HAWX Pre-Order Plane Unlock Codes

Posted 2009, March 3 - 21:59 by thehailo

[UPDATED] Many people are asking about the HAWX pre-order codes to unlock the three planes exclusive to different retailers. I got mine from GameStop today and was surprised it is not the traditional Xbox style unique key, but rather a plane old button combination. I will post the other two when I find them, but for now here is the code to unlock the GameStop exclusive FB-22 Strike Raptor:

360: (HOLD LT) RB, X, RB, X, RB, Y
PS3: (HOLD L2) R1, square, R1, square, R1, triangle
PC: (HOLD SHIFT) D, X, D, X, D, Q

Here's the Best Buy unlock code; still trying to come up with the GameCrazy code.

Academia Tackling Next Generation Hash Function

Posted 2009, February 25 - 13:34 by thehailo

The National Institute of Standards and Technology logo.National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is at it again. After the turn-of-the-millennium competition to develop a new encryption standard to replace the aging Data Encryption Standard (DES), NIST is now in full swing hosting the forum to develop a next-generation hash function. 

3 Tips to Securing Your Laptops without Breaking Your Budget

Posted 2009, February 20 - 17:25 by thehailo
An example of an onboard fingerprint scanner Dell, and many others, include with all their new laptops.

Laptops are everywhere, and if anything, are only becoming more prevalent. 2008 was the first year in which laptop sales outpaced desktops. Variations like netbooks have also taken off as no one could have expected. At the same time, the FBI’s National Crime Information Center reports a 48% increase in laptop theft over the past two years and legislation is slowly leaning towards serious punishment for organizations who leak information (the Department of Veterans Affairs is out $20 million due to its data breach in early 2006). So, with laptop use going up and their risks keeping pace, what can you do, especially in the middle of a recession?

[UPDATED] 208-991-1196: Annoying Scammers at Their Worst

Posted 2009, February 12 - 19:16 by thehailo

I got a phone call on my personal cell phone from that number (208-991-1196) yesterday and one on my work (VoIP) phone today. My personal number is unpublished and my work phone is only published to our customers and on our website (ok, so that one is generally available). Either way, they two are not linked, so I have never had a trouble with spam/telemarketing before now on my cell phone or my work phone really.

Outlook 2007 Woes: RSS Feeds1, Deleted IMAP Mail Still Showing, and Other Poor Design Choices

Posted 2009, February 3 - 19:08 by thehailo
Digging in Outlook 2007 to hide deleted mail when using IMAP instead of formatting it with strikethrough.

I am a nerd, and have generally become accustomed to the obscure practices unique to the IT field, such as clicking Start for the longest time in Windows to turn my computer off. It does not make sense when I first look at it, but it is the way it is, so I learn and live with it. However, after recently upgrading to Outlook 2007 and attempting to use it daily, I must say it is absurd how it handles some things.

My first major hurdle was that I had a folder previously entitled RSS Feeds, so when I installed Outlook 2007 it made a default folder named RSS Feeds1. This was minor, but I was determined to fix it since it could not be that hard to fix...right? Sadly, you cannot simply rename default folders, so I spent some loving time with Google before finally discovering you can start Outlook with the /resetfoldernames flag after deleting the RSS Feeds folder I had created, causing the default folder will revert to its proper name and drop the extra 1. Why in the world does that have to be so difficult? Live and learn though; delete folders that may conflict with Outlook created folders prior to installing!

What in the world is SonicWALL doing with the CDP v5 firmware?

Posted 2009, January 28 - 17:24 by thehailo
SonicWALL CDP 2440i Backup Appliance

Late last year SonicWALL released the much-anticipated firmware v5 for their CDP line of backup appliances. The hardware was beefier, with massive gains in storage, enterprise friendly features like user-replaceable drives on some models, and a major overhaul of the firmware addressing some of the many complaints from the original line. Early this year SonicWALL began rolling the v5 firmware out to existing units as a forced upgrade. However, it has been a solid week now, and not only do a majority of our units not have v5, there does not even seem to be any rhyme or reason to how it is being deployed.

Secure and User Friendly Password Policies are not Mutually Exclusive

Posted 2009, January 20 - 15:55 by thehailo
MI-80's website login box.

People have said many things over the years reflecting traditional wisdom regarding password policies. Every administrator and every environment functions by their own rules, but it is not often people discuss how these rules have changed. This becomes more of a problem with the advancement of computing power and its slow deterioration at the security of passwords in general.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Demo First Impressions

Posted 2008, August 22 - 17:26 by thehailo
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Official Logo

The demo for LucasArts’ latest entry into the Star Wars videogame franchise landed on Xbox LIVE yesterday, and fan results are mixed.

For anyone who has avoided the recent marketing blitz, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is an action/fighting game developed and published by LucasArts for a number of platforms. Slated for release on September 16th for North America, the demo includes an early level of the game in what is considered its final, or near final, state. The game has been positioned as a darker slice of the classic saga, positioning the player as a secret apprentice to Darth Vader set on eliminating the remaining Jedi. The game itself takes place in the timeline between the third and fourth movies.

IE8 Steps Up Security - Slightly

Posted 2008, April 9 - 14:03 by thehailo
IE8's New Safety Filter

Since Firefox restarted the browser wars innovations have been pouring in, and it appears the next generation or browsers will be no exception. While most of the new features in Microsoft’s upcoming Internet Explorer 8 focus on usability and performance, a couple of security enhancements have leaked into the limelight.

The major announcement so far is IE8’s “Safety Filter” which builds upon the existing Phishing Filter. To recap the Phishing Filter uses a local white list and a server-side blacklist to check websites in real-time for the possibility that they’re trying to defraud the user. In IE8 this is being expanded to look for malicious code attempting to take control of the users’ computer.

Should AT&T Filter the Internet?

Posted 2008, January 25 - 13:09 by thehailo
EFF_ATT_NSA_200trans.png

Alright, let's think about filtering the Internet logically from AT&T’s perspective. It's easy to say the idea sucks, especially if one fears that he will be filtered or have his privacy invaded. The real question, though, is does this even make sense for AT&T?

First off, there is the real issue behind this debate: bandwidth. The current collection of American internet service providers simply does not have the bandwidth it promises to customers. This varies, but one major regional ISP gave the factor of 2MB of bandwidth per month per customer. Perhaps that was more true ten years ago, but the current generation of consumers use much more than that. For every few grandmothers who check their email once a weekend, there is someone else consuming GB's of data each month eschewing the graph. But the fact remains – the contract a consumer signs says (for example) 8Mb/s is the speed cap; nothing is stated about limiting how much one can download or how often he can utilize that cap. In theory one could use that all day, every day.

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