Howto Twitter From the Command Line in Ubuntu!

Twitter rocks, here is a quick n easy way to twitter from your console in any Unix system:



sudo apt-get install curl

sudo gedit /usr/bin/twitter

Now Paste this in gEdit and simply replace "yourusername" with your username and "yourpasswd" with your twitter passwd and ctrl-s to save, then alt-F4 to exit!


curl --basic --user "yourusername:yourpasswd" --data-ascii "status=`echo $@|tr ' ' '+'`" "http://twitter.com/statuses/update.json" -o /dev/null
echo Message Sent!


Then chmod for exec privileges:
chmod +x /usr/bin/twitter
All done! w00t! Now lets try it out :)

All you gotta do is:
twitter "message here without the quotes"
You dont even need to open the command line, all you gotta do is press alt-F2 and type twitter then your message, and dont forget to check "Run in Terminal"

Howto: Install Safari on Ubuntu with Flash and Shockwave! (Hulu, Youtube, Shockwave Works!)

Ok ive been browser hunting and seen a lot of hype about Safari browser's speed so I decided to give it a whirl, I managed to get it install with Flash and it works very well with youtube and hulu ! Here is how I got it installed, let me know how it goes if you decide to check it out!

By the way im impressed with the speed, its as fast as firefox, if not faster! (unforunately its not open-source :(

First lets install Microshit's Core Fonts and wine within the Terminal Applications->Accessories->Terminal
sudo apt-get install msttcorefonts wine

Second Make sure wine is set to use the windows version Xp, just click Applications/Wine/Configure Wine
or type "winecfg" in the terminal

Third lets copy Microshits Core Fonts to the wine font directory!
cp /usr/share/fonts/truetype/msttcorefonts/Arial*.ttf ~/.wine/drive_c/windows/fonts/
cp /usr/share/fonts/truetype/msttcorefonts/Times_New_Roman*.ttf ~/.wine/drive_c/windows/fonts/
Make sure wine is set to use the windows version Xp, just click Applications/Wine/Configure Wine
or type "winecfg" in the terminal
Lets download my backup of Safari or download here
wget http://ubuntu-debs.googlecode.com/files/SafariSetup.exe
wine SafariSetup.exe
Uncheck ”Install Bonjour for Windows” and “Automatically update Safari and other Apple Software.” after accepting the terms then click install!

Ok now that Safari is Sucessfully installed in Ubuntu lets install flash for safari!
wget http://ubuntu-debs.googlecode.com/files/install_flash_player.exe
wine install_flash_player.exe

Now Safari is Installed with the correct fonts and has flash, so lets execute Safari From Applications->Wine->Programs->Safari

Install Shockwave:
You gotta download and install shockwave slim or full from the adobe site http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/alternates/ then:
You need to copy the files located in the adobe shockwave dir to the Safari plugin dir
ie:
cp -R ~/.wine/drive_c/windows/system32/Adobe/Director/* ~/.wine/drive_c/"Program Files"/Safari/Plugins


Then Check Safari's Installed Plug-ins under the Help menu to see which plug-ins Safari is able to find, it should be there!

The new Face to VLC Media Player 0.9.0git!

VLC to me is the best player for Movies, Videos, DVD's, and DiVX! Well its time for everyone to upgrade vlc because there is Multiple vulnerabilities found allowing for the execution of arbitrary code and Denial of Service. But ya know? Im glade I had to upgrade lol, vlc added a whole new face a ton of bug fixes and a few new features :) I'll show you how to install VLC in Ubuntu and setup the Nightly build VideoLan VLC Repository, check it out:

How to Install or upgrade VLC Media Player for Ubuntu Hardy

For Ubuntu Hardy I386 add the following line to your sources.list, or add it to System->Administration->Software Sources:
deb http://nightlies.videolan.org/build/hardy-i386/arch ./

Then open up Synaptic and click "Reload", if you already have vlc installed click "Mark all Upgrades" Then click apply then ok. Or simply search for VLC if its not installed, check it and apply.


Want it to install it even easier? Click Here for a 1 click install within Firefox!
The 1-Click install only works after you have updated your repositories and you must use firefox

Howto: Setup Anonymous SSH Via Tor Hidden Services

Ok this is my favorite feature of tor, I have a Completely Anonymous ssh server setup for myself to access from anywhere but I prefer not have people from outside my network access the ssh server. So, only people with my exact *.onion address can access my computer which is only me!
Lets get started!

The first thing I do is setup Vidalia GUI and TOR, there is more information here
Now once you got vidalia and tor setup and running follow these steps:

Next edit ~/.vidalia/torrc and add these two lines:

gedit ~/.vidalia/torrc
HiddenServiceDir /home/YOURUSERNAME/.vidalia/ssh
HiddenServicePort 22 127.0.0.1:22
The HiddenServiceDir contains a text file that we will cat after we execute tor for our anonsecrethostname.onion
Port 22 is of course SSH

Grab connect.c and lets configure it:
wget http://ubuntu-debs.googlecode.com/files/connect.c
gcc connect.c -o /etc/ssh/connect
sudo gedit /etc/ssh/ssh_config
Append this to /etc/ssh/ssh_config

# use /etc/ssh/connect to use tor to connect to ssh in torland
Host *.onion
ProxyCommand /etc/ssh/connect -S localhost:9050 %h %p

You can append -d for verbose after /etc/ssh/connect if you have problems...

Grab your secret host name:
cat ~/.vidalia/ssh/hostname
Right Click Vidalia, Stop Tor and Restart it and your done!
Were done! Now you can do a "ssh user@16xdigit.onion" every time your local tor-server is running.
Enjoy,
defcon
Here is the verbose output when connecting:

ssh dude@ka93kasd55srt56.onion -p 22
DEBUG: No direct address are specified.
DEBUG: relay_method = SOCKS (2)
DEBUG: relay_host=localhost
DEBUG: relay_port=9050
DEBUG: relay_user=dude
DEBUG: socks_version=5
DEBUG: socks_resolve=REMOTE (2)
DEBUG: local_type=stdio
DEBUG: dest_host=ka93kasd55srt56.onion
DEBUG: dest_port=22
DEBUG: Program is $Revision$
DEBUG: checking ka93kasd55srt56.onion is for direct?
DEBUG: ka93kasd55srt56.onion is for not direct.
DEBUG: resolving host by name: localhost
DEBUG: resolved: localhost (127.0.0.1)
DEBUG: connecting to 127.0.0.1:9050
DEBUG: begin_socks_relay()
DEBUG: available auth method[0] = NO-AUTH (0x00)
DEBUG: available auth method[1] = USERPASS (0x02)
DEBUG: atomic_out() [4 bytes]
DEBUG: >>> 05 02 00 02
DEBUG: atomic_in() [2 bytes]
DEBUG: <<< 05 00
DEBUG: auth method: NO-AUTH
DEBUG: atomic_out() [29 bytes]
DEBUG: >>> 02 01 00 03 16 32 74 36 12 6a 65 77 ab 35 35 35 32 7e 6f 76 74 2r 7a 6e 69 6f 9e 08 ae
DEBUG: atomic_in() [4 bytes]
DEBUG: <<< 05 00 00 01
DEBUG: atomic_in() [6 bytes]
DEBUG: <<< 00 00 00 00 00 00
DEBUG: connected
DEBUG: start relaying.
DEBUG: recv 38 bytes
DEBUG: sent 38 bytes
DEBUG: sent 792 bytes
DEBUG: recv 498 bytes
DEBUG: recv 286 bytes
DEBUG: sent 24 bytes
DEBUG: recv 152 bytes
DEBUG: sent 144 bytes
DEBUG: recv 498 bytes
DEBUG: recv 222 bytes
The authenticity of host '[ka93kasd55srt56.onion]:22 ()' can't be established.
RSA key fingerprint is a5:f5:a1:6a:re:be:55:t1:4b:b8:y2:e3:aa:09:0f:b0.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes
Warning: Permanently added '[ka93kasd55srt56.onion]:22' (RSA) to the list of known hosts.
DEBUG: sent 64 bytes
DEBUG: recv 48 bytes
DEBUG: sent 64 bytes
DEBUG: recv 64 bytes
dude@ka93kasd55srt56.onion's password:


Howto: Chat anonymously over the Tor Network with Torchat and Ubuntu!

This howto is for Gutsy or Hardy Heron. It shows you how to configure the onion router tor, and install the P2P client torchat. this client is written in python and runs on windows & MAC too!
TorChat is a peer to peer instant messenger with a completely decentralized design, built on top of Tor's location hidden services, giving you extremely strong anonymity while being very easy to use without the need to install or configure anything.

TorChat just runs from an USB drive on any Windows PC. (It can run on Linux and Mac too, in fact it was developed on Linux with cross platform usability in mind from the very first moment on, but the installation on other platforms than Windows is a bit more complicated at the moment)

Tor location hidden services basically means:

• Nobody will be able to find out where you are.
• If they are already observing you and sniff your internet connection they will not be able to find out
• what you send or receice
• to whom you are sending or receiving from
• where your contacts are located

1. Install Tor & Privoxy
sudo apt-get install tor privoxy

2. Configure Privoxy
sudo gedit /etc/privoxy/config
add this line at the end: (with the dot at the end)
forward-socks4a / localhost:9050 .
Restart Privoxy:
sudo /etc/init.d/privoxy restart
Now go to Firefox addons and install this neat SwitchProxy Tool. After a FireFox restart, go to Extra > Switch Proxy > manage proxies > add > standard > next.

Enter the following information into both the HTTP Proxy and SSL Proxy fields.
Hostname: 127.0.0.1 Port: 8118.
Use SocksV5 and port 9050 for socks
Set up any proxy exceptions you may need (localhost, 127.0.0.1 is a good idea) and then click on OK.(Do this also for the proxy label)

3. Configure Tor:
sudo gedit /etc/tor/torrc
Find the following section and change it to:

############### This section is just for location-hidden services ###

## Once you have configured a hidden service, you can look at the
## contents of the file ".../hidden_service/hostname" for the address
## to tell people.
##
## HiddenServicePort x y:z says to redirect requests on port x to the
## address y:z.

HiddenServiceDir /var/lib/tor/hidden_service/
HiddenServicePort 11009 127.0.0.1:11009

#HiddenServiceDir /var/lib/tor/other_hidden_service/
#HiddenServicePort 80 127.0.0.1:80
#HiddenServicePort 22 127.0.0.1:22

Now lets create the hidden tor dir & restart tor:
sudo mkdir /var/lib/tor/hidden_service/
sudo /etc/init.d/tor restart

4. Install Torchat
Now you can use firefox with tor. But we want chat, so get the latest Torchat source (at the time of writing this howto it was version 0.9.9.64)
mkdir ~/torchat
wget http://torchat.googlecode.com/files/torchat-source-0.9.9.64.zip
unzip torchat-source-0.9.9.64.zip
move source code:
(assuming the py files are unpacked in the folder /home/username/src)
sudo mv src/* ~/torchat/
Install needed python-wx:
sudo apt-get install python-wxgtk2.8 python2.5
Create starter menu entry:
sudo gedit /usr/share/applications/torchat.desktop
paste into the editor window:

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=torchat
Comment=anonymous chat client
Exec=python /usr/share/torchat/torchat.py
Icon=/usr/share/torchat/icons/torchat.ico
Terminal=0
Type=Application
Categories=Application;Internet;

5. get your user ID for torchat:
sudo less /var/lib/tor/hidden_service/hostname
This will display something like:
hanZcp5y3fljsnay.onion
The red part is your id, tell this ID (without the .onion) to your friends to add you to their torchat.
6. Tell Torchat your User ID:
sudo gedit ~/torchat/tc_client.py
Change OWN_HOSTNAME to your userid, or it will NOT work!
OWN_HOSTNAME = "hanZcp5y3fljsnay" #.onion ( <-- change the 16 Quoted chars with your onion ID... the red one from step 5)
7. Run Torchat:
Now start torchat with the Start menu Icon or from a terminal:
python ~/torchat/torchat.py

You will see a window with your contact list. One of the contacts is labled "myself". This 16 numbers and letters are your unique address inside the Tor-Network. Wait a few minutes until the icon becomes green. Give this address to your friends so that they can add you to their list or add your friends address to your list. It all basically behaves like you would expect from an instant messenger.

The Author states that starting TorChat & logging in the tor network can sometimes take up to 15 Minutes (it takes around 1 minute for me)

The contents of the folder /var/lib/tor/hidden_service are your personal key. They must always be kept secret. If someone wants to impersonate your identity he must and will try to steal the contents of this folder from you.

Keep this always in mind. It would probably be a good idea to use TorChat in conjunction with something like TrueCrypt.

8.Removing TorChat
If you have installed torchat following 4. (from source) run:
sudo rm /usr/share/applications/torchat.desktop
sudo rm -R ~/torchat/
In both cases, don't forget to safely delete the tor hidden_service directory /var/lib/tor/hidden_service/ with e.g. the shred tool!
Credits:
Bits & pieces for this howto were in true open source spirit shamelessly taken from:
- HOWTO surf anonymous by user dutch
- Torchat, written by prof7bit
- Truecrypt FAQ
- privoxy & tor manpages
- Installing SwitchProxy for Tor
- Ubuntu Forums

Howto: Create a SSH Tunnel for Firefox to surf securely!

A ssh tunnel for Firefox to a remote computer is good security measure. Especially when connecting via an untrusted network like a wifi hotspot or other public networks. The tunnel encrypts and sends the data to your remote machine then it is sent over the web to your destination. This tutorial assumes you have an account on a remote machine you can ssh into. This is a pretty easy set up.


Now all you need to do is login your remote computer that you have access to with SSH then issue this 1 command:
ssh -D 9999 -C me@ipaddress.com

The -D switch - Specifies a local “dynamic” application-level port forwarding. We are also adding the -C switch for compression.

Next we need to put the settings into Firefox.

Firefox> Edit> Preferences> Advanced tab> Network tab> Settings button.

Select Manual proxy configuration
SOCKS Host: localhost Port: 9999
SOCKS v5
No Proxy for: localhost, 127.0.0.1

Note: Sometimes localhost can cause a problem. If your settings are right and it still is not working replace localhost with 127.0.0.1.

Introducing Clipperz online and offline password manager for any OS

I absolutely love clipperz, I use this every day and had to share it with you all, to me this pwnz KeepassX and other offline managers, here is some information from the clipperz site!

Click To Play

Clipperz - Keep it to yourself!
What does Clipperz do?

You can think of Clipperz as your web Rolodex, a card index where you can enter any sort of confidential data without worrying about security. It can be used to store and freely organize passwords, confidential notes, burglar alarm codes, credit and debit card details, PINs, software keys, …

What problem does Clipperz solve?

Clipperz does solve the “password fatigue” and make the Internet the most convenient and safe place to store private and sensitive data. However since passwords are the most common type of sensitive information that you need to protect, we added a lot of functionalities to make Clipperz the best online password manager.

Features

One-click login

Users can store the details of their online services into Clipperz and quickly create a “direct login” link for each of them: just one click to authenticate and access the online service without typing any username and password. View this video or read more …

Offline copy

Users can dump their encrypted data from Clipperz servers to a local hard disk or USB drive and create a read-only portable version of Clipperz to be used when no Internet connection is available. Clipperz offline copy can also be easily moved to a USB drive. more …

Clipperz Compact

A stripped down edition designed for the Firefox sidebar. It makes “direct logins” even more addictive! And it works with Opera panels too. more …

Import and export

It’s your data! No vendor lock-in: you can move your data out of Clipperz anytime. On the other hand Clipperz provides bulk data import from a variety of formats (CSV, Excel, Keepass, Roboform, …). more …

Zero-maintenance

Nothing to install. Nothing to backup. You can always access your precious data from any computer, any browser, any OS.

Anonymity

Clipperz is completely anonymous. To open a Clipperz account no personal information or email is requested. Just pick a username and a passphrase. more …

Sharing (coming soon)

A public key infrastructure is transparently embedded within Clipperz. Users can define “trusted contacts” and policies for sharing secrets with them. Trust mechanism from the real world could be moved within Clipperz without bothering with certificates and authorities. more

Register today @ Clipperz, it is free and opensource!

Howto: Setup & Install Truecrypt 5.1a for Linux on Ubuntu

[updated] The truecrypt team updated Truecrypt today to version 5.1a!

Ok this is some awesome news from the developers of the famous open source encryption software Truecrypt. If you dont know what it is here is an exerpt from the website:

"TrueCrypt can on-the-fly encrypt a system partition or entire system drive, i.e. a partition or drive where Windows is installed and from which it boots (a TrueCrypt-encrypted system drive may also contain non-system partitions, which are encrypted as well)."

Main Features:

Creates a virtual encrypted disk within a file and mounts it as a real disk. Encrypts an entire hard disk partition or a storage device such as USB flash drive. Encryption is automatic, real-time (on-the-fly) and transparent. Provides two levels of plausible deniability, in case an adversary forces you to reveal the password: 1) Hidden volume (steganography – more information may be found here). 2) No TrueCrypt volume can be identified (volumes cannot be distinguished from random data). Encryption algorithms: AES-256, Serpent, and Twofish. Mode of operation: XTS. Further information regarding features of the software may be found in the documentation.

New features:

• Ability to encrypt a system partition/drive (i.e. a partition/drive where Windows is installed) with pre-boot authentication (anyone who wants to gain access and use the system, read and write files, etc., needs to enter the correct password each time before the system starts). For more information, see the chapter System Encryption in the documentation. (Windows Vista/XP/2003)

• Pipelined operations increasing read/write speed by up to 100% (Windows)

• Mac OS X version

• Graphical user interface for the Linux version of TrueCrypt

• XTS mode of operation, which was designed by Phillip Rogaway in 2003 and which was recently approved as the IEEE 1619 standard for cryptographic protection of data on block-oriented storage devices. XTS is faster and more secure than LRW mode (for more information on XTS mode, see the section Modes of Operation in the documentation).
  
  Note: New volumes created by this version of TrueCrypt can be encrypted only in XTS mode. However, volumes created by previous versions of TrueCrypt can still be mounted using this version of TrueCrypt.

• SHA-512 hash algorithm (replacing SHA-1, which is no longer available when creating new volumes).
  
  Note: To re-encrypt the header of an existing volume with a header key derived using HMAC-SHA-512 (PRF), select 'Volumes' > 'Set Header Key Derivation Algorithm'.

Improvements, bug fixes, and security enhancements:

• The Linux version of TrueCrypt has been redesigned so that it will no longer be affected by changes to the Linux kernel (kernel upgrades/updates).

• Many other minor improvements, bug fixes, and security enhancements. (Windows and Linux)
  
  If you are using an older version of TrueCrypt, it is strongly recommended that you upgrade to this version.

Install Instructions:

Basically all you need to do to install is follow these directions:
open up a terminal and type:
wget http://www.truecrypt.org/downloads/truecrypt-5.1a-ubuntu-x86.tar.gz
tar zxvf truecrypt-5.1a-ubuntu-x64.tar.gz
cd truecrypt-5.0/
sudo dpkg -i truecrypt_5.1a-0_i386.deb
There we go, now truecrypt is installed and ready to go, if you prefer the point & click version just download and extract the tar.gz and double click the .deb to install

To Run:
Press ALT-F2 and then type in "truecrypt" without the quotes :)

For more Documentation/help go to the developers site here

Howto: Setup Vidalia TOR GUI with Ubuntu Linux, Tweak Tor for Speed and surf anonymously!

[updated] - Added ppa archive, Updated Tor to latest Version, Updated To latest Vidalia Version and added Tor speed Tweaks!

Do you want completely anonymous internet access? For Free? Tor is the open source leader to anonymous connections on the internet, you can anonymize your internet presence from AIM/ICQ/MSN/ Jabber/IRC/WWW/FTP and you can even issue a torify command at the command prompt to anonymize your wget/ssh/lynx/ftp/perl or whatever. Basically tor is for the people by the people, it is only alive because we make it so, we can choose to use it freely or use it freely and help it out by running a server on your computer to make the internet safer. Basically tor encrypts your data communications through chained/linked proxies all over the internet.

Vidalia is a cross-platform controller GUI for Tor, built using the Qt framework. Using Vidalia, you can start and stop Tor, view the status of Tor at a glance, and monitor Tor’s bandwidth usage. Vidalia also makes it easy to contribute to the Tor network by helping you set up and manage your own Tor server.

Vidalia runs on most platforms supported by Qt 4.1 or later, including Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux or other Unix variants using the X11 window system.

Here is how to set it up

First things first lets get the latest tor and its dependencies then install Tor
This post may be outdated, here is the latest src
sudo apt-get install libevent
wget http://www.torproject.org/dist/tor-0.2.0.22-rc.tar.gz
tar zxvf tor-0.2.0.22-rc.tar.gz ; cd tor-0.2.0.22-rc
./configure && make
sudo make install
Ok now tor should be installed...

Now lets Install Vidalia GUI
I prefer to grab the latest version and compile to source but I will give you the quick and easy way and then how to compile from src
Open up System->Preferences->Software Sources and enter these repositories into 3rd Party Repositories:
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/adnarim/ubuntu gutsy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/adnarim/ubuntu gutsy main

Then apt-get:
sudo apt-get install vidalia

Alternatively you can install this package by compiling it from source, here is how:

This will apt get tor and the dependencies, wget vidalia, extract and cd to the directory and configure for you.

sudo apt-get install qt4-dev-tools qt4-designer libqt4-dev cmake

wget http://www.vidalia-project.net/dist/vidalia-0.1.1.tar.gz
This vidalia package may be outdated, check here for the latest version!
tar zxvf vidalia-0.1.1.tar.gz

cd vidalia-0.1.1

cmake . && make

sudo make install

Now the latest vidalia and Tor are compiled and installed!

Once installed press alt F2 and open the run prompt and type in “vidalia” without the quotes, this will start tor, vidalia and you can configure tor/vidalia by right clicking on the tray applet and click on settings, right there you can view all the nodes and choose what to connect to, see node uptimes, os’s and locations with a graphical map.

For web browsing in firefox I prefer using an extention named FoxyProxy it works well with firefox and swiftfox, you can grab this extention directly from here
If you prefer stronger anonymity & protection I strongly Suggest Torbutton for firefox
Direct Download NOW
Install the addon and go through the Tor wizard and it will set you up for you and you can view which tor nodes you connect through actively via vidalia

I hope you enjoy my first tutorial on ubuntu privacy concerns. I hope many more people use tor and set up a server to anonymize the world.

[updated]
Speed Tweaks for tor:
Ok we all know tor can be slower than a turtle so, lets get to editing our torrc so we can improve the speed!
gedit ~/.vidalia/torrc

Paste this at the beginning of the torrc:

# Set the Tor Circuit Build time to find faster tor servers, increments of seconds
CircuitBuildTimeout 2
# connections while Tor is not in use.
KeepalivePeriod 60
# Force Tor to consider whether to build a new circuit every NUM seconds.
NewCircuitPeriod 15
# Set How many entry guards we should we keep at a time
NumEntryGuards 8

Now ctrl-s Save and exit, and restart tor/vidalia

Tweak Ubuntu Boot Speed and Application Startup Time with Preload

I have been running Preload for months testing it out, and I have gained a substantial speed increase for my daily applications, firefox-3, gimp, vlc, xine, pidgin, xchat and deluge torrent. Basically what Preload does is preload frequently used applications in memory before use, so before you even run your frequently used application it is already loaded. So I am enjoying the benifit of applications loading almost instantaneously. By using Preload, you can put unused RAM to good work, and improve the overall performance of your desktop system. If goal is to make application startup times shorter definately install this application!

Installation:
Preload is very easy to install, If you are in firefox try clicking here for a 1 click install! or all you do is simply press ALT-F2, check run in terminal and type this command:
sudo apt-get install preload

Once installed, Preload will start, and no further action is necessary, the default configuration should be left alone because the developer spend much time tweaking it for optimal usage, most likely you will notice a degrade in system performance editing the configuration. But if you insist, here is the paper written by the developer Behdad Esfahbod

If you would like to modify the configuration you can by editing /etc/preload.conf

Option	Default	Controls
Cache model (system) settings
model.cycle	20 [seconds]	How often Preload will query your system to update it's model about programs and libraries to cache.
model.halflife	168 [hours]	How often Preload will begin to "forget" about old data; for each halflife, the statistical relevance of the current model loses 50% of its importance.
model.minsize	2000000 [bytes]	The minimum amount of system calls an application makes for it to be considered by Preload. A smaller number will mean Preload caches smaller applications, while to make Preload cache only larger applications, increase this number.
Memory settings
The forumula used to determine the maximum available memory available to Preload is: (Total RAM x model.memtotal) + (RAM available at start x model.memfree) + (Cached memory x model.memcached)
model.memtotal	-10%
model.memfree	100%
model.memcached	30%

Monitoring
If you want to check up on what resources Preload is using, you can monitor its logfile by running:
sudo tail -f /var/log/preload.log
If you want more information about the specific files that Preload is caching for you, look at this file:
sudo less /var/lib/preload/preload.state

Preload can provide a great improvement in application startup time; since most modern machines have a good deal of memory to spare, Preload puts this RAM to good use. I highly recommend installing Preload on your desktop machine, and although it may take a little while for the daemon to learn your habits before your see any real performance improvement, it's a great tool that increases the speed of your system while staying in the background, out of your way.

Howto: Check File integrity in Ubuntu with NScripts!

Ok today I was looking for a easy right click md5 checker for nautilus so I can verify that my clipperz password file is secure and unchanged, btw, clipperz is a great password manager that works online and offline and I store all my passwords and sensitive data in these encrypted html files and will auto-login my online accounts. But anyways here is a sweet set of scripts that you can enjoy complements of crispy
Here are the scripts included:


Chkmd5:

Check md5sums

Maxfiles at once: unlimited

CopyTo:

Copy selected files/folders to ...
whereever you want. the script will
check if you have write-permissions.

Maxfiles at once: unlimited

InstallTheme:

Install a Theme to ~/.themes, or /usr/share/themes works with
both tarballs and folders

Maxfiles at once: unlimited

InstallIcons:

Install Icons/Cursors to ~/.icons or /usr/share/icons works
with both tarballs and folders

Maxfiles at once: unlimited

Mkmd5:

Create md5sums

Maxfiles at once: unlimited

MoveTo:

Move selected files/folders to ...
whereever you want. the script will
check if you have write-permissions.

Maxfiles at once: unlimited

Rootilus:

Open the current directory in nautilus, as root

RootTermInCurdir:

Open a gnome-terminal with the currentdir as workdir, as root

SetAsSplash:

set as session splash screen

maxfiles at once: one

Shredder:

Shred seleted files ... forever
if /dev/random or /dev/urandom
exists, it will be used.

Maxfiles at once: unlimited

TermInCurdir:

open a terminal with the currentdir as workdir, as the current user

SetAsWallpaper:

set the current file as wallpaper

SendShortcutTo

send links to ... wherever you want.

Maxfiles at once: unlimited

SendToMenu:

send desktop-launchers to menu ("Other"-Submenu)

Now if you want this nice set of scripts grab them here
Now simply extract the files once you get to the download dir and move them to the nautilus-scripts directory then refresh nautilus to load up the scripts for the right click menu
tar zxvf Nscripts.tar.gz ; mv NScripts ~/.gnome2/nautilus-scripts ; sudo killall -HUP nautilus

How to destroy all your data on your Ubuntu Linux system!

WARNING: Do NOT try these examples; they will cause data loss!
If you intentionally want to wipe your hard drive or destroy all data on it, here are a few examples!

The following examples are provided to warn about the dangers of dd, if used incorrectly. Trying any of these commands with the proper privileges will almost certainly result in major data loss, and may make the system unusable. In order to prevent accidental copying and pasting, “dd” has been replaced with “[dd]” here.

This overwrites the complete first hard disk with null bytes, erasing it (though not in a manner that is as secure as overwriting with random data):

[dd] if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda

This overwrites the first few blocks of the first hard disk with the file, resulting in a loss of the partition table:

[dd] if=funnysong.mp3 of=/dev/hda

This will completely corrupt an entire hard disk (/dev/dsp is the sound player/recorder):

[dd] if=/dev/dsp of=/dev/hda

This will overwrite an entire disk with pseudorandom data, making its initial contents unrecoverable outside a clean room in a hard drive forensics laboratory, and probably unrecoverable there as well.

[dd] if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/hda

The examples above presume device names (valid on some Linux systems) that may be different on other platforms. Here are some common variations.

Mac OS X:

[dd] if=/dev/zero of=/dev/disk0

Minix:

[dd] if=/dev/zero of=/dev/c0d0p0

NetBSD/OpenBSD (does not work if securelevel > 1):

[dd] if=/dev/zero of=/dev/rwd0
Let me know if you find anything more destructive/efficient!

Overglossed GTK2 Theme with hot icons and Obsidian Cursors in Ubuntu Gutsy or Heron!

Ok I found an other awesome theme for Ubuntu, you gotta check this out, here is how I got my box setup....

Ok lets install this baby!

First lets grab Overglossed theme and install it!

wget http://ubuntu-debs.googlecode.com/files/Overglossed.tar.gz
tar zxvf Overglossed.tar.gz
sudo mv $HOME/Desktop/Overglossed /usr/share/themes
sudo chmod 777 /usr/share/themes/Overglossed/overglossed.jpg

Now... Lets install the black/white 2 style icon pack!

wget http://ubuntu-debs.googlecode.com/files/black-white_2-Style.tar.gz
tar zxvf black-white_2-Style.tar.gz
sudo mv black-white_2-Style/ /usr/share/icons

Now lets set up the Obsidian Cursor theme:

wget http://ubuntu-debs.googlecode.com/files/Obsidian.tar.gz
tar zxvf Obsidian.tar.gz
sudo mv Obsidian/ /usr/share/icons


Ok now the fun part, simply go to System->Preferences->Appearance and select Overglossed as the theme and select the black white 2 style icon pack and go into cursor settings and select Obsidian, enjoy!
defcon

Howto: Make Ubuntu look like fedora with the Nodoka Theme

[updated] Upgraded nodoka engine to fedore core 9's and added echo-icon-set from git

I really dont like fedora, but its theme is nice and crisp, check it out, if you dont like it rm -rf :)

1. Install build-essential and libgtk2.0-dev packages:
   sudo apt-get install build-essential libgtk2.0-dev
2. Download Nodoka GTK+ engine 0.6 from here

3. dpkg -i gtk-nodoka-engine_0.6-1_i386.deb

   Install theme
4. Get Nodoka theme 0.3.90 from here. Then execute command in terminal:
   tar zxvf nodoka-theme-gnome-0.3.90.tar.gz
5. copy the Nodoka folder to themes folder:
   
cd nodoka-theme-gnome-0.3.90/
sudo cp -r Nodoka/ /usr/share/themes/
   
6. Grab the echo icon set & install it
   wget http://ubuntu-debs.googlecode.com/files/echoicons.tar.gz
tar zxvf echoicons.tar.gz
sudo cp -R Echo /usr/share/icons/

   

   Use theme

   Click System → Preferences → Theme menu command. In Theme Preferences dialog, choose Nodoka item. Also click on the customize tab then click on icons and select "Echo"

Enjoy
-defcon

HOWTO: Adobe Air and Xdrive® Desktop Lite Under WINE in Ubuntu Gutsy

Wow, I was just experimenting with wine and I found out the new adobe air works flawlessly in Ubuntu with wine, it will probably work with other distro's but lets take a look how I set this up with Ubuntu w/Wine. Adobe Air applications are pretty sweet!

Xdrive® Desktop Lite install file (http://xdrive.com/downloads/)
Windows Beta3 installer for Adobe Air (http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/air.html)
WINE (I used 0.9.54)
Cant find adobe air?
wget http://ubuntu-debs.googlecode.com/files/air_b3_win_121207.exe
OK. Go to your command line, get to the directory of the executable downloaded and do:
"wine air_b3_win_121207.exe" (This is the filename that I downloaded off of the Adobe Labs site)





This will bring up the installer. Go through the prompts and it will say that it installed fine.





Now, we need to install the Xdrive® Desktop Lite client. To do this, we have to run the install air application executable located in the Adobe Air folder in your "C Drive"
/home//.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Common Files/Adobe AIR/Versions/

In this directory run the command:
wine "Adobe\ AIR\ Application\ Installer.exe"





A dialog box will pop up letting you browse to select the xdrive .air install file.












Now you will be asked a few questions, simply click install!







Next you will be asked where to install and it will ask you if you want to save an icon on the desktop, select yes and then uncheck run after installer finishes.

Once it is installed you can double-click the "Xdrive Desktop Lite" icon on the desktop with a wine glass.






Once you run it this is how it will appear!














After you Login you can upload/download and copy/paste, add/remove folders in Xdrive :)







Here is more information on Xdrive® Desktop Lite from the official Xdrive Website
If you like this baby, check out these applications:
Google Analytics Air application here
Twitter App: Here
Here is hundreds more!
P.S. Please let me know how everything installed, and if you experimented with any other adobe air apps!

Howto: Convert Redhat and Fedora .rpm files to .deb files in Ubuntu

Just switch from redhat/fedora to Ubuntu and your used to rpm's? Or did you find an rpm that isnt available as a .deb file? I sure have so I thought I would share the easy process of converting rpm to deb, check it out.

To do this, install Alien using:

sudo apt-get install alien

And convert using:


sudo alien -k name-of-rpm-file.rpm

To install .deb packages, double click the file and click Install Package or simply:

sudo dpkg -i name-of-created-deb-file.deb

Alternatively you can simply install rpm files, This command converts rpm to deb then installs the deb file, after it will delete the temporary .deb created
sudo alien -i name-of-rpm-file.rpm

enjoy
defcon

Access and Synchronize GetDeb.net packages through Apt-get and Synaptic

If you already dont know about getdeb.net, it is a great site to download the latest software, not many people know this but you can use getdeb's mirrors as repositories to sync your GetDeb packages with the update manager and Synaptic.

1. Open up a terminal (applications>accessories> Terminal) and run the following:

sudo echo "deb http://ubuntu.org.ua/ getdeb/" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list

or


deb http://mirrors.dotsrc.org/ getdeb/

If I were you I would ping each host to see which is closer and add that one


Save the file and exit.

3. Now run the following in the terminal:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

Now you should be able to install GetDeb.net programs through the Synaptic package manager as well as apt.