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Bitácora Técnica de Tux&Cía., Santa Cruz de la Sierra, BO
Bitácora Central: Tux&Cía.
Bitácora de Información Avanzada: Tux&Cía.-Información
May the source be with you!

Saturday, August 23, 2008

LX: moving /home

Sources: 1, Howto migrate user accounts-old to new server

1. Drop to single-user mode
Create a new partition, if necessary
If the new partition doesn't exist yet, you'll need to create it using cfdisk (preferred) or fdisk. If the partition doesn't reside on your first drive, remember to specify the name of the device as the first argument to cfdisk or fdisk. After creating the appropriate primary or extended partition, you should reboot so that the partition table can be reread correctly. This is the only time you will need to reboot the system.

2. Create a filesystem on the new partition
To create a filesystem on the new partition, first make sure you know the exact device name for the new partition (for example, /dev/sda5). If you're not sure of the exact device name, stop now and double-check! Then type the following, as root:
Code Listing 2.1: Creating the filesystem
# mkfs.ext2 /dev/???

In the above and following code samples, ??? should be replaced with the target partition name. After executing this command, the target partition will contain an empty ext2 filesystem.

3. Mount the new filesystem in /mnt
Create a directory called /mnt/newpart, and then mount the new partition there:
Code Listing 3.1: Mounting the partition
# mount /dev/??? /mnt/newpart

I delayed this step as long as possible to maximize system availability, but we now must drop into single-user mode, and copy files from /home to /mnt/newpart. You shouldn't have any files open in /home, and entering single-user mode eliminates this possibility:
Code Listing 4.1: Entering single user mode
# init 1

If prompted, enter the root password to perform system maintenance. You should now have a root shell.
5. Change directories to /home and copy files
Type the following:
Code Listing 5.1: Copying files
# cd /home
# cp -ax * /mnt/newpart

The cp -ax command recursively copies the contents of /home to /mnt/newpart, preserving all file attributes, and not crossing any mount points. After this command finishes, /mnt/newpart will contain an exact copy of all the files and directories currently in /home. If the old /home was on its own separate partition (listed on a separate line in /etc/fstab), go to step 6a. Otherwise, proceed to step 6b.

6. Use the new partition

6a: /home on its own partition

Note: These instructions are for systems where the old /home is already on its own dedicated partition. If this isn't the case, see step 6b.
Unmount the old partition by typing:
Code Listing 6.1: Unmounting
# cd /
# umount /home

Then, unmount and remount the new partition:
Code Listing 6.2: Remounting the partition
# umount /mnt/newpart
# mount /dev/??? /home

Now, the new partition is available at /home and is ready to be used. We can perform the last few steps in multiuser mode. Exit single-user mode, so that the system is back up and running, by pressing CTRL-D.
Important: After the system starts up normally, log in as root and edit /etc/fstab so that /dev/??? is now mounted automatically at /home instead of your old partition. For example, change this line:
Code Listing 6.3: Old fstab
/dev/hda3 /home ext2 defaults 1 2

to this line:
Code Listing 6.4: New fstab
/dev/??? /home ext2 defaults 1 2
6b: /home on a shared partition

Note: These instructions are for systems where the old /home is on a shared partition.
Code Listing 6.5: Moving the directory
# cd /
# mv /home /home.old
# mkdir /home
# mount /dev/??? /home

Important: Now, leave single user mode by pressing CTRL-D. When the system is back up and running, edit /etc/fstab and add a line like the following:
Code Listing 6.6: Editing fstab
/dev/??? /home ext2 defaults 1 2

That way, your new partition will get mounted correctly the next time the system is rebooted.
7. Finishing up
We deliberately left the old /home directory/partition behind, just in case there were problems copying files. After verifying that the system is running smoothly, you can either use your old /home partition for something else, or remove the /home.old directory.
Congratulations, you've just moved /home! In my next tip, we'll reconfigure a system so that /tmp and /var are on their own shared partition.

Linux: compress & decompress

Source
*.tgz use tar -zxvf
*.tar.bz2 use tar -jxvf
*.tar.bzip2 use tar -jxvf
*.zip use unzip
*.tar use tar -xvf
*.bz2 use bunzip2 -d -v
*.gz use gunzip -d -v
*.arj use unarj
*.lha use lha x
*.ace use unace
*.rar use rar x (Note: on on some systems “unrar”, others “unrar x”)
*.cab use cabextract (Note: Some .cab files need unshield (apt-get install unshield))
*.Z use uncompress
*.zoo use zoo -extract
*.chm use chmextract
*.xpi use unzip
*.jar use jar xvf
*.deb use ar xv
*.lzo use lzop -x
*.7z use 7z x

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Open Bench Labs

slides: Programación

Fundamentos de Programación
View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: programming)

Web 2.0

Web 2.0
View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: satyajeet singh)

Open Source Library Management Systems

Integrated Library Management System (ILMS):
An automated library system that is capable of managing the operations of more than one basic library functions

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Multimedia Timer: HPET

The High Precision Event Timer (HPET) was developed jointly by Intel and Microsoft to meet the timing requirements of multimedia and other time-sensitive applications. Originally, the HPET was called the Multimedia Timer (MM Timer), but the name was later changed to avoid confusion with a Microsoft DirectX timer, and to better describe the timer.
Benefits of the HPET
Experiments on prototype HPET hardware by Microsoft Test Engineers have shown that, in addition to extending the capabilities and precision of a system, the HPET also improved system performance.
In a test that compared the performance of the HPET to that of the PM clock, a function that called the usermode QueryPerformanceCounter() API 1000 times was executed and timed. To ensure the results were comparable, the test was run multiple times on a single system. A similar test was run using the kernel mode KeQueryPerformanceCounter() API on the same hardware to identify the kernel mode benefits of the new timer. Table 1 shows the results of these two experiments.
Table 1   Comparison between HPET and PM Clock Performance

Benchmark1000 consecutive [K]QPC callsPM Clock[calls/ms][µs / call]HPET[calls/ms][µs / call]Perf Increase using the HPET

QueryPerformanceCounter()

6301.59

7841.27

24%

KeQueryPerformanceCounter()

11940.84

19200.59

61%

This data shows that reading the timestamp from the HPET is more efficient and faster than with legacy timers. However, because of the fine level of resolution needed for measurement, the actual performance benefits of the HPET and their implications on applications are impossible to quantify.
Migration to the HPET
The next generation of chipsets will need to support both the HPET and legacy timers. This approach will maintain compatibility with Windows XP and older versions of Windows while enabling the migration to the new timer. Eventually however, chipsets can ship without support for the legacy 8254 timer, PM clock, and APIC timer.
Windows Support of the HPET
Initially, on systems with an HPET, all Windows timer APIs will be ported to the new hardware rather than using the legacy 8254, RTC, APIC, or PM clock. After the HPET is widely available, Windows timer APIs will be extended and the underlying Windows timer code will be enhanced to take advantage of the enhanced capabilities of the HPET.

Glossary

8254 PIT
Programmable Interval Timer, one of the system timers in use today.
Aperiodic timer
A "one-shot" timer that only generates a single interrupt at a specified time. If subsequent interrupts are required after an interrupt is generated, the timer must be reprogrammed.
APIC timer
Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller timer, one of the system timers in use today.
Clock interrupt
The periodic interrupts, generated by the system timing hardware (typically the 8254 clock), which the OS uses to track time and trigger events. The clock interrupt period can vary over time.
HPET
High Precision Event Timer, the new timer.
Multimedia Timer (MM Timer)
The original name of the HPET. Also a peripheral timer used by graphics packages.
Periodic timer
A timer that generates interrupts at regular, periodic intervals.
Peripheral timer
A proprietary timer that provides some specific, non-essential functionality such as the watchdog timer support used by failover systems.
PM clock
One of the system timers in use today.
Real-time clock (RTC)
One of the system timers in use today.
System timer
A timer that is used by the system to provide fundamental time functionality, such as tracking the time of day and triggering scheduled time-based events.
Timer object
Used by Windows to track requests for a signal at a specific precise time. Timer objects are checked at each clock interrupt to see if the time the object was supposed to expire has passed and schedule a timer DPC to generate a signal or run code for each object that has expired.
Timer tick
An abstract notion used by Windows to consistently track time and thread quantum. The period of a timer tick does not change after boot, while the period of the clock interrupt that physically measures time on the system may change.

Friday, August 15, 2008

NTFS fusion: error 510 -Partition Magic

Source
If you get hung up on doing an NTFS partition, which needs to be type "07" for MS Windows to even work, first write zeroes to all of the new disk:
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hdb
Then partition. You can make the MS Windows partition linux type "83" and fix it later. Heres how you fix it so it's NTFS:::

If it's in an extended partition:
dd if=/dev/hdb | hexdump -C | grep '00 83'

Look where it finds that on the terminal screen. Go there with dd:
dd if=/dev/hdb of=/directory/file.bin skip=10000 count=1

But figure out, by the offset in hexdump, where dd has to go. In the above example, dd is going to start at decimal offset 5,120,000. That's the default bs=512 times skip=10000. You're skipping 10000 blocks of 512 bytes, then recording a single sector, count=1. Hex offset is calculated with a calculator in linux, 5,120,000 d = 0x4e2000 h. Your screen is going to give you hex values, but dd works in decimal. You have to convert the hex offset where "00 83" are found to decimal so you can make dd go to the right spot. When you capture file.bin, open it with a hex editor and change "00 83" to "0007", then:
dd if=/directory/file.bin of=/dev/hdb seek=10000

That writes the new value to the extended partition.
If MS Windows is in a primary partition, is it partition 1, 2, 3, or 4?
0x1c2
0x1d2
0x1e2
0x1f2

Contain the partition type indicators for the drive. Do:
dd if=/dev/hdb of=/directory/file.bin count=1

That will record sector 1, the MBR, which contains the primary partition. Type "05" is extended, type "83" is linux, type "82" is linux swap, "01" is DOS, "07" is NTFS/HPFS. So, if your partitioning program doesn't make NTFS partitions, and you made a linux partition for MS Windows, change the corresponding type indicator:
location hex offset in sector 1:
0x1c2
or
0x1d2
or
0x1e2
or
0x1f2

with a hex editor. Screw it up afew times. Use fdisk -l in linux to see the aprtition is NTFS, and to see all your partitions. Now don't freak, just take it slow, easy, like you would with a really attractive, classy woman on a date. Give her what she wants, and she'll give you what you want. That's what linux is all about.
Just one of them, depending on which primary partition, 1-4 you want to be NTFS, "07". Then, write the file back to the HDD. The partition is now NTFS type
-------------------------------------------------------
Source

Nope, that's downright impossible AFAIK - look closer at his picture. The 2nd primary partition is after the logical, not in it. There's nothing in the specifications for disk partitions about the
order they occur in. There's a limit of 4 partitions because that's all the space there is in the boot sector for the 4 16-byte entries describing them. Any one of those entries can be an extended partition.
I've had secondary data drives with NO primary partitions so pulling them in and out didn't change letter assignments. If vaskark is both brave and desperate, he can do the following:
Use a linux rescue CD to back up the hard-drive boot sector to a floppy using
dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/fd0 bs=512 count=1
Then, use a disk sector editor to set bytes 01BE thru 01ED to zeros for sector 0 of /dev/hda. Doing this will blow off partitions 4, 3, and 2 (yes, the entries are in reverse order). Before you do anything, check whether bytes 01FE and 01FF are AA55 to be sure it's the right sector.
Reboot, and all there should be is a single primary partition of your C drive. If the reboot doesn't work, use fixmbr or whatever from the XP rescue console (I'm fuzzy on this part having only done stuff like this from Win9x) and try again.
Now use PM to put a logical partition on the all the disk space that's left, lay out the additional FAT32 chunks (leaving unused space), and install Ubuntu (letting it use that unused space however it sees fit). If this makes things worse instead of better, use that linux rescue CD to restore the hard-drive boot sector from the floppy via
dd if=/dev/fd0 of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1
--------------------------------------------------------
O mejor: usen Acronis Disk Director Suite v10 0 2160

Beerbox Project

Source
Me bastan los 15ºC para mis botellas de vino blanco...


Thursday, August 14, 2008

WarezRaid.com

Q & A
Q: What is warez?
A: Warez is considered as pirated software. Also as paid material that is used free of charge.

Q: Will I get arrested if I download warez?
A: As long as you don't try to sell pirated content(warez) and are not a criminal who the government is looking for.

Q: How many people do this?
A: There are millions of users who download warez. Whether it be in torrents or direct downloads(ftp.)

Q: Why would I switch from torrents to warez?
A: Torrents are a hassle and have slow download speeds. With downloads from sites directly you will achieve atleast 80KB/sec on a normal dsl. It may go up to 300KB/sec.

Q: What is WarezRaid.com?
A: WarezRaid.com is a friendly community with many people who have a good time. We are not strictly a warez site, as we have many different forums where you can find what interests you!

Q: How do warez work?
A: The uploader would post the links to download it and you enter it into your url bar and download.

Q: What are some common upload/download sites?
A: Rapidshare.com, MegaUpload.com, FileFactory.com, MediaFire.com. Rapidshare is the most popular.

Q: Why should I buy a rapidshare account?
A: You don't exactly have to buy one. You can share with someone. If you come to think of it, buying it saves a lot of time and is just easier in the long run. WarezRaid does offer rapidshare accounts to VIP users who are trusted.

LGA775 package & new chipsets

Source
Source 2

Intel's latest motherboard chipsets, previously codenamed Alderwood and Grantsdale, are aimed at high-performance motherboards and designed to work primarily with new and repackaged Pentium 4s ranging from the Pentium 4 520 at 2.8GHz to the P4 560 at 3.6GHz. All come with 1MB of Level 2 (L2) cache and an 800MHz frontside bus; there's also a repackaged Extreme Edition part. All are housed in a new Leadless Grid Array LGA775 package. This presents the chip's connections as a grid of conductors flush with the bottom of the case -- a technique previously used on the Pentium II core.


Intel's new LGA775 package presents the Pentium 4's connections as a grid of conductors flush with the bottom of the case.

925X and 915G/P chipsets

Alderwood and Grantsdale -- more properly, the Intel 925X and the 915G and P Express Chipsets -- introduce a set of upgrades and new features. Most are shared across the family: PCI Express, 800MHz frontside bus, dual-channel DDR2 533MHz memory support, integrated Gigabit Ethernet, four serial ATA and eight USB 2.0 ports, and Intel's High Definition Audio. The 925X supports ECC memory, unlike the 915 chips, while the latter work with a selection of older Pentiums and slower memory options. The 915G also includes integrated graphics, Intel's new Graphics Media Accelerator 900, and the chips include some high-level support for wireless access points (although the wireless network adapter itself isn't included).


The 925X chipset supports ECC memory, unlike the 915G (with integrated graphics) and 915P parts.

The chipsets support legacy PCI as well as four PCI Express (PCIe) x1 'lanes' (a lane is a single uncontended bidirectional 500MB/s bus running around 6.5 times faster than PCI). Intel has dropped AGP in favour of PCI Express x16. This combines 16 PCI Express lanes into one slot, together with 75 watts of available power. With 4GB/s available simultaneously in both directions, PCI Express x16 has around four times the total bandwidth of AGP 8X and is the performance graphics bus of choice for the next generation of PCs. Intel claims it can render four simultaneous 720-line high-definition TV images at 50 frames per second (fps).

The 915G's integrated graphics are DirectX 9- and OpenGL 1.4-compatible, support QXGA (2,048-by-1,536 pixel) resolution at 85Hz and include hardware-accelerated pixel shading, shadow maps, volumetrix textures, depth bias and two-sided stencils. Intel says that the 915G delivers around 1.7 times better 3DMark 2001 performance than the graphics subsystem on the previous 865G chipset.

High Definition Audio

The High Definition Audio on the chips runs at a maximum of 192KHz 24-bit sample rate with eight channels, plus Dolby, DTS and DVD-Audio support. It also supports array microphones with up to 16 elements, a rather under-utilised technology that's useful for noise-cancelling voice recognition systems. This may be a feature of future operating systems. The final trick that the audio subsystem knows is 'jack retasking': it senses whether you've plugged a microphone, speaker or line-level audio connection into each jack and routes the audio signal appropriately. This could spell the end of the incomprehensible audio icon.


Intel's High Definition Audio supports array microphones with up to 16 elements -- useful for voice recognition systems.
-----------------------------
Get on the bus

Intel's three new chip sets -- the high-end 925X Express (formerly code-named Alderwood) and the midrange 915G and 915P Express chip sets (formerly Grantsdale) -- will support the PCI Express system bus instead of standard Peripheral Component Interconnect.

Today's venerable PCI standard allows data to travel at up to 133MB/sec. in one direction only; stuff headed the other way has to wait its turn. A standard PCI Express bus (called an X1) will offer transfers of up to 250MB/sec. in each direction, for a total of 500MB/sec. This should help speed up basic PC operations -- and it'll vastly improve gigabit networking, which runs into serious bottlenecks on the PCI bus.

Another area that's always in need of more bandwidth is graphics. Years ago, to support the evolution of powerful graphics cards, the PC industry abandoned the PCI bus and created the Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP). PCI Express brings graphics back into the fold and offers 4GB/sec. concurrent transfers to and from PCI Express-based graphics cards. In comparison, today's 8x AGP bus offers 2GB/sec. of shared bandwidth. Intel's 925X Express and 915P Express chip sets will offer a PCI Express graphics port, but no AGP. The 915G Express will include Intel's new integrated Graphics Media Accelerator 900.

AC97: Front panel problem

Source

Motherboard diagram says the following;

1.Mic Left in
2.Ground
3.Mic Right in
4.GPIO
5.Right Line in
6.Jack Sense
7.Front Sense
8.Key
9.Left Line in
10.Jack Sense

Now the connectors (there are 7 of them) say the following;
Return R, Return L
Spkout R, Spkout L
GND(which I have taken to mean Ground)
Mic In, Mic Bias


Try this:

Mic IN -- mic L

GND -- Gnd

Mic BIAS -- mic R

Line-Out Right -- Speaker-Out R

Line-Out Left -- Speaker-Out L

Return-L + R --no connect

------------------------------------------
I cant seem to figure out what is wrong with the connection of my front panel mic jack. My motherboard manual says to connect it to the correct pins, and has a note that says:
If your front panel cable is separated, please connect it to pin1 and pin3 or pin5 and pin7 to activate the MIC function.
:rolleyes: doesnt tell me much since i cant figure out what pins they speak of...and i dont know what the cable is separated from or not separated from based on this sentence
here is a map of my pin layout (there are 10 spots for pins in all, with one spot not having a pin):

G ? N _ N
1H H H ? H

through the process of elimination and using the manual - i have found out that

the ? are the open pins for the front panel mic cables

H is for my headphones and are connected correctly, while 1H is pin 1. the _ is where there is no pin. the N is where the pin is marked 'NC' in the manual (I think this means not to use them). G is the ground, also connected correctly
i have tried hooking up the cables in both possible configurations (only two left - that is, top ? hooked to pink wire, bottom ? hooked to yellow, and vice versa) but the mic doesnt work.

also of note is that the computer records loud clicking noises when the headphones are plugged in, and records light static (light a fan blowing into a mic) when its not plugged in, regardless of config.

any suggestions on what to do?
------------------------------------------
Here's my layout:
BLINE_OUT_L . . Line out_L
(empty one) . NC
BLINE_OUT_R . . Line out_R
+5VA . . MICPWR
AGND . . MIC2
(The dots represent the pins)
This is supposed to be standard.

my mobo doesnt have this as the pin descriptors. i have
top row (from left to right)
AGND
Front audio detect
NC
(blank)
NC
second row
Smart jack F left channel - pin 1
Smart jack F right channel
Smart jack E right channel
SENSE B
Smart jack E left channel

the cables are labeled differently (of course..) my total config is below:
mic in --> front audio detect
mic bias --> SENSE B
ground --> AGND
speaker out left --> smart jack e left
speaker out right --> smart jack e right
speaker return left - disconnected
speaker return right - disconnected

also, my rear jacks dont work now, or before when i HAD hooked up cables to each of the smart jacks, but i disconnected them and the rear jacks still dont work, but the headphone jack still works fine - leaving me with the config i have now. so it appears they arent needed. im so confused with this now...:-|
also, the clicking was steady and highly loud. it also had horrible staticky noise along with that. i could only get some recorded sound (very faint) by tapping on the case, and not the headphones. not sure what the hell to consider the source of that sound. i tried tapping headphones and speakers
-----------------------------------
Did you try pins 1 and 3 as the manual suggested? Bare in mind that 1 wire per channel is enough. Ground can be mutual.
And for the white noise, get used to it. PC is one big noise generator. I have my PC hooked to Hi-Fi and, believe me, if I increase the volume high enough on my Hi-Fi (90%), I can hear CD spin up, HD's clicks and even some noise when I'm scrolling the web page. And it's all being picked up by the analog CD Audio cable. Wires work like an antenna.
But all that wouldn't be heard on the headphones. Unless they are $1000 or more headset and you have acute hearing of a bat.
If you're hearing loud constant noise, it's connected wrong.

You should try to find correct connections on channel by channel basis.
------------------------------------------
well, i have come a long way since i last posted, by just tossing the manual in the trash. i have found that
1. jumpers across pins 5/6 and 9/10 make rear output jack work. take the jumpers off to connect front panel by plugging into 5, and 9
2. the speaker jack in the back, and the headphone jack in the front, cannot be hooked up at the same time due to the jumpers.
3. the mic works by hooking up 'mic in' to 'smart jack f left channel' and 'mic bias' to 'smart jack f right channel' (go figure there...)
-------------------------------------------
i have an ECS Elitegroup PF88 mobo, and the second question's answer is that it is a module i suppose, that increases (extends, if you will) the number of jacks for microphone use. it doesnt allow me to use both the front and back headphone/speaker jacks no matter what config i use.
i have this config now.

GRD=empty=jumper=no pin=jumper
mic in(pin1)=mic bias=jumper=empty=jumper

so my friend tells me i need a splitter, or audio hub...kinda defeats the purpose of connectivity to make the jacks only work one at a time, and require microscopic wire changes...in the corner of my case...
------------------------------------------
yea - i could only laugh (in horror and fury) when i see mic outputs go to inputs labelled left and right. what a pile of crap is what i thought. mics have ONE CHANNEL. so this task required me to not only toss the manual but toss my common sense into the trash. the other thing that made me furious is the lack of warning or explanation about the jumpers. i took em off to work with the pins better and it took me roughly an hour to think back to what i did that couldve caused my speaker jack to stop working. i thought id shorted it or something...worst explanations ever in this manual, with the exception of the pin 1 and 3 thing. that made the mic work. too bad it doesnt tell you about the fact that the whole thing is counter-intuitive, since you cant hook up headphones and speakers at once. i figured that was the point.. now i spose ill be buying an audio hub like my friend suggested
ac97 = ALL CRAP 97 times over
==========================================
I have a TF7025-M2 Motherboard, and an Eagletech "Viper 2" case. I would like to know which connectors go where for the Front Headphones and Mic.
The motherboard "Front Panel Audio Header" male-pins are numbered and layed out like this in the manual:
(Description says: This header allows user to connect the front audio output cable with the PC front panel. It will disable the output of the back panel audio connectors)
1. Mic Left in 2. Ground
3. Mic Right in 4. GPIO
5. Right Line in 6. Jack Sense
7. Front Sense 8. Key
9. Left line in 10. Jack Sense

My case front audio connectors are:
1. MIC: Front panel mic input signal
2. MIC BIAS: Mic Power
3. Aud Gnd: Audio Ground
4. Ret-R: Right Channel Audio signal return from front panel
5. Ret-L: left Channel Audio signal return from front panel
6. FPOUT-R: Right Channel Audio Signal to front panel
7. FPOUT-L: Left Channel Audio Signal to front panel

I've tried a few different seemingly sensible combinations, but can't get my headphones to work if plugged in the front.
Any idea of which connectors correspond to what?
Answer
Not entirely, I would guess Ret-R would pair with Mic Right, Ret-L would pair with Mic Left, however those could also probably work with Right Line and Left Line. Ground would goe with Aud Gnd, other than that I'm not entirely sure of what to be connecting. I don't think its an entirely compatable setup, as the front panel is designed to have inputs and outputs, and the mainboard seems to only have inputs (mic and line-in).
==========================================
Howto: Headphone Jack sense on HP dv9000 series laptops

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Facebook Ultimatums

Source
A new Facebook app called Ultimatums lets users float an idea, set
an arbitrary "tipping point" and track group members' commitment to their
common goal. Once a critical mass of people has pledged support, a
predetermined action -- like a boycott of Ford Motor Company or plans to only use nickels to purchase public transit fares -- is taken.
The app, launched Tuesday by Andrew Mason, founder of consumer activism site The Point, could help mobilize the group potential of Facebook's 66 million users.

Dam Small Linux






Source
According to Distrowatch.com, Damn Small Linux is the most popular microLinux distribution. What began as a toy project to stuff the maximum software inside a 50MB ISO file has matured into a refined community project known for its speed and versatility. DSL includes the ultra-lightweight FluxBox window manager, two Web browsers, Slypheed email client and news reader, xpdf PDF viewer, XMMS with MPEG media file support for playing audio and video, BashBurn CD burner, XPaint image editing, VNCViewer and rdesktop to control Windows and Linux desktops remotely, and more. If they could do all this in 50 megs, imagine what they could do in more space.

Last month the DSL developers released DSL-Not, a.k.a. DSL-N 0.1 RC1. It's 83.5MB of DSL coated with GTK sugar. Yummy! DSL-N sports a 2.6 series kernel instead of the 2.4 in DSL for better hardware support. It picked up the ATI card in my test desktop and the inexpensive USB-to-PS/2 converter on my laptop, along with the wireless hardware. It's also got a lot of "mainstream" GTK2 applications. Gaim takes over from naim for instant messaging, AbiWord replaces the Ted editor, Gnumeric spreadsheet preempts Siag, MPlayer replaces XMMS, and the CUPS printer drivers take the place of Apsfilter. The Mozilla suite takes care of your Internet browsing, email, and HTML editing needs.A Linksys wireless PC Card adapter worked straight off the block. I configured the wireless card on the desktop through the built-in Ndiswrapper installation wizard.
DSL-N uses the Lua/Fltk graphical toolkit to develop fast and lightweight GUIs for various command-line tools, making them accessible to new users.
Installing applications on DSL-N is a piece of cake through its MyDSL extension system. Though DSL-N is still in the early stages of development, it uses the same extensions as DSL, and all the applications I tried installing worked. Since you can install applications while running from the live CD, adding packages could be quite burdensome for some machines -- or so I thought. By stripping each app down to the essentials, the downloads are relatively small; XMMS is just 665KB, Firefox is around 7MB, and OpenOffice.org can be had for 66MB. To save even more resources, some applications need just to be mounted.

Using DSL-N
You can use DSL-N in different ways. Many people will burn the downloaded ISO onto a disk and run it as a live CD, or install into a USB pen drive or CompactFlash card, but you can also install it on a hard disk.
I tried the option to copy the CD on the hard disk using the tohd= cheatcode. Once completed, this option, with the fromhd= cheatcode, on subsequent boots frees your CD-ROM drive. On one of my old desktops, which doesn't allow USB pens to boot, I booted off the CD and tried saving my work to the pen drive. Once I had created some text files, browsed a little, bookmarked several sites, grabbed my POP email using the Mozilla email client, and downloaded XMMS, I decided to quit and save everything on the plugged-in USB stick.
I couldn't find any tutorial for doing this, so I headed over to the DSL-N forums and the DSL wiki, since doing things in DSL-N isn't all that different from doing them with DSL. DSL-N keeps USB device under /dev/uba instead of /dev/sda. To save stuff onto the pen drive I had to use the Backup/Restore utility and direct it to make backups under uba1. Backups happen on logout, when DSL-N creates a backup.tar.gz file. To back up MyDSL applications, which are by default download to /tmp on the ramdisk, copy the .dsl or .uci files onto the pendrive as root. On subsequent reboots, boot DSL with the restore= and mydsl= cheatcodes to specify the location of the backup tarball and the extensions, respectively.
According to Distrowatch.com, Damn Small Linux
is the most popular microLinux distribution. What began as a toy
project to stuff the maximum software inside a 50MB ISO file has
matured into a refined community project known for its speed and
versatility. DSL includes the ultra-lightweight FluxBox window manager,
two Web browsers, Slypheed email client and news reader, xpdf PDF
viewer, XMMS with MPEG media file support for playing audio and video,
BashBurn CD burner, XPaint image editing, VNCViewer and rdesktop to
control Windows and Linux desktops remotely, and more. If they could do
all this in 50 megs, imagine what they could do in more space. Last
month the DSL developers released DSL-Not, a.k.a. DSL-N 0.1 RC1. It's 83.5MB of DSL coated with GTK sugar. Yummy!
DSL-N
sports a 2.6 series kernel instead of the 2.4 in DSL for better
hardware support. It picked up the ATI card in my test desktop and the
inexpensive USB-to-PS/2 converter on my laptop, along with the wireless
hardware. It's also got a lot of "mainstream" GTK2 applications. Gaim
takes over from naim for instant messaging, AbiWord replaces the Ted
editor, Gnumeric spreadsheet preempts Siag, MPlayer replaces XMMS, and
the CUPS printer drivers take the place of Apsfilter. The Mozilla suite
takes care of your Internet browsing, email, and HTML editing needs.
A Linksys wireless PC Card adapter worked straight off the block. I
configured the wireless card on the desktop through the built-in
Ndiswrapper installation wizard.
DSL-N uses the Lua/Fltk graphical toolkit to develop fast and lightweight GUIs for various command-line tools, making them accessible to new users.
Installing applications on DSL-N is a piece of cake through its MyDSL extension system.
Though DSL-N is still in the early stages of development, it uses the
same extensions as DSL, and all the applications I tried installing
worked. Since you can install applications while running from the live
CD, adding packages could be quite burdensome for some machines -- or
so I thought. By stripping each app down to the essentials, the
downloads are relatively small; XMMS is just 665KB, Firefox is around
7MB, and OpenOffice.org can be had for 66MB. To save even more
resources, some applications need just to be mounted.



































Using DSL-N
You can use DSL-N in different ways. Many people will burn the
downloaded ISO onto a disk and run it as a live CD, or install into a
USB pen drive or CompactFlash card, but you can also install it on a
hard disk.
I tried the option to copy the CD on the hard disk using the tohd= cheatcode. Once completed, this option, with the fromhd=
cheatcode, on subsequent boots frees your CD-ROM drive. On one of my
old desktops, which doesn't allow USB pens to boot, I booted off the CD
and tried saving my work to the pen drive. Once I had created some text
files, browsed a little, bookmarked several sites, grabbed my POP email
using the Mozilla email client, and downloaded XMMS, I decided to quit
and save everything on the plugged-in USB stick.
I couldn't find any tutorial for doing this, so I headed over to the DSL-N forums and the DSL wiki,
since doing things in DSL-N isn't all that different from doing them
with DSL. DSL-N keeps USB device under /dev/uba instead of /dev/sda. To
save stuff onto the pen drive I had to use the Backup/Restore utility
and direct it to make backups under uba1. Backups happen on logout,
when DSL-N creates a backup.tar.gz file. To back up MyDSL applications,
which are by default download to /tmp on the ramdisk, copy the .dsl or
.uci files onto the pendrive as root. On subsequent reboots, boot DSL
with the restore= and mydsl= cheatcodes to specify the location of the backup tarball and the extensions, respectively.
Next, it was time to test USB booting. I grabbed my 256MB Sandisk
Cruzer Mini USB 2.0 pendrive and booted into DSL-N using the CD-ROM.
There are two USB installs supported, USB-HDD and USB-ZIP, under Tools
-> Install to USB Pen Drive menu. Which one to use depends on your
BIOS; USB-HDD worked on my laptop. After asking basic questions like
the location of the device and whether I wanted to upgrade my
installation or have a fresh one, it took around five minutes to format
and copy the kernel and other files to the pen drive.
Booting from a USB drive wasn't dissimilar to the CD boot. On exit,
all my work was backed up onto the tarball automatically, but since the
MyDSL apps were again downloaded under /tmp, I had to copy them to the
stick, as root, as before.
Next, I tried a hard drive install. I booted from the CD-ROM,
navigated to the Frugal GRUB Install (there's a LILO option also
available) under Tools -> Frugal Installs, pointed the installer to
install under /dev/hda1, and let it format a partition and copy over
the kernel and files. After it was done, I restarted, only to find my
GRUB replaced by DSL-N. No sweat -- editing GRUB is easy.
I pick up the first default option under GRUB's boot menu, which
booted up just fine, detecting and configuring hardware, then halting
at X configuration. Select the desired resolution and mouse options,
and you are done.
Once at the desktop, I went about the normal routine of installing
MyDSL extensions, browsing, and changing wallpapers. There is a
marginal speed difference between the USB and hard disk option,
although both are much faster than running from the live CD. On
restarting, I was surprised to be prompted for the X settings again,
and then shocked to be staring at a virgin DSL-N installation; my
wallpaper, my work, my Internet history, my emails, were all gone!
A visit to the forum later, everything was OK. The speed difference
was negligble because even with a hard disk install DSL-N works from
the ramdisk. You have to use the Backup/Restore tool to ask DSL-N to
keep backups under your installation partition -- hda1 in my case. This
has to be done just once. And to ensure MyDSL apps too are saved,
download them straight to /cdrom instead of /tmp. On subsequent
reboots, all my data and apps were saved and restored automatically.
The only minor irritation was being asked to remove the disk, close the
tray, and press Enter to shutdown, even though I was booting from the
hard disk.
Whatever the method, as you accumulate more files that need to be
backed up, the startup and shutdown times will start going up. But even
after a week of testing, flooding the installations with additional
programs and data, both on the pen drive and hard disk, I couldn't slow
down the application launch times. It's safe to say a normal desktop
user would never stare at an unresponsive DSL-N desktop, though more
RAM might come in handy if you plan to run big applications like
OpenOffice.org, which requires 384MB of memory.
Like DSL, DSL-N is all about speed. Big applications like AbiWord
and Mozilla take around five seconds to load the first time and less
than two seconds thereafter, while smaller applications like the Ted
text editor load almost instantaneously. DSL-N also uses a modified emelFM
file manager, which couldn't load audio and video files properly into
MPlayer. In addition to normal file managing operations, emelFM can be
used to install MyDSL extensions and mount UCI applications.
The distro's developers are working on both DSL and DSL-N in
parallel, and are fairly active on their forums. Support for ReiserFS
was added when many users asked for it. There's also talk of upgrading
to a newer kernel.





Conclusion
DSL-N is still in its infancy. At RC1 stages most distributions are
too unstable to use, but DSL-N is impressive. If you haven't yet tried
DSL, and care for more mainstream applications and have a not-so-recent
computer stuffed somewhere, make it usable; download and try DSL-N.
You'll enjoy it thoroughly.
Next, it was time to test USB booting. I grabbed my 256MB Sandisk Cruzer Mini USB 2.0 pendrive and booted into DSL-N using the CD-ROM. There are two USB installs supported, USB-HDD and USB-ZIP, under Tools -> Install to USB Pen Drive menu. Which one to use depends on your BIOS; USB-HDD worked on my laptop. After asking basic questions like the location of the device and whether I wanted to upgrade my installation or have a fresh one, it took around five minutes to format and copy the kernel and other files to the pen drive.
Booting from a USB drive wasn't dissimilar to the CD boot. On exit, all my work was backed up onto the tarball automatically, but since the MyDSL apps were again downloaded under /tmp, I had to copy them to the stick, as root, as before.
Next, I tried a hard drive install. I booted from the CD-ROM, navigated to the Frugal GRUB Install (there's a LILO option also available) under Tools -> Frugal Installs, pointed the installer to install under /dev/hda1, and let it format a partition and copy over the kernel and files. After it was done, I restarted, only to find my GRUB replaced by DSL-N. No sweat -- editing GRUB is easy.
I pick up the first default option under GRUB's boot menu, which booted up just fine, detecting and configuring hardware, then halting at X configuration. Select the desired resolution and mouse options, and you are done.
Once at the desktop, I went about the normal routine of installing MyDSL extensions, browsing, and changing wallpapers. There is a marginal speed difference between the USB and hard disk option, although both are much faster than running from the live CD. On restarting, I was surprised to be prompted for the X settings again, and then shocked to be staring at a virgin DSL-N installation; my wallpaper, my work, my Internet history, my emails, were all gone!
A visit to the forum later, everything was OK. The speed difference was negligble because even with a hard disk install DSL-N works from the ramdisk. You have to use the Backup/Restore tool to ask DSL-N to keep backups under your installation partition -- hda1 in my case. This has to be done just once. And to ensure MyDSL apps too are saved, download them straight to /cdrom instead of /tmp. On subsequent reboots, all my data and apps were saved and restored automatically. The only minor irritation was being asked to remove the disk, close the tray, and press Enter to shutdown, even though I was booting from the hard disk.
Whatever the method, as you accumulate more files that need to be backed up, the startup and shutdown times will start going up. But even after a week of testing, flooding the installations with additional programs and data, both on the pen drive and hard disk, I couldn't slow down the application launch times. It's safe to say a normal desktop user would never stare at an unresponsive DSL-N desktop, though more RAM might come in handy if you plan to run big applications like OpenOffice.org, which requires 384MB of memory.
Like DSL, DSL-N is all about speed. Big applications like AbiWord and Mozilla take around five seconds to load the first time and less than two seconds thereafter, while smaller applications like the Ted text editor load almost instantaneously. DSL-N also uses a modified emelFM file manager, which couldn't load audio and video files properly into MPlayer. In addition to normal file managing operations, emelFM can be used to install MyDSL extensions and mount UCI applications.
The distro's developers are working on both DSL and DSL-N in parallel, and are fairly active on their forums. Support for ReiserFS was added when many users asked for it. There's also talk of upgrading to a newer kernel.

Conclusion
DSL-N is still in its infancy. At RC1 stages most distributions are too unstable to use, but DSL-N is impressive. If you haven't yet tried DSL, and care for more mainstream applications and have a not-so-recent computer stuffed somewhere, make it usable; download and try DSL-N. You'll enjoy it thoroughly.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Sun Microsystems contraataca!

Código abierto en bases de datos
Solaris + AMP
Por Jonathan Schwartz

La necesidad creciente de recortes y consolidación lleva a los CIO a
reducir gastos innecesarios mediante el despliegue de tecnología de
base de datos de código abierto en sus centros de datos. El promedio de
ahorro por proyecto se sitúa entre 250,000 y 500,000 dólares, llegando
a superar los 10 millones de dólares en los grandes despliegues
corporativos.



» Artículo completo

Internet Pornography Statistics

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Sunday, August 10, 2008

I am rich!

El costo de una aplicación iPhone, el triple del costo del teléfono.
The $1000 iPhone app

Yesterday (07 Aug 2008) developer Armin Heinrich posted an iPhone app to the App Store called I Am Rich. The program displays a red gem, has no function but to display your wealth to others through ownership, and costs $1000. It has since been removed from the App Store, although no one knows whether Apple or Heinrich pulled it.

I Am Rich isn't the most clever piece of art, but it's not bad either. For some, the iPhone is already an obvious display of wealth and I Am Rich is commenting on that. Plus, buying more than you need as an indication of wealth is practically an American core value for a growing segment of the population. Is paying $5000 for a wristwatch or $50,000 for a car when much cheaper alternatives exist really all that different than paying $1000 for an iPhone app?

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Pirata Coelho

Coelho entrega sus libros en forma digital en este sitio
Con eso aumenta el interés por sus obras de modo inusitado
buen truco, pirata!

PS:
libros de bajo nivel literario, "belletristik" para el pueblo

Thursday, August 7, 2008

ext3undel: Recover deleted files on ext3

The rm command can be a powerful tool for deleting data -- until you delete the wrong files or directories. Thankfully, the ext3undel
utility can recover accidently removed data on ext3 filesystems. Users
can recover a specific file by name, or they can restore all files
marked as deleted
More...

Homepage:

http://projects.izzysoft.de/trac/ext3undel

Tar/GZ:

http://www.izzysoft.de/ftp/net/div/izzysoft/ext3undel.php

RPM package:

http://www.izzysoft.de/[..]/net/div/izzysoft/ext3undel.php?type=rpm

Debian package:

http://www.izzysoft.de/[..]/net/div/izzysoft/ext3undel.php?type=deb


Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Monday, August 4, 2008

Puppy Linux on a USB Drive

Puppy Linux + Compiz Fusion

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izJpZhtwnlo

Use compiz fusion with Puppy Linux (provided u have a pwerful enough pc)

Yes you can. I have a vid running 301 with CF. Go have a look. I'll tell you now though, it's not easy... There's also a download floating around on the puppy sites called WNOP (wobbly nearly office pup) with CF already installed. A google search for "wnop" should get you a link.

I'd rather have not so damn small linux. But that's personal I think Puppy is great 2. If only microsoft would consider talking to the makers of it.

I will try to post my download website link so you newbs can download Iso Recorder,


Newbs (ISO Recorder) is a real quick and easy tool to burn a iso in Win XP. This unique and great piece of software let's you make/record .iso images. Basicly it ads the ability to record .iso images using the recording software that is allready built into windows xp. But it does not record dvd images, It only records .iso cd images. After you install it, just right click any .iso image --- choose record --- thats it.

I Love this Distro because it is great for older computers, it breaths new life into them and it is so small that it runs in memory atleast while I am using the live cd. I just love Puppy Linux. The network connection configuration tool works better to me then the major distro's. People do not throw out your old pc's, just install puppy linux on it and you will feel like you are working on a 3GHZ intel duo.I know that is hard to believe, but just try it. You will be surprised how fast it is.Enjoy!

Puppy Linux 4.0



Puppy Linux 4.0 (fuente)

Hoy os traigo el test de la quizás más conocida distro para PCs poco potentes, Puppy Linux.

Puppy es una distro destinada a PCs de bajos recursos, es LiveCD con
opción a instalación y se mueve bajo el entorno JWM. Puppy es una de
las distros más últiles y sencillas que he visto, en el LiveCD incluye
todos los programas necesarios para hacer muchísimas cosas, cosa que no
se suele ver en distros de bajo consumo.

Los requisitos mínimos:


Procesador Intel 486 DX o superior, 16 MB de RAM, funciona sin disco duro.


Y las notas:



Instalación: 7
Antes que nada debo disculparme por no haberme dado cuenta de que
esta distro se puede instalar (este post ha sido editado para añadir
esta nota), seguramente ésto me ocurrió por que no hice el test con la
tranquilidad mental que suelo tener cuando hago los test, se podría
decir que en 2 días de experimentación con la distro no pude
concentrarme lo suficiente. En todo caso voy a poner una imagen con la
que casi todos podréis entender por qué no me dí cuenta:




Como veis se ven varias opciones para instalar en medios extraíbles
y luego debajo se ve la de instalar en disco duro IDE o SATA interno,
segurmamente confundí esa herramienta con un instalador para medios
extraíbles, espero que me puedan disculpar. Ahora continúo con el test.
El instalador es sencillo, pero muy completo, cosa que no se suele
ver en distros destinadas a PCs modestos, el instalador incluye el
particionador GParted para hacer las particiones y también instala GRUB
de una forma muy sencilla, aún así hay muchas pegas, el instalador no
inluye selector de idioma, disposición del teclado y tampoco existe una
barra de progreso que muestre el progreso de la instalación, además la
instalación es muy simple, y al iniciar sin CD te volverá a pedir que
selecciones la disposición del teclado y que selecciones el servidor
gráfico para las X.






Características: 9
Es una distro con todo lo necesario, tenemos herramientas para hacer
de todo, especialmente herramientas para Internet y para multimedia.
Pero se hecha en falta una suite ofimática. Destacamos una gran
cantidad de herramientas de configuración, podemos configurar casi todo
(las fuentes, el servidor de sonido…). Debemos destacar una herramienta
incluída en el LiveCD para instalar Puppy Linux en muchísimos medios
extraíbles.


En definitiva, una distro que deberíamos tener para arreglar alguna emergencia.




Características avanzadas: 10
Al leer las características vanzadas de esta distro, me quedé
totalmente absorto, no podía imaginarme una distro que consume tan
poco, que, de hecho, es capaz de ejecutarse en un 486; pudiera tener
tantas cosas incluídas y tan modernas (relativamente).
Hablamos de dos servidores gráficos, el potente y moderno Xorg y el
simple y sencillo Xvesa, esta versión de Puppy se basa en GTK2 e
incluye muchas aplicaciones para GTK2, se incluye la base de datos de
escáneres y herramienta de escaneo SANE con su interfaz gráfica XSANE y
además se incluye un Kernel 2.6.21.7 pero, si lo deseamos podemos
descargar una versión alternativa de Puppy con el kernel 2.6.25.


Como podeis ver es una distro que no se queda corta en características avanzadas.

Repositorios e instalación de paquetes: 8



Es la distro destinada a PCs de bajos recursos con el mejor gestor de paquetes que he visto, aún así se puede pulir mucho.



El gestor se llama PETget y es simplemente una interfaz gráfica muy
sencilla pero completa en la que podemos ver una lista de los paquetes
ordenador por tipo. Uno de los problemas es que según hagas un click
sobre un paquete ese paquete será seleccionado para instalar, en lugar
de incluir casillas para poder instalar 2 ó 3 a la vez, otro problema
es que no se distingue entre paquetes instalados y sin instalar. Aún
así, vemos los repositorios muy completos, con paquetes tan útiles como
Ffmpeg y paquetes menos relevantes, como el Flash Player Plugin para
Mozilla, y la herramienta está muy conseguida, se hecha en falta un
gestor de paquetes así en DSL.



Nota Final: 9
En lo que a distribuciones de bajo consumo se refiere, se trata de
la distro mejor diseñada que he visto nunca, es realmente recomendable.
Lo más extraño es que una distro tan bien diseñada y con tantas
características modernas pueda arrancar con tan poca memoria RAM y en
un procesador tan antiguo.



ENLACES:
Anuncio de lanzamiento

Descarga de Puppy Linux 4.0

Descarga de los derivados de Puppy

Ubuntu 8.04LTS + Compiz Fusion + AWN

video from june 2008
<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/fS5jw1SBer8&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/fS5jw1SBer8&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>


Compiz vs. Compiz Fusion

It is important to note that Compiz and Compiz Fusion are not the same thing (see: Compiz Fusion Vs Compiz). There is close co-operation between the developers of Compiz and the developers of Compiz Fusion, though ; in fact, many Compiz Fusion developers are also Compiz developers.

  • Compiz is a compositing window manager. It has a flexible plugin interface which allows developers to use it for many different tasks.
    More specifically, Compiz is a software project with its home at freedesktop.org. It contains a limited set of core plugins, some of which provide basic window manager functionality, other internal functionality that plugins may rely on, and some basic, yet signature effects (Cube and Wobbly to name a few). You can use Compiz on its own, as many choose to do, but you can also extend it. Compiz is what we consider the core of what Compiz Fusion is based on.
  • Compiz Fusion is the result of a merge between the well-known Beryl composite window manager and Compiz Extras, a community set of improvements to the Compiz composite window manager. Compiz Fusion aims to provide an easy and fun-to-use windowed environment, allowing use of the graphics hardware to render each individual window and the entire screen, to provide some impressive effects, speed and usefulness. The first Compiz Fusion developer release was Compiz Fusion 0.5.2 on August 13th 2007, shortly after Compiz 0.5.2 was released. First stable release of Compiz Fusion is 0.6.0 released on October 20 2007.
    Compiz Fusion is an open-source software project, meaning anyone can use it freely and contribute.

What Compiz is not:

  • Compiz is not Xgl or AIGLX. Rather, Compiz uses these technologies.
  • Compiz is not obsolete; it is still in active development.
  • Compiz is not the same as Compiz Fusion.
  • Compiz does not require any particular desktop environment. It can run independently.

Compiz Fusion is the result of a merge between the Beryl Project and Compiz Extras. It should be noted that what core changes were made to Beryl are not part of Compiz Fusion; they have either been merged or rewritten for Compiz, or remade as Compiz plugins. Changes that were difficult to maintain or potentially unstable were scrapped.
Compiz Fusion uses Compiz as a base. Among the additions it makes are tools like the CompizConfig Settings Manager, libcompizconfig, and a number of plugins

  • Compiz Fusion is not a replacement for Compiz.
  • Compiz Fusion is not Beryl with a new name.


Two new (july 2007) Compiz Fusion plugins:
Screensaver and Atlantis Cube.

Linux problem primer

Source (old info, but good reference)

This isn't really a tutorial, but rather bits and pieces of solutions to problems I've encountered with Linux so far.
Linux has become much easier to install and use, compared to just a few years ago. But be prepared to still sweat a bit if you're totally new to UNIX-like operating systems.
It will take you several hours longer to get linux installed and configured on your system than it would take you to install windows.
But what is a one time extra couple of hours, compared to the peace of mind and almost crash-proof operation that Linux gives you. What is more, you won't believe what programs you can get for free that run on Linux.
Take for instance Photoshop, which costs anything from $500 to thousands, has a free Linux look-alike called GIMP. Don't let the name fool you either. This puppy is a powerful graphics editor, with full support for plug-ins and extensions. Read the manual for guide and tutorials. a href="http://www.linuxapps.com/?page=redir&cid=3507&url=http://www.xmms.org/plugins_input.html#122" target="_blank">AVI-XMMS plugin (DivX,MPEG4 player), Quake 3 v1.11, LinuxCAD 3D release 2.0 (compatible with AutoCAD), Corel WordPerfect 8, gnapster 1.4.1a (yes, napster for linux), SimpleCDR 1.64, gFTP 2.0.8, Video Server 0.5.2 (video streaming), Apache-Frontpage 1.3.20-4fp (did I hear free Microsoft Frontpage?), Pan 0.10.0.91 (newsreader, loosely based on Agent and Gravity), Star Office (Microsoft Office clone), Xmms (linux winamp), Home Electrical Device Control. b>Applications
A very long list of equivalents to your favorite Windows programs. a href="http://ffa.oasisoflove.com/redhat-applications.html" target="_blank">Redhat Applications. See programs that are already bundled with the latest redhat linux.
This page lists Bioscience applications in Linux.
b>PDF Files
Install the xpdf package if you need a viewer for PDF files.
gv also does the same thing. Start it like this
# gv filename.pdf
Of course Linux is not for everyone. If you work with sophisticated statiscal packages, or need specialized scientific applications, etc, then Linux may not be the way to go. However, more programs keep coming out almost weekly, so look around before you write Linux off.
http://freshmeat.net features new linux software.
Linuxapps
http://www.redhat.com/support/hardware/index.html This document lists most of the hardware supported by Linux and helps you locate any necessary drivers.
Find out about your system under Windows: start/settings/control panel/system/device manager. Know the vendor and model number of each card in your machine; collect the IRQs and DMA channel numbers. You probably won't need this information -- but if it turns out you do, you'll need it very badly.

Compiz Fusion

Compiz fusion

This is a demonstration of the Git version of Compiz Fusion (formerly known as compcomm), which is the remerge of beryl and compiz, and some of its interesting features.
There are some screenshots at
http://3bix.blogspot.com and
http://puttabutta.blogspot.com .
Check out http://www.opencompositing.org for more information!
You can find a low quality version here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWPhGL...

Someone asked me about my system specs: My computer is running an AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3700+ (although I'm using 32-bit ubuntu since it's easier), motherboard is an ASUS A8N-SLI Premium, Graphics: 256MG nVidia GeForce 7600GT. All parts ordered on Newegg.com
These parts were not that expensive, and they run Compiz Fusion (new name of compcomm) VERY well.
And, since people are asking, I chose to film with a camera since I couldn't install the screencast plugin (I get compile errors).. can someone tell me the dependencies for it?
And i used iMovie to make the video, I guess I could have used Kino, but I wasn't sure if it was up to it.
====UPDATED===
I'm using grey-neu, an emerald theme I designed, http://gnome-look.org/content/show.ph... , and "glossy" in ubuntu, just customized to dark colors.
However, since this video I have found a better theme called Neutronium Unity which includes instructions for workarounds to bugs you get with dark themes.
http://www.gnome-look.org/content/sho...



Actualizando tus repositorios

$ sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list
añadiendo al final de la lista:
#Compiz Fusion Launchpad
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/compiz/ubuntu hardy main

Ahora guardamos, cerramos y actualizamos los repositorios:
$ sudo aptitude update
Luego lo instalamos con el gestor de actualizaciones
Sistema > Administración > Gestor de actualizaciones

Linus Torvalds usa Fedora



El creador del sistema operativo Linux ha confesado que jamás ha utilizado Debian, y que actualmente casi todos sus ordenadores están funcionando con Fedora 9, un dato sorprendente teniendo en cuenta que se trata de uno de los desarrolladores más importantes de Linux.

Según ese aspecto, cualquiera podría pensar que Linus estaría utilizando distribuciones como Debian o incluso Gentoo, más propias de desarrolladores, pero según sus comentarios en una reciente entrevista, no se preocupa demasiado de las distribuciones, y hace tiempo que está acostumbrado a Fedora 9:
He usado distintas distribuciones a lo largo de los años.
Actualmente estoy usando Fedora 9 en la mayoría de mis ordenadores, lo que se debe curiosamente al hecho de que Fedora tenía un buen soporte para el PowerPC en la época en la que yo usaba esos procesadores, así que crecí acostumbrándome a ella.
De hecho, añade que jamás ha usado Debian, principalmente por el hecho de que la instalación no era especialmente fácil en el pasado. Nunca he usado Debian, por ejemplo, pero me gusta Ubuntu. Y antes de que la gente de Debian me ataque, sí, ya lo sé, ya lo sé, supuestamente es mucho más fácil de instalar actualmente. Pero antes lo era, así que nunca tuve ninguna razón para ir a usarla.
Tomado de: The Inquirer.es

Automate Defrag, Disk Cleanup...

By: Richard (August 7, 2007)
Clear the Temporary Internet Files using the Windows XP Disk Cleanup utility
Defragmenting a hard drive, combined with clean up of Temporary Files keep your computer running fast. It'd be nice to configure your computer to carry out these tasks automatically without you lifting a finger.

  • Click Start, Run
  • Type the following: cleanmgr.exe /d C: /sageset:50

    • C: is the drive containing your Windows installation.

    • :50 is a label that identifies this particular config. It can be any integer value from 0 to 65535.
      • Look at it in terms of having the ability to configure cleanmgr.exe many different ways, and you can create a Task in Task Scheduler to run each variant at a different time of your choice. If you don't understand what I just said, just read on.
    • The command cleanmgr.exe /d C: /sageset:50 opens a Disk Cleanup Settings window. Check whatever you want to clean up.
  • Click OK.
    • Your config is now saved in the registry, and identified by the label :50.
    • To run it, just do Start, Run, and type
      C:\WINDOWS\system32\cleanmgr.exe /sagerun:50
      • Let's say for cleanmgr.exe /d C: /sageset:50, you only put checkmarks in "Temporary Internet Files" and "Temporary Setup Files". You can create another config, e.g. cleanmgr.exe /d C: /sageset:51, and check other options, e.g. "Downloaded Program Files". To run it, you would issue the command C:\WINDOWS\system32\cleanmgr.exe /sagerun:51.
      • cleanmgr.exe /d C: /sagerun:50 will clean "Temporary Internet Files" and "Temporary Setup Files".
      • cleanmgr.exe /d C: /sagerun:51 will clean only "Downloaded Program Files".

How to automate Disk Cleanup

  • Start, All Programs
  • Accessories, System Tools
  • Scheduled Tasks
  • Add Scheduled Task
  • Next
  • Disk Cleanup, Next
  • Type a name for the task, e.g. "Disk Cleanup".
  • Select how often to run
  • Next
  • Configure Start time
  • Check day(s)
  • Next
  • Enter password, and re-type password.
  • Next
  • Check Open advanced properties
  • Finish
  • Under Run:, enter one of the above configs, e.g. "C:\WINDOWS\system32\cleanmgr.exe /sagerun:50"
  • Enter password again if asked.
How to automate Defrag

  • Create a Scheduled Task as above.
  • Under Run:, enter C:\WINDOWS\system32\defrag.exe C:.
    • C: is the drive to defrag.

How to automate System reboot

  • Create a Scheduled Task as above.
  • Under Run:, enter C:\WINDOWS\system32\shutdown.exe -r -t 01.
You can combine all three above to your advantage. E.g.
  • Create a scheduled task to clean up temp files at 12:30 am.
  • Then another scheduled task to defrag at 3:00 am.
  • Finally, a scheduled task to reboot the machine at 8:00 am.

Doing this will give
you a fresh machine to work with each morning. Although a daily defrag
may be overkill. Personally, I clean up temp files daily, then reboot.
I do Defrag once a week.

Detect and repair disk errors
In addition to running Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter to optimize the performance of your computer, you can check the integrity of the files stored on your hard disk by running the Error Checking utility.
As you use your hard drive, it can develop bad sectors. Bad sectors slow down hard disk performance and sometimes make data writing (such as file saving) difficult, or even impossible. The Error Checking utility scans the hard drive for bad sectors, and scans for file system errors to see whether certain files or folders are misplaced.
If you use your computer daily, you should run this utility once a week to help prevent data loss.

To run the Error Checking utility:

  1. Click Start, and then click My Computer.
  2. In the My Computer window, right-click the hard disk you want to search for bad sectors, and then click Properties.
  3. In the Properties dialog box, click the Tools tab.
  4. Click the Check Now button.
  5. In the Check Disk dialog box, select the Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors check box, and then click Start.
  6. If bad sectors are found, choose to fix them.
Tip: Only select the "Automatically fix file system errors" check box if you think that your disk contains bad sectors.

Speed Up Processing Time

  1. Turning off the fancy Windows XP graphics will noticeably increase the speed of your computer.
  2. Go to Start, (Settings), Control Panel, System. NOTE: You may need to 'Switch to Classic Mode' to see the System applet.
  3. Go to the Advanced tab. Click the Settings button under Performance.
  4. Select the 'Adjust for best performance' radio button, then Apply, and OK.
  5. The graphics aren't as flashy, but your computer will run a lot faster.
Make Windows load faster

Windows by default is configured to wait 30 seconds before bootup. You can cut this wait time down for a faster boot as follows:

  1. Click Start, then Run.
  2. Type in 'msconfig' and press enter.
  3. Click on the BOOT.INI tab at the top.
  4. Over to the right there will be a box labeled Timeout with 30 in it. Change the 30 to a 3.
Copyright © 2000-2008 Richie's Tutorials All rights reserved.

THANKS, Richard!!!