Blog

Encrypting your swap, tmp, and per user's home directory on Fedora 9

Yousif — Sat, 24 May 2008 11:50:27 -0700

Brace yourself, this isn't going to be an easy task but I will dumb it down as much as possible :). As a general rule, ALWAYS BACKUP IMPORTANT FILES before attempting any of the steps below. A mistake could potentially ruin your data.

This guide uses LUKS which is included by default with Fedora 9

httpmirror - Mirror Linux distributions using http

Yousif — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 09:32:44 -0700

here is the deal...

You are at work. Your network admin uses restrictive firewall rules. You can't use rsync or ftp to create a local mirror of your favorite Linux distribution. Your only door to Linux mirrors is through http. What to do?

I took this as an opportunity to brush up on my rusty python scripting skills and cobbled together httpmirror.

httpmirror is a roughly made script that lets you mirror linux distributions. There are two main functionalities provided by httpmirror:

Internet Explorer 6 in Windows Vista (IE6) - part 1

Yousif — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 11:27:52 -0800

This is the first part of hopefully a multipart post that details the current progress in making Internet Explorer 6 run natively under Windows Vista.

A fundamental rule in web-development is insuring that the website/web-application you are developing renders correctly across various web browsers to cater for the largest possible range of prospective visitors. It is indeed rather frustrating and somewhat embarrassing when you present your website in its final form to your boss/customer/mom only to realize that the layout is all missed up due to browser rendering incompatibilities.

Using jigdo to download Ubuntu under Windows

Yousif — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 12:20:19 -0700

I was recently introduced to jigdo (IMHO the most powerful linux distribution download tool EVAR!). Unlike the traditional method of downloading a huge ISO file in one go, jigdo downloads parts of the CD image and then reassembles them locally in an ISO file. What makes jigdo special, however, is that you can use it to "update" a CD image. In other words, you will only have to download the updated files within the CD to compile an updated CD image, saving you time and precious bandwidth in the process.

A Prospective On Online Learning

Yousif — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 12:48:14 -0700

Whatever your circumstances, professional development through an online course/degree offers great advantages compared to traditional means of education. E-Learning takes advantage of the rich multimedia capabilities of the internet to deliver a much more accessible and perhaps even more appealing learning experience compared to traditional lecturer/student communication of knowledge. Moreover, learning in a media rich environment is especially beneficial to students who find it troublesome to keep their focus during lengthily two hour lectures.

Stealing Corporate Login Passwords

Yousif — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 15:12:00 -0700

Legal disclaimer: All the information and software contained in or linked from this page is for educational purposes only. It is illegal to use the information herein in real world situations without prior authorization from the individual users and the network administrator of your network. Tredosoft does not condone the use of this information and the linked software and shall not be held responsible for the (mis)use of this information and the linked software. This information and the linked software is available "As Is" and confers absolutely no rights whatsoever. If you do not agree leave this page immediately and do not download or use the linked software.

How to install TrueCrypt 4.3a on Fedora 7

Yousif — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 12:02:43 -0700

We are going to compile TrueCrypt from source so first grab TrueCrypt's source code.

Extract the source code and navigate to the Linux folder
tar xfz truecrypt-4.3a-source-code.tar.gz cd truecrypt-4.3a-source-code cd Linux
Truecrypt needs to compile a kernel module during the build process. Unfortunately the kernel headers included with Fedora 7 (in the kernel-devel package) are missing the dm.h header file which is needed for compiling the kernel module.

We need to download the source RPM for the kernel and install it. I am using the release version of Fedora 7 so the rpm command would be...

NTLM Authorization Proxy Server for Windows

Yousif — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 07:19:41 -0700

What is 'NTLM Authorization Proxy Server'?

'NTLM Authorization Proxy Server' (APS) is a proxy software that allows you to authenticate via an MS Proxy Server using the proprietary NTLM protocol. Since version 0.9.5 APS has an ability to behave as a standalone proxy server and authenticate http clients at web servers using NTLM method. It can change arbitrary values in your client's request header so that those requests will look like they were created by MS IE. It is written in Python v1.5.2 language and compiled to EXE with py2exe.

Main features:

Microsoft XNA Game Studio Express 1.0 released!

Yousif — Sun, 17 Dec 2006 08:01:44 -0800

XNA Game studio was released recently after nine months of community preview (public beta testing). Some of you might remember Managed DirectX and how easy it was to develop games using the .NET framework with it. Managed DirectX was a group of wrappers that enabled .NET programmers to interact with and use the advanced graphical capabilities of DirectX in Windows. Prior to Managed DirectX, .NET programmers used to directly P/Invoke into DirectX's DLLs and we all know how painful it is to do that especially to beginners.

After releasing Managed DirectX, Microsoft started developing Managed DirectX 2.0 -- a version with many improvements over the previous version of the framework. After starting public Beta testing of the 2.0 version, Microsoft decided that support and development will be ceased for it. Many felt betrayed after investing allot of time learning and developing programs that target the next version of Managed DirectX 2.0. However, immediately after this announcement, Microsoft announced the XNA framework.

Internet Explorer 7 running side by side with IE6. (standalone)

Yousif — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 13:40:26 -0700

If you already have Internet Explorer 7 installed you might be interested in Multiple-IE . An installer for the standalone versions of IE6, IE5.5, IE5, IE4 & IE3!

First I would like to apologize to those who tried the previously published steps and missed up their IE6. Running IE7s.exe should fix everything for you.