Serials

LAS VEGAS -- A young hacker here at Defcon 20 has pulled back the dense curtain of text and ambiguity surrounding warranties to show consumers how they can hack the warranty system -- and to tell companies how to improve their warranty management.

"Darkred," as he prefers to be called, explained to a standing-room only session that it's the way manufacturers manage serial numbers and warranties that allows the system to be hacked.

"The serial number makes you the owner of a product," said the 17-year-old, a high school senior from Texas. Darkred declined to … Read more

Computer experts will tell you of the importance of performing regular backups to save your personal or work-related data in case of a system failure. Simple backup methods such as burning the data to a CD are perfect for archiving data that you put on your computer, but less effective when it comes to backing up installed programs. Installed programs usually require product keys to prevent software piracy or copying, and a misplaced or illegible key can lead to software becoming unusable to you in the event of a crash. Fortunately, NirSoft has a product that can retrieve the product … Read more

Scary things lurk in the closets and attics of laptop fans everywhere.

With an average lifespan of three to five years, old obsolete models can gather dust for a long time, and can be as hard to get rid of as the annoying bloatware that probably came preloaded on those very same laptops.

While spring cleaning, your two intrepid laptop reviewers dug up a pile of old laptops from circa 2001-2006--a motley collection straight out of Al Component's Vault. Fortunately, there are several good ways to recycle outdated electronics, from Best Buy's in-store drop-off program to periodic free … Read more

Keeping track of your USB devices is easy with NirSoft's USBDeview. It's a small, free tool that lists all the USB devices currently attached to your PC as well as detailed information about each, including the device, manufacturer, model, serial number, VendorID and ProductID, and even the date and time the device was attached to your system. It even lists devices no longer attached to your system, plus the time they were removed.

We've made no secret of the fact that we just love tiny apps, especially when they're efficient and effective for their size. USBDeview … Read more

Internet security is a priority for many users no matter how secretive their surfing. Hackers, with advanced password decoding software, are a major concern for many. Password Generator offers an opportunity to stay a step ahead of these predators, but we found a navigation flaw that was frustrating.

The program opens with a simple-to-navigate wizard that takes users through the steps of building a secure password. Users begin by entering standard password parameters, such as number of characters in the word, use of vowels, consonants, special characters and numbers. As these boxes are selected an example at the bottom changes … Read more

The Web enables anyone to communicate with the masses, even serial killers.

Charles Manson, convicted murderer and leader of the infamous Manson Family, has released the digital album One Mind over the Web.

Manson, who ordered the deaths of actress Sharon Tate and seven others including Tate's unborn son, has issued the album under the Creative Commons license, which means anyone can listen or copy it as long as they don't use it for commercial purposes.

It's doubtful that anyone would want to buy Manson's music. Indeed, one of the reasons that Manson sent his minions … Read more