Red Paranoid's Blog of DOOOOOOM!

Easter in Dartmoor

2011-04-25T10:31:00.000+02:00

Happy Easter, folks! Hope that you had a great time with family and friends :)

On the redparanoid / mousecatfish side, we went to Dartmoor, in the southwest of England. We flew into London and then drove over - approximately four hours at a leisurely pace. When I say 'leisurely pace', I actually mean 'at a pace that would allow me to adapt to driving on the left side of the road without dying of stress'; this was my first time driving in England. I had thought about it in February when ethicalhack3r had mentioned that, though it's a bit confusing at first, you get pretty used to switching from one side to another -- musing became reality, as it turned out, when mousecatfish asked me whether I'd be up for visiting Devon.

The original plan was that she was going to be the one driving; however, upon landing in Gatwick (and after some coaxing) she confessed to not being terribly confident about driving in the dark. I therefore took the first shift: one that would -- unbeknownst to the both of us at the time -- last approximately three days. After about half an hour of driving, the idea of a stressed-out mousecatfish behind the wheel on her birthday trip convinced me that I should just man up and drive the whole way :)

We did the trip in two parts: the first night, we stopped off at a Travelodge in Amesbury, which had the added benefit of being within spitting distance of Stonehenge. I'd never been, and mousecatfish had only ever seen it from a distance (foot & mouth disease had, at the time, confined her and her mates to the tour bus). Those acquainted with my traveling habits will confirm that me and people, we just don't get along - so trust me when I tell you that Stonehenge is well worth visiting.

I would show you more pictures of Stonehenge but on camera, it looks exactly like what it is: a pile of rocks. Frankly, it's only amazing when you see it in person.

If, like me, you're focusing on the road rather then the surroundings, you're likely to miss it as you're driving in; fortunately, MCF told me to look up just in time.

Get this: it's right next to a motorway, it's surrounded by rope and there are hundreds of tourists milling around it snapping photos - and yet, it still strikes you as otherworldly. It just sticks out as something that's definitely not from this time. It was here way before you were a glint in the milkman's eye, and in all probability it'll still be around when you breathe your last sigh. Hey, that rhymes. Go me.

I could yammer on in writing, but fortunately for all of us MCF has done a stellar job of narrating our trip on camera; so without further ado I shall let her do the talking. I've also included a mini-collage of photos of our trip for the hell of it :) Happy easter everybody!!!

New post on my 'Tale of FAIL' blog

2011-01-30T17:51:00.000+01:00

Read about a very cool mobile phone trojan today called Soundminer on Bruce Schneier's blog. Here's a high-level explanation about it - for Bruce's post, please go here.

New post on my 'Tale of FAIL' blog

2011-01-27T09:15:00.000+01:00

Did you hear that the U.S. is getting rid of the color-coded terror warnings by April 2011? Read about it on my blog -- comments appreciated!!!

Patrick Jean - Pixels = brilliant :-D

2011-01-18T18:10:00.000+01:00

Just brilliant, this. One of those fabulously refreshing videos that many people misconstrue for a complete waste of time. "Some people have too much time on their hands," they'll say. I think this comes from the fact that YouTube is too often considered a place where people post their home videos rather than a place where you can publish well thought-out, artistic short films. (Sigh)...

I like to think of 'YouTubing' as a multimedia equivalent of telling jokes at a social gathering. To wit: anytime someone tells a good joke at a party, it almost always turns the venue into Comedy Central. Each joke subsequently reminds somebody of another joke; you're more likely to run out of breath than humorous anecdotes. Similarly, you can always find just one more related YouTube video to watch; it's addictive, free, and provides hours of fun... And yet, somebody's always got to make that sarcastic comment. Namely me.

Life in the palm of your hand

2011-01-12T15:07:00.004+01:00

IHT, Jan 12th 2011 cover. Photo by Rebecca Blackwell / Associated Press

A wrinkly hand, creased and lined from life and work;
More dishevelled now than ever as it dries in the sun.
A hand which, hours ago, would have grasped a bowl, tightened around a knife, held another's face.

Look Hard.
Really Look.
Lift that veil of protection that is your apathy and desensitization to violence;
Take.
A good.
Look.

He cannot lift his veil; he cannot change his fate -- even if it were his to decide.

The crowd stands a distance away. Hands clasped in reverence -- small, blurred figures in a blurry grey insignificance; a world apart.

So very far away.
Yet frighteningly close.

Happy new year, all!

2011-01-02T19:08:00.001+01:00

Hope y'all had some great holidays :) I can't believe another year's gone by already. Some people would get depressed thinking like that, but not me -- each January 1st brings me renewed hope; it's a chance to leave all the crap that's happened to you in the past year behind and make room for more fun and games.

But enough of this 'peace on earth and goodwill toward men' shit. I've got a blog post to write.

For Christmas this year, I got some kickass books from my in-laws; if you're a fan of scifi urban fantasy like Harry Dresden, Remy Chandler et al, you should totally check out the Sandman Slim series by Richard Kadrey. Real page turners. I never had a chance -- from the moment I read the first paragraph I was doomed to finish both books at an unreasonable pace; I could have used them during the sixteen-hour trip home. Oh well.

These holidays have been a lot of fun; got to go to the beach, see a whole lot of ocean-life, drank a metric fuckton of coffee, chill out with friends... Not to mention hang out in what I can only describe as t-shirt weather and run around buying geeky shit. I've got enough comics and tech loot to last me the next two lifetimes :-D

If I could, I think that I'd live in Fry's. They've got the best shit there, I swear -- where else can you get videos, comics, home theaters, junk food, server racks, switches, laptops, infrared thermometers, and oscilloscopes all in one place? Badass. The only thing I can think of that would be better is if they had a Fry's with Starbucks in it; then I'd never have to leave the place.

That's all I got for today :-) Still psyched about how having consolidated all my posts, a painful reminder of how much a nerd I am, believe you me. Looking forward to playing around with all my new tech toys, seeing even more friends, giving my wife's god-daughter a big hug, and eating a very decadent fondue. Num.

Ciao for now!

Consolidation and recap :)

2010-12-31T18:03:00.000+01:00

I feel good about myself this morning -- I've re-posted all of my rickeldarwish.net articles to my FAILtale blog! That I'm excited about having performed an activity that essentially consists in copy-pasting my articles from one site to another just goes to show how much of a nerd I am. Go Rick! You over-achiever, you.

In other news: happy new year's eve, everyone! I hope that you have some kickass plans for tonight. I intend to stuff my face full of grapes - a spanish New Year tradition. One for each gong of the clock. If you want to try that out, permit me to recommend grapes of the small, seedless variety. Unless you're a hamster.

New post on my techie blog

2010-10-23T22:03:00.000+02:00

Title: Diaspora -- a FAILtale perspective

What's it about: I provide a high-level overview of what Diaspora is all about -- if you'd like to find out more about this DYI, open-source social network, talk about it, or poke fun at my poor writing skillz, my latest FAILtale post is up and ready for review :-D

Difficulty rating: 1-2/3

Check it out at http://failtale.blogspot.com/2010/10/diaspora-failtale-perspective.html

New post on my techie blog

2010-10-09T12:33:00.000+02:00

Title: Of governments and their escalating reaction to encryption

What's it about: might just be me, but isn't there a hell of a lot going on in the anti-cryptography arena nowadays? Brits getting jailed for refusing to give out their passwords, Americans detained for not answering questions, mobile device manufacturers banned from certain countries... Where does this come from? Where is this going? Come visit my post and drop me a comment!

Difficulty rating: 1/3

Check it out at http://failtale.blogspot.com/2010/10/of-governments-and-their-escalating.html

Change of structure

2010-10-09T11:14:00.002+02:00

I've now got a professional blog for all my security and IT ranting, at http://failtale.blogspot.com, which allows me to focus the techie aspects of my life there. Henceforth, this blog will be used for all things non-techie! In other words, it's going to be pretty empty. Heheh -- I have no life.

In order to feel better about myself, though, I'll put up linkies to my other blog. Hope nobody minds, if they care at all! I try to keep my posts on failtale quite high-level, so if you're ever curious about IT, particularly security, don't hesitate to have a shufti :) And if you have any questions, do comment!!! There are no stupid questions.

Scotland

2010-05-15T13:05:00.001+02:00

Recently, Kay and I travelled to Scotland. It was an absolutely kickass time! So much so that I wrote a log of our adventures, complete with photos :) Here goes:

Edinburgh log

24/04/2010
Arrived in Edinburgh early in the evening, after a relatively non-descript flight. Caught the Airlink bus to the city center. Wasn't the cheapest bus ride I've ever taken, but I will say the experience was worth the money. First bus I've ever ridden that had plushy seats and free wifi...

Got to the hotel, which is cozily hidden from the main road; after settling in, we decided to have a liquid dinner; Dalwhinie for me, Carling for Kay. I've had Dalwhinie before, but I must confess it tastes better in it's country of origin. Either the atmosphere is coloring my judgement, or those sneaky scots keep the good shit to themselves and sell the crap overseas ;)

25/04/2010
Had a solid breakfast this morning - eggs, sausage, mushrooms, baked beans, potatoes, black pudding - and haggis. Decided that I *love* haggis. Goes well with the strong flavor of black, sugarless coffee. Wrapped that up with marmite on toast, and was ready to go...

... straight back to our room - it was raining. Surprising for Scotland, innit? Rain would not deter us for long, but we figured we'd allow it to slow us down long enough to digest. And nap. You know it's a vacation when you can take leisurely naps whenever you damn well please :)

After said nap, we mosied on over to the old town, went by edimburgh castle. Not a huge fan of the uber touristy stuff so we hastily moved on to the other side, walked by the park and visited a gorgeous fountain, then walked around a necropolis. As we walked around, we noticed something strange; a few select graves were marred beyond recognition. It seemed like the work of rain and ageing, but we found other, older graves of the same material and these were intact.

A few of the tombs seem to be occupied by members of the living community - we found a mat made out of cardboard and a pile of clothes. I wonder: would the non-breathing occupant of the tomb be saddened by other's presence - for when the living come to the dead seeking shelter, it is indeed grim - or would he be happy to have some company in his rather drab posthumous state?

We then visited a rather unique looking pub called guildford arms, just tucked off the beaten trail. Had a wonderful ale called 'Cheeky Pheasant', Kay had a cider.

A slight but determined stagger brought us to calton park - a truly fantastic view. You can see the sea from there, as well as arthur's seat. Did you know they tried to build a full blown replica of the Parthenon there, back in the 1800's? They ran out of money, so it's only half built.

On the way back, we simply couldn't resist - back to guilford arms for more ale; this time we tried three of them: wildcat, drunken duck and exmoor stag. All three very different, and all three very good.

The cheeky pheasant was a relatively light ale, dark in color, with a very flowery taste. The stag was much stronger, with a hint of chocolate an coffee. Wildcat was more discrete, but with a hoppier taste. Finally, the drunken duck was the lightest of the ensemble, with citrus undertones.

26/04/2010
Of all the things I thought I'd do in edimburgh, I must admit that hiking was the most unexpected. Yet hiking we went - though we decided to turn back about half an hour after we started, as it was beginning to rain sideways. We took refuge in hollyrood abbey, right at the foot of the hills, and warmed up with a broccoli and blue cheese soup, tea, coffee and a scone.

Thus revitalized, we visited another necropolis - and this time came across a curious grave - of sorts. The remnants of a scuff, possibly between a seagull and a cat.

Our third round of ales at guildford had three selections: dark side of the moose, no eye deer and blue monkey. All three were lovely, once again, but this time we had a clear winner: creamy but not too heavy, no eye deer was our favorite. Furthermore, it made for a classic moment when one of the lads at the table next door got up to order more drinks and turned to his mate:
"So what do I get ya?
- No eye deer.
- Well make up your mind - I don't have all day!
- No, that's what I want - no eye deer..."

We rolled back into the hotel relatively early, where we has the most amazing meal - pear, walnut and blue cheese salad for Kay, and smoked salmon for me; for main courses, fish cakes for Kay and sirloin burger with carmelized onions for me. We wrapped it all up with a moelleux au chocolat and sticky toffee pudding. Lip-smacking good.

Tomorrow we're going to head back to London. Gonna miss those breakfasts! But got plenty of ideas for next time we're here!

27/04/2010
A short entry, this time: discovered yet another meal - the pasty. I had never encountered them before, but feel they are definitely noteworthy: imagine, if you will, a 'pâte feuilletée' pastry filled with meat, gravy and potatoes and baked to a golden brown. A bit like a deluxe hotpocket, really :)

Microsoft products

2010-05-06T15:28:00.002+02:00

My mate came up with a good analogy today for Microsoft products, and their hotfixes: it's really like someone selling you a car and then ringing you up to say "yeah, your airbags ain't working."

"But don't worry, we've got a work-around for you: just carry around a pillow and if you crash, stick it in front of ya."

OMFG. Exchange 2010 / BESX 5 nightmare...

2010-04-21T15:02:00.002+02:00

This guy deserves a medal.

We were having a shitload of trouble getting Blackberry Enterprise Server Express to run with our new Exchange 2010 server -- nothing doing. Turns out that the configuration parameters RIM dishes out are seriously problematic: fancy fuckin' that, right??? Followed the guy's instructions, restarted both servers for safe measure, and presto! It works.

As soon as I can, we're shitcanning BB's.

Empty.

2010-04-17T15:06:00.000+02:00

I've always thought of airports as places that are always buzzing with activity, even on weekends.

Especially on weekends, in fact.

It was therefore quite a departure (no pun intended) to walk through a practically empty airport today:

Empty. Completely empty. In a place where lines and lines of people habitually gather, anxiously checking their watches, searching for their tickets, fiddling with their belts and shoes and sighing in frustration at how long the person in front of them is taking to move forward.

Were they to stare at the billboard today, this is what they would see:

I wonder how those first passengers felt seeing that board slowly but oh so surely turn red. Desperation? Anger? Joy at staying just a few hours, days, weeks longer on holiday?

A strange inversion, to see everyone gathered at the ticketing stands and none at the boarding tills and security checkpoints...

The day the planes stood still.

Fun with PS mobile :)

2010-03-18T22:32:00.001+01:00

Lately, I've been having a blast applying simple effects to my iPhone photos with Adobe's latest mobile product, Photoshop for iPhone. Observe:

This is a pic I took yesterday... And here's the same pic treated in a couple of quick swipes using PS mobile:

The smoothing feature is quite good, and makes the graininess due to lack of appropriate lighting less obvious. Granted, it's still a small pic, and a rather sheity one (I mean, look at the subject! ;-D)... But it's pretty good for a free app running on a mobile device!

Many thanks to Damian, the subject of my sample photo. I'm sure you'll concur that he looks rather dashing in that Guiness hat. Happy St. Paddy's day everyone!

That's weird...

2010-03-15T06:32:00.001+01:00

Posted something almost 24 hours ago from my blog and it's not synching on facebook. It usually takes a good 12 hours to show up on FB but this is unusually long... Maybe I'm just being paranoid.

Google out of China?

2010-03-14T09:02:00.010+01:00

I think we're probably nearing the end of a "battle" that has been going on since January - the whole Google vs. China debacle. It's looking like Google's going to pull out from China, after all. Quite frankly, I'm not sure what to think about this.

I'm having difficulty figuring out whether the cyberattack on Google emanating from China is a reason, or an excuse, for its withdrawal.

In mid-january, Google reported that it had been the victim of a cyber attack. In Google's blog, Chief Legal Office David Drummond indicates three things:

They were not the only victims of the attack; at least twenty other high-profile companies were involved
The target of Google's attack seems to be the e-mail accounts of advocates from various countries for human-rights in China
These accounts have been purportedly accessed regularly by third parties

Drummond also announced that Google had been working with the authorities on this case - a fact that stirred up a whole lot of controversy, might I add. But I digress. From the above-mentioned points, he segways into how Google entered the Chinese market in January of '06 despite reservations on censoring results of searches conducted through google.cn - but that in light of current events, they're essentially going to start thinking about not censoring google.cn, which pretty much means they'll shut down operations in China.

Obviously, Drummond puts it much more diplomatically. I seem to be gifted with a talent for butchering all eloquent speech -- which is why I encourage you to not take my crummy paraphrasing to the letter and check out the links I've included in this post...

However: doesn't that sound like he's suddenly citing an issue that has nothing to do with the problem at hand? "You hacked us so we're refusing to censor our search engine" - um, isn't that like "you badmouthed my momma so now I'm going to kick you in the shins"?

China's response, in a nutshell: "oh yeah? Prove it. You're just using this as an excuse to pull out". Which, I suppose, is fair - except that it just reeks of cover-up. So, you're Google, right? You decide that you want to pull out of China, so to give yourself an excuse you're going to hack yourself and twenty other high-profile companies and make it look like it comes from China. To make it even juicier, you make it look like it comes from a university and a vocational school with ties to the government and Baidu, your competitor (as reported in the New York Times).

So Google accuses the Chinese government of hacking them, claiming the attacks came from two Chinese schools. Wow, that's amazing! However did they find out where these attacks where coming from? According to the Xinhua News Agency, all Google got from these schools were IP addresses - which is definitely not conclusive. As a matter of fact, the NY Times article I linked in the paragraph above was the subject of some mockery.

Regardless of whether the reports are true, I'm not saying that the fact that the attack came from a school in China means that it was motivated by the Chinese government, mind. Hacking goes hand-in-hand with programming; we Comp. Sci. folks being intrinsically curious, it's not unheard of that we test out our theories in the real world. It's mostly to see if we can do it. But breaking into arguably the most monitored and coveted companies in the Western World, as well as targeting Chinese human-rights activists' e-mail accounts, doesn't really sound like it's the work of a curious hacker who's doing it just for kicks.

Some say that the motivation for Google's departure is economic: they're not doing as well in China as they had hoped. That might make sense - but Google's still the second largest search engine in China (and gaining on the competition!), according to StatCounter. Why pull out now?

Is the cyberattack a reason, or an excuse, for Google pulling out of China? What are the consequences of such actions? Considering that Google has such a huge significance in (most of) our lives, how do think it will feel for China to be cut off from it? Will this affect our lives in a monumental fashion, or will this be only another blip on the radar screen? Consider how technology affects us now; it is the means for us to communicate quickly and efficiently, and it allows us to access more knowledge than even the largest of libraries can store.

And can we really claim that this event will go unnoticed? Your thoughts on the matter would be highly appreciated.

Here are a few more references which I thought might be interesting

What's really at stake in Google vs. China - CNN

Baidu's shares surge as Google ponders China exit - MarketWatch

Baidu's gain from departure could be China's loss - NY Times

A funny feeling...

2010-03-01T12:29:00.002+01:00

As an IT geek, I'm pretty much surrounded by machines both at work and at home. I'm comfortable with all operating systems; I routinely deal with XP, Windows 7, OS X, several flavors of Linux, the occasional OpenSolaris or FreeBSD box...

The general populace will use Windows whether they like it or not -- after all, most offices are M$-only and my clients are no exception. I'll get the occasional "can I use my Mac?" request which, sadly, I have to turn down. Of course, the only Linux boxes I work with in production are servers or admin workstations.

Of all the workstation operating systems I deal with, I have to say that I feel most comfortable with Linux. Not just because it's free, entirely customizable, and has a *ton* of software; but I genuinely have fun using it.

And I thought new video games were expensive...

2010-02-28T12:05:00.003+01:00

So today, a friend flagged this article to me; a rare, collector's item was sold for a whopping $41'300 on Friday. This wouldn't be surprising, if not for the fact that the item in question is a mint-new, never-opened (and probably never-to-be-opened) Nintendo game. Looking at the article, you see that even the original price tag on it - and reads $29.99.

So what do we attribute this outrageous price to? Many would say that it has to do with the passion the buyer has for whatever he/she is buying, or the rarity of the item... Looks like this one has to do with the wording:

Interestingly, Hendricks points out that another copy of Stadium Events - apparently factory sealed in its listing photo, but not described as such in the headline - is currently selling for far less. The latest bid on this version was $7,300 with a little less than three days remaining.

OK, so the auction's still open. But what impact will the sale of the "$41'300" copy have? I wonder.

Video games night!

2010-02-28T00:03:00.000+01:00

A night of Lost Winds, Mario Kart Wii, Words With Friends, and... Super Mario Bros.! We be geeks man. We be geeks...

One season ends, and another begins :)

2010-02-27T10:24:00.000+01:00

I think it's pretty much the end of ski season here... Makes me feel sad, but I think it's vestigial -back from the days when I didn't have to face idiotic drivers with no snow tyres :-D

Snow's great, but BBQ & cycling is better!

On Ping, Dropbox, and other nifty services...

2010-02-26T13:07:00.008+01:00

Let me start by saying that I'm a big fan of easy, flexible computing. I come from a place and time where technology was considered a luxury, not a given. I consider that the field I'm in is nothing short of magick (not the illusory feat -- I mean "the science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with the will.", Crowley-style*), and I don't take the incredible advances we've witnessed in cloud/ubiquitous computing for granted.

But I don't take the security implications for granted, either. Too many people implicitly trust popular technology (ye olde "hey, everyone else is using it, so why shouldn't I" schoole of thoughte), and too many developers practice security through obscurity (read: they write crappy code and hope nobody will notice).

Here's my point: do use cool technology, like Ping! and DropBox. After all, who wouldn't want to take advantage of low-cost messaging, and easy backup & sync? But before you use it, do some background checking. For instance, do these technologies use encryption? What do the security forums have to say about it?

In the end, you might decide that the security shortcomings don't matter. For instance, if you use DropBox for storing your photos, music, essays and whatnot, do you *really* care if someone takes a peek? But if you intend keep your credit card info, photocopies of your passport, or your sosh' on DropBox, perhaps you should add an extra layer of security to it, like using encryption such as PGP or Truecrypt... You don't have to be a geek to be able to use new technologies safely -- you just need to make sure you don't misplace your trust!

*: for more on this, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_%28paranormal%29 . Yes, I know. I have some very peculiar role models.

Reading your PDF's on your iPhone

2009-12-27T17:29:00.004+01:00

So my adorable wife has given me the choice between three presents this year, among which is an e-book reader. Interestingly enough, this has prompted me to do a bit more research into my iPhone's e-book reading capabilities... Yeah, I'm weird. I know.

All in all, I concur with the general populace: the iPhone's screen is a bit small for reading books, and the backlit text is indeed hard on the eyes. Despite this, I have bought an e-book (Mean Streets -- kickass :-D) via Amazon and used my Kindle for iPhone app to read it. Though it kills my eyes and battery, it's not all that bad for short reads, or references.

Which brings me to the subject of this article: if you're like me and you've got a million references, what's the best way to read them on the iPhone?

Here is my approach: save them as PDF's (if you haven't already), convert them to eReader format, then download them to your iPhone.

So, what do you need to do this effectively?

1) If you don't have your references in PDF format, you'll need to convert them. An excellent converter is CutePDF (www.cutepdf.com). Easy to install and use, it does a pretty good job of converting your word docs, HTML or plaintext to PDF lickety split.

2) Install calibre (calibre-ebook.com). It's a free, versatile e-book manager that will convert your PDF to various formats, including Kindle, eReader PDB's, MOBI...

3) Once installed, add the pdfs to your library

4) You can then hit Convert ebooks > Bulk Convert. When the options window pops up, select the output format as PDB

5) When calibre converts your PDF's to PDB's, it dumps the results in your home folder under a sub-directory called "Calibre Library"

6) Install Apache. It's free, uncluttered, and can be made to either start manually or run as a service.

7) Copy your PDB's to the Apache htdocs directory (default "C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\htdocs")

8) Mod your index.html file, either with notepad if you're HTML-savvy or a WYSIWYG editor like Bluefish (bluefish.openoffice.nl). I just put something like "RP's PDBs" and a list of links to the actual PDB files. The important part is, instead of setting up the links as http://your-computers-ip-address:port/filename.pdb , you use ereader://your-computers-ip-address:port/filename.pdb -- this way, your iphone knows that it's supposed to use the eReader app to open the files

9) Install the eReaderPro app on your iPhone (duh...)

10) Start Apache (there's a start menu option to launch it in a console window. If you chose to install it as a service, you needn't do this)

11) On your iPhone, navigate to your computer's IP address. Your modified index page will show you a list of your files -- simply click on them to add them to your library!

Oh yeah boy!!!

2009-10-30T17:51:00.001+01:00

I'm going to be trying to make this tomorrow -- should be kickass :-D

Brain Cake - More DIY How To Projects

WSS listing user permissions

2009-10-30T15:55:00.007+01:00

Every day brings a new quest...

And today's was to figure out how to list a user's permissions on every sub-site or list of a sharepoint portal. Sounds easy, doesn't it? Bloody well should be, at any rate; but it's not.

I've made some progress, at least: I seem to be able to list all of the URL's where a given user has any permissions at all, but I haven't gotten to the part where I can indicate what those damn permissions are...

This assumes that you're running WSS 3 in a single-node configuration. It also assumes that you've installed SQL Management Studio Express on that same machine. Yes, there are a other ways to do it like using the Sharepoint web service -- but this was for a one-time shot and I couldn't be bothered to write and debug a console app...

From your WSS machine, open SQL Managmeent Studio and connect to "\\.\pipe\MSSQL$MICROSOFT##SSEE\sql\query". Open a new query window and, using the WSS_Content database, run the following:

select webs.FullUrl from (webmembers inner join webs on webmembers.webid = webs.id) where userid =
(select tp_id from UserInfo where tp_login like 'DOMAIN\user')

You'll need to substitute 'DOMAIN\user' with the actual domain and user, of course.

--- Addendum 1 ---

Right, so now you have a list of all of the portals to which your user has access of some sort. Let's see if we can do one better: can we get a list of all of the groups for which your user is a member? I believe we can!

select groups.title, tp_Title from (groups inner join groupmembership on groups.id = groupmembership.groupid)
inner join userinfo on userinfo.tp_id = groupmembership.memberid
where tp_id =
(select tp_id from UserInfo where tp_login like 'DOMAIN\user')

Note that these two queries do not cover cases where an A.D. group to which your user belongs has permissions. Obviously, though, you can use the same approach as with a single user to extract that information.

--- Addendum 2 ---

I think I've found the final piece of the puzzle:

select distinct groups.title as wssgroup, roles.title as wssrole, webs.fullurl from ((roleassignment inner join roles on roleassignment.roleid = roles.roleid)
inner join groups on roleassignment.principalid = groups.id) inner join webs on webs.scopeid = roleassignment.scopeid

This lists the groups, their roles and their urls for all the portals in the site.

So let's start frelling around:

select webs.FullUrl, memberships.wssgroup, memberships.wssrole from (webmembers inner join webs on webmembers.webid = webs.id)
left outer join (select distinct groups.title as wssgroup, roles.title as wssrole, webs.fullurl from ((roleassignment inner join roles on roleassignment.roleid = roles.roleid)
inner join groups on roleassignment.principalid = groups.id) inner join webs on webs.scopeid = roleassignment.scopeid
where groups.title in (select groups.title from (groups inner join groupmembership on groups.id = groupmembership.groupid)
inner join userinfo on userinfo.tp_id = groupmembership.memberid
where tp_id =
(select tp_id from UserInfo where tp_login like 'DOMAIN\user'))) memberships
on webs.fullurl = memberships.fullurl
where userid =
(select tp_id from UserInfo where tp_login like 'DOMAIN\user')

That should give you a full listing of all sites to which the user belongs and, when applicable, his/her membership. When the values for wssgroup and wssrole are null, this is typically because the user has membership via an AD group rather than as a member of a WSS group.

A funny thing happened on the way to my webpage...

2009-10-25T10:30:00.005+01:00

So I'm messing around with WebSPHINX (a web crawler created by CMU) this morning, in order to prep for a project. I wanted to start simple, using sites that I theoretically know well enough to be able to identify which sections link to which pages. So, I enter in my personal site and my work site. I run the crawler -- sure enough, everything is OK, I see that my personal site links to a few open source sites. Everything is fine.

Then I check out my work site.

It's got hundreds of links to some f***ing online poker ring. In the quiet words of the virgin Mary: come again?!? I start looking at the work pages' source code, and what do I find in the noscript tag of the page? I find some crappy href tag to said crummy poker ring. Very pissed off (mostly at myself -- how the hell could I miss that kind of thing???), I go poking around the templates looking for the href. An href that, I must say, was mysteriously not there.

A common trick, really. Gar. The noscript tag calls up a file called 'css.php', which obfuscates the link by encoding it as a base-64 encoded string. Thus:

<a href="http://www.imasucker.com/">I am a sucker...</a>

becomes

<?php echo(base64_decode("PGEgaHJlZj0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy5pbWFzdWNrZXIuY29tIj5JIGFtIGEgc3Vja2VyLi4uPC9hPg==")); ?>

Yeah. I got suckered by a bunch of pricks that were supposedly giving away free professional-looking templates. Should have known better...

2-form authentication with encfs

2009-02-27T14:31:00.002+01:00

So I've been thinking about improving my encrypted folders' security. I use encfs for the most part; it works out quite nicely. I've used TrueCrypt on windows systems, but after a bit of research, seems that encfs is just as good if not better.

When it comes to authenticating to a system, you get to pick among the following three options:
- something you know
- something you have
- something you are

A two-factor authentication scheme combines two of these methods in order to achieve better security.

I've seen a few blog posts which use bcrypt to decrypt a large, random character string which is then used as a password for encfs. Not a bad
solution, but I'm thinking there might be a better one; one that combines separate information from both forms as a password for encfs.
So how's this:
Create a random string of characters, encrypt using your MAC address or some other info particular to the machine and store it on your USB key. Then, write a script to recuperate the plaintext which will be combined with a password you're prompted to enter; the result is used as the password to decrypt your encfs folder. As a safeguard, keep the hardware info somewhere safe.

One might argue that, all things said and done, either method has pretty much the same amount of security; but... I don't know; this method just feels safer to me. Any thoughts?

Short rant about OS X Malware…

2009-02-10T14:05:00.001+01:00

I keep seeing “shock and awe” blog entries on ZDNet about Mac OS X malware found in pirated software. I’ve just got to ask: why is it that people sound so surprised?

In the past, OS X and the many, many distros of Linux have been granted amnesty from malware. I attribute this partly to what George Carlin called NIMBY : “Not In My Back Yard” — just as most animals don’t shit where they sleep, most coders won’t write malware for operating systems they rely on. Or believe in. Whatever, you get my point. Also, by virtue of being less used (as workstations), fewer coders are exposed to Linux and OS X, so statistically speaking it makes sense that there are very, very few malware out there that target the *nixes.

But look what’s happened in the last couple of years: Vista’s not winning any popularity contests. Macs have become popular, partly because of the iPod’s popularity and partly because they’ve become a bit less expensive (editorial comment from my wife: and partly because of some pretty clever advertising). Linux has become popular because it’s free, it’s easier to use now than before and because it’s getting a lot of exposure on youtube (hey, it looks wicked… And, I suspect, Microsoft’s flaunting of Aero pissed a lot of Beryl/Compiz fans). And thus, victims of their own success, Mac and Linux are now preyed on by malware writers. No surprise there.

Here’s another thing: most of the blog posts are reporting malware infections for pirated software. Come on, folks, that ain’t rocket science - if you install something that’s cracked, you’d better be prepared for repercussions! When you install something willingly on your operating system, you’re doing it with root permissions. If it’s a crack, chances are that the person that’s cracked it has more than enough skills to slipstream something nasty into it. If you think that people are going to spend hours and hours cracking software for a cheap, unsophisticated, unappreciative crowd of computer-savvy wannabees without slipping a little extra sumthin’ sumthin’ inside, then pack up your computer and send it back to the shop: you’re too dumb to own a computer.

Zimbra fun with gmail

2007-05-28T13:03:00.001+02:00

OK, so it's been a little while since I've written... But I'll plead temporary insanity and hope that all of y'all buy it ;)

Today's findings are note-worthy, however, so here's a quick techie post:

For the past few weeks, I've been agglomerating all of my e-mail accounts onto a single server -- hosted in-house, quite literally... Been using Zimbra, an open-source e-mail server, fairly simple to use, features that rival Exchange, yada yada yada. I like it, it works well and it plays nice with outlook too.

Tell you this, though -- it's no fun replying with a single address. People get confused about which address they should be using, and usually end up CC'ing you on both addresses. So no fun. A user wants to be able to not only receive mail from all his/her addresses on a single account, but he/she also wants to be able to send back from the originating account. Makes sense, right? And that's quite doable with Zimbra. You create an extra domain, and create an alias for the user in that particular domain. You then need to make sure that your server relays any mail for accounts for which it has no information to the main mail server for that domain. You'll find detailed explanations about how to do this in Zimbra's wiki (check out setting up zimbra as a secondary server). Shiny.

Beware with domains such as gmail, however! 'Cause this is where I went wrong. Gmail uses a different server to relay in-bound mail. So, when you perform that nslookup, then set type=mx and look up gmail.com, be sure to use the reference for this address:

gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com

Or a similar server :)

The next leap in technology...

2007-02-23T11:36:00.000+01:00

Now this is hot.

Since a week, google has been offering a collaboration platform (2GB mail + calendar + contacts + chat + Web Pages) for people's domains (i.e. redparanoid.com). I've tried it, I've loved it, it rocks my socks... And it's free. http:www.google.com/a/

Since this morning, they've been offering a premium (paid) version of the service, with document and spreadsheet collaboration, a 10 GB mail account and an interface for Blackberry. If they pull this off, that will be by far the most amazing service in the industry. I mean, imagine that you own a language center that teaches people how to speak foreign languages. You register a domain name (teach-moi-sprache.com), you sign up to these premium services and you include each student's account fee in their tuition. This will allow you and your students to chat, share e-mails in a clear, threaded manner, search for content, post homework, collaborate on documents and plan events all in one place, no cost of equipment, no need to buy and install software on your computer. Completely portable, accessible anywhere there's internet, all this for $50 per user per year!

I'll admit this to you: you still need a techie to administer it properly. But the slash in equipment, licensing and maintenance costs is incredible!

If you're interested in this kind of thing, let me know -- I'll demo it for you and could possibly even help you out with setting it up and maintaining it!

The devourer of bandwidths

2006-12-02T13:29:00.001+01:00

Friends, collegues, Systems Administrators world-wide, we have a problem.

As I write this post, I'm sitting in the office of my flat; I occasionally look away from my PC to check on how much bandwidth my Mac is eating up whilst downloading stuff off bittorrent -- what I see is both amazing and disconcerting: on an unpopular download, Mac (the name of my Mini Mac. Original, I know) pulls down about 50 KB/s without so much as breaking a sweat. On a *popular* download, I can get anywhere between 100 and 200 KB/s. Ding ding ding! Are we worried here? 200 KB/s? For a single user with a single program, on an ADSL line that barely pulls its weight? Heck, I see the impact on Mac's activity right now: I'm having trouble bringing up google, and that's not the heaviest of interfaces if you know what I mean.

So, what happens when two users use bittorrent? How about ten? How do you go about tackling that? I mean sure, you could have a few egres/ingress filters on your firewall, but there are ways around that. If you've been lucky enough to get the funding for it, a good ol' proxy & DMZ would do the trick but damn, that gets expensive. Between the costs of equipment, time spent in the set-up, testing, ironing out the kinks, implementation, complaints from the users, re-implementation ad nauseum and subsequent maintenance, you've got to have a hell of a lot of money, patience and time -- in a world that lacks precisely those three elements.

Despite this, I think the best approach is not to outlaw bittorrent on your network. First, because it makes you an asshole with a God complex, no matter how you put it. It also happens to make you a hypocritical asshole because you just know, all of the best open-source free tools for admins and security pukes have got a torrent and you'll be damned if you don't tap into that high-quality, high-speed peer app yourself, on a dedicated line no less.

Second, even if you do outlaw it and make it clear that measures will be taken against anyone that uses that kind of software, people are going to try their hand at it anyway. Then what are you going to do? Yell at your user for doing something that you'd do yourself? Ban them from using the Internet? Take away their computer? Good luck with that.
Third, because people are increasingly sensitive about their computers and what they can and cannot do with them. We know they're gateways to their private world of sensitive financial information, pictures of family and friends, osé jokes and perhaps even curiosities of carnal nature. And they know we know. We are the gate-keepers of the virtualization of their private lives and if we fuck with that, we are betraying their trust in us.

No, I think a good practise is to condone the *proper usage* of this prolific and increasingly powerful tool. By proper usage, I mean responsible downloading of information in such a manner as to not affect the network's health. Users should be able to download legitimate data, and I like the idea that one can achieve good speeds and increased redundancy with a program such as bittorrent. I think there's a future in hosting websites and public information, even e-libraries, using software based on bittorrent and if you kill that sort of software you kill the hope that someday, something even better might come out of it.

So, provide the software to your users, configure it so that each user gets an equal share of the bandwidth pie and make sure they know that there are ways of monitoring what kind of content gets downloaded that are beyond even your control. Monitor disk sizes at regular intervals, general system health, bandwidth usage, the stuff you should be doing regularly. If anything abnormal pops up, you'll know and be able to act accordingly. You might actually wind up doing your job better ;)

Come join my website!

2006-11-23T12:42:00.001+01:00

Howdy everyone!

Been a while since I've last blogged, but I've been quite busy with my website. I've gotten to a point now where I have some fun stuff set up and am hoping to expand by inviting friends and family to contribute.

That's the part where you come in :-D

If you're interested in contributing photos, funny stuff or even asking questions (technical or not), please visit my website at www.redparanoid.com and sign up!

Peace...
Red.

Code generation (coding) styles -- to adopt, or not?

2006-09-18T23:48:00.000+02:00

I've been using this code generator for work and, to be quite honest, the thing does the trick: you create a model of your code, with services and attributes that are (fairly) easy to create, you specify a navigational structure and bam! you generate your code. The thing spews it out in a couple of minutes and presto, all you have to do is implement your customizations and roll out your app.

However, when it comes to churning out customized code and integrating it to your generated code, things get much hairier. The question becomes: to adopt the "coding style" of the machine along with the infrastructure it's put in place, or rather to use as little of the generated code as possible and develop something on your own side.

My instincts tell me that, whilst consistency is important, clarity of you code is even more so. Ergo, for the sake of keeping your code simple and understandable, it is most likely better that you stick to a simpler yet lighter structure than that of the code generated, if indeed you can simplify. What do I mean by this? I believe that, where possible, one should stick to using the framework and coding as one would with the "core" framework tools (data adapters, data sets etc...)

Here's another thing to consider: the code the machine churns out is completely self-maintaining. Therefore, why break your neck trying to remain consistent with it? The only thing this achieves is to tempt the coder to tamper with machine-generated code. The more you tamper with it, the more complicated it will be to maintain... In conclusion, I say grab the stubs that you need to get your job done, concentrate on creating clean, readable code, and don't try to adopt code that sacrifices optimality and clarity for flexibility...

Any comments would be much appreciated!

Phew

2006-09-18T21:06:00.000+02:00

Today's been a bit hectic -- tried to get up at six but, after going to bed at three, wasn't going to happen... Worked all day, had literally a ten-minute break when I went across the street to grab some grub (something called "pâté vaudois", without a doubt the most disgusting thing I've ever had) and continued working throughout the day. Finally took a break around 8:00, watched an old episode of Charmed whilst eating my pasta. Had a cigarette. Finally feeling human again -- unfortunately, it's time to get back to work!

I think the worst is over... Went through some fiasco with character encodings, but that's over now... Been dying to work on an idea for a site, but just haven't had the chance... Maybe tomorrow :-D Yeah right.

Lightening up...

2006-09-18T19:09:00.000+02:00

I have decided that having many different blogs is not only difficult to organize, it's a royal pain in the ass. Ergo, I will be using blogger as my main blog (if I can possibly muster up the time, I'll write a module to replicate my posts to livejournal etc, but I see problems with that solution already -- having to check multiple places for comments would be a real pain as well).

Anyway, there you have it. What's been going on in my life? Way too bloody much!!! Despite my best efforts, I cannot seem to hold my deadlines recently. Been very disappointing... Mind you, I've "sacrificed" my last two weekends to the god of Unpaid Overtime... Not complaining, just venting here ;)

Better get back to work... Hope I don't get an ulcer ;-D

p.s. Here's a nice pic of me and Kay:

Save your DTS packages on your file system

2006-03-23T17:25:00.000+01:00

A nice little query to save all your DTS packages from your server to files...

declare @dts sysname
declare @cmd varchar(8000)
declare dtscurs cursor for
select distinct name from sysdtspackages

open dtscurs

fetch next from dtscurs into @dts

while @@fetch_status = 0
begin
set @cmd = 'dtsrun /N' + @dts + ' /S(server) /E /!X /F(path to dts)' + @dts
exec master..xp_cmdshell @cmd
fetch next from dtscurs into @dts
end

close dtscurs
deallocate dtscurs

Excel goodies

2006-03-23T16:46:00.000+01:00

A couple of neat tricks for Excel:

1. Freeze Panes

Have you ever needed to keep the titles of your Excel spreadsheets fixed whilst moving around in the document? Well, here's how you can do that: select the top left cell of your sheet that contains data and select Window > Freeze Panes (it's the same manipulation to unfreeze the panes)

2. Autofiltered / Autosorted columns

It's also nice to be able to sort and filter your columns automatically. For this, select the cell range that you'd like to sort/filter and go to Data > Filter > AutoFilter... Presto! Same to Undo.

Using public keys for SSH

2006-01-14T10:25:00.000+01:00

http://theillustratednetwork.mvps.org/Ssh/Private-publicKey.html

Good SSH configuration page for windows machines

2006-01-13T08:01:00.000+01:00

http://pigtail.net/LRP/printsrv/cygwin-sshd.html

Good blog entry to start securing your SSH site...

2006-01-06T18:28:00.000+01:00

http://aplawrence.com/Blog/B1117.html

Creating virtual drives: an old hotness...

2005-12-19T11:42:00.000+01:00

... And here I thought I new all the tricks in the book involving the windows command line ;)

A collegue showed me a cute trick today, involving the creation of virtual drives. Very practical when you want to mimic client's infrastructure:

1) Create a directory to which your virtual drive will map

2) from a command line, type subst [virtual_drive:] [physical_path].

Presto! Two lines and you're on your way to virtual drivedom!

For exchange system admins who wish to change permissions of public folders, en masse.

2005-12-13T20:54:00.000+01:00

Tools used:

- Terminal services
- Exchange System Manager

The procedure:
- Log into the Exchange server
- Start > Programs > Microsoft Exchange > System Manager
- Administrative Groups > [your_domain] > Folders > Public Folders
- Right-click on the public folder of choice > Properties > Permissions
- Set client permissions as you see fit
- Returning to the main System Manager window, right-click on the same public folder > All tasks > Propagate settings...
- For public folder permissions only, select 'Folder rights'; check any other permissions as you see fit. Hit OK.

All permissions for subfolders of the selected public folder have now been set.

*A word to the wise*: you can't do it for the "root" public folder: it is hence a good idea to create a sub-folder of root for your organization or organizational unit, so that you do not have to go about re-setting permissions at first level of each of your public folders.

Sharepoint 2003 installation tips and tricks

2005-10-28T07:56:00.000+02:00

Here are a few useful findings if you've got an installation of Sharepoint 2003 in the pipeline:

1) If you're going to use a real database backend (such as SQL Server 2000), install that beforehand.

2) You're going to need a user with at least Power User privileges on the SP machine; I recommend creating it before even launching the install. Add it to your SQL Server as a Database Creator and Security Admin. You're probably going to want the user to be a domain user as well.

3) You're going to need to create a user used for SP's application pool. It doesn't have to be created before the installation and there's plenty of detail during the installation, so I won't go any further than that. Just so you know, you'll need the sysadmin's help during the actual installation.

4) Should you ever decide to uninstall the thing, *make sure to uninstal Sharepoint services last!!!!* Uninstalling the sharepoint services first will prevent you from installing the portal. If you've already done so, you'll need to re-install it by manually running the SPS setup file from the CD. Yes, it's silly and not-well documented, don't get me started...

Sharepoint 2003 Central Administrator Not Working

2005-10-27T07:44:00.000+02:00

Okay, here's a new one: you've got a brand new Windows 2003 Server (my flavor is enterprise edition), and have just installed Microsoft Sharepoint 2003 -- and it's not letting you into the central administration site. What's wrong?

Solution: you might be having problems starting the website because it's trying to hit an invalid application pool. Go to the IIS administration tool (Start > Run > inetmgr), right-click on the SharePoint Central Administration site and click Properties, then go to the Home Directory Tab. Under Application pool, find a suitable application pool and hit apply. Presto! The server starts. On to the next hurdle to setting up and configuring SharePoint 2003 ;)

Little tip for adding virtual disks...

2005-10-16T02:13:00.000+02:00

I'm sure I'm not the first idiot to have been completely stumped when trying to get my VM to recognize a new (unformatted) virtual disk... So here's a little trick one might want to know to get the disk formatted and ready to go:

- boot up your guest system. Your VM will most likely pop up a message saying that your new hardware is ready to go, but when you get to windows explorer to format it, it isn't displayed... Not to worry, though;

- on your desktop, right-click 'My Computer' and select 'Manage'. Go to the disk management option under disk tools; this will allow you to see all your new virtual disks... Use the wizards to set up the disks, add new volumes etc... Then presto, you should be able to see your virtual disks as if they were always there.

Tada! Yes, I know, this post isn't particularly impressive... But let me tell you, when you spend most of the afternoon trying to figure out how to do it, you want to make sure you write it down...

Clues to setting up outlook to use an 'external' calendar (i.e. if you want to access it w/o setting up an Exchange account in Outlook)

2005-09-27T16:00:00.000+02:00

http://rulink.rutgers.edu/outlook.html

Redirect woes...

2005-09-26T02:15:00.000+02:00

Today's problem gave me lots of flak: after having developed and tested my website (which runs fine on my dev machine as a virtual directory), I come to deploy it on my first pre-prod server (on which it runs as a website). No go -- I enter the credentials in my login screen but the redirect doesn't pop. Instead, I get this nice blank screen with the following HTML as source:

<BODY><ASP_SMARTNAV_RDIR url="/default.aspx"></ASP_SMARTNAV_RDIR></BODY>

Luverly... I deploy it as a v. dir. of the default website and presto! It works. Next test: I deploy it on my second pre-prod server, both as a website and as a v. dir. of another website... Bang, no go. What the heck?

Suddenly, it dawns on me: this is a new website, *hence* it needs the aspnet_client scripts in the root folder. After copying those over, the site works right as rain... Congrats, Red, you're a bloody moron.

A great little trick for getting your Application path...

2005-09-23T19:59:00.000+02:00

A great little trick, for those of you who have to switch between a “virtual folder” mode and “website” mode, is to use the Request.ApplicationPath variable. Frankly, I find it to be a best practice in general because though going through all your source code to remove that little tilde is fun and all, it can really f*** with your application…

So – use your Request.ApplicationPath regularly and you’ll be all the happier!

Authorization of files with .Net

2005-09-23T12:04:00.000+02:00

I was seeking to extend handling of security for certain files to ASP.Net, and came across the following group discussion:
http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet.security/browse_thread/thread/455777d0e2f46520/bdfe03af34d4a75d?lnk=st&q=allow+ASP.Net+to+control+security+for+other+extensions&rnum=1&hl=en#bdfe03af34d4a75d

In case of broken links, I have pasted the portion of the discussion that I found most useful:

Hello Joe,
By default ASP.NET is configured to intercept and to stop requests for
several different
file types that are used in ASP.NET applications. These file types are ones
that must not be retrieved by users. These file types include .config files
that store configuration information for the application and .cs files that
store the source code of the application. ASP.NET ensures the privacy of
these
files by associating both file types with System.Web.HttpForbiddenHandler.
System.Web.HttpForbiddenHandler returns an error to the user who requests
the
file. This method of protecting files can be used for any file type. This
method is useful for protecting files that exist in the folder of the Web
application and must never be retrieved by users.
Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) 5.0 determines how
to handle requests based on the script mapping for the file name extension
of
the request. These script mappings are adjusted by using Internet Services
Manager. For ASP.NET to block file types, you must first configure IIS 5.0
to
forward those requests to ASP.NET. To add additional file types to an
ASP.NET application to protect certain
file types, follow these steps:
1. On the taskbar click "start", point to "Settings", and then click
"Control Panel".
2. Double-click to open the "Administrative Tools" folder and then
double-click to run " Internet Services Manager".
3. Right-click the virtual server or the virtual folder that contain your
ASP.NET application and then click "Properties".
4. Select the "Home Directory" or the "Directory" tab. If an application
has not been created for the virtual folder, click "Create"
under "Application Settings".
5. Under "Application Settings", click "Configuration".
6. To identify the location of the Aspnet_isapi.dll file that handles the
ASP.NET requests, select the ".aspx application mapping" and then
click "Edit".
7. The "Add/Edit Application Extension Mapping" dialog box appears. Select
the text in the "Executable" field and then press CTRL+C to copy
the text to your Clipboard.
8. Click "Cancel" to return to the "Application Configuration "dialog box.
9. Now, add application mappings for each extension that you want ASP.NET
to block. To do this, click "Add". Then, in the "Executable"
field, press CTRL+V to paste the path of your Aspnet_isapi.dll file.
10. In the "Verbs" section, select the "All Verbs" option. Verify that the
"Script Engine" check box is selected and that the "Check If File
Exists" check box is not selected.
11. Click "OK".
12. Repeat this procedure for every file name extension that you want to
have processed by ASP.NET.
Configure a File Type That You Want Blocked
-------------------------------------------
To block additional file types for an ASP.NET application, follow these
steps:
1. Open the Web.config file in a text editor such as Notepad. The
Web.config file is located in the root directory of your Web
application.
2. In the Web.config file add the <httpHandlers> configuration element
under the <system.web> element. Note You must not copy the
<httpHandlers> element from the Machine.config file. The reason you must
not copy the <httpHandlers> element is because the <httpHandlers>
element permits you to add additional file types without completely
overriding the Machine.config settings.
3. In the <httpHandlers> element, use <<add>> sub tags to specify
additional file types that you want blocked.
Set the verb attribute equal to ?*?. When you do this, you specify that all
types of HTTP requests are blocked. Define the path attribute
as a wildcard character that matches the types of files you want to block.
For example, you may specify <?*.mdb?>. Finally, set the type attribute to
<?System.Web.HttpForbiddenHandler">. The code sample that follows shows how
to configure the "httpHandlers" section in the Web.config file:
<system.web>
<httpHandlers>
<add verb="*" path="*.mdb" type="System.Web.HttpForbiddenHandler"
/>
<add verb="*" path="*.csv" type="System.Web.HttpForbiddenHandler"
/>
<add verb="*" path="*.private"
type="System.Web.HttpForbiddenHandler" />
</httpHandlers>
</system.web>
4. Save the Web.config file. The ASP.NET application automatically restarts.
Thanks,
Bassel Tabbara
Microsoft, ASP.NET

I followed steps 1 through twelve of the first part. Then I used the location tag to restrict authorization to a particular set of users. Presto! Works nicely for me...

Restricting access to specific directories or files via ASP.Net

2005-09-23T11:03:00.000+02:00

Also known as: the glory of the tag.

This post isn't intended to be a long one -- just a reminder to myself of how to restrict access to certain files, or a pointer in the right direction for those of you who've been tearing your hair out trying to figure it out from MSDN documentation...

The first link of interest is that of authorization itself... Kind of a must:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/cpguide/html/cpconaspnetauthorization.asp

The second link is the one that describes the usage of the element in web.config:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/cpgenref/html/gngrflocationelement.asp

Templating woes...

2005-09-21T19:05:00.000+02:00

I've decided to put linux, mono and portals aside for a while and focus on my personal website again. The templating process that I had developed was as aggravating as it was useless -- the idea was to be able to develop web pages based on a single 'template page'. However, I find myself with twice the amount of files: the aspx's and aspx.cs's, but also the ascx's and ascx.cs'... I know, I know, 'sublimely stupid -- how could you code such a monstrosity,' you ask... I guess I lost sight of what was originally a good idea. Happens: you have an idea that'll make your life easier, you plan and implement it, and halfway through you realize that the technology won't allow things to go quite the way you thought they would. In an effort to salvage the code you have, you patch and hack and before you know it, the new process is more complex than the original process. Blech.

Ranting aside, I'm still hoping to implement a simple, easy-to-use templating system. So, here are a few notes:

Starting from the basics, what are my needs?

First: I want to be able to create templates that contain controls so that when I insert a new control in the template, it pops up for all pages. Interaction between these template controls and the non-template pages are not a must for now although it would be good to take that into consideration for the future. An additional feature would also be to allow on-the-fly insertion / removal of controls à la DotNetNuke, but that's less of a templating system and more of a portal system, so let's put that aside.

Second: I want the pages to be smart links, so that people can bookmark my site easily but also so that google can index my site easily.

Third: these pages *will* contain controls and other complex functionality, so the templating system CANNOT impede normal page processing. No affecting the postback process, no affecting the ViewState/Session/Context objects... Nothing. These things should code and work exactly like regular pages.

Update: I've actually found a system that works nicely and seems to fulfill my three objectives. Props to Joe Agster and his article on DevX.com:

http://www.devx.com/dotnet/Article/18011/0/page/1

Getting mod_mono up and running...

2005-09-19T02:11:00.000+02:00

OK, here's a new post: you've got mono running, XSP works ok, but you want to move on to bigger & better things... The following will tell you how to get mono running under Apache (or rather, it's a quick walkthrough of some of the things I've done). Note that this is for Mandriva distros. Each Linux distro is different! One thing that can be annoying is that file locations and even tools change. Best thing I can recommend is, don't despair, give yourself plenty of time to fool around with this and, most importantly, try to find how-to's that are specific to your distro..

*Before you start*: note that I'm focusing on getting the thing running here rather than securing it... If security's a concern, you should take the time to research more on Apache and Mono and how to get them running with proper security measures in place.

Last article, I spoke about playing with mojoportal using XSP. I might as well elaborate on that... So, assuming that you've already got apache 2.0 and mono set up on your computer, the first thing you want to do is get the mod_mono source code from http://www.mono-project.com. Download the tarball, unzip it by typing 'tar -zxvf [filename]' from the console, switch to the directory.

Before you run the configuration file, you'll want to be sure that you have the apache2-devel package. If you don't have it, you'll have to become root and hit 'urpmi apache2-devel' -- that'll get you the necessary packages. Once that's done you can get back out of root.

Type './configure' to get ready to compile the mod_mono module. If that's successful, hit 'make' to compile. You'll then have to switch to superuser mode before typing 'make install'. Once that's done, presto! the module is ready to go.

Next, hit 'find / -name mod_mono.so' to search for the module. Note the location the find comes up with, then edit /etc/httpd/2.0/conf/httpd2.conf file. You'll need to add the LoadModule line to load the mono module and then information for the virtual directories you intend to use mono with.

The LoadModule line should go something like this:
LoadModule mono_module [location of the mod_mono.so file here]

I tacked it onto the end of the long list of LoadModule commands for sake of consistency...

Next, info on the virtual directory:
Alias /mojoportal "[mojoportal location]"
AddMonoApplications default "/mojoportal:[mojoportal location]"

<Location /mojoportal>
SetHandler mono
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Location>

Last but not least, re-start the httpd service and test... If everything's gone well, it should take you straight in. There you have it!

Happy linuxing...

MojoPortal on Mandriva 2005 and MySQL...

2005-09-17T16:23:00.000+02:00

This was a particularly interesting oddyssey, worsened in great part by my limited skills as a Linux sysadmin and finally resolved thanks to Joe Audette, author of mojoportal:

If, like me, you're a fan of .Net that's been dying to get away from Microsoft products for just five minutes (hey, I like a change... It's nice from time to time :D), then the best solution is to set yourself up with Linux, MonoDevelop, MySQL and MojoPortal.

1) Regarding the OS: my personal favorite flavor of Linux is Mandriva; it's got some nice visual config tools which help the new-comer along on his/her trek to linuxdom. FC4's quite nice that way, too. I've played with SUSE, Redhat, Gentoo, Slackware and a couple of Live CD's to boot -- no pun intended -- and for my purposes, Mandriva works out just fine.

2) Moving on to MonoDevelop: the best thing is to download the installer from http://www.mono-project.com. Simply install any missing packages using urpmi or rpmdrake (for instance, mozilla was missing on my system).

The installer might add the necessary path to root's config file but omit your regular account's config file. No problem there: first, open a console, become root and hit 'echo $PATH'. Note the path to mono. Exit superuser mode, go to your home directory and hit 'emacs .bash_profile' (use another editor if you don't have one). Add the mono path to your PATH environment variable, save, log out and log back in.

Another thing you'll probably have to do is set up an icon for MonoDevelop... Windows usually does this for you, so do a lot of RPM's, but it's good to know how to do it manually: use MenuDrake (ALT-F2 to open the run window, then hit 'menudrake').

3) MySQL: At the time of this post, version 4.1.14 doesn't have a .Net connector for mono... You'll need to check dev.mysql.com regularly for updates on that. If you're new to MySQL or just used to depending on VS.Net to generate SQL for you, you'll probably want to take a look at http://www.pantz.org/database/mysql/mysqlcommands.shtml, it gives a good shake-down of some important mysql commands to know. You'll want to consult DJC's mysql setup guide on http://www.linuxhelp.net/guides/mysql/, which will walk you through allowing connections from localhost. For .Net development, you'll also want to allow TCP/IP connections (something which MySQL sometimes disables by default), the best page for doing that is http://www.falkotimme.com/howtos/perfect_setup_mandrake_10_2/ (incidentally, it's a good post on getting your Mandriva server up and running...)

4) Finally, MojoPortal: as far as I can tell, MojoPortal is the de facto portal for mono. Setup is fairly easy if you follow the installation directions on http://www.mojoportal.com. If you encounter any problems, use the forum and if it doesn't help, register and post your woes. Be sure to give the guy props, not only has he done a great job coding the thing but his feedback and support is superb (thanks again Joe for answering me on a saturday, and in record time too... :D )

And there you have it... Stand by for more Linux madness and in the meantime, happy programming!

Getting MonoDevelop to work in Mandriva...

2005-09-16T15:35:00.000+02:00

Roight. So, change of Operating Systems here... I'm on Mandriva 2005 Limited Edition now, at least for one of my stations. Here are a few steps to consider if you're thinking of getting MonoDevelop up and running:

1) Set up an official update source. You do that by hitting the Software Media Manager (it's in Menu > System > Configuration > Packaging > Software Media Manager) and adding an Official (and *not* a Distibution) update source. Once you've done that, update your computer (Menu > System > Configuration > Packaging > Mandrakelinux update). *Note*: it's important to update before moving on as the install/update agent's changed...

2) Set up one or more distribution sources. This is similar to the previous step except that you add a distribution source rather than an official one.

3) Go to the Install Software (Menu > System > Configuration > Packaging > Install Software). Search for mono and install all relevant packages (if you want a detailed list, post a comment and I'll elaborate on that)

4) You'll also want to install mozilla (why? Because MonoDevelop uses it, end of story :) )

Presto! Happy developing...

Quick yum tips

2005-09-03T02:47:00.000+02:00

I prefer using yum to up2date, even though up2date supposedly uses yum as well as apt-get... So, here are a few nice tips & tricks:

1) yum's config file is /etc/yum.conf; you can add/remove repositories here or in separate files with the .repo extension in the directory named /etc/yum.repos.d (I'd rather consolidate, personally)

2) Set up as many reliable repositories as you can... I like using freshrpms and dag myself.

3) If you have an rpm without a signature and you're sure it's a reliable source (or you're willing to take the risk), you need to configure your yum.conf file to allow non-signed files by setting gpgcheck = 0. I usually re-enable checking after the files have been installed

4) You can also download rpms of your choice and then install them by doing:
yum localinstall (packageName)

5) Of course, hitting 'yum update' once in a while's probably a good idea.

VNC using nothing but your browser...

2005-09-01T12:01:00.000+02:00

Check it out, this is cool: if you open a browser window to http://computername:580x, where x is your VNC display number (default 0 for windows-flavored VNC), you can access VNC without a fat client installed -- you browser opens up a java application! Neato, eh?

Note that the shortcut key to send key combos like ctl-alt-delete is F8...

SessionState Madness

2005-09-01T11:17:00.000+02:00

I've been faced with the problem of passing a Dataset off to Reporting Services. If you're not familiar with SQL Reporting Services, you will be as it is both cheap (free with SQL Server Yukon -- okay, so it ain't cheap but some suckers consider it cheap 'cause they're not the ones that pay the bill for a SQL Server license) and fairly powerful. You can hit the reports via simple url or via Web Services...

But I digress: passing Datasets to Reporting Services. Long and short of is -- you can't. I see three work-arounds, in consequence:

1) You pass the parameters to the Reporting Services and let it retrieve the data using the same stored procedures that you use in your application (the only reason for not using stored procedures to retrieve your data is if you're absolutely, positively sure that you need the database to be compatible with several DB technologies; let's face it though, they each have their quirks so you might as well use stored procedures if the technology allows it);

2) You store the list of ID's in a table along with your Session ID, pass your Session ID along to Reporting Services, and have it retrieve the data that way. I'm not sure of the security implications, and to be honest, you might as well opt for choice number 1;

3) You store your dataset in a Session variable and configure your SessionState to work with SQL Server rather than InProc. Judging from Peter Bromberg's article on EggHeadCafe (http://www.eggheadcafe.com/articles/20021016.asp), you probably don't want to be doing that if you use Session variables extensively. I used to use them a lot but I've gone for other alternatives (i.e. ViewState or QueryString) because I find they're less likely to cause errors due to expired sessions. So, despite the possible performance caveats, I like this choice.

tail...

2005-09-01T03:42:00.000+02:00

"Oooooooh... What does this button do?":

'tail -f /var/log/messages'

Good question: allows you to look at the last few lines of your log file in live... Useful if you want to figure out if your system is detecting USB stuff being plugged in and out...

Keeping linux up2date (as it were)

2005-09-01T03:07:00.000+02:00

I'd come across this link a while ago, but hadn't found it again till now. Quick, before I forget! http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Fedora-Multimedia-Installation-HOWTO/x46.html

In brief:

To add repositories to up2date, emacs the /etc/sysconfig/rhn/sources file, e.g.:

yum myRepo http://www.myrepoaddress.com

For yum, emacs /etc/yum.conf:

[myRepo]
name=My sample repository
baseurl=http://www.myrepoaddress.com

Nant and pkg-config: the oddysey

2005-08-31T08:43:00.000+02:00

I've been trying to build a CMS project name cuyahoga using NAnt on my Linux box... It had puzzled me, however, to discover that NAnt wasn't finding information for mono using pkg/config. By reading through forums, I subsequently discovered that I needed to install the mono-devel packages (performing a simple 'yum install mono-devel') before trying again. Frankly, I find that odd: I have MonoDevelop installed for pete's sake, you would have thought that mono-devel was necessary... Dumb me :(

Even dumber me, it didn't work -- though the mono.pc file is now present in the system... a 'pkg-config --list-all' having returned errors, it's probably going to be necessary to check if all of the paths are correctly set under PKG_CONFIG_PATH... More to come.

More VNC/FC4/SSH exploration

2005-08-30T23:59:00.000+02:00

Ok, so I've been posting about tunneling VNC through SSH, and setting that up, yeah? Recently, I've discovered some things about it that *sort of* make useless the configuration of the vncservers file:

When you shut down a session and come to open it up again later, you end up with a 'dead' connection: the mouse shows but the screen remains blank. What's happened there? As far as I can tell, the problem is that once you've closed the session remotely, you have to kill the VNC process for that display and start one afresh. So -- re-edit etc/sysconfig/vncservers and simply comment out the VNCSERVERS variable, then set vncserver to *not* start at boot (from the Services menu item). Now, when you come to tunnel, start by your regular ssh -L 5901:localhost:5901 user@host, but before you start up the vnc viewer hit vncserver &. Note the display number that was allocated (it should be :1; otherwise, you'll have to restart ssh) and *then* VNC in. Once you're done and you've closed your session, you're going to want to kill that vncserver process by doing a vncserver -kill :1 (or whichever display number that was)

FedoraForum.org - HowTo: Setup an, FTP, MySQL, HTTP Home Server & FC4

2005-08-28T12:23:00.000+02:00

I found a great link for configuring your home servers; check it out:

SharedMedia's home server setup

It covers everything from base configuration to installation of MySQL with GUI and CMS... Although, if you like .Net like me, you'll prolly want to opt for something else wrt the CMS. I'm trying out cuyahoga myself... It's the only CMS I found that supposedly works on both Mono and .Net... Have been working on getting it up and running, not quite done yet... Will let you know more as I go along...

VNC with FC4 -- part three

2005-08-27T23:53:00.000+02:00

Okay, so up to now I have my windows PC connecting to my linux server, running kde rather than XDM to boot. Wonderful! But -- it's not secure so I can't be hitting the server from halfway across the world without anyone listening in...

The last part of this series focuses on tunneling VNC through SSH. I have to say, this is bloody cool, and quite simple too. Follow this:

Let's start with a simple, plain Jane connection to you server via SSH. You fire up Cygwin and you type 'ssh yourlinuxserver'. If you've got ssh installed and port 22 open, you should have no problem getting in. Of course, if your current user name is different than that on your linux server (as it might well be), you'll need to tack on the username too: 'ssh yourusername@yourlinuxserver'.

Here's where it gets cute: you can have SSH tunnel data from the server to a port on your machine, like so:

'ssh -L 59xx:localhost:59yy yourusername@yourlinuxserver'

Where xx is the display number of *your* machine and yy is the number of the *remote* machine. For instance, if I want to tunnel the data from display 1 on the remote machine to display number 2 of my machine, I'd put

'ssh -L 5902:localhost:5901 rickyboy@rickmachine1'

So, you set up an ssh tunnel to your localhost. What next? Using VNC viewer, you VNC into your own machine at the display number that you indicated to SSH, like so:

(at VNC host name prompt) localhost:2

Presto! Secure VNC connection! Note that this *is* slower than a direct connection, but hey, it's worth it (especially if you own a wireless router, eh?). Note that if you *do* own such a router, besides protecting it with WPA and MAC restriction (MAC addresses *can* be spoofed, btw...), you might want to consider enabling your firewall on your linux server... You've been warned :)

Peace out!

VNC with FC4 -- continued

2005-08-27T23:46:00.000+02:00

OK, here's a great addendum that I found on ReadList.com:

make ~/.vnc/xstartup looks like this approx:
(but must use "exec gnome-session" to start gnome instead of startkde I
think.)
[ -x /etc/vnc/xstartup ] && exec /etc/vnc/xstartup
[ -r $HOME/.Xresources ] && xrdb $HOME/.Xresources
xsetroot -solid grey
vncconfig -iconic &
#xterm -geometry 80x24+10+10 -ls -title "$VNCDESKTOP Desktop" &
#twm &
startkde &

run these commands as root:
$ /etc/init.d/vncserver start
$ /sbin/chkconfig --add vncserver
$ /sbin/chkconfig --level 5 vncserver on

The complete post is here

A word on configuring VNC on a FC4 (Note: no security... That'll come later)

2005-08-27T23:09:00.000+02:00

I've been working on getting X windows set up so that I can cygwin in from my Win machines to my linux server in the apartment... That wasn't going so hot, so I finally threw the towel in and started working on VNC. That worked fairly harmlessly, and I'm now tweaking the system here and there.

A few quick notes on how to do this: first, you edit /etc/sysconfig/vncservers using your editor of choice. It's essentially a list of display:user pairs, like so:

VNCSERVERS="2:myusername1 3:myusername2"

You can also specify arguments such as the geometry etc... Indications of how to do this are in the file itself anyway, so I won't go into that.

Next step is to set your VNC password: you do that by hitting 'vncpasswd' from the console. That'll set the pass for the current user, so be sure to set it for the user that you want (rather than root etc...)

Next, you launch the service: in FC4 it's the Applications Bar > System Settings > Server Settings > Services. You scroll down to vncserver (make sure it's installed... If it's not, you'll prolly have to run a 'yum install vncserver' or something like that) and check it on; next time, it'll start up automatically with your settings.

On the client side, make sure to enter the IP address:display# combination. You'll note that this starts a session with XDM rather than your default GUI. Simply run startkde or startgnome and that should get it going. I'm working on configging mine so that the default GUI is KDE, but I'm not sure that's possible... More on that later anyway...

Note this though! BE SURE YOUR NETWORK IS SECURE BEFORE YOU OPEN UP YOUR SERVER. You do *not* want people having access to your server this way. Also, don't go accessing your server from the outside obviously, since the connection isn't encrypted. More on that later (once I've got that set up, that is :-D)

lock Statement

2005-08-25T16:07:00.000+02:00

The lock statement can be useful when you've got code running simultaneously. It ensure that the bit of code included within the statement is executed exclusively:

lock (this)
{
//Code to be executed exlusively here:
}

C# Applet

2005-08-20T13:31:00.000+02:00

Found this on the internet today, as I was looking for a manner to run c# code like a java applet... Looks funky, think I'll try it out later on :-D

C# Applet, by Lloyd Dupont

New site -- templating discussion

2005-08-10T10:28:00.000+02:00

Of late, I've been working on a new site which I'll dub "TS" in this discussion for sake of brevity (and privacy -- if I actually screw up on this one I don't want it known... ;D). After a brief moment of insanity during which I actually considered using ASP.Net 2.0 Beta 2 (I got burned once before thank you very much), I decided on sticking to a templating technique I've been developing for a while. Consider this:

1. A single formatted page serving as the template for the website (one could have more than one, I suppose, if the format or style changes)
2. A child class of the System.Web.Page class and redirects to the template page on load and loads a user control according to the URL (by comparing the URL to a backend of some sort)
3. Several blank pages that implement the said child class

So far it's been working nicely, with a few hitches here and there as you can imagine... Haven't gotten my databinding to play nice with this schema but I'm working at it, and in the meantime I have work-arounds. What bothers me the most, however, is what happens to my link during postback: postback redirects the browser back to my template page rather than the child page... I'm considering the possibility of modifying the client-side postback function on the fly (i.e. as it's getting pushed to the browser). Can't be that difficult -- can it? *cringes*

Practical little formatting property in Reporting Services

2005-08-08T15:16:00.000+02:00

Just had a client ask me if I can make titles repeat from page to page for about a dozen reports... I was about to pull my shotgun out and blow him out of my life when I caught wind of this little tip: rather than copy & paste titles from the details section of reports (which is feasible if you don't have a mountain of reports), you can set the RepeatWith property of a report object so that it repeats whenever a target object spans over several pages... A neat trick if you're loath to re-format a dozen nitpicky reports, I'll say...

Listing a database's stored procedures in SQL Server

2005-08-02T15:23:00.000+02:00

This can be a practical little nugget when comparing two databases from Query Analyzer, writing code for self-maintaining applications, etc:

DECLARE @RC int
DECLARE @sp_name nvarchar(390)
DECLARE @sp_owner nvarchar(384)
DECLARE @sp_qualifier nvarchar(128)
-- Set parameter values
EXEC @RC = [your_DB_name].[dbo].[sp_stored_procedures] @sp_name, @sp_owner, @sp_qualifier

What does this do? Quite simply, it lists all the stored procedures in a given database. Sadly, I'm only sure this works for SQL Server 2k...

P.S. There's a similar sp for tables, called -- can you guess? sp_tables.

Welcome to my Blog!

2005-04-03T10:43:00.000+02:00

	My name is Rick; I'm an IT consultant. I'm mostly a software engineer and developer, but my job quite often involves network security and administration. Sadly, CS is also a hobby (as if I'm not going blind fast enough sitting in front of the machine ten hours a day...) I do have a life, however, which I fill with jujitsu, rollerblading, snowboarding and pursuing an MBA.
Deeply infatuated with coding, I intend to dedicate this blog entirely to programming (whether in C#, VB.NET, PHP or Java) though it's mainly going to be in .Net... I'm a very chatty, talkative guy so feel free to contact me if you want more details on my posts; if you're up to just kicking it, visit my livejournal -- I'm always looking for new friends!!!

Red Paranoid's Blog of DOOOOOOM!

Easter in Dartmoor

New post on my 'Tale of FAIL' blog

New post on my 'Tale of FAIL' blog

Patrick Jean - Pixels = brilliant :-D

Life in the palm of your hand

Happy new year, all!

Consolidation and recap :)

New post on my techie blog

New post on my techie blog

Change of structure

Scotland

Microsoft products

OMFG. Exchange 2010 / BESX 5 nightmare...

Empty.

Fun with PS mobile :)

That's weird...

Google out of China?

A funny feeling...

And I thought *new* video games were expensive...

Video games night!

One season ends, and another begins :)

On Ping, Dropbox, and other nifty services...

Reading your PDF's on your iPhone

Oh yeah boy!!!

WSS listing user permissions

A funny thing happened on the way to my webpage...

2-form authentication with encfs

Short rant about OS X Malware…

Zimbra fun with gmail

The next leap in technology...

The devourer of bandwidths

Come join my website!

Code generation (coding) styles -- to adopt, or not?

*Phew*

Lightening up...

Save your DTS packages on your file system

Excel goodies

Using public keys for SSH

Good SSH configuration page for windows machines

Good blog entry to start securing your SSH site...

Creating virtual drives: an old hotness...

For exchange system admins who wish to change permissions of public folders, en masse.

Sharepoint 2003 installation tips and tricks

Sharepoint 2003 Central Administrator Not Working

Little tip for adding virtual disks...

Clues to setting up outlook to use an 'external' calendar (i.e. if you want to access it w/o setting up an Exchange account in Outlook)

Redirect woes...

A great little trick for getting your Application path...

Authorization of files with .Net

Restricting access to specific directories or files via ASP.Net

Templating woes...

Getting mod_mono up and running...

MojoPortal on Mandriva 2005 and MySQL...

Getting MonoDevelop to work in Mandriva...

Quick yum tips

VNC using nothing but your browser...

SessionState Madness

tail...

Keeping linux up2date (as it were)

Nant and pkg-config: the oddysey

More VNC/FC4/SSH exploration

FedoraForum.org - HowTo: Setup an, FTP, MySQL, HTTP Home Server & FC4

VNC with FC4 -- part three

VNC with FC4 -- continued

A word on configuring VNC on a FC4 (Note: no security... That'll come later)

lock Statement

C# Applet

New site -- templating discussion

Practical little formatting property in Reporting Services

Listing a database's stored procedures in SQL Server

Welcome to my Blog!

And I thought new video games were expensive...

Phew