existence trainer

Using Virtualbox, I've started playing around with the two mini-distributions of Linux: SliTak and Damn Small Linux (and I'm looking forward to playing around with more). Overall I'm really impressed with these two distributions! Here are my first impressions of how they compare. Damn Small Linux (DSL) I've been using this one for a while on an old 400MHz machine with 64mb of RAM. Its only a 50mb distribution that is very full-featured, including most everything you would expect from a Desktop distro (wordprocessor, browser, music player, etc). You can also install any number of apps through the MyDSL Browser. The developers of this distribution are constantly improving it, releasing new beta versions almost every month. The target audience seems to be older, slower computers. I thought, before trying SliTak, that the reason that a lot of the software on this distribution is dated is because it is less bloated, less resource intensive, and functions better on old hard...

Ok, you've just installed WordFlashReader on your Ubuntu machine. And now you want an easy way to access it. Doing the following three things will make it very easily accessible: Aliasing it in your .bashrc alias wfr='[installation path]/wordflashreader.linux.bin' Launch it directly from your browser using Launchy (firefox addon). Insructions are here . Add it to your Ubuntu main menus. In order to do this, go to System->Preferences->Main Menu. Choose which category you wish to add you menu item to. I chose the 'Office' category. Click 'New Item' on the right side of the window. Name: WordFlashReader Command: [browse to the place where you installed the program and select wordflashreader.linux.bin] Next, click the button on the upper left and corner of the Create Lancher window. Again, browse to the WordFlashReader installation path and click 'Open'. Two icons will show up. Choose WFReader.ico and hit ok. Hit ok one more time and th...

XP, even XP sp3 does not include support for SATA hard drives. Here is a great guide to getting it working.

If you've been surfing Youtube a lot using the default configuration of Ubuntu Hardy, chances are you've experienced an unusual amount of crashing. An absurd amount, in fact. It has been driving me crazy! I've finally been able to cobble together a solution from suggestions here and there on various forums (with special thanks to the works of Conn in these forums): Download the new Flash 10 beta player from here to your home directory and unzip it. Remove 'flashplugin-nonfree' and 'libflashsupport' using Synaptic Using the command line: mkdir ~/.mozilla/plugins/ (if it is not already there) cp ~/install_flash_player_10_linux/libflashplayer.so ~/.mozilla/plugins/libflashplayer.so Using Synaptic, make sure you have the latest of the following installed: 'alsa-base', 'pulseaudio', and 'libasound2-plugins' Then create and edit ~/.asoundrc and add: pcm.pulse { type pulse } ctl.pulse { type pulse } pcm.!default { type pulse }...

To install conky: sudo aptitude install conky Then create and modify ~/.conkyrc. Here is what I used: ----- # set to yes if you want Conky to be forked in the background background no cpu_avg_samples 2 net_avg_samples 2 out_to_console no # Use Xft? use_xft yes # Xft font when Xft is enabled xftfont Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:size=8 own_window_transparent no own_window_colour hotpink # Text alpha when using Xft xftalpha 0.8 on_bottom yes # mail spool mail_spool $MAIL # Update interval in seconds update_interval 1 # Create own window instead of using desktop (required in nautilus) own_window no # Use double buffering (reduces flicker, may not work for everyone) double_buffer no # Minimum size of text area #minimum_size 280 5 #maximum_width 150 # Draw shades? draw_shades no # Draw outlines? draw_outline no # Draw borders around text draw_borders no # Stippled borders? stippled_borders 10 # border margins border_margin 4 # border width border_width 1 # Default colors and also border colors d...

Follow these steps to install the Guest Additions on your Debian virtual machine: 1. Login as root; 2. Update your APT database with apt-get update; 3. Install the latest security updates with apt-get upgrade; 4. Install required packages with apt-get install build-essential module-assistant; 5. Configure your system for building kernel modules by running m-a prepare; 6. Click on Install Guest Additions… from the Devices menu, then run mount /media/cdrom. 7. Run sh /media/cdrom/VBoxLinuxAdditions.run, and follow the instructions on screen. Once you install and reboot, then you can add shared folders from the device menu, and mount it with the following command: # mount.vboxsf [the_name_of_the_shared_folder] /media/[name_of_mount_point]

Basic Installation Install only the base system (w/ networking) of the latest Debian (I don't select any of the package bundles when given the option). $ su - $ nano /etc/apt/sources.list Comment out the line with the CD in it with a #. Add these lines (adjust for the version of debian you're installing): deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian etch main contrib non-free deb-src http://ftp.debian.org/debian etch main contrib non-free Now is generally a good time to update your system with any security patches: # apt-get update # apt-get upgrade Installing sudo I have gotten really used to using sudo, so the first thing I do is: $ su - # aptitude install sudo Then I edit /etc/sudoers # export VISUAL="nano" # visudo Add the following line: username ALL=(ALL) ALL (Note ganked from somewhere: So the first part is the user, the second is the terminal from where the user can use sudo, the third is as which user he may act, and the last one, is which commands he may run.) I...

The command is this: VBoxManage clonevdi /home/winship/.VirtualBox/VDI/WinXP.vdi /media/storage2/tmp/WinXP.vdi To restore it, go to File->Virtual Disk Manager->Add and select your backup .vdi file

In the Location Bar, enter the following: For SSH, use: ssh://username@ssh.server.com For FTP, use: ftp://username@ftp.server.com For SFTP, use: sftp://username@sftp.server.com

The default installation of ssh in ubuntu allows any user to login to the system over ssh. If you wish to restrict this, here is how: Modify /etc/ssh/sshd_config. If you wished to allow only the users jhendrix, and svaughan to login via ssh, you could use the AllowUsers directive in your /etc/ssh/sshd_config file as such: AllowUsers jhendrix svaughan If you didn't mind all users logging in via ssh, with the exception of the users wgates, or sballmer then you could add the DenyUsers directive to your /etc/ssh/sshd_config in a similar manner, like this: DenyUsers wgates sballmer Of course, restart the server by typing: sudo /etc/init.d/ssh restart

If you don't have a static ip, register an account with DynDNS and follow the tutorial (you can download ddclient through synaptic). Note: enter 'web' for 'Interface used...'. Now we need to make sure ddclient sends the information in an encrypted form. I found these instructions here to be very useful. Basically, through synaptic I installed ssh and libio-socket-ssl-perl. The I edited /etc/ddclient.conf so that the line: use=if, if=web looks like this: use=web, web=checkip.dyndns.com/, web-skip='IP Address' And also, right under the comments I added: ssl=yes daemon=300 Then I checked to make sure ddclient was running as a deamon by opening /etc/default/ddclient and making sure: run_daemon="true" Start it up: sudo /etc/init.d/ddclient restart If you have a router, you may need to do port forwarding. ------- Now its time to get vsftpd working. Install it through synaptic. Then configure /etc/vsftpd.conf. A great tutorial on how to do this is here...

I've uploaded the first release candidate for the 1.0 version. Try it out, its the future of on-screen computer reading (or so I say)! After the 1.0 release, I plan on slowly porting it to a Gtk+ interface so It doesn't look as crappy on Linux.

Unfortunately, from my neck of the woods. I hope there is a big financial backlash. Racist Obama T-Shirt Protest

"He who conceals hatred has lying lips, and he who spreads slander is a fool" - Proverbs 10:18

Best to Worst: Reagan Clinton G.H.Bush Carter G.W.Bush F'ing obvious.

Although I'm not sure how this is consistent with many of his previous actions, here's what he has to say about terrorism: Some readers apparently responded to her piece, published on the same day as the vicious terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, by associating my book with them. This is absurd. My memoir is from start to finish a condemnation of terrorism, of the indiscriminate murder of human beings, whether driven by fanaticism or official policy. It begins literally in the shadow of Hiroshima and comes of age in the killing fields of Southeast Asia. My book criticizes the American obsession with a clean and distanced violence, and the culture of thoughtlessness and carelessness that results from it. We are now witnessing crimes against humanity in our own land on an unthinkable scale, and I fear that we might soon see innocent people in other parts of the world as well as in the U.S. dying and suffering in response. The rest of his blog post can be found here . T...