Free Tech Support

Need free Tech Support??? I always have people asking me for free tech support. I like to help, but I have realized that I don't have the time to support everyone. I don't mind helping out, don't get me wrong. But when I help someone and they become tech-needy stalkers, it doesn't make for a good relationship. So here you are people of little money and large problems... Protonic: a system composed of volunteer technicians. Now it is harder to turn down money, but you still run into the same relationship conflicts. I think this subject is large enough for debate: "Where is the line???/When is too much??? Maybe that will turn to be a future post.

http://www.protonic.com/

Forensics with Linux: White Papers

This guy is a little crazy with his whole copyright statements. Odd becuase linux is mainly promoted by anti proprietary and freedom of information mindsets. Anyways, he has a good paper on how dd is used in computer forensics to copy erased data from data source evidence.
http://www.crazytrain.com/papers.html
http://www.crazytrain.com/dd.html



knoppix std 0.1 has everything you will need to hack or commit otherwise blackhat acts...
knoppix STD 0.1 => torrent

Monitor Servers

I don't do this often enough to go "all-out". But this does seem interesting. You can monitor any server's variables via snmp through proper configuration with Nagios or Zabbix. They might take some time to configure (the catch 22). These both are very good server monitoring productions.

ZABBIX

(they both have excellent reporting capability)

They both utilize web serving capabilities to shoot out dynamic pages. I do believe that all programs will at least have some form of an interface in this fashion. The internet is due for an addition of another dimension... Flash is a good intro to what I am talking about... (something a little more capable of taking some popularity off of the television)

Nagios
Zabbix

Web Templates

I've been studying web design (if you couldn't tell) and have found some interesting sites. There is a dynamic posting interface pMachine with a portfolio of featured sites that run on its software. I like the idea of building a site based on review information. So these are the steps toward that future production. I am not so much interested in the back-end side of the code as much as I am with the front-end. ie I dont care what platform I use (they seem to all be able to offer the same output variables) My interest is moreso along the lines of the way it ends up on the page.

So I've heard of:
pMachine
sixapart.com (based more so for web bloggers)

Moveable Type
TypePad
LiveJournal

(I'm sure there are thousands more)

So yes, Web Design proves to show interest in my future...

Web design tutorials blog

An interesting link worth looking into for design technique

veerle.duoh.com

Security Webinars

Top Security characters live on ZDNet

ZDNet Security Webinar

Commenting your code...

A nicely put reminder on code design readability

http://particletree.com/features/successful-strategies-for-commenting-your-code
Tips from MSDN on Commenting Code

How to size text using ems

Not familiar with the concept but I do plan on getting familiar with it...

http://www.clagnut.com/blog/348/

Web Design: Absolute Positioning

In collaboration with CSS there is a method to get things where you want them: Absolute Positioning. (Demonstrated in the following examples):

http://www.academystudios.com
http://www.dotfive.com

Port reference info

Ever wonder what that one port does? What ports are??? Here's a link of interest...

http://www.iss.net/security_center/advice/Exploits/Ports/default.htm

Port 113: ident seems of interest (although blocked by default on most firewalls)

Intriguing Web Design

I have long since kept up with Kevin Rose and the appeal he brings to new technology. I recently learned of a social bookmarking system that he implemented called digg. Just digging around in there, I learned of a design group by the name of StopDesign, which has a refreshingly clean balance between design and pure data.

http://stopdesign.com/
http://www.mikeindustries.com/blog/archive/2005/07/make-your-site-mobile-friendly
http://microformats.org/
http://live8.technorati.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/simplebitsdan/sets/663014/

Graphics and Linux

http://highend3d.com/

This has to be one of the coolest looking sites that I have found in quite some time. They promote 3D graphics and animation.

Something definately worth considering looking into. Slashdot has an article titled Disney, DreamWorks, Pixar Go Linux. Supposedly Linux is the best platform for higher end graphic design, most likely because of the lack of memory issues that windows seems to be plagued with.

Linux is looking sweeter and sweeter. If you are not a gamer then I suggest looking into Fedora Core 4 with KDE 3.5. Not only is it a cleaner/smoother interface but it will probably make you more productive in the end.

KDE is very similiar to the windows graphical user interface (GUI). However I prefer Gnome, because of its simplicity. It supports everything that I work with: mainly Firefox, abc torrent client, ssh command shell (for server configurations). Other than that I do have a little Dell Inspiron 700m that does run windows xp. Reason being that most of the clients I work with are on windows environments (making it easier to operate in a Microsoft Shop). I do have VMWare running a fedora core installation, which I do use to test the sites and database applications that I design. I would like to look further into some other distrobutions of linux however: namely Gentoo, Debian, and Solaris.

America handing the Tech torch away???

Being an undergraduate of Engineering, I am no doubt upset that the latest economic media frenzy is that the U.S. is losing commercial industry in the field of technology. And for good reason: a general lax attitude about higher education, limited expectations of the youth of this country, no involvement or signs of interest from the majority of the younger citizens of our country, etc... I could go on, but this abstract says a little more.

Does Globalization of the Scientific/Engineering Workforce Threaten U.S. Economic Leadership? This paper develops four propositions that show that changes in the global job market for science and engineering (S&E) workers are eroding US dominance in S&E, which diminishes comparative advantage in high tech production and creates problems for American industry and workers: (1) The U.S. share of the world's science and engineering graduates is declining rapidly as European and Asian universities, particularly from China, have increased S&E degrees while US degree production has stagnated. 2) The job market has worsened for young workers in S&E fields relative to many other high-level occupations, which discourages US students from going on in S&E, but which still has sufficient rewards to attract large immigrant flows, particularly from developing countries. 3) Populous low income countries such as China and India can compete with the US in high tech by having many S&E specialists although those workers are a small proportion of their work forces. This threatens to undo the "North-South" pattern of trade in which advanced countries dominate high tech while developing countries specialize in less skilled manufacturing. 4) Diminished comparative advantage in high-tech will create a long period of adjustment for US workers, of which the off-shoring of IT jobs to India, growth of high-tech production in China, and multinational R&D facilities in developing countries, are harbingers. To ease the adjustment to a less dominant position in science and engineering, the US will have to develop new labor market and R&D policies that build on existing strengths and develop new ways of benefitting from scientific and technological advances in other countries. http://www.nber.org/papers/W11457

Apparently South Korea is the best of the best right now, in terms of higher education. I am actively searching for the other side of this story...

It has been said that some of the programming jobs that went to India are coming back because of both the difficulties with international relations, and introductory assesment of interfacing with existing code and system operations. This is soothing, that while there is a knowledge of a presense of white collar outside of the U.S. its still not dominant as of yet. There is still a chance of changing the way Americans view the current situation, work to achieve a solution, and learn so as to accomidate what we have been lacking for so long.

CAN AMERICANS COMPETE? Is America the World's 97-lb. Weakling? In the relentless, global, tech-driven, cost-cutting struggle for business, America isn’t ready—here’s what to do about it. By Geoffrey Colvin uncle sam (Illustration: R. Sikoryak) It’s a crisis of confidence unlike anything America has felt in a generation. Residents of tiny Newton, Iowa, wake up to the distressing news that a Chinese firm—What’s it called? Haier? That’s Chinese?—wants to buy their biggest employer, the famed but foundering Maytag appliance company. Two days later, out of nowhere, a massive, government-owned Chinese oil company muscles into the bidding for America’s Unocal. The very next day a ship in Xinsha, China, loads the first Chinese-made cars bound for the West, where they’ll compete with the products of Detroit’s struggling old giants. All in one week. And only two months earlier a Chinese company most Americans had never heard of took over the personal computer business formerly owned—and mismanaged into billions of dollars of losses—by the great IBM. "Can America compete?" is the nation’s new No. 1 anxiety, the topic of emotional debate in bars and boardrooms, the title of seminars and speeches offered by the liberal Progressive Policy Institute, the conservative economist Todd Buchholz, and countless schools and Rotary Clubs. The question is almost right, but not quite. We’re wringing our hands over the wrong thing. The problem isn’t Chinese companies threatening U.S. firms. It’s U.S. workers unable to compete with those in China—or India, or South Korea. The real question is, "Can Americans compete?" continued http://www.fortune.com/fortune/articles/0,15114,1081269,00.html

Engineering @ OSU

I am now officially an undergraduate Engineering Major at OSU. I have a really decent schedule with the exception of one CAD engineering teacher. He, supposedly, doesn't communicate very well, and assign's vague tasks that he expects certain aspects centralized upon. Well, bring on the new technology...

nmap

It seems that all the hacking books and even halfway tech savvy articles I've read about hackers have included something about footprinting a network using nmap. Footprinting is finding out what a network is composed of ( what routers, computer and os's, and other network nodes exist on the line) I've been checking out nmap (ping on steroids) I found some general information tutorials on nmaps documentation page...


http://www.insecure.org/nmap/lamont-nmap-guide.txt
http://members.dodo.net.au/~ps2man/Nmap/nmap.html
http://moonpie.org/writings/discovery.pdf

Customize the Right click menu

Have issues with all those options that pop up for third party software when you right lick in windows?

http://www.jfitz.com...s/rclick_custom.html

Encryption on VNC Connection

I thought that there was encryption on the signal to begin with, but it makes sense that there isn't. All those dial up sites....

http://home.comcast.net/%7Emsrc4plugin/

KnoppMyth

Systm did an episode on a MythBox (tivo without the subscription fees) All you need is a 2.0ghz machine with 512 mb ram, as much storage as you think you need, and one or two tv tuner cards and you're in shape for some HDTV picture in Picture tivo session whatever. So its good times yet again. Fight the bastards that sold you the service to get rid of commercials only to have you watch some as you fastforward through the bs. If you have the box, the software side of it is really easy (pretty much plug-n-play) Make sure you have a blank disk, and then you can go off about the whole enter, next, enter, next etc....

KnoppMyth Torrent

ZipIt!

So this is the gadget of the hour...

Apparently you can through a better linux distro and load an ssh client... Have the capacity to control servers on a little handheld chatting device...



LinuxDevices has some good info on everything...

keyboard screen?

This keyboard is the latest craze... From a Russian designer team, each key will have its own mini lcd screen that will be programmable...