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Previously I’ve suggested some tricks that can possibly help you to recover, track and locate your stolen laptop. What about small and useful gadgets such as USB flash drives, memory cards and MP3 players that are easy to carry around but also easy to misplace and get stolen?

Here is a free security program that you can use to help protect your devices by alerting you when your USB digital device is connected to another individual’s computer. It is also able to track down the location of where your device is being used.

ihound is revolutionary software that helps protect your devices by alerting you when your USB digital device is connected to another individual’s computer. All you need to do is:

1. Sign up for a free account at ihound and login.
2. Add a device to track.
3. Download the ihound software that is specifically used to recognize your device
4. Run the downloaded ihound software to install a tracking program on to your device

When your missing USB digital device is being plugged in to a computer, you will:
1. Get a notification email telling you that your tracked device is being located.
2. Get a detailed report on where it is being used by logging in to ihound’s website.

The method that ihound uses to track your USB devices is pretty simple. It uses the same method on how viruses spreads from USB flash drive. ihound copies 4 files (autorun.inf, Device, icon.ico, MyPasswords.exe) to the root of your USB device. Autorun.inf, Device and icon.ico are hidden and only MyPasswords.exe is visible which looks like a text document.

So if the user’s computer settings has “Do not show hidden files and folders” selected and also “Hide extensions for known file types” checked, most likely they’ll be tricked to run MyPasswords.exe thinking that it is a text file containing passwords. Even accessing the drive letter from My Computer will also automatically run MyPasswords.exe.

When MyPasswords.exe file is being run, important information such as computer name, user name, operating system, IP address, time and date will be automatically being sent to ihound’s server and ihound will also email the owner to notify that the missing device has been located. The owner can then log in to ihound’s website to print the report and bring it to the police or other authorities and have them call the ISP provider in order to determine who is using the IP address that was tracked.

I was wondering that since ihound software uses virus technology to try to trick the thief into running MyPasswords.exe, will it be identified as a virus or riskware? I uploaded MyPasswords.exe to VirusTotal and all 40 antivirus did not detect MyPasswords.exe as virus.

[ Track your USB digital device with ihound ]

Yesterday, I bought a new Sony PS3 ( Play Station 3 ), I was paying with it all the time last night and went to bed at 4 am in the morning. It been so much fun till then, I tried to sign up with sony playstation network but then got to know that I will need to update the firmware on my ps3 from 2.5 to 2.6 or greater. I goggled for the latest update and found version 2.8

Downloading the ps3 update directly from internet to the ps3 through my wifi is really a pain as it is so slow, so I decided to update it via storage device, here is how you can easily update it from USB Storage Device

Downloading and Copying the PS3 Update On USB Drive

1. Go to this Playstation website and download the latest ps3 update

2. Now Connect the USB Storage Device to your computer and quick format the USB Drive

3. After formatting the drive open the drive and create a folder called PS3 ( the name of the folder should be in caps )

4. Create another folder inside PS3 folder named UPDATE ( the name of the folder should be in caps again )

5. Copy the downloaded file named PS3UPDAT.PUP in UPDATE folder on your USB Storage Device

6. That’s now connect your drive to your ps3

Updating PS3 Firmware With USB Drive

1. Turn on the PS3 and connect your USB Drive which have the PS3 update in it

2. In the XrossMediaBar, head over to Settings and then to System Update, Press X on your controller to move to the next step.

3. Now select to update via storage media.

Follow the screen instructions after then to complete the update, this is the method to update your ps3 quickly is you have a slow broadband internet connection, this technique can also be referred as offline update for ps3.

Recently I got a sony PS3 for myself, from that day I have been searching for various hacks and tricks for ps3, some time back I figured out how to access and play the media on my computer via wireless network at my home. There is one simple way in windows to do it and various other softwares which can help in this case to share photos, videos and music files across your network which can be accessed by sony ps3.

In this case your computer connected to the wireless network will act like a media server, lets find out how to do that on Windows, Linux and MAC

You can share media via windows media player, but you will need windows media player 11 at least. If you don’t have it installed download it from here .With the use of media player you can make your music collection, your photos and your videos as shared on your computer acting as media server.

Follow the procedure to know how.

1. Open and Run Windows Media Player 11
2. On the toolbar, click Library (down arrow) then click Media Sharing
3. Check "Share my media"
4. Run PS3 - Under Each of Video, Photos or Music section, select the option "Scan for media server"
5. Once the scanning is complete, check your PC, and you will see a balloon pop up message showing an unknown device trying to connect.
6. Allow the device(your ps3) on your computer, and then you will get access to all the songs, videos and photos shared on the computer from your sony ps3

Another way to achieve the media sharing on your windows computer for ps3 can be done by a free media server program like FUPPES or else you can go for the paid program which can provide easy configurations options for the same purpose called Nero Media Home

Note: Fuppes will also help if you are running LINUX on your computer, and it by chance you have MAC OS then you can use another free media server software for like Allegro Media Server and TwonkyMedia if you have any issues with the former two softwares in mac and then try Elgato Eyeconnect which seems to work well, as suggested by some of my friends.

1. Step 1

   Find a DVD-ROM drive that is specifically designed to backup Wii games. One high quality and inexpensive drive capable of backing up Wii games is the LG GDR-8164B, which can be found at ConsoleSource.com for a reasonable price. Other compatible drives are the LG-8163b, the LG-8162b and the LG-8161b. It is crucial that you purchase the correct drive. otherwise the backup process will not work properly.

2. Step 2

   Install the drive onto your computer following manufacturer's instructions. Once this is complete you need to download the following software applications: Raw dump 2.0, net Framework 2.0 and WinRar.

3. Step 3

   Complete the installation process for the applications. Right click on the Rawdump.rar icon and select "Extract to rawdump2.0\" in order to make a desktop folder called "Rawdump."

4. Step 4

   Insert your Wii game into the LG drive you installed. Once the game is in the drive, double click the "Rawdump" folder on your desktop. After the folder has opened, double click the Rawdump.exe icon to initiate the process.

5. Step 5

   Watch for Rawdump to open an interface window in which one option is "Start Dump." Select the "Start Dump" option and sit back and relax, as the process can take up to a few hours.

6. Step 6

   Check the size of the file created once the dump is complete. Do this by opening the directory that contains the Rawdump.exe file. You will find your dump file labeled with the name of the game and a .ISO extension. Right click the ISO file, choose properties and check the file size. The file size should be exactly 4.37 GB (4,699,979,776 bytes). If there is any deviation from this norm the dump process did not complete properly and needs to be redone.

7. Step 7

   Open a DVD/CD burning software such as Nero. If, like Nero, the software automatically opens a "Create disc" dialog, cancel out of it so that you can begin the process manually. Choose a "Burn disc" option in the burn software and select the ISO image that you dumped into your Rawdump directory. Begin burning at a relatively slow speed for your first try.

• RDownload Raw Dump 2.0.
• Download .net Framework 2.0 from Microsoft Download Center.