It’s been several years already since I bought my first Microsoft Bluetooth Notebook Mouse 5000 for my personal laptop (HP Compaq 8510w) and during all of this time it has been working flawlessly. Recently I decided to buy (the latest version of) the same mouse for my work laptop (HP ProBook 6550b) and that’s when the problems began – it used to stop working with or without being used, with old or new batteries, after a short or a long period – no pattern at all! The issue proved to be quite easy to fix but it took some time to solve. I hope this one will help save your laptop a few hits.
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Valery's Mlog
Mindlog of a FreakArchive for the ‘Technical’ Category
I wonder why Microsoft still haven’t made a tool to create a bootable USB memory stick from a Windows installation CD, especially in the netbooks era when having no CD-ROM device is quite normal. It’s my third time to install Microsoft Windows 7 from a USB memory stick and I guess I would need one if I need to boot Windows in rescue mode.
So here’s a note to myself on how to prepare a USB memory stick for installation quickly on Microsoft Windows…
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(08.6.2011: Тази публикация отново е разчистването на стари чернови. Първоначалният тласък дойде от две извършени от мен странни трансакции преди време, а след това – от пускането на MasterCard PayPass на българския пазар.)
Живея в XXI в. с пълна сила – разхождам се мобилни и смарт телефони, компютър, Интернет, електронен подпис, кредитни и дебитни карти, клубни карти и такива за намаления, (живот и здраве скоро и) лична карта с биометрични данни… въобще окичен с множество от миниатюрни компютърчета осигуряващи комфорта и превъплъщение на екзотиките от края на миналия век и научната фантастика на началото му. Тези джаджи днес ми спестиха усилия, които иначе можеха да костват работния ми ден – намирането, резервирането и заплащането на билет за автобус и престой в хотел.
И всичко изглеждаше прекрасно и синьо (не, не розово!) до момента, в който не си дадох сметка как станаха тези разплащания и колко сигурни са сигурните кредитни карти… За съжаление от кредитния център на моята банка не можаха да дадат задоволителен отговор на въпросите ми и ме препратиха към отдела по управление на риска. Проблемът всъщност е основно в самите кредитни институции и плашещия компромис, който те правят със сигурността в името на удобството. Вината на моята и на всички други банки е там, че предлагат на клиентите си високо рисков продукт. Следващите редове са за тези, които не вярват в този риск; другите, които искат да го минимизират; и третите – които просто искат да видят своите мисли в писмен вид.
A friend of mine called me today to inform me that Avast has found a virus in a file I sent her yesterday. I was a bit confused because I am very careful about what software I download, install and run on my computer. So I don’t think I need any anti-virus software. What shocked me most was that the file was actually an MP3. I considered this almost impossible as it suggests that an exploitable MP3 decoders (still) exist and a harmful MP3 file would trick it to execute malicious code…. and maybe crash. Well WinAMP seemes to play this file correctly with no fuzzy sounds (the bits of malicious code?)! Isn’t that something like infecting a nice photo with a virus or so?! iCaci and I had a nice laugh about that but I decided to run the ESET Online Scanner to check whether I have any viruses or not. Suprise!
In a post about the 2.0 firmware jailbreak/unlock five months ago I mentioned the website of the “iPhone Linux” project – http://www.iphonelinux.org/. Fortunately the project advances to its goals and yesterday they announced the availability of its first release. Actually it consists of Open iBoot (the boot manager used to switch between the original iPhone OS and iPhone Linux) and the iPhone Linux installation package. In their blog post you can also find links to a demo video and short instructions on installing it. Have in mind that the binaries needed for the installation are built for Linux and are (still?) not available for other operating systems which means you’ll have to do the iPhone Linux installation only within an already installed Linux on your computer or using a (Ubuntu 8.10) Live CD.
The process is not that sophisticated but requires some knowledge. It is not newbie friendly. The iPhone Linux is not newbie friendly either. It is just a working kernel with a busybox distribution. Only some core drivers are ported but you don’t have at the moment any touchscreen, sound, wireless, GSM and accelerometer support. You’re only stuck to a USB Serial Console and all you can do is start writing drivers and applications… 
Have fun!
One of the servers co-located at Online Bulgaria that I used to take care of was a relatively old IBM @Server xSeries 360 (machine type 8686-1RX, specification). Unfortunately after a series of hardware issues it completely crashed. I informed the owner of the server and what he told me was: “Oh, I expected that. Just give it away to the hosting company!”. My reaction was something like: “What?! Are you nuts?! It’s a computer – a human being! And you are just going to give it away?! No way!”. So I took it and brought it to our office for inspection. It was not an easy task as it weights about 32 kg but I somehow did it.
I am quite busy lately and there are really lots of things to share but I just don’t have the time to. However DevReach 2008 is worth paying the attention. The most of the sessions were fascinating and the speakers were awesome! We really did have loads of fun and it seems all those foreign speakers enjoyed their stay in Bulgaria. I am actually looking forward to seeing them at the upcoming conferences!
The iPhone community reacts pretty fast. Just a few hours after iPhone Dev Team released their Pwnage Tool 2.0 a torrent with a modified firmware was published and an option for jailbreaking iPhones with 1.2.0 firmware is now available for Windows users. I personally couldn’t wait until tomorrow so I gave the method a try. I’ve successfully upgraded from 1.1.4 to 1.2.0 version of the firmware. Here are the steps I followed…
It’s been only ten days since the official release of iPhone 3G and the new 1.2.0 firmware (for both 1st and 2nd generation iPhones). Last night the iPhone Dev Team has made an unofficial announcement of the availability of the new version of their Pwnage Tool – 2.0. An official announcement will be released shortly on their website.