Number 1 tip to saving on eBay

I didn’t want to spend another $40 on a case, especially for a phone that’s now a backup since I just got the new iPhone 6s Plus. So I start searching around on eBay and immediately found a seller who was asking $12 for it.

After digging around, I found another eBayer selling the same case for $9.99

Then I searched ebay deeper and found one for $8.33  but there was no ‘Buy It Now’ option. So I placed my bid and during the last hour of the auction, someone outbids me. Understandably I was disappointed at this point and I was thinking about giving up and just buying from the guy selling it at $9.99

I decided to scour eBay one more time and sure enough I found another seller wanting the same case for $7 and included the ‘Best Offer’ option. I send him my offer price of $6 but he just lets me sit there for almost 24 hours and doesn’t respond.

After getting tired of waiting, I found yet another eBayer selling a case made by the same manufacturer but it was the higher model# case that retails slightly higher ($45) than the one i was shopping for. He was asking $6.49 and had the ‘Best Offer’ option available.

I didn’t want to risk pissing the seller off by low balling him cuz I’ve been at this for 2 days. I didn’t think i’d find a deal better than this, so I made an offer of $6 and within 10 minutes the seller accepts.

$45 protective case for $6!

Number 1 tip saving money on eBay? Patience and lots of it!

Attention White-Collar Workers: The Robots Are Coming For Your Jobs

humanlikerobot

 

From the self-checkout aisle of the grocery store to the sports section of the newspaper, robots and computer software are increasingly taking the place of humans in the workforce. Silicon Valley executive Martin Ford says that robots, once thought of as a threat to only manufacturing jobs, are poised to replace humans as teachers, journalists, lawyers and others in the service sector.

“There’s already a hardware store [in California] that has a customer service robot that, for example, is capable of leading customers to the proper place on the shelves in order to find an item,” Ford tells Fresh Air’s Dave Davies.

In his new book, Rise of the Robots, Ford considers the social and economic disruption that is likely to result when educated workers can no longer find employment.

Continue reading Attention White-Collar Workers: The Robots Are Coming For Your Jobs

Tutorial – Creating a Basic Proxy

This blog demonstrates how you can configure your site server to also act as a proxy. I used this method myself a few years back before I began using TOR and other means of maintaining anonymity. Before we begin I just want to say that this proxy is NOT perfect since you’ll still be prone to DNS leaks. So if you want pure anonymity then I suggest sticking to TOR and/or use a VPN. This method is great for those who want to bypass network filters, or avoid those freebie malware-ridden web proxies or you don’t want certain sites tracking your IP.

 

For this tutorial I will be using Firefox version 34.0.5 as a web browser

 

1.  Click on ‘Options’, go to the (I.) ‘Advanced‘ section, then click on the (II.) ‘Network‘ tab, and finally click on the (III.) ‘Settings‘ button as pictured.

ffnettab2

Continue reading Tutorial – Creating a Basic Proxy

iOS 8.1.1 has already been jailbroken.

Wow… that was super fast! So yea anyone using a newer iPhone/iPad, the latest operating system for it (iOS 8.1.1) was jailbroken a few days ago.

Where to download:

http://apt.taig.com/installer/TaiGJBreak_1021.zip

Here’s some step-by-step instructions to do it (very simple):

http://www.idownloadblog.com/2014/11/29/how-to-jailbreak-ios-8-1-1-…

I’ve been running this on my iPhone 5s for the past 24 hours and I can honestly say it works a little better than the last one (by Pangu) from a few weeks ago. If you’re still using version 8.1 then I suggest you upgrade and jailbreak because that older version was terrible at conserving battery life. Version 8.1.1 does a surprisingly better job and some of the well known veteran crackers are now vouching for this latest jailbr… 🙂

Video Tutorial:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDLgvAYiCGM&w=560&h=315]

Download Videos with Youtube-DL

YouTube videos can also be downloaded via Windows command with something called youtube-dl. Never really explored this method, I guess because I always found the Firefox plugin VideoDownloader to be more than an enough for me.

 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCrUGKwc8JA?list=PLWQqrldPh8tLBSTiKIsQwdToUNkl2JrML&w=560&h=315]

Continue reading Download Videos with Youtube-DL

Bomb Trains

This isn’t just a big potential problem in the Northwest, I’ve seen many of these rail cars roll in my neighborhood.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpXfQMFR_Qs&w=560&h=315]

From Vice News:

It’s estimated that 9 million barrels of crude oil are moving over the rail lines of North America at any given moment. Oil trains charging through Virginia, North Dakota, Alabama, and Canada’s Quebec, New Brunswick, and Alberta provinces have derailed and exploded, resulting in severe environmental damage and, in the case of Quebec, considerable human casualties.

A continental oil boom and lack of pipeline infrastructure have forced unprecedented amounts of oil onto US and Canadian railroads. With 43 times more oil being hauled along US rail lines in 2013 than in 2005, communities across North America are bracing for another catastrophe.

How this web host is backing Net Neutrality

 

Web host gives FCC a 28.8Kbps slow lane in net neutrality protest

NeoCities finds FCC’s internal IP block, throttles connections to dial-up speed.

 

Lots of people are angry about FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s Internet “fast lane” proposal that would let Internet service providers charge Web services for priority access to consumers. But one Web hosting service called NeoCities isn’t just writing letters to the FCC. Instead, the company found the FCC’s internal IP address range and throttled all connections to 28.8Kbps speeds.

Continue reading How this web host is backing Net Neutrality

My take on the Iraq and ISIS situation

So if you’ve been paying attention to world news lately, you already know the nation of Iraq is in a deep state of turmoil right now. I wanted to give my take on the situation and how I think this will all eventually play out. While I’m no expert on the Middle East, I have been following the region since the United States invaded Iraq and I think that should count for something.

 

I can’t help but chuckle a little when I see or hear these pseudo-progressives saying we never should have invaded Iraq, when they were singing a completely different tune 11 years ago. So where the hell were you guys when Bush and his sycophants were spewing all the hype about WMD bullshit? I remember exactly what you all were doing at the time. When Bush’s approval rating was up to 90% many of you were shouting down the few people brave enough to speak out and calling us “traitors” and “un-American”. It’s not very nice to say, “I told ya so” but fuck it I’m rubbing ya’ll’s faces into it this time.

 

Anyways, now back onto how I think this situation will eventually unfold. I do think the Obama Administration is true to their word and that we will try as hard as we can to re-deploy as little military assistance as possible. These 300 military advisers that are now in Iraq and advising the Iraqi Security Forces is Obama betting that Iraq (with help from Iran) can fix the problem on their own. However, on the other-hand I don’t see the United States continuing to not do much, especially if this conflict starts to destabilize the rest of the Middle East. That’s when we will definitely play a more active role and start fighting ISIS. Much of the U.S. economy is still very dependent on oil and too much has been invested to just simply let it all go.

Continue reading My take on the Iraq and ISIS situation

We’re Now Online!

We’re pleased to announce that Firewall5000.com has now been officially launched. The video uploading functionality isn’t yet operational (no biggie) but everything runs smoothly. Lots of content will be published in the near future. If any of the few members here witnesses a strange glitch then don’t hesitate to let us know so we can investigate.

 

christening3