Category Archives: Archived

Archived

Deleting Old Profile Pics & Cover Photos From Facebook

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Note: This post was written in 2012. Facebook’s interface has changed significantly since then, and these steps no longer apply. Today you can delete photos from your Profile Pictures or Cover Photos album directly without any workaround.

Facebook — you’ve been using it for a while now, and chances are your Profile Pictures and Cover Photos albums are filled with old images you’d rather get rid of. The problem is that Facebook recently removed the direct delete option from these special albums. There’s no straightforward way to delete photos from them anymore. So how do you do it?

The trick

It’s actually pretty simple. Open your Cover Photos or Profile Picture album and you’ll see all your photos in a grid.

Now right-click on the photo you want to delete and select Open link in new tab.

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Archived

Creating A Simple Database Application In Visual Studio ’10 (Drag & Drop Way)

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Note: This post was written in 2012 for Visual Studio 2010. The .sdf (SQL Server Compact) format used here has since been discontinued by Microsoft and is no longer supported in modern Visual Studio versions. If you’re starting fresh today, consider SQLite, LocalDB, or SQL Server Express instead.

There are already thousands of tutorials on the web for this kind of thing, and most of them are unnecessarily complicated. They use too many columns and too much code, which just ends up confusing beginners. So I’m going to show you how to build your first database VB app the simple way — three columns only (ID, Name, City), and almost everything done through drag and drop. No heavy coding needed.

Steps

Since we’re building a Windows Forms application, choose Windows Forms Application as the project template.

I’ve named the project dbapp, but you can call it whatever you like.

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Archived

DeEgger Embedder: Hide Private Files Within Images, Videos Or Audio (Media Steganography)

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Note: I originally wrote this post in 2012. Steganography is a fascinating field, but keep in mind that this specific utility is quite old and may not be compatible with all modern file formats or operating systems!

Do you have sensitive files on your computer that you want to keep hidden, or do you need a way to securely send private data to a friend? Let me introduce you to a clever tool called DeEgger Embedder.

This app allows you to use a technique called steganography to hide files inside images, videos, or audio files. Once you’ve “embedded” your secret data into a host file (like a JPEG image), you can share that image with anyone. To a casual observer, it just looks like a normal photo. There are no obvious traces that anything is hidden inside. But when your friend uses DeEgger Embedder on that same file, they can instantly extract the confidential data.

DeEgger Embedder is a free utility designed to merge two or more files together seamlessly. It supports a wide range of host formats, including AVI, JPEG, MP3, MP4, PDF, and PNG.

The process is remarkably simple:

  1. Select your host file (the image or video that will hide the data) via drag-and-drop.
  2. Select the secret file you want to hide.
  3. Click Combine.
  4. Save the new, modified file to your disk.
DeEgger Embedder
DeEgger Embedder

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Archived

Create A Unique Password For Every Site You Use

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Note: I originally wrote this in 2012. Password security has changed a lot since then! While the “Password Chameleon” concept is interesting, I now recommend using a modern, dedicated password manager like Bitwarden or 1Password for much better security.

Passwords are the master keys to our entire digital lives. Every time you sign up for a new service, you’re asked for a “secret” password. Most of us use dozens of different sites every single day, and many of us manage multiple email accounts for work and personal use.

To keep things simple, a lot of people fall into the trap of reusing the same password everywhere. This is a huge security risk! Even if you don’t share your password with anyone, it’s surprisingly easy for a friend or a coworker to guess it just by watching you type or by piecing together your personal details. Security experts always suggest using long, complicated, and unique passwords for every single site, but in reality, that’s almost impossible for a human being to remember.

Some people use dedicated password management software that encrypts everything into a single database protected by one “master” password. This is a solid approach, but it still has risks. What happens if someone gets hold of that master password? Or what if the database itself is compromised? Storing all your eggs in one digital basket can feel a bit uneasy.

So, what’s the middle ground?

One interesting solution I’ve found is Password Chameleon.

Password Chameleon
Password Chameleon

Password Chameleon isn’t really a “manager” in the traditional sense—it’s more of a deterministic password generator. It doesn’t actually store any of your passwords in a database. Instead, it uses a mathematical algorithm to generate a complex password based on your input.

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Archived

Getting Most Out Of The SkyDrive: Part 2

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Note: I originally wrote this post in 2012 when SkyDrive (now OneDrive) was just starting to gain desktop features. The third-party tool “Folder Drive” mentioned here is quite old and might not be necessary for modern versions of Windows!

As we all know, SkyDrive is Microsoft’s free cloud storage service that comes bundled with every Windows Live account. It starts you off with 7GB of free space (and early adopters were lucky enough to keep 25GB!). For a long time, you could only access it through a web browser, but Microsoft recently changed the game by launching an official desktop application for both Windows and Mac.

Shortly after the app dropped, I shared a few tips on how to maximize your SkyDrive experience. We talked about:

  • Using it as a standard storage folder
  • Moving your “My Documents” folder directly to the cloud
  • Syncing files between multiple computers
  • Using it as an automated backup solution

You can catch up on the full post right here.

Since then, I’ve discovered a new trick that makes SkyDrive even more integrated into your workflow. While you can do this with Google Drive or Dropbox, SkyDrive’s generous free storage makes it the perfect candidate for this.

The official SkyDrive app creates a specialized folder on your PC that synchronizes everything inside it to the cloud. You can move files in and out, and they’ll automatically sync across all your devices.

Now, let’s take it a step further.

What if you could mount SkyDrive as its own dedicated drive?

This is a great quality-of-life improvement. Instead of hunting for a specific subfolder, you can access your cloud storage directly from “My Computer” with a single click, just like a hard drive or a USB stick.

Here’s how to do it:

To make this happen, you’ll need a tiny utility called Folder Drive. It’s a simple tool that lets you mount any local folder as a virtual drive letter. You just download it, run it, pick your folder, assign a letter, and hit create.

Continue reading Getting Most Out Of The SkyDrive: Part 2 →

Archived

Your Facebook Account Has 3 Passwords

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Note: I wrote this back in 2012. While Facebook implemented this clever trick back then, their security models and login handling have evolved dramatically since!

Here’s a fascinating bit of trivia that very few Facebook users actually know: your Facebook account doesn’t just have one password—it actually has three!

Facebook built this system to quietly handle the most common login mistakes, like accidentally leaving CAPS lock on or dealing with aggressive mobile autocorrects. You have the one password you created yourself, and Facebook secretly generates two completely valid variations of it to save you from login errors.

Let me show you exactly how it works with an example.

Password 1: The One You Created

Let’s say your actual password looks like this:

In this case, the letters F, K, and P are uppercase, and the rest are lowercase. This is the exact string you type in every day. Now, let’s look at the two variations Facebook creates for you.

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Archived

Google Drive: A Sneak Peek

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Note: I wrote this sneak peek way back in 2012 when Google Drive first launched! The interface, storage limits, and features have completely transformed since then.

Just a few days ago, Google finally threw its hat into the cloud storage ring with the highly anticipated launch of Google Drive. Every tech blog and major newspaper has been buzzing about it, and because it’s Google, this is a massive shift for the internet.

So, What Exactly Is Google Drive?

If you’ve spent any time online recently, you probably already know the basics. Google Drive is a robust cloud storage solution that lets you upload, store, and share files. They’re generously offering 5GB of free storage to every user, and if you need more space, their paid tiers are incredibly cheap.

Google has already released dedicated apps for Windows, Android, and they’re working on iOS versions as well. You just install the app, and you can interact with your cloud files exactly as you would any normal folder on your computer.

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