Tech Remedy

Using Linux and BASH as a Guitar Tuner

featured, Linux, music, Open Source Software, Software, Tutorials 1 Response »

Apr 122010

Linux is powerful. VERY powerful. The limits are unknown! What is the most effective use of this power you ask? Well, synthesizing a guitar tuner with the command line of course! Here’s how it’s done:

Step 1. Install SoX using a package manager or downloading the source here.

Step 2. Start simple. Let’s start with the following command which will give you an A:

play -n synth sine 220

To stop the tone, use your break key. Usually Ctrl – C.

Step 3. Step it up a notch. Now, let’s try a nice one liner that will give you each of the notes from the low E to the high E and then stop:

for n in E2 A2 D3 G3 B3 E4; do play -n synth 4 pluck $n repeat 2; done

Well, there you have it! Let me know in the comments section if you come up with any other cool uses for SoX!

HTML Colors – A simple Guide

featured, Tutorials, web, web development 1 Response »

Mar 282010

HTML colors are defined using hexadecimal values for the combination of Red, Green, and Blue. Here’s a helpful chart:

HTML Colors – A Complete Guide

The Helpful Hacker…

featured, Linux, Mac, Network Security, web, Windows No Responses »

Mar 162010

by Tom Duffy

Has this ever happened to you? You go into your favorite cafe (with free wifi of course) and order your coffee. Then, after paying for the coffee and maybe a muffin, you sit down and open up your laptop. To your total disappointment, the wifi connection doesn’t seem to have ANY internet connectivity! BLAST! What a waste of 5 bucks, right? Well, not necessarily…

At this point, you should ask yourself a few questions.

Am I connected to the Access Point?
Have I been assigned a private IP address?
Can I reach the Access Point via web browser?

So, let’s assume the answer to question number 1 is YES…I am connected to the access point with a good signal! Now I need to know if I have an IP address.

In Windows, open a command prompt and type:

ipconfig /a

…In Linux or Mac, open a Terminal and type:

ifconfig

There are other ways to find your IP, but these work just fine. The private IP address will likely look something like 192.168.1.xxx.

Next, take that IP and change the last part (xxx) to 1. For example, if it was 192.168.1.193, change it to 192.168.1.1. This is the gateway address. Now, let’s try entering that gateway address into a web browser. If you are prompted for a username/password that’s good news! That means that the Access Point has port 80 open and is running a web server to allow web based configuration. Look for a model number or company name in the window asking for a password. If it’s something like WRT54G, that is a Linksys and the default username and password are both: admin.

If you can’t get in with a default username/password, you should probably just move on…unless you want to try something more advanced of course. :)

Once you ARE logged in though, you can do some things to get the free wifi working again. Release and renew the public IP…reboot the Access Point. That combination will fix a lot of connectivity issues!

Have Fun!

Why I love Programmers

computer humor, Linux, Network Security, Open Source Software, Software No Responses »

Feb 112010

I was checking out the LaunchPad of nUbuntu (a network security variant of Ubuntu) and I came across the funniest bug I’ve ever read. Make sure to read the comments as well! Here you go:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/nubuntu/+source/apt/+bug/56125

Facebook Humor

computer humor, facebook 3 Responses »

Feb 012010

Came across this funny Facebook conversation…I am not sure if it’s real or fake, but it’s definitely funny! I had to share it:

Code 2600: An Upcoming Documentary

featured, Network Security 20 Responses »

Dec 012009

This looks awesome! Most “hacking” documentaries tend to bore me a bit. This one looks both informative and exciting! Here’s the teaser:

More info can be found at code2600.com

Gorgeous Linux Screenshots

featured, Linux, Open Source Software 5 Responses »

Nov 212009

There are a lot of things to love about Linux. Security…Stability…Cost…Customization…the list could go on forever! There aren’t a lot of people that talk about the look of a Linux desktop though. When you first install your favorite distro, it usually looks a little on the bland side. KDE 4 looks really nice out of the box, but it is still a little boring for my taste. The ability to make your desktop look exactly the way you want it is truly an awesome feature of the Linux platform. My taste tends to lean towards elegant simplicity combined with powerful usability. I wanted to share these screenshots of what a Linux system can look like after a little tweaking and customizing. This system is running Ubuntu. The dock is cairo-dock. Compiz handles the 3D cube desktop.

linux1

linux2

linux3

linux4

The last screenshot shows me running a script that I wrote…It’s a bash hacking simulator game. So, don’t worry, I’m not actually trying to break into the NSA’s web server! Please feel free to comment on the screenshots!

Encrypt Browser Traffic On a Public Wifi

featured, Linux, Mac, Network Security, web, Windows 6 Responses »

Nov 202009

Hi Everone! I have been visiting a coffee shop a lot lately that offers free WiFi. I have been using the connection to work on various things. I wanted to make sure that my browsing had some encryption to avoid sending out plain text data, so I figured out how to route my browser traffic through an SSH connection! The method basically uses an SSH connection as a proxy for the browser.

You will need:

An SSH server that you can log into.
An SSH Client on the computer you are using.
A web browser.

The first thing we will need to do is connect to the SSH server. We will be using a special command flag when logging in in order to set a port and to avoid opening up an interactive shell. The command you will run is:

ssh -ND 9999 you@example.com

Replace “you” with your login name for the server and “example.com” with the address of the server. You will notice that after you enter your password, nothing will happen. It will just sit there. That is exactly what we want. Now, minimize the SSH client or Terminal window. Next, open your browser. I will show you the settings for Firefox, but the setup is more or less the same for other browsers.

In Firefox

Open your Firefox settings. In Windows, it’s in the “Tools” menu. In Linux, it’s in the “Edit” menu. In Apple, it’s in the “Firefox” menu. Once you have the settings window open, click on the “Advanced” section and then the “Network” tab. Next, click the “Settings” button next to where it says, “Configure how Firefox connects to the internet”. Select the option that says “Manual Proxy Configuration”. The only thing we change here is the SOCKS Host and the Port. For the SOCKS Host, enter “localhost” and 9999 for the port number. It should look like this:

socksfirefoxconnection

This is a very old method for setting up a SOCKS Proxy, but it works quite well. Please feel free to comment!

Do a Clean Windows 7 Install with the Upgrade Media

Windows 15 Responses »

Oct 242009

Hey everyone!

Did you accidentally erase your hard drive partition containing Windows Vista or XP prior to trying to install Windows 7 Upgrade? Well, it won’t work! Unless you follow some simple instructions! Here you go:

1. First, do a completely clean install of Windows 7 bypassing the activation process.

2. Then, make sure that there aren’t any pending Windows Updates that will require a reboot.

3. Then enter regedit.exe in the Start Menu Search

4. Navigate to the registry key:

HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Setup/OOBE/

5. Change MediaBootInstall from “1″ to “0″ and then close the Registry Editor.

6. Then type cmd into the Start Menu and right click the shortcut and choose “Run as Administrator”.

7. At the prompt type:

slmgr /rearm

8. Close the command line window and reboot.

9. After the computer reboots, run the Windows Activation and enter your Upgrade key.

10. Enjoy Windows 7!

The Tom and Bat Man Radio Show

web No Responses »

Oct 062009

Hey folks,

Please check out the Tom and Bat Man Radio Show! You can find it as a podcast on iTunes or go to http://tomandbatman.com to stream the latest shows. My friend Bat Man and I decided to start this show to provide a tech-related podcast that is also fun and entertaining! Imagine that! Please check it out!

Tom