A Bit of Sense

Disabling power save button on keyboard in Ubuntu

2010-09-10T16:42:00.003-04:00

My home desktop computer has special buttons long the sides for various actions. Ubuntu handles most of these buttons correctly. However, the suspend button shuts down the computer if hit by mistake. I hate that. Here are instructions for fixing this for Ubuntu 10.04. Other versions might require other steps. Other GNU/Linux distros with the same version of gnome will probably work with these steps.

1. Type F2 to get the run prompt.
2. Type "gconf-editor" (without the quotes) and hit enter.
3. go to the config path /apps/gnome-power-manager/buttons
4. change hibernate's value to "interactive"
5. change suspend's value to "interactive"
Should be all set.

Ubuntu: a path to green(er) computing?

2010-05-22T21:02:00.002-04:00

This is a draft of an argument (you might call it marketing piece?) on the use of Ubuntu to prolong the effective life of a computer. I need to do a little research on how computers are recycled to backup (or refute!) the claims in the first paragraph.

Computers are tremendously valuable tools in our lives. But they contain hazardous materials that can escape into the environment once they are retired. Recycling does not ensure that computers will not cause pollution as the act of reclaiming metals can release them and may involve mercury or other chemicals in the process of extraction.

From an environmental standpoint it is desirable to get the longest live possible from our machines. Reusing them ourselves or passing them on to others who can reuse them.

However, there are a number of major difficulties in keeping a computer running windows operating optimally:
* Windows accumulates "cruft" as it ages. There are files and settings that are mostly of no use, but it is hard to know for sure so you don't dare delete them.
* Viruses are detected by anti-virus software and removed but sometimes manage to cause damage before they are removed. Anti-virus software does not always manage to fix these problems.
* New versions of anti-virus software detect more viruses, but also consume more resources in order to keep your system safe.
* New service packs and upgrades increase the resources used by the computer sometimes exponentially.
* Various other issues gradually slow the computer down to a crawl.

There are things you can do to undo this damage:
* Buy utilities to fix windows, however, chances are it still won't run like new.
* Hire someone else to fix windows for you, gets expensive and may not restore performance completely.
* Reinstall windows from scratch, works for a while but eventually you run in to the same issues.
* Get the next version of windows, good solution if you are able to upgrade your hardware. However, there are limits to the degree a particular system can be upgraded. There may not be anything you can do to make your system Windows 7 "capable."

None of these solutions can reduce the amount of resources consumed by anti-virus software or upgrades to the OS. Eventually Microsoft will drop support for the OS and most people will toss their old computer and buy a new one with Windows 7 or whatever the latest release is. Then the cycle starts all over.

Some will argue the streaming video or 3D effects require a new computer. But many users just want to get their email, browse the web, write a document or spreadsheet and chat with friends on-line. None of these things *should* require a state of the art computer. Windows will eventually bog down these newer machines as well.

For the reasons cited above Windows is not a good choice if one wishes to continue to use their existing computer over the long haul rather then replacing it every few years.

So what features *would* be desirable in an OS designed for sustained use over years:
* A packaging system where the OS would handle installing and removing programs so that defects in individual programs would not cause files to be left around.
* An anti-virus strategy built around preventing infections rather then trying to clean them up afterward would result in less damage to the OS and leave more resources for other tasks.
* A commitment to not raising hardware requirements in future OS versions.
* The system would be quick and easy to install so that if problems eventually slow down the computer the user can re-install without a big hassle.

It happens that Ubuntu offers all of these benefits.

Will Ubuntu do what you need?
* Word processor, spreadsheet and database programs are included that can read the files created by their Microsoft equivalent.
* The Fire Fox web browser is included. Fire Fox is the second most popular web browser and its share of users continues to grow as Internet Explorer's share shrinks.
* Ubuntu comes with a good email program, Evolution. However, you can pick from a number of other excellent choices like the popular Thunderbird made by the same folks who created Fire Fox.
* There are literally thousands of software programs available for Ubuntu at zero cost and easily installable.

Ubuntu is created from thousands of software projects all over the world created by people who create them to meet their own needs or the needs of their employer and realize that the best way they can make their software better is by sharing it and inviting others to help improve it.

Setting up Open SSH server

2010-01-24T18:54:00.008-05:00

I am writing this post mostly for my own information, but knowing also that others may find these instructions useful.

Warning: This post will be technical in nature. This document is more of a reference for those who already understand ssh then for new comers.

Background:
SSH or Secure SHell is a way of executing commands on a remote computer similar to telnet. The difference being that SSH was designed with information security in mind. SSH encrypts information sent in both directions. For more information see the SSH wikipedia article. Open SSH is a freely available implementation of the SSH standard.

I am no expert, I am simply combining tips I've found elsewhere. There are many more changes that can be done to limit access to ssh from external computers, but each also restricts your own access as well.

Be sure you understand each change I am making here and consult with ssh man pages or other documentation as needed. You also may want to consult my own links related to ssh stored on delicious.

Instructions:

Modify ssh configuration to prevent log in as root and to prevent X11 forwarding in order to make the setup more secure. Modify your port to hide the fact you are running ssh. Makes it a bit harder for the script kiddies.

Edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config

Change
PermitRootLogin yes
to
PermitRootLogin no

Change
X11Forwarding yes
to
X11Forwarding no

Change
Port 22
by replacing 22 with a positive integer of your choice.

Change
PasswordAuthentication yes
to
PasswordAuthentication no
(Uncomment this line if needed)

Add
AllowUsers usernamelist
with usernamelist replaced with a list of users you want to allow to use ssh. You may also use DenyUsers instead to specify the list of users you wish to block.

Edit /etc/hosts.allow:

Add
sshd: 192.168.1.0/255.255.255.0
or possibly
all: 192.168.1.0/255.255.255.0
This is just an example. Your own network may use a different ip address range.

From the machine you want to ssh from execute
ssh-keygen -t dsa
to generate an ssh key. then
ssh-copy-id -i .id_dsa.pub username@yourservername
to copy the key to your server.

If you generated the keys on the server you still want to do the copy in order to place you key in authorized keys. You could simply execute this instead:
cp ~/.ssh/id_dsa.pub ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

ssh yourservername
to verify that login is now working correctly. Because you created a secret key to use to login a password is no longer required.

Once regular log in works restart ssh (on the server) with
sudo /etc/init.d/ssh restart

Finally, edit ~/.ssh/config on the client and add the lines

Host ServerNameHere
Port PortNumberHere

This is so that ssh knows that you changed the port number for your server.

apt-cacher - fast upgrades on a network of computers

2009-01-30T23:36:00.003-05:00

I am writing up a short 'executive' summary about how to setup apt-cacher-ng to accelerate upgrades by caching packages locally. The title of this post links to the full story where I got all of this information. This should work on any apt/deb based system. This post has been updated to use apt-cacher-ng. Some of the steps may be a bit different.

I am publishing this mostly for my own use. But feel free to make use of this information as well. My settings are a bit different from the example.

To install:

sudo apt-get install apt-cacher-ng

Edit /etc/apt-cacher/apt-cacher.conf and add:

allowed_hosts=192.168.1.0/24
allowed_hosts_6=
expire_hours=12

Edit /etc/default/apt-cacher
AUTOSTART=1

Finally import your debs:

sudo /usr/share/apt-cacher/apt-cacher-import.pl /var/cache/apt/archives
sudo /etc/init.d/apt-cacher restart

sudo cp /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list.XXX
sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

deb http://[servername]:3142/archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy main restricted universe multiverse

Check that it is installed correctly: http://localhost:3142/
(assuming localhost is setup correctly in /etc/hosts)

EDIT: There is a new version apt-cacher-ng. It works the same way as apt-cacher, but is more resource efficient and has fewer bugs.

HOWTO: Update to static IP Address in Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex)

2009-01-25T14:10:00.008-05:00

A bug in network manager causes static IP'ed systems to revert to DHCP upon reboot. In fact I haven't gotten network manager to setup static IPs at all.

Here is a work around I found here at
http://www.ubuntugeek.com/how-to-set-a-static-ip-address-in-ubuntu-810-intrepid-ibex.html

I've condensed the solution to the minimum. I the 'x' character is when you should use a number that is correct for your network. If you are using a typical broadband connection w/a router then your numbers may be something like this:

address 192.168.1.40
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.1.1
nameserver 192.168.1.1

Check the numbers before you begin any of the instructions using ifconfig in order to get the IP and netmask. Use route -n to get the gateway and cat /etc/resolv.conf to get the name server(s).

Solution:

Disable network manager at start up:
sudo update-rc.d -f NetworkManager remove

Make a backup of interfaces file:
sudo cp /etc/network/interfaces /etc/network/interfaces.XXX

sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces

You interfaces should look something like this. Comment out the bit of

auto lo eth0
iface lo inet loopback
iface eth0 inet static
address xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
netmask xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
gateway xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx

This second part will probably already be ok, but double check to be sure.

sudo nano /etc/resolv.conf

# Generated by NetworkManager
nameserver xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx(enter your dns server ip)
nameserver xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx(enter your alt dns server ip)

Another image

2008-11-11T11:33:00.004-05:00

Continuing on my computer generated image theme from before. I bring you another one:

Computer Stores with Linux Pre-installed.

2008-10-26T17:14:00.007-04:00

Traditionally installing a new operating system has been an intimidating task. This was especially an issue with (GNU/)Linux as it was difficult to get all of the hardware working correctly with the software. In recent years this has gotten much easier. However, most computer users still would prefer to get their system pre-installed. Another advantage of getting Linux pre-installed is that companies that offer this ensure that the hardware they include works well with Linux. There are several companies selling systems with pre-installed Linux. I haven't found a complete list so I'll provide a list of the ones I have found. Note that I haven't had any personal experience with these companys - this isn't an endorsement.

Emperor Linux --- http://www.emperorlinux.com/
Los Alamos Computers --- http://laclinux.com/
System76 --- http://system76.com/
ZaReason --- http://www.zareason.com/
Efficient PC --- http://efficientpc.co.uk/
Penguin Computing --- http://www.penguincomputing.com/

I am sure there are a lot of other companies out there. Feel free to drop a line if you know of some that I missed.

Computer Generated Images

2008-10-26T16:17:00.009-04:00

I have been working recently on an evolutionary computation system of my own design. I have created it to evolve programs that generate computer images. I have been asked to share the most interesting images and this seems like an appropriate place to do this. Eventually I hope to use a similar system to help solve more practical problems. I am interested particularly in applying the same idea to optimizing computer code.

This is the initial base image. I wrote the program to generate this image and used that program as the original "ancestor" for all of the images. All of the other images are based on random changes (mutations) to this original image.

The cirle is gone on this one and much of the left side has disappeared. The left side represents negative coordinates so changes often relate to the origin of the image. I've chosen the center to be the origin in for these programs.

With random mutations you might expect to see a lot of images with random 'junk' in them. Actually these type of images are less common because the images are based on logical rules. I find these images combining order and choas really interesting.

In this one the cirle in the middle has become a horizontal line. The circle in these images was creating by calculating the distance from the origin so it appears in this image that X (horizontal distance) has dropped out of the equation in this one. It calculates the distance from the origin only along the virtical y scale.

Of all the ones I've seen so far I think this one is my favorite. You can see the similarity to the original, but it contains some new effects that weren't part of the original at all.

Dramatic I think is the word. Great contrast between the inner purple/pink and the outter green.

The images are a bit pixelatted because they were done at 64 x 64 pixel resolution. The programs work on a huge virtual resolution so it is possible to scale them up. However, at the moment this is a very slow process because it takes a long time to calculate the value for each pixel. 64 x 64 images can take over a minute to create.

Getting things working, at last

2006-02-24T21:19:00.000-05:00

I've had this laptop computer for I don't remember how long now and I've been meaning to start working on making it my primary computer. However, I haven't had a lot of time to spend on it. I've just finished moving my thunderbird (it is an email program that looks a lot like outlook) profile to Linux. I felt I was being a hard core optimist when I copied by profile directly from my old windows system to my laptop and then used the switch profile option to tell thunderbird to load the imported profile. I figured it was worth a shot. It worked perfectly, except that one folder was misnamed.

This is actually the first blog entry that I've created using the Laptop/Ubuntu. Also the first time I am using the "performancing" plugin for firefox. It is a
blogging tool, I just discovered.

I've got firefox 1.5.1 and thunderbird 1.5 running here and they are working great. I've also got all of my chat contacts imported into gaim. I didn't try to copy
the settings from windows, I just reentered them since I have so few accounts. I've been using bittorrent as well - no problems there either, except that the version the comes w/Ubuntu isn't the latest. (I'll upgrade when I get around to it.) I've also started to get some basic programming tools online as well.

I think the hardest part of getting used to the new computer isn't Linux at all but the crazy keyboard arrangement that they have created in order to get all of the normal keys on such a small keyboard.

Here is what my system looks like at the moment:

Ubuntu Logo

2006-02-01T20:51:00.000-05:00

I created a new Ubuntu logo to go along the side of the page. My artistic skills being limited I started with an existing Ubuntu image and I've add the additional text. Anyone know a better way to get an image onto blogger without having to create a separate account somewhere else?

Update:
I am uploading a new button from https://wiki.ubuntu.com/WebsiteButtons. The new image is below centered, while the old one is off to the left.

Laptop Struggle

2006-01-30T23:21:00.000-05:00

I bought a used laptop two weeks ago. I asked the sales person at the store if I could do compatibility testing for Ubuntu and they said sure. I poped in my bootable live CD restarted the machine and in about 5 minutes I was running Linux and able to test the system for compatibility. It worked great. One thing I noticed later on was that Linux couldn't read the level of the battery. This could be a big problem in the future if I can't get this to work.

At first it seemed to be running fine, and then all of a sudden it stopped working. I was about to take it into the shop when all of a sudden it began to work again. I began to notice a problem that the laptop would charge for a while and then stop. The AC adapter was still plugged into it, but it was not charging. I found that unplugging the adapter and replacing after a few seconds it will begin charging again. I took it into the shop and hopefully they'll be able to figure out the cause. ...Very strange...

While, I was figuring this all out I was able to begin to configure the system the way I wanted it. My initial plan was to resize the existing WinXP/NTFS partition to make room for Ubuntu. I quickly discovered (as I had guessed) that NTFS is not supported by gparted that comes with Ubuntu Linux. My second option was to buy a copy of partition magic online and use this to resize the drive. However, before getting this far I began to get the "Blue Screen of Death" each time I attempted to use the wireless network card. I had already noticed some odd things that made me think that the company that sold me the laptop had not reinstalled Windows for me. In retrospect I think perhaps it was wishful thinking on my part to think they would.

I decided in light of these two problems (difficulty changing the partition size and problems with the installed version of Windows) I would just repartition the entire drive and create partitions for Ubuntu, Windows and additional partitions for other Operating Systems I might choose later on. (I created a FAT32 filesystem for Windows so I could access those files from Linux.) Quite to me surprise installing windows was a pain. Installing the driver for the wireless card caused by computer to freeze and then several of the windows updates would not install and I searched through help docuementation and microsoft forums to no avail. Installing Ubuntu, was a breeze. The only issue was when it asked for a WEP Key there was no space to specify the type of encryption like 64bit/128bit/256 etc. I'll need to figure that out when the system comes back from the shop.

All in all, I am starting to wish I had just bought a new fully (GNU/)Linux compatible Laptop and saved myself some trouble. On the other hand it was kinda fun in a geeky sort of way. ;) If they still haven't gotten it fixed when I call (tomorrow?), I think I'll ask them if they'll return my money.

Tags: laptop, ubuntu

Quicker Tag Generation

2006-01-26T20:58:00.000-05:00

Quicker Tag Generation

When I was creating the last post I was thinking writing out a long list of tags is a pain in the neck. For one or two tags this is easy especially when I can copy and paste from my previous post. However, when adding more tags then this the process starts to get awkward. I've come up with a quick and dirty solution to this problem. I've used the python programming language to create a very quick 'script' to get the job done.

Here it is:

tags = raw_input("Enter a list of tags separated by commas:"
).split(',')
html = [
'<a href="http://technorati.com/tag/%s" rel="tag">%s</a>'
% (t.strip(), t.strip()) for t in tags]
open('tags.txt', 'w').write(
"<b>Tags:</b> " + ", ".join(html
))

Given a line of text like such as "security,windows,install,software" the script takes this list of tags and adds the HTML tag code around the list. It then saves the list to a file called tags.txt.

Tags: tags, scripts

Software I install to protect my computer online

2006-01-26T20:43:00.000-05:00

I am no expert on computer security, but since I've installed these measures my computers have yet to be infected by a worm or virus, and I find I get less spyware and only the tracking tracking cookie type.

Here are the steps in the order I take them when I (re)install windows on a home PC.

* Get a firewall. (I use Zone Alarm personal) This isn't the easiest to use product in the world, but it should be straightforward to anyone with a fair amount of computer experience.

* Get an Anti-Virus product. (I use AVG Free Edition) This program is a real snap to setup.

* Get Service Pack 2 if running Windows XP.

* Get all outstanding windows updates and do this regularly or automatically.

* Get a web browser that isn't Internet Explorer (I use firefox).

* Get software to help defend against Spyware, multiple tools work better then just one. (I use Spybot-SD, Ad-Aware & Spyware Blaster.)

All of this software can be downloaded for free.

Tags: security, windows, install, software

Technorati Howto - Part II: Tag your posts & ping your blog

2006-01-16T12:46:00.000-05:00

This post is slightly technical

(Continued from my post earlier this morning)

Now that you've claimed your blog you will want to start tagging. Here is an example tag:

<a href="http://technorati.com/tag/mytag" rel="tag">mytag</a>

When you add it to your post it will look like this:

mytag

When you create a tag replace the word 'mytag' with the name of the tag that you want to use. Replace both of 'mytag' in the text the first one is what counts to technorati and the second is what your reader's will see. You should add code like the above for each tag that you create. [Since originally posting this I've created some lines of python code to automate the embedding of tags in the html markup above.]

You can select one of your existing posts, edit it and add tags to it to see how this works. You can also use the tools to add a technorati search box into your blog - see their website for details. I've got one myself.

Once you've completed your post you will need to ping technorati to let them know that you have made a change to it. Instead of pinging every time you make a change to your blog you could just automate the process. Use this link for automatic pinging: http://www.technorati.com/developers/ping/ Select the publishing tool that you use for your blog and follow the directions. If you do not want to automate or you are unable to then use this link http://www.technorati.com/ping.html

You will want to manually ping yourself the first time since you have already published your post.

Ok, thats it. You are done!

If you haven't yet implmented Part I by claiming your blog you can do that now. Click Here

Tags:
tagging
technorati
ping

Technorati Howto - Part I: Claim your Blog

2006-01-16T10:14:00.000-05:00

This post is slightly technical

Well Woman asked me how to setup Technorati tags so I went in and figured it out. While I setup my second blog I will explain what I am doing.

A how-to is an informal, often short, description of how to accomplish some specific task. They are generally meant to help non-experts, and may leave out details that are only important to experts, and may be greatly simplified from an overall discussion of the topic. See procedural knowledge for a discussion of what sort of knowledge is imparted, and how far it can be imparted, in how-tos. taken from Wikipedia

"Claim your blog" (This step is optional)

go to http://technorati.com/. If you have firefox middle click this link to open technorati in a new tab. This will make it easy to refer back to the instructions.

Search for the text 'Claim Blog' on this page (control-F on most browsers). Click on this link.

Create a new account entering in the required fields.

(I had a problem that technorati was redirecting me back to the index page when I did this. I found that somehow I had configured firefox to disable cookies to this site. When I re-enabled cookies it worked fine.)

Now you should be looking at a claim your blog page. Enter the URL of your blog into the text box that displays. Mine is http://bitofsense.blogspot.com/. Press the "Begin claim" button. Use the quick claim if it is an option and enter your blogger username and password. Press the button to claim "now".

Enter a Description, I used the same text as my blog. You may need to shrink it down a bit in order to fit their limited length. Select the language you will use as your default language. Select some keywords to use for your blog. Be creative.

You may choose to "Show Technorati Embed on my site" (I did and choose to add the "Technorati Search Box" on my pages by clicking the checkbox next to this item.

There is a bit of java script code here in a text box that you will need to add to your template.

Something like:

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://embed.technorati.com/embed/rfyd5diuig.js"></script>

Details of installing the script:

From firefox press control-T to open a new tab or open a new window in another browser.

Sign in to edit your blog in this new window. (I will give instructions for blogger.com.) Click on your blog. Then template. I copied my template into textpad (you can use notepad or whatever you have or just edit in the browser). Find the HTML div id="sidebar" and insert the script somewhere before the /div. Copy this text back into the template and click 'Save Template Changes.' Click the republish your blog button.

(Optionally you can look for the java script in your page source after reloading to make sure it is there.)

Finally hit "save changes".

Congratulations! If you have followed these steps you have done the first and largest step of the process to setting up technorati for your blog.

When you are ready for part II. Here is the link.

technorati
tagging

Where in the world?

2006-01-15T23:12:00.000-05:00

create your own visited country map
or check our Venice travel guide

Where have I been?

2006-01-15T22:59:00.000-05:00

Here is a map of all of the states that I have visited. I may have missed a few, but this is the general idea.

create your own personalized map of the USA
or check out ourCalifornia travel guide

Ubuntu: Getting Serious

2006-01-15T18:59:00.000-05:00

This post is moderately technical

I've been meaning to install Linux (some call it GNU/Linux, but I don't want to get in to politics right now)on one of my computers for a long time. However, when I first started this was a difficult thing to do. One had to know all the ins and outs of the computer in order to tell Linux which device drivers to load and how to load them. I think this was back about 1998 or so.

Almost a year ago now I decided that I was really going to try and switch over this time. I got out a copy of Debian GNU/Linux and installed it on my old machine and I managed to get it running somewhat, but there were a few issues. Debian is one of the distributions of Linux. You can think of a distribution as a flavor or variety of Linux. Here is a list of Linux distributions.

I found a local Linux users group and started attending. The leader of that group introduced me to the Ubuntu Linux distribution and I was hooked.

I installed Ubuntu on my secondary (and very old) computer. It took some effort to get the hardware recognized, but a lot easier then in the "old days". Hardware issues can happen with any Operating System, but since Windows comes pre installed on computers this is rarely an issue for causal users of Windows.

The collection of software offered for Ubuntu is pretty impressive and it is a lot more up to date then what one might find in Debian. Installing new software is a snap. You just need to find the applications you want in a list and then check them off and then press an apply button and Ubuntu will install the software automatically with reasonable default settings. It is a snap! I ripped a number of CDs as well. The ripping software is installed by default and was easy to use. I did however, not have the choice of ripping to MP3 format. This seems a little silly to me since MP3 is the most type of music file. Even if it is a little old.

I've setup this secondary computer of mine to have three different Operating Systems: Windows XP, Debian GNU/Linux, Ubuntu Linux. I've had some trouble getting it to work the way I want it to and I think part of the problem is the age of the hardware. Currently I boot to Boot Magic, then I can select Debian which loads GRUB and from here I can pick Debian or Ubuntu. For some reason the Ubuntu GRUB does not display the start up menu even though the configuration is the same and Ubuntu Grub is a higher version.

I am planning to purchase a laptop for Linux soon. I'll give an update when I do. The Ubuntu home page is http://ubuntu.com/.

Tags:

Linux
Ubuntu