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Hardware Jokes
These jokes require delving into the computer's hardware and opening up the system unit case (remember that the unit must be unplugged, due to the extreme hazard of electrical shock,). For these jokes, it is best to have unobstructed access to a computer for which the case can be opened easily.
Because these jokes require having access to the computer's insides, they can obviously only be carried out when the intended victim is not around. You can try it while the intended victim is out of the room, but coming to work before everyone is an even better way to ensure the necessary privacy. Of course, you also need to be sufficiently familiar with computer hardware.
To pull this one off, first open the system unit case. Next, unscrew the screw holding the video card and pull the video card out of its connector slightly. The card only has to be pulled out a little - one or two millimeters of the upper connector part showing above the connector on either side is enough. Now, close the case again. A cursory inspection will not reveal anything wrong, but the computer will not boot. All the victim will get during attempts to boot the system will be a bit of beeping.
Date: 2009-06-23
[Read more] [Jokes]
CyD Careful Observer - Network Monitor 2010
CyD Careful Observer - Network Monitor 2010 is now available. The new version has a lot of features that will be useful to database administrators, web site owners and so on.
Now you can set any number of testers to one host. The older version allowed setting only one tester to each host. To configure two testers on one IP address you had to create two network items in the program. Now you have to create only one network item.
More information about new features may be found on the vendor WEB log. I recommend you to read the next record: New features of CyD Careful Observer - Network Monitor 2010
Date: 2009-05-25
[Read more] [Network]
XP Themes
Themes are stored in the drive:\WINDOWS\Resources\Themes folder. Open this folder and inspect its contents. At first, the folder may look the same as in the old Windows 9x - the same useless files with the theme extension and a bunch of useless folders.
The Luna folder contains all of the files necessary for the standard XP theme. Let's take a look at this. Whoa, what is this strange thing: luna.msstyles?! I don't remember seeing this extension in the old Windows. Let's take a closer look at it. The first thing I did the first time I saw this file was to examine its contents in Windows Commander (pressing the F3 key). The immediate thing that catches your eye is that the first two bytes of this file are MZ. This tells me that this file likely contains byte code like that in executable files. Looking further, we can see the magic message: "This program cannot be run in DOS mode." This means that the luna.msstyles file not only contains byte code, but is also executable, or, at least, that its structure is very similar to the executable file structure.
You already know that any executable or DLL file can contain resources, and you also know how to edit those resources. I was hoping that this file would also hold some resources, so I tried to open it with Borland Resource Workshop. I was deeply disappointed, because BRW simply issued a system error message, and terminated. The program's age does have some undesirable effects.
Date: 2009-05-04
[Read more] [Windows Resources]
Security and efficiency
Some programming books concentrate on presenting programming-related material and only give some brief optimization and security information in the end as an afterthought. Some books show how to calculate a factorial using recursive functions. I understand that it is an example only. But this is the wrong approach, because if a person acquires inefficient programming habits, a couple of short chapters will hardly undo the damage. Habits are usually difficult to get rid of, and, as one of my college teacher used to say, improperly acquired knowledge is worse than the lack of knowledge.
Once you have learned an inefficient but working programming technique, you will keep using it, believing that because it works it must be right. On the contrary, if you do not know how to do a certain programming task, you may ask someone and learn not only a working method but also an efficient way of doing it. The method quality depends on who you asked about the help. Even if you don't know how to solve a particular problem, and there is no one to ask, you could attempt to do it yourself and, in development process, learn not only what works but also what works best. I believe that all computer books have to describe efficient approaches and security coding only over the all book pages.
If you simply write code that does the job, you have taken regular programmer's approach. But if your code not only does the job but also does it faster more secure and more efficiently then you have taken the hacker's approach. So, the art of being a hacker consists of making code work as well as possible in as many aspects as possible.
Date: 2009-04-19
[Read more] [Security]
Editing Strings and Accelerators
The String section in a resource file is for the storage of ... strings! These can be various messages, names, or simply string lines used by a program. Select any resource in this section and switch into the editing mode (menu sequence Viewer/Edit Mode). Use resource 57 (in the dealer.exe file) as an example to examine source code that can be edited:
STRINGTABLE
{
901, "Dialer"
902, "Phone Dialer"
}
The string resource code starts with the keyword STRINGTABLE. It is followed by a pair of curly brackets, inside of which strings are defined as follows:
Number, "String"
Date: 2009-04-11
[Read more] [Windows Resources]
Two new reviews
I published two new reviews on the SoftwareHeap web site:
Date: 2009-04-01
[Read more] [WEB]
How to Avoid Virus Infection
This is a major sore point for many Internet users. Many people think that installing a good antivirus program will make their computer safe from being penetrated by malicious programs. To a great extent this is true, but no virus defense is more than 10-percent effective. Why is this so? It is very simple. Most antivirus programs cannot detect a new virus, even when they use heuristic analyses.
New viruses spread very rapidly and infect all computers that get in their way. The chances are nine out of 10 that, unless you have proper virus defenses installed, your computer will be infected by any new virus strain that hits it. Some time after the outbreak, Internet users update their antiviral bases and remove the virus from their computers. The chances of being infected by the same virus again become much lower, as the new data bases will likely detect it.
As it turns out, antivirus programs deal with infections, whereas we need a means to prevent infection occurring in the first place. A new virus may turn out to be especially malicious and destroy information before you have a chance to update your databases and neutralize it. In such a case, it will be too late to treat the infected computer.
Date: 2009-03-17
[Read more] [Security]
ASP.NET, PHP Development and Security
I have finished a new Web log about ASP.NET, PHP Development and Security. The blog is hosted on the Professional Web Development (www.profwebdev.com) web site.
Main topics of the blog are:
- PHP Development
- ASP.NET Development
- Security
Security is on every of my site. I fond of security and I think it is the most important in the Web. On the profwebdev.com web site I will talk about PHP and ASP.NET security. I have already published 4 articles about PHP. The articles describe basic information about development. Why PHP and ASP.NET? These languages are choice of mine :).
Date: 2009-03-17
[Read more] [WEB]
Review: IR8 Release Candidate
Two days ago I downloaded Internet Explorer 8. I had been resisting to installing the beta version for a long time. Two days ago I decided to try IE 8 RC. A browser is very important for me. The browser program is working the whole day. But the IE 7 works not stable. If the site is bad the program will crash.
Internet Explorer 8 complies with the WEB standards. Installing the programs gives me a new opportunity to test my WEB sites on the conformability. An IE 8 engine was changed significantly. It means that some WEB sites might be visualized incorrectly if the sites do not follow standards. I installed the new version and checked my WEB sites. There are no errors!! It means that I'm a great designer and great developer :). One of my web sites looks in IE 8 much better then in IE7.
The full version of this review you may read on Software Heap WEB site: Internet Explorer 8 Release Candidate 8.0 RC Review
Date: 2009-03-14
[Read more] [WEB]
Do not build your own code
I have written a new blog post for the Heapar Software web log: Buy code, not build your own. In the post I talk about the first chapter of the book I'm reading now: "Code Leader: Using People, Tools, and Processes to Build Successful Software" from Patrick Cauldwell. The author is a professional software developer with the big development experience in various companies. He worked in any size companies from small startups to very big corporations. He saw the IT world from a different sight. But it is not a topic of the post. The post topic is buying code.
The first chapter of the Code Leader book is named as Buy, Not Build. In this chapter Patrick encourages us, to not write our own code. Sound odd, doesn't it? Our employees do not hire us to write code. We are hired to solve business problems using IT technologies. In most cases you don't have to write code to solve problems you may buy third-party code and use it in your project.
Read full story at Heapar Software web log: Buy code, not build your own.
Date: 2009-03-10
[Read more] [Development]
The best
- SQL Ingection on www.newspaperads.com
- SQL Injection and PHP
- Critical SQL Injection (http://cshe.berkeley.edu/)
- Bevel.NET Source Code