Worthless Without - 3&1/2

Today, I decided to browse Purevolume’s Christian Section for free Metal downloads. I tabbed all of the promising ones that were on the first page. I looked at several, and saw a download or, two, but they were not very heavy, and not my style. Then, I stumbled across a “Christian Screamo” band. Hmmm… does that sound a bit contradictory, or is it just me? Well, They had an entire album, plus two other songs up for download, so I decided to check them out, and see if there was one or two I liked. I started to listen to them, and decided that they were mis-labeled. They are not Screamo, they are MetalCore. As most heavy music fans know, they are not at all the same thing. Screamo is sort of punk-metal, while MetalCore (not to be confused with Melodic Metal) has slightly better playing, and has more aggressive vocals. I liked a bunch of their songs, and so I decided to download all available songs. This band is called Worthless Without.(Purevolume)(Myspace) Their lyrics do appear to be Christian, except for the fact that you cannot understand 70% of what they are saying. Overall, I would give this band 3 and a half stars, which is a mediocre rating.
Pros: They have good guitars, and fairly good vocals, for a “Screamo” band. They appear to be well-established, at least in Canada.
Cons: Mis-labeled as a “Screamo” band, they appear to be more of a MetalCore-style band. Their vocals are often really high-pitched, and the songs tend to go from punk, to pure metal, from one to the next.

Check them out, and download their album, if you like that type of music. Hey, it’s free. What do you have to lose?
Oh, and, don’t become too obsessed with them, they just broke up.

Good Morning!

(Credit: icanhascheezburger)

AVG Free Edition.

This is a review I wrote on Cnet.com for AVG Free Edition.  I thought I would share it, and get your opinions.

AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition

Much better than PcCillin.

by: TechieTrekkie on 06-Apr-2008 02:59:51 PM

Pros: We have had PcCillin running on over 10 computers, for the past several years, and never had much of a problem, until about a year ago. Since then, we have continually gotten viruses on PcCillin, no matter how up-to-date it was. When I got a new computer, I installed AVG on it, as a guinea pig of sorts, for my dad. As expected, as I do a lot on the internet, I soon got a virus. however, unlike PcCillin, if it did not know what it was, I could simply move it to the vault. I recently tried to fix a problem on my sister’s lappy, which runs PcCillin. It detected a virus, and gave me the location, name, everything. It could not clean, it though, and would not put it in it’s vault. After a while, I finally managed to eradicate the stubborn little bugger. No thanks to PcCillin, though. Dad has now decided (after viruses have cause us to do a clean wipe and reinstall on at least 3 systems) that he will stop paying for PcCillin, and get AVG free.

Cons: In the free version, the only available scheduled scan is daily. I do not even boot into Windows that much (I use Ubuntu Linux), and so that means that it would update and scan every time I boot. I have disabled the scheduled scan, and I do it manually, every couple of weeks, or so.

It’s coming…

This evening I will be posting about a brand new, just revealed music site that will rival Itunes without breaking a sweat.  Stay “Tuned!”

Edit:  Okay, I do not feel good.  Headache, dizzy, the works.  I have felt this way all day.  So, please bear with me.  I will not be able to post the promised post tonight.  I hope I can tomorrow, but I cannot guarantee it.

—————-
Now playing: As I Lay Dying - Through Struggle
via FoxyTunes

Crave

Crave is a weekly vodcast from Cnet, about all the latest fads in technology.  Enjoy!

Crave: Cell phone made of skin?

(edit: updated link)

Happy April Fool’s Day!!!

Foxy Tunes

I have discovered a cool little Firefox add-on: FoxyTunes.

This little, non-obtrusive add-on adds a toolbar to the bottom of your Firefox window, that shows what you are listening to, and a set of controls, so you no not have to switch programs to pause your music, when someone asks you a question. It works with almost any program, including online ones, including Itunes, Pandora.com, WMP, Winamp, Musicmatch, Last.fm, Real Player, Rhapsody, and many more. Also, it adds a button compatible websites, that lets you put a signature on a page, saying what you are listening to. Like the one at the bottom of this post. I have found it very useful, and hope you do, too. Enjoy!

—————-
Now playing: Epica - Force Of The Shore
via FoxyTunes

The Monthly Open-Source, Issue 1 – “Ubuntu PWNS Vista Ultimate SP1, and Mac OS X 10.5.2 in Security Showdown!!!”

The Monthly Open-Source, Issue 1 – “Ubuntu PWNS Vista Ultimate SP1, and Mac OS X 10.5.2 in Security Showdown!!!”

 

This year’s CanSecWest PWN to OWN 2008 contest has just taken place. This is a free-for-all hacking contest that was started last year, and in which three laptops are put up for hacking:

 

• VAIO VGN-TZ37CN running Ubuntu 7.10

• Fujitsu U810 running Vista Ultimate SP1

• MacBook Air running OSX 10.5.2

 

I do not know the exact specs in the first two, but, if they are being pitched against the MacBook Air, then they are obviously pretty good ones.

 

Anyone could enter, as I understood it, and they had a short period in which they were allowed to attempt to hack the laptops, which were connected via crossover wire. On the first day, you were allowed to try to hack only the OS itself, as it came preinstalled, using no other programs installed on the computer, and read the contents of a designated file. If you hacked it, you got the computer, and $20,000. On the second day, you could use preinstalled applications, such as browsers. This prize was the computer, and $10,000. On The third day, you could use third-party applications, considered popular by the judges. This prize was the computer, and $5000. None of the three computers were hacked on the first day. Not really a surprise. On the second day, however, The MacBook Air was hacked because of a previously unknown security flaw in Safari, Mac’s browser. Vista and Ubuntu remained. Note: Vista is using the new SP1, and is Ultimate.

 

Okay, allow me to interject. You all know how much I hate Microstink, but I must say, I am surprised. It beat the Mac! After this incident, I officially declare Mac to be an inferior OS to Linux, along with Windows.

 

Back to the story:

 

On the third day, Vista finally gave in. The hacker used a flaw in Adobe Flash Player to hack into the file. Poor them (two guys). I think the Vista laptop was more of a punishment, than a reward. Ubuntu still stands mighty.

 

Interjecting again: I do find something fundamentally wrong with giving as a reward a laptop with an OS that they just spent the last couple days proving that it was flawed.

 

Ubuntu NEVER failed. It was never hacked. And these computers are configured as if a home user was using them, not a security guru. I one saw an article talking about Ubuntu’s superiority in this matter. It gave a few statistics that proved their point. Last year, there were 140,000 widespread computer viruses that worked on Windows. Not were designed for Windows, but actually accomplished their objective. Ubuntu: 1. ONE VIRUS in an entire year!. Note: that is excluding (I think) viruses that do not operate off of the OS, but rather the browser, such as Firefox.

 

Do you need any more convincing? Ubuntu has been proved time again to be a superior OS to Windows, and now OS X. And, as the market is quickly coming to this realization, they are starting to develop apps for Linux, and big companies such as Dell, Lenovo, etc., are starting to slowly remove the Curse Of Man from their shelves, and give in to reason. Even Wal-mart and Tiger Direct are selling a $200 Linux computer.

Sources:
CanSecWest PWN to OWN 2008 (updated)
PWN to OWN: Final Day (and another winner!)
Flash flaw leads to Vista laptop’s fall
MacBook Air hacked in security contest

.odt file available here:

The Monthly Open-Source, Issue 1

Oops.

Oops. I just realized that I forgot the Weekly Funnies for this week.  I am really sorry, I would post some today, but it is Saturday night, and the next issue will be posted in 2 days.

My recent success! (Warning to Microstink fans: Explicit Content)

I am now running on Ubuntu Linux! Finally! Say goodbye to THE OPPRESSOR!!!

Originally, as I might have mentioned before, I installed Wimpdows XP on my new computer.  However, I kept getting a “kernel panic” whenever I tried to load any type of Linux kernel, and I tried multiple types of Linux.  Last night, thanks to Google, and Ubuntu Forums, I solved the problem.  It was a problem with my hybrid motherboard.  All I had to do was enter

–boot:linux pci=nosort

At the end of the boot line, and it was fixed!  I used that to boot the Linux Ubuntu Live DVD that we have, and install it.  I am now running it with the graphical effects turned on past maximum, I installed more Compiz features, and customized them.  I will install either Beryl, or Compiz Fusion, soon.  I have not found a good DVD player yet, because free ones are hard to find, and the two sound cards are confusing the heck out of Ubuntu, and me, as they both have a lot of ports.  Therefore, I have not gotten the sound working yet.  Other than that, everything works fine!  Well, right now, at least.  I have a terrible headache and cannot think well, and so every time I mess with something, I mess something else up.