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Gadgets, Technology, Public speaking and IT from an undergraduate's perspective.
GMail Trick
Unlike most webmail services (e.g. Live mail or Yahoo mail), with GMail, you can actually do pretty neat stuff with your email address. For instance, did you know that you could put the + sign in your email, and still receive emails as per normal? So if your email address was yourname@gmail.com, you could actually send an email to yourname+testing@gmail.com, and still receive your mails! This is because Gmail doesn’t recognize anything after the + sign.
GMail does record that particular email address though. To see it, just click on the “Show Details” link to expand the email header. You’ll be able to see the email address to which it was sent.
This trick is useful when you want to track email addresses. For instance, you could give out yourname+your_school@gmail.com to your school-related stuff, and yourname+work@gmail.com for work related stuff. If you want to see who uses a particular email address, you can tag it, maybe with a descriptive phrase or even a number like this: yourname+124@gmail.com.
Tags: email, filter, gmail, Tips, tricksRelated posts
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05 Jun 08 | How to Spot a Millionaire
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Protect Your Wireless Network with MAC Address Filtering…A Bad Idea
To secure your wireless network, you can use a variety of means, and one of which is by selecting only what MAC addresses are allowed. This is known as MAC filtering, and it can serve as a basic deterrent against most opportunistic attackers.
However, just using MAC filtering alone will probably be a bad idea. It doesn’t take much determination or knowledge at all to spoof a MAC address. In fact, it’s actually quite easy to spoof a MAC address, and can be done within 2 steps.
Step 1. Download and run any freely available security tool, for example Nmap. Set it to listen in on network traffic and pick out the MAC address.
Step 2. Change your MAC address to the one you picked out.
In fact, Nmap even allows you to spoof your MAC address by running the “-spoof-mac” command line option. This was originally intended to hide the true source of Nmap probes.
If you don’t have Nmap, you can just spoof your MAC address with the software that comes with most operating systems.
Here are some examples:
1. Linux: ifconfig eth0 hw ether 02:a1:13:d4:00:12
2. MS Windows: the MAC address is stored in a registry key (location of that key varies from one MS Windows version to the next, but you can easily find that and just edit it yourself). Alternatively, download a free tool such as Macshift to help you change your MAC address.
Now that you know how easy it is to spoof your MAC address, start worrying even more, because these simple steps are run automatically and very, very quickly by malware. This means that if you are using MAC filtering to protect your wireless network, you should seriously consider something a little more robust.
Tags: cool inventions, mac address, mac filtering, PHP, protect wireless, Technology, Tips, wifi routerRelated posts
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The Best, and Loudest Alarm Clock Invention - The Screaming Meanie (Review)
I have trouble waking up, so I need an alarm clock that’s a little more effective than your average clock. So I did some sourcing around, saw a few promising ones, but finally settled on this….
The SCREAMING MEANIE.
Just the name alone will strike fear into any sane person! The Screaming Meanie has two versions, the Screaming Meanie 110 and the Screaming Meanie 220. The 110 offers just a timer function, while the 220 offers the alarm clock functionality.
So why do I say that the Screaming Meanie is the best alarm clock? Well it’s loud, for one. It offers 3 modes (low @ 70dB, medium @ 95dB, high @ 120dB) and high is crazily loud — like a fire alarm or something close to that. It’s 120dB! If you still don’t get up with that alarm, your neighbours will guarantee that you’ll wake up. Personally, I put it to medium, because putting it on high just leaves my ears ringing. The great thing is that the alarm is continuous! It isn’t like those alarms that, for some reason, turn themselves off automatically after X minutes. The Screaming Meanie just goes on and on until you turn it off.
Another great point is that it’s portable. It’s small, lightweight and battery powered (by a 9V battery), so don’t have to search for a power outlet or carry around wires. This is important to me because I only use one alarm, so it HAS to work. Even with clocks that plug in to the mains, you still have to worry about the power tripping. With the Screaming Meanie, it comes with a built-in battery tester so you know when to change the battery, so you can be assured that you’ll wake up without fail.
I chose the Screaming Meanie over other super-loud alarm clocks because with other alarm clocks, you can just hit a button and oversleep, but with the Screaming Meanie, you have to press three different buttons at the same time to turn off the alarm. So you pretty much have to be awake to do it because it takes both hands.
On top of the alarm function, the Screaming Meanie also has a useful countdown timer function. This is probably great for travelers because you simply set the number of hours and minutes you want to sleep for, without worrying about the local time. Instructions for the Screaming Meanie 220 Alarm Clock are printed on the back, so you’ll always have the instructions handy. Plus, it’s easy to read the time or set the alarm in the dark because of its backlit display.
The thought and effort that went into designing this as an effective alarm clock really impressed me, and I highly recommend this to be the alarm clock for anyone who has trouble waking up. I got my Screaming Meanie at Amazon
Specifications:
* 6 X. 2.38 X .75 inches
* 4.1 ounces excluding battery, 5.6 ounces with battery installed
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Edit .htaccess to increase PHP’s max file upload
To increase the upload file size limit on your website, you need to edit PHP’s configuration settings. Unfortunately, not everyone has their own web server, so most of the time people are constrained by the limits of shared hosting. But you can still modify your base php.ini file by creating your own php.ini with the edits that you want.
Your php.ini file needs to be in every folder that’s going to be affected, or at least in the folder where the php script is being called from. Unfortunately if you have dozens of folders that need this edit, then you’ll need dozens of php.ini files.
An alternative is to then use .htaccess. By just placing a.htaccess file in your root folder, all folders beneath it will also have the change. The code to change your PHP max file upload size is:
RewriteEngine On
php_value post_max_size 1000M
php_value upload_max_filesize 1000M
php_value max_execution_time 6000000
You can edit it to suit your needs. 1000M = 1GB, so edit accordingly. Do note that your host will need to allow PHP edits though.
Tags: alternative, base, change, code, configuration, everyone, execution, folder, htaccess, ini, limit, max, max file size, max file size upload, max upload size, PHP, php.ini, post, RewriteEngine, root, server, shared hosting, size, time, upload, vps, websiteRelated posts
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About AlvinMy blog covers areas covering mainly IT, technology, and public speaking. My posts are usually about any useful things that I think are worth sharing, and of my research that I do. |
