Bauer-Power Media

Best Use of Twitter Ever! @TomLeykis Starts #TweetYourTeats TODAY!

noreply@blogger.com (El Di Pablo) — Fri, 25 May 2012 17:00:00 +0000

Sweet baby Jesus this is a great day. The reason? Former radio mogul, and current podcast master Tom Leykis is taking his infamous "Flash Friday" to Twitter starting today at 3:00PM Pacific. What does this mean? Well, it means there will be a lot of happy male tweeple out there!

You see, Flash Friday was something Tom Leykis did on the radio. On Friday's, while he was on the radio he would have his listeners turn on their headlights. If you were a female listener to Tom Leykis you were encouraged to show your breasts to guys driving with their headlights on. While that was all going on Tom would have guys who were seeing the breasts out in public call in reporting on what they were seeing. Also the lady listeners who participated would call in and to tell where their tatas could be seen. It was beautiful!

Anyway, since Tom has moved to the Internet less people randomly listen to the radio, and ladies aren't as aware of Flash Friday as they used to. To combat this issue, Tom Leykis announced via twitter that Flash Friday is moving to Twitter via a little thing he calls #TweetYourTeats!

Here is the what the Tweet said:

Tom talked about it on his Thursday podcast yesterday right before he got into his Leykis 101 piece and had listeners call in to discuss #TweetYourTeats. Many male callers, as one can expect, were completely on board. Some were concerned about legal issues, and some called in thinking it wouldn't work at all. Some ladies called in saying they would participate, but were going to setup fake Twitter accounts specifically to show off their "goods".

You can listen to Tom Leykis live Monday through Friday from 3PM-6PM Pacific on BlowMeUpTom.com or using the Tunein app on your smart phone.

What do you think about this? Is this a great use for Twitter or what? Are you going to check it out? Let us know what you think about this in the comments!

Limited Deal: Get 10% Off Your Next Geeks.com Order

noreply@blogger.com (El Di Pablo) — Fri, 25 May 2012 07:00:00 +0000

I don't usually write about deals, but seeing as how I'm a Computer Geeks affiliate, and they are running a pretty awesome deal right now, I thought I would share it with you.

This deal is from The Computer Geeks, one of my favorite small online computer and electronics shop. I use them literally all the time because they have really great deals all the time. Not only that, but their show room is fairly close to my home. Their show room is in Oceanside California, and I like to drive over there and check out their deals first hand.

Other times I'm too lazy, and order things online. Since they aren't far away I pay for standard shipping and almost always get it next day. Win win!

Well right now you can get everything in their store NOT marked as "'Special" by clicking one of the links in this post AND using coupon code GEEKBERT.

They have all sorts of things from Digital Cameras at 20%-50% off, to laptops, hard drives, tablets and more.

Check them out today, and be sure to use coupon code GEEKBERT at check out to get 10% off anything NOT marked "Special"!

del.icio.us tags: geeks.com, computer geeks, coupon code, 10% off

Yahoo Trying To Stay Relevant With Axis

noreply@blogger.com (El Di Pablo) — Thu, 24 May 2012 07:00:00 +0000

You may have heard that Yahoo has come out with a new browser called Axis. Well that is really a load of horse hockey. It' isn’t so much of a browser like Google Chrome, of Mozilla Firefox. It’s a plugin for your current browser that is supposed to revolutionize how you view and search the web. For iPhone and iPad users, Axis is available as a standalone app.

Some of the things that Axis allows you to do is sync preferences across all your devices that run Axis, and has a search bar in the lower part of your screen that when you type in it brings up a larger bar full of suggestions.

From PCWorld:

As you start typing, the bar is raised and displays underneath a list of suggested search terms and towards the right it will display horizontally scrolling thumbnails of the pages in the search results, while sites without thumbnails will show just text. The thumbnails are quite blurry and low res. Once you click on the page you want to see, the bar retracts and you can get it back up by just clicking on it.

If you sign in with your Yahoo, Facebook or Google credentials, you can set up your favorites and Axis will remember the pages you visited so you can pick up where you left off from an iPad or iPhone in the Read Later folder.

Watch the demo video from Yahoo:

What’s my take on this? Yahoo has managed to take a basic search toolbar, that although may be annoying is relatively unobtrusive, and blow that bastard up to take over your entire screen! Plus the syncing of settings and preferences between devices? They already had that with Google Chrome. Why would one need a plugin for Chrome when that function is already built in?

Maybe I’m wrong about this, but to me I think it’s a play from Yahoo to try to stay relevant in the search engine market place. Am I wrong? What do you think about Axis? Let us know in the comments!

del.icio.us Tags: yahoo,browser,axis,review,glorified toolbar

Contest Time: Bauer-Power Needs More Facebook Friends

noreply@blogger.com (El Di Pablo) — Wed, 23 May 2012 07:00:00 +0000

It's been quite the while since I've held a contest here, and figured it was about time I did it again. I have thought about it, and I just don't feel like I have enough friends on Facebook. Well, I should say I don't feel that the blog has enough friends on Facebook. Right now we have 193 good pals that follow us, but I would like to push that number up to at least 500. For that, I feel a little bribery is in order.

Therefore I will have a contest here to inspire you all to be friends of Bauer-Power by liking us on Facebook. The winners (Yes I said winners) will get some free schwag from Bauer-Power Gear! Now before you scoff at that, we have some pretty cool stuff that you may actually want. In fact, I will be making available for the first prize, a free t-Shirt which are surprisingly good sellers. All you have to do to enter is like us on Facebook, then post the following on our wall:

I love Bauer-Power, now give me my prize!

That's it! We'll see the post and enter you into the drawing to win. First prize will be a Bauer-Power Gear T-Shirt of your choice. Here are some examples:

Full T-Shirt Inventory Here

Second place winners will get either a 4 GB Bauer-Power USB drive, or a Tech Chop netbook case. Their choice!

Finally, third place winners will get a free coffee mug of their choice!

Full Mug Inventory Here

Once again, entering is easy! Just like our Facebook page here: (Bauer-Power on Facebook)

And write the following on our wall:

I love Bauer-Power, now give me my prize!

Winners will be announced on our Facebook page on July 30th 2012. Now spread the word, and get yourself some free stuff!

del.icio.us tags: contest, free, t-shirt, coffee mug, usb, thumb, flash, drive, netbook case, facebook, like

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Awesome Free Alternative to GoToMeeting

noreply@blogger.com (El Di Pablo) — Tue, 22 May 2012 07:00:00 +0000

My poor, poor users. We used to use GoToMeeting at my company, but renewing the annual license was going to be astronomical. At least astronomical for a small company trying to make it in this crazy world. Anyway, long story short, our CFO put the kibosh on GoToMeeting because it was super expeensive, and we were already paying for Office365 from Microsoft which comes with Lync and Live Meeting.

Well my users friggin' HATE Live Meeting. Like most Microsoft products, it is designed to work on Microsoft platforms. Well our sales people happen to sell to real estate brokers, and other small business owners that prefer to use Mac, and Live Meeting works as smooth as sandpaper on Mac. My desk is right by the sales area so I am in earshot of their constant complaints.

Not wanting to hear anymore bitching, but also not wanting to go against the CFO's wishes, I saught after a free alternative to GoToMeeting that was simple to use and worked on any platform, or at least Windows and Mac. I found one, and it is mindblowing how simple it is to use.

It's called Join.me. Windows and Mac users wishing to schedule a meeting just download a simple self running executable, and it generates a meeting code. The meeting organizer can then either IM the person they wish to share their desktop out with a link, or they can just read them a meeting code that the attendee can type into the Join box on the Join.me website. The attendee views the desktop through their browser without installing a damn thing! Simple right?

Know of any other free desktop sharing/meeting tools? Are they add supported? Join.me isn't. What do you use? Let us know in the comments.

del.icio.us tags: free, alternative, gotomeeting, citrix, microsoft, live meeting

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Checking in With KipKay: DIY Laser Alarm

noreply@blogger.com (El Di Pablo) — Mon, 21 May 2012 07:00:00 +0000

Periodically I like to post video's from one of my favorite online video maker, Kip Kedersha aka Kip Kay. He is a real life MacGyver who makes some of the coolest mods, and gadgets out of junk he usually has lying around the house. In this video, he makes one of the coolest do it yourself items I have ever seen. It is a home laser alarm system that you can make for less than $20. Of course the stuff in this video weren't laying around his house, but the components are all easily available at your local Frys, or on Amazon.

Anyway, in his video he shows how to put the components together, and how to mount reflective lasers all around a room to bounce the laser light around creating a grid that a burglar can't see. Want to protect your junk like an art museum? Watch this video!

What do you think about this project? Are you going to try it? If you do, let us know how it turns out in the comments!

[Via KipKay]

del.icio.us tags: how to, build, make, your, own, laster, burglar, alarm

XKCD: We've All Experienced These Calls Haven't We?

noreply@blogger.com (El Di Pablo) — Fri, 18 May 2012 07:00:00 +0000

I love me some XKCD. I found a really good one that I thought I would share with you. Mainly because I think we've all had calls like this dealing with our ISP's. For some reason, I'm guessing money, ISP's only hire the dumbest mofo's to handle their tier 1 calls. Sure, if you don't know your ass from your elbow about computers. For instance I know users that don't know how to do a simple reboot, then these tier 1 dill weeds might be able to give even dumber users some help.

However, if you know anything about computer's or networking, don't you wish they had a secret code that automatically knew what the hell they are doing? This comic from XKCD captures it perfectly!

Check it out:

[Via XKCD]

del.icio.us tags: xkcd, tech support, call, dream, backdoor, escalate

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Anti-Anonymous Hacker DDoS's The Pirate Bay and Wikileaks

noreply@blogger.com (El Di Pablo) — Thu, 17 May 2012 07:00:00 +0000

Self-proclaimed former Anonymous member going by the Twitter handle @AnonNyre claimed responsibilities for the recent DDoS attacks agains The Pirate Bay, who if you've been living under a rock, was at one time the biggest Bit Torrent site on the internet, and is the target of tons of anti-piracy campaigns from groups like the RIAA. He also alleges that he is responsible for the parallel DDoS attacks on Wikileaks which is the place that all dirty government stuff is exposed by insiders.

The attacks on The Pirate bay and Wikileaks happened yesterday on the 16th of May. According to ZDNet's post yesterday:

The Pirate Bay is not loading for many today. In fact, it hasn’t been for hours, even up to a full 24 for some. The reason is simple: The Pirate Bay has revealed it is currently being hit by a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack by an unknown party.
When I heard it was down this morning, I first tried accessing it myself. I even tried getting to the blog for some news in the hopes that it was being hosted on a different server, but no dice. My colleague David Grober confirmed it wasn’t working for him either. A quick check on Facebook and Twitter shows this is a widespread issue.

The confession from @AnonNyre came via his post on Pastebin, a site for coders to trade code. Anonymous no longer uses Pastebin though, according to ArsTechnica, and has their own version of it. The Pastebin post said:

You must be wondering why did I attacked The Pirate Bay..
I am Nyre. I am highly against Anonymous. I do not support Anonymous anymore. I sometimes help the feds.
The Pirate Bay was a press-release website for Anonymous, then I had a idea, why not take it down? Why not make it impossible for Anonymous?
Get on your knees, Anonymous. I am a one-man army. I am not a hacker. I am a security killer.
Expect yourself, f******.
THEPIRATEBAY.SE - Idea is, to keep it down for a week, Will try?

@AnonNyre's Twitter messages mention stuff about The Pirate bay, and how they are a speaking platform for the hacktivist group Anonymous, but it doesn't say anything about whay he would have attacked Wikileaks specifically.

What do you think about this? Do you think what @AnonNyre did was right? Was it wrong? Which side do you fall? With Nyre, or Anonymous? Let us know in the comments.

del.icio.us tags: anti, anonymous, hacker, attacker, ddos, the pirate bay, tpb, wikilieaks, anonnyre

[Via ZDNet]

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You're Weeks Are About To Get A Whole Lot Geekier!

noreply@blogger.com (El Di Pablo) — Wed, 16 May 2012 07:00:00 +0000

I am not an avid church going guy. I wasn't raised going to church every Sunday. Not that there is anything wrong with those who do. In fact, my wife was raised to go to church every Sunday, and most of the time still follows that schedule as well as brings our kids there. I don't often go with her because I welcome the solitude that I rarely get at home when they are all gone.

Where am I going with this? Oh, right, so last Sunday which was Mother's day, my wife requested my presence at church. Being as how it was Mother's day, I couldn't really refuse her, so I went. During the sermon an idea hit me. I was watching what the Pastor was doing, and I thought to myself that what he's doing is essentially putting on a weekly show. Being good friends with the Pastor (He's married to my wife's cousin) I know how much other stuff he and his family have going on during the week, and yet he can still put on his weekly performance. I figured, why couldn't I?

On the way home from church I told my wife that the lord obviously spoke to me and said, "Though shalt make Tech Chop a weekly video podcast instead of a monthly podcast". Of course it didn't go down like that, but you get the idea. Anyhoo, the wife and I discussed how much work it would be, and developed a strategy. It seems that since I have several years of content to call back on here at Bauer-Power, and there's always something going on in the news, that I could easily take my format to a weekly format.

So that's what I will be doing. Starting June 11th, Tech Chop will be a weekly show every Monday. Our last Monthly show will premiere on Friday, June 1st, then after that, shows will come out every Monday. Because I'm making this change, I also whipped up a new virtual set. Check it out, and let me know what you think. I still have a few weeks to make changes if you all hate it.

Pay no attention to the background music. I just made this as a simple visual test to see how the background would look. What do you think about the background? What do you think about having a new episode every week? Good idea? Bad idea? Let me know in the comments!

del.icio.us tags: tech chop, format, change, weekly, new, background

Security By Obscurity: Knock Detecting Lock

noreply@blogger.com (El Di Pablo) — Tue, 15 May 2012 07:00:00 +0000

I found a really cool mod during a bout of Stumbling. It is by a guy named Steve Hoefer who according to his site, Grathio Labs, is a globally recognized inventor and creative problem solver based in San Francisco. In this video Steve gives us his Secret Knock Detecting Lock that will unlock your door if you provide the correct knocking sequence, and the correct tempo.

You can build this cool little contraption yourself by following Steve's instructions on The Instructables website here: (How To Build A Secret Knock Detecting Door Lock)

Steve also describes his invention in more in depth on his website as well. From his article:

The Secret Knock Detecting Lock unlocks your door when it detects the correct knocking sequence. It's the perfect accessory to your secret lair, club house or tree house. It has gotten worldwide attention and the video has been seen well over half a million times. A ton of people have been inspired by this project and expanded and adapted it. Its simplicity and cleverness has also encouraged thousands of people to get started exploring the world of microcontrollers.

You can check out the video below:

I'm not sure that I would trust my most prized possessions with a locking mechanism of this type. I mean someone with a sound amplification device could be staked outside of your apartment where you can't see them to hear your knocking combination. In fact, you can get one of those listening devices pretty cheap on Amazon. The one pictured below is less than $100 (Click the picture to visit the product on Amazon)

Still though, pretty cool right? Are you going to try to build one? If you do, let us know how it goes in the comments!

del.icio.us tags: secret, knock, detecting, lock, diy, mod, how to

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Encrypt Your Android Emails With PGP - Fight CISPA!

noreply@blogger.com (El Di Pablo) — Mon, 14 May 2012 07:00:00 +0000

I have been writing a lot lately about various ways to encrypt your data to keep the peeping eyes of Uncle Sam out of your private stuff. Sure, at the time of this writing, nobody can legally go through your email without your concent or a warrant. If CISPA passes, those days are all over.

I've decided that if CISPA passes, then I will only communicate through personal email if it's encrypted. My encryption method of choice is GnuPG. Well now that can be easier for me because I found two apps for my Android phone that will let me send and receive encrypted emails.

The first app is APG, or Android Privacy Guard. It natively works with K9 Mail and OI File Manager. To get encryption working all you need to do is import your keys into APG. K9 Mail automatically detects and uses APG as it's key manager.

One thing I found though is that APG doesn't handle HTML messages as well as other OpenPGP programs, so you have to set your email to format messages in plain text by default so APG can format the PGP encryption correctly. Other than that it works without a hitch!

K9 Email works with POP, IMAP and Exchange with Webdav, however if you manage your own Exchange email you should just configure Exchange for secure IMAP. If you don't manage Exchange, bribe your Exchange admin to configure Exchange for IMAP over SSL. It makes Exchange work with more programs, and it's still securely accessable over SSL.

If you know of other PGP apps for different mobile devices like iPhone, let us know in the comments. Spread the word, and maybe we can make encrypted email a standard!

del.icio.us tags: free, pgp, gpg, gnupg, apg, app, android, email, encryption, k9 mail, exchange

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How to Make a Mac OSX Lion Installation USB Flash Drive or DVD

noreply@blogger.com (El Di Pablo) — Fri, 11 May 2012 07:00:00 +0000

As many of you know I have a monthly video tech podcast called Tech Chop that is a part of the Tech Podcast Network (TPN). If you've never heard of the TPN it's a really great resource for a plethora of both audio and video podcasts on all things related to technology and awesome geekiness. One of my sister shows on the audio only side is called MHF Tech Broadcasting from the United Kingdom.

On their site they have all sorts of great articles, and how-to posts along with their podcasts. We sort of did a quick trade between shows in the name of synergy. I told them I would re-post one of their shows on Bauer-Power if they would re-post one of my Tech Chop shows. Well here is my end of the bargain :-)
In this episode of MHF How-To's, Adi explains how to make a Mac OSX Lion Install USB Drive. Check it out!

If you want to hear more great shows from MHF, visit their website here: (MHF Tech)

You can also hear them, and other shows like Tech Chop on the TPN app for Android!

del.icio.us tags: how to, create, mac, osx, usb, flash, thumb, drive, install

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Access Your Google Drive in Ubuntu

noreply@blogger.com (El Di Pablo) — Thu, 10 May 2012 07:00:00 +0000

I'm kind of a late adopter of things. Some people I know sign up for the latest things as soon as news they are available breaks. Me, not so much. I like to wait for the dust to settle a bit I guess. One of those things is Google Drive, which officially released last month, and I'm only now signing up for it. Of course with the threat of CISPA, the only thing I am storing on it is a 5GB TrueCrypt volume (Suck on that US Government!)

Anyhoo, at the time of this writing there are only Google Drive clients available for Windows, Mac and Android with clients for iPhone and iPad coming out shortly. What if you are a Linux user though? Well, there is a way to mount your Google Drive in Ubuntu with a modified version of the now defunct Google-Docs-FS project. The only draw back with this approach is your files stored on Google Drive will only be available while you are connected to the Internet, and won't be available offline like you can with the offical clients. Still, it's better than nothing.

To set it up, do the following:

Open a Terminal and run: sudo add-apt-repository ppa:invernizzi/google-docs-fs
In the same Terminal run: sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install google-docs-fs

Once everything that’s needed has been installed log out and back in.

Open Nautilus
Create a new folder in your Home folder titled ‘Drive’
Open a Terminal and run: gmount Drive username@gmail.com
Input your password
Your Google Drive is now mounted in the ‘Drive’ folder

Pretty cool huh? Now you can easily share files between computers, and those computers can also be Ubuntu Linux coputers :-)

[Via OMG Ubuntu]

del.icio.us tags: how to, mount, google drive, ubuntu, linux, client

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Encryption Works. Use It To Protect Yourself If CISPA Passes

noreply@blogger.com (El Di Pablo) — Wed, 09 May 2012 07:00:00 +0000

Last week I release Bauer-Puntu Linux 12.04. In this latest encantation of my mildly popular Xubuntu based linux distro I encluded a few more tools to help protect your privacy. I did this mainly because of a lot of new "cyber security" and anti-piracy bills that are being introduced in congress that are slowly stripping away our rights as Americans. Rights that we all thought were protected under the Bill of Rights. Protections from things like unreasonable searches and seizures, and from violations of free speech. Many of the things I added involve encryption.

I've had more than one person tell me, "Why bother? They're the government, if they want your data, they will get it." Is that a fact? Well, an article from Tech World from back in June 2010 begs to differ. In their article entitled FBI Hackers Fail To Crack TrueCrypt they say:

The FBI has admitted defeat in attempts to break the open source encryption used to secure hard drives seized by Brazilian police during a 2008 investigation.

The Bureau had been called in by the Brazilian authorities after the country's own National Institute of Criminology (INC) had been unable to crack the passphrases used to secure the drives by suspect banker, Daniel Dantas.

The article also said:

Brazilian reports state that two programs were used to encrypt the drives, one of which was the popular and widely-used free open source program TrueCrypt. Experts in both countries apparently spent months trying to discover the passphrases using a dictionary attack, a technique that involves trying out large numbers of possible character combinations until the correct sequence is found.

Is TrueCrypt available in Bauer-Puntu 12.04? Not this time, sorry. i forgot to add it, but if you are running Bauer-Puntu, or pretty much any operating system for that matter, TrueCrypt is very easy to install. Bauer-Puntu does offer easy to use plugins that work with GnuPG, the open source implementation of the OpenPGP standard which has also given the FBI a run for their money in the past. In an article from back in 2003 from PCWorld, the FBI and Italian police had issues breaking emails encrypted with PGP on PDA's used by suspected terrorists.

From that post:

Italian police have seized at least two Psion personal digital assistants from members of the Red Brigades terrorist organization. But the major investigative breakthrough they were hoping for as a result of the information contained on the devices has failed to materialize--thwarted by encryption software used by the left-wing revolutionaries.

Failure to crack the code, despite the reported assistance of U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation computer experts, puts a spotlight on the controversy over the wide availability of powerful encryption tools.

I guess it all makes sense now why the FBI is now calling on Congress to pass even more rights restricting laws that will require software companies to provide back doors to the Governnment. In a recent article from the Washington Post:

The FBI is requesting backdoors into the social sites and communication services that Americans use every single day, CNET reported Friday. (Backdoors are means of bypassing normal security and encryption protections to easily access databases and servers. The term is commonly used to describe viruses or Trojans that hackers use to access computer systems.)

The reason the FBI is seeking this increase in observing capability: Wiretaps are increasingly useless. The staple of television crime drama for decades, and one of law enforcement’s principal ways of surveilling citizens suspected of crimes, wiretaps no longer work. Why? Fewer people are using regular landlines for communication. And cell phones are increasingly smartphones, which are used more for data than for voice communications. So the modes of communication that the existing wiretap law covers are becoming archaic. Wiretaps will soon be a thing of the past … unless the US government can extend the same principles into online communications.

The point of this post is that encryption DOES work! If the government wants to strip away our rights, and turn this country into a Big Brother state, I say why make it easy on them? If CISPA passes I will be terminating all of my social media accounts, and will require people that want to email me personally to use PGP encryption. I don't care how mundane my communications normally are, I don't want Uncle Sam sticking his nose in it.

What's your take on all of this? Do you use encryption? Are you going to start? If not, why not? If the FBI can't crack this stuff, does that mean the NSA can't as well? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

del.icio.us tags: fbi, government, can't, break, pgp, gpg, gnupg, truecrypt

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Keep All Your Software Up To Date

noreply@blogger.com (El Di Pablo) — Tue, 08 May 2012 07:00:00 +0000

Many of us keep our Windows systems up to date, well at the very least, all of our Microsoft applications. I mean Microsoft makes it fairly easy don't they? Just turn your automatic updates on and be done with it. What about your non-microsoft applications? Java, Flash, etc. Those need to be updated too. I mean having an out of date Java install can leave your computer open to all sorts of malware.

Manually updating all of your software every month isn't very practical is it. Also, it can be annoying when those applications have many updates being released all the time (I'm looking at you Adobe!) Wouldn't it be nice to have a tool that can keep all of your software up to date kind of like running apt-get upgrade in Ubuntu? Well now you can with Appupdater!

From their page:

Appupdater provides advanced functionality to Windows, similar to apt-get or yum on Linux. It automates the process of installing and maintaining up to date versions of programs. It is fully customizable for use in a corporate environment.

Here is a list of features:

Upgrades can be fully automatic (daily checks), no user intervention required
Auto-detection of previously installed applications
Install, Upgrade, or Remove software
Support for offline use/USB device
Support for Windows/UNIX/Linux/MAC OS X platforms
Proxy support
Support for package installation lists or computer profiles in a corporate environment
Create your own custom repository if desired (not required)
Dependency support
Metalink standard based XML repository files
Support for use of external Metalink download programs, such as Aria2
Automatically feedsback installed version information to the server
Not limited to programs in the registry or with embedded version numbers
Self upgrading of course!

Here is a link to their supported applications: (Supported Applications)

The one draw back to this program in my opinion is that it doesn;t have a scheduler option. You can't set this thing to automatically update your applications for you. You will have to manually run this tool every month to make sure your software is up to date, which doesn't sound that bad, but we are all lazy at heart.

Know of any other programs like this? Are they free? Can they be scheduled? Let us know in this comments!

del.icio.us tags: free, tool, update, 3rd party, applications, windows, appupdater

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GnuPG Plugin For Microsoft Outlook 2010: Fight CISPA!

noreply@blogger.com (El Di Pablo) — Fri, 04 May 2012 07:00:00 +0000

As you know I am REALLY against CISPA and these other "Big Brother" laws that are getting passed by the U.S. Government as a reaction to an imaginary threat. I even dedicated my May version of Tech Chop to spreading the word about CISPA. You can watch that here: (The Horrors of CISPA)

If you follow me on Twitter, then you've probably seen me tweet about how if CISPA makes it pass the Senate, and President Obama doesn't veto that sone of a bitch then we as Amercans need to take precautions to protect our privacy. What that means, at least for online communications, is encryption! If you want to learn more about how you can encrypt pretty much anything you can watch my Tech Chop video on that here as well: (Encrypt Everything)

In that video I mentioned encrypting your email using a free alternative to PGP that is fully compatible called GnuPG. It comes in a Windows version called GPG4Win, and it used to have a cool Outlook plugin that came bundled with it. That plugin only worked for Outlook 2003 though, and didn't work so well for Outlook 2007 or Outlook 2010. Well I found a new plugin that works fine in Outlook 2010, even though it's still in Beta. It's called the Outlook Privacy Plugin.

From their Google Code page:

Outlook Privacy Plugin is a security extension for Outlook 2010. It enables Outlook 2010 to send and receive email messages that are encrypted and/or signed with the OpenPGP standard.
Outlook Privacy Plugin uses GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG/GPG).
Features
Microsoft Outlook 2010
Encrypt and decrypt email using OpenPGP standard
Supports encrypted attachments
Supports multiple recipients
Decrypts PGP-MIME
Decrypts OpenPGP blocks in HTML email
Not Supported
Encrypting with PGP-MIME (planned)
No support for HTML email (planned)
Multiple email accounts (planned)
This plugin is in BETA status and is based on an earlier plugin for Office 2007.

If CISPA passes I will start requiring all email communications to and from my personal email be encrypted with PGP or GnuPG. I will have an automated response telling people that when they email me as well. If the Government wants to play dirty, and go through my personal stuff without a warrant, I'm not going to make it easy on them. Let them try to crack it with their new spy facility in Utah!

What do you think about CISPA and encrypting your email? Do you already use GnuPG? If not why? Please sound off in the comments!

del.icio.us tags: gnupg, gpg, outlook, 2010, plugin, cispa, email, encryption

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Bauer-Puntu Linux 12.04 is Alive!

noreply@blogger.com (El Di Pablo) — Thu, 03 May 2012 07:00:00 +0000

This post has been a really long time coming. For those of you that actually use Bauer-Puntu regularly (Thanks by the way) you know that I was not able to make a 11.10 version. Also, in the 11.04 version I found out rather late that the version of CHNTPW I had installed didn’t work anymore. Well, that’s all fixed now people!

In this new version, mostly fueled by political issues in the news lately on new legislation that the US Government has been trying to push like SOPA, NDAA and CISPA, I decided to pay a little homage to those who are fighting the dirty fight for our freedoms on the Internet. I’m talking about the hacktivist group Anonymous.

Now, this version of Bauer-Puntu is not intended to be a replacement for the Anonymous OS that you may or may not have heard of, but it may just be as useful to you with some of the goodies I installed in this version. Speaking of which, here is a list of some of the goodies included:

GParted - Disk Partitioner
PartImage - Disk Cloning
CHNTPW - Windows Password Cracker
Wipe - Secure File Deletion
TestDisk - File Recovery
ClamTK - Antivirus
GrimWepa - GUI WEP/WPA Cracker using Aircrack-ng backend (Booya!)
Cairo Dock - Mac OSX like dock
VirtualBox - Free Virtualization Software
Adobe Flash
Java
SET – Social Engineer Toolkit
Metasploit Framework
CheckGmail
Parcellite
Yarssr
LastPass Chrome Plugin
Wireshark
Medusa – Network password cracker
LOIC – Windows based DoS tool running with Mono
Artillery - honeypot/monitoring/prevention tool
Tor+Privoxy+Proxy Anywhere – Protecting your online privacy
Pidgin + Pidgin-Encryption – Instant messaging with encryption
Thunderbird + Enigmail – Email with GnuPG encryption
WebPG – Chrome plugin to use GnuPG on the web
W3AF - Web Application Attack and Audit Framework
Openshot – Multi-track video editor

I’m sure there are a few other things I installed that I can’t think of off the top of my head. Take a look at some screen shots:

Anonymous Plymouth Splash

Grub Splash

Desktop

Low Orbit Ion Cannon (LOIC)

I know why you've come though. You want to download this sucker! Well here you go:

Special thanks to my file hosts at TTRCorp!

If you download the torrent version please do me a huge favor and seed it for at least 24 hours. I’m limited on bandwidth, and I’m sure everyone downloading would appreciate it as well.

Also, this sort of thing takes time and energy away from my family. I would really appreciate some support.. I’ve made it simple you can either donate using the Paypal button below, or even easier, the next time you do some Amazon shopping do it through http://amazon.bauer-power.net. You’re going to shop there anyway, why not throw us a bone when you do and help out the cause!

If you have any questions, hit me up in the comments! Enjoy!

How To Change The Login Logo in Xubuntu

noreply@blogger.com (El Di Pablo) — Tue, 01 May 2012 07:00:00 +0000

This one took a while to find, but I finally found it. Although I really like Ubuntu and Xubuntu, those bastards are getting trickier at hiding their logos and artwork to keep people from changing them. Not sure if it's on purpose or not, but that seems to be the case. In fact I decided to switch to Xubuntu for the base of bauer-Puntu 12.04 because vanilla Ubuntu is becaoming a logo whore!

Anyway, Xubuntu is way easier to customize I am finding, but there is one logo that I had a problem getting rid of. That is, unti now. That is the little Xubuntu logo one will find at the Lightdm screen. Here is a screen shot of Bauer-Puntu 12.04's login screen where I've replaced the Xubuntu mouse logo with an Anonymous logo:

I tried looking for the image in all the usual places, /usr/share/pixmaps, /usr/share/unity-greeter etc, but none of the images I replaced were the ones being used. After some digging I finally figured out where that bastard was hiding! If you want to replace that login image browse to /usr/share/lightdm-gtk-greeter/gnome/scalable/apps and edit the computer.svg image. You will have to download and install a program called Inkscape for that though.

Once that image is edited, your login screen will be changed!

del.icio.us tags: how to, change, xubuntu, ubuntu, login, logon, screen, logo, mouse, remove

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The Horrors of CISPA and How You Can Stop It

noreply@blogger.com (El Di Pablo) — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 14:30:00 +0000

I decided to dedicate this month’s Tech Chop to a little political activism. It just seems lately that the U.S. Government has an insatiable need to want to control the Internet. The Internet may very well be the last absolutel FREE realm on the planet if you think about it. Even in countries where the government is in complete control of the people, the Internet has provided a way for people to speak out and take back their freedom. Just look at Egypt for example.

The U.S. Government knows the power of the internet, and now seems that they want to get a strangle hold on it before it can be used against them. Last year the U.S. Government tried to pass an internet blacklist bill called SOPA that mirrors the same type of government censorship you see in countries like China. But just like a hydra, when one head is cut off, two more bills pop up in their place right? Now the fight is with a bill called CISPA, or the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act. Check out my latest Tech Chop video to learn more about CISPA and how you can fight it!

If you want to do something, use the links below to contact your senators and demand that they oppose this bill! This bill MUST die in the senate!

DemandProgress.org Senate Contact Tool
Eff.org Senate Contact Tool

Please share this video with your friends and family. We must spread the word about this bill and stand up to these attempts at stripping away our freedoms as Americans under the guise of "Cyber Security".

If you do nothing, you WILL lose your rights!

By the way you can get the Anonymous T-Shirt I’m wearing in this video here: (Anonymous T-Shirt)

del.icio.us Tags: cispa,big brother (U.S.),how to,stop it,senate,contact,eff,demandprogress,anonymous

How To Install Low Orbit Ion Cannon On Ubuntu

noreply@blogger.com (El Di Pablo) — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 07:00:00 +0000

I've been mentioning that I will be building out a 12.04 version of Bauer-Puntu Linux, and I will. For the most part I will install all the sstuff you guys have grown to love. CHNTPW, GrimWEPA and the rest. In this version I decided that I would install one more toy you may have heard of. It's called Low Orbit Ion Cannon (LOIC), and it is probably the best known DoS testing tool out there.

The problem with it is that it's written in .Net. Why anyone would write a hacking/attacking tool using Microsoft programming I have no idea, but they did. Anyway, in order to run it you must be running .Net Framework. For most people that means running it in WINE. Well screw that! I am going to put it in Bauer-Puntu and run it natively with Mono, the Linux version of .Net Framework! Do you want to install it and run it nateivly in Ubuntu? Here's how you do it:

Edit your apt sources and add deb http://badgerports.org lucid main as a repository
Run sudo apt-get update and ignore the gpg key warnings.
Run sudo apt-get install mono-complete
After that download the latest version of LOIC from here: (Low Orbit Ion Cannon)
Create a directory called /opt/loic
Unzip the contents of the LOIC version you downloaded above, and place the contents in /opt/loic
To launch it run sudo mono /opt/loic/LOIC.exe

Here's a screen shot of LOIC running in Ubuntu without WINE!

True, it's not as easy as running sudo apt-get get install loic, but it will do! Now if you get a few hundred of your buddies you can test out your own DoS attack on your websites to see how they will hold up, and you can do it from your Linux computer!

[Via Tekkidd]

del.icio.us tags: how to, apt-get, low orbit ion cannon, loic, ubuntu, linux, install

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Bauer-Puntu Plymouth Splash Theme

noreply@blogger.com (El Di Pablo) — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 07:00:00 +0000

I mentioned the other day that there will more than likely be a Bauer-Puntu 12.04 Linux release. I skipped 11.10 because the tool I use for building the custom distro went away for a little while, but now they are back. If they're back, I'm back!

Anyhoo, Ubuntu 12.04 drops today which means that I am most likely working on Bauer-Puntu while you read this. It also means that it should be available in the next few days. That bing said, if you just can't possibly wait for the hacking goodness that is Bauer-Puntu, then you can at least download the new bauer-Puntu Plymouth splash theme I created for Bauer-Puntu 12.04 here: (Bauer-Puntu Plymouth Splash)

Check out a screen shot of it:

You like it? How about my little ode to Anonymous? I hope those guys don't get pissed and DDoS Bauer-Power because of it :-) I'm doing it out of complete respect.

You can go ahead and install that splash theme now. Otherwise, you can just wait patiently a little longer for Bauer-Puntu 12.04 to arrive.

del.icio.us tags: bauer-puntu, linux, 12.04, plymouth, splash

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Why You Shouldn't Buy a Mac [Infographic]

noreply@blogger.com (El Di Pablo) — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 07:00:00 +0000

Now here is an infographic I can truly get behind. It shows what I've been telling people for years! Mac's are simply not worth the price you pay for them. Now I will admit that Apple makes a very good product, and they are reliable, but is it really worth the hefty price tag? I don't think so. Plus everything with the Apple logo is so damn proprietary it makes me sick! If you don't like viruses, fine! Buy a PC and put Linux on it!

Anyway, I found this during my internet surfing, and thought I would share it with you (Click for the full size):

What do you think? Is this image spot on? Is it flawed? Are you an Apple fanboy? Why or why not? Let me know in the comments!

[Via MUO]

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Why My Company is Switching to Lenovo

noreply@blogger.com (El Di Pablo) — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 07:00:00 +0000

Last year I started at my current IT gig. I took over the IT department for a small technology company in La Jolla CA. When I started there were no real hardware standards. There were at least 6 models of laptops floating around, and the same amount of desktops. All of the laptops and desktops were from Dell. Now, some people like Dell, and some don't. I personally don't have issues with Dell. I do find that their computers start to crap out after a few years though. Brand new they tend to work.

Anyway, I decided to do some window shopping for laptops and dekstops that I could purchase to replace olding computers, and I ended up picking Lenovo Thinkpads for the laptops, and Lenovo ThinkCentres for the desktop. I found really good deals for them. Anyway, we have replaced a few of the older Dell laptops with the Thinkpads and they are working out pretty great.

Well I found this ad for Lenovo the other day, and it made me like them even more! Check it out!

Pretty funny right? Who makes the computers that your company uses? HP? Dell? Do you like them? What do you like about them? Let us know in the comments!

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Visualizing The Petabyte Age [Infographic]

noreply@blogger.com (El Di Pablo) — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 07:00:00 +0000

I found a really interesting infographic I thought I would post here to share with you. If helps one visualize exactly how much friggin' data is in a petabyte! I mean 1 petabyte can hold 13.3 years of HD video! That's a lot of damn 1's and 0's! Remember when we all walked around with our files on 1.4MB floppy disks? Remember the 5.25" floppys from the 80's? Now we are storing petabytes of data!

For those of you that don't know your storage terms, a megabyte is 1024 bytes, a gigabyte is 1024 megabytes, a terabyte is 1024 gigabytes, and a petabyte is 1024 terabytes! Do you see how that progresses son? I found a really good website that breaks it down called Whatsabyte.com. They say:

Megabytes, Gigabytes, Terabytes... What Are They?
These terms are usually used in the world of computing to describe disk space, or data storage space, and system memory. For instance, just a few years ago we were describing hard drive space using the term Megabytes. Today, Gigabytes is the most common term being used to describe the size of a hard drive. In the not so distant future, Terabyte will be a common term. But what are they? This is where it gets quite confusing because there are at least three accepted definitions of each term.

I agree, it can get confusing after a while, and I'm a computer geek! That's why I think this infographic does a good job of helping one visualize it. Check it out!

[Via Mozy]

del.icio.us tags: what, is, how much, petabyte, simple, terms, infographic

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FREE Powered By Ubuntu Stickers! Get Them While They're HOT!

noreply@blogger.com (El Di Pablo) — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 07:00:00 +0000

Many many moons ago I sent away for some free "Powered By Ubuntu" stickers from some laptop company in Colorado that make laptops with Ubuntu installed on them. They don't do Windows!

It took a while, but I got my stickers, and I was a happy camper. I promptly removed my Windows sticker from my laptop, cleaned off the old adhesive with some rubbing alcohol, and replaced it with my shiny new Ubuntu sticker. I proudly showed the world around me that I didn't answer to multi-million dollar, self absorbed, monopolistic software companies like Microshaft. No, I did things on my own terms using free, as in FREE BEER, software available to anyone savvy enough to download it and install it!

I decided I would extend that same offer to you my readers, and anyone else that comes along that enjoys the freedom that Ubuntu Linux has to offer!

I will print out, and mail you a sheet of six "Powered By Ubuntu" self adhesive stickers free of charge! I am a big proponent of Ubuntu, and I want to spread the Ubuntu love to as many people out there as possible!

The sticker comes from the Free Software Stickers book that I blogged about quite a while ago. Sure, you can download the book yourself, print out the stickers and tape them to your laptop all ghetto style and whatnot. I on the other hand will print them out for you on nice, self adhesive sticker paper for a more professional look that says, "Hey, I'm not a douche bag!"

Here is a blurry photo I snapped using my Blackberry of the one I have on my laptop:

So you want some right? I knew you did. All you have to do is mail me a self addressed stamped envelope to:

www.Bauer-Power.net
Bauer-Power Ubuntu Stickers
1835A S. Centre City Pkwy #153
Escondido, CA 92025

When I get your envelope, I will return it with your sheet of FREE "Powered By Ubuntu" stickers!

For you Kubuntu users, I haven't forgot about you either! Just change the address from Bauer-Power Ubuntu Stickers to Bauer-Power Kubuntu Stickers and I will send you stickers reflecting your choice in Linux desktop managers (KDE v.s. Gnome)!

Please tell all your friends!