When you work with Computer Forensic, the first thing you notice is if the data is compromised. You will face all kind of situation: since a disaster recovery, or a simple damage data recovering in several types of devices: hard drives, floppy disks, USB drives, memory cards.
In this article I’ll talk about a recovery tool for Windows, since Unix users don’t have problems like this frequently, given the Unix systems’ nature.
Active@ File Recovery
You can download it here. Since it’s a demo tool, there are a few limitations such as you just can recover 65kb file size.
Lab
1.Download and install Active@ File Recovery in your computer.
2.Search for deleted files
3.Recover a file (until 65kb)
4.Verify the file integrity.
As you can see, this file recovery software is really easy to use, intuitive and fast. It works with the following file systems: FAT, FAT32 and NTFS.
You can use it to recover IDE, SATA, SATA II and SCSI Hard Drives, floppy disks and also CompactFlash, SmartMedia, Sony MemoryStick, USB Hard Drive and USB Flash Memory.
You will find the following features:
File Recovery – Recovers deleted files and folders from an emptied recycle bin, as a result of bypassing the Recycle Bin (for example when using [Shift]+[Delete]), files that have been lost by formatting, damaged by virus attack, a malicious program, or a power failure.
Partition Recovery – Data recovery after disk partitions loss / format / damage (just with Active@ File Recovery Professional).
Photos Recovery – Recovers photos, pictures deleted from flash media, or lost due to formatting a memory card.
Unbootable System Recovery – Active@ File Recovery Enterprise version installation package contains a CD/DVD ISO image that you can burn to get a bootable CD or DVD with a lightweight version of Windows Vista (c) running in RAM (WinPE 2.0).
It’s a valuable tool for home users, enterprises and professionals: the full licensed software starts at U$29,95 for the Standard version.
Now you can build your own robot! Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute, USA, has released its recipes to build robots as home.
Using TeRK (Telepresence Robot Kit), you can find all pieces you need and even adapt others parts to do your own robot.
Right now, they have 4 recipes:
Qwerkbot Classic (The Qwerkbot Classic is the simplest mobile robot that you can build using a Qwerk processor. Utilizing the holes in the Qwerk enclosure as mount points for two motors and a caster the Qwerkbot recipe literally turns your Qwerk into a robot.)
Qwerkbot+ (The Qwerkbot+ adds a pan-tilt head to allow independent motion of the camera and robot base. This version is somewhat more challenging to build than the Qwerkbot Classic.)
AC Power (The AC power Adapter allows you to power a QweRK from an ordinary AC wall outlet.)
Flower (The Flower is a stationary robot with seven degrees of freedom. Once you have built the Flower, you can use TeRK’s Robot Universal Remote and Flower Power software to program its movements. You can program your Flower to rise or wilt and program the motions of its petals. Because the Flower is equipped with IR sensors on three of its petals, it can track objects moving in front of it. It can even catch a lightweight ball.)
While all others bots are for beginners, the Flowers is quite more complex and you can spend 10 hours building it.
But, how cute is that!
They also have softwares for controlling your TeRK robot, like this Flower Plower to program your Flower Robot.
Actually, the robot’s secret is the internal electronic controller Qwerk, a microcomputer using Linux to control all cameras, USB devices, engines and sensors. The robot’s sftware is Open Source and you can use virtually any computer language.
Oh, yes! There are bad news… Now, they are selling the kit just in US. By the way, the Flower Robot Total cost of parts is $725,00.
When Techie guys talk about backup, maybe you don’t know exactly what they are talking about. So, let me explain a bit about backup.
Backup is a copy you made from a device to another with recovering purposes, in case you have problems with your original files. That’s an essential procedure for those using computers and others digital devices, such as digital cameras and MP3 players. Nowadays, most known backup types are CR-ROM, DVD, HD and Magnetic Tapes.
All important Operational systems have tools to implement your backup, but, there are thousands of powerful softwares out there, to create and restore your data.
Here’s an excellent article explaining all types of backup, history, and what type of backup is the best for you.
The following graphic shows a Backup Time Line, covering the most important backup strategies in the history. (click in the picture to maximize it)
You will learn how Punch Card Backups are a Reference Point in Backup History, and why they were replaced by Magnetic Tapes and Tape Backup.
The article also feature Backup using hard-drives and floppy disks, until our times, when people are using flash drives, Blu-Ray and HD-DVD to keep their data safe.
The article is a time travel, and you will learn when network backups began to be used, and why online backups are growing so fast.
It’s a interesting article for techie and non-techie people.
You were there, just finishing your presentation for the company’s board next day. But, suddenly, the phone rung, and you w2ent to the next room to pick up the phone.
A few seconds later, you came back, just to realize that you baby pushed the Del key. With some many keys to push, he pushed just the Del Key! Worse, you use to configure your trash can to delete all files without warning.
Never happen to you? Well, the circumstances may vary, but we all had moments like this.
No, this is not a tragedy as you may think. There are a dozen of software out there to help you in situation like these.
One of them is Handy Recovery.
Handy Recovery is a data recovery software designed to recover deleted files , accidentally or not.
The program supports FAT 12/16/32, NTFS and NTFS 5 + EFS file systems.
You also can see the probability of successful recovery for each file.
You can can recover files from deleted and formatted partitions or create disk images for deferred recovery. It also features in-depth disk scanning for certain file types. File filtering by name, mask, date and size is available. You can recover the full branch of folders tree containing selected files and folders. With Handy Recovery you can browse the content of your disk like you do it in Windows Explorer. The only difference is that you see deleted files and folders along with the regular ones.
So, remember, try to be more careful when you’re thinking about to delete some file. And have a Data Recovery Software always at hand.
Nobody is happy with its computer because new stuff come out every day. Every time I want more I stop and think that in the next day I’ll feel the same way. But, what if I could have the dream desktop, what would it be?
To define how would it be I started by the thing I really hate:
Cables
Fan noise
Hi-res to squeeze more windows on the screen
Uncomfortable chairs
Mouse
Then, I thought on a powerful and silent computer, definitely multi-core, and thin… really thin. Monitors all around, no cables at all and a very comfortable seat (not chair) is essential. Mouse is useless and the keyboard should be the slimmest possible and almost silent.
Wireless
Cables are the worst thing on a desktop. Notebooks are so much better on that matter but still far too uncomfortable to use, always looking down. Wireless power is getting of being real closer but still far away from commercial applications but unfortunately still the only true way of getting away with all cables.
If you have a wireless power transmitter in your wall, all the parts of a desktop (box, monitors, speakers, keyboard) could benefit. Also, exempting the power cord from the wireless rule would still allow to exist half of the cables in a desktop.
The rest is very simple: wi-fi, bluetooth and infrared can take care of all data, from keyboards and speakers to monitors and 3D virtual goggles.
Thin as a notebook
Notebooks are quite good on holding everything in a very narrow space, but there are two main problems with the standard approach, and one derives from the other: they are always underpowered because it’s hard to keep powerful CPUs cool and quiet.
Having such desktop but choosing for a Pentium M is such a shame. Also, multi-processed / multi-core machines are standard nowadays, choosing for less than two processors is not an option, I would say something about 16 cores, either 4 quad-cores or 8 dual-cores, doesn’t matter. This also helps keeping the machine cooler because you’ll most of the time use less than 16 and the heat will be distributed and more easily dissipated.
Also, fans are too noisy. You can get less noisy fans, at lower RPMs, but their size is huge and won’t fit in a very slim desktop. One solution is water cooling, but that would add more cables and conflict with rule number one. Another solution is liquid gas (such as nitrogen) in a closed cycle but to be thin it would have to be very well planned.
Monitors? Mouse?
When thinking of monitors, I had the opportunity to work with multiple monitors and liked, but the trouble in setting them up (in your desk) when related to your keyboard is never perfect and you end up using one monitor much more than the other.
Also, high resolution (1600×1280 or higher) is pointless. It gives you the impression you can fit more things in your screen but you end up maximizing your browser and console window instead of fitting more consoles and browses. The multiple desktop setting on Unix solves almost all problems but one very specific: the quick glance.
For development it’d be good to have multiple sources listings open where you could search and browse separately but view altogether with the other sources. For design, having all tools on one screen and the image on the other is great as well as rendering on one screen and still editing on the other (a thing that multiple desktops doesn’t solve if it’s running full-screen rendering).
Also for games it’s very important to look at things without clicking the bloody hat-switch and waiting minutes to get to the point you want and when you go back your aircraft (or car) is completely out of track.
The best thing is 3D virtual goggles, with movement detection but with an additional setting: whenever you move your head it moves the desktop in the other way. On Unix you can have two resolutions, one for the real thing (monitor) and other for the desktop, which can be much higher. This is specially good when you have a virtual goggle and can look around your desktop.
It also fits perfectly to games and parallel coding, as well as design. You can have zoom in and out, focus on the window you’re looking at (ie. follow mouse focus) and if there is also an eye movement detection you can really abandon the mouse forever!
The keyboard
The keyboard is essential for it’s where your hand will be 100% of the time (we had just retired the mouse). A good support for your wrist and elbow is required but the noise and the touch is essential. Some notebook keyboards are very good in response and noise levels but they’re too compact. A wider keyboard, with the keys closer to each other and with a bit less noise would be perfect.
A support for the keyboard is also a good idea. I hate to force my arm to match the keyboard’s position, specially if I want a very comfortable seat to be in. This support should be a strong telescopic arm, with all degrees of freedom you might need and that could fit on your seat without being a pain when you want to get up for a tea.
Some may say that, in a so futuristic computer the keyboard is also redundant for one can use voice commands to type but I find it very annoying. I refuse to talk to a computer that won’t trully understand me. The day it really knows what I’m talking about and act intelligently on what I say I may start talking to them, before that, a keyboard is all I need.
Comfy seat
The seat (not chair) is one of the most important part of the whole desktop. Unlike notebooks, the desktop won’t move too much and you should stay with it in a real decent place. Because you’re wearing virtual goggles and you have no mouse and the keyboard is in a telescopic arm you can freely lay down in what position best suits you.
The seat should be made of real leather and the room temperature should be controlled (otherwise you’ll sweat to death) and there should have speakers near your ears besides the head rest. A support for your feet and legs is also very important and all of that should be controlled via software from your computer.
Because very good algorithms have been developed to do surround sound using only two speakers and if you have two very good quality speaker you don’t even need a sub-woofer, that’s more than you need to have really good sound quality.
You already know those Mac widgets and now Windows Vista widgets. But now we are living the “Web Widgets Fever”. Widgets are little pieces of dynamic content, and it has been spread through several sites and blogs.
Widgets has several functionalities, like marketing, show the weather, site statistics, and others.
Pros:
Well, it’s a clean, with no logo or ads and you have the option to remove the link for the iBegin homePage.
Cons:
Works only for USA and Canada.
For those security paranoids, yes, I also think it’s not a good idea share a script generated by another user in you website.
So, I have to recommend you to always check the widgets’ origin before use it, since download and install widgets is one of the most known methods to spread malware.
Disclosure: This review was sponsored.
Not always you have the opportunity to write a fresh new code. Sometimes you have to face a huge codebase, be it either one big monolithic code or thousands of small scripts and programs, it doesn’t matter, it’ll definitely be a nightmare. So, how to avoid stress and go through it with the fewest scratches possible?
It all depends on what you can do with the code…
If the last programmers were nice to you they have prepared test cases, documentation, doxygen comments, in-line comments, a wiki with all steps to compile, test and use the software and a plethora of resolved (and explained) problem-cases that can happen. I’m still to see that happening…
As Kernighan exposes in ;login: (apr 2006) writing tests should be the primary task of the programmer and not code. With existent codes, documentation should be the primary task instead of direct changes to the program.
If the program is documented already, your first task should read both the docs and the code, side by side but the case might probably be that you won’t understand properly. Nothing wrong with you, just that programmers tend to document what they don’t understand and fail to do so for what they do understand. But if you start changing old docs you might end up screwing everything so here’s a quick tip:
Copy the code to a temp area so you can play at will
Compile the code with your mind, read the code, understand from where all variables are coming, go backwards and check and add a comment before each line saying what each important line does
Group lines in domains and create a bigger comment. This is specially important for balls of mud where the whole code is in a single function
Check against the old docs and see if what it’s written is actually what’s happening. Documentation tend to be out of date very quickly
Steps
One side effect of documenting is that eventually you’ll understand the code better than the original coders. I explain. The original coders had one objective in mind: fix the bug. Most of the time and specially with balls of mud the fixes tend to be dirty, written as temporary and run forever. The original coder, most of the time, didn’t know how that bugfix fitted on the whole, he/she just knew it worked.
You, on the other hand, know the whole in a way no other coder had know before because you have documented it from start to finish and have the knowledge of what’s at stake on each change.
But that power have a problem: on the day you stop documenting you’ll be the “old coder” and stop understanding the code as a whole and start writing bad bugfixes yourself! So be diligent, be patient and most of all loyal to your grater purpose: to code better.
Back to the bug fixes… Once you find them you’ll notice that most of them are useless or redundant, or that lots of them can be replaced by a very small and simple shell script. Once you learnt all steps of a program you visualize the flow and it becomes very clear all shortcuts and optimizations available to you, and you have now the power to change it.
But after all those changes, a good chunk of the documentation is useless, specially those you made so, why bother? I tell you why, if you hadn’t documented in the first place you wouldn’t be able to optimize it that deep and throwing away most of your past documentation will (should) encourage you to document it again, in a higher level. Doing it you’ll see things that you couldn’t before (even when you had the whole system in your mind) because the system was not organized! That’s the next step!
Every time you document everything and see the whole system in your mind you visualize all optimizations available, this will force you to throw away old code and docs and redo again, which in turn, will come back to the same point but one step further.
The pure act of documenting allow you to optimize. Throwing away old docs allows you to go one step further.
Documents in tree
Instead of throwing away old docs might not be a good idea because people will not understand why you optimized that way and will probably go back to the original code once you’re off. Keep all documents, organize them in a tree and show only the high level docs at first, if one wants to know more it can go deeper in the tree to find out how it was and why you made it that way.
It’ll also help you to understand your own optimizations and change in the future when it makes no sense any more.
Wasting time
Some will argue you’re wasting time documenting when you could understand the code just by looking at it (use the source, luke) but that just isn’t true. People, as well as computer, have a short term and a long term memory and most codes won’t fit entirely on your short term memory (if they do, get a better job).
Navigating through your long term memory is expensive and will switch context on your short term memory and you’ll not be able to make connections properly. But if you have everything written in an organized structure it’ll be much easier for your brain (or any machine) to infer about the code.
It’s the same as testing, you may spend half of your project’s time doing the test cases but that could (and probably will) save you hundreds of hours (and probably your job) if something goes wrong, and it’s very likely to happen.
At last, writing test cases, documentation and proper code is not only part of your job, it’s part of your grater purpose in life: to code better. No job in the world is worth writing bad code, it’s like lying to keep the job… just don’t do it.
The raising risk of data thief is becoming a great concern for those who need to protect companies’ networks.
It’s so easy connect a portable mass storage device, such CDs, floppies, MP3 players, into a computer and download sensitive commercial information from the network, or even upload a virus and other malware to the company’s environment, that now the uncontrolled use of these devices are a major threat to network security.
The new software from GFI, EndPointScan, could be vital for companies that want to keep their data safe. You can scan and ensure the endpoint security in your network.
You can monitor:
floppy disk
CD/DVD Rom
Storage Devices
Printers
PDAs
Network adapters
Modems
Imaging Devices
Human Interface Devices and others
EndpoitScan scan for devices on the following ports:
USB
Firewire
PCMCIA
Bluetooth
SecureDigital
Serial and Parallel
Infra-red
Internal (floppy drives)
Endpoint is free, web-based, multi-threaded and compatible with existing network management tool such as Active Directory.
At the end, you will receive an easy to read report, just like this one:
At EndPointScan website, you can find a User Manual, Troubleshooting guide and valuable tips.
Too good to be true?
Yes, there are some cons:
It just works with Windows 2000, XP or 2003 as operating system
You need Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 or later, with Internet Security settings set to Medium
You need to download Active X
As an old and loyal GFI’s products user, I sincerely hope EndPointScan release a version for Linux/Firefox users soon.
Disclosure: This review was sponsored by GFI EndPointScan
When updating the nodes I have to download several times (N for N nodes) the same packages, so a good idea is to have a proxy that would do it for me once and all nodes get from the local copy. For that we have the good old squid.
On the Master node:
$ sudo apt-get install squid
Than edit the config file. It’s rather huge but search for acl localhost and add the line below:
Also, a good idea is to increase the max cache object from 4Mb to, say 400M because the idea is to cache deb packages and not webpages. You can also limit the global size of the cache (like 1Gb) so old packages will be deleted.
# Per object (400MB)
maximum_object_size 409600 KB
minimum_object_size 64 KB
# Global (1GB)
cache_dir ufs /var/spool/squid 1000 16 256
