I don't care when celebrities become spokesmen for products. I really don't. They are well-known, and they know they can use their fame to make a little money on the side. I do have a problem when celebrities don't disclose that they are shills for a company, and overhype a product with a lot of lies.

Ellen DeGeneres recently gave out Microsoft Zune players to members of her studio audience. While describing the product, her helper mentioned that the Zune could talk to other Zunes and even grab music from other players. Zunes cannot talk to each other. They can share music wirelessly, but that music can only be played 3 times. Make no mistake, the Zune is the bastardized, retarded cousin of the iPod. Here's the clip from the Ellen show:

Some of the most popular Web 2.0 sites have been hit by a XSS worm that will do many things like auto add links and even add friends to user's profiles. This worm has been executed to demonstrate the security flaw, but it has not been used for malicious intent, yet.

If scriptkiddies get possession of this script, it could be a serious hit to Web 2.0 as we know it. Social bookmarking sites rely on the genuine interests of their users. If one user starts spamming hundreds of links at a time, people will have to sort through all that crap to get to the good links from real users. That's not what people want to do. That's why those people are using sites like Digg and Netscape, because they want to avoid all that spam crap that shows up on Google.

This is a very touchy situation, and I hope someone out there will be able to help out by providing a way to plug this security hole.
Digg, Delicious, Netscape & Technorati Hacked ~ mybeNi websecurity

Adobe Photoshop will finally be addressing the needs of digital photographers by adding new features to the next edition of the software, which will be available in next month. Lightroom, Aperture, and Bridge are all tools that increase productivity by allowing photographers to prep multiple images together in one batch.

It's good to see that Adobe recognized a limitation of their software, the fact that it was bloated and not suited to the digital photographer, and made significant improvements to win back that crowd.
Major Photoshop Upgrade Is Overkill for the Flickr Crowd -

Do you know how to crack locks? It turns out, you don't have to be professional to break a lock. 99% of locks can be opened with a $5 bump key. The design of locking mechanisms used in most modern locks have been around for hundreds of years, and the system has been beat. It's time we moved on to a better locking system.

Here is a video of a bump lock in action:
http://www.brickhousesecurity.com/bump-proof-lock.html#Bump-Key-Video

It's amazing that people go through so much trouble to lock their doors, not knowing that anyone who really wants to get into their home can do so with very little effort.

A bump key proof lock has been developed that cannot be cracked using the normal method, or any method that I have heard of.

So, should I be telling everyone that the locks people use do not work? Some would say that this could lead to more crime, as people will realize how easy it is. I disagree. I think we need to be educated about this problem and not pretend it doesn't exist. The fact is, most of the crooks know about the problem with most locks. Why should the people who will be their victims be ignorant of the situation?

So what do you think? Should news organizations report on this problem, or should they pretend it's not a problem? Is it news-worthy? Should home builders be doing more to protect their clients?

What goes into a million dollar laptop? How about a 17" LED screen with anti-reflective glare coating and a 128GB solid state hard drive. Slot loading Blu-Ray is standard, along with a diamond power button.

Even with those great components, this laptop is overpriced by about $950,000. I'm sure the company that makes them hasn't sold any, and they are just using it to get free publicity. The name of that company is... just kidding, I'm not playing that game.
The first million dollar laptop - gizmag Article

A very secretive company named Silverbrook Research has released some videos of a desktop color photo-quality printer that is 5 to 10 times faster than other photo printers on the market.

The man behind this printer has dozens of patents to his name, and it seems that he has single-handedly developed a printer that blows everything on the market away, despite the fact that he does not have hundreds of millions of dollars of R&D money.

I usually avoid these speculative tech stories, but this printer has been shown to printer industry experts, and they say it is no joke, it will revolutionize the printing industry. My only question is this: what will the big shots at HP and Xerox do to stop this? I'm guessing it will involve some lobbyists and politicians. That's usually the path taken by the weak.
Silverbrook's Memjet printer technology available late 2007, company says | Texyt

It's not yet up on Mozilla's website, but the latest update to the Firefox browser is now available on select FTP sites. Look for it to hit the main site very soon.

If you are using Internet Explorer to view this site, please consider moving up in the world and downloading Firefox. You don't have to delete your Internet Explorer, so go ahead and try it out (just Google "download Firefox" for the direct link). Firefox is a browser that has all the features Internet Explorer won't have until 5 years from now.
Firefox 2.0.0.3 Available | tuxmachines.org

Google has been praised by many for its simple homepage design. As you all know, it consists of one logo (which is often altered for holidays and "special" days), one form line for the search query, a search button, and a link for more advanced search options. There's about 10 small words of legalese below that.

So what was the reasoning behind this simple interface? Surprisingly, the founders of Google, who are now all billionaires, did not know HTML. That's right, the people who made the search engine algorithm that has turned the internet world upside down knew less about making a website than a pre-teen making a "List of my friends" site on Geocities.
An evening with Googles Marissa Mayer [Alan Williamson]

Luxio recently unveiled their new 205 inch LCD HDTV at a yacht show. This TV is the ultimate in home theater entertainment, and the biggest consumer TV in the world. It's so big, you could park two Mini Coopers on top of it, although I would not advise it.

I have no idea what this thing costs, but chances are you have to be rich enough to own your own yacht to afford it. Having a huge TV is really what luxury yachting is all about.
Introducing the 205-inch Technovision Luxio LCD HDTV: Big Enough to Park Two Mini Coopers On - Gizmodo

If you have a business, or even a business idea, you really need to have a website for it. There is no better way to reach the masses than with a website that can reach every corner of the earth with a computer and an internet connection.

Most people have no idea how to make a website. Even worse, they don't have the slightest clue about website marketing. If you're one of those people, that's ok. You do not need to know all of that stuff to have a successful website. You just need to know people who do. Websitepros.com specializes in small to mid-size businesses and they have experts in web design, site management, and marketing. They do not just give you a template and ask you to fill in your business name. They actually build a custom website designed to meet your company's individual goals.

Some of the most popular websites on the internet were not built by the companies that own them. We see these billionaire twentysomethings and assume that they just happen to be geniuses who spent 20 hours a day coding a website. That's usually not the case. They were people a great idea, just like you might have, and they just happened to find the right people, like websitepros.com, who knew how to make it happen for them.

1-800-FREE-411 has captured 6% of the 411 market, showing huge growth over one year. The company has raised over $60 million from short advertisements played before delivering a requested phone number.

I've used this service several times, and for the most part it worked very well. It does seem that they are missing some businesses in rural areas, as I they were unable to find some places I knew existed (I was standing right in front of one, and I just wanted a phone number for an awesome prank I was going to pull off). AT&T recently launched a competing service.

There's no reason why 411 needs to be a fee-based service. 1-800-FREE-411 has shown that there is actually more money in selling ad slots for these calls and giving them away for free.
1-800-Free-411 Has 6% Market Share of U.S. 411 Market

Should you buy a LCD or Plasma TV? Maybe you should get one of those old analog CRTs. Wait a second, you should know what you are doing before spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on a TV.

TestFreaks will give people the information they need to know before they make a huge investment in their "entertainment portfolio". Aside from knowing such things as the analog to digital change (it's going to happen in a couple years, you should read up on it), TestFreaks has the inside scoop on what TVs have high picture quality, and which TVs belong in a landfill outside some town in New Jersey.

Don't buy a TV based on hype, do the research and it will pay off for years and years. My TV is 12 years old, and it has a better picture than a TV my sister bought last year. I didn't have TestFreaks to help me back then, but I did do a lot of research. When I replace my dinosaur with a plasma or LCD, I'll make sure I get the best model for the best price.

GigaOM has a great piece about sending free SMS messages using a variety of internet services. I'm not big on SMS myself, I've never seen the appeal, but I know this would useful for many people. I'll stick to chatting on IM and using my cell phone for things like TALKING to people.
GigaOM » 5 Ways to SMS for free

There are several popular bookmarking tools out there. Del.icio.us is probably the most popular and has been around for several years. StumbleUpon is a slightly different service but also growing in popularity. But a new challenger has emerged: www.BookmarkAll.com

There are many reasons why I prefer using social bookmarking instead of the normal search engine to find information. People tend to be much better than algorithms at judging what is good information as opposed to useless junk. When many people like a site, it will be among the top choices when you are looking for a site in that particular category. Search engines tend to get loaded with junk that is in no way related to what you were searching for. That's because people have learned how to game the system. They load up pages with keywords and use various linking techniques to get the search engines to think they are popular.

Unlike some other bookmark systems, Bookmarkall has both online and social bookmarking. That means you can use the tool to save the pages you like, while also using it to find new sites related to topics you are interested in. The toolbar for this service works with both Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox browsers.

One advantage to these bookmarking tools that I had not considered until recently is the security. You can use the service without having to save bookmarks to your computer's hard drive. Nobody has to see what pages you are saving for later viewing.

Will this new bookmarking tool be able to stand up to its rather big rivals? Only time will tell, but I'll happily use it if leads me to new and interesting corners of the web.

I found a very cool CNET story about the possibility that Apple is manipulating their random song player in iTunes to play songs bought from the service more playtime than songs ripped from CDs.

Although the writer of the article doesn't want to address the ethical problem created here, I do. If Apple says a feature generates a random playlist, it should be truly random. I know what you're thinking: no computer can create true randomness. That's true, but they can come very close to approximating it.

If Apple is tinkering with the random feature to give songs bought from its service more playtime, they need to stop it immediately. They may think that no one will notice, but not all nerds of the world work for Apple. I know plenty of math nerds who could test for this with nearly 100% certainty in less than a day. I'm sure there are thousands of statisticians out there who would love to take on this challenge. I say they go for it.
iTunes: Just how random is random? - Music Software

In my previous post, I discussed how to reduce your bandwidth costs. One great suggestion was to move to a dedicated server like DMG Dedicated Servers

Based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, DMG is a much better solution than hosting a website on your own, unless you happen to be Google or Ebay. They buy bandwidth in bulk, which allows them to sell it to you for much less than you'd pay if you were buying it on your own. Their servers are reliable and they have technical support that is highly regarded in the industry.

Operating from their own datacenter with Tier 1 provider AT&T, DMG will hosting your website (or other files) and make sure it's protected from things such as a hacker or a hard drive failure. They care about their customers, and understand how important their websites and other data is to them. In addition, if a customer runs into a problem, they can just contact tech support and get great advice from a tech expert who knows their way around a server. Believe me, you can't get that kind of service at just any dedicated hosting company.

If you host your own website, you've probably had to watch your bandwidth usage in the same way others watch their calorie intake. Check out the link below for some great tips on reducing your bandwidth usage, or what to do if you can reduce it, such as moving to a hosting service, which can offer much lower prices because they buy bandwidth in huge blocks.

My favorite tip (which I've started following recently): use an image host. Images are big part of bandwidth usage, and by using an outside service, whether free or paid like Amazon's S3, you will reduce your bandwidth use significantly. Even the paid services cost a fraction of what you would pay to host them on your own server.
Coding Horror: Reducing Your Website's Bandwidth Usage

Outsourcing has become a curse word for workers in some industries. In other, it means finding the best people to do the job for the lowest price. This can be great for businesses located in economically depressed areas, who might otherwise have a hard time finding skilled workers for the type of work that can be done at home. This type of work is prevalent in the tech industry, especially in areas like programming.

Outsourcing Projects pop up all the time. Companies just don't have the people to fill in every skill set. They will always find a project that cannot be completed with the workers they have, and outsourcing (or hiring) is necessary. But where do they find these workers?

That's where Outsourcing.org comes in. This site is a directory and discussion forum dedicated to outsourcing. Their main focus is on connecting businesses who are looking for workers with certain skills with the people who have those skills, no matter where either might be located on the globe. They have developed free online tools for these companies to use which will replace the high cost of some software licenses and subscriptions.

Outsourcing.org is made great by its many contributors and the people whose donations keep the company running. Their essential goal is to level the playing field for both businesses and employees, and they do it in a way that can benefit us all. If you have a company looking for someone with skills in software development, CAD, website and graphic design, or a variety of other tech-based skills, or if you possess those skills and you're looking for some work, be sure to check out their site.

I found a great article about cleaning a DSLR lens. I know more and more people are using these high-end digital cameras, and very few know how to clean the lens, which is bound to get dirty at some point or another. This one little article (linked below) will show you how to clean the lens yourself and save spending lots of money to a camera expert.
How should I clean my DSLR’s lens?

Are you looking for Online Backup?
I know, I've written on this topic before. I've told you how necessary it is to backup your data on a computer that is located somewhere outside your current premises.

IDriveE is different from much of the competition in that they offer secure free online backup up to 2GB. That's more than enough for many users. For users with much bigger storage needs, they have unlimited storage for $4.95. They consider themselves consumer class, which of course means everything is made quite easy for the user, but they have enterprise class features like encryption and optimized data transfer.

I consider IDriveE to be more of a fun online backup site, as opposed to the others that I've mentioned that are all about business and protecting your data in case the SEC comes looking for it. IDriveE is more of a service you might use with your friends to store your media files and all your other digital creations. The prices are also dirt cheap (or free at some storage levels), so it doesn't hurt to check them out.

I know what you're thinking: why do we need a YouTube-like site for documents? Isn't that what the rest of the internet is? Well, yes and no. Scribd allows users to upload their various documents in a variety of formats to the web. There is no private sharing like other document hosts. What you put up on the site is available to everyone. Although that seems like a bad thing, it's actually what makes this site different from the competition. We'll see how this project does.
Scribd - Home

If your iPod won't boot, you don't need to rush to one of those "geniuses" at the Apple store or one of those "iPod doctors" who operate out of their minivans. There are a number of solutions to iPod problems, and most of them are simple or involve the hard drive.

First of all, press down on Menu and Select (middle of click wheel) and hold for 6 to 10 seconds. This should cause the device to reset, which usually fixes everything. If that doesn't work, check out the website below for more tips.
Help Key: How-To Fix an iPod that Won’t Boot

More and more people are looking for Remote Access to at least one PC. It was natural that this would happen. As PC prices fall, people tend to buy more than one. I know many people who have their powerful desktop with the huge storage space at home, and a little laptop for the road.

A program like RemotePC allows the user to access their PC via the internet. They can keep all those important files on their home PC and still be able to get to it from their laptop when they're on the road. There are other products like this, but RemotePC offers fast speeds, an easy-to-use interface, and it's more cost effective.

If you have more than one computer, it only makes sense to have a program like RemotePC. Why should those computers be operating independently, when you could so easily set it up so they can communicate and share? Security is not a problem with RemotePC either, as it is an issue that the company takes very seriously. The only limitation at this point is that it's only for Windows PCs as far as I can tell. That's alright, who can afford more than one Mac anyway?

I found this great little tool for converting YouTube videos to MPG. Best of all, it's online. That means you don't even have to download it. It also works with another online video service, which I won't mention due to advertisers constraints.
YouTube MPG Converter

I came across this handy little tool to view deleted YouTube videos. Apparently YouTube does not delete videos from its servers, it just takes down the page they were displayed on. With this simple little tool and the code to the deleted video, you can view all those deleted videos - until YouTube figures out how to fix this.
Deleted YouTube Video Viewer

With hard drives getting larger and the data we put on them getting bigger, backing up that information has become even more important. We store more and more information in digital form in an attempt to save paper and printing costs, but we has have to be extra protective of data that can be lost to a hard drive failure.

Online Storage is the best option for backing up your data, as it moves the information off-site. If your business or home is destroyed, your data will still be safe. I know for many businesses the data is more valuable than the building.

IBackup is a great online backup site. They provide enterprise-class data protection, meaning they will take even better care of it than you do.

Aside from providing backup and storage of your important data, IBackup also provides a great user interface and lots of features that make using them a snap. You can set up your account for multiple users, who can then use it to collaborate on projects. You can also set up sub-accounts and folders, which can be helpful if you want to organize your data in a certain way. They also have mobile access, for users on the go.

I've noticed that IBackup does offer a free trial, so you can check them out now and see if they have something that your home or business could use.

With the Nintendo Wii being the most popular electronic device right now, website designers have begun making sites for Wii visitors. Since the Wii does not use a mouse, the design of these sites must make it easy for a person with a motion controller to navigate.

The link below has a list of sites that are designed for the Wii user:
Wiisquid

If you're having problems with your DNS Server, or if you just can't figure out how it all works, check out what Concentric Groupware can do for you.

DNS hosting and server services is often left to a third party to take care of. For many businesses, this is no longer an option. No matter how many references and good reviews a no-name, third party host has, you just can't put your trust in anyone outside the country, especially when it comes to private information. It seems like every week we hear about a breach in security that leads to thousands of peoples identities being stolen from a company database. Last year it happened to a major credit card company.

Those companies may not have had problems with their DNS hosting, but your company might, and it's better to have that problem contained within your own company. Concentric Groupware is an online collaboration tool that will make DNS hosting easier and more secure, along with providing email security and anti-spam services.

I know the headaches DNS can cause for a company. Just a few days ago, I saw an IT expert try to clean up redundant database files, only to erase some very important software relating to the DNS server. Let's just say it was a very hectic morning for that young man. Just get the right tools from the start, and you can avoid the problems that will come down the line. Concentric GroupWare is a good start.

I found a great article about 5 new job types generated by the Web 2.0 generation. In short, here are the 5:

1) New Media Producer - Develops videos and other media and uploads to sites like YouTube. These videos should promote something.

2) Clothing label crafter - Develops graphics and designs for things like niche clothing lines.

3) Micro investor - Makes money with things like micro loans on sites like Prosper

4) Publisher - Prints books for self-publishing/promoting/selling

5) Community Curator - Develops an online community for people with something in common.
Web Worker Daily » Blog Archive 5 New Jobs of the Web 2.0 Generation «

Wired.com recently ran a story about people gaming the Digg.com voting system. People were paying others to digg their sites, lifting them to the front page, a coveted spot that could be worth thousands of dollars. Although it is possible to pay for diggs, the story was full of errors, and Digg.com should be crying foul, according to tech blog TechCrunch.

Wired is owned by Conde Nast, which owns Digg competitor Reddit.com. Reddit can be rigged just as easily as Digg, but Wired failed to mention that in their article. Wired also ran a story in December predicting Digg would fail in a short time, just months after Conde Nast acquired Reddit.

Although it's highly unethical for a media site like Wired to trash companies who compete with companies under their corporate umbrella, the real case here would have to be built around the fact that Wired manipulated data to show that Digg was more likely to be a target of fraudulent use than other social news sites. If Digg wants to sue Wired, I think most of the tech world would support them.
Digg Should Sue Wired