Computer Tips -Tech Info

Category: Software

Virtualbox virtualization open source availability

This last week virtualbox announced that they have released a version of their virtualization software as open source. There is a pay version as well with more features. (*read on for features available in the full version.)

While I appreciate them making the core virtualization open source and currently they are likely the most advanced open source virtualization software out there… it is a bit disappointing to see some of the really juicy features in the non-open source version. However, it should be noted that the full version is free for personal use or evaluation.

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January 21, 2007
Nxclient into xubuntu box

I like nx server and client, it can really make good use of low bandwidth connections to get a gui link. But, by default it’s quick and easy to setup gnome and kde login sessions within nxclient, but if you’re using xubuntu then you will need to setup a “custom” session and the command is startxfce4 …. so, start up nxclient, click configure and on the General tab, halfway down it should say Desktop, leave Unix and change KDE to custom, then click settings and check “run the following command” now, type startxfce4 and you should be set.

November 5, 2006
Firefox 2.0

Mozilla has released the 2.0 release of the Firefox web browser. Among the new features is built in spellcheck and javascript 1.7 support. However, there are critiques that are critical of the User Interface. (The blank bar, I thought, was the bookmarks toolbar folder area where you could put bookmarks of rss feeds or most frequently visited sites… I could be wrong…)

I do think George is right in one respect, tabbed browsing needs to be “more evident” in firefox.

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October 24, 2006
Flash Player 9 for Linux

Now… available in Beta form… The Linux version of the Flash player has been stuck at 7 for some time, while many sites require flash 8 for video/etc… (The page to find the beta download is here.)

October 19, 2006
Linux Permissions Headache

Yikes, what an evening….. it started innocently enough in the afternoon. I have an old Mandrake 10.0 server that I was upgrading clamav on (recent security update). While I was at it, I was reviewing the anti-spam setup to see if I could get any better success with filtering junk mail. spamassassin has had an update since I updated this one last and also it seemed that dcc was installed, but not in active use *(no indications that it’s being used at all.) So, I set about trying to fix that and install the latest spamassassin. Somehere along the way something BAD happened. In retrospect, I’m not entirely sure how, but at one point I was root having just installed the rpms for spamassassin and then exited to my user account. Promptly on switching back to my user account I got a “permission denied” error. Eh? Ok, well let’s su again and see what’s up…. “permission denied” uh oh…. ls “permission denied” most everything actually….. permission denied.

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October 18, 2006
Firefox 2.0 RC3 out

Baring big problems, the final release candidate for the new 2.0 version of Mozilla Firefox is out reported here and here.

Mozilla.com page for the RC is here.

October 17, 2006
Microsoft October 2006 patch Tuesday

The first thing I should mention is that this months update from Microsoft is the last for XP SP1 users should plan a migration path to SP2 to keep getting updates to XP. Multiple vulnerabilities this month have been patched in Office There are 4 advisories, but a total of 15 issues covered by those four. Powerpoint, Excel, Word and Office/Publisher there are a variety of exploits, some public (like the powerpoint) others that were privately reported. Also, Incidents.org gives a nice summary of the advisories and the severity of each (urgency of updating.) The setslice vulnerability is patched in this batch by the way.

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October 10, 2006
IE7 coming within the month, Firefox 2 RC2 out as well

It’s kind of interesting to get to do a “browser wars” kind of post where I mention a new release of two browsers coming out about the same time…. The release of IE7 is coming within weeks we are reminded by zdnet. It’s noted that it will be rolled out through automatic updates not long after it’s official release. Incidents.org is less than enthusiastic about the release suggesting that no matter how much of an improvement over IE6 this new release will be it’s bringing us features that have been in competing browsers since 1996 and diversity of browsers is a good policy.

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October 9, 2006
Software raid under linux (Ubuntu 6.06 Dapper Drake)

First, I should disclaim that this is going to be a brain dump of the resources and experience of a quick setup of Ubuntu 6.06 on a software raid based storage system. This may be less than ideal, but is doable and seems relatively solid as a system. First off, what is RAID (redundant array of independant/(*inexpensive) disks) So, several cheap hard drives put together in an “interesting” way. Now, increasing storage size isn’t something I’m too interested in, after all there are myriad other ways of expanding storage in a linux system (not to mention huge drives getting cheaper by the day.) My goal here is redundancy, I want to be able to lose a drive and still have the data, so RAID1 is what I’m setting up. We won’t get sidetracked into the other types.

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October 3, 2006
Mandriva 2007 download now available

Several days ago there were announcements of the release of Mandriva 2007, only thing was, the download wasn’t available yet. Well, today the download appears available. I haven’t looked to see what differences there are between the free and the powerpack download (powerpack can be downloaded by club members as well.)

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October 3, 2006