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Like the name suggests, Open Perl IDE is an open source, free Perl integrated development environment for Windows.

http://open-perl-ide.sourceforge.net/

When files are put online they are sometimes compressed to make the transfer of the file that much quicker and use less bandwidth or simply to put multiple files in a single file. RAR is a compression format that is sometimes used to do this. There are multiple tools available to extract the data or files from a RAR file. Due to the proprietary nature of the format there are free tools that are able to unarchive RAR files but not archive with RAR. If you need to archive files there are many other open, more popular non-proprietary formats available such as ZIP compression that should be used instead.

Linux: Unrar
In Ubuntu the default archive opener “File Roller” can extract RAR files. There is a free command line version available for Linux also.
Installation:

sudo apt-get install unrar

Usage:

unrar x filename.rar

Usage with a password protected file:

unrar -p x filename.rar

OS X: Unrar X
http://www.unrarx.com/

Windows: 7-Zip
http://www.7-zip.org/

Firebug is a handy web development or research tool that can be used to analyze each individual component of a web page. From the home page:

Firebug integrates with Firefox to put a wealth of development tools at your fingertips while you browse. You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1843

CHM (Compiled HTML Help) files can be natively read with Windows but not in Linux or OS X. Fortunately there are applications for both Linux and OS X that can read these files.

Linux: kchmviewer
http://www.kchmviewer.net/

Install:

sudo apt-get install kchmviewer

OS X: Chmox
http://chmox.sourceforge.net/

When working in Linux it is occasionally necessary to open a terminal window in a specific directory. The easiest way to do this is with the “nautilus-open-terminal” extension. After installing this it creates an additional option after right-clicking on a directory that says “Open in Terminal”. This will open up a new terminal window at the selected directory. This is only Linux operating systems that use the Gnome window manager such as Ubuntu.

Installation:

sudo apt-get install nautilus-open-terminal

Xubuntu is a smaller, lighter version of the Ubuntu linux operating system that uses the Xcfe window manager instead of Gnome. Xubuntu works especially well with older computers such as those with triple-digit megahertz processors. The user interface is simplified to make the most commonly used applications as easily accessible as possible.

After the initial installation of Xubuntu 7.10 and applying the latest updates on my test computer it only used 1.5 GB of hard drive space and 83.7 MB of memory when fully loaded.

If you are installing Xubuntu it is recommended to have the computer plugged in to the Internet so it can get the latest system updates. When I installed Xubuntu the computer was not plugged in to the Internet so it was not able to get the latest updates until I manually updated the settings. This can be done by going to Applications –> System –> Software Sources. Under the Ubuntu Software tab check the following:

• Canonical-supported Open Source software (main)
• Community-maintained Open Source software (universe)

Under the Updates tab check the following:

• Important security updates
• Recommended updates

Xubuntu can be booted as a live CD so that the operating system can be demoed before installation. Xubuntu can be downloaded at:

http://www.xubuntu.org/

The GParted Live CD is a bootable image of the popular and powerful GParted partition editor. Once the ISO has been written to a CD it boots into a minimal Linux distribution GUI with GParted and that is it. This is a great way to create or modify existing computer partitions because it loads into a minimalistic environment thereby creating less potential for interruptions during partition modifications. Avoiding interruptions is important because an error during partition modification can potentially make the current partitions inaccessible. It has a friendly and intuitive interface making it very easy to use (see the screenshots).

http://gparted-livecd.tuxfamily.org/

0xED is a free and powerful hex editor for OS X that is fast and lightweight. It has been designed in Cocoa for the full OS X look and feel.

Available from Apple here:
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/development_tools/0xed.html

Or the company home page here:
http://www.suavetech.com/0xed/0xed.html

Some web sites request an email address to register for something they are offering. If you don’t want to risk getting spam in your mailbox or never plan on visiting the site again then in some instances it is preferable to use a throw-away email address.

http://www.mailinator.com

If a web site requests an email address type in anystringhere@mailinator.com and replace anystringhere with any set of letters and numbers (ex: dfFx90sR7e2j@mailinator.com, me123@mailinator.com). To check the mailbox go to http://www.mailinator.com and in the “Check your inbox!” text box type in the new string of email address prior to the ampersand.

Warning: Anyone who goes to mailinator.com and types in a string that was used can check the email inbox. There is no way to prevent other people from seeing the contents of the mailbox which is why it s important to only send non-sensitive emails to these accounts. To achieve some basic level of security it is a good idea to use the auto-generated accounts that are listed at the top of the page by the “Check your inbox!” area. The are randomly created accounts that have a low possibility of being entered by chance from someone else who is trolling through accounts to find sensitive information.

Some web sites will not allow you to use mailinator.com email addresses so mailinator.com provides other throw-away email address domains to use as well. They can all be checked at mailinator.com:

• mailinator2.com
• sogetthis.com
• mailin8r.com
• mailinator.net
• spamherelots.com
• thisisnotmyrealemail.com

Schneier on Security an excellent blog covering technological and physical security. It is updated frequently and covers lots of modern topics and other breaking issues. On the site there are also a lot of links to his other works and article. Bruce Schneier is an expert cryptographer who has designed and co-designed multiple provably secure encryption algorithms and authored many books as well.

http://www.schneier.com/blog/

Bruce’s fame in the security world has also landed him a humorous set of parody facts.