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Sharing thoughts and ideas on business, security and photographyCaffe Luxe’s new and improved Nespresso Compatible coffee pods (mostly just pics)
Posted on February 16, 2013After one of our readers complained about the Caffelux capsules, the good folk over at luxurycoffee.co.za stepped in and offered to send her some capsules. At the same time they noticed my previous blog post on their coffee still showed the old branding and product. Since the product had been updated with new branding, capsules design improvements and coffee they very kindly offered to send me some of the new coffee to try, which I gladly accepted.
Below you can see the new whiter, lighter branded boxes of the five flavours.
The 5 flavours
Cheap (Legal) copies of Microsoft 2013 applications (for some)
Posted on February 16, 2013Microsoft has a home use programme that allows employees of many organisations from around the world to get copies of their key products:
- Office 2013 Professional
- Project 2013 Professional
- Visio 2013 Professional
- Office 2011 for Mac OS X
for the really awesome price of R81 each. This is for the download copy, for R120 extra you can order a physical media copy of each (postage not included).
This is applicable for a lot of people working in large corporates or at educational institutions. You will need the Home Use code, which you can get from your IT department. If you can’t find the code, then try the link below anyway, click the “don’t have code” option, just pop in your email address, and you may get lucky and be able to download it anyway.
Be aware the 2013 version of office is a download version running in some kind of virtualised environment which will ensure that it keeps up to date. When you download the installer it downloads a “download app” and then downloads and installs all in one, so you don’t get an ISO or installer per say, so you can install on just the one PC. Not really a big problem. On a site I was reading this morning (sorry, forget the name so no details) they did mention that the license key you get with the R81 version works with physical media, so once you have the key, if you can get the media elsewhere you can still use it.
As much as people bemoan the Microsoft Office suite, these are really great apps and at this price, nobody who is entitled to use the programme can complain they are too expensive.
http://www.microsofthup.com/hupemea2/home.aspx?culture=en-GB&country_id=ZA
Transversal password cracking with NMAP (without downloading the hashes)
Posted on February 16, 2013A few months back I discovered that our service desk had become a little “lazy” and were no longer using the defined process (identify user, randomly generate new password, set to change on first use) and were now handing out weak passwords without requiring the users to change them.
In order to assess the extent of the problem I wanted to do a test against the domain to see how wide-spread the problem was. I Google’d around a bit to try to identify a tool which could perform the exercise for me, but didn’t really find anything that looked suitable. I knew that I didn’t want to grab the hashes and do an off-line attack , but wanted instead to do it “live” against the domain, both to avoid the responsibility of having a copy of all the hashes (risk of is too high and as Head of Infosec I didn’t want that on my head) and also to test the alertness of the security operations centre in detecting the attack.
My criterion was simple, find a tool that given a file of usernames and a file of passwords would test the usernames with the given passwords.
Using iDrifta with iPad Mini / iPhone5 / Lightning connector iDevices
Posted on February 16, 2013The good news is that you can use your iDrifta with the newer Lightning connector enabled devices (iPad 4th Gen, iPad Mini, iPhone 5) but you need to get an Apple Certified 30 pin lightning adaptor. I have yet to try this personally, but have ordered some connectors and converter cables from DX.COM to see if these far far cheaper generic converters will work. Will keep you posted once these arrive and I have tested them.
Just don’t forget, DONT UPGRADE to iOS 6.1 if you want to keep using your iDrifta, DStvMobile need sort their nonsense out and get their app upgraded to work with iOS 6.1 before you proceed. (See previous post).
Info obtained from dstv website here
The iDrifta is a mobile TV decoder that receives DVB-H signal for viewing on iOS devices. For the product to work it must be within the DVB-H coverage area. Currently, the device is compatible with iPhone 4/4S/5*, iPad 1,2,3,4*,Mini* and 3rd generation and the 4th Generation iPod Touch. * Using an Apple Certified 30 pin to lightning adaptor.
iOS iDrifta users/buyers beware! iOS6.1 not compatible with iDrifta (currently), works fine with Drifta (wifi)
Posted on February 16, 2013Users of iDevices who own the iDrifta are on the rampage. Since the release of iOS 6.1 the iDrifta has not been working with the iPad/iPhone and DSTV have no useful response. They apologise and have no timelines for implementation of a solution. I have reached out to a few people I know but have received no response either.
The only bit of info is this “Announcement” on their website :
“Apple recently introduced the new iOS 6.1 version for its devices. In keeping in line with the various operating systems that we service, the Drifta is compatible with the new version and we are in the process of making the iDrifta compatible with iOS 6.1 soon.”
Not sure how that helps those users who can’t watch the test cricket or rugby. Seems unfortunate that DSTVMobile aren’t keeping up with the times and testing their products with those they claim to be compatible with.
Some relevant links :
- Keep checking the iStore. Let’s hope this is not a repeat of the Blackberry debacle.
- You can follow the irate stream of complaints on Hello Peter over here (swearing and ineffectual customer service response involved!)
- The thread on the DSTVmobile forum with the hapless Thulani saying much of nothing
- And on facebook where a nameless sap apologizes for “any inconvenience that may have been caused.” indeed. A non-functional product “may have” caused inconvenience? What a lame braindead response. Of course it has caused inconvenience, the darn thing don’t work!
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