Windows PowerShell is command-line scripting environment which uses the Microsoft .NET Common Language Runtime (CLR) and the .NET Framework. But unless you have Windows Server 2008 it doesn’t ship with Windows by default. You can however download it at www.microsoft.com/powershell. You will also need the .NET framework 2.0 if you don’t already have that installed.
Monthly Archives: July 2008
Windows .NET in C# Major – Web Interaction With Self Signed SSL Certs. Part 1
I am going to shift gears a bit, actually change cars entirely, and do a windows programming tutorial in Microsoft’s .NET environment using C#. Why? Because the world runs windows and in the World of Windows, the fastest method of development is through the .NET framework and the best language on that framework is, without a doubt, C#. I know. I took a poll. Stats never lie.
In this tutorial we are going to create a class to handle website interactions, giving us a simple way to post or get information from a web server, with or without an SSL cert and even a self signed one. Usually self signed certs present a problem since the cryptographic side tries to validate the authenticity of the cert, presenting problems. We will get around that.
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Google Gets Lively
Ultra mega powerhouse Google announced Lively, a ‘build your own avatar’ animated chat program, yesterday. It’s currently only available for Windows XP/Vista users who are running Firefox or internet exploder. With me being the ever inquisitive connoisseur, I had to check this out. The first thing that crossed my mind after setting up my avatar (which is not a quick process) was “this is Google’s answer to second life”. Another thing you notice right off the bat is it’s slow; very, very, terribly slow. But, hey, it’s still in beta, so you can’t really expect all that much from it just yet. The controls are a little awkward and the help pages seem to leave out basic things like walking around (a task that’s still baffling me); but man oh boy, I sure can body slam people. Google tacked on a ton of interactive animations: you can kick, hug, dance, ‘kung-fu’, and yes, even body slam other people – just to name a few. You can also build your own chat room and embed it into your site or blog. All in all it’s a pretty nifty chat setup, but again, it’s still in beta and most people would probably ditch it just for the load times.
Windows encryption.
Whether you travel with a laptop for business, or simply want to protect your data from prying eyes or hackers, encryption is quickly becoming a must for sensitive data. Fortunately Windows XP and Vista both offer encryption for files and directories.
1. First identify the folder you wish to encrypt.
2. Right click on that folder and then choose properties.
3. To the right of “Read-only” you should see a button labeled “Advanced…”. Click this button.
4. The fourth option down on this page should read “Encrypt contents to secure data”. Click the square white box next to this option to check mark it.
5. Click OK
6. Click Apply
7. Click OK to close after it has finished encrypting that folder.
Now if you need more protection then this, then you should consider one of the many full drive encryption softwares available. My personal favorite is CompuSec which also has a linux build!
Perl on Linux – Making a Daemon
One if the nice advantages to linux is the ability to create daemons relatively quickly and get them to do your brute and routine work for you. For this example, I am going to use perl to create the daemon, since perl is the glue that holds the bricks of linux together. Its regex functionality combined with fast and easy syntax makes it almost too easy to use for quick and dirty programming in the text based realm of linux. So without further adieu, the daemon:
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Partition madness!
So, you’ve found out the hard way that your ESP wasn’t quite correct when setting up those Linux partitions? Your root directory is almost full, while your home directory is almost empty (or vice-versa)? Thinking about reinstalling that machine? Not so fast! There are tools available to re-allocate partition space – GParted being my favorite. GParted is a free, open source tool to re-distribute disc space to new or existing partitions. You can get a bootable “live cd” here. Simply boot your server, or machine, off this disc and follow the basic setup instructions – the defaults are normally fine. Once GParted starts, you can remove allocated disc space from partitions that have too much space (by using the ‘move’ option) and give them to partitions that don’t have enough. It’s a very simple and easy to use interface. Once you remove some disc space from a partition, apply it, then select the partition you want the disc space to go to and add it there, then apply again. Reboot and you’re done. Depending on the size, type, etc of hard discs you’re using and how much space you’re moving around, it could take quite a while to complete. All in all it’s a very painless and easy way to reallocate partition space.