Big Joe's Blog » Technology

How to Configure Your Router for Network Wide URL Logging

admin — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 16:02:00 +0000

Don’t be in the dark about who is visiting what web sites on your LAN. Use our two-prong approach to lock in on who is browsing what on your home network.

Source

Embed a TrueCrypt Volume In A Playable Video File

admin — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 19:52:25 +0000

Steganography is the process of hiding an encrypted message in some otherwise innocent looking format. Normally you can do this with image files, but now(via Lifehacker.com) you can take it to a whole new level by hiding an entire TrueCrypt volume in an mp4 video file.

First you need a suitable mp4 file to hide your TrueCrypt container. I used a video from the NASA website, just click “Download video” to get your mp4 file. Really any mp4 file will do, but try to find a file that matches the proportional size of the container you are going to create.

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Create the TrueCrypt Container

Once you have your video file, create a TrueCrypt container. Use the “Hidden Container” option, this generates a container-inside-a-container. Name it ‘innocuous-looking-file.mp4′ or something similar, and fill out the options regarding the volume size and passwords.

Merge The Video File And The Container

Now that you have your two files, the magic happens. Martin Fiedler, a software engineer from Germany, created a Python script named tcsteg.py that will now merge these two files together. Execute “python tcsteg.py Movie.mp4 NameOfTrueCryptVolume.mp4″ from a command line to make the merge.

The resulting file is very secure, and hard to detect:

There are only four ways to detect the presence of the hidden volume, all of which are unlikely to be checked even by a knowledgeable person. The easiest way to tell about the manipulation would be bitrate monitoring: If a player tells you that the stream has a bitrate of 1 Mbps, but by analyzing the file size, you can compute that it must have at least 5 Mbps, you can tell something is amiss. But who looks at bitrates this detailed? The only other ways would be (1) a sophisticated packet-by-packet analysis of the mdat data that would find out that from offset 65,536 on, there’s not only random-looking compressed data, but random-looking garbage; (2) checking for a repetition of the first 64k or mdat somewhere later in the file and (3) seeing that there’s much unused space in the mdat that isn’t referenced by any chunk offset table.

To remount the volume, just enter the mp4 as a TrueCrypt container and make sure to mark that there is a hidden volume along with the password.

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I tested out the process from beginning to end and it was very easy to do. Let us know if it works for you or if you have any questions about the process!

Real Steganography with TrueCrypt via KeyJ

NES cartridge repurposed as wireless router, exterior sticker and all

admin — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 14:05:03 +0000

This is cool. The Unconventional Hacker has gone above and beyond the call of duty with his latest hack job, the NES Cartridge Wireless Router. As the title implies, there’s an actual Belkin Wireless G router (the F5D7230-4, for those curious) shoved inside of an authentic NES game cartridge. Better still, the instructions to whip this up yourself are just a click away in the source link, giving you precisely zero reasons to continue using the horrifically unsightly WLAN router that you currently are. Oh, and if it sporadically disconnects, we’re hearing that a brief (albeit powerful) blow across the Ethernet jacks will fix things right up.

Bedol Water Clock Smiley Alarm: Powered by Water

admin — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 15:24:40 +0000

This is a cool device. Bedol What’s Next specializes in innovative design, and this clock fits that description–and it’s eco-friendly, as well. To power up the Water Clock Smiley Alarm, you just fill it with tap water. It starts running immediately. You’ll need to swap out the water every 12 weeks or so, but you won’t lose time when you do so, thanks to a built-in chip. It even features a daily and hourly alarm.

How does it work? The site says it converts ions in the water into clean energy. (I suspect tiny sea monkeys come to life when you add the water and keep things ticking, but that may not be correct.)

The new model ships in September; you can preorder one now for $39 at Bedol’s site.

Google Adds OCR for PDF Files and Images

admin — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 17:14:18 +0000

When you upload files to Google Docs, you’ll notice a new option that tells Google to convert the text from PDF and image files to Google Docs documents. The feature has been released last year as an experiment, so Google had enough time to improve the accuracy of the results.

Ei.cfg Removal Utility Lets You Use Any Product Key With Your Windows 7 Disc

bigjoe — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 19:36:30 +0000

Courtesy of lifehacker.com

Windows: Windows 7 install discs are edition-specific—if you’ve got a valid license key, you still need the right disc for installation. The ei.cfg Removal Utility, however, lets you create a new, universal installation ISO for Windows 7.

Hack: Windows 7 “System Launcher”

bigjoe — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 19:13:48 +0000

By way of on10.net

Mike Halsey just came up with an ingenious way to add system icons like the Control Panel, Recycle Bin, Devices and Printers, and more to the new Windows 7 taskbar, all while keeping them separate from the other icons already docked there.

Mike’s hack builds off of the WinVistaClub forum tip about how to add the quick launch toolbar back into Windows 7 . The end results of the hack look like this (click for image).

Here’s how you do it Click Here

Sumatra 1.0 is a Blazing Fast Replacement for Adobe Reader

bigjoe — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 19:52:41 +0000

courtesy of lifehacker.com

Windows only: The Sumatra PDF Viewer is a tiny, open-source, portable, and, most of all, lightning-quick replacement for the bloated Adobe Reader we’ve all learned to replace. It’s only a 1.2 MB download, so why not give it a try?

Sumatra opened every PDF we threw at it without any issues, along with a table of contents in the left pane if available. You can head into the Options to choose the default layout and zoom, or choose whether to have the sidebar display automatically. Want to copy text to the clipboard? Just hold down the Ctrl key and select the text with your mouse, then use Ctrl+C to copy it. There’s even a full set of hotkeys, including Gmail-style navigation. It’s not as full-featured as Reader or Foxit, but if all you are doing is reading PDFs, it’s definitely worth a look.

With giant hard drives and dirt-cheap memory these days, perhaps the biggest reason to switch to an alternative to Adobe Reader isn’t even the bloat anymore—it’s the non-stop security holes that seem to plague the popular reader, leaving you vulnerable to drive-by attacks. If Sumatra isn’t for you, at least check out one of the other five best PDF readers.

Sumatra is a free download for Windows only. If you plan to keep Adobe Reader installed, be sure to check out the manual for instructions on using Sumatra as your default viewer when reading PDFs from the web.

Sumatra [via Download Squad]

LockThis! Password Protects Your Open Programs

bigjoe — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 17:51:33 +0000

courtesy of lifehacker.com

Windows only: If you’ve ever wanted to keep a program safe from prying eyes but don’t want to close it, free utility LockThis! will let you easily protect any open program, so that un-minimizing it requires a password.

LockThis! is extremely easy to use—to lock an application, all you need to do is press Ctrl while minimizing the window that you want protected. It will ask you for your admin password (which by default is LockThis! but can be changed from the admin window), and then keep the window minimized until you want it open again.

You can use your admin password for all protected programs, set a separate password for all programs, or specify the password on a per-program basis as you minimize them. It’s up to you. It runs in the system tray, staying out of your way except to prompt for passwords—even if you try to open the admin window or exit LockThis!, it will prompt you for your admin password so no one can just shut it off.

LockThis! is a free download, Windows only.

LockThis! [via Life Rocks 2.0]

Xbox 360 Update Impressions – Twitter, Facebook, Last.FM, and More

bigjoe — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:32:08 +0000

I just loaded up my Xbox 360 recently only to discover some nice new additions to the Xbox Live service. The addition of Twitter, Facebook, Last.FM, and Zune Video marketplace adds a whole new dimension in having the Xbox 360 as an ultimate source of rich media in your living room. Listed below is my shared experience with these additions. Twitter and Facebook are displayed in the community section, where you currently also find the “Game with Fame” events. The Zune Marketplace is the first thing that pops up when you’re on the Music and Video section, and Last.fm is the second item listed in the music section. You can find the news feed at the end of the Inside Xbox section.

Twitter: As I’m not really a twitter addict, I chose to make this application my first choice when reviewing the new apps from the dashboard update. I love how the present Twitter in this space. Not only is it a stylized version of the front page, but it brings most of its useful functions to an easy to navigate area. It also runs as soon as you boot it, unlike Facebook and Last.fm, which requires you to download small applications to install. Your Twitter feed will update every minute or so, but it also allows you to manually update your tweets by pressing Y. All of the updates to twitter must be manually entered by the user (so no auto-spamming of your twitter feed). One disadvantage here is the Xbox 360’s twitter app’s inability to click on links. Because of the lack of a web browser, the twitter app doesn’t allow you to click on links. This is one of the main features of Twitter. Hopefully they can rig-a-ma-roll something here in the future. Also, there’s no notification of how many characters you have left when you’re typing out a tweet. This should be a simple software update fix, so hopefully Microsoft can get the ball rolling on this.

Facebook: Now on to Facebook. This was the 2^nd app I loaded from the Xbox 360. Overall, it’s a nice clean looking app. It allows for a great way to share pics from your photo album onto your TV. Even though the pictures are not as sharp as it would be on a regular computer, it’s a good alternative nonetheless. This app also allows you to post updates, and comment on other friend’s comments and/or updates. One of the few downsides of this app is its inability to access videos, apps or links from your Facebook feed or a friends Facebook feed. Because of the lack of a web browser, many key features like these suffer because of the lack of a web browser. I can only hope Microsoft comes up with a solution to this as I can see this becoming big turn off to the service.

Last.fm: Last.Fm is a nice little app for me. Not only do I love listening to steaming radio, but for a tailored music experience all from the Xbox Dashboard, there’s nothing better (until Pandora gets added of course). The service is just like Pandora where you would enter a list of favorite artists and create what they call ‘Stations”. The stations feature these favorite artists and similar sounding artists. When the songs play, you have the option of pulling up an information window, or you can let a slideshow of user-uploaded pics play. While you can’t play music outside of the program into games (which I hope changes soon), Last.fm on the Xbox 360 could be pretty useful as background music and visuals during a party or while doing chores. Still, it’s not quite as cool as Pandora, which has a more streamlined interface and the ability to pause tracks.

Zune & News: I’m not sure on this one. Although you can stream 1080p videos instantly, I don’t have a Zune to fully test this service with. The News feeds were buried in the Xbox Dashboard because, for now, there’s no interesting content for the service yet (aside from a few MSNBC news clips, as well as animated Dilbert and New Yorker comics). Overall, these were some good additions to the Xbox live service. I’m looking forward to more new compelling features and updates in the future.