Subject: Random Access - May 2005

From: "Micro Center" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 5 May 2005 01:09:14 -0400

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R A N D O M   A C C E S S (tm)
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Randomly chosen tidbits of technical information from Chris, KP & Rob
(two guys - and a gal - who've been there, done that!)

Brought to you by Micro Center, The Ultimate Computer Store
and Micro Center Online http://www.microcenter.com

May 05 >>
* Geek Peek - The Art of Intrusion
* Geek Candy - God of War
* Tech Take Apart - Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger
* In The Lab - Troubleshooting Part 3
* Geek Quiz - Win a Random Access Shirt
* Random Access Classics
* Fatal1ty Shootout
* In-Store Clinic Alert

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Did you know...
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Fatal1ty, the legendary gaming fiend, will be at the Tustin, CA Micro 
Center on Saturday, May 21 for autographs and a gaming seminar and 
Sunday May 22 to take on brave customers in a shootout. More details 
are below.

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 Geek Peek - 30 sec. book review
 - by KP
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The Art of Intrusion
The real stories behind the exploits of hackers, intruders & 
deceivers
by Kevin D. Mitnick & William L. Simon

Kevin Mitnick, the infamous hacker turned legit, has co-written The 
Art of Intrusion, a sequel to his 2002 book, The Art of Deception. 
This book reads like a spy novel, but the stories are based on the 
real-life hacking exploits. The Art of Intrusion thoroughly explains 
how hackers compromised government security systems and corporate 
mainframes resulting in extensive identity theft and financial loss. 
At the end of each chapter, Mitnick includes a detailed analysis of 
each scenario and how it could have been avoided. If you are a 
security administrator or someone who is intrigued by |ber-tech 
cliffhangers, this book is a must-read.

>>> The Art of Intrusion
http://www.microcenter.com/bookstore/single_product_results_books.phtml?product_id=180298

>>> For more helpful book titles, visit Micro Center's Online Bookstore 
http://www.microcenter.com/bookstore/index.html

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 Geek Candy - God of War
 - by Rob
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for PlayStation 2, rated M - Mature

Ares, the Greek god of war, is up to no good. He has started a war 
against the people of Athens and the gods of Olympus. But gods cannot 
kill other gods. This is where you come in. You play Kratos, a half-
god ex-Spartan warrior that is picked by Athena to kill Ares and end 
his reign of terror. The gods help you along by granting you magical 
gifts to use against Ares undead armies.

Your main weapons are the Blades of Chaos, two blades forged in Hades 
that burn when you swing them. The blades are attached to Kratos by 
chains which allow you to attack in long, sweeping motions that are 
a beauty to behold. The combat system is a combination of hack 'n 
slash and linked combo moves that deal even more damage. The most fun 
is when you can perform special finishing moves on monsters. This is 
accomplished by following button combinations presented as you go 
through the move. To finish a minotaur, for example, you head butt 
him, jump on top of him and jam your blades down his throat resulting 
in plenty of blood. You can also rip the wings off flying imps and 
behead gorgons. You get to fight many classical Greek figures along 
the way including Medusa, the Hydra, Sirens, the Cyclops, and 
eventually Ares himself.

Combat is not the only thing a super-powered warrior has to fill his 
time with in ancient Greece. There are story-based puzzles to 
complete and traps to avoid so you'll need to use your brain as well 
as your brawn. There is an RPG element to the game as well. As you 
go, you collect orbs that are used to power up your blades or magical 
abilities. It is up to you to assign these orbs to abilities that you 
want to use.

The gameplay is amazingly smooth with no load times between areas. 
This makes it very easy to lose hours in a world that never ends as 
you go seamlessly from the Aegean Sea to Athens to the Desert of Lost 
Souls. The camera is always placed in the right spot to catch all the 
action, and the most spectacular vistas.

God of War combines fighting, puzzles and story into a bloody and 
exciting cinematic experience. But be warned: this game is not for 
young ones or anyone who is grossed out by bloody combat or offended 
by rendered nudity. God of War is by far the best game I've played on 
PlayStation 2. Hopefully Sony will make a sequel or use the same 
graphics and combat engine for another game.

>>> God of War
http://www.microcenter.com/game_room/games/game_single_product_results.phtml?product_id=185991

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 Tech Take Apart - KP Lets Mac OS X Tiger Out Of Its Cage
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Apple's best operating system has only gotten better with Mac OS X 
Tiger Edition. Packed with over 200 new features, OS X Tiger is more 
efficient, automated and secure than ever. Some of the new highlights 
are Dashboard, Spotlight, and Automator. Plus, many of Mac OS X core 
programs like Safari and iChat have received several upgrades.

My favorite new program has to be Dashboard. Even though widgets are 
not new to the Mac OS, Dashboard has made creating and using these 
mini-apps easier than ever. It works very similar to Sherlock 
channels but is integrated with Exposi for easy access. Dashboard 
comes with over a dozen widgets such as stocks, weather, and a 
language translator. Apple has dozens of additional widgets (most of 
them free) downloadable from their site, so you can go widget crazy.

Another new feature in Tiger is Spotlight. This new program is the 
ultimate search engine for your computer. Spotlight gathers info from 
all of your directories, applications, etc. for key words and 
organizes them into a priority list. It even looks at images with 
related subjects to your keyword search. A bonus to Spotlight is that 
you can save your custom searches into folders for future reference.

One more addition to Tiger is the Automator. This little work-bot has 
been designed to help make repetitive tasks a thing of the past. 
Automator is stocked with pre-set functions for applications and can 
be used to create your own custom scripts. Plus, you can combine your 
own AppleScripts into the mix to make tasks even more specialized. 
Automator operates with other programs such as Microsoft Office and 
Adobe Creative Suite to make your publishing jobs effortless. You'll 
never have to waste time again with print menus, editing photos, or 
checking your mail - it's all done for you.

Apple also has made some notable improvements to some of their 
existing programs. For example, Safari now has a RSS feature that 
simplifies web browsing, and a private browsing preference for 
stealth internet surfing. Apple Mail has a freshly designed interface 
with more powerful incoming mail filters and parental controls. Plus, 
security on the Mac has never been tighter with the addition of the 
Firewall Stealth Mode in the System Preferences menu.

The new Mac OS X Tiger is definitely worth the upgradeif anything, 
just to try the Dashboard. Tiger, with its automated tasks and 
"smart" search engine, has streamlined workflow and systematized 
information. So don't procrastinate, grab a copy and let your Mac do 
your work for you.

>> Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0189763

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 In The Lab - nuts & bolts
 -  by Chris
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PC Troubleshooting
Part 3: Network Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting a networking problem is probably one of the more 
frustrating projects you can take on. The main reason for this is 
that there are so many variables, any one of which could prevent 
network communication from taking place. I'm not trying to go all 
technical on you now, but there are "layers" to networking 
communication. To troubleshoot networks, you will need to eliminate 
as many of the higher layers as possible and start by checking the 
basic functions first.

STEP ONE: DEFINE THE PROBLEM

Whether you are troubleshooting a wired network or a wireless one, 
the approach should be the same. Disable or eliminate as many of the 
advanced features and settings as possible and begin with just the 
connection or core settings. This means that before you can configure 
or test your network connection you need to make sure that Firewalls 
are (temporarily) disabled and any hardware security features are 
turned off, such as MAC filtering in the routers and WEP or WPA 
encryption when testing wireless networks.

STEP TWO: IDENTIFY A POSSIBLE CAUSE and STEP THREE: RESEARCH THE 
PROBLEM

An example of a wired network problem might be that systems attached 
to a home network do not show up in "Computers near me" or "Network 
Places." Any number of network related issues could cause this, and 
more information would be helpful in isolating the cause. For 
example, if your network is connected to the Internet through a cable 
or a DSL always-on connection, can all systems access the Internet? 
If so, this means that the network hardware is working, and that 
TCP/IP protocols are installed and some network communication is 
already occurring. This also means that the problem originates at a 
higher level. The problem could be caused by certain settings within 
the protocol properties, blocking at the router, or something as 
simple as a failure to have a computer on the network manage the 
local communications. To isolate the problem, you will need to test 
these different aspects to either eliminate or identify them as part 
of the problem.

To test the hardware layer of a wired network, make sure the LED 
indicators on the network adapter are lit, indicating an active 
network connection. Verifying a wireless connection can be a bit 
tricky, if only because you must rely on the operating system or 
wireless software to let you know when connections are made. Don't 
overlook the obvious when troubleshooting wireless networks; many new 
notebook computers come with built-in WiFi networking, but have a 
feature that allows you to disable the antenna or transmitter with a 
single button or function key combination. The wireless adapter is 
still enabled, but you will not be able to communicate to anything 
until the antenna is active again. In this situation, Windows will 
report that no wireless connections are available.

After hardware connections, the next layer is the software that 
allows the network adapter to communicate with the operating system. 
Check the drivers in Device Manager or network properties to make 
sure that the network adapter is showing up and not reporting 
conflicts or problems. If no conflicts or issues appear in the Device 
Manager, then the next thing to check will be protocol and other 
network items (identified as clients, services or protocols).

Under Windows XP, open the network connections, then right click on 
your Local Area Connection and select properties; you should find a 
list that includes items like:

    * Client for Microsoft Networks
    * File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks
    * Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)

If TCP/IP protocol is loaded, then the next thing to check is the 
properties for this protocol. Under Windows, the "default" settings 
are to obtain an IP address automatically. If Windows cannot detect 
a system supplying it with an IP address, it will probably "make one 
up;" this feature is an "Alternate private IP address."

In a network where you are using a router to communicate to the 
Internet, all of your local computers still must have unique IP 
addresses, but they should also all be in the same range. If your 
router assigns an address range of 192.168.1.xxx, then the address 
that your computer gets assigned should be something like 
192.168.1.123 or 192.168.1.2, etc. If you are not receiving an 
appropriate IP address, then you can manually assign one. You will 
also need to include the router's IP address as the gateway address 
to be able to access the Internet.

If you can connect to the Internet using your browser, get email, but 
still cannot see other computers on the local network, then you need 
to check for things like a Firewall on your computer or the computer 
you are trying to connect to. Other reasons systems may not show up 
in the "Computers near me" list could be that they are not sharing 
any resources, or do not have the printer and file sharing enabled.

With network troubleshooting, you will find the line between step 2 
and 3 to be somewhat blurred, only because you may have to test each 
portion of the network configuration to isolate the problem. You will 
constantly find yourself in the "research" stage, even if this is 
nothing more than moving back and forth between systems to make sure 
that IP address are similar, Workgroup names match, and that some 
basic communication can occur.

STEP FOUR: SELECT AND TEST SOLUTIONS

Selecting and testing solutions also tend to flow into this 
identification process, simply because you must verify or may change 
configurations as part of the elimination steps. Unless there is a 
physical failure like a bad adapter or cable, you will probably be 
able to identify the reason as you check each part of the different 
Network configuration properties. Once you identify the specific 
cause, whether it be a firewall or hardware configuration issue, work 
your way through the settings to get these security programs back 
online.

Next month, Chris dives into extreme case modding.

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Fatal1ty Shootout
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Team Abit and Team Fatal1ty have teamed up for a gaming seminar and 
competition at the Micro Center in Tustin, CA on Saturday, May 21 and 
Sunday, May 22. Johnathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel is one of the top gamers
in the world and this is your chance to play him in a favorite first-
person-shooter. Get Fatal1ty's autograph and attend a gaming seminar 
on Saturday from 1-3 p.m. The gaming competition is on Sunday from 
1-3 p.m. Show up early and submit your name in the drawing to frag 
and get fragged. All challengers receive a prize bag just for playing.

>>> Tustin, CA Micro Center store information
http://www.microcenter.com/at_the_stores/tustin.html

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Geek Quiz
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Here's a chance for one of you, our loyal readers, to win an official 
Random Access T-shirt. Use the Speak Geek form to correctly answer 
the following question.

Question: What is the common term for four bits (or half a byte)?

Quiz fine print: Submit your answer at:
http://www.microcenter.com/random_access/iq_form/iq_form.phtml 
before midnight 5/12 EST. We'll pick one winner at random from 
submissions with the correct answer. One entry per person. No 
cheating.

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Clinic Alert
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Whether you want to build a computer from scratch, upgrade what you 
have, or make mods to take your system to the next level, the next 
free Micro Center In-Store Clinic is for you. On May 7 and 21 the 
support personnel at your local Micro Center will host both parts of 
the new BYOPC clinic. BYOPC Basics will cover choosing compatible 
components, installation precautions and basic build techniques. 
BYOPC Cooling & Cool Effects will cover PC cooling, lighting types, 
case modifications and power considerations.

Upcoming In-Store Clinics at Micro Center
Saturday, May 7   BYOPC Basics @ 11 a.m
                  BYOPC Cooling & Cool Effects @ 2 p.m.
				  
Saturday, May 21  BYOPC Basics @ 11 a.m
                  BYOPC Cooling & Cool Effects @ 2 p.m. 

Store Locations >> http://www.microcenter.com/at_the_stores/index.html

Want the latest clinic schedule and news? Sign up at the In-Store 
Clinic page. Past clinic notes and handouts are also available.
http://www.microcenter.com/instore_clinic/sign_up.html

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 Random Access Classics
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Did you miss last month's Random Access? Dive into the Random Access 
Archives to re-live classic episodes...more convenient than a pocket 
protector!

http://www.microcenter.com/random_access/newsletters/archive.html

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 Speak Geek
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Do you have a question for us? A topic for an upcoming issue of 
Random Access? Send a tip of your own! Send your comments, your 
suggestions...and your best geek "horror stories!"

http://www.microcenter.com/random_access/iq_form/iq_form.phtml

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