h4k.com

Ask.com is a search engine that has a new function called “AskEraser” which deletes your search history from their servers within hours of searching. Some search engines keep the data indefinitely or for an undisclosed amount of time. For example, Google keeps your searches indefinitely and only makes them anonymous after 18-24 months (according to the official Google blog here). Unfortunately “anonymous” search engine data processing has been found to be vulnerable for being able to determine individual users as seen with the AOL searches data set release.

To enable AskEraser go http://www.ask.com then click on the word “AskEraser” in the upper right corner. A window will appear and click “Turn On AskEraser”. In the upper right corner where it says “AskEraser” it will now say “AskEraser > On | Off” with “On” being highlighted.

It is important to also use something like Adblock because Ask.com uses Google AdWords so Google is still getting information about your searches.

OS X has many options that can be used when the system is turned on. Start holding the keys down when the computer turns on, about the same time the startup noise occurs. Hold the keys until the progress indicator appears. The following commands can be used to help troubleshoot or upgrade an Apple computer.

• Press X during startup – Force Mac OS X startup
• Press Option-Command-Shift-Delete during startup – Bypass primary startup volume and seek a different startup volume (such as a CD or external disk)
• Press C during startup – Start up from a CD that has a system folder
• Press N during startup – Attempt to start up from a compatible network server (NetBoot)
• Press T during startup – Start up in FireWire Target Disk mode
• Press Shift during startup – Start up in Safe Boot mode and temporarily disable login items and non-essential kernel extension files (Mac OS X 10.2 and later)
• Press Command-V during startup – Start up in Verbose mode
• Press Command-S during startup – Start up in Single-User mode

OS X keyboard shortcuts for once the operating system has been loaded can be found here:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=75459

When viewing a web site it can tell what web browser it is being viewed with, amongst lots of other data. Some web sites put up restrictions on accessing content based on what web browser is being used. These restrictions are occasionally used because the web site does not work with that specific web browser but sometimes the restriction is superficial and unnecessary. This can be easily bypassed with User Agent Switcher. If you come across a site that does not like Firefox simply install this tool, go to Tools –> User Agent Switcher and set the referrer to a new web browser then refresh the web page.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/59

By default the extension only comes with three different user agents. Save the file below then import it into the extension to add many new options.

http://h4k.com/files/UserAgentStrings.xml

Screengrab! is an extension for Firefox that can save a web page as a single image. After installing it right click on the web page and select ScreenGrab! then Save and then choose an option. It offers the options to save the complete page or frame, save the visible portion, or save the selected area. A very handy tool for getting a quick copy of a web page.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1146

Foxit Reader is a lightweight, fast and free PDF viewer for Windows. Reading PDF files in Adobe Acrobat Reader can often be slow and create a large drain on system resources whereas Foxit is small and quick loading.

http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php

VMware Server is a virtualization application that is used to create and run virtual computers. It offers some benefits over VirtualBox OSE such as better networking options like bridged networking and the option to divide the virtual hard drive into multiple files. Unfortunately it is not open source software and does require a registration for a free license number. Versions are available for Linux and Windows.

Setting up VMWare Server on Ubuntu 7.10:

Download VMWare Server:
http://www.vmware.com/download/server/

Get a free registration number:
http://register.vmware.com/content/registration.html

It is currently possible to keep your email address private by giving an invalid email address because the registration number is displayed on the screen after you enter in the information and is not emailed to the given address.

Installing VMware Server in Ubuntu from the terminal:

Make sure the proper build environment is available:

sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-’uname -r’
sudo apt-get install xinetd

Change to the directory where VMware was saved and unarchive the tar.gz file:

tar -xvzf VMware-server-*.tar.gz

Open the newly created directory:

cd vmware-server-distrib

Run the installation script:

sudo ./vmware-install.pl

Accept all the defaults presented by pressing the ENTER key.

VMware Server Console can now be accessed by going to Applications –> System Tools. To access it from a command line type “vmware”

Leaving an account logged in to a computer allows anyone who walks up to the computer to act as the currently logged on user. This can be quickly mitigated by locking the computer screen with keyboard commands. To access the computer after locking the screen the current users’ password will need to be entered. The following keys need to be pressed simultaneously.

Ubuntu:
Ctrl + Alt + L

OS X:
No default keyboard command available. Alternative solution: go to Preferences –> Security –> check the box for “Require password to wake this computer from sleep or screen saver. Next, go to Preferences –> Expose and set a screen corner to start the screen saver. I have found the bottom right corner to be the quickest because you can slide your finger down and across the touchpad while walking away to enable it.

There is a way described here to set up a keyboard command but it requires that the Keychain Access icon remain the leftmost icon on the menu bar, creating a custom keyboard command and then pressing two different sets of keyboard commands to lock the screen.

Windows:
Windows Key + L

LinuxSecurity.com is a news site with many links to interesting articles on Linux security and improving computer and network security with Linux. It is updated frequently and also has a good How-To section.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com

Tabbrowser Preferences is an extension for Firefox that expands the capabilities of tabbed browsing by creating new features such as load a new tab with the browser homepage and opening links in a new tab using the middle click button. After installation all new tab options are listed under “Preferences” in Firefox.

https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/158

Media codecs are used to decipher and display media streams and files. With the following applications you can expand the capabilities of Quicktime in OS X to view and listen to all of the major (and even some minor) types of media files on the Internet.

Perian – referred to as the swiss-army knife of Quicktime.
http://perian.org/

Windows Media Components for Quicktime – needed to play video and audio that has been created using Microsofts proprietary codec.
http://www.microsoft.com/…/wmcomponents.mspx

VLC – a more powerful, open source alternative to Quicktime. Also available for Linux and Windows.
http://www.videolan.org/