Linux Format forums

leke · Posted: Sat Dec 25, 2010 10:35 pm Post subject: Spying on yourself

My cousin got burgled just before christmas while she was on holiday. They packed all the best stuff into her bmw and drove off. Surprisingly they left the presents under the tree (for what that's worth)!

It got me a little paranoid so I started googling around and found http://preyproject.com/
Nice concept. It creates a nice honeytrap guest account for your light fingered friend to reveal himself.

I've also set up an account with dyndns.com and am figuring out how to get OpenSSh running. A video from another post here inspired to do that.
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Captain_Tux · Posted: Tue Dec 28, 2010 1:52 am Post subject:

Was this the video?

http://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=10362

Motivated me to make some changes also...

leke · Posted: Tue Dec 28, 2010 8:32 am Post subject:

wyliecoyoteuk · Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 1:05 pm Post subject:

Prey really is a good tool.
Make sure that you have the serial numbers though
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leke · Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 7:10 pm Post subject:

ollie · Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 11:43 pm Post subject:

Using the script developed by Dutch_Master the serial number of my laptops has been displayed on both my old Asus laptop and my new Alienware laptop. Hopefully it works for other brands too.

You can read about the script and download it at What does Linux know about your hardware?

leke · Posted: Sat Jan 01, 2011 1:22 am Post subject:

jago25_98 · Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 10:14 am Post subject:

Other than Prey,
there was an article in Micromart last month about IP cameras. You can certainly setup a remote monitoring server with linux and activated screenshots sent over email. You can even have this with embedded firmware, though I think something like a Pogoplug and webcam is better because, if there's an exploit for a camera in the future you might not be able to update the firmware... as firmware is usually closed source.

-j

wyliecoyoteuk · Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 8:50 pm Post subject:

Hope you liked it, I wrote it. Did you notice the coyote and the Penguin in the screenshots? Smile

I use Zoneminder on my HTPC to monitor both an IP camera outside and a webcam inside, emails to an external address as well.
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jago25_98 · Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2011 1:29 am Post subject:

Yes it was a good article.

I like Micromart exactly because of articles like those. In fact I bought it just for that article.

I really can't stand bigger more expensive magazines with all the cruft. Mags like PC Pro. Nice mag, well written but a bit formal. Is a news section really needed? And all those glossy pages. Some (wink) magazines are coming in at £6.50 these days and you think to yourself, `do I really want to spend over an hour at minimum wage for this impulse buy?` There's about another 6 other magazines all covering related interest and you think to yourself `crikey, I can only justify buying one really`.

With Micromart it's cheap, which I like. Nice rough pages.
Yet all the stuff in there has the same feel as LinuxFormat, you can imagine the person writing it is talking to you personally; it's not a technical impersonal tone.
I kind of wish there was something that was a mix of linuxformat and micromart really. Micromart has to cater for closed source software running people (the pirate masses mostly), yet LinuxFormat is Linux, which I'm sure holds it back. Then again there's Magazines like Wired. I have been known to buy all 3 to cover that geek interest. There's not really anything that covers everything, a slashdot mag for example. Closest thing to that I guess is Wired. But wired doesn't have enough linux in it.

I reckon there should be a true UK competitor to Wired (in terms of scope) runs by the LugRadio type crowd.

Thus, although there's Linux mags to choose from and mags like wired I often end up just buying Micromart even though it's nothing like the linux mags. It needs more articles like yours.

The classifieds section has kind of changed so much... a bit odd. I wonder if there might be a way to get that to make sense again... I could only see it really working if the mag was regional like Autotrader. At the moment the main thing is that ebay is such a pain, it's nice to be able to just put an ad in a paper as normal, like Gumtree. I'm sure this has been talked about before.

wyliecoyoteuk · Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2011 8:40 am Post subject:

Thankyou.
I have written Linux only articles for MM in the past, but these days I have to include both Windows and Linux options to make it more acceptable to the main audience.
(There's a home automation article by me in this week's that covers LinuxMCE etc.)
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