Howto Bypass Razr Password

This video tells you how to use a magnet to bypass the security code on a Razr.

How to hack a cell phone with a magnet | Wonder How To

How to search Ubuntu-Users List

on google
site:lists.ubuntu.com  whateveryoursearchingfor

--
Steve Reilly

ubuntu-users-list in Dire Straits...

Now look at them yo-yo's that's the way they do it
bottom postin' on u-bun-two list...
So we gonna do it, that's the way we do it
for no ree-zun

Make CapsLock an extra Ctrl key in Linux

The problem with this using Ubuntu keyboard applet settings, the capslock LED on my T60 turns on and off.  Get rid of this behavior by inserting ctrl:nocaps line in /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier	"Generic Keyboard"
	Driver		"kbd"
	Option		"XkbRules"	"xorg"
	Option		"XkbModel"	"pc105"
	Option		"XkbLayout"	"us"
	Option		"XkbOptions"	"ctrl:nocaps"
EndSection

iPhone is coming to China

I'm sure the Chinese will love the iPhone, but if you live in the U.S. and get 5 miles off the interstate you have no service from AT&T.

Many people buy the iPhone but I doubt so many use it, because service here sucks.  Unless you stay on the interstate or live in a big city, forget the iPhone.

Blackberry Curve 8330 no Internet!

Make sure you are on one of your providers towers before doing registering.

Thinking I knew the solution to that “bug,” I did Options > Advanced Options > Host Routing Table > (press Menu key) > Register Now.

Imagining the TENTH Dimension

This animation illustrates the concepts presented in chapter one of the book "Imagining the Tenth Dimension"

http://tenthdimension.com/medialinks.php

Installing XV Graphics Viewer in Ubuntu 8.04

I followed the script in the ref below but ran into problem when building XV in Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy. Note that my system has most all the build-essentials and stuff required for developers but these are some things it was missing; therefore, you may still be missing some packages since the basic ubuntu install is not really designed for the developer.

#!/bin/bash
# getxv.sh
#
cd /tmp
wget ftp://ftp.cis.upenn.edu/pub/xv/xv-3.10a.tar.gz
wget http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/png-mng/xv-3.10a-jumbo-patches-20050501.tar.gz
wget http://bok.fas.harvard.edu/debian/xv/xv-3.10a-jumbo20050501-1.diff.gz
tar xvzf xv-3.10a.tar.gz
tar xvzf xv-3.10a-jumbo-patches-20050501.tar.gz
gzip -d xv-3.10a-jumbo20050501-1.diff.gz
cd xv-3.10a
patch -p1 < ../xv-3.10a-jumbo-fix-patch-20050410.txt
patch -p1 < ../xv-3.10a-jumbo-enh-patch-20050501.txt
patch -p1 < ../xv-3.10a-jumbo20050501-1.diff
chmod 755 debian/rules 
apt-get install libc6-dev
# In Ubuntu I had to change this to xorg-dev meta package
#apt-get install xlibs-dev
apt-get install xorg-dev
apt-get install libjpeg62-dev
apt-get install libtiff4-dev
apt-get install libpng12-dev
make
cp xv /usr/local/bin

ref: Installing the XV Graphics Program in Ubuntu

VLC and Other codecs to play videos in Ubuntu

# WARNING: IF YOU HAVE JAUNTY, CHANGE "hardy.list to jaunty.list
#Install VLC and Other codecs to play video, dvd, and mp3
sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/hardy.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list
wget -q http://packages.medibuntu.org/medibuntu-key.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add - && sudo apt-get update
apt-get install medibuntu-keyring
apt-get update
apt-get install libdvdcss2 w32codecs non-free-codecs
apt-get install vlc vlc-plugin-esd mozilla-plugin-vlc
apt-get update
apt-get upgrade

How to tell if your internet is up in Linux?

When on a local net or using wifi (that's just about everybody), you really need a way to tell if the "internet" is up or not.  Of course the network applet tells you the wifi or network is up, that is not what you need to know.  You need to know if the internet connection is up.  Here's a cool Gnome panel applet that does just that - it's just not installed on Hardy (Ubuntu 8.04) by default.

Link Monitor Applet is a GNOME Panel Applet displaying the round-trip time to a set of hosts in a bar graph.

Link Monitor Applet features include:

• A line graph able to display up to one week of round-trip time data
• Country flags and names
• Full ICMP and ICMPv6 support
• HIG 2.0 compliance

Link Monitor Applet is free software, released under the terms of the GNU General Public License.

sudo apt-get install link-monitor-applet

After  install with the command above, add the applet to gnome panel.  Add the OpenDNS host 208.67.222.222 and Delay to 10 seconds, Graphs scale to 3 seconds, and Tooltip to 5 minutes.  That should get you started.  Now hover the mouse over the Link Monitor Applet and you can tell if you are up or down and for how long it's been down, etc.  Very nice tool!

Even the Windows network tool can't always tell if you are online:(  With Linux and this applet, you will always know if your internet connection is up and it's displayed in a nice little graph.

Reply to mailing list addon/patch for Thunderbird

Adds a "reply to mailing list" button to your toolbar and the message menu.

Reply to Mailing List addon for Thunderbird (experimental)

How can import GPG keys automatically from within Evolution?

If you receive a signed GPG/PGP message from someone and you do not yet have his public key in your GPG/PGP keyring. You can make GPG automatically download and add unknown GPG/PGP keys of received messages by adding the following two lines to the file $HOME/.gnupg/gpg.conf:

       keyserver hkp://subkeys.pgp.net
       keyserver-options auto-key-retrieve

The actual link (URI) to the keyserver is only one example and may be different - you can also choose other servers.

How to make middle mouse click scroll

Just add these lines to your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file in Hardy!

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier    "Configured Mouse"
    Driver        "mouse"
    Option        "CorePointer"
    Option        "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
    Option        "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
    Option        "EmulateWheel" "true"
    Option        "EmulateWheelButton" "2"
EndSection

Sorry, no help in Jaunty.  Took a look at xorg.conf on a jaunty box and it was almost blank.  I hate the way they keep changing stuff.  Sticking with LTS for now.

Installing Cups driver for Brother 2040 Printer

Pre-required Procedure (2)

Related distributions

Ubuntu8.04/8.04.1, Ubuntu8.10, Ubuntu9.04

Related products/drivers

cupswrapper printer/PC-FAX drivers

Requirement

1. "sudo aa-complain cupsd" command is required before the installation.

2. "sudo mkdir /usr/share/cups/model" command (as it is) is required before the installation.

Download Driver for Brother 2040

Mutt Keys --experimental--

Creates Mutt like key bindings for Thunderbird. Inspired by the mouseless extension.  read more...

Newspapers Convert To Narrower Widths

Approximately 150 North American newspapers have converted to or are in the process of converting to narrower web widths, according to the Newspaper Association of America in Vienna, Va. Many newspapers are converting to a narrower width to cut newsprint costs. The NAA reports that conversion from a 54-inch web to a 50-inch web could reduce newsprint consumption by up to 7.4%.

Empathy to replace Pidgin in Karmic Koala

Empathy to replace Pidgin?  I assume it's because of the lack of Pidgins ability to transfer files or do voice/video communications.  This is one reason I use Pidgin on my lame satellite connection.  Voice and video of any kind is not so good here.  Sometimes it's best not to jump on the bandwagon.  Sticking with Pidgin for a while...

Empathy - GNOME Live!

Gmail smtp fails - server busy...

Gmail smtp fails with message server busy.  Perhaps Gmail servers are overloaded.

Mac4Lin 1.0 Released

If you like this sort of thing, Mac4Lin finally reached 1.0.

SourceForge.net: Mac4Lin

The goal of this project is to bring the Mac OS X user interface to POSIX Operating Systems (GNU/LInux, FreeBSD, openSolaris etc.). The project is built for desktop environments based on GTK -- Anirudh Acharya, Developer - Mac4Lin

Remaining Alltel Properties to Be Sold

While AT&T will not purchase ALLTEL divested properties in GA, this property is set to be sold to a company named Atlantic Tele-Network.  Of all names that come up in a search - this company has one sister company that uses the old name Cellular One.

I guess we have come full circle, no iPhone for middle georgians :(

Indiana University Knowledge Base

I love these large university IT departments.  They don't mind sharing information.  If you click on Menus it gives you a list of topics to choose.



Tip:  Click the image above to visit the search page and don't forget to click on the down arrow in the Firefox search box to add this knowledge base to the search list!

bada-boom bada-bing

Microsoft re-brand live search as bing.

same ol song, new dance...

How to share files and folders in Ubuntu

This brief tutorial will outline how to enable file sharing in Ubuntu.

SimpleHelp.net

Tux4Kids

Tuxmath and Tuxtype is a great way to teach kids.  Available for Linux, Mac, or Windows.

Tuxtype can teach kids to type at early age.  Tuxmath is an asteroid like game were you have to enter the answer to common math problems for points and advance to next level.  If your 4th grader beats out your 6th grader, it may be time to introduce him to these Tux games.

sudo apt-get install tuxmath tuxtype tuxtype-data-nonfree

windows binaries here.

Tux4kids

Get XP Updates or Change Invalid Product Key

If your windows installation has issues, or for some other unmentionable reason is unable to get updates from the windows server, this is what you need to do.

TECH-RECIPES

Ooglegay Igpay Atinlay

Anway oldieway utbay oodiegay, akemay Ooglegay inway Igpay Atinlay youray omepagehay!  Onday'tay orgetfay otay ignsay inway.

Google Earchsay

Chrysler to shut down 789 dealers

The company stated this action will help improve the landscape of
the Chrysler dealership network following the sale and enhance the full
line portfolio of Dodge, Jeep and Chrysler products for customers. 

Download a complete list of the facilities being closed.

slashexec and pidgin plugins

The SlashExec plugin provides a command line interpreter for Gaim, much like XChat, Irssi, BitchX, and other IRC clients do.

On UNIX-like platforms (Linux, *BSD, etc.), the command you give to /exec will be executed with your user account's shell. For example, if you type

/exec ls -1R | sed 's/ /\\ /'

into a Gaim conversation and if your shell is /bin/bash, SlashExec will execute

/bin/bash -c "ls -1R | sed 's/ /\\ /'"

On Windows systems, however, commands will be executed with "cmd.exe /c". This means that Windows ME users will be unable to use /exec. Pipes may or may not work.

As the above example indicates, piped command lines will work if your
shell supports them; this is a major change from the previous releases
of SlashExec, which were separate from the Plugin Pack.

Adding the -o flag to /exec causes SlashExec to send the output to the conversation (i.e. the buddy or chat receives the output). For example, /exec -o ls -1R | sed 's/ /\\ /' will cause the output to be sent.

Note that the plugin ID has changed since incorporating SlashExec into the plugin pack, which means you will need to unload or remove previous releases of SlashExec before attempting to use the current version.

Bangexec features
As many Gaim users recall, there used to be a plugin for Gaim 1.0.0 to Gaim 1.5.1dev called bangexec.

Since that plugin's author no longer has the time to maintain his
plugin, we have absorbed its features into SlashExec. You can do the
following:

• !command - executes command, sends the output to the conversation (i.e. the buddy or chat receives the output), and displays it locally.
  
• !!command - executes command and displays the output locally only.
  
• !!!command - sends the literal text !command to the conversation (i.e. the buddy or chat receives the output).
  

Both the /exec and !command functions are optional.

3 Best Firefox Extensions / Addons

  Adblock Plus

Adblock Plus blocks most annoying ads online and you customize which ads to block.  I might consider another browser, but NONE of the competition even comes close.

  User Agent Switcher

User Agent Switcher is used to test one thing, is the website or web application blocking access to their site from Firefox Linux?

  ScribeFire Blog Editor
This is probably the best Blog editor available today for Windows or Linux.  It just happens to be a Firefox Extension!  I use ScribeFire to post to my blog here at Blogger.  ScribeFire opens right below the currently opened tab in Firefox which not only makes it the perfect editor but also a great research tool.

Chrysler's Kiss of Death

While reading a story on CNN about a Chrysler dealership in a small town in Georgia losing it's trademark,,,

cnn story (Claxton Chrysler)

I think this statement pretty much explains it...

"Womack intends to stay in business as a used car dealer after the agreement with Chrysler ends June 9, but it will be a very different operation. With no warranty work, the service and parts departments will be closed, Shontz said."

You mean a dealership doesn't have any customer pay tickets, no payin' customers?  Yeap, that pretty much sums it up.  They price themselves out of business over the years just like the car manufacturers by raising the prices and adding on hidden fees and services to the bill.

Hardly nobody goes to a dealer any more - unless they "think" it's under warranty!

Anybody who didn't see this coming must have been on another planet.

A General manager for a GM dealership told me 3 years ago that GM wanted all it's brands under one roof.  Nothing new is happening with the closing of dealers.  Most everybody in the biz seen this one coming long before it was public knowledge.

I once thought that the problem to high car prices was because of easy financing.  I always said, if everybody had to pay cash then you could purchase a car for what it was really worth.  I now believe this theory was dead wrong.  I never realized that in reality, they would just stop making cars instead of cutting executive salaries and lowering prices.

Theses people, investors, executives, those running the car manufacturing business, could care less about the company, the brand, retirees, or traditions.  All they care about is how much money they can put in their pocket in the shortest amount of time.  It surprises me they held out this long.

Best blog editor

ScribeFire is an extension for the Mozilla Firefox Web Browser that integrates with your browser to let you easily post to your blog: you can drag and drop formatted text from pages you are browsing, take notes, and post to your blog.

Install ScribeFire Now »

Are you a Goodyear dealer?

It seems that Goodyear dealers get a deal on ALLDATA access. Much better than most indy shops :(

Windows 7 - Display Downloads folder on Start Menu

Want to show "Downloads" folder on Windows 7 start menu?

1. Right-click an empty area of the taskbar and choose "Properties".

2. The "Taskbar and Start Menu Properties" multi-tabbed dialog box appears. Click the "Start Menu" tab.

3. Click the "Customize" button.

4. The "Customize Start Menu" dialog box appears. Underneath "Downloads" click the "Display as a link" or "Display as a menu" radio button.

5. Click "OK" on the dialog boxes to close them.

New Windows 7 Tips

Speed up the taskbar’s thumbnail display

For myself, the delayed response in hovering over icons in the
taskbar can be annoying when I’m trying to get work done quickly. With
a little registry tweak you can speed it up and get things done quicker.

1. Press WinKey + R to bring up the run command, type regedit, and press enter.
2. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Control Panel > Mouse and double click MouseHoverTime
3. Change the value from 400 to 50 (or whatever value you want, the delay time is in milliseconds) and press the OK button.
4. Restart your computer and voila! Faster response time.

Disable minimize/maximize animations

The minimize/maximize animations don’t really add any functionality
and all it does is make the operating system seem slower. Disabling the
minimize/maximize animations will make your system feel snappier.

1. Bring up your start menu and click Control Panel
2. Navigate to System and Security > System and click Advanced system settings located on the left sidebar. Under Performance click the Settings button.
3. Select the Custom option and uncheck the box next to Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing
4. Click OK and the settings should be applied instantly.

See all possible tasks in control panel

Tired of navigating through all the links in Windows 7’s control
panel? Well with this trick you will be able to see all tasks in the
control panel in an easy to navigate list.

Notice how there are 281 tasks available

1. Right click the desktop and click New > Shortcut.
2. For the location put explorer.exe shell:::{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C} and click on the Next button. Proceed to name your shortcut and click Finish.
3. Double click your newly created shortcut and enjoy!

Use the new hot keys available in Windows 7

Some of the hot keys are very easy to remember and can be useful to
speed up your daily tasks. I haven’t listed all of them, just a few
that I found were useful.

• Maximize Window - WinKey + Up
• Minimize Window - WinKey + Down
• Snap Window to Left - WinKey + Left
• Snap Window to Right - WinKey + Right
• Peek at desktop - WinKey + Space
• Maximize Window - WinKey + Up

For a more complete list of hot keys, visit Neowin.net forums.

Other cool features

There are some other cool features available in Windows 7 that might
not be completely obvious at first. Here are some neat ones I found:

• Peek at desktop (Aero Peek) - Hover your mouse to
  the right of the date/time area of the taskbar (or if you have your
  taskbar set on the left/right side it is below the date/time).
• Minimize all windows besides focused one (Aero Shake)
  - Click and hold the titlebar of an existing window and shake it. All
  other windows will be minimized. Shake the window again to restore all
  windows.
• Close windows with middle click (scroll button down)
  - Go to your taskbar and mouse over an icon to bring up thumbnails of
  existing windows. Middle click on any thumbnail to close out of it.
• Snap a window to the left/right - Drag a window to
  the left/right side of the screen to snap it to that side. Drag it to
  the middle of the screen to unsnap it. This feature is great for
  comparing documents.
• Maximize a window by dragging it to the top - You can maximize a window by dragging it to the top of the screen, similar to the feature above.
• Access Jumplists - Right click on any icon in the
  taskbar to access its jumplist. A jumplist allows you to access certain
  features of the program without even opening it. For example, the
  jumplist for explorer allows me to access frequently accessed documents.

Update: Tim Sneath, a Microsoft employee, has posted his own tips via his MSDN blog. Check it out for additional tips and tricks. It is really quite useful.

Thunderbird Global Inbox

When creating a new account

When you create a new POP mail account in Thunderbird, the Account Wizard will ask if you want to use the Global Inbox for that account. If you do, then make sure that the box for this feature is checked. If you don't, then make sure the box is unchecked.

If you often create new accounts, you can set the default in the Account Wizard by setting the preference mail.accountwizard.deferstorage to true (to check the box by default), or false (to clear the box by default). In a new Thunderbird profile this preference does not exist initially, so you must create it as a new Boolean preference.

Changing the Global Inbox setting for an existing account

To change the Global Inbox setting for an existing account, you need to follow three simple steps.

Change the destination Inbox

Go to "Tools -> Account Settings -> Server Settings" and click on the "Advanced" button. A dialog box will then pop open.

To set the account to use the Global Inbox, select "Global Inbox (Local Folders Account)" and click "OK".

Important: if the account already has messages in the Inbox or other folders, you should copy or move these messages into Local Folders before setting the account to use the Global Inbox. If you don't copy or move the messages into Local Folders and you set the account to use the Global Inbox, the account will no longer be displayed in the folders pane and you will not be able to access those messages unless you go back and undo the Global Inbox setting.

To set the account to not use the Global Inbox, select either "Inbox for this server's account" or "Inbox for different account" and click "OK".

Check settings for other folders and filters

After you have changed the account's setting for which Inbox to use, see if any of the following need to be changed:

• Go to "Tools -> Account Settings -> Copies & Folders", and look at the destination folders for Sent, Drafts, and Templates. Make sure that the messages for each will be stored in your preferred folder locations.
• If you are using junk-mail filtering for the account, go to "Tools -> Account Settings -> Junk Settings" and verify that the folder selected for Junk messages is the one you want to use.
• If you have set up any filters, go to "Tools -> Message Filters" and make sure that they will work properly with your new Inbox configuration. Especially important if you are changing an account so that it will start using the Global Inbox: if you have set up any filters that sort messages into any of the folders for the account, you should disable/delete those filters or change the destination folders.

Exit and restart Thunderbird

Important: exit Thunderbird and restart before downloading mail into any account whose Inbox/Global Inbox setting you've changed. If you do not exit and restart, messages might continue to download into their "old" locations (e.g., into the individual account Inbox rather than the Global Inbox). Furthermore, you may lose current messages in the old mail folders!  It's best to setup Global Inbox when you create the account!!!

Fravia – Famous software cracker/hacker dies

 

Fjalar Ravia (1952–2009), better known as Fravia, was a European software reverse engineer, who was probably best known for his web archive of reverse engineering techniques and papers. He died of cancer on May 3, 2009

I didn’t see anything in the regular news channels about his death, and thought it was worth mentioning.

Fravia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Searchlores.org

ResSwitch & ResCopy

WORKS WITH WINDOWS 7!

Tired of using the Windows Control panel to quickly change your graphics cards display mode. This program uses the command line sent to it, to change the display mode. With this structure you can create a number of shortcuts to ResSwitch on your desktop using different command lines which will allow you to change mode with a simple double click on your desktop. By setting up shortcut keys in the shortcut file to ResSwitch you can quickly change modes by just using the keyboard only.

Also included is ResCopy which is a simple dialog based app which lists all the display devices and available display modes which ResSwitch can use. It also allows a filename to be specified via its command line, using this will just output the available display devices and display modes to that file a line at a time without displaying the dialog.

The enclosed zip file contains the ResSwitch and ResCopy source code, and some MFC classes to wrap access to the two underlying API's ResSwitch and ResCopy uses and a prebuilt binary version of both programs. The enclosed binary requires that you have the MFC 6 DLLs already installed. If you haven't already got them on your machine (MFC42.DLL in your Windows system directory), then grab them from http://www.naughter.com/download/vcredist.exe

ResSwitch & ResCopy v1.24

Windows 7 Release Candidate Customer Preview Program

 

Thank you for testing the Windows 7 Beta. You're playing an important role in helping deliver the best version of Windows yet. Now, we hope you'll join us for the next part of the Windows 7 journey, testing the Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC).

This is the really fun part of the testing process: you help by simply using the RC. When you do, your PC will automatically and anonymously send our engineers the information they need to validate the changes and fixes they made based on the Beta tests and your feedback.

Read this first

Here's what you need to know before you get started:

• You don't need to rush! The RC will be available at least through July, and we're not limiting the number of downloads or product keys. So you have plenty of time.

• Installation: If you are running Windows 7 Beta you’ll need to back up your data (preferably on an external device) and then do a clean install of the Windows 7 Release Candidate. Then, you’ll need to reinstall applications and restore your files. If you need help, please see the Installation Instructions.

• Tech details/updates: before installing the RC, please read the Release Notes and Things to Know for important information about the release.

• Routine news: For day-to-day news, keep an eye on the team blog. And, you can get non-technical news, tips, and offers by subscribing to the monthly Exploring Windows newsletter.

• Back up your data: We know you know this already, but please back up your data and please don't test the RC on your primary home or business PC.

• Keep your PC updated: To get critical updates, be sure to turn on automatic updates in Windows Update.

• Remember expiration dates: Please plan ahead for the Beta and RC expiration dates. To avoid interruption, you’ll need to rebuild your test machine using a valid version of Windows before the software expires. Windows will notify you that the expiration process is beginning and two weeks later your PC will begin shutting down every two hours. The Beta expires on August 1, 2009, and bi-hourly shutdowns will begin July 1, 2009. The RC will expire June 1, 2010, and the bi-hourly shutdowns will begin on March 1, 2010. In both cases, you’ll need to rebuild your test PC to replace the OS and reinstall all your programs and data.

Get the download

Both the 32- and 64-bit versions of Windows 7 RC are available in five languages: English, German, Japanese, French, and Spanish.* Just choose the version that fits the system you'll be using for the test, pick your language and click go to register for and download the software.

Downloading Windows 7 RC could take a few hours. The exact time will depend on your internet provider, bandwidth, and traffic. The good news is that once you start the download, you won't have to answer any more questions – you can walk away while it finishes. If it gets interrupted, it'll restart where it left off. See this FAQ for details.

Windows 7 Release Candidate Customer Preview Program

How to read your Slashdot emails in Outlook 2007

 

The Solution

1. In Outlook, click on your Inbox folder so your emails are shown on the screen.
2. Chose the menu item "Tools->Macros->Visual Basic Editor".
3. Cut and paste the following code into the main editor area...

   	Sub FixSlashdot(Item As Outlook.MailItem)
   		Item.BodyFormat = olFormatHTML
   		Item.HTMLBody = Replace(Item.HTMLBody, "FONT SIZE=2" , "FONT face=courier SIZE=2" )
   		Item.Save
   	End Sub	

   
   



4. Close the Visual Basic window.



5. Choose the menu item "Tools->Rules and Alerts..."



6. "New Rule...", "Check messages when they arrive", "Next>"



7. Check "with specific words in the sender's address"



8. Click on the words "specific words" in the lower window and enter "slashdot@slashdot.org" then "add" then "ok"



9. Click "Next>" then check "Run a script".



10. Click on the words "a script" in the lower window and then select the FixSlashdot script we created above and click OK.



11. Click finish followed by OK.



12. You're done! You can even do "run rules now" to fix any amputated slashdot emails already sitting in your Inbox.

Now Outlook will automatically run the FixSlashdot script on each slashdot email the instant it arrives in your inbox. Basically all the script does is to tell Outlook to display the email as HTML rather than plaintext. Apparently the Outlook HTML rendering engine is more forgiving than the plaintext one. The "replace" just sets the font to courier because Slashdot emails just don't look right unless they are in a fixed point font. You can change the font or size here to anything you want as long as it is in keeping with the Slashdot aesthetic (no hevetica).

How to read your Slashdot emails in Outlook 2007

UBUNTU HARDY RELOADED

Install - full drive. First of all, I like my operating system fast. I don't not enble Visual Effects or run proprietory ATI driver on my T60 notebook. I like high resolution, so no need to adjust video settings on my notebook.

Setup network - wifi

Install updates. 367 updates at this point.

Reboot to new kernel...

Install usable applications you can't live without...

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nmap
sudo apt-get install bluefish
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

You will need these below if you want to build from source or build .deb packages...

sudo apt-get install build-essential cdbs fakeroot dh-make debhelper debconf libstdc++5 dkms linux-headers-$(uname -r)

note: that's all one line...

Furthermore, I have tried many themes to change the look of my desktop and found out that the default Ubuntu Human theme to be my preference. Sometimes it doesn't exactly match my background, but everything functions as it should. When (if ever) someone makes a better theme, I will try it. Else, it's my view that the original anything is usually the best. Many hours goes into creating distros and I let the developers (or should I say artist) decide such trivial stuff.

I will edit and add to this file as time goes by.

What brought me there today?

After installing a few applications not in the Ubuntu repositories, namely wicd, my gnome-system-tools was foobared. A friend of mine gave me a copy of Jaunty Jackalope and I was also eager to try it out so I wipped the drive and installed. A few system tool change and cosmetic changes along with the fact that it has no LTS or Long Term Support, after a day I reinstalled Hardy Heron.

To date, with perhaps the exception of an earlier version of Tubo Linux, I think Hardy is the best distro release ever!

Mac4Lin

Firefox Addon: termBlaster

 

Categories

termBlaster adds the ability to perform searches from your right-click (or context) menu using one of 110+ websites that range from search engines to encyclopedias to translators. Website lists are in XML format and can be modified in your Bookmarks Organizer.

Categories

termBlaster adds the ability to perform searches from your right-click (or context) menu using one of 110+ websites that range from search engines to encyclopedias to translators. Website lists are in XML format and can be modified in your Bookmarks Organizer.

Moneydance for Linux

If you are looking for a replacement for Quicken, try Moneydance.  Although not free software, this finance manager is actually faster than Quicken!

MONEYDANCE

two cows? tucows? tuucows? 2 cows?

tucows has a nice new interface (or at least since I last visited).

Brendan's On-Line Anagram Generator

Another cool online tool.  Looking for a unique domain or nick name?  Type in a name or phrase and get a list of words/phrases created with those letters.

Try It!

Linux vs. Windows

After using Windows Vista and installing all the equivalent programs I use in Linux, I found my 120 GB hard drive on my T60 notebook was reduced to 63 gigs:(

About Vista

Vista is not a bad or slow interface like some claim if you use the classic look and adjust your windows settings (visual affect to a minimum) for performance.  In fact Vista performed as good as Linux in most cases with multiple programs running.  However, it ate a lot of my 120 gig drive and leaves about only half of the space for user files and iso's!  This is a major drawback to using Vista Wicd and I can understand why someone would want to keep XP instead of upgrading.

Linux Instead

Since my XP w/SP2 disk is currently MIA, I decided to entirely ditch Windows on my notebook.  While I'm waiting on my Slackware DVD, I have installed and setup Ubuntu 8.04 LTS and removed network manager and installed Wicd for wifi since it has commandline support and shows all wifi connections (even one's not broadcasting).  Wicd, excellent wifi connect tool and after restart has it's own gnome panel applet.

I got tired of the Mega Vista updates and Vista using half my hard drive!  I hope they come out with a stripped down version of Windows 7 to say the least or I"m afraid Microsoft is going to have a very bad year.

Wicd is one of the best tools I've found for networking in Linux.  If your distro doesn't have it, get it from the repository.  Works with Fluxbox and other window managers and even from commandline.

What is Digg?

Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. From the biggest online destinations to the most obscure blog, Digg surfaces the best stuff as voted on by our users. You won’t find editors at Digg — we’re here to provide a place where people can collectively determine the value of content and we’re changing the way people consume information online.

About Digg.com

Linux Timezones

Add Your City To Linux's List of Time Zones | Linux Journal

Add Your City To Linux's List of Time Zones
January 28th, 2009 by Mitch Frazier in

* HOWTOs

Ever feel like you're Rodney Dangerfield? You live someplace and Linux shows you no respect, time-zone-wise that is. What I mean is that you live somewhere that's not one of the time-zones that comes predefined with Linux. If that sounds like you, then read on and get Linux to show you a little respect.

Let's say for instance that we want to add Seattle, WA (the birthplace of Linux Journal) to the list of time-zones that Linux knows about. First, look in the list of predefined time-zones for a city that's in the the same time-zone as the city you want to add, in this case Los Angeles. Then as root do the following:

$ cd /usr/share/zoneinfo
$ cp America/Los_Angeles America/Seattle

This will make the new "Seattle" time-zone use the same time-zone data as "Los Angeles" uses. Note: if /usr/share/zoneinfo doesn't exist try /usr/lib/zoneinfo.

Now edit the file /usr/share/zoneinfo/zone.tab and find the line for the time-zone that you copied, in this case "Los Angeles":

US +340308-1181434 America/Los_Angeles Pacific Time

Duplicate that line and change the old time-zone name to the new one:

US +473622-1221955 America/Seattle Pacific Time

The numbers are the latitude and longitude of the city in the form +/-DDMM+/-DDDMM or +/-DDMMSS+/-DDDMMSS (D=Degrees, M=Minutes, S=Seconds). You can find that information on the web, for example at infoplease.

Now, logout and log back in and you should see your new time-zone in the list of available time-zones. The screenshot below shows it added to the list of time-zones that are displayed when I hover the mouse over the KDE clock.

Test your broadband speed with Speakeasy

To test your broadband speed, click on the link below and choose the server nearest you.  Wildblue is dead on with 1.5 mbps.  Upload speed is much slower.  Dish Internet aka Wildblue also caps your downloads at 12 or 17 gigs per month.

Speakeasy - Speed Test

If your Wildblue satellite internet connection sudenlly dies but you can still do an nslookup but can't ping or bring up a webpage, you have probably exceeded your monthly quota.  You can still chat on IRC which seems to not to be blocked by this restriction.  Wait 8 to 12 hours and you will probably be back online.  Most people never have this problem unless you are a power user and download iso's.  Anyone know more work arounds, please post a comment to this article.

Howto create a toolbar in Vista

Create a toolbar in Vista with drag and drop.

Dock Quick Launch or Address Toolbar to Desktop in Vista :: the How-To Geek

jEdit Programmer's Text Editor

Even if you are not a programmer, jEdit is a excellent tool for editing any type of text file.  I normally don't use java programs but this one has a small server that runs in the background to speed up the start-up process.

With the advice from Eric's Blog, I installed the development version (w/windows installer) and am very happy with this tool.  Yeap, enough to uninstall Notepad++

jEdit - Programmer's Text Editor - overview

Delete EISA Partitions

      For reference only!  Do not do this unless you know what you are doing!!!

Delete and Remove to Unlock EISA Hidden Recovery or Diagnostic Partition in Vista

All OEM computers, desktop or notebook PCs from Dell, HP, Lenovo, IBM, Acer, ASUS, Sony, Fujitsu, Toshiba and many more probably comes with special EISA partition either in FAT or NTFS file system that contains system recovery utility to rollback to factory settings and/or diagnostic tools. The special partition, normally hidden, can have a size of from few gigabytes to 10 GB or more. In some OEM system, such as those from IBM/Lenovo, is impossible to delete from within Windows.

Some EISA hidden special partition doesn’t even have drive letter assigned, nor can be deleted by using Disk Management snap-in of computer Management in Control Panel Administrator Tool. The partition cannot be merged into any other existing partition either. Some users reported that even advanced third-party disk management tool such as Acronis Disk Director Suite and Partition Magic cannot manipulate, change, remove and delete the partition either under Windows desktop.

The special recovery partition is protected and locked to secure and avoid accidental deletion of the recovery partition, which is important when to recover and reinstall operating with needed drivers and software application when system corrupts or fails. Some recovery procedure which installed in the EISA partition can be activated with just one key press, or access during boot up.

Some users may not want this special recovery partition, which can possibly free up a few GBs of hard disk storage space. As mentioned, it’s possibly almost impossible to delete this special recovery or diagnostic partition under Windows operating system. Some tips provided on the net recommend users to do removal process under DOS environment, or from another operating system on dual boot or multiple boot system.

However, it’s recommended that users check with manufacturer first if the OEM provides any removal and deletion procedure or guide, such as those provided by Lenovo/IBM and HP. If none is found, it’s possible to remove the recovery partition from Windows Vista, by using advanced Diskpart, a text-mode command line interpreter based on scripts that manages hard disk, partition and volume in Vista (also available for free download for XP, 2000, and 2003).

Here’s the trick to delete and remove the EISA recovery or diagnostic partition in Vista. Before proceeding with the deletion action, make sure that at least a set of Recovery Disc Media has been created. Else, you won’t be able to restore your computer to working and factory default condition when any problem on PC requires reinstallation.

1) Open a command prompt as administrator.
2) Run Diskpart application by typing
DISKPART
in the command prompt.
3) In the “Diskpart” prompt, enter the
RESCAN
command to re-scan all partitions, volumes and drives available.
4) Then enter
LIST DISK
to show all hard disk drive available.
5) Select the disk that contains the partition you want to remove.
Normally, with just 1 hard disk, it will be disk 0. So the command will
be:
SELECT DISK 0
6) Enter
LIST PARTITION to show all available and created partitions in the disk
selected.
7) Select the partition that wanted to be deleted by entering
SELECT PARTITION X
where x is the number of the EISA based recovery partition to be
removed and unlocked its space. Be careful with the number of this
partition, as wrong number may get data wipes off.
Cool Finally, enter
DELETE PARTITION OVERRIDE
Once the partition has been deleted, exit from Diskpart, and now users
can use the much familiar and much easier Disk Management tool in
Windows (diskmgmt.msc) to manipulate the freed unallocated partition.
Users can create a new volume (partition) with this space, or simply
merge it to existing partition by extending the size of the existing
partition.

A-Patch?

A-Patch is a Hack/Patch to remove the ads in the new Windows Live Messenger.  The program's site is located at www.apatch.org ...

Think twice before installing such programs.  Besides, you can do everything this program claims without using this program! hint: search for a url sniffer, get the ad urls and add them to your host file.

Auto Repair Service Tip 101

Customer comes into shop for service.  You find a loose exhaust bolt on the manifold.  Before you take it upon yourself to repair it for free and risk breaking the bolt and spending hours doing free work, inform the customer first!

Service techs want to help the customer; however, there are times when you should leave well enough alone and let the customer decide what he wants repaired or not.  For the new technician, before you repair anything on a customer's vehicle you must get it approved!

For the customer, you should never pay for services you did not request.

Block js with AdBlock Plus in Firefox

Ran across a javascript pop-up that detects ABP (adblock plus) and tells you to allow ads on this site.  So, the demostration in this article will tell you have to get rid of this sort of thing...

First, we use the site mirc-dot-org.  Since you areadly have firefox installed, you will also need 2 addon extensions:  firebug and ABP.

Go to the site that wants you to enable ads in ABP.  When the javascript pops up, select some text in the popup, right-click and choose inspect element.  Scroll down a couple lines and you will see the javascript url ending in /advertisements.js.  Copy it!

Next, close firebug and goto the ABP drop down menu and click Open Blockable Items.  Paste the url to the javascript .js file into the search box.  Double click on the element and click Custom then Add Filter.

Now reload page and no more javascript popups begging you to disable ad blocking!

Perhaps the author of Adblock Plus can make this addon un-detectable?

.:: NOTEPAD++ ::.

 

Thought I would try this free text editor for the next few weeks.  Has many plugins and unlike EditPlus it’s free!

.:: NOTEPAD++ ::.

Password Safe – Unsafe?

From their site…
“Password Safe

allows you to safely and easily create a secured and encrypted user name/password list. With Password Safe all you have to do is create and ...”

This is one open source binary download I do not trust.  Lets just say when I ran the program a nasty message appeared (in German) on the screen.  Stay clear of this Windows password saving tool!

password safe – link removed due to possible security risk.

RITLabs. The Bat! Email Client

  

The Bat! Professional Edition
The Bat! Professional Edition has all the Home edition features. Moreover, it comes with several extra options that an advanced user might find useful.

Well, that doesn’t say much about this email client.  I will say The Bat! is the ultimate email desktop tool in existence today.

RITLabs. The Bat! Email Client

Scribd

 

Scribd is the world’s largest document sharing community, and now you’re part of it.

There are lots of things you can do on Scribd, and here are some things that will get you started:

• Upload and share your documents.
• Find interesting documents by category, by topic group, by searching, or by just browsing our library.
• Professional publishers and developers should check out the Scribd Platform.
• Get the latest announcements and updates at the Scribd Blog.

Scribd

IE7Pro - The Ultimate Add-On for Internet Explorer

 
The Easiest way to make Your Internet Explorer Professional

IE7Pro is an add-on for Internet Explorer which adds a lot of features and extras which make your Browsing faster,More Responsive and Sleek.

Download Free

IE7Pro 2.4.4 has been released on Dec 09,2008

IE7Pro - The Ultimate Add-On for Internet Explorer

MagicISO - Convert BIN to ISO, Create, Edit, Burn, Extract ISO file, ISO/BIN converter/extractor/editor

Need to burn dvds, cdr-rw’s or create iso’s?   MagicISO is a great tool and never failed on my notebook.   After installation you can install their free software too by clicking Configuration / Virtual CD/DVD Drive tab, and the link to install MagicDisc.

Some AntiVirus software says this program is a trojan or spyware.  It’s no such thing.  This is a simple false positive.  I’ve been using this program for over a year now with no problems and also contacted AVG and they seem to agree.  Link below

MagicISO - Convert BIN to ISO, Create, Edit, Burn, Extract ISO file, ISO/BIN converter/extractor/editor

Belarc Advisor - Free Personal PC Audit

The Belarc Advisor builds a detailed profile of your installed software and hardware, missing Microsoft hotfixes, anti-virus status, CIS
(Center for Internet Security) benchmarks, and displays the results in
your Web browser. All of your PC profile information is kept private on
your PC and is not sent to any web server

Urban Legends: Hannah Garman

Snopes says this one is true...

Claim:  A four-year-old girl named Hannah Garman, who is dying from cancer, wants to receive Christmas cards.

I will not post the whole e-mail; however, even if it's true this is still classified as spam.  Today, spammers have gone mobile.  I get probably 10 messages a month (mostly from family members) on my cell phone which is nothing but spam in the form of chain letters (via sms).

If I want to read spam, urban legends, etc., I would visit snoopes.com or urban legends.  I'm thinking of blocking all text messaging.  Why text message anyway when it's faster to just call?