computoman

Ever wanted to know what is on your network graphically? There is a program that works on most platforms that support the java gui. Your best chance to document your home network. The program is jNetMap. The java version seems a lot more stable now. You can find it on sourceforge.net You can start up the the program very easily from the command line with (if you have java installed): $ java -jar jNetMap.jar or  C:\> java -jar jNetMap.jar The instructable: http://www.instructables.com/id/Map-your-network-visually/ has more information also. Once you run the software on your network and scan for devices, you can get a roadmap of what is there. What is really neat about it is, you can see what devices are up or down on the network and it makes trouble shooting easier. You can also see rogue devices on the network also that need to be investigated. You can use the mouse to move all the icons around to make the map more readable. You can even add notes to define wher...

Years ago before the internet, all communication was done over phone lines. You had to have a device that would allow your computing equipment to talk to each other such as a modem. Say a finance company employee would dial up the credit bureau computer, wait for a modem tone and then place the headset into what was known as an acoustic coupler (early version of a dumb modem aka modulator/demodulator unit).  Once connected the employee could type characters on a teletype device that was connected to the phone line for a name and password. Then to eventually get information about potential customers (i.e pull a credit bureau). The teletype machine had many fancy looking character keys on the keyboard. So that typing in the user name and password would seem very complicated. Computers only deal with ones and zeros. So the teletype machine had to translate when a key was pressed into a number that could be sent over the modem. At the time there was sort of a standard known as ASCII ...

Home media streaming devices are available everywhere from about fifty dollars to upwards of two hundred dollars. They all vary to which video services they support. Even then you may have to pay extra for some services up and above what you pay your internet service provider. Aka hidden costs. There are several shortcomings and advantages for all the units. This is really not a detailed comparison of the units, That changes so often, almost impossible to document. The first gripe I have about the media streaming devices is that you have to have an umbilical cord to the internet for the units to be usable. Even Roku requires a special application to be used for compatibility with the MythTV project.  MythTV is for the most part an open source computer based DVR. Maybe that is why AT&T now offers a free DVR (read the fine print) to combat such projects. If you have to have an umbilical  cord on the units then your use of it (i.e what you watch and etc is not private)...

If you want to get the older kids into tech or they want to get into tech, you might consider the MSP430 from Texas instruments. You can get almost seven of the MSP430 development kits for the price of just one Arduino. That is right you can get an MSP430 development board for just $4.30 shipped to you in the U.S.  You may want to play with it your self also. Ton's of online documentation. ( i.e. http://www.msp430launchpad.com/ ) Free development software is available for the most popular platforms also online (from T.I.). What is really interesting about this unit is that you can take some software source code for the Arduino and run it on the MSP430. Porting software to the Arduino should be easier if you plan to get the Arduino later. The unit even comes with extra dip chips for your use.The newer Arduino units are soldered in place so really can not do complete development on the unit alone.  Even if the kids grow tired of it, you have not invested a fortune in the un...

Voip or voice over IP is a method  for sending and receiving voice messages over a computer network. Come along way since the invention of the telephone by Alexander Graham Bell. Actually you can do a whole lot more than that. It can be very complicated to set up. Fortunately. there is what is known as a "live" cd that is pretty much pre-configured that only the few additional settings will get you up and running in a few minutes. it is known as CosmoPBX. You can get it and more information at: http://cosmopbx.sourceforge.net/ . You must be forewarned though that it is NOT SECURE , so do not use it in a production environment. In any case, a great tool for experimentation with use on an intranet or private network. With wifi access to your network, voip applications for your touchpads (android and etc) should connect to it fine. For our purposes, we booted it in a virtual machine.  You can use a web browser to connect to the server remotely to con...

 ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxDw-t3XWd0 ) How would you like to create programs without learning some fancy computer language per se. You could create games, animations, educational projects and much much more. MIT has created software called Scratch to do just that. In fact, educational institutions such as Harvard have used  it part of the curriculum for both computer and non-computer science majors to aid them in learning about computers. Here is a quick intro into Scratch. As you can see everything is drag and drop. No need to learn a epic set of commands to do even the most simplest things. Various video sites have a plethora of movies to watch to learn more about Scratch. You might need to learn some basic logic, but that is picked up easily enough.  You can see it is more user friendly that the traditional programing environment. Some traditional programmers use even a more simplistic environment. Even schools such as Harvard have integrated Scratch programmi...

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...

Malware threats are something to keep aware of. A good web page to keep up with the details is: http://www.hal-pc.org/alerts.php From their page: More reasons to uninstall Java A new attack that targets a security vulnerability in Oracle’s Java is spreading through the hacker underground.Fake Microsoft calls claiming your computer is infected. Below are some web sites on the subject. Trying to unmask the fake Microsoft support scammers! Microsoft Windows Support Call Scams: 7 Facts  Virus phone scam being run from call centres in India  Reveton malware still active. FBI Issues Ransom Malware Warning After Being "Inundated" By Victims The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) has issued an urgent warning about a major ransomware campaign after being "inundated" with complaints from U.S. consumers locked out of their PCs. By John E Dunn Sat, August 11, 2012 " The malware causing the damage is called Rev...

Preface:  One thing I forgot to mention in an earlier article is that you can also block sites from being accessed with the hosts file.  127.0.0.1 is the address for your local computer. So when an address of say www.facebook.com is associated with the local host and then accessed, it will bring you back to your local machine. Good way to keep people off unwanted sites. In fact, you can down load a list of sites that are generally not good for your system at: (you will have to modify it for your needs). http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.txt The main story:  According to http://www.h-online.com/security/news/item/Microsoft-s-security-software-modifies-HOSTS-file-1670927.html/ The biggest gripe is that if you have www.facebook.com and certain other sitess blocked, Microsoft will modify your hosts file to re-enable it. Here is an example before modification. What bothers a lot of people is that what gives Microsoft the right to modify such ...

Against my brothers best wishes, I bought a Pogoplug. Not sure if it is the one I asked for, but I am not complaining. Spent less than twenty dollars for it (plus shipping). Noticed the price went back up after I bought mine. Up and down so it goes. What are the specs supposed to be: What’s in the box Pogoplug Power cable Ethernet cable Quick start guide Limited warranty Power requirements 100-240V, 50/60HZ Drive connection USB 2.0 (4 ports) Drive Formats NTFS, FAT32, Mac OS Extended Journaled and non-Journaled (HFS+), EXT-2/EXT-3 Network connection Gigabit Ethernet After getting the unit, I logged into their site and immediately registered the unit and enabled ssh so I could log into it remotely. It actually uses a minimal nix type environment, so I felt real at home tooling around in the directories. You have to log in as root since there are no user accounts per se.  The first thing i did was run ifconfig to get the mac address for setting it...