tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56896747546063212302023-11-15T08:32:15.956-08:00linuxgamesSignintooldBloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12590597811671007387noreply@blogger.comBlogger30125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689674754606321230.post-45368284126103431592010-04-13T06:05:00.000-07:002010-04-13T06:06:40.767-07:00Is the Blackbox Black Inside ?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://tldp.org/LDP/LG/issue76/misc/fillil/fillil2002january22.png"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 625px; height: 250px;" src="http://tldp.org/LDP/LG/issue76/misc/fillil/fillil2002january22.png" alt="" border="0" /></a>SignintooldBloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12590597811671007387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689674754606321230.post-86981905509155189342010-02-27T23:07:00.000-08:002010-02-27T23:12:51.393-08:00The Google Toilet !!Google comes up everytime with new Innovations...I found one, which i think is going to be the most innovative Invention of google so far. What u think?<br /><br /><object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/vX_O-7CH6ig&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/vX_O-7CH6ig&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object><br /><br />Leave your comments...SignintooldBloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12590597811671007387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689674754606321230.post-51131690025161769642008-01-22T23:54:00.000-08:002008-01-23T00:01:23.636-08:00The 15 Essential UNIX commands<p>Learning UNIX is a seemingly daunting task, there are thousands of commands out there, each with hundreds of options. But in reality you only <em>need</em> to know a few of them.</p><br /><p>I use unix quite a bit, usually either on one of our Linux servers, or on my Powerbook with OS X. And these are the 15 commands that I use most. If you can memorize these 15 commands, you can do quite a bit on a unix operating system, and add unix as a skill on your resume. </p><br /><p><strong>The 15 Most Important UNIX commands</strong></p><br /><ol><br /><li><strong>man</strong> - show manual for a command, example: <code>man ls</code> hit <code>q</code> to exit the man page.</li><br /><li><strong>cd</strong> - change directory, example: <code>cd /etc/</code></li><br /><li><strong>ls</strong> - list directory, similar to <code>dir</code> on windows. example: <code>ls /etc</code>, use <code>ls -l /etc</code> to see more detail</li><br /><li><strong>cp</strong> - copy a file or directory, example: <code>cp source dest</code> if you want to copy a directory use the <code>-R</code> option for recursive: <code>cp -R /source /dest</code></li><br /><li><strong>mv</strong> - move a file, example: <code>mv source dest</code></li><br /><li><strong>rm</strong> - remove a file, example: <code>rm somefile</code> to remove a directory you may need the -R option, you can also use the -f option which tells it not to confirm each file: <code>rm -Rf /dir</code></li><br /><li><strong>cat</strong> - concatenate, or output a file <code>cat /var/log/messages</code></li><br /><li><strong>more</strong> - outputs one page of a file and pauses. example: <code>more /var/log/messages</code> press <code>q</code> to exit before getting to the bottom. You can also pipe to more <code>| more</code> from other commands, for example <code>ls -l /etc | more</code> </li><br /><li><strong>scp</strong> - secure copy, copies a file over SSH to another server. example: <code>scp /local/file user@host.com:/path/to/save/file</code></li><br /><li><strong>tar</strong> - tape archiver, tar takes a bunch of files, and munges them into one <code>.tar</code> file, the files are often compressed with the gzip algorithm, and use the <code>.tar.gz</code> extension. to create a tar <code>tar -cf archive.tar /directory</code>, then to extract the archive to the current directory run <code>tar -xf archive.tar</code> to use gzip, just add a <code>z</code> to the options, to create a tar.gz: <code>tar -czf archive.tar.gz /dir</code> to extract it <code>tar -xzf archive.tar.gz</code></li><br /><li><strong>grep</strong> - pattern matcher, grep takes a regular expression, or to match a simple string you can use fast grep, <code>fgrep failure /var/log/messages</code>, I'm usually just looking for a simple pattern so I tend to use fgrep more than regular grep.</li><br /><li><strong>find</strong> - lists files and directories recursively on a single line, I usually pipe grep into the mix when I use find, eg: <code>find / | fgrep log</code></li><br /><li><strong>tail</strong> - prints the last few lines of a file, this is handy for checking log files <code>tail /var/log/messages</code> if you need see more lines, use the <code>-n</code> option, <code>tail -n 50 /var/log/messages</code> you can also use the <code>-f</code> option, which will continuously show you the end of the file as things are added to it (very handy for watching logs) <code>tail -f /var/log/messages</code></li><br /><li><strong>head</strong> - same as tail, but shows the first few lines the file</li><br /><li><strong>vi</strong> - text editor, there are several text editors such as emacs, and nano, but vi is usually installed on any server so its a good one to learn. To edit a file type <code>vi file</code> to edit a line press <code>Esc i</code> then to save changes and exit use <code>Esc wq</code>, or to quit without saving use <code>Esc q!</code>. There are a million other commands, but that will enable you to edit files at a basic level.</li><br /></ol><br /><p>Once you learn these commands, and are comfortable with them, you shouldn't stop there, there are lots of other commands that can make your life easier.</p><br /><p>Did I miss any commands that you think are essential to using a UNIX based operating system?</p>SignintooldBloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12590597811671007387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689674754606321230.post-34110659585815289022007-12-25T06:39:00.000-08:002007-12-25T06:42:54.346-08:00The Most Complete List of Repositories for openSUSE 10.2Here is the most complete list of repositories that you can ever-ever find on this planet, Earth, for your openSUSE 10.2 Linux. If you do manageto find few more, just holla<br /><br />Caution: May I remind you, that by adding unknown (what those repos contain) and untested (the ones which are considered as unstable) repositories, you might damage your openSUSE 10.2 integrity (dependencies and so forth, the worst being you are unable to load your favourite application). Don’t just blindly add them, make sure what you are doing. Also, even if you decide to add them all, it will definitely take time everytime you launch Yast Saftware Manager (with option refresh turned ON) or SMART (when updating repo db), as they will need to download quite a lot on what new is available. Well, you understood me I hope.<br /><br />[server-apache-php-extensions]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = server-apache-php-extensions<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/server%3a/php%3a/extensions/server_apache_openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[Guru]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = Guru<br />baseurl = http://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/misc/suser-guru/rpm/10.2/RPMS/<br /><br />[KDE-Playground]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = KDE-Playground<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/KDE:/Playground/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[KDE-Backports]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = KDE-Backports<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/KDE:/Backports/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br /><br />[gladiac]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = gladiac<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/home%3a/gladiac/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[kommerck]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = kommerck<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/home%3a/kommerck/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[d7]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = d7<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/home%3a/d7/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[mlasars]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = mlasars<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/home%3a/mlasars/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[qfix]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = qfix<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/qfix/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[suse-non-oss]<br />type = yast2<br />name = SUSE 10.2 Add-On Repository with non-OSS Packages<br />baseurl = http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/10.2/repo/non-oss<br /><br />[cgoncalves]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = cgoncalves<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/home%3a/cgoncalves/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[dmayr]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = dmayr<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/home%3a/dmayr/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[editors]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = editors<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/editors/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[Games-roleplay]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = Games-roleplay<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/games:/roleplay/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[Adventure-Games]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = Adventure-Games<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/games:/adventure/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[Apache]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = Apache<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/Apache/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[Games-strategy-realtime]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = Games-strategy-realtime<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/games:/strategy:/realtime/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[server-php]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = server-php<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/server%3a/php/server_apache_openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[kkemenczy]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = kkemenczy<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/home%3a/kkemenczy/openSUSE102/<br /><br />[rpm-sys]<br />type = rpm-sys<br />name = RPM System<br /><br />[Apache Modules]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = Apache-Modules<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/Apache:/Modules/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[elvigia]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = elvigia<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/home%3a/elvigia/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[Banshee]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = Banshee<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/Banshee/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[sndirsch]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = sndirsch<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/home%3a/sndirsch/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[Games-strategy-turn-based]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = Games-strategy-turn-based<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/games:/strategy:/turn-based/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[Wine]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = Wine<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/Emulators:/Wine/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[suse-wine]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = Latest wine packages<br />disabled = yes<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/Emulators:/Wine/openSUSE_10.2<br /><br />[werner2101]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = werner2101<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/home%3a/werner2101/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[snorp]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = snorp<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/home%3a/snorp/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[Sax]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = Sax<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/SaX2/SL10.2/<br /><br />[michal-m-php4]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = michal-m-php4<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/home%3a/michal-m%3a/php4/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[lrupp-edu]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = lrupp-edu<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/home%3a/lrupp%3a/EDU/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[thomas-schraitle]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = thomas-schraitle<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/home%3a/thomas-schraitle/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[Board-Games]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = Board-Games<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/games:/board/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[sax2]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = sax2<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/home%3a/sax2/10.2/<br /><br />[appleonkel]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = appleonkel/<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/home%3a/appleonkel/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[lmich]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = lmich<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/home%3a/lmich/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[isc-dhcp]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = isc-dhcp<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/server%3a/isc-dhcp/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[OpenSync-devel]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = OpenSync-devel/<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/OpenSync-devel/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[mge1512]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = mge1512<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/home%3a/mge1512/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[KDE-Community]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = KDE-Community<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/KDE:/Community/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[wrosenauer]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = wrosenauer<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/home%3a/wrosenauer/SL-10.2/<br /><br />[eIDconfig-belgium]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = eIDconfig-belgium<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/eIDconfig-belgium/openSUSE_Factory/<br /><br />[network-aaa]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = network-aaa<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/network:/aaa/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[jimfunk]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = jimfunk<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/home%3a/jimfunk/SUSE-10.2/<br /><br />[poeml]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = poeml<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/home%3a/poeml/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[RemoteDesktop]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = RemoteDesktop<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/X11:/RemoteDesktop/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[dsteuer]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = dsteuer<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/home%3a/dsteuer/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[Beineri]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = Beineri<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/home%3a/Beineri/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[php-applications]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = php-applications<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/server%3a/php%3a/applications/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[kraxel]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = kraxel<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/home%3a/kraxel/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[server-monitoring]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = server-monitoring<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/server%3a/monitoring/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[kukuk]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = kukuk<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/home%3a/kukuk/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[faust3]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = faust3<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/home%3a/faust3/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[netmax]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = netmax<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/home%3a/netmax/SUSE_Linux_10.2/<br /><br />[suse-mozilla]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = Latest mozilla.org packages<br />disabled = yes<br />baseurl = ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/projects/mozilla/10.2<br /><br />[xfce]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = xfce<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/X11:/xfce/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[php-extensions]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = php-extensions<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/server%3a/php%3a/extensions/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[Packman]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = Packman<br />baseurl = http://packman.iu-bremen.de/suse/10.2/<br /><br />[sdrahn]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = sdrahn<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/home%3a/sdrahn/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[openSUSE-10.2]<br />type = yast2<br />name = openSUSE-10.2<br />baseurl = http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/10.2/repo/oss/<br /><br />[Mozilla-Factory]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = Mozilla-Factory<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/mozilla/SUSE_Factory/<br /><br />[X11-Utilities]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = X11-Utilities<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/X11:/Utilities/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[bwalle]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = bwalle<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/home%3a/bwalle/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[server-mail]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = server-mail<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/server%3a/mail/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[tsieden]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = tsieden<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/home%3a/tsieden/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[anagappan]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = anagappan<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/home%3a/anagappan/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[lrupp]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = lrupp<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/home%3a/lrupp/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[steve-beattie]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = steve-beattie<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/home%3a/steve-beattie/openSUSE-10.2/<br /><br />[NX]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = NX<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/NX/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[fisu81]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = fisu81<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/home%3a/fisu81/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[FunkyPenguin]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = FunkyPenguin<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/home%3a/FunkyPenguin/SUSE_Linux_10.2/<br /><br />[openchrome]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = openchrome<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/X11:/Drivers:/Video:/openchrome/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[cthiel1]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = cthiel1<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/home%3a/cthiel1/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[GPhoto]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = GPhoto<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/GPhoto/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[Science]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = Science<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/science/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[M17N]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = M17N<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/M17N/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[GNOME-Stable]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = GNOME-Stable<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/GNOME:/STABLE/SUSE_Linux_10.2/<br /><br />[netmask]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = netmask<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/home%3a/netmask/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[jnweiger]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = jnweiger<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/home%3a/jnweiger/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[Action-Games]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = Action-Games<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/games:/action/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[openSUSE-10.2-non-oss]<br />type = yast2<br />name = openSUSE-10.2-non-oss<br />baseurl = http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/10.2/repo/non-oss/<br /><br />[mhopf]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = mhopf<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/home%3a/mhopf/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[openSUSE-Tools]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = openSUSE-Tools<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/openSUSE:/Tools/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[KDE-QT]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = KDE-QT<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/KDE:/Qt/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[adrianSuSE]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = adrianSuSE<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/home%3a/adrianSuSE/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[rbos]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = rbos<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/home:/rbos/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[mrcin]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = mrcin<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/home%3a/mrcin/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[suse]<br />type = yast2<br />name = SUSE 10.2 Repository<br />baseurl = http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/10.2/repo/oss<br /><br />[Education Desktop]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = Education-Desktop<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/Education:/desktop/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[hgraeber]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = hgraeber<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/home%3a/hgraeber/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[eID-belgium]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = eID-belgium<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/eID-belgium/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[openSUSE-update]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = openSUSE-update<br />baseurl = http://suse.mirrors.tds.net/pub/suse/update/10.2<br /><br />[net-snmp]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = net-snmp<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/net-snmp/SuSE_Linux_10.2/<br /><br />[GNOME-Community]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = GNOME-Community<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/GNOME:/Community/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[Riggwelter]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = Riggwelter<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/home%3a/Riggwelter/10.2/<br /><br />[xorg73]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = xorg73<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/xorg73/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[xorg72]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = xorg72<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/xorg72/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[maw]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = maw<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/home%3a/maw/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[KDE3]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = KDE3<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/KDE:/KDE3/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[data-generic-games]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = data-generic-games<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/games:/data/Generic/<br /><br />[kukuk-images]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = kukuk-images<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/home%3a/kukuk%3a/images/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[multimedia-photo]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = multimedia-photo<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/multimedia:/photo/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[hennevogel]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = hennevogel<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/home%3a/hennevogel/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[php]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = php<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/server%3a/php/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[XGL]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = XGL<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/X11:/XGL/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[Games-puzzle]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = Games-puzzle<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/games:/puzzle/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[server-messaging]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = server-messaging<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/server%3a/messaging/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[msvec]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = msvec<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/home%3a/msvec/openSUSE_10.2/<br /><br />[Kolab]<br />type = rpm-md<br />name = Kolab<br />baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/server%3a/Kolab/openSUSE_10.2/SignintooldBloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12590597811671007387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689674754606321230.post-228482945184582722007-12-15T04:41:00.000-08:002007-12-15T04:43:42.857-08:0049 Open Source Projects in the SpotlightThis is something every opensource lover should know!Too often, open source projects labor in near obscurity. No corporate stipend, no team of publicists, no media blurbs for every new release. But the open source community is a vital source of productive creativity – truly an engine of the future.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;">Audio Tools<br /></span><br />1. <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/audacity">Audacity</a> This cross-platform sound recorder and editor receives high marks for its speed and ease of use. Key features include envelope editing, mixing, and built-in effects; supported formats include WAV, AIFF, Ogg, and MP3.<br />2. <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/lmms">Linux MultiMedia Studio</a>Think you have what it takes to be a record producer? LMMS lets you create music on your computer, including creating loops, synthesizing and mixing sounds, arranging samples, and more.<br />3. <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/jajuk">Jajuk</a> If you have a large or scattered music collection, Jajuk is for you. This jukebox provides a lot of advanced features for users who know what they’re doing, while also being relatively intuitive.<br /><span style="font-size:180%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:180%;">Communication</span><br /><br />4. <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/mumble">Mumble</a> With Mumble, you can easily talk to other players while gaming, and the voices seem to come from the on-screen characters. Plus, the echo cancellation feature means you won’t get those annoying reverberation effects from your microphone picking up the sound from your speakers.<br />5. <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/epresence">ePresence Interactive Media</a>Developed at the University of Toronto, ePresence claims to be “the world's first open source webcasting and conferencing solution.” It is designed to support conferences, online meetings, seminars, and demonstrations. Click the “Project Web Site” link from the link above to check out some of the (mostly educational) presentations created with ePresence.<br />6. <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/elastix">Elastix</a> With final code just released November 2007, Elastix is a brand-new appliance software for Asterisk-based PBX systems. It combines a lot of the most popular Asterisk tools with a unique interface, utilities, and add-ons for a complete open-source VoIP system.<br />7. <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/trixbox">trixbox</a> Formerly known as Asterisk@home, trixbox is another VoIP solution based on the Asterisk PBX software. Ideal for home or small business users, the Web-based interface makes the software easy to set up and use.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;"></span><span style="font-size:180%;">Desktop Enhancements</span><br /><br />8. <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/lcars24">LCARS 24</a> Ever wish your screen looked like those cool interfaces on Star Trek? LCARS 24 offers an alarm clock, calendar, games, maps, etc. all with look of the displays on the Enterprise. It’s probably not something you’d install on your regular computer, but you might want to use it to turn an old DOS laptop into a useful conversation piece.<br />9. <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/synergy2">Synergy</a> If you’ve got more than one computer sitting on your desk, Synergy let’s you use the same mouse and keyboard for both. It works cross-platform, so it’s great if you switch back and forth between a Linux machine and a Windows machine, or a Windows machine and a Mac, etc.<br />10. <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/lxde">LXDE</a> Lightweight X Desktop Environment does just what the name suggests: it offers a fast desktop for Linux/Unix systems that doesn’t consume a lot of power or memory. Unlike a lot of similar projects, each of the components can be installed separately, so you can use only the pieces you want.<br />11. <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/lazarus">Lazarus</a> Lazarus offers a complete and easy-to-use programming environment for FreePascal. It runs on Windows, Linux, OS X, and FreeBSD.<br />12. <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/jedit">jEdit</a> This java-based text editor provides auto-indent and syntax highlighting for more than 130 different programming languages. Its huge library of add-ons gives programmers nearly every feature you could hope for in a text editor.<br />13. <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/dnn">DotNetNuke</a> DotNetNuke offers an alternative application framework for the Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 platform. If offers enterprise users a versatile, user-friendly means to create cutting-edge Web applications.<br />14. <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/mantis">Mantis</a> This Web-based bug tracker is free, easy to install, and available in 68 different languages. Written in PHP, it works with MySQL, MS SQL, or PostgreSQL databases and multiple platforms.<br /><span style="font-size:180%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:180%;">Education</span><br /><br />15. <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/gcompris">GCompris</a> GCompris provides an open source alternative in a category that has very few open source options—children’s educational software. Although the Windows version is somewhat limited, the Linux version offers more than 100 activities for kids age 3 to 10.<br />16. <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/logicampus">LogiCampus Educational Platform</a> Built by a college in Texas, LogiCampus gives educational institutions a free way to manage distance learning and on-campus classes. It gives educators the tools they need to set up an online class and stay in touch with students, and it simplifies tasks like exam scheduling, ordering textbooks, and making course changes.<br />17. <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/wikindx">WIKINDX</a> Having trouble keeping track of all those sources you’re using to write your thesis? WIKINDX manages your quotes, notes, and citations so that they’re easy to search. Best of all, it formats the bibliography information for you based on your choice of style guide.<br /><span style="font-size:180%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:180%;">Enterprise</span><br /><br />18. <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/openbravo">Openbravo ERP</a> This Web-based enterprise resource planning tool offers small- and medium-sized businesses the benefits of integrated systems management without the high cost. It includes customer resource management (CRM), business intelligence (BI), procurement and warehouse management, project and service management, production management, and financial management capabilities.<br />19. <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/compiere">Compiere</a> Compiere ERP + CRM Business Solution is designed specifically for the distribution, retail, manufacturing, and service industries. It includes components for managing and reporting on projects, financial management, point-of-sale, e-commerce, service, sales, order management, manufacturing, materials management, purchasing, and performance management.<br />20. <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/openmailarchiva">MailArchiva</a> Thanks to all the new compliance requirements, many organizations must pay closer attention to how long they store e-mail and other messages. MailArchiva works with Exchange and other popular messaging systems to provide long-term storage with an easy “Google-like” search capability.<br />21. <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/covide">Covide</a> Covide offers web-based groupware and customer relationship management (CRM) in a single package. It can also integrate with PBX systems to provide VoIP services.<br />22. <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/openemm">Open EMM</a> This professional e-mail newsletter and marketing software offers many of the features of commercial products, including event- and time-driven transaction e-mails. It makes it easy to manage bounced e-mails, as well as providing advanced tracking and statistics.<br /><span style="font-size:180%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:180%;">Finances<br /></span><br />23. <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/buddi">Buddi</a> Buddi makes it easy to set up a household budget and track your finances, even if you’ve never done it before. The feature set is purposefully small so that financial novices won’t get confused, but it does allow you to create reports and graphs so that you can see exactly where all your money went.<br />24. <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/gfd">GFD</a>This personal finance manager runs on any Java-enabled operating system and is available in 11 different languages. While it’s still easy for novices to use, it includes some advanced filtering, report, and chart capabilities for tracking your household finances.<br /><span style="font-size:180%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:180%;">Games<br /></span><br />25. <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/freecol">FreeCol</a> Remember the old game Colonization? This is a free version where you start with a few colonists on a boat and try to create an independent nation. (Also similar to Civilization.)<br />26. <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/pokerth">PokerTH</a> Have you fallen prey to the Texas Hold ‘Em craze? PokerTH lets you play against up to six computer opponents or online players from around the world.<br />27. <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/scorched3d">Scorched3D</a>This is a 3D version of the old DOS game Scorched Earth. In case you don’t remember how it’s played, you use your tanks to try to blow up your opponent’s tanks. The new version has much better graphics, as well as changing environmental conditions and the ability to network with 24 other online players at a time.<br />28. <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ufoai">UFO:Alien Invasion</a>In this futuristic sci-fi game, you and your secret organization must defend the earth against an alien invasion. While you hurry to maneuver your troops for tactical advantage in skirmishes with the aliens, you also have to try to uncover the secret alien plot in time to save humanity from certain doom.<br /><span style="font-size:180%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:180%;">Graphics<br /></span><br />29. <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/inkscape">Inkscape</a> If you’d rather not spend the many, many dollars you need to stay up-to-date on the latest releases of Adobe Illustrator, try Inkscape. This vector graphics editor is compatible with Windows, OS X, and Linux, and it includes features like transparency, gradients, node editing, pattern fills, PNG export, and more.<br />30. <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/aoi">Art of Illusion</a> This 3D modeling and rendering studio boasts many of the features of much more expensive applications, including subdivision surface based modeling tools, skeleton based animation, and a graphical language for designing procedural textures and materials. And because it’s built in Java, it’s platform-independent.<br /><span style="font-size:180%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:180%;">Groupware</span><br /><br />31. <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/group-office">Group-Office</a>Group-Office groupware allows work groups to share calendar, project management, e-mail, tasks, addressbook, and file management information. It works with the company Intranet or the Internet, and users can use any browser they like.<br />32. <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/simplgroup">Simple Groupware</a> Built in sgsML for easy customization, Simple Groupware is a standards-based enterprise-ready groupware application. It offers email, calendaring, contacts, tasks, document management, synchronization with cell phones and Outlook, and full-text search. Plus, it’s simple to install, update, use, and adapt to your needs.<br />Messaging<br />33. <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/amsn/">aMSN</a> Have friends who only use MSN for instant messaging? This platform-neutral MSN messenger clone lets you keep in touch without actually using a Microsoft product.<br />34. <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/squirrelmail">SquirrelMail</a> The “Webmail for Nuts” is written in PHP and renders pages in pure HTML 4.0 for maximum compatibility. An active community has developed more than 65 plug-ins that extend SquirrelMail’s capabilities and make it even easier to use.<br />35. <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/miranda">Miranda IM</a> This instant messaging client for Windows aims to be “smaller, faster, easier.” It supports multiple protocols, including AIM, Jabber, ICQ, IRC, MSN, Yahoo, and Gadu-Gadu, and it has hundreds of handy plug-ins as well.<br /><span style="font-size:180%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:180%;">Miscellaneous<br /></span><br />36. <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/stardict">StarDict</a> Modestly calling itself “the best free dictionary program in Linux and Windows,” StarDict searches multiple international dictionary databases to find the correct spelling, definition, and/or translation for any word. The latest version (released November 2007) includes full-text translation, fuzzy queries, and more.<br />37. <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/gramps">Gramps</a> Genealogy continues to be one of the country’s most popular hobbies, and Gramps (Genealogical Research and Analysis Management Programming System) gives you many of the tools of more costly family tree tracking applications for free. It was developed by genealogists and offers a huge wiki of advice for how to trace your ancestry. Plus, its name is one of the best acronyms we’ve ever seen.<br />38. <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/navit">NavIt</a> NavIt is an open-source alternative for in-vehicle navigation. It works with multiple maps and is touch-screen friendly.<br />39. <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/gnaural">Gnaural</a> It already does everything else--now your computer can help you meditate. Using something called the “binaural beat principle,” Gnaural generates audio tones designed to get you in the right frame of mind for relaxation.<br /><span style="font-size:180%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:180%;">Multimedia</span><br /><br />40. <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/mediaportal">MediaPortal</a> MediaPortal aims to turn your PC or TV into a complete media center. It combines DVR capabilities with a radio tuner, audio player, video player, and more.<br />41. <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/niceplayer">NicePlayer</a> NicePlayer calls itself “Quite simply, the nicest media player for Mac.” The base version plays the same types of files as QuickTime, and add-ons provide support for most other types of video files.<br />42. <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/xine">xine</a> Xine plays CDs, DVDs, and VCDs, as well as decoding and playing most types of audio and video files. Written in Assembly and C, Xine works with OS X, Linux, FreeBSD, and Solaris.<br />Photography<br />43. <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/gallery">Gallery</a> Gallery makes it easy to add a photo library to your personal or business Web site. Key features include user authentication, automatic thumbnails, mirroring, themes, and more.<br />44. <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/souvenance">Souvenance</a> Unlike most photo gallery programs, the XML-based Souvenance doesn’t require a separate database, making it really fast to deploy. It was just released in October of 2007, so it’s still a very much work in progress.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;"></span><span style="font-size:180%;">Office Productivity<br /></span><br />45. <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/openproj">OpenProj</a> This project manager will look and feel very familiar to users of Microsoft Project, and it even opens MSProject files. It works on multiple platforms, and was downloaded more than 100,000 times in the first month it was released.<br />46. <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/portableoo">OpenOffice.org Portable</a> Now you can take the entire OpenOffice.org suite (Writer, Impress, Math, Draw, Calc, Base) with you wherever you go. Simply load OpenOffice.org onto a USB drive, CD, iPod, or other portable drive and you can use the programs without installing them in your system.<br />47. <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfsam">PDF Split and Merge</a> Need to cut a long pdf file down to size? Or would you like to combine two shorter documents? PDF Split and Merge lets you do both without having to purchase the costly software.<br />48. <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator">PDFCreator</a> As you might expect, PDFCreator creates PDF files from any Windows program. It can also create PNG, JPG, TIFF, BMP, PCX, PS, and EPS files, as well as encrypting PDF files.<br />49. <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/platasoft">MultiMedia Office</a> This package from Plata Software combines some of the most popular open source software into a single package. It includes OpenOffice.org, Audacity, GIMP, VirtualDub, Thunderbird, and Opera.SignintooldBloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12590597811671007387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689674754606321230.post-89758461065709063872007-11-29T20:07:00.000-08:002007-11-29T20:08:31.418-08:00Most sexiest and Beautiful ubuntu wallpapers you had ever seen!Here is the list of <strong>sexy</strong> <strong>wallpapers</strong> for <strong><a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/" class="alinks_links" onclick="return alinks_click(this);" title="" rel="external">Ubuntu</a></strong> and actually for any other <strong><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux" class="alinks_links" onclick="return alinks_click(this);" title="" rel="external">Linux</a></strong> distribution. Every wallpaper can be downloaded from <a href="http://gnome-look.org/" target="_blank">gnome-look.org</a>.<p></p><br /><table width="100%"><br /><tbody><tr><br /><td><a href="http://www.gnome-look.org/CONTENT/content-files/61311-Terrific_orange.jpg"><img src="http://www.gnome-look.org/CONTENT/content-files/61311-Terrific_orange.jpg" border="0" width="200" /></a></td><br /><td><a href="http://www.gnome-look.org/CONTENT/content-files/61310-Terrific_red.jpg"><img src="http://www.gnome-look.org/CONTENT/content-files/61310-Terrific_red.jpg" border="0" width="200" /></a></td><br /></tr><br /><tr><br /><td><a href="http://www.wallpaperbase.com/wallpapers/computer/linux/linux_14.jpg"><img src="http://www.wallpaperbase.com/wallpapers/computer/linux/linux_14.jpg" border="0" width="200" /></a></td><br /><td><a href="http://www.gnome-look.org/CONTENT/content-files/58870-Terrific%20system_xga1bis.jpg"><img src="http://www.gnome-look.org/CONTENT/content-files/58870-Terrific%20system_xga1bis.jpg" border="0" width="200" /></a></td><br /></tr><br /><tr><br /><td><a href="http://www.gnome-look.org/CONTENT/content-files/63962-ubunku_sxga.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="http://www.gnome-look.org/CONTENT/content-files/63962-ubunku_sxga.jpg" border="0" width="200" /></a></td><br /><td><a href="http://www.gnome-look.org/CONTENT/content-files/56226-aria-elfe02bis.jpg"><img src="http://www.gnome-look.org/CONTENT/content-files/56226-aria-elfe02bis.jpg" border="0" width="200" /></a></td><br /></tr><br /><tr><br /><td><a href="http://www.gnome-look.org/CONTENT/content-files/53946-Gladiator2.jpg"><img src="http://www.gnome-look.org/CONTENT/content-files/53946-Gladiator2.jpg" border="0" width="200" /></a></td><br /><td><a href="http://www.gnome-look.org/CONTENT/content-files/52405-Pure3-xga.jpg"><img src="http://www.gnome-look.org/CONTENT/content-files/52405-Pure3-xga.jpg" border="0" width="200" /></a></td><br /></tr><br /><tr><br /><td><a href="http://www.gnome-look.org/CONTENT/content-files/52597-regard1.jpg"><img src="http://www.gnome-look.org/CONTENT/content-files/52597-regard1.jpg" border="0" width="200" /></a></td><br /><td><a href="http://www.gnome-look.org/CONTENT/content-files/52404-System%20immunized_sxga.jpg"><img src="http://www.gnome-look.org/CONTENT/content-files/52404-System%20immunized_sxga.jpg" border="0" width="200" /></a></td><br /></tr><br /><tr><br /><td><a href="http://www.gnome-look.org/CONTENT/content-files/65629-Exotica_sxga.jpg"><img src="http://www.gnome-look.org/CONTENT/content-files/65629-Exotica_sxga.jpg" border="0" width="200" /></a></td><br /><td><a href="http://www.gnome-look.org/CONTENT/content-files/52263-Bloodbuntu_xga.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="http://www.gnome-look.org/CONTENT/content-files/52263-Bloodbuntu_xga.jpg" border="0" width="200" /></a></td><br /></tr><br /></tbody></table>SignintooldBloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12590597811671007387noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689674754606321230.post-16317604649358276052007-11-26T09:53:00.000-08:002007-11-26T09:55:30.123-08:00Ten Firefox extensions to keep your browsing private and secureMost people lock their doors and windows, use a paper shredder to protect themselves from identity theft, and install antivirus software on their computers. Yet they routinely surf the Internet without giving a second thought to whether their browser is secure and their personal information safe. Unfortunately, it's easy for someone with nefarious intentions to use a Web site to glean data from -- or introduce spyware to -- your computer. Even worse, sometimes all you have to do is randomly click on a site to have your data probed in a most unwelcome way.<br /><br />Mozilla Firefox has several security settings you can adjust via the Preferences pane, but there are also more than 150 privacy and security extensions you can add as well. They are easy to install and take little time to set up; some even work automatically after you restart your browser. Let's have a look at some of the most popular and most useful.<br />One of the best ways to protect your computer is to prevent the browser from using JavaScript at Web sites without permission. JavaScript, though useful for developing glitzy Web sites, has gained something of a reputation as a method for doing <a href="http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2115638,00.asp">Bad Things</a> to unsuspecting computers. <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/722">NoScript</a> is an extension that makes every site that uses JavaScript ask your permission before running it. NoScript can render JavaScript-heavy sites unreadable, but it provides a whitelist of acceptable sites that you can easily add to in order to speed up your surfing experience.<br />Many people use <a href="http://www.torproject.org/">Tor</a> to hide their online surfing habits. <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3606">FoxTor</a> provides a way to mask and unmask your browser on the fly, without having to commit to anonymous surfing throughout an entire browsing session. It requires the use of Tor and <a href="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy</a>.<br />Your browser's history logs help provide a speedier surfing experience for you. Unfortunately, skilled hackers can peek at them remotely to see where you've been. Deleting log information after each browsing session would slow you down, but fortunately, there's another way. Don't delete your data -- hide it with <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1502">SafeHistory</a>.<br />Some of the most sensitive information sent over the Internet travels via email, so many people prefer to send their messages encrypted. The <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/592">Gmail S/MIME</a> extension encrypts Gmail messages, including attachments, automatically, as long as you have the recipient's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_key_certificate">digital certificate</a>.<br />While Firefox 2 has <a href="http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/phishing-protection/">built-in phishing protection</a>, it never hurts to have a backup plan. The premise behind <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/957">Petname</a> is simple: leave reminder notes on your trusted Web sites and the notes will automatically appear each time you return. If you surf to what you assume is one of your whitelisted sites and no reminder note appears, you'll know something's not right. This extension is particularly useful if you're running an older version of Firefox without anti-phishing protection.<br /><a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/135">SecurePasswordGenerator</a> is a long name for a little extension that sits in your toolbar and helps you create unique passwords. Half the battle of staying safe online is using complex and different passwords whenever you register at a Web site. Use this tool to help you create a unique password everywhere you go.<br />Have you ever wondered where the information you type into an online form goes once you hit "send"? With <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1579">FormFox</a>, you can find out. Once you download and enable this extension, hovering your mouse over the data field of a form or search box will reveal exactly who receives the information you enter. Use this extension to check out an unfamiliar Web site before you cough up your name, address, and credit card information while doing your online holiday shopping.<br />Many people use disposable or temporary email addresses around the Internet to avoid email spam. Although spam is generally considered more of a nusiance than a security issue, there are occasions when a disposable address may be a safer option than providing a real one (on message forums, for example). There are several temporary email services to choose from; the <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1813">TrashMail.net</a> Firefox extension makes that service an attractive choice.<br />Sometimes you need to protect your information from the prying eyes of people around you. If you're surfing at an airport or local coffee shop, people wandering past can have a look at the titles of the tabs you have open. <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2363">Page Title Eraser</a> lets you either blank out the title and icon in your browser's tabs, or replace the text with something of your choice.<br />When trying to protect your privacy, the last thing you want is for a Web site to collect data on what you do while you visit: where you click, how long you view a page, and so on. That's called profiling. While it's harmless if a site tracks data on how long it took you to read an article on how to install a video game, most people feel that there's no reason a Web site needs to know anything about your surfing habits, even if it's only to collect data for marketing purposes.<br />Most extensions and tools commonly used to prevent data profiling by search engines work by concealing information from outsiders. <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3173">TrackMeNot</a> takes the opposite approach and actually sends out a bunch of information for the search engines to process. Of course, it sends mostly false information, which means your search activities remain hidden from view and search engines won't glean any meaningful data from your visit.<br />These are only a few of several dozen privacy and security extensions available for Firefox; you can find a larger list at <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/browse/type:1/cat:12">Mozilla's Web site</a>. Tools like these can make your surfing experience safer, but remember: nothing is foolproof, and talented hackers can still find ways to pull information from your system if they try hard enough. Always be careful.SignintooldBloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12590597811671007387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689674754606321230.post-12147540553737301592007-11-25T04:12:00.000-08:002007-11-25T04:16:48.992-08:00Will GNU AGPLv3 boost Open Source SaaS support?The new version of the <a href="http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/agpl-3.0.html">GNU Affero General Public License </a>has been published by the Free Software Foundation, based upon the existing GNU GPLv3 license but with one important difference: support for on-demand software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications. By publishing this license, the FSF aims to foster user and development communities around network-oriented free software.<br /><br />The GNU Affero General Public License is a free, copyleft license for software which has been specifically designed to ensure cooperation with the community in the case of network server software. It is intended to guarantee the freedom to share and change versions of a program, ensuring it remains free for all its users. So while the GNU General Public License enables the user to make a modified version of the software and provide pubic access to it via a server but without ever actually releasing its source code, the Affero version is designed from the ground up to ensure that this modified source code is made available to the wider community. Specifically, it requires the operator of that network server to provide the source code of the modified version running upon it to the users. <br /><br />Although this new license is based upon developments by San Francisco-based volunteers rating and reputation company Affero, responsible for the Affero General Public License based upon GPLv2, and which aimed to achieve similar ends, it is not the same and should not be thought of as a version of that license. According to the FSF, Affero has released a new version of the Affero GPL which permits relicensing under this new GNU AGPLv3 license. Affero confusion apart, it is hoped that by introducing this new license the Software as a Service development arena will find favour with the Open Source community. FSF board member Benjamin Mako Hill said, “The GNU GPL has been the most successful free software license because it makes a program's source available to its users. This enables massive collaboration between developers, since everyone gets the same benefits from this rule. The GNU AGPL will enable the same kind of cooperation around web services and other networked software.”SignintooldBloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12590597811671007387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689674754606321230.post-45758627881418083472007-11-23T21:20:00.000-08:002007-11-23T21:21:08.281-08:00Apple Ignoring Game DevelopersWhen Valve called Apple out for not taking games and game developers seriously, nobody really paid much attention. Despite Valve’s offerings in terms of games, they never really did anything for the Mac and so these were seen as outside comments. Between this and the later news about the large amount of money asked by the company for a Mac port of Half-Life 2, the arguments just weren’t that convincing. Now, longtime Mac developer id software is singing the same song.<br /><br />John Carmack has criticized Apple for its game related decisions, concluding that the company simply does not get this market. Despite joining Jobs on stage at WWDC, to renew his studio’s commitment to the platform, the legendary game developer is not very<br />optimistic about gaming on the Mac.<br />To further dive his point, Carmack points towards Apple’s handling of games on both the iPod and iPhone.<br /><br />The two mobile devices may not be Macs, but they are a product that can support games and that requires special attention from Apple in order to ensure that game developers can actually develop.<br />Instead of making sure that these developers can flourish, Apple has done the exact opposite, locking the two devices and giving only the most rudimentary access. In the case of the iPod, when development was finally allowed, developers had to work with an emulator. With the iPhone and iPod touch, the company refuses to allow any development until the native software development kit is released in February next year.<br />Both of these decisions make developing games for these platforms highly impractical.<br />"The honest truth right now is that Apple's not exactly hugely supportive of [games for the iPhone]," Carmack says. "When they finally allowed games to be put on the iPod... in many ways it's one of the worst environments to develop games for. You have to work on an emulator... just all these horrible decisions."<br /><br />This is not too different from what valve was saying and does indicate that the company as a whole simply disregards the entire game market. While this seems to be the case, Apple isn’t exactly being hounded by their stance.<br />"[Apple's] strategy seems to be working just fine from a business standpoint, so I'm not going to second guess them and tell them they're being fools or idiots for not focusing on this," the developer admits.<br />While all of Apple’s products are doing well even despite the lack of commitment to games, this market remains an important one for many users and it could be very beneficial to the company if only it could be bothered to do anything about it.SignintooldBloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12590597811671007387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689674754606321230.post-68856959915310164712007-11-23T21:19:00.000-08:002007-11-23T21:20:03.189-08:00What Will Windows 7 Bring to the Table After Windows Vista?<span style="font-size: 10px; font-weight: normal; color: rgb(108, 122, 161); font-family: Verdana;"><span>With Windows Vista far from being the last mammoth release of the Windows operating system as we know it, Microsoft is increasingly focusing on Windows 7. Stripped down of its Vienna codename, following the development strategy implemented by Steven Sinofsky, Senior Vice President, Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group, debuted with the introduction of product numbers, Windows 7 is currently set for 2010, in both 32-bit and 64-bit flavors. At the same time, there are generally only scarce details related to Windows 7 available, most of which do not benefit from any official confirmation from Microsoft.<br /><br />But one aspect of the operating system, that the Redmond company will evolve, concerns the ecosystem of programs and applications built on top of the platform. In this context, Windows 7 could be synonymous with an overhaul of how the Windows client handles the deployment, configuration and management of third-party software products integrated into its fabric in an effort to improve installation, stability, performance etc.<br /><br />Well, according to the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=Akej57TdItQ01DFWdxIepw_3d_3d&c=tdpebl1">Windows Survey on Deploying and Configuring Applications</a>, Microsoft is quite interested in the impact of the User Account Control on the development, installation and configuring of applications. While it is highly unlikely that the company is considering dropping UAC, the security mitigation could be tweaked as a consequence of the feedback received. But at the same time, Microsoft is pointing to a simpler installation experience that does not by any means require elevation of privileges.<br /><br />Microsoft is also questioning developers in relation to the diagnostics and troubleshooting process of application failures, as well as extensive repair options, complete uninstall and a separation of the program from Windows in order to avoid conflicts and errors impacting the operating system. Still, by the repetition of the topic involving the lack of administrative privileges for future applications for Windows 7 it appears that the UAC is here to stay.<br /></span></span>SignintooldBloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12590597811671007387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689674754606321230.post-81592734476301386302007-11-23T21:17:00.000-08:002007-11-23T21:19:01.798-08:00Illegal Downloads To Be Banned In France<span style="font-weight: normal; color: rgb(108, 122, 161);font-family:Verdana;font-size:10;" ><span>The French authorities seem to be prepared to launch a campaign against the illegal downloaders in the country as they want to stop the distribution of pirated music and videos. According to Financial Times, President Nicolas Sarkozy wants to create a special government body which will be responsible for blocking these illegal downloads. But what's more interesting is that the authorities want to remove the access to the Internet for the ones discovered as illegal downloaders. Although some of you might believe this move is way too harsh, it can be pretty efficient as the pirates will be unable to download additional illegal files after they are first detected.<br /><br />In case you're wondering how they will get the information about the users who download pirated content, it's quite easy to obtain it since the ISPs are able to monitor the entire activity. This way, every time a consumer accesses an application flagged as illegal, the authorities could start an investigation. The targeted applications are obviously the peer-to-peer and file sharing solutions. The copyright holders and the Internet service providers will probably become partners for the government as this move can reduce the pirated content distributed inside the country.<br /><br />"In exchange for the clampdown on illegal downloading, the music industry has agreed to make individual downloads of archive French material available on all types of players by dropping digital rights management protection," Financial Times added. "The French film industry has agreed to release DVDs more quickly after a film’s first cinema screening, reducing the delay from 7½ months to 6 months."<br /><br />As far as I can see, this seems to be the most important move made by the French authorities to reduce software piracy and encourage users to download only genuine software, music or movies. However, there are way too many more steps to do until this huge phenomenon stops so let's hope some of the pirates will get scared and will stop distributing pirated content.<br /></span></span>SignintooldBloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12590597811671007387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689674754606321230.post-80912299577138735872007-11-23T18:47:00.000-08:002007-11-23T18:49:14.778-08:00Linux Foundation's Desktop Linux Survey Results"While the <a href="http://www.linux-foundation.org/en/Main_Page">Linux Foundation</a>'s third annual desktop Linux survey doesn't officially end until November 30th, the number of daily respondents have shrunk to a trickle and the Foundation is working on analyzing the results. They now have up <a href="http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS9488592005.html">an early look at the raw data.</a> For starters, almost 20,000 self-selected users filled out this year's survey compared to fewer than <a href="http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS6598704165.html">10,000 in 2006's survey</a>. Not surprisingly, the Ubuntu family of Linuxes is the most popular among organizations, at 54.1 percent. This was followed by the Red Hat family — RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux/Fedora/CentOS) — with 50.2 percent. The Novell SUSE group — SLED (SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop) and openSUSE — came in third, with 35.2 percent."SignintooldBloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12590597811671007387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689674754606321230.post-24430618678973479442007-11-23T04:35:00.000-08:002007-11-23T04:37:13.966-08:00An Open Letter to the Community: A Proposed Solution<p><b>UPDATE, 11/14/07:</b> <i>A motion was informally submitted to the OGB for discussion and endorsement of this proposal. Today that proposal was placed on the meeting agenda however <b>no</b> member of the board was willing to even submit it for discussion or debate. This proposal is therefore, for the time being, dead and this author is saddened by the continued lack of action on the part of the OGB to even advance the discussion. This only further enforces the reality that change will come from within Sun, not from the OpenSolaris Community or its Board.</i></p><p>The following is an open letter to the OpenSolaris Community, of which Sun Microsystems is a member, as a response to the great naming debacle.</p><p>We stand at a crossroads. Two paths before us: success and failure. Two parties opposed: Sun Microsystems and "the community". One simple problem: will Project Indiana take on the name "OpenSolaris'.</p><p>Does that sentence seem overly dramatic? Yes. Is it untrue? No. The situation we find ourselves in is nothing short of madness, utter confusion and chaos. With the success of Project Indiana's maiden voyage we should be more unified and excited than ever, but alas we are not. We stand more divided than ever... over a name.</p><p>Ian Murdock came to Sun as a savior. He did not invent something great, rather he brought together greatness in a unified force. Project Indiana was its name. When Solaris was without direction, when our future was clear but path unknown, he brought together the projects and persons together necessary to chart that path. In the course of that work he sought to solve a simple yet important problem: "Where do I download OpenSolaris? How do I run it?" This is a branding problem, a naming problem, with powerful implications and a hurtle to success. The answer lies in the question... the distribution must be called OpenSolaris.</p><p>But OpenSolaris carries a variety of meanings now. Most importantly, it carries two:</p><ol><li>OpenSolaris is currently synonymous with "Nevada", the Open Source (CDDL) code base. This may be used by a Distribution such as Nexenta ("Based on OpenSolaris"; "Based on OpenSolaris Technology", in this cased meaning the source), by a provider such as Joyent ("Built On OpenSolaris"; in this case meaning Solaris Express), etc. <li>OpenSolaris refers to the community around the code, in a wide variety of projects and efforts. This may be used by a Users Group ("Silicon Valley OpenSolaris Users Group"), a project or effort ("OpenSolaris Desktop Project"), etc. None of these things use the term to mean any one product in specific but rather the whole.</li></ol><p>Hence our dilemma. To name the distribution OpenSolaris is to confuse the term by making something fairly generic mean something very specific... yet, to name the product/distribution something other than OpenSolaris is to create yet a different type of confusion. Is there no solution? Is this a perpetual stalemate?</p><p>I believe there is a solution and that everyone can win. Whats more, I believe that the only true solution is a win-win solution. I believe that Ian Murdock is a worthy leader and I also believe that the community has legitimate concerns.</p><p>I therefore humbly submit that OpenSolaris's reference distribution, Project Indiana, name become: <b>OpenSolaris RD</b></p><img src="http://www.cuddletech.com/img/opensolaris-rd.png" /> <p>This name provides a variety of advantages:</p><p>For the community, OpenSolaris RD is clearly delineated, drawing on the OpenSolaris brand but being distinct at the same time.</p><p>For Sun, this provides a clear, hip, conventionally accepted naming scheme that is extensible over time. Taking up the name "OpenSolaris" alone is short sited. Because of the nature of the distribution a fully supported version will need to be created for ISV Qualification, etc, down the road. This qualified version will be a customized version of OpenSolaris RD and perhaps named OpenSolaris GS ("Genric Server") or OpenSolaris DS ("Data Server"). Furthermore, specific pre-canned varieties can extend yet futher without confusion: OpenSolaris HPC, OpenSolaris HA, etc. Given that there are several plans for appliances in the next year, this naming scheme can bring them into the mix as well, and later provides a simplified naming convention for picking the binary distribution thats right for you.</p><p>I believe that my proposed naming provides advantages to both the OpenSolaris Community and to Sun Microsystems, where we can both share the brand, monitize the brand, and minimize confusion both now and down the road.</p><p>The current actions of both Sun and the OpenSolaris Governing Board are gear toward a stalemate at this time. The OGB is deciding on a official position statement regarding the issue, yet allowed a review of that statement by Bill Franklin (representing Sun Microsystems) prior to declaring it an official position; this simply defeats the purpose of making such a statement given that the purpose of such a statement is to send a clear message to Sun on where it stands. The motions currently pending seek not to resolve the problem but rather to post-pone any steps toward a real resolution. I believe that my proposed naming offers a long term solution to end the current line of motions and put it firmly behind us, and back on a unified path of glory.</p><p>It is with great humility that I request the serious consideration of this proposal by Sun Microsystems (represented by Bill Franklin), Project Indiana Founder and Chief OS Strategist Ian Murdock, and the OpenSolaris Governing Board.</p><p>In closing, I believe in light of recent frustrations that a word be devoted to Mr Ian Murdock. I have had the pleasure of meeting with him several times since coming to Sun and getting to know his mind. I believe with ever core of my being that he is one of the most open minded and receptive technologists that I've ever met. I am personally offended by the various accusations that he is closed minded or inflexible. I humbly ask the community to consider that there are many persons at Sun who have various agenda's which are in several cases being unfairly placed on him. He has tried to be open and honest with the community and repaid with mockery and condescending remarks. It is, in my opinion, of the utmost importance that we quickly resolved this naming controversy, re-group, organize ourselves, and work together with Ian Murdock toward a brighter future for OpenSolaris and Sun Microsystems. Our best hope for the future of all parties is his continued leadership; we tried it without him for 2 years and got no where, now, because of his leadership, regardless of your personal opinion of him, his decisions, or his execution, we have come further than we previously could have seen ourselves in 2-5 years. I applaud Ian Murdocks leadership, his honesty, and his commitment to this process.</p>SignintooldBloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12590597811671007387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689674754606321230.post-92150759620612532962007-11-22T09:22:00.000-08:002007-11-22T09:23:56.009-08:00Facebook's Beacon service turns users into living ads, but at what cost?<span id="intelliTxt"> <p><b>Facebook's new Beacon advertising platform, which leverages its users' news feeds as a sort of personal endorsement for products and services used, is already coming under heavy criticism.</b></p> <p>On November 6, Facebook launched an advertising system called Beacon that consists of a partnership between the popular social network and 44 other sites. The system allows a user's activity outside of Facebook to be recorded and then posted on his or her news feed. </p> In Beacon, when a user is logged into a Facebook session while simultaneously browsing another participating site, that site records behavioral events pertaining to the user's actions. The user is prompted with an opt-out message, alerting him that his action will be posted to his news feed unless he chooses not to. If the user misses this message in some way or it never pops up -- which is reportedly a common occurrence -- the feed item is posted by default. <p>Merchandise purchases, rentals of films and games, streaming videos being viewed, or reviews being written and submitted, all trigger events that are linked back to the user's Facebook page as an update that friends can view.</p> <p>For example, <b>News Feed: 'Tim purchased <i>How to be a Better Writer</i> on Amazon.com'</b> would be broadcast to everyone I'm connected with on Facebook.</p> <p>One big problem with this system may be that it's turned <i>on</i> by default, and requires multiple opt-outs when using more than one participating site. The political activism site Moveon.org has gotten into the act, declaring Beacon a <a href="http://civ.moveon.org/facebookprivacy/071120email.html" target="_blank">glaring violation of Facebook users' privacy</a>, and offering an online petition for users to submit grievances to the social networking site.</p> <p>"Facebook says its users can 'opt out' of having their private purchases reported to the world," writes MoveOn. "But the link is easy to miss. And even if you do 'opt out' for purchases on one site, it doesn't apply to purchases on another site--you have to keep opting out over and over again. The obvious solution is to switch to an 'opt in' policy, like most other applications on Facebook."</p> <p>Perhaps more importantly, Beacon uses a customer's buying habits as product or service endorsements with no reward given to that person as an endorser.</p> <p>True, Beacon could be heralded as an advertising breakthrough, blurring the line between advertiser and consumer, but the potential problems with the system could be far too numerous, far too soon. One user complained that Christmas gifts she purchased from Overstock.com were announced on on her Facebook page item by item, effectively negating any level of surprise. Another user's charitable donation on Kiva, intended to be anonymous, was advertised in his news feed without his knowledge. </p> <p>In the meantime, as Beacon peels back a layer of security, it appears to be forcing users to consider the social ramifications of their purchases.</p> <p>Participating sites include AllPosters.com, Blockbuster, Bluefly.com, CBS Interactive (CBSSports.com & Dotspotter), ExpoTV, Gamefly, Hotwire, Joost, Kiva, Kongregate, LiveJournal, Live Nation, Mercantila, National Basketball Association, NYTimes.com, Overstock.com, (RED), Redlight, SeamlessWeb, Sony Online Entertainment LLC, Sony Pictures, STA Travel, The Knot, TripAdvisor, Travel Ticker, TypePad, viagogo, Vox, Yelp, WeddingChannel.com and Zappos.com.</p> <p>For its part, Facebook dismissed the assertion by MoveOn.org that it is misleading users and turning them into advertisements.</p> <p>"We encourage feedback from our users on new products," the company said in a statement, "but in this case, the MoveOn.org-led group misrepresents how Facebook Beacon works. Beacon gives users an easy way to share relevant information from other sites with their friends on Facebook."</p> <p>"Information is shared with a small selection of a user's trusted network of friends, not publicly on the Web or with all Facebook users. Users also are given multiple ways to choose not to share information from a participating site, both on that site and on Facebook," the company added.</p> <p>But as anyone using such sites knows, social networks do not just connect a user's closest friends, but also colleagues and acquaintances. With many users counting hundreds or thousands of "friends" on Facebook, and an individual's Beacon information available to anyone in the same network, the threat to privacy is a big one.</p> <p>Facebook also did not specifically address concerns about why its service is opt-out, rather than opt-in. Of course, the problem for the site is that if Beacon notices were opt-in, few users may actually turn them on, limiting a great deal of revenue for a company that has struggled to monetize tens of millions of users.</p></span>SignintooldBloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12590597811671007387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689674754606321230.post-85022657962758626782007-11-20T04:23:00.000-08:002007-11-20T04:27:27.925-08:00Audacity 1.3.4 Beta Released<p><br />Just keeps getting better - the Audacity team has released another update to their popular cross-platform, open source digital audio editing application. The Audacity 1.3.x beta line features a ton of options that aren’t available in the 1.2.x stable versions. For example, it’s much easier to move sound files from one track to another or to split and manipulate audio tracks.<br /></p><p align="center"><img src="http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/9195/audacity134qb8.jpg"></p><p><br />Audacity 1.3.4 beta features a ton of small, but important updates, including:<br /><em>A new welcome screen<br />Enhanced Windows Shell integration, meaning you should be able to access Audacity from Windows dialogs like “open with.”<br />New keyboard commands and shortcuts<br />The solo track button actually does what you’d expect and mutes all other tracks<br />Metadata editor added for OGG, FLAC, and WAV/AIFF exports</em><br /></p><p>As usual, Audacity 1.3.4 beta is available for Linux and Windows platforms, though for OS X is still 1.3.3 beta. More info here can be found <a href="http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/features-1.3-a" target="_blank">here.</a></p>SignintooldBloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12590597811671007387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689674754606321230.post-86880958843732475662007-11-18T08:24:00.000-08:002007-11-30T18:04:28.423-08:00Top Ubuntu Linux Games<a href="http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:CF0AMNkGAPDQmM:http://www.newlaunches.com/entry_images/0906/26/nokia_n95_3.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 132px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 101px" height="234" alt="" src="http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:CF0AMNkGAPDQmM:http://www.newlaunches.com/entry_images/0906/26/nokia_n95_3.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><p><span style="font-family:georgia;"><em><a href="mailto:nithinrc@yahoo.com">get brand new nokia n95 for $385 , n73 for $250 ( original with warranty cards)</a></em></span></p>Also <a href="mailto:nithinrc@yahoo.com">contact me</a> for any phone models at cheap rates..<br />(free shipping)<br /><br /><p></p><br /><br /><p></p><p>If you’ve switched to Ubuntu (as I have) or any other Linux distribution, you may consider the following free (and in most cases open-source) games, as they’ve been favorites of mine for some time now.</p><br /><br /><br /><p><strong>1. Tremulous</strong></p><br /><br /><br /><p><a href="http://tremulous.net/" target="_blank">Tremulous</a> is an addictive first person shooter (FPS) that has countless gamers on at all hours from both the Linux and Windows worlds. As all other games in this article, Tremulous is free to download and play.</p><br /><br /><br /><p>In Tremulous there are two teams: Aliens and Humans. Aliens can have such awesome feats as wall-walking (dizzying to say the least), pouncing from great distances, and spraying poisonous gases. Humans can obtain advanced weaponry and armor, and plant strategic devices such as turrets to defend their base.</p><br /><br /><br /><p><span id="more-6"></span>Tremulous features a unique upgrade system, where players from each team must make a certain number of kills to gain new upgrades (aliens can evolve into more powerful aliens, and humans can obtain better items and gear).</p><br /><br /><br /><p><br /><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" height="350" width="425" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/vlGWi4Tmzc0" wmode="transparent"><br /><br /></object></p><br /><br /><br /><p>To install under Ubuntu:</p><br /><br /><br /><p><strong><span style="font-size:0;">sudo apt-get install tremulous</span></strong></p><br /><br /><br /><p><strong>2. Gridwars</strong></p><br /><br /><br /><p>Grid wars has <a href="http://www.incitti.com/Blitz/" target="_blank">been removed from the creators</a> website, however you can still install it in on Linux, Windows, or Mac by doing a quick <a href="http://www.caiman.us/scripts/fw/f2317.html" target="_blank">search</a>.</p><br /><br /><br /><p>There is a distinct retro top-down-shooter look and feel to this game, but any thought that this is a vintage game is blown out of the water once you see the stunning liquid visuals that this game provides.</p><br /><br /><br /><p><br /><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" height="350" width="425" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/6thaR7s1wXA" wmode="transparent"><br /><br /></object></p><br /><br /><br /><p><strong>3. VDrift</strong></p><br /><br /><br /><p><a href="http://vdrift.net/" target="_blank">VDrift</a> is a Linux racing game with a focus on drifting. Quite frankly, VDrift sucks if you only have a keyboard and mouse. If you’re nerd enough to have a PC joystick or gamepad, you’ll get the most out of this little gem.</p><br /><br /><br /><p><br /><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" height="350" width="425" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/97JGsp6cNT0" wmode="transparent"><br /><br /></object></p><br /><br /><br /><p>To install VDrift on Ubuntu:<br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size:0;">apt-get install vdrift vdrift-data</span></strong></p><br /><br /><br /><p><strong>4. World of Padman</strong></p><br /><br /><br /><p><a href="http://www.worldofpadman.com/" target="_blank">World of Padman</a> is a rather toony first-person shooter which combines fast gameplay, brilliant colors, and the Quake3 engine (massively supported by today’s hardware standards).</p><br /><br /><br /><p>There is no aptitude installer for World of Padman, so if you’d like to try this out you’ll need to visit the World of Padman website <a href="http://padworld.myexp.de/index.php?files" target="_blank">Download section</a>.</p><br /><br /><br /><p><br /><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" height="350" width="425" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/wXxJlj4hNr8" wmode="transparent"><br /><br /></object></p><br /><br /><br /><p><strong>5. Nexuiz</strong></p><br /><br /><br /><p><a href="http://www.alientrap.org/nexuiz/" target="_blank">Nexuiz</a> is another Quake3 mod, but with some of the best weapons this side of Half Life 2.</p><br /><br /><br /><p><br /><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" height="350" width="425" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/tNQIToJn9mw" wmode="transparent"><br /><br /></object></p><br /><br /><br /><p><strong>6. Scorched 3D</strong></p><br /><br /><br /><p><a href="http://www.scorched3d.co.uk/" target="_blank">Scorched 3D</a> has the same objective as old games like Missile Defense, but provides revamped graphics in a 3D world, network play, and terrain interaction. In same cases it’s just more fun to nuke a path to your enemy and sink their base into the ocean.</p><br /><br /><br /><p><br /><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" height="350" width="425" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/QFm91PBics0" wmode="transparent"><br /><br /></object></p><br /><br /><br /><p>Applications -> Add/Remove -> Games -> Scorched 3D</p><br /><br /><br /><p><strong>7. Glest</strong></p><br /><br /><br /><p><a href="http://www.glest.org/" target="_blank">Glest</a> is a well designed real time strategy game, which is guaranteed to provide hours of fun.</p><br /><br /><br /><p><br /><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" height="350" width="425" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/qyEZV5uqM2g" wmode="transparent"><br /><br /></object></p><br /><br /><br /><p>To install, download from the ubuntu forums:</p><br /><br /><br /><p><a href="http://www.getdeb.net/release.php?id=1061" target="_blank">http://www.getdeb.net/release.php?id=1061</a></p><br /><br /><br /><p>and install using:</p><br /><br /><br /><p>sudo dpkg -i glest-data_2.0.0-1~getdeb1_all.deb</p><br /><br /><br /><p><strong>8. Flight Gear</strong></p><br /><br /><br /><p>Flight Gear is a must for everyone. Sometimes you just need to take to the skies <img class="'wp-smiley'" alt="':-)'" src="http://www.blogger.com/%27http://thepemberton.com/posts/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif%27" /> </p><br /><br /><br /><p><br /><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" height="350" width="425" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/fWPXLi2vazs" wmode="transparent"><br /><br /></object></p><br /><br /><br /><p>To install in Ubuntu:</p><br /><br /><br /><p>Applications -> Add/Remove -> Games -> Flightgear</p><br /><br /><br /><p><strong>9. Battle for Wesnoth</strong></p><br /><br /><br /><p><a href="http://www.wesnoth.org/" target="_blank">Battle for Wesnoth</a> is a turn-based strategy game. It’s quite fun really!</p><br /><br /><br /><p><br /><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" height="350" width="425" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/EIt69vznegs" wmode="transparent"><br /><br /></object></p><br /><br /><br /><p>To install in Ubuntu:</p>Applications -> Add/Remove -> Games -> Battle for WesnothSignintooldBloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12590597811671007387noreply@blogger.com27tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689674754606321230.post-59162083760350473542007-11-17T04:55:00.000-08:002007-11-17T04:58:47.522-08:00openSUSE 10.3: AMD/ATI Drivers InstallationAnd once again I am being bombarded with e-mails asking me to help them install ATI drivers under the latest openSUSE 10.3. Make sure that you do follow and understand the how-to and go through it completely … besides I am not guarantying that this will 100% work with your PC configuration … this is what I came up with from my past experience and has worked on several configurations. <p align="left"> </p> <p align="left"><em><strong>Before we start (as of writing this how-to - 11.10.07)</strong></em>: We all know about the 1-click install that new openSUSE 10.3 has, but unfortunately if you use this <strong>ATI 1-click Driver Installer link</strong>, you end up installing the latest <em><strong>8.41</strong></em> driver which only has support for the new Radeon HD video cards (HD 2xxx series) and thus we will need to install the older <em><strong>8.40</strong></em> driver manually for older cards. Expect the later drivers to work with all cards and hopefully making 1-click install really worthy it’s name for installing ATI drivers. So if you have them RadeonHD card then try 1-click install, as I can’t try it out myself.</p> <p style="text-align: center;"> <a href="http://opensuse-community.org/ati.ymp" target="_blank"><img src="http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/781/14949647201c59cef7b0ogz7.png" /></a></p> <p>I am running openSUSE 10.3 <strong>x86_64 platform (AMD64), </strong>with <strong>ATI Radeon X800 GTO2 PCI-E interface</strong> and 22″ 1650×1080 resolution on DFI <strong>nForce4 Ultra</strong> based motherboard (sad, but from my last 10.2 installation I haven’t upgraded my computer).</p> <p align="left">Driver used here: <strong>8.40.4</strong></p> <p align="left"><strong>IMPORTANT:</strong> Please check for any UPDATES at the end of this blog before continuing.</p> <p align="left">Once again there are prerequisites before you begin installing the drivers. You will need to have the following installed. All these can be found on your openSUSE 10.3 DVD or main repository:</p> <p align="center"><strong>1. kernel-source 2. kernel-syms 3.gcc 4. make</strong></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0pt;">Also make sure that the followings are installed, which are usually installed with default installation (just to make sure)</p> <ul> <li>compat-32bit</li><li>qt3-32bit</li><li>libstdc++-32bit (plus -devel packages)</li><li>compat-libstdc++</li><li>libgcc</li><li>xorg-x11-libs-32bit (plus -devel packages)</li><li>Mesa-32bit (plus -devel packages)</li><li>fontconfig-32bit (plus -devel packages)</li><li>expat-32bit (plus -devel package)</li><li>freetype2-32bit (plus -devel packages)</li><li>zlib-32bit (plus -devel packages)</li><li>libdrm</li><li>libdrm-32bit</li> </ul> <p align="left"> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0pt;">(the list is for x86_64 users, for 32-bit users the same applies but without “-32bit” string in the name for packages)</p> <p align="left"><strong><em>Info for n00bs/newbies: </em></strong>When you see “<strong>~></strong>” it is user prompt and when you see “<strong>#</strong>“, you have to be root (by typing “<strong>su</strong>” and supplying the password when asked).</p> <p align="left">Once the above mentioned packages are installed, let’s prepare the kernel modules<em>. </em>Execute the following commands:</p> <blockquote><p><strong># cd /usr/src/linux–2.6.22.9-0.4 </strong><em>(or the version of kernel you are using, usually the newest available)</em><strong><br /></strong></p> <p><strong># make mrproper</strong></p> <p><strong># make cloneconfig</strong></p> <p><strong># make modules_prepare</strong></p></blockquote> <p>and one last command to clean the kernel source:</p> <blockquote><p><strong># make clean</strong></p></blockquote> <p>Also, if you have tried installing drivers before, let’s remove them completely by executing the command:</p> <blockquote><p><strong># rpm -e $(rpm -qa | grep fglrx) </strong></p></blockquote> <p align="left"> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0pt;">(Just in case, run also Yast Software Manager and search for <em>fglrx</em> and remove all of them)</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0pt;">Now to installing drivers:</p> <p><strong>1.</strong> Download the latest available drivers from<strong> <a href="http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html" target="_blank">ATI Drivers and Software</a> </strong>section. Choose your version of drivers: Linux x86 for 32 bit, Linux x86_64 for 64 bit.</p> <p><strong>2.</strong> Once downloaded, copy to a folder that you wont forget. (let’s presume /home/me/ATI)</p> <blockquote><p><strong># cd /home/me/temp</strong></p></blockquote> <p><strong>3.</strong> Generate distribution specific package:</p> <p>For 32-bit users:</p> <blockquote><p><strong># sh ./ati-driver-installer-<em>x.xx.x</em>-yy.run –buildpkg SuSE/SUSE102-IA32 </strong></p></blockquote> <p><em>(where <strong>x.xx.x</strong> is the driver version number and <strong>yy</strong> the architecture)</em><strong><br /></strong></p> <p>For 64-bit users:</p> <blockquote><p><strong># </strong><strong>sh ./ati-driver-installer-<em>x.xx.x</em>-yy.run –buildpkg SuSE/SUSE102</strong><strong>-AMD64</strong></p></blockquote> <blockquote> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> </blockquote> <p style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y188/eazyvg/Blog/103-ATI/1build.png" /></p> <p><em>(since driver version 8.40 does not have support for 10.3 we are using the file to generate 10.2 package. Once new drivers are there I will update this step)</em></p> <p><strong>4.</strong> Now the ATI Driver Installer made a driver package for your system which has to be installed and has been created in:</p> <p><em><strong>/usr/src/packages/RPMS/i386</strong></em></p> <p>of if you have a 64-bit processor it’s located here.</p> <p><em><strong> /usr/src/packages/RPMS/x86_64</strong></em></p> <p>Head to the location where installer has been created:</p> <blockquote><p><strong># cd /usr/src/packages/RPMS/x86_64</strong></p></blockquote> <p style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y188/eazyvg/Blog/103-ATI/2lsRPMS.png" height="42" width="422" /></p> <p> <em>(64-bit version is presumed from now onwards for the tutorial (adjust according to your platform)</em>)</p> <p><strong>5.</strong> Once there we need to install the rpm package that we compiled:</p> <blockquote><p><strong># rpm -Uvh fglrx*.rpm </strong></p></blockquote> <p style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y188/eazyvg/Blog/103-ATI/3rpm.png" /></p> <p>and at the end you should have something similar to the following, without any errors:</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y188/eazyvg/Blog/103-ATI/32rpm.png" /></p> <p><strong>6. </strong>Hopefully the above command went well, without any error messaged and the drivers were installed. Now run the following command:</p> <blockquote><p><strong># ldconfig </strong></p></blockquote> <p><strong>7.</strong> Now we need to leave the cool graphical desktop and switch to console mode by typing (as root):</p> <blockquote><p><strong># init 3</strong></p></blockquote> <p>Log-in as root.</p> <p><strong>8. </strong>Last thing left is to configure the X server, to let it know which driver to use for rendering 2D and 3D:</p> <blockquote><p><strong># sax2 -r -m 0=fglrx</strong></p></blockquote> <p>Test and then save the configuration. No need to run aticonfig command (at least it works for me)</p> <p><strong>9</strong>. Reboot(<strong>!</strong>) before you enter your DE (Destop Environenment).</p> <p>Once rebooted and back to your KDE/Gnome and logged in as <em>user</em>, launch few more commands to verify that all went good and OpenGL is working now at it’s max:</p> <blockquote><p><strong>~> fglrxinfo</strong></p></blockquote> <p align="center"><img src="http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y188/eazyvg/Blog/103-ATI/4fglrxinfo.png" height="91" width="352" /></p> <blockquote><p><strong>~> glxinfo</strong></p></blockquote> <p align="center"><img src="http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y188/eazyvg/Blog/103-ATI/5glxinfo.png" height="366" width="560" /></p> <p>If it states ATI Technologies Inc and the make of your card - excellent. Everything is setup correctly and working flawlessly. Time to relax and have a cup of coffee.</p> <p><strong>Troubleshooting 1:</strong> When running <strong>sax2</strong> command and/or when switching to terminal screen you face problem of blank screen (screen going dead), then you should <em><strong>disable framebuffer in the console</strong></em>. For this do the following:</p> <p><strong>1.</strong> Edit <strong><code>/boot/grub/menu.lst</code> </strong>and remove the <strong><code>vga=xxx</code></strong> statement from the kernel line.</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y188/eazyvg/Blog/103-ATI/7grub.png" /></p> <p><strong>2.</strong> Reboot once you have modified the menu.lst file</p> <p><strong>3.</strong> Rerun the sax2 command mentioned above in step <strong>8</strong></p> <p><em><strong>Tip:</strong></em> If you would like to get back your original/higher resolution when in console mode (ex: Ctrl+Alt+F1), once you have installed and rebooted and verified that ATI drivers are in charge for OpenGL, you can re-input the string <strong><em>vga=xxx</em></strong> (in my case as seen above it is <em>0×317</em> which is for 1680×1050).</p> <p><strong>Troubleshooting 2:</strong> If you get stuck while installign driver (black screen, not booting DE, etc), reboot and once in grub menu type “init 3″, and once loaded log-in as root and runf the following to load the default drivers:</p> <blockquote><p><strong># sax2 -r -m 0=radeon</strong></p></blockquote> <p>With video drivers installed you will notice the quick responsiveness of your GUI and a more pleasant experience. Hey don’t forget that now you can enjoy the 3D desktop <img src="http://linux.wordpress.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif" alt=":)" class="wp-smiley" /> </p> <p>Also check out the <strong><a href="http://en.opensuse.org/ATI" target="_blank">openSUSE.org ATI wiki page</a></strong>, though mine is easier to understand <img src="http://linux.wordpress.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif" alt=":)" class="wp-smiley" /> but you can find more detail their per your needs. Enjoy.</p> <p><strong>Remark:</strong> Expect updates for this tutorial once newer drivers are available from ATI/Yasts ATI repository.</p> <strong>Update 17.10.07</strong> : <a href="http://opensuse-community.org/ati-legacy.ymp" target="_blank"><img src="http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/781/14949647201c59cef7b0ogz7.png" height="46" width="162" /> </a>(not same as above icon) The drivers are not official ATI, so it may work or not, which are based on 8.40, thus supposedly supporting most of the cards.SignintooldBloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12590597811671007387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689674754606321230.post-85600536038477932822007-11-16T04:01:00.000-08:002007-11-16T04:02:50.342-08:00Ubuntu scores first major pre-installed server winUbuntu is extremely popular on the desktop, but it's made comparatively little progress on servers. That's about to change. Dell is expected to announce in the first quarter of 2008 that it has certified Ubuntu Linux for its server lines. In an interview with Rick Becker, Dell Product Group's vice president of solutions, Becker said that Dell is currently in the process of certifying <a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/">Ubuntu</a> for all its server lines. "But we are still several months away from announcing a certification. I'd say it'll be announced in Q1 next year." <a href="http://www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/alliances/en/linux?c=us&cs=555&l=en&s=biz">Dell</a>, however, is already selling pre-loaded Ubuntu on its servers. "At the moment, if a Dell customer asks us to pre-load Ubuntu on a server, we'll do it for them. We do the same for Red Hat and SUSE. Our open-source support group will work with them as best they can, but most developers who ask for Linux probably know more than we do about Ubuntu. In fact, we may ask them for advice," said Becker. For now, Dell will direct customers who get pre-installed Ubuntu Linux on its servers to <a href="http://www.canonical.com/">Canonical</a>, the company behind Ubuntu, and the Ubuntu community for support. "With Linux, it's not like you can just pick up the phone [and get support], as you know. We can't go too deeply into Ubuntu support at this time. We'll pre-load and resell it, and support the hardware with our Dell support folks. We'll refer people to the Ubuntu community if we need to," said Becker. After all, explained Becker, "We're not into operating systems much. We'll let the other companies handle those. We're much more into providing the hardware and the management software, as well as optimizing how it runs on our servers, finding bugs, making sure the drivers work well, etc." Just a day earlier, Dell had announced that it had formally <a href="http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2216876,00.asp">certified Sun's Solaris on its servers</a>. By March of next year, Dell, once an almost 100 percent Windows Server shop, will be offering pre-installed RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux), SLES (SUSE Linux Enterprise Server), Solaris and Ubuntu Server to customers across its standalone, rack and blade server lines by the spring of 2008. Gerry Carr, marketing manager for Canonical, said he was unable to comment directly on Dell's decision since "although it is our software, these are entirely Dell internal matters so we cannot comment on them. As a good partner, until and unless we are given specific permission to talk about any initiative, then we have to defer to Dell." There is, however, no secret that Canonical has been working to get Ubuntu on the server and Dell's servers in specific. Carr and other Canonical executives are on record as saying that Canonical has been working on persuading server OEMs, and Dell in particular, of the advantages of offering Ubuntu on their servers since this summer. Mark Shuttleworth, Canonical's CEO, added: "It would be superb for adoption--and would accelerate the positive trends we see already. We have indicators from several ISVs saying that Ubuntu is now their No. 1 or No. 2 server platform. These are more aggressive, newer ISVs, but even some proprietary heavyweights have started to come knocking about certification, support and joint sales, largely based on perceived momentum for the Ubuntu server platform among their customers."So I would be delighted if Dell took this step. I think it would be very reassuring to the people who are already deploying Ubuntu on the server; it would make Dell attractive to them as a supplier and it would catalyse another round of adoption by folks who require certification and support throughout their stack," Shuttleworth said.Dell was also the first major PC OEM to offer pre-installed Linux on desktop and laptop lines. Dell began this move with <a href="http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS7075656310.html">Ubuntu-powered desktops and notebooks</a> in May 2007. Sources at Dell indicate that the company will soon be offering pre-installed Ubuntu on more desktop and laptop lines with the <a href="http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS7453108793.html">latest version of Ubuntu 7.10</a>."We have built a very productive relationship with Dell on the consumer range, which does continue to mature, and will build on that as the market requires it. The Dell folks have a knack for tracking demand and responding," Shuttleworth said.Ubuntu's first major server success was getting Ubuntu certified on Sun's Fire T1000 and T2000 servers. Since then, Ubuntu has continued to work hard on its server support efforts. In July, for example, <a href="http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS9110241259.html">Canonical launched Landscape</a>, its Web-based systems management program for Ubuntu servers and desktops, and the company has also <a href="http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS8859258187.html">expanded its support, training and certification efforts</a>. In short, Canonical has been busy during 2007 setting up all the business infrastructure needed to support enterprise server customers. As Carr said, there are no specific announcements to make at this time. "Our position remains that we are keen to see Ubuntu on as many servers and as many desktops as we can get it onto," he said.With Dell's forthcoming server certification, Canonical and Ubuntu are posed to make a major step forward in the server market.SignintooldBloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12590597811671007387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689674754606321230.post-55454619385181835942007-11-11T20:27:00.000-08:002007-11-11T20:37:30.105-08:00Boot fedora unusually faster.<br/> Everyone wants a quick boot time, from the beginner user to the advanced user, this is a issue that bothers us all. As Linux has advanced it has increasingly become slower to boot. I have tested on my machine 5 Linux distributions: Linspire, Fedora 3 & 4, Suse 9.2 & 9.3, ubuntu and Debian. And on average between all these distributions Linux needs around a minute to 1 and half minutes to go from boot loader to graphical login screen. So I decided to look into reducing the time it takes to boot my current setup, which is Fedora 4. In doing so I was able to reduce the boot time of my Fedora 4 installation to less than 25 seconds (just above 24 seconds on average). Below I have documented what I did, and what you can use to potentially reduce your boot up time for Linux.<br/><br/>Of course we will be dealing with advanced Linux know how, so this is not for beginners. Also results may vary on your end since there are a lot of factors involved.<br/><br/><span><b>My Initial Setup</b></span><br/><br/>My initial setup was pretty much standard Fedora 4 with nvidia driver loaded. My PCs hardware is an Athlon64 3000+, 1GB RAM, 80GB SATA 7200 rpm hard drive, and Nvidia Video Card. I was getting about a minute for booting Fedora 4 on this setup. I decided to benchmark in two ways, the first was using a standard stopwatch and manually starting / stopping, and the second way was using bootchart software which you can download <a href="http://www.bootchart.org/">here </a>(bootchart.org). Bootchart will capture you boot time from when init starts (init? See below) till its finished loading your system up. It also provides visualization so you can see potential bottlenecks. My initial setups bootchart is below.<br/><br/><img src="http://www.improvedsource.com/files/fedoraboot/bootchart-first.gif" /><br/><br/>Note: I will describe a basic simplified overview of the boot process. When you turn on your computer the BIOS starts up and after initializing some parts of your PC, it hands over control to the bootloader. The bootloader then loads the Linux kernel and hands control to the kernel. The kernel then executes init a program that starts and manages services. After its finished loading up all services specified a login prompt is displayed. To reduce the time it takes to boot we need to reduce the time it takes in any of these stages. For the most part there is little you can do to reduce the time it take for the BIOS to go from power on to bootloader though generally this is only a 1-2 seconds anyway. And the bootloaders life is extremely short lived since it only loads and executes the kernel, so all the optimization tips I will discuss in this article are going to center on the kernel and init parts of the boot sequence.<br/><br/><span><b>The First Step</b></span><br/><br/>As you can see X gets started twice, which is a major time waster. So I decided to look into disabling that, and as I was googling I found an interesting feature disable by default in Fedora 4 called “early-login”. This enables you to only start X once and allows a user to start logging in while other services are still starting in the background. This both reduces the actual boot up time and the user impression of boot time (Since they can log in earlier it seems to boot up faster even though it still booting up in the background). To enable, type the following:<br/><blockquote>[As root]<br/># chkconfig --add gdm-early-login<br/># chkconfig --add gdm-allow-login<br/># chkconfig gdm-early-login on<br/># chkconfig gdm-allow-login on </blockquote><br/><br/>I also wanted to reduce the number of services I was running there by reducing the number of things that need to start at boot. Below is a list of services I decided was only needed for what I do on my personal desktop Fedora machine. The services you need may vary:<br/><blockquote>acpid<br/>anacron<br/>atd<br/>crond<br/>cups<br/>cups-config-daemon<br/>gpm<br/>haldaemon<br/>iptables<br/>messagebus<br/>netfs<br/>network<br/>portmap<br/>syslog</blockquote><br/><br/>As you can see I disabled kudzu (bootup hardware detection, saves a second of time), auditd (I also disabled selinux), rhnsd (red hat network update daemon), and sendmail. I personally use yum to do updates and will weekly check for them, I rarely make changes to my hardware but can add hardware on my own if needed, and I think selinux is overkill for a personal desktop machine. You can do this by going to Desktop->System Tools->Server Settings->Services and de-selecting services to disable. Then when you are done click done.<br/><br/>Below is what the boot looked with these changes. Wow, as you can see we went from 41 seconds in bootchart to 25 seconds. But with my stopwatch we where looking at 34 seconds of boot time from boot loader to login screen. Definitely better, but can we see even quicker boot times? I wanted to find out. <br/><br/><img src="http://www.improvedsource.com/files/fedoraboot/bootchart-four.gif" /><br/><br/>Note: What was interesting with my system is in the time X took to start and display a login screen, it was finished loading up all background services. So I could literally log in right away as soon as the login prompt was displayed. Since I did not test this on any other machines this behavior maybe localized to my system or similarly configured PCs as mine.<br/>Drivers and Modprobe<br/><br/>The boot up time is also consumed by loading additional kernel modules as you can see with the modprobe bar in the boot chart. So I decided to reduce the number of kernel modules that had to be loaded by compiling them into the kernel. To do this you will need kernel source of course, and will need to take an inventory of what drivers you need on your machine. I also compiled the ext3 file system into the kernel so this didn’t need to be loaded either. I also reduced the number of drivers / modules in my kernel, by disabling the ones I did not use (for starters wireless lan, SCSI raid controllers, console frame buffer [they use to conflict with nvidia driver, do not know if this is still the case], selinux, and some of the misc. filesystems (amiga fs?). Below is an overview of the changes I made to the kernel:<br/><blockquote>Ext3<br/>USB driver (on my system OHCI, EHCI)<br/>Removed Selinux and auditing system calls feature<br/>Compiled in Drivers, Ex. Parallel Port, Floppy, and others<br/>Compiled in some features that where originally in module form.</blockquote><br/><br/> This distribution was based on the latest kernel release for Fedora, 2.6.12-390. <br/>So I compiled, rebooted, and below the results…24 and change. I am now at 18 seconds in boot chart, but now we are at little more than 24 seconds for total boot time using my stopwatch. <br/><br/><img src="http://www.improvedsource.com/files/fedoraboot/bootchart-thirteen.gif" /><br/><br/>Did I stop there? Of course not, but nothing else more I tried worked. So I will have to write a follow-up article if I find anything more. Below are some things I tried which had little effect:<br/>Recompiled the X server with custom optimization for my processor. My aim was to reduce the X servers start time, but this did very little.<br/>Compiled the kernel with size optimization instead. My aim here was to reduce the size of the kernel (which it did) and to potentially speed up the kernel load time (less of a kernel to load). This did nothing either.<br/><br/><br/><span><b>Conclusion</b></span><br/><br/>And there is my story for 24 second boot time in Fedora on standard PC hardware. I really think I’m onto something with compiling some of the kernel modules into the kernel. Why would ext3 filesystem not be compiled in anyway? It is the default file system for Fedora. Ext2 is compiled in.Hope you enjoyed!!SignintooldBloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12590597811671007387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689674754606321230.post-78754556786831899672007-11-07T19:13:00.000-08:002007-11-07T19:15:08.201-08:00Sony to Supply Advanced Student ID CardsBlackboard Communications Systems announced Wednesday that it would be partnering with Sony to begin developing contactless identity card systems in the U.S. Blackboard designs <a href=http://www.blackboard.com/clientcollateral/commerce%20Brochure_Final.pdf>"one-card" systems </a> for campus transactions, bridging financial, data, access, and authentication systems into a single "network transaction environment."<br /><br />The company's swipe-able card systems are in place in many academic institutions across the globe. By partnering with Sony, and utilizing its successful <a href=http://www.sony.net/Products/felica/csy/index.html>FeliCa system,</a> Blackboard systems will be able to produce student identifications that work like SpeedPass and EZPay.<br /><br /> <br />FeliCa works on the industry standard Near Field Communication (NFC) protocol, which has been successfully integrated with door access readers, point-of-sale terminals, cell phones, as well as other attended and unattended devices. And not just Sony devices either: mass transit systems in Japan, China, Thailand, India, The Phillipines, and Hong Kong all utilize FeliCa chips in various capacities for fares and ticketing.<br /><br />In addition to protected financial transactions, a contactless identification card system is able to take student attendance, and grant them access only to approved areas.<br /><br />With headlines of school shootings becoming an almost weekly occurence, on-campus security measures have become a major concern for students, parents and faculty in American learning institutions. The need for an efficient emergency announcement system and an effective means to remotely "lock down" a campus were especially apparent after the Virginia Tech shootings in April.<br /><br />If Sony's FeliCa technology is placed in students' phones, like the "Osaifu-Keitai" marketed by NTT DoCoMo, KDDI and Softbank Mobile in Japan, students could start using the Blackboard system not only as a key, identification and credit card, but also as a system to send SMS updates to all students in the event of an emergency lockdown, or on a more positive note, for a snow day.SignintooldBloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12590597811671007387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689674754606321230.post-54548418182154434302007-11-07T19:10:00.000-08:002007-11-07T19:12:23.278-08:00Ticketmaster to Sell iTunes Albums on SiteTicketmaster and Apple said Wednesday that they had formed a partnership where digital albums of artists would be sold alongside concert tickets on Ticketmaster.com. About 700 artists including Kanye West, Keith Urban and Bon Jovi would be the first to take advantage of the tie-in on the ticketing site. As a promotion, albums sold at Tickmaster and redeemed through iTunes would be cheaper by $1 through December 29.<br /><br />The promotion would compliment another that the two companies have launched at Target. A $50 iTunes card is available at that retailer, which gives a $25 credit towards a purchase at ticketmaster.com along with $25 in iTunes credits. This isn't the first time Apple has joined forces with the ticket seller: in 2005 it sold pre-sale tickets for a Depeche Mode concert alongside the band's newest album at that time.SignintooldBloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12590597811671007387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689674754606321230.post-28799617476647407372007-11-07T19:00:00.000-08:002007-11-07T19:05:01.634-08:00Mozilla Prism for Linux 0.8 ReleasedPrism is an application that lets users split web applications out of their browser and run them directly on their desktop. It lets users add their favorite web apps to their desktop environment. They are accessible with Control-Tab, Command-Tab, and Exposé, just like desktop apps. And users can still access these same applications from any web browser when they are away from their own computers.<br /><br />Mozilla Prism has the following other editions available: Mozilla Prism for Windows and Mozilla Prism for Max OS X.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Screenshot</span><br /><img src=http://images.betanews.com/screenshots/scaled/1194294823-3.jpg><br /><br /><a href="http://labs.mozilla.com/2007/10/prism/">Homepage</a>SignintooldBloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12590597811671007387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689674754606321230.post-63540192103857253662007-11-04T16:44:00.000-08:002007-11-04T16:45:27.876-08:00BBC loses 97200 Linux users!Every now and then The Register publishes a really funny news piece, and the one entitled 'Confused BBC tech chief' is a perfect example. According to the report, in an interview with UK based web design magazine .net, the Director of Future Media and Technology at the BBC, one Ashley Highfield, claimed that only 400 to 600 of the visitors to the BBC website were using Linux. That's 400 to 600 out of the 17.1 million users of the site.<br/><br/>"We have 17.1 million users of bbc.co.uk in the UK and, as far as our server logs can make out, 5 per cent of those [use Macs] and around 400 to 600 are Linux users" Highfield is quoted as saying.<br/><br/>Although it is easy to understand that actual numbers are never going to be possible to reap from server logs, especially when the browser user agent string can so easily be adjusted by users of Linux for example, it is still useful as a trend reporting device. Indeed, according to the <a href="http://www.currybet.net/articles/user_agents/2.php">CurryBetDotNet</a>, the blog of a former BBC new media employee, if you go back a couple of years the BBC were saying then that Linux represented a 0.41 percent visitor share which would be over 70,000 rather than 600 max.<br/><br/>So what has Highfield got to say by way of an explanation?<br/><br/>Responding to the criticism of the figures in the BBC blog, Highfield comments "Alternative analysis that we have run off which performs the measurement in different ways suggests that the potential number of Linux users could range from 0.3% to 0.8% (which, from a total UK bbc.co.uk userbase of 12.2m weekly users could imply a user base between 36,600 and 97,600.) We'll try and get a more accurate picture: over 30 thousand Linux users is a not insubstantial number, but we do have to keep this in context with the vast majority of users who use either Windows or Macs to access bbc.co.uk."<br/><br/>Not that Highfield is a stranger to controversy when it comes to Linux by the numbers.<br/><br/>Take the small matter of the iPlayer, the BBC's move into streamed TV broadcasting content, which has been hit by claims it is ignoring Linux users. In that same .net magazine, Highfield responded to claims that open source protestors had been gathering outside the BBC's HQ in London as a result of the Windows only iPlayer by saying "The 12 people who demonstrated outside our offices have every right to demonstrate, but I think 'the 12 people' says it all."<br/><br/>SignintooldBloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12590597811671007387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689674754606321230.post-74048890708224972182007-11-04T04:44:00.000-08:002007-11-04T09:09:06.324-08:00Linux distro timeline 1992-2007<img src="http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:sW5cKSYH-ZYz1M:http://www.mc-krsko.si/Data/MMCP/novice_new/Upload/Linux-penguin.picture.jpg" /><br/>Linux is the most common OS now a days.I think all of you will agree with me.<br/>So i think it would be a good idea to have a look on the growth of linux.so i searched the whole internet and finally found two timelines that show the growth of linux.This timeline will show the whole linux disributions including distros...<br/>It would be very nice if every linux user own a copy of this.Digg it up if you liked...<br/><div align="left"><br/><a href="http://img134.imageshack.us/my.php?image=gldt76at2.png" target="_blank"><img src="http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/1425/gldt76at2.th.png" border="0" alt="Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us" /></a><br/></div><br/>Click on the thumbnail for a larger image..<br/>SignintooldBloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12590597811671007387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689674754606321230.post-21685035079190536512007-10-29T05:38:00.000-07:002007-10-29T05:41:41.881-07:00Unix secrets!Secrets of Unix:<br /><br />Since many people have asked me about some neat command line UNIX tricks, I've decided to compile them together into a webpage. Actually, these are "secrets" for tsch, which is a popular UNIX shell (most commands will work equally well on csh, its predecessor). Also note that versions of programs differ among UNIX systems, and some of the commands may not work exactly as I have described them on your system.<br /><br />This isn't a comprehensive introduction to UNIX, but rather a collection of little known features that can enhance one's experience in a multi-user UNIX environment, such as is found on most college campuses. This does not replace the manual pages (type "man commandname" at the UNIX prompt) but serves to make people aware of first the existence, and second the general utility, of some commands.<br /><br />The commands are grouped into several basic categories, and I would also recommend that you take a look at the section on login scripts and aliases for some examples.<br />Multi-user Communication<br />E-mail<br />Remote Communication<br />Text Editing<br />Web Browsing<br />Process Management<br />Symbols<br />Miscellaneous<br />fas.harvard.edu only<br />Aliases<br />Friends Script <br />Login Script<br />Other Resources<br /><br />Multi-user Communication:<br /><br />finger<br /><br />finger username gives you specific information about a user, including his real name, home directory, and .plan file, if one exists. If the user is logged on, finger will tell you from where he is logged on and how long he has been idle. If the user is not logged on, finger will return the time, date, and address of his last connection. If you just type finger you'll return a list of all users currently logged on to the system. Sometimes users may set preferences to block being fingered, but finger | grep username will allow you to see if they are logged in nonetheless. A neat trick is to set up a text file named .friends with each of your friends' usernames on a new line, and then type finger | grep -f ~/.friends to see which are of your friends are logged in all at once.<br /><br />last<br /><br />last username tells you when (and from what address) a user last logged on and when they logged off. Generally the system will recycle the log after a period of days, such as week. Note carefully that only a system with multiple physical machines (for example fas.harvard.edu actually refers to ten physical machines, is01.harvard.edu.edu to is10.harvard.edu, to better distribute the load) last will provide you with information only from the machine which you are currently logged on to. Finger will tell you what machine they last logged on to.<br /><br />who/rwho<br />who shows a list of all users logged onto your machine, and rwho shows a list of all users logged onto machines connected to the same local host. In the case of fas.harvard.edu, for example, who shows a list of all users logged onto the same physical machine, while rwho shows a list of all users on all of the ten Harvard IS machines. Type rwho -a to list users who have been idle for more than an hour. Generally finger is more useful, but rwho counts idle time in a generally more useful way. <br /><br />w <br /><br />w username tells you what programs a user who is logged into the same physical machine is currently running. Generally, you'll find more information from ps -u username instead of using w.<br /><br />.plan <br /><br />The .plan file is a text file in that you can create in your home directory. If it exists, it can be displayed when a user fingers you. Users often put additional contact information in their .plan files, or what they working on at the moment, or a bit of humor. Be sure that the permissions are set correctly so that other users can read your .plan file.<br /><br />talk<br /><br />talk username lets you invite another user to chat interactively with you. The user must be logged in, of course, but also must be on the same physical machine. Thus you may finger a user to determine if they are logged in, but when you use the talk command, it may say that the user is not logged in. Look carefully at their finger information, and use talk username@host, where the host is given by the finger command. Then you can invite them to a chat. Of course, the user must accept your chat invitation. Unlike some instant messaging services, talk is real-time, so your keystrokes are transmitted as they are made. It's often good protocol to "double-space" your chat to make it easier to read, and you can periodically clear the window by holding the <Return> key. Quit the chat by <Control>+<C> (often written as ^c)<br /><br />ytalk<br /><br />ytalk is a variant of the talk program that allows multiple users to participate in a single chat. Invite multiple users by entering ytalk username1(@host1) username2(@host2) etc. You can, of course, omit the host if you are all on the same physical machine.<br /><br />write<br /><br />write username(@host) lets you write a message on the following lines and send it as a quick "pop-up" message to a user. Terminate your message with ^c <br /><br />ph<br /><br />ph is a very powerful program that lets you look at the phone directory on your system so that you can use one piece of information about a user to find other information. Most often you know the real name of a user, and want to find their e-mail address, physical address, or telephone number. If you know the person's exact name, you just type it in, although you'll get more nicely formatted output if you type query realname at the ph> prompt. Sometimes you may not know his entire name, and so you can use the standard * (many characters) and ? (single character) wildcards to help narrow your search. Sometimes the search can be finicky, so if you're not finding the person you are looking for, be creative, and try possible alternatives (e.g. joe, instead of joseph) or widen your search with more wildcards. If you type fields at the ph> prompt, you can also get a list of indexed fields. To search for someone by their email address for example, type query email=username@host at the ph> prompt. Systems may use slightly different names for fields, and not all fields are indexed. Some implementations of ph require you a enter a query mode, by typing query at the ph> prompt, and some will you to modify your own directory information by logging in, and editing fields.<br /><br /> <br /><br />E-mail (using pine):<br /><br />pine <br /><br />pine is a very full-featured text-based e-mail program. This section enumerates some useful features that many users may not know about. While some are seduced by the graphical interface of POP/IMAP clients such as Eudora (or, yes, even Outlook) pine holds a number of advantages, especially on a college campus. If you check your e-mail from multiple computers, running pine ensures that you have all of your e-mail available from any location. Furthermore, unless you download and run a suspicious file, using pine renders you impervious to e-mail viruses. Pine is a powerful program, and generally quite easy to use. You start it from the shell prompt with the command pine, although some prefer to begin pine with immediately opened to their inbox, which can be accomplished by typing pine -i<br /><br />nfrm<br /><br />nfrm is a sometimes finicky command that tells you whether you have any new mail, and if so it will print the sender and subject. This can let you check to see whether you really want to read your new mail right away without actually opening pine. You might find that the command nfrm -s unread is more reliable.<br /><br />rich headers<br /><br />When composing a message, if your cursor is in the header area (the To, Cc, Attachment, Subject area) pressing ^r (remember, <Control>+<R>) Will activate the rich header. The most important addition is the Bcc, or blind carbon copy field. Entering addresses in this field will all you to send mail to these addresses without them knowing that the other addresses in this field have also received the message. They will still see the To and Cc fields, however. As a courtesy, the Bcc field should be used when you are sending to a large list—not for secrecy, but because no one wants to read tens or hundreds of e-mail addresses. With the rich header, you can also control which folder the message will be copied to when it is sent (Fcc) among other things.<br /><br />address book <br /><br />Having an address book can be a useful feature in pine. You can make both individual entries so that you don't have to remember complicated usernames, as well as making lists of users (e.g. chemistry study group, office-mates, etc.) so that you can easily send to a group. Make changes to the address book from the main menu of pine (press <M>from the inbox) and you can enter names from the address book either by typing the name or nickname directly into the To, Cc, or Bcc fields, or type ^t to choose from a menu.<br /><br />attaching files <br /><br />It is often very useful to attach files to e-mail messages. You can easily attach any file in your home directory (or a subdirectory) by either typing in the exact name of the file (case-sensitive) into the Attachment field, or type ^t (when the cursor is in the field) to choose from a menu. You can attach multiple files, and you can easily delete a file you mistakenly attached by moving the cursor to the attachment line and type ^k. Another very useful, but little known feature, is the ability to insert a text file directly into the body of a message. When the cursor is in the body of the message type ^r and then enter the file name or type ^t to choose from a menu. This is really useful, because you can store frequently used bits of text in files in your home directory and insert them very quickly.<br /><br />editing features <br /><br />The pine editor (pico) is fairly powerful, and has a number of time saving features. You can delete an entire line by typing ^k, and you can delete multiple lines by holding down this keystroke (be careful!) Actually, the text isn't really deleted, but stored in a temporary buffer, and you can "paste" it back into the message by typing ^u. You are free to move the cursor around, and continue to type in between "cutting" and "pasting" but be careful not to remove more text with ^k before using ^u if you want to save what you previous removed. Sometimes the text is a paragraph will break in an odd way after you've had to make changes, to typing ^j when the cursor is in a paragraph will rearrange the text so that it is nicely justified. Just be careful, for this command can also destroy careful formatting of lists, computer code, or any other text that isn't standard prose. ^a will move the cursor to the beginning of the current line, while ^e will move it to the end of the current line. ^y and ^v will page up and page down respectively. You can also use ^l to redraw the screen (useful when pine interrupts your composition with a new message arrival or chat request). And while everyone knows you can attach files to a message with pine, you can also insert a text file in the body of a message with ^r, which makes a useful way to compose many messages with the same text is part of a message (i.e. save the body of the message to a text file and write a personal greeting to each recipient in the body and then insert the text file.<br /><br />spell checking <br /><br />Most versions of pine also include a spelling checker, which can be accessed with the ^t command when the cursor is in the body of the message. The default spelling checker, spell, will identify misspelled words, but you will have to provide a replacement, or ignore the word. Often, correcting a misspelling can change the flow of the text in a paragraph, and so the ^j command is useful to reformat the text. If your system includes the ispell program, you can setup pine to use this spelling checker by default, which allows you to have a customized dictionary of words, and will suggest spelling replacements. To enable ispell is quite simple: go to the main menu of pine by pressing <m> then <s> for setup and <c> for config, then press <w> to search, type "speller" and enter "ispell" into the field. <br /><br />postponing <br /><br />Conveniently, pine allows you to postpone messages as you are composing them, to return to them later. Press ^o when composing a message to postpone it. When you try to compose a message again (by pressing c from the inbox or main menu) you will be prompted to either resume a postponed message or start a new message. You can postpone many messages. Sometimes your composition can be interrupted, such as by a network or computer problem. Pine is almost always able to automatically save the incomplete message, and if any such messages exist, you will be asked to resume them in the same manner when you next compose a message. Not resuming a message does not delete it, but just postpones it again.<br /><br />flags<br /><br />When a message first arrives it will have a New (N) flag. When you open the message the N flag will disappear. When you reply to a message it will have an Answered (A) flag. When you delete a message it will have a Deleted (D) flag, until you actually exist from the folder, when such messages will be deleted. You can manually change the flag of a message by pressing <*> in the message list, and then following the instructions at the bottom of the screen. Sometimes it's useful to keep the New flag on an important message that you want to remind yourself to reply to. You can also quickly remove a deleted flag by pressing <u> while the message is selected. Incidentally, if you've ever wondered what those plus signs are doing next to some messages at the far left, that means that the message was directed directly to you, as opposed to being sent to you as a carbon copy.<br /><br />saving attachments <br /><br />When you receive a message with attachments, you can press v to view the attachments, and then s to save the attachments to your home directory. You can then work with them on Unix, or download them via ftp onto another computer. Sometimes you want to save a message, but not its attachments, because they are so large that they take up your disk quota. To delete the attachments first press v to view the attachments, and then select one, press d to add a deleted flag to it, then press < to return to the main message view, finally press s to save the message, without the deleted attachments, in any of your mail folders. This is also useful for messages copied to your sent-mail folder that have large attachments.<br /><br />folders<br /><br />It is often helpful to set up different folders to organize your mail. From the main menu you can view the folder list, and easily add or delete folders. It's often a good idea to periodically move old messages from your inbox into a saved mail folder, so that your inbox doesn't become too large (if its too large, it's prone to corruption, and pine will run very slowly). Thousands of messages is probably too large.<br /><br />selecting <br /><br />From a folder view the select command, accessed by pressing <;> can be very helpful. You can select all messages in a folder received before a certain date, for example, and then apply various commands to them by pressing a. For example, you can delete them all at once, save them to a saved-messages folder, or perform other tasks.<br /><br />searching <br /><br />If you're looking for messages sent by a certain person or about a certain subject, you can use WhereIs command to search in the folder view by pressing <w>, and then entering a string to search for and then <Return>. You can repeatedly search by pressing <w> and <Return> as pine will automatically continue your last saved search.<br /><br />sorting <br /><br />Sometimes it's easier to resort your messages rather than searching for a particular name. This can be easily accomplished with the <$> key, followed by a choice from the list at the bottom of the screen. The default sort is by date, and this is preferable in general, but it can be useful to temporarily sort by the sender or subject, for instance. If you're close to your disk quota it's helpful to sort by size so that you can either delete the largest messages, or just delete the attachments! Don't forget to revert to sorting by date when you're finished. <br /><br />signature <br /><br />Many people like to put a signature at the bottom of each of their e-mails. You can get pine to automatically add whatever text you choose to the bottom of your e-mails by going to the main menu, press <s> for setup, and then <s> for signature. You edit your signature just like composing a mail message, and save the changes.<br /><br />preferences <br /><br />There's more, however, to the setup options than just setting a signature. Many of these options are somewhat obscure, but there are a few that may be particularly useful. The first field you'll see is your own name, which is what people receiving your message see. It's good to actually have your full name, and properly capitalized to look professional. If you're sending out messages on behalf of a group, you might want to temporarily change your name (your e-mail address will stay the same, of course), but remember to change it back! You can also set an alternative program to function as your spelling checker, which is a good idea if your system includes the ispell program. Some people like their messages to automatically move to new folder when read, and so you can setup a Read-Message-Folder. Some people find it annoying that pine asks whether you really mean to quit, so you can toggle the quit-without-confirm option. You can also set the ^k command to cut from the cursor position to the end of the line, rather than an entire line with the compose-cut-from-cursor option.<br /><br />spawning lynx<br /><br />If you'd like to be able click on url links in html mail that you receive, pine can be set up to automatically spawn a web browser of your choice (generally lynx, unless you're using X-Windows). From the pine main menu go to the setup and config sub-menu (as above). Use a whereis query to find "url" and check "enable-msg-view-urls" and "enable-msg-view-web-hostnames" At the very bottom of the list you can specificy a url-viewer-application, which should be the full path of lynx (type which lynx at the shell prompt to find the full path). After saving the changes, you should be all set, although ocaisonally this feature fails to work on systems that setgid pine. You can get around this problem by runing pine in a different enviornment along the lines of alias pine 'env SHELL=/bin/sh pine'<br /><br /> <br /><br />Remote Communication:<br /><br />telnet<br /><br />telnet is a basic program that allows you to connect to remote machines that accept telnet protocol logins. Because telnet does not encrypt passwords, many sites do not accept telnet logins since they are afraid of password sniffers that allow malicious use of accounts. This is actually a very small problem for individual users, and shouldn't worry you when you login to a site via telnet, but explains why some administrators disallow telnet access, in favor of secure protocols, such as ssh. Of course, when you telnet to a site, such as library catalog, which doesn't require a password, there is absolutely no danger! To connect to a particular host type telnet hostname. Ordinarily you end a telnet session by gracefully exiting from the remote machine, although you can always type ^] to enter the interrupt mode, from which you can quit a session.<br /><br />ssh<br /><br />ssh is essentially the high-security cousin of telnet. Where possible, you might as well use ssh to connect to a remote machine. The syntax is ordinarily ssh hostname, but the default is to assume that your current username is to be used as the username for the remove machine to which you are trying to connect. Since this is not always the case you can type ssh username@hostname instead to connect to a remote host with a different username. The first time you try to connect to a remote machine with ssh you'll received a "Host key not found from database" message, and a prompt to continue connecting, which you can respond to appropriately.<br /><br />ftp<br /><br />telnet is a basic program that allows you to connect to remote machines that accept file transfer protocol logins, and then transfer files and/or directories back and forth. Like telnet ftp does not encrypt passwords, and so many sites no longer allow ftp logins. The basic syntax is ftp hostname and you are then prompted for a username and password. Anonymous ftp sites, such as public domain software repositories allow any user to connection with the username anonymous and any password (sometimes your e-mail address). Other ftp hosts require a username and password to be prearranged—if you have telnet access to the host the username and password are almost certainly the same. You can list the contents of the remote directory with the ls command, and download files from the remote directory to your local working directory with the get command for a single file, or the mget command for multiple files that match a pattern. Likewise, you can upload a file from your local directory of the ftp site with the put command, or the mput command for multiple files. If you want to upload or download a file with a space in its filename, enclose the filename in quotes. You can change the local directory with the lcd command, and the remote directory with the cd command, and type quit to exit.<br /><br /> <br /><br />sftp<br /><br />sftp is bears the same relation to ftp as ssh bears to telnet. When possible, or required, use sftp to transfer files between hosts. You can logon to remote machine with the syntax sftp (user@)hostname and will be prompted for a password. Other commands are identical with ftp. <br /><br />scp<br /><br />scp is the poor man's sftp, and can be used to copy a specific file between hosts. It can be more difficult to use than the interactive sftp, although for certain automated tasks, scp is more suitable.<br /><br /> <br /><br />Text Editing:<br /><br />pico<br />pico is a general purpose editor that is very easy to use. If you've ever used pine to compose e-mail, then you've actually been using pico. It's also helpful to look at this nice list of the keyboard shortcuts for pico.<br /><br />emacs<br /><br />gnu emacs is an editor of immense power and complication—other than the fact that they both can be used to create and edit text files, emacs is everything that pico is not. An introduction to emacs won't even be attempted here, save for two points: ^h t will start the excellent emacs tutorial, and ^x^c will quit the program. If you're using an x-terminal, you may want to try launching xemacs, although even ordinary emacs will have some graphical elements when opened on an x-terminal. You can also install emacs or xemacs on your windows machine.<br /><br />vi/vim<br /><br />vi is another common Unix text editor, and vim is often found in Linux. It is also a powerful editor, with two-modes, an editing mode and a command mode. It is also quite complex, but emacs is a much better editor! Alas, if you insist upon using it, a short list of commands should get your started.<br /><br />ps2pdf/pdf2ps<br /><br />Since many people do not own the full version of Adobe Acrobat, software that allows you to creative PDF (portable document format) files that are readable (and look the same) on any machine with Acrobat Reader (almost every computer!), being able to create PDF files nonetheless is very helpful. Proprietary formats, such as Microsoft Word are unacceptable for transfer to other people (and platforms) as they may not have the required software, the same fonts, and the document may not appear the same anyway. By printing your document from any application to a file using a PostScript printer driver you can make a PostScript (.ps) file that can be converted to a pdf file with the syntax ps2pdf orig.ps new.pdf The reverse process can be accomplished with the pdf2ps command, which can be useful if you want to send a pdf file directly to a PostScript printer without viewing it first.<br /><br />enscript/ps2ascii<br /><br />The enscript command lets you create a postscript file directly from ascii text, which can be useful if you want to send the text to a PostScript printer. The ps2acsii command distills acsii text out of PostScript file, which can be useful for quick searching or viewing.<br /><br />acroread<br /><br />When using the X-Windows graphical interface, the acroread command will invoke the graphical viewer for PDF files.<br /><br />gs<br /><br />gs stands for ghostscript, which is an extremely powerful and versitile program for working with PostScript and PDF files. It can be invoked graphically under X-Windows, or specific operations can be performed on files with the command line.<br /><br />more<br /><br />more filename allows you to quickly view the content of a file in plaintext one page at a time. It is often useful to pipe the output of a command to more; for example ls | more will list the contents of the current directory one page at the time.<br /><br />cat<br /><br />cat filename writes the output of a file in plaintext all at once. Often, more is preferred because it will pause the output when it reaches the end of the screen, but there are also many times when you want to view a file all at once, perhaps because you want to use a terminal program to scroll up later, for example<br /><br />less<br /><br />less filename allows you to quickly view the content of a file in plaintext one page at a time. It is similar to more, but incorporates a plethora of additional features, particularly being able to scroll backwards as well as forward in a file. It is most useful as a quick way to look through a very large file, since the entire file doesn't have to be loaded, but generally if you're going to spend the time to use less, you might as well load an editor!<br /><br />head<br /><br />head filename allows you to quickly view the first ten lines of a file. You can view any number of lines by head -numberoflines filename, so head -14 foo.txt will show the first fourteen lines of the file foo.txt<br /><br />tail<br /><br />tail filename allows you to quickly view the last ten lines of a file. You can view any number of lines by tail -numberoflines filename, so tail -14 foo.txt will show the last fourteen lines of the file foo.txt While this is exactly analogous to head, tail does incorporate an additional very useful feature; tail can also be used to display rest of the file after a certain number of lines. Often files contain headers that it is cumbersome to display, and so tail +14 foo.txt displays foo.txt from the fourteenth line until the end of the file.<br /><br />wc<br /><br />wc filename will count the number lines, words, and bytes in a file. wc -w filename will count just the number of words, which can be useful when editing long documents.<br /><br />banner<br /><br />banner is a quick little utility that creates so-called "banner text" which is a form of ASCII art. Basically, it's a way to make realy big text display on a text-only terminal. Sometimes people want to use it in e-mails or a talk-session (works better with ytalk!) but often it's most used for leaving a message on your screen along the lines of "Don't touch this window!" banner text will create some banner text, and banner a few words will create banner text of "a few words" on separate lines, while banner "a few words" will create banner text of "a few words" all on one line. Be careful about trying to force too much onto a single line—if you exceed the width of the terminal, banner will start wrapping the text around, which becomes unreadable. You can mix and match—strings bounded by quotes will be written on the same line, and any strings separated by spaces will be printed on seperate lines. If you want to use some unsual symbols, you might have to preceed them by a backslash, for example banner !! will try to make a banner out of the last command entered, but banner \!\! will make a banner out of two exclaimation points!<br /><br />spell/ispell<br /><br />spell filename will identify possibly misspelled words in a file. If you're system includes the ispell program use it instead, as will allow you to interactively make changes to the file, in addition to suggesting replacements, and allowing a custom dictionary.<br /><br /> <br /><br />Web Browsing:<br /><br />lynx<br /><br />lynx is a very powerful text-only browser that can be run from the command line terminal. You can go directly to a site by invoking lynx address, or by pressing <G> when already in lynx to go to a new address. You can page through text with <Space>, access the history list with <Delete>, and scroll up and down through links with <Up Arrow> and <Down Arrow> and move back and forth through hyperlinks with the <Right Arrow> and <Left Arrow> lynx supports many features, such as forms and frames, but does not support javascript, https (secure pages), or, of course, images. Lynx is extremely fast, and can be useful to download files that might otherwise automatically spawn an external viewer on other browsers (for example RealAudio (.ra) will generally spawn the RealPlayer viewer on standard browsers, but can be easily downloaded, without modifying your normal browsing preferences, with lynx). Remember that when you connect to a site with lynx the remote site sees the ip address of the machine that you are logged on to, so if you need to access resources restricted to a certain set of ip addresses (such as certain library resources) this can be useful.<br /><br />netscape<br /><br />From the X-Windows interface, you can run the netscape browser to browse the web with images. If you want to be able to use the shell window from which you run netscape, type netscape& to run it in the background.<br /><br /> <br /><br />Process Management:<br /><br />ps<br /><br />ps shows you a listing of all processes active, including the process identification number (PID). Sometimes it's useful to use the type ps -u yourusername to see all of the processes you have open, especially if you were disconnected from a previous session but left processes hanging.<br /><br />kill<br /><br />kill PID# allows you terminate a stalled process from the shell. If there is no ambiguity, you can also kill a process by typing kill %programname, so if I only had one instance of the man process running, I could kill it by typing kill %man without having to use the ps commmand to find its PID#.<br /><br />jobs<br /><br />jobs gives you a listing of all the suspended and active jobs running<br /><br />^z<br /><br />In many programs ^z allows you to suspend a job as it is being run, to return to later.<br /><br />fg<br /><br />fg allows you resume a job that has been suspended (put it back in the foreground).<br /><br />bg<br /><br />bg allows you to run a job in the background, so that the shell can be used for other tasks as the job is being processed.<br /><br /> <br /><br />Symbols:<br /><br />&<br />Placing the symbol & after a command runs the job in the background, so that the shell can be used for other tasks as the job is being processed.<br /><br />\<br />The backslash character removes an special meaning from the character that follows it. For example, more test test.txt would produce an error, but more test\ test.txt would display the contents of the file "test test.txt"<br /><br />|<br />The vertical bar character represents the very important pipe command. This command allows you to redirect the output of one command immediately to another. For example, to display a directory listing one page at a time the command ls | more can be used. Pipe has a myriad of uses, and is often used fruitfully to pipe output from commands that produce output in some way to commands that filter or process output. <br /><br />><br />The > command can redirect the output of a command to a file rather than to the screen. For example, to redirect a directory listing to the file dir.txt type ls > dir.txt<br /><br />>><br /><br />The >> command allows you to redirect the output of a command to be appended onto a preexisting file. If you also wanted to store the listing of another directory in the same file above, you could type ls subdirectory/ >> dir.txt<br />;<br /><br />The semicolon symbol can be used to separate commands entered on the same time. For example, if you wanted to write the time and date to a file, and then append to it the listing of directory contents, the following command could be written on a single line date > dir.txt ; ls >> dir.txt, where the spaces are added for clarity alone.<br />^<br /><br />The carat symbol can be used to repeat the previous command while changing part of it. For example, if you first type more test.txt to view the contents of the file "test.txt" and then want to open it with the pico editor, rather than retype the entire line you can simply type ^more^pico and the shell will print the command pico test.txt to the screen and then execute the command. This can be a real time saver.<br /><br />~<br />The tidle symbol represents your home directory, and so allows you to quickly access your home directory no matter what directory you happen to be in, just as the forward slash character allows you to easily access the root directory.<br /><br />!<br />The exclaimation point can be used to recall previously entered commands. For example !! will recall the last command entered, !-3 will recall the third to last command, !more will recall the last command that began with the string "more" By using the colon along with the exclaimation point you can recall individual words from previous commands. This can be quite powerful, as you can string commands together to create new commands, so !-10:4 | !:2 !-3:$ | !-5:0 executes the fifth word of the tenth to last command and pipes it to the third word in the last command operating on the last word in the third to last command piped to the first word (the command itself!) in the fifth to last command. Whew.<br /><br />..<br />Two periods represents one directory level up from your current location, so if you are in /users/username are type cd .. you will be in /users<br /><br />^c<br />The <Control>+<C> combination is a common interrupt for many processes in Unix.<br /><br /> <br /><br />Miscellaneous:<br /><br />auto-completion<br /><br />Because it can be a pain to type (or just remember) long file names or commands, it is very useful to let the shell auto-complete where possible. After having typed in part of a filename or command press <Tab> (in some shell versions press <Esc>) and the shell will attempt to auto-complete. If multiple files match the initial pattern, a list will appear, and you can type additional letters and press <Tab> again to narrow the list, or complete the name.<br /><br />math<br />On systems that have Mathematica™ installed, you can type math at the shell prompt and start terminal graphics session. Rather than the full notebook interface that you may be used to, the front-end executes commands as they are typed sequentially. Even with a less flexible front-end and with a text-only display, the power and beautiful of Mathematica™ is awe-inspiring. At Harvard, you need to log into an ice.harvard.edu machine in order to run Mathematica™. Rumor has it that a so-called competitor to Mathematica™ can be run by typing matlab at the shell prompt from some machines, although why anyone would want to use such a program remains a mystery to me.<br /><br />history<br />You can view the history of the commands that you've entered in this session with the history command. You can enter a particular command by typing !commandnumber or press <Up Arrow> to scroll through the list of the previous commands from last to first. You can use the -c switch if you want to clear the history list. <br /><br />set prompt<br /><br />You can reset the default prompt with the command set prompt="new prompt " Although it is not required, it is a good idea to end the new prompt with a space for readability. Some people find it useful to include the string \! in their prompt, as this displays the command number on each command line, so that you can easily return to it with a ! command. You can set the prompt to include the time with the sequences %t, %T, %p, %P, or the day (%D), month (%W), or year (%y). You can also the set the prompt to display your current directory location form the root (%/%) or your home directory (%~%). You can also set the prompt to display the hostname (%m) of the machine to which you're logged in. Setting these attributes may serve as a useful reminder.<br /><br />set term<br />You can set the terminal emulation with the comand set term=terminaltype command, where common terminal types are vt100, xterm, and so forth. This can be necessary for the keyboard and display to function properly in certain programs, such as emacs and lynx.<br /><br />grep<br />grep is an extremely powerful searching command that returns all lines of a file or output that match a given pattern. grep is often fruitfully paired with the pipe (|) command; for example, ph name | grep telephone will first query the ph database for the directory information on the given name, and then pipe the output directly to the grep command (before it is displayed to the screen) which will return only the line or lines that begin with the string telephone.<br /><br />chmod<br /><br />chmod is a powerful command that allows you to alter the permissions for files and directories. When you look at the long list of files in a directory (ll or ls -l) the first column will contain seemingly cryptic strings such as "-rw----r--" or "drwx------" These strings are ten characters long, where the first character denotes the file type: "-" for a normal file, "d" for a directory, and several other characters for other special file types. The next block of three characters contains the read, write, and execute permissions for the owner (seen in the third column of the long file list), then the next three for members of the owner's group (seen in the fourth column of the long file list), and the final three characters contain these permissions for the world. So the first string above shows a file that the owner can read and write, and anyone else can only read, while that second string shows a directory that the user can read (i.e. list the contents of) write to, and execute (i.e. cd to). You can change the permissions of a file that own by typing chmod who±function file, where who refers to yourself (u), members of your group (g), everyone else (o), or everyone, including yourself (a), ± is either a + or - depending on whether you want to add or remove the permission, the function is either read (r), write (w), or execute (x) and the file is the file (or pattern) you want to apply the change in permissions to. chmod is a powerful tool: you might use it to give a friend access to a particular file or subdirectory, or to make your .plan file readable by anyone. You can also remove the write permissions of a file to make sure that you don't accidently change it. But making your inbox or home directory readable by anyone is strongly not recommended! Some people find it easier to use the octal syntax with chmod, where permissions can be set by typing chmod ### file where the first # refers to the permission for the user, the second for the group, and the third for the world, and is the sum of read=4, write=2, and execute=1, which makes a unique sum for between 0 and 7. Thus to set the permissions of the file test.txt to "-rxw-w-r-x" you could type chmod 725 test.txt<br /><br />date<br />date displays the current date and time. There are many options for this command that control precisely how the date and/or time are formatted. A few particularly useful combination, and examples out their output are shown here: date +%k:%M:%S might return 14:11:40 while date +%l:%M\ %p might return 2:11 PM. And date +%A,\ %e\ %B\ %Y might return Sunday, 2 June 2002, while date +%D might return 06/02/02. See the manual page for all options.<br /><br />cal<br />cal simply displays a (standard Gregorian) monthly calendar for the current month, while cal year displays the monthly calendar for every month in the specified year, and cal monthnumber year displays the monthly calendar for the given month in the given year.<br /><br />calendar<br />The calendar program reads the calendar file in your home directory and outputs any events/tasks that match the current date. For more information on the structure of the calendar file, see the man page for this command. If you actually keep a calendar file (good for birthdays and other long-term, enter-once, repeating events) you might want to place this command in your login script.<br /><br />sleep<br />sleep is a simple program that pauses for a certain number of seconds. The following example shows one possible use: sleep 600 ; echo "Time to go to class!" & That is, in ten minutes the shell will print "Time to go to class! while the sleep program runs in the background.<br /><br />which<br />which commandname tells you the actual location of the command that you are running. Sometimes an application wants to know the full path of a command, and sometimes you want to see if a different version of the command or application is available. On fas.harvard.edu most programs can be found in /usr/local/bin<br /><br />clear<br />clear simply clears the screen, which can be helpful to reduce clutter.<br /><br />fortune<br /><br />fortune is a cute program that returns a random "fortune" from a large database. If you want to cheat fortune -m pattern returns all fortunes that contain the pattern.<br /><br />pwd<br />pwd stands for "print working directory" and will output the current directory. This can be useful when you're wondering why a file isn't there (you may be in the wrong directory) or are just lost navigating through the file system.<br /><br />whoami<br />whoami is a simple program that prints your own username. This is useful when you are at a computer or terminal where someone else has logged in, and you want to see whether you can log him out (you're his boss) or you shouldn't (he's your boss).<br /><br />zip/unzip<br /><br />These commands allow you to make compressed pkzip archives, or decompress pkzip archives. The pkzip format is a standard compressed format used primarily on the MS-DOS/Windows platform. Remember that if you ever are using a PC that doesn't happens not to have a program that can unzip a file, you can always upload the file to a Unix machine and unzip it, and then download the unzipped files, although it's actually better to zip files that you want to download first--not only will they download faster, but you won't have to worry about ASCII/binary format problems. zip is a very useful program for other things; you can use it to make a downloadable archive of all of the files in your home directory by typing zip -r /scratch/username/archive.zip ~/ remembering to first create the directory by mkdir /scratch/username or where ever else you might have temporary space. Don't worry if it takes some time to create the zip archive.<br /><br />tar<br /><br />The tar (Tape ARchive) command allows you to create a tar archive out of multiple files, or unpack a tar archive into multiple file. tar archives are not compressed, but are a convenient way to transfer groups of files, without taking the time to compress and uncompress them (especially if they are already compressed, such as jpeg or mpeg files!) <br /><br />gzip/gunzip<br />gzip creates .z archive files compressed with Lempel-Ziv encoding, and gunzip can uncompress archives created with gzip, as well as other .z archives created with compress and pack, as well as pkzip files. gunzip is a very versatile program<br /><br />uuencode/uudecode<br />uuencode allows you to encode a binary file so that it can be transmitted as ascii data, and uudecode allows you to decode a uuencoded acsii text string back into binary data. Sometimes you might receive a uuencoded attachment, or need to send a binary file (e.g. an executable program) as an ascii file.<br /><br />man<br />By typing man commandname at the shell prompt you can get complete information about any of the commands listed above, as well as many more. The manual pages are essentially help files, and are very useful. Most manual entries will have a brief description, a listing of options (especially switches, which modify the behavior of a command and are preceded by a "-"), and some examples.<br /><br /> <br /><br />fas.harvard.edu only:<br /><br />fixwebfiles<br />fixwebfiles is a macro that automatically sets the permissions to your public_html directory so that a webpage that you create there an be viewed by anyone. <br /><br />fixfinger<br />fixfinger is a macro that automatically sets the permissions on your .plan file so that it can be viewed when you are fingered.<br /><br />termbill<br />termbill is a program that lets you add money to your printing balence by charging your termbill a preset amount. It is often easier and generally more convenient to add money your printing balance with this program, than with a Crimson Cash machine, although the funds won't be added immediately—there's usually a fifteen minute delay.<br /><br />weather<br />weather is a neat little script that will automatically telnet into rainmaker.wunderground.com, and pull down the current weather and forecast for Boston, Massachusetts. It's actually not really as fas.harvard.edu only script, but it is preinstalled on fas, and configured for Boston. It's actaully a program in an elegant scripting language called expect, which runs in tcl. It's freely available, along with the weather script which was authored by the creator of the language, Don Libes. You can find information about the language on his website, as well as the actual weather script.<br /><br />checkquota<br />checkquota prints out a quick description of your disk quota status.<br /><br />quota<br />quota prints out a more verbose description of your disk quota status. quota -v prints out an even more verbose description of your disk quota status, including your use of any scratch space.<br /><br />scratch (and df)<br />The scratch disk is a 2 GB disk that is available for any fas user to temporarily store files. You can create a personal subdirectory in the scratch directory by typing mkdir /scratch/yourusername and then you can copy large files into that directory. When you are finished, you should leave the space available for other users by typing rm -rf /scratch/yourusername The scratch disk is useful if you are performing computations that require the temporary creation of large data sets, or if you need to transfer large files between two machines. Files must be accessed at least once every 48 hours, or they will be automatically deleted. Generally, it is a general rule not to leave files in scratch for this long in any event. Also, if you are not currently logged into fas, your scratch space may be arbitrarily reduced to 100 MB, however, if you remain logged in this will not happen. Scratch space can fill up, but you can see how much space remains on the scratch disk with the command df | grep /scratch and plan accordingly. See the fas page on temporary storage as well<br /><br />Deciphering Harvard ip addresses<br /><br />So now that you know how to use the finger and last commands, you can see where users have logged on. But sometimes the ip addresses will seem very cryptic, so here's a quick guide to deciphering Harvard IP addresses. It's best to use the so-called "friends script" where you can see a really complete list, and have the computer do it automatically for you, but here's a quick guide:<br /><br />roam###.###.student.harvard.edu addresses are Harvard dorm rooms, house computer labs, or student laptops that are "roaming"<br /><br />Addresses that begin sunray are from the SunRay terminals in the Science Center between halls D and C, while those that begin with sc- are from Science Center (basement labs or room 120)<br /><br />You should also be able to figure out the addresses from the Lamont and Sever computer kiosks which are popular places to login from.<br /><br />Addresses with a wjh are from William James Hall, the social science building, those with a ccb, are from the Chemistry and Chemical Biology buildings, and so forth.<br /><br />IP addresses that begin with 128.103.29 are from the Crimson, and those that begin with cust-206-40 are from the Lampoon.<br /><br />Off-campus IP addresses won't end with harvard.edu or won't begin with 140.247<br /><br /> <br /><br />Friends Scripts:<br /><br />A handier way to keep track of your friends online involves using a program known as a script. The various friends scripts are written in a scripting language called tcl (pronounced tickle) and are cleaner than piping the output of finger to grep. Basically they run the finger or rwho command, select out the lines corresponding to people in your .friends file, reformat the output, and match the IP addresses to a very extensive list. You can look at some sample output from the different friends scripts. There are instructions for installed the scripts at the top of each of the files.<br /><br />I am not the original author of the friends script, but I have edited the original script to make several additional versions. When I get a bit of time, I will collapse them back together, and allow a single program to have all of this functionality (and more!) by using switches. Updates for the IP matching table are always appreciated as well!<br /><br />friends<br /><br />The friends script is optimized for terminals with wide displays, such as SecureCRT running on a Windows machine (just maximize the terminal window). It shows a lot of information on each line, including the person's username, their real name, which is machine they're logged into, how long they've been idle, and the IP address of the machine they're logged in from, as well as the location.<br /><br />narrowfriends<br />The narrowfriends script was created because some terminals are limited to a display width of 80-characters, the narrowfriends script is written to fit within these limitations. It shows the same information as the friends script, but omits the actual IP address. This is usually fine as the most commonly encountered IP addresses are entered into the table.<br /><br />allfinger<br />The allfinger script shows information for more than just the people in your .friends file. It's useful because you can manually grep the output to show all people in a particular location, such as one of the houses. This is useful if you want to see who else on your floor is awake. It's easiest to insert the following line in your .aliases file: alias all '~/bin/allfinger | grep -i \!*' and then you can just type all locationname and don't have to worry about the case.<br /><br />rfriends<br />The rfriends script is the original "friends script" and uses rwho, rather than finger information to compile the friends list. This has the disadvantage that rwho doesn't include the person's real name, and some find it a bit strange to always see just the username. However, rwho uses what is often a more useful measure of idle time than that in finger—idle time as measured by rwho counts from the last time the user touched the keyboard of his terminal, rather than the last time a program changed something!<br /><br /> <br /><br />Aliases:<br /><br />alias<br />The alias command is extremely useful, for it allows you to shorten a frequently used command, or string of commands, to a single, customizable word. The syntax is alias aliasword command For example, if you want to easily be able to jump to a webpage with lynx, you can type alias fas lynx http://www.fas.harvard.edu/ in a single line and then you only need to type fas to execute the command lynx http://www.fas.harvard.edu/ <br /><br />unalias<br />If you accidently make a word an alias you can type unalias aliasword to restore the original meaning, if any, and remove the alias.<br /><br />.aliases<br />The .aliases is a special file that can include a large number of alias lines that will automatically execute every time you login to the system, assuing that the line source .aliases, or an equivalent, is found in your .cshrc file. You can always put the aliases in .cshrc file directly, however, it is often useful to keep a sepate listing. The .aliases file is extremely useful, as you can see a number of useful aliases at one time, and have them automatically ready every time you login.SignintooldBloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12590597811671007387noreply@blogger.com0