Testing 2MB Internet

Since the new year was approaching and we had all agreed that our 128 kb/s connection was too slow. Since we had a yearly subscription anyway with Orange, with the help of my uncle Bilal, we agreed and ordered a new 2MB Surf and Talk package.

Now for the Talk part of the package to work, something called a Livebox would need to arrive. This is, according to Orange, a wireless router, modem and VoIP device, all in one. However this is yet to arrive, and knowing Orange, its going to take a while.

The Surf part has arrived though, and the 2MB internet, and downloads are fast and usually over 200 kb/s. There is only one problem, stability. The internet is not always the same speed, and speed tests are very unreliable as each test gives a different speed.

I can just hope the new modem will make it stable, although I don't know if this might be something common for higher speeds from Orange. Heres the only reliable test I could get from speed.io. Others would dip below 1MB or differ from test to test.

Can You Make Money Online?

This question was one I pondered on many times last year.

I had heard many success stories of people who had went on the Internet, done something, and then got millions out of it. Was it all true?

I decided to try it out myself, as I had nothing to lose. But I couldn't do it alone, so I decided to get my slightly older close relative in the game.

After searching many sites, I found a good site called Bux.To, which seemed rather good. You surfed ads for a cent for each ad you see for 30 seconds.

Whats better, is that for each referrals view, you get a cent as well. There was also the option to buy packages of referrals.

I went ahead and bought some referrals with the 15 dollars left in my Paypal account. Soon enough the referrals brought me some money.

Of course, there was a catch, for the payout to come you'll have to wait 60 business days. Quite alot to wait.

At last I had ten dollars, minimum cashout. I requested it on January the 10th, and waited. I waited alot.

Until yesterday.

I really had thought that there was something fishy about the website, until I found an email in my inbox. It said the amount had been paid today.

And, sure to say, the amount was in my account. Sure it took a long time to come, but it was there.

So, I am continuing my online money making experience. Why don't you try it too?

Parent Sells His Teenagers Guitar

If you're a son that's desperate for a game for your Wii, then you'd better not be doing anything stupid before you get it.

That includes smoking pot on your garden patio with your friends. Isaac was caught smoking, which then led to his surprise Christmas present to be sold on Ebay. A few days later, it was dugg and everyone knew about it. In the auction, the father writes an account of what happened.

So I spent who knows how many hours of my life trying to get “Guitar Hero 3” for the Nintendo Wii for my 15 year old son who has been begging for it since he was born (well not really but he’s wanted it for awhile). So after waiting in lines and going into every game store in the city over the last 2 weeks (practically being laughed at when I asked for guitar hero 3) I finally got lucky and got one at EB Games (they just got a shipment of them 25 minutes before I walked in!).

So I was so relieved in that I had finally got the Holy Grail of Xmas presents pretty much just in the nick of time. I couldn’t wait to spread the jubilance to my son.

Then, yesterday, I came home from work early and what to I find? My innocent little boy smoking pot in the backyard with 2 of his delinquent friends.

Now I know santa applies the “naughty or nice” paradigm to determine who gets what on Christmas. My son (Isaac) hasn’t exactly been Mother Teresa this year (he got suspended for fighting in the spring, among other things) but I thought I could still justify getting him this present. Maybe it would make him stay home more and “rock out” on this fake guitar thing. He pretty much spends all his free time at his friend’s house playing it anyways (while high on marijuana, I would imagine).

Anyways, I am now finding it hard to justify rewarding him with this gift after he so greatly disappointed me. I know smoking a joint isn’t the end of the world, but if you can convince me that he deserves the gift, then I will end the auction. You will have to be very convincing. I am an elementary school teacher and I know that rewarding bad behavior is just asking for more of the same…

After I caught him getting high on my patio I did the typical yelling, screaming, kicking out the friends, etc… but I had not decided on a suitable way to punish him. As of the time of me writing this, he does not know I got him Guitar Hero 3. I will show him the auction once it is posted and we can watch it finish together. Sort of a “Father-Son bonding experience”. While I doubt this will keep him from ever smoking pot again, I think it will make him think twice before doing illegal (well I think pot is still illegal in Canada) drugs on my property.

I am still considering getting him a game for his Nintendo. Maybe something like Barbie as the Island Princess or Dancing With the Stars. These games are in stock everywhere I go, and I know he will just love them.

Merry Xmas Isaac. I hope you’ve learned your lesson. –Father.

[Sources: From Digg, to Gaming Today, to Ebay]

A Missing Verse From The Quran?!

Have you ever heard of Surat Al-Muslimoon?

Our Friday prayer Imam told us this Friday about how people are trying to change the Quran, and about his findings on the Internet. He found very strange 'verses' from the Quran, that were obviously not from it. He read to us Surat Al-Muslimoon (Verse of the Muslims), and warned us that new comers to Islam would really think this was a missing verse and believe these lies.

And so I went home, got on the computer, and ran a search on Google for "سورة المسلمون". I found it, our Imam was telling the truth. The Google search also found a member in a forum that actually believes this verse is a missing one from the Quran. Here is the verse, what do you think of this gibberish?

(1) الصم (2) قُل يا أَيُها الْمُسلِمُونَ إنَكُم لفي ضَلالٍ بَعِيد (3) إنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ بِاللّهِ ومسيحهِ لَهُمْ فِي الآَخِرَةِ نَارُ جَهَنّمَ وعَذَابٌ شَدِيدٌ (4) وجوهٌ يومئذٍ صاغرةٌ مكفهرةٌ تلتمسُ عفوَ اللهِ واللهُ يفعلُ ما يريد (5) يومَ يقولُ الرحمنُ يا عبادي قد أنعمتُ على الذينَ من قبلِكم بالهدى منزّلاً في التوراةِ والإنجيل (6) فما كان لكم أن تكفروا بما أنزلتُ وتضلوا سَوَاء السبيل (7) قالوا ربنا ما ضَلَلْنا أنفُسنا بل أضلنا مَنْ ادّعى أنه من المرسلين (8) وإذ قالَ اللهُ يا محمد أغويتَ عبادي وجعلتهُم من الكافرين (9) قالَ ربِّي إنما أغوانيَ الشيطانُ إنهُ كانَ لبني آدمَ أعظمَ المفسدين (10) ربي اعْفُ عني واغفرْ لي واقبلني معَ التائبين (11) إني بمسيحِكَ لَمُؤمنٌ وإني لَهُ لَساجدٌ مع الساجدين (12) ويغفرُ اللهُ للذين تابوا مِمَّن أغواهُمُ الإنسانُ ويبعثُ بمحمدٍ إذ كانَ للشيطانِ نصيراً إلى جهنّم وبئسَ المصير (13) وإذ قضى اللهُ أمراً فإنه أعلمُ بما يقضي وقضى وهو على كلِّ شيءٍ قدير.

[Source] - Sidenote: I only pasted this verse for you to see it straight from here, not that I actually believe this stupidity. Please do not misunderstand.

Creating Custom Backgrounds For MSN

I decided to make custom backgrounds for Windows Live Messenger. I took something from everyone and put it into their conversation, so each window has a touch to it. :D

Below is a small version, click on it to view larger version (944KB).

The Joy Of Hacking Wireless

I was on my dad's laptop, which has Vista on it and has a quite wide range of wireless. I was on the laptop yestarday morning when I noticed a new wireless connection, unsecured. That is the same as saying please use me.

And I did. I surfed the internet a bit. It was quite fast even though the internet range was a bit low. But I wasn't going to stop there. I was up for a challenge, of trying to log in to the router. I opened up a map of the links. Good old Vista showed me everything, including the IP address of the router.


I went for it and typed the IP in my browser. Now the hard part - the thing needs a username and password. I thought that I could try the factory defaults, the normal user and pass that comes with the router. I went and searched on Google for the defaults of Linksys routers, and I found them. Feeling lucky, I typed them in and hit OK. I hit the jackpot, I was in.



Now from here, I could do anything. I was able to see his username and password for his ADSL connection. It seems he's using Wanadoo (which is now Orange). Now this is not a worry, but what is...



I could password encrypt his router and wireless connection. This would mean that only I could use his connection whenever I wanted. The only solution to this problem is to reset the router, but poor old Jordanians don't know that.

But then again, I'm a good guy and I won't do this. I wait until after Ramadan. >=)

Geek Knitting

Read more.

Favicons On My Blog

At last, got rid of that ugly B and put my countrys flag. Looks good, eh?

The problem was actually getting someone to host .ico files. No normal image hosting would allow me to host .ico files, because practically - they aren't really images.

After hours of searching, I finally found Ripway, which would host any type of file. I then had to turn my png into a ico file, so I went to this good site. And finally, I added this code to my template:

<link href='url_to_ico_file' rel='shortcut' />

Try it out if you want.

Stealing Unsecured Wireless

Is Stealing Wireless Wrong?

A man has been arrested after being spotted allegedly sitting in a street with a laptop using someone else's unsecured wireless connection.
The man arrested in a street in west London is at least the third person to be accused of breaching the law by taking internet service without permission.
The Communications Act 2003 says a "person who (a) dishonestly obtains an electronic communications service, and (b) does so with intent to avoid payment of a charge applicable to the provision of that service, is guilty of an offence".

For god's sake, who told the owner not to password protect his signal?!

Playing Runescape

RuneScape is the latest craze, and it deserves to be. In this online MMORPG, you have your own medival character in the virtual world of RuneScape. In it you meet other people, while training your skills or completing quests. Read more about Runescape on Wikipedia.

Right now, I'm training my hunting skill by catching green lizards deep in the swamps of Morytania, south-east of the city of Canifis. Ah, bliss.

Test Your Internet

OK, so to hit off the blog, as a start, I'd like to show you a great tool - Intel's Broadband Tester. It analyzes your internet's speed, gives it to you and shows where you are from normal speeds. This really shows how far away your speed really is, compared to what your ISP should've given you.

It also has a tool at the bottom, which shows how much time a certain file would download. 1GB would only take 4½ hours on a 512KB connection. Imagine how long it would take on a 8MB! Its surprising that there are so many factors affecting your internet connection speed:

Internet connection speed varies depending on your Internet Service Provider, modem type, time of day, browser version, operating system, traffic, and intersecting signals. Results are not a guarantee of true connection speed.

Try it out, and prepare to be amazed at how much your ISP is really giving you.