New template.

I've just changed the design of this blog.  Hope you all like it.

DoS attacks at work?

I installed a new Cisco/Linksys RVS4000 router at work last night. Since then I've been watching the IPS (Intrusion Prevention System) Reports are showing 19 Dos/DDoS attack on our IP within 24 hours.

So in my efforts to help fight crime here is the list of IP addresses. I use Network-Tools.com to trace.

nLite helps with reinstalling my OS.

My work computer has been out of commission for the last 1.5 weeks. The motherboard died. Dell came out and replaced it for me which I'm glad I decided to have them do because, as it turns out, there's more problems with it. I'll be getting a brand new computer with a week or two.

In the mean time I get to use my computer but I had to start fresh with a new hard drive. It's a good thing I made an image cd with nLite.

Have you ever wanted to remove Windows components like Media Player, Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, MSN Explorer, Messenger...
How about not even to install them with Windows ?

nLite is a tool for pre-installation Windows configuration and component removal at your choice. Optional bootable image ready for burning on media or testing in virtual machines.
With nLite you will be able to have Windows installation which on install does not include, or even contain on media, the unwanted components.

Features

• Service Pack Integration
• Component Removal
• Unattended Setup
• Driver Integration *
• Hotfixes Integration **
• Tweaks
• Services Configuration
• Patches ***
• Bootable ISO creation

Using nLite to make an image cd BEFORE the emergency was smart. I configured my install cd to include the install of CCleaner, Firefox, Defraggler, Recuva, Mediamonkey and others.

nLite worked so well I will be making install cds for all the computers here in my office. I suggest you at try it out.

Tracking web site statistics.

As you can see I have not had any visitors to this blog since February 2009. I feel lonely.

I use Statcounter.com to help me keep track of the activity of my web sites. Here's how Statcounter.com explains each way it tracts data.

• Returning Visitors - Based purely on a cookie, if this person is returning to your website for another visit an hour or more later. 
• First Time Visitors - Based purely on a cookie, if this person has no cookie then this is considered their first time at your website.
• Unique Visitor - Based purely on a cookie, this is the total of the returning visitors and first time visitors - all your visitors.
• Page Load - The number of times your page has been visited.

Any way you look at it I'm not popular. Statcounter is free and can hide the counter from the web page you decide to place the tracking link on.

Spam is still out there.

One of the most annoying things to deal with in IT is spam. It floods people's inboxes with all kinds of junk and reduces productivity. I've spent A LOT of time dealing with it. We've used GFI and others to try and keep spam out of our office but nothing has worked.

Then I heard about MXLogic from a local company. It's cheap and since we started using it a few months ago we've not had a single spam come through. And since 90% of all email is spam that's a huge help for me and a relief to everyone else.

Extending a USB device.

I started a live web cam steam with Ustream.tv but I didn't like the camera in my face. I had a 2 foot USB extension cable sitting here doing nothing so I decided to extend the extension.

It's easy to do if you have the supplies and skills to do some very basic soldering. I used simple phone cable for the extension material. It works perfect because the phone cable and the USB cable both use 4 wires. All you have to do is cut and strip them. Once you do that it's all a matter of matching the colors as best you can and solder them together. I have a nice supply of items here at work so I used some heat-shrink tubing to make it all nice and neat.

I've read on the Internet that there is a length limit to doing this. I can't recall the number off hand but I (personally) won't make them longer than 100'. After than you may see some line-loss and most simple USB devices (like my web cam) need about 5 volts for power.

I'm pleased with the way this came out but I see that I need a new web cam to get a better picture to feed the masses. TechCrunch.com has a nice stream.

Here's an example of how to run USB through phone lines.

What I did yesterday. Panoramic pictures.

It's been a while since I posted here so I thought I might start back in with a little bit of what tools I needed to get a job done yesterday.

The Job: Merge multiple photos of a field site into a single panoramic view and place it in a figure frame.

The Tools: Konica C450's scanner feature, Pain.net, Acrobat Pro 9 and AutoCAD 2006 LT.

Some of the job was easy because Mike (name used here for story time) had printed out the pictures he wanted and taped them into a panoramic view. I simply scanned the strip into JPG format using the companies Konica C450. Once I had my sections I used Paint.net to merge the

pieces.

Once I had the images digitally I then uesd my mad AutoCAD skills to make a nice figure frame for each photo. Once completed I created PDFs of each figure and combined them into one single PDF file for the client.

Nothing amazingly cool here. I just wanted to show an example of what IT tools I may use during the evolution of a project I've been asked to help out with.

This isn't the first time I've been asked to merge several pictures into one single picture. This is called image stitching and there are better ways to do it than what we've done on this project. Ideally you want to set up a nice digital camera on a tripod to take the pictures. This give a nice center point for all the photos. Take pictures every x-degrees or just make sure each photo overlaps so that the software you decide to use can have a better chance of making a nice photo. I just found Hugin panoramic photo stitcher today. Although I've not used Hugin yet I do plan on testing it within the next week because I'm sure that I'll need to do something like this again in the future.

UPDATE: 5-11-2009 Here's what it looks like. This panoramic picture of the building where I work is comprised of 23 photos stitched together. Click on it to see the full version.