Build Date: Mon Sep 9 14:30:06 2024 UTC
It's not Gonzo journalism until you're eating rubber tires to
the tune of "Flight of the Bumblebees."
-- Miles Standish
Coolio VNC! It's the MAN
1999-08-10 19:55:52
All right, I know that remote-access software is not only insecure and bloatacious, but it's also REALLY OLD and BORING technology. But I don't CARE! I love VNC!
VNC is the Virtual Network Computer. It's a protocol and a set of software components (clients and servers on various platforms) for remote access to a computer. That means that a user on one computer can use a completely OTHER computer as if it were the SAME computer.
Like, move the mouse on this computer, the OTHER computer thinks you moved the mouse there. Type here, the words come out THERE, and you can see it on your monitor HERE. Does that make sense? Of COURSE IT DOES.
VNC was originally developed at Olivetti for some project or another, but they quickly realized that it was too cool to leave mouldering as part of some grandiose graphic computer vision, so they released it under the GNU Public License. When Olivetti's labs got bought by AT&T, or something like that, the AT&T kept VNC out in the public, and has continued work on it. Huzzah for them!
Now, sure, there's a ton of remote access options out there, ranging from freako expensive stuff like pcAnywhere, to "system administration" tools like Microsoft's SMS Server and, uh, Back Orifice 2000, to general-purpose remote desktop stuff like X-windows. But I like VNC!
There's a lot of reasons why. A) It's free. I mean, Free, like Free Software free, under GPL. B) It's Open Source, so I'm not as worried about security hassles as with proprietary, closed systems. C) It's real easy to set up and use.
D) Unlike X-windows, there's Free (note caps) clients available on a lot of platforms. I've fucked around with "X servers" (which would be the "client" for any decent and logical architecture) for Windows too many times. I'm sick of it. Fuck it. I'll stick with VNC. Finally, E) There's a ton of VNC SERVERS available for different platforms. That means I can manage my NT boxen from my Linux boxen and vice versa. Cool!
They even have a Javur applet all BUILT IN and shit, which means that you can manage a VNC-serving machine just by connecting to it with a Javur-enabled browser. A whole computer in your Javur applet! Beaujolais to that!
Now, sure, there's a lot of security hassles with having a server that allows your computer to be hijacked from other computers. Fucking DUH. But there are ways to alleviate that risk. I use a firewall for the main VNC port, then use SSH to tunnel through. It's encrypted, fairly secure, and it's extra super fun. I only keep the VNC server going while I'm working, so it's fairly (knock-on- wood) OK.
I recommend this product or service! Go check out VNC today!
T O P S T O R I E S
Another Nobel Prize-Winning Author Describes Drunkenness
This book won a Pulitzer Prize. Here's its famous paragraph on getting drunk... (More...)
'Why I'm pretty sure JD Vance had sex with a couch'
True or false? The answers await us in that magical land where all truths are revealed -- the internet. (More...)
In 2010 Dr. Cheng-Huai Ruan discovered a way to cause a patient with an abnormal heartbeat to get back into a normal rhythm by sticking a finger up the patient's ass. (More...)
WKRP in Cincinnati aired from 1978 through 1982. Howard Hesseman played Dr. Johnny Fever, a DJ from Los Angeles who was fired from his previous job for saying the word "booger" on the air. In the show Hesseman would do some dialogue, introduce a song, and start the song. You'd hear a few notes, but never the whole song. (More...)
SF Hippies Can't Get Their Act Together
The annual 420 Hippie Hill event in Golden Gate Park, where large crowds of hippies, wannabe hippies, and hippie poseurs drape themselves in tie dye t-shirts and gather on a hill on 4/20 to smoke weed, was cancelled this year because the organizers couldn't get their act together. (More...)
Mozart to be inducted into the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame
Joining such hard-rocking inductees as Abba, Chet Atkins, Nat King Cole, and Neil Diamond, the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame is proud to induct Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. (More...)
C L A S S I C P I G D O G
We here in SMRL's Beverage Research Lab realize that there is more to life than just drinking spocktails. It's important to have other activities. One such activity that we wholeheartedly support is dancing six or more hours to Trance music. So we have designed a drink to accommodate this. (More...)
Patient Joab's scientifick editorial discusses aspect of the space-time-beer continuum never before processed by sub-bush-robot minds!!! Too fabulantastic to contempulate! (More...)
Another Spocktail from the beverage researchers at SMRL: Home of The Deathwave Bar & Grill! (More...)
The Walken / Country Bear Conspiracy
As has been recently reported in the PDJ, Christopher Walken, evil s00per villain extraordinaire, will be appearing next month in Disney's newest release, The Country Bear Movie. Always playing some wicked and very disturbed badass in movies like Sleepy Hollow, Illuminata, The Prophecy I, II, III, Pulp Fiction, Batman Returns, The Milagro Beanfield War, A View to a Kill, The Dogs of War, Heaven's Gate, and The Deer Hunter, Walken is unsuprisingly a big favorite in the PDJ news room. (More...)
Grow better illegal mushrooms than lousy "Psilocybe fanaticus"
Disclaimer: PaoTzu's a1 illegal mushroom cultivation cookbook is meant for educational purposes only. Be aware of the techniques used by hardcore criminals! Protect your children! Read, learn, educate. Do not try this at home. (More...)
The Deep Dark Underbelly of the Star Wars Myth, or Ramayana Remembered
It's a fact: Star Wars is a blatant plagiarism of an ancient Asian legend, and the long lines of devout Star Wars freaks are really unscrupulous Asian copyright busters. From Indonesia to Thailand to Nepal, videos are available for sale or rent before they're even released in the US and UK due to this nerdy camcorder-clutching bunch. (More...)
