I just wanted to make a good, quick post about two good resources I find myself using quite a bit.  The first is an md5 encrypter.  It’s a very nice, simple tool that simply converts any string into an md5-encrypted string.

At work, I find myself making a lot of very simple scripts that require me to set up administration areas, but don’t really warrant taking the time to set up online registration, etc.  Instead, I simply use the md5 encrypter to encrypt the passwords I want to use, and then I enter those encrypted passwords directly into the database.

You can find that tool, along with quite a few others, at http://www.iwebtool.com/tools.  The link directly to the md5 encryption tool is http://www.iwebtool.com/md5.

The other tool I’ve found myself using quite a bit, for basically the same reasons listed above, is a random password generator.  The one I’ve been using the most is presented by PCTools.com.  It offers a lot of options, and does a very nice job of generating random, secure passwords.  You can find that tool at http://www.pctools.com/guides/password/.

I am basically posting this here as a reference for myself, but I’m sure the information will be helpful to other people out there, as well.

Occasionally, when working on my Web server, I need to create a new user on the server and grant one or more other users permission to view and edit files within the new user’s home directory. This task, in itself, does not seem all that difficult on the surface. However, because most Unix servers are set up (and rightfully so, for security purposes) not to allow most users to navigate outside of their own home directories, it becomes a problem.

Let’s say, for example, that you have two users on your Web server that you want to allow permissions to view and edit each other’s home directories, but you don’t want them to have access to any other files and folders on the Web server.

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As I mentioned in a previous post, I recently went through the trouble of restoring our family computer to its original factory settings in order to try to get a little better performance out of it. However, even after all of that work, the computer is still performing fairly poorly.

Therefore, I went to the Web to look for some fairly inexpensive options to upgrade the computer. I happened upon crucial.com. Now, I’ve heard the name of that Web site thrown around on a lot of forums, but I have never bothered to visit. In the past, it was fairly easy to purchase memory upgrades, because there were only a handful of different kinds, and every memory stick worked on every motherboard.

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The other day, our IT security guy contacted me to let me know that my computer had accessed a Web site that potentially installed some adware/spyware on my computer. He asked me to run some standard scans (virus, adware, spyware, etc.) to make sure that my computer was clean.

I went ahead and ran the scans and found that my computer appears to be clean. However, while doing research to figure out what had caused the problem in the first place, I came across a very interesting Web site.

YouGetSignal.com is a Web site that offers advanced IP related searches. You can search for the physical location of an IP address, complete with a Google map to display the results. You can use a visual traceroute tool, which is also accompanied by a Google map.

The most interesting utility I found, though, was an IP lookup that allows you to list all of the domain names associated with a particular IP address. I got some very interesting results when I searched for some of my own domains.

For instance, the IP address associated with one of my hobby sites hosted at Netfirms (dcevolution.net) came up with 164 other Web sites using the same IP address.

However, when I searched for Web sites using the same IP address as the hobby sites I have hosted at site5 (dchelp.net), the only results that came up were my other sites.

Searching for centernetworks.com brings up 760 domains using the same IP address, while htmlcenter.com brought up 48 domain names, which all appear to be offshoots of htmlcenter.com (although some of them are rather questionable, so I’m not sure if they are actually associated with htmlcenter or if it is just a weird coincidence that they came up with the same IP - or if the owners of those Web sites are using some sort of proxy to hijack htmlcenter’s IP).

Still, it’s kind of fun to search for that sort of information, and extremely interesting.

I saw an interesting article on Yahoo! the other day. It appears that someone at Carnegie Mellon came up with the idea to use a CAPTCHA script to mask e-mail addresses. Basically, they provide you with special link code to put in place of your normal mailto link. You can use the link anyway you want, but the script generates some HTML code automatically that looks similar to:

user<a href="http://mailhide.recaptcha.net/d?k=01quxf658CWzRNQC34kj75Ug==&c=5Sc_I7orZzXLkOX6E7fontrPSKXj6NS2QC0a-5mV5Gk=" onclick="window.open('http://mailhide.recaptcha.net/d?k=01quxf658CWzRNQC34kj75Ug==&c=5Sc_I7orZzXLkOX6E7fontrPSKXj6NS2QC0a-5mV5Gk=', '', 'toolbar=0,scrollbars=0,location=0,statusbar=0,menubar=0,resizable=0,width=500,height=300'); return false;" title="Reveal this e-mail address">...</a>@example.com

In the example above, the whole e-mail address would actually be username@example.com, but the rest of the username is obscured by the script. Of course, they also supply you with just the address to the CAPTCHA page, so that you can build your own link any way you want.

The link, in turn, leads to a page with a CAPTCHA script. Once you correctly answer the CAPTCHA question, you’re lead to another page with the complete e-mail address. The script is called Mailhide, and it appears to be a completely free utility. It’s such a simple idea that I can’t believe no one thought of this before.

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I recently discovered a very neat program that we’ve begun using on one of my hobby sites.

IMANDIX Cover Pro automatically converts any image into a 3D preview of what it would look like as the cover of a CD or DVD case.

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I’ve recently become aware of an issue with managing comments in Wordpress 2.5. I’m not sure if it’s a bug or if it’s simply a poorly implemented “feature”, but I’m going to call it a bug.

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A few weeks ago, we purchased “Karaoke Revolution - American Idol Encore” for my Nintendo Wii. Most of my family is obsessed with American Idol, and thought the game would be a lot of fun to play.

Unfortunately, the game just didn’t even come close to living up to our expectations.
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My supervisor at work e-mailed a nice accessibility resource a few weeks ago. The “Division of Instructional Technology” at the University of Wisconsin has put together a good collection of videos and podcasts related to Web accessibility. The in-house videos are narrated and led by a blind man named Neal Ewers, who works for the Trace Research and Development Center at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

The videos are extremely interesting to watch, and very informative. If you have considered improving your Web site’s accessibility, I highly recommend visiting the site and watching each of the videos.

Toshiba announced today that they are pulling out of the race to win the HD format war. They will no longer be developing the HD-DVD format.

Toshiba’s president admitted that Warner Bros. decision to exclusively back the Blu-Ray format was basically the nail in the coffin for Toshiba.

Fortunately or unfortunately, that means that Sony’s Blu-Ray technology is the out-and-out winner in the format war. What will this mean for us as consumers? I really can’t say. There still seem to be rumors floating around that Sony is burdened by the cost of producing Blu-Ray compatible players and discs, even selling them at nearly 10 times the price of a standard DVD equipment. I’m hoping that the production costs will drop significantly now that they have no competition. Otherwise, it will most likely be a very long time before Blu-Ray overtakes the standard digital video disc.

At this point, will we begin to see more and more Blu-Ray drives being packaged with new computers? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.