GIMP - GNU Image Manipulator Program

AppName : GIMP
AppType : Image Editor
Homepage : http://www.gimp.org/
Portable Available : Yes

Image editing is very common these days. Celebrities do it all the time for those photo shooting in big magazines (don't believe me, see it yourself ).

The most common image editor is Adobe Photoshop. It's so popular that people refers to photos altered as an "imaged photoshop-ed". But let's face it, it's expensive.

But I am going to introduce a tool that contains the same basic functionalities and will give you the same result as editing photos in Adobe Photoshop. The tools is GIMP.

If you have use Photoshop before, you will get along this tool very fast. The only difference is that the layout are all apart (like in an Apple Computer, so if you are a Apple user, you will do fine).

If you have not use an image editor, you can try this tutorial in Youtube which will give you a head start in these types of applications http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ecs0yk4Vasw

Great application, 4.0/5.0.

Excel Functions - Part 1

AppName : Excel/Google Spreadsheet/Calc

AppType  : Document divided in sheet for graphical and data computing

Homepage: http://openoffice.org http://docs.google.com

Well, everyone should have worked with Excel or similar programs. That neat software that let you write on cells and prepare graphs depending on what you have write on.

But let me assure you that Excel is more than that! In today post I will only highlight 2 major functions of Excel: Conditional Formatting and Counting items that meet a criteria.

Conditional Formatting

Basically whats this is, is to able to format a cell ( change font, background color etc..) if a certain criteria is met. This is helpful when you want to highlight items so they can be seen more easier. For example, the following is a list in which I wish to see more clearly those numbers who are between the number 6 and number 12.

You have to observe very carefully to be able to detect them. I mean, it is not that easy, but Excel have some neat stuff that help you in this process. Select the first cell, go to format and select Conditional Formatting.

You will see a window similar to the one above. Choose the between item and write 6 in the first square and 12 in the second. In the format section, go to patterns, and select a color of your choice. Press OK in both window. Now, using the copy format brush, 

select the first cell, then select all other cells. You will now see with the background of the color you choose, all numbers who are between 6 and 12!!.

Counting Items

Now, lets say we want to know the total numbers who are greater than 10. Select the first cell, the click on the function icon 

look for the 'IF' method. Basically we want to ask the cell if the number is > 10, output a 1, then later we do a SUM to add all those 1s and verify the total of them. In the cell write the following: 

=IF(A1>10,1,0)

 Now, using the copy format brush, 

select the first cell, then select all other cells. All adjacents cells that values are greater than 10 will have now a 1 written. Now, in the last cell write:
=SUM(B1:B21)

And the value presented will be the one of the sum of all, hereby, the counter.

Excel has many many functions, which I will be highlighting them in more mini sections. Just wanted to write something since there has been some time that I havent blog at all.

DropBox - Web Base file hosting service

AppName : Dropbox

AppType  : Web Base file hosting service

Homepage: https://www.dropbox.com/

Portable Available: Yes

It seems that the days of those usb pen/flash/whatever you call them drivers (usb drivers) are nearly over. Well, I may be overacting, BUT, with this application, is one step ahead. Basically dropbox is a straight forward file share system what let you 

1. Store virtually any file at a centralized location.
2. Access those files ( music, photos, documents, you name it) with your desktop, laptop, ipad, iphone, Blackberry, even through the web browser.... with everything!... well I tried with a coffee machine but didn't worked for me.
3. SHARE. Its all about the sharing right? You can select which files you want to share by specifying the people.
4. Its always in SYNCH! The system do some sort of magic ( well, it's a trigger event with a http request sent by the server, but you all guys know that) which automatically keep everything in synch!
5. History. Who changed who when by what and where with it or she... Basically it gives a trace of when files where uploaded, which is neat when you need to keep trace of them.

Check out the official DropBox video from dropbox.com of how the system works.
Double click on the video below.

So imagine this scenario. You spent the night and part of the morning working on a presentation your boss asked and its going to be presented to the board of directors (yes, at some point everyone at IT will pass through this) and you finished the ppt at 3 AM. You did it, you click save and stored it in your super duper pen flash driver with neat  colors that your aunt gave you on christmas, YAY!

Nap time! You slept for 3 hours and after you get from your bed, you rush to the office. Its time for the presentation...BUT... you left the pen drive at home... OMG!

Now, imagine, you have a dropbox account. All you have to do is save the file under the dropbox folder and...that's IT! When you arrive at the office, you will log to your dropbox account and the file will be there.

I think everyone should have a dropbox account, because you will never know when you are going to need one.

Wireshark

AppName : Wireshark

AppType  : Traffic Packet Analyzer (a.k.a. Sniffer) 

Homepage: http://www.wireshark.org/download.html

Portable Available: Yes

WARNING: This tool could be use for bad intentions. This post is merely to educate the audience. I do not encourage anyone to mess with other's people privacy.

Background

No one in the internet is safe, and we all must be aware of that. We hear every now and there that someone, someplace gets hack. This post, besides explaining the details and the use of the software, it might get a glimpse to you of how that happens.

First, let's get to the basic: how information is being transfered from your PC to facebook? In a nutshell, it's exactly the same as the U.S. Postal Service, you take the stuff, put it in a box, place a label on it, and the service will take it to the destination. Your PC prepare what is called a 'packet', put the chunks of data in that packet and tells the internet, hey! I have a packet for facebook, please deliver it to him, and the magic happens!

Well, Wireshark do what? By Wikipedia definition, "Wireshark is a free and open-source packet analyzer". So imagine there is a guy in the postal service that opens the box you sent, look through the things inside and put them back. This program basically do the same.

The catch? Well, first most of the data sent through the internet is in a form where only the sender and the receiver can understand and second, you need to be inside a network (like the one Starbuck has , Wi-Fi spots) to be able to work. 

User Interface

At first glance, you may get scare (I did) with  all the options the tool have, but we will keep it very simple here. Firs you want to do is to go Capture--> Interfaces. 

MAC Users refer to to this thread if you get an error message of No Interfaces Available.

The page will display all active connections where the application can extract packets.

Before starting to 'analyze' the packets, you may want to apply options or filters to the interface, so we do not get all the data (messages like ARP, DNS, you can google it if you want to learn more). 


In the Options menu, I often choose the 'No ARP No DNS' filter, so I don't get those broadcast messages from the router.

Click on Start, which will get the application to start fetching data who is passing through the network.  You will see something similar like the following:

Data will begin to show up in the screen with tons of information. For instance, the selected packet, says it comes from 72.246.64.82 and arrives at 192.168.2.6 (remember, all 192.168. address are one inside your network). The info of the packet says it is a JPEG file, so someone is downloading a photo, but from where? Lets see, right click on the packet and select follow TCP Stream which will display the following window;

Well, seem that someone using a MAC accessed a facebook app and requested that download. Cool!


Filters!
Filters rocks! I was getting tired of see everything, but can apply simple notation like:
ip.addr == 192.168.2.4 and tcp.port == 80
Here I am saying, hey! I want just to hear messages to this address but only for request of 80 ( web request). After input of the filter, just click on Apply and you are on.


Advance Use
Once stopped, you can save the whole data into a plain file ( a .pcap) and use your own text editor to search in it. What can you found there? From URLs, source IP, provider Broadcast messages to conversations, user name, emails and passwords (for non encrypted pages). 
Someone claim that you can even see facebook passwords (check it out here!)


Do the exercise, export the file and see what you can found. 
Comment below.

JRuler

AppName : JRuler

AppType  : Measurement Tool

Homepage: http://www.spadixbd.com/freetools/jruler.htm

Portable Available: Yes

Background

So ok, it's a ruler, seem so simply,so why in earth I'm going to use this thing? Trust me, I was like that until I started developing web applications, I use JRuler like in everything! I need to have the correct size of a <div>, I need to place an image but I dunno how big it needs to be, or do you need to crate a banner and dunno how much letters and how big is going to be needed to be? Well, this tool is what you need!

Usability

The ruler interface is a clean and simple one. You have a yellow-ish rectangle, which simulate a real ruler divided in whatever scale is selected. You can change it by right click on it and select between pixel, inches, Picas ( whatever that is) and centimeters. Depending of the position of your mouse, the numbers in the ruler will change dynamically update the exact location of the pointer, which is awesome. Also, you have a gray-ish slider, where you can make the ruler larger or smaller. Finally, you can rotate the ruler (flip it) by pressing the 'F' key. 

JRuler is a simple, small ( <500kb size) and and application that  does not need installation (unzip and ready to use). People who manage image, banners and web development will found this tool very useful!

Notepad++

AppName : Notepad++
AppType  : Text Editor
Homepage: http://notepad-plus-plus.org/
Portable Available: Yes


Background
If you are still using Notepad for quick editing those source files, copying old methods into your new code or for a quick text replace, you are uber out-dated. Notepad++ will instantly upgrade your editing abilities of plain text files into other level.

Instantly after you open the application, you will notice a bunch of information and tools. I will highlight what I use in my day-by-day basis.

Tabs and Status Bar

Yes! I know! What made Firefox so famous.... TABS on a program, imagine you could have multiple document open without taking over of all your taskbar space. Having tabs will help you on doing a special search, the 'Find All...'located under the normal search option, I will talk about this a lil later. Also the tab have an visible indicator of whether or not the document is saved ( red mark for not saved). About status bar...I know, notepad has that but... you also get a nice little counter of length and total lines besides the normal cursor location.

Save a Copy

How many times you wish to save a backup, so if you screw up, you can go back, but , you don't have a straight forward way of doing it. Instead you have to edit the document, do a save as, and after save it, you need to close it and open the original one... Kinda tricky right? Well Notepad++ have a neat option under File called Save a Copy As which let you save a copy but continue working on the original one... that is SWEET!

Colors for your Language

The Language drop down menu is just amazing, amazing! You opened a .java file, but all you see is black and white? Go to Language and select JAVA... BOOOM!

Notepad++ will give color to the method names, variables.... the perfect text editor that fits to your needs. Sometimes the program just recognize the file and auto set it. Super cool!

Plugins->Compare

I use the built in diff of tortoise for my source control comparison (will have a separate analysis on that super tool also), but the compare tool in this app is just awesome. If you need to do a complex merge of source file and you want to be 200% source you are doing it right, you need to try this compare plugin.

Find what? Find All!

Ok find is a simple tool, yet a powerful one, all developers should know that at the moment of defining algorithms or simple using an editor to find something.  Check out the search window:

Check it out! Sexy, isn't it? There are various neat options yo choose, but when I am looking for something in multiple files, I aim for Find All in All Opened Documents. What does that do? Well, it performs neat magic trick which present a little report of all occurrences of what you are looking for and if you double click on the item, it will automatically transport you to that document's location.

Notepad++ is a simple yet powerful tool for text editor. If you are still using notepad, the upgrade is a must. If you are using another editor, I recommend you to try this one. Notepad++ is one of those tools that it never hurts to have it.