Blog Notes-October 2009

It requires a very unusual mind to undertake the analysis of the obvious.

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1. Scripting Utility - I haven't tested it (but my memory tells me I've used it before!), but within a month or 2 I'm sure I'll have a need - so here it is: AutoIt AutoIt v3 is a freeware BASIC-like scripting language designed for automating the Windows GUI and general scripting. It uses a combination of simulated keystrokes, mouse movement and window/control manipulation in order to automate tasks... Thats hits all of the buttons for me! Some of the features:
   • Simulate keystrokes and mouse movements
   • Manipulate windows and processes
   • Interact with all standard windows controls
   • Scripts can be compiled into standalone executables
   • Regular expressions
   • Digitally signed for peace of mind
   • Works with Windows Vista's User Account Control (UAC) _2009-10-02
2. HTTrack (free - GPL) easy-to-use offline browser utility. Download a World Wide Web site from the Internet to a local directory, building recursively all directories, getting HTML, images, and other files from the server to your computer. HTTrack arranges the original site's relative link-structure. Simply open a page of the "mirrored" website in your browser, and you can browse the site from link to link, as if you were viewing it online. This is an efficienct method for downloading a directory of files automatically, rather than 1 at a time. _2009-10-02
3. NTFS vs FAT file storage, rather esoteric - but here is the comparison from ntfs.com. NTFS always wins for Built-In Security, recoverability, disk space economy, and fault tolerance. On large volumes (which is ???) NTFS has better performance. FAT has better performance on small volumes. http://www.ntfs.com/ is a great repository of file storage info. _2009-10-07
4. OSALT Open Source as Alternative is an interesting window into alternatives to commercial software. Their objective is to hightlight high quality open source alternatives to well-known commercial products. _2009-10-09
5. Defrag Utilities and info
   • MyDefrag v4.2.1 an updated version (freeware) of the highly regarded JkDefrag. Disk defragmenter and optimizer (a maintenance utility to make your harddisk faster) for Windows 2000, 2003, XP, Vista, 2008, Win7, and for X64.
   • PageDefrag v2.32 from Microsoft SysInternals. Works at reboot.
   • Also from sysInternals Contig v1.55 use to optimize individual files
   • Blog Notes - August 2009
   • Blog Notes - December 2008
6. Online drawing tools, painting and sketching - this is an example of how far the web 2.0 world has pushed beyond MS Paint! There is even an online tool for flowcharting and diagramming, Gliffy. The basic version is free, and allows creation of 5 diagrams.

Public Key Cryptography Demonstration

I'm planning a public key cryptography example for class tomorrow using a cardboard shoebox filled with a "treasure" (skittles) and using 2 combination padlocks to simulate public/private keys. My idea has been that the example of locking the box with the

1. receiver's public key, and then locking the box with the ... more in PublicKeyCryptographyDemonstration