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Monday, July 7, 2008

Gray Hat Hacking And The Ethical Hacker's HandBook


1 Ethics of Ethical Hacking

• Role of ethical hacking in today’s world
• How hacking tools are used by security professionals
• General steps of hackers and security professionals
• Ethical issues among white hat, black hat, and gray hat hackers

This book has not been compiled and written to be used as a tool by individuals who wish
to carry out malicious and destructive activities. It is a tool for people who are interested in
extending or perfecting their skills to defend against such attacks and damaging acts.

Let’s go ahead and get the commonly asked questions out of the way and move on
from there.
Was this book written to teach today’s hackers how to cause damage in more effective
ways?
Answer: No. Next question.
Then why in the world would you try to teach people how to cause destruction and
mayhem?
Answer: You cannot properly protect yourself from threats you do not
understand. The goal is to identify and prevent destruction and mayhem, not
cause it.
I don’t believe you. I think these books are only written for profits and royalties.
Answer: This book actually was written to teach security professionals what the
bad guys already know and are doing. More royalties would be nice, so please
buy two copies of this book.
Still not convinced? Why do militaries all over the world study their enemies’ tactics,
tools, strategies, technologies, and so forth? Because the more you know what your
enemy is up to, the better idea you have as to what protection mechanisms you need to
put into place to defend yourself.
Most countries’ militaries carry out scenario-based fighting exercises in many
different formats. For example, pilot units will split their team up into the “good guys”
and the “bad guys.” The bad guys use the tactics, techniques, and fighting methods of a
specific type of enemy—Libya, Russia, United States, Germany, North Korea, and so on.
The goal of these exercises is to allow the pilots to understand enemy attack patterns,
and to identify and be prepared for certain offensive actions so they can properly react in
the correct defensive manner.
This may seem like a large leap for you, from pilots practicing for wartime to corporations
trying to practice proper information security, but it is all about what the team is
trying to protect and the risks involved.
Militaries are trying to protect their nation and its assets. Several governments around
the world have come to understand that the same assets they have spent millions and
billions of dollars to protect physically are now under different types of threats. The
tanks, planes, and weaponry still have to be protected from being blown up, but they are
all now run by and are dependent upon software. This software can be hacked into,
compromised, or corrupted. Coordinates of where bombs are to be dropped can be
changed. Individual military bases still need to be protected by surveillance and military
police, which is physical security. Surveillance uses satellites and airplanes to watch for
suspicious activities taking place from afar, and security police monitor the entry points
in and out of the base. These types of controls are limited in monitoring all of the physical
entry points into a military base. Because the base is so dependent upon technology
and software—as every organization is today—and there are now so many communication
channels present (Internet, extranets, wireless, leased lines, shared WAN lines, and
so on), there has to be a different type of “security police” that covers and monitors these
technical entry points in and out of the bases.
So your corporation does not hold top security information about the tactical military
troop movement through Afghanistan, you don’t have the speculative coordinates
of the location of bin Laden, and you are not protecting the launch codes of nuclear
bombs—does that mean you do not need to have the same concerns and countermeasures?
Nope. The military needs to protect its assets and you need to protect yours.
The example of protecting military bases may seem extreme, but let’s look at many of
the extreme things that companies and individuals have had to experience because of
poorly practiced information security.
Figure 1-1, from Computer Economics, 2006, shows the estimated cost to corporations
and organizations around the world to survive and “clean up” during the aftermath of
some of the worst malware incidents to date. From 2005 and forward, overall losses due
to malware attacks declined. This reduction is a continuous pattern year after year. Several
factors are believed to have caused this decline, depending upon whom you talk to.
These factors include a combination of increased hardening of the network infrastructure
and an improvement in antivirus and anti-malware technology. Another theory
regarding this reduction is that attacks have become less generalized in nature, more
specifically targeted. The attackers seem to be pursuing a more financially rewarding
strategy, such as stealing financial and credit card information. The less-generalized
attacks are still taking place, but at a decreasing rate. While the less-generalized attacks
can still cause damage, they are mainly just irritating, time-consuming, and require a lot
ofwork-hours from the operational staff to carry out recovery and cleanup activities. The
more targeted attacks will not necessarily continue to keep the operational staff carrying
out such busy work, but the damage of these attacks is commonly much more devastating
to the company overall.

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Sunday, July 6, 2008

Adobe Photoshop CS3 Top 100 Simplified Tips And Tricks

Language : English
Author : Lynette Kent
Released by : Wiley
File type : PDF, 48MB
RAR size : 32MB

Photoshop: Top 100 Simplified Tips & Tricks provides adventurous Photoshop users with a visual reference on how to use the bells and whistles found in the latest version of Photoshop.
Broken out in 10 chapters, with 10 tasks per chapter, Photoshop: Top 100 Simplified Tips & Tricks covers 100 cool and useful tips and tricks that can be performed in the newest release of Photoshop.
Full-color screen shots and numbered, step-by-step instructions show you how to take their Photoshop skills to new heights.
Take the latest edition today and make your pictures pop.

You already know Photoshop CS3 basics.
Now you'd like to go beyond with shortcuts, tricks, and tips that let you work smarter and faster.
And because you learn more easily when someone shows you how, this is the book for you.
Inside, you'll find clear, illustrated instructions for 100 tasks that reveal cool secrets, teach timesaving tricks, and explain great tips guaranteed to make you more productive with Photoshop CS3.

1. Minimal text and maximum illustrations
2. Task-oriented, step-by-step approach
3. Navigational aids connect instructions to illustrations
4. Self-contained, two-page lessons
5. Uniform layout makes it easy to read less, learn more


Customizing Photoshop for Your Projects

1 Select the Color Settings for Your Projects
2 Set the Preferences for the Way You Work
3 Customize Your Personal Workspace
4 Personalize Your View of the Bridge
5 Add Your Own Keyboard Shortcut for a Favorite Filter
6 Create a Custom Action to Increase Your Efficiency
7 Design a Customized Brush with Your Settings
8 Make a Special Gradient to Suit Your Design
9 Calibrate and Profile Your Monitor for Better Editing
10 Turn on the Full Power of Photoshop with a Pen Tablet

Working with Layers, Selections, and Masks

11 Duplicate and Change the Background Layer to Fix Problems Such As Overexposure
12 Using an Adjustment Layer to Adjust a Photo Nondestructively
13 Blend Two Photos Together with a Layer Mask
14 Using Custom Shape Layers to Add Designs to Photos
15 Accentuate a Sky Easily with a Gradient Fill Layer
16 Using the Quick Selection Tool and Refine Edge Palette for Selections
17 Using a Quick Mask to Make a Detailed Selection
18 Extract the Main Subject from the Background
19 Open or Add Layers As Smart Objects for Nondestructive Changes
20 Apply Filters As Smart Filters for Dynamic Adjustmentsvi

Straightening, Cropping, and Resizing

21 Crop Your Images and Use a Rule-of-Thirds Grid to Improve Composition
22 Create a Level Horizon
23 Try a Reverse Crop to Expand the Canvas
24 Crop and Straighten in Camera Raw
25 Straighten Crooked Scans Quickly
26 Crop Multiple Images from One Original to Create a Triptych
27 Change Your Perspective with the Crop Tool
28 Straighten Buildings with the Lens Correction Filter
29 Create a Panorama from Multiple Photos
30 Maximize Your Image Size with Minimal Visible Loss

Retouching Portraits

31 Remove Blemishes and Improve the Skin
32 Remove Red Eye to Quickly Improve Any Photo
33 Change Eye Color Digitally
34 Reduce Wrinkles with a Soft Touch
35 Whiten Teeth to Improve a Smile
36 Brighten the Eyes by Lightening the Whites
37 Add Depth to Eyes to Emphasize Them
38 Add a Catch Light to Make the Eyes Come Alive
39 Sharpen Just the Eyes to Add Focus
40 Add a Soft-Focus Effect to Make a Portrait Glow

Changing and Enhancing Colors and Tone

41 Improve an Underexposed Photo in Two Steps
42 Improve an Overexposed Photo in Three Steps
43 Remove a Colorcast to Improve the Overall Color
44 Colorize an Old Black-and-White Photograph
45 Make a Quick Change to Grayscale
46 Give a New Photo an Old Colorized Look
47 Using Camera Raw to Recover Highlights
48 Improve a Sky with HSL Values in Camera Raw
49 Go from Color to Grayscale with the New Black & White Adjustment
50 Create a Split Tone for a Special Effect in Camera Raw

Making Magic with Digital Special Effects

51 Apply a Smart Digital Photo Filter for Dynamic Adjustments
52 Add a Quick Dark Vignette Effect to Direct the Focus on the Subject
53 Add Action with a Simulated Motion Blur
54 Using the New Blend Mode to Stylize an Image
55 Align and Blend Separate Photos for the Best Group Shot
56 Merge Multiple Raw Photos to 32-Bit HDR
57 Apply a Split-Neutral Density Filter Using Smart Objects
58 Adjust Depth of Field with a Lens Blur Filter
59 Create a Silhouette for a Custom Design
60 Become a Digital Architect with the Vanishing Point Filter

Designing with Text Effects

61 Add a Double-Neon Glow to Text for a Unique Design
62 Create a Custom Watermark to Protect Your Images
63 Fill Any Shape with Text to Create Unique Effects
64 Warp Type to Emphasize the Words
65 Add Perspective to Type and Keep It Sharp
66 Make Your Text Follow Any Path
67 Create Eye-Catching Photo-Filled Titles
68 Blend Text into a Photograph Creatively
69 Create an Amazing Colored Shadow
70 Weave Text and Graphics for Intriguing Designs

Creating Digital Artwork from Photographs

71 Give Any Photo a Sketched Look
72 Add Your Own Signature to Any Artwork
73 Create a Digital Pen-and-Ink Drawing
74 Give a Photograph a Woodcut Look
75 Turn a Photo into a Colored-Pencil Illustration
76 Posterize a Photo for a Warhol-Style Image
77 Create a Pen-and-Colored-Wash Drawing from a Photograph
78 Compose a Photo Collage
79 Turn a Photo into a Hand-Painted Oil Painting
80 Paint a Digital Watercolor

Giving Your Images a Professional Presentation

81 Add Traditional Photo Corners
82 Make a Frame from a Photograph
83 Make a Contact Sheet of Your Photos
84 Create a PDF Slideshow Presentation
85 Create a Web Photo Gallery with Your Copyright
86 Give a Photo an Artistic Edge
87 Create a Custom Slide Template
88 Create Your Own Custom Edge
89 Make One Photo Look Like Many Combined Snapshots
90 Make a Photo Look Like a Gallery Print

Plugging into Photoshop CS3

91 Embellish a Photo Effortlessly with Graphic Authority Frames and Photo Ornaments
92 Make a Digital Engraving with Andromeda’s Screens Filter
93 Enlarge Images with Maximum Quality with Alien Skin BlowUp
94 Change Your Photo into Art with Alien Skin Snap Art
95 Colorize a Black-and-White Photo with AKVIS Coloriage
96 Easily Select the Subject and Remove the Background with Vertus Fluid Mask
97 Control Digital Noise with Nik Dfine 2
98 Sharpen Photos with Finesse Using Nik Sharpener Pro 2
99 Apply Traditional Photo Filters Such As the Sunshine Filter Using Nik Color Efex
100 Travel Beyond the Bridge with Extensis Portfolio 8

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Friday, July 4, 2008

Joe Satriani - Guitar Secrets with Tablatures, ebook

Joe Satriani Guitar Secrets

Learn guitar tips, tricks and secrets with this collection of tablatures, articles and tips from Satriani's famous columns that have appeared in Guitar For The Practicing Musician magazine. Who better to learn guitar from than the master himself.









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Beautiful Web Design

Beautiful Web Design

Chapter 1: Layout and Composition

An awareness of design relies heavily on understanding the spatial relationships that
exist between the individual components of a design. The layout chapter kicks off the
design process by investigating possible page components. With these blocks defined,
we discuss some tools and examples that will help you start your own designs on a
solid foundation. Finally, we commence the development of a layout for our sample
web site design, which we’ll build on throughout the book.

Chapter 2: Color
Perhaps the most mysterious aspect of design is the topic of color selection. Chapter
2 sheds some light on this topic as we delve into both the aesthetic and scientific
aspects of color theory. Armed with these simple guidelines, and some tips for
creating harmonious color combinations, anybody can choose a set of colors that
work well together to complement the overall message of a web site. We’ll do just that
toward the end of the chapter, when we select a relevant and attractive palette for our
sample web site design.

Chapter 3: Texture
An aspect of web design that’s often overlooked, texture is the key to creating designs
that stand out. By understanding how the individual elements of texture function,
you’ll learn how to use points, lines, and shapes to communicate and support your
site’s message on a number of levels. We’ll then apply what we’ve learned to the sample
site layout, which will give us a chance to see firsthand just how much value texture
can add to the overall impact of a web site design.

Chapter 4: Typography
The importance of typography is self-evident. Type is everywhere, and
understanding the mechanics of written language is essential for any visual designer.
In this chapter, we’ll dive beneath the surface of this rich topic, exploring the basics
of the letterform, and investigating various typeface distinctions. When the timecomes, you’ll have the opportunity to get your hands dirty as we apply carefully
selected typefaces to our sample site design.

Chapter 5: Imagery
The necessary companions to any well-designed site are the images and illustrations
that grace its pages. In the final chapter, we’ll discuss what we should look for in the
visual elements that we use on our pages, and locate sources of legitimate supporting
imagery. Of course, finding the right image is often just the beginning. We’ll also learn
the basics of cropping, masking, borders, and file formats, before we take the final step
in our sample site design: incorporating imagery that supports our clients’ branding,
and helps communicate the message they’re trying to convey.

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Thursday, July 3, 2008

Beginning Java SE 6 Platform: From Novice to Professional

Beginning Java SE 6 Platform: From Novice to Professional

Pages: 485

Beginning Java SE 6 Platform: From Novice to Professional steers you finished the labyrinth of the newborn Java Standard Edition (SE) 6 set and screen papers and its planning API and concepts. You module see these finished state and example. Individual chapters inform a portion API area, handle the API, and wage a hands-on example.

This aggregation guides you from first to modern techniques by play soured with a rattling ultimate Java SE 6 application, and then concealment the principle of generics, collections, annotations, reflections, IO, threads, and networking in Java SE 6. You’ll also hit whatever recreation acquisition and creating GUIs, and modify ingest the stylish in AWT and Swing as the groundwork for a Java-based mettlesome application. And the chapters on JavaSound and Java 2D module be an pleasant acquisition undergo you’ll poverty to deal with friends.

Last of all, this aggregation covers accumulation admittance using the stylish JDBC 4 API, security, and impulsive Java scripting module hold (which haw after unstoppered your Java undergo to languages same Groovy, BeanShell, and JRuby). By the instance you closing this book, you module hit perfect the set techniques primary to professed Java developers.

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Visual Basic 2008 Recipes A Problem-Solution Approach

Sometimes you meet requirement to cipher a difficulty and intend on with your work. To that end, Visual Basic 2008 Recipes is a publication of applicatory solutions for laboring VB .NET programmers. Create instance for the more engrossing aspects of your VB .NET send by finding ordinary problems with the applicatory solutions and mountain of cipher examples in this book. Important newborn .NET 3.5 technologies, much as Windows Presentation Framework (WPF) and Language Integrated Query (LINQ), are covered, and apiece chapter addresses a limited difficulty domain, including database access, multimedia, XML manipulation, networking, and security. The cipher is liberated to download so you crapper ingest the recipes immediately.

* Take plus of quality, ready–made solutions to ordinary Visual Basic planning problems.
* Avoid the dullness of having to reinvent the wheel. Focus instead on the more engrossing problems limited to your application.
* Learn from and be inspired by what the authors hit done. Use their impact as stepping stones to cipher modify more Byzantine problems.



What you’ll learn

* Cleanly removed user–interface system from playing system finished the ingest of .NET 3.5’s WPF.
* Store accumulation to and regain accumulation from your relational database using LINQ.
* Manipulate XML accumulation using LINQ.
* Make your programs dynamically configurable finished the prudent covering of reflection.
* Take plus of binary mainframe cores by composition multithreaded applications.
* Integrate transmission into your Visual Basic projects.

Who is this aggregation for?

Visual Basic 2008 Recipes is cursive for Visual Basic developers who hit at small whatever undergo in nonindustrial Visual Basic solutions. The aggregation contains recipes attractive to grey finished modern developers.

====================================================================

Create a Console Application from the Command Line
Problem
You need to use the VB .NET command-line compiler to build an application that does not require
a Windows graphical user interface (GUI) but instead displays output to, and reads input from, the
Windows command prompt (console).
Solution
In one of your classes, ensure you implement a Shared method named Main with one of the following
signatures:

Public Shared Sub Main()
End Sub
Public Shared Sub Main(ByVal args As String())
End Sub
Public Shared Function Main() As Integer
End Sub
Public Shared Function Main(ByVal args As String()) As Integer
End Sub

Build your application using the VB .NET compiler (vbc.exe) by running the following command
(where HelloWorld.vb is the name of your source code file):

vbc /target:exe HelloWorld.vb
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note If you own Visual Studio, you will most often use the Console Application project template to create new
console applications. However, for small applications, it is often just as easy to use the command-line compiler. It
is also useful to know how to build console applications from the command line if you are ever working on a machine
without Visual Studio and want to create a quick utility to automate some task.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How It Works
By default, the VB .NET compiler will build a console application unless you specify otherwise. For
this reason, it’s not necessary to specify the /target:exe switch, but doing so makes your intention
clearer, which is useful if you are creating build scripts that will be used by others or will be used
repeatedly over a period of time.
To build a console application consisting of more than one source code file, you must specify all
the source files as arguments to the compiler. For example, the following command builds an application
named MyFirstApp.exe from two source files named HelloWorld.vb and ConsoleUtils.vb:

vbc /target:exe /main:HelloWorld /out:MyFirstApp.exe HelloWorld.vb ConsoleUtils.vb

The /out switch allows you to specify the name of the compiled assembly. Otherwise, the assembly
is named after the first source file listed—HelloWorld.vb in the example. If classes in both the HelloWorld
and ConsoleUtils files contain Main methods, the compiler cannot automatically determine which
method represents the correct entry point for the assembly. Therefore, you must use the compiler’s
/main switch to identify the name of the class that contains the correct entry point for your application.
When using the /main switch, you must provide the fully qualified class name (including the
namespace); otherwise, you will receive the following:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
vbc : error BC30420: 'Sub Main' was not found in 'HelloWorld'
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you have a lot of VB .NET code source files to compile, you should use a response file. This
simple text file contains the command-line arguments for vbc.exe. When you call vbc.exe, you give
the name of this response file as a single parameter prefixed by the @ character. Here is an example

vbc @commands.rsp

To achieve the equivalent of the previous example, commands.rsp would contain this:

/target:exe/main:HelloWorld/out:MyFirstApp.exe HelloWorld.vb ConsoleUtils.vb

For readability, response files can include comments (using the # character) and can span multiple
lines. The VB .NET compiler also allows you to specify multiple response files by providing multiple parameters that are prefixed with the @ character.

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