This one goes out to users with a minor experience in Windows. There are many guidelines stating to turn off unneeded services, and of course they’re right. But what is unnecessary, what are all these services good for, and where can they be turned of? Here you can find answers to all these questions.
I’m sorry, but I have to drop some doors, because there are some jobs open that have to be finished this year. And finally, the translation of my articles takes some more time than expected. Nevertheless, today there is a door, and a little game to waste some time. Line Rider is not unknown, but nevertheless it’s worth getting mentioned, because its a great fun. The idea is very simple, just draw a line and let a little dwarfish guy ride on it with his sled. Try it, and loose some hours of your live spending time with stupid things 
And be aware that you can share your work via YouTube. Or post them here
I’ve bee questioned several times how to erase a harddisk and make it impossible to restore the data. The answer is: melt it down. So lets see what we can do to make it as hard as possible to restore the data. Ihe first way is simply deleting the files, and this is a bad way, because the data stays on the disk, only the entries to the filesystem (inodes, whatever) are removed.A better way is to overwrite the entire disk, for example with dd. But even then it is possible to restore the the content, because there are minimal magnetic effects that can be used for a analysis. So it’s better to overwrite the stuff several times, a job that does not make fun executed by hand. The little utility wipe can help, and has one big advantage: it can also ’secure’ erase several files, but not the whole disk, by overwriting these files several times. But the security on a journalling filesystem remains questionalble.
So if indeed the whole disk should be erased, I prefer dban. This comes as a little Linux, running from CD (or even floppy) with the only purpose to send data on hard disks to hell. It does this by using well known industrial standards like DOD 5220.22-M or the Gutmann method. This may take some time, but it’s safe, easy, and can be used nearly without any knowledge of computers. And i reccomend to use it, everytime you sell or give away a hard disk. And at least, for me it’s a good reason to have a ‘red disk’ again 
Once in a whileUsually, if you are registering at some kind of web service, you’re questioned for a email address to receive some kind of activation code. What happens with your mail address thereafter us mostly unknown. To prevent it from being abused by spammers, it might be a good idea to use temporary mail addresses.
10minutemail offers these in a very simple way. Once you enter the site, you get access to a email box and are able to receive messages for 10 minutes. But be aware, theres no form of encryption or authentication, so its possible for a 3rd party to read these mails, too. Therefore you should avoid using this for sensitive data, but for evaluating different services without giving away your personal address this works fine.
Should I cry, or should I laugh? This guy ripped a credit card application in little pieces, taped them together, and applied for a card, with a different phone number, to a different address. And he got his card. No comment on this :-/
Can anyone of my American readers confirm that the credit card companies over there have such a strange behavior?
It scares me, how often people let the default credentials of a device unchanged. And from time to time, these defaults are the only way of accessing a device, in the worst case after a complete reset. A search engine for these defaults can make one’s life much easier from time to time, if for example a documentation is not available.
Sorry for being that late, but I will fill the gaps of missing doors now. Let’s begin with a nice Article describing how to recover a expired Windows. The problem is well known, after 30 days Windows will deny the login if it is not activated. Its impossible to access internet, or even you files. But thanks to Microsoft, there’s a backdoor to the System, described here.
Even if one or another already has a nice collection of ebooks, knows all the relating links or at least has no time for reading I will nevertheless point to another rich bookshelf out there. What’s done with saying this.
What if operating Systems were beers? Would there be a OS/2 beer? You see no one drinking it, but the ‘International Beer Manufacturer’ (IBM) claims that it has been sold quite well? Or the Windows 200 beer, that nukes away the main part of your kitchen when the can blows up? And of course, one can’t buy a Linux beer, but you can brew it on your own, for your special taste.
These beers, and even more of them, can be found here, so grasp a can and enjoy.
Some time ago I introduced a paper dealing with a secure configuration of the Apache web server. Today, it’s a bit more about authentication, access control and all that stuff one can do with .htaccess. In this HowTo you can find some interesting hints on how to deal with search engines, increase comfort and security by using mod_rewrite and boosting up the speed with the help of caching . All in all a very nice paper, like the rest of the .htaccess stuff over there.
