[121000010010] |Uh? Ubuntu? [121000010020] |Ubuntu is, in my humble opinion the easiest and best way to switch from Windows to a free/open-source operating system. [121000010030] |In order to make your transition easier, and to help those that have started using ubuntu, this weblog will feature a series of articles with tips and tricks. [121000010040] |What better way to bring you these treats that by using a powerful open-source blogging platform? [121000010050] |I look forward to trawling mailing list and forum posts, and the www to bring you little snippets of helpful information. [121000010060] |Some of these tips may also be useful for users of other flavors of Linux, and users of the Gnome desktop. [121000010070] |See you around, then! [121000040010] |How to Setup a Mailserver on a Ubuntu System [121000040020] |There is an excellent guide on how to setup your mail server using Ubuntu, taking into account spam, viruses, authentication, security etc. [121000040030] |To quote the author it is an… [121000040040] |Easy to follow howto on setting up a mail server with unlimited users and domains, with IMAP/Pop access, anti-spam, anti-virus, secure authentication, encrypted traffic, web mail interface and more. [121000040050] |Ubuntu + Postfix + Courier IMAP + MySQL + Amavisd-new + SpamAssassin + ClamAV + SASL + TLS + SquirrelMail [121001030010] |Configuring Network Interfaces… [121001030020] |If your laptop takes too long to configure network interfaces, especially when you are not on an network, you can stop it from waiting by hitting Ctrl+C. [121001030030] |This will cause this step to be skipped. [121001030040] |On a more permanent basis, you can modify the amount of time your computer waits for network configuration as follows: [121001030050] |Edit /etc/dhcp3/dhclient.conf [121001030060] |Edit the line that says: #timeout 60 to read timeout 20 [121001030070] |Now your laptop will only try for 20 seconds to configure the network interfaces. [121001030080] |20 seconds is ample time for my laptop’s network interfaces to get configured. [121001030090] |(I actually use nm-applet, but that is another story…) [121001030100] |If you want to disable the configuration of the ethernet network interface (eth0) at startup, edit “/etc/network/interfaces” and comment out the line “auto eth0“. [121001030110] |You will have to bring up eth0 manually later, by doing $sudo ifup eth0 whenever you are plugged into the network. [121001850010] |Ubuntu Blogs Round-up [121001850020] |The response to my request for Ubuntu Bloggers to put their hands up has been tremendous. [121001850030] |So much so that I felt obliged to round them all up and create a page listing all the little known Ubuntu Blogs [121001850040] |The listings are sorted by language. [121001850050] |There’s even one video blog (vlog.gwallgofi.com/) where the author/presenter intends to communicate with hearing challenged folks using sign language. [121001850060] |Very cool! [121001850070] |Of course, the request brought forth a couple of strange responses: a scientologist and someone who writes about AIDS. [121001850080] |I haven’t included your blogs in the list for the simple reason that a search for Ubuntu on your blogs turned up zip. [121001850090] |If you start writing, I will include you later. [121001850100] |Erythro points out that there is a list of blogs at the forums. [121001850110] |Thanks –I have added links to the two forums threads at the page. [121001850120] |Daniel floated the idea of an extra-solar(?) planet of Ubuntu Blogs by Ubuntu Users: [121001850130] |I wonder what would be a good way to tap into that well of online knowledge about Ubuntu and present way in an useful and friendly way to the world? [121001850140] |Maybe what we need is an userplanet.ubuntu.com or community.ubuntu.com to complement the more official planet.ubuntu.com that would aggregate these Non-Ubuntu-Member blogs. [121001850150] |I think it is a great idea, and even thought about setting it up on my own server. [121001850160] |However, Gouki expressed interest in implementing it first, and since I don’t like stepping on toes, I will wait for a while for him to do it. [121001850170] |Gouki, would you mind terribly if I did it myself? [121001850180] |Or better still, would the higher-ups at Canonical/Ubuntu want to do this (semi-)officially? [121001850190] |Thank you for sending in links to your blogs –I have added them to my feedreader and look forward to reading about your experiences. [121001850200] |Now you have a guaranteed audience of at least one interested soul [121001850210] |Coming up with the list was really time consuming –have been doing nothing else for the past three hours. [121001850220] |I visited each blog, checked it out(when I could understand the language), and had a good time overall. [121001850230] |It’s a good thing its the holidays. [121001850240] |But unfortunately, because of this, I will have to cut back a little on working on this blog over the next couple of days. [121001850250] |It is the holidays and I will be off on a little holiday myself, in a day or two. [123000270010] |Automatic "zombie" processes killing (shell script) [123000270020] |Here is a shell script example that can be run by cron for automatic killing of “zombie” processes in Linux system: [123000270030] |zombies.sh [123000310010] |Quick shell change for user in Unix or Linux [123000310020] |In order to change shell for a particular user of Unix/Linux system without editing /etc/passwd file manually just use command: [123000310030] |chsh -s /path/to/shell username [123000310040] |for example, to change shell to ’sh’ from ‘bash’ for user ‘viper’, use command: [123000310050] |chsh -s /bin/sh viper [123000390010] |Desktop Linux distributions popularity 2007 [123000390020] |Which Linux distros do we use on our home or office desktop system(s)? [123000390030] |And what is the most popular one? [123000390040] |Congratulations, Ubuntu! [123000390050] |More information is here. [123000420010] |Find out where Unix/Linux executable binary is located [123000420020] |There are two commands that may help you to find where executable binary is located regardless it’s Unix or Linux system. [123000420030] |They are whereis and type. [123000420040] |First locates source/binary and manuals sections for specified files and second tells what exactly shell executes when you type a certain command. [123000420050] |The next picture shows examples of these commands work. [123000490010] |Manage gzip files on-the-fly (zcommands) [123000490020] |Both Linux and Unix like OSes comes with z commands. [123000490030] |It allows you to read gzip compressed text files using zless, zcat and zmore etc. gzip reduces the size of the files using Lempel-Ziv coding (LZ77). [123000490040] |Whenever possible, each file is replaced by one with the extension .gz, while keeping the same ownership modes, access and modification times. zcommand has some cool usage –such as display the current time in different zonename. [123000490050] |Read more at Vivek’s blog… [123000490060] |You may also be interested in: Linux/Unix coreutils command ‘paste’ to merge lines of files Two-way conversion of Unix time (seconds since 1970) and regular time Linux and Unix fmt utility as a simple text formatter Find out where Unix/Linux executable binary is located One more way to count CPUs in Linux [123000560010] |Search specific file types with Google [123000560020] |It seems this is old Google tip but… To search files by their name and extensions like mp3 or other, just do: [123000560030] |intitle:index.of + “mp3″ + “gimme back my bullets” [123000560040] |To get results without *.htm or *.html files, perform: [123000560050] |intitle:index.of + “mp3″ + “gimme back my bullets” -htm -html [123000560060] |After that Google will give you a lot of file locations, sites that are hard to find normally. [123000780010] |BSD Packet Filter (pf) manual and howto links list [123000780020] |Here is list of some useful resources regarding OpenBSD Packet Filter: [123000780030] |PF User’s Guide by by Wouter Coene NAT with pf by Jacek Artymiak Securing Small Networks with OpenBSD by Jacek Artymiak Firewalling with PF by Peter N. M. Hansteen (norwegian version, pdf, and slides available, too) A Newbie’s Guide to Setting up PF on OpenBSD by Eric Bullen A Beginner’s Guide To Firewalling with pf Guide to OpenBSD Packet Filtering Firewalls by Roger E. Rustad, Jr. A Step-by-Step Guide to Building an OpenBSD PPPoE Gateway, with Firewall by Real Ouellet OpenBSD firewall using pf by Hoang Q. Tran Building a Firewall with OpenBSD by Richard Welty Transparent Packet Filtering with OpenBSD by Nate Underwood How-To Harden OpenBSD Using Packet Filter by GeodSoft Using OpenBSD As A Firewall/Gateway for Home DSL or Cable by Shamim Mohamed OpenBSD Bridging Firewall Configuration by Jeremy Mates [123000850010] |Nokia E-series sync with Evolution via Bluetooth in Ubuntu [123000850020] |The Nokia E-series consists of business-oriented smartphones, with emphasis on support for corporate e-mail. [123000850030] |Currently Nokia e-series includes: E60, E61, E70, E50, E61i, E65, E90. [123000850040] |This is a howto (provided by Nailor) shows how to sync Nokia E-series phone (Symbian 9.1, Series60 3rd edition) with Gnome Evolution in Ubuntu Edgy Eft (6.10) and Feisty Fawn (7.04). [123000850050] |This has been tested with Nokia E50. [123000850060] |Information on how to sync Nokia E65 is available here. [123000850070] |Kubuntu users may be interested in this. [123000850080] |digg_url = http://www.linuxscrew.com/2007/09/12/nokia-e-series-sync-with-evolution-via-bluetooth-in-ubuntu/; 1. [123000850090] |Add required repositories: [123000850100] |Add following repositories to /etc/apt/sources.list: deb http://opensync.gforge.punktart.de/repo/opensync-0.21/ feisty main deb-src http://opensync.gforge.punktart.de/repo/opensync-0.21/ feisty main [123000850110] |To add key for the repo, do the following: gpg –keyserver hkp://subkeys.pgp.net/ –recv-keys CB210090B029CB84 gpg –export CB210090B029CB84 | sudo apt-key add - [123000850120] |2. Install required software [123000850130] |sudo aptitude install libopensync-plugin-* libopensync0 opensyncutils msynctool mulstisync-qad bluez-passkey-gnome bluez-gnome [123000850140] |3. Configure msynctool You can configure opensync via a graphical interface using multisync-qad (using similiar settings as below) or you can use command line. [123000850150] |Guide below is for command line. [123000850160] |Note, that the command line is reported not to work flawlessly on Feisty. [123000850170] |You’ll bet better results with GUI [123000850180] |Add a new group of preferred name (I’ll be using nokia in this example): msynctool –addgroup nokia [123000850190] |Add plugins to group. [123000850200] |If you get errors in this face, they are propably due to missing plugins so check you’ve installed all required plugins. [123000850210] |msynctool –addmember nokia evo2-sync msynctool –addmember nokia syncml-obex-client [123000850220] |Next is the ‘trickiest’ part. [123000850230] |Installed plugins need to be configured. [123000850240] |First, you have to find your phone’s MAC. [123000850250] |Use hcitool to do that: hcitool scan [123000850260] |It should return something like: xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx PhoneName [123000850270] |Now, configure the syncml-obex-client: msynctool –configure nokia 2 [123000850280] |Replace the context of the configuration (should be open in separate editor after running previous command) with the following XML: [123000870010] |Testing system validity [123000870020] |IBM: Systems Administration Toolkit: Testing system validity [123000870030] |The typical UNIX® administrator has a key range of utilities, tricks, and systems he or she uses regularly to aid in the process of administration. [123000870040] |There are key utilities, command-line chains, and scripts that are used to simplify different processes. [123000870050] |Some of these tools come with the operating system, but a majority of the tricks come through years of experience and a desire to ease the system administrator’s life. [123000870060] |The focus of this series is on getting the most from the available tools across a range of different UNIX environments, including methods of simplifying administration in a heterogeneous environment. [123000870070] |Continue reading… [123001140010] |Make squid to mark cache hits and misses (rpm package for Fedora 5) [123001140020] |Squid is a proxy server and web cache daemon. [123001140030] |It has a wide variety of uses, from speeding up a web server by caching repeated requests, to caching web, DNS and other computer network lookups for a group of people sharing network resources, to aiding security by filtering traffic. [123001140040] |Although primarily used for HTTP and FTP, Squid includes limited support for several other protocols including TLS, SSL, Internet Gopher and HTTPS. [123001140050] |When the cache client (like web browser) wishes to access a data presumably in the backing store, it first checks the cache. [123001140060] |If an entry can be found with a tag matching that of the desired datum, the datum in the entry is used instead. [123001140070] |This situation is known as a cache hit. [123001140080] |The alternative situation, when the cache is consulted and found not to contain a datum with the desired tag, is known as a cache miss. [123001140090] |More information about cache misses and cache hits is available here. [123001140100] |The common reason to mark cache misses and hits is to control bandwidth of these kinds of traffic. [123001140110] |For example: there is a server running squid that caches requests sent by subscribers and it’s necessary to shape bandwidth of traffic retreived directly from original servers (misses) and traffic that comes with local cache (hits). [123001140120] |Standard squid versions don’t allow this. [123001140130] |But here is patched Squid version (rpm package for Fedora Core 5) that marks misses and hits with different TOS flags: squid-2.5.STABLE-2.FC5.patched.i386.rpm [123001140140] |In case you run this version of squid it’s possible to mark hits by simple iptables command: [123001140150] |iptables -t mangle -A POSTROUTING -o eth1 -p tcp --sport 8080 -m tos --tos 0x0 -j MARK --set-mark 0x1 where eth1 is LAN network interface hardware name, 8080 is tcp port squid is listening at. [123001140160] |Therefore all other traffic with source port 8080, output interface eth1 but with TOS flag different from 0×0 can be classified as misses. [123001140170] |Further information on how to follow marked packets to traffic shaping disciplines like HTB or CBQ is available at lartc.org. [123001140180] |P.S. It’s really working for me. [123001140190] |Tested. [123001140200] |Information Improvisation: Traffic Engineering Server is Bandwidth Management and QoS Solution that is especially suitable for Broadband ISPs and SMEs. [123001160010] |Creative sound blaster x-fi linux driver [123001160020] |Good news for owners of Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi series as manufacturer’s binary Linux drivers are available for free downloading. [123001160030] |The driver is compatible with ALSA. [123001160040] |Bad news: it’s available only for x86_64 Linux. [123001160050] |Here is the list of supported cards: [123001160060] |
  • Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro
  • [123001160070] |
  • Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum
  • [123001160080] |
  • Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty
  • [123001160090] |
  • Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer
  • [123001160100] |
  • Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic
  • [123001160110] |Driver is available here. [123001160120] |Information improvisation: Pass your 642-731 exam on first attempt using 642-627 exam and other resources. [123001160130] |We offer 100% success in real exam with up to date 642-504 prepared by experts. [123001160140] |You can also find 1z0-052 000-104 on our site. [123001190010] |Google is 9 years old now [123001190020] |PageRank 10 page google.com, turned 9 years old at 27th of September 2007, according to the special logo put up for the occasion yesterday. [123001190030] |wikipedia.org: [123001190040] |Google was co-founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were students at Stanford University and the company was first incorporated as a privately held company on September 7, 1998. [123001190050] |Through a series of new product developments, acquisitions and partnerships, the company has expanded its initial search and advertising business into other areas, including web-based email, online mapping, office productivity, and video sharing, among others. [123001190060] |Here is a screenshot of google.com page in early 1997 (as you might notice Linux specific resources search was available from the beginning, unfortunately I didn’t find any information when BSD related search become available): [123001190070] |Respect to Google! [123001240010] |Linux core team photo [123001240020] |Just came across nice photo of tiny Linux core developer team. [123001240030] |The next photo shows Linus Torvalds‘ actual favorite distro. [123001240040] |I agree with him definitely. [123001340010] |Linux and Unix Live CDs list [123001350010] |Graphical vi/vim functional keys sheet [123001350020] |vi is a free software screen-oriented text editor written by Bill Joy in 1976 for an early BSD release.Vim, which stands for Vi IMproved, is an open source, multiplatform text editor extended from vi. [123001350030] |It was first released by Bram Moolenaar in 1991. [123001350040] |Since then, numerous features have been added to Vim, many of which are helpful in editing program source code. [123001350050] |Vim and vi are very popular editors for programmers and users of Unix-like operating systems. [123001350060] |No doubts that learning vi or vim is not easy for Linux newbies. [123001350070] |This sheet (from viemu.com) describes the full vi/vim input model, the function of all keys, and all major features. [123001350080] |I use it as a compressed vi/vim manual. [123001350090] |Hope it helps! [123001470010] |Prevent Brute Force Attacks at OpenSUSE 10.3 [123001470020] |In this article I will show how to install and configure fail2ban on an OpenSUSE 10.3 system. [123001470030] |Fail2ban is a tool that observes login attempts to various services, e.g. SSH, FTP, SMTP, Apache, etc., and if it finds failed login attempts again and again from the same IP address or host, fail2ban stops further login attempts from that IP address/host by blocking it with an iptables firewall rule. [123001470040] |Read the article… [123001580010] |Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon release day! [123001580020] |Latest version of highly popular Linux distribution Ubuntu is to be released today (2007, October 18th). [123001580030] |It’s named Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon and has release number 7.10. [123001580040] |Here are some of Gutsy features that are available out-of-the-box: [123001580050] |
  • GNOME 2.20
  • [123001580060] |
  • Desktop 3D effects
  • [123001580070] |
  • Desktop search
  • [123001580080] |
  • Fast user switching
  • [123001580090] |
  • Firefox plugins in Ubuntu
  • [123001580100] |
  • Dynamic screen configuration
  • [123001580110] |
  • Graphical configuration tool for X
  • [123001580120] |
  • Handling of non-free device drivers
  • [123001580130] |
  • NTFS writing
  • [123001580140] |
  • Power consumption
  • [123001580150] |
  • AppArmor security framework
  • [123001580160] |
  • Additional installation profiles for Ubuntu Server
  • [123001580170] |
  • Profile-based Authentication Configuration
  • [123001580180] |
  • Improved thin-client support
  • [123001580190] |
  • Fully automatic printer installation
  • [123001580200] |Get latest Ubuntu ISO images from these servers: [123001580210] |http://releases.ubuntu.com/releases/7.10 (Ubuntu) http://releases.ubuntu.com/releases/kubuntu/7.10 (Kubuntu) http://releases.ubuntu.com/releases/edubuntu/7.10 (Edubuntu) http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/xubuntu/releases/7.10 (Xubuntu) [123001580220] |Please note that at 10 am GMT+3 ISO images weren’t available yet but I’m sure that when you’re reading this post they are there! [123001580230] |In order to upgrade your Ubuntu to latest version just execute update-manager -d -c and follow the instructions. [123001580240] |I’m already upgrading [123001670010] |Adjust LCD brightness from command line [123001670020] |As many other Ubuntu users several days ago I’ve upgraded my Feisty to Gutsy at my Dell Inspiron 1501. [123001670030] |Unfortunately many things that worked for me in Feisty doesn’t work in Gutsy just after upgrading. [123001670040] |Among them are: suspend/hibernate and brightness adjustment. [123001670050] |At this moment I’m trying to get these features working and certainly share results here but not workable brightness adjustment really disturbed me. [123001670060] |So, until I didn’t find a solution how to adjust LCD brightness with keyboard, there is nice workaround: execute the following command with root rights (sudo -s to get it): [123001670070] |echo -n 100 >/proc/acpi/video/VGA/LCD/brightness [123001670080] |This will make you LCD screen as bright as possible and you can proceed with your work (like me ). [123001670090] |To lower brightness just replace 100 with another value like 62 and watch the results. [123001670100] |Hope it helps! [123001670110] |Information improvisation: You can join us for best 646-223 exam 70-620 solutions. [123001670120] |Our 70-270 contains all those materials you want to pass for real 70-450 exam HP2-Q04. [123001700010] |Switch to Ubuntu from other Linux, Mac OS X or Windows [123001700020] |Few will deny that many people that use Unix-like Operating Systems or M$ Windows make the switch to Ubuntu these days or are considering it. [123001700030] |The following links will show you Ubuntu equivalents of many traditional Unix applications, and tasks. [123001700040] |SwitchingToUbuntu/FromLinux Switching to Ubuntu From Red Hat Enterprise Linux And Fedora FromGentooToKubuntu Switching to Ubuntu From Mac OS X SwitchingToUbuntu/FromWindows [123001830010] |Ubuntu Document Storage Facility [123001830020] |Ubuntu Document Storage Facility (UDSF) is fully indexed archive of some of the best howtos, tricks and tips that were generated by Ubuntu Forum Community. [123001830030] |It’s contributed by UDSF Team who describe it as: [123001830040] |A centralized repository for information that is produced on the forums: a public forum library, a knowledgebase. [123001830050] |An effort to record and maintain the forum community-based documents that have a tendency to get lost in the lightning-fast pace of the vibrant participation, the UDSF seeks to replicate the organization of the most frequently accessed areas of the forums, and optimize the already-familiar information architecture with a well-developed dynamic hierarchy and content chunks. [123001830060] |The UDSF strives to be a dynamic, well-organized knowledgebase, decreasing the amount of time a user spends trying to find information that was previously posted/discussed on the forum. [123001830070] |The UDSF also serves as a self-service forum library; as a rule, this capacity should make the interaction simpler for both, the forum users and the forum staff. [123001830080] |I found UDSF very useful for me. [123001830090] |Respect! [123002030010] |Viva Ubuntu! Free Desktop Course is available [123002030020] |I love Ubuntu! [123002030030] |Today free Ubuntu 7.10 Desktop Course became available on Ubuntu Wiki as two pdf files: for students and instructors. [123002030040] |Here are few points about this course: [123002030050] |There are 10 lessons in total with the last lesson covering Partitioning and Booting optional. [123002030060] |The course is modular –2 days if all lessons are covered however, topics and lessons can be selected as required. [123002030070] |There will also be a book version of the courseware which you will be able to purchase online. [123002030080] |This will be formatted slightly differently to reduce the page numbers and make the content overall ready for print production, but the content and copyright will remain the same. [123002030090] |The course content is released under Creative Commons [123002030100] |Get more information at Ubuntu Wiki Training section. [123002110010] |Dell offers new Ubuntu preinstalled laptop XPS M1330 [123002110020] |Dell position XPS M1330 as one of the thinnest and lightest notebooks in its class, as really portable notebook (weight is under 4 pounds or 1.8 kg). [123002110030] |On January 23, 2008 it was announced that Spain, Germany, France, UK consumers can purchase this notebook with Ubuntu 7.10 Linux pre-installed. [123002110040] |As usually announcement was made at Direct2Dell blog: [123002110050] |Since we’ve began offering Ubuntu on some consumer systems, two clear areas of feedback from the IdeaStorm community and Direct2Dell readers have been: offer Ubuntu on more hardware, and offer it worldwide.This Ubuntu-related post is still the third most commented post in Direct2Dell’s history-many of the 654 comments are asking for it in more countries. [123002110060] |Looking through XPS M1330 technical information (Intel Core Duo up to 2.20GHz, up to 4Gb RAM, 128 MB Video, 200GB HDD, etc.) and price starting from £599, I would like to say that this Dell’s product definitely has future. [123002110070] |And it’s too bad I don’t live in Spain, UK… [123002110080] |Get more information on the laptop here, the next step would be to customize and buy one while notebooks are hot! [123002500010] |Weekly portion of Linux humor [6 pics] [123002500020] |Umm… See pictures below… [123002500030] |Thanks to Matt from besttechie.net forum. digg_url = http://www.linuxscrew.com/2008/09/09/weekly-portion-of-linux-humor-6-pics/; [123002500040] |Information improvisation: Our self paced 642-631 exam training courses and high quality 117-101 provide you definite guarantee for passing the real 642-637 exam. [123002500050] |If you get through 640-461 exams, you will find other 642-647. [123002520010] |CERN and LHC... [123002540010] |Google + Water-based Data Centres = Computer Navy?! [123002540020] |Well, Google is considering to deploy data centres necessary to operate their search engine on barges powering and cooling computers… [123002540030] |Sounds strangely? [123002540040] |Just read below! [123002540050] |digg_url = http://www.linuxscrew.com/2008/09/16/google-water-based-data-centres-computer-navy/;Computing centres are located on a ship or ships, anchored in a water body from which energy from natural motion of the water may be captured, and turned into electricity and/or pumping power for cooling pumps to carry heat away. [123002540060] |This text was somehow seen by The Times in this patent application written by Google… Rather interesting article is published at their site. [123002540070] |As for me, I didn’t know that Microsoft is planning to build data centres in cold climes of Siberia or that Sun is going to place its supercomputers in abandoned coal (see cold) mine… [123002540080] |By the way all data centers around the world consumed about 1% of all electricity in 2005. [123002540090] |How do you think, what would be in 2009? [123002540100] |Useful Links: Data Center Knowledge Discussion at Slashdot [123002840010] |GIMP to be removed from Ubuntu? [123002840020] |This could be an outstanding news by its significance. [123002840030] |The next version of Ubuntu (Lucid Lynx or Ubuntu 10.04) won’t include GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) by default due to its user interface that is too complex… What a #@^*? [123002840040] |Actually complex UI is not the only decision why GIMP should be vanished from Ubuntu so here is the full list: [123002840050] |
  • the general user doesn’t use it
  • [123002840060] |
  • its user-interface is too complex
  • [123002840070] |
  • it’s an application for professionals
  • [123002840080] |
  • desktop users just want to edit photos and they can do that in F-Spot
  • [123002840090] |
  • it’s a photoshop replacement and photoshop isn’t included by default in Windows…
  • [123002840100] |
  • it takes up room on the disc
  • [123002840110] |(taken from here) [123002840120] |Still sounds like fresh nonsense? [123002840130] |What about F-Spot as a replacement? [123002840140] |Well, an average user most probably claim that above mentioned reasons are true. [123002840150] |Maybe that’s why GIMP already dropped from latest Fedora 12. [123002840160] |But what should do people who use GIMP every day and loves Ubuntu??? [123002840170] |Just execute ‘sudo aptitude install gimp [123003080010] |Namebench: cross-platform DNS benchmarking tool [123003080020] |It was long time ago when I wrote here last time but today I’d like to share the link to an application that would be appreciated by everyone starting from Linux starter wishing to speed up his/her Internet connection and ending with system administrators who may want to run benchmarks and run stress tests against certain DNS service(s). [123003080030] |I am talking about Namebench. [123003080040] |This is cross platform tool written in Python that makes it possible to easily select the fastest DNS available in your area as well as to run benchmark tests directed to DNS entries. [123003080050] |All what you need to have to start using namebench is Python and Tk library, e.g. if you use Ubuntu or Debian just run the following command to meet namebench library requirements: [123003080060] |sudo apt-get install python python-tk -y [123003080070] |When done go to namebench’s official website and download the latest tarball from there. [123003080080] |For example 1.3.1 is the latest version for today so you can download it directly from here. [123003080090] |Or you can just take below steps: [123003080100] |cd /usr/src sudo -s wget http://code.google.com/p/namebench/downloads/detail?name=namebench-1.3.1-source.tgz tar -xvzf namebench-1.3.1-source.tgz cd namebench-1.3.1 ./namebench.py [123003080110] |Here you go: [123003080120] |The application has the only button so I believe it won’t bring any problems even to Linux newbies [124000480010] |Big challenges for the Free Software Community [124000480020] |The “character” I like most about the free software community is that it is not afraid of setting itself audacious goals. [124000480030] |I like that in a person, especially when combined with a cunning plan, good ethics and a capacity for work, and if you think of the free software community as a gaia-like “living creature” it very much has those same traits. [124000480040] |As a community, we’ve done amazingly well in terms of challenging the historical epicenter of computing –the supercomputer and data center –and driving change there. [124000480050] |Linux now represents a healthy and growing share of infrastructure in large organisations globally. [124000480060] |Apache and other infrastructural components have established the new de facto standard for software in the back office: freedom. [124000480070] |It would be easy to declare victory. [124000480080] |But, as anybody who flies in the backseat of a military plane to land on a carrier and declare victory will tell you, it would be premature. [124000480090] |The real challenge lies ahead –taking free software to the mass market, to your grandparents, to your nieces and nephews, to your friends. [124000480100] |This is the next wave, and if we are to be successful we need to articulate the audacious goals clearly and loudly –because that’s how the community process works best. [124000480110] |With that in mind I think I’ll serialise in this blog a speech I’ve enjoyed giving recently, which lists a set of challenges and goals, obstacles and mountains to be overcome on our way to making free software the de facto standard for home and office computing. [124000480120] |History shows that the free software community can organise itself to attain any well articulated goal around which there is broad consensus of it’s merit and difficulty. [124000480130] |Perhaps these ideas will be food for thought in those lofty circles [124000660010] |#5: Real real-time collaboration [124000660020] |This is one post in a series, describing challenges we need to overcome to make free software ubiquitous on the desktop. [124000660030] |Collaboration is the key ingredient in free software –the fact that developers can collaborate despite geographical and cultural differences between them is what has made it all possible. [124000660040] |And our tools for collaboration are pretty good. [124000660050] |I maintain you need three things before you get an explosion in collaboration: you need a common format, you need revision control (so you know who changed what, when) and you need a transport layer. [124000660060] |In the case of free software, it was text files, CVS and email that underpinned much of the growth in the developer community. [124000660070] |Recently, wiki’s have shown the benefits of direct collaboration for content other than source code –and wiki’s also have those three ingredients –a format, revision control, and a transport layer. [124000660080] |We could do with some improved tools (I think Bazaar has all the ingredients for a next-gen version control system, for a start, take a look at it if you’ve not done so recently) in the free software community. [124000660090] |But this post isn’t about that –it’s about bringing collaboration to chattering classes. [124000660100] |See –people who work with word processors and spreadsheets have rights too! [124000660110] |And they could benefit dramatically from much better collaboration. [124000660120] |Think about it –they often email documents around so that other people can edit something or review something. [124000660130] |And keeping track of those documents and the changes is a bit of a black art –involving large amounts of what lawyers call “redlines” –Word documents with changes highlighted. [124000660140] |Wouldn’t it be better if they could just collaborate in the documents directly? [124000660150] |And what if we could make that collaboration real-time, much as Gobby makes text file editing and collaboration real-time? [124000660160] |If you’ve seen Croquet, you’ve likely seen a demo of £d virtualised collaboration between avatars… so this “real time collaboration” idea and the sensory immersion idea (and of course the presence challenge) are all related. [124000660170] |I’m pretty sure the proprietary software world is going to do this –so it’s an opportunity for us to be a few years ahead of the state of their art. [124000660180] |Real, real-time collaboration on all sorts of file types will radically change the way people think of working on their PC’s. [124000780010] |Tags in Bazaar [124000780020] |Just landed in Bzr trunk for 0.15: [124000780030] |Looooovely . [124000780040] |Can’t wait for 0.15! [124000830010] |Launchpad –It’s BETA time! [124000830020] |Congratulations to the Launchpad team on today’s public beta! [124000830030] |Launchpad is built for Ubuntu, but it’s great to see other projects adopting it too, most notably in recent weeks Zope and Silva. [124000830040] |I hope those projects find it much easier to collaborate with one another, and with other projects too. [124000830050] |If you’re curious about Launchpad, this new guide to Launchpad’s feature highlights is a quick read (with pictures ) and gives you a good sense of how best to use it. [124000830060] |It covers all the major applications that make up the service –translation, community support, planning, bug tracking, code hosting and team management. [124000830070] |And if you’re keen to test new features and willing to file bugs, you can join the Launchpad Beta Tester’s team, and live on the bleeding edge with nightly builds of the system. [124000830080] |We’ll reopen the beta server (beta.launchpad.net) later in the week to test some additional new functionality. [124000830090] |My latest (small) contribution to the code was to help Salgado with the system that lets you set a custom logo for every page in the system that belongs to you or your project. [124000830100] |Have fun decorating! [124000830110] |Here’s the official announcement of the beta. [124000970010] |In defense of independent governance [124000970020] |My message of support for Ms Machado has touched a nerve, most strongly amongst free software advocates who live in Venezuela. [124000970030] |Every country will have its own culture and way of doing things, and we should pay great respect to the choices and decisions of that country. [124000970040] |It is a tragic thing to impose ones own cultural, religious or political views on people who see things differently. [124000970050] |That tragedy has played out far too many times –from Apartheid, to the Holocaust, to the invasion of Iraq in recent history, to the acts of the Conquistadors centuries ago. [124000970060] |It shows up when a new government renames the streets and cities of the old government, which renamed them from the previous government. [124000970070] |We lose our own identity when we lose the voice of history, even if it is a history of which we are ashamed. [124000970080] |It also shows up in the homogenization of global culture, with McDonalds and Disney turning the rich culture of the world into large swathes of barren desert. [124000970090] |I am very sensitive to the beauty of the cultures that I’ve been privileged to experience in depth –South Africa, Russia, England, America. [124000970100] |And I find it sad when one culture arrogantly suppresses another. [124000970110] |I believe in letting people make their own choices. [124000970120] |The future belongs to those who embrace global thinking without losing their identity and their culture. [124000970130] |At its largest, grandest level, “making choices” is what democracy is all about. [124000970140] |However, sometimes the illusion of democracy is used to give legitimacy to choices that were not, at all, democratic. [124000970150] |In Zimbabwe, for example, we have a government that is in power “democratically” because of the systematic culture of fear that was created every time people expressed an interest in making a different choice. [124000970160] |I cannot therefor pay much respect to the idea that the government of Zimbabwe is a true reflection of the cultural choices of Zimbabweans. [124000970170] |In such cases, we are obliged to question the decisions made by governments who claim to hold power by democratic mandate, when in fact they hold it by brute force. [124000970180] |They may make some good claims and have some noble ideals, but the foundation of their authority is rotten, and it’s highly unlikely that much good will come of it for the long term. [124000970190] |I’m not going to comment directly on the policies of Mr Chavez. [124000970200] |Frankly, I’m not qualified to speak on the details of his administration. [124000970210] |But I will say that my experience of countries and governance, across continents and decades, has taught me the value of certain key principles: [124000970220] |First, that human nature is unchanging across the world and across time. [124000970230] |This, as they say, is why history rhymes with itself. [124000970240] |We make the same mistakes, we inspire ourselves to fix them, rinse and repeat. [124000970250] |It’s human nature that makes absolute power corrupt absolutely. [124000970260] |And its human nature to seek additional power. [124000970270] |It’s rare to find someone who will create checks and balances on themselves. [124000970280] |This is most eloquently described in the early writings of the American constitutional authors, who sought to “pit ambition against ambition”, and create checks and balances in society, so that neither the authorities, nor the judges, nor the media, could dominate the decisions we make for ourselves. [124000970290] |Second, that the presumption of innocence until the proof of guilt is a vital choice in the maintenance of a free society. [124000970300] |In a world where even good countries can elect bad governments, we cannot let the unchallenged word of a government, any government, be sufficient to silence and stifle the lives of their citizens. [124000970310] |I find it equally disturbing that American citizens can be locked up without access to attorneys in confidence, and that Zimbabwean opposition members can be arrested and held without charge for long periods. [124000970320] |I also find it equally disturbing that residents of the United Kingdom can find themselves in Guantanamo Bay, on what is clearly flimsy or false evidence, without the UK fighting for their release or impartial trial. [124000970330] |I am neither for Mr Bush, nor Mr Mugabe, nor Mr Blair, I am simply for the presumption of innocence until an impartial trial finds one guilty. [124000970340] |Third, that freedom of speech is essential for a healthy society. [124000970350] |This is a freedom which we cannot take for granted. [124000970360] |There is constantly a desire on the part of those in power to reduce the volume of criticism they must face. [124000970370] |We have to constantly remind ourselves that those in authority have chosen to play a public role, and they must accept a level of public accountability and criticism, even from people who may have a personal agenda. [124000970380] |Of course, not all speech is truth, and conspiracies often arise which seek to use the media to spread misinformation. [124000970390] |But we are all better off when multiple viewpoints can be expressed. [124000970400] |I’m no believe in media infallibility –we’ve seen very bad journalism from the biggest media networks in the world, for example when they get “embedded” in a controlled fashion into armies of war. [124000970410] |But I’m a big believer in allowing calm voices to be heard, globally. [124000970420] |These principles are not written in the laws of physics –we create them in society, and we must defend them. [124000970430] |They cannot be taken for granted, even in countries like the USA, which have them written into their constitutional DNA. [124000970440] |Since they are a choice that society makes, and since society is reborn in each generation, they are a choice that society must make, and remake, constantly. [124000970450] |Sometimes, we fail. [124000970460] |Usually, we fail for fear when we are confronted by a perceived threat to security, or for greed when we are presented with the opportunity to benefit ourselves at great cost to others. [124000970470] |And it as at times like that, when there is great stress, noise, fear, anger and shouting, that it is most important for calm voices to be heard. [124000970480] |At times like these, we are our own worst enemy. [124000970490] |We hear what we want to hear. [124000970500] |It is painful to hear that one might be wrong, that one’s hero might have flaws, that one’s leaders might not be all that we wished them to be. [124000970510] |The awful truth of the media is that it pays to tell people what they want to hear, much more than it pays to tell people what they need to hear, and so society can whip itself into a frenzy of mistaken greed or fear or anger, and make poor decisions. [124000970520] |It takes great courage to speak out, when these basic principles are at risk. [124000970530] |In a free society, there is nevertheless pressure to conform, to stay with the herd. [124000970540] |In a society that is not free, one speaks out at some considerable personal cost to life and liberty. [124000970550] |I salute those who do. [124001180010] |Playing nicely with Windows [124001180020] |Windows is a very important platform, and our justifiable pride in Linux and the GNU stack shouldn’t blind us to the importance of delivering software that is widely useful. [124001180030] |I believe in bringing free software to people in a way that is exciting and empowering to them, and one of the key ways to do that is to show them amazing free software running on their familiar platform, whether that’s Windows or the MacOS. [124001180040] |Firefox, for example, is an inspiring free software success story, and I’m certain that a key driver of that success is their excellent support for the Windows environment. [124001180050] |It’s a quick download and an easy install that Just Works, after which people can actually FEEL that free software delivers an innovative and powerful browsing experience that is plainly better than the proprietary alternatives. [124001180060] |I’ve noticed that many of the best free software projects have a good Windows story. [124001180070] |MySQL and PostgreSQL both do. [124001180080] |Bazaar works well too. [124001180090] |And users love it –users that may then be willing to take a step closer to living in the GNU world entirely. [124001180100] |So, I was absolutely delighted with the way Agostino Russo and Evan Dandrea steered the Windows-native installer for Ubuntu into 8.04 LTS. [124001180110] |What I think is really classy about it is the way it uses the Windows Boot Manager sensibly to offer you the Ubuntu option. [124001180120] |If I was a Windows user who was intrigued but nervous about Linux, this would be a really great way to get a taste of it, at low risk. [124001180130] |Being able to install and uninstall a Linux OS as if it were a Windows app is a brilliant innovation. [124001180140] |Kudos to Agostino and Evan, and of course also to the guys who pioneered this sort of thinking (it’s been done in a number of different ways). [124001180150] |It looks crisp, clean and very professional: [124001180160] |I’m a little daunted at something as new as WUBI being the very first experience that people have of Linux, free software and Ubuntu, but initial reports are positive. [124001180170] |I did have a question from the media that started with “it didn’t work for me but…” which makes me a wee bit nervous. [124001180180] |So –yesterday I suggested folks hammer on the Heron for servers, today, here’s a call for folks who have a Windows machine and would like to see WUBI in action to test it out and let the developers know if there are any last-minute gotchas. [124001180190] |Happy hunting! [124001440010] |Regional Membership Board nominations [124001440020] |One of the most important things we do in Ubuntu is recognize the contributions of fantastic participants across the wide range of activities that make up something as broad as Ubuntu. [124001440030] |We have the guiding principle that we should be able to recognize the merits of any kind of contribution, coming from any part of the globe. [124001440040] |Whether someone is spending time helping people on IRC, or answering questions in the Forums, or translating Ubuntu into Amharic, or leading local events to raise awareness of Ubuntu, or leading a team that deploy Ubuntu in schools, or building Ubuntu based virtual machines on EC2, or fixing bugs, or triaging bugs, or filing really good bug reports….. contributions of all forms make Ubuntu more useful to a broader audience, and so we set out to recognize them with Membership. [124001440050] |The actual decisions are taken by the Regional Membership Boards. [124001440060] |We set up three of them to cover the America’s, EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa), and Asia-Pacific. [124001440070] |People who are seeking membership present their work to the RMB’s, who confer membership on those who they believe have made a “substantial, and sustained” contribution, in any field. [124001440080] |We also allow specialist leadership teams to confer membership for contributions in their fields, on the basis that they may have more insight into the dynamics of that particular work. [124001440090] |The RMB’s play a big role in sustaining the culture of Ubuntu, in who and what they recognize and in the advice that they offer applicants. [124001440100] |In order to keep the RMB’s fresh, we renew the membership of the RMB’s on a regular basis. [124001440110] |Folks stand for a term, and we seek nominations regularly. [124001440120] |Like now [124001440130] |We’re seeking nominations to all three Regional Membership Boards. [124001440140] |Ideal candidates have a track record good judgment –and a willingness to support positive contributions matched only by their willingness NOT to be drawn into supporting factions, personalities and cabals. [124001440150] |In any community of scale (and Ubuntu is at a larger scale than most) there will always be people making fascinating and unexpected (and hard to evaluate) contributions, as well as people who want to further their own ambitions at the expense of others. [124001440160] |Being able to tell the difference, and recognizing those who are going to continue to raise the bar for Ubuntu, is a skill. [124001440170] |If you know someone who does, please seek their assent to nominate them for their Regional Membership Board. [124001440180] |You can chat with dholbach on IRC, or mail the RMB’s for further information. [124001440190] |The mails from RMB’s announcing new members are one of the most interesting kinds “pulse” for the project –who’s doing what, where. [124001440200] |So I’d like to thank the folks who have lead the RMB’s over the past cycle, and say again how much I appreciate their work! [124001510010] |Healing old wounds [124001510020] |Greg, thank you for your sincere and gracious apology. [124001510030] |When one cares deeply about something, criticism hurts so much more. [124001510040] |And the free software world is loaded with caring, which is why our differences can so easily become vitriolic. [124001510050] |All of us that work on free software share the belief that our work has meaning far beyond the actual technology we produce. [124001510060] |We are working to achieve goals that transcend the merits of the specific products we build: putting software freedom on a firm economic footing means that it can realistically become the de facto standard way that the software world works, carried forward by powerful forces of investment and return and less dependent on what feels like the heroic efforts of relatively few software outsiders swimming against the tide. [124001510070] |Red Hat’s success in proving a viable business model around a distribution was a very significant milestone in that quest, for all of us. [124001510080] |I don’t mean to diminish that achievement when I point out that it’s come at the cost of dividing the world into those that buy RHEL, and those that can’t or won’t. Red Hat’s success is well deserved, and our work at Canonical is not in any sense motivated by desire to take that away. [124001510090] |Red Hat is here to stay, there will always be a market for the product, and as a result, we all have the reassurance that our contributions can find a sustainable path into the hands of at least part of the world’s population. [124001510100] |Canonical’s mission is to expand the options, to find out if it’s possible to have a sustainable platform without that dividing line. [124001510110] |We know that our quest would not be possible without your pioneering, but we don’t feel that’s riding on anybody’s coat-tails. [124001510120] |We feel we have to break new ground, do new things, add new ingredients, and all of that is a substantial contribution in turn. [124001510130] |But we don’t do it because we think Red Hat is “wrong”, and we don’t expect it to take anything away from Red Hat at all. [124001510140] |We do it to add to the options, not to replace them. [124001510150] |We should start every discussion in free software with a mutual reminder of the fact that we have far more in common than we have differences, that individual successes enrich all of us far more in our open commons-based economy than they would in a traditional proprietary one, that it’s better for us to find a way to encourage others to continue to participate even if they aren’t necessarily chasing exactly the same bugs that we are, than to chastise them for thinking differently. [124001510160] |On that note, let’s shake hands. [124001510170] |Mark [124001660010] |Private cloud “in a box” from Dell [124001660020] |It just got a lot easier, and faster, to get a cloud in the house. [124001660030] |Simply buy a starting cloud from Dell, and add to it as you need it to grow. [124001660040] |You’ll get a reference architecture of Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud on Dell’s cloud-focused, dense PowerEdge C servers, fully supported, with professional services if you need to stretch it in your own unique direction and want a little help. [124001660050] |It’s taken a hard year of what El Reg rather accurately and poignantly described as futzing around, to make all of the pieces fit together smoothly so it can Just Work, Ubuntu style. [124001660060] |Think of that as a year of futzing you don’t have to do yourself [124001660070] |Eucalyptus, which powers this EC2-compatible private cloud solution, is flexible in how its configured. [124001660080] |We wanted to make sure that flexibility was expressed in the solution, and that there’s a clean path forward as the UEC platform evolves, or Eucalyptus adds new capabilities. [124001660090] |We know this is an area of rapid change and wanted to make sure early adopters can keep up with that over time. [124001660100] |We put a lot of work into making Ubuntu upgrades smooth, and aimed for the same simplicity here. [124001660110] |As Marten Mickos of Eucalyptus blogged, “One of the main ideas behind private clouds is to make computing more agile, and these Dell-UEC boxes take this agility benefit to the next level.” [124001660120] |I’d like to thank the team at Dell, Eucalyptus and Canonical that did all the futzing on your behalf. [124001660130] |It’s a job very well done. [124001660140] |Enjoy! [125000920010] |Speed Up Firefox web browser [125000920020] |Mozilla Firefox is a graphical web browser developed by the Mozilla Corporation. [125000920030] |Started as a fork of the browser component (Navigator) of the Mozilla Application Suite, Firefox has replaced the Mozilla Suite as the flagship product of the Mozilla project, stewarded by the Mozilla Foundation and a large community of external contributors. [125000920040] |Mozilla Firefox is a cross-platform browser, providing support for various versions of Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. [125000920050] |Although not officially released for certain operating systems, the freely available source code works for many other operating systems, including FreeBSD,OS/2, Solaris, SkyOS, BeOS and more recently, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition. [125000920060] |I am providing some Very Useful Tips to speedup your Firefox. [125000920070] |In your location bar, type about:config [125000920080] |Once it Opens You should see similar to the following screen [125000920090] |Tip1 [125000920100] |In the filter bar type network.http.pipelining [125000920110] |You should see the following screen [125000920120] |Normally it says ”false ”under value field , Double click it so it becomes ”true “. [125000920130] |Once you finished this you should see the following screen. [125000920140] |Tip2 [125000920150] |In the filter bar again and type network.http.pipelining.maxrequests [125000920160] |Once it Opens You should see the following screen [125000920170] |Default it says 4 under value field and you need to change it to 8 [125000920180] |Once you finished this you should see the following screen. [125000920190] |Tip3 [125000920200] |Go to the filter bar again and type network.http.proxy.pipelining [125000920210] |Once it Opens You should see similar to the following screen [125000920220] |Normally it says ”false ”under value field , Double click it so it becomes ”true “. [125000920230] |Once you finished this you should see the following screen. [125000920240] |Tip4 [125000920250] |Go to the filter bar again and type network.dns.disableIPv6 [125000920260] |Once it Opens You should see the following screen [125000920270] |Normally it says ”false ”under value field , Double click it so it becomes ”true “. [125000920280] |Once you finished this you should see the following screen. [125000920290] |Tip5 [125000920300] |Go to the filter bar again and type plugin.expose_full_path [125000920310] |Once it Opens You should see the following screen [125000920320] |Normally it says ”false ”under value field , Double click it so it becomes ”true “. [125000920330] |Once you finished this you should see the following screen. [125000920340] |Tip6 [125000920350] |Now you need to Create new Preference name with interger value for this got to Right click -> New -> Integer [125000920360] |Once it opens you should see the following screen [125000920370] |Here you need to type nglayout.initialpaint.delay and click ok [125000920380] |Now you need to enter 0 in value filed and click ok [125000920390] |Once you finished this you should see the following screen. [125000920400] |Tip7 [125000920410] |Now you need to Create one more Preference name with interger value for this got to Right click -> New -> Integer [125000920420] |Once it opens you should see the following screen [125000920430] |Here you need to type content.notify.backoffcount and click ok [125000920440] |Now you need to enter 5 in value filed and click ok [125000920450] |Once you finished this you should see the following screen. [125000920460] |Tip8 [125000920470] |Now you need to Create one more Preference name with interger value for this got to Right click -> New -> Integer [125000920480] |Once it opens you should see the following screen [125000920490] |Here you need to type ui.submenuDelay and click ok [125000920500] |Now you need to enter 0 in value filed and click ok [125000920510] |Once you finished this you should see the following screen. [125000920520] |Some more Tweaks [125000920530] |Enable the spellchecker for inputfields and textareas (default is textareas only) [125000920540] |layout.spellcheckDefault=2 [125000920550] |Open lastfm://-links directly in amarok [125000920560] |network.protocol-handler.app.lastfm=amarok network.protocol-handler.external.lastfm=true Firefox Memory Leak Fix [125000920570] |Open a new tab. [125000920580] |Type “about:config” without quotes into the address bar and hit enter/click Go. [125000920590] |Right-click anywhere, select New, then Integer. [125000920600] |In the dialog prompt that appears, type: [125000920610] |browser.cache.memory.capacity [125000920620] |Click OK. [125000920630] |Another dialog prompt will appear. [125000920640] |This is where you decide how much memory to allocate to Firefox. [125000920650] |This depends on how much RAM your computer has, but generally you don’t want to allocate too little (under 8MB), but if you allocate too much, you might as well not do this. [125000920660] |A good recommended setting is 16MB. [125000920670] |If you want 16MB, enter this value into the dialog prompt: [125000920680] |16384 [125000920690] |(Why 16384 instead of 16000? [125000920700] |Because computers use base-12 counting. [125000920710] |Thus 16 megabytes = 16384 bytes. [125000920720] |Likewise, if you want to double that and allocate 32MB, you’d enter 32768.) [125000920730] |Click OK to close the dialog box, then close all instances of Firefox and restart. [125000920740] |If your Firefox still uses the same amount of memory, give it a few minutes and it should slowly clear up. [125000920750] |If that fails, try a system reboot. [125000920760] |Now your Firefox will now be 3 - 30 times faster in loading pages. [125003550010] |HOWTO Install Belkin F5D7010 wireless card with pci id 1799:701f on fiesty [125003550020] |This is for the realtek chipset, where the drivers on the CD are blkwgn7.inf, etc. [125003550030] |Belkin changes the chipset for this card (the F5D7010) with each version that they release. [125003550040] |Therefore, this HOWTO is only expected to work with version 7 of the card. [125003550050] |It was very difficult to identify the chipset. [125003550060] |I checked the ndiswrapper.org database to determine my chipset. [125003550070] |Other chipsets that have been used for different versions of this card include Atheros and BCM4306. [125003550080] |Install ndiswrapper-utils. [125003550090] |sudo apt-get install ndiswrapper-utils [125003550100] |You can go to http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/ and search for 8185. [125003550110] |This will take you to a driver download page. [125003550120] |Download the drivers only, not the software. [125003550130] |make sure the card is inserted. [125003550140] |unzip the file and run (in the directory where the inf, cat, and sys files are): [125003550150] |sudo ndiswrapper -m [125003550160] |This adds the module alias to ndiswrapper under wlan0 [125003550170] |sudo ndiswrapper -i net8185.inf [125003550180] |This copies the driver files to the /etc/ndiswrapper directory and configures ndiswrapper to use them. [125003550190] |This is the driver installation. [125003550200] |Make sure you are in the same directory as net8185.cat, net8185.sys, and net8185.inf. [125003550210] |sudo ndiswrapper -a 1799:701f net8185 [125003550220] |This tells ndiswrapper to use the net8185 driver you just installed with your wireless card. [125003550230] |sudo modprobe ndiswrapper [125003550240] |This loads the ndiswrapper module to get the wifi card running. [125003550250] |sudo -i echo ndiswrapper >>/etc/modules [125003550260] |Once these commands have been run, you should be able to use NetworkManager to configure the card. [125003550270] |WPA/WPA2 has not been tested, can connect to network that is WEP/hidden. [125005960010] |Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) Alpha 6 Released [125005960020] |The Ubuntu developers are moving quickly to bring you the absolute latest and greatest software the Open Source Community has to offer. [125005960030] |The Jaunty Jackalope Alpha 6 is the sixth alpha release of Ubuntu 9.04, bringing with it a number of new features to improve daily computing. [125005960040] |Note:- This is still an alpha release. [125005960050] |Do not install it on production machines. [125005960060] |The final stable version will be released on April 23rd, 2009. [125005960070] |Upgrading from Ubuntu 8.10 [125005960080] |To upgrade from Ubuntu 8.10 on a desktop system, press Alt+F2 and type in “update-manager -d” (without the quotes) into the command box. [125005960090] |Update Manager should open up and tell you: New distribution release ’9.04′ is available. [125005960100] |Click Upgrade and follow the on-screen instructions. [125005960110] |To upgrade from Ubuntu 8.10 on a server system: install the update-manager-core package if it is not already installed; edit /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades and set Prompt=normal; launch the upgrade tool with the command sudo do-release-upgrade; and follow the on-screen instructions. [125005960120] |You can check here for Jaunty new features [125005960130] |Download Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) Alpha 6 from here [125007270010] |Nice Brown and Black Splash,Login Screens for Karmic [125007270020] |Today i have just updated my ubuntu karmic beta desktop and i saw these lovely screens.I just want to share with you guys [125007270030] |Black and Brown Splash [125007270040] |Login Screen [125007270050] |Once you click on your username you should see similar to the following screen [125007270060] |After logging in desktop screen(Default Wallpaper changed) [125007900010] |Allmyapps - Your Linux Application Store [125007900020] |Allmyapps makes software installation a breeze. [125007900030] |No matter how many applications you need, 1 click is all you need to have all your favorite applications installed on your PC.Allmyapps also keeps your applications safe! [125007900040] |Would you need to reinstall your system, Allmyapps takes care of reinstalling all your favorite applications in the blink of an eye. [125007900050] |With Allmyapps, installing software applications has become so easy that you’ll soon find yourself installing a lot of great new applications! [125007900060] |Be prepared to enjoy your computer like never before! [125007900070] |Project Home page :- http://allmyapps.com [125007900080] |Supported Operating Systems [125007900090] |Linux Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala Linux Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope Linux Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex Linux Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron [125007900100] |Using Allmyapps [125007900110] |You need to create a free account at the Allmyapps site when you login to your account, you have access to all the applications found in the Ubuntu repos just select the applications you would like to install and it would be added to your list. [125007900120] |After you finish with your selection, just click on install button. [125007900130] |Screenshot [125009350010] |Pandora FMS 3.0 Released! [125009350020] |Pandora FMS is a performance &availability monitoring system, ready for big environments. [125009350030] |It uses agents for local monitoring and can do several kinds of remote network monitoring. [125009350040] |Agents works on Linux, Windows, AIX, HP-UX, Solaris and BSD systems. [125009350050] |Pandora FMS could detect a network interface down, a defacement in your website, a memory leak in one of your server application, or the movement of any value of the NASDAQ new technology market. [125009350060] |As it’s name says (FMS stands for Flexible Monitoring System) it’s very flexible and this is one of it’s big strengths, it started as a data-center monitoring software, and this is still it’s main use, but thanks to it’s flexibility it can be used to monitor almost anything. [125009350070] |Pandora FMS can use local agents available for almost any operating system, or remote checks done with different technologies (SNMP, WMI, TCP, UDP, ICMP, HTTP…), there is even hardware modules called Octopod (following the same philosophy of flexibility and ease of use as pandora) that can “speak” with Pandora FMS directly just by attaching the sensors and adding the PandoraFMS server address. [125009350080] |The core development team of Pandora FMS is based on a small spanish company called ArticaST, located in Madrid (Spain), with a team of young depelopers who develop several OpenSource software projects: Pandora FMS, Babel Enterprise, Integria IMS, Tentacle and Goliat. [125009350090] |With this new version, Pandora FMS reaches an important level of maturity as it has being tested on important setups with a big amount of agents deployed. [125009350100] |For more information, visit the project homepage at http://pandorafms.org [125009660010] |How to install Edubuntu Menu Editor in Ubuntu lucid/Karmic [125009660020] |The Edubuntu team has been discussing the need of a tool to filter the list of applications displayed to a user depending on various criterias. [125009660030] |We first implemented it as a set of meta-packages called application bundles and prefixed ubuntu-edu-* though we then noticed that it doesn’t always apply to all countries. [125009660040] |Each country and possibly region/school district has its own rules on what kind of software should be available to which grades. [125009660050] |In order to fix that, the following specification has been written and will be discussing the development of a tool used to easily create new menus that will be put on top of the main Edubuntu menu and filter it. [125009660060] |The interface will basically let the administrator define new menus by selecting the entries he wants and these he doesn’t, then create new menus/sub-menus and finally save that as a standard XDG menu file. [125009660070] |Then, another interface will be used to assign menus to system groups. [125009660080] |A way to easily import and export these menus will also be provided along with a package providing sample menus provided by some of our partners (Guadalinex, Qimo, Revolution Linux, …). [125009660090] |The Edubuntu project has introduced a new tool called the “Edubuntu menu editor” that allows administrators to easily define new menus and use them to filter the list of application a user can see. [125009660100] |The matching is done using groups and menus can easily be imported and exported. [125009660110] |This new functionality is available from the menu and profile editors under System Administration menu. [125009660120] |Useful Cases [125009660130] |
  • A company providing Edubuntu support to a school district in Spain is required to have very specific menu entries and in a specific order.
  • [125009660140] |
  • A large school with many software applications installed would want different menu entries to appear depending on which grade the students are in.
  • [125009660150] |
  • A large company using LTSP wants to display different menu entries based on whether employes are in a design, administration, accounting or engineering group.
  • [125009660160] |Install Edubuntu Menu Editor in Ubuntu lucid/Karmic [125009660170] |Open the terminal and run the following commands [125009660180] |sudo add-apt-repository ppa:menueditor-devel/ppa [125009660190] |sudo apt-get update [125009660200] |sudo apt-get install edubuntu-menueditor [125009660210] |It’ll install you two different tools: [125009660220] |* The menu editor itself in Applications => System Tools => Menueditor [125009660230] |* The Profile manager in System => Administration => Profile manager [125009660240] |The first can be run by any user, it shows you a window like this one: [125009660250] |There you can create new sub-menus, copy items in them and hide items from the existing menu. [125009660260] |Then save it (as a .tar.gz archive). [125009660270] |With this archive, you can either share it with your friends/colleagues/general community or directly start the Profile manager to import it and assign it to a group. [125009660280] |On login, all users in that group will see that new menu you assigned them. [125009660290] |Credit goes here [125009770010] |tangoGPS - GTK+ mapping and GPS application [125009770020] |tangogps is an easy to use, fast and lightweight mapping application for use with or without GPS.It runs on any Linux platform from the desktop over eeePC down to phones like the Openmoko Neo. [125009770030] |By default tangoGPS uses map data from the Openstreetmap project. [125009770040] |Additionally a variety of other repositories can be easily added. [125009770050] |The maps are automagically downloaded and cached for offline use while you drag or zoom the map. [125009770060] |Furthermore you can conveniently pre-cache areas with tangoGPS. [125009770070] |Using GPS [125009770080] |If connected to a GPS your current position and track are shown on the map and you can log positional data for further processing, i.e. for geocoding photos or uploading streets to Openstreetmap. [125009770090] |Geocoded images can be shown with the correct position on the map and you can mark your favourite locations and any points of interest on the map. [125009770100] |Last not least a friend finder function lets you exchange your position with others [125009770110] |Install tangoGPS in Ubuntu [125009770120] |sudo apt-get install tangogps [125009770130] |This will complete the installation [125009770140] |Screenshots [125009770150] |Screenshots credit goes here [125013450010] |Rapid Photo Downloader 0.3.2 released and installation instructions included [125013450020] |Rapid Photo Downloader is an application for professional and amateur photographers, designed for use on the Linux desktop. [125013450030] |It can download photos and videos from multiple cameras, memory cards, and portable storage devices simultaneously. [125013450040] |It provides many flexible, user-defined options for subfolder creation, photo and video renaming, and backup. [125013450050] |Main features [125013450060] |* Generates meaningful, user configurable file and folder names [125013450070] |* Downloads photos and videos from multiple devices simultaneously [125013450080] |* Backs up photos and videos as they are downloaded [125013450090] |* Easy to configure and use [125013450100] |* Runs under Gnome, KDE and other Linux desktop environments [125013450110] |* Available in seventeen languages [125013450120] |* Program configuration and use is fully documented [125013450130] |What is new in 0.3.2 [125013450140] |* Added Norwegian Nynorsk translation. [125013450150] |Updated Chinese, Finnish, Hungarian, Dutch, Occitan (post 1500), Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, and Russian translations. [125013450160] |* Fixed crash on startup when checking for freespace, and the download folder does not exist. [125013450170] |Install Rapid Photo Downloader 0.3.2 in ubuntu 10.10/10.04/9.10 [125013450180] |Open the terminal and run the following commands [125013450190] |sudo add-apt-repository ppa:dlynch3 sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install rapid-photo-downloader [125013450200] |Screenshot [125013810010] |New Turpial available in development ppa with twitter list and identica support [125013810020] |Turpial is twitter client written in Python. [125013810030] |Light, fast, fully functional and integrated to the user desktop [125013810040] |New turpial development version is available with the following features [125013810050] |* twitter list support [125013810060] |* identica support [125013810070] |* manual refresh [125013810080] |* highlight new tweets [125013810090] |* enable disable autoscrolling [125013810100] |Note:- This is development PPA [125013810110] |Install latest turpial devel version in ubuntu 10.10/10.04/9.10 [125013810120] |open the terminal and run the following commands [125013810130] |sudo add-apt-repository ppa:effie-jayx/turpial-devel [125013810140] |sudo apt-get update [125013810150] |sudo apt-get install turpial [125013810160] |Screenshot [125013910010] |Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick ) Release Candidate released and download link included [125013910020] |Ubuntu 10.10 Release Candidate. [125013910030] |Codenamed “Maverick Meerkat”, 10.10 continues Ubuntu’s proud tradition of integrating the latest and greatest open source technologies into a high-quality, easy-to-use Linux distribution. [125013910040] |We consider this release candidate to be complete, stable, and suitable for testing by any user.Ubuntu 10.10 Desktop Edition and Ubuntu 10.10 Netbook Edition continue to focus on delivering cutting edge technologies, while preserving a crisp and clean user-focused experience. [125013910050] |Ubuntu 10.10 Server Edition provides even better integration of the Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud and other key features such as: Hadoop, Web2.0 workloads, and hypervisor technologies. [125013910060] |Ubuntu 10.10 Server for UEC and EC2 brings the power and stability of the Ubuntu Server Edition to cloud computing, whether you’re using Amazon EC2 or your own Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud. [125013910070] |Ubuntu Desktop features [125013910080] |The GNOME base platform has been updated to the current 2.32 versions.This includes the new dconf and gsettings API.Evolution was updated to the 2.30.3 version, which operates much faster than the version in Ubuntu 10.04 LTS.Shotwell has replaced F-Spot as the default photo manager.Gwibber has been updated to support the recent change in Twitter’s authentication system, as well as changing the back end storage to improve performance.The Sound Indicator has been enhanced to include music player controls. [125013910090] |The Ubuntu Software Center has an updated look and feel, including the new “Featured” and “What’s New” views for showcasing applications, and an improved package description view. [125013910100] |You can now easily access your package installation history, too. [125013910110] |New Design: The boot process is cleaner and faster. [125013910120] |New themes, new icons, and new wallpaper bring a dramatically updated look and feel to Ubuntu. [125013910130] |Ubuntu One: Polished desktop integration with new sign up and sign in process. [125013910140] |Tighter integration with Ubuntu SSO. [125013910150] |Nautilus enhancements for managing folder sync preferences. [125013910160] |Faster file sync speed. [125013910170] |Share links to music within the Ubuntu One Music Store. [125013910180] |Ubuntu Server features [125013910190] |Cloud computing: The configurable initialization process for Ubuntu Server cloud images (cloud-init) has gained new features in Maverick Beta, including pluggable hooks, ebsmount, ext4 support, and new stanzas in the cloud-config format. [125013910200] |Cloud image instances can now manage their own kernel and upgrade kernels with apt. [125013910210] |This is done by using pv-grub, provided by Amazon. [125013910220] |Ubuntu Netbook features [125013910230] |The new Unity interface is now the default in Ubuntu Netbook Edition. [125013910240] |It includes places for launching applications and browsing files, semantic search through the usage of zeitgeist, optimizing vertical space with a global menu bar and maximizing application by default. [125013910250] |A launcher is also available for keeping and dealing with mostly used applications. [125013910260] |All favorites from UNE lucid or gnome panel items and desktop shortcuts are automatically transitioned to the launcher on first run. [125013910270] |In addition to that, the date and time indicator now has a real calendar widget and is included by default. [125013910280] |Evolution is now performing a special mode more suited for netbook screen size. [125013910290] |The standard photo management application has been switched to Shotwell and UNE comes will all goodness of the Desktop Edition too.UNE needs graphical driver acceleration to be able to run. [125013910300] |Otherwise,you should be warned about missing them and will be logout and proposed to run standard ubuntu desktop session. [125013910310] |Download Ubuntu 10.10 RC [125013910320] |http://releases.ubuntu.com/10.10/ubuntu-10.10-rc-desktop-i386.iso [125013910330] |http://releases.ubuntu.com/10.10/ubuntu-10.10-rc-desktop-amd64.iso [125013910340] |Source from here [125014380010] |Geany - Small and lightweight Integrated Development Environment [125014380020] |Geany is a small and lightweight Integrated Development Environment. [125014380030] |It was developed to provide a small and fast IDE, which has only a few dependencies from other packages. [125014380040] |Another goal was to be as independent as possible from a special Desktop Environment like KDE or GNOME - Geany only requires the GTK2 runtime libraries. [125014380050] |Some basic features of Geany: [125014380060] |* Syntax highlighting [125014380070] |* Code folding [125014380080] |* Symbol name auto-completion [125014380090] |* Construct completion/snippets [125014380100] |* Auto-closing of XML and HTML tags [125014380110] |* Call tips [125014380120] |* Many supported filetypes including C, Java, PHP, HTML, Python, Perl, Pascal [125014380130] |* Symbol lists [125014380140] |* Code navigation [125014380150] |* Build system to compile and execute your code [125014380160] |* Simple project management [125014380170] |* Plugin interface [125014380180] |Geany is known to run under Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, MacOS X, AIX v5.3, Solaris Express and Windows. [125014380190] |More generally, it should run on every platform, which is supported by the GTK libraries. [125014380200] |Only the Windows port of Geany is missing some features. [125014380210] |The code is licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public Licence. [125014380220] |Install Geany in ubuntu [125014380230] |Open the terminal and run the following commands [125014380240] |sudo add-apt-repository ppa:geany-dev/ppa [125014380250] |sudo apt-get update [125014380260] |sudo apt-get install geany geany-plugins [125014380270] |Screenshot [125016120010] |Howto enable WebGL on Firefox 4 [125016120020] |WebGL is a Web-based Graphics Library. [125016120030] |It extends the capability of the JavaScript programming language to allow it to generate interactive 3D graphics within any compatible web browser. [125016120040] |WebGL is a context of the canvas HTML element that provides a 3D computer graphics API without the use of plug-ins. [125016120050] |Problem [125016120060] |After recent installation of firefox 4 i am getting the following error message [125016120070] |This Browser does not support WebGL [125016120080] |Solution [125016120090] |First you need to install the following package [125016120100] |sudo apt-get install libosmesa6 [125016120110] |After installing above package open your browser and type about:config address bar and search for webgl.osmesalib now you need to add string type as /usr/lib/libOSMesa.so.6 [125016120120] |Finall restart your firefox [125016120130] |You can check if webgl is working or not go to https://demos.mozilla.org/en-US/ and play 360° Video. [126000270010] |Understanding Computer Attacks on Ubuntu [126000270020] |Understanding Computer AttacksThere are many ways in which computer attacks can be divided, but perhaps the easiest is internal, which are computer attacks done by someone with access to a computer on the local network, and external, which are attacks by someone with access to a computer through the Internet. [126000270030] |This might sound like a trivial separation to make, but it is actually important: Unless you routinely hire talented computer hackers or allow visitors to plug computers into your network, the worst internal attack you are likely encounter is from a disgruntled employee. [126000270040] |Hacker Versus CrackerIn earlier days, there was a distinction made between the words hacker and cracker. [126000270050] |A hacker was someone who used technology to innovate in new or unusual ways, whereas a cracker was someone who used technology to attack another's computers and cause harm. [126000270060] |This distinction was lost on the general public, so the term hacker has now come to mean the same as cracker. [126000270070] |Although you should never ignore the internal threat, you should arguably be more concerned with the outside world. [126000270080] |The big bad Internet is a security vortex. [126000270090] |Machines connected directly to the outside world can be attacked by people across the world, and invariably are, even only a few minutes after having been connected. [126000270100] |This situation is not a result of malicious users lying in wait for your IP address to do something interesting. [126000270110] |Instead, canny virus writers have created worms that exploit a vulnerability, take control of a machine, and then spread it to other machines around them. [126000270120] |As a result, most attacks today are the result of these autohacking tools; there are only a handful of true hackers around, and, to be frank, if one of these ever actually targets you seriously, it will take a mammoth effort to repel him regardless of which operating system you run. [126000270130] |Autohacking scripts also come in another flavor: prewritten code that exploits a vulnerability and gives its users special privileges on the hacked machine. [126000270140] |These scripts are rarely used by their creators; instead, they are posted online and downloaded by wannabe hackers, who then use them to attack vulnerable machines. [126000270150] |So, the external category is itself made up of worms, serious day job hackers, and wannabe hackers (usually called script kiddies). [126000270160] |Combined they will assault your Internetfacing servers, and it is your job to make sure your boxes stay up, happily ignoring the firefight around them. [126000270170] |On the internal front, things are somewhat more difficult. [126000270180] |Users who sit inside your firewall are already past your primary source of defense and, worse, they might even have physical access to your machines. [126000270190] |Regardless of the source of the attack, there is a five-step checklist you can follow to secure your box:1. [126000270200] |Assess your vulnerability. [126000270210] |Decide which machines can be attacked, which services they are running, and who has access to them. [126000270220] |2. Configure the server for maximum security. [126000270230] |Only install what you need, only run what you must, and configure a local firewall. [126000270240] |3. Secure physical access to the server. [126000270250] |4. Create worst-case-scenario policies. [126000270260] |5. Keep up-to-date with security news. [126000300010] |Howto: Completely Transparent Shell on your Ubuntu desktop with Compiz Fusion [126000300020] |I will show how to create a conky'esque transparent shell using only gnome-terminal and Compiz-fusion. [126000300030] |Check out the attached screenshots. [126000300040] |First create a new profile in gnome-terminal (Edit->Profiles->New), name it "trans". [126000300050] |Set the following characteristics: [126000300060] |Cursor blinks: offShow menubar: offInitial title: transDynamically-set title: Isn't displayedColor scheme: Black on whiteTransparent Background: onSet the transparency down to "None" [126000300070] |The important part here is that now the gnome-terminal is gonna have the title trans. [126000300080] |We can now target the gnome-terminal windows that are using trans profile from inside CompizConfig by using "title=trans". [126000300090] |Open CompizConfig (System->Preferences->CompizConfig). [126000300100] |Make sure you have the regEx plugin enabled. [126000300110] |Go to the Window Decoration plugin and add "!title=trans" to the Decoration windows field. [126000300120] |This will skip adding window borders to our trans terminals. [126000300130] |Go to the Window Rules plugin. [126000300140] |Add "title=trans" to the following fields (This will turn the terminals into a widget-like windows): [126000300150] |
  • Skip taskbar, Skip pager, Below, Sticky, Non resizable windows, Non minimizable windows, Non maximizable windows, Non closable windows
  • [126000300160] |In the Fixed Size Windows section click add. [126000300170] |Use "title=trans" for the the Sized Window field and put the height and width you want for your shells. [126000300180] |Go to the Place Windows plugin, go to the Windows with fixed positions tab, in Windows with fixed positions click add. [126000300190] |Put "title=trans" in Positioned Windows field and put x and y coordinates of the default position you want for your shell (top-left corner is 0,0). [126000300200] |After they have loaded you can move them by Alt-Dragging them. [126000300210] |To run the transparent gnome-terminal use: Code: [126000300220] |gnome-terminal --window-with-profile=trans [126000300230] |Edit: dock: avant-window-navigatorwidgets: conkyconky theme: http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...&postcount=505 [126000300240] |Ubuntu Running Slow? [126000300250] |Get the performance patchset! here on this site [126000410010] |Amazing Ubuntu Wallpapers [126000410020] |check it out, here is my collection of wallpapers.. [126000410030] |Click above on any pic to be directed to my public picasa album [126000410040] |Feel free to comment telling me what you think, also if you have something I can add to my collection let me know! [126000560010] |Online Privacy and Security Alert [126000560020] |As Franklin says, "Those that would give up liberty in the pursuit of security shall have neither." [126000560030] |Recently the government has been infringing on our rights and privacy online globally. [126000560040] |This doesnt just effect the United States, the NSA in the United States is and has been logging more than 50% of all internet communications. [126000560050] |And most likely All smtp/pop/imap and webmail is probably logged and filtered for certain keywords. [126000560060] |I take Privacy & The freedoms we had and are now loosing seriously.The has been fighting for our rights for years and needs more support. [126000560070] |The EFF has fought the FBI for the past few years and got important information shedding light on DCS-3000 aka Red Hook. [126000560080] |This system logs phone communications. [126000560090] |And this is just the FBI.. [126000560100] |The NSA has the biggest [126000560110] |Surveillance [126000560120] |effects on those doing (or relying upon) the observing. [126000560130] |Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon was originally a prison so designed that the warder could watch all the prisoners at the same time. [126000560140] |By extension, this term is used to describe any technical or institutional arrangement to watch/ monitor large numbers of people. [126000560150] |It forms part of Foucault's analysis of discipline, and provides a useful metaphor for various modern technologies [126000560160] |
  • CCTV
  • [126000560170] |
  • workforce monitoring
  • [126000560180] |
  • database systems such as customer relationship management (CRM)
  • [126000560190] |
  • Google
  • [126000560200] |The panopticon provides surveillance and may result in a loss of privacy for the people being watched / monitored, but may also make people feel they are being looked after (better quality of service, safer). [126000560210] |If you know you’re being watched, this may trigger various feelings –both positive and negative. [126000560220] |Besides the impact on the people being watched, the pantopticon often has an adverse effect on the watcher. [126000560230] |The panopticon gives the illusion of transparency and completeness –so the watcher comes to believe three fallacies [126000560240] |
  • that everything visible is undistorted truth
  • [126000560250] |
  • that everything visible is important
  • [126000560260] |
  • that everything important is visible
  • [126000560270] |This is one of the reasons why surveillance mechanisms often become dysfunctional even for those doing the surveillance. [126000560280] |For example, instead of customer relationship management (CRM) promoting better relationships with the customer, it becomes a bureaucratic obsession with the content of the customer database [126000560290] |

    Why we need Tor

    [126000560300] |Using Tor protects you against a common form of Internet surveillance known as "traffic analysis." [126000560310] |Traffic analysis can be used to infer who is talking to whom over a public network. [126000560320] |Knowing the source and destination of your Internet traffic allows others to track your behavior and interests. [126000560330] |This can impact your checkbook if, for example, an e-commerce site uses price discrimination based on your country or institution of origin. [126000560340] |It can even threaten your job and physical safety by revealing who and where you are. [126000560350] |For example, if you're travelling abroad and you connect to your employer's computers to check or send mail, you can inadvertently reveal your national origin and professional affiliation to anyone observing the network, even if the connection is encrypted. [126000560360] |How does traffic analysis work? [126000560370] |Internet data packets have two parts: a data payload and a header used for routing. [126000560380] |The data payload is whatever is being sent, whether that's an email message, a web page, or an audio file. [126000560390] |Even if you encrypt the data payload of your communications, traffic analysis still reveals a great deal about what you're doing and, possibly, what you're saying. [126000560400] |That's because it focuses on the header, which discloses source, destination, size, timing, and so on. [126000560410] |A basic problem for the privacy minded is that the recipient of your communications can see that you sent it by looking at headers. [126000560420] |So can authorized intermediaries like Internet service providers, and sometimes unauthorized intermediaries as well. [126000560430] |A very simple form of traffic analysis might involve sitting somewhere between sender and recipient on the network, looking at headers. [126000560440] |But there are also more powerful kinds of traffic analysis. [126000560450] |Some attackers spy on multiple parts of the Internet and use sophisticated statistical techniques to track the communications patterns of many different organizations and individuals. [126000560460] |Encryption does not help against these attackers, since it only hides the content of Internet traffic, not the headers. [126000560470] |Resources:EFF ACTION CENTER - Support EFF by writing your Congress [126000560480] |&news on Privacy [126000940010] |Play videos within *.rar files without unpacking/extracting them in Ubuntu [126000940020] |If you download your movies and tv series only as scene releases, then you'll have to extract the release's video file from its multiple rar files. [126000940030] |That can take some time... [126000940040] |Not a horrible long time. [126000940050] |You can live with it... [126000940060] |But I learned a cool thing and thought I could share it just because I have nothing better to do... [126000940070] |You'll need the packages "unrar" and "vlc" (or "mplayer" or any other video player you may prefer). [126000940080] |Write this in a terminal if you haven't got the required packages: Code: [126000940090] |sudo apt-get install unrar vlc [126000940100] |The command to use: Code: [126000940110] |unrar p -inul /example/path/to/Some.Scene.Release/some.sr.r00 | vlc - [126000940120] |What the command does:unrar = starts unrarp = outputs the extraction data of the file-inul = disables error messages/example/path/to/Some.Scene.Release/some.sr.r00 = path to one of the scene release's rar files| vlc - = pipes the output of the extraction into vlc that starts to play the output, and therefore plays the video file that is within the rar files. [126000940130] |Don't forget the ending "-", or it won't work. [126000940140] |You can use another video player if you want, just replace "vlc" with what you want. [126000940150] |I have only tested this with vlc and mplayer. [126000940160] |One bad thing with this trick is that you can only pause and play the file, but not rewind or fast forward. [126000940170] |I only write "rarvideo somerarfile.r00". [126000940180] |How to do that: [126000940190] |Open ~/.bashrc in a text edior, using for example this command: Code: [126000940200] |gedit ~/.bashrc [126000940210] |Paste this somewhere in the file, I did it in the top of the file: Code: [126000940220] |PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin [126000940230] |Close and save the file. [126000940240] |(This makes your Bash looking in the ~/bin folder for executeable files.) [126000940250] |Make a folder in your home folder called "bin": Code: [126000940260] |mkdir ~/bin [126000940270] |Make and open in a text editor a file called "rarvideo" in ~/bin: Code: [126000940280] |gedit ~/bin/rarvideo [126000940290] |and paste this into it: Code: [126000940300] |#! /bin/shunrar p -inul $1 | vlc - [126000940310] |Close and save the file. [126000940320] |Make the file executeable with this command: Code: [126000940330] |chmod u+x ~/bin/rarvideo [126000940340] |You probably have to restart Bash, so in the terminal, type: Code: [126000940350] |bash [126000940360] |...and now you can use the command "rarvideo somerarfile.r00"!you can also right click a rar file in nautilus and choose "open with" and type in rarvideo [126001240010] |Video Howto: Crop Digital Photos in Ubuntu with Gimp [126001240020] |This video clip shows you how to crop a selected region from a digital photo using the Ubuntu image editor. [126001240030] |The selected region is then used to create a new image. [126001240040] |Quick Tips [126001240050] |* The default image editor for Ubuntu is the GIMP, or GNU Image Manipulation Program. [126001240060] |* When using GIMP, you can always right-click on an image to bring up a full menu of options. [126001320010] |Howto: Access Web Based email through Thunderbird [126001320020] |Here is a solution for the web-based email services that do not have pop3/smtp, and the ones that charge for it, this extention acts like a browser and converts the mail to pop3/smtp/imap for thunderbird. [126001320030] |Below is a list of supported web-based email services that this extension supports, following that is an easy install guide to get started, I used yahoo as an example. [126001320040] |Here is the supported web based services: [126001320050] |Ok now lets get to the good stuff and set this up! [126001320060] |First lets grab thunderbird email client, click here to have apt install it in firefox or simply do:sudo apt-get install thunderbirdNow once that is installed lets grab a few extentions for thunderbird. [126001320070] |Right click and save Webmail Extention to your desktop:WebMail ExtentionOpen up thunderbird and click on tools->Addons->Install and select the extention you saved to the desktop. [126001320080] |Now once installed restart Thunderbird and grab the addon's addon from this page. [126001320090] |Here is the yahoo extention, right click save as: Yahoo-1.3.2Open up thunderbird and click on tools->Addons->Install and select the optional extention you saved to the desktop. [126001320100] |Restart ThunderbirdNow go to the first extension which is the webmail extention, and click on preferences: there you should see the serversrunning. [126001320110] |Change the port numbers so they are above 1024 (be sure to change the ports also in your server settings when you create an account.) and then start the services pop and smtp. [126001320120] |Now go add an account and select “Webmail”. [126001320130] |Your username is your full yahoo email address. [126001320140] |(Probably the port settings are already correct. [126001320150] |Don't download your mail yet! [126001320160] |Go to Extra, Addons, Webmail, Preferences, DomainsThere you should see a list of some hotmail domains. [126001320170] |If you don't probably the servers are not running (or your firewall is blocking something.) [126001320180] |If the servers are running in the Webmail extension, but you still can't see the domain, then your WebmailData directory has incorrect permissions. [126001320190] |Give read, write and execute permissions for your user to the WebmailData directory:chmod 700 ~/.thunderbird//WebmailData [126001320200] |If you have still this problem, try to disable your firewall. [126001320210] |As root do:iptables -F [126001320220] |If you don't have this list: then you will get an error “undefined is a unsupported domain” when you try to download your email. (check your domains and servers as described before) [126001320230] |Otherwhise go to the next step [126001320240] |Click on the preferences button for the Webmail-yahoo extension now. [126001320250] |Your account willnormally already be selected. [126001320260] |For yahoo mail select “Yahoo (BETA)” [126001320270] |Download your mail, it will ask for a password, type it in and your mail should bedownloaded. [126001320280] |If you get "negative vibes from xxx@yahoo.com": this mostly means that the extension can't understand the website. [126001320290] |Make sure you select yahoo beta and if that still doesnt solve the issue, contact the developerDeveloper's Site [126001520010] |Howto: Create a SSH Tunnel for Firefox to surf securely! [126001520020] |A ssh tunnel for Firefox to a remote computer is good security measure. [126001520030] |Especially when connecting via an untrusted network like a wifi hotspot or other public networks. [126001520040] |The tunnel encrypts and sends the data to your remote machine then it is sent over the web to your destination. [126001520050] |This tutorial assumes you have an account on a remote machine you can ssh into. [126001520060] |This is a pretty easy set up. [126001520070] |Now all you need to do is login your remote computer that you have access to with SSH then issue this 1 command:ssh -D 9999 -C me@ipaddress.com [126001520080] |The -D switch - Specifies a local “dynamic” application-level port forwarding. [126001520090] |We are also adding the -C switch for compression. [126001520100] |Next we need to put the settings into Firefox. [126001520110] |Firefox> Edit> Preferences> Advanced tab> Network tab> Settings button. [126001520120] |Select Manual proxy configurationSOCKS Host: localhost Port: 9999SOCKS v5No Proxy for: localhost, 127.0.0.1 [126001520130] |Note: Sometimes localhost can cause a problem. [126001520140] |If your settings are right and it still is not working replace localhost with 127.0.0.1. [126002420010] |Howto: Run Google Android on Ubuntu [126002420020] |Well I just ordered my T-Mobile G1, I have been waiting for this phone for 2 years from when I first heard about it. [126002420030] |I also wanted to share with everyone that you all can experiment with the G1 before you even get it. [126002420040] |This is mainly for developers to test apps, but you can have fun testing the os, browser and some limited applications. [126002420050] |Howto: Install Google Android SDK in Ubuntu [126002420060] |sudo apt-get install sun-java6-bin [126002420070] |(If you are on a x86_64 system), you also must install ia32-libs:sudo apt-get install ia32-libs [126002420080] |Now go to http://code.google.com/android/download_list.html [126002420090] |Download and right click extract android to any directory of your choosing, then cd to tools in the android directory then double click on emulator! [126002420100] |Have fun! [126002450010] |Sun Just Released VirtualBox 2.0.4! [126002450020] |Changelog: [126002450030] |VirtualBox 2.0.4 (released 2008-10-24) [126002450040] |This is a maintenance release. [126002450050] |The following items were fixed and/or added: [126002450060] |VMM: better error reporting for VT-x failures VMM: don’t overflow the release log with PATM messages (bug #1775) VMM: fixed save state restore in real mode (software virtualization only) GUI: work around a Qt bug on Mac OS X (bug #2321) GUI: properly install the Qt4 accessible plugin (bug #629) SATA: error message when starting a VM with a VMDK connected to a SATA port (bug #2182) SATA: fixed Guru mediation when booting OpenSolaris/64; most likely applies to other guests as well (bug #2292) Network: don’t crash when changing the adapter link state if no host driver is attached (bug #2333) VHD: fixed bug which prevents booting from VHD images bigger than 4GB (bug #2085) VRDP: fixed a repaint problem when the guest resolution was not equal to the client resolution Clipboard: don’t crash when host service initialization takes longer than expected (Linux hosts only; bug #2001) Windows hosts: VBoxSVC.exe crash (bug #2212) Windows hosts: VBoxSVC.exe memory leak due to a Windows WMI memory leak (Vista only) (bug #2242) Windows hosts: VBoxSVC.exe delays GUI startup Linux hosts: handle jiffies counter overflow (VM stuck after 300 seconds of host uptime; bug #2247) Solaris hosts: fixed host or guest side networking going stale while using host interface networking (bug #2474) Solaris hosts: added support for using unplumbed network interfaces and Crossbow Virtual Network Interfaces (VNICs) with host interface networking Solaris hosts: reworked threading model improves performance for host interface networking Windows additions: fixed crash when accessing deep directory structures in a shared folder Windows additions: improved shared folder name resolving (bug #1728)Windows additions: fixed Windows 2000 shutdown crash (bug #2254) Windows additions: fixed error code for MoveFile() if the target exists (bug #2350)Linux additions: fixed seek() for files bigger than 2GB (bug #2379)Linux additions: support Ubuntu 8.10Linux additions: clipboard fixes (bug #2015)Web services: improved documentation and fixed example (bug #1642) [126002450070] |

    VirtualBox 2.0.4 for Linux

    [126002450080] |Please choose the appropriate package for your Linux distribution: [126002450090] |
  • Ubuntu 8.04 ("Hardy Heron") i386 | AMD64
  • [126002450100] |
  • Ubuntu 7.10 ("Gutsy Gibbon") i386 | AMD64
  • [126002450110] |
  • Debian-based Linux distributions: Add one of the following lines according to your distribution to your /etc/apt/sources.list: [126002450120] |The Sun public key for apt-secure can be downloaded here. [126002450130] |You can add this key with [126002450140] |or combine downloading and registering: [126002450150] |The key fingerprint is [126002450160] |Note: Ubuntu users might want to install the dkms package (not available on Debian) to ensure that the VirtualBox host kernel module (vboxdrv) is properly updated if the linux kernel version changes during the next apt-get upgrade.
  • [126002530010] |Amarok 2.0 Released! [126002530020] |After two years of development, Amarok 2 has arrived. [126002530030] |This arrival is just the beginning. [126002530040] |This new version brings with it a lot of changes: [126002530050] |
  • Completely redesigned user interface
  • [126002530060] |
  • Tight integration with online services such as Magnatune, Jamendo, MP3tunes, Last.fm and Shoutcast
  • [126002530070] |
  • Completely overhauled scripting API and plugin support to allow better integration into Amarok
  • [126002530080] |
  • Migration from the KDE 3 to KDE 4 framework, and utilization of core technologies such as Solid, Phonon, and Plasma
  • [126002530090] |The user interface has been redesigned to make context information like lyrics and albums from the same artist more accessible and allow you to decide which information you want to see by adding applets to the Context View in the middle. [126002530100] |The new Biased Playlists offer a way to let Amarok take care of your playlist in an intelligent way similar to Dynamic Playlists in previous versions. [126002530110] |A new service framework allows for a tight integration of online services like Jamendo, Magnatune and Ampache. [126002530120] |New services can easily be added via GetHotNewStuff in Amarok or from kde-apps.org. [126002530130] |More applets and scripts are being worked on and users are welcome to contribute more to make Amarok suit their needs. [126002530140] |The migration from the KDE 3 to KDE 4 framework allows us to make use of technologies like Plasma, Phonon and Solid which make Amarok easier to use and maintain and ready for the future of music on your computer and on the internet. [126002530150] |These are only some of the great new features of Amarok 2. [126002530160] |Give it a try! [126002530170] |Download here [126002590010] |Introducing Firetorrent - Bittorrent Extension for Firefox 3.* [126002590020] |The FireTorrent extension strives to offer the most user-friendly BitTorrent experience. [126002590030] |We've integrated the torrents manager as a seperate tab in your browser's download manager, and torrents can be downloaded from any website with a single click. [126002590040] |This results in a great user experience and should be attractive to both people that are new to downloading torrents and advanced users. [126002590050] |Install Firetorrent