Tag Archives: howto

How to securely delete files before returning a computer

8 December 2008 – 15:22

A friend of mine who is switching jobs has asked how to delete all personal information from the company computer before returning it. Simply deleting files can prevent the casual observer from finding your data, but file deletion typically does not (to make an analogy to paper) shred the file but merely throws away [...]

By Emil Sit | Posted in Technology | Also tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

Reduce your context switch delay

25 June 2008 – 22:47

Sometimes, simple shell scripts can save a lot of time. Recently, I noticed myself waiting for various unit tests to complete by surfing the web: a surefire way to be distracted for more than the time it takes for the tests to complete (or fail). Enter the following script, which I call notify:

#!/bin/sh “$@” status=$? xmessage [...]

By Emil Sit | Posted in Hacking | Also tagged , , | Comments (2)

How to use ssh to securely access the net

14 March 2008 – 13:40

Public wireless networks can be scary; you never know who might be sniffing your traffic, recording your GMail authentication cookies, or worse. Ideally, all of your net activity should be end-to-end authenticated and encrypted. Fortunately, since this is not always feasible, ssh makes it easy to use an untrusted network by routing your traffic through a trusted end-point. All you need is an ssh [...]

By Emil Sit | Posted in Technology | Also tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

How to extract PlanetLab geographic data

23 February 2008 – 21:40

During the course of a given week, I answer a lot of technical questions. They range from the friend asking, “What laptop should I buy?” to strangers with very specific questions about the source code used in my research. I rather enjoy solving technical questions and taking a line from Jon Udell’s “Too busy to blog?” post, I’m [...]

By Emil Sit | Posted in Technology | Also tagged , , , | Comments (0)