It might be something you can cataloge on the fringes of Blasphemy, but nonetheless its a great application. Perhaps one of THE missing applications when it comes to my Linux installation. How about a way to graphically control your Linux desktop from any pc or mac ? Yes I know i'm giving you old news.
The wondrous application of VNC is already there to provide us with such an exact service. Its a sure fire way to control any Mac Linux and Windows desktop FROM any Mac Linux or Windows Desktop. The only downside is that VNC is, beside from being horribly slow, also terribly insecure (by default). There is of course the ability of securing VNC with Tightvnc or piping the whole sh-bang through an SSH tunnel. But that would be working for technology (instead of the other way around). So thanx to the guys of Freshubuntu I was introduced to OpenNx (and their free cross platform client NXfree) that will tunnel your remote sessions through SSH and scramble them with a 128 bit key. Sales bling here : "
A complete solution for remote access to your Unix workstation. It allows 2 concurrent
users to connect no matter what their location is, and share the desktop. NX Free Edition
is incredibly easy to install and run, leverages the competence and quality of the
company that makes NX and, most importantly, is free forever." I'm going to see if I can do some playing around with this sweet little toy and keep you up to date with the results. But in the meantime, if you want to tinker along .. Try NXfree along with me !
With the ever changing landscape of applications and patches, its pretty hard to keep up from time to time. Not only has it become extremely important to update your operating system to keep hackers and misbehaving software to ruin your day. There is a lot more to take into account. What if you are running an older version of an application that has known vulnerabilities ? ( For example the previous version of quicktime). Its hard to keep track of what’s on your system and what third party software has been recently updated.
Thank heavens that most applications these days phone home after bootup to check if there is a new version available (and nagg the crap out of you to install it). Although this might be seen as a mixed blessing ( I hate stuff calling home whenever I want to use it) it is the only way to keep your stuff up to date.
Or is it ? In OSX its pretty simple : The Apple software updater checks OS updates and sees if there are any new versions for their own apps, Microsoft kinda does the same. But the winner must be Ubuntu. By issuing two simple commands in the command line (or if you are using Gnome, the system will do it automatically) Ubuntu will check a giant repository of software (that you use to install your applications from) and see if there are any new versions for the software you installed. Issuing "Sudo apt-get update and Sudo apt-get upgrade" into the command line window, sends your ubuntu into updating mode and you’ll have the newest versions of every single bit of software you have installed from the repositories.
Now .. Is Windows catching up ? Looks like it. This morning I found this great article about a peace of software that kind of does the same thing. It indexes what software you have and compares this to an online repository. If there is a new version out there .. it will download and install it. APPUPDATER.EXE is a command you can access from the command line. By typing in "appupdater --update" and "appupdater --upgrade" you'll index and update any third party software that you might have (and that is on the list).
Much like win-get (another cool utility to install software using a ubuntu-like-command-line-style command ) this will enable you to script a lot of work you otherwise had to do by hand. But before you dive into this : Make sure you take note of the hazards of an invention like win-get and appupdater. First of all : These apps both go look for software or updates of software on a certain THIRD PARTY repository. If your app isn’t on the list ? You can’t install or update it. Second : Its a THIRD PARTY repository. So whenever you use these things you are telling the good people that invented this thing just what software you are installing and what software you are updating. Do you realy want that. And last but not least : Who says you are downloading the REAL copy of acrobat reader.. and not some add-aware improved version just to pay the bandwidth bills for winget or appupdater ? Its the same risk you run by using automatix. Convenient for sure .. but there is no such thing as a free lunch.
Great stuff this new Google Imap ! Now you can quite easily access and manage your emails from just about anywhere using one (or multiple) desktop-client mail programs (like for example Outlook or Thunderbird). This is not very revolutionary. If you are using web based - Gmail you can do pretty much the same thing. And if you want to you can just use POP3 to get all your messages on all your computers by using the term "recent:username" as your pop3 login to Gmail (that way you get the messages you received in the last 30 days, no matter if they have been 'popped' by another system.)
The wicked part of Imap however lies in the fact that you can "upload" messages and folders as well. So if you are still using your old PST or mailfile that you have been using for a long long time ( Before Gmail was around), why not take advantage of the technology and UPLOAD your mail files to Gmail ! Easy as Pie ! Just configure your mailclient for Gmail (IMAP of course), and DRAG your old messages and folders into the Gmail folder of your mail client. No matter if its Outlook or Thunderbird.. The next time you'll log into Gmail (even online) you’ll see that your old mail folders are camping out in your Gmail space and that you'll be able to access, search, star and label all these old emails from the long gone days before Gmail.
Want to dragg over the emails from your Hotmail to your Gmail ?
Wardriving is horribly easy. It really is. Just open up your laptop in any public place and by the time you crack open your Firefox you'll have 3 or 4 open access points to choose from. Either its "linksys" or "default" or "philips" .. It does not really matter. You'll be able to surf away using some poor noobs pipe. Now you go about your merry way and being the white-hatt hacker you are, choose not to reset the password on the open router or change the access points name to something terribly inappropriate.
So you surf and check your mail. Oblivious to the fact that .. you might be sniffed ! Think about it: Upon entering an unsecured wireless network you are in essence plugging your pc into a hub. Every peace of traffic that goes over the wire is seen by the other stations on the network. This enables "evil hackers" to penetrate an unsecured network and sniff the data going across the wire(less). But what if that access point is in fact NOT owned by a Noobie ! What if it where a honey-pot .. a flytrap for wireless warriors like you and me who piggy bag our Ip on somebody else’s wireless.
The article featured on Dailycupoftech shows you how easy it is to sniff out unencrypted email passwords. Those of you who are still using classic pop 3 email might find it a tad shocking to discover just how easy it is to sniff your password. From experience I know that it is equally easy to sniff the entire content of the email too. (as you can see its a scriptkiddie hack : but very effective)
So next time you are on somebody elses network take a few precautions.
-Try not to do any banking or extremely sensitive data - stuff.
- Use HTTPS connections where you can (for example when accessing Gmail)
If you decide on spending some money this Christmas and build your own computer you might want to check out Newegg's online power supply calculator. Just been talking to a friend of mine who spent a whopping 800 euro's on putting together a pc workstation that would put a small dent into a mac pro. With a quad core processor, 4 gigs of ram, 2 Dvd writers and an Nvidea 8800 card his machine is a pretty powerful peace of hardware. The only issue ? It keeps stalling on him. Every now and then the whole system just fails and reboots. Initial suspicions went out to the operating system installed.. But then he told me he had a 500 watt power supply and if that could be the culprit. I thought 500 watts was a lot for a PSU … Until we entered his hardware into the calculator and found him 160 watts short of the amount of juice his machine required. Sure .. the store had said it would 'be enough' but hey :) Looks like the store was wrong !
Or is it ? In OSX its pretty simple : The Apple software updater checks OS updates and sees if there are any new versions for their own apps, Microsoft kinda does the same. But the winner must be Ubuntu. By issuing two simple commands in the command line (or if you are using Gnome, the system will do it automatically) Ubuntu will check a giant repository of software (that you use to install your applications from) and see if there are any new versions for the software you installed. Issuing "Sudo apt-get update and Sudo apt-get upgrade" into the command line window, sends your ubuntu into updating mode and you’ll have the newest versions of every single bit of software you have installed from the repositories.
Wardriving is horribly easy. It really is. Just open up your laptop in any public place and by the time you crack open your Firefox you'll have 3 or 4 open access points to choose from. Either its "linksys" or "default" or "philips" .. It does not really matter. You'll be able to surf away using some poor noobs pipe. Now you go about your merry way and being the white-hatt hacker you are, choose not to reset the password on the open router or change the access points name to something terribly inappropriate.
If you decide on spending some money this Christmas and build your own computer you might want to check out Newegg's online power supply calculator. Just been talking to a friend of mine who spent a whopping 800 euro's on putting together a pc workstation that would put a small dent into a mac pro. With a quad core processor, 4 gigs of ram, 2 Dvd writers and an Nvidea 8800 card his machine is a pretty powerful peace of hardware. The only issue ? It keeps stalling on him. Every now and then the whole system just fails and reboots. Initial suspicions went out to the operating system installed.. But then he told me he had a 500 watt power supply and if that could be the culprit. I thought 500 watts was a lot for a PSU … Until we entered his hardware into the calculator and found him 160 watts short of the amount of juice his machine required. Sure .. the store had said it would 'be enough' but hey :) Looks like the store was wrong !