The Geekcast #125 – USB Key to Boot Your Windows PC
Posted on : 05-02-2009 | By : Aaron | In : Episodes
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Items of Note: Welcome back to The Geekcast! We have all new contact information. First, the website is now www.GeekcastOnline.com. Second, we have a Twitter account located at www.twitter.com/The Geekcast. Finally, we want to hear your feedback and questions. Hit up the voicemail line at 206-350-5000! I’d love to hear from you all.
It’s been 18 months and I’m happy to be back. I hope you all enjoy a new edition of the show and look for more to follow.
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Tech news:
From CNet.com
Microsoft offers to just ‘Fix it’
When people encounter a problem with their PC, they often go to the Web and do a search to see if others have had the problem. If they are lucky, someone has found a fix and listed the steps on either a support document or within a user forum. Now, they may have an even better option. Over the past six weeks, Microsoft has quietly added a “Fix it” button to a few of the thousands of help documents on its Web site. When clicked, the computer then takes all the recommended steps automatically. An example of the “Fix it” button that has started showing up in some Microsoft help documents, offering users a one-click solution. “If we know what those 15 steps are why shouldn’t we just script it,” said Lori Brownell, Microsoft’s general manager of product quality and online support. The “Fix it” option is still fairly rare, showing up in around 100 different help documents. The effort is growing rapidly, though, up from just four such fixes when the program quietly began in December.
The first fixes included a number of common issues, including restoring a missing Internet Explorer icon to the desktop, how to enable the DVD library in Vista’s Windows Media Center and more. For now, Microsoft is having to go back and search its archives to see which of its problem solving tips can be automated. Eventually, it hopes to create the automated fixes at the same time the help articles are created.
From Ars Technica
Canadian government eyes open source, asks for feedback
The Canadian government is looking to shave costs wherever it can and is now eyeing open source software as one way to accomplish that goal. The government of Canada has issued an official Request For Information (RFI) on open source software and is looking for feedback and public guidance to help shape procurement policies. This move could be a prelude to broader adoption of free and open source software in the Canadian government’s IT infrastructure. Although Canada has weathered the global financial crisis better than many other countries, its government is looking for ways to compensate for a recent glut of stimulus spending that has generated the country’s first budget deficit in over a decade. To help keep the economic recovery plan on track, Canada’s government is looking for ways to spend smarter.
The language used in the RFI makes it pretty clear that cost reduction is priority number one. It uses the broad term “NO CHARGE LICENSED SOFTWARE”, which it defines as software that is open source or available at no cost. According to the RFI, Canada is exploring no-cost software options on the desktop as well as the server, in categories that include operating systems, office suites, and automation systems.
From NY Times
Digital Pirates Winning Battle With Studios
On the day last July when “The Dark Knight” arrived in theaters, Warner Brothers was ready with an ambitious antipiracy campaign that involved months of planning and steps to monitor each physical copy of the film. The campaign failed miserably. By the end of the year, illegal copies of the Batman movie had been downloaded more than seven million times around the world, according to the media measurement firm BigChampagne, turning it into a visible symbol of Hollywood’s helplessness against the growing problem of online video piracy. Hollywood may at last be having its Napster moment — struggling against the video version of the digital looting that capsized the music business. Media companies say that piracy — some prefer to call it “digital theft” to emphasize the criminal nature of the act — is an increasingly mainstream pursuit. At the same time, DVD sales, a huge source of revenue for film studios, are sagging. In 2008, DVD shipments dropped to their lowest levels in five years. Executives worry that the economic downturn will persuade more users to watch stolen shows and movies.
“Young people, in particular, conclude that if it’s so easy, it can’t be wrong,” said Richard Cotton, the general counsel for NBC Universal.
People have swapped illegal copies of songs, television shows and movies on the Internet for years. The slow download process, often using a peer-to-peer technology called BitTorrent, required patience and a modicum of sophistication by users. Now, users do not even have to download. Using a search engine, anyone can find free copies of movies, still in theaters, in a matter of minutes. Classic TV, like every “Seinfeld” episode ever produced, is also free for the streaming. Some of these digital copies are derived from bootlegs, while others are replicas of the advance review videos that studios send out before a release.
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Test A Geek: This segment will return on a future episode of The Geekcast
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How To: Reduce GSM static from your speakers
When using any GSM phone such as a 2G iPhone, there is interference that the phone generates that speakers pick up. The sound can be frustrating and even damage your speakers. Luckily there is a way to dampen the interference without stopping your phone from operating properly. First you can try ferrite beads, which allow speakers to dampen the signal. The beads would go around speaker wire near the speaker itself.
A second way to dampen the signal is to use a static bag that hard drives come in. These bags work great and you don’t even need to place the phone in it. Just place your phone on top of the bag and you’ll see an instant improvement on the interference you’ll hear. Overall, it works great and the bags can usually be had for free or cheap.
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Ask A Geek: This segment will return on a future episode of The Geekcast
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Hack: Use Your USB Stick As a Key to Boot Your Windows PC
*** DISCLAIMER : the following method requires you to make some changes to your operating system. The Geekcast cannot accept any legal liability if anything goes wrong with your PC and you should proceed at your own risk. Please read the instructions thoroughly before beginning and if you are still not sure what you are doing, you should seek help from a knowledgeable friend ***
Most of us are concerned about the security and privacy of our data. We put login passwords, encrypt data and do various other tricks to ensure that someone cannot access our system without our authorization. Hardware manufacturers have also started exploiting our desire for data security by offering fingerprint readers, face recognition and other fancy stuff. If you are paranoid about who accesses your system, you can use a simple trick to prevent the system from booting unless you want it to boot.
This can be achieved by using a regular USB/pen/thumb drive (whatever you call it). Basically configure your system to boot windows from USB stick. The hack would be more than enough to keep even your curious geeky computer friends from booting into the system. That said, it is by no means foolproof (which security measure is? ) so you might not want to bet your life on it.
A key requirement for the hack to work is that your system should support booting from a USB device. This can be verified from within the BIOS menu. So if you have an older system that doesn’t support booting from USB devices, this one is not for you. We will cook up something else! Although, now that I think about it, theoretically (because I have not tried) the hack should work with a floppy disk as well. So you guys with older systems can also follow along and let us know if it worked.
What we are going to do is transfer some of the important files (you will see which ones) that Windows needs in order to boot, to the USB drive. Now if someone was to boot up the PC without your USB drive the system won’t find these important files and will thus fail to boot.
So now that you know the concept, let’s get working:
* Format the USB drive.
* Within Windows Explorer go to Tools > Folder Options. Within the View tab, choose “Show hidden files” and uncheck “Hide protected operating system files”.
* Open up the Windows Partition (usually C:), copy boot.ini, NTLDR and ntdetect.com onto your USB drive.
* Boot up the system and change the boot order preference to check for a USB device first. You can access the BIOS menu generally by hitting F8 when the computer just starts.
Just in case you are curious, the boot.ini file is required to tell where the operating system resides. NTLDR is the NT loader which actually loads the operating system. ntdetect.com detects basic hardware that is required to boot up the system.
The changes are fully recoverable, although it would require some work for the uninitiated. If something goes wrong or you want to restore back things as they were then use the Recovery Console from your Windows CD. Then at the command prompt issue “bootcfg /rebuild”. Follow the instructions that appear on the screen.
The solution is not foolproof. Even if someone is not able to boot your system he/she can easily get your data by using a live CD. So you might still want to keep your data encrypted.
From http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/prevent-pc-from-booting-if-your-usb-drive-is-not-inserted/
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The geek’s view: This segment will return on a future episode of The Geekcast.
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