Linux Popularity is on the rise...

According to the "Wall Street Journal" Linux is on the rise and more companies are on the hunt for Linux people. And they are willing to pay more for them.

See the attached link
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2012/02/10/linux-popularity-sparks-salary-jump/?mod=WSJBlog&mod=

A Swarm of Nano Quadrotors

Bill Gates the man who changed Open Source Software

A very good article about Microsoft needing to adopt Open Source software or risk being left behind.


http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2012/01/meet-bill-gates/


Good on Ya Bill Gates... it's about time.

iertutil.dll ERROR due to Mocrosoft Updates

So... your PC asks for your login and then there's no desktop shown.
You wait, and wait and finally you see an error about IERTUTIL.DLL, or not-found or something.

You panic and think you've lost everything. NOT SO! 

DO NOT re-install windows.

You need to start your PC into DOS mode or just boot it with a Puppy Linux CD. Browse to the c:\windows\system32 folder and look for iertutil.dll and you will either not find it, or it will be zero bytes in size.

Find the c:\windows\system32\dllcache folder and look for the same file. Copy it to the c:\windows\system32 folder and overwrite the old file.

Re-boot your computer and it will show you a welcome screen and continue the update of Internet Explorer.

I'll bet you had the 'automatic updates' switched on. This problem is likely caused by IE being updated.

Pop quiz: What is delicate, brittle, transparent and when it breaks it shatters into a million pieces. GLASS. And what are Windows commonly made of... GLASS. Be careful or you could break your Windows. Get a good operating system and leave this all behind... Ubuntu Linux.

Enjoy.

Using Motion to set up a web-cam for security (Ubuntu 10.04)

So you want to setup a web-cam to capture what a web-cam see's when there is movement?


You will need a program called 'motion'. 


Open a terminal window and type in:


sudo apt-get install motion


and key in your password when prompted. It's a quick install. Once installed you can start the program with:


sudo motion


To stop the monitoring press ctrl+c


The default configuration will record only when there is movement at the web-cam and it will record a video and jpg files whilst the movement continues. To configure motion edit the /etc/motion/motion.conf file. It's well commented. This file is locked to the root user. To overcome this use: sudo gedit /etc/motion/motion.conf.


Motion records the images in a folder called /tmp/motion. These files are locked and can't be deleted except by the 'root' user. To remove them, open a terminal window and type in cd /tmp/motion and then sudo rm *.jpg and give it your password if prompted.


To view the live monitoring of your web-cam, open your browser to http://localhost:8081. From another machine on the network use http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:8081 and use the IP address of the monitoring computer.


Personally, I have set the capture directory to /home/your-user-name/motion so it's easier for me to view and delete the files as necessary. The files are named very cleverly with a reverse date and time so you can go straight to necessary incident.


Enjoy.

Bulk resizing of Images in a directory Ubuntu 10.04

A quick and convenient way to resize all the images in a directory, and make them suitable for uploading or emailing them to friends, is to use nautilus image converter. This is a plugin for the nautilus file browser used in Ubuntu's Gnome desktop.

You will need to install it... open a terminal window and copy-n-paste the below command:

sudo apt-get install nautilus-image-converter

You will need to restart Gnome to get it to work. So restart the computer or logout and in again.

To use it... open your home folder and browse to the images you want to resize. Select them all (using the shift or Ctrl key to multi select). Then right click on the selection and choose 'resize'.

Use the applet to resize by a common resolution or scale by percentage or a custom resolution. You have the option of creating a new resized image or resizing the image in place. The converter is smart enough to know what's portrait and landscape and will resize them correctly.

This has saved me lots of time and mouse clicks when I've uploaded a camera full of images to upload to picasa or use in slideshows etc.

Enjoy.

An interesting News Article

The co-founder of Apple, Steve Wozniak recently had this to say about the iPhone vs Android phones:


"My primary phone is the iPhone," Woz said. "I love the beauty of it. But I wish it did all the things my Android does, I really do."


Here's the article: http://www.zdnet.com.au/android-features-better-than-iphone-woz-339329891.htm


Enjoy.

Resetting the "Top Panel" Ubuntu 10.04

From time to time, whilst playing with multiple screens and resolutions, you may notice the 'top panel' or main menu bar on you desktop may misalign your icons. Now for a obsessive compulsive (like me), this will drive you insane.

You have two choices... do it manually by adding a new panel and replacing all the icons (in the correct order) onto it and deleting the old panel. Right clicking on the panels will let you do this.

The easier option is to reset the original panel back to default settings and then add your favourite icons. Or use "Docky" instead.

One favourite of mine is the 'eyes' to help keep track of your cursor. These cartoon-ish eyes follow your cursor wherever it goes. It's available from the 'add to panel' option when you right click on the panel.

So to reset the panel back to default, open a terminal window and cut-n-paste the following commands (one line at a time).

gconftool --recursive-unset /apps/panel

rm -rf ~/.gconf/apps/panel

pkill gnome-panel

That's it... your panel is back and you can customise it to your liking again.

A tip on adding to the panel... right click on the position on the panel that you want to add icons to. Then select 'add to panel'. The icon will appear at the position that you right clicked. Once again the obsessive compulsive will be happy.

Enjoy.

Using a "Dock" with Ubuntu 10.04

There is an interesting "Dock" program in the Ubuntu Software Centre called "Docky". It is a dock that appears on the bottom of your screen very similar to an Apple Mac.


Very simple, but very convenient to launch your favourite programs.

To install it, go to your Ubuntu Software Centre (under applications) and do a search for "Docky", or just browse under Accessories. Then click on the install button... like everything for Ubuntu it's FREE.

Adding your favourite program icons to docky is easy. Just open the application and the icon appears in the dock. Right click on the icon and select 'pin to dock'. That's it.


You can switch off Docky by right clicking on the Anchor icon (the very first one) and select 'quit docky'.


Docky usually opens automatically when you start your PC. If you want to disable the automatic start then (on your main toolbar) select System, Preferences, Startup Applications. Scroll down to Docky and untick the checkbox. Docky will now only start if you select it from your menu's.


Enjoy.

Ubuntu 10.04, Switching the Minimise, Maximise and Close buttons from left to right of your windows.

So you're using Ubuntu and the Close, Minimise and Maximise button is on the left top of all windows just like the Apple Mac. You wish it could be more like Windows?  Just do these steps...

Press Alt+F2

In the window type in “gconf-editor” and press enter.

Click on edit and find and type in 'close' and search also in key values.

This is what it'll find:

At the bottom select the “/apps/metacity/general/button_layout” key and in the middle look for “button layout”. Where it says “close, minimise, maximise:” indicates your buttons are on the left of the ':' (or window). If you place “:minimise, maximise, close” in the key the buttons will be re-arranged and on the right of the ':' (or window). The different versions of Ubuntu may have the key in different places so using the 'find' will always work.

Easy huh?

About the Lenovo K1 Ideapad

After switching it on the first time:
Sync it to your Google account and all your contacts, mail, pictures etc are immediately available. Open the 'gallery' app and all your picasa albums are already downloaded on the pad. The only thing it does not have is a sim and a costly data plan. It's wi-fi only but it has 32gb of storage plus a SD slot with a possible 32gb more. It runs a Nvidea dual core with 1gb of RAM and is bloody fast.

I have configured a VPN and an RDP app that gets me into work for free. Google docs and a local Office app is free. Games by the bucket load and SketchBook by Adobe (free) is brilliant. If you are into sketching you will be amazed at what you can do with your forefinger. The multitude of keyboard apps in the Android Market is amazing. SwiftKey predicts the word you are typing before you know it. Some often used sentences don't even require typing. Just pick the words above the keyboard.


They did have a problem with the Launcher freezing after one of the Android updates. However after updating again, it seems to be stable. Oh, and another glitch is, needing to restart wi-fi if it wakes from sleep mode. This seems to only affect the Lenovo.

The E-filer app allows you to browse your local network and find Windows shares and copy files to and fro. Copy your music to and from any share... easy.

Everything on the net is easy, and bloody fast. I'll have to do some research on how to open WMV files on the pad. It likes AVI's instead.

Otherwise the K1 Tab is value for money at $399 approx, compared to an iPad or Galaxy Tab.

Will it replace a laptop? No, not yet. However if you are in a meeting or visiting friends, it's easier to plop the pad on the table instead of lugging around a laptop.

The advantages of Linux Ubuntu over Windows

The apples to apples comparison (apologies to Apple). I am comparing Windows 7 Professional 64bit to Linux Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid) 32bit.

Windows 7:

It's fast, does take some time to boot, but when you get it going it works well. I found most of the software I had to install was 32bit and dilutes the speed of the 64bit OS. Would I buy a copy for home... Hell No. I just use it to update my iPhone using iTunes (which is not available for any version of Linux).

Ubuntu 10.04:

The 32bit version is just as fast as Windows 64bit. It boots faster, shuts down faster. The programs load and operate faster. Majority of software is free from the 'Ubuntu Software Centre' repository.

My view on the outcome:

Ubuntu wins easily. I'm now finally free from Virus/Malware/Botnets. My PC rarely stalls, freezes or reboots itself.

So you may think that you have dependencies on Windows? Let's see...

This is what I need on a PC.

Browser: Chrome (free), Firefox (free).

Email: Enterprise (free), Thunderbird (free), K-Mail (free).

RSS Reader: K Agrigator (free)

Instant Messenger: Empathy IM Client (free).

Office: Open Office or Libre Office (free).

Graphic Editor: Gimp (free).

3D Editor: Blender (free).

Video Editor: Kdenlive (free).

Video Transcoders: WinFF, Arista, Transmageddon (free).

Ripping/Burning: AcidRip (free), K3b (free), Brasero (free).

Media Players: VLC (free), Movie Player (free), Amaroc (free), Rhythmbox (free).

HTML editor: Komposer (free).

FTP: FileZilla (free).

PasswordManager: KwalletManager (free).

Anti-Virus: Clam-AV (free)

Are you getting the point? All this and much more is FREE. As many games as you can point a stick at. All FREE.

How much would you pay for Photoshop? Or MS-Office? Or Norton? Or how about Adobe CS-5? Me? I pay nothing... I don't use them.

I also like the way Nautilus (Win-Explorer) can resize a selection of picture files into the resolution you want automatically (it knows if portrait/landscape). I'd like to see Explorer do that!

The management of multiple screens is way better than Windows 7. I can unplug my slave screen and use it for something else and re-plug it in later and after a couple of clicks it's back unchanged. Trust me I've done the same in Windows 7 and spent 15 minutes getting it to look the same as before. It's truly painful.

Browsing Windows Shared folders is not as simple as Windows as you have to 'log into' the 'share'. Perhaps Windows needs to do that as well to keep viruses from spreading autonomously. So perhaps this is a plus not a minus?

Alter the Minimise, Maximise, Close buttons from the left side (like Apple) to the right side (like Windows), no problem.

Adding a 'Launcher' to the bottom of your screen like a Mac... No Problem!

Kdenlive is a great program for editing hi-def video. It's better than what's available for Windows with the exception of the Adobe Premier Pro CS5.5. And Final Cut for Apple is better again. But are they both free? Sorry NO!

For all this I paid $0.00 How much did you pay for Windows? How many visits to the local computer geek because it would not boot? How much for anti-virus software?

How many cartons of beer to your mate (who thinks you are a dick-head) to fix your PC?

Now about my iPhone... I'm sorry Apple. You had 4 years to write a Linux version of iTunes and you did nothing. My next phone is going to be an Android. This is the same reason I bought a Lenovo K1 Tablet instead of an iPad. There's nothing to sync with (apart from my Google account).

Microsoft and Kelihos botnet

I was reading that Microsoft has taken down the Kelihos botnet and actually tracked down the 'coder' behind it. Andrey N. Sabelnikov (Russian) who worked in the IT Security industry. Apparently Sabelnikov had registered over 3000 'cz.cc' subdomains in order to operate the command-n-control of the botnet.

Cudos to you all at Microsoft. And also to their partners Kaspirsky Labs who assisted in the takedown.

One thing though... the infected users pc's are still out there looking to 'phone home'. There's around 41,000 of them with around 10,000 in North America alone, still pumping out spam email at around 4 billion per day. These systems could potentially be prone to other botnets trying to take control of them.

Botnets are tricky things to clean off your own PC. There are very few (if any) anti-virus programs that detect them. I have been looking for years and not found any. The best option is get your data off your PC, format and re-install it from a legal copy of Windows and for God's sake update it immediately with the latest patches.

I am a computer programmer and have been in the computer industry since the mid 1980's and have been battling virus issues with, not only friends PC's, but also in the work environment. In 2010 we battled with the 'conficker' bot and it's friend 'Sality-d' virus. Oh yes, there was also a 'link' virus in the mix as well. How bad was it? A network with 28 servers and over 450 desktop machines on a national WAN. Nearly all the servers had to be taken off-line and all the desktop machines were replaced with ones that had a fresh install of Windows. All but 2 of the servers were also re-installed. The company had intermittent access to computers for almost 6 weeks.

My computer skills have been accumulated in the Microsoft arena since 1985, and up until 2009 I have always had a Windows PC. That changed. Well before the 2010 'melt down' of my work's network I installed Linux Ubuntu 9.04 on my home PC. It could dual boot with Windows. I was totally sold on Ubuntu. In a little while I could do everything on Linux that I could do with Windows. With the exception of updating my iPhone using iTunes. There's another story in that fact alone (for another time).

Now there's not a single PC at home that does not have Ubuntu 10.04 or higher installed on it (even my work PC runs it). My 4 daughters use Apple Mac's. As far as Microsoft view, it's the darkest house on the planet... no Windows at all.

So how does it all work? I have VPN's configured in Linux with RDP clients opening Windows desktops on the Windows servers that I administer. Hell, even my Lenovo K1 Tablet can VPN and RDP into my desktop on a server at work.

Now I am free of the 'background worry' about botnet's and viruses. Plus at work I can feel safe about the fact that my local PC is safe from catching anything from the rest of the 'herd' and vice versa. Still however we need to be vigilant, even with Linux.

So how likely is it that there's a real threat for Linux? Because there are so many variant's within the Linux camp. And they all work differently... that's going to be a difficult thing. Plus the fact that their security works differently to Windows (and better). The updates are frequent, smaller and rarely require a re-boot.

Now... I know there are many die-hard Windows fans out there. I was one of them. I was trained to use Windows and all my experience is in that field. However when you see the damage that can be inflicted on a national network of Windows PC's and Servers it gives you pause. Also all the techniques we (Sophos was used) employed to clean up the mess, involved linux in one shape or form. This fact alone should make you think. Most people are scared of change and will defend what they know to the death. Thank heaven I was open to look at new things.


If you are interested in looking: www.ubuntu.com is a good start.


*The added bonus is that you'll have both Linux and Windows at your disposal*