Fake USB Sticks: How to spot them and how to repair them

So, you bought one. Now what? You are not sure if you really have a fake or not. Fear not, the good people from heise.de have actually created a tool that takes care of that called h2testw. You can grab it from their site or just here the direct link. The program is in German and English. Just unpack the zip and start the exe file. In there you can set it to English. Now click the “Select Target” button and select the flash drive you want to test. Make sure you have all data removed from it before doing this though. Make sure that Data volume is set to all available space, then click the Write + Verify button. Now this will take a while. If it truly is 32 GB this could take up to two hours of time, but you can just run it in the background.

After a while you might get an error that it can’t write anymore. Well that is a bad sign, but let it verify. Once it is done with that, it will tell you how much data it could exactly write and verify. Some sticks allow the tool to write the advertised amount, but only verify to its real size.


USB Stick Internals Controler Side
So why is Windows telling you that it’s 32 GB or 16 GB although H2testw only verifies to 1 GB? That has to do with the internals of a USB stick.

It is made up of two major parts, the memory and the controller. The memory is easy to spot. Just look for the largest chip. They are usually long and narrow and have pretty legible writing on it. The controller on the other hand is smaller and square in most cases. It’s hard to read its writing.

Some fakers tell you it has Samsung chips, but there is no Samsung writing on the chip at all. Often the fakers remove the original printing through various methods and put a new print on it to make it look like it is something different. A part number sometimes appears and if you are familiar with this, you can see that it might be a Samsung one, but again, that is faked. So if there is no part number or a number you get no hits back on Google with, chances are, it’s fake.

The controller is where this whole fake actually gets pulled of. Just slapping those two chips together does not create a USB memory stick. Besides the other parts needed, the controller has a firmware flashed on to it that tells it what the exact chip is that it has available as storage. So now those fakers just take a small stick, say 2 GB and flash on to its controller that it actually has a capacity of 32 GB. Windows reports only back what the controller tells it, since it can’t know exactly how much data there really is available for usage.



USB Stick Internals Memory Side
So how come not more people realize this?

Customers buy the stick but they only use the first 1 GB of it. Since it has, for example, a real capacity of 2 GB, they won’t notice, since they never use any of the phantom capacity.

There is a lot scarier scenario though. Say your stick only has 2 GB real capacity but you put 4 GB of data on it. In many cases the firmware hack is so complete that windows will copy into oblivion without an error. Of course it only can read back 2 GB of that data, when you read back the rest it’s all random garbage or filled with zeros. You will not notice when you copy the data on to the stick, you will not notice it when you copy the data off the stick. The only place you will notice is when you try to actually use the data. At that point the data will be corrupt and unusable. You might then even attribute that to something else and not the stick.

Data loss happened and most general users will be puzzled as to why.

So now you got a dumb stick. You can get a refund mostly, so you should not be too concerned. Shipping it back is usually not even wanted by the fakers, so now you got a dead stick for free. You know how much space it technically should have according to H2testw. But it would be nice if windows knew it too and you don’t put data on there by accident that goes into nothingness.

Your only chance is to flash it again. For that you need to read the controller chip, the square little one, and search for the tool that is needed to flash it. Usually the first two lines indicate the maker and the model. Enter it in Google and you should find tools ready available online. You have to make sure that it is exactly the right tool for your needs. If the tool is for the chip 1901 and you have 1903 model, it most likely won’t work. Also many are in Chinese which makes it extra hard. In many cases you can rejuvenate your drive to the correct size with that.

Google and forum posts are your friend there. Many users have already encountered the most common controllers and written about it, as well as provided download links.

Look for fake sellers before you buy. After you get the stick, test with H2testw. If it’s fake, demand a full refund (including shipping), immediately. Lastly try to salvage it with a repair flash.

Source: http://thecoolthings.com/2008/07/17/fake-usb-sticks-how-to-spot-them-and-how-to-repair-them/

Pixlr - Online Photo Editing tool!

While it's not the most full-featured image editor you'll ever use, Pixlr makes it fairly easy to do some sophisticated (and unsophisticated) things with images online. The Flash-based web app has an impressive set of tools, from a text engine that can use nearly any font available on your computer to layers and filters for masking and effects, respectively. Incredibly, there's even a multilevel undo! You can import images from your machine or via URL, or paint something up yourself, and either way save it to your desktop. It's fun to play around with, though quickly frustrating if you're used to more powerful tools. But it sure beats MS Paint!

Try it out at http://www.pixlr.com/

source: http://lifehacker.com/

Parallels Desktop 3.0 for Mac - Best App for MAC

The programs you need. The computer you want. The best of both worlds.
Made the move to Mac? No other solution makes it easier or faster to take your Windows system with you. Keep your must-have Windows programs, files and settings at your fingertips.
"It’s an intuitive, easy-to-use virtualization platform for switchers who need to run Windows applications alongside OS X." — InfoWorld 2008 Technology of the Year.

Run Windows-only applications on your Mac.
Access key Windows applications from the comfort of your Mac. Run your favorite software on your favorite hardware.

Run selected 3D games and applications.
Explore a whole new world of Windows-only 3D games and applications right on your Mac.

Use your favorite Windows-only devices.
Use your favorite devices, even if they’re Windows-only. Connect your phone, camera and MP3 player to your Mac!

Run OS X, Windows and Linux at the same time.
Run your favorite applications at the same time, regardless of the OS! No more rebooting to switch between OSes to use the applications you need.

Bring your PC with you!
Move an entire Windows system to your new Mac in just a few simple steps. No losing data, reinstalling software or re-customizing your computer

Check out the App at http://www.parallels.com/products/desktop/

Source : www.parallels.com

Rasterize your Vector

Just before you download an illustration from any Royalty Free Stock Images site, you may be warned that 'This is a vector illustration and requires vector editing software, such as Adobe® Illustrator®, Freehand®, or CorelDRAW® to edit.'

Does this mean that people who don't know their way around Illustrator won't be able to use the image? Not at all. Even if you don't own or have the hang of vector software, you can always create your own rasterized version of the EPS file with several different applications.

'Raster' is just another name for a grid of pixels. 'Rasterization' is a fancy term for turning the lines & curves of an illustration into pixels like a normal photo. You won't be as free to edit and modify this rasterized version of the file, but you will be able to create it at a specific size, resolution, or mode. And you'll always have the original EPS file on hand for the day you're able to use it.




You can use many different applications to create a raster version of a vector illustration, including:

Preview
Mac users already have a free feature built into OS X that can do the conversion for you. Open the EPS with Preview. It will automatically convert to a PDF. You can save it as a variety of other file types as well.

Photoshop®
Open the EPS or AI file in Adobe Photoshop. You'll get a menu that allows you to set the pixel dimensions, resolution, and mode. Set these to any size that you need – the vector file is fully scalable. You can then save this photoshop document to whatever format suits you best - jpeg, psd, or tiff.

Acrobat®
In your 'Open' menu in Acrobat (Standard or Professional), the default setting beside Show is Adobe PDF Files. By changing this to All Files, you'll be able to open your EPS file. Acrobat will automatically create a rasterized PDF document from the file.


source: iStockphoto.com

www.kipkay.com

Here you will find Kip "Kipkay" Kedersha's how-to DIY videos, the world famous Laser Flashlight and Unlock Handcuffs videos and a wide variety of cool content! One of the coolest archives of DIY stuffs, some being so easy to be done by newbies too... check it out and dont forget to bookmark it! Kudos to the Publisher. Check out an example below.



Hack A Flashlight To Power Your...! - Watch a funny movie here

Endorphin - A new substitue for 3D Motion Capture

Endorphin 2.7
endorphin is the industry's first Dynamic Motion Synthesis software.

At the heart of endorphin are its Adaptive Behaviours, which - unlike animation data - are completely interactive. With Adaptive Behaviours, 3D characters essentially animate themselves. Move two Football players close to each other and one will automatically tackle the other one, realistically trying to grab hold of his legs and bringing him down .

Or not. It really is up to you. endorphin allows animators to direct scenes in real-time in a way they have never been able to do before. You can change parameters or change behaviours and see the results instantly on the screen in front of you. When you're done, export animation data in one of the many formats, ready for use in your game or VFX shot.

Homepage: http://www.naturalmotion.com/endorphin.htm

Access USB Drives in Parallels and Your Mac Simultaneously

If you run Windows and Mac apps side-by-side with Parallels, you may have been annoyed in the past that you can't use removable volumes (like USB drives) simultaneously in OS X and your Windows virtual machine. Web site Mac OS X Hints details how to remedy this problem with a simple solution: add a shared folder in Parallels that points to /Volumes. Not only will the new shared folder give you access to USB drives, but also your DVD drive and all other mounted volumes on your Mac—and you get it all without having to hassle with individually connecting and disconnecting drives from your virtual machine. I tried to duplicate this method in VMWare Fusion but wasn't able to select the /Volumes folder. Either way, the Parallels hack is smart and saves a ton of time.