So, I just spent the last two hours on the phone with a friend of mine who’s facebook account was hacked tonight.  Unfortunately, we made a few mistakes that I will talk about in a bit so you don’t do the same.   The interesting thing about this is that it is happening more and more often.  Don’t believe me?  Just Google “my facebook account has been hacked” and see how many thousands of pages come up.  The real disturbing thing is, not only will you find victims– but “how tos” as well.

Now, this of course is to be expected– this is what hackers do.  They see a challenge and rise to it.  Hacking facebook is no different than hacking into school records, medical reports, phishing for bank or credit card info, except that the penalties are not nearly as harsh.  Malicious hackers do it for fun, for the challenge, to prove a point, & in some cases to get a job.  A job you ask?  Really?  Well, if a hacker can prove there is a problem with a system, in many cases they either know the solution or can establish one with little effort.  Companies hire both convicted and “reformed” hackers all the time for security positions.  I recently saw an article on Monster.com with tips on how to make a hacking hobby into a career. Read more…

Jeff H. Internet, Technology Facebook, Hacker, phishing, Social Media

Happy Star Wars Day! I have been too busy to post any new news, but I couldn’t let today “May the 4th” pass by without mentioning it.  So, “May the Forth be with you”

Jeff H. Internet, Technology, good movie Nerdcore, Star Wars, Starwars Day

Everybody loves free stuff (I know I do), so go get some.  Thanks to the new movie coming out May 29th “Drag Me to Hell“, you can download the Left 4 Dead Survival Pack Free!  The new Pack introduces a new multiplayer game mode, entitled “Survival”, plus two complete campaigns for Versus Mode.  Go get yours now on Xbox Live or follow the jump to get it now.

====>>GO GET IT<<====

Jeff H. Game Tips, Technology, gaming, good movie, xbox Drag Me to Hell, Free Stuff, Game Add Ons, Left 4 Dead

Wow, look at all thoes Elites

Microsoft is getting ready to launch some new Down-loadable Content for Halo Wars.  I knew it had to be coming soon, with the lack of overall interest in Halo Wars from die hard Halo fans.  Now granted, Halo Wars has just hit the 1 million copies sold mark– so I’m not saying no one likes it– i just don’t know anybody that does.  Enough of that– here’s a snapshot of what’s coming:

The new content will be called “Strategic Options” and will contain 4 new achievements totaling 100 gamer points and 3 new multi-player modes (hopefully one that will allow two players to join a campaign from the same console).  There is limited info available in regards to the new DLC, but Joystiq.com is reporting that Keep-away will be a CTF variant, Reinforcement will have wave based support, and finally Tug of War.  Microsoft has not given up any details on that last one, however the mind reels at the possibilities.

Also, the new achievements are reportedly– “One and Done” for 30 gamer points, Pull Hard, Pull Deep” for 20 gamer points, “Freak on a Streak” for 20 gamer points, and “Living Loving Bug” for 30 gamer points.

As of right now the launch date and price have not been confirmed, thanks to crackrjakk for passing this along via Twitter.

Jeff H. Technology, gaming, xbox CrackrJakk, Halo Wars, Joystiq, Microsoft

Those of you who have been reading my little blog for a while know I am an avid Apple fan, and when i stumble upon a new trick or tip I like to share it.  Last night we had some friends over and my wife wanted to show them the Susan Boyle clip on YouTube –believe it or not, they had not seen it yet.  I didn’t want to go through the pain of hooking up my MacBook Pro to the TV and my wife’s PC in the kitchen was already shut down, so I pulled it up on my iPhone via the YouTube app.  Needless to say the iPhone is good for a lot of things, but showing a video to a group is not one of them.  I don’t have an Apple TV (I have an Xbox and several iPods so I never really saw the need for one), but I do have Apple’s Component AV cable hooked up to my 42″ LCD TV.  I use the AV cable to watch movies that I have loaded on my iPod Classic.  So, not knowing if it would work I plugged my iPhone into the cable and restarted the clip– it worked perfectly.  I guess I should have realized I could do this from the get go, but I never really had a need to hook my phone to my TV to watch YouTube.  The resolution was decent & the sound quality superb.  So, if you find yourself in a situation where you want to show web based YouTube content to a few people– grab your iPhone and either Apple’s componet or composite AV Cable (each $49 at apple.com) and stream away.

Jeff H. Apple, Internet, Technology, iPhone iPhone, Susan Boyle, Tips, YouTube

My plan was to post some really, really exciting news here today– but i didn’t. Come back tomorrow or follow me on Twitter to know when new news drops on grimfx.com.

Jeff H. Technology, grimfx.com April Fools

I had the privlege of attending Apple’s WWDC in 2008 but almost lost my chance because tickets sold out so quickly.  This year’s event will be June 8-12, 2009 in San Francisco and tickets are on sale now.  If you are in the business of either developing on, or for Apple products this is the event to be at.  This is not a trade show or an expo, its a chance to join over 1000 Apple engineers and 5000 of your peers for 5 days of hands-on learning.  I am planning on attending to finish off my new app, if you want to help fund my trip, make a donation.

Jeff H. Apple, Technology Apple, Hands-On, WWDC

If you are unfamiliar with iHaloStats, they produce my favorite web based iPhone application. It provides real time Halo 3 stats including, medals, rank, weapons used, games played, and so much more. Now they have released a cool addition– Basic Halo Wars info. Currently it only shows very general information, including your black boxes and skulls, but they plan to expand it quite a bit more. My guess is that this may be in part to get ready for the Mythic Map Pack release on April 9th, but also to appease the avid Halo Wars fans out there who use their fantastic app. You can get iHaloStats by going to this link on your iPhone.

Jeff H. Apple, Bungie, Technology, gaming, xbox Halo 3, Halo Wars, iPhone App, Mythic Map Pack Release

Get your own RB Merch @ Rockband.com

So, I was a Guitar Hero Fan back on the PS2– in fact, I was pretty much addicted to it.  Because of that, I was slow to jump on the Rock Band band wagon even though Harmonix was involved in both games.  This year (a bit late) I bought Rock Band 2, my band “The Squabbling Siblings” kicks ass on the world tour.  But this tip is not about kicking ass, its about getting more songs to play with your buddies.

I’m the kind of guy who reads the manual when I get a game, including the fine print.  While perusing the minute lettering at the back of the game book I noticed that you can save all the songs from Rock Band  onto your hard drive and then play them in Rock Band 2.  Not having a copy of #1 and not really wanting one, I went to my local used game store and found a copy, cheap.  I brought it home, fired up the 360, downloaded the update (required in order to save the tracks), went to the options link, and selected “download songs to hard drive”.  Well, you have to give the Man credit on this one– it prompted me to purchase a one time license in order to download and play the songs.  The good thing is that it was only 400 MS points for over 20 songs.  With the average RB2 song costing 140 MS points and paying less than $10 for a used copy of the game, it was a really good deal; especially if you never played Rock Band 1.

So, if you are like me and jumped in late to the Rock Band Phenomena, get yourself a used copy of #1 and boost your track list with some fun, challenging songs to rock out to.

Jeff H. Game Tips, Technology, gaming, xbox Harmonix, Rock Band, Rock Band 2, Tips

Looking for a new and exciting way to use Twitter?  Check out Worthwhile’s new App Twitterpool! Create an event choosing the people and the place. In just 60 seconds, you’ve got your very own party going. So go hit up your Tweeps for a Tweet up!

Jeff H. Internet, Technology Twitter, Worthwhile