sábado, 29 de septiembre de 2007

Snooker ball as a pseudo 3d object

I don’t really remeber when and where, but once I have read that GIMP isn’t suitable for pseudo 3D graphics. Nothing more fallible! I will try to prove it wrong.

(more...)

viernes, 28 de septiembre de 2007

Setting Up .screenrc

Messing with screen, making it work for you!

Software Freedom Law Center resolves BSD-GPL wireless code dispute

The Software Freedom Law Center, provider of pro bono legal services to protect and advance free and open-source software, announced on Sept. 27 that it has carefully reviewed the lineage of the open-source Atheros wireless driver for Linux and determined that portions of it can be distributed under the ISC license (also known as the two-clause BSD license).

What ordinarily might have been an issue barely worth noticing became a loud, public dispute in Linux and BSD circles. The conflict began when some Linux developers proposed on the Linux Kernel mailing list that some Atheros wireless device drivers -- some of which were already licensed under a dual-BSD/GPL license, while the rest were covered by a modified BSD license -- be re-licensed under a pure GPLv2 license.

(more...)

jueves, 27 de septiembre de 2007

Latest OS Version a Free Masterpiece?

Latest desktop BSD release is code-named da Vinci, but will it advance BSD into the desktop mainstream?

Introduction to Backups with Rsync

Rsync can be used to copy files and full paths from one place to another while preserving permissions and ownerships. For this reason, Rsync is my preferred backup tool. Although all Linux distributions come with countless tools to copy, move and transfer data bits, Rsync is your one stop shop for secure data backup and synchronization. I'll outline some key, introductory features below.

(more...)

miércoles, 26 de septiembre de 2007

Top 10 Ways to Put Your Remote Server to Good Use

An always-on server can come in all kinds of handy for running automated tasks, syncing your data, remote controlling downloads and acting as a proxy.

Check out our top 10 ways to put your remote server to best use.

Linux Load Balancing Cluster

Linux Load Balancing Cluster HowTo is a document that describes how you can create a failover cluster of Linux machines that acts as a load balancing mechanism between the real network and groups of other machines (real servers).

This setup will help someone to achieve high availability in many services plus the ability and flexibility to add / remove servers when needed.

The Perfect Server - Gentoo 2007.0

This tutorial shows how to set up a Gentoo 2007.0 based server that offers all services needed by ISPs and hosters: Apache web server (SSL-capable), Postfix mail server with SMTP-AUTH and TLS, BIND DNS server, Proftpd FTP server, MySQL server, Courier POP3/IMAP, Quota, Firewall, etc. This tutorial is written for the x86 version of Gentoo 2007.0, but should apply to other architectures with very little modification.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY OPENSSH!

Eight years ago today, Sept 26 1999, Theo de Raadt committed the initial source code for OpenSSH to the OpenBSD repository. The code was a fork of Björn Grönvall's OSSH, which was derived from an early version of the increasingly "less free" ssh from Tatu Ylönen. With only two months until the 2.6 release, the team moved quickly to remove code covered by restrictive licenses, push patent encumbered features to external libraries, and add important features such as 1.5 protocol support.

(more...)

martes, 25 de septiembre de 2007

Firefox 3 Antiphishing Sends Your URLs To Google

As we were discussing, Gran Paradiso — the latest version of Firefox — is nearing release. Gran Paradiso includes a form of malware protection that checks every URL against a known list of sites. It does so by sending each URL to Google.

(more...)

lunes, 24 de septiembre de 2007

Setting up a Soekris 5501 with OpenBSD 4.2

I recently purchased a new Soekris net5501 to replace my beige box firewall. I had previously set up a net4501 but I wasn't happy with it and sold it to a friend. Large file transfers would grind it to a halt and the performance wasn't as good as my beige box. The net5501 has increased horsepower (faster processor, more memory) and a better network chipset (vr(4)). And, most of all, because there are 4 network ports! At my house I have 3 network + my FiOS connection. I have my internal LAN (wired with full access to everything), my wireless network (requires authentication and has limited access to the LAN) and my DMZ (for my web server; no access to the LAN or wireless networks).

For my installation, I use Yaifo so I don't have to deal with a serial console or setting up pxeboot. (I actually did hook up a serial console to update the bios, which I'll discuss later). Also, I use a custom rc and a flashdist-like system so I can mount my CF read-only. My "fdlite" script doesn't rely on a customized install like flashdist. It does use some of the device modifications Chris uses to make the read-only / work properly, though.

(more...)

PC-BSD 1.4 Released

The PC-BSD team is pleased to announce the availability of PC-BSD 1.4 (da Vinci edition)! This release is made available via the efforts of many developers and testers, who have spent the past months refining and improving upon the core PC-BSD experience.

This release of PC-BSD includes several notable highlights, including:

* Moving the FreeBSD base version to 6-STABLE
* Xorg 7.2
* KDE 3.5.7
* Compiz-Fusion 0.5.2
* Support for Flash7 in native BSD browsers. (Konq, Opera, FireFox)
* Official NVIDIA drivers to simplify activating Hardware acceleration.

(more...)

domingo, 23 de septiembre de 2007

New Firefox 3.0 alpha blocks malware, secures plug-in updates

Among the security provisions debuting in the new alpha of "Gran Paradiso," the code name for Firefox 3.0, are built-in anti-malware warnings and protection against rogue extension updates, according to documentation Mozilla posted to its Web site.

The malware blocker, which was first mocked up in June, will block Web sites thought to contain malicious downloads. The feature, a companion to the phishing site alert system in the current Firefox 2.0, will use information provided by Google Inc. to flag potentially-dangerous sites, warn anyone trying to reach those URLs with Firefox and automatically block access to the site.

(more...)

Coming Soon: Automatic Linux driver Upgrades

Linux users want two things for their hardware: drivers; and easy access to those drivers. The first is finally happening; and now, thanks to a Dell Linux project called DKMS (Dynamic Kernel Module Support), the other is on its way.

(more...)

FreeBSD 6.2 + KDE 3.5.7 + Xorg 7.3 (From Scratch)

Aburrido del apt-get/aptitude de Debian y de los famosos repositorios, decidí instalar mi propio escritorio con FreeBSD y eliminar la falsa creencia que los BSD no son para escritorio.

A continuación explicaré como realicé la instalación de kde 3.5.7 y Xorg 7.3 desde cero.

Pasos:

1) Instalar FreeBSD 6.2. (Instalación Minima)
2) Actualizar el árbol de Ports.
3) mkdir /usr/X11R6
4) sh /usr/ports/Tools/scripts/mergebase.sh
5) cd /usr/ports/x11/xorg/ && make install clean
6) cd /usr/ports/x11/kdebase3/ && make install clean
7) cd /usr/ports/misc/kde3-i18n-es/ && make install clean
8) Crear el archivo /etc/X11/xorg.conf.

Con los pasos anteriores ya se tendrá una instalación básica de kde con la ultima versión de Xorg.

Si se desea comenzar a usar kde con el comando 'startx', se debe ejecutar el siguiente comando:

echo "exec startkde" >> ~/.xinitrc

si se desea comenzar kde a través de kdm se debe editar /etc/ttys y reemplazar la linea:

ttyv8 "/usr/X11R6/bin/xdm -nodaemon" xterm off secure

por:

ttyv8 "/usr/local/bin/kdm -nodaemon" xterm on secure


Todo esto, además de otros paquetes instalados (gimp, amsn, firefox, xmms, etc), me instaló aproximadamente 350 ports. Se debe tener en cuenta que Xorg por si solo instala aproximadamente unos 250 ports (bastante livianos muchos de ellos).

Por último, debo decir que estas instalaciones se hicieron en un pentium 4 a 1.70GHz y en una slice de 13GB. EL proceso completo tomó aproximadamente 16 horas.



Espero les sea de utilidad.

sábado, 22 de septiembre de 2007

Zero-day Exploit in PDF With Adobe Reader

Security researcher Petko Petkov, who is known for his recent discovery of a vulnerability with Quicktime in Firefox, claims to have discovered an exploit that allows arbitrary code execution when a maliciously crafted PDF document is opened in any version of Adobe Reader.

(more...)

Microsoft to Allow PC Makers to Downgrade to XP

mytrip pointed out a News.com story about a new Microsoft program to allow PC makers to downgrade from Vista to XP if they so choose. They're still pushing the new version of Windows very hard, but the option now exists for PC resellers to offer the now venerable OS.

(more...)

Less Than 2 Percent of UK Companies Have Upgraded Windows

Computer Business Review is reporting that less than 2% of UK-based firms have already upgraded all their desktops to Windows Vista. Just shy of 5% said that they have begun a Windows Vista desktop upgrade program. 6.5% said they will upgrade in the next 6 months; 12.6% in the next 12 months; 13% in the next 18 months; and 18% in the next two years. That means that within two years from now, only 56% of survey respondents say they will have upgraded their firm's desktops to Windows Vista.

(more...)

viernes, 21 de septiembre de 2007

Got more than a gig of RAM and 32-bit Linux?

Nowadays, many machines are running with 2-4 gigabytes of RAM, and their owners are discovering a problem: When they run 32-bit GNU/Linux distributions, their extra RAM is not being used. Fortunately, correcting the problem is only a matter of installing or building a kernel with a few specific parameters enabled or disabled.

The problem exists because 32-bit Linux kernels are designed to access only 1GB of RAM by default. The workaround for this limitation is vaguely reminiscent of the virtual memory solution once used by DOS, with a high memory area of virtual memory being constantly mapped to physical addresses. This high memory can be enabled for up to 4GB by one kernel parameter, or up to 64GB on a Pentium Pro or higher processor with another parameter. However, since these parameters have not been needed on most machines until recently, the standard kernels in many distributions have not enabled them.

Increasingly, many distributions are enabling high memory for 4GB. Ubuntu default kernels have been enabling this process at least since version 6.10, and so have Fedora 7's. By contrast, Debian's default 486 kernels do not. Few distros, if any, enable 64GB by default.

(more...)

jueves, 20 de septiembre de 2007

Updates from FreeBSD

FreeBSD mentored 25 students this year, achieving a fantastic final success rate of 92%. Murray Stokely, one of their organization administrators, has written a more detailed summary of FreeBSD's 2007 Summer of Code experience, but here are a few highlights.

miércoles, 19 de septiembre de 2007

GNOME 2.20 Released

GNOME 2.20 has been officially released. There are a number of enhancements and improvements to things such as power management, Evince (the GNOME document view), Totem (the video player), and note-taking application Tomboy. There are also some changes to GNOME's configuration utilities with an eye towards streamlining them.

(more...)

FreeBSD: Another successful Summer of Code

Congratulations to the successful students and their FreeBSD Project mentors for participating in another productive Google Summer of Code. This program encourages students to contribute to an open source project over the summer break with generous funding from Google. We have had a total of over 50 successful students working on FreeBSD as part of this program in 2005, 2006, and 2007. These student projects included security research, improved installation tools, filesystems work, new utilities, and more. Many of the students have continued working on their FreeBSD projects even after the official close of the program. We have gained many new FreeBSD committers from previous summer of code projects already, and more are in the process.

(more...)

Setup a DNS server with bind

After looking on Ubuntu forum for an easy step-by-step howto for instaling a DNS server, I decided the best idea would probably be to write this howto myself.... So, here it is!

What to do if Linux refuses to boot after a power failure?

here are a few things that you can try to get Linux back on track..

Hoist your applications with petardfs

The petard filesystem is designed to produce only errors -- but you can stipulate what conditions generate the errors and what those errors should be. That makes petardfs useful for system and unit testing -- for example, making sure that an application gives a sane error message if it fails to open a file, or if there is a read error at byte 5000 of a file.

(more...)

USB 3 in 2008, 10 Times as Fast

"Intel and others plan to release a new version of the ubiquitous Universal Serial Bus technology in the first half of 2008, a revamp the chipmaker said will make data transfer rates more than 10 times as fast by adding fiber-optic links alongside the traditional copper wires."

(more...)

Firefox 2.0.0.7 now available

Firefox 2.0.0.7 was released this afternoon (18 September) to patch the QuickTime issue. This will protect Firefox users from the public critical security vulnerability until a patch is available from Apple. I would like to personally thank the individuals at Apple who worked with us and the engineers at Mozilla that work so hard to get security updates out so quickly.

(more...)

lunes, 17 de septiembre de 2007

Installing Vista Fonts in Ubuntu

Microsoft’s new ClearType fonts for Vista are great. The fonts include Constantia, Corbel, Calibri, Cambria, Candara and Consolas.

Getting them installed in Ubuntu is a breeze, thanks to a script I found. To install the Vista ClearType fonts in Ubuntu, you need to install cabextract first...

The Open Source Challenge. How to replace Windows completely with Ubuntu

"In the first of this multi-part series we send in Ashton Mills to take on the challenge of using nothing but Linux and open source software... for absolutely everything. Will he find nirvana in the process, or lose all his hair in frustration?" Follow him in and find out.

Linux or UNIX password protect files

using mcrypt or openssl commands.

What Kind of Memory Does My Computer Have Installed?

If you are looking to upgrade the memory in your computer, you are probably wondering how many open slots you have, what type of memory is already installed, and what you need to buy for an upgrade… without having to open your computer.

Since you shouldn't have to open up the computer just to figure out what you have installed, here's a couple of options for detecting the type of memory already installed in your system.

domingo, 16 de septiembre de 2007

Defend your network from idle scanning

Black hats employ several stealth scanning techniques, and one of those threats is the idle scan. Find out more about idle scanning, and learn best practices for protecting your network from this threat.

(more...)

Xen Cluster Management With Ganeti On Debian Etch

Ganeti is a cluster virtualization management system based on Xen. In this tutorial I will explain how to create one virtual Xen machine (called an instance) on a cluster of two physical nodes, and how to manage and failover this instance between the two physical nodes.

(more...)

Tor Anonymity Server Admin Arrested

In a recent blog posting, a German operator of a Tor anonymous proxy server revealed that he was arrested by German police officers at the end of July. Although he was released shortly afterwards, information about the arrest had been kept quiet until his lawyers were able to get the charges dropped.

(more...)

Changing distribution remotely

How to completely change your distribution on a remote box without a boot disk, with only ssh access, using only one partition, and with only one reboot at the very end of the conversion process.

(more...)

PC-BSD revisited

My first "conscious" open source Operating System experience was with FreeBSD. For this reason it is with great excitement that I "take the plunge" check out the latest progress of the PCBSD project. Recently, I have become a big fan of both Ubuntu Linux and her cousin Xubuntu Linux. Ease of use and a default installation that includes many of my favourite software applications have made Ubuntu Linux an integral part of my LAN. In the same way that Ubuntu is a GNOME X-Windows graphical user interface (GUI) to Debian Linux ...PCBSD defaults as a KDE X-Windows GUI for FreeBSD. The default PC-BSD installation includes KDE as a Window Manager and the PBI installer.

(more...)

BSD-Licensed C Compiler Added to NetBSD, OpenBSD

Anders Magnusson's BSD-licensed pcc compiler has been imported into NetBSD's pkgsrc and OpenBSD's src tree.

(more...)

Top 10 little-known Gmail features Parts 1, 2

Gmail has a bunch of lesser-known feature that can end up being very useful once you get to know them. I've put together a list of my top 10 favorite features that you may or may not be familiar with.

Part 1
Part 2

How to Installing OpenOffice.org 2.3 on Ubuntu Linux

The official OpenOffice.org 2.3 have not yet been released. But it have already availabled for download. Perhaps you might want to try this release. So, this tutorial shows how you can install OpenOffice.org 2.3 on Ubuntu Linux.

sábado, 15 de septiembre de 2007

introduction to awk

Awk may sound funny but actually it is an extremely powerful command line tool. Awk or variations of awk (gawk, nawk) can be found on most modern linux & unix distrobutions by default. Awk can be used as a programming language which can nearly turn text files into something more like a database. I am not going to elaborate that extensively on the awk programming language. This article will be addressing many uses for the awk command. Hopefully by the end of this article you will be confident using awk in your day to day command line adventures.I use the awk command for all kinds of things such as trimming down output, restructuring output, & mathmatical computations.

OpenOffice.org 2.3.0 Quietly Released

The official release of OpenOffice.org 2.3.0 is scheduled for Monday, September 17, but it is available already. OpenOffice.org 2.3.0 introduces a number of new features and changes for all OpenOffice.org components. There is a new charting wizard, the ability to create Wiki pages using a new Filter in the OpenOffice.org Writer, and performance improvements are among the many changes found in the OpenOffice.org 2.3 branch.

(more...)

viernes, 14 de septiembre de 2007

Digital security with GnuPG plugins

The GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG) allows you to encrypt, decrypt, sign, and verify communications and data, as well as create and manage the keys needed for these tasks. It is a full, open source implementation of the OpenPGP Standard (RFC2440) and is integrated into many Linux applications ranging from clipboard applets to instant messaging clients. These applications make it easy to use GnuPG for digital security in the GNOME desktop environment.

The applications we introduce in this article use GnuPG almost transparently, and you can get by without knowing too much about encryption or digital security.

Beating Sandvine on Linux with iptables

If you are tired of Sandvine screwing with your BitTorrent and a user of GNU/Linux, then this is for you. I will tell you how to take your bandwidth back.

Monitoring Network Latency With Smokeping

This guide shows how to install and configure Smokeping on Debian Etch to monitor network latency. From the Smokeping web site: "SmokePing is a deluxe latency measurement tool. It can measure, store and display latency, latency distribution and packet loss. SmokePing uses RRDtool to maintain a longterm data-store and to draw pretty graphs, giving up to the minute information on the state of each network connection."

How to install and boot 145 operating systems in a PC

The 145 systems are:

3 Dos
5 Windows
137 Linux

I have also installed most of the PC-based BSD and Solaris together with a Darwin x86 too but these systems dislike to co-exist with a large number of other systems so I have to keep them off in another PC until I find a way to tackle the technical issues.

There are only 3 steps in this howto.

NetBSD: Three new security advisories

Three new security advisories were published.

jueves, 13 de septiembre de 2007

OpenBSD: Mergemaster Tutorial

OpenBSD 4.2 is scheduled for release on November 1 and systems running releases prior to 4.2 should be upgraded. Mergemaster is a tool in ports included that minimizes upgrade headaches by merging system configuration files from OpenBSD 4.1 with the new 4.2 /etc and /var files.

Upgrade steps:

1. Buy a CD (EU link).

2. Backup the 4.1 system.

3. Upgrade the system using the "Upgrading a previously-installed OpenBSD System" section of INSTALL.$ARCH in the /4.2/$ARCH directory of the installation CD.

4. Upgrade installed packages with: pkg_add -ui -F update -F updatedepends

5. Use mergemaster (details below).

Use a Screensaver as Desktop Wallpaper

You can embed a screensaver as the destop background with two terminal commands. Tech blogger Prashanth Ellina demonstrates how you can create a "video wallpaper" by temporarily removing the nautilus desktop and replacing it with an xscreensaver. An embedded screensaver is light on memory usage, but won't play nice with Compiz Fusion.

(more...)

miércoles, 12 de septiembre de 2007

Anonymous browsing with JAP

When it comes to anonymous Web access, Tor is not the only fish in the sea. If you are looking for a lightweight utility that allows you to navigate the Web anonymously, JAP is more user-friendly.

Similar to Tor, JAP sends a user's Web page request through multiple intermediary servers called mixes. Unlike Tor, however, JAP uses a predetermined sequence of mixes called a mix cascade. According to JAP's documentation, because each mix cascade handles multiple connections, it's virtually impossible to trace a particular connection to its user.

(more...)

New OpenVZ for Linux 2.6.22 includes live migration

The team behind the OpenVZ project will announce today the availability of its operating system virtualization software for the latest stable release of the Linux kernel. OpenVZ for Linux 2.6.22 now supports user ID namespaces for improved security, and has new process ID namespace code that makes live migration possible.

(more...)

Implementing quotas to restrict disk space usage

If you manage a system that's accessed by multiple users, you might have a user who hogs the disk space. Using disk quotas you can limit the amount of space available to each user. It's fairly easy to set up quotas, and once you are done you will be able to control the number of inodes and blocks owned by any user or group.

(more...)

Will GPLv3 Drive Users from Linux to FreeBSD?

Last week ZDNet put up an article asking a simple question: will GPL3 drive Linux users to FreeBSD? It's based on issues raised in the August FreeBSD Foundation Newsletter. That publication features a letter by the vice president of the FreeBSD Foundation, Justin Gibbs, arguing that the GPLv3 restricts the rights of commercial users of open source software, and is just the FSF's first step in changing the GPL in ways that authors of GPL software may not have intended.

(more...)

martes, 11 de septiembre de 2007

Keep your laptop and PC in Unison

I usually carry my laptop everywhere and do work on it, but I do also need to work at my desktop PC, so I need to synchronize the files on the two machines. I have used several sync tools in the past, ranging from simple commands like scp and rsync to utilities like Krusader, which includes a way to synchronize directories on different machines. Recently I started using Unison.

How Virtual Private Networks Work

The world has changed a lot in the last couple of decades. Instead of simply dealing with local or regional concerns, many businesses now have to think about global markets and logistics. Many companies have facilities spread out across the country or around the world, and there is one thing that all of them need: A way to maintain fast, secure and reliable communications wherever their offices are.

Until fairly recently, this has meant the use of leased lines to maintain a wide area network (WAN). Leased lines, ranging from ISDN (integrated services digital network, 128 Kbps) to OC3 (Optical Carrier-3, 155 Mbps) fiber, provided a company with a way to expand its private network beyond its immediate geographic area. A WAN had obvious advantages over a public network like the Internet when it came to reliability, performance and security. But maintaining a WAN, particularly when using leased lines, can become quite expensive and often rises in cost as the distance between the offices increases.

As the popularity of the Internet grew, businesses turned to it as a means of extending their own networks. First came intranets, which are password-protected sites designed for use only by company employees. Now, many companies are creating their own VPN (virtual private network) to accommodate the needs of remote employees and distant offices.

(more...)

Secrets of the man command

The most referenced and most often used command on any Linux distribution is man, which lets users read the manual pages of other commands. Here are a couple of less well-known but useful commands that let you bookmark a position within a man page, and test a command you read from the man page without closing the page.

lunes, 10 de septiembre de 2007

Creating multiple jails

Jails are useful tool for achieving a certain level of virtualization. I have used jails in the past for creating sandboxes for testing of the Bacula project. Today, I will be setting up 7 jails, each for regression tests on different configurations. In the process, I'll show you some shortcuts that Ryan Lortie (desrt) told me about. It saves time. I'll also share some scripts that will help with the setup of various jail items.

This article should be read in conjunction with my other jail articles. It won't stand alone unless you are already familiar with jails and how to configure them.

Some FreeBSD pkg_add Magic

In a recent comment a reader asked how he could install xorg 7.2 instead of xorg 6.9 on his FreeBSD 6.2 system. Normally pkg_add would do this, but xorg was updated to 7.2 after the release of FreeBSD 6.2, so the default behaviour is to install the version of xorg (6.9) which matches the release of the operating system. The answer is easy, but a bit of background information is useful.

Backup with Rsync under Linux

UNLESS YOU'VE GOT a couple of mirrored hard drives to ensure that a disk failure won't send all of your precious data to that great bit-bucket in the sky, you need to backup your data.

Surely some of your data is very important to you, whether it's email, school or work papers, professional records and works in progress, financial and tax records, photos, music or films, whatever. For me, it's about 10 years of professional output plus email and some digital photos and music. I'd hate to lose all of that, so I make sure that I back up all my data regularly.

If you're like most of us, you might have a CD or DVD burner in your system, and that's fine for periodic backups. But how often do you remember to do that, burn a backup CD or DVD? Once a month? Once every six months? Maybe once a year, if you're lucky? It's better to have an automatic backup process.

If you run Windows, you can buy backup programs to copy all your data to a second hard disk, an external hard disk or even tape. All you need is the money to buy the software plus the storage media. So if you run Windows, there are commercial data backup resources available to you, and good luck to you.

Commercial backup software is available for Linux as well, but unless you're running a data center for a business those are likely more, and more expensive, than you really need. If you run Linux, you're fortunate because Linux includes system features and utilities that make it easy to automate backups. Here I'll show how to set up a daily backup to a second hard disk.

sábado, 8 de septiembre de 2007

X.org releases version 7.3, gets hotplugging support

X.org is the underlying graphical workhorse that powers pretty much every desktop installation on Linux and Unix operating systems. Today marked the mildly delayed new release of X.org version 7.3, which corresponds to server version 1.4. The X.org community has been working out the last of the bugs since their code-base became semi-frozen on August 1st (which they refer to as "Code Slush") and are now confident that the release will be worth the wait. The so-called killer feature of this version of X is the new support for hotplugging of input devices (such as keyboard, mice, touchscreens) as well as output devices (monitors, projectors, and so forth).

(more...)

DragonflyBSD: Upgrading a 1.8 system to the latest openssl (0.9.8e)

This message is just an FYI to the users out there still running 1.8 who want to upgrade to the latest openssl. Here's a sequence of commands that will do it, unoptimized, and there's probably a more efficient way. This is what I've done that works.

viernes, 7 de septiembre de 2007

Opera 9.5 Beats Firefox and IE7 As Fastest Browser

Ars Technica takes Opera 9.5, the latest from Opera's stable, for a test run and finds some interesting results, including it being a 'solid improvement to an already very strong browser.' On the performance front, Ars Technica reports 'Opera 9.5 scored slightly higher (281ms) than the previous released version, 9.23 (546ms).

(more...)

Netgear KWGR614: el router wireless Open Source

El router wireless KWGR614 muestra del compromiso de Netgear con la comunidad de Software Libre: está diseñado para que desarrolladores y aficionados a la programación en Linux puedan modificar las características internas y personalizar el router a su gusto. Por ejemplo, podrán crear un interfaz de consola, desarrollar aplicaciones o añadir parámetros y crear nuevas funciones para ellos.

(más...)

EasyBCD 1.7 Released

EasyBCD is NeoSmart Technologies' multiple award-winning answer to tweaking the new Windows Vista bootloader. With EasyBCD, almost anything is possible. Setting up and configuring Windows boot entries is simple, and there is no easier way to quickly boot right into Linux, Mac OS X, or BSD straight from the Windows Vista bootloader - on the fly, no expert knowledge needed!

X.Org 7.3 Released

Features

* Xorg server 1.4 - see Server14Branch for more details.

* New applications: xbacklight

* New drivers: xf86-video-glide, xf86-video-vermilion

* New man pages for API's: libXinerama, libXcomposite, XKB functions in libX11, Xtest functions in libXtst

* Support for font catalogue directories in font path

* xdm: Xft support added

(more...)

Flash on OpenBSD

The OpenBSD ports tree currently contains 3 ports specifically geared toward viewing flash content. These are:

* www/operaflashplugin - the full-blown official player from Adobe;

* net/yt - an app that will download youtube videos and convert them to more manageable formats;

* www/gnash - a standalone flash player and browser plugin.

In this tutorial I will provide information about and recommendations on when to use each.

OpenBSD 4.2 available for pre-order

Pre-orders are now being accepted for OpenBSD 4.2, which is scheduled for release on November 1st.

jueves, 6 de septiembre de 2007

OpenSSH 4.7 released

OpenSSH 4.7 has just been released. It will be available from the mirrors listed at http://www.openssh.com/ shortly.

OpenSSH is a 100% complete SSH protocol version 1.3, 1.5 and 2.0 implementation and includes sftp client and server support.

Once again, we would like to thank the OpenSSH community for their continued support of the project, especially those who contributed code or patches, reported bugs, tested snapshots and purchased T-shirts or posters.

(more...)

Create your own screencast

A screencast is an embeded flash video of your desktop, often used in tutorials instead of screenshots. I wondered if I could make these online flash videos myself; turns out, it's pretty easy! So in this article I will cover how to install the video capturing tool, how to use it, how to convert the video to a flash video (flv) file, and finally how to embed a flash player in your site just like YouTube. Create your own screencasts in 5 easy steps!

Monitor your servers with SNMP and Cacti

SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) is a protocol for managing networks. Each managed entity in the network will run an snmp server (snmpd) which is going to collect datas from the server such as networking, load, cpu ...

Cacti on the other hand is a frontend to the RRDTool with SNMP support. It collects and keep data in a MySQL database and display them through a PHP web frontend.

This tutorial will show how to configure the network manager to use Cacti and how to set up snmp on the managed host.

Monitor network traffic with ntop

Like the command-line tool with a similar name, ntop is a monitoring agent. Instead of monitoring system resource usage like top, ntop monitors network usage and provides some very sophisticated and informative data.

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Copy and Paste your Entire Hard Drive with Two Clicks with GParted

Using the GParted live CD you can copy and paste an entire hard drive with just two button clicks.

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BIND 8 EOL: OpenBSD Makes It Easy

SC announced End of Life status for BIND 8 on 27 August, 2007. While most OpenBSD users will not find this news noteworthy, there are undoubtedly many users who may work for organizations that are running BIND 8 in their environment. End of life status for this critical application should result in immediate consideration by those running it to investigate upgrade paths to BIND 9. This should provide an extremely easy opportunity for presenting OpenBSD as a platform to migrate to for hosting new BIND 9 rollouts.

miércoles, 5 de septiembre de 2007

Optimize BitTorrent To Outwit Traffic Shaping ISPs

These days, nothing worries an internet service provider more than peer-to-peer file trading. Depending on where you live, P2P can account for between 50 and 75% of broadband internet traffic. We mostly have the popularity of BitTorrent to thank for this crazy amount of data going to and fro.

This amount of traffic can raise the ISPs daily costs of delivering service, cause congestion either in your neighborhood or on the ISP's network, and force the ISP to buy increased bandwidth capacity.

But if you've been paying close attention to your BitTorrent transfers lately (or if you've simply been reading the news) you'll notice that ISPs have begun to take drastic measures to slow that flood of data currently clogging up their pipes.

Even though many of them deny it, most ISPs actively engage in traffic shaping, bandwidth throttling, connection denial or some such tactic to keep the amount of bandwidth consumed by high traffic applications on their networks to a minimum. While this does often ensure better performance for everyone in the neighborhood, it can mean painfully slow transfer speeds for those dabbling in P2P -- legit or not.

While there are valid arguments for and against shaping, we're not here to debate. We just want the fastest BitTorrent transfers possible.

martes, 4 de septiembre de 2007

NetBSD 4.0 RC1 available for download

Subject: NetBSD 4.0 Release Candidate 1 available for download
To: None
From: Liam Foy
List: netbsd-announce
Date: 09/04/2007 10:35:37

Hello,

On behalf of the NetBSD Release Engineering Team, it is my pleasure to announce that the first release candidate for NetBSD 4.0 has been released.

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Downtime, What’s That?

An article in the Processor Magazine discusses using FreeBSD or OpenBSD as part of a strategy to increase server uptime.

lunes, 3 de septiembre de 2007

A Preview of Opera 9.5

Opera 9.5 Alpha is scheduled to be released tomorrow, and CyberNet has a review of the browser's new features based on preview code. Some of the most prominent new options include a full history search, bookmark and Speed Dial syncing, and an 'Open with' menu option to pull up a website in another browser that's installed on your PC. 'This is one of those things that I had said Opera needs to work on the most. By this point, most Firefox users have grown accustomed to keeping their bookmarks synchronized with an online service. Now Opera users will have the same pleasure! All you need is a free My Opera account, and you'll be able to privately synchronize your bookmarks, Speed Dial sites, and Personal Bar with their server.

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PC-BSD 1.4RC now available!

After a month of refinement, the PC-BSD team is pleased to make available the 1.4RC release. This update addresses many of the reported bugs from 1.4BETA, as well as adding working i18n support for international languages. PC-BSD 1.4RC can be downloaded via our mirrors or via Torrent on the 1.4 download page.

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OpenBSD: New Installation ISO Files in 4.2

If you've downloaded a fairly recent snapshot, you may have noticed a new file in the directory: install42.iso. This file is available for alpha, amd64, hppa, i386, macppc, sparc and sparc64 and it includes everything needed to install the OpenBSD 4.2 base system.

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OpenBSD: New Hardware Support in 4.2

Every release, there is support added for more and more hardware. This release is no different. Among support added, we have 10G network drivers, Serial ATA controllers, bluetooth and various drivers for hppa, sparc64, macppc and zaurus. Read on for details about the new drivers.

domingo, 2 de septiembre de 2007

How to access blocked websites - Top 10

Before you try out any of the methods listed here, I suggest you install Firefox browser. For faster and smoother internet access, Firefox is the best browser available out there. When you are accessing proxy sites or similar sites ensure that you use Firefox not Internet Explorer.

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Nmap from an Ethical Hacker's View Part 1

What, another Nmap tutorial? Yes that's true, but I am hoping to approach it a little differently than what I have seen available. I want to describe Nmap from the viewpoint of a hacker and at the same time give a clear, step-by-step method of attaining a good level of proficiency. After completing this 2 Part Series and having practiced the techniques described, one should not only be able to sit at a "roundtable" discussion with advanced security professionals and "hold their own" in a discussion concerning Nmap, but also utilize this great tool in their own network.

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sábado, 1 de septiembre de 2007

Entering Passwords Through Eye Movement

Ars Technica has a post up on a new service called EyePassword. EyePassword is a system that attempts to mitigate the issues of shoulder-surfing via a novel approach to user input: no hands required. With EyePassword, a user enters their password using an on-screen keyboard that detects the orientation of their pupils.

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Removing Backgrounds Quickly in the Gimp

After publishing an article about removing backgrounds quickly in Photoshop, many have asked me how to do the same thing with the Gimp. While there is no equivalent to the Extract filter in the Gimp, you can still remove backgrounds fairly quickly. At Linux.com there is a good explanation of some techniques. Here, I will show you how to do it with the Create and edit paths tool.

Send 2GB Files Easily with TransferBigFiles

Webapp TransferBigFiles sends huge files—up to 2GB—to any recipient at any time. This service, like previously mentioned offerings MailBigFile and YouSendIt, makes transfers easier without FTP or adhering to strict mail server storage requirements. Simply upload a file, send it to a recipient, and they'll get a download link where they can retrieve those files.

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Set Up PC-BSD v1.4 beta

This document describes how to set up PC-BSD v1.4 beta.