Ubuntu Cheat Sheet!

As most of you all know, I am a huge proponent of Ubuntu. I even make my own version of Ubuntu Linux (Newest version posts tomorrow!). Some of you though are new to Ubuntu Linux, or even Debian Linux from which Ubuntu is based.

For the most part, If you are just casually using the desktop version of Ubuntu you don’t need to know a lot of these command lines. I mean, most things in the desktop version are gui based which makes it easy to use for the beginner. Still though, once you get past the cuteness, and ease of use of the gui, you may find that there is a hell of a lot more you can do from the terminal!

In fact, if you ever want to be a Linux admin yourself, you have got to start learning terminal commands because most server versions of Linux come in a terminal form only.

In the past I have posted about a generic Linux/Unix cheat sheet, but I found this one that is specific to Ubuntu users. Check it out!

[Click the Image for the full size version]

Hopefully you can use this as a quick reference when ever you are dabbling in the terminal!

[Via Schwehr.org]

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My Daughter’s First Laptop… Running Linux!

I am in the process of building the next edition of Bauer-Puntu, and I got started building it using my older Dell Latitude D620. It was a pretty good laptop in it’s time, but it’s five years old now, and let’s face it, five years is 100 in computer years. I finally decided to upgrade.

When one upgrades, there is always a decision that has to be made on what to do with the old equipment. Should I take it to be recycled? Should I donate it to charity? I decided that it was time to start getting my daughter excited about Linux!

Since my daughter is only six years old, I decided to start her off pretty easy with a kid friendly Linux distribution. I decided to go with Qimo Linux. What is Qimo? Here is the description from their page:

Qimo is a desktop operating system designed for kids. Based on the open source Ubuntu Linux desktop, Qimo comes pre-installed with educational games for children aged 3 and up.

Qimo's interface has been designed to be intuitive and easy to use, providing large icons for all installed games, so that even the youngest users have no trouble selecting the activity they want.

Let me tell you, my daughter is super excited about having her own laptop, and also about all the kid friendly games that come with it. I am super excited that she can finally get into learning computers at an early age.

I have the same views on learning as my father. Learn the harder stuff first, and the easy stuff will come naturally. He made me learn to tie my shoes before he let me have Velcro shoes. He made me learn to tell time with a standard watch before letting me have a digital watch. He made me learn to drive a stick-shift before letting me drive an automatic. In that same tradition, I want my daughter to learn Linux, then using Windows and OSX will be a breeze!

Do your kids have computers? What did you start them off with? How old were they when you first got them into computers? Let me know in the comments.

del.icio.us Tags: linux,for kids,qimo,ubuntu,first pc

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Tech Chop Episode 6–Sidejacking With Firesheep

I know it has been a while since I made a video for Tech Chop. I have had a lot of things going on. I finished up some certifications, and also found a new job where I will get paid more, yet deal with a hell of a lot less users. It seems like it will be my dream job!

Anyhoo, I had some spare time this weekend and decided to get to filming. This time I decided to talk about a subject I decided to do a final project on in college when I was working on my degree in Network Security. That subject was on Sidejacking. Of course it was with some tools called Ferret and Hamster. Now it’s even easier with a Firefox add-on called Firesheep.

If you don’t know what Sidejacking or Session Hijacking is, Wikipedia describes it as:

The exploitation of a valid computer session—sometimes also called a session key—to gain unauthorized access to information or services in a computer system. In particular, it is used to refer to the theft of a magic cookie used to authenticate a user to a remote server. It has particular relevance to web developers, as the HTTP cookies used to maintain a session on many web sites can be easily stolen by an attacker using an intermediary computer or with access to the saved cookies on the victim's computer

In this video I discuss what Sidejacking is, how easy it is to use Firesheep, how to protect against Sidejacking using SSL, and finally how to detect if someone is using Firesheep on the network using Blacksheep.

Here is episode 6 of Tech Chop!

 

It’s important to know that Sidejacking works on any site not encrypted using SSL. That means company Exchange servers, SharePoint servers, basically anything with a web page is can be hacked using this tool.

So what do you think? Are you going to enable SSL on Facebook and Twitter? What about on important company web sites? Let us know how you protect against these types of attacks in the comments.

del.icio.us Tags: how to,hack,facebook,twitter,sidejacking,session,hijacking,firesheep,blacksheep

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Autopatcher is Back Bitches!

Back in September of 2007 I wrote a quick post taking about how Autopatcher was down, and was no longer developing future releases. Well I checked today, and they are back my friends! Now you can get your systems all up to date in one friggin’ shot again and bypass Windows Update!

If you have never used Autopatcher, get ready to live! This tool makes your life so much friggin’ easier especially if you use disk imaging solutions like Symantec Ghost, or Fog and after a few months your images get out of date. With this free tool, you can slam down and image, and get them patched up lickity split! It’s even faster than using WSUS!

Here is a description from their site:

How many times did you have to leave your computer, after a format, to download the updates you had before it? How many times did you have to go do something else, leaving your friend’s computer download the load of updates with their poor little dial-up modem? How many times have you wished for the updates to be portable from one computer to another and not require but a few mouse clicks to install?

If you’re the “computer guy” of the pack, no doubt the answer to the above questions was “I’ve lost count”! And if you have one or two computers you should consider yourself lucky as well. Think of what would happen if you had to update ten or twenty computers daily!

Is there any way to avoid all this trouble?

Besides the updates one finds on Windows Update (which are not portable), Microsoft also issues special updates (called administrative updates or network install updates), which do not require an Internet connection present during the installation process. The user however will have to answer to a series of (for the most part identical) questions. Even this can be an annoyance since it requires the user’s presence for quite some time.

The solution!

AutoPatcher is based on the functionality of these special updates, automating their installation process. This way, with only a few mouse clicks and two minutes of your time, AutoPatcher is able to continue with the installation of the items you selected. In short, AutoPatcher combines the advantage of both Windows Update (presentation and description of updates and automated installation), and the special administrative updates (portability and installation without the need of an Internet connection).

A new thing I like in this version is besides Microsoft products, it also now provides updates for Adobe Reader and Adobe Air too! Boom!

I am super excited about this! Autopatcher made my life a lot easier before it went away, and now that it is back and compatible with Windows 7 as well as updating non-Microsoft products it will make my life easier again!

Do you know of any tools like Autopatcher? Are the free? Let us know in the comments.

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The Role of Certifications

I thought I would post this article because I have been thinking about it lately. I’ve been thinking about it because I have been spending the last few months boning up on certifications. Wednesday in fact, I completed the Microsoft 70-646 exam which was the last test I needed to get my MCITP: Server Administrator.

If you are not in the loop, Microsoft has changed the way they do certifications. The big bread and butter certs were MCSA and MCSE. Well, Microsoft has gotten rid of those certs and replaced them with a new series. It allows IT professionals to certify in certain areas of IT easier. Still though, there are a couple that are basically the same as before. I would say that the MCITP: Server Administrator was closest to the MCSA, and the MCITP: Enterprise Administrator is most closest to MCSE.

So what does that mean if you are a hiring manager? For one, if you are interviewing a candidate that boasts that they are an MCSE, it means they are not current on the latest technologies. If you are a manager that cares about certs, that’s a big deal. That doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t know what they are doing.

You see the real trick about certifications is not that you have them, it’s what you know. If you have a certification, it looks great on a resume, and will get your foot in the door. That’s where the certification’s job really stops. If it can get you in for an interview, then it’s done it’s job. Pure and simple. Now the rest is up to you. If you don’t know what you are talking about in the interview, then you won’t get the job.

Another thing a certification will do for you is give you more weight when an employer is trying to decide between two good candidates. If they have to choose between two talented individuals, one is certified and the other is not, then chances are the employer will choose the candidate that is certified. Certifications, like college degrees, show employers that you can set goals for yourself and work to achieve them.

So in the end, the certification is really only good for resume decoration. They look great on paper, but the real test of a technician is not what they know both with book smarts, but what they have learned in actual experience. I should know, I work to get certs mainly for their value on my resume, but it’s my every day experience in the trenches that has gotten me my jobs.

What do you think? Do you agree or disagree? Let me know in the comments.

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Open Source Cola?

I was bumming around Stumbleupon this morning while watching a training video getting ready for my upcoming Microsoft Certification test. The video was on WSUS, which is fairly rudimentary so I was zoning out. Anyway, I came across something really interesting.

We have all heard of Open Source software right? I mean I write about Open Source software on Bauer-Power all the time. Open Source is usually free, and that’s what makes it awesome! Also the fact that the source code itself is freely available, and modifiable is another thing that makes it really great.

What about Cola though? Wouldn’t it be great if Coke or Pepsi released their secret formula so we could make their drinks at home? They of course would never do that because if they did that, you might make it yourself and wouldn’t need to buy their product any more right?

Well, a group of guys got together and did exactly that. They created a Cola that is completely Open Source. By that I mean the recipe is freely available, and also modifiable. You are free to modify their recipe to make your own cola and even sell it as long as you release your recipe under the same GNU GPL.

Want to try to make it yourself? From Wikipedia, here is the recipe:

Flavoring Formula:

• 10.0 g food-grade gum arabic
• 3.50 mL orange oil
• 3.00 mL water
• 2.75 mL lime oil
• 1.25 mL cassia oil
• 1.00 mL lemon oil
• 1.00 mL nutmeg oil
• 0.25 mL coriander oil
• 0.25 mL neroli oil
• 0.25 mL lavender oil

Concentrate Formula:

• 2.36 kg plain granulated white table sugar
• 2.28 L water
• 30.0 mL caramel color
• 17.5 mL (3.50 tsp.) 75% phosphoric acid or citric acid
• 10.0 mL (2.00 tsp.) flavoring formula
• 2.50 mL (0.50 tsp.) caffeine (optional)

Dilution:

After mixing up the concentrate to the prescribed recipe, the syrup is diluted 5:1 with ("preferably sodium-free") soda water to make the finished drink; at this dilution, the above combination of ingredients will yield approximately 24 litres of OpenCola.

For more detailed instructions, and also ways of carbonating the concoction (I personally would probably just drop a brick of dry ice into the mix) visit this link here: (ColaWP.com)

Have you ever made Open Cola? Think you are going to try it yourself? Let us know how it went/goes in the comments!

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PWN Your Friends on Foursquare and Facebook Places

I recently posted that I may be slightly addicted to Foursquare, the social media game you play with your friends as well as gets you good deals and helps you discover your city. Well I think I may have taken my social game play to a whole new level.

A couple of days ago I got an email from my friend Ryan telling me about an app for his iPhone called Checkmate. With Checkmate, and $0.99 you can set your Foursquare check-ins on autopilot. You never even have to take your phone out of your pocket because Checkmate will automatically check in for you.

That’s awesome! However I don’t have an iPhone, and I don’t like paying for apps. That got me thinking though about apps for my Android, so I decided to hit up the Android Marketplace to look for a similar app that’s free.

Enter Mayor Monster Ninja! Not only is it free, but it supports check-in for Facebook Places as well as Foursquare! Double PWNAGE! Here is a description from the Marketplace:

MayorMonster makes you the NINJA of social world! :-)
Social places is 'where' we have the best fun! You want to share your place and be more social.

Monsters will do check-ins on Foursquare and take over all mayorships for you! You can even use Facebook places and Ninja style check-in to any venue you like!

Browse venues, check-ins, auto-checkin history, add venues to your list, customize the service and wait for Monsters to take over venues for you...

• Monsters mode: does auto-check-in to list of venues you selected
• LocationSpy mode: does auto-check-in when you are close to venues you checked in before.

You can use any of these modes or both of them together, as you wish!
Key features:

• Foursquare places / check-in
• Facebook places / check-in
• Ninja style check-in
• AutoCheck-in by Monsters

Mayor Monster NINJA is fully integrated with Foursquare and Facebook places!

Is this cheating? Well, if by cheating you mean helpful, then yes! Do you use a similar app? Let us know what you think about this tool in the comments.

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