Cameron McGrane

CC - http://www.flickr.com/photos/blipmusic/421490954/

Sometimes you are connected to a WIFI point and don’t know the WEP key you used to connect.
After you do a search on Google you will likely be offered software that costs $49.95 to retrieve keys

The windows application below has been separated from the big bundle of security apps at http://www.aircrack-ng.org to help you instantly retrieve all the WEP keys your computer has used to connect to wireless access points.

Grab the Download

Or for the official suite of tools on AirCrack including wzcook

Creative Commons - http://www.flickr.com/photos/florian_b/44227093/

Cash going into your business\muse\micro-enterprise and NOT the library? Here are free books to keep you inspired and skilled up.

1. http://thepiratesdilemma.com/download-the-book/
   Here are four books go start your own X, Y and Z
2. http://free-culture.cc/freeculture.pdf
   Question your deep seeded beliefs on copyright. Now go innovate.
3. http://www.storycenter.org/cookbook.pdf
   Our society is constructed on stories. Time to tell yours.
4. http://s3.amazonaws.com/bzzagent/The_Word_of_Mouth_Manual_Volume_II.pdf
   It may infuriate but you should be across it.

Free to some degree book resources

http://www.gutenberg.org
Huge resource of expired copyright material

http://openlibrary.org
One web page for every book ever published.

http://freebooksource.com
Chock full of advertising but plenty of material

Thanks to Dan, Fred, Dennis and Chris Brogan for contributing one way or another to these resources.

Yesterday, I received this message from a retailer asking to stock a product I sell purely online.

Did it make sense? Probably not.

Why? Because the guy had never heard of my business or the products I sell but strangely enough customers kept coming in hassling him for my product.

What did this business owner do on encountering this unusual situation?

Cold called the person who had what the customers were asking for!

Ok. How can you do what I did?

1. Identify a “Bricks & Mortar” retailer that your online customers would visit
2. List the retailer (with out telling them) on your website as an exclusive dealer of your product
3. Sit and wait for the retailer to contact you after customers repeatably come in asking for your product which they don’t stock.

This strategies success is heightened if these three key factors exist to some degree

1. A great product - I have a niche product, with a robust barrier to entry, that repeatably sells online.
2. Time sensitive - Many people want my product NOW, not 2-3 days after ordering online. Remember B&M shops still hold it over the online world when it comes to Right Now
3. Geographic evidence - When customers want it NOW. They ask where I am? I ask them where they are? The more geographic specific requests for pickups the more likely this strategy will work. Alternatively, place a “pickup location” page with analytics to see who and where the people are from who click on it

Happy reverse cold calling. And be super nice to your new retailers because you will have to work harder then usual to build rapport for being a cheeky little bastard.

Well I didn’t really… If I was a bad guy, I could purchase (off the black market) your D.O.B and other juicy information like first school, pet and mother’s maiden name. Such information could be taken from your Facebook profile.
The D.O.B is the key to “tricking” accounts and because I continually see my friends displaying their D.O.B publicly on their facebook profile (available for easy pickings). I decided to pulled together this tutorial to show how easy it is to change…

Do you require a web page template to help make a landing page to sell a product?

Do you have basic understanding of:

• HTML
• CSS and Styles

If you answered Yes. Feel free to hack this HTML and CSS to suit your own needs.

The structure is a 1 column, elastic, header, footer and centered.

The content is a mix of:

• elements from my own landing pages
• comments to shape your own sales copy (see html)
• Meta-data pre-rolled for SEO.

Nothing flash just good starting point to

avoid paying marketers and signing up to newsletters on how to make money by marketing to others on how to make money.

A mate from University has the hookup to an interesting mobile phone management platform and wanted to know if I had any ideas to get people on board.

To no surprise I did and created a proposal for his management team.

The presentation includes some details of a non traditional startup yourmobilecompany.com.au applying notions of web democracy, equal ownership and emergence. Which makes me a level 8 or 9 on the purest-corporatist scale

With the model and audience (corporate) in mind, I designed the presentation with the objective of educating my audience, improving awareness and providing a teaser to get me on board to flesh out deeper insights for development and a potential partnership.

There are notes included to help apply to your own circumstances but you will need to download the powerpoint to access.

| View | Upload your own

It is still pretty blue sky at the moment and I would be grateful for feedback on

• where it should be bolted down?
• what are the risks or potential problems?
• where a similar model has been used?

If you are an independent technologist\artist\media hacker\entrepreneur\etc and want to experience San Francisco and the Bay Area on the ground instead of a one week gig feeling like a tourist. Here are tips to make it happen cheap!

1. Travel OFF PEAK

   Peak is May to August and any holidays i.e. Christmas, Thanks Giving are peak. For cheap flights and accommodation avoid these times.

Fact: San Francisco DOES get cold and foggy either side of Summer

2. Get a VISA (Non US Citizens)

   If you are one of the 27 Countries who participate in the VISA WAIVER Program you automatically get 90 days.
   There are other ways to stay longer including the E3 Visa which I have attained and will blog about another time.

Important! - 90 days includes travel to Canada and Mexico. Jetting off to Cancun for a week or two will not reset your Visa on re-entry.

3. Stay with locals

   Accommodation will be your biggest expense. Use a travelling host site and let people stay at your house. In turn you will find it easier when you arrive in your international destination. I am a Couchsurfing.com evangelist, I cannot recommend it enough but you can check out the other services on my couchsurfing facebook app for other suggested options.

   If riding couches gets too much the Element Hotel is cheap, clean, cool and centrally located. You can get Queensize bed with ensuite for $60 per night (and that is the high end!)

4. Get connected!

   The cheapest way is to stay off plan and buy a phone that is tri-band GSM, supports PUSH (mail), MMS, browser.

   I run a quad band I-mate SP5 running windows mobile 5.0. It cost me $250AU and is the stand out as the poor mans Iphone.

   My recommended off plan option in the U.S is AT&Ts Go Phone which comes with data options.

   The combo I use:

   • 5MB Media Pack 9.95
   • 200 MMS and TEXT $4.95

   5MB might not seem like much, but if you keep it for e-mail, twitter, browsing (images off) then you will be surprised.

   Configuring takes time and settings hard to find. Message me if you need and it will give me a reason to publish the generic AT&T settings.

5. Go Public Transport

   PT is great in SF but starts to deteriorate as you move lower towards the valley and Palo Alto.
   Either way it is by far cheapest way to get around.
   Be smart and remove the guess work by installing BART’s trip planners and real time info for your Iphone, PDA and Ipod.

6. Drive using Zip Car

   It is inevitable you will be heading to Mountain View or Palo Alto for an event and PT to these areas does not cut it.
   Register for ZipCar and within a couple of days you can being picking up a car with in minutes from a convenient location to get you there.

   Important: Internationals, bring a copy of your driving record from your home country to fast track approval

7. Get an office

   If you want to feel lonely and ineffective quickly do coffee shops for 3 months. For FREE or a modest monthly fee you can have an office space along side other talented San Francisco independents. By having your own desk and location you can build a routine, get work done and meet locals just like you. My favorite place is the HatFactory but all the co-working locations are different so find one that fits you.

8. Hit the FREE Events

   San Francisco and the Bay Area have a phenomenal amount of events all year round.
   And there is no better way to find out if you are up to par, meet people, get free food and drink and learn really cool things!
   I found the events, search and scheduling using upcoming excellent.

What is your tip for cheap legal working holidays? Where else in the world is an extra-ordinary place to setup shop?

Well that is what Seth Godin says on his recent article.

Even if you are remarkable you may need a place to pull all the neat things you have done into one place and crystallize what you are really about. Enter the “New Media” type resume, the brain child of Chris Penn, extended by Bryan Person and morphed over to Wordpress by me.