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!
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Popularity: 11% [?]
This post is something like a reminder to myself. It is something I’ve found in several blog posts in the Internet but I’d like to share it as well…
Some time ago I decided to do my development in virtual machines so I could easily reinstall my boxes and/or migrate my work to another PC. I’ve tried different solutions and I decided to use Microsoft Virtual PC 2007. Unfortunately I’ve always had problems with the guest operating system being not as responsive as expected when hosted on my laptops. At first I thought it was my laptop configuration (HP Compaq nc6320) but after I bought a new one (HP Compaq 8510w) nothing changed compared to my old one. It seemed like some power management issue (it was like the processor was downclocking although the virtual machine was active) but playing with the Power Options didn’t help. My simple (but really ugly) workaround was to keep the processors busy by running some BOINC projects.
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Popularity: 36% [?]
Categories: Administration, Technical Tags: behaviour, downclock, hesitate, hp, idle, laptop, management, options, power, problem, processor, responsive, slow, solution, thread, virtual pc
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!
Popularity: 26% [?]
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.
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Popularity: 31% [?]
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!
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Popularity: 32% [?]
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…
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Popularity: 70% [?]
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.
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Popularity: 100% [?]
I wanna brag of being a proud owner of Buffalo LS-W1.0TGL/R1 V3 (also known as Buffalo LinkStation Pro Duo)! There’re a lot of things I would like to share about that little thing but I want to start from the beginning…
It has been almost two years since I bought my first laptop and decided to do something about getting rid of any desktop PCs in my room. Unfortunately I don’t think the hard drive of my laptop is reliable enough as a storage and in fact it is not that large (100 GB are not much nowadays). I’m tired of always looking for the right CD/DVD, buying blank ones and turning on my desktop machine when I want to find something stored in its 200 GB hard drives…
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Popularity: 51% [?]
Bol.bg (известни още с услугата си по доставка на Какъвто-и-да-е-Интернет) вече съвсем го удариха през просото. Няма толкова пропаднал доставчик. Както и първият, така и вторият Интернет доставчик явно са останали във времето на изгрева си. Не смея да преброя колко пъти съм им звънял за поддръжка през изминалите няколко месеца. По-голямата част от разговорите са приключвали малко след четвъртата минута, когато централата автоматично ми затваря безпомощна да намери оператора, към когото ме препраща. По неизвестни за мен причини, техническата поддръжка едва се намира, точно когато имам технически проблем. А такива зачестиха – варираха от загуба на пакети между машини (с измислени IP адреси в мрежата им), през изгубване ту на peering, ту на международен трафик, та до липса на каквато и да било връзка (особено покрай дъждовете). На няколко пъти обещаваха да пратят екип да провери какво се случва, а такъв въобще не се появява. А когато имаше някаква връзка, скоростта даже не варираше, а равнозакъснително намаляваше…
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Popularity: 41% [?]
My server hosts several mail domains (including my own one – vdachev.net) and is also a secondary mail exchanger for others. In an effort to reduce the spam traffic sent to and passing through my server I strenghtened the anti-spam policy of my servers. I’ve also moved many mail domains to Google Apps as it turned out to be a great solution and deals pretty well with spam.
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Popularity: 54% [?]
