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How To Clean Your Computer Keyboard The Safest Way Possible

Needless to say, computer keyboards could come and go; and if you are exceptionally sloppy with yours, it is best to let the keyboards go, especially if it has served its time. If you have been fiddling mindlessly with your keyboard, removing the screws at the back and actually taking a peek into what has accumulated between the gaps, you just may have to stomach something not worth seeing before any meal. If dust bunnies have not yet mutated into the inner workings of your keyboard, you just may be surprised as to what else you might find in there: like food bits, animal hair, termites, enough DNA sampler to get you into the most wanted database…

Now there are several reasons why some people prefer to keep the keyboards they are currently using.

For one thing, most laptops do not have detachable keyboards. So unless you are willing to dig deep into your pockets for another expensive machine, it would be best to keep the one you are using and just learn how to clean it without damaging anything. Secondly, if you are one of those techie freaks out to get the latest high-end piece of hardware possible, replacing your keyboard with something more high-end may become very, very painful both on your pocket and your self-esteem. So here are a couple of tips on how to clean your computer keyboard the safest way possible.

But wait! When we say safest, we mean that you use prudent measures with a lot of rational thinking behind it. Sure, there are tips on how to use the dishwasher to clean your keyboards… and in some instances it may work. We just want to point out that most of these so-called dishwasher safe keyboards look cheap and about 2 minutes away from the rubbish heap. This is actually a great excuse to buy a new set of keyboards especially when the dishwasher ruins it. Besides, who in their right minds would put the entire laptop into the dishwasher?

So the equation goes: keyboard + dishwasher = heck, no. We hope that is clear.

For cleaning you keyboards, laptop of otherwise, you would need: a can of compressed air, several pieces of cotton buds, and a soft clean cloth dampened with a little moisture. You can buy the can of compressed air in most electronics stores. And yes, there is a difference between compressed air and WD40. Soft tipped cotton buds should be pliant enough to get into tricky gaps and corners. And lastly, use any soft cloth for wiping down. A chamois should work great because it does not leave any fibers behind.

First step is to give your keyboard some slight dusting with the compressed air. Use the dry cotton tipped buds gently to get to the gaps between keys, and use as many cotton tips necessary. Do not force the keys apart though. Once you are satisfied, give the keyboard a more thorough blasting of the compressed air. Once that is done, use the cloth (ever so slightly damp) and give the keyboard a wiping down.

First rootkit for IOS created

If you build it, they will come. So hold onto your hats now that the world has its first ever Cisco router rootkit, reports a story from IDG News Service. Sebastian Muniz, a researcher with Core Security Technologies, developed the rootkit for Cisco's Internetwork Operating System and will show it off on May 22 at the EuSecWest conference in London. Rootkits are stealth programs, extremely hard to detect. For the most part, they are aimed at Windows.

Read more

Creating Wordpress Themes from scratch.

This first article is meant to give you a global picture about creating Wordpress themes. Let’s start by answering a few common questions.

Do you need to know PHP to create or edit Wordpress themes?

The short answer is no. It would help to know some PHP but many theme designers don’t, and they do just fine.

Do you need to understand MySQL to create or edit Wordpress themes?

Again, no. Mysql is the database that drives Wordpress and is a key component … nonetheless, it has no impact on creating themes. So don’t worry about it.

What do you need to know in order to be able to edit or create a Wordpress theme?

I would say that you need to know three basic things:

1. HTML/XHTML
2. CSS
3. The Wordpress page hierarchy and behavior.

I think the first two are obvious, but the last needs some more explaining.

(more…)

Four vulnerabilities found in Cisco Unified Communications Manager

Cisco Security Advisory: On May 14 Cisco issued a security advisory for Cisco Unified Communications Manager (formerly Cisco CallManager). Patches are now available to fix four denial of service (DoS) vulnerabilities all of which were discovered internally by Cisco, the company says. The following Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) services are affected: Certificate Trust List (CTL) Provider, Certificate Authority Proxy Function (CAPF), Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) Trap.

Read more

Delivering a safer Internet experience

Is any Web site safe?  That was the question posed in a recent article I read after it was reported that net criminals are now targeting major well known Web site destinations. In fact, McAfee estimates that 7.8 billion links that lead people to risky Web sites are served up by search engines each month.

It’s becoming more difficult for people to tell the difference between safe neighborhoods on the Internet and the dark alleys.  The bad sites strive to look harmless to users, so it is very difficult to identify which results are safe to visit. Sites that are safe today may turn bad tomorrow.  Security is a huge concern for consumers – forty per cent of people just won’t shop online. And the dangers lurking online continue to grow but we’re not standing still. 

Last week I was in New York talking to analysts and reporters about the ways in which we are making the Internet more secure and safer for millions of people. 

First, we’ve joined forces with Yahoo! to make searching the Web a safer experience by integrating our award-winning SiteAdvisor technology into Yahoo! Search.    Called Yahoo! Search Scan, consumers will now be alerted to known risky Web sites with a red warning in the search results.

Hard on the heels of our announcement with Yahoo!, we’ve announced the McAfee Secure Search Service and McAfee Secure for Web Sites,  a security certification program and brand new trust mark. 

Within McAfee Secure Search, consumers will see McAfee SiteAdvisor’s green and yellow ratings, and sites annotated with the McAfee Secure trust mark. The McAfee Secure trust mark is the most comprehensive trust mark available, indicating that site has been tested for reputable business practices and safe user experiences. And with McAfee Secure Search Service, consumers can eliminate all risky sites from being displayed in search results.

With these announcements we’re striving to make the Internet experience a safer one by helping to take the guesswork out of searching and buying online.  At the same time we’re giving e-businesses the opportunity to build trust and confidence in their services through the McAfee Secure trust mark.

John Farrar’s ColdFusion 8 Book Due Out In August

GNS3 - How to find Pix Images, Pix Serial Numbers and IOS images using Google

Webmaster Tools now in 26 languages

Model-Glue 3 - Example of Formats

Cisco meets Marc Andreessen’s Ning social networking site

I was poking around Ning , the social network site co-founded by Marc Andreessen of Netscape fame, and noticed that the Cisco community has embraced Ning. The site's shtick is that you can build your own Facebook on Ning, keeping out the general riffraff that might encroach on a more general social network site like that. Among the Cisco-oriented groups on Ning:

* Cisco Brokers for network equipment resellers

*  Cisco Help , where certified Cisco workers help each other out

* Cisco Users Group (Dallas/Fort Worth) 

Read more

New ColdFusion 8 Book

I used to wish my MAC had a lens cap

MAC owner remotely accesses her stolen computer and uses photobooth to take a picture of the thieves using it. That same pictures leads to their arrest. Genius!

I love this story since it is so unexpected.

A couple of quick updates

Over at Design Shack they’re four posts into the five-post Introduction to CSS3, which covers Borders, Text Effects, the User Interface and (coming soon) Multiple Columns. A nice intro to the subject if our own examples are too complicated for you :p

The new owners of the Fonts and Web Fonts modules, Jason Cranford Teague and John Daggett, say that only about 20% of the Web Fonts module is required for CSS (it is currently part of the SVG charter), and propose simplifying it before merging with the Fonts module. They hope to have a working draft of the new spec in August.

Cisco - How to disable an individual dsp

New Research: Windows XP SP3 Is 10% Faster

Performance tests indicate that Windows XP Service Pack 3 runs many applications 10 times faster than XP computers without the software update. InformationWeek.com is reporting that XP Service Pack 3 demonstrated a significance performance boost on benchmark tests.

Interestingly, Microsoft makes no claims that the Windows XP SP3 update will increase performance, instead touting increased reliability and security as the big reasons to install the service pack update. Perhaps it is simply a “happy accident” that the update is testing up to 10% faster on standardized bench testing programs compared to the service pack 2 upgrade. Either way though, XP users aren’t complaining.

With Windows XP still the fastest Microsoft operating system in use, the SP3 update deals another in a long line of blows to Microsoft Vista, which has consistently tested slower than XP on a wide variety of software programs. With the new update, XP becomes even faster, drawing even more attention to the sluggish nature of Microsoft Vista, and raising further questions about the need or practicality of updating to the new operating system.

In fact, testing demonstrates that the new XP update is approximately twice as fast as Windows Vista on many benchmark programs. The question for many Windows users is “why should I upgrade to Vista when I can get a free Windows XP SP3 update and my computer will run twice as fast?” These kinds of questions have haunted Microsoft since the launch of Vista, and many Windows users feel the company has not adequately answered the question, “why upgrade?” After all, if it’s not broke — why fix it?

Designed as a simple bug fix, Windows XP SP3’s increased speeds and performance come as an unexpected bonus. But there have also been problems with the operating system update, and the Windows XP forum is filled with posts from early adopters experiencing a wide variety of “hiccups” with the new service pack, ranging from all-out system crashes, to trouble recognizing external disks and hard drives.

Typically, there are always a few glitches when a new service pack is released, but these usually get solved within the first couple of weeks. The final version of Windows XP SP3 is due to be released later this week, and will hopefully eliminate most of the bugs being currently experienced by users attempting to upgrade.

The XP service pack 3 upgrade will be made available to the general public this Wednesday in Microsoft’s online Download Center. The upgrade can also be accessed from the Windows automatic update service within XP.

Domain Research Sites & Tools for Finding Good Web Site Domain Names

Upcoming Events In Toronto And Washington

Flash CS3 Video Tutorial: Nested Animations in Movie Clips

Hi,

This is just the first of many new video tutorials on Flash CS3 (and the upcoming Flash CS4) and Actionscript 3.0.

Video: Nested Movie Clips in Flash CS3

Summary of the video tutorial:

Using Nested Animations in Movie Clips with Flash CS 3
By: Santo Romano
Tutorial level: Beginner to intermediate Flash users.
Flash version: Flash MX, MX2004, CS2, and CS3

When creating simple animations in Flash, the main timeline is often the best place to position your animations. However, when these animations are repetitive, the best way to handle them is to utilize the movie clip symbol in Flash. Unlike the other symbols you’ll find in the Flash environment, the Movie clip symbol is perfectly suited to handle this kind of work. Rather than creating multiple key frames over and over again, it is much better to nest the simple animation inside of a Movie Clip, and to let it handle most of the work.

Thanks,

Stefan Mischook

www.killersites.com

Considering counterfeit Cisco gear

Yesterday, Dan Sallach posted an interesting commentary on counterfeit Cisco gear on his Freedom to Tinker blog. He quotes a New York Times story published on Friday that says a two-year FBI investigation unearthed about 3500 counterfeit Cisco components (worth $3.5M).

Read more

Adobe Connect failure on the Mac - apologies to the Connecticut UG

Counterfeit Cisco routers a national security risk?

The FBI is freaking out over the fact that the U.S. Department of Defense has been sold counterfeit Cisco gear. The concern isn't so much over whether Cisco is getting the revenue it deserves - it's more about the possibility that hackers could be embedding backdoors into the counterfeit gear to allow them access into U.S. military networks at a later date.

In a leaked PowerPoint presentation, the FBI indicates that it has discovered counterfeit Cisco 1000 and 2000 Series routers, Catalyst 4000 Series switches, Gigabit Interface Converters and WAN interface cards that have been sold to the DoD.

Read more

Resolutions 2008-05-07

Four Vulnerabilities, Three Critical, Patched By Microsoft

Another Massive SQL Injection Attack Reported

Free Security Software

May Chat with the IE Team on Thursday

Join members of the Internet Explorer team for an Expert Zone chat this Thursday, May 15^th  at 10.00 PDT/17.00 UTC. These chats are a great opportunity to have your questions answered by members of the IE product team.

If you can’t join us online, all chat transcripts are published here. Allow approximately 7-10 days following a chat for the transcript to go live.

Hope you can join us on Thursday!

Kristen Kibble
Program Manager

Playing with jQuery - ColdFusionBloggers.org Update

US Attorney Seeks 5 Year Terms For the Bonnie and Clyde of ID Theft

Ullal departure sign of Cisco transformation

The departure of Jayshree Ullal this week is another indicator of Cisco's transformation from a networking company in to an IT company, according to one analyst.

The recent exodus of top executives from Cisco - Ullal follows Chief Development Officer Charlie Giancarlo and Senior Vice President Mike Volpi out the door, both of whom were considered potential successors to CEO John Chambers -- is due to a number of obvious factors: hitting the career ceiling, cashing out on a flat stock price, and professional inertia among them. But a less apparent cause may be a philosophical change within the company itself.

Read more

Real-world feedback: University focus

It is always great to get feedback directly from our customers and I had the privilege of a good exchange of information with Matthew Almand of Texas A&M University.  They have a big network, comprised of 25 backbone Catalyst 6500 routers at 10 locations, interconnected by 1G and 10G links.  There are 340 buildings, outfitted with a variety of distribution switches, from Catalyst 6500s in the larger buildings to smaller switches like the Catalyst 3750, 3560, 3550, or 2960.  The edge switches are Catalyst 2950s and 2960, plus some legacy gear, over 3000 in all.

The applications in a University are typically all over the map, starting with video conferencing, e-learning, and of course e-mail.  Unofficially, there will also be some level of peer-to-peer networking of some sort.

When I asked Matthew "How does NetMRI help you?", he replied:
"It allows us to have a comprehensive view at the health, compliancy, "goodness" of the network. From this comprehensive view we can --

create and prioritize simple tasks (duplex mismatches, spanning tree priority, etc.) for a small number of devices

create and prioritize and execute simple tasks (daylight saving time dates) for all devices

create and prioritize complex tasks (IOS code upgrades in response to PSIRT announcements).

The point I'm trying to make is that NetMRI can produce the "hits" for a deficiency / inconsistency or that the data it collects can be used to produce other actions. This can be small precise strikes or could encompass a wide swathe."

Matthew goes on to describe how the compliance and inventory functionality are big timesavers, checking for proper implementation of their own best practice configurations and  tracking inventory for Property Management auditors and to accurately track equipment listed in Cisco's PSIRT announcement.  "We used to spend considerable effort just collecting the information on IOS levels, line card modules hardware revisions, etc before the actual work of installing new IOS could begin," Matthew says.

Matthew and his team at Texas A&M have a compelling set of business drivers that matches well with NetMRI's functionality.  Thank you, Matthew, for sharing your experience.

  -Terry 

Ask a Jedi: Complete Spry CRUD Example

Speaking at Connecticut ColdFusion Users Group

How to Add the Copyright Symbol to Your Web Page

Efficient Video Delivery Over The Internet

Footer Design Showcase: 75+ Creative Footer Designs

In writing about redesigning the TechCrunch footer I came across many great examples of creative and useful footer design.

So I thought it was about time I created my own showcase of web site footer designs.

Footer design showcase examples (click to view all)

Some are simple and elegant; many are information-rich. But all combine typography, color, layout and imagery to reinforce the brand of the site, engage visitors and drive traffic to other pages. Enjoy!

Becoming Social

Cisco’s Jayshree Ullal quits

"With mixed feelings and much introspection I have come to my decision to leave Cisco after 15 great and memorable years. My loyalty and affection to Cisco, CEO John Chambers and my teams made this a very difficult and lengthy decision process." Read more

New Cisco TelePresence unit gets personal

Desktop videoconferencing has arrived at last -- or at least Cisco hopes it has. The company on Monday announced a version of its increasingly popular TelePresence system for use in individual offices: the TelePresence System 500. At the same time, the company thinks bigger can be better, too.

Read more

Installing Branded IE7 on Windows XP Service Pack 3

Hi all,

Last week, I blogged about installing Windows XP SP3 and how it affects different versions of Internet Explorer (See my earlier blog post here). Today I will be discussing installing branded/custom versions of IE7 on machines with Windows XP SP3 installed. This post is primarily aimed towards folks who use the Internet Explorer Administration Kit 7 (IEAK7) to create custom IE7 packages, like Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and web developers. If you ever installed the IEAK7, built a custom version of IE7 or distributed a version of IE7 to others, this post is for you.

When installing a branded version of IE7 (like the one you get on a Comcast or Qwest CD when you sign up for their services) on Windows XP SP3 machine for the first time, the IE7 install might fail with the following error:

The reason is that the IE7 package you are trying to install uses old IE7 files. As you may recall, in October of 2007 we released an IE7 update, which in addition to turning on the menu bar by default and removing WGA validation also addresses the XMLLite issue above.

XMLLite.dll is one of the components that ships with IE7. This DLL is necessary to run IE7, and IE Setup installs this component as part of IE7 installation. XPSP3 contains an updated version of XMLLite.dll, so when you try to install an older version of IE7 on XPSP3 machines, IE Setup fails to install XMLLite since it’s already on your system; hence, you get the error. In the IE7 update, we modified the install logic to only install XMLLite if it’s not already present on the system.

Call To Action

If you produce custom IE7 packages, you need to ensure that those packages will install successfully on Windows XP SP3. You can either try installing IE7 on a Windows XP SP3 system, or for a quick test, you can verify the cache of the IE7 files that were downloaded when generating custom IE7 packages. To verify the cache, on the machine that has the IEAK7 installed, go to C:\Program Files\Microsoft IEAK 7\Download\Win32\<Language>\iebin and search for IESetup.msi or IEBrand.msi.

If those files are not present, then you need to perform the following:

1. Download the new IEAK7 available at TechNet.
2. Run the new IEAK7 wizard.
3. Open the INS file you generated for custom IE7 packages. (You can re-use an existing ins file or create a new one, in which case this step is optional.)
4. On the Automatic Version Synchronization screen, click on the Synchronize button. This step downloads the latest IE7 setup files that it will use to generate a new branded package.
5. Complete the rest of the wizard, and click Finish.

The new packages will be created in the directory you specified during the beginning of the IEAK Wizard. These new packages will work on XPSP3, so you are ready to distribute them to all your customers.

Thanks,

Jane Maliouta
Program Manager

 

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Cisco can’t live down selling gear to China for censorship

Posted by Cisco Subnet - May 12, 2008 on 12:00 pm | In Cisco | No Comments

Selling gear to the Chinese government is a controversial subject for many networking companies, especially Cisco, a recent story in Network World explores. Back in the 2004-2005 timeframe, Cisco was criticized by human rights groups for selling mirroring routers to China for its Internet censorship program. Cisco says it sold its standard off-the-shelf routers to China and isn't responsible for how China uses them. This remains a hot-button issue for Cisco.

Read more

 

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