The Power of Steganography

The past week (while I was ill), I was really bored at home watching YouTube videos and crying so much about how painful my stomach felt. I was looking through a set of videos from Tinkernut (or Gigafide), a very informative YouTube channel that teaches quite interesting things. One of the videos I watched was about steganography (the art of concealing a message, image or file within another message, image or file). I found it quite interesting, because it can be quite useful to use.

The easiest one in the video is LSB (least significant bit) steganography. It uses an MP3 file and an image. He then takes the MP3 file and “puts it” into the image. Here are the steps:

Open command prompt (Window R -> cmd )

You will need the directory address of your files. It is recommended that you keep them in one folder for organizational purposes.

In the command prompt, go to the folder where you have all your files using the cd command. Remember, use the folder’s directory address (the folder must exist for the command to work):

cd "desktop/Folder/Special Folder/Why are you in here/Seriously Get Out/This will take some time/Just leave now/Please leave this folder/Do not touch this folder/You thought this was the last folder/You thought wrong/Please get out/Seriously get out/GET OUT/PLEASE/IM BEGGING HERE/VIRUS/SUPER VIRUS/MEGA VIRUS/porn/You perv/Fine I quit/two more folders/next one is the real folder/steganography folder"

You should be in the folder directory of your folder. Enter the following:

copy /b name-of-the-image.jpg + the-song-you-want-hide.mp3 name-of-the-new-file.jpg

Hit Enter and you should have a new file in your folder. Tell your buddy that (s)he needs to change the file extension from JPEG (.jpg) to MP3 (.mp3) get the actual song you wanted to send.

It’s quite useful. Although the “easiest” way is just put it in an encrypted zip file, but that’s no fun.

Here’s the video if you’re interested:

Proof of Concept: Converting YouTube videos to audio files using VLC media player

Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to introduce to you a good friend of mine, tPenguinLTG. I’ve mentioned him many times on several of my posts before. He’s a genius, well, on everything really. He’s the one who recommended me to work on a blog on WordPress and thus, Tech Gum was born. I recommend that you check out his blog The Penguin Says… and support his blog!

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You’re on Youtube and you come across a song that you just really have to have. You don’t want to use those “YouTube to MP3” sites because they’re a little shady. How do you get the song? Well, you could just go out and buy it, but you don’t want to pay for anything not on a physical medium. Then you remember you have VLC media player (and if you don’t, go get it!).

I present you with a method to convert YouTube videos into audio files. Note that I present this only as a proof of concept, since there may be conflicts with YouTube’s Terms of Service, specifically sections 4C, 5B, and 5C. If you choose to execute these steps, you do so at your own risk.
This post is by no means an endorsement of YouTube.

Why I Love God Mode

The Control Panel is the panel for taking control of your computer. It serves as a place for options when needed. It is reliable, helpful and powerful, yet it may give frustration to the average user. I, myself, am not an average computer user but I still stumble upon using the interface of the Control Panel. Sure, it looks fairly simple, but I’d like to have something where you have all the possible (and maybe more) options to control and customize your computer.

God Mode is a “hack” (a hidden tool) on a folder where, when entering a certain code, creates a folder that turns into, in my opinion, a collapsed and expanded form of the Control Panel. It holds options that allows you to play around with the settings of your computer.

Personally, I love God Mode because it has all of these settings options and other things that I didn’t know you can do with a computer, all in one “folder.” It’s definitely worth a try.

To create God Mode is fairly simple. Follow these simple steps:

1. On your desktop, create a new folder.
2. Name it GODMODE.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}. Remember that this is the full name. Simply copy this code and paste it as the name of the folder.
3. When done properly, it should change the logo to the Control Panel logo and keep the name that you gave it. You can replace “GODMODE” to whatever you want. Whatever is in the fancy brackets is important and should not be changed.
4. Open it and stare in awe at the magnificent power you now have.

Keep Chewing!

Tips on PC Speed

We’ve all been there. The computer is not running at its maximum performance, your data entries and other documents are always crashing. It’s tough when you’re in that situation.

Speed Dating a PC

This is the first post for the category “Tech Support.” It will feature any tech questions and support that will help the lost beginner.

The title may have thrown you off. This article is actually about choosing the right PC using the Speed Dating method. I used this method when I bought my laptop a year ago.

School is coming. Students are working hard to earn minimum wage. Some are saving up for University/College funds. Some are just saving up so they can get some pocket money. And then there’s you. As a teenager, you want to buy your own computer. Fact is, the computer that you already have was bought by someone else. That someone isn’t you. So, you plan to buy a PC.

After working hours and hours at that popular fast food restaurant, you finally saved up enough money to buy a PC. Now what?

Ask yourself the following questions in exact order.

1. Do I really need it? (If yes, continue)
2. What am I going to use it for? (Answers may vary)
3. Do I have the money for it? (If yes, continue)

Now that you have all the things needed – objective and cash – you may now begin to think about buying a computer!

Before you begin with the Speed Dating method, you WILL need the following:

• The money, of course…
• A little bit of PC knowledge
• Two to three hours of your day

The idea of this method is simple. Given the two to three hour time frame, you go to your nearest electronics retail store (ex. Best Buy or Future Shop etc), go to the computers section and “date” any computer that catches your eye. This is where PC knowledge comes in. Learn about its features, performance, hardware and software. Take a look at its processor, how much RAM it has (and can handle), what operating system (although most of the time it will be Windows 8, but if you get lucky, get Windows 7), and all of its specifications. List them down so that later, when looking at other PCs, you’ll be able to compare them against each other. Give yourself at least fifteen minutes per computer and switch to another one. By this rate, you’ll be able to look at eight computers in two hours. Use the last hour for figuring what you need to purchase like warranty, setup and other software. Then, use your money to buy it. Make sure you take into account all the taxes the government adds in when purchasing an electronic device.

It actually took me approximately one hour to figure out which laptop to buy. It was probably because I planned it before and did my research online. I just had to check it out myself in a demo at Best Buy to see if I liked it.

This is a great method to use when buying your first PC because not only do you gain a great PC, you also gain knowledge about the pros and cons of different types of computers.

Keep Chewing!