Oh Boy…are you going to l-o-v-e this…I sure do!

You know how sometimes you sign up for offers, or more info…fill in your name and email address…(which they swear upon their children’s lives NEVER to divulge)…and a few days later you are getting email from organizations and people you never heard of in your whole life?

Well…that little mystery is just about to be solved!

Now first you need… or have to get…  a Google email account… which is no big deal… just type Google email in your search bar, then click on one of the thousands of links, and then sign up for the account.

And THEN the fun begins!

Only use this account for opting in or signing up for offers or info. (Still use your real email account for your personal or business email.)

Choose something easy for you to remember…like yourname@gmail.com     or     yourpetsname@gmail.com    

Then…next time you sign up for something…and have to provide an email address…you are going to remember your gmail account…and you are going to use that…

Only with a little “twist”. 

Come to find out, we can use this little-known secret:

Say you want info on an offer by JoeBlow, and Joe wants your name and email address so he can send it to you.

Great! 

And say you signed up at Google email and your new gmail address is:     herekittykitty@gmail.com  

So what email address are you going to give him?

herekittykitty+JoeBlow@gmail.com

You know why?  Because here’s the secret: when gmail sees the +  sign in an email address, it uses all the characters to the LEFT of the + (which would be your herekittykitty) to know who to send the email to!  Really!

That means when ABC sends you an offer…you know what to put as your email address, right?

herekittykitty+ABC@gmail.com  

And it gets even better….

NOW you will be able to use this trick to find out WHO gave your email address out to everyone else in the first place!

Cool Gmail Trick: “CAN SPAM!” (or at least catch the ‘dirty-dog’ who gave them your email address!) · Cool Online Tools

IE7 in Windows Vista: Configuring Your View Source Editor

We’ve noticed a few blog posts asking why IE7 in Windows Vista displays a prompt to launch Notepad. You can see this prompt by right clicking on a webpage and selecting View Source. I want to explain why the prompt is displayed and also tell you how to turn it off.

As you probably already know from previous blog entries, Windows Vista includes an IE security feature called Protected Mode. Protected Mode runs the IE process with lower privileges and also helps protect against malicious webpages that try to automatically pass content to higher privileged applications like Notepad.

Before launching applications like Notepad that weren’t designed to work with low privilege, Protected Mode displays the following prompt to get your permission. This prompt is designed for the worst case security scenario, which is a malicious webpage trying to silently elevate out of Protected Mode by launching an application or reusing one that you’re launching. For example, in the scenario where you select View Source, a malicious webpage could try to silently pass its content to Notepad instead of the webpage’s source code. This could be a dangerous scenario if there was vulnerability in Notepad

If you only browse to web sites you trust and you don’t want to click through this prompt in the future, you can check the “Do not show me the warning for this program again” box before clicking “Allow”. Checking this box and “Allow” will add the following entry to Protected Mode’s elevation policy:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Low Rights\ElevationPolicy\{9F5511FE-4BB1-474D-B6ED-8877567E7F36}]
“AppPath”=”C:\\Windows\\System32″
“AppName”=”notepad.exe”
“Policy”=dword:00000003

You can find more details on Protected Mode’s elevation policy in the Protected Mode technical article on MSDN.

If you later decide that you want to see this Protected Mode elevation prompt again for Notepad or any other application you added to Protected Mode’s elevation policy, either delete the registry key mentioned above or click “Reset…” in the Internet Options Advanced tab.

If you are looking for a better View Source Editor option than Notepad, install Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition and add:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE\VWDExpress.exe

to the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\View Source Editor\Editor Name

Thanks for reading!

Marc Silbey
Program Manager

edit: Correction: If you are looking for a better View Source Editor option, Add: If you later decide that you want to see

Published Wednesday, March 28, 2007 12:15 PM by ieblog

Filed under: General IE Information, Tips and Tricks

Source: IEBlog : IE7 in Windows Vista: Configuring Your View Source Editor

1. Download and install VMWare on your server
2. Download and install VMWare client on your workstation (if it is different than your server)
3. Option 1: Prepackaged Ubuntu VM (Please note, this will NOT work on a headless server)
   1. Download Ubuntu VM from www.vmware.com
   2. Open Ubuntu VM (user/pass is ubuntu/ubuntu) in VMWare client
4. Option 2: New fresh install of Ubuntu (you have to do this if you have a headless server)
   1. Download Ubuntu ISO from www.ubuntu.com
   2. Create new virtual machine in vmware, choose Linux -> Ubuntu
   3. Mount the cd drive for the virtual machine to your downloaded iso in the virtual machine settings
   4. Start virtual machine, this will ask if you want to install, so perform the full install (this is just a regular Ubuntu install)
5. Now you should be in Ubuntu linux
6. modify /etc/apt/sources.list (ex: run: sudo nano -w /etc/apt/sources.list)
   - Change the first section lines deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu breezy main restricted
   to deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu breezy main restricted universe multiverse
   You can also add universe multiverse to deb-src and do the same to the breezy-update lines too.
   (breezy will be dapper in 6.X versions)
7. run: sudo apt-get update
8. Install JDK
   1. Option 1:
      1. run: sudo apt-get install sun-java5-jdk
   2. Option 2: (if option 1 doesn’t work)
      1. download jdk 1.5 from sun, the Self extracting linux version, .bin extension (NOT rpm)
      2. run: sudo apt-get java-package
      3. run: fakeroot jdk***.bin
      4. run: sudo update-alternatives –config java
         - select the j2sdk1.5-sun option
      5. run: java -version
         - just to make sure it’s the new version
9. add:
   export JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.5.0-sun-1.5.0.06
   if you used Option 1 for installing JDK above or:
   export JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/j2sdk1.5-sun
   if option 2 was used
   to /home/ubuntu/.bashrc
10. Open a new console window to continue with the rest of the steps
11. Download tomcat 5.5 from tomcat.apache.org
12. extract tomcat (to a directory under your HOME directory is a good idea – /home/ubuntu/java/apache-tomcatXXX)
13. go to tomcat directory/bin
14. run: ./startup.sh
15. surf to http://yournewserversip:8080/
    1. You should see the Tomcat welcome page

If you want to run Tomcat as a service: http://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-5.5-doc/setup.html
Other tips:
- If you want to use 7-zip which is nice for all compression/decompression tasks, run: “sudo apt-get install p7zip”, then to extract anything, you just run “7za x myfile” (.zip or .tar or .tar.gz or .7z, etc)
- If you want an ssh server (sshd) on your new ubuntu box, run: “sudo apt-get install openssh-server”. Apparently Ubuntu does not come with an ssh server installed out of the box.
- if you use nano, while you’re editing .bashrc above, it’s a good idea to add an alias for nano with the -w option like: alias nano=’nano -w’
- VMware kicks a**, so be sure to try it (note: I have no affiliation with VMware, I just like good products)
If you have any issues with the steps above or want to add anything, please post your comment below.
Good night and good luck…

Source: Space Program Blog: Installing Java 5 JDK and Tomcat on Ubuntu (using VMWare)

Maybe its because we try to do only things that we find interesting and not what is needed to do. Its infectious for people to only do what they want to do and not what needs to be done. I admit to this myself. Granted if you can find work that you find enjoyable, challenging and financially sound then DO IT! Don’t pass go, go straight to the damn thing and enjoy it.

As I am finding it, I must tweak my life to be interesting. I have to make my job interesting and some what challenging. The users and problems won’t do that anymore. I need to work on projects that I find interesting and possibly beneficial to the company. No boondoggles. As I do this my company sees the benefit in keeping me and not outsource the job. They can see I am thinking and keeping current, so they don’t feel they need to keep me entertained or “babysat” me by giving me more work or projects that are not needed. As I continue to grow my skills and experiences the more valuable I become. Granted not all companies think this way. The all mighty dollar and bottom line is pretty much what most companies are about. In the many years I’ve been a tech I’ve seen the opposite of what I stated. Too many tech’s will get bored and then do nothing except take up company time and resources. Keep requesting raises to stay and keep that one vital project up and running. Start working on side jobs or do side jobs while at the primary work. Working only when needed. Having a bad attitude. Not caring about the other employees and not doing everything they can to make things better and run smoother. Not good. This is what Upper management thinks of  when they think of IT. Overhead! Cost too much! Can hire some company in Bangladesh to do the same thing remotely.

I’ve dealt with companies out of the country that have a contract with someone here. I play the onsite man. Doing the leg work and getting paid maybe 10% of the job if that. There are companies actively seeking to outsource IT jobs that are not even in the country or local to the company or location of the job that is needed.

Granted there are companies like mine was and did the same thing but I was in the area at least.

Great post anyhow. Got me thinking.

Is IT Dilbertized?

This is an interesting and yet painful phenomena. There are lesser and lesser IT undergrads and people are expecting IT to just flow like water and electricity. I have said it long ago, Virtualization will speed up the commoditization of IT. Most IT firms are already changing their tag lines and mantras. Soon IT will be managed by some poor bloke in Elbonia.
I don’t think we can stop the commoditization but what we surely can do is to bring back the innovation.
I was speaking (yesterday) to a young dutch student from our University (born in Holland with Chinese origin). His folks sent him to China to learn Chinese, the culture and values. This kid had done IT and is not at all excited about how IT is treated in Holland. He was eager to go back to China to continue his studies as he “didn’t like the drag here”. This is playing massively in developed countries. IT has been pushed out and given to the cheapest bloke to manage.

IT isn’t fun anymore, and while a lack of fun at work may not seem worth stopping the presses over, the long-term effects of depriving a field of appealing work may very likely look like this: Students are turning away from computer science at an alarming rate. There’s a huge talent shortage across the entire field, and, in confidence, enterprise IT workers say they’d probably choose a different career path if they could go back and start over again.

Lots of my mates have stepped out of IT. And these guys were Java Architects, Consultants. Why? They were sick and tired of all those mergers and acquisitions.
Anyways read this interesting article at eWeek.

Source: TarryBlogging – Virtualization For Everyone: Is IT Dilbertized?

How to be a Terrible Network Admin: 25 Fail-safe Tips

You walk in to work everyday wishing you didn’t have to; you drag your feet all day long as you’re bombarded with complaints: “I can’t log into the system,” “I can’t access the printer (or drive or server),” “This software just refuses to work the way I want it to.” To top if off, you’re showered with the worst nicknames because you don’t seem to know what you’re doing. You are the terrible network administrator.

Rather than working with your users and engaging in practical IT security measures, the terrible network administrator enjoys doing next to nothing.

Here are the best 25 ways to make your tenure in networking “The Terrible Times,” not just for you, but for your organization and your end-users as well.

1. No priority for priority: Each new day in the TCP/IP world brings a host of new tasks, some trivial, others critical, and still others perceived as critical though they are not. Besides these, you also have items in your backlog folder that need to be addressed at the earliest possible time. So the best way to screw up your schedule (and that of your users) is to “run from pillar to post” attempting to set things right, without assigning priority to the most severe problems first, without tracking the status of all the requests that pour in, and without documenting the time, tools and methods spent on addressing and resolving each issue.

2. Be busy, not productive: The shortest route to this trick: do not automate recurring tasks, and under no circumstances should you find permanent solutions to common problems. You don’t need to know that you can simplify your work with tools – Neo, NetFlow, MRTG, Oak, TCPDUMP, ping – none of these are a regular part of your vocabulary. And you certainly don’t need to take the trouble to customize some of them using a scripting language. And finally, you don’t need to know that you can use the UPS in a major file server to send an automatic email each time there’s a power spike.

3. Say no to knowing your network: Monitoring your servers and your network interface is unnecessary, simply because you have no need to know how much traffic is traveling about your network. Regular observation of your network provides you with knowledge on normal, trouble-free usage, which in turn helps you identify problem spots and potential causes when you’re called to troubleshoot and plan for future growth. This is not necessary for a terrible network administrator.

4. Bye to Backups: Data is the lifeblood of any organization and probably the most valuable part of a network. Bad network administrators do not have reliable backup measures, do not backup data regularly, and do not have effective recovery plans for system data that is lost or corrupted.

5. Knowledge is dangerous: Identifying new security issues before they become problems is possible with a little research, yet incompetent network administrators are not concerned with such things. They don’t care to know when the new upgrade is out, or how to combat the latest forms of intrusion.

6. Take the “I’m Superman” approach: You’re having a lot of trouble dealing with a particular problem, but you are the know-it-all. You don’t need the assistance of any resource or reference, FAQ lists, or README files — you can do it yourself.

7. Don’t Document: Writing procedures for troubleshooting a major problem is such a boring task. Terrible administrators fail to log hardware and software specifications and details, make notes on the methods they adopted for troubleshooting (both the ones that worked and those that didn’t), and document the potential causes for network problems. Doing so would save the network countless hours of time and trouble, but then they’re incompetent, who cares?

8. People equate to problems: How often have you wished that the human aspect of the job would just disappear? A terrible network administrator just ignores the users. Who wants to take the time and be patient enough to deal with users who do not understand technical jargon? You don’t need to develop different techniques to deal with individual needs and preferences, nor do you need to understand the procedures and politics that pertain to dealing with human beings. For the incompetent administrator, knowing your network inside out is enough!

9. Get lost in translation: There’s no need for you to listen to (let alone understand) user needs and applications thoroughly before you map them to the right hardware configurations. Network system planning and design are not the concerns of a terrible administrator.

10. Automation is not automatic: A terrible network administrator does not bother to automate. While a good one would configure a system that is capable of raising an alert the moment it detects an anomaly, the terrible one would prefer to read individual system events and system logs.

11. Wrong approach to rights: Employees come and go: they move across departments climbing and falling on the corporate ladder. Each move requires a change in user access privilege rights. Allowing wrong access to confidential and sensitive data is an IT department head’s worst nightmare. But, the terrible network administrator does not need to continually monitor user rights, thus inviting disaster into the network.

12. Bypass passwords: While correct password etiquette demands that your password is sufficiently long, uses a mix of characters, doesn’t include any personal information, and requires frequent changes, a terrible network administrator pays no attention to this subsequently inviting hackers in. How about using one of the five most-used passwords in the world?

13. Patchy patches: Network security is at the bottom of the priority list for terrible administrators – they don’t upgrade security software, don’t scan for viruses and other malware on a regular basis, don’t believe users when they claim to have critical problems, don’t update their operating systems, don’t apply regular patches from the software manufacturer – in short, they don’t protect their network at all.

14. Hacking is unethical: Of course it is, but when you’re a network administrator, you should think like a hacker in order to be able to catch one or thwart his/her attempts. It takes a crook to catch a crook becomes the motto here. Efficient administrators try to stay one step ahead of intruders by knowing how to hack into networks themselves. The incompetent administrator does not bother about knowing when an attack is coming though.

15. Prevention is not better than the cure: As a good administrator you have to watch for the signs that tell you an intrusion is being planned. Perform port scans and check if your system files have been altered. Stay on the alert for internal attacks from disgruntled employees who have access to information. Lock down your network room. However preventive maintenance is none of a terrible network administrator’s concerns.

16. Pay no attention to your users: Since the most common means of entry for malware is through private user email attachments and downloads from dicey websites, it makes sense to monitor users’ email and internet usage. The terrible network administrator takes the “everybody is entitled to their privacy and perversions” route – he follows a lax policy when it comes to a question of network security.

17. Successors don’t matter: The bad system administrators have no sympathy for those who may replace them some day; the good ones ensure that the system is repeatable. A good system administrator will work hard to develop a standard for deploying an operating system or software applications in the same way across all the systems on the network. Anyone can manually load each system one by one, but it takes a skilled individual to design a system to streamline the process.

18. Predecessors do: Terrible network administrators will automatically assume that his predecessor was an excellent administrator, and not bother to find out if programs are up to date, if there are airtight security and password policies in place, if there are detailed records of past attacks and intrusions, and if employee access rights are controlled and monitored on a regular basis.

19. Time and tide wait for the terrible admin: That’s because they are not bothered with completing tasks in the minimum time required to do them. Even the simplest of tasks like resetting passwords take ages, simply because the administrator does not want to do his job.

20. Integrity issues: Ever consider selling your network secrets and passwords on eBay?. A network administrator with no sense of integrity has.

21. Be here, there, everywhere: While a good administrator will try to remain invisible, secure in the knowledge that he knows the network well enough to make even the most difficult tasks appear simple, the terrible network administrator will appear to be in more than one place at the same time, though he will not get anything worthwhile done. A well-administered network is usually attributed to an admin who stays behind the scenes but knows exactly what’s going on.

22. Cleanliness is not next to godliness: The terrible admin has his work easy – there’s no need to continually check and clean hardware, even if he knows that the procedures tend to extend the lives of the devices.

23. Fake facts for a while: While a good network administrator is generally adept at handling two or more operating systems and mail server programs and is familiar with the most common acronyms in the business, the terrible ones just fake their way through.

24. Jump to conclusions: When problems crop up in the network, the bad administrators do not consider the entire picture; they’re more focused on reaching hasty decisions. They don’t take the time to make notes on what has changed and what events have taken place prior to the occurrence of the problem.

25. Odds and ends will do: Why use products that are proven to work when the stuff on sale MIGHT be as good? Incompetent network administrators choose this policy: when the pencil breaks, the network will fall.

–

Source: Business Intelligence Lowdown: How to be a Terrible Network Admin: 25 Fail-safe Tips

The 5 Immutable Laws of Persuasive Blogging

February 1st, 2007 | Copywriting, Social Media Marketing, Business Blogging

Blogging is a great way to grow a business, promote a cause, or spread new ideas, because when you take an educational approach to marketing, you gain the attention and trust of people who might otherwise simply ignore old-fashioned advertising. Not only can those people become your customers or converts, they can also become your advocates.

While there’s as many ways to approach blogging as there are blogs, some things remain steadfast when it comes to gaining influence and prompting action. Here are the 5 bedrock elements that you might keep in mind when blogging to persuade:

1. The Law of Value

Your blog must provide value to the reader by addressing a problem, concern, desire, or need that the reader already has. Fresh, original content is critical.

2. The Law of Headlines and Hooks

Your post titles must stand out in a crowded, noisy blogosphere, and you must quickly communicate the value of reading further with your opening.

3. The Law of “How To”

People don’t want to know “what” you can do, they want to know “how” it’s done. If you think you’re giving away too much information, you’re on the right track.

4. The Law of the List

Love them or hate them, informational posts presented in list format are easily digestable, and allow for an efficient transfer of your value proposition to the reader.

5. The Law of the Story

Stories are the most persuasive blogging element of all, as they allow you to present a problem, the solution, and the results, all while the connotation of the story allows readers to sell themselves on what you have to offer.

Source: The 5 Immutable Laws of Persuasive Blogging | Copyblogger

Smaller Doses of Caffeine Better Than One Large Dose?

I am willing to bet the majority of readers of this blog ingest caffeine in some form or another each day so you might find this study interesting.

In the new study, the scientists instead tested the effects of administering an hourly, low dose of caffeine equivalent to about two ounces of coffee to one group, while the second group received a placebo. The caffeinated men performed better on cognitive tests than the control individuals did, and dozed off less often. And though they received the same cumulative dose as subjects in previous, single-dose studies, taking many small doses minimized some of the negative side effects that caffeine can have, such as tremors.

Now the question becomes how to get those lower doses more frequently. Caffeinated lip balm perhaps?

Source: The World of Jakanden » Smaller Doses of Caffeine Better Than One Large Dose?

Buying OEM versions of Windows Vista: the facts

1/30/2007 9:39:14 AM, by Ken Fisher

Today Vista launches. I’ve received a number of e-mails from readers looking for more information on the black arts of the OEM edition, so here it is: my brief introduction to everything you need to know before going OEM.

What is OEM?

OEM stands for Original Equipment Manufacturer, and most often refers to the likes of Dell or Gateway. At least originally, “OEM versions” of products were usually the same products that you’d find at retail, but with no-frills packaging, reduced support, and sometimes lesser warranties.

When it comes to Windows, “OEM editions” most often refer to the cheaper versions of Windows made available to “system builders” and other classes of Microsoft partners. You can buy OEM versions of Windows online almost any place that sells software, such as NewEgg. Companies keep compliant with Microsoft’s rules by bundling OEM versions with a token piece of hardware, like a cable. Here’s a glimpse of current OEM pricing:

• Vista Home Basic $99 (full version retail: $199)
• Vista Home Premium: $119 (full version retail: $239)
• Vista Business: $149 (full version retail: $299)
• Vista Ultimate $199 (full version retail: $399)

As a general rule, OEM software is usually much cheaper than full retail copies, but only slightly cheaper than retail upgrades. Vista upgrade pricing, plus a word or three on the limitations of the upgrade versions, can be found here.

Can I buy OEM?

Yes, you can. Microsoft licenses OEM software to “system builders,” which the license defines as “an original equipment manufacturer, or an assembler, reassembler, or installer of software on computer systems” (emphasis added). You can install software on computers, right?

When asked, Microsoft says that OEM software is not intended to be installed by end users. Off the record, Microsoft spokespeople have told me that the big concern in Redmond is for Joe Newbie. They don’t want inexperienced users buying OEM software, but the fact of the matter is that anyone can buy OEM versions of Windows.

Truth be told, Microsoft is not opposed to the practice. Rather, the company says that people who purchase OEM software will simply be expected to abide by the terms of the licensing agreements. 

What’s missing from the OEM version?

When you buy OEM, you need to understand what you’re getting.

OEM editions of Windows don’t come in pretty boxes, nor do they include manuals. Of course, a real “manual” has never shipped with Windows, and chances are, if you’re interested in OEM software, you don’t need what passes for a manual these days, anyway. And the pretty box… well, that’s not really worth much anyway, is it? Rest assured, though: the software on the disc is the same as that found in any retail edition.

There are some gotchas, though. OEM software cannot be returned once opened. There are no exceptions. You open it, you’ve bought it.

OEM software is also tied to the motherboard it is first installed on. Unlike the retail versions of Windows which can be transferred to a new computer, OEM versions are not transferable. What about upgrading hardware? Microsoft says that anything is fair game, except the motherboard. Replacing the motherboard in a computer results in a “new personal computer,” which the company considers to be synonymous with a transfer. It’s not permitted with an OEM edition of Windows.

Nevertheless, I’ve known users who got around this limitation by calling Microsoft and reporting that their motherboards died when they wanted to build a new computer. It is Microsoft’s policy to allow motherboard swaps in instances where a system is defective or has suffered a hardware failure. But you shouldn’t bank on this approach; there’s no guarantee it will work and, well, liars don’t get ice cream. Also, while retail versions of Vista include both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows, OEM versions are specific. You get one or the other. This follows from the per device restriction. The end result is that OEM versions may not be that attractive to users who frequently build new computers from the ground up.

Then there’s support. Technically, OEM versions of Windows get first-tier support from the system builders who put the OEM software on your machine. In the case of Mom & Pop Computers, that means M&P is your first support hit. In the case of you buying OEM software for yourself, technically this means that you’re your own support. What does this really mean? Retail Vista comes with 90 days of free support. OEM edition users don’t get that, but paid support is still an option, should you need it.

The sum difference

Should you consider OEM software? I’ve outlined the issues, now it’s up to you. Just keep in mind one thing: Microsoft has shown renewed interest in enforcing the terms of its licenses, and the technology that helps the company do so is getting more pervasive, and smarter.

Source: Buying OEM versions of Windows Vista: the facts

Convert Physical Machines to Virtual Machines – Free!

Use the intuitive wizard-driven interface of VMware Converter to convert your physical machines to virtual machines. VMware Converter quickly converts Microsoft Windows based physical machines and third party image formats to VMware virtual machines. It also converts virtual machines between VMware platforms. Automate and simplify physical to virtual machine conversions as well as conversions between virtual machine formats with VMware Converter.

Download the datasheet for more information or download the free VMware Converter and try it for yourself.

Source: VMware Converter for workstation to virtual pc and virtual machine migration: VMware – VMware

This is the software for you! Its free and will explain what each of the tests do.

Introducing Our Newest Security Freeware: SecurAble

Quickly determine which state-of-the-art security features are being offered by your system’s processor chip.
Recent AMD and Intel processors contain three features which can be extremely beneficial to the system’s overall security. SecurAble probes the system’s processor to determine the presence, absence and operational status of each of these three modern processor features.

Click to jump to SecurAble’s information and download page.

Source: GRC | Gibson Research Corporation Home Page