Technical

Change default paste behavior in Word

I have always wondered about how to change the default behavior for MS Word, because the default paste mode is to try to use the existing formatting of whatever text you have cut. If you cut and paste much from web sites, this can wreak havoc on your layout. I finally decided to Google it tonight and found the easy fix from MS Office Online.

You too can paste text without the formatting into a Word document, according to this Help and How-to from Microsoft Office Online.

CatOS Config

I have been beating my head against the wall for an hour now and finally figured out the answer so I have to document it here. (This has everything to do with my OCD-ness.) When you are editing a Cisco Catalyst config (running CatOS) sometimes you make a mistake in the port configuration and you want to return it to a completely unconfigured state. Unfortunately, CatOS likes to keep remnants of the commands you have entered and it is hard to get rid of those parts, especially the trunking commands. For example, if you change the trunking state of a port then want to return it to an unconfigured mode, it might keep something like:

clear trunk <mod>/<port> 1-4094

in the configuration. For the OCD in me, this drives me nuts. I want it to say nothing about the port. The way to remove or delete the “clear trunk” part from your CatOS config, you must enter the following command:

set trunk <mod>/<port> auto negotiate 1-4094

This should remove all traces of port trunking configuration from your config file.

Hacking the hacker’s identity | News.blog | CNET News.com

Whoa. Let this be a warning to all you IPTC/EXIF geeks (me included!) Note to self: Remove meta data from photos of secret informants.

Watch out: MS Antispyware flags Symantec AV as spyware!

The latest definitions for Microsoft AntiSpyware seem to flag Symantec AntiVirus as the PWS.Bancos.A Password Stealer! This is quite disturbing, since we run both on most of our PCs. We have seen this on only one machine so far, but it is probably the only one that has done a complete scan since 4 a.m. Yikes.

Edit (2006-02-13) : Looks like it took them about 24 hours to fix the problem. The updated definitions (Spyware Definition Version: 5807) were released 2/10/2006 @ 11:02:39 PM. Make sure you are updated!

URL filtering with DD-WRT v23

I recently flashed my Linksys WRT54g with the open source DD-WRT firmware, v23 (12/25/05). I like the extra tuning and control it gives you, but one thing I noticed is that the Website Blocking by URL Address doesn’t work. I tried and tried to get it working but it just wouldn’t go. I would enter my computer’s MAC address into the list of PCs, then add a website URL (www.somesite.com) and save the changes. Then I would try to load www.somesite.com and it would load just fine. But then I got smart.
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Remote Desktop (RDP) window state

I frequently use saved Remote Desktop connections (RDP) to manage our Windows servers. It can get confusing when you save a connection to open in Full Screen mode (plus, it can screw up icon placement on the console of the server if you run a different resolution on your workstation than on the server) so I typically save my RDP files to open a 1024 x 768 window. One of the problems I ran into is that some of my saved connections wouldn’t immediately open in a maximized window state so I would have to either click the maximize button or scroll the window to see the entire desktop. However, some of my connections did open up maximized. This puzzled me.
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Zoiks! Hack attack!!

I haven’t felt so violated in a long time. Turns out there have been dictionary attacks running against us for over a week. A dictionary attack is basically where someone automates attempted logins to your system using common usernames and passwords. We have had over 4,200 login attempts from assorted computers located in Germany; Japan; Seoul, South Korea; Beaver Creek, OH; Amsterdam; England; and Australia. Either that or we recently hired folks named sasaki, kanna, tasuka, sasaki, yoshi, root, or various other generic names who cannot remember their passwords. Fortunately, nobody got in, but it’s probably only a matter of time. Sheesh, some people suck.

OSXFAQ - Technical News and Support for Mac OS X

Good to know. OSXFAQ - Technical News and Support for Mac OS X — How To Fix Stubborn Trash and Why it Won’t Delete