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Computer Forensics

October 04, 2010

: Image by Steven Vance via Flickr

Today we had a guest speaker in one of our classes as part of a seminar series where a few guest speakers will come in and talk to us about their job and allow us to ask them any questions, from how they do certain things or how you can get to where they are, anything!

Today’s guest speaker was Dr. Vivienne Mee, she currently works for Deloitte where she specializes in computer forensics. Vivienne used to attend DKiT so there is some hope for us that we too can get a great job, providing we really work for it once we finish up this degree!

Vivienne told us all about her educational background from DKiT where she graduated with a BSc in Software Development and where she studied Computer Forensics in Glamorgan University in Wales. I won’t go into everything she told us about, but I found it extremely interesting.

When I came home from college after the seminar I had a look at the course on computer forensics and I was amazed to see that it’s not actually too difficult to get into!

If you are an international student, which if you are from Ireland, you are, then they assess your results from college and school and make their decision if they will accept you or not. The course is 3 years in total, it’s expensive, and I would say it is an intense 3 years, however a great job would be waiting for you when you are finished.

It gives me something to maybe think about, maybe I will go into that area, maybe not or maybe something along those lines, it is great to see different options that are available after I finish my current degree.

So from this seminar we are expected to write up a report and then submit it, should be fairly straight forward, plenty of notes were taken!

i got an iPhone

September 30, 2010

This Tuesday I finally got myself an iPhone 4. I have always wanted to get one, but I always saw the price as a really big obstacle! For a prepay iPhone you would be talking roughly €600 and then you would be buying credit on top of that, scandalous!

So I had intended on ordering the iPhone this week, I settled that I would go and get the bill pay because I saw it as having more benefits. It was not an easy decision to go bill bay, I felt really strong on prepay.

Then I got a call from my uncle last weekend and he told me that I could have his iPhone! So I was thrilled about this, getting an iPhone for virtually free, I just gave him my iPod touch which was 32gb for the 32gb iPhone, I saw that as a great trade, especially for me! 😀 My uncle didn’t really like how the phone worked, he found it too awkward so he switched back to his blackberry.

iPhone 4

The iPhone is currently on the o2 network and I was too so it was perfect. But I recently found out that bill pay customers can get their iPhones unlocked, for free! So I rang up o2 and got them to fill in the paperwork and now I am waiting for the unlock code to be sent from apple, it can take up to two weeks!

iPhone 4

It will be great to have the phone unlocked, then I can switch over to Vodafone like I intended on doing. I still think I will go

and get the bill contract once the phone gets unlocked, it just makes more sense. From using the iPhone since Tuesday I have used a fair chunk of credit ( I did also ring America! ). With the bill contract I will be able to ring all Vodafone customers for free that also includes texts, which is great for me as most of my friends are on Vodafone.

I will also get 150 any network minutes and 2gb monthly download limit, not bad for €45! It makes sense to go bill with a Smartphone.

I made a blog post on Monday about how to make iPhone ringtones, this will definitely come in handy now!

So once the phone is unlocked, bring on Vodafone!

dont forget your whois

September 23, 2010

whois? what is it, basically it is a form on online identity protection for your domain name. That may sound a bit blown out of proportion, but that’s basically what it does.

Whenever you buy a new domain name and fill in your details such as your email, home address and contact number, usually this is all publicly available. this is unless you choose to buy whois, if you choose to get the whois privacy then all these details will be masked and not available to the general public.

Image via Wikipedia

if you want to look up the whois details of a domain you can look them up on whois.net, sometimes when your domain was bought from a web hosting company you will have to go to their site to see your whois information. So if you have recently registered a domain name, and you are unsure if you have paid for this service, I recommend you go and check.

I always pay for it, I like to have my identity as protected as possible. I have a few friends who have recently bought some domain names, and I looked up their sites on the whois site and they forgot to get this service, since then they have gone out and paid for it!

putting some structure in place

September 20, 2010

Image via Wikipedia

So my blog seems to be completely all over the place and you never know when I might make a new blog post, it could be once a week, maybe every other day.

So today when I was in a lecture I was doing a bit of thinking and thought that I would set when I will make a blog post. Previously I said I would try and make one every day and that just failed miserably! I just found it too difficult to sit down every day and make a blog post. It takes a fair bit of time to write a blog post so I usually get sidetracked with something online. I like to have blog posts up each day before midnight, if it goes past that time then I just don’t bother, hence why I never make it on time with my blog posts!

So I have come up with a solution to this, I am going to guarantee a blog post at least twice a week! These days are also set, the days I have decided are Monday and Thursday, I will have something new here on both of days, guaranteed without failure!

That’s a guaranteed 8 a month which is great for me, as of recently the post have really fizzled down, I used to be fairly good but as of late, it has been really poor! There is no particular reason as for why I chose these two days, but I just think they will work out for me.

I may even throw in the odd blog post in between my normal Monday and Thursday postings, but only if I feel like it ;). So I am kick-starting this new blog structure off by making my first post of hopefully many on a Monday!

Dara Ó Briain

September 19, 2010

Last Friday (September 10th) I finished up early in work and headed to Dublin to see Dara Ó Briain live in Vicars Street. I had never been to vicars street before and didn’t really know what to expect.

Once we arrived in Dublin the first place we went was to get some dinner and then on to the hotel where we were staying for the night, the hotel we booked was the Croke Park Hotel, I have to say it was an excellent hotel, very fancy looking and then getting a free upgrade to the executive floor made it that bit better :D.

That night me, my brother and his girlfriend went on to vicars street and when we arrived we found out that they were recording the gig for DVD! So everyone was asked to turn off their phone and not use any cameras. As far as I know the recording of this gig is for the special features section, the main gig has yet to be recorded.

Once Dara came on it was hilarious, I had never been to any of his gigs before and I always thought it was hilarious the way he introduces himself before he comes on stage. The first half of the gig was mainly interacting with the crowd, it went on longer than usual apparently!

Then there was a twenty minute interval where you could go and get some drinks, all that time was definitely needed because the queues were massive! After the gig we headed back to the hotel and had a few drinks and later raided the executive lounge and took lots of free food!

The next day unfortunately I had work so I couldn’t really stick around too long in Dublin so we got up relatively early and went over to IKEA, never been there before and it is huge! I ended up spending a fair amount of money there, buying things for my bedroom.

It was a great night, and I look forward to going to another comedian again in the future. I think it is Vicars Street where I will be going to see Marina and the Diamonds in about a month or so.

The photographs are not the best in this blog post, they were taken on my phone which has not got the best quality camera. The photos are of the hotel room and one is showing the cameraman at vicars street.