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OS X and Reading Text
Posted by technohermit in OS X, System Preferences, Uncategorized on 2010/03/14
Apple’s OS X allows you to zoom in on your screen in a number of different ways. It also can read text to you, if you are so inclined. There are many ways to do this, depending on which hardware choice you made.
If you have a track pad on your Mac, and it supports gestures (all Intel versions do, and some late G4 PowerBooks) you can simply spread two fingers apart on the track pad to have it zoom text. To accomplish this with a mouse, If you’d like to zoom in on the entire screen rather than just make text bigger, hold down the control key (two keys left of the spacebar) and slide two fingers from the track pad’s button toward the screen. A third option is to hold down command (⌘) and hit + to make text bigger. Alternatively, command (⌘) – makes it smaller.
Even better, you can easily set up OS X to read selected text for you, using a keystroke combination that you define. It comes in handy to select some text, and then let the computer read the selected text to you as you continue to browse around a site. Naturally, if you cannot see the text to begin with, or have trouble reading from a screen for any number of reasons, this built in feature is priceless.
First, open System Preferences by clicking this icon in the Dock: 
If it’s not in the Dock, open Finder, and find your Applications folder. Navigate to System Preferences and double-click to open. Once open, click the Speech icon, as shown below on Snow Leopard, it looks like a microphone:
Once there, check the box to “Speak selected text when the key is pressed”, then click on the Set Key button to create a keyboard shortcut to have the computer read text you have selected. This allows you to also deselect the text, while the computer keeps reading it, which is a pretty nice feature. You can then even navigate way from the page or text, and look at something else while you are listening to the text being read.
Virtual Box on Mac OS X
Posted by technohermit in Apple, Uncategorized, Virtualization, Windows on 2010/03/09
Oracle’s (formerly Sun’s) VirtualBox software is a virtualization software that allows you to run many operating systems on top of your OS X installation in real time. I’ve been running Apple’s Boot Camp with Windows 7 Ultimate, and decided it would still be beneficial to have an install of XP service pack 3 hanging around. I really didn’t feel like hacking Boot Camp was the best solution for having another OS on my system, so I started looking into alternatives. Surprisingly more than a few exist, although I decided on VirtualBox because, well, it’s free!
To start your installation, first download the software from the above link. Installation is as easy as a double-click, and a few prompt screens. Once complete, double-click the handy shortcut to your Applications folder, find the newly installed VirtualBox, and double-click that to start it running.
Help screens are well thought out, and tell you exactly where everything is to get started. They’ve also thrown in some nice pop-ups once you are up and running, to explain some shortcuts. More on that below. The first screen you see is the Details window, which is where you will find your various operating systems after you’ve installed them. It looks like this:
Next comes installation of your OS of choice, in this case I installed Windows XP SP2 (which I then updated to SP3 to be sure everything works properly.) There are some settings that need to be adjusted when you install, such as RAM and Hard Disk size. Simply click the “New” button in the upper left-hand corner to get started. VirtualBox walks you through the creation of the virtual machine and gives you allocation suggestions, which I modified to my liking. See screen shots below:
One thing I had to change were the video settings. XP would blue screen at the text phase of the installation on my MacBook Pro (mid-2008). I had the 2D Video Acceleration checked, and when I unchecked it, the installation proceeded without issues. You can see that the window warns you at the bottom to change a setting (Non-optimal Settings detected.)
I also changed the Video Memory to 64MB instead of the allocated 16MB. The installation went perfectly well after these minor changes, and the machine starts and shuts down promptly. Faster than a typical boot or shut down on a stand alone machine, for sure. It is also much quicker than having to log out of OS X and use Boot Camp. The price is right at $0.00, and if you find the need for Windows this might be the best solution out there on a budget.
A Review of Various IT Information Security Certifications
Posted by technohermit in Hardware, Networking, Security, Uncategorized on 2010/02/15
I recently completed a review of some available training certification paths for IT/IS. If you are interested in a career in Information Security, read on, because sooner or later you’ll need a few of these.
1) GISF (GIAC Information Security Fundamentals) is an entry level examination, and they recommend hands-on practical experience, although none is required. The target audience for this exam is:
“Professionals who need to hit the ground running and need an overview of information assurance. Managers, Information Security Officers, and System Administrators who need an overview of risk management and defense in depth techniques. Anyone who writes, implements, or must adhere to policy, disaster recovery or business continuity.”–Link
- Cost: SANS bootcamps are roughly $3500-$4000, not including the proctored exams and an additional $499 for the proctored exams (through GIAC). If purchased without SANS training, the exams are $899 rather than $499.
- Available Training: Training is available throughout the year at conferences (in six-day schedules), or online. Testing is proctored through GIAC, who offers a total of 21 certificate exams. They also advise training through SANS for this exam, by attending their Security 301 course. OnDemand and SelfStudy. (See fig 1A below)
- Type of Exam: The GISF is a four hour exam, with 150 questions. Passing grade is 70%. This certificate must be renewed every four years.
- Location: GIAC exams are given online through a standard web browser, 7-10 days after the end of a SANS conference* (if you purchased training through SANS), or 24 hours after payment is received without a bundled course. You must complete an exam within 120 days of receiving notice of its availability. (*Exception is the Expert Exam, which is given only once per year.)
2) GSEC (GIAC Security Essentials Certification) is an intermediate level exam. The target audience for this exam is comprised of:
“Security Professionals that want to demonstrate they are qualified for IT systems hands-on roles with respect to security tasks. Candidates are required to demonstrate an understanding of information security beyond simple terminology and concepts.” –Link
- Cost: SANS bootcamps are roughly $3500-$4000, not including the proctored exams and an additional $499 for the proctored exams (through GIAC). If purchased without SANS training, the exams are $899 rather than $499.
- Available Training: Training is available throughout the year at conferences (in six-day schedules), or online. Testing is proctored through GIAC, who offers a total of 21 certificate exams. They also advise training through SANS for this exam, by attending their Security 301 course. OnDemand and SelfStudy. (See fig 1A above)
- Type of Exam: The GSEC is a five hour exam, with 180 questions. Passing grade is 70%. This certificate must be renewed every four years.
- Location: GIAC exams are given online through a standard web browser, 7-10 days after the end of a SANS conference* (if you purchased training through SANS), or 24 hours after payment is received without a bundled course. You must complete an exam within 120 days of receiving notice of its availability. (*Exception is the Expert Exam, which is given only once per year.)
3) GISP (GIAC Information Security Professional) is an intermediate level exam. Target audience for this certification is:
“Security Professionals that want to fill the gaps in their understanding of technical information security; System, Security, and Network Administrators that want to understand the pragmatic applications of the Common Body of Knowledge; managers that want to understand information security beyond simple terminology and concepts; anyone new to information security with some background in information systems and networking. Candidates may also wish to use this certification as an independent assessment of your mastery of the (ISC)2 Common Body of Knowledge.”
- Cost: SANS bootcamps are roughly $3500-$4000, not including the proctored exams and an additional $499 for the proctored exams (through GIAC). If purchased without SANS training, the exams are $899 rather than $499.
- Available Training: Training is available throughout the year at conferences (in six-day schedules), or online. Testing is proctored through GIAC, who offers a total of 21 certificate exams. They also advise training through SANS for this exam, by attending their Security 301 course. OnDemand and SelfStudy.
- Type of Exam: The GSEC is a five hour exam, with 250 questions. Passing grade is 70%. This certificate must be renewed every four years.
- Location: GIAC exams are given online through a standard web browser, 7-10 days after the end of a SANS conference* (if you purchased training through SANS), or 24 hours after payment is received without a bundled course. You must complete an exam within 120 days of receiving notice of its availability. (*Exception is the Expert Exam, which is given only once per year.)
4) CCSP (Cisco Certified Security Professional Exam) offered through its Networking Academy.
- Cost: Costs vary widely as you can schedule just for the exam, or take the courses through their Academy in conjunction with another provider (such as a college.) Prerequisites include the CCIE or both the CCNA and CCNA Security coursework.
- Available Training: There are various exams and books required for this exam. You can find information about all of the required exams here.
- Type of Exam: Computer based. Cisco Professional level certifications are valid for three years. Recertification by passing any 642 exam that is part of the professional level curriculum or CCIE/CCDE written exam before certification expiration date.
- Location: Tests are given through Pearson Vue, scheduled online to find a center close to your location.
5) Security+ (CompTIA) certification is aimed at IT professionals who have two years on-the-job networking experience, with an emphasis on security. It is an entry-level, vendor-neutral certification which makes a great stepping stone to more advanced certifications, such as the ISC2 SSCP and CISSP, and the SANS GIAC. It also may be used in some Microsoft certification tracks.
- Cost: Cost of the exam without a discount voucher (generally available through books used to study for the exam) is $258 (Link). Cramsession.com has the price listed for CompTIA members as $175, $225 for non-members.
- Available Training: Training for the exam can be done through many training locations, which links are provided for on the CompTIA website. You may also study for the exam on your own using many test reference/study guides widely available.
- Type of Exam: Multiple choice computer based exam. 60-70 questions, few simulations. 90 minutes to complete the test.
- Location: Can be taken at various testing locations worldwide through PearsonVUE or Thomson Prometric.
6)SSCP Certification (ISC)2 “is the ideal credential for those who are the hands-on practical technicians; the enforcers who everyone goes to for answers. You would implement the plans and policies designed, planned and managed by the CISO or CSO who would typically hold the more advanced Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP®) Gold Standard certification from (ISC)2 and operate in a managerial capacity as opposed to hands-on like you.”–Link
- Cost: Exam cost is $250 for early registration, $300 standard registration.
- Available Training: Training is available through bootcamps, online vendors, and self study CBT.
- Type of Exam: Multiple choice computer based exam. 125 questions and 3 hours to complete. Passing score is 700.
- Additional Information: Along with the exam, you must present a completed endorsement form (Found here). ISC2 reviews resumés in order to determine your 1 year of required professional experience. They also randomly audit test takers post-examination prior to awarding your certificate, to be sure you have the required credentials and industry good standing.
- Location: In New York, there are exams in Buffalo, Albany and NY City.
Good luck completing your goals, and I hope this list helped you find the certifications you were looking for!
Quick Review of Blade Servers from IBM, HP and Dell
Posted by technohermit in Blade Servers, Hardware, Uncategorized on 2010/02/14
Blade Servers
A blade server is a small form-factor computer that has certain components removed from the typical computer or server case in order to decrease the size of the machine. Often, these components include the power supply, network devices, and other miscellaneous peripheral connections. Exactly what is removed is dependent upon the server manufacturer. Removal does not affect functionality because they are included in a blade server chassis.
A blade server generally can be ordered full-height or half-height, depending on the manufacturer, capabilities, scalability, and future upgrade requirements required of the server. The size chosen determines how many severs are able to fit into the chassis. For example, a Dell PowerEdge m1000e or a HP BladeSystem c-Class 10U chassis can fit 16 half-height servers, and IBM’s BladeCenter H Type 8852 can fit 14 into a similarly dimensioned 10U enclosure. Note that both Dell and HP’s 10U enclosure are 17.5 inches in height, where the IBM unit is 15.75 inches. Full height servers in the m1000e chassis would then reduce the available number to 8 servers per chassis.
Dell PowerEdge Blade Servers
Hardware Options
Dell offers many different hardware choices for their blade servers. Available chipsets are either Intel or AMD. Current socket choices in both half- and full-height M series blades are 2-Socket, with one lone exception: the M905, a 4-Socket AMD, dual or quad core full-height server. All Intel processors offered are Xeon 5500 series, dual- or quad-core. Prices for the two M710 Full-Height start at $1829, and the M610 Half-Height start at $1,129. AMD versions begin with the two-socket, M605 Half-Height at $1,059 and range upwards to the four-socket M905 Full-Height at $5,3192,3.
No operating system is included with a PowerEdge Server at the base price. For an additional cost, Dell will factory install most versions of MS Server 2003 or 2008, Red Hat Linux, and Novel SUSE Linux. Additional supported systems include SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11, Sun Solaris, and VMware 3.0 or 3.5. Dell offers several power configurations for their chassis, and various connectivity devices for networking.
Storage options include two hot-pluggable4 SAS (from 73GB to 300GB 10K RPM ) or SSD (25, 50, 100 GB) hard drives, as well as a 73GB or 146GB 15K SAS drives. A single 73GB 10K SAS drive is included in the base configuration. The stock controller, however, does not support RAID.
Available Connectivity
•Ethernet: Blade Ethernet Switches–up to 10Gbps5 managed or pass-through devices, as well as Cisco Catalyst Blade switches.
•Fibre Channel: Up to 8Gbps3 throughput with Brocade switches and 4Gbps with an FC4 Pass-Through module.
•InfiniBand: Two Mellanox InfiniBand switches are available, one DDR (5Gbps)and one QDR (10Gbps).
Processor and Memory Configurations
The M610 version of the Poweredge Blade Server line starts at $1129 with a single dual core E5504 (2 total cores) processor. Available options are shown in the list below, taken directly from Dell’s site:
The stock processor supports 144GB of DDR3-800 memory. The M610 has 12 slots for memory, using 16GB UDIMMS would allow only 96GB per processor. Using a more modest 24GB (4x6GB) brings the price to $2,228. The stock configuration includes 1GB (1x1GB) non-ECC memory. Configuring the sever with a more aggressive X5570 allows Hyper-Threading support, Intel’s Turbo mode, and much higher throughput, at 6.4 GT/s (Giga-Transfers Per Second.) Added cost is shown in the image above.
Power Availability
Depending on the customer’s power availability, Dell offers up to 6 (3 necessary and 3 for redundancy) PDU’s for their m1000e chassis. The chassis also supports single- or three-phase power. The most robust options are found in their 3-phase units, where the grid can be adjusted to distribute power evenly through all PDU’s yet maintain redundancy through the failure of up to 3 individual PDU’s. Also notable is that the PSU’s in the servers are hot-swappable, and the chassis comes with jumper cords for this purpose.
Service Agreements and Warranties
All of the PowerEdge Blade Servers come with a standard 3-year hardware warranty, although the standard agreement only allows SATA drives the lesser of the warranty of the product purchased or 1-year (in the case of PowerEdge Blade Servers, the drive(s) would be limited to one year only.) Basic hardware assessments are always done first over the phone, and a determination of the problem is handled accordingly. In the basic warranty agreement, for example, Dell has many options of how they will repair your malfunctioning hardware. Some parts are “CSR”, meaning Customer Service Replaceable, and they will ship you the part. Some parts are Return and Repair, which are shipped ground freight once Dell receives the damaged part. There are many options for SLA’s (Service Level Agreements), but the above is for the basic purchase of a server as listed on their website. No On-Site service is included at those prices.
Hewlett Packard
Hardware Options
HP’s ProLiant Intel-based G6 server range also uses the Xeon platform, with 3400 or 5500 series processors. The 3400 series Xeon platform is for single-processor four-core configurations, while the 5500 series supports up to 2 sockets, with 4 cores per socket. The G6 design allows for 4 servers per node, with 4 nodes per chassis, similar to Dell’s offering as noted above.
In competition with the Dell M610, HP offers the BL460c half-height blade server. The server comes preconfigured with a single E5502 processor, SAS array controllers, a three year basic warranty, and 6GB of PC3-10600R memory (3x2GB sticks.) HP notes that this unit is preconfigured this way, and any additional modifications would result in separate shipping for those options.
The base server price, preconfigured is $2,701. This includes a storage controller similar to Dell’s M610, however no hard drives come with the base configuration. Internal storage options available are similar to Dell’s, hot-pluggable SATA, SAS, or SAS SSD drives; sizes range from 72GB to 500GB depending on drive speed and type.
Options available through HP’s configuration pages are somewhat limited. HP’s Insight management software and CAL’s for MS Windows Server line are available for purchase with a standard configuration. No other software options are available through the HP website, they need to be ordered by speaking with an HP salesperson.
Available Connectivity
Switch and pass-through connections for 1GB, 10GB ethernet, 4GB or 8GB Fibre Channel, and HP’s quad rate InfiniBand Switch.
Power Availability
The HP c-7000 blade enclosure supports only 200V or 240V AC power, with up to 10 fans. 6 PDU’s are included as standard equipment. The enclosure does have single- or three-phase capability. Although there are 6 PDU’s similar to Dell’s m1000e, there is only one power bus in the c-7000, meaning a power problem on the bus could render all PDU’s inoperable.
Service Agreements and Warranty
There are many SLA’s available depending on need. The blade servers do not come with on-site support as standard, although the c-7000 enclosure does come with a 3-year parts/labor/onsite warranty.
Virtual Connect
HP has a feature called Virtual Connect which provides automatic failover protection for blade servers by using a spare server and booting to a SAN. This allows SA’s to change out failing blades requiring no downtime on the network. Also, virtual connect allows for preconfiguration of all LAN NICS in the enclosure, as well as names for the SAN. When new hardware is added later, these preconfigured NIC’s can be assigned remotely through software to the new hardware. This saves on time and hardware because fewer switches and no cables are required to achieve the same performance of traditional rack or blade enclosures.
IBM
Hardware Cost and Options
IBM offers Intel Xeon 5500 series or AMD Opteron processors, similar to HP and Dell in their BladeCenter servers. They also offer their Power line POWER6 processor in the J-series blades.
To maintain similarity between the servers, IBM offers the HS22 line of blade servers with a single E5502 processor. Stock configurations include one E5502, 6GB RAM, 16MB graphics, and two Gigabit ethernet NIC ports (single card). There are 12 RAM slots total for memory, with a supported size of 8GB, bringing available memory to 96GB. The included 6GB of RAM are 3x2GB (similar to HP’s stock configuration.) No hard disks are included with the base price of $1,479.00. Availability is “within 15 days” according to the build configuration on IBM’s site. Any additional reconfiguring of the server (adding hard drives, for example) will not be installed and will ship separately.
Hard disk options include SATA, SAS, and Small Form Factor (2.5”) 6Gbps SAS. Sizes are typical of the other two manufacturers, ranging from 73 to 500GB. IBM lists their hard disk as hot-swappable. RAID-0 and 1 are available out of the box on the HS22.
Available Connectivity
Connectivity includes two available I/O expansion units, supporting ethernet, fiber, virtual fiber, InfiniBand, and SAS. Manufacturers for these expansion cards are Broadcom, Emulex, QLogic, and IBM. IBM notes that they offer up to 20 I/O lanes per blade server in the H chassis compared to only 14 for both HP and Dell.
Power Availability
The H22 supports 2 PSU’s. The BladeCenter H chassis supports up to four 2900W PDU’s at 208-240V. Redundancy information could not be located for either the blades or the H chassis, however.
Service Agreements and Warranty
Included with the blade servers is a 3 year on-site warranty, although it does not specify what the initial response time is nor the turn-around on items needing repair. IBM is the only one of the three manufacturers to give a web price on 24×7 4-hour support, which is an additional $1,569 for 3 years (per server.) As is the case for most other hardware vendors, contacting them for server hardware would result in considerable savings when purchasing larger build-outs and longer term/faster service contracts. The warranty does not cover 3rd party hardware installed in the server, the case, “failure due to events beyond IBM’s control”, or service. Most of the connectivity options are not IBM branded (fiber and ethernet), which is something to consider.
Recommendation
My preference, after looking through the various offerings, leans toward Dell. The TCO and build out times for Dell appear to be significantly cheaper than the respective offerings from IBM and HP.
Necessary rack space is also smaller with Dell, saving valuable floor space, cooling, and cabling requirements. Dell was the only manufacturer to install additional components at the time of order. Both IBM and HP ship everything separately from the blade, leaving the installation to be done in-house. If this were a total build-out, say of three fully populated racks and enclosures, the install time for Dell would take hours, while the additional configuration required from the competition would take days or weeks, depending on in-house manpower.
There are advantages, once installed, to HP or IBM in that they both offer virtualization for I/O connectivity. This could reduce downtime in the future if any problems arise with a blade. In general, I do not feel that the cost increase over Dell justifies this benefit. In highly critical systems, however, it may easily account for the additional cost.
Moving Around in Vim
Posted by technohermit in Apple, OS X, OS X Shell, Uncategorized, Unix, vi on 2009/11/19
I’ve written a couple of beginning UNIX for OS X entries, such as creating a .bash_profile and .bashrc file using vim. Here is another vim tutorial for moving around in the screen editor, so you can see just how powerful it’s commands can be.
This post will deal with mostly command mode, the default mode when you open vim (or an existing file with it.) To move the command marker around the file without entering INSERT mode consists of four basic keys. Moving to the next/previous word, to the beginning of a paragraph, etc. will require a bit more memorization.
You want to first familiarize yourself with the h, j, k, and l keys. The outer two (on a standard keyboard) move your cursor left or right one-character; h, to the left, and l to the right. j will move your cursor up to the next line, while k moves it down one line. The fact that you are in command mode means no changes are made to your text at this point. You can use the arrow keys for the same functionality, but getting used to the keys will help you keep your hands where they belong–typing and editing text.
Moving to the beginning of the current line is done by pressing O (zero). To move to the end of the current line press $. + moves your cursor to the beginning of the next line, and – moves you to the beginning of the previous line.
Next are some basic ideas for commands. Some will take a number argument, followed by a command. Some can be written with a number argument followed by another command. For example, x in command mode means delete a character. To delete a word, or the rest of a word if you are in the middle of one, you type dw. If you precede x with a number, n, vim will delete the following n characters from the line. The command to delete the next four characters would be written, simply, as 4x. To delete the next four words, you would type 4dw.
Vim is a very capable text editor once you learn more about its commands, and get used to bouncing between INSERT and command modes. Below you can find a table of common commands and their function, at least enough to get you on your way as a skilled vim user.
|
Movement Command |
Function |
|
h |
Move Left One Character |
|
j |
Move Down One Line |
|
k |
Move Up One Line |
|
l |
Move Right One Character |
|
0 |
Move to First Character Of Current Line |
|
$ |
Move to Last Character Of Current Line |
|
+ |
Move to First Character Of Next Line |
|
w |
Move to Next Word or Punctuation Mark |
|
W |
Move to Next Word |
|
e |
Move to End of Current Word |
|
E |
Move to End of Next Word |
|
b |
Move Back to Beginning of Word or Closest Punctuation |
|
B |
Move Back to Beginning of Word |
|
) |
Move to End of Current Sentence |
|
( |
Move to Beginning of Current Sentence |
|
} |
Move to Start if Next Paragraph |
|
{ |
Move to Start of Previous Paragraph |
|
Delete Command |
Function |
|
x |
Delete Current Character |
|
X |
Delete Character Immediately Left Of Cursor |
|
dw |
Delete Current Word |
|
10dw |
Delete Ten Words |
|
D |
Delete To End of Current Line (also d$) |
|
dd |
Deletes Current Line |
|
20dd |
Deletes Twenty Lines |
|
dG |
Deletes From Cursor to End |
|
u |
Undo (doesn’t work for single character deletion) |
Cron Jobs on OS X
Posted by technohermit in Apple, OS X Shell, Uncategorized, Unix on 2009/11/15
Since OS X Tiger, cron has been replaced by a utility called launchd, and three separate launch daemons. Rather than having to run crontab to manipulate scripts, they are run by launchd according to three separate directories inside of /etc/periodic.
The scripts contained in these folders are run at specified intervals by three preference files, in XML format, found in the /System/Library/LaunchDaemons folder. You can manipulate the .plist files with a text editor or Apple’s Property List Editor (if you’ve installed Developer Tools.) They are named, simply enough, com.apple.periodic-daily.plist, com.apple.periodic-weekly.plist, andcom.apple.periodic-monthly.plist. They are, by default, set to run at the same time as the old cron jobs, in the middle of the night. If you happen to shut down your Mac, it might be a good idea to change these intervals to a time when you’re sure the computer will not be shut down, as these jobs are important.
You will find a script in each of these folders called 999.local. This file is set to read-ony by default, and is for ”backwards compatibility with the old /etc/daily.local” according to the comments in the file. (I’m running Snow Leopard.) I’d recommend not modifying the scripts in the /etc/periodic folders, and creating a /etc/daily.local, /etc/weekly.local, and /etc/monthly.local file for your cron jobs, as you have the 999.local script in each of the daily, weekly, and monthly sub-directories of /etc/periodic to tell your scripts to run. Any future system updates could change the default files in those three directories, so if you modify those you may end up losing your scripts. Avoid that by setting up your own.
If you are running aTiger, the 999.local file may not exist, and you will have 500.daily, 500.weekly, and 500.monthly files inside their appropriate /etc/periodic directories. You should still create a daily.local, weekly.local, and monthly.local script file and place them in the /etc directory, and they will be called from the respective 500.* file.
Stop error c0000218 Hive file Corrupted or Missing
Posted by technohermit in Boot Problems, Uncategorized, Virus Issues, Windows on 2009/11/11
I was searching around for this error on an older Dell 8300 running Windows XP. It seems Microsoft’s KB Article doesn’t have a fix for someone with an OEM installation of Windows XP. Also, it doesn’t mention anything about the SECURITY file mentioned in my stop error message.
The problem here was a pretty bad virus infection. What I was able to do to fix it and get Windows to boot, was to pull the drive and connect it to another Windows machine and run chkdsk. I probably could have used my XP Pro CD and run chkdsk from the Recovery Console, but I’m going off the assumption that if you have an OEM CD, this feature may not be available to you. If you have it, run chkdsk /f at the command line. Otherwise, connect the drive to another machine running XP or better via USB and run it from there. To access the drive, you need a USB enclosure and a computer running XP, Vista, or 7.
In Windows, type Windows Key+E to access Explorer. Find your newly connected drive in the left-hand column and right-click to open the menu. Click on Properties. Click the Tools tab, and then click Check Now. Be sure to check for bad sectors and file structure errors, even though it takes a little longer for the sectors check…mine had bad sectors. After it finishes, if it’s found and corrected the errors, you should be able to boot into XP when you reinstall the drive to the problematic computer. From there, be sure to pick up Malwarebyte’s Anti-Malware and either Kaspersky Anti-Virus or NOD32 Anti-Virus, as you probably have a case of the virus blues.
I highly recommend you get Dr Web’s LiveCD, a bootable anti-virus disk. The image you download will be in .iso format, so be sure you can burn it to a CD from the computer you are using. I assume, if you’re reading this, you do have access to a bootable computer 
There are a few things you should do, once you get your computer back to running condition.
First, get off Internet Explorer! Use a browser such as Firefox or Google Chrome.
Second, be sure to get yourself a paid for subscription to one of the above mentioned anti-virus programs. Obviously the one you are (or lack of one, for that matter) using isn’t effective. Good luck getting up and running, and thanks for reading!
Using vim In OS X — A Text Editor Tutorial For Beginners
Posted by technohermit in Apple, OS X, OS X Shell, Uncategorized, vi on 2009/11/03
Here is a quick tutorial for people unfamiliar with text editors in UNIX. If you are just getting started with the Terminal in OS X, you probably need to create your .bash_profile and such, so that you can keep your settings upon logging out of the shell. I will show you how to create this file in a text editor called vim, which stands for vi IMproved.
Vim is a very powerful text editor, and if you have any experience in UNIX at all, you probably were shown pico, which is easier to use at first due to some of the commands being shown at the bottom of the screen as you work in pico’s buffer. In pico, there is no separation from command or input modes, also making it a bit less confusing. The buffer simply means what is shown on your screen, not yet written to disk. While a GUI text editor such as Microsoft Word or Apple’s Pages do not tell you that you are working in a buffer input mode, technically it is the same thing. If they crash, you lose what you changed if it was not saved prior to the crash.
Vim is a little obscure, yet extremely functional. You start vim by typing vi or vim at the bash prompt in Terminal. Terminal is located in your ~/Applications/Utilities folder by default on OS X. When it opens, you are by default in command mode. Vim shows you this startup screen, which has a bunch of tildes (~) on the left-hand side, and some version information in the center:
vim Startup Screen OS X Snow Leopard
If you type something in, the startup screen goes away and the first tilde also disappears. The tilde characters simply clarify lines in the buffer. They will not print, they are just there showing you where the next lines are. Once started, you are by default in Vim’s command mode. If you type vim testfile.txt at the bash prompt, vim will open the file testfile.txt in whichever directory you are currently in. If testfile.txt doesn’t exist, vim will create the file and open into the edit buffer for you, skipping the welcome screen:
Vim Buffer
As shown in the screenshot (click to enlarge it, as with all screenshots on this blog), the buffer is in INSERT mode. By default, no matter what file you open or create, vim starts in command mode. It doesn’t ever show —COMMAND— at the bottom of the screen. Vim lets you know you aren’t in command mode by telling you that you are in INSERT mode.
To get back into command mode, which is where you will end up saving files to disk, changing the contents of vim’s 26 named buffers (consider them like the clipboard in a GUI text editor), moving around the screen, deleting lines, etc. Anything you want to do with the file besides type in text will generally be done in command mode. Let’s save this file now, so you can see how it works to get in and out of command mode.
First, hit the ESC key. On almost every keyboard ever, this will be the key at the very top-left corner of the keyboard. You should no longer see –INSERT– at the bottom of the Terminal window. Now type the following command, without the quotes: ”:w testfile.txt“. See screenshot below:
Write Command
File Saved
You can see at the bottom of the Terminal window that the write command was successful. You also see that three lines were written containing a total of 138 characters. You can verify the file was written by typing (again, without quotes) “:q“, and hit enter. This quits vim. At the bash prompt, type “ls” and hit enter. You should see your new file in the list of the directory. To remove (delete) the file, type “rm testfile.txt” and hit enter.
Now to create your .bash_profile, so you can save certain settings. When Terminal starts, it will read this file to load alias information, screen settings and such, if they are explained in this file. As you become more familiar with the Terminal and start to have preferences for certain things, i.e., showing hidden files when you get a list of a directory, you may want to create an alias for the ls command so it shows them by “default” because of your .bash_profile.
First, navigate to your home directory if you are not there now. You do this by typing the command “cd ~” at the bash prompt and hitting enter. Terminal will show your computer name, followed by your present working directory, and yourusername$, which is the bash prompt. You should see something like this:
Bash Prompt
Create your empty .bash_profile by typing “vim .bash_profile” and hitting enter. We will create a simple alias and save the profile. Then we will quit Terminal, restart it and verify the alias still works.
Alias in Profile
By default, the alias wouldn’t work again after you quit Terminal. If it is in your profile, it will work when you open a new Terminal, such is the point of having a profile. To type in what I show above, press the letter “i“ on your keyboard to put you in insert mode. Then type the following exactly:
dirA=”ls -lia”
Hit the ESC key, and type: “:w” to save the file. Now type “:q” to exit vim and return to the bash prompt. You can verify the file was written and it’s contents by typing “cat .bash_profile” and hitting enter:
Verify File Was Written
Now quit and re-open Terminal. You should now be able to get a detailed list of your directory, showing hidden files, by typing dirA and hitting enter:
Working dirA Alias
Next time I will show you how to navigate through text, delete lines and add or retrieve lines to and from the named buffers. If there are certain things you would like to learn about Terminal or vim, please leave comments below. Please also let me know if any of this could be better clarified, as I check my comments often and will respond promptly. Thanks for reading!
Common Shortcuts for OS X And Their Windows Equivalents
Posted by technohermit in Apple, OS X, Uncategorized, Windows on 2009/11/01
If you are new to OS X, there are a bunch of shortcuts that you’ll immediately recognize from Windows. If you don’t use shortcuts at all, you really are missing out, as they are much faster than using the mouse in most situations. I tout programs like LaunchBar and Colibri because they make your computer usage faster. It is no different for shortcuts built-in to the operating system, so you should really take advantage of them!
Here is a short list of the most common on both OS X and Windows:
OS X and Windows Shortcuts
Since Vista was launched, you can create keyboard shortcuts to your programs through the Shortcut Icons that a program creates. You do this by:
- Right-Click the shortcut icon for the program
- Left-Click Properties
- In the “Shortcut Properties” box, find “Shortcut” tab and Left-Click on that.
- Left-Click the “Shortcut Key” box., and type in a letter you want to start the program. For example, type P for Photoshop.
- The box should update to show CTRL-ALT-P, as all shortcuts created in this manner automatically must begin with CTRL-ALT.
