I just installed Hamachi on my desktop the other day. It's a free, cross-platform VPN application that requires almost no advanced configuration. The UI is simple and straightforward (and pretty nice-looking, actually), and it all just works.



So you're asking yourself - what would I do with something like this? Imagine connecting a set of machines together that are located on opposite ends of the continent (or the world, for that matter) and having them behave like they're on the same local area network. That's the basic premise behind a virtual private network, and Hamachi makes the process of doing this incredibly simple. Once it's set up, you can access network shares and printers, and map network drives on any machine connected to the private network, just like you would be able to if they were on the same LAN. You can even set up private LAN games without having to connect to a centralized server. The Hamachi UI also includes a basic instant messaging client so that you can send messages to other machines on the private network. And all communication over the channel is fully encrypted.

The app is available for Windows (works with XP x64), Linux and Mac OS X, although the OS X version is currently only command-line based. Check it out. My brother and I are planning to play a LAN game of NFS:MW using this sometime next week. Will let you know how that goes. :)

I have some invites for the Windows Live Messenger Beta to give away. WLM, currently a beta, is the next version of MSN Messenger. To find out more about some of the new features, check out this post on the official Messenger blog.

If you'd like to try it out, leave a comment here with your email address, or send it to me using the contact form if you wish to keep your email address private. :)

Update: That's it. I am currently out of invites. I'll make a new post if I receive any more in the future, so keep checking if you're still looking for one.

An official patch for the WMF vulnerability has been released today, a few days before the planned release date of January 10th. Make sure you install it via Windows Update immediately.

Microsoft announced that it would release a security update to help protect customers from exploitations of a vulnerability in the Windows Meta File (WMF) area of code in the Windows operating system on Tuesday, January 2, 2006, in response to malicious and criminal attacks on computer users that were discovered last week.

Microsoft will release the update today on Thursday, January 5, 2006, earlier than planned.

Microsoft originally planned to release the update on Tuesday, January 10, 2006 as part of its regular monthly release of security bulletins, once testing for quality and application compatibility was complete. However, testing has been completed earlier than anticipated and the update is ready for release.

From the Technet Security Bulletin.

The 2006 International Consumer Electronics Showcase begins this evening with an opening keynote presentation by Bill Gates. A live webcast of the keynote is available, as always, and begins at 6:30PM PST tonight.

CES looks like a very interesting event this year, with keynotes by top executives from companies like Sony, Intel, Google, and Yahoo. Besides that, there's bound to be a whole bunch of slick, new gadgets from thousands of companies that are attending the show.

I would have loved to represent OSNN again, but I'll only be flying back to Cali tomorrow. The tickets for the NYC trip were booked well in advance, or I would have taken a direct flight to Vegas. No worries though - Patrick is there this time, and he's promised to keep us up-to-date with lots of pictures and info on his CES blog. I'll also be closely watching Technorati and Flickr, as well as sites like Engadget and Gizmodoover the next few days.

Technorati Tags: CES, CES2006, Microsoft, Vista

I've been using WinSCP as my SFTP/SCP client for a while now. One of my favorite features of this client is how closely the functionality resembles Windows Explorer or any other modern file manager. The app has been designed so that once you connect to the server, you can simply double-click any file that you want to edit and save the changes, just like you would for a file on your local drives. All the downloading and uploading automatically occurs in the background. It's a much nicer experience compared to traditional FTP clients that use the usual two-pane view.

The only thing lacking in WinSCP is support for regular FTP. Since FTP is an insecure protocol, I personally use SFTP as far as possible, but sometimes I do need to connect to servers that only support FTP. That's where I've decided to use FireFTP, a free FTP client extension for Firefox. I remember trying this a few months ago, but it wasn't really up to the mark. However, it has improved over time, and the current version is fast, lightweight and supports all the core functionality of a good FTP client. Plus, it's nice to be able to use Firefox's tabbed browsing capabilities to open up multiple FTP sessions in different tabs.

If you're a Firefox user, I suggest giving FireFTP a try. If you use SFTP/SCP (as you should be), WinSCP is definitely the way to go.

Technorati Tags: Firefox, FireFTP, WinSCP