Windows vs. Mac: Which is the better alternative to Linux?

Inspired by this article ive decided to put my short opinion on the topic.

none.

To elaborate: both Windows & Mac apply restrictions, non-disclosure development methods (due to their closed-source nature ofcourse), monopoly and overall dictatorship and abusing their customers – both financially (spend a months’ salary on one OS, and half a year on a new computer so you can own the other OS…) and methodically (“do it our way or else…”(tm)). Unlike Linux, which is to say – do what you like, as you like, when you like, to whatever you like. Freedom. oh yea, and it costs as much as you would care to donate…

So really, theres no comparecement. I couldnt care less for “99% windows users world wide” (bogus percentage intended). you know why? cause even 99% of world population CAN be wrong or simply mis/uninformed. but i trust the day will come, as i believe people will come to their senses eventually and learn THEY can control their system, instead of allowing their system to control THEM. And they will embrace Linux for what it truely is.

no comparecement.

none.

Recovering lost Windows passwords

I’ve just happened to stumble across these sites, and i don’t want to forget them… i hope others might find them useful too.

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/index.html

http://www.oxid.it/cain.html

just a quick update…

I know i havent been active much lately, but thats because im very busy with work and life. I didn’t touch Archie much, and i can hardly have time for personal stuff (ie, blogging) – my time is being consumed with work and my wife, which leaves me just a couple of hours sleep a day (ive been living lately on a 3 hours sleep daily… not enough for humans…) so updating the blog or Archie seems too far at the horizon. I hope after the delivery I’ll have more free time, but people keep telling me its gonna be even worse… so we’ll see.

in anyway, just to update with my current projects – im customizing a uclibc based system for a client of mine, which is cool, and along the way, im creating a uclibc based distro with samba on it to act as a PDC for old computers. the entire size of this distro is less than 60MB and i hope to be able to produce some web configuration tool so it won’t require ssh login and textual configuration. the best option atm seems to hack the FreeNAS project html pages, but we’ll see…

In anyway, I hope someone out there is praying for the health of our baby (and us…) since the doctors are telling us conflicting statements all the time (who said its better to have more than one opinion??? :/ ) but all agree the baby might have some problems – so we’re doing all kinda checks (we’re in hospital almost daily) to see what is wrong and how it can be treated. So – keep your prayers with us…

God Bless You All.

I am going to be a father!

Today i was told we (Victoria and I) are going to have a baby girl. a GIRL. so much for all those people telling me “i know you’re going to have a boy. i just feel it.”… yea right. I knew i’m going to have a girl. A man should know his work…

I can only say it’s one of the happiest days of my life. I can’t describe the feeling when looking for the 1st time at my baby’s face in that 3d machine, seeing her tiny hands… i can’t even find the words describing it in Hebrew… uplifting? doesn’t come close.

I can’t wait until October!!!

Don’t give a man a fish. Teach him how to fish instead.

I doubt many people here knows who Fravia and +ORC are. Well, it’s time for this history lesson of the week…

Back in the days where internet was still being used with 36/56kbs modems, and software was “easily” cracked, those two formed what was known as The Academy – +HCU (Hackers/Crackers University) – it was were the idea of reverse engineering started to form and take shape.

Before +ORC joined the “scene” people have already cracked software – there was nothing new to this, but +ORC decided to join the efforts of all crackers and reversers out there, and spread the knowledge to everyone. Soon the Fravia pages started to fill up with tutorials, most for specific program and how to crack it, following each step of the way. The idea was not to teach you how to crack the program itself, but how to defeat the protection scheme, and thus to gain you some more knowledge of programming (and ofcourse – reversing…). People world wide had started joining in, adding their own knowledge and howto’s, supporting each other with a problem – this was (imo) the first internet community, or at least among the first. +ORC held the flag while Fravia took care of “business” – site, organization, etc.

The identity of the crackers participating in the Academy was mostly unknown (except ofcourse for their nicks) except for Fravia (He is a phd or something like that, living in europe). There were MANY theories about the identity of +ORC but its all speculations, and until this day (more than 12 years had passed) it’s mostly remains unknown.

Why is this such important? Why did the identity of this man became sometime more important than his actual work? well, for one reason – students like to know who their teacher is, and more when the students are the crackers and hackers of tomorrow – the people who worship knowledge and loves to learn and seek.

Several years after the Academy had established, +ORC dissapeard, leaving one trace behind him – what was known as the +ORC riddle. The solution for the riddle was supposed to lead the one who solves it to +ORC. Some said the riddle was solved by “+Hackmore Readwrite” (who btw, never claimed to do so) but it’s been never confirmed (well, some said it was…).

Regardless of who +ORC was (or is, although in Fravia’s latest interview to codebreakers a few years ago, he stated that “+ORC is dead. Died in Egypt. RIP.”), his contribution to the (computers) world remains unchanged – he believed in spreading the knowledge, teaching one another, contributing to a better world. Even if he’s gone, the fruits of his work remains. A very well known +ORC saying was “Don’t give a man a fish. Teach him how to fish instead.” and this is his legacy.

Today the enigma surrounding +ORC remains, but I believe +ORC prefers to remain in his solitude, leave the past behind him (and imo, this is what the actual answer of Fravia concerning +ORC realy means) and watch us from the outside… Fravia is still being very active, although not in RE per se, but in discovering the hidden world behind search engines and how to search (yes, i know it sounds weird…)

You can find in google thousands (if not more) sites dealing with +ORC, his tutorials, and his identity. The saga continues…

ps.
seems like Fravia is also acquainted with Richard Stallman… Why am i not surprised?

the +ORC riddle:
“Gold, with six bars, or with the visor raised (in full face) for royalty”
“Silver, with five bars, (in full face) for a duke or marquis”
“Silver, with four bars, with visor raised (in profile) for an earl, viscount or baron”
“Steel, without bars, and with visor open (in full face) for a knight or a baronet”
“Steel, with visor closed (in profile) for a squire or a gentleman”
And now try to correct this link http://131.92.15.128/+ORC to reach +ORC (?)”

NOTE:
I know there is much more information regarding HCU, Fravia, +ORC, RE, etc i have neglected, but this is why they invented google for…

Archie installer

Well, i’ve spent last few days working hard on finishing Archie – fixed all kinda stuff, added, removed, upgraded – and seems all is working fine – even the installer…

Hopefully we’ll finally have a working Archie installer. Actually – two. A bash installer and a GUI installer. I’ve posted some screenshots here, so if you would like to comment, please do.

I hope thats enough for a start…

Just for the record – I didn’t code the gui installer. iphitus from Arch Linux did, but he left it buggy and didnt have the time to fix it, and although im not a python coder (never touched python in my life…) im doing my best to fix this stuff and have a working gui installer. so far, i actually made it work, though thru some usage of bash command,mainly cause i don’t know how to manipulate text files from python (like sed,awk, etc).