February 21, 2005
Lynx browser user pleads not guilty
The tsunami aid hacker pleads not guilty. He made a pledge via LYNX and was arrested for it.
Personal note: You have to love stupidity. LYNX? Come on. Why was this guy arrested, and even placed on trial? Most linux users have used lynx and the hardcore usually cannot get away from it since it is the only text-based browser available (besides the couple of spin-offs). Idiocy of non-techies.
Posted by darkmoon at 11:58 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 18, 2005
IBM to spend $100 million
IBM is to spend $100 million in the next three years on the push for Linux.
Slashdot < BBC
Posted by darkmoon at 11:53 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 17, 2005
Reaching remote servers through OpenSSH
A short but sweet tutorial on linux.com on OpenSSH. For anyone that has worked on any sort of remote login, they know to use SSH. For those that don't know, better read this quick and dirty tutorial.
Posted by darkmoon at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 13, 2005
Linspire 4.5 for free with coupon
Linspire 4.5 for free here coupon here. Take a look if you want. Retail is $49.95.
Posted by darkmoon at 10:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 12, 2005
FireFoxIE
If you're having troubles shifting over to FireFox, but you are sick of the popup ads and the other security holes of Internet Explorer, FireFox now has a new extension! FireFoxIE, an extension to FireFox that makes it look and feel like Internet Explorer without the problematic issues.
For most users using FireFox, there is not really a need for this extension. For converting current Internet Explorer users, please take some time to read ALL of the tutorial. There is quite a bit that needs to be done to make everything feel the same. Estimated time: 5-15 minutes.
Posted by darkmoon at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 11, 2005
Microsoft security chief says Windows is more secure than Linux
Mike Nash claims that Microsoft Windows Server 2003 has only had to endure a total of fifteen patches last year, which was better than RedHat and SUSE. Obviously he misses the point. Microsoft usually takes their sweet time with patches. Linux usually has a twenty-four hour turn around on security exploits. So perhaps you only had fifteen patches, Mr. Nash, but how many holes are there left to be exploited in your product? Many more than I care to count.
Via Slashdot
Posted by darkmoon at 12:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 09, 2005
Need to access a corrupt CD/DVD image?
The best way to access a CD/DVD image is through Smart Projects' IsoBuster. This little tool will allow you to recover files from a trashed CD/DVD, or scanning the files in images. This is a Windows application, but works under Linux's Wine.
Freeware/Shareware.
Posted by darkmoon at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 04, 2005
Access your home server remotely!
Anyone that has been in the corporate arena has probably heard of Symantec's PCAnywhere, a program that let's you take control of computers at work, or home just as you would logging into the computer itself (except in a window).
Opensource provides a couple of great solutions. The easiest would probably be RealVNC. VNC stands for Virtual Network Computing. This is how it works.
The second to try would be TightVNC. There are a number of features that make it superior to the original VNC, but that is up to you to decide.
The last would be FreeNX. FreeNX is a bit more difficult to install, but has vastly better networking abilities. What does this mean? You can remote-control your computer over a 56k modem. Original based on NoMachine's proprietary NX where the core was open-sourced. A howto is here to help those that are interested in pursuing a server/client system based on FreeNX.
All of these solutions allow the user to be mobile, but access the power wherever it may be without bringing it along. Useful? Definitely.
Posted by darkmoon at 12:01 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
February 03, 2005
Curious as to how much traffic your server puts out? MRTG is your friend
I saw and used MRTG back when it was released in 1995. It has come a long way since then. MRTG (Multi Router Traffic Grapher) basically shows you a graph of how much you are outputting via your network, and how much traffic is accessing your server. Yes, INPUT/OUTPUT. Banded together with a statistics package (Webalizer or AWSTATS), this can be a very formidable tool in the weaponchest of a server administrator.
Screenshots of MRTG here.
MRTG-eth.pl is a perl script that can setup MRTG without setting up an SNMP daemon. Too much information? Just go take a look.
Posted by darkmoon at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 02, 2005
Linuxchix Courses
LinuxChix has a bunch of linux courses. Current courses include:
* Computing Careers
* Firewalls
* GIMP
* Linux commands
* The UNIX filesystems
Take a look if you're interested in learning linux.
Via LinuxChix
Posted by darkmoon at 04:01 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 01, 2005
Want to optimize your bootup in Linux?
There are a couple ways to optimize a linux bootup.
You can:
1) Optimize your kernel - recompile your kernel so that all the essential things boot straight from kernel, maximizing speed.
2) Optimize your current boot configuration (services)
3) Run stage 2 processes in parallel
First you must diagnose your kernel. I suggest to use BootChart. Bootchart is a wonderful program that documents what services are proceeding at what time during the bootup and gives you a timeline and CPU usage outlook. This helps clean up some services and re-time bootup sequences.
You can do the first by following step-by-step on The Linux Documentation Project's website here. For specific distributions, there are easier ways to do this.
The second step is simple. Take a look at your init.d and turn off any services that you do not need to use at bootup. For a laptop, this may include ftp server services, ssh server services, etc.
The third step, I would suggest to take a look at runit. Simply, runit takes your stage 2 and processes services in parallel instead of one at a time. This will maximize your processor load and decrease bootup time.
Posted by darkmoon at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 29, 2005
"You show me a secure MS OS and I will show you a flying pig."
Amusing article on Lockergnome. A senior Microsoft executive [Nick McGrath] in the UK claims that there is no security in linux and that it is a myth. Lockergnome responds with words that even I would tear over:
You show me a secure MS OS and I will show you a flying pig. Windows compatibility; yes. Windows security; give me a break
Thank you Lockergnome for my first techie laugh all morning.
Posted by darkmoon at 10:23 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
December 14, 2004
Linux more stable than Windows with fewer bugs
Wired has an article stating that according to a four-year analysis of the 5.7 million lines of Linux source code conducted by five Stanford University computer science researchers, the Linux kernel programming code is better and more secure than the programming code of most proprietary software. The report, set to be released on Tuesday, states that the 2.6 Linux production kernel, shipped with software from Red Hat, Novell and other major Linux software vendors, contains 985 bugs in 5.7 million lines of code, well below the industry average for commercial enterprise software. Windows XP, by comparison, contains about 40 million lines of code, with new bugs found on a frequent basis. Commercial software typically has 20 to 30 bugs for every 1,000 lines of code, according to Carnegie Mellon University's CyLab Sustainable Computing Consortium. This would be equivalent to 114,000 to 171,000 bugs in 5.7 million lines of code.
Personal note: Let's put it another way. Who didn't know this?
Posted by darkmoon at 10:35 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
December 11, 2004
Redhat and IBM team to certify Linux apps
Redhat and IBM are teaming up to help certify Linux applications. This will create more enterprise level applications that run on Redhat Enterprise Linux on IBM hardware. It's great to see the corporate structures backing Linux have been are looking into the future of computing and seeing that it is a feasible and great alternative solution to Microsoft.
Slashdot covers this in greater detail.
Posted by darkmoon at 11:41 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
December 08, 2004
PalmSource to run Palm OS Cobalt on Linux
PalmSource is acquiring ChinaMobilesoft, a leading chinese company that uses linux for mobile devices. This is an effort to put together a proprietary PalmOS software layer that sits on top of a linux kernel. This is an effort to bolster the runnings against Microsoft PocketPC devices that has been demolishing PalmSource's market share.
Here is the open letter to the Palm community (PDF).
Here is the open letter to the linux community (PDF).
Personal note: Haven't we heard this before? While the technologies are slightly different, MacOSX is based on a BSD kernel, with the GUI interface as a layer on top of the stable kernel. This has significantly raised the stability and performance of Apple's operating system and has definitely played a part in gaining market share from nerds that like stability.
Posted by darkmoon at 11:26 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 30, 2004
Linux wins again: Attacked only 0.26% of the time.
In a blurb on Slashdot, where it says that given a Windows XP SP1 stock load, and a Mac stock load, with a linux stock load, the Windows was exploited on average in about four minutes. FOUR! The linux system was only hit about 0.26% of the time. That's amazing. And people wonder why the switch to linux wouldn't be advantageous...
Posted by darkmoon at 07:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack