When someone forces you to withdraw from your ATM: Reversed ATM PIN Hoax Resurrected

I received this email forwarded on the Internet again for the nth time, with subject "Fwd: When someone forces you to withdraw from your ATM" and asking me to forward the email

"Subject: Fwd: When someone forces you to withdraw from your ATM

This is something worth sharing…

When a thief forces you to take money from the ATM, do not argue or
resist. You might not know what he or she might do to you. What you
should do is to punch your PIN in the reverse mode.
I.e. if your PIN # is 1254, you punch 4521.The moment you punch in the
reverse mode, the money will come out, but will be stuck into the
machine half way out and it will alert the Police (security) without
the notice of the thief. Every ATM has it; it is specially made to
signify danger and help. Not everyone is aware of this.

Forward this to all your loved ones, friends and those you care about."

---

Note that this is an old hoax email circulating on the Internet and now resurrected again. There was a proposal in the US about this but wasn't approved. Coming from a banking industry "slave" this is not true. There are PINs about there that's a palindrome, meaning they spell the same backwards. And if it's true, the police would just arrive late. Just hope the ATM you're using has a surveillance camera to catch the face of your attacker.

Be safe!

How to Remove "This copy of Office is not genuine" Notification from Pirated Microsoft Office Hack

I have a friend with a nagging problem on his PC that everytime he opens a Microsoft Office, a nagbox will display "this copy of office is not genuine." Here are tried and tested solutions to his problem that made it go away

Solutions:

1. Buy genuine Windows Software, it may be expensive but it's their right to display those nagboxes

2. Google for bypass Genuine Windows Validation, used to work by a registry tweak but now inutile.

3. The best solution so far: Dump MS Office and install OpenOffice: It's free and it works. Just have a bit of a problem with Powerpoint animations so far

Note: the Philippines largest bank is using OpenOffice to forgo the large license fees of MS Office in thousands of PCs. Makes perfect business sense to me unlike the former largest bank who hates Open-Source software. Good for them :P

Cheap Nikon Lens: Nikkor 50mm f/1.8

After about 2.5 years of shifting from Canon to Nikon, I finally was able to buy a new, rather slightly used, Nikon 50mm "nifty fifty" to be my second lens after the walk around Nikkor 18-200 f/3.5-5.6

I'm always on the lookout for cheap lenses at PhPhoto yahoogroups and when sonebody posteed a slightly used Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 prime lens for just P4.5k, I immediately sent a text inquiry and the agreement to meet up at Paseo Center materialized.

Note that the Nikon 50mm f1.8 costs P8k no even on Hidalgo, Quiapo (while canon's nifty fifty price is around P4.5 brand new.


The nifty fifity is a very good and extra sharp lens perfect for portraits but it won't focus (no AF) for D60 DSLRs. I intend to buy an extension tube for me to practice macro photography. I prefer the tube over close-up filters and macro reverse rings and I don't have the moolah for macro lenses

Flash Security with SWFScan: "Application was malformed: Malformed SWF Header" Error

I played around with a free tool SWFScan from HP to scan and detect security probelms flash objects from web applications

At first run against a website with a flash introducction, SWFScan prompted me with the error "The Flash Application was malformed: Malformed SWF Header."

I suspected something wrong with my SWFScan configuration and not with the website for I know there's really nothing wrong with my flash website.

After investigatiion, found these out about the said error:
1. SWFScan doesn't work with proxy servers with authentication (there's no configuraton where you enter the username and password)
2. You may not pe entering the exact URL of the SWF file of the website
2. the data may really be malformed
3. you have no internet access ;P

I recommend this tool for webmasters with flash objects to improve security.