Untitled

One big problem in session-tracking for websites (such as storing login details as cookies, remembering what was in someone’s shopping cart, etc.) is that the cookies can easily be stolen and used to imitate someon

Before we continue, let’s define some terms:

Cookie – A small text file stored on a computer that contains site data.  A cookie has an expiration date and can easily be opened.
Session -  Something that allows a server and a unique client to transfer information; i.e. a log-in session or a shopping session on an online store.
XSS Injection - Cross Site Scripting, or injecting unwanted scripts on a page.  For example, adding some javascript that redirects the user when an image is clicked.

For example, if I were to login in to a site and use their “remember me” function, the site would probably store a cookie on my computer with some sort of authentication key to link my computer with a session.  Now, what happens if someone takes the content of that cookie, places it on their machine, and goes to the website?  The website will receive the cookie, authenticate it, and the person now has your account.

Now you may be asking, “how will he get the cookies?”

Continue reading »

When I first installed Windows Server 2008 R2 on my desktop, everything went well…until I checked device manager and realized that a lot of my drivers were generic, and my system could be running faster.

Unfortunately, I had to go through several hours (ok, more like minutes, but that’s not the point) of trying to figure out how to bypass the annoying installers which would spew out “Your system does not meet the minimum requirements” because I was running a server installation, and not a desktop installation.

I would like to stress that this guide does not only apply to drivers, but to any program with an installer that checks for compatibility

Let’s get started!

1. First, you need to actually run the installer.  If it doesn’t check (or is ok with a server installation), everything’s all good!  You don’t have to read the rest of this guide.

Otherwise, you’ll need to do a bit of trickery in installing the driver.

If your driver software is in the form of an exe, read the following step.  Otherwise, skip the next step (go to step 3).

2. First, you’ll need some archive extraction software, capable of opening CAB files.  My favorite is WinRAR, but you can use something else, like 7zip.  Basically, you just want to extract the actual EXE installer, as most are just self extracting archives, to a folder.  If you are unable to extract the driver software from the installer, you’ll need to do some manual work and look for where the EXE extracts its driver files to (or you can cheat and use a hard drive file monitoring program ).  After doing that, proceed to the next step…

2.5 At this point, if you are trying to install a program and not a driver, simply go to the folder and look for the installer file.  If the file also tells you that the program isn’t compatible, try looking for an MSI file.  (if this works, then you’re done, and you shouldn’t read the rest of the guide, which is for drivers only)

3. Now, go to device manager, and find the device that you want to install the driver for.  Right click the device, and then click “Properties”, then click the “Driver” tab, and then click “Update Driver”.  When it asks if you want to search automatically for driver software (which never works…) or browse for driver software, click the “browse for driver software” option, and select the folder where you extracted the driver software to.  Make sure “Include subfolders” is checked.  Finally, press the “Next” button, and Windows will start installing the driver.

4. After that, your driver software should be installed!

Looking for a way to wrap words by pixels/width?  Look no further.

        /// <summary>
        /// Wordwraps a string by the given width
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="sf">The spritefont (for measuring the string)</param>
        /// <param name="_in">The input string to wrap</param>
        /// <param name="width">The maximum width of the string, in pixels</param>
        /// <returns>The same string, but wrapped on the width.</returns>
        public static string Wordwrap(SpriteFont sf, string _in, float width)
        {
            float running_width = 0.0f;
            string _out = "";

            foreach (char c in _in)
            {
                float c_width = sf.MeasureString(c.ToString()).X;

                if (running_width + c_width > width)
                {
                    _out += "\r\n";
                    running_width = 0f;
                }

                _out += c;
                running_width += c_width;
            }

            return _out;
        }