I recently needed to create a slideshow of images on the computer set to music. I've never created a slideshow before so I didn't even know what software to use. Of course, I want free and/or open source whenever possible. I researched software to use and I came across several good free pieces of software I wanted to share with others.
Microsoft Photo Story 3
Photo Story is the software I used to actually create the slideshow. I was very impressed with this piece of software. Very easy to use and it does a great job. The finished product was very professional; panning and zooming slides, transitions effects, overlayed text, mixed audio track, etc. And it's free.
Gimp
Some of the images for the slideshow needed editing; e.g. cropping, color correction, removal of certain elements, etc. That's where Gimp (free open-source) came in very useful. This extremely powerful image editor can do just about anything, once you've taken the time to learn this tool.
Audacity
I also needed to edit and mix the audio tracks together for the slideshow. For this I used Audacity, a great free and open-source program. Very easy to use, no steep learning curve with this program.
MP3MyMP3
One of the audio tracks I needed for the slideshow, I could not find the audio anywhere except in the background of a youtube video. I tried to record it using Audacity but that apparently doesn't work for streaming audio/video. Enter MP3MyMP3. This free program (with a funny name) allows you to record the audio that is being played out of your sound card. That may sound like a strange thing to do, but that's the best way to capture streaming audio. This program worked great, my only complaint with this program was it's a skinned application and I don't particularly care for skinned apps.
VLC
I think the only downside to Photo Story is the output was in Microsoft's proprietary WMV format using a codec that few programs can use. So I needed to convert this into something a little more common, like MP4. Fortunately VLC (which I've talked about before) can play WMV using this codec and is even able to convert the file into other formats.
DVD Flick
With the slideshows saved as an MP4 file, I next needed to create a DVD from that video. Doing some searches I came across DVD Flick. This great free open-source project allows you to create DVD ISO images from existing video files (e.g. MP4).
ImgBurn
The final step is to burn the DVD ISO onto blank DVDs. For this I used to tried and true ImgBurn. Easily the best CD/DVD burning software I've come across.
So there you have it. A 100% free way to create a slideshow and burn it onto a DVD.
Monday, November 26, 2012
Monday, November 5, 2012
Free Partition and File Management Software
Today I wanted to talk about some free partition and file management software that I think every computer techie should know about. I've mentioned this before on my blog in other posts, but I wanted to highlight them in their own post.
Back in the last 90s into the early 2000s if you wanted to change partitions on a computer hard drive you typically had to back up all the data, blow away the partitions, create the new partitions, and restore the data - a process that took a long time. So when this product called PartitionMagic from PowerQuest allowed you to restructure partitions without having to back up and restore the data came along, it seemed just like it's name... magic. The thought of moving, resizing, changing the type, etc. of partitions on a computer with live data on them was unheard of. Of course, PartitionMagic wasn't cheap for this cool feature. Fast forward to today and now there are several good free options for moving, resizing, and otherwise editing partitions. My favorite is Partition Wizard Home Edition. This product is built on top of the Linux kernel and is available for download as a bootable CD. There's also a Windows version, but I recommend the bootable Linux CD. I use this tool a lot, both at home and work and I've never once had a problem.
Another similar utility is DiskCopy by EaseUS. This tool allows you to clone partitions and disks which is great if you're replacing on hard drive with another. I don't use this nearly as much as Partition Wizard, but it's a useful tool to keep around.
If you're looking to destroy data on your hard drive so you can sell/give away your hard drive, look no further than DBAN (Darik's Boot And Nuke). DBAN is a bootable CD (or floppy) that will securely erase all data on your hard drive. Most people don't know this, but deleting a file, even reformatting a hard drive, does NOT destroy the data. There are tools out there that allow you (or someone else) to recover deleted data from a hard drive. But if you use a tool like DBAN the data cannot be recovered.
Similar to DBAN is SDelete from SysInternals. SDelete is a command line utility for Windows that allows you to securely delete a single file, multiple files, or entire directories. If you need to wipe an entire disk use DBAN, but if you want to delete some files and not others, use SDelete.
And finally, assuming you accidentally deleted a file/folder and didn't use a tool like SDelete or DBAN, you can try and recover those files using a recovery tool. My favorite is NTFSUndelete.
Back in the last 90s into the early 2000s if you wanted to change partitions on a computer hard drive you typically had to back up all the data, blow away the partitions, create the new partitions, and restore the data - a process that took a long time. So when this product called PartitionMagic from PowerQuest allowed you to restructure partitions without having to back up and restore the data came along, it seemed just like it's name... magic. The thought of moving, resizing, changing the type, etc. of partitions on a computer with live data on them was unheard of. Of course, PartitionMagic wasn't cheap for this cool feature. Fast forward to today and now there are several good free options for moving, resizing, and otherwise editing partitions. My favorite is Partition Wizard Home Edition. This product is built on top of the Linux kernel and is available for download as a bootable CD. There's also a Windows version, but I recommend the bootable Linux CD. I use this tool a lot, both at home and work and I've never once had a problem.
Another similar utility is DiskCopy by EaseUS. This tool allows you to clone partitions and disks which is great if you're replacing on hard drive with another. I don't use this nearly as much as Partition Wizard, but it's a useful tool to keep around.
If you're looking to destroy data on your hard drive so you can sell/give away your hard drive, look no further than DBAN (Darik's Boot And Nuke). DBAN is a bootable CD (or floppy) that will securely erase all data on your hard drive. Most people don't know this, but deleting a file, even reformatting a hard drive, does NOT destroy the data. There are tools out there that allow you (or someone else) to recover deleted data from a hard drive. But if you use a tool like DBAN the data cannot be recovered.
Similar to DBAN is SDelete from SysInternals. SDelete is a command line utility for Windows that allows you to securely delete a single file, multiple files, or entire directories. If you need to wipe an entire disk use DBAN, but if you want to delete some files and not others, use SDelete.
And finally, assuming you accidentally deleted a file/folder and didn't use a tool like SDelete or DBAN, you can try and recover those files using a recovery tool. My favorite is NTFSUndelete.
Thursday, November 1, 2012
How to crask WPA/WPA2 wireless routers
It's long been know that wireless routers with WEP might as well be wide open. This form of "security" can be cracked in seconds or minutes. That's why anyone with half a brain has their wireless router set to WPA/WPA2. So imagine my surprise when I read an article recently detailing the steps to cracking WPA/WPA2 in under 10 hours. What's more, it doesn't matter how long your wireless password is, whether you're using TKIP or AES, etc. The hack uses a security flaw the gain access to the network. Here's how to do it.
First, you need to download Backtrack Linux version 5 R2 or greater (version 5 R3 is the latest version as of writing this). Download an ISO and burn that ISO onto a DVD. Or if you wish you can follow their guide to create a bootable USB drive.
Next you need to boot your laptop off the DVD (or USB drive). Thanks to Linux's live CD, you don't have to install Backtrack Linux, you can run it in memory.
Once Linux has loaded, run the command "iwconfig" to list available wireless adapters in your computer. For most computers your wireless adapter will be "wlan0."
Next run "airmon-ng start wlan0" to place your wireless card into monitor mode. Once successful, it will print out the name of your monitor session, which is typically "mon0."
Now we need to find the BSSID of the router you wish to attack. Type "airodump-ng wlan0" to list available wireless networks. (If this command fails, use "airodump-ng mon0" instead). The first column is the BSSID. Once you see your router, press Ctrl+C to stop the refreshing and write down the BSSID.
Now you're ready to attack. Run the command "reaver -i mon0 -b BSSID -vv" where 'BSSID' is the value for your router. Sit back and let it run. This would be a good thing to run overnight as it can take upwards of 10 hours.
So how does this work you ask? Well it takes advantage of a convenience feature called WPS or "WiFi Protected Setup." WPS is a feature to allow you to add new devices to your network without having to type in the wireless password. But as is usually the case, convenience and security are on opposite ends. If you want convenience you give up security. Me personally, I'd rather have a secure network, especially since I've never used WPS. So the way to protect yourself from this attack is to disable WPS on your router. But be warned, not all routers with WPS allow you to disable this feature. What's more, some routers that do support disabling WPS are still vulnerable even when WPS is disabled (in other words disabling WPS doesn't truly disable WPS). I was pleased to discover my new Linksys E3200 wireless router does allow me to disable WPS and I was not able to hack my wireless network. Before you check your router's settings, I suggest you visit the manufacturers webpage and look for an updated firmware.
To learn more about this WPA/WPA2 crack, read this LifeHacker article.
First, you need to download Backtrack Linux version 5 R2 or greater (version 5 R3 is the latest version as of writing this). Download an ISO and burn that ISO onto a DVD. Or if you wish you can follow their guide to create a bootable USB drive.
Next you need to boot your laptop off the DVD (or USB drive). Thanks to Linux's live CD, you don't have to install Backtrack Linux, you can run it in memory.
Once Linux has loaded, run the command "iwconfig" to list available wireless adapters in your computer. For most computers your wireless adapter will be "wlan0."
Next run "airmon-ng start wlan0" to place your wireless card into monitor mode. Once successful, it will print out the name of your monitor session, which is typically "mon0."
Now we need to find the BSSID of the router you wish to attack. Type "airodump-ng wlan0" to list available wireless networks. (If this command fails, use "airodump-ng mon0" instead). The first column is the BSSID. Once you see your router, press Ctrl+C to stop the refreshing and write down the BSSID.
Now you're ready to attack. Run the command "reaver -i mon0 -b BSSID -vv" where 'BSSID' is the value for your router. Sit back and let it run. This would be a good thing to run overnight as it can take upwards of 10 hours.
So how does this work you ask? Well it takes advantage of a convenience feature called WPS or "WiFi Protected Setup." WPS is a feature to allow you to add new devices to your network without having to type in the wireless password. But as is usually the case, convenience and security are on opposite ends. If you want convenience you give up security. Me personally, I'd rather have a secure network, especially since I've never used WPS. So the way to protect yourself from this attack is to disable WPS on your router. But be warned, not all routers with WPS allow you to disable this feature. What's more, some routers that do support disabling WPS are still vulnerable even when WPS is disabled (in other words disabling WPS doesn't truly disable WPS). I was pleased to discover my new Linksys E3200 wireless router does allow me to disable WPS and I was not able to hack my wireless network. Before you check your router's settings, I suggest you visit the manufacturers webpage and look for an updated firmware.
To learn more about this WPA/WPA2 crack, read this LifeHacker article.
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