My Computer System...Well...one of them!

My desktop

The computer that I'm currently using, the one that I spend a great majority of my time on, is a Dell Latitude D610. The operating system that's running on this computer is Ubuntu, which is a version of Linux. More precisely, the version of Ubuntu that I'm running is Backtrack 5R2. Backtrack is a penetration testing distribution. If you're not familiar with Backtrack you can read more about what it is and does here at this link. http://www.backtrack-linux.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

Of the things that my computer/OS does well, that is of primary and utmost importance to me, is supply me with an abundance of security tools to be at my disposal with the click of a button or the issuance of a command. This allows me to spend my time more productively while alleviating me from the tedious task of having to STFW ( Search The Freaking Web ) all day for a specific tool to download to cover a particular area of study in order to complete the task at hand. However....

There are challenges that come with having such a convenience.  One of my greatest challenges to date has been trying to find ways to compensate not having the Microsoft Office Suite nor the ability to access the schools V.D.I.- two things that are somewhat necessities to complete a lot of the course work that we're assigned. Sure there are open-source alternatives to the MS Office Suite like Open Office, which would be a sufficient alternative in a work environment but in a class environment where the instructor explicitly states to use MS, or an assignment that requires one to do an assignment over MS Word or MS Excel, it in turn renders Open Office insufficient. As stated previously, in such cases where one normally has the option to access the schools V.D.I., this also becomes a problem because Backtrack doesn't support the exact virtual client needed for the job. In short, in the functionality and support are very limited in cases like the above scenario. This also becomes the case when I try using this computer for recreational task. Due to the nature of the operating system's purpose, recreation just wasn't something the designers had in mind when they built it. 

One area of my computer that needs to be upgraded is my CD ROM drive. At this point it is entirely impossible for me to play CD/DVD's of any type in my computer. I'm not quite sure what's going on technically with the drive. What I am sure about is that the drive worked perfectly fine before I wiped my Windows XP installation completely and did the full install of Backtrack. After the Backtrack installation, practically everything else worked but the CD ROM drive. Actually, if anyone has suggestions or the technical know how to fix this problem I'd be honored to put this advice into execution mode. :)

Nanotechnology: My cell phone

Image is courtesy of mobile88.com

An item in my current life that could be made new with nanotechnology is my cell phone. The aspect of my cell phone that I'd certainly love to see innovated on more are the wireless capabilities that nanotechnology could extend upon. With nanotechnology cell phones and transceiver signals could be improved, given today's conventional frequencies, potentially allowing phones to work where they aren't able to today at much higher frequencies. 

Improvements upon this technology could potentially put an end to the problems we face with roaming or just flat out not being able to find a signal.

Of course this would be possible through the implementation of graphene integrated circuits replacing the normal circuitry within our phones.

My Favorite Computer Program

( Image courtesy of kasunc.blogspot.com )

Curiosity has its own reason
for existing...It is enough if
one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery everyday.                                 

" Albert Einstein "

I have a couple of computers within my reach and each of them have different, as well as multiple operating systems. My personal favorite, a notebook/laptop that I do the majority of my work and studying on is a Dell Latitude D610. My operating system is BT Linux 3.2.6/Ubuntu Release 10.04 (Lucid). 

My favorite program that I have on my computer is VMware Player. When I first started tinkering around with different operating systems, I had a very bad habit of messing up systems by way of bricking hard drives ( basically wiping my computers clean of their operating systems ). Finally after what seemed like never-ending headaches and frustration, I started experimenting with trying out new software on virtual machines. 

I've used and also have Virtual Box installed on my laptop but my favorite program to use when running virtual machines is VMware Player. I find that with VMware, whenever a new release of an operating system comes out that I want to test drive, I just install the release onto my virtual machine and run it in a live environment. This way, I don't have to worry about screwing up anything on my main operating system. Here are some of the features VMware Player provides:

• It can run on Windows XP, Windows 7, Ubuntu 9.10+ and RHEL 5 at the same time. Or even at the same time in separate windows!
• It is user-friendly and easy to install. It also makes the process of installing Windows and Linux OS's easier than if you were to install these OS's directly onto your hard drive.
• One can test new operating systems and safely try new software in an isolated environment on your PC.

Two things that I'd like this program to improve on is the ability to effortlessly network wireless and the ability to share and save files between one's actual operating system and the virtual machine. That's one aspect of the VMware Player that I feel needs to be a bit more user-friendlier.

My Browser

The browser that works best for me is Firefox by Mozilla. http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/ I choose Firefox as my choice of browser mainly because I find it to be more user-friendlier than some of the other browsers that I periodically surf the web on. However, I think it boils down to what exactly it is that one is trying to get accomplished when it comes to choosing a browser.

For instance, Firefox is more user-friendlier to me because when I'd first started blogging and learning HTML I was introduced to a Firefox plug-in called Web Developer-which allows one to, in my own words, place all of the elements of a web page under the microscope and examine the code the page was written in. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/web-developer/.  ( Not to say that there isn't other ways of doing this nor other browsers that have the same functionality included. ) As a result of learning and blogging, all the while with Firefox being the browser that I was using at this time, naturally I learned my way around the browser more until familiarity with it kind of just made it my comfortable home. Once I'd discovered the capability to sync my browsing experience across multiple computers that pretty much sealed the deal. I was able to take my browser experience with me in a way. However.... 

I learned rather quickly that there was no such thing as one browser fits all. Or put in another way; there was no such thing as one browser being fitting for all the things that I needed to get done while on the Internet. Just to cite a few examples: I quickly found out that a lot of bank and government owned websites will not allow one to access the content on their sites while using Firefox. Firefox being a product of an open-source project has the downside of not holding up too well to security standards in many places around the Internet. Especially inside of  businesses and governments work environments. Thus, even if I was indeed able to access the site,  some of the site's full functionality could not be supported with the Firefox browser.

Of the top 3 browsers most commonly known to the average web surfer- Chrome, Firefox, and IE- within the past year or so researches have ranked Chrome to be the most secure browser to use while surfing the web. ( Granted, a lot of this research doesn't include the Safari browser. ) So if being secure is your utmost concern when choosing a browser then Chrome may be your choice. I have an add-on called NO SCRIPT for Firefox which up to this point has kept me secure thus far in my browsing experiences. In short, here's what No Script offers the user : The NoScript Firefox extension provides extra protection for Firefox, Seamonkey and other mozilla-based browsers: this free, open source add-on allows JavaScriptJavaScriptJavaScriptJavaScript , FlashFlashFlashFlash and other plugins to be executed only by trusted web sites of your choice (e.g. your online bank).

NoScript also provides the most powerful anti-XSSanti-XSSanti-XSSanti-XSS and anti-Clickjackinganti-Clickjackinganti-Clickjackinganti-Clickjacking protection ever available in a browser. Source : http://noscript.net/ ( Note: I stated that No Script has kept me secure; The No Script add-on doesn't actually hold an impeccable reputation as far as security is concerned overall. These are my personal choices. ) For my privacy needs I've installed an add-on called Proxy Tool which comes in handy when one wants to surf the web anonymously without installing an entire proxy browser like TOR for example.

I'm not all the way locked into a monogamous relationship with Firefox. On my laptop I have Chrome installed right alongside Firefox. When I'm in the need for speed I log into my surfing sessions with Chrome. On my desktop I have Chrome and Internet Explorer installed alongside Firefox. Even though I've noticed that some people are just more comfortable behind one browser than the other, I'd never until recently thought about why this is so. People who weren't using Firefox until I introduced them to it stated that they didn't know it existed; only to resort back to IE after trying Firefox. They all said that they'd rather stick to what they're already familiar with. In other words, taking a if it's not broke don't try to fix it stance. Who can argue with that?