How to reset a Windows Vista password
Filed Under Geek, Hacks and Mods, Software, Tools, Windows |
So you, er I mean “a friend”, forgot your password on a Windows Vista machine that you haven’t used in awhile. You would never forget a password, right? And now you need to get into the machine and don’t want to blast away and install Windows fresh. If you use Windows XP you can just boot into Safe Mode and use the built in administrator account, but if you’re in Vista that account has been disabled by default. Luckily there’s a tool that will help you reset that password in Windows NT and Vista. It’s called Offline NT Password & Registry Editor (pretty catchy name, eh?). Simply download the zip file containing an .iso, burn it with your favorite CD burning software, pop it in the drive and go. It will boot up a copy of linux off the CD and ask you all sorts of questions. When in doubt, hit Enter to accept the default. Before you know it, you’ll have a reset password and will be staring at your desktop again in no time. There is another way to reset Vista passwords, but it requires that you created a password reset disk before you forgot your password. You might want to do this now in case you forgot your password. There are instructions over on Microsoft’s site.
Of course all of this exposes just how easy it can be to get into a machine that’s password protected. In the end, it’s pretty safe to say that if someone has physical access to your machine, you’re just plain screwed.
Full Screen Firefox and Safari on OS X
Filed Under Apple, Apple - Good, Apple - Solution, Geek, Internet, OS X, Software, Tools |
Anyone that has talked to me about what I don’t like about OS X has heard me complain about the inability to maximize an application to take up the entire screen in one easy step. Sure you can drag the corner out, but that’s an annoying “work-around” in my opinion. But thanks to Todd Dailey I have a more acceptable work-around for Firefox and Safari at least.
All you do is add a Bookmark to the Bookmark Toolbar (commonly called a Bookmarklet) that has this snippet of JavaScript instead of the URL that normally goes there:
javascript:window.resizeTo(1440,900);
Of course you’ll want to set the values to the same size as your screen resolution. You can check your screen resolution in System Preferences -> Display. And on Safari you can make it even simpler if you make this bookmarklet the first one in the list. Then you can just hit Command+1 and have a full screen web browser instantly.
This is also handy for web developers on all platforms. Want to see what your site looks like at 800×600, 1024×768, etc.? Make a toolbar button for each resolution! Quick and easy site previews while you’re working on pages.
AudioSurf looks incredible
Filed Under Art, Fun, Movies and Music, Music, Video, Video Games |
AudioSurf is a “music-adapting puzzle racer where you use your own music to create your own experience” says Steam. In short, you choose the music and the game creates a board and game-play experience that is related to that music. I’m always a bit wary of all these games that say your own music can affect game play and think that they’ll never be able to compare to the synaesthetic experience of Rez, an all time classic. A friend had mentioned the game in passing, and I didn’t think much of it other than to notice that it has the Orange Box soundtrack, including “Still Alive”. But after seeing the video above I instantly loaded up my Steam and purchased this. Review to come soon.
I love the Garmin eTrex Vista HCx and Geotagging
Filed Under Gadgets, Geek, Photography, Software |
I love GPS receivers. There’s something great about knowing exactly where you are, plus being able to track where you’ve been. They come in handy while hiking, walking around a city, or driving. And I have a very long history with these things. I used to have a carputer that combined a GPS receiver with software long before it was standard on cars. My carputer consisted of a shoebox+miniITX+LCD imported from Hong Kong. I’ve used a handful of GPS receivers that are meant to interface with laptops, but up until recently, have only owned one handheld receiver, a Garmin eTrex Legend (unless you count the Boost Mobile i415 or the Helio Ocean). I loved that little device, it got me into geocaching and was primarily bought for that purpose. I used to also enjoy taking it on plane flights and tracking our flight across the country. It also rode shotgun with two other GPSrs during my cross-country move from Chicago to San Francisco. But I always felt like it was lacking. With only 8mb of internal memory, I could barely load enough maps for trips. I couldn’t even squeeze the entire Bay Area on it. And the monochrome screen? So 2002. I’ve been meaning to upgrade for quite awhile, and prompted by a New Year’s trip to Joshua Tree, I finally caved during a last minute trip to REI.
I picked up a Garmin eTrex Vista HCx unit for $299.99 (you can get it cheaper, but I love REI’s return policy). It’s almost the same size as the old Legend, just a little shorter and fatter. The screen on it is gorgeous though. It’s amazing how much easier it is to read maps with colors. The best part about it though is the sensitivity of the receiver. With the old Legend, I had gotten accustomed to having to leave it on the dashboard in the car or carrying it in my hand while walking. It consistently complained about needing a clear view of the sky in order to lock onto satellites. The new Vista HCx scoffs at these needs. It was able to pick up satellites while stashed in the seat back pocket in the middle of my car! Amazingly it was also able to pick up a signal while inside! So armed with my new toy, we headed out to Joshua Tree. I basically left it on for the entire drive and most of the time we were out in the desert and it did a spectacular job of hardly ever losing a signal. It came in handy when trying to find our campsite that was a little over a mile from our cars and hidden amongst desert foliage that all looks the same. It also allowed me to keep tracks on where we went, whether it was climbing a mountain, scrambling over boulders, or even just wandering away from camp to *ahem* dig a hole.
This tracking all came in handy when I got back home and wanted to geotag the photos I had taken out there. I loaded up EasyGPS to download a .gpx file containing the tracks and then used gpicsync (a Google Code project) to stamp the GPS information into the EXIF header of the actual image files. From there I uploaded the photos to Flickr, which automatically interpreted the GPS coordinates and placed my photos on the map. The other cool thing about gpicsync is that it will create a Google Earth file that will let you load up Google Earth and fly around the world, seeing where your photos were taken. Quite awesome when you’ve been taking photos in the mountains and you can actually see which ridge you were on in 3-D.
So I highly recommend the Garmin eTrex Vista HCx. And no, they aren’t paying me to say that. :) Although, if you do want to pick one up, use this link: Garmin eTrex Vista HCx
And yes, it comes in handy when you need to mark a waypoint to point out where you found your girlfriend’s toothpaste when you’re practicing “Leave No Trace” camping. ;)
Alcohol and Programming, the Ballmer Peak
xkcd has a great comic up that points out that I’m not the only one to notice the correlation between drinking and programming:
Windows Bluescreen Tattoo
Filed Under Art, Body Modification, Funny, Software, Windows |
We recently posted some geeky video game tattoos, but in the world of geek tattoos, this one definitely ranks pretty high up there. A guy named Paul got this homage to the part of Windows 98 that we all curse to this day done by Sam Rulz of Two Hands Tattoo in New Zealand. Wow….
via ModBlog
Nintendo Tattoos
Filed Under Art, Body Modification, Video Games |
More “Gamer Ink” at www.thebbps.com.
via BehindTheInk. Picture source: www.thebbps.com.
Nintendo Light Zapper + Wiimote
Filed Under Fun, Gadgets, Hacks and Mods, Old Hardware, Video Games |
I told you how the old school Nintendo Light Zapper works, but now cyberpyrot over at AcidMods shows you how to modify one for use with the Nintendo Wii. Pretty simple, yet slick and a nice merging of old school with new school.
Using Lumines to hack your PSP
Filed Under Gadgets, PSP, Video Games |
Want to run homebrew apps on your PSP? For the past couple of years, it’s been a game of cat and mouse with homebrew hackers coming up with ways around Sony’s updated firmwares. The latest uses one of my favorite games to exploit a loophole that will let you run homebrew apps on any version of the firmware, from v1.00 up to v3.50. Up until know hacking your PSP required all sorts of hoops to jump through with steps specific to each firmware and quite often actually downgrading your firmware. Not anymore! In uhhh unrelated news, sales of Lumines
on Amazon have skyrocketed!
Info on how to hack your PSP with Lumines
via Engadget
Photosynth blows my mind
Filed Under Internet, News, Software, Tools, Video |
We saw this posted over on geeksugar and had to pick our jaw up off the floor. Photosynth is truly amazing technology and the fact that it works so quickly and smoothly is unbelievable. Imagine having gigs and gigs of photos and text accessible as fast as you can pan and zoom! Or taking images from flickr and creating an interactive 3-D model from the photos! I can’t wait…
UPDATE: We found another video describing the technology and giving a fly-through. There is a comment about how this is a collision between the physical world and the virtual world, but I think this is much more of a merging of the two realms, something we’re going to see more and more of over the next decade.
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