Initially it seem like an ordinary blue-tooth headset, well it is but with a twist – it uses an elaborate background noise cancellation technology and it seem to do so very well indeed (watch video below). So if you use your blue-tooth headset in noisy environments then this may be something for you.

For more details refer to WIKI or their web-site;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jawbone_%28headset%29
http://www.jawbone.com/

Anyhow, I remembered there was some strange utility that could do the same thing, it took a little googeling but I quickly found it it’s;
http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/

Free and all

Another approach would be, find KonBoot (the first version was free, but it has now gone commercial) it may be a bit hard to find the free version but it is out there and works..  Boot with KonBoot, bypass windows logon (password can be bypassed by leaving the field blank), now create a new admin account (eg call it “admin”)- set password – make this new user member of the local administrators group.  Now boot without KonBoot and login with this new account, you can now change the password for the real administrator account…  (it may also be possible to change the password for the administrator account while booted via KonBoot, but I am not 100% on that)..

I managed to find KonBoot here; http://www.darknet.org.uk/2009/06/kon-boot-reset-windows-linux-passwords/ 

Problemo solved

I ended up with a LG 22LU5000 22″ LCD tv YouTube video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pt8s_m6dFi0, mainly because of the price I have to say (DKK 1.750,- aprox € 233)..  So how is it?; well picture quality is a big thumbs up, the menu system is fair (I miss being able to name the channels myself) but the sound is dreadful (yes it really suck when it come to sound, it’s something they call invisible speaker …..  yeah, it almost sounds like they forgot to include a speaker)…  Oh well, as mentioned the price is very fair and it is only for my bedroom, so I guess I can live with a bit poorer sound.

What however proved to be really cool and a total surprise was that the tv/firmware was hackable, it allowed for a hack that enabled a USB mediaplayer within the tv..  So now I can plug a usb disk into the service USB port on the TV and play xvid, divx and mkv files   now that’s cool…  I had even bought a WD TV Mini for that job (before I learned about the hack) but hey I guess I can use that in the living room

If you have a LG tv, take a look here, maybe your model is equally hackable cool…
http://lgusb.wikispaces.com

Ok, you may have heard about such solutions as; Smoothwall, monowall and others like them?  These are basically routers/firewalls, and could with a PC (and two nics) replace your broadband router, they contain complex firewall capabilities and maybe even VPN connect possibility.  All very cool and quite easy to setup and use..

Untangle go a step further than this, to the basic router capability is added firewall, vpn, antivirus scanning, privacy filter, ad filter, spam filter, captive page and much much more.  The best part is that most of this is free, you can download a bunch of apps and install these (this is point and click, so no linux knowledge is required).

So how does it work, is it a proxy or is it a gateway or what?  Well once installed you set the LAN nic IP as the default gateway and viola all traffic is now filtered against malware, virus, spam, privacy concerns and what not..

I setup my Untangle box as a Hyper-V machine on my Windows 2008R2 server, gave it 640mb ram and two cpu’s and a 120gb hard drive (of which it is now using aprox 6-7gb).

Once installed you configure everything via the web-interface (not on the box itself if you use Hyper-V, but on you own pc);

So a few notes on installing the app as a hyper-v virtual server;

• Obvious disadvantages, you will never be able to install the Hyper-V additions into the Linux box, thus no mouse ever which leaves the user interface on the installed box useless.
• I had to run the installation 4-5 times before I succeded, dont know why it failed but it was as if the installer just stalled during the installation, thus I suggest you take a snapshot once you manage to install the basic system (now you can always revert to here).

Ok, let me just give you the quick tour of installing the thing, it is not a complete guide
(so no screenshots and some obvious steps may be omitted, but if you know a bit of Hyper-v’ing it should not be too hard);

1. Download the Untangled install cd from; http://www.untangle.com/Downloads/Download-ISO

2. Create a new Hyper-V machine (I suggest 640mb ram, 2 cpu’s), replace the NIC with two legacy NIC’s (required to work), an IDE drive - I used a dynamic drive of 120gb but I think performance may be better if you set a static drive of perhaps 20gb, mount the downloaded ISO as the CD rom. Tweaks; you can stick to one legacy NIC if you do not plan to use the box as a firewall (eg. if you have a HW firewall in your ISP router etc), some things will not work with only one nic but most will.

3. Start the system and select the Text based installer (as you have no mouse in hyper-v), I seemed to have better luck with the advanced installer..  You should set static IP’s so decide on two IP’s before getting started.

4. Once the installation is complete switch to your browser and connect to the IP you set as the LAN side during install

5. Take a snapshot of your of your Hyper-V machine.

6. Now download the “open source pack”, on the left of the interface.

7. Configure the different modules, I suggest you disable/turn off the firewall, anti spam, PG, intrusion prevention features (unless you plan on using the device as your main router) as this will speed up performance.

8. Now set the LAN NIC IP as your default gateway on your pc (or on your DHCP server)

You can even set up a captive page, this will require people to have a password in order to access the Internet quite cool – sadly it does not support limiting bandwidth, download ratios etc. but well it’s still cool.

Don’t worry if your first or second install fails, as mentioned I had to do multiple installs before it succeeded, but now it runs fairly smooth.  I have experienced that the web-interface was unavailable (network still worked, but I could not reach the interface), but after a reboot everything was back online.

Read more here; www.untangle.com  -  http://wiki.untangle.com/index.php/Untangle_Server_User’s_Guide

But the BEST solution is this, a small sticker to place in the affected area (Hilarious!!!!);

Buy it here; http://www.etsy.com/listing/52058857/iphon-end-call-now-sticker-stops-signal

A not so funny solution is this;
http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/20/antenna-aid-bandages-your-iphone-4-reception-issue-hopes-for-ro/

Even though I never had one on the ‘original’ first Amigas (the Amiga 1000) I quickly followed with an Amiga 500 followed by an Amiga 2000 which by it’s retirement was totally modded with custom rom’s, level7 interrupts and what not..

I was actually quite involved in the scene at the time; http://www.exotica.org.uk/wiki/The_Silents (Cyborg) it was good times indeed   incredible that we did it all without the internet at the time…  Nostalgic as I?  Check this; http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=the+silents+amiga&aq=f

The Amiga’s was truly ahead of their time, long live their memory..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga_1000

“Statement by Apple on White iPhone 4
White models of Apple’s new iPhone® 4 have continued to be more challenging to manufacture than we originally expected, and as a result they will not be available until later this year. The availability of the more popular iPhone 4 black models is not affected.”

AAAAAAARGH seem to be the right word here…

Source; http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/23/apple-delays-white-iphone-a-second-time-wont-ship-until/

More here; http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=11

Now finally someone got around to creating one of those days that was just missing in the calender, we have mothers day – fathers day – valentines day and NOW also System Administrator Appreciation Day – goodie goodie goodie

So put a big red X in your calender for July 30th 2010, and be sure to tell your System Administrator just how much you appreciate him/her..

http://www.sysadminday.com/