12/29/11 09:27 - ID#55812

I'll bring warm socks and flip flops

Says (e:hodown). And I thought my socks and sandals were awesome.

Permalink: I_ll_bring_warm_socks_and_flip_flops.html
Words: 13
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 12/29/11 09:27

Category: winter

12/29/11 10:52 - ID#55810

Too much salt

Considering we have had like one inch of snow this whole winter,the amount of salt used everywhere seems excessive. Its like a crusty salty wonderland.

Permalink: Too_much_salt.html
Words: 29
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 12/29/11 10:52

Category: mobile

12/27/11 12:16 - ID#55804

The New Android Estrip App

I finished a new version tonight. It works great on the nook with gingerbread now. Gingerbread enables bluetooth on the nook color which makes me question why the device did not originally enable the bluetooth chip that was obviously inside. I was able to pair it with my apple bluetooth keyboard the way I do with my ipad. The ipad is pretty great but the nook is so much more portable. Its large enough to have a lot of screen space but small enough to be jammed in some big coat or jeans pockets. I only wish it had its own 3g chip the way that the ipad does although I guess tethering with the phone is actually a better deal because it does not require an extra account or monthly fee.

Here is what it looks like on the nice big nook screen.

Version 1.23 had a bug that forced the app to quit on reload. If you are having issues make sure you are on 1.24. Check the market and see if there is an update. If so update it.

Permalink: The_New_Android_Estrip_App.html
Words: 182
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 12/27/11 12:17

Category: mobile

12/26/11 11:37 - ID#55803

Texting Gloves

One problem with the move from stylus driven resistive touch screens to capacitive finger driven ones was winter and glove covered fingers. The problem exists no more with new gloves that transmit your finger energy through the pointer and thumb. So glad I found these as I was getting sick of using my nose.

Permalink: Texting_Gloves.html
Words: 55
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 12/26/11 11:37

Category: computers

12/25/11 04:03 - ID#55797

HP Bloatware

I got my parents an HP computer for christmas. It is unbelievable how much bloatware comes with Windows 7. I spent about 45 minutes uninstalling just to make it stop asking me to buy crap. Its funny because some of the stuff doesn't even exist anymore like HP webOS tablets. I love how the welcome page thanks me for purchasing a HP webOS tablet when this is a desktop windows 7 computer.

Permalink: HP_Bloatware.html
Words: 72
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 12/25/11 04:04

Category: food

12/24/11 10:45 - ID#55793

The price of wheat grass at the lexington coop

And I though them charging $4.95 for a softball size cauliflower was outrageous...

Wheat grass prices at the coop blow my mind. $9.99 for 4oz and $19.95 for a pound. 4oz is a small ziplock bag full. The tortoises could eat it all in about 90 seconds.

I actually don't understand how wheat grass, which grows so easily, can cost more per pound than steak. What the hell is going on?

Permalink: The_price_of_wheat_grass_at_the_lexington_coop.html
Words: 68
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 12/24/11 10:45

Category: food

12/24/11 10:38 - ID#55792

Bug Based Candy

I was at the candy shop on elmwood looking for some gifts when saw these bug based candies. I remember my cousin from AZ getting me one of these as a kid. I never ate. Does anyone really like these or are they purely for gag gifting.

Permalink: Bug_Based_Candy.html
Words: 49
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 12/24/11 10:38

Category: holidays

12/24/11 10:36 - ID#55791

Santa Claus

The kids are always so thrilled to see him.

Permalink: Santa_Claus.html
Words: 10
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 12/24/11 10:36

Category: mobile

12/21/11 08:03 - ID#55784

Android Lync Chat Client - Data Security Danger

I was playing around with the microsoft lync client for android today when I discovered just how insecure the data from your chats are on your phone. I can't understand how it could be allowed in a very controlled corporate environment like you would find in banking, healthcare, etc.

Microsoft admits freely that the conversation history is stored on the device.

What they don't say is that basically, the client stores all of the chats you have a in sqlite database that is pretty much plain text accessible.

Using the android development toolkit and grep (basic free tools) I was able to locate the lync data store on the phone at /data/data/com.microsoft.office.lync/

You can easily pull it off you adb connected device with this. It will grab the data and put in a directory on your local computer called lync.

adb pull /data/data/com.microsoft.office.lync lync

Say you send someone a message with secure data e.g. "the secret pin for my bank account is 1234"

Then someone steals your phone, adb shell into the phone copy the data over the computer or an sd card for safe keeping.

then they can extract whatever they want.

grep -r -a secret com.microsoft.office.lync/databases/DataStore.sqlite
and two minutes later they find

"the secret pin for my bank account is 1234"

So what that it might have a little binary content on either side.

Not only that but lets say you are the investigative, computer type - the app lets you send off any conversation as an email. So any app that accepts email intent (gmail, mail, text messaging, etc) accepts the content and passes it from that app to the world at large. If you have any special controls over your corporate exchange, like outgoing filters to look for sensitive data, they get bypassed going out through something pretty insecure like plain text email or text messaging.

I can see how they wanted to side with convenience. At the same time I can't understand how this can appeal to the customers they tend to appeal to most (government and big business). Why would they not encrypt this data on the phone at least.

Permalink: Android_Lync_Chat_Client_Data_Security_Danger.html
Words: 382
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 12/22/11 04:55

Category: mobile

12/21/11 07:44 - ID#55782

Ipad vs andoid ssh client

The ssh clients on the ipad/iphone have so many less ratings than on android. It makes me wonder if really not that many developers use the ipad/iphone compared to android. I mean the top ssh client on the iphone which also does rdp has less than 100 ratings while the one on android has 23,000+ and over 1,000,000 downloads. The ipad app store doesn't list number of downloads. Hopefully, I can get work to reimburse me.

The issh app seems to be pretty great. Having all of that extra space to type and have keyboard vs on the iphone/samsung galaxy sii makes a huge difference. Work has disabled my ability to take screenshots on the ipad as a "security precaution" so I have to keep taking pictures of it instead.