Learning to develop...

I know that there are some readers out there that have an interest in developing and can attest to the benefits of learning through tutorials or labs. Well for those of you looking for more labs or tutorials the fine blogger at Somasegar's WebLog has laid out quite a few links to this very thing. Albeit that all of these labs and tutorials are specifically geared towards Microsoft's various offerings...it is still pretty darn cool.

Now time for the link whore....here ya go:
ASP.NET 2.0
ASP.NET
BizTalk Server
Commerce Server
Connected Systems
Data Access and Storage
Internet Information Services (IIS)
JPlusN (J+N)
Microsoft Expression
.NET Framework 3.0
Office
Security
Smart Client
Soup to Nuts
SQL Server 2005
SQL Server 2005 Upgrade
TechNet Virtual Labs
Visual Basic
Visual C#
Visual C++
Visual J#
Visual SourceSafe
Visual Studio .NET 2003
Visual Studio 2005
Visual Studio Team System
Web Services
Windows Embedded CE 6.0
Windows Mobile
Windows Vista
Windows XP Embedded

- "Hands-on Labs - A great resource for developer learning" @ Somasegar's WebLog
- "Helping developers with "How Do I" information" @ Somasegar's WebLog
- "Welcome to the MSDN Virtual Labs" @ MSDN

Do you program or are interested in programming with Powershell

Well here is a book by Frank Koch that he has made available for free download:

Windows Powershell

This is an introduction to programming with Powershell...pretty cool...and FREE!

Cool Vista tweak...

Here is an interesting little tweak to get a little more out of you CPU under Vista. I found it while reading the Microsoft Technet Blog:

Get more performance out of Vista. The default power plan in Vista is set to Balanced. Changing it to High Performance will increase the CPU utilization up to 50%. That’s in Control Panel, Power Options.

- "Vista CPU performance" @ John Roller Blog

HTML ART...holy crap this guy can code..

Asus EEE PC701 Laptop

This is going to be the shizzy of laptops and if you ask why...well at $199-$250 it will be something cool to have. The last projected date of sale I saw was this August and I will be the first to say that I will be getting one. Granted this isn't going to be the type of laptop you are going to Game or do any hardcore crunching with...it will still be a great laptop to do those mundane tasks and more. Check the specs:

Display：7"
CPU & Chipset: Intel mobile CPU & chipset
OS: Linux/ Microsoft Windows XP compatible
Communication: 10/100 Mbps Ethernet; 56K modem
WLAN: WiFi 802.11b/g
Graphic: Intel UMA
Memory: 512MB, DDR2-400
Storage: 4/ 8/ 16GB Flash
Webcam: 300K pixel video camera
Audio: Hi-Definition Audio CODEC; Built-in stereo speaker; Built-in microphone
Battery Life: 3hrs (4 cells: 5200mAh, 2S2P)
Dimension & Weight: 22.5 x 16.5 x 2.1~3.5cm, 0.89kg

This little laptop will be portable and fun...hit up the links below to read up more on it and by all means check out the ASUS slide show for this bad boy to get an idea on just how big it is.

- "The $199 computer from Asus" @ TGDaily
- "ASUS EEE PC 701 200-250$ NOTEBOOK" @ XtReview
- "Asus Eee PC First Thoughts" @ BrightHand
- "Asus EEE PC701 - Reviewed" @ GadgetTastic
- "Asus Eee PC First Thoughts" @ Notebook Review
- "EEE PC 701" @ ASUS (THIS IS THE MUST SEE SLIDESHOW)

PC-BSD Unix for the desktop...

I vaguely remember hearing about this project some time ago, but until recently I haven't done anything with it. The project in question is PC-BSD a Unix system based on FREE-BSD and being a BSD user...I had to check it out. I had no idea what to expect when I downloaded this alternative to the many Linux distros out there, but after reading up on their website...it looked cool.

The installation was a breeze with its graphical menus and it even installed all my hardware without a hitch...yes even my wireless NIC. The only real problem I ran into in the initial setup was connecting to my home wifi network that is secured with WPA-PSK. Connecting to any WPA network seems to be a pain the butt for the many Linux distros...so why shouldn't it be for the Unix platform. It took a little work...but soon I was online and getting updates for this bad boy. After all the automatic updates were done I decided to hit up the PC-BSD website and see what packages they had. This is were this particular distro gets cool and I would imagine make installing things a lot easier for the novice.

The packages, PBI files, are similar to the exe, msi, and etc. files you use with Windows and the people at PC-BSD have done a great job of covering everything from Chat to Web Apps and everything in between. They have even made PBI files for games for goodness sakes...which under Linux can take awhile...but here it is just a single file. Now they don't have PBI's for everything just yet...but they are continually updating their library, which more recently includes viewers for MS WORD, Powerpoint, and Excel.

If you have a spare PC, Laptop, or even a spare partition...this little distro is worth a look.

- PC-BSD
- DistroWatch

Default password list...

I have been going to this site for sometime now and it really does make for a great tool to have in any techy arsenal. It is always good to have the default password for any number or kind of hardware when you want to troubleshoot a situation or something. Also...no matter how much you try to tell someone to change the default password on any of these devices...more times than not...they don't...in that situation there is fun to be had for all :P

Cool web chat...

The people over at ChatMaker have made a pretty cool web chat app using Ajax and WEB 2.0 design. You merely type in your room name and it will create the room, supply you with a link, and you can then chat away. I can see that this would be a great tool for those that want to hook up a chat on the fly.

I personally went with the "test" room name to check it out and well I ended up chatting it up with strangers for some time and from the number of folks that were in there at the time...I can only assume DIGG did it's job and informed many.

- "Make Chat Rooms On The Fly - (AJAX + Web 2.0)" @ DIGG

Been awhile...

Been quite awhile since my last post, but I am here today to say that I will be posting daily once again. So hold on to your socks as ctrl will be rockin' it out.

How much information is too much information when reporting flaws

I don't know, but that is an interesting dilemma. Whereas software companies want to do the responsible thing and let their customers know of a flaw, without disclosing the flaw itself, and provide a workaround until a patch is available, but it seems that there are a few people out there who take the workaround information and figure out what the flaw actually is. Outside of those that intend to do good with the exploit, pen testers and such, you still have that group of people that intend to do harm with an exploit. So this leaves what may have been an unnoticed flaw, until it was reported as such, a real security hazard for those that actually use said vulnerable software. Now they HAVE to do the workaround and the patch as soon as it is available, because X software company published in essence a "how to" expose' on it's own software.

It is a vicious circle this damn responsible disclosure, but I would take the software companies letting this information being known and speeding up the process of patching versus having something in the wild that is widely used but still an unknown hole.

Where do you stand on this debate?

- "MS Giving Exploit Writers Clues To Flaws" @ slashdot
- "Microsoft’s advisories giving clues to hackers" @ ZDNet blogs

Windows Media Plugin for Firefox

In reading the TechNet blog of "The Sean Blog" I found out that Port 25 has made a plug-in for Firefox that allows you to view Windows Media fiiles. Although I might add that I have not had an issue with this...don't know why...but it just hasn't been an issue...although I do think it is cool that there is a specific plug-in for those of you that do.

- "Windows Media now works on Firefox!" @ The Sean Blog
- "Windows Media Player Firefox Plugin - Download" @ Port 25

ON A SIDE NOTE...I DON'T HAVE ANY IDEA WHY MOST OF THE TECHNET BLOGS DON'T HAVE A DAMN "HOME" OPTION ON ANY OF THEIR PAGES. I WOULD ESTIMATE THAT ABOUT 90% OF THE PAGES I HAVE SEEN ARE LIKE THIS AND WHERE IT ISN'T THAT BAD TO JUST MODIFY THE LINK OR CLICK THE BANNER...YOU WOULD THINK THAT "USEABILITY" WOULD HAVE BEEN INCORPORATED INTO THIS SYSTEM BY ADDING A MENU. BOGGLES THE MIND, BUT LEAVE IT TO A SOFTWARE COMPANY TO LEAVE OUT THOSE SMALL DETAILS!

Don't forget...today is Oracle Patch day!

Today is patch Tuesday for Oracle admins and the like. Oracle will be releasing a critical Patch update today that will fix some 37 bugs in the following products:

* Oracle Database 10g Release 2, versions 10.2.0.2, 10.2.0.3
* Oracle Database 10g Release 1, versions 10.1.0.4, 10.1.0.5
* Oracle9i Database Release 2, versions 9.2.0.7, 9.2.0.8
* Oracle Secure Enterprise Search 10g Release 1, version 10.1.8
* Oracle Application Server 10g Release 3 (10.1.3), versions 10.1.3.0.0, 10.1.3.1.0, 10.1.3.2.0
* Oracle Application Server 10g Release 2 (10.1.2), versions 10.1.2.0.1 - 10.1.2.0.2, 10.1.2.1.0, 10.1.2.2.0
* Oracle Application Server 10g (9.0.4), version 9.0.4.3
* Oracle10g Collaboration Suite Release 1, version 10.1.2
* Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i, versions 11.5.7 - 11.5.10 CU2
* Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12, version 12.0.0
* Oracle Enterprise Manager 9i Release 2, versions 9.2.0.7, 9.2.0.8
* Oracle Enterprise Manager 9i, version 9.0.1.5
* Oracle PeopleSoft Enterprise PeopleTools versions 8.22, 8.47, 8.48
* Oracle PeopleSoft Enterprise Human Capital Management version 8.9
* JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Tools version 8.96
* JD Edwards OneWorld Tools SP23
* Oracle9i Database Release 1, versions 9.0.1.5, 9.0.1.5 FIPS
* Oracle9i Database Release 2, versions 9.2.0.5
* Oracle Database 10g Release 2, version 10.2.0.1

The following are things that are fixed in the various components of the above products:

Oracle Database
* Advanced Queuing
* Advanced Replication
* Authentication
* Change Data Capture (CDC)
* Core RDBMS
* Oracle Agent
* Oracle Instant Client
* Oracle Streams
* Oracle Text
* Oracle Workflow Cartridge
* Rules Manager, Expression Filter
* Ultra Search
* Upgrade/Downgrade

Oracle Application Server
* Oracle COREid Access
* Oracle Discoverer
* Oracle Portal
* Oracle Wireless
* Oracle Workflow Cartridge
* Oracle WebCenter Suite - Secure Enterprise Search

Oracle Collaboration Suite
* Oracle Workflow Cartridge fix
* 1 new Specific fix for OCS; no name

Oracle E-Business Suite
* 2 of these vulnerabilities may be remotely exploited without authentication; no other specifics, but "may be exploited over a network without the need for a username and password"
* Oracle Application Object Library
* Oracle Applications Manager
* Oracle Common Applications
* Oracle iProcurement
* Oracle iStore
* Oracle iSupport
* Oracle Report Manager
* Oracle Sales Online
* Oracle Trade Management
* Oracle Workflow Cartridge

Oracle Enterprise Manager
* 2 fixes; "both of which may be remotely exploitable without authentication, i.e. they may be exploited over a network without the need for a username and password."

Oracle PeopleSoft Enterprise PeopleTools
* 1 new security fix for PeopleSoft Enterprise Human Capital Management
* 1 new security fix for JD Edwards EnterpriseOne and JD Edwards OneWorld Tools
* JD Edwards HTML Server
* PeopleSoft Enterprise Human Capital Management
* PeopleTools

* All information comes from the following Oracle Security Bulletin: Oracle Critical Patch Update Pre-Release Announcement - April 2007

- Oracle Downloads @ Oracle
- Critical Patch Updates and Security Alerts @ Oracle

IT Professional Step-by-Step Guides for Vista

Just cruising the web and found myself on the MS forums...where I stumbled on these little helpful how-to's for Vista. I haven't read them all...but in scanning the Netsh commands for a wireless network...I can see where they can be handy. Check 'em out!

- "Windows Vista Step-by-Step Guides for IT Professionals" @ Microsoft

Death of XP!

Okay...I am going to go out on a limb here and say that maybe Paul Thurrott knew something the rest of us did not when we put out his comment about there being no Service Pack 3 for XP. If you are glassy eyed wondering WTF I am going on about...well read up here, "Service Pack wonders...when? and if ever?". Now onto what Paul might have known...it seems that Microsoft has let out of the bag that it will be discontinuing the sell of XP starting during the first quarter of 2008 and with that announcement it has left more than a few wondering if that will mean that Microsoft will also shift some dates around with it's "Service Pack Roadmap" and cut that road short, while putting Vista in the express lane.

Anyhow...read up on some of these links and share your thoughts...kinda sucks if you ask me...the least Microsoft can do is have a viable alternative rather than something that is less than viable from the standpoint of software and driver compatibility. Something that most importantly will not force one to update the majority of their software library or find alternatives that work with the Vista OS.

- "Windows XP to be Phased Out by Year's End Despite Strong Demand" @ OS News
- "Windows XP to be phased out by year's end despite customer demand" @ APC
- "Microsoft to Discontinue OEM sales of XP by the End of 2007" @ Daily Tech
- "Time is Running Out for Windows XP" @ Yahoo News
- "Time is Running Out for Windows XP" @ PC World
- "Windows XP execution date set" @ The Inquirer
- "Service Pack wonders...when? and if ever?" @ CTRL Zone Blog

Symantec issues a patch for it's Enterprise Security Manager...how many will do it?

Now...this is more of a wager post or is that a prediction of failure post...hrm? I am sure most remember the Time Warner screw-up!? If not, you can read up on one of my previous posts on the subject, "Geez talk about a slackin ass IT department...", in which it goes on to tell the tale of an IT department that didn't apply a patch from Symantec that was almost a year old and fell victim to a worm that exploited the very vulnerability that "should have" been patched. My guess is that some IT department in the future will not heed the warning today and let this patch fly on by and do a lot of finger pointing when it is eventually exploited on their network. So, don't be a bonehead and patch it now!

Well, now Symantec has found a vulnerability in it's ESM (Enterprise Security Manager) product that is susceptible to remote code execution. I am proud to say that Symantec found this in it's own testing and disclosed as such, which means a lot in this time when most would just sweep under the rug any vulnerabilities that may have been found under their own testing. Well done Symantec!

You can view the affected versions of ESM and get the patch on the Symantec link below, as well as read more on the vulnerability and related articles.

- "Symantec Enterprise Security Manager™ Signature Fix" @ Symantec
- "Symantec has closed critical hole in its Enterprise Security Manager" @ Heise Security
- "Symantec Patches 'High-Risk' Bug" @ Information Week
- "Geez talk about a slackin ass IT department..." @ CTRL Zone Blog

Peeps are jumping on the bandwagon and rightfully so!

Some may remember the article I wrote about the USBCell rechargeable battery, "Pretty cool battery...". Well, it turns out that Energizer is hopping on the USB rechargeable battery tech with it's own "Dock & Go" and "DUO Charger". I must admit that I actually like the fact that the market for this kind of product or technology is expanding to include the larger battery manufacturers, although USBCell is still the innovator IMO(In My Opinion).

I will include the links for this article after the Energizer pic posts of their two new products:


DUO Charger

DUO Charger

DUO Charger

Dock & Go

Dock & Go

Dock & Go

- "Pretty cool battery..." @ CTRL Zone Blog
- "STAY CHARGED FOR EVERY OCCASION WITH NEW CHARGER INNOVATIONS FROM ENERGIZER®" @ PWR New Media

AC troubles...DAMN and I really like their products!

For those of you that don't know...I am a huge Arctic Cooling fan...haha...fan! Anyhow...I have used AC CPU cooling exclusively for years, when I didn't think the CPU manufacture fan that comes in the retail box wasn't up to snuff. I even use their case fans...as it just seems they put out a quality product. Now...onto the story...it seems that there is a power struggle over at AC between the founders of this company. Turns out the CEO, Magnus Huber, got a controlling interest of the company recently and decided to clean house, which includes '86ing co-founder, Gebhard Scherrer.

I hope this has no effect on the quality of products I have come to expect from AC, if it survives this struggle at all. Anyhow...WORK IT OUT GUYS...think of the children...err...the customers.

- "Company Information" @ Arctic Cooling
- "Police visit Arctic Cooling offices in Hong Kong" @ The Inquirer

Vista and backup data!

I am sure at this point with Digg and a few other sources catching onto the article "The Vista Backups That You Can't Have" over at PC Pitstop that most have heard about this backup issue that exists in Vista. If not...here we go, if you own one of the Vista business versions (Ultimate, Business, or Enterprise) you have a utility known as "Shadow Copy" (a newer repackaged version of the "Volume Shadow Copy" technology used in XP to include user files), which allows you to restore a single file that you may have overwritten, accidentally deleted, or any other form of data loss/corruption. Sounds cool...the problem that some people are having is that...the key part of "Shadow Copy" is a tool known as "Previous Versions", which is included in all versions of Microsoft Vista, is backing up these changed files and you the user of those "Home" versions of Vista cannot restore or access this data without upgrading to Vista Ultimate for that "Shadow Copy" tool.

The biggest gripe is that if "Shadow Copy" isn't a part of the "HOME" versions, why then is "Previous Versions" still backing up this data? If half of the application is available then make the whole application available! If Microsoft insists on backing up this data regardless of the lack of access the user has to it, then we have an issue of a company holding YOUR data hostage and in my opinion...Microsoft has no right to duplicate MY data or to keep it in a form that I cannot access it. I am sure most will disagree on my proposed fix, but hey...I can take criticism. Microsoft needs to either add "Shadow Copy" to the "HOME" versions or it needs to stop these individual file backups, while retaining the Vista Restore functionality. From what I understand...Vista Restore and "Previous Versions" both utilize the "Shadow Copy" technology.

- "Shadow Copy" @ Microsoft
- "Recycle Bin not enough, Microsoft adds "Previous Versions" support on the file system level" @ ARS Technica (Old article...still applies)
- "Selected Scenarios for Maintaining Data Integrity with Windows Vista" @ Microsoft
- "Vista "Previous Versions" Feature" @ Realtime-Vista
- "Windows Vista "Time Warp": Understanding Vista's Backup and Restore Technologies" @ Channel9
- "Windows Vista File “Versioning” Feature a Security Threat" @ forever geek
- "Want Those Backed Up Files? You've Gotta Upgrade Vista" @ Gizmodo
- "All Your File Are Belong To Vista" @ Information Week
- "The Vista Backups That You Can't Have" @ PC Pitstop

This is the biggest WTF ever!!

OK...first let me say that I am about to quote an article, Firm's Personal Info Loss Just The Latest In A Proud Line Of Data Leaks @ Techdirt, and the odd part of that is...it will be a big quote. After the "BIG" quote...I will give my take. Now onto the "BIG" quote:

Another day, another data leak: a CD containing the personal information of 2.9 million Georgia residents has been lost by a contractor, potentially exposing them to identity theft. Even such a big leak is hardly notable these days, except for one factor -- the disk was lost by Affiliated Computer Services, a company that's been responsible for several other data leaks. An ACS computer got stolen in Denver last November, and on it was personal information of between 500,000 and 1.4 million people in Colorado. A few months earlier, a glitch on a student-loan web site run by ACS exposed the information of 21,000 students, while earlier in the year, credit-card data from seven years' worth of customers was stolen from a system run by ACS at the Denver airport. Rounding out the list -- or at least the list of ACS-related incidents that made it into the media -- is the theft of two of the company's laptops with data on tens of thousands of Motorola employees in May 2005. This company clearly has a problem with protecting personal information, but it doesn't appear that there are ever any repercussions to these losses. It just accepts whatever minimal fines, if any, it has to pay, and paying for some credit monitoring, as a cost of doing business. The fact that these problems keep happening to ACS reflect how seriously many companies take the threat of identity theft -- which is to say, not seriously at all. But perhaps more distressing is that with the company's track record, government officials don't seem to have any problem passing ACS personal information with little to no oversight.

Now if you didn't utter the words or even think the words..."WHAT THE F(*K!" after reading that...you are far more forgiving than me. How in the hell does this company stay in business with a track record like that. If my figures are correct in what we know, with the exclusion being that unnamed number in the 7 years of credit info and the tens of thousands number of the Motorola fiasco, they have subjected at least 4.3 million people's info to fraudulent activity or the potential of. I ask again...how in the hell do they stay in business? I can assume that their customers care less about the security of their clients than ACS does about the data they were supposed to protect. You can't tell me that there isn't another company that can provide security for this information, as ACS has apparently failed miserably at doing so. I can't see how any other company could do worse with people's private information. For all those people that use this company for security...FIND SOMEONE ELSE, IT ISN'T WORKING AT ACS! Here I thought that you had to be competent to do something like security...apparently not...with that I might have a new career!

The AVG Free Anti-Rootkit...

AVG has become a more popular brand it seems in the past months. I am aware that they have been around a while and have been offering free versions of their anti-virus and anti-spyware for a while as well. More recently they have seen a growth of people using this software as people migrated to Vista...who can beat free and Vista compliant all in one fail swoop. Well, now it seems they have added yet another free tool to their arsenal...in the form of an anti-rootkit. Unfortunately as of my last check on the AVG Anti-Rootkit page...the system requirements do not list this tool as Vista compliant. So, for now...only Windows 2000 and XP(32-bit)users will be able to take advantage of this new application/tool.

Rootkits are defined as the following via Wikipedia:

A rootkit is a set of software tools intended to conceal running processes, files or system data from the operating system. Rootkits have their origin in relatively benign applications, but in recent years have been used increasingly by malware to help intruders maintain access to systems while avoiding detection. Rootkits exist for a variety of operating systems, such as Linux, Solaris and versions of Microsoft Windows. Rootkits often modify parts of the operating system or install themselves as drivers or kernel modules.

- AVG Anti-Rootkit @ AVG