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Unprotected Machines Attacked in Four Minutes!

A scary USA Today article detailing how fast unsecured machines on the net are attacked and what happened to their test machines during that time. A very interesting/scary read. Kevin Mitnick was involved in this test. Here's a nice taste of the content, one of the machines was attacked roughly once every 11 seconds!

Behold the Power of Fark!

ABC News picked up a story about Kenny Rogers' bodyguard beating up a bunch of people at a book signing gone crazy. Turns out, it was all fake and ABC News didn't check their sources. Here's MSNBC's report making sure everyone knows ABC News screwed up.

Dust Collection System

Here's a neat dust collection system that surrounds your shop with hoses to hook up to your shopvac (shopvac not included). You can also walk around with a flexible shopvac hose to clean up your work surfaces. Mount the shopvac outside your work area and you've got a fairly quiet dust collection system. Hmmm....

"Why I chose Debian..."

Here's a brief editorial from Noel at Root-Prompt on Why I chose Debian (the "I" is not me even though I would choose Debian as my desktop distro if I fully switched to Linux, it's already on my server). He touches on some good points.

Build a Linux Filesystem in a File

Here's an interesting article detailing how to build a Linux filesystem in an ordinary file. This will let you test out different filesystems like ext2, ext3, reiserfs, etc without dedicating a whole device (or partition).

Free Technology Text Books

Check out this link for free tech books. They're e-books, but if it's something that interests you, it may be worth it.

Create a XP SP2 Unattended Install CD

Create an XP Pro SP2 Unattended Installation CD

AutoGK 1.79 Beta Released

len0x released AutoGK 1.79 Beta, go get you some.

Sweet SFF Fileserver

Mashie (one of the most talented case-modders around) makes himself a filserver with style. Introducing: Udat. A terabyte of SATA storage in a hot-swappable RAID-5 array. The web page gives some nice background information on the process. My favorite was the "plier attack" on the sound ports!

Raimi remaking Evil Dead?!?!

Bloody-Disgusting.com has an article saying it's "official" that director Sam Raimi is remaking the 1981 horror cult classic film Evil Dead.

I want this book!

I want Knoppix Hacks. Amazon says it's $19.77. 'Nuff said. :)

This one would be nice too, but it's a little more expensive...

World's Largest Digital Photo

How about a 2.5 Gigapixel photo? No, not megapixel, GIGApixel. Printed out at 300dpi, it's be 22 feet by 9 feet in size. Which is frickin' huge. There's a nice flash-based interface to the world's largest digital photo that lets you pan and zoom around. I was able to easily read a car's license plate from what appears to be quite a distance away.

Anybody for a really hard game of "Where's Waldo?"

That 7 seconds between shots was unfortunate for this guy...

StrongBad

I never really checked out the StrongBad site before, the couple of times I looked at it I had the sound turned way down (or off) and it looked pretty lame. I listened to one this morning and cracked up. There is some serious flash animation talent behind that site. Check it out (with sound).

How Spammers Operate

Very interesting article covering the recent conviction of Jeremy Jaynes, one of America's most successful spammers. The article details how the spammer made millions by sending 10 million emails a day from 16 high speed lines, the bandwitdh typically found in a 1,000 employee company.

Half Life 2 Available (but not for Steam?!?!)

Seems Best Buy is selling Half Life 2 (boxed version) right now, but according to this article people who bought HL2 via Steam expecting to get the absolute first-jump on the game are screwed. Vivendi is claiming "it's not released yet". All Valve has to do is turn on their authentication servers and Steam users will be in business but Vivendi has claimed they will be in breach of contract if they do it. I hope everyone passes on their thoughts to Vivendi over this one. What a load of crap...

SSH User Identities

SecurityFocus.com has an article entitled "SSH User Identities" that covers alternatives to entering a manual password for each ssh connection you use.

Unix/Linux for Dummies

New to Unix or Linux? Never tried it? I like to suggest people see what is out there beyond the world of Redmond. Adrian's Rojak Pot (a website, not sure why it's named that) has post the Unix For Dummies Guide! It seems to be a decent intro to command line commands and directory structure. If you take out all the ads, the article could've fit on one page though...

Hotmail Inbox Upgrade

I finally got my Hotmail inbox expanded to 250MB. It only took Microsoft 5 months to act on their word...

The Series 24 (for cell phones?)

In what appeared to be the first arrangement of its kind, Twentieth Century Fox said Wednesday it would create a unique series of one-minute dramas based on its hit show "24" exclusively for a new high-speed wireless service being offered by Vodafone PLC, the world's biggest cell phone company.

Build an Xbox Linux Cluster

Anandtech has an interesting article on creating a Linux cluster with Xboxes. It covers the advantages and disadvantages of using Xboxes for desktop and distributed computing tasks.

Keep An Eye on your Linux System

LinuxPlanet has a very useful article on what commands to use to keep an eye on your Linux system. How to tell what services are running and what connections are made. Useful info on netstat and ps.

XBMC Support for Kai Evo VII

XboxMediaCenter has just updated its SourceForge CVS - and support for XLink Kai has been massively improved. Amongst other features, we have got voice working (using the excellent Avalaunch port of SPEEX for the XBox). XBox <--> XBox and XBox <--> PC chatting works really nicely, and you can chat in 'groups'.

XBMC now supports private arenas, creating arenas, avatars, invites and lots of other KaiUI features. XBMC is also your friend if you intend to use a Linux-router like the WRT54G to run your Kai Engine - you could get a really nice setup, with XBMC and kaid - so no computer would be needed :) Look at these nice pictures, then read on:
Xbox-Scene
More Pictures: 02 - 03 - 04"

AutoGK 1.75 Beta Released

VERSION HISTORY
1.75 beta

- fixed bug when AutoGK puts itself in the loop after the first pass (again)

Download it here.

Sorry Everybody...

It seems that some people really felt the need to say "Sorry Everybody" over the results of the recent election. Take a gander through the gallery. Makes you realize there's not a very big difference between winning by 51% and losing by 49%.

Halo 2 Released!

Halo 2 is finally released! Let the games begin!

FireFox 1.0 Released

Download FireFox 1.0 (Final) here.

According to its home page, Firefox empowers you to browse faster, more safely, and more efficiently than with any other browser.

I still find Opera to be a more comfortable environment, but FireFox is a close 2nd. FireFox blows away Internet Explorer in features, but Opera still seems quicker and more polished. FireFox does correctly render some pages Opera has problems with, but this just changes my pecking order. Primary browser: Opera, if that doesn't work, FireFox, if that doesn't work, reevaluate whether I need to view the page at all, and as a last resort use Internet Explorer.

Acrobots!

ThinkGeek.com is selling cool little desk toys by the name of Acrobots.

"Articulated, stackable, and very artistic, Acrobots feature crystal clear round heads, magnets in their hands and feet, flexible joines, and the ability to contort into hundreds of shapes. Click here for some action photos.

Fixing Video Game Systems

The "Video Games Show" website has a comprehensive article on how to fix problems with video game systems. It even covers most popular vintage systems as well. Good article to bookmark and keep around for the day you need it...

"format c:" vs "rm -Rf /"

hohle.net has a funny article comparing Windows' "format c:" command with Linux's "rm -Rf /" command to see which is the most likely to hose your machine with a single command.  The results are interesting (and a little unexpected).

It's almost like someone reviewing Russian Roulette. You think you know exactly how it will work, but you're usually too scared to try because it's not something you can recover from (painlessly at least).

AutoGK 1.73 Beta Released

Head on over here to get the newest version.

VERSION HISTORY
1.73 beta

- more invalid input/output names is checked to avoid problems with DGIndex CLI
- fixed bug when AutoGK gets into infinite loop redoing first pass
- resolution is properly adjusted when redoing first pass
- .sharpmatrix hidden options now affects > 1CD rips as well

10 things China does better than America

An interesting list of the ten uses of technology in China that outdoes us in the United States.

Return of the Jedi Changes

In the final part 3 of this series, the difference between the original and current version of Return of the Jedi are compared.

SSH Host Key Protection

Here's an excellent article on ssh host key protection that goes into pretty good detail on what is actually happening when you use ssh to connect to a remote host. This is part 1 of 3.

The "screen" Command

I've been using the screen command lately and have come to really love it. If you've ever used a text terminal session on a machine and wish you could pick it up later (possibly from another location), then the screen command is the answer to your wishes. When you first run screen, you will wonder what it does because you end up right back at the command line prompt. Go ahead and do some work. Now CTRL-A C and you'll see another prompt. You didn't lose your earlier prompt, you just opened a new "screen". You can have up to 10 of these going at once. You can even realtime output commands such as top running on one. Type CTRL-A 0 to go back to screen 0. Can't remember which screens you have open? Type CTRL-A " for a list. Done with your session for now? Type CTRL-A D to detach it. Now you can disconnect completely from the machine, drive to (or from) work, log in again, and issue the command screen -d -r and you'll pick up right where you left off. Done again? Simply detach it with CTRL-A D. I've had single sessions last for days, having been detached and reattached between multiple terminals. Just man screen to see all the possible commands/options.