Common Computer Problems And Possible Fixes

5 Ways to Kill Your Search Rankings & Their Solutions !!

2011-12-30T09:25:00.000-08:00

1. Website Redesign

Probably one of the most common situations that result in fluctuations in search visibility involve significant changes to a web site’s design, content, internal linking relationships and the new use Flash, Ajax or JavaScript for navigation. Search engines copy websites and the links between pages. Think of it as taking a picture of your site. If you change your site from what the search engine has a copy of, the new form might not include the same content, keywords and crawlable links.

The worst case scenario is when a company decides to redesign the website and over write all previous SEO work. Upon finding that search visibility has completely tanked, they call up the SEO agency and demand an explanation.

Solution: When significant changes are planned for the company website, work with your SEO to identify how the new design will impact search visibility. Have them map out and prioritize the implications of page layout, content and keyword usage, navigation, links and redirects.

2. New Content Management System (CMS)

Along the lines with a new website design, changing content management systems can create a lot of confusion for search engines. Many companies have had websites long enough that the legacy CMS used to launch the site no longer serves the needs of the organization. Large companies may find that the hodgepodge of CMS used by different business units and acquired companies is inefficient and a common content management system would better serve the organization.

A change in the CMS means a change in the templates that format web pages, navigation and oftentimes the URL structure of pages. It’s common that major changes in content are rolled out along with new website software and that can spell confusion for search engines. URLs that change can also create confusion. For example, web page file names that previously ended with .asp and now end with .aspx are perceived as completely different.

Solution: While the IT department or web developer will understand the importance of redirecting old URLs to their new counterparts, execution in a search engine friendly manner is another thing entirely. 302 vs. 301 redirects and mapping URLs when there is no logical page in the new system are essential. Identifying the top sources of inbound link traffic to pages and conducting an outreach program to get them to change the URLs other sites use to link to your site is a specialty area for link building SEOs moreso than IT. Simply put, make sure you have a SEO migration plan.

3. Loss of Inbound Links

In the SEO game content is King and links are the Queen. Or content is the Yin and Links are the Yang. Whatever the metaphor, links are an essential mechanism for search engines to discover pages and signal for ranking them. Companies that proactively acquire links organically, or that earn vs. buy the links, don’t have much of a problem in this area. The longer other websites link to your site, the better. But some sites may go offline temporarily or permanently. A blog may decide to remove it’s blogroll or a site may simply decide to remove links to your site. If you change your CMS as noted above, other sites that don’t know this will continue to link to your old URL format (.asp vs .aspx) and that will appear as a loss of links. If you buy links from other sites and they are detected by search engines, those links may be devalued of any PageRank. There are many reasons for link loss.

Solution: Active content creation, promotion and social participation are essential for building a significant and relevant inbound link footprint on the web. Those links will drive traffic and serve as a signal to search engines for ranking your content in the search results. The key is to monitor your link footprint on an ongoing basis using link building tools that will identify major fluctuations in inbound link counts. Then you can drill down to see where the link loss has occurred and see if you can do something about it. The best defense is offense, so make sure you have an active link acquisition in place so minor to moderate fluctuations in links will have little, if any effect.

4. Duplicate Content

Serving up duplicate content using different URLs confuses search engines. This can happen when sites use queries on a database to display lists of products in a category that can be reached multiple ways. Printer friendly versions of pages, other English language versions of pages or outright copying content from one website to another can all cause duplicate content issues. When an search engine is presented with multiple versions of the same content, it must decide which is the original or canonical version, since engines do not want to show the exact same thing to users in the search results. Anything your website does to make that process confusing or inefficient can result in poor search performance for your web site.

Solution: A professional SEO working with website content managers can help manage broader duplicate content issues for a company website and any microsites they’re publishing. With press releases, RSS feeds or articles that are syndicated, it’s a best practice to make sure the original is published on your site first, then to have any duplicates clearly link back to the original. Ongoing monitoring can also help with unintentional duplicate content issues caused by other sites scraping your site’s content.

5. You’ve Become a SEO Spammer!

As more content is published and promoted online, more websites are launched and more competition comes into the market, companies will be tempted to achieve the coveted first page listing at any cost. Many companies that succumb to this temptation do so because of seeing their competition get away with tactics that are clearly more aggressive and manipulative than search engines allow. Webmasters might see suggestions in forums (often disinformation) or get advice from others doing well in the disposable site, content monetization game.

Engaging in simple things like hidden keywords, redirecting pages to present one version to search engine bots and another to site visitors or publishing numerous copies of the exact same web site using search/replace keyword optimization can all result in negative effects. There are far more aggressive tactics considered spam than that of course, but SEO spam isn’t an area we work with and I’m not interested in promoting unsustainable, high risk tactics.

Solution: Understand the webmaster guidelines from each search engine: Google, Yahoo,Bing. Don’t violate those policies with the site(s) that are your bread and butter. If you must test, do so with other websites that are not going to affect your business. Rather than focusing on loopholes and exploits, be a better marketer and understand what your target audience wants, what influentials respond to and develop smarter, more creative marketing that can stand on its own to drive traffic and sales. Include SEO in those “UnGoogled efforts” and you’ll realize the added benefit of great performance from your website in search engines as well.

Do you have dropped search engine ranking stories to share? Is the Mayday update affecting your website? What have you done to avoid losing search traffic and sales?

How to access blocked websites – Top 10

2011-10-20T19:36:00.000-07:00

Before you try out any of the methods listed here, I suggest you install Firefox browser. For faster and smoother internet access, Firefox is the best browser available out there. When you are accessing proxy sites or similar sites ensure that you use Firefox not Internet Explorer.
Internet censoring is now everywhere. In my office Orkut is blocked since there was an Orkut virus scare. Countries such as China, Saudi Arabia etc. routinely block many websites. Interestingly entire blogger.com and similar blog sites were banned in India not long ago. So it is no wonder that many of us are looking for ways to access blocked websites.
Last week I did an investigation into the various methods available for bypassing website access restrictions. I have shortlisted them below as ” Top 10 methods to access banned websites”.
Top Ten methods to access banned websites
1. Use IP address – This is the simplest way to bypass domain name based access restrictions. Instead of the domain name such as www.webstuffscan.com use the direct IP address. To find the IP address use one of the free host to IP online conversion tools such as this.
2. Use Google cache – If you are not bothered whether the content is latest on a site, Google cache is best. Do a Google search for the site and then click on the cached link below the search results.
3. Use an Anonymizer – In this method you access a third party site which in turn routes your request to the required server. Some services provide URL encryption also. The problem is that most of these servers are no longer free. Do a google search for the latest list as this is a very dynamic area Following are some services which still works(free!),
Daily Best Links – Hides original URL and provides an array of access of options. The is one of the best free servers.
Anonymouse – This works, but URL is visible and hence may be blocked by the filtering software.
4. Use Online Translation Tools – In this method, we can use the translation service as a web proxy. Following are the best links I know of. Again Google is your best friend for more resources.
Altavista Babel fish – In the above replace www.webstuffscan.com with the site you want. You can also visit Babel fish site.
Google Translate – Similar to Babel fish.
5. Use Google Mobile search – Google mobile search works, but output may not be optimal. This is very similar to using a Web proxy.
6. Use a public Proxy server – There are many free proxy servers out in the Web. Note that in order to use these you have to change internet connection settings in Internet Explorer or whatever browser you use. This is one such list.
7. Get web pages via email – This is useful if you need a single Web page. Obviously accessing large files is not possible. Given below are some examples.
You can use SEND http://www.yahoo.com/ in the body of the message and send it to agora@dna.affrc.go.jp to retrieve yahoo.com home page.
You can also check out services at web2mail which includes web page subscriptions.
G.E Boyd has an extensive list of servers. Note that many in the list are no longer working.
9. Use Tor Distributed Proxy – Tor is an advanced proxy server using multiple anonymous servers for a single Web request. This requires an application to be downloaded and installed.
8. Your own proxy server – This is an advanced technique and is probably the best. This requires your own proxy server hosted either at your home or at a hosting service provider. You can enable SSL encryption and prevent any snooping on the content as well. Also put some access control, otherwise someone can find the service and misuse it (Trust me, there are many who are looking for such an opportunity!).
Use Apache Web server as proxy server – A bit complex setup.
Use Privoxy – – This is the recommended approach. Please see this page for more details.
Use PHPProxy as a Web Proxy – You can use PHPProxy to setup a Web proxy.
10. Use alternate content providers – When everything fails, you can use alternate service providers. For example if Gmail is blocked at your place, you can take another obscure mail address and enable email forward at Gmail.

Accessing Blocked Websites – Use your own proxy server at home!

2011-10-20T19:34:00.000-07:00

I will look at setting up a Http proxy server on a Windows XP machine. Please note that this article won’t be covering the case when you use proxy server or WiFi at home. I will be writing another post about such scenarios later.
Step 1 – Download and install Perl distribution
Download Windows x86 version of Active Perl from ActiveState site. Install with default configuration except the directory which I recommend to be set to “C:\usr\”.
Step 2 – Download and install Apache server
Download latest Apache server for Windows (2.2.3 as of today) from http://httpd.apache.org/. Install it under any folder with port 80 as the HTTP port . Setting port to 80 is important since most corporates only allow port 80 access. If you get any error in binding to port 80, probably you have something else listening on it.
Step 3 – Configure Apache server
Now we need to configure Apache to enable CGI.
Locate #AddHandler cgi-script .cgi in httpd.conf (located inside apache subfolder conf) and remove the hash(#) in front.
Locate the “you set DocumentRoot to” string in httpd.conf. Under that you will see Option directive. Change it to Options Indexes Includes FollowSymLinks SymLinksifOwnerMatch ExecCGI MultiViews
Step 4 – Download and install CGIProxy (nph-proxy)
Download CGIProxy (nph-proxy) from http://www.jmarshall.com/tools/cgiproxy/nph-proxy.cgi.txt. Rename the file to nph-proxy.cgi and copy it to Apache’s document root (htdocs). Now change the first line in nph-proxy.cgi to #!C:\usr\perl\bin\perl.exe
Start Apache from the bin folder (httpd.exe). Now open a browser session and point to http://localhost/nph-proxy.cgi.

Find the IP address of your home connection. This can be viewed by typing ipconfig on the command prompt. Now from the office machine access http://IP ADDRESS/. You should see the proxy form which we saw above. Happy orkutting!
Note : This will need more steps if you have a WIFI network at home (port forwarding). I will cover these issues in the next post.

How to Access Blocked Websites, Unblock Restricted Sites

2011-10-20T19:30:00.000-07:00

Most of the blocked or blacklisted sites in Saudi Arabia are about sex, religion, women, health, politics and pop culture. They even block access to websites that sell swimming or bathing suits. In China, websites that talk about sex, Tibet or Democracy are blocked.

Social sites that are often blocked include Google News, Typepad, ebay, Blogger blogs, YouTube, Facebook, Bebo, Myspace, Orkut, MySpace, Pandora, Bebo, Photobucket, Yahoo! Messenger, AOL AIM, Flickr, last.fm, etc.

There are always legitimate reasons to bypass the internet filters and unblock websites. The following tricks will show how to access all websites at school, college, offices or at home.

1: To access blocked website, type the IP number instead of the URL in the browser address bar. However, if your blocking software maps the IP address to the web server (reverse DNS lookup), the website will still remain blocked.

2: Use a URL redirection service like tinyurl.com or snipurl.com. These domain forwarding services sometimes work as the address in the the url box remain the redirect url and do not change to the banned site.

Access Google Talk Chat or GMail in Office

3: Use Google Mobile Search - Google display the normal HTML pages as if you are viewing them on a mobile phone. During the translation, Google removes the javascript content and CSS scripts and breaks a longer page into several smaller pages. Google Mobile

Use Mobile browsers as proxy to open restricted websites

4: Enter the URL in Google or Yahoo search and then visit the cached copy of the page. To retrieve the page more quickly from Google's cache, click "Cached Text Only" while the browser is loading the page from cache.

5: There are anonymizer websites who will fetch the blocked web page from their servers and display them to you. As far as the service provider is concerned, you are viewing the page on the Anonymizer website and not the blocked site.

6: You can access blocked or restricted websites by using Yahoo Babelfish or Google Translate language tools as a proxy server.

You just have to invoke the Google translate service with the same language pair like English to English. Assuming that Google is accessible in your school, you should be able to access any website with this method - Babelfish Proxy Sever

Unblock restricted websites that require login

7: Anonymous Surfing - Browse the internet via free proxy server. A proxy server (or proxies) is a normal computer that hides the identity of computers on its network from the Internet.

Which means that only the address of the proxy server is visible to the world and not of those computers that are using it to browse the Internet. Just visit any proxy server with your Web browser and enter a URL or the address of the blocked website.

2011-07-23T10:05:00.000-07:00

How to Fix Computer Problems?

Problems with computer are basically divided into two groups, i.e., hardware problems and software problems. The hardware problems are related to the peripheral parts of the computer like the CD drive, hard disk, monitor, keyboard, etc. You can read more in detail about computer hardware basic information related to computer hardware troubleshooting. The software problems are more complicated. These problems include problems like modem problems, Windows not starting, drivers not found, etc. The first step to fix computer problems is computer problems troubleshooting. Understand what is causing the glitch and follow the standard procedure to solve the problem. The following are a few common computer problems and solutions to help you overcome the technical snag. You can read more in detail regarding:

Computer Hardware Repair and Maintenance
Computer Hardware Troubleshooting Tips and Tools
Computer Repair

Computer Problem # 1 ~ Computer Problems after Power Outage

Today there are many sudden power outages, voltage problems and spikes that can damage computers. These damages cause many technical and software snags and interrupt your work. This leads to loss of data, damage to the hardware, etc. due to sudden power outage. This is a common computer problem and solution to this trouble is use of uninterruptible power supply (UPS). The UPS can provide a constant flow of energy to the computer, even if you encounter a sudden power outage. This will provide you with ample time to save your data and shut down your PC, if needed. You can get some more idea on computer power supply unit in the article titled how to buy a computer power supply.

Computer Problem # 2 ~ Computer Performance has Slowed Down

You may notice your computer has slowed down considerably and even a simple command execution takes ages. This is because your computer is loaded with unnecessary files, fragmented data, corrupted registry, spyware programs, services, software, etc. that makes your computer slow down. Thus, you need to manage your programs and delete unnecessary data and software that you do not use or need, clean your registry regularly to help boost at least 30% of your computer performance speed. You can understand more in detail about what is a computer virus.

Computer Problem # 3 ~ No Sound from Speakers

You are in the mood to listen to some groovy music on your PC, but you get no sound from speakers, the solution to is to check the back of the computer and see if all the connectors are properly connected. The speaker or single stereo speaker plug should be put into the socket on the soundcard that has a mark Audio Out.

Computer Problem # 4 ~ Computer Monitor Displays Fuzzy Images

A computer monitor is the display unit of the computer that is sensitive to electro-magnetic radiations. These electro-magnetic radiations are transmitted from the TV, radio, microwaves, dishwashers, washing machines, speakers, etc. Mobile phones transmit electro-magnetic radiations that is one of the main cause of monitor displaying fuzzy images. Thus, move away these disturbances away from the monitor and this problem with computer monitor will be fixed. You can read more detailed solutions in the article on computer display problems.

Computer Problem # 5 ~ Computer Freezes with Blue Screen Hijacking Your Display

There are many problems that can cause your computer screen to freeze and blue screen to appear. This may be due to a spyware or computer viruses that have affected your computer. You need to update your anti-spyware and scan your computer for any viruses. If your computer is free from any such malicious software, then you may need to update your hardware drive. A hardware drive that is not updated may cause the CPU to lock up and interrupt working of the computer. If you find the problem cropping up even after a hardware drive update, then you may need to increase computer RAM. When you increase the RAM, the computing power increases and you will also be able to avoid the computer freeze.

Computer Problem # 6 ~ Computer Reboots Itself Again and Again

Another one of the many common problems with computer. In order to fix computer problem of rebooting itself again and again, you will need to check the hardware. You may have a faulty power supply, defective or dirty cooling fan, etc., that may cause the computer to reboot again and again. The dust that accumulates on the fan, makes it heat up faster and in order to cool down the computer automatically switches off. Thus, clean the fan and check for power supply. Following these simple steps will help you to solve this problems with computer.

Computer Problem # 7 ~ Computer Makes Strange Noises

Noises and vibrations from your computer are basically a hardware problem. Many electronic parts can make high pitch noises. You need to switch off your computer and unplug it from the power supply. Now remove the case from the CPU and restart your computer. Locate the origin of noise and then switch off the computer and unplug it. It may be a faulty fan, loose wire or screw. This means you will need to call the computer technician to help you solve your problems with computer, regarding these type of problems.

Computer Problem # 8 ~ Windows Having Problems in Shutting Down Properly

You may have come across the message 'Windows Shutting Down' instead of 'It is now safe to switch off you computer'. This is because a program has not unloaded itself properly that makes the computer insist to run a scandisk the next time you switch on. You need to close all the programs before your shut down your PC and if it is not done, the computer waits for the program to close. It may happen you get the message 'Do you want to shut this program down or wait' or you may not. When you don't get such a message it results in what we call the hanging of the operating system. The solution is not to install Direct X whenever you install a game. Most games have their version of Direct X that makes the files out of sync. Thus, install the latest version of Direct X and not the games version. You may need to also check USB devices, task schedulers, virus scanners, etc. and reinstall them if necessary. This will lead to correct installation and the problems with computer may reduce.

These were just a few common computer problems and solutions that you may encounter. You can avoid these problems if you are aware of the various steps needed for computer maintenance. You should read the manual given with computer before you begin using it. Yes, the manual may sound Greek to you, but its always better to know the simple precautions to be taken. Computer problems troubleshooting is not a easy task. You should be able to diagnose the problem to be able to correctly fix computer problem. If you do not understand anything or are still apprehensive about computer problem troubleshooting, then it is a better idea to consult a computer technician. You have many articles on the Internet that help you find solutions to various problems with computer. You do not need to be genius to diagnose and troubleshoot a simple computer problem. Many times a little bit of presence of mind and common sense will help you overcome obstacles of the technical world.

2011-07-23T10:04:00.000-07:00

So lets start discussing Common Problems and Their Solution

Task manager disabled

There are 2 ways to Solve This Problem Either you can use Regedit(registry editor) or Gpedit.msc(Group
Policy Editor)
Regedit Method
Step 1 Go to Start Open Run Window
Step 2 Type regedit Or regedit32
Step 3 Move to Hkey_Current_user\Software\Microsoft\Windows\current Version\Policies\System
Step 4 If It Doesn't Exist create it Click On Key and Create a new dword value called Disable Task manager With Value 0
Step Run the File Taskman.exe From C:\windows

Gpedit.msc Method
Step 1 Open Run Type gpedit.msc
step 2 in the Group Policy Setting window Select User Configuration
Step 3 Select Administrative Templates then Select System
Step 4 then Select ctrl+alt+delete Option
Step 5 Select Remove Task Manager
Step 6 Try Both option first Disable if It Works then okay either enable it
.

Windows Corrupted

It's a very common thing that happened many times after you Restart your pc or you start it Sometime it Show NTLDR Missing Or pc Unable To Boot Properly It get restarted
So what You Can do Is use Recovery Console by Which you can be able to Repair your Booting Problems
Recovery Console
Recover Console is the Feature of Windows200,xp,2003 Operating System. it Provides a mean for administrators to Perform some Cmd Lines,It is used to Repair Booting problems
You Can use Recovery console by two ways either Install It or use It from Xp disc

Installing Recovery COnsole

Step 1 Insert the Xp cd
Step 2 Click On start Then click On Run
Step 3 type X:i386\winnt32.exe /cmdcons

Here X refer to cd drive Volume name
Then Complete the wizard
now You dont need To insert disc For recovery console
but Sometime It Got Corrupted Then You Can use Xp Cd

2nd Way to use Recovery Console
you Can press R after /window Finished Loading files

Next Thing What Are The Commands Which you Can Use to Repair booting problems

Repairing NTLDR error

Copy X:\i386\NTLDRC C:
then type Copy X:\i386\NTDETECT.COM C:

Repairing Boot Problems
These 4 Cmds Will do your Work
Step 1 Type Chkdsk /p
step 2 Then type Fixmbr
Step 3 Then type Fixboot
Step 4 Then type bootcfg rebuild

DISK ERRORS

sometime When You enter Your drive it show an error like d: drive cannot be accessed
so to fix this error just follow these steps
step 1 open run
step 2 type cmd
step 3 in cmd windows type chkdsk /f /r /x
and let it do it wok after this you willbe able to access that drive
SECURITY DATABASE GET CORRUPTED

cause:hardware or software problem
rty this cmd ,first open cmd prompt using run and then type esentutl /r or esentutl /p

DRIVE IS WRITE PROTECTED

sometime we see that when we insert memory card or pen drive we see this error

solution::
Step 1 open regedit
step 2 open Hkey_local_machine\system\current version\service\usbstor
after locating it on right hand side panel you will see a dword value start
then modify the dword value
to disable enter this dword value 00000003
done now after reinserting the drive you will see write protection got removed

99 ways to make your computer blazingly fast

2009-02-19T04:58:00.000-08:00

Over the last several years working in IT for various companies as a Systems Administrator, Network Administrator, and Help Desk professional, I’ve written and learned about many ways to increase the performance of not only my PC, but also of the many PCs on my networks ranging from Windows 98 to Windows Vista.

In this article, I hope to compile a complete list of all the different methods and tricks that I’ve used to get the last bit of juice out of a slow PC. Whether you are using an old PC or the latest and greatest in hardware, you can still use some of these to make your PC run faster.

Note that since I write two blogs, Help Desk Geek and Online Tech Tips, I have previously written about many performance tips already which I will link back to throughout. If I have not written about it, I’ve throw in a link to a relevant article from some of my other favorite sites. This list is in no particular order, just written in the order that I could think of them.

There are probably a lot of great tweaks and performance hacks that I’ve missed here, so feel free to chime in with comments! Enjoy!

1. Defragment your computer hard disk using free tools like SmartDefrag.

2. You should also defragment your Windows pagefile and registry.

3. Clean up hard drive disk space being taken up by temporary files, the recycle bin, hibernation and more. You can also use a tool like TreeSize to determine what is taking up space on your hard drive.

4. Load up Windows faster by using Startup Delayer, a free program that will speed up the boot time of Windows by delaying the startup of programs.

5. Speaking of startup programs, many of them are useless and can be turned off. Use the MSCONFIG utility to disable startup programs.

6. By default, the size of the paging file is controlled by Windows, which can cause defragmentation. Also, the paging file should be on a different hard drive or partition than the boot partition. Read here on the rules for best paging file performance.

7. In Windows XP and Vista, the Windows Search indexing service is turned on for all local hard drives. Turning off indexing is a simple way to increase performance.

8. If you don’t care about all the fancy visual effects in Windows, you can turn them off by going to Performance Options.

9. You can optimize the Windows boot time using a free program called Bootvis from Microsoft.

10. Clean your registry by removing broken shortcuts, missing shared DLLs, invalid paths, invalid installer references and more. Read about the 10 best and free registry cleaners.

11. One of the main reasons why PC’s are slow is because of spyware. There are many programs to remove spyware including Ad-Aware, Giant Antispyware, SUPERAntiSpyware, and more.

12. If you have a deeper spyware infection that is very hard to remove, you can use HijackThis to remove spyware.

13. Remove unwanted pre-installed software (aka junk software) from your new PC using PC Decrapifier.

14. Disable unnecessary Windows services, settings, and programs that slow down your computer.

15. Tweak Windows XP and tweak Windows Vista settings using free programs

16. Disable UAC (User Account Control) in Windows Vista

17. Tweak your mouse settings so that you can copy and paste faster, scroll faster, navigate quickly while browsing and more. Read here to learn how to tweak your mouse.

18. Delete temporary and unused files on your computer using a free program like CCleaner. It can also fix issues with your registry.

19. Delete your Internet browsing history, temporary Internet files, cookies to free up disk space.

20. Clean out the Windows prefetch folder to improve performance.

21. Disable the XP boot logo to speed up Windows boot time.

22. Reduce the number of fonts that your computer has to load up on startup.

23. Force Windows to unload DLLs from memory to free up RAM.

24. Run DOS programs in separate memory spaces for better performance.

25. Turn off system restore only if you regularly backup your Windows machine using third party software.

26. Move or change the location of your My Documents folder so that it is on a separate partition or hard drive.

27. Turn off default disk performance monitors on Windows XP to increase performance.

28. Speed up boot time by disabling unused ports on your Windows machine.

29. Use Process Lasso to speed up your computer by allowing it to make sure that no one process can completely overtake the CPU.

30. Make icons appear faster while browsing in My Computer by disabling search for network files and printers.

31. Speed up browsing of pictures and videos in Windows Vista by disabling the Vista thumbnails cache.

32. Edit the right-click context menu in Windows XP and Vista and remove unnecessary items to increase display speed.

33. Use the Windows Performance Toolkit and the trace logs to speed up Windows boot time.

34. Speed up your Internet browsing by using an external DNS server such as OpenDNS.

35. Improve Vista performance by using ReadyBoost, a new feature whereby Vista can use the free space on your USB drive as a caching mechanism.

36. If you have a slow Internet connection, you can browse web pages faster using a service called Finch, which converts it into simple text.

37. Use Vista Services Optimizer to disable unnecessary services in Vista safely.

38. Also, check out my list of web accelerators, which are programs that try to prefetch and cache the sites you are going to visit.

39. Speed up Mozilla Firefox by tweaking the configuration settings and by installing an add-on called FasterFox.

40. Learn how to build your own computer with the fastest parts and best hardware.

41. Use a program called TeraCopy to speed up file copying in Windows XP and Vista.

42. Disable automatic Last Access Timestamp to speed up Windows XP.

43. Speed up the Start Menu in Vista by hacking the MenuShowDelay key in the registry.

44. Increase the FileSystem memory cache in Vista to utilize a system with a large amount of RAM.

45. Install more RAM if you are running XP with less than 512 MB or Vista with less than 1 GB of RAM.

46. Shut down XP faster by reducing the wait time to kill hung applications.

47. Make sure that you have selected “Adjust for best performance” on the Performance tab in System Properties.

48. If you are reinstalling Windows, make sure that you partition your hard drives correctly to maximize performance.

49. Use Altiris software virtualization to install all of your programs into a virtual layer that does not affect the registry or system files.

50. Create and install virtual machines for free and install junk program, games, etc into the virtual machines instead of the host operating system. Check out Sun openxVM.

51. Do not clear your paging file during shutdown unless it is needed for security purposes. Clearing the paging file slows down shutdown.

52. If your XP or Vista computer is not using NFTS, make sure you convert your FAT disk to the NTFS file system.

53. Update all of your drivers in Windows, including chipset and motherboard drivers to their latest versions.

54. Every once in a while run the built-in Windows Disk Cleanup utility.

55. Enable DMA mode in Windows XP for IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers in Device Manager.

56. Remove unnecessary or old programs from the Add/Remove dialog of the Control Panel.

57. Use a program click memtest86 or Prime95 to check for bad memory on your PC.

58. Determine your BIOS version and check the manufactures website to see if you need to update your BIOS.

59. Every once in a while, clean your mouse, keyboard and computer fans of dust and other buildup.

60. Replace a slow hard drive with a faster 7200 RPM drive, SATA drive, or SAS drive.

61. Changing from Master/Slave to Cable Select on your hard drive configuration can significantly decrease your boot time.

62. Perform a virus scan on your computer regularly. If you don’t want to install virus protection, use some of the free online virus scanners.

63. Remove extra toolbars from your Windows taskbar and from your Internet browser.

64. Disable the Windows Vista Sidebar if you’re not really using it for anything important. All those gadgets take up memory and processing power.

65. If you have a SATA drive and you’re running Windows Vista, you can speed up your PC by enabling the advanced write caching features.

66. Learn how to use keyboard shortcuts for Windows, Microsoft Word, Outlook, or create your own keyboard shortcuts.

67. Turn off the Aero visual effects in Windows Vista to increase computer performance.

68. If you are technically savvy and don’t mind taking a few risks, you can try to overclock your processor.

69. Speed up the Send To menu in Explorer by typing “sendto” in the Run dialog box and deleting unnecessary items.

70. Make sure to download all the latest Windows Updates, Service Packs, and hot fixes as they “normally” help your computer work better.

71. Make sure that there are no bad sectors or other errors on your hard drive by using the ScanDisk orchkdsk utility.

72. If you are not using some of the hardware on your computer, i.e. floppy drive, CD-ROM drive, USB ports, IR ports, Firewire, etc, then go into your BIOS and disable them so that they do not use any power and do not have to be loaded during boot up.

73. If you have never used the Recent Documents feature in Windows, then disable it completely as a long list can affect PC performance.

74. One basic tweak that can help in performance is to disable error reporting in Windows XP

75. If you don’t care about a pretty interface, you should use the Windows Classic theme under Display Properties.

76. Disable short filenames if you are using NTFS by running the following command: fsutil behavior set disable8dot3 1. It will speed up the file creation process.

77. If you have lots of files in a single folder, it can slow down Explorer. It’s best to create multiple folders and spread out the files between the folders.

78. If you have files that are generally large, you might want to consider increasing the cluster size on NTFS to 16K or even 32K instead of 4K. This will help speed up opening of files.

79. If you have more than one disk in your PC, you can increase performance by moving your paging file to the second drive and formatting the volume using FAT32 instead of NTFS.

80. Turn off unnecessary features in Vista by going to Control Panel, choosing Uninstall a program, and then clicking on Turn Windows features on and off. You can turn off Remote Differential Compression, Tablet PC components, DFS replication service, Windows Fax & Scan, Windows Meeting Space, and lots more.

81. Install a free or commercial anti-virus program to help protect against viruses, etc. Make sure to use an anti-virus program that does not hog up all of your computer resources.

82. Completely uninstall programs and applications using a program like Revo Uninstaller. It will get rid of remnants left behind by normal uninstalls.

83. If you know what you are doing, you can install several hard drives into your machine and set them up in RAID 0, RAID 5, or other RAID configurations.

84. If you are using USB 1.0 ports, upgrade to 2.0. If you have a Firewire port, try to use that instead of a USB port since Firewire is faster than USB right now.

85. Remove the drivers for all old devices that may be hidden in Device Manager that you no longer use.

86. A more extreme option is to choose a faster operating system. If you find Vista to be slow, go with Windows XP. Switching to Mac or Linux is also an option.

87. One of the easiest ways to speed up your PC is to simply reformat it. Of course, you want to backup your data, but it is the best way to get your computer back to peak performance.

88. Speed up Internet browsing in IE by increasing the number of max connections per server in the registry.

89. If you use uTorrent to download torrents, you can increase the download speeds by tweaking the settings.

90. If you have a desktop background, make sure it’s a small and simple bitmap image rather than a fancy picture off the Internet. The best is to find a really small texture and to tile it.

91. For the Virtual Memory setting in Windows (right-click on My Computer, Properties, Advanced, Performance Settings, Advanced, Virtual Memory), make sure the MIN and MAX are both the same number.

92. If you search on Google a lot or Wikipedia, you can do it much faster on Vista by adding them to the Vista Start Menu Instant Search box.

93. If you have a custom built computer or a PC that was previously used, make sure to check the BIOS for optimal settings such as enabled CPU caches, correctly set IDE/SATA data transfer modes, memory timings, etc. You can also enable Fast/Quick boot if you have that option.

94. If you have a SCSI drive, make sure the write cache is enabled. You can do so by opening the properties of the SCSI drive in Windows.

95. If you have a machine with an older network card, make sure to enable the onboard processor for the network card, which will offload tasks from the CPU.

96. If you are using Windows Vista, you can disable the Welcome Center splash screen that always pops up.

97. If you already have anti-spyware software installed, turn off Windows Defender protection.

98. If you are running a 32-bit version of Windows and have 4GB of RAM or more, you can force Windows to see and use all of the RAM by enabling PAE.

99. Buy a new computer!!! ;) Pretty easy eh?

I’m sure I have missed out on lots of performance tweaks, tips, hacks, etc, so feel free to post comments to add to the list! Enjoy!

windows xp tricks and hacks

2008-04-25T09:05:00.000-07:00

A)Remove the Recycle Bin from the Desktop

If you don't use the Recycle Bin to store deleted files , you can get rid of its desktop icon all together.

Run Regedit and go to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/explorer/Desktop/NameSpace

Click on the "Recycle Bin" string in the right hand pane. Hit Del, click OK.

B)How to Rename the Recycle Bin

To change the name of the Recycle Bin desktop icon, open Regedit and go to:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/CLSID/{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}

and change the name "Recycle Bin" to whatever you want (don't type any quotes).

C)How to Convert FAT to NTFS file system

To convert a FAT partition to NTFS, perform the following steps.

Click Start, click Programs, and then click Command Prompt.

In Windows XP, click Start, click Run, type cmd and then click OK.

At the command prompt, type CONVERT [driveletter]: /FS:NTFS.

Convert.exe will attempt to convert the partition to NTFS.

NOTE: Although the chance of corruption or data loss during the conversion from FAT to NTFS is minimal, it is best to perform a full backup of the data on the drive that it is to be converted prior to executing the convert command. It is also recommended to verify the integrity of the backup before proceeding, as well as to run RDISK and update the emergency repair disk (ERD).

D)Hide 'User Accounts' from users

Go to Start/Run, and type:

GPEDIT.MSC

Open the path

User Config > Admin Templates > Control Panel

doubleclick "Hide specified Control Panel applets"

put a dot in 'enabled', then click 'Show"

click Add button,

type "nusrmgt.cpl" into the add box

E)Keyboard Shortcuts

When speed counts, the keyboard is still king. Almost all the actions and commands you can perform with a mouse you can perform faster using combinations of keys on your keyboard. These simple keyboard shortcuts can get you where you want to go faster than several clicks of a mouse. You'll work faster on spreadsheets and similar documents, too, because you won't lose your place switching back and forth between mouse and keys.

Here are some of the most useful keyboard shortcuts:

Copy. CTRL+C
Cut. CTRL+X
Paste. CTRL+V
Undo. CTRL+Z
Delete. DELETE

Delete selected item permanently without placing the item in the Recycle Bin. SHIFT+DELETE
Copy selected item. CTRL while dragging an item
Create shortcut to selected item. CTRL+SHIFT while dragging an item
Rename selected item. F2
Move the insertion point to the beginning of the next word. CTRL+RIGHT ARROW
Move the insertion point to the beginning of the previous word. CTRL+LEFT ARROW
Move the insertion point to the beginning of the next paragraph. CTRL+DOWN ARROW
Move the insertion point to the beginning of the previous paragraph. CTRL+UP ARROW
Highlight a block of text. CTRL+SHIFT with any of the arrow keys
Select more than one item in a window or on the desktop, or select text within a document. SHIFT with any of the arrow keys
Select all. CTRL+A
Search for a file or folder. F3
View properties for the selected item. ALT+ENTER
Close the active item, or quit the active program. ALT+F4
Opens the shortcut menu for the active window. ALT+SPACEBAR
Close the active document in programs that allow you to have multiple documents open simultaneously. CTRL+F4
Switch between open items. ALT+TAB
Cycle through items in the order they were opened. ALT+ESC
Cycle through screen elements in a window or on the desktop. F6
Display the Address bar list in My Computer or Windows Explorer. F4
Display the shortcut menu for the selected item. SHIFT+F10
Display the System menu for the active window. ALT+SPACEBAR
Display the Start menu. CTRL+ESC
Display the corresponding menu. ALT+Underlined letter in a menu name
Carry out the corresponding command. Underlined letter in a command name on an open menu
Activate the menu bar in the active program. F10
Open the next menu to the right, or open a submenu. RIGHT ARROW
Open the next menu to the left, or close a submenu. LEFT ARROW
Refresh the active window. F5
View the folder one level up in My Computer or Windows Explorer. BACKSPACE
Cancel the current task. ESC
SHIFT when you insert a CD into the CD-ROM drive Prevent the CD from automatically playing.

Use these keyboard shortcuts for dialog boxes:

Move forward through tabs. CTRL+TAB
Move backward through tabs. CTRL+SHIFT+TAB
Move forward through options. TAB
Move backward through options. SHIFT+TAB
Carry out the corresponding command or select the corresponding option. ALT+Underlined letter
Carry out the command for the active option or button. ENTER
Select or clear the check box if the active option is a check box. SPACEBAR
Select a button if the active option is a group of option buttons. Arrow keys
Display Help. F1
Display the items in the active list. F4
Open a folder one level up if a folder is selected in the Save As or Open dialog box. BACKSPACE

If you have a Microsoft Natural Keyboard, or any other compatible keyboard that includes the Windows logo key and the Application key , you can use these keyboard shortcuts:

Display or hide the Start menu.
Display the System Properties dialog box. +BREAK
Show the desktop. +D
Minimize all windows. +M
Restores minimized windows. +Shift+M
Open My Computer. +E
Search for a file or folder. +F
Search for computers. CTRL+ +F
Display Windows Help. +F1
Lock your computer if you are connected to a network domain, or switch users if you are not connected to a network domain. + L
Open the Run dialog box. +R
Display the shortcut menu for the selected item.
Open Utility Manager. +U

Helpful accessibility keyboard shortcuts:

Switch FilterKeys on and off. Right SHIFT for eight seconds
Switch High Contrast on and off. Left ALT +left SHIFT +PRINT SCREEN
Switch MouseKeys on and off. Left ALT +left SHIFT +NUM LOCK
Switch StickyKeys on and off. SHIFT five times
Switch ToggleKeys on and off. NUM LOCK for five seconds
Open Utility Manager. +U

Keyboard shortcuts you can use with Windows Explorer:

Display the bottom of the active window. END
Display the top of the active window. HOME
Display all subfolders under the selected folder. NUM LOCK+ASTERISK on numeric keypad (*)
Display the contents of the selected folder. NUM LOCK+PLUS SIGN on numeric keypad (+)
Collapse the selected folder. NUM LOCK+MINUS SIGN on numeric keypad (-)
Collapse current selection if it's expanded, or select parent folder. LEFT ARROW
Display current selection if it's collapsed, or select first subfolder. RIGHT ARROW

F)Speed up viewing shared files across a network

Windows 2000 & XP machines delay as long as 30 seconds when you try to view shared files across a network because Windows is using the extra time to search the remote computer for any Scheduled Tasks. Here's how to prevent this remote search for Scheduled Tasks:
Open up the Registry and go to :

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Explorer/RemoteComputer/NameSpace

Under that branch, select the key :

{D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}

and delete it.

If you like you may want to export the exact branch so that you can restore the key if necessary. This fix is so effective that it doesn't require a reboot and you can almost immediately determine yourself how much it speeds up your browsing processes.

G)Make Use Of Your Windows Key

The Windows logo key, located in the bottom row of most computer keyboards is a little-used treasure. Don't' ignore it. It is the shortcut anchor for the following commands:

Windows: Display the Start menu
Windows + D: Minimize or restore all windows
Windows + E: Display Windows Explorer
Windows + F: Display Search for files
Windows + Ctrl + F: Display Search for computer
Windows + F1: Display Help and Support Center
Windows + R: Display Run dialog box
Windows + break: Display System Properties dialog box
Windows + shift + M: Undo minimize all windows
Windows + L: Lock the workstation
Windows + U: Open Utility Manager
Windows + Q: Quick switching of users (Powertoys only)
Windows + Q: Hold Windows Key, then tap Q to scroll thru the different users on your PC

H)

How to Lock/Hide Your Folder in Windows XP without Using Any Software?

2008-04-25T02:34:00.000-07:00

1. Maybe you want to try it out on an empty folder in case something goes wrong. So first create a folder in drive C , let say you name it as “my-secret-collection” ( LOL! ) without the quotes.
2. Next, open your command prompt ( Start > Run > type “cmd” in the Run box without the quotes )
3. Within the command prompt, type “attrib +s +h C:\my-secret-collection” ( again without the quotes )
4. This command will make your folder completely invisible and it can not be seen even in hidden files and folders. Try search for the folder, I am sure it returns no result. It’s cool right?
5. To make the folder visible again type “attrib -s -h C:\my-secret-collection”
6. And of course you can lock other folder too, by changing the location C:\my-secret-collection to address of your folder.

The 101 most useful websites

2008-04-23T10:58:00.000-07:00

TECHNOLOGY

1 Google

www.google.com

Map

Haven’t found what you’re looking for? Use our website guide to find the right information

The powerhouse of the internet and the only place many people go for information. But if you thought Google was a still a mere search engine, look again. Click on ‘more’ at the top of the homepage to discover the work of ‘GoogleLabs’ - more than 50 free tools and web pages that could change your internet life.

GoogleDocs lets you create documents, spreadsheets and presentations, store them online, share them with others and access them from wherever there’s an internet connection.

Googlemail is probably the best email program - it has virtually limitless capacity and you don’t need to change your email address to use it. The Google calendar is a powerful searchable diary that you can allow others to access, so family members can make appointments together.

SketchUp could be just the tool you are looking for to design that conservatory extension and see what it will look like once the builders have gone. Add to that databases for searching academic journals and books in the public domain, the powerful GoogleMaps, with its engaging satellite imagery, a finance page with live stock quotes and an easy-to-use online messaging system, and you can see why some people say Google is taking over the world - and, with GoogleMoon and GoogleMars, the rest of the galaxy, too.

2 Anonymouse

www.anonymouse.org

Surf the web without disclosing who or where you are.

3 iLounge

www.ilounge.com

Hints, tips and troubleshooting for your iPod and associated software.

4 Only2Clicks

www.only2clicks.com

If you use just a few websites, this lets you create a home page that has links to them all. Simple, free and practical.

5 Zoho

www.zoho.com

A suite of free business programs. From word processing and presentation software to tools for taking notes in meetings, planning projects and creating databases.

6 Backpack

www.backpackit.com

To-do lists, notes, ideas and calendar. Excellent for juggling projects and much more versatile than a ring folder.

7 GetNetWise

www.getnetwise.org

All you need to know about keeping the net safe - protecting children, preventing spam, avoiding viruses and stopping others accessing your personal details.

8 DaFont

www.dafont.com

More than 7,500 free fonts (for Mac and PC), so you can at last stop using Copperplate for your party invitations.

9 Pando

www.pando.com

The superfast way to send large files over the web. Don’t attach that family video to an email, Pando it instead.

10 FlipClips

www.flipclips.com

Turn your home videos into animated flip books. Much more appealing than another DVD.

ENTERTAINMENT

11 Digital Spy

www.digitalspy.co.uk

Entertainment, media and showbiz news. Plus, a surprisingly good forum for technology-related problems - a great place to sort out your broadband.

12 BBC iPlayer

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer

On-demand television and radio programmes from the BBC.

13 Whatsonwhen

www.whatsonwhen.com

Events, attractions, openings and exhibitions from around the world. Enter a location and dates and the site will show listings.

Up in lights: a guide to London’s Theatreland is online

14 London Theatre Guide

www.londontheatre.co.uk

What’s coming on and what’s making an exit in London’s theatre world. Especially good for seating plans, so you can see where the box office staff are putting you.

15 The Internet Movie Database

www.imdb.com

The world’s biggest (and still growing) reference for actors, directors, locations, plots…

16 Rotten Tomatoes

www.rottentomatoes.com

A round-up of what the critics thought of films on general release.

17 Screenonline

www.screenonline.org.uk

The British Film Institute’s definitive guide to the British film industry. Plots, features, statistics and news from the film world.

18 Good Reads

www.goodreads.com

Expand your reading. Catalogue your books online and others make recommendations based on what you seem to enjoy.

19 TV Guide

www.tvguide.co.uk

News, features and listings for Britain’s terrestrial and cable television. Customisable interface so your favourite channels are always at the top.

20 Football365

www.football365.com

The authentic (and often tangential) voice of the Britain’s ‘real’ football supporters.

21 CricInfo

www.cricinfo.com

Everything you want to know about the world of cricket.

22 Beijing Olympics

en.beijing2008.cn

The official Olympics site, with news, scheduling, features and a countdown to the games themselves.

23 Radio Locator

www.radio-locator.com

From shock jocks to orchestral baroque, thousands of internet radio stations to listen to on your computer.

24 Live Plasma

www.liveplasma.com

Expand your music and movie tastes. Enter the name of a song, band, movie, actor or director you like and Live Plasma will return some pretty intelligent recommendations for further investigation.

25 Blinkx

www.blinkx.com

A clever way of searching for video clips on the internet - from uploaded episodes of your favourite soap to comedy home-video moments.

26 Lulu

www.lulu.com

Self-publishing made smart again. Write, design and then print your own books - though you’ll still have to persuade others to buy them.

27 VideoJug

www.videojug.com

28 Wonder How To

www.wonderhowto.com

Two great sites full of short videos showing you how to do almost anything, from the incredibly useful (exercises for diabetes sufferers, tying a Windsor knot) to the revelatory (’learn different kinds of kisses’), via the wonderfully obscure (’make a moving jaw for your werewolf mask’).

29 Instructables

www.instructables.com

DIY projects from zombie make-up to LED balloons. Excellent selection of rainy-day projects for bored children (and adults) at home.

30 Flash games

www.k2xl.com

Addictive series of Flash games including the hypnotically soothing Boomshine.

Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

Stuck on Zelda? The Net can help

31 GameSpot

www.gamespot.com

News, reviews, hints and tips for virtually every console game on the market. Essential if you are still up at 2am trying to find a way into the castle on Zelda.

32 Anagrammer

www.anagrammer.com

Online anagram machine for Scrabble players and crossword enthusiasts. Also solves Sudoku.

ADVICE AND INFORMATION

33 Newsmap

marumushi.com/apps/newsmap

A wonderfully graphical - and customisable - display of news stories from around the world. Click on an item to see the full story.

34 The Eggcorn Database

eggcorns.lascribe.net

Continually updated guide to modern-day Malapropisms, misunderstandings and other manglings of language. From ‘high dungeon’ to ‘wreckless driving’, Eggcorn names the culprits and nudges them in the right direction.

35 Arts and Letters Daily

www.aldaily.com

World-class articles from intellectual and influential journals around the world. Browse the day’s selections. Like The Week for eggheads.

36 Ask Philosophers

www.askphilosophers.org

The academy comes to cyberspace. A panel of mainly American and British philosophy scholars answers questions sent in by the public. Search the database, from Abortion to War, or send in a question of your own.

Pilgrimage

Muslims on a pilgrimage to Mecca, but when is the Hajj?

37 When Is

www.when-is.com

Shows you the dates of Jewish, Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu and American holidays from now to 2010.

38 Rhyme Zone

www.rhymezone.com

For when the muse has gone, a rhyme and synonym generator to help you towards the perfect mot. You can also search for Shakespeare quotations, biblical references and other literary inspirations.

39 Nationmaster

www.nationmaster.com

Giant but easily searchable database of statistics, maps and profiles for every country in the world.

40 Digg

www.digg.com

The people’s approach to news and features, Digg brings together items from across the net, ranked according to how many people have felt them worth recommending. Sometimes a little techie-heavy, but excellent for discovering what the cyberworld is getting worked up about.

41 They Work For You

www.theyworkforyou.com

A powerful way of keeping tabs on MPs and peers: attendance records, voting patterns, recent statements and more.

42 Time Bank

www.timebank.org.uk

Volunteering opportunities for young people, sorted by region, interest, skills and need.

43 Wikipedia

www.wikipedia.org

Controversial, democractic and sometimes error-strewn encyclopaedia that has brought Darwinism to the world of knowledge. Make it your first port of call for looking something up. Just be sure to check somewhere else that what you find makes sense.

44 Wiktionary

www.wiktionary.org

Wikipedia’s online multilingual dictionary. Immensely powerful and far less controversial than its encyclopaedic forebear.

45 Motley Fool

www.fool.co.uk

The original - and still the best - personal finance site on the web (the American version is at www.fool.com). For savers, borrowers, stock spotters and day traders, sound, independent advice that cuts through the jargon.

46 Martindale’s ‘The Reference Desk’

www.martindalecenter.com

From the arts, business, science and technology, a dry but authoritative conglomeration of data from around the world.

47 PubMed

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed

Free and authoritative database of more than 17 million medical research papers. Not always easy to understand if you are not a medic, but a far better place to look for information than the random sites that come up on Google.

48 About.com

www.about.com

The internet’s version of that clever uncle who always seems to know the answer to your questions. There are few subjects the site doesn’t tackle, though the coverage can be superficial. A good starting point for idle research.

49 NHS Direct

www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk

Online information and advice about health and illness, run by Britain’s National Health Service. The site includes a useful self-diagnosis tool that can reassure you that your hangover is not in fact meningitis.

50 Legal Services Shop

www.freelawyer.co.uk

General legal advice relating to housing, family law, employment, motoring, consumer issues and personal injury, plus wills, conveyancing and divorce. Good starting point to see where you stand. Will also, for a fixed fee, answer questions and put you in touch with a solicitor.

51 How Stuff Works

www.howstuffworks.com

Engaging encyclopaedia of the modern (and not so modern) world, with good illustrations and clear text. Can suffer sometimes from an ‘it’s amazing!’ tone of voice..

52 XE

www.xe.com

Currency converter covering every world currency. Azerbaijan new manats to Cayman Island dollars? Just a click away.

53 Advice Guide

www.adviceguide.org.uk

Find where you stand legally with the Citizens Advice Bureau’s online information resource.

54 Need2Know

www.need2know.co.uk

Jogging

Need to know? Find out how to stay fit online

Advice and information for young people, including health and fitness, drugs, problems with bullying, how to study and applying for jobs.

55 Royal Horticultural Society

www.rhs.org.uk

Advice and suggestions from the world’s leading gardening organisation. A good ‘how-to’ section and seasonal tips for the time of year.

56 Babelfish

babelfish.altavista.com

Automatic translation to and from most European languages and Chinese. The results are sometimes a little strange, but you will usually get your message across.

57 eHow

www.ehow.com

How to do just about everything, from getting stains off curtains to buying a second-hand car.

58 Eat the Seasons

www.eattheseasons.co.uk

Updated weekly, information, tips and recipe ideas on British seasonal food.

59 Age Concern

www.ageconcern.org.uk

Website of Britain’s leading charity for the elderly, packed with advice about maintaining an active life.

60 Weather.com

www.weather.com

The queen of weather sites, with more information than you would possibly imagine you might need, from pollen counts to surf forecasts.

61 Uncyclopedia

uncyclopedia.org

Spoof Wikipedia-style encyclopaedia where nothing is true, but a good deal is very funny indeed. Idle away an afternoon or, even better, hone your comedy skills by making a contribution yourself.

62 Kiva

www.kiva.org

An easy way to lend small sums (from $25) to business projects in the developing world. Kiva keeps track of your investment, updates you on progress and repays your loan as the business grows.

63 Embarrassing problems

www.embarrassingproblems.co.uk

From bad breath and piles to cold sores and beyond, Dr Margaret Stearn dispenses invaluable advice.

HOUSE AND HOME

64 Noise Mapping England

www.noisemapping.org

Click on an area of the map to find out how noisy a street, or even a section of the street, is - handy for light sleepers planning a move. At the moment only London is mapped, but the rest of England will follow.

For sale signs

Banner ads: find out how much properties on your street have sold for

65 Prime Location

www.primelocation.com

One of the best sites for finding property. It is UK-based but has a good international presence.

66 Rated People

www.ratedpeople.com

User reviews on local tradesmen. You describe the job you need done and how quickly and suppliers contact you with quotes - with previous customers rating them.

67 Zoopla

www.zoopla.co.uk

Possibly the most dangerous site on this list, Zoopla gives sale prices of recently sold homes and - the tricky bit - estimates the value of the rest. We dare you not to look.

68 Money Saving Expert

www.moneysavingexpert.com

Subtitled ‘Consumer Revenge’, this is where you find the discounts, tricks and tips to save money. The weekly email is essential reading for canny consumers. It caters only for Britain, but every country should have one.

69 MetaEfficient

www.metaefficient.com

Practical guide to making your home more environmentally friendly, from low-flow showerheads to 12V lighting. US-based, but many of the products are available elsewhere.

70 Design My Room

www.DesignMyRoom.com

For budding Laurence Llewellyn-Bowens everywhere, it provides the ability to redecorate your home in cyberspace. Choose colours, furniture, accessories and finishes and then publish the results online.

71 Up My Street

www.upmystreet.com

Neighbourhood information based on postcode: schools, shopping and, juciest of all, how much the house down the road sold for recently.

72 Home For Exchange

www.homeforexchange.com

One of many sites where you can swap homes with someone else for a period. This is less cluttered than some of the others and has a good geographical spread.

73 SimplySwitch

www.simplyswitch.com

The fast way to compare utility suppliers and other services, from broadband to home insurance. Enter your postcode and the site comes back with the best deals.

74 101 Cookbooks

www.101cookbooks.com

Enchanting recipe and foodie blog from a Californian cook who believes in good food. Subscribe to the email alert service and transform your cooking repertoire.

SOCIAL

75 Facebook

www.facebook.com

The most grown-up (just) of the social-networking sites that are fast taking over the world. Excellent for staying in touch with far-flung friends, though pretty good too for re-establishing contact with those you hoped you had lost.

Pub

Good old days: who needs the pub when you can socialise online?

76 Wordpress

www.wordpress.com

The quickest and easiest way to create a blog of your own.

77 Ringsurf

www.ringsurf.com

Like an online Mothers’ Union meeting (though sometimes a little more risqué), Ringsurf is a chatroom where people exchange ideas about anything from politics to relationships. The quality is not always high, but users have been known to discover new (real-life) friends with interests they thought no one would share. A tribute to the information-sharing capability of the net.

78 bubbl.us

www.bubbl.us

Organise your thoughts by creating mindmaps online and sharing them with others.

79 Technorati

www.technorati.com

An intelligent, intuitive and inspiring way to read entries from some of the millions of blogs that dot the internet. You can browse by subject or area of interest, read the postings that are catching the world’s attention and bookmark blogs that catch your attention. And if you want to join in…

80 Flickr

www.flickr.com

The website you graduate to once you’ve discovered how to put your holiday snaps on the net. Here, everyone’s photos are linked by using tags, such as ‘Spain’, ‘beach’ or ‘happy’, which sets you off on an exploration of others’ uploads.

81 BabyCentre

www.babycentre.co.uk

There are plenty of great parenting forums out there - Netmums, Mumsnet - but this is still the best source of considered, authoritative, often soothing advice on everything from colic to tax credits.

82 Friction TV

www.friction.tv

YouTube for debaters. Upload a short video about an issue close to your heart and others reply in kind or by text.

SHOPPING

83 GiftGen

www.giftgen.co.uk

Gift ideas for when you can’t think what to buy someone. You enter their age, sex and interests and how much you want to pay and it scours the net for ideas.

84 eBay

www.ebay.co.uk

High street

Shopping on the high street, but better deals may be online

Online shopping for (nearly) everything you might want to buy. The original auction formula is still going strong, but plenty more features have been added since it began. Take a look at non-UK sites, such as ebay.fr and ebay.de, too, for bargains others may have missed. The layout is the same even if you don’t speak the language.

85 Who What Wear Daily

www.whowhatweardaily.com

Fashion tips, advice and suggestions. Includes Ask a Stylist for those tricky co-ordination problems and a What Was She Wearing? inquiry service to help you track down your favourite celebrity’s fashion choice.

86 Gumtree

www.gumtree.com

Unabashedly straightforward classified ads site, for everything from new homes to online romance.

87 AbeBooks

www.abebooks.co.uk

The Amazon of the second-hand book world. More than 13,500 booksellers selling 110 million books. If it’s not here, it’s not worth looking for.

88 Kelkoo

www.kelkoo.co.uk

There are plenty of price-comparison sites on the web, but this one seems to get it right more often than most. Type in what you want to buy and Kelkoo will come back with the cheapest prices it can find.

89 Endgadget

www.engadget.com

A (digital) finger on the pulse of the technology world. All the newest developments, discoveries, gadgets and toys - before they hit the shops.

90 Cork’d

www.corkd.com

Discover more about wine by reviewing what you’ve enjoyed and receiving tips and suggestions from others.

91 I Love Jeans

www.ilovejeans.com

Find the right jeans for your fit before you even leave home. A cheeky but revealing ‘body type’ guide takes you straight to the brand you should be trying. Search by style, body type or brand. Women only.

TRAVEL

92 Sky Scanner

www.skyscanner.net

Jumbo jet

Take flight: book your getaway from your own PC

Monitors prices and destinations for all the low-cost airlines so you just type in where you want to go and when to find the best deal.

93 The Man in Seat 61

www.seat61.com

Routes, tickets, tips and advice - the only guide you need to travelling by train from Britain to Europe and the rest of the world.

94 Walk It

www.walkit.com

Online pedestrian routefinder for London, Birmingham, Newcastle and Edinburgh that shows you the best route to walk from A to B. Includes calorie counter, CO2 savings and points of interest on the way. Other cities coming soon.

95 Transport for London Journey Planner

journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk

Indispensable and almost always spot-on guide to negotiating the capital’s public transport system. You enter your starting point and destination and it gives you the best bus, tube, cycle and even boat routes to get you across town.

96 ViaMichelin

www.viamichelin.com

A hi-tech hark-back to the days of leisurely motoring. ViaMichelin gives you maps, routes and directions throughout Britain and continental Europe with added panache. The maps have a pleasant printed quality about them and, naturally enough, your route is accompanied by gastronomic highlights to be found along the way. There’s also information about destinations.

97 Carbon Neutral

www.carbonneutral.com

Information on your carbon footprint and how to cut it down. Includes an online calculator to measure your effect on the world.

98 Expedia

www.expedia.com

Excellent all-round travel site. Use it for good prices on flights and holidays, but click on ‘Destinations’ for some well-researched and up-to-date travel guides.

99 SeatGuru

www.seatguru.com

Aircraft seating plans, showing you the prime seats, possible annoyances and seats you should avoid.

100 Airline Meals

www.airlinemeals.net

A consumer guide to what you can expect to eat on board. There are news and features from the airline catering world, but the best part is a gallery of photos of on-board meals sent in by passengers and listed by airline.

101 World Hum

www.worldhum.com

Travel writing with a twist. Click on the destination you have in mind and be prepared to be inspired. The site also offers tavelogues, news, books reviews, blogs and slideshows.

The Top 10 Ways to get screwed by the "C" programming language

2008-04-23T10:57:00.000-07:00

To get on this list, a bug has to be able to cause at least half a day of futile head scratching, and has to be aggravated by the poor design of the "C" language. In the interests of equal time, and to see how the world has progressed in the 20-odd years since "C" escaped from its spawning ground, see my Top 10 Ways to be Screwed by the Java programming language, and for more general ways to waste a lot of time due to bad software, try my Adventures in Hell page.

A better language would allow fallible programmers to be more productive. Infallible programmers, of the type unix' and "C" designers anticipated, need read no further. In fairness, I have to admit that the writers of compilers have improved on the situation in recent years, by detecting and warning about potentially bad code in many cases.

1. Non-terminated comment, "accidentally" terminated by some subsequent comment, with the code in between swallowed.

a=b; /* this is a bug
c=d; /* c=d will never happen */

2. Accidental assignment/Accidental Booleans

if(a=b) c; /* a always equals b, but c will be executed if b!=0 */

Depending on your viewpoint, the bug in the language is that the assignment operator is too easy to confuse with the equality operator; or maybe the bug is that C doesn't much care what constitutes a boolean expression: (a=b) is not a boolean expression! (but C doesn't care).

Closely related to this lack of rigor in booleans, consider this construction:

if( 0 < a < 5) c; /* this "boolean" is always true! */

Always true because (0
Or consider this:

if( a =! b) c; /* this is compiled as (a = !b), an assignment, rather than (a != b) or (a == !b) */

3. Unhygienic macros

#define assign(a,b) a=(char)b
assign(x,y>>8)

becomes
x=(char)y>>8 /* probably not what you want */
4. Mismatched header files

Suppose foo.h contains:

struct foo { BOOL a};

file F1.c contains
#define BOOL char
#include "foo.h"

file F2.c contains
#define BOOL int
#include "foo.h"

now, F1. and F2 disagree about the fundamental attributes of structure "foo". If they talk to each other, You Lose!
5. Phantom returned values

Suppose you write this

int foo (a)
{ if (a) return(1); } /* buggy, because sometimes no value is returned */

Generally speaking, C compilers, and C runtimes either can't or don't tell you there is anything wrong. What actually happens depends on the particular C compiler and what trash happened to be left lying around wherever the caller is going to look for the returned value. Depending on how unlucky you are, the program may even appear to work for a while.

Now, imagine the havoc that can ensue if "foo" was thought to return a pointer!

6. Unpredictable struct construction

Consider this bit packing struct:

struct eeh_type
{
uint16 size: 10; /* 10 bits */
uint16 code: 6; /* 6 bits */
};

Depending on which C compiler, and which "endian" flavor of machine you are on, this might actually be implemented as

<10-bits><6-bits>

or as

<6-bits><10-bits>

Also, again depending on the C compiler, machine architecture, and various mysterious preference settings,
the items might be aligned to the nearest 8, 16, 32, or 64 bits.

So what matters? If you are trying to match bits with a real world file,
everything!

Need another way to lose big? How about this:

Rect foo = {0,1,2,3}; // assign numbers to the first four slots

You may think you know what those four slots are, but there's at least an
even chance you'll have to discover the hard way if the structure ever
changes.

7. Indefinite order of evaluation (contributed by Xavier @ triple-i.com)

foo(pointer->member, pointer = &buffer[0]);

Works with gcc (and other compilers I used until I tried acc) and does not with acc. The reason is that gcc evaluates function arguments from left to right, while acc evaluates arguments from right to left.

K&R and ANSI/ISO C specifications do not define the order of evaluation for function arguments. It can be left-to-right, right-to-left or anything else and is "unspecified". Thus any code which relies on this order of evaluation is doomed to be non portable, even across compilers on the same platform.

This isn't an entirely non controversial point of view. Read the supplementary dialog on the subject.

8. Easily changed block scope (Suggested by Marcel van der Peijl )

if( ... )
foo();
else
bar();

which, when adding debugging statements, becomes

if( ... )
foo(); /* the importance of this semicolon can't be overstated */
else
printf( "Calling bar()" ); /* oops! the else stops here */
bar(); /* oops! bar is always executed */

There is a large class of similar errors, involving misplaced semicolons and brackets.
9. Permissive compilation (suggested by James M. Stern)

I once modified some code that called a function via a macro:

CALLIT(functionName,(arg1,arg2,arg3));

CALLIT did more than just call the function. I didn't want to do the extra stuff so I removed the macro invocation, yielding:

functionName,(arg1,arg2,arg3);

Oops. This does not call the function. It's a comma expression that:
1. Evaluates and then discards the address of functionName
2. Evaluates the parenthesized comma expression (arg1,arg2,arg3)
C's motto: who cares what it means? I just compile it! My own favorite in this vein is this:

switch (a) {
int var = 1; /* This initialization typically does not happen. */
/* The compiler doesn't complain, but it sure screws things up! */
case A: ...
case B: ...
}

Still not convinced? Try this one (suggested by Mark Scarbrough ):

#define DEVICE_COUNT 4
uint8 *szDevNames[DEVICE_COUNT] = {
"SelectSet 5000",
"SelectSet 7000"}; /* table has two entries of junk */

10. Unsafe returned values (suggested by Bill Davis )

char *f() {
char result[80];
sprintf(result,"anything will do");
return(result); /* Oops! result is allocated on the stack. */
}

int g()
{
char *p;
p = f();
printf("f() returns: %s\n",p);
}
The "wonderful" thing about this bug is that it sometimes seems to be a correct program; As long as nothing has reused the particular piece of stack occupied by result.

11. Undefined order of side effects. (suggested by michaelg@owl.WPI.EDU and others)

Even within a single expression, even with only strictly manifest side effects, C doesn't define the order of the side effects. Therefore, depending on your compiler, I/++I might be either 0 or 1. Try this:

#include

int foo(int n) {printf("Foo got %d\n", n); return(0);}

int bar(int n) {printf("Bar got %d\n", n); return(0);}

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
int m = 0;
int (*(fun_array[3]))();

int i = 1;
int ii = i/++i;

printf("\ni/++i = %d, ",ii);

fun_array[1] = foo; fun_array[2] = bar;

(fun_array[++m])(++m);
}

Prints either i/++i = 1 or i/++i=0;

Prints either "Foo got 2", or "Bar got 2"
12. Uninitialized local variables

Actually, this bug is so well known, it didn't even make the list! That doesn't make it less deadly when it strikes. Consider the simplest case:

void foo(a)
{ int b;
if(b) {/* bug! b is not initialized! */ }
}

and in truth, modern compilers will usually flag an error as blatant as the above. However, you just have to be a little more clever to outsmart the compiler. Consider:

void foo(int a)
{ BYTE *B;
if(a) B=Malloc(a);
if(B) { /* BUG! B may or may not be initialized */ *b=a; }
}

13. Cluttered compile time environment

The compile-time environment of a typical compilation is cluttered with hundreds (or thousands!) of things that you typically have little or no awareness of. These things sometimes have dangerously common names, leading to accidents that can be virtually impossible to spot.

#include
#define BUFFSIZE 2048
long foo[BUFSIZ]; //note spelling of BUFSIZ != BUFFSIZE

This compiles without error, but will fail in predictably awful and mysterious ways, because BUFSIZ is a symbol defined by stdio.h. A typo/braino like this can be virtually impossible to find if the distance between the the #define and the error is greater than in this trivial example.

14. Under constrained fundamental types

I've been seriously burned because different compilers, or even different options of the same compiler, define the fundamental type int as either 16 or 32 bits.. In the same vein, name any other language in which boolean might be defined or undefined, or might be defined by a compiler option, a runtime pragma (yes! we have booleans!), or just about any way the user decided would work ok.
15. Utterly unsafe arrays

This is so obvious it didn't even make the list for the first 5 years, but C's arrays and associated memory management are completely, utterly unsafe, and even obvious cases of error are not detected.

int thisIsNuts[4]; int i;
for ( i = 0; i < 10; ++i )
{
thisIsNuts[ i ] = 0; /* Isn't it great ? I can use elements 1-10 of a 4 element array, and no one cares */
}

Of course, there are infinitely many ways to do things like this in C.

16. Octal numbers (suggested by Paul C. Anagnostopoulos)

In C, numbers beginning with a zero are evaluated in base 8. If there are no 8's or 9's in the numbers, then there will be no complaints from the compiler, only screams from the programmer when he finally discovers the nature of the problem.

int numbers[] = { 001, // line up numbers for typographical clarity, lose big time
010, // 8 not 10
014 }; // 12, not 14

Not convinced ? Try atoi('000010');
17. Signed Characters/Unsigned bytes.
C was forced into a consistency trap by including unsigned as a modifier for all integer types. On one hand, the fact that types char and byte are signed causes all kinds of problems - It is never intuitive that 128 is a negative number, and so very easy to forget. On the other hand, any arithmetic using low precision integers must be done very carefully, and C makes it much too easy to ignore this.

char s = 127;
unsigned char u = 127;
s++; /* the result is a negative number! Effectively overflow occurs, but no trap */
if (s if(s>127) { /* this can never be true */ }
if(u<0) { /* this can never be true*/ }

18. Fabulously awful "standard libraries" (suggested by Pietro Gagliardi)
The default libraries in C are leftovers from the stone age of computing, when anything that worked was acceptable. They are full of time bombs waiting to explode at runtime, For an example, look no further than the "standard i/o library", which, amazingly, is still standard.

{ int a=1,b=2;
char buf[10];
scanf("%d %d",a,b); // don't you mean &a,&b? Prepare to blow!
sprintf(buf,"this is the result: %d %d"); // putting at least 20 characters in a 10 character buffer
// and fetching a couple random vars from the stack.
}

Special ALT Characters

2008-04-23T10:36:00.000-07:00

To obtain an ALT Character:

1. Make certain that the
2. Num Lock key has been pressed to activate the numeric key section of the keyboard. Depress the 3. Alt key.
4. While the Alt key is depressed, type the proper sequence of numbers (on the numeric keypad) of the ALT code from the table above. Release the
Alt key, and the character will appear.

To obtain an ALT Character:

1. Make certain that the
2. Num Lock key has been pressed to activate the numeric key section of the keyboard. Depress the
3. Alt key.
4. While the Alt key is depressed, type the proper sequence of numbers (on the numeric keypad) of the ALT code from the table above. Release the
Alt key, and the character will appear.

2008-04-22T10:20:00.000-07:00

The information listed here is to assist Network Administrators in the color coding of Ethernet cables. Please be aware that modifying Ethernet cables improperly may cause loss of network connectivity. Use this information at your own risk, and insure all connectors and cables are modified in accordance with standards. The Internet Centre and its affiliates cannot be held liable for the use of this information in whole or in part.

T-568A Straight-Through Ethernet Cable

The TIA/EIA 568-A standard which was ratified in 1995, was replaced by the TIA/EIA 568-B standard in 2002 and has been updated since. Both standards define the T-568A and T-568B pin-outs for using Unshielded Twisted Pair cable and RJ-45 connectors for Ethernet connectivity. The standards and pin-out specification appear to be related and interchangeable, but are not the same and should not be used interchangeably.

T-568B Straight-Through Ethernet Cable

Both the T-568A and the T-568B standard Straight-Through cables are used most often as patch cords for your Ethernet connections. If you require a cable to connect two Ethernet devices directly together without a hub or when you connect two hubs together, you will need to use a Crossover cable instead.

RJ-45 Crossover Ethernet Cable

A good way of remembering how to wire a Crossover Ethernet cable is to wire one end using the T-568A standard and the other end using the T-568B standard. Another way of remembering the color coding is to simply switch the Green set of wires in place with the Orange set of wires. Specifically, switch the solid Green (G) with the solid Orange, and switch the green/white with the orange/white.

Ethernet Cable Instructions:

1. Pull the cable off the reel to the desired length and cut. If you are pulling cables through holes, its easier to attach the RJ-45 plugs after the cable is pulled. The total length of wire segments between a PC and a hub or between two PC's cannot exceed 100 Meters (328 feet) for 100BASE-TX and 300 Meters for 10BASE-T.
2. Start on one end and strip the cable jacket off (about 1") using a stripper or a knife. Be extra careful not to nick the wires, otherwise you will need to start over.
3. Spread, untwist the pairs, and arrange the wires in the order of the desired cable end. Flatten the end between your thumb and forefinger. Trim the ends of the wires so they are even with one another, leaving only 1/2" in wire length. If it is longer than 1/2" it will be out-of-spec and susceptible to crosstalk. Flatten and insure there are no spaces between wires.
4. Hold the RJ-45 plug with the clip facing down or away from you. Push the wires firmly into the plug. Inspect each wire is flat even at the front of the plug. Check the order of the wires. Double check again. Check that the jacket is fitted right against the stop of the plug. Carefully hold the wire and firmly crimp the RJ-45 with the crimper.
5. Check the color orientation, check that the crimped connection is not about to come apart, and check to see if the wires are flat against the front of the plug. If even one of these are incorrect, you will have to start over. Test the Ethernet cable.

Ethernet Cable Tips:

* A straight-thru cable has identical ends.
* A crossover cable has different ends.
* A straight-thru is used as a patch cord in Ethernet connections.
* A crossover is used to connect two Ethernet devices without a hub or for connecting two hubs.
* A crossover has one end with the Orange set of wires switched with the Green set.
* Odd numbered pins are always striped, even numbered pins are always solid colored.
* Looking at the RJ-45 with the clip facing away from you, Brown is always on the right, and pin 1 is on the left.
* No more than 1/2" of the Ethernet cable should be untwisted otherwise it will be susceptible to crosstalk.
* Do not deform, do not bend, do not stretch, do not staple, do not run parallel with power cables, and do not run Ethernet cables near noise inducing components.

Basic Theory:

By looking at a T-568A UTP Ethernet straight-thru cable and an Ethernet crossover cable with a T-568B end, we see that the TX (transmitter) pins are connected to the corresponding RX (receiver) pins, plus to plus and minus to minus. You can also see that both the blue and brown wire pairs on pins 4, 5, 7, and 8 are not used in either standard. What you may not realize is that, these same pins 4, 5, 7, and 8 are not used or required in 100BASE-TX as well. So why bother using these wires, well for one thing its simply easier to make a connection with all the wires grouped together. Otherwise you'll be spending time trying to fit those tiny little wires into each of the corresponding holes in the RJ-45 connector.

Top 100 Network Security Tools

2008-04-17T23:15:00.000-07:00

#1 Nessus : Premier UNIX vulnerability assessment tool

Nessus is the best free network vulnerability scanner available, and the best to run on UNIX at any price. It is constantly updated, with more than 11,000 plugins for the free (but registration and EULA-acceptance required) feed. Key features include remote and local (authenticated) security checks, a client/server architecture with a GTK graphical interface, and an embedded scripting language for writing your own plugins or understanding the existing ones. Nessus 3 is now closed source, but is still free-of-cost unless you want the very newest plugins.

#2 Wireshark : Sniffing the glue that holds the Internet together

Wireshark (known as Ethereal until a trademark dispute in Summer 2006) is a fantastic open source network protocol analyzer for Unix and Windows. It allows you to examine data from a live network or from a capture file on disk. You can interactively browse the capture data, delving down into just the level of packet detail you need. Wireshark has several powerful features, including a rich display filter language and the ability to view the reconstructed stream of a TCP session. It also supports hundreds of protocols and media types. A tcpdump-like console version named tethereal is included. One word of caution is that Ethereal has suffered from dozens of remotely exploitable security holes, so stay up-to-date and be wary of running it on untrusted or hostile networks (such as security conferences).

#3 Snort : Everyone's favorite open source IDS

This lightweight network intrusion detection and prevention system excels at traffic analysis and packet logging on IP networks. Through protocol analysis, content searching, and various pre-processors, Snort detects thousands of worms, vulnerability exploit attempts, port scans, and other suspicious behavior. Snort uses a flexible rule-based language to describe traffic that it should collect or pass, and a modular detection engine. Also check out the free Basic Analysis and Security Engine (BASE), a web interface for analyzing Snort alerts.

Open source Snort works fine for many individuals, small businesses, and departments. Parent company SourceFire offers a complimentary product line with more enterprise-level features and real-time rule updates. They offer a free (with registration) 5-day-delayed rules feed, and you can also find many great free rules at Bleeding Edge Snort.

#4 Netcat : The network Swiss army knife

This simple utility reads and writes data across TCP or UDP network connections. It is designed to be a reliable back-end tool that can be used directly or easily driven by other programs and scripts. At the same time, it is a feature-rich network debugging and exploration tool, since it can create almost any kind of connection you would need, including port binding to accept incoming connections. The original Netcat was released by Hobbit in 1995, but it hasn't been maintained despite its immense popularity. It can sometimes even be hard to find nc110.tgz. The flexibility and usefulness of this tool have prompted people to write numerous other Netcat implementations - often with modern features not found in the original. One of the most interesting is Socat, which extends Netcat to support many other socket types, SSL encryption, SOCKS proxies, and more. It even made this list on its own merits. There is also Chris Gibson's Ncat, which offers even more features while remaining portable and compact. Other takes on Netcat include OpenBSD's nc, Cryptcat, Netcat6, PNetcat, SBD, and so-called GNU Netcat.

#5 Metasploit Framework : Hack the Planet

Metasploit took the security world by storm when it was released in 2004. No other new tool even broke into the top 15 of this list, yet Metasploit comes in at #5, ahead of many well-loved tools that have been developed for more than a decade. It is an advanced open-source platform for developing, testing, and using exploit code. The extensible model through which payloads, encoders, no-op generators, and exploits can be integrated has made it possible to use the Metasploit Framework as an outlet for cutting-edge exploitation research. It ships with hundreds of exploits, as you can see in their online exploit building demo. This makes writing your own exploits easier, and it certainly beats scouring the darkest corners of the Internet for illicit shellcode of dubious quality. Similar professional exploitation tools, such as Core Impact and Canvas already existed for wealthy users on all sides of the ethical spectrum. Metasploit simply brought this capability to the masses.

#6 Hping2 : A network probing utility like ping on steroids

This handy little utility assembles and sends custom ICMP, UDP, or TCP packets and then displays any replies. It was inspired by the ping command, but offers far more control over the probes sent. It also has a handy traceroute mode and supports IP fragmentation. This tool is particularly useful when trying to traceroute/ping/probe hosts behind a firewall that blocks attempts using the standard utilities. This often allows you to map out firewall rulesets. It is also great for learning more about TCP/IP and experimenting with IP protocols.

#7 Kismet : A powerful wireless sniffer

Kismet is an console (ncurses) based 802.11 layer2 wireless network detector, sniffer, and intrusion detection system. It identifies networks by passively sniffing (as opposed to more active tools such as NetStumbler), and can even decloak hidden (non-beaconing) networks if they are in use. It can automatically detect network IP blocks by sniffing TCP, UDP, ARP, and DHCP packets, log traffic in Wireshark/TCPDump compatible format, and even plot detected networks and estimated ranges on downloaded maps. As you might expect, this tool is commonly used for wardriving. Oh, and also warwalking, warflying, and warskating, ...

#8 Tcpdump : The classic sniffer for network monitoring and data acquisition

Tcpdump is the IP sniffer we all used before Ethereal (Wireshark) came on the scene, and many of us continue to use it frequently. It may not have the bells and whistles (such as a pretty GUI or parsing logic for hundreds of application protocols) that Wireshark has, but it does the job well and with fewer security holes. It also requires fewer system resources. While it doesn't receive new features often, it is actively maintained to fix bugs and portability problems. It is great for tracking down network problems or monitoring activity. There is a separate Windows port named WinDump. TCPDump is the source of the Libpcap/WinPcap packet capture library, which is used by Nmap among many other tools.

#9 Cain and Abel : The top password recovery tool for Windows

UNIX users often smugly assert that the best free security tools support their platform first, and Windows ports are often an afterthought. They are usually right, but Cain & Abel is a glaring exception. This Windows-only password recovery tool handles an enormous variety of tasks. It can recover passwords by sniffing the network, cracking encrypted passwords using Dictionary, Brute-Force and Cryptanalysis attacks, recording VoIP conversations, decoding scrambled passwords, revealing password boxes, uncovering cached passwords and analyzing routing protocols. It is also well documented.

#10 John the Ripper : A powerful, flexible, and fast multi-platform password hash cracker

John the Ripper is a fast password cracker, currently available for many flavors of Unix (11 are officially supported, not counting different architectures), DOS, Win32, BeOS, and OpenVMS. Its primary purpose is to detect weak Unix passwords. It supports several crypt(3) password hash types which are most commonly found on various Unix flavors, as well as Kerberos AFS and Windows NT/2000/XP LM hashes. Several other hash types are added with contributed patches. You will want to start with some wordlists, which you can find here

#11 Ettercap : In case you still thought switched LANs provide much extra security

Ettercap is a terminal-based network sniffer/interceptor/logger for ethernet LANs. It supports active and passive dissection of many protocols (even ciphered ones, like ssh and https). Data injection in an established connection and filtering on the fly is also possible, keeping the connection synchronized. Many sniffing modes were implemented to give you a powerful and complete sniffing suite. Plugins are supported. It has the ability to check whether you are in a switched LAN or not, and to use OS fingerprints (active or passive) to let you know the geometry of the LAN.

#12 Nikto : A more comprehensive web scanner

Nikto is an open source (GPL) web server scanner which performs comprehensive tests against web servers for multiple items, including over 3200 potentially dangerous files/CGIs, versions on over 625 servers, and version specific problems on over 230 servers. Scan items and plugins are frequently updated and can be automatically updated (if desired). It uses Whisker/libwhisker for much of its underlying functionality. It is a great tool, but the value is limited by its infrequent updates. The newest and most critical vulnerabilities are often not detected.

#13 Ping/telnet/dig/traceroute/whois/netstat : The basics

While there are many whiz-bang high-tech tools out there to assist in security auditing, don't forget about the basics! Everyone should be very familiar with these tools as they come with most operating systems (except that Windows omits whois and uses the name tracert). They can be very handy in a pinch, although for more advanced usage you may be better off with Hping2 and Netcat.

#14 OpenSSH / PuTTY / SSH : A secure way to access remote computers

SSH (Secure Shell) is the now ubiquitous program for logging into or executing commands on a remote machine. It provides secure encrypted communications between two untrusted hosts over an insecure network, replacing the hideously insecure telnet/rlogin/rsh alternatives. Most UNIX users run the open source OpenSSH server and client. Windows users often prefer the free PuTTY client, which is also available for many mobile devices. Other Windows users prefer the nice terminal-based port of OpenSSH that comes with Cygwin. Dozens of other free and proprietary clients exist.

#15 THC Hydra : A Fast network authentication cracker which support many different services

When you need to brute force crack a remote authentication service, Hydra is often the tool of choice. It can perform rapid dictionary attacks against more then 30 protocols, including telnet, ftp, http, https, smb, several databases, and much more. Like THC Amap this release is from the fine folks at THC.

#16 Paros proxy : A web application vulnerability assessment proxy

A Java based web proxy for assessing web application vulnerability. It supports editing/viewing HTTP/HTTPS messages on-the-fly to change items such as cookies and form fields. It includes a web traffic recorder, web spider, hash calculator, and a scanner for testing common web application attacks such as SQL injection and cross-site scripting.

#17 Dsniff : A suite of powerful network auditing and penetration-testing tools

This popular and well-engineered suite by Dug Song includes many tools. dsniff, filesnarf, mailsnarf, msgsnarf, urlsnarf, and webspy passively monitor a network for interesting data (passwords, e-mail, files, etc.). arpspoof, dnsspoof, and macof facilitate the interception of network traffic normally unavailable to an attacker (e.g, due to layer-2 switching). sshmitm and webmitm implement active monkey-in-the-middle attacks against redirected ssh and https sessions by exploiting weak bindings in ad-hoc PKI. A separately maintained partial Windows port is available here. Overall, this is a great toolset. It handles pretty much all of your password sniffing needs.

#18 NetStumbler : Free Windows 802.11 Sniffer

Netstumbler is the best known Windows tool for finding open wireless access points ("wardriving"). They also distribute a WinCE version for PDAs and such named Ministumbler. The tool is currently free but Windows-only and no source code is provided. It uses a more active approach to finding WAPs than passive sniffers such as Kismet or KisMAC.

#19 THC Amap : An application fingerprinting scanner

Amap is a great tool for determining what application is listening on a given port. Their database isn't as large as what Nmap uses for its version detection feature, but it is definitely worth trying for a 2nd opinion or if Nmap fails to detect a service. Amap even knows how to parse Nmap output files. This is yet another valuable tool from the great guys at THC.

#20 GFI LANguard : A commercial network security scanner for Windows

GFI LANguard scans IP networks to detect what machines are running. Then it tries to discern the host OS and what applications are running. I also tries to collect Windows machine's service pack level, missing security patches, wireless access points, USB devices, open shares, open ports, services/applications active on the computer, key registry entries, weak passwords, users and groups, and more. Scan results are saved to an HTML report, which can be customized/queried. It also includes a patch manager which detects and installs missing patches. A free trial version is available, though it only works for up to 30 days.

#21 Aircrack : The fastest available WEP/WPA cracking tool

Aircrack is a suite of tools for 802.11a/b/g WEP and WPA cracking. It can recover a 40 through 512-bit WEP key once enough encrypted packets have been gathered. It can also attack WPA 1 or 2 networks using advanced cryptographic methods or by brute force. The suite includes airodump (an 802.11 packet capture program), aireplay (an 802.11 packet injection program), aircrack (static WEP and WPA-PSK cracking), and airdecap (decrypts WEP/WPA capture files).

#22 Superscan : A Windows-only port scanner, pinger, and resolver

SuperScan is a free Windows-only closed-source TCP/UDP port scanner by Foundstone. It includes a variety of additional networking tools such as ping, traceroute, http head, and whois.

#23 Netfilter : The current Linux kernel packet filter/firewall

Netfilter is a powerful packet filter implemented in the standard Linux kernel. The userspace iptables tool is used for configuration. It now supports packet filtering (stateless or stateful), all kinds of network address and port translation (NAT/NAPT), and multiple API layers for 3rd party extensions. It includes many different modules for handling unruly protocols such as FTP. For other UNIX platforms, see Openbsd PF (OpenBSD specific), or IP Filter. Many personal firewalls are available for Windows (Tiny,Zone Alarm, Norton, Kerio, ...), though none made this list. Microsoft included a very basic firewall in Windows XP SP2, and will nag you incessantly until you install it.

#24 Sysinternals : An extensive collection of powerful windows utilities

Sysinternals provides many small windows utilities that are quite useful for low-level windows hacking. Some are free of cost and/or include source code, while others are proprietary. Survey respondents were most enamored with:

* ProcessExplorer for keeping an eye on the files and directories open by any process (like LSoF on UNIX).
* PsTools for managing (executing, suspending, killing, detailing) local and remote processes.
* Autoruns for discovering what executables are set to run during system boot up or login.
* RootkitRevealer for detecting registry and file system API discrepancies that may indicate the presence of a user-mode or kernel-mode rootkit.
* TCPView, for viewing TCP and UDP traffic endpoints used by each process (like Netstat on UNIX).

Update: Microsoft acquired Sysinternals in July 2006, promising that â€œCustomers will be able to continue building on Sysinternals' advanced utilities, technical information and source codeâ€. Less than four months later, Microsoft removed most of that source code. Future product direction is uncertain.

#25 Retina : Commercial vulnerability assessment scanner by eEye

Like Nessus, Retina's function is to scan all the hosts on a network and report on any vulnerabilities found. It was written by eEye, who are well known for their security research.

#26 Perl / Python / Ruby : Portable, general-purpose scripting languages

While many canned security tools are available on this site for handling common tasks, scripting languages allow you to write your own (or modify existing ones) when you need something more custom. Quick, portable scripts can test, exploit, or even fix systems. Archives like CPAN are filled with modules such as Net::RawIP and protocol implementations to make your tasks even easier.

#27 L0phtcrack : Windows password auditing and recovery application

L0phtCrack, also known as LC5, attempts to crack Windows passwords from hashes which it can obtain (given proper access) from stand-alone Windows NT/2000 workstations, networked servers, primary domain controllers, or Active Directory. In some cases it can sniff the hashes off the wire. It also has numerous methods of generating password guesses (dictionary, brute force, etc). LC5 was discontinued by Symantec in 2006, but you can still find the LC5 installer floating around. The free trial only lasts 15 days, and Symantec won't sell you a key, so you'll either have to cease using it or find a key generator. Since it is no longer maintained, you are probably better off trying Cain and Abel, John the Ripper, or Ophcrack instead.

#28 Scapy : Interactive packet manipulation tool

Scapy is a powerful interactive packet manipulation tool, packet generator, network scanner, network discovery tool, and packet sniffer. It provides classes to interactively create packets or sets of packets, manipulate them, send them over the wire, sniff other packets from the wire, match answers and replies, and more. Interaction is provided by the Python interpreter, so Python programming structures can be used (such as variables, loops, and functions). Report modules are possible and easy to make.

#29Sam Spade : Freeware Windows network query tool
Sam Spade provides a consistent GUI and implementation for many handy network query tasks. It was designed with tracking down spammers in mind, but can be useful for many other network exploration, administration, and security tasks. It includes tools such as ping, nslookup, whois, dig, traceroute, finger, raw HTTP web browser, DNS zone transfer, SMTP relay check, website search, and more. Non-Windows users can enjoy online versions of many of their tools.

#30 GnuPG / PGP : Secure your files and communication w/advanced encryption

PGP is the famous encryption program by Phil Zimmerman which helps secure your data from eavesdroppers and other risks. GnuPG is a very well-regarded open source implementation of the PGP standard (the actual executable is named gpg). While GnuPG is always free, PGP costs money for some uses.

#31 Airsnort : 802.11 WEP Encryption Cracking Tool

AirSnort is a wireless LAN (WLAN) tool that recovers encryption keys. It was developed by the Shmoo Group and operates by passively monitoring transmissions, computing the encryption key when enough packets have been gathered. You may also be interested in the similar Aircrack.

#32 BackTrack : An Innovative Penetration Testing live Linux distribution

This excellent bootable live-CD Linux distribution comes from the merger of Whax and Auditor. It boasts a huge variety of Security and Forensics tools and provides a rich development environment. User modularity is emphasized so the distribution can be easily customized by the user to include personal scripts, additional tools, customized kernels, etc.

#33 P0f : A versatile passive OS fingerprinting tool

P0f is able to identify the operating system of a target host simply by examining captured packets even when the device in question is behind an overzealous packet firewall. P0f does not generate ANY additional network traffic, direct or indirect. No name lookups, no mysterious probes, no ARIN queries, nothing. In the hands of advanced users, P0f can detect firewall presence, NAT use, existence of load balancers, and more!

#34 Google : Everyone's Favorite Search Engine

While it is far more than a security tool, Google's massive database is a good mind for security researchers and penetration testers. You can use it to dig up information about a target company by using directives such as “site:target-domain.com” and find employee names, sensitive information that they wrongly thought was hidden, vulnerable software installations, and more. Similarly, when a bug is found in yet another popular webapp, Google can often provide a list of vulnerable servers worldwide within seconds. The master of Google hacking is Johny Long. Check out his Google Hacking Database or his excellent book: Google Hacking for Penetration Testers.

#35 WebScarab : A framework for analyzing applications that communicate using the HTTP and HTTPS protocols

In its simplest form, WebScarab records the conversations (requests and responses) that it observes, and allows the operator to review them in various ways. WebScarab is designed to be a tool for anyone who needs to expose the workings of an HTTP(S) based application, whether to allow the developer to debug otherwise difficult problems, or to allow a security specialist to identify vulnerabilities in the way that the application has been designed or implemented.

#36 Ntop : A network traffic usage monitor

Ntop shows network usage in a way similar to what top does for processes. In interactive mode, it displays the network status on the user's terminal. In Web mode, it acts as a Web server, creating an HTML dump of the network status. It sports a NetFlow/sFlow emitter/collector, an HTTP-based client interface for creating ntop-centric monitoring applications, and RRD for persistently storing traffic statistics.

#37 Tripwire : The grand-daddy of file integrity checkers

A file and directory integrity checker. Tripwire is a tool that aids system administrators and users in monitoring a designated set of files for any changes. Used with system files on a regular (e.g., daily) basis, Tripwire can notify system administrators of corrupted or tampered files, so damage control measures can be taken in a timely manner. An open source Linux version is freely available at Tripwire.Org. UNIX users may also want to consider AIDE, which has been designed to be a free Tripwire replacement. Or you may wish to investigate Radmind, RKHunter, or chkrootkit. Windows users may like RootkitRevealer from Sysinternals.

#38 Ngrep : Convenient packet matching & display

ngrep strives to provide most of GNU grep's common features, applying them to the network layer. ngrep is a pcap-aware tool that will allow you to specify extended regular or hexadecimal expressions to match against data payloads of packets. It currently recognizes TCP, UDP and ICMP across Ethernet, PPP, SLIP, FDDI, Token Ring and null interfaces, and understands bpf filter logic in the same fashion as more common packet sniffing tools, such as tcpdump and snoop.

#39 Nbtscan : Gathers NetBIOS info from Windows networks

NBTscan is a program for scanning IP networks for NetBIOS name information. It sends a NetBIOS status query to each address in supplied range and lists received information in human readable form. For each responded host it lists IP address, NetBIOS computer name, logged-in user name and MAC address.

#40 WebInspect : A Powerful Web Application Scanner

SPI Dynamics' WebInspect application security assessment tool helps identify known and unknown vulnerabilities within the Web application layer. WebInspect can also help check that a Web server is configured properly, and attempts common web attacks such as parameter injection, cross-site scripting, directory traversal, and more.

#41 OpenSSL : The premier SSL/TLS encryption library

The OpenSSL Project is a collaborative effort to develop a robust, commercial-grade, full-featured, and open source toolkit implementing the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL v2/v3) and Transport Layer Security (TLS v1) protocols as well as a full-strength general purpose cryptography library. The project is managed by a worldwide community of volunteers that use the Internet to communicate, plan, and develop the OpenSSL toolkit and its related documentation.

#42 Xprobe2 : Active OS fingerprinting tool

XProbe is a tool for determining the operating system of a remote host. They do this using some of the same techniques as Nmap as well as some of their own ideas. Xprobe has always emphasized the ICMP protocol in its fingerprinting approach.

#43 EtherApe : EtherApe is a graphical network monitor for Unix modeled after etherman

Featuring link layer, IP and TCP modes, EtherApe displays network activity graphically with a color coded protocols display. Hosts and links change in size with traffic. It supports Ethernet, FDDI, Token Ring, ISDN, PPP and SLIP devices. It can filter traffic to be shown, and can read traffic from a file as well as live from the network.

#44 Core Impact : An automated, comprehensive penetration testing product

Core Impact isn't cheap (be prepared to spend tens of thousands of dollars), but it is widely considered to be the most powerful exploitation tool available. It sports a large, regularly updated database of professional exploits, and can do neat tricks like exploiting one machine and then establishing an encrypted tunnel through that machine to reach and exploit other boxes. If you can't afford Impact, take a look at the cheaper Canvas or the excellent and free Metasploit Framework. Your best bet is to use all three.

#45 IDA Pro : A Windows or Linux disassembler and debugger

Disassembly is a big part of security research. It will help you dissect that Microsoft patch to discover the silently fixed bugs they don't tell you about, or more closely examine a server binary to determine why your exploit isn't working. Many disassemblers are available, but IDA Pro has become the de-facto standard for the analysis of hostile code and vulnerability research. This interactive, programmable, extensible, multi-processor disassembler now supports Linux (console mode) as well as Windows.

#46 SolarWinds : A plethora of network discovery/monitoring/attack tools

SolarWinds has created and sells dozens of special-purpose tools targeted at systems administrators. Security-related tools include many network discovery scanners, an SNMP brute-force cracker, router password decryption, a TCP connection reset program, one of the fastest and easiest router config download/upload applications available and more.

#47 Pwdump : A window password recovery tool

Pwdump is able to extract NTLM and LanMan hashes from a Windows target, regardless of whether Syskey is enabled. It is also capable of displaying password histories if they are available. It outputs the data in L0phtcrack-compatible form, and can write to an output file.

#48 LSoF : LiSt Open Files

This Unix-specific diagnostic and forensics tool lists information about any files that are open by processes currently running on the system. It can also list communications sockets open by each process. For a Windows equivalent, check out Process Explorer from Sysinternals.

#49 RainbowCrack : An Innovative Password Hash Cracker

The RainbowCrack tool is a hash cracker that makes use of a large-scale time-memory trade-off. A traditional brute force cracker tries all possible plaintexts one by one, which can be time consuming for complex passwords. RainbowCrack uses a time-memory trade-off to do all the cracking-time computation in advance and store the results in so-called "rainbow tables". It does take a long time to precompute the tables but RainbowCrack can be hundreds of times faster than a brute force cracker once the precomputation is finished.

#50 Firewalk : Advanced traceroute

Firewalk employs traceroute-like techniques to analyze IP packet responses to determine gateway ACL filters and map networks. This classic tool was rewritten from scratch in October 2002. Note that much or all of this functionality can also be performed by the Hping2 --traceroute option.

#51 Angry IP Scanner : A fast windows IP scanner and port scanner

Angry IP Scanner can perform basic host discovery and port scans on Windows. Its binary file size is very small compared to other scanners and other pieces of information about the target hosts can be extended with a few plugins.

#52 RKHunter : An Unix Rootkit Detector

RKHunter is scanning tool that checks for signs of various pieces of nasty software on your system like rootkits, backdoors and local exploits. It runs many tests, including MD5 hash comparisons, default filenames used by rootkits, wrong file permissions for binaries, and suspicious strings in LKM and KLD modules.

#53 Ike-scan : VPN detector/scanner

Ike-scan exploits transport characteristics in the Internet Key Exchange (IKE) service, the mechanism used by VPNs to establish a connection between a server and a remote client. It scans IP addresses for VPN servers by sending a specially crafted IKE packet to each host within a network. Most hosts running IKE will respond, identifying their presence. The tool then remains silent and monitors retransmission packets. These retransmission responses are recorded, displayed and matched against a known set of VPN product fingerprints. Ike-scan can VPNs from manufacturers including Checkpoint, Cisco, Microsoft, Nortel, and Watchguard.

#54 Arpwatch : Keeps track of ethernet/IP address pairings and can detect certain monkey business

Arpwatch is the classic ARP man-in-the-middle attack detector from LBNL's Network Research Group. It syslogs activity and reports certain changes via email. Arpwatch uses LibPcap to listen for ARP packets on a local ethernet interface.

#55 KisMAC : A A GUI passive wireless stumbler for Mac OS X

This popular stumbler for Mac OS X offers many of the features of its namesake Kismet, though the codebase is entirely different. Unlike console-based Kismet, KisMAC offers a pretty GUI and was around before Kismet was ported to OS X. It also offers mapping, Pcap-format import and logging, and even some decryption and deauthentication attacks.

#56 OSSEC HIDS : An Open Source Host-based Intrusion Detection System

OSSEC HIDS performs log analysis, integrity checking, rootkit detection, time-based alerting and active response. In addition to its IDS functionality, it is commonly used as a SEM/SIM solution. Because of its powerful log analysis engine, ISPs, universities and data centers are running OSSEC HIDS to monitor and analyze their firewalls, IDSs, web servers and authentication logs.

#57 Openbsd PF : The OpenBSD Packet Filter

Like Netfilter and IP Filter on other platforms, OpenBSD users love PF, their firewall tool. It handles network address translation, normalizing TCP/IP traffic, providing bandwidth control, and packet prioritization. It also offers some eccentric features, such as passive OS detection. Coming from the same guys who created OpenBSD, you can trust that it has been well audited and coded to avoid the sort of security holes we have seen in other packet filters.

#58 Nemesis : Packet injection simplified

The Nemesis Project is designed to be a commandline-based, portable human IP stack for UNIX/Linux (and now Windows!). The suite is broken down by protocol, and should allow for useful scripting of injected packet streams from simple shell scripts. If you enjoy Nemesis, you might also want to look at Hping2 as they complement each other well.

#59 Tor : An anonymous Internet communication system

Tor is a toolset for a wide range of organizations and people that want to improve their safety and security on the Internet. Using Tor can help you anonymize web browsing and publishing, instant messaging, irc, ssh, and other applications that use the TCP protocol. Tor also provides a platform on which software developers can build new applications with built-in anonymity, safety, and privacy features. For a free cross-platform GUI, users recommend Vidalia

#60 Knoppix : A general-purpose bootable live system on CD or DVD

Knoppix consists of a representative collection of GNU/Linux software, automatic hardware detection, and support for many graphics cards, sound cards, SCSI and USB devices and other peripherals. KNOPPIX can be used as a productive Linux system for the desktop, educational CD, rescue system, or as many nmap survey takers attest, a portable security tool. For a security-specific Linux distribution see BackTrack.

#61 ISS Internet Scanner : Application-level vulnerability assessment

Internet Scanner started off in '92 as a tiny open source scanner by Christopher Klaus. Now he has grown ISS into a billion-dollar company with a myriad of security products.

#62 Fport : Foundstone's enhanced netstat

Fport reports all open TCP/IP and UDP ports on the machine you run it on and shows what application opened each port. So it can be used to quickly identify unknown open ports and their associated applications. It only runs on Windows, but many UNIX systems now provided this information via netstat (try 'netstat -pan' on Linux). Here is a PDF-Format SANS article on using Fport and analyzing the results.

#63 chkrootkit : Locally checks for signs of a rootkit

chkrootkit is a flexible, portable tool that can check for many signs of rootkit intrusion on Unix-based systems. Its features include detecting binary modification, utmp/wtmp/lastlog modifications, promiscuous interfaces, and malicious kernel modules.

#64 SPIKE Proxy : HTTP Hacking

Spike Proxy is an open source HTTP proxy for finding security flaws in web sites. It is part of the Spike Application Testing Suite and supports automated SQL injection detection, web site crawling, login form brute forcing, overflow detection, and directory traversal detection.

#65 OpenBSD : The Proactively Secure Operating System

OpenBSD is one of the only operating systems to treat security as their very highest priority. Even higher than usability in some cases. But their enviable security record speaks for itself. They also focus on stability and fight to obtain documentation for the hardware they wish to support. Perhaps their greatest achievement was creating OpenSSH. OpenBSD users also love [pf], their firewall tool.

#66 Yersinia : A multi-protocol low-level attack tool

Yersinia is a low-level protocol attack tool useful for penetration testing. It is capable of many diverse attacks over multiple protocols, such as becoming the root role in the Spanning Tree (Spanning Tree Protocol), creating virtual CDP (Cisco Discovery Protocol) neighbors, becoming the active router in a HSRP (Hot Standby Router Protocol) scenario, faking DHCP replies, and other low-level attacks.

#67 Nagios : An open source host, service and network monitoring program

Nagios is a system and network monitoring application. It watches hosts and services that you specify, alerting you when things go bad and when they get better. Some of its many features include monitoring of network services (smtp, pop3, http, nntp, ping, etc.), monitoring of host resources (processor load, disk usage, etc.), and contact notifications when service or host problems occur and get resolved (via email, pager, or user-defined method).

#68 Fragroute/Fragrouter : A network intrusion detection evasion toolkit

Fragrouter is a one-way fragmenting router - IP packets get sent from the attacker to the Fragrouter, which transforms them into a fragmented data stream to forward to the victim. Many network IDS are unable or simply don't bother to reconstruct a coherent view of the network data (via IP fragmentation and TCP stream reassembly), as discussed in this classic paper. Fragrouter helps an attacker launch IP-based attacks while avoiding detection. It is part of the NIDSbench suite of tools by Dug Song. Fragroute is a similar tool which is also by Dug Song.

#69 X-scan : A general scanner for scanning network vulnerabilities

A multi-threaded, plug-in-supported vulnerability scanner. X-Scan includes many features, including full NASL support, detecting service types, remote OS type/version detection, weak user/password pairs, and more. You may be able to find newer versions available here if you can deal with most of the page being written in Chinese.

#70 Whisker/libwhisker : Rain.Forest.Puppy's CGI vulnerability scanner and library

Libwhisker is a Perl module geared geared towards HTTP testing. It provides functions for testing HTTP servers for many known security holes, particularly the presence of dangerous CGIs. Whisker is a scanner that used libwhisker but is now deprecated in favor of Nikto which also uses libwhisker.

#71 Socat : A relay for bidirectional data transfer

A utility similar to the venerable Netcat that works over a number of protocols and through a files, pipes, devices (terminal or modem, etc.), sockets (Unix, IP4, IP6 - raw, UDP, TCP), a client for SOCKS4, proxy CONNECT, or SSL, etc. It provides forking, logging, and dumping, different modes for interprocess communication, and many more options. It can be used, for example, as a TCP relay (one-shot or daemon), as a daemon-based socksifier, as a shell interface to Unix sockets, as an IP6 relay, for redirecting TCP-oriented programs to a serial line, or to establish a relatively secure environment (su and chroot) for running client or server shell scripts with network connections.

#72 Sara : Security Auditor's Research Assistant

SARA is a vulnerability assessment tool that was derived from the infamous SATAN scanner. They try to release updates twice a month and try to leverage other software created by the open source community (such as Nmap and Samba).

#73 QualysGuard : A web-based vulnerability scanner

Delivered as a service over the Web, QualysGuard eliminates the burden of deploying, maintaining, and updating vulnerability management software or implementing ad-hoc security applications. Clients securely access QualysGuard through an easy-to-use Web interface. QualysGuard features 5,000+ unique vulnerability checks, an Inference-based scanning engine, and automated daily updates to the QualysGuard vulnerability KnowledgeBase.

#74 ClamAV : A GPL anti-virus toolkit for UNIX

ClamAV is a powerful AntiVirus scanner focused towards integration with mail servers for attachment scanning. It provides a flexible and scalable multi-threaded daemon, a command line scanner, and a tool for automatic updating via the Internet. Clam AntiVirus is based on a shared library distributed with the Clam AntiVirus package, which you can use with your own software. Most importantly, the virus database is kept up to date.

#75 cheops / cheops-ng : Gives a simple interface to many network utilities, maps local or remote networks and identifies OS of machines

Cheops provides the functionality of many network utilities through a comfortable, powerful GUI. It has host/network discovery functionality as well as OS detection of hosts. Cheops-ng has the ability to probe hosts to see what services they are running. On some services, cheops-ng is actually able to see what program is running for a service and the version number of that program. The original Cheops program is currently not being developed or maintained so users are advised to use cheops-ng.

#76 Burpsuite : An integrated platform for attacking web applications

Burp suite allows an attacker to combine manual and automated techniques to enumerate, analyze, attack and exploit web applications. The various burp tools work together effectively to share information and allow findings identified within one tool to form the basis of an attack using another.

#77 Brutus : A network brute-force authentication cracker

This Windows-only cracker bangs against network services of remote systems trying to guess passwords by using a dictionary and permutations thereof. It supports HTTP, POP3, FTP, SMB, TELNET, IMAP, NTP, and more. No source code is available. UNIX users should take a look at THC Hydra.

#78 Unicornscan : Not your mother's port scanner

Unicornscan is an attempt at a User-land Distributed TCP/IP stack for information gathering and correlation. It is intended to provide a researcher a superior interface for introducing a stimulus into and measuring a response from a TCP/IP enabled device or network. Some of its features include asynchronous stateless TCP scanning with all variations of TCP flags, asynchronous stateless TCP banner grabbing, and active/passive remote OS, application, and component identification by analyzing responses. Like Scanrand, it isn't for the faint of heart.

#79 Stunnel : A general-purpose SSL cryptographic wrapper

The stunnel program is designed to work as an SSL encryption wrapper between remote client and local (inetd-startable) or remote server. It can be used to add SSL functionality to commonly used inetd daemons like POP2, POP3, and IMAP servers without any changes in the programs' code. It will negotiate an SSL connection using the OpenSSL or SSLeay libraries.

#80 Honeyd : Your own personal honeynet

Honeyd is a small daemon that creates virtual hosts on a network. The hosts can be configured to run arbitrary services, and their TCP personality can be adapted so that they appear to be running certain versions of operating systems. Honeyd enables a single host to claim multiple addresses on a LAN for network simulation. It is possible to ping the virtual machines, or to traceroute them. Any type of service on the virtual machine can be simulated according to a simple configuration file. It is also possible to proxy services to another machine rather than simulating them. It has many library dependencies, which can make compiling/installing Honeyd difficult.

#81 Fping : A parallel ping scanning program

fping is a ping(1) like program which uses the Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) echo request to determine if a host is up. fping is different from ping in that you can specify any number of hosts on the command line, or specify a file containing the lists of hosts to ping. Instead of trying one host until it timeouts or replies, fping will send out a ping packet and move on to the next host in a round-robin fashion. If a host replies, it is noted and removed from the list of hosts to check. If a host does not respond within a certain time limit and/or retry limit it will be considered unreachable.

#82 BASE : The Basic Analysis and Security Engine

BASE is a PHP-based analysis engine to search and process a database of security events generated by various IDSs, firewalls, and network monitoring tools. Its features include a query-builder and search interface for finding alerts matching different patterns, a packet viewer/decoder, and charts and statistics based on time, sensor, signature, protocol, IP address, etc.

#83 Argus : A generic IP network transaction auditing tool

Argus is a fixed-model Real Time Flow Monitor designed to track and report on the status and performance of all network transactions seen in a data network traffic stream. Argus provides a common data format for reporting flow metrics such as connectivity, capacity, demand, loss, delay, and jitter on a per transaction basis. The record format that Argus uses is flexible and extensible, supporting generic flow identifiers and metrics, as well as application/protocol specific information.

#84 Wikto : Web Server Assessment Tool

Wikto is a tool that checks for flaws in webservers. It provides much the same functionality as Nikto but adds various interesting pieces of functionality, such as a Back-End miner and close Google integration. Wikto is written for the MS .NET environment and registration is required to download the binary and/or source code.

#85 Sguil : The Analyst Console for Network Security Monitoring

Sguil (pronounced sgweel) is built by network security analysts for network security analysts. Sguil's main component is an intuitive GUI that provides realtime events from Snort/barnyard. It also includes other components which facilitate the practice of Network Security Monitoring and event driven analysis of IDS alerts.

#86 Scanrand : An unusually fast stateless network service and topology discovery system

Scanrand is a stateless host-discovery and port-scanner similar in design to Unicornscan. It trades off reliability for amazingly fast speeds and uses cryptographic techniques to prevent attackers from manipulating scan results. This utility is a part of a software package called Paketto Keiretsu which was written by Dan Kaminsky.

#87 IP Filter : Portable UNIX Packet Filter

IP Filter is a software package that can be used to provide network address translation (NAT) or firewall services. It can either be used as a loadable kernel module or incorporated into your UNIX kernel; use as a loadable kernel module where possible is highly recommended. Scripts are provided to install and patch system files, as required. IP Filter is distributed with FreeBSD, NetBSD, and Solaris. OpenBSD users should see Openbsd PF and Linux users Netfilter.

#88 Canvas : A Comprehensive Exploitation Framework

Canvas is a commercial vulnerability exploitation tool from Dave Aitel's ImmunitySec. It includes more than 150 exploits and is less expensive than Core Impact, though it still costs thousands of dollars. You can also buy the optional VisualSploit Plugin for drag and drop GUI exploit creation. Zero-day exploits can occasionally be found within Canvas.

#89 VMware : Multi-platform Virtualization Software

VMware virtualization software lets you run one operating system within another. This is quite useful for security researchers who commonly need to test code, exploits, etc on multiple platforms. It only runs on Windows and Linux as the host OS, but pretty much any x86 OS will run inside the virtualized environment. It is also useful for setting up sandboxes. You can browse from within a VMware window so the even if you are infected with malware, it cannot reach your host OS. And recovering the guest OS is as simple as loading a "snapshot" from prior to the infection. VMware player (executes, but can't create OS images) and VMWare Server (partitions a physical server machine into multiple virtual machines) were recently released for free. Another interesting virtualization system (Linux focused) is Xen.

#90 Tcptraceroute : A traceroute implementation using TCP packets

The problem is that with the widespread use of firewalls on the modern Internet, many of the packets that the conventional traceroute(8) sends out (ICMP echo or UDP) end up being filtered, making it impossible to completely trace the path to the destination. However, in many cases, these firewalls will permit inbound TCP packets to specific ports that hosts sitting behind the firewall are listening for connections on. By sending out TCP SYN packets instead of UDP or ICMP ECHO packets, tcptraceroute is able to bypass the most common firewall filters.

#91 SAINT : Security Administrator's Integrated Network Tool

SAINT is another commercial vulnerability assessment tool (like Nessus, ISS Internet Scanner, or Retina). It runs on UNIX and used to be free and open source, but is now a commercial product.

#92 OpenVPN : A full-featured SSL VPN solution

OpenVPN is an open-source SSL VPN package which can accommodate a wide range of configurations, including remote access, site-to-site VPNs, WiFi security, and enterprise-scale remote access solutions with load balancing, failover, and fine-grained access-controls. OpenVPN implements OSI layer 2 or 3 secure network extension using the industry standard SSL/TLS protocol, supports flexible client authentication methods based on certificates, smart cards, and/or 2-factor authentication, and allows user or group-specific access control policies using firewall rules applied to the VPN virtual interface. OpenVPN uses OpenSSL as its primary cryptographic library.

#93 OllyDbg : An assembly level Windows debugger

OllyDbg is a 32-bit assembler level analyzing debugger for Microsoft Windows. Emphasis on binary code analysis makes it particularly useful in cases where source is unavailable. OllyDbg features an intuitive user interface, advanced code analysis capable of recognizing procedures, loops, API calls, switches, tables, constants and strings, an ability to attach to a running program, and good multi-thread support. OllyDbg is free to download and use but no source code is provided.

#94 Helix : A Linux Distribution with Computer Forensics in Mind

Helix is a customized distribution of the Knoppix Live Linux CD. Helix is more than just a bootable live CD. You can still boot into a customized Linux environment that includes customized Linux kernels, excellent hardware detection and many applications dedicated to Incident Response and Forensics. Helix has been designed very carefully to NOT touch the host computer in any way and it is forensically sound. Helix will not auto mount swap space, or auto mount any attached devices. Helix also has a special Windows autorun side for Incident Response and Forensics.

#95 Bastille : Security hardening script for Linux, Mac OS X, and HP-UX

The Bastille Hardening program "locks down" an operating system, proactively configuring the system for increased security and decreasing its susceptibility to compromise. Bastille can also assess a system's current state of hardening, granularly reporting on each of the security settings with which it works. Bastille currently supports the Red Hat (Fedora Core, Enterprise, and Numbered/Classic), SUSE, Debian, Gentoo, and Mandrake distributions, along with HP-UX and Mac OS X. Bastille's focuses on letting the system's user/administrator choose exactly how to harden the operating system. In its default hardening mode, it interactively asks the user questions, explains the topics of those questions, and builds a policy based on the user's answers. It then applies the policy to the system. In its assessment mode, it builds a report intended to teach the user about available security settings as well as inform the user as to which settings have been tightened.

#96 Acunetix Web Vulnerability Scanner : Commercial Web Vulnerability Scanner

Acunetix WVS automatically checks your web applications for vulnerabilities such as SQL Injection, cross site scripting, and weak password strength on authentication pages. Acunetix WVS boasts a comfortable GUI and an ability to create professional website security audit reports.

#97 TrueCrypt : Open-Source Disk Encryption Software for Windows and Linux

TrueCrypt is an excellent open source disk encryption system. Users can encrypt entire filesystems, which are then on-the-fly encrypted/decrypted as needed without user intervention beyond entering their passphrase intially. A clever hidden volume feature allows you to hide a 2nd layer of particularly sensitive content with plausible deniability about whether it exists. Then if you are forced to give up your passphrase, you give them the first-level secret. Even with that, attackers cannot prove that a second level key even exists.

#98 Watchfire AppScan : Commercial Web Vulnerability Scanner

AppScan provides security testing throughout the application development lifecycle, easing unit testing and security assurance early in the development phase. Appscan scans for many common vulnerabilities, such as cross site scripting, HTTP response splitting, parameter tampering, hidden field manipulation, backdoors/debug options, buffer overflows and more.

#99 N-Stealth : Web server scanner

N-Stealth is a commercial web server security scanner. It is generally updated more frequently than free web scanners such as Whisker/libwhisker and Nikto, but do take their web site with a grain of salt. The claims of "30,000 vulnerabilities and exploits" and "Dozens of vulnerability checks are added every day" are highly questionable. Also note that essentially all general VA tools such as Nessus, ISS Internet Scanner, Retina, SAINT, and Sara include web scanning components. They may not all be as up-to-date or flexible though. N-Stealth is Windows only and no source code is provided.

#100 MBSA : Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer

Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA) is an easy-to-use tool designed for the IT professional that helps small and medium-sized businesses determine their security state in accordance with Microsoft security recommendations and offers specific remediation guidance. Built on the Windows Update Agent and Microsoft Update infrastructure, MBSA ensures consistency with other Microsoft management products including Microsoft Update (MU), Windows Server Update Services (WSUS), Systems Management Server (SMS) and Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM). Apparently MBSA on average scans over 3 million computers each week.

(Linux is Not Windows)

2008-04-16T23:16:00.000-07:00

Problem #1: Linux isn't exactly the same as Windows.

You'd be amazed how many people make this complaint. They come to Linux, expecting to find essentially a free, open-source version of Windows. Quite often, this is what they've been told to expect by over-zealous Linux users. However, it's a paradoxical hope.

The specific reasons why people try Linux vary wildly, but the overall reason boils down to one thing: They hope Linux will be better than Windows. Common yardsticks for measuring success are cost, choice, performance, and security. There are many others. But every Windows user who tries Linux, does so because they hope it will be better than what they've got.

Therein lies the problem.

It is logically impossible for any thing to be better than any other thing whilst remaining completely identical to it. A perfect copy may be equal, but it can never surpass. So when you gave Linux a try in hopes that it would be better, you were inescapably hoping that it would be different. Too many people ignore this fact, and hold up every difference between the two OSes as a Linux failure.

As a simple example, consider driver upgrades: one typically upgrades a hardware driver on Windows by going to the manufacturer's website and downloading the new driver; whereas in Linux you upgrade the kernel.

This means that a single Linux download & upgrade will give you the newest drivers available for your machine, whereas in Windows you would have to surf to multiple sites and download all the upgrades individually. It's a very different process, but it's certainly not a bad one. But many people complain because it's not what they're used to.

Or, as an example you're more likely to relate to, consider Firefox: One of the biggest open-source success stories. A web browser that took the world by storm. Did it achieve this success by being a perfect imitation of IE, the then-most-popular browser?

No. It was successful because it was better than IE, and it was better because it was different. It had tabbed browsing, live bookmarks, built-in searchbar, PNG support, adblock extensions, and other wonderful things. The "Find" functionality appeared in a toolbar at the bottom and looked for matches as you typed, turning red when you had no match. IE had no tabs, no RSS functionality, searchbars only via third-party extensions, and a find dialogue that required a click on "OK" to start looking and a click on "OK" to clear the "Not found" error message. A clear and inarguable demonstration of an open-source application achieving success by being better, and being better by being different. Had FF been an IE clone, it would have vanished into obscurity. And had Linux been a Windows clone, the same would have happened.

So the solution to problem #1: Remember that where Linux is familiar and the same as what you're used to, it isn't new & improved. Welcome the places where things are different, because only here does it have a chance to shine.

Problem #2: Linux is too different from Windows

The next issue arises when people do expect Linux to be different, but find that some differences are just too radical for their liking. Probably the biggest example of this is the sheer amount of choice available to Linux users. Whereas an out-of-the-box-Windows user has the Classic or XP desktop with Wordpad, Internet Explorer, and Outlook Express installed, an out-of-the-box-Linux user has hundreds of distros to choose from, then Gnome or KDE or Fluxbox or whatever, with vi or emacs or kate, Konqueror or Opera or Firefox or Mozilla, and so on and so forth.

A Windows user isn't used to making so many choices just to get up & running. Exasperated "Does there have to be so much choice?" posts are very common.

Does Linux really have to be so different from Windows? After all, they're both operating systems. They both do the same job: Power your computer & give you something to run applications on. Surely they should be more or less identical?

Look at it this way: Step outside and take a look at all the different vehicles driving along the road. These are all vehicles designed with more or less the same purpose: To get you from A to B via the roads. Note the variety in designs.

But, you may be thinking, car differences are really quite minor: they all have a steering wheel, foot-pedal controls, a gear stick, a handbrake, windows & doors, a petrol tank. . . If you can drive one car, you can drive any car!

Quite true. But did you not see that some people weren't driving cars, but were riding motorbikes instead. . ?

Switching from one version of Windows to another is like switching from one car to another. Win95 to Win98, I honestly couldn't tell the difference. Win98 to WinXP, it was a bigger change but really nothing major.

But switching from Windows to Linux is like switching from a car to a motorbike. They may both be OSes/road vehicles. They may both use the same hardware/roads. They may both provide an environment for you to run applications/transport you from A to B. But they use fundamentally different approaches to do so.

Windows/cars are not safe from viruses/theft unless you install an antivirus/lock the doors. Linux/motorbikes don't have viruses/doors, so are perfectly safe without you having to install an antivirus/lock any doors.

Or look at it the other way round:

Linux/cars were designed from the ground up for multiple users/passengers. Windows/motorbikes were designed for one user/passenger. Every Windows user/motorbike driver is used to being in full control of his computer/vehicle at all times. A Linux user/car passenger is used to only being in control of his computer/vehicle when logged in as root/sitting in the driver's seat.

Two different approaches to fulfilling the same goal. They differ in fundamental ways. They have different strengths and weaknesses: A car is the clear winner at transporting a family & a lot of cargo from A to B: More seats & more storage space. A motorbike is the clear winner at getting one person from A to B: Less affected by congestion and uses less fuel.

There are many things that don't change when you switch between cars and motorbikes: You still have to put petrol in the tank, you still have to drive on the same roads, you still have to obey the traffic lights and Stop signs, you still have to indicate before turning, you still have to obey the same speed limits.

But there are also many things that do change: Car drivers don't have to wear crash helmets, motorbike drivers don't have to put on a seatbelt. Car drivers have to turn the steering wheel to get around a corner, motorbike drivers have to lean over. Car drivers accelerate by pushing a foot-pedal, motorbike drivers accelerate by twisting a hand control.

A motorbike driver who tries to corner a car by leaning over is going to run into problems very quickly. And Windows users who try to use their existing skills and habits generally also find themselves having many issues. In fact, Windows "Power Users" frequently have more problems with Linux than people with little or no computer experience, for this very reason. Typically, the most vehement "Linux is not ready for the desktop yet" arguments come from ingrained Windows users who reason that if they couldn't make the switch, a less-experienced user has no chance. But this is the exact opposite of the truth.

So, to avoid problem #2: Don't assume that being a knowledgeable Windows user means you're a knowledgeable Linux user: When you first start with Linux, you are a novice.

Problem #3: Culture shock
Subproblem #3a: There is a culture

Windows users are more or less in a customer-supplier relationship: They pay for software, for warranties, for support, and so on. They expect software to have a certain level of usability. They are therefore used to having rights with their software: They have paid for technical support and have every right to demand that they receive it. They are also used to dealing with entities rather than people: Their contracts are with a company, not with a person.

Linux users are in more of a community. They don't have to buy the software, they don't have to pay for technical support. They download software for free & use Instant Messaging and web-based forums to get help. They deal with people, not corporations.

A Windows user will not endear himself by bringing his habitual attitudes over to Linux, to put it mildly.

The biggest cause of friction tends to be in the online interactions: A "3a" user new to Linux asks for help with a problem he's having. When he doesn't get that help at what he considers an acceptable rate, he starts complaining and demanding more help. Because that's what he's used to doing with paid-for tech support. The problem is that this isn't paid-for support. This is a bunch of volunteers who are willing to help people with problems out of the goodness of their hearts. The new user has no right to demand anything from them, any more than somebody collecting for charity can demand larger donations from contributors.

In much the same way, a Windows user is used to using commercial software. Companies don't release software until it's reliable, functional, and user-friendly enough. So this is what a Windows user tends to expect from software: It starts at version 1.0. Linux software, however, tends to get released almost as soon as it's written: It starts at version 0.1. This way, people who really need the functionality can get it ASAP; interested developers can get involved in helping improve the code; and the community as a whole stays aware of what's going on.

If a "3a" user runs into trouble with Linux, he'll complain: The software hasn't met his standards, and he thinks he has a right to expect that standard. His mood won't be improved when he gets sarcastic replies like "I'd demand a refund if I were you"

So, to avoid problem #3a: Simply remember that you haven't paid the developer who wrote the software or the people online who provide the tech support. They don't owe you anything.

Subproblem #3b: New vs. Old

Linux pretty much started out life as a hacker's hobby. It grew as it attracted more hobbyist hackers. It was quite some time before anybody but a geek stood a chance of getting a useable Linux installation working easily. Linux started out "By geeks, for geeks." And even today, the majority of established Linux users are self-confessed geeks.

And that's a pretty good thing: If you've got a problem with hardware or software, having a large number of geeks available to work on the solution is a definite plus.

But Linux has grown up quite a bit since its early days. There are distros that almost anybody can install, even distros that live on CDs and detect all your hardware for you without any intervention. It's become attractive to non-hobbyist users who are just interested in it because it's virus-free and cheap to upgrade. It's not uncommon for there to be friction between the two camps. It's important to bear in mind, however, that there's no real malice on either side: It's lack of understanding that causes the problems.

Firstly, you get the hard-core geeks who still assume that everybody using Linux is a fellow geek. This means they expect a high level of knowledge, and often leads to accusations of arrogance, elitism, and rudeness. And in truth, sometimes that's what it is. But quite often, it's not: It's elitist to say "Everybody ought to know this". It's not elitist to say "Everybody knows this" - quite the opposite.

Secondly, you get the new users who're trying to make the switch after a lifetime of using commercial OSes. These users are used to software that anybody can sit down & use, out-of-the-box.

The issues arise because group 1 is made up of people who enjoy being able to tear their OS apart and rebuild it the way they like it, while group 2 tends to be indifferent to the way the OS works, so long as it does work.

A parallel situation that can emphasize the problems is Lego. Picture the following:

New: I wanted a new toy car, and everybody's raving about how great Lego cars can be. So I bought some Lego, but when I got home, I just had a load of bricks and cogs and stuff in the box. Where's my car??

Old: You have to build the car out of the bricks. That's the whole point of Lego.

New: What?? I don't know how to build a car. I'm not a mechanic. How am I supposed to know how to put it all together??

Old: There's a leaflet that came in the box. It tells you exactly how to put the bricks together to get a toy car. You don't need to know how, you just need to follow the instructions.

New: Okay, I found the instructions. It's going to take me hours! Why can't they just sell it as a toy car, instead of making you have to build it??

Old: Because not everybody wants to make a toy car with Lego. It can be made into anything we like. That's the whole point.

New: I still don't see why they can't supply it as a car so people who want a car have got one, and other people can take it apart if they want to. Anyway, I finally got it put together, but some bits come off occasionally. What do I do about this? Can I glue it?
Old: It's Lego. It's designed to come apart. That's the whole point.

New: But I don't want it to come apart. I just want a toy car!
Old: Then why on Earth did you buy a box of Lego??

It's clear to just about anybody that Lego is not really aimed at people who just want a toy car. You don't get conversations like the above in real life. The whole point of Lego is that you have fun building it and you can make anything you like with it. If you've no interest in building anything, Lego's not for you. This is quite obvious.

As far as the long-time Linux user is concerned, the same holds true for Linux: It's an open-source, fully-customizeable set of software. That's the whole point. If you don't want to hack the components a bit, why bother to use it?

But there's been a lot of effort lately to make Linux more suitable for the non-hackers, a situation that's not a million miles away from selling pre-assembled Lego kits, in order to make it appeal to a wider audience. Hence you get conversations that aren't far away from the ones above: Newcomers complain about the existence of what the established users consider to be fundamental features, and resent having the read a manual to get something working. But complaining that there are too many distros; or that software has too many configuration options; or that it doesn't work perfectly out-of-the-box; is like complaining that Lego can be made into too many models, and not liking the fact that it can be broken down into bricks and built into many other things.

So, to avoid problem #3b: Just remember that what Linux seems to be now is not what Linux was in the past. The largest and most necessary part of the Linux community, the hackers and the developers, like Linux because they can fit it together the way they like; they don't like it in spite of having to do all the assembly before they can use it.

Problem #4: Designed for the designer

In the car industry, you'll very rarely find that the person who designed the engine also designed the car interior: It calls for totally different skills. Nobody wants an engine that only looks like it can go fast, and nobody wants an interior that works superbly but is cramped and ugly. And in the same way, in the software industry, the user interface (UI) is not usually created by the people who wrote the software.

In the Linux world, however, this is not so much the case: Projects frequently start out as one man's toy. He does everything himself, and therefore the interface has no need of any kind of "user friendly" features: The user knows everything there is to know about the software, he doesn't need help. Vi is a good example of software deliberately created for a user who already knows how it works: It's not unheard of for new users to reboot their computers because they couldn't figure out how else to get out of vi.

However, there is an important difference between a FOSS programmer and most commercial software writers: The software a FOSS programmer creates is software that he intends to use. So whilst the end result might not be as 'comfortable' for the novice user, they can draw some comfort in knowing that the software is designed by somebody who knows what the end-users needs are: He too is an end-user. This is very different from commercial software writers, who are making software for other people to use: They are not knowledgeable end-users.

So whilst vi has an interface that is hideously unfriendly to new users, it is still in use today because it is such a superb interface once you know how it works. Firefox was created by people who regularly browse the Web. The Gimp was built by people who use it to manipulate graphics files. And so on.

So Linux interfaces are frequently a bit of a minefield for the novice: Despite its popularity, vi should never be considered by a new user who just wants to quickly make a few changes to a file. And if you're using software early in its lifecycle, a polished, user-friendly interface is something you're likely to find only in the "ToDo" list: Functionality comes first. Nobody designs a killer interface and then tries to add functionality bit by bit. They create functionality, and then improve the interface bit by bit.

So to avoid #4 issues: Look for software that's specifically aimed at being easy for new users to use, or accept that some software that has a steeper learning curve than you're used to. To complain that vi isn't friendly enough for new users is to be laughed at for missing the point.

Problem #5: The myth of "user-friendly"

This is a big one. It's a very big term in the computing world, "user-friendly". It's even the name of a particularly good webcomic. But it's a bad term.

The basic concept is good: That software be designed with the needs of the user in mind. But it's always addressed as a single concept, which it isn't.
If you spend your entire life processing text files, your ideal software will be fast and powerful, enabling you to do the maximum amount of work for the minimum amount of effort. Simple keyboard shortcuts and mouseless operation will be of vital importance.

But if you very rarely edit text files, and you just want to write an occasional letter, the last thing you want is to struggle with learning keyboard shortcuts. Well-organized menus and clear icons in toolbars will be your ideal.

Clearly, software designed around the needs of the first user will not be suitable for the second, and vice versa. So how can any software be called "user-friendly", if we all have different needs?

The simple answer: User-friendly is a misnomer, and one that makes a complex situation seem simple.

What does "user-friendly" really mean? Well, in the context in which it is used, "user friendly" software means "Software that can be used to a reasonable level of competence by a user with no previous experience of the software." This has the unfortunate effect of making lousy-but-familiar interfaces fall into the category of "user-friendly".

Subproblem #5a: Familiar is friendly

So it is that in most "user-friendly" text editors & word processors, you Cut and Paste by using Ctrl-X and Ctrl-V. Totally unintuitive, but everybody's used to these combinations, so they count as a "friendly" combination.

So when somebody comes to vi and finds that it's "d" to cut, and "p" to paste, it's not considered friendly: It's not what anybody is used to.

Is it superior? Well, actually, yes.

With the Ctrl-X approach, how do you cut a word from the document you're currently in? (No using the mouse!)
From the start of the word, Ctrl-Shift-Right to select the word.
Then Ctrl-X to cut it.

The vi approach? dw deletes the word.

How about cutting five words with a Ctrl-X application?
From the start of the words, Ctrl-Shift-Right
Ctrl-Shift-Right
Ctrl-Shift-Right
Ctrl-Shift-Right
Ctrl-Shift-Right
Ctrl-X

And with vi?

d5w

The vi approach is far more versatile and actually more intuitive: "X" and "V" are not obvious or memorable "Cut" and "Paste" commands, whereas "dw" to delete a word, and "p" to put it back is perfectly straightforward. But "X" and "V" are what we all know, so whilst vi is clearly superior, it's unfamiliar. Ergo, it is considered unfriendly. On no other basis, pure familiarity makes a Windows-like interface seem friendly. And as we learned in problem #1, Linux is necessarily different to Windows. Inescapably, Linux always appears less "user-friendly" than Windows.

To avoid #5a problems, all you can really do is try and remember that "user-friendly" doesn't mean "What I'm used to": Try doing things your usual way, and if it doesn't work, try and work out what a total novice would do.

Subproblem #5b: Inefficient is friendly

This is a sad but inescapable fact. Paradoxically, the harder you make it to access an application's functionality, the friendlier it can seem to be.

This is because friendliness is added to an interface by using simple, visible 'clues' - the more, the better. After all, if a complete novice to computers is put in front of a WYSIWYG word processor and asked to make a bit of text bold, which is more likely:

* He'll guess that "Ctrl-B" is the usual standard

* He'll look for clues, and try clicking on the "Edit" menu. Unsuccessful, he'll try the next likely one along the row of menus: "Format". The new menu has a "Font" option, which seems promising. And Hey! There's our "Bold" option. Success!

Next time you do any processing, try doing every job via the menus: No shortcut keys, and no toolbar icons. Menus all the way. You'll find you slow to a crawl, as every task suddenly demands a multitude of keystrokes/mouseclicks.
Making software "user-friendly" in this fashion is like putting training wheels on a bicycle: It lets you get up & running immediately, without any skill or experience needed. It's perfect for a beginner. But nobody out there thinks that all bicycles should be sold with training wheels: If you were given such a bicycle today, I'll wager the first thing you'd do is remove them for being unnecessary encumbrances: Once you know how to ride a bike, training wheels are unnecessary.

And in the same way, a great deal of Linux software is designed without "training wheels" - it's designed for users who already have some basic skills in place. After all, nobody's a permanent novice: Ignorance is short-lived, and knowledge is forever. So the software is designed with the majority in mind.

This might seem an excuse: After all, MS Word has all the friendly menus, and it has toolbar buttons, and it has shortcut keys. . . Best of all worlds, surely? Friendly and efficient.

However, this has to be put into perspective: Firstly, the practicalities: having menus and toolbars and shortcuts and all would mean a lot of coding, and it's not like Linux developers all get paid for their time. Secondly, it still doesn't really take into account serious power-users: Very few professional wordsmiths use MS Word. Ever meet a coder who used MS Word? Compare that to how many use emacs & vi.

Why is this? Firstly, because some "friendly" behaviour rules out efficient behaviour: See the "Cut&Copy" example above. And secondly, because most of Word's functionality is buried in menus that you have to use: Only the most common functionality has those handy little buttons in toolbars at the top. The less-used functions that are still vital for serious users just take too long to access.

Something to bear in mind, however, is that "training wheels" are often available as "optional extras" for Linux software: They might not be obvious, but frequently they're available.

Take mplayer. You use it to play a video file by typing mplayer filename in a terminal. You fastforward & rewind using the arrow keys and the PageUp & PageDown keys. This is not overly "user-friendly". However, if you instead type gmplayer filename, you'll get the graphical frontend, with all its nice, friendly , familiar buttons.

Take ripping a CD to MP3 (or Ogg): Using the command-line, you need to use cdparanoia to rip the files to disc. Then you need an encoder. . . It's a hassle, even if you know exactly how to use the packages (imho). So download & install something like Grip. This is an easy-to-use graphical frontend that uses cdparanoia and encoders behind-the-scenes to make it really easy to rip CDs, and even has CDDB support to name the files automatically for you.

The same goes for ripping DVDs: The number of options to pass to transcode is a bit of a nightmare. But using dvd::rip to talk to transcode for you makes the whole thing a simple, GUI-based process which anybody can do.

So to avoid #5b issues: Remember that "training wheels" tend to be bolt-on extras in Linux, rather than being automatically supplied with the main product. And sometimes, "training wheels" just can't be part of the design.

Problem #6: Imitation vs. Convergence

An argument people often make when they find that Linux isn't the Windows clone they wanted is to insist that this is what Linux has been (or should have been) attempting to be since it was created, and that people who don't recognise this and help to make Linux more Windows-like are in the wrong. They draw on many arguments for this:

Linux has gone from Command-Line- to Graphics-based interfaces, a clear attempt to copy Windows

Nice theory, but false: The original X windowing system was released in 1984, as the successor to the W windowing system ported to Unix in 1983. Windows 1.0 was released in 1985. Windows didn't really make it big until version 3, released in 1990 - by which time, X windows had for years been at the X11 stage we use today. Linux itself was only started in 1991. So Linux didn't create a GUI to copy Windows: It simply made use of a GUI that existed long before Windows.

Windows 3 gave way to Windows 95 - making a huge level of changes to the UI that Microsoft has never equalled since. It had many new & innovative features: Drag & drop functionality; taskbars, and so on. All of which have since been copied by Linux, of course.

Actually. . . no. All the above existed prior to Microsoft making use of them. NeXTSTeP in particular was a hugely advanced (for the time) GUI, and it predated Win95 significantly - version 1 released in 1989, and the final version in 1995.

Okay, okay, so Microsoft didn't think up the individual features that we think of as the Windows Look-and-Feel. But it still created a Look-and-Feel, and Linux has been trying to imitate that ever since.

To debunk this, one must discuss the concept of convergent evolution. This is where two completely different and independent systems evolve over time to become very similar. It happens all the time in biology. For example, sharks and dolphins. Both are (typically) fish-eating marine organisms of about the same size. Both have dorsal fins, pectoral fins, tail fins, and similar, streamlined shapes.

However, sharks evolved from fish, while dolphins evolved from a land-based quadrupedal mammal of some sort. The reason they have very similar overall appearances is that they both evolved to be as efficient as possible at living within a marine environment. At no stage did pre-dolphins (the relative newcomers) look at sharks and think "Wow, look at those fins. They work really well. I'll try and evolve some myself!"

Similarly, it's perfectly true to look at early Linux desktops and see FVWM and TWM and a lot of other simplistic GUIs. And then look at modern Linux desktops, and see Gnome & KDE with their taskbars and menus and eye-candy. And yes, it's true to say that they're a lot more like Windows than they used to be.

But then, so is Windows: Windows 3.0 had no taskbar that I remember. And the Start menu? What Start menu?

Linux didn't have a desktop anything like modern Windows. Microsoft didn't either. Now they both do. What does this tell us?

It tells us that developers in both camps looked for ways of improving the GUI, and because there are only a limited number of solutions to a problem, they often used very similar methods. Similarity does not in any way prove or imply imitation. Remembering that will help you avoid straying into problem #6 territory.

Problem #7: That FOSS thing.

Oh, this causes problems. Not intrinsically: The software being free and open-source is a wonderful and immensely important part of the whole thing. But understanding just how different FOSS is from proprietary software can be too big an adjustment for some people to make.

I've already mentioned some instances of this: People thinking they can demand technical support and the like. But it goes far beyond that.

Microsoft's Mission Statement is "A computer on every desktop" - with the unspoken rider that each computer should be running Windows. Microsoft and Apple both sell operating systems, and both do their utmost to make sure their products get used by the largest number of people: They're businesses, out to make money.

And then there is FOSS. Which, even today, is almost entirely non-commercial.

Before you reach for your email client to tell me about Red Hat, Suse, Linspire and all: Yes, I know they "sell" Linux. I know they'd all love Linux to be adopted universally, especially their own flavour of it. But don't confuse the suppliers with the manufacturers. The Linux kernel was not created by a company, and is not maintained by people out to make a profit with it. The GNU tools were not created by a company, and are not maintained by people out to make a profit with them. The X11 windowing system. . . well, the most popular implementation is xorg right now, and the ".org" part should tell you all you need to know. Desktop software: Well, you might be able to make a case for KDE being commercial, since it's Qt-based. But Gnome, Fluxbox, Enlightenment, etc. are all non-profit. There are people out to sell Linux, but they are very much the minority.

Increasing the number of end-users of proprietary software leads to a direct financial benefit to the company that makes it. This is simply not the case for FOSS: There is no direct benefit to any FOSS developer in increasing the userbase. Indirect benefits, yes: Personal pride; an increased potential for finding bugs; more likelihood of attracting new developers; possibly a chance of a good job offer; and so on.

But Linus Torvalds doesn't make money from increased Linux usage. Richard Stallman doesn't get money from increased GNU usage. All those servers running OpenBSD and OpenSSH don't put a penny into the OpenBSD project's pockets. And so we come to the biggest problem of all when it comes to new users and Linux:

They find out they're not wanted.

New users come to Linux after spending their lives using an OS where the end-user's needs are paramount, and "user friendly" and "customer focus" are considered veritable Holy Grails. And they suddenly find themselves using an OS that still relies on 'man' files, the command-line, hand-edited configuration files, and Google. And when they complain, they don't get coddled or promised better things: They get bluntly shown the door.

That's an exaggeration, of course. But it is how a lot of potential Linux converts perceived things when they tried and failed to make the switch.

In an odd way, FOSS is actually a very selfish development method: People only work on what they want to work on, when they want to work on it. Most people don't see any need to make Linux more attractive to inexperienced end-users: It already does what they want it to do, why should they care if it doesn't work for other people?

FOSS has many parallels with the Internet itself: You don't pay the writer of a webpage/the software to download and read/install it. Ubiquitous broadband/User-friendly interfaces are of no great interest to somebody who already has broadband/knows how to use the software. Bloggers/developers don't need to have lots of readers/users to justify blogging/coding. There are lots of people making lots of money off it, but it's not by the old-fashioned "I own this and you have to pay me if you want some of it" method that most businesses are so enamoured of; it's by providing services like tech-support/e-commerce.

Linux is not interested in market share. Linux does not have customers. Linux does not have shareholders, or a responsibility to the bottom line. Linux was not created to make money. Linux does not have the goal of being the most popular and widespread OS on the planet.

All the Linux community wants is to create a really good, fully-featured, free operating system. If that results in Linux becoming a hugely popular OS, then that's great. If that results in Linux having the most intuitive, user-friendly interface ever created, then that's great. If that results in Linux becoming the basis of a multi-billion dollar industry, then that's great.

It's great, but it's not the point. The point is to make Linux the best OS that the community is capable of making. Not for other people: For itself. The oh-so-common threats of "Linux will never take over the desktop unless it does such-and-such" are simply irrelevant: The Linux community isn't trying to take over the desktop. They really don't care if it gets good enough to make it onto your desktop, so long as it stays good enough to remain on theirs. The highly-vocal MS-haters, pro-Linux zealots, and money-making FOSS purveyors might be loud, but they're still minorities.

That's what the Linux community wants: an OS that can be installed by whoever really wants it. So if you're considering switching to Linux, first ask yourself what you really want.

If you want an OS that doesn't chauffeur you around, but hands you the keys, puts you in the driver's seat, and expects you to know what to do: Get Linux. You'll have to devote some time to learning how to use it, but once you've done so, you'll have an OS that you can make sit up and dance.

If you really just want Windows without the malware and security issues: Read up on good security practices; install a good firewall, malware-detector, and anti-virus; replace IE with a more secure browser; and keep yourself up-to-date with security updates. There are people out there (myself included) who've used Windows since 3.1 days right through to XP without ever being infected with a virus or malware: you can do it too. Don't get Linux: It will fail miserably at being what you want it to be.

If you really want the security and performance of a Unix-based OS but with a customer-focussed attitude and an world-renowned interface: Buy an Apple Mac. OS X is great. But don't get Linux: It will not do what you want it to do.

It's not just about "Why should I want Linux?". It's also about "Why should Linux want me?"

Most used CSS tricks

2008-04-13T23:38:00.000-07:00

Now here’s the list of today’s most used CSS tricks – tips. I have added image examples for most of them because of critics on CSS hacks article. If you think I have missed any please let me know

1. Rounded corners without images

.rtop, .rbottom{display:block}
.rtop *, .rbottom *{display: block; height: 1px; overflow: hidden}
.r1{margin: 0 5px}
.r2{margin: 0 3px}
.r3{margin: 0 2px}
.r4{margin: 0 1px; height: 2px}

2. Style your order list

This is line one

Here is line two

And last line

ol {
font: italic 1em Georgia, Times, serif;
color: #999999;
}

ol p {
font: normal .8em Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
color: #000000;
}

3. Tableless forms

label,input {
display: block;
width: 150px;
float: left;
margin-bottom: 10px;
}

label {
text-align: right;
width: 75px;
padding-right: 20px;
}

br {
clear: left;
}

4. Double blockquote

blockquote:first-letter {
background: url(images/open-quote.gif) no-repeat left top;
padding-left: 18px;
font: italic 1.4em Georgia, “Times New Roman”, Times, serif;
}

5. Gradient text effect

CSS Gradient Text

h1 {
font: bold 330%/100% “Lucida Grande”;
position: relative;
color: #464646;
}
h1 span {
background: url(gradient.png) repeat-x;
position: absolute;
display: block;
width: 100%;
height: 31px;
}

6. Vertical centering with line-height

div{
height:100px;
}
div *{
margin:0;
}
div p{
line-height:100px;
}

Content here

7. Rounded corners with images

width=”15″ height=”15″ class=”corner”
style=”display: none” / />

CONTENT

width=”15″ height=”15″ class=”corner”
style=”display: none” / />

.roundcont {
width: 250px;
background-color: #f90;
color: #fff;
}

.roundcont p {
margin: 0 10px;
}

.roundtop {
background: url(tr.gif) no-repeat top right;
}

.roundbottom {
background: url(br.gif) no-repeat top right;
}

img.corner {
width: 15px;
height: 15px;
border: none;
display: block !important;
}

8. Multiple class name

.class1 { border:2px solid #666; }
.class2 {
padding:2px;
background:#ff0;
}

9. Center horizontally

#container {
margin:0px auto;
}

10. CSS Drop Caps

This paragraph has the class “introduction”. If your browser supports the pseudo-class “first-letter”, the first letter will be a drop-cap.

p.introduction:first-letter {
font-size : 300%;
font-weight : bold;
float : left;
width : 1em;
}

11. Prevent line breaks in links, oversized content to brake

a{
white-space:nowrap;
}

#main{
overflow:hidden;
}

12. Show firefox scrollbar, remove textarea scrollbar in IE

html{
overflow:-moz-scrollbars-vertical;
}

textarea{
overflow:auto;
}

Ultimate Pc

2008-04-11T22:38:00.000-07:00

I recently had a massive ebay sale of all my old computer and hi-fi junk and decided to build my ultimate PC from scratch. It's taken a slow, but rewarding, 3 months to buy all the bits required and complete it all.

My requirements were:

- as much screen real-estate as possible
- as silent as I could possibly make it
- all my music/videos accessible from my laptop and HTPC even when the main PC is off
- fast enough to play occasional games
- no messy cables

Here's the end result:

I found the cheapest way to get lots of screen space was with the fantastic Dell 2007fp. Three of these gives me a desktop resolution of 4800x1200, which is plenty to avoid my windows overlapping too much.

To drive the three DVI monitors from one PC, I needed two video cards. It made sense to buy two identical ones so I could go SLI if required. I bought two 256MB XFX 7600GT 'Fatal1ty' PCI-E(x16) SLI Passive cards. These have heatpipes and large heatsinks instead of fans. They get surprisingly hot to the touch.

Motherboard duties are served by an Asus P5N-E SLI NF650i. My last few boards have been Asus and worked fine, so I stuck with the same make. Importantly, this board has no onboard chipset fan. For the CPU, I chose an Intel Core 2 Duo E4300. Dirt cheap, plenty fast enough and massively overclockable if required. RAM is 2x1Gb Corsair Value Select, DDR2 PC5300. There's little point going for a higher spec on the RAM unless on the limit for overclocking.

The Core 2 Duo retail heatsink makes noise - which just won't do! This got replaced with a Scythe Infinity heatsink. This monster is 160mm high - a fact that eluded me until I tried to put the lid back on the computer case. Oops. I found a slightly less ridiculous heatsink, the Noctua NH-U9F, which fitted nicely in the case but was missing the vital springs in the packaging to attach it to the CPU. After a trip to the local hardware shop, I added some washers and guessed the right pressure to apply to the CPU. The CPU temperature is now usually below the motherboard temperature!

2x80mm Nexus fans, 1x120mm Nexus fan. These are all under PWM control using "SpeedFan" in Windows. They spend most of their time running at nearly their slowest speed.

Hard disc is a 250Gb SATA Samsung SP2504C. This is pretty quiet, and seek noise is hardly noticeable. To help dampen it down further, I fitted it in a Scythe Quiet Drive enclosure, and then suspended the whole thing with bungee cord in the case.

Power supply is a Xilence Office Edition 460W Semi Fanless. The fan only spins when the PSU reaches a very high temperature - which it never does. Finding a fanless PSU rated to drive an SLI system is actually quite hard!

My computers are normally a big cable-ridden mess on the floor. I was determined not to let this one go the same way. Now, 19" cabinets, as found in server rooms, always look very neat. You can fit in lots of computers and get around the back of them easily. Everyone told me it would be nuts to have one at home, but I ignored them all

I bought a Compucase 19" rackmountable case with sliding rails. There was now no going back! The case is expensive for what it is, and inside is not even that good quality. It's built to last though - the whole computer weighs about 17kg.

That covers my main Windows PC. Now time for another PC build! I needed a place to keep my music and videos - also to be accessible from my laptop and HTPC when the main PC is off.

Network Attached Storage (NAS) is usually the way to go, but to get decent transfer rates you need Gigabit ethernet. Gigabit NAS's are normally pretty expensive. I found a more flexible (and probably cheaper) approach was to build another computer, this time a low-power VIA EPIA based machine. Again, it had to be as quiet as possible, especially since this PC would remain on 24/7. The whole setup is in my spare room, so it's no good to have hard discs spinning during the night if guests are staying.

I decided to run this PC from a Compact Flash card. There always seem lots of questions about this on various forums, but few people actually go through with it. CF cards only have a limited number of writes per sector before the sector dies. It's typically 10,000 or 100,000 write cycles which is actually not much if you let Windows put its swap file on the card.

In fact, running Windows from CF is tricky anyway, as Windows writes to disc a lot. I believe some people have been successful using Windows XP Embedded, but I went for an easy life and ran Linux instead I didn't have to do much other than not create a swap partition, and changed some of the file locations to point to RAM disc (mainly things in /var). I've been running the PC on an 8Gb CF card for a month and it hasn't died yet. Hopefully, I'll get a year or two's use from the card.

The motherboard is a VIA EPIA EN12000E. This comes with a 1.2Ghz VIA CPU, and is fanless. It is one of the few mini ITX form-factor boards that has built-in gigabit ethernet. I have a small 60W PSU board in the case which is enough to power the motherboard and a 3.5" HD.

The hard disc is 500Gb and, again, suspended with bungee cord in the 1u case. The PC is 100% totally silent when the hard disc is spun down.

To join it all together, I bought a Dell Powerconnect 2716 16-port Gigabit managed switch. I have an rj45 cat5e patch panel where all my devices are terminated.

Via the XBox, I can watch live TV and recorded TV wirelessly from my HTPC downstairs. The xbox runs Microsoft XBox Extender software, the HTPC runs Windows MCE 2005.

I thought the 12u 19" cabinet was a horrible mistake when it first arrived. It looked roughly washing machine sized, and totally out of place at home. Once I fitted everything and pushed it into the corner of the room, it looked much better. It uses up no more floorspace than my old computers did piled up on the floor. The 4u main PC and 1u EPIA are both mounted on sliding rails, and can slide fully out of the cabinet.

Microsoft's Really Hidden Files

2008-04-11T22:11:00.000-07:00

DISCLAIMER:
I will not be liable for any damage or lost information, whether due to reader's error, or any other reason.

FEEDBACK NOTE:
If you'd like to comment specifically on this article (and not this website as a whole), please write directly to the author at ther1ddler@fuckMicrosoft.com.

SUMMARY:

Do This IF You Have Enough Knowledge Of DOS

There are folders on your computer that Microsoft has tried hard to keep secret. Within these folders you will find two major things: Microsoft Internet Explorer has not been clearing your browsing history after you have instructed it to do so, and Microsoft's Outlook Express has not been deleting your e-mail correspondence after you've erased them from your Deleted Items bin. (This also includes all incoming and outgoing file attachments.) And believe me, that's not even the half of it.

When I say these files are hidden well, I really mean it. If you don't have any knowledge of DOS then don't plan on finding these files on your own. I say this because these files/folders won't be displayed in Windows Explorer at all -- only DOS. (Even after you have enabled Windows Explorer to "show all files.") And to top it off, the only way to find them in DOS is if you knew the exact location of them. Basically, what I'm saying is if you didn't know the files existed then the chances of you running across them is slim to slimmer.

It's interesting to note that Microsoft does not explain this behavior adequately at all. Just try searching on microsoft.com.

FORWARD:
I know there are some people out there that are already aware of some of the things I mention. I also know that most people are not. The purpose of this tutorial is teach people what is really going on with Microsoft's products and how to take control of their privacy again. This tutorial was written by me, so if you see a mistake somewhere then it is my mistake, and I apologize.

Thanks for reading.

INDEX

1. DEFINITIONS
1.1) Acronyms

2. SEEING IS BELIEVING
3. HOW TO ERASE THE FILES ASAP
3.1) If You Have Ever Used Microsoft Internet Explorer
3.2) Clearing Your Registry
3.3) Slack files
3.4) Keeping Microsoft's Products
4. STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE THROUGH YOUR HIDDEN FILES (For the savvy.)
5. HOW MICROSOFT DOES IT
6. +S MEANS [S]ECRET NOT [S]YSTEM
6. A LOOK AT OUTLOOK
8. THE TRUTH ABOUT FIND FAST
8.1) Removing Find Fast
9. CONTACT INFORMATION AN PGP BLOCKS
9.1) Recommended reading

1. DEFINITIONS

Well, the best definition I have been able to come up with is the following:

I) A "really hidden" file/folder is one that cannot be seen in Windows Explorer after enabling it to "show all files," and cannot be seen in MS-DOS after receiving a proper directory listing from root.
a) There is at least one workaround to enable Windows Explorer to see them.
b) There is at least one workaround to enable MS-DOS to see them.

II) Distinguishes "really hidden" file/folders from just plain +h[idden] ones, such as your "MSDOS.SYS" or "Sysbckup" folder.

III) Distinguishes from certain "other" intended hidden files, such as a file with a name of "°ƒë‹x¥."

(Interesting to note that Microsoft has disabled the "Find: Files or Folders" from searching through one of these folders.)

1.1. ACRONYMS

DOS = Disk Operating System, or MS-DOS
MSIE = Microsoft Internet Explorer
TIF = Temporary Internet Files (folder)
HD = Hard Drive
OS = Operating System
FYI = For Your Information

2. SEEING IS BELIEVING

No. Enabling Windows Explorer to "show all files" does not show the files in mention. No. DOS does not list the files after receiving a proper directory listing from root. And yes. Microsoft intentionally disabled the "Find" utility from searching through one of the folders.

Oh, but that's not all.

Just from one of these files I would be able to tell you which web sites you previously visited, what types of things you search for in search engines, and probably gather your ethnicity, religion, and sexual preference. Needless to say one can build quite a profile on you from these files. It has the potential to expose and humiliate -- putting your marriage, friendship, and corporation at risk. Here's one good example of the forensic capabilities.

"I've been reading your article as I have a problem with an employee of mine. He has been using the work's PC for the internet and using it to chat and look at porn sites. He was then deleting the cookies and history in order to cover his tracks. A friend of mine pointed me in the direction of this site and your article. I have found it to be incredibly useful . . ."

-- Concerned Boss, 8/24/01

One more thing. They contain your browsing history at ALL times. Even after you have instructed Microsoft Internet Explorer to clear your history/cache. And so the saying goes, "seeing is believing."

To see for yourself simply do as you would normally do to clear your browsing history. Go to Internet Options under your Control Panel. Click on the [Clear History] and [Delete Files] buttons. (Make sure to include all offline content.)

So, has your browsing history been cleared? One would think so.

Skipping the to chase here. These are the names and locations of the "really hidden files":

c:\windows\history\history.ie5\index.dat
c:\windows\tempor~1\content.ie5\index.dat

If you have upgraded MSIE several times, they might have alternative names of mm256.dat and mm2048.dat, and may also be located here:

c:\windows\tempor~1\
c:\windows\history\

Not to mention the other alternative locations under:

c:\windows\profiles\%user%\...
c:\windows\application data\...
c:\windows\local settings\...
c:\windows\temp\...
c:\temp\...

(or as defined in your autoexec.bat.)

FYI, there are a couple other index.dat files that get hidden as well, but they are seemingly not very important. See if you can find them.

3.0. HOW TO ERASE THE FILES ASAP

Step by step information on how to erase these files as soon as possible. This section is recommended for the non-savvy. Further explanation can be found in Section 4.0. Please note that following these next steps will erase all your cache files, all your cookie files. If you use the offline content feature with MSIE, following these next steps will remove this as well. It will not erase your bookmarks.

3.1. IF YOU HAVE EVER USED MICROSOFT INTERNET EXPLORER

1) Shut your computer down, and turn it back on. 2) While your computer is booting keep pressing the [F8] key until you are given an option screen.
3) Choose "Command Prompt Only" (This will take you to true DOS mode.) Windows ME users must use a boot disk to get into real DOS mode.
4) When your computer is done booting, you will have a C:\> followed by a blinking cursor. Type this in, hitting enter after each line. (Obviously, don't type the comments in parentheses.)

C:\WINDOWS\SMARTDRV (Loads smartdrive to speed things up.)
CD\
DELTREE/Y TEMP (This line removes temporary files.)
CD WINDOWS
DELTREE/Y COOKIES (This line removes cookies.)
DELTREE/Y TEMP (This removes temporary files.)
DELTREE/Y HISTORY (This line removes your browsing history.)
DELTREE/Y TEMPOR~1 (This line removes your internet cache.)

(If that last line doesn't work, then type this:)

CD\WINDOWS\APPLIC~1
DELTREE/Y TEMPOR~1

(If that didn't work, then type this:)

CD\WINDOWS\LOCALS~1
DELTREE/Y TEMPOR~1

(If this still does not work, and you are sure you are using MSIE 5.x, then please e-mail me. If you have profiles turned on, then it is likely located under \windows\profiles\%user%\, while older versions of MSIE keep them under \windows\content\.)

This last one will take a ridiculous amount of time to process. The reason it takes so incredibly long is because there is a ton of (semi-) useless cache stored on your HD.

5) Immediately stop using Microsoft Internet Explorer and go with any of the alternative browsers out there (e.g., Netscape 4.7x from netscape.com, Mozilla from mozilla.org, or Opera from opera.com).

FYI, Windows re-creates the index.dat files automatically when you reboot your machine, so don't be surprised when you see them again. They should at least be cleared of your browsing history.

3.2. CLEARING YOUR REGISTRY

It was once believed that the registry is the central database of Windows that stores and maintains the OS configuration information. Well, this is wrong. Apparently, it also maintains a bunch of other information that has absolutely nothing to do with the configuration. I won't get into the other stuff, but for one, your typed URLs are stored in the registry.

HKEY_USERS/Default/Software/Microsoft/Internet Explorer/TypedURLs/
HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Internet Explorer/TypedURLs/

These "Typed URLs" come from MSIE's autocomplete feature. It records all URLs that you've typed in manually in order to save you some time filling out the address field. By typing "ama" the autocomplete feature might bring up "amazon.com" for you. Although I find it annoying, some people prefer this feature. One thing is for sure, however -- it's an obvious privacy risk. You wouldn't want a guest to type "ama" and have it autocomplete to "amateurmudwrestlers.com," would you?

3.3. SLACK FILES

As you may already know, deleting files only deletes the references to them. They are in fact still sitting there on your HD and can still be recovered by a very motivated person.

BCWipe is a nice program that will clear these files.
For you DOS buffs, there's a freeware file wiper on simtel.net that I use.
If you are using PGP, there is a "Freespace Wipe" option under PGPtools.
The newer versions of Norton Utilities have a nice file wiping utility.
You might want to check out Evidence Eliminator's 30 day trial. This is probably the best program as far as your privacy goes.

3.4. KEEPING MICROSOFT'S PRODUCTS

If your work environment forces you to use Microsoft Internet Explorer, then I strongly recommend that you talk your boss into checking out one of these programs:

These programs automate the process for you, and is a better alternative to adding 'deltree/y' lines to your autoexec.

And if your work environment forces you to use Outlook or Outlook Express, then you should get in the habit of compacting your mailboxes.

You can do this by going to File > Folder > Compact All if you have Outlook Express, or Tools > Options > Other tab > [Auto Archive] if you have Outlook. Make sure to set things up here.

4.0. STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE THROUGH YOUR HIDDEN FILES

This next section is intended for the savvy user.

The most important files to be paying attention to are your "index.dat" files. These are database files that reference your history, cache and cookies. The first thing you should know is that the index.dat files is that they don't exist in less you know they do. They second thing you should know about them is that some will *not* get cleared after deleting your history and cache.

The result: A log of your browsing history hidden away on your computer after you thought you cleared it.

To view these files, follow these steps:

In MSIE 5.x, you can skip this first step by opening MSIE and going to Tools > Internet Options > [Settings] > [View Files]. Now write down the names of your alphanumeric folders on a piece of paper. If you can't see any alphanumeric folders then start with step 1 here:

1) First, drop to a DOS box and type this at prompt (in all lower-case). It will bring up Windows Explorer under the correct directory.

c:\windows\explorer /e,c:\windows\tempor~1\content.ie5\

You see all those alphanumeric names listed under "content.ie5?" (left-hand side.) That's Microsoft's idea of making this project as hard as possible. Actually, these are your alphanumeric folders that was created to keep your cache. Write these names down on a piece of paper. (They should look something like this: 6YQ2GSWF, QRM7KL3F, U7YHQKI4, 7YMZ516U, etc.) If you click on any of the alphanumeric folders then nothing will be displayed. Not because there aren't any files here, but because Windows Explorer has lied to you. If you want to view the contents of these alphanumeric folders you will have to do so in DOS. (Actually, this is not always true. Sometimes Windows Explorer will display the contents of these folders -- but mostly it won't. I can't explain this.)

2) Then you must restart in MS-DOS mode. (Start > Shutdown > Restart in MS-DOS mode. ME users use a bootdisk.)

Note that you must restart to DOS because windows has locked down some of the files and they can only be accessed in real DOS mode.

3) Type this in at prompt:

CD\WINDOWS\TEMPOR~1\CONTENT.IE5
CD %alphanumeric%

(replace the "%alphanumeric%" with the first name that you just wrote down.)

DIR/P

The cache files you are now looking at are directly responsible for the mysterious erosion of HD space you may have been noticing. One thing particularly interesting is the ability to view some your old e-mail if you happen to have a Hotmail account. (Oddly, I've only been able to retreive Hotmail e-mail, and not e-mail from my other web-based e-mail accounts. Send me your experiences with this.) To see them for yourself you must first copy them into another directory and THEN open them with your browser. Don't ask me why this works.

A note about these files: These are your cache files that help speed up your internet browsing. It is quite normal to use this cache system, as every major browser does. On the other hand. It isn't normal for some cache files to be left behind after you have instructed your browser to erase it.

5) Type this in:

CD\WINDOWS\TEMPOR~1\CONTENT.IE5
EDIT /75 INDEX.DAT

You will be brought to a blue screen with a bunch of binary.

6) Press and hold the [Page Down] button until you start seeing lists of URLs. These are all the sites that you've ever visited as well as a brief description of each. You'll notice it records everything you've searched for in a search engine in plain text, in addition to the URL.

7) When you get done searching around you can go to File > Exit. If you don't have mouse support in DOS then use the [ALT] and arrow keys.

8) Next you'll probably want to erase these files by typing this:

C:\WINDOWS\SMARTDRV
CD\WINDOWS
DELTREE/Y TEMPOR~1

(replace "cd\windows" with the location of your TIF folder if different.)

This will take a seriously long time to process. Even with Smartdrive loaded.

9) Then check out the contents of your History folder by typing this:

CD\WINDOWS\HISTORY\HISTORY.IE5
EDIT /75 INDEX.DAT

You will be brought to a blue screen with more binary.

10) Press and hold the [Page Down] button until you start seeing lists of URLS again.

This is another database of the sites you've visited.

11) And if you're still with me, type this:

CD\WINDOWS\HISTORY

12) If you see any mmXXXX.dat files here then check them out (and delete them.) Then:

CD\WINDOWS\HISTORY\HISTORY.IE5
CD MSHIST~1
EDIT /75 INDEX.DAT

More URLs from your internet history. Note, there are probably other mshist~x folders here so you can repeat these steps for every occurence if you please.

13) By now, you'll probably want to type in this:

CD\WINDOWS
DELTREE/Y HISTORY

5.0. HOW MICROSOFT DOES IT

How does Microsoft make these folders/files invisible to DOS?

The only thing Microsoft had to do to make the folders/files invisible to a directory listing is to set them +s[ystem]. That's it. As soon as the dir/s command hits a system folder, it renders the command useless (unlike normal folders.) A more detailed explanation is given in Section 6.

So how does Microsoft make these folders/files invisible to Windows Explorer?

The "desktop.ini" is a standard text file that can be added to any folder to customize certain aspects of the folder's behavior. In these cases, Microsoft utilized the desktop.ini file to make these files invisible. Invisible to Windows Explorer and even to the "Find: Files or Folders" utility (so you wouldn't be able to perform searches in these folders!) All that Microsoft had to do was create a desktop.ini file with certain CLSID tags and the folders would disappear like magic.

To show you exactly what's going on:

Found in the c:\windows\temporary internet files\desktop.ini and the c:\windows\temporary internet files\content.ie5\desktop.ini is this text:

[.ShellClassInfo]
UICLSID={7BD29E00-76C1-11CF-9DD0-00A0C9034933}

Found in the c:\windows\history\desktop.ini and the c:\windows\history\history.ie5\desktop.ini is this text:

[.ShellClassInfo]
UICLSID={7BD29E00-76C1-11CF-9DD0-00A0C9034933}
CLSID={FF393560-C2A7-11CF-BFF4-444553540000}

The UICLSID line cloaks the folder in Windows Explorer. The CLSID line disables the "Find" utility from searching through the folder. (Additionally, it gives a folder the appearance of the "History" folder.)

To see for yourself, you can simply erase the desktop.ini files. You'll see that it will instantly give Windows Explorer proper viewing functionality again, and the "Find" utility proper searching capabilities again. Problem solved right? Actually, no. As it turns out, the desktop.ini files get reconstructed every single time you restart your computer. Nice one, Slick.

Luckily there is a loophole which will keep Windows from hiding these folders. You can manually edit the desktop.ini's and remove everything except for the "[.ShellClassInfo]" line. This will trick windows into thinking they have still covered their tracks, and wininet won't think to reconstruct them.

I can't stress how ridiculous it is that Windows actually makes sure the files are hidden on every single boot. No other files or folders get this kind of special treatment. So what's the agenda here?

6.0. +S MEANS [S]ECRET NOT [S]YSTEM

Executing the "dir/a/s" command from root should be the correct command to display all files in all subdirectories in DOS. However, doing so will not display the index.dat files. This is because when DOS tries to get a list of the subdirectories of any +s[ystem] directory it hits a brick wall. No files or folders will be listed within any system directory. Not only does this defeat the whole purpose of the "/s" switch in the first place, but I'd say it looks like Microsoft took extra precautions to keep people from finding the files. Remember, the only thing you need to do to obscure a file in DOS is to mark the parent directories as +s[ystem].

I was told by a few people that this was due to a very old DOS bug that dates back many years. Fine. I can accept that. A bug it is.

But, would you consider your Temporary Internet Files to be "system files?" It would seem that your TIF folder appears to be marked +s[ystem] for no good reason at all. Just because. Same with your history folder. You may not agree, but I tend to think that Microsoft marked the folders as +s[ystem] solely to hide any directory recursal from DOS.

In case you didn't understand, here's a small experiment that will show you what I mean.

Since the content.ie5 and history.ie5 subfolders are both located within a +s[ystem] folder, we will run the experiment with them. The proper command to locate them should be this:

CD\
DIR *.IE5 /as/s

The problem is that you will receive a "No files found" error message.

Since we already know there is a content.ie5 subfolder located here, why is it giving me the "no files found" message?

But there is a way to get around this brick wall. That is, once you are inside the system directory, then it no longer has an effect on the dir listings. For example, if you enter the system folder first, and THEN try to find any +s[ystem] directories you can see them just fine:

CD\WINDOWS\TEMPOR~1
DIR *.IE5 /as/s

1 folder(s) found.

Now you will get a "1 folder(s) found." message. (But only after you knew the exact location.)

In other words, if you didn't know the files existed then finding them would be almost impossible.

And, by the way, to see the "bug" in progress:

CD\
DIR *.IE5 /a/s

It will echo "no files found."

Now, just take away the system attributes from the parent directory...

CD\WINDOWS
ATTRIB -S TEMPOR~1

And retry the test:

CD\
DIR *.IE5 /a/s

It will echo "1 folder(s) found."

7.0 A LOOK AT OUTLOOK EXPRESS

Would you think twice about what you said if you knew it was being recorded? E-mail correspondence leaves a permanent record of everything you've said -- even after you've told Outlook to erase it. You are given a false sense of security sense you've erased it twice, so surely it must be gone. The first time Outlook simply moves it to your "Deleted Items" folder. The second time you erase it Outlook simply "pretends" it is gone. The truth is your messages are still being retained in the database files on your hard drive. (As are your e-mail attachments.)

For earlier versions of Outlook Express, they will be located in either of the following folders:

c:\program files\internet mail and news\%user%\mail\*.mbx
c:\windows\application data\microsoft\outlook\mail\*.mbx

At this point you have two choices:

a) Get in the habit of compacting your folders all the time.
b) Backup, print out, or import the data into another e-mail client such as Eudora and then delete the mbx files (and thus all your e-mail correspondence) by typing this:

cd\windows\intern~1\%user%\mail
deltree/y mail

cd\windows\applic~1\micros~1\outloo~1\
deltree/y mail

(Typing in the above commands will kill all your e-mail correspondence. Do not follow those steps in less you have already backed up your e-mail and address book!)

If you have a newer version of Outlook or Outlook Express, the databases are located elsewhere. Look for .dbx and .pst file extensions. These databases are five times as creepy, and I strongly recommend you take at the files.

Just from my outbox.dbx file I was able to view some of my old browsing history, bring up previously-visited websites in html format, and even read ancient e-mail from my Eudora client (read: EUDORA).

Again, don't take my word for it. See for yourself and THEN tell me what you think "Slick Willy" is up to here.

8. THE TRUTH ABOUT FIND FAST

Have you ever wondered what that "Find Fast" program was under your control panel? Here's a hint: It has absolutely nothing to do with the "Find" utility located under the [Start] menu. Just to clear up any confusion before going on, Oblivion adequately explains Find Fast here:

"In any version of Word after 95, choose File Open and you'll get the Office App Open dialog. Instead of just a space for the file name, there are text boxes for file name, files of type, text or property & last modified. These are search criteria you can use to find one or more files. There is also an "Advanced" button that opens a dedicated search dialog with more options. When you use either of these dialogs to perform a search, that search process uses the indexes built by Find Fast."

But what would you say if I told you that Find Fast was scanning every single file on your hard drive? Did you know that in Office 95, the Find Fast Indexer had an "exclusion list" comprised of .exe, .swp, .dll and other extensions, but the feature was eliminated? If you were a programmer would you program Find Fast to index every single file, or just the ones with Office extensions?

FYI, If you have ever had problems with scandisk or defrag restarting due to disk writes, it is because Find Fast was indexing your hard drive in the background. It loads every time you start your computer up.

Now here is a good example of the lengths Microsoft has gone through to keep people from finding out Find Fast is constantly scanning and indexing their hard drives. (Always good to have an alibi.) Here's a snippet taken from microsoft.com:

"When you specify the type of documents to index in the Create Index dialog box, Find Fast includes the document types that are listed in the following table.

Doc Type	File Name Extension
Microsoft Office files	All the Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Web documents PowerPoint, Microsoft Project, and Microsoft Word document types listed in this table. Microsoft Binder (.odb, .obt) and Microsoft Access (.mdb) files. Note that in .mdb files, only document properties are indexed.
Microsoft Excel workbooks	.xl* files
Microsoft PowerPoint files	.ppt (presentation), .pot (template), .pps (auto-running presentation) files
Microsoft Project files	.mpp, .mpw, .mpt, .mpx, .mpd files
Microsoft Word documents	.doc (document), .dot (template), .ht* (Hypertext Markup Language document), .txt (text file), .rtf (Rich Text Format) files
All files	. files

Did you get that last part? "All files?" Find Fast indexes Office Documents, Web documents, Word Documents, Power Point files, Project files, and -- oh, I forgot -- EVERY SINGLE other file on your computer.

Actually, the good news is that this isn't necessarily true. In another statement, Microsoft claims that if Find Fast deems the file "unreadable" then the file will not be included in the index. For example, your command.com probably wouldn't get indexed because it doesn't have a lot of plain text -- mostly binary.

But back to the bad news. Every single file that has legible text is going to be included in the Find Fast database. Do you understand the implication here? All text saved to your hard drive is indexed. The forensic capabilities are enormous, folks. Don't forget that "all text" also means previously visited webpages from your cache. See for yourself. Open up a DOS window and type:

CD\
DIR FF*.* /AH (This will bring up a listing of the Find Fast databases.)

EDIT /75 %ff% (insert %ff% with any of the names that were listed.)

Notice the incredible amount of disk accesses to your cache and history folders? Why do we need two indexes?

8.1. REMOVING THE FIND FAST PROGRAM

You can remove Find Fast using your Office CD, but I recommend you do it manually.

1) Reboot your computer in MS-DOS Mode.
2) Delete the FindFast.CPL file from c:\windows\system\
3) Delete the shortcut (.lnk) under c:\windows\start menu\programs\startup\
4) Delete the FindFast.EXE file from c:\progra~1\micros~1\office\ 5) It's important to delete the find fast databases (c:\ff*.*). 6) You can also safely delete FFNT.exe, FFSetup.dll, FFService.dll, and FFast_bb.dll if you have them.

Feel free to check out the ffastlog.txt (which is the Find Fast error log). It's a +h[idden] file under c:\windows\system\.

9. CONTACT INFO AND PGP BLOCKS

This tutorial is being updated all the time. If you have any useful input, or if you see a mistake somewhere, then please e-mail me so I can compile it into future versions. You will be able to find the most recent version of this tutorial at Microsuck.com. I am not directly affiliated with the site.

My e-mail address is located at the end of this note. Please let me know where you heard about this tutorial in your message. If you have something important to say to me, then please use encryption. My public key blocks are located below. Be suspicious if you send me an encrypted message but never get a reply.

Thanks for reading.

-- The Riddler
e-mail: ther1ddler@fuckMicrosoft.com

My PGP 2.6.3 Block:

-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
Version: 2.6.3a
Comment: Compatible with PGP 2.6.x

mQCNAzvVzqgAAAEEANT+lnfVk79zr/eYkLHs+euTg/JBSQXmUWB5dMxv4Vvv4Xes
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Un4qIcG0CfAQ1QCUfqOwTWbFH/Wy
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-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

My GPG 1.0.6 Block:

-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
Version: GnuPG v1.0.6 (MingW32)

mQGhBDu3TSERBACO0Fx9pjMULe6qLQwOgfvdnQconLOMyftZdp9+ZX6t29ebJ/Z5
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CH2uO/f46JgQ0pspQxi7IBv0yNQAn11ebXHbZGuADwuBun1EnQCJb8VIuQINBDu3
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wEQpHjKTJfXoSHZH0euuXVZ9hOVdf1+PuRNy0DzrDDiKX7fdQ6eSbw+heSWc0kOF
AB1j3pcovG4K2+bK66039kQLIT3kNUZgh9DdMZjIFzBg90aQnaEm5LLMkv1FNVZP
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ckswjlC9aNcBkcFl7X1SX8JX
=pFTK
-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

My PGP 6.5.8 Block (patched ADK bug):

Linux-Unix cheat sheets - The ultimate collection

2008-04-11T22:09:00.000-07:00

Linux Command Line Cheat Sheets

Solaris Cheat Sheets

IBM (AIX) Cheat Sheets

Debian/Ubuntu Cheat Sheets

Package Management Cheat Sheets

Unix Cheat Sheets

Bash Cheat Sheets

Awk Cheat Sheets

Ed Cheat Sheets

Sed Cheat Sheets

GDB debugger Cheat Sheets

21 Awesome (But Lesser-Known) Open-Source Applications for Windows

2008-04-11T21:43:00.000-07:00

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock in Madagascar for the last few years, you undoubtedly already know about the All-Star open-source applications for Windows. I’m talking about applications such as Firefox, Thunderbird, GIMP, OpenOffice, and VLC.

However, there are hundreds of lesser-known but highly-useful open-source applications available for Windows. A few of my favorites are below.

These applications range from moderately popular to downright obscure, but all of them are open-source and FREE. All of them are worth the install time if you have never tried them. As a side bonus, many of them are cross-platform as well.

Here they are, in random order:

1. ZScreen

ZScreen is an open-source screen capture program that quietly resides in your system tray until needed. It can take screenshots of a selected region, the active window, or the entire screen. It can even send screen captures via FTP and copy the URL to your clipboard, all with just a single keystroke. Oh yeah, it can also interface with image editing software, such as Photoshop or Paint.net.

If you frequently take screenshots, ZScreen is light years faster than pressing Print Scrn and pasting into MS Paint.

2. PDFCreator

PDFCreator allows you to create PDFs from any program that can print. Once it’s installed, simply “print” to the virtual printer that it creates, and the resulting document can be read on any computer with Adobe Reader (or comparable software).

There are several similar programs, but if you dig open-source software, PDFCreator trumps many of the others.

3. KeePass

KeePass is one of those applications that you don’t realize how badly you need until you start using it. It securely stores and manages the login information that you use for e-mail, websites, banks, etc. Unless you always use the exact same login information (a terrible idea!), you need KeePass. It’s even available in a portable version.

I use KeePass to manage hundreds of usernames and passwords. I’d go crazy without it.

4. HandBrake

HandBrake is a DVD to MPEG-4 converter that allows you to stick a DVD in your drive and have the video converted to a digital file for convenient viewing. It’s great for minimizing wear-and-tear on DVDs, plus it’s handy if you travel a lot and want to watch movies on your laptop.

For best results, use it in conjunction with DVD43.

5. Notepad++

Let’s face it - Windows Notepad is a pretty wimpy text editor, and there are many better alternatives. Notepad++ kicks the original Notepad in the junk pretty hard. Best of all, it interfaces nicely with Filezilla. Here are the features:

Syntax Highlighting and Syntax Folding
User Defined Syntax Highlighting
Auto-completion
Multi-Document
Multi-View
Regular Expression Search/Replace supported
Full Drag ‘N’ Drop supported
Dynamic position of Views
File Status Auto-detection
Zoom in and zoom out
Multi-Language environment supported
Bookmark
Brace and Indent guideline Highlighting
Macro recording and playback

6. Peazip

PeaZip is my current compression/zip utility of choice. It can open almost any archive type imaginable (including ACE - be sure to grab the separate plug-in). Peazip can split/join files, offers 256-bit encryption, and integrates nicely into the right-click contextual menu. It even manages to look good in the process.

Hey, there’s also portable version AND a Linux version available. Nice.

7. BonkEnc

BonkEnc is a fantastic CD ripper, encoder, and audio converter. It’s tiny, lightweight, and is my application of choice for ripping and encoding CDs. BonkEnc can produce MP3, MP4/M4A, Ogg Vorbis, AAC, Bonk and FLAC files, and also features CDDB/freedb lookup.

Along similar lines, if you’re looking for a batch audio/video transcoder, take a look at MediaCoder.

8. Launchy

I admit: I’ve been spoiled by Quicksilver on Mac OS X. My favorite similar program for Windows is Launchy, an open-source keystroke launcher.

To launch a program, press Alt + Spacebar, and then type a few letters in the program name and press Enter. Boom! You can also browse folders the same way. Once you get used to it, it’s a huge time saver.

9. Cabos

Cabos is a Gnutella file-sharing program originally based on Limewire and Acquisition. Unlike some other file-shaing programs, there’s no spyware, adware, or any other crap to junk up your computer.

10. GnuCash

If you recoil in horror at the bloat of financial programs such as Microsoft Money and Quicken, GnuCash may suit your needs. It’s a slimmer version of those programs, and it has all the features I need for managing my meager amount of money.

The interface is easy enough to understand. It actually looks a lot like a digital checkbook ledger. Don’t be fooled, though - GnuCash can handle the needs of much more demanding users.

11. RSSOwl

RSSOwl is a cross-platform RSS reader. It allows you to easily track updated content on multiple sites. I really like the tabbed interface.

I find RSSOwl especially useful on a laptop, but on my always-connected desktop I prefer a web-based RSS reader, such as Google Reader.

12. VirtualDub

VirtualDub is a free video capture and processing utility. Wait, it’s more than that. VirtualDub lets you capture video and then manipulate it with a multitude of plug-ins and filters. It isn’t a full-fledged non-linear editor, but it packs a powerful punch for a free program.

If you work with video on Windows a lot, you probably already know about VirtualDub. If you’re just getting into video editing, you should grab VirtualDub immediately. Heck, it doesn’t even require installation.

13. Eraser

If you are paranoid about someone else recovering your sensitive deleted data, you owe it to yourself to check out Eraser. When you delete a file, your operating system really just removes the reference to the file from the file system table. The actual data is still present and can be recovered with an undelete utility.

Eraser securely shreds your sensitive data by overwriting several times with multiple, carefully-selected patterns. In other words: once you erase it, it’s gone!

14. Paint.NET

Paint.NET is to MS Paint what NotePad++ is to Windows Notepad. It’s a dandy little photo editor that supports layers, unlimited undo, and a host of other features. By all rights, it should come with Windows by default.

Paint.NET isn’t meant to fill the shoes of bigger applications like Photoshop or The GIMP, but I use it almost every day for basic photo manipulation.

15. InfraRecorder

Need CD/DVD burning software for Windows? It doesn’t get much better than InfraRecorder (by the same author of TUGZip).

InfraRecorder can burn audio/data discs. It can handle multi-session discs, creation and burning of disc images (ISO and BIN/CUE), and can even save audio/data track information to separate files. Oh yeah, it also has a portable version.

16. AutoHotkey

It’s hard to know where to begin with this one. What can you do with AutoHotkey? Almost anything!

For starters, by using custom keystrokes and mouse-clicks, you can automate practically any repetitive task. Define any shortcut for Windows. Remap keys and buttons any way you please. Control your mouse cursor with your keyboard. By writing your own scripts, the potential is limitless.

17. GanttProject

If you need to do any project management, GanttProject will help you get everything organized. As the name implies, it uses Gantt charts and resource load charts to help break a project into a tree of tasks, complete with dependencies.

GanttProject even allows you to exchange data with Microsoft Project, though you may find that you have no reason to do so.

18. MP3Gain

MP3Gain is a simple and elegant application that serves one main purpose - to automatically adjust MP3 files so they all play at the same volume. It does it without decoding and re-encoding, so the quality remains the same. No more fiddling with the volume between different songs.

19. Filezilla

Way back in the day, I used WS_FTP. Now I exclusively use Filezilla for my file transfer needs. It supports SFTP, allows for bandwidth speed limits, and easily saves server settings.

Best of all, it seamlessly combines with text editors (such as Notepad++) for quick-and-dirty file editing on the remote server!

20. Battle for Wesnoth

After all this downloading, it’s time to take a break and have some fun. Battle for Wesnoth is a single/multiplayer turn-based strategy game with a fantasy theme. You can build an army from different kinds of units, such as trolls, elves, dwarves, and orcs. There are a number of standard campaigns included, plus a growing number of user-authored campaigns available on the campaign server.

The music is well done. As a composer, I appreciate games that incorporate an orchestral soundtrack.

21. Alien Arena

If fantasy isn’t your thing, maybe you will like Alien Arena, a deathmatch-type game along the lines of Quake III and Unreal Tournament. The action is fast and furious, and for me mostly consists of running around and dying. I tend to suck at first-person deathmatch games anyway, but the game is quite engrossing.

The 2008 version just came out earlier this year, so join the servers and start fragging.

——

Those are some of my favorite, lesser-known open-source applications for Windows. If you have any to add, feel free to comment below.

18 Free Ways To Download Any Video off the Internet

2008-04-08T19:48:00.000-07:00

It seems like everyone these days is downloading, watching, and sharing videos from video-sharing sites like YouTube, Google Video, MetaCafe, DailyMotion, Veoh, Break, and a ton of other similar sites. Whether you want to watch the video on your iPod while working out, insert it into a PowerPoint presentation to add some spice, or simply download a video before it’s removed, it’s quite essential to know how to download, convert, and play these videos.

There are basically two ways to download videos off the Internet and that’s how I’ll split up this post: either via a web app or via a desktop application. Personally, I like the web applications better simply because you don’t have to clutter up and slow down your computer with all kinds of software!

Free Web services for downloading videos from video-sharing sites

	ClipNabber allows you to download videos from YouTube, Metacafe, etc by simply copying and pasting the URL. You’ll then get a link whereby you can download the file to your computer, iPod, iPhone, or any other media player. You’ll need to have an FLV player for the YouTube videos. Quick and very easy to use!

	Zamzar is a free online file conversion web application that can not only convert videos off the Internet to AVI, MPEG, 3GP, MP4, MOV, etc, but also converts between audio, image, and document formats. Paste the URL into Step 1 and then convert the file to your favorite format.

	VideoDownloader is a FireFox extension, but also allows you to paste in any URL from many sites such as Blip.TV, iFilm, and even social networking sites like MySpace. You can also download a free FLV player from their site to play the videos.

	Vixy.net is another site that not only downloads online videos, but will also convert them AVI, MOV, MP4, 3GP, or MP3 (if you want to extract the audio from the file). Using this site, you don’t have to worry about downloading a FLV player as you can convert it to Windows format. (Same as Zamzar)

	KeepVid also supports just about any video sharing site out there and the only difference about this site is that it also has a Top Videos section, so you can quickly download the most watched videos around the web.

	Media Converter is similar to ZamZar and vixy.net, but requires you to create an account and log in. Also, it seems like it only supports downloading and converting videos from YouTube. You can also download their video download program, but it only supports 5 sites.

	Hey! Watch is an online video encoding web service that encodes video into different formats including HD very quickly. The graphical interface is very nice and there are lots of features and options, such as the ability to transfer any video from the web directly to an FTP server or to online storage.

	YoutubeX, as the name suggests, allows you to download videos from YouTube. Obviously, it only supports YouTube, but it has a couple of other features, such as the ability to play your video on the site and find popular videos quickly.

	VideoRonk searches across multiple video-sharing sites such as Google Video, YouTube, MetaCafe and DailyMotion to find the most popular videos on each of them. You can either watch them on VideoRonk or download them to your computer in FLV format.

	VidDownloader supports about 10 sites including the major ones and can download the videos in DivX AVI format. It’s very easy to use and can also extract only the audio from a video by choosing “Just Audio” on the download page. You don’t have to worry about having an FLV player since it converts the files to Windows format.

	According to their web site, they support more than 98 video sites including MySpace, CollegeHumor, iFilm, etc. You’ll have to rename the files you download from YouTube with the .FLV extension at the end.

	This site is a foreign site, but is easy to use and supports most of the major sites. You can also download a free FLV player off their site to play videos from YouTube.

	DownThisVideo has a nice tag cloud at the top that you can click on to find videos quickly. From what I could tell, this site is mostly used by Japanese because the popular videos are mostly Anime, etc. However, you can still use it to download any YouTube video.

Video Downloaders for your DeSktop

If you prefer to have a desktop application that can download videos for you, check out the following list:

1. Orbit Downloader - This is by far the best desktop application I have seen for downloading any type of social media off the Internet. It can download videos and music from MySpace, YouTube, Pandora, Rapidshare, and lots more. It has a great interface and carries a very small foot print.

2. VDownloader - A small little application that can download videos from many sites and converts them to AVI or MPG format.

3. VideoDownloader - A useful FireFox add-on that supports more than 60 video sharing sites. It can also download other objects on a web page, such as movies, MP3s, flash files, and Quicktime movies directly.

4. Ares Tube - Another popular video download application that is very small and very easy to use. You can download videos in batches by entering URLs into a queue and Ares Tube can convert them into different formats such as iPod, MP4, MPG, etc.

4. YouTubeGrabber - Not a very fancy program, it simply takes your URL and downloads the file. No conversion is done and you’ll need to install an FLV player to watch the videos.

5. KeepV - Downloads videos from YouTube, MySpace, and Google and converts them to either MOV, 3GP, AVI, iPod, or PSP format.

Hopefully, using one of the tools above, you can download the video you want! I’m sure the arsenal of web services and desktop apps will grow, so this list will be updated as needed.

Gmail Craze: 40 + Tools and Hacks for Gmail

2008-04-08T19:45:00.000-07:00

FIREFOX EXTENSIONS

Gspace - multi-platform firefox addon that turns your gmail account into powerful online storage tool

Gmail Search Extension - search your gmail account directly from the firefox search bar

GcalQuickTab - toggle between gmail and google calendar with keyboard shortcuts

GTDInbox - turns your account into flexible and feature-loaded ToDo-management service (GTD = Getting Things Done)

GMail Manager - manage multiple GMail accounts right from your browser

DragDropUpload - this handy extension lets you quickly attach one or more files to your emails by dragging them over the “Attach a file” link

[update] CustomizeGoogle - removes ads, switches you from http to https, hides the spam counter, quick contacts box, invite box and forces fixed font

[update] Better Gmail - integrates bunch of cool features, i.e. attachment icons, attachment Reminder, mail preview, filter assistant, label colors, macros, and saved searches

[update] GmailSkinz - powerful firefox addon with lots of cool features: (Note: some users reported having problems with this addon)

change the colour of your inbox(from green to dark green),
view weather, google calendar and news headlines along side your emails,
integrate any Google IG module to sidebar menu(Awesome),
insert images from your Picasa web album in to emails,
insert smileys,
change the attachment paperclip to an icon indicating the type of attachment,
make the navigation (Inbox, Starred, Sent Mail, etc) horizontal,
hide various page elements (invite panel, page footer and your email address from the top right of inbox).
complete integration with Gmail: addon settings can be changed directly from the Gmail settings page.

Google Toolbar with Gmail search - Official Google toolbar featuring one-click Gmail search

E-Mail Notifier Toolbar | Gmail Notifier - as titles say ‘…notifier‘

GREASEMONKEY SCRIPTS (What is Greaseamonkey?)

Gmail Super Clean - clean and distraction-free gmail. Looks great, check it out here

Gmail Spam-count Hide - hides spam count link

GMail Attachment Icons - adds attachment icons to emails, letting you see what kind of attachment an email has (HTML,JPG, PDF….) [update: ‘Attachment icons’ isn’t a standard greasemonkey script, it’s an addon for a similar Firefox extension known as Stylish. However, installing it on greasemonkey should be fine as well]

Google Reader Integration - integrates Google Reader into Gmail. Highly Recommended (demo)

GmailTo - forces all ‘mailto’ links to open in GMail

Saved Searches - lets you create ’saved searches’(aka smart folders) and display them in the separate box in the navigation menu. Clicking on a search executes the saved query. Demo

Conversation Preview - handy addon that lets you quickly preview message contents right from the main inbox window. See demo below

Google Calendar Integration - integrates Google Calendar agenda into Gmail. Demo

Label Colors - lets you color menu labels to make them stand out better. Demo

Gmail Macros - adds extra keyboard shortcuts to Gmail (i.e. “t” for move to trash, “r” for mark as read, “p” for mark as read and add to archive…etc). Read more

[update] SSLGoogle - force google mail, docs and cal pages and their intra-links to a secure connection(HTTPS)

[update] Gmail Encrypt - encrypts outgoing emails

[update] Gmail Date Search - adds a Search by Date button to Gmail’s search form

[update] Gmail Signature Float - moves your mail signature to the top of the message rather than the bottom

Following image displays all above mentioned scripts in action(click to enlarge and open it in a new windows)

Desktop APPS and Web TOOLS:

GmailDrive (Windows) - adds a new virtual drive(’Gmail Drive’) to ‘My Computer‘ folder and uses gmail as its storage medium. Drag’n drop files Gmail Drive and it will store them on your gmail account as if on additional hard drive. More on GmailDrive

[update] gDisk (Mac) - similar to above mentioned GmailDrive but for Mac users

Gmail ToDo - handy desktop application that stores entered todo’s in a todo label on gmail

Desktop Notifiers: GMail Notifier(official release from Google), GTray (Win XP), GCount (Mac), Gmail+Growl 2.0 (GmailNotifier addon that lets you further customize ‘new mail’ alerts)

GMail for Mobile - access gmail from your mobile

GmailFS - mountable Linux filesystem which uses Gmail as its storage medium

Google Talk - Google’s IM service which is fully integrable with GMail

You’ve Got Gmail - Gmail plugin for Trillian IM client

TIPS and HACKS

Unbl0ck - use this tool to access gmail from places where it’s blocked (work, school…)

Gmail icon generator - creates an image of your email address to minimize spam exposure

Gmail To Thunderbird - how to access your Gmail using Mozilla Thunderbird

Shortcut List - handy, printable list of keyboard shortcuts for the Gmail

Hotmail Contacts Import - explains how to import contacts from Hotmail to Gmail

Gmail trick that explains how to find that ’someone’ who gives away your email address to spammers

Attach any file type - bunch of tricks showing you how to attach and send blocked file types, i.e. ‘*.exe’

[update] What to do if your Gmail is nearly full? See here.

[update] Secret keyboard shortcut for deleting messages. Check it out here

[update] How to - import your archived emails into Gmail

[update] How to - Backup Gmail your Gmail using Google Groups

[update] How to - Re download gmail messages into outlook

[update] How to - Work with Gmail Attachments (includes cool tips, Greasemonkey scripts and Firefox addons)

40 Unusual Websites you should Bookmark.

2008-04-08T19:44:00.000-07:00

1. BugMeNot - instantly get disposable login details for any popular website that forces you to register.

2. DailyLit - read your favorite books by email (on your PC, mobile, etc.).

3. FranceRadio - neat MP3 Search Engine that lets you Find, Play and Download favorite MP3s for FREE.

4. Google SMS - provides mobile users with a quick access (via SMS) to a wide range of practical information and tools (i.e. business listings (pizzerias, shops, etc.), weather, movie listings, driving directions, currency converter and lots more.

5. Podlinez - listen to your favorite podcasts from any phone. Just enter the RSS feed URL for the desired podcast and get a free-toll number to access it from a phone.

6. RetailMeNot - locate fresh discount coupons for thousands of web merchants and services right from your browser toolbar. Video demo.

7. SoLow - on a daily basis SoLow auctions 4 different items (iPhones, HD Screens, etc.). Anyone with a mobile/PC can participate in the auctions by placing their bids via text-messaging. The user with the lowest unique bid wins the auction.

8. TeleFlip - auto-forward your emails to your cellphone as text messages. Video demo.

9. UrbanDictionary - hilarious (and practical) 100% user-maintained dictionary where users provide and vote on definitions for urban words (slangs).

10. Yak4Ever - make free international calls from US, UK and Ireland to 50+ countries.

=== Mobile - related ===

11. Bitbom - schedule free text message reminders to your phone. Schedule online or using mobile. (Similar PingMe.)

12. Flurry - follow up on your emails (send, receive) and receive latest articles from favorite blogs/websites on your mobile.

13. Foonz - place group calls and send messages to multiple people for free (from your mobile or any other phone).

14. GameJump - lots of free games for mobile phones.

15. GrandCentral - single phone number for all your phones and a web-based centralized voicemail system. (Similar: YouMail, GotVoice)

16. IQzone - post your classified ad to a number of online and print classified networks directly from your mobile.

17. Jott - simple and convenient service for leaving yourself notes and ToDo reminders using your mobile.

18. Mosio - text any question from your mobile phone and shortly receive up-to 4 answers.

19. mShopper - instantly check up on the bargain deals for any product (or even order) right from your mobile phone. Video demo.

20. NoPhoneTrees - simple phone directory that lists direct human access numbers to support employees in hundreds of companies.

21. Nutsie - takes a copy of your iTunes library file and creates an online copy of your library. Access this library from PC or mobile phone.

22. Google SendToPhone - forward anything you find on the web (maps, address, text, etc.) to any mobile phone for free (US only).

23. Qipit - take quick document pictures and turn them into properly formatted PDFs. Save online, email, or fax documents right from mobile.

24. Soonr - handy application that lets you access your PC remotely using your mobile or any other PC (work, school, etc.). Video demo.

25. TelePixie - quickly schedule and receive daily (or one time) wake up phone calls, reminders, weather forecast calls, jokes, and more.

26. TellMe - free local directory service for business listings (Car Repair Shops, Pizzerias, Restaurants, etc.), maps, and directions.

27. PhoneZoo - convert your MP3s to custom-length ringtones and forward them to your phone. Plus 1000s of free ringtones from other users.

=== Other ===

28. BossBitching - fun and active community where people can bit*h about their bosses anonymously.

29. eSnailer - send free postal mail letters (to anywhere in the US) right from the desktop. From Canada? Check out EasyPost.

30. Yapta - get a refund (or credit) from the airlines on a purchased ticket in case its price drops.

31. ListenToaMovie - lets you ‘listen to a movie’, i.e. stream the audio part of various movies and some TV-shows.

32. OpenDNS - provides a safer, faster, smarter and more reliable way to navigate the Internet. More details + video demo.

33. PodioBooks - search, subscribe and browse through a variety of totally free audio books (100% legal).

34. PriceProtectr - tracks the price of items you bought online and notifies in case of price-drops, so you can request a refund.

35. RateMyDrawings - excellent place to draw, share your drawing creations, learn to draw, and watch other people drawing. Video demo

36. SwitchPlanet - cool and active marketplace where you can switch (or trade) used DVDs, CDs, Video Games and Books. Video demos.

37. Scribd- search, browse, rate, share various types of documents (jokes, facts, stories etc.). It’s like Youtube for text documents.

38. ViaTalk - make up-to 10 minutes long free phone calls to anywhere in the US and Canada. You don’t even need to sign-up.

39. VideoSift - popular Digg-like voting community for user-submitted videos.

40. Wordie - make lists of words (words you love, words you hate, or whatever) and share them with others.

5 “DISPOSABLE” Web Accounts to Keep Your Identity Safe

2008-04-08T19:43:00.000-07:00

Disposable email account

Mintemail - Instant disposable email for any ‘fishy’ registration form or sign-up. Go to mintemail.com and a random email address will be automatically generated and copied to your clipboard. You can either bookmark the location of created inbox and use it on a regular basis or always use a new one.

Highlights include: Automatic eMail verification, email forwarding, option to set custom expiry times (from 1 hour to 1 month) and more.

Disposable phone number

Numbr - This is a really good one. Basically, Numbr gives you an anonymous disposable phone number that can be set to forward all incoming calls to any provided landline or mobile number (US only). Absolutely free. It’s an ideal solution for times when you want to keep your phone private but want to list your contact number in places like classifieds listings, social networking sites, blogs ,etc.

Along with the number, you also get access to dozens of cool functionalities, i.e. forward to voicemail, ability to activate/deactivate nr. at any time, etc. Read more: Numbr - Disposable Phone Number.

Disposable login details

BugMeNot - Here you can get disposable login details (username/password) for a huge number of popular news/review/download websites that normally require users to register.

For example, let’s say you clicked on a link that points to an article on a popular media website (eg. NYT). Usually instead of landing straight on the article page you’re asked to signin or register. Maybe there is a good reason behind it, but what’s the point of signing up if that is your first and only visit to that website. When it comes to BugMeNot, it instantly gets you a number of “public” login details that can be used to access the website. It’s fast, it’s convenient and you don’t have to worry about getting spammed. Check out full feature list in BugMeNot review.

Disposable name and address generator

FakeNameGenerator - Fun tool for quickly generating fake but totally sound names and contact address. Cool part about it, not only you get to choose country of residence but can also specify what kind of name you’re looking for, i.e. Chinese, American, Indian, etc.

Disposable file sharing

File.io - Anonymous file sharing service where you can upload and share file/s (via password-protected URL) for 30 days. Once 30 day period is over, all shared files will be automatically deleted. Read More: File.io - Disposable File Sharing.

Are you aware of any other ‘disposable’ web service ? Share it in comments

Top 10 Harmless Geek Pranks

2008-04-01T03:38:00.000-07:00

10. Install the Blue Screen of Death Screensaver

Make your co-worker think their PC crashed when they get back from lunch. The BSOD ("Blue Screen of Death") screensaver is a free download from Microsoft (ironically.) For other operating system "support," check out the Linux BSOD 'saver with support for Apple, Windows, and Linux crash screens.

9. Fake a Desktop with Screenshot Wallpaper

Freak out your co-worker or family member by faking out their Windows desktop with an unclickable facade: Take a screenshot of their current desktop, then set it as the desktop wallpaper. Hide the actual taskbar and disable desktop icons (right-click the desktop and choose "Arrange Icons By" and uncheck "Show Desktop Icons.") When your victim returns to the computer, watch the futile clicking begin.

8. Schedule a Phone Call with a Text-to-Speech Message from Wakerupper.com

Wake up calls aren't just for the a.m., you know. Pop your victim's phone number, a time, and a custom message into Wakerupper.com, a free wakeup call service, and they'll get a call with the message read Silicon Sally text-to-speech style back to them. (original post)

7. Fill an Office with Packing Peanuts (Or Make It Look That Way)

Actually filling your co-worker's cubicle with packing peanuts can be a pain in the arse, but if there's a glass wall involved, it's easy to make it look like you did. Check out Hack N Mod's nifty gallery of what looks like a glass room filled with packing material.

April Fools: Cubical Chaos Fakeout [Hack N Mod]

6. Remote Control Your Co-Workers' Computer with VNC

How would it feel to have your mouse taken over by a ghost and do things on your computer you never intended while you watched? You can inflict this feeling of utter confusion on your victim using VNC, a computer remote control protocol. You'll need to install the VNC server on your victim's computer first, and have their IP address, so this one will work best in the office when you're on the same network. Here's how to remote control a computer with VNC. Mac users, here's how to remote control Leopard with TightVNC.

5. Message Co-Workers with NET SEND

Hidden in the depths of the Windows command line is a nifty little utility called Net Send, which pops up very official-looking alert messages on any computer you send them to. If you know your co-workers' IP address, you can net send them goofy messages, like this person on the Geeknewz boards:

A good prank that I have played on some friends involves the net send command. What I did was I used the net send command to send a message that said "Microsoft has detected that you have a small penis. Please consider upgrading for better performance" to other people on my local network. When you use the net send command in the command prompt, you specify the computer you want it sent to by typing the computer name, it also says on the message which computer it came from, so I changed my computer name to Microsoft, so it appeared, to the technically challenged, that the message actually came from Microsoft. In case you were interested, the syntax for the net send is:
net send computername message

Here's more on how to use net send.

4. "Break" Your Victim's LCD Screen with Wallpaper

Want to put a crack into that shiny new widescreen monitor? Download the broken LCD desktop wallpaper, set it as your victim's desktop wallpaper and hide the taskbar and icons.

3. Hijack Firefox with the Total Confusion Pack Extension (Enabled on April 1st Only)

Your victim use Firefox? Install the "Total Confusion Pack" Firefox extension, which enables the following "features" on April 1st only:

Two Steps Back: Make the back button go back twice—not every time, but only on random instances.
Rick Rollr: Switch out 2% of the video clips your victim watches with the infamous Rick Astley video.
The Devil's Inbox: Make the number of unread email in your victim's Gmail inbox exactly 666.
Highs and Lows/Sarcarsm Enhancer/For real: Add LOL, *sigh*, "for real," "Whatever" and various other commentary to web page text.
Watch it: Make it look as if the page was loading forever. (Now this is just plain mean.)

Download the Firefox Total Confusion Pack here.

2. Customise the Office HP Printer's Console Message

Baffle your coworkers with an "Insert Coin" message on the office printer using the HP Printer Job Language (HPPJL) command set. Here's how to customise the printer's Ready prompt to read whatever you want. (original post)

1. Turn Web Pages Upside Down

If your office or housemates all use the same Wi-Fi network and you've got some network admin skills, run the web traffic to their computers through custom scripts that turn images upside down, blur them, or redirect all web page requests to kittenwar.com. This is the most difficult trick in the list to implement, but it's pretty clever. Here's more on how to set up Upside-Down-Ternet