Daily Cup of Tech

This week, we are looking to see how people use their USB drives. Feel free to enter your two cents worth in our weekly poll.

Also, an apology to our Internet Explorer users. I just discovered this weekend that you were unable to use the polls. I believe that I have resolved the issue and it should work fine for you now.

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It’s Monday morning and you are well rested from the weekend (you are well rested, right?) so it’s time to get to work. You fire up your computer and realize, CRUD!, how do I get that data I encrypted in TrueCrypt last week?

Luckily, while you were resting on the weekend, I was writing an article explaining how to do exactly that! Take a gander (Gander?! Isn’t that a male goose?) at Using a TrueCrypt Volume. It walks you through the basics of working with a TrueCrypt volume.

Now that we are done with the basics of TrueCrypt, we can start working on more interesting things.

Also, since today is September 11, 2006, I would like to ask that we all take a moment sometime today to remember what happened five years ago.

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This is just going to be a quick entry today as I’m busy spending some quality time with my family. I thought I’d give you a bit of a preview of some of the projects that I am working on for Daily Cup of Tech. I think there is something for everyone here:

• A secure, private chat system for home users
• Automatic off-site backups via the Internet
• Building a trouble ticket system for a small company’s IT department
• Installing a web-based VPN system
• Converting a Linksys router to Linux
• Securing your home network
• Tips for keeping safe on the Internet

Keep in mind that I will be using applications that are freely available to anyone from the Internet.

See you tomorrow.

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I’ve noticed some people looking for how to encrypt a USB drive. I figured that this would make a good blog article so I wrote Creating a Basic TrueCrypt Volume on a USB Drive. It should provide you with the basics for keeping that USB drive data safe.

If you do not have TrueCrypt on your system, check out Installing TrueCrypt to get up to speed.

P.S. I apologize for the lateness of this post and for the lack of availability of Daily Cup of Tech yesterday. My web host is having some technical difficulties but assures me that they will have them resolved be early next week. Until then, I appreciate your patience.

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If I ever lost my USB drive, I’d be screwed! I have so much data and information on the drive that I don’t know what I would do. Fortunately, I have a very comprehensive USB drive system that works to protect me from such problems (see Zen and the Art of the USB Drive).

But, what about the rest of you? What have you done to ensure that your lost USB drive finds its way home? If the answer is nothing, I have just the article for you. Have Your Lost USB Drive Ask For Help gives you complete instructions and scripts to make your USB drive ask for help when some good Samaritan finds it.

Now go and tell your USB drive how much it means to you.

See you tomorrow,

Trackback link - http://www.DailyCupOfTech.com/2006/09/08/help-im-lost/trackback/

Sometimes, I even astound myself with how lazy I can be. Combine that with a really bad sense of logic and you get a pretty cool network management script.

I didn’t want to be bothered with having to talk users through finding their IP address so that I could remote control their computer. So, I wrote a script and a front end GUI that would track users, computers, and their IP addresses. Now, when I want to remote control a user’s computer, I simply need to run my new program, select a couple of options and I magically have everything I need to take over their computer.

I go through the entire process in more detail in Tracking Users, IP’s, and Computers. In the article, not only do I explain how the program works, I also give you all the configuration files, source code, and compiled programs so that you can put this program to work on your network.

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One of the things that has always annoyed me about writing scripts or applications is the fact that you have to think of and code everything. At the core of my being, I am lazy. I’d rather not do something than do it.

This is why I love the concept of UDF’s in AutoIt. With a UDF, I can take code that I’ve already written (or, even better, that someone else has already written) and immediately incorporate it into my new script with just a few lines of code!

There are about twenty excellent UDF’s that come with AutoIt but people are constantly writing new ones and making them available. In AutoIt UDF’s; A Lot of Power in One Line, I have compiled (no pun intended) a list of thirty excellent UDF’s so that you can be lazy like Wimpy but still look like Neo.

Later,

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If you’ve been curious about scripting but never felt like you could just jump in and learn it, this may be your opportunity. I am planning a number of articles about AutoIt, the freeware scripting language. I hope to post a large archive of scripts and tutorials that will allow you to become proficient at this language.

But, everything needs a beginning and this is the beginning of that archive. I have writing an article entitled Installing AutoIt. It is a step by step guide which will walk you through the entire process. It may be a bit basic for some of you that are more computer savvy but for the absolute beginner, it is a must.

Also, don’t forget this week’s poll. I really want to hear what you think.

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Everyone has secrets. From the most average Joe to the most corrupt politician, we all have at least one skeleton in the closet that we want to keep private. Or, maybe there is some personal information that is just nobody’s business but your own. Either way, it is important to keep this information under lock and key.

So, I have a couple of things for you to look at today. The first is your opportunity to have your say. On the right hand side of your screen near the bottom of the page you should see this week’s poll. I want to find out what Windows open source/freeware software everyone is using to keep these secrets private. Add your two cents worth and then watch to see how your responses match up with the other readers.

The second thing I have done is write an article on Installing TrueCrypt, my encryption software of choice. It is a very basic step by step installation of the software but I am also planning other articles about TrueCrypt in the future.

Until tomorrow, stay secure.

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Good Sunday to everyone!

When a person is sometimes stumped by an problem, they often will receive the advice, “Think outside the box!” I have to admit, this is excellent advice. But, if you were to press the advice giver on how to do this, you would probably get a blank stare. Like many different bits of advice, it is often easy to give but difficult to execute.

I have given this advice some thought and I have come up with 9 Ways to Think Outside the Box. I think you will find it to be both useful and enlightening.

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