Daily Cup of Tech

Disclaimer:
I want to start this entry by saying that this tool could very easily be used to bypass security measures put in place to protect you and the systems that you are working on. The purpose of this post is to provide people with a way to access information that they have not been able to get because of political sanctions. This is not intended as a way to bypass your work or school’s proxy system.

I was reading an article about using Google as a proxy when it dawned on me that this could be a really useful tool in the fight against censorship. I am thinking of countries like China where the government dictates where you can go on the Internet.

There are three issues with the solution that Jason proposes in his blog:

1. If Google becomes blocked, then you are right back to where you started
2. The information given, while relatively easy to follow, is still too much for the average user to understand and use
3. This information needs to spread across the Internet so that it can be used from several different websites

So, what I have done is create a simple web form. All you need to do is type in the website that is blocked and click on the Protect Freedom of Information button.

Now that the ease of use issue has been addressed, I wanted to address the issue of blocking Google. I have created two different versions of the form. One uses Google but one also uses BabelFish. You end up with the same results but you are using a different website to bounce off.

In order to get this information out to as many people as possible, I have made the code for these tools available to other webmasters so that all you need to do is cut and paste the code into your website.

I am also looking for other translators/websites that will do something like this as well. If you know of other websites, then please let me know in the comments.

Trackback link - http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2007/01/04/using-translators-to-fight-censorship/trackback/

In the past number of years, the term “hacker” has been spun by the media to mean someone who illegally breaks into computer systems for selfish gain or needless destruction. They are cold and ruthless people who think of no one but themselves. So, it usually shocks people when I tell them that I consider myself to be a hacker.

When I talk about being a hacker, I am referring to the original usage of the term. I recently found an excellent article entitled How To Become A Hacker by Eric Steven Raymond which talks about the true spirit of being a hacker.

How To Become A Hacker addresses some of the fundamental misconceptions about hackers. For example, there is a belief that hackers are misfits who are socially inept. Raymond writes:

Contrary to popular myth, you don’t have to be a nerd to be a hacker. It does help, however, and many hackers are in fact nerds. Being something a social outcast helps you stay concentrated on the really important things, like thinking and hacking.

For this reason, many hackers have adopted the label ‘geek’ as a badge of pride — it’s a way of declaring their independence from normal social expectations (as well as a fondness for other things like science fiction and strategy games that often go with being a hacker). The term ‘nerd’ used to be used this way back in the 1990s, back when ‘nerd’ was a mild pejorative and ‘geek’ a rather harsher one; sometime after 2000 they switched places, at least in U.S. popular culture, and there is now even a significant geek-pride culture among people who aren’t techies.

If you can manage to concentrate enough on hacking to be good at it and still have a life, that’s fine. This is a lot easier today than it was when I was a newbie in the 1970s; mainstream culture is much friendlier to techno-nerds now. There are even growing numbers of people who realize that hackers are often high-quality lover and spouse material.

If you’re attracted to hacking because you don’t have a life, that’s OK too — at least you won’t have trouble concentrating. Maybe you’ll get a life later on.

Another myth is that hackers are all math wizards. Raymond disagrees.

Hacking uses very little formal mathematics or arithmetic. In particular, you won’t usually need trigonometry, calculus or analysis (there are exceptions to this in a handful of specific application areas like 3-D computer graphics). Knowing some formal logic and Boolean algebra is good. Some grounding in finite mathematics (including finite-set theory, combinatorics, and graph theory) can be helpful.

Much more importantly: you need to be able to think logically and follow chains of exact reasoning, the way mathematicians do. While the content of most mathematics won’t help you, you will need the discipline and intelligence to handle mathematics. If you lack the intelligence, there is little hope for you as a hacker; if you lack the discipline, you’d better grow it.

When Raymond is asked by people to help them break into systems, he responds as a true hacker would:

Anyone who can still ask such a question after reading this FAQ is too stupid to be educable even if I had the time for tutoring. Any emailed requests of this kind that I get will be ignored or answered with extreme rudeness.

These people Raymond correctly identifies as crackers:

There is another group of people who loudly call themselves hackers, but aren’t. These are people (mainly adolescent males) who get a kick out of breaking into computers and phreaking the phone system. Real hackers call these people ‘crackers’ and want nothing to do with them. Real hackers mostly think crackers are lazy, irresponsible, and not very bright, and object that being able to break security doesn’t make you a hacker any more than being able to hotwire cars makes you an automotive engineer. Unfortunately, many journalists and writers have been fooled into using the word ‘hacker’ to describe crackers; this irritates real hackers no end.

The basic difference is this: hackers build things, crackers break them.

I urge you to spend some time education yourself in the true culture of hacking. It can be a very rewarding and satisfying lifestyle.

Trackback link - http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2006/12/30/correcting-the-definition-of-hacker/trackback/

I have always considered myself to be a hacker in the true sense of the word. I look for unique solutions by trying to approach problems and issues from a different angle. That is typically why I can find solutions where others may fail.

A big part of the mandate of this website is to give some of these unique solutions to people so that they can see how they are done and maybe com up with their own solutions. And, I would often consider many of these solutions to be considered hacks.

But, ever since I wrote Recovering Your Lost Passwords, my inbox has been flooded with request for help. Some of these requests may be legitimate requests by users who truly find themselves in a bind. Others are offers to exchange obvious criminal activities for money.

Either way, I need to decline the offers. I simply can not risk doing something that could potentially be viewed as illegal by someone. It is one thing to recover a password from my own system. It is another to get passwords for an individual to a corporate VPN (yes, I did receive such a request and was offered $250,000 for it).

Trackback link - http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2006/11/24/this-hacker-not-for-hire/trackback/

You may have heard the rumors or even seen an occasional article shouting that Microsoft’s new Zune media player is incompatible with Windows Vista.

Many people are pointing to Microsoft and asking, “How could you do something so stupid?” I don’t work for Microsoft but I would like to attempt to answer that question.

First, Vista isn’t even available to the public yet (at least, not legally). I know that they have the release to manufacturer code out there but it still does not mean that they will not release a patch to the manufacturers to add to their final images.

Secondly, has the world suddenly forgotten that Microsoft is the king of the critical update? How hard is it to have the Zune installation software go out to the internet and look for updates? Or make the compatibility patch a part of the regular Windows Update in Vista?

The “panic” that is being caused by this so-called mistake just sounds like a bunch of fear mongering to me.

Update: Told you so!

Trackback link - http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2006/11/15/the-zune-is-incompatible-with-vista-so-what/trackback/

As some of you may be aware, I am doing DCoT as an experiment to see if I can actually support myself and my family blogging full time. I am asking you, the loyal DCoT family the following question:

How can I support myself blogging without advertising on my blog or in my feeds?

I have been getting some feedback lately about the increase in advertising on my blog and also in the feeds that I put out. This is the primary source of revenue for me from the blog. I also get paid per “advertising” blog from one company and you may see one of those from time to time.

In general, people do not like advertisements if they can avoid them. And I’m like everyone else. I fast forward over the commercials if I tape a TV show. I complain about the ads before a movie at the theater (”If I wanted to watch commercials, I would have stayed home and watched TV!”). I avoid magazines that are more ads than contents.

But how else can I generate money from my blog if I don’t use ads? I’ve tried donations but nobody donated. Nobody is willing to pay me to blog about what I want to blog about. So what else should I try?

• Would people be willing to pay for “premium content”?
• Should I sell solutions where people can enter a question and a PayPal donation to have me respond to the question?
• Should I create custom AutoIt programs for a fee?

I am turning to you, the DCoT readers, to help me with this question. Please post any insight, suggestions, etc. as to how this can be accomplished. I look forward to your replies.

Trackback link - http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2006/11/14/help-howto-make-money-blogging-without-ads/trackback/