USB flash memory FACTS

USB type keys are technically limited to 100k writes before failure!!
How many times or how long can you use this device before wearing out the key?
Fencepost *
on October 21 2004, @03:21PM (#10590941)
Journal

The limitation on the number of writes to a particular area of memory has been known since flash memory first started to appear. Most devices or drivers should account for the issue by either rotating writes to avoid overusing one particular region or by remapping failing sections into other areas.
Remapping failing areas will cause the available capacity of formatted flash devices to gradually shrink, while rotating writes will attempt to keep any areas from wearing out too fast (making it more likely that multiple areas will start to fail around the same time).
Someone who's done more looking into this should be able to give a good idea which technique(s) are most widely used.

Well, if you set up a RAM disk and only store personal settings on the USB key -- then I suspect that it would last for quite some time. If you don't care about saving settings, then you can boot off the key as a read-only media and never write back to it. So I don't think this would be a major concern.

Privacy: Java, ActiveX, ssh

Java, ActiveX & Your Privacy
Tf you are truly concerned

about your online privacy, you will limit your exposure to Java and
ActiveX programs by turning off Java and ActiveX or forcing your
browser to ask permission before executing any Java or ActiveX program

NOTE: Firefox does not accept ActiveX controls, so you don't need to worry about ActiveX, only Java, when running Firefox.

To disable Java in Mozilla Firefox

1. Open Firefox
2. From the Tools menu, choose Options...
3. Click on the Web Features icon in the left sidebar.
4. Uncheck the Java checkbox.
5. Click OK in the Options window.

Logging in with One-Time Passwords via SSH
/>skeyinit
/>skey


The Free Portable Privacy Machine

Feature Overview

• v1.3 is Faster than before and usable for regular usage. (Based on DSL and QEMU releases.
• Runs on any rewriteable media (USB drives, Flash Memory cards, Secure Digital devices, iPods, etc.)
• Includes Firefox + Privacybar + NOSCRIPT Extensions
• Built in MetroPipe Anonymous Surfing for Tunneler Gold Customers.
• Carry your entire Internet communication system on a tiny USB drive.
• Contains a complete virtual Linux machine with privacy-enabled Open Source Internet applications.
• Carry your Internet applications, email, bookmarks, history, web cookies, download files in your pocket.
• Perfect for travellers - nothing to be scanned, started, poked, or prodded at the airport.
• Get English keyboard support no matter what computer you use.
• No installation needed - just plug the drive into any Windows or Linux computer, and click on the Virtual Privacy Machine icon and you're ready to go.
• The VPM's network connection will auto configure and run seamlessly on any machine with a working internet connection..
• All Internet session data (cookies, history, downloads, etc.) are stored on the VPM, not the host computer.
• Runs on any rewriteable media (USB drives, Flash Memory cards, Secure Digital devices, iPods, etc.)
• This PR1-2 release runs on Windows and Linux - OS X support is also possible, details in the readme.txt.
• Runs in full screen mode (CTRL-ALT to Exit Grab and CTRL-ALT f to Toggle Fullscreen)
• Includes the Latest Firefox 1.5.0.2 Browser with MetroPipe Privacybar for Firefox and the NOSCRIPT Extension Pre-installed.
• Includes Mozilla Thunderbird News/Email client (with Enigmail plugins for PGP email encryption)
• Persistent Home directory, changes, bookmarks are saved to the PVPM and available on next reboot.
• Created from 100% Open Source GPL code and binaries.

IPSpy

"Ecosystemas" de código abierto

Comprender los ecosistemas de codigo abierto

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: software libre)

USB probs

Mount problems with Puppy Linux distro
fstab info
#mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/USB
The USB stick is not visible in mount window. The light on the USB stick is on.
#mount
rootfs on / type rootfs (rw)
/dev/root on / type ext3 (rw,data=ordered)
none on /proc type proc (rw)
none on /dev/pts type devpts (rw)
none on /sys type sysfs (rw)
none on /proc/bus/usb type usbfs (rw)

#lsmod
...
usbcore 127128 6 usblp,usbhid,usb_storage,ehci_hcd,ohci_hcd
...
The module that appears to be missing is uhci_hcd which is the driver for basic USB1.0 support.
#modprobe uhci_hcd
if you can't detect a flash drive, it may be necessary to put the command earlier in the boot process. Locate the file /etc/rc.d/rc.local and add the above line to the end of the file. Then reboot.
#lsmod
At the risk of asking the obvious, did you try clicking the Refresh button? USB devices are not always detected immediately by Pmount.
See Page 2
Technical support & more

Do It Yourself: Ringtones

Source:DSL DIY
...
(Download Dam Small Linux and start it!)

...3) Grab your favorite song in mp3 format.
(you know where to get it)
Once you have all that Launch Audacity; from your menu MyDSL -> Audacity.
After a moment or two you should have an application that looks like this:

Next open your song up in Audacity by clicking File -> Open, then selecting your choice mp3. Audacity will have to convert your mp3 into its native format. This could take a few moments. After it is done and the song is fully loaded Audacity should look something like this:

At this point you may want to play your song in Audacity to see what part of the song you want to have for your ringtone. Once you figure that part out, selecting the part of the song that you want to sample is simple. Just use your mouse to highlight the section you want.

In this screenshot I chose the beginning of the song, but you could have chosen the middle or the end just as easily.
Be sure to play the selected area so that you know that you have the right snippet for your ringtone.
Once you have the piece you like, go to Edit -> Copy to get the song snippet, then go to File -> New to launch a new Audacity window. Once the new window is open go to it and select Edit -> Paste. You now have the sampled song snippet in the new Audacity window. Half way there! Well, almost.

This screenshot is the 15 second song sample I selected. As you can see, the 15 second clip is represented in the same amount of space which causes us to have a more detailed view of the music without zooming. Notice that at the beginning of the song there is no sound, we could remove that section by selecting it with the mouse and do a Edit -> Delete. On the tail end of your music sample you may want to have the song fade out. In the photo I selected the last second and a half or so and I chose Effect -> Fade out. You can visually see the music tapering down. There are lots of effects in Audacity, but I like to keep it simple.
At this point we are dun with the editing. You should listen to the sample now and see if you like what you hear. If you do, then lets keep on going.
We are going to use Lame to do the mp3 encoding, so we will export this sample as an uncompressed .wav. In Audacity, select File -> Export as Wav. I saved mine as sample.wav.
We're all done with Audacity, now it is time to use Lame. Lame is a command line tool, so you will be using Aterm to issues the mp3 encoding commands to lame.
According to what I've read one could use 16, 24 or 32 bit rate while encoding. Most recommend not using 16 bit rate because it gives poor sound quality. On the other hand 32 bit encoding makes a much larger file. A good middle of the road approach is to use 24 bit format which makes an mp3 about 25% smaller than a 32 bit file yet still has good sound quality. On good speakers you certainly could hear the difference between 24 and 32, bot on your tiny cell phone speakers it won't make any difference.
To encode the mp3 all you have to do is: dsl@box:~$ lame -b
I chose 24 bit encoding and medium to make for a smaller file. For my wav file I gave this command:
dsl@box:~$ lame -b 24 sample.wav sample.mp3

Done! See how simple that is? Now, to get it to your phone on from DSL you have a few options:

• Email your new ringtone to your phone
• If your phone has USB support, plug it in and move the .mp3 over.
• Bluetooth, well, you could save it onto a drive and access that drove from an OS that does Bluetooth later. We are only a 50MB distribution after all!

Free | Open Source Software

Why “Open Source” misses the point of Free Software
The Free Software Definition

GNU & Linux

The GNU Project was launched in 1984 to develop a complete Unix-like operating system which is free software: the GNU system.

GNU's kernel wasn't finished, so GNU is used with the kernel Linux. The combination of GNU and Linux is the GNU/Linux operating system, now used by millions. (Sometimes this combination is incorrectly called Linux.)

There are many variants or “distributions” of GNU/Linux. We recommend the GNU/Linux distributions that are 100% free software; in other words, entirely freedom-respecting.

The name “GNU” is a recursive acronym for “GNU's Not Unix”; it is pronounced g-noo, as one syllable with no vowel sound between the g and the n.

Read more

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Download GNU OS