Sysadmin 101: Securing Leopard

 

 

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Sysadmin 101: Securing Leopard

via The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) by Robert Palmer on 8/19/08

Filed under: Security, Mac 101

Security researchers at Corsaire have published a PDF whitepaper discussing best practices for securing Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard in a networked environment. The whitepaper is free.

"While the default installation provides a relatively secure system, it may not always meet organizational security requirements. This guide is aimed at users in environments requiring stronger security controls in their operating system, making full use of the protection features offered by Mac OS X 10.5," the whitepaper says in its introduction.

"It may also be of use to System Administrators wishing to enforce an organization-wide desktop security policy."

The guide also discusses key security differences between Leopard and Tiger, and builds upon previous guides for those operating systems.

A direct link to the PDF is available here.

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McCain's Proposed Tax Cuts for Corporate America

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Eight companies — Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Exxon Mobil Corp., ConocoPhillips Co., Bank of America Corp., AT&T, Berkshire Hathaway Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Microsoft Corp. — would each receive over $1 billion a year.

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McCain would deliver about $4 billion in tax cuts to the five largest oil companies. He would also hand over $2 billion to the top 10 health insurance companies. Unlike the highest-rung of the corporate ladder, much of the rest of Wall Street refuses to be bought off. Those employees are giving more to Obama than to McCain.

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While McCain caters to the rich, Barack Obama's tax plan "offers three times the break for middle class families" than the proposals of John McCain. To clarify the contrast in the two candidates' plans, consider this fact: John and Cindy McCain would reap over $300,000 from McCain's own tax plan. By contrast, both the Obamas and McCains would receive a substantial, albeit much smaller, savings under Obama's plan (see a comparison here).

Energy Vampired

Cost of Oil

Can you say I-N-F-L-A-T-I-O-N ?

Bigger Version of Pile of Words

Apple Like Breadcrumbs for UR Website

Create apple.com-like breadcrumb using simple CSS

14. Aug 2008 at 22:04 by janko | 14 Comments

I believe you all know what breadcrumbs are. If I would have to make a simplest, rough definition I could say it is a navigation pattern that shows a path from the home page to the current one. If you are still unsure what breadcrumbs are (or my "definition" is too rough) be sure to read Breadcrumbs pattern explanation on Welie.com

In its simplest form it usually looks like this:

You are here: Home > Sample page 1 > Sample page 2 > Current page

But we are going to enhance this simple form and to create a breadcrumb that is similar to the one on apple.com. You can see the example on store.apple.com.

Let's create something that looks like this

As you can see on the screenshot above, breadcrumb has a soft gray gradient and a separator that looks like a right arrow. Those are the only two images that we are going to use: background gradient and a separator. The design we want to create looks like on the image below.

So what would be the best way to create a breadcrumb? Personally I think it's the best to use unordered list (UL element). So we can have a HTML structure like this:

<ul id="breadcrumb">
    <li><a href="#" title="Home"><img src="home.png" alt="Home" class="home" /></a></li>
    <li><a href="#" title="Sample page 1">Sample page 1</a></li>
    <li><a href="#" title="Sample page 2">Sample page 2</a></li>
    <li><a href="#" title="Sample page 3">Sample page 3</a></li>
    <li>Current page</li>
</ul>

In the example above we have unordered list that has four list items. Each list item has a link that will point to a single page in the path, except for the last one. There is no need to point to a current page since user is already viewing it.

If you try to see this example in a browser you would see a simple bulleted list. So we have to use some CSS here to make things right.

First we'll style UL element:

#breadcrumb
{
    font: 11px Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
    background-image:url('bc_bg.png');
    background-repeat:repeat-x;
    height:30px;
    line-height:30px;
    color:#9b9b9b;
    border:solid 1px #cacaca;
    width:100%;
    overflow:hidden;
    margin:0px;
    padding:0px;
}

There are some attributes here that I would like to explain.

• We applied a background image to entire UL element in order to cover the entire breadcrumb area.
• Next, we set the height to 30px because that is the background image height.
• We also set line height to 30px. That will make the text appear centered vertically.
• We set the light gray color for any text inside breadcrumb. Since links will use other settings, this is going to be a color only for a current page.
• The last two lines resets the default UL settings.

Next thing we have to do is to style our list items.

#breadcrumb li
{
    list-style-type:none;
    float:left;
    padding-left:10px;
}

#breadcrumb a
{
    height:30px;
    display:block;
    background-image:url('bc_separator.png');
    background-repeat:no-repeat;
    background-position:right;
    padding-right: 15px;
    text-decoration: none;
    color:#454545;
}

.home
{
    border: none;
    margin: 8px 0px;
}

Again, I will explain these three classes. We first styled each LI element inside unordered list:

• We set list-style-type:none for each LI element in order to remove bullets
• Also, we set float:left so that our list items appear next to each other.
• We added 10px left padding to move text from the left edge of each list item

Each link inside list item will have this settings:

• 30px height and display:block will make entire list item area clickable.
• background related attributes will set the background image for each link which is separator image. It will be placed on the right side of each link.
• 15px padding will move separator to the right

The last class (home) will set the attributes for home icon.

The last thing we have to do is to add some hover effect on links:

#breadcrumb a:hover
{
    color:#35acc5;
}

Believe it or not that's all. You can see live example and download the code.

Conclusion

If you review the code carefully, you can notice that you can create a variety of designs by changing background and separator images. Try and see the results!

John McCain on Net Neutrality

McCain: 'No Net-Neutrality, Need Piracy Crackdown'

posted by soulxtc in file sharing // 1 day 45 minutes ago

Does, however, believe that consumers should be able to access and use content, applications, and services of their choosing, and also that too much IP protection can "stifle the proliferation of important ideas."

I usually try to steer clear of politics, but I think it's important for our file-sharing readers here to learn about where the presidential candidates stand on technology-related issues like net-neutrality and piracy, especially in the wake of Comcast's throttling of BitTorrent, and the entertainment industry managing to get legislation passed that forces colleges and universities to begin filtering content on campus networks.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain recently unveiled his technology platform, dubbed the "John McCain Plan for American Innovation" that lays out his stance on each of the aforementioned issues.

Technology policy has not been a front-burner issue for Sen. McCain (R-AZ), but it has become more critical for the McCain campaign in recent weeks following his earlier admission that he is "computer illiterate." This admission certainly haunts his positions, yet let's take a look.

Net-Neutrality

"John McCain does not believe in prescriptive regulation like "net-neutrality," but rather he believes that an open marketplace with a variety of consumer choices is the best deterrent against unfair practices," reads his plan. "Given the enormous benefits we have seen from a lightly regulated Internet and software market, our government should refrain from imposing burdensome regulation."

His policy on net-neutrality does have some good points, but I think it's by and large very naive because it presupposes that consumers have choice among ISPs when they in fact do not unless, that is, he's lumping in dial-up (yuck) and DSL with broadband in his policy thanks to his computer illiteracy.

Broadband service providers enjoy market monopolies in this country making it important for the govt to ensure - through regulation if necessary - that the "information superhighway" onramps are "neutral" until such time that consumers can vote with their feet.

"John McCain will focus on policies that leave consumers free to access the content they choose; free to use the applications and services they choose; free to attach devices they choose, if they do not harm the network; and free to chose among broadband service providers," his platform continues.

This is a sort of tradeoff with his anti-net-neutrality stance for it he says that consumers should be able to use the "applications and services they choose" (read BitTorrent) so long as they "don't harm the network." But, how does he define "harm?" Is the network harmed if there's a large amount of BitTorrent traffic during the day? What about at night? So long as ISPs are allowed to define the "harm" caused by applications and services to their network consumers are the ones who'll wind up being harmed.

As for his position that consumers be "...free to choose among broadband service providers," is he kidding? I think we all know there is no choice nor probably will there ever be till well into the foreseeable future.

Piracy

"While the Internet has provided tremendous opportunity for the creators of copyrighted works, including music and movies, to distribute their works around the world at low cost, it has also given rise to a global epidemic of piracy," reads his plan. "John McCain supports efforts to crack down on piracy, both on the Internet and off."

I think we all know what this means. It means that he'll support the entertainment industry's efforts to target the file-sharing community. It would've been nice to ge a better sense of how he plans to support a piracy crack down while at the same time claiming that consumers should be "free to access the content they choose," but he he didn't vote on the recent College Opportunity and Affordability Act of 2008 which, if you recall, mandates that colleges and universities begin installing content filters on campus networks (it was signed into law by President Bush just yesterday).

You can't have your cake and eat it too, and you know it's only a matter of time before the entertainment industry begins pressuring lawmakers to force ISPs to begin filtering the Internet - the national "campus network" - as well. What will McCain's stance be then?

Perhaps it will be to allow it for he does seek "..international agreements and enforcement efforts that ensure fair rewards to intellectual property." Why not the same for domestic intellectual property concerns?

The only real bright side of his plan for intellectual property and piracy is that he recognizes that "...too much protection can stifle the proliferation of important ideas and impair legitimate commerce in new products to the detriment of our entire economy." For this he only proposes patent reform in plan, which I think with much bigger issues like DRM, device interoperability, and the like leaves many feeling wholly unsatisfied. Who cares about patents when you pay $10 bucks for an album that you never really own and whose use is subject to change without notice?

Conclusions?

The fact that McCain was, and maybe still is, computer illiterate doesn't bode well for those trying to determine if his "Plan for American Innovation" is based on unbiased data necessary to make an informed decision. With McCain suggesting that net-neutrality isn't the answer, but consumer choice of ISPs is it makes you wonder if the guy has ever even had to choose one before. There is no choice of broadband service providers in this country.

Furthermore, increased intellectual property enforcement is fine, but what about IP reform, not patent reform? At some point music, movies, and other artistic works have to become part of the "public domain" and to allow corporations to profit form them long, long after an artist's death is insane.

In any event, McCain's stance on net-neutrality and piracy is not very encouraging.

**In the spirit of full disclosure I am, or perhaps was now, a John McCain supporter. I do plan to write a piece that chronicles Obama's stance on the same important issues as well in the near future.**

Essential Open Sources Apps

19 Most Essential Open Source Applications That You Probably Want To Know

Posted by AN Jay

August 12, 2008

Today, we are listing here 19 Most Essential and useful open source applications that you probably want to know to use in your daily life. Most of them are top of the list projects that have an open source industry leading popularity and many of them are not listed here but over all the list has variety of projects for every one of you. Just take a look at them and share your thoughts here.

You are welcome to share if you know about any other open source project which our readers may like.

I will appreciate if you can spread the word via Digg , Stumble or other social media websites, Thank you

WordPress - Blog Tool and Weblog Platform

WordPress is a state-of-the-art publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability. WordPress is both free and priceless at the same time.

ModSecurity - Open Source Web Application Firewall

ModSecurity is a web application firewall that can work either embedded or as a reverse proxy. It provides protection from a range of attacks against web applications and allows for HTTP traffic monitoring, logging and real-time analysis. It is also an open source project that aims to make the web application firewall technology available to everyone.

SteelBlue Open Source Web Application Server

SteelBlue is an open-source Web application server environment in which Web-database applications can be developed completely in an extended HTML language. Similar to ColdFusion and Story Server, session and user-associated data as well as SQL commands can be directly embedded into the HTML page. Therefore, no CGI programming experience is required to develop applications with SteelBlue, only knowledge of SQL and HTML.

Dolphin :: Smart Community Builder

YouTube, MySpace, Odeo, Flickr, Match and Facebook - all in one, customizable and under your full control. You're limited only by your imagination - not by software. Dolphin Smart Community Builder is a universal, free, open source software that allows you to build any kind of online community. With a huge variety of features & options, you can quickly develop your very unique and successful website.

PURE Unobtrusive Rendering Engine For HTML

PURE is an Open Source JavaScript Template Engine for HTML. Truly unobtrusive, it leaves your HTML untouched. It is cross-browser (IE 6.0+, FF 2+, Safari 2.0+, Opera 9.0+).

Bugzilla - Mozilla's bug tracking system

Bugzilla is a bug tracking system designed to help teams manage software development. Hundreds of organizations across the globe are using this powerful tool to get organized and communicate effectively.

Mindquarry DO - Free Open Source Software Download for Team Collaboration

Mindquarry DO is an Open Source collaborative software platform for file sharing, task management, team collaboration and Wiki editing that is available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. Mindquarry runs as a web application with an optional desktop client for Windows, Linux and Mac OS that allows for desktop synchronization and offline work. As a result, you are able to connect with team members and share information from wherever you are, effectively improving team-work and increasing productivity within your team.

EPIWARE - A Open Source Document Management System

Epiware GPL project and document management, for those that like to be on the cutting edge of development. Take control of your information and content today.

jobberBase - The Open Source Job Board Software

jobberBase is a great open source job board software for anyone. You can get online your job posting website with jobberBase. It's easy to install and configure to start your job board.

Flex SDK

Flex is a highly productive, open source framework for building and maintaining expressive web applications that deploy consistently on all major browsers, desktops and operating systems.

Open source Ticket Request System

OTRS is an Open source Ticket Request System (also well known as trouble ticket system) with many features to manage customer telephone calls and e-mails. The system is built to allow your support, sales, pre-sales, billing, internal IT, helpdesk, etc. department to react quickly to inbound inquiries. Do you receive many e-mails and want to answer them with a team of agents? You're going to love the OTRS!

phpMyVisites Free Web Statistics And Analytics

phpMyVisites is a free and powerful open source (GNU/GPL) software for websites statistics and audience measurements. phpMyVisites gives a lot of information on websites visitors, visited pages, software/hardware utilization, etc… The GUI Interface is fun and practical. The installation is entirely automated and very simple.

LimeSurvey - The Leading Open Source Survey Tool

LimeSurvey (formerly PHPSurveyor) is an Open Source PHP web application to develop, publish and collect responses to online & offline surveys.

dotproject - Open Source Project and Task Management Software

The original theme flagged dotProject as an open source alternative to Microsoft products and other expensive, commercial applications. Right from the start, dotProject had, as it's core aims a number of simple requirements which are Clean, simple and consistent user interface; Project Management functionality - not another CMS, groupware environment or all things to all people collaboration tool, but a project management environment; Open source and free usage.

The Freeway Project

Freeway is the most advanced Open Source eCommerce platform and Freeway offers selling methods only previously available in enterprise class or niche bespoke systems. Without having to purchase a commercial system and then paying a developer to build a custom installation, Freeway does what you need out of the box. Of course Freeway is great for selling products but it also sells events AND services AND subscriptions. From appointments and time based bookings to event ticketing and subscriptions Freeway is the eCommerce platform.

AtMail Open - Redefining Open Source Webmail

AtMail is an open source webmail client written in PHP. We aim to provide a elegant Ajax webmail client for existing IMAP mailservers, with less bloat and a focus on an intuitive, simple user interface.

OpenOffice - The Free and Open Productivity Suite

OpenOffice is the leading open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. It is available in many languages and works on all common computers. It stores all your data in an international open standard format and can also read and write files from other common office software packages. It can be downloaded and used completely free of charge for any purpose.

Open Workbench - Open Source Project Management and Project Scheduling for Windows

Open Workbench is an open source Windows-based desktop application that provides robust project scheduling and management functionality and is free to distribute throughout the enterprise.

The SeaMonkey Project

The SeaMonkey project is a community effort to develop the SeaMonkey all-in-one internet application suite (see below). Such a software suite was previously made popular by Netscape and Mozilla, and the SeaMonkey project continues to develop and deliver high-quality updates to this concept. Containing an Internet browser, email & newsgroup client, HTML editor, IRC chat and web development tools, SeaMonkey is sure to appeal to advanced users, web developers and corporate users.

Amazing Look-A-Likes

And the Best for Last...

DIY Pegboard Home Network Wall

Lightning in Slo Mo

Anti-Bush Grafitti from Around the World

Curitiba, Brazil

Unlike Bush's approval rating, attendance at Disney theme parks doesn't seem to have taken a hit in America's worsening economy.

Photo by mlbor

Granada, Spain

Bush's Starbucks-colored tank creeps toward a McDonald's logo.

Photo by juanti

Lisbon, Portugal

Photo by Graffiti Land

London, England

Painted on a wall facing East London's members-only Shoreditch House is this poignant portrait.

Photo by nickburcher

Sofia, Bulgaria

Faded from foot traffic, the sidewalk mugshot reads: Wanted Dead: George W. Bush, for crimes against humanity and the planet.

Photo by kiki

Berlin, Germany

Bush faces off with Osama bin Laden outside a record store in Berlin. War is terror, the caption reads.

Senator Obama's tour included a stop in Berlin, where he gave a speech to a crowd of more than 200,000. American blogger Fred Wilson responds: "This kind of worldwide popularity is something we need in the US right now."

Photo by shawnbot

Colonia, Uruguay

This makeshift banner welcomed Bush to Uruguay in March of 2007, when Bush met with President Tabaré Vasquez.

Translated, the greeting reads: Your dead, hungry, unemployed, disappeared [illegally imprisoned], lying cronies salute you.

Photo by MichaelO'B

Durango, Mexico

Photo by OliverAlex

Wellington, New Zealand

Give Bush an inch, and he'll bomb a country, one stencil remarks.

Bush's
critics argue he never should have sent troops to battle without
Congressional approval. Legally, the power to declare war lies in the
hands of the Congress, not the President.

Photo by glutnix

Gullbringusysla, Iceland

Flanked by missiles, could Bush be folding his hands in prayer?

Photo by choufiphone

San José, Costa Rica

Translation: Mentally ill in service of capital.

Photo by C-Monster

Rome, Italy

Photo by tracymadaj

Melbourne, Australia

Photo by Toots Fontaine

Rosario, Argentina

Joyfully
riding a missile — gut protruding, cowboy hat waving — Bush's
embodiment of Texan stereotypes is as much the subject of this artist's
mockery as the President's flippant attitude toward explosives.

Photo by pablodf

Mito, Japan

Prolific graffiti artist Og Akim shares his rich political artwork at the X-Color exhibit in Japan.

Photo by nattynattyboom

Johannesburg, South Africa

A donkey-eared Bush and his toy tank ponder their next move.

Photo by banter

Israel

Bush is pictured here with Ariel Sharon, Israeli Prime Minister when this photo was taken in 2006.

Photo by greenwonderland

Bangkok, Thailand

Photo by G4Glenno

Bethlehem, West Bank, Palestine

Bush, a United Methodist, tries on some Devil horns in the city of Jesus' birth.

On June 10, 2000, the President declared Jesus Day in Texas.

Photo by hazy jenius

Riga, Latvia

Photo by Patient Dinosaur

Victoria, BC, Canada

On
a brick wall in Victoria, British Columbia, Bush discusses world
domination with Canadian Prime Minister Steven Harper. (The dialogue
references a mid-90s animated television show, Animaniacs, which began airing in Canada late last year.)

What are we going to do tonight, George?
What we do every night, Steve. Try to take over the world.

Photo by ngawangchodron

Belfast, Northern Ireland

Lyrics to the United States national anthem take on a less hopeful meaning.

Photo by Jamie Rushell

Wrocław, Poland

Photo by ChrisJ.

Styria, Austria

Photo by newsrepublic

Zanzibar, Tanzania

Bush mzushi, loosely translated: Bush is a rumormonger.

Photo by Msomi

As
voters and the media shift their attention toward the November
elections, Bush's reign as one of the most widely loathed political
leaders comes to a close. With fewer than a hundred days
before a successor is named, here's to hoping that displays like these
will stop appearing — and won't reemerge with the likeness of Senator
John McCain.

Laura Copeland

Laura Copeland is from Modesto, California, a bedroom community consistently ranked one of the country's worst places to live.
The wide-eyed nerd and Peace Corps candidate recently moved to Silicon
Valley, where she enjoys lively walks and cutesy photography shoots
with her newly adopted dog, Pixel.