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10651

Living Room / Re: Free Ubuntu pocket guide available for download

« Last post by 40hz on February 07, 2009, 11:01 AM »

That doesn't work because System->Admin->Network doesn't exist.

The nearest thing I have is System->Admin->Network Tools, but that just lets me do things like ping, whois, tracert, etc. I also have System->Preferences->Network Configuration, but that just brings up my network connections list.

That's been the problem with a lot of how-tos for Ubuntu. They tell me to do something and it's impossible because the place they tell me to go doesn't exist.

-Deozaan (February 06, 2009, 11:29 PM)

What version of Ubu are you running?

Oh never mind...

From the top menu: go to Applications then to Add/Remove

Select System Tools

Scroll on the window on the right until you see Network and Network Tools

I'm guessing Network Tools is checked and Network isn't?

Put a check next to Network and then hit the Apply Changes button.

Network is supposed to be installed by default. Somehow it either didn't get installed, or was inadvertently removed after your initial install.

Network
Cross-platform configuration utilities for GNOME

The GNOME System Tools are a fully integrated set of tools aimed to make easy the job that means the computer administration on an UNIX or Linux system. They're thought to help from the new Linux or UNIX user to the system administrators.
Its main advantages are:
* Full integration with the new GNOME Control Center.
* An user-friendly interface to carry out the main administration tasks.
* The use of a common user interface in every system.
* A common structure that makes easy the development of new system tools. Nowadays there are tools for managing:
* Date and time
* Network configuration
* Services
* Shares
* Users and groups

Good luck!

10652

Living Room / Re: Free Ubuntu pocket guide available for download

« Last post by 40hz on February 06, 2009, 10:58 PM »

Deo:

From: Techtronic Thoughts

http://techtronic.wo...workgroup-in-ubuntu/

To join a Windows Workgroup (MSHOME, etc)

   1. Go to the “System” menu
   2. Go to “Administration“
   3. Select “Network“
   4. Go to the “General” tab

    * Host Name: What you want your computer to be named on the network
    * Domain: equivilant to WORKGROUP in Windows. Put your workgroup here (ex: MSHOME)

Then take a look at this link:

https://help.ubuntu....ity/WindowsXPPrinter

 

10653

Living Room / Re: Tough Router Question

« Last post by 40hz on February 06, 2009, 07:13 PM »

Quick note on reset buttons and DD-WRT.

The people who wrote DD-WRT have issued warnings regarding hardware resets.

If at all possible - do not use the hardware reset button. If you need to do a router reset, use the Restore Factory Defaults option under the Administration tab in the web interface whenever possible.

It is possible to "brick" your router with the hardware reset button. I don't know if the Linksys WRT L-series routers are susceptible to this problem. But the non-L ones definitely are.

I speak from personal experience on this one. 

10654

Living Room / Re: Tough Router Question

« Last post by 40hz on February 06, 2009, 06:55 PM »

If her roomate's machine has been compromised, or is hosting some sort of zombie-bot, the only machine that would be affected would be her roomate's.

There is only one situation where this might cause a problem for your sister:

If they're both on the same DSL or cable connection, any illegal thing her roomate's machine did (i.e. spam botting, participating on a DOS attack, bootlegging copyrighted materials, sharing kiddie-porn via P2P, etc.) would lead an investigator right back to the WAN IP address on your router.

Depending on the circumstances, you could have your service shut off; possibly get a call from your ISP's security department; or receive a very unpleasant visit from law enforcement officials.

But this is all "worst case scenario" stuff - and pretty far fetched. I wouldn't worry too much about it.

If something very serious went down, I doubt your sister would ultimately be the person in trouble since it wouldn't be her machine that was causing the problem. But establishing innocence and dealing with skeptical security people is a hassle best avoided whenever possible.

If your sister is that concerned, the easiest thing to do would be to just order an additional DSL/Cable line and put The Roomate (hmmm...starting to sound like a movie title isn't it?) on a completely different router.

End to end data transmission encryption (E2EE) is possible, but it's not easy to implement efficiently without additional hardware and some professional (i.e. expensive) assistance.

Data file or folder encryption however, is very doable with CryptainerLE or TrueCrypt. TrueCrypt is more suited to providing protection of files that aren't being transmitted. Think of it more as a strongbox. CryptainerLE is more suited for things you want to protect and send to other people.

If you encrypt your files before sending them, you're about as secure as you can get short of working for the government. Just encrypt whatever file(s) you want to send, and let the recipient know what the password is, and you're set to go. Most apps allow you to create self-decrypting executables so that the recipient wouldn't need anything other than the password to unlock your file.

Alternatively, you could use a public-key/RSA solution like PGP, in which case you could encrypt/decrypt without needing to share passwords at all.

 

10655

Living Room / Re: Tough Router Question

« Last post by 40hz on February 06, 2009, 05:08 PM »

I don't mean any offense. It's just that "I don't know how to do it, and I don't know anyone who knows" is not at all the same thing as "No one can do it". And when the possibility seems as obvious as it does with two machines sharing one connection, I have to wonder. It isn't as though the creeps who write malware and spyware advertise their capabilities; as far as I know, they go to great lengths to hide what they can do / are doing. And if that second machine isn't part of a zombie network already, it sure will be one of these days - I don't think the security researchers who try to collect malware on their machines could do a better job than this woman.

No offense taken. I hear similar concerns all the time from my business clients.

Anything may be possible, but it usually pays to confine one's endeavors to the realm of the probable and doable rather than the theoretically possible. That way lies paranoia.

In answer to your question, there is such a thing as packet sniffing. Is this roomate a hacker or network administrator type? If not, I doubt you'll need to fear much from her observing datagrams (assuming she knew what they were) since you'd need a very high degree of knowledge about network protocols to adequately interpret the results.

If she would be stopped by wireless encryption and passwords, then she's not the type of person with the background to do Wireshark and Nessus snooping.

If you're using Network Address Translation (NAT), which you are since you're using a router, all the packets that are supposed to go to your machine go to just your machine.

For the record, I will categorically state that two people on the same router cannot cross-infect each other as long as they are not also sharing files on their machines. Period. That much I do know.

Hope that's enough assurance for you.

10656

Living Room / Re: Tough Router Question

« Last post by 40hz on February 06, 2009, 03:16 PM »

Is your sister's Roomate-from-Hell using her own computer, or will she have access to that new laptop?

If she can't use the laptop, it doesn't matter what she gets up to on her own machine. It can't infect or cause problems on your sister's laptop because you're not sharing any files like she might be if she was connected to the same server as your sister. Merely sharing the same router shouldn't cause problems.

Just make sure you keep her grubby mitts off your sister's laptop and all should be well. Use a BIOS bootup password along with a decent Windows password and you should be all set. Change the workgroup name on the laptop from the default WORKGROUP to something nonsensical so that it's hidden from casual net browsing. For extra security you could also disable File and Print Sharing on the laptop since you won't be needing it anyway.

10657

General Software Discussion / Re: Department of Defense launches open source site Forge.mil

« Last post by 40hz on February 06, 2009, 03:01 PM »

Just look at who has 'real' nuclear weapons these days. North Korea? They can't even keep their population fed and housed, but somehow they've managed to gather the necessary resources to build a nuclear warhead - or three.

-40hz (February 06, 2009, 12:08 PM)

It's a lot easier to keep your population in check if they aren't well-fed... if their everyday is a struggle to survive, they aren't going to have much energy to launch a rebellion.

-f0dder (February 06, 2009, 12:47 PM)

I dunno. I'm from a place where the population is pretty well-fed, and mostly doesn't face an everyday struggle to survive.

And oddly enough, this population doesn't seem to have much energy to launch a rebellion either.

10658

General Software Discussion / Re: Department of Defense launches open source site Forge.mil

« Last post by 40hz on February 06, 2009, 02:58 PM »

Is this thing actually going to be online anytime soon? How long does it take to setup some load balanced Apaches?

**Ehtyar ducks objects thrown by Joshua.

Ehtyar.

-Ehtyar (February 06, 2009, 01:42 PM)

A couple of hours for complete setup, and a full day to adequately test.  But that's assuming they're using Apache. 

Here's examples of how in to do it in Debian or Ubuntu in case you're wondering:

http://www.howtoforg...anced_apache_cluster

http://www.howtoforg...e-cluster-ubuntu8.04


  ( I'd recommend they go with OpenBSD for the backend, however.)

10659

General Software Discussion / Re: Department of Defense launches open source site Forge.mil

« Last post by 40hz on February 06, 2009, 12:08 PM »

you need a lot of work, lot of money, and a lot of very skilled engineers.

-f0dder (February 06, 2009, 09:54 AM)

I agree with you. But the simple fact is that there are a lot of skilled engineers (and money!) available for this sort of thing.

Just look at who has 'real' nuclear weapons these days. North Korea? They can't even keep their population fed and housed, but somehow they've managed to gather the necessary resources to build a nuclear warhead - or three.

The point I was trying to make is that the technology for weapons development is a lot more attainable as time goes on. Credit it to the overall growth in technical sophistication throughout the world. It comes as a massive hit of culture shock to a lot of my friends (in the USA) when they see people in so-called "Third World" countries developing sophisticated technologies - or re-purposing existing ones for uses never imagined by their original creators. And I'm sure many people in other "industrialized nations" are guilty of the same hubris.

I've found it's good to remember two things about technical development and deployment:

1. Most of the people we don't like (who don't like us much either) are nowhere nears as dumb as we'd like them to be.

2. When it comes to technology: "The Street finds it's own uses for things." as William Gibson so nicely put it.


But that's all kind of moot. If you talk to professionals in the weapons industry or military, the general consensus seems to be that there is nothing you can do to stop the spread of technology. All you can do is slow it down. So most of the secrecy in the defense world is geared towards protecting the 'engineering specifics' such that it becomes too expensive and time consuming for most countries to reinvent "our" wheels.

Or at least it does until somebody like Kim Jong-Il comes along.


----

To your point about dirty weapons. I agree completely. You're just as dead from one of those as you are from a state-of-the-art military weapon. And bio-terrorism would be even simpler and more cost effective.



-----

But either way, I doubt you're going to see anything "spicy" up on the Pentagon's repository. I'd suspect you'll find they're just doing all the things you'd expect them to be doing (i.e. database, CRM, CMS, http, VoIP, etc.).

What I find impressive about forge.mil is that it is so out of character for them to be doing something like this. Maybe a new era in "accountability and openness" is coming to the US Government after all.

But we'll just have to wait and see. www.forge.mil is still timing out.

10660

General Software Discussion / Re: Help! My new computer is freezing!

« Last post by 40hz on February 06, 2009, 11:15 AM »

Have you checked Gigabyte's website to see if you're running the latest BIOS and chipset firmware? Boards as new as this sometimes have a spate of updates for the first 6 months or so as the kinks get worked out.

You should be able to disable onboard audio under BIOS setup. Try updating your firmware first. See if you get a clean bootup. Then try disabling onboard audio if the problem persists.

10661

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: DVD Ripper 50% off

« Last post by 40hz on February 05, 2009, 09:57 PM »

A free alternative would be Bitripper available at this link:

http://bitripper.com/

10662

General Software Discussion / Re: Benchmarked: Ubuntu vs Vista vs Win7

« Last post by 40hz on February 05, 2009, 09:06 PM »

I can't wait to try Ubuntu 9.04, and I hope it doesn't disappoint. I finally admitted 2 months ago that Intrepid Ibex has been nothing but CRAP for me...

-Edvard (February 05, 2009, 10:49 AM)

Ditto. I went back to LTS 8.0.4-2

(I also ditched the Pulse Audio Server, but that's a topic for a whole separate slag fest. )

Here's hoping that Ubuntu's new Juvenile Jackass (or whatever they decide to call it) is better than Ibex.

10663

General Software Discussion / Re: WINDOWS 7 THREAD (ongoing)

« Last post by 40hz on February 05, 2009, 08:59 PM »

I hear, ya, 40hz! I’ve pretty much abandoned the beta ...

I’ll wait for Windows 7 to be released and re-assess at that time. No doubt I’ll be waiting for SP-1 before upgrading, though.

-Darwin (February 05, 2009, 03:34 PM)

I think we're both sitting in the same pew for that one.

I got so annoyed by the whole 'version thing' that I zapped the beta from the test drive it was on. That 200GB is now home to a bright and shiny new T2 SDE I'd been meaning to set up for quite a while.

I think I'll worry about dealing with Win7 when it finally comes out.

10664

General Software Discussion / Re: Suggestions for a Quick & Easy ircd for my private LAN

« Last post by 40hz on February 05, 2009, 08:32 PM »

Not a problem, and thanks!

Just got done playing with it a bit. Seems pretty straight forward. Nice look and feel.

I'm very impressed.

10665

General Software Discussion / Re: Suggestions for a Quick & Easy ircd for my private LAN

« Last post by 40hz on February 05, 2009, 06:22 PM »

And I saved the best for last...IDE3

-app103 (February 04, 2009, 10:26 PM)

April: Did you say IDE3 is portable???

I'd love to get a look at that if it's OK with you and Martin.

10666

General Software Discussion / Re: How much trouble is a 64-bit OS right now?

« Last post by 40hz on February 05, 2009, 06:05 PM »

[... but I am an eternal optimist and thought that years of my having generally been proven right where disagreements over computer issues had "sunk in"

-Darwin (February 05, 2009, 01:32 PM)

First mistake...

at least I tried...

Second mistake...

10667

General Software Discussion / Re: Ten Tips for Windows users making the switch to Linux

« Last post by 40hz on February 05, 2009, 06:01 PM »

Lol 40hz.

I've been meaning to switch to PC-BSD (although not Solaris, using this PC purely for desktop) but nothing I've read makes me think it's much more ready for the desktop than Linux is and unless I'm mistaken, it still has the same filesystem hierarchy as most Linux distros doesn't it?

-Paul Keith (February 05, 2009, 05:26 PM)

Very similar hierarchy, and much more consistently utilized by installed applications.

I think you're really going to like using PC-BSD. Out of all the Unix-like variants, BSD is still my favorite. PC-BSD takes a good thing and makes it even better for desktop deployment. Enjoy!

-----------

P.S. Sorry for resurrecting a thread.

-Paul Keith (February 05, 2009, 02:04 PM)

I'm not complaining. Some of my best postings can be found here...

-40hz (February 05, 2009, 03:16 PM)

You have good postings? ;-)

-Josh (February 05, 2009, 03:18 PM)

Yup.

And my Mom thinks I'm pretty too!

10668

General Software Discussion / Re: Ten Tips for Windows users making the switch to Linux

« Last post by 40hz on February 05, 2009, 03:16 PM »

P.S. Sorry for resurrecting a thread.

-Paul Keith (February 05, 2009, 02:04 PM)

I'm not complaining. Some of my best postings can be found here...

10669

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Hound: a grep-alike that searches inside PDFs

« Last post by 40hz on February 05, 2009, 02:59 PM »

Nice find. It ripped through a 1.23GB directory of 43K files (doc/html/txt/pdf) without a hiccup.

Liked the sheep pic. Wonder if it really is Dolly.

-40hz (February 05, 2009, 12:53 PM)

Maybe it's a clone... ?

-Darwin (February 05, 2009, 01:34 PM)

(Cloned laughter!)

10670

General Software Discussion / Re: WINDOWS 7 THREAD (ongoing)

« Last post by 40hz on February 05, 2009, 02:55 PM »

Here's more info/commentary on all the various editions planned for Windows 7 courtesy of PCMag.com

Link: http://www.pcmag.com...,2817,2340338,00.asp

The Windows 7 Versions: What You Need to Know

...

In this article, we'll attempt to give you as many details about the new operating systems as we can, based on Microsoft's own documents that describe the new updates.

I'm starting getting sick of the whole bloody thing, and it's not even out yet...

10671

General Software Discussion / Re: Why Computers Can't Kill Post-Its - MIT research

« Last post by 40hz on February 05, 2009, 01:13 PM »

Very cool article. (I signed up.)

I've always been a big fan of Post-It notes. One of the best uses I've found is to use them in combination with a whiteboard for brainstorming or mapping out a project. You get the advantage of being able to easily rearrange major items without rewriting, while still being able to use the whiteboard to add minor notes and  "connect the dots."

Best of both worlds IMHO.

10672

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Hound: a grep-alike that searches inside PDFs

« Last post by 40hz on February 05, 2009, 12:53 PM »

Nice find. It ripped through a 1.23GB directory of 43K files (doc/html/txt/pdf) without a hiccup.

Liked the sheep pic. Wonder if it really is Dolly.

10673

General Software Discussion / Re: How much trouble is a 64-bit OS right now?

« Last post by 40hz on February 05, 2009, 12:38 PM »

These are friends?

10674

General Software Discussion / Re: Department of Defense launches open source site Forge.mil

« Last post by 40hz on February 05, 2009, 12:33 PM »

Of course, this is all rather abstract thinking...

-CWuestefeld (February 05, 2009, 11:22 AM)

But that's also one reason why I always enjoy reading your posts!

10675

General Software Discussion / Re: Department of Defense launches open source site Forge.mil

« Last post by 40hz on February 05, 2009, 10:54 AM »

How do you keep something secret when it isn't a secret?

The problem with computer technology is that there are very few 'secrets' in the true sense of the word.

Computer architecture is well documented; and the underlying mathematical and logical concepts are widely taught and understood. So barring some brilliant and unintuitive new algorithm, virtually any computer code could be reversed engineered after observing it's working function. Because once you know what a program does, it's just a matter of coding to duplicate it.

The same thing applies to most military technologies.

Look at atomic weapons. Once the physics of fission is understood, the big breakthrough has already been made. After that it's just engineering - as has been so neatly demonstrated by the recent proliferation of countries possessing or actively developing nuclear weapons.

If the US wanted to keep the atomic bomb secret longer, they should have never called it an "atom bomb." Because once they did, they hung out a great big arrow pointing down a very specific technical path for anyone else to follow. And follow they did.

Unfortunately, there's also another "inconvenient truth" surrounding military technology.

The US (like many major powers) also sells it's military technologies to what it considers friendly powers. America's so-called 'defense contractors' are also businesses that compete in the international weapons marketplace.

You don't need to hack into an aircraft manufacturer's database to get details on their latest jetfighter. All you need to do is go to an 'air show' and grab one of their brochures. Or call them up and have one mailed to you. And if you still need more information, one of their sales reps will be happy to take you to lunch and answer any questions you may have if you're interested in buying one.

Furthermore, whatever the manufacturer won't tell you can still often be found in Jane's Guide, which is available at many public libraries.

Sad truth is that most secret weapons aren't really 'secret weapons.' They're just products that come with sales and export restrictions attached.

-----

FWIW: I doubt you'll ever see any "weapons grade" code up on the Pentagon's website.

Waging war is only part of what the US Military does. Much of the time, it just operates like a very large and inefficient business. And like any big business, it spends a great deal of thought, time, and money on: logistics, training, purchasing, equipment maintenance, paperwork reduction, payroll, and medical benefits.

Plenty of code (and room for improvement) just addressing those areas.