Now before I go further, I should mention that my client owned a volume license for these XP machines.

I did a bit of research (as you will find further on not enough) and came to the conclusion that Norton Ghost would be best for the job. I purchased the applicable license and proceeded to make the image - or in Ghost speak it is called a recovery point. I liked how you were able to make an additional recovery point (during the same process) to an external hard drive.

It was fairly straightforward to do, and the recovery process was no problem either. Worked well.

The only thing I didn’t like was, for what I wanted anyway, was the idea of having to install the product and then make an image (with the software installed) - if you know what I mean.

It so happened the day, after I discovered Clonezilla, an open source imaging program that worked from a Live CD (which I believe is based on a Debian backend).

I decided to give it a go, and found that it required a little more nouse to get it going - by no means rocket science though. It’s just that they were a lot of user options available, and as you were reminded multiple times along the way, if you didn’t understand what was being asked just select the defaults. So I did and it all worked well. A restore was much the same deal.

In summary, both products performed well. The average time to backup was about 15 mins for both Ghost and Clonezilla, with the restore (again with both) being under 5 minutes.

For my particular needs, Clonezilla was the choice of imaging/cloning software.

Great if you don’t already have contacts, but how do you filter or hide of the viewing of the SIM contacts if you don’t want to see them?

Well, I found a few forum threads that tell you to get into the phone settings and change the appropriate option, but my iMate JASJAM does not have such an option.

Next I found a registry hackto fix it up. But my JASJAM did not have that registry key. Mmm If I add the key will it work? One way to find out

Well it did, and this is what I did:

Disclaimer: Changing or adding registry keys/values is done at your own risk. I take no responsibility for any loss of data or unexpected results.

* Downloaded CERegEditor from Freeware PPC and installed it on my laptop.

* With the JASJAM connected to my laptop via USB, I ran the utility and added the ShowSIM REG_DWORD key to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Phone with a value of 00000000.

Note: to view the SIM contacts, change the value to 00000001.

What I found was the error was probably related some versions of the Gigabyte Easytune utility which conflicts with other software or the user ‘rights’ on your machine.

Why the cryptic wording of the message? Dunno. Sure enough, once i uninstalled Easytune, all was OK.

The exploit allows a hacker to “send bogus data to an unsuspecting WiFi client,” completely compromising your Wi-Fi security.

Fortunately there is an easy fix. Jump into your mode/router and switch off Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP) as an encryption mode, and use Advanced Encryption System (AES) only. TKIP is the only protocol that the hack applies to.

For more deatil, check out this story.

The good news is that the beta release of the browser will be open source. It promises to be complete, yet simple.

Google have have released a comic book telling you about the new browser. In typical Google fashin, it is innovative and works quite well. Better than just a simple web page full of text.

One thing I have found intersting is what I’ve read about the tabbed browsing. I have found with other browsers that when you close a tab, the moemory that it uses is not reclaimed fully and there is a it of fragmentation (or bloating of memory). Chrome claims to fix this …. according to the comic book.

Let’s see how it gos.

After a bit of searching around, I found instructions to do it (as shown below):

1) Access your router on 192.168.0.1/snmp.htm
2) Enable SNMP and make your community name ‘public’. Click Apply.
3) Type in the address bar: 192.168.0.1/setup.cgi?todo=debug (it will say “Debug enabled”).
4) Click Start, Run, type in ‘cmd’ to get a command prompt.
5) Type ‘telnet 192.168.0.1′ (You will see a BusyBox shell prompt).
6) type ‘iptables -D INPUT 1′ at the # prompt (this disables SNMP blocking).

That’s it, your router will now respond to SNMP requests on port 161.

Of course if your router has a different IP address simply replace 192.168.0.1 in all the steps above with whatever your router’s IP is.

Note: that if you make any changes to your firewall rules, if your router reboots or if it reconnects for any reason then the DG834 will reset the IP tables and you will need to run that command in the telnet window again. That’s all you will need to do though, the SNMP setting remains and the debug mode stays active until you physically reboot the router.

Most new routers are expensive, high-performance affairs that use the 802.11n standard. But the ‘funky looking’ WRT54G2 sticks to the slower but still reliable 802.11g standard which enables perfectly acceptable internet access and half-decent file transfer speeds. It also costs half the price of 11n kit.

Beyond its living-room friendly design (the antennae are internal), its distinguishing feature is Linksys EasyLink Advisor, or LELA. This is a truly idiot-proof set-up. Out of the box, instructions scream “run the disc’s software first”. Simple, animated diagrams aid cabling and you’re walked through setting up a secure wireless network.

If you have a compatible “Wi-Fi Protected Setup” device, connecting involves simply pressing buttons on both devices. Those who like tinkering with advanced options have all of the usual features available via the browser-based settings.

Note: There’s no modem inside the WRT54G2 - you’ll need to connect one via an Ethernet cable.

Check it out here.

Ahhhh the memories…..

Europe’s biggest games convention has marked the event with a homage to the alien “shoot-em-up” as well as 500 exhibitors showing how far the industry has come since then.

The classic (I would say more cult) title first hit gaming arcades in 1978, setting players the challenge of shooting a swarm of hostile extra-terrestrials descending at an ever increasing pace, before they destroyed you.

Space Invaders has been immortalised by Guinness World Records as the number one arcade game of all time.

Game developer Taito is commemorating the game’s anniversary with a worldwide Space Invaders tournament, which will conclude on August 26th.

The Space Invaders shrine can be found here, where you can play it online also.

The snapshots are taken by a fleet of cars fitted with special cameras that drive across the country, capturing images on every street corner and along every highway. Quite possibly you have seen them out on the streets. They are just a normal car with a small Google logo on the door, and a long pole with a camera mounted on the roof of the car.

The technology has so far been used to create virtual replicas of major US cities and the route of this year’s Tour De France, but Google will today unveil its most comprehensive Street View project to date – the mapping of virtually all of southeast Australia and much of the east and west coasts.

I checked out my house and it looks like the photo was taken on garbage day as there are garbage bins outside of my house.

Lastly, a bit of trivia - Google Maps was actually invented in Australia and that is why there is now more extensive coverage than in the USA.

The security key, which works in a way very simialr to the more common RSA secureID that many peope use at work, the key generates a random number every 30 seconds. This number needs to be input every time you log into your Ebay or Paypal account.

The key costs only a few dollars and is a once off fee - certainly peace of mind to know that there is an extra level of security on your Paypal account.