Author: lallouslab

My name is Elias aka lallous and I am a computer scientist and a seeker of ultimate truth and human potential
Posted on

Microsoft’s New – Surface Book – Review

I had the chance to go to Microsoft Store and check out the new Surface Book. This is the video review below:

I personally was not wowed about it. Here are my comments:

  • When you close the lid, it is not very convenient to open it up. Unlike other laptops I used, say the MacBook Air, with the Surface Book, you need two hands to open the lid and you need to push a bit harder
  • The screen does not detach without first pressing the EJECT button for a couple of seconds
  • The keyboard is good. If you’re a programmer you may get used to it, it has a nice feel to it.
  • It is relatively heavy 3.3 pounds
  • The competitors have already a hybrid laptop where you can detach the screen from the keyboard and have a dual experience: tablet or laptop.

I also shot another video showing the new stylus:

What is hard to capture in the video is how it feels when using the stylus. Each stylus tip gives you a different feel / drag on the screen. That’s pretty nice!

In conclusion, and in my opinion, the Surface Book does not deserve to be called “The Ultimate Laptop”, at least not yet.

You may also like:

Posted on

Days of the week as people

days-of-week
The other day I was reading Jamie’s blog and I was intrigued by the post she had written as an assignment for her writing group. She was asked to describe the days of the week as if they were people 🙂

I liked the idea, so here’s my version of characters I give to each day of the week as if they were employees in a big company.

Monday

A very motivated, creative and enthusiastic person. I know I may be tired from a long fun day from the day before, but I can’t wait to start creating something new. “Yes boss”, you can count on me. Continue reading “Days of the week as people”

Posted on

Sugar in products – A comparison

While going through my email archives, I stumbled about an email that contains a list of products and how many sugar cubes they contain. Pretty interesting comparison that I thought it is nice to share with you.

Here you go, click on the pictures to open the gallery:

 

You may also like:

Posted on

How to remove the Windows 10 upgrade button from the tray icon

In a previous post, I spoke about the new Windows 10 update coming to Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 8.1.

With operating systems prior to Windows 10, you may noticed a new tray icon showing up like this:

windows10_trayicon

This icon is used to update to Windows 10:

get_windows10_trayicon

If you don’t want to update just yet, then just follow the steps below to remove the tray icon.

Method 1 – Removing the tray icon

The tray icon will remain and it can be annoying for some people, therefore to remove it, you can use various methods as described in these articles #1 and #2.

To make things simple, you may use the “Task Scheduler” and navigate to “Task Scheduler Library\Microsoft\Windows\Setup\gwx” as shown in the screenshot below and then delete the two entries there:

windows10-update-trayicon-tasksched

Method 2 – Uninstalling KB3035583

As indicated in this article, you can also remove the KB3035583 from the installed updates lists.

You may also like:

Posted on

More about Yahoo Mail phishing

In a previous post, I explained about how Yahoo Mail accounts can be compromised by phishing.

In this blog post, I am going to be brief and just expose the phishing information and hosts used.

Step 1 – Looking at the email

mail-body

 

 

Lots of red flags here, just by looking at the email:

  1. The email sender’s apparent address is weird
  2. The email’s subject is also unusual
  3. The email’s body is also fishy and not true

Step 2 – Revealing the real sender

Click on the sender to reveal the actual email address:

real-sender

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now we can see that the real sender is “jcwod@aol.com”. It could be this is the real malicious user or not, but anyway.

When I search for this email on Facebook, I found this profile:

profile

Which in reality could be nothing.

Step 3 – Investigating the link in the email

In step one, the malicious email sender invited you to click on an address to fix the aforementioned “problem”.

Do not click, instead, hover the mouse over the link and look at your status bar. You will see something like this:

phishing-url-hidden

This is a shortened address. In this case, it is used to hide the malicious web address. Let us use the GetLinkInfo.com to reveal the real address:

link-resolved

The address is, obviously, not related to Yahoo! It is: “http://tuckertownforge.com/perfected01/index.html”.

I don’t advise you to go to that address, there could be a browser exploit or equally the phishing site.

The phishing site is supposed to look like Yahoo mail:
yahoo-phishing

DO NOT enter your user name and password on that FAKE SITE!

You may also like:

Posted on

Announcing the new Apple TV – 2015

Today Apple announced to all new Apple TV. These are the important new features.

Photo gallery at the end of the post.

Apple TV

  • Revolutionary remote with Voice support (Siri button) and a glass touch surface (to move around)
  • Full resolution animated videos that act like wallpapers and backgrounds
  • A4 chip 64-bits
  • Bluetooth 4.0
  • HDMI and Ethernet Ports
  • Use Siri to chose what to watch by interacting with Siri via voice and natural language
    • Skip ahead
    • If you missed something, you can say: “What did she/he say?”. Siri will rewind 15 seconds and temporarily enable captions
    • Ask suggestions from Siri about movies to watch
    • Ask for in the moment info
  • Future of the TV is apps
  • tvOS – for developers to write apps for the Apple TV
  • Apps: Netflix, HBO, Hulu, Zillow, …
  • Games: Disney Infinity game, Shadow Matic, Crossy Road, Hipster Whale, etc…
  • The Apple Remote allows you to swing it to play games (that require swing to hit)
  • Cooperative play with anyone that has an iPhone or iPod Touch
  • Online shopping from your couch
  • Watch multiple sports games at the same time, take screenshots, etc…
  • Universal apps: apps for iPhone, Apple TV, iPad, etc…
  • Continue playing games where you left of
  • App Store
  • Pricing:
    • 149$ for 32GB
    • 199$ for 64GB

The Apple TV will be available in late October. Continue reading “Announcing the new Apple TV – 2015”

Posted on

Announcing the new iPhone 6s and 6s Plus

Today Apple announced to all new iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. These are the important new features.

Photo gallery at the end of the post.

iPhone 6s and 6s Plus

  • “They are the most advanced iPhones in the world” according Tim Cook
  • Rose Gold aluminum finish – Custom alloy. A total of 4 finishes
  • Running iOS 9 – Available on September 16, 2015
  • 3D touch
    • New gestures
    • Easy multi tasking
    • Easy app switching
    • New quick actions avail in apps
  • New Taptic engine
  • New A9 chip: 3rd gen 64-bit chip
  • M9 motion coprocessor – always on
  • “Hey Siri” feature. Siri always listening even if the phone is not power plugged. Something like Moto X’s always listening feature
  • All new 12MP iSight camera. Incredible photos, HD videos, 4k videos, panoramic pictures
  • 5MP FaceTime camera
    • The screen can act as a front facing flash to take front facing pictures in low light environment
  • Live Photos – an entirely new technology. Ala Harry Potter where picture seems to be alive
    • Force touch to see the live photos getting animated
    • Taking Live photos is very easy, this feature is one by default. It captures 1.5s seconds along with the picture to animate a little
    • Live Photos will be available on all devices (Apple Watch, Apple TV, Mac OS X El Capitan)
    • Facebook will support Live Photos taken using this new iPhone
  • LTE Advanced and WiFi are now twice faster
  • Move to iPhone: an app to transfer Android settings to iOS and help you switch to Apple iPhone from Android phones
  • 2nd generation Touch ID
  • Older iPhone 6s and Plus are now 100$ cheaper
  • Pricing scheme with the new iPhone Upgrade Program:
    • Unlocked Phone
    • Get a new iPhone every single year
    • $31/year

By the way, iPhone 6s, when read, it sounds like: “iPhone success”. Continue reading “Announcing the new iPhone 6s and 6s Plus”

Posted on

Announcing the new iPad Pro – 2015

Today Apple announced to all new iPad Pro. These are the important new features.

Photo gallery at the end of the post.

iPad Pro

  • Partnering with IBM and Cisco for Enterprise iPad features
  • 12.9 inch Retina Display
  • 5.6 Million pixels
  • Retina display
  • Use it like a PC to do professional and productivity tasks
  • Uses the 3rd-gen A9X chip. 1.8X faster than common desktop processors
  • Faster than 90% of portable PCs
  • 10 hour battery life
  • 4 speaker audio system
  • 6.9mm thin / 1.57lb
  • Software keyboard used to type on the iPad Pro
  • Smart keyboard is a new cover with a keyboard. Butterfly
  • Smart connector: a new connector to connect power or data devices (for example the smart keyboard)
  • Apple Pencil: A new stylus for iPad Pro. Lightening connector to recharge directly from the iPad Pro
  • New Notes app with drawings support
  • New Microsoft Office for iPad Pro: excellent productivity features
  • New Adobe creative tools shipping in October
  • Pricing
    • 799$ for 32GB
    • 949$ for 128GB
    • 1079$ for 128GB and Cellular support

The iPad Pro will be available in November. Continue reading “Announcing the new iPad Pro – 2015”

Posted on

How to remote control your Android phone or tablet

android remote controlI have the Nexus 7 (2013) that is sitting around and not being used too much since I got an iPad Air 2 a few month ago. I figured why not use the Android tablet for security related work such as application protocol auditing and debugging android apps.

After researching, I discovered the Mobizen software. I tried it on my rooted Nexus 7 and it worked nicely for what I needed. In this blog post I am going to review this software and demonstrate some of its capabilities!

Let’s get started! Continue reading “How to remote control your Android phone or tablet”

Posted on

CostcoCouple blog

Hello,

This is a quick review about the CostcoCouple.com blog which is run by a couple, Olli and Andy, that have been Costco members for 10 years.

Their blog is dedicated to giving Costco shopping tips, coupons and reviews of other interesting Costco items.

costco-couple-logo

You may also follow Olli and Andy on twitter @costcocouple

Other reviews you may like: