While I really like ethereal and I REALLY like the fact it’s free, it is hard to beat commercial products at times. I am (was?) certified for the old NAI Sniffer product but my favorite sniffer is called Etherpeek. I’ve used on Windows mainly but I saw the other day it was available for OSX. Hmmmm, thought he.. something new to play with The interface is pretty clean and a bit different than the windows version. On the first past I did not see the “expert” piece that Etherpeek NX has. But, no loss, most times these “experts” are wrong anyways. I have a couple of screen captures and as I play with it more, I will add more.

One of the best things is that Ethereal does not support the wireless card but Etherpeek does so I’m able to sniff a wireless connection but not the actual nuts and bolts of the wireless protocols. This is one time I will settle for half a loaf.

I’m going to veer off the strict Apple/Mac/OSX topic a bit and cover something that many Mac owners are very ignorant of, and that is security. People who buy a Mac also buy into the lack of viruses, spyware, malware, trojans and other net-nasties. But, just because today you do not have to deal with it on your Mac, doesnt excuse a lack of knowledge of the real world around you. The much hated (and with just cause) Patriot Act (there is a twisting of words) is up for renewal and given the Neocon’s potensity to go overboard, they want everything left as is and even more power abuses added. The good news is that some moderate Republicans and Democrats in the house and Senate have finally found some backbone (for their own ends I’m sure) and are pushing back.

Sony has been public in their self administered head wound with the stupid act of using a “root kit” to install their DRM(Digital Rights Management) for their music CDs. To bad, so sad. Stupid fools.. what were they thinking? Or the real question is what were the turncoat programmers thinking writing that crap code? I guess the attraction of money has more pull with some then the ethics of an issue.

Identity theft is on the rise and with it, risk to your own future since “it’s in the computer” must mean it is correct regardless of how it got there.

All of these rants tie back to the MAc due to a conversation I had where the people claimed none it applied to them since they used a Mac. I will admit that the Mac can protect you from alot of things but lets be real here. As Apple gains market share back from Windows, OSX will become more attractive to the malcontents on the net and sooner or later there will be someone written for OSX that will be a nasty surprise. THe arguement can be made that OSX has a secure security model and that wont happen. Bet me. What one man makes, another man can hack. It’s just a matter of time.

For those interested in security, a very cool site is found at http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/tutorial/index.html and this site offers almost 800 slides of security tutorials and information.

What? No more wifi? why would I do such a thing? Well, I am writing this entry usingmy new EVDO Sprint connection where I have a 1Mbp link (upstream) using a PCMCIA card and a cellular connection. So I dont have to hunt for hot spots or unsec ured sites (did I say that outloud?) It’s pretty cool on Windows, I found a site that offers a Mac driver so I will try it on my iBook on the near future. I was pretty skeptical about it but it has proven to be pretty reliable even at the poorest edge of connectivity. MAKE magazine had a piece using one of these with a WRAP board and a 802.11 board to make a portable hotspot. I have to try this, it just sounds too damn cool not to try it.

StreamCip has a new version that has a one button video iPod conversion. How cool is that? I am hoping Santa is very, very nice to me at Xmas this year

I bought a Ebay JVC MiniDV camcorder the other day to replace my 8mm deck for tape backups. Pretty sweet how it all works AND and I use it take video clips. I have to say, in the past week, my respect for iMovie and iDVD has been raised after really working with both programs to build some custom DVDs for the grandparents. 250 bucks was a bargin for the camera given it’s palm sized and take sa decent picture.

I have not yet looked at the new Powerbooks, I think the new screens would be too tempting to me. I know, I’m weak, very weak

MikeS