photo blog, from my phone!

By Josh Highland in internet, web 2.0

I have been "blogging" I guess for about 7 years now, off and on. When I was in college, I had the worst luck when it came to girls, but I always seemed to have a date. My friends would always want to know how my date went, and I got tired of telling the same stories over and over, so I decided that I would write my stories down, post them to my website, and let my friends read for themselves… thus my "blogging" started. Over the years, when something would piss me off enough, I would write about it. I still have copies of everything I have written, its just not online anymore.

Most people with blogs use a company like blogger or live journal or something like that to host their blogs. Me being a nerd I decided to write my own.

Since I run my own server, I rarely look at 3rd party companies for hosting solutions, expecially image hosting. I know a lot of people love flickr.com, but I never really knew why… until I signed up for an account to check it out.

The first thing that grabbed my was the abbility for me to use my camera phone (T-Mobile SideKick II), to send pictures straight to the web. I was hooked. Being the computer geek that I am, I couldnt leave it at that. I had to figure out how do to this for myself.

Late last friday night, I sat down and started coding. By 4am, I was able to duplicate flickr's photo email system. The way it works is pretty simple. I take a picture with my phone. I email the picture to a special email account useing my phone. I wrote a small program that checks my email box periodically, if it finds there is an email from me, it saves the image, turns the email subject into the photos title, and turns the emails body into the photos caption. All that info gets dumped into a database. pretty simple really 🙂

So, by being able to post pictures and text to my blog while on the go, I have turned it into a "MOBLOG"…. a mobile blog. I never really used the camera on my phone before this. I love it though. I just wish that T-mobile would release a better camera on the next version of the sidekick.

To check out the images that I have taken so far, go here: http://www.notpopular.com/blog/photoList.php, or click the "photo blog" link at the top of the page

Im thinking about relasing my code as open source. Im not sure though.

Warriors, come out to play!

By Josh Highland in video games

It has been years since I was excited about a video game. Im trying to remember the last time that I couldnt wait to go home and play a game. I think it was back in 1999, with Final Fantasy VIII for Play Station 1. I put 80+ hours into that game building up my character, only to have my memory card crash before I went into the final stage of the game. After investing that much time into something with little more then a sob story, it was hard for me to sit down and play any video game at length, despite the fact that I got into computers and programming because of my love of video games since I was 7, and Nintendo came out. Its been a rare event for me to even pick up a PS2 or XBOX controller.

About 2 weeks ago I realized that one of my favorite movies was being made into a video game, The Warriors. A WARRIORS VIDEO GAME! I watched the trailers on the website, and checked out all of the screen shots. It looked like an amazing game, I couldnt wait to play it… despite the fact that I dont own an xbox or a PS2.

I was going to buy an XBOX, but yesterday my brother stepped in and gave me his! I guess he likes his PS2 better and hasnt played his XBOX in a while. SCORE FOR ME!

Last night I bought a copy of the Warrors at walmart (only because it was open at 10:30 on a Sunday night). Keller came over and played it. I was blown away by it. The game in made by rockstar (makers of grand theft auto series), and follows their winning formula of ultra violent action and language. The game loosely follows the plot of 1979 movie of the same name, and there are various tasks to accomplish in game, but it all boils down to beating the piss out of everyone, stealing things, doing drugs, and tagging. Amazing!

Keller and I both agreed that the fighting in the game is the most realistic that we have seen in a game. You can smash people with just about any thing that you can find. I picked up a bottle, smashed some guy in the face with it… he goes down, the bottle breaks. His friend runs at me, I stab him in the stomach with the broken bottle, just before i stomp in the chest of the first guy. While this is going on, Keller is busy tagging the Warriors log on the wall behind us.

The language in the game is possibly the most violent that I have ever heard also. Things like “Come on bitch, bring it! Im gunna fuck you up”. Its pretty rare for a character not to be cussing if he is fighting, and its pretty rare for there is to be no fighting going on.

I love this game, I think its great and super fun to play. I do think that this isnt a kids game at all though. I think that its the first time that I agree with a mature label on a game, but I really dont agree with people who say that games like this will make kids tend to be violent.

All I know is that I wont want to “Come out to playyyya” because Im going to be inside playing The Warriors on my new, used XBOX.

After I finish this game, Im going to hack the crap out of the XBOX. Its going to be fun.

I hate spyware

By Josh Highland in software, tutorials

The other night I spent hours working on another friends computer that was loaded down with spyware, adware, malware, and possibly trojans. It seems like a never ending battle. Someone I know is always having problems with their computer. Most of the time the problems stem from spyware being on their system; Most of the time I have to clean up the mess. I guess its poetic justice and Im reaping from what I have sewn in the past. I used to write password crackers, and other little programs that ranged from rebooting your computer randomly, to allowing me full control of yoursystem. (A quick google search found advisories against some of my more well known releases)

voltron kru annoy (1998)
http://www3.cai.com/securityadvisor/pest/pest.aspx?id=46421

voltron kru unmask (2000)
http://www3.cai.com/securityadvisor/pest/pest.aspx?id=61745

http://www.spywaredb.com/remove-voltron-krus-password-unmasker/

voltron kru aim cracker (2001)
http://www3.ca.com/securityadvisor/pest/pest.aspx?id=55597

I now wear a different hat, and I'm not going to dwell on the past, but I am still very interested in malicious software. My biggest interest now is in preventing it from taking over my computer and the computers of my friends.

Here are some simple steps that I belive that any windows user should take to prevent their computer form being over run with spyware, and other nastyness.

1) BUY A ROUTER (firewall) !
This is possibly the easiest step in protecting your computer from over 99% of the nastyness on the internet. A router does a few things, it allows you to have multiple computers sharing the same internet connection, and it also acts as a firewall. A firewall is a filter between you and the raw internet. It doesnt slow down your connection at all, and it prevents attacks like internet worms and some spyware from attacking your computer. Most people that have problems with virus, worms and spyware do not have a router/firewall. I suggest a hardware firewall. they cost about $50, and require no setup, just plug them into a wall, and then into your computer. In 5 minutes you can save days of head and heartache. (I just bought a linksys 4 port router on ebay for $10)

2) KEEP UP TO DATE!
visit http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com once a week. Microsoft releases updates all the time. Many of the updates will prevent you from getting attacked and infected. If you are running windows xp, service pack 2 is a must! With service pack 2, you can schedule windows to update itself automatically so you dont have to remember to go to http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com every week.

3) ad-aware
Download ad-aware from http://www.lavasoft.de/support/download/ (free!)
This is one of the best spyware detection / removal tools on the market. It is free and will help you keep your system clean, and will help fix current issues.
Always have ad-aware search for updates and download them before scanning your computer.

4) spy-bot
download from http://www.safer-networking.org (free!)
Use this along side with ad-aware. They do similar things but will detect different problems. Always have spy-bot search for updates and download them before scanning your computer.

5) Microsoft anti spyware
download from http://www.microsoft.com/spyware (free!)
Microsoft realized the problem that spyware was causing. As a reaction to the problem, they have released this tool. This is possibly the best tool for keeping windows clean of spyware. It acts like the other scanning tools, but has features that prevent spyware from installing, and taking over your computer. Make sure that have the autoprotect feature enabled. It will save your butt. This tool, like other tool will not catch 100% of all spyware, so it is important to have ad-aware and spy-bot installed and running also.

6) Dont get spyware in the first place!
dont click on random popups that appear on your computer. Dont click on random links in emails from people you dont know/trust. Dont download files from places that you arnt 100% sure about. Dont click popups from porn or casino websites. If a website asks you to install something before it will continue, dont let it! This is spyware most likely! Dont download or install other anti-spyware tools, many of these are actually spyware is desguise! Only use the tools I listed above.

7) Stop using Internet explorer!
download Firefox from http://www.getfirefox.com (free!)
Firefox is a web browser that is many times more secure then internet explorer. It is almost impossible to get spyware from webpages while using it. Its also faster then internet explorer, and offers cool features like tabbed browsing (multipe browsers running inside one application, so you dont have to minimize and maxamize browser windows when surfing). It also comes with a popup blocker built in.

It sucks that the avarage person has to be a computer expert to keep their compter safe, but thats just the way it is. If you have any questions about anything I wrote above, please leave a comment, or email me ([email protected]). If your computer is messed up, I might be able to help you fix it, so drop me a line.