Category Archives: Rich’s Random Podcast Generator
Interview with John Horton,USM EE Student Turned Theatre Major: MadMapper, HTTPS Everywhere, Wireshark & WinPcap, Metasploit, Forrest M. Mims, Packet Radio – RRPG021
This week on Rich’s Random Podcast Generator, we’re joined by John Horton, a University of Southern Maine theatre major on the Gorham campus who’s involved in the technical aspects of theatre. John grew up in a hi-tech household. His dad was a MIT grad who worked as a design engineer for DEC, and later Intel. John was breadboarding basic circuits as a child – flip-flop, 555 timer IC, etc. – and picking up whatever else he could from Forrest M. Mims‘ instructional books originally sold by Radio Shack.
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John talks about acquiring some old computers from dad’s work place and building a network environment with machines running Unix, Linux, Apache, Mac, and Windows. He learned how to get these machines to work together, and then learned about system vulnerabilities and pen-testing with Metasploit.
As we talk with John about Wireshark (and WinPcap), the subject of the Chrome and Firefox plugin HTTPS Everywhere comes up as a way to protect oneself against traffic sniffing. The discussion inevitably branches to the topic of antivirus/malware protection and security in general. HOSTS files rule!?
#20 Rich’s Random Podcast Generator: LastPass with Amber Gott – Online Password Security, Multi-factor Authentication, One-Time Passwords, Phone Apps, LastPass Security Challenge
“The Last Password You’ll Have to Remember!”
Amber Gott, Online Community Manager for LastPass.com joins Jim and Rich to talk about online password management and security. Online security has always been a hot topic, and it’s only going to be more so as time goes on. With that in mind, there’s never been a better time to look at how you’re handling your online presence, specifically the passwords you use for site logins, be it a gaming site or commerce such as Amazon.com.
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To start with, people are known for using the same password across multiple sites because it’s too hard remembering all the site/password combinations. Or they have a similar reason. Quite often, they use very simple passwords that are easily guessable. Passwords such as ‘123456’ and ‘password’ are just plain horrible choices. Dictionary-based passwords such as ‘smellycat’ are not much better. They’re way too obvious and lack any level of complexity that would prevent someone from cracking them. So this presents a huge security hole, one that could cause a lot of heartache, not to mention significant financial loss. And yes, this stuff really happens. Every single day!
#19 Rich’s Random Podcast Generator: Acronis True Image Home 2012 PC Backup and Recovery Review
This week Jim and Rich go guestless and spend some time covering Acronis True Image Home 2012 Backup & Recovery Software. After talking for a few minutes about working with our friends and neighbors on their PC problems, we take an in depth look at the Acronis UI and spend some time covering items that might be helpful for both beginner and expert. As a bonus, we’ve included some screenshots for reference. All images can be seen in full size just by clicking on the image.
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| Getting Started | Backup and Recovery |
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| Disk Backup | Schedule your operation |
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| DBO – Advanced | DBO – Performance |
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| DBO – Notifications | DBO – Exclusions |
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| Online Backup | Nonstop Backup |
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| Email Backup | File Backup |
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| Media Builder | Rescue Media Contents |
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| Bootable Media Type | Destination File Selection |
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| Synchronization | Try and Decide |
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| Clone Disk Wizard | Protection Tools |
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| Backup Settings Transfer | Backup Conversion |
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#18 Rich’s Random Podcast Generator: CrashPlan, Drobo, Mac Mini, Backup Solutions
Nathaniel Lindley joins Jim Collison and Rich O’Neil on RRPG #18 to talk about how he uses a Mac Mini, CrashPlan and Drobo together for his home and social back up strategy. A former CrashPlan employee, Nathaniel has a lot of interesting things to say about this solid and flexible backup solution.
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”In early 2008, my friend and I were looking for a way to backup our children’s photos to each other’s house. We didn’t want to trade external drives; we didn’t want DVD copies. We wanted to use the Internet to transfer. Tried setting up FTP or WebDAV without much success. Found CrashPlan when it was starting out, and it was the perfect solution for us. Encrypted, background, used existing storage, free or cheap, cross-platform. Now when friends or family ask about how to protect their files, I set them up with CrashPlan, and if I repair or fix their computer, it is a requirement.” -Nathaniel Lindley
Nathaniel’s CrashPlan+ and Drobo Setup at Home - June 2012
Mac Mini –
- (Mid 2007)
- OS X 10.6.8 (always on)
- 2GB RAM
#17 Rich’s Random Podcast Generator – PC Repair, Logitech Webcams, iTunes, Windows Phones 7 & 8 – Lumia 800 + 900, Drobo Mini and 5D, mSATA SSDs, Lenovo USB 3.0 Dock
Mike Howard, Eddie Ramirez, Tim Black, and Paul Braren join Jim Collison and Rich O’Neil for some talk about PC repair, Apple love/hate, white-knuckling over the coming of Windows Phone 8, Drobo’s next (fast) storage devices with mSATA SSD capability, Paul’s personal experience with Lenovo’s USB 3.0 Dock, and Eddie’s new computer repair bench which doubles as a dance floor.
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PC repair
- Isolate your bench computer from the rest of your LAN to avoid spreading any malware
- Utilities – MSE, Malwarebytes, Symantec Endpoint Protection, SUPERAntiSpyware
- Get the license keys with ProduKey – www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.html and SIW – http://www.gtopala.com/
Logitech Webcams – Mike’s autofocus problems continue on his C920
iTunes – a critique leads to overall criticism of Apple
Steve Jobs’ biography – Genius? Jerk? Probably both, but what great products and vision!
