Malware: Virus
Virus. All I have to do is say the word, right? In all likelihood, everyone reading this has had one at one time or another. They are everywhere it seems, lurking in every corner of the internet. Sometimes they find you through innocuous means, sometimes when you are surfing the dark waves of the internet, [...]
Read more
Malware: Trojan Horse
Ah, the venerable Trojan Horse. This form of malware has gained such notoriety that it’s what most people think of when they think of malware. It’s link to the Trojan Horse from Greek mythology certainly plays a part, but this form of malware is very common, and can be very dangerous. Let’s investigate what exactly [...]
Read more
Malware: Rootkits
In the continuing series on Malware, we have reached one of the most scary – and potent – forms of malware out there: the rootkit. In this article I’ll explain what a rootkit is, why it is dangerous, what different forms there are of this beasty, and what you can do to protect yourself. It [...]
Read more
This Geek’s Office
Every once in awhile, someone will ask me about my setup. They want to know what equipment I use (and thus endorse), and the more inquisitive people like to know how it is set up. I must admit that I am quite spoiled in both the equipment that I use, and in how I have [...]
Read more
White Paper: Powerline Networking
System Architecture The above figure shows the architecture of a powerline networking system (in particular a HomePlug AV system). The Higher Layer Entities (HLEs) above the H1 (Host) Interface may be bridges, applications or servers that provide off-chip services to clients below the H1 Interface. The Data Service Access Point (SAP) accepts Ethernet format [...]
Read more
White Paper: Virtual Machines
System virtual machines fall into two categories: Type 1 hypervisors (on the left), which run directly on the host hardware, and Type 2 hypervisors (on the right), which run on top of another operating system. Both are capable of running multiple independent instances of one operating system or different [...]
Read more
White Paper: DirectX 11
Mmmmm….DirectX 11…. DirectX 10 marked a radical departure from DirectX 9: In order to be compatible, a graphics processor must feature a unified architecture in which each shader unit is capable of executing pixel-, vertex-, and geometry-shader instructions. The changes in DirectX 11 aren’t quite as fundamental, but they could have just as big an [...]
Read moreMy Office
Welcome to the office of a Geek! As you can imagine, a lot of the stuff in here has since been changed out for newer technology, but it is largely the same. Once I finish moving, I will update with new pics, as well as shots of the “classroom.”
Read more
Increase the Range of Your Wireless Network
Have you ever been surfing the net and noticed that you suddenly lost connection? Or that it suddenly became drastically slow? If you don’t want to purchase a new router (if you do: buy an N router from either D-link, or Linksys), you can increase your range for free. There are two methods that I [...]
Read more
Cleaning Your Technology
All of our beloved technology gets dirty from time to time, and there is little that we can do to prevent it. More technology means more cleaning… Do you have an HDTV? An mp3 player? Cellphone? I know you have a computer…and keyboard…and monitor…you have a lot don’t you? Just because technology has become a part of [...]
Read more
Repartition Your Hard Drive…AND Keep Your Data!
With hard drives growing in capacity you may wonder what the benefit of partitioning your hard drive may be. It used to be that hard drives were expensive and you typically had one (or the rich kids had two…jerks…) drives in their system. This meant that you had everything on one drive. What happens if [...]
Read more
Repartition Your Hard Drive…and Keep Your Data p2
We are now ready to begin to repartition our hard drive using GParted. Please make sure that you have a working backup of your important data. This is good practice. The first 8 steps are all that is required if you wish to merely repartition your hard drive. If you want to repartition it in [...]
Read more
How to Make Recovery Discs
Do you remember a long time ago (ok…not really) you used to get the disc to install windows when you bought a computer? Did you notice when the companies started offering recovery discs in an effort to save themselves money? And have you noticed now that they don’t even give you those!? This is very [...]
Read more
Share a Printer on the Network
You have more than one computer in your home don’t you? Just because you have multiple computers doesn’t mean that you need multiple printers as well! Sharing your printer(s) between computers is a great way to save some money and save yourself the headache and hassle of managing multiple overpriced inks! Does this mean that [...]
Read more
Set Up Your New Computer
So you just bought a new computer huh? Nice. You are probably eager to fire it up and marvel at its speed, new features, and sexy good looks right? How about we get it ready for a night on the town first, OK? Its a sad reality, but almost any computer you purchase nowadays is [...]
Read more
Back up and Restore Windows
Does it feel like your computer is beyond repair? Unless you are suffering from a catastrophic hardware failure, you can still get a lot of life out of your computer. As time goes on, programs are installed and uninstalled and they leave behind remnants on your machine. Many programmers don’t necessarily take the time to [...]
Read more
Touch Screen Technology
Touch screens may never replace our clicky-clacky QWERTY keyboards—no, we’ll have to wait for brain-stem probes for that—but they are becoming more common. In fact, devices using this technology have been in use for more than 35 years and are becoming ubiquitous—kiosks, tablet PCs, desktop computers, and many handheld devices all now rely on [...]
Read more
Bypass Windows Log in Password
Are you the only person who uses your computer? If you don’t see any benefit to having specific software profiles, then you can go ahead and remove your password and speed up your boot time! It’s time to get a little Geeky! The login password screen is there for security reasons, it keeps different [...]
Read more