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Dec 01

New Yahoo Messenger 8.0 Opened to Developers

This article was written on June 19, 2006 by CyberNet.

New Yahoo Messenger 8.0 Opened to Developers

There’s lots of news in the messenger world today! First, as written about earlier, the Windows Live Messenger download links are active. Subsequently, Yahoo is launching a Yahoo Messenger 8.0. The difference with this new release will be the added release of a software development kit. This kit gives third party access to developers who want to create plug-ins.

There are two types of categories for Yahoo Messenger, conversation and personal plug-ins. One example TechCrunch gave of a conversation plug-in is the ability for two people chatting to be able to pull up a Yahoo Map to discuss restaurants or other pegged locations. Personal plug-ins reduces or eliminates the need to open a browser with options to add news, a calendar, etc.

The release of 8.0 and the software development kit can really only mean more options for messenger users in the future! Some applications have become more well known and used due to the creative, useful plug-ins that have been created for them the obvious and first to come to mind being Firefox.

Also worth noting, it was reported that Microsoft’s Live Messenger was thought to allow users to add their Yahoo contacts. Live Messenger has been released but without this feature.

UPDATE: Download Yahoo Messenger 8.0 Beta

Dec 01

Mac Trojan Hijacks Bank Logins

Posted in: Today's Chili

This article was written on November 01, 2007 by CyberNet.

Mac Virus The other day security analysts deemed the new Mac Leopard’s firewall insecure, especially since it is disabled out-of-the-box. Now things have gotten a bit worse for those Mac users who feel that their machine is not in need of any additional security software.

Give a warm welcome for the OSX.RSPlug.A Trojan Horse. Sure this isn’t the first virus for a Mac, but this one is pretty nasty and being distributed through porn sites. It poses as a video codec that needs to be installed before the viewer can proceed to watch the movie. The result, well, it’s not good:

This Trojan horse, a form of DNSChanger, uses a sophisticated method, via the scutil command, to change the Mac’s DNS server (the server that is used to look up the correspondences between domain names and IP addresses for web sites and other Internet services). When this new, malicious, DNS server is active, it hijacks some web requests, leading users to phishing web sites (for sites such as Ebay, PayPal and some banks), or simply to web pages displaying ads for other pornographic web sites.

Is it possible that the increasing popularity of the Mac Operating System has caused virus writers to target the OS more? If you’re a Mac user looking for a free antivirus solution there is ClamXav, which is based on one of the leading Linux antivirus applications.

Source: Intego [via Mashable]
Kudos to the How-To Geek for the tip!

Nov 28

Extension to Split the Firefox Window…Almost Like Tiling in Opera

Posted in: Today's Chili

This article was written on January 13, 2007 by CyberNet.

One of my favorite features in Opera is having the ability to cascade or tile your tabs, which is something that many browsers don’t support. That’s because Opera is built using a Multiple Document Interface (MDI) that allows for these operations to take place. Having this feature always allowed me to view to different websites side-by-side which I find to be extremely useful.

Now there is a new extension for Firefox that almost simulates being able to tile your tabs. It is called Split Browser and allows you to continuously split an open window into multiple frames until your heart is content. It’s kinda hard to explain but take a look at this screenshot (click on it to get the fullsize version that I took):

Hopefully that picture explains a lot. I started with the window in the bottom-right corner (it still uses the primary address bar and back/forward buttons at the top of the screen) and started to divide that up into different sections. You can manually resize each frame by dragging the divider in between the different sites. If you want access to the address bar or any of the forward/back buttons for the new frames just click on the bar above that website and it will switch from just having the title to offering you a little more control. This is what the red arrow is pointing to in the screenshot above.

To actually split a window you can do one of two things. The first option is to right-click in the window and select where you want the new frame to appear:

Split Browser Right-Click Menu

If that seems like too much of a hassle you can always hover your mouse near one of the sides of the window and a button will magically appear:

Split Browser Button

It’s really that easy. You can even go as far as to drag links toward one of the sides and drop it on one of the buttons that appears. Then the link will open in a new split frame.

This is still not as good as what Opera has to offer with the MDI functionality, but at least it is something. It is a brand new extension so don’t go expecting it to be all perfect quite yet. I didn’t experience any bugs in the few hours that I have been using it but I have a strong feeling that some extensions will conflict with this.

Get the Split Browser Firefox Extension

Nov 21

Adobe Photoshop CS4 Cracked Already

Posted in: Today's Chili

This article was written on October 28, 2008 by CyberNet.

adobe photoshop cs4 keygen.png

Adobe has presented hackers with yet another challenge thanks to their new breed of Creative Suite 4 (CS4) applications that were released less than two weeks ago. They try do everything they can to stop software pirates from stealing their programs, but it’s inevitable that someone somewhere will find a workaround.

Unfortunately for Adobe that time came way too soon with CS4. It didn’t take long for the bulky downloads to get transformed into torrents, and then shared across networks worldwide. The Windows version of the Adobe CS4 Master Suite weighs in at 5.6GB, while the Mac version is nearly 7GB. It’s not exactly something you’d want to download via dial-up.

The catch… most downloads being posted merely contain trial versions of each Adobe CS4 application. Working cracks and key generators are available separately though. Some cracks are designed to actually patch the executable files for various programs (Photoshop, Dreamweaver, etc…), while others take a more interesting approach. In fact one version doesn’t have to modify any of the files.

The first workaround that was found uses a key generator that spits out keys for both Windows and Mac versions of the Master Suite. Once the software tries to contact Adobe, however, the keys will get deactivated and you’ll have until the end of the year before Photoshop and the other apps will stop working. Ingeniously someone came up with a way to get around this by modifying the operating system’s HOSTS file (available on both Mac and Windows) so that any requests to Adobe’s server’s never leave the comfort of your machine. If it can’t contact Adobe then it can’t deactivate the software.

Your activation system was a valiant effort Adobe, but it looks like it will be another 18-months (or whenever CS5 is released) before you’ll get another shot at stopping the pirates.

Nov 20

Monitor Sites for Changes with Mr. Uptime

Posted in: Today's Chili

This article was written on August 10, 2007 by CyberNet.

Mr. Uptime

There is a cool Firefox extension available called Mr. Uptime. With it you can monitor sites that are currently not available, and it will notify you when the site is back up and running. I’m guessing that this is going to appeal the most to the Digg crowd since they constantly encounter sites that collapse under heavy load.

How does it work? A toolbar will appear anytime that you get "Page Not Found" message, and from that toolbar you can begin monitoring the site to see if it is back up yet. There is also a right-click menu option that will let you highlight text and watch for that text to change on the page. This would be useful for a site that is performing maintenance where there is no error, but you can still have Mr. Uptime monitor for when the text changes.

Here’s a list of it’s features:

Status change – Watch when the server status code changes from an error to OK (HTTP status code 200).
Regular Checks – Mr. Uptime checks for updates every 5 minutes for the first 60 minutes. Every 10 minutes for the next 120 minutes. Every 15 minutes for the next 180 minutes. Every 30 minutes for the next 240 minutes. Every 60 minutes after that.
Efficient – It uses less bandwidth than a regular visit to a website since it either just checks the web server response or if a string exists or not on the page. It doesn’t load any images, etc.
Keywords – Set a keyword that the website should or should not contain to be considered ok.
Time to watch – Set how long you want to keep checking a website. After this time it will be removed from the watchlist even if it hasn’t become available.
Notifications – Choose to open the website in a new tab or a new window when it becomes available. You can also optionally get an alert dialog box to notify you when a website is working again.
Easy to use and discreet – The interface will not clutter your Firefox window. The toolbar is only shown when an error is encountered or when you choose to open it yourself. You will not get another toolbar taking up valuable space in Firefox.

This isn’t an extension that I’m going to install simply because I don’t come across enough sites that are down on a daily basis. I maybe come across two or three each week, so this would be pretty unnecessary for me. If downtime is a frequent problem for the sites you visit, or they are constantly undergoing maintenance then this would probably be pretty useful.

Get the Mr. Uptime Firefox Extension

Nov 16

Pidgin 2.0 (formerly Gaim) Released

Posted in: Today's Chili

This article was written on May 04, 2007 by CyberNet.

Pidgin After Gaim had a run in with AOL over their name, the project was renamed to Pidgin and development continued. This was very good news as any future releases had been halted until the situation was resolved.

With a fresh new logo (pictured to the right) and some great new features Pidgin 2.0 is all ready. Take a look at just a few of the things that makes Pidgin 2 an amazing instant messenger:

Supports AIM, MSN, Yahoo!, Jabber, ICQ, IRC, SILC, SIP/SIMPLE, Novell GroupWise, Lotus Sametime, Bonjour, Zephyr, Gadu-Gadu, and QQ instant messenger networks.
Fresh new interface adds a more modern look to the software.
Preferences are now in tabs instead of a tree-like layout.
Toolbars removed from chat windows (except for formatting toolbar). I’m definitely glad they did this.
Online/offline icons are now unified across all of the various messenger networks. If a buddy is online it will only show a green circle, but you can still find out what network a buddy is on by hovering over their name.

I haven’t officially been able to see a list of changes in Pidgin 2.0 because the site is currently down, but you can still download Pidgin 2.0 from SourceForge without any troubles.

I’m sure some of you are really don’t like the last bullet that I mentioned regarding the removal of network icons next to the buddy list. This is pretty controversial since the network icon made it easy to distinguish between your buddies that were online, but now they all look the same. Personally, I like the change and it makes the interface seem a lot cleaner, but then again I’m not using a ton of different networks either.

The future looks bright for Pidgin now that the AOL woes are behind them. They no longer have a name nor an icon that looks anything like AIM, so they should have a safe journey ahead of them.

For a more complete review visit Ars Technica. They cover many of the changes and walk you through some of the features found in Pidgin 2.

Download Pidgin 2.0 from SourceForge
Pidgin 2.0 Homepage

Nov 13

Freespire 2.0 = Ubuntu 7.04 with Proprietary Software & CNR

Posted in: Today's Chili

This article was written on August 08, 2007 by CyberNet.

Freespire 2
Click to Enlarge

Freespire 2.0 was just released today, and it brings a lot of great things to the table. For starters it uses Ubuntu 7.04 as its baseline, and was built off of that. So you get the benefits of using Ubuntu, but a lot of the proprietary software, drivers, and codecs since it is created by Freespire!

I couldn’t have said it better than CNet when they expressed their feelings on the inclusion of proprietary software:

Think of it like adding sugar-free Splenda to your morning coffee, only to find there’s actually a dash of sugar in the powdery substance to make it taste better.

Here are some of the benefits of using Freespire 2.0:

CNR Plugin provides free one-click access to thousands of open source applications, as well as options for legally licensed DVD playback software, Sun’s StarOffice, Parallels Workstation, Win4Lin, CodeWeaver’s Crossover Office, TransGaming’s Cedega, commercial games and many more.
KDE is added for an easier-to-use and more comfortable interface, with a familiar look & feel for Apple Mac and Microsoft Windows users.
Enhanced applications and features are added for enhanced usability and ease of use, modifying software applications like Firefox and Thunderbird, along with adding Linspire-sponsored open source software like Nvu, Lsongs and Lphoto.
Proprietary software is added when necessary, like Java, Flash and Adobe Acrobat, to provide overall increased interoperability.
Proprietary codecs are added to expand multimedia compatibility and provide a superior overall experience so users can listen to MP3 files, play Windows Media files, and much more.
Proprietary drivers are added to expand hardware compatibility and provide optimum 3D graphic card support, better WiFi support, and more.

It’s extremely nice that Freespire includes things like Java, Flash, and Adobe Acrobat so that you don’t have to worry about downloading it. Not to mention that you get to use the Click-N-Run (CNR) service for free, which makes installing, updating, and uninstalling applications a one-click process.

I can’t wait to try this out myself, and I could easily see it becoming my choice of Linux distributions since it takes out a lot of the guesswork. The download site that they have setup only supports 100 simultaneous users, and it has been pretty saturated with requests all day. So if you’re like me you’ll just want to jump on the Torrent to get it.

Freespire 2.0 Screenshot Gallery
Download Freespire 2.0

Nov 11

Download XP SP3

Posted in: Today's Chili

This article was written on April 23, 2008 by CyberNet.

So Windows XP SP3 was finally completed on Monday which goes along with the release schedule that we had previously provided. TechNet and MSDN subscribers were furious that they would not be given the download until after it was released to the public, and looked at it as a slap in the face from Microsoft. The negative publicity obviously wasn’t what Microsoft wanted, and so today they made the download available to those subscribers.

Does it even matter now? Not really… the 316MB XP SP3 download is appearing on sites all across the Internet. A good example of this is over at two of my favorite places: Major Geeks and Softpedia. They’ve already posted the full download, and have mirrored it in several different locations. That essentially means that it is already publicly available despite the fact that Microsoft won’t officially be posting it on their own site until Monday.

So if you want to get XP SP3 (build 5512) a little early head on over to Major Geeks or Softpedia. The download speeds won’t be blazing fast, but it sure beats tinkering around with a torrent.

Nov 11

Installing KDE 4 & Feature Overview

Posted in: Today's Chili

This article was written on January 11, 2008 by CyberNet.

I can’t believe it’s finally here, but KDE 4 has been pushed out the door! After about 8-months of rigorous testing of pre-release versions they have managed to get a stable edition of KDE 4 assembled and made available to the public.

I read a lot of information this morning in regards to KDE 4, and from what I can tell the general consensus is that anyone wanting to be on the bleeding edge of software will be running it. However, some people have been noticing that it’s a little slower than KDE 3.5, and for that reason a majority of the audience will hold off until KDE 4.1 is released. It’s kind of like waiting for Service Pack 1 to be released for Windows before you make the upgrade. Even Kubuntu 8.04, scheduled for release in April, is expected to have KDE 3.5 enabled by default, but it will include the KDE 4 packages so that users can make the switch.

Below you’ll find all kinds of information in regards to the new KDE 4. First off we take you through a rundown of the features. Then we give you step-by-step instructions on how to get KDE 4 setup in your existing Kubuntu installation, and finally we wrap things up with what the plans are for several different Linux distrubutions in regards to KDE 4. To get the ball rolling let’s flip through some of the cool new features offered in KDE 4:

–Features–

Dolphin has replaced Konqueror as the default file manager, and initially I would have to say that it looks pretty nice. It almost reminds me of a Mac at first glance.
(Click to Enlarge)
Plasma breathes new life into the KDE widgets.
(Click to Enlarge)
Application launcher fans rejoice! KRunner will let you run applications, open websites, and even do simple calculations.
(Click to Enlarge)
KWin brings some more advanced window previews, which is useful for things like tiling all of your open windows. It can also be useful for managing your virtual desktops:
(Click to Enlarge)
The Kickoff Start Menu is a drastic redesign from what you’re probably used to in KDE. It has a tabbed interface for quick access to your favorite applications, files on your computer, and more. Generally I think people will like it.
(Click to Enlarge)

–Kubuntu & KDE 4–

The Kubuntu team wanted to make it easy for anyone to try out the new KDE 4, and to do so they released a Live CD of Kubuntu 7.10 that is packaged with it. For those of you wanting to do this on your existing installation here are the steps you need to follow:

Remove previous KDE 4 packages, they are not compatible (apt-get remove kdelibs5 kde4base-data kde4libs-data)
Add deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/kubuntu-members-kde4/ubuntu gutsy main to your /etc/apt/sources.list
Install kde4-core, note that PPAs aren’t authenticated so you will likely get a warning when installing
KDE 4 apps should appear in your KDE 3 K-menu or you can run a full session by selecting “KDE 4″ from your login manager.
To avoid having to start a second X server for a full session install xserver-xephyr and run Xephyr :1 then and run /usr/lib/kde4/bin/startkde in the Xerphyr xterm.

–Distribution Status–

An alpha version of KDE4-based Arklinux 2008.1 is expected shortly after this release, with an expected final release within 3 or 4 weeks.
Debian KDE 4.0 packages are available in the experimental branch. The KDE Development Platform will even make it into Lenny. Watch for announcements by the Debian KDE Team. Rumours are that a Live CD is planned as well.
Fedora will feature KDE 4.0 in Fedora 9, to be released in April, with Alpha releases being available from 24th of January. KDE 4.0 packages are in the pre-alpha Rawhide repository.
Gentoo Linux provides KDE 4.0 builds on http://kde.gentoo.org.
Kubuntu packages are included in the upcoming “Hardy Heron” (8.04) and also made available as updates for the stable “Gutsy Gibbon” (7.10). A Live CD is available for trying out KDE 4.0. More details can be found in the announcement on Kubuntu.org.
Mandriva will provide packages for 2008.0 and aims at producing a Live CD with the latest snapshot of 2008.1.
openSUSE packages are available for openSUSE 10.3 (one-click install), openSUSE Factory (one-click install) and openSUSE 10.2. A KDE Four Live CD with these packages is also available. KDE 4.0 will be part of the upcoming openSUSE 11.0 release.

KDE 4 Announcement
Thanks for the tip Mohan!

Nov 10

Download Vista Performance and Compatibility Packs

Posted in: Today's Chili

This article was written on August 08, 2007 by CyberNet.

Vista Update

Last week there were some updates leaked for Windows Vista. These updates promised to cure the problems that have plagued many Vista users, including the slow file transfer times and slow resuming from standby.

Microsoft must have decided that it would just be best if they released the updates to the public instead of holding them back any longer. So here are the links you’ll need to download these packages:

Windows Vista Performance Pack (KB938979):

x86 Homepage (Direct Download) – 9.9MB
x64 Homepage (Direct Download) – 14.1MB

Windows Vista Compatibility Pack (KB938194):

x86 Homepage (Direct Download) – 2.1MB
x64 Homepage (Direct Download) – 3.6MB

Note: You’ll notice that the direct download links still retrieve the files from Microsoft, but bypass the WGA check.

These updates are the same as the ones that were leaked, so if you had already installed those there is no need to download these. Microsoft also said that they will be distributing the patches via Windows Update, but did not give a date as to when. Many people are speculating that it will be happening next Tuesday, August 14th which is when Microsoft will unleash their Windows patches for the month.

I’ve been using these updates for almost a week now and I have to say that they make a tremendous difference in Vista’s performance. File transfer times are lightning fast, it doesn’t take forever for the "time remaining" to be calculated, resuming from standby is much more prompt, and a number of other things have been fixed. Microsoft is extremely smart for releasing these patches now and satisfying their current customers, rather than bundling the fixes with SP1 just so that they can boast a more powerful service pack.

Here’s a detailed list of what issues the individual packs address:

Windows Vista Performance Pack:

You experience a long delay when you try to exit the Photos screen saver.
A memory leak occurs when you use the Windows Energy screen saver.
If User Account Control is disabled on the computer, you cannot install a network printer successfully. This problem occurs if the network printer is hosted by a Windows XP-based or a Windows Server 2003-based computer.
When you write data to an AVI file by using the AVIStreamWrite function, the file header of the AVI file is corrupted.
When you copy or move a large file, the "estimated time remaining" takes a long time to be calculated and displayed.
After you resume the computer from hibernation, it takes a long time to display the logon screen.
When you synchronize an offline file to a server, the offline file is corrupted.
If you edit an image file that uses the RAW image format, data loss occurs in the image file.
After you resume the computer from hibernation, the computer loses its default gateway address.
Poor memory management performance occurs.

Windows Vista Compatibility Pack:

The screen may go blank when you try to upgrade the video driver.
The computer stops responding, and you receive a "Display driver stopped responding and has recovered" error message. You can restart the computer only by pressing the computer’s power button.
The computer stops responding or restarts unexpectedly when you play video games or perform desktop operations.
The Diagnostic Policy Service (DPS) stops responding when the computer is under heavy load or when very little memory is available. This problem prevents diagnostics from working.
The screen goes blank after an external display device that is connected to the computer is turned off. For example, this problem may occur when a projector is turned off during a presentation.
A computer that has NVIDIA G80 series graphic drivers installed stops responding.
Visual appearance issues occur when you play graphics-intensive games.
You experience poor playback quality when you play HD DVD disks or Blu-ray disks on a large monitor.
Applications that load the Netcfgx.dll component exit unexpectedly.
Windows Calendar exits unexpectedly after you create a new appointment, create a new task, and then restart the computer.
Internet Connection Sharing stops responding after you upgrade a computer that is running Microsoft Windows XP to Windows Vista and then restart the computer.
The Printer Spooler service stops unexpectedly.
You receive a "Stop 0x0000009F" error when you put the computer to sleep while a Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) connection is active.

Thanks for the tip CoryC!
Sources: All About Microsoft, Windows Now, and Ars Technica

Hasta La Gadget!

New Yahoo Messenger 8.0 Opened to Developers

Mac Trojan Hijacks Bank Logins

Extension to Split the Firefox Window…Almost Like Tiling in Opera

Adobe Photoshop CS4 Cracked Already

Monitor Sites for Changes with Mr. Uptime

Pidgin 2.0 (formerly Gaim) Released

Freespire 2.0 = Ubuntu 7.04 with Proprietary Software & CNR

Download XP SP3