Secure Shell or SSH in short is an application layer protocol that helps in connecting and working with a remote machine.  SSH replaced its predecessor Telnet which is not as secure as SSH and thus vulnerable to security threats.  SSH works with the help of public key cryptography which is a popular cryptography mechanism that is widely used for encrypting and decrypting information passed over the network.  SSH is widely used to connect to remote UNIX/Linux systems to configure and manage.  While majority of UNIX/Linux systems come with SSH service and command line client to connect to remote, Putty is a widely used GUI based SSH tool for Windows (as well as for *nix systems with graphical support) that can help in connecting to remote machine through SSH.  Even though SSH enables a secure communication between the client and the server, the configuration of the SSH service on the server is very important to effectively enable a secure connection.  This blog article “HOWTO: Five steps to a more secure SSH” discusses the 5 important steps to enable a secure SSH (that makes it secure secure shell )

If you are thinking of moving to Vista or not, here is a quick slideshow on the pros and cons of Vista from eWeek online magazine. Based on what is important to you, you can run to or run away from Vista. Another point that I think to run away from Vista is the pricing. My personal opinion on this is with more open source and minimal cost commercial Linux Desktops coming up every now and then spending so much money on OS is something I would think of. However eye-catchy the system maybe, ultimately all I need is whether the system helps me work on whatever I want to efficiently and if there is a system that comes for free or with minimal cost why should I go for the heavy price tagged one.

Wondering what it means? I got to know about the “Plain Old Web Server” through the Ajaxian post “POW: Excuse me sir, you seem to have a server in your client“. POW is a Firefox plug-in that can run a server on the browser. I installed the extension and tried playing around with few HTMLS’ and JavaScript, gave a cool feeling of running a web server on the system.  But why does one need a web server to run on the browser? Here is a copy paste of copy paste from Ajaxian.

The Plain Old Webserver uses Server-side Javascript (SJS) to run a server inside your browser. Use it to distribute files from your browser. It supports Server-side JS, GET, POST, uploads, Cookies, SQLite and AJAX. It has security features to password-protect your site. Users have created a wiki, chat room and search engine using SJS.

This version includes:

• Documentation to show you how to build a Server-side Javascript program.
• File uploading code
• SQLite interface for easy saving of persistent data

Really useful and handy.

I was impressed with this video “Web 2.0 … The Machine is Us/ing Us” that takes us from where we were to where we are today and also raises the question where it is all leading to. We are getting connected to people around the world so easily with web and collaboration it has unleashed but are we missing to connect personally to our own closed ones that are nearby? I could not answer myself convincingly. That apart, this video is also a good movie on the evolution of web 2.0.

If for any reason, not to try ruby on rails is the IDE, particularly if you are a .Net developer and so addicted to the visual studio environment, try Ride-Me. It is an IDE built for the windows environment for building Ruby on Rails applications.

I recently came across the below quote which emphasizes that the technology however advanced and efficient it may be the ultimate thing that matters is if the consumers of it are able to use it and makes their lives easy.

Just remember: you’re not a “dummy,” no matter what those computer books claim. The real dummies are the people who, though technically expert, couldn’t design hardware and software that’s usable by normal consumers if their lives depended upon it - Walter Mossberg

OK you got a job in software industry in a Multi National Company (MNC) and getting a good pay. You are pretty busy when there are projects but at least few weeks in a year you might be free and may not have much work. So what do you do? Beware these periods can pull you into the luxury of idleness called as complacency. Complacency is a slow poison; it does not happen in one single dose but slowly over a period of time. Once a project comes it becomes very difficult to get back to the routine work and may result in less productivity.  To see if you are becoming complacent just take a look at what you did every day.  The tasks that you did the whole day should be result oriented that either benefits you or the organization. If this time is anywhere less than 80% of the whole working time, beware you might already be getting sucked into complacency mode. Complacency not only results in lower productivity but also brings unwanted habits like mail chatting, instant messaging, spending too much time in cafeteria etc. These are time wasters and time wasted cannot be regained. Instead think of tasks that can help your growth in career and things that can distinguish from the crowd.

Note:- This is post is part of the “Foundations” series.

Every time when we add a new server to our environment the first thing that administrators (me when I was managing) was to set a strong password for super user ids. Not for our own servers but also when we host our applications on 3rd party hosting solutions provider. Not only that even if we have to give temporary access to users we need to give a strong password that cannot be remembered easily. Usually what I do is look at the objects nearby me, look at the digital clock on my computer, put some combinations, write down in a file and put it in a secure folder (so that I can look at it next time when I need to access the server ) and set it up. First it takes some time to think of this password and next is I definitely need to look at the stored password next time when I have to access the system, because I am very poor in remembering passwords. For administrators and anyone who want to generate strong passwords and also remember it easily here is a “Strong Password Generator” online. The site generates a strong password and also gives help on how to remember it.