Alternative Biological Sensory Inputs

Baylor College is developing a vest which captures auditory (and soom more types) inputs and translates them into electrical streams which get sent to the brain as input.  Video courtesy of www.bigthink.com.

Facebook: Blocking Zynga Slingo

I enjoy Facebook but some "features" are annoying.  One pet peeve of mine is application requests from friends playing their Facebook games.  Facebook's Help Center provided nice information on how to stop these requests from showing up.

1.  To remove Zynga Slingo application requests from appearing on your Facebook page, type "Zynga Slingo" into the search field at the top of your page.  Select the resulting Zynga Slingo App Page and NOT their Game page.

2. Go to the right side of the "Play Game" drop down menu and click on the down arrow.  Select Block App.

3. Click Okay to block the app.  You will no longer see your friends' progress in the game nor will you be pestered by their Zynga Slingo app requests.

4.  This technique can apply to any Facebook application.  Some software developers name the app the same as the page so when you try to directly block the app by clicking on the X next to the request, it goes to the App page which assumes you want to install the program instead of removing the request.

PowerShell 2.0 and WMI remoting for Windows XP

This is how to install PowerShell 2.0 and WMI for Windows XP via batch file which minimizes the installation process replication.

1. Create a server share that all your computers can access (i.e. \\server\share$)

2. Download the full DotNet Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 (dotnetfx35.exe)and place the file into the \\server\share$ location.

2. Download PS 2.0 for XP (WindowsXP-KB968930-x86-ENG.exe) and place the file into the \\server\share$ location.

3. You will create two new scripts in your \\server\share$ folder.  One will be the installation batch file and the other will be a WMI remote-enabling PowerShell script.

     First the batch file:

1. if not exist "%SystemRoot%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5\Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1\*.*" \\server\share$\dotnetfx35.exe (you will have to interact with this executable should it need to install)
2. if not exist "%SystemRoot%\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe" \\server\share$\WindowsXP-KB968930-x86-ENG.exe /q (no interaction needed)
3. regedit /i /s \\server\share$\unrestrictedps.reg (create a .reg file with:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PowerShell\1\ShellIds\Microsoft.PowerShell]
"Path"="C:\\Windows\\System32\\WindowsPowerShell\\v1.0\\powershell.exe"
"ExecutionPolicy"="Unrestricted"

     4. "%SystemRoot%\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe" \\server\share$\XP-enableremote.ps1

     Then the PowerShell script:

1. enable-psremoting -force
2. set-item wsman:localhost\client\trustedhosts -value * -force

The file share can be read-only as there's no need to have the client write back to the location.  For step one of the batch file, you can use automation strings for the dotnet executable but I prefer to know if 3.5 SP1 is going to be installed.  Also, 3.5 SP1 needs Windows XP service pack 3 installed.  Step three of the batch file is to allow PowerShell scripts to run.  This is the equivalent to setting the Execution policy from inside of PowerShell.   Step two of the PowerShell script was necessary due to PS's innate security.  It won't allow anonymous WMI connections unless told to.  I set the value to * (everyone) but you may want to be more restrictive and actually create a valid trusted host list.

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