I receive the following email notice several times per week indicating some hacker's robotic effort to brute force attempt to crack the admin password for the site's Moodle installation.

Here is a list of failed login attempts at http://www.site.com/moodle since you were last notified(Sunday, 22 November 2009, 10:15 PM)

• Friday, 27 November 2009, 12:38 PM, IP: 91.213.121.24, User: admin
• Friday, 27 November 2009, 12:38 PM, IP: 91.213.121.24, User: admin
• Friday, 27 November 2009, 12:37 PM, IP: 91.213.121.24, User: admin
• Friday, 27 November 2009, 12:37 PM, IP: 91.213.121.24, User: admin
• Friday, 27 November 2009, 12:37 PM, IP: 91.213.121.24, User: admin
• Friday, 27 November 2009, 12:37 PM, IP: 91.213.121.24, User: admin
• Friday, 27 November 2009, 12:36 PM, IP: 91.213.121.24, User: admin
• Friday, 27 November 2009, 12:36 PM, IP: 91.213.121.24, User: admin
• Friday, 27 November 2009, 12:36 PM, IP: 91.213.121.24, User: admin
• Friday, 27 November 2009, 12:36 PM, IP: 91.213.121.24, User: admin
• Friday, 27 November 2009, 12:36 PM, IP: 91.213.121.24, User: admin
• Friday, 27 November 2009, 12:36 PM, IP: 91.213.121.24, User: admin
• Friday, 27 November 2009, 12:35 PM, IP: 91.213.121.24, User: admin
• Friday, 27 November 2009, 12:35 PM, IP: 91.213.121.24, User: admin
• Friday, 27 November 2009, 12:35 PM, IP: 91.213.121.24, User: admin
• Friday, 27 November 2009, 12:35 PM, IP: 91.213.121.24, User: admin
• Friday, 27 November 2009, 12:34 PM, IP: 91.213.121.24, User: admin
• Friday, 27 November 2009, 12:34 PM, IP: 91.213.121.24, User: admin
• Friday, 27 November 2009, 12:34 PM, IP: 91.213.121.24, User: admin
• Friday, 27 November 2009, 12:34 PM, IP: 91.213.121.24, User: admin
• Friday, 27 November 2009, 12:34 PM, IP: 91.213.121.24, User: admin
• Friday, 27 November 2009, 12:34 PM, IP: 91.213.121.24, User: admin
• Friday, 27 November 2009, 12:33 PM, IP: 91.213.121.24, User: admin
• Friday, 27 November 2009, 12:33 PM, IP: 91.213.121.24, User: admin
• Friday, 27 November 2009, 12:33 PM, IP: 91.213.121.24, User: admin
• Friday, 27 November 2009, 12:33 PM, IP: 91.213.121.24, User: admin
• Friday, 27 November 2009, 12:32 PM, IP: 91.213.121.24, User: admin
• Friday, 27 November 2009, 12:32 PM, IP: 91.213.121.24, User: admin
• Friday, 27 November 2009, 12:32 PM, IP: 91.213.121.24, User: admin
• Friday, 27 November 2009, 12:32 PM, IP: 91.213.121.24, User: admin

Whenever I install a CMS package, I always change the default values from those shown in the documentation:

• database name
• database tables prefix
• database username
• admin user name
• admin directory name
• data directory name
• user directory name

Looking at the installation now, I am wondering why I didn't change the name of the moodle directory, but if I recall correctly from many years ago when it was configured we kept it because that was the name our users were to type in their browsers. We weren't installing a LMS site as much as a Moodle site.

Basically, a simple way to increase security for the software installation is to not use any of the example variables shown in the documentation. This hacker can try all they wish to hack the admin password, but it will be fruitless because there is no admin user!

When I reviewed Extensis Suitcase Fusion 2 released last November, it was only available for Mac OS X. At the time, they promised a Windows version with feature parity. Now, Extensis has released Suitcase Fusion 2 for Windows.

A review of the product site reveals that the new Windows version does seem to have parity with the most critical features:

• font previewing featuring the floating preview
• plug-in based auto-activation for the latest creative professional applications
• robust database featuring SQL Lite
• portable built-in font vault
• font searching, tagging and classification options
• system font management

They promise the same graphic performance as on Mac OS X in Windows XP, Vista. Their blog mentions that they have been performing tests in the upcoming release of Windows 7.

If you do a significant amount of graphic design or wish to more easily manage a lot of fonts, I suggest you give Suitcase Fusion 2 for Windows a look. They have a free 30 day trial. If you are not familiar with the product, have a look at the videos.