Mozilla Firefox on USB to go!

Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition is the popular Mozilla Firefox web browser bundled with a PortableApps Launcher as a portable app, so you can take your bookmarks, extensions and saved passwords with you.

Available here.

PortableApps is an environment that allows for applications to run off of portable devices.

There is a fairly significant list of programs that work in the PortableApps environment.

Just a few from that list include...

• GIMP
• FireFox
• Thunderbird
• PuTTy
• Audacity
• VLC Media Player
• OpenOffice
• Sudoku

PortableApps also has a suite of portable apps including a web browser, email client, office suite, calendar/scheduler, instant messaging client, antivirus, sudoku game, backup utility and integrated menu, all preconfigured to work on portable devices.

What does your phone number spell?

This site has been around for a long time, but is always fun to play around with.

Just plug in your phone number, and it will show you what words and phrases your phone number can spell.

Couple of other cool features...

• Enter the start of a phone number and see what words start with those digits
• Enter some letters and see the corresponding phone number.
• Enter your 16 digit Wii friend code and see what it spells.

Link to Phone Spell is available here.

Freecom MusicPal

I've been waiting to see Internet household items, like this radio, to appear.


Freecom MusicPal is a wireless digital Internet radio and MP3 player.

Features:
• Wireless digital internet radio and MP3 player
• Plays internet radio without the use of a computer
• Streams MP3 music from your computer or network
• Installs in seconds, easy to set up
• Supports over 5,000 radio stations
• Supports MP3 and WAV
• Alarm clock functionality
• Live RSS feeds / Blog feeds in display
• Built-in speaker and WLAN antenna
• Stereo audio out to connect to HiFi/Amplifier set
• Line out to connect to headphones or active speakers

One of the features not listed, is it runs on a Linux 2.6 kernel.

It runs 129.00 EU (about 187$ CAD). Preorders are available now, it ships in August.

More info and pictures are available here.

Sending SMS from Windows XP

I was surfing the web, and came out with a cool article on the O'Reilly Network.

This shows you how to use Windows XP to send SMS messages using Microsoft SMS Sender.

Yeah, I know.. this is an old article... but hey.. it still works!

The article is available here.

PSP Homebrew - Any Version - Demo

Well, as reported on a lot of sites, there is now a proof of concept that allows homebrew applications to run on PSPs with v3.10 - v3.50 firmware.

This uses Lumines to create a user-mode exploit using a buffer overflow in the savedata file.

Please note that this is just an Hello World demo, for now!

More information on this development is available here.

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On a short "Fires Tech and Games" note....

Well, this last month has been crazy. I've moved, went in for surgery, and basically have been running around like a chicken with its head cut off.

Now that the craziness is all behind me, I'll be updating the site with more information.

I noticed that Google has indexed this site, So I would also like to welcome the new visitors!

Suggestions, of what people would like to see more information about, are always welcome.

Stay tuned for more tidbits that I find,
FireBelcher

Optimus Maximus Keyboard

This keyboard looks awesome. 48x48 pixel OLED buttons allow for the user to change the keyboard layout.

Features from wikipedia:
* An aluminium body
* Extra-durable polymer plastic keys
* 48×48 pixel (for regular keys) screens, Truecolor mode
* OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) screen for keys
* USB 2.0 and FireWire connectivity
* A separate ergonomic version
* 4-5 year lifetime
* A key-saver mode
* Support for animation on keys
* Ability to form a mosaic using a combination of key images
* OS independence
* An SDK for complete display customization
* Swappable Keys

Concept Keyboard
http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/optimus-concept/

Optimus Maximus Keyboard
http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/optimus/

Project Blog
http://community.livejournal.com/optimus_project/

Drivers for the earlier version, the Optimus Mini Three, have been available in Linux, Mac, Windows, Java and .NET.

Currently a limited production keyboard, the Optimus Maximus comes at a price of $1564.37 US, this keyboard doesn't come cheap! I'll wait until they get it into mass production, and the price drops!

Limited pre-orders start on May 20, 2007 at 3pm Moscow Time, along with more details on this keyboard.

Vista UAC - Override

So,

I'm running WAMP on my home system. It's great for independent development.

But, there's a problem. Every time Vista boots up, UAC stops WAMP from displaying in the system tray. This problem also occurs when starting FRAPS.

This can be fixed a few ways...

According to Microsoft's TechNet site there is a few ways to get by this problem ....

Scenario 1: Requesting an application to run elevated one time
- This is what i was doing, when it boots up, select the UAC icon, and tell it to launch the application. Annoying and what i'm trying to fix.

Scenario 2: Marking an application to always run elevated.
- This is the easiest way to fix this problem, and it doesn't open up security issues that the 3rd Scenario can cause.

Scenario 3: Configure User Account Control
- I can't believe Microsoft would offer this as a solution. Basically, you disable UAC Admin Approval, UAC installation prompting, or UAC Credential prompting.
- This is basically the "Use a sledgehammer to kill a fly" idea. Give access to everything, and don't prompt for anything.


I feel that I should offer a fourth solution to Microsoft.
- In the Windows Defender Software Explorer screen.
- Applications that are not "Trusted" can be set by an administrator to be allowed to run by the user non-elevated.
- Basically it gives an administrator the right to let a user use the program in a Non-elevated state.

Vista and Administrative Shares (C$, D$)

Aakk...

So I was trying to access a harddrive using the administrative share on a Vista computer, and I was unable to. Why? Well it seems that microsoft has disabled administrative shares in Vista.

According to Microsoft's "Vista File and Printer Sharing" site....

Sharing the Root of a Drive

Windows XP by default created administrative shares for the root folders of the fixed drives of the computer. For example, for the root of the C: drive on the computer named BobPC, Windows XP automatically shared \\bobpc\c$. The “$” at the end of the share name means that the share name will not appear in the list of shares. For computers running Windows Vista that are members of a workgroup, these administrative shares exist but are blocked for network access for security reasons. You can create your own shares to share your drives from the root of the drive, but Microsoft highly recommends that you share only the folders that you need to, rather than the entire drive.

So, Vista does not allow you to use administrative shares anymore. Unless you hack the registry ;)

From JB's Windows Vista Support FAQ ...

To allow administrators local to a computer to use their administrator powers when accessing the Vista computer remotely, please follow these steps:

1. Click start
2. Type: regedit
3. Press enter
4. In the left, browse to the following folder: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\system\
5. Right-click a blank area in the right pane
6. Click New
7. Click DWORD Value
8. Type: LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy
9. Double-click the item you just created
10. Type 1 into the box
11. Click OK
12. Restart your computer

Now I can access the administrative share from any system!

Going Green: Utilizing S3 Standby Mode

Nice little site that shows you how to setup your system to us S3 standby.

This setup saves money and you don't lose functionality. This is great for servers as well, it will automatically kick up the system from sleep if there is any local network activity.

Great write up!

Mozilla Thunderbird 2.0 Released

Time to remove outlook from my machine, and upgrade to Thunderbird.

Thunderbird now supports Vista and 64-bit processors.

With the "POP3 password not savings" issue on Outlook, It's time to upgrade!

Thunderbird's available here.

World Of Warcraft - Flintlocke Cancelled

From Gamespy.com...

Farewell Flintlocke:

After several aborted attempts to restart the cool WoW comic with the crusty dwarf and his band of misfits, we have finally decided to call an end to the strip. The lack of an artist and Fargo's move to FilePlanet proved to be too much for the hearty band. Thanks to all the loyal readers. -- Warrior

It looks like Friday the 13th has just struck down a great comic!

Archive is available here.

/salute Flintlocke