Ubuntu Quick Tip: Missing Minimize and Maximize Window Buttons?

Hello out there in admin land!

It is I, El Di Pablo here to bring you a quick Ubuntu tip for the week. I haven't written on aTa in a while due to my hectic schedule, but I am sure you have seen me milling about the comments quite a bit.

Anyhoo, so there I am last night, screwing around on my Ubuntu laptop surfing porn doing homework when I noticed that all of my minimize and maximize buttons were missing from my windows. The only way to minimize and maximize my windows were to right click on the bottom task bar and select it from the menu. WTF?!?!?

Well, it turns out that those buttons aren't completely controlled by Gnome. For those buttons, Gnome uses a windows manager call Metacity. To get those buttons back I had to open a terminal and run the following command:

metacity --replace

Once I did that, my buttons came back, and I was able to minimize and maximize like a mofo! Do you have any good Ubuntu tips/tricks you want to share? Hit us up in the comments!

By El Di Pablo of Bauer-Power

Access your Tivo's hidden webserver! Download, strip and rip. Part One.

After figuring out I could edit Blogger blog posts from my mobile I decided to see what I could do with my TiVo while I am away. I went online and did some research. I found this tid-bit from Dave Zatz (Sling Media) and gave it a shot.

Allow me to bring you kids up to speed. Essentially, TiVos are just nicely packaged Linux boxes with TV capture cards, hard drives, and a cutesy visual operating system that everyone has grown to love. It's nice to know the open Linux spirit is in full swing at Tivo, because the developers at Tivo have happily included an already running, https, port 80 web server!

You heard me correctly, I did NOT stutter. As long as you enabled the transfer option from TiVo online you can access a web server built into your Tivo. To do this all you need to do is simply point your browser at your TiVo's local IP address using https://...

The address bar would look like this:

https://192.168.0.3/

I simply entered this address into my browser and it prompted me for a username and password. The username to use is always tivo and the password is your Media Access Key.

Your media access key can be found via your tivo interface or on your TiVo.com account.

Now how can you use this information while you are away?

Point your router to forward port 80 and 443 to your TiVo, Now by typing in your routers external IP address from any where in the world you can download your .TIVO files.

I hear you all saying:

They are encrypted and all Admin what good is that? and How does this help me?

Well these .TIVO files are just MPEG2 files with a shiny restrictive layer of prohibitive crap. But, no worries lets get that file cracked open so you can burn it to DVD or move it around at your own will. TiVo to go lets you do some of this stuff but The Admin hates being restricted to, well, anything.

Lets get you Downloading, Stripping and Ripping... (This is for your own access we are not teaching you to be nor advocating piracy...)

Tune back in for part two of our TiVo - download, strip and rip series tomorrow.

_TheTiVoHappyAdmiN_

What are some good network monitoring tools?

I would like to monitor event logs on multiple windows machines - maybe ping them every so often?

I used to use something called Emon but it seems pretty outdated. I looked at bigBrother but it seems too expensive.

Do you have a solution?

Have you heard of VMWare??

If you are game then keep on reading... It used to be restricted to linux boxes but now you can get your Virtualization on - Windows style as well.

I have played with a few of these in the past, but if you're managing a decent sized infrastructure you might want to try them. These are VMWare virtual appliances, I will write something on them at a later date, but basically they work with VMWare's free software(they have a player and a server product, both free).

You download these packaged virtual appliances, boot them up and they just go! Of course you want to follow the directions provided...

But lets be honest most IT people are guys, and what self respecting guy really reads directions anyway?!?

Here are a couple of the network monitoring appliances that I have tried at some point. They all have their strong points and weak points. They all take some time and effort to get your network configured in it. But the rewards are pretty nice!

Without further ado, here are some linky links:

• Unnoc
• Network Management Station
• Zabbix - I liked this one the best
• BaywatchOS - I always thought Nicole Eggert was better looking than Pam Anderson
• You Can Search Here for more virtual appliances...
  

Feel free to dig into these. Download them and the VMWare player and give them a go. Don't be shy...one of the glorious things about the VMWare appliances is that you cannot mess up your PC/Laptop by using them as it is segregated from the OS and the hardware, but again...more on that at a later date.

Do you use VMWare? Or how about Microsoft's Virtual PC 2007? Let's here it in the comments guys! Sound off.

What a Dream Come True! DreamLinux that is!

I mentioned in a recent post that I recently aquired an older Pentium III laptop with only 384MB of RAM. It really isn't fast enough to run Windows XP without trimming the fat.I originally was going to put Xubuntu on it, because Xubuntu is designed to be more light weight than regular Ubuntu, because it uses the more minimal XFCE interface. It turns out though that XFCE is still a little too beefy for even this computer. Sure it installed, and ran fine, just a little slower than I would like. I did try XP with the fat trimmed like I mentioned above, but that was still God awfully slow.

Not wanting to give up, or revert to an older version of Windows, I decided to keep poking around in the Linux world for a solution. There are a lot of them out there that will run just find on such a machine, but the trick it so get one that my wife won't mind using when going to the Java Mama's coffee shop with my little girl.

II found the perfect distro for my wife in Dream Linux! This is one of the many lightweight live CD distros out there that also have the ability to install to hard drive. The cool thing about Dream Linux that I like, and my wife likes especially since the popularity of MAC's now days (Damn they have good marketing don't they?) is that this is pretty much a MAC clone complete with the animated launcher bar at the bottom, and yes, that bar works well on the Pentium III without slowing it down!

If you have a relatively newer computer, it also supports Berly and AIGLX, which means sweet 3D desktop goodness!


Of course, I wouldn't even try using Berly on a Pentium III, but it does make a strong case to test it out! Another cool thing about it is the graphical front end to ndiswrapper, which lets you use Windows drivers for hardware that isn't supported under Linux! Just open the GUI, point it to your driver inf file, and away you go! I did have to add the following line to my /etc/rc.local script to make some hardware work after boot up, but that is a minor tweak and hardly a deal breaker:

modprobe ndiswrapper

The best thing though is that it is Debian based, so apt-get is in full effect, which means that if something you use normally is missing, you can get it and install it easily! For me, network manager is essential for easy WPA configuration. It didn't come pre-installed on Dream Linux, but a quick apt-get later and I was good to go!I'm not quite ready to name Dream Linux as a replacement distro of choice yet, for me my favorite is still Ubuntu, but it really is pretty great, and works well on older computers!

Have you tried it out? Do you have a favorite Distro for similar Situations?

Originally Posted on http://www.bauer-power.net

FREE Linux Based Disk Imaging (Ghosting) at its Finest!

I am in love!

That is right, I am not ashamed of it. I am in love with PING (PartImage is Not Ghost). I have been searching for quite a while on a free alternative to Ghost Cast for my personal home network. Well I found it.

I was using DriveImage XML, but PING can do the same job, better and also support Linux!

Not only that, but it is very versatile in that there are many ways you can use it. You can use their boot CD (Download the ISO here), and create/restore images from a network file share, or directly to a disk. They also give you a tutorial on setting up a PXE boot server (On you home Windows XP machine if you want!) and create/store images to the same file share but without the need for boot disks.You can find the full tutorial on using PING here.


Written By El Di Pablo From [BauerPower]

Question: Do I need to have AntiVirus Software running on my Linux Machine?

After thinking long and hard about this one I am going to tell you that you SHOULD have some sort of antivirus installed on your Linux distro. It doesn't matter if it is ClamAv, Avast! or any other with a good track record.

And now I am going to tell you why. There are about 100 know Linux viruses out there and they are not be turning up new ones every day like windows viruses BUT they do exist. And not being protected is just stupid. No offense. Actually you can take offense I don't realy care. I personally back up every OS incrementally and run some sort of AV software with heuristics. This should give you some protection from Zero day threats.

Ok ok simmer down. Now onto WHY I think it is very necessary to be protected. I have a question for you:

Do you have insurance? You know medical dental or what not?

Of course you do you woud be crazy not to becuase WHAT IF something happens. This should be your same attitude to computer security. Do you have a lock on your home? How about a security alarm?

Are you following me here? As an Admin I always feel it is better safe then sorry. And especially if it is all because you were SURE that no one could hack into YOUR machine. Now who better to have a try at it than a Linux Guru? It won't be long before the spammers and virus writers get tired of the Windows platform and move on... After all isn't Mac OSX built on Linux?

Hmmm... Gaining the majority of market share might cause some new internest by hackers...

Here is an excerpt from DesktopLinux.com:

Security, and freedom from viruses, has been one of the key selling points for
moving to Linux in the home and for the enterprise. How is Linux at risk from
viruses today? by Keith Peer

Currently there are under 100 native Linux viruses known but in many organizations the fact that a Linux viruses exists is enough reason to install and use Linux antivirus protection on Linux desktops and servers.

Additionaly users of StarOffice and OpenOffice.org have the ability to
open and view Microsoft Office documents that may contain viruses. These viruses
may not infect the Linux computer but the user can easily attach and send these
infected documents unknowingly to someone else and that is a serious problem.As
system administrators move to Linux files servers they have a real problem to
deal with since the Linux file server can store Windows-based viruses.

Windows-based viruses can write to a Linux/Samba network share as easily as they can on a Microsoft Windows based network. System administrators must protect the Linux server from storing these viruses. The only way is through active
antivirus defense on the Linux server itself. Our Vexira Antivirus for Linux, as
an example, detects not only Linux-based viruses but also Windows and DOS-based
as well, I think the current number of malicious or potentially malicious
applications (viruses, trojans, worms, etc...) we detect is above 74,000
now.

Still not sure continue reading this article for more Fan boy dream killing information... _TheAdmiN_

Linux on your phone - for real with data encryption. Linux gurus' dreams come true!

Are you sitting down Linux Fan Boys & Girls? We'll wait...


A Linux startup company today officially launched a new, secure version of its operating system for mobile devices. Wipe that drool and continue reading on. You might be calling your geeky pals from a secure linux distro in the damn near future!

A la Mobile's Convergent Linux Platform (CLP) comes with hack proof, device-level tamper protection, application sand-boxing, and the option to encrypt not only your files but the os as well.

"One of the unique things we're doing is [adding] a root of trust in the device, so that every piece of software must be verified before it executes," says Dirk Sigurdson, senior software engineer at a la Mobile.

While Windows Mobile and Symbian dominate the PDA/Mobile market, Linux wants a shot to throw down the gauntlet:

According to ABI Research , around 204 million mobile phones will run on Linux by 2010.

Among the security features in the New Linux mobile phone OS are a secure boot loader, which uses a digital signature to verify the kernel at startup; data encryption on all data on the device; application sandboxing, which puts unsigned apps in a separate sandbox; and a secure firmware update, which digitally signs and verifies the "bootloader" before firmware gets updated. All great tools for the developer, admin or normal everyday Linux dude.

"All data stored in the device is encrypted. You can try to hack it or probe it, but it cannot be [hacked]," says Pauline Lo Alker, president and CEO of a la Mobile. "And the encryption key is protected and stored deep into device's CPU memory."

Lo Alker couldn't say which handset manufacturers will run a la Mobile's secure Linux OS yet. "We are in the thick of a few final touches on our design wins," she says, but a la Mobile is working with major mobile handset makers from Asia. Hmmm.. Can we say HTC? I would LOVE to be able to load this up on existing hardware. Any forums out there? Hit us up in the comments or via email Here.

[Dark Reading]

Microsoft Onenote for Linux?

One of the most important applications I had to find a replacement for when switching from Windows to Linux (Ubuntu) was Onenote, its so darn handy, even though a lot of people still think that if you don't have a tablet its no good...WRONG! For note taking its wonderful. I use it in meetings, interviews, lectures, researching, pretty much everything.

I checked out a lot of applications, on Freshmeat, the download.com of the Open Source community, they just didn't
cut it, after a good Google search I happened upon Basket a clone
of Microsoft Onenote.

Since a picture can paint a thousand words...



As you can see by this screen shot, your page can be a multitude of mixed formats and functionality as this screen shot illustrates, images, web links, app links, embedded files, to-do lists, etc., every element of the page can be moved around, resized according to your preference. Not bad for a free app so far huh?

With the amount of information you can put into Basket it could easly get chaotic. Basket allows your pages of content to be grouped into "baskets", which really is their term for a group, so each basket (Group) can also have child baskets attached to it, all hierarchal, which is great for people who manage to get thinks cluttered up real fast.. :)

Each element of content can be assigned tags also, like To-do, or Priority 1!, all customizable. For people like myself its a great way
of making sure I get the important stuff done first and work down
from that point, below is a shot of the tag assignment window.



Pretty neat stuff! You can also backup and restore your whole basket structure, password protect baskets, import CSV files or any other custom form of separation, also integrate with Kontact, the KDE PIM system.

So far I have being using Basket for a few months now with no problems at all, even a seasoned Onenote user who borrowed my laptop didn't have trouble using it, apparently he said it drew a lot
of parallels with Onenote so it was quite natural for him to use.

This sort of application quality is the direction developers
need to head in if they really want to make Linux a solid viable choice for businesses. Basket is definitely business class.

Thanks to Karl for allowing me to be a guest blogger here at Asktheadmin.

Psymon101 from sigmundvoid.com

Let The Debates Begin!: Windows Goons VS. Linux Fan Boys.

Here is a post from our new friend Simon @ SigmundVoid.com We will be doing some Microsoft vs. Linux postings (debates) between our sites. As you can tell Simon is a Linux Fanboy and we are as they call it... On the dark side...

Now we know Simon's time is spent creating or searching for custom drivers for his Linux system and trying to get things to work that really weren't made to work. You know compiling, testing and compiling some more.

What do you mean it still doesn't work?

We know that takes a lot of your Admin time Simon so hopefully you will still have some time for witty come backs :).

But on the positive side we are about to give you both sides of the story. All though we try to be fair we do usually tend to side with the big M$ because that is what we do after all. But we are not by far linux haters or penguin killers (It has its place) so we welcome Simon into the AskTheAdmin family and look forward to some heated discussions! GAME ON!

_TheAdmin_

Thu 19 Jul 2007

Head 2 Head series.

Posted by psymon101 under General Information

We have a new guest Blogger, Karl from Asktheadmin.com , Karl lives and breathes Microsoft, blinded by them even? So why let this crazed loon on Sigmund? Because
it helps you, I generally live by the Penguin and Karl by the assimilation team, Microsoft.

So what’s the benefits of this new series to you? Well we will be exploring topics
of what what is best for any certain situation, but because he gets a quick buck
from Microsoft to spout out unconditional garbage about MS products he will
be trying to push why MS is the way to go, and I will throwing back why
Linux is the way to go.

After each head-2-head session we will have a summary of the pros and cons
for each platform/application so you can decide for yourself, we do the research,
you reap the fruits..

Let either Karl or myself know if you have any questions/suggestions, by the
way, make sure your email doesn’t have any form of attachment, even a v-card
since Karls 50 virus killers will block your email..

My Barracuda runs Linux that filters my email. Like I said Linux still has some uses!

Ohhhh and BTW: Wow they have come a long way Linux boxes can read V-cards now??

Hit us up in the comments are you pro MS or pro Linux?

Sam sayz

My turn

Drivers, he does have a point, some drivers need compiling, but one could term that as initial time investment, since an MS server may require time investment over the course of its production life:) alot more time than a few drivers..:) You know, the usual deal of offending software:)

As Karl mentioned, we are not really MS haters, it also has its place, so we welcome his
Gates fanclub also…….. The need someone to look up to dont they :)

So lets get the ball rolling.. You have just been hired as an Admin for an ISP who need
your experience to setup the Infrastructure, mail, dns, web.. I think we should mail first
POP3/IMAP/SMTP.

Karl, what would you choose?:)

Boo yah! Good question. But it depends on the needs of the organization. If it was a small company with no need for Black Berry support my choice would be IPSwitch's IMail 2006 running on a Windows 2003 standard box. I won't go into hardware specs; We will save that for another time.

Its not Microsoft are you shocked? But looking back at the question it is suppose to be an ISP so...

Lets step into a real environment with 100+ domains linked up across international sites connected by VPN's and supporting hundreds of thousands of users. For this I would choose Microsoft Exchange 2003 running SQL 2005 as the backed. Windows 2003 Server Data Center in a clustered environment. I would separate the front and back ends across multiple servers and set up redundant and fail over machines. I would set up my backup mx record to point to an external data-center with a much lower priority to facilitate any fail overs necessary. Got to achieve those 5 9's right Steve?

Exchange will provide us with OWA or Outlook Web Access, SMTP, POP3 and IMAP. I will go one step further to recommend Mcafee Enterprise 8.5.1 for content/virus scanning. A Barracuda hardware appliance for spam filtering and secondary virus/content scanning.

Did I miss anything Stan?

Boot your windows partition from inside linux.

Mike got tired of having to reboot to get to his xp installation. Poor Mike lets improve your productivity and let you boot your windows partition within your Linux setup.

This solution comes to us from life hacker:

Calling All Dual-booters: You can turn your physical Windows partition into a virtual machine that can be run from Linux. Tech site oopsilon runs through the process which requires Windows XP, Linux partitions and VMware Player. The process is not beginner-friendly, as it requires a decent amount of terminal work. Although the tutorial is written for Gentoo, it should be applicable to any Linux distro. Be sure to backup both operating systems before trying this tutorial as it requires modifying your master boot record (MBR) which can be a bear to restore if anything goes wrong. Looking for a similar (and simpler) tutorial for Windows and Mac?

We've got you covered.

Full instructions from oopsilon: Running a Windows Partition in VMware

$300 Linux Open Phone Arrives. How will it fair against the iPhone market?

Finally the OpenMoko phone is here. The first version of the NEO 1973 mobile phone, which carries the Linux kernel inside and is not locked to a specific network, is available for purchase from OpenMoko.com. It's not as jaw-droppingly pretty as the iPhone, but it shares a design philosophy -- no buttons, just a screen -- and it's ready to be loaded with any number of open-source software applications. (Though, according to Gadget Lab, so is the iPhone).

The base version of the NEO sells for $300. It has a 2.8" VGA touch screen, a micro SD card slot, a USB port (Yup thats 1.1) and 2.5G GSM quad band capability. (2.5 Why No 3G??) And from the lack of specs I shall assume no storage on board - so how could this be a iPhone killer - or even compete in that market?

Keep in mind that this unit (the GTA01) was pushed out early so developers could begin writing device drivers, custom GUIs and some cool apps for the phone. The next revision (GTA02), which will be available starting at $450 in October, will be ready for the mass market.

So the one dropping in October will have wi-fi, 3-D motion sensors and improved graphics accelerators. So this phone isn't exactly an iPhone killer -- the next one might be a contender. AptUsTech has a nice comparison of the NEO 1973 and the iPhone. Posted Below.

When it comes to devices, more choice is almost always "a good thing." (We are talking to you iPhone (No MMS No A2DP?? WTF?)

But will consumers respond to the NEO? We all know developers are going to dig this phone. But what's more important to consumers -- a super-sexy status item that's locked to one carrier and one set of functions, or a less sexy look-alike with a fully free and open software system?

I hate to think its the first one!

Post was adapted using original work By Michael Calore on July 09, 2007

Iphone Vs. NEO

Even if you live in a cave, you heard about the iPhone--a masterpiece of technology and
also a marketing blitzkrieg made by Mr. Jobs.

At the same time a very
interresting phone has been launched on the market : the Neo 1973From an user point of view, the two phones share the same design -- no more buttons only a tactile screen. While the iPhone has a wonderful user interface that is very polished (as usual from Apple), the Neo 1973 is more conservative with a more traditional interface comparable with an existing PDA. The main feature of the Neo 1973 is openness.

All the hardware is documented, and the software is open source. This contrasts
greatly with the iPhone which is as closed as a bank vault. The only way to
develop software on iPhone is to build web services designed to fit well on the
screen or to use javascript with limited access to the iPhone resources.
Trillian just did this and developed a chat application for
the iPhone. But without access to the bare metal, the applications will be
limited, and the control remains in the hands of Apple.

What do you want to see more of?

Happy Thursday Afternoon,

We, on this side of the intermanet, want to know what you the readers want to see! Tell us you want more Linux articles... Pro Open Source... More Mac.... More PC? What do you want? Tivo hacks? PSP hacks?

We are here for you so we would rather write about what you want to hear. Open up your mouth err umm use your hands and type us a damn comment!

It really isn't that hard - don't be intimidated son, click that comment button. Even a baby could do it! See the picture on above!

We have been waiting for an excuse to use this one.

Or how about NO DONT CLICK THE COMMENT BUTTON WHATEVER YOU DO! OMFG DONT DO IT! IT WILL KILL THE BABY! LOL! ROTFL!

Howz That?

No you are not seeing double. We reposted it because of the great responses we got via email. You guys are super funny but very shy - use the comments. Really. Let everyone hear your witty comments!

_TheAdmiN_

Linux Tip O' The Minute: Net Renderer (Works for Mac too) See what your site would look like in IE without IE

For all you Linux gurus that detest the big bad Micro$oft and would never let any type of windows software on your machine, there is a way to easily preview your latest web creation as PC users will on Internet Explorer 7, IE6, and IE5. Just enter your URL and NetRenderer will spit back at you a screen shot of your requested versions view.

Its called NetRenderer I had to check my spelling on that one 3 times. It works great and has a ruler to boot!

A Snippet from their website about their web app:

This web rendering tool is ideally suited for web designers working on Apple iMac and Linux workstations. It allows [you] to verify web designs natively on all popular Internet Explorer versions, without the need to set aside several physical or virtual Microsoft Windows PCs just for that purpose.

I would also like to take this time to thank our new guest bloggers El Di Pablo, Justin and The Slothman. We are very happy to have you as part of our site. Keep up all the great work and I love the posts! You guys are great - I know there are end users out there everywhere loving you guys right about now!

Keep posting the questions and we will keep posting the answers!

Karl L. Gechlik
_TheAdmiN_
Netrenderer Homepage

Penguin's Rule

Time for some slightly more technical blogging.

Today's topic....Linux.

Some of you may have heard of Linux. Here's what it is in a nutshell. An operating system for a computer, not unlike Windows or Mac. But there is a difference...it can be free!

There are a lot of fun things with Linux and a lot of distributions that are freely available out there. But there is one in particular that I'd like to talk about.

Ubuntu.

I've tried various flavors of Linux in search of an OS that I may potentially use to replace my home Winblows PC with. This is it. I've tried several Fedora distros, Red Hat, and a few other smaller, possibly defunct distributions. But Ubuntu is the real deal.

The installation is easy. Pretty simple GUI install for the n00b, if you will. Pretty straight forward. And it will work on low end machines and most PCs that I've tried.

Now the problem with n00b-linux installs is hardware compatibility and the learning curve of getting used to the new OS. Ubuntu really digs into it. I did have a problem with the previous version going on a laptop with an Intel video chip and full compatibility. But that is gone now.

The other thing that is tough for people is the learning curve. It takes a while to find applications you want to use and how to use them. Installation of an application can be tricky at times if you're shy of digging on the net and tinkering around with a command prompt. And also, the applications you've grown accustomed to are simply not there.

However there are alternatives, and that is what Linux and the Open Source movement are all about. Use OpenOffice instead of MS Office, although you can use MS Office with WINE...long story...not for the faint of heart.

As far as email...you can use Thunderbird from Mozilla.com. Web browsing is best done through Firefox, also from Mozilla...and again, all free!

There are a lot of other gadgets and cool pieces of software within Ubuntu that need to be explored and tinkered with. Don't be shy. Find an older PC, download it, burn it to a disc and give it a shot. Take the time to learn this OS as it can be a viable alternative for most home uses, rather than getting put into the revolving door of Microsoft's every-couple-years need to upgrade the hardware and OS just to keep up.

Or, if you have the means, Dell has just begun selling Ubuntu preloaded on laptops and desktops.

_TheUbuntuAdmin_

Access “private” folders protected by NTFS

I won’t go into the backstory on this, because it would take too long. Basically, the hard drive where Linux and Windows co-exist with a dual boot loader installed will not boot at the moment.

Rather than fight with the friggin thing, I swapped that hard drive with another drive that I had inside of an IDE-to-USB enclosure and installed Windows on it. I can just plug my former hard drive into a USB port and get at the files that are on it. This is just temporary. I had other things to do than fight with an obstinate motherboard.

One problem - The user went and made the‘\Documents and Settings\Administrator\’ directory “private”, just before taking it to the repair shop. When I plugged it into the USB port, Windows wouldn’t let me access that folder! Talk about Murphy’s Law.

Anyway, I searched around for a while for an an answer to this problem and it turns out to be ridiculously simple to fix.

1) Log into an administrator’s account
2) Go to Folder Options and turn off “use simple file sharing”
3) Right-click the protected folder, click “properties” and click the security tab
4) Take over ownership of the folder and all subobjects


Booo Yah! Take that Microsoft!
_TheAdmin_