Desktop Printing w/ FreeBSD

Whew! It is getting late and I need some sleep. I will read this article either tomorrow or within the next week. Since my LPT port is broken I will have to try out the examples in this article on another computer. Petes computer will be the best pick since more computers are networked to the server I setup. This will come in very hand when it is set up.

The article URL: http://www.ofb.biz/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=321

Encrypt GAIM Conversations

This works with Gaim-0.81 and provides transparent RSA using NSS.
More information on this later after using it for some time.
URL: http://gaim-encryption.sourceforge.net/

Brief Notes from Poul -Henning Kamp on GBDE

I am new to this GBDE (GEOM Based Disk Encryption) for now so I am just going to jot down information I find interesting or did not know about for later personal research.

These notes are from http://phk.freebsd.dk/pubs/bsdcan-04.slides.gbde.pdf

GEOM - The framework for classes which perform transformations on disk I/O:
- was developed under DARPA/SPAWAR.
- Is filesystem independent and works at the disk level. The good thing is that these encrypted disk/partitions look just like any other disk. Better yet, GEOM works with UFS1/2. Since I am using FreeBSD-4.10 Stable I may have to upgrade to 5.x if I want to use GBDE. I am really comfortable with 4.10 right not, but I know eventually I will upgrade. For now I will just read up on GBDE.
- Many other filesystems can be used with GEOM, including but not limited to FAT, NTFS, ISO9660 and many more.

How Good is GEOM?:
Well, it is said that unless AES is broken GEOM can not be cracked! That sounds good to me.

Another Good News Source

http://www.newsforge.com/ I found while reading a Slashdot post on the new GBDE-GEOM Based Disk Encryption for FreeBSD. This is something I will look into later.

Protect the USB PenDrive at all Cost!

This is something I fear most. Losing my USB pendrive! Not only will my data be gone, but who ever comes across it will have my data. Why not just encrypt it?

This article from BSDNews.org talks just about that.

Convert to Hex in VIM

Just recently, I realized my favorite Open Source Editor (OSE), VIM, has a built-in "hex editor". Well, it is not really a Hex editor, but rather a conversion option. I realized this while playing with the pull-down menus in VIM for windows.

While in VIM issuing the following will convert the current screen to hex:

$> %!xxd

To convert back do:

$> %!xxd -r

I thought this was pretty neat!