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Earlier this week, a high court judge ordered all UK ISPs to block users from accessing the torrent sharing website, "The Pirate Bay". This is because "The Pirate Bay infringes copyright on a massive scale", apparently.

Our publicist Jack Christmas made a good point, that with such an audacious double bluff for a name they were kind of asking for it. They might as well have called it “criminalswelcome.com” or “easycopyrighttheft.net” - none the less, just because they are called "thepiratebay.org" it doesn't automatically make what they are doing illegal.

However, here at TECHTOAD.COM, although we do not endorse or support copyright infringement / piracy on any scale, we believe it is unfair to simply "block" all users from accessing the torrent sharing website as it has plenty of uses that do not infringe copyright.

From our technical guru, Kirk Saywell, here is a quick explanation of how ISPs will block access to the website and very simple trick to unblock thepiratebay.org if you want to access it.

The internet functions because a system known as DNS (Domain Name Server) exists. All computers and other devices that are connected to the internet have what is called an IP address. This is a number that is unique for every connection and is the "true" address used to communicate with a device.

Domain names, like "thepiratebay.org" refer to one of these IP addresses, and DNS servers keep a record of which IP address a domain name is linked to. UK ISPs will have to add a record to their own DNS servers to override the real address of "thepiratebay.org" and send it elsewhere, either a non-valid address that just times out, or to a web page that explains the website you are trying to access has been blocked.

All you need to do to bypass this block, is tell your computer to use another DNS server, one that is NOT provided by your ISP.

To do this, go into your router settings or network settings and change your primary and secondary DNS servers to: 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220 which are run by OpenDNS.com. Alternatively, set them to 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 which are run by Google.

Both of these DNS services will NOT be blocking access to The Pirate Bay as they are not classed as ISPs. This will allow you to access the site and use it as normal, because your ISP can only block access if you use the DNS servers that they provide.

Feel free to copy and share this information.

Still having trouble accessing TPB? Try one of these links: tpb.pirateparty.org.uk  |  tpb.techtoad.com

Also, sign the petition to stop this nonsense here: epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/30063

Best wishes for your birthday Ross, from everyone at TECHTOAD.COM. We hope you have a fantastic day!

A new computer virus (Malware) has started circulating purporting to be from law enforcement agencies.

Some of you may have switched your computers on today to find a message that looks something like this (click for larger view):

This is a FAKE warning message designed to scare you into paying the £100 fine. DO NOT PAY THIS FINE. This has been set up by cybercriminals in attempt to steal your money.

It locks screens and requests members of the public to pay a fine to get their computers unlocked. The malware infects personal computers after users have accessed certain websites. It should be noted that there are several similar designs currently in circulation, including Fire Alarm certificates, Health and Safety messages and Messages from couriers saying you have a delivery you have missed.

Our advice is, if you recieve an email message which has an attachment and you are not 100% sure it is genuine, do not open it. If you do open it and something is installed, shutdown the computer immediately and take it to your local computer repair company for virus removal.

If you want to attempt removal of this virus yourself, or have something on your computer you wish to access urgently, you can usually reboot into SAFE MODE by holding down the "F5" key on your keyboard while the computer is starting. In most cases, this will allow you to access files and programs on your computer without interruptions from the virus. You can check out our tutorial on how to remove a virus from a Windows computer if you are planning to remove it yourself.

If you see this message or anything similar, you should shut down your computer and take it to a professional who can safely remove it from your system. If you live in Colchester, we recommend Nexus Technology for virus removals and other computer solutions.

DISCLAIMER: TECHTOAD.COM provides this information for advice and guidance only. If you are unsure how to safely follow these procedures yourself you should seek help from a professional. TECHTOAD.COM takes no responsibility for any damage or losses caused as a result of following any instructions stated on this website.
 

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So, if you hadn't guessed - yesterday's news entry about Apple planning to charge for the iMessenger service was an APRIL FOOLS PRANK by us here at TECHTOAD.COM.

We did try to make it obvious by choosing a stupid story to start with, but there were some subtle clues...

'Joseph King' or 'Joe King' - Joking.
'Peter Ian-Staker' or 'P I Staker' - Piss Taker.

We hope nobody took it too seriously and had a great day, it's over for another year!

The Apple Computer company announced their plans this morning to introduce a monthly fee for customers using the 'iMessenger' service on Apple devices, such as the iPhone, iPad and iPod.

Many angry Apple customers have begun protesting outside Apple's headquarters in hope that Apple will drop the future plans to charge for this service.

One iPhone owner, Joseph King, commented, "How do Apple expect us to afford another additional charge on top of our already over-priced handsets and network contracts? I can only afford an iPhone because I can use iMessenger instead of using my network providers SMS allowance."

Apple representative Peter Ian-Staker responded, "There is a clear window of opportunity for Apple to gain financially from providing the worlds most advanced mobile messaging network. When Lord Jobs was still alive, iMessenger was an exclusive perk for consumers who choose to buy an Apple product, but now everyone has one, how can Apple continue to maintain financial growth? It's still likely to work out cheaper than the network providers SMS rates."

O2 (one of the largest network providers in the UK) seem to like the idea, "This will be good for the British economey and for our customers. With Apple now charging to use the iMessenger service, some customers may choose to switch back to just using plain old SMS. This will generate more revenue for us as a UK based company."

It seems that Apple have not yet announced how much they intend to charge. From what we can assume, it would seem that Apple are going to hold up on the idea for at least 24 hours until they have a better idea of how UK mobile users are likely to react.

We asked our resident technical expert, Kirk Saywell for his opinion of Apple's recent announcement. "If Apple start charging for the iMessenger service today, I suspect everybody in the world will have stopped using it by tomorrow and will either resort to SMS if they have a phone or Facebook Messenger if they are using a device on WiFi."

For more information and the latest updates on this story, please check back later.

Written by Kirk Saywell, 1:30am 1st April 2012.

Every year the likes of Google, Youtube try to do something ridiculous for April Fools. For 2012, YouTube have decided to kick things off with their new "YouTube Collection" - An option to order all or select categories of videos on youtube in DVD form for delivery to your home.

The joke of course being that an hour of video is uploaded to YouTube every second, so the amount of DVDs required to contain all videos would be tremendous, along with a ridiculous price tag and logistical shipping nightmare!

See the end of this article for the "YouTube Collection" promotional video.

Below are some images showing YouTube's 2012 April Fools.

This is the main "YouTube Collection" page: *Note the video which is embedded at the end of this article.

This is the first stage of the "Order Process" - "Genre Options":

Second Stage, "Shipping Options": Note the "Anticipate extended delivery times" for the "Postal Service" option.

Third Stage, "Gift Options":

Fourth stage, "Alternate Formats": Can you image how many VHS tapes you would need for every YouTube video?

Fifth stage, "Confirm Your Order": Note the total charge is $3,118,157!

The final order confirmation: Note the delivery date JUNE 16, 2045 - More than 33 years from now. The tag line "Also, April Fools."

The video from the main page:
 

Best wishes for your birthday Emily, from everyone at TECHTOAD.COM. We hope you have a fantastic day!

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TECHTOAD.COM is proud to announce a £1000 donation to Froglife, a charity committed to the conservation of amphibians and reptiles - frogs, toads, newts, snakes and lizards - and saving the habitats they depend on. If you can spare some change, please consider making a donation to froglife.org to help save our amphibians.

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It is today that we bring you the sad news that btjunkie.org, a once great torrent search website decided to close down on February 5th 2012.

After running for 7 years between 2005 and 2012, BTJUNKIE was the largest torrent site indexer on the web, using crawlers similar to Google to find torrents from all the other torrent sites. With over 4,000,000 torrents indexed, and almost 5,000 added every day, BTJUNKIE was ranked as the 5th most popular torrent search site in the world.

We don't know why, but it's anyone's guess that the recent SOPA threats and DMCA takedowns of sites such as MEGAUPLOAD, FPSBAY and The Pirate Bay have influenced BTJUNKIE's decision to close.

Lost but not forgotten, below is the message that BTJUNKIE leave us with.

"This is the end of the line my friends. The decision does not come easy, but we've decided to voluntarily shut down. We've been fighting for years for your right to communicate, but it's time to move on. It's been an experience of a lifetime, we wish you all the best!"

Goodbye BTJUNKIE, we will miss you.

Will there be many more to follow? We have already seen our internet suffer, check out these other closedown pages:
LIMEWIRE
FPSBAY
SOPA/PIPA

Best wishes for your birthday Dan, from everyone at TECHTOAD.COM. We hope you have a fantastic day!

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