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Showing posts with the label mac

Admin hint.

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#1 Admin hint for the day. Keep a list of mac addresses for the network interfaces., Reason I say this is that people will invariably want to use their own equipment on your network i .e. using your bandwidth among other things. Usually if you only use a standard type of network interface, you can go to the dhcp server and see the nonstandard nic mac address stick out like a sore thumb allowing you to pursue the matter further. If there are no oddball mac addresses, you can also compare all network connects against the existing database. If a nic mac address does not match, your off to investigate. You could exclude the non-standard interfaces, but on a public network that is not always practical. If something nefarious was definitely going on, we would shut down the port at the switch. But then they would know you are on to them. Takes judgment. #2 #Microsoft #Windows   Have seen several articles about ow MSAdmins are balking about hav...
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Update/upgrade now!

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Please keep your systems up to date!    For linux depending on the distro: $ sudo apt-get update; sud apt-get upgrade $ sudo yum update; sudo yum, upgrade $ sudo pacman -Syu etc etc
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Google chart example.

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Google chart example: #! /bin/bash TEMP=$(mktemp -t chart.XXXXX) QUERY1=36 QUERY2=64 cat > $TEMP <<EOF <html> <head> <!--Load the AJAX API--> <script type="text/javascript" src="https://www.google.com/jsapi"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> // Load the Visualization API and the piechart package. google.load('visualization', '1.0', {'packages':['corechart']}); // Set a callback to run when the Google Visualization API is loaded. google.setOnLoadCallback(drawChart); // Callback that creates and populates a data table, // instantiates the pie chart, passes in the data and // draws it. function drawChart() { // Create the data table. var data = new google.visualization.DataTable(); data.addColumn('string', 'Title'); data.addColumn('number', 'Value...
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Your firewall died and all the stores are closed.

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Your router/firewall died and all the stores are closed. What do you do? What do you do?  Time to go to the old parts bin and resurrect some parts. One unique idea about this set up is that instead of using an old fashioned hard drive, we well be using a compact flash card as the drive. For three reasons we do this. First is to cut down on the noise. A quiet pc is an ignored pc. Secondly, we want to cut down on the heat in the machine.  Cooler parts should last longer. And the lastly, to reduce the electricity consumption till you can get a replacement unit if you decide to get one. What is a firewall again. It is a set of hardware and software that insulates your home network from the internet. Just as a firewall is used to keep a fire from spreading, the network firewall is expected to keep your local area network secure to a degree. Nothing is perfect. You can get all kinds of units to protect your network. The network modem in most cases will not protect you. You...
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Your local network telephone book.

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We need a way to know what device (i.e. computer) is what and or who. That is why we need an internet telephone book. The internet is in some ways still is like a telephone network. You can key in the phone number of someone to call or you can use the phone book to look up their phone number. The internet is sort of the same, but now the directory assistance is built in so to speak. The internet uses an internet protocol address instead of a phone number, to identify which computer is which, The Google internet protocol address is: 173.194.64.106 in this case. Computer directory assistance: $ nslookup www.google.com Server:        x.x.x.1 Address:    x.x.x.1#xx Non-authoritative answer: www.google.com    canonical name = www.l.google.com. Name:    www.l.google.com Address: 173.194.64.147 Name:    www.l.google.com Address: 173.194.64.105 Name:    www.l.google.com...
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Put that old PPC Mac back to work.

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Does Apple no longer want to support your good old Apple Macintosh? The machine is still good, but it pretty much sits in the corner?  Well if you are open to new options, you can put that old system back to work with more up to date software than the old OS/X. Enter Mint PPC which is a linux distribution. Linux is a cousin to the BSD operating system that OS/X is based on. You can get native BSD for the ppc mac also.  Very user friendly, though you might have to learn at least a little bit new. You can even update the desktop so it looks like the traditional desktop. Had some old Macs myself that have since gone to a better place. I ran Ubuntu and Debian Linux on G3's quite well. In fact, you can get what is known as a live cd and try Linux without even installing it. Check it out! For more information see: http://mintppc.org/ http://www.debian.org/ports/powerpc/ https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Architectures/PowerPC https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PowerPC
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How to check for—and get rid of—a Mac Flashback infection

Update: Allegedly Apple allegedly now has a fix available. How to check for—and get rid of—a Mac Flashback infection http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2012/04/how-to-check-forand-get-rid-ofa-mac-flashback-infection.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss   Also see: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1517
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Command line freedom.

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More and more computers are going back to the command line. This is being done so that it takes less resources to run that system. It also makes it easier to have what is known as virtual machines all running on one piece of hardware, thereby saving money. That includes Microsoft products such as their server. Yes, they will have a product that runs without MSWindows. Just like the old DOS machines. With Linux, BSD, and etc have been doing this all along. Two invaluable tools are DVTM (a command line window manager and SCREEN (a command line connection or session  detacher/reattach). With SCREEN you can free yourself of that ssh or rlogin session and then reattach to the session later from the same or another computer. For details see: http://www.instructables.com/id/Linux-screen-play/ . With DVTM you can have multiple windows or more than one usable prompt at a time. You could be working on your favorite  spreadsheet doing important reports while watching an...
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What's in your wallet (i mean computer)?

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What happens when computer people get together much like old car talk. What's in you machine? You want to say more than I don's know. The newest devices such as the touchpads, some netbooks, and etc. today are pretty much unfortunately throwaways. As for desktop computers,  at least for a while you can upgrade them. It is very useful to know what equipment and and in some cases what software is on the inside. For insurance purposes, you would be well advised to have such a list tucked away in a safe deposit box or where ever. So I went on a little research expedition to find out what might be used to find out what is in my computer. OS/X: (textedit to view) You can go to the system profiler and output a text list of the hardware. More info at: http://www.intego.com/services/systemProfiler.html and http://macosx.com/forums/howto-faqs/26204-howto-list-your-installed-applications.html Microsoft windows: (notepad to view) A script for older systems: http://richardspowe...
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