Predictions for 2011

I may not be Nostradamus, but I have a couple of predictions for 2011...

1) Symbian OS, Microsoft Windows Mobile, HP Palm, and Blackberry will all try to regain market-share by releasing new version of their operating systems.  They'll fail.  The lead Apple and Android enjoy is too substantial.

2) Tablets will become the dominant personal computing platform towards the end of the year when the second generation tablets start hitting the market.

3) Security on mobile and tablet devices will become a real issue -- the limited bandwidth of mobile devices and the complete absence of security software on mobile devices makes mobile networks particularly vulnerable to a wide spectrum of security threats.

4) Accessories for tablets and mobile devices that foster "real" computing (e.g. keyboards and other similar input devices) are going to become an emerging market.  Even better, why not have a slide-out keyboard on tablets, just like on mobile phones?  (It makes sense, right?)

5) the really necessary and cutting-edge market will be for devices that allow people to interact with technology without a keyboard and mouse. (This is probably more like 2015-2018, but hey, as long as I've got my crystal ball out, why not look further?)

6) Microsoft will continue its trend of non-standard "standards", and in so-doing will seal the fate of their browser as a second-class internet access-device, like AOL, back in the day.

7) Net neutrality isn't going to happen -- the FCC, ICANN and every other regulatory body will capitulate to strong-arm of communism and capitalism.

8) Fox News (particularly Glenn Beck and Bill Orielly) will beat the "e-terrorism" drum and they will create a whole new vocabulary around "e-terrorism".  To those of us who know about such things, this will be hillarity!



We'll see how I did in a year.

Sexify Your Linux Desktop

I have been playing with beautifying my Linux desktop, and I think I've made pretty good progress, in large part thanks to three little apps: adeskbar, synapse, and Emerald Theme Engine.

aDeskBar provides me an OS X style "kicker" (as its called in KDE).  Its really light-weight, and easily customizable. 

Synapse is like KeyLaunch or Gnome-Do, both of which provide ready-access to apps via a quick-key.  Very useful stuff.  A simple press of Ctrl+Space and you can type any app in and it will launch.

And, then there's the Emerald Theme Engine, which is glorious and beautiful.  I am fond of it, in particular. 

To be frank, I have been using Linux for almost fifteen years now... and I will tell you, a great many of the applications I had encountered many moons ago have either disappeared or have matured into marvelous creations.  I'm fairly sure I have used aDeskBar back when it sucked, but neither Synapse or Emerald are known to me. 

So, its pretty cool to see Emerald in action -- its the epitome of theme engines.  In fact, it contains many different rendering engines.  Even better, most of the really awesome themes available from the various Gnome theme sites, are for Emerald.

Synapse is a rocking replacement for Gnome-do, which as near as I can tell, is the chief replacement for Gnome-Do.  Gnome-Do was basically an experiment, and was never developed to its full potential. 

Between Synapse, aDeskBar, and Emerald, I have achieved a right-sexy desk-top.

Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick) & VMware Workstation 7.1

My employer is a VMware partner and I've been a long-time VMware fan; I have ESXi on a white-box server at home, and run Workstation on my work laptop.  Since upgrading/installing Ubuntu 10.10, I've been dragging my feet about getting Workstation installed again, but this morning I fired it up and like always I had to hunt-down a patch to get the modules to build.  *sigh*

Fortunately, some kind soul has made a lovely patch available and has further made it very easy to install!  W00t!  I love the Open Source community.

So, my VMware Workstation is back up and rocking.  Hooray!

Native USB tether for Android Phones!

I've been a Linux nerd for many years, and today I discovered one of the most amazing hacks I have ever seen.  By "hack", I do not mean something cobbled together in a haphazzard fashion, but rather and impressive feat of skill.  This particular hack, by Shannon Van Wagner, allows you to natively tether your android phone in Ubuntu!  This is remarkable because of the diversity of pieces that had to be put together to accomplish the feat.

I am willing to bet that while some other hacks I've seen may have been more difficult, none required a broader base of knowledge, and as such this one takes the cake in my Ultimate Hack list.  I emailed Shannon to see if I could give him a tangible reward for his hard work.

Kick-ass Android Apps

As more and more of my friends switch to Android-based phones, I find myself keeping a list of "must have" apps for the Android.  Since I've been going to the trouble of maintaining it, I figured I might as well share it.  SO, here are my must-have apps for the Android (ones in bold are essentials):

• launcher pro -- desktop replacement, very cool features unavailable in the stock desktop.  This was the first app I loaded after I reset my phone to default.
• better keyboard -- replacement keyboard, much better predictive text suggestions and multiple entry modes.  This keyboard is MUCH more forgiving than the stock one.  It also has themes, if you're stupid like that.
• task manager (by Adao Team) -- kills unnecessary apps (like amazon music store?!?  wtf!)  without this, your battery life will suck more than a Thai donkey show.  Make sure of two things: 1) that you mark your essential apps as ignored, and 2) that the thing actually is running -- out of the box it will kill itself.
• xScope Browser -- this is hands-down the fastest web-browser I've seen for Android, and it doesn't skimp on the features.  If you've got a sub-ghz processor, you'll find this to be your best bet for surfing.
• no lock -- prevents Exchange policies from locking your phone (if you don't have an exchange account setup that requires screen lock policies, don't bother with this one.)
• shop savvy -- product barcode scanner with internet shopping built-in!  WOW, this one is sweet.  you can do wishlists and the like.
• thinking place -- mind mapping/brainstorming app, I use this one quite a lot.
• lastpass -- password manager (if you aren't already using this on your desktop, you absolutely MUST, its the coolest thing since sliced bread.)
• meebo -- instant messaging that can be used anywhere (web, mobile, etc.)
• sysmonitor -- runs in your notification area and gives you instant access to system resources without clicking through menus.  I really like this one.
• where -- like the yellow pages, white pages, and google maps smashed together with citysearch.com very cool, very handy.
• dropbox -- like dropbox on your PC, allows you to sync from your dropbox acct.
• file manager -- browse your SD card, handy.  Totally optional though because xScope also has a file browser built-in.
• beam reader -- the PDF viewer that isn't complete shit.  It actually works.
• Old Android Agenda  -- widgets for viewing your calendar without opening it, by far the best calendar widget available.
• Sense Analog 24-hour Clock -- best 24-hour desktop widget I've seen!

you'll find these apps already installed, but very useful:

• power center -- manage services like wifi, gps, screen brightness and background data sync with toggles on the power center.  Very VERY useful.
• settings -- duh
• market -- to find the goodness

beyond apps, there are a couple of things that you need to orient yourself to to really maximize your android device.

1. multiple desktops are a means to organize information.  Some phones call these "scenes".  The crux of it is, if you're like me, you'll find organizing your desktops by purpose to be the most efficient way of finding what you're looking for.  I have desktops for: "weather and travel", "main page" (clock & agenda), "contacts", and "settings".
2. in launcher pro, use the bottom launcher buttons to dock your mail, sms, and other common apps -- bonus: if you use the launcher pro icons for mail, phone, sms, gtalk or gmail, you'll see notifications about how many new messages you have. YAY!
3. if you find you're accidentally dialing random peeps because of lag in the device, get "call confirm" from the market.  The Eris is a bit gutless (not unmanageably so, just a little), and this was a constant frustration for me before I got call confirm.

pyScout - threaded port scanner with heuristic protocol identification

In 2007, while attending a training event in Chicago, NYC, or Washington D.C., (my memory is fuzzy as to which), I began to learn Python.  I needed a project, and since I'd always wanted to tinker with the inner-workings of a port-scanner, I decided to write one in Python.  While this may not be the most novel utility to code, it afforded me the chance to learn Python and scratch a curious itch I'd always had.  As I began work on this simple port scanner, the thought occurred to me to incorporate something most other port scanners don't do: application/protocol/service identification.  Seemed like a good idea at the time.  There were a couple of others out there, but none that really incorporated both a high-speed port scanner and protocol identification.  SO, I decided to write such a beast.  Thus, pyScout was born.

As I began working on a pen-test for a client today, I was dusting off the old pyScout 0.0.3 code, and I realized that the C&C components were largely broken, but not badly.  I made a couple of minor changes and decided to put it up on Google Code so that others might benefit from the project.  If you'd like to browse the repository, you can, or you could check it out from SVN and use it.

If anyone would like to contribute to pyScout, feel free to drop me an e-mail or reply to this post.

Poor-man's Bells

One of the things the Queen and I have been trying to do is get everyone on the same schedule and to have a family routine around that schedule... I stole a page from the monastic play-book and setup bells to ring at 0900, 1200, 1500, 1800 and 2100.  I had tried to find a simple little program that would let me do this, but there were none that didn't either cost $20USD or suck emensely, so I cooked-up a quick little batch file I run on our media-center PC:

@echo off
net use t: \\lnx-dc1\shared
t:\bin\nircmd.exe mutesysvolume 0
t:\bin\nircmd.exe setsysvolume 32768
"C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe" --qt-start-minimized --no-repeat t:\sounds\bells.wav vlc://quit
net use t: /delete /y

So, all I do is have this little script execute via the Windows Task Scheduler at the desired times, and it works like a champ!

My thought was that the 0900 bell would be our official "start of the day" bell, the 1200 bell would be lunch time, 1500 would be mid-day, and 1800 is dinner.  At 2100, its time to head for bed.  One could easily use this method to create school bells for their home-school (to mark breaks, and such) or to mark the passage of the Liturgical Hours, etc...  And, its totally free.  I used NirCmd and VLC as well as a WAV of bells I found on-line.

python: XML-RPC over SSL

For quite some time I have been looking at writing a simple management agent that is cross-platform, extensible and secure.  My primary interest is that there are often times where I would like a means of performing some task on a remote system, without the necessity of actually connecting to those systems.  My thinking on this little project really got ratcheted into high-gear when I was studying for one of my recent certifications, wherein I was studying the architecture of an enterprise management platform.

For my part, I have the framework of the server in place, and will be fleshing-out the bits to transport and execute arbitrary plugins/modules and configurations.  Once that's done, the sky is basically the limit.

LastPass

If you haven't switched over to LastPass, you need to, and NOW.  This is the coolest password manager I've ever seen.

vSphere on Windows 7

Whew! Running the vSphere client on Windows 7 was getting to be a bit of a dire need... got it sorted with some help from the interwebs.