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I called up XBOX Live tech support right around when GTA IV came out.. and made a small complaint. Really funny Become my facebook fan! www.facebook.com Follow me on Twitter! www.twitter.com Add me on MySpace! myspace.com OwnagePranks.com PLEASE SUBSCRIBE AND SHARE WITH YOUR FRIENDS!
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It was only a few days ago that I mentioned that, you know, your data is never secure. So, this story isn’t surprising at all. It turns out that the records of more than 3.3 million student loans were stolen a few days ago. Data stolen includes names, Social Security numbers, and credit card numbers. Awesome.

This time around, the theft wasn’t the result of phishing or other “hi-tech” method—nope, it was good ol’ fashioned physical theft.

The data was stored on a portable drive. Said drive was stolen.

The company implicated in this mess is Educational Credit Masters Corporation. Not sure if those guys handle my student loans—all my private ones go through Citibank—but if my data is stolen, great. I look forward to months, if not years, of trying to sort all that mess out. Or maybe I’ll just use it as an opportunity to escape to South America, to freedom.

So again, folks: your data is never, ever safe. Let’s not pretend any differently.

The parents took the children into the store, and then allowed them to walk around picking the movies that the wanted to watch, and then loaded them into the stroller. The couple then left the store without paying for the merchandise. Of course in the US, they would have been harassed and then let go, only to find that all the cases were filled with rocks. Police are currently looking for help in identifying the couple and the children.

Now this story comes to us from the NY Post, not one of the most tech savvy newspapers in our fair city. Also the thought that NYC detectives would “work with Microsoft” to track a stolen XBox is a bit hard to accept at face value, but apparently the story happened so kudos to Pelham Detective John Hynes and Microsoft for working together on this. At least a detective had a bit of fun learning about IP scanning.

We should also totes send the detective a new XBox. Anyone live in Pelham, Bronx?

Create Your Own Sun Jar: Lifehacker Edition

Inspired by a tutorial we posted last year, we decided to make our own DIY sun jars. The trendy summer time lighting accessory retails for $30+ but we were able to make ours for around $10 each. The sun jars proved to be our most popular non-computer DIY of the entire year and readers shared their own creations with us.

The First-Timer’s Guide to Building a Computer from Scratch

Building your own computer is a great way to get exactly what you want, the way you want it, without being constrained by the limits and high-prices of mass produced computers. We showed you how to build a computer from start to finish and have fun doing it.

Turn a Sharpie into a Liquid Fueled Rocket

What’s standing between you and some office mayhem? Certainly not a lack of Sharpie markers and keyboard dusting spray. Combine the two with this fun DIY project and you’ve got one of the most awesome pieces of office-machinery we’ve ever featured.

Properly Erase Your Physical Media

You need to be properly erasing your physical media: all the time, every time. Our guide will show you how to get the job done and done right whether you use software to scrub your disks or you send them to the great data mine in the sky with a 21-gun salute.

Turn an Old Laptop into a Wall-Mounted Computer

Why settle for a digital picture frame when, in the same wall space, you could mount an entirely functional computer/slideshow player/TV tuner? One Lifehacker reader turned an old laptop into a super-charged digital frame.

$8 DIY Aluminum Laptop Stand

We’ve always been keen on DIY laptop stands, but reader Aaron Kravitz—inspired by an attractive $50 stand—went above and beyond, creating one of the most attractive DIY laptop stands we’ve featured to date.

Build an IKEA NAS On the Cheap

If the Hive Five on best home server software got you excited about setting up a home server but you’re not keen on another unsightly PC in your home, check out this DIY IKEA NAS.

Build a DIY Portable Air Conditioner

We’ve shown you how to make an air conditioner (even for as low as $30), but what if you wanted something you can put in your car and take with you? While it’s no substitute for a fully-charged and factory-fresh AC system, it’ll keep you cool.

Turn a Bookshelf into a Secret Passage

Who hasn’t dreamed of having a mystery-story-style secret passageway? While a trick bookshelf is pretty awesome in itself, this secret passage hides a home office with clever style. One industrious Lifehacker reader and his girlfriend had grown tired of seeing their office from their living space, so they hid it behind a wall of books.

Wire Your House with Ethernet Cable

You’ve ripped a movie on your laptop, and now want it on that fancy new home theater PC next to your TV. If you’ve got the time, wiring your house with Cat-5e cable could make transfer times a distant memory.

Rain Gutters as Cable Management Tools

We’re all about creative cable management here at Lifehacker, so we were instantly drawn to reader Seandavid010‘s rain-gutter cable management setup. He was awesome enough to send detailed photos and step by step instructions to help other readers recreate his setup.

Build Your Own DTV Antenna

The lights went out on analog television this year and we were there with a guide to help you build a great DIY antenna for boosting your reception and getting that crisp digital picture you crave.

DIY Laptop Rack Hack Turns Your Monitor into an iMac

Lifehacker reader Matt Lumpkin saw our monitor stand from door stoppers post and thought we might like his laptop rack hack as another space-saving desktop solution for laptop-lovers. He was right.

Build Your Own Pizza Oven

Suppose you were inspired by the cheap DIY home pizza oven—but weren’t so sure your home insurance would cover oven modifications. It’s time to build a safer, more eye-pleasing oven, and we’ve got a thorough guide.

Crack a Master Combination Padlock Redux

Two years ago we highlighted how to crack a Master combination padlock for those of you who may have lost the combination to your bulletproof lock; now designer Mark Campos has turned the tried-and-true instructions into an easier-to-follow visual guide.

DIY Invisible Floating Bookshelves

We’ve covered the invisible floating bookshelf once or twice before, but if you liked the idea but weren’t keen on ruining a book in the process, weblog May December Home’s got you covered.

DIY Inverted Bookshelf

Instead of storing your books upright on top of the shelf, the inverted bookshelf holds all of your books in place using elastic webbing so you can hang them below the shelf—all the while allowing you to still take them out and put them back on as needed.

Build an Under-the-Cabinet Kitchen PC from an Old Laptop

Inspired by our guide to giving an old laptop new life with cheap or free projects, Lifehacker reader Brian turned his aging Dell laptop into an incredible under-the-cabinet kitchen PC.

Turn Storage Containers into Self Watering Tomato Planters

If you’d like to have delicious home-grown tomatoes but lack a garden to grow them in, you’ll definitely want to check out this ingenious and inexpensive self-watering system.

Deter Thieves by Uglifying Your Camera

A few years ago, blogger Jimmie Rodgers’s camera was stolen while volunteering in an impoverished Brazilian community, so he did what any sane person would do: He bought a new camera and made it ugly. With his uglified camera, Rodgers was able to snap pictures freely during the rest of his trip without worrying too much that his ostensibly crappy camera would end up stolen.

DIY TV or Monitor Stand from Door Stoppers

Nothing adds space to a desk or home theater setup like a simple monitor or TV stand, and weblog IKEA Hacker details how to build your own stand on-the-cheap with a few inexpensive items from IKEA.

Repurpose Your Analog Television

You don’t need to run out and buy a new TV because of the DTV switchover. If you did anyways, Make Magazine has put together quite a guide to giving old TVs new life.

Use Ping-Pong Balls to Create Diffused Party Lights

If you need some cheap and novel ambient lighting for your next party, you’re only a box of ping-pong balls and a string of lights away from solving your lighting worries.

Build a Custom-Made BoxeeBox

DeviceGuru blogger Rick Lehrbaum, inspired by the cheaper set-top boxes, made his own higher-powered “BoxeeBox” for the free, open-source media center. He posted all the parts, the how-to details, and lots of pictures.

Build a Sturdy Cardboard Laptop Stand

You already shelled out your hard earned cash for a swanky laptop, why drop more cash on an overpriced laptop stand? Cardboard alone can do the trick, as detailed in this step-by-step tutorial.

Install Snow Leopard on Your Hackintosh PC, No Hacking Required

Earlier this year we put together a wildly popular guide to building a Hackintosh with Snow Leopard, start to finish, and then followed it up with an even easier guide to install Snow Leopard on your Hackintosh PC, no hacking required. Computers + DIY is all sorts of geeky fun waiting to happen.

Have a favorite DIY from 2009 that wasn’t highlighted here? Sound off in the comments with a link to your favorite project. Want to see more popular DIY guides courtesy of the ghost of Lifehacker past? Check out our huge DIY guide roundup from 2008.

Some Netflix news for you this morning. It looks like a 49-year-old post office worker is facing a maximum of five years in federal prison after having plead guilty to federal theft charges. What was he stealing? Oh, you know, some 3,000 Netflix DVDs over the years.

The man, one Myles Weathers, was nabbed after surveillance footage found him taking DVDs from the little sleeves. Netflix itself had become suspicious when it received an unusually high number of complaints saying, “Hey, we never got our DVD~! What’s up?”

Yup, that’s because Mr. Weathers was stealing them all at a Massachusetts distribution facility.

In the chat room, Scott came up with an idea, if you were to do such a scam: instead of stealing the DVDs and never returning them, why not steal ‘em, rip ‘em, then send them on their way? What are the odds that someone is going to notice an extra day in mail delivery time?

One more notch in Netflix streaming’s belt, though.

$1 if you can figure out what DVD that is in the logo. (Note: Offer not valid on Planet Earth.)

Police found 371 items in the home of Douglas A. Parkes, Jr. along with $4200 in case and about 3,000 Best Buy Reward Zone certificates.

According to the article, “Best Buy staff noticed Parkes repeatedly bought popular items, including seven 37-inch LCD televisions and 37 iPods.”

Parkes had been working for the USPS since 1997 and has been put on administrative leave while awaiting sentencing.

Postal worker fesses up to scam using Best Buy rewards [Star Tribune]

Courtesy Amazon

This idea probably won’t work for gadgets not tied to a specific service. But for items like Amazon’s Kindle, where users need to be properly registered so that they can buy books for the electronic book reader, Borgese’s solution is a definite winner. If the original owner doesn’t verify the sale, then the gadget is rendered effectively useless. And the person trying to register the gadget—potentially a thief—has left a traceable record within the system.

Granted, it’s possible that people have figured out how to load pirated books onto a Kindle, limiting this deterrent somewhat. But providing this kind of service can help gadget makers score points against those bemoaning the imposition of propriety and closed platforms onto users. “Yes, you buy books at the price we set, and we can delete books you’ve paid for (and refund you). But we will also help you catch those who steal your gadgets—or at least make it harder for them to profit from illegal enterprise.”

It’s easy to see the reasons behind the stance towards stolen gadgets of companies like Amazon. Most likely they involve legal and cost concerns. But wouldn’t an anti-theft guarantee be a great incentive to commit to a product and its corresponding service(s)?

Source

Post from: The Gadget Blog

Courtesy Flickr user Culture Shlock

This according to an aggressive legal notice sent out by Davis’ law firm Lavely & Singer. Lawyer William Briggs II basically asserts that any media outlet that purchases information stored on Davis’ stolen laptop are basically buying stolen goods (against the law). Based on the language of the stern warning, anyone publishing what’s been declared as Davis’ private and copyrighted data can expect suit for damages and an injunction.

The notice also calls on outlets approached regarding the stolen data to contact the law firm asap, to facilitate presumed efforts of authorities to locate the stolen laptop of Baron Davis. Click through to the source to read the full notice. Maybe Baron Davis should start relying on Fujitsu for his next laptop?

Source

Post from: The Gadget Blog