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Thwart hackers by securing Dynamic DNS (Microsoft Windows Server 2003)
Dynamic DNS (DDNS) in Windows Server 2003 offers you the convenience of clients and servers updating their own DNS records. (If you use DHCP, the DHCP server is capable of updating its clients’ resource records within DDNS for them.) Obviously, DDNS saves you considerable time because you don’t have to manually create and maintain your clients’ DNS records.
The drawback to DDNS is that it can leave your network more vulnerable to attack if you haven’t secured it properly. For example, a hacker can “hijack” users’ connections simply by configuring a host computer to insert a resource record with the same IP address as one of your file or application servers. DDNS would then redirect users to this bogus server—enabling the hacker to then capture each user’s activity.
You can avoid this security breach by securing DDNS. To do so, configure your DNS servers to store their zone information in Active Directory. (You can configure this option only if you host DNS on your domain controllers, which is a Microsoft recommended best practice for implementing DNS.) You should also configure your zones to permit only secure dynamic updates. This setting enables only those computers that have successfully authenticated to your domain to update their DDNS records, which makes it much more difficult for a hacker to insert or update a DNS resource record.
Use xsl:include to modularize your XSL stylesheets
Stylesheets can quickly become complex, especially if your data model contains a lot of elements and attributes. A good programming practice is to modularize your code into reusable components.
The stylesheet below uses xsl:include elements to modularize the stylesheet. In this scenario, the xsl:template rules for your table’s data model, defined in tables.xsl, are made available to the stylesheet processor.
<?xml version=”1.0″?>
<xsl:stylesheet version=”1.0″ xmlns:xsl=”http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform“>
<xsl:include href=”table.xsl”/>
<xsl:template>
<xsl:apply-templates/>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
Take care to note the difference between xsl:import and xsl:include. Use xsl:include when you want to modularize your XSL transformation. Use xsl:import when you want to customize and override an existing XSL transformation.
Add color quickly to your table components (QuarkXPress)
Here’s a quick-and-easy way to apply color to the various components of a table. First, click on the table with the Content tool. Next, drag a color from the Colors palette and drop it over a cell, gridline, or border line. Then, press the [command] key ([Ctrl] key in Windows) to apply the color to multiple components as you drag over them.
The color’s Shade percent will be the same as was applied to the component last. However, you can reset the Shade value to 100%. To do so, press the [option] key ([Alt] key in Windows) as you apply the color to a component.Then, press the [command][option] keys ([Ctrl][Alt] keys in Windows) to color multiple components and reset the Shade value
Lighten a color without changing its hue or saturation (Photoshop CS2/CS3/CS4/CS5)
The Adobe Color Picker allows you to select foreground, background, and text colors in Photoshop. To open it, simply click on the Foreground or Background box in the Tools panel. By default, the H (Hue) option button is selected, so you can select a color using the Color slider and Color field or by entering numeric values. Don’t stop there, though.
Once you select a color, you can adjust its saturation without changing the hue or brightness. Simply select the S option button and adjust the color values in the same way you picked a hue.
You can also lighten a color without changing its hue or saturation. Simply select the B option button and adjust the brightness values. Click OK to apply the color.
Read from a text file using the FileStream StreamReader class (ASP.NET)
If you’re writing to text files in .NET, chances are there will come a time when you want to read from those text files as well. To accomplish this task, you’ll need to use the StreamReader class. The StreamReader class is a member of the FileStream class, which provides all the functionality you need to read and write data to text files. The following code reads one line from a text file:
Dim fs As System.IO.FileStream
Dim sr As System.IO.StreamReader
fs = New System.IO.FileStream(“c:\txtfile.txt”, _
System.IO.FileMode.Open)
sr = New System.IO.StreamReader(fs)
Response.Write(sr.ReadLine & “<br>”)
sr.Close()
To read all the lines in a text file, use ReadLine to obtain the first line, then place a second call to ReadLine inside a loop. Read until the method returns an empty string, like so:
Dim st As String
Do
st = sr.ReadLine
Response.Write(st & “<br>”)
Loop Until st = “”
If you’re a filing fanatic like many Word power users, you may find yourself annoyed by unruly temp files that hang around in your folders long after you’ve closed your last document.
Word generates temporary files for many reasons, but if you find one hanging on, you may have some extra text hiding out in your Office Clipboard. To remove temp files based on the Clipboard’s contents, simply open any Word document, hold down the [Ctrl] key, and press the [C] key twice. (To view the Clipboard task pane in 2007, click the arrow in the lower-right corner of the Clipboard group on the Home tab.) Then, click the Clear All button on the Clipboard and close your document. (You don’t need to save it unless you’ve made changes.)
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Remove a sender from your Outlook junk e-mail list (2003/2007)
Sometimes senders that we legitimately want to receive e-mail from get banished to our Junk E-mail folder. Here’s an easy way to put a sender back on your safe list. Click on the Mail icon in the Navigation Pane, and then click on the Junk E-mail folder in the All Mail Folders List. Next, in the Message list, click on a message from the sender that you want to deem as safe. Then, choose Actions | Junk E-mail | Add Sender To Safe Senders List. Future messages from this sender should now remain out of the Junk
E-mail folder.
Microsoft Windows XP’s Forgotten Password Wizard allows you to create a password reset disk that you can use to recover your user account and personalized computer settings in the event you forget your login password.
The procedure to do so differs depending on whether your computer is on a domain or in a workgroup, and whether it’s an administrator or limited account. For specific details on each procedure, search for the phrase password reset disk in the Help and Support Center. If you choose to create a password reset disk, make sure you keep it secure, as anyone with access to the disk can change the associated account’s password.
What’s the difference between Fill and Opacity? (Photoshop CS2/CS3/CS4/CS5)
Have you ever wondered what the Fill option on the Layers panel is for? It seemingly does the same thing as the Opacity option just above it, which is to control a working layer’s level of transparency, but there’s a little more to it.
When you set the Opacity value for a selected layer, the change applies to the entire layer. This means that any layer styles and the blending mode are also affected. When you set the Fill value, however, only painted pixels and vector shapes are affected.
For example, when we set the Fill value for a selected shape layer to 66% and set the blending mode to Overlay, only the fill pixels inside the shape are affected. The black Stroke effect on the same layer isn’t.
To set the Opacity and Fill values for a selected layer (other than the background layer) via the Layers panel, do one of the following:
- Use the Opacity and Fill sliders to set the percent of opacity.
- Enter a value in the Opacity and Fill text boxes.
- Hover your cursor over the option’s name and click and drag the resulting icon right to increase the value or left to decrease the value.
- Select the Move tool and then type a number on the keyboard.
- Click the Add A Layer Style button and choose Blending Options from the resulting pop-up menu. In the Layer Style dialog box, use the General Blending options to adjust the blend mode and opacity for the entire layer; or use the Advanced Blending options to adjust the fill opacity for specified items.
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