Freesource at last! Freesource at last! Thank God almighty.

My complaint for today is how much you have to go through to get any kind of software from Microsoft. Many are familiar with the hoops that we are all trained to jump through without question when it comes to installing new software. Hell, now days most new PCs come with so much preloaded or trial software you only have about 70% of your hard drive free. If you hate this like I do download PC DeCrapifier from www.majorgeeks.com and it will solve many of your problems involving viruses or unwanted guests. Many tiger team type people use ports designated for ‘updates’ on some of your trial software to get inside your computer.

If you are not familiar with free source, or open source, it is defined as ‘open source describes a broad general type of software license that makes source code available to the general public with relaxed or non-existent copyright restrictions.’ Many products are open source software like Mozilla Firefox, Apache HTTP Server, Python, Linux. These products tend to be just as good or exceed their counterparts.

Why is it you ask that open source is better? Well, it is usually because it permits the user to use, edit and change the software to their own needs. These changes then can be submitted back to help improve the over all product, and it is often developed in a public and collaborative manner. When you combine disgruntle users of Internet Explorer with Open Source Software (OSS) you get a product like Mozilla Firefox. OSS is the end product of what consumers want in software but will not usually get from a big corporation.

The open source movement is catching steam with the growing popularity of Firefox and OpenOffice.org. The state of Massachusetts even went to the lengths of getting rid of any non-open source software on their computers. This is smart move on their part when it is incredibly cheaper and just as efficient to use OSS. http://news.cnet.com/Massachusetts-moves-ahead-sans-Microsoft/2100-1012_3-5878869.html

So I will leave you with a few thoughts. If you are looking to free up some of your CPU or RAM then switch to OSS. My recommendations for you are to get rid of Norton or McAfee they won’t protect you anyways. That is who the hackers gun for anyways the big dawgs. Instead uninstall it and install Antivir Guard. For your document editing needs pay a visit to www.openoffice.org/ . When you find your computer dragging a bit install ‘Advanced Windows Care V2 Personal’ it will give me piece of mind that something is being done to prevent unwanted guests. Last, but not least, if you still use Internet Explorer and you get Spam and viruses it is your own fault. Please, if you do nothing at least switch to Mozilla Firefox.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_software

www.majorgeeks.com

www.iobit.com

In the Beginning God Created Binary Code.

My fascination with computers and all things tech started when a friend of my dads helped us build a desktop. It was put together with parts from a computer swap meet in downtown Dallas. I remember walking around this parking lot at like six o’clock in the morning trying to get the good deals before the crowds started to arrive. My dad’s friend, Walter, was a Technician with Compaq, and he taught me what all the parts of a computer do. I remember thinking how silly it was that there was a part called a Motherboard. The first computer had a Intel 486DX2 processor. At the time it was 66 MHz, and I thought I was pretty bad ass for having a computer that could run Duke Nukem and Oregon Trail. Later that year I upgraded my CPU to a Pentium which allowed me to play my all-time favorite game, Age of Empires.

From then on I was always trying to find ways to tweak the computer I had and eventually learning the dark ways of hacking. Let me begin by saying not all hackers are bad. My fascination in learning hacking grew out of boredom combined with overly conservative parents. I love my parents, but they believed everything James Dobson said was straight from Jesus himself which led to me missing out on a lot of really neat experiences. My first challenge was to get on my dad’s computer which had Internet access and a BIOS password. So, the first password hack was me getting lucky because he used his anniversary date as the password. Once he found out I knew, I had to get smarter. I had done my homework and learned about key loggers and default BIOS passwords built into the motherboards. My dad’s was a Phoenix Motherboard, so its default was ‘Phoenix.’ Go figure. My parents thought I was using it to look up “bad” things that Mr. Dobson warned all parents on his radio show that their teenage boys would do. I could care less about these “bad” things he talked about. I was growing up during a time of huge Internet expansion and wanted a way to learn more about how to expand my computer knowledge. I think my parents, whether through admitting defeat in the Tech world to me or learning to trust me, eventually got my own Internet connection. It is funny because most people take that for granted now. Armed with a 56k modem, I began to try and learn how to get into computer networks, a skill that would pay off later. My dad and I set up our own home network, which was a big deal considering most people had only one computer much less three. We had our own bona fide server, again bought with parts at the swap meet.

Skip forward two years, and I am in my Basics of Computer class in high school. The class was nothing more than typing and what does a mouse do. Out of boredom I began to see if I could get into the Novell NetWare system they ran. I was good enough to get in but not to go undetected. The system administrator knew someone had gotten in but not exactly who. This is where the unfortunate part of being raised in a small school comes back to haunt you. They knew it could only be one of three people who knew enough about computers to do this, me being one of them. After being interrogated by a computer illiterate principal, the system admin. asked me if it was me. He was willing to overlook what I did in exchange for my help in finding holes in the system. Thus began an interesting journey of seminars and classes on how to break into a computer network and keep it secure. I told you not all hackers are bad. I would later get paid by the school to help assemble new computers, troubleshoot ID 10 T errors from teachers, and various other network tasks.

My new project is to keep learning more Python and to teach what little I know to my new protege, slymc09. I think they will make a worthy adversary some day. We are both using hackthissite.org to hone our network security skills. My hopes of one day owning my own business and keeping stupid identity thefts out is being helped by completing the missions on hackthissite.org.

http://www.freelabs.com/~whitis/security/backdoor.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentium

http://www.hackthissite.org/