August, 2008

To gmail or yahoo..

Do you like gmail? I don’t. I first started using gmail a few months ago when it looked like Microsoft had a good chance of purchasing Yahoo. I’ve had a Yahoo account for over ten years. I’ve since gone back to Yahoo.

No, not because Microsoft didn’t buy them. I just don’t like gmail. You can’t create folders in which to store your mail. Instead you have to label it. Then, to *start* finding it you have to click on the All mail link. Then you have to find one of the mails labeled with the subject. After that you do a More actions and click of filter more messages like these. What a mess. What a waste of time.

You can’t highlight mail that you want to delete by holding down the control key. Oh no, that would be too easy. You see, gmail has single click like a web link. I despise that in Windows and the Linux KDE desktop and I don’t like it here either. At least in Windows and on the KDE desktop you have the option to turn it off. So with gmail you have to click select all and then go through and deselect the mail that you don’t want to delete.

Yes I still have mail going into my gmail account. I did change some of it for my RHEL and Sun accounts. Maybe a few others. But, at the end of the day, I still prefer Yahoo mail over gmail.

And yes, the new Yahoo has it’s share of problems as well. I don’t know what is with the Yahoo developers that they can’t seem to develop something that at least either works on Firefox or Opera. Or maybe it’s the Firefox and Opera developers. The chicken and egg thing. But that’s a rant for another day.

-j

Single signon with Clipperz

Clipperz provides single signon capabilities using a web browser for all of your web based sites. Clipperz is an open source project started in 2005 by Marco and Giulio Cesare. I have been using Clipperz now for about six months on a daily basis.

From an end user perspective the process is quite simple. Go to Clipperz and register. After registering you can then start adding the sites that you visit that require a password.

Once you are on the logged into Clipperz click on the Tools link on the orange tool bar on the right hand side. Once on that page scroll down and drag and drop the Add to Clipperz widget to you book marks bar.

Now browse to a web site that requires that you login. While at the login page click on the Add to Clipperz link in the bookmarks toolbar. A small pop-up window will open with some code inside. Copy this code and click on the tab (you are using tabbed browsing aren’t you?) where you are logged into Clipperz. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the radio button next to Direct login. Now paste the copied code from the pop-up window into the box title Direct login configuration and then click the create button.

After clicking the create button a new text box will show. This is where you put in your login and password information for the web site that you are adding to Clipperz. After you put this in and create it the web site will show on the middle and left hand side of your screen.

Click on the web site link listed on the left hand side of your screen. This will open up a new tab and automatically log you into the site. If you want to edit the title or change the pasword (or if you got it wrong when creating the link) click on the link in the middle of the page. This will allow you to edit your login information. It even has a facility to decrypt your password if you want to see what it is or just make sure that your are typing it correctly.

For the more technical or paranoid among us Clipperz uses Ajax and JavaScript technologies built into your browser to encrypt your passwords. The encryption takes place locally on your computer before being sent to the Clipperz servers. Thus the only thing sent over the internet or stored on their servers are the scrambled bits of your password.

With the advent of SaaS and Cloud Computing you need a secure single signon solution for your web based sites where you store photos, financial data and other electronic data. Clippez fills this need as well as working as a password manager and a vault for confidential data. Give it a spin today!

Full disclosure: I have no affiliation with Clipperz other than being a satisfied user.

-j

Script repetitious tasks in a GUI with AutoIT

Do you find yourself wanting to script repetitious tasks in a GUI? Wish there was a way to automate it? There is now.

Unlike shell scripting where many tasks can be automated this is generally more difficult in a GUI. You have mouse clicks and keyboard entries to make in a GUI. AutoIT is the answer to your problem. AutoIT is designed to script repetitious tasks in a GUI, specifically the Windows GUI and Windows applications.

AutoIT is freeware - not open source - designed to automate the Windows GUI and perform other general scripting tasks. I use it at work for setting up users in Active Directory and Lotus Notes. The Active Directory part I send to the Windows command line. The Notes part is done inside the Notes client. I even have it send the New User documentation over to my Linux workstation via SCP. There I have a Bash script convert the documents to PDF to be sent to HR. Pretty cool. It saves me hours of work every Friday. Which is why I can write this post and tell you about it

The AutoIT download comes with a lite version of the SciTe IDE. You can download a full blown version customized to work with AutoIT here. With the IDE you get syntax highlighting, script tidying, debug, the ability to compile the script to an .exe file and more. AutoIT even integrates into the right click text menu so that right clicking on the script gives you the ability to run, compile or edit the script.

If you need to send your scripts out to users, for instance to have them perform some task or installation on their machine, the compile function is a real life saver. We use it to compile the script that installs and sets up the VPN and then send it to remote users. Just burn it to a CD along with the necessary files so that it will autorun and Voila!..no more trying to do it over the phone. Or you could just send all of the files zipped up in an email and have them put it in a folder for running..but that does require relying on the user to do something.

AutoIT also provides AU3Info. AU3Info is a tool that will help you find window titles, mouse coordinates and much more window information that will help in writing your script. You need the active window titles and mouse coordinates so that AutoIT knows when a certain window is active. Once the window is active you tell the script where to place the mouse, left or right click if necessary and what keystrokes to send.

AutoIT comes with a full complement of everything required to write any sort of script whether you need to manipulate a GUI or something that you need to run from the command line. These include datatypes, functions, macros and many others.

The documentation is excellent and very easy to understand. The forums are active and friendly to new users. So if you’re tired of doing that repetitious Windows task why not give AutoIT a spin! It’s a great tool for any administrator.

Full disclosure: I am in no way associated with AutoIT other than being a satisfied user.

Securely connecting Linux and Windows for file transfer and editing

The first question most Windows users want to know is how to retrieve, move or put files from their Windows machine to a Linux box or, conversely, how to retrieve them. The first thing most people think about is Windows file sharing. This, of course, requires setting up a Samba server just as FTP requires an FTP Server. So what is the quick and easy way for Windows users to get and put files from/to and Linux machine? Enter WinSCP.

WinSCP is an open source application built by Martin Prikryl. It let’s you securely connect to other machines using the SSH or SFTP protocols.

WinSCP is the answer to every Windows lovers dream. It’s graphical and very easy to use. If you have the ability to drag files from one window to another you can securely drag and drop files to a Linux machine and back to your Windows machine. All that is required is a username and password on the Linux box. Since the SSH daemon is setup by default on most Linux distributions it is not necessary to install any software other than WinSCP on your Windows machine.

WinSCP offers two graphical interfaces. I prefer the Norton Commander interface as it shows both the remote and local directories. I can also use my keyboard or mouse to move and copy files. The Windows Explorer interface shows just the remote folder. This interface is designed primarily for using your mouse. You can choose which interface that you prefer during installation. If you decide later that you prefer the other interface you can easily change it in the preferences dialog.

When you first open WinSCP you are presented with a login dialog. This is where you enter your username and password for your Linux box. You are given the opportunity to save the logon profile with or without the password. I recommend not saving the password.

On connecting it will open My Documents on your Windows machine and your home directory on the Linux machine. Here you can easily change directories on the local or remote machine for placing and retrieving documents or folders where you want them.

WinSCP is a very powerful application with many features. Some these include a command line interface that is scriptable. This can be automated through the use of the commands in a script file. WinSCP can also execute remote commands using a separate shell session much the same way you would use SSH to execute remote commands. You can also have several sessions open simultaneously if you need to connect to different servers.

This is a very basic overview of WinSCP. If you are looking for a way to connect yourself or your users quickly to a Linux box this is the way to go. For more information or to get and install WinSCP please visit their website at WinSCP.

Full disclosure: I have no ties at all with WinSCP other than being a very satisfied user.