Consumer News | Comments Off

You probably use your iPhone's camera for hand-held photos and video, but once in a while you might want some shake-free shots. Get them with a tripod made from a clamshell case and a little ingenuity.

By combining an inexpensive case with some very basic and cheap parts off the shelf of his local hardware store, Scott Patrick made sturdy tripod mount for his iPhone. Check out the video below:

The build is rather straightforward, but there's room for a little tweaking. While the tiny screws used to mount the case to the L-bracket are cheap, if you don't want to mess around with countersinking and trying to get the screws heads deep enough into the case to avoid scratching your phone, you could always epoxy the bracket on. If you have your own handy cellphone tricks, involving modded cases or otherwise, sound off in the comments.

Consumer News, Life Tips | Comments Off

With the average American family of four spending almost $4,000 per year on clothing, think of the money you can save by extending the life of your clothes and hanging onto them longer. Here are some practical ways to do just that:

Launder Less Often, and Only in Cold Water: Many of us are guilty of over laundering our clothes, which costs time and money and is usually unnecessary. Washing and drying is often actually harder on clothing fabric than wearing it! Consider wearing apparel items more than once between laundering, and wash most clothing in cold water only; cold water costs less, is gentler on fabrics, and will get most clothes just as clean.

Hold the Bleach: Bleach can cause clothing to disintegrate more quickly. If you need to brighten white clothes, try using baking soda and hot water instead.

It Pays to Get Hung Out to Dry: Electric- and gas-powered clothes dryers not only cost a pretty penny to own and operate, but they cook and beat the life out of your clothing too. Drying your clothes on a good old-fashioned clothesline can increase the lifespan of some garments by as much as fifty percent...plus your clothes will smell terrific.

Zip Up Before You Wash: Metal zippers on jeans, jackets and other apparel items are like tiny chainsaws in the washer and dryer, ripping away at other clothes the whole time unless you zip them up first.

Don't Let Small Problems Become Big Ones: Most rips and tears start out small, so check your clothes carefully after every washing to catch and mend snags while they're still small and easy to fix.

Soggy Shoes: The lifespan of footwear is often cut short by the effects of moisture, even more so than by pounding the pavement. To make your shoes last longer, don't wear the same pair every day. Give each pair at least a day in between to dry out from the moisture they absorb from your body and the environment. In humid or rainy weather, crumple up a couple of pieces of newspaper and stuff them in your shoes before you go to bed at night; by morning, the paper will have wicked-up the excess moisture. Frequently shining or sealing shoe leather helps protect it from moisture as well.

Consumer News, Living Green | Comments Off

You already know that if you want to lock down your Wi-Fi network, you should opt for WPA encryption because WEP is easy to crack. But did you know how easy? Take a look.

Today we're going to run down, step-by-step, how to crack a Wi-Fi network with WEP security turned on. But first, a word: Knowledge is power, but power doesn't mean you should be a jerk, or do anything illegal. Knowing how to pick a lock doesn't make you a thief. Consider this post educational, or a proof-of-concept intellectual exercise.

Dozens of tutorials on how to crack WEP are already all over the internet using this method. Seriously—Google it. This ain't what you'd call "news." But what is surprising is that someone like me, with minimal networking experience, can get this done with free software and a cheap Wi-Fi adapter. Here's how it goes.

What You'll Need

Unless you're a computer security and networking ninja, chances are you don't have all the tools on hand to get this job done. Here's what you'll need:

• A compatible wireless adapter—This is the biggest requirement. You'll need a wireless adapter that's capable of packet injection, and chances are the one in your computer is not. After consulting with my friendly neighborhood security expert, I purchased an Alfa AWUS050NH USB adapter, pictured here, and it set me back about $50 on Amazon. The guy in this video below is using a $12 model he bought on Ebay (and is even selling his router of choice). You won't go wrong with the Alfa, but do your research. There are plenty of resources on getting aircrack-compatible adapters out there.
• A BackTrack 3 Live CD. We already took you on a full screenshot tour of how to install and use BackTrack 3, the Linux Live CD that lets you do all sorts of security testing and tasks. Download yourself a copy of the CD and burn it, or load it up in VMware to get started. (I tried the BackTrack 4 pre-release, and it didn't work as well as BT3. Do yourself a favor and stick with BackTrack 3 for now.)
• A nearby WEP-enabled Wi-Fi network. The signal should be strong and ideally people are using it, connecting and disconnecting their devices from it. The more use it gets while you collect the data you need to run your crack, the better your chances of success.
• Patience with the command line. This is an ten-step process that requires typing in long, arcane commands and waiting around for your Wi-Fi card to collect data in order to crack the password. Like the doctor said to the short person, be a little patient.

Crack that WEP

To crack WEP, you'll need to launch Konsole, BackTrack's built-in command line. It's right there on the taskbar in the lower left corner, second button to the right. Now, the commands.

First run the following to get a list of your network interfaces:

airmon-ng

The only one I've got there is labeled ra0. Yours may be different; take note of the label and write it down. From here on in, substitute it in everywhere a command includes (interface).

Now, run the following four commands. See the output that I got for them in the screenshot below.


airmon-ng stop (interface)
ifconfig (interface) down
macchanger --mac 00:11:22:33:44:55 (interface)
airmon-ng start (interface)

If you don't get the same results from these commands as pictured here, most likely your network adapter won't work with this particular crack. If you do, you've successfully "faked" a new MAC address on your network interface, 00:11:22:33:44:55.

Now it's time to pick your network. Run:

airodump-ng (interface)

To see a list of wireless networks around you. When you see the one you want, hit Ctrl+C to stop the list. Highlight the row pertaining to the network of interest, and take note of two things: its BSSID and its channel (in the column labeled CH), as pictured below. Obviously the network you want to crack should have WEP encryption (in the ENC) column, not WPA or anything else.

Like I said, hit Ctrl+C to stop this listing. (I had to do this once or twice to find the network I was looking for.) Once you've got it, highlight the BSSID and copy it to your clipboard for reuse in the upcoming commands.

Now we're going to watch what's going on with that network you chose and capture that information to a file. Run:

airodump-ng -c (channel) -w (file name) --bssid (bssid) (interface)

Where (channel) is your network's channel, and (bssid) is the BSSID you just copied to clipboard. You can use the Shift+Insert key combination to paste it into the command. Enter anything descriptive for (file name). I chose "yoyo," which is the network's name I'm cracking.

You'll get output like what's in the window in the background pictured below. Leave that one be. Open a new Konsole window in the foreground, and enter this command:

aireplay-ng -1 0 -a (bssid) -h 00:11:22:33:44:55 -e (essid) (interface)

Here the ESSID is the access point's SSID name, which in my case is yoyo. What you want to get after this command is the reassuring "Association successful" message with that smiley face.

You're almost there. Now it's time for:

aireplay-ng -3 -b (bssid) -h 00:11:22:33:44:55 (interface)

Here we're creating router traffic to capture more throughput faster to speed up our crack. After a few minutes, that front window will start going crazy with read/write packets. (Also, I was unable to surf the web with the yoyo network on a separate computer while this was going on.) Here's the part where you might have to grab yourself a cup of coffee or take a walk. Basically you want to wait until enough data has been collected to run your crack. Watch the number in the "#Data" column—you want it to go above 10,000. (Pictured below it's only at 854.)

Depending on the power of your network (mine is inexplicably low at -32 in that screenshot, even though the yoyo AP was in the same room as my adapter), this process could take some time. Wait until that #Data goes over 10k, though—because the crack won't work if it doesn't. In fact, you may need more than 10k, though that seems to be a working threshold for many.

Once you've collected enough data, it's the moment of truth. Launch a third Konsole window and run the following to crack that data you've collected:

aircrack-ng -b (bssid) (file name-01.cap)

Here the filename should be whatever you entered above for (file name). You can browse to your Home directory to see it; it's the one with .cap as the extension.

If you didn't get enough data, aircrack will fail and tell you to try again with more. If it succeeds, it will look like this:

The WEP key appears next to "KEY FOUND." Drop the colons and enter it to log onto the network.

Problems Along the Way

With this article I set out to prove that cracking WEP is a relatively "easy" process for someone determined and willing to get the hardware and software going. I still think that's true, but unlike the guy in the video below, I had several difficulties along the way. In fact, you'll notice that the last screenshot up there doesn't look like the others—it's because it's not mine. Even though the AP which I was cracking was my own and in the same room as my Alfa, the power reading on the signal was always around -30, and so the data collection was very slow, and BackTrack would consistently crash before it was complete. After about half a dozen attempts (and trying BackTrack on both my Mac and PC, as a live CD and a virtual machine), I still haven't captured enough data for aircrack to decrypt the key.

So while this process is easy in theory, your mileage may vary depending on your hardware, proximity to the AP point, and the way the planets are aligned. Oh yeah, and if you're on deadline—Murphy's Law almost guarantees it won't work if you're on deadline.

---

To see the video version of these exact instructions, check out this dude's YouTube video.

Got any experience with the WEP cracking courtesy of BackTrack? What do you have to say about it? Give it up in the comments.

Gina Trapani, Lifehacker's founding editor, is tired of typing commands that start with "air." Her weekly feature, Smarterware, appears every Wednesday on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Smarterware tag feed to get new installments in your newsreader.

Consumer News, Life Tips | Comments Off

Oceana: New bill is a "terrific start" ... but won't save the oceans.

Consumer News | Comments Off

Google's data-crunching ways found that the majority of Gmail users aren't actually using the webmail service's labels. Starting today, those label names get higher placement, and drag-and-drop labeling aims to make Gmail's labels more like familiar email folders.

By placing users' own labels higher up on the left-hand sidebar, right below the main Inbox/Starred/Sent/Drafts/All Mail destinations, Gmail admits that keeping them in their own box, stuck underneath the chat widget, implied they weren't that important before. Fixes like those contained in Gina's Better Gmail 2 Firefox extension and the "Go to label" keyboard shorcut in Gmail's Labs section helped, but now labels are easier to reach, and kept more at the front of your email-clearing mind.

The three labels you use most are automatically shown below your main links, with the rest accessible from an "X more" drop-down. You can add more labels to your shown list, however, by clicking the downward-facing arrow next to a label and choosing "Show label."

Those higher-up labels are also a boon to frequent mouse users, as you can now click and drag single email messages, or multiple selected messages, onto a label to "move" it into that label (kind of like a folder, no?), or drag the label onto the messages to, uh, label them.

All these features and functionality will be "rolling out gradually" to Gmail users.

Consumer News, Life Tips | Comments Off

Even the "inert" unlisted chemicals in pesticides may be toxic. See 4 ways to protect your child from pesticide exposure.

Consumer News | Comments Off

Until recently, Scientology ads had a built-in safety valve to protect sane but impressionable people. They had the overabundance of numinous sky and sunset shots, fake gold lettering with clumsily Photoshopped twinkly glints, and too much of everything, slathered on with fists of ham. The ads gave that subtle sense of unease that comes from being part of a well-funded cult.

But a new crop of ads has the right mix of talent, lack of morality, and extreme vagueness to closely resemble mainstream TV commercials. The message is, essentially: You're a human, and you are alive. These ads, slickly produced as they are, have one very big Achilles' heel: Scientology.

The commercials say, "We all feel it. That unexplainable emptiness, that can only be filled by one thing: the truth." Then the tagline: Scientology.

Better to leave off there, of course, because "...the truth that king alien Xenu buried other aliens in volcanoes and now many of them are living inside you" isn't going to speak to the masses.

But if the bad news is these ads look slick enough to rope in poor chumps. The good news is that the tagline "Know yourself. Know life." is very easy to change on billboards to "no self. no life." (not that we'd ever, ever encourage that sort of thing).

Scientology will repair your awful life [Adfreak]

Carrie McLaren & Jason Torchinsky are coeditors of Ad Nauseam: A Survivor's Guide to American Consumer Culture. In previous lives, they worked together on the hopelessly obscure and now defunct Stay Free! magazine .

Consumer News | Comments Off

• Woot!: Carlisle 3 Piece Luggage Set

Highlights From Buxr
• Buy.com: [TV] Memorex 32" HDTV (Recertified) for $369.99 after $30 rebate w/ Free shipping
• Office Depot: [Office] $20 Off $75 Purchase w/ Coupon 11189658
• Comienzos Saludables: [Home and Garden] Free Baby's First Year Calendar

Highlights From Dealhack
• Newegg: [USB Flash] Corsair Voyager 16GB USB Drive $25 & Free Shipping
• Dell Home: [Noteboook PCs] Inspiron 15 Widescreen Notebook PC $399
• Newegg: [WiFi Wireless] Linksys USB 802.11b/g WiFi Adapter $15 Shipped

Highlights From Dealnews
• Sierra Trading Post: [Clothing & Accessories] Sierra Trading Post Summer 2009 Summer Blowout: 60% to 90% off
• Nordstrom: [Men's Apparel] 33% to 50% off The North Face men's jackets at Nordstrom: Deals from $42 + $8 s&h
• LEGO Shop at Home: [Toys & Hobbies] LEGO Shop at Home Sale: Temple of the Crystal Skull for $56 + $9 s&h, more

Highlights From Techbargains
• Buy.com: [Headphones] Sennheiser HD 555 Stereo Circumaural Headphone $98.86 Free Shipping
• Newegg: [GPS] Garmin nuvi 255 Portable GPS Navigation (3.5in, Text to Speech, Traffic Updates) $139.99 Free Shipping
• Walmart: [Toys] Titan Blast 7 Foot Hydro Powered Inflatable Rocket $25

Morning Deals are purely an informational service for the readers. Consumerist receives nothing in exchange for their posting.
If you have a tip for Morning Deals, send it to tips@consumerist.com, and be sure to put "morning deals" in the subject line.

Consumer News | Comments Off

It's easy to look at your kitchen or bathroom and tell yourself it "needs remodeling." Before shorting your savings, though, consider some DIY repairs and modifications that deliver a big look-and-feel impact for far fewer bucks.

Consumer Reports suggests a few ways handy and not-so-handy types can make some big changes in two of the house's most prominent rooms without drawing up major plans or hiring a contractor for more than minor jobs. Consider a few of their kitchen suggestions:

Revive grubby but structurally sound cabinets with a fresh coat of paint for as little as $50 per door, less if you do the work yourself. Another option is to remove the doors of some upper cabinets and paint the interior a contrasting color for added pizzazz.

Install pull-out shelves and retractable trash bins to improve cabinet storage for another couple of hundred dollars.

A new laminate countertop can cost as little as $550 in an average-sized kitchen. Crave stone? Put it in a focal point such as an island, peninsula, or breakfast bar. Save more by purchasing remnants from a stone yard instead of a single slab.

Check out more of their suggestions for the exceedingly fix-able parts of your house at the full article below. What have you done to satisfy a jones-ing for renovation on the cheap? Tell us in the comments.

Consumer News, Life Tips | Comments Off

By Paul Michael

Today's WISEBUY. Up to 76% Off ANNIE WOMEN'S SHOES at 6PM.com (dealnews)
6pm.com takes 71% to 76% off a collection of 543 styles of Annie women's footwear, with prices reduced to $12.95. Pay $6.95 for shipping.

 

1. FREE Blackberry Noice-Reducing Bluetooth Headset (after $20 rebate) Was $199.99.
Optimized for BlackBerry devices and compatible with all Bluetooth enabled mobile phones, the ultra-light and comfortable BlackBerry HS-655 Bluetooth Headset uses cutting edge technology from Plantronics to deliver clear, secure communication.

 

2. FREE Sample of K-Y Intrigue Personal Lubricant
K-Y® Brand INTRIGUE™ brings you closer to your partner than anything else - a premium personal lubricant like no other.

 

3. FREE 12-Track Album Download - Luaka Bop - At Amazon
Free MP3 album download on Amazon.com. Must install Amazon's MP3 Downloader.

 

4. FREE Sample Of Zun Spot Skin Blotch And Sun Spot Eliminator
Say goodbye to sun spots and say hello to clear and even skin.

 

5. G By Guess Summer Sale - Up To 50% Off (dealnews)
G by Guess takes up to 50% off select items as part of its Summer Sale. Pay $7.95 for shipping.

 

6. Blue Hat Big Adventures 3-Piece Play Tent 61% Off - Only $28.99 + $2.95 s/h
Ideal for home, backyard, parks, parties, day care and more. Set includes a dome tent, tunnel tube and teepee.

 

7. Tom Tom GPS With 3.5" Screen and Text-To-Speech - $79.99, Down From $229.95
Price after $20 rebate. TomTom ONE S with Text to Speech combines ease of use, portability, touchscreen technology and an elegant, unmistakable new design. Drivers can enjoy the benefits of a TomTom ONE S immediately, thanks to TomTom''s award winning navigation software pre-installed on the unit.

 

8. Protocol 3-Piece Luggage Set Just $29.99 + $5 s/h
25” Spinner Upright Pullman, 20” Spinner Carry-on Upright, Shoulder Tote. COLOR: Black, Purple, Red

 

9. PetSmart $5 Off $25 Printable Coupon (Expires July 25th)
$5 off $25 which may be redeemed through July 25, 2009. Some exclusions apply, see coupon for details.

 

10. "EAT THIS, NOT THAT!" 50% Off - Just $9.97 and FREE s/h
Discover thousands of simple food swaps that can help you: Lose 10, 20, 30 pounds or more! Specifically target belly fat. Save 100s of fat grams and 1000s of calories.  Continue eating at your favorite restaurants.

 

Consumer News | Comments Off

If you bought cameras or electronics from any of these stores recently you were probably scammed: Best Price Camera, Foto Connection, 1 Way Photo, 86th Street Photo, Broadway Photo, Camera Whiz, and Sonic Photo. Or perhaps you bought something online from one of their astonishing array of alter egos and websites (see full list).

Despite their fancy ads in reputable photography magazines, these Brooklyn-based con artists have been ripping people off for decades: using bait and switch, calling up customers to harass them into buying extra batteries or accessories, leaving threatening voicemails, overcharging credit cards, and charging phony "restocking fees".

Following a lengthy investigation, the NY Attorney General's office announced yesterday that it has closed down two stores completely, fined all seven businesses a total of $655,000 plus $100,000 legal fees, forced the remaining stores to overhaul their work practices, and is monitoring the businesses to ensure they comply with the law.

According to the AG's office:

Once an order was placed, the companies would call consumers and try to sell them additional or "upgraded" merchandise at inflated prices. If the consumer refused to purchase the additional merchandise, the companies would cancel the sale or claim the item was backordered for months. If the consumer did agree to purchase the additional merchandise, the companies would send them lower-quality merchandise than what was promised, or merchandise that the consumer never ordered in the first place. When customers tried to return the items, they would either be denied or be slammed with undisclosed fees.

All of the companies further limited customers' ability to return merchandise by requiring them to speak to a live customer representative during limited business hours, and then refusing to answer those telephone calls.

If you believe you were ripped off, submit a claim to the New York State Better Business Bureau through December: (212) 533-6200.

Bait and switch: Online electronics stores caught in fraud [cnet] (Thanks to Joel!)
(Photo: SoulRider.222)

Consumer News | Comments Off

This video explains threats to birds, while documenting their amazing habits and habitats. Want to help? Here are 25 ways to help the birds in your backyard, and citizen science projects to help birds and other wildlife.

Consumer News | Comments Off

After a night out, Krystal did the responsible thing and took a cab home. As a reward she had her checking account raided and was stonewalled and condescended to by customer service reps from both Yellow Cab and Chase.

Here's Krystal's horror story:

A few months ago I took a cab from a bar for about 1.5 miles to get home. The fare was around 12$ and I paid with a credit card. The cab drivers' machine wasn't printing and he didn't have paper for his manual processor, so he swiped my credit card through his meter and left it at that.

A few days later, I had a pending debit of $170. I was outraged. I called Yellow Cab and the complaints department lady told me that oftentimes the cab drivers just put in any random number to make sure the card cleared and that the proper amount would be put through.

A few days after that I had been debited $156. I called back, but the seemingly only complaints rep was conveniently never at her desk and did not return any of the messages I left her.

I took it to WaMu/Chase. I called them and made a fraud claim. I explained to the rep that I had no receipt, and that my numerous attempts to contact yellow cab had failed. He told me to await a letter and to just respond with as many detail as I could recall. And I did just that. I told them the date and time, the pick up address and drop off point. They gave me a temp credit.

Then, out of nowhere, the amount was again deducted from my account. I called what was now Chase and dealt with an insufferable service rep. He just repeatedly told me that I needed the receipt. I told him exactly what the original rep had told me and he continued to insist that if I couldn't get them to send Chase a receipt, that I would be stuck with the bill. I told him, this company won't return my calls, I doubt very much they'll send you a receipt to give me back money.

I'm a naturally foulmouthed person and had kept it under wraps up until this point where I said "This is f*cking ridiculous" to which the rep said to me in an extremely condescending tone: "Keep the call professional. Don't use language like that." Which just enraged me more. I wasn't swearing up and down or in any way at him. I'm the customer, if I want to say "fucking" once because I just not only had to pay a ridiculous fee, but also the $33 overdraft fee they added on top. Granted, I know it's never a good idea to start cussing out anybody, I also think he was a bit out of line to reprimand me like I'm a child.

Eventually, I got fed up and said "fine, I'll call them again". They gave me a huge run around and just gave me the number to the same woman I'd already been trying to contact and I have to wait until Monday morning to call them.

So, the list of frustrations here is:

1. Cab driver charged me far too much
2. Yellow Cab complaints department is extremely hard to get a hold of.
3. Wamu reps apparently lying to me about what I would need to get my claim processed.
4. Chase waiting months (The incident happen April 8th) before deciding to recharge me.
5. Not giving me any actual notification that the claim was denied. They just debited me.
6. Chase rep trying to be my mom.

What can I do? Help me Consumerist!

Krystal is right that it wasn't in her best interest as a customer who needs help to start cussing out the personon the other end of the line. But nearly $200 is a little much to pay for a momentary lack of decorum.

Another cautionary lesson is to keep cash handy for cabs. Yet that doesn't help poor Krystal. My advice is to keep on hounding customer service on both ends until someone corrects the error. How else should Krystal mount her plan of attack, oh wise ones?

(Photo: dooleymtv)

Consumer News | Comments Off