Donnybrookdesign.com

Hey all, haven’t posted in a while for a variety of reasons. The biggest reason is that one of my coworkers, who happens to be one of the people who hold my workplace together, has decided to move to a different job. So at this moment I’m in ‘oh crap what do I do’ mode trying to decide whether I should ask for a big raise and stay or just cut my losses and find a new job. Beyond that I had a visitor from out of town and I’m currently planning a trip across half the country to watch 8 baseball games in 8 days. I’ll be gone from the 20th until the 29th of July for that trip so I won’t be doing any posting here for that (perhaps to my brother’s sports blog instead).

Donnybrookdesign will probably never be an everyday posting place for me. This is more of my professional blog and sandbox website. I’ll probably try out a lot of crazy things here and discard them. I’m adamantly against posting news stories and just writing a two line comment for the sole purpose of having a post here. I know many bloggers have the need to become rich and famous off of other’s efforts but that is not really my intention. I want this to mostly be an index site directing you to the most reputable sources of knowledge and software on the internet. I may not be the most intelligent guy in the world, but I do know how to recognize talent and collate widely disparate information. I think that has something to do with spending way way way too much time in academia and more specifically academic libraries…

I decided to start playing with the MyBlogLog widget. You can see it on the side of the page there(Edit: Not anymore, I tossed it). Essentially it’s a social networking site for bloggers, allows you to connect with other bloggers. One of the hardest things about starting a new blog is overcoming the feeling that you are talking to yourself all the time. Thankfully I have lots of experience doing that, so it doesn’t bother me too much.

Having the widget on the side of the page lets me see if other bloggers are checking out the page and is useful for stalking. Just kidding I can’t overcome the feeling that it is all a blog pyramid scheme though, adding other blogs to your friends list, having bloggers visit your blog in exchange for you visiting theirs. It is funny too how the bloggers who use basic psychology tricks, such as thanking people for visiting their page, and asking tons of people to be friends, become the most popular. MyBlogLog taps into that inner need to feel part of a group, and to have a network of people who care about you. In the end social networking is so popular because it connects with a deep need for community and acceptance. Combine that with a voyeuristic ability to pry into others lives, and you can see why it has taken off in the last few years. We all yearn to be popular on some level and to know how others are living their lives. That’s why celebrity rags are so big with a certain segment of the population, vicariously experiencing popularity without taking any risk.

It makes me wonder if social networking will ever merge, or it will continue to splinter into small fiefdoms/communities. The first person who gives people the ability to simply share information between different social networks, carry friends over, etc. is going to be very wealthy. I can’t help but be reminded of a Pulizer Prize finalist book I just finished, The Blank Slate ( I cannot recommend this book highly enough). The Blank Slate addresses how many people in modern society deny human nature. I think if you look closely you’ll see human nature in all aspects of popular internet sites. There are basic needs hardwired into us all, those who make it big on the internet tap into these base desires (think pornographers, or Google {ask a question, have it answered}, or Facebook {look how many friends I have, look at the parties I’m going to….}) . Yeah, I guess that’s the point of this rambling post, if you want to be someone on the internet, think emotionally first, then rationally implement the plan.

This is the first of a series of posts concerning computer privacy. Part 1 will deal with Windows privacy, more specifically Windows XP (although just about all the software will also run on Vista). Why XP? I haven’t bothered installing Vista on my machines, and I don’t have any intention of doing it anytime soon. I only want to recommend products that I have personally tried. A Linu

Many times when you see a list of software on the internet, it seems like the author just stocks it full of crap in order to have more items. I suppose certain social bookmarking sites prefer a list of 500,000 free but not very good tools to a short list of items that the author has actually tried out. All the items below are freeware. Most are open source (If you value your privacy, you should understand why that’s important). I have personally used all of them at one point or another and would recommend them all. In other posts I will examine the why and how of computer security, but let’s just jump right to the good stuff, the software and webtools you’ll need. Without further ado….

Free Windows Privacy Tools

Antispyware:

AdAware

• About - (Vista version is not out until August 2007)

• Download

Hijack This

• About

• Download

Spybot S&D

• About

• Download

Spyware Blaster

• About

• Download

Antivirus:

AntiVir

• About

• Download

Browser:

Firefox

• Download

Browser Extensions:

AdBlock Plus

• About

• Download

AdBlock Filterset.G Updater

• About - “This is a companion extension to Adblock or Adblock Plus and should be used in conjunction with it. This extension automatically downloads the latest version of Filterset.G every 4-7 days. Filterset.G is an excellent set of filters maintained by G for Adblock that blocks most ads on the internet.”

• Download

BugMeNot

• About - “Bypass compulsory web registration via Firefox’s right-click context menu.”

• Download

Cookieculler Extension

• About - “CookieCuller is modified version of the Cookie Manager built into the Firefox/Mozilla browser”

• Download

FoxyProxy

• About - “FoxyProxy is an advanced proxy management tool that completely replaces Firefox’s proxy configuration.”

• Download

Torbutton

• About

• Download

Compression:

7-Zip

• About

• Download

Disk Cleaning:

CCleaner (Slim, no Yahoo Toolbar)

• About

• Download

E-Mail:

E-Mail Client

• Thunderbird
  
  • About
  • Download

Throwaway email

• List of sites

Thunderbird Extension

• Enigmail
  • About - “OpenPGP message encryption and authentication for Thunderbird”
  • Download

Firewall:

Zone Alarm

• About

• Download

Hard Drive Encryption:

Truecrypt

• Download

• FAQ

Host File & Other IP Blockers:

• About Host Files

• About IP Blocking

Bluetack Internet Security Solutions (Closed Source)

• Host File Manager
  • Download

• Protowall
  • About
  • Download

Phoenix Labs Peer Guardian

• About

• Download

IM:

Pidgin

• About - “Pidgin is an instant messaging program for Windows, Linux, BSD, and other Unixes. You can talk to your friends using AIM, ICQ, Jabber/XMPP, MSN Messenger, Yahoo!, Bonjour, Gadu-Gadu, IRC, Novell GroupWise Messenger, QQ, Lotus Sametime, SILC, SIMPLE, and Zephyr.”

• Download

Pidgin Encrypt Plugin

• Download

Web Proxy:

• SSH SOCKS proxy how to

Proxy Lists

• http://tools.rosinstrument.com/proxy/

• http://www.digitalcybersoft.com/ProxyList/fresh-proxy-list.shtml

• http://www.publicproxyservers.com/page1.html

• http://www.econsultant.com/proxylist/index.html

Privoxy

• About - “Privoxy is a web proxy with advanced filtering capabilities for protecting privacy, modifying web page data, managing cookies, controlling access, and removing ads, banners, pop-ups and other obnoxious Internet junk. Privoxy has a very flexible configuration and can be customized to suit individual needs and tastes. Privoxy has application for both stand-alone systems and multi-user networks.”

• Download

Web Search-Engine Proxy:

BlackBoxSearch

• About - Supports Google, MSN, & Yahoo Search, this uses a proxy to search these services so the queries are not traceable back to you.

• Site

As Isaac Newton once said, “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants”. Now you too can stand on the shoulders of giants (assuming hooked on Phonics worked for you). Thanks to the internet it is easier than ever to read the classics. The first and best place to go is Project Guttenburg. This online book repository now has over 20,000 books to read for free. You can download the books too and take them with you. They’ve also implemented a cool program which breaks their collection into subjects and then lets you download all the books in that subject area, usually a cd sized download.

Another way to find eBooks is through your local library. ‘Wait a minute’, you say, ‘I thought this was supposed to be an article about eBooks’. It is, shut up and listen. A lot of major library systems around the nation are now allowing their users to access books through the databases they subscribe to. If you’re a member of a city library, current college student, or alumni you should check out your local public/university library to see if they offer this feature.

For those of you out there who are thieving pirate scum, there are some great websites on the internet to download free books. One of those is the bittorrent site eBookShare which focuses on business, investing and computer books. Another option is eBooksDatabase, “Your online eBook Database for IT & Tech eBooks”.

Some book publishers out there have started making their books available free online in the hopes that you’ll buy a print copy. One example is Baen books. I personally think that’s a good way for writers to suck readers in until the eyestrain and stiff neck makes them beg for a paperback version. It is one thing to read a technical book on your computer, but no one wants to read a whole novel on a monitor.