Category Archives: Technology News

Gmail advanced searching: how to create a powerful query to catch a “wanted” email – Computer forensic

If you want to improve your Google searches you can find many useful queries on internet and, if have time, you can also attend a specific Google free course.

But just few people know that there are specific queries available for Gmail.

I found some of them casually when I need to search some specific, old emails into my accounts some days ago. Then I discovered that Google itself published a complete list of all the possible queries accepted by Gmail.

I warmly suggest you to spend some minutes reading and exploring all the queries because they are really useful when you use Gmail in a professional way.

Here, I just want to sum-up some of them that, in my experience, are the most common you can use when you are becoming crazy looking for a specific email you sent or received.

The powerful feature is represented by the possibility to mix the different queries to create super-queries that can intercept the “wanted” email or documents in a less than a second.

Time

after:2010/10/24 before:2011/09/24

Here you are defining the time range and Gmail will show all the emails sent or received between the two specified dates.

From or To

from xyz@zyw.com
to:xyz@zyw.com

Where xyz @zyw.com is the email address you are focusing on.

from:tom OR from:Luis
from:tom OR from:Luis -meeting

In this case you are looking for an email from Tom or (plus) Luis but it hasn’t to contain (- minus) the word “meeting”.

Bcc or CC

bcc:xyz@zyw.com
cc:xyz@zyw.com

Where xyz @zyw are specific email addresses you are looking for.

Filename

filename:invitation
filename:(jpg OR jpeg OR png)
filename:(doc OR docx OR pdf)
filename:invitation(doc OR docx OR pdf)

Subject

subject:meeting

Attachment

has:attachment

Spam

in:spam

And you check into a specific folder. In my case: the Spam folder

Larger or Smaller

larger:25MB
smaller:250MB

Some complex query examples:

from:xyz@zyw.com filename:(jpg OR jpeg OR png)

to:xyz@zyw.com filename:(doc OR docx OR pdf)

from:xyz@zyw.com filename:invitationfrom xyz@zyw.com to:xyz@zyw.com filename:(doc OR docx OR pdf) subject:meeting

after:2011/10/24 before:2011/11/24 in:spam subject:meeting

How to install Android on a Nook Color using a Linux OS – Practical Tips

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First of all, I wanted to test one of the latest version of Android 4 but I didn’t want to spend money for a new device so I decided to use/sacrifice the Nook Color that I used rarely because I am a Kindle enthusiast.

Secondly I didn’t want to void the Nook warranty or permanently modify its ROM.

Last but not least I never pretended to discover a new way to modify the Nook but just find the most simple and practical tutorial into internet.

After some hours of internet surfing I found some interesting commercial solutions (e.g. n2acards) and a lot of good tutorial posts and my final choice was one by xda-developers.

I bought a class 4, 8 GB micro SD card and I followed the detailed instructions described into the xda-developers post…, but I had some practical problems because I didn’t read carefully all the text.

The xda-developers tutorial is really well done and full of right information but, as for my experience, it is best to focus your attention on some few points/steps.

In particular:

– you have to create a bootable micro SD card using these commands on Terminal:

sudo fdisk -l

(in this way you will discover the right address of your SD card, in my case was “sdc”. Pay attention! If you choose the wrong address you risk to wipe your hard disk)

sudo dd if=generic-sdcard-v1.3-CM7-9-10-larger-Rev5.img of=/dev/sdc

where generic-sdcard-v1.3-CM7-9-10-larger-Rev5.img is the the image file you find in the xda-developers webpage and sdc the right address of your SD card

– when you download the three necessary “software”, be sure to choose the right one for the CM you have chosen. I mean: if you choose to install CM 9 you need gapps-ics but, if you prefer CM 10, gapps-jb is the right software for you. If you don’t use the proper file, you will have this type of “error message” when you boot your new Android:

Unfortunately, Google services framework has stopped

Unfortunately, Setup Wizard has stopped

Adding the zip files suggested on the xda-developers guide you are now ready to test the Android 4 on your Nook. During the first boot up the Linux software on the SD card will inflate the proper files creating all the right folders and compiling the libraries. To complete this step you will need about 8/10 minutes and, at the end, the Nook will automatically shut down.

In my case I installed CM 10 and during my first boot-up, after I completed the installation, I was not able to use the Android Keyboard and I read this error message on the screen:

Unfortunately, Android keyboard (AOSP) has stopped

Luckily, I was not the first user to have this kind of problem and I read the right tip into another xda-developer blog. I had to come back at the beginning of the Tutorial and change the gapps zip file to an older version, more precisely the 2012-10-11. After this, the new installation the Android 4 run properly on the Nook Color.

For my experience, the Android 4 on the Nook Color is slowest than I supposed but it is not so slow to force me to come back to an older Android version. When I installed a couple of free apps, Startup Manager and Memory Booster, the speed improved and Android was more fluid.

The – solved – mystery of the disappeared Yahoo Notepad

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Disappeared Yahoo Notepad The 2012 is ending and Yahoo has recently decided to update its services. I don’t actually like Yahoo new graphics and the GUI but this is really marginal.

The real problem with this Yahoo services upgrade is represented by many users who were not able to find the Notepad service previously offered into the Yahoo email.

The worst thing is that some of them had saved “confidential” information into the notes. I prefer not to say much about this point but…, please,… 2013 is coming and none can till think to “save” unencrypted confidential information in an online services like Yahoo Notepad…

To solve the mystery of disappeared Yahoo Notepad you can stop searching into the email menus and go directly to http://notepad.mail.yahoo.com where, using the same old (sic…) Yahoo mail password, you will be able to rescue all the notesa you previously have saved there.

Happy New Year!

How to configure Firestarter to use VPN services on Linux

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VPN Linux In my experience Firestarter is a effective firewall and, on Linux, it starts automatically every time we boot up Ubuntu. But, when I decided to use a VPN tunnel through openvpn, I had some connection problems. In fact I was able to initialize my VPN services but, after a while, all the internet connections were mysteriously shut down.

The “problem” was Firestarter which cut off the connection as forbidden considering my inbound/outbound Policy.

To solve this matter you have to open a tunnel on Firestarter to allow VPN working:

1- open the configuration file my VPN provider gives to its users (generally its a text file containing all the configuration info used, in my case, by openvpn) and I searched for the IP address of the default starting connection used to authenticate the VPN services (e.g. 177.458.563.25). Save somewhere or memorize this VPN IP address.

2- open a Terminal and type:

sudo nautilus

3- using nautilus go to File System (it’s before home folder) and open etc–>firestarter and open the file user-pre using Gedit (or your preferred text editor)

4- the user-pre file is usually empty so don’t panic and write these lines into it:

iptables -A INPUT -j ACCEPT -s xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx -p esp
iptables -A INPUT -j ACCEPT -s xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx -p udp -m multiport -sports isakmp,10000
iptables -A INPUT -j ACCEPT -i tun+
iptables -A OUTPUT -j ACCEPT -d xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx -p esp
iptables -A OUTPUT -j ACCEPT -d xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx -p udp -m multiport -dports isakmp,10000
iptables -A OUTPUT -j ACCEPT -o tun+

Now you have to substitute the xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx with the VPN IP address you have found at step 1 (in my example was 177.458.563.25).

5- Save the user-pre file and close Gedit and Nautilus

6- open a new Terminal and restart Firestarter typing:

sudo /etc/init.d/firestarter restart

That’all! Now your VPN works on your Linux computer and Firestarter has accepted a new Routed IP Tunnel into its allowed policies configuration.

Save Gmail attachments directly into your Google Drive

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The idea is simple but genial: how about saving your Gmail attached files directly into Google Drive without wasting time and doing it manually? Not a bad idea but till now it was not easy to realize.

Today Armit Agarwal did it and explained how to do that!

Moreover, automatically adding a simple label to your incoming emails (e.g. labeling all the email from a predefined account or all the emails containing a particular word in the text) you can be sure that Agarwal script will save a copy of the attachments directly into your Google Drive.

But I don’t want to simply copy Agarwal ideas and tips about this new feature because you can directly visit his website and download the script he created.

Here I also like to focus your attention on the potential features offered by the App Script language by Google. In fact, Agarwal demonstrates how simply could be this Script language and how it can be used to add personalized and useful features to Google services (in this case: Gmail).

Try it and if you want to share new Google App Scripts don’t hesitate to add a comment or send an email to this blog.

“Security by obscurity does not work with inquisitive minds. There are many things that should be changed and some that have. Though our bodies may not be free, our minds are – free to learn, explore, to resist. Hack the world!“, Anonymous Writer, 2600 Magazine, Autumn 2012

Take Action: Add Your Voice to Keep the Internet #freeandopen

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Solve audio troubleshooting on Ubuntu and start planning to migrate to another Linux OS

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It was just a simple system update which dropped off audio on my Ubuntu 12.04. It was really strange to admit that I had experienced a crash (better: an audio crash) on a Linux but the 12.04 Ubuntu actually caused similar problems to a numerous bunch of long-term aficionados around the world.

The real problem with the last Ubuntu versions is that this OS is not supporting properly “old” hardware as it did previously during so many years. Reading some other bug reports on the web I discovered that these audio troubleshooting crashes happen principally to “old” IBM ThinkPad and Dell. I hope Ubuntu developers will consider to solve immediately these kind of issues or many users certainly migrate to other Linux version.

In any case the best and complete guide to solve audio troubleshooting has been developed by Ubuntu itself. The guide is very detailed but, if you want to definitively solve this bug, you have to spend more or less 40 (forty…. sic!) minutes and follow all the 17 (seventeen… sic!) steps.

In my case the audio was back after the first step and I decided not to follow the other instructions but the audio troubleshooting comes back, more or less, every two months. Just to you if you want to spend 40 minutes only one time or a couple of minutes every two/three months.

When I consider all the problems I had with Ubuntu on “old” hardware starting from the 12.04 version, my advice is to start thinking about a migration to another Linux OS. I am testing some Ubuntu alternatives and in the next weeks I will post something about the tests I’m doing on old laptops. Stay connected!

Join the first Spy Week by Lifehacker!

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The first Spy Week starts today @Lifehacker with a bunch of interesting stories about topics related to the spy world. During the next days we will have the opportunity to improve our knowledge on different fields as e.g. sharing sensitive information over the internet or taking photographs without being noticed by other people. Moreover Lifehacker will publish some interviews with experts who share some tips and answer to every related question from the readers. For example, now, Steven Santarpia from ICORP Investigation is online and interacting with lifehackers. This week, be sure not to miss any topics about spying (+ hacking + social engineering) and visit the dedicated section into the Lifehacker website!

A list of the best free online University courses in USA and UK. Some tips to choose between them, successfully attend only the best ones and create your aside University career without spending a cent!

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Today opportunities

During the last two years the number of free online University courses exploded on the web. Today it is possible to attend prestigious courses by important USA and UK Universities and receive a final certification without spending a cent.

The good news are that these courses are interesting, well structured and you have a real possibility to increase your knowledge if approach them in the right way.

The first time you look for the free online University courses you are disoriented by the number and the many different topics they cover. The problem is to make the right selection in order not to waste time and energies for something you (and you career) don’t actually need.

How to select the right courses

1- Make a first selection between courses choosing only that are really interesting for you
2 – Check if you will receive a participation certificate if you complete the course
3 – Honestly evaluate your real, deep, interest for the courses that will not provide any written certification. I mean: “Do you really think that they will increase your knowledge and will be determinant for your career or life?”
4 – Don’t overestimate your capacities. Read very carefully the required background to attend the courses
5 – Don’t underestimate the time you need to attend the courses and do all the “homework” and the suggested readings
6 – Finally, select two (or more) courses and “Create” your free aside University career. Try to choose courses that have logical and “career path” connections between them. The important thing is what you are really learning on particular related topics you consider important for your career, not the number of disordered certification you can write on your resume.

A list of free online University courses in USA and UK

1- https://www.coursera.org/

2 – https://www.udacity.com/

3 – http://gtmooc.com/how-it-works/

4 – http://www.udemy.com/

5 – https://www.edx.org/

6 – https://6002x.mitx.mit.edu/

7 – http://www.powersearchingwithgoogle.com/course

8 – https://code.google.com/edu/security/index.html

Please, add a comment to this post to inform or recommend other courses we have not mentioned here!! Thank you!