Security is a word that seems to be on the tips of everyone’s tongue these days. With so many hackers, trojans, spybots most people are concered about security primarily when connected to the internet. But with rising amounts of ID theft and the ever-present threat of theft, how do you keep your data safe when you aren’t there to protect it?

So if your hard drive has just been borked after some heavy use, or you just want to trash your system and make sure nobody will ever get their dirty hands on your stuff, you need a surefire way of destroying all your data on that little disk! Without further ado, let’s look into how you can totally destroy your hard drive and everything on it!

NB: Kids, do not try this at home! We will not be held responsible.

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I make no bones about it, Mac OS X is a fantastic operating system. I use it all day, everyday, for everything from basic word processing and email to image editing and design work. Luckily OS X is typically as solid as a rock. But when things go wrong you need to know how to get things back together.

The following is a list of techniques that I use when repairing OS X if something does break. I’ve started off with the most elementary of fixes … remember there’s no point making a mountain out of a molehill. 🙂

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I know, you probably wonder why on earth are you still using Hotmail? I dunno, it’s just one of those things. I’ve been a Hotmail user since I first got online, back in the days of free email accounts, Geocities and all things non Web 2.0. The thing is, it does the job so I haven’t really bothered switching even though I have a Gmail account.

But anyway, ever since Hotmail became a part of Microsoft’s Live strategy I have been having problems with it. Sometimes I can get access to my account and others I can’t. Using Hotmail on a Mac is no fun, I mean I know my email address and password … I’ve been typing it for years! Why do you do something as silly and narrow-minded as not making your free email just work. Man it gets me angry! But only in a good, non-violent and slightly geeky way.

Last Sunday my dad had a mild heart attack and was taken into our local area hospital in Antrim. So they did all the usual tests and put him into the (excellent) cardiac care unit. But while visiting one day, I saw the weirdest of things. Now remember, we’re in a cardiac care unit with patients that aren’t in the best form for whatever reason. Walls are covered in posters reminding patients to eat healthy, exercise and reduce stress.

Then … around comes a woman pushing a trolley. I could not believe my eyes! She was in the ward trying to sell chocolates, crisps, cola and all sorts of sweets! What on earth is that about? Why bother sticking up a pile of posters trying to get these people to change their ways and then tempting them to continue to eat unhealthily?

I keep getting spammed. I know I haven’t been posting very much, but whoever runs the bot sending all the crappy spam posts to my site … please realise that not one single spammy post will ever get shown. You just will not get a link out of this site!

Anybody know of a decent plugin to fight this?