In this article, I'll show you how to prank your friends on April Fool's Day with the very popular Google Voice, a computer to land/mobile calling feature. Basically, Google allows you to play whatever you like through the microphone port on your computer, and play it right through to your victim's phone. Whether it's Rick Astley ("Never Gonna Give You Up") or a text-to-speech application, general hilarity always follows.
SSH is amazing, and we praise its existence on Null Byte for many reasons. Notably, it allows us to reroute our traffic through encrypted ports on our local host to be sent to its destination when on the go. You can even control your home computers remotely over a secure and encrypted connection. This is handy for a multitude of reasons.
I have to say, the Xbox 360 controller is the best controller ever created. When I first held it back in 2005, I swore that the dudes working at Microsoft came over and took a molding of my hands because of how great it felt. The thing felt like it was born there.
In this article, I'll show you how to make a simple Gmail notifier. Python can do various things in terms of notifications; sending commands to an Arduino unit, playing sounds, opening windows, etc. The code below simply plays some music, but the possibilities of notification methods are endless. If you aren't familiar with python, there are many sites with tutorials like this one, or this one.
As of today (January 18, 2012) many websites have "blacked" out their content for the day, one of the more notable websites is Wikipedia.org. As this can be a small compromise as an act of protesting against the heinous bills going through the United States' Congress. A lot of these websites are using a type of Java-Script or JS for short, and others are using simple little Pop-Ups to block the sites. Through the use of some clever addons everyone that cares about their online security should...
Merry Christmas all! I hope you are all having a very wonderful day!
Here's another Null Byte on hacking our Skyrim game saves. Some of the rarer items in Skyrim are really fun to play with. However, seeing as they are rare, you will probably not see all of the best weapons in the game. Null Byte doesn't take too kindly to games that don't give us the rarest items when we please. Let's beat this game into submission by hacking our game save files via hex editing.
With the computer's rapid increases in power and efficiency, computer virtualization has taken the scene by storm. With virtualization software, and powerful enough computer hardware, your computer can run a virtual computer within itself. This effectively gives you multiple OS's on the host OS. This can be used for a lot of cool stuff that your computer would normally be limited by. Let's take a look at a few.
Everyone has deleted a file or folder on accident before. Sometimes people even delete stuff on purpose, only to find out that they needed the files after all. If you're experiencing one of these mishaps, don't worry, file recovery is possible in most cases!
Archiving and compression is a great way to store and prepare files for sending. You can reduce the size of a file, turn a group of files into a single file, and even encrypt and password the contents! Just take a look at this image to see how much it compressed a 28GB text file.
Something that can shy a user away from making the switch to Linux is not having the option to go back to Windows. Luckily, there are solutions like dual-booting, where you can have both OS's installed right next to each other. However, Windows 8 appears as if it will block dual-boots with its neo-space BIOS that have been developed. Sneaky-sneaky. Windows users could still throw in a Linux live CD to try out Linux, but what does a Linux user do when they need something from Windows?
Remember last month when we introduced you to Trover? Well, now this great little discovery app for iPhone has completed its beta mode and has officially launched in wide release.
It's an ambitious How-To project to say the least, or more specifically, an over-the-top political art installation by San Francisco artist Brian Goggin. You may have previously heard of Goggin for his "Defenestration" project—an installation of "frozen" furniture, being tossed mid-air from a San Francisco apartment building. But Goggin's latest project sounds significantly more challenging to execute, considering the elaborate game plan involved:
This Guy Has My MacBook is a gripping tale for iOS nerds far and wide, documented via interaction designer Joshua Kaufman's tumblr. When Kaufman's MacBook was stolen from his apartment in Oakland, CA, on March 21, 2011, he quickly activated Hidden, a previously installed app that enabled Kaufman to collect photos of the thief, as well as screen shots of the computer in use.
Android users are probably already familiar with the doubleTwist Player (free) from doubleTwist, available on the Android Market. They recently added AirPlay support for users with AirSync ($4.99) that allows streaming to Apple TV and DLNA devices, which is sure to provoke some cease and desist requests from Apple. But their second, newly unveiled feature is more enticing—doubleTap, which adds proximity-based file sharing for Android devices.
Back in 1982, the Commodore 64 home computer was released by Commodore International for $595 (which would now be close to $1,300). It featured an 8-bit microprocessor, 16-color video microchip, awesome sound chip, parallel and serial capabilities, and a whopping 64 kilobytes of memory, all of which helped make it the best selling home computer from 1983 to 1986. It surpassed anything IBM had out at the time. Its greatest competitors were the Apple II and Atari 8-bits, 400 and 800. And it had...
Hard disk problems are quite common these days, and when they fail you have no other option but to replace it. Fortunately, Ubuntu has been designed to run on your USB stick!
In my previous post, I wrote showed you how to install Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) on your PC. This time we'll be doing an upgrade from that to Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx).
Editing your pictures can be just as fun as capturing the moments! Personally it's my favorite part.. not only do you have time to reflect on the picture, but you get to be creative and make it your own.
Gain control over your files online with Windows Live SkyDrive 2011, just one of the many new features of the newly released Windows Live Essentials 2011. You get 25GB of free online storage and tons of new features. You can store tons of documents, access all your important files and share the plethora of pictures you've amassed, all within SkyDrive.
Hotmail just isn't the same anymore— it's better! In the just-released Windows Live Essentials 2011 from Microsoft, Windows Live Hotmail 2011 is jam-packed full of new features.
UPDATE: Here's the latest on the optical illusion disaster waiting to happen: the "warning illusion" has been installed, and now you can now see it in action below.
Nearly every kid wants a treehouse (as well as many grown-ups). Personally, it's one of my greatest unfulfilled desires.
Architect Enrico Dini is an innovator in the world of 3D printing. Dini is racing to produce the first marketable printer that can print full scale structures on site. Development has been seven years in the making (which has left him nearly bankrupt, and cost him his marriage).
As Popsci says, these DIY snow vehicles show winter who's boss. The Snow Chopper
A pegboard for storage is an essential item in a workshop. Danny Lipford shows you how to install a pegboard in a workshop in this video tutorial.
Watch this video from This Old House to learn how to work with fiber-cement board. Steps:
STANDP'S CUSTOM DESKTOP "ASK NOT WHAT YOUR DESKTOP CAN DO FOR YOU...". http://standp-how-to-vidzzz.wonderhowto.com/corkboard/new-post/text/
Just last week, the Flashback trojan scared a lot of Mac users. Now, there's yet another trojan spreading across Mac computers—SabPub. The same Java vulnerability that allowed Flashback in seems to be how this SabPub malware snuck in, along with an Office vulnerability, which was just identified this weekend.
You might already know a little bit about what the National Ignition Facility has been up to lately, or what they could possibly achieve. But last week, even the scientists at the Livermore, California station couldn't predict the awesome power that their humongous laser was capable of. NIF's laser is already the record holder for the world's largest laser, and now it can also claim to be the first ever 2 megajoule ultraviolet laser after it generated nearly 100 times more energy than any oth...
As many of you Null Byters may know, I was planning on writing this article a week or two ago. Better late than never! So, let's get right to it then—choosing the right Linux distro for your needs.
In this article, I'll be showing you how to make a simple yet effective static electricity generator. Basically, this device allows you to carry a constant static charge on your body and discharge it on anything grounded or of opposite polarity. The electricity generated is around 8-10 kV, at a very low current. The shock is enough to startle your friends, just like a static shock from a trampoline or carpeted room. You'll need a little experience in soldering and circuit design to build the ...
Here's a delicious Byte of information for you. A proof of concept program on Linux was coded to exploit a known bug in how the Linux Kernel (versions 2.6.39+) handles permissions for the
The already robust and ingenious Nmap tool has received a whole slew of new scanning scripts that can be used to do all sorts of naughty endeavors. Notably, the SQLi module, since it is a necessary evil that we must cover here at Null Byte. This major update is going to fuel today's lesson.
Reverse shells are useful for issuing commands to a remote client when the client is behind something such as a NAT. You might say, "But can't a normal shell or simple SSH tunnel do the same thing?". No, it can't. All over the internet I see a lot of confusion regarding the difference between a normal shell and a reverse shell. Let's clear this up before we get started.
Just removed an important gem from your weapon? Totally screw yourself over by restarting a bloodline instead of the battle you just lost? It sure would be great if you could backup your character so you can always have a safe copy ready to go at a moment's notice. Well, those smart folks over at the Infinity Blade forums have devised a clever way to do this.
Most people have had the unfortunate experience of not having a washer and dryer at some point. Apartments in my area tend to charge at least one hundred dollars extra for the units with washer and dryer hookups, and even more if you want a unit with an actual washer and dryer installed already. If you are young and just starting out, this may be hard for you to manage with your current salary. If you have no washer and dryer, the only alternative is the laundromat.
Skyrim is a time consuming game. I know I'm not alone in saying I constantly find myself looking for more time in the day. There is never enough time to read the books I want to read, or learn what I want to learn, or play the games that I want to play.
Null Byte is looking for moderators. More threats to computers exist every day. Not only do we have computer viruses and malware, but we have rootkits and other nasty pieces of code that can log your keyboard strokes or even add your computer to a botnet to attack other websites. Your computer can be infected even if you have anti-virus software installed. I can't stress enough how easy it is for a hacker to write a piece of code that gets around every piece of anti-virus software.
How to Crack Passwords Faster by Putting Your GPU to Work with HashcatSecurity on the internet is always changing. Not too long ago, having a 10 character password meant that you were safe from all forms of hash cracking. Hash cracking is when you take a string of characters that have been passed through a cryptographic hash and try to reverse them. The normal processors that are housed inside of our computer cases are general purpose. The processors are not meant for handling complex math an...
