Tree Down: Failure

There were some severe storms in Maryland and the surrounding areas on Friday, June 29th. At about 11:00 PM EST, we lost power and it was not restored until this morning (Monday 7/2/12) at around 2:00AM. The likely cause of this outage was a tree that went down on the power lines that supply our community: We were fortunate to have power restored – there are still thousands without it. We’ll probably be investing in … Read more…

Samsung Galaxy S2 AT&T Official ICS – What’s New

Here I’ll try to keep a running log of things I’ve found to be new or different on the official AT&T ICS update to the Galaxy S2. Let’s get started: Lock screen looks a bit different General font used is different, better looking >Pattern unlock – pattern can be hidden Hold power button: now offers going to airplane mode Hold power button: when changing to sound on or off, there is a warning window you … Read more…

Galaxy S2 on AT&T ICS Update – How To

After “testing” my phone for two days, I decided it was time to apply the upgrade to my Wife’s phone. She had downloaded the UCKK6 OTA update before I did and thus complained about the terrible battery life issue before I realized that it was the update. I’m hoping that this update will at least alleviate the issue. So first things first – go download Kies: http://www.samsung.com/us/kies/ It’s a fairly simple application that includes all … Read more…

Samsung Galaxy S2 on AT&T ICS Update

Ice Cream Sandwich has been out for quite some time – and I’m sure that it’s already been running, in one form or another, on the Galaxy S2 (custom ROMs, etc). Not me – I never got around to rooting or installing custom ROMs, or jailbreaking, or any of that on any of my phones. So that said, I’ve been relying on AT&T for all software updates, and lets just say that both of our … Read more…

Verizon FiOS Quantum

Thanks a lot, Verizon. Now I REALLY need to upgrade my network hardware. The new speed tiers from Verizon FiOS are pretty much amazing: I currently have the 35/35 tier, which I don’t see here…I’m wondering if it will be bumped to the 50/25 tier? I’ve seen downloads at 5MBps (40Mbps) already, so maybe I’ll start seeing downloads hi 6.25MBps? Sweet. Granted, I have been planning on upgrading the wireless access point for some time … Read more…

Scammers phishing by text

Well, scammers have moved “up” in the world…first they were scamming by phone…now, they’re using SMS\Text messages to try to get you to browse to some fake, malicious website. Here’s the text I received from 321-332-5220 this morning: Wow! My reward from BestBuy.com[.gpck.biz]! Rule number one about any email\text\anything: DON’T CLICK THE LINK. Rule #2: Don’t click the link. EVER. A quick whois shows nothing useful: Registrant Address1:                         Attn: gpck.bizRegistrant Address2:                         Aptds. 0850-00056Registrant City:                             PanamaRegistrant Postal Code:                      Zona … Read more…

IE Toolbar Hell

A picture is worth 1,000 words. I know of a few people that honestly do use the Google toolbar, but this is just nuts. I took a minute or two to uninstall all of these, and no this is NOT one of my systems: Stupid drive-by-downloads. Total recipe search? Really? Because I need a toolbar for that…..

Denon AVR-2112CI Review – Networking

In an effort to replace lost functionality, I recently upgraded the AV Receiver to a network capable Denon AVR-2112CI. The full documentation is here, so I’ll spare those details. Going from a receiver with no HDMI inputs to one with several was a major bonus. Plus it is network-capable, which makes it that much better. After 2 firmware updates, everything is working great. The Pandora Radio app, internet radio, and DLNA music are great – … Read more…

Fine Tuning Media Center 7 – Is it all worth it – Part 2

A while back, I had “given up” on using a Media Center PC, sold the digital cable tuner cards, and moved on to the old standby – a service provider set-top-box, hoping to use other devices and DLNA to replace some of the lost functionality. Let’s just say that even with DLNA libraries, Netflix, and OnDemand…a purpose build Media Center is nearly impossible to replace…that was before I owned an XBOX 360. Enter the Media Center … Read more…

VPN Router on a Stick

Previously, when using a Cisco PIX firewall, VPN 3000 (Altiga), or other VPN hardware as an endpoint for a L2L or remote access VPN connection over the internet, 2 explicit internet facing interfaces were needed to allow internet access for these VPN connections. This was due to the fact that internet traffic would need to leave the internet interface (unencrypted)…..which is the same interface that the original encrypted traffic came in on. So it was simply … Read more…