Oops

OK so I haven't posted anything for a while, which, one might feel, defeats the purpose of having a blog (I'm one of them!).

A few thoughts to get started:

1. Spoken interfaces on mobile phones/devices
2. Uniformity of experience across a manufacturer's devices
3. Lasers: do not, under any circumstances shine them into your eyes.  It is not big, clever or fun.  Especially when you dissolve the epithelium with ethanol first.

What a warm-up. :)

Fuzzing

Most people interested in penetration testing will probably have heard of nUbuntu. For those who haven't, it's a variant of Ubuntu stripped down and built up with a lot of security testing tools, and the main inspiration for me in wanting to build a penetration testing tablet.

Now I know I said that I'd write a guide on how to make PPTP VPN work on the tablet, and I will, but right now my company is in the middle of an FDA audit and I haven't quite got the time.

What I will do is pick some of the utilities from nUbuntu and detail how to get them to work on the n800 (IT OS 2k7, sadly!).

Manifesto

Seeing as I am very interested in penetration testing and the like, I thought this was relevant:

The Hacker Manifesto

I hadn't read it for a long time, and just re-read it.

Yes, I am a criminal. My crime is that of curiosity. My crime is
that of judging people by what they say and think, not what they look like.
My crime is that of outsmarting you, something that you will never forgive me
for.

This is where hacking started, with curiosity. And where has it lead? To a huge industry, trying to keep pace with those that find coder's mistakes, or unanticipated loopholes.

But, honestly, what geek can put their hand up and honestly say they share nothing with the manifesto?

Back to fuzzing my server from my n800...

6 Reasons to get the N800 over the N810

Controversial? Don't get me wrong, I love the n810, and can't wait to get my hands on it, but at the same time the n800 still kicks it.

So, without fail..:

1. Slightly bigger screen: both screens are 800x480, but on the n800 the dimensions are slightly larger.
2. More widely used USB port on the n800: the n800 uses miniUSB, whereas the n810 uses microUSB. I don't know about you, but all of my devices (HTC Advangtage, n95, e90) all use miniUSB. With the n810, you'll either need to carry two cables (bleh) or an adapter (bleh).
3. Storage #1: Oh yes. 16GB in the n800, via two 6GB SD cards. Insane. (The n810 only has one card slot, up to 8GB and 2GB internally.)
4. Storage #2: the n800 is compatible with a much wider range of cards: SD, miniSD, microSD, MMC, and RS-MMC (obviously all via an adapter). The n810 is mini- and microSD only (the latter via an adapter).
5. Flexibility of operating systems: the n800 has the advantage of being able to us IT OS 2007 and 2008. While this seems like an odd advantage, if you have an application that only works in 2007 you can't have an n810 until it's been ported across.
6. (Potentially) better button configuration: on the n800, the buttons are around the screen. To get to the navigation button on the n810, you'll have to slide the keyboard open.
   

And that's it: I had hoped to get up to 10, but I guess I'm just not controversial enough... And I might be biased to the n810.

Remote Access to Servers: VPN

Last night I got an email from one of my servers saying that a backup job was continuously failing. Not wanting to fire up my desktop/laptop, I turned on my tablet and used Remote Desktop to connect to the offending server and sort out the problem.

This worked because I have a permanent site-to-site VPN from my house to work, to facilitate remote working. But it made me think: what if I was away from home/the office and needed remote access? Personally I cannot abide by leaving more ports than necessary open, especially Remote Desktop's port (AKA Microsoft Terminal Services Client). That would be like allowing a hacker to sit directly at your server and try to break in: a sickening thought.

As a primarily Windows network, we have PPTP VPN configured (OK I know it's not the most secure, but it's secure enough for what we use it for and it, most importantly, works). But, PPTP is a Microsoft protocol, and getting working on Linux can take some doing (as I found out recently).

So, next project: edit my n800 to be able to make PPTP VPN connections. This will involve patching the kernel, and a fair amount of poking and scripting. W00t!

I'll try and get it done for Monday.

The Internet Tablet Business Case

So my last two posts were 'practical' uses for an internet tablet (as if all uses weren't practical...) A historical view of the internet tablets shows us that Nokia started with the 770: a device aimed almost exclusively at geeks. Very very cool (I had one, my girlfriend is now the very happy owner) but at the same time somewhat lacking in usefulness without a geek/techie to hand.

Then came the n800. Part of the N-Series range, it was clearly aimed more at the general populace. Featuring an FM radio and a webcam, one could do significantly more with it out of the box to entertain ones self. Still not quite there though, and the techie face of Linux rears its ugly head every so often.

Taking a step back from general-populace appeal, the internet tablets in my opinion present a fantastic mobile administration platform, and one that companies with competent system administrators should invest in to 'mobilise their workforce.'

With my tablet, I can reset a user's Active Directory account from the break room, and monitor resource usage on my Linux servers from the furthest corner of my company's laboratories. The device is thin enough that I can slip it in the back pocket of my jeans when I'm away from my desk and not notice it (until I sit on it!).

So what's the point of this evangelist rant? To hopefully open up some minds to the idea that they can use a tablet for much more than the description on the box.

And hey, how about that n810 with it's built-in keyboard for Linux administration?

Nokia Internet Tablet Business Case #2

shot-2007-11-07-14-35-16
Originally uploaded by ex-dei

Can't show Windows remote server management without a bit of Linux fun as well. Here, I've fired up xterm and SSH'd into one of my two Ubuntu servers to run top (as can be guessed it shows the most resource-consuming processes running on the server). This is running over WiFi, but works very very well using the internet connection of a mobile phone as well.

NB: top will also show you what you're Internet Tablet is up to...