Windows 8(.1)... What The Hell Were They Thinking?

Even though I switched to the Apple operating systems and devices in my personal life, I still have some laptops, and virtual machines around for work. In the almost 15 years, I seen, used, supported and troubleshot(??) basically every Windows operating system around.

If you follow the development of the OS through the years, it's getting better with (almost) every release. There were some bad ones though; Windows Millennium Edition, and Windows Vista were most notorious.... Until now. Now we have Windows 8(.1).

Windows 8(.1) is (in my opinion) a Frankenstein monster that incorporates a tablet Metro desktop and a crippled old-skool desktop.

Posted on October 30, 2013 by Willem and filed under Annoying, Microsoft, Operating Systems and tagged Windows 8.

Google+ Custom URL

Google+ introduced a new (shiny) feature recently called Custom URL's. Up till now people had to communicate these long URL's if you needed to find someone on Google+. Mine for example is: https://plus.google.com/u/0/105217840082627216167/. Not a real slick way of presenting yourself on the Interwebs. When you log in to your Google+ account you get the option of getting one of those URL's for 'free'. It basically is your screen-name in the URL.

Mine would be http://google.com/+GuillaumeRaisonnable/. Would be, because, I'm not getting mine. The reason for this is that you need to leave your mobile phone number with Google for so-called verification purposes. By doing this I would be giving away another piece of privacy for something shiny. Something a lot of other people will be more than willing to do so. Just remember that the NSA never had it any easier since the arrival of social media to violate your privacy.

Posted on October 30, 2013 by Willem and filed under Annoying, Internet, Personal, Privacy and tagged Google Plus Custom URL.

Sony A7(r) Mirrorless Full Frame Camera

Sony launched the A7(r) camera today. It's a full frame camera without a mirror (like a Leica M). Also known as an Mirrorless Interchangeable Lens Camera (MILC).
It was something I didn't expect (mainly because I'm not that into the Sony rumors). The release of a full frame E-mount camera startled me somewhat. Why? Because the E-mount cameras today (Sony NEX cameras) are well known to work with various lens mount adapters (e.g. Leica M-mount, Nikon F-mount, etc.).

This camera could replace my Nikon D300. I mainly use that camera for macro and the occasional telephoto. I can still use my Nikon lenses on this body through an adapter. Even my Leica M-lenses can be used. This could be the camera to rule them all (all being MY current cameras). It's light, small (smaller than the M9 or the new M type-240) and packs a lot of (photographic) power.

I know what I want for X-Mas

Steve Huff has some additional images from the camera in various setup's (mainly with Leica lenses :-))

Posted on October 16, 2013 by Willem and filed under Hardware, Photography and tagged Sony A7 A7r E-mount.

A Day At The Rijksmuseum

Last Monday we went to Amsterdam for a visit to the Rijksmuseum, and some general sightseeing in Amsterdam. The visit to the Museum was what you would call memorable.
First, I hadn't been there before. The times I wanted to go it was closed for renovations (which took more than 10 years to complete). Second, the museum got evacuated around 10:45AM.

Posted on September 29, 2013 by Willem and filed under Personal, Photography and tagged Rijksmuseum M9 evacuation model ship Rembrandt Nachtwacht Nightwatch Waterloo Black and White.

Junos Dual ISP Backup Route Configuration

The last couple of years, we've had two ISP's on premise. One (XS4ALL) for basic Internet Access via VDSL, and one our (VoIP) phone provided by Ziggo. The Ziggo phone services includes free (and ultra lite) Internet access through the use of their cable modem. It's ultra-lite, since it's only 256kbps. More than enough for VoIP, but not nearly enough for modern basic Internet access.

Having these two ISP's means that I should be able to provide some redundancy in case my primary DSL connection fails (for whatever reason). Preferably an automated fail-over of some kind. Since there are no dynamic protocols available from either ISP (the Internet service is consumer-grade), I have to find some work-around.

Posted on August 16, 2013 by Willem and filed under Security, Tips'n Tricks, Junos and tagged IP monitoring fail-over ISP dual isp Splunk Juniper.

Capture Network Traffic With Wireshark Under Ubuntu

When you install Wireshark on Ubuntu Linux you need to be root to be able to capture traffic. The standard user doesn't have enough privileges to do this.

A workaround for this is to add the user to a wireshark group and give the group special permissions. Afterwards, you're able to cpature traffic in Ubuntu with Wireshark, without needing root access.

The complete list of commands:

sudo groupadd wireshark

sudo usermod -a -G wireshark <YOUR-USER-NAME>

sudo chgrp wireshark /usr/bin/dumpcap

sudo chmod 750 /usr/bin/dumpcap

sudo setcap cap_net_raw,cap_net_admin=eip /usr/bin/dumpcap

sudo getcap /usr/bin/dumpcap

Just reboot, or log out and back in, and you're finished.

HAPPY CAPTURING

Posted on August 14, 2013 by Willem and filed under Linux, Tips'n Tricks and tagged wireshark ubuntu.

Under the Bridge

Shot this weekend with the Leica M9 and the 35mm summicron. I still love that camera.

Posted on August 13, 2013 by Willem and filed under Photography, Personal and tagged black and white bike sun light Leica 35mm summicron.

Choose Your Password (Language) With Care

When you want to use words / sentences in a password, it pays to use a non-English dictionary. Just check the Kaspersky blog on strong passwords., and try it for yourself.

The English word combination 'horse' and 'toad' are considered weaker than the Dutch equivalent ('paard' and 'pad').

Posted on August 5, 2013 by Willem and filed under Security, Tips'n Tricks and tagged password kaspersky strong dictionary strength.

Mail Addressed to 'Unknown IP Address'

The last couple of weeks, I got several mails addressed to 'Onbekend IP Adres' (which is Dutch for 'Unknown IP Address') .

The e-mail 'To:' field contains my mail address with the 'Onbekend IP Adres' as an alias.

How are we supposed to take these spammers seriously? First, get my name right. Then, I'll might think about clicking on these links in the e-mail (NOT).

Posted on July 30, 2013 by Willem and filed under Annoying, Personal and tagged spam.

Create a Juniper SRX ca-profile For Unified Access Control

When you have a registered Juniper UAC / IC appliance, you have to option to download a VMWare version of the system. This is called a DTE appliance (Development and Test Environment). With this you have a full-blown UAC at your disposal for testing and development. Only downside is that it's limited to 5 connected users. Apart from that, it's just like the real-deal.

Posted on July 30, 2013 by Willem and filed under Security, Tips'n Tricks, Junos and tagged xca srx UAC Unified Access Control PKI Juniper.