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As anyone working with sensitive data should know, all systems, despite the OS, are open to malicious attack, whether intentional or accidental. Whether system harm comes from an exploited hole or an accidental malicious action that damages all or part of the installation, top-grade security installed on the machine should be used to prevent it.

By now, most of us have received rather a large amount of email in the course of our net.lives. The packrats among us have kept rather a large amount of that large amount, and have occasionally been vindicated by the ability to pull out a 1991 message to prove who really suggested that trip to the cineplex to see "Cool as Ice". But how many failed attempts have we made to organize these decades of data?

Screenshots have always been invaluable tools for graphical user interfaces. They let programmers flaunt their wares to prospective users; even with console tools, I usually zoom right in on a screenshot link to get my first impression of a program. They let the desktop-inclined show off their backgrounds and theme authors show why you must have their work. And when things go wrong, a screenshot can often save a thousand words of bug reporting. vnc2swf puts all these benefits in motion.

Four years ago, I wrote an article for freshmeat called "The World Free Web" in which I described a way to make Web content available in a distributed and anonymous way via Freenet. Back then, I expected, as did many others, that Freenet was on the verge of completion, and all that remained was to think of interesting new applications to write on this new platform.

As a forgetful type with a huge library of games, books, CDs, and movies, I've been wanting an easy way to keep track of whom I lend things to, and to just generally organize my media. Most of the library applications I have encountered in the past involve a lot of typing information, which has meant I've never really gone to the trouble to document all of my media.

It's bad enough having to put up with our own bad habits. What can we do about others who can't or won't change their annoying ways? One solution is to learn patience. This takes a long time and is not at all fun. Another is to quietly reorder the world the way we like it when they're not looking. We secretly reseat the toilet paper roll so the flap goes over instead of under. We turn all the coat hangers to face the same way. We put the spices on the rack the way they belong. t-prot is another tool in this arsenal. It makes the ragtag email we receive look like the good and proper email we send.

One thing I've always wanted to do is create my own computer game. This is a slightly ambitious goal for a relatively inexperienced programmer like myself, but I figured I had nothing to lose and would gain some valuable programming skills to boot. Since the game in question was to be a 3D adventure game, I needed a suitably easy-to-program 3D engine to supply the backbone for my project. So I hit freshmeat for an Open Source engine, since commercial engines are priced for game companies, not hobbyists. The one I settled on was Irrlicht, a C++ API that can use Direct3D, OpenGL, or its own software renderer.

I've always been intrigued by the idea of Wikis, but have never really had an opportunity to use one properly until recently.

I like IRC. Actually, I like it very much. Usually, I start my XChat early in the morning and keep it on a desktop nearly all day. It works quite well for me, I can find my friends there for a chat, ask for help, or even help someone else. Also, XChat (like other IRC clients) allows me to write small plugins in Perl or Python to do various tasks like paging me on the mobile phone when I'm away. IRC clients and all kinds of programs and plugins surrounding them are well-deployed on nearly every platform. Unfortunately, IRC is not enough to keep in touch with everyone.