Blue BitBox

Screengrab for Mozilla Firefox 8.0 and 9.0

2011-11-21T20:42:00.008+02:00

Since the Firefox 8.0 release, you might have notices that Screengrab add-on is no longer available.
Andy, the creator of the add-on announced:

Screengrab! saves webpages as images... but not for new versions of Firefox.
FF changes too fast and I don't have the time to maintain it anymore. Bugs have developed that I am not in a position to investigate.
Therefore, Screengrab is EOL. Sorry.

Since we like the add-on, probably just as much as you do, we decided to adapt it for the latest version.

Download Screengrab for Mozilla Firefox 8.0 and Mozilla Firefox 9.0

See more about the Add-on »

Update: It was tested and also works well on Mozilla Firefox 9.0.1.

Some new Win32.Palevo variant

2011-06-07T00:41:00.004+03:00

I've recently witnessed some Win32.Palevo which needed manual intervention to be cleaned. In order to get it done I have killed the processes and deleted the following files in this order:

C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Temp\csrss.exe

C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\conhost.exe

C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\dwm.exe

<user> is to be replaced by your Windows username.
I've also used Spybot - Search&Destroy to clean the registry.
In order to identify the processes to kill, look for the ones that are started by the current user instead of SYSTEM.

Java - read from a file as both RandomAccessFile and FileInputStream

2010-07-25T15:14:00.002+03:00

import java.io.RandomAccessFile;
import java.io.FileInputStream;

First you declare the file as RandomAccessFile.

String filename="file.dat";
RandomAccessFile raf=new RandomAccessFile(filename,"rw");

Then you set the RandomAccessFile's position to where you want to begin reading with the FileInputStream.

long position=1024;
raf.seek(position);

And you create a FileInputStream based on the RandomAccessFile's descriptor.

FileInputStream fis=new FileInputStream(raf.getFD());

Then you can read from the file as an InputStream.

fis.read();

After you're done with reading as an InputStream, do not use

fis.close();

but rather

raf.close();

when you're done with the file.
I used this to read from an archive file which contained more data files.

Usage share of operating systems

2010-07-16T13:40:00.008+03:00

Date: June, 2010
Source: netmarketshare

Date: January, 2009
Source: netcraft

Date: June, 2010
Source: top500

SUSE Studio

2009-08-05T23:12:00.008+03:00

SUSE Studio is a web platform which allows you to build your custom OS based on predefined SUSE configurations. Packs can be chosen from SUSE repository or others. It allows you to build an ISO of a Live CD/DVD or a .tar.gz disk image.
I think this is a great idea and it will become something common in the future.

Pidgin unable to connect Yahoo servers

2009-06-20T12:28:00.010+03:00

If you are user of the Pidgin instant messenger, you would have noticed that you are unable to connect to Yahoo servers.

Yahoo has remove their older versions primarily the ones between Yahoo Messenger 6 and 7.5.

This is probably broken some functionality in Pidgin as well and a couple of users are no longer able to connect.

We searched for a solution and found one:

Adding this line in your host file seems to work for us

66.163.181.170 scs.msg.yahoo.com

For those who don't know, your host file is located on:

Linux - /etc/hosts
Macintosh X - /private/etc/hosts
Novell NetWare - SYS:etc\hosts
Win 95,98,ME - Windows
Win NT, 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, 7 - Windows\system32\drivers\etc\

We are now waiting for Pidgin developers to release a quick update to fix the problem for all of their users.

Later edit:
This method is not working anymore. We recommend you to upgrade to Pidgin 2.5.7

Adobe Flex - Dynamically add LinkButtons from XML data to a Container

2009-03-26T23:37:00.009+02:00

Script:


<mx:Script>
    <![CDATA[
  [Bindable] private var externalXML:XML;
  private function loadXML(XMLfilename:String,ParentObject:Container):void{
  var loader:URLLoader = new URLLoader();
  var request:URLRequest = new URLRequest(XMLfilename);
  loader.load(request);
  loader.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, onComplete);
      function onComplete(event:Event):void {
      var loader:URLLoader = URLLoader(event.target);
      externalXML = new XML(loader.data);
         for each (var link:XML in externalXML.children())
         {
          var lb:LinkButton=new LinkButton();
          lb.label=link.text;
          lb.data=link.value;
          lb.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK,
          function (e:Event):void{navigateToURL(new URLRequest(e.target.data));});
          ParentObject.addChild(lb);
         }
      }
  }
    ]]>
</mx:Script>

Usage:


<mx:VBox id="myContainer" initialize="loadXML('data.xml',myContainer)">

data.xml file sample:


<links>
<link>
<text>Google</text>
<value>http://www.google.ro</value>
</link>
</links>

TrueCrypt

2009-02-23T14:34:00.007+02:00

TrueCrypt is a disk encryption software which I find very useful.
"Free open-source disk encryption software for Windows Vista/XP, Mac OS X, and Linux
Main Features:
* Creates a virtual encrypted disk within a file and mounts it as a real disk.
* Encrypts an entire partition or storage device such as USB flash drive or hard drive.
* Encrypts a partition or drive where Windows is installed (pre-boot authentication).
* Encryption is automatic, real-time (on-the-fly) and transparent.
* Provides two levels of plausible deniability, in case an adversary forces you to reveal the password:
1) Hidden volume (steganography) and hidden operating system.
2) No TrueCrypt volume can be identified (volumes cannot be distinguished from random data).
* Encryption algorithms: AES-256, Serpent, and Twofish. Mode of operation: XTS."

VirtualBox

2009-01-26T01:05:00.010+02:00

"VirtualBox is a general-purpose full virtualizer for x86 hardware. Targeted at server, desktop and embedded use, it is now the only professional-quality virtualization solution that is also Open Source Software."
You can easily manage virtual machines and thus use multiple operating systems.

BadVista campaign

2009-01-15T10:00:00.007+02:00

"What's wrong with Microsoft Windows Vista?
Usually, new software enables you to do more with your computer. Vista, though, is designed to restrict what you can do.
Vista enforces new forms of “Digital Rights Management (DRM)”. DRM is more accurately called Digital Restrictions Management, because it is a technology that Big Media and computer companies try to impose on us all, in order to have control over how our computers are used."
What do you think? Do you trust Microsoft that much?

GeeXboX Linux

2008-12-19T23:05:00.011+02:00

"GeeXboX is a full operating system, running under Linux and based on the excellent MPlayer. No need for a hard drive, you just have to put the GeeXboX bootable CD into the CD-Drive of any Pentium-class or Apple Macintosh computer to boot it. Moreover, GeeXboX is free software, created as open-source software. This means that everyone can modify it and build his own release of the GeeXboX."
With GeeXboX, you can turn your old computer into a media center.

GParted Live Linux

2008-10-26T00:31:00.014+03:00

"GParted Live is a small bootable GNU/Linux distribution for x86 machine. GParted Live can be installed on CD, USB, PXE server, and Hard Disk then run on an x86 machine."
GParted is very helpful when you need to change the partitions without having to actually install a new OS. It has graphical interface and it's easy to use.

Ophcrack Linux

2008-10-06T09:52:00.008+03:00

Ophcrack is a free Windows user password cracker based on rainbow tables. It cracks LM and NTLM hashes.

Slax modules

2008-08-05T15:04:00.069+03:00

Azureus 3.1.1.0 (+ JRE 1.6.0_07)
Azureus 4.0.0.2 (requires JRE)
Azureus 4.2.0.4 (requires JRE)
BeeDiff 1.9
Beep Media Player 0.9.7
e2undel 0.82
FileZilla 3.1.3.1
FileZilla 3.2.6.1
FileZilla 3.2.7.1 (requires libtasn1-3)
FileZilla 3.2.8.1 (requires libtasn1-3)
FileZilla 3.3.0.1 (requires libtasn1-3)
FileZilla 3.3.1 (requires libtasn1-3)
Firefox 3.0.11 (+Flash 10.0 r22)
Firefox 3.5.2 (+Flash 10.0 r32)
Firefox 3.5.5
Firefox 3.6
Flash Player 10r32 for Firefox
jEdit 4.2 (requires JRE)
KDiff3 0.9.92
Notepad++ 5.0.3 (requires wine)
Notepad++ 5.4.5 (requires wine)
Openbox 3.4.6 + obam (run it typing xconf;startx in Text mode)
Pidgin 2.5.8 (requires gnutls and gstreamer)
Pidgin 2.6.4 (requires gnutls and gstreamer)
Pidgin 2.6.5 (requires gnutls and gstreamer)
p7zip 4.58
SBC Archiver 0.97r3
ShowImg 0.9.5
VirtualBox 1.6.2
VirtualBox 3.0.0
VirtualBox 3.0.8
Vuze 4.2.0.4 (requires JRE)
XMMS 1.2.11
XVI32 2.51 (requires wine)
ZendStudio 5.5.1

You can check out modules (mine and others') at http://www.slax.org/modules.php?author=11489 or http://andrei.jurubita.ro/slax

These modules should also work for any Slax-based distribution like: Ophcrack, Backtrack(<=3), Wolvix, Davix, NimbleX ...

LZM repository from NimbleX: http://www.nimblex.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=section&id=5&Itemid=42

Backtrack Linux

2008-07-25T18:04:00.006+03:00

Backtrack is a Linux distribution based on Slax, made for security tests, which is portable.

Slax Linux

2008-07-22T14:21:00.011+03:00

Slax is a Linux distribution based on Slackware, which is quite small and can run from a USB stick. I use it for Linux experience and saving files from crashed Windows.

Speed test (in flash)

2008-07-22T14:19:00.008+03:00

speedtest.net is a speed test made in flash, which I recommend. :)