Peter's Blog

I’m using Windows 7 on my desktop for some time now, I’ve upgraded from Vista. Yesterday I’ve shutdown the system normally, without any problems. Today after start and logging into I’ve noticed that wallpaper is changed and then message appeared that I was logged into a temporary profile and have no access to my files. WTF?! I’ve logged off and started my Mac to catch up with few things meanwhile. Log off process was on for about 15 minutes, so I’ve finally gave up and turned off machine then turned it on again. Selected to start Windows normally in after crash dialog and voila my profile has been launched without problem, I have all my files and settings. Windows is strangest system, really. Next time somebody would ask me why I prefer Mac OS I’ll point him to this post. Just hope that it was single instance of this issue, will make a new backup though, just in case.

Looks like really every program can be harm to your computer these days. I’m reading US CERT reports regularly and yesterday I’ve read this one. Long story short software included with the Energizer DUO USB battery charger contains a backdoor that allows unauthorized remote system access. It’s very serious as attacker can gain complete access to machine (however with privileges of currently logged user, so if you’re not using admin account all the time it’s not so serious, but how many Windows users do that). Software leaves possibility of attack on TCP port 7777 and after gaining access such activities are possible: ability to list directories, send and receive files, and execute programs. Read more in the original report. Who would even suppose that software which shows you progress of charging your batteries can bring such vulnerability? This happens when developers don’t pay attention to security, would it ever change? Ehh.

I was reading news on Polish portal gazeta.pl and at the bottom of the page, in entertainment section I’ve noticed this:

News with the picture is about shocking discovery. Polish actress Alicja Bachleda-Curus has been using the same purse for 5 years, and was even showing with it at official events. Wow! I’m shocked! It’s indeed complete faux pas. Ehh, looks like our world is about to end if such news are hitting main page of big portal.

I’ve watched this movie the other night and must say I’m impressed. Long time haven’t seen picture which would keep my nerves tight all the time. There are no famous actors in it, so it wouldn’t be blockbuster. But it’s really worth seeing if you like such movies. By such I mean slashers, but with a decent story which lets you think and get deeper into movie. This was the case with Saw, as for me, but the first one, as next parts where rather getting down.
The only part which wasn’t very good is question I’ve asked myself all the time watching it, how the hell this guy managed to do all this in such short period of time. But if you turn a blind eye on it, rest is really good. Film is dark, scary and violent. Actually extremely violent, my wife was shutting her eyes many times. But we have also nice things here, like Madeline Zima’s boobs, for instance:) 8/10

Cartagen is web service which allows you to embed maps on your website using single line of code. Result is visible above and is quite cool, you can even zoom and navigate on this map. To achieve it on your page, simply put this in body of your page:

<iframe height='300' src='http://cartagen.org/find/brno,-czech?fullscreen=true' style='border:0;' width='500'/>

And here you have map of my city of residence:)

I’m using Grooveshark as my Internet radio service now. I found it way more useful than Last.fm or Pandora, and it works in Europe without US VPN. You can even share your tracks as a links on Facebook and other sites. But this is not the point of this post. Today, for the first time since I’ve started using it, Grooveshark is experiencing downtime. But they’re doing it with smile. Check out the screenshot from their website!

If you don’t or want to refresh your memories then you should visit this site. You can play with Windows 3.1 in your browser. It’s really cool and reminds about the past, when computer hard disk was smaller than amount of RAM in modern machines.

Do you know that you can use any suffix with your GMail address as long as it’s preceded with “+” sign? So if your address is johnsmith@gmail.com, you can tell people to send emails to johnsmith+friends@gmail.com and it would still reach your mailbox. Now you can create several filters using “To:” field and your mails would be in order. When you’ll be signing to some online service, for instance a forum, you can use johnsmith+forum@gmail.com and filter all spam using single rule. It’s really useful. Try it!

Most famous Urban Legend for Mac computers is that there aren’t viruses for Mac OS. Wrong! There is at least one and it’s pretty cool actually:)

But seriously there are viruses for Mac, maybe not so common as for Windows systems, but still. So don’t bet on luck and install anti virus program.