Tuesday, September 24, 2002

Firewall Guide Internet Security FreewareThese are some of the best no-cost Internet security products and services that are free for personal use.
posted by J Slave 9/24/2002

Home PC Firewall GuideThe purpose of the Home PC Firewall Guide is to provide easy access to independent, third-party reviews of Internet security products for home, telecommuter, and SOHO (small office, home office) end-users. The products we track include personal firewall, anti-virus, anti-Trojan and privacy software as well as low-cost routers with firewall features.
posted by J Slave 9/24/2002

shareware downloads: Remote Computing - free software trials brought to you by WebAttack.com YouRNControl is a home automation software that enables you to control lights, appliances, etc... by using events, Email messages, voice commands, or a web browser via the Internet/Intranet. The program uses the X10 technology (must be purchased separately) to control devices in your house. In addition YouRNControl has a built in web server to help you monitor the status of your home via the Internet/Intranet. If you have a web cam, or built in capture card, you can view streaming video of a room in your house over the Internet/Intranet using your web browser without having to install an extra plug-in or software. It also features Microsoft Agent technology for voice technology support.
posted by J Slave 9/24/2002

freeware downloads: Remote Computing - free software brought to you by WebAttack.com, the largest download site for Windows Internet tools.
posted by J Slave 9/24/2002

Windows 98/ME PPTP Client Setup Once you are connected, the IPCONFIG command from the MS-DOS command line will show that you have access to the remote subnet, and you will have been given an IP address from the router's pool.
posted by J Slave 9/24/2002

Shields UP! -- Internet Connection Security Analysis Pressing these buttons grants your formal permission and requests our connection to
your computer for the display of data that can be gained by anyone across the Internet
posted by J Slave 9/24/2002

The Typical Win9x Networking Environment There are a finite number of ways that a Win95 box can connect to a
network:
1. One network interface card (NIC) to another via a 'crossover'
Ethernet cable.
2. One NIC to a hub/switch/router directly.
3. A dialup adapter to a dial-up networking (DUN) server (modem to
Internet Service Provider (ISP)).
4. A 'direct' connection using a serial/parallel/USB port and a special
cable.
5. other, ambiguous, out-of-scope-and-therefore-not-that-important ways...

Case #4 above is just about useless in terms of the scope of this article.
posted by J Slave 9/24/2002

Freeware SSH and SCP for Windows 9x, NT, ME, 2000 and XP If you are trying to access remote servers securely from Windows 9x, NT, ME, 2000 or XP and you don't want to pay money for programs that are freely available for UNIX-like platforms, you may find this document useful. It describes free SSH implementations for Windows.
posted by J Slave 9/24/2002

i-tree.org - Secure iXplorer Pro - a secure alternative to FTP clients DAPlay is similar to other music software like WinAmp, MusicMatch and others. Although the player is usable as is, it is mainly an example application for the Delphi component TDAPlayerComponent. This component offers you almost unlimited access to create your own interface in Borland Delphi, C Builder, J Builder (all using VCL). You can also use Microsoft Visual C or other programming languages (through a .DLL instead of the VCL component). The source code is free and is based on the MAPlay software (GNU General Public License).
posted by J Slave 9/24/2002

Freeware SSH and SCP for Windows 9x, NT, ME, 2000 and XP If you are trying to access remote servers securely from Windows 9x, NT, ME, 2000 or XP and you don't want to pay money for programs that are freely available for UNIX-like platforms, you may find this document useful. It describes free SSH implementations for Windows.

Although this document concentrates on Windows-specific implementations, much of the content, particularly relating to Port Forwarding and Authorized Keys, applies to almost any SSH implementation, regardless of the platform. Also, VPN technologies in general, (and IPSEC in particular), are discussed in passing, but these are not the main focus.
posted by J Slave 9/24/2002

Configuring a VPN Solution Step-by-Step - Microsoft Service ProvidersThis document describes the requirements and setup procedures for a Virtual Private Network (VPN) solution using Microsoft® Windows® 2000 Server. This document is also intended for the technical user who has limited understanding of VPN solution and seeks to understand them in greater detail.
posted by J Slave 9/24/2002

Monday, September 16, 2002

IRC SEARCH ENGINE XGoogle - Search IRC irc search engine
posted by J Slave 9/16/2002

OpenP2P.com: Is Jabber's Chatbot the Command Line of the Future? [Jan. 11, 2002]
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Is Jabber's Chatbot the Command Line of the Future?
by DJ Adams, author of Programming Jabber
01/11/2002
In this article, we take a look at bots, those programs-with-character that hang around in chat channels and amuse, help, and generally make the day a little more pleasant for those people who talk to them. We'll take a close look at ChatBot, beloved of the participants in the Jabber Developer's room "jdev", which is hosted on conference.jabber.org.

Despite the direction many OS's have taken in the past decade, towards a point-and-click experience (which is in many cases perfectly agreeable as a (G)UI), the command line, beloved by many a Unix hacker and perversely, by some MS Windows aficionados, is here to stay. Whether you're of the bash or C-shell or any other command-line environmental persuasion, the fact remains that a command prompt, where interaction with the computer is achieved through constructing sentences, like

find /haystack -exec grep -l needle \{} \; 2>/dev/null
is simple, powerful, and versatile. None of this mucking around with pointing and clicking, thank you very much.

A New Type of Command Line?
Related Reading

Programming Jabber
By DJ Adams
Table of Contents
Index
Full Description

Consider for a moment what this command line of the future might look like. More and more people are online. More and more people are permanently connected, whether it be through DSL, cable, or 802.11 technology. And more and more of these people are communicating. Talking. Having conversations. In addition to email and Internet Relay Chat, or IRC, the (relatively) new kid on the block, Instant messaging (IM), is playing a huge part in facilitating these conversations. And in the same way that it's common for us to have a command prompt or three sitting on our graphical desktop, it's also becoming common to have chat windows more or less permanently open on the desktop too.

But when thinking of IM, why stop at conversations with people? The person-to-application (P2A) world isn't the exclusive domain of the Web. Bots, applications or utilities that have their interface as a projection of a persona into the online chat world, are a great and fun way to bring people and applications together in a conversational way.

Interacting with a bot is the same as interacting with a person: type something to it and it replies. And what's more, because of the similarities between a classic command-line prompt and that of a chat window, where you're talking with a bot--both scenarios are text-based--interaction with a bot is scriptable. Furthermore, with voice-recognition software and text-to-speech translations, and a following wind, you could even interact with a bot over the phone! (With SMS (Short Message Service) this is, of course, already possible, and a lot easier to achieve) :-)

Interaction with the Bots
Bots can be used in a variety of ways. What interesting applications are you seeing out there?
Post your comments

Natural language processing is still not as widespread as it might be; until then, our conversations with bots, with the delightful exception of experimental programs like Eliza, are usually limited to short phrases that follow a certain pattern. Rather like those phrases that we utter without thinking in our command shells. So it's not unusual for us as people to adapt our mode of speech when talking to bots.

Indeed, why see that as a problem? Conversations in real life are most successful, most fruitful, when both parties are talking at the same level. A not insignificant part of the success of the 3Com Pilot is due to the fact that people learned to interact with it by "speaking" a new language that it could understand: Palm Graffiti. Let us humans, with the massive processing power of our brains, do the "hard" bit of talking the bot's language, and let the bots get on with the trivial, mundane but essential activities of providing us with useful services.

A Couple of Bots in Action
Interaction with a bot doesn't have to be a one-on-one affair. Here are a couple of examples where a bot exists as part of a community or group of people.

Example 1 shows purl, a well-loved "infobot" on the #perl IRC channel, where its a part of the community, volunteering useful information and quirky comments. (See the "Resources" box for more information on infobots.)

qmacro> anyone know where I can get hercules?
purl> someone said hercules was at http://www.conmicro.cx/hercules
qmacro> thanks, purl
purl> no problemo, qmacro

Example 1. purl, an infobot, on the IRC channel #perl

Example 2 shows a fairly simple bot named frank, that understands a few commands and recognizes certain sentence formulas, to the extent that it can act as a useful assistant in online, chatroom-based meetings, organizing agenda points, and producing and publishing meeting notes.

...
dj> ok, where are we at?
piers> I think we're almost done.
piers> frank, review?
frank> --------------------------------------------------
frank> 1. Confirm problem priority
frank> 1.1. Get confirmation from key user
frank> Note: probably need to speak to Sarah on this
frank> 2. Estimate work
frank> 3. Implement solution
frank> --------------------------------------------------
dj> ok, hrm, I think we need to expand on the
implementation part
dj> 3.1 Confirm scope
dj> 3.5 develop
dj> 3.6 test
dj> 3.7 migration
piers> note on 3.6: need to get Tom involved
dj> frank, publish please
frank> ok, done. Url is http://apollo/plans/prob1.html
piers> thanks, frank
frank> de nada, piers


Example 2. frank, a meeting bot that helps with the mundane side of organizing and publishing meeting notes

Jabber and ChatBot
Example 3 shows a more-or-less permanent fixture in the Jabber developer conference room "jdev"--ChatBot, a bot written by Ryan Eatmon in Perl using the Net::Jabber libraries. Available in source code from the Jabber CVS repository, ChatBot is an accomplished and useful bot, providing jdev room participants with useful information such as when someone was last seen in the room, a definition-style glossary of information on various aspects of the Jabber development world, and so on.
posted by J Slave 9/16/2002

Sunday, September 15, 2002

The New Methodology In the past few years there's been a rapidly growing interest in agile (aka "lightweight") methodologies. Alternatively characterized as an antidote to bureaucracy or a license to hack they've stirred up interest all over the software landscape. In this essay I explore the reasons for agile methods, focusing not so much on their weight but on their adaptive nature and their people-first orientation. I also give a summary and references to the processes in this school and consider the factors that should influence your choice of whether to go down this newly trodden path.
posted by J Slave 9/15/2002

Cutter Consortium: Home Cutter Consortium offers high-level advisory and publication services, on-site assessments, consulting, and training to help organizations forge solutions to the IT challenges they face. What is unique about Cutter is that all of its products and services are provided by the thought leaders in IT today...
posted by J Slave 9/15/2002

Saturday, September 14, 2002

Net Objectives: Agile Patterns and XP We've been intrigued with Extreme Programming ever since Alan spent a day with Kent Beck at a conference at which they were both presenting. We agree with the principles upon which it is based and it has had a tremendous impact on our software development methodology. However, since we often work with clients who are not looking for the complete XP experience, we've learned to adapt it. We also often work with clients looking for something closer to the Rational Unified Process.
The intent of this area of the site is to provide you with useful methodologies to follow whether your inclinations are closer to the Rational Unified Process or to Extreme Programming.
posted by J Slave 9/14/2002

Friday, September 13, 2002

Unofficial JAXP FAQ This FAQ is intended to help developers use the Java API for XML Processing (JAXP) effectively. It represents the current opinions of the author (Edwin Goei) as an engineer who works on the reference implementation and not of my employer, Sun Microsystems. Any comments about this FAQ can be emailed to me using the email address below. For questions about JAXP itself, please refer to the question on support below.
posted by J Slave 9/13/2002

Tuesday, September 10, 2002

The Zachman Institute for Framework AdvancementThe Zachman Institute for Framework Advancement (ZIFA) is a network of information professionals who understand the critical role of Enterprise Architecture in the ability of the enterprise to successfully participate in the global economy of the 21st century. To this end, the mission of ZIFA is to promote the exchange of knowledge and experience in the use, implementation, and advancement of the Zachman Framework for Enterprise Architecture.
posted by J Slave 9/10/2002

Monday, September 09, 2002

WSUI The Web Services User Interface (WSUI) initiative is a vendor-neutral standard that enables application developers and sites to deliver entire applications over the Internet as Web services.
posted by J Slave 9/9/2002

Friday, September 06, 2002

Object Mentor - Extreme Programming Extreme Programming
Kent Beck, author of Extreme Programming Explained says, “XP is a light-weight methodology for small-to-medium-sized teams developing software in the face of vague or rapidly changing requirements.” Simply stated, XP is a set of values, rights and best practices that support each other in incrementally developing software.
posted by J Slave 9/6/2002

Wednesday, September 04, 2002

Effective testing is almost synonymous with effective programming. Java
has available an excellent testing suite called JUnit. This guide will
attempt to get you up and running with JUnit in the shortest amount of
time possible. I'm assuming that you have Java installed and working and
you have access to a command line.
posted by J Slave 9/4/2002

Extreme Programming Roadmap Welcome to the WikiWiki entry point for ExtremeProgramming. It's called a "roadmap" and not "entry point" because "roadmap" seems to be the traditional wiki way to name such pages.
posted by J Slave 9/4/2002

What is Extreme Programming? Extreme Programming is a discipline of software development based on values of simplicity, communication, feedback, and courage. It works by bringing the whole team together in the presence of simple practices, with enough feedback to enable the team to see where they are and to tune the practices to their unique situation.
posted by J Slave 9/4/2002

Waterken Inc. -- ODB Library All but the most trivial of Java applications have a need for persistence. WaterkenTM ODB provides an easy and effective solution for using persistent Java objects.
WaterkenTM ODB defines the interface an object database and provides an implementation that is suitable for small databases.
WaterkenTM ODB is Open Source under the WaterkenTM Open Library License.
posted by J Slave 9/4/2002

Code Conventions for the Java(TM) Programming Language: Contents
posted by J Slave 9/4/2002

XML:DB Initiative: Additional Resources These pages link to resources on the Web relating to XML-related standards efforts in the database industry, general derivative industry-related information, and XML background information.
posted by J Slave 9/4/2002

infozone - The Open Source EIP ProjectInfozone consists of several software components which are developed by different projects. Together they are a framework and toolset that allows to create EIP applications.

posted by J Slave 9/4/2002

storedObjects: open source Java ® database Welcome to sO, the object database for Java ® programmers which is licensed under GNU General Public License.
posted by J Slave 9/4/2002

Orient Technologies - 100% Pure Object DatabaseOrient Technologies announces new license for its products.

All tools and applications developed under the control of Orient Technologies are now Free and Open Source with license GNU GPL. We believe that this change will speed-up the diffusion of Orient technology.

The Orient Engine, instead, remains of intellectual property of Orient Technologies with the same license: Free SDKs and Free run-time licenses for no commercial purpose (personal applications and web-site, academic researches, etc.) and just US$ 199 for commercial license.
posted by J Slave 9/4/2002

Fresher : Product Information
The Matisse DBMS delivers up to a 100-1 price performance improvement through the ability to natively store XML and program objects from Java, C#, C and other object languages. Matisse eases the transition to Web services for IT departments by coupling native XML & object support with the ability to work with ANSI SQL. This enables IT departments to leverage their SQL expertise and to continue to use 3rd party SQL reporting and analysis tools. Matisse's proven architecture, and patent pending technology, provides excellent performance and scalability within both the J2EE and .NET environments.
posted by J Slave 9/4/2002

Tuesday, September 03, 2002

REVEAL.ORG - First Online Java Class Decompiler and Obfuscator Abstract - In this product, we investigate an interesting proposal of building a distributed JavaTM class decompiler to "deduce" the original class design and relations out of the compiled JavaTM codes. The contribution is two-folded. First, as for educational purpose, our prototype can be used to teach students about the possible advantages of reverse engineering for efficient application development. More importantly, our proposal can actually be used to facilitate the reverse engineering (RE) process for most practical Java applications.
posted by J Slave 9/3/2002

Java Decompiler HOW-TO This document will help you to de-compile the Java class programs. This documents gives a list of decompilers which can reverse engineer the Java class files and generate the Java source code files. Thie is very helpful if you do not have the Java source code file and have only the Java class files. The information in this document applies to all the operating sytems where Java language/Java VM runs.
posted by J Slave 9/3/2002

Index of /~java/tools/crema Index of /~java/tools/crema
posted by J Slave 9/3/2002

XMLDB Home Page - Home xmldb is an exciting new easy-to-use efficient 3-tier app server.
Currently, it provides an xml persistance layer using the postgresql database. It is still by far the fastest library for xml data retrieval and xsl translation. However, it currently has limited search capabilities.
posted by J Slave 9/3/2002

Pete's Home Page - Decompiler You can download the current state of my java decompiler via http or ftp at ftp://pdr:pdr@ftp.pdr.cx/pdr/. It currently is at version 0.2.1, and is still alpha software.
posted by J Slave 9/3/2002

Protecting Java Code Via Code Obfuscation The language Java was designed to be compiled into a platform independent bytecode format. Much of the information contained in the source code remains in the bytecode, thus decompilation is easy. We will examine how code obfuscation can help protect Java bytecodes.
posted by J Slave 9/3/2002

PsychoticSoftware: As crazy as we want to be... Since 1998, PsychoticSoftware has been bringing you cutting edge Java development tools ranging from IDEs, Installation Toolkits, Registration Toolkits, Class File Analysis Tools, and Obfuscators. Since that time, we have ventured into the commercial market with our fair share of success stories. Now, we are moving into a new direction: The Open Source Community. All of our products are Currently 100% free, and as of Q2 2002, all sources will be downloadable under the GNU Software License. It is our hope that these products will blossom with the full potential that we know they have
posted by J Slave 9/3/2002

AgileAlliance The AgileAlliance is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the concepts of agile software development, and helping organizations adopt those concepts. Those concepts are outlined by the Manifesto for Agile Software Development. The AgileAlliance germinated in the fertilizer of the original AgileAlliance, a group of software professionals that had developed and were practicing lightweight approaches to software development. Responding to requests for a more open, inclusive, and visible way for everyone to participate, most of the founders of the AgileAlliance defined and established the non-profit AgileAlliance. This organization was designed to be lightweight, initially only consisting of a board of directors, one administrator, and a set of bylaws. Just like agile processes, all work and operations within the AgileAlliance is intended to emerge from subsets of members that self-organize into programs. The board of directors had to resist impulses to do top-down planning and is watching to see how successfully the organization emerges and succeeds following agile principles.
posted by J Slave 9/3/2002

Java Self Installer Java Self Installer
This is the first, very alpha release of a simple no-frills, 100% Java self-extracting installer.
posted by J Slave 9/3/2002

JExpress: Cross Platform Java Installer Create international, cross platform installers and updaters for your apps, applets, and servlets with the click of a button using JExpress. Build sophisticated installers and updaters through the easy to use JExpress GUI interface. Or, add customization using Java, third party programs, and the extensive, robust JExpress Professional API.
posted by J Slave 9/3/2002

alphaWorks : Install Toolkit for Java Install Toolkit for Java is a program for writing installation programs for Java or non-Java programs (including OS/2, OS/390, AIX, Solaris, Linux, and Windows® 2000, NT, and 95 programs). Since Install Toolkit for Java is written in Java, it can be run on any platform and operating system that supports Java. This portability provides a simpler installation and distribution process
posted by J Slave 9/3/2002

Sunday, September 01, 2002

Java(TM) 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition - Downloads & Specifications Downloads & Specifications
This page provides the following downloads and specifications:
J2EE SDK
JavaTM Enterprise BluePrints
J2EE Tutorial
J2EE Platform Specification
J2EE Connector Specification
posted by J Slave 9/1/2002

Developing Enterprise Applications Using the J2EE(tm) Platform "Developing Enterprise Applications Using the J2EETM platform" is a basic tutorial that provides an introduction to the JavaTM 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE). It is intended for developers who have a good working knowledge and understanding of the Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition (J2SETM), and would like an introduction to the J2EE platform. This tutorial, orginally written by Monica Pawlan in June 2000, has been updated and expanded by jPeople.
posted by J Slave 9/1/2002

Java(TM) 2 SDK, Enterprise Edition Version 1.3.1 of the JavaTM 2 SDK, Enterprise Edition ("J2EETM" SDK) is a complete implementation of the JavaTM 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition 1.3. The J2EE SDK is intended as a proof of concept and example for implementations in the application server marketplace. The J2EE SDK includes a J2EE application server and various tools to help developers prototype J2EE applications and learn about the J2EE platform and technologies. It can be used as a J2EE development enviroment for applications prior to their deployment and distribution.
posted by J Slave 9/1/2002