Free SkyDownloader PRO Lifetime Unlimited License Worth $49.95

I am sure you have heard of LimeWire and FrostWire which is a pretty useful software to download music, movies, files from P2P and bittorrent networks. P2P networks offers an easier way to download a single song although you can do that too from BitTorrent by selecting the file that you want to download. LimeWire has 2 versions, the free and pro. The pro version obviously offers more features than the free version and Frostwire claims to be the free version of Limewire PRO.


I have discovered another P2P and BitTorrent downloader called SkyDownloader which offers much more features than Limewire Pro or FrostWire. SkyDownloader has 2 version as well, the free and pro version. The free version is a very stripped down version that has basic features and standard network connections but if you purchase the PRO version, you get upgraded turbo-charged connections, blazing fast downloads (up to 25% faster), unlimited technical support & free Updates, faster searches and access to more files, no marketing messages or ads, additional skins & themes

The price to pay for the PRO version is $49.95 for a life time unlimited license but here is how you can get it for FREE. Get it quick while offer last.

All you need to do is tweet about the free promotion that Sky Downloader is offering by going to the offer page, enter your Twitter username and password and click the Post Tweet button.

http://www.skydownloader.com/tweet4pro/index.php
Just sign up for a new twitter account if you are afraid of keying in your Twitter username and password on SkyDownloader’s website, because you won’t know what goes on with the script that is on the server. So far I managed to dig up a few text file containing the username and email address of the twitters. Alternatively, you can just visit the link below to create your SkyDownloader PRO account. This is the same web page where SkyDownloader brings you to after you’ve tweeted the post.

http://www.skydownloader.com/tweet4pro/download/download_twitter.php
SkyDownloader PRO is very impressive. I can search for any audio, images, video, documents and programs in the Gnutella network. At the search tab, it also displays the current top music, movies and software to download. If you don’t know what to download, then head on to the Popular tab which lists the most popular music, video and pictures. Torrents tab allows you to search for torrents and it also display the top 200 torrents with quality votings. You can also watch TV, listen to online radio stations, play flash games and chat from SkyDownloader.

SkyDownloader PRO runs on Java and is compatible with Windows.

Choosing Which Connection to Use with Windows Routing Table Editor GUI

About 10 years ago when most people are still using dial-up and broadband is only available in Klang valley, I was one of the lucky user that is staying in an area which is within the broadband coverage area. I remembered I was paying a lot monthly for using dial-up connection and was really happy when the broadband package is cheaper than what I paid, faster connection and I can use it 24 hours a day without limit. I had a question in mind which is if I have both dial up and broadband connected, would Windows use the bandwidth simultaneously or only use one of it? If Windows only uses one of it, which connection would it use and why?

I found out that it has something to do with the Windows Routing Table. It is possible to switch between the connections by changing the route and setting the lowest metric value for the default route. To do that, Windows comes with a command line route.exe utility which I would say it may not be easy to use for people who do not understand IP routing table.
Thanks to Nir Sofer, he has recently released a Network Route Utility for Windows called NetRouteView which is a GUI alternative to the standard route utility (Route.exe) of Windows operating system. It displays the list of all routes on your current network, including the destination, mask, gateway, interface IP address, metric value, type, protocol, age (in seconds), interface name, and the MAC address. NetRouteView also allows you to easily add new routes, as well as to remove or modify existing static routes.  Here is an example of the connections on my test computer. I have a wireless broadband (Celcom), WLAN connection (Wi-Fi) and a wired LAN, all 3 connected at the same time. How do we know which connection is being used when all 3 are connected?  Using NetRouteView, we would only need to look for the default route that has the lowest metric, which means that is the connection with the priority of being used. The routes with destination and mask 0.0.0.0 are the default routes so by clicking on the Destination column, it would sort and automatically place all 0.0.0.0 at the top for easy viewing. Next see which metric is the lowest. The interface IP would identify which connection is it.

Go to run by pressing WIN+R and type cmd to open the command prompt. Type ipconfig and it shows all the connection with the IP address. As you can see, the default route with metric 1 is my Celcom 3G wireless broadband, followed by metric 11 with the IP address 192.168.2.2 which is my wired LAN connection and finally metric 20 which is my wireless LAN (wi-fi). If I disconnect my wireless broadband, the next connection that will be automatically used is the wired LAN.

If you want all 3 connections to be connected and wants to use wireless lan, you can either double click on the route and change the metric to a lower number. Metric 1 is the lowest, so if there is already a connection with metric 1, the easiest way is to switch the metric values by pressing and holding the CTRL key while clicking the on the connections. Then you can either press F9 or right click and select “Switch Metric Values”.
If somehow you screwed up the routing tables, a reboot would automatically fix it because the changes that you made with NetRouteView is only temporary and not persistent. By the way, Cain & Able, a password recovery tool for Microsoft Operating Systems also has a GUI for editing the Routing Table called Route Table MAnager. It can be access from Tools menubar and select Route Table or you can use the hotkey Alt+R.

[ Download NetRouteView | Cain & Able ]

Spying Windows Software by Sniffing and Decoding Packets including SSL with oSpy

Sniffing packets of a software is one of the reverse engineering method to find out what data is being sent and received. Packet sniffing is mostly done by more advanced users and most of the time, hackers themselves. Many years ago when I was in the 8th-wonder team, our leader of the clan ad4 used packet sniffer and discovered that anyone can change a person’s ICQ details without logging in to that user account. He created a simple tool which is able to change the details of any ICQ account, unfortunately one of the clan member masta abused the tool and ICQ found out about that exploit and fixed it within 24 hours.

Other than that, it is also useful to check if a program is harvesting any sensitive data from your computer. If you do not have a firewall, you wouldn’t know if the program that you installed is connecting to the Internet or not. The most popular packet sniffer that is free today is Wireshare (last time was called Ethereal), but I’d like to introduce a different one called oSpy which has the capability of even decrypting encrypted SSL packets.

oSpy is a packet sniffing tool which aids in reverse-engineering software running on the Windows platform. The sniffing is done on the API level which allows a much more fine-grained view of what’s going on. Seeing return-addresses for each recv/send call (for example), can prove useful when you want to look at the processing code at that spot in a debugger or static analysis tool. And if an application uses encrypted communication it’s easy to intercept these calls as well. oSpy already intercepts one such API, and is the API used by MSN Messenger, Google Talk, etc. for encrypting/decrypting HTTPS data.
Another neat feature is when wanting to see how an application behaves when in a firewalled environment. Normally you would have to simulate such an environment by configuring firewalls etc., which not only is time-consuming, but might also cripple the rest of the applications you’ve got running. oSpy solves this problem by a feature called softwalling which allows you to set rules based on the type of function-call, the return-address, local/remote address/port, etc., and lets you choose which error to signal back to the application when the rule matches. This way you can make the application think that for example a connect() timed out, connection was refused, there was no route to host, etc.
Here is a simple test on how oSpy decrypts the SSL packet and display it in clear text.
1. I opened Maybank2u login webpage which has SSL.

2. I attached iexplorer.exe process to oSpy and start capturing the packets. Press F5 in oSpy, chose iexplorer.exe and click Start to start capturing packets on Internet Explorer.
3. I typed the username and password on the Maybank2u login page and click the login button.
4. oSpy shows the username and password that I typed in clear text!

I’ve tried capturing the packets using Wireshark but it only shows the encrypted data and nothing about the username and login even though all the protocols are enabled. The above is only one example of what you can do with oSpy and there are many other reasons to use this tool. What I like about oSpy is its portable, you don’t need to install WinPcap like most packet sniffer requires, small and it’s free!
There’s an annoying bug with oSpy which is if you do not terminate the program properly, you won’t be able to use it to capture packets on any process. It will ask you run a few gacutil commands in command prompt to cleanup the left-over .NET assemblies in your system-wide Global Assembly Cache. For gacutil to work, you will need to download and install .NET Framework SDK or Visual Studio. This might be fixed in the future versions…
[ Download oSpy ]

Pingdom Offers Free Account With 20 SMS to Monitor One Website Every Minute

I’ve been using Pingdom for at least 3 years already because they provide really good service and also the 1 minute checks from locations all over the world. I used to have problems sending SMS as notification and Pingdom’s support team fixed the problem really quick plus they even compensated more SMS credits to my account. I’ve always been using the Basic account because that is the cheapest plan they had back then. It’s pretty much a waste since I only have one blog site to monitor when the basic account offers checks on 5 websites.

My Pingdom account has just expired end of February and was billed $119.40 for a new invoice. I’ve just paid few thousand dollars for a years’ dedicated server at NetDepot and is really feeling the pinch for fork out another hundred bucks for a monitoring service. Moreover Adsense has stopped serving ads to this website and the revenue that is generated from other advertising companies is barely enough to cover the cost of this server. So I canceled my Pingdom account temporarily and thought that maybe I will re-sign up again at a later time when I have enough funds. To my surprise I found out that Pingdom has started offering FREE accounts along with 20 SMS but limited to only monitor ONE website. Pingdom Free account is fine with me because I only have 1 website to monitor and can save money.

What I like about Pingdom is the control panel is easy to use and understand and most importantly it does 1 minute checks from different locations around the world. For me, I set Pingdom to check for a certain keyword on my blog site every minute and only notify me via SMS and email if detected 11 consecutive check errors (10 minutes).

Other than checking for downtimes, Pingdom can also check how responsive is your website. Even if you only have FTP or mail server, Pingdom can check TCP ports (21 for FTP) and also SMTP, POP3, IMAP. The TCP port check makes it possible to check nearly everything including a game server such as Counter-Strike that is normally on port 27015.
The important requirement to keep your free Pingdom account alive is to log in to the Pingdom control panel at least once every 90 days. If you’re not good at remembering things, the easiest way is to install a free app by Pingdom called Pingdom Desktop Notifier that runs in the background and notifies you if your website is down. This application connects to your control panel so you can get more information about an outage and access more Pingdom features such as our various reports.

If you think about it, you can register 5 free accounts and you’re able to monitor 5 websites. It’s doable but it’s wrong under Pingdom’s terms of service. One of the terms is “Only one free account per person or legal entity is allowed“. If they catch you using two or more free accounts, you will risk your accounts being terminated. Blacklisting your account is fine because you can always use a new email address and contact information, just don’t blacklist the IP or website that you want to monitor…
So far I can’t find any better free uptime monitoring service than Pingdom. Sign up FREE Pingdom account from this link.

Today Only: Free Zemana AntiLogger License for EVERYONE

I personally think that keylogger is the most scariest threat. Imagine all your passwords being captured and the person who installed the keylogger is able to access all your password protected websites such as your emails, paypal, online banking and etc. One of the most effective method to counter keylogger is by using Zemana AntiLogger.

Zemana AntiLogger is one of the security products that I’ve recommended and will continue to recommend to everyone. The last time I tested Zemana AntiLogger and it was able to block virtually ALL keylogging, webcam capture and screenshot capture methods from different trojans. A year has gone by and again I’ve tested Zemana AntiLogger with 2 keyloggers (one of it uses rootkit method and the other advertises that it is completely invisible bypassing antivirus and firewall) and 1 trojan crypted with incognito which by bypassed many antivirus and internet security products. Zemana AntiLogger was able to detect injection on both of the keyloggers and the trojan while successfully blocking the installation of those dangerous files.

Zemana has collaborated with Softpedia to offer everyone FREE license for Zemana AntiLogger ONLY FOR TODAY. Hurry and grab your license as soon as possible.

To get your free Zemana AntiLogger license worth $39.50:
1. Go to this page http://www.zemana.com/softpedia/
2. Click the FREE Full Version Download Now button to download the installer AntiLogger_SOFTPEDIA_1.9.2.185.exe
3. Install and reboot your computer
4. Activate the program by following the on-screen instructions.

Zemana AntiLogger is easy to use. Just install and let it protect your computer. It is made to protect your computer real-time without relying on virus signatures so you won’t find any Scan button. Most if not all injections are threats, so if you get such warnings, make sure you block them first.

Zemana AntiLogger is easy to use. Just install and let it protect your computer. It is made to protect your computer real-time without relying on virus signatures so you won’t find any Scan button. Most if not all injections are threats, so if you get such warnings, make sure you block them first.

I believe the installer that is custom built for Softpedia which has the license number integrated to activate the program. I am not sure whether is it still possible to continue activate the license using the custom installer when this promo is expired. If the activation is limited to only today, that means if we reformat our hard drive
we wouldn’t be able to use Zemana AntiLogger for free anymore. I’ve did some tracing and found that the activated license information is stored in C:\Program Files\AntiLogger\config.cfg. You can backup the config.cfg and restore it at a later time IF the online activation blocks the SOFTPEDIA-OEM-12809 license number. If you starting to think about piracy using the config.cfg, you will not succeed because the license is hardware dependent and if you transfer the config.cfg on another computer, it won’t work.

One thing I noticed about Zemana AntiLogger is it doesn’t aggressively checks the current process for threats. One example is, I am using Input Director to share keyboard and mouse between computers and it took a while before Zemana found out that Input Director is capturing the screen. Not to worry because I’ve tried turning off Zemana and then install a keylogger that auto uploads captured data but I’ve waited 30 minutes and still didn’t receive any captured data. I assume that although Zemana AntiLogger haven’t detect the threat, but it can block sensitive data from being transferred.
You can install and run Zemana AntiLogger together with your antivirus. Check here for a list of compatible security products. You have no idea how many undetectable threats out there today and relying solely on just antivirus itself is not enough to keep your personal data safe. Go tell your friends and families about this promotion.

Update: Zemana AntiLogger is only compatible with Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or higher, Vista and 7 32 bit ONLY. AntiLogger is not available for 64-bit Windows.

Comparing CPU Speed and Performance from Benchmarks Reports

2 years ago I moved my website from WebhostingBuzz to a dedicated server in SoftLayer and has been using it until today. The server was considered quite powerful then and luckily it has been able to support this blog and forum without giving any major downtime. There are still times when this website gets a surge of visitors and caused the server to crash. Here are my current dedicated hardware specification. Single processor quad core Intel Xeon X3220, 8GB DDR2 RAM, 100Mbps uplink, 2 x 73GB SA-SCSI 15K RPM hard drives WITHOUT RAID and I am paying a whopping $349 every month for the past 2 years.

Recently I found out that the monthly price for X3220 and X3230 is the same except there is an additional one time $49 setup fee. I figured that the X3230 should be faster than the X3220, so I went ahead and ordered the upgrade which was performed last weekend. I didn’t really know what are the differences because I never really performed any benchmark.
Sometimes I do felt like I am paying too much for the server rental in SoftLayer so I searched around and I finally found a datacenter that was offering a much better price with a more powerful server compared to SoftLayer.

My current SoftLayer dedicated server specification:

CPU: Intel Xeon 3230 4×2.66GHz
Memory: 8GB DDR2 RAM
Hard Drive: 2 x 73GB SA-SCSI 15K RPM without RAID
Bandwidth: 2000GB (100Mbps uplink)
Annual Price: $4212

My upcoming new NetDepot dedicated server specification:

CPU: Dual Intel Xeon E5520 Nehalem 8×2.26GHz
Memory: 12GB DDR3 RAM
Hard Drive: 2 x 146GB SA-SCSI 15K RPM with RAID 1
Bandwidth: 3000GB (100Mbps uplink)
First year Annual Price: $3590.2
Second Year Onwards: $1771.2

As you can see I am getting a way more powerful processor with an increased of memory and also RAID 1 for hard drive mirroring. The best part is the price that I get from NetDepot is much cheaper than SoftLayer. The first year price is a bit higher compared to the second year onwards because of the “buydown” option where I pay for the upgrades once and never had to pay for it again. The server migration will be done somewhere end of this month to early of March and the whole process should be transparent.
Anyway, I wanted to share on how to compare CPU speeds and performance based on benchmark reports. Like I said earlier, I didn’t know what are the difference between a X3220 and X3230 or X3230 vs E5520 in numbers so these reports would really help.
1. PassMark CPU Benchmark Charts

PassMark Software has delved into the thousands of benchmark results that PerformanceTest users have posted to its web site and produced five Intel vs AMD CPU charts to help compare the relative speeds of the different processors. Included in this list are CPUs designed for servers and workstations (Intel Xeon and AMD Opteron processors), desktop CPUs (Intel Core2 Quad, Intel Core i7, Intel Core2 Extreme and AMD Phenom II processors), in addition to mobile CPUs.

2. frybench

Frybench is an open public benchmark based on RandomControl’s flagship product, fryrender, to which anyone could submit performance measurements. Fryrender’s core doesn’t let a single CPU cycle be wasted. Its routines have been written to be cache efficient, and to take the maximum advantage possible of the new multi-threading capabilities present in modern CPU architectures.  

3. Futuremark Benchmark Results

Futuremark has public benchmark results but the search form makes it hard to find for the CPU score that you’re looking for. You can search for what kind of processor such as Intel Core 2 Quad but can’t search for the exact processor number such as Q6600, Q6700 or E5520. So far I could only find this 3 sites that are offering up to date CPU benchmark reports. If you know any, do let me know so I can add it to the list.
 

Free 1 Year Genuine Trend Micro Internet Security 2010 for EVERYONE

Trend Micro has been around for a very very long time. Back then it was called PC-Cillin and now is renamed to Trend Micro. I still remembered the first time I heard of PC-Cillin when I was using my cousin’s 100Mhz computer. I wasn’t a big fan of Trend Micro antivirus products because it always didn’t score well when put being tested by AV-Test. The latest report shows that Trend Micro Internet Security 2010 ranks either second lowest or the lowest when compared to other commercial antivirus such as Norton, Kaspersky, G Data, Panda, Avira, F-Secure, Bitdefender, CA and PC Tools. On my latest antivirus 2010 performance test report, Trend doesn’t seem to put a lot of load on the Windows computer and it was even able to successfully block a crypted Bifrost trojan when many others failed to do so…

t is always up to the individual to determine if whether Trend Micro is the best or not because I do have a friend name Jay who is a very good coder and he thinks that Trend is the best. Heck he even recommends me to use it. Here’s a very good news to Trend fans because you are able to get hold of 1 year Trend Micro Internet Security 2010 license for FREE!

Trend Micro Internet Security 2010 has the following features to protect your computer:

Antivirus

Antispyware

Firewall

Protects Windows and Important Programs from Unauthorized Changes

Web Threats Protection

Spam Email Filter

Parental Controls

Data Theft Prevention

As usual, Internet Security suites normally offers a bunch of protections which probably you don’t need. For example, if you don’t use a POP email, then you don’t need Spam Filter. Also if you don’t have kids, you don’t need Parental Controls as well. You can turn them off and logically it should work slightly faster.
To get your free 1 year Trend Micro Internet Security 2010 license, all you need to do is just download the 149MB TIS175_IOMEGA.exe setup file from this promotional link. During installation, when asked to enter your Trend Micro Internet Security serial number, just select “Install a free trial version“. You will also come to a part where you need to activate the program by entering your email address. You will need to download around 75MB for the first update.

Software to Adjust Monitor Brightness and Contrast for Dell Studio One Desktop

I just spent nearly $1000 on a new Dell Studio One 1909 desktop computer to work on the X-Ray project. The reason I chose this computer is because the monitor is the computer itself and it takes up very little space. Other than that, only 1 cable is required that is the power cord. The mouse and keyboard are wireless and it also comes with a wi-fi adapter. Everything was so great about this all-in-one desktop but after using a while I noticed that it is lacking of control buttons to adjust the monitor’s brightness and contrast. I searched on the Internet and many people too confirmed that it doesn’t have a monitor brightness control on the monitor.

I always adjust the monitor’s brightness to a very low level so that I don’t strain my eyes. I believe that is the reason why until today my eyesight is still perfect even though I spent at least 8 hours a day on computer 7 days a week. I read the whole manual book, searched on the Internet but I couldn’t find a way to adjust the brightness of the monitor. I found a tool developed by Dell called OSD (On Screen Display) installed in Program Files folder and I thought it could somehow used to adjust the brightness but the program did nothing. After messing around for a little while, I found 2 ways to adjust the Dell Studio One 1909 screen brightness.

The first method only works if you have a Nvidia graphics card.
1. Right click on desktop and select NVIDIA Control Panel
2. Click on “Adjust desktop color settings” at the left hand side navigation bar.

3. Select NVIDIA settings and you can now move the slider for Brightness and Contrast.

If your computer doesn’t come with a NVIDIA graphics card or if the brightness control button is not working, you can use a simple software such as Desktop Lighter to do it. Desktop Lighter lets you adjust the brightness of your screen easily and quickly, anytime you want to. It can change the brightness level by a trackbar slider or by keyboard command hotkeys. To set the brightness you can use both the Desktop Lighter trackbar and keyboard hotkeys (Ctrl+<) & (Ctrl+>) when the program sits in system tray.

This program is FREE and use up less than 2MB memory. What I really like about this tool is the command hotkey to adjust the level of brightness is very similar to laptops. Laptop uses the Fn key combined with another key but Desktop Lighter uses CTRL + < or >. You can even set it to launch with Windows so you don’t need to do anything in future and this tool auto decrease or increase the brightness based on your last settings. Even after setting the lowest for brightness and contrast in NVIDIA Control Panel, the screen is still very bright. Fortunately I can use Desktop Lighter to bring down the brightness even more.
[ Download Desktop Lighter ]

Set up Logitech WebCam as Motion Detector and Send Alert via SMS Text Message

I am staying in an apartment with a guarded entrance but somehow there are still quite a lot of house break-in cases that is never solved by the police. It is suspected that this is an inside job, done by some people who stays in the apartment. Some people goes out and comes back at a fixed time and this gives the burglar a pretty good opportunity to cut off the locks and get in the house to grab whatever they want.

Sometimes when I am away for a few days, I am always worried about my apartment. Thankfully I know my neighbor and I always inform them to keep an eye on my house. However, relying on neighbor is still not good enough because they can’t be looking out all the time so I needed something better which is can immediately notify me on my cellphone when there is a motion detected. The good thing about my apartment is the design where there is only one possible way to get in which is from the main door. So all I needed is to set up a motion detector that monitors the front door. This is my current setup and it works perfectly.

To set up a home based CCTV motion detection, I will need a computer running Windows, a webcam or an IP camera, motion detection software and a World-Text Email to SMS subscription for sending SMS text alert.  I already have a Logitech webcam connected to the computer running Windows so all I need to do is find a good working webcam software and set it up with World-Text. I found a lot of shareware webcam monitoring software that are quite expensive such as webcamXP, webcam7, Webcam Monitor, Netcam Watcher Pro but very few freeware that has the ability to take an action such as send email, run a program, upload to FTP or save file when a motion is detected. After searching around, I found Yawcam (Yet Another Webcam Software).  I like Yawcam because it’s free, ability to send email WITH SSL support when motion detected, uses very little CPU when motion detection is enable, supports password protected online Streaming using Javascript or Java Applet and has a scheduler so that I can set when to auto turn off the motion detector. Follow the steps below on how to setup your webcam as a motion detector using Yawcam software.

1. Yawcam runs on Java so make sure you already have Java installed. You can go to this link to check if you have Java installed.
2. Download and install Yawcam.
3. Run Yawcam and you should see the message “No device selected” at the Preview window. Go to Settings > Device (none) > Change to > and select your webcam that is displayed in the list.

4. Now click on the Window that is on the menubar and select Motion detection. The only thing that you will want to configure is the Actions tab. The actions tab let you decide which actions that shall be taken when a motion is detected. You can set it to:

Save an image file (or a sequence of files) to the local computer

Upload images to an ftp account

Send an e-mail (with or without images attached)

Execute a program or batch file

Play a sound file

5. To enable Motion detection, simply click on the “enable” button for Motion at the Control panel. Alternatively, if you’re at the Motion Detection window, you can click the enable button there too.

Now your webcam connected to your computer will act as a motion detector and will perform actions (if configured) upon detecting any motion. This is however not good enough for me because I want to get instant SMS text message on my mobile phone when detected a motion. Many years ago, Malaysian mobile carriers such as Digi, Celcom and Maxis offer “free” Email To SMS gateways which can be used to forward simple text emails to a mobile phones but they’ve stopped it long ago and my guess is due to abuse. Your country might still have this service running, just search in Google and I’m sure you can find it. The more concrete way is to just subscribe to a email to SMS gateway service as they are more reliable. I don’t want to save a few buck and ended up my house being break in to. So here’s how I set it up
1. Sign up for an account in World-Text. Make sure you enter a valid information on the application form.
2. Check your email and click on the activation link to activate your World-Text account.
3. You should receive a text message from World-Text containing 5 digit pin number. Enter the 5 digit pin in the activation link to verify your mobile number.
4. Login to your World-Text account.
5. Click on “Email Gateway Configuration” link.
6. Click on “Send SMS Using A Password” link and note down the “Current Secure ID”
Note: By default a new account gets 30 free credits. Sending a text message to Malaysia cost 15 credits per SMS. You can refer to the table from this link on how many credits are needed to send a text message to your country. You should buy more credits because the 30 free credits won’t be enough since you need to test send a few SMS alert to make sure that it’s working.
7. Go to Yawcam, click Window from menubar and select Motion detection.
8. Go to Actions tab and click the Settings button for Send-Email.
9. Fill up the Email settings accordingly.

---

To = [mobile_number]@sms.world-text.com
Replace [mobile_number] with your mobile number. You must include your country code. An example for Malaysia Maxis user is 60128883333@sms.world-text.com . You can refer to this page for more detailed instruction.

---

From = Your full Gmail address, example raymond@gmail.com

---

Subject = Your World-Text Secure ID
It’s the same Secure ID that you noted down in step 6 above.

---

Attach Image = CHECK

---

SMTP Server = smtp.gmail.com

---

Port = 25

---

Use encryption connection. (SSL) = CHECK

---

Password required = CHECK

---

Username = Your full Gmail

address, example raymond@gmail.com

---

Password = Your Gmail password
As for flood control, I’d advice you to activate it or else it will send out really a lot of email alerts in one shot. I personally set it to send 1 email in every 60 seconds to prevent too many SMS. An example of

10. Click OK when you’re done and click the “enable” button at Motion Detection window. Try to create some motion in-front of your webcam and check the Motion Events tab. There should be information about motion events detected by Yawcam and what actions that were taken. If you got the settings right, you should instantly receive a SMS text message on your mobile with the message you set in the email settings window.
If you receive a text message alerting you that a motion is detected, log in to your Gmail email, go to Sent Mail folder and check the email sent by Yawcam. It should have an attached image of what tripped the motion detector. If you see a burglar, CALL THE POLICE!
Extra Note: There are some mobile carriers that has antispam installed and they won’t allow the sender ID to be in text such as World-Text, SMSAlert, SMS-Bureau, and etc. It’s safer if you configure World-Text’s default sender with numeric characters. Login to your World-Text account, at the Basic Configuration, you should see a drop-down option to change the Default Sender. Select any one with numbers and you’re done.
 by: raymond

Parallels Desktop 5 for Mac

Itching to run even more software on that new MacBook Pro? With Parallels Desktop 5 for Mac whole new worlds open up to you as you will be able to install additional operating systems on your Intel based Mac and run them side-by-side with Mac OS X. With Parallels' award-winning virtualization wizardry, you can run Mac OS X and Windows at the same time 50% faster than before. You can even drag-and-drop files between desktops or open Windows files in your Mac application and Mac files in your Windows solutions.

The Parallels Desktop 5 for Mac is a great value in that it comes with full versions of three great Windows products: Kaspersky Internet Security, Acronis True Image, and Acronis Disk Director Suite. Pretty much everything you will need to manage and secure that Windows partition from some top ranked software companies.

With the help of Parallels you will be able to able install Microsoft Windows on your Mac and make it into iWindows.

[Download]

QuickBooks Pro 2010

Save 20% on the latest version of QuickBooks Pro 2010.

Finances are nobody's idea of a good time, particularly the small or medium business owner trying to attract customers, quality employees and balance the books with the few minutes that are left at the end of the day. Fortunately, Intuit software have made it their business to simplify and improve this process with their industry-leading QuickBooks software.

Intuit's latest installment, Quickbooks Pro 2010, has received some mixed reviews in certain circles, however most are more concerned with the price than the functionality of the program. There is, however, no disagreement when recognizing QuickBooks Pro 2010's strengths: it is superbly easy to use, clean, and produces quality documents that function as and look like a professional job.

As always, QuickBooks Pro 2010 give you the means to track and organize your company's dollars both incoming and outgoing, then to visualize this information in customizable reports that show your strengths and weaknesses, and finally give you the market information to make the right decisions in regard to the reports.

With the 2010 software, we found that Intuit's new features improved on these core capabilities to step it forward again against its competitors. Document management has improved with an excellent Excel importation feature, allowing you to cut and paste your Excel data for invoices, expenses and other movements straight into your customer and vendor lists. This innovation exemplifies the customizable and professional templates available for all paperwork in QuickBooks Pro 2010.

The speed of the database has improved five-fold from the unimpressive 2009 update, which means that using the improved Outlook integration for email circulation, online banking of checks to save time, and accessing small business help is much more efficient and worthwhile.

If managing the money is the bane of your small business management, QuickBooks Pro 2010 is a costly but well-researched, multi-faceted software that will produce professional quality documents, and give you professional ease and accuracy in tracking the gritty details of your finances.

QuickBooks Pro 2010: What We Liked

Software.com Labs singled out the key features to be watching for in Quickbooks Pro 2010.

• Efficiency- QuickBooks Pro 2010 has significantly faster processing than its predecessors, both in terms of crunching data into tables and visuals, and in boot up time.
• Customizable - The new import tool allows you to take custom data from excel and bring it straight into the software, meaning you have complete control of layout, content and emphasis. QuickBooks Pro 2010 also provides you hundreds of professional templates for important documents such as invoices and paychecks.
• New Reporting Structure- The innovated range of reports that you can produce to view yearly expenses and income comparisons, detailed expense and income breakdowns, and a top customer list among others, allow you to pinpoint strengths and weaknesses with simplicity.
• First-time friendly - step-by-step tutorials, familiar invoice/paycheck etc. templates for entering information, and easy upgrades.

QuickBooks Pro 2010: What We Didn't Like

With a monopoly on the market share due to their superior product, Intuit can afford to do what they like with QuickBooks Pro 2010 - including charging more than their competitors.

• Costly - Some features (such as tax and deduction calculations in processing a payroll) come at an additional cost.
• A few annoying habits such as subscription pop-ups.

Intuit Software Support

You can only get in direct phone contact with Intuit after filling out an identification sheet on the Intuit website. Intuit do offer online support via monthly and yearly support plans that provide backup services, data recovery, 24/7 contact with the Intuit support team amongst other useful links. Alternatively, the Intuit site provides a self-help link, FAQs, situation walk-throughs and an online community.

About Intuit Software

Intuit have been developing financial preparation software and related services since 1983. In this time they have featured in Fortune magazine's "Top 100 Companies to Work For" and "America's Most Admired Software Companies" lists.

Copernic Desktop Search Professional

Designed for small & medium size business owners and professionals who want to free up their time so they can focus on their clients. CDS Professional lets you quickly find the stuff that helps you do business - files, emails, contracts, presentations and more. Searching your computer for stored information can be a painstaking process. Most computers' internally built in search function takes a long time to complete and often produces poor results. The award winning Copernic Desktop Search solves that problem very efficiently. Whether you are searching your hard disk for email, music, photos, internet favourites, videos or other data, Copernic finds it in seconds.

Find your files instantly

• Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, HTML, WordPerfect, text, ZIP files
• Emails or attachments from Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora and
  Mozilla Thunderbird
• Outlook Notes, Tasks and Calendar items
• Over 150 other types of files like MP3, JPG, WAV, MPEG

Streamline your results

• Optimize your search by refining fields or using advanced search keywords
• Instantly preview filtered matching results
• Get fast results as you type
• Trace keywords in document previews using dynamic word-find buttons
• Pinpoint your targeted information using auto-scroll to first occurrence and highlighted keywords

Control your search experience

• Sort and group search results
• Save your most frequent searches
• Choose files and email folders to index
• Control computer resources usage when indexing documents
• Benefit from automatic, seamless real-time indexing of new or updated files and emails
• Save battery power by suspending the indexing process

Get Web results for your desktop queries

• Search the Web or your computer from the same lightweight, intuitive interface.
• Use convenient toolbars: deskbar and browser toolbar.
• Set Copernic as your default Web search engine

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Diskeeper 2010 Pro Premier

All computers suffer from file fragmentation and start to slow down and operate at less their peak ability. Fragmented files can drain away system resources and compromise all aspects of daily computer use. Diskeeper 2010 Pro Premier is one of the most automated optimizing defragmenters built and will dynamically defragment your hard drives in a manner that will net the best file optimization possible. Diskeeper 2010 Pro Premier contains an intelligent defrag ability that analyses your system and drive environment for low free space or heavy file fragmentation and automatically chooses the most effective process to gain the most performance for your system. With Diskeeper's cutting-edge InvisiTasking,

Diskeeper 2010 Pro Premier can defragment you system in real-time and eliminate the need for lost time while you defragment your system and Frag Shield dynamically prevents the fragmentation of key operating system files to maintain system reliability. Diskeeper 2010 Pro Premier is also able to monitor your system's file usage and it will organize your most commonly utilized files for the fastest possible access.

I have used these products for years to maintain healthy and reliable hard drives and the new 2010 versions mark the first truly automatic hard drive and file optimizer available able to handle the huge hard drives available now.

[Download]

Difference Between the Free and Paid Version of Rising Antivirus 2009

Yesterday I read a post in forum saying that the free and paid version of Rising Antivirus 2009 is exactly the same. I second that because I did a quick comparison a few months ago and found that they don’t have much differences. If you go to the RISING FREE Antivirus homepage, it says that the latest Rising Antivirus Free Edition has the same service and function as Rising Antivirus 2009 paid version, but there are some four differences which is:

1. Information centre service: The free edition has an information centre window in its main interface where it displays the latest news of company. As for the paid version, there is no such window.

2. Update Service: RISING paid version product gets update through high speed update server each day, but Rising Antivirus Free Edition product does not.

3. Fast response technical support
for paid version and limited support for free edition.

4. Licensed users gets Rising Firewall for free.

Basically only the first two points are the differences in the software. The third and the fourth point are extra benefit/service offered by RISING to their customers. The paid version of RISING Antivirus cost USD$19.95 per year and let’s see if it is really worth the money or not.

I downloaded both paid and free version of RISING Antivirus 2009 and tested it one at a time. Both the program folders has the exact same files. So I thought that maybe the registry is the place where it determines if the program is recognized as the free or paid version. I analyzed the registry keys created by RISING and also found not much difference.

I had to go deeper by monitoring the installation with SysTracer and Total Uninstall. This time I found that RISING Antivirus created some files at the application data folder. This path is being used by some software to stores its settings and configuration. If you go to %appdata%\Rising\Rav folder, there is a file RsConfig.cfg that determines if the program should be a free or paid version. If you copy the RsConfig.cfg file from the free edition to the paid version, the paid version instantly turns into a free version. Vice versa. This RsConfig.cfg file is encrypted and not editable by text editor or hex editor. You also cannot delete the RsConfig.cfg file. Once it’s gone, the program will treat it as corrupted and wants you to reinstall again. That’s about the “information centre service” window.


Next, I’ve used URLSnooper to check on the URLs that RISING Antivirus connects to get the latest program updates and virus definitions. Both versions first connects
to rsup09.rising.com.cn to get a few xml files to compare if the computer has the latest virus definitions. When it requires to download the definitions, both version connects to down.rising-global.com.


This shows that point number 2, “RISING paid version product gets update through high speed update server each day, but Rising Antivirus Free Edition product does not” is fake.

If you ask, why is it that the installer for paid version is 5MB bigger than the free version? That’s because the installer for paid version is compiled with a newer engine and virus definition so you don’t need to spend as much time as the free version in updating after installation.

Since I never reviewed RISING Antivirus 2009 before, here are some little information about it. After installing RISING Antivirus 2009, there will be an extra 6 processes namely CCenter.exe, RavMonD.exe, RavTask.exe, rsnetsvr.exe, RsTray.exe and ScanFrm.exe. All of the 6 process takes up about 23MB during idle. A full scan on a clean Windows XP service
pack 3 with all latest hotfixes took 17 minutes 36 seconds.

Now you know the difference between the paid and the free version of RISING Antivirus 2009. Whether it is worth paying USD$19.95 for the paid version is entirely up to you to judge. As for me, I would be just fine with the free version since there are no popups or any nag screen like Avira free (which of course can be disabled). Just another thought, I wonder when will RISING Antivirus 2010 be out since most of the antivirus companies has upgraded their version to 2010…

Australians Gets PC Tools Disk Suite License for FREE!

I’ve been pretty much out of touch in the tech world as I am busy with the X-Ray project. It should take a few more weeks before it is fully revealed to you guys. I really have no idea on what to write since most of the articles that you read here are written based on my experience with computers. Seeing that this freebie has not yet been posted anywhere, I thought it’d be nice to share this out. Here is another free license promo offered by PC Tools to Australian PC User magazine readers.



Disk Suite is an all-in-one hard-drive management utility that integrates disk optimization and cleanup, defrag and backup in one easy to use package. Disk Suite puts a range of tools at your fingertips to provide optimum system performance and improved stability and security. PC Tools Disk Suite normally cost $39.95 for a 3 computer license, but is absolutely free if you follow the steps below.

1. Go to this page http://www.pctools.com/disk-suite/free/promo/PCUSER0110/

2. Fill up the form by entering your first name, last name, email, address, city, country, zip
and the random captcha code. You will also need to check the small checkbox and then click the “Request Free License” button.

3. You can check your email when you see the message “Thank you for requesting your FREE license for PC Tools Disk Suite v1. Your free license code will be e-mailed to you shortly.” You should instantly receive an email from PC Tools (sales@pctool.somc) with the subject Free PC Tools Disk Suite License. Note down the Name and License Key.

4. Download and install the latest version of PC Tools Disk Suite here: dsinstall.exe

5. Run the program and register the program with the Name and License Key.

Like I said earlier, this offer is only for Australians. If you do not have an Australia IP address, you won’t see the form for you to request the free license. Well I managed to request for a free license with an Australia proxy but it was like the only Ausi proxy that I could find. PC Tools also logs the ip address that has been used to request for the license and blocks it from further request. PC Tools Disk Suite is designed for Windows Vista 64-bit SP1, Vista 32-bit, XP and 2000. I installed on Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit and it seems to work just fine.

VirusTotal Uploader 2.0 Supports Uploading up to Five 20MB Files

VirusTotal is one of the best online service that is provided for free to everyone. It is an online file scanner that allows you to upload any suspicious file to have it scanned using 41 different antivirus software with the latest virus definitions. If you find that uploading file to VirusTotal is a hassle, you can always use their uploader program that works on Windows. Simply right click on the file, go to Send To and finally select VirusTotal from the list. The uploader program will automatically send the file to VirusTotal without you opening your web browser, typing virustotal.com in the URL bar and wait for the website to load.
The VirusTotal Uploader has been recently updated to version 2.0 and it has a couple of major improvements to make it even faster and better.

case of multiple-file malware queries. Additionally, the file limit has been increased to 20 MB (previously 10MB) per file.

Secondly, VirusTotal Uploader version 1.0 only allows you to send the file to VirusTotal using right click context-menu but now it has an independent standalone program! In this mode, you can upload files to VirusTotal in a few ways:

1. Select an executable process that is active in Windows
2. Drag and drop up to 5 files to the program
3. Manually browse for the file in your computer

4. Enter an URL address with a suspicious file that will automatically “Get and upload”.

Another improvement to the latest VirusTotal Uploader 2.0 is a pre-upload check if the file is already present in the VirusTotal database. In this version, the Uploader calculates a hash of the file before uploading it, and checks if it appears in the database. If so, the file doesn’t get uploaded, saving both time and transfer. Of course, you are still able to force the uploading of the file for reanalysis.

If you are the adventures type that likes download a lot of dangerous programs such as keygen, cracks, patches, trojans, crypter, binder and etc, then you should definitely use VirusTotal Uploader. This program does not take up any system resource at all when it is not running. Another advantage in using a desktop uploading tool is the transfer rate speed is definitely faster than uploading from web browser.

[ Download VirusTotal Uploader 2.0 ]

Easily Be the Best MalwareCity Malware Catcher and Win BitDefender 2010 License

Did you know that MalwareCity, a community website set up by BitDefender is having a contest where you have to prove yourself as the best malware catcher to win a free legal BitDefender 2010 license for 1 year? What you need to do is browse through MalwareCity’s website and try to look for the “Catch Him” image which you can click on it to submit your entry. The contest starts on 14 December, and ends on 21 December 2009. Now if the website has tons of articles, it’d be time consuming and tedius for you to browse through every article just to look for that image.

Fortunately I know of a method that can help you automate the process of searching for that image. It took me less than 5 minutes to search where the “Catch Me” image is located at. I personally don’t think this is cheating because I am using my computer knowledge and skills to be the best malware catcher!

First, you will need a website downloader or some people call it offline browser to automatic crawl and download all contents from a link. My personal favorite is Offline Explorer because it is packed with tons of features which makes it very powerful. Unfortunately it is shareware
but you can use it without any limitations for 30 days. Then you crawl MalwareCity’s website with Offline Explorer and when finished, use a textcrawler to search for the image filename and see where it is located. Not sure what am I talking about? Follow the steps below and perhaps you can get a better idea.

1. Download and install Offline Explorer

2. Run Offline Explorer and when the New Project Wizard dialog box
appears, enter http://www.malwarecity.com at the Project URL and click Next.

3. Make sure Levels limit is checked and the value is 1. Click Next.

4. Make sure that Download all files that are linked to the starting page is selected and click Next.

5. Make sure that Load only within the starting URL is selected and Load images from any location is checked. Click Next.

6. Make sure that Download the new Project now is selected and click Next. Offline Explorer will start downloading the whole MalwareCity’s website. When finished downloading, continue step 7.

7. Download TextCrawler and install.

8. Run TextCrawler, set it up with the information below and click the Find button.

Filename/Filter: *.*
Start Location: C:\download\www.malwarecity.com
Find: catch_him.jpg

9. In a few seconds, a list of searched results will appear in TextCrawler. Take note of the Path and File Name. Those are the links where the catch_me.jpg image are found and most likely is the place for you to join in the BitDefender 2010 giveaway. Open the REAL URL in your web browser and look for the catch_me.jpg image. Click on it and a form for you to join the giveaway should appear.

Now you’ve easily beaten the contest. All you need now is a little bit of luck to be chosen as one of the winners of BitDefender 2010. Best of luck to you and hope that you’ve learned something new today.

Free License Avast Home Edition for 1-year

Click : registration

IceSword Displays Processes and Files Hidden from Windows Explorer

If you think that enabling “Show hidden files and folders” and disabling “Hide protected operating system files” from Folder Options will show every single hidden files/folders, then you are wrong. Recently I’ve been very busy because I am involved in a “secret” project (will be revealed here soon) that made me spent a lot of time testing a lot of different security tools.

There are some virus/trojan/rootkit that is able to hide itself completely from Windows Task Manager and believe it or not, even the famous Process Explorer and Process Hacker cannot even detect the hidden process. Other than that, when the virus is active, they can also make the file hidden until you cannot locate it using Windows Explorer. I found a tool called IceSword which has a Windows Explorer-like interface
but displays hidden processes and resources that Windows Explorer would never show.

Do note that IceSword isn’t a “click-here-to-delete-rootkits” product but a sophisticated discovery tool that can protect against sinister rootkits if used before they infect a machine. One thing I really like about IceSword is it is portable, free and can be used in Safe Mode. Normally tools that is used to detect hidden process and files (such as DeepMonitor and many more) requires a special driver installed and it won’t work in Safe Mode since third party drivers/services are not loaded in that environment.


Here’s a piece of bad news that might be a turn off to a lot of people. IceSword is a software made in China by a person called PJF. I know now even more people would stay away from Chinese software because of what IObit did but so far IceSword has a very good reputation. Scanning it in VirusTotal with 41 antivirus and only ClamAV detects it as a threat just because the program is packed/compressed with ASPack.

Anyway I’m just sharing with you on a tool which I found useful and if you’re not comfortable using it, then by all means go ahead and use GMER which is very similar to IceSword. It’s good to have an alternative in case one of it doesn’t work. Here’s a short video demo of IceSword able to detect a folder which is completely hidden from Windows Explorer even if the Folder Options is set to show hidden files and folders.

[ Download IceSword | PJF's Official Website ]

Disable Remote Desktop Auto Lock Screen on Idle

I am using Windows Remote Desktop to connect and remotely manage one of my Windows server. I understand that there are many other better remote control software such as VNC but I try to minimize the installation of third party software on the Windows Server 2008. If you don’t know what is Remote Desktop, it is a protocol developed by Microsoft, which allows you to view the display and control the mouse and keyboard of another computer at different location, as if you were sitting in front of the computer.



I never had any problems with Remote Desktop, except for only one annoyance which is if I leave it idle for a few minutes, it auto logs off and I had to re-enter the password to login again. This is very annoying whenever I am reading the log files or the console messages that is displayed on screen. Fortunately I’ve found the setting on how to disable remote desktop auto logoff on idle.

I actually spent a few days to find the solution because I misunderstood the problem at the first place. I thought I was being auto logged out when idle but it turns out that it was the screen that was locked. No wonder setting “Never” for idle session limit in RDP Properties didn’t work.

By default Windows Server 2008 activates the screen saver if computer has been idle for 10 minutes and the setting “On resume, display logon screen” will also be checked. So if Windows detects no activity for 10 minutes, the screen saver will be activated and when we get back to the Remote Desktop Connection, the screen saver is removed and then prompts to login. To solve this problem, you can either disable the screen saver or remove the logon screen on resume.

To disable the logon screen when idle, here’s what you need to do:
1. Right click Desktop and select Personalized
2. Click Screen Saver
3. Uncheck “On Resume, display logon screen” and click OK.


Now you can remain idle on the remote desktop connection as long as you want and you won’t be locked out.