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KeePass Password Safe Review

PaulSpoerry | December 28, 2008

KeePass is a free open source password manager, which helps you to manage your passwords in a secure way. You can put all your passwords in one database, which is locked with one master key or a key file. So you only have to remember one single master password or select the key file to unlock the whole database. The databases are encrypted using the best and most secure encryption algorithms currently known (AES and Twofish).

Keepass comes in a portable version, perfect for keeping on a USB thumbdrive. The password database consists of only one file that can be transferred from one computer to another easily.

Keepass is open source and totally free (released under the GPL).  Version 2.x (the latest) runs on Windows 98, 98SE, ME, 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, Mono (Linux, Mac OS X, BSD, …), the only requirement being that you have Microsoft .NET Framework ? 2.0 or Mono ? 2.0.1. It allows for exporting to XML, HTML, CSV, KDB3, XSL-Transformed, and importing from more than 25 different formats. KeePass 2.x already has built-in support for file synchronization and because it has a plugin architecture which allows others to extend the application you can also download a plugin to synchronize with online storage providers!

KeePass supports the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES, Rijndael) and the Twofish algorithms to encrypt its password databases, this is the same type of encryption used by banks and the government, so you know your data is safe.

Grab a copy of Keepass from keepass.info.

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Code, Privacy, Tech, Web Life, Windows
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Advanced Encryption Standard, Cryptography, encryption, KeePass, mac os x, open source, security, Twofish, Windows
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Microsoft Wordpress Installer?

PaulSpoerry | October 15, 2008

Who would have thought… but the new Microsoft Web Platform Installer is designed to help get you get up and running with the most widely used Web Applications freely available for Windows Server. The new installer (which is beta currently) will install popular open source and .NET solutions. Included in the beta release will include DotNetNuke, Drupal, Gallery, Graffiti, osCommerce, PHPBB, and Wordpress. My first thought was… “seriously?” IIS is an awesome platform, and it’s nice to see Microsoft embracing that it can serve up more than just Microsoft languages (yes in fact it could for a long time, but it wasn’t easy or direct to do so).

What will be interesting, in regards to Wordpress, is how IIS will handle permalinks and having to use index.php in the url (sometimes, not always). Only time will tell, still exciting that Microsoft is moving in this direction.

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Code, Tech, Web Life, Windows, Wordpress
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.NET Framework, DotNetNuke, Internet Information Services, microsoft, open source, Software release life cycle, Windows, windows server
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Try Linux risk free without replacing Windows

PaulSpoerry | October 8, 2008

Wubi is an officially supported Ubuntu installer for Windows users that can bring you to the Linux world with a single click. Wubi allows you to install and uninstall Ubuntu as any other Windows application, in a simple and safe way. Are you curious about Linux and Ubuntu? Trying them out has never been easier! With Wubi you have a safe and easy way to give Linux a shot without damaging your Windows installation. No terminal commands, disk partitioning or disk formatting is needed. The best part is that the installation itself takes about one hour. So why try Wubi?

  • No need to burn a CD. Just run the installer, enter a password for the new account, and click “Install”, go grab a coffee, and when you are back, Ubuntu will be ready for you.
  • You keep Windows as it is, Wubi only adds an extra option to boot into Ubuntu. Wubi does not require you to modify the partitions of your PC, or to use a different bootloader, and does not install special drivers. It works just like any other application. Wubi is spyware and malware free, and being open source, anyone can verify that.
  • Wubi keeps most of the files in one folder, and if you do not like it, you can simply uninstall it as any other application.
  • Wubi and Ubuntu cost absolutely nothing (free as in beer), but yet provide a state of the art, fully functional, operating system that does not require any activation and does not impose any restriction on its use (free as in freedom).

Read the rest of this entry »

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Linux, Tech, Windows
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bootloader, cost absolutely nothing, desktop environment, disk partitioning, free as in freedom, gnome, kde, Linux, linux world, open source, operating system, partitions, ubuntu, Windows, windows application, windows installation, windows users, Wubi
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Google Chrome – Google Enters the Browser Wars

PaulSpoerry | September 2, 2008

Google announced it will release a brand new open source web browser called Google Chrome. Yesterday a site went up, and has subsequently been taken down at http://gears.google.com/chrome/?hl=en (as of this morning clicking this link take you back to regular old Google).

According to Crunchbase the features include:

  • Tabbed browsing where each tab gets its own process, leading to faster and more stable browsing. If one tab crashes, the whole browser doesn’t go down with it
  • A distinct user interface that places tabs on top of the browser window instead of right below the address bar
  • An “incognito” mode that lets you browse the web in complete privacy because it doesn’t record any of your activity
  • A new JavaScript engine built from the ground up for speed
  • Malware and phishing lists that automatically update themselves and warn you of bad websites
  • A default homepage that displays your most commonly used sites and other personalized information

Read the rest of this entry »

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Chrome, Code, GTD, Tech, Web Life, iGoogle
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arstechnica, bad websites, blog, browser window, firefox, gears, google, Google Browser, Google Chrome, isolated process, JavaScript, javascript engine, malware, Mozilla, new browser, next generation, open source, open source web, operating system, phishing, responsiveness, sandbox, tabs, technical innovations, user interface, web applications, web browser
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Open Source Router Firmware – turbocharge your cheap router

PaulSpoerry | March 20, 2008

Wired How-To Wiki shows you how to basically turn a $50 router into a $300 professional grade router using open source firmware.

High-end commercial routers offer features that just don’t come with your basic home package cheaper routers. We’re talking features like quality of service (QoS) management, adjustable transmission power, and support for IPv6.  Not everybody needs these features, but if you are somebody who does then you can get those features on the cheap using open source firmware.

What You’ll Need

  • A compatible wireless router
  • An Ethernet cable

Customize Your Router

This process involves replacing the manufacturer’s firmware that comes installed on the machine. There are quite a few open-source projects developing alternative firmwares for home routers. Each offers a variety of features and advantages.

DD-WRT is one of the most mature such projects, based on a Linux kernel and offering a wealth of options. Tomato is another firmware choice. Though not quite as feature-rich as DD-WRT, it is significantly easier to work with.

Find a Compatible Router

Linksys’s WRT54GL, shown above, is a good choice. It runs about $40- $60. Older models in the WRT54G series, without the L suffix, work: the WRT54G and WRT54GS versions 1 through 4 work without modification, and the version 5-6 work with ‘micro’ firmwares like DD-WRT micro thanks to the hack that can be found here. Look at the serial number on the underside of the router to check its version. Other routers that use Broadcom chipsets, made by Buffalo, Asus, and others, work as well.

There are numerous firmwares available for this platform. OpenWrt [1] provides a base for most of these firmwares, which extend it through a web based management console. Popular projects include X-Wrt [2], DD-WRT [3], and Tomato [4].

DD-WRT is compatible with a somewhat wider range of routers than Tomato is. Consult Wikipedia or the DD-WRT site for a complete reference.

Get the Firmware

Download the latest firmware, whether it be OpenWrt, X-Wrt, DD-WRT, or Tomato.

For some reason, Tomato is packaged as a 7z archive, one of the less-common file formats. You’ll need to unzip it with a tool such as 7-Zip for Windows, 7zx for Macs, or p7zip for Linux.

Unpack the downloaded firmware into a directory on your computer. It includes several different .bin files for different routers.

Install the Firmware

Follow these steps:

1. Plug your router into a power socket. Do not connect it to the Internet.

2. Use an Ethernet cable to connect your computer to one of the router’s LAN ports. Do not use a wireless connection for this, since if the connection dies while you’re installing the firmware, your router may become unusable.

3. Go to the administration page of your router. In a default setup, this is probably accessible at http://192.168.1.1/ . You’ll need to log in. The default Linksys username and password is admin/admin.

Changing the Linksys router's firmware

Changing the Linksys router’s firmware

4. Go to the Administration tab, and choose Firmware Upgrade. (This is standard for a Linksys router; other routers may offer this option in a different place.) It offers a slot to choose a firmware file from your computer, which will be installed on the router. Browse to the Tomato directory you created and choose the appropriate .bin file for your router. For a Linksys WRT54GL, for instance, choose WRT54G_WRT54GL.bin. Click the Upgrade button and do not interrupt the connection until the process completes! When it’s done, your router will reboot itself. When it returns, it’ll be running Tomato.

Use the Firmware

Monitoring network traffic in real time is just one of the tricks Tomato's open firmware can do

Monitoring network traffic in real time is just one of the tricks Tomato’s open firmware can do

First, change the administrator password to something that’s not the default, so random internet people can’t log in and change your settings. Tomato’s options are all laid out in a sidebar: click Administration and then Admin Access to get to the password page.

Now connect the router to the Internet and play around.

  • One popular thing to do is to boost the transmission power: you can crank it all the way up to 251 mW. But this is unneighborly. It interferes with other signals in the area. It’s also somewhat useless — laptops will be able to find the router’s signal from farther away, but they won’t be powerful enough to transmit back to it at that distance, so the connection won’t work. Be smart and bump it up to 70mW.
  • Set up some QoS rules. That way, you can make sure that your high-priority tasks (web browsing, gaming or VoIP) get all the throughput they need, while lower-priority tasks like BitTorrent downloads don’t eat up the bulk of your bandwidth.
  • If you have kids (or leeching housemates of another sort), you can gain finer control over their access to the internet. Block P2P file transfers or ActiveX traffic at the router. You can also turn off wireless access during certain times of the day.
  • Use your new firmware to run Dynamic DNS, which is essential if you want to set up a mail server, run a BBS or share your music collection through a web interface.

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Gadgets, Linux, Tech, Web Life
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DD-WRT, ipv6, linksys, open source, OpenWrt, professional grade, qos management, quality of service, router, router firmware, router hack, service qos, Tomato, transmission power, X-Wrt
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