the aj blog

An Ubuntu console, with an ICMPTX client running.

ICMPTX?

ICMPTX is a mostly linux software project to permit tunneling IP packets across ICMP pings. Why do this? To bypass restrictions. Ever go to a seemingly free hotspot, only to open your browser and discover the hotspot owner’s site, rather than your target? You can get around this if, like almost all hotspots, pings are permitted. Your computer, with the help of the software, will redirect all your internet traffic through the ping port in the form of a ping, and the server at the other end will return everything you requested. The biggest problem in my case with this was my OS and a server. One of my nicer, shared hosting plans had some decent control, but of course, I couldn’t superuser it. That doesn’t work. So, I had to go to a home-hosted server concept. I would simply install Ubuntu or something onto an old box, get ICMPTX going, maybe some router tweaks, but it would be simple. Wrong! Ubuntu on its own took me well over an hour to get going. Then, I still haven’t been able to properly configure the tunnel. I think there may be some issues further down the pipe, along with my own already. So, there I was, spending hours on hours trying to get a really cool thing working when I probably should’ve been studying for a test. Oh well! Trial and error.

Skype, as seen in a gloomy room. Classifiable as "blah photography."

Skype - Awesomeness

Skype has existed for quite a while. So this is truly nothing new to majority of the world. However, I’m really actually sometimes skeptical about technology, and had refused to bow down to it. Then, one day, I had to collaborate with a friend who also used Skype. That was when it all started. They really got me with that free phone call. Of course, I called my house, and that really stunned me. Mostly it the fact that I had pressed a button on my computer and managed to cause all the phones around me to start to ring. I tried it again, and it replied to say that I needed to buy “skype credit.” Buy? Nope. And that was the way it stayed for a few months. I used it here and there, nothing big. Not enough to buy anything. One day, out of curiosity, I checked out the pricing. Again, I was stunned. Only ~$2.50/month for unlimited US/Canada (real phones)! I jumped onto the Skype bandwagon from there onward. Purchasing a subscription, I then called my house again. And again. And again. It worked, and cost nothing beyond the monthly fee. It worked! The only downside was that finding a local area code was nearly impossible for an Online Number. Even finding one in my state was hard! And, getting a number is like buying another subscription, after the discount, money-wise. So, I didn’t. But now, my skype forwards to my cell, and I am very happy. (Hopefully not) the end!

An application I created to control a USB7 from a computer's serial port.

The USB7

Quite a while ago, I discovered the USB7. It wasn’t until recently I actually thought I would have a use for it if I were to buy it. I was working on a website project due at midnight on a particular day. I was thinking how awesome it would be if I could have a bunch of LED 7-segment displays counting down the days, then hours, then minutes, then seconds, and finally hundredths of seconds. That was when I remembered it, the USB7. The USB7 is a relatively inexpensive, usb-controlled kit with six 7-segment displays. I haven’t seen many popular projects for it, though, so what does one do when there’s a need for something but it doesn’t exist? You make it! I bought a kit online, so it’ll arrive sometime later.

The Programming

Turning to Visual Studio Express 2008 and my brain’s Visual Basic abilities, I created this super-simple application that continually updates the display with the time remaining, fitting as much data as possible. For example, it can show up to 99 days, 24 hours, and 60 minutes when there’s more than 24 hours left. When there’s less than that, but still more than an hour, it’ll display a 2-digit hour code, a 2-digit minute number, and a 2-digit second number. Once you’re down to minutes, it shows minutes, seconds, and hundredths of seconds. Down to seconds, it’ll drop the minutes. Finally, once the timer’s up, it plays a crazy alarm sound and flashes constant zeroes all across the display. Now just to wait until it arrives!

Google's chats are stored within the user's Gmail account.

Concept

One day, it was like any other day. Gmail chatting with a friend. Not doing much. Then I started to think, what if I could see a ratio of how much I talk versus the person on the other end? Then I wondered what it would take to script something up to do precisely that. I was planning to use Visual Basic, but that would be Windows bound. Then I wanted to use Java. But then it wouldn’t work because I learn Java, forget it, learn it, forget it. I’m in my forgotten phase. I even considered Lua, the uber language. Then it struck me. PHP! The best hypertext preprocessor! Then the whole web-ter-net could enjoy it! I messed with PHP for a bit before realizing that Wordpress doesn’t like to play well with it. I guess it’s good for security.

Try It!

I really wish I could tell you to start using it today but I haven’t actually wrote it yet. I’m horrible at my Javascript, so it might take longer than one would expect. But, I promise, something will come of this.

Interpreting the Facts

Although not nearly as good as a psychiatrist or anything professional, you probably could see quite a bit into people’s personalities. If, for every word you say, your friend says five, you could tell they likely talk a lot. Or vise-versa. A small tool. Multiple possibilites. Coming soon to theajblog.

Deep Freeze, and the Deep Freeze logo are trademarks of Faronics Inc.

Deep Freeze

Yes, it is winter. And no, this has nothing even distantly to do with the climate. Faronics, a company seeming to specialize in computer management solutions, sells and offers trials of various products. One of their more amazing programs is called “Deep Freeze,” and you’ll see why in a minute. Deep Freeze literally “freezes” your hard drive. The genius in in its simplicity. By “freezing” a partition, no changes can be made to it. And since practically everything, except the BIOS, is stored on the disk, nothing can be changed. That means the Registry (if using Windows), Master Boot Record, Windows installation, bootloader, anything. Did I mention it’s available for both Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux?  Perfect.

Testing

I decided it was time to try it out. Faronics had a 30-day trial available, after which your computer would “thaw” and be forced to uninstall it. I made a text file on my desktop and rebooted. Gone. I installed a suspicious codec. Gone upon boot. I even tried to maim Deep Freeze its self and delete where it installed. Wait, where did it install? Hidden. Probably a secret partition not visible through Windows.

Conclusion

But why, why would I want to not be able to save any files? How is that useful? There are many scenarios you’d want this. Take a public computer. You want your computers to remain low-maintainence, but at the same time try not to restrict people too much. Load the computer with basic internet and word processing software, then freeze it with Deep Freeze. Upon reboot, everything is restored normal, history erased, user-generated files deleted. No anti-virus required, just regular reboots. Take your own computer for example. Don’t want to accidentally mess it up? Freeze your system partition, leave a separate “data” partition thawed. Need to install something? Thaw, install, reboot frozen. Finally, take a school. This was actually the first place I noticed it. Freeze the whole computer and put on a BIOS password. Domain login allows controlling your users at once. Use a login script to mount a folder for the specific user on a hosting server. By instructing the students to only save to the network drive, their work can be preserved and the workstation left untouched.