Ivan's Picks - Techonlogy Articles and News

Few secrets revealed

2007-11-26T17:35:00.000-08:00

This is a sneak preview of features that are just around the corner on GoITExpert.com. We've been working hard to bring more value to our loyal readers and I believe we have done that with the upcoming releases of new services on GoITExpert.com

First in the bag of tricks is the Ask The Expert section, a place where our readers can ask technology related questions and have them answered by their fellow readers or by our in house experts. This will allows to gather new material for articles and bring more value to our readership as a whole.

Second, is the new Company Profile section, a place where our readers can submit profiles of their technology companies. The main benefit is of course our readers. They get free exposure on goitexpert.com through recently profile section. From time to time we will profile these companies gaining more material for our website and helping our readers get recognized better.

Third, is the creation of dedicate Technology centers for most popular operating systems. No more on this, since it is still in the development.

For now take care.

Release Schedule
1) Ask The Expert (Nov 29, 2007)
2) Company Profile (Dec 14, 2007)
3) Technology Centers (Dec 31, 2007)

Crack Linux Password in a few simple steps

2007-11-09T07:05:00.000-08:00

From GoITExpert.com

Whether it’s for fun, for profit, or to annoy your brother, you want to crack a Linux password. Here are the step by step instructions on how to crack a Linux Password.

Before we begin, you need to have access to the system, this is not for breaking into a system, but rather recovering a password to an account without destroying it. If you are looking to break into a Linux Box because you’ve forgotten the password follow the instructions here or here.

Technoratti Is Missing some brain cells

2007-11-06T12:31:00.000-08:00

Recently Technorati announced a new CEO. This move made many people excited for they were hoping that this would help Technorati focus on its core blog search offering, which had been all but ignored as the company tried to do new things in order to please everybody. I wish they would master one thing well, before moving on.

It's been noticed that Technorati has dropped the index of blog posts older than 6 months. I guess the new CEO really, really knows what makes people come back to their site.

It might that he is missing a few braincells, because blog post search feature was most likely the most useful tool on the site.

We'll see what happens.

What's going on with GoITExpert

2007-11-02T06:32:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since I blogged about the progress of GoITExpert.com, and today I will talk about briefly what we have been up to and what's in store for the future.

First, we've improved the artilces/howtos arsenal of our site, now you can find more information than ever before. Tips and tricks on all possible topics related to the Internet, Computers, OSes and technology in general.

But that's not all we have done. During the last month, we have released our newest project X9Live.com The Technology Blogs Network - a website dedicated to helping us promote GoITExpert and this blog and also any other technology related blog/site that meets our guidelines. The basic goal of this project is to help build a quality brand of technology sites, certified by X9Live to be reliable and trustworthy. Also, by creating this network, we also help these blogs with gaining the initial backlinks needed to get known and recognized. Member blogs are required to submit previews of their articles/posts to X9Live and we provide backlinks to the main blog page and the article page in return.

We hope this endeavour works and we bring more traffic and better recognition to the lesser known quality technology blogs.

What's in store for us next? Well it is a bit of a secrete, when we are done, we'll let everyone know. For now, we focus on more content for GoITExpert and promoting X9Live.com

Google hitting 700 mark

2007-11-01T06:54:00.001-07:00

In the after hours trading, google has hit a $700 dollars a share mark. What is wrong with people in this world. Why do keep endorsing this monopolizing every market segment it touches giant. Everyone remembers the time when Microsoft became the "bad guy". Is Microsoft a still bad guy or has Google replaced and surpassed Microsoft in its evil schemes.

Just look at what they have or are trying to monopolize. The Search - now they can decided and enforce their own rules on who should appear in their search results. Never before have the search engines dictated how one should build their site and what content and links one could have on it. But thanks to Google, webmasters all over now have to build their site around Google's rules and requirements. Why is it that we are giving up our right as a consumer to tell corporations what we want, not what they want us to want.

Next is YouTube, the video sharing at its best, has been monopolized by Google, albeit not started by them, but certainly in the good ol' spirit of Microsoftyism, acquired and turned into a sole monopoly by Google. No other website commands such popularity and user involvement than YouTube, and now Google will be able to tell us what we can upload or watch on it. Sure, you might make an argument that people can easily switch over to MetaCafe or anyone else, I would reply, sure people could go back to Yahoo or MSN for search, but they wont, because a few people do not like change and will suffer through limitations and abuses until they become unbearable. Fortunately for Google, they know how the human mind works, and realize that they must get people accustomed to they own way slowly. People don't like change, but change is always good.

Then there is the social networking, they tried to buy Facebook, but were refused at the door. So they started their own Social Networking API, got most of the Facebook competitors on board, will now command a huge army of developers and providers to steer their way to victory over Facebook.

For now, this is it. Take care.

Domplayer 3Wplayer Fix

2007-10-31T08:07:00.000-07:00

Recently a bunch of hose bags have been upping files on Torrents sites that require a “special player” to see the video. This player is full of spyware, Trojans, viruses and crap! Often the video is still the original, or decent quality. Here is how to decrypt these videos and watch them without this crap special player.

When you play the video you’ll be presented with a screen telling you that you don’t have the appropriate player and that you need to visit a particular website to get the player.

http://download.domplayer.com/

Once you download it, it will most likely say that you are not in a country that they can accept payment from! Bullshit!

They then redirect you to another site. The 3wPlayer. This is the spyware laden piece of crap.

Often the files themselves are pretty good, it’s just the header information that is being incorrectly read. There are two tracks for video in an AVI file and most player read one of them. This player picks up the other one, making the file play a few seconds and the rest appear to be garbage.

You can download a utility from Wildman Productions that will remove the crap and allow you to play the video normally.

It is mirrored on our site here.

Once you download it, just simply run the file.

The full article appears here; http://www.goitexpert.com/entry.cfm?entry=DomPlayer-3wPlayer-Fix

X9Live.com Tech Blog Network

2007-10-30T12:22:00.000-07:00

Just an announcement,

Some people behind GoITExpert.com and this blog have created a new Technology Blog Network called X9Live.com

It's purpose it to provide an overall branding help for our blogs and anyone who would like to join it, as well as build a bigger presence on the web for the member blogs by providing back links on articles and doing some marketing and promotion.

Anyone with a good blog is welcome to join, there is an approval process though, not only qualified bloggers will be accepted. Also you can submit articles, posts, news, previews, etc to the site for a back link. So check it out.

But be patient with the site, its currently in beta. Hopefully with more features to come as we grow.

Windows Home Server?????

2007-10-26T08:29:00.000-07:00

Like we didn't have enough of technology at home already, Microsoft is trying hard to push its latests server on to regular consumers. Microsoft Windows Home Server. Yep you guessed it is the server that will connect all of your "Microsoft" appliances, computers, consoles into one happy network managed from one place and protected by trusted Microsoft security framework.

Well, check it out for your self.

Microsoft Buys 1.6% of Facebook For ????

2007-10-26T08:17:00.000-07:00

I am sure that I am not the only one in this world appalled by the news coming out from Redmond the the past few days. Facebook sold a part of itself to Microsoft for $240 million dollars, giving up the rights for exclusive ad management to Microsoft.

Normally I wouldn't have a big problem with this type of transaction, except for the fact that it puts Facebook's value to $15 billion dollars. Talk about over evaluating the company that doesn't even make a billion worth of revenue a year. How do I know? I really do not, but judging from other social networking sites, who release their revenue figures, I can as well take an educated guess and say that Facebook does not generate a billion dollars worth of revenue, never mind 15 of them.

Also, take into account the fact that in the near future there will come a time where some other social networking site will spring up and effectivelly kill facebook, just like it did myspace, friendster and others. And then all of those investing in it will be left penniless and I will be laughing.

Spoofing Google With Hosts File

2007-10-22T13:26:00.000-07:00

These days security is on everyone’s mind. What if I told you there is a disgustingly simple way of spoofing real web-sites in order to steal your information? This technique has gotten little attention compared to OS exploits in the media, but is far more powerful of a technique than OS holes.

The technique involves modifications to the system’s HOSTS file. What is the HOSTS file you ask? For you newbies out there a HOSTS file is a computer file used to store information on where to find a node on a computer network. This file maps hostnames to IP addresses.

So? Who cares right? Wrong!!!! Observe this simple technique to hijack your computer without you ever knowing or suspecting!

The trick is to get you to download and install my little program, or execute my ActiveX control, or for me to plant it in some shareware somewhere, a million different ways of me delivering it to your computer. As part of the program I have a simple entry in your HOSTS file. A typical HOSTS file should look like this;

No big deal. But if my little program modifies your HOSTS file to appear as the one below;

When you launch your web browser and type in www.google.com you are redirected to www.goitexpert.com my friend! Same with the Citibank Web Login. You get sent to www.goitexpert.com. You can use this technique to set up a fake web site.

Even the title in the address bar says http://www.google.com since as far as the browser is concerned, you are at Google’s web page. Try the technique for yourself!

This is where you get into trouble. If I wanted to “rip off” Citibank’s web site, I could and you would never know it. The address would still appear as if it were Citibank’s and you would try logging in as you normally do, and you wouldn’t be able to login. But I would have your username and password!

By the time you realized what has happened, you would be broke!

How do you stop this type of attack? You can obviously buy Anti-Virus Anti-Spyware software, but they won’t help much. My HOSTS file actually has several needed entries and neither my anti-virus or spyware software has ever complained about entries in the HOSTS file.

The sure fire way to prevent HOSTS file abuse is to mark it read-only. Locate your HOSTS file in c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc and right-click on it.

Go to Properties and put a checkmark in the box that says Read-Only.

As a result of this you will be prompted whenever an attempt is made to write an entry to this file. The prompt will say that you are trying to modify a read-only file and will prevent the action. Unless of course the coder was smart enough to try and modify the attributes before hand.

Oh but you use Linux so you are safe from this technique? WRONG!! The /etc/hosts file is just as vulnerable. If you are logged in as a user that can modify system files, you are vulnerable, and often to install software you have to be logged in as root or at least with sudo rights.

You should mark the /etc/hosts file as read-only as well.

http://www.goitexpert.com/entry.cfm?entry=How-To-Spoof-Google

Monday Link Mania

2007-10-22T11:56:00.000-07:00

As it stands right now, we live on the only habitable planet know to us. However, scientists have found another planet, close to us (20 light years away), that could potentially support life or have some sort of living beings on there.

Now you can boot up linux straight from the motherboard. New sites are popping up everyminute, some good, some bad. The example of a bad site is this one. A good site is this.

A new yellow pages website was released recently. Hopefully they will get some exposure. And a few other things have happened too.

Some thoughts and news

2007-10-21T21:56:00.000-07:00

Real player is attacking IE users. Well not the real player itself, the bad guys behind exploiting different software flaws are taking advantage of the zero-day flaw of real player to attack people's computers.

Microsoft is still trying hard to gain market share for its live.com and search unit. It seems that they are getting somewhere, albeit slowly, but still somewhere.

There are more start ups doing useless and sometimes outright idiotic things and getting millions of dollars in VC funding, while people who have real and useful ideas get left out because they don't want to move to the Silicon Valley, where most of these startups start and VC's head offices are located.

Just a short rant.

Take it easy.

Before I forget

2007-10-18T10:15:00.000-07:00

This post should help those need to customize the windows installation process. For example, IT staff needing to add or remove windows components, but not looking forward to going to each workstation and performing that task. Well here is the link to the article.

Happy Reading.

It's been a while

2007-10-18T10:08:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since I posted anything on this blog. Over the past few months we've been busy with goitexpert.com, and a few other projects we are in the process of developing.

So what's new with Go IT Expert? On the surface, probably nothing much at all, except for a ton of a new and useful articles we've managed to bring to our readers. And our readers responded with their approval by visiting our site more often and linking back to it. Which is important if we are to continue writing such great articles.

It's no shame to say that we do make money off GoITExpert.com and in this time and age, who doesn't. Although the revenue is not enough to sustain even one full time writer and researcher, we hope that in the future our loyal readers will keep coming back and help us get more of these great howtos and guides to them.

After all, we are all about getting the right information on Technology and IT to the people who need it. Everything you find on our blog is carefully researched and presented to help our users solve problems by looking for solutions in one place -- GoITExpert.com

For now, we'll keep posting articles and look for announcements of our upcoming projects soon, on this blog.

We've been busy

2007-07-11T07:45:00.000-07:00

As of right now, GoITExpert is featuring some 420+ articles on topics ranging from linux to apple to servers et. al. Our team of editors have been working hard to provide relevant high quality content to our readers and we will keep doing it until, well for a long time.

As part of our continueing effort to provide even more information, we will be launching godevexpert.com sometime in the next 2-3 months. This website will feature similar look and feel but will focus on development articles instead. We figured, since half of our team falls under developer umbrella, why not have them share their wisdom, just like our IT guys do on goitexpert.com

Also, in the near future, a website, in beta right now, dedicated to aggregation of the most popular developer feeds will be put online.

For now, take care.

Happy 4th of July US

2007-07-04T07:09:00.001-07:00

In the spirit of celebration, I would like to extend my warmest feelings to our friends down south.

May you live forever and be attacked never,
May your house be in order and your presidents smarter,
May the world be your friend, and its friendship never end,
May you live in peace among others, with your other sisters and brothers.

Cheap Job Postings

2007-06-26T08:08:00.000-07:00

About a month ago we've introduced a new feature for goitexpert.com, a job board. The idea behind it was to allow recruiters and companies to post IT related jobs inexpensively.
Until, August 2007, the job postings will be free to anyone interested in posting them, and after that we will offer them for $25 a posting for 20 days. We do understand that our traffic can not be compared to the likes of digg or dzone, however we promise that even if our traffic grows our prices will not.

So post your jobs at goitexpert.com now and save big. Reach your target audience quickly for much less than what you would pay on monster or any other job board site.

Microsoft et Linux

2007-06-11T12:48:00.000-07:00

ZDNet, June 11, 2007

"Microsoft has appointed a director to lead its interoperability efforts with Novell.

The two companies have been trying to sell a combined proprietary and open-source software package to businesses since they announced a deal in November. Through a jointly run Interoperability Lab, they intend to make Novell's Suse Linux Enterprise Server 10 run on Microsoft Virtual Server 2005. The companies will also market each other's products" More here

Microsoft, it seems, has been in a roll signing Linux agreements left, right and center. First it was Novell, now Xandros. This type of behavior coming from Microsoft was unheard of before, and yet it is true. Microsoft and Linux are now best pals.

What should we expect next, Windows (code named Tuxedo) based on Linux? I wonder if I am way out in the left field here, or is there some truth to that statement?

GoITExpert.com version 2.0

2007-06-11T12:38:00.000-07:00

It has been a few weeks of hard work and design decisions, but we've managed to release a new version of GoITexpert.com. The new look features a sleeker design (more blog friendly), better organizations, tags and more articles and reviews than before.

We have also made a choice to provide not just how to articles but, also a reviews, news and other internet and technology related materials. As a result, our staff will be updating the content daily with interesting insights into technology related issues.

Check it out, don't be shy.

GoITExpert.com Progress

2007-05-23T10:52:00.000-07:00

We've been busy these past couple of months, writing articles, updating our site (some bugs here and there, ;) and of course ensuring that all of our stuff is correct and working. ).

But today, I am pleased to announce GoITExpert.com v1.1 Beta release. Reason for beta is because we are still working on ironing out a few bugs here and there. All the major changes we've made were done on the backend, and the look of the site did not change much. However, we added a new news section and an amazon powered book store. So feel free to check it out and may be buy something as well.

For now, happy surfing. See you soon.

Oracle sues Sap over Theft of Information

2007-03-22T20:56:00.000-07:00

From ZDNet post:

"The war between Oracle and SAP is about to move beyond enterprise applications to the courtroom.

Oracle said Wednesday that it has sued SAP "about corporate theft on a grand scale" seeking undisclosed damages. Oracle also argues that the theft formed the basis of SAP's "Safe Passage" program, which is designed to entice Oracle customers to switch to SAP. SAP won't comment until it has reviewed the complaint.

"We have just been notified of the lawsuit, and have taken note of the Oracle press release," said an SAP spokesman. "We are still reviewing the matter, and, until we have a chance to study the allegations, SAP will follow is standard policy of not commenting on pending litigation."

VMWare and High Availability Linux

2007-03-20T21:03:00.000-07:00

I've been working with Linux for only about two years now and I still consider myself a newbie in many respects. However, as part of my ongoing self education and my involvement with goitexpert.com, I am constantly on the look out for great new things happening around the open Linux and source community in general.

Last night I stumbled upon the High Availability Linux distro. After reading the front page, it looked to me like it was a great idea and most likely a distribution that will find its niche in the Linux world. However, having no physical environment with which to test this out I was forced to find an out of the box solution to this challenge. After a few searches and a conversation or too with my co-editors I realized that we already have the perfect tool for these type of scenarios. We own a copy of the latest VMware version, which till now was sitting happily in a box on the shelf (next to an old DOS manual), so I decided to try out this distro and see how it works out. While at I will also get other Linux distros installed and maybe setup a test network with Windows and Linux machines. I want to get into VMware a little bit more, get to know it better and most likely write an article or two on this great product.

Steve Ballmer's Advice for Stanford Business Students

2007-03-19T12:46:00.000-07:00

Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer came to Stanford Business School recently to talk to the students there. While answering questions, giving business advise, and talking about Google's business model, Ballmer also gave a bit of advise to the students at the Business School.

Watch the video here. It is pretty funny.

iPhone gives rise to Mainstream Embedded Linux Cell Phones

2007-03-19T12:44:00.000-07:00

Linux based cell phones are getting a second look and the source of this look by the industry is a stranger than fiction story – the iPhone. The iPhone is driving the resurgence of the Embedded Linux Cell Phone and PDA as a viable alternative.

Read it here.

Welcome to Ivan's Picks.com

2007-03-19T12:24:00.000-07:00

Hello all and welcome to Ivan’s blog.

A little bit about myself would be a nice start to this blog.

My name is Ivan and I am one of the authors from GoITExpert.com. I have been in the IT business for over a decade now and over these years I have accumulated a vast database of knowledge and experience, which I now share with the rest of the Internet through the GoITExpert.com portal.

Now, I can’t post all of the things I come across on goitexpert.com, so I decided to start this blog where I can share with the rest of you links, reviews, articles that I find when I browse the Internet. The reason I don’t post them on goitexpert is because our content there is original and written by a team of experience IT professionals, and we do not copy or claim other author’s work. So this blog will become a spot for me to share all of the things that I find interesting and helpful to the loyal readers of goitexpert and anyone else looking for cool information.