There have been a series of Security issues recently. The major systems that power the web Magento and WordPress have had critical vulnerabilities (wordpress) (magento). I won’t go into the details of both, but the important part is that you need to patch your systems. In particular Magento had 3 patches that need to be added to your system. One …
Secure Your Network for Kids I have 4 children and often have family over to our home. At any given time there are around 30 plus devices on our network. My wife and I have talked to our children about safe usage of the web but I am just as concerned of malicious websites and adware as I am of my …
I love technology and I love my family. However these two have collided and we have had some challenges. One of those challenges relates to cords; yes I mean power cords. Some years ago I purchased a few portable DVD players. These great little items allowed my children to watch movies while we traveled. My parents and family live more than …
I have been very happy with my current Firewall setup of iPfire (ipfire.org). The system has done a great job of performance and security. I use many features from Squid, Snort, openVpn, and others. I even tried the TOR proxy routing. This weekend with lots of family over for Thanks Giving it was great to watch the proxy reports and see …
I recently updated my basement and purchased a new TV. In doing so, my projector and TV are both connected to my Windows Media Center. I needed up update my older PC running windows media center since Comcast turned to digital. Here is the setup and configurations I use to run a Windows Media Center that shows live tv and allows …
In the past few weeks the number of security incidents in the news has increased. Home depot, Jimmy John’s and also Shellshock. From credit card theft via malware to online security vulnerabilities you need to keep on guard. This most recent ShellShock vulnerability is going to be big. Since a very large portion of the web is using Linux or some …
I recently had an issue with a theme when updating wordpress. After the upgrade I was unable to get into the site or the admin. What I discovered was the Theme was causing the issue. I needed a way to change the theme outside of the admin. This post will show you what to change in the Database to …
I attempted a while back to see if I could limit my exposure on the web. Looking at all the security concerns and even my own security fun I decided to see what i could limit. First Steps The first place I looked was to stop all the online leakage and “free info” I was sharing while browsing. You know …
I read a few blogs but recently have been so busy at work have not really kept up with any technical blogs or news. I find that HackerNews keeps me up-to-date as much as possible. If you don’t subscribe to the newsletter I would recommend it – go here to signup for hacker news If I don’t want to wait …
I recently read an article from Mads Kristensen (http://madskristensen.net/post/url-rewrite-and-the-www-subdomain). He was posting regarding using a url rewrite for IIS and the use of a subdomain. After reading the article and viewing some info regarding the two camps of “use WWW” and don’t use “www”. I could not help but reflect on my own experiences. For years, I been fortunate to both …
Selling Domains A few years ago I purchased a few domain names. I got a great price and have held them since. Recently I decided to sell off those domains. I have not had much experience selling a domain before. The experience I have had, was around purchasing domains. In the past I have been part or brokered …
My old Thinkpad that I used as a mini server died, and on that machine I ran an old version of Quickbooks. I have used Quickbooks for invoicing and accounting for about 7 years. It has served me well, however when the machine died I decided to look at upgrading from my 2009 version to the newest. As I …
PhoneGap 3 I recently wanted to test an idea on an android device. To quickly write up a proof of concept I decided to use PhoneGap. I have used PhoneGap in the past but the current Version 3.1 (at the time of writing) is more mature than when I previously developed with it. I was prepared to walk through a few …
Google Endorsements Google has recently made a policy change. You may have seen a notification in your gmail or Plus page. I basically just clicked on the “x” or said OK with out thinking about it. I am sure many other prople are like me and don’t take much time to read any policy changes. However, recently many news sites started …
I read a great blog by Troy Hunt frequently. He is an architect and MVP over at Microsoft, he typically talks about security. He recently sent out a quick tweet regarding locking your computer. After the tweet regarding what to do when someone does not lock their screen. http://www.troyhunt.com/2013/10/40-inappropriate-actions-to-take.html I love some of the options. One favorite was to set …