Archive for September, 2007
ajaxwindows: the next big thing?
By Justin Silverton
A virtual operating system in Ajax is an interesting idea. Although it can’t completely replace a desktop operating system, it can allow you to access your documents and files from anywhere.
Ajaxwindows allows you to do the following:
- Backup your files, music, and pictures with one click.
- Display, edit, and save popular file formats.
- Access your data remotely.
Some cool features
- Firefox and IE support - Both Internet Explorer and Firefox are supported. (An activeX control needs to be downloaded for it to work with IE)
-
synchronize desktop wallpaper, IE/firefox favorites, windows startup sounds, windows shutdown sounds, “my documents”, “my pictures”, and outlook express contacts.
-
Change the Theme/Desktop wallpaper (many built-in themes/wallpaper available).
-
Store files using your gmail account. This is an interesting feature. An email is sent to your gmail account with the file as an attachment.
-
The ability to add remove programs/widgets.
Conclusion
Overall, I was impressed with ajaxwindows. However, I did did get the following error a few times when I was within Firefox (IE also crashed whenever I tried to logout):
How to password protect a web directory
by Justin Silverton
This article will show you how to password protect a directory using the apache web server and a .htaccess file.
.htaccess file
The .htacess file should be in the directory that you would like to protect (everything below this directory will also be password protected).
AuthName “Password Protected Area”
AuthType Basic
AuthUserFile /full/path/to/.htpasswd
Require valid-user
Replace “Password protected Area” with the name of the area that you would like to protect. Also, the path needs to be changed to the path of the .htpasswd file (which will be explained further).
Generating a .htpasswd file
A program comes with apache for generating a .htpasswd file. Here is how it works:
htpasswd [ -c ] [ -m | -d | -s | -p ] passwdfile username
htpasswd -b [ -c ] [ -m | -d | -s | -p ] passwdfile username password
htpasswd -n [ -m | -d | -s | -p ] username
htpasswd -nb [ -m | -d | -s | -p ] username password
A full explanation of htpasswd can be found here
If everything is setup correctly you should see the following prompt when you try to access your newly protected directory (and the username/password combo created with htpasswd should allow access):
