Using Cracks, Serials and Keygens

My previous article talked about cracks, serials and keygens. To take that concept one step further, I'll be crossing onto the dark side of the Internet. The following information is for use at your own risk. I do not assume any responsibility, liability etc. This is for your information only! 

WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!

- You may infect your system
- You may render it inoperable
- You may unleash the hounds of heck!
- You may invite spyware, popups and adware
- You are breaking the law!
(as far as DCMA and software licensing goes, You are not permitted to reverse engineer software) Applying a crack is reverse engineering!

How to apply a software crack

1. Once you have located the crack, scan it for Trojans or viruses.
Your antivirus may detect a trojan, if that is the case. delete the file and count your blessings! Move on. Find another crack, or forget about completely.  
2. If you find that there are two exe files in the crack zip contents, 
look for one that most resembles the name of the program you are trying to crack.
3. When the zip file contents is called: "crack.exe" beware! Read the included .nfo (if there is one) first 'cause that might be a Trojan.
The nfo is basically a text file with all the information inside.
Open it with notepad (shift, right click, select open program with, select notepad, put a checkmark that says "always open files of this type with this program")

You may find the serial number within, or some additional details about the crack itself. Oddly enough, crackers, hackers, and the like do have a code of ethics! They usually include a nfo file or a small text file with instructions - and of course somewhere to brag about their conquests!
4. Once you have extracted the ZIP file contents , scan it again to make sure it's clean of any virus.
5. When you apply a crack or register a serial number, try to disconnect from the Internet so you'll know if it phones home to check or not. Often, programs will use the internet to validate the serial number you have used. If that is the case, they will deactivate the serial number and render the program inoperable. They may also log your IP address. if you have a firewall program, turn it on and let it monitor any outgoing activity.

6) Once you have applied the serial number, look for a register button, or an activate option. If it doesn't exist, just exit the program, and reboot. Try the program again. It should be fully functional. You can verify this by clicking about\help, or looking in the about menu.

next, using keygens

Copyrights, Trademarks and other rights!

If you're a musician, an artist, author, blogger etc., copyrights, trademarks and similar rights are an integral part of your craft. For some, you may already be an expert, and for others this may be new. In any case, it is imperative that you understand the basics.

If you don't want to be sued, then you need to understand these laws. Ignorance is not bliss and hiding your head in the sand won't cut it as an excuse for copyright infringement!

A new book called The Permission Seeker's Guide Through The Legal Jungle (Clearing Copyrights, Trademarks, and Other Rights for Entertainment and Media Productions) is a perfect resource to help all media producers from being sued. I myself as a musician, and an author have to be doubly careful, both from a musical sense, lyrical sense, and of course from a literary sense. The author of the book, Joy R. Butler does a fantastic job of exploring and explaining this legal jungle. Joy is an entertainment attorney that routinely assists media producers with clearance rights projects.

(exerpts from the book)
If you are a musician, author, publisher, entertainment and media producer, visual artist, tv producer, filmmaker, website owner and software developers this book is a must.

The book offers:
- Detailed instructions for clearing rights to use quotes, music, art, film, names and faces, brand, life stories etc.
- Learn how to avoid rights clearance issues before they arise.
- Techniques for clearing rights with minimal expense and risk
- Explains the laws of copyright, privacy, defamation, trademark as they pertain to clearing rights
- Includes over fifty pages of resources and sample forms.

One of the best features of the book is it's structure. A chapter summary is included to help you drill down to the information you need. Some may opt to read the book from cover to cover, in which case, you'll enjoy the plain english approach. Others may use the book as reference to get the answers to those burning questions

An example of the chapters:

Overview of Rights Clearance Issues
Relevant Rights and Laws
Clearance Issues for Specific Productions
The Process of Clearing Rights and Seeking Permission
Seeking Permission to Use Specific Materials
Minimizing Your Risks and Protecting Yourself

Price	$19.95 US ISBN: 9780967294018
Website	n\a
Rating	5/5
Comments	Great resource! Wish it pertained to more than just US law.

The retail price is $19.95 US

Cracks, serials and keygens oh my!

What in the world am I talking about? I'm talking about bypassing limitations on software, extending trial periods of software, and unlocking a demo version to the full version of software! Yes this is completely illegal. Let us shed some light on the concept first.

Software developers make software for us to use and to be productive. They invest thousands of hours of developing and designing these programs. They need to be paid, just like you and I. They have salaries, families, expenses, and should be properly compensated. They have more than likely invested tens of thousands of dollars in training and education. Their employers absorb the costs of development and testing until finally, the product is ready for public release and for sale. Many software companies release trial or demo versions of their software. These trials and demos are usually time limited or feature limited (crippled) until the trial expires. At this point, you either have to purchase the product, or uninstall it from your system.

More recently, software is released that is free, however there is a catch - that being that the software is advertisement driven, or adware driven. You are permitted to download and use the software in a fully functional state, however the software manufacturer may present you with graphical ads in the software interface itself. Other methods of adware may even collect personal browsing information and use that for statistics and research purposes.  Spyware goes one step further and does this without your consent. it may also collect passwords and credit card information. 

The consumer has the option to either purchase the software, or use the trial version until it expires, then remove it. No other option. This infuriates many consumers as they believe either that the software costs far too much to begin with, or they only need it for occasional use and should be able to purchase the software cheaper.   

Enter the world of cracks, serials and keygens. These are all buzz words used to bypass the limitations of software. each produces the same end result - bypassing the expiry date, or unlocking trial versions of software.

How do they work? Like this:

Serials (serial number) - someone, somewhere, purchased to license in the form of a serial number piece of software and this serial number. This serial number was then either leaked to the Internet, or stolen from a computer. It may have also been artificially generated using a key generator (serial number creator) and then leaked to the Internet.

Keygens - a serial number generator in the form of small standalone application that is run to create a serial number. Most of the time, the keygen is created by a software developer, a hobbyist or a hacker. They create a program to generate a serial number in a given format for the program they are trying to crack.  

Cracks - a modified program that is used to bypass activation or verification of legitimacy. Typically, the original software has a sole exe that is run to open the program. That exe is reverse engineered and modified. The exe is then used in place of the original exe. Cracked software bypass time limitations, and demo functionality.

Either of these three methods can produce a fully functional application that was previously locked, expired, or feature limited. You can find them just about anywhere, however there are risks. Many cracks are used as tools to deliver spyware and viruses.  

On the flipside, many cracks are designed with no ill intentions to the user, and they are just created to allow you to use the software. They do hurt the software developers, and they lose profits from every cracked piece of software.

More Vista Tweaks!

Further to my article about tweaking Windows Vista, there are some additional steps that you can follow to further optimize and tune your system.

Vista includes some great enhancements no doubt. Aero is the desktop graphics feature that offers a smooth glassy like desktop theme. It looks great, and conversely, takes a whole lot of resources. Vista also includes a desktop sidebar that holds smalls applications or widgets. Some examples of widgets are a desktop clock, a weather tracker, a RSS newsreader, and desktop picture viewer.

The first step is optimizing your system is to disable the eye candy and useless features and applications. Say bye bye to Aero Glass. Then, analyze the system tray for programs that are eating up precious memory. The system tray is on the bottom right corner of the computer. It holds commonly used programs and utilities, such as the clock, anti virus and anti spyware utilities, and many other hidden programs. Most of the time, these hidden programs are installed silently and in conjunction with new programs that you install. To see what is running in the system tray you can use one of the built in programs within windows called msconfig (click start, run, type msconfig, press enter) or you may use 3rd party solutions such as TuneUp Utilities. Once you have pruned the system tray, look at the start up folder (start\programs\startup) and delete those programs as you see fit.

Tweak Vista baby! Tweak it!

If you are planning on using Windows Vista as the operating system for your digital audio or video editing workstation, you better be prepared to tweak it! Estimates say you need the following hardware:
- 2Gb PC5200 memory or faster
- Intel Core Duo 2 processor (1.6GHz or better)
- (2) 7200 rpm SATA hard drives (size is up to you, best to go with at least 80Gb each.
- 64 Mb Video card or better

I recommend using two 7200 RPM SATA drives. This enables you to benefit from loading your operating system on one of the drives, while using the second drive for the data and of course windows virtual memory. Windows operates faster when you have two drives of the same specs. however, you don’t absolutely have to follow that rule. A slower drive can impact your data throughput speeds as one drive will be waiting for the slower one.

It implement this setup, load your operating system and applications on drive C. Use D:\E: as your working directory for your audio\video editing suite. You should also configure Vista to use the virtual memory on the D:\E: drive as well; make the C: drive’s virtual memory size about 1\2 your total system ram. D: drive’s virtual memory can be set to 1.5 to 2 times your physical ram.

Aside from hardware specifications, Vista still requires some fine tuning for memory usage:
you can do this in a few steps
- analyze the startup folder and remove or disable programs from starting up (windows sidebar etc.)
- remove useless accessories and programs (uninstall what you don’t need)
- analyze the services

The most important factor in your system’s speed is to minimize the unused services, and manually set services to menu, as opposed to automatic startup. Services are essentially the collection of everything that Windows uses to get the job done. When you plug in a USB stick, a service tells windows to configure it. When you use the wireless card, the windows wireless service locates wireless networks and connects you to them.

Services are organized by importance. This is done automatically by what windows deems as important. You have the option to override these decisions and tweak the services to your liking. You may also completely disable services that you never use. Wireless for example - if you have a desktop PC and don;’t plan on using any wireless connections, you can disable the service.

To access services on your computer, click start, then run. Type in “services.msc” and click OK. Below are some resources for fine tuning and tweaking services. Take note - use at your own risk. make sure you have a backup, or at least system restore turned on. As you disable and enable services, keep a note of the last few services you changed, in case you have to undo the the changes!

Vista Service Tweaks on MSFN Forums
Tweakvista.com
Service Configurations Intro

Access your files anytime anywhere! Size Doesn't matter!

How many times have you sent file to someone only to have it returned by their mail server as being over quota. You've just got to-have to-absolutely- must- get those files delivered! Problem is they are too big for email and you don’t have anywhere else to put them. Have no fear, online file storage is here.

Previous incarnations of online file storage meant you had a limit of 5mb storage, or maybe 10mb web space. Most ISP's offer a shell account for your files but accessing them meant either using FTP, or publishing them to the web space your ISP provides.

A previous post offers a list of the top ten online file storage websites. Keeping with that topic, there are some new players on the scene:

driveway - Size Really does Matter
DriveWay allows you to select files to park - 500 MB max for each upload, unlimited total storage, no download limits. Also, create multi-user capable editable links for your office documents for collaborative sharing using Driveway’s patent pending edit widgets technology. You can now edit shared documents with a single click from desktop instead of traditional method of saving it to your local computer and emailing it back.

Send6 - Send Large Files. Professionally
SEND6 is a professional service for fast and reliable file delivery on the Internet. SEND6 solves typical problems with sending large digital files online including:
- Size limitations when sending or receiving email attachments
- Complicated FTP setup and account management
- Blocked transfers through Firewalls, Routers, or NATs
- No tracking to guarantee delivery of critical files
SEND6 also provides a private label business solution that allows companies to easily integrate a custom branded file delivery service into their company website.

Social networking with eventful.com!

Previously, I talked about using the power of social networking through social bookmarking to promote and market your band. This is essentially using the power of the people to spread the word about your band, music and any upcoming gigs. Sites like mister-wong, technorati, del.icio.us, digg and reddit are great ways to utilize free marketing! Nothing beats word of mouth advertising. myspace, facebook and youtube all gained popularity from the general public. The newest player in the social networking is a site - or rather a service called eventful

Eventful caters to the masses, however on a completely different - yet simple - premise. Announce your events, let everyone "demand" Demanding breaks down into categories;

For Fans;

Eventful Demand gives you the power to "Demand" events near you!
Performers schedule their tours to go where they are most in Demand.
Compete against other cities to Demand a performance near you.

Fans have the option to:
search for demands nearest them
find the hottest demands
start a new demand - This is where you band can most benefit from this service. Try gathering all your friends and family to demand your band!

For Performers;

Plan your tours where you are most in Demand.
Engage your fans and grow your fan base by giving them the power to make events happen.
Create competition among fans in different cities, universities, and countries.
Pre-sell tickets to fans who have Demanded you.
Get reliable data with Eventful's real-time audit and security systems.

Social bookmarking for everyone!

There are many utilities and programs available that allow you to take your work with you. You can store your files on portable drives, portable memory stick and usb keys or even on websites such as box and google's gmail. Great, fine and dandy; what about your bookmarks and favorite websites? Have no fear, bookmarks have not been forgotten!

Essentially, your bookmarks are stored in a single file on your computer. Internet explorer and Firefox both use a file called bookmark.htm to store and retrieve bookmarks. Both browsersalso have an import and export utility as well.

Importing and exporting bookmarks with Internet explorer:
Click File, Import and export, next. You then have the option to import and export favorites, and your cookies.

Importing and exporting bookmarks with Firefox;
Click Bookmarks on the file menu, organize bookmarks, (a new window will open) click on File menu in that window, and select import or export bookmarks.

Aside from storing a bookmark file on your computer, you can also store that same bookmark file on a usb memory stick, or a portable drive. There are also several browser add-ons for storing your bookmarks on the internet itself.

The newest twist to bookmarking is storing them on the internet itself, although this is sort of confusing as it requires you to access the internet to access your bookmarks, but at least you only have to remember one master bookmark address. It makes your bookmarks portable and accessible from any computer.

Following in the footsteps of myspace, facebook, and youtube, bookmarking has become quite popular and has evolved into a new generation of bookmarking called social bookmarking. Essentially, for those that like to share their bookmarks, and to see what others are bookmarking. There are dozen' of sites for social bookmarking, such as Deli.cio.us, Reddit, Mister-wong, Technorati, Digg, google bookmarks, yahoo bookmarks, and Windows Live favorites

online file converters for youtube video!

If you’ve ever needed to upload your music or videos to a website, or send them elsewhere, chances are you’ve experienced one of the following annoynances:

- file size too large
5mb typically is the limit for email, and most audio related websites like have the files under 5mb

- file type not supported
an mp3 file can be one of several formats ( different bit rates, sampling frequency, encoder, decoder etc. )

- audio\video format not supported
you only have your song or movie in one format and the website needs it in another (avi, mpg, mp4 etc.)

Aside from the file size issue, making your music and video files compatible with all computers is nearly impossible. Mp3 files alone have several formats, even though you only see the file name and type a an Mp3. The same can be said about video files. Youtube and other video sharing sites require particular file formats. In most cases youtube will convert them for use after you upload them, however it is common to have your video upload rejected even before conversion. When this happens, you havew to convert the file to another format prior to uploading.

That is where the website zamzar comes in. The process is simple; upload your file, specify what format that zamzar should convert it into, zamzar will email you a download link. Not.

The supported file types are frequently updated. They have recently added the ability to convert a youtube video directly from the youtube URL.

The trick for musicians - best quality picture and sound with the smallest file size. You may not find the absolute best conversion options here, but it will definitely help you convert those large wav files into somethign a little more internet friendly!

v-moda vibe "hi definition" luxury earphones - review

As the old saying goes, if it's too loud, you're too old! Loudness is not always a good thing though, and if you have the right equipment, you don't need excessive volume. v-moda has released the Vibe series of hi definition luxury earphones. These are the first "high definition" luxury earphones. Quality over quantity in this case, and a little eye candy can't hurt either.

The earphones themselves are all metal construction, and come in a variety of colors, including silver, gunmetal, mocha and red. A color for every wardrobe - almost.     

Features include;

- Premium metal composition and superior technology for a sculpted response curve (for the discerning audio enthusiasts)

- Precisely balanced for rich bass and warm mids

- V-MASQUE dynamic driver technology to achieve a precise yet natural soundstage in comparison to other high-end earphones.

- BLISS (Bass Level Isolating Soft Silicon) technology further reduces outside noise for a precise and rich bass response

- Frequency response of 12Hz to 22Hz

- Gold Plated connectors

- Three sizes of ultra-soft silicon fittings in both clear and black colors

- Fit securely and comfortably and won’t jar loose during exercise.

- Modawrap cable manager adjusts length of the sport-optimized lightweight cables

- Elegant gold leather travel and storage gold pouch

As a unique added bonus, customers receive VIP card access to exclusive “V-MODA modcasts,” music and other gear along with their purchase of VIBE.

 

Price (MSRP)	$101 USD
Info	www.v-moda.com
Rating	4/5
Bottom Line	Nice product for discerning audio enthusiasts, a little bulky.

Promote my (other) blog - get a prize!

I do hope this is a worthy contest! I’m sorry I can’t offer anyone an ipod!

anyways..

I recently received some Energizer Energi to Go Cellular phone quick chargers that I could not use on my tech blog, so I thought I’d give them away! I’d say they are worth about $20 - $25 in the stores. They come with 2 AA Lithium batteries, and the charger pack itself. I have a Samsung, a Motorola, and a USB Mini (most likely can be used on some other devices)

These products are AA powered cellular phone quick chargers (they may power other devices as well) Energizer’s Energi to Go details are here.

The catch? help me promote this blog! either by word of mouth, SEO tips, any way you can to help me out, and I’ll send you one of these chargers. I’ll also throw in the shipping - (as long as it’s reasonable)

Suggestions:

- SEO improvement for my site
- referrals, links, clicks, traffic, traffic!
- advertising dollars?
- whatever you can think of to help this blog get going!

Your comments and suggestions are always welcomed!

To enter, leave a comment on my other blog with your tips, advice, or offers etc. on the blog (Don’t forget to mention what model you want) - Samsung, Motorola, or USB Mini

I’ll draw 1 name each for these based on the whatever helps the blog the most.

I’ll draw the names on July 31, 2007.

thanks for reading!

Vista Tweaking!

Further to my article about tweaking vista , you can greatly improve your computer's performance utilizing some standard techniques that are time proven for all versions of windows.

Memory optimization
This is basically managing memory and how your computer uses it. More is best, and 512Mb is considered average. You should follow the tips below for some memory management tips;

Start up programs
the programs that sit in the startup folder (start\programs\startup) If you don't need them, delete them. If you didn't put them there, take them out. One example is the Adobe Speed Reader launcher - it keeps adobe acrobat ready to quickly open any pdf you may need to view.
No point having it sitting there all the time waiting for you to open a pdf? delete it. Open a pdf and wait a few seconds longer for it to be ready. No big deal.

System tray programs
The programs that are running next to the clock on the bottom right corner
There are typically too many of these running. Right click on them to close them, or better yet, look for their options and disable them from starting with windows.

Disk space usage
You must have ample free space on your hard drives. Windows uses part of your hard drive as virtual memory. When you open a program that is larger than your available physical memory, the data has to be put somewhere. Thus, virtual memory is used.

Drive fragmentation
A fragmented drive means that the hard drive has to haphazardly seek out the rest of the data you are requesting. Like putting a puzzle together, versus putting a model kit together. Puzzles are scattered, models are labeled and organized. Windows can locate the data faster with an organized work area (hard drive)

Cache
To better utilize virtual memory, let windows dedicate its energies towards the more important tasks. Too large a cache requires more time to search, and refresh. Too small a cache requires more refreshing and purging

Eye candy factor (interface, appearance and features)
Fancy desktop wallpapers, and themes rob your computer of memory. Also, storing many files on your desktop increases the size of the desktop that windows loads - which ultimately steals precious memory. Disable the fancy themes, and wallpapers. Remove the unnecessary files from your desktop and put them elsewhere.

You may also try www.tweakvista.com for some more tips and tricks.

Vista - upgrade or not!?

Vista Upgrade or not?

Microsoft Vista has some great enhancements and features. After all, it’s been a project in the making for several years. Of course with any new operating system release from Microsoft, there is always a warming period, or a certain amount of time that need to pass to allow the operating system to mature, and to get the bugs out so to speak. At that point, there are a number of patches and security fixes that are released in a service pack. Essentially a collection of these patches and fixes, all rolled up into one big download.

Usually, this warming period takes about a 6 months to a year, however with so many early adopters of the newest flagship software from Microsoft, that timeframe is quickly shortened.

Nowadays,. We can expect 3 – 6 months for the major bugs to be released. Patches are released almost every week by Microsoft. These are based on their risk severity, the potential for damage to your operating system, and security risks to your information or your personal data. Tell us something we don’t know. All of us are – or should be used to these patches. Way back from Windows 95, we’ve been downloading patches upon patches. Eventually our original files and operating system are just that – a collection of fixes and patches. Some say that Windows 98 to Windows 98 SE and even to Windows Millennium is just a patched Windows 95. The core of the operating system has not changed, the look and feel neither. Just more features and add-ons.

Vista on the other hand has been touted as a major change to the Windows Operating system. For fear of getting too technical, I’ll stay away from the geek-speak details. The point, with new software, you need new hardware. You did purchase a new computer for Vista didn’t you?

If you upgrade to Vista from your existing Windows version, you will almost certainly notice a decrease in performance. Before you upgrade, you should check the Vista Upgrade Advisor. The upgrade advisor is a free tool that will analyze your current computer and advise on what version of Vista your computer will support.

Vista has the Windows Experience Index which details which version of Vista is best suited to your pc. The lowest score will be a Windows Experience Index of 1. This is definitely not worth the upgrade. You should consider more memory and a better video card to say the least.

In the event you have purchased a pc with Vista included, and the rating is 1, you should look at tweaking Vista to improve its performance. Stay tuned, I’ll have that article ready soon!

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