I was able to use Yahoo services such as Flickr, since I’m constantly using it and updating and checking pictures. But I think it has been at least since November or October of last year that I checked my Yahoo account. I wanted to log-in and see if they have changed the interface or made any changes since last year. When I tried logging in, I was told that my account was deactivated and I would have to go through a process to reactivate it, registered an emergency email, went through the hoops again of registering information, and all my previous mail and contacts were wiped but I wasn’t too worried since I didn’t use it for much, or don’t remember using it. Now it states that if I don’t check it for four months it will deactivate again or I should buy Yahoo Mail Plus so that it doesn’t deactivate. Yahoo’s interface is much better then hotmail, but GMail is still far in the lead. But in the numbers game Yahoo is number 1, Hotmail/Live is number 2, and GMail is number 3, and they are all still growing.

This short video made me laugh, this cat is a true ninja, and its damn fast coming in and out of the box like that. He wants to keep all intruders out of his boxed domain.

This took about a month and a half of planning, making cardboard guns, filming, and editing. Sound, effects, editing, and filming by Clinton Jones, aka, pwnisher.

To make this video you need:

• 254 Program crashes
• 427 Manual frames to rotoscope
• 59 Layers of sound effects
• A BUTTLOAD of cardboard and box cutters
• And a katamar

An action packed short film with cardboard as weaponry, the script is crap and the actors lack skill but the action is a lot of fun. A lot of fun most of worked into making this video, and the best part for me was when the tank came into view, great work synchronizing the effects.

Link: GeekTyrant

This is one of the freakiest moments I had in a while, I tried logging into my Bank of America account only to find it locked. I didn’t have a clue why, but there is a notification button to send an unlock code to specified emergency address. Luckily I went through the process of entering the security question process when an unknown computer tries to log into my BoA account, and if they get the questions wrong that it locks my account and the only way to unlock is from a code that is sent to the emergency email registered to the account.

I unlocked the account, and everything looked fine, so I called up BoA to check what was going on. They told me that my account was accessed from an odd location several times and was locked for security reasons. I’m thankful for their security steps they have and their quick action, and getting the account active again is instantaneous making it a very simple and easy process. Even with the safeguards active, and the security questions and changing my passwords every 3 to 6 months, I still freaked out. You never think that your online account would be attacked or someone malicious would try to access it but now I know, and I’m happy that every thing is fine, I just make sure that whenever I can access my accounts I do it through a secure VPN or from a connected computer. Feels like a dodged a bullet in this situation, I just hope this is the worst that could happen.

I have had my hotmail account since 1996 and I log into it once every few months, I have a lot of random emails that head over there and I clear it up once in a while. I remember subscribing to Hotmail “Extra” a long time ago to get from 10MB to 250 MB which was HUGE a long time ago, but thanks to Google that barrier was destroyed and they kept on going with amount of space available.

Recently Hotmail/Live made upgrades to their email system stating a new and revolutionary way to use your email. Integration of new features, conversation style emails, new filters, and a new way to attach files. Well overall its still slow in comparison, loading and sending emails still go through that process of waiting, you have limitations with your attachments even though they say you can attached 10GB files which doesn’t seem to be the case. Two things that I really hate about hotmail is the lack of organization, even with the very late introduction of filters its still not as intuitive as Gmail’s ease of organization, secondly is the amount of spam that I still get, I only have allowed emails coming through so I have to keep checking my spam mail for legitimate emails. I haven’t used my yahoo mail in a while either but I remember it isn’t as annoying as my hotmail. Well even with all these changes I’m still not using my hotmail at all, I just use it for random website registrations.

This is a story of how a gmail email of friend got stolen and how it was recovered by another friend. Some very detailed information of the steps she went through to recover for the email for the non-techie person.

So late last night was the last time Patient X was able to use his Gmail account and this afternoon when he tried to login to his account it kept telling him that the password was wrong and therefore panic started to form. Reason for panic is lots of private emails that if they fall in the wrong hands can cause chaos. So attempting to reset the password by using the forgot password form did not help as the reset password email address was one not known and therefore hacker dude probably messed that up too. So enter Dr Y trying to solve the issue, first steps were to retry the reset password, when that failed, Dr. Y attempted to go to the below mentioned link:

Link: Can’t Access Account

Once Dr. Y answered (No) The form was generated in which Dr. Y had to enter the below details about Patient X’s account. Luckily enough Dr. Y is a neat freak in organizing all emails sent and received, not deleting much and basically stalking anyone and everyone. Of the questions Dr. Y answered are the ones mentioned below.

An email address we can use to contact you* (entered Dr. Y’s email address)
Describe the problem you’re experiencing* (The answer was: I believe someone has taken over my account)

Then Dr. Y filled out some of the below mentioned details regarding the Product Information

• Do you use Gmail with this account? (Yes)
• Gmail username; (enter username)
• Most recent recovery email address: (if applicable – in this case it was not remembered)
• Do you have a verification code? (a code usually sent by mobile if your mobile number was registered (*Recommendation please re-visit your Password recovery options and update it*)
• Email addresses of up to five frequently emailed contacts: (enter as many as you could – which was done here)
• Names of up to four labels: (had it been Dr. Y’s account there could be up to 27 labels to choose from but here it was unknown as user was not organizing freak)
• Did you receive an invitation to create your account? (Yes) [ This is where magic happened for Dr. Y and they were able to access all information collected on Patient X]
• Do you use orkut with this Google Account? (No)
• Do you use Blogger with this Google Account? (No)
• Google Products you used with this account and the date you started using each one? (Entered 2 of the available 4 areas)
• And finally the “Other account Information”
• Account Creation Date: (Entered date)
• Last Successful login date: (Entered todays date)
• Last password you remember: (Entered last password)

Click on Submit and wait for the magic to occur. In this case it took almost 20 minutes for Google to reject the information provided as it wasn’t sufficient enough (me thinks: that someone did not have their morning coffee) As a suggestion they suggested to fill out the form again and I entered same information provided and submitted it to get an answer almost 2 hours and 30 minutes later a successful answer seen below:

Hello,

Thank you for your report. We’ve completed our investigation and we’re
re-enabling your access to this account. We’ve changed the recovery email
address to (blahblah@blah.com)

Proceeded to reset the password and had a password sent to the contact email mentioned above in the recovery process and viola everything was back to normal

All the emails were intact and no random emails were sent off!

This is a fun a short video, taking light photography to another level in Light Wars. I love how they took the idea of the light photography and made a stop-motion gun fight movie out of it, well I think a stop motion movie at least. I just love the whole concept and the grenade is the best part.

VPNs or Virtual Private Networks are the best solution to any firewall, they can technically get through any blocking solution out there but there have been a few that manage to make it a little bit more difficult. People use VPNs for different reasons, I for one use it to access the torrents, get to all the sites I want to, and accessing sensitive sites such as banks or other institutions from wireless networks or public areas.

The Toughest Internet Internet Filters I have Faced:

• Oman
• UAE
• Saudi Arabia
• Sudan

First Choice: Strong VPN

• I’m using PPTP service with but they have a large variety of VPN options to choose from
• Several cities to choose from as core cities
• Integrates with any operating system, iPad or phone
• High speed, usually with VPNs they slow down your browsing but with Strong VPN their speeds are consistently high
• Has gotten through every firewall I have tried
• Their support is solid and I have never had issues with their service
• Their prices are very reasonable with all the different options, and if you don’t know what to choose then just ask them

Link: StrongVPN

Second Choice: HMA VPN

• They have a software based VPN
• They are currently beta testing PPTP service which I have tried and its pretty good
• Relatively fast connectivity
• Sometimes has issues connecting but overall very good
• With the software based VPN it has had issues with one or two firewalls but with the PPTP service it was pretty good
• Software based only works with Windows but the PPTP works with Mac, Windows, Linux and other communicaiton devices

Link: HideMyAssVPN

If your looking for a solid service and you know what you want then go with StrongVPN, another option would be HideMyAss Pro VPN. But both will do the job to get you where you want securely.

Update:

Just to address the questions, they both work with Hulu and relatively fast, also they work with the Netflix and ABC App on the iPad so your able to watch US shows on your iPad. So both connections facilitate streaming from the US perfectly.

“The story of an unlikely and troubled teen forced from his home planet across the galaxy on an epic journey. Eventually to return reborn as the freedom fighter known as Azureus.”

Simply put this is a badass ninja doing badass things, an unstoppable future ninja taking everyone and everything out of his way. To think that this is only a short feature film from of the shelf software is amazing, from the team “Black Sun Entertainment”. After watching it I wish that his a full feature length movie, now that would be cool.

The last three to four weeks have been a lot of work and tied up with a million things. I haven’t really had much of a chance to go through the list of movies that were online and go through my usual search for quality movies, I didn’t even have a chance to download Avatar, but yesterday I spent a good 45 minutes going through all the different torrents to find all the movies I wanted. I piled up a good list of 40 to 50 movies and below are just a few of the main movies that I’m looking forward to. What I usually take time to look for are Hong Kong, Thai, and Japanese movies with a lot of Martial Arts, Action, or Comedy because a lot of them are great and enjoyable to watch but hard to find.

• Avatar 720p & 1080p
• Chloe 720p
• Endgame 720p
• Extraordinary Measures 720p
• Invictus 720p
• Never Surrender 720p
• Nowhere Boy 720p
• Darbreakers 720p
• Edge of Darkness 720p
• The Road 720p
• Mirrors 720p
• Little Big Soldier 1080p
• Commando 1985 720p
• Moonwalker 1988 720p
• Jump 1080p
• Did You Hear About The Morgans 720p
• Haeundae 720p
• Give Em Hell Malone 720p
• The Crazies 720p
• You Don’t Know Jack 720p
• Tenure 720p
• The Road 720p
• Tooth Fairy 720p
• Zach Galifanakis Live at the Purple Onion 720p