Windows Security Gap

The answer is really quite simple. Microsoft’s products are designed for maximum ease-of-use, which drives their rampant popularity. What many fail to grasp is that security is a zero-sum game: the easier it is to use something, the more time and effort must go into securing it. Think of security as a continuum between the … Read more

Passcodes Equate to Weak Security

With a mobile device, the trade-off between security and convenience of use is more noticeable than that of a desktop machine with a full keyboard. The device’s smaller on-screen keyboard combined with its mobile form factor make unlocking it a productivity nightmare for an enterprise. As a mobile device, an average user will work in … Read more

Using Brace Expansion

The ultimate labor-saving trick at the command-line is brace expansion. Put simply, anything within braces ({}) is substituted within the specified filename. The following will create new directories called PhotosGermany, PhotosEngland, and PhotosSpain: mkdir Photos{Germany,England,Spain} In other words, the mkdir command takes the word Photos and combines it with Germany, England, and Spain, creating three … Read more

Shortcuts for Working in BASH

lists the most common keyboard shortcuts in BASH (there are many more; see BASH’s man page for details). If you’ve explored the Emacs text editor, you might find these shortcuts familiar. Such keyboard shortcuts are largely the same across many of the software packages that originate from the GNU Project. Often, you’ll find an option within … Read more

What Is the BASH Shell?

The best way of explaining the BASH shell to a Windows user is to compare it to the DOS command prompt. It lets you issue commands directly to the OS via the keyboard without needing to mess around with the mouse and windows (although it is sometimes possible to use the mouse within a BASH … Read more