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PC ER: Downgrading Windows on an ASUS U47A

Featured, How-To, PC ER By Feb 04, 2013 3 Comments

It’s worse than I thought. The new ASUS U47A comes with a whole host of “security” features to prevent downgrading of the operating system, Windows 8. This particular U47A system was purchased in preparation for a federal criminal trial in Las Vegas in which I will be relying heavily on the system to serve up dense amounts of information. I…

Wow, Windows 8 is Really Awkward (Review)

I’m not one to be easily confused by UI decisions. Comfortable with the command-line, and having used dozens upon dozens of different distributions of Linux, and nearly every version of Windows since 3.11 for Workgroups (and MS-DOS before that, v. 6.22) — I can’t say I’ve ever seen anything like Windows 8. Granted, that’s how Microsoft wants it to be perceived….

Why Windows Vista (SP1+) is Better Than Windows 7

You’ve been brainwashed. Brainwashed by clever marketing and the classic underpromise-and-overdeliver strategy employed by Microsoft to fix the mistakes they made with Vista. I know, I know, everyone told you Vista was bad. You maybe even used Vista pre-SP1, on a “Vista Capable” machine way back when it launched and concluded that it was horrible. Or, maybe you heard all…

Is WPA/WPA2 Vulnerable to Brute Force?

Editorial, Featured By Aug 06, 2011 4 Comments

Just for fun, I attempted to bruteforce my own WPA2 (“Wi-Fi Protected Access”) network using Elcomsoft Distributed Password Recovery. Since I had rather awful results in the past with *.PDFs, I thought, perhaps I would have better luck with WPA cracking. The PDF algorithm doesn’t work with GPUs, but it does work with WPA, so I thought that maybe I’d…

How-To: Make Use of UltraVNC SC (Single-Click)

Featured, How-To By Jun 20, 2011 9 Comments

What is UltraVNC SC? It’s a solution for fast remote-access to a client’s system. It’s free, too. What’s the difference between UltraVNC and UltraVNC SC? UltraVNC SC takes all of the complexities of setting up a VNC server, and puts the burden on the admin, rather than the client side. Forwarding ports, installing services, setting up passwords, configuring firewalls —…