Have you ever typed in your password while logging into a page and it has that little password strength bar on it that fills up the more you type? How accurate is it? Can you even trust such a novel multi-colored doo-dad?

Why guess? I went to the trouble of getting together a spreadsheet that can definitively tell you exactly how secure you are using that password of yours. It can even give suggestions as to how to improve your password. Be warned, it’s not always pretty to see the honest truth.

Give it a try by clicking here

then click “Download”

(Updated 6/5/09)

• Added extended data validation to prevent accidental entry of erroneous data.
• Cleaned up the document to fix some grammatical errors
• Added a “Galactic Years” option that gives a better frame of reference for larger passwords.
• Additional tweaks and fixes to improve visibility and visual appeal.

(Updated 6/4/09)

Additionally if you want to link to the calculator I have added a entry in my domain name for just such a purpose:
http://bruteforce.caedis.net
Link there if you plan to repost, don’t link directly to the file. (as I have been approached by several people already about this)

What is brute force?

Brute force attacks are when your password is guessed by blindly going from one password to the next without little or no reguard for what is being tried. Bascially doing the following:

1. a
2. aa
3. ab
4. abc
5. abc1
6. abc11
7. abc12
8. abc121
9. abc122

As you can see it’s just adding more onto the guess until it gets it right.

This method is the only remaining method to get passwords in situations where the person hasn’t put any real words or significant dates or numbers into the password.

If the person does put words or significant combinations of numbers (like anniversaries or birthdates) then a dictionary attack is usually tried first as it is exponentially faster.

When multiple combinations of common words or combinations of words/numbers are checked. This is often done first as it can sometimes take SECONDS to crack a password this way. If you have a password such as “myDogSkip” the cracker will just have to combine “my” “dog” and “Skip” into the right order to get the password. When this is especially effective is when the person knows even a little about you. Many times this is done by simply asking a friend/co-worker off-hand about some trivial part of your life. Your dogs name? Your wife’s name? or even more easily by going to your Facebook or Myspace page and getting a few key words off it. Think of all the words you use on your profile pages, then think if ANY of them could be used in any way to get a password of yours. If the answer is anything but a strong “NO” then you probably need to re-evaluate what you have secured with that weak password. Which is worse? Identity theft, or an annoying password that’s hard to type in quickly?

UPDATE: 5Dec2011

The Security Now! Podcast released an episode and website to go along with the concepts I discussed here. For further reading and a web based entropy calculator check out the links below.

• 37 minute, high-quality, 64kbps MP3 audio file, 17.9 MB

• 37 minute, lower-quality, 16kbps MP3 audio file, 4.47 MB

GRC Password “Haystacks”

The process below is described for Ubuntu and other Debian-like Linux Distributions

• Go to the Nvidia driver download web page and fill in all the appropriate fields with your relevant setup.

• Download the .run file (In my case NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-180.51-pkg2.run) to your home folder

This next part you will want to print out or write down as proceeding from here will kill your desktop and browser. (But thats what we want)

• Press [Ctrl] + [Alt] + [F5] to drop to a TTY command prompt(This sometimes takes pressing the key sequence 2-3 times before it switches)
• Login with your user name and pass
• Type the following:

sudo killall gdm
sudo sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-180.51-pkg2.run

• Hit enter on all the [OK] prompts
• Say [Yes] to the 32-bit compatibility drivers
• Say [Yes] to Updating your X configuration
• When it finishes it will return you to the command prompt, type:

sudo gdm

• Done!

• You’ll notice your Nvidia X Configuration App in System > Preferences > NVIDIA X Server Settings
• If you want to Overclock, see my post on Nvidia Overclocking

Click to enlarge

Linux, and more specifically Ubuntu Linux, has come a long way in a short period of time. Many game developers and freelance Open Source coders are making major strides in gaming tech for us Linux gamers, opening the door on a hidden market that seemed impossible to get into. Much of this success can be attributed to the many developers and supporters of the Wine Project a compatibility environment for Linux that allows Windows programs to run seamlessly in Linux. Wine is actually an acronym that, ironically enough, stands for “Wine Is Not an Emulator.” This is true of it when you launch a program in Wine. It actually runs the program like any other Linux program and as you can see in the many screen shots on the Wine AppDB, the programs are indistinguishable from their Windows installed counterparts. The applications to Linux gaming are limitless with this technology.

Click to enlarge

So how do I get wine Working?

Pretty Simple for you Ubuntu users

Go to your “Synaptic Package Manager” under System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager

Then head over to the repositories section:

Add one of the following apt lines to your repositories list based on which version of Ubuntu you have installed:

For Ubuntu Jaunty (9.04):

deb http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt jaunty main #WineHQ - Ubuntu 9.04 "Jaunty Jackalope"

For Ubuntu Intrepid (8.10):

deb http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt intrepid main #WineHQ - Ubuntu 8.10 "Intrepid Ibex"

For Ubuntu Hardy (8.04):

deb http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt hardy main #WineHQ - Ubuntu 8.04 "Hardy Heron"

Next Download Scott Riche’s GPG key here by right clicking and hitting save as… (He is the maintainer of the Ubuntu Wine Repositories)

You’ll need to pay careful attention to where the .gpg file is saved as you’ll need to navigate to it.

Next you need to actually import the .gpg key file you just downloaded. You’ve most likely saved the .gpg to your home directory so just navigate to it by clicking “File System” then clicking home > your user name > then the .gpg file.

You’ll notice the red highlighted area in the picture above, that line is added if you correctly imported the key (minus the red highlighting I added)

At this point you can hit close on everything, even Synaptic itself.
Open a Terminal ( Accessories > Terminal )
Update your sources list

sudo apt-get update

Then install Wine!

sudo apt-get install wine

The beauty of this is that Wine will self update and wont require you to do any fancy compiling every time it’s updated. You’ll be updated to the latest build any time it’s pushed out.

Now, the fancy part that you may need to do in order to make some games run.

Still in the terminal type the following to get Winetricks

wget http://www.kegel.com/wine/winetricks

This next part I must caution anyone using is restricted only to people who own copies of any version of Windows, as it relies on software that is copyrighted by Microsoft. So if you legally own ANY version of Windows your fine.

sudo apt-get install cabextract

And once that’s installed

sh winetricks vcrun6 allfonts allcodecs dotnet11 dotnet20 directx9

You’ll have to set through a long line of windows EULA’S where you sell your soul to Microsoft forever and agree that you have a License of Windows basically. Accept them and just click next and Finish. don’t mess with any of the settings as the defaults work fine for all of them. Even the install paths.

After that, for most game you can just install them like you normally do in Windows, using the CD’s and standard installers.

If you need to check if a program works, or you are having issues with a game in particular head over to the Wine AppDB and do a search for the game. Most have how-to’s. If anyone still cant figure out how to get a game going feel free to reply here or email me.

If you don’t use Ubuntu Linux you can see specific Wine instructions here.

I have the following games running on Ultra High settings at ~60+FPS

• Fallout 3
• Spore
• Left 4 Dead
• Counter Strike: Source
• Half-Life 2
• Garry’s Mod
• The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion
• The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind
• World of Warcraft
• Guild Wars
• City of Heroes
• Starcraft

A word on GPU Manufacturers

While great strides have been made on the GPU drivers side most Linux Gamers agree that at this time ATi is lackluster in comparison to Nvidia’s support. I personally know a few friends that attempted to install Ubuntu using the same methods I described above and were experiencing crashes and artifacts sporadically while playing games that my Lower powered Nvidia GPU had no issues with. ATi has made their drivers open source but that doesn’t help when no one is there to develop them. Whereas one can easily download the Nvidia drivers directly from their site and quickly install them without problems. So at this time if you have the option, avoid ATi for Linux gaming as you’ll be getting less than positive results.

In my pursuit of the optimal Linux gaming rig my journey must eventually lead to overclocking. It’s where all these extra copper heat pipes, Arctic Silver, lapping, and custom driver compiling lead up to. Be warned, overclocking is an obvious breach of any and all warranties your card may have. Only do this if you are prepared to accept the risk. Take your time and bump up the clock speeds slowly. If you ignore this advice and just crank everything to max you’ll get artifacts and/or burn up your GPU. Take it from me, speaking from very personal experience, don’t rely on the GPU’s thermometer to shut down your system in the event of to high temps. It doesn’t always work and taking that kind of chance can be costly.

• The process below is described for Ubuntu and other Debian-like Linux distributions.

Do all this in terminal to avoid any accidents.

sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Scroll down to the section that resembles the following

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
EndSection

Add this to the bottom of the section just before the “EndSection” delimiter.

*Please type this in by hand, don’t copy it just in case your browser is decoding this page funny. X wont put up with strange characters like your browser does.

    Option "Coolbits" "1"

So your device sections should look similar to the following:

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    Option "Coolbits" "1"
EndSection

After that reboot your system and check your Nvidia control panel.

• If your X server won’t start you need to go to

sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf

and check your GPU device settings as described above and make sure your using the same form as the rest of the xorg.conf. Duplicate how the rest of your conf file looks. And restart your computer or restart X

sudo killall gdm
sudo gdm

If even that doesn’t work then I suggest you validate that your graphics drivers are compiled perfectly for your running kernel. If all else fails simply delete the coolbits entry in your xorg.conf file.

• Making the changes permanent

After you’ve resolved all that and are settled into overclocking the GPU, it’s time to learn how to make the settings above permanent. By default your nvidia overclock settings will reset upon every reboot. To fix this, follow the steps below:

Install the nvclock utility (It can set and probe the GPU’s from the command line)

sudo apt-get install nvclock

in your Gnome menu go to System > Preferences > Sessions

Click [Add] on the right side

• Name: Set GPU Clocks
• Command: nvclock -n <your preferred GPU clock> -m <your preferred Memory clock>

After that your clocks will be set to the values you specified above on every reboot or restart of the X server. Additionally you can add a “-f” to the end of that nvclock command to force the clocks without checking if they are reasonable. Only do this if you know for certain that the frequencies wont make a bon fire in your case.

Enjoy!

I’m not usually so simplistic in my posts but I feel I need to get this info on the web in all one place so other people who may be having issues with the motherboard I’m using can have a one stop fix for all their Linux Gaming woes. If you don’t have my exact setup some of these hacks/tweaks may help if implemented properly.

My Specs:

• OS: Ubuntu 8.10 “Intrepid”
• Motherboard: Asus P5N32-E SLI Plus
• GPU: Nvidia 8 Series PCI-e
• CPU: Intel E6600 LGA775
• RAM: 2 GB Gskill DRR2 800

I realize this isn’t a top end gaming rig, but after I chose to sell my old gaming rig a few years ago to pay for my wife’s engagement ring I was left with nothing to work with. I needed a place to start and get my foot back in the door to high performance OCing and gaming, only this time I’m determined to go totally Open Source with Ubuntu Linux as my weapon of choice. I procured this setup for about 200$ from some long time friends. Many more parts were thrown in but they are not pertinent to the scope of this how to.

• Problem: When installing with the standard desktop edition I was unable to boot into the graphical environment on the live cd.
• Solution: I fixed this by downloading the alternate install disk which installs from the command line.

• Problem: GDM (Gnome Desktop Manager, AKA graphical environment) would not start. The monitor flickered sporadically and nothing happened.
• Solution: Compile the latest drivers from Nvidia for maximum performance

Press [Ctrl] +[Alt] + F6 through F8 (whichever gets you to a login prompt on the command line)

Login to the command line with your regular credentials.

On a separate computer with internet access go to the Nvidia website and download the appropriate drivers for your Linux build.

Drop them on a flash drive.

Mount the flash drive on your command line only box:

sudo mkdir /media/usb
sudo mount /dev/sdb /media/usb  (sometimes it's labeled sdb1, so if sdb doesn't seem to work use sdb1)
cd /media/usb
sudo killall gdm (this kills X and GDM so the nvidia drivers can be compiled and installed without conflicts)
sudo sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-180.44-pkg2.run

Follow the prompts and your done.

Reboot

sudo shutdown -r now

• Problem: Networking is not working
• Solution: Force the networking stack into compliance with the nVidia MCP55

Open a terminal

sudo su
rmmod forcedeth
modprobe forcedeth msi=0 msix=0
/etc/init.d/networking restart

Now we want to make these changes permanent as this hack resets when the computer reboots.

sudo su
cd /etc/modprobe.d/
nano options

Add the following to the end of the file

#nVIDIA Corporation MCP55 Ethernet
options forcedeth msi=0 msix=0

Save the change to the options file

Now the boot image must be rebuilt

update-initramfs -u

After all that you should be running perfectly with no performance hang ups.

This setup has proven to be the most problematic I have ever dealt with. Most of the computers I’ve built with Ubuntu work out of the box with no hacking or tweaking, I just happened to get the least compliant of every version. Oh well, nothing a little command line wizardry can’t fix. I expect to be playing Left 4 Dead, Oblivion, Spore and even Crysis shortly.

Linux for gaming, you bet.

Courtesy of Jinx.com

Denail

Most people think that because they don’t have anything of value on their computer that they are safe. Or more frighteningly, they believe that Norton or Mcafee will save them. The fact of the matter is, you have been lulled into a sense of false confidence by your lack of understanding of how hackers work. A hacker doesn’t want to destroy your computer, it’s to valuable a asset to him.

Hackers look for computers not necessarily so they can steal your information or “blow up” your hard drive. (Yes I’ve heard that) Rather, they want to use your computer as a staging point for whatever they decide to do.

Why is hacking profitable?

Hacking wouldn’t be as prevalent as it is today if there wasn’t money involved. Little kids in their basements messing around eventually have to grow up. What do they do with their talents? Monetize them. Some choose to use this information to make money by stealing your identity, but the real cash comes in when they are able to extort money from businesses. They do this using your little computer.

They first infect your computer in order to make it an unwilling participant in a network of interconnected computers all with the same virus. Your computer then “phones home” to the master server that the virus was programed to use. At which point the master server can tell this massive network of infected computers to do something. “Okay” your thinking, “so what.” This is where it get’s interesting. The hacker will come to a gambling site, or a online store of some kind. He will say something like, “If you don’t pay me X number of dollars I will take your website down during Black Friday, or during the Superbowl” or whatever date is critical for that businesses’ revenue stream. The business either pays the hacker money, or the hacker brings down the business.

When the hacker does this, he uses his master server to talk to all his computer zombies (your computer being part of that army now since you relied on Norton alone to save you) The zombie computers then begin flooding the businesses’ website with trash data to clog their Internet connection so much that it literally kills their Internet connection. Taking them offline.

All that mess, because you thought your dusty old computer was of no value, or was protected by simply buying an antivirus program.

Acceptance

Acceptance of this simple fact either comes one of two ways, you listened to me or someone with a similar warning, or you yourself have been a victim of identity theft or had your computer dumped on by a virus. I pray you don’t learn the hard way.

What can we do?

You can buy all the software in the world that should make you safe, but if you don’t change your habits your only as safe as your software. And last time I checked, software doesn’t read your mind. It doesn’t know what should and should not be happening in your computer, only you can know that. It can only guess at what is generally a bad thing, not what truly is.

As I discussed in my previous post, there are a few things you can do to make yourself that much safer online.

1. Never save your passwords
   • Saving your password’s to websites may seem like a way to make your life easier online, but all it really does is give a hacker an easy way to steal your valuable information. Do you really think that your browser is smarter than a trained hacker? Your passwords are stored in such a way that they have to be accessible in pain text. It’s like writing your password down on the side of your mailbox. Eventually someone will see it.
   • An alternative is by using Firefox with a “master password” set. This allows you to at least have your passwords hidden beneath a password that someone must know in order to get at your others. The catch is that you must type this password in every time you restart your browser. Also, if you set a trivial password like the name of your dog, or your birth date you’ll only be as safe as that trivial master password. So make sure the password you choose is at least 8 characters long, has numbers and letters, has some upper and lower case and possibly a symbol thrown in there for good measure. This way the hacker will get bored before he hits pay dirt.
2. Read emails with “rich text” or “html” off.
   • I know, I know, it’s dumb, your not downloading anything, and your not going anywhere. Right? WRONG AGAIN! How do you think those flashy images are getting into the email you just opened? Your computer must go to an outside site and actually ask that site for the data. Think that’s safe? Sorry, it’s not. In fact there was a recent exploit on myspace.com where a hacker bought an advertisement on their website. The advertisement was a carefully crafted image that actually ran a code on the unsuspecting Myspace user’s computer, thus, infecting them with a undetectable virus. And by opening every email you see with images enabled, you are easily a prime target for hackers. If you must get images, only view images from companies you trust at the very least.
3. If you have WiFi “Wireless B or G or N”, aka, “Wireless Internet” in your home set a password for it using WPA (Not WEP)
   • It’s a hassle for visitors, it’s this, it’s that. You live out in the middle of nowhere, I’ve heard them all. Fact of the matter is, if someone wants free Internet on your dime, all they need is a laptop and a car. So that narrows it down to, oh, say, 1/3 of the United States. Now, think of all the things you do on your home Internet. You access your bank? Your credit cards? What about your 401k? Your personal Instant messages to that special someone? These and everything else you send over your wireless Internet will be sent as clear as day to anyone with a computer and the will to get it.
   • Here’s how it all works,  your computer literally has a radio strapped to it when you use wireless Internet. Similar to a walkie talkie. So imagine going through every bit of info you type into a website (including the address of the sites themselves) and saying all that information over a walkie talkie. Anyone with a walkie talkie will easily hear it and you are trusting anyone in earshot not to use this free information to go out and buy a car or take out a loan on a new boat. Trust me, the technology is proven, it’s easy to accomplish, and it can be done on even a device as small as a Blackberry with WiFi capability.
   • Also, make sure you use the WPA standard, Not the WEP standard. It’s just just a matter of using a drop down box to select one or the other in most cases.
   • If you don’t have a clue how to do any of this, get a geeky friend or relative to help you out, if all else fails, hire a technician. If that even fails (and you enjoy feeling pain) call Best Buy’s “Geek Squad” or Circuit City’s “Firedog”
4. Use Firefox, not Internet Explorer!
   • Firefox has a proven track record of security, in addition Firefox has several powerful addons that make browsing the web easier and safer, and don’t require a ton of guesswork and geeky know-how. Internet Explorer is much more difficult to configure for security, and just plain doesn’t have the security addons that Firefox does. In addition, more exploits are in the wild for Internet Explorer vs Firefox. The hackers do this because they think that people using Internet Explorer are generally less informed about security or don’t care about it. And as we discussed, ignorance is no excuse these days. It’s only a way to exploit you.
   1. Get Firefox
   2. Get NoScript after you’ve installed Firefox and have it running
   3. Get Adblock Plus, when you restart Firefox it will ask what service you’d like to subscribe to (it’s all free) click “EasyList (USA)” and click ok. This will block banner ads and other ads on websites. You’ll notice the difference when you go to a site like Myspace right away.
   4. (Advanced Users Only, or get a nerdy relative) Get CSRF Protector
   5. (Advanced Users Only, or get a nerdy relative) Get CS Lite (And disable third party cookies)
   • Once you have all the addons above installed you’ll have a invisible safety net that extends MUCH further than even the mighty Norton or Mcafee products can provide. And, its all 100% free. Beat that. Also, it will all work without your input, meaning, once it’s all installed, you can forget about it. If you run into a site that causes one of these addons to bring up a warning, just steer clear of that site, or that part of that site. Remember, you have to change your habits to be safe, simply dismissing the warning boxes that may come up on different sites will defeat the purpose of all this, because they addons are sending up warning trying to keep you from walking off the cliff, if you ignore that… well… you’ll fall of the cliff just the same.
5. Log out of sites when your done by clicking the sites “Logout” link/button
   • When you simply close your browser (even Firefox) after being logged into a website, you leave the information that was used to give you access on the computer. This allows you to be exploited by difference hackers and scams. Don’t become a statistic. When your done you need to actually click the logout link on the page, this deletes your login information so that it can’t be used for foul play. It’s easy, it’s simple, just do it.
6. Never use trivial passwords, always use strong passwords, and don’t make things worse by writing down your password and sticking it to your monitor or under your keyboard.
   • I don’t care if your in your own home, if you have guests over, you are trusting them with your sensitive information when you leave your password out.
   • Always make sure your passwords are 8 or more characters long and make sure they have a few numbers, upper and lower case letters, and possibly a symbol thrown in
   • Bad passwords: “jenny12”, “041083” (your birthday), ilovespike (your dog), abc123 (your dumb)
   • Good passwords: “J3nny!2%243”, “234352Ksj”, “!L0v3sP!ke6334”, “AbC1123.sde234”, or you can go to GRC.com and use the perfect password generator to make passwords. I generally snip off the first 8 characters and use that for things. That way I’m not making up easily guessable passwords, but at least after some practice I can type the random junk in pretty quick.
   • OR, if all that sounds like too much work, Download the KeePass Portable Password safe for free. It password protects your passwords and can even generate more secure passwords for you to use. (Did I mention it’s free?)

Revised and updated 12/5/08 for grammar and the addition of the KeePass link

Posted in Computing Tagged: antivirus, Computing, Firefox, GRC.com, hacking, howto, privacy, security ]]> http://caedis.wordpress.com/2008/12/01/are-you-secure/feed/ 3 Caedis not-even-norton http://caedis.wordpress.com/2008/11/28/the-end-of-wireless-internet-security/ http://caedis.wordpress.com/2008/11/28/the-end-of-wireless-internet-security/#comments Fri, 28 Nov 2008 22:39:48 +0000 Caedis http://caedis.wordpress.com/?p=237 ]]> The articles I found after a quick Google search were the following:

“No longer safe: WPA encryption cracked in 12 to 15 minutes -ZDnet

“Researchers Crack WPA Wi-Fi Encryption” -Slashdot

The blind leading the blind

These headlines are all around the security websites and inner circles of hackers. Here’s the real deal, it’s an overblown myth made up by uneducated mass media and ignorant journalists to scare people.

I won’t get into the messy details but essentially the REAL scoop is this. A small hole has been found in the previously perceived as “impervious” security of WPA. This hole allows a very tiny amount of data to be injected into a wireless network. The issue is easily fixed by setting a few settings in your wireless router, and even if you don’t the hacker cannot do very much with this at the moment.

How do we fix this issue?

If you have a WPA2 certified router, (most newer routers are) turn on WPA2 and AES and make sure TKIP is off. TKIP is the protocol that had the small hole; AES is used by the government and just makes more sense to use anyway. It won’t affect your current settings. As always I recommend you use a strong password for the WPA Pre-Shared key. Also, turn off QoS (Quality of Service) Scheduling if it’s enabled for some reason.

Moral of the story

Don’t trust everything you see online. Mass media is in the business of making headlines and “WPA *Almost* cracked” isn’t as attention grabbing as “WPA Cracked! Head for the hills!”

Resources:

This issue was discounted by a recent “Security Now!” podcast segment (Ep 170 “The TKIP Crack”)

I will state going in that I do not advocate the use of these techniques to circumvent company policy or do anything illegal. I’m just in the business of security and I make a point to follow as Steve Gibson of GRC.com puts it “TNO” Trust No One. This means that the only way to have anything resembling security and privacy on a computer system is to trust no one to make mistakes or make intentional “mistakes” as it were with your information. I use my security techniques to ensure my identity is safe and my privacy is ensured.

Privacy should start with the basics:

• Log out of sites you aren’t using to prevent cross site scripting or click jacking (Two of the leading causes of identity theft) I mean actually click the log out button, don’t click the X button.
• Use Firefox, coupled with the Noscript plugin and an arsenal of other powerful apps that you just can’t get anywhere else it is your first line of defense against things you can’t help.
• Never set your browser to remember you passwords, it’s just not a safe practice, period.

Now I know no everyone can afford or bother to deal with a USB flash drive, but for me, it’s a Godsend. I use the portable apps version of Firefox and install it on my jump drive so I can take it with me wherever I go. This allows me easy access to my bookmarks and fancy plugins that I talked about earlier.

Pulling out the big guns

Here’s where it gets a bit sticky, if you aren’t technically inclined I suggest you skip to the comments section. (comments are always appreciated J )

Recipe: One USB Flash drive with a portable Firefox that can remotely connect to your home computer and browse using your home’s internet via a heavily encrypted private VPN-like connection your jump drive will establish. (Secure browsing from any computer, even your work computer or over public WiFi)

Ingredients:

1 Ubuntu Linux powered home computer

1 Client computer with Windows or Linux installed (The install won’t be portable on Linux, but you can make a shell script for the apt commands)

1 Flash drive

Step 1: Install SSH on your Linux home computer

Go to your terminal and type:

sudo apt-get install openssh-server openssh-client

Step 2: Install SSH client on client computer

For Ubuntu Linux computers type

sudo apt-get install putty

For windows go to the Portable Apps PuTTY page and install it on your flash drive

Step 3: Install Firefox

Firefox comes with every Ubuntu Desktop install so your all set here for Linux

For Windows download the portable Firefox app and install it to your flash drive

Step 4: Configuration

Download the FoxyProxy extension so you can choose what site’s you want to send through the secure tunnel to your house.

Download the Noscript extension for protection against click jacking or cross site scripting attacks (and a multitude of other security issues)

Open PuTTY

In the PuTTY Configuration screen set the location to your home’s IP and the port to the port you have SSH running on goes in the box to the right of the location (Please tell me you changed the port to something, ANYTHING but 22)

Go to Connection > SSH > Tunnels

Pick an arbitrary port above 2000 and remember that number for this example I’m using 5678

Check both the boxes at the top talking about local ports accept connections and remote ports do the same

In the source port field fill in your port assignment, so 5678

Leave destination blank

Click the Radio button for Dynamic

Leave the bottom buttons set to auto

Click Add

You should see in the big box above “D5678”

Now were going to enable compression, (A sweet feature unique to SSH2 that has built in compression to speed things up)

Under Connection > SSH (click the heading SSH)

Check “Enable Compression”

Click the Open button at the bottom

Once you login with your credentials you now have a pseudo VPN-like tunnel to your home computer. Just keep that putty session minimized, if you close it, it closes the tunnel.

Now go to the FoxyProxy options menu in firefox

Click the line called “Default”

Click the “Edit Selection” button

In the “Proxy details” tab click “Manual proxy configuration”

Type “localhost” into the Host name, and your port (5678) into the port field

Click “SOCKS proxy?” click SOCKS v5

Hit ok

And close the foxy proxy options

Now type in “about:config” into your Firefox URL bar, it may give a warning about blowing up the world, that’s fine, blow it up, hit ok.

Were looking for “network.proxy.socks_remote_dns” so use the filter at the top to find it

Set the vaulue to true so that the fiel should look like:

##Preference Name Status Type Value

network.proxy.socks_remote_dns user set boolean true

You should now be able to browse the web from the privacy of your corner café or corner office. Your traffic is totally encrypted up to the point it leaves your home’s internet and no one snooping on the line is capable of breaking into the connection to steal bank accounts or blog entries!

The common idea that seems to be held by the world is that Christians are, by their very teachings, “gay bashers” when nothing could be further from the truth. I believe this idea comes from the radical right wing conservatives that give all parishioners a bad name by holding up hate charged statements and generalities about homosexuality. I’m sure most of us have seen the anti-gay protests on capitol hill with the “Christians” screaming out profanities and hateful slurs against gays. Personally I find them reprehensible. Christ came to the down trodden, the sinners and the saints alike not to judge and scorn them but to give them hope for redemption, not by their own actions because their actions are not enough, but through the blood of Jesus.

This idea that homosexuality is somehow more despicable than looking at another woman with lust, or lying to our kids, or committing perjury on the stand is ludicrous. It says it in plain black and white in the bible, all have sinned and fall short of God’s glory. Even the slightest sin is less than perfection and a abomination to him. So while it’s easy to say that being gay is evil, it’s hard and close to impossible for us to say that harboring hateful thoughts about our neighbor is no less a sin. In fact it states in the bible that that act of such a though is “murder.” Looking onto another woman with lustful thoughts is “adultery.” So you tell me which one of you is perfect enough to cast the first stone at the homosexual. You yourself are a murdering thieving adulterer. Pull out the plank in your own eye before you point out the splinter in your neighbors.

So where do I stand?

By no means take what I’ve said out of context. Marriage is clearly defined in the Bible as a union of a man and a woman under God. Homosexuality is a sin. Period. I don’t care your upbringing, I don’t care your genetics. We’re all born with surroundings and genetic predispositions that make following God a daunting task even under the most mild of circumstances. The fact that your gay just means you have a hard road ahead of you. I personally apologize for anyone that has been set back in their walk with Christ because of a foolish and trite response by a fellow Christian.

Don’t fall into the trap that so many homosexual apologetics run into. I am speaking of course about the popular tactic of discounting the Levitical laws. True some of the laws are antiquated, and I can’t deny that some sound pretty silly when take out of context. There are plenty of references to homosexuality in the bible, and all refer to it as sin. We can pick apart grammatical inconsistencies and the oh so many arguments over semantics. But God has a consistent track record with regard to societies that encourage sodomy and homosexuality. Frankly, I don’t have the ability at this time in my walk with Christ to defend the Bible on point’s like this, not because there is no defense, but because believe it or not, I’m still learning about Christ and in that learning process I don’t have all the witty retorts that many Biblical scholars may have. (I’m not smart enough for that)

Where do mature Christians stand?

This is not what God had in mind for this world when he made it, we Christians should be the first to tell you we aren’t perfect. I have my own immoral, unclean, and sinful thoughts and actions almost daily, but it’s the job of our brothers and sisters in Christ to lift one another up even in the face of our blatant daily failures. If we could do it all alone we wouldn’t need each other, and we wouldn’t need Christ. I encourage anyone who has been slighted by a so called follower of Jesus to come back to the faith. Don’t let a misguided group of ignorant radicals decide where your faith lies.

Though I am not a Mormon or a catholic, I believe this informative (albeit low quality) video speaks well what I’m talking about.

.

“I love how foreign press can totally warp the reality of things that seem so black and white to us in the states. I would be willing to wager most (and by most I mean like 80%-90%) people noticed Barack was black but couldn’t have cared less. My vote for McCain wasn’t because Barack was black. AlJazeera pulled this race issue out of thin air to sensationalize their stories. All the while making conservatives look like racists.” -CaedisHax on Youtube.com (Me)

Gotta love liberal media

I have a strong sensation that the sensationalism will only get worse. The media, when it doesn’t have a republican president to rip on, instead defends the democratic president and rips on anyone who opposes him. During this presidency I predict that the race card (a popular one among liberals) will be played so many times that it will be as worn out as the paper the dead sea scrolls are written on.

Issues from thin air

The facts are clear, race was never an issue in this election. The fact that he’s black has nothing to do with his competency as a president and people aren’t stupid enough to vote based on race these days. Maybe if we lived 70 years ago it would be an issue, but as with anything else, when you take a large enough sample of people you will have the crazies at the opposite end of sanity doing their own irrational things, like the KKK.

Brace for impact though, because this non-issue will be made into one by the liberal media at large to help sell stories. Frankly the idea that his race is even a place for pause for conservatives is insulting. This is not the civil rights movement, so let’s just stick to reality and let the race cards collect some dust in the basement. Please?

By the way, I did that picture up in like 10 minutes using the GIMP on my flash drive at work. Not my normal level of work since I’m accustomed to Photoshop.

Posted in Views Tagged: AlJazeera, Barack Obama, conservative, liberal, politics, race ]]> http://caedis.wordpress.com/2008/11/07/thus-begins-the-sensationalism/feed/ 0 Caedis Gotta love liberal media http://caedis.wordpress.com/2008/10/29/pgpgpg-signing-whats-this-all-about/ http://caedis.wordpress.com/2008/10/29/pgpgpg-signing-whats-this-all-about/#comments Wed, 29 Oct 2008 06:00:10 +0000 Caedis http://caedis.wordpress.com/?p=31 ]]>

Image courtesy of thetechherald.com

So you may or may not have noticed that I’ve started to have this funny stuff on much of what I put online.

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

This is some message I've written. Etc... etc... etc..
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Comment: Go to   http://caedis.net/gpg    for details on how to use this

iEYEARECAAYFAkqpx0QACgkQenKlZFsAAszrVQCg6e1EMGRV4cfCRAAcMwf8W1HC
z9AAoNNEEbF/rc2taPyO1tvvpg6oy3xw
=Z9VS
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

What’s it all about? You may ask. Well, PGP (or GPG, or GnuPG… all the same thing basically) is a way of both enciphering and digitally signing a document&183; In the case you see above I am using the PGP system to digitally sign the text inside the PGP block, “This is some message I’ve written. Etc… etc… etc..”

Whats this mean for me and why the heck do I care??

This signature can be verified WELL beyond a reasonable doubt to have come from me and no one else. Few things can be said to be impossible, but forging this signature is one that is very near impossible.

I won’t get into specifics on this as it’s a very complicated topic. But basically anyone, even you, can get a tool that will verify that whatever I’ve put inside the PGP block is in fact, beyond a shadow of a doubt, from me and me alone.

How the heck can that be?

Well, you’ll notice a garbled bunch of junk at the end of the signature. This is a special combination of what I’ve written and my personal key. The key is available from anywhere on the web, like here.

or…. even on this very page…..

Below is the garbled crap that makes up a tottaly uniqe signature that contains independantly verifiable information about me and me alone:

-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
Comment: Go to   http://caedis.net/gpg    for details on how to use this
Comment: Download: http://www.gnupt.de
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=L3v/
-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

That MESS can be given to a special PGP tool that can then be given a document I’ve signed to verify that I in fact signed it….

Well couldn’t anyone just change what you said and make this:

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

This is some message I've written. Etc... etc... etc..
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: http://firegpg.tuxfamily.org

iD8DBQFIDuTzenKlZFsAAswRAqMkAJ9bpWgDzMawFoTnqPcRC2TJ9Jio9wCaAmyT
YSw5eouHFQ4kpwobo3CreW0=
=uosj
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

into this??

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Brandon is a moron and knows nothing!! HAH!
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: http://firegpg.tuxfamily.org

iD8DBQFIDuTzenKlZFsAAswRAqMkAJ9bpWgDzMawFoTnqPcRC2TJ9Jio9wCaAmyT
YSw5eouHFQ4kpwobo3CreW0=
=uosj
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

Well… no!! Thats just it, a tool that reads these things takes what my message was and compares it against what my signature/message blendy thing (garbled crap at the bottom) says. if even ONE space or period is out of place… the verification fails. No way around it.

So, when you see this trash on my posts, pages, or whatever… your browser isin’t messing up, it’s supposed to be there!

If you’d like to try this out I would invite you to get Firefox and pick up the FireGPG addon. This is the “tool” I was talking about. I realize that this is a very advanced topic to be talking about. But the people that care will pursue this and the ones that don’t at the very least, will know whats going on.

But anyway, the directions to get GPG up and running are on FireGPG’s Website. If you have Linux, GPG is already installed, but on Windows they give you a link to use on the website under the install page.

congrats! You just got a little smarter, enjoy!

Oh, and this is how a nerd says he loves someone ;D

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

I love you Stephanie Freeland!!
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: http://firegpg.tuxfamily.org

iD8DBQFIDvFNenKlZFsAAswRArJQAJ4yDftY4o9llj0hY99pj/yP2hyYCgCgiTwH
n1eeXwdB7J4jVBQdC5BcGkQ=
=oZlw
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

Now, I can’t set here and say that I am just this perfect person that never has pirated. When I was in grade school I would pirate literally hundreds and hundreds of gigabytes of data using a broad spectrum of sources that ensured I would always get what I want, no matter how obscure. I haven’t forgotten any of my tactics, but I choose not to use them. Why? Because, quite frankly, it’s wrong. It’s not what got meant when he said, “People do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his appetite when he is hungry” -link The only time I pirate now, is when content is no longer valuable to the author, or the author no longer offers the content for purchase or download. Such has been the case of some very old computer games I acquired several months ago that are no longer for sale or in stores, heck I couldn’t even find them on Ebay. That’s the only time I would think it’s okay, because, in a sense, it’s not theft at that point, its more like archeology. The person or company that made it is ancient history and you just have to find it lying in the proverbial sand in order to get it.

When I enjoy software, I make a point to pay for it

Given all of my past history as a pirate, I think I can really say with all confidence that piracy really is not justified except in circumstances where cost is not a factor anymore. If it’s costing someone when you pirate something, I think it’s wrong. Having been on both sides of the fence on this, I don’t see any reason why people would pirate anymore except that they are either too cheap to pay for what they want, or they are just narcissistic jerks that are so self centered that they can’t get their heads out of the sand and see for a second that their actions effect people in a bad way. Forgive me if I sound a bit harsh, but I’m truly tired of the argument’s advocating piracy, “They charge too much”, “They don’t deserve the money”, “I don’t want to support that organization, I could care less if they make a dime” the list of excuses goes on.

Look, if you don’t want to support an organization, don’t use their products. Take me for instance, I don’t want to support Microsoft’s bid to spread it’s closed source OS around, so what do I do? I only buy products from Microsoft that I want to continue. I buy their MCE, Xbox, and some of their video games because I believe in those products and want them to continue offering them, but I don’t buy their OS and much of their other hardware. I alone can’t effect change too huge, but if other people do the same, REAL change happens. Change for the better wont happen with piracy, only more restrictions like DRM. Piracy isn’t a victimless crime, because you the consumer are the one who suffers.

Guild Wars Plays like a dream in Linux

Linux, and more specifically Ubuntu Linux, has come a long way in a short period of time. Many game developers and freelance Open Source coders are making major strides in gaming tech for us Linux gamers, opening the door on a hidden market that seemed impossible to get into. Much of this success can be attributed to the many developers and supporters of the Wine Project a compatibility environment for Linux that allows Windows programs to run seamlessly in Linux. Wine is actually an acronym that, ironically enough, stands for “Wine Is Not and Emulator.” This is true of it when you launch a program in Wine. It actually runs the program like any other Linux program and as you can see in the many screen shots on the Wine AppDB, the programs are indistinguishable from their Windows installed counterparts. The applications to Linux gaming are limitless with this technology.

WOW Linux does play WoW!

When someone wants to play a game such as the popular MMORPG World of Warcraft(WoW), they can simply insert the install disk and click install in the WoW installer dialog. The installer looks identical to the same install running in Windows and the game runs at the SAME SPEED. Of course there are a few caveats. For one, your graphics drivers have to be the official ones. Ubuntu can support most if not all graphics cards made in the last 3 years including the latest generation of Nvidia graphics cards, but the built in drivers (GLX) are only able to take advantage of a percentage of the speed that the card can pump out. To use the latest drivers you must go to the Nvidia site and download the latest Linux drivers. You must uninstall the GLX drivers and run the Nvidia installer from command line the first time. The installer automatically compiles the drivers for your version of Linux and starts them up. You should see a very attractive Nvidia logo when you start your Linux powered system from now on, in addition you have the same Nvidia control panel you’ve grown to love in Windows.

That’s it! You can now play your games at full speed the same way you’ve grown to love them in Windows, now on Linux.

Even our beloved Counter-Strike:Source works beautifully in Linux

Granted I did leave some exact steps out and install instructions vary occasionally for some games,but doing a simple Google search for “<your game name> Ubuntu” should yield a wealth of community created step-by-step how-to’s that can make even the most daunting fix seem very simple and procedural. Gone are the days when the only people that could use Linux were geeks and hackers. My fiancée uses Ubuntu Linux on her Dell Laptop and she loves it to death. The one thing I have to tell people when they first start out with Ubuntu is that “it’s not harder to use, it’s just different.” If your used to things being in one place on Windows, just because they aren’t in that place on Linux doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist. Give it a month, a good, solid month of nothing but Ubuntu Linux and I guarantee that you will be as at home as you were with Windows, if not more. You CAN play your games on Linux, many times they play better than Windows because of all the improvements in Linux. Not having to run a virus scanner, pop-up blocker, spyware removal tool, defragger, and application skinner WILL take a load off your CPU, freeing it for faster games. And best of all, since Linux is more stable than Windows you’ll be able to install and configure your games they way you like them one LAST time since the chances of having to reinstall the OS after a catastrophic hard drive failure or massive virus outbreak are slim to none.

iTunes does have a dark side, DRM

So you have your nice new iPod or iPhone, you want some music for it, you just jump on iTunes and with a click, you have your new song. Later you stop off at the store and while looking through the games section you see that new game that just came out called “Spore” made by the popular game publisher EA. You pop it in your computer at home and install it, happily making new worlds and having a great time listening t your music. What do these two things have in common? DRM.

What is DRM?

DRM or Digital Rights Management is a new trend that were starting to see in the marketplace and mass media. It’s software that requires you to have a special permission to use whatever it is that you bought. It’s designed to prevent software piracy. I know what your thinking, “so what! It works doesn’t it?” Well, yes and no. It works, for now. Most DRM only allows you to use it on a few or just one device/computer. This means that if you want to take it elsewhere or to something else that the DRM decides for you that it doesn’t want you to use, your screwed. So if you bought your music on iTunes you cant use it on anything else but a iPod or iPhone. So if you want to play it on your new Zune, or PSP, or XBOX, again, your screwed. And since you bought this DRMed music, you agreed to Apple’s iTunes music store rules that basically allow them to take away your rights to play the music. So the music you bought can be taken away from you. You payed the cash, but because of DRM, it’s never really yours to keep.

Cute and cuddly, but sadly locked down

Moving on the video game example. EA’s Spore incorporates DRM that only allows you install it on three computers before it basically self destructs and prevents it from being installed anywhere else no matter what. If your like me, you like to format your system and tinker with it, if you happen to need to reinstall after a virus or failure, and you hit that last activation, you guessed it…. your screwed. You have to actually go buy another copy of the game you already own, just to play it.

Here’s my problem with DRM.
It solves nothing, software pirates are going to break past the DRM in a heartbeat. The only people this hurts are the people that are being honest. The person paying for the content doesn’t need to be punished for doing the right thing. They should be rewarded. Instead, we make them jump through hoops to simply get what they paid for, makes a lotta sense doesn’t it? I didn’t think so either. So why do they make more and more software DRMed? It’s the sign of the fact that software and music publishers are out of touch with their customers. In the real world, when people find out about this trash, we want out. I mean, who wants a corporation telling them when where, and how they are allowed to use their own property.

How can you combat this issue?

Simple, only buy non-DRMed content. Lately there has been a number of great options on where to get music. I personally use Amazon.com’s Amazon MP3 service that allows a person to download 89 – 99 cent songs or entire albums. It downloads the music straight to your hard drive as a non-DRM MP3 file. You can use it as easily on your iPod as you can on your XBOX, PSP, or even Blackberry, or other MP3 enabled phone. Below are a few DRM free websites that you can use in place of iTunes.

Amazon MP3

Napster

Rhapsody

I ask to you this, Mr. Bill Maher, if a question that you sat around thinking up all day to stump a man of faith works, does that mean the mans whole faith is a sham? Or does it mean that we are human? Are you, in fact, tricking a man or tricking a God? In addition, if you interview a group of people smaller than the size of the attendance of a junior high basketball game, will that group of people be representative of an entire race of people?

The questions are simple. But they bring to bare the whole movies premise, round up random people and try to make them look foolish with carefully worded questions that no one can answer. Perhaps we should round up a bunch of random people to ask them why comedians and actors are the self-appointed political activists of our time? What gives a person who acts or tells jokes for a living the license to say the things they do on the silver screen and TV? Why do we give credence to what they have to say?

All these questions point to one grim and solitary fact. We live in a new age Babylon, or Sodom and Gomorrah. A society wracked with incest, greed, sloth, idolatry, corrupt leaders and a sea of two faced liars. Our planet has few places not scarred by this. We try to fix the external but it never works. The internal must be fixed before the external can follow in turn.

A world without God

If we don’t have a God that loves us, if we don’t have anything more than the here and now, then what’s the point, why do we even try. We should just go back to doing what we do best, looking out for our own selves and forgetting about the weak and helpless. If people slow us down, leave them. If God isn’t real, then Hitler had a good point. If Jesus never died for our sins, then why have remorse, it can’t change anything. Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war, because if this is the only thing we have, we should milk it for all we got and ditch anything that slows us down. No compassion, no mercy, no real love, no grace. But, God as my witness, I KNOW we have a God that loves and cares for us, I KNOW that Jesus Christ died and was raised for our sins. We DO have hope, there is a way to grace, there is a reason we have compassion, hope, bravery, faith, and real love.

The Bill Maher’s of the world speak out against the only thing that gives the world a reason for existing. If they got the world they believe exists, one without God, then there would be no law except the sword. Where do we get our sense of ultimate justice? The rule of law as it exists now wouldn’t have come to pass if God hadn’t inspired Moses with the Ten Commandments. If God doesn’t exist then someone could easily put a gun to our heads and pull the trigger, because we are no better than the animals that surrounds us without God. We evolved from monkeys so we’re basically animals, if that’s the case we should discard the elderly and sick, because they don’t contribute to furthering our existence. We should disband marriage totally, since marriage is a union of two souls under God. If there is no God, then there is no union, all men must now attack women and essentially rape them in the street so that we can spread our genes out, survival of the fittest.

Does this sound like a world you want to live in? True, each aspect does happen to a degree already, but imagine a world where the Ten Commandments never existed and we had no regard for human life. Where morals are never thought of except as a comedic piece. This is the world that Religilous believes we should have. Because Religilous would have you believe that all of this existence is merely chance, and we are animals, no better than maggots that feast on the remnants of life.

Is Religilous based on truth? I submit to you unequivocally that it is not. I choose real living.

Decide for yourself, but be careful, you only get one shot at this life.

Image courtesy of Addonemore

For me the question, “What does it mean to be human” has evolved. At first it meant that I’m here to live and replicate. For the first 18 years of my life that was as deep as I was. It was a meaningless existence. I truly believed in the deepest part of my soul that I was a flash in the pan. I’d go die for my country or something. I honestly thought I’d live to my late 20′s. My life took a downward turn when I got to college and has yet to return.

When I say down, I mean an emptying of myself. What is it to be human? The answer is simple to me now. It means I am here to serve God. I am here to spread the love of Jesus to the world. I am here to love mercy, do justly, walk humbly, with Jesus. For many this idea is classified as a cold and repugnant word, “Religion.” I believe this is a misnomer. It is a way of life, it is a higher calling than what we see. I believe, no… I know… that life becomes easy to explain. The humanities become a sad display of man’s attempt to describe an existence that is easy to understand, but hard to believe.

To be human is to fail, but to lift back up. Being human is to be hateful, but to redeem. Being human is to be both a imperfect husk of the earth, riddled with anxiety, doubt, anger, frustration, temptation, and to also have love, hope, justice, compassion, beauty, understanding, and most of all… Grace. In short, when you are truly human, you are both of this world, and not. You have both the spirit of God and the salt of the earth in one being.

Image courtesy of 173rd Airborne Division

For me this understanding did not come over night. I had to fall on my face, be tormented by my faith. I had to question if God was real. I still do to some extent. To ask me what it means to be human is a ever changing question. It changes in the form of a irregular wave. The assertiveness of the answer tends to fade as my understanding of myself changes. In no way would I call this a set answer. But of what I’ve seen of life thus far. My answer is very solid, and its a better answer than any answer I’ve seen yet. It is an answer that has no hidden meaning, it has no room for fault, it has no room for loss. Where other answers fall short, my answer, God’s answer, only unfolds with time. Even as I type this I feel my faith being galvanized with the reminder of past failures and successes in God. Make no mistake, my answer to the fundamental question is not an easy one. It is hard to accept, and it is hard to follow once accepted. The walk with God is a hard one. Do not follow God if you are not prepared to be shot at with all manner of ammunition. Words, fists, broken hearts, loss of heart, self doubt, hatred against you, and sometimes, actual bullets.

What does it mean to be human? It means you must be a warrior, capable of taking bullets, and it means you must return fire with love. The opposite reaction to what is normal in nature. What must we do? We must love mercy, do justly, and walk humbly with God.

Because buying shoes never made me want to buy Windows until now!

The key difference between the Microsoft ads and the Apple Switch ad’s is that they project separate moods. The Apple ad creates a upbeat humorous mood that makes light of the weaknesses of Windows without being over the top about it. Whereas Microsoft’s ad’s give off this disingenuous mocking feel. I always feel like I’m a low peasant when watching the everyday people freak out and act weird around the two king-like figures of Gates and Seinfeld touring the kingdom. It’s feels more like an advertisement against Microsoft than for. Leave it to Microsoft to hit another one out of the park.

All of this may be for not, according to a rumor circulating around the web. It seems that Microsoft may pull the plug on the ad campaign after only a few weeks in circulation. This would be, of course, in response to how poorly the campaign was received. Not only did they wait almost 2 years to say something in response to Apple’s ads but they also responded in an ineffective and disjointed way that seems to have little to do with anything. All of this remains speculation at this point, but Microsoft says it was part of the plan all along. We most defiantly will see how this debacle shapes up.

Mark Shuttleworth

Mark Shuttleworth said in a recent news release that he wants to make Ubuntu on par with Mac OS “within two years.” Hes decided to hire developers to “work on X, OpenGL, Gtk, Qt, GNOME and KDE”. This means that instead of having a split vision on what should be done where, and having a very mixed experience with the GUI in Ubuntu, one can enjoy a single , clean OS. This doesn’t mean however that his team will take monopoly of the OS. Rather, his team wants to fix problems quickly, and improve the OS while keeping the distinct open source view on the whole project. He says that his company, Canonical, has always released code under GPLv3 and one could only assume that would be the case with the new UIs especially since the projects they are working with are, themselves, open source. Ubuntu is, and will remain free of charge.

What does this mean for us? It means that the two supposed giants of the personal computer market, Apple, and Microsoft, will be forced to get off their complacency (especially Microsoft) and bring about some kind of change in response to this upstart called Ubuntu coming in and making a very compelling user experience free of charge and open for development by anyone. Think of an Apple-like company without DRM on its major products, think of an ad on TV about an operating system that dosen’t have 50,000 versions all of which cost over $100. Canonical will create more competition in the marketplace and thus, benefit the consumer greatly. Just as the iPhone created a paradigm shift in cell phones because it forced cell phone manufacturers to get off their butts and make something that we actually want to buy.

This also means that the potential is here for some major improvements in Linux gaming. If the claims from Shuttleworth are accurate, the team will be working to improve OpenGL support which, to date, has not been the best on certain hardware platforms like Intel. This could open the door for more laptops that couldn’t take full advantage of Ubuntu. One hopes this is the case as these are all issues that have plagued the open source community for years without any real solution.

“What is your opinion of Apple computers…a friend of mine has a chance to get one a really good price, but her family wanted your opinion, are there any other options? Also, she’s concerned about getting a virus what can we do about that?”

Well, it really does depend on the situation of the individual. One solution wont work for every person and therefore one operating system usually isn’t the fix-all for everyone. When I look at an OS for someone, I Like to start with Unix based OSes and work my way down to Windows. I use the following order when I look at this question: (I’ll explain why I do this)

1. Linux (Ubuntu)
2. Apple (Mac)
3. Windows (Vista)
4. Clay Tablet (Sumerian)

Apple (Mac/Macintosh) and Linux (Ubuntu) both are great Operating

Systems. You’ll be able to use all of your office applications just

fine. Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations,

all of them are easily created and viewable with the same ease on

Linux and Apple systems.

You may be asking “What’s this Linux and why does he like it more?”

Well, Linux and Apple are based off an old yet super powerful

Operating System called “Unix” So both Linux and Apple are strong and

reliable. One problem, Apple computers have always been much more

expensive than their Linux counterparts. Why? Advertising and Design.

Apple computers tend to look prettier and you see many more ads on

TV. So, it’s the same idea as when you choose NO-AD sun tan lotion

versus Coppertone, Dasani versus Wal-Mart brand bottle water, because

its the same stuff but costs less. Another difference is that Linux

itself is 100% Free, not because it’s a cheap OS, but because dedicated

programmers work for tips rather than commission. They love what they

do over at Linux (Ubuntu) so they work for the love of it rather than

the money. “Ubuntu is and always will be free of charge. You do not pay any licensing fees. You can download, use and share Ubuntu with your friends, family, school or business for absolutely nothing.” – Link

Reputable Linux computer sellers:

• System76
• Dell (Dell has a bad track record with laptops, only buy Dell if it’s your only choice)

Personally as a starter computer I don’t think you can go wrong with

Apple. You just gotta be willing to fork over the cash.

Apple and Linux use a different computer programming architecture that

makes them less of a target for viruses, but that won’t always be

the case as they catch on. More bad people will want to make viruses

for them as they become a more lucrative target.

BUT, the key difference is that safe computing practices will actually

make you safe from many viruses, whereas on Windows it will only

afford you some protection.

If you don’t want viruses no matter what OS you choose, follow my advice below:

• Never open attachments when you didn’t ask that person to send it,

or that person didn’t tell you they were sending it. (Yes you can get

viruses from your dear Granny Girtrude) Viruses send unsolicited email

to people all the time from family members.

• Never use HTML composition to send or receive emails, yes that means

you cant bold your text or send cool looking newsletters. But hey, if

we wanted to see a web page, just send us a link to the web. HTML

emails can send viruses EVEN IF YOU DON’T ATTACH ANYTHING. Just

VIEWING an infected HTML email gets you the virus.

• Always use some kind of Virus scanner, buying big fancy Norton or

McAffe is unnecessary, and usually produces the same results.

For Mac: ClamAV

For Windows: AVG

For Linux: (doesn’t get Viruses so no A/V needed)

• Always use Firefox with the “NoScript” addon to browse websites

(Available FREE for Linux, Apple, and yes, Windows too)

Get Firefox for your computer

After you get Firefox, get the noscript plugin for it

]]> http://caedis.wordpress.com/2008/09/18/buying-a-new-computer-qa/feed/ 1 Caedis 1 2 http://caedis.wordpress.com/2008/09/15/windows-vista-or-windoze-vista/ http://caedis.wordpress.com/2008/09/15/windows-vista-or-windoze-vista/#comments Mon, 15 Sep 2008 09:00:36 +0000 Caedis http://caedis.wordpress.com/?p=17 ]]>

Windows new Mojave Experiment has brought to the forefront what many of us have already known. Windows has issues! Now I should state coming in that while I did switch to Ubuntu Linux a long time ago due to my frustration with Windows, I am not a zealot that plugs his ears when people say something positive about Vista. I am willing to recommend it to people when the person’s situation and unique needs justify it. I confess that I was one of the Vista haters that never had anything nice to say about Vista and couldn’t see why anyone would use it. My point of view changed when my best man and long time best bud Trent got me to see things in Vista I hadn’t seen to that date.

For one, Vista makes a great Media center (DVR) that is hard to beat, even in my beloved Linux. MythTV is a strong DVR but it’s not as powerful in my opinion. Secondly it does have the lions share of the hardware market. Granted this is simply a factor of Microsoft’s anti-competitive tactics and a lack of understanding of the general public. But, I have to give Vista some love, not much, but some. That being said, the OS has some substantial setbacks that I believe needs to be addressed before I can stop thinking of it as the inferior OS to Unix derivatives.

1. Lack of true unprivileged user mode

Vista and it’s predecessors all at their core allow the user to modify whatever he or she wants. When the user is confined to a so called “limited user” this essentially just gums up the OS and makes many simplistic tasks difficult. In addition there is proven exploits in the wild that dance around UAC and Limited users access settings. This is why the first thing you have to do with a windows system is put a virus scanner on it.

2. Lack of DEP compliance across the board

I know, I know, you can’t blame Microsoft for the stupidity of developers that code for Windows programs. But I have yet to see anything that resembles a push toward DEP compliance on Microsoft’s part. When a program is certified as being certified for Windows. (You know, that little sticker on software and hardware that you buy that has the Windows logo on it) Nowhere in it’s certification does Microsoft require it to conform to DEP, thus making the OS fundamentally and permanently unsafe. Viruses still exploit buffer overrun and underrun attacks on a daily basis. Yay.

3. Use of a dated and crumbling File system.

NTFS was a nice file system YEARS ago, now it is a old busted heap in comparison to Reiser and EXT3 file systems. Many Windows users are shocked to find that Linux based systems don’t need to be defragmented, a annoying chore of Windows clients. Nor do they need to run any check disk utility under normal circumstances. Reiser and EXT3 file systems don’t get fragmented and file system checks are run at every boot. The file system is kept at a very high level of efficiency 24/7.

4. Cramming it down YOUR throat

That’s right, Microsoft crams Windows down your throat at every turn and it’s hard to escape it. In the Mojave experiment link I gave at the begging of this page you were prompted to download something called Silverlight. What’s that? An attempt by Microsoft at making a highly Windows proprietary Flash replacement that will say to anyone not running Windows “Tooo bad, you don’t have Windows, screw you!” Linux, Debian, and yes, even Macs cannot use Silverlight, and, if Microsoft does what it usually do, they never will. When you get the new version of Office 2008 your suite will attempt to save as docx format. This is a new spiffy format that essentially prevents the document you just saved from being viewable on any other document viewer. Thus forcing you to buy Office 2008 when other open source solutions like Open Office are freely available and often work better (IMHO) Why? So they can cram it down your throat. These are just some of many examples of Microsoft’s expanding head syndrome that makes anyone else in the room feel cramped. And is why I still shy away from recommending Vista to computer shoppers and enthusiasts alike unless the situation demands it.

The problem I see with this Mojave Experiment is that it just underscores Microsoft’s incompetence in PR. The press for this OS has gotten so rotten that they have to literally trick people into using the OS, and now that they have acknowledged how terrible Vista’s PR is, they’ve reinforced peoples distaste for the OS. I’ll give an example, Little granny Gertrude down the street flips on her TV and sees that this Vista thing she’s heard so many bad things about (since she’s been computer shopping) has to trick people into using it. She’s either going to think “hey I’ll go to this Mojave page and see what’s going on”, OR she only sees people talking about what she heard her grandson talking about, that it is a bad OS. Do you think she will both to go to this Mojave page and find out, or, like most people, she’ll see the ad and see that it confirms what her grandson said since all these other people agree. I think the answer starts to get clearer as you think about it. In addition, if she were to miraculously go to this website on a whim she would find that the site has kicked off most of the video’s further confirming the negative stereotype of Vista. Thus, Microsoft has scored a coup de grâce for it’s very own OS, Vista.

-Caedis