The LANtern Online

Ric Romero Reports: Macs not unhackable!

2011-05-20T09:50:00.000-04:00

For those who have followed my Apple-centric ramblings over the years, I've never out and out said that you can't infect a Mac with malware. What I do say is this:

- Macs are generally more difficult to target by malware authors
- The consequences of an attack are typically less when they do happen
- It's easier to target the much larger Windows market
- In keeping with rule #1 above, the "drive-by download" really isn't a viable Mac attack strategy

Because of this, while the Internet is filled with Windows botnets, Mac attacks are few and far between. But lately there's been a variation on the "Antivirus 2010" attack that is targeting Macs and has had some success - even a couple of my clients have been hit by it.

The attack is this: Web pages are infected via PHP and/or other exploits to deliver redirects when accessed via a search engine referral. The redirect takes the user to a page that automatically downloads a "MAC Defender" (or related name) fake antivirus program that mounts automatically and launches the Installer. You still have to click on the Installer dialog, give your password, and click Install - it can't auto-install like the Windows versions do (they usually load through PDF exploits on Windows).

In other words, it's malware like in Windows, but it only gets loaded via social engineering - not via a machine exploit. That's an important distinction.

It's also really easy to clear - kill the process via Activity Monitor, delete the application, and remove it from your Login Items. Dead. Unlike Antivirus 2010 and its cousins, which you have to use removal software (I like Malwarebytes) to get and still may need repairs afterwards.

We Mac people can take this as a warning, though. As time goes by, Macs will be targeted more and more often - and Apple needs to be proactive about security. They do a decent job right now but will need to stay on top of it. Are we at the day when Macs need antivirus software? Nope. But that day is a little closer right now than it has been for quite a while.

Hacker 'handshake' hole found in common firewalls

2011-04-13T11:01:00.000-04:00

Not good news at all...

http://goo.gl/gps4m

** or **

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/041211-hacker-exploit-firewalls.html?source=NWWNLE_nlt_daily_am_2011-04-13

Domain Validation

2011-04-03T15:11:00.002-04:00

Do you need to check your domain settings, verify DNS servers records, MX servers records, make sure your mail server is not a mail relay, etc?

Check out:

http://www.dnsvalidation.com/

And it's FREE!

Quick take on iPad 2

2011-03-14T09:15:00.001-04:00

Simple question: Do you want a tablet device?

If the answer is yes, then the next question is "Do you submit your computing choices to a Purity Test?"

If the answer is yes, then maybe you go look at the Xoom. You probably don't get it, though. Any other answer - you get an iPad 2. Period. Because the iPad 2's added features (double the CPU power, double the RAM, lighter weight) pretty much are there to match/trump what everyone else just tried to come out with this year.

Sure, 7-inch tablets are smaller and lighter. They can't match the battery life of iPad (or the other 10-inch devices) but they arguably fit in a coat pocket. Apple's not playing in that space, so if you want a 7" tablet you can't go Apple.

The Xoom is the only mildly competitive device in the iPad's class that's shipping (HP and RIM aren't even on shelves), and even then it's pretty clearly still a work in progress. There aren't really any 10" optimized Android apps that play nice on Honeycomb yet, there's no easy direct desktop sync (Google services are the way to go), the 4G upgrade, when it's ready, will require you to mail it out for a week or so, the SDXC slot doesn't work yet, and Flash is still pretty much a pipe dream. Inhatko nailed it when he said that the Xoom, while nice, looks like it was designed by angry Soviet prison labor next to the iPad.

Now, as for what the differences mean - I owned an original iPad. It was one of those devices where you almost couldn't explain it - you had to hold it and just try to use it for something, then you got it intuitively. After I started using it, my laptop became a desktop, tethered to a big screen and keyboard when I was in the house. I almost completely stopped using it in any other room, because the iPad filled that need entirely. Sure, web pages could be a little slow to load compared to a desktop. Yeah, things take a while to boot. But hey, Angry Birds!

The iPad 2 has made that go away. First of all, iOS 4.x's multitasking abilities allow easy switching between apps. The extra 256MB of RAM (now 512MB total) make sure that most apps don't get swapped out to reload fully, and web pages rarely need to refresh. Having 2x the CPU helps as well - rendering is desktop-fast, while games, apps, and the UI are instantly responsive. There's no real difference under the hood otherwise except for the addition of a gyro chip which will mainly impact gaming. The resolution is the same 1024x768 - the GPU though is rated at up to 7x the speed of the last version, and from playing a few games on it I can see the difference even more starkly than the raw CPU power indicates. There's plenty of framerate and rendering benchmarks published so far.

Battery life is still the same - a class-leading approximate 10 hours. Still the same buttons, no extra cruft added on. The same peripherals work as before, minus the Keyboard Dock (which wasn't that popular - a regular Bluetooth keyboard will still work fine if you like). New this year is a HDMI cable with a sync-charge passthrough, it supports display mirroring and presentation mode (mirroring only works with the new iPad - the old one will allow presentations). The missing 4 ounces aren't noticed too much - the thinness, very much so. Even with the Smart Cover it's thinner than the original iPad. The feel is much closer to a unitasker like the Kindle now.

[Edit: added paragraph below 3/15]

As for the much-ballyhooed cameras, yes, the iPad now has front and back cameras in order to use FaceTime (now a standard part of the Mac OS as well, and it'll push away iChat AV over time). The front one is a pedestrian VGA resolution, optimized for video chat and not much else. Serviceable but nothing special - the same as the camera on its iPhone cousin. The rear camera is only equivalent to the camera chip in the iPod Touch - it's optimized for 720p video and takes slightly lower-res still photos. Why doesn't Apple put a better chip in there? I don't know for sure. I think part of it is the thinness of the iPad 2 - it's actually thinner than the iPhone and there may not even be room for a better imager. My main suspicion is that Apple simply decided that you may show/capture video with the iPad but anybody really thinking about still photography with a 10" tablet probably should either get an iPhone or carry a real camera. Even though video chat has become a checklist feature nowadays, I don't even think it'll be as big on iPad 2 as it is on the iPhone - with the higher weight of a tablet, people who use it for chat will need to make sure they keep their nose hair well-groomed!

In the end, the iPad 2 isn't a revolutionary improvement. It's evolutionary, and that's fine. It more than keeps pace with the rest of the market, and given the lead Apple started with I don't see how that's going to change at all this year. When you sell 15 million iPads in 9 months you don't have to reinvent it the following year. The burden is on the rest of the market to catch up. Things like the Smart Covers (held in place with hidden magnets), the GarageBand app, and the latest iMovie? Well, that's just piling on. Apple will likely sell more Smart Covers this year than the completion will sell tablets, combined.

Convert media free, fast and online

2011-03-12T11:22:00.003-05:00

Just found this awesome site to convert audio,video, image, document formats....4.9 out of 5 stars for coolness, speed and ease of use! (files sizes are limited to 100MB)

http://www.online-convert.com/

oh and did i mention it was FREE ??!!

Skype Outage - what was/is the impact?

2010-12-23T14:02:00.001-05:00

The Incredible Importance of Skype

http://gigaom.com/2010/12/23/the-incredible-importance-of-skype/

Adding SMS (texting) to your Gmail!

2010-12-11T13:33:00.004-05:00

Do you want to send SMS (texting) via gmail. Now you can!

go to the "labs" section and enable the following two labs:

SMS in Chat gadget
Text Messaging (SMS) in Chat

Now you should see "Send SMS" as an option on the left under "My Contacts"

Now go to your contacts and add a contact or updated the mobile number of an existing contact and you now should have an option to "send an SMS" under the chat option when you click on your contacts name!

** Note you get a "Bank" balance of 50 SMS messages to start. For every SMS you receive you get 5 additional SMS's to send.

*** Please note this works to phones outside the US also. Put a + in front of the number!

Google Chrome Pilot program

2010-12-07T22:47:00.001-05:00

Do you want a chance at a "free" Google Chrome laptop? Information is below!

http://www.google.com/chromeos/

Cisco Seminar - "Security: What You Need to Know"

2010-10-13T11:57:00.002-04:00

Cisco Seminar: "Security: What You Need to Know" With Former FBI Agent, Patrick Gray

October 28th 8:30-11 in Natick.

http://www.cisco.com/pcgi-bin/sreg2/register/regdetail_private.pl?LANGUAGE=E&METHOD=E&TOPIC_CODE=13193&PRIORITY_CODE=181492_1

Tell em BNUG sent you!

Google URL Shortener

2010-10-05T23:37:00.003-04:00

Google is now in the URL shortening business at:

http://goo.gl/

The advantage of using the Google shortener is that they will tell you how many people have clicked on your shortened link!

.gl is the top level domain for Greenland. Who knew? :)

HP Looks to Change the Way We Print

2010-06-07T09:36:00.001-04:00

This is a trend that could be important in the near future, cloud printing via email.

Tabnabbing: A New Type of Phishing Attack

2010-05-30T10:30:00.000-04:00

http://www.azarask.in/blog/post/a-new-type-of-phishing-attack/

How The Attack Works

1. A user navigates to your normal looking site.
2. You detect when the page has lost its focus and hasn’t been interacted with for a while.
3. Replace the favicon with the Gmail favicon, the title with “Gmail: Email from Google”, and the page with a Gmail login look-a-like. This can all be done with just a little bit of Javascript that takes place instantly.
4. As the user scans their many open tabs, the favicon and title act as a strong visual cue—memory is malleable and moldable and the user will most likely simply think they left a Gmail tab open. When they click back to the fake Gmail tab, they’ll see the standard Gmail login page, assume they’ve been logged out, and provide their credentials to log in. The attack preys on the perceived immutability of tabs.
5. After the user has entered their login information and you’ve sent it back to your server, you redirect them to Gmail. Because they were never logged out in the first place, it will appear as if the login was successful.

Portable Apps to Go!

2010-05-24T11:40:00.001-04:00

Do you sometimes need to run Putty, Winscp, OpenOffice, a pdf reader or similar and you do not want to go through the hassle of downloading and installing on the system you happen to be using?

Do you own a usb flash or hard drive?

If you answered YES to the above then check out:

http://portableapps.com/

Be Afraid....BGP rules internet data flow paths

2010-05-09T09:59:00.001-04:00

Worth the read to understand the issue that Jack Daniel mentioned at last week's BNUG meeting.

"How an unfixed Net glitch could strand you offline"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100508/ap_on_hi_te/us_tec_fragile_internet

What the iPad means

2010-04-30T22:47:00.000-04:00

Now that it's here, and also now that we know almost all of what the new features of it with OS 4.0 will be (See the video of the 4.0 announcement a couple of weeks ago for details), it's time to take stock of the impact it's had in the mobile marketplace.

Microsoft's cancelled one of their tablet projects. HP's cancelled their Slate, and instead are buying Palm so they can have control of a mobile OS (I suspect it's a doomed union, as almost all defensive purchases turn out to be). Windows Mobile 6.5 is the end of the line, and the forthcoming Windows Phone 7 will look pretty, but feature-wise not even be quite up to iPhone 1.0's full capabilities. Every vendor has started to push into the tablet space (though virtually nobody has a shipping product), and most interestingly, the shine has really started to come off the netbook market. Who wants a cheap underpowered PC when for about the same money you can have a more elegant device?

The real impact is that Apple's pretty much put all their cards on the table at last. They are designing products for a post-PC, cloud-oriented future. And they are also basing it on an ecosystem they can control and manage. You may or may not agree with their system, but they tell a full, complete story about the Apple world of devices. And other vendors are going to have to do something similar if they want to stay relevant.

Remember about a decade ago when Apple was all but through? How's that working out now?

Open Source Cloud AV by Clam AV - Windows 32/64 bit

2010-04-28T20:17:00.002-04:00

I have used ClamAV on my Linux installs for years!

Here is their latest release of a cloud based version 32/64 bit for Windows.

http://www.clamav.net/lang/en/download/win32/

19 Tips Every Windows 7 User Needs to Know - MaximumPC

2010-04-24T10:16:00.000-04:00

Cool tips in the article:

19 Tips Every Windows 7 User Needs to Know - MaximumPC

higher semiconductor prices mean more expensive hardware

2010-02-11T08:35:00.002-05:00

NEWSWEEK
February 15, 2010

I’M A (PRICIER) PC

By
Jessica Ramirez

Ten years ago, the dotcom bust caught the semiconductor industry
with its pants down. Cratering demand left chip makers with a
glut of products and idle factories. So when the financial
crisis hit, chip makers, keen not to repeat the same mistake,
quickly scaled down by closing plants, cutting production, and
decreasing overall costs. A year later, it appears they may
have overreacted. Although global chip sales fell by 9 percent
(a dip of roughly $22.3 billion) in 2009, demand grew faster
than expected in the second half of the year, leaving supplies
tight. The resulting chip shortage is expected to drive up some
prices through 2012.

That’s good for chip makers; no so much for consumers. For the
first time ever, the price of the semiconductor components of a
PC will rise over the previous year. Brian Matas, of the
market-research firm IC Insights, expects the cost of DRAM
memory chips to increase 17 percent this year, 22 percent in
2011, and another 10 percent in 2012. “What you’ll see is less
memory in a computer, or they’ll pass the price on to consumers,”
he says. Flat-screen TVs also may get pricier, especially ones
with LED screens. Flat-screen monitors could rise by as much as
20 percent, says Ben Lee, an analyst at the IT research firm
Gartner. Officials at the Semiconductor Industry Association say
it’s too early to forecast long-term impact, but analysts say if
anything, those estimates are conservative. Either way, the
little chips that make our gadgets go are likely to carry bigger
price tags in the near future.

##

Create encrypted PDFs - CuteFTP Pro

2010-02-10T13:56:00.005-05:00

Do you sometimes need to email PDFs to clients that are encrypted and do not want to pay the price for Adobe Acrobat?

Check out cutePDF Pro, free to try (with a watermark), $49.95 (or less based on # of licenes) to buy!

http://www.cutepdf.com/Products/CutePDF/Pro.asp

If you need to just create PDFs check out their FREE Cutewriter:
http://www.cutepdf.com/download/CuteWriter.exe

Please note that you will need to install GhostScript as well:
http://www.cutepdf.com/download/converter.exe

Complete guide to XP mode in Windows 7

2010-01-11T22:39:00.001-05:00

Don't forget that you need virtualization support in your CPU!

Complete guide to XP mode in Windows 7

Windows Virtual PC
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx

Lost your Blackberry - Oh NO! Set off the Alarm :)

2010-01-07T13:28:00.000-05:00

RoBlock for your mobile device!

http://www.vapssky.com/roblock_bb.aspx

Well worth the $10 !

SpamAssasin Y2K10 Rule Bug - URGENT

2010-01-02T12:09:00.003-05:00

Y2K10 Rule Bug - Update Your Rules Now!

Any emails received after 1/1/10 and processed by SpamAssassin will trigger this rule and may lead to false positives.

Add "score FH_DATE_PAST_20XX 0" without the quotes to the end of your local.cf file to disable the rule.

For further info see:

http://spamassassin.apache.org/

FTI: The Microsoft Virtualization Tour - Waltham December 9th

2009-11-29T13:59:00.001-05:00

TechNet Unleashed: The Microsoft Virtualization Tour

Join our TechNet IT Evangelists as they hit the road again this fall to bring you the highlights of Microsoft’s great virtualization solutions. We’ll go from the desktop to the enterprise, starting with VHD native boot – a new feature for Windows® 7 and Windows Server® 2008 R2. Next, we’ll move into Windows XP mode, Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V™, and finish with System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM).

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032429528&Culture=en-US

Alternative Browsers for your BlackBerry or other Smartphone

2009-11-27T22:13:00.004-05:00

As anyone that owns a BlackBerry can attest the included browser is not the fastest. Here are two alternatives. Bolt is much easier to work with in filling out forms using the touchscreen and virtual keyboard.

Opera:
http://mini.opera.com/

Bolt:
http://boltbrowser.com/home.html

** Make sure to turn off "inline editing" and to turn on "split screen" options.

The First Cloud Anti-Virus? - Panda Cloud AV Free 1.0

2009-11-18T17:21:00.001-05:00

Panda Cloud Antivirus Free Edition 1.0

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2355827,00.asp

Speedtest.net

2009-11-16T19:42:00.003-05:00

Do you need to determine the speed of your connection from various servers located in the US & the world?

If so check out speedtest.net !

And yet another reason to keep your PC clean! - AP IMPACT: Framed for child porn -- by a PC virus

2009-11-09T01:13:00.002-05:00

AP IMPACT: Framed for child porn -- by a PC virus

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9BRFQ680

Droid Syncing with Standalone Outlook - FAIL

2009-11-03T12:26:00.004-05:00

Please note that correct to today, Nov 3rd 2009, the new Droid phone from Verizon will NOT naively sync with standalone Outlook (IOW w/o exchange)

I am searching for a 3rd party tool that will do this but the only ones i can find are for syncing with the "googleplex" or with MS Exchange.

TY for the offer but I do not want to share my private data with the "cloud."

Palm and BB have done syncing for years....amazing Droid FAIL!

Morotolla/Verizon please please fix this if you want me to buy this product!

Smartphone Showdown: iPhone 3GS vs Motorola Droid

2009-10-31T00:07:00.001-04:00

Smartphone Showdown: iPhone 3GS vs Motorola Droid

Verizon Launches Motorola's Droid Phone

2009-10-28T12:36:00.001-04:00

This may be the smartphone i have been waiting for! More to follow I am sure :)

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2354855,00.asp

All excited about Windows 7? Wait a minute!

2009-10-26T21:53:00.000-04:00

Windows 7 is, in fact, the spiffiest version of Windows yet. But besides the catches you've already heard about (like not being able to upgrade XP or 2000 directly to 7), there's a couple more.

First of all, if you were running the betas or the RC, you were likely using Windows 7 in the Ultimate incarnation. So now you've gone out and gotten your hands on Home Premium or Professional - well, just like with Vista, you can't downgrade once you upgrade. This was something I bumped into while trying to upgrade to the release version of 7 Professional on my EEE 901 netbook. An upgrade involving changing editions? Nuke & pave.

The other scenario is if you want to go from x32 to x64. In the Apple world, the base OS is capable of both modes of operation (in fact, 64-bit apps run fine even when the kernel is in 32-bit mode) but in Windows 7 you'll need to pick an edition right away. And the bad news? You can't upgrade from x32 to x64. It's a clean installation. In my case, I wanted to go from Vista Ultimate x32 to 7 Ultimate x64 on a fairly high-spec PC - no such luck. Another clean install required. Boo hiss.

All this said, Windows 7 is worth it if you have the hardware, and if you run Vista today. Compatibility has been good in my experience with the RC version, and most of the things that made Vista infuriating have been cleaned up effectively. If you use Vista now, upgrade. Just do it. You won't regret it. If you use XP, hold tight for the time being - I expect third parties to quickly make the migration easier for you (since upgrading requires a clean install). If you can't wait, make sure you have all your software installation discs handy - or think about getting yourself a Mac instead.

Mozilla Raindrop: Is the Intelligent Inbox Coming?

2009-10-26T10:29:00.001-04:00

Another interesting project coming from Mozilla:

http://mashable.com/2009/10/22/mozilla-raindrop/

Raindrop UX Design and Demo
http://tinyurl.com/ygkz89s

Upgrade Your New PC to Windows 7 for "Free"

2009-10-23T09:02:00.001-04:00

Article on how to qualify for a "free" upgrade to Win 7 if you purchased a PC within the past 6 months.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2354554,00.asp

Free Wallpaper Site - Cool!

2009-10-18T21:01:00.001-04:00

http://interfacelift.com/

Audacity - The Free, Cross-Platform Sound Editor

2009-10-10T10:08:00.002-04:00

Audacity is a free open-source audio editor. You can record sounds, play sounds, import and export WAV, AIFF, Ogg Vorbis, and MP3 files, and more. Use it to edit your sounds using Cut, Copy and Paste (with unlimited Undo), mix tracks together, or apply effects to your recordings. "

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Online VMX creation tool - VMWare

2009-10-08T23:59:00.002-04:00

Do you need a tool to create VMX files for use with VMPlayer?

If so check out:

http://www.easyvmx.com/

Copy full file location into Copy/Paste Buffer - Vista

2009-10-08T22:07:00.003-04:00

Did you ever wish you could copy the full file location into the copy/paste buffer?

Well in Vista you can! - Win7(TDB)

Hold the left shift key down while you right click on the file and then select the "copy as path" option. You can then use your applications paste function to retrieve from the buffer the full file location including the name of the file.

Cloud Computing for SMB's

2009-10-07T13:30:00.007-04:00

Excerpt from an article I just wrote on the Benefits and Risks of Cloud Computing for Small and Medium Size Businesses:

"At our BNUG meeting last night we had a very interesting mini discussion on Cloud Computing (CC) and below are my thoughts on the Benefits and Risks of using Cloud Computing.

First let me define what I understand the term “Cloud Computing” to mean...

Please click here to continue reading the full article.

Free SFTP and FTP GUI client for Windows - WinSCP

2009-10-04T10:36:00.001-04:00

What is WinSCP?

"WinSCP is an open source SFTP client and FTP client for Windows. Its main function is the secure file transfer between a local and a remote computer. Beyond this, WinSCP offers basic file manager functionality. It uses Secure Shell (SSH) and supports, in addition to Secure FTP, also legacy SCP protocol."

http://winscp.net/

Turn any PC into a NAS - Open Source Project

2009-09-29T11:33:00.003-04:00

Turn any server into a NAS!

http://www.freenas.org/

Disk Imageing for Apple OS X - Donationware

2009-09-24T00:09:00.001-04:00

Carbon Copy Cloner - Donationware

http://www.bombich.com/index.html

Windows XP/Win7 time issues under virtualization

2009-09-22T10:57:00.005-04:00

Here is a hidden jewel that I just discovered if you are running mixed virtualized guests (Linux & Windows)

The norm is to set the host server to UTC and let the guest OS handle the timezone offsets. The problem is that Windows XP normally takes the RTC (real time clock) time as the system time and does not compensate for the offset from UTC. So what to do?

Do I need to say this? Backup your registry FIRST!!

Go to this registry key:
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation\

and add a new string value, type REG_SZ.

Name the string value "RealTimeIsUniversal" and set value to "1" for Universal Time.

Reboot and your virtualized guest OS should now show the correct local time.

This worked for me on a virtualized Windows XP and Win 7, YMMV on other windows versions!

I would also suggest setting up the internet time sync to use:

north-america.pool.ntp.org

for those of you in North America.

Open Source Wireless Network Scanner -inSSIDer

2009-09-12T12:23:00.001-04:00

"inSSIDer is an award-winning free Wi-Fi network scanner for Windows Vista and Windows XP. Because NetStumbler doesn't work well with Vista and 64-bit XP, we built an open-source Wi-Fi network scanner designed for the current generation of Windows operating systems."

http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider

Microsoft announces unpatched IE vulnerability

2009-07-06T18:39:00.003-04:00

Microsoft announces unpatched IE vulnerability

http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2009/07/06/microsoft_warns_of_serious_computer_security_hole/

Link to Windows 7 Feature Comp Chart @ PCWorld

2009-06-27T19:02:00.002-04:00

Link to Windows 7 Feature Comp Chart @ PCWorld

http://www.pcworld.com/zoom?id=167444&page=1&zoomIdx=1

Yet another reason Linux won't make it

2009-05-10T08:20:00.002-04:00

As mentioned a ways back in this blog, I bought an Asus EEE 901 last year when I decided to experiment more with netbooks. The 901 is a nice, well-engineered piece of hardware. The only places where I've deviated from the standard installation is in upgrading the RAM to 2GB (pretty much essential if you want to run without a pagefile in Windows) and in upgrading the secondary SSD to 16GB from the 8 provided. I've run various flavors of Windows on it mainly - Vista and Windows 7 have been on here as experiments (mainly, I travel with my Mac so I'm not generally too worried about having this all usable).

This week I downloaded Windows 7 RC. I installed it already in a Parallels VM, but I decided that before I upgraded to the RC on my 901, I'd try and run it off Linux for a while. So I downloaded Ubuntu (currently that's pretty much the standard desktop Linux distro) 9.04 - the netbook version. Bad sign #1 was when I looked up the compatibility notes for my 901. Not a good beginning. So it's great except the buttons don't work and you can't put it to sleep. I did it anyways, though.

Installation was pretty easy - I did the flash drive installation using a spare SD card I had. That part worked pretty well, and the installation was much easier than most Linux distros I've done in the past. Chalk one up for Canonical. The tough part came afterwards.

(before I go any further - let me remind the reader that I know Linux from ample past usage, I know how to find and install apps, and I'm even comfortable on the command line. This is trying to replicate the OOBE for a new user - so my standards are a little diferent for this project)

So post-installation, much like with Windows, there were a ton of updates that had been released since the image was built. Which was no big deal - I was plugged in to my Ethernet jack so I downloaded them all in a flash.

That is point number 1: I had to use my Ethernet jack because the wireless adapter wasn't even recognized! Not good. I did look at the wireless connection tool, though, and it would (assuming the wireless card was up) let me type in the name of any wireless network I wanted to join and the key for it.

What it would not do, though, is give me a simple tool to enumerate the wireless networks I saw and then pick one to connect to. You know - like Windows and Macs do. Now I'm sure I could have found a way to do it buried within, or downloaded a .deb with a better wireless app, but this is OOBE we're talking about again. And that part of the OOBE sucked.

So then I noticed that sound didn't work either. And that the installation repositories still seem to give me a listing of so much crap to sort through in order to find the one or two apps I might actually be interested in that it was nearly useless (this isn't just Ubuntu - Linux distros have been doing this since day 1. More does not equal better).

Honestly, I never got to the point of using the built-in productivity apps and such. Nor did I make too many further notes on the GUI. I do like Ubuntu's practice of requiring authorization to do most admin-level activities.

So my next task was to plug in my USB DVD drive and boot my DVD of Windows 7 RC. Half an hour later it was working, with all hardware functional. As much as I like to complain about Windows, it worked out of the box and Ubuntu did not. Needed a couple of extra drivers from Asus for optimization, but it all worked.

And this is why Linux just doesn't get it done as a system for everyone. There are millins of people without any real technical qualifications running Unix on their desktop - unfortunately for Linux advocates it's Mac OS X that they are running. Everyone else runs Windows and only the truly devoted run Linux. I've been using Linux and building Linux systems for 15+ years now (my personal site was built off the original Slackware release on a homemade server), and the biggest improvement I can see in that time is that now Xwindows is much better at detecting and auto-installing. Nowhere near enough community effort is going to the end-user experience - and that is what will have to be overcome before Linux is ever going to be a viable option for The Rest Of Us.

Free (as in Beer) Data Recovery Utilities - YMMV

2009-05-04T14:10:00.002-04:00

As always **at your own risk** but here are some free data recovery utilities for (Windows/Mac/Linux)!

TestDisk
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

PhotoRec
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec

It's me, Apple fanboi again...

2009-03-15T22:35:00.003-04:00

No good Apple talk in a while on this blog (or, for that matter, on my personal one either), so I figured I'd share a little talk about the current laptop fleet they're shipping. In one form or another, I either own or use (or have set up) at least one of each, so I've got a good grounds for comparison.

First up: the $999 white MacBook. Except for the plastic case and the 120GB hard drive, this is basically identical to the $1300 aluminum model. And it still has FireWire 400 available on it - the last Mac, in fact, with a "classic" FireWire 400 connector (the Air and unibody MacBooks have no FireWire at all, and the other Pro and desktop systems have FireWire 800). A very good value, as it's based on the same chipset as the entire rest of the portable series, supports 4GB of RAM, and if you want a better hard drive it's very easy to upgrade. When my wife's 4-year-old iBook started to lose the ability to hold a charge a couple of months ago this is what I got her to replace it.

The next step up is the "Unibody" MacBooks. First of all, these cases are rock-solid, and there is no inherent performance penalty to these compared to a MacBook Pro - unlike previous generation models. The nVidia graphics performance is good, and the screens are nice and bright. Battery life on the MacBook models is generally very good. The more expensive model ($1599) offers a faster CPU, a larger HD, and, most notably, the backlit keyboard that was only available before on the premium laptops.

The MacBook Air is a perfect machine for those who need it. Unfortunately, that's a pretty small market. The Air is resonably fast with the new chipset, has a Pro-level screen (sitting with an Air and a MacBook side-by-side you can really see the difference - the MacBook looks really nice until you put the Air next to it). The weight is outstanging, and it's the most solid-feeling ultraportable I've ever handled. But it has definite drawbacks. The battery life is only "OK" (I'd expect 6 hours out of a device like the Air, especially when you can't swap batteries). It has only one USB port - which is a huge drawback if you need to use a wired network, because there is no Ethernet port. Only a $29 dongle for 10/100 Ethernet. The other major Air flaw (a little better in the current version) is heat. The thing cooks - almost literally! Compared to a 2.4 GHz MacBook the 1.86 GHz Air I've used measures almost 8 degrees C hotter at the back edge. It also is limited in storage - but that's not as much of a flaw as it is a side effect of using 1.8" drives. On the plus side, the 128GB SSD drive available for it is amazingly fast, especially for read operations (it warm-boots in about 9 seconds).

Then we turn to the Pro series, a 15" model (in two speeds) and a 17" model. I have the most experience so far with the 15" (the 17" only recently began shipping), and it's a solid, if slightly pricey system. The major features of the Pro series compared to the MacBook line are these additions:

- Better screens
- Discrete GPU
- ExpressCard/34
- FireWire 800
- Official support (in the 17") for 8GB RAM

Interestingly, the Pro systems all let you toggle between the built-in chipset graphics and the GPU. This is managed through the Energy Saver system preference, and at least at this point requires either a reboot or logging out and back in to your account to switch. Performance is significantly higher for graphics apps when the GPU is live, at the expense of battery life. However, even the built-in graphics are much better than the previous generation of Mac (and Windows) laptops that used the Intel chipsets with their integrated graphics.

The only major performance note I'd sound about the Pro line (which is kind of a given on the MacBook) is that when running rendering software using virtualized Windows (via Parallels Desktop or VMware Fusion) redraw performance is poor. This is common in most virtualization environments, and the vendors are working to improve this. I have a client where a couple of their users do almost everything on Macs except run Solidworks, and this is an issue there. Though not enough to make them use Bootcamp to reboot under Windows natively!

The 17" MacBook Pro basically gives you two things that the 15" doesn't. One, of course, is a massive screen. The other is a sealed-in battery that's big enough to provide 5+ hours of usage. For real. If the Air was only so lucky!

So to sum up, Apple's current laptop line has a pretty good continuum of models/price points covering a range from consumer to pro. The only real holes are in places they choose (thus far) not to compete in. The major gap in their line is at the bottom - Apple has no "bargain basement" laptop to compete with the $599 Dells that they advertise in Sunday newspaper inserts and they also are not currently a player in the netbook field. I'd say that is a reasonably OK compromise for now - though it wouldn't surprise me to see a device this year that is designed to bridge the netbook/laptop gap to some degree from them.

Sure, Apple says they aren't interested in the netbook market. On the other hand, they once said that about cell phones, too. And look how that worked out.

Not sure if Exchange is working?

2009-03-05T15:09:00.000-05:00

Thanks to folks in the MS labs, we now have the marvelous tool:

https://www.testexchangeconnectivity.com/

It does just as advertised - and it can help figure out the sticky ActiveSync problems that happen more than I'd like to admit!

Convert PDF Document to Word

2008-11-20T16:30:00.001-05:00

Very Cool on-line tool to convert a PDF document into a word document.

convertpdftoword.net

Acer "Aspire One" Netbook

2008-11-15T13:23:00.007-05:00

I finally couldn't resist any longer when I held one of the Acer "Aspire One" notebook computers in my hands at a display in Costco. For $349 (same price as MicroCenter's store in Cambridge) you get a 2-lb. metallic-blue color hard plastic cased machine running Windows XP on a 1.6GHz Intel "Atom" CPU, a 120GB internal hard disk, 1GB of memory, built-in WiFi, RJ-45 jack for 10base100 ethernet, three USB ports, a mini-SD card reader slot, built-in web cam and microphone, 3.5mm jacks for headset and for external audio input, a 15-pin jack for an external monitor or projector, a 3-cell LIoN battery and a 120/240vac charger/power supply. Also included is a faux-leather fitted carrying pouch.

MicroCenter (not Costco) also has the slightly more expensive ($399) model which has a larger 160GB drive, a 6-cell LIoN battery, and black color case. It's likely that both versions can be found online for slightly less (and slightly more), but the small savings were insufficient to offset the instant gratification of carrying it home from the store and of knowing there would be no DOA return risk and no shipping charges.

The Aspire One has a keyboard which is slightly smaller than a standard keyboard but still large enough to type on conventionally. The 8.9-inch diagonal screen is comfortable for personal use and the machine is small enough to hand to someone if you have to show someone something on the screen.

The machine is only about 9.25 inches in width and could be covered easily by a standard sheet of 8-1/2 x 11 paper. This means that it's ideal to fit into a briefcase and leave enough room for other items and printed documents. It's also small enough to leave behind on a restaurant table -- something I learned on the second day I owned it when a honest and diligent waiter came chasing me into the parking lot of a Thai restaurant in Chelmsford.

The Aspire One has no optical disk drive, so you need to use an external drive connected through one of the USB ports. Not really a big issue unless you like to watch DVDs while traveling on airplanes. And, I suppose, you could copy your DVD to a mini-SD or mini-SDHC card and put it in the built-in card reader.

Like the 3.5-inch floppy drive, the RS-232 COM1 serial port and PCMCIA card slot which are no longer found on laptops, the v.34 modem and RJ-11 telephone jack are nowhere to be found on this machine. So if you plan to stay at ultra-budget motels where there is no WiFi, you'll have to find an outboard modem that connects to a USB port. (Is there such a thing?)

A note on the battery configuration: the 3-cell LIoN battery appears to power the machine for about two to two-and-a-half hours, depending upon the amount of disk I/O and screen use. The 6-cell LIoN battery should double that run time but is physically larger and projects an inch or so beyond the rear edge of the case.

I have not yet researched a 12-volt DC automobile power cord but I would assume that either Acer or an after-market vendor makes such a thing.

Finally, the printed user manual makes reference to a built-in restore utility that restores the machine to its factory defaults without the use of a CD. I don't know if this reloads the XP operating system or exactly what it does. (The printed manual runs a total of 12 pages -- a far cry from the Encyclopedia Britainica documentation which used to ship with personal computers.)

I've had this machine now for about a week and I am very impressed. It's size, weight and features should make it my regular machine for travel and a good companion for the kitchen table and to take to BNUG meetings. Ah, the wonders of technology!

Netbooks - chiming in

2008-08-05T12:08:00.002-04:00

In my IT services practice, I need to be up-to-date on technology trends. So, with that in mind (plus I like to travel light on the rare occasions I fly), I've been really curious about the Netbook trend. Back in the winter, I picked up an original Asus eee PC 8g model to mess with and evaluate. I used the base Linux OS provided, which was a useful version of Xandros, and carried it around for a couple of weeks. The biggest flaws I found in the first-generation devices were:

- The 700 series (what I had) and its initial competitors all used mobile Celeron processors that were relatively high-power and high-heat, even running at underclocked speeds.

- The 7" screens weren't terribly usable.

- Battery life was fairly poor, at only about 3 hours.

That said, it was obvious that it was a device with enormous potential - the ability to package and take just the essentials on the road and make it easy to use is a game-changer in the mobile space. Even my six-year-old wants one (I told him to learn to read first).

So a few months later, the next generation of them has already emerged. This time I am working with a eee 901, running Windows XP instead of Linux (a Linux version is also available at the same price, but it's constrained in the market since it uses a higher-density SSD). The simple verdict: This category has become viable. Period. Here's what the 901 brings to the table that goes beyond what we could do just a few months ago:

- CPU is now an Intel Atom at 1.6 GHz. It uses far less power and is consistently faster in all conditions I've used it in.

- The screen is an 8.9" screen - in the extra space they now give you 1024x600 resolution - enough to be useful.

- Battery life is now almost six hours without any special power-saving measures. It can potentially go even longer. Which means I can take it out for the day and not worry about taking my power cord with me.

- The smallest 901 has 12GB of SSD now (4GB on-board and 8GB in a slot). It's available with 20. The previous model had 4 on-board and 4 in a slot.

- The touchpad now is larger, and supports multi-touch. You need (in Windows) to go get the Elantech driver, though, to really take advantage of it.

- The wireless card now supports B/G/N, and Bluetooth is built-in as well.

All this comes at a list price just south of $600 (notebook territory), but I expect this offering to be at a price point under $500 before much longer. $500 is the magic number for a consumer electronics device (in my opinion) where a netbook becomes a no-brainer alternative to a notebook computer.

The major manufacturers are also beginning to validate the space as well - HP is already selling their 1st-generation 2133 system and both Dell and Lenovo will be shipping systems within the next month or so. All that remains is for Apple to release a netbook of their own and convince the world that they invented the category!

Will "netbook" computers catch on?

2008-07-27T20:55:00.003-04:00

The concept of "internet appliances" never really took off. But it's back in the guise of "Netbooks" and sounds more attuned to how the network is being used today by many users both at home and at work. If the trend catches on, it will mean more emphasis on application and storage servers -- and an even more prominent role for WAN and LAN technology in the personal computing arena.

Here's a story which appeared in the local newspaper a few days ago:

Smaller PCs create jitters in industry

SAN FRANCISCO - (NYT 21 Jul 08) - The personal computer industry is poised to sell tens of millions of small, energy-efficient Internet-centric devices.

But, in a tale of sales success breeding resentment, computer companies are wary of the new breed of computers because their low price could threaten PC makers' already thin profit margins.

The new computers, often called netbooks, have scant onboard memory. They use energy-sipping computer chips. They are intended largely for surfing Web sites and checking e-mail. The price is small too, with some selling for as little as $300.

The companies that pioneered the category were small too, like Asus and Everex, both of Taiwan.

Despite their wariness of these slim machines, Dell and Acer, two of the biggest PC manufacturers, are not about to let the upstarts have this market to themselves. Hewlett-Packard, the world's biggest PC maker, recently sidled into the market with a hybrid of a notebook and netbook that it calls the Mini-Note.

A Silicon Valley start-up called CherryPal says it will it plans to introduce a $300 desktop PC today that is the size of a paperback and uses 2 watts of power compared with the 100 watts of some desktops. It wants to take advantage of the trend toward "cloud computing," in which data is managed and stored in distant servers, not on the actual machine.

Industry analysts say that the emergence of this new class of low-cost, Internet-centric machines could threaten titans like Microsoft and Intel because the giants have built their companies on the notion that consumers want more power and functions built into their next computer.

##

Vista - Detect Wireless Networks

2008-02-24T17:45:00.002-05:00

To find out all sorts of interesting information: SSID, Signal strength, broadcast channel, etc, on detected wireless networks:

1) open a command window

2) Enter "netsh wlan show networks mode=bssid"

Finally, a new post

2007-11-03T11:35:00.000-04:00

And finally, a new OS to write about. But it's Leopard - Mac OS 10.5.

I purchased it a week ago, and after installing it on two systems thus far (a "Santa Rosa" MacBook Pro with 4GB RAM, and a Core 2 Duo iMac with 2GB RAM) I have discovered some things about it. Most of this is pasted from my personal blog, but I've made more discoveries since then.

- Battery life is about the same overall, but the mete is now more accurate. Initially, it's a power hog, because Spotlight needs to fully reindex post-install.

- It had to recreate my .Mac iDisk. Leopard now stores your content in a .sparseimage DMG file, which grows to match what you are actually using. Previously a image file would be created equal to your storage allocation, regardless of how much you were using.

- The new, informative AirPort menu is spiffy. So is the new Network system preference. However, for people like me who connect to multiple VPNs, there is a glitch. The old Internet Connect application used to manage VPN access, but no longer exists. A new process controls it, and Keychain Access doesn't recognize it, so even though your password is saved you still will have to type it in each time until you recreate the connection. No big deal for one - huge pain for 23 of them.

- The translucent menubar and menu is very visually bleh. It really needs more opacity. Definite 3rd party opportunity!

- Quick View is a nice feature. The live icon previews are a little tough to get used to, but handy.

- The new folder icon look is not good. Very industrial, and not as useful as the old ones (the icons are more difficult to discern the "special" symbols on them for system folders). The small renditions of the icons are particularly bad.

- Mail is spiffy. iCal is fast. No server experience yet for another week or so, so I can't tell you if the iCal server's any good. I just got my copy of Server sent over yesterday.

- Bonus feature: My MS Wireless Laser Mouse 800 now works fine - no hoops necessary. The Mac just pairs with it. Before, I had to repeatedly power-cycle the mouse to get it to work, and go through a weird procedure with BT File Transfer to get it to work at all (it's not Mac-compatible in theory without the special MS dongle, but I'm stubborn and I liked it's ergonomics). I turned the mouse on and it saw it, filled in the info properly and just started working.

- No noticed incompatibilities so far. Office 2004 has been fine. Adobe CS3 applications are mostly fine, though there are reputed to be issues in Acrobat Pro. I have not had any problems using Acrobat Pro for viewing and markup.

- Most major system-level utilities have been updated already for Leopard. Both Parallels and VMware have public previews of their Leopard-ready releases out, and unlike with the move from Panther to Tiger, the move from Tiger to Leopard has been pretty close to glitch-free.

So in using it for a week, I find speed overall to be about the same. Applications launch a little faster on Leopard, and most UI eye candy is faster than it was on Tiger. However, there's a lot more eye candy than there was before. The new Stacks feature is nice to a point, but quickly wears out it's welcome. I think I miss the old Dock. Having remote control built-in is terrific, and I've already made good use of the feature by operating my home Mac from the road. It works well. Server browsing is much simpler, with the Bonjour view as part of standard Finder windows now.

As for applications, I am a Firefox user, so I haven't worked much with the new Safari yet. It is impressively standards-compliant. I pretty much won't use anything without an AdBlock Plus equivalent, though. As mentioned above, iCal is now blazing fast. The new editing interface is (to me) not quite as simple. Address Book has some groupware functionality added but otherwise is similar. The Internet Connect and Printer Setup Utility have been removed and their functionality rolled into their corresponding System Preferences panes. Also an improvement. Netinfo support is gone, replaced by a Directory application and improved Directory Utility that simplify network setup. And Time Machine is worth the hype. It makes backup essentially transparent, and automates virtually all decisions impressively. A little clunky to use with my laptop, mind you, but still remarkable.

Without going any farther in depth, if your Mac is on the speedy side I'd mark Leopard as a worthy upgrade. As is typical, this has a few of the minor annoyances of a .0 release, but Apple has a track record of fixing issues quickly. Expect 10.5.1 within the next couple of weeks and then further stabilization to continue.

2007-06-10T17:06:00.000-04:00

Every now and then I come across some really basic information which we all know but, when we need it, never can remember exactly. Here is some useful information comparing the bandwidth capacity (speed) of various common telecom and network facilities:

Dial-up
An analog modem using twisted pair copper phone lines.


 Bell 103             300    bit/s
 Bell 212            1200    bit/sec
 v.22bis             2400    bit/sec
 v.32                   9.6  Kbit/sec
 v.32bis               14.4  Kbit/s
 v.34                  33.6  Kbit/s
 v.90                  53.3  Kbit/s
   v.90 up*            33.6  Kbit/sec
 v.92                  53.3  Kbit/sec
   v.92 up*            48.0  Kbit/sec
 56k                   53.3  Kbit/s
 ISDN                 128.0  Kbit/s

Cable
Uses coaxial copper cable.


 Average                2.00 Mbit/s
   Maximum             10.00 Mbit/s
   Upstream avg*      500.0  Kbit/s

DSL
Digital Subscriber Line uses twisted pair copper phone lines.


 IDSL                 128.0  Kbit/s
 UADSL                  1.5  Mbit/s
   UADSL up*          512.0  Kbit/s
 HDSL                   1.50 Mbit/s
 SDSL                   2.00 Mbit/s
 RADSL                  7.00 Mbit/s
   RADSL up*            1.00 Mbit/s
 ADSL                   8.00 Mbit/s
   ADSL up*             1.00 Mbit/s
 VDSL                  51.64 Mbit/s
   VDSL up*            19.20 Mbit/s

T-carrier
Usually delivered by fiber optic or microwave, although T1 may use two twisted pair copper phone lines.


 T-1                    1.54 Mbit/s
 T-3                   44.74 Mbit/s

Optical Carrier
Fiber optic point-to-point, often used for "backbone" facility.


 OC-3                 155.52 Mbit/s
 OC-12                622.08 Mbit/s
 OC-48              2,488.32 Mbit/s
 OC-96              4,976.64 Mbit/s
 OC-192             9,953.28 Mbit/s
 OC-255            13,219.20 Mbit/s

Ethernet
Used for local area networks (LANs) over multiple twisted pair copper cable, except for the obsolete 10base2 which uses coaxial cable.

10base2 2.00 Mbit/s
10baseT 10.00 Mbit/s
100baseT 100.00 Mbit/s
Gigabit Ethernet 1,000.00 Mbit/s

Wireless
May be fixed or mobile.


 HomeRF                 1.20 Mbit/s

 WiFi
   802.11a             54.00 Mbit/s
   802.11b             11.00 Mbit/s
   802.11g             54.00 Mbit/s
   802.11n            100.00 Mbit/s

 CSD                    9.6  Kbit/s
 CDMA                  14.4  Kbit/s
 iDEN                  19.2  Kbit/s
 CDPD                  19.2  Kbit/s
 1XRTT                144.0  Kbit/s
 HSCSD                 56.0  Kbit/s
 CDMA 2.5G             64.0  Kbit/s
 GPRS                 171.2  Kbit/s
 EDGE                 384.0  Kbit/s
 3G                   384.0  Kbit/s
 UMTS                   2.00 Mbit/s
 3G1xEV-DO              2.40 Mbit/s
 3G1xEV-DV              5.00 Mbit/s

*Note: Some connections are asymmetrical, they download faster than they upload.

An explanation of Bits(b), Bytes(B), and Baud
Bits and bytes are a measurement of electronic information. A byte is always 8 bits. Communications speeds are usually measured in bits per second while many computer operations are measured in bytes per second. A "56k" modem is 56 kilobits and a "2m" DSL connection is 2 megabits per second. "128MB" of RAM is 128 megabytes. Ideally when abbreviations are used, b means bits and B means bytes. Baud rate is another measure of transmission speed and is the number of actual signals sent per second. At one time it was equal to the bits per second, but modern technology allows us to send more than one bit per electric signal.

Mega and kilo
Communications device specifications are usually given in Kilo, meaning 1,000, and mega, meaning 1,000,000. Examples include modems and Ethernet.

Computer storage, such as hard drives, memory and file size, are ususally measured in Kilo, meaning 1,024, and mega, meaning 1,048,576.

Traditionally kilo means one thousand exactly. In the communications world engineers call a thousand bits transmitted in a second 1 kilobit per second. While 1000 is a nice round number for humans to work with, it isn't for computers. Mathematically speaking, humans use decimal or base 10 numbers and computers use binary or base 2 numbers. 1024 is 2 to the power of 10 which is a significant binary value and so is represented by kilo in the computer world. Mega is similar except it means 1,000,000 when describing a communications device and means 1,048,576 (i.e., 1024 kilo) when describing computer devices. Ideally when abbreviations are used, k means 1000 and K means 1024, but this notation convention is not always observed.

Based on information provided by various sources
including Bandwidth Place (http://www.bandwidthplace.com)

Hello, remember us?

2007-05-02T21:12:00.000-04:00

We're BNUG - and we've changed a few things. We meet at Microsoft's Waltham offices now (where half the surviving user group community meets, too), and we've moved from the second Tuesday to the first Tuesday of each month. Come out and see us - since the move, attendance has been quite good now and we've had some really neat topics of late.

Also as a follow-up to my post a few months ago about my Treo (shamefully, the last post on this site in over 4 months - we're sorry!), the Jawbone is, in fact, amazing, but the Treo is still crud. However, hope is on the horizon - Palm currently has a major new release of the 700p firmware in carrier testing and due around the end of May. In their new blog, more details are given. Should this fix things properly, I would go ahead and recommend Treos again - if not, look at some of the latest crop of GSM Windows Mobile phones as a good alternative and give a good look at Apple's iPhone when it ships soon.

Hopefully, more brilliant technical commentary will be forthcoming soon from my BNUG brethren...

Treo 700p - 5 months later (the good, the bad, the Bluetooth)

2006-12-23T23:13:00.000-05:00

After five months, I am still a Treo 700p user. Some things have changed, some have stayed the same in that time. The biggest change wasn't (yet) a device change, but a service change - 1xRTT mode no longer blocks incoming voice calls. This was the result of a Verizon network upgrade in the early fall (and the Treo got the benefit, along with other smartphones). Also, the accessory market for these devices has boomed. I am now using a 3200mA battery instead of my prior 2400mA extended battery (or the stock 1800mA battery). That gives me amazing life. It also makes the Treo about 3mm thicker, and includes a replacement battery cover that accommodates the thicker battery. It also includes a pre-drilled hole to allow easy access to the reset button.

Which leads me to the bad side: you need easy access to the reset button. Stability is horrible, especially in Bluetooth operation. I've had very little success hotsyncing with Bluetooth, and very limited success with the Bluetooth headsets I use in my daily life. My old Jabra JX10 worked OK with the Treo, but was just too uncomfortable to keep using on a regular basis. The Plantronics 645 doesn't really work at all, nor did a Motorola HBH-700 I tried. I tried and returned a Nokia BH700 (bad performance, lousy fit) and also an Anycom HS-777 (sucked). I had better results with a LG HBM-730, but it was just too fragile to use on a daily basis, and tended to randomly disconnect from the Treo.

I've wound up mainly using a Cardo Scala 700 with the Treo - good wind reduction, usually stays connected, good battery life, and only occasionally crashes the Treo. It's uncomfortable, but I live with it (and I've used a wired headset in the car). A new contender has finally emerged, though, that I just bought a day ago - the Aliph Jawbone (currently available only through Cingular stores). It's big, but pretty light, very comfortable, and has amazing background noise reduction. Plus so far it's rock-solid. It seems a little more fragile than I'd like for pocketing, but I think the good will outweigh the bad. I hope.

Do I list all these Bluetooth headsets to show you what a total whore for Bluetooth I am? Well, maybe a little. But in all seriousness, my day job is running a small IT service shop (myself and one other person right now). I spend the larger part of every day on the road, and reliable handsfree operation is absolutely critical to me - I could live without my MacBook Pro on a given day easier than I could live without my Treo and a solid, high-quality headset. So I've tried model after model (most are cheap), in the hopes of getting the perfect device for regular use. And the serious Bluetooth stability issues on the Treo 700p have made that a real case of Russian Roulette.

On a brighter note overall, Palm has publicly stated (on Treocentral.com) that they are aware of and are working to fix the Treo 700p issues - they expect to release a Bluetooth patch in early January and a full firmware update by spring. I am anxiously awaiting both, but mainly the Bluetooth fixes (I'm sick of buying headsets!). Over the last year or so, I've become a major Bluetooth fan, and that weakness has been whe holds the Treo 700p back from being a close-to-ideal smartphone. It's still overall the best device out there when you consider ease of operation, durability, range of software (If your mail server is IMAP-based, then Chatteremail is by far the best mobile mail client I've ever used, better than Blackberry and it's PalmOS-only), hardware ecosystem, and the quality/versatility of the device. But the newest Windows Mobile phones are awful close behind.

The Linux Equivalent Project

2006-12-05T10:57:00.000-05:00

Looking for open source alternatives for your favorite applications?

"The Linux Equivalent Project. The goal is to provide an informational and available website for all linux users. The website is currently in beta form. I will be periodically updating the database with Windows software and the Linux equivalent. "

http://www.linuxeq.com/

TrueCrypt - open source on the fly encryption

2006-10-08T11:19:00.000-04:00

I came across this gem after listening to the always excellent "security now" netcast by Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte. (http://www.grc.com/securitynow.htm)

If you store sensitive data on your PC, server or laptop (and who doesn't??!) and are concerned about security you might want to check out an open source solution called "TrueCrypt."

TrueCrypt allows you to set up an encrypted file (or even a hidden partition for the truly paranoid!) and mounts it only if the correct password is presented. Once mounted the file looks like a drive to the OS for on the fly encryption and decryption.

Even under the strongest encryption scheme the speed is very good on my 2.4Ghz P4 laptop.

Supports Windows XP/2000/2003 and *nix.

Very cool stuff and open source!

http://www.truecrypt.org/

Pimp my virtual ride

2006-09-20T08:04:00.000-04:00

As some of you may have been made aware (the legendary BNUG publicity machine takes a while to roar to life sometimes), we're doing another of our periodic BNUG training sessions on Saturday, November 4th. The topic will be "Server Virtualization", and we'll be doing it at Beverly's Cummings Center this time around (so don't go to Mount Ida for the class - we won't be there!).

This one'll be even timelier than we usually are. With the capabilities of modern hardware, taking advantage of the reliability and manageability of virtualization presents a truly compelling argument for many businesses, and you don't have to be a rocket scientist to make it all work, either. We'll show you how to select, build, and test a virtualization platform, how to manage it, and how to make all the server OS's you are likely to need work. And we'll also (though focusing on market leader VMware) show you basics of most of the market leaders, including Virtual PC (and Virtual Server), Parallels, and QEMU.

Plus you'll learn neat tricks about using virtualization to simplify end-user support!

I believe the whole shebang will be for the usual low price of $100, and as usual, we'll be providing breakfast and lunch. A full day of training on a hot topic with food for a hundred bucks? My goodness, how can you go wrong? Keep an eye on your in-box and the BNUG website (at www.bnug.org) for more details in the next few days.

Treo 700p Reviewed

2006-07-22T21:15:00.000-04:00

I've been using a Palm Treo 700p (Verizon) for just over a week now. I'd previously been a Treo 650 (GSM) user for a little over a year, but since (as documented elsewhere on the LANtern) I no longer can use my Verizon EVDO card with my new-ish MacBook Pro (the MacBook Pro uses the new ExpressCard/34 format - not compatible with CardBus), I have been actively looking for an alternative. Well, I added up my Cingular phone bill and my Verizon data bill and decided that the fiscally prudent thing to do would be to switch to Verizon and can the Cingular line entirely. As a result, I'm saving about $100 per month. My plan now totals about $160/month - covering 2k minutes' voice, unlimited data, and computer tethering.

Now that the economics are covered, on with the phone. The Treo 700p shares a virtually identical form factor with the 650. The ergonomics have been slightly altered to make it fit the hand (at least mine) a little more comfortably. Two of the major flaws of the 650 have also been addressed - the earpiece volume is substantially better and the available RAM has been quadrupled (to 128MB, though only 60MB is user-accessible - roughly 3x the available user RAM on the 650). Like its predecessor, the Treo 700p uses flash memory to avoid data loss if power fails. The built-in camera is slightly less useless, now delivering 1.3 megapixels of mediocre image capture. Also new to the 700p is the key new feature that made me buy it - they've added EVDO modem support to the 700p (it's also in the Windows-based 700w). This is a major improvement - not only is the EVDO modem separate from the combined 1xRTT data/CDMA voice modem, if you're in an EVDO service area the phone can access data at DSL-like speeds (virtually all of the Boston area from Portsmouth to Providence is EVDO-capable). All Verizon towers support the older 1xRTT spec, which is still good for about 140kbps (and proved very useful last weekend in rural New Hampshire), which is still generally faster than the GPRS service available from GSM carriers.

So to set up the new phone, first I transferred my Seidio extended battery (2400ma, vs. the 1800ma provided by the stock battery) from my older Treo - the batteries are identical. Then, I backed up my older Treo to my Mac, and turned it off. I then paired the new Treo and set the sync conduit to restore - about 5 minutes later I had things exactly the same - even my call logs transferred. Actual call performance is fine - the call quality is a little better, but CDMA generally sound better than GSM in my opinion.

In other areas, Bluetooth is (theoretically) a little better on the 700 series phones, but in practice I'm only having success with my Jabra JX-10 headset. My newer Plantronics 645 doesn't work that reliably with the 700p, and drops pairing randomly. it worked fine with the 650, so I'm hoping that the first firmware update in the next couple of months addresses that issue - I prefer the fit of the Plantronics. Also, the phone interface is better in some ways (you now can attach images and custom rings to callers, and you can reply to an incoming call with an SMS), but the multiple call interface doesn't let you hang up on a single call - it only lets you switch away from the call you want to drop, and you need to hope the other party hangs up. Then, the call status screen doesn't indicate that the call is cleared until/unless you hang up or an additional call comes in. Hopefully this is merely a cosmetic bug, though the hangup behavior itself is documented in the Treo's user guide. Finally (in the nitpicking area), there is a bug in the Verizon firmware that prevents programs from properly using the green LED to provide notification - so Chatteremail (the best IMAP package anywhere, I think) can't do notifications by blinking the green light. Annoying, but worked around by either using vibrate notification or by using a console command to let one of the other LEDs substitute (though with a solid light instead of a blinking one).

As for data, I've used EVDO before (with the aforementioned CardBus card), so I knew what to expect. But it's still fast. Syncing my AvantGo channels online used to take up to 10 minutes (if it didn't time out) on my 650. It takes about 30 seconds on EVDO. Updates in Chatteremail are virtually instantaneous. And best of all, I can tether it to my MacBook Pro via either a Bluetooth connection (supported, but limited to about 300-400k speed), or a great third-party program called USB Modem - for $25 it adds tethered support for Macs to any Treo device and works very well. I bought a copy - worked as advertised! The advantage to tethered mode (besides speed) is that it allows you to use a charge & sync cable when it's plugged in - EVDO eats batteries fast (the one advantage I had in practice with GSM was that it was easy on the batteries). In use, you'll find that with a push email app like Chatter you will get about a full day's use out of the Treo but you'll need to charge it at night. With the extended battery I generally wind up the day around 50% of capacity. The less you use the data capabilities the longer that charge will last.

Also of note: When you are using the EVDO capabilities and a call comes in, the Treo will put the EVDO session on hold to let you deal with the voice call. If you're in 1xRTT mode, incoming calls will go straight to voicemail.

From all this, you might think I'm ambivalent about the Treo 700p. Not at all. I love it - I just wish the inevitable firmware update would come out tomorrow and take this from a 4-star device to a 5-star device. The 700p proves that there's plenty of life left in the far-from-state-of-the-art Palm OS 5, and that for all the Windows Mobile hype there's still better ways of managing a smartphone out there. I also give the Treo 700p huge props for saving me around $100 per month compared to my combined phone/data bills from before, and helping keep my Batman quotient nice and low - with just a single device on my belt.

Apple's coming to getcha!

2006-06-01T23:25:00.000-04:00

I set up my first MacBook (the $1299 middle configuration) for a client yesterday, and it was much nicer than I feared it would be. Heat is warmer than an iBook, but cooler than the MacBook Pro (or maybe that's because mine is a little faster, with a higher-speed drive). The reflective screen is pretty nice - I expected a worse mirror effect - the screen is very sharp, and the chipset-based acceleration is fine for routine business and recreational use. It doesn't ship with enough RAM, though. Rosetta (as I've mentioned before) introduces roughly a 30% memory hit over a native PPC Mac per application - a small price to pay for the compatibility and (typically) performance you get from it. But with only 512MB of RAM standard and provided as a pair of pre-connected SO-DIMMs, you have to scrap all the existing RAM to get up to a usable gigabyte. Which is a shame, not to mention priced poorly. Buy your memory upgrade from Crucial instead.

Were I designing the MacBook, I would have tried to incorporate 512MB right on the system board, leaving the DIMM sockets open for expansion. Other than that quibble, it's a well-engineered system, the size factor is really good, and I'd say overall it makes both iBook models and the 12" PowerBook G4 its beeyotch. The only thing you give up compared to a PowerBook 12" is the metal case, ATI onboard video (and slightly smaller size), because the 12" was always just an iBook with a shiny aluminum skin. The backlit keyboard that the MacBook Pro (and bigger PowerBooks) had isn't on the 12" or either iBook anyhow, and you also get the built-in camera, 802.11a capability, and the multi-display support the iBooks lacked.

It's basically a worthy ride, and had I not bought my wife a 12" iBook back in December as a birthday gift I'd be looking at these (I'm a member of the Apple Consultants Network, and I get some nice discounts as a fringe benefit). My only advice to the prospective buyer - skip the black color. True, you get an 80GB drive instead of a 60GB, but other than that it's the exact same machine for an extra $200. If you really want the 80GB drive, add it as a BTO option on Apple's website - that way it only costs $50.

Also, with virtualization all the rage I'm expecting to have a review of Parallels Desktop in a few days - I'll post it on my personal blog first, and here soon afterwards.

MacBook Pro, day 1

2006-03-31T00:47:00.000-05:00

(copied from my personal blog - hence the lack of heavy technical detail...)

My MacBook Pro arrived yesterday morning - 2 days earlier than I expected (a nice surprise - when I left for the office Fedex's website was saying that it was in Indy, on-track for a Friday delivery. Then I got the knock on the door about an hour afterwards...). I had too much work to do to deal with it right away, so I set it up last night.

The configuration is a pimped-out MacBook Pro, with the 2.16 GHz preocessor upgrade, 2GB of RAM, and the optional 7200RPM 100GB hard drive. The setup was, for the most part, vary simple - I just copied my older PowerBook over using the Migration Assistant and let the transfer (about 60GB of data) roll while I had dinner and went out for a couple of errands. The only three things of note from using Migration Assistant: It was unable to copy over Missing Sync (my third-party Palm sync software) properly, but I just had to re-serialize it to solve that, it does not copy over the serial number from Apple Remote Desktop Admin (again, re-entered), and all my VPN configurations were left behind. To fix that last glitch I simply exported my VPN configs from the old PowerBook, then re-attached all the passwords. Not a big deal for most, but since I have about a dozen VPN configs loaded (I use VPNs to manage most of my clients' networks) it was a little painstaking.

That done, here's my early thoughts. I love MagSafe (the new connector scheme for the power adapter), though the brick is a tad bulky. It provides 85w of power, though, instead of the 65w older PowerBooks drew. Rosetta poses virtually no issues, and performance is pretty good on emulated code, too. My only real loss for now to Rosetta's limitations (no mixed mode operation) is the Flip4Mac WMV codecs - the Universal version hasn't shipped yet. Some people have noted a whine coming from the transformer on-board on MacBooks - I may have heard it (not sure), but one of the first things I did was back down the backlight a notch (reduces power use notably, and it's still brighter than my Rev. B Aluminum PowerBook G4 was). No noise issues at all accordingly.

Also? This sucker is fast. I mean, boot in 1/2 the time, launch apps that are native instantly instead of waiting, and super-quick program switches with native code. Just to give you an idea - I went from the PPC version of Missing Sync on the old PowerBook to the Universal build on the MacBook, and the first time I synced my Treo this morning I thought it had failed - because the entire sync took only about 10 seconds.

Nope. It went perfectly. It just worked about 5-6 times faster than I'm used to. I think I'm going to like this MacBook a lot.

Don't Ph3ar a Mac Trojan

2006-02-16T18:42:00.000-05:00

Word is out today that someone has concocted a Mac OS X Trojan that is a PPC executable named "latestpics.tgz". If run, it will infect the user account and try to spread via iChat. It's really no big deal, though - Mac users have to do the following things to run it:

- Download via browser of choice (probably Safari), which will warn you that it is potentially executable;
- Decompress the malware with your decompressor of choice;
- Double-click the malware file to run it, and then;
- Enter your admin password to allow it to execute.

Sounds dangerous, huh? Mac OS X malware is possible to create, but this isn't exactly it. I think that over the next year or so, you'll see a few more attacks on the platform, but overall it's a much harder target to crack open, and the relative lack of Mac malware is more a reflection of that increased security than it is of Mac market share.

Early Mac on Intel notes

2006-02-15T22:45:00.000-05:00

As resident BNUG Mac Guy, I feel obligated to share what I've learned so far after installing a few Intel Core Duo iMacs over the last month (some customers have MacBook Pros on order, but those just started shipping this week):

First of all, if you're a "creative" Mac customer, and you're used to G5-class performance, sit on the sidelines for now, unless you really need a new system. For the next year or two, a dual or quad PowerMac G5 will kick major booty over the Intel systems, mainly because it'll be a minimum of 8 more months (and possibly as many as 14) before Adobe ships a Universal version of Creative Suite. Fast though the Core Duo is, it's not fast enough to make up all that ground in emulation. Not now, and not for a while.

But if you currently rely on a G4-based Mac (or PowerBook), take the plunge without hesitation. But make sure to outfit your Intel Mac with at least 512MB more RAM than you would in the comparable PowerPC-based Mac - Rosetta (Apple's emulation technology) runs remarkably well, but adds a memory burden of around 30% to each PPC application that it runs in emulation. Given sufficient RAM, most PPC programs will run at approximately the speed of a 1.25 GHz G4 Mac - or better than almost any PowerMac G4 that was made and better than most of the PowerBooks as well (the max G4 speed on a PowerBook is 1.67 GHz). Current owners of old Macs won't see much improvement, but as programs ship in Universal format and make good use of the dual cores there will be noticeable boosts.

As for limitations, well, it's pretty simple. Rosetta can run virtually any PowerPC application. The exceptions being that mixed mode will not work (for instance, an Intel-native web browser can't use a PowerPC-built plugin - or for that matter PowerPC native Photoshop can't use a plugin to move filters over to the Intel side). I think that limitation may have to do with the different endian formats between the two processor families. Besides that, the Intel Macs can't run kernel extensions and device drivers written in PowerPC code - this causes less of a problem than you might expect as much software in Macland runs in application space only. Most standard printer drivers are already provided (Apple uses the Gimp-Print engine in Mac OS X), but some printers may not enjoy full functionality until they provide Universal drivers. In most cases, device developers are writing their code in Cocoa using Apple's Xcode IDE, and in those cases conversion is usually very simple. Software developers relying on the now-discontinued Metrowerks IDE or using extensive Carbon code may have more difficulties and will have to move their projects from CodeWarrior to Xcode first.

One other note of interest in here: Classic (the compatibility layer for running Mac OS 9 and earlier apps) is dead forever on Intel. There are third-party emulators that can run older apps, but Intel machines are officially X-only.

The basic conclusion: this first generation of Intel Macs appears to work much better than many of us (myself included) expected. Apple's gotten pretty good at processor family transitions over the years (this is the third), and has made this fairly smooth for users, in fact I'd dare say that the transition from a PowerPC Mac to an Intel Mac will generally be no more complex than a Mac OS X version upgrade in terms of problems, and it'll certainly be easier than the transition from 9 to X was for most users who hadn't yet learned to embrace their inner UNIX. Over the next few months, I expect to see the remaining lower-end systems (mini and iBook, as well as the 12" and 17" PowerBook models) transition, and the PowerMac will probably be in the second half of the year (I'm not going to hazard a guess on when Xserve will be switched other than to say it'll probably be last - but I may well be wrong). Other than the PowerMac, expect PowerPC Macs to be dropped within a month or so of an Intel counterpart's hitting the market. I think PowerMac G5 systems will continue to be made and sold through early next year, though - Apple can't afford to risk that model's market for now and it's also the area in which the PowerPC is most competitive, performance-wise.

As for me, I'll probably treat myself to a MacBook Pro sometime after I can get a Verizon EVDO card in the new ExpressCard format.

And now for something completely different..

2006-01-17T23:14:00.000-05:00

A different kind of digital clock!

http://www.lares.dti.ne.jp/~yugo/storage/monocrafts_ver3/29/bclock.html

MSCONFIG on steroids - Another great Utility from Sysinternals

2005-12-09T09:22:00.000-05:00

Autoruns

"This utility, which has the most comprehensive knowledge of auto-starting locations of any startup monitor (A starting list of auto-run locations was obtained from David Solomon's "Windows Internals" seminar), shows you what programs are configured to run during system bootup or login, and shows you the entries in the order Windows processes them. These programs include ones in your startup folder, Run, RunOnce, and other Registry keys. You can configure Autoruns to show other locations, including Explorer shell extensions, toolbars, browser helper objects, Winlogon notifications, auto-start services, and much more. Autoruns goes way beyond the MSConfig utility bundled with Windows Me and XP."

http://www.sysinternals.com/utilities/autoruns.html

Protecting credit cards

2005-11-30T12:24:00.000-05:00

You probably know by now that there is an important 3-digit number on the back of your credit card. Often when you are making a web purchase, the seller will ask for this number in addition to the account number and expiration date, to verify that you have the card in your hands.

But if your card is lost or stolen, the finder/thief will have access to this 3-digit number and can start making Internet purchases immediately.

There is a way to save the situation, and that is to remove the 3-digit number on the card back. But if you do this, then even you won't have access to this number. So maybe there is a way to remove the real 3-digit number and replace it with another number that only you can use to get the real 3-digit number. Let's talk about one way to do this.

Suppose you find that the three digits on the reverse of your card are 456. Suppose your birthday is August 17th. That's 8/17, so let's make your code key the number 817.

Now add the code key, 817, to the original three-digit number, 456, digit by digit, and drop any carries:

456
817
-----
263 (4 + 8 = 12, drop the 1)

Now erase the "456" on the back of the card and write 263 there. The 263 isn't useful by itself, it will be rejected by anyone using it as the 3-digit code. Only you know the key to recovering the original 3-digit number.

To get the original 3-digit number back, just subtract your key, 817, adding 10's as needed:

263
817
-----
456 (2 minus 8 won't work, so add 10: 12 minus 8 is 4)

And you have the original 3 digit number.

Neat, eh?

PS: The advanced amongst you may realize that the digit-wise additive inverse to the key 817 is 293, thus you could equally well add this inverse, 293, to 263, digit by digit, dropping the carries, also to get the original 456. But that's another number--293--to remember!

How to get a human...

2005-11-28T11:21:00.000-05:00

I received this really useful link from another mailing list.

Ever been frustrated trying to speak with someone on a "service" call to a vendor? Here is a web site that lists the sequence of buttons on the phone to push when you dial an 800-number for a variety of vendors to get directly to a human.

http://paulenglish.com/ivr/

Need a secure password?

2005-11-21T10:40:00.000-05:00

Steve Gibson of grc.com has a SSL enabled webpage to create "random" secure passwords for WPA or....

https://www.grc.com/pass

Got root...kit?

2005-11-10T08:18:00.000-05:00

Use these two scanners to see if you have any files/processes on your Windows systems that are hidden from the OS.

Root Kit Revealer from SysInternals
http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/rootkitrevealer.html

Blacklight from F-Secure
http://www.f-secure.com/blacklight/

LangaList eNewsletter

2005-10-27T01:29:00.000-04:00

"The LangaList," is a free email newsletter from the computer author and columnist Fred Langa. Fred is the former Editor of Windows Magazine, Byte Magazine, and a number of other publications.

The LangaList has been published since 1997 and is rated among the best of the eZines. It has a dense format of lots of very practical tips and information about the desktop computing environment.

I've found this newsletter very useful and recommend it. It's totally free and, like the BNUG mailing list, has an anti-spam policy of not selling or disclosing it's subscribers' email addresses.

(The LangaList free edition is advertiser supported: each issue contains some click through computer-related ads. In addition to the free version of LangaList, there is also an enhanced "paid subscription" version which provides some additional content and no ads. LangaList is published about six times per month.)

Here's a link to the current issue: http://www.langa.com/current.htm

You'll also find complete archives (all past issues) via the same link.

If you like what you see, you can sign up for free by going to: http://www.langa.com/join_langalist.htm

Spam Fighting with Mac OS X

2005-10-21T13:12:00.000-04:00

Back in May, I made a decision to dogfood my home and office, so I switched my servers from Linux-appliance sytems (ClarkConnect at home and SME Server at work) to Mac OS X Server running on a matched pair of Mac minis. They're nice, slick, simple, and much easier to administer than even the appliance distros were (OK, they're not much easier, but they are pretty easy when you're an Apple-Certified person like I happen to be). The minis make good, solid webservers for mainly static content, and Mac OS X Server provides good file, print, and web services along with integrated Squirrelmail for webmail and amavis for an interface to both ClamAV and SpamAssassin.

Unfortunately, the amavis config is slightly broken by default, and it's not yet been fixed by Apple. Out of the box, Bayesian training doesn't work correctly. A workaround is at the excellent site AFP548, but that's not the only glitch - spammers have learned lately to start routing mail through backup MX systems so as to hopefully bypass detection. And different SA configurations are set to handle forwarded mail differently - Tiger Server's trusts it and it's a pain to change that (though possible).

My solution for home use was to simply stop my backup MX service that I was getting from ZoneEdit (who handles my DNS) - presto, instant 10-fold spam reduction! The other fix was to add blacklisting at both home and work. I am using the sbl-xbl.spamhaus.org blacklist, which is doing a pretty good job of reduction. Then, at the office I usually leave my desktop iMac on all the time so I can remotely drive it when needed. Now I leave Mail.app open as well, and since it has a very nice spam catcher I let it snag spam and train it as well. All in all, I see only a spam or two per day on my Treo, typically.

After the next scheduled Mac OS X update (10.4.3, due in the next week or two), I am going to re-address the issue and work on tweaking SpamAssassin's settings. Overall, the mail subsystem in Tiger is solid and functional, but Apple still needs to make fine-tuning a little easier.

The Information Technology Professional's Resource Center

2005-10-14T15:46:00.000-04:00

Although it has not been updated in quite some time, the Information Technology Professional's Resource Center ("ITPRC") web site remains a useful repository of some classic essential network information. You can find it at http://www.itprc.com

The ITPRC was created in 1999 to provide a one-stop-shop for IT professionals to find technical information relating to data networking. The predecessor of the ITPRC was "Networking References" which had been established in 1997. I believe ITPRC was created by Irwin Lazar, who is a technology consultant who has written extensively on various datacom and telecom topics.

The ITPRC web site includes an archive of a few ITPRC newsletters on topics like "A Very Brief Intro to QoS", "IPSec vs. MPLS-based VPNs" and "Secure Sockets Layer". But more importantly, there are various compendia of links to networking references organized by topic.

For example, the ITPRC guide to the "physical layer" provides links to over three dozen resouce sites covering the topics of Analog Modems, Cable Modems, Cabling, Channelized T1/T3/E1, DSL, SONET/SDH/DPT/RPR, and Industry Standards. See: http://www.itprc.com/physical.htm

Not all of the links work and some may require a little search work because the referenced external web pages have been moved or renamed. However, most of the links provide good starting places.

Linux Newbie Administrator Guide

2005-10-12T13:49:00.000-04:00

Good resource for the Linux "newbie" and "free" as in beer!

Linux Newbie Administrator Guide

http://Linux-newbie.sunsite.dk/index.html

VNC remove control of Mac OS X Tiger desktop - use UltraVNC

2005-09-29T12:43:00.000-04:00

VNC works great with my new Mac Mini running OS X Tiger (10.4.2) and Apple remote desktop as long as you use the VNC viewer from UltraVnc -
http://ultravnc.sourceforge.net/

For some reason the VNC viewer (V4.0) from realvnc.com did not work for me. It asked for the password and then exited.

The LANtern Online

2005-09-25T19:36:00.000-04:00

In the wake of the hurricanes:
Data recovery from water damaged disk drives

In looking at some of the news stories about Hurricane Katrina, I came across a transcript of a New Orleans television feature called "Digital Gumbo" hosted by MCSE Jerry Seregni. Jerry was interviewing Dave Mohyla of DtiData in Clearwater, Florida which specializes in data recovery and has worked for Cisco, Ford Motor Company, NASA, the United States Navy, and many others.

You can read the transcript here. It contains some very useful information about what to do -- and what NOT to do -- after your hardware has been swimming with the fishes. (For even more information about data recovery, you can go to the DtiData web site.)

In the same program transcript, Jerry also talks about the "lost local administrator password blues" -- Your company needs to setup a temporary office at a location spared heavy storm damage. After you determine which computers in your organization are "mission critical," you disconnect them, cart them to the other location, network them, and try to conduct business as usual. But you soon discover the local administrator password on a critical Windows 2000 or Windows XP box isn't known. As a result, printers can't be installed, users can't logon (they don't have local user accounts), and critical software can't be installed.

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita have us all thinking about disaster recovery scenarios. Now might be a good time to update your organization's plan -- and to get it approved by senior management while the TV images of a real disaster are fresh in their minds.

Will

Article - Configure IT: Design the best security topology for your firewall

2005-09-13T12:12:00.000-04:00

Configure IT: Design the best security topology for your firewall

Published: 2/24/05
by Steven Warren MCSE, MCDBA, Net+ | More from Steven Warren MCSE, MCDBA, Net+ | Published: 2/24/05

With network security becoming such a hot topic, you may have come under the microscope about your firewall and network security configuration. You may have even been assigned to implement or reassess a firewall design. In either case, you need to be familiar with the most common firewall configurations and how they can increase security. In this article, I will introduce you to some common firewall configurations and some best practices for designing a secure network topology. I have also put together a free download that includes Visio diagrams of all the topology examples used in this article.

For the full article, please go to http://techrepublic.com.com/5102-1035-1039779.html.

USB connectors

2005-09-12T09:43:00.000-04:00

Last week, Liz was looking for a USB cable to connect a new printer. I was pretty sure what type of cable she needed, but I asked her to check what kind of connector was on the printer. This led to a lengthy discussion about what each common kind of USB connector looks like. It is said that one picture is worth 1K words (2K bytes?) so I put together this graphic which illustrates the most common kinds of USB connectors.

Will

Helpful Resource List

2005-08-31T00:11:00.000-04:00

At tonight's executive board meeting, some of us were talking about useful resources for computer parts, components, cables, boards, etc.

The following is a list which I put together about two years ago. I believe that most of these vendors are still doing business but I have not verified all of them. Please note that this is my own list of useful suppliers and in not anything officially endorsed by BNUG.

I am sure that there are many, many more -- and would appreciate folks appending comments with proposed additions to this list.

Dalco Electronics

Accessories, Bulk Cable, Cables, Cable Adapters, Cameras, Computer Cases, Computer Systems, Connectors, CPUs, Drives, Drive Controllers, Input Devices, I/O Cards, Media, Memory Modules, Modems, Monitors, Motherboards, Multimedia, Networking, Network Hardware, Power Protection, Power Supplies, Printers, Printer Supplies, Scanners, Sharing Switches, Software, Sound Products, Telephone Products, Testers, Tools, USB, Video Cards.

(If you run a data center or maintain a network, this is a place to keep book-marked in your web browser.)

http://www.dalco.com
425 South Pioneer Blvd.
PO Box 550
Springboro, OH 45066
800.489.0075

Computer Geeks

Cables, Cases, Power Supplies, CD-R/CD-RW Drives, CD-ROM Drives, Consumer Electronics, Controllers, Cooling Fans, CPU's, Digital Cameras, DVD Drives, Hard Disk Drives, Joysticks, Keyboards/Mice, Media, Memory (RAM), Modems, Monitors, Motherboards, MP3 Gear, Multimedia Kits, Networking, Notebooks/PDAs, Power Protection (UPS), Printers, Removable Storage, Scanners, Software, Sound Cards, Speakers, Microphones, Systems/Servers, Video Cards.

(These folks set a standard of coolness for a computer-related vendor. You'll find everything here from neon-lighted plexiglass computer cases to ultra-high-caffeine soft drinks for video gamers and over-stressed late-night programmers.)

http://www.compgeeks.com
1890 Ord Way
Oceanside, CA 92056
760.726.7700

Cyberguys

Cables & Adapters, Cases & Components, Cleaning Products, Consumables, CPU Coolers, Desk Accessories, Digital/Multimedia, Hard Drives & Accessories, Hardware, Educational Products, I/O & Video Cards, Input Devices & Accessories, Keyboards, Media, Mobile/PDA Products, Mother Boards, Memory, Networking, Patch Cables, Rack Products, Switchboxes & Hubs, Test Equipment, Tools, UPS/Surge Protection, USB Products.

(This outfit also sends out a paper catalog which is fun to leaf through -- for everything from purple Cat5 patch cords to uber-geek gadgets.)

http://www.cyberguys.com
11345 Sunrise Park Drive
Rancho Cordova, CA 95742
800.892.1010

P-Link Computers

Rack Mount Chassis, Aluminum IPC, Aluminum Cases, Medium Tower Cases, Full Tower Server Cases, Accessories, Power Supplies, Cabinets, Enclosed Racks, Rack Mount Network Patch Panels.

(Impress your friends by disguising that old 486 machine as a rack-mounted server!)

http://www.plinkusa.net
1142 S. Diamond Bar Blvd. - #198
Diamond Bar, CA 91765
206.339.2605

9th Tee Enterprises

Keystone Jacks, RJ45 Plugs, Patch Cables, Heat Shrink Tubing, Tools, Network Cable Testers, Crimpers, Cable Strippers, Punch-Down Tools, Wall Plates, Surface Mount Jacks, Coaxial Connectors, BNC, RJ-ll, 110- and 66-blocks, Other Electronics.

(This is an odd little venture which is a great source for network wiring devices and tools. They stock the most commonly used items at great prices and with fast service.)

http://www.9thtee.com
2950 9th Tee Drive
Newton, NC 28658
828.322.1100

Building 13

Tested used and manufacturers' surplus computer parts including RAID Arrays, Audio, Batteries, Brackets, Cables, CD-ROMS, CPUs, Disk Drives, DVD Drives, Fans, Floppy Drives, Motherboards, Keyboards, Mice, Memory, Monitors, Networking, Power Supplies, Printers, Tape Drives, Video Cards. Specializes in Sun Microsystems products.

(This is where great old hardware goes on its way to a continued useful life.)

http://www.building13.com
753 Forest Street
Marlborough, MA 01752
508.804.0539

Mouser Electronics

Semiconductors, ICs, LEDs, LCDs, Capacitors, Resistors, Inductors, Transformers, Potentiometers, Connectors, Relays, Switches, Power Supplies, Converters, Test Equipment.

(These folks mail out a phonebook-sized catalog four times each year! They are primarily an industrial source but will handle small orders for individuals.)

Mouser Electronics
1000 North Main Street
Mansfield, TX 76063-1514
http://www.mouser.com
800.346.6873

Thinkstuff

Cables, Adapters/Converters, Hardware, Media, Software, Mice, Computer Systems, USB, Switchboxes, Input/Output, CPU/Case/Fans, Inkjet Cartridges, Custom Cables, Networking Accessories.

(This company seems to come and go. They used to be regulars at the local computer shows and flea markets with lots of good stuff at low prices. I have not heard much from them lately and do not know the status of their business.)

http://www.thinkstuff.com
1191 Hooksett Road
Hooksett, NH 03431
603.626.0332

Cables N Mor, Inc

Bulk Cable, Cables, Cable Adapters, Cable Connectors, Switches -- and more.

(The web site has excellent diagrams of cables and connectors.)

http://www.cablesnmor.com
22650 Executive Dr.
Ste. 122
Sterling, VA 20166
(703) 925-9530
Fax (703) 925-9231

PCs For Everyone

Accessories, Bulk Cable, Cables, Cable Adapters, Computer Cases, Computer Systems, Connectors, CPUs, Drives, Drive Controllers, Input Devices, I/O Cards, Media, Memory Modules, Modems, Monitors, Motherboards, Multimedia, Networking, Network Hardware, Power Protection, Power Supplies, Printers, Printer Supplies, Scanners, Sharing Switches, Software, Sound Products, USB, Video Cards.

(Maybe it's the location in East Cambridge not too far from M.I.T., this place is geared to customers who want technically knowledgeable sales staff who love what they do. If you want to buy an entire PC system assembled to your specific needs or just want a particular board, drive or other component, this is one of the best places to go in the Boston metro area. Not always the least expensive, but always good quality and no B.S.)

http://www.PCsForEveryone.com
24 Charles Street
Cambridge, MA 02141
617-395-7200
Fax: 617-868-4450

You-Do-It Electronics Center

Described as "Radio Shack on steroids", YDI's second floor is devoted to consumer electronics and entertainment products. But it's the first floor which has all manner of electronic components, made-up and bulk cable, connectors, industrial quality tools, telephone and network wiring devices, UPS systems and replacement UPS batteries, test equipment, audio and RF equipment and components, etc.

(If you haven't been to Y.D.I., you must be living somewhere other than New England. Need a DB-25 connector, a particular IC chip, a 1000-foot spool of RG-8/U coax, or a marine radio for your boat? This is the place to go.)

http://www.youdoitelectronics.com/
40 Franklin Street
Needham, MA 02494
781-449-1005 or
Fax: 781-449-1009

Also, here are two online sources of essential computer hardware information. When you need to know how many heads, tracks and cylinders for a particular disk drive or the type of memory needed for any given motherboard, these two places may be of help:

PC Guide
http://www.PCGuide.com

Tom's Hardware
http://www.TomsHardware.com

[This list was last updated on 6-15-03]

RSS feed for Microsoft security updates

2005-08-20T00:04:00.000-04:00

Microsoft is now posting security advisories via RSS.

Microsoft RSS Feed

RJ-45 connectors

2005-07-28T22:39:00.000-04:00

When Ben moved into his first off-campus apartment in Colorado, he wanted to set up a small ethernet network by running cable between the various rooms and a shared Lynksys NAT router. He began this project by emailing me to request a concise explaination of the color codes of Cat5 cable and the proper sequence for making up RJ-45 connectors. In response, I put together the above illustration. It's a useful reference to keep around. (I now keep a printed copy folded up in the tool box where I keep my crimping tool and RJ-45 connectors.)

Comcast - FREE Mcafee Security Downloads

2005-07-27T13:51:00.000-04:00

Comcast subscibers!

Included at no additional cost with your Comcast High-Speed Internet Service!

Link to Comcast sponsored Mcafee Security Downloads

Intel/AMD Processor Guide

2005-06-15T11:41:00.000-04:00

At last night's meeting, there was a brief discussion of processor families and roadmaps - spurred by Apple's switch to Intel CPUs. I found two reference tables that can be used to see what the various Intel and AMD x86 processors offer as far as features, process size, clock speed, and so on.

The first and most exhaustive of these is at Tech Report - it hits virtually every Intel and AMD processor over the last several years. The second is at The Inquirer, and simply is a reference to the current Intel processor line.

Both provide useful data you can draw from in evaluating platforms.

Windows XP Media Center Edition - reviewed

2005-04-30T23:48:00.000-04:00

Recently, I decided to build myself a media center PC. I already own an early TiVo Series 2 machine (unfortunately it predates USB 2.0, so I'm stuck with USB 1.1 for my network adapter), and one of my goals was to be able to get video content off the TiVo with the TiVoToGo option. I also wanted to do some gaming, and I was hoping to have a reasonably flexible machine - I try and only keep one Intel-based client computer in the house at any one time.

So I solved the costliest part (the PC itself) by recycling a Dell Dimension 4600 that I'd originally purchased as a "guerilla" server for my business. It had since been replaced with a low-end Proliant, so it was surplus. The specs on the Dell were a 2.8 GHz Pentium 4 (with Hyperthreading), 1 GB of PC3200 RAM (in 2 banks of 512 MB), a DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive, and a low-end nVidia card. The 4800 has support for either SATA or ATA-133 hard drives, with both controllers built-in. Mine had a 120 GB SATA drive as shipped. In order to make this a good media computer, I made some basic changes. First, I replaced the video card with an ATI Radeon 9600XT - not as slick as the 9800 series but about $200 cheaper. I replaced the hard drive with a 250GB ATA-133 Maxtor that I'd bought for $99 back at CompUSA when they had their Thanksgiving sale. And I added both a 4-port FireWire card (recycled from an older computer of mine) and a Sony dual-layer DVD-RW drive. Finally, it was time to pick a TV tuner. After some research I decided to start out by trying a Hauppauge WinPVR 500 card - the only inexpensive tuner I could find with both dual tuner capability and Windows XP MCE 2005 certification. Finally the project was ready to begin.

Except it wasn't. I ordered the card in early January - but it was backordered. I finally got it in late March, (!) and started building the box. I'd already run the MCE install back when I first ordered the hardware, so since I'd never bothered installing an Ethernet driver for the Dell or activating XP, I was forced to phone in my activation. Grumble.

Once that was done, installation of the card drivers went just fine. The radio worked immediately, and MCE immediately saw the card and allowed me to install it. There was one catch, though.

Windows XP MCE does not include the necessary MPEG-2 codec, and the version of the Hauppauge card for MCE doesn't include one, either. I found this out when I tried to actually display video, and was greeted by an error message. My initial research indicated that I'd need to buy one separately. I was bitter. Then I realized that the ATI Radeon had included a software DVD player - since that uses MPEG-2, I figured I could try installing it, even though it wasn't listed as a supported MCE-compatible codec.

Eureka! I had video. Sound was not an issue at all, so now I had a working dual-tuner (analog) MCE system. So to cap it off, I installed TiVo Desktop, and have been taking advantage of the huge hard drive on the PC to archive TiVo content, unclogging the logjam of programs I'd saved on it. My final major project with this is to prepare for DVD archiving of TiVo content. Thanks to TiVo's unnecessary DRM, I can only use the Sonic DVD recording studio software (at $50) for official DVD burning capability. This is even though I have the free Nero DVD authoring software that came with my Sony drive. I also have a fleet of Macs available for use (an iMac G4, a PowerBook, and an iMac G5), all of which include iDVD authoring software. And I have Final Cut Pro HD on the iMac G5 for editing my captures. So the project I'm working on now is to simplify the process of stripping off the DRM from the TiVo files, so I can transfer them to the Mac for editing and burning. I'm avoiding the Sonic software on moral grounds - since I'd already paid $50 to get the TiVo networking feature before they made it a free standard add-on, I'm just not willing to blow another $50.

The MCE-recorded material, ironically, has no encumberances attached, so this isn't an issue when I record with MCE.

Is this a perfect media machine? Not really. I still need to buy a remote control (available for about $30 from Newegg, I've just been too lazy), and display is confined to my 17" Dell DVI LCD that I picked up a few months ago. The system still sits in my home "nerd room" - as a full-function PC it's way too bulky to take downstairs and plug into our HD set. But as a hybrid "speedy PC" for gaming and media usage, it's pretty nice. The Dell is a solid base box, that's also reasonably quiet for typical use.

After a while with this, I think I have an idea of what my "dream machine" for home media would look like. First of all, it would probably be a Mac. Why? Simple. MacOS is solid, stable, and reliable, witout most of the security risks inherent to Windows. But more importantly, Apple hardware is typically cooler and quieter, with a lower power budget, than comparable Intel-based hardware (including most SFF systems - and Mini-ITX systems tend to have little horsepower). With hardware-based decoding, the combination of a Mac mini and a Firewire-based Elgato EyeTV (or maybe a Plextor ConvertX) can do virtually everything the MCE boxes can do, in a form factor well-suited for the TV stand. I'd give up the ability to use multiple tuners, but I'd save power and heat.

It's a tough call. I'm fairly happy with MCE overall (and a Windows PC is the only way I can use TiVoToGo), but this system will never migrate to the living room. Had I bought a brand-new MCE-optimized PC, it might fit that bill a little better, but from what I've seen of them so far the Windows PC and the living room are not a great match yet. The move to lower-power Pentium 4 chips that Intel is pushing may help with the next generation of MCE systems, but I don't think it's there today.

Reminder about 4/12 meeting

2005-04-11T09:13:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow's meeting will be in the "Blue Room" at Shaw Hall on the Mount Ida campus. It's pretty close to the old meeting location at the New England Institute building - see the BNUG website for more information and directions.

Next month we will begin meeting at our new meeting location at the main auditorium.

Novell Open Enterprise Server

2005-03-24T10:36:00.000-05:00

Last week, I went to a class for Novell Partners on Open Enterprise Server - the transitional NetWare 6.5 that's based on SuSE with all the NetWare services ported over. I was duly impressed - the released product fits right into the typical NetWare shop - it can be managed as just another server in the tree and even ports over the NWCONSOLE so users can have the familiar CLI available. For ConsoleOne users, that's missing, but otherwise it's pretty much the same old. The base file system is now EXT-based, but it's transparent. And since it's Linux under the hood, you can now run all your Linux application processes on it instead of relying on NLM's.

Combined with the current NLD 9 (and the just-announced-at-Brainshare NLD 10), Novell is making a strong case for Linux throughout the enterprise, as well as finally providing an attractive migration path for the legacy NetWare users besides Windows 2003. The tough part will be getting the last of the NetWare 3.x users to move up - there's still a lot of them out there (like my old company), and nobody's really doing a great job of luring them.

More about location

2005-03-17T10:51:00.000-05:00

As mentioned in the previous post, we will be moving to the auditorium for future meetings - beginning in May. Our April meeting, however, may be held at a different on-campus location. If that is the case, it will likely be the "Blue Room" in Shaw Hall, where we have held some meetings in the past. When we have confirmation, the info will be posted here, on the BNUG website, and in the reminder e-mail we send out before the meetings.

Meeting Location Change

2005-03-07T12:14:00.000-05:00

As of right now, we expect our next several meetings to be held in the auditorium at Mount Ida's student center, instead of the usual meeting room at the Institute. The student center is the large building directly in front of you when you drive past the guard shack - park in the lot on your left. Any other changes will be posted on the regular BNUG website - please check the site for details.

Welcome All!

2005-02-24T21:41:00.000-05:00

This is the first post on The LANtern Online, the resurrected newsletter of the Greater Boston Network Users Group (also known as BNUG). BNUG was founded in December 1986, originally as a spinoff of the late, lamented Boston Computer Society. We're affiliated with NUI (NetWare Users International), and a 501c(3) nonprofit educational group. We hold our general meetings on the second Tuesday of each month at Mount Ida College in Newton, MA, and we hold executive board meetings at Mount Ida (or occasionally other places) on the fourth Tuesday. Check our website for any updates or changes.

What's the purpose of this blog? Well, we generate a lot of technical content here. And we've got a lot of tips and advice to share with folks. Rather than going back to publishing a dead-tree edition of our newsletter, we're going to start running it as a blog instead - all the members of our executive board will have publishing access to it and I, Josh Turiel (former BNUG president and long-time board member) will do most of the editing to start things out. We'll get most of the board members to contribute little bio pieces soon so you get an idea of who we are, and we'll start posting tech articles as soon as we get them ready. Enjoy!