Pats Computer Services

My "errata" for the Complete Guide to Ubuntu on PC Pro

2011-03-19T21:11:00.001-05:00

This is my first post (pre-series) on the Complete Guide to Ubuntu. I'm doing this one immediately after the original announcement, because I wanted to put out my errata for their article (or my caveats, if you will).

I'll take it item by item in the order that I found them (including in the comments section on each sub-article).

1. In the case of Apple's products, they make it almost necessary to use iTunes to update the product. And they don't provide a version for Linux. So, you may find it difficult to use Apple products with Ubuntu. However it's not impossible.

Your options in this situation are install iTunes through Wine, install a Virtual Machine with Windows and install iTunes in that, or check out this article on the Ubuntu Documentation site (and it's referenced articles for newer products).

2. In the how to install Ubuntu article, they discuss 32-bit vs. 64-bit versions. One minor point that they fail to mention is that if your CPU is a 32-bit processor (most older computers up to about 2008 or so), then you only have one option. Also, you'll possibly see three options for iso files "x86" (32-bit), "amd64" (most Intel and AMD 64-bit processors), and "ia64" (Itanium processors only). So, unless you're using an Intel Itanium processor, you want the amd64 or x86 version.

3. Printers.... Some manufacturers have drivers for Linux (HP is one), and some printers can be used with CUPS and GhostPrint (foomatic). However there are printers which absolutely will not work with Linux (can we say "Lexmark"?). In those cases, if it's a network printer, you should still be able to use them. However if they're connected to your Windows computer (or you don't have access to a Windows Computer), your options are limited.

In my case, I do one of two things with my Lexmark printer. I either save the item that I need to print to a network location (or a folder that is accessible by my Windows computer) and print it directly from my Windows PC, or I fire up a virtual machine with Windows running, and print it from there. I am planning to upgrade though to either a network printer, or one that's compatible with Linux.

4. If your data is on a network, you can use Samba (which is installed automatically) to access it from your Ubuntu computers. You can even set your computer to automatically mount the folders when you boot up. I'll show you how to do this in a future article.

5. Under the Update Ubuntu section, they warn that it can take a long time and cripple your system. I personally haven't experienced this-- even when running on a laptop purchased in 2007 or a homebuilt computer from 2003.

And in my experience, the only time I've had a large number of updates was the first update after the installation. Other than that, most of the updates were fairly quick (even on a 1.5 Mbit DSL connection). This would be true with Windows as well though.

6. In the Installing Software article, he touches on the Command Line. It's not as scary as people think. There are five or six main commands that you'd need, if you were installing/updating from a repository using the command line. These are:

sudo apt-add-repository repositoryname This is how you add a repository to your list.
sudo apt-cache search package-or-keyword This searches for the package, so you know what to install. You don't need to use sudo, but I prefer to.
sudo apt-get update Updates all of your repositories with the latest package information.
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade Applies any upgrades that are available to your packages.
sudo apt-get install packagename Installs the package(s) that you specify.

And one main command if you're installing from a .deb file dpkg -i filename.deb

6. This goes in both the installing applications and the filesystem articles. If you're installing from a .bin or .tar file (and possibly a .deb file), you can install it for yourself only by not using sudo. However, if it is something that is installed for "All Users", you must use sudo to install it. This is because without sudo, it can't be installed in directories that are accessible by other users.

Finally, it should be noted that Folders (Windows) and directories are synonymous. They are essentially the same thing, but it's semantics which drive what term you'll use. Linux advocates and support prefer directories, while Windows users/support will most likely refer to folders.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

A Complete Guide to Ubuntu

2011-03-19T20:11:00.001-05:00

This series of posts will be based on the articles at PC Pro's site. They offer a complete guide to Ubuntu, which is pretty good (although there are a couple of things that I would have stated differently). The series will start within the next week or so (no later than April 1), which should allow me enough time to do some research about what others are writing.

For now, you can read the original series of articles at http://www.pcpro.co.uk/features/366052/ubuntu-a-complete-guide

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

An Update on Tracks

2011-02-01T22:28:00.001-06:00

Well, I got Tracks working for the most part. The only limitation that I have is that I can't send tasks via email/sms to it (because I don't have a MX Record for my server). It turned out that I was sending my tasks on a daily basis--but they were going into my Spam "label" on gmail (and not being dowloaded in Thunderbird at all).

Something interesting that I discovered while troubleshooting this. If you send an email from a "residential" or dynamic IP to Yahoo and Hotmail, they both respond that they don't accept emails from those types of addresses. Ironically enough, when I checked my Yahoo account, lo and behold, my test email was in my Spam folder. I marked it as "not spam" so only time will tell, whether that means that Yahoo will accept them or not. Hotmail/Live/MSN, however did not put the email in my bulk folder.

What this means for others is, if you're on a dynamic IP (residential customers for example) then you need to either get a static IP address from your ISP, or use an email address OTHER than MSN/Hotmail/Live (and possibly Yahoo). Gmail is a good choice, since it does send the messages to your Spam folder (until you mark them as not spam at least).

One thing that would make Tracks perfect is if the "Export to" feature produced something that could be imported into Google's Calendar (or even Thunderbird's calendar). When I exported everything to an iCal, it failed to import. I'll keep working on it though--but knowing that I receive my daily email does help.

In the future, I'll post about how my time management is working out. As I mentioned before, I think that a combination of Tracks + Google Calendar or Tracks + FranklinCovey will ultimately be the solution.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Time Management and GetOnTracks

2011-01-29T22:55:00.001-06:00

I've set up a "Tracks" server (http://www.getontracks.org for the system and http://www.bitnami.org for the actual virtual machine with the system pre-configured) in order to try and organize my time better. So far, it seems to be alright--except for the fact that the mail capabilities are not set up by default.

What I ended up doing was finding some back issues of FullCircle Magazine at their site (specifically Issues 9 through 16), and using those to configure the server for mail. I should know around 5:00 tomorrow morning, if it worked or not (since I have a cron job set up to mail my tasks to me every morning).

The nice thing is, the server is either Ubuntu-based or OpenSUSE-based. So, for me, it's a familiar setup (choosing the Ubuntu one) and for people who's jobs require them to run SUSE or another rpm-based system (like RedHat), it's familiar to them. The first thing I did was apt-get update and apt-get dist-upgrade, to get the latest updates from Canonical.

Next, I installed Xfce (xubuntu desktop), so I could administrate it through a web browser. I installed webmin (http://www.webmin.com) which is a sourceforge project that allows you to administer a variety of servers (Tracks isn't one of them, unfortunately) from a web browser.

So, how is Tracks?

Overall it's a nice application. One annoyance that I found was that if you add a category (context), unless you refresh the page, everything that you add to the context results in a prompt about Adding the context. After you refresh your list, it's fine. I would love to see appointments be included in a future release--but I understand that this is based on the GTD system (Getting Things Done), which is more loose than something like Franklin Covey's system.

Ultimately I think a combination of this + Google's Calendar would work (or something which integrates both systems into one). I would much prefer that Franklin Covey would release an updated version of their PlanPlus software (one that works with WINE or actually has a Linux version), but I don't see this happening for two reasons: 1) They're putting their eggs into the "Online" basket and 2) One of their developers in the past is SCO (yes, THAT SCO).

The nice thing about Tracks is this: If I were a coder (or knew one well enough), I can create the appointment function. And I can publish it as either an addon or commit it to the actual system itself. People can choose whether or not they want to use the feature.

As I play around with Tracks more (and tweak my server), I'll post more about it. If you're a Windows/Mac user, you can still use Tracks. In fact for Windows, it has Outlook Integration to help you. And they are/were working on Thunderbird integration as well.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Moving to Linux-- Ways to make the transition Easier (Part 2 of 2)

2011-01-27T19:50:00.001-06:00

In Part 1, I started to describe the steps to ease the transition from Windows to Linux. This is all based on an article by Katherine Noyes at PC World (links are in Part 1). Now I will continue with the next three steps.

4. Give the end-user a way out. What this means is in the beginning, I would suggest a dual-boot setup. Make sure that the GRUB Screen shows up for at least 10 seconds. DO NOT wipe out any restore images on the drive. This way, if your end-user wants to go back to Windows, they can (either by booting it, or by restoring their computer to the factory settings).

Encourage the end-user to use Linux as much as possible. Tell them if they have issues, they can always boot to the more familiar (Windows), and email you (or call/IM/whatever) with their question. But make sure they know that they are better off with the Linux side. If you choose to do this, then I would suggest that on "Patch Tuesday", the end-user boots into Windows, and leaves it overnight. That way they aren't in a situation where they boot to Windows and have a huge number of updates waiting for them (or a system that is compromised immediately).

***This applies the "Remove the Pressure" section from Ms. Noyes article, to Home Users. While you can still put a second computer in the area, it may not be feasible (depending on your situation). For example, my mother lives about 5 hours away. So, I would only be there for a short time. And she uses dialup, so it's not like she can boot any computer and just go.

Plus the dual-boot option is not as big of an issue for Home Users as it would be for corporate users.***

5. Set up for Success. Most of the tips in this section have been mentioned in other sections (and/or Ms. Noyes articles). Essentially this falls into some sub-steps.

Make sure you have the apps that the user needs. This is similar to the "Begin With Key Apps" section. You want to make sure your end-user can do most everything that they could do before.

Also you may want to make sure the apps are easy to find. Either place shortcuts on the desktop, or make sure you have clear instructions in the cheat sheet.

Set up the administrative tasks so the user doesn't need to worry about them. Unless your end-user is pretty computer-savvy, they probably don't like having to deal with updates and other administrative tasks. By default Linux will apply security updates automatically. You should try to set it up to update everything automatically, so the end-user doesn't have to worry.

You may want to put a dialog box up (or a terminal screen) to show the end-user what's happening. This way, they don't inadvertently shut the computer down (or the Internet connection down) while the updates are happening.

Set up password managers, keys, email clients, and other necessary things. If the end-user's email can be read from a client (Evolution, KMail, Thunderbird, etc) then set these up for them. You may want to generate gpg keys for their computer (and email accounts), along with RSA Keys. Set up their password manager, so they can store all of their needed passwords (for websites and other things like their wireless router)--with the passwords, if possible.

If you plan on having the end-user ask questions on support forums, set them up with accounts on the forums. Configure their settings for minimal emails (except for replies to their posts) and show them how to get to the forums and find information/ask the questions. This may also lower the amount of support time you have to spend.

This list is by no means complete. Only you, and the end-user, will know what all needs to be set up ahead of time. The important thing is to show them how to do these things (so they can update passwords and keys or configure things in the future).

6. Give the user a Cheat Sheet. Similar to the plan from Ms. Noyes' article, you should create a cheat sheet for the end-user. Make sure it's clear, and easy to follow. If the sheet includes commands or links, I would recommend placing a copy on their desktop--as well as printing it out. This way the user won't make a mistake when typing the commands or going to the site.

In the future, I plan on making a sample cheat sheet for people to use. It will only be a template, and should be configured for their needs.

I encourage your comments--especially other points that should be considered.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Moving to Linux-- Ways to make the transition easier. (Part 1 of 2)

2011-01-27T19:27:00.001-06:00

This is based on Katherine Noyes article called "Switching to Desktop Linux? 6 Ways to Ease the Migration" located here.

Ms. Noyes does an excellent job of explaining how to ease the transition, if you're in a corporate environment. But, what if the "users" are your family, or friends? How can you ease that transition? Most of the steps are similar (and you can probably use her article as the guide). I'll try to put the steps in terms of home users though. (And probably in the future, I'll be attempting this with my 75 year-old mother).

Here are the Steps:

1. Determine what the user's needs are. If your end user is a gamer, then you probably won't be successful in switching them (or at least all of their computers) to Linux. While there are improvements in the gaming front on Linux, it still has a long ways to go.

However, if your end-user mainly surfs the Internet, and checks their email (or basic finances), your switch will be a lot easier. They can surf with virtually any operating system. But, they will have to accept the change.

2. Choose the right distribution. Like Ms. Noyes article, this is an important step. Unless you will be available to help the end-user on a near-constant basis, you need to find a distribution that will be easy to use, easy to learn, and as similar to Windows as possible.

Ubuntu and Kubuntu are probably the most common choices, however Fedora or Linux Mint (which is based on Ubuntu) would possibly work too. The most important thing is to set it up to do most of the administration stuff in the background (updates and things like that). You could probably create (or download) a script that will perform all needed updates whenever an Internet connection is detected, and set it as a cronjob.

3. Choose the right desktop. In the case of home users, the choice isn't so much which one to use (based on their experience), as it is to configure the desktop for them. Set up their commonly used icons (Internet, email, games, financing, etc) as shortcuts on the desktop. You could even go so far as to rename them to "Internet, Email, etc) to help out.

In Ms. Noyes' related article (located here), she describes KDE as more complicated. I would have to say that it's a YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary) situation. When I first started using Linux, I found KDE to be easier to adjust to. Mainly this was due to the fact that it's so similar to Windows. Currently, I use GNOME, but still think KDE would be easier.

I would avoid the XFCE and other alternative desktops--especially if the end-user isn't very computer savvy. This is because the extreme differences in some of them may turn the end-user off.

In Part 2, I will continue discussing the ways to make the transition to Linux easier.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Ubuntu changes direction on two fronts-- What it means to users.

2011-01-25T17:06:00.001-06:00

The big news in the past few weeks (within the Ubuntu Linux world) has been their decision to use LibreOffice instead of OpenOffice, and allowing Qt applications into the default installation of Ubuntu. But, what does this mean for you, the users?

Actually, it doesn't mean much. LibreOffice is a fork of OpenOffice. The main difference between the two is LibreOffice *may* have more support for Microsoft Office formats (.docx .xlsx. etc) than OpenOffice (because Novell was working with Microsoft on "interoperability" within the two suites). Otherwise it's the same applications. The difference, in reality, is that Oracle controls OpenOffice, and the Document Foundation controls LibreOffice (it's semantics, because of Oracle's attitudes towards Google and Open Source in general recently).

What people are overlooking is this minor thing. If you don't want LibreOffice installed on your computer (because of Novell's ties to Microsoft), then simply uninstall it and replace it with OpenOffice. It's not like you're forced to use the application. You have a choice.

Every operating system makes some applications as their defaults--and they have users who don't like the choices. Look at Windows 7. They removed Outlook Express/Windows Mail, in favor of Windows Live Mail Desktop. Most of their testers screamed about it, but they did it anyhow. It happens. Life goes on. You either find something else, work out a way to get the application you want installed, or use what they give you.

As for the inclusion of Qt apps in the default installation, it doesn't really mean anything to users. What it means is that you may see different "default" applications in the next version. It also means that if you find a "Kubuntu" application that you like, it *may* work more seemlessly with Ubuntu than it does now.

Qt is only an issue if you're a developer. About the extent of the effect on users is this: In the past, you would have to practically install the Kubuntu desktop in order to use some apps that were Qt-based. Now, depending on how the app is built, it may just install. The converse is true (meaning some Gnome/Ubuntu apps may work in Kubuntu, without having to install the entire GTK+ framework).

I've been using LibreOffice for a while now. While I'm pro-Open Source, and becoming less and less Pro-Microsoft, I like (and need) the interoperability with Office formats. Why? Because I'm a realist, and I know that at least in the US, Office is the main suite being used. So, EVERYONE has to bend to it (at least until people convince Office users to try something else).

Plus, my college requires papers to be in doc or docx formats.

Hope this sheds some light on a few changes, and hopefully it encourages people to try out Ubuntu, LibreOffice, and other applications (You can use LibreOffice on Windows and Mac as well).

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Your Lawyer May Be Using Linux, Shouldn't You?

2011-01-14T21:19:00.001-06:00

I just finished reading this article "Lawyers Can Leave Windows For Linux OS (Ubuntu)" and thought it would be good to post.

Essentially the author lists the reasons why lawyers could (and possibly should) switch to Linux--especially Ubuntu. They list the facts that older versions of WordPerfect (commonly used by law firms) work, the cost is non-existent (at least not the calculated cost of learning a new OS), and the need for antimalware is non-existent also. Then the author points out the various apps that are available to you.

Ubuntu is the preferred operating system, mainly because of it's use of Sudo ("su" do) which makes logging out of your basic user and into the root account almost unnecessary. This is a good point, since it's a bad idea to allow users to log in as root (mainly because they'll stay logged in as root).

So, if Linux is good enough for your lawyer, then it's definitely good enough for you. All of the benefits that are presented to the lawyers are applicable to you (with the possible exception of the case management benefits). And because you'll be using it for more than just law-related items, there are more benefits to you.

So, you can check out Ubuntu at http://www.ubuntu.com or it's alternative versions Kubuntu, Edubuntu (for students), or Mythbuntu (Media Center alternative). There are others, but these are the main versions.

Have a great weekend:)
Patrick.

Why Banshee May NOT Put Ubuntu, Canonical At Risk!

2011-01-12T20:27:00.001-06:00

This post is a reply to the post located here. The author discusses how the use of Mono and C# will prove to be the downfall of Linux (and specifically Canonical and Ubuntu), because Microsoft will attack it with patents. Like most of the FUD stories now, they bring up the fact that Novell is selling 882 patents (that we still don't know specifics about) to a Microsoft/Oracle/Apple consortium.

Now I will agree with the author that the patent deal MAY be a bad thing. And that using technologies where you have limited control over them is a bad idea. But there are some things that the author overlooks (or chooses not to mention because it doesn't play well into any FUD campaigns).

Things like:

1. Novell (and Attachmate through their purchase) are producers of Open Source software. They aren't going to do anything to cut their own throats. Now it can be argued that they will have licenses to the patents. But, if everyone else gets sued, no one will buy their products either--license or not.

2. Canonical is not blind. They have to be researching everything. So, if they even think there's a hint of a potential patent issue, it's in their best interests as a company to avoid the issue. If they're using Banshee, it's because they don't feel it's an issue.

3. If a patent issue comes up, then Canonical will switch their default music player (or whatever application) to an open system. Simple enough. They can even put out an update which will make this retroactive to previous versions.

When the update is pushed out, they can make it something the end user can choose to do or not. (Along with this, they'll have to issue a warning which essentially states that there are patent issues with Banshee (or whatever application) and the end-user is on their own if they continue to use it).

If there's such a concern about the use of Mono, then the author (and other dissenters) would do more good by pushing the applications' developers to use a more open technology--NOT by slamming companies or distributions for their choices.

Or even better, FORK the application into a technology that isn't encumbered by potential patent issues. That's the beauty of Open Source. If you don't like it, you can either change it, or find someone who will.

As for the Novell patents, UNTIL we know what patents are being sold, and UNTIL we know what effects they will have, we shouldn't judge or worry. After all, when we find out what patents are being sold, the developers will have time to work around them.

So, until we know for sure what impacts are coming, we shouldn't spread FUD of our own. After all, that just puts us at the same level as the companies who are using FUD to benefit themselves.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Some things to know about IPv6.

2011-01-12T07:34:00.001-06:00

Hi there.

I've posted about IPv6 before, and in some cases people are hearing more and more about it in the mainstream media. However, in most cases, you're not hearing anything (and probably not even aware of it). So, here are a few things that you should know about IPv6.

IPv4 and IPv6 are not compatible. What does this mean? It means that if your server/site only has access via IPv4 or via IPv6, then users who are not running both configurations may not be able to access it.

The changeover is not automatic. What this means is if you run the service, you either a) have to manually configure it for IPv6, or b) instruct your hosting provider (and/or Domain Registrar) to configure it to be accessible via IPv6. It won't happen automatically.

We're almost out of IPv4 addresses. What this means is that after this month, no more IPv4 addresses will be available for providers or corporations. While you may not notice anything, some things will be happening.

These are:

Entities who currently have IPv4 addresses will have to make due with what they have.

If you're a new subscriber to an ISP, you may get an IPv4 address, both an IPv4 and IPv6 address, or just an IPv6 address. If you only get an IPv6 address, then a lot of sites that you currently visit will not work.

Not a lot of sites are making the effort to configure IPv6 yet.

Because IPv6 is new, the security issues are not completely known. And most consumer routers/modems are not capable of working with IPv6 (or securing it). As time goes on and more people are making the switch, you will see more information in plain language about securing your networks.

Your computer won't automatically switch to IPv6. This is kind of misleading. I say that, because if your modem provides you with an IPv6 address, and your operating system has IPv6 installed, then it will automatically get one. However, if your Operating System doesn't have IPv6 installed, you will have to do that.

You can just set up IPv6 and surf. Again, this is misleading. Yes, you can Just set up IPv6 and surf. However, there are multiple steps needed (unless your ISP provides you with an IPv6 address). You have to find an IPv6 tunnel service (http://www.tunnelbroker.net http://www.gogo6.net http://www.sixXs.net are a few) and sign up for their service. Then you have to configure your computer (or install their tools) to use their service as your tunnel. Finally, you need to test things out by going to sites like http://www.whatismyipv6.net **I would try this one first, as it will show you an IPv4 or IPv6 address--depending on what it detects** http://ipv6.google.com http://www.v6.facebook.com or other IPv6 enabled sites.

Most importantly, if your favorite site doesn't have IPv6 capabilities, you need to pressure them to make the switch. I would imagine within the next six to nine months, that most major sites will start to switch. However, the onus is on YOU to make sure they know that it's needed.

I should note that some of the information from this came from a post on Planet Ubuntu. http://www.stgraber.org/2010/12/31/getting-ready-for-ipv6/ and http://www.omat.nl/2011/01/09/ipv6-approaching-fast/ (Planet KDE)

I'll have more information on the changeover as it arrives.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

A Slight Rant...

2010-12-23T23:41:00.001-06:00

Hey everyone,

It's been a while since I posted here, and I do apologize for that. I've been busy with other projects and haven't taken the time to prioritize--but I am doing that over the next couple of weeks (New Years Resolutions, anyone?)

There's been a lot of things happening in the IT world recently, and I'll touch on those in future posts.

This post is actually a slight rant which is aimed at the Open Source crowd. I say slight, because I'm an avid supporter and user of Open Source.

Here's the rant....

There are three groups of attitudes: Pro Microsoft, Pro Apple, and Pro Open Source/Linux. The Pro Microsoft group tends to slam anything Apple or Open Source related. The Pro Apple group tends to slam anything Microsoft related, and treat the Pro Open Source/Linux group as their little sibling. In a lot of sites, the Pro Open Source/Linux group slam everything Microsoft or Apple related.

This is the problem... In some places (for example the Ubuntu Code Of Conduct) you're supposed to treat everyone fairly and kindly. However, it seems like that doesn't apply when it comes to Microsoft or Apple (mainly Microsoft). People who use Microsoft or Apple products, and look at Open Source or Linux will see these attitudes as childish. That may turn them off to the virtues of it.

Now, some people may say "Well, we don't want them then." Or they'll say "It's their loss." The reality is that it's OUR loss. And, we do want them. We want them to have a choice. Whether they choose to stay with Microsoft, Apple, or closed source (proprietary); or they come over to Linux and Open Source, the CHOICE is what matters. Microsoft and Apple don't want users to make that choice--they want them to stay with their products and keep their profits up.

The short of this is that We (Open Source Advocates) need to be above the childish attitudes. We need to show the users why the choice is important, and why our preferred software/operating systems are better. But we need to do it professionally, so the users will give us a fair shake... After all, the Proprietary group uses childish tactics like FUD to keep users. We shouldn't sink to their level.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

A "Health Certificate" for the Internet? Hmmm.....

2010-10-09T12:58:00.001-05:00

http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_on_the_issues/archive/2010/10/05/the-need-for-global-collective-defense-on-the-internet.aspx

A few days ago, a Microsoft employee (in their Trustworthy Computing division) posted a blog entry discussing the need for a "health certificate" to allow computers on the Internet. In order to be considered "healthy" your computer must have all available updates (I'm assuming Security here), and updated antivirus, and an updated firewall. And be virus free.

On the surface it sounds good (and in some other levels also). But, there are some considerations that need to be made.

First, what if your operating system doesn't have (and isn't easily susceptible to) viruses? I'm looking at Mac OS, Linux, and other unix variants here. Will there be a provision that states only Windows computers require antivirus software? And if, at some point, the other OS'es find the need for antivirus software, will the provision be put in for them?

Secondly, the idea is that they will be completely blocked from the Internet. So, pray tell, how will they block the computer? Will they do it by MAC Address (the "Physical Address of the Network Card)? Or will they block it at the modem level? This presents two problems: If the computer has multiple NIC's (wired and wireless for example), they can still get on the Internet for a brief time. Also, how will the user get the needed updates to get their "health certificate"?

Thirdly, what exactly would the "health certificate" be? Will it be like a Digital Certificate? Will it be like the Windows Activation? How will they prevent people from forging their certificates or stealing others?

Fourth, how will this keep me from screwing up my facebook with those stupid lolzvideo viruses that are floating around? (I don't click those, but I know a lot of people who do) After all, no antivirus protects you from that. And I would imagine that for the average person, that is the biggest hassle. They don't realize the other dangers, because they don't play in the big park. They go to their email and surf facebook and youtube.

The Health Certificate is a good theory. If someone actually decides to implement it, it needs to be an independent party with NO interests in any operating system or security software. Because if you have an interest in a product that the health certificate affects, you're inherently going to shift the balance in favor of your interests. In other words, Microsoft has a good idea, but they shouldn't have anything to do with implementing it.

One telling thing about this is that between 1 and 10 million Windows PC's are involved with botnets. The number of Macs, Linux PC's/Servers, and other devices that run non-Windows code is closer to zero. Now that may change if virus creators figure out a way to hack through OS X or Linux. But the point is that right now, it's more than likely a Microsoft product that is causing the problems.

All of this being said, I think the health certificates are a decent idea. And after skimming through the actual white-paper on the subject, it raises some good points that aren't being covered in the media.

Personally I think that the "Health Certificates" should contain the following information:

1. All MAC Addresses in the computer (this should be the ONLY identifiable information)
2. Operating System information (Windows/Linux/OS/etc and version including build where appropriate).
3. A check to see if all required security updates are installed properly.
4. If the Operating System requires a firewall and antivirus, whether these are present, turned on, and updated completely.

The "Health Certificate" should be generated on the fly. This will ensure that the most current information is presented. Tools like Belarc Advisor already generate the information that I suggest (and could easily be incorporated into the Health Certificate program).

Let me know what you think of the Health Certificate ideas. Read the white-papers on the Microsoft site, and do a little research into the idea. Let me know what you'd like to see in one (if they're implemented).

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Linux is NOT Windows,

2010-10-08T23:00:00.001-05:00

http://linux.oneandoneis2.org/LNW.htm

I found a link to this site in a forum thread about "Why Linux is better than Windows", and after reading it decided to pass it on. There are a few things in the article that I don't necessarily agree with, but overall it's accurate.

For one, in his analogy of the Lego Car, he stopped short of a good point. The analogy is basically that the new person buys a box of Lego to build a car, because everyone said it was the best car. And the person is frustrated with the fact that they have to build the car, and that it falls apart. The author ends the analogy with the line "Old: Then why did you buy Lego?" In reality it should have had one more line after that, which is "New: Because EVERYONE says it's the best."

The point is this. People will say "Linux is better than Windows.", but they will not tell you that you have to put some effort into using it. They'll say that it's more secure, but overlook the fact that it's secure because you have to do things a certain way (sudo, or authentication, or su -) or they don't work right.

Another point that the author makes is that people who try Linux and switch back to Windows tend to say "You need to make it more like WIndows." or "You need to make it easier to use." He counters with it's not designed for everyone to use, it's designed for the people who created it to use. Or more accurately, The developers don't care if it's on YOUR desktop, as long as it works on THEIR desktop.

My counter to that is this: There needs to be a bare minimum standard for Linux (especially now days). Since the majority of the people using computers perform a few actions (surf the web, check their email, write letters or other documents, look at pictures, and listen to music), then at a minimum Linux (more specifically the shells like Gnome or KDE) should make that happen out of the box.

A thought is this: Make a tiered-installation. Have a place where the user can tell you more or less what they'll be using the computer for, and customize their installation to meet those requirements. Make sure to point out to the user that they can customize the operating system further after it's finished. This is just an attempt to get them up and running out-of-the-box.

They could even make it a two page tier. The first page is the one where they give a general use, and the second will include a list of applications (with their Windows counterparts listed), so the user can get those installed out-of-the-box also.

Yes, it will make the installation a little longer. Yes, it will require a little more coding and coordinating on the part of the developers. But, YES it will make Linux more ready for an out-of-box experience by the average (non-techie) users.

In short, Linux may or may not be better than Windows. But, it can definitely be made with the same capabilities, features, and productivity as Windows. And that, my friends, is more important.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Some Lessons to be Learned from Stuxnet

2010-10-05T10:24:00.001-05:00

There's a lot of talk going around about the Stuxnet worm, who may have created it, how it spread, and why. The reality is that it boils down to "human nature". It's human nature to be curious, which is probably what started the infection in the first place. The main theory is that someone dropped an infected USB thumb drive in a place where their "target" would find it. Curiosity about what was on the drive prompted the "target" to infect their computers. And so on and so on.

It's time to retrain human nature again. This could have been prevented if three simple rules had been in place (and followed).

Do not insert thumb drives in any company computer unless you either a) pulled it out of the shrink-wrap yourself or b) know the person who pulled it out of the shrink-wrap.

Do not insert thumb drives into your company computer that have been inserted into any NON-company computer (this includes your home computer)

Do not insert anything into a SCADA or other "non-Internet" or "special networked" computer that is not directly authorized by your company.

Now I realize that it's hard (if not impossible) to change human nature. And I realize that no Company Policy in the world will change human nature. Let me ask you this though: When is the last time that your company warned you about picking up USB Thumb Drives (or anything else like that) and putting them in company computers? Along that line, did they just say "Don't do it" or did they tell you about the risks?

It's time to rethink and retrain our human nature. After all regardless of who created Stuxnet, they counted on human nature to get the infection rolling. They had to get it inside of the target network, and most likely a USB Thumb Drive was the way to go. They didn't even have to get it near their target, because they knew the person who initially found the drive would infect their computers (and consequently any thumb drives that they inserted into those computers). And that's all it would take.

At the very least, if you can't stop Human Nature, then mitigate it. Either figure out a way to run the thumb drive in a sandbox, or run it on an operating system (like Mac OS or Linux) that isn't easily infected.

Also it should be noted that if the virus is implanted on the drive at the manufacturer's level, then it won't matter who unwrapped it from the packaging. But, that's a very rare situation (only a handful of cases have been made public).

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

An Update and a Little Confusion on LibreOffice

2010-09-30T14:29:00.000-05:00

Last evening, I received a reply from the LibreOffice team concerning the support of Office 2007 formats. They said that they are going to continue to support those formats, and to an extent the OOXML format as well. This is confusing since the article that I read on Groklaw said they don't consider OOXML as a standard, so they won't support it.

That being said, it's great that the team plans to support the Office formats. In the US, LibreOffice (or OpenOffice.org as it was known) is virtually unknown. In other parts of the world, it's more prevalent (possibly used more then Microsoft Office).

I have to say that I've been surprised though. I tutor for our local Community College, and one of my former students mentioned that he's using OpenOffice.org in place of Microsoft Office. He's not an IT major (and not even interested in computers), so I was pleasantly surprised to hear that he was using the suite.

I'll be blogging more about the new suite as time goes on. This weekend, I'm planning on downloading the source code and installing it. Also I'll be installing the beta for Windows on my Windows 7 boxes.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Announcing "LibreOffice"

2010-09-29T15:15:00.001-05:00

Today I wanted to discuss a press-release that was put out yesterday, which announced the beta of "LibreOffice." This is being sponsored by The Document Foundation, and in all honesty is a fork of the popular OpenOffice.org office suite.

The main difference between the two suites is that OpenOffice.org will allow you to use "non-free" (closed-source) addons. LibreOffice restricts the addons to "free" (read as GPL or open-source) only. Also they are not supporting the OOXML format (which is Microsoft's Open XML document format). Whether this means that they won't support the Office 2007 formats remains unclear (although I did send an email to them asking about this).

If you're on Windows, Mac, or Linux, you can download the beta at http://www.documentfoundation.org/download/ although it should be noted that the Linux beta is in .rpm form. This means that debian-based users (*buntu, Debian, Mint, and others) will have to either install from the source code, or use an rpm-deb conversion program like alien.

Also, since it's a beta and a fork, there may be things that will still say "OpenOffice.org" and the addons will still point to the OpenOffice.org addon site. I plan to give it a go in the next few days (on both Linux and Windows), just to see how it compares. Right now, it should be essentially the same thing as OpenOffice--it's the future that will be interesting.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Why Industrial Process Controllers shouldn't have any access to the Internet

2010-09-27T12:49:00.001-05:00

A Silent Attack, But Not a Subtle One

This is another article about the Stuxnet worm. It's becoming more apparent that the actual target was the Nuclear Program in Iran. However, the worm is spreading throughout the world affecting virtually any Siemens Industrial Controls.

This underlies a problem that plagues most manufacturing plants around the world: computers which are used to control processes that have access to the Internet. According to this article, it's estimated that industrial plants have about 90 days before hackers start using the worm (and the vulnerabilities that it targets). The first 30 to 45 days should be spent isolating the process control systems from the Internet (and from any Internet capable computers).

This will require them to reconfigure routers and switches and the computers themselves. Sort of creating a network inside of the network. In theory, the easiest way to do this is to create a subnet (and Virtual LAN) that is specifically used for the Process. At the router levels, create ACL's which deny any traffic between that subnet and the outside world. Then in the offices and control rooms, configure one set of computers to use that subnet, and another set for the regular plant's networks. The only exception to the ACL would be a server which is used for VPN access into the network.

For access outside of the plant, engineers and other authorized persons would have a laptop that VPN's into the subnet for the process OR the plant subnet--but not both at the same time. The security of this system can be maintained through a combination of means.

For instance, Microsoft created a networking system which refuses connections from devices that are not updated completely. This could be used to ensure that the laptop isn't infected (or potentially infected).

Secondly, as of right now, the Unix/Linux Operating Systems are virus free. So, the worms which are infecting Windows computers (and then the Process Control Systems via the network) will be rendered useless. ***Note this is a double-edged sword***

Finally, company policies which prohibit the use of their laptops for personal business (read as surfing the Web, playing videos and music, etc) and prohibit the use of Thumb Drives or other non-company approved devices on the Process Systems, would go a long ways towards slowing this. Not only do the Policies need to be in place, but they need TEETH. If an employee signs a paper which specifically states that they are personally liable for any damages resulting from violations of the policy, they're less likely to violate the policy.

I mentioned that the second means was a double-edged sword. This is because as of right now, there are virtually no viruses or malware aimed at the *nix Operating Systems (this includes Unix, Linux, Mac OS, and BSD variants). However if they are being used for Process Controls, you can bet that virus writers will start targeting those operating systems. So, the people in charge of securing them need to step up NOW to make sure that their tag-line of the "secure operating system" holds true.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

From the NYTimes: The Defenders of Free Software

2010-09-26T10:40:00.000-05:00

The Defenders Of Free Software (Subscription may be required but is free for accessing online articles)

This article is about one person who works for the GPL-Violations.org site in encouraging companies that use Open Source software to follow the licensing agreements.

I wanted to point it out for two reasons:

It discusses how deeply Open Source software really is becoming rooted into our society

It also discusses the fear that companies have of Open Source software developers coming after them for money

The reality is that the companies are basing their fear out of the tactics of the "Closed Source" companies--not the principles of Open Source. The developers and GPL-Violations.org are not trying to make a quick buck (although I would imagine that all of them would appreciate something in return for their efforts). They are trying to promote the use of Open Source (and trying to make sure that companies don't steal the code).
As was mentioned in the article, while a "Closed Source" company will send lawyers after the violator (at the very least they will start with a Cease-and-Desist Letter), the Open Source community will first try to get the violator to correct the issues. ONLY If the violator refuses (or fails) to correct the issue, will they resort to Cease-And-Desist Letters or lawyers.
Kind of a better system, don't you think?

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Trying out a new Blogging Software

2010-09-25T22:33:00.001-05:00

Since I switched to Ubuntu Linux, I had to make a decision about my blogging. Either I would have to open my Windows 7 VM every time I wanted to blog, or I had to find an application which will do it in Linux.

I tried "Blog Entry Poster", which is the client that I used for my "The Switch" post. I also tried BloGTK, which wouldn't open. However I upgraded to their 2.0 version, and am posting this in the application. It's definitely NOT Windows Live Writer. Hopefully it's a good alternative though. Time will tell.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

2010-09-25T22:03:00.000-05:00

The switch.

I made a change in things around the house last week. I decided to convert my Windows 7 computer into a virtual machine (through VMWare) and run Kubuntu Linux for the physical machine.

This was in part because Windows 7 kept acting up, and irritating me, and in part because I was taking a Computer Security course (and decided to give this a shot). It took about a week or so to get everything ironed out. The installation was quick and painless--however getting my vhd file to work in VMWare was a challenge in itself.

I'll be posting more about the conversion, including the addition of "Ubuntu" to my laptop now (alongside the Kubuntu installation that I did).

Have a great day:)

Patrick.

How the open source community could save your life | opensource.com

2010-08-21T05:00:00.001-05:00

How the open source community could save your life | opensource.com

This article makes some really valid points. After all look at how many drugs have been pulled from the market, years after they were introduced. And since most medical devices are basically micro-computers in themselves, you really should be concerned about how well they work.

It’s not a perfect solution (because there is no such thing). But, the question remains: Would you trust your life to the manufacturer of the device, who on one hand wants to save lives, but on the other hand is in a push to get the device out the door quickly; or would you rather trust your life to a group of people who are constantly going through the devices code—making sure that the bugs are fixed before you (or anyone else) gets into a scenario where they’re triggered?

I, for one, agree with the presenter. Now that I’ve seen this, I’ll want to know more about the device and the code behind it. Because the people and company making the device aren’t the ones who won’t ever see my family and friends again… I am.

Have a great weekend
Patrick.

I’m on YouTube… Sort of

2010-08-16T19:03:00.001-05:00

I decided to do a series of videos on Kubuntu Linux, and publish them on YouTube. I’ll cover topics like an overview, programs and features, installing programs, configuring the system, security and others.

The first video is below. It’s essentially a screenshare of my Kubuntu desktop inside of a virtual machine. Forgive my voice and speaking style, as I’m not adjusted completely to the format yet. You can find me on YouTube as PatsCompServices.

As I create more, I’ll upload them here too. The next video will be a description of the different programs and features found in Kubuntu. As always, comments and suggestions are welcome.

Have a great day
Patrick.

Oracle vs. Google—What does this mean for you?

2010-08-14T00:13:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, Oracle filed a lawsuit against Google concerning the use of Java in their Android operating system. It wasn’t so much that you can use Java in web browsers or even Java applications per se. It was more along the lines of Google took the syntax from Java and tweaked it a bit, so it wouldn’t compile on Java compilers. At least this is my interpretation from the little that I’ve read.

So, what does this mean for you? Well, if you’re a developer for Android (or a user of Android phones) it may mean a lot. Depending on what the outcome of the lawsuit is, you may not be able to develop in Java anymore for Android. And if you’re a user, then the applications that you’re running may disappear or change.

What if you’re a developer in general though? Does this mean that Java is a hands-off language? No. You’ll still be able to develop applications that run on the Java Virtual Machine, and use Java Libraries. What this means is that you can’t create your own Virtual Machine and Libraries that are basically Java wrapped up in another package.

Over the next few days and weeks, I’ll be reading more about this lawsuit. As I learn more about what it’s over, and what the ramifications are in general, I’ll post more about it.

Have a great day
Patrick.

Claiming my blog

2010-08-11T15:51:00.001-05:00

This is just a short post to claim my blog for use in reviewing products and topics related to Information Technology. As per their requirements, I have to add the following sentence to this post

a dollar sign is the cheesiest

Ironically enough, the sentence applies to the idea of reviewing products and pay-per-post sites. I assure you that I will not pick products or topics that I don’t feel strongly about. I’m not blogging for money (although it does help pay the bills). I’m blogging because I feel that I may have an understanding or knowledge about computer-related topics and products. And I feel that it’s to your (my reader's) benefit that I post the information.

Also, I will be updating my Disclosure Policy to reflect the sites that I write for.

Have a great day
Patrick.

Configuring a Cisco Router to support a LAN on DSL

2010-06-26T17:38:00.001-05:00

One of the things that I accomplished in the past month was to convert my network from a “modem to consumer router to computers” to a “modem to Cisco Enterprise Router to Cisco Enterprise Switch to computers (with the consumer router proving wireless access). And on top of that, I enabled IPv6 on the entire network with my /64 network from Hurricane Electric. Both feats took some effort to accomplish, although I owe a great deal of thanks to the people at DSL Reports Cisco Hardware Forums.

To make someone else’s life a little easier, I’m posting my completed (sanitized to remove passwords and actual IP Addresses) configuration file for the router up here. As for the switch, I simply configured one vlan (vlan 1) with an IP Address from my excluded IP’s and configured security on it. If the text has a * or () then it’s a comment.

version 12.3
service timestamps debug datetime msec
service timestamps log datetime msec
service password-encryption
!
hostname whatrouteriscalled
!
boot-start-marker
boot-end-marker
!
enable secret 5 removed-password
!
no aaa new-model
ip subnet-zero
ip cef
ip dhcp excluded-address eth0 ipv4 address
ip dhcp excluded-address switch vlan management ipv4 address
ip dhcp excluded-address server ipv4 address
ip dhcp excluded-address wireless router ipv4 address
ip dhcp excluded-address optional ipv4 (needed for a desktop
ip dhcp excluded-address second wireless router ipv4 address (open wireless)
!
ip dhcp pool internal-network
   network ipv4network (.0) 255.255.255.0
   default-router eth0 ipv4 address
   dns-server 208.67.222.222 208.67.220.220 (OpenDNS Public IPv4 addresses)
!
vpdn enable
!
vpdn-group 1
request-dialin
protocol pppoe
!
ipv6 unicast-routing *enables IPv6 and allows for routing
!
!
!
!
interface Tunnel0
description Hurricane Electric IPv6 Tunnel Broker
no ip address
ipv6 address client-side ipv6 address/64
ipv6 enable
tunnel source Dialer1
tunnel destination server side ipv4 address for he.net
tunnel mode ipv6ip
!
interface Ethernet0
description My LAN Interface
ip address eth0 ipv4 address 255.255.255.0
ip nat inside
no ip mroute-cache
ipv6 address ipv6 network address/64 eui-64 *(ends in ::)
ipv6 enable
no cdp enable
!
interface Ethernet1
description Physical ADSL Interface (Facing the ISP)
no ip address
no ip mroute-cache
pppoe enable
pppoe-client dial-pool-number 1
no cdp enable
!
interface Serial0
no ip address
no ip mroute-cache
shutdown
no cdp enable
!
interface Serial1
no ip address
no ip mroute-cache
shutdown
no cdp enable
!
interface Dialer1
description Logical ADSL Interface
ip address negotiated
ip mtu 1492
ip nat outside
encapsulation ppp
ip tcp adjust-mss 1452
no ip mroute-cache
dialer pool 1
dialer-group 1
no cdp enable
ppp authentication chap pap callin
ppp chap hostname username provided by ISP
ppp chap password 7 encrypted password provided by ISP
ppp pap sent-username username provided by ISP password 7 encrypted password from ISP
!
ip nat inside source list 10 interface Dialer1 overload
ip nat inside source static tcp server ipv4 address 4125 interface Dialer1 4125
ip nat inside source static tcp server ipv4 address 443 interface Dialer1 443
ip nat inside source static tcp server ipv4 address 80 interface Dialer1 80
no ip http server
ip classless
ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 Dialer1
!
!
access-list 10 permit ipv4 network (.0) 0.0.0.255
dialer-list 1 protocol ip permit
no cdp run
ipv6 route ::/0 Tunnel0
!
!
line con 0
exec-timeout 120 0
password 7 password (encrypted)
login
stopbits 1
line aux 0
line vty 0 4
exec-timeout 0 0
password 7 password (encrypted)
no login
length 0
!
scheduler max-task-time 5000
end

Some notes… The ! are ignored by the router, so you don’t need to put them in. If you want to create comments for what things are doing, you’ll precede them with the ! (and the router will throw them out when it’s configuring).

It was recommended that I (and you) use service password-encryption which will automatically encrypt any passwords (minimizing the need for removing them). If you use this, and it puts a “7” before the password, you still need to remove it (as the encryption is weak) but if it has a “5” before it (like the enable secret does) it’s stronger. Personally, I’ll remove them all from the config anyhow.

This should be considered a starting point for you, as everyone’s situation is different. And this should be a starting point, if you’re interested in learning (for your CCNA or CCNP or just for the sheer joy of it) about Cisco configurations.

Have a great day
Patrick.

IPv6 accessible websites

2010-06-25T23:39:00.001-05:00

This is going to be a list of IPv6 accessible websites. Some of them will be accessible regardless of whether you have IPv6 enabled or not, but others will only be available via IPv6. As I get more, I will add them to the list… Here we go.

http://penrose.uk6x.com/ Countdown to the exhaustion of IPv4 addresses

Checking to see whether you have IPv6 enabled:

http://www.whatismyipv6.com

http://www.ipv6.org (also has information and an older list of sites)

http://ipv6.whatismyipv6.net.ipv4.sixxs.org/

http://www.runningipv6.net/what-is-my-ipv6-address.php

Search engines: (There’s only one that actually has an IPv6 address that I know of)

http://ipv6.google.com (will return an error if you don’t have IPv6 enabled)

A list of Internet Providers who will give you an IPv6 address (I’m going to call a few around the US to find out if they offer it as well)

http://www.sixxs.net/faq/connectivity/?faq=native

http://ipv6.comcast.net/ Comcast is running IPv6 trials, and has this portal

http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/ Cambridge University Institute of Astronomy (IPv6 only)

http://www.ipv6.org.uk/workshop/ Workshop with different information on IPv6

http://www.surgeradio.co.uk/ Surge Radio (UK)

www.ipv6.ecs.soton.ac.uk IPv6 at Southampton University (may not load)

And most importantly…..

www.v6.facebook.com Facebook has IPv6 access. Now that’s a reason to switch (granted it looks the same as IPv4, but by using it, you’ll be helping the Internet)

I’ve sent comments to LinkedIN and MySpace to find out if, and when, they’ll have IPv6 capabilities. Also, Google has IPv6 capability enabled on quite a few of their sites. Including YouTube.

Comcast is testing out IPv6 and will hopefully phase it in within the next year. This is the dilemma for people. Everyone knows that the end of IPv4 is coming. And most know that it will be within the next two years. But, since they believe that even after all of the IPv4 addresses are doled out they’ll still be able to function, no one’s in a hurry to transition. So, it’s up to US the people to convince them to make the change.

As I get more sites, I’ll update this list.

Have a great day
Patrick.

IPv6 The Wave of the Future Catch it now, before it’s too late.

2010-06-25T21:35:00.001-05:00

It’s been a while since I posted here, but I wanted to touch on this subject. Recently, I set up a new home network consisting of Cisco routers and switches. In the process of setting it up, one of the people who helped me made the comment about going to http://www.he.net and getting an IPv6 Tunnel. The comment was (paraphrased) get a tunnel from them, and get lost in it. So, I did.

So what’s IPv6?

IPv6 is the newest standard for assigning IP Addresses to your devices on the network. Right now, the majority of the people in the world (and sites on the Internet) use IPv4 addresses (192.168.3.2 for example). The reason that it’s called IPv4 is because there are 4 groups of 8 bits making up each IP address (0 – 255 in each group). The problem with this is, there is a finite amount of IP Addresses available, and after 20+ years of widespread Internet usage, we’re running out.

One of the last reports that I saw said we’ll run out in about 666 days or less. No, the world won’t stop (and neither will the Internet) but when you go to get online with that new iPhone v7 (figuring that within the next 365 days, there will be a v5 and within the next 600 days a v6), you won’t be able to. Or you’ll be seriously restricted in how long you can be on (or what you can do).

IPv6 uses a 128-bit IP Addressing scheme. That’s 8 groups of 16 bits. I don’t have the exact figure for how many that is, but essentially it’s enough that every single person and device in the world could have it’s own IP Address. And we’d still have tons left.

So, I decided to take that plunge and get on IPv6 (of course I’m still on my IPv4 address too, as my Internet Provider doesn’t supply IPv6 addresses that I know of). It took a little bit of finagling to get everything working (mainly because of my network setup and the fact that my router is about 6 years old). But, I’m happy to say it works.

So, how do you get on IPv6? Well unless your Internet Provider is giving out IPv6 addresses (which very few are to my knowledge and you’ll most likely have to ask for one), you’ll have to sign up with a “tunnel” service like Hurricane Electric (http://www.he.net). After you sign up, they will help you to set up your computer/network to use the IPv6. You may or may not be able to disable the IPv4 access, depending on various factors.

An example of how you’ll do it on Windows Vista/7, is this (noting that you’ll have to open a Command Prompt as the administrator)

netsh interface teredo set state disabled
netsh interface ipv6 add v6v4tunnel IP6Tunnel source-IPv4 destination-IPv4
netsh interface ipv6 add address IP6Tunnel IPv6-client (assigned by your tunnel)
netsh interface ipv6 add route ::/0 IP6Tunnel IPv6-server (assigned by your tunnel)

The “source-IPv4” is whatever IP address you signed up with, and the “destination-IPv4” is the IP Address (IPv4) of the tunnel. The “add route” command is called a default route. It means if there’s no other route known from your computer to whatever you’re trying to get to, then it goes through this route.

My next post is going to be a list of IPv6 websites. Some will be information, and some will actually be accessible if you’re on IPv6. My challenge to everyone is this: Help me find sites. The list that I found of sites that are IPv6 accessible is old (as in about 6 years). So, I need more current sites.

I’ll start the list, and then I’ll edit it as I get more sites.

Have a great day
Patrick.

Moving the blog finally….

2010-05-11T13:22:00.001-05:00

The time is up to renew my Office Live domain (http://patscomputerservices.com ) so I’m going to be migrating it, as well as this blog over to a BlueHost webhosting site in the next few weeks. I will keep this site updated as well, for a few months—just to ease the transition. The new link will either be http://blog.patscomputerservices.com or http://patscomputerservices.com/blog. (Neither of those are live now, but soon they will be). I expect to do this in the next three to four days (as my renewal comes up before May 17). So, if you happen to send an email to my address, and it bounces, resend it the next day (as they will require about 24 hours to migrate my mail accounts over).

I’ll update this post when I start the migration, and when it’s completed. And while I will post here for a few months, my posts will have a link to the new site in them.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Integrated Development Environments (IDE)—to use them or not to use them…

2010-05-06T19:52:00.001-05:00

What do Visual Studio, Eclipse, Netbeans, Notepad, Notepad ++, and vi/emacs all have in common? They are all used for creating programs. What are their differences? Aside from the compiler that they use to build the code into object code (and executable code), the difference is that the first three in the list have the compiler/linker integrated in them, while the last four require you to compile the code separately (technically you may be able to compile the code from inside Notepad ++, but it doesn’t come with a compiler).

So, should you use an IDE or not? And which one should you use, if you choose to? These are the questions I’ll answer in this post.

IDE’s.. Easy or Lazy?

Purists may claim that you don’t need the IDE, and that it makes you lazy because it does some of the work for you. However, the opposite can be said (that it makes you more productive for those same reasons). The answer may depend on the programming language.

If you look at a Java program that was created in an IDE compared to one that was created in Notepad or Notepad ++, you’ll find that they are virtually identical. The main diference would be that some code may have //Automatically Generated next to it. But, it’s all code that you would have put in yourself in Notepad++.

However, if you look at a Visual Basic program in notepad, there is a lot of extra code that you’re not aware of. It’s the background code for creating the forms and making the application compile. But it’s also code that you wouldn’t normally think to type in. So, as you can see it depends on the programming language, as to whether it helps you or makes you “lazy”.

Which IDE Should You Use?

The simple answer is the right one for the language that you’re coding in. Although it’s a little more complex than that. If you’re a Visual Basic or other “Visual” (Microsoft) programmer, then you’ll essentially be limited to Visual Studio. You may be able to program some of the languages in Eclipse, but Visual Studio is the best suite for the job. The main problem is that you either have to pay for VIsual Studio (unless you’re a student, in which case you can get it through dreamspark.net) or you have to use the functionally limited “Express Editions” (which can’t be used for commercial purposes).

Now, if you program in most other languages, you can use Eclipse along with their plugins for the specific language. If you’re programming in Java, you can use Netbeans (which is developed for Java) or Eclipse. Some of the other languages (such as Pascal or Delphi) also have their own IDE that you can use. Pascal is an older language, which has been replaced by Delphi (and you’ll have to pay for the Delphi System).

Personally, I prefer the IDE systems myself. They simplify a lot of the background tasks and make sure that the backbone of the code is correct. Which leaves me with more time to add the rest of the code, and get the application up and running sooner. What are your opinions on IDE’s?

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Object Oriented vs. Procedural Programming

2010-05-04T22:29:00.001-05:00

There are essentially two types of programming styles in use. One is Object Oriented Programming (think Visual) and the other is Procedural based programming. Depending on which style you learn, the other looks alien or even unorganized. Some languages have a combination of the two, while others sit on one side of the fence or the other. And while you can make an attempt at Object Oriented programming in a Procedural language, it’s not the same.

Object Oriented Programming:

An example of OOP is Visual Studio. You will design a form with controls on it, and depending on what actions the user takes, the controls will execute some code. This is a really basic interpretation of how an OOP language works. The thing that makes object-oriented languages run is the object (no doubt).

Objects can be buttons, list boxes, text boxes, classes, or anything really. Their main distinction is that they have properties (or attributes) and methods which act on those properties (events). If you’re using Windows, then you use Object Oriented programs every time you do anything. Any window is an example of Object Oriented Programming. This also applies to Linux and Mac OS, although they are created in a different language than Windows.

Procedural Programming:

An example of Procedural Programming is COBOL or Pascal. Since the applications are ran on a server—with no windows per se, they don’t need to have events or objects. The main difference between an Object Oriented Program and a Procedural Program is the procedural program will start at line 1, and essentially go through to the last line. It may jump around, but it will always return to it’s jumping point and continue on. When it reaches the last line, it will end. You will have to run it again. An Object Oriented program will continue running until you end it (clicking the “X” or “Exit” button).

If you learn to program in a procedural style, then the first time you run an OOP style program, it looks alien. You can’t find the starting point, and you can’t follow the flow very easy. Likewise, if you learn to program in Object Oriented Styles, the Procedural style will throw you. You’re expecting the user to have to trigger the events, but they happen on their own. You expect the program to run until you stop it, but it stops on it’s own.

Hybrid Programming Languages:

Some languages are what I would call Hybrids. They can be either procedural or object oriented. C++, Java, and Delphi (which is an OOP form of Pascal) are examples of these. They are hybrids because you can create procedural versions of applications, or you can use a Visual Designer (or code by hand) and create OOP style programs (which require events). They still look alien to procedural style programmers because they don’t start at line 1 and go to the end. But they are not completely Object oriented either.

The point of this post is to introduce you to the different programming styles. Each has a place in the world of computers. And it’s good to learn both styles, so you can adapt to the requirements. Also in some cases, you can adapt one style to use some of the characteristics of the other. This makes you a well-rounded and more essential programmer.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Microsoft has released Visual Studio 2010 and Office 2010

2010-05-02T01:29:00.001-05:00

This is slightly old news, but Microsoft released Microsoft Visual Studio 2010. You can get more details on what it includes and the new features at http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio along with prices. If you are a student, then you should be able to download it from your college’s MSDNAA site, or you can sign up at http://www.dreamspark.net to download it for free. You will have to use your campus email address, as they verify that you are a student.

Microsoft also finalized and released to manufacturing, their Office 2010 suite. For students, they include a special version of the “Professional” version for $99.00. (This price is per ZDNet, as I haven’t seen the final prices). If you’re a Technet subscriber, you can download it now. Otherwise it will be available to the general public in June. You can also purchase the Office 2007 Ultimate Steal (if you are a college student) right now at http://www.ultimatesteal.com and are eligible for an upgrade to Office 2010 for free when it’s actually available. Essentially this means that you’ll only have to pay $69.00 or so for Office 2010 Ultimate (or any version that they send you for the upgrade)—which is well worth the money.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Ubuntu Lucid Lynx is out.

2010-05-02T01:15:00.001-05:00

On Friday, Canonical released Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx). Amongst it’s features/changes/improvements are a newly designed GUI and startup screen, changes in their color scheme and logos, and improved social networking capabilities. Lucid is a LTS (Long Term Support) release, which is the equivalent of Microsoft releasing a new version of Windows. The interim releases (Jaunty Jackalope, and Karmic Koala for example) are the equivalent of Microsoft releasing Service Packs for the latest version of WIndows. The main difference is Canonical releases every six months on schedule—where Microsoft releases when the updates are ready.

If you’re upgrading from an earlier version of Ubuntu (or in my case Kubuntu), especially from Hardy Heron, Jaunty Jackalope, or Karmic Koala, one thing you will notice during the upgrade is that Canonical also upgrades most of your programs to the latest versions. Even some of your third party programs (like myth-tv) are upgraded. On my desktop, the upgrade went smooth as silk—even though the desktop was built in 2003. On my laptop, it wasn’t as easy.

If you want to upgrade from a CD, and don’t want to lose your data, my suggestion is to use the Alternate Install CD. This is a text-based installer and also offers System Rescue (which is how I ultimately finished the installation on my laptop). If you have an active network connection, the Alternate Install CD will download the latest updates and patches for the installation. Otherwise, it will use the files on the CD itself.

If you want to try Kubuntu/Ubuntu/Xubuntu/Edubuntu out, but don’t want to sacrifice your computer, then the Live CD is the way to go. It will give you most of the experience along with testing out whether your hardware is compatible, and it won’t cost you any hard drive space or troubles with installing. And if you find that you do like the distro, you can install it over or alongside your current operating system. I prefer dual-boots or triple-boots of Windows and Linux. And if you already have a previous version of *buntu installed, it will keep some of the previous versions for you to boot into (simply pick the kernel that you want to boot, and you’re in that version of *buntu). Try that with Windows.

Over the next couple of weeks, I’m planning on doing some features on Kubuntu. And I plan on doing some features on programming. So stay tuned.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Linux News: North Korea’s “Red Star” Linux, and is FOSS an Enemy of the State?

2010-03-15T15:59:00.001-05:00

http://www.linuxinsider.com/rsstory/69541.html

North Korea announced their own distribution of Linux called “Red Star.” It’s aimed at the North Korean People and Government and provides a Korean language interface. Meanwhile the International Intellectual Property Alliance (which coincidentally is made up of mainly American based organizations) claims that because Open Source options deny “legitimate companies” a place in governments, then any government that uses Open Source software should be deemed an “Enemy of the State.”

Now, here’s my take on this. If a Government purchases a closed source application, they do not know what is in the code. Yes, they can get the source code from the manufacturer. But until they do, they could potentially be leaking information to other Governments through the manufacturer. **NOTE that there is no proof of this happening that I know of…****

However, if they use Open Source software, they limit the chances of this happening. Why? Because they can have their coders look through the source code and remove anything that they deem a security risk. And they can compile the updated code—without risking loss of data or secrets. Plus with the code being open, the chances of a company sneaking something into the product are nil. This is because the Open Source Community won’t stand up for it. It goes against the Free Open Source Software principles. Can the IIPA say the same about their closed source counterparts?

Now, unlike the IIPA (and to an extent some of the Open Source Community), I feel that there is a place for both. It boils down to whichever product provides the most effective tools for the situation. In some cases, Open Source provides the tools. In others, it’s closed source (or open source designed to run on closed source systems). The Government (as well as the People) should have the right to choose whichever product suits their needs better—without fear of being called an “Enemy of the State” from organizations like the Business Software Alliance, MPAA, RIAA, Association of American Publishers, Entertainment Software Association, Independent Film & Television Alliance, and the National Music Publishers’ Association. (These are some of the organizations in the IIPA.)

So, please read the article, and come back here with your comments. I’d really appreciate them (both for or against Open Source). And I’m working my way back into daily blogging, so I’ll be back soon.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

US Fails in CyberAttack Simulation

2010-02-18T10:33:00.001-06:00

http://www.thenewnewinternet.com/2010/02/16/more-must-be-done-to-prepare-us-for-cyber-attack/ and http://www.darkreading.com/security/cybercrime/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=222900775&cid=nl_DR_DAILY_2010-02-18_h

Yesterday, former members of the Government participated in a Cyber Security Game called Operation CyberShockwave, which was a test of how well the US Government would handle a cyber-attack. The results? We failed miserably. There’s more work that needs to be done.

The scenario was an application that people downloaded to their Smartphones for “March Madness” was actually a malware program. In “July, 2011” (the simulated event date), the attacker activates the malware and the phones stop working. At some point in time during this, IED’s are detonated, which take out parts of the power grid on the Eastern Seaboard.

Between Power Grid failures, the Electronic Trading Commission being taken down, and the Internet (and smartphones) being taken down, it’s a mess. So, how did our “Government” do? They figured out that the server hosting the malware was in Russia, and possibly that the developer was from Sudan. That’s about as far as we know.

What does all of this mean? Well, if you’re Amish, not much. But for the rest of us, it means that our Government (and the Private Sector—that’s YOU AND ME, folks) need to come up with a comprehensive plan for dealing with these attacks. There needs to be a clear-cut determination for when the attack begins (and the Government should start acting) and when it ends (and they should stop). And there needs to be a clear-cut determination as to whether the Government needs to step in at all.

Some issues that were raised in the simulation are these:

We know the malware is being hosted on a server in a foreign country. Can we have that Government shut the server down? If so, do we have to reciprocate if they’re being attacked by malware on a US server?
Should the Department Of Defense take the lead in combating the attack? If so, how do they coordinate with the Private Sector (who is obviously taking their own steps to combat it and discover the source)?
Would this be an instance where President Obama’s plan to take control of the cyber networks should be implemented? If so, how long should they maintain control? Should they work with the Private Sector, or basically push them aside? Will the Public be notified of this and kept up to speed on what’s going on (or will they be kept in the dark “for their own good.”)?

This is not an issue of whether or not we could actually combat the attack. It’s my belief that amongst the 300 million people in this country, someone (or some group) would be able to find the source. They may even be able to shut it down. The issue is whether the Government would work with the Private Sector (and the public in general) to combat this. And how would the Government mobilize on their end?

So for the Government, you have some work ahead of you. One thing to take into consideration is that we have some of the brightest “Hackers” living in our country. We also have experts in the Private Sector and in the Educational Sector, who could prove extremely valuable in an attack. One issue that you’ll face is some of these people will not like (nor want) to work with you. They’re distrustful of you, and would be afraid that after the attack is finished, you’ll turn your “eye” to them. So, you need to work on that problem as well.

The clock is ticking. And the world is watching (or at least the “Online world”). And as much as I hate saying it, the majority of Americans aren’t informed enough to avoid the pre-cursors for such an attack. So, it’s up to you to make sure we’re protected.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Too Good to be True—Probably Is

2010-02-17T22:47:00.001-06:00

This post came to me because I noticed something interesting in my Junk mail. A spam mail for Walmart (supposedly, but most likely not) that had “We want YOU: Walmart Workers 75/h Now.” I don’t think Walmart pays their salaried people (except maybe at the Corporate offices) $75/h. So, I thought “Why would they send this out, with such an outrageous salary listed?” Then it occurred to me that someone clicked on it. The old adage of “If they keep doing it, then obviously someone is falling for it.”

In these hard economic times, it’s easy to fall victim to something like that. The hope for a payday or windfall tempts everyone. In fact, just the hope for steady income tempts everyone (myself included). The problem is the actual companies are not hiring like this (by sending out unsolicited e-mails). And they definitely are not offering tons of money per hour.

The point to this post is this. If it sounds too good to be true (or sounds like it’s way more than you’d expect someone to make at the company) then it probably is. It’s more than likely a scam. They definitely will want your personal information, and maybe will want money. Either way, you’re taking a chance that they aren’t going to steal your identity or rob you/kidnap you/kill you. So, be careful.

If you are looking for work, check out the Regional Help Wanted site (http://www.regionalhelpwanted.com), Monster (http://www.monster.com), CareerBuilder (http://www.careerbuilder.com), or Yahoo HotJobs (http://hotjobs.yahoo.com). You can also try looking on Twitter, but the same rule applies. Some of the jobs there are too good to be true.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

A Few Words about Fake Antivirus and Fake AntiSpyware (aka Rogue AV and Rogue AntiSpyware) Programs

2010-02-14T13:09:00.001-06:00

A few minutes ago, I was reading an article about how one of the Rogue Antivirus programs is offering “Live Technical Support” as a way to con-vince people that it’s a legitimate program (the dash is meant to emphasize the fact that they are conning the users). At one point in the article they mentioned how the Rogue Antivirus programs are still making a dent, because people are getting pop-ups that say your computer is infected (so they download the “fix”).

It boils down to one simple mentality. If you are NOT (I repeat NOT NOT NOT) on a site that is related to Internet Security, antivirus programs, antispyware programs, or firewalls, then it’s a scam. If you ARE on one of those sites and the product is not sold/offered by the company who’s site you’re on (or endorsed in the text of the articles or company’s links), then it’s a scam.

Legitimate companies are not going to resort to placing pop-ups on other websites to promote their product. They don’t need to. If they’re legitimate, then chances are you’ll hear about them from magazines, blogs, recommendations from other websites, or word of mouth. If they’re new to the game, then they will submit their product to sites for review. They will get the word out—without having to “CON”vince you that you need it.

In short, we need to all get the word out to the average users. “IF you are not LOOKING for information on Antivirus, Internet Security, Antispyware, or Firewalls; and a pop-up or Instant Message suddenly appears offering you these things, DO NOT ACCEPT THE OFFER!!!!! IT IS A SCAM.”

Please help spread the word. It’s our responsibility to help the people who aren’t familiar with these scams to avoid being victims of them.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

My Experiences with Google Calendar Part 2.

2010-02-12T10:39:00.001-06:00

In Part One, I described my experiences with trying to sync Google Calendar with Microsoft Outlook and FranklinCovey PlanPlus. I also discussed how this creates a security issue—as I’m forced to run three programs as an Administrator, and two of them are Internet-facing programs.

In this post, I’m going to lay out why they’re at fault, and touch on what each company should do to make life easier for their users. So, here we go.

Microsoft is at fault because they designed Outlook to require Administrative privileges to perform some action on the calendar that Google Calendar wants. They are also at fault because they are blocking access to their Live products from third-party applications. Originally it was to prevent “spammers from creating millions of accounts”—but everyone saw through that to the real reason—money. They are charging for the access to Live Calendar from e-mail clients.

Google is at fault for two reasons. One is that they are trying to do something with the Calendar Sync that requires Administrative privileges—even though Vista and the “new way” have been out for almost four years now. Before you say “Well they HAVE to do it that way”, my argument is this. PlanPlus seamlessly works with the same Outlook API for the calendar—without administrative permissions. So, why can’t Google Calendar Sync? The second thing is this: They stopped developing this application. It’s at 0.93—and has been for almost a year now. The error that I had was first reported in March, 2009.

FranklinCovey is only at fault because they’ve moved from their desktop application to an Online format. That’s not really a bad thing—just not something I’m up for. The downside is that they don’t offer features like synching to your Google Calendar or other online calendars in the desktop application—and probably never will.

It’s almost time for a Perfect Storm. Microsoft needs to wake up and realize that as more people realize that they can access Gmail and Google Calendars (along with other Google Apps and Docs) from ANY email client, they will stop paying for the ability to access their Live products from MICROSOFT’s email clients. Truth is, the only reason I won’t drop my hotmail/msn emails is because the msn one is tied to my ISP, and the rest are secondary accounts. So, I’m paying for it whether I use it or not.

So, here’s the end of my rant. This is what I want to see (although it won’t happen).

MICROSOFT—Open up the live.com products to third party clients again. The idea that it was to prevent spammers is BULL. It didn’t do anything to curb spam. It didn’t do anything to curb porn. It caused you to close your chat and groups—because the revenue increases that someone claimed you would get didn’t materialize. People said “Screw off” instead, and moved to other sites.

GOOGLE—Open the source code for the Calendar Sync up. If you’re not going to develop it on a timely schedule, then let someone else pick up the torch and run with it. You have the potential to steal a lot of Microsoft’s thunder. But, you’re shooting yourself in the foot. Why? Because you haven’t updated the Calendar Sync site since it was put up. Your error message section is a joke. You haven’t developed the application in about a year—and you haven’t fixed any bugs in it.

FRANKLINCOVEY—You’re not really doing anything wrong, but I would ask you to not stop developing the application. Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket (PlanPlusOnline). There are people who don’t want to pay a monthly fee for the service (or who can’t afford it). I would actually encourage you to take a look at JetBrains and their Omea Pro application. You could take a hint from them, and create the potential Outlook killer. They incorporate limited (stress limited) time management with the ability to access your emails, feeds, documents, and even web pages. All from one application. YOU could do this too. Except yours wouldn’t be a limited time-management program. It would be a Time Management Program that integrates all aspects of productivity in one place.

Have a great day:)

Patrick.

Blizzards, Snow, and Computers…

2010-02-10T14:58:00.001-06:00

If you’re lucky enough to be able to read this, then it means that you’re not in the Mid-Atlantic States, or your power hasn’t gone out quite yet. It’s too late to prepare for this snowstorm (unless you’re in Europe, in which case you may have a few days before it travels across the Atlantic). However, you may be looking for some tips to prepare for the next round of storms.

Tip 1: Back up your data. While you should be doing this anyhow, you really want to make a backup of it before the storms hit. Just in case your equipment gets damaged (through roof collapses or even a power surge). Back it up to external drives (or online backup services) and unplug them from the computer.

Make sure the data is in a place that you can get to quickly, if needed. That way if you need to purchase a new computer, or recover the old one, you won’t have to wait days or weeks for your backups to arrive. You may be able to have the company that’s repairing (or setting up your new computer) restore everything for you.

Tip 2: UPS Systems. A UPS System won’t last for days, but it will definitely last long enough to safely shut the computer off. If you don’t have a monitor connected, it will last longer (likewise, if you have a newer monitor, it will last longer than the old CRT monitors).

With UPS Systems, you may want to spend a little more money to get one that lasts longer. And make sure that non-essential items (Printers especially) are not connected to the UPS side of the system.

Personally, I have my router and modem connected to my UPS system also. As long as my phone line and/or cable lines aren’t cut with the power, I will still have Internet Access for a limited time.

Along this line, you shouldn’t just get UPS systems for your computers. I have a scanner and weather radio connected to a UPS system (along with my alarm clock). Between the three of them (along with an amplified antenna), they don’t draw enough power to really drain the UPS. So, I’ll have those electronics working long after the power goes out.

Tip 3: (Non-computer tip) One nice thing about the cold weather is freezing space. If you have foods that need to stay cool (I wouldn’t trust this to your frozen meat), you can set it outside. We’ve used the outside for cold meats, sodas, cheese, milk, etc. Be warned that if you leave liquids out overnight, they will freeze. But this will make a suitable alternative to opening the refrigerator for foods or drinks, while the power is out. If the temp is close to 0 F, you could possibly put frozen foods (frozen meats and such) outside too, but I would be very leery about this.

Tip 4: Unplug everything. This is the obvious tip, but people don’t do it. After your UPS dies (or after the power goes out, if you don’t have a UPS), unplug it from the wall. Unplug all of your electronics from the wall. Turn on one light (or lamp) in two or three of your main rooms (you don’t need to do this in an unused or rarely used room). Make sure they are on different circuits if possible.

This does three things. 1. It ensures that the electronics won’t get fried if there’s a power surge or other issue when the power is restored. 2. The lights will show you when the power is back on (without risking all of your lights being damaged in a surge or other issue). 3. If there is an issue with the power, you may be able to tell by the lights.

Two examples of this. When I was a kid, we had a transformer explode. Ironically enough, it didn’t wipe out all of the power. Half of our house had power, and the other half didn’t. We knew by trying lights in each room. The explosion damaged a lamp and burned out a tv (from the resulting power surge).

Another example was from a magazine in the early 90’s. They discussed how your strip needed to protect all three prongs from a surge. Apparently someone had a strip that protected the hot and neutral wires only. Their power went out, and when it was restored, it came in on the grounding plug for some reason. This wiped out all of their electronics.

So, with these tips, hopefully you’ll be a little more prepared for the next storm. With the UPS, you may be able to enjoy some of the comforts a little longer. If you purchase a backup generator, you may not even notice the power outage (at least for a while).

Stay safe, and stay warm.

A New Potential Advertiser

2010-02-09T15:08:00.001-06:00

I’m always looking for ideas for revenue, so when I stumbled upon these two sites, I decided to give them a shot. One is Sponzai, and the other is SponsorBloggers. They’re related to the SponsoredTweets site, which allows you to get paid for tweeting.

In order to sign up though, I have to claim my blog (like it belongs to someone else). In order to claim it, I’m required to paste euphonious flavoured crisps, with real euphonious pieces into the blog, and post this.

Back to my regular posting.
Patrick.

Learning to Program—Random Thoughts with a Theme

2010-02-05T22:22:00.001-06:00

I’m learning how to program in Java, and at the same time I’m tutoring students in Visual Basic. So, as I learn things, and as I help them to learn things, I plan on posting them here. I will identify the subject as Java or Visual Basic (or if it’s applicable to both equally, I won’t identify it).

The most important thing to know is that you need to make sure you find out the preferred standards for the language you are learning. Although I would like to see a standard naming convention, you won’t find a totally standard one yet. The closest thing is the Berkley style.

Some examples of needing to know how the language prefers things are listed below.

In Visual Basic:

Variable names start with a three letter prefix denoting their data type. dbl for Double, str for String, cnst for Constant (yes I know it’s four letters), int for integers. This also applies to objects and classes. For example, lbl for label, txt for textbox, cls for class, or btn for butons.

You declare variables using a DIM statement. The syntax is Dim variablename As datatype. For example, Dim intNewNumber As integer

The variables are required to be declared before the first line of code (in the declarations section).

In Java:

You don’t use prefixes in your variable names. However, you still use the camelCase and make the variables descriptive.

The declaration is type variable = new type;. For example, Integer newNumber = new Integer;

The variables should (but are not required to) be declared before the first line of code. They are required to be declared before you use them the first time. It’s good practice to declare them at the top, so you don’t have them scattered throughout the application (especially if it’s a long application).

Visual Basic is typically taught as a GUI (Goo-ey) type of application. This is because it’s designed to resemble Windows applications. There are some non-GUI apps (such as asp.net webpages), and it does use behind the scenes stuff.

Java is originally a console type of application (read command prompt). It does have the GUI capability, but you don’t see that very often. The most common use for Java is “Server side” applications, which are presented in a web browser. Hopefully as more people discover the functionality of the GUI in Java, we will see more apps created for it. This is especially beneficial, since Java runs on virtually any platform—where Visual Basic mainly runs on Windows-based platforms (not withstanding mono or other attempts to port it to Linux or other platforms).

It should be noted that I use Visual Studio 2008 for Visual Basic, and Netbeans 6.7 or 6.8 for Java. You can get these from http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio or http://www.netbeans.org respectively.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Grandma endures wrongful ISP piracy suspension

2010-02-04T10:22:00.001-06:00

Grandma endures wrongful ISP piracy suspension

Luckily for Cathi Paradiso, she was able to prove that the illegal downloading was not her fault. Unfortunately, she fell victim to something that a lot of broadband users are unaware of. The use of their internal networks for illegal means.

Cathi has a Qwest DSL modem. Either she had wireless connectors at one time, or it was enabled for some other reason. The wireless network WAS NOT SECURED, and people were using her modem as a gateway. Some of them were downloading movies and television shows. Her DSL was suspended due to this illegal downloading.

The article goes into the argument about whether ISP’s should be the Copyright Cops or not. I’m going in a different approach—although I do have an opinion on that issue. I’m looking at what YOU need to do to make sure that you’re not a victim (or make sure that the “Copyright Cops” have no reason to look at you).

If you do not have any wireless computers connected to your network, shut off the wireless on all routers, switches, and modems. In the settings screen (one of them should be labeled Wireless or something similar), you should have the option to “Enable” or “Disable” wireless access. Disable it.

If you do have wireless computers, make sure you’re using PKA or PKA2 (preferred) for your wireless security. When you enable this, you’ll create a passphrase (NOT A PASSWORD) like “My very elderly mother just said Uh No Problem.” (this is a phonetic to remember the planets back when Pluto was considered one). You want to make it something that people can’t guess easily. So, don’t make it your favorite quote, or a phrase that you blog about. Make it something only you, and maybe your immediate family will remember.

I recommend OpenDNS for your DNS needs. Your ISP will automatically supply you with their DNS, but OpenDNS will allow you to filter (read block) sites based on categories. So, you can block movies and music and file sharing sites. Of course this only works if the person jumping onto your network doesn’t have their own DNS specified (although if they have OpenDNS specified, it will use yours—not theirs).

Make sure that your router, modem, and OpenDNS passwords are strong. It should be a minimum of 8 characters, contain Upper- and lower-case letters, numbers, and/or symbols. And it should not be something that you blog or talk about (no pet names or anniversaries). In fact, it needs to be fairly random—not really a word at all.

These tips won’t guarantee that you’ll never fall victim to copyright thieves (or the ISP or entertainment industry), but they will go a long ways towards protecting you. So, please take the time to learn how to secure and set up your equipment, and make sure you do it.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

It’s Good to Be Home… Maybe not.

2010-02-01T22:27:00.001-06:00

This morning I switched back to Windows 7 from my Kubuntu linux week. Before I did though, I decided to take the plunge and upgrade to Kubuntu 9.10 again. Ironically enough, the upgrade installed all of the available security updates (and all but the XBMC updates). And my computer booted fine on the next restart.

I ran into one set of problems immediately though. My GPG keys were wiped out. This wouldn’t be a problem—except that I moved the backups to a server. Kleopatra (and GPG in general) won’t import from a non-local drive. And when I tried to copy them from the server, they wouldn’t copy. So, I left Kubuntu slightly defeated…

So, it’s good to be home then, right? Well not exactly. I booted into Windows… And blue-screened. Rebooted into Windows… And blue-screened again. After the third or fourth time, I did the startup-repairs and did a System Restore. Possibly, it was caused by my going into the drive in Kubuntu—but since I’d gotten blue screens before last week, I doubt it.

Then, I couldn’t open my encrypted e-mails in Outlook. Not because I didn’t have the keys for the accounts that I mailed them from (I did). Not because I didn’t have gpg or my S/MIME certificates set up (I did). Why? Because I had imported older keys for my hotmail account (which I no longer have the passwords for), and it used those to encrypt the e-mails. Luckily, I can view/send them from my gmail account.

I’ve copied my keys over to a local drive and will be able to go back into Kubuntu and fix the issue with GPG. And I’m finding and signing more keys for sites that I use regularly. I may do a series of posts on GPG and other digital certificates again.

I’m almost prepared to move my site. The hosting company will most likely be BlueHost, unless I find a better deal within the next three months.

So, overall I still love Windows. But, I’ve found that I can easily do things in Kubuntu. If you’re the least bit curious about Linux, then I highly recommend that you check it out (http://www.kubuntu.org) You can download a Live CD (which is a good idea if you’re doing online banking or shopping), or you can install it alongside Windows (wubi or a true dual-boot setup). And if you find that it’s up to your standards, you can easily install it in place of Windows.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Linux Day 6 finished

2010-01-31T12:09:00.001-06:00

Well I accomplished most of what I wanted to do yesterday. I watched television (and recorded some things), played movies in XBMC and tweaked it a little to add a function that they are strangely missing (the Eject button), and migrated more things to gmail. I believe that I only have four or five e-mails to go, and I'm all set (and a couple of those are "I really don't care" ones).

For starters, how to fix the lack of an eject button. In my case, I did the dirty method (of altering the Favorites button). What you need to do is find the directory (or folder on Windows) for the skin that you are using (in my case it's Confluence 720p), then edit the Home.xml file. The quick and dirty method is to change the action from whatever to XBMC.EjectTray() and alter the description to match. I removed the texture controls tags, so it shows a blank box (but you can probably find a texture control that shows the Eject button).

It's strange that they don't include this in at least the Windows/Linux/Mac versions (I'm not sure if it's supported on the X-Box at all or not). Especially since if you try clicking "Play" without a DVD, it brings up the option to Play or Eject (open/close) the tray. So for any XBMC developers who may check this blog, PLEASE include an Eject DVD button on the DVD controls window. (I believe it's the "PlayerControls.xml file that would be the best place for an eject button, but I'm not sure).

I also discovered that for some odd reason my online learning labs don't work properly in Chrome on Linux. Oddly enough it's not all of them--only one. I think it has to do with the fact that I was tagged as a Presenter in his lab, where in my Live chats, I'm a participant. But, it means that I have to try firefox, or switch to Windows, in order to view the lab correctly. The tech support people at the college aren't familiar enough with Chrome on Linux, to be able to help out with it. In fact they said that it doesn't work very well at all. So, I guess when I'm doing my course work, it will have to be in Firefox.

Anyhow, tonight's the last night... I'll most likely stay in Linux until I wake up tomorrow (to make up for the hours that I spent in Windows this week). And maybe I'll stay in Linux afterwards. I just need to get a few things ironed out, and it's off to the races. I know Windows Home Server will be glad to see me boot into Windows again. It would be nice if someone would figure out a way to back up your Linux systems to WHS as well (it wouldn't be able to happen through Windows though). Of course that would require Microsoft to release the API for the connector software--and we know THAT will probably never happen.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Google Joins the IE-6 Must Die Campaign

2010-01-31T11:41:00.001-06:00

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9150138/Google_joins_the_kill_IE6_campaign

ComputerWorld is reporting that starting on March 1, 2010, Google Docs and Google Sites will no longer support Internet Explorer 6. Considering that IE6 is 9 years old, it's not surprising. There have been two versions of Internet Explorer in the past 9 years, alongside offerings from Mozilla, Apple, and even Google themselves. Corporations have NO excuses for not updating their applications and services to support the later versions of Internet Explorer (or the alternative browsers).

If you are a web-developer, I strongly urge you to drop support for Internet Explorer 6 in your sites. Redirect the visitor to a page that says something to the effect of "The browser that you are currently using is old, outdated, and insecure. Here are some links to the latest browsers which are supported on this site." In fact, I would suggest following Google's lead and dropping support for Firefox 2.x, Apple 2.x, Google 3.x, or earlier browsers.

Here are some links for coding the version detection into your websites.

http://www.mozilla.org/docs/web-developer/sniffer/browser_type_oo.html This page is geared mainly for older browsers to show the page in an optimized format. You can easily modify the code to redirect the user to another page that recommends they upgrade. (instead of (ie5up), you could use (! ie7up)).

http://www.quirksmode.org/js/detect.html The code in this site parses the browser's information for the version number. You can modify their example inside of the "You are using...." box to create your redirection (if browser < IE7, Firefox 3, Chrome 4, then redirect here.). This script does not detect Safari--due to how Apple formats their browser identification string, but you could probably add it in fairly easily (you just need to know the internal version number of Safari 4 which is any number greater than 528.18. It's 530.17 on Mac, 530.17 on Windows (4.0.1) but 528.18 on their iPhone, so I would just use the lower value because there are no "versions" on the Mac or Windows that contains that number (source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safari_version_history )).

Personally, I prefer the second route to the first one. I may include it in my blog at some point (redirecting people to this post or another page). However on the first page, they actually discuss the >= or in your case < (use gte for >= and lt for < in your if statements).

Have a great day and if you're using one of these older browsers, then you may want to switch things up. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/default.aspx http://www.getfirefox.com or http://www.apple.com/safari

Patrick.

Linux Day 5/6

2010-01-30T12:16:00.001-06:00

Day 5 is over, and Day 6 is just starting... What did I learn last night? Well, I spent a good portion of the evening trying to get certain applications to always open up on specific workspaces. For the Windows people, workspaces are like virtual desktops. You can have as many as your memory will allow (if there's a maximum number, I'm not sure). And you can organize each one to do certain tasks. For example, I have my Main Desktop, Mail Twitter & RSS desktop, Programming desktop, and IM desktop. If you have all of the "bells and whistles" installed for compiz, then the taskbar will only show the applications open on that specific desktop. Otherwise, they all show up, and you can click on one to switch to it. It's organization at it's finest--and built right into Linux (not a downloaded application like WIndows).

The way to go about this is Alt + F3 (which opens the menu option on the top left corner of the window in focus) --> Advanced --> Special Application Settings --> Geometry tab ---> Desktop. Select either "Remember" or "Force" and choose the desktop that you want. It ***should*** put all windows from that application on that desktop. So far, it works perfectly.

I'm still migrating mail over to my gmail addresses. I think I have about 90% of it done. The other 10% is either things that I've missed, people that I just haven't sent a notice to, or junk that I don't really care about anyhow. Since I'm keeping the hotmail and msn addresses (for now at least), I'm not too worried about them. I'll probably be doing this for a week or two.

Another thing I finally figured out was how to play my music from my windows server on here through Amarok and other music players. They all seemed to balk at using SaMBa for it, so I mounted the directory into a subdirectory off of my Home. (Note for Windows users, folders == directories. It's a semantic thing).

The command is : mount.cifs //192.168.2.80/Music/ /home/yourusername/subfolder/ You can use mount -t smbfs in place of mount.cifs (I was having problems with mount -t, so I did it this way). And change the IP address to your servers name or your IP address (for example mount.cifs //WORKGROUP/Servername/directory/ /home/patrickdickey/musicfromnetwork/) You should be prompted for a username and password, if you don't have them stored somewhere (or you can use the -o user=username option).

It's funny. I'm doing all of these things (like installing a firewall-- firestarter on Kubuntu, setting up compiz to make my computer have fancy effects, getting my music mounted over, installing programming applications and such, etc) and I'll probably go back to Windows in three days. Why would I do all of this? Because when I decide "Hey, I want to play in Linux some more" or I decide "Hey, I'm sick of Windows.", all I have to do is boot into Linux and it's ready to go... Now, if I could only get the latest version of Karmic to boot--I'd probably only leave when I had to.

What's on the agenda for today.... I'm going to rent some movies and watch them in XBMC (if it doesn't freeze up like last night). I'm going to write more blog posts. Maybe watch some tv (on the television, since my video cards aren't supported on Linux), and shop. Plus I'll tinker around with this some more. Maybe I'll make a video podcast of my desktop and experiences.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Linux Day 5

2010-01-29T11:21:00.001-06:00

Yesterday was a more productive day. The only "snag" that I ran into was that a webcast for Microsoft's Certifications wouldn't load up properly-- so I had to go to Windows in order to view it. I spent about 2 hours viewing the webcast and trying to figure out my situation with the UPS's (which I'm going to be swapping them out soon). Hopefully the addin that I found will be able to shut down my other computer(s).

I did run into a snag with firefox though. The other day, my desktop crashed (it has to do with opening applications like Kate using sudo in the terminal). When it came back, my profile in Firefox was completely screwed up. So, I ended up creating a new profile. Minor issue. But, a learning lesson anyhow. If you're using KDE, then it's recommended that you use kdesudo in place of sudo (for opening desktop applications from the terminal). Typically you won't bother with this at all, but there are times when you may need to do it (such as editing a configuration file). I realize that you have vim and emacs available, but for someone who's coming over from Windows (and probably has never used a DOS-based editor (or Unix-based editor in this case)), being able to edit with Kate and KWrite are bonuses.

I've spent the last couple of hours migrating things over from my hotmail account to my gmail account. Fun, fun fun, to say the least. Now I have a system though. I've marked everything as read in Hotmail, so the only things that will show up between now and tomorrow are things that I still need to move. And as more incentive to get this done, I cannot get my hotmail or msn or patscomputerservices e-mails through Evolution right now. The POP servers don't like the commands sent (you know... things like "Username" and "password"). So, it's a waiting game (or I can always log in through a browser).... Funny thing is, yesterday I had this issue with two of my accounts. A little while later, those worked, and two others wouldn't. Today none of them work. All the more reason to jump ship-- I think.

After 4 full days and starting the fifth, I came to some conclusions.

1. If you're just doing things like checking e-mail and surfing the web (in other words not playing Windows Games), then you can easily switch to Linux. I'm able to work on my college homework and even view the live chats without a problem... In fact, they seem to work better here than in Windows.

2. If your games involve things that Linux doesn't offer (eg anti-hack programs and such) and they don't offer a Linux version, then you have to make a choice. Either dual-boot, so you can play your games, or find new games. You can always push to get the games ported to Linux--but that may not work out the best.

3. If you require specific applications that don't have Linux versions, you can try to run them under Wine (which may or may not work-- you'll want to check their site for details), look for Linux applications which do the same thing (albeit differently), or dual-boot.

4. If you have to do any Windows Administration, then you'll be using Windows at least part of the time (this is the boat that I'm in). Whether it be through Remote Desktop, or actually booting into a Windows machine--either way, you won't be able to make a complete break.

Do I miss Windows? Yes, a little. Am I ready to go back? I'm torn on this one. Part of me wants to go back, because it's more familiar. But part of me likes using Linux too. I can easily say that I won't be anti-Windows. And I can say that I will keep using Linux. And when the time comes that I can do everything I need here, I may consider switching for my day to day use. Does Windows miss me? Well... Windows Home Server misses this computer. It is sitting with a "Yellow" status because this computer hasn't backed up since Sunday night. Boy is it in for a shock :P

There are definitely some quirks in Linux that I don't like. For example, I have Chrome set as my default browser. Yet Evolution keeps opening up Firefox. aMSN keeps opening up Konqueror, and mailto: links keep opening up in KMail. So, I think I'll be figuring out how to change some of these things. What I like though is this: If I want to change these things, I can easily download the source code for the application, and code it differently. Can you do that with Outlook or Internet Explorer? NOPE. Can you do that with Windows applications that are hard-coded to use Internet Explorer for everything? Only if they are open-source... For that reason, Linux gets a + in my book.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Looking for Key Signings

2010-01-28T04:00:00.002-06:00

This is just a short post about Open PGP keys. I've configured some for my e-mail accounts, and am looking for people to sign them. Preferably people who are within driving distance of either Muscatine, IA, Decatur, IL, or Fremont/Omaha, NE.

If you are not within driving distance, but still want to sign keys (and have your keys signed), we can work out some method of doing it. If you are in the United States, we can verify the keys over the phone using a predetermined passphrase, or via electronic means.

For the people who aren't aware of what Open PGP is, it's a form of digital certificates. Where the certificates from companies like Thawte and VeriSign are only verified by that company, Open PGP is verified by multiple users. In the past, there have been "key signing" parties, where groups of people gathered together and signed each other's keys. However you don't hear about those anymore-- and there are none in my local area.

For more information about Open PGP, check out http://www.gnugpg.org. And if you have keys and are interested in signing mine (and having yours signed), send me an e-mail at sales at patscomputerservices dot com. Or feel free to leave a comment below, and we will make the arrangements after.

Have a great night:)

Patrick.

Linux Day 3

2010-01-27T22:29:00.001-06:00

Well today I finally got down to productivity with Linux. I completed one program in Java (the assigned one) and also one that was intended to demonstrate the concepts that we went over (polymorphism). I still have to go to the hotmail website to mark my mail as read (or delete some of it). On that note, I'm slowly migrating mail over to my gmail accounts.

As for being solely on Linux, I have spent a total of about 6 hours on Windows machines since Sunday night. 3 hours was at the college, tutoring someone in Visual Basic. The other three were in trying to solve a problem that I have with my UPS system. On my desktop, I have a UPS system that has USB connectivity to the computer. However, the one that I bought for my server doesn't have this feature. I've been trying to set up a configuration where my desktop will send the shutdown signal to the server when it goes onto battery power. Unfortunately, the applications for the desktop's UPS won't allow that. So, I'm going to check the addons for Windows Home Server to see if they support the UPS I currently have on my desktop. If they do, I'm going to swap them out and have the server shut the desktops down.

Here are some commands that you will find useful if you are considering the switch to Linux.

tar xvzf filename This will unpack compressed files (.tar, .tar.gz, .tar.bz2, .zip) and put the contents into a subdirectory.

./configure This will prep the source code for installation and check for potential errors. If any are encountered, configure will alert you to them, and not allow you to "make" the files.

make and make install These are the two commands which will create the executable files from source code, and then install the application. Note, that if you want to install to a folder other than your home, you will need to use sudo make install (or su on other systems).

sudo chmod 777 filename.ext This command will change the permissions on the filename to allow for execution. Typically when you download an executable file, it's permissions are read only (-r--r--r--). The "777" portion adds the write and execute to all three portions (owner, user, group).

sudo apt-cache search name This command will search for an installation package and report any instance of it. It's useful when you know the package title, but not the version numbers or complete package name. You may not have to use sudo, but it works that way.

sudo apt-get install name This is the command to actually install a package from the repositories. The repositories are the preferred method of installation, as the version of the packages are tested and certified for your distribution.

sudo apt-get -f install This command is used when certain dependencies are not met. You don't specify anything after the install, and Linux will take care of the rest. Then you can install the packages. Typically this is used in conjunction with dpkg.

sudo dpkg -i filename.deb This is the method of installing a .deb file that you've downloaded from a site other than the repositories. If all of the required dependencies are met, it will install without a problem. Otherwise, you will be prompted to use sudo apt-get -f install to fix the issues. dpkg is also used for repairing corrupted installations and cleaning out unnecessary temporary files and packages.

In tomorrow's post, I will dicuss moving from Outlook or Outlook Express/Windows Mail/Windows Live Mail to Evolution or KMail (and KOrganizer).

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Day 2 on Linux

2010-01-26T10:53:00.001-06:00

Well, Day 2 has started out interesting. First of all, KMail refuses to remember what I've called "Ham" and "Spam", so all of my e-mails are ending up in the trash folder--marked as read (even though I told it to put "Spam" in the Junk folder and not mark them read). After fighting with that for about 20 minutes, I decided to go back to Evolution. Since I'm forwarding all of my Microsoft e-mail to gmail now anyways, it's a mute point about which client I use. And Evolution seems to be working right.

The next thing that I had to figure out is how to get all of my folders in Evolution sorted the exact same way. Turns out, that it's a minor change (a workaround actually). Pick a folder, and set it up the way you want. Then Click on View--> Save Custom View. Click the Replace Existing radio button, and choose Messages. Click OK. After it filters all of the folders (which may take a while), they will all be sorted the way you want. The recommendation that I found was to use Received (instead of Date) if you want to sort by Date. This is because the sender's Date may be wrong, so the e-mails will show up in various places in the folder. Thanks to Andrew & Susanne's Blog for the information.

I think once I get everything ironed out, this won't be so bad. Ironically enough, some of the "issues" that I have in Windows are not present in Linux. For example, I use TweetDeck to read and post to Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, and LinkedIN. In Windows (with a Microsoft Wireless Keyboard and Mouse), my mouse won't scroll inside of the columns. However in Linux, using the same Microsoft equipment, it scrolls perfectly. Flash sites aren't as big of a problem in Linux as they are in Windows--although they can still become a OS stopper.

One thing that I don't find a lot of information on is Antivirus Programs for Linux. Typically if you search for them, you find posts and comments that say "You don't need an antivirus on Linux because you can't get a virus on Linux." And you'll find arguments about whether this is true or sound advice. Personally, I believe in the layered approach to Security. So, regardless of whether or not I ***can*** get a virus on Linux or not, I want to make sure I'm protected. Plus, unless you have a Crystal Ball (or your name is Nostradamus), I don't believe you when you say "You will never get a virus on Linux."

The layered approach is this:
1. Firewall
2. Antivirus
3. Antispyware
4. Antispam
5. Updating everything regularly
6. Smart surfing. (This could actually be #1 because it needs to be done regardless of the other 5).

I downloaded and installed Avast! Home Edition for Linux (which is Free). While doing a scan, I was configuring my e-mail and checking it, installing different applications, running Pidgin (Yahoo!), aMSN, and Skype, and TweetDeck. And I didn't notice a performance hit at all (this is on my Toshiba Laptop that I've mentioned in other posts). Which leads me to another "like" about Linux. I have yet to see my computer freeze up (like it does in Windows 7 on occasion).

Anyhow, it's time to post this. There will be another post entitled "Linux Day 1" which may come after this. That's because I sent it to the wrong e-mail address, so I have to repost it.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Linux Day 1

2010-01-25T22:34:00.000-06:00

*** I tried to send this out on Day 1, but it wouldn't go, so I'm posting it tonight.***

It's the end of the first day, and I spent 99% of it on Linux. The first half
hour, I was on Windows trying to get my Outlook calendar exported over
to my gmail account. After that, it was all Linux--all day. I moved a
mouse for about 30 seconds on Windows (while tutoring in Visual
Basic.NET) but that's all.

Things that I'm learning and solutions. The POP access for Live
(Hotmail) e-mail sucks. You get one folder -- inbox. It doesn't support
the UIDL standard (which I didn't understand until later on), which
means that clients like KMail and Evolution can't tell it "Hey, I've read
this." or "Hey, I've deleted that." Basically that means that I have to
read my e-mails, and then go to the website to mark them read (or wait
and mark them read in Outlook next week). And since I have messages
sorted into subfolders, I have to log into the website to check those...
This IS NOT a fault of Linux. It's a fault with how Microsoft implements
their POP access. I didn't try their IMAP as I'm not entirely sure that it
works (or is any better).

My Solution? I created gmail accounts for each one of my hotmail ones.
As I'm typing this, the Google mail importer is moving my mail over from
each account to it's respective Gmail account. It will take a couple of
days probably. But at least everything will be over. Now, I will start the
tedious task of changing my e-mail accounts everywhere to the gmail
account (so I can access it there instead of hotmail). Ironically enough,
I've had the hotmail account for 10 years--and would continue except
for the fact that I can only access it through Outlook, Outlook Express,
or Windows Live Mail (I'm choking on that) without having to jump
through hoops.

Enough of the Microsoft rant.

Problem 2. I can't get my SMIME certificates to validate in KMail, so that
I can send signed e-mails. They validate and work beautifully in
Evolution. I may end up going back to Evolution--although I have KMail
set up more or less how I want. If anyone knows how to get them to
validate, that would be awesome. The certificates are through
startssl.com.

I still miss some things about Windows. Especially Windows 7. I keep
hovering over my taskbar, waiting for the thumbnail to come up... For
the most part, it was just click and go with Windows. That being said, I
think it still took me a day or two to get it just the way I wanted it. So, I
can't say much about Linux in that respect.

I won't be able to print from Linux. My Lexmark X2350 isn't supported
(at least that I can find). Again, it's not Linux's fault. It's Lexmark who
isn't creating drivers for the Operating System. That's ok though. I've
got three other printers laying around that still work. If nothing else, I'll
see if one of them will work, and use that for the week.

Believe it or not, aside from my rants, I'm enjoying my time here. And if
I can find solutions to my problems, I may just stay here for a while. If
worse comes to worse, I can always flip to Windows long enough to print
or whatever, and come back here for the rest. Or, I can set up the
second printer (if it works with Linux) and print to it. I can even set it
up on Windows, and share it to Linux.

Tomorrow will be a new day. And tomorrow, I'll be getting down to
business. Classwork awaits.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Testing Post from Linux

2010-01-24T19:59:00.001-06:00

This is a test of sending posts via email in Kubuntu. I'm working on
configuring my KOrganizer, or KBlogger, so that I can post during next
week. However, I'm running into problems with KOrganizer.

In troubleshooting the problems, this was an option listed on my blog's
main page. So, if I can't post through an application, I may do it this
way. It's more convenient than logging into the website and submitting
it that way.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Hopefully the next posts will be from KOrganizer or KBlogger.

Almost ready to take the Plunge into Linux for the week.

2010-01-24T14:12:00.001-06:00

I’m in the last stages of getting ready for this. All I really have to do now is configure my WMC to record what I want for the week, figure out how to blog from Linux, and figure out how to watch the shows in Linux (since they are recorded as wtv by default).

With a little luck, I won’t have to worry about watching them (as I’ll be able to watch them in real time).

There are two caveats to this though. I will have to spend 4 hours using Windows this week. Solely because I’m tutoring at the college in their CCNA courses—and their computers are not set up for Linux. With a little luck, the instructor will have them installed on Tuesday (Fedora, but oh well) and I can possibly do my tutoring in Linux then.

If I can’t figure out how to watch the shows in Linux, I may have to either switch over to Windows in order to watch them, or switch over to Windows in order to convert them to the ms-dvr format that XMBC can view. Thanks Microsoft for NOT documenting the new format so other applications can use it. :@ (angry face, for those not familiar with emoticons).

One way or another, I will be blogging this week from Linux. Either through the web interface, or hopefully through a client. If you have any suggestions for blogging clients (or applications that can watch wtv movies) please comment.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Microsoft Releases Out of Band Update for Internet Explorer

2010-01-21T02:20:00.001-06:00

If you haven’t heard this already, there was an incident where Google and about 20 other companies were hacked last month. It allegedly is tied into the Chinese Government. Because of this, a few things have taken place.

Google is threatening to pull their Search engine out of China (at the very least they are threatening to stop censoring search results at the request of the Government) and they threatened to delay the release of their new phone in China.

People were throwing blame around at different companies and different applications for this hack. It turned out that the hack was done on Internet Explorer 6.x—due to an unannounced vulnerability.

Microsoft is reported to be releasing an out-of-band update today for this vulnerability. They also recommend the following steps to mitigate it:

If you are running Internet Explorer 6, it’s time to upgrade.
Regardless of whether you are planning on upgrading, you should set your Internet Zone to “High”
Internet Explorer 7 and 8 users (on Vista or Windows 7) should enable “Protected Mode”.
All users should enable Data Execution Prevention (DEP) on their computers. DEP prevents the computer from executing code which is stored in memory that is supposed to only contain non-executable code.
You should be running in non-Administrative accounts (or have UAC enabled) to restrict the rights of an infected user. This is something that everyone has been preaching since the dawn of Windows XP.

There are people who are trying to tweak this vulnerability to work in Internet Explorer 7 and 8 on Vista and Windows 7. One of the people claims that DEP won’t mitigate this, if the application doesn’t “opt-in” to it. I’m not sure if he is referring to Internet Explorer (which you will opt-in by enabling DEP) or the malicious code. Also I’ve read that some systems (namely netbooks and older CPU’s) do not have “Hardware DEP”, so enabling it doesn’t actually work. ***I can’t verify this***

So, what should you do???

First and foremost you need to get updates. This is regardless of whether you use Internet Explorer or not. It’s better safe than sorry—especially since some programs do not follow the rules about default browsers.

This is a good time to try out Firefox with the No-Script addon and also Google Chrome. I would even suggest Apple Safari, but I haven’t used it very much to know what it’s limitations are.

Some people would say this is the time to remove Windows, and switch to another Operating System (namely Linux) or buy a Macintosh. While I love Linux, I don’t think that is the best solution in this case (although I would encourage people to try a Live CD out). And I definitely cannot recommend spending $1,000+ on a new computer—just to get a Macintosh.

The short end of the stick is this. Update your computer after 10:00 am PST today. I would recommend an alternative browser. However, since this potentially affects Outlook, Outlook Express, Windows Mail, Windows Live Mail, and anything else that uses Internet Explorer, you NEED to update the computer.

On a side note, Microsoft is also releasing an advisory about a Kernel vulnerability. This requires the attacker to be able to log into your computer from your computer (meaning not from the Internet). It remains to be seen if they will have a patch for this today or not.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

A Call for Ideas

2010-01-20T22:15:00.001-06:00

I’ve completed the series on Programming, and am looking for new ideas. Through my Feedjit widget, I can see what most people are searching for when they arrive here. So, I’m asking for your suggestions.

If you came here searching for some topic, did I cover it? How could I improve (or cover it more adequately)? Are there related items that you would like to see covered? Or even specific items that I haven’t covered that you are interested in?

I will not be moving away from the security and tips that I have covered in the past. This is just something to help you learn more about your computer and how to make it work for you. So, I would appreciate any comments or e-mails with ideas. You can either comment below, or e-mail me at sales at patscomputerservices dot com (at = @ dot = .). Please make the subject “Ideas for posting”.

Thank you for stopping by, and have a great day:)
Patrick.

Learn to Program – Stage 7 (Maintenance)

2010-01-20T22:00:00.001-06:00

Stage 7 is probably the strangest stage. Why do I say this? Because maintenance means a lot of things. If the program is decently coded and no bugs are found, then the maintenance stage basically means leaving it sit. However, if bugs are found, then you will be going back through Stages 5 and 6 to correct them. And if more (or new) features are requested, then you may have to go back through all of the stages to complete the task.

At some point, maintenance actually becomes a whole new concept with it’s 7 stages. Although most of the hard work will be done already, so it won’t be as involved as the original coding process. One thing that you can do to ensure the ease of maintenance is to plan for the future of the program when you are designing it.

The concept of looking three steps ahead applies in chess and coding. As you’re designing the program in the early stages, consider the other things that you would throw into the program (if you could). Design the code so you can incorporate them into the program—if someone requests it.

But don’t go overboard with this. You don’t need (or want) to create empty classes for these items. But you want to code the program in such a way that you can add classes (and interfaces to those classes) with minimal rewriting. As you are creating your classes, decide if any of them could be easily tweaked to add features. If so, then design them in such a way that you can add those features.

Even now, when the idea of code optimization isn’t the “in thing” (because of large amounts of memory and CPU power), you should code in such a way that future versions will not increase the footprint dramatically. I would suggest coding for optimization anyhow.

Coding for optimization is similar to how people coded in the 80’s and 90’s. There was very little memory available to them, and the CPU’s weren’t as powerful (or capable) as they are now. So, the programmer optimized the code in such a way that it accomplished a lot without requiring a lot to do it. In short, it means that if you can code something to use 1MB of memory, why would you code it in such a way that it uses 3MB?

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Video: Stealing identities on the street is easy | Graham Cluley's blog

2010-01-18T12:39:00.001-06:00

Video: Stealing identities on the street is easy | Graham Cluley's blog

I saw this on Twitter yesterday, along with a recommendation to retweet it. I posted it to my facebook also because I have friends on there who have lots of information listed as public.

I was amazed in watching the video, just how many people were willing to give out their personal information. And it makes me wonder if they asked for Social Security Numbers (or the equivalent in the United Kingdom), would the people have given it too?

Either way, the most important point from the video is near the end—when they ask people “What is Identity Theft?” and most of them realize that the very information they gave out (Full name, Date of Birth, e-mail address) is enough to make them a victim…

So now I ask you… How many of you have this information public on your facebook, twitter, or myspace account?

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Learn to Program—Stage 6 (Documentation)

2010-01-17T13:56:00.001-06:00

This is probably the easiest stage—or should be. You should be creating documentation as you go through the previous stages (from your IPO and PAC charts to the flowcharts to pseudocode and UML diagrams and finally the code itself and results of testing). Stage 6 is writing up the final documentation explaining what you were trying to accomplish and how you did it. It should organize the documents from the other stages.

This is also the stage that most people hate to do. The thing is when someone else has to do Stage 7 (Maintenance) or someone wants to upgrade your programs to solve a new problem, this documentation will make their (or your) lives a million times easier. Documentation includes the comments inside of your code—but should not be limited to that.

You should also include any problems that you had and how you overcame them (or the workarounds that you put in place until you can overcome the problems). It should include features that you started, but could not implement—along with information on how far into the feature you were able to delve. Included in the problems are other experiences that you had. Even if they aren’t problems, if they are something that another coder may find useful (or you may find useful down the road), document them.

If you’ve been keeping accurate documents along the way, this should be the easiest step for you. If you haven’t been keeping accurate documentation, then you have just entered Dante’s fifth plane of Hell. Either way, this will ease the transition into Stage 7.

And with that, we will cover Stage 7 (Maintenance).

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

A week without Windows…

2010-01-16T13:12:00.001-06:00

Recently a friend of mine who writes for ZDNet went 48 hours on Ubuntu Linux. Aside from problems that he had in getting his VPN working and drivers, he seemed to have a favorable impression of Linux and Open Source. One of the biggest arguments was that 48 hours is not long enough to really get a feel for it.

I think 7 days would be a good start—especially for a college student. So, I plan on attempting it in a couple of weeks. I have a couple of caveats though…

One is that my e-mail addresses are almost all based on Windows Live—and Microsoft will not allow third-party clients to access their Live mail accounts (at least not easily). So, I may have to use Outlook (in Windows) for that. Otherwise, I will end up with around 500 to 1,000 e-mails at the end of the week.

The second caveat is that I’m a tutor in Visual Basic. So, I may have to fire up the laptop in Windows to look at a VB program (unless Eclipse or NetBeans has a VB integrated development environment that’s compatible with Visual Studio).

The third caveat is that right now, I cannot get into my Kubuntu installation on my laptop (and I have to repair GRUB on my desktop). This is due to a later kernel upgrade which breaks my laptop. So, I may have to go back to 9.04 in order to do this.. Unless the latest kernel will work. This is also one reason why I’m not starting immediately.

***Update of sorts**** I reinstalled Kubuntu last night on the laptop. Now it’s a matter of getting it to boot up and go. If I can get it working, then I’ll be ready sooner (maybe). I’ve also looked into configuring Hotmail as a POP e-mail in Evolution—the only problem being that i have mail in folders on the server (and Microsoft, in their infinite desire to make you use THEIR products, won’t allow the other folders to transfer through POP).

I may even consider using Crossover to utilize my Outlook (and possibly Visual Studio) during the time—if I can get a trial version of it. Or I may have to run Kubuntu in a VM (unless I can install it using wubi and have it use the existing Kubuntu partitions for it’s location). If I go the VM/wubi route, then I will limit my Windows to Visual Studio (and maybe Outlook if it’s too much of a hassle to do things through the web).

So I will start this on January 25 and conclude it on February 1. I’m looking for suggestions on how to overcome the obstacles that I have. If anyone has any ideas, please comment or e-mail me before January 23 (so I have enough time to implement them).

Have a great day, and stay tuned for more blog posts on this subject. :)
Patrick.

Learn To Program—Stage 5 Testing

2010-01-16T13:01:00.001-06:00

As I mentioned in my Stages of Programming post, this stage typically runs concurrently with Stage 4. As you create an executable version of the program, you’ll have people test it out. They’re looking for bugs, making suggestions for features that they want, and testing out the overall quality of the program.

Even a perfectly written program with all of the features is worthless, if it doesn’t do what the client/customer/end-user wants or needs. So one measure of quality is whether or not your testers want to use your program to accomplish the task. Another is the fact that the program runs, and they aren’t able to crash it (or get unexpected results).

If you’re programming for a limited customer (such as a corporation or a person), then you will have a small group of their employees testing your program. If possible, you will want to be on-site, although it’s possible to do it remotely.

If you’re programming for a larger audience (such as an Operating System or an application that the public will use) then you’ll want to get as large of a test-base as possible. For example, Microsoft has tens or hundreds of thousands of testers in their private betas—and countless more in the public betas, for their Windows Operating System releases. In the event that you are doing a public application (and a public beta) you will probably want to assemble a team for coding and triaging bug reports.

Even if your program is a simple upgrade to an existing program, you need testers. If you don’t test before releasing the upgrade, you could potentially break something that the users need, introduce logic (run-time) errors, corrupt data, or countless other problems. Any way you look at it, if you cost your customer money because of shoddy code, you’ll cost yourself more money.

Depending on the complexity of the program, your testing could be a few days to a year or more. And you could release one build or multiple builds. But it all needs to be planned in to the project. And you shouldn’t skimp on time, money, or resources for the testing.

For more information about the stages of testing, please look at this post.

Next we will cover Stage 6 (Documentation).

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

How to protect yourself against the Chinese Google hack - Computerworld Blogs

2010-01-16T00:30:00.001-06:00

How to protect yourself against the Chinese Google hack - Computerworld Blogs

By now you probably have heard about the “Google Hack”. If not, here’s a recap. Earlier in the week, Google announced on their blog that they were hacked in November (along with other companies in the Financial, Technology, and utility sectors). They posted that the hacking came from China, and in their case was limited to the Gmail accounts of Chinese bloggers and Chinese activists.

Google also announced that due to this attack, along with their feelings on censorship and freedom, they are no longer going to censor results in China—in other words, no more Google in China.

A lot of speculations where floating around about how the hackers were able to get the information. People were blaming Adobe (because of the flaws in their products). Well, it turns out that it’s Internet Explorer that’s being exploited.

This article goes into detail about how to limit your chances of being hacked through this vulnerability, and is especially important because the exploit is being “sold” in Hacking tookits.

One idea that wasn’t mentioned is using Firefox or Chrome to surf the web. Also, if you’re running Vista or Windows 7, you need to have UAC enabled (as much as it sucks in Vista). If you’re running XP or 2000 then you need to have a Non-Administrator account, and be using that for your daily actions. Only use your “Computer Administrator” or “Administrator” accounts when YOU are intentionally installing something.

You NEED to read the linked blog post, as the author goes into great detail about how to check to see if you’re protected, and enable it if not.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Learn to Program – (Stage 4) Coding

2010-01-14T11:04:00.001-06:00

Ok so we’ve covered the first three stages (defining the “problem” with IPO charts and PAC charts, flowcharting the program, and pseudocode and/or UML diagrams for the program). Now we’re on to actually coding the program in the required language. I won’t teach you the syntax of the language or any particular languages here. My intent is to give you some general guidelines to use when coding.

One of the things that I’ve learned in Java is to create a test application, the required classes, and the actual application. What this means is the test application will have specific data in it to make sure the methods and classes work as expected. You can delete the test application afterwards or comment it out.
Code the entire program to a point where it will run, then compile it. This means, if you’re using the test application, you code it and the classes and compile. Otherwise, you code the main application and classes then compile.
If the compiler has errors, typically it will say the error is at the last good line. So, if it says the error is on line 4, then you want to start looking around line 5 (because if it can’t compile the line, it doesn’t know it existed). Some compilers will list all of the errors that it finds, where others will stop at the first error.
If your program has a bunch of errors, fix the first one and compile again. Don’t fix all of them at once. This sounds time-consuming and illogical, but here’s the reasoning. Sometimes the other errors are only because of the first one. So, if you fix it and recompile, they may go away. However, if you fix all of them, you may introduce new errors.
Just because your program compiles doesn’t mean it’s right. Run it and try to break it. If it’s a program dealing with money, for example, try negative numbers and see what happens. In my Java class, we had to code a basic bank account program, where the only requirement to validate was that the balance was greater than the withdrawal amounts. I threw a negative in for the deposit amount and got some fun results. Technically, we should have validated that as well.
If you run into any unusual errors or situations, make a note of them. You never know when they’ll pop up again, so it’s good to have some idea of how to work your way out of them. This same rule applies for anything that you think may make a good class or library. Make note of the code used, and compare it to future programs. if you’re reusing the same code with different variables (of the same type), create a library and link to that instead of reinventing the wheel.
If at all possible, have other people use your application and break it for you. You can’t come up with all of the possible ways, but if you have five or ten people playing around with it, they’ll come up with more. Depending on the scope of the users (meaning how many will be using it in the end), you may want more or less people “beta testing” it.
Most importantly (especially if you work on multiple projects at once) keep your things organized. Slot out a specific time for each project, and when the time is up, move any papers or physical parts (discs, screenshots that you printed out, etc) to a file folder. Don’t leave it all on your desk—even in organized piles. Eventually, you WILL get them mixed up.

This last tip is good for everything. It just makes it easier for you to pick up where you left off. Along that line, make sure that you leave yourself (or someone else) adequate notes about where you’re at in the project. This way, if you end up shelving it for a week or two, or someone else gets assigned to it, restarting is just like continuing on.
The last tip that I can give you is when in doubt, look it up in the documentation. Every language has documentation and “API” lists to help you integrate their pre-defined code into your program. Use it. You’ll be surprised at what you learn.

Tomorrow, on to Stage 5.

Have a great day:)

Patrick.

Disasters and Scams Seem to Go Hand in Hand

2010-01-13T09:55:00.001-06:00

The earthquake in Haiti last evening is a tragedy and a catastrophe. And the natural desire to help is a very well-placed thing and should be acted upon. However, there are people who are more than happy to take advantage of our desires to help out.

Already there are a bunch of domain names being registered referencing the Haiti Disaster (http://isc.sans.org). They don’t specify how many or what names, but I’ll bet by the end of the day, a list will be up. This happens after every major disaster—or major news event. While some (or most) of the sites may be legitimate, there will be a large number that are not.

There is a new method going around also. Sending SMS requests via Twitter and Facebook. These messages say something like “SMS yele to xxxxx to donate $5 ($10) to Haiti”. Some will tell you that the donation is charged to your cell phone—others won’t. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t do this—I’m saying that you need to be aware of two things: 1) You’re going to see a $5.00 SMS charge on your phone bill (regardless of your “Text Messaging Plan” and 2) you honestly don’t know if that money will go to the Haiti Disaster, or someone’s lifestyle.

If you’re in the United States (and probably other countries as well), your best bet is to go to http://www.redcross.org (The American Red Cross) and donate through them. If you’re interested in the SMS route, try http://www.mgive.com or http://mobilegivinginsider.com as they are vetted by ISC. The American Red Cross is also on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/redcross (or @redcross).

If you have SMS “Premium blocking” enabled on your phone, you may have to call your wireless carrier first to approve the donation (or disable it while you do the donation). My suggestion is to monitor it to find out if you’re suddenly donating every day. If so, then you need to block the charges.

As I said, this is already a tragedy and a catastrophe. Please don’t let it become a financial tragedy for you. Donate—but do it through legitimate sources. Check the ISC lists and check out the site (and entities behind the sites) BEFORE you donate.

Myself, I’m waiting to see what my local chapter of Phi Theta Kappa is going to do. I’ll help them, or I’ll make a donation to the Red Cross. Maybe, I’ll even donate blood (since that will be needed as badly as money).

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Learn To Program—Stage 3.5 (UML Diagrams)

2010-01-11T11:18:00.001-06:00

In my Java course, we began working with UML Diagrams. UML is an acronym for Unified Markup Language. The easiest way to explain this is, it is a blend of objects, classes, pseudocode and flowcharts—all wrapped up into one. I’m not sure whether other languages support these diagrams, but I would imagine that you can still use them.

First a little explanation. Objects are similar to objects in real life. They have attributes (variables) like real-life objects, and they have actions that you can do with them (operations or methods) like real-life objects. Classes are objects.

Here’s an example. A ball is an object. It has attributes: size, shape, color, texture, contents (air, water, foam, etc), and graphics. You have operations that can be done with a ball: throw, catch, hold, bounce, inflate, and deflate.

A class is like the ball. It has attributes (the variables that make the class function), and operations (the methods inside which allow you to access and use the variables).

There are two main types of classes. Superclass and subclass. A superclass is a container for all of the common elements in it’s subclasses. And a subclass is the individual elements for it’s specific need.

The example of this that we’re using in Java is a ticket system. The superclass is the Tickets class, and the subclasses are how the tickets are delivered (will-call, e-delivery, or mailed to you (Printed)). The common elements among all of the subclasses are “event name, location, date, time, cost and number of tickets.” The individual elements are “e-mail address” (e-delivery), “booth location” (will-call), and “mailing address” (Printed).

Then you get into inheritance. Inheritance means that the subclass “inherits” or uses the common elements from the superclass—along with it’s individual elements (without having to create a new instance of the superclass). In UML Diagrams, inheritance is shown by an arrow connecting the subclass to the superclass, with the direction going towards the superclass.

The reason that I’m bringing this up, without going in depth about it is this: In Java, at least, if you create a UML diagram, you’re able to generate code from it automatically. What this will do is, it will create all of the variables for you, and create the names of the operations. You will still have to code the operations themselves, and tweak them a little to make them work. But, the UML will at least create the backbone for you. And it will simplify the inheritance issues for you (by automatically adding the extends superclass to the subclasses).

If you’re coding in Java, and wish to learn how to use the UML diagrams, there is a tutorial at http://netbeans.org/kb/docs/uml/class-diagram.html. Beware it’s intended for Netbeans 6.5 and has not been updated to Netbeans 6.7 or later. And in Netbeans 6.8, you have to use a third-party plugin to do UML diagrams. So, there are variations in how they say to do something, and how you’ll do it (minor things like left-clicking instead of right-clicking and Create … instead of Insert…). Also note that when you generate the code, you have to click outside of the Netbeans window and back for it to show up in your target project.

One last thing to note about UML diagrams (in Netbeans at least). If you have code already, you can reverse-engineer it into it’s UML Diagrams using the plugin.

Now, I’ve finally covered all of the ways to get to coding. Tomorrow, we’ll start talking in general about the actual coding. At the bottom of this post, I will include a picture of the UML Diagram from the tutorial.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Learn to Program – Stage 3: Pseudocode—Methods

2010-01-09T12:01:00.001-06:00

In today’s post I will discuss methods and classes, and describe how to use them in pseudocode. Methods and classes are inherently the same thing, but there are differences between them. Especially when you get to actual programming languages.

A method used to be called a subroutine or a procedure (in Pascal or Delphi, it may still be called this). It can be thought of as a break from the main program to do a specific task. Imagine if you will an assembly line that looks like this:

statiion 1: Put the outside of the product together (if it has multiple parts)
station 2: Put the inside parts into the product and anchor them.
station 3: hooks everything up to make the product work (wires, boards, etc).
station 4: tests the product to see if it works.
station 5: packs the item.

Now, imagine that after the product is tested, you have to let a QA inspector check it. Instead of them being in the line, you have to turn around and hand the product to them. Then they hand it back, and you send it down to the packer in station 5.

This is the same premise as what a method does. The main program handles the other things, and the method or class handles the specialty items.

So, what is a class? A class is a special type of method. In fact, it is a group of methods that all interact with the same type of data, and can be reused in more than one program without having to recode them.

In Pseudocode, you will typically start your methods after the STOP command in the main portion of your program. If you’re creating a new class, then you will have it on a separate page—along with it’s methods. And you will declare some type of variable with the class name for it’s type.

Methods:

START
      num miles
      num gallons
      num milesPerGallon
      print “Enter the miles”
      input miles
      print “Enter the gallons used”
      input gallons
      milesPerGallon = miles / gallons
      print “The miles Per Gallon are: “, milesPerGallon
      TrivialFacts()
STOP

void TrivialFacts()
      print “This is a subroutine or a method. We’ll now return you to the main program.”
return

(this pseudocode is loosely based upon an exercise in the book Programming Logic and Design, Introductory by Joyce Farrell.(pg 129). (Please note that this link is to the Amazon.com website, through my Affiliate account.)

Classes:

START
      num miles
      num gallons
      num milesPerGallon
      OtherClass differentClass
      print “Enter the miles: “
      input miles
      print “Enter the Gallons: “
      input gallons
      milesPerGallon = miles / gallons
      print “Your Miles per Gallon are: “, milesPerGallon
      differentClass.TrivialFacts()
STOP

class OtherClass()
public TrivialFacts()
print “You are now in a method from a different class”
return
endclass

I added the endclass as something to show the end of the class. In a programming language such as Java, you would create the class with the name Other Class, and where I had “OtherClass differentClass”, you would put:

“OtherClass differentClass = new OtherClass” (other languages may do this differently).

With this, we are ready to move on to Stage 4 in Learning to Program. Once again, if you have any questions or want me to go over something in more detail, please leave a comment or send me an e-mail to sales at patscomputerservices dot com (at=@ dot=.).

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Password Security revisited

2010-01-08T20:53:00.001-06:00

If your password is on this list, then you can be sure of two things: 1) You’ll never be able to log into Twitter with this password, and 2) It’s so easily guessed that you should be surprised no one has hacked your accounts already.

The list is the 370 passwords that Twitter has banned because they are too easy. It’s a small drop in the bucket of “dictionary words” and other weak passwords that you should avoid using.

If you want some tips on changing your password, then check out my related posts, or search for “how to create strong passwords” on Google.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Ransomware - Buy Back Your Own Files - F-Secure Weblog : News from the Lab

2010-01-08T13:09:00.001-06:00

Ransomware - Buy Back Your Own Files - F-Secure Weblog : News from the Lab

The people over at F-Secure have analyzed the latest in “Ransomware” (viruses which encrypt your data and charge you a “fee” to unlock it). In the end, they came up with a pretty profound solution to this problem—ok, it’s not profound, it’s something you should be doing anyhow.

Their opinion is this. If you are following a good backup strategy, and are infected with one of these worms, you have two choices 1) pay the money (which is a bad idea) or 2) delete the file and restore it from a backup.

Online backups services like Carbonite, Mozy, iDrive, Dropbox, and Amazon S3 (to name a few) may cost you more than the "Ransom", but in the end knowing that your data is safe—be it virus, fire, flood, or 2012, it’s worth the money.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Learn to Program – Stage 3 Psuedocode (Arrays)

2010-01-08T01:00:00.001-06:00

In today’s post, I want to discuss arrays and give you a little insight into how to use them in pseudocode.

Arrays:

Arrays are variables. You can look at arrays in quite a few different ways. You can look at them as a table (like an Excel Spreadsheet or a tic-tac-toe board), or you can look at them like multiple copies of the same variable. Either way, hopefully a graphical representation will help.

For the representation, I’m going to use two different variable names. cupOfCoffee and graphCoordinates. cupOfCoffee will be a one-dimensional array, and graphCoordinates will be a two-dimensional array.

cupOfCoffee1 = 0
cupOfCoffee2 = 0
cupOfCoffee3 = 0
cupOfCoffee4 = 0

is the same as saying cupOfCoffee[4] = 0.

Now for the two-dimensional array (this holds true for multi-dimensional arrays too—just more sets of numbers):

graphCoordinates[0,0] = 0
graphCoordinates[0,1] = 0
graphCoordinates[1,0] = 0
graphCoordinates[1,1] = 0

is the same as graphCoordinates[2][2] = 0. And it would look like this, if you printed it out:

00
00

The important thing to remember with arrays is that the computer considers 0 to be the starting number of an index.

Another way to look at the two-dimensional array is like this:

graphCoordinates[0,0] = 1
graphCoordinates[0,1] = 2
graphCoordinates[1,0] = 3
graphCoordinates[1,1] = 4

and would be represented like this graphCoordinates[2][2] = {1,2,3,4} (this is also how you would list one-dimensional arrays that have values other than 0). If you printed the array out, it would look like this:

12
34

Arrays are used to hold groups of related data. Such as if you have four cups of coffee, you could put the total ounces that are in each cup. Then as you drink one of the cups (it doesn’t have to be the first or last one), you can change the number to reflect the new level—without having to change any other cup.

In pseudocode, you will declare an array like you declare any other variable.

For a numeric array, it would be

num arrayname[index] = 0 (or {listed values}).

For a String, it would be

String arrayname[index] = “” (or {list of values in “’s separated by a comma}).

The other types will be the same. The “index” is the total number of values you want to store.

Putting values into an array can be done using a FOR statement, an input statement, or even with case statements. I will demonstrate with FOR statements here:

num MAXSIZE= 4
num array[MAXSIZE]= 0
FOR i = 0 TO MAXSIZE-1
array[i] = i
ENDFOR

The reason I have the MAXSIZE-1 in there is because you may have four spaces in the array, but the computer has indexed them as 0, 1, 2, 3 (where you’re thinking 1,2,3,4). So remember when dealing with arrays, you have to account for that difference between “Human indexing” and “Computer Indexing”.

In the FOR Statement above, if you changed the line array[i] = i to PRINT array[i], it would print the array.

In my next post, I will describe methods and how to use them in Pseudocode. Thank you for reading these posts and if there is anything that you want me to describe in more detail, please leave me a comment or send me an e-mail to sales at patscomputerservices dot com (at=@ dot=.).

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Learn to Program—Stage 3 Pseudocode examples Part 1

2010-01-07T00:31:00.001-06:00

In this post, I will show you some examples of pseudocode. I will also demonstrate some of the tips that were in my Cheat Sheet post.

Basic Pseudocode with an input and output:

START
     num numberOne
     num numberTwo
     num answer
     PRINT “Enter number 1”
     INPUT numberOne
     PRINT “Enter number 2”
     INPUT numberTwo
     PRINT “The answer is “, numberOne + numberTwo
STOP

An example of pseudocode which uses a constant:

START

     string HEADER = “This is a constant. It won’t be changed at all”
     num numberOne
     num numberTwo
     num answer
     PRINT HEADER
     PRINT “Enter number 1”
     INPUT numberOne
     PRINT “Enter number 2”
     INPUT numberTwo
     PRINT “The answer is “, numberOne + numberTwo
STOP

An example of a simple if then else statement:

START
     num numberOne
     num numberTwo
     PRINT “Enter number 1”
     INPUT numberOne
     PRINT “Enter number 2”
     INPUT numberTwo
     IF numberOne > numberTwo THEN
         PRINT “Number 1 is larger”
     ELSE
         PRINT “Number 1 is not larger”
     ENDIF
STOP

An example of nested if statements:

START
     num numberOne
     num numberTwo
     PRINT “Enter number 1”
     INPUT numberOne
     PRINT “Enter number 2”
     INPUT numberTwo
     IF numberOne > numberTwo THEN
         PRINT “Number 1 is larger”
     ELSE
         IF numberOne == numberTwo THEN
              PRINT “The numbers are equal”
         ELSE
             PRINT “Number 1 is not larger”
         ENDIF
     ENDIF
STOP

You should notice two things in the previous pseudocode: 1) The blocks are lined up with each other vertically. 2) LIFO (the second if-then-else statement is ended before the first). Your pseudocode and code (including HTML code for webpages) should look like this. Typically everything is indented 3 or 4 spaces.

Also, you will notice that I did a print statement before each input. Get in the habit of this now—as your users are not psychic, so you need to tell them what you want before you ask for it (the input statement).

An example of a while statement:

START
     string name
     num age
     string telephoneNumber
     GET name, age, telephoneNumber
    WHILE NOT EOF
          PRINT name, age, telephoneNumber
          GET name, age, telephoneNumber
    ENDWHILE
    PRINT “Finished processing the data file”
STOP

In this example, when the flow hits the endwhile, it will check to see if the condition is met from the data it has. This is why you always get a new piece of data before you hit the endwhile. Otherwise, you’ll compare the first line and print it continually (infinite loop).

An example of a simple FOR Loop:

START
     num count
     num LASTNUMBER = 5
     FOR count = 1 to LASTNUMBER
          PRINT count
     ENDFOR
STOP

You don’t need to increment count, as the for loop does this for you. If you don’t list a STEP at the end of the FOR statement, then it assumes you want to add 1.

An example of the proper way to break a FOR Loop early:

START
     num count
     num LASTNUMBER = 5
     num TESTNUMBER = 4
     num average
     num totalScore
     num score
     count = 0
     FOR COUNT = 1 to TESTNUMBER
          PRINT “Enter the score of the “, count, “ test”
          INPUT score
          totalScore = totalScore + score
     ENDFOR
     count = 0
     average = totalScore / TESTNUMBER
     FOR count = 1 to LASTNUMBER
           IF average > 70
                PRINT “You passed”
                count = LASTNUMBER + 1
           ENDIF
     ENDFOR
STOP

This isn’t the best example, as it really doesn’t do anything. However I will show this again later on with an array in it. Then it will make a little more sense. For now, just understand that if the average is > 70, it will print out “You passed” and quit checking (by setting count to a number outside of the range of the FOR loop). This is because once you have an answer, you don’t need (or want) to continue looking.

An example of a FOR Loop with a step other than one:

START
     num count = 0
     FOR count = 1 TO 30 STEP 2
          PRINT count
     ENDFOR
STOP

This will print 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13,….,27, 29 and end. You don’t need to increment count because the STEP 2 sets count = count + 2.

In my next post, I will demonstrate arrays and introduce you to methods.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

It’s Y2K Revisited…

2010-01-06T10:38:00.001-06:00

As a few people have found out, the Y2K bug came back to bite some products. It’s not the nightmare scenario that the media predicted for January 1, 2000, but it is an issue that raises questions. Such as “Why did this happen?” “Why wasn’t it fixed the first time?” “Will it happen again?”

A little history and a lesson first…

In the 1990’s (actually earlier but the issue was raised during the 90’s), software developers realized that they had a problem. Their programs and operating systems used a two-digit format for years (yy). When they got to 2000, they were going to have issues with the dates, because the dates would show up as negative numbers (or just the wrong dates). So, they scrambled to fix the problem—and succeeded since Y2K didn’t turn out like the Media thought. They had to fix millions or billions of lines of code, so they took shortcuts in some cases. Which leads us to Y2K Round 2…

One of the shortcuts that they used was basically this:

IF year < 10 then
dateValue = 110 – year
ENDIF

This would guarantee them accurate dates up through 2010. And in theory, give them 10 years to find all of the code and fix it. But, somewhere along the lines, people said “Well it wasn’t that big of a deal, so we’re not going to waste time or money on fixing this.” Or other reasons/excuses were given for not fixing the code.

So, here we are at 2010 and guess what happens. Programs that were fixed with this quick-fix-engineering are breaking. ATM’s, some security and antispam suites, and other programs are rejecting updates and not working properly. So, companies who didn’t post updates are scrambling to fix this in any way they can.

One company is sending their updates out as of December 31, 2009 until they can fix the problem.

One company did the novel thing and changed the IF statement to 20…. Yeah, that’s a fix. It’s just going to create the problem in 10 years (unless they ACTUALLY fix it this time).

“Why isn’t this affecting everyone and everything?” you may be asking. Well, that’s because some companies took it a step further. Instead of saying 2010 (or 110) they extended everything out to 2038. Microsoft had already factored this in when they created MS-DOS 3.3x and above. If you have one of those old DOS Disks (and a way to run it), put a year in like 30 and see what you get. If the year is below 38, it will show up right.

So, the last question is, “Will this happen again?” It very well could in 10 years or 28 years. A lot of this depends on whether IT departments (and the creators of compilers) look at this as a warning shot. If they do, and they budget in to fix their code, then everything should turn out right. However, if they choose to ignore the few cases because “It wasn’t the end-of-the-world that we thought Y2K would be”, then I really don’t think you’ll like January 1, 2039 very much.

For non-developers, check your information (bank statements and such) and make sure everything’s still working right. For developers, start fixing that code. Change the dates to 4 digit years, instead of the two-digits that they currently show. If the compiler doesn’t support that, maybe it’s time to migrate to one that is more current.

For IT managers, if you have “in-house” code, then I suggest you start budgeting in for fixing this issue. You’ve got a few years to go, but you’ve also got a lot of lines to go through. It’s not going to happen overnight. I’d make the most of every minute you have.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Learning to Program – Stage 3 Pseudocode commands and reserved words

2010-01-04T10:29:00.000-06:00

As I mentioned in the last post, pseudocde phrases vary, depending on whether you are using a generic version or language specific version. The pseudocode that I will be showing you is generic. You can use it to convert to any language because the phrases are not syntax specific.

Keywords:

START: This is the start of your pseudocode. It compares to the start symbol (oval) in your flowchart.

INPUT: This is the input that you use when the user will type a value in. It corresponds to the parallelogram symbol (input) in your flowchart.

GET: This is the input that you will use when reading from a data file. Like Input, it corresponds to the parallelogram symbol in your flowchart.

PRINT: This is how you will output to the screen. It corresponds to the parallelogram symbol in the flowchart also (The symbol is both input/output).

WHILE: This is the keyword for the while do loop (or while endwhile loop). There is no corresponding symbol in the flowchart, but it can be represented by the loop where the condition is at the beginning.

ENDWHILE: This is how you’ll show the end of the statements inside of the while loop.

FOR: This is the beginning of a for loop. In the flowchart, the for loop is represented by the initial value being set, then the condition being checked, and the statements being carried out if the conditions is not true (along with an incrementer for the variable).

ENDFOR: This is the pseudocode representation of the end of the statements inside of the for loop.

IF- THEN: This is the decision statement “If condition is true, then”. It’s represented by the diamond symbol in the flowchart.

ELSE: This is the statement that is used if the condition is false, and you want to perform some action in that situation.

ENDIF: This is how you will denote the end of the if-then-else statements.

CASE: This will follow the Select statement and will allow you to streamline the actions based on which condition is true. You will select the variable by saying “Case based on variable”.

BREAK: This isn’t necessary, however some programming languages require this inside of the case statement to ensure that only the specific actions are taken. It’s good to put in for pseudocode, but you should check to see if it’s required for the language that you’ll be coding in.

ENDCASE: This is the end of the case block.

DO: This is the statement that you will use for a DO UNTIL Loop. As I mentioned in the terms post, this is hardly ever used. It’s represented by the loop where the condition is at the end in flowcharts.

UNTIL: This is the statement that will end your DO Until loop and should include the condition.

STOP: This is the last statement in the main portion of your pseudocode. It’s represented by the Stop (oval) in your flowchart.

RETURN: This is the end statement in a method or class. It is represented by the stop symbol (Oval) in a flowchart. Your methods will appear AFTER the Stop command in your pseudocode, however in some languages the actual methods must appear before they are used.

You will want to put the keywords in all caps to differentiate from other words and phrases in the pseudocode.

Some other words that you will use are:

num: representing numeric or decimal types.

char: representing single characters, numbers, or symbols.

string: representing multiple characters, numbers that are not going to have mathematical operations performed on them, or symbols.

boolean: representing true and false.

In my next post, I will demonstrate some examples of pseudocode.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Feds Warn Small Businesses to Use Dedicated PC for Online Banking | Threat Level | Wired.com

2010-01-04T10:28:00.001-06:00

Feds Warn Small Businesses to Use Dedicated PC for Online Banking | Threat Level | Wired.com

This story is a few days old, but it’s worth blogging about (especially since most people will be returning to work tomorrow). The FBI, along with the American Banking Association, are recommending that small businesses set aside one computer for solely doing your online banking. No Facebook, No Twitter, No E-mail…. Just accessing your online bank.

It’s a good idea—if it works. But, without strong policies that prevent employees from using the computer to surf other websites, it won’t fix anything. One other way to safeguard this is to lock the computer in a room, and only give the keys to people who need to have access to your bank. Of course, the same problems arise (about not having policies in place).

This is also a good idea for families at home (especially those with multiple computers). Dedicate one computer for your online banking and shopping. Make sure that no one else can physically access it (lock it in your study or a room that serves as your home office) unless you want them to (your spouse).

Another idea that would work for everyone was presented here. The author suggested that you use a Linux-based LiveCD to do your online banking and shopping. While this has the disadvantage of you having to reboot into the CD and then reboot back to Windows, it has the advantage of being able to be used on any computer (instead of one dedicated computer).

Either option will work. As long as you follow a few basic rules. Keep the computer (liveCD) updated. In the case of the dedicated computer, have Automatic Updates turned on, a firewall and antivirus installed (and updated), and only use it for the purposes intended (don’t check your e-mail on it). In the case of the LiveCD, each time you boot it, you can get the updates (although it will be every single update that has been released—every time you reboot it). You also can burn a new LiveCD every time they release one. This will minimize the amount of updates that you have to get each time you boot up.

My preference right now is the Live CD. The reason for this is because Linux is not being targeted as much as Windows. So, you have less chance of getting hit with spyware or a virus on the Live CD. Plus, the CD is “read-only” which means that the viruses cannot infect the CD. The next time you boot up, no viruses.

However, you are still vulnerable to phishing attacks. So, I cannot stress this enough. DO NOT CHECK YOUR E-MAIL OR SURF THE WEB with the computer or Live CD.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Underground Services Let Virus Writers Check Their Work | Threat Level | Wired.com

2010-01-03T12:56:00.001-06:00

Underground Services Let Virus Writers Check Their Work | Threat Level | Wired.com

I ran across this post yesterday and decided that it’s definitely worth linking to. People ask me “Which antivirus is the best?” And “What do you think about <insert antivirus name>?” At some point in my answer, I try to remind them that the virus writers are checking their work against those same antivirus programs that you are using.

This means, like a software developer, they won’t release their work until it’s of a high “quality”. In the case of a software developer, it’s how bug-free the program is. In the case of a virus creator, it’s how FEW antivirus programs catch their work.

The problem is, that sites like the ones listed in this article (not VirusTotal or Jotti) aren’t helping any. Where VirusTotal and Jotti will submit the file to the antivirus companies, the other sites absolutely guarantee that no antivirus company will see the file (from them).

Are they legal? I’m not entirely sure. Should they be legal? Yes. As much as I hate saying that, they should. It would be nice if they were regulated in a fashion that required them to submit the files, but they should be legal (because in order to make them illegal, you also hit the “good” sites).

Take a look at this article. It will open your eyes a little more about how effective your antivirus is, and why.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Learning to Program – Pseudocode (Stage 3) an overview

2010-01-03T12:31:00.001-06:00

The next stage in writing a good program is to put the flow into pseudocode. There are quite a few variations on the types of pseudocode that you may run into. Some will be generic (like I will be showing) and others will be language-specific. None are better than the others. They are just more appropriate for certain applications.

I created a cheat sheet for some students that I tutored this fall. I will post it here in it’s entirety along with some additions and corrections.

1. If you’ve created a flowchart, then half of your battle is won. While you may have to remember what statement goes with each shape in the flowchart, the rest is already in front of you.

2. Every beginning has an ending. The words that make up the beginnings are:

i) Start

ii) For

iii) While

iv) If

v) Do

vi) Case

vii) { (This is used in programming languages—not so much in Pseudocode)

viii)Begin

3. The words that make up the endings are:

i) Stop

ii) EndFor

iii) EndWhile

iv) EndIf

v) Until

vi) EndCase

vii) } (This is the ending point in some programming languages which goes with the {).

viii)End

4. Everything should be indented 3 or 4 spaces from the previous vertical level, and everything needs to be lined up vertically in the level. For example, “Start” is the first level, so everything else needs to be indented 3 or 4 from that and lined up vertically. If you put another “beginning” statement inside, then everything between it and the ending statement needs to be lined up 3 or 4 spaces in from it, and vertically aligned.

5. You should declare your variables before you use them. At the top of the pseudocode or flowchart. You will want to declare them at the top of the program or method also.

6. Every variable needs a type declared. “num” for numbers, “string” for words or phrases (or groups of numbers with symbols in them), “char” for single characters, single numbers that are not used for calculations or anything else, or symbols, and “Boolean” for True/False answers.

7. Variables are to be written in “camel case” like this: variableName for variables that can be modified, and ALL_CAPS for constants (variables which cannot be modified after they are declared). And most importantly, they need to be written the exact same way throughout the program.

8. If your program involves numbers (such as a “for index = 1 to 10” or “case 1:”) the numbers are listed as numbers, and not written out as words.

9. Values are assigned to the variables during the declaration phase (initializing) and the actual program phase. The value can be a number, string, character, true/false, or even another variable. It must match the type of variable though (cannot assign a string to a num variable, for example).

10. When assigning a value to a variable, the variable should be on the left side of the =. Assigning a value is the same thing as storing the value in the location that is named by the variable (like storing a paper inside of a file folder).

11. If you’re incrementing a variable, this means that you are taking the original value that is stored in the variable, adding another value to it, and then storing the answer back in the variable. It’s typically written like this: variable = variable + value or variable += value (in programming languages).

12. Above all things, variables and constants and method names should be meaningful. You should be able to take pseudocode that you write today, and code it into a programming language at any point in the future. And you should understand what it does at any point in the future.

13. “eof” or other sentinel values are used to signify the end of processing or end of a data file. While you may put “while not eof” in your pseudocode, in the actual program you will see something like “while variableName != “value”” (for example, while studentName != “xxxx”).

14. Methods are modules. Methods are reusable procedures or classes. Classes are able to be used in more than one program, while “methods” are individual to each program.

15. One of the first things that you want to do is create an IPO chart. Figure out what the inputs are, what processing will take place (if any) and what the outputs are. If something is the same (an input and an output) you only need to worry about it once. From the lists, you will create your variables.

16. Phrases like “prompt the user” or “accepts” or “gets from the user” mean that you will use an input statement. If that is the case, you must have an associated print statement before it, so the user knows what you expect them to give you.

17. Phrases like “continuously accepts” or “reads” or “gets from a data file” mean that you will use a get statement. You list everything that you are getting on one line, and don’t need a print statement before it.

18. Initialize your variables. GIGO is a valid thing. GIGO means “Garbage In Garbage Out.” In other words, if you don’t know what you’re starting with, you can’t know what you’re going to end up with. Initializing your variables ensures that you know what you’re starting with.

19. Remember LIFO (Last In First Out). If you use nested statements, the last one you create, should be the first one you end.

20. Your basis for handling data should be this: Get the first piece of data. Deal with that piece of data. Then get another piece. If you’re using a sentinel value, you need to get a new piece in order to check to see if the sentinel value is triggered or not.

21. Finally remember that no matter how unstructured the program looks, if every chunk has one entry and one exit, then it is structured. And it’s what you are shooting for.

22. Cohesion and coupling are part of this. Cohesion and coupling mean that every piece does one thing, and the main piece coordinates everything. You wouldn’t have someone who’s great at painting and horrible at hammering do the hammering, while someone else does the painting. This same theory applies with your methods and programs.

Disclosure Policy for my blog

2010-01-02T18:38:00.002-06:00

This policy is valid from 02 January 2010

This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. For questions about this blog, please contact Patrick Dickey (sales at patscomputerservices dot com).

This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation.

This blog abides by word of mouth marketing standards. We believe in honesty of relationship, opinion and identity. The compensation received may influence the advertising content, topics or posts made in this blog. That content, advertising space or post will be clearly identified as paid or sponsored content.

The owner(s) of this blog is not compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the blog owners. If we claim or appear to be experts on a certain topic or product or service area, we will only endorse products or services that we believe, based on our expertise, are worthy of such endorsement. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer or provider.

This blog may contain content which might present a conflict of interest. This content will always be identified.

The companies whom I have affiliations are the following: Commission Junction (providing affiliations with certain companies), ClickBank (providing affiliation with certain companies), Chitika Ads, Panda Security (through Commission Junction), StopZilla (through Commission Junction), ZoneAlarm (through Commission Junction), ESET (through Commission Junction), AVG (through Commission Junction), Acronis (through Commission Junction), Amazon Associates, Carbonite (through Commission Junction), JourneyEd (through Commission Junction), and any company listed under my "Affiliations and Recommendations" section.

I am also a shareholder in Microsoft, Corporation, IGate, NetGear, Cisco, AMD, Activision, Nvidia, and other tech companies (however my total aggregated number of shares would be around 15). As I purchase stock in companies that I may post about, I will list them here.

Any other companies not listed here, that I have affiliations with, will be clearly identified as such.

To get your own policy, go to http://www.disclosurepolicy.org

More Books that I Recommend

2010-01-02T17:06:00.001-06:00

In April, I posted a list of books that I’m reading (or will be) and recommend. This is an update to that post.

The links that I am providing to these books are through my affiliate listing at Amazon.com. So, any purchases that you make through these links will provide a small commission back to me.

The latest books:

Textbooks: (These may be somewhat expensive, but they will definitely teach you the information you need to know.)

Problem Solving and Programming Concepts (8th Edition)This book is the basis for some of my “Learn to Program” information.

Java How to Program, 7th Edition This is the book that Colorado Technical University uses for their Java Programming Courses (as of December 29, 2009).

Non-Textbooks: (These are other computer-related books that I feel are worth recommending. Some are books that I’ve read, and others are books that I feel do an excellent job of educating the reader.)

Practical Guide to Linux Commands, Editors, and Shell Programming, A (2nd Edition) This book was a textbook that I used for my "Unix" course. While I don't recommend it as a textbook (due to the organization of the first edition), it is still the first thing I grab whenever I have to figure out how to do something in Linux.

Networking For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech)) This is the first of two "for Dummies" books that I'm recommending. These books are defnitely not an indication of a person's intelligence level. They are, however, a very good layman's explanation of the subject of Networking and Computers.

PCs For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech)) Like the Networking for Dummies book above, this is an excellent "layman's term" explanation of how a Windows PC works. Subjects like the GUI (Graphical User Interface), Files, Networking, and security are described in a way that everyone should understand. I purchased an older version of this for my 73 year old mother, and she still uses it. **Note the description on Amazon refers to Windows 95/98, however the book is current for Windows 7.**

Macs For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech)) It wouldn't be fair, if I didn't put a Mac for Dummies book up. While I haven't read this book, I have to say that if the reputation of the series holds up, it will do just as good of a job explaining the Mac OS and computer, as the PC's side does.

Microsoft Office 2007 For Seniors For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech)) While this book is aimed at Seniors who are learning Office 2007, it's a good reference for anyone that is just starting with the suite. You learn the basics in Word, Excel, Outlook, aand PowerPoint.

Linux For Dummies, 9th Edition Like the Mac for Dummies book, it wouldn't be fair to not include a Linux for Dummies book in my list. Also, I've used a variation of this book (RedHat 7 for Dummies) and was very impressed with their explanations. This book covers Ubunutu, gOS (which is found installed on some computers, and Fedora.

I will cover more books in a future post.

Have a great day:)

Patrick.

Kubuntu 9.10 and XBMC An Experiment…

2010-01-02T17:03:00.001-06:00

The title of this belies itself a little. Due to some issues with my laptop, I can’t run Kubuntu or XBMC natively (in other words, I run it through a Virtual Machine in VirtualBox). So, the experiment is flawed a little. However, I do have a desktop that I dual-boot between Windows 7 and Kubuntu 9.10 (with XBMC installed).

In my previous post about XBMC, I talked about how it was a potential Windows killer for me. The fact that it wasn’t supported for Karmic, made that a moot point. Now, I’m testing out 9.11 to find out if it’s everything that the previous version was.

Installation:

I created a script out of the commands that are listed on the XBMC website. If you want to this, simply copy the commands (listed below) to Kate, and save it as a .sh file (I chose ‘install-xbmc.sh’ for mine). Then either use sudo chmod 777 scriptname.sh (in the terminal) or Right click on it and choose the Properties and make it executable there. Please note, that this script is only guaranteed to work on Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Edubuntu 9.10 or later.

Script Commands:

  sudo add-apt-repository ppa:team-xbmc
  sudo apt-get update
  sudo apt-get install xbmc
  sudo apt-get update

When you’re ready to install, simply run the script in a command line (.scriptname.sh or ./scriptname.sh). You’ll have to enter your password for the sudo command a couple of times. But it will take care of the rest.

If you’re on an older version of Ubuntu/Kubuntu, or a different distro, then you will want to go to http://xbmc.org/wiki/?title=Installing_XBMC_for_Linux and follow the commands there for your specific distro.

Running XBMC and features.

Like previous versions of XBMC, this one doesn’t include the capability to record TV natively. However you can watch and record TV from mythTV or other applications for Linux or Windows.

You have the videos, weather, scripts, programs, music, and system options when you open XBMC. The scripts and programs options are mainly for people who choose to make their linux box into an XBMC box (where they boot into XBMC instead of a regular desktop).

In the weather option, you can select three “Area Codes” which are location names. Personally, I would like to be able to add more than three, but that’s my only gripe. The current temp will appear on your main display, and you can click it to get the forecast (or click “Weather”).

You can add sources for video and music, and watch recorded videos that way. Or you can insert a DVD and watch videos through it.

Problems that I’ve encountered:

I ran into a few issues while trying this out with my network. I can play DVD’s without a problem through XBMC, however when I try to access my TV Shows or videos that are stored on my Windows Home Server, the sound cuts out completely. It’s almost like the audio codec is missing, but in some cases the sound starts and then stops.

Also I have not found the way to get XBMC to appear as an option on my KMD login screen (where I can choose KDE, Gnome, or failsafe). I plan on looking into these things and will post an update about what I find out.

Final Thoughts:

If I can get the issues with audio fixed, and figure out how to set the computer up to login to XBMC instead of KDE or Gnome, I will definitely use it as my default for watching movies. As of right now, I have to boot into Windows to record TV shows, but as soon as I can purchase a video card that’s Linux compatible, I will be installing MythTV and migrating over.

Have a great day:)

Patrick.

Learn to Program – Structure and Spaghetti Code

2010-01-01T19:55:00.001-06:00

Spaghetti code is a term that’s hardly used anymore. It basically meant that if the flow of your program was all over the place (and not very structured) then it looked like a pile of spaghetti. Imagine trying to fish one piece of spaghetti out of the pile, and you have an idea of what it was like to trace code.

The biggest culprit in spaghetti code was the command GOTO. GOTO meant exactly what it sounds like. Go To whatever point I’m telling you. If you realized at some point in the program that you needed to get a piece of information, GOTO the point where you get that information. Need to print something again? GOTO the line where you printed it. And on and on and on…

Structured programming is the concept of a single flow throughout the program. Every stage in the code (or every block of code in the case of loops and decisions) has one entry point, and one exit point. Sometimes, it may not look like this is true, but if you follow the flow, you’ll see the structure.

Take an If-then statement for example. You enter the if- then statement from the top. If the condition is true, then you follow that path, and if the condition is false, you follow that path. Either way, both conditions will lead to the exact same place in your code (the one exit).

An example of spaghetti and structure lies in this for loop:

First Spaghetti code (note the GOTO which breaks you out of the FOR loop)

10 FOR I = 1 to 5
20 IF somevalue = true THEN
30 GOTO 50
40 NEXT I
50 PRINT “I’m out of the for loop now.”

Note how if the condition is true, you jump out of the FOR loop and it doesn’t end gracefully. However if the statement is false, I is incremented and the FOR loop ends normally. This means there are two exits from the loop.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Now structured:

FOR I = 1 to 5
      IF somevalue = true THEN
           I = 6
      ENDIF
ENDFOR

If the condition is true, then you set I to a point where it will gracefully exit the FOR loop. Otherwise, the “ENDFOR” statement will increment I to the next number. One entry, one exit. Either way, you will always see the ENDFOR, and you will always check to see if you should leave.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

As you’re creating your flowcharts, pseudocode, or even writing your code, you should take the time to try and “dry run” through the program. See if you can follow the flow and logic. If you can’t, then it’s probably not as structured as you want. Better yet, see if someone else can follow the flow and logic (since you may be able to understand your logic better than they can). Also check to make sure that every block of code has one entry and one exit.

Your goal is to make the program as efficient and structured as possible. This reduces the amount of memory needed, amount of processing needed, and the amount of headaches that someone will have in the future when they have to maintain the code.

With this, I will venture on to pseudocode.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Learn to Program (Stage 2)—Flowcharting – Methods and Classes

2010-01-01T19:41:00.001-06:00

In previous posts, I described the symbols used in flowcharting and an idea of the flow in a program. I also discussed the different decisions and loops that you may encounter in a program. I pointed out that while you may use a name for the loop or decision, you do not put that name in the flowchart. This is because the flowchart is only meant to be a graphical representation of how the program will flow through (not the actual code it will use to make that flow).

In this post, I will discuss the flow of using methods and classes. However, a little explanation of where you will use methods and classes is in order.

A method is used whenever you have some code that you will use in different places throughout your program. An example of this would be if you print output that follows a certain format (a string, then a number, then a number for example). As long as the variables passed into the method are the same type as the variables receiving in the method, they don’t have to be the same (or contain the same information).

A class is a special type of method. In general, a class is a method that is able to be used by more than one program. For example, if you have an accounting program, and a program that handles cash register duties, they both may need to use a method which calculates sales tax. Instead of writing this method twice, you would create a class and call it in both programs as needed.

The beauty of methods and classes (when it comes to flowcharts) is this. They are both called in the exact same way. The main difference is in the pseudocode or code, when you declare that you’ll use a class (you don’t declare methods which are a part of the same program). Classes are stored as a separate file.

There are four scenarios for calling a method: calling a method without arguments and without returning a value, calling a method without arguments and returning a value, calling a method with arguments and not returning a value, and calling a method with arguments and returning a value. I will show you the flowcharts for each of these in order.

Calling a method without arguments and not returning a value.

Calling a method with arguments and not returning a value.

Calling a method without arguments and returning a value.

Calling a method with arguments and returning a value.

In older programming languages (COBOL or Pascal for exmaple), you would see the calling without arguments and returning a value in read statements. However it’s rare to do this now. The most common methods that you will see are calling with arguments and not returning a value, and calling with arguments and returning a value.

There are other aspects of flowcharting that you will run into. However most of them can be broken down into the different types that I showed you here already. It’s more a matter of breaking the requirement down into the individual steps to achieve it and flowcharting it out.

So, with this, we shall move onto pseudocode.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Learn to Program—Flowcharting (Stage 2) – Case Statements

2009-12-31T19:21:00.001-06:00

In my previous post, I described decisions and loops. There is a special type of decision called a select- case statement (or case statement). This decision is intended to replace the need for nested if- then statements. First, I need to delve into the if- then statement a little more.

If- then- else statement:

An if- then- else statement is just an if statement that says “If the condition is true, then perform this action, else if the statement is false, perform this action.”

A nested if statement basically is an if –then else –if statement. An example of this would be if average > 90 then grade is an “A” else if average > 80 then grade is a “B”……

Select- Case statement:

A select Case statement is a cleaner version of the nested if statement. By cleaner I mean that you don’t have as much coding and as many decisions to make. You have one decision (question) and list the possible outcomes. Each one has their actions.

The best example of a Select- case statement is a menu. Of course, if there are only two or three options, then an if/else/if statement may be better.

Now that we’ve covered all of the decisions and loops that you’ll typically run into, we’ll move on to methods and classes. Remember, this stage is just intended to see the flow, so don’t worry if you don’t understand what they are.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Top Ten Events in Tech –2009

2009-12-31T11:16:00.001-06:00

It seems that everyone is doing their Top 10 this or that in 2009. So, I’m throwing my two cents into the mix. This isn’t your run-of-the-mill story either. Some (or most) of these are listed in other places, but the reasons may be different. And the ordering may be different also. So, here we go:

10. Netbooks- Netbooks were around in 2008 also, but I think they finally came into their own in 2009. i saw some of the first netbooks with what passed as “Linux” (I quote that, because it didn’t look like any distro I’ve worked with). In 2009, the netbooks matured and are now a viable way to surf the net and do minor tasks that you don’t need a full-powered laptop for.

9. Google Chrome OS- This is a continuation of #10. Yes, the actual OS is not available yet. But, Google announced it in 2009, and gave us an alpha look at it. Which is enough to get some people salivating, and other people (read Microsoft and anyone else who’s interested in the “Cloud” or netbooks) moving to counter it.

8. T-Mobile’s outage- Speaking of “The Cloud”, T-Mobile unfortunately found out that the cloud isn’t everything that people claim. They were relying on Microsft (and their subsidiary Danger) to store all of the data for their Sidekick phones. That’s fine as long as the company who you’re relying on is able to keep their servers running (and keep your data intact). Unfortunately for T-Mobile, the Sidekick, the users, and “The Cloud”, this wasn’t the case.

This is why I keep saying it’s fine to backup things online in “The Cloud”, but you want to have a physical copy that you can get to really quickly. Don’t rely 100% on the other guy—in case something does happen.

7. The Age Of the Smartphone- This was the year for the smartphone. From the Palm-Pre to the Android phones, everyone got in the game. Every major carrier announced their own smartphone offering (or updated the offerings they had). And the makers of smartphones also opened up their own “App Stores” to rival Apple.

6. Hackers hack and Cops catch- From the TJX Credit card hack to NASA, hackers set their sites high this year. Foreign hackers are targeting the Power Grid in the US. The hackers who struck TJX caused a lot of monetary damage, and got caught. The hacker for NASA may have found his alien evidence, but refuses to come to the US to talk about it (he’s fighting extradition on fears that he will be put in Gitmo).

5. Conficker hits 8 million and keeps going- Around April 1, everyone was afraid of the April Fools joke that didn’t happen. Conficker hit about 8 million infected PC’s in January and kept going. On April 1, it was supposed to get an update and activate.. Sometime after, it got an update. We’re still not sure if it activated, but it did start spewing spam. And it’s still around.

4. Twitter and Facebook take the world by storm- Yes both of these were around before 2009. However in 2009, a lot of people started realizing they were here. 2009 brought celebs like Ashton Kutcher and Miley Cyrus to Twitter (she’s gone, he’s still there). And 2009 made Twitter into a world-wide news source (thanks to some power hungry dictators in Iran). Facebook keeps growing and revamping their Privacy Policy (some for the better and some for the worse).

3. Canonical releases Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala- And Linux fans rejoiced. While Karmic is not a Windows killer by any means, it is definitely a mature operating system that I encourage people to check out. The idea that if you have an older computer and are upgrading to Windows 7, instead of tossing that old computer in the trash, install *ubuntu on it and free yourself is starting to have new meaning.

2. Apple releases OS X Snow Leopard- Apple released their latest version of the OS X Operating System, and Mac fans rejoiced. Also the people who are running Mac OS on “Hackintosh” computers rejoiced, because they were soon able to upgrade for $29.99. (Note the price for an upgrade…….) However, there was one major flaw—the guest account that kills your data. But, Apple fixed that right away.

1. Windows 7 arrives- And Windows Vista and Windows XP users rejoiced…. Finally they have an operating system that the tech pundits claim is worthy of upgrading to. I say this knowing that I have had minor problems with Vista in the past—and most of it was due to my computer not being powerful enough for it. But, Windows 7 is changing that for a lot of people.

The people who were concerned about upgrading to Vista, are happy now. They have a viable option in Windows 7. And the people who upgraded to Vista (or bought new computers that supposedly could run Vista) are happy, because now their computers will run the way they were claimed to… NO, Windows 7 is not a Vista Service Pack. YES, Windows 7 is a viable replacement for XP and Vista.

So, there you have my Top 10 events in Tech. It should be noted that these are not in order of importance. The reality is that in their own way, each one of these is the most important event in Tech.

Happy New Year :)

Patrick.

Learn to Program – Flowcharting (Stage 2). -- Decisions and Loops

2009-12-30T16:43:00.001-06:00

In my previous post, I demonstrated a general overview of the flowcharting process. Today I plan on delving more into two types of flows. The Decision and the loop.

Decision Statements:

The basis of a decision statement is this: If a condition is true, then perform one action, if it’s false, perform another action. In fact, an If-then is one type of decision that you will encounter in pseudocode and code. The decision is also an integral part of most loops. A loop carries out a set of actions, and checks to see if a condition is true before continuing or exiting.

In a flowchart, you do not include the “if” or the loop name. You simply put the question portion in (the condition being checked, and the value it’s being checked against). This is because you are only concerned about the flow of the program, not the syntax. For example, if you wanted to check to see if a wagon was red, you would create the symbol like this:

While- endwhile loop:

A while- endwhile loop used to be called a “While do” loop. Basically the premise is while a condition is true, perform some actions. The most common type of while loop occurs when you are reading data from a file. You want to continue processing the data until you hit the end of the file. Then you want to get another line of data, and check that to see if it’s the end of file.

While- endwhile loops can be used for any number of situations. When I’ve explained a while- endwhile lopp to people, I told them that you get a chunk of data, ask if it’s the end of file, if not then perform actions on that data, then get another chunk and repeat… A while- endwhile loop is an “ask first, shoot if necessary” type of situation.

Here is an exaple of a while- endwhile loop, where you get data, check to see if it’s an end of file (eof) and process it if not. You repeat the loop until you hit the EOF.

Do- Until loop:

A Do- Until loop is basically a “shoot first, ask questions later” type of loop. You will perform a set of actions, then check to see if you need to continue to perform them. If so, you will loop back to the beginning of the actions. If not, then you will exit the loop and continue on with the program.

The Do- until loop must be executed at least once, and is executed until a condition becomes true. One way of looking at it is that it is a “while condition is false, do” loop. These loops are used less frequently than other loops, so you don’t need to be too concerned with them. However, you should understand the structure. In COBOL, these are considered “Perform Until” and in Pascal, they are “Repeat Until” loops.

An example of a Do- Until loop is below. In this example, you will print the value of the variable until it reaches 5. Then you will print “All done.”

For Loop:

A For loop is used when you know exactly how many times you want the loop to be executed. That is the main difference between this loop and the previous two loops. In the previous loops, they execute until a condition becomes true. In a for loop, while you still check a condition, you know exactly how many times it should execute.

For loops are useful in a lot of places. The best example of using a for loop is when you deal with arrays. I will describe arrays more when we get into pseudocode.

In the following example, you will see how a for loopo works. You will notice that it’s similar to the Do- Until loop above, but should not be confused with that.

You will probably notice that I didn’t use While, If, Do Until, or For in any of these examples. Again, these are a graphical indication of the flow. The syntax comes later. In my next post, I will take a look at a special type of decision called a select- case, or just a case.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Learn to Program – Some Terms You Should Understand

2009-12-29T14:00:00.001-06:00

Ok, I decided that I should clarify some terms that you need to understand if you are going to write programs. Most of these apply to pseudocode and the actual source code, but some apply to flowcharting as well. If the term is specific to one stage, I will put that as well.

First I’ll start with a couple of Acronyms. Some of these should be familiar to you, while others may not.

RAM- Random Access Memory. This is the memory that your computer uses to do everything. It’s considered volatile because as soon as the power goes off, the memory is lost. That’s why you’re encouraged to save everything (papers, files, source code) on a regular basis.

ROM- Read Only Memory. This is the memory typically found in firmware. It’s written once, and permanent. Technically, it can be overwritten (or flashed), but for all intensive purposes it’s permanent.

WYSIWYG- “What You See Is What You Get”. This is meant to imply that however you design something, that’s how the user should see it. So, design with the user in mind.

GIGO- Garbage In, Garbage Out. What this means is, if you don’t know what is in the memory location that you’re using, you won’t know what the results will be after using the information there. In other words, ALWAYS INITIALIZE YOUR VARIABLES.

LIFO- Last In First Out. If you’re using nested if statements, or a combination of blocks which are nested inside of each other, the last one you create is the first one that ends. This is typically used in Pseudocode, but does have applications in source code as well.

An example of LIFO is this:

Start
    While not EOF
         If dog = “fido” then
              print “Hi Fido”
         endif
     endwhile
Stop

Note the endif was the first “exit” since the if was the last entrance.

Now some terms that you’ll see me throw out in these lessons:

variable- A variable is a name that you give to a pointer, which points to a location in RAM. The location is going to store any information that you put in it (assigning a value to a variable). Think of it like a bowl.

constant- A constant is a type of variable where you assign the value when you declare it, and it cannot be changed. An example of this is an Interest Rate.

The theory behind constants is this. If you use the same information in 50 different places in the program, and need to change it, which is easier? Change in one spot (the constant) or look for 50 of the values?

array- An array is another special type of variable. The concept of an array is this. If you have multiple copies of a variable, you can declare an array and list the number of copies—as opposed to creating each one individually.

The example that I used is this. If you are a cashier, and someone walks up with 20 bottles of Pepsi, which is easier: scan each bottle, or scan one bottle and type in 20? Either way, the same thing happens. You’ve created 20 spaces in memory with the same name (and something to differentiate them). Like the bottles, you can pick one bottle and do something with it—and in your program, you can pick one point in the array and work with it.

declaration- Declaration or declaring is the creation of the variables. You’re telling the compiler that you want to create a pointer in memory with the variable name. You’re also telling the compiler how much space in memory the variable will use (by it’s data type) and giving it an initial value (initializing the variable).

data type- This is how you tell the compiler how much memory the variable will need. In pseudocode there are four main types. They are:

char- (Character) which is one single character. This can be a single letter, number, space, or symbol.
String- This is two or more characters. They can be anything also.
num- (numeric) this is strictly a number. It can be an integer or a decimal number.
boolean- True or False.

In coding, the types vary. Some common types are:

char- Character (see above)
String- Same as above
int (or integer)- This is a whole number between the numbers –32,766 and 32,767.
long- This is a longer integer. The range is a lot higher than the int range.
float- In some languages, this denotes a decimal number.
real- In some languages this denotes a decimal number.
double- This is the manner in which decimals are denoted in Java, C++ and other languages.

method/class/procedure- This is a subroutine in a program. It can be looked at like this. If you have to do a certain sequence of lines repeatedly, you can put them into a method, and call that instead of typing them over and over.

A class is a method that can be used by more than one program. An example of this is a dll file in Windows, or a lib file in Linux (library).

A procedure is just another name for these (Pascal typically uses Procedures).

These are the bulk of the terms that you need to understand to get started. As you learn more about logic and programming, you will learn more.

Next time, I will dive into structured programming, and avoiding spaghetti code.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Learn to Program- Flowcharting (Stage 2)

2009-12-29T12:53:00.001-06:00

This is an overview of flowcharting. There are a lot of things that won’t be covered in this post, however I will touch on them in future posts. My intention is to cover flowcharting as fully as possible, and then move on to pseudocode.

A flowchart is a graphical (Visual) example of the sequence in a program and the flow of the data through the program. You may have seen flowcharts in other applications (such as troubleshooting a problem, process controls, or other aspects). These are similar to how flowcharts in programs work, and in some cases even use the same symbols.

Symbols used in Flowcharting:

In order to accurately show the symbols, I will create an image with them all listed. Also, I will include the text from each symbol in the image.

An example of flowcharting:

This example builds upon the example that I used for the IPO charts in the previous post.

In the above example, I did not include a symbol for assigning the variables. The assignment is optional in flowcharts—as long as you know that it MUST happen in the program. In pseudocode, you will see the assignment at the top (where it belongs). This is because in pseudocode, you’re as close to the actual language as you can be. So, you have to follow the order and requirements of the language that you’re coding for.

In fact, in a flowchart, you are not required to use variables at all. The flowchart is meant as an intermediate step between the IPO chart and the pseudocode. However, if you don’t intend to do pseudocode prior to code, then you should include the assignment and variables in your flowchart.

Next, I will dig a little deeper into the various flows that you may encounter. I will explain the Decision symbol a little more, and follow up with loops. Finally, I will start to describe methods and classes.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Learning to Program – IPO Charts (Stage 1)

2009-12-28T10:06:00.001-06:00

Creating an IPO chart is the first step in going from the problem to the coding of the program. An IPO chart represents an Input Processing and Output chart. You will base the information from the IPO chart off of your problem definition (or PAC) chart. Typically a PAC Chart is presented as a table similar to below:

Given Data	Required Results
Constant shippingCharge = 8.95 Constant freeShippingLimit = 25.00 Numeric orderAmount Numeric totalAmount	Order total including shipping charges (if any)
Processing Required	Solution Alternatives
Get the order amount and determine if it qualifies for free shipping (at least $25.00)	none

You list the variables (both constant and changeable under the Given Data, then the processing that you will perform, the required results, and any solutions that may need to be considered.

This is all part of Stage 1, which is defining the problem and proposing solutions to it.

The second portion of this is the actual IPO Chart which will look similar to this;

Input	Processing	Output
orderAmount	shippingCharge freeShippingLimit Determine if the order amount qualifies for free shipping (>= 25.00)	“Qualifies for Free Shipping” totalAmount or ”Does not qualify for free Shipping” totalAmount

In the IPO chart, you will list all of the possible variables that you need. This will make it easier for you to transition into Stage 2 (or Stage 3) and create the flowchart and pseudocode.

Next we will take a look at Stage 2 and the various symbols and flows used in Flowcharts.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Edited to show the table borders and resize the tables. 10:06 am 12-28-09

An inside look at how Spyware works

2009-12-28T10:03:00.001-06:00

This embedded video gives you a little behind-the-scenes look at how the cyber criminals steal your information. The gentleman being interviewed is an ex-hacker who works with the Government now. The video was originally part of the History Channel’s “Modern Marvels” series, and all Copyrights belong to them.

As always, this is not meant to scare people away from the Internet or computers. It’s simply meant to show you how important it is to protect yourself with updates, antivirus, antispyware, firewalls, and good practices while on the computer. And it’s meant to emphasize one important fact:

YOUR INFORMATION IS IMPORTANT TO A CRIMINAL—REGARDLESS OF HOW IMPORTANT YOU THINK IT IS.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Learning to Program—The stages of programming

2009-12-27T19:33:00.001-06:00

In order to become an effective programmer, you need to understand a few things about programs. You should understand what a program is, and what it does. And you should understand the stages of programming. Also, the stages of programming will serve as a guide for how I plan on writing this series.

First and foremost. What is a program anyhow? The technical definition of a program is a series of instructions that a computer uses to perform a specific action or actions. But, for the purposes of introducing you to logic, think of a program as a recipe for creating something. And think of a program as a manner of solving a problem.

Now, what is a problem? A problem could be something wrong, or it could be like a math problem. In reference to programs, it’s a little of both. The problem is the question that you’re trying to answer, the feature or idea that you’re trying to create, or the fix for something that’s wrong with an application or system. The program that you create will be the solution to that problem.

And remember also, that no program will ever be 100% perfect. If it was, then there wouldn’t be a need for programmers. Plus when you get into the millions and billions of lines of code (and have multiple people writing this code), it’s impossible to catch every single bug. Typical example that I’ve heard is “If it’s about 95% bug-free, and the bugs are minor or impossible to find, then it’s considered release quality.”

The stages of programming:

This is assuming that you already have the problem in hand. Meaning that you have the request for a program, or you have the idea for the program in front of you. If not, then that would be the first true stage (defining the problem).

Stage 1: Creating an IPO chart for the problem. An IPO chart defines what data will be inputted into the program, what processing will take place on that data, and what will be the output of the program. It will help to further clarify the problem and solution. And it will help to decide what variables need to be used.

Stage 2: Design a flowchart for the program. This is an optional stage in some cases. However, most colleges still teach it, because it gives you a graphical (visual) idea of what the program does. A flowchart should be code independent. This means that you can take a flowchart and code it into any language.

Stage 3: Write pseudocode for the program. This stage is usually done in conjunction with stage 2. Pseudocode is half-baked code. You will take the symbols from the flowchart and the actual flow of the chart, and use words to describe them. It can be code independent or code-dependent. You should be able to start with a flowchart and make pseudocode or vice versa.

Stage 4: Coding the program. This is the stage where all of the magic happens. You take your flowchart (or pseudocode if you created it) and write actual code in the language. Then you compile the code to make sure that there are no syntax errors (or compiler errors). Try writing code from a flowchart and then try writing code from pseudocode, and you will immediately see the value in having stage 3.

Stage 5: Testing the program and fixing bugs. This stage runs concurrently with stage 4. As you code and compile your program, you’ll want to run it to make sure that everything behaves as it should. You should create a test application, which makes use of the different classes and methods in the program. Then you should use that to test everything out. Finally, you’ll create the main application which does whatever the program is supposed to do. (More about this as we get deeper into Stage 5)

Stage 6: Documentation. You should be doing this the entire time, but this is the stage where you put everything together. Your documentation should include the IPO charts, the flowcharts, the pseudocode, the actual source code, and any comments or other files that explain the problem and solution. This documentation needs to be maintained along with the code, and should be done in such a way that you (or I) can walk in three years from now, and understand what was done.

Stage 7: Maintenance. This is the stage that you will spend at least 50% to 75% of your time in. Either you will be maintaining your own code, or someone else’s. Just because the program is done and released, doesn’t mean that you’re finished with it. Bugs that are found later on will need to be fixed. Features will need to be added or removed. Upgrades will be created. The list goes on and on.

Next I will start to describe Stage 1 and go over some of the things you need to understand (like variables and constants). As we hit other topics, I will explain them also.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Learning to Program

2009-12-26T13:27:00.001-06:00

Over the past few years one of my part-time jobs was tutoring for the Information Technology courses at our local community college. In doing this, I’ve come to realize that the book they use to teach Programming Logic needs a lot of work. So, I decided to create a series of posts to help people who are interested in programming out.

I’m not going to teach you how to write complex programs in C# or Java or any language like that. However, my goal is to help you to think logically, understand the stages of programming, and move from one stage to another (in any direction).

Something that should be noted is this. There is no right or wrong style of flowcharting, pseudocode, or even coding. There is your style and my style. As long as the syntax and logic is sound, and the code is understandable, then the style isn’t important. My explanations for different terms may not be the same as other sources. But, as long as you understand what the terms are, that’s all that matters.

The first post will be over the different stages of a program (as I see them). And it will also include a couple of explanations of what a program is and what it does.

Also, this will be a side topic. I will still post about security issues and tips and tricks for your computer. And hopefully you will see that this side topic is actually tied into the main topics as well.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

What do I do with this brand new computer?

2009-12-25T20:10:00.001-06:00

So, you got a brand new computer (either a Windows 7 based or Macintosh based) for Christmas, and now you’re trying to figure out what to do with it. Hopefully these steps will provide you with some guidance and answers to the questions.

Update the operating system. Regardless of whether it’s Windows 7, Mac OSX, or even a Linux variant, there have been security and bugfix updates since the operating system was released. These should be your FIRST things to download and install.
Make sure you are protected (antivirus and firewall). Most PC’s and some Macintosh computers come with some form of antivirus. In the case of PC’s, it usually is a trial version. They don’t advertise it very well, that in 30 to 90 days, you’ll no longer be protected. So, you need to either purchase their full version, or uninstall the antivirus/security suite, and install one of your own. At the most, I would wait a week or two for this.
Update the antivirus, antispyware, and firewall (if necessary). Like your operating system, your antivirus, antispyware, and firewall programs will have updates available. You absolutely need to get these, so that you’re protected against the latest threats (and protected against bugs in the programs themselves).
Migrate your data over (if you have a computer already). If you have a computer, and your new computer has Windows 7 installed, you can use the Windows Easy Transfer program to move your data and settings over to the new computer. Simply run it on the old computer first, and save the files to another location (network computer or an external drive). Then run the program on the new computer, and transfer the settings over from the saved location.

The report at the end will tell you what applications were installed, and provide you with links to their installers (where possible).
Start backing up religiously. You should actually do this before you migrate your settings over. However, you can do it afterwards as well. Either way, there are plenty of options for backups available. Both computer/disk based and online. Find what works best for you, and use it. Every day. Every day. (I can’t emphasize that enough)
Set up accounts for all users. Make the accounts limited users (Standard Users). Put a password on the original account (typically “Owner”). Make it a strong password. Put passwords on the other accounts (and make sure your family members use them). If someone wants to install a program on the computer, you have to do it for them (as you will be the only one that knows the “Computer Administrator” password).

You should create one for yourself as well. For two reasons. 1) Because it sets an example that you aren’t any more special than they are. 2) Because you don’t need to be an Administrator either. You have the Administrator account, and the password for it. Use it when necessary, and no more often than that.

If you find that other users are installing programs and shouldn’t be able to, then check to ensure that they are limited users. If they are not, then you need to discipline them. Strongly.

Some of the reasons behind these are my opinions. I feel strongly that by following these steps, you will decrease the chances that your computer will be hijacked, and increase your enjoyment of the computer and Internet.

Have a Merry Christmas and enjoy that new computer. :)

Patrick.

Merry Christmas everyone….

2009-12-24T10:58:00.001-06:00

This is just a short post wishing a Merry Christmas to you and your family. Even if you don’t celebrate Christmas, please enjoy the peace and joy that this time of year tends to bring. Take the time to let your family know that you love them.

I may, or may not have posts up today and tomorrow. Time will tell.

Have a wonderful day:)
Patrick.

Introducing the New Cybersecurity Coordinator | The White House

2009-12-23T03:05:00.001-06:00

Introducing the New Cybersecurity Coordinator | The White House

It only took about 10 months and a couple of close calls, but the President announced his Cybersecurity Czar today. Hopefully the position is still as strong as the original intent. More importantly than the fact that we finally have a person in this position, is what both the Czar and the President have said concerning Cyber Security.

The goal for a secure infrastructure is not just the responsibility of the Cybersecurity Czar and his team. It’s the responsibility of everyone in the Nation (and I will say everyone in the World). There are steps that you, as individuals need to take, in order to protect your computers and your information from criminals.

Your responsibility lies in five areas (four of which are listed in the announcement that I’ve linked to).

Keep your security software and operating system up to date. As vulnerabilities are discovered and patches are created (or signatures are released for your antivirus and antispyware programs), it falls on you to make sure that you download these patches and signatures. All of the protection in the world doesn’t do a bit of good, if it’s sitting somewhere else. Keep your antivirus, firewall, antispyware, and operating system updated—regardless of who makes it.
Protect your personal information online. Basically this means that if you wouldn’t advertise it in a newspaper, on the radio or television, or hang it on a sign, then don’t publish it on the Internet. Along these lines, be ware of “phishing” attempts. No legitimate business will attempt to get you to login through links in their e-mails to you. They may send you an e-mail that requests you to login to the site or business, but they will not provide you with links.

Sites like Amazon will send you tracking links, but only AFTER you’ve made a purchase. Phishing attempts are where they initiate the contact to you, in the attempt to fool you into giving them your information. If you get e-mails about how your information has been compromised, or how your access to your money is in jeopardy, CALL the company. Don’t log into their website. In truth, if your money is at stake, you shouldn’t trust it to the Internet. And you should have the contact information—which means you won’t need to use any that are provided in the e-mail.
Know who you are dealing with. This goes hand in hand with the phishing schemes. The phishers hope that you’ll believe they are who they claim to be. Make sure that they are, before you deal with them. Call the company, if it’s one that you’ve done business with in the past. If not, then research the company before you reply to them. The Better Business Bureau or the FBI have good information about legitimate businesses and scams. Google can help too. If you see a bunch of negative posts or comments about a business, then you probably won’t want to deal with them.

One thing that is mentioned in the article that I want to comment on is the statement that cyber criminals often embed the capability to steal passwords and files into free software. This is true to an extent, but it does NOT mean that all free software has that capability in it. There are a lot of free applications which are safe and regarded. If you are in doubt, submit the exe file to sites like http://www.virustotal.com. If it comes up clean, then it probably (but not guaranteed) is clean. Remember that nothing is 100%, but a clean bill of health from 42 different antivirus programs either means it’s brand new (and you’re one of the first to run into it) or it’s clean.
Learn what to do if something goes wrong. There are many sources of information that you can turn to. This site (and my contact) are one. If it’s computer-related (hardware or software problems) then the manufacturer of the computer or program will have support. Otherwise, you can search for support. Search for the exact error message and the program or part that it affects, or the symptoms that it is showing.

If it’s crime-related or phising related, then you can check the Internet Crime Complaint Center, The FTC, or even send any spam or phishing e-mails to the FTC’s e-mail address. (note the links will open in new webpages or open your default e-mail provider).
The fifth thing that you need to do is education. Both in terms of educating yourself on how to stay safe online (and how to protect your computers and networks), and educating your family and friends in how to stay safe and protect their computers and networks.

Even though this Czar is a member of the United States Government, these steps are world-wide. They have nothing to do with borders (except that you will want to find your local law enforcement agencies). They have EVERYTHING to do with us (the honest citizens of the world) protecting ourselves and each other from the criminals in the world.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Kubuntu 9.10—Getting on a network and going.

2009-12-22T13:47:00.001-06:00

With Kubuntu, as well as other linux operating systems, you have two methods of getting your network up and running. By this, I mean accessing the Internet. If you need to access a local network which has Windows computers running on it, you will need to use SAMBA (which uses the SMB networking protocols in Windows). That will be beyond this post, however I may touch on it in a future post.

I chose Kubuntu over Ubuntu, because the graphical networking configuration seemed a little easier to manage. I’ve had various networking courses, and have configured a lot of different networks on Windows (and some Linux networks), but Ubuntu’s graphical network configuration threw me for a loop. Kubuntu, however was simple to manage.

In Kubuntu for the most part, the networking will happen automatically. You shouldn’t have to do anything, unless of course you don’t have DHCP enabled on your system (if you use static IP’s for example). If it doesn’t connect automatically and your cables are plugged in, then you can use the Manage your Connections to create the connection.

If the connection is there, however you want to specify your IP address or DNS Servers, you can do this via the Manage Your Connections option, or use the command prompt. In Kubuntu, you’ll use “sudo vi /etc/network/interfaces” to configure your IP address, Subnet Mask, and Default Gateway. You’ll use “sudo vi /etc/resolv.conf” or “sudo emacs /etc/resolv.conf” to configure your DNS Servers. These commands open up the command line editors vim or emacs respectively and load the requested file.

Before you attempt to configure your connections, you will want to run ifconfig and iwconfig in order to find out which connections you need. ifconfig is the Linux equivalent of “ipconfig” in Windows (and shows you the interfaces that are active), and iwconfig does the same for wireless connections.

For example, to configure your IP address via the command line to 192.168.2.2 with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 and a default gateway (the router) of 192.168.2.1 (on eth0), you will enter the following:

sudo vi /etc/network/interfaces

And inside of the file, you will edit the appropriate connection (denoted by eth0, or something similar)

You would type the following to edit eth0:

auto eth0:1
iface eth0:1 inet static
address 192.168.2.2
netmask 255.255.255.0
network 192.168.2.0
broadcast 192.168.2.255
gateway 192.168.2.1

After saving and exiting vi, you would enter the following to restart your network with these values:

sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

Breaking down the components if the /etc/network/interfaces file, we have the following:

auto eth0:1 This is the interface or Network Interface Card id, and the :1 is a sub-interface, which is more advanced than what I’ll cover here.
iface eth0:1 inet static This tells the networking configuration that you are configuring interface (iface) eth0:1 as a static IP Address.
address is the IP address that you are using
netmask is the subnet mask of the network range.
network is the network ID number (Major network, if you will).
broadcast is the IP address that the network uses to broadcast to all addresses on the network at one time.
gateway is the IP address of your default gateway (the router, switch, or modem that your network is all connected to).

I covered configuring the DNS entries in my post on Configuring your DNS Servers on Linux.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Kubuntu 9.10—Services

2009-12-21T11:43:00.001-06:00

This post is intended to help you to understand how services work in Kubuntu. Essentially they are the same as in Windows. A service is an application or program that is running in the background. It’s waiting for commands—either by the user, or other programs or scheduled tasks, and will execute those commands when it receives them. This post will help you to understand how to start them, stop them, and restart them. And I will touch on how to prevent them from starting in the first place.

Starting Services:

If you are in KDE or Gnome, you can start some services by going into the Service Manager Utility. This can be reached by clicking on the “K” –> System Settings (or Applications, System Settings, System Settings) –> Advanced –> Service Manager. (In Gnome, you will go to Applications –> Preferences –> and look for Service Manager or Service Configuration Utility).

If it’s an On Demand service, it can’t be started unless it’s required by something. However, if it’s listed in the Startup Services list, you can start it by clicking on it, then clicking Start.

If you’re in the command line, simply type /etc/init.d/servicename start (you may have to type sudo for it to work- sudo /etc/init.d/servicename start for example). Also, the services may be located in /etc/rc.d/init.d instead of /etc/init.d. So, you’ll want to find out which system your version uses, and add that to the command.

Stopping a service:

In the desktop manager (KDE or Gnome) you follow the same procedure as listed above for starting a service, only clicking Stop instead of start.

In the command line, it’s the same procedure as the start method. However, instead of start, you put stop.

Disabling a service:

Disabling the service prevents it from starting up when you reboot the computer next time. This is especially useful if you have services that are not being used (such as the httpd service for apache web servers and ftp services that you probably aren’t running).

If you’re in KDE or Gnome, you’ll go to the same location that you were in to start or stop the service. Like the other two, you cannot do anything with the “On Demand” services, as they are required by some application or other service to run. However, you can prevent the startup services from running. Simply remove the check mark in the box next to the service, and apply. You don’t have to reboot immediately, as you can use the “Stop” button to kill the service for the time being.

In the command line, it’s a bit more evolved than simply unchecking the service. You need to look in the /etc/rc.d directories (they will be labeled with rc0 rc1 rc2 etc) for any links to the service. Then you need to delete those links. This can be accomplished by using the command:

update-rc.d -f servicename remove

Note that the next time a version of the package that the service is referring to is installed, the service will most likely be re enabled in these directories. So, you’ll have to do this again.

The way to tell in those directories if a service has been disabled or not is by using cd to enter the directory (for example cd /etc/rc0.d ) and then using ls to see what the names are in the directory. If they start with an “S” then they are enabled. If they have a “K” then they are disabled (or killed).

The information that I presented here comes from http://www.unixtutorial.org/2009/01/disable-service-startup-in-ubuntu/ amongst other sources. Also note that you may have to look in Applications –> Preferences for the Service Manager in Gnome. However the information is still the same.

Have a great day:)

Patrick.

Kubuntu 9.10 – Installing programs in Kubuntu

2009-12-20T15:27:00.001-06:00

Installing programs in Kubuntu can be done a couple of ways. If the packages for the program are included in the repositories (the lists that Canonical or the developer maintains), then you can use the Package Manager (Software Manager) to install them. Simply open the manager, and search for the program name. If the developer’s repositories are not listed, you’ll have to add them.

If the program isn’t listed in the repositories, but is in a .deb file (the package that Kubuntu prefers for it’s installers—similar to .msi files in Windows), you can use the command line to install it. Open a Terminal (or use CTRL+Alt+F<n>, where <n> is either 2 through 6 (F2 through F6)) to get to a command prompt. At the command prompt type:

sudo dpkg –i <packagename.deb> and hit enter.

Sudo is Kubuntu’s method of using “SuperUser” or “root”. It’s a safer method of doing things as root, because you’re only “root” as long as you specify sudo in the current session. In other words, if you don’t specify sudo, then it attempts as a normal user, and if you close the terminal, then you will have to reenter your password to use sudo.

Now, if you are installing a program from source code, the commands are a bit different.

The first step is to extract the files, if you haven’t already. Typically that’s done by using the tar command:

tar –xvf filename.

At this point, you will enter the folder where the source code was extracted to (using the cd command), and enter the following commands (you may have to precede them with sudo):

./configure This checks to make sure the programs can be compiled and installed—and finds out if the dependencies are met.

make This compiles the source code for you.

sudo make install this installs the file in the location. If you’re prompted for a location, Ubuntu highly recommends selecting /usr/src.

clean install this cleans up after the installation is done.

These instructions and explanations were taken from http://www.ubuntugeek.com/how-to-install-source-files-in-ubuntu.html and the authors of that page are greatly appreciated. It should also be noted that most files come with an INSTALL file that you should read. It will list their preferred (or required) method for installing the application, and should be followed instead of these directions.

Yes, installing programs can be a little more demanding than in Windows. Especially since there is no graphic installer for the individual programs. However between using the Software Manager inside of KDE or Gnome (depending on which desktop you’re using), using apt-get to install from repositories in the command line, using dpkg –i to install from .deb files, or using the manual installation from source, it’s not that difficult. You only have to know a few commands (dpkg, apt-get install, ./configure, make, clean, and tar) and you don’t have to worry about compiling or configuring the application manually.

Later, I will be describing how to create and use services in Kubuntu.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Kubuntu 9.10 – Comparison between doing things in Windows and Kubuntu.

2009-12-19T16:53:00.001-06:00

The purpose of this post is to show you how to do certain things in Kubuntu, as opposed to Windows. It is intended to be another look at things—where the Windows version is on one side, and the Kubuntu version is on the other. I’m comparing Windows XP and Kubuntu 9.10, because quite a few people will be upgrading from XP. I will note differences in how XP and Vista/7 do things as necessary.

In some cases, there is no “application” to do a task (for example, in Windows, you have various installers for installing programs, and in Kubuntu, you can do it through the Package Manager. I am also not counting suites such as Microsoft Office in this. If there is no “Windows” version of an application, it won’t be shown.

Managing System Settings:

In Windows, most of the settings are handled through the Control Panel. In Kubuntu, they are handled through the “System Settings” panel.

Playing Media (Music and Videos):

In Windows, you have the options of Windows Media Player (and in some cases Windows Media Center), or third party applications. Some of the applications are available on both Windows and Kubuntu. In Kubuntu, there are no “built'-in” (read as Kubuntu-) applications, however there are third party applications which are installed with Kubuntu. Examples of this are Amarok for music and dragon video player for videos.

Security Updates:

In Windows XP, you have to navigate to http://update.microsoft.com in order to get updates for Windows (or use Automatic Updates). In Vista/7, this is all done through an applet in the Control Panel (or Automatic Updates). Kubuntu doesn’t have an “Automatic Updates”, however all updates are handled through the Package Manager. And Kubuntu will check for new updates on a daily basis (much like the “Prompt only” option in Windows Automatic Updates").

Word Processing (text and rich text):

Text based:

In Windows, you have notepad for .txt files. In Kubuntu, you have Kate for .txt files. Other word-processing applications will handle these as well in both operating systems.

Rich-text based:

In Windows, you have wordpad to handle rich-txt (rtf) files. It also handles some of the other formats, such as .doc. In Kubuntu, you have two options: Kate or OpenOfficeOrg’s Writer (the equivalent of Microsoft Office’s Word).

Spreadsheets:

In Windows, there are no default applications to handle spreadsheets. If you’re using an OEM computer, you may have Microsoft Works installed. Or you have to install Microsoft Office (or a third party application). In Kubuntu, you have OpenOfficeOrg’s Calc program installed. OpenOfficeOrg’s suite is also available for Windows.

Picture editing:

In Windows, you have either Paint or Picture Viewer to handle pictures. You can also download the Windows Live Essentials suite for this. In Kubuntu, you have OpenOfficeOrg’s Draw, or you can download third-party applications such as GIMP.

Installing Applications:

In Windows, you use various third party installers to install the applications. These are typically in the form of .exe or .msi applications. The third parties control what is installed with these applications. In Kubuntu, the majority of your applications are available through the Package Manager. Canonical (the company responsible for the “*buntu” distributions) maintains the package lists, and the packages have to meet their standards to be included on the lists. You can still install through third-party .bin files or .deb files, and add third party sources to your package lists (called repositories).

Since the package manager in Kubuntu is included with the software manager, I won’t show the picture a second time.

Security measures:

In this category, I’m talking about the default security measures (not including third-party antivirus or firewalls). In Windows, you have Windows Firewall (and Windows Defender). In Windows XP, everyone is an administrator by default (unless you specify that they are a limited user). There are no prompts for administrative access.

In Windows Vista/7, Microsoft included the UAC. This is a method of removing administrative powers from accounts (even “Administrative” accounts). If you need Administrative access, you’re prompted for permission (and a password in the case of limited users).

In Kubuntu, you have the sudo command, or a variation of the UAC in Windows Vista/7. It should be noted that Kubuntu, along with all Linux distros, have had this feature since their inception. Microsoft is finally catching up to them in terms of this type of Security. Kubuntu doesn’t have an antivirus or antispyware built in. There is a firewall, but it’s not enabled by default (although there is AppArmor, which attempts to sandbox and secure running applications).

This gives you a brief look at how things are done in Kubuntu, compared to Windows. Hopefully it will be a benefit for anyone considering the switch.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Choosing your password (.pdf) from Securing Your E-City.

2009-12-18T15:32:00.001-06:00

Choosing Your Password (pdf file) from Securing Your E-city.

There have been multiple stories written in the past few days about hacking attempts. They range from drones that fight in the wars to Twitter being overtaken by the “Iranian Cyber Army” last night. While the attacks are different, they share a common theme: the attacks were carried out because of weak passwords.

This also brings up the age-old advice about choosing strong passwords. I came across this pdf file, thanks to ESET’s Twitter account. The pdf file contains suggestions for what NOT to use as passwords, and how to create good (read strong) passwords. Of course, you’re going to be somewhat limited by the allowances of the system. But, you should still be able to create a stronger password.

This holds true especially if you accessed Twitter last night, during the compromise. Some reporters are saying that if you used a browser or any application that logs you in via HTTP (Port 80), there’s a good chance that your login information was given to the Iranian Cyber Army. Which means that any account which uses the same login information is now vulnerable.

So, in short, change your passwords to something stronger. And make sure you are not using the same password on multiple accounts.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Stages of Software Development

2009-12-16T17:18:00.001-06:00

I’ve noticed a trend in searches, where people are trying to find out what phrases like “RTM” mean. And I’ve explained it in a post on Windows 7, but I wanted to go a little more in depth for those who are interested. So, I’m going to take you through the stages of software development.

The early stages:

Software development begins with the customer requesting a specific task or software feature. Or, it can be that the developer decides that some feature would be interesting to make (read as will become something people will want). Typically there will be documentation and consultation with potential users to refine the plan.

Some of the documentation you’ll see are “IPO charts” (Input, Processing and Output), flowcharts, pseudocode, and request forms. After these charts are created, and the project is approved, then the actual source code will be written.

The source code is human-readable code that will be compiled into computer-language (assembly language or binary language). It will be in any number of programming languages, such as Visual Basic, C#, C++, Java, COBOL, or others. In “closed source” systems, this code is not released to the general public. In “open source” systems, the code is released and anyone is allowed to modify and contribute to it.

The code is compiled and tested in development. Then it’s compiled and made into executable files (or operating systems). This leads into the next stage of software development: Testing.

Testing Stages:

Alpha Testing: This is the first stage of testing. It could even be considered part of the development testing. Typically the executable is bare-bones and has a lot of bugs or performance issues. This will very rarely be released outside of the development team—as it’s considered extremely unstable.

Beta Testing: When the development team starts to create a more stable version of the software, they will release it to a more widespread audience. Sometimes this is in a private beta (or Technical Beta), and other times it’s a public beta (where anyone can download the software). Examples of each are Acronis TrueImage (private), Windows Vista (private), Windows 7 (private/public), Windows Live Messenger (public), and Office (private/public). This is where the users have their chance to find bugs (or errors) and suggest improvements.

Release Candidate: In a perfect world, this is the final stage of the beta testing process. The version of the software is essentially what the final product will look like. It’s close enough to “perfect” that the developers are no longer taking suggestions for features or improvements, but are mainly trying to fix the major bugs. Major bugs are considered “Showstopper” bugs, because they are critical to the success of the software.

Final Product (Gold)

RTW: If the product is a download only or download preferred, then this stands for “Release to Web”. It means that you can go to the company’s website, and download the installer for the product.

RTM: If the product is going to be released in disc form, or installed on computers, then it’s called “Release to Manufacturing”. Typically the product is released to the manufacturers a couple of months before it will be available to the general public. This gives the manufacturers time to create discs, install the product, and tailor it to their desires (add their specialized programs to the computer, for example).

General Availability: This is the point where you can purchase the product. If it’s a download, and the manufacturers were bundling it with other products, then this will be the time that it’s available for download. If the software was developed for an internal use, then this would be the time where it’s released to the entire corporation or entire network.

Hopefully this has cleared up some of the stages and explained some of the terms that you read online. If you have comments, suggestions, or questions, please feel free to add them.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Adobe Reader, Acrobat Under Zero-Day Attack - DarkReading

2009-12-16T11:38:00.001-06:00

Adobe Reader, Acrobat Under Zero-Day Attack - DarkReading

Another vulnerability has struck users of Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat. This affects versions 8 and 9 (and possibly earlier versions as well). While researchers and officials at Adobe are not saying exactly what the vulnerability is, there are reports that it lies in how Acrobat/Reader handles Javascript.

Javascript is found in a lot of places (you’re seeing examples of it on this website in fact). However, the vulnerability only lies in how Adobe uses Javascript (so you don’t have to disable it in browsers or other programs—as of yet). To say that Javascript is Java is the same as saying “vbscript is Visual Basic”. It’s not exactly true. Javascript is a subset of Java—in that they share some common traits. But, at best, it’s an extremely scaled down version (read as limited) of Java.

How this vulnerability is being used right now:

Currently, the people who are using this vulnerability are sending out pdf files to “victims” using Social Engineering tactics. E-mails will possibly be marked as “urgent” or “High Importance”. The English in the e-mails may not be perfect. It’s not clear if the vulnerability will scan your address book and use your contacts to further the infection. If you open the pdf file, it will trigger the vulnerability, which will cause Acrobat to crash. The pdf file may, or may not download a “payload” which could be a virus, trojan, or other malware. The reports indicate that the vulnerability is used to install a keylogger and to data mine your computer. (Data mining is a fancy way of saying “look for anything they think is valuable, and send a copy of it back to them.”)

What to do about this:

Adobe and the security researchers recommend that you disable Javascript in Adobe Reader. You don’t have to disable it anywhere else (has this been emphasized enough yet?) though. To disable it in Adobe, click on Edit –> Preferences –> Select the Javascript Category. Uncheck the option that says “Enable Acrobat Javascript”. Click OK.

Note, this will definitely break some pdf files that you have, if they are using JavaScript. Personally, I have pdf files from my college, that use JavaScript to verify my credentials. In weighing the risks, I’ve decided that it’s better to break them (and then enable JavaScript on a need to do basis), rather than risk infection.

Adobe also says that they will release a patch on or around January 12, 2010 to fix this.

What problems lie ahead:

The biggest problem that lies ahead is this. When Adobe releases their patch, people will instinctively re-enable JavaScript in Acrobat/Reader. Which means that while they’re protected against the current (KNOWN) threats, they are leaving themselves open to attacks from future and unknown threats.

Adobe should disable JavaScript by default, and look for a better means of rendering pdf’s. PDF writers need to find a better means of securing and rendering their pdf files. And users need to leave JavaScript disabled (only enabling it when absolutely necessary).

On another note, this is a good time to bring up the issue of Digital Signatures and encrypting your e-mails. If you have a digital signature, use it. If you don’t have one, then get one. They’re not expensive. Let your recipients know that if they receive an attachment from you, that doesn’t have this signature, delete the e-mail, and request that you resend it with the signature.

Yes, this will create a little hassle for you and them. But, I ask you this. Is it better to be hassled by this, or better to have your name associated with spreading a virus?

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

Configuring your DNS Servers Part 3 (Linux and Mac OS X, Routers/Modems, and testing the configuration.)

2009-12-15T00:07:00.001-06:00

In the previous two parts, I explained why you may want to configure your DNS to another service besides what your ISP provides you, and how to configure it in Windows. This post will explain how to configure your DNS on linux—using a GUI and a Command Line. And finally, it will explain how to configure your DNS on Mac OS X.

Linux

In Linux, your DNS settings are stored in a file called resolv.conf, which is located in the /etc folder. If you’re using a desktop such as Gnome or KDE, then you need to edit this file as root or sudo. The easiest method that I found in KDE was to open a Terminal, and type in “sudo kate /etc/resolv.conf”. When I did this in my VM, I received a few error messages in Terminal, but Kate opened up with the resolv.conf file loaded.

If you wish to do this via the command line, you simply enter “sudo vi /etc/resolv.conf” or “sudo emacs /etc/resolv.conf” (depending on your editor preference). After being prompted for your password, it will open with resolv.conf loaded.

Once you have resolv.conf open, you may see something similar to the following:

nameserver 192.168.2.80
nameserver 128.28.38.232

or you may not have anything in the file at all. It’s recommended that you write down any IP addresses listed in the file, and then edit them to the IP addresses for the Public DNS service that you wish to use.

After doing so, either Save the file (if in Kate), or use :w to write the file in vi (or the comparable method in Emacs or whatever your editor is).

Next, you’ll close your Internet clients (browsers, twitter apps, e-mail, etc) and restart them.

Mac OS X (10.5 and maybe later—I don’t have access to this, so I can’t confirm)

1. Click on the Apple Menu, then click on System Preferences, and finally click on Network. You may be prompted for an Administrator password.

2. Select the connection that you wish to configure, and click Advanced.

3. Select the DNS tab.

4. Click the +. Either replace the DNS addresses with your Public DNS addresses, or add them to the top of the list (first listed has priority).

5. Click Apply and OK.

**** Note that these instructions were taken almost verbatim from the “Using Google Public DNS” instructions located at http://code.google.com/speed/public-dns/docs/using.html.

Routers and Modems:

Typically your router will be located on 192.168.x.1 or 192.168.x.254 (where x represents a number such as 0 or 1). You should consult the documentation for your router, or you can find instructions on accessing your router at http://www.portforward.com. If you use PortForward, simply choose any application to get into the instructions for setting up your router (as they don’t have instructions for a Public DNS, and you only need help getting into the router).

You will be prompted for your Administrator password. If you haven’t changed it at all, then it will be the default password (supplied in your documentation or possibly listed on portforward). *****You really should change this password, while you’re in the router configuring your DNS.

Find the screen where you can change your DNS entries (on Linksys routers, it’s probably located on Setup—but this will vary).

If there are already IP addresses listed, then copy them down as backups. Then replace them with the IP addresses for the Public DNS that you wish to use.

Save and exit (possibly will be “Save and Restart”).

Restart your browser.

Testing the new DNS entries:

Google recommends testing the new settings by navigating to a site, and then adding it to your bookmarks (if it opens). Then try navigating to the site through the bookmark. If it opens both ways, then you’re good to go.

If not, then try navigating to an IP address (they recommend http://18.62.1.6 which points to http://eecs.mit.edu) and bookmark that page. If you can navigate back to the bookmark, but not through the site name, then you have an issue with your DNS entries.

If these tests don’t work, roll back your DNS settings (which is why you copied them down) and try again. If the tests still fail, then you have network issues—and probably should contact your ISP for help.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.