your irreplaceable digital media and important files protected.
Every hard dive crashes, it’s just a matter of time. Roxio BackOnTrack Online is the complete online digital media protection solution that automatically keeps your irreplaceable files – digital photos, family videos, key financial records, essential documents, and other important files protected and encrypted. Setup an account in minutes—simply enter your email address and password and Roxio BackOnTrack Online does the rest, backing up and protecting your data and digital media automatically and continuously in the background. Then, when the unthinkable happens, your computer crashes or you mistakenly delete an important file, recover them quickly and easily with Roxio BackOnTrack Online, your secure digital media vault.
What are you guys using? Give it a shot try the trial version below and report back in the comments!
If you want to win those goodies and maybe some AskTheAdmin.com swag COMMENT COMMENT COMMENT! Did I say Comment?
Ram dumping to defeat disk encryption. Pedophiles and drug czars beware!
Feb 25th
Have you seen this video yet? Even my mom has seen it but how many of you are actually using disk encryption? Really that many??
What kind of illegal or illicit shit are you into?
And you think your data warrants a torrent of hackers going after YOUR lappie?
No we kid, we kid, of course AtA is all about privacy and protecting that (no matter if you are a shaddy admin or the pot dealer across the way). So have two tips to lock your laptop down. Harden that bitch so this doesn’t happen to you!
- Disable usb booting from bios. So no one can boot to a live OS and harvest your shiznit.
- Enter a bios password for the hard drive and on boot. So no one can get in to change your options or even get a crack at your ram.
Thats it – that simple. Don’t say we never done nothing for ya. What do you guys do to lock down your systems from these kinds of attacks? Do you use encryption? Hit us up in the new Intense Debate comments. [Via Hackaday Via Princeton]
When is a tablet not a tablet? Worth a laugh.
Feb 23rd
The review 2710p HP COMPAQ tablet was sent out overnight delivery. I was excited. I love opening the pretty packaging to look at a new machine. Truth be told I had been contemplating getting a tablet for a while now. I was shocked at how light and small it was. Check out how the convo went:
Me: Wow this thing is so much smaller and lighter than I expected. It’s like the X1.
Wifey: That’s not a tablet.
Me: No it’s suppose to be the 2710p TABLET. There has to be a release here somewhere… What no touch screen? Do you have to configure it?
Wifey: That’s not a tablet.
Me: Yeah it’s not a tablet.
Wifey: Told you so.
Long story short I got the wrong machine and an I told you so about technology from the wife! Thanks guys :)!!
I wound up with the 2510p ultra portable. Which I might add is pretty sexy I might add. The machine was in the wrong box apparently and the 2710 is en-route Saturday delivery. Double fun!
I am still on the hunt for my dying X1. I am a slacker but it is still hanging on. I almost can’t bear the thugh of breaking her down for parts. But this whole laptop / tablet mix-up made me remincse about the chick who put her finger through her Q “touch screen”!Sure glad I didn’t try to make the screen turn by putting a little elbow grease into it :)!
Stay tuned for reviews on both machines! See ya when I see ya!
Identify your memory without cracking the case.
Feb 23rd
We have reviewed Crucial Memory in the past here when we gave away a 2gb memory module to one of our readers. So we were happy to plug them again when Jenny from San Fransisco wrote us asking:
Yo Admin can you tell me what kind of memory is in my PC without me having to open the case? I want to see how much it will cost to upgrade but don’t want to dive into it unless I am going to do it. Dig? I have busted up one too many machines in the past. But memory is a good way to speed up my p4 machine it has 256mb right?
Jenny Needs Memory
Jenny yes 256mb of memory is not enough for anything nowadays! You should but that rig up to at least 1gb. Memory is cheap just go to this link and you will be able to scan your memory and get all sorts of useful facts and prices. And wait there’s more…
You will also be supporting AskTheAdmin by making any purchases via these links.
Why you might ask?
Well it is an affiliate program we have been experimenting with. You buy stuff you need and they give us a little bit o’ cheddar for referring you over to them. It gets expensive running a website where advertising revenue brings in next to nothing. But I love helping you weirdos! Awww don’t blush! I have seen your temp files and browsing history pervo!
But back to the hard sell…
Crucial makes your life easier by telling you how much memory your system can max out at and what type it needs and best of all how much its going to cost ya! What are you waiting for speed up your machines today!
Memory being the price it is can be a GREAT ALTERNATIVE to buying a NEW MACHINE! Support us to take over the fricking world get us up on our own dedicated server/line…
Maybe we could hire some more quality writers to give you more great information if we had more than .37 in the AskTheAdmin bank account. So instead of me carrying her on my shoulders help out! How does that make you feel? (It makes me feel like a guy in the train going from car to car saying Ladies and Gentleman I don’t mean to interrupt…) Feelings… Death Threats… In the comments!
Need to Rip Dvds to files? Use VLC Media Player!
Feb 23rd
So you have lots of DVD’s that you thought you would always love and want to keep the boxes of on your bookshelf – for everyone to see.
Yeah we know that funny feeling, peoples strange looks give you for your taste in media – but we won’t mention THOSE kind of shows now will we?? We here @ AtA don’t Judge… So here you go weirdo… Rip away!
We all know VLC plays ripped DVD files but did you know it could rip them as well? Surprise Surprise…
The VLC media player (VLC) is a versatile tool. It can handle virtually any media file, it can play network streams such as Internet radio stations, and it can stream media contents across the network. But that’s not all; VLC can also ‘stream’ media to a file in a user-defined format, which makes it a handy transcoding tool. The most obvious use of this feature is to backup your film DVDs, a process that VLC makes straightforward. While VLC doesn’t support so-called DVD shrinking (fitting a film onto a single-layer DVD or even CD), it’s perfectly capable of converting an entire film into a single file that you can play in any media player, including VLC itself.
The following description guides you through the process of transcoding a DVD film into a single MPEG-1, which offers several advantages:
- You can play MPEG files on an older machine without a DVD drive.
- Instead of using original DVDs, you can burn a low-resolution backup copy on a CD.
- When you’re on the move, you can copy the films you want onto your laptop instead of lugging DVDs. This will not only make your luggage lighter, but also improve the laptop’s battery life (the hard disk consumes much less power than the DVD drive).
- If you have a server in your household, you can move your films to it and stream them using VLC around the house (more about that later).
To transcode a DVD, insert it into the DVD drive and launch VLC.
Choose File -> Open disk and select the DVD option in the Disk type section.
Next, you have to select the DVD title and the desired subtitle language. Most DVDs contain multiple titles, and it’s not always obvious which one contains the film. The same is true for subtitles — there is no way of telling what channel number corresponds to which language.
You have two options here: you can either try different combinations and preview the result in VLC, or you can ‘cheat’ the system by using a tool like DVDShrink on Linux or DVDx on Windows. The latter option is more straightforward and less time-consuming. If you are using Linux, use the DVDShrink script to quickly learn the right title and subtitle channel. Launch DVDShrink and press the “Set from DVD” button next to the “Enter the DVD title to rip” field.
This opens the “Titles on this DVD” windows, which contain the list of the available titles. Note the title with the longest playtime (in the figure, it’s Title 2). Repeat this for the subtitles channel.
You can use DVDShrink to quickly locate the film title and the subtitles channel — Click to enlarge With this information in hand, return to VLC and enter the proper values in the appropriate fields.
The next step is to configure the streaming options. Tick the “Stream output” check box and press the Settings button. If you want to see the film during transcoding, tick the “Play locally” check box. Tick the File check box, and specify the file and its path in the Filename field using the Browse button. You need to enter the file name and its extension manually; for example, Rashomon.mpeg. Set Encapsulation Method to MPEG 1, then tick the “Video codec” check box and select mp1v. This enables the Bitrate list, and the default bitrate there is 1024Kbps, which offers a good balance between file size and video quality.
For example, using this bitrate, VLC converts Akira Kurosawa’s 1 hour and 24 minutes black and white film Rashomon into a 700MB MPEG file, which fits nicely onto a standard CD-ROM. Reducing the bitrate results in a smaller file with lower video quality. Next, tick the “Audio codec” check box and select mp3 from the list. As with the video codec, you can also select different audio bitrates. The default is 192Kbps, but you can set it to 128Kbps without any noticeable loss in quality.
To add subtitles, tick the “Subtitles overlay” check box.
Press OK twice to close the windows, and VLC starts transcoding. If you ticked the “Play locally” check box, you can also see the film while waiting for the transcoding to finish.
Tip: VLC is also available as a portable application for Windows. Copy your transcoded films and Portable VLC onto a mobile hard disk and you can watch your favorite films on any computer that’s running Windows.
To learn more about Ripping DVD’s or controlling VLC via a browser check out this article from
[NewsForge]
GrandCentral: receive calls and post voicemail with your blog
Feb 23rd
I know AtA has loads of ways for you to get in touch with Me and my crew of international admins for some good old fashioned tech support but, this looks really interesting. Check out the breaking news.
This just in from the blogger buzz:
With GrandCentral, a free service from Google, you can receive phone calls and post voicemails right on your blog. Though GrandCentral is currently in a private beta test, bloggers can skip the wait and get a free account immediately. Sign up now
WebCall Button
When you add GrandCentral’s WebCall button to your blog, your readers can easily call your phone or leave voicemails without ever seeing your telephone number.You can screen calls, either accepting them or sending them to voicemail, and you can even block unwanted callers altogether. Learn how to add a WebCall button to your blog, and try it out for yourself below:
Voicemail Inbox
Your voicemail is all kept in a visual online inbox that is easy to manage. Store as many as you like for as long as you like, or post them to your blog so anyone can hear them. Here’s what it looks like to put a voicemail on your blog:Sign Up Now
Ready to get started? Follow these links:
- Sign up for GrandCentral for free
- Add a WebCall button to your sidebar
- Post your voicemails to your blog
