2FA on the Windows Home Server

With the banks and everyone else tightening up the authentication, it is also no surprise that people like me is also looking at a 2FA solution that log in to my WHS. I had chosen one of the out-of-band solution using the mobile phone. As I see it, this should be the way moving ahead.

I won't say too much about how it is done yet as I am still looking at the implementation, but it is likely I will roll this out this coming weekend and as such all login to the WHS will be disrupted and no longer valid until you have register you handphone with me. :)

I will share out the experience after I complete this exercise.

Truecrypt 6.3 is out!

Truecrypt 6.3 is release mainly with the support for Windows 7 and OSX Snow Leopard.

Grab it from the same place:
http://www.truecrypt.org/downloads

BTW, in case you wondering what is Truecrypt, I had mentioned it before here:
http://nemesisv.blogspot.com/2008/07/true-crypt-60-portable.html

F-Secure to fight malware over the cloud

Epson TX100 new drivers with full support for Windows 7.

You can either download the driver using Windows Update on Windows 7 or get it via:
http://www.epson.com.ph/epson/drivers/driver_download.htm?dc=1&mode=3&m=false&catid=4&pid=1373

Epson Stylus TX100 Driver for Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows Vista, Windows 7
Version : 6.62
Date Posted : 2009-10-22
Download Url : SX100_TX100_101_106_109_W2K_662Es.exe

Epson Stylus TX100 Driver for Windows x64, Windows Vista x64, Windows 7 x64
Version : 6.62
Date Posted : 2009-10-22
Download Url : SX100_TX100_101_106_109_x64_662Es.exe

Epson Stylus TX100 Epson Scan for Windows
Version : 3.4.9.0
Date Posted : 2009-10-22
Comments : Support Windows 7, Windows 7 x64
Download Url : SX100_EXP_WIN_3490_31.exe

The Mac fiels are there too, but I do not really care.

Windows 7 launches in Singapore at $77

For the first 177 buyer anyway. It is the Home Premium upgrade version.
Read more at:
http://www.yourpcsimplified.com/events.aspx

But I am sure some of you already got it for months. So its nothing new.

Upgrading of Mobile Broadband Huawei E220

I was using this (crappy) mobile broadband t-loaned from the company. The software was incredible frustrating. Well, at least it is on the laptop which has Pointsec Protector. The CD-ROM keep getting block and even after many attempts to install the software, in the end it sometimes cannot detect the modem.

So, I was looking around and found this:
http://m1.com.sg/M1/site/M1Corp/menuitem.e2f30a2a1a1860b609b422103f2000a0/?vgnextoid=6e2a7cfeda9ba110VgnVCM100000695a230aRCRD&vgnextfmt=pdate:0910161234:

Yes, there is a firmware upgrade to Firmware Version 11.117.10.02.00.B268) as well as the software upgrade (which need to be flashed onto the firmware first) for VMC Lite (Version VMC 3.2.1.156).

After the installation, things went a bit more smoothly. If you have similar issues, you can give it a shot. BTW, this firmware supports Vodaphone and other providers as well.

5 New OS from Microsoft

With Windows 7 on the blink of release (its actually RTM...), Microsoft actually has 5 new OS up their sleeves:

1. Windows 8 (Windows 7 Successor)
2. Windows Midori (Written entirely in managed code)
3. Windows Singularity (Basically the same as Windows Midori)
4. Windows Azure (Cloud Computing OS)
5. Barrelfish (Multicore OS)

Windows 8 being the biggest hype. With a new filesystem and totally gone with Windows Explorer, is Windows 8 what we had been waiting for? Btw, there are already lots of fake alpha on torrent site. ALL fake. I doubt any Windows 8 alpha will be out soon since its schedule for 2011. Yes, thats a bit too fast to phase out Windows 7. But well, there are companies still using Windows XP...

Yahoo and Gmail has over 10000 accounts phished too

It was just one day where Hotmail announced it has some thousands of accounts leaked and posted online. Today, we have news that Gmail and Yahoo has accounts phished too. The estimate is about 10000.

In any case, it just means more work (change password) for us. And its about time we do it anyway. When was the last time you change your password? Don' tell me. Most of you should have the answer : NEVER.

Read more about it at:
http://www.arnnet.com.au/index.php?id=518427986&rid=-217

Free mount for World of Warcraft (WOW)

Yes, its sound too good to be true, right? Because it is. 

Read about how phishing can be conducted using the WOW:
http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/00001778.html

Happy Birthday is Copyrighted and you can't sing it for FREE

Apparently, it seems that we are not suppose to sing "Happy Birthday". Well, at least not without paying to the author. It seems that public performance of the song is not allow and is protected by copyright and you need to pay to sing it. In USA, that means until 2030 and EU 2016. Well if it doesn't get extended.

Read about it here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Birthday_to_You

and remember not to sing this song at parties. Imagine a kindergarden of little children getting busted by a SWAT team and arrested due to copyright infringement. Now, that makes my day.

Thousands (understatement) of Hotmail passwords leaked online

If you have a LIVE, Hotmail or MSN account, its a good time to change the password now. According to this article, there had been a leak and thousands (just A to B) of accounts posted online. I suspect the hacker has a big big list.

Read the full post at:
http://www.neowin.net/news/main/09/10/05/thousands-of-hotmail-passwords-leaked-online

Change your password NOW!

Microsoft Live Messenger Mandatory Update to 14.0.8089

Due to a recent discovered flaw in LIVE Messenger, as detailed here:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/advisory/973882.mspx

Microsoft had made it mandatory to update your LIVE Messenger to the latest V9.0 (or version 14.0.8089). Why one says 9.0 and the other says 14.0 beats me. Maybe they should really just merge them somehow to avoid confusion.

If you want to just download it straight away now, do so at:

http://download.live.com/?sku=messenger

In any case, people like me who hates advertisements, you can grab the latest APatch to remove them (partially) from:

Download A-Patch for Windows Live Messenger 9.0 Wave 3 (14.0.8089.0726)

Dual Boot Windows XP (and below) with Linux using Windows MBR

I just noticed that there are 101 FAQ out there to teach you how to dual boot Windows and Linux using LILO, GRUB etc. Maybe its just me, but nobody is happy with Windows Boot Manager? There is a clean and simple way to enable the booting of Linux without choose LILO or Grub. Its just a simple boot sector file added to the Windows Boot Manager and you have it. Why does everyone has to choose LILO or Grub?

Well, so here I am going to talk about this legacy method. Bear in mind that this does not apply to Windows Vista because of the BCD Boot Manager. That you can find it online.

First, figure out a way to get to your Linux. The best thing will be you just finish installing and has not rebooted. Make sure you had chosen to install the Linux Boot sector on the partition itself (sda1 or hda1 etc...) instead of the harddisk (sda or hda etc...). If you had overwritten the bootsector, do a repair with your Windows CD. Its a painful process and I hope you have not come to this. Alternatively, use Super Grub Disk to restore your Windows MBR. You can also us this to boot back into your Linux if you had installed the bootloader into the partition and rebooted (oopps).

UNetbootin Super Grub Disk Loader
Download and run this within Windows:
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=198821&package_id=261880

Get back into your Linux. Mount your windows directory. Or USB disc etc.
An example will be:

#mkdir /tmp/windows
#mount /dev/sda6 /tmp/windows

sda6 is your Linux partition. You can use Super Grub Disk to navigate and found out anyway.
Now you will need to extract the bootsector of the Linux using this command as root:

#dd if=/dev/sda2 of=/tmp/windows/linux.bin bs=512 count=1

Thats all there is! Well, not really. Reboot back into your Windows. We still have 1 more line to add. Open your boot.ini on your boot drive. You may need to unhide and un-readonly the file first. Add this line to the end of the file:

c:\linux.bin="Linux"

Save and now you have a boot option to linux anytime from the Windows Boot Manager. This doesn't break when you update your Windows etc. Well, it does if you shift your HDD around (if the sda6 or whatever the naming changes.).