viernes, 30 de noviembre de 2007

FreeBSD 6.3-RC1 Available

The first of the Release Candidate builds for FreeBSD 6.3 is now available. There is one more Release Candidate planned, which will be followed by the release unless a major show-stopper issue crops up during testing.

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.NET 3.5 Language Enhancements

While Visual Studio 2008, the several variations of LINQ, and the ADO.NET Entity Framework are getting a lot of attention in the upcoming .NET Framework 3.5, there are also several key language enhancements on the near horizon. Many of the language enhancements (which will be found in VB 9 and C# 3.0) are the foundation of these more prominent new technologies.

This article is a primer for some of the key enhancements that will be introduced with the .NET Framework 3.5 and how they relate to each other.

Upgrade Your Hackintosh to OS X 10.5.1

A couple of weeks ago, I detailed how I built a Hackintosh Mac on the cheap from start to finish. The build benchmarked incredibly well, and I've been using it as my main PC every day since. A few days ago, I decided it was time to upgrade my Hackintosh to Mac OS X 10.5.1, the first update for Leopard. Here's how it works.

Hot Image Your PC's Hard Drive with DriveImage XML

You don't need a complicated boot CD or expensive software to create a restorable system disk image for your PC: free utility DriveImage XML can save a full, working snapshot of your Windows hard drive while you work on it. (That's hot.) When your PC crashes and burns or just slows down over time, the best insurance you can have is a mirror image of your operating system, complete with drivers, user settings, software applications, and documents in one place.

With DiskImage XML, imaging your PC's hard drive is a matter of a few clicks, no reboots required. Let's check it out.

BackTrack 3 Teaser Video

Most of you by now have heard of BackTrack, the highly popular and regarded Linux Security Distro for ethical hackers. Straight from the project's developers come this teaser video. With several examples of what the new version can do and a running time of 6:16, we hope to have you on the edge of your seat in anticipation.

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jueves, 29 de noviembre de 2007

martes, 27 de noviembre de 2007

Seven Different Linux/BSD Firewalls Reviewed

Did you know more than 500 million computers in the United States have been disposed of in the last 10 years?

That’s approximately 2 computers per person! One of the best ways to re-purpose an old computer is to install a Linux or FreeBSD firewall distribution, and use it to run your personal, home office, or small office network is one way to keep “obsolete” technology from ever reaching a landfill.

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Using GPG with Gmail to Become an Ubuntero

Encrypting and signing email has its advantages. Linux has one of the best digital encrypter/signer. It's called GPG (Gnu Privacy Guard) and is solely text based, though like apt-get, there are front-ends which aren't entirely necessary (including SeaHorse). GPG can be used to encrypt files, emails, and text. It can also be used to sign documents, that is to show that the email, document, file, or whatever did actually originate from yourself and was not tampered with before the recipient received it. How does that sound?

More Evidence That XP is Vista's Main Competitor

"Computerworld is reporting that Windows XP Service Pack 3 runs MS Office 10% faster than XP SP2 — and is 'considerably faster' than Vista SP1."

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New NetBSD Core Team announced

After more than 2 years work in the NetBSD core team, Valeriy Ushakov (uwe@NetBSD.org) has decided that he would like to devote more time to other areas within the NetBSD project. Valeriy remains as port-hpcsh maintainer, and my resident guru on English literature. I know this has been a difficult decision for Valeriy to make, but he would not be talked out of it. We would like to thank him profusely for all the time he has spent on core, and for all the excellent work he has done in guiding NetBSD over the last few years - it wouldn't be the same product without him.

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domingo, 25 de noviembre de 2007

A Linux User's Look at FreeBSD - Part 1 - Package Management

I've been using various Linux flavors for years, on my servers, desktops, and laptops, but they have usually been some sort of Gentoo- or Debian-based distribution, more recently settling with my current favorite, Ubuntu. However, I've also been using a special BSD-derived distribution for my router PC called pfSense. It's based on the rock-solid m0n0wall distribution, but it includes many more features, packages, and options, including the ability to set up an Atheros chipset WiFi card to act as a wireless access point. I've been very happy with pfSense, and it's been running fairly stable for the past six months, with only occasional reboots needed, more to fix problems from my cable modem than due to pfSense itself.

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viernes, 23 de noviembre de 2007

Create Slick DVD Menus with ManDVD

Give your home-brewed DVDs a polished finish with ManDVD, a free software package for GNOME and KDE-based systems. ManDVD may not have as many encoding and burning options as K3b, DeVeDe, or other Linux DVD creators, but the front ends it creates look a good deal nicer. Grab frames or clips to create menus and video buttons, add custom text and tweak the layout to your heart's content. If you want to give your holiday videos a nice front-end (and make them a bit less confusing) for your relatives, ManDVD could fit the bill nicely.

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DesktopBSD 1.6RC3 for AMD64 Released

DesktopBSD 1.6RC3 for AMD64 is now available for download via BitTorrent and from our mirror sites. It includes several improvements made since the release of 1.6RC3 for i386, including:

-- Better performance by disabling SMP on single core/processor computers

-- Fixed installation on disks with special partition names

-- Inclusion of the FreeBSD ports collection on the DVD

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martes, 20 de noviembre de 2007

Boost Your Wi-Fi Antenna for Less than a Dollar

"After taking apart a $30 "extender" Wi-Fi router antenna, one intrepid video blogger posted a guide to making the same thing with remarkably cheap stuff."

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First look at Firefox 3.0 Beta 1

I noticed that the Beta 1 for Firefox 3.0 was made available sometime yesterday. I’ve been curious as to whether the Firefox dev team would do a serious revamp for this release or just concentrate on bug fixes and performance improvements. Early indications seem to suggest that it is indeed a major revamp of both the core and the UI, and that Firefox will be a much better browser for it.

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Learn More about the ASP.NET 3.5 and Visual Studio 2008

ASP.NET 3.5 and Visual Studio 2008 bring great new functionality around Web development and design that makes building standards based, next generation Web sites easier than ever. From the inclusion of ASP.NET AJAX into the runtime, to new controls, the new LINQ data capabilities, to improved support for CSS, JavaScript and others, Web development has taken a significant step forward.

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Link to Specific Content in Gmail

Google has made their web-based email client Gmail more accessible in their recent update. Now, the URL on top will change with your actions – meaning that if you switch to a certain conversation thread, or you switch to a label, or you perform a search, you can then actually copy the address on top as a kind of permalink.

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Visual Studio 2008 and .NET 3.5 Released

Today we shipped Visual Studio 2008 and .NET 3.5. You can download the final release using one of the links below:

* If you are a MSDN subscriber, you can download your copy from the MSDN subscription site (note: some of the builds are just finishing being uploaded now - so check back later during the day if you don't see it yet).

* If you are a non-MSDN subscriber, you can download a 90-day free trial edition of Visual Studio 2008 Team Suite here. A 90-day trial edition of Visual Studio 2008 Professional (which will be a slightly smaller download) will be available next week. A 90-day free trial edition of Team Foundation Server can also be downloaded here.

* If you want to use the free Visual Studio 2008 Express editions (which are much smaller and totally free), you can download them here.

* If you want to just install the .NET Framework 3.5 runtime, you can download it here.

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Find files on your computer with find

A standard Linux system has an incredible amount of files installed. Looking for a file location can be a painful task to do though a file browser.

Fortunately, there is a nifty command line available by default on any Linux distribution: find.

Firefox 3 Beta 1 Now Available

Firefox 3, the next version of everyone's favorite cross-platform browser, has released a public beta for early adopters, web developers and other curious souls. New features include a Places Organizer for bookmarks and saved searches, a plug-in manager for the likes of Flash, Java and other helpers, and many more improvements and changes.

FreeBSD 7.0-BETA3 Available

The third beta of FreeBSD 7.0 has been released.

sábado, 17 de noviembre de 2007

OpenBSD: Actualización por CVSUP

"Anunciamos que hay un nuevo instructivo en el wiki, esta ves es sobre como mantener actualizado nuestro sistema OpenBSD, sistema base, kernel, ports y xenocara."

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Quickly Setting Up and Securing an Ubuntu Server

I'm setting up an old desktop as a server at school. I was going to post details about it later, but after seeing this article claiming that there are hundreds of thousands of unsecured databases out there, I thought I'd go ahead and post some of the basics on installing and securing a server running Ubuntu Linux (7.10 "Gutsy" version).

I'm assuming Ubuntu is already installed. In my case, the desktop version (not the server version which already has most of this pre-installed). I want to quickly convert it to a server to use for some research.

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PC-BSD 1.4.1 Available

A update to PC-BSD has been released today, version 1.4.1. This new version may be obtained from our download page , additionally users who are running version 1.4 may download a patch to upgrade.

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High-Quality YouTube Videos within three months

"The need to buffer the video before it starts playing will change the experience. Hence the experiment, rather than just a rapid rollout of this technology. On stage, he said the current resolution of YouTube videos has been "good enough" for the site until now. Chen told me he expects that high-quality YouTube videos will be available to everyone within three months."

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miércoles, 14 de noviembre de 2007

ZoneAlarm: firewall y Anti-Spyware Disponible gratis sólo por hoy

A través de de lifehacker me entero que ZoneAlarm está ofreciendo de forma gratuita la descarga de su firewall (básico) con un Anti-Spyware con un año de actualizaciones gratis.

Read It Later

Hay momentos que navegamos por internet y encontramos muchas páginas de gran interés y que deseamos leer en otra ocasión. Read it Later es un plugin para firefox que nos permite almacenar todas aquellas páginas que deseemos mirar más adelante con solo cliquear un botón. Una vez que tengamos el tiempo para leer, simplemente accesamos a nuestra lista de páginas guardadas y seleccionamos aquella que nos interese ver primero ;). Además de ser bastante sencillo de utilizar presenta una gran utilidad.

Secure PHP installation on unix/linux systems

With the growing concerns regarding comment SPAM, XSS attacks, security breaches, etc, we should spend some time learning how to defend ourselves against such threats.
We already know everything about input validation, code and SQL injection attacks, error logging, vulnerability scanning, etc., don't we? ;-) So, let's focus on securing our PHP server, thus barring most of the attacks from the start.

Build a Hackintosh Mac for Under $800

If the high price tag for Apple hardware has kept you from buying a Mac but you're willing to roll up your sleeves and get adventurous, you can build your own "Hackintosh"—a PC that runs a patched version of OS X Leopard. What?!, you say. Apple's move to Intel processors in 2006 meant that running OS X on non-Apple hardware is possible, and a community hacking project called OSx86 launched with that goal in mind. Since then, OSx86 has covered major ground, making it possible for civilians—like you and me!—to put together their own Hackintosh running Mac OS 10.5. Today, I'll show you how to build your own high end computer running Leopard from start to finish for under $800.

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Use the Gimp to make an Animated Gif

This HowTo shows the user how to use the Gimp to create an animated gif graphic.

martes, 13 de noviembre de 2007

Linux Vs BSD - a comparison

BSD family of Unix systems is based upon the source code of real Unix developed in Bell Labs, which was later purchased by the University of California - “Berkeley Software Distribution”. The contemporary BSD systems stand on the source code that was released in the beginning of 1990’s (Net/2 Lite and 386/BSD release).

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Remove Adware, Spyware, Trojans, Viruses and Rootkits with FreeFixer

FreeFixer is a general purpose removal tool which will help you to delete potentially unwanted software, such as adware, spyware, trojans, viruses and rootkits. FreeFixer works by scanning a large number of locations where unwanted software has a known record of appearing or leaving traces. The scan locations include the programs that run on your computer, the programs that starts when you reboot your computer, your browser's plug-ins, your home page setting, etc.

Smoothwall vs M0n0wall: A comparison

When it comes to a firewall, most people are fine with a consumer grade solution like a Linksys, Netgear or D-Link “router,” but I find these devices lacking in features that I want and speed that I need. Instead, I use a retired server that my boss gave me. With a Pentium II 200MHz processor and 1GB of RAM, this machine is way more powerful than the standard cable/dsl router you might pick up from Circuit City or Best Buy, and thanks to Free software, has features those other devices can only dream about. Here, I’ll look at two prominent solutions, Smoothwall Express 3.0 and M0n0wall 1.231.

MIT Releases Source of MULTICS

This is extraordinary news for all nerds, computer scientists and the Open Source community: the source code of the MULTICS operating system (Multiplexed Information and Computing Service), the father of UNIX and all modern OSes, has finally been opened.

PDF Viewers for Linux Compared

PDF documents are at present the most popular form of distributing documents throughout the Internet and a presentation tool at the same time. They owe their popularity not only to well defined standard embracing text, pictures and hyperlinks, but foremost to the fact that once created they can be read under nearly every operating system and its underlying platform. Of course, to open a PDF document one has to have an appropriate application.

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sábado, 10 de noviembre de 2007

Software RAID on OpenBSD using RAIDFRAME

Some time earlier I was finding it difficult to get Software RAID [using RAIDFRAME] setup on OpenBSD with just the man pages [raidctl(8)], mailing list archives and few tutorials on the Internet. The concept of boot partition being different from the root partition appeared a bit confusing in the beginning. Then Vijay Shanker gave me this step by step guide which he posted to misc@.

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jueves, 8 de noviembre de 2007

Grid Computing Saves Cancer Researchers Decades

Canadian researchers have promised to squeeze "decades" of cancer research into just two years by harnessing the power of a global PC grid. The scientists are the first from Canada to use IBM's World Community Grid network of PCs and laptops with the power equivalent to one of the globe's top five fastest supercomputers.

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miércoles, 7 de noviembre de 2007

How to use GMail as hosted spam filter

Using Gmail as Hosted Spam Filter is the simple and free solution for companies, organizations and individuals who want to get rid of spam without buying and maintaining their own anti spam server.

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OpenBSD 4.2 review

As usual, OpenBSD 4.2 offers a large collection of intelligent changes to an already great operating environment...

Using OpenBSD 4.2

If you're a software enthusiast who has never used OpenBSD before, you might enjoy installing it by yourself and figuring it out as you go. If, however, you're looking for a more practical approach to using OpenBSD 4.2 on a desktop or server machine, here's a quick guide to get you started in this spectacular operating system.

DHCP Failover on OpenBSD

"You need ISC's DHCP server (at least version 3), to do DHCP failover. As of OpenBSD 4.1, they ship version 2 by default. You can get version 3 out of the packages tree by installing isc-dhcp-server-3.0.4p0.tgz."

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lunes, 5 de noviembre de 2007

Review: Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard

The latest version of Apple's operating system, Mac OS X, is here and it's arguably the most significant revamp since X replaced 9. Leopard brings a new look to Mac OS X GUI, and a wealth of new features, some innovations other merely tweaks to old apps. In the first of a series looking at Leopard in depth, we go straight for Leopard's soul: the Finder.

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Another Web Based Multi Engine Virus Scanner

VirSCAN.org is a FREE service for online scanning suspicious files using several antivirus engines and you can find the result and the degree of suspicious files. VirSCAN can only help you scan the suspicious files, but VirSCAN is not responsible for the scan result from antivirus engines. If all of the engines cannot detect the file you uploaded as a malware, it can't say it isn't a new malware. If the file you uploaded detected as suspicious, VirSCAN will send the file and report to the antivirus vendors who provided engines for analyzing and they will update the signatures if it is a malware.

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Upgrade Mac OS X to Leopard

The time has come. You've been salivating for months over all the exciting goodies Apple has promised to deliver with Leopard, and now that you've got your install DVD, you're ready to make the upgrade to Mac OS X 10.5. Presumably you've already prepared your Mac for Leopard, so all that's left is the upgrade. Here's how it works.

Try Out openSUSE on a Live CD

Linux distribution openSUSE has released its first-ever live CDs for its latest version, 10.3. That means those curious to see what the lizardly Linux variant would run like on their systems can do so without messing up anything, and those who enjoy openSUSE's notable features—like the Slab application menu and built-in MP3 support—can use it as a rescue disc, show it off to their friends, or install from the desktop.

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Set Up IPsec Under Linux

The most popular way of configuring IPsec connections under Linux is by using the Openswan (http://www.openswan.org) package. Openswan is made up of two components: pluto and, optionally, KerneL IP Security (KLIPS). As of Version 2.6, the Linux kernel includes support for IPsec, but KLIPS can be used instead for some additional features. pluto is the user-land daemon that controls Internet Key Exchange (IKE) negotiation.

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domingo, 4 de noviembre de 2007

FreeBSD 7.0-BETA2 Available

The 7.0-BETA2 builds have completed and are on many of the FreeBSD mirror sites. If you want to update an existing machine using cvsup use RELENG_7 as the branch tag. Instructions on using FreeBSD Update to perform a binary upgrade from FreeBSD 6.x to 7.0-BETA2 will be provided via the freebsd-stable list when available.

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jueves, 1 de noviembre de 2007

Foundation Auction Ending Soon!

As of this writing, there is 22 hours and 10 minutes left for bidding on the first copy of the book Absolute FreeBSD! We've been so pleased with the response we've received from the FreeBSD community on this auction.

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What's New in OpenBSD 4.2

Even though security is still there, this release comes with some amazing performance improvements: basic benchmarks showed PF being twice as fast, a rewrite of the TLB shootdown code for i386 and amd64 cut the time to do a full package build by 20 percent (mostly because all the forks in configure scripts have become much cheaper), and the improved frequency scaling on MP systems can help save nearly 20 percent of battery power.

And then the new features: FFS2, support for the Advanced Host Controller Interface, IP balancing in CARP, layer 7 manipulation with hoststated, Xenocara, and more!

Desktop FreeBSD Part 9: FreeBSD and Broadband

Of all the tasks in FreeBSD, setting up a broadband connection is probably one of the easiest. All the various BSDs are built around networking, and most broadband connections operate pretty much like an extended LAN, using the same hardware, often called an "ethernet" connection: something that looks like fat phone lines, which plug into similarly fat-looking sockets which resemble telephone jacks.

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Simplify backups with Synbak

Synbak brings together several different backup methods and provides a powerful reports system that provides details about all the work it does. Synbak can use rsync over Secure Shell (SSH), Server Message Block (SMB), or Common Internet File System (CIFS) and either create tar archives or burn CDs and DVDs (quaintly called laserdiscs in a throwback to old times). It can also access and back up MySQL and Oracle databases and Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) servers. Finally, it can send you an email message with the backup details and create an HTML plus RSS Web page with the same information.

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OpenBSD 4.2 Released

"We are pleased to announce the official release of OpenBSD 4.2. This is our 22nd release on CD-ROM (and 23rd via FTP). We remain proud of OpenBSD's record of more than ten years with only two remote holes in the default install," Theo de Raadt announced. In addition to a lengthy list of new features and improvements, the release announcement includes a dedication:

"We dedicate this release to the memory of long-time developer Jun-ichiro 'itojun' Itoh Hagino, who focused his life on IPv6 deployment for everyone. Without his BSD and IETF participation, IPv6 would not be where it is today. Only now people are becoming aware of his numerous contributions because he took credit for much less than he accomplished. The developers in our project will all miss him."

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