(Launchpad link):

A dynamic tunnel SSH multiplexer. When heavily using a Dynamic SSH tunnel, this application will open concurrent SSH tunnels to multiplex the load. This is useful when using torrent connections locally, or when using your computer to share internet access via the dynamic proxy.

To install on Ubuntu Karmic:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:martineve/ppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install sshsplit

If no arguments are passed, you can run sshsplit from command line and it will bring up a convenient GUI for on the fly configuration.

In the event of a failure when you need to do a restore, you can order a drive to be mailed back to you (2 day priority) or download the data you need off their servers.

They also offer a nice little interactive table showing their pricing structure against other popular services where you can modify the amount of data you want to store to see how the pricing would change across different providers.

Crashplan offers a variety of plans that either count or don’t count the number of machines being backed up. Accordingly, plans vary from $4.50/month to $8.33/month depending on your needs. I have not yet tried the service, but I may consider it for backing up vital files to a secure off-site location.

I know of some folks who prefer services like Carbonite, but they don’t seem to support Linux. Another alternative, Jungledisk (front end to Amazon’s S3 cloud) has a Linux client for their backup server product, but I’ve never tried it. I have tried Jungledisk for Windows servers, and it works well, but Amazon meters the data being transferred to and from their cloud whereas Crashplan does not.

Ubuntu is running an application called “landscape-common”.

More on this application here. The easy thing to do here is to simply type update-motd – -disable and you can then modify your MOTD. Also I have noticed that sometimes, the contents of motd.tail will overwrite the MOTD, so I would simply make sure whatever you want in /etc/motd is also in /etc/motd.tail. [On Debian systems, the system message of the day is rebuilt at each startup. /etc/motd.tail is the file to edit permanent changes to the message of the day].

Ultimately, I have settled on a system known as eCryptfs. Of course, this runs only on Linux. However Windows/MAC users could access encrypted data on a Linux server if the decrypted data were presented with a SAMBA share.

eCryptfs is a kernel-native, stacked cryptographic filesystem for Linux. This means that it will run seamlessly with an existing Linux install and its filesystem. A stacked filesystem is one that is layered ontop of an existing filesystem (such as a transparency laid over a page beneath). As data is read from or written to the disk, data is encrypted or decrypted on the fly.

The flexible part of eCryptfs is that it embeds the cryptographic metadata into the header of each file. The benefit of storing the cryptographic metadata into each file is that any one file can be given to a friend, or sent through e-mail or copied by any other means and the recipient can conveniently decrypt the file so long as they have correct key (password).

Most encryption programs are not this versatile. They require special software or require that the file be separately encrypted so that it could be transmitted, and even then the recipient needs to jump through many hoops to decrypt the file. The only exception to this is PGP or GPG. GPG makes is very convenient to transmit files, but does not work well on large directories of files. eCryptfs bridges this gap very nicely. Also, since eCryptfs uses a stacked filesystem, there is no limit to what can be put into the directory for encryption, or subdirectories. They will simply and naturally fill the drive like any file would without any preset encrypted container limitations.

In Ubuntu (or any other Debian based distro) the following steps will allow one to easily encrypt an entire drive, directory or file.

To begin encrypting and decrypting your data, simply install the ecryptfs utilities.

sudo apt-get install ecryptfs-utils

Once installed, create a directory mystuff (or any name you like). This will be where you’ll store your data to be encrypted. The directory can be made anywhere, your home directory or any storage device (USB key or USB hard drive). It is important to note that you cannot encrypt a directory with data already in it. The easy way to accomplish this is to follow the steps below, then move the data from the original directory to the newly encrypted directory. You can rename the newly encrypted directory to match the original once the files have been moved and the original directory deleted.

mkdir ./mystuff

To be extra safe here, be sure only your Linux user has rights to the files in the directory. To accomplish this, simply change the permissions on the directory. The commands below assume you’re already in the directory where your new directory was just created (like your home directory). You may need to specify the full path to the directory if you’re not executing the command from that location.

chmod 700 ./mystuff

Now, you just have to leverage the encryption already available in your Linux kernel. To do this, you must layer the encrypted transparency, if you will, over the unencrypted directory. This is done by re-mounting the directory with the encrypted transparency layer.

sudo mount -t ecryptfs ./mystuff ./mystuff

This command simply remounts the exact same directory, however with the encryption overlay in place. From this moment forward, any files written to the mystuff directory will be encrypted. Also any files read from the directory will be decrypted on the fly (until the transparency is removed by unmounting the transparency, but more on this later.) Until the directory is dismounted from its encrypted transparency layer, the files will be easily readable and silently encrypted/decrypted on the fly.

Once the above command is executed, eCryptfs is going to ask some questions. The answers to these questions dictate the nature of the encryption.

It is perfectly safe to keep hitting <enter> on every one of these questions. This will use the defaults which are very well selected. There is one exception however. One question asks if you’d like to enable filename encryption. The default answer here is no. In many cases, the filenames themselves offer a lot of information about its contents and that alone is more than many want revealed. For example, a filename named “Bank Account PIN numbers 2009” would certainly be a target file and while helpful for you in organizing your data, would be too much information to reveal if anyone were able to get a directory listing of the files in question. To prevent this, answer yes when eCryptfs asks to enable filename encryption (again, the default will be to not scramble the filenames).

One other question which might confuse is the plaintext passthrough question. If enabled, this option allows non-encrypted files to be used inside the mount, which to me defeats the purpose of an encrypted directory. Allow for the default answer to this: no.

At the end of the process, eCryptfs will alert that this is the first time you have used your passphrase, and will ask if it can save a hash of it. It is safe to answer yes to this question. If keeping a hash of your passphrase is a source of concern, then I would encourage more research on the subject.

At this point, you may write, delete, read as much data into that directory as you’d like. The files will remain free to access until you dismount the encrypted layer, leaving you with the closed, encrypted files. To dismount the transparency, simply dismount the directory.

sudo umount ./mystuff

At this point, any attempt to read the files will fail. You can browse the encrypted files themselves, but the filenames will be scrambled random characters and the contents will be totally incomprehensible.

To reopen your encrypted files, simply remount the encrypted directory as we first did earlier. However, upon doing this eCryptfs will ask all the same questions it did before (key type, your passphrase, the cipher, and the key length), so it will know the parameters of this particular encrypted directory. It will ask these questions every time you attempt to mount your encrypted directory. Fortunately, this can all be automated (except the passphrase entry obviously) so as to speed up the process.

The command can be given ahead of time and written into an executable script:

sudo mount -t ecryptfs /home/johnny/mystuff /home/johnny/mystuff -o key=passphrase,ecryptfs_cipher=aes,ecryptfs_key_bytes=16,ecryptfs_passthrough=n,ecryptfs_enable_filename_crypto=y,ecryptfs_fnek_sig=ed221f243b153323

Be mindful of the last option in the command above, namely ecryptfs_fnek_sig. When you first encrypt your directory, eCryptfs will tell you what the ecryptfs_fnek_sig is for your specific directory (or drive). You’ll need to enter this unique number into your command so that you will have a smooth and quick mounting process. Type this entire command into a text file (obviously replacing /home/johnny/mystuff with the actual path to your encrypted directory and entering your unique ecryptfs_fnek_sig number), save it (I’ll call mine crypt) and make it executable by typing:

chmod +x ./crypt

While you’re at it, create a quick script to dismount the encrypted mount.

sudo umount /home/johnny/mystuff

Then make it executable using the chmod command as shown above.

Of course in Linux you can also create a custom application launcher (a graphic on your taskbar or desktop) that can execute these scripts with the click of the mouse.

Not every EEE PC is built the same, nor do they use the same video drivers. Therefore first, you have to find what the minimum and maximum resolutions are available for your unit. To see this, simply type this in command line:

xrandr

As an aside, the commands below work with any Linux system, EEE or otherwise. This command will tell you the minimum and maximum resolution of your screen plus the available “standard” resolutions.. mine were:

Screen 0 (the local screen): min 320×200 ………. current 1024×600 ……… max 1024.x1024

Available standard modes were: 1024×600, 800×600 and 640×480.

To max out my screen resolution I chose to work with 1024×1024, that would give me the most pixels (+ the most panning) but it would show me more of an application in a glance. Normally working in 1024×600 (native resolution of the EEE PC 1000HE) I’d have to hit F11 to go to full-screen mode in Firefox. Now, running in 1024×1024, I can run without full screen mode and can see a nice portion of my browser window. The panning isn’t much of a bother, and I feel less constrained on the desktop.

To change the resolution to the max specified by running xrandr above, type this:

xrandr --output LVDS --panning 1024x1024

. . . and voila !  Instant pan/scan screen. To change it back to the original resolution …

xrandr --output LVDS --panning 1024x600

Place these two commands in separate scripts with execute rights, then attach to a launcher and place on your taskbar and/or desktop and you can do this in one click.

###

UPDATE: On Ubuntu 9.10, this command WORKS, however, the local display is now LVDS1, not LVDS.

They’re sorted newest-first, so click the <previous entries> at the bottom of the page to see the prior scripts.

Here’s also a few links on learning the basics of shell scripting:

IBM’s extensive site on the subject.

Linuxcommand.org

Simply sudo apt-get install cpulimit. More info can be found here.

Using GNOME

• Get to the System->Preferences->Keyboard menu.
• Select the “Layouts” tab and click on the “Layout Options” button.
• Then select “Key sequence to kill the X server” and enable “Control + Alt + Backspace”.

Click the link below for the full article and how to do it in KDE.

Source: Ubuntu Geek.

I recently had to run a ReiserFsck myself on one of my primary home Linux boxes off a Live-CD; worked very well!

Here’s the link for reference:

NOTE: The above link is just a broad stroke introduction to some of the more commonly used repair functions, a lot more research is needed by the user if in-depth recovery of a hard disk or repair is required.

Don’t forget to chmod +x ./script-name on each.

Script 1

#!/bin/bash
#
# Dump m4a to wav (first step in conversion)
for i in *.m4a
do
mplayer -ao pcm "$i" -aofile "$i.wav"
done

Script 2

#!/bin/bash
#
#Second step... use lame to convert into .mp3

for i in *.wav
do
lame -h -b 192 "$i" "$i.mp3"
done

Script 3

#!/bin/bash
#All the m4a's are now mp3's, however..
#the file will look like "filename.m4a.wav.mp3"
#So, to clean that up we remove extraneous extensions.

for i in *.mp3
do
x=`echo "$i"|sed -e 's/m4a.wav.mp3/mp3/'`
mv "$i" "$x"
done

While FreeNX and NoMachine’s NX server are out there, NoMachine’s NX server is not free, and FreeNX according to Google, was a bit top heavy and difficult to maintain. I see this as an exciting development.

It is now available for download.

Here’s the article on it.

Here’s where you can download it.

To do this simply check out the carrier listing and look for your carrier. Then email TheNumber [at] carrier’s-doman.com (example) and you’ll SMS that phone.

It’s a pretty basic tip, but I’ve met people who think they need a cell phone (or an IM client) to SMS a cell phone and fortunately, this is not true.

The same Wikipedia page explains how to send E-Mails via SMS using a carrier’s special SMS email code.

Cheers.

For videos recorded off TV this command works well and keeps the video scaled properly:

mencoder input_file -o output_file.mp4 -of lavf -lavfopts format=mp4 -ss 1 -vf pp=ci,scale=432:324,crop=432:320,harddup -ovc x264 -x264encopts crf=30.0:nocabac:level_idc=30:global_header:threads=2 -ofps 30000/1001 -oac faac -faacopts mpeg=4:object=2:br=128:raw -channels 2 -srate 44100 -af volnorm

This isn’t an elaborate HowTo, otherwise I might break down each command switch. Check the man pages on mencoder for details on each of the switches. This does work, however.

For videos ripped from DVDs you own, (generally 16:9 ratio), this command works very well (really only the scale of the video has changed):

mencoder input_file -o output_file.mp4 -of lavf -lavfopts format=mp4 -ss 1 -vf pp=ci,scale=480:270,expand=480:272,harddup -ovc x264 -x264encopts crf=30.0:nocabac:level_idc=30:global_header:threads=2 -ofps 30000/1001 -oac faac -faacopts mpeg=4:object=2:br=128:raw -channels 2 -srate 44100 -af volnorm

This will keep the letterbox scale without stretching the video. You can play with the scale= ratios but the numbers in the above commands work pretty well. A 90 minute video ends up transcoded to about 210-220megs, which fit pretty well on today’s micro SD’s (my G1 has an 8gig micro SD). Though I wouldn’t want to watch too many movies on such a small screen (nevermind the battery life issues).

In the case where you may have ripped the entire DVD contents to a hard disk and want to transcode from a hard disk rip to h264, replace the input_file in the above command with the following:

-dvd-device /home/john/rips/GROUNDHOG_DAY/VIDEO_TS dvd://x

Where you replace your path to the rip instead of /home/john/… and where dvd://x is the DVD title (the primary movie is usually 1, so dvd://1). This will transcode the entire move of a ripped DVD to h264. You can also do this directly off a dvd simply by inserting the dvd and in place of input_file in the above command, simply type: dvd://1.

Top 100 open source gems part 1

Top 100 open source gems part 2

While not complete and listing too many games (I’ve never seen Linux as a very good gaming platform), it’s still worthy of a post.

python -m SimpleHTTPServer &

This will launch a very simple web server in the directory from which the command was run, and will establish that directory as root. You can then access it from your local machine by typing in this URL in your browser: http://127.0.0.1:8000/

By default, it starts the web server on port 8000 but that can be changed using:

python -m SimpleHTTPServer 9090

which starts the server on port 9090, and can be accessed via the browser or any HTTP client using:

http://127.0.0.1:9090/

If you want to access these files from outside your home network, I’d recommend SSH with a local port redirect instead of raw port forwarding, which I do talk in a roundabout way here.

For any that are interested, this is my .screenrc

hardstatus alwayslastline
hardstatus string '%{= kG}[ %{G}%H %{g}][%= %{=kw}%?%-Lw%?%{r}(%{W}%n*%f%t%?(%u)%?%{r})%{w}%?%+Lw%?%?%= %{g}][%{B}%Y-%m-%d %{W}%c %{g}]'
#
# Default screens
# syntax: screen -t NameOfScreen ScreenNumber ShellCommand
screen -t "Work SSH" 0 /home/name/workssh
screen -t "Home 1" 1
screen -t "Home 2" 2
screen -t "Home 3" 3
screen -t "Home 4" 4

The hardstatus string gives me the local computer’s hostname on the left, lists the shells themselves in the middle, and on the right offers the date and time.

Line 6 with “Work SSH” executes the shell script “workssh”, labels the window “Work SSH” and assigns it to virtual shell number 0. This shell script allows me to SSH to one of my work servers offering me a series of local listening ports that forward to remote IP’s and ports.

Shells 1-4 are local bash shells.

Assuming you have VirtualBox remote port forwarding engaged (which will forward ports into the VM, for example if you’re running Windows XP as a VirtuaBox VM and you want to RDP into it on port 3389), I discuss port forwarding on VirtualBox hosts, here. Though VirtualBox supports a quick and easy VRDP option to enable for easy RDPing into a box without having to do any of the complex port forwarding, my port-forwarding post explains how to forward other ports to your VM for any other applications or if you want to RDP into your Windows VM on a port other than 3389.

To engage the VM over an SSH session, simply type:

VBoxHeadless -startvm "Name of VM Here"

You can also force VirtualBox’s VRDP (virtual RDP) via command line by adding the switch “–vrdp on”, though it’s usually on by default.

If you’re not sure of the name of the VM, simply type

VBoxManage list vms

Once running, you can simply run …

rdesktop localhost:3389

Assuming you have a -L 3389:ip-address-of-VirtualBox-host:3389 in your original SSH command, and you can now RDP into your Windows XP box which would be running in a VM over Linux.

Source: HowToForge

Of course this 6th sense would be culled from the Internet and its plethora of information, focused sharply into your daily life, as you live it.The video is illustrative of what our world might look like in 20 years and how different it could be from today.

“HOW wonderful that we have met with a paradox. Now we have some hope of making progress.” So said Niels Bohr, one of the founders of quantum mechanics. Since its birth in the 1920s, physicists and philosophers have grappled with the bizarre consequences that his theory has for reality, including the fundamental truth that it is impossible to know everything about the world and, in fact, whether it really exists at all when it is not being observed. Now two groups of physicists, working independently, have demonstrated that nature is indeed real when unobserved. When no one is peeking, however, it acts in a really odd way.

Click the link above for the full article.

Solution 1

We are going to use qemu-img tool to this.QEMU disk image utility

First Install qemu  qemu-img is included with qemu package using the following command

sudo apt-get install qemu

Convert a VMWare Image to VirtualBox Image

Convert VMWare image called whatever.vmdk to /tmp/debian.bin (or a path of your choice).

qemu-img convert debian.vmdk /tmp/debian.bin

Now use VBoxManage to get back image in native format:

VBoxManage convertdd /tmp/debian.bin debian.vdi

Solution 2

VirtualBox can run VMs created by VMware Workstation or Server for this you need to import vmdk files using the following procedure

• Start Virtual Box

• Goto File > Virtual Disk Manager

• Click Add.  Locate and select the copied .vmdk file. Click OK.

• Create a New VM as usual using the added vmdk file

• Boot the VM

lsof +D /media/disk1

This will return the command and process ID of any tasks currently accessing the /media/disk1 directory. You can then locate them, or use the kill command to finish them off.

People sometimes have to do a reinstall of their Ubuntu system for various reasons (been playing/experimenting with configuration/drivers/other packages or just because something is badly broken) but remembering all the extra packages you have installed can be a chore – but here is the simple solution:
On your old system (assuming it is still working), start up Synaptic and go to:

File-Save Markings and choose a file name along with a location (like a USB drive) that you can use when you have installed your new system)

This file contains a list of all your currently installed packages, and when you have installed and booted up your new system (and configured your repositories to the best for your location ) then start up Synaptic and go to:

File-Read Markings and point it at your saved file, and after that has completed then select Apply to kick off the download & installation of all of those packages you had installed previously!

There are also apt-get command line functions that achieve the same outcome, so those who don’t have/use Synaptic can still do this.

You will still have to do any special configuration changes that you had on the old system, but at least all of the packages are now in the new system.

This is also very handy for moving to new hardware/duplicating setups etc.

Be aware that doing this between different Ubuntu versions may cause complications because some packages may not be in a later version or have different names.

Note:- Don’t forget to backup your sources before you reinstall.

sudo cp /etc/apt/sources.list ~/sources.list.backup

Otherwise if you have added any PPAs or other sources, this tip won’t work.

Bonding is creation of a single bonded interface by combining 2 or more ethernet interfaces. This helps in high availability and performance improvement.

How to setup dual-dual bonding (two bonds of two interfaces each) on Ubuntu as quickly as possible.

1. Add two lines to /etc/modules

bonding bond0 -o bond0 mode=1 miimon=100

bonding bond1 -o bond1 mode=1 miimon=100

If you’re very good at managing your time, just remember that miimon’s option determines how often the bond is monitored for failure and that mode can be one of:

0 – Round robin balancing

1 – Active back-up

2 – Transmit based on MAC address for load balancing/fault tolerance

3 – Broadcasting – provides fault tolerance by transmitting on all slave interfaces

4 – Aggregates links, assuming all nics support same speeds and duplex settings

5 – Transmit load balancing – balancing is handled by the bond based on load

6 – Same as 5, but also uses arp to balance load “better

2. Install the ifenslave package if you haven’t already. You can use apt-get to grab it if you don’t:

sudo apt-get install ifenslave-x.x

3. Ensure that the package actually installed:

sudo dpkg –get-selections | grep enslave

ifenslave-x.x install

4. Set up your interface files:

# cat /etc/network/interfaces (only including the parts you probably need – substitute IP addresses, netmasks, etc):

auto lo

iface lo inet loopback

auto bond0

iface bond0 inet static

address 10.10.125.88

netmask 255.255.255.0

network 10.10.125.0

gateway 10.10.125.1

post-up ifenslave bond0 eth0 eth2

pre-down ifenslave -d bond0 eth0 eth2

auto bond1

iface bond1 inet static

address 10.10.127.88

netmask 255.255.255.0

network 10.10.127.0

gateway 10.10.127.1

post-up ifenslave bond1 eth1 eth3

pre-down ifenslave -d bond1 eth1 eth3

5. Add lines to the bottom of your architecture’s modprobe files, reboot
and pray:

sudo cat /etc/modprobe.d/arch/i386

alias bond0 bonding

options bond0 mode=1 miimon=5000 max_bonds=2

alias bond1 bonding

options bond1 mode=1 miimon=5000 max_bonds=2

Most people think you need to kill your SSH session to add a new -L option, then reinitiate the SSH session; this is NOT true.

You can open an internal SSH shell within an SSH session to add new redirects!

From within an SSH session, simply type:

~# then hit <enter>

~C then hit <enter>

Then type: help and <enter>

You’ll see a listing of available commands. To add a new local redirect, just type

-L 4567:192.168.0.12:5900, then hit <enter>

…and voilà, you’ve added a new local redirect. Just hit <enter> once, and you’ll be dropped back into command line.

There are other escape-commands. Just type ~? from within an SSH session for more escape-commands.

FYI: This also works for remote redirects, as well.

Here’s a Google search link offering more info:

Here’s a link to Clonezilla SE (Server Edition).

Ext4 which has now been declared stable, and no longer experimental, will be the successor to the long-standing ext3. It can support a file system up to 1 exabyte in size (that’s 1,048,576 terabytes to everyone else) and single files up to 16TiB.

Ext4 is likely to become the defacto standard file system in most Linux systems, perhaps except the most mission-critical of servers whose admins will likely opt for a file system longer in the tooth (like ext3 or XFS). Ext4 will likely be the file system to go head to head with SUN’s ZFS.

Kernel 2.6.28 will also support laptop disk shock protection, and the minstrel WIFI rate control algorithm.

More details on the other improvements here, and here.

Some more details here, which are easier to digest.

This link explains how it’s used at Last.FM. Read the comments below, as they’re just as insightful as the artcile.

A couple of helpful links to set up your own IRC server.

A very basic how-to, with no advanced configs.

A good Ubuntu Forum discussion on the subject.

General Link 1, General Link 2

Using Screen & IRSSI.

eCryptfs is a POSIX-compliant enterprise-class stacked cryptographic filesystem for Linux.It provides advanced key management and policy features. eCryptfs stores cryptographic metadata in the header of each file written, so that encrypted files can be copied between hosts; the file will be decryptable with the proper key, and there is no need to keep track of any additional information aside from what is already in the encrypted file itself. Think of eCryptfs as a sort of “gnupgfs”.eCryptfs is a native Linux filesystem. The kernel module component of eCryptfs is part of the Linux kernel since 2.6.19.

The author of this Wired article Kevin Poulsen is an editor of Wired magazine and a former hacker who served five years in prison for breaking into FBI computers.

–

A related article from 2001.

Details (PDF): http://tinyurl.com/56j63s.

More here: http://tinyurl.com/8erk74.

From the site:

The attack is essentially a variant of the chopchop attack used against WEP secured networks, which surfaced in early 2005. The name “chopchop attack” is a nod to the KoreK-developed chopchop tool, which allows the user to decrypt an arbitrary encrypted data packet without having to know the WEP key.

This app supports multiple channel (and you can navigate between them simply by swiping your finger left/right) and supports multiple IRC servers.

Project page here:

If you’re looking to convert your videos from .avi or .mpeg format to the highly efficient .3gp format (natively supported by the Google Android OS, running on phones such as T-Mobile’s G1), then look no further than this application. The application runs on Windows & Linux!

Click here for their site, the links to the application are at the bottom of the page.

Click here to conveniently download the Ubuntu .deb file for the application (4.4 megs).

Abstract.

Full text (PDF).

Here’s also a good HowTo crack WPA.

Here’s a video of it:

Here’s the blogpost on it:

It is a complete solution for every organization to create, collaborate, share and publish all its internal and external documents.

You and your team can create and collaborate on:

• Text documents
• Spreadsheets (coming soon)
• Presentations
• Task Lists
• E-mails
• Calendars
• Web Links

All it requires is an xampp server (essentially a Linux server). I am going to test this with some colleagues and see how viable it is for a production environment, but on the surface it looks to be worth evaluation.

You can try a demo here. Once the spreadsheet function is available, this will become much more interesting.

I am not sure if the anti-virus recommendation is required at this time, I think that might be overkill, but if you intend to use the system in a live production environment, it’s all worth considering.

The Linux Basement also hosts a podcast worth checking out which centers around web hosting and network management, but is overall an informative show. They do about 2 episodes per month.

They also have a fairly active user submitted article area, as well as a forum.

One of the most common mistakes is not checking log files (reason #10). I often find it hard to keep up and sometimes parse the variety of system logs on a system. A great tool for managing this is called LogWatch. While not a GUI, it summarizes system logs into a convenient report that you can cron to run regularly and email to yourself, or just monitor. It’s highly configurable with varying degrees of detail.

From the site:

Logwatch is a customizable log analysis system. Logwatch parses through your system’s logs for a given period of time and creates a report analyzing areas that you specify, in as much detail as you require.

You asked for it, so here it is. We’re happy to announce that in the latest update to Google Sync for BlackBerry, we’ve added two-way contacts synchronization. This new functionality will enable you to sync your handheld’s built-in address book with your Gmail contacts. This all happens in the background and over the air, so your information is always up to date, no matter where you are or what you’re doing.

Once you’ve installed Sync, all your information will be safe in your Google account. If you ever lose your phone or buy a new one, getting your address book and calendar to your new device is as easy as installing Sync. Current and new Google Sync users can try Google Sync today by visiting m.google.com/sync from their BlackBerry browser.

GroundWork Monitor Community Edition provides a essential IT monitoring solution that enables you to maintain network visibility and control.

This is a single server deployment that leverages the strengths of 15 other open source projects such as Nagios, rrdtool and nmap. It combines the results of these projects in to a system that evaluates the status, events and performance of monitored devices and presents these results in an easy to understand web application.

This open source project distributed on sourceforge.net is available under the GNU Public License (GPL v2). It is ideal for operations who already have deployed one or more open source monitoring projects and need to expand its capability.

Run these 3 commands from shell. SUDO not required.

VBoxManage setextradata “name of vm” “VBoxInternal/Devices/pcnet/0/LUN#0/Config/ssh/HostPort” 2222

VBoxManage setextradata “name of vm” “VBoxInternal/Devices/pcnet/0/LUN#0/Config/ssh/GuestPort” 22

VBoxManage setextradata “name of vm” “VBoxInternal/Devices/pcnet/0/LUN#0/Config/ssh/Protocol” TCP

Where…

• “name of vm” is your virtual machine name
• ssh is the name of the service. This is _required_ to be unique among the three commands.
• Ports 2222, 22, TCP respectively with your desired host port, guest port, and protocol.

…then shutdown your VM and Virtualbox host application, and restart them.

To Confirm the above settings are in place:

VBoxManage getextradata “name of vm” enumerate

To remove the settings made above from the VM: (again substituting the variables as appropriate).

VBoxManage setextradata “name of vm” “VBoxInternal/Devices/pcnet/0/LUN#0/Config/ssh/HostPort”

VBoxManage setextradata “name of vm” “VBoxInternal/Devices/pcnet/0/LUN#0/Config/ssh/GuestPort”

VBoxManage setextradata “name of vm” “VBoxInternal/Devices/pcnet/0/LUN#0/Config/ssh/Protocol”

Likewise Open is a free, open source application that joins Linux, Unix, and Mac machines to Microsoft Active Directory and securely authenticates users with their domain credentials.