jonabyte on July 9th, 2008
There is a nice program that will allow you to tweak your Ubuntu desktop. The settings are normally hidden or hard to find and change.
Here is the link, http://ubuntu-tweak.com/downloads.
Just download the deb package using Firefox, and select Open with GDebi Package Installer (default) and install the package.
After the install, you will find the program under Applications - System Tools.
You can change things such as the “Computer” icon on your desktop to power management.
If you are running Ubuntu, this could be a little time saver for you.
jonabyte on July 8th, 2008
Well Best Buy has decided to sell Linux, Ubuntu that is for $19.99. Some people may be outraged by this, but I see this as good thing as well. This will actually get the Linux name out in the mainstream instead of “just a hobby for geeks”.
People tend to put value to things and if they see something as free, they may think its not as good as something you can buy.
What really gets me is Geek squad will install it for $129.99, my opinion is there are a number of other alternatives to get this installed that are much better than Geek squad.
Link
Update: you can now read some comments on Slashdot and Reddit
jonabyte on July 2nd, 2008
I am re posting an article I wrote for Linux.com here for some clients who have requested the info.
Enjoy!
Samba is an open source project that allows Windows users to connect to a Linux server from which to share data. If you are looking for a simple, affordable home file server, or need more disk space on your office network, a Linux server with Samba is the way to go. Linux along with Samba offers a stable, secure environment that is available at no cost, along with features such as remote administration, immunity to Windows viruses, and the ability to run on low-end machines. Here’s how you can set up a simple Samba server on Slackware for SOHO use.
Most current Linux distributions, including Slackware 12, have Samba already installed and running after the system boots. This article assumes that Samba has been installed. The commands work for Slackware version 12, 11 and 10.2, and likely many other Linux distros.
The first step is to create a share folder on your hard drive; for instance, /disk2/data. After that, you need to edit the smb.conf file, found in /etc/samba, and make it look something like this:
# Global parameters
[global]
workgroup = HOME
netbios name = SAMBA
server string = Samba Server %v
map to guest = Bad User
log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m
max log size = 50
socket options = TCP_NODELAY SO_RCVBUF=8192 SO_SNDBUF=8192
preferred master = No
local master = No
dns proxy = No
security = User
# Share
[Data]
path = /disk2/data
valid users = joe
read only = No
create mask = 0777
directory mask = 0777
You can copy and paste this into your conf file or make changes to your existing one.
The workgroup name needs to be the workgroup of your Windows computers, or your domain name. The netbios name is what will appear when you access the Linux computer from Windows. I am currently running a Windows domain with this setup, so I have the preferred master and local master set to no to avoid both servers from attempting to be the master browser. This will eliminate network conflicts on your Windows computers that can cause network-related outages.
For the share details, specify the valid users, or set them up later. In that section you can allow users to create their own folder and files for all to access.
The next step is to add users by the following command:
# useradd -c “Joe User” joe
# smbpasswd -a joe
New SMB password: secret
Reenter SMB password: secret
Added user joe
Next, run the testparm command to ensure that the conf file is valid. If it returns no errors, restart Samba with the command /etc/rc.d/rc.samba restart. You should also make Samba executable when the server is rebooted with the command chmod 755 /etc/rc.d/rc.samba.
If you would like to tidy up your smb.conf file, the following commands will back up the file, then remove all the comments for easier reading:
# cd /etc/samba
# cp -a smb.conf smb.conf.master
# testparm -s smb.conf.master > smb.conf
Now you’re ready to test Samba. On a Windows computer, you can either map a drive to the Samba server or access the drive using the Start-Run command and typing \\Samba\data, “Samba” being the server name and “data” being the shared folder.
One disclaimer: this setup serves a small network or a home network. For a larger user base and more complex network configuration, you may want to use the documentation provided on the Samba Web site.
jonabyte on June 28th, 2008
Being that I do web development, I use the various whois tools available on the net quite frequently.
If I am looking to save some time, I can simply use the cli (command line interface) to accomplish the same task.
First you will need to install whois:
sudo apt-get install whois
After its installed, the command is:
whois domain.com
You will get the same data as available on numerous websites.
