Various cool software and more

YouTube tip “HQ switch”

You may have noticed that some youtube videos are available in higher quality. By adding “&fmt=18” to your yourtube link HQ will be the default displaysetting.

eg;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfAsibkCmZw is the normal LQ version.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfAsibkCmZw&fmt=18 is a better HQ version.

Sure you can click the switch in the YouTube window, but if you are linking why not link HQ 🙂

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Curse of Silence and Nokia Symbian S60 phones.

It would appear that some Nokia phones (Symbian S60) are susceptical to a DOS (Denial of service) sms message that will turn the phone into a very basic phone (read unable to support any kind of messaging, SMS/MMS). The damage is not permanent, but will require a factory reset.

Name of the vaunerability is; Curse of Silence

Good thing my cell is a Sony Ericsson C902 😉

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Handbreake – video converter

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main_window_thumbnailYet another freeware videoconverter, seems quite ok and supports HD.

At that price give it a spin 😉

Screenshots

Download

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Songbird – for music lovers..

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Just heard about this today, have not tested it but it was given high praises.

Songbird an open source music player and music organizer, should support the more popular players and formats.

From the website.

The Open Music Playersongbird

Songbird is an open-source customizable music player that’s under active development.

We’re working on creating a non-proprietary, cross platform, extensible tool that will help enable new ways to playback, manage, and discover music. There are lots of ways to contribute your time to the project. We’d love your help!

There are several features we’re proud of, but we’ll be the first to admit that others need ironing out, are experimental, or are just plain missing. There’s still a lot to do.

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Free sharing/colaboration of MS-Office files..

ms-office-2007Well wonders never scease 🙂  It would look like Microsoft is on the free path these days 🙂  Now you can share documents and stuff free via; http://workspace.office.live.com/

Now this is especially interesting for students and the likes, a nice way to collaborate on assignments etc.

I have not yet checked it out in details but it seem quite straight forward.

Maybe there is something interesting in this video.

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Hosted Exchange $9 a month.

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free_30days_banner-transJust heard about this in a webcast this morning, and thought I might share it with you all.

In case you are just dying to get your hands on the exchage functionality (you get Outlook 2007 included) but dont want to install and run the server yourself, then this may be worth checking out;
https://www.dnamail.com/Services/Exchange/Default.aspx

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SandboxIE a virtual sandbox for all your applications

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sandboxieYou must have heard of virtual machines and virtual software (Softgrid and ThinApp former Thinstall) these solutions are really cool and offer a lot in security and ease, however they are not really good for adhoc projects.

Say you need to test a new application but are not sure you want to keep it, well you can fire up a virtual machine and install the software here, however fireing up a virtual machine takes time, memory and ressources so in other words its not ‘easy’ and convient.  Well a little known program takes care of this, SandboxIE, with this baby you can download your application and just right click on it and say run sandboxed.

So how does it work, well its quite ingenious actually. The software will create a “sandbox” for the application (could be anything – a single exe file – Microsoft office or an installation software) anything this software does is written in the sandbox and NOT in your filesystem (both filesystem and registry are sandboxed), however the software can READ anything on your filesystem/registry – the software thus does not know its sandboxed it will preform just as it would in real world.  You can even browse the sandbox and see what files are installed and where (or what changes would be made by the software).

SandboxIE has buildin support for internet browsing security, hence you will by default have a shortcut for launching your Internet browser in a sandboxed environment, this is really cool as if will offer you a VERY high level of security when browsing – any evil stuff you stumble across during your browsing can be undone (activex components installed, Google-Yahoo-Live toolbar, trojans installed).

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What are the applications of this software?

  • Security for one, you can now safely run an application (suspected spyware etc) and the changes it makes are NOT permanent, you can simply empty the sandbox afterwards.
  • Installation tests, say you are installing new software but need to figure out which settings etc are right, well now you can install the same software as many times as you like.
  • Launch your internet browser in a sandbox, none of the trojans and evil scripts on the net can harm your windows installation – any evil stuff installed (including Google Toolbar etc) can be undone by clearing your sandbox.

A word of caution though, even though the software can NOT write to your filesystem it can still read everything on it (registry and files), thus if we are talking spyware or the likes it can still read your confidential information, also spyware/trojans installed while you browse may compromise your privacy even though they cant do permanent damage to your system.

SandboxIE is very easy to get started with, but offers very complex configuration.  If you are interested in or use Virtual Machines of software virtualization you should really check this our, but also if you are concerned with security while you browse the net.

You get a free 30 day trial and then the price is 22€ (well worth its price).
Download and get all the details here; http://www.sandboxie.com/

Get a great podcast intro to SandboxIE here

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Microsoft SkyDrive 25gb FREE storage

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skydriveSo you may have heard about this?  Microsoft has expanded your live-id with an online drive of 25gb of free storage (and I have even heard that if you use the whole thing they will expand your storage automatically, this however is unconfirmed).

So what can you use this for?

Well I immediately thought of an online backup of all my digital photos, and sure enough its possible (and my photo archive is still less than 25gb).  However nothing is ever perfect and this is also true for Skydrive, my problem with it is the file management – I organized my photos in a lot of different folders starting with a year folder and then moving down, however in skydrive you can ONLY upload files NOT folders – well you can manually create folders and upload to them but NOT drag and drop a folder (including subfolders) to SkyDrive.  So is this a show stopper, well no but if your files make use of a complex folder structure then uploading to SkyDrive WILL require some work.

So SkyDrive is indeed exiting but not perfect, but as its free you cant really complain too much can you 😉

You can share your SkyDrive or parts of it with friends which is quite nice.

I recommend you check it out, and while you are at it also check out the related services Live Mesh and Live Sync;
http://www.labnol.org/internet/compare-windows-live-sync-mesh-and-skydrive/6166

To check out SkyDrive log in to;
http://skydrive.live.com (use your live-id or create one)

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Antivirus 2009 – removal

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So a friend of mine got infected by this Antivirus 2009 (that is irony for you, infected by an Antivirus), anyway I will be visiting him shortly to try and disinfect that darn thing.

From what I can figure out I will get the best results by using the tools from;
http://www.malwarebytes.org/

Should be safe to use acording to;
http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/malwarebytes.org

I will update this post with the results of my efford, should you however have better tips let me know..

UPDATE JAN 7th
Malwarebytes malware scanner worked like a charm, big thumbs up.

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Temporary email accounts

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You may remember my last post on “avoid getting spam”, well it would seem there is a bunch of these services out there.

I found a list on; http://www.prospector.cz/Free-email-accounts/Temporary-email-accounts/

I have not checked these, so use at your own discretion.

10 Minute Mail
temporary e-mail address where any e-mails sent to that address will show up automatically on the web page. You can read them, click on links, and even reply to them. The e-mail address will expire after 10 minutes.
AnonymBox
12 hours temporary email account provider.
DodgeIt
temporary email account with seven days lifespan.
E4ward
disposable email address forwarder. They will forwar all emails to your real address. The email forwarding you can throw away anytime.
GishPuppy
disposable email addresses that automatically forward messages to your normal (private) email. Cancel them whenever you want.
Guerrilla Mail
provides you with disposable e-mail addresses which expire after 15 minutes. You can read and reply to e-mails that are sent to the temporary e-mail address within the given time frame.
HaltoSpam
temporary email frowarding service. After seven days is your alias destroyed.
Jetable
temporary email address. As soon as it is created, all the emails sent to this address are forwarded to your actual email address. It will be deactivated after the lifespan you selected (hourd/day/week/month) comes to its end.
KasMail
disposable email for a set period of time, ranging from a few days to a few years. All the messages sent to the disposable address are automatically forwarded to your regular email address. When you decide that you don’t want to use the disposable address anymore, for example if you are receiving too much spam, just make it expire.
Mail expire
temp forwarding email address that allows you to create a free email alias for yourself. For a period you choose, from 12 hours to 3 months, anything sent to this email alias will be passed on to you at your actual email address.
MailEater
free disposable email accounts. No sign up is necessary.
Mailinator
personal disposable email account that is created when mail arrives for it. No signup needed. Your temporary email account will be automatically deleted for you after a few hours.
MailNull
free temporary email service to help you take control over your email. Mail sent to this disposable email will be forwarded to your current email account. You can disable it with a click of the mouse.
Mintemail
free 4 hour email address with option of email fowarding.
MyTrashMail
free disposable ( temporary ) email service.
No Bulk
offering anonymous email accounts (no password required).
NoSpamFor.Us
temporary email forwarding service. After seven days is your alias destroyed.
PookMail
instead of giving your real email address to every website on Earth, just make up an imaginary name for @pookmail.com. After 24 hours is your temporary email account cleaned from the system.
Shortmail
short-term disposable email account service. All email are deleted after a 72 hours period.
Skeef Mail
allows you to register at other websites without giving away your own e-mail address. Instead, create a temporary e-mail account that’ll last 60 minutes. Enough time to receive e-mails that contain activation or download links, and to reply to e-mails that ask for confirmation.
Slopsbox
receive only email account where everything is deleted after 24 hours.
Sneakemail
disposable email service.
Soodonims
a free, unlimitted disposable email address site. No click address create . Control by time and qty received. Simple termination of spam mail. Easy to use, it will indicate the websites that are careless with your email address.
Spam.la
throw away email accounts. Simply choose a name and then you can filter out the messages to this address online to see it. No need to sign up.
Spam.Su
receive spam to any mailbox at spam.su (such as example@spam.su) without registration, passwords or logins. Access it by the corresponding URL (such as http://example.spam.su).
SpamBob
provides free disposable email addresses for use whenever you don’t want to provide your real email address.
Spambox
with this service you can create a temporary e-mail address that will forward all incoming mail to your usual e-mail address. You can choose the expiry time of the temporary email from 30 minutes up to one year.
Spamfree24
free and fast throw away email addresses. Your incoming mails will be temporarily stored for 2 hours.
Spamh0le.com
An anonymous temporary email forwarding service. It allows you to sign up for a short term mail forwarding account. You choose a name and how long you want the account to stay active.
Spaml
automatic disposable email solution where you don’t have to click. When you visit this site the auto-generated email address is automatically saved to your clipboard.
Spmagourmet
Self-destructing disposable email addresses.
TempEmail
place where you get a free, temporary, disposable, anonymous email address, keeping your own email address spam and virus free.
Temporaryinbox
free disposable email address, which doesn’t require registration and can be used to avoid spam. Use this email address in forums, lotteries, erotic sites or wherever. The spamers will never find out your private email address.
WillHackForFood
temporary email account with longevity from 8 hours to 7 days.
WillSelfDestruct
this site enables you to create a one-time secure web page for a recipient. You can create a secure anonymous email message to a friend or colleague by entering their e-mail address and the message, i.e. sending a password or other sensitive information that you don’t want other people to see. The recipient will receive an e-mail with a link to a one-time secure web page which they will be able to view once and only once. Once the url has been accessed the message is deleted. You may enter your email address or just simply your name if you wish. If you do not enter an email address or name your identity will be anonymous to the message recipient. No messages or e-mail addresses are stored after the message has been viewed. We also do not log your IP address or any information about you, your message, or the recipient. Once sent, all data disappears forever.
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