Jimiz.net – Jim Becher on the web

For those of you who know me, you know my loves are God, Family, Technology and soccer.   This weekend the Premier League starts.  Living here in the US makes it hard as a soccer fan.  We have limited access to games and we don’t get to be part of the culture of soccer that is seen over-seas.

I spend a lot of time watching soccer and can’t wait for the thrill of the weekend games.  Go Man U and go Tottenham Spurs.

I’m in a fantasy league this year over at http://fantasy.premierleague.com

It sounds like Starbucks is starting to see an issue with people camping out all day at their stores and using it as their office.  I’m guessing these Laptop warriors are purchasing one drink and staying all day.

ARTICLE: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-20087817-71/has-starbucks-had-enough-of-laptop-loungers/?tag=TOCmoreStories.0

I’ve done my time in coffee shops and used it as an office but it’s normally a half-day event and I purchase items along the way.  Because I feel if I’m in a retail space, I am required to at least have a purchased item.

I find it interesting that Starbucks and other places don’t have a rule or unwritten rule that says you need to have a coffee to be using their wifi or camping out.    I think the idea of taking away power outlets is good from a tactical standpoint, but it is not the long term answer.

I can’t wait to see what other coffee shops do.

I’ve been commuting to work on my bike this last week. It has been great. The car was in the shop so I finally had a reason to commute. I’ve been planning on doing it but never was motivated enough to start the process. This last week I did not have a car so I had to. It turned out to be great. I even had after work meetings downtown.

Overall it was a great experience, and I will be doing it more in the upcoming weeks / months. I did learn a few items though. The major item is to be careful on 4lane streets without any bike lanes. Early morning they are clear and easy to ride, 5:00 PM is not a safe time.

I also learned that packing for work is an art. We don’t have showers at work so I took items to accommodate, but that meant packing it with me. Next time I’ll have items at work to use. Carrying a full backpack is a pain.

Here are some great commuter tips. http://www.commutebybike.com/2007/08/16/a-guide-to-a-simple-bike-commute/ After reading these, I had a few ah-ha moments.

I have two bikes:
A road bike : Fuji Roubaix http://www.fujibikes.com/bike/details/roubaix_3_0 I can’t say enough great things about this bike
A old Mountain bike: Schwinn S95 mountain bike that I modified for a commuter. Road tires and accessories.

I recommend also having a bike lock. I did not, so at my downtown meeting I had to risk the bike all alone. Overall, commuting on a bike is a great experience and exercise.

The us women’s soccer team is doing great. Tonight they beat France to head to the world cup finals. It was a great match to watch 3-1. I love to see the US do well in soccer. The prior game against Brazil was just amazing. Being a player down and then going the full overtime and extended time to tie the game.

Here is a great ESPN video of Wambach

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=6762694

I get all types of security questions from home users.  How do I secure my wireless so people can’t use it?  How can I make sure people can’t steal files on my computer?  How can I keep the kids from going to sites they are not suppose to be on?

For the last one, how to secure and block sites I recommend OpenDNS.  Not only does open dns allow you to speed up your surfing (more on that later). It also allows you to monitor, maintain, and block sites that are used from your network.

To utilize OpenDNS you need to set your router’s dns service to use OpenDNS. This is a fairly simple task if you know how to admin your home router. In most cases your router is a (netgear, linksys, or dlink device). OpenDNS has instructions for most versions. Once you add their Primary (208.67.222.222) and Secondary (208.67.220.220) ip address to your router you are almost done.

You then create an account at openDNS and setup your rules. I choose the moderate setting and then modified it to block adult content and removed Proxy / anonymous sites (since I use wifi-vpn.com)

customized Settings

With a simple DNS change on your router you can now block all types of sites and specific urls. Example, if you wanted to block some specific port site or other url (www.xxxsomething.com) you would add this to the open dns block list. One of my colleagues at work has blocked facebook when his kids did not meet the grades or rules.

Once you have set your rules / filters for OpenDNS you can now monitor what is being done on your network. OpenDNS has great reporting to show you how much traffic you have done and what domains people go to. Here is a sample of what people have gone to on our Family cottage wireless network.

Overall OpenDNS is a great tool for your home or business. It can block unwanted sites and also track usage and sites people should not go to.

I don’t often head over to youtube and just watch shows.  I typcically find a podcast or something that leads me to youtube.  But today, I was thinking of a song and just typed in the only few words I could remember and got it on youtube.  So, today I’m a youtube fan.

Here are a few of the random songs I picked. First the one that I could not remember.

HER Man by – Waylon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-UtT5kBjSk

Hank Done it this way – Waylon, johnny cash, Kris K, and Willie Nelson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnEtRUcKGwc (Kris throwing a whistle is great)

I am very pleased with my newer T410 laptop.  The only complaint I have found is the resolution.  It is set to 1280 x 800, which is not bad. It is a wide screen but not too high of a resolution.  I was used to a T61 with a 1680×1050 resolution WSXGA+.   It is amazing how you can miss that real estate.

When I started looking for a smaller laptop (14 or 13 inch), I was amazed that there were not that many high resolution machines to select from.  I was able to find a few T410′s with 1440 x 900 resolution but they tend to be a lot more expensive.  The T410s also had a higher resolution.

The question I have, is where have all the high resolution laptops gone? You can get a 15 inch or greater laptop with unreal resolution but the smaller (14 inch ) or less have limited resolution.   Is there a reason for this?

You can find this type of resolution on a laptop a few years old, but not too many new ones.  I’ve found it is difficult to get used to a smaller resolution, especially when using visual studio.  In fact I’ve been frustrated enough that I’ve been looking for any t410′s with 1440 resolution to purchase and sell my current one.

As I was looking at an old cell phone that my kids use a a toy, I have realized that I’ve owned a lot of mobile phones.   Here is a quick look in my phone history:

OKI 1300 series (Circa 1995) :  This was my first phone and my first cell phone.  I took my first job interview on this thing.  Back when 30 min of cell time cost you an arm and a leg.  (Thank goodness I got the low paying internship)

Motorola StarTAC (circa 1996-1997) :  First Flip phone I had.  Easy to use lived on one charge forever.  I think I even had more than 30 min of cell usage.

Nextel i1000 (circa 1999-2000):   I ended up switching to nextel to be connected to the team members I worked with.  At the time it sounded like a great concept, click to instant talk.  The issue was that the phones were huge, and the usage of 2way faded.  This was a pretty robust phone.  I dropped it a few too many times and it still continued to work.

Sony Ericsson T610 (circa 2003) : First smart phone.  If you can call a symbian os a smart phone.  This was the first phone I can remember actually really texting on and also getting email (That I was able to read) – I actually purchased my first bluetooth headset when I had this phone.  (WikiPedia t610)

Audiovox SMT5600 (circa 2004):  My first windows mobile phone, windows mobile 2003.  You could sync exchange and really read email.  it was the same small form factor and had a camera you could actually use.  I can remember that it was actually worth sending images from.  The rocker button on this phone eventually stopped working.  What  a great little phone.  Review from CNET

Cingular 2125 (Circa 2005): The audiovox broke and I replaced it with the Cingular version of the similar phone. If I remember correctly this one had better reception and the upgraded Windows OS. Not to mention the better resolution.   So you could now read 10 lines in the email instead of 8.  In the end this phone had an issue with the power button.   Review from PC mag.  My kids still use this phone as a play toy.  It even fires up still.

Samsung BlackJack (circa 2006):  This happens to be the only phone that I have owned with a full keyboard.   At the time everyone was hooked on crack berry’s and I really enjoyed windows mobile.  It came with windows mobile 5.  At the time Windows Mobile 6 came out.  I used a non-standard rom to upgrade to winMo6.  So I guess this was the first time I hacked a phone.  I also used internet tethering with this phone over 3g, and it was great on car rides to have laptop internet usage.  It had a roller / rocker on the side that you could scroll down a page.  This was a great feature on a phone with out a touch screen  This phone came with an extended battery to make it look huge… Cnet Review

iPhone 3G (circa 2009) :  My first iPhone – (blog post).  I still have this, it’s being used as a pandora juke box.  I really liked the switch from the Black jack.  IOS was and is very easy to use.  I did a jailbreak very early.

iPhone 4 (circa 2010):   new iPhone. This is a great device. My older iphone 3G became slower with each ios release.  This is a very good phone.  It has saved my butt a few times with th eapps.

At some point I got a few other phones.  Either as backup or for the wife.

Qualcomm QCP-2760 Cellular Phone (Circa 2005):  This was a phone to just make calls.  I think I actually sold the fist one back to the cell phone company after 2 years.   This was prior to craigslist.

Nokia – I purchased this as a pay as you go phone for the wife.  I used it as a backup phone in case that one broke.  Pop out the sim card and call away.

Overall that is a lot of phones, I may have actually missed a few.  What I have realized is that over the years the cell phone has become a very important part of my communication.    It is my main line for my business and also the best way to get ahold of me personally.  Back when I ran a datacenter it was also my pager.  Today, I find that it is the most frequent way I check email.

At one time if  a person had a cell phone they were seen as powerful or rich (1996). Over time, everyone has come to have cell phones.   At this in my life, I can’t imagine not having a cell phone.

I am always interested in how secure my devices are? Is my data safe, can people get to my info, am I at risk of giving out any private information. The iPhone /iPad has proven to be pretty secure if you take precautions. Lock your screen and keep sensitive data out of the clear. The one interesting item you can hack is the backup. There is a lot of information to be gathered and searched in your simple backup.  Many people don’t think twice about the sync that happens with your computer and iTunes. I’ll go into a little discussion on what can be seen.

Before I go too far into this  information, it should be noted that this can be corrected by encrypting your backups.   The process to encrypt your backup is a simple check box in iTunes.  You can do this by connecting your iphone / ipad and selecting summary -> options -> encrypt iPhone backup.

Now that you have secured any future information let’s look at the wealth of informaiton that is now residing on your computer from your previous backups.  To find your backups on a windows machine navigate to :

(Windows 7 or vista) - C:\Users\{your username}\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\

(Windows XP) - C:\Documents and Settings\{your username}\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup

Once in the directory you will see your backup sets.  Select one to look at.    First we will start with the info.plist file.  You can open this file with any text editor (xml formated file).  This file contains the overall information regarding the ios device:

• Device Phone number
• Device name
• Device GUID
• ICC-ID: Integrated Circuit Card ID serial number of the SIM card
• Serial number of the device
• and Much more

You can see in the screen capture above that this device name is “jimizphone”.

I know at this point you are thinking why is this stuff important.  Well after some research and some reading I was able to find out what some of those files contained.  Thanks to team over at hrgeeks in their great post here is some definitions of the files.  These files are all .mddata files that can be viewed using a SQLite browser.:

• Call Log: ff1324e6b949111b2fb449ecddb50c89c3699a78
• SMS (TEXT) Log: 3d0d7e5fb2ce288813306e4d4636395e047a3d28
• Notes Application : 740b7eaf93d6ea5d305e88bb349c8e9643f48c3b
• Contact List: 31bb7ba8914766d4ba40d6dfb6113c8b614be442
• Voice Mail List: 992df473bbb9e132f4b3b6e4d33f72171e97bc7a
• Calendar: 2041457d5fe04d39d0ab481178355df6781e6858

Let’s review one of the files.  I choose to look at the SMS log.  This would be the most damaging file if someone could review what I have said.   It could also be the target file for people looking for information (ex-wife, girlfriend, or business competitor).  Using SQLite browser I did a select statement on the file “select * from messages”  it returns records of text messages from the phone.

You can see from the image, that a record of all text messages was saved.  I have not verified if the deleted items are saved but the information is clear enough.  Your iPhone  backup file contains in clear text your SMS text messages.  It has the date, phone, message, and time stamp that can be searched.

Opening the contact list quickly allowed me to look at names and numbers that were stored on the phone.  This could be dangerous for people who don’t want that information shared.   A person would not need physical access to their phone, only access to their computer.

Armed with file name information you can also get other non-phone related information that may be stored by applications.

Facebook friend list – 6639cb6a02f32e0203851f25465ffb89ca8ae3fa

I did a quick check, and I was able to see all my facebook friends information (cell phone, email are hashed) but names and contact are available.  This is interesting in that you can gather information outside of the phone that could be used against you.

So with a little information and a simple tool you can get a lot of information from an iPhone / iPad backup.

To view the email accounts accessed or setup on the phone you can view this file in a text view application:

• Email Account: 5fd03a33c2a31106503589573045150c740721dd
• Safari History: 1d6740792a2b845f4c1e6220c43906d7f0afe8ab
• Safari Searches: bd38afa30b5a43c146db02a46ee11d82cdc817fe

I use Filezilla as my main FTP client. It is a wonderful tool for ftp, ftps, scp (sftp) and other transfer protocols. I am getting a new laptop and needed to transfer / backup my settings. I have a lot of sites stored and did not want to go looking for all the username and password information.

Filezilla allows you to backup your information and transfer it to a new system. To do this you need to:
1. Open Filezilla
2. File | Export

3. select (export site manager entries and export settings)
4. Save the XML file to your hard drive.

This backup contains all your site manager information. It also stores your password in the clear. If you look at the XML file you can see the element has your passwords. This is not a safe thing, for those of use who are security conscious. I am no-longer storing my passwords in filezilla and will be prompted when using ftp or sftp. As much as I like filezilla, I’ve started looking for an alternative. One option I’ve read about is to use a password storage tool like “keypass” to use with filezilla I will have to try this.

If anyone has suggestions please let me know.

So today I updated my iPhone to 4.3.2 and Jailbroke it again.   I always get asked why I jailbreak.  The simple answer is because I like to hack devices.  The more to the point reasons are the cool customizations.  The business reason is simple, MyWi it allows me to make the device a wifi hotspot and always have internet where ever I go.

I used the redSn0w process to jail break.  You can follow this process it is for 4.3.1 but  but can work with 4.3.2 if you download the proper IPSW version.   Lifehacker always has hst up to date version of the files.

My intial attempt failed.   This is because I did not follow the steps for x64 and modify the affinity for redsnow.exe and set to cpu1

I also did not run redsn0w.exe as administrator.  To do that you just need to right click on the exe and select (run as administrator)

These steps are all in the instructions. Have fun and enjoy if you do decide to jail break.  Drop me a note with your experiences.   I

I have not jailbroken my iPad yet.  I do know this version will not do the iPad2

Update:  I got a note from someone asking if I backed up my iPhone prior to jailbreaking.  Yes, I used AptBackup for the jailbroken apps and did a lot of system file copy with ssh.

I have a few servers that I help maintain or use for VPN access.  I have found on a few machines that when I use VPN to secure my connection at a coffee shop or any other public WiFi that some sites will not load.  I have seen this issue before when using PPTP but had never taken the time to investigate.   Sites like Digg would just not load.   After a lot of investigation I as able to see a few obscure issues with the mtu size.  The default PPP0 interface MTU size was 1396

Output of ifconfig:

ppp0

Link encap:Point-to-Point Protocol          inet addr:192.168.240.1  P-t-P:192.168.240.2  Mask:255.255.255.255          UP POINTOPOINT RUNNING NOARP MULTICAST  MTU:1396  Metric:1          RX packets:9 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0          TX packets:10 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0          collisions:0 txqueuelen:3

After some google searching I was able to see that my eth0 MTU was set to 1500.    To correct the issue  I increased the PPP0 MTU size to 1492.   That change allowed the sites to load.

Manually change the MTU:

sudo ifconfig ppp0 mtu 1492

I was unable to find a clean permanent solution to keep this set.  I tried the /etc/ppp/options and options.pptp.  The work around I created was to modify the MTU size on the first PPP connection.  I used the ip-up.local file to make this change on every PPP connection.  The ip-up file is executed once a PPP (vpn) connection is started.

I added the following line to ip-up.local

• ifconfig ppp0 mtu 1492

After these changes every connection will set the mtu to 1492.   This corrected my issue with browsing some sites.

I can now surf the web and get to any site.

To follow up on my first post regarding Vibram 5 fingers, I’ve got a lot of feedback.  People asking how long it took to get used to the shoes.  How do they feel on my feet, do they hurt toes.   Someone even asked about the press that barefoot running is bad for you.  (runningbarefootisbad).

I’ll try to give feed back on each.   Overall, I love running barefoot.  It is a great change from my previous running experience.  I’ve run many 5k , 10k races and even a marathon.  Overall, I run every week and at least every other day.  I’m not a very good long distance runner, more of a sprinter.   So my running style when preparing for the marathon was to find out how to relax and pace myself.   I found from just the amount of running that I ran on the balls of my feet, and had to train myself on how to use the heal toe method to run longer distances.    So the switch to barefoot was really easy, that is just how I run.

I’ll start with the question regarding all the press on how barefoot running is bad.  I guess my overall thought is that, anything can be bad for you.   Eating Apples can even be called a bad thing, if you eat the apple wrong and choke.  If you too many apples you can get sick.   I think that principle is true with barefoot running.    People praise it because it is suppose to be easier on the body, more natural.  However, if you do it wrong, it can hurt you.   So the news where people are getting hurt, is based on some people not doing this process properly.  What that means to me, is that barefoot running is not for everyone.  Just like running may not be fore everyone.   Thick cushioned running shoes protect your feet and you from hurting yourself.  You take those away, you need to protect yourself and not rely on those tools to help you.  Some good education and practice can help make barefoot running safe and easy.

Here are a few good tools to learn how to run barefoot (Video and Merrell).

The next question is based on comfort.  Do the shoes hurt my feet?  Do they feel funny on your toes?  No and Yes.   No, they do not hurt my feet.  It is really cool to be almost barefoot, it is a great feeling.    You have some safety from the elements with the bottom shell.

At first they did feel really funny with the toes.   I have somewhat flat feet and very wide feet.  The shoe not only felt funny on the toes, but looked funny.  Once I got over the look, I started to like the feeling on my toes.  It is not for everyone.  that is the reason I’m leaning towards the new Merrell shoes.   With my really wide flat feet, it is somewhat funny to see me in these things.

How long did it take me to get used to the shoes.  Well, since I did not start running in them and used them at first for just fun.  It did not take long at all.  By the time I started running I was used to the feeling and had worn them long enough to train my feet for shoes with out socks.

As for how long it took me to get used to running in them, it did not take long.  Just conditioning on my calf muscles and my stride.   After about a week, I was good for 3 plus miles.

Thank you for all the feedback.

I’m a network abuser. I use my internet connection for everything. VPN access when at any public wifi location (VPN ddwrt). I also use it for Streaming movies on netflix, backup for my data (mozy, dropbox, rsync for business data) and just general browsing. So overall I am using a lot of data. When comcast put their 250GB limit in place I was worried (I’ll post on this later).

What the cap did was make me think about my network usage. I realized that I have created more of my own cloud service locally (internal home backup and syncing) vs using online services. Just doing this has cut down on some of my internet usage. The main thing I can’t see changing is our TV / Movie streaming. From netflix, youtube, and hulu we are always watching something.

Netflix just made news as Netflix’s share of digital movie units, either downloaded or streamed, was put at 61 percent between January and February.

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-20043475-93.html#ixzz1INT6Z4Jm

That is a huge market share, as well as a lot of bandwidth.  When you watch an HD move it uses more bandwidth than a standard Definition movie.   That said, how much bandwidth are you using.  Are you consuming all your allocated bandwidth on Netflix?   Here is a pretty good breakdown of what that usage looks like:

Netflix Movies (HD): These guys are around 3.8Mbit, which means it’s about 3600MB for a 2 hour HD movie.
Netflix Movies (SD): Each of these movies are around 500-700MB each, depending on the length of the movie.
Netflix TV Shows (HD): A 30-minute TV show will be about 1500MB.
Netflix TV Shows (SD): A 30-minute TV show will be about 400MB.

Even though that is a lot of bandwidth you would need to watch a lot of HD movies to hit the cap.  Around 70 HD movies in a month depending on the quality.   That is a lot of movie watching.  However, if you have a large family (as I do) and some are using their computer, others on the TV, and ipad; you would build up some usage (I’m not sure that the netflix account would even allow this).

That is a lot of bandwidth.  Netflix is using our internet bandwidth (that I purchase from comcast) to deliver their service.   Until recently this did not matter, because comcast did not have a cap.  Now that the average consumer is using more, the providers have to find a way to either cap (conserve) their bandwidth or charge more.   I’m not against this model at all, I just want to have bandwidth available.   A few years ago, a person would purchase high speed internet and only use a fraction of it.   Now, with out knowing they are using more and more bandwidth.  Their media devices; wii, ps2, and xbox are online.   The new TV and DVD players are hooked to pandora and netflix.   They are getting more content from youtube and netflix on their Computer.    I’m ok with paying, what I don’t want is my neighbor’s youtube addition to cause my backups to go slow (I don’t want others to hinder my internet usage).

It was recently posted that netflix has 20% of peak US bandwidth usage. http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/10/netflix-instant-accounts-for-20-percent-of-peak-u-s-bandwith-use/ That is amazing.

There is a lot more going on behind the scenes on who controls the bandwidth and who pays for the internet bandwidth.  For now, just realize that if you are streaming movies you are using your bandwidth that you pay for.   It is amazing how quickly the internet has changed our TV / Media viewing.   People now at least understand what streaming video is.

– UPDATE: Part 2

A few years back, while in Holland during the summer I ran into an old friend on the beach. He was with his kids and they had long boards and were walking down the beach. My friend was wearing the strangest shoes. I had never seen shoes with toes on them. That was the first time I had seen vibram five fingers. After talking to him he used them for everything, skateboarding, walking, and just being with the kids.

The next day I headed down to The Outpost and purchased a pair. I think they only had one color and one type. They were $89 bucks for the sprint. I wore them for the afternoon (took me a while to get them on) and then a few days outside. They were not the most well built shoe, and the seams on the toes started to break after a week. I took them back and got another pair this time a size larger and have had them since. That was back in the summer of 08 or 09. I have been happy with them since.

Later that fall, my wife and brother-in law read a book called “born to run” that talked about barefoot running. Being a runner I was interested in reading. What I did not know what that the five-fingers were part of that barefoot running craze. That winter I started running on the treadmill with the five-fingers. Up until that time I used them for just being outside, running around with the kids and driving.

I got up to about 10 miles indoors, and figured I’d start outside when it got warm. My second run out with the five-fingers I hit a large rock on my middle foot and got a huge bruise. That got me out of running barefoot for a while. It took me till laste summer to jump back into the five-fingers to run.

I’m now a happy runner in my five-fingers. It is just funny that I got started for other reasons than running. Overall what a great shoe. I intend to get another pair or getting the new more “more shoe like” merrells.