Handy “Mozilla” backup page

If you want to back up your Mozilla settings, whether it be Firefox or Thunderbird, this is a very hand page:

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Migrating_settings_to_a_new_profile

I had actually figured out most of these, but it help me catch a few I might have otherwise missed.

CrossLoop – secure remote access

A friend of mine showed me what looks like a nice (free) secure remote access solution for visually managing a remote PC:

http://www.crossloop.com

It’s based on TightVNC and therefor has the advantage of using encryption on the control session, helping reduce the risk of prying eyes. It also has a pretty cool way . . . → Read More: CrossLoop – secure remote access

SUSE Linux Enterprise in the Americas Blog

Here’s a potentially interesting Novell SUSE blog where you might expect a little more “off the cuff” information from the SUSE development teams:

http://opsamericas.com

There seem to be some interesting articles about a range of things including licensing, desktop lockdown, how to add/update drives to AutoYast etc…

. . . → Read More: SUSE Linux Enterprise in the Americas Blog

Fedora 8, NIS (or LDAP), and “gdmgreeter”

One major issue with Fedora 8 in shops that use a network user repository like NIS or LDAP is “gdmgreeter” breaks (note “gdmgreeter” is the Fedora replacement for XDM). The symptom is X11will fail repeatedly and not come up. In that case you will also see errors like this in “/var/log/messages”:

Jun 13 12:18:00 myhost . . . → Read More: Fedora 8, NIS (or LDAP), and “gdmgreeter”

Fedora Core 6-isms

While in the organizations I have sway over we are working to rid ourselves of older out of maintenance OSes, I do occasionally run into some Fedora Core 6. When I do there are a couple of minor hacks you regularly have to do to make things work (note these are after applying the latest . . . → Read More: Fedora Core 6-isms

Good RPM documention

Good documentation for maintaining/creating Linux RPMs is difficult to find. This Wraptastic site seems to have so good stuff:

http://wraptastic.org

It appears official, but it’s hard to say since the site seems to lack an “about” to key off of.

In a related line, these two RedHat sites seem to have copies of . . . → Read More: Good RPM documention

How to “fix” a Mozilla plugin for a new Firefox

Ok, lets you’re using a great Firefox plugin, like say “QuickProxy” and you go to upgrade Firefox and it doesn’t work because it says the plugin doesn’t support this version of the Firefox.

Well, there’s an easy “hack” (kludge, whatever) around it:

Download the “.XPI” plugin file, rename it to a “.ZIP” extension. Unzip it . . . → Read More: How to “fix” a Mozilla plugin for a new Firefox

And this is why security REALLY matters…

Imagine if you went to file your income tax return, only to find out that someone had already filed it and gotten your refund:

http://csoonline.com/article/381513/UnitedHealthcare_Data_Breach_Leads_To_ID_Theft

That is exactly what happened to 155 graduate and medical students of UC Irvine who were victims of identity after UnitedHealthcare’s (the provider of their medical insurance) records . . . → Read More: And this is why security REALLY matters…

How to create a mini-boot CD for SLES 10 SP1

If you have an older system that doesn’t have an internal DVD but you do have an external USB DVD, here’s how to build a CD to boot from. This will probably work with any version of SLES 10:

Boot Linux and mount the SLES 10 DVD. mkdir /tmp/mini-boot cp <path-to-DVD-mount>/boot/i386/loader/* /tmp/mini-boot mkisofs -o /tmp/mini-boot.iso . . . → Read More: How to create a mini-boot CD for SLES 10 SP1

Bill Gates retires?

A “kind of” funny video about Bill Gates “retirement”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xr5w3X4R8b4

It’s perhaps a little too self aware and woody but still worth watching.

Of course if you’re a bit of an Open Source person like myself, you might also enjoy this:

http://strom.wordpress.com/2008/05/31/giving-thanks-to-bill-gates

It has a little “bite” shall we say though.

. . . → Read More: Bill Gates retires?