Exploring Kali Linux

So in this post I started documenting my efforts to learn about offensive security by researching vulnerability reports. In the present post, I will be documenting my efforts to learn about offensive security by exploring a Linux distro designed specifically for that purpose: Kali Linux. Kali is a Linux distro based on Debian. In fact …

Exploring Plan 9 from Bell Labs

Hang on tight guys, 'cause we're going into Placebo Autism territory. We're going to be exploring some esoteric operating systems that virtually no one knows or cares about. 😛 Yeah, I'm what you might call a digital explorer. I like to explore different operating systems, programs, and languages, and learn about them by just messing …

A Review of MS-DOS, Version 6.22

So it has recently occurred to me that I never actually did a proper review of MS-DOS 6.22, either in this blog or in my old one. This bothers me, because in a previous post I did claim that I had "already talked extensively" about that version of DOS, when in fact I hadn't. So …

Exploring Borland dBase IV for DOS

Last week I took a dive into the office life of yesteryear with Microsoft Works 3.0 for DOS. Now I'm exploring some more retro business software, this time delving into the ancient database management system known as Borland dBase. dBase was THE first commercially successful DBMS for microcomputers, and in fact it is still active …

Exploring Microsoft Works for DOS

I have a recurring fantasy. My fantasy is of working at some office job during the 90's, sitting at a desk with a computer running MS-DOS, doing business stuff with business software. Maybe I'm one of those guys who works at those cubicles you see at the car dealership, crunching numbers and tabulating data into …

My Top 5 Favorite Browser Add-Ons

Browser extensions and add-ons are an interesting concept, because they're basically application programs that treat the browser as an operating system. We can have programs that run on top of programs running on top of other programs, all the way down to the hardware. I've tried out a number of browser add-ons over the years, …

5 Awesome Software Titles for DOS

I just thought I'd take a break from all the revamping and changes in direction that this blog has been going through and shift my focus back to a long-time favorite topic of mine: old computers and the old software that runs on them. This time I thought I'd take a look at some of …