New features in Amarok music player - Sneak peak, pretty playlist, raw plasma

Amarok is a versatile music player for Linux/Unix platforms. A couple of months back I had reviewed this versatile music player which has a lot more features than just playing music.

The next avatar of Amarok is Amarok2 which is going to see a number of enhancements such as :

• A better integrated play list
• Artists can be associated with more than one genre
• Purchasing from Magnatune now supports using gift card codes as an alternative to credit cards.
• A OpenGL support for album selector - I may add that anything related to OpenGL at present requires you to install the proprietary graphics drivers of Nvidia or ATI depending on the graphics card you use.
• The big central area has just been switched to using Plasma, the new desktop and widget technology in KDE4.
  

Courtesy : Amarok blog.

Fedora 7 installation screenshots

As you know, the Fedora team has released the latest offering of Fedora which is Fedora 7. It has been released as a liveCD as well as in the DVD format. These are the steps you go through while installing Fedora 7 using the liveCD installer.

Fig: Fedora LiveCD installer

Fig: Select the keyboard for your system

Fig: Choose the partitioning layout

Fig: Optionally, partition the hard disk by hand.

Fig: Install the grub boot loader

Fig: Choose to install grub either on MBR or on the first sector of boot partition (Optional step)

Fig: Configure and activate network devices.

Fig: Choose the time zone

Fig: Set the root password

Fig: Click the next button to begin installing Fedora 7

Fig: Installation in progress...

Fig: Installation complete.

Solaris Multipathing, System Bus pages updated

I updated the Solaris Multipathing and System Bus pages. We tripped over an issue with editing the scsi_vhci.conf for a third party storage device. The syntax is incredibly picky and wants new entries to be padded out with spaces, as I describe in the updated page.

--Scott

$100 laptop goes into production

BBC reports that the $100 laptop has gone into production and the first batch of machines should be put into the hands of children in developing countries as soon as by October 2007.

It is believed that initially the $100 laptop is going to cost nearly $176 but with ramped up production they hope to eventually bring the cost down to $100.

The laptop has a rugged, waterproof case and is as energy efficient as possible. In other words, it is built to cope with the harsh and remote conditions found in areas where it may be used, such as in deserts or on mountains.

Fig: The current price breakdown of the laptop

The laptop needs an order of magnitude less power than a typical laptop. That means you can power it by solar or human power like by using a foot pump. The $100 laptops will be powered by a low power AMD processor and will be running Linux.

While governments of many third world countries have pledged to buy the laptops to be distributed to students, I am sad to say that India is not one of them. One of the positive effects of distributing these laptops to children could be the drastic reduction in the number of books they have to carry to and from school and which can be replaced by a lightweight laptop. I remember the heavy load of books I had to carry to school each day. It was truly back breaking.

Read the full story at bbc.co.uk

Related articles
$100 Laptops running Linux
A Preview of the $100 Laptop running Linux
Status of the OLPC project

One Laptop Per Child gets a new name and a slightly higher price tag

Google Desktop Search - Redefining search for Linux

Till around two years back, searching for documents on ones computer was limited to finding the files based on certain criteria such as the name of the file, the date of creation and so on. But this had the handicap that if one did not remember the name of the file or when it was last saved on the machine, it was very difficult to find the data and the person was left with the choice of taking wild guesses. And this was the case with all operating systems.

But in the past two years search for the desktop has gone through a remarkable metamorphosis and has transformed into an efficient tool to find exactly what one is looking for. The magic of this efficiency is the way the ubiquitous search tool has changed from just an executable file to a service where it actively indexes all the changes made to the files saved on ones machine in real time. Put another way, now it is possible to search for and find a particular text file say, by providing a phrase or snippet contained in it as the argument to the search tool. And these search tools makes searching your own email, files, music, photos, and more as easy as searching the web.

Apple's Mac OSX has what is called 'Spotlight' and Microsoft Windows has a plethora of tools like Microsoft's own desktop search and tools provided by Yahoo and Google to name a few. Unfortunately, Linux did not have a comprehensive solution in the same lines as those for Windows and OSX. True, we have Beagle - an offering from Novell and it does work efficiently. But it is not as integrated with the desktop as we would like it to be and it is dependent on Mono which is not installed by default on most Linux distributions.

But recently things got better for Linux enthusiasts as Google released its Desktop search tool for Linux as a native build. Because I consider desktop search to be a very important must have feature in all operating systems, I decided to download the Google search tool for Linux and give it a run.

The prerequisites for installing Google Desktop on Linux is that your system should already have glibc 2.3.2+ and gtk+ 2.2.0+ libraries installed. If you are using a modern Linux distribution released within the past one year, you will already have these libraries installed. I was using Debian Etch which already had these libraries and so I was able to proceed with the installation of Google Desktop. Google has released its Desktop search tool in two package formats, them being RPM and Deb packages. And to install either of them you run the respective commands as follows :

# rpm -ivh google-desktop-linux-1.0.1.0060.rpm

... for Red Hat based Linux distributions and

# dpkg -i google-desktop-linux-1.0.1.0060.deb

... for Debian based distributions such as Ubuntu.

The files are copied to the /opt directory and a short cut is created in the Gnome/KDE menu. The first time Google desktop is started, it prompts the user to enable the advanced features (a prudent thing to do) so that non-personal usage data and crash reports may be sent to Google to improve Desktop. This includes summary information, such as the number of searches you do, the time it takes for you to see your results, and application reports that Google will use to improve the program.

Using Google Desktop Search

Now that the installation is out of the way, it is time to find out how to use Google desktop search to find the files on ones hard disk. When Google desktop search tool is started, it minimizes to the task bar on the right hand side where you can access it by clicking on its icon.

Fig: Google desktop search tool embeds in the Gnome taskbar

The first thing I did was set the preferences for searching. To access the preferences of the search tool, right-click on the icon and click on "Preferences..." and you can modify the preferences of Google desktop search tool in a web browser. Here I could set my preferences for indexing my machine. For example, I can order the search tool to skip indexing certain directories, skip indexing a particular type of file(s) such as my web history, email messages etc and even remove deleted files from the search results. Once I have made the requisite changes in the preferences, I could press the "save preferences" button to save the changes.

Fig: The preferences dialog which opens in the web browser.

While it is true that indexing files on ones hard disk is a resource intensive process, Google desktop search tool is quite intelligent. It will start indexing files only when your system is idle. And when you start using the machine, it will stop its indexing and wait till the system is idle again. So I could never detect any lag in system performance when I started using Google Desktop search tool. Another feature I really like about this useful tool is the short-cut provided for it. If you press the 'Ctrl' key twice in quick succession, it will pop up a quick search box where you can type the search phrase. And once you finish searching, the pop-up box automatically fades away.

Fig: Google Desktop quick search box

Features of Google Desktop Search for Linux

• Indexes a diverse variety of files such as PDF, PostScript, info and man pages, text files, email messages, audio and video files (Music, Movies), web history and even secure pages (HTTPS) in web history (if enabled).
• Is easy on the system resources and will start indexing only when the system is idle.
• Can be easily accessed via the hot key (Ctrl).
• Specific files are opened in their respective applications. So man pages are displayed in Gnome Yelp (documentation viewer), text files in the default text editor, web pages in the web browser and so on.
• Rudimentary versioning support for files - Google Desktop creates cached copies (snapshots) of your files and other items each time they have been changed, and stores these copies on your computer’s hard drive. As a result, you can often use Desktop to find previous versions of your files or ones you've accidentally deleted.
• It integrates quite well with the parent Desktop environment.
  

Other details ...

While Google Desktop search tool for Linux is dependent on various open source libraries, the search tool itself is a closed source product as Google has not released the source of the search tool yet.But I guess Google has pertinent reasons to keep it that way.

All in all, I find Google desktop search for Linux a very useful tool which enhances ones productivity by helping to drastically cut down the time taken to find data on ones machine.

Managing disk space with LVM

Now a days, when one installs Linux on ones machine, in more cases than one, there is a trend to create a logical volume and create the file system on this volume rather than creating the file system in individual partitions. I have myself created logical volumes on one of my machines running Linux.

Logical volumes have their own advantages in that one can grow or shrink a volume without any loss of data. And that makes it much more flexible than creating file systems directly in partitions. Another advantage is that one can bundle multiple hard disks together to create a single logical volume such that the operating system sees only one volume even as the data resides across multiple physical hard disks. In a previous post titled "Resizing Logical Volumes", I had briefly put down my experiences in create logical volumes in Fedora Linux.

Now Bryce Harrington and Kees Cook have come together to write this very informative article titled 'Managing Disk Space with LVM' which clearly explains the ins and outs of creating, modifying and deleting logical volumes in Linux which makes an interesting read.

Usually, logical volumes are more desirable where there is a constant flux in the amount of data in storage devices such as a machine running as a file server or a database server and so on. But even home users could benefit from creating logical volumes if they are in the habit of saving lots of data on their hard disk like games, movie clips,songs... and see their disk space shrinking at a fast pace.And if the hard disk fills up, the procedure is as simple as attaching a second hard disk and then extending the logical volume on the first hard disk to include the new one. But if you go the LVM way for your desktop, just make sure that the /boot directory resides in a physical partition of its own instead of the logical volume as boot loaders like GRUB and LILO don't support LVM yet.

Interview : Linus Torvalds says he has never used Debian yet

Alright, many of you would find this title a bit controversial. But that is exactly what Linus Torvalds the father of Linux said when asked the simple question of which Linux distribution is his favourite one.

Linus Torvalds was interviewed by oneopensource.it where he went on to express his thoughts on a variety of topics including GPLv3, whether Linux infringes Microsoft patents, about Microsoft - Novell agreement, the future of Linux kernel and so on.

The questions posed are quite thoughtful and Linus Torvalds answers are equally interesting.

On questioned as to "which is your favourite distribution, and which one do you consider more secure?", this is what he had to say ... (and I quote)

I don’t really tend to care much, I’ve changed distributions over the years, and to me the most important thing tends to be that they are easy to install and upgrade, and allow me to do the only part I really care about - the kernel.

So the only major distribution I’ve never used has actually been Debian, exactly because that has traditionally been harder to install. Which sounds kind of strange, since Debian is also considered to be the “hard-core technical” distribution, but that’s literally exactly what I personally do not want in a distro. I’ll take the nice ones with simple installers etc, because to me, that’s the whole and only point of using a distribution in the first place.

So I’ve used SuSE, Red Hat, Ubuntu, YDL (I ran my main setup on PowerPC-based machines for a while, and YDL - Yellow Dog Linux - ended up the easiest choice). Right now, most of my machines seem to have Fedora 7 on them, but that’s only a statement of fact, not meant to be that I think it’s necessarily “better” than the other distros.

GNUCash 2.0.0 - My favorite personal accounting software now available on Windows

I have used a number of personal accounting software some of them non-free ones. But none compares with GNUCash when you compare them for ease of use, unbeatable price and extensive features all combined. GNUCash beats all its competition hands down. I have always wondered why most Linux distributions targeted at the desktop do not bundle GNUCash by default. Of course it is simple enough to install it separately using Synaptic or equivalent package management tool. But then if any package is to be included in a Linux distribution targeted at the lay person, I would say it should be a personal accounting software as most people will find it a useful tool to manage their finances. And at present GNUCash has left its nearest competitor far behind.

The good news is that now the Windows users can also feel happy because the stable version of GNUCash ver 2.2.0 has been released for Windows too apart for other OSes such as Linux, BSDs, Solaris and MacOSX.

A couple of months back, I had used GNUCash ver 2.2.0 in Windows when it was still in the testing stage. And even at that time, this marvelous piece of software hadn't crashed even a single time. And I suppose in the stable version it has become even more robust.

Some of the features of GNUCash 2.2.0 are as follows :

• Supports Double Entry Accounting - this means it can be used to manage the accounts of even small to medium businesses.
• Excellent support for generation of various reports of your financial status.
• You can view your expenses and incomes as pie charts.
• Supports currencies of most countries
• Support for Online banking
• Cheque printing
• Automatically save the data file
• Statement reconciliation
• Choose from 21 different languages to display menus and dialog boxes and much more.
  

Here is a tip to efficiently use GNUCash. You can save the data file (which contains the financial data) in a removable media such as a USB Pen drive. And then install GNUCash in all the OSes that you have installed on your machine. So when ever you want to enter a record of the day's expenses, just plug in the USB pen drive and open GNUCash in which ever OS you seems to be using at that time. GNUCash will open the last used data file automatically.

If you are a Windows user (I wonder why ;-)), you can download the GNUCash 2.2.0 binary and give it a try. I assure you, it won't be a disappointing experience. And if you wonder why you are better off using a personal accounting software, then let me tell you, it is the best thing you would be doing to yourself because it gives you a snapshot of your net worth after the checks and balances. It shows you your spending patterns over a period of days, weeks, months and years. And using a personal accounting software you will be able to analyze your income and expenses and help you plug unnecessary expenses. On a personal note, after starting to use GNUCash, I came to realize that I was spending a good amount eating out and I made a conscious effort to curtail my gourmet craves.

Koolu - a Linux thin client which goes easy on the environment

A thin client is a client computer in a client-server setup which depends on the central server for processing activities. Its primary job is to convey input and output between the user and the remote server. The advantages of using thin clients in a small to medium network are many such as saving on space, lower power consumption, better utilization of computing power and so on.

Koolu is an Australian startup which offers Linux based thin clients and appliances. Koolu is the brain child of Jon Maddog Hall who is one of the leading Linux and Open Source proponent.

Koolu provides thin clients in the price range of $199. And its net appliance is priced at $299. Both the thin clients and the net appliance enjoy a very small footprint to the extent that they could be held in the palm of ones hand. The net appliance is more or less a standalone PC which comes with a modest 500 MB RAM, a 40 GB harddisk and Ubuntu pre-installed. Where as the thin client has just 256 MB RAM and no hard disk. Other than that, both the thin client and the net appliance have the same hardware specifications.

Hardware specifications of the devices are as follows :

• Processor: AMD Geode LX 800 (500MHz@0.9W)
• USB 2.0 ports - 4 Nos
• Dimensions - 13.5 (Width) x 13.5 (Depth) x 3 (Height) Cm
• Memory - 256 MB for thin client and 512 MB for web appliance. Can be upgraded to 1 GB
• AMD LX 800 Integrated Graphic
• Sound - Realtek ALC203_LF AC’97 (2-Channel Support)
• Ethernet - Realtek RTL8100C-LF 10/100 MB LAN
• Fan Less Solution / Dust Resist
  
• Is energy efficient and uses less than 10 watts.

The 4 USB ports, the LEDs and Sound related ports are situated in the front. And the RJ-45 jack, VGA, Line Out, 12V DC IN and Kensigton lock hole are situated in the back.

Thin clients are nothing new and there are a couple of projects around such as Pxes and LTSP.org which help you to convert your old machine to work as a thin client. But the advantage of Koolu is that all the configuration has already been done and all that the end user has to do is plug in the machine and start using it. More over, the Koolu team claims that since their machines consume relatively less power, they are more environmentally friendly and you can recover the cost of the machine in 2 years by saving in energy bills.

You can buy Koolu online directly from the Koolu official site.

Ubuntu plus Dell equals better support for devices in Linux

One of the best things that has happened to Linux enthusisasts the world over is the confluence of two big players one in the Linux arena (Ubuntu aka Canonical) and the other in the PC hardware space (Dell). And the end users have already started reaping the benefits.

The benefits include device driver support for hardware components which were otherwise not compatible with Linux. A couple of years back, I had to struggle getting my internal modem based on a conexant chip to work with Linux. These internal modems are infamously known as winmodems because they delegate some of its job to the parent operating system and work flawlessly only in Windows.

Because they were not full modems, most of them are incompatible with Linux and are as good as paper weight. I have documented how I got my internal modem to work with Linux with some difficulty.

Now the good news is that Dell has released device drivers for the conexant internal modems for their E1505n and 1420n machines which is available here for download.

The driver is provided as a deb package and so will be compatible with other Debian based Linux distributions.

System logging explained in Linux

In linux, a variety of log files are maintained. And its understanding is often vital for troubleshooting system problems. The centralized logging is provided by two daemons :

• syslogd
• klogd
  

For example, running the 'ps' command on my system gives the following output ...

$ ps aux|grep [sk]*logd
root      2281  0.0  0.0   1624   612 ?        Ss   13:12   0:00 /sbin/syslogd
root      2287  0.0  0.0   1576   380 ?        Ss   13:12   0:00 /sbin/klogd -x

The log files generated by these daemons as well as the log files generated by the applications like apache, squid etc are stored under the /var/log directory.

Some of the more important log files that are a part of system administrator's forte are as follows:

/var/log/dmesg - This log file is written upon system boot. It contains messages from the kernel that were raised during the boot process. You can also view them using the command:

# dmesg

This log file can be viewed by any non-privileged user. But the next three log files are readable only by root.

/var/log/messages - This is the standard system log file, which contains messages from all your system software, non-kernel boot issues, and messages that go to 'dmesg'.

/var/log/maillog - This log file contains messages and errors from your sendmail.

/var/log/secure - This log file contains messages and errors from security related systems such as login, tcp_wrappers, and xinetd. This log file is very useful in detecting and investigating network abuse.

As I said earlier, syslogd and klogd daemons provide centralized logging in linux. The configuration file for syslogd is /etc/syslogd.conf

System logging is provided by syslogd and klogd intercepts kernel messages and provides them to syslogd daemon.

/etc/rc.d/init.d/syslog script controls both syslogd and klogd daemons.

Messages can be logged to files, broadcast to connected users, written to the console, or even transmitted to remote logging daemons across the network.

By default, the messages of emergency or higher (more severe) are broadcast to all users, and most other messages are written to /var/log/messages file, which is where you should look for non-kernel boot errors, error messages from most application-level services, such as automount, login services etc. After system boot, kernel messages are also written to this file.

Usually a system administrator will run the command :

# tail -f /var/log/messages

at the console, to get a running display of the messages logged by the syslogd daemon. Thus he will be able to keep track of any system wide errors that may be generated.

Linux Help blog now has a new feature - Polls

Any blog hosted on blogger.com has its own share of advantages and disadvantages. But over the 4 years since this blog has been online, I can very well say that the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages.

At times I have felt a dire need for an easy way to clip posts on the front page by providing a "Read More" link. Yes there is a third party hack for this feature which is cleverly implemented using a combination of CSS and script. But nothing beats having a simple inbuilt solution as seen in Wordpress or Drupal CMS. That is not all, there are lots of other features that I feel could be incorporated in Blogger.com.

Having said that, Blogger development team is working hard to improve and better integrate many useful features. And Polls are its latest offering. If you check the right hand side of this blog, you will find a poll which you can participate in. Do try it out. You can also view the results of the poll which is implemented using Ajax so your page will not be reloaded.

And every two weeks, this blog will have a new poll which will try to mine the computing trends of different people. So keep an eye on the polls when you visit this blog and do take part in it. The very first poll asks you which is your favorite text editor.

OpenMoko Neo1973 - an open source Linux based iPhone killer in the making ?

OpenMoko is a GNU/Linux based open software development platform. What this means for the lay person is that using OpenMoko software development kit, phone manufacturers will be able to bring out mobile phones which have more or less the same features of the now widely known iPhone from Apple and much more - all this under an Open license powered by GNU. This also means that for the first time there is potential for you to be completely free from being tied up with one mobile carrier or even a single phone manufacturer (read Apple) for want of anything better.

Fig: Openmoko touch screen phone

Recently OpenMoko a project set up by "First International Computings" (FIC) released a developer version of a mobile device named Neo 1973 which is a completely open, Linux-based, GPS-equipped, quad-band GSM/GPRS phone and which has a touch screen equivalent to that in Apple iPhone but which additionally comes with a stylus. The Neo1973 is priced in the $300 to $450 range. Below I have included the rough specifications of both the Openmoko's Neo1973 and Apple's iPhone for comparison.

Openmoko Neo1973 cell phone specifications

• 2.8" VGA TFT color display (640x480 resolution)
• Touchscreen, usable with stylus or fingers
• 266MHz Samsung System on a Chip (SOC) (ARM9 processor)
• 128 MB RAM
• 64 MB Flash memory
• USB 1.1, switchable between Client and Host (un-powered)
• Integrated AGPS
• 2.5G GSM – quad band, voice, CSD, GPRS
• Bluetooth 2.0
• Micro SD slot
• High Quality audio codec
• 1200MA Lion cell battery which the openmoko team guarantees to provide a minimum of 4 hours of power when used continuously before a recharge. The battery can be easily replaced by the users.
  

Additional freebies thrown in with Neo1973 phone include...

• 512 MB Sandisk SD card.
• A good quality set of ear phones.
• A USB connectivity cable.
• Stylus
• A very functional pouch to hold the phone and
• A Lanyard to safely tether your phone.
  

Apple iPhone specifications are as follows :

• Powered by ARM11 processor
• 128 MB RAM
• 4 or 8 GB flash memory
• Screen resolution of 320x480
• Bluetooth and WiFi enabled
• Integrated 2 Megapixel camera and
• an accelerometer
  

When compared to an iPhone, the Neo1973 from OpenMoko is a bit behind as it doesn't come with a camera, no accelerometer (Which is promised in the next version of the phone), no multi-touch, does not provide WiFi support and does not have gigabytes of storage space.

But in many respects, people buying this phone will have a decisive advantage that the phone runs on GNU/Linux which means that third parties can easily develop applications using openmoko software development platform and thus provide an enhanced end user experience.

Additionally Apple's iPhone has a number of drawbacks such as ...

• The battery is soldered to the circuit. So it is not possible for the iPhone owners to replace the battery by themselves.
• iPhone software development kit is proprietary to a fault so much that third parties will not be able to develop software to run on an iPhone.
• There is no USB connectivity.
• There is no GPS.
• And you can't switch carriers.
  

Here is another interesting thing... you can charge the Neo1973 phone by merely connecting it to the USB port of your PC and you can browse the internet using the phone as a modem more specifically using its GPRS data connection. And it has GSM multiplexing capabilities provided via a custom patch to the Linux kernel (2.6.18) which means you can browse the net and at the same time receive a call too.

p-Commands page

The long-promised P-Commands page has been posted.

--Scott

Updated Presentation and Lecture Notes

I updated the Impress presentation and lecture notes documents and moved them to the Troubleshooting Essentials share.

--Scott

August SysAdmin

The August SysAdmin has an article based on the Troubleshooting Methodology page.

--Scott

Slackware 12.0 released

So after nearly a year since Slackware 11.0 was released, Patrick Volkerding has finally deemed it fit to release the next major version of this very popular Linux distribution namely Slackware 12.0. I have always been a Slackware fan and I especially liked its BSD style ways of maintaining the scripts which made configuring Slackware really simple once you get the hang of it.

Some of the new features of Slackware 12.0 are as follows :

• Use of Linux kernel 2.6.21.5 which is patched with Speakup to support speech synthesizers providing access to Linux for the visually impaired community.
• X11 7.2.0
• Support for fully encrypted network connections with OpenSSL,OpenSSH, OpenVPN, and GnuPG.
• udev dynamic device management system for Linux 2.6.x. This means Slackware now can automatically mount a USB stick as you insert it.
• New development tools for a wide variety of programming languages.
• Latest versions of different web browsers - the list includes Sea Monkey, Konqueror, Firefox 2.0.0.4, and thunderbird email client.
• KDE 3.5.7 - This is no surprise as Slackware is essentially a KDE centric Linux distribution.
• A number of GTK+ programs such as pidgin Instant Messenger, Gimp, Pan news reader and so on.
• Sun's Java runtime environment (JRE ver 6.0)
  

One thing I really wish to see included in Slackware and which has not (to my knowledge) been included in version 12.0 is a Personal Finance software such as GnuCash or KMyMoney. I personally would root for GNUCash as it is what I find most useful. And if Gimp, which is a GTK+ application can be included, it fails me why GNUCash couldn't be included too. But those are my inner ramblings.

And apart from that I find Slackware 12.0 to be a very robust, secure and user friendly Linux distribution. You can read the official announcement as well as check out the full package list to take a closer look at the packages that are included in Slackware 12.0. The preferred method of downloading Slackware is via torrents and a list of torrents for CD sized ISOs and DVD ISOs has been made available here.

15 extra ways to keep your brain healthy

As kids, each one of us were endowed with bountiful energy and we were raring to go and do things. Some of them which could have put us into trouble at one time or the other. But as we grow older, and reach our 30's, our high energy levels taper and hit a plateau and then from there by the time we hit 40's and 50's it is a steady decline....

... Unless we do something about it. Ririan a student in Bucharest, Romania has put together an article explaining simple ways by which you can maintain your level of brain activity and thus keep your brain healthy and save from deterioration. In short this is his list.

1. Take 20-30 minutes time off everyday to empty your mind.
2. Hit the streets - in one word exercise.
3. Vary your exercise routines - try out multiple exercises and mix it up.
4. Read a book - or a blog (Ps: You could make it a habit to daily read this blog for instance *wink* *wink*)
5. Occasionally consume some caffeine drink (Coffee ??)
6. Engage in a debate - Plain yakking will not do. It has to be serious thoughtful conversation.
7. Play video games - Playing video games will help develop stronger visual skills and make decisions 85% faster. Ps. Pacman is still my favourate. You can also find a lot of games in Linux.
8. Subscribe to a daily newsletter - You can find a box on the left side of this blog to enter your email and subscribe.
9. Eat Curry - More specifically Indian curry. Make sure it is not Chicken Tikka Masala (The national curry dish of Great Britain) ;-). It's anything but healthy.
10. Grab a cue and play pool - You could also play Chess which is sure to increase mental clarity.
11. Learn an instrument - Now that is beyond me. But I do love listening to people play a wide variety of instruments.
12. Eat lots of low fat dried fruits such as dates, apricots and so on.
13. Fresh air golf playing - Those who can't afford to play golf can also try croquet.
14. Less stressed with Yoga - This I like. Yoga is truly great to relieve stress.
15. Build a miniature model - Time to buy Lego...
    

Do read Ririan's article which explains these 15 ways of keeping ones brain in shape in more detail.

LinuxWorld conference and expo 2007 in United Kingdom

LinuxWorld expo is a Linux and Open Source conference and exhibition which is held in 12 countries and there are 15 shows (2 per year in the US, Japan, and in China; 1 each in Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Germany, UK, Italy and Netherlands). By conducting these expos, LinuxWorld facilitates the meeting of diverse businesses and individuals who are involved in Linux and Open Source and are appealing to a cross section of industries including automotive, health, banking, retail, education and local government.

LinuxWorld 2007 is tipped to set the latest trends in Open Source and Linux technologies. The show, which is expected to attract IT decision makers, business professionals and Linux enthusiasts, will showcase the latest technology, debate the use of Open Source in the desktop environment, touch on the use of Linux in the data centre and discuss the development of a common Linux-based platform for mobile phones. LinuxWorld Conference & Expo will take place at Olympia 2 for two days namely - 23rd - 24th October 2007.

Participation has already been confirmed by some of the largest players in the Open Source world including ThoughtWorks, Linux International and Mozilla.

This is what Laura Tythcott the even director, Early Action Group who is organizing the event has to say (and I quote):

Many industry watchers thought that the recent launch of Microsoft Vista would have challenged the ever-increasing update of Linux and Open Source within the enterprise. But that is not the case, many corporations who would have shied away from Linux and Open Source, now see it as a viable alternative to Vista as it requires less training and is just as easy to use.

He goes on to say ...

LinuxWorld 2007 is set to be the biggest and best UK show ever. It will showcase the latest Open Source technology and have experts on hand to help IT Managers and Directors make the best choices when purchasing and deploying Open Source software.

So if you happen to live in U.K and more specifically near London then don't miss this chance to visit the LinuxWorld expo. The visit timings are as follows :

Tuesday 23 October 2007 - 10:00-17:00 (Timings)
Wednesday 24 October 2007 - 10:00-16:00
Location - Olympia 2, London, United Kingdom

The conference will also showcase free business briefing seminars, Masterclass and technical seminars. And you could also participate in The Great Linux Debate.

You can get more details at the LinuxWorld Expo website.

Building a bittorrent box

Ross explains how to setup a bittorrent box which remotely downloads the files and serves it to ones local machine. This quite exhaustive article explores how to do it using a combination of a headless PC (ie a computer without a monitor) running Ubuntu, OpenSSH (openssh-server), a vnc server (tightvnc-server) , a VPN client, Samba and of course a bittorrent client.

The bittorrent client he has used to download the files to his headless server from the internet is Azureus which is a java based client and so I suppose you also have to install Java runtime environment in Ubuntu.

He also explains how to setup autofs to configure the machine so that drives or partitions can be mounted on the fly by Ubuntu when you try to connect to that partition from your laptop or another machine on your network.

As to why he has written this tutorial, this is what he has to say (and I quote) ...

While most of our time on the Internet is spent IM’ing, e-mail, or just browsing the Web, you may run in to situations when you need to do some powerful file transfers. If you use a laptop, you’re use to getting up, suspending your laptop, and running out the door all of the time. But, sometimes you know you just need something dedicated to get work done. You’ll need a solution to retrieve files and serve data when you need it.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to set a small headless Ubuntu server used to retrieve BitTorrent files, while even saving them to a external USB hard drive that can be disconnected on the go. You even discover how to remotely administer your server from the Web using SSH, VNC, and an inuitive HTML UI, while being able to retrieve files while you’re away from home.

This tutorial takes for granted you have a spare computer laying around. Building a computer is out of the scope of this article.

Do read this very informative article written by Ross to understand how to build a bittorrent box.