Sandals and Socks

There are many free VNC client/server bundles available (see wikipedia for a discussion). The three that stand out are:

1. TightVNC: like RealVNC, but adds filetransfer and more
2. TurboVNC: built upon TightVNC, adds faster OpenGL rendering
3. UltraVNC: alternative to TightVNC, provides encryption and audio

The only advantage of UltraVNC over TightVNC is that former supports audio chat, and natively secure data transfer via a plugin system. However I have not been able to use encryption feature in many-to-many configurations, ie to have N clients connectable to M servers running UltraVNC with encryption: they must all use the same key!!! Looks like there might be a way when used from command line (http://msrc4plugin.home.comcast.net/~msrc4plugin/faq.html#shortcut) but it seems a bit convoluted and requires too much “memory” and “thinking” (not integrated in GUI).

Secure connection via encryption is likely best achieved via tunnelling. This involves an ssh server on a host that forwards requests to other programs, and an ssh client that forwards communication from other programs. E.g. telnet localhost, and ssh client listening on telnet port, sending over port 22; ssh server listening on port 22, forwarding all other ports; telnet server listening on telnet port. The following link gives a good summary: http://members.shaw.ca/nicholas.fong/vnc/.

On MS Windows the ssh tunneling can be done via Putty or stunnel or Zebedee, though the latter hasn’t been updated since 2005.

Kaboodle may also be useful but remains in need of further investigation. It integrates zebedee and VNC (any of the clients) to find devices on a network (using WinPCAP) and run VNC on them (assumes each one has a VNC services installed of course).

Looked at many on softpedia and the following two stood out:

• md5checker from TSoft: seems to be most popular on softpedia; rather basic, either checks or generates md5 for one file; for checking, value taken from clipboard, quite handy. Easy to use and to the point, only disadvantage is its support for only one file at a time, but I have yet to require more than that.
• matmd5: can check a list of files

I often want to know what folders are using up the most drive space. The three that have been useful so far:

• FolderSize for Windows Explorer (FSFWE): makes available a new column in Windows Explorer File Manager windows, for folder size; must disable size and enable “folder size” column; works well, uses low priority threads to compute sizes. Great extension.
• VisDir: scans specified folder and presents a pie chart that can be drilled down. Useful.
• TreeSize: scans specified folder and presents a bar chart for sizes of subfolders in a specified folder. Seems to use some form of caching since re-scanning of same 21 gig folder a second time took a few seconds instead of a few minutes. Good alternative to visdir but need the pro version if want pie chart and other “nice to haves” like diffs between scans (see which files have changed etc), reports, etc.
• ExplorerXP: enhanced file explorer window that shows several folders in separate tabs and shows folder sizes and supports other handy operations such as multi/recursive move/copy/rename/clean/split/merge/etc
• Disk Space Visualizer by Zero Assumption: Uses a block diagram to portray sizes of folders, can zoom in/out but zoom out only to the folder selected at top-level. However, redoes the complete folder scanning every time (no caching), which pretty much makes it useless, pitty. Not worth keeping.
• SC-DiskInfo by Soft-Central: very similar to TreeSize, but doesn’t work very well! No caching, no indication of status of size computations (e.g. FSFWE shows “+’ signs, very useful). Not worth keeping.

Some good desktop-based project management tools (alternative to braindead MS Project) are:

• TaskJuggler: currently only Linux
• OpenProj: needs trying,
• Open Workbench: needs trying
• GanttProject: UI not intuitive and not very stable

Freeware to log computer activity:

• User Logger: stealth mode, advanced, haven’t tried it yet
• Free KGB Keylogger: not as advanced as UserLogger, and log view a bit annoying to get right but othewise seems very powerful and configurable. Logs program activity, keystrokes, web pages visited (but not snapshots and couple other things). As with UserLogger, the registered version has more functionality but the free one has what’s needed (e.g. no limits on log size etc). What to log can be disabled on a per user basis. Good UI.
• Super WinSpy: focussed on activity monitoring (no key logging — which is good)