A Blogging Drive
Umair Rashid
I'm my Dumbo's Daffer...!
Homepage: http://umaki-drive.com/blog/
Yahoo Messenger: umair4202002
Jabber/GTalk: dj.umaki
Posts by Umair Rashid
Facebook Zero – Free surfing through your mobile
Jul 10th
For STC customers, from now on, you can check your facebook absolutely for FREE by logging into the following link: 0.facebook.com through your mobile.
Note that you cannot see photos and videos when using facebook zero, but you can stay connected to your friends through messages and status update, this is in addition to all the other facebook features like notes and pokes.
Spread the word, facebook zero will come in handy one day for you or your friends one day 
If you are using a Blackberry, make sure to use your JawalNet WAP instead of going to using your browser; and in case you are using an iPhone, make sure to change the APN settings to JawalNet
Customize Ovi Maps With Your Own Voice
May 6th
Customized ringtones are cool, but customized voice navigation is even cooler! Nokia just launched Own Voice for Ovi Maps allowing their users to record and share their own navigation instructions from their device. Just record 53 commands, and then you’ll have your own voice pack.
The app will also let you browse other voice packs created by others by popularity or recommendation. Own Voice for Ovi Maps is available in English and supports the latest version that offers free lifetime walk and drive navigation.
Shoaib Akhtar and Diya Mirza Getting Married Soon
May 1st
Just as the people finished thinking about the wedding of Shoaib Malik and Sania Mirza, here came another scandal which is as bigger as the one with the Sialkot-Deccan marriage; a cricketer marrying an Indian film actress. Another Shoaib, another Mirza; another Pakistani boy and another Indian girl; another pair following the trend of Shoaib-Sania.
Shoaib Akhtar and Diya Mirza Getting Married Soon
Indian film actress Diya Mirza has claimed that she and Shoaib Akhtar are very good friends and are getting married soon. She also challenged Shoaib-Sania that their wedding will be the biggest marriage of the sub-continent and they will not behave like them. She further stated that she loves Pakistani cricketers and Shoaib is her ideal man.
When the media tried to confirm the news from Shoaib Akhtar, Rawalpindi Express did not comment on it but sources told that the news of Akhtar-Diya scandal is true and they will also get married. Shoaib Akhtar is waiting for his comeback into the team and after his comeback; they both will make public the affair in a joint press conference.
Call your Twitter Friends for Free
Mar 14th
Twit2Tel, is a web service that allows you to call your twitter friends without even knowing theirs or revealing your contact number. Each active twitter user account is associated with a voicemail, which can be used for free. So from now on you can voicemail or call your favorite celebrity in your own voice.
This service harness the power of twitter and VoIP to present you with a free service. All you need to have is an active Twitter account. Once you sign-in using their homepage, you will be requested to authorize your account. Click the “Create a Free Account” button under the Add Your number on the Homepage. Now under settings, enter the telephone number which you like to be linked to your Twitter username. They assure that your phone numbers will be kept private and secure. Click Update next to the number. Now, in order to call your friend just tweet : @twit2tel call <USER>
Voicemail can be send and received for free. The direct phone calls to your friend would last for 4 minutes with a 15 sec ad before each call. This according to them is their income source to keep the service free of cost. If you don’t want to hear ads you can sign up for a paid account. Good news here is, this service supports more than 200 countries .
Free Zemana AntiLogger License for Everyone
Mar 13th
I personally think that keylogger is the most scariest threat. Imagine all your passwords being captured and the person who installed the keylogger is able to access all your password protected websites such as your emails, paypal, online banking and etc. One of the most effective method to counter keylogger is by using Zemana AntiLogger.
Zemana AntiLogger is one of the security products that I’ve recommended and will continue to recommend to everyone. The last time I tested Zemana AntiLogger and it was able to block virtually all keylogging, webcam capture and screenshot capture methods from different trojans. A year has gone by and again I’ve tested Zemana AntiLogger with 2 keyloggers (one of it uses rootkit method and the other advertises that it is completely invisible bypassing antivirus and firewall) and 1 trojan crypted with incognito which by bypassed many antivirus and internet security products. Zemana AntiLogger was able to detect injection on both of the keyloggers and the trojan while successfully blocking the installation of those dangerous files.
Zemana has collaborated with Softpedia to offer everyone FREE license for Zemana AntiLogger ONLY FOR TODAY. Hurry and grab your license as soon as possible.
To get your free Zemana AntiLogger license worth $39.50:
1. Go to this page http://www.zemana.com/softpedia/
2. Click the FREE Full Version Download Now button to download the installer AntiLogger_SOFTPEDIA_1.9.2.185.exe
3. Install and reboot your computer
4. Activate the program by following the on-screen instructions.
Zemana AntiLogger is easy to use. Just install and let it protect your computer. It is made to protect your computer real-time without relying on virus signatures so you won’t find any Scan button. Most if not all injections are threats, so if you get such warnings, make sure you block them first.
I believe the installer that is custom built for Softpedia which has the license number integrated to activate the program. I am not sure whether is it still possible to continue activate the license using the custom installer when this promo is expired. If the activation is limited to only today, that means if we reformat our hard drive we wouldn’t be able to use Zemana AntiLogger for free anymore. I’ve did some tracing and found that the activated license information is stored in C:\Program Files\AntiLogger\config.cfg. You can backup the config.cfg and restore it at a later time IF the online activation blocks the SOFTPEDIA-OEM-12809 license number. If you starting to think about piracy using the config.cfg, you will not succeed because the license is hardware dependent and if you transfer the config.cfg on another computer, it won’t work.
One thing I noticed about Zemana AntiLogger is it doesn’t aggressively checks the current process for threats. One example is, I am using Input Director to share keyboard and mouse between computers and it took a while before Zemana found out that Input Director is capturing the screen. Not to worry because I’ve tried turning off Zemana and then install a keylogger that auto uploads captured data but I’ve waited 30 minutes and still didn’t receive any captured data. I assume that although Zemana AntiLogger haven’t detect the threat, but it can block sensitive data from being transferred.
You can install and run Zemana AntiLogger together with your antivirus. Check here for a list of compatible security products. You have no idea how many undetectable threats out there today and relying solely on just antivirus itself is not enough to keep your personal data safe. Go tell your friends and families about this promotion.
Bad Effects on Having Laptop on Your Lap
Feb 9th
Notebook (laptop) is a very efficient and important tool of many people today. Businessmen, college students, housewives and professionals all use laptops for one use or the other. However, it is better that men learn that they risk losing their fertility with the excessive usage of laptop computers.
The main reason men tend to lose their fertility with the excessive use of laptop computers is that the heat that is generated by the computers, and the posture that the man adopts to balance the laptop computer tends to increase the temperature surrounding the scrotum.
Scientific researches have proven that the higher is the scrotal temperature, the higher is the possibility of damaging sperms and affecting the male’s fertility. Moreover, with the advent of Bluetooth and infrared connections, where there are wireless links to the internet, more and more men are using laptops on their laps than on a desk.
Men usually keep their legs open wider than women to keep their testicles at the right temperature, and for added comfort. However, with a laptop on their laps, they tend to adapt a less comfortable position so that they can balance the laptop on their laps. This leads to an increase in body temperature that is found between the thighs.
It has been recently proven that prolonged and continuous usage of laptops on the laps tend to lead to damage to the fertility of the man. This was because the use of laptops usually leads to about 2.7C increase inthe scrotal temperature of the male. This has lead to more and more men having decreased sperm levels where sperm counts seem to have dropped by a third in ten years.
Most of the reasons for this reduced sperm count is drug use, smoking, alcohol and obesity. Besides this, pesticides, radioactive materials and chemicals, and laptops too contribute to decrease in fertility in men.
The human male body has a fixed testicular temperature to maintain usual sperm production and development. Though it is not known the exact time of heat exposure and frequency of exposure to heat that can lead to reversible and irreversible production of sperms, it is known that frequent usage of laptops can lead to irreversible or partially reversible changes in the reproductive system of the male body.
This is why it is advised that young men and teenage boys should limit the use of laptops on their laps to avoid losing their fertility. It is not advisable for young men or boys to also use wireless services on their laps to play games and do other work as they are sure to develop problems in ten years’ time, when trying to have a family.
It is thereby advised that men should use laptops on the desk; in fact, anywhere else is possible, other than using it in the lap. Women don’t have to worry much about laptop computers on their laps, as so far, there have been no studies on the impact of using laptop computers on their laps.
Turn Your iPhone and iPod touch into iPad
Feb 2nd
Apple iPad, which was announced earlier this week received a mixed reaction from all over the world. Some found it as an oversized iPod touch, while others thought that it has the potential to redefine the way we will use our computers in the future. In a nutshell, iPad is indeed an oversized iPod touch/iPhone except for iBooks Store and iWorks Suite of apps.
Since iPhone, iPod touch and iPad uses the same OS (iPhone OS), the look and feel is generally the same throughout the three iDevices except for the few tweaks here and there in the iPhone OS 3.2 running on the iPad.
Now if you want to make your iPhone and iPod touch to look exactly like the iPad, simply follow the steps as shown in the video below to get the same lockscreen and springboard background, carrier logo which reads “iPad”, an iBooks like app, New York Times reader, the entire Kindle books catalog and much more.
You will need to have a jailbroken iPhone to get it all to work. Follow the instructions posted here to first jailbreak your iPhone if you haven’t already and then download and install the following in this order.
* Winterboard app via Cydia
* “Simple iPad Theme” via Cydia
* MakeItMine app via Cydia to Change the Carrier logo to iPad. More details here.
* Shrink app via Cydia to reduce the size of all the icons on the springboard.
* ProSwitcher via Cydia for Multitasking. More details here.
* NYTimes – The New York Times app for iPhone via App Store
* Classics – The iBooks lookalike app for iPhone via App Store
* Kindle for iPhone via App Store
Here is the video, showing each and every step in detail on how to turn your iPhone and iPod touch into an iPad.
Jailbreaking Apple iPad – The Possibilities
Jan 28th
The long awaited Apple iPad was released today, much to the delight of Apple fans who were waiting for Apple to reinvent the tablet/slate market. For those of you who don’t know, iPad is an all new tablet/slate like device that will run all of your existing iPhone Apps and Games on a a 9.7 inches IPS capacitive multitouch display. It is powered by 1Ghz processor and comes in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB flash sizes.
In a nutshell, it is a larger iPod touch with an additional iBooks Store and iWorks suite of apps. While the device has a great potential, it has its share of flaws as well, most notably the lack of multitasking, phone/SMS, Tethering and Flash in the browser. We all know how the jailbroken community has changed the way we use our iPhone’s today. Apps like ProSwitcher, Backgrounder, qTweeter, YourTube, Google Voice, BTStack and so on have enabled iPhone and iPod touch users to do amazing things which otherwise would have never been possible.
The iPad’s which were used in Demos today was running iPhone OS 3.2 Beta. A version of the OS which is currently only available for iPad. But we can be sure that Apple will release the same OS for iPhone and iPod touches as well when the iPad is ready for shipment, in exactly two months from now. Just imagine the amazing possibilities which jailbreaking can bring to this device. The ability to multitask, updating twitter without having to launch an app using qTweeter, Tethering and the ability to use Magic Mouse with iPad will make it one hell of a device. And also since one of the models of the iPad already has 3G capabilities, it wont be difficult for Cydia developers to bring phone calling / SMS capabilities over-the-air to this larger touchscreen device. Sending text messages from this large screen would be real awesome!
Of course, alot will depend on how strongly apple has patched the exploits which were used by George Hotz and the iPhone Dev-Team to jailbreak iPhone and iPod touch on OS 3.1.2 using blackra1n, PwnageTool, redsn0w, and sn0wbreeze.
Nokia updates N97 with free Ovi Maps, just as promised
Jan 28th
It was only a week ago when Nokia shock us with its free turn-by-turn navigation update, but the poor old N97 got left out in the cold. Not any more though, folks! In fact, the new Ovi Maps for N97 was delivered one day earlier than promised, and can be found “through the software update client in the device.” Thanks, Nokia, but don’t forget your N900 fans, too.
3G Mobile Encryption Cracked
Jan 16th
Not too long ago, we heard that the GSM cellphone encryption was cracked and users were vulnerable to attacks. After GSM 64-bit A5/1 algorithm was compromised, the 3G algorithm was likely to follow shortly after.
Based on the reports about the 3G encryption cracking, the network relies on a KASUMI system, which only needs a couple of hours for a well-coordinated hacker to crack. 3G uses the KASUMI encryption, which processes 64-bit blocks using a 128-bit key.
What exactly does this mean to 3G users? We’ll, fortunately for everyone, the crack was found by researchers that used a highly complex mathematical equation and the exploit isn’t available to the public. The researchers said that their un-optimized single PC can recover 96 key bits in a matter of a few minutes and can complete the full 128 bit key in less than two hours.
Consumers shouldn’t be worried about this just yet, as CDMA has a MISTY encryption prepared. The MISTY encryption is a more complicated algorithm, which in theory should be harder to crack to a would-be hacker. Until someone else comes up with a method to crack the 3G algorithm, users data should be safe.
