Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

I just purchased a refurbished NETGEAR USB wireless adapter that was reported to work through the Linux Wireless project. Getting it to work should be a simple issue of downloading the firmware and moving it to /lib/firmware. However, this is reported for the version 1 and I have version 2. I followed Green_Bean’s instructions for ndiswrapper which worked. To simplify things I created a package for Debian/Ubuntu on the Oojah Repo!

NOTE: It is common practice for manufactures to change the chip sets of a wireless adapter and not change the model number (especially with USB devices). This can cause a lot of headaches for Linux users who, like me, do their research find a compatible device to find out they have a new subversion with a chipset that either doesn’t work or requires the slightly messy busyness of using ndiswrapper with windows drivers.

With virtualbox and VLC both requiring QT libraries on my otherwise GTK based desktop (XFCE with some Gnome components) the KDE look doesn’t mach the rest of my desktop’s look and feel. To solv this probelm (in Fedora 12, might work on other distros) I ran gtconfig-qt4 in terminal as a normal user. The configuration GUI and under Select GUI Style I choose GTK+ and close the configuration GUI. Now the QT applications look like my GTK applications.

I enjoy my new printer. One minor issue is that I cannot get a good print out on the maximum 1200 x 600 dpi. However, for most of my needs 600 dpi works just fine. To resolve this problem I download some deb packages from brother here and here. Then as root I make the directory /usr/share/cups/model/ and install brhl2140l followed by cupswrapperHL2140. In my printer manager I now see a new printer listed as HL2140 and send a test page to it. In the set printer options I change the dpi to HQ1200 and send a test page to the printer. Now I have high DPI printing from my Brother HL-2140 on Debian. If you want a low end monochrome laser printer for Linux/Debian I highly recommend this model. I got mine for under $100 from NewEgg.

Spam seems to be an unavoidable part of the hyperspace hitchhikers diet. But it doesn’t have to be. There are many services out there I have seen being advertised as disposable email. However, most of these are alias forwards, spam protection services, and even some are paid services. To me, these miss the point entirely. Mailinator, is unique that it never asks for you to register, ever! and its functionality is so simple, its beautiful. Create a random string (or not so random) string at mailinator.com:

noemail4027@mailinator.com

You then use this email to register for a website service you want to try, but do not wish to commit your information until your sure you like it, you think it may bee scam, or you simple wish to maintain your anonymity. Now go to Mailinator’s website and type noemail4027 ino their “Check your inbox!” field, and you get the activation email with the activation link. Another, way to use is to leave comments on websites you may not trust, such as my site (I could be a cleverly disguised spam bot).  Sometimes your forced to register for different file-sharing services to download a software link on another website (such as some internet forums). Give it a try your self and send an email to nomail4027@mailinator.com Now login to Mailinator like described above. You see you email, and you can read it like any other email client. Mailinator also provides via a web widget and an rss feed.

The point is, it seams at every turn on the World Wide Web someone want’s your email for what ever nefarious or not so nefarious reason. I have been using Mailinator in this way for many years, and it greatly reduces the amount of unwanted filler and spam email I get. I am in no way being sponsored or reimbursed by Mailinator in any way . . . I’m just passing along the word.

I do not need to emphasis the important of backing things up; however, sometimes we shirk this responsibility because it can be tedious. This is where Simple Backup can come in handy. Essentially, it is a simple cronjob scheduler GUI designed for backing up specific files and directories. I downloaded the deb package and installed on Debian.

sudo dpkg -i sbackup_0.10.5_all.deb

Once done, I opened Simple Backup Config from the settings menu. In the General tab I selected Use custom backup settings. From the Include tab I removed the defaults and added my document directory. I did nothing in the Exclude tab. In the Destination tab I set it to a remote directory and accesses my private FTP account (e.g. ftp://username:password@example.com/). The Time tab was adjusted to backup daily with the simple option selected. Nothing was done in the Purging tab. Once finished I clicked Save and Backup Now! I was told the PID of the backup processes so I could  kill it or monitor it.

I checked my ftp directory, and found a new directory created with today date, Inside where all my documents compressed in a tarball. To restore I used Simple Backup Restore from the menus. Now I have daily backups of my documents onto a remote server and don’t have to think about it. I don’t know how many times I have inadvertently deleted something I was working on and have to start from scratch, or even worse suffered a hard drive failure during finals week!