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Microsoft seeks tax dollars to fix Windows

March 4th, 2010

In this Article, Microsoft suggests placing taxes on Internet usage to fix security breaches…

Unbelievable. Microsoft produces Windows, which has been security ridden since it first entered the Internet. Microsoft has been pay VERY well for their product. Microsoft has not fixed their problems. Now Microsoft want the consumer to play extra taxes to help fix their problem.

I have another idea:

How about we dump the Microsoft garbage and just use Linux/Unix/BSD based Operating systems, and eliminate 90% of those security threats in a single stroke.

How do them guys sleep at night?

Tech Speak

March 3rd, 2010

The terms that they use, but what they REALLY mean:

“New”
means
“Different colours from previous version.”

“All New”
means
“Not compatible with previous version.”

“Exclusive”
means
“Nobody else has documentation.”

“Unmatched”
means
“Almost as good as the competition.”

“Design Simplicity”
means
“The company wouldn’t give us any money.”

“Fool-proof Operation”
means
“All parameters are hard-coded.”

“Advanced Design”
means
“Nobody really understands it.”

“Here At Last”
means
“Didn’t get it done on time.”

“Field Tested”
means
“We don’t have any simulators.”

“Years of Development”
means
“Finally got one to work.”

“Unprecedented Performance”
means
“Nothing ever ran this slow before.”

“Revolutionary”
means
“Disk drives go ’round and ’round.”

“Futuristic”
means
“Only runs on a next generation supercomputer.”

“No Maintenance”
means
“Impossible to fix.”

“Performance Proven”
means
“Worked through Beta test.”

“Meets Tough Quality Standards”
means
“It compiles without errors.”

“Satisfaction Guaranteed”
means
“We’ll send you another pack if it fails.”

“Stock Item”
means
“We shipped it before and can do it again.”

Hey, it’s important…

January 28th, 2010

What’s my Gateway?

January 7th, 2010

In Windows, typing

IPCONFIG /ALL

produces:

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : host-name

Primary Dns Suffix  . . . . . . . :

Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown

IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : domain.local

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :

Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek RTL8168C(P)/8111C(P) PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet NIC

Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-24-XX-XX-XX-XX

Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes

Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 64.XXX.XXX.220

Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0

Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 64.XXX.XXX.1

DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 209.XXX.XXX.135

DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 208.67.222.222 208.67.220.220

Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Thursday, January 07, 2010 12:42:26 PM

Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Thursday, January 07, 2010 8:42:26 PM

You can plainly see all the information you need to know. How do you do that in Linux? Well, the answer depends on which distro you are using and which packages you are using, but here are some answers:

“route -nee” produces (Some fields have been chopped off):

Kernel IP routing table

Destination     Gateway         Genmask

192.168.100.0   0.0.0.0         255.255.255.0

69.XXX.XXX.0    0.0.0.0         255.255.255.0

169.254.0.0     0.0.0.0         255.255.0.0

0.0.0.0         69.XXX.XXX.1    0.0.0.0

“ip route show” produces:

192.168.100.0/24 dev eth0  proto kernel  scope link  src 192.168.100.101

69.XXX.XXX.0/24 dev eth1  proto kernel  scope link  src 69.XXX.XXX.225

169.254.0.0/16 dev eth1  scope link  metric 1000

default via 69.XXX.XXX.1 dev eth1  metric 100

“ifconfig” produces:

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:d0:b7:3c:dd:4f

inet addr:192.168.100.101  Bcast:192.168.0.255  Mask:255.255.255.0

inet6 addr: fe80::2d0:b7ff:fe3c:dd4f/64 Scope:Link

UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1

RX packets:18365 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

TX packets:15981 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000

RX bytes:1987703 (1.9 MB)  TX bytes:11111362 (11.1 MB)

eth1      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1a:4d:94:75:43

inet addr:69.XXX.XXX.225  Bcast:69.XXX.XXX.255  Mask:255.255.255.0

inet6 addr: fe80::21a:4dff:fe94:7543/64 Scope:Link

UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1

RX packets:59590 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

TX packets:11997 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000

RX bytes:11600972 (11.6 MB)  TX bytes:3977507 (3.9 MB)

Interrupt:23 Base address:0×6000

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback

inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0

inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host

UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1

RX packets:4709 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

TX packets:4709 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

collisions:0 txqueuelen:0

RX bytes:1042664 (1.0 MB)  TX bytes:1042664 (1.0 MB)

“cat /etc/resolv.conf” produces:

#Open DNS

nameserver 208.67.222.222

#Google DNS

8.8.8.8

#Open DNS

nameserver 208.67.220.220

#Google DNS

8.8.4.4

That should give you the information you need.

Dansguardian Content Filtering with Transparent Proxy on Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic

January 7th, 2010

Content Filtering

(Ubuntu 9.10)

Objectives:

1. Add content filtering to an existing Ubuntu system.

2. Prevent user from bypassing the filtering system.

Software:

Open a terminal and type:

user@system:~$ sudo apt-get install iptables dansguardian squid

Configuration:

1. Squid

Open a terminal and type:

user@system:~$ sudo gedit /etc/squid/squid.conf

change this line:

http_port 3128

to

http_port 3128 transparent

Save file then open a terminal and type:

user@system:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/squid restart

2. Dansguardian

Open a terminal and type:

user@system:~$ sudo gedit /etc/dansguardian/dansguardian.conf

change this line:

UNCONFIGURED

to:

#UNCONFIGURED

Save file then open a terminal and type:

user@system:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/dansguardian start

3. Test Proxy

Open Firefox

Go to http://tits.com or other known bad site.

The site should display.

Now in Firefox select

Edit > Preferences > Advanced > Connection > Settings

Select Manual proxy configuration

In the HTTP Proxy box type: 127.0.0.1 Port: 8080

Place a Check in the box labeled Use this proxy server for all protocols

Click OK then Close

Go to http://google.com and Google should be displayed. Click Refresh and verify it’s still working.

Go to http://tits.com or other known bad site.

The site should show as blocked. You may have to hit refresh for this to work.

At this point, the proxy is working.

Now in Firefox select

Edit > Preferences > Advanced > Connection > Settings

Select No proxy

Click OK then Close

4. Test iptables

iptables is the firewall for Ubuntu. If you are using a firewall front end such as shorewall, etc. then you will have to adapt the concept below to your particular configuration. On a clean install of Ubuntu, this will work as written.

Open a terminal and type:

user@system:~$ sudo iptables -t nat -A OUTPUT -p tcp -m owner ! –uid-owner proxy –dport 80

-j REDIRECT –to-port 8080

This tells the firewall that outgoing web requests requested that are made by anyone other that the proxy should be redirected to the proxy

Open Firefox

Go to http://tits.com or other known bad site.

The site should show as blocked. If so, the firewall is correctly configured as a transparent proxy.

Now, to make the changes permanent.

Open a terminal and type:

user@system:~$ sudo gedit /etc/init.d/tproxy

Add this line:

iptables -t nat -A OUTPUT -p tcp -m owner ! –uid-owner proxy –dport 80

-j REDIRECT –to-port 8080

Save and exit.

Issue this command to make the file executable:

user@system:~$ sudo chmod a+x /etc/init.d/tproxy

Issue this command to make the above script run at startup:

user@system:~$ sudo update-rc.d tproxy

That’s it.

http://www.tranquilpenguin.com

I hate my Job

December 24th, 2009

As a self employed IT Professional, I hate my job at times.

Actually, I enjoy my job in general, but it’s one aspect that I hate. Spyware. I make a pretty big portion of my income removing spyware/adware/malware from user systems. You’d think that would be a good thing. Well, it is financially, but I really don’t like the fact that so many innocent users are forced to pay hundreds of dollars to clean infestations from their computers.

Let’s say your grandmother buys a complete system from Walmart. (We won’t discuss quality). Let’s say they pay $500. For that amount, they can track genealogies, play solitaire and a host of other games, and keep in touch with the grandkids whose parents never seem to have time to come visit. With that system, they are given some grossly inadequate commercial antivirus program that is free for 3 months or so, then asks for a credit card number or it disables itself. Beyond that, there is virtually no spyware/adware/malware protection at all. Certainly, they don’t have a Mozilla based browser, such as Firefox, which compounds the problem.

So, they take their computer on the Internet, and over time they start to discover all the Internet has to offer. They begin to enjoy new online friendships, as they discover how to use e-mail. Then it happens. They see some scary message popup that says something is terribly wrong, then asks the ominous question: Do you want to protect your Computer, your Name, your Country, your Grandkids, and your Cat, or do you want to ignore this message and possibly see the downfall of the free world, the enslavement of their grandchildren, and various hostilities carried out against Fluffy, their cat, not to mention all the horrible things that will happen to their computer. After a moment of contemplation, they click “Protect Me”… and things are never the same again. It’s the natural choice. First, the message really didn’t give much of a choice. Second, it looked like a system message just like all the other ones they have seen pop up since they bought the computer, and finally, they reason that surely such wonderful protection would be built into a product such as MS-Windows. Alas, they are wrong on all accounts.

So they call the repair shop, or worse yet, to their Big Name mass merchant’s Freak Squad and are told their computer can be fixed, but it will cost them $200 and they will need to buy Program X for $50 plus $29.99 a year to keep it updated or something similar.

So they go that route, but find that the problem comes back in six months. and the cycle repeats itself.

What does that have to do with me?

I just get tired of seeing it. It’s immoral. The Malware writers should be in jail. The IT con-artists should be out of business for fleecing their customers, and Microsoft should pay the bill because they sold software that is not safe for surfing the Internet.

Yea, those are some pretty strong opinions.

When they come to me, they can’t believe that I can fix the problem for half the cost of the Freak Squad, provide them with an Open Source or other free solutions, and best of all, help them understand how to prevent the problem. Then I let them play with a Linux-Based System.

They leave happy, but I am sad… because they had to spend a lot of money that didn’t need to be spent.

The List

November 15th, 2009

This list was taken from http://trinasworld.com

Nothing stinks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you’re wrong.

Have you ever been walking down the street and realized that you’re going in the complete opposite direction of where you are supposed to be going? But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the direction from which you came, you have to first do something like check your watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to yourself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks you’re crazy by randomly switching directions on the sidewalk.

I totally take back all those times I didn’t want to nap when I was younger.

The letters T and G are very close to each other on a keyboard. This recently became all too apparent to me and consequently I will never be ending a work email with the phrase “Regards” again.

Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn’t work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards or FAQ’s. We just figured it out. Today’s kids are soft.

There is a great need for sarcasm font.

Sometimes, I’ll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what was going on when I first saw it.

I think everyone has a movie that they love so much; it actually becomes stressful to watch it with other people. I’ll end up wasting 90 minutes shiftily glancing around to confirm that everyone’s laughing at the right parts, then making sure I laugh just a little bit harder (and a millisecond earlier) to prove that I’m still the only one who really, really gets it.

How the heck are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

I think part of a best friend’s job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

The only time I look forward to a red light is when I’m trying to finish a text.

Was learning cursive really necessary?

Lol has gone from meaning, “laugh out loud” to “I have nothing else to say”.

I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

Whenever someone says “I’m not book smart, but I’m street smart”, all I hear is “I’m not real smart, but I’m imaginary smart”.

How many times is it appropriate to say “What?” before you just nod and smile because you still didn’t hear what they said?

I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars teams up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers!

MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

I find it hard to believe there are actually people who get in the shower first and THEN turn on the water.

Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.

I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t at least kind of tired.

Bad decisions make good stories

Whenever I’m Facebook stalking someone and I find out that their profile is public I feel like a kid on Christmas morning who just got the Red Ryder BB gun that I always wanted. 546 pictures? Don’t mind if I do!

If Carmen San Diego and Waldo ever got together, their offspring would probably just be completely invisible.

Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I’m from; this shouldn’t be a problem….

You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you’ve made up your mind that you just aren’t doing anything productive for the rest of the day.

Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don’t want to have to restart my collection.

There’s no worse feeling than that millisecond you’re sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.

I’m always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.

“Do not machine wash or tumble dry” means I will never wash this ever.

I hate being the one with the remote in a room full of people watching TV. There’s so much pressure. ‘I love this show, but will they judge me if I keep it on? I bet everyone is wishing we weren’t watching this. It’s only a matter of time before they all get up and leave the room. Will we still be friends after this?’

I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Darnit!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What’d you do after I didn’t answer? Drop the phone and run away?

I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it’s on shuffle, then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.

Why is a school zone 20 mph? That seems like the optimal cruising speed for pedophiles…

As a driver I hate pedestrians, and as a pedestrian I hate drivers, but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate cyclists.

Sometimes I’ll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

It should probably be called Unplanned Parenthood.

I keep some people’s phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

Even if I knew your social security number, I wouldn’t know what do to with it.

Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I’d bet my a$$ everyone can find and push the Snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time every time…

My 4-year old son asked me in the car the other day “Dad what would happen if you ran over a ninja?” How the heck do I respond to that?

It really ticks me off when I want to read a story on CNN.com and the link takes me to a video instead of text.

I wonder if cops ever get ticked off at the fact that everyone they drive behind obeys the speed limit.

I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lites than Kay.

Just had to post this…

October 25th, 2009

What if Airlines were like OS’s?

October 12th, 2009

What if Airlines were like OS’s?

* Windows Airlines — The terminal is pretty and colorful, with friendly stewards, easy baggage check and boarding, and a smooth take-off. After about 10 minutes in the air, the plane explodes with no warning whatsoever.

* Mac Airlines — All the stewards, stewardesses, captains, baggage handlers and ticket agents look the same, act the same, and talk the same. Every time you ask questions about details, you are told you don’t need to know, don’t want to know, and would you please return to your seat and watch the movie.

* Linux Airlines — Disgruntled employees of all the other OS airlines decide to start their own airline. They build the planes, ticket counters, and pave the runways themselves. They charge a small fee to cover the cost of printing the ticket, but you can also download and print the ticket yourself. When you board the plane, you are given a seat, four bolts, a wrench and a copy of the seat-HOWTO.html. Once settled, the fully adjustable seat is very comfortable, the plane leaves and arrives on time without a single problem, the in-flight meal is wonderful. You try to tell customers of the other airlines about the great trip, but all they can say is, ‘You had to do what with the seat?’

Changes

September 10th, 2009

Well,

As you have noticed, things have changed. I hope you like the new look!

Please let me know if you find any problems.


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