I found a complete engineering diagram of the millennium falcon on the ole’ itnerwebz!  You can click that sucker and make it bigger.  You can also leave comments and tell me how much you love me for posting this.  If you have a nerdgazm, keep it to yourself.

Corellian Engineering Corporation made the craft, and customized it to Han Solo’s specifications as you can see his signature at the bottom of the spec.

Man, I feel 5 again, which is exactly how old I was when Star Wars came out.  I feel so grown up now!

Share this on your favorite social network:

Hide Sites

The AR.DRONE is a 4 blade helicopter with two remote cameras.  If that weren’t cool enough? it is controlled by an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad, and the remote camera’s are transmitted to your device!

This is geek heaven my friends!

In fact, the only downside I’ve found is that the AR.DRONE’s batteries only last 12 minutes.  The good news is unlike your cool remote control (iPhone), the AR.DRONE will have replaceable batteries so you can keep going all day.  Recharge time is said to be 1.5 hours for the AR.DRONE battery pack.

The AR.DRONE comes in three colors: orange with either green, blur or yellow accents. Each model comes with two hulls: An indoor use hull, with protective loops around the rotors, and an outdoor hull without the loops.  The AR.DRONE creates its own Wi-Fi network, which your iPhone, iPod or iPad can connect to.  For now you need an Apple device, but Parrot has committed to allowing others to create remote controls using Android and other types of devices.

The AR.DRONE goes on sale September 9th and will cost aprox. $300 USD. Watch the video(s) below!

Share this on your favorite social network:

Hide Sites

(Click Image for Full-size Version)

1. GET OUT OF THE HOUSE ON TIME
Listen to the radio in the morning?  Stop! Use your iPod to play the same playlist every morning.  Go from relaxing songs to more energetic songs.  You will be able to tell how much longer you have by the song currently playing, and the more energetic songs get you moving faster!

2. REVERSE YOUR CLOTHES HANGERS
Once a year, reverse the hangers in your closet. As you pull clothes out throughout the year, turn them around.  At the end of the year, right before you reverse them again, give all the clothes you didn’t wear with the hanger still reversed away to a charity.

3. OPEN A BANANA THE RIGHT WAY
Ever watch a chimp open a banana?  If you have then you’ve also likely noticed they don’t open it they same way we do.  Flip the banana over and pinch the bottom of it.  There’s a reason monkeys do it this way.

4. USE ALUMINUM FOIL CORRECTLY
Just about every box of aluminum foil on the planet comes with a handy little feature built right in (that almost no one uses).  Push the
tabs on the end of the box in.  These tabs keep the roll of foil from popping out of the box when you pull it.  This works the same for most cling film boxes.

5. REMEMBER TO BRING THINGS TO WORK
When you need to remember to bring something important to work, place your car keys on it right before you go to bed.  If that doesn’t work, you can always place it in your shoes.

6. UNLOCK A CHAIN LOCK FROM OUTSIDE
Find  rubber band.  Attach the rubber band to the chain lock, then to the inside of the door handle. As you close the door from the outside, the rubber band will pull the chain and dislodge the lock.

Share this on your favorite social network:

Hide Sites

Man 1: So you’re saying people will “tweet” what they’re eating for breakfast?

Man 2: and “upload” pictures of their breakfasts to a “facebook”?

Man 3: No offense Future Man, but is everyone in your time retarded?

Man 4: and other people will look at the breakfasts and make comments?

Future Dude: Sorry to burst your bubble dudes, but you asked.  Yes.  That’s the future.

Share this on your favorite social network:

Hide Sites

So what gives?  Why would a software developer be OK with users stealing his software?  It turns our Jeff has discovered there are some benefits to people pirating his software.  In fact many software companies know that piracy is key to why they are #1, even though they would never admit it (right Bill?).

I admit to being a little bit nervous about writing this. The sad truth is that, these days, it is so easy to pirate single-player PC games that most gamers only have to pay for them if they want to pay for them.

You see, when people pirate a game, more people get to play it.  And when more people get to play it, that would never have purchased it (or played it) if they had to buy it, you sell more copies.

Now interestingly enough, that’s not why Jeff Vogul thinks its sometimes OK to pirate his games, even though I assure you he knows this is true.  Jeff talks a while in his blog about children in third world countries who can not afford to pay him the $25 US Dollars that his game costs.  He even get’s emails from these children begging for a free key.

When I get one of these message, what I want to respond is, “PIRATE MY STUPID GAME!!!” I mean, seriously, the time used drafting that e-mail would have been much more profitably spent figuring out how BitTorrent works.

But Jeff says the piracy by these children in these foreign countries helps him by helping to give his life meaning.  He wants to bring joy to the people who experience and play his games and feel like ultimately he made a difference in people’s lives.  Even if they stole from him.  Head over and check out Jeff’s blog for the rest of the story.

Share this on your favorite social network:

Hide Sites

Creativity is awesome. Creativity is what makes people unique and different. But creativity isn’t always a good thing. Social engineering is the use of a little bad creativity to get people to divulge information, such as usernames and passwords.

The most common methods of social engineering involve the telephone and email. This helps protect the hacker’s true identity and makes it easier to trust them because you can’t see them in face to face. However, in some circumstances, hackers will social engineer situations by dressing as a uniformed employee (security guard, repairman, etc). This uniform generates a subconscious trust between you and the hacker.

It is very important to weed out these hacker’s and their social engineering in order to protect your data. These artists are counting on your natural human nature of trusting and willingness to help others. They often appear to be in a hurry in order to keep you focused on helping rather than asking questions.

Using these simple tips can be the difference between losing your valuable data to theft or protecting it:

• Seek assistance if in doubt
• Ask for and verify contact information
• Ask who authorized the request
• Verify the authorization
• Be very concerned about unescorted persons
• Ask simply why the information is needed
• Report any suspicious activity immediately

FREE Security Awareness Poster

This article is available as a security awareness poster! PCI, MasterCard, Visa and American Express require a security awareness program at most companies who take or process credit cards. Use this free poster in your company to spread the word!

Share this on your favorite social network:

Hide Sites

A helmet is a biker’s number one method of protection in a crash, dip or fall.  Did you know that your password is the number one method of protecting your data from would be thieves, hackers and other criminals?  You can help protect your data by using complex, hard to guess passwords like the examples above.

Most password cracking software can guess your password in a matter of just a few short seconds if you use simple passwords, such as the name of your child, or spouse.  That’s because your password is a word!  In short, password cracking programs use the dictionary to search for your password, but it even makes it easy for people who know you to guess when we use common, or well known things about us as passwords.

Use these simple tips to make creating a complex password easy, rememberable by you, but hard for hackers and thieves to figure out.

• Use both letters and numbers
• Don’t use any personal information
• Intentionally misspell words
• Combine words or use a phrase
• Use upper and lowercase together
• Use special characters (#$%^&)
• Use as many characters as possible
• Avoid words listed in the dictionary

FREE Security Awareness Poster

This article is available as a security awareness poster!  PCI, MasterCard, Visa and American Express require a security awareness program at most companies who take or process credit cards.  Use this free poster in your company to spread the word!

Share this on your favorite social network:

Hide Sites

Elephants remember everything!  If elephants had fingers and used computers, they certainly wouldn’t write down their password!  Humans shouldn’t either!  Protecting your information from would-be thieves is essential.

Usernames (sometimes referred to as an ID) and passwords, whether assigned to you or selected by you, are designed to control access and log your system usage.  When a thief or hacker uses your username and password to access a system, everything that person does appears to be you!

These thieves may attempt to access your system in a variety of ways, but they almost always first look for usernames and/or passwords that have been written down in the office or work areas.  They also target computers that are left logged in when the employee walks away.  If a computer is left logged in and access by one of these thieves they can use the password saving features of web-browsers to access password protect applications and websites.

The good news is, we don’t have to have the memory of elephants to remember our passwords!  Use the informational tips below to help keep your passwords safe from thieves and hackers and protect your organizations information!

• Never write down or share a password with anyone.
• Change your password often.
• If you think your password has been stolen, change it immediately.
• Avoid using password saving features in web browsers.
• Do not allow others to see you entering your password.
• Don’t use the same password for personal accounts as you do at work.
• Log off or lock your computer when you walk away from your desk.

FREE Security Awareness Poster

This article is available as a security awareness poster!  PCI, MasterCard, Visa and American Express require a security awareness program at most companies who take or process credit cards.  Use this free poster in your company to spread the word!

Share this on your favorite social network:

Hide Sites

Penny Killed the iPhone 4 from TheGeekPub on Vimeo.

Mike at TheGeekPub.com shows how a simple penny kills the iPhone 4 antenna.

Share this on your favorite social network:

Hide Sites

Super Mario Bros. from Andreas Heikaus on Vimeo.

“This video was part of my Bachelor thesis at the University of Applied science and art Hannover. The Super Mario Bros. game, released on the Nintendo Entertainment System, is not longer bound to the television size and get interactive with a new environment. The emphasis of my thesis is on the matchmoving work. It is the process of matching CG elements into live-action footage.”

Share this on your favorite social network:

Hide Sites