Free Software Magazine runs a contest every week, where you got to answer a question and you may get a free book. This week’s book is Just Say No To Microsoft: How To Ditch Microsoft And Why It’s Not As Hard As You Think by Tony Bove. Just visit the site to see the contest details.
ODOC: useradd
useradd — Create a new user. Summary : useradd creates a new user with specified options like username, home dir, group details, password, etc … Example: # useradd usr1 — Add new user usr1 with default settings. # useradd usr1 -d /home2/usr1 — Create the new user’s home dir in /home2 # useradd usr1 -e 2005-04-30 — From 30/4/2005 the user acc will be disabled. # useradd usr1 -f 6 — After passwd expires, system will allow the user to login for 6 days with a warning to change his passwd.
Firefox unresponsive scripts warning – fix
Firefox 1.5 brings up more unresponsive script warning on sites that use heavy Javascript like Gmail than the previous version. To fix this problem, you just have to change the configuration. Type about:config in the address bar and you will get the hidden configuration page – similar to the windows registry editor. In the filter box, type dom.max_script_run_time. This will filter the options and will display only the dom.max_script_run_time. Right-click it and choose Modify.
ODOC: cdplay,cdp
cdplay, cdp — Program to Control & Play Audio CDs. Summary : cdplay is a text-mode program for controlling and playing audio CDs. cdp is same as cdplay. But it is an interactive program. It uses the NUM keypad as a control panel to allow you to move track to track, play, pause, stop, and resume playing of audio CDs. Example: $ cdp — Start in interactive mode with text based user interface.
Handbrake DVD ripper for Windows
Handbrake is a free, open source video ripper software for Mac OS X and Linux and is now available for Windows now. You can convert a DVD into an MPEG-4 or H.264 (MP4, AVI or OGM) file to watch it on your computer and easily store it. You can also save a DVD movie to your iPod or PSP with Handbrake. In windows, after unzipping the file, launch wxHB.exe to run it.
Novell Desktop Linux 10 Video Demonstration
Check out these video demonstrations of Novell Desktop Linux 10. Transparent Video, being dragged around the screen, while playing, and the window “Wobbles” while you drag it. Also switching virtual desktops looks cool (does a 3D cube affect). Looks like Alt-Tab switching is cool, and looks like it has “expose” type affects like Mac OS X.
ODOC: whereis
whereis — Locate the bin, src & man page for a file. Summary : whereis locates source/binary and manuals sections for specified files. whereis will attempts to locate the desired program in a list of standard Linux places. Example: $ whereis ls — Display the bin, src(if avail) and man page locations. $ whereis -b ls — Show only bin file location. $ whereis -m ls — Show only man page location.
Ubuntu on PowerPC
Some days ago, I wanted to try Ubuntu for PowerPC in our iMac labs and so I popped the CD and rebooted. But, I didn’t know how to make the system boot through the CD. After some searching, I found out a way to boot through the CD. Hold down the c key when booting the computer or Command-Option-Shift-Delete key combo. You will get a menu where you can choose from which media boot the computer.
ODOC: ping
ping — send ICMP ECHO_REQUEST to network hosts Summary : This is one of the most important command every system administrator must know to handle a network. Packet InterNet Groper uses the ICMP protocol’s mandatory ECHO_REQUEST datagram to elicit an ICMP ECHO_RESPONSE from a host or gateway to find whether it is alive or not. See http://ftp.arl.mil/~mike/ping.html. Example: $ ping localhost — Resolve the IP for localhost and Ping it.
25+ reasons to switch to Linux
The Linux users group (LUG) of Bellevue, Washington, recently published an article titled “25 Reasons to Convert to Linux” on the group’s Web site. The comprehensive list discusses the well-known reasons why “Businesses, educational institutions, governmental agencies and other organizations around the world are converting their computer operating systems from Microsoft Windows to Linux at an increasing pace”–cost, licensing issues, support from the community and security. Other reasons on the list for switching center around ideas of openness, in terms of the source code and file formats, and the benefits that openness offers users.
Firefox 1.5.0.1 released
Firefox 1.5.0.1 was released and it offers many stability and security updates. Here’s what’s new in Firefox 1.5.0.1: Improved stability. Improved support for Mac OS X. International Domain Name support for Iceland (.is) is now enabled. Fixes for several memory leaks. Several security enhancements. Due to the automatic update feature in 1.5, I just had to use the Check for updates feature in the Help menu. Beware not all your extensions may not work in the new update.
ODOC: mtools
mtools – Utilities to access DOS disks in Unix Summary : Mtools is a public domain collection of tools to allow Unix systems to manipulate DOS files: Read, Write, Delete & Move around files on an DOS file system (Default floppy). Each program attempts to emulate the MS-DOS equivalent command. No need to mount the DOS file system. Example: $ mdir — List files from the floppy. $ minfo — Get DOS FS info.
Open AJAX – Sets Standards for AJAX framework
IBM and dozen others have united to create an open source Ajax project to unify the lack of common tool for the popular technology of the day. The project, called Open Ajax, aims to create a single framework that standardizes development and debugging on a common library of Ajax widgets that could run on multiple Ajax runtimes. Like J2EE before it, Open Ajax is all about assembling critical mass convergence around a stack to prevent Microsoft from co-opting it.
Tux – February issue out
Tux Magazine is the first and only magazine for the new linux user. They give very important tips and tricks for getting the maximum out of your box. The latest issue#10 of February 2006 was released. To download the current issue, subscribe for FREE today. If you already have subscribed, click here.
The Feb issue has the following features:
Nmap 4.0 released
Nmap (“Network Mapper”) is an free open source utility for network exploration, administration, and security auditing. It uses IP packets in novel ways to determine which hosts are available online (host discovery), which TCP/UDP ports are open (port scanning), and what applications and services are listening on each port (version detection). It can also identify remote host OS and device types via TCP/IP fingerprinting. Nmap offers flexible target and port specifications, decoy/stealth scanning for firewall and IDS evasion, and highly optimized timing algorithms for fast scanning.
ODOC: nameif
nameif — NAME network InterFaces based on MAC addresses. Summary : nameif is used to rename the network interfaces based on MAC addresses. It is useful, when you have more then one network interfaces/cards & you want to specify the name (eth0, .. ) for each interfaces. Example: # nameif — Read the config info from /etc/mactab file. # nameif -s — Same as above. But error messages goto the syslog.
WordPress 2.01 released
WordPress 2.0 made big waves at the blogging world, and soon everyone upgraded to the new wordpress blog engine. But, there were some bugs and sometimes I felt that the older 1.5 version was better. But, the import tool for Blogger was really nice and I love it. Exactly 1 month after version 2.0 was released, the 2.01 version has been released. The wordpress development team has squashed out 114 bugs.
ODOC: locate
locate — Quick search for files Summary : Locate provides a secure way to index and quickly search for files on your system. The index database to make searching faster and file permissions and ownership info will give the security. Example: $ locate myfile — Locate myfile in the DB and Print the path. $ locate -i MyFile — Same as above. But Case insensitive. $ locate -q myfile — Run in Quiet Mode.
Python2.4 Quick Reference
Found this really nice quick reference guide for Python 2.4 via Digg. You can have all the basics and necessary information about the language(my favourite) into a nicer and compact form. I think I got to get a printout of this one and keep it handy. Technorati Tags: python, python+2.4, python+guide
Firefox 1.5 in Ubuntu Breezy
Ubuntu Breezy 5.10 users search for installing Firefox 1.5 on their boxes. So, I thought of writing a tutorial. I am writing this using the information in the Ubuntu Wiki. There are a few points to note before installing Firefox 1.5. Don’t remove the Ubuntu version of Firefox, otherwise, you will break a few packages You will no longer get automatic updates through repositories, but the auto-updater built in firefox is enough The Totem video plugin doesn’t work.