This Is Not Another WordPress Site

24/02/2024 - Saturday

Looking to join a webring

I'm looking to join a webring, i refuse to add analytics that can inbfringe into my viewer's privacy and i love the idea of them discovering sites that would be buried on Google's deep bottom search results because the website wouldn't align with their business model.

Webrings were how people would discover other websites in the early days of the web so with that in mind i would like to be part of one. Webring can be about anything as long as it doesn't go in borderline pornogrpahy or illegal topics.

If you come across this site see the information below, and I'll be happy to answer more questions if you have any!

Site Name

593, if you refer to my domain is 593solutions (ugh)

Site Type

Personal site

Type Of Content

A variety of things i like , some tutorials, etc.

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17/02/2024 - Saturday

Recovering WiFi Passwords In PowerShell

There are times when we forget the passwords of WiFi networks, if you only have one connection then this entry is not for you, however, if you manage several SSIDs at home or work, there is a way to figure out the passwords of saved connections in the system.

NETSH To The Rescue

Netsh is a command that allows you to display the network configuration of the system, using powershell we can tap into this information as well, typing the following will allow you to see your saved wifi network profiles:

netsh wlan show profiles

Which gives you the following result:

This is nice and all but where are the passwords? you can show the passwords using the key=clear option to the command, for example lets say i want to see the password of my old long gone extender, then you issue the command this way

netsh wlan show profile name="_INTERPOL_EXT" key=clear

Now you'll notice a bunch of information which in the majority of cases is not relevant to you, however, if you look closely under the SECURITY SETTINGS group, you will find the KEY CONTENT option listed, along with the wifi password in plain text, see below:

This is nice but is counterproductive to type this command for every wifi network connection, sure you can save the wifi names in a text file or array and issue a foreach , again , is also counterproductive because we do not need all the extra information, we only need the wifi names and passwords. With a bit of regular expression magic, we can clear the output and get the information we need

$WiFi = netsh wlan show profiles | Select-String "\:(.+)$" | %{$name=$_.Matches.Groups[1].Value.Trim(); $_} | %{(netsh wlan show profile name="$name" key=clear)} | Select-String "Key Content\W+\:(.+)$" | %{$pass=$_.Matches.Groups[1].Value.Trim(); $_} | %{[PSCustomObject]@{ WiFi_Name=$name;Password=$pass }}

Notice how i placed the code into a variable? that is so we can output the content to a file, print to the terminal window , or pipe to Out-Gridview.

You can do the whatever you want at this point, the output being the same, using Out-GridView you can take advantage of the filtering option and search for specific names or passwords.

And this is what it looks like piped to the Out-GridView window.

Now if you excuse me, i have coffee to drink and things to do, until the next time!

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08/02/2024 - Thursday

I hate streaming services

So today I was minding my own business when a coworker told me that he couldn't play music because his reception wasn't that great. This is how that conversation went.

• Coworker: I can't stream music; my Spotify is not working because I have poor reception.

• 593: have you heard of mp3 players?

• Coworker: What are you? 60 years old?

• 593: Ok, what advantages do you have on streaming compared to an mp3 player?

• Coworker: I can stream anything without having to download stuff on my phone. You know what I'm saying? It's just convenient; I don't want to have to carry yet another device on me for the sake of entertainment.

• 593: Fair enough, but that is not an entire argument for just having to rely on one thing for everything. I could listen to music on my phone, but I don't want to kill the battery or have to go home and hurry up to the charger. My MP3 player lasts me for days on a single charge, whereas on a phone, I would have to find the closest USB cable to charge it. I am also less glued to my phone's screen than to my MP3, and I can always count on the fact that my music will always be there; it won't get removed after a period of time like most streaming services do nowadays.

• Coworker: wait, Spotify removes music?

• 593: I wouldn't know, but most streaming services have to pay a fee to keep the content, and if the content is not relevant to users, it gets removed and possibly added back at a later time. But since we are talking about businesses here, there is no guarantee that it will return to the catalog.

And so it begins my rant about why I hate streaming services in general, and let me be clear: this exclusively applies to services like YouTube, Netflix, Xbox, PlayStation, Spotify, Apple Music, etc. Although it's convenient to have content available anytime, the concept of streaming also serves as a means of coercing people into using only what is offered. Take a videogame from Xbox or PSN, for example. You pay for the most expensive subscription tier, you enjoy the games and everything, but, let's be realistic, will you play all those games? Will you literally beat every single one of those games for that membership to be worth it? You never really own the game, and the minute you cancel that subscription, all those games will be locked, so either you purchase the game separately or you subscribe.

Streaming was supposed to be this savior of media in a way; it gave us freedom; supposedly, it actually enslaved us to each of these companies and their corporate goals. Oh my god, I can't watch the latest episodes of Wandavision because I don't have Disney+; I can't watch any episodes of South Park because it's on HuLU; and I only have Netflix. This is the reason why, in general, I don't like streaming services; it doesn't make things easy; it segregates them to the point that you now need to subscribe to every single provider in order to watch shows or movies. Oh, wait, it gets better; the total value of all those subscriptions equals a monthly cable bill with internet service included, so you really are not saving a penny (maybe on a yearly plan, but i haven't done the math).

As far as my coworker? he will continue to suffer because his Spotify doesn't work when he has poor network service, he will continue this path until he "upgrades to a shiny new iPhone" sometime this year; As for me i will continue to enjoy my mp3 player without being tied to Spotify (I never used it and never will) and enjoy my digitized CD collection, anytime, anywhere and without having to pay for a service.

And what the aforementioned device looks like?

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24/01/2024 - Wednesday

This entry's song

Jan Jelinek - Do Dekor