Finding Time of Last Reboot

On Windows systems, such as XP, Vista, Small Business Server 2003, or Windows 7, you can determine the time a system was last booted from a command prompt using the systeminfo and find commands.

C:\>systeminfo | find "System Boot"
System Boot Time:          8/31/2009, 10:36:15 AM

For older versions of Windows, such as Windows NT or Windows 2000, you can use the uptime utility available in the Resource Kit for that version of Windows.

C:\Program Files\Reskit>uptime
\\JILL has been up for: 6 day(s), 9 hour(s), 34 minute(s), 7 second(s)

For Windows NT, you can download the uptime utility from Uptime.exe Tool Allows You to Estimate Server Availability with Windows NT 4.0 SP4 or Higher. For Windows 2000, the tool can be downloaded from Application Center 2000 - Uptime Tool.

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Problems with Treet.TV in SL on a Windows 7 System

After a couple of days of trying to get video to work for Treet.TV channels on SecondLife, I've still had no success.

[ More Info ]

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Checking Client IP address with PHP

I noticed that two PHP scripts, BrowserInfo and BrowserTest, that I use to have people provide me with information on their browser, such as the plugins available, were not providing the IP address from which browsers were viewing the scripts, because I hadn't updated them for a long time, but had upgraded PHP on the website quite some time ago. The relevant old code is shown below:

<?php
$IP = $HTTP_SERVER_VARS['REMOTE_ADDR'];
$FQDN = gethostbyaddr($HTTP_SERVER_VARS['REMOTE_ADDR']);
print ("<b>IP Address:</b> $IP<br>");
print ("<b>FQDN:</b> $FQDN<br>");
?>

I had to change the code to that shown below:

<?php
$IP = $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
$FQDN = gethostbyaddr($_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']);
print ("<b>IP Address:</b> $IP<br>");
print ("<b>FQDN:</b> $FQDN<br>");
?>

References:

1. how to get client's IP address in PHP
   Date: August 10, 2006
   PHPBuilder.com
2. Predefined Variables
   Last Updated; January 8, 2010
   PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor

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Hostile Host Check

I created a Bash script hostile-host-check to allow me to query DShield, a "cooperative network security community" to determine if an IP address I've been notified is engaged in hostile activity is also listed in DShield's database of IP addresses found by others to be associated with hostile activity noted at their firewalls.

hostile-host-check.zip

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KeePassX

If you are looking for a free cross-platform password management program, try KeePassX. It is open source software, which is available under the GNU General Public License (GPL).

You can compile the software from source code or download precompiled binary versions for Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows.

Below is a screen shot from a Mac OS X entry showing fields that can be filled for a new entry in the password database.

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Capturing a Screen Shot

To take a screen shot on a Mac OS X system, you can use the Grab application that comes with the operating system. To use it, take the following steps:

1. With the finder, locate the Grab application which will be under Applications/Utilities.
2. Open Grab
3. Select Capture.
4. Then select what you wish to capture. The choices are as follows:
   • Selection
   • Window
   • Screen
   • Timed Screen
5. If you selected Window, you will see a Window Grab window appear offering you the chance to choose the window you want to capture. You can click on that window to select it and then click on the Choose Window button to capture it with Grab.
6. Click on File and then Save to save the screen capture to a TIFF file.

Grab will save images as Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) files. You can convert such files to another graphics format, such as Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) format using the Preview application that also comes with the operating system. Preview is located in the Applications folder. To convert a file from TIFF to JPEG using it, take the following steps:

1. Open Preview, which is located in Applications, by double-clicking on it.
2. Choose File.
3. Chose Open and select the file to convert.
4. Choose File.
5. Choose Save As and select the file format you wish to use. You can choose from the following file formats:
   1. GIF
   2. JPEG
   3. JPEG-2000
   4. Microsoft BMP
   5. OpenEXR
   6. PDF
   7. Photoshop
   8. PICT
   9. PNG
   10. SGI
   11. TGA
   12. TIFF
6. Click on Save.

There are also other third-party applications that will allow you to convert files in one graphics format to another.

As an alternative to running Grab and then Preview,you can open Preview and then from within it, select File and then select Grab, which will allow you to capture a window with Grab while inside Preview where you can select the file format you wish to use when you save the image. That can save you some steps in the process.

References:

1. Screenshot Hacks for Mac OS X
   By: Wei-Meng Lee and Derrick Story
   Date: February 28, 2003
   MacDevCenter.com -- macintosh development, open source development
2. Mac OS X Screenshot Secrets
   By: David Battino
   Date: February 1, 2006
   O'Reilly Digital Media Center

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Malware Scanning on Dell Inspiron 1526

The owner of a Dell Inspiron 1526 laptop running Microsoft Windows Vista with Service Pack 2 installed was seeing popups warning the system was infected with malware. When I logged into the system, I saw one such warning. The Task Manager would not run nor could I get a command prompt at the time.

When I checked the system, I didn't find any rogue antivirus/antispyware software on it, though that I could link to the warning. I did find a .wmv file masquerading as an .mp3 file that Symantec Security Scan identified as Trojan.Wimad, however.

[ More Info ]

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Displaying Additional Text When Mouse Hovered Over Text

A simple way to display additional text when someone moves his/her mouse over text on a webpage, is to use something like the following:

<a title="Text to be displayed on mouse hover">Some text<a>

Which will produce the following:

Some text.

References:

1. Show text on Hover
   Date: September 22, 2005
   newsgroups.derkeiler.com: The source for newsgroups news

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