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Keith I Myers - Blog

Announcement : Unorthodox Computer Challenge

K

I often consider myself a power user when it comes to computers. My personal collection of computers that I use as daily drivers contains a bevy of high end purpose built machines. Between my Dell XPS 13 and my prized System 76 Kudo Professional, I am well equipped to handle just about anything that comes my way. Within the few week, I will be embarking on a challenge to put my 2 primary machines aside and use several unorthodox computers as my daily drivers at home. Here is how it will work.

Reasons why the Amazon Fire Phone Failed

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On July 25th of 2014, Amazon took a major leap of faith with their entry into the mobile phone market with the Amazon Fire Phone. This was an Android Phone that was completely devoid of Google’s Application Ecosystem. This AT&T exclusive phone was released and failed to sway users away from existing ecosystems into the new Amazon ecosystem. Despite everything Amazon tried including aggressive price cuts, bundling a year of Amazon Prime, Firesales and unlocking the phone – it still failed to sell. This post will take a close look at the Amazon Fire Phone to try to understand the reason for its failure.

Ashley Madison : The Danger of The Last 4 Numbers

K

I am sure that everyone has heard that the popular dating website that specialized in marriage infidelity was hacked a few weeks ago. The brazen hackers have essentially open-sourced the entire AshleyMadison.com website and released several massive database dumps containing customer profiles, customer details (name, address, email address, phone number) and a limited amount of payment information including the last 4 digits of the credit card number. Several people I have spoken to in person do not see this as a threat as you would need the entire card number (and CVV2) before you can use the card for fraud. I have to disagree as it is fairly trivial to turn the last 4 digits of the credit card number into the entire credit card number using nothing more then a phone and a bit of charisma.

Installing RemixOS to the HTC Nexus 9

K

The company Jide Software released a new multi-tasking centric build of Android known as RemixOS. Unlike Android, RemixOS focuses on multi-tasking by allowing you to run applications in a “windowed mode”, similar to a desktop computer. Unfortunately the instructions published on the XDA Developers website and Jide’s own website had several issues that left many (including myself) with a tablet that would not boot. This post will go over the instructions to get RemixOS working on your (Affiliate Link)Nexus 9 (WiFi Only)

OnePlus Two VR Tour Hidden Invite Codes

K

OnePlus’s announcement video was a leap forward in product announcements, easily setting the bar higher for other OEM manufactures. Due to several product leaks, we already knew quite a bit about the OnePlus Two prior to the livestream. What did surprise me however was the fact the OnePlus seemed to hide several invite codes all over the livestream for wandering eyes to find, essentially creating a geek filled Easter Egg Hunt. It is worth noting that all of these have been claimed. I managed to capture a screenshot of several of them.

  • in general
  • 3 min read

When I was young….

K

Before I begin this post, let me preface it with the fact that I am not really that old. A lot has changed in the past 20 years, here is a list of a few of my favorites.

RANT : HD Video Tax

K

I can often be called an early adopter of new technology and was thrilled to give up my DVDs and VHS tapes for the simplicity of purchasing my content on streaming media services such as Google Play Movies or (Affiliate Link)Amazon Instant Video. You simply cannot beat the selection offered by these services and you don’t ever need run into issues with the movie being sold out or scratched DVDs. Unlike services such as Netflix, Amazon Instant Videos and Google Play Movies allows you to take content offline for use in situations where you do not have access to a high speed connection. It is almost a Utopian solution except for one glaring problem… the Upcharge for HD content.

Critical Apple iOS SMS Messaging Bug Fix

K

By now, it is likely that you have seen postings about a serious new iOS messaging bug in your various social networking sites. This bug allows a person with malicious intent to cause an iPhone to reboot or lock up with nothing more then a simple text message containing some specially crafted Unicode text. Furthermore your messaging application will fail to launch until the attacker sends a second message or you perform a workaround such as sharing a photo from the Apple Photos App. Apple is aware of the issue and are already working on a patch for a future update. There are some workarounds floating around the internet with a short term fix however this blocks message previews, this blog post will go over a long term fix that will render your phone immune to this bug.