Posted on: August 14th, 2010 by Famous Phil

Today’s topic was sparked by a recent influx of worms attempting to take over one of the public servers that I manage.  Basically, I constantly get log notifications for the firewall (yes, I actually read logs!) saying that all these attack signatures are being detected against programs running on one of my servers.

These programs are IIS 7  (web server, Internet Information Services) and MSSQL Server 2008 R2 (Microsoft Standard Query Language Server).  In the past when I ran my own computers on an un-firewalled internet connection (public wi-fi, home DSL), with home security software installed (like Norton 360), I have also noticed these types of log messages and popup warnings.

Most people (I’d estimate at least 50%) probably have some sort of broadband, un-firewalled, connection setup in their home that is directly connected to their computer.  Most people probably subscribe to some security solution like Norton 360, and they probably run some sort of firewall.  Normally, these firewalls catch all the bad stuff that can harm your computer, but stuff still could potentially come through.

Although there will always be loop holes for these security vulnerabilities, there is another means of protection that most people would NEVER think of!  If you’re thinking Wireless router from the local Wally World (Wal-Mart), you read my thoughts. Yes, Wireless routers don’t just share an internet connection wirelessly like most people think.

So what else does a wireless router do?  A wireless router is simply a ROUTER with a wireless ability built into it.  Routers are complex pieces of engineering that connect many computers together.  Without getting into too much detail, routers connect two separate networks together to bring multiple endpoints together.  The internet has many subnets that are connected to each other through routers. Think of the telephone system when I mention this, more specifically area codes and dialing prefixes.  The area code for Matthouse is 716, the prefix is 584.  So 1-716-584-xxxx gets routed to a particular telephone.   In my example, when you dial the full number, 1 means connect to the main US router which knows all the US phone area codes.  Next, 716 means connect to the router which  handles the Western New York area prefixes, then finally that router sends the call to the router than handles the 584 prefix.  That router then is practically directly connected to the xxxx number which will ring a phone and help establish your connection.  The internet is connected in a similar fashion.

Traffic is sent in internet packets that run on a certain port number.  For simplicity, a port is required to connect to a computer.  Computers listen on ports for connections and there are 65535 possible ports.  You might think of a port like a way to get to your house from the road at your address.  Each drive way is a unique path in and it accepts only a certain type of car.  Hackers tend to send a car into that drive way that acts and looks like the car it accepts, but once it’s in, it can cause havoc in your home (computer).

So what am I getting to? Routers connect different networks, so they inherently have to forward all the traffic from one network to another, including all the ports.  Since ports are easy ways to get into your computer (provided your computer is actively listening / accepting on that port), hackers tend to go for these ports.  Some ports on web servers (like port 80) are absolutely necessary to leave open, but other ports like 5109 (which happens to be the AOL Instant Messenger port) probably isn’t needed on that web server.   For a home computer, blocking all the ports inbound to the computer is probably smart, while allowing all the outgoing ports from the computer to the internet.

NOTE: I probably should add that with outbound connections through firewalls, if you request something from an external source (say a webserver) while having all incoming connections blocked, you will still get the response from that external source.  Firewalls are smart about allowing replies back through while blocking all new connections that are probably hacker initiated.

BOTTOM LINE: All computers have different needs. A wireless router when added to your network will block all incoming ports by default and allow all outgoing connections on all ports.  Therefore, by adding one of these cheap boxes, you’re not only gaining a wireless network access point, but you’re also protecting yourself from the nasty dangers of hackers that probe computers for open listening ports.  Since many ISPs provide un-firewalled public IP addresses to residential customers, those customers would be wise to install one of these routers.  Who knows, it might save their computer from a severe attack from a hacker some day!  I’ve also found that when I run a firewall in terms of a router, I don’t need as much protection from Norton 360 on my computer, so I basically have a faster computer (it isn’t working on blocking bad stuff anymore).

Hopefully this helps you!

Tags: Firewall, wireless router
Posted in Technology
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Posted on: August 6th, 2010 by Famous Phil

Often times, I’m asked the question: Should I get Windows hosting or Linux hosting for my new website.  This is a topic that comes up time and time again in my field of expertise and sadly, newbies often choose based on perception, not based on fact.  This blog will cover some of the facts about both hosting platforms and hopefully help you make an informed decision about how you want your website hosted.
Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: choice, hosting, Linux, windows
Posted in Hosting / Server Administration, Programming, Technology
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Posted on: July 30th, 2010 by Famous Phil

Today’s blog kind of got pushed to the top of my to do list after I finally obtained a virus that I have been trying to get now for the past year and a half!  This basically deals with a type of malware which comes from advertisements on websites you visit. For many years now, I have always wondered, how can someone walk into my room, get on my computer, and have a virus on it within 5 minutes.  After all, I haven’t gotten a virus now in at least 5 years!!!  Is it the surfing habits of people, or is it just that I don’t visit “those” types of sites.  I’m going to go into a little detail today about what I’ve found out.

At one point or another, I’d say that at least half the population that uses a computer has seen some sort of a virus.  The most popular virus as of late (I’m talking the past 2 years) is the Antivirus 20xx Virus.  Its usually labeled Antivirus 2008, 2009, or 2010 and looks like an antivirus program.  The only trick is that it isn’t.  I’ve always wanted to figure out how this virus enters the computer because I’ve seen it so much now that I’ve become an expert at removing it without tools.  I’ve also given a few lectures (as a Teaching Assistant) on viruses, but without the virus as an example, it is really hard to show how infections occur and how to prevent them.  So instead, I just gave the usual lecture about run Windows Updates, Antivirus protection, and use Firefox or Google Chrome instead of Internet Explorer.

So now, lets get into how I actually found the virus.  Yesterday, I was talking with my friend, John, about the normal crap we talk about and John brought up that he was fixing a Windows XP machine that was infected by Antivirus 2010.  He mentioned that it was a popular virus (which I already know).  Up until that point I have fixed at least 10 computers with the same infection.  The only common thing I could come up with between them (in most cases) was that the user had Yahoo! set as their homepage, Windows update was seldomly ran, and Internet Explorer was the main browser.  John also came up with very similar characteristics.

Normally I give a walk through to everyone who I repair computers for that includes click ok to any updates to symantec antivirus and windows updates, this is what that screen will look like, etc.  Contrary to popular believe, some of the biggest updates DO NOT get installed automatically for Windows.  For example, internet explorer 8 right now is considered a non vital update, so is Windows Vista Service Pack 2.  Both of these updates take a long time to install and require the user to initiate them.  To do so, the user should get in a habit of running Windows Updates monthly at the very least to manually check for these updates that don’t automatically install.

Yesterday, as a test, John left Yahoo open in Internet Explorer on his fully updated computer and he noticed that a risk was found.  After hearing that, I too ran a similar test.  I follow all of my instructions and I verified that my computer had the latest version of everything.  I managed to find a risk within 5 minutes of simply reloading the yahoo page.  This completely shocked me and confirmed what 2 of my last customers said they were doing when they got the virus (working on Yahoo Mail).  The risks that I found could easily give me the virus that I’ve looked for.  Of course, I’m a bit smarter than most and I killed the Internet Explorer window through the task manager when the risk showed up.  I will still probably restore my computer though a hard drive clone I made a month ago to verify that nothing bad did happen.

I always thought that the culprit was free porn and file sharing (emule, limewire, torrent, etc).  I have always known that free videos and music can contain malicious software on the inside encoding that can cause your computer to execute a virus installer.  I never thought that this could happen from viewing a simple advertisement.   So now that I know the culprit, is there anything you can do to protect yourself?  Of course there is.  First, I strongly encourage you to dump Internet Explorer.  I have never seen “Internet Explorer” and “Secure” used in the same sentence with correct grammar (there is no correct way to put those 2 into the same sentence truthfully).  The first step to protect yourself is to Goto http://www.getfirefox.com or http://chrome.google.com and download Firefox or Chrome, then install it.  I personally like Firefox more, but others push Chrome too.

Now comes the controversial part of the solution.  The internet is mostly ran on Advertising (sadly) meaning that there is a lot of controversy with blocking advertising.  FamousPhil is a more a hobby site so I never intend on having advertisements on this site that I don’t have full control over.  Sadly, some of the biggest sites, including Yahoo, Fox, Google, and others have malware placed within their dynamic ads (as per my testing).  It may or may not be any fault of their own (there are hackers out there), but malvertising is a major security risk.  I have always run an ad blocker (which is probably why I have never gotten anything).  My reason has always been that I’m on a slow connection and without ads, my internet is so much faster.  Therefore, I have never strongly recommended ad blockers until today, but I always put them onto comptuers that I fix for clients.  Now I feel that without ad blockers, this malware will get into the computers of innocent people.  Being a computer technician, I really hate seeing the same problem / computer over and over.

So with that said lets apply an adblocker to your browser of choice above.  To install an adblocker for firefox, simply open up firefox and goto tools -> addons.  Search for the addon “adblock plus”.  Install that addon and restart the browser.  Upon restart, you should see a screen asking what filter you want.  I am an avid fan of “easylist usa” which blocks just about everything that is advertising related.  For chrome, you want to click on the wrench (tools) and goto extensions.  Then you want to browse the gallery.  The first adblock by gundlach is the one you want to click on.  Then click the install button.  The extension will pop up a window that says install, so install it.  After that window goes away, simply exit google chrome and go back into it.  Ads should now be gone.

I really hate having to recommend blocking ads, but hopefully after enough people block ads, the advertisers will realize that their ads are doing more damage than good and will fix that.  Until then, If you want to avoid viruses and crap, I’d strongly recommend using one.

Tags: ads, advertising, antivirus 2010, malvertising, malware, virus, yahoo
Posted in Technology
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Posted on: July 23rd, 2010 by Famous Phil

I am delighted today to bring you a guest posting from Alexis Bonari!

Anyone who does any sort of work on their computer can tell you a hard drive crash is the stuff nightmares are made of.  While it’s easy to pass judgment on such individuals for failing to use an external hard drive, doing so is admittedly time-consuming and, in some cases, expensive.

The solution: online backup sites. For a small fee, these off-site servers back up all data stored on the computer in case of a hard drive failure.  Here are the top three such services and what they have to offer:

1. Carbonite
(http://www.carbonite.com/en/default.aspx)
For only $54.95/ year, Carbonite offers unlimited backup on their server.  No matter what your computer’s storage limit, the Carbonite system can handle it.  For security purposes, files are encrypted before being sent to the Carbonite server for storage. For ease of use, the files are automatically backed up each time the computer is connected to the Internet. Restoring the files is as simple as logging into the Carbonite website and clicking the “restore” button listed on your account.

2. MozyHome Free
(http://mozy.com/home/free)
Unlike Carbonite, Mozy doesn’t charge a fee for the first 2 GB backed up.  The system for retrieving files and backing them up is essentially the same the one used by Carbonite.  If you want to store more than 2 GB, Mozy charges $4.95/month.  This gives you unlimited data storage for only slightly more per year than Carbonite.

3. SugarSync
(https://www.sugarsync.com/)
Many experts believe that online syncing represents the future of online backup technology.  SugarSync.com is the current leader in online syncing technology. Instead of simply backing up a set of files on one computer, SugerSync notifies other computers and devices you’ve listed of any changes made. You can work from nearly anywhere in the world and have your files backed up in real-time by the Sugarsync server.  Devices supported include Mac’s, PC’s, Ipads, smart phones, and many others.

Those who sign up get a 30 day free trial.  After that, the price goes up to $10/month for 60 GB of storage.  While the limited storage and the higher price might be prohibitive for some customers, many are happy to pay extra for the ability to sync documents over multiple devices.

Bio: Alexis Bonari is a freelance writer and blog junkie. She spends much of her days blogging about Education and CollegeScholarships. In her spare time, she enjoys square-foot gardening, swimming, and avoiding her laptop.

Tags: alexis bonari, backup, disaster, guest post
Posted in Technology
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Posted on: June 22nd, 2010 by Famous Phil

This seems to be a topic that I haven’t been able to find on line that was covered to my satisfaction so I will cover it.  A few weeks ago, I was in the market for speakers for my computer.  I wanted something that was somewhat compact (for easy shipping) yet powerful with decent bass.  I have read reviews for months trying to figure out what would do the job effectively since I knew I would be getting some new speakers.

At first, I got reading many reviews and settled on Bose wasn’t as good as they claim and I took the plunge for a Cambridge SoundWorks i525 tabletop radio.  This radio has reviews saying it is much richer than Bose and just as loud.  I got the radio here at my home and put it up against a Bose first generation Wave Radio that my parents already own.  I will admit that up until about 75dB, it did have a deeper bass and richer tones without any modifications to the sound output from my computer.  After that 75dB mark, it started rumbling trying to keep up with what the Bose was doing.  75dB for me isn’t loud enough since I’m considering using this with a video projector which means its going to have to project sound a little better.  Hence, I decided to send it back.  Now I decided that I’m going with Bose.

My parents already own the first generation Bose Wave Radio and I really like it.  I’ve used it many times for movies outside on my projector because it was small, yet loud, especially bounced off the projection wall / screen.  With hearing the first generation and owning some older speakers on my home theater system, I thought I would go with Bose for good quality sound.  Now my decision came down to 4 possible Bose models.  I considered the Bose Wave Radio first / second generation radios, a companion computer speaker system and a 3-2-1 system.  I’ve heard everyone before except the companion system.  I opted out of the companion system due to it being USB only for a separate subwoofer.  I believe that a separate subwoofer is necessary to reach the bass and amplitude of sound that I want out of a system.  I finally decided against the 3-2-1 system because I didn’t feel like spending another 400 bucks for something I would rarely listen to at full volume (if ever) and the wires that I’d have to deal with for moving it.  I may get it in the future, but right now I don’t think that will happen.

So now it came down to the first / second generation Bose Wave Radio.  I finally decided to take a chance on the 2nd generation.  With Bose, I’ve noticed the 2nd generation doesn’t ever sound as good, but the 2nd generation of the Bose Wave Radio really surprised me.  Like Bose promised, it can produce a deeper bass with keeping the same amplitude of volume compared to the first generation of the Bose Wave Radio.  Both radios are excellent and produce very natural sound, but the 2nd generation does slightly better at it.

I like how the 2nd generation uses headphone jacks instead of RCA jacks for input / output and I do like the bigger display, but I hate how they removed the buttons on the radio and force use of the remote (which is easily losable).  With these changes, I’ve opted to stick with the Bose Wave Radio II for the foreseeable future.

With all this said, I wouldn’t go back on saying that I really like the Bose Wave Radios, both generations.  Depending on your needs, I would recommend either generation if you want to take the plunge into the world of Bose.

Tags: bose, bose wave radio, cambridge soundworks, radio
Posted in Technology
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Posted on: February 15th, 2010 by Famous Phil

I feel like starting this post on the topic of recycling.  If you are like me, you have heard of the 3 R’s.  For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, the 3 R’s are Reduce, Recycle, and Reuse.  A good portion of the news and current events in society encourage recycling and saving the environment.  For the most part, the world is moving towards saving the environment and the world as we know it, and that is great.

You may be asking what the heck does the movement to save the environment have to do with an IP title.  IP stands for Internet Protocol and the internet runs on this protocol (means of communication).  When using IP, your computer uses an address that makes it reachable by all other computers in the world.  Normally, you can think of IP as the United States Postal Service (USPS) and an IP Address as your mailing address or P.O. box.  The internet currently uses 2 major versions of IP, version 4 and version 6.  IP version 4 has been around since the dawn of the internet and can support a little over 4 billion computer addresses at once.  Due to special addresses within the IP version 4 range, only about 2 billion of these addresses are actually usable.  Due to this limitation, IP version 6 was born around 10 years ago to support a much bigger address system (it still has a limit, but its far bigger than anything could ever use).  The problem is, IP version 6 is going to be a pain to shift to because it will require everyone to switch at once.  Most system admins believe in not fixing something unless its broke, which could hinder this a lot.

Quite a few years back, there were a few ranges of ip addresses that were reserved to be private addresses.  This means that if you used a private address, no router on the internet would accept traffic from this range of addresses and forward it onto other networks.  This allowed for the usual wireless router at home with that all too familiar ip address 192.168.0.1 or something similar.  I’m sure if you’ve ever touched one of these, you would see that number somewhere in the documentation.  The idea of this is to put a bunch of computers behind a single internet ip version 4 address and allow all the computers to communicate with the internet without actually needing to be directly on the internet.  This process is called Network Address Translation (NAT) and all routers practice this.  the 192.168.0.x range allows for 255 computers to be connected simultaneously.  For bigger networks in need of more addresses, there is the 10.x.x.x where x is a variable number from 1-255.  This allows for many more computers, about 16 milion addresses to be a bit more precise.

Technically, using all 10.x.x.x network addresses on the internet, we could likely last a long time to come without requiring IP version 6. So, why don’t we use more private addressing?

I asked myself a very good question, and my answer is that I don’t know.  Obviously, we need to have public IP addresses to some degree to allow for websites, virtual private network gateways, and other services to the internet.  Putting internet accessible services behind NAT devices would knock out the entire internet.  On the other hand (and the main purpose of this post) is that there are several universities and companies and institutions that horde public IP addresses and do absolutely nothing with them.

A prime example of this hording can be seen here at the University at Buffalo.  UB owns a class B block of ip addresses 128.205.x.x and recently licensed another block of ip addresses in another range to support their continued growth.  Normally I wouldn’t be against this, but UB is in a tight position because the state government is failing at maintaining a good budget and IP addresses now cost a lot since there aren’t many left.  UB probably gets a volume discount, but for me, I pay $20/year for each public IP address that I am assigned and most of that cost goes directly to the naming corporation that handles all IP addresses.  This is a classic supply and demand problem.  Also, UB firewalls most of their IP addresses entirely, I can name no more than 20 computers on the UB network as a whole that I’ve accesses that absolutely need access to the internet (Web servers, etc).  The rest of the UB network computers are holding onto valuable public IP addresses that are 100% fire walled and inaccessible from the outside world.  Why does UB waste money and horde IP addresses that it doesn’t need?

Many other universities like Berkley, and Princeton have similar sizes of IP address blocks and I’m sure that they do the same basic stuff.  Now onto the ISPs.  Wildblue and Verizon both assign public unfirewalled IP addresses to their customers.  I can see why they might do this, but really, do customers need a public IP address just to potentially compromise the network and the internet computers around them?  Probably not.

I really feel that public IP addresses should only be handled by the major internet providers and datacenters that handle internet accessible servers.  Private companies that want real IP addresses should need to justify the use of those addresses.  If this was enacted, I’m sure that the internet addressing crisis would be a lot less of a problem.

Nat can definitely be the key to fixing the problem, but first, these big institutions that horde IP addresses need to give those addresses up and use them as they need them, just like many of the major hosting companies currently do.

Tags: address, crisis, internet, ip, running out, waste
Posted in Hosting / Server Administration, Technology
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Posted on: January 1st, 2010 by Famous Phil

At the time of beginning this post… it is 12:01am Eastern Time, January 1, 2010.  My first words are: Happy New Year! and Happy new decade!  Hopefully this decade will bring a lot more fortune than the last one   I just want to quickly look back on the last 10 years of my life and the funniest videos of the year that I’ve found.

Ten years ago from today, I did not know much about a computer.  I can assure you that I did not know how to turn one on, and I only had a slight clue about what the internet was.  At the time, I had high hopes of becoming an electrical engineer and I loved playing around with circuits.  I was also much younger and had a lot to learn (obviously).  I also wasn’t entirely sure about what all the Y2K stuff was all about, so it didn’t really affect me.  Finally, a last tiny tidbit… I have spent *every* new year of my life in my own bedroom here at home.  I might be a few feet off from the same position each year, but I’ve basically in the same spot.  This is only the third year of my life that I’ve been up to witness the new year come in.

So, how does it feel?  I doesn’t feel any different… its just another day.  For some people, its an iconic day I suppose, being a new year and all, but for me, nothing has really changed.  I will continue to live and will continue to do what I do every day.  The only difference is, I will have to get over the annoyance of not remembering to write 2010 on any documents I create for at least the next few weeks (probably about a month or two in reality).

2009 brought me 8 hard drive failures in various machines that I’ve worked on, 2 being my own.  It also brought some bad fortune with the passing of my grandmother.  On the brighter side, it brought Windows 7, Microsoft Exchange, XM Radio, 2 new Laptop computers, a new server, and the magic of Verizon wireless high speed internet here at home.  It also brought me a wonderful job at my college and lots of new knowledge about computers.  Overall, 2009 for me was a decent year, especially considering the killing I made on Ebay selling Michael Jackson dolls (I sold quite a few within the first day after his death).  Of all the stuff that 2009 brought, perhaps the biggest was a new and improved FamousPhil.com.  Within the next few weeks, FamousPhil.com will change slightly again to become more smooth in color transitions

In 2009, I watched a lot of amazing video.  I think its time to share some of the more memorable youtube links of the best videos I saw in 2010!  I’m also going to leave this blog post here.  I hope that your 2009 was as enjoyable as mine and that your 2010 brings good tidings   Enjoy!

Ancient Modem that still works (seen on Yahoo for several weeks back in June, 2009)

World’s Fastest Speed Reader reading the original Health Care Bill – Cavuto (Fox News)

Glen Beck – Turtles on TV (You may have to get half way through this partially edited clip)

Next up is from a movie that was hilarious (Monsters vs. Aliens).  I also liked High School Musical 3.

I discovered something about geiko!

And finally, the video that combines it all together perfectly!

To another great year!  Thanks for stopping in!

Tags: 2009, 2010, Happy New Year, New Year, video
Posted in My Site, Personal, Student Life, Technology
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Posted on: October 8th, 2009 by Famous Phil

As of yesterday, Microsoft’s Exchange 2010 team announced the release of the Exchange 2010′s RTM here: http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2009/10/08/452775.aspx#comments.  This is exciting news because I can finally request the RTM and begin migrating my systems to the new Exchange. I have been waiting a few months now for this release because it will be the start of many changes to my web hosting services as well that I need to take further steps to secure and improve performance on.

For those of you who don’t know what an RTM is, this is the Release to Manufacturing version that usually becomes the full version within a few months automatically.  Unlike Release Candidates, the RTM version of any software packages will become the full version meaning they don’t require any re-installation or pose any security threats to use in production.

Exchange 2010 is important for me because it will introduce the send as function like hotmail and other providers have.  I have many email addresses, but my University at Buffalo address is my most important, so I send as my @ Buffalo address.  With 2010, this will no longer be the case because I will reply to email as the address it was sent to.  I believe this will prevent a lot of confusion to contacts that don’t recognize my university address.

With Exchange 2010, I will also be upgrading the hardware that hosts my email infrastructure.  I will be supporting Server 2008 R2 which is the latest operating system for Windows Server.  I believe this was only fully released a few days ago and it is very similar to Windows 7.  For those of you who don’t keep up with new releases of Windows, Windows 7 will be released to everyone late this month.  I am currently using the RTM version of Windows 7 and I find that it is about 10x faster and more stable than Windows XP.  Compared to Windows Vista, I’d say its about 50x more stable, faster, and more efficient.  Since Server 2008 is Vista’s server operating system, I prefer to stay away from Server 2008 entirely.

For those of you who are thinking about upgrading to Windows 7, I’d strongly recommend it!  First, if you are running Windows Vista, you’d be nuts not to goto Windows 7 within a few months of its final release.  Windows 7 is practically the same but much more efficient.  You will find that everything will be much easier to use on Windows 7 than Windows Vista.  For those of you on Windows XP, it might be time to bite the bullet and upgrade (like I did).  For the most part, if your system runs Windows XP fine, it will not have any issues running Windows 7 fine.  I did find a few minor problems with XP applications (mostly MIDI musical instrument related) not working on Windows 7, but support is fairly good otherwise.  Just one word of caution to the developers out there, if you want to run Visual Studio 2005/2008 on Windows 7, don’t install any Microsoft Office 2007 compatibility pack or PDF package.  These will make Visual Studio’s Installation fail (on my preliminary tests).

Now to get into some security updates.  I plan on migrating all of my systems to a more secure environment shortly after Exchange 2010 is fully implemented.  I will have 1 gateway server that serves as a connection point for all services within Matthouse to keep everything tightened down.  Within the next few months you can expect performance increases on sites that I host including my own (this one).

I have a lot more to blog about, and I hope to get around to it all as time permits.  My next blog will hopefully be something about mail filtering.

Tags: exchange 2010, matthouse, Microsoft, release candidate, rtm, upgrade, windows
Posted in Hosting / Server Administration, Technology
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Posted on: September 13th, 2009 by Famous Phil

For as long as I can remember, I have always had multiple computers on that I use simotaneously.  With multiple computers sitting on the same desk, I have always had a separate monitor, keyboard, and mouse.  Unfortunately, the tray under my desk only has room for a single keyboard and mouse.  This means that I often clutter my desk unnecessarily with an extra keyboard and mouse.

Another unfortunate fact is that I have tendinitis in both of my wrists.  Putting my hands on the keyboard and mouse that sits on the top of the main desk really hurts my wrist and hand to the point where I can’t bear the pain.  This pain has triggered me to find alternative solutions to using the same keyboard and mouse that sits where I can easily use them without the pain.

One of my best solutions up until today has been using a KVM (Keyboard Video Mouse) switch.  This essentially connects many physical computers to the same KVM.  This works fine on a single monitor setup when I only need one screen at one given time.  What happens when I need to have access to several monitors at once when I’m trying to read something and work on it at the same time?  There simply isn’t enough room on a single 17″ monitor!

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: computer, keyboard, kvm, mouse, synergy
Posted in Technology
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Posted on: August 30th, 2009 by Famous Phil

It has been a while, but I’ve been moving back to college and such and haven’t really had the time to write new blogs about technical topics.  I hope that after this next week is through, my normal college schedule will be finalized and any bugs in the FamousPhil calendar / countdown system will be fixed (yes, there are bugs ).  This is a blog that I drafted about 4 months ago, but haven’t really finished until now, so I feel that now is an appropriate time to open the topic then provide video / photos later. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: component, computer, engineering, fun, home automation, ir, php, serial, web development, x10
Posted in Personal, Technology
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