http://dmitrybrant.com Rockin' the suburbs since 1998 Sat, 02 Aug 2008 02:13:42 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Recently I came across an old Veo Observer camera. I remember the Veo cameras as being refreshingly easy to use, and quite inexpensive for all the functionality you get. This camera seemed to power up normally, and acquired an IP address as expected. However, when I logged on to the camera ... http://dmitrybrant.com/2008/03/20/reviving-the-veo-observer Despite yesterday's bitter cold weather, it turned out to be clear enough for me to take a few photos of the lunar eclipse. These were 5-second exposures, taken between 22:00 and 23:30. Here we see the fully-eclipsed Moon, and the bright star Regulus above it: To the left of the Moon we ... http://dmitrybrant.com/2008/02/21/lunar-eclipse-2008 Have you ever wanted to "save" a video from YouTube, so that you can play it back anytime you want, even when you're not connected to the internet? There are numerous programs out there that supposedly let you do this, but they all look very suspicious (as in spyware-ish), so I ... http://dmitrybrant.com/2007/10/29/how-to-save-youtube-videos What used to be a fast, efficient FTP client for Windows is now a lame, crippled FTP client for Windows and Linux. I used FileZilla all the time to transfer files to and from my website(s). And, weighing in at just over 3MB, it was a compact program, considering the number ... http://dmitrybrant.com/2007/10/15/farewell-filezilla I received a call today from the Fraud Prevention service of my credit card company, saying that "someone" called in to Customer Service, posing as me, and attempted to gather information about my account. This person had my credit card number, but failed to get past the additional security questions ... http://dmitrybrant.com/2007/09/29/the-growing-importance-of-strong-passwords Just received this e-mail: I wish to notify you that your name appeared in the codicil and last statement of your deceased relation, and you entitled to his fund of US$19,900,000.00 deposited with a bank here in Nigeria. I will advise you about the steps on how to redeem the inheritance ... http://dmitrybrant.com/2007/09/23/the-philanthropist The quick-start guide that I gave two days ago is hereby out of date! On another Motorola hacking website, modmymoto.com, I found a vastly superior program called P2KTools. This utility allows you to access absolutely everything the phone can possibly support. It even lets you switch communications between P2K, AT, and ... http://dmitrybrant.com/2007/09/18/more-motorola-modding [Disclaimer: Modding your phone probably voids all kinds of warranties, and is not recommended for anyone.] Update: I found a better program for RAZR hacking! This is a quick-start guide for anyone who wants to start hacking away at the RAZR V3xx. For some reason, other guides that I've found on ... http://dmitrybrant.com/2007/09/16/modding-the-motorola-razr-v3xx Unknown to me until now, Lynne McTaggart (author of The Field and The Intention Experiment, discussed in my previous post) has apparently been spearheading a series of actual "intention experiments" online. This is done by giving online readers a certain task to "intend" upon, and observing the results. I found a ... http://dmitrybrant.com/2007/09/13/the-intention-experiments A friend of mine recommended that I read a book called The Field by Lynne McTaggart, and referred to the subject matter as thought-provoking, if not life-changing. A cursory examination of the book on Amazon.com revealed overwhelmingly positive reviews and similar "life-changing" testimonials. So I obtained The Field ... http://dmitrybrant.com/2007/09/05/the-non-science-of-lynne-mctaggart