Students, how to get Windows 7 for FREE

http://www.windows7news.com/2010/07/16/students-windows-7-free/

ZD NET have published a very handy guide on how students can effectively get Windows 7 on their PCs for free… absolutely free, gratis, no payment whatsoever and completely legitimate at the same time.

While you might currently be rightly

sceptical, believing that Microsoft will never give Windows away for free they're actually doing it. But they're doing it only for students, and only for Windows Server 2008.

The guide, which is absolutely inspired in my mind, walks you through the steps involved in correctly configuring Windows Server 2008 so that it looks and operates exactly the same as Windows 7.

It might be a bit of a faff to configure but remember that all versions of Windows come with a system image backup program called Complete PC Backup. Once you've correctly configured the OS just back it up using this and should you need to reinstall, just restore your backup instead.

So there you go, students CAN get Windows 7 effectively for free, so why not follow the link on ZD Net and go get it now.

Dump Microsoft, Use Linux to Save Money, U.K. Officials Suggest

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-07-09/dump-microsoft-use-linux-to-save-money-u-k-officials-suggest.html

July 09, 2010, 8:07 AM EDT

By Kitty Donaldson and Robert Hutton

July 9 (Bloomberg) -- U.K. government staff suggested replacing Microsoft Corp. operating systems on computers with free alternatives in response to a call for ideas for Prime Minister David Cameron's cost-cutting drive.

Cameron asked the 600,000 government workers last month to make suggestions on saving money as his administration seeks to cut Britain's record budget deficit. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne today published a sample of the 56,000 submitted ideas, which including abandoning Microsoft, switching office lights off and centralizing stationery procurement.

"In terms of spending less, what about migrating the whole of government (the NHS, education etc.) from Microsoft products to Linux and open-source software like Openoffice," read one of the suggestions displayed on the Treasury website. Two of the 31 listed proposals, whose authors were not named, suggested dropping Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft.

Open-source software such as Linux and Openoffice offers free or very cheap alternatives to Microsoft's Windows and Office, the world's most popular operating system and productivity software. Osborne said before the Conservatives won power in the May 6 election that he favored the idea.

"We need to follow the example of businesses all over the world and take advantage of open-source technology," Osborne wrote in The Times of London in February 2009.

Osborne said today he is now asking the public to send in ideas about how the government should save money to narrow the 155-billion-pound ($235 billion) budget shortfall.

--Editors: Eddie Buckle, James Hertling.

To contact the reporters on this story: Kitty Donaldson in London at kdonaldson1@bloomberg.net; Robert Hutton in London at rhutton1@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Hertling at jhertling@bloomberg.net.

MySQL Startup Failing/Hanging in Ubuntu 10.04

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1479310

(I commented out the bind-address lines in /etc/mysql/my.cnf, HL 20100706 )

There is a bug in 10.04. If you have it bind to a specific interface, it will fail to start on reboot because it attempts to start after any network interface (such as 127.0.0.1) is initialized. The interface it was configured to bind with won't be initialized yet. You can either bind it to all interfaces by commenting that line out, or edit /etc/init/mysql.conf.

start on (net-device-up IFACE=eth0
and local-filesystems)
stop on runlevel [016]

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1475798
10. If the automatic startup still fails, you may follow the advice from a different thread: change the start condition in /etc/init/mysql.conf to "start on (net-device-up IFACE=ethX)", where "X" is the interface you have mysql bound to, e.g. ETH1.
11. In my case, I had another very specific problem: I'm running Ubuntu in a VM with several virtual disks which were not mounted yet when the network was up. Quite tricky to figure out. So I modified the start condition to "start on (net-device-up IFACE=eth1 and stopped mountall)", and now everything is fine.

“Tinyurl”-ify DropBox Public Links With .htaccess

http://ubuntu-tutorials.com/tag/dropbox/

November 8th, 2008

I just recently started using DropBox on Ubuntu 8.10 "Intrepid Ibex" and leftyfb in IRC pointed out to me a nifty little trick with .htaccess files. If you've been using DropBox I'm sure you've seen or made use of the Public folder and sharing files. You may have also noticed that the DropBox Public links are long and likely hard to remember when needed.

One thing that you can do, if you have your own web server, is dynamically generate these public links. For example:

Original DropBox Public URL:

http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/312414/Christer_Edwards.asc

DropBox Public URL with .htaccess trick:

http://zelut.org/dropbox/Christer_Edwards.asc

In order to accomplish this you'll need access to a webserver and the ability to create and use a .htaccess file. On my webserver I created a folder called "dropbox" and then pasted the following into a new file, .htaccess:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/012345/$1 [L,QSA]

You will need to replace the "012345″ with your unique ID. As you notice from the original link above, my unique ID is "312414″. You can find yours by copying the public link within Nautilus.

Once this is done you can share files by placing them into your DropBox Public folder and then appending the filename to your webserver URL + created folder. Again, since I created the folder "dropbox" on http://zelut.org/, my url is http://zelut.org/dropbox/. I simply append the filename I want to share and its done!

If anyone can suggest a way to present this URL with an index.html that may be a cool trick.

Categories:Web DevelopmentTags:.htaccess, dropbox

Relaying Postfix SMTP via smtp.gmail.com

http://ubuntu-tutorials.com/2008/11/11/relaying-postfix-smtp-via-smtpgmailcom/

November 11th, 2008

( With little changes these steps worked on PigBookVMu, a Ubuntu 10.04 in VMware workstation, HL 20100630)

I've got a few servers in different places around the country and try to monitor them using the logwatch utility. One problem that I've run into however is that a few of these servers are not able to send their logwatch emails to me, based on email restrictions by the ISPs. I spent some time this afternoon researching what was required to have my servers authenticate to my gmail account and send me the mail that way. This setup assumes Ubuntu 8.04 (or later) and Postfix.

Install the required packages

sudo aptitude install postfix libsasl2 ca-certificate libsasl2-modules

On Ubuntu 10.04 (HL)

aptitude install postfix libsasl2-2 sasl2-bin libsasl2-modules procmail

Configure Postfix

This tutorial will not outline how to configure your postfix server, but we'll jump directly to the relayhost section. You'll want to add the following lines to your /etc/postfix/main.cf file:

relayhost = [smtp.gmail.com]:587
smtp_sasl_auth_enable = yes
smtp_sasl_password_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/sasl_passwd
smtp_sasl_security_options = noanonymous
smtp_tls_CAfile = /etc/postfix/cacert.pem
smtp_use_tls = yes

The above lines are telling Postfix that you want to relay mail through gmail on a specific port, telling it to authenticate, and where to find the username and password. The last three lines specify the authentication types supported, where the certificate authority file is and that it should use tls.

Define Username and Password

Next we'll need to populate the sasl_passwd file. Create the file /etc/postfix/sasl_passwd with the following contents:

[smtp.gmail.com]:587 user.name@gmail.com:password

This file should have restrictive permissions and then needs to be translated into a .db that Postfix will read.

sudo chmod 400 /etc/postfix/sasl_passwd
sudo postmap /etc/postfix/sasl_passwd


At this point you can restart Postfix and it should work, however it will complain about not being able to authenticate the certificate. To take care of this issue we'll use the ca-certificate package we installed and tell it where it can validate the certificate.

cat /etc/ssl/certs/Thawte_Premium_Server_CA.pem | sudo tee -a /etc/postfix/cacert.pem

Go ahead and reload postfix (sudo /etc/init.d/postfix reload) and you should be set.

If this article has been helpful, please consider linking to it.

Categories:EMailTags:gmail, postfix, relayhost, smtp.gmail.com

Mutt Quick Reference Chart

http://www.ucolick.org/~lharden/muttchart.html

This is a chart of common Mutt commands, the context(s) in which you could use them, what they do, the section(s) of the tutorial that explain them, and which .muttrc settings affect them.

Note: some commands may appear more than once if their effects differ depending on context.

Mutt Command	Context	Effect	Tutorial Section	Relevant .muttrc settings
a	Sending Message	Attaches a file to the message you have created	Sending Messages	none
b	Sending Message	Lets you edit the list of blind carbon copy recipients for the message you have created	Sending Messages	none
c	Sending Message	Lets you edit the list of carbon copy recipients for the message you have created	Sending Messages	none
d	Main Menu, Reading Message	Marks the current message for deletion	Deleting Messages	none
f	Main Menu, Reading Message	Forwards the message to another address	Forwarding Messages	askbcc, askcc, edit_headers, editor
i	Reading Message	Returns from reading a message to the Main Menu	Reading Messages	none
j	Main Menu	Changes the selected message to the next message	Getting Around in the Menu	color
k	Main Menu	Changes the selected message to the previous message	Getting Around in the Menu	color
m	Main Menu, Reading Message	Creates a new message to send	Sending Messages	abort_nosubject, abort_unmodified, askbcc, askcc, edit_headers, editor, recall
mutt	Command line	Starts mutt	Getting Into and Out of the Mutt Menu	beep-new, color, mark_old, move, sort
p	Main Menu, Reading Message	Prints the currently selected message	Printing Messages	print, print_command
q	Main Menu	Quits mutt	Getting Into and Out of the Mutt Menu	delete, mark_old, mbox, move
q	Sending Message	Aborts or postpones the message you have created	Sending Messages orPostponing Messages	postpone, postponed
r	Main Menu, Reading Message	Creates a reply to the current message	Replying to Messages	abort_nosubject, abort_unmodified, askbcc, askcc, edit_headers, editor, include, metoo
s	Main Menu, Reading Message	Saves the current message to a file	Saving Messages	folder
s	Sending Message	Lets you change the subject for the message you have created	Sending Messages	none
t	Sending Message	Lets you edit the list of recipients for the message you have created	Sending Messages	none
u	Main Menu, Reading Message (messages marked for deletion only)	Removes the deletion mark from the current message	Deleting Messages	none
x	Help Menu	Returns from the help menu to the Main Menu	Getting Around in the Menu	none
y	Sending Message	Sends the message you have created	Sending Messages	abort_unmodified, copy, record
?	Main Menu	Goes from the Main Menu to the Help Menu	Getting Around in the Menu	color
-	Reading Message	Moves to the previous page in the message you are reading	Reading Messages	none
/	Main Menu	Prompts for a pattern to search for in the headers of your messages	Getting Around in the Menu	none
=	Main Menu	Selects the first message	Getting Around in the Menu	color, sort
$	Main Menu	Deletes all messages selected for deletion, and checks for new messages	Deleting Messages	beep_new, delete, mark_old, mbox, move
*	Main Menu	Selects the last message	Getting Around in the Menu	color, sort
< number >	Main Menu	Selects message < number >	Getting Around in the Menu	color
< Enter >	Main Menu	Brings the currently selected message up on the screen	Reading Messages	color
< Space >	Reading Message	Moves to the next page in the message you are reading, or to the first page of the next message not marked for deletion	Reading Messages	none
< Tab >	Main Menu	Selects the next new message	Getting Around in the Menu	color
< Esc > /	Main Menu	Prompts for a pattern to search for in the bodies of your messages	Getting Around in the Menu	none
up/down arrow	Main Menu	Changes the selected message to the previous/next message	Getting Around in the Menu	color
PageUp/PageDown	Main Menu, Reading Message	Moves up/down one page in the Main Menu or the message you are reading	Getting Around in the Menu or Reading Messages	none

Explanation of Chart Columns

1. Mutt Command is a command you type in, either at your shell prompt or while mutt is running.
2. Context is the circumstances under which you would use this command. The contexts are:
   • Command line. This is your shell prompt, with mutt not running.
   • Main Menu. This is the main Mutt menu, in which you will see a list of your messages.
   • Help Menu. This is Mutt's online help menu.
   • Reading Message. This is when you are reading a message.
   • Sending Message. This is when you have finished editing a message, and are preparing to send it.
3. Effect gives a brief explanation of what this command will do. See the tutorial for more details on commands.
4. Tutorial Section is the section in the tutorial "Learning Mutt" with an explanation of this command.
5. Relevant .muttrc settings lists the .muttrc settings that will affect the behaviour of this command.

How Many Servers They Have?

http://www.downloadsquad.com/2010/06/29/facebook-doubles-its-server-count-from-30-000-to-60-000-in-just-6-months/

Facebook might

vie with Google for the largest website in the world, but let's be honest: Facebook serves pictures and text. It's hardly intensive work. Check out another great article from Data Center Knowledge for some numbers -- or read my bullets:

• Facebook, with 60,000 servers is big, but not that big
• Google had, it is speculated, 450,000 servers in 2006 -- God knows how many they have today. Over a million?
• Microsoft and Intel are probably in second place, with between 100 and 500 thousand servers. Microsoft is probably reaching a similar number to Google with the launch of its newAzure cloud processing service. Amazon likely has a similar number of servers too, but it's impossible to put an exact figure on it -- it depends just how big S3 is today!
• After the big corporations come the big resellers -- GoDaddy, Rackspace, The Planet, 1&1 Internet, all with 50,000 or more servers.

With Facebook moving into search, and with other neat ideas no doubt up its big blue sleeve, I'm sure that upwards trend will continue until they have one of the biggest installations in the world.