Mkenya Tech Talk: February 2012

Wednesday 29 February 2012

The Pirate Bay Says Goodbye to (Most) Torrents on February 29

The Pirate Bay has confirmed that all torrent files being shared by more than 10 people will be deleted on February 29. The decision is causing a small panic among the site’s users, but in reality little will change as all files will remain available through magnet links. The Pirate Bay crew told TorrentFreak that this is merely a “step forward in technology” and confirmed that the site is here to stay.
magnet bay

For half a decade The Pirate Bay has been the leading BitTorrent site, but soon its users will no longer be able to download .torrent files.
The first step in this direction will be taken on February 29, the Pirate Bay announced today.
Instead of deleting all torrent files at once, the Pirate Bay crew will start with all files that have more than 10 peers. This is to guarantee that people will still be able to download less popular files, which tend to start slower through magnets.
While there are fears that this is the end of The Pirate Bay, nothing could be further from the truth. For users of the site the upcoming switch is expected to go smoothly.
People will be able to download all files as usual, but instead of using a .torrent file downloads will be initiated through a magnet link. The actual content of the .torrent file will then be downloaded from other people instead of the Pirate Bay’s servers.
Although it might take a little longer for less popular downloads to get started, all files will remain available. Also, users will still be able to upload .torrent files, which will be converted into magnet links by The Pirate Bay.
The Pirate Bay team told TorrentFreak that the transition to a magnet site is “a step forward in technology,” and one that will make the site more resistant to being shut down.
Without torrents it takes less bandwidth to host a Pirate Bay proxy site which are used to circumvent ISP blockades in countries like Italy, Ireland, The Netherlands and Belgium. In addition, the Pirate Bay will become much more portable and thus easier to move around.
How easy it is to carry a copy of a torrent-less Pirate Bay became apparent last week, when a user reduced the entire site to 90 megabytes – small enough to fit on a tiny thumb drive. The Pirate Bay team likes the idea of a “portable” backup of the site and told TorrentFreak that they are considering releasing an official version in the future.
It’s quite remarkable to see how The Pirate Bay has transformed in recent years. The site is no longer hosting a tracker, and soon .torrent files will be entirely replaced by magnet links. Despite these changes the iconic file-sharing site is picking up new users every week.
The Pirate Bay crew told TorrentFreak that users can be assured that they have no intention of going anywhere in the near future. With or without torrents, the site is here to stay.

Monday 20 February 2012

Konza City: Kenya's Premier Tech City.....

Konza Technology City is described as a “state-sponsored project sitting on a 5,000-acre parcel of land expected to be the centre of Business Process Outsourcing activity and software development in the region.”

The project is in the design phase but already businesses have started developing their own products and services to cater for the 200,000-strong workforce expected to work in the city.

Konza Technology City offers all the benefits of a greenfield, ‘clean sheet’ site but which is nevertheless right at the centre of things: 60km from the heart of Nairobi; 50Km from Jomo Kenyatta international airport; 500Km from Mombasa and its ports; the railway within 4Km.

it will soon be transformed by skyscrapers, hotels, international schools, a world-class hospital, a financial district, a high-speed mass transport system and integrated infrastructure. In this view of the future the logos of leading technology firms adorn the skyscrapers: Apple, HP, Microsoft, RIM, Toshiba
Kenya's push to become “the top Business Process Outsourcing offshoring destination of Africa” is gaining momentum. Keen to finalise this utopian dream, the government is about to close $7 billion worth of contracts with developers from around the world.

Thursday 16 February 2012

How to enable Timeline Feature for Facebook

The Timeline feature on FB is jst so awesome as it lets you have a view of al your past facebooking activities with jst a click of the mouse. To set your Facebook account to this view, you have to;

1. Log into Facebook
2. Enable developer mode, if you haven’t already. To do this, type “developer” into the Facebook search box, click the first result (it should be an app made by Facebook with a few hundred thousand users), and add the app.

3. Jump into the developer app (if Facebook doesn’t put you there automatically, it should be in your left-hand tool bar)
4. Create a new app (don’t worry — you wont actually be submitting this for anyone else to see/use). Give your shiny new app any display name and namespace you see fit. Read through and agree to the Platform Privacy agreement. This is the step you need to be verified for.
5. Ensure you’re in your new app’s main settings screen. You should see your app’s name near the top of the page
6. Look for the “Open Graph” header, and click the “Get Started using open graph” link.
Create a test action for your app, like “read” a “book”, or “eat” a “sandwich”

7. This should drop you into an action type configuration page. Change a few of the default settings (I changed the past tense of “read” to “redd” — again, only you can see this unless you try and submit your application to the public directory), and click through all three pages of settings
8. Wait 2-3 minutes
9. Go back to your Facebook homescreen. An invite to try Timeline should be waiting at the top of the page
And you’re done! We’ve seen this work quite a few times now, so it should work without a hitch for just about anyone.

Wednesday 8 February 2012

How To Change Local Admin Password

Every so often, it’s good practice to change local admin password for Windows OS. And I think most of computer users are performing this practice. However, frequent passwords changing can cause passwords forgotten. So here, I’d like to share some ideas on how to reset local admin password when you forgot it.

>h-not-allowed2>Occassion1: Your computer is a Domain Server or Controller

In Windows Server 2000/2003(R2)/2008(R2), if the machine is a Domain Controller, other users except for the domain administrator can logon to system. This is because local admin password doesn’t have the authorization to login in Domain Controller for interactive logon is not allowed in the local policy. So, under this circumstance, you actually do not have a “real” local administrator. Similarly, you cannot reset local admin password. Just forget it, because you can still use the domain admin to access to your machine.

>h-not-allowed2>Occassion2: Your computer is a Domain User

When your computer with Windows Server 2000/2003(R2)/2008(R2) is a member of a special domain, not the domain administrator, you can access to your PC with 2 kinds of logon methods—domain administrator logging and local admin or standard user logging. So, in this time, if you forgot local admin password, you can do the local administrator password reset as follows:

Step1. Find a credible password reset tool through the Internet.

Step2. Here I trust Windows Password Recovery Ultimate program and decide to use it. So first download, install, and run it into an accessible computer.

Step3. Insert a blank CD/DVD/USB Flash Driver into that computer. (Note: not the locked one.)

Step4. In the interface of Windows Password Recovery Ultimate program, click “Burn” icon to burn the program ISO image file into that blank device.

Step5. Insert the newly burned CD/DVD/USB Flash Driver into the target computer, and set computer boot from CD/DVD/ or USB Flash Driver. Next, reboot the computer.

Step6. Once the computer is restarted, an interface will show up. You can see two kinds of Windows Path: C:WINDOWS and D:WINDOWS listed there. You just choose the former one to change local administrator password, while the latter one is for domain admin password. Next click “Reset Your Password” → “Next”. Now find your local admin account, click it, and then click “Next”. After finished, click “Reboot” to end all the whole process. Now you can use the newly changed local admin password to logon to your PC.

>h-not-allowed2>Occassion3: Your computer is neither a Domain Controller nor a Domain User

Computer being locked by forgetting Windows local admin password is the most common problem when using Windows XP/7/Vista/2000/2003/2008. But here, I assure you that it is not a big deal at all, you can easily find or change your forgotten local admin password. As for the easiest solution on how to change local admin password is what I have introduced in Occasion 2, please follow those step-by-step instructions when you are in need.

Friday 3 February 2012

The List of 103 hacked Kenyan Govt Websites

Mkenya Tech Talk