Thoughts and Ideas for Smart People

If you are forced to use IE, make sure that you know about IE8 built-in security features before you upgrade your current IE. Some of the security features will stop us from using some of our internal applications. This post talks about the XSS Filter in IE8, which is enabled by default, and how to disable it when it hinders your ability to use web sites you trust.

NOTE: This post is intended only for the security testers/analysts and not for a normal internet user. Please do not mess up the default security settings in IE8, unless you know what you are doing. Fortunately for you, I’m going to show you what you’re doing.

IE Intrusive Yellow Bar

Disabling XSS Filters

Go to: Tool Menu > Internet Options > Security Tab > Internet > Custom Level > Hit Disable under “Enable XSS Filter” near the bottom of the list.

Screenshot time!

Tools > Internet Options

Set Custom Level

Scroll down, select the "Disable" radio button, click "OK"

Click 'Yes' on the confirmation popup

NOTE: Enable XSS Filtering after the requirement or Reset to default settings.

To Disable the XSS filter via application code; set HTTP Response header: X-XSS-Protection: 0

LibriHost.com is another of my cloud computing ideas. I realize that I like appending ‘Host’ to the end of many of these concepts. Call it a signature of sorts.

A place for public schools to host their inventory tracking systems, this includes all of their books as well as other physical assets. Each student and staff member is input into this system. This user list can likely be imported from some other data object that exists for the school. Users can log in from anywhere to check to see if this book is available in the library or if it has been checked out.

It would contain dashboard functionality for librarians, the ability to input new inventory and equipment. Staff members and students may also update a wishlist for books they wish the library to obtain.

This application would also support the ability for students to browse reference materials from around the internet to assist them in doing their research.

Librarians would be able to upload a floor plan of their library and the application would show students where to go on the shelf to get their book.

I would like to create this and offer it to public schools at a not-for-profit price point.

1. I want to monitor every electrical outlet in my home
   • Measure Voltage
   • Measure amperes
   • Write logs to a database
   • create reports, dashboardOutlets can be monitored via network
2. Outlets can be monitored via network
   • each module plugs in-line between outlet and device
   • each module is wireless (encrypted)
   • Open the main application and attempt to autodetect nodes (also supports manual add)
3. The application controls everything (written in standard LAMPP stack using CodeIgniter framework)
   • user can input cost per unit of energy
   • app calculates kilowatt hours based on user input and collected data
   • the app can signal a node to break the circuit, turning off the device it is attached to
   • the app supports scheduling tasks, calendar functionality
   • Set up energy profiles for certain seasons, or events

“There’s an idea that because something is successful it is pre-ordained in some cosmic sense… that’s actually not how it works. You have to fuck up a lot; you have to get screwed a lot. By people that you thought would never do that. You have to keep doing it even when it seems like that’s the last thing you would want to do.”

- Jerry Holkins, on the success of Penny Arcade.

A shopping list application that works for smart phones, tablets and desktops. Log into the application via the net, and build your grocery list… this can be done via google’s shopping application, or from market sites. Just paste the link in, and it uses AJAX to parse the link and import the item directly from the page you found it at, Facebook style.

We could write integration for epicurious, allrecipes, and other sites that offer ingredient lists for the dishes they displate. We could also write it to integrate with food network. This thing can hook up with the manufacturer/grower’s site that has nutritional information in a database. We’ll pull all of that in and you can have your shopping list, and hover over each item for all of the information you could ever want on an item… including google shopper prices, it can hook up with your GPS coords and let you know the cheapest place to find the ingredients within <user defined> miles.

All of this built in to a concise shopping list that you have access to from virtually anywhere in world.

We can all share desktops, sure… but wouldn’t it be fun if I could extend my laptop desktop to my PC desktop and vise versa? I think we can write an application that runs on both machines and connects their desktops … it would be like shoving two physical desks together, closing the gap. The cursor could then move between them easily. It’ll just run as a service, when the cursor hits the edge of the screen, the other screen (desktop) becomes active and renders the cursor over there.

Of course Drag-and-Drop functionality would be included as well. It would probably be particularly useful to the Google Geniuses with their newfangled Chromium OS… or imagine this working on your smart phone/tablet as well? Fancy, indeed!