Verizon, I am done.

Dear verizon I am tired of being treated like a commodity or asset. I am a customer. My device if i should purchase one should be mine. and as long as i am not violating terms of use should be able to do whatever the heck i want to it including voiding warranties. I should be able to root, unlock or do whatever. I am tired of seeing devices i want to use not showing up on your network because of these draconian policies. I am tired of updates being delayed by a year or more because you have to riddel them with encryption and bloat so you can appease your advertisers and lock MY device down for your use. I am tired of all the "crap" you forcibly install onto my device that is always running even though i dont want it and never did.

So dear verizon i am done. you have lost my business. I have given you more than a year to change these ways and you have not, in fact you have gotten worse.

I will concede that you have a very wide coverage, with great delivery of services. I will also concede that when i call issues are dealt with in a prompt celar and freindly manner. These reasons alone almost make me want to stay. and they are top notch in the industry, but ultimately My device is my device. Quit telling me what i am and am not allwoed to do with it.

Sincirely your former customer.

Swiss File Knife - Epic multi platform command line tools bundle

Recently ihave had need to build a MD5 checksum for an entire directory of content. from there i needed it to be cross platform. great. so after breaking my head i ran across this tool. Windows linux and mac (intel and ppc) compiled tool with some very self scriptable options and very potent.

http://stahlworks.com/dev/swiss-file-knife.html

Swiss file knife has some basic functions to get going out of the bucket. but when you get intot he help system for the advanced syntax it you can do some pretty amazing things. and it is very batch file/bash script friendly.

Enjoy

things to make Choking down Windows 8 a bit easier.

There is some very good code in windows 8, and honestly would have been the best OS Microsoft has released to date, with the exception of cramming the Metro UI down our throats. I kind of like the normal elements of it. but the tile tabled/phone UI elements being shoved onto my desktop. Well that is the most cumbersome PITA i have dealt with from MS. I would rather be back running Windows 98 with all its weirdness and stability issues. I have discovered that I am not alone in this, and the following links will help you ease the rage and pain that Metro will cause you.

First Option:
this is a bit of a manual process, but i have used it and it works well.
http://lee-soft.com/vistart/ - Be very very careful when you install this. it comes with allot of adware, nothing malicious but you might end up with programs you do not want. (you get agree/disagree options for other programs before vistart is set up)
http://betanews.com/2012/06/21/you-can-hack-windows-8-metro/ - how to sidestep the metro tiled interface being the first thing you see. it will 90% of the time take you directly to your desktop sometimes it will delay depending on what your computer is doing on launch in the background.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc721931.aspx - Start Task scheduler in Win8, its not as obvious in metro.

Second Option:
Well I have not yet found one that still worked. Will update this if i find it.

Google 2 factor authentication

To those of you who may like or not like Google I have to admit this is an awesome thing they have created.

Their 2step or 2factor authentication. Having decided to set  it up they have one use codes you can use to gain access when you do not have cell or smartphone function. You can create secure machines. And you can re-sync key devices easily.

I had known about it for some time but never really delved into it. So today I did after reading about Mat Honan's experience with getting his apple/amazon accounts compromised. http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/08/apple-amazon-mat-honan-hacking

Bad things happened to him. And this made me think about how many services I use from Google. How many accounts link back to it? And what that would really mean.

Well I'm done; time to enable the enhanced security. But not blindly. I have worked with Blizzards mobile authenticator, as well as Star Wars Knights of the old republic.

Both of these companies have mobile authentication. But I have to say it works but is not the best experience.

Doing some research I found this article: http://cadince.com/3-ways-to-move-google-authenticator/

It’s awesome! The Google authenticator has a key code, this key can be saved and re-used so when freaks like me decide to do something less than kosher to their digital device you can reset and move forward without issue.

This is in addition to the one use codes you can enable/print to keep in your wallet or in your safe at home or wherever. Wonderful!

So if you have Google accounts, and there is ANYTHING in those accounts you could not afford to lose, then your path should lead you to question your overall account security.

https://support.google.com/accounts/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1066447

Think about where your data is, and how people can get to it.

Sfc (System File Checker)

ok There are times when things get horribly weird with windows. you have a broken or missing DLL handful of other issues can come to mind.

End result you need to replace a DLL with a good version.

Do not download one, save your self the hack of grabbing of the install media. use sfc and it can do all of that in one go.

Tim Fisher posted this on pcsupport.about.com and i really dont need to retype it all. so take a look and enjoy!

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/termss/p/sfc-command-system-file-checker.htm

Here is an excerpt of the text just inc case the link breaks.



Sfc (System File Checker)
By Tim Fisher, About.com Guide


What is the Sfc Command?:

The sfc command is a Command Prompt command that can be used to verify and replace important Windows system files.

System File Checker is a very useful tool to use when you suspect issues with protected Windows files like many DLL files.

Sfc Command Syntax:

sfc [/scannow] [/verifyonly] [/scanfile=file] [/verifyfile=file] [/offwindir=win] [/offbootdir=boot] [/?]

Tip: See How To Read Command Syntax if you're not sure how to interpret the sfc command syntax above.

/scannow = This option instructs sfc to scan all protected operating system files and repair as necessary.

/verifyonly = This sfc command option is the same as /scannow but without repairing.

/scanfile=file = This sfc option is the same as /scannow but the scan and repair is only for the specified file.

/offwindir=win = Used with other sfc options to define the Windows directory (win) when using sfc offline.

/offbootdir=boot = Similar to /offwindir, this sfc option is used to define the boot directory (boot).

[/?] = Use the help switch with the sfc command to show detailed help about the command's several options.

Tip: You can save the output of the sfc command to a file using a redirection operator. See How To Redirect Command Output to a File for instructions or check out Command Prompt Tricks for more tips like this.

Sfc Command Examples:

sfc /scannow
In the above example, the System File Checker utility is used to scan and then automatically replace any corrupt or missing system files. The /scannow option is the most commonly used switch for the sfc command.

See How To Use SFC /Scannow to Repair Protected Windows Operating System Files for more information on using the sfc command in this way.

sfc /scanfile=c:\windows\system32\ieframe.dll
Here, the sfc command is used to scan ieframe.dll and then repair it if an issue is found.

sfc /verifyonly
Using the sfc command with the /verifyonly option, System File Checker will scan all protected files and report any issues but no changes are made.

Important: You may need access to your original Windows DVD or CD to allow file repairs.

Sfc Command Availability:

The sfc command is available from within the Command Prompt in most Windows operating systems including Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Windows 2000.

System File Checker is part of Windows Resource Protection in Windows 8, Windows 7, and Windows Vista and is sometimes referred to as Windows Resource Checker in those operating systems.

System File Checker is part of Windows File Protection in Windows XP and Windows 2000.

Important: The sfc command can only be run from the Command Prompt when opened as an administrator. See How To Open an Elevated Command Prompt for information on doing that.

Note: The availability of sfc command switches may differ somewhat from operating system to operating system.

Sfc Related Commands:

The sfc command is often used with many other Command Prompt commands.

Many troubleshooting steps advise the use of the sfc command.

Some Secrets to my google-FU

Here are some of the secrets to my Google-FU

• Phrase search ("")
  By putting double quotes around a set of words, you are telling Google to consider the exact words in that exact order without any change. Google already uses the order and the fact that the words are together as a very strong signal and will stray from it only for a good reason, so quotes are usually unnecessary. By insisting on phrase search you might be missing good results accidentally. For example, a search for [ "Alexander Bell" ] (with quotes) will miss the pages that refer to Alexander G. Bell.
• Search within a specific website (site:)
  Google allows you to specify that your search results must come from a given website. For example, the query [ iraq site:nytimes.com ] will return pages about Iraq but only from nytimes.com. The simpler queries [ iraq nytimes.com ] or [ iraq New York Times ] will usually be just as good, though they might return results from other sites that mention the New York Times. You can also specify a whole class of sites, for example [ iraq site:.gov ] will return results only from a .gov domain and [ iraq site:.iq ] will return results only from Iraqi sites.
• Terms you want to exclude (-)
  Attaching a minus sign immediately before a word indicates that you do not want pages that contain this word to appear in your results. The minus sign should appear immediately before the word and should be preceded with a space. For example, in the query [ anti-virus software ], the minus sign is used as a hyphen and will not be interpreted as an exclusion symbol; whereas the query[ anti-virus -software ] will search for the words 'anti-virus' but exclude references to software. You can exclude as many words as you want by using the - sign in front of all of them, for example[ jaguar -cars -football -os ]. The - sign can be used to exclude more than just words. For example, place a hyphen before the 'site:' operator (without a space) to exclude a specific site from your search results.
• Fill in the blanks (*)
  The *, or wildcard, is a little-known feature that can be very powerful. If you include * within a query, it tells Google to try to treat the star as a placeholder for any unknown term(s) and then find the best matches. For example, the search [ Google * ] will give you results about many of Google's products (go to next page and next page -- we have many products). The query[ Obama voted * on the * bill ] will give you stories about different votes on different bills. Note that the * operator works only on whole words, not parts of words.
• Search exactly as is (+)
  Google employs synonyms automatically, so that it finds pages that mention, for example, childcare for the query [ child care ] (with a space), or California history for the query [ ca history ]. But sometimes Google helps out a little too much and gives you a synonym when you don't really want it. By attaching a + immediately before a word (remember, don't add a space after the +), you are telling Google to match that word precisely as you typed it. Putting double quotes around a single word will do the same thing.
• The OR operator
  Google's default behavior is to consider all the words in a search. If you want to specifically allow eitherone of several words, you can use the OR operator (note that you have to type 'OR' in ALL CAPS). For example, [ San Francisco Giants 2004 OR 2005 ] will give you results about either one of these years, whereas [ San Francisco Giants 2004 2005 ] (without the OR) will show pages that include both years on the same page. The symbol | can be substituted for OR. (The AND operator, by the way, is the default, so it is not needed.)
• The date range syntax is as simple as typing daterange:startdate-enddate. The catch is that the date must be expressed as a Julian date (see below). So, for example, July 8, 2002, is Julian date 2452463.5 and May 22, 1968, is 2439998.5. Furthermore, Google isn't fond of decimals in its date range queries; use only integers: 2452463 or 2452464 (depending on whether you prefer to round up or down)
• Visit the Google Guide Advanced Operator Quick Reference and look for special operators of the formoperator:value.
• Fill in Google’s Advanced Search form. Then look at the search box on the results page; you may see that Google has added search operators to your query. For instance, if you fill in the Advanced Search page, asking Google to “find results with all of the words” [ detect plagiarism ] and to “return results where my terms occur: in the title of the page” your results page should look like the one shown here. Notice the allintitle: search operator that Google added before your query:
• http://www.googleguide.com/advanced_operators_reference.html
• http://www.googleguide.com/print/adv_op_ref.pdf

Clean up Windows Update cache after Update issues

I ran into some trouble recently where the windows updates would keep coming back. same update after it was being applied (successfully from what was being reported)


Solution was simple to clear the cached updates and let it start over. had to look this up however.

1. open your command prompt (Start -> Run -> type cmd and then OK)
2. type "net stop wuauserv" at the prompt
3. type "cd /d %windir%"
4. Type "rd /s SoftwareDistribution"
5. type "net start wuauserv" to restart your windows updates.