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May 30, 2009

Back to the '80s


If the latest print edition of NZ PC World has made you all misty-eyed and nostalgic, I have just one word for you: DOSBox.

(A note to non-local readers puzzled by that opening; it's our 20th birthday!)

DOS, the PC's original Disk Operating System really was a crock of you-know-what, but it did somehow manage to foster some great little games. And now you can recall them all with DOSBox -- for Windows, Mac and Linux.

"DOSBox emulates an Intel x86 PC, complete with sound, graphics, mouse, joystick, modem, etc., necessary for running many old MS-DOS games that simply cannot be run on modern PCs and operating systems ... "

If, like me, you have a box of mouldering discs in the attic, dust 'em off and get DOSBox. It supports a huge range of games. Check out the compatability list here. (Amazingly, you can still buy many of them! Try Classic DOS Games or GOG.)

Game speed can be controlled CTRL+F11 (slow down) or CTRL+F12 (speed up), and you can toggle full-screen mode with ALT+ENTER.

I mean, who can forget classics like ...

... Doom and ...

... Lemmings and ...



... Out Run, or the hilarious ...



... Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards?

And what about all those others like ...



... ... what??


Ah, the pixelated graphics, the clunky game-play, the tinny sounds! The good old days ...

Posted by Geoff Palmer at 2:26 PM | | Comments (2)

May 20, 2009

Hidden Linux : VirtualBox revisited


I'm a big fan of VirtualBox, the free virtualisation manager that allows you to run one operating system inside another. Whether you want to try one of the latest Linuxes without messing up your system, need to run a Windows app without having to reboot or are desperate to get an old DOS game running, you can access them all on whatever machine you're using now -- provided its currently running Linux, Windows, Macintosh or OpenSolaris.

Here for example is a beta release of KDE 4 and Windows XP running inside in my old Kubuntu 7.10 box...


(Click for a larger view)


I blogged about installing VirtualBox last year, but there's one thing many first-timers overlook; adding the Guest Additions package. This is an extra add-on that improves your virtual machine's performance and integration. The mouse pointer works more smoothly and a GA allows you to resize the VM's window and toggle full-screen mode. (As you'll see from this table, most OSs work much better when GAs are added!)

It's important to remember that Guest Additions have to be added to each virtual machine you create. Add 10 new Linuxes and you need to install a GA for each of them. Here's how...


Prepare your system:
In your host system, (not the virtual machine!), ensure you have the necessary building tools installed. Ubuntu, Kubuntu and Debian-based systems can simply type the following in a command window:

sudo apt-get install build-essential

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic


Open Guest Additions:
Start your virtual machine then click Devices / Install Guest Additions on the menu.

That's all you need to do to add GA to a Windows virtual machine, but it appears to do nothing under Linux. That's because Linux doesn't auto-boot anything you wave at it. You need to mount and run the GA manually...


Mount and run it:
Open a console window in your guest (virtual) machine and enter the following;

sudo mount /dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0

cd /media/cdrom0

sudo sh ./VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run

The first command simply mounts the virtual CD, the second switches to the CD drive and the third runs the Guest Additions package. Note that there are different packages for x86 and AMD64 machines. Type ls to get a list!

If you have problems with any of the above, you'll more details here.
  



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Posted by Geoff Palmer at 11:51 PM | | Comments (1)

May 15, 2009

Death by PowerPoint, and other Microsoft misfortunes

Don't open unknown PowerPoint presentations or you might cop an unexpected extra, according to Microsoft's announcement of yet another critical security flaw. One false click and "... the attacker would then have complete control over everything the user's account has permission to do on the system." 

Meanwhile the BBC reports that McAfee reckon 12 million computers have been been hijacked by cyber-crims since January. With "20,000 plus new samples of malware detected every day", (a figure I find hard to believe), the US apparently "hosts the world's largest percentage of infected computers at 18% with China a not too distant second with just over 13%."

And while it might not happen often, once the bad guys get control of your machine they can do anything they like with it -- and that includes invoking the so-called 'nuclear option'. "Roman Hüssy, a 21-year-old Swiss information technology expert, ... last month witnessed a collection of more than 100,000 hacked Microsoft Windows systems tearing themselves apart at the command of their cyber-criminal overlords." The Washington Post has more.

If that's not cheeful enough, researchers at the University of California Santa Barbara managed to take control of a botnet for 10 days to see how it worked. In that time they picked up;
  • 297,962 username and password pairs from 52,540 different infected PCs.
  • 1,660 unique credit and debit card numbers (including 30 from a single user!).
  • Login credentials for 8,310 accounts at 410 different financial institutions.
  • Access credentials for 368,501 web sites.

Is "Microsoft security" becoming as big an oxymoron as "military intelligence" ...?


Posted by Geoff Palmer at 9:03 AM | | Comments (2)

May 12, 2009

Hidden Linux : Ubuntu - After the installation


I always add few "extras" to every Ubuntu / Kubuntu installation. Here they are, and why you need 'em ...


Enable all repositories
These seem to be enabled by default these days, but it doesn't hurt to check ...

Ubuntu :
  • Click System -> Administration -> Synaptic Package Manager.
  • Click on Settings -> Repositories.
  • Tick all except the Source Code boxes under the Ubuntu Software tab.

Kubuntu :

  • (Using KDE 3 or KDE4's "Classic" Menu): Click Settings -> Software Sources.
  • (Using KDE4's default "Kickoff" menu):  Click Applications -> System -> Software Sources.
  • Tick all except the Source Code boxes under the Ubuntu Software tab.



Add restricted extras
Like most Linux distributions, Ubuntu is a collection of free software. Some of what most users have come to regard as essentials may be subject to software patents and/or license restrictions so they're not included by default. But they're simple to add from the command line:

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

Now you should find Flash works in your browser and you can play MP3s, Quicktime, Windows Media and much else.



Playing DVDs
The following commands only apply to Ubuntu/Kubuntu 9.04. For earlier versions, try this link.

sudo apt-get install libdvdread4

sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh

Note that playing DVDs without using properly licensed software is illegal in some countries.



Boot Menu Management
If you're dual booting, Startup Manager's straightforward GUI really simplifies configuration changes.

sudo apt-get install startupmanager


Updated (13/05/2009):
Johannes Eva at http://www.johannes-eva.net has got a more detailed and useful summary. Check out Eva's useful guide to Ubuntu 9.04. Great stuff!



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Posted by Geoff Palmer at 8:19 PM | | Comments (2)

May 8, 2009

WikiLeaks reveals web extortion


Wow! This appeared a few days ago on the anonymous whistle-blower site WikiLeaks. I've found a few blogs about it but nothing official yet ...

On Thursday, April 30, the secure site for the Virginia Prescription Monitoring Program (PMP) was replaced with a $US10M ransom demand:

"I have your shit! In *my* possession, right now, are 8,257,378 patient records and a total of 35,548,087 prescriptions. Also, I made an encrypted backup and deleted the original. Unfortunately for Virginia, their backups seem to have gone missing, too. Uhoh :(For $10 million, I will gladly send along the password."

The site, https://www.pmp.dhp.virginia.gov/pmpwebcenter/login.aspx appears to have been entirely disabled and is presently unavailable.

The linked file provides the full ransom message.

The PMP is used by pharmacists and others to discover prescription drug abuse.

The PMP declined to comment, although when contacted, appeared to be aware of the issue, instantly referring inquiries to the director of the DHP, who is presently unavailable.

Here's the full link.



Posted by Geoff Palmer at 9:34 PM | | Comments (0)

May 5, 2009

Emerging tech: Prism

What is it?
Prism is the codename for a Mozilla Labs project currently in development. It's an SSB -- a Site-Specific Browser -- which is to say it's a browser that works with only one website. There are no menus, no toolbars, no browser interface or any other fancy bits.

What use is that?
Whether you like it or not, the world is moving to the web. All sorts of applications from word processors to photo editors are now available online. Traditionally, you access them through a web browser, but that leaves you with an interface surrounded by all manner of useless controls such as back and forward buttons and a location bar. The aim of Prism is to provide a seamless bridge between browser-based applications and locally installed ones.



According to the Prism team:
"Unlike Adobe AIR and Microsoft Silverlight, we’re not building a proprietary platform to replace the web. We think the web is a powerful and open platform for this sort of innovation, so our goal is to identify and facilitate the development of enhancements that bring the advantages of desktop apps to the web platform."

Why should I care?
Another consideration is security. The number of Web nasties is steadily increasing -- along with clever tricks like cross-site scripting (XSS) -- and while using multiple browser tabs is wonderfully convenient, having them all share the same underlying code and memory space isn't wonderfully secure. With SSBs, each browser process occupies a separate and more easily protected region of RAM. It also means that if one process runs amok and crashes, you don't lose any of the others.

How can I try it?
See the Prism site for download and setup directions. There's also a Firefox add-on that allows you to create Prism applications directly from within Firefox. The only downside is that it's currently Windows only, though Mac and Linux versions should be "available soon".


Posted by Geoff Palmer at 11:07 PM | | Comments (3)