My quest for a playable copy of Wasteland led me to a portable version of DOSBox. Interestingly enough, it spawned the subject of my next post. A recent trend in computing these days is the idea of portable applications. Programs you'd use pretty much everyday, that you can carry with you to work, school, a friend's house, even the public library. They could be anything from web browsers, to office suites, to email clients, to sudoku. What's cool about portable apps is the fact that they keep your settings, without ever having to install it on another computer. Say you have a portable version of firefox on a thumbdrive, you can take it to your parent's house, and have your bookmarks, your passwords, usernames and logins, browser history with you. No need to use their crappy Internet Explorer. No need to leave traces of porn websites or craigslist uh adult meet-up listings on their machine. Ever. It's all on your thumbdrive. you're basically using their machine as a terminal, to run your programs. And because all your data is read/written on the thumbdrive, it's a good way to keep your information private, and secure.
A second advantage of using portable apps. is the fact that it doesn't bog down your registry with crap that your operating system has to process. Since most portable apps don't need to be formally installed, this streamlines your computer, and makes it perform faster. Even faster than those finally fast commercials. Who knew? What this means for computing in general is immense. There are multiple ways of carrying around data these days. A thumb drive, micro SD cards, Memory sticks, your cellphone. which means there are lots of ways to carry around your apps with you. And you can encrypt these drives, memcards, with something like truecrypt or even windows vista/7's bitlocker if your running versions of the OS that have that feature, just in case you lose your thumb drive.
But wait, there's more, if you have some internet drivespace, like on Mozy.com, or microsoft's windows live skydrive service. you can backup your thumbdrive, and not worry so much when you lose your drive as long as you keep your data synched. (You did encrypt the data right?) So yeah, portable apps is just another way to keep your data safe, and secure and private. and well, obviously portable. A word of warning though, when using portable apps is that you're gonna be using your thumbdrive/memstick/memcard on other people's computers, and that's a good way of getting virused, if you're not careful. So make sure you protect yourself at all times (see the antimalware/antivirus post below). But if you do, no worries so much cos you made that backup right? See what a good idea that was?
Just as an aside with the whole portability thing, is that, there are a lot of portable versions of games out there now. From Plants vs Zombies, to World of Goo, to Baldur's Gate 2 and even the epic Diablo 2. which means you can game almost anywhere which is always a good thing.
So be safe, be portable, be secure, be private. and remember to back your shit up.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Meanwhile on the Internet...
Browsing around the many blogs i follow i came across a post about Fallout. The original Fallout from 1997. which is pretty much a classic by today's standards. So in the spirit of celebrating classic PC games, i wanted to write about Wasteland, which was Fallout's spiritual predecessor. A post apocalyptic RPG first released in 1988. Now i don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't played it, but suffice it to say, i spent many many hours in front of the computer, playing this amazing game.
Now i haven't played it in a while, but looking around some of the back alleys of the net, i've found myself a copy of the game. I'm not sure how well it'll run on modern hardware, but i'm pretty sure dosbox will take care of it. (ooh ooh memo to self, post about dosbox.) If you like fallout or RPGs in general, you owe it to yourself to play this game. If you can find it. (it's out there i promise.) and it's less than 3 megs. So go forth and play. I guarantee you'll have a good ole time.
Now i haven't played it in a while, but looking around some of the back alleys of the net, i've found myself a copy of the game. I'm not sure how well it'll run on modern hardware, but i'm pretty sure dosbox will take care of it. (ooh ooh memo to self, post about dosbox.) If you like fallout or RPGs in general, you owe it to yourself to play this game. If you can find it. (it's out there i promise.) and it's less than 3 megs. So go forth and play. I guarantee you'll have a good ole time.
Internet Proxies Part One
Okay so previous posts have covered how to make secure passwords, programs to keep your machines free of malware, and viruses, controlling your internet connection so that hackers can't access your computers/networks at the same time, programs can't use your connection to download malicious scripts off the internet. Which brings us to our next topic. Internet Proxies, and Internet Proxy servers.
A proxy server, in theory is just another line of defense against the evils of the internet. It's like a gateway that keeps the outside world (the internet) away from your computer at home. Most people use them all the time. At work, at the net cafe, even at home if your machines are on a home network. They're pretty common place, but what many folks don't understand is that you can connect to these proxies and do things like hide your ip, get to blocked websites, (like say if your school blocks facebook or myspace) get around ip bans, and a dozen other different things.
There are a few ways of using proxy servers and proxy software and they basically all do the same thing which is make computers think you're accessing their servers from somewhere else. The most common way to hide behind a proxy server is to use anonimity websites like hidemyass, or anonymouse. You surf on over, type in the url that you want to visit and voila, you're anonymous. Which basically means that the webpage or site that you want to visit, thinks you're coming from their servers (or other servers.) rather than your home isp. So like say, you want to download that new Justin Beiber album but you don't want people to know that it's you who's downloaded it. If you were to download it without a proxy, that server which you're pulling it down from will pretty much know that Joe Schmo from redneckton, Ohio is the one that pulled it down just based on your IP address. Go to anonymizer and see for yourself. It knows your ip address, the town/city you're in, your zipcode and your browser. Kinda creepy right? Now go to either hidemyass or anonymouse and then visit anonymizer again. Can you see the difference? Without the proxy server, anonymizer could pretty much send party vans and pizzas to at least the town you were living in, and eventually pinpoint where you were. Not so much with a proxy server. With the proxy, instead of Redneckton, Ohio, it thinks you're hanging out somewhere with BJ Penn in Hilo Hawaii downloading Justin Beiber albums. And that's just with using free web proxies. It gets even more interesting when you start plugging in proxy server IP addresses into your browser. But that's altogether a different post. This one should get you started on the practice of anonimity online. Have fun, and as always, be safe out there.
A proxy server, in theory is just another line of defense against the evils of the internet. It's like a gateway that keeps the outside world (the internet) away from your computer at home. Most people use them all the time. At work, at the net cafe, even at home if your machines are on a home network. They're pretty common place, but what many folks don't understand is that you can connect to these proxies and do things like hide your ip, get to blocked websites, (like say if your school blocks facebook or myspace) get around ip bans, and a dozen other different things.
There are a few ways of using proxy servers and proxy software and they basically all do the same thing which is make computers think you're accessing their servers from somewhere else. The most common way to hide behind a proxy server is to use anonimity websites like hidemyass, or anonymouse. You surf on over, type in the url that you want to visit and voila, you're anonymous. Which basically means that the webpage or site that you want to visit, thinks you're coming from their servers (or other servers.) rather than your home isp. So like say, you want to download that new Justin Beiber album but you don't want people to know that it's you who's downloaded it. If you were to download it without a proxy, that server which you're pulling it down from will pretty much know that Joe Schmo from redneckton, Ohio is the one that pulled it down just based on your IP address. Go to anonymizer and see for yourself. It knows your ip address, the town/city you're in, your zipcode and your browser. Kinda creepy right? Now go to either hidemyass or anonymouse and then visit anonymizer again. Can you see the difference? Without the proxy server, anonymizer could pretty much send party vans and pizzas to at least the town you were living in, and eventually pinpoint where you were. Not so much with a proxy server. With the proxy, instead of Redneckton, Ohio, it thinks you're hanging out somewhere with BJ Penn in Hilo Hawaii downloading Justin Beiber albums. And that's just with using free web proxies. It gets even more interesting when you start plugging in proxy server IP addresses into your browser. But that's altogether a different post. This one should get you started on the practice of anonimity online. Have fun, and as always, be safe out there.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Internet security
So my second post was about tools and what people can use to keep their computers safe. But how important really is internet security? If someone like Sarah Palin can get hacked, how safe is the average joe surfing the web? What's cool about knowing your way around the web, is that you can prevent most of the "hacking" that goes on. I've already covered passwords. for this post, i wanted to talk a little about hiding yourself, and your computer from black hats and identity thieves.
There are a couple of programs, and sites which can help keep you safe. as well as some common sense, but i'm guessing that most people have a little bit of that to go around so i'm not gonna get into it. But yeah, first things first. You need a firewall. Internet security is based on pretty much protecting your computer not only from viruses and malware, but from would be intruders, and that's where a firewall comes into play. It basically keeps unwanted connections out, and if you've gotten yourself infected with some sorta remote access tool, it can keep those from "phoning home." one that i've used pretty much since the dawn of the internet is Zone Alarm. It's free for personal use, it blocks unwanted connections from coming in, and keeps unwanted programs from connecting to the internet. simple enough. Install it, give it permissions for your trusted programs, and then forget about it.
Another thing that you can do but i'm not going to get into right now, is to use internet proxies. Which basically hides your computer from the websites you visit. But that's for another post. For now, i just want to say, get your ass behind a firewall and keep it there. Good night, and good computing.
There are a couple of programs, and sites which can help keep you safe. as well as some common sense, but i'm guessing that most people have a little bit of that to go around so i'm not gonna get into it. But yeah, first things first. You need a firewall. Internet security is based on pretty much protecting your computer not only from viruses and malware, but from would be intruders, and that's where a firewall comes into play. It basically keeps unwanted connections out, and if you've gotten yourself infected with some sorta remote access tool, it can keep those from "phoning home." one that i've used pretty much since the dawn of the internet is Zone Alarm. It's free for personal use, it blocks unwanted connections from coming in, and keeps unwanted programs from connecting to the internet. simple enough. Install it, give it permissions for your trusted programs, and then forget about it.
Another thing that you can do but i'm not going to get into right now, is to use internet proxies. Which basically hides your computer from the websites you visit. But that's for another post. For now, i just want to say, get your ass behind a firewall and keep it there. Good night, and good computing.
IPA Monday!
IPA monday is gonna be a regular extra feature on here, that i wanted to do. Basically a featured beer for all you connoisseurs/beer snobs out there. this week.
Amazingly hoppy. Good balance of citrus and maltey goodness. Grab a six if you can find it. It's pretty good stuff..
Amazingly hoppy. Good balance of citrus and maltey goodness. Grab a six if you can find it. It's pretty good stuff..
Search Engines
So you've played with Google Instant, and maybe messed around with Bing, or something. but one of the search engines i've found way useful in acquiring uh, media that falls into a somewhat grey area of legality is Filestube. If you're looking for anything, it doesn't have to be something that's w4r3z or anything, filestube is your friend.
Almost everything is on the internet. Except for cars. you wouldn't download a car would you? But most media, is on the internet. and because it's on the internet, for people with the know how, that usually means it's free. This is where filestube comes in. What it basically is, is a search engine that crawls webpages and looks for links that point to stuff that's hosted on major filesharing websites. Hotfile, Rapidshare, Megaupload and so on and so forth. And it indexes the results for easy searching. so what this means is that everything you download is pretty much online rather than say, bittorrent, or limewire. So there's no more cussing out the dude on the dialup connection who has the last piece of the torrent you're pulling down. It's easy, it's convenient, it's almost brainless. As with everything on the internets though, you never know what you're gonna get, and i've gotten virused and malwared from stuff that i've pulled down. so be careful, make sure your sources are legit, and that the files really are what they say they are. Don't go blindly downloading stuff you're not sure of. And filestube helps you here, by posting the source of the links. so you can check out the webpages it came from.
Just remember the net's a scary place. Pictures of gaping assholes and cheese pizza lurk in it's deepest and darkest corners. So be safe.
Almost everything is on the internet. Except for cars. you wouldn't download a car would you? But most media, is on the internet. and because it's on the internet, for people with the know how, that usually means it's free. This is where filestube comes in. What it basically is, is a search engine that crawls webpages and looks for links that point to stuff that's hosted on major filesharing websites. Hotfile, Rapidshare, Megaupload and so on and so forth. And it indexes the results for easy searching. so what this means is that everything you download is pretty much online rather than say, bittorrent, or limewire. So there's no more cussing out the dude on the dialup connection who has the last piece of the torrent you're pulling down. It's easy, it's convenient, it's almost brainless. As with everything on the internets though, you never know what you're gonna get, and i've gotten virused and malwared from stuff that i've pulled down. so be careful, make sure your sources are legit, and that the files really are what they say they are. Don't go blindly downloading stuff you're not sure of. And filestube helps you here, by posting the source of the links. so you can check out the webpages it came from.
Just remember the net's a scary place. Pictures of gaping assholes and cheese pizza lurk in it's deepest and darkest corners. So be safe.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
L33tspeak
I know i know, some people may think leetspeak is a stupid tip, or something just the lame xbox kiddies do, but on the internet, it has it's advantages and uses.. Mostly in the password realm. As word lists for brute force crackers get bigger and bigger, and computers get faster and faster, hackers don't need to spend alot of time getting into your facebook/gmail or even blogger.
this is where leetspeak comes in. all it takes is to change a couple of letters in a phrase, like say christm4str33 and you have yourself a pretty secure password that's easy to remember, or 34st3rbunny, or h4l0w33n. what's cool is that take your girlfriend's name, and change some of the letters into numbers and your password turns from something that'll be on a brute force list somewhere into something that only you know. The cool thing is that it can be anything. your name, your mom's name, your hand's name. your favorite bear. just as long as you remember where you put the numbers. it takes a little getting used to remember where the numbers go, but if you have a system, like just the "a"s or just the vowels. it gets easier to remember. So go forth and speak your inner geek. Be safe out there.
this is where leetspeak comes in. all it takes is to change a couple of letters in a phrase, like say christm4str33 and you have yourself a pretty secure password that's easy to remember, or 34st3rbunny, or h4l0w33n. what's cool is that take your girlfriend's name, and change some of the letters into numbers and your password turns from something that'll be on a brute force list somewhere into something that only you know. The cool thing is that it can be anything. your name, your mom's name, your hand's name. your favorite bear. just as long as you remember where you put the numbers. it takes a little getting used to remember where the numbers go, but if you have a system, like just the "a"s or just the vowels. it gets easier to remember. So go forth and speak your inner geek. Be safe out there.
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