The Author – Bart Busschots
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Feb
27
A Nice Free Tool for Measuring Pixel Sizes on Screen
Filed Under Computers & Tech on February 27, 2007 | 5 Comments
It’s often handy to figure out how big elements on your screen are in pixels. The freeware tool Free Ruler lets you do just that. This is another example of the kind of Mac programs I really like, those that do just one thing but do it very well. The program really couldn’t be simpler. You get a semi-transparent ruler that floats over the screen that you can move around. You actually get two rulers at 90o to each other and you can resize both independently though they move together. There’s not really much more to say about this tool so I’ll leave you with a screen shot.
[tags]OS X, Apple, Software, Free Ruler[/tags]
Feb
26
Two Tips for Getting More out of Thunderbird
Filed Under Computers & Tech on February 26, 2007 | 7 Comments
I’m probably a very rare beast, a Mac user who uses Thunderbird rather than Apple Mail. The reason I use Thunderbird is because I don’t like lock-in. I’ve had my same mailboxes on Windows, Linux and Mac, so I know that as long as I use Thunderbird I can move to any OS I want at any time and keep all my mail, contacts and settings completely effortlessly. I’d just have to copy one folder. It can certainly be argued that Thunderbird is less polished looking than Mac Mail and it has a few less features but on the whole it’s a very capable client that works well.
I’ve been using the basic features for years but of late the sheer volume of mail I have to deal with at work has led me to start experimenting with ways of making my life easier. The first optimization people generally think of is message filters so I’m not going to talk about those because I think they are pretty obvious and people are used to using them. Instead I’m going to give two hopefully less obvious tips.
[tags]Mozilla, Thunderbird, Email, To Do, Organise[/tags]
Feb
24
Recognising Homosexuality Does Not Make Straight People Gay!
Filed Under Polemics & Politics on February 24, 2007 | 8 Comments
I’m sure this is blindingly obvious to most people, anyone with more than a few braincells to rub together at least! However, this fact seems to have totally escaped the President of Poland who made an ass of himself here in Ireland this week. Here’s what he had to say:
[humanity] would disappear if homosexuality was freely promoted
…
Imagine what grand changes would occur in mores if the traditional links between men and women were set aside
He is quite obviously a few beers short of a six pack. He seems to be laboring under the insane delusion that gay rights is about forcing all heterosexuals into gay marriages and ending heterosexual marriage! This is if course total and utter rubbish. No one wants to replace traditional family units, just to also allow other forms of love be expressed and recognized.
This ignorance on behalf of their president makes it clear to me that although Poland is politically in Europe, their government is mentally in the middle ages and seriously lacking in IQ. Simple human rights for gays in Poland is a real problem and a real test for the EU. Poland signed up to the EU which means they have taken on responsibilities and duties as well as getting the advantages of EU membership (mainly vast wodges of cash). When it comes to human rights Poland is failing to come even close to living up to those responsibilities. The EU will have to tackle this and doing so will test the strength of the union and the union’s commitment to living up to its ideals. We certainly have interesting times ahead of us.
Feb
22
Past Visions of Apple’s Future – MacWorld 1997 Ten Years On
Filed Under Computers & Tech on February 22, 2007 | 8 Comments
By pure accident I stumbled across the full MacWorld keynote for 1997 on YouTube this evening and watched it all. This was the keynote where it was announced that Steve Jobs was re-joining Apple. It was a very interesting keynote because it didn’t actually introduce a single tangible product, instead it gave us an analysis of where Apple saw itself in 1997, and where Steve and the rest of the new board wanted it to go. Looking back now with 10 years worth of hind-sight it’s interesting to see how different the Apple we have is to the one we were promised.
Before reading on you may want to watch the 1997 keynote which is available on YouTube:
[tags]Apple, Steve Jobs[/tags]
Feb
21
Top Gear Do Space
Filed Under 42 (Life the Universe & Everything) on February 21, 2007 | 5 Comments
To those of you who don’t get the BBC Top Gear is car program that has been going for decades now which has become known for doing outrageous stunts with cars. This week they’ve just raised the bar a million miles by trying to launch a car (a Reliant Robin) into space!
Feb
19
JavaScript Home Router Attacks Happening for Real
Filed Under Security, Computers & Tech on February 19, 2007 | 4 Comments
In my rather long post on JavaScript security on the 15th I described a possible future scenario where JS could be used to attack home broadband routers. I was off sick last week so this morning I was catching up on some RSS feeds I subscribe to and was shocked to see the follow advisory issued on the 16th by US CERT:
In an announcement made yesterday, security researchers at
Symantec and Indiana University School of Informatics revealed
that they had uncovered a serious new security threat targeting
home broadband routers. The attack, dubbed Drive-By Pharming,
allows an attacker to change the configuration of a home router
when a user unknowingly visits a malicious website. The website
employs malicious JavaScript code that allows an attacker to log
into many types of home routers if the default password has not
been changed. Once logged in, the attacker is able to change the
configuration of the home router, including the Domain Name
Server (DNS) server settings.This type of attack is particularly concerning for a few reasons:
- Simply viewing the malicious webpage is all that is required
for a user to fall victim to this attack.- Many home users fail to change the default password on their
broadband routers. The Symantec report indicates that 50% of
all users could fall into this category.- Changing the Domain Name Server (DNS) server settings allow
an attacker to redirect the home user to a DNS server of
their choice. This includes a malicious server set up by the
attacker to direct users to other malicious websites, where
information such as financial account numbers, passwords,
and other sensitive data can be stolen.Symantec notes that the best defense against this type of attack
is for home users to change their default password. The
following links provide support resources for three of the more
common home router vendors:US-CERT cautions users to avoid clicking on links sent in
unsolicited emails. Users should also remain cautious when
browsing the web and avoid visiting untrusted sites. More
information can be found in Securing Your Web Browser document.To learn more, or to view a flash-animation of the attack, visit
Security Response Weblog.
This is pretty much exactly the scenario I warned about and it’s happening for real in the wild, NOW! If you have a broadband router make sure you change it’s password and give serious consideration to only enabling JS on sites that need it and not just surfing with JS on all the time. The threat is no longer hypothetical!
Feb
18
Two Free and Simple Video Tools for OS X
Filed Under Computers & Tech on February 18, 2007 | 2 Comments
One of the things I like best about the Mac platform is the abundance of good simple software tools that do one thing very well. Because of the frameworks Apple provide to Mac developers these tools all tend to share a common look and and feel and generally have very simple and intuative user interfaces (UIs). Personally I really like this approach to software, give me lots of small and simple apps that do one thing really well over a monolith that does millions of things poorly any day!
iRecord is the perfect example of this kind of Mac tool. The one thing it does is quickly and simply record video from your iSight camera. The (UI) could not be simpler, it has a grand total of one button! It’s a big red record button, you push it to start recording and again to stop. That’s all you have to do. Your video gets saved to your desktop.
The second tool I want to talk about is Perian, the ‘Swizz-Army Knife for Quicktime’. Perian is a Quicktime component that adds support for extra codecs to Quicktime. I came across this tools while looking for a free FLV (Flash Video) player for OS X. It deals with FLVs wonderfully as well as AVIs and DivXs. You can see a full list of the codecs supported on the web-page. For Mac users who are used to drag-and-drop installs installing a Quicktime component may seem a bit tricky since you actually have to copy it to the Quicktime folder in the Library folder on your hard-drive. However, a cleverly designed DMG file makes installing Perian trivial, drag a few pixels, drop, done!
Both these tools are free and embody what I believe are the best things about Mac software. Enjoy!
Feb
16
The Month of Apple Bugs Digested
Filed Under Computers & Tech, Security on February 16, 2007 | Leave a Comment
I’m actually surprised by how little discussion I’ve seen about January’s month of Apple Bugs. For those of you not familiar with the Month of Apple Bugs (MoAB) project, the idea was to post one Apple related bug each day in January 2007. Perhaps one reason for the lack of discussion is that the bug for the 31st of January has not been released yet. A very ominous title (“Unspecified Kernel Remote Fun”) has been posted but nothing more. People may be waiting to see just how bad these supposed remote exploits are before commenting. However, I’ve been digesting the thirty bugs we do have for a few weeks now and I think I’m ready to share some of my thoughts, even if may have to alter my views a bit when (and if) last bug is finally released.
[tags]Apple, Security, MoAB[/tags]
Feb
15
Are the Days of JS and AJAX numbered?
Filed Under Software Development, Security, Computers & Tech on February 15, 2007 | 2 Comments
A couple of months back I wrote two articles singing JavaScript’s praises from a programmer’s point of view (JavaScript – Much more than Java’s Mini-Me & Hidden JavaScript). In the last one I hinted that there would be a follow-on article showing a darker side to JS. This is that article, just a few months later than I’d planned. Unlike the previous two articles this one is not really aimed at programmers, it’s aimed at anyone who surfs the web.
JavaScript (JS) can be used to really enhance usability on the web. We all like having drag and drop capability on the web, we like the way AJAX lets pages only refresh the bits that need to change instead of whole pages, and we even like those cool JS transitions and graphic effects. A lot of people refer to these things as Web2.0, but I’m not going to. I prefer to think of Web2.0 as being about community involvement rather than any particular technology. It’s a frame of mind not a software version! You can have Web2.0 without JS or AJAX. The key point is that we are all getting used to the enhancements JS can bring to the web environment. But there is a cloud on the horizon and it is growing.
The sometimes controversial security expert Steve Gibson has been warning us about the dangers of browsing with JS turned on for years now. In the beginning people ridiculed him, but his views are gaining more and more acceptance as the dangers start to become real rather than theoretical. I think the recent MySpace JS worm and the release of proof-of-concept code for a JS port-scanner by SPI Labs have really started to focus people’s minds on the dangers of JavaScript.
[tags]JavaScript, JS, XSS, Security[/tags]
Feb
9
TCPDump for Windows
Filed Under Computers & Tech, System Administration on February 9, 2007 | 3 Comments
It’s no secret that I’m not a Windows fan. There are many reasons I don’t like windows including idealogical disagreements with MicroSoft, a lack of faith and trust in MS, security concerns, usability issues etc.. I could go on but for this post only one reason matters, I feel very vulnerable on a Windows machine because I can’t see what it’s doing as easily as I can on Linux, Unix or OS X. There are many Linux command-line tools missing from Windows but now there is one fewer missing from my Windows machine in work. TCPDump is a Linux/Unix command for analyzing all the network traffic that is going to or from your machine. Errand network traffic is a good indicator that you have some form of spyware and being able to monitor traffic can be very useful for debugging network problems. There is a Windows port of TCPDump called WinDump. It’s not entirely straight forward so I’ll just go through how to install it and how to make it work. This will not be a tutorial on how to use TCPDump, for that go here. This is very much a tool for power-users, not regular Windows users.
[tags]Windows, Security, WinDump, TCPDump[/tags]