So we are getting ready to head to the beach. 18+ hours in the car with the kids - and only my laptop will have an internet connection.
That is great for me - but how are the kids going to surf the web and keep up with IM while on the road. We won't have an internet connection for them at the beach, or the following week in Vermont.
So what is the answer? Share my laptop. NO WAY! But I am willing to share my EVDO high speed wireless connection.
I played with this a while back, but had nothing but problems getting it set up. It ended up totally messing up all of my connections.
So I figured that if I am going to give it a shot, I better play before we hit the road so that I will have some time to recover if necessary.
I found this excellent post months ago, just have not taken the time to give it a try.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/networking/expert/bowman_02april08.mspx
Boy, it looks simple. But wasn't this what I tried on my own without instructions before?
Well, I gave it a shot and it worked right out of the gate. When I then turned on WEP, it crapped out and I could not get it back up. So tear it down, put it back to original, reboot and try once more.
Well this time it worked. WEP and all.
We will see how it holds up over the next two weeks on the road. Should be OK, as long as they don't try to download the current Harry Potter movie off torrent ;-)
Monday, July 23, 2007
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
iLike
O.K. - I'm addicted. Well not really, but this was really fun. iLike is an add-in to facebook that allows you to play a game. Plays clips of songs and you have to guess the artist or title. I did not do so well with the current bands - but whenever some classic rock popped up - well - I ROCKED!
They are adding a contest by genre soon. That will let me rack up points really fast.
Saw a writeup on iLike on Techcrunch and figured I would give it a spin. They have signed up 3+ million users in the past couple months. A viral success for sure. Not sure what their business model is - but will have to dig in later.
Also, speaking about music, played a couple months ago with Pandora. You give this service some bands/songs you like and it then streams music to your tastes. I had tried a couple of these in the past and they were spotty at best at finding music I like. This one was dead on.
Give it a spin!!
They are adding a contest by genre soon. That will let me rack up points really fast.
Saw a writeup on iLike on Techcrunch and figured I would give it a spin. They have signed up 3+ million users in the past couple months. A viral success for sure. Not sure what their business model is - but will have to dig in later.
Also, speaking about music, played a couple months ago with Pandora. You give this service some bands/songs you like and it then streams music to your tastes. I had tried a couple of these in the past and they were spotty at best at finding music I like. This one was dead on.
Give it a spin!!
Saturday, July 14, 2007
FaceBook or LinkedIn?
OK, so they really are different products, and for now I'm hedging my bet and participating in both. But this was an interesting article on TechCrunch about where they are heading and what it means for networking.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/13/linkedin-traffic-up-but-is-it-enough/
Will be interesting to follow both.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/13/linkedin-traffic-up-but-is-it-enough/
Will be interesting to follow both.
Friday, July 13, 2007
Pattern Recognition
Today I listened to a podcast from Defcon by Dan Kaminsky on how ISPs are shutting down individuals due to usage levels, SSL problems and how he was able to hack DNS. All interesting stuff, but the cream was in his description of pattern recognition in hex data.
http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&q=Dan+Kaminsky+pattern+recognition
This was really cool. He talked about a tool that takes chucks of file data (programs, MP3's, etc.) and looks for matching patterns and then displays it visually. He talked about how our brains can't remember unstructured stuff (strings of data and unrelated words), but can remember names and patterns.
His use for this was to look for patterns in programs that he can fuzz or look for changes in versions of a program. Very cool.
I need to think about how this might be used to recognize patterns in statistical data in my job.
Amazing how stuff from left field seems to apply to what I do on a daily basis...
http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&q=Dan+Kaminsky+pattern+recognition
This was really cool. He talked about a tool that takes chucks of file data (programs, MP3's, etc.) and looks for matching patterns and then displays it visually. He talked about how our brains can't remember unstructured stuff (strings of data and unrelated words), but can remember names and patterns.
His use for this was to look for patterns in programs that he can fuzz or look for changes in versions of a program. Very cool.
I need to think about how this might be used to recognize patterns in statistical data in my job.
Amazing how stuff from left field seems to apply to what I do on a daily basis...
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Time to get this started
I've decided to try to get some thoughts out of my brain and down in bits and bytes....
Some stuff I have been doing lately:
Listened to some podcasts from the last Defcon. So far there have been some very interesting topics. Yesterday, I listened to one on "bumping" locks. Very scary. I thought that when we locked our house at night - we were safe. But after this listen - I know better. Time to upgrade the locks.
Today listened to creating rootkits and viruses within Oracle. Since I work so much with Oracle, this all made sense. Again, frightening that there are so many ways to create a backdoor.
Finally, I just read Techcrunch for the first time. Very interesting blog on new tech start ups. Looks like it will be worth a daily read.
Some stuff I have been doing lately:
Listened to some podcasts from the last Defcon. So far there have been some very interesting topics. Yesterday, I listened to one on "bumping" locks. Very scary. I thought that when we locked our house at night - we were safe. But after this listen - I know better. Time to upgrade the locks.
Today listened to creating rootkits and viruses within Oracle. Since I work so much with Oracle, this all made sense. Again, frightening that there are so many ways to create a backdoor.
Finally, I just read Techcrunch for the first time. Very interesting blog on new tech start ups. Looks like it will be worth a daily read.
Thursday, October 19, 2006
I constantly get the question: "My computer is running slow - what could be wrong?"
I subscribe to a couple of really good security podcasts and blogs - the general consensus is that the battle has been lost.
This article explains how the most current set of viruses, spyware and rootkits are taking over peoples PC's. There is now a profit in it and organized crime is bellying up to the trough.
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2029720,00.asp
Everyone who owns a computer should take the time to read and (at least on a basic level) understand the information contained in this article.
So what can YOU do?
1) Make sure that you are using Windows Update service. Once enabled - this will automatically download security patches for XP and install them for you.
2) Make sure you are running a good anti-virus program - and that it is set to automatically download updates. Check it from time to time to ensure this is happening.
3) Install a good spyware detection program. I use Windows Defender (free from Microsoft - just Google it).
Even the best spyware/malware/rootkit detection programs will only find 60-70% of the stuff that is out there - but it is a start.
4) Put your PC behind a firewall. This means setting up a Cable or DSL router (wireless of hardwired) to connect to your Cable or DSL modem - and then plug in your computer to that. This is critical !! It will also allow you to share your internet connection with other PC's in the house.
5) Avoid lyric sites, gambling sites and porn sites. Almost all of these will cause you problems. Stick to well known sites from vendors you can trust. Don't click on email links that take you off to user's or other websites unless you are sure you can trust the content.
Even with all these in place - it does not mean you will not get hit, but it will reduce your chances.
In the past year - I have completely lost the test server that I have directly on the internet 5 times due to malware infections. Usually not a big deal for me. I know how to clean it up get it back up and running. This last time (2 weeks ago) I was not so lucky. It completely trashed and I lost all data. Fortunately - I back it up so I had backups of all the data. That leads me to:
6) Buy a USB drive and back up all important files REGULARLY. These have become VERY cheap. You can pick one up for around $125 and I have seen them as low as $50. Aren't all of those digital pics, music files, Word docs worth at least that? This is not a foolproof backup strategy - but once again - it is a start.
Hopefully I have not been too preachy - but I have heard the message from the experts - and they are all saying that it is time to start passing it on.
Fritz
I subscribe to a couple of really good security podcasts and blogs - the general consensus is that the battle has been lost.
This article explains how the most current set of viruses, spyware and rootkits are taking over peoples PC's. There is now a profit in it and organized crime is bellying up to the trough.
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2029720,00.asp
Everyone who owns a computer should take the time to read and (at least on a basic level) understand the information contained in this article.
So what can YOU do?
1) Make sure that you are using Windows Update service. Once enabled - this will automatically download security patches for XP and install them for you.
2) Make sure you are running a good anti-virus program - and that it is set to automatically download updates. Check it from time to time to ensure this is happening.
3) Install a good spyware detection program. I use Windows Defender (free from Microsoft - just Google it).
Even the best spyware/malware/rootkit detection programs will only find 60-70% of the stuff that is out there - but it is a start.
4) Put your PC behind a firewall. This means setting up a Cable or DSL router (wireless of hardwired) to connect to your Cable or DSL modem - and then plug in your computer to that. This is critical !! It will also allow you to share your internet connection with other PC's in the house.
5) Avoid lyric sites, gambling sites and porn sites. Almost all of these will cause you problems. Stick to well known sites from vendors you can trust. Don't click on email links that take you off to user's or other websites unless you are sure you can trust the content.
Even with all these in place - it does not mean you will not get hit, but it will reduce your chances.
In the past year - I have completely lost the test server that I have directly on the internet 5 times due to malware infections. Usually not a big deal for me. I know how to clean it up get it back up and running. This last time (2 weeks ago) I was not so lucky. It completely trashed and I lost all data. Fortunately - I back it up so I had backups of all the data. That leads me to:
6) Buy a USB drive and back up all important files REGULARLY. These have become VERY cheap. You can pick one up for around $125 and I have seen them as low as $50. Aren't all of those digital pics, music files, Word docs worth at least that? This is not a foolproof backup strategy - but once again - it is a start.
Hopefully I have not been too preachy - but I have heard the message from the experts - and they are all saying that it is time to start passing it on.
Fritz
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