Life is a Lab! To Learn, read. To understand, think. To know, write. To master, teach.
Techincal materials related to electronics, hi-tech gadgets, computer programming and misc. experiments.
In this blog post, I am going to share with you this free utility that allows you to turn your laptop (via your Wifi network card) into a hotspot so that you can share your internet connection with other portable devices or with your friends.
A few years ago, I wrote an article explaining how to change the volume serial number.
This program does not work properly now under Windows Vista or Windows 7 unless executed as administrator. Following many suggestions, I updated the tool to support the latest Windows version.
Please note that after you change the serial number you may need to reboot the PC for the settings to take effect.
Download:
Note: You may need to download and install the Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package (x86).
So you have heard of this cool new gadget from Google called “Google Glass“, read a few articles about it online and still feel curious about it?
If so, then read on because in this blog post, I am going to write about my experience using Google Glass.
After the end of this post, if you still have questions, feel free to ask me and I will answer you.
Here we go.
Hello everyone,
What I am sharing made the news already, but in case you missed it, here it is:
On ~March 25, 2014, the Computer History Museum (CHM) announced today that it has, with permission from Microsoft Corporation, made available original source code for two historic programs:
For more reference, please check here:
http://www.computerhistory.org/press/ms-source-code.html
Enjoy!
In this article, I am going to illustrate a real life scenario where an attempt to hack my email account was carried by fooling me into giving my user name / password through a fake website that looks like Yahoo! Mail.
Such attacks, where the victim is lured into entering information in what looks like an innocent website, are called “phishing attacks”. Wikipedia defines “phishing” as the following:
Phishing is the act of attempting to acquire information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details (and sometimes, indirectly, money) by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication
In the subsequent sections I will show you how the attack is carried, how you can inspect such emails by yourself and then conclude by giving you some safety guidelines. Continue reading “How your Yahoo! Mail account can be hacked with phishing – A real life example explained”
New version 1.2.0 released with Unicode support and lots of bug fixes!
Download the reset permission tool from the download section below.
The post entitled “Resetting NTFS files security and permission in Windows” is very useful to show you how to reset the files permissions from the command line.
However, not all readers are savvy with following system commands and for that reason, I made a small graphical utility to automate NTFS resetting files permissions and taking their ownership:
This utility needs administrator privilege in order to run. To use it, first click on “Choose folder” to select the folder you want to reset permissions then press “GO” to proceed.
It is also possible to edit the commands, change or add new commands before you press the “GO” button.
Explanation of user interface:
The options:
The action buttons:
This is a new feature introduced in version 1.1.0. When you press this button, you get two options:
Note: always press “GO” after you select any of the advanced options.
When the ResetPermission utility is added to the Explorer folder context menu, you will be able to right-click on any folder and then choose a new option called “Reset Permission”.
Check this screenshot:
To keep the explanation short and less technical, this utility is just a shell that uses the following utilities from Microsoft:
All the commands that are going to be executed are showed to you beforehand.
You have a chance to tweak the commands before you press “GO” and execute them.
Checkout the free tools:
Pic2Pdf
WifiShare
Windows Error Reporting – Local crash dump collection graphical tool
MAC address changer on Windows
Don’t you wish you could undo all the permission changes you did because your system became unstable due to misusing this utility?
Now you can, with the two new “Backup permissions” and “Restore permissions” functionalities. Please read more about that in this article.
Please use this utility at your own risk. Backup the permissions beforehand if you have to.
I am not responsible for mishaps due to using this tool recklessly (for example trying to reset system or root folders permission), however, I display a warning when this tool is about to be used on a root folder:
Check the “How it works” section above then please refer to Microsoft TechNet site for information about the tools used.
Download the utility executable – use the password: lallouslab
Note: Windows Defender might block this attack. Add a folder exclusion to Windows Defender to solve the issue.
Download the source code
Do you want to master Batch Files programming? Look no further, the Batchography is the best book on the topic and the most up to date!
Available in print or e-book editions from Amazon.
12/19/2016 – Very important – ResetPermissions.exe is NOT a virus or trojan, read on:
ResetPermission tool continues to be plagued by Antivirus falsely reporting it as a Trojan or virus!
It is a shame that even in 2016, AntiVirus solutions are very poor at distinguishing malware from good ware.
If you follow this VirusTotal link here, you will see that as of 12/19/2016, only 2/41 falsely detect the ResetPermission.exe as a virus and the remaining AntiVirus solutions detect correctly.
What is more shameful is that “top” and “reputable” AntiVirus solutions like “Windows Defender” from Microsoft, “BitDefender”, “Kaspersky Antivirus” among many other AVs do a very poor job telling which is a malware and which is not!
In the AntiVirus hacker’s handbook book that I co-authored, I explain how Anti-Virus solutions are not optimal and just give you a false sense of security!
If you want to learn more about the Antivirus industry and how their technology is outdated, then read Part IV (Chapters 16 and 17) in the Antivirus Hacker’s handbook. Part IV is written in simple English and does not require you to be a computer geek to understand what the A/V industry is all about!
Please support my efforts and time put into writing this utility by donating through PayPal:
Thank you.
Interesting Batch programming articles:
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In this blog post I am going to share with you my story with smoking cigarettes for five or so years, how it all started, why I stopped and how.
I will try to make this post pleasant to read and inspirational so by the end of it you will get encouraged to think again about your smoking habit.
Before we begin, would you care for a short story? Continue reading “Me, myself and smoking cigarettes – A little story”
I’ve always been curious about how disks are partitioned, and how the partition table looks like. This article will explain the format of the partition table and will provide a small tool (Partition Viewer) to demonstrate what we explained.
The information in this article apply for x86 systems, I don’t know about disk partitioning on other systems.
You are not required to have prior knowledge about disk partitioning; The goal of this article is to provide just the needed knowledge to understand disk partitioning, hence many details are left out for the readers to investigate by themselves.
Please note that this article does NOT cover the GPT (GUID Partition table). Continue reading “Partition tables explained”
In this blog post, I am going to illustrate how to view saved Wifi keys under Windows 7 in four easy steps.
Alternative method
You can just use the WifiPasswordReveal script to automatically reveal the saved password with a click of a button without needing administrative privileges!
Related posts:
Let’s get started! Continue reading “How to show saved Windows 7 Wifi passwords”
Disposable emails are emails that you can use temporarily with websites you don’t trust and that require registration and/or an email address. After you use the email address you can discard it by creating a filter that redirects the disposable email address to the trash bin directly.
It is very simple. Unlike Yahoo Mail Plus! there is nothing to be created. Suppose your email address is, of course ;), John.Doe@gmail.com; to use a disposable email address for a website, say called www.myshopping.com, simply append a “+myshopping” after the email account name. The disposable email address will be: John.Doe+myshopping@gmail.com.
If you want to keep this email address just create a filter that moves the message to an appropriate Gmail folder. If you discover that this disposable address is amassing a lot of spam then create a filter that redirects all messages to that address directly into the trash bin.
I routinely clean my trackball mouse but this time something else came to mind also: Baoding balls.
A small excerpt from Wikipedia about Baoding Balls:
Baoding balls, also called Chinese exercise balls, Chinese meditation balls, and Chinese medicine balls, are thought to have been created in Baoding, China, during the Ming dynasty. Baoding balls are a tool for injury recovery or as an exercise tool to improve manual dexterity and strength. They consist of two or more balls which are rotated to orbit in the hand. The iron-ball system is the greatest of Baoding prefecture’s “three treasures.” Long throughout history, renowned within China and other countries, this is Baoding prefecture’s traditional product. This item of Buddhist martial arts was first produced in the Northern Song Dynasty.
So imagine the mouse initially like this:
Then ready to be cleaned:
But suddenly, the Baoding Balls sitting on the shelf catch my attention:
So you can imagine what I did next:
Oh btw, Baoding balls produce a nice sound when you juggle them in your hands:
But I doubt you can use this mouse at work since it will produce lots of melody! 😉
I have released a new graphical user interface utility to reset the files permissions.
I was running Vista with two NTFS partitions (C: and D:), then formatted C: partition and installed Windows 7. The second partition (D:) had some files security set on files and folders.
After Windows 7 was installed, some files on drive D: were not accessible anymore and I was getting “Access Denied”. I tried to right-click/properties on the folders that were not accessible and changed their owner and changed permissions but still some folders were still inaccessible not matter what I did.
After some research, it turned out the tool “cacls” that allows one to display or change ACLs (access control lists) can help to reset ACLs. In Windows 7 it is called “icalcs”.
To reset files permissions, follow these easy 3 steps:
Step 1: Run “cmd” as Administrator.
Note: In MS Windows 8 and above, press the Win+X keys, then choose “Command Prompt (Admin)”.
Step 2: Go to the drive or folder in question, for example:
CD /D D:
Step 3: To reset all the files permissions, type:
icacls * /T /Q /C /RESET
That’s it! After that, the files permissions were reset and I could access them back again.
Very Important note:
Step 3 is irreversible. Make sure you backup the permissions before you proceed!
It is possible that “icacls” might fail. For that try to take ownership of the files first. Just before Step (3), please type the following command:
takeown /R /F *
Download the graphical utility instead!
Do you want to master Batch Files programming? Look no further, the Batchography is the right book for you.
Available in print or e-book editions from Amazon.
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Catchy title huh?
Well, I am going to tell you how to do that, but first let me explain to you about what we call “phishing” yeah with a”ph” and not an “f” as fishing the fish! 😛
Okay, as Wikipedia puts it:
“Phishing is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.”
In simple terms, it is to trick user into going to a fake website that looks like a genuine website, and have him/her submit hir* username/password to that fake website.
As a live example, the website: http://www.faceilbook.com is a phishing website where you are tricked to believe that this site is facebook. Now look closely:
1. That website is not facebook, it is f a c e i L b o o k . c o m
Notice the “i” and “L” introduced in the name. These are tricky characters that are not easily seen in the URL.
2. Notice the domain name WHOIS information of this website:
http://whois.domaintools.com/faceilbook.com
It the domain name was registered by a Chinese person.
3. Notice the source code of that fake website, it will redirect you to the profile:
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=81014163 after you give away your username/password.
It looks like “Carl Cachia” is somehow involved in this scam.
My advise to you:
1. Never to click any URL or address you are given, even by the trusted ones, without making sure that the website looks okay or not (as I explained above). Your trusted friend might be infected by a virus which sends this fake website automatically.
2. Always doubt when you click on a URL and you suddenly find yourself being asked to enter your username and password
3. In case of doubt, enter a wrong username/password and see if the website reacts normally.
That’s all for now, hope you got informed!
Take care,
Elias
The other day I was playing God Of War on PS2 and PSP and later found out that Sony has released a mobile version of the game as a J2ME application.
Since it is not that practical to play using the phone keys, I searched for a practical and easy to use J2ME emulator and found this: http://mpowerplayer.com/ , give it a try and enjoy!
So you think you know many programming languages? 🙂
Take a look at this website http://www.roesler-ac.de/wolfram/hello.htm which exhibits around 330 “Hello World” programs in different programming languages!
Have you ever wondered how threads work and how they achieve “parallel” execution?
I have written a small demonstration article and posted it on CodeProject: “Threads” without threads
Check it out and rate my article!
I just received a funny email today, reading:
TRY IT NOW , IT WILL NOT CREATE ” CON ” FOLDER.
YOU WON’T BELIEVE THIS !!!!!!!! An Indian discovered that nobody can create a FOLDER anywhere on the computer which can be named as “CON”. This is something pretty cool…and unbelievable… At Microsoft the whole Team, including Bill Gates, couldn’t answer why this happened!TRY IT NOW , IT WILL NOT CREATE ” CON ” FOLDER.
What is funny about it is that people forward emails without research or verification.
As a programmer and as most programmers know, the “CON” is a special device name which stands for console. There are many other reserved devices names in the DOS/Windows OS, such as: AUX, NUL, LPT1, COM1, etc….
However, you would be able to create use such names if you pass a complete file as: “\\.\c:\con”. As an example, follow these steps:
If you want another “CON” (console) trick, here’s one that allows you to create a text file without using notepad or any other text editing tools:
If you wonder what’s the CTRL+Z (aka ^Z) it simply marks the EOF (End Of file).