For completeness, my post below should have pointed to the scroogle search engine which purportedly allows you to search google without google being able to profile you. Neat idea if you must use google (why?) but it still fails the Hal Roberts test of what to do if the intermediate search engine is prepared to …
Category: tips, tricks and howtos
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2010/01/02/using-scroogle/
Nov 15 2009
system monitoring with munin
A while back a friend and colleague of mine introduced me to the server monitoring tool called munin which he had installed on one of the servers he maintains. It looked interesting enough for me to stick it on my “to do” list for my VPSs. Having a bunch of relevant stats presented in graphical …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2009/11/15/system-monitoring-with-munin/
Oct 18 2009
logrotate weirdness in debian etch
I have two VPSs, both running debian. One runs lenny, the other runs etch. The older etch install runs fine, and is much as the supplier delivered it. Until now I have not had cause to consider the need to upgrade the etch install to lenny because it “just worked”. But today I noticed for …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2009/10/18/logrotate-weirdness-in-debian-etch/
Oct 03 2009
debian on a DNS-313
I bought another new toy last week – a D-Link DNS 313 NAS. Actually, this was a mistake because what I really wanted was the DNS-323. I just wasn’t careful enough at the time. Quite apart from having space for two 3.5″ SATA hard drives instead of just one, the 323 is a very different …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2009/10/03/debian-on-a-dns-313/
Sep 12 2009
wordpress on lighttpd
I have commented in the past how I prefer lighttpd to apache, particularly on low powered machines such as the slug. I used to be a big apache fan, in fact I think I first used it at version 1.3.0 or maybe 1.3.1, having migrated from NCSA 1.5.1 (and before that Cern 3.0) back in …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2009/09/12/wordpress-on-lighttpd/
Jul 05 2009
aspire one bios updates
This post is partly for my own benefit. It records some of the most useful references to bios updates for the AAO. My own AAO is actually running a fairly early bios (3114) and deliberately so. I upgraded to 3309 in (yet another futile) attempt to get sony memory sticks to work but found that …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2009/07/05/aspire-one-bios-updates/
Jul 05 2009
tor on a vps
I value my privacy – and I dislike the increasing tendency of every commercial website under the sun to attempt to track and/or profile me. Yes, I know all the arguments in favour of advertising, and well targeted advertising at that, but I get tired of the Amazon style approach which assumes that just because …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2009/07/05/tor-on-a-vps/
May 12 2009
jaunty netbook remix DVD iso
My daughter saw my netbook the other day and decided that she wanted UNR on her Tosh laptop to replace the 8.04 hardy I had installed for her (no-one in my family is allowed a proprietary OS – this occasionally causes some friction). Anyway, the old Tosh she uses (which has seen various distros during …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2009/05/12/jaunty-netbook-remix-dvd-iso/
Apr 12 2009
acer aspire one – a netbook experience
I mentioned in an earlier post that I had recently acquired an Acer Aspire One (AAO) netbook. I chose the AAO in preference to any other of the netbooks on the market for two reasons – firstly it looks a lot cooler than most of the competition (particularly in blue – see below), but secondly, …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2009/04/12/acer-aspire-one-a-netbook-experience/
Dec 27 2008
egroupware mail with dovecot and postfix
I have recently built an egroupware system to be used as a social networking site. The application suite itself is relatively easy to install and configure, but the webmail system it offers (a fork of squirrelmail called felamimail) is rather poorly documented. It took me some time to figure out how to authenticate mail users …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2008/12/27/dovecot-and-postfix-on-debian/
Sep 12 2008
webanalytics – just say no
I have just built myself a new intel core 2 duo based machine to replace one of my older machines which was beginning to struggle under the load of video transcoding I was placing upon it. The new machine is based on an E8400 and is nice and shiny and fast. Because it is a …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2008/09/12/webanalytics-just-say-no/
Aug 20 2008
where did my bandwidth go
Have you ever wondered what was eating your network? Would you like to be able to check exactly which application was responsible for that sudden spike in outbound traffic? NetHogs might help. This neat little utility calls itself a “small ‘net top’ tool”, and that is exactly what it is. NetHogs groups bandwidth usage by …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2008/08/20/where-did-my-bandwidth-go/
Jul 22 2008
implementing mailman and postfix with lighttpd on debian
I recently needed to set up a mailing list for a group of friends (my bike club). I had become tired of mail bounces and failures because we were all relying on an out of date list of addresses originally cobbled together by one member. That list of addresses was routinely used in “reply all” …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2008/07/22/implementing-mailman-and-postfix-with-lighttpd-on-debian/
Jun 20 2008
backtrack 3 released
Any half decent sysadmin will routinely test the security of his or her own systems. A good, and sensible, sysadmin will follow up those tests with an independent security audit by a professional company – preferably one which is a member of a recognised industry body (such as CREST). Finding the holes in your security …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2008/06/20/backtrack-3-released/
Mar 01 2008
ssh through http proxy
On a mail list I subscribe to I have recently been involved in a discussion about the restrictions sometimes placed on users of WiFi hotspots or hotel networks (to say nothing of the restrictions placed on corporate networks). Some of the suggested solutions involve tunnelling ssh connections over http(s). Other solutions assume that the network …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2008/03/01/ssh-through-http-proxy/
Dec 30 2007
reflashing the BT home hub from a linux PC
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I found several references to successful reflashes of the BT hub to a genuine Thomson 7G image on a variety of sites. None of those sites gave instructions as to how to do this if you run a linux PC. So I have documented how I did it …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2007/12/30/reflashing-the-bt-home-hub-from-a-linux-pc/
Nov 25 2007
update to ripping DVDs to a sony psp on linux
Since writing the entry below, I have discovered a much simpler way of ripping and transcoding DVDs – k9copy. I really should have noticed this earlier because I investigated k9copy when I was playing with dvd::rip and winFF as GUI tools for ripping. I had (stupidly) assumed that k9copy could only copy a DVD to …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2007/11/25/update-to-ripping-dvds-to-a-sony-psp-on-linux/
Nov 04 2007
ripping DVDs to a sony psp on linux
I spend a lot of time on trains – I mean a /lot/ of time. My daily commute amounts to around 6 hours in total each day. Of that, at least 4 hours is spent sitting on a train avoiding listening to the cacophony of irritating chunterers and morons on mobiles. The worst period is …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2007/11/04/ripping-dvds-to-a-sony-psp-on-linux/
Jan 04 2007
vinyl to digital
Recently you may have seen adverts in a wide variety of publications for a USB turntable. This product is aimed at people (like me) who have a collection of old vinyl recordings but no longer have the means to play them as they have moved to CD and/or digital recordings. Most of the turntables I …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2007/01/04/vinyl-to-digital/