gary
Penetration Testing Live CD Updated – Live Hacking 1.2
A new version of the Live Hacking, a Linux distribution designed for ethical computer hacking, has been released.
The updated Live CD contains the tools and utilities you need to test and hack your own network in the same way a malicious hacker would. New in this version is the metasploit penetration testing framework and a range of IPv6 foot-printing tools.
Bossie Awards 2010: The Best Open Source Software of the Year
InfoWorld’s Test Center has picked the top open source platforms, middleware, applications, and application development tools for 2010.
Open Source software has been around now for more than 30 years and it is here to stay. Each year InfoWorld sorts through the millions of open source projects and try to find the best, most promising and most influential projects.
New Version of Church Song and Video Projection Software Released
A new version of the church song and video projection software SundayWorship has been released.
This release adds two major features to SundayWorship.
- Support for running Microsoft PowerPoint presentations from SundayWorship
- The ability to import songs from EasiSlides.
You can download the latest version from here.
New iPhone Sci-Fi Accelerometer Game Launched; Introducing Nova Ball and Nova Ball FREE
Gary Sims, the technology consultant and author, is pleased to announce the launch of the new iPhone and iPod Touch game ‘Nova Ball’. Developed independently, Nova Ball is a space/sci-fi accelerometer game. In the game you control the ball by holding your device parallel to the floor and tilting.
The game has three modes: arcade, mayhem and missions. In arcade mode you need to see how fast you clear each level. Mayhem is all about survival; stop the stars reaching critical mass. In mission mode you have to clear each level to progress to the next.
‘I am really excited about this new game’ said Gary during the launch. ‘The iPhone, iPod Touch and now iPad is a great platform for developing mobile applications and of course games’
There is also a free version of Nova Ball known as ‘Nova Ball Free’. This lite version can be downloaded from the App Store and played without any limitations or expiry. However it is different to the full version in that the Mayhem mode has been removed and there are only 6 missions to play rather than the full 50.
The games can be downloaded here:
http://itunes.apple.com/app/nova-ball/id356162161?mt=8
http://itunes.apple.com/app/nova-ball-free/id357822431?mt=8
About Gary Sims
Gary Sims is an independent technology consultant and author. As well as developing iPhone and iPod Touch applications, Gary is the author of the book: Learning FreeNAS which is available from Packt Publishing and at Amazon.com. Gary was also a key member of development team for the Live Hacking CD a new Linux distribution packed with tools and utilities for ethical hacking, penetration testing and countermeasure verification.
Security Expert Finds Problem with Microsoft’s MSN.com
Someone has discovered a problem on Microsoft’s MSN.com website and the question is being asked, “is a prelude or even the result of an attack on Microsoft’s website?”
The problem is with MSN’s Arabia subdomain. MSN uses subdomains to provide localized content to different parts of the the world. There are MSN subdomains for the UK, France, India and so on. There is also a subdomain for Arabia at http://arabia.msn.com. The problem occurs when users of the site try to access Microsoft’s Bing search engine.
On other subdomains and the main MSN.com website, entering a search term into the Bing search box takes you to the Bing search engine and a page of results for the term entered. But on the Arabia site using Bing results in an error. The error comes in two parts, the general error is “You are not authorized to view this page” and the reason given for this is “Forbidden: IP address of the client has been rejected.”
The problem was dsicovered by Dr. Jahangiri and he is calling on Microsoft to fix this problem quickly but to also check their MSN Arabia website to ensure that it hasn’t been compromised and also to check for any other vulnerabilities in the web server configuration.
[Via Press Release]
FreeNAS to Continue with FreeBSD; New Linux NAS Called OpenMediaVault Created
The Hi-Tech Squad recently wrote about the plans to move FreeNAS from FreeBSD to Linux. But it looks like this isn’t the end of the story… Today Olivier Cochard-Labbé made a great announcement, FreeNAS will live on with FreeBSD and production ready ZFS support will be added with the upgrade to FreeBSD 8.0. At the same time a new Linux version of FreeNAS will be created called OpenMediaVault!
Olivier explained it like this: FreeNAS needs some big modification to remove its present limitations (with one of the biggest being the lack of support for add-ons/plugins). We think that a full-rewrite of the FreeNAS base is needed. Therefore, we will take 2 different paths:
- Volker will create a new project called “‘OpenMediaVault” based on a
GNU/Linux and use all his experience acquired with all those nights and week-ends spent improving FreeNAS during the last 2 years. He will still
continue to work on FreeNAS (and try to share his time with these two
projects). - And, a great surprise: iXsystems (http://www.ixsystems.com/), a company specialising in professional FreeBSD systems has offered to take FreeNAS under its wing as an open source community driven project. This means that they will use their professionals FreeBSD developers to better FreeNAS! Their manpower will permit a full-rewriting of FreeNAS.
Olivier also added that he will personally come back to actively working on FreeNAS and begin to upgrade it to FreeBSD 8.0 (which is “production ready” for ZFS).
This is brilliant news all round and I think Volker and Olivier should make sure that the two projects share as much code as possible. Also I think iXsystems should be congratulated for their support of FreeNAS.
Related links: Rumours of FreeNAS’ Death Greatly Exaggerated
Save Money and Find Free iPhone Apps Easily
With over 100,000 iPhone applications in the App Store, finding the right app (with the right price) can sometimes be a bit bewildering
especially sine there isn’t a sort by price filter.
Fortunately, there are alternatives to the App Store’s built-in search engine that do let you know when iPhone apps go on sale (or even drop their price to free). This will let you save loads of money.
First up is AppShopper.com. Not only does this site track popular changes in the App Store, you can also filter apps by paid vs. free, by category, and so forth.
App Shopper provides all the information for each individual app that the App Store provides, word-for-word, except for user reviews. Average star rating for the app is available, but the written user reviews for the apps are (perhaps mercifully) absent. It also shows all the available activity for the app, such as when it was introduced to the App Store, when it’s been updated, and all the changes in price it’s seen.
148apps.com provides some of the same information that App Shopper provides, such as price drops (for the past five days) and newly introduced apps. While it doesn’t provide as much trending information as App Shopper, 148Apps does offer a daily e-mail, an RSS feed, and a Twitter feed just for price drops. 148Apps also publishes its own reviews of iPhone apps, giving you another perspective on whether that app’s worth your money before you buy it.
Related links: 5 ways to save money on iPhone apps
FreeNAS 0.8 to Switch to Linux; Bye Bye FreeBSD
Harryd has blogged about the future of FreeNAS and it looks like the future is Linux not FreeBSD.
Harrdy has gleaned this information from this forum thread
In short… FreeNAS 0.8 will be based on Debian GNU/Linux! Volker (the core developer) started an intermediate project called CoreNAS. FreeNAS 0.8 will be based on that.
Here is a short list of pros by Volker:
- Text and graphical installer that can be customized. This means no hand written install scripts anymore which causes some problems in FreeNAS
- WOL works in Linux
- lmsensor – A WORKING sensor framework which is a really needed feature in FreeNAS to check the CPU/MB temps and fan speeds
- Better Samba performance
- Ability to implement HA features
- System can be updated via ‘apt-get’ or any other deb package manager
- Better driver support
- Maybe ‘ZFS’ over FUSE (there is already one commercial product available that uses this feature)
- NFS4
ZFS
The really big problem is ZFS… If it is Linux under the hood or FreeBSD it really doesn’t make that much different to the end user, but and it is a big but, Linux doesn’t have (and can’t have due to licensing issues) ZFS and really running ZFS under FUSE is not a real option.
Is it time for someone else to take up the development of FreeNAS where 0.7 and Volker left off?
New E-matic E4 Series; 8 GB Touch-Screen MP3 Player with a 5MP Camera
E-matic has released a new version of the top selling E4 series. The E4 is an 8 GB touch-screen MP3 Player with a 5MP built-in Digital Camera and video recording capabilities. It also contains an FM Tuner/Recorder, Webcam capability, TV-Out, and is available in six colours.
This looks like a great little device, but more than that E-matic are an environmentally conscious company that uses recycled packaging for al their products and they donate 1% of all of their profits to charity! Not bad.
Features:
- 8GB Flash Memory – Stores up to 3,000 songs, 34 hours of video, or thousands of photos
- MicroSD Slot – Allows you to expand your memory up to a total of 16GB
- Versatile Playback – Supports a wide variety of formats, including MP3, WMA, AVI, MP4, FLV, JPG and more
- FM Tuner and Recorder – Listen to your favorite stations and record right off the radio
- Digital Video Recording – Record over 48 hours of video in AVI format and in different video modes
- 5MP Digital Camera – Take quality JPG photos in different camera modes
- Voice Recorder – The built-in mic allows you to record quick notes and lectures, playback through the external speaker or headphones
- Webcam – Connect the device to your PC and use as a Webcam
- TV-Out – Use the included A/V cables and view videos and photos on your TV or monitor
- Social Networking – Easily upload your pictures and videos to your favorite social networking websites
You can get the E4 from Walmart.
Also the rumour is that E-matic will have a new player coming at the end of this summer, the E6, which will feature a unique user interface. What this space…
5 Things You Should Know About Google Chrome OS; Videos Included
Google has shown off the very first builds of Chrome OS (or Chromium OS as the open source version is called). It is really a developer preview and Google aren’t planning on releasing the final version for another year.
Here are 5 things you really need to know:
- Everything is web based. The whole user interface runs within the Chrome browser and there are no traditional desktop applications.
- If you aren’t online then nothing will work. You won’t be able to write any documents or compose replies to emails (for sending later). Having a 3G modem will mean you can stay connected (and so use the machine) when you are on the move.
- The OS currently boots in 7 seconds.
- You documents and photos are stored on the Internet. But don’t worry, everything will be encrypted. If you lose your laptop, the attacker gets nothing of value (except the laptop of course).
- You don’t need a hard drive. Everything is flash-memory-based.
Videos
From the Google Chrome YouTube channel.
[Via Gaj-IT]
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